One Piece: Grand Battle! 3

'''One Piece: Grand Battle! 3' is a fighting game based on the One Piece'' manga and anime, released on the Sony Playstation 2 and Nintendo Gamecube. The direct sequel to Grand Battle! 2, it primarily adapts the events of the Sky Island Saga. The game was developed by Ganbarion and published by Bandai. It was released on December 11, 2003 in Japan.

A sequel, One Piece: Grand Battle! Rush!, was released on March 17, 2005.

Gameplay
This game includes sixteen playable characters and seven stages all based on the One Piece story up to the Skypiea arc. Each character contains over two special attacks, and can use the environment as a weapon.

The special moves are now closer to the actual characters moves throughout the series. In Grand Battle! 2, they appeared more loosely based on the characters and only noted a few important moves to each character. Overall the fighting styles of each character are more developed then previous games. Some of the arenas reappear in One Piece Grand Battle! Rush! as well as many of the special/secret moves. The gameplay plays similar to the Power Stone series.

Graphics
The stages are now in full 3D, as oppose to them being a platform type style of fighting game like in One Piece Grand Battle! 2. All support characters are now in 3D and have a specific style of fighting. Overall, there is a sharp improvement in graphics over ''Grand Battle! 2'' with the change over to a new console.

Characters
There are a total of sixteen player characters - a marked decrease from Grand Battle! 2, accompanied by an even sharper decrease in support characters. Each "set" of support characters is now treated as a single unit tied to a single attack, rather than individuals that must be chosen before battle.

All player characters can access an "A" and a "B" costume, usually consisting of their default canon outfits and a recolor. Each of the Straw Hat Pirates - as well as Shanks - can access up to four costumes with more elaborate themes.

Items
Combatants may be helped or hindered by a variety of items around the battlefield. Items fall under three general categories.


 * Food: Fills portions of the Food Charge Gauge. Activated on contact.
 * Power-Up: Raises various combat abilities (usually while reducing others) for 15 seconds. Activated on contact.
 * Attack: Inflicts damage and/or varying status effects. Activated by impact of attacks or throws.

Below is a table of items and their respective effects.

Items are generally found by breaking the containers - barrels, crates, and treasure chests - positioned around each stage. Once broken, a container will always release several pieces of fruit and one other item, which will usually fade if left alone for 15 seconds. Barrels and crates can only release Attack items, while treasure chests can only release Power-Ups or drumsticks.

Containers can also be thrown for damage. Dashing against a container will send it a shorter distance, but allow it to stun on impact.

Battle Stages
There are a total of seven stages, each with unique music, features, hazards, and background spectators.

Note that damage from stage hazards generally cannot be blocked.

Game Modes
Four modes may be accessed from the Top Menu.

Event Battle
Event Battle (イベントバトル) mode puts the player character through five 60-second battles, each against a different CPU-selected opponent. Each battle is begun and ended by a cutscene, many scripted after (or extrapolated from) canon events. In contrast, the stage for each battle is chosen almost wholly at random; Smoker may be fought on Drum Castle, Mr. 2 Bon Clay may be fought on Jaya, and so on.

Once all five battles are cleared, a character-specific cinematic is played, followed by the game's development credits. If any battle is lost, the player will be presented with a continue option. Five continues - in total - are allowed before Event Battle automatically ends.

Grand Battle
Grand Battle (グランドバトル) mode allows players to participate in classic arcade-style battles against each other, or against a CPU opponent; unlike Event Battle, this mode allows characters to (through alternate costumes) fight duplicates of themselves. The battle stage may be freely chosen, or left to one of three "custom" options:
 * Order (じゅんばん), which defaults to the Whisky Peak stage and proceeds along the in-game ordering for every subsequent battle
 * Toss-Up (おまかせ), which selects a stage at random
 * Various (いろいろ), which - for multi-round battles - selects every stage at random

In addition, players may adjust the following:
 * Time Limit (制限時間) between 60 seconds, 99 seconds, or total deactivation
 * Win Count (何本勝負) between first-to-one, first-to-two, or first-to-three rounds
 * Handicap (ハンディ) on each combatant's standard Attack and Defense along a five-point scale
 * Food Charge (メシチャージ) defaults between empty or full
 * Item (アイテム) containers between three different re-spawn rates

Grand Tours
Grand Tours (グランドツアーズ) mode allows up to 16 different characters to participate in a bracketed tournament.

Training
Training (トレーニング) mode allows the player to test a character's controls and capabilities on the hazard-free Mary Geoise stage. Here, food charges and health regenerate automatically, and all damage output is visibly recorded.

In addition to standard difficulty settings, the player may program the opponent character to do nothing, run away, give chase (without attacking), or focus exclusively on one type of attack.

Cast
Despite its smaller roster, ''Grand Battle! 3'' possesses an even larger cast than its predecessor, as it casts most of its background spectators in addition to the player and support characters. While it generally remains faithful to the TV anime's castings, a few minor characters (such as Higuma) are completely recast.

The game is also notable for casting Yasunori Masutani (who also stands in for all of the Five Elders) as Attach, nearly four years before the character's "official" casting in Episode 321.

Trivia

 * Unlike its predecessor, and like the original Grand Battle!, this game's opening cinematic features the original version of We Are!
 * While Pandaman is not playable in this game unlike previous Grand Battle games, Mr. 2 Bon Kurei changes into him for one of his attacks. He is also hidden in all stages and in the game ending.
 * This is the only game in the Grand Battle! series to not include Mihawk as a playable character (though he appears as a background spectator in the Mary Geoise stage, and as a vision in Zoro's Secret Technique cinematic).
 * If Robin wins a fight by throwing her hat, she will do her victory pose without it.
 * The Gamecube version of this game featured a demo file of One Piece: Going Baseball, which could be loaded onto a Game Boy Advance. Only Luffy and Enel were playable.
 * This was the first One Piece game to exclude the traditional From TV Animation... prefix from its title; every subsequent game would follow suit.
 * Though this game was never translated into English, several of its elements were (after being excluded from its direct sequel) adopted by the American-produced One Piece: Grand Adventure.

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