One Piece: Grand Battle! Rush!



One Piece Grand Battle Rush! (グラバト! RUSH Gurabato! Rush) is a fighting game based on One Piece manga and anime and the sequel to Grand Battle! 3. Grand Battle! Rush is the fourth and (to date) final game in the series released. The game was developed by Ganbarion and published by Bandai and Atari. It was Released on March 17, 2005 in Japan, on September 6, 2005 in the USA and on September 29, 2005 in the European Union.

This is the first of the console games to be released in the United States, however its release in the American market came at a price. Due to neither anime nor manga being only at the Arabasta arc by release, many features were removed or changed from the American version. It is known in the US as just One Piece: Grand Battle.

Gameplay
Combat involves arcade-style fighting with complete freedom of movement. The characters can clash, or wander the field and pick up items to fight with.

Fighting consists of standard button combinations. More powerful techniques require the use of the "food charge gauge" located beneath each character's health bar and filled by picking up food scattered around each battlefield. At maximum, two gauges can be filled. If a character's health falls drastically low while they possess two full food gauges, they will enter "One Piece Heat", bestowing upon the same benefits (and drawbacks) as the Sword power-up found in the game. As One Piece Heat goes on, the character's food gauges are steadily drained. One the gauges are fully drained and One Piece Heat ends, the character will not be able to fill his or her food gauges for the remainder of the battle.

This game continues the use of Grand Battle! 3's arena system with many of the previous arenas and special moves being reused. Updates and graphic enhancements were given (many of them rather un-obvious at first glance) to many of the old arenas, and several new characters were introduced. The adjustments to the characters' fighting styles were minor, and most characters remain mostly as they were in Grand Battle! 3.

As noted by many reviewers of the game, both professional and nonprofessional, the combat style makes heavy use of the outside elements in each stage, such as item containers, rampaging animals, etc. Falling into water will invariably deal damage to the characters, with the exception of Arlong. Falling off of stages into non-water "abysses" will deal damage to all characters.

Unlike those of its successor, One Piece Grand Adventure, the support characters in this game are "indestructible" in a sense, and do not take damage (or even stop their attacks) when attacked. The only way to truly "kill" them (aside from waiting until their "summon time" runs out) is to push them into water or some other abyss.

Battle Stages

 * Fuusha Village: Luffy's hometown, where Higuma & his bandits will throw random objects at the players. There will also be a cow that charges at the players when hit and a spinning signpost that can be used to launch the players in a random direction.
 * Baratie: A massive fish-shaped restaurant where Sanji used to work. The stage mostly consists of driftwood, with one of the Baratie's platforms at one end and Krieg's half-sunken galleon at the other. A huge mast lies over the driftwood, which can be knocked into the opponent, and the Baratie's battleship will occasionally fire bombs onto the driftwood.
 * Arlong Park: This is the HQ of Arlong and his pirates. It consists of a huge rectangular pool with narrow stone walkways around it. Moomoo resides in the pool, and can be walked on and attacked (and also occasionally dives into the pool, creating a small flood. There are two small shacks that can be knocked over to cover the smaller pools, preventing sinking. If the characters on the edges of the stage are attacked, Arlong's pirates will attack the players. Pandaman can be found near a destroyed wall.
 * Loguetown: The place where Gold Roger was born and executed. The smallest field, no cliffs or water. The field can change in shape by attacking the walls. Marine men will fire Sea-Prism Stone (Cherry Stone in the game, and Seastone in the original) nets at you to stun you, and bolts of lightning will hit the field occasionally. Alvida is in the middle, and will slide around, swinging her mace, if anyone attacks her. Citizens and Buggy's pirates will toss powerups, fruit, and bombs at you.
 * Drum Castle: Tony Tony Chopper's home. You can only fight on the roof, which is covered with snow that can be picked up and thrown at the opponent to freeze them temporarily. Wapol can also be picked up and thrown, devouring anything in his way (including players). Giant rabbits will throw snowballs at you. Wapol's bodyguards will attack you if you attack Wapol. Pandaman is in the castle.
 * Arabasta Kingdom: Crocodile and Mr. 2 Bon Kurei's stage. Occasionally a sandstorm will pop up, getting bigger every time you hit it. Also if you hit King Nebra (King Cobra in the original) he will get angry and karate chop you across the stage. Touching Pell the falcon (flying above the stage) grants a random powerup. The cannon shoots out bombs if attacked.
 * Marine HQ: The training area. No real obstacles. The eight stone pillars on the sides can be broken by attacks.

Removed Stages
Two fighting arenas were omitted from the American version because the venue had not appeared in America yet.


 * Maxim: Eneru's great sky ark. It has a drop near the ship's edge and the hole in the deck leading to the engines. Occasionally, a heavy gust will blow over the ship, forcing the combatants to one side.
 * Sexy Foxy: Foxy the Silver Fox's ship, consisting of two raised platforms with railing all around (which can be broken by attacks to expose a sheer drop). Big Pan will occasionally throw axes into the ring, and Pickles will occasionally jump in, spinning like a top and attacking everything he touches. The cannon in the center will spin and fire three times if attacked.

Game Items
A variety of items can be found in all of the stages. These items can help or hinder the characters.

Containers
Barrels/Crates/Treasure Chests: Can be broken to reveal food and items inside, or thrown at an opponent. Barrels and crates store only Attack Items. Treasure Chests store only Ability Up Items. If a character performs a dash into a container, it will be sent flying. If a dash-propelled container hits the opponent, it will stun them temporarily.

Attack Items
Bomb: Begins to blink red after a few seconds and explodes, dealing damage. Can be picked up and thrown. Explodes instantly if attacked.

Eternal Pose (Eternal Compass in English version): Fills the food gauge of any character that breaks it open. If picked up, the needle reverses. Hitting an Eternal Pose with a reversed needle will result in a character's food gauge emptying itself.

Bonfire: Once attacked, releases a small flame onto the ground. Any character that touches the flame will be set on fire, and have their health steadily depleted. Leaping into water or into an abyss puts out the fire but also deals extra damage. A character on fire can also "spread" the fire by performing a Throw Attack on the opponent.

Oil: If attacked, soaks characters and makes movement (especially hairpin turns) difficult. A bomb or a bonfire that comes into contact with oil creates a massive inferno. Can be washed off by jumping into water or an abyss.

Beehive: Will unleash a swarm of bees if attacked. The swarm will chase whoever broke the beehive, and deplete a tiny amount of health. Once under siege by a bee swarm, characters' directional controls are reversed (i.e. pushing the joystick left makes them go right). Can be neutralized by jumping into water or an abyss.

Poison Mushroom: Creates a purple cloud of toxic spores if attacked. Characters that touch the cloud will be poisoned and lose health with every action (attack, movement, etc.) they take. Can be neutralized by jumping into water or an abyss.

Gaimon: If attacked, he will retaliate by firing a pistol. Gaimon can be picked up, and his gun fired at the player's will.

Ability Up Items


Ability Up Items' effects are activated the moment a character touches them. They are signified by the auras surrounding a character after one has been "absorbed".

Sword (yellow aura): Makes all of the character's attacks un-blockable. Also makes the character incapable of blocking the opponent's attacks.

Shield (blue-green aura): Boosts the character's defense and renders them incapable of being "interrupted" by the opponent's attacks. Also reduces the character's speed.

Shoes (blue aura): Boosts the character's speed. Also decreases defense.

SP Diamond (gold "sunburst" aura): Allows the character to perform one Support/Super/Secret Attack without food gauges. Support characters summoned with a Diamond possess un-blockable attacks. Attacks performed with it are also un-blockable. Secret Attacks performed with it will always do 1000 points of damage (half of a full health bar).

Top Menu Selections


There are eight selections to choose from in the Top Menu of the game:

Characters
Support characters are characters the player can choose in addition to their playable character. While the support characters are not controllable, they are able to help the player when called out. There are 4 types of support characters: Dash, Jump,Gun, and Area. Each type of support character has its own advantages and disadvantages in battle.

Each character is assigned support characters. Every character has at least one, but none of them have more than three.

Below is a list of the playable and support characters. Please note that the characters are referred to by the spelling in the game, not the manga or anime.

Removed Characters
Characters removed from American version:
 * Foxy the Silver Fox (exclusive game character) - with Hamburg and Porche as support.
 * Eneru - with 60,000,000 Volt Julungul as support.
 * Aokiji - with Ice Bike as support.
 * Luffy|Afro Luffy (exclusive game character) - same as Luffy (was an alternate outfit).

Mini-Games
In the Japanese version, the minigame section is called Davy Back Fight and is hosted by Foxy and his crew, while in the American version, Usopp and his ragtag "pirates" took their place.


 * Davy Back Fight (Usopp Pirates' Challenge in English version): The player selects three characters, who are pit against three characters selected by the CPU in a trio of mini-games. Best two out of three wins the challenge. When a character wins a challenge, his or her controller can take a support character from the other player's team). Once this mini-game has been played enough times, the games that constitute its framework appear in the Mini-Games menu, and can be played at leisure.


 * Box Crusher: In this mini-game, the player character must destroy 300 crates, barrels, and chests before time runs out. A "downsized" version of this game (where 150 item containers are used instead and the time limit is half as long) is used as a "halftime" game after the player has defeated their third opponent in Event Mode.


 * Breaking Krieg's Armor (Wootz Smash in English version): In this minigame, the player character must defeat Don Krieg before the sixty-second time limit runs out. Krieg here possesses an invisible (but existent) health bar, as well as an invisible and permanent Shield item, allowing him to withstand most attacks and resist being knocked down.


 * Donut Race (Usopp Race in English version): In this minigame, Usopp, Nami, and Robin (changed to random villagers in the American version) are racing Porche, Capote, and Monda in the final stretch of the race. The player character is among a group of Foxy's pirates (present in both versions) and is tasked with hitting them to prevent them shooting cannonballs at the Straw Hats. The pirates drop fruit (and occasionally bombs) when defeated, so Support and Super attacks may be used.


 * Groggy Ring (Battle Bowl in English version): In this mini-game, the player character must throw the "ball" (Gaimon) into the opponent's goal to earn points. Whoever has the highest score by the end of 30 seconds wins. Extra points are added if one can knock the opponent into his/her own goal, and points are lost if one gets knocked into one's own goal.


 * Snowball Destruction (Snow Shovel in English version): A mini-game that takes place on Drum Castle. The player character is tasked with destroying a large pile of snow in the center of the roof before time runs out.


 * Custom Battles: Regular battles with various twists added (i.e. both characters jump extra high, items perform super-high damage, etc.).


 * Combat (Usopp Duel in English version): The only mini-game that cannot be "unlocked" and played at the player's leisure. It is always the last of the trio of mini-games presented when the player selects the Davy Back Fight option. In this game, the player character fights either Foxy (Japanese version) or Usopp (English version). The one difference that this game possesses from an ordinary battle is that once Foxy/Usopp's health bar is depleted, a second one will appear in its place, and Foxy/Usopp will enter a state of "permanent" One Piece Heat until they are defeated a second time.

Alterations
Several alterations to the game overall were changed in the American version of the game because the American anime was not far enough


 * In the American anime, Miss All Sunday/Miss Sunday/Nico Robin was not part of the Straw Hat Pirates at the time of the games release. Therefore, her extra costumes and all references of her association with the Straw Hats were omitted.
 * The Davy Back Games mode was changed to feature Usopp and his Usopp's Pirates and renamed mini-game mode, as Foxy and his crew did not appear in the anime at the time of the game's release. However they still can be seen in the background of some of the mini games, and Davy Back Fight rules still apply (IE, the winner gets to take one of the loser's Support Characters.)
 * Usopp's Impact Dial attack and Afro Luffy's Gomu Gomu No Cannon were removed from the American version.
 * Mihawk's necklace and sword were edited.
 * As with the English anime, Smoker's name is changed to Chaser and the cigars in his mouth are removed. However, the cigars strapped to his coat were not removed, nor the kanji for "justice"
 * The Marine HQ stage is depicted as a standard Marine training area in the American Version. The name is changed to Eden Rock and the appearances of Mihawk, Donquixote Doflamingo, and Bartholomew Kuma were edited out, as the two other members of the Shichibukai appeared after the Arabasta Arc and therefore had not appeared in the American anime. Also, the Gorosei (Five Elder Stars) were taken out and so was Lafitte for the same reason, which makes it look like that the guards at either end are there to stop the combatants from leaving, instead of protecting the spectators.

Trivia

 * An American only sequel, One Piece Grand Adventure, featuring several characters either excluded from the original game or new to any One Piece game, was released in 2006. This game is not counted in the Grand Battle series.
 * There are a few editing conflicts in the game, for example, in Loguetown the Marine gates still have the Marines sign, despite 4kids editing. More conflicts can be found in the One Piece Art section on the title screen, where images from removed openings, ending, and story arcs appear.
 * The straw hat costumes of the manga Volume 11 cover is a group of secret costumes by doing certain codes.
 * Translations for both the Japanese and American versions of this game were released in some Europeon countries (such as Spain).
 * In the english version of the game, after you finish story mode with some characters, the edited out parts of the game can sometimes be seen, such as Robin's costumes.