Ever wanted to be a Pirate? Ever wanted to be an over the top character in an anime? Well now you can be both in One Piece: Grand Cruise for the Playstation VR. You are the newest addition to the Straw Hat Pirates led by Captain Luffy and it’s your job to protect your pirate vessel against the dangers pirates seem to face as a daily routine.
Not much choice
One Piece: Grand Cruise starts off on the shore where you can choose between 2 adventures. In one you’ll fight the Kraken, a giant orange squid, in the other you need to keep the navy at bay (pun intended). Both adventures start out the same way. You get transferred to the ship and get introduced to Luffy who welcomes you as part of his crew. Once this introduction is over, you can choose a few locations to meet some of the other crewmembers. This part plays out as a small scene from the anime. In certain places, you can interact with the environment or with the characters, but this is done in such a minimalistic way that it almost feels forced to up the interactivity of the game.
Shooting gallery mini-game
Once you’re done with sight-seeing, the action finally starts. Depending on the adventure you chose, you get attacked by either the Kraken or the navy. Both scenarios are in essence the same and are nothing more than a mini-game where you need to shoot a cannon at your chosen enemy. All this action takes about 5 minutes to complete, which leaves you utterly disappointed at the small amount of actual gameplay this “experience” offers.
No challenge
Both scenarios offer no challenge what-so-ever. While you try to defend your vessel from the enemy, the other famous crew members like Nami, Usopp, Tony Tony Chopper, … and other new recruits all help. This makes participating in the batlle almost futile. Aiming with the Dualshock or the move controller is completely arbitrary since you can be as successful while mashing the X button and vaguely pointing the controller in the right direction. Once a scenario is finished you get transferred to the start screen. The scene you choose before the battle begins is now unlocked for you to revisit. Replaying the same adventure again lets you unlock the other scenes but is extremely repetitive.
Not a game, just an experience
By now you probably figured it out that One Piece: Grand Cruise isn’t the grand game you hoped for. Although calling it a game is more than it deserves, you do get a nice VR experience in the world of the Straw Hat Pirates. Visually everything looks very slick. The over the top characters are impressive to be around. One scenario even lets you witness a battle between Luffy and Doflamingo. To see Luffy’s rubber arm pass right next to you is really nice.
Conclusion
So much more could’ve been done with this game. If you’re a fan of the Anime (or Manga), you’ll find it interesting to experience but I’m sure it will stay with a one-time affair. After about 45 minutes you’ll be done with it, never touching it again. This feels like a missed opportunity. So much more could’ve been done with this but sadly this feels more like a quick cash grab than the experience the fans deserve.
