|
Luffy and friends take a break from their quest towards the Grand Line and hit the diamond. Battling six possible crews from the One Piece animation such as "Marine," "Alabaster," and "Baroque Works," every team contains easily recognizable characters as they take the field and play a rousing game of baseball. There's a seventh team which may be unlocked once all other six squads are defeated. One Piece Baseball is enjoyable and addictive but the fielding in the game is broken. It's entirely controlled by the AI and the plays that it executes defy logic. For example, if there's two men on base and the batter bunts a slow roller, the AI will throw to 3rd base (too late, to get an out) instead of going to first base for the easy out. Both the infield and outfield are handled by the AI but grounders that are headed back to the pitcher may be caught and thrown by the player for some measure of fielding control. Other than that limited bit of on-field handling, One Piece Baseball is very much a pitch and hit game only when it comes to player interaction. The gimmick in the game sits solely on the characters and their renown in the anime world but Luffy's special stretching powers and Sanzi's kicking skills are relegated only to sight gags and have no bearing on the actual gameplay. Roronoah Zoro and a few other brigands bat with their swords but again, this is simply a sight gag and has no effect whatsoever on the gameplay. No fast balls are sliced or diced despite the swordplay. A special power-up move may be activated by holding down the Right or Left trigger + A button but it's the same for every character when batting or pitching. View the back cover.
|
