I have a weird relationship with One Piece, probably because I’ve never watched any of the ridiculous long running anime. For many it’s the most important anime in their lives, but through only the lens of video games it’s almost too weird even for me. Why does Usopp have a tube nose? Why is there a small deer called Tony Tony Chopper? Why is everyone so worked up about fruit? These are all questions I might never know the answer to, but it won’t stop me enjoying a Musou or RPG set in its piratey world. One Piece: Grand Gourmet is a restaurant tycoon game that is possibly weirder than any other One Piece media I’ve consumed, and I’m still not certain if I enjoyed it or not.
In Grand Gourmet Sanji is opening a floating restaurant, and enlists the help of Luffy and the gang. To make it the most successful restaurant on the seas you’ll need tasty dishes and posh tables, but to start with you’ll have to serve bowls of bread crusts off outdoor wooden tables. It doesn’t take long for you to upgrade past this stage though, because everything in One Piece: Grand Gourmet happens in a matter of seconds.
I’m used to playing tycoon games where you carefully design theme parks or zoos at a leisurely pace, but Grand Gourmet is the opposite of leisurely. Every couple of seconds a pop up appears telling you about something that’s happened. Maybe you’ve got a new visitor from an obscure episode of the anime, maybe Nami wants a new staff room. Whatever the reason you never get more than a handful of seconds to think about what you’re doing, which at least means you can’t get bored.
My favourite element of One Piece: Grand Gourmet is discovering new meals, because even in pixel form I just love food. Once you’ve sent someone to gather ingredients you’ll be able to use these to develop new recipes, by choosing a character to cook them. Recipes can be for main dishes, sides, desserts or drinks, and you can combine each of these into one set meal which will earn you bonus cash based on compatibility. You can automate this if you want too, but it was probably my favourite element of the game to tinker with as it wasn’t quite so regularly interrupted.
On the opposite end of this scale is building your restaurant itself, which I found impossible to do in a satisfying way. You’re so constantly thrown new rooms or decorations you need to slot onto your ship that keeping things neat and tidy is basically impossible, and your guests will have to just sort of sit amongst staff rooms and flags while they eat their meals. This never really seems to cause issues with their happiness though, with the game instead just glad you’re adding new stuff to the business at as rapid a pace as humanly possible.
After a few hours with One Piece: Grand Gourmet I realised there were loads of mechanics I pretty much didn’t understand at all, and the game just ticked along regardless. There are three types of currency you need to build new things, and there was only ever one of them I really understood the source of. The food compatibility just sort of seems random, but it could well have a system that wasn’t really explained. Different tables have different satisfaction levels, and the only way I ever really found to improve that was cramming in decorations to ludicrous levels. In most games this would be catastrophic but in Grand Gourmet there’s a button to press every ten seconds to give you a bit of dopamine as a distraction. It’s like the opposite of an idle game, but with a similar level of brain power required to succeed.
Despite sounding relatively negative about One Piece: Grand Gourmet in this review, I can’t pretend I wasn’t compelled to keep playing. Although I never really clicked with any of the systems the constant flow of pop ups and events meant I didn’t have time to get bored, and especially for One Piece fans there’s a ridiculous amount of themed content to enjoy. Looking back at my time with the game it feels silly to have sunk so many hours into it, but I know that if I had a spare afternoon to get back in the kitchen I’d be enjoying myself.
