sorry its so long...Everyone can relate to me when I say Capcom had quite a few great hits out there during the life of the first Playstation. Many will look back to the Megaman legends series. Dino crisis 1 & 2, and the resident evil series. Of course with the popular games comes a Few games that aren't noticed or even recognized. One such game would be a puzzle game that is very near and dear to my heart due to the shear originality of it. The game I speak of is called One Piece Mansion.
Before I indulge on this game I would like to point out to all of you big anime fans that this has nothing to do with the anime "One piece". In fact it’s far from it. as stated before this game is a puzzle game but not just your normal Tetris or puyopuyo game, this game is all about managing an apartment house full of crazy and zany tenants. Now before you click the back button on your browser or whatever let me stress that this is NOT a Sim. Although I'm sure the game was designed to make you believe that at some points. So there are two modes you can play: story mode and endless mode. In story mode you play as he very evil looking polpo, who is a very Successful "man" and is the manager of "One piece mansion". A rival, jealous of his success, kidnaps his only sister (and most likely his only relative). The rival then demands you to do seven trials. Each of the trials has a certain goal you must complete to continue on.
But you’re probably now wondering how does this game play? Since there is quite a bit to cover this might be a task to explain. First thing first the game plays on a vertical grid In similar vein to a Tetris game. Now blocks do not fall down from the heavens like most puzzle games. In this game blocks are either one of two things; they can be a room or an elevator. When you start out you will have already a few tenants in the mansion, some empty rooms (in which you can put tenants in at will), as well as one or two elevators. The main goal of this game is to keep your tenants happy and stress free so you can gain a profit and not go in the negative zone with money (witch is a game over).this isn't always easy with the stress arrow system. These arrows show the exact direction that the certain character is giving vibes to. It can be good vibes (bluish) or bad vibes (red)they can also have different sizes showing how much bad vibes or good vibes are being given to the tenant that its pointing to. These arrows can point in every direction (up, down, left, right, and the four corners of the room) and every character has their own arrow scheme.For instance the doctor, named OPE, will constantly stick a huge needle in the left side of the wall (with good medicine) to make that tenant fell better. But right after that he will stick it into the left side and give bad vibes to that tenant on that side of the wall. The size of their arrows the color and even how that character reacts can depend on how Stressed out he or she is. If the stress bar goes to the top, the room will explode and you will lose some of your money. So you have to regulate everyone and make them happy by making sure that you place the right people in the right place. You also have the ability to switch tenants (at a small price) to make it to your (or the tenants) liking. you can also add New rooms and tenants (one or two tenants will be generated for you to use at will randomly) onto your mansion so you get more rent money at the months end.
while this may sound simple now, you might forget a good game is not a game without conflict. Well let me introduce the rivals. Rivals will show up at random and in a random place and are impossible to move around. They will constantly cause trouble by not only having just red arrows but they will also leave their room to terrorize the other tenants by annoying them or setting fire to their rooms. This is where the second part of this game comes into play. The game calls it security mode. What it really is, is the ability to iterally control polpo to venture up to the rivals (using elevator that you can chose to place where ever) and blow a whistle to make them go back into their rooms (or if its a fire you will extinguish it). Of course you can't have them stay forever; it gets tiring paying attention to all of their shenanigans. And you can't just press a button to have them automatically leave the mansion. The only possible way is to get them stressed out enough to explode. You do this by simply moving around some of your normal tenants that have some red arrows in order to make them explode and leave. On occasion you will also have a "boss" show up. Bosses are really just stronger than usual rivals. Also adding to all these juicy details, character will occasionally have a certain status like "Broke" which means exactly what you think: that tenant can't pay his/her rent that month because he is broke. If you haven't been able to tell by now the game can get chaotic and its a bit hard to grasp at first, but the game is loads of fun once you get some concepts down.
As stated before to get farther in the games you have to fulfill a certain goal of that level. For instance make the tower a certain number of levels or get a certain amount of money. This is all fine and junk and really doesn't spoil the game. What spoils it (if anyone noticed yet) is that its only 7 missions long! this might be the only complaint I have about this game. IT'S REALLY SHORT! when you complete the game you do end up unlocking a second character (polpo's sister) which only adds another 7 missions to the game. The game can take you an hour to beat if you know what your doing which is a sad, sad thing. luckily they added an endless mode where you get to pick from easy, normal, or hard and can keep on going until you get a game over or just get sick enough of it to turn it off.
Where the game truly shines is in the art style of the game. it is highly stylized with beautiful semi cell-shaded 2d sprites that are fully animated. not only does it look pretty, but every character has their own distinct personality that fits them to the T. Not one character stays still for a couple of seconds all moving fluently and some will even say something’s if your walking by as polpo. and yet with everything going on i see no slowdown at all. the game is extremely comical and the style only helps this out to the fullest extent. Many of the jokes hidden in the game are very Japanese oriented. This can be a blessing or a curse depending on the person. so the game is not for everyone. Chances are, although, that if you’re drawn to how this game looks or plays then you will get and love the jokes.
One piece mansion is one of those once in a life time games that capcom put a lot of spirit into. While it has its own share of problems it really shines In originality and style. It’s so unfortunate that Capcom didn't try to add more to the game (like multiplayer and more levels) or at least commercialize it better In the U.S. market (btw this game was released in Europe as well). and even with the short story mode, it still wont set you back if you do decide to buy it since the price of the game is under the $10 mark. So if you are a capcom junkie, puzzle lover, or you’re looking for something new then I recommend One Piece Mansion as your next game to pick up.
