One Piece Franchise Officially Switches Genres In New Release

One Piece is one of the most popular pieces of media ever created, period. It started strong with its manga run, then got off to a slow start internationally, but eventually it was off to the races. One Piece broke records worldwide, and with the live-action Netflix adaptation, it’s reached an entirely new generation.

As fans wade through the 100s of episodes of the anime run (as well as tons of manga chapters), the series has plenty of side stories and diversions, including feature films. Now, One Piece is completely swapping genres, and fans (whether they are lapsed or not) couldn’t be happier.

Now live on Steam (and consoles), One Piece: Grand Gourmet is a Kairosoft-developed title published by Bandai Namco. It’s a complete genre flip for the series, as you’re tasked with managing a new Baratie restaurant, and all the responsibility that entails.

The idea is for you to work together as a crew to come up with new food concepts, then have Sanji cook them. Food can be arranged in different ways, and memorable ingredients can be used to make in-universe recipes. Grand Gourmet also has a building aspect: players can use “over 200” objects to craft a restaurant, and “over 400” One Piece characters are in the game.

That includes nearly every major villain in the series’ history. Here’s what you can expect from One Piece: Grand Gourmet:

“Hop aboard a delectable management sim in the world of ONE PIECE! Work alongside the Straw Hat Crew to build the greatest floating restaurant of the seas. Collect ingredients, dream up dishes, and decorate to have familiar faces lining up for more! As a new staff member, work alongside the Straw Hat Crew to turn the second location of the renowned Baratie floating restaurant into the greatest restaurant of the seas!”

Given that food has always played a huge part in the One Piece mythos, this seems like a match made in heaven. However, a few fans have issues with some design choices:

“I was genuinely so excited for this game. This is the exact style of game I love; restaurant management, decorating, collecting characters. And for a lot of what I was looking forward to, what was shown in trailers, it’s a good game. There are so many options for food, various options for decorating, just so many characters. But then there’s the text being so generic; it’s jarring compared to the beautiful pixel art. The UI is so strangely organized that I keep losing what I’m looking for. Stuff happens at a breakneck pace, not least of which is caused by Auto-Text being on AND you can only turn it off for some cutscenes.”

“I was genuinely so excited for this game. This is the exact style of game I love; restaurant management, decorating, collecting characters. And for a lot of what I was looking forward to, what was shown in trailers, it’s a good game. There are so many options for food, various options for decorating, just so many characters. But then there’s the text being so generic; it’s jarring compared to the beautiful pixel art. The UI is so strangely organized that I keep losing what I’m looking for. Stuff happens at a breakneck pace, not least of which is caused by Auto-Text being on AND you can only turn it off for some cutscenes.”

In any case, this is all stuff that can be patched out, and the game has already got a free update that addresses some auto-text issues players have been having. If you’re a One Piece fan and want to try something completely different, it’s a great time to take a look at Grand Gourmet.