Playing the game shows that the developers were indeed fans of the manga and got many details down to spec (especially in a few of the boss battles). Though as the series was under 4Kids license at the time it does have some of the naming conventions ("Cursed Fruit" instead of "Devil Fruit", "Chaser" instead of "Smoker", "Gum Gum Blast" instead of "Gum Gum Pistol", etc).
This game contains the following tropes:
- 1-Up: They're rare items, shaped like Luffy's head.
- Adaptational Badass: Roughly half the mini-boss characters folded with one good hit in the source material. Here, all of them have stamina to match Luffy's (Tashigi has twice as much, which makes her as durable as Arlong,) and can kick some serious ass if you let your guard down.
- Downplayed with Helmeppo, who takes damage much more easily than any of the other mini-bosses and has no actual attacks, just the ability to summon endless hordes of Mooks. He doesn't even have his gun. He still can take far more punishment than he could at the start of the series.
- Adaptational Wimp: Unlike in the anime/manga, Luffy is not automatically Immune to Bullets. He needs to consciously use Gum Gum Balloon to bounce them back, and that move is typically unlocked pretty late in the game.
- Smoker, despite being a Damage-Sponge Boss with quite possibly the nastiest attacks (and reflexes) in the game, is still this compared to his anime/manga counterpart, if only because Luffy - East Blue Luffy - can actually touch him. But immediately averted after his defeat, where he gets back up and the whole level turns into an Escape Sequence where so much as touching him or his attacks gets you an instant Game Over.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: Arlong just before the final phase of his fight.
- Advancing Wall of Doom: Smoker at the end of the game. Not really an Advancing Boss of Doom because Luffy can't fight back. When Luffy reaches his ship, Smoker just disappears.note
- A.I. Breaker: While fighting Smoker, it is possible to bait him into performing a smokin' Shoryuken over and over.
- And the Adventure Continues: Luffy's crew escapes from Logue Town and head for the Grand Line.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Luffy is invincible when he's peforming either the Gum Gum Bazooka/Gum Gum Battle Axe, as long as it successfully hits.
- Assist Character: Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji. Each is called as a special move.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Buggy is only vulnerable in the head unless he is flinching and on the ground.
- Backtracking: To collect some items, you often have to search around already cleared levels. And sometimes you have to backtrack during the levels - bringing Usopp to the Usopp Pirates, for example.
- Auto-Scrolling Level: Logue Town 2.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Luffy's Battle Axe. Very damaging, can kill a boss in a couple of hits. However, it has pathetically short range and will miss more often than not, and it costs twice as much as the much more reliable Bazooka.
- Bag of Spilling, Let's Split Up, Gang!: Luffy's crew runs ahead of him in the beginning of every level just so he has to search for them again and again. This does not happen in the main bosses' levels.
- Balloon Belly: Luffy's Gum Gum Balloon technique, which is used to deflect bullets, and also float for a bit in the air.
- Battle Theme Music: One for bosses of Areas 2, one for main bosses and one for Smoker.
- Bicep-Polishing Gesture: Luffy's Victory Pose.
- Bonus Level: After every boss except the last one, there's a bonus level where Luffy must defeat a bunch of enemies before the timer ends to get a couple of 1-ups. This is unlocked as a selectable mini-game after the game is beaten once.
- Boss Arena Urgency: The floor being torn apart is something to be concerned about when fighting Gin, who can get up from being thrown overboard, unlike you. Downplayed, as it does get repaired shortly after.
- Boss Rush: Get all the Golden Coins to unlock it.
- Bottomless Pits: All over the damn place in every level after the first. Their insta-kill status is justified in the Baratie level, where they all lead to the ocean, but the other levels don't really bother with such excuses.
- Bowdlerise: Sanji is given lollipops and Smoker is renamed Chaser. Smoker still smokes in his artwork, though.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: Think Arlong looks intimidating with his huge sword? Just try walking under him.
- Collection Side Quest: Items, Golden Coins and small Treasure Chests.
- Compressed Adaptation: There's very little dialogue and cutscenes in this game to properly explain the story, to the point it doesn't even have an opening scene to explain the series' premise. You can talk to a few characters in-game, but that's it.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
- Bosses can randomly ignore the knockback or the stunning effect from Luffy's machine gun punches.
- If you're not careful and spam machine gun punches,
Buggy can end up combing you by stabbing you with knives over and over, even worse, you can't cancell your current move, AND YOUR INVINCIBILITY AFTER GETTING HIT IS RATHER STRICT - Even if you clear the bonus stage withing 30 seconds, there are times where the game still counts a few seconds down, as if it's making sure you don't get more than two extra lives at a time.
- Counter-Attack: Part of Tashigi's moveset. It is extremely dangerous.
- Crate Expectations: They contain powerups or golden coins.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Not that it bothered many since Swan Colosseum is exclusive to Japan and this is exclusive to America, but most of Luffy's moveset is changed between the two games and the stock cost of his Bazooka and Battle Axe moves are swapped.
- Duel Boss: Tashigi, because you can't get support characters in Logue Town 2. Smoker can be this by extension, but you can replay any of the earlier levels to get everyone back to fight him.
- Emergency Energy Tank: At the small cost of two power bars, Sanji can help Luffy fully recover his HP.
- Final Boss: Smoker.
- Flash Step: Kuro does this before every attack, meaning you have to dodge and counter every single of his attacks. His Out of the Bag attack allows him to attack four times in a row this way.
- Game-Over Man: A tired Luffy is shown every time you die.
- Guide Dang It!: Finding all the coins and small treasure chests requires careful exploration of every corner and optional paths.
- Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Most of them contain Golden Coins. And you can't open them at first. You must replay Port Town 2 and get the key from Chouchou the dog.
- Interface Screw: With his hypnosis, Jango can either reverse Luffy's controls or mess with his sight.
- Invincibility Power-Up: There's a fist item that makes Luffy able to One-Hit KO enemies with Collision Damage and be entirely immune to all traps but Bottomless Pits for a while.
- Launcher Move: Luffy can interrupt his standard combo into a high kick that launches enemies. Unfortunately, unlike in Dragon Ball: Advance Adventure there isn't a lot you can do to airbone enemies here other than following into a well timed Gum Gum Pistol or Bazooka. A neat thing, though, is that hitting Richie with this kick will always immediately knock Mohji off him.
- Ledge Bats: Port Town 1 ends with a few cannons placed by the side of Bottomless Pits. Most enemies fill this role at various times, too, especially the bombers and knife throwers.
- Limit Break: Luffy and each of his friends have two.
- Marathon Level: All the levels are very long, and the final normal stage is an auto-scrolling one that lasts for about 10 minutes.
- Multiple Life Bars: Arlong, Tashigi and Captain Smoker, the former two have two health bars (a green bar layers over yellow), the latter has three (a blue bar over a green bar over a yellow bar)
- Metroidvania: It's nothing complex, but some paths and items can only be accessed after you unlock Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Spear attack and get some support characters.
- Never Say "Die": Averted; cutscene dialogue frequently uses the words "die" and "kill", which is interesting, considering this game is based on the 4Kids dub.
- Non-Player Companion: All of the Strawhats besides Luffy - one joins at the end of every level (except Arlong Park and Loguetown) and each can whip out two special moves, nothing more.
- One-Hit Kill:
- In a reference to Luffy halting Kuro by grabbing him in the source material, doing the same thing when Kuro is racing around during his Cat Out Of The Bag attack will immediately wipe out the rest of his health.
- Downplayed with Helmeppo when he gets hit by Zoro's "Tornado Slash", if he has enough health, he'll survive the first hit, but dies to the second hit anyway.
- Platform Battle: Gin's boss arena, which he starts breaking when low on health.
- Poison Mushroom: Leave food for enough time and they turn purple, in which collecting them gives Luffy a health penalty.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Gatling Gun, used as his combo attack finisher.
- Recurring Riff: The music for Navy Base 1, Logue Town 1 and Credits.
- Recycled Soundtrack: Most of the soundtrack is taken from Swan Colosseum.
- Scoring Points: The points you get from defeating enemies appear as Experience Points on Luffy's "Wanted!" Poster.
- Sequential Boss: Some bosses change their attacks so much when they get low on health that they qualify for this trope. Especially Arlong.
- Shoryuken: Smoker can do this.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Ensues when Zoro fights the much stronger Mihawk during a cutscene in Baratie 2.
- Sound Test: Bring all the mini chests to Gaimon to unlock it.
- Spikes of Doom: They deal significant damage on Luffy and knock out enemies instantly.
- Spiritual Successor: Not just to Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure. This game reuses a lot of assets from One Piece Grand Battle: Swan Colosseum
, an arena fighter for the WonderSwan Color based on the Baroque Works saga. - Stationary Boss: Don Krieg, at first, doesn't move at all. Justified, as you have to reach him while avoiding his shots and water.
- Status Effects: Usopp can stun enemies and Jango can put Luffy to sleep. Sometimes his hypnosis causes himself to sleep too, but he always wakes up first.
- Super Move Portrait Attack: Luffy gets two, one for each Limit Break, but his friends just get one.
- This Looks Like A Job For Aqua Man: Zoro's second Limit Break is allowed to damage mini bosses once per frame while they're unable to escape, so you can avoid reentering the room over and over to defeat them. Nami can steal bombs from enemies when there are none around to break certain walls.
- Turns Red: Most bosses get at least one new move when they're low on health, or start spamming their most annoying attack.
- Use Your Head: Luffy's Gum Gum Bell. Generally not very useful (it's very close-range and most enemies, even Mooks (and 'EVEN Luffy's Battle Axe), have a much longer reach than that) but comes in decently handy the first time you fight Buggy.
- Wake-Up Call Boss:
- Axe-Hand Morgan has a simple moveset, but is able to block attacks and punish you if you attack carelessly. He can call mooks to help him, too.
- Even if you have an easy time with Morgan, Buggy will be a challenge, because he is immune to your attacks most of the time, stays on air for some of the times where he is vulnerable (so you can't combo him) and has hard to avoid ranged attacks.
- Wolf Pack Boss: In the second stage of Arlong Park, Arlong's three officers all fight the player as a single force, tagging out between each attack. All three of them have their own health, and they all need to be defeated to win.
- Victory Pose: Luffy does one whenever he beats a level or boss. Smoker does one too, if he captures Luffy during the last level.
- Video Game Stealing: Nami can steal items from enemies, mixed with Random Number God.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Said by Tashigi in Logue Town 2. And before that, by the Usopp Pirates in Syrup Village.
