Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkachi 3 Review - The third wave of the 360° movement

Release(s):
                 October 4, 2007 (Japan)

                 November 9, 2007 (Europe)

                 November 13, 2007 (North America)

Platform(s): Playstation 2, Nintendo Wii

Genre(s): Fighting

Developer(s): Spike

Publisher(s):

      Bandai (Japan/Europe)
      Atari (North America)

Player(s): 1-2

Overview

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 was in improvement from the first game in just about every way thus leading to become a fan favorite and it received slightly better reviews as a result, but the sales still continue to dwindle. Spike then has decided to pull out all the stops In order for the series to fully escape the shadow of the much more successful Dragon Ball Z: Budokai titles. With a huge marketing campaign and a roster boasting of 160 characters total (including transformations and fusions)... was it all worth it in the end?

Gameplay

Once again the innovative combat system from the last two games. However, Tenkaichi 3 is not the massively overhaul that Tenkaichi 2 is from the first game (not that was even needed) but it still does a lot to improve the combat for a much deeper, more refined experience. Characters now automatically lock onto their opponents so moves designed around fucking around this feature aren't nearly exploitable. Smash Attacks can also done teleporting briefly towards the opponent by charging it then releasing it the moment your character flickers bright to confuse opponents. Several character specific combos have also been added as well as several more button mashy combos from the last game being fixed or removed.

Along with the new offensive moves, tweaks, and character specifics... new defensive maneuvers and movement options have been added. A new dash mechanic called Z Burst Dash can performed during the standard Dragon Dash to travel at much greater speed and move around the stage to appear behind the opponent. Super Guard has been replaced with Sonic Sway which is similar to the counterattack combo chain only this move makes you automatically your opponent's melee combo if it connects draining their ki and smack them away. Not a huge loss though as rush Blast 2's are no longer unblockable... though they still can break an opponent's guard thus making them lose ki. A new counter move has been added called Z Counter which is difficult yet very satisfying to pull off. It allows you to teleport behind the opponent like the defensive teleport to knock them away but unlike said teleport, Z Counter costs some ki and has to timed exactly when the opponent attacks (it's also only effective against melee attacks).

Lastly, the AI has been improved drastically. They now actually provide a reasonable challenge.

Content

With another DBZ game comes yet another new single-player campaign. For this game it is called Dragon History and it goes back to it's roots of simply going from one scenario to another. However, this mode does something different from the others before it as it actually makes you feel like you're in a battle from the show by having the characters exchange dialogue during gameplay and events are predetermined. You also play as the villains occasionally when they win in the actual story instead of beating around the bush by sticking you with the losing heroes this time. On paper this mode sounds great but the execution leaves much to be desired. Firstly, while some may have found the Dragon Adventure in Tenkaichi 2 too long, Dragon History is also too short. Many key battles are mysteriously left out and the whole thing can be completed in 6 hours. Also once you're done with it there's not much reason to bother playing it again except maybe to collect the dragonballs. Most of the characters are already unlocked. Dragon History does promise alternate paths which you can discover during battle but it doesn't take advantage of that concept and there's no reward for it either. At most you just get a different (underwhelming) cutscene at the end.

Tenkaichi 3 also has it's own take on the Ultimate Battle mode from the previous games. The main course here is the Mission 100 where you fight up to 100 different battles against sets of opponents based on a certain theme and they all have different rules. The others challenges are Sim Dragon which is a battle simulation where you are to prepare for a fight in 10 days (the cycle must be completed 10 times without losing) and Survival which is pretty self-explanatory. There is also a feature exclusive to the Playstation 2 version (to make up for the lack of Netplay) called Disc Fusion where you can play through the Ultimate Battle from the first Tenkaichi and Ultimate Battle Z of Tenkaichi 2 if you have working discs of the respective games. Pretty gimmicky if you ask me.

The World Tournament mode has also been changed drastically and is now called Dragon World Tour. It is sectioned off to two sub-modes which are World Tour where you get unlockables but it only allows one player and a tournament is only open at a certain time, and Free where you can mess around with friends. Aside from the that, the 3 tournaments from the last game have returned plus two new ones which are the Otherworld Tournament which is pretty much the Big Martial Arts Tournament except you fight Pikkon in the end instead of Hercule and the Yamcha Game which is pretty much the same deal except your character is randomly selected for you (something the game even acknowledges is stupid).

Training mode is just as barebones as ever with the tutorial (Battle Training) going back to teaching you mostly through cryptic text. Also, as I hinted before the Wii version of this game offered online play though it suffered majorly from lag so it's not a huge loss for PS2 players. The Character Encyclopedia from Tenkaichi 2 has been reduced to just Character References where you look at character bios and their models.

Evolution Z has returned but the customization setting has been revamped to be much more balanced. Character stats can't be beefed up massively like in Tenkaichi 2 and the level up system is gone. Each character start off with a certain amount of slots but can increased up to 7 by generating more with Z-Points (this game's currency) and items can take more than 1 slot depending on their effects. The real upsides to this revamped system is that a bunch of more useful ability improving yellow Z-items have been added, the redundant Z-Item Fusion has been removed, and the Item Shop has been streamlined so you don't have to buy the same item more than once. Once you buy said item it will be available for every character and you don't have to deal with the membership card silliness.  

The Data Center still allows you to insert custom characters via password but you can also view recorded battles from the Dueling mode with Action Replay.

Graphics

Just like the gameplay, the graphics for Tenkaichi 3 isn't massively different from the last game though I would say the character models do appear less block this time. One thing I do have to say is the beams, auras, particle effects, etc. look a lot better in this game. It has much more pizzaz and resembles the anime more closely.

Sound

Once again the voice clips and sound effects are recycled from the last game barring cutscenes, menus, and of course the new characters. More sound effects from the show have been picked up though,

Just like the last game, the Japanese version has remixed tracks from Shunsuke Kikuchi's soundtrack for the original anime series while the international versions of the game gets another original soundtrack by Toshiyuki Kishi. It's not as good as the soundtrack for Tenkaichi 2 but it does it's job well enough plus a few memorable tracks.

Aesthetics

In terms of storytelling in Dragon History, it also falls flat. It's done through in-game cutscenes but the characters are limited to their standard animation during gameplay thus leading to some really awkward scenes like Gohan tagging in just to have Piccolo die at Nappa's hands. It's a  shame that Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, a game that predates this one by 5 years, completely shits all over it while basically doing the same thing.

Storytelling aside though, the look and feel during combat has improved greatly. Every sequence is much more dynamic, all the ki blast attacks feel painful, and all supers/ultimates are catastrophic. it also uses more visual cues from the anime overall.

The menus also continued to get better and better. The character select screen now makes perfect sense (no 'up is down and down is up' mess), the dialogue is more memorable, more bells n' whistles, and there are more than one mini-game during the loading screen (dat loading time tho...).

Overall

Just when you thought Spike was done they still managed to impress with their third installment in the Budokai Tenkaichi series. However, I can't help but feel they have hit a wall with this title.

Now this game gets an 8.1 out of 10...   

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi Review - 360° of movement is a power move for the franchise

Release(s):

October 6, 2005 (Japan)
October 18, 2005 (North America)
October 21, 2005 (Europe)

Platform(s): PlayStation 2
Genre(s): Fighting
Developer(s): Spike
Publisher(s):

Bandai (Japan/Europe)
Atari (North America)

Player(s): 1-2

Overview

While the Budokai games were generally seen as clunky and stiff fighters by critics, that didn't stop them from selling like hotcakes. Actually... Budokai 3 was a different story- not only was it a good Dragon Ball Z game but it was simply a quality game regardless of it's license. The fact Dimps actually went and addressed the issues people had with the games shows they really do care for the fans, and when Budokai Tenkaichi was first announced... you bet your ass fans were hyped. However despite carrying the 'Budokai' name there is next to no relation between this game and Dimps' highly popular game series... in fact they aren't even by the same developers. But more important... does it hold up? Let's find out.

Gameplay   

Let me reiterate Budokai Tenkachi is NOT the beginner-friendly traditional 3D fighting game like Budokai. In fact I don't think there's any fighting game that plays quite like this one. First thing about this game is instead of dedicate it's camera to the side of the characters it has more of an "over-the-shoulder" camera angle and as the title of this review indicates this game boasts of allowing players to have 360° control over movement across the battlefield making it a more authentic combat system to the show than previous attempts. One complaint off the bat I have with the camera is that it's too close up to your character's back which isn't so bad when you're actually fighting (since it's designed with that angle in mind), but when you're not directly facing your opponent especially if you're in a corner, your whole perspective is fucked up and you can't do anything about it. Another thing about this unique system is that you can use the huge environments to your advantage either it be hiding behind mountains, slamming your opponents through or into obstacles, or destroying parts of them entirely.

Now for the controls... well one button does basic melee attacks, one button does ki blasts, one button is for guarding, and another for dashing. The right shoulder buttons allow you to jump/ascend into and descend from the air while the left shoulder buttons allow you to lock-on into your opponent (which only works if their within eyesight minus a few exceptions) and to build up ki. For more advance moves is where things become real tricky. You can teleport like you can in Budokai 3 (only it's not a counter and requires no special gauge consumption) but the timing is extremely strict as you have to tap the guard button just before the attack lands and it only works against specific attacks... you can also escape grabs by tapping the guard button at the right time. Speaking of grabs.. they are done by pressing forward and the dash button at the same time but only if you're close to your opponent. The melee attack button can be held to do a smash attack and the longer you charge it the stronger the smash attack is but how long it can be charged depends on how many hits you land (good luck with that). You also have a stun hit move (which has to be pressed at the right time or it's easily blockable even if you already hit your opponent with a basic melee attack) by pressing the dash button, a kiai (which breaks guard on impact) by pressing the ki blast button, and a counter by pressing the guard button as combo chains. There's also a more powerful dash move which makes you dash at greater speed (at the cost of some ki) by pressing the building ki button and the dash, jump/ascend, or descend buttons at the same time but you can't steer your dash once you start it so it's better to just avoid it. You can still do special moves by pressing the building ki button and guard button at the same time for ones that boost states and are more defensive called Favorite Techniques or pressing the building ki button and ki blast button at the same time for ones that more offensive called Finishing Moves... but you can no longer transform while in-game as transformations themselves are treated as different with their own movesets instead of mere power-ups like in Budokai. There are two of each super move type for every character. Ultimate moves are done by pressing the building ki button, the ki blast button, and down at the same time while in Max Power mode (which makes your other moves stronger and even allows you to do an unblockable smash attack) called Super Finishing Moves only the ultimate moves in this game aren't necessarily sequence-based like in Budokai.

This game does sound quite like a handful and to be frank, I had never felt so overwhelmed by the controls of a fighting game before this one but once you do get the hang of the mechanics... there really isn't much to the game beyond that. Every character in this game plays pretty much the same aside from their special moves (and even those are shared plentifully throughout the roster). Sure their playstyles may differ and their attributes may vary like some characters aren't as easy to knock down as others (or in the case of Hercule, you can't knock anyone down easily not even himself... well shit), but you won't find yourself switching between characters with much trouble and there really isn't a whole lot of variety offensively or defensively to keep things interesting for long. You just wind up using the same moves over and over again hoping they land. The computer even realizes this and tries to win battles by being a cheap bastard in the higher difficulty settings.

It may seem like I'm hating on the game but hear me out the game can be quite fun with it's authentic and fast-paced combat. It's just after how good Budokai 3 was, you'd expect a little more polish with this game especially when it prides itself as being the "Ultimate Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT Fighting Game".

        Content

The staple game modes Dueling, World Tournament, and Practice have made a return but there's yet another single-player campaign introduced for this game called Z Battle Gates where you play through various key battles from each saga of Dragon Ball Z and some of Dragon Ball GT plus a few alternate storylines and a couple Dragon Ball Z movies. Each battle varies in terms of objective either having you simply win the battle, defeat the opponent under a time limit, survive till time runs out, or defeat the opponent with a specific (Super) Finishing Move. Generally you're required to clear battles in linear order but completing a whole saga with the extra battles is all up to you. These battles mostly provide a reasonable challenge but some are ridiculously hard for the wrong reasons like the one in the Saiyan Saga where you have to defeat Nappa using the Ki Blast Cannon Finishing Move with Tien and since Tien is supposed to drop like a fly in the actual fight your attacks do barely any damage to Nappa while he can take a HUGE chunk of your health with just regular physical attacks. Another thing is the dragonballs.. since there's no RPG exploration aspect like Budokai 2 or 3 they are achieved through battle and I'm sure some game designers' laughing their asses off when they decided you have to collect them by finding one ball per match as it's hidden within stages... WHILE IN THE MIDDLE OF A GODDAMN BATTLEFIELD!!!

Another game mode Budokai Tenkaichi introduces is Ultimate Battle where you choose a character (both normal or customized) to engage in two courses: Super Warrior 100 Ranking or Warrior Training.  Super Warrior 100 Ranking is a 100-man challenge fighting characters from weakest to strongest which earns you one point after winning a battle plus extra for either getting a perfect, a near-death win, and/or winning with a Super Finishing Move with a chance of earning five points from defeating a sudden intruder, but if you lose two points would be subtracted and losing all points would get you booted from the course (if losing all points is even possible). Warrior Training is a survival challenge course that earns you points depending on how many wins you get and you don't lose any points for losing so you can participate anytime. It's no Dragon Arena but it works well for what it is.

The Dueling and World Tournament modes are largely unchanged from the Budokai games. Dueling is the standard versus mode that either allows you fight against the computer, the second player, or watch the computer fight itself. World Tournament is where you select a character and compete against other characters to put your skills to the test where elimination is either determined by K.O.! or by ring-out (which is very easy in this game btw... much easier than Budokai). There are four classes in total (Notive, Adept, Advanced, Cell Games) and each class is harder than the last with more contestants... the difference here is Adept, Advance, and then Cell Games are unlocked immediately after winning each the classes respectively. There's also no prize money earned if you win so there's not much point to World Tournament unless you just wanna mess around with your friends (up to seven of them).

The Practice modes has been changed and it's not for the better. The practice section has been stripped down to the point where the only setting option you have is to either have the computer do nothing or fight back and the tutorial isn't interactive like in Budokai, instead it's all text-based with a short demonstration clip which doesn't do much to engage newcomers to learn the ropes of the game's core mechanics.

With the Evolution Z mode, Budokai Tenkaichi introduces a brand new customization system called Z-items which functions similar to Budokai's Exciting Skill System (still a lame name) in terms of boosting stats, enhancing abilities, and crippling your opponents but unlike the E.S.S, Z-items doesn't allow you to customize your characters' special movesets to your liking (all moves are integral to the characters). The way Z-items are found is also completely different as instead of buying them from an Item Shop or finding them specific spots within certain modes, they are pretty much given pretty much entirely at random (kinda putting the RNG of the Skill Shop from the first Budokai in a totally new light) and each item is determined by one quantity anytime you earn it instead of being practically infinite like the E.S.S. The most notable difference is you can mix-and-match two Z-items to take a new item with a Z-item called Z-item Fusion (another lame name) including some characters aren't readily unlocked from playing through Z Battle Gates. Rather unnecessary if you ask me.

There is no extra game mode to be unlocked like in the Budokai games but you do unlock the Character Encyclopedia, which gives you a biography on all the characters including their voice actors/actresses (both in English and Japanese), after winning a battle in Z Battle Gates.

Graphics

Budokai Tenkaichi uses a very similar cel-shaded style to Budokai 3 though the color scheme is more muted in comparison, but it's still quite a pretty game regardless. The character models along with the beams, power auras, particle effects etc. capture the look of their anime counterparts almost perfectly and the stages are highly detailed even though there's not a whole lot going on within them. The effects characters have on the stages are also really nice like when you power up on the ground with the dirt piling up and rocks are leveled or when characters are flying across the ocean with the speed skidding across the water... though getting knocked down doesn't damage the ground like Budokai 3. 

The animation isn't nearly as impressive as in the Budokai games especially since it runs at 30 fps instead of a silky smooth 60 fps but it works well enough on it's own... at least during gameplay. The animation is otherwise limited and often robotic which is especially noticeable during cutscenes. One thing I would give it is the basic fighting animation is completely unique between each character and really compliments their fighting styles from the actual series.

Sound 

A couple voice clips are recycled straight from Budokai with the new voices are made courtesy of the new OkraTron 5000 sound production company founded by the voice actor of Vegeta in the FUNimation Dubs, Christopher Sabat, and it really shows. The new voice clips notably more quiet plus they downright goofs at times like some characters would mistakenly have their Japanese voices instead and speaking of Japanese... you can change the language to the original Japanese voices for fans who prefer the original dub for Dragon Ball.

The soundtrack for Budokai Tenkaichi is also made entirely of Kenji Yamamto's tracks for Budokai only here it's not really done to enhance the experience as so much as a cost-cutting alternative to getting the remixed tracks of the anime's soundtrack (which the Japanese version of the game has... lucky). It's all stock especially during gameplay which is randomized with some of the less memorable tracks.

Aesthetics

The Z Battle Gates tells the story of Dragon Ball through in-game cutscenes like Budokai's Story Mode minus the episode prologues and next episode previews, but the storytelling is just plain lazy. Sure you can look up basic info for the characters in the Character Encyclopedia mode but that only serves to hinder the (poorly-told) story rather than help explain it. Aside from that the aesthetics for this game is spot on.

A ton of moves from the series are recreated in this game including the iconic Kamehameha Wave and they're represent very nicely even if they look plain in comparison to Budokai 3. The menu screen also continue to get better and better with the anime/manga-inspired layout... the only complaint I do have is the character select has all the characters lined up in a single, narrow row with no fixed order which isn't really a big deal but it sure is annoying considering the game has like 60 or so characters and there's no way to shortcut this. They at least fixed the loading time while adding a new fun and interactive loading screen where Gotenks makes his Kamikaze Ghosts before they explode.

Overall

What can be said about Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi? Well... it's a nice little experiment but that's pretty much all I can say. It was fun while it lasted even though all it really left me wanting is a sequel (something I was surprised was even being made at all) that improved the formula.

Overall, this game gets a 6.2 out of 10. 

      

Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2 Review - The hero is you... once again!

Release(s):

October 25, 2016 (North America)
October 28, 2016 (Europe)
November 2, 2016 (Japan)

Platform(s): Playstation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

Genre(s): Fighting

Developer(s): Dimps

Publisher(s): Bandai Namco Entertainment

Player(s): 1-2

Overview

The past several years have not been kind to Dragon Ball Z games. Developers all just took one interesting concept and ran with it hoping it'd land but as a result the games did poorly... then came Dragon Ball: Xenoverse which does borrow the created character RPG concept from Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi and the super authentic co-op fighting from Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z but it brings them back to their roots from the fan favorite Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi (Sparking! in Japan) series'. A lot was riding on the game as not only did the combat have 360° movement as fans have gotten used to and there was an RPG action-adventure element that would serve as a crux for the game but the developer behind was Dimps, who not only have pedigree among the Dragon Ball franchise for creating the Budokai series they also developed various other popular games such as The Rumble Fish, Sonic Advanced, and even worked on the Street Fighter series since Street Fighter IV in collaboration with Capcom. For the most parts, Xenoverse lived up to the hype and became easily the most successful DBZ game since Budokai Tenkaichi 3.

Now a sequel has been announced on short notice and a lot of new things noticed along the way, good things were to be expected... but does it keep up with the momentum that Xenoverse had already established?

Gameplay

This game returns the fast-paced, 360° movement fighting mechanics from the first game along with the same simplified control scheme where all the basic moves are mapped to the face buttons (you have a light physical attack button, a heavy physical attack button which can be charged, a button for ki blasts which also now can be charged, and a jump/ascending button) while guarding and more advanced moves either involve multi-button inputs or the shoulder buttons. Xenoverse 2 also introduces a bunch of techniques to give a visceral experience closer to the show such as the Homing Dash which allows you to automatically dash towards your targeted opponent by pressing the light attack + jump/ascension buttons at the same time while doing an Aura Dash at the cost of one stamina bar and press the light attack + jump/ascension buttons again to circle around the opponent. Charge attacks can also be used to break your opponent's stamina while they are in a guarding state and there are even physical attacks that are specifically used to break an opponent's stamina by pressing the light or smash attack button in junction of a tilt movement. Stuff like Step Vanish have been fully implemented into the game (even being encouraged in the tutorials) and they can used either in the middle of a light attack (at the cost of one stamina bar) or a Dash Step by tapping the jump/ascend button at the right time like you would a Snap Vanish.

Other mechanics have been refined from the first game. Aside from the stamina breaking technique I mentioned earlier, the way Super Saiyan for example works in this game is revamped to where you can no longer spam super/ultimate attacks as you have ki but it does increase stats (depending on what level you transform into) and it allows you to warp towards a locked opponent if performing a light attack or charged attack. Not only that but all races of created characters now have their own transformations that have their own unique attributes. 

It's still far from being a balanced gameplay experience (nor is it terribly deep), whatnot with characters still being blatantly better than others or certain characters being completely useless to others, but it's at least much less frustrating to play than the first game (you can even see the computer's full HUD). It's pretty solid overall.

Content

Xenoverse 2 follows the same concept as the first game where you created a character who acts a time patroller who's mission is to restoring time to it's natural order from the wicked witch Towa but it's a new patroller this time taking place of the old one... of which you can choose between a pre-made character or if you still have a saved data from the first game you can have a created character from that save data as the legend. Other characters may help out but for the larger parts it's a one-man mission and while most events are linearly available, some require you to explore the rest of the game doing side quests in the hub world (which also serves as the game's main menu) called Conton City. It's several times larger than Toki Toki City from the first game but here you can learn of hover board, flight (which functions just how it does in combat), and the Flying Nimbus that serve as quicker means of transportation making exploring  the hub world far less tedious than better.

Stuff like Parallel Quests, where you and a party of either AI-controlled characters or online players go to fight a select set of enemies and some cases, collecting Dragon Balls while each quest will reward you in the end, have returned. One thing that's change is the drops isn't nearly as reliant on RNG and is based more on you fulfilling the requirements. New types of side-quests have been added to the game such as protecting Guru's House along with Nail by collecting dragon balls all the while fending off Freeza's men who may want it, completing various challenges given by Mr. Satan, exchanging items between other characters, race-specific training (like training under Vegeta to learn Super Saiyan), and the most challenging of them... generically named Expert Missions. In these missions you and a party of 5 (online players or AI-controlled) will fight against a possessed, more powerful version of enemies from the main story who have the ability to brainwash you or any of your partners into fighting against the rest of crew. If you get captured then you would have to fight yourself and win to escape but if you lose then mission failed. You can also train under most characters in the game to learn their super moves (with a few exceptions) like in the first game only now you don't have to accept any of them as an instructor (though it's still an option) in order to do so. No characters from the fairly new anime TV show Dragon Ball Super, sadly (unless you pay for DLC).

Unfortunately, there's still no difficulty setting so what ever challenge this game gives you is what you get but Dimps have at least addressed the No Training Mode issue in the first game by adding a Training section within the Offline Battle Mode. The Training section in Xenoverse 2 allows you to use the computer as a training dummy who either acts as a punching bag, guards constantly, guards when being attacked, performs Just Guards, performs super moves or ultimate moves on patternly, an opponent of varying difficulty levels, or even controlled by another player... but if that's not enough you can set you or the computer's gauges to either be normal, dangerously low, or infinite and you can set the damage ratio and/or commands to be displayed. It's not as great as the training modes in other fighting games (maybe not even as great as Budokai's) but it still does the job well enough. The Multiplayer section of Offline Battle Mode now allows for other stages outside the World Tournament arena to fight at and the tutorial is not only available at all times (unlike the first game's which only was available at the start) but it's greatly extended even teaching players of more advanced moves.

Graphics

The graphics engine is the same for Xenoverse 2 compared to the first game including animations only things have been tweaked. Lighting has been subdued giving character models less of a glossy thus easier to look at, though it makes things appear somewhat dark. Environments and particle effects are significantly more detailed... but that's not the best part of all. It's now the home consoles versions are capped 60 fps instead of 30 fps like the first game though PC users can set it to even higher than 60 fps (even as far as 120 fps). Still not the best-looking game out there but it's very pretty and flashy fanservice for fans.

Sound

Xenoverse 2 uses much of the same voice clips from the last but new ones recording for new moves, cutscenes, and of course... new characters which I don't mind because FUNimation do a great job like they always do. The problem I can't get past is the lip-syncing especially during cutscenes.... it's sloppy at best and horrendous at worst. Fortunately there's still the option of the Japanese voices if the issue really bothers you. SFX can also be on the annoying side as well, namely when heavier attacks and super moves are involved.

The music on the other I have no serious complains with (aside from a new annoying tracks during the Conton City hub world). It's fairly good stuff and is fitting to each situation even though a lot of tracks are recycled from the first game. It's not particularly memorable though.

Aesthetics

Like I said earlier, the story behind Xenoverse 2 follows the same concept as the first game where you take control of a Time Patroller who's mission is to restore time to it's natural order from the wicked witch Towa but this game takes more advantage of the concept and as result we get much greater character development, a more fleshed-out story, and some actually interesting plot points. Aside from story there's pieces of humorous lines and various nods to the actual series.

Tons of moves from the actual series have also been recreated even more obscure ones like the spinning escape Goku during his fight with Tien in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament and they all presented extremely well, even though they're all real-time and not one is cinematic like with the PS2 games. The destructive ability on environments is still lacking you can only cause real damage to smaller objects while the damage in others are mysteriously undone.

Overall 

While it's not a massive overhaul over it's predecessor it does what it should as a sequel and more. The story and universe are more fleshed out, it looks better, and it plays better too. It's a slow, but certain step in the right direction for the Dragon Ball video game franchise under years of failed games due to badly realized concepts.

Overall this game gets a 7.8 out of 10.

Super Dragon Ball Z Review - Super Dragon Fighter Z II Turbo!!

Release(s):

June 29, 2006 (Japan)
July 18, 2006 (North America)
July 28, 2006 (Europe)

Platform(s): Arcade, PlayStation 2
Genre(s): Fighting
Developer(s): Arika, Crafts & Meister
Publisher(s):

Banpresto (Japan)
Atari (North America)
Namco Bandai (Europe)

Player(s): 1-2

Overview

Early to mid-2000's was a good time for DBZ games. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 (simply known as Dragon Ball Z 3 in Japan) in late 2004 was particularly impressive not only for being a night-and-day sequel to the first two Budokai games but it's viscerally fast-paced and authentic combat can be enjoyed even by people are otherwise disinterested in Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi (also known as Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! in Japan), while not as impressive as Budokai 3, still retained the visceral, fast-combat feeling of combat and was like no other fighting game before it. However, there is one that released between the first Tenkaichi game and the then upcoming sequel Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! Neo) that hardly any fan seems to remembers, and that game is the one that's center for subject right now: Super Dragon Ball Z.

Super Dragon Ball Z was touted as the franchise's first "serious" fighting game... in fact, it was an Arcade game before being ported over to the PS2 and it was directed by Akira Nishitani... the man who, along with Akira Yasuda, created the quintessential fighting game Street Fighter II so there's a bit of pedigree to this game. While it was a modest success in Japan (enough for it to be ported), the game (released only for PS2) never caught on in North America. Is there a reason for this failure or is it yet another overlooked gem?

Gameplay

Super Dragon Ball Z is a fighter that combines elements from 2D and 3D fighting games for combat system. Unlike the last few DBZ games that proceeded it, Super DBZ brings it's combat closer to it's fighting game roots so fans of older DBZ fighters and other fighters in general may find it more respectable than say... the Budokai games and Budokai Tenkaichi. The basic controls are rather easy to understand and accessible... you have one button for light attacks, one for heavy attacks, one for jumping/bukujutsu, and one for guarding... all of which can be combined to do various attacks as throwing, dash attacks, and ki blasts. Super DBZ also has combos in the form of a dial-up system similar to the what you'd find in Mortal Kombat or Killer Instinct- albeit a very simplified one. Each character has their own set combos by doing consecutive light and/or heavy attacks but they're pretty limited and like the Budokai games, there's only one blocking zone so not a lot of strategy between attacking high or low is involved. You can also use the environments to your advantage as you slam opponents into walls, hide behind rock formations or buildings, or send your opponent through stage transitions though it isn't close to the level of environmental interaction you can do in Budokai Tenkaichi as battles are more up close and personal. Like the Budokai games and Budokai Tenkaichi, each character has a set of super and ultimate moves at their disposal but unlike said games where executing them are simply done with 2-4 button combinations, the super and ultimate moves require more complex inputs like the quarter-circles or half-circles which people play other fighting games like Street Fighter would be familiar... however so players who are used to the simplified controls for these moves in previous DBZ games and/or are total newbies at fighting games are definitely gonna be thrown off by and frustrated with the intricate button commands. 

Super and ultimate moves have widely varying attributes and uses during battle which is a nice touch, but you only have a handful of them are immediately available to you. You can learn more but there's a limit to that as well and a lot of the upgrades are shared between characters. The way super and ultimate moves also function basically the same how special and super moves function in Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat... super moves require no gauge to be used even for ki-based ones and can be chained off from normal attacks while ultimate moves 1 require or more bars from the Ultimate Gauge. 

As you can tell Super DBZ takes a lot of cues from other popular fighting game series (Goku even has a super move similar to Ryu's Shoryuken called Blast Fist) but when you compare it to the very fighters it take influence from this game doesn't offer that many options in what you can do in combat. Super DBZ does sport a healthy amount of strategy and diversity but with other 2.5D fighters like Tekken or Virtua Fighter which have tons of technical depth, Super DBZ just can't measure up. 

Not only is the game shallow in comparison to the popular fighters it tries to emulate, it's also too slow and traditional to satisfy DBZ fans. Sure you can do dash attacks by pressing one of the attack buttons in junction with the guard button and you can use bukujutsu by pressing the jump button while in the air to speed things up, though they are limited to an Action Gauge (which admittedly does add strategy to combat), but innovative mechanics that previous DBZ fighters had offered to the table in order to emulate the action from the series such as teleporting, pursuing, beam struggles, and ki building are sadly absent. 

Content

There are a fair amount (though not ideal) of game modes in Super Dragon Ball Z to play in which are Original, Versus, Z-Survivor, and Training. 

Original plays like the arcade version of the game where you select a character then fight up to 7 of the characters that were available in the arcade version which leads up to the fight with Cell and you earn a dragonball as a custom character after winning each fight meaning you can get all of them in one go. Just like the arcade version another player can come to challenge you (without the cost of a quarter) in order to take over and no... there is no story to follow so bummer. 

Versus is well... the standard versus mode where you play against another player... you both set your handicaps, select a stage, and then fight.

Z-Survivor has you play as a custom character and fight with only one Health and Ultimate Gauges against up to 9 of the characters available in the arcade version without losing, and unlike most survival modes where you're healed instantly after each fight you play a Bonus Roulette mini-game where you can either recover health, fuel Ultimate Gauge, increase attack/defense power, earn B.P/EXP bonus, or earn a dragon ball. At first, the roulette is rather slow but as you go along, while the earnings get better the roulette spins faster and enemies become harder especially ones with over a million B.P. If you're lucky you might gain the option to fight one of the PS2-exclusive characters at the end for a massive BP and EXP bonus increase at the risk of losing all your earnings from your recent playthrough of Z-Survivor if you are defeated so choose wisely!

Training is yet another surprisingly deep Training mode where you can use your opponent as a training dummy to act as a punching bag or have them perform various actions (like guarding constantly, guard after being attacked, attacking after guarding, performing a quick recovery after falling to the ground, etc.). There is also an option for a damage ratio and command display to help maximize damage or practice more elaborate moves, and you can set obstacles with varying sizes, numbers, and endurance all to your liking. You can even make another player join in as a sparring partner (though they lack the display options) but for some reason you can't have the computer act as a fighting opponent. There's also a lack of a tutorial section which would have been especially helpful as the bulk of this game's playerbase certainly wouldn't have the skills or patience to learn the more complex moves. All in all, Training is good for what it is but it isn't nearly as extensive as the training modes in other popular fighters such as Tekken and Dead or Alive.

The one mode that is really noteworthy is Customize. In this mode, you create up to 30 custom character cards with a custom name for you to level up and learn new skills. Unlike the customization system in the Budokai games where skills are either bought or found in various parts of certain modes, skills are earned through EXP points and how do you earn said EXP points? Simple you earn them after each fight and once your gain at least one experience bar you can learn a new skill. B.P points work the same way but they're only there for the high scores chart so they do nothing skill-wise... though one thing interesting about it is they will make your scouter explode if you gain over a million B.P points. Anyways, the EXP points you accumulate can be redeemed within the Customize mode through something called a Skill Tree where the next skill you can learn will be determine which skill you choose and there are various types of skills to learn such as new super or ultimate moves (like mentioned before), faster recovery on the Action Gauge, greater movement speed, slight increase in attack or defense power, armor properties on dash attacks, super cancel (the ability to chain super or ultimate moves into another ultimate move), and if you complete a character's Skill Tree you can inherit another character's signature move (they would have to be skill inheritance compatible as well). This is a great system that gives the game a lot of replay value and is honestly the best part about the game's combat but for single-player this means you have to constantly grind through the Original and Z-Survival modes (preferably the latter). Dragon Summoning allows you to wish for additional skills after collecting the dragonballs with selected character some that are not even available on the Skill Tree at all but not only that you can wish for a few accessory such as a new color scheme, a new costume, a Win:Loss ratio, and a new scouter. Unlockables are even achieved through wishes such as hidden characters, extra stages, or certain characters serving as the announcer.

One thing that should be addressed is the roster. It's seriously small in comparison to the rosters in Budokai 3 and especially Budokai Tenkaichi as there's only 18 characters in total (5 of them you have to unlock). Not only that but popular characters such as Yamcha, Tien, the Ginyu Force, and Broly are all left out... but it's not a total bomb as there are a few pleasant surprises to the roster such as Chi-Chi, King Piccolo, and a newly designed Mecha Frieza.

Graphics

Like Budokai 3 and Budokai Tenkaichi, Super Dragon Ball Z uses a cel-shaded graphics style but unlike most DBZ games which tend to resemble the anime this game takes it's visual cues from the manga (though it's not as extreme as the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja game series)... which is why several color schemes are different from most would be familiar with (Goku's gi being regular orange and blue, Piccolo's skin patches being yellow instead of pink, Perfect Cell's exoskeleton being dark green instead of neon green, etc.) and hit,explosion, and ground effects are represented through onomatopoeia. That being said the character models and stages do look nice. They're colorful, vibrant, and are animated reasonably well (though not as well animated as the Budokai games) but the auras, ki blasts, and particle effects are nothing special. They look too much like they were done on a computer... nothing like what you'd expect out of the series.

Sound

Once again the voice actors/actresses from the FUNimation Dub have come to reprise their roles but for some reason the audio quality on the voices sound really muffled as if they were recorded with a low-end mic and the voice acting itself sounds considerably less enthusiastic than usual as if they didn't wanna work on the game (not that I blame them entirely). Also, there's no option for the Japanese voices like in Budokai Tenkaichi and the Greatest Hits version of Budokai 3 so North American fans who prefer the Japanese version will have to endure the subpar voice work of the English version. As for the music, Super DBZ goes for a completely different approach from most DBZ games which tend for a modern music mix. The soundtrack is like a tribute to 90's synthesized music for old arcade games and they mostly do a good job at keeping you invested in the action... several of the tracks are actually quite catchy. The sound effects is also something completely new as it mimics the onomatopoeia and it helps give the combat a comic book feel. 

Aesthetics

One thing that made the DBZ fighting games so endearing over the years is how much the combat resembled the over-the-top action of the series and that reigns true with Super Dragon Ball Z... to an extent. A lot of familiar moves from the series are here for the coarse but they aren't presented in a particularly impressive way. The camera is almost always fixed to an angle (that being the side of the characters) and there's no cinematics accompanying any of the attacks. For example, Goku's Spirit Bomb is an extremely powerful and hard-to-avoid attack in the game but on a spectacle level you don't really get the sense of it being a super devastating attack like in the series. 

Like I said earlier, the game goes for a more manga-inspired feel and that easily can seen right from the main menu. Each mode in the main menu is sectioned off like panels from a page in the manga and the loading screen are like a Tankōbon cover for a volume of the manga featuring your next opponent. There are even some cameos and references to Akira Toriyama's other works like Suppaman, a character from Dr. Slump who's an obvious parody of Superman, randomly appearing after destroying one of the buildings in Eastern Capital. 

Overall

Is Super Dragon Ball Z a bad game deserving of it's relative obscurity? No... not at all but I feel the game suffers a bit of an identity crisis. It either tries to appeal to fans of Toriyama's megahit manga series or gamers who are serious about their fighting games but doesn't do quite enough to please either parties in the long run. Even it does feature a good amount of strategy and depth, it's not really the hardcore fighter Atarti wants you to believe and at the same time a lot of staples that people have come to expect out of DBZ games are compromised, making you sorta question who it was really intended for.

If you're looking for a solid fighter with the Dragon Ball license then I definitely recommend giving this game a shot. It plays well, the customization system can be addicting, and the visual cues taken from the manga is definitely gonna appeal to a certain niche plus it's sold rather cheap nowadays (functional copies coming as little as $5 - $10 w/o shipping on various online stores like Amazon or eBay) but if you're one of the extremes I mentioned earlier then you may wanna look somewhere else.

Overall, I give this game a 7.4 out of 10.