Dragon Ball Z Games

[spidey_17]

So, in this thread we can discuss about our favorite DBZ Games.

I have played a few DBZ games. My favorite so far is the Raging Blast 2.
What about you guys?

[Supreme Marvel]

I think Budokai Tenkaichi 2 for the Wii was awesome. Me and a few friend would have tournaments. Everyone of us could wipe the floor with the game on it's most difficult level so imagine what we were all like. The battles were always so close. I'd either go Mystic Gohan for close combat battles or Vegeta for overall ability.

[spidey_17]

I have not played BT2 but i have played BT3. It was really awesome. There were like 120 characters to chose and a really coll combat system. The graphics were not as good as Budokai 3 but they were still decent enough.
If you have a PS3 i would recommend you the Raging Blast 2 game. Awesome Graphics, combos and ultimate attacks. My only problem is that there is no an actual story mode.....=[

[NexusOfLight]

DBZ games. Man, that's a big chunk of my childhood right there. I remember gettin' into fights over whether or not the Budokai series was better than the Tenkaichi series. (The answer is yes by the way. Budokai 3 to this day is the best DBZ game out there.) I remember the challenges and matches I had with my friends. Good times indeed.

[spidey_17]

I had the exact same fights but i was arguing in BT series' favor.
Apart from graphics, i did not find anything better than what BT has.
Added to all these, the BT series it actually makes you feel like you are playing a DBZ game, while the Budokai series makes you feel that you are playing takken with DBZ characters.
=]

[mavfan626]

I agree with everything spidey said, Budokai Tenkaichi are the better series..

Raging Blast 2 is ok but just n not as fast as BT, still great games all round..

[NexusOfLight]

The Budokai series makes you feel like you're playing an actual fighting game. It was fast paced, involved a little bit of skill, but still friendly enough for most to pick up easily, and it had plenty of DBZ elements that set it apart from other DBZ games. The Tenkaichi games were a nice concept. I like that they came about, but at the same time, the gameplay bored me most of the time. The fights were drawn out too long, there wasn't much in the way of making each character their own. (Which was probably due to the game developers listening to the fans say add as many characters as you can.) Of course it all boils down to what you want in a DBZ game, which is completely opinionated. Either way, I went through many controllers with those games.

Who were your main characters? For Budokai, I stuck with Goku, Trunks, Teen Gohan, and Mature Gohan. With Tenkaichi, Vegito, SS3 Goku, Ultimate Gohan, and Gotenks.

[spidey_17]

To be honest, i have never enjoyed these kind of fighting games where are stuck at a certain place and you just fight there. You movements are pretty limited in these kind of games.
BT on the other hand, does not have that problem. You can easily move at any direction. Something that allows you to feel like you are watching a DBZ fight. Added to all these, the fact that the fights last too long, makes the game even better. Rarely you will see a fight in DBZ that won't last long. Also if you know how to play good, you can use amazing spectacular, fast combos that make the fights even better and more enjoyable.
But i agree with you, i think it just personal opinion and how you like a game.
=]

[NexusOfLight]

Ha, that's really exactly what a fighting game is. Side scrolling, occasional 3D plane, but it does exactly what a fighting game is supposed to do, have two characters fight. Tenkaichi is more of a 3rd person shooter without much emphasis on shooting. And quite honestly, most DBZ fights, when they're actually fighting don't last long, most of the time done in the show is typically dialog. When they actually started exchanging attacks, it was over almost as soon as it started. The Budokai games realized that, and gave me what I wanted, the actually fighting. Drawing out a fight, well like I said it's boring, especially when for the most part the characters fight the same. How many people had Super Explosive Wave as a super?

Man, just talkin' about this takes me back. Almost wanna play 'em right now. So yeah, who were your favorite characters in it?

[Geraldthesloth]

Tenkaichi 3 is probably one of my favorite ps2 games of all time.

I want to play Raging Blast 2, I just can't afford it.

[spidey_17]

DBZ should not be a fighting game in the same way that Takken or Mortal Kombat is. Not even close to that. But Budokai or Burst Limit, makes it to be these kind of fighting game which does not fit to any DBZ game. Most of the time they are flying around at any place and at any direction. The don't just stuck on a certain small place where their ability to move is extremely limited. This is exactly what i dislike from a DBZ game. There are plenty of fights in DBZ that last long. The fight with kid buu in the end, rarely had any dialog and it was one of the longest fights IIRC. The fight with Majin Vegeta had little to no dialog( IIRC, they were talking while they were fighting, i don't really remember ) and it was still a pretty long fight. The fight with Frieza was a pretty long fight and did not really have too much dialog to make it seem that this was the reason that lasted too long. And there are more as well. If we are count the movies, the Broly fight was extremely long and i don't remember having any real dialog.
I really dislike games where the fight can end pretty well. The fight must and should be enjoyable. That is not the case when the fight ends quick.
As for having characters with similar abilities, that applies for many DBZ games as far as i know.
I forgot to mention the the fact that the character can have their clothes been destroyed and having injuries on their face, makes it exactly an actual DBZ game. I don't remember in budokai having the chance to cause such injuries on your opponents.
=]

[Supreme Marvel]

I love the old games as well. Like Legend of the Super Saiyan, Which the story was created by Akira himself. It's basically a 8 bit game and you do from the beginning of Dragon Ball Z to the end of the Freiza saga.

[NexusOfLight]

A DBZ fighting game should be just that, a DBZ fighting game. Like I said, I applaud Tenkaichi for it's concept of changing things up. They realized that to better mimic how a typical episode of DBZ were to be played out, they'd have to lose the fighting game aspect of it and make it a 3rd person game. Thought that was cool an' all, but it got old really quick.

Now when it comes to the show itself, yeah most of the episodes involved more talking than fighting. The fight with Kid Buu in the end was all about Goku gathering energy for a spirit bomb. Vegeta tried buying him time. That lasted very quickly. Fat Buu tried fighting. That lasted longer than Vegeta, but again not really that long. The Goku and Majin Vegeta fight is perhaps the longest fight that's ever happened in the series, and it was also one of the few fights that hardly repeated any scenes. (Which DBZ was known for doing a lot.)

It's been a while for me as well, but one of my main complaints with the series was that every episode spent way more time talking than it did actually showing fighting. The fight with Freeza took forever because there wasn't much fighting. It was just him talking about how much better than he was than everyone else. Vegeta talking about how a super saiyan will rise again, trying to find the dragon balls, talking about how long the planet will take to explode (which Freeza was saying was five minutes over at least 3 episodes) then finally some fighting, Goku getting the upper hand, and then more talking, this time about how much better Goku was, Freeza getting mad, Goku calling him sad, these would last entire episodes, and then you'd see a snippet of fighting take place and then it was the end. The same formula really took place with all the major villain fights. With Cell, it was all about training in the time chamber, and coming out to fight him, beating him, and then talking about how weak he was. Trunks and Vegeta got into a big argument which took up another episode, and it seemed like it took a whole 'nother episode for Cell to strike the deal with Vegeta about absorbing 18. When that went through, Vegeta got beaten pretty quick, and then Cell says "I'm hosting a tournament." Goku and Gohan come out of the time chamber, tournament happens, more talking, Hercule getting flicked away, more talking, finally some action. Actually lasted an episode, which was good, then we'd have more interludes with fighting/non-fighting episodes. Mostly useless stuff. Cell Jr. Gohan, then more quick fighting, trash talk, trash talk, trash talk. Cell gets the upper hand, Kamehameha, the end.

Counting movies, there was usually about fifteen minutes of lead up, a brief fight to show how big and bad the villain was, more talk about how they're gonna beat the villain. The main hero of the hour taking on the villain, and it wrapping up in ten minutes. Admittedly better than the TV shows, but still more of the same really.

Coming into the video game aspect of things, looking at Budokai, it's no wonder the story mode is insanely fast compared to the series, because it gives you only the fighting, and the dialog can be skipped. With Tenkaichi, due to the way the game's designed, you can take your time, not really engaging the opponent, hiding behind mountains, dodging blasts and really spend about a good two minutes without any real fighting done. Yeah, it mirrors the show, but it not the good part of it. Long, drawn out fights aren't enjoyable. There needs to be a sense of speed, a chance for either player to genuinely not know how the fight's going to end until it's over. In Tenkaichi, once someone has the upper hand, both players generally know that person's going to win if they're both on the same level of skill.

And it's more than just sharing similar super moves. With Tenkaichi, there's literally one button for attack combos, and the combos look exactly the same for each character. If it weren't for the transformations, every character could have been a carbon copy of everyone else. Where's the variety? The point of picking different characters is to get different moves, different fighting styles, different people. That was always something Budokai had over Tenkaichi. When I picked Goku, I'd get someone who fights completely different from Vegeta or Gohan or Trunks.

As for the clothes being destroyed, that was more of an advancement in the gaming tech. Other fighting games for newer generations allow for characters taking battle damage. Soul Calibur, MK vs DC, etc. If a new Budokai game were to come out, it wouldn't be that much of a problem to work that into it.

[NexusOfLight]

Moving away from the Tenkaichi/Budokai debate for a bit, anyone remember Final Bout?

[Supreme Marvel]

Final Bout was awesome! I played both Japanese and English versions. Gotta say the Japanese one is a lot more responsive and faster.

[Supreme Marvel]

If you went Gohan on Final bout, all you needed to do is keep your opponent close and you've won. No one beats Gohan at close combat. Well maybe Vegito or Super Saiyan 4 Goku with Instant Transmission along with the combo they do while using it. Epic that!

[spidey_17]

A DBZ fighting game should be the mirror of real DBZ episodes. The game is based on DBZ, not on Tekken or MK, so the fights and the way you move n your environment should not be the same. BT, gave me exactly what i wanted. You can move free in your environment, just like in the show. You can destroy your environment( mountains, rocks, buildings etc....) just like in the show. And the special moves, were shown better than the Budokai series. Apart from the ultimate moves, IIRC, when you use special moves, it's like you are doing a combo, while, in BT's case, it's like you are watching cinematics, which i like even more.

As for the dialog in the fights, having a few seconds or minutes where 2 characters are talking does not necessarily means that this was the reason that the fights lasted long. In the kid buu fights, i was talking about when Goku was SSj3 and he was fighting kid buu. The Vegeta had to save Goku and he lost too. After that Goku took the fight in his hands again...
IICR, there was little to no dialog during that fight and it was pretty long if i'm not mistaken.
As you have said, the fight with Majin Vegeta was one of the longest and there was no dialog.
The first fight with Vegeta lasted long too.

To make clear my point. I don't see how having long fights is bad. If you are gonna play a DBZ fight, is because you want to actually have a fight. You want to start spamming combos and special moves and beat the hell out of your opponent after he will give you a hard time. This is how i like my fights. If you are gonna fight someone and you want your fight to end quick then what is the reason of even playing?
If we are going to talk about variety, then BT has more variety than Budokai. IIRC, almost every ultimate move has the opponent, graping your blast and then you either throwing a blast or you are trying to increase the power of your ultimate move...then there is an explosion etc.... If i'm not mistaken, most ult moves were like that. Added to all these, i think there was a move where most characters were doing a combo and then they were throwing a few blasts. And these has happened from many as well. See? I don't see to much variety from Budokai neither. At least in BT, there is a variety in special moves. Goku could do a combo with his moves and then use a kamehameha, Frieza could do a move with his tail, then go fast enough to hit him again....
As far as combos are concerned, maybe they are similar but they are different for each character and they are not accomplished in the same way. Also even if they are the same, they spectacular enough, so it is not a real problem.

I would like to mention that i have nto played Budokai 3, but i have played the first 2 games in PSP. I have also seen some vids in youtube about the 3rd game, so even though i have nit played, i have seen enough from it and i have some experience from the other games. So maybe i'm not the best person to judge about it, but at least the games obviously have something that i highly dislike in a DBZ game, they have that Tekken fighting style, which does not fit to a DBZ game IMO.
I guess you disagree with that, but still i like more the BT series.
=]

[NexusOfLight]

The Budokai games aren't mirroring Tekken or Mortal Kombat though. You play them, you notice a complete difference when you play Budokai. The only similarity they have is that they're a fighting game, just like the only similarity between a game like Assassin's Creed and Infamous is that they're both free roaming games. Same genre, sure, but completely different mechanics. Now concerning cinematics between Tenkaichi and Budokai, I'd say Budokai had BT beat every time. When it came to ultimate moves, there was much more flash, much more drive, much more planet explosion, when you saw Gogeta's Big Bang Kamehameha, you saw this. When it came to Tenkaichi you got what happens at 2:55 of this vid. Budokai 3 really mastered the cinematics touch, and it took Tenkaichi a long time to even be compared in that field. I remember I was so mad when Gogeta's Stardust Breaker was so lame compared to his Soul Punisher. They finally got it kinda right with Tenkaichi 3.

I guess to reiterate my point, long fights aren't bad if there's actually fighting going on. But drawing out a fight by flying every which way, blowing up rocks, and doing pretty much anything and everything except the actual fighting is what turned me off from the Tenkaichi series. Don't get me wrong, I'll play it, and I'll enjoy it, but I'll always enjoy what Budokai offered me more, and that's the actual fighting, and when there is actual fighting taking place on both sides, whether it's in Budokai, Tenkaichi, or the TV show itself, it's going to be a lot quicker than simply not fighting. Plain and simple, Budokai offered more variety in the combos, the super moves, and the ultimate moves. I already showed you that their ultimate moves were more varied. When it came to combos, again Tenkaichi had only one button for attacking, and the attack animations were basically the same for each character. Sure they may incorporate a tail motion, or have a character kick more than punch, but beyond that, it was all the same. With Budokai, everyone had a different combos in their move sets, just like a fighting game is supposed to have.

So in conclusion, yeah we obviously disagree on what exactly makes a good DBZ game. I prefer to fight my opponents without getting bored, you prefer to fight your opponents without being in a fighting game. That's completely understandable. I've got the Budokai games up to 3. I was thinking about getting Infinite World for a while, but felt that after getting the Tenkaichi games from 1 to 3, I was done with DBZ as a franchise. I've given them enough of my money over the years. Did play Raging Blast, but only for a second. Didn't really like it that much for some reason, but I only played it for a day. Raging Blast 2 looks like it did justice to each character's ultimate moves, which is a vast improvement over Tenkaichi 3.

[Erik-El]

I have Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 on the Wii. It is really the only DBZ game I have ever played. I like it.

[NexusOfLight]

Cool, it's a good game.