Retro Review – Dragon Ball Z: Budokai

<p><em>Welcome to Retro Review Friday&excl; Be sure to stop by BagoGames each Friday and join us as we dive into the vault and take a look back at a Retro game&excl;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>I loved <em>Dragon Ball Z<&sol;em>&period; If there&&num;8217&semi;s one show from my childhood that I somehow managed to retain the most information from&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s probably DBZ&period; The show&comma; which features hyperbolic fights that can span over several episodes&comma; is perfect for getting the video game treatment&period; Japan saw a lot of those being released&comma; and even the West got its fair share&period; The first adaptation that I got to play was <em>Dragon Ball Z&colon; Budokai <&sol;em>for the PlayStation 2&period; Fourteen years since its release&comma; it is time to take a look back and see whether I can look in fondness to the game or banish it from the recesses of my mind&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Dragon Ball Z&colon; Budokai <&sol;em>accounts for three arcs from the show&period; The introduction of Saiyans &lpar;a powerful alien race&rpar;&comma; the journey to Namek to find the Dragon Balls &lpar;collecting all seven means you can make a wish&rpar;&comma; and the Cell games &lpar;a competition of the strongest against Cell&comma; a powerful foe attempting to achieve his perfect form&rpar;&period; Those familiar with the show will have no problem following along with the game&&num;8217&semi;s story mode&comma; which quickly goes through significant moments of these arcs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; if you have not been privy to the show prior to playing <em>Budokai<&sol;em>&comma; you are in for a very confusing narrative&period; The thing about <em>Dragon Ball Z <&sol;em>is that its protagonist is technically switching between Goku and his son&comma; Gohan&comma; at an indeterminable pace&period; For <em>Budokai<&sol;em>&comma; your first time through the story focuses on Goku&&num;8217&semi;s perspective&comma; with very few exceptions&period; The issue is that Goku is often sidelined for various reasons in the show&comma; which means jumps in time have to happen if the game wants to spend its time exclusively on him&period; These jumps are jarring and often lead to utter confusion&period; Characters will appear and have no introduction at all&comma; or even the most bare bones of explanations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110690" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110690" style&equals;"width&colon; 672px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110690 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;30193850&sol;GokvsKri04&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Dragon Ball Z&colon; Budokai" width&equals;"672" height&equals;"398" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110690" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Dragon Ball Z&colon; Budokai<&sol;em>&comma; Infogrames&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; the story is moving so fast that you can&&num;8217&semi;t possibly keep up with the information it&&num;8217&semi;s giving you&period; Fights occur to break up the cinematics whenever a fight is actually going to happen&period; However&comma; as I mentioned&comma; brawls can last several episodes in <em>Dragon Ball Z<&sol;em> and serves to make things more epic in scope&period; With <em>Dragon Ball Z&colon; Budokai<&sol;em>&comma; fights feel anticlimactic despite the very quick transitions from gameplay to cutscene&period; When summarizing 194 episodes of a show into a six hour game&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a daunting task&period; <em>Budokai <&sol;em>is secretly up to it&comma; but on your first playthrough&comma; you wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t know that&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The baffling decisions are realized when you start the story a second time&comma; in which you can select episodes to play through&period; There you will find large gaps in between story beats where players can take control of other characters like Piccolo&comma; Frieza&comma; or Vegeta&period; Hidden in this second wind of narrative beats are some of the most compelling moments from the show&comma; conveyed effectively&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not sure why developers Dimps decided to break the game up this way&comma; but it seems like a ridiculous idea&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What matters most is what Dimps does with the fighting though&comma; as that really is the crux of what makes the anime fantastic&period; Fights feel large&comma; especially in later chapters of the game&period; The ability to change into a more powerful state like Super Saiyan on the fly is both smart and helps feel like the scales are turning in your favor &&num;8211&semi; or vice-versa&period; Plus&comma; death moves such as the famous Spirit Bomb have a crazy amount of weight to them when pulled off&period; Every special ability requires a specific combo of button presses&comma; not dissimilar from other Dimps fighting games&period; Stronger attacks require more precise combos&comma; so you will have to practice if you want to pull off some of the stronger moves&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110691" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110691" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignright"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110691 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;30194204&sol;dragonball-z-budokai-final-flash-300x300&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Dragon Ball Z&colon; Budokai" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"300" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110691" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Dragon Ball Z&colon; Budokai<&sol;em>&comma; Infogrames&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>As for gameplay options&comma; once you beat the story there are still other features to explore&period; The Duel mode is your basic versus&comma; so you can square off against a computer-controlled opponent or go against a friend locally&period; The big mode is World Tournament&comma; where players can see how good they are by taking on several rounds of AI-controlled fights&period; Divided into three difficulties &lpar;Novice&comma; Adept and Advanced&rpar;&comma; winners will be rewarded with Zenie &lpar;the game&&num;8217&semi;s currency&rpar; that they can use to purchase skills from the Skill Shop&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is pretty much the only form of customization in <em>Dragon Ball Z&colon; Budokai<&sol;em>&comma; but adds some strategy to how a character is laid out&period; Throughout story mode and from the skill shop&comma; players can attain skills that they can then attribute to characters&period; Customizing a character&&num;8217&semi;s moveset makes for some variety in matches&period; You also have limits to how many skills you can have&comma; which means a character like Goku might have to sacrifice becoming Super Saiyan if the player wants more attacks to use&comma; rather than having to charge an ability&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110692" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110692" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110692" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;30194536&sol;DBZ-Budokai-character-select-screen&period;png" alt&equals;"Dragon Ball Z&colon; Budokai" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"505" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110692" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Dragon Ball Z&colon; Budokai<&sol;em>&comma; Infogrames&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>World Tournament mode is a fun distraction&comma; and I remember spending hours playing it to collect every skill available&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also the only mode that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t require you to knock out your opponent&period; You can still do that&comma; of course&comma; but you also have to option to simply knock the opponent out of the ring instead&period; So there is an element of strategy as you try to keep yourself away from the edge of the ring&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s easier said than done sometimes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Legend of Hercule is also a mode that is sort of like World Tournament&comma; except there are no ring outs&comma; and instead you are faced with multiple challenges&period; This could be having one health bar for two fights&comma; or a shorter time limit&comma; or even just having to fight several enemies in a row&period; It also forces you to play as Hercule&comma; a character who isn&&num;8217&semi;t weak&comma; but definitely isn&&num;8217&semi;t as fun to use&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall though&comma; <em>Dragon Ball Z&colon; Budokai <&sol;em>does offer an aesthetically and mechanically accurate representation of the show&period; However&comma; it is marred by its absurd decision to jump over powerful moments the first time through and have players fill in the blanks later&period; While a fun game to play&comma; it is also one where the encounters don&&num;8217&semi;t tend to vary too much in how opponents fight&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s safe in its mechanics&comma; but does a good job keeping them engaging&period; Nailing a high-powered combo is just as satisfying to pull off as it is to see&period; Which is the best compliment you can give any <em>Dragon Ball Z <&sol;em>game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;