"DBZ: Battle of Z" (360/PS3/Vita) On-Going Discussion Thread

[goku the krump dancer]

Sagas was the first of its kind in the DB world, theres could have been squeals to improve the flaws.. But I guess the first title has to be good enough to warrant a sequel. HOWEVER Burst Limit was Dimp's 6th game and they took steps backwards?

If they wanted to fix the flaws in Sagas they'd have to get a whole new team and rebuild everything from the ground up. Even then, I still wouldn't have faith in it because Dragonball Z and it's characters do not lend themselves to the Action-Adventure genre. Dragonball, sure; Z, no. Comparing it to Burst Limit makes no fucking sense. Dimps was actually working on two games and they not only built a complete game but it's arguably the best looking to date. On top of that, Burst Limit felt like the foundation for future(quality games). Look at Burst Limit from a marketing perspective, if they came out swinging with more characters than Budokai 3 spanning Dragonball through GT where would they go after that? What would be their selling points? Even if you chose to ignore this, and I can not stress this enough,the fact that Sagas is a broken mess of a game makes it objectively worse than just about every Dragonball game released. I can't wait for the day Taiketsu starts to get defended.

So we can agree that the only good thing about Burst Limit was the graphics huh.

Foundation for future games? you make seem like Burst Limit was the first DBZ game Dimps put out and ya know technically it was just Budokai 1 with updated graphics and gameplay. But if any thing it should've been the best Dragon Ball game Dimps put out but instead it was the worst. And like Mysticboy said the same argument about marketing characters, one could say the same thing about Raging Blast and they arguably did a better job at that than Dimps but thats not what we're talking about here. Even if they spanned more characters than Budokai 3 thats not saying much since Tenkaichi 1 had more characters than Budokai 3 and so did Infinite World (the game after Burst Limit) and they were still missing some which could have warrant a sequel to Infinte World or Burst Limit rather but it didn't happen wears it obviously did For Tenkaichi.

I'm not directly comparing Burst Limit to Sagas as they are two completely different genres that'd be like comparing MK9 to Shaolin Monks. I'm well aware that Sagas wasn't a great game but I had fun with and I would probably choose to play that over Burst Limit because its the only game of its kind on home consoles and as I said before I had fun with it. I'm not trying to defend Sagas like its some timeless game that everyone could play over and over again I'm just saying in my opinion its the less of two evils when it comes to shitty DBZ games between itself and Burst Limit.

[miguelnuva1]

NB should make a DB game with the Budokai gameplay and let Spike make a Z-GT- movies game with the sparking engine.

Sparking always felt more DBZ to me while Budokai had the early dragonball feel to it.

[TheMightyOzaru]

NB should make a DB game with the Budokai gameplay and let Spike make a Z-GT- movies game with the sparking engine.

Sparking always felt more DBZ to me while Budokai had the early dragonball feel to it.

The Budokai games throw in plenty of mechanics that make it feel more like Dragon Ball. Heck I'd argue it's more like DBZ than the sparking series because of it. The Budokai games just need to incorporate more characters.

[miguelnuva1]

NB should make a DB game with the Budokai gameplay and let Spike make a Z-GT- movies game with the sparking engine.

Sparking always felt more DBZ to me while Budokai had the early dragonball feel to it.

The Budokai games throw in plenty of mechanics that make it feel more like Dragon Ball. Heck I'd argue it's more like DBZ than the sparking series because of it. The Budokai games just need to incorporate more characters.

Budokai lacks the freedom that Tenkaichi gives.

Budokai= a great DBZ fighting game.

Tenkaichi= a great DBZ simulator fighting game.

If Tenkachi could add Budokai's ultimates and close fighting or if Budokai could add the character number and freedom that Tenkaichi gives then it would be the ultimate DBZ game.

[Makaioshin]

I rather have more attention given to each character like in Super Dragon Ball Z or Zenkai Battle Royale instead of them cramming a bunch of characters in with them playing mostly the same. I'm not against a large roster but I don't see the point if the characters are just going to be slight variations of each other.

[dbboxkaifan]

Me too since I think the Sparking gameplay starting to become boring by the third game. Sadly I think Burst Limit will likely end up being the last console DBZ game done by Dimps. Spike is most likely more cheaper which is why Namco Bandai sticks with them.

And yet Namco Bandai hired Dimps to develop the Saint Seiya game which who knows how many people bought it.

Budokai lacks the freedom that Tenkaichi gives.

Budokai = a great DBZ fighting game.

Tenkaichi= a great DBZ simulator fighting game.

If Tenkachi could add Budokai's ultimates and close fighting or if Budokai could add the character number and freedom that Tenkaichi gives then it would be the ultimate DBZ game.

Tenkaichi isn't anything amazing or great, it has more freedom but it's not a sandbox-like game which allows the characters to go anywhere in the map it's limited to a certain amount of space.

For example in Tenkaichi 2 you can visit cities and walk around but it's extremely limited which I'd rather they didn't include it because it doesn't allow to freely explore the cities at all. That's rather annoying. Spike tried to ripoff Dimps idea of Budokai 3 in Tenkaichi 2 and it was just a mess. It's Spike so no wonder they fudged it up.

I rather have more attention given to each character like in Super Dragon Ball Z or Zenkai Battle Royale instead of them cramming a bunch of characters in with them playing mostly the same. I'm not against a large roster but I don't see the point if the characters are just going to be slight variations of each other.

Agreed.

[miguelnuva1]

Budokai lacks the freedom that Tenkaichi gives.

Budokai = a great DBZ fighting game.

Tenkaichi= a great DBZ simulator fighting game.

If Tenkachi could add Budokai's ultimates and close fighting or if Budokai could add the character number and freedom that Tenkaichi gives then it would be the ultimate DBZ game.

Tenkaichi isn't anything amazing or great, it has more freedom but it's not a sandbox-like game which allows the characters to go anywhere in the map it's limited to a certain amount of space.

For example in Tenkaichi 2 you can visit cities and walk around but it's extremely limited which I'd rather they didn't include it because it doesn't allow to freely explore the cities at all. That's rather annoying. Spike tried to ripoff Dimps idea of Budokai 3 in Tenkaichi 2 and it was just a mess. It's Spike so no wonder they fudged it up.

I rather have more attention given to each character like in Super Dragon Ball Z or Zenkai Battle Royale instead of them cramming a bunch of

I was talking about in versus battles.

Story mode should be like sagas/LOG/Budokai 3 and Infinite World all rolled into one.

As far as battles I like Budokai 3 and Tenkaichi 3 but for different reasons.

Budokai 3 felt like a fighter you would see in fighting tourments and it felt like a more DB level of fighting.

Tenkachi felt like I was really playing DBZ and it felt like something you would play for fun with other fans. The fact that almost everyone's fav character was in as well was a nice touch.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

Damn, someone could say the same for Raging Blast. lol

Refresh my memory, what other game was Spike working on during the production of Raging Blast?

*Tenkaichi:Tag Team*

That game came out a full year after Raging Blast. It was released September 2010. You can say it was developed alongside Raging Blast 2 and you know what, they did a good job with that game. Unfortunately though the first Raging Blast game was a mess.

So we can agree that the only good thing about Burst Limit was the graphics huh.

No, I wouldn't say graphics are the only good thing about Burst Limit. I'm trying to avoid the Budokai vs Tenkaichi/Raging Blast debate that seems to pop up before every new release but for comparison purposes I guess I don't have a choice. As far as laying the foundation goes, yes both games Raging Blast and Burst Limit had that goal in mind. I'd happily give points to Raging Blast for also adding in the Buu saga to the roster but that one extra saga does not make the game any better.

Lets talk controls first. Burst Limit did an awesome job of blending both the console Budokai Games and the PSP shin series, while also adding a few extra gameplay tweaks. Burst Mode was a better rush mode that actually made sense. What was ultimately the biggest flaw in Budokai 3 actually became a functional strategy when playing offense. And yet, at the same time, defense still had plenty of room to counter attack. Also, I'm lacking a term for the move but pressing R2 to punch through your opponent's stomach(basically this) allowed for a good way to shift the advantage. It was a great way to get your attacker off you, shift the advantage, catch your breath and fight back. All of this was done without radically changing the controls so that people familiar with the series had a smooth transition into this game; also the controls were easy to pick up for people who weren't familiar with this Budokai games. My only complaint is that they took away the ability to charge your ki, this led to a lot of spamming matches online. Also, and this is a fault of both Raging Blast and Burst Limit, pulling off your special is way too easy.

Now, looking at Raging Blast Spike did the opposite of what Dimps did. They completely re-worked the combat system for Raging Blast. And to this day, I find their choice to change things(even in RB2) for the worst. Making you use the d-pad to power up makes for some awkward thumb juggling. Before I could fly out of harms way, quickly press L2 and then get back into the action. this was all done between my Thumb and index finger. Now with Raging Blast, my thumb is doing all the work and things aren't as smooth; I'd imagine it's even more awkward on the 360 controller. I have a similar issue with transformations, it's no longer as smooth. Before it was power up and press R3. Now I have to press the transformation button(can't remember which shoulder button) and then with the face buttons decide which form I want to transform into it. That extra beat throws me off. This all may sound trivial but when we are talking about fighting games, and timing in particular, stuff like this can throw off the whole match. Especially when in truth, there wasn't a whole lot wrong with Tenkaichi's control scheme.

Then there are the glitches that came with Raging Blast. Camera issues if you get close to certain objects and even cases of characters just disappearing like in Sagas. To me those are all game breaking elements and it's the reason I was happy to rent and not buy this game. Burst Limit didn't have any of these problems, while shallow, the game was solid. It was smooth there were no game breaking glitches or disappearing characters and that alone makes it objectively better than other games created for this franchise. To Spikes credit, Raging Blast 2 fixed a lot of the issues in the first one, but that's also a problem. Instead of building off the foundation of the first game, they had to go back and fix mistakes in the first game and the game felt more like a Raging Blast 1.5 and not a 2. Now imagine what Burst Limit 2 could have done, with nothing really to fix and a lot to add. Burst Limit 2 had the potential to be an amazing sequel. Do I think it will ever happen? No, we're far past the potential of that ever happening. The sad truth is, even though the game was shallow it's still the best we've gotten this generation and that's saying a lot. Look at the competition, one game is broken, the other is it's patch, then you have a muddy QTE game and that joke of a Kinect game. Is Burst Limit the best game we've ever gotten period? Hell no. But it's one of the prettiest. Making it far from the list of shitty games we've gotten for Dragonball Z.

Personally, I don't want a new game that's in the style of Budokai or Tenkaichi. I'd rather see a completely new system that keeps in mind the best of both systems but doesn't turn into a QTE mess like Ultimate Blast. I'm a fan of what Super DBZ did in terms of how they handled the level design and the ability to move around. Tweaking that system a bit could leave to a perfect experience.

[TheMightyOzaru]

I was talking about in versus battles...

Budokai 3 might be boxed in but DBZ does have close quarter fighting. Budokai 3 has the stage transitions to make up for that lack of space. The Sparking series does limit you though. Burst Limit's "Dragon Rush" definitely gave that feel of you are traveling that world as you fight. Budokai 3 also gives you a quick dodge mechanic that was implemented in Raging Blast 1 and 2 but it's nowhere near as effective as it was in Budokai 3. The quick dodges definitely give a Dragon Ball feel to the fighting. The only thing I feel the Sparking series does better is the beam struggles. They are much more cinematic.

[miguelnuva1]

I was talking about in versus battles...

Budokai 3 might be boxed in but DBZ does have close quarter fighting. Budokai 3 has the stage transitions to make up for that lack of space. The Sparking series does limit you though. Burst Limit's "Dragon Rush" definitely gave that feel of you are traveling that world as you fight. Budokai 3 also gives you a quick dodge mechanic that was implemented in Raging Blast 1 and 2 but it's nowhere near as effective as it was in Budokai 3. The quick dodges definitely give a Dragon Ball feel to the fighting. The only thing I feel the Sparking series does better is the beam struggles. They are much more cinematic.

What stage transitions? Only one I know is the island stage?

Burst Limit's dragon rush was knocking you into the air right?

With Tenkaichi it stages being bigger and being a more 3d fighter is what I meant with more freedom.

[TheMightyOzaru]

Burst Limit has actual transitions, Budokai 3 has transitions knocking you through the stages many of the background objects and then back to where you were in the stage. No, Burst Limit had a melee clash where you flew all over the place punching each other. Again it may have more freedom to fly around but Budokai 3 makes up for that. Budokai games have the greater DBZ feel IMO, at least for now.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

What stage transitions? Only one I know is the island stage?

Burst Limit's dragon rush was knocking you into the air right?

With Tenkaichi it stages being bigger and being a more 3d fighter is what I meant with more freedom.

Here are all the stage transitions for Budokai 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlaOqT4C_pE

[GogetaSSJ2]

Alright this is definitely a red flag now. The month of May is almost over and no news any new DBZ game has been shown off yet. Under normal circumstances any new DBZ would usually be revealed near the beginning of May. If there is a new DBZ game coming out this year, then its being marketed through the most unconventional tactic that has been used by Namco Bandai in recent years. One hundred thousand likes on Facebook? "Conquer the world" marketing slogan? No reveal in the month of May? Last year there was really no new DBZ game in the main series released. Pardon my French but what the shizzles is Namco Bandai waiting for? They've had 2 years to work on this very secret DBZ project, I'm sure they have at least a trailer to show off by now. They should really announce it soon so they can start advertising the game for a 2013 Fall release. Waiting too long is not a good idea. They show the game off in August and comes out in September for example.....yeah that wouldn't give you enough time to build hype for a game.

[sangofe]

Alright this is definitely a red flag now. The month of May is almost over and no news any new DBZ game has been shown off yet. Under normal circumstances any new DBZ would usually be revealed near the beginning of May. If there is a new DBZ game coming out this year, then its being marketed through the most unconventional tactic that has been used by Namco Bandai in recent years. One hundred thousand likes on Facebook? "Conquer the world" marketing slogan? No reveal in the month of May? Last year there was really no new DBZ game in the main series released. Pardon my French but what the shizzles is Namco Bandai waiting for? They've had 2 years to work on this very secret DBZ project, I'm sure they have at least a trailer to show off by now. They should really announce it soon so they can start advertising the game for a 2013 Fall release. Waiting too long is not a good idea. They show the game off in August and comes out in September for example.....yeah that wouldn't give you enough time to build hype for a game.

They might be waiting for this:
http://www.e3expo.com/

[dbboxkaifan]

Alright this is definitely a red flag now. The month of May is almost over and no news any new DBZ game has been shown off yet. Under normal circumstances any new DBZ would usually be revealed near the beginning of May. If there is a new DBZ game coming out this year, then its being marketed through the most unconventional tactic that has been used by Namco Bandai in recent years. One hundred thousand likes on Facebook? "Conquer the world" marketing slogan? No reveal in the month of May? Last year there was really no new DBZ game in the main series released. Pardon my French but what the shizzles is Namco Bandai waiting for? They've had 2 years to work on this very secret DBZ project, I'm sure they have at least a trailer to show off by now. They should really announce it soon so they can start advertising the game for a 2013 Fall release. Waiting too long is not a good idea. They show the game off in August and comes out in September for example.....yeah that wouldn't give you enough time to build hype for a game.

Whoa, the month of May is almost over and I thought also they'd announce the game this month. May's passing quite quickly.

Since it isn't this month then maybe in E3 2013.

[Big Momma]

Maybe the game won't even have a Fall '13 release. Heck, I wouldn't mind waiting until Spring '14 if the game will be good.

[sangofe]

Maybe the game won't even have a Fall '13 release. Heck, I wouldn't mind waiting until Spring '14 if the game will be good.

17:51

Guillaume, Trevax's friend:

un jeu est prévu cette année et il aura bénéficié de 2 ans de développement, il sera surement annoncéà la japan expo qui débute le 4 juillet!

me: wow, c'est assez tard pour un annoncement contre les pratiques normales. j'espère qu'ils ont fait du bon travail
alors rien à E3 non plus?

Guillaume, Trevax's friend: oui si ils l'annoncent si tard c'est qu'ils se donne à fond pour le jeu de cette année, le marketing sur le jeu sera différend cette année car ils estiment que les jeux DB méritent un grand événement pour bien faire parler de lui!l'e3 n'estpas adapté, il y a trop de jeux attendu cette année pour que dbz trouve sa place et puis il y a en plus la ps4 et la xbox3 présenté à l'e3, ils vaut mieux que ce soit àla japan expo qui est spécialisé dans le manga!
je tient à préciser que l'annonce à la japan expo n'est qu'une théorie de ma part, il se peut qu'on est quelque chose à l'e3 mais j'en doute!

Translation
Him: A game is schuedled for this year and it will have been worked at for two years. It will surely be announced at Japan Expo that's starting 4th of July!
Me: Wow, that's quite late for an announcement, and is against the normal way of doing things. I hope they'll do a good job.


Him: Yes if they're annoncing this laste it's because they've really given their all this year, the marketing of the game will be different this year because they think that the Db games deserve a big event to make good publicity! E3's not good for that, there are too many games that people are waiting for this year for dbz to get enough space, and there's even ps4 and xbox3 at E3, it's better that it gets announced at Japan expo that is specialized at manga! I want to precise that this is just my theory, there might be something announced at E3, but I doubt it.

[dbboxkaifan]

Translation
Him: A game is scheduled for this year and it will have been worked at for two years. It will surely be announced at Japan Expo that's starting 4th of July!

Me: Wow, that's quite late for an announcement, and is against the normal way of doing things. I hope they'll do a good job.

Him: Yes if they're announcing this late it's because they've really given their all this year, the marketing of the game will be different this year because they think that the Db games deserve a big event to make good publicity! E3's not good for that, there are too many games that people are waiting for this year for dbz to get enough space, and there's even ps4 and xbox3 at E3, it's better that it gets announced at Japan expo that is specialized at manga! I want to precise that this is just my theory, there might be something announced at E3, but I doubt it.

Namco Bandai during the past year's done better marketing to their Dragon Ball games than this, i.e, not giving false impressions that they would handle out information of the game for 100k likes (as if they were begging for) on Facebook.

So whoever's developing this game is giving their best at it, though if it's Spike then people can already imagine it's just going to be another one of their recycled games with newer graphics and additional content.

I'll be watching today's Xbox Next-Gen Revelation which is in an hour through my Xbox. Xbox 3 sounds pretty stupid and confusing with Xbox 360. Xbox Infinity is a much better name but it isn't official, we'll probably know today.

[Hellspawn28]

So no new info until July 4th?

[THEGOKU]

Next month we will have our info. If you look at the picture with the 4 star ball they made you can see stuff for June and July.