Super Dragon Ball Z - 10th Anniversary

Discussion of all things related to Dragon Ball video games (console and portable games, arcade versions, etc.) from the entire franchise's history.

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Darkton
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Re: Super Dragon Ball Z - 10th Anniversary

Post by Darkton » Wed Jan 27, 2016 3:55 am

Love this game. Still play it today. I'm honestly trying to fill my memory card with two of each character with almost no overlap. The only exceptions are 17 and 18 (they're being treated as each other's variation, since the second variation I also give the unique costumes to) and the clones (they're being treated as "boss" versions of their regular selves). Then I'll fill the other one with the missing rows for each character. That leads to a situation where even the same character can play differently from himself!

Since I'm going about this, I'm also giving each character a fitting inherited move. So far I've got:

Turban Piccolo - I set him up as a 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai Piccolo, so I gave him Piccolo Daimao's move.
Cell Arc Vegeta - Trunks' move, since he could've acquired it from him.
Saiyan Arc Vegeta - Bakuhatsuha, since it's Nappa's move and I play him with the moves that aren't Big Bang Attack and Final Flash.
Freeza 1 - Cell's move, which looks like a Death Beam.
17 and 18 - Each other's moves.
Gohan 1 - The purple-gi Gohan I give Piccolo's move.
Gohan 2 - I have this one with an orange gi and Super Kamehameha, so I give him the regular Kamehameha.
Cell - Typically I give him a move from a Z-Fighter whose moveset is not represented in the type I have, like Kamehameha or Flex Laser.
Jacket Trunks - Mystic Gohan's move.
Armor Trunks - Vegeta's move.

Got any others that work? Oh, and one last thing before I go: fighting Vegeta is a bitch! Especially when he has red letters.

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Kunzait_83
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Re: Super Dragon Ball Z - 10th Anniversary

Post by Kunzait_83 » Mon Feb 22, 2016 6:41 am

Super Dragon Ball Z is, without question, the single best and most worthwhile DBZ game of the whole PS2 gen. Its not even vaguely close. Only Tenkaichi 3 is even remotely as well put together (as a pure "DBZ simulator" of sorts rather than as a "true" fighting game like this is), but Super DBZ still definitely thrashes even that game unquestionably. Its everything that the original Budokai series should've been. Its the anti-Budokai in many ways. And I fucking loathe the Budokai games, so this is definitely more my speed.

It takes the very basic-most concept of Budokai (a 3D cel-shaded DBZ fighting game with some degree of character customization options) and constructs an actual substantive fighting game around it. Granted it does so with like a tenth of the roster-size, but fuck it, better a small roster with some degree of richness in gameplay than a gigantic roster with no gameplay meat at all.

That this tanked in favor of its far lesser brethren was frustrating, albeit extremely indicative of the rock-bottom shitty period that was mid-2000s gaming. This deserves a far, far better legacy than "overlooked mid-2000s also-ran". This is the game that deserved four or five sequels and a permanently bronzed place in DB fandom's gaming iconography and not Budokai, which is such a sad, hollow nothing of a fighting game series, especially when compared to this.

Also who the hell doesn't love not only a good DBZ game, but a good DBZ game with authentic manga sound effects?

Image

This game alongside Advance Adventure completely and totally "wins" over the entire 2000s Dragon Ball video game oeuvre. There's some other good games in there besides those two (alongside a crapton of dogshit) but none that really touch either of them in terms of pure fun factor and gameplay.
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Kunzait's Wuxia Thread
Journey to the West, chapter 26 wrote:The strong man will meet someone stronger still:
Come to naught at last he surely will!
Zephyr wrote:And that's to say nothing of how pretty much impossible it is to capture what made the original run of the series so great. I'm in the generation of fans that started with Toonami, so I totally empathize with the feeling of having "missed the party", experiencing disappointment, and wanting to experience it myself. But I can't, that's how life is. Time is a bitch. The party is over. Kageyama, Kikuchi, and Maeda are off the sauce now; Yanami almost OD'd; Yamamoto got arrested; Toriyama's not going to light trash cans on fire and hang from the chandelier anymore. We can't get the band back together, and even if we could, everyone's either old, in poor health, or calmed way the fuck down. Best we're going to get, and are getting, is a party that's almost entirely devoid of the magic that made the original one so awesome that we even want more.
Kamiccolo9 wrote:It grinds my gears that people get "outraged" over any of this stuff. It's a fucking cartoon. If you are that determined to be angry about something, get off the internet and make a stand for something that actually matters.
Rocketman wrote:"Shonen" basically means "stupid sentimental shit" anyway, so it's ok to be anti-shonen.

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Kakarotto92
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Re: Super Dragon Ball Z - 10th Anniversary

Post by Kakarotto92 » Tue Feb 23, 2016 6:23 pm

Has it really been a decade already? :shock: Damn I feel old.

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Duo
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Re: Super Dragon Ball Z - 10th Anniversary

Post by Duo » Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:41 pm

This game is making me itch to dust off my PS2. Just needs some decent company to go with it. How about an HD re-release with online support? That'll never happen...

Is there anywhere online that has pictures of all the different outfits and palette swaps you could unlock? I really want to see all those again.

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Quebaz
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Re: Super Dragon Ball Z - 10th Anniversary

Post by Quebaz » Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:46 pm

Duo wrote:This game is making me itch to dust off my PS2. Just needs some decent company to go with it. How about an HD re-release with online support? That'll never happen...

Is there anywhere online that has pictures of all the different outfits and palette swaps you could unlock? I really want to see all those again.
Here you go.
A LUZ INFINITA!
Steam: Quebaz
PSN: BSSJ3
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Duo
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Re: Super Dragon Ball Z - 10th Anniversary

Post by Duo » Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:49 pm

Quebaz wrote:
Duo wrote:This game is making me itch to dust off my PS2. Just needs some decent company to go with it. How about an HD re-release with online support? That'll never happen...

Is there anywhere online that has pictures of all the different outfits and palette swaps you could unlock? I really want to see all those again.
Here you go.
That just made my life. I loved all these alt outfits and wish a few had made it into animation.

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Haji
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Re: Super Dragon Ball Z - 10th Anniversary

Post by Haji » Wed Mar 30, 2016 3:29 pm

Awesome site! also has anyone noticed the character artwork changes? at first i thought is was the NA ver. with different art, then i seen some JP pictures of the PS2 ver. it has the same art. so was it just the arcade that had the nice character artwork?

Jord
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Re: Super Dragon Ball Z - 10th Anniversary

Post by Jord » Sun Apr 24, 2016 10:08 am

Super Dragon Ball Z felt to me as a big letdown.

I like the manga look they were going for but the graphics themselves look bad and a whole deal worse than the Budokai games. It really felt like a budget game in all aspects from presentation aspects to animations to backgrounds. Of course gameplay is more important but some of the great DBZ games feel that much better because of the presentation. The narrated menu's of B3, the use of anime-styled menu's in Sparking Neo....those games just ooze DBZ. This game not so much.

The roster is also a whole lot smaller but at least most of the characters felt unique. Now I don't have a problem with the actual size of the roster but when you've got such a small roster you should at least put some thought into the selection of characters. Of the 18 fighters we get 2 Vegetas, 2 Frieza's and 2 Piccolo's. When you take a closer look there are characters like Videl and Chi-Chi that apparently got a roster spot above fan favorites like Kid Buu, Gotenks, Vegetto or any of the movie characters. A great character selection sells a game, a crippled one actually lowers its chances of getting a sequel.

The gameplay itself is pretty ok. Not too special but certainly not bad. For better or worse, it does feel a lot like street fighter which makes the gameplay more down to earth (and less like the actual DBZ) but it does allow for fast and deeper gameplay. It has a nice variety of stages with some never seen before in a DBZ game but the presentation, shoddy roster and overal lack of effort really soured on me.

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Shiyonasan
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Re: Super Dragon Ball Z - 10th Anniversary

Post by Shiyonasan » Mon Apr 25, 2016 4:18 pm

I've never been a huge fan of the game, but from an objective point of view, I can appreciate a lot of what the game offers.

The large choice of costumes have always been one of my favorite aspects and I can also appreciate the gameplay and customization options for the movesets of every character. Plus, having teenage Chi Chi as a playable character is pretty great.

The stage selection is great. The destructible environments are a nice touch as well.

I found the graphics to be cool in that they did resemble the manga, and they probably looked okay at the time, but I think it would look better in an HD remaster if they ever did one.

The music was okay, but not great in my opinion. I'm trying to think of a song from the game off-hand, but nothing is coming to mind.

Roster size was alright, but it could've been a little bit bigger.

I also seem to remember that the audio in the voice clips sounded a little low-budget in the game. An HD remaster would definitely have to fix that.

Probably my biggest gripe with the game is having to gather the dragonballs to get one costume at a time, one custom move at a time, etc. It just seemed like a cheap way of giving more "length" to the game and giving more incentive for players to keep playing the same modes over and over.

Overall, a good game, but I think an HD remaster with a few new additions such as more characters, more stage selections, and improved graphics would be better. Heck, I'd even take a sequel on modern consoles if the aforementioned additions were brought in along with a different style of soundtrack.

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Quebaz
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Re: Super Dragon Ball Z - 10th Anniversary

Post by Quebaz » Fri Jul 28, 2017 4:46 pm

Today marks the 11th anniversary of the PS2 PAL release, to celebrate, I compiled a playlist featuring every japanese high-level play match I could find on YouTube, from 2007 to 2017. Enjoy.
A LUZ INFINITA!
Steam: Quebaz
PSN: BSSJ3
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