Burst Limit and Infinite World are 10 years old this year

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90sDBZ
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Burst Limit and Infinite World are 10 years old this year

Post by 90sDBZ » Fri Aug 03, 2018 5:27 am

Burst Limit came out in Japan June 5th 2008 and Infinite World came out in the US ahead of its Japanese release on Novermber 4th 2008.

How did you guys feel about these 2 games at the time they came out? Do they hold up today? How do they compare to other Dragonball games?

I actually didn't get Burst Limit until the following year as I couldn't afford a 7th Gen console at the time so actually got Infinite World first. I think the graphics of BL looked amazing and still look good today. The drama pieces could be a pain but could be turned off in VS mode so not that big a deal. Even though the roster was small compared to Budokai 3 I was still happy that Dimps were back to making main console games after the BT Trilogy, which I enjoyed but not as much as the Budokai series. Ultimately I felt the game didn't flow as well as Budokai 3 due to the new defensive options making long cancel combos impractical and forcing a knock back which made it feel like you had to stop and start a lot. Still it was fun at the time and I would still be up for a sequel.

Infinite World I wasn't expecting at all and was very surprised to see another DBZ game on PS2 after BL was on PS3/360. Not only that but it was more of a true sequel to Budokai 3 my all time favourite Dragonball game. It was a budget release and got criminally low reviews, but I didn't care because it was a dream come true for me to have a sequel/upgrade to Budokai 3. It was the perfect sendoff for the incredible PS2 era of DBZ games that spanned from 2002 with Budokai until the release of this game in 2008.

The gameplay felt faster than Budokai 3 and also did away with Dragon Rush which annoyed a lot of people (although I didn't mind it that much as it was easy to avoid and looked cool to land). While the game looked visually almost identical to B3 the characters all felt very different to play due to heavily altered combo strings. For example a full cancel/stun combo with Goku in Budokai 3 won't work at all in IW and vice versa. The game also combined elements from all 3 Budokais, the Shin Budokais and Burst Limit; cutscenes like B1, a gameboard for storymode like B2, graphics from B3 obviously, Ki dashing and realtime ultimates from Shin Budokai, Ki guarding from Burst Limit.

It also featured all the best music from Kenji Yamamoto from Budokai 1-3, Shin Budokai, Burst Limit, and even some great new tracks too.

All in all Dragonball Z Infinite World on the PS2 remains to this day an underrated and overlooked gem that I still love going back to. For me it's up there with the likes of Budokai 3 and Fighterz.

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Re: Burst Limit and Infinite World are 10 years old this year

Post by Kokonoe » Fri Aug 03, 2018 5:44 am

I played Infinite World I believe even later than Burst Limit. Like I knew "Infinite World" existed, but I had no idea it was literally Budokai 4.

I was kinda lukewarm on Burst Limit at the time but it never dawned on me cause I was so into Dragon Ball I didn't give it much thought, but I did replay Burst Limit month or two ago and it's...really bad. Like it's trying to be Budokai, but the mechanics are really off and feel not very polished. The lack of Buu saga chars doesn't bother me, and the OST is killer, and the graphics on those cutscenes are amazing. But yeah, the gameplay was inferior to even Budokai 1 unfortunately.

As for Infinite World, I was pleasantly surprised by that title though there are two glaring flaws with it and I'll address those first before I discuss the pros. The first flaw is that the singleplayer content is horrendous with these weird little challenges that are designed poorly and under a timer where you collect these portal things. And to unlock characters you have to do this mode which is very tedious and annoying. The other flaw is that the way they coded the AI in this game is absolutely ridiculous. Even on the lower settings, the AI plays like gods, it's only the most absolute lowest setting that is reasonable, but on that setting the enemies are far too much of a pushover that there's not much point in playing. The other games had a much better AI difficulty balance. Also, you cannot change the difficulty for singleplayer main mode so...yeah.

The pros to Infinite World is that it takes what Budokai 3 did and refines it to make an even better game competitively. They got rid of the (I think it's called) Dragon Rush system that was just spam QTE's rock paper scissors that took up so much of a match which in turn helped the pacing much better. There are other refinements there too that I can't recall, but it certainly plays better than Budokai 3 and it's not to have more GT chars.

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Re: Burst Limit and Infinite World are 10 years old this year

Post by Luso Saiyan » Fri Aug 03, 2018 11:45 am

Burst Limit was a great game. And taking into account the DB games released for the previous generation of consoles, it was excellent. The only major criticism that I can make is the limited character roster. How it never got a sequel is beyond me, specially considering it was a success in sales.

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Re: Burst Limit and Infinite World are 10 years old this year

Post by MKCSTEALTH » Fri Aug 03, 2018 11:54 pm

I never played either one, Infinite World more unfortunately so. Burst Limit never really attracted me as I wasn't crazy with it only going to the Cell Saga, and I was on the Budokai Tenkaichi kick at the time.

Infinite World I really wish I played. It really looked like a great sequel of sorts to Budokai 3, I love the story mode set up and the mini games. Plus the added characters and moves look really fun.

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Re: Burst Limit and Infinite World are 10 years old this year

Post by 90sDBZ » Sat Aug 04, 2018 4:45 am

MKCSTEALTH wrote:I never played either one, Infinite World more unfortunately so. Burst Limit never really attracted me as I wasn't crazy with it only going to the Cell Saga, and I was on the Budokai Tenkaichi kick at the time.

Infinite World I really wish I played. It really looked like a great sequel of sorts to Budokai 3, I love the story mode set up and the mini games. Plus the added characters and moves look really fun.
Infinite World really is awesome. You could probably find a copy for dirt cheap online these days. I wish they'd do another HD Collection with Infinite World and Budokai 2 but unfortunately I don't think Infinite World sold enough for them to do it.

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Re: Burst Limit and Infinite World are 10 years old this year

Post by Sin » Sun Aug 05, 2018 8:05 pm

Well... thanks for making me feel old I guess?

Burst Limit was great, and it moved the series forward into a new direction. I remember thinking the graphics were amazing, and I loved playing as Yamcha. I never got the chance to play IW, which sucks because I loved the PS2 generation of DBZ games but my console broke after Budokai Tenkaichi 1 came out and I never fixed it.

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Re: Burst Limit and Infinite World are 10 years old this year

Post by emperior » Mon Aug 06, 2018 1:23 pm

To this day Burst Limit is still the most fun DB game I ever played online.
I liked the timing-based 2.5D 1v1 gameplay with almost no bullshit. It was fun and simple, and the graphics were also quite outstanding for the time (and still hold up today), and it’s incredible how it took them 10 years to finally surpass those graphics with FighterZ.
FighterZ is obviously a better and deeper fighter, but I think I’m more inclined towards the easier, more casual 2.5D DB games that Dimps used to do. I am generally more of a casual games fun, as they do not take countless of hours to get good at and are always fun and easily rewarding.
For this reason I hope someday they will satisfy us casual 2.5D DB games fans with a spiritual successor of Burst Limit, with a large roster, yet balanced, up to the latest Super characters, a creates character, some fun side missions and modes to unlock cosmetics etcetera, sort of like Xenoverse but less RPG-ish.
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Re: Burst Limit and Infinite World are 10 years old this year

Post by supersaiyanZero » Tue Aug 07, 2018 8:42 pm

Burst Limit was a great game. Unfortunately it was a victim of the times as Dragonball games started going down the "lets just cram every character in there even if they all play exactly the same". RIP

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Re: Burst Limit and Infinite World are 10 years old this year

Post by ShadowBardock89 » Tue Aug 07, 2018 9:40 pm

The last time I played Burst Limit was to attempt beating the 100 opponent challenge mode. Vegeta or Broly are the ones I'd recommend beating Standard or Custom with.
http://www.kanzenshuu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=40715&start=20#p1439892
http://dba.bn-ent.net/character/barduck.html
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Re: Burst Limit and Infinite World are 10 years old this year

Post by Kokos » Sun Aug 12, 2018 4:41 pm

Burst Limit: Some really nice memories. First trailer came in december 2007, a month after BT3, which is quite unusual for DBZ games. The graphics were stunning! There were suspicions of no Buu Saga, but the trailer was awesome and the games had a good track record on PS2. Of course, the more we knew about the game, the less good it all sounded. This would be the new tradition for DBZ games in the 7th gen. :lol:
But the demo a few weeks before release was good fun! I remember the game's hype not lasting past its release month though, lots of disappointment, which was understandable.
It's kind of special to me, I was the first one who could 1000/1000 the game on 360. Survival Mode was really brutal and the deeper aspects of the game and Budokai games were largely unknown, so it gave me a great advantage. Too bad I can't prove it, my profile got deleted by Microsoft, since I stopped gaming on Xbox after Mass Effect 3 came out (360 broke and had no interest in the One).

In hindsight, I had fun with it, but I wouldn't recommend it. The combat system was flawed, online was also sloppy, story mode was short and there was little content, no Buu Saga... how could I recommend it?
At least the graphics were great, the jazzy soundtrack was quite unique for DBZ too. The characters had unique animations, which would actually be the standard that couldn't be achieved for a very long time. The cutscenes were often recycled, but there were some truly excellent ones like SSJ Goku vs Frieza or Kid Gohan vs Nappa. Why couldn't the whole game be like that? Strange game... the 7th gen was a pretty dark age for DBZ, even though I really liked some of the games that came out. It was not only DBZ, Japanese developers in general were really struggling. Now things seem much better, even though I can't also connect with it. Good game for the memories, if nothing else :D

Infinite World: Played this one in 2012. Pretty much everything I expected it to be, so I can't feel too strongly about it. I consider this and B3 equal, both have their pros and cons, but they're not different enough in quality for me to have a clear winner. I heard the game was really hard, it was actually alright, even though I did have to make good use of the customization system later in the game to win. The GT characters were really nice additions! It was a good salute to the end of an era. At least Dragon Ball is in a very healthy state right now, even if I or anyone else don't always like the games.

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Re: Burst Limit and Infinite World are 10 years old this year

Post by Apollo Fungus » Thu Aug 23, 2018 10:54 am

I have a particular distaste for Burst Limit. I don't really like the Budokai games, but they've got some great music and were how I ended up becoming a fan of Dragon Ball (which led to an interest in manga/comic books, a growing interest in animation and the people who create it, and more recently, an interest in Wuxia films thanks to Kunzait_83's excellent thread and Derek Padula's similarly great Dragon Ball Culture books), so I've got no beef with them.

Burst Limit, however? Can't stand that game. The combat is even more simplified than before, and the few cues it takes from the PSP games only serve to make it repetitive and dull beyond belief (never mind the use of Drama Pieces, which don't do much more than pad things out). The amount of content on offer is trifling - you get a bare bones story mode, a versus mode, and three variations on a survival mode. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem if the gameplay was good enough to play it over and over again until you got good, or even to just enjoy the sheer fun of playing it (Dead or Alive Ultimate 2 has the same amount of modes IIRC, but I'd constantly go back to that game because it's so good), but that's not the case here.

The only thing I will credit Burst Limit is for having some pretty sweet music tracks, and for having the best cutscene direction in any Dragon Ball game. In-game cutscenes have never been the games' strong point, with robotic animations, limp pacing, and a lack of atmosphere being pretty standard across the majority of them. But whoever worked on Burst Limit's cutscenes really wanted to go beyond, and it shows. The unique animations and expressions used just for these cutscenes, the use of strong colour when Ki attacks are used (Goku is bathed in strong blues when he fires the Kamehameha against Vegeta in that famous beam struggle), the way silence and music cues are used to punctuate certain moments; I could really go on.

But this leas me to why I hate Burst Limit so much - the game is clearly rushed. It's polished, but it's evident when you look at the two bonus videos that are unlocked after beating the Freeza and Cell arcs. They retell the events of the game, but what's notable about them is that they feature several things that are never seen in the final game. You get cutscenes that were clearly being worked on and had thought put into them (a recreation of Goku and Freeza's clash from the Budokai 3 intro), costumes for characters that are unseen in the final game (a short-haired Trunks in Saiyan armour), levels that could have potentially been fought in (the City area from Budokai 3), and even characters who never appear (King Cold and Chaozu, amongst others).

In fact, Chaozu's a particularly hilarious example. In the final game, his suicide attack against Nappa is depicted with a black screen accompanied by Chaozu saying "Goodbye, Ten-san!", and then cutting to a generic explosion effect in the air. But in this bonus video, you actually get to see Chaozu on Nappa's back, clinging tightly and even shedding a tear as he prepares to blow himself up. It frustrates me so much that the one Dragon Ball game with a strong use of cinematic direction got cut short for whatever reason, when no other game in the series has attempted it since (not even future games by Dimps).

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