DB Fighting Games: Overall good or not quite what you want?

[NitroEX]

I was content with the games up until Raging Blast 1. Burst Limit lacked in content and characters but I forgave it because of the leap in visuals and great groundwork for gameplay. That of course disappeared though and what we got next was (in my opinion) a dumbed down Tenkaichi with awkward controls and worse visuals than Burst Limit. Raging Blast 2 was an improvement with improved controls and more characters but they took a huge step back with the visuals. All of a sudden the characters looked like porcelain figurines and to my astonishment I seemed to be in the minority in disliking these graphics. I still remember arguing with people who swore Raging Blast 2's graphics were better than Burst Limit which blew my mind. I never bought any other DBZ games past RB2 and from the little I played of Ultimate Tenkaichi it felt like they butchered the gameplay in an attempt to make the game easier. I wanted to give them a break for finally including a character creation tool but not only was it too little too late but they completely botched it and there was nothing redeeming about it at all. As for the Kinect game, well it was a disgrace to the franchise and I prefer not to acknowledge it.

I still believe the Tenkaichi styled games have plenty of room to grow and if they tried they could make an incredible game but at this point I don't see it happening. The consistent drop in quality has dwindled the fan base to the point where it probably isn't commercially viable for them to put money into making anything truly amazing and I'm sure the one year development cycle doesn't help either. The only thing that could save the series now is if we get a new development team. Hell, why not let a European or American development team have a try?

[VexNet]

I hope there is a secret DIMPS (Budokai + Burst Limit) game in development for 360 that will be released after the Battle of Gods movie including many more characters (including movie avatars) as well as keeping the in-game skits but more advanced ones akin to NUNS.

after playing Ninja Storm 2 I can liken the mid game story events of Burst Limit to the cinematic boss battle scenes in NUNS2, if the next DIMPS game follow similar cinematic mid game events, that will make the DIMPS line of game so much more engaging!

[TheMightyOzaru]

@TheMightyOzaru Because they are made by the same company using the same engine, when they change the engine THEN I call it a different series. It is the same series under a different banner to sound different. They all use the same core engine.

But they don't use the same engine =/. The Raging Blast series and Ultimate Tenkaichi play nothing like the sparking series.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

But they don't use the same engine =/. The Raging Blast series and Ultimate Tenkaichi play nothing like the sparking series.

They do have the same engine. They have had tweaks to gameplay and altered control layouts, but underneath it all, all Spike's game work off the same 5 hit combo system.

[dbboxkaifan]

But they don't use the same engine =/. The Raging Blast series and Ultimate Tenkaichi play nothing like the sparking series.

Raging Blast plays very much alike the Tenkaichi games, difference isn't much and pretty much like a current-gen Tenkaichi game.

Ultimate Blast (or Ultimate Tenkaichi) isn't too similar to the old Tenkaichi and Raging Blast games, but it's still noticeable that it is, heck, the international name's Ultimate Tenkaichi than anything else to get away from that huge button masher disappointment.

Then again, Ultimate Blast is a button masher and random luck but requires a little strategy in order to keep your character alive (always remember to have ki). There's those moments when mashing the buttons isn't enough and a defence and having a combo is, but essentially Tenkaichi/RB/UB are just hammering the buttons.

Goku Vs. Vegeta
Tenkaichi 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pg-mVqNHY8
R. Blast 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgH5rGeJnpM

^ Not much difference, 'cause both games were produced by the same developer, Spike.

[DNA]

^ Not much difference, 'cause both games were produced by the same developer, Spike.

Same developer using the exact same engine they've been using for almost a decade.

But they don't use the same engine =/. The Raging Blast series and Ultimate Tenkaichi play nothing like the sparking series.

Yes they do my dear friend, as others have pointed out for you. The core engine has always been the same for every single game Spike has crapped out. The same can be said about Dimps with the Budokai engine, Heroes functions with a simplified version of that engine.
If you can't see this, you are a blind fool.

[Zephyr]

On the topic of "having 300+ characters lets me live out all of my dream battles!":

I did agree that this was a redeeming quality of Sparking METEOR, but after doing it for so long, it's pretty much the exact same thing every match. Most characters have almost functionally identical attacks, resulting in the exact same strategy every game. Hit people away, gather ki, unleash ultimate. Wash, rinse, repeat.

It's another thing if you want to just select some characters and just watch them duke it out in hypothetical dream matches. But that, I feel, could be tagged on as an extra mode.

[MCDaveG]

On the topic of "having 300+ characters lets me live out all of my dream battles!":

I did agree that this was a redeeming quality of Sparking METEOR, but after doing it for so long, it's pretty much the exact same thing every match. Most characters have almost functionally identical attacks, resulting in the exact same strategy every game. Hit people away, gather ki, unleash ultimate. Wash, rinse, repeat.

It's another thing if you want to just select some characters and just watch them duke it out in hypothetical dream matches. But that, I feel, could be tagged on as an extra mode.

For me, the Sparking Meteor with the roster and soundtrack is my fan-service galore and visual beauty paying respect to the series I watched as a kid...

[Black_Liger]

I loved Budokai 1 and Budokai 3 because they were much more about Story and deep gameplay, Budokai 1 was the thing that got me into dragon ball in the first place, and budokai 3 was almost flawless with the music and story mode.

I also loved Shin budokai another road, but ever since Dragon ball crossed to the ps3 it's gone downhill, Burst limit and Raging Blast had potential, but they were ultimately ruined by the lack of effort put into them.

Burst limit never got a sequel, and it's gameplay was repetitive and the story was incomplete.

Raging blast well, it never lived to the expectations of Budokai Tenkaichi 3, and of course it became a glorified Yanken game.

[DBZAOTA482]

But they don't use the same engine =/. The Raging Blast series and Ultimate Tenkaichi play nothing like the sparking series.

Yes they do my dear friend, as others have pointed out for you. The core engine has always been the same for every single game Spike has crapped out. The same can be said about Dimps with the Budokai engine, Heroes functions with a simplified version of that engine.
If you can't see this, you are a blind fool.

LOL Ultimate Blast is a lot of things... but the same isn't of them.

[DNA]

But they don't use the same engine =/. The Raging Blast series and Ultimate Tenkaichi play nothing like the sparking series.

Yes they do my dear friend, as others have pointed out for you. The core engine has always been the same for every single game Spike has crapped out. The same can be said about Dimps with the Budokai engine, Heroes functions with a simplified version of that engine.
If you can't see this, you are a blind fool.

LOL Ultimate Blast is a lot of things... but the same isn't of them.

The core engine is. Jesus, do you guys even know what a gaming engine is?
Go search what the Unreal Engine is and then tell me how many games use it and how many games play the same using that engine. I can already tell you that there are vastly different games that use the exact same engine.
Playing different and having the same engine are two completely distinct things.

[ShinRogafuken]

The current DBZ fighting games have far exceeded my expectations! They are great! I really hope they make an Ultimate Tenkaichi 2 with more gameplay options, even though the first one was still excellent.

[TheMightyOzaru]

^ Not much difference, 'cause both games were produced by the same developer, Spike.

Same developer using the exact same engine they've been using for almost a decade.

But they don't use the same engine =/. The Raging Blast series and Ultimate Tenkaichi play nothing like the sparking series.

Yes they do my dear friend, as others have pointed out for you. The core engine has always been the same for every single game Spike has crapped out. The same can be said about Dimps with the Budokai engine, Heroes functions with a simplified version of that engine.
If you can't see this, you are a blind fool.

They all feel very different. How am I a blind fool? I guess what I'm referring to is the gameplay. I don't really know anything about the engine. The gameplay of Raging Blast and Sparking Meteor is quite different. They both use the same dash system but other than what the hell is similar? The cancels make make Raging Blast play far differently than it's predecessor. Raging Blast 2 feels even more different. Same engine or not, these games do not deliver the same feel and at the end of the day that's what matters. While this sparking engine has not been used to it's full potential with games past Meteor, You cannot blame the Sparking Meteor itself for Namco Bandai's sheer amount of poor choices in recent games.

[DNA]

They all feel very different. How am I a blind fool? I guess what I'm referring to is the gameplay. I don't really know anything about the engine

There you go, you have been talking about gameplay. If you don't know anything about game engines then you should shut up, I'm sorry to be so blunt but I hate it when people go on and on and don't even have a clue what they are talking about.

I know the gameplay is different but the engine is the same, and it has been since the first one. And the problem is that the engine is far from perfect and they have never bothered fixing it. They've polished some aspects but never put any big effort into it. They shift all the effort into changing the graphical style and adding more characters.

[InfernalVegito]

And even in the end, the gameplay isn't THAT different.

[goku the krump dancer]

Game engine is the core basis of how a game works. All of Spike's DragonBall games run on the same engine (the way characters move and how they look) the only difference between Tenkaichi and Raging Blast is the way the controls are set up. Ultimate Tenkaichi is a little different but is still the same engine, the characters still move and look the same like in BT and RB.

If you wanna talk about different engines look at Mortal Kombat. Deadly Alliance, Deception and Armageddon are on completely different engines than MK1,2,3 and 4.

[ShinRogafuken]

What's a game engine?

[GogetaSSJ2]

What's a game engine?

Oh for f*** sake. I was about to comment about this because I'm a PC gamer regular. Gaming engines are something like the Unreal Engine, Crytek Engine, Frostbite 2 Engine, Havok Engine, etc; those are gaming physics engines used for HD games. All the Spike games I believe have been using the Criware engine since forever. It's been in the opening credits in EVERY Spike game. What do you guys thought Criware was all this time? Don't get gaming engines and gameplay styles confused as the same idea. Those are 2 very different things.

[ShinRogafuken]

Thanks for the info! Yeah, I don't think many people realize what Criware is

[MCDaveG]

Criware is software engine, to make you cry.