Comparing Final Bout and Ultimate Battle 22

[jamiljamtheman]

I've played Final Bout and I enjoyed it. It's not that great, and there's lots better than it, but I enjoyed the combat and characters. (OK the only other game I've played a lot of is Extreme Butoden, and it blows Final Bout out of the water. But, it's also 20 years younger)

I've seen gameplay of Ultimate Battle 22 and it looks pretty similar to Final Bout, but with those cool looking drawn-by-the-animators sprites. Are they similar? If I liked FB will I enjoy UB22 if I decide to try it

[Gyt Kaliba]

I can't really say for certain since I don't exactly have a long history with either, but for what it's worth, I definitely had more fun wit Ultimate Battle 22 than I ever did with Final Bout. That answer could be extremely biased though, since Ultimate Battle 22 was my 'Budokai replacement' for a time in my younger days when I didn't yet have a PS2. It was fun for what it was, but I never did get too far in it, or get very good at it either. Final Bout however, I only played for the first time a few years ago - so we're talking going to play it after having played the Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi series, amidst other various titles for the franchise too. It...didn't quite impress in that regard. At least, for me.

I think if you're interested in older DB games at all though, and you did enjoy Final Bout, then Ultimate Battle 22's definitely worth checking out as well. The combat's a little faster from what I recall, the sprites are great to look at, and the character selection screen is probably one of my favorite's from the franchise actually (it's nice to see something that's not the same old 'character faces in a series of small boxes' thing). Just don't go into it expecting the best game you've ever played or anything, and you'll probably enjoy it well enough.

[Darknat]

When I was young, Ultimate Battle 22 was really hyped, but in the end it was quite bad. I think you will be better trying out Shin Butoden for the Saturn. It uses the sprites from Ultimate battle 22 with the gameplay of the Butoden series (and Final Bout).

Another great old game is Hyper dimension for the snes. I really recommend that one as well.

[Hellspawn28]

UB22 is bit slower than Final Bout from what I can remember. Both games are pretty bad though. I always wish Atari decided to release Legends in the US instead of UB22.

[MCDaveG]

Ultimate Battle 22 was fun in the 90's, as you could play with Kid Goku or Kamesennin, or you could play with SSJ3 Goku. There were some fun cutscenes back then before the fight, like SSJ2 oku turning SSJ3 against Buu and such.
Some weird stages also - I remember this weird one with red carpet and the 3D background didn't work well with the 2D sprites.

What is definitely worth trying to play is Shin Butouden, which was almost like playing the series itself back in the day.

[DBZAOTA482]

Both have horrible and slow combat but I'd say UB22 is much lesser evil since there's at least a survellince of balance. FB is a broken piece of Oozaru shit.

[EXBadguy]

Definitely Final Bout was better than the crap that is UB22... though they're both crap. Final Bout has the better system and visuals. The only thing UB22 has over FB was a better soundtrack(though SSJ4 Goku's theme in FB still kicks ass to this day).

[MCDaveG]

Yeah, by the way, I have lot of nostalgia for Final Bout. That opening is the greatest opening in DB game for me ever since.
Also, combat is slow, but I loved how the same combos from Super Butouden work and Kid Goku was absolute killer.
And despite the hand-drawn sprites in UB 22, it looks visually whole and better for it's time.

[sangofe]

I've played Final Bout and I enjoyed it. It's not that great, and there's lots better than it, but I enjoyed the combat and characters. (OK the only other game I've played a lot of is Extreme Butoden, and it blows Final Bout out of the water. But, it's also 20 years younger)

I've seen gameplay of Ultimate Battle 22 and it looks pretty similar to Final Bout, but with those cool looking drawn-by-the-animators sprites. Are they similar? If I liked FB will I enjoy UB22 if I decide to try it

It's not similar to Final Bout at all. It's very different.

[Akira]

I had all three of the Playstation 1 Dragonball games back before the Playstation 2 was even around. (I was "hip" to the import scene in those days as a teenager, it was cool to have these "exotic" games that no one else had.) I played these a bunch with my friends.

Legends was probably the neatest of the three, as it was unique in every way. The fights could be 3 on 3, with a back and forth battle until someone launched a super attack, then it went to a cutscene with them inflicting damage. It had a steep learning curve, but it felt great to chain combos together and turn the tables on your opponents.

Ultimate Battle was essentially a poor man's Street Fighter with DBZ characters. We played this one quite a bit too, as it was the first one I imported. All the inputs were similar or variations of inputs you'd enter to do moves in Street Fighter games. It had awesome music, and sprite based graphics, as well as pre-fight dialog filled cutscenes. (We used to joke about what certain characters were saying to each other in Japanese before the fights.) Very Street Fighter-esque, so if you can play that series, you can play this. However, it is like Street Fighter running at half speed, the game is very slow and clunky.

Final Bout had an amazing intro sequence, absolutely phenomenal. That's about it, the game itself is nearly unplayable, and you'll want to shut the system off after the computer blasts you three times in a row with extremely, painfully slow attack build up sequences. "Goku's attacking me with his signature move, oh my gosh, hurry up already!" "Kaaaaaaahhh----------Meeeeeeh----------Haaaaaaah--------meeeeeeeh-----*sound effects of the blast forming in his hand*-------*visual close up of the blue energy charging*--------Haaaaaahh!" Yeah, three times watching that play out, and you pretty much say, "Well this is shit, you still have that Ultimate Battle one? Want to just play that?" (Yeah, that's what my friend said when I finally got my hands on this game.)

Good times, but not games I think I'll ever get out and play again, except for the novelty of showing them to someone who is curious about them.

[Haji]

I like the speed of Ultimate Battle 22 but i like the build up mode of Final Bout. they should really bring back build up mode. that was really cool.