"Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butōden" Discussion

[LeprikanGT]

I can't believe it, Kaiô-sama is a playable character. His special? Running you over with his car. Broli knows this first hand.

Wow, talk about standing out with that last character. I always thought King Kai would have had a mini spirit bomb or little kaioken or something to do with bubbles and Gregory with the mallet, but 'car attack' is awesome.

[linkdude20002001]

Kaioh can't perform the Genki Dama.

[Innagadadavida]

He knows how to use it, enough that he can teach someone else, but he can't perform it himself?

[Piccolo Daimao]

And this shows the What-ifs, or at least one of them... (Very Bottom.)
http://www.bandaigames.channel.or.jp/li ... ode01.html

Please could someone translate what it says for the What-Ifs?

Oh yeah, and this has become a must-have game for me to buy when I get a 3DS.

[Herms]

Please could someone translate what it says for the What-Ifs?

It just says that they show developments not shown in the original story, like "what if that character wasn't defeated?" There's also Sub-Stories that highlight the minor characters, like by showing Tenshinhan and Chaozu's training. Both If and Sub-Stories seem to be arranged as branches off of the main story.

He knows how to use it, enough that he can teach someone else, but he can't perform it himself?

That's how it was with the Kaio-ken at least. I don't think anything's ever said about whether or not he can use the Genki-Dama though.

[Tenshinhan-san]

I don't really have the hang of it yet, but it's awesome so far! I love how you can more or less take turns beating the shit out of each other with those slow motionish shots, like we saw in the anime with Piccolo vs #17 for example.

[linkdude20002001]

That's how it was with the Kaio-ken at least. I don't think anything's ever said about whether or not he can use the Genki-Dama though.

Oh crap! I though I wrote Kaio-ken! D:

Well, for those who want to know, his attacks in the game are:
Big Brick
Hobby Drive
Best Gag
Super-speed Big Brick

[TheDevilsCorpse]

I absolutely love the little nods to other characters and stuff in this game.
18 has Lunch's outfit.
Videl has Bulma's outfit from the title page for Chapter 4 of the manga.
Tullece is in the background in the plains stage (as are a multitude of other character in the other stages).
Customization has the Tori-bot mask.
When you break the houses on Namek, Namekians fall dead to the ground from inside. (They all look like Nail though, and he's a costume for Piccolo.)

Little things like this make the game a bit more enjoyable for actual fans instead of casual gamers. It is a good game, so far I've enjoyed it. What I think I understand from the what-ifs are pretty fun. The gameplay is rather simple, but hasn't gotten repetitive to me...yet at least, who knows what will happen in a week (I'm often frustrated by the computer though, especially Ginyu. Grah! So sick of "Change Now!") Two things I have to note though...

Customization isn't as extensive as I thought. You can add three items to a character, one from three different categories. I assume they are for the most part, and without official terms: "Hats", "Facewear", and for lack of a better term "Props". Hats give you different hats, from Saiyaman helmets to straw samurai hats. Facewear gives you glasses and masks, that sort of thing, while Props has everything not in the previous two, like swords or backpacks. So if you customize Goku, you can give him Piccolo's turban from the "Hats" category, Roshi's glasses from "Facewear", and Trunks' sword from "Props". Most of the other things I thought would be in customization, like changing Goku's shirt from the normal orange and blue, to just blue, and then none at all are just the alternate costumes...(and despite the fact that this game has half the characters as Raging Blast 2, it might have MORE alternate costumes... >.>) I found this a tad disappointing because I wanted to make my own Ultimate Gohan by putting Goku's dogi on Gohan, but oh well.

The second tidbit is related to the first. For most of the characters who don't have real alternate costumes, like Vegetto or Raditz...my god are the pallet swap colors hideous. I don't really remember them, mainly because I don't want to, but I think Vegetto's blue gets switched for a neon green. Ick. lol

[Piccolo Daimao]

18 has Lunch's outfit.

Is there an image or video of this?

[Herms]

The second tidbit is related to the first. For most of the characters who don't have real alternate costumes, like Vegetto or Raditz...my god are the pallet swap colors hideous.

I keep wishing for a game to create an alternate costume of Vegetto that consists of, say, Saiyan arc Vegeta's clothes combined with Goku's Yardrat outfit.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

18 has Lunch's outfit.

Is there an image or video of this?

I can't help, it really wouldn't show up all that great if I took a picture of it off my DS. Someone with a ROM will post a screen or a video to Youtube eventually.

I keep wishing for a game to create an alternate costume of Vegetto that consists of, say, Saiyan arc Vegeta's clothes combined with Goku's Yardrat outfit.

I need to draw...now. lol I'm not sure how logical this outfit would be based on the arc standpoint, but it would be too badass for me to care. (I also need to figure out what to do with the colors once its done.)

[MasterVampire]

This game is so quirky!

I was playing as ssj3 gotenks and I did his ultimate which was him smacking the other guy into the ground and then shooting heaps of energy blasts at, but piccolo was also in the cut scene flying around as if trying to tell him to stop because it will blow up the planet lol


Its also cool to see kid buu's planet destruction attack get deflected and the cut scene shows it going out into space away from the planet

[TheDevilsCorpse]

I was playing as ssj3 gotenks and I did his ultimate which was him smacking the other guy into the ground and then shooting heaps of energy blasts at, but piccolo was also in the cut scene flying around as if trying to tell him to stop because it will blow up the planet lol

The same thing happens in a few ultimates. Mr. Satan is in the background of Videl's, and Kuririn is in Reacoom's, etc.

[MCDaveG]

Hope that 3DS will discard this hideous graphic and overcome the gap between Nintendo and PSP.

[batistabus]

So...what does it play like? Is it like Super DBZ? Budokai? Jump Ulimate Stars? Some other DBZ related game? Can you teleport? I'd like some comparison.

[Castor Troy]

So...what does it play like? Is it like Super DBZ? Budokai? Jump Ulimate Stars? Some other DBZ related game? Can you teleport? I'd like some comparison.

Plays mostly like the Budokai series.

[batistabus]

So...what does it play like? Is it like Super DBZ? Budokai? Jump Ulimate Stars? Some other DBZ related game? Can you teleport? I'd like some comparison.

Plays mostly like the Budokai series.

*Ejaculates*

[Rad Raddish]

It's hard to describe, there is at least one gameplay homage to the Super Butoden series in there. During some super moves, you get a choice between block, deflect, and reflect just like the original games. The difference is that both the attacker and the defender play mini-games to determine the defense success rate instead of just simply mashing buttons/certain motions over and over. This includes random short strings of buttons/directions that you need to input quickly and accurately, dropping energy balls into cans (?), timing presses of the A button with energy balls overlapping a circle, "gathering" energy by moving a ki ball around and avoiding gray obstacles, and matching a spinning Dragon Ball's star number as fast as possible.

I'd also say that the move inputs (if you don't use the touch screen shortcuts) are a lot closer to Super Butoden's. You have QCFs, Mortal Kombat-esque "back then forward" motions, and super move motions closer to the King of Fighters style that was seen in the older games (I call it the "rock the boat" motion, I think it's a half circle then going quickly back to the opposite direction you landed on + a button).

The 3 on 3 fights are definitely reminiscent of KOF. You can choose to do 1 on 1 or 2 on 2 as well. In 1 on 1, it's "one round" and you're done which is a lot closer to Budokai. The character customization also seems like it would be closer to the Budokai series, but I haven't messed with it enough to know, unfortunately. The nature of the combo strings being more like "dial-a-combos" also remind me of the Budokai games, although there are a lot of new options and mechanics to consider.

The way they did defense is interesting, no block button as far as I know, just the dodge/evade on button B. You only use it for some projectiles (I was dodging some of Tien's that way, but other projectiles seemed to hit regardless) and heavy attacks, usually with some kind of indicator that it's coming. It's a red flash for most of them, but there are some special moves that look similar with blue flashes that you can also evade. All light attacks and light projectiles can be completely blocked by doing nothing, as long as you aren't hitting buttons they'll be blocked automatically. Which is really cool, it discourages button mashing to some degree and makes masters of "wu wei" do a bit better!

You can also reduce damage on a lot of the heavy projectile attacks by doing nothing, but there is also a reflect move you can use. By holding L+R you seem to go into a projectile "reflect" stance, which drains ki but reflects all kinds of projectiles. This helps prevent abuse of moves like Vegeta's Galick Gun, which is otherwise a pain to avoid. The basic idea of defense seems to be "do nothing" until you recognize a heavy attack/projectile coming your way, which is when you can try for an L+R reflect in the case of the projectile or dodge the heavy attack with the B button. You can also dodge throws with B, which is interesting but disappointing from a traditional fighting game perspective.

There's also the slow motion "back and forth" that people have mentioned with the strong attacks. You can keep trading blows in slow motion as long as you have the ki necessary. You can also dodge them and retaliate all the same, some special moves can even be executed after a successful slow motion dodge which guarantees big damage against your opponent since they have (as far as I know) no options to deal with them at such a close range in their recovery state. The trading of blows also looks really neat, so it's great for aesthetics.

The ABXY "burst mode" that breaks combo strings is really awesome, too. You only get it once per round, and once activated you go straight to your highest strength level with an infinite bar of ki. This means you can keep spamming your super move, which can be annoying if someone manages to pull it off (because you have to watch the cinema scenes/play the mini-games a bunch, which is also highly reminiscent of Budokai 3). Some of the barrier moves can break combos as well, I believe, and characters like the androids have infinite ki so they can be fairly formidable with this ability.

You can fly up and down by double tapping up/down respectively. You can also dash forward and backwards with double taps as well. Some characters have special dashes and teleports for some extra movement options, as well. Running away in this game can sometimes be frustrating as the stages do not really have boundaries on the sides, but at the very least everyone (or at least I think everyone) has the basic ki projectile that can be activated with the R shoulder button which is an okay way to catch fleeing opponents.

The air juggles are neat, you can activate those with a light combo string. However, since those can be blocked easily, you may also need to mix in the heavy down attack to get people launched. I think only a fully charged one will bounce people off the ground, but once you do that it's just a matter of using a light combo string on your airborne opponent to get them into the air. Any time you catch them in the air (in a falling/normal jumping state, not flight) like that with a light combo will work, whereas on the ground they get an opportunity to block the last hits even if you catch them with the first ones.

I also love the way they handled ki management and strength in this game. If you hold the L button and tap up, you'll go up a level in strength. Your ki drains faster and may not even recharge at some of the higher levels, some of which might require ki to remain in (somewhat like Budokai). Tapping down lowers your strength but will help your ki regenerate. There's no way to "charge" outright like in Butoden or Budokai, which I think helps keep your mind on other things and improve the pace of the fights.

Another neat thing they threw in there was Mr. Popo popping up behind the title screen logo (which already looks a lot similar to Super Butoden 2 in the way they laid it out). Pretty cool little homage, but I would have liked to see some more music from the Butoden series. The music in this game is probably the weakest part, so borrowing some tracks would have gone a long way towards improving it I think. And since Kenji Yamamoto is the composer of Kai and Butoden, it seems like it would have been an even better fit.

There's plenty more to discover I'm sure, and in trying to cover what I could I'm sure I've made a few inaccuracies so please jump in and correct me if you catch something. I'm really looking forward to seeing more discussion on the gameplay mechanics and any potential FAQs in the future. The game doesn't seem like it's ridiculously deep but there is still plenty to consider and I may be overlooking plenty, but from what I've seen there's enough depth to keep versus multiplayer interesting.

I didn't talk much about the story mode, in my eyes that was only something keeping us from playing as all the characters in versus mode. But for the cinematics that I didn't skip (some are QTEs that you can't), it seemed rather nifty! Plenty of branches and what-ifs to consider as well, so the single player experience should be nice for those who understand Japanese and even for those who don't (including me haha). I think there's also some kind of challenge mode? Might be worth checking out, but if you can play this in multiplayer/versus then forget about all of that and just enjoy the game with a friend, it's a blast!

[batistabus]

Well...alright then! Thanks

[Rad Raddish]

Haha, no problem, sorry for the huge write up. Information at this point is scarce so hopefully that helped people a bit.