Ultimate Blast/Tenkaichi Game Play (Post-Release Discussion)

[MCDaveG]

Yeah...... Japanese score was the last reason I would buy the game. Got Batman instead

[Hellspawn28]

What about the original japanese music?

Nope. But I have to say, the score in this game is really great. I really the music in the cutscenes.

Agree since I think the music in the game is much better then the music that we had in the last two games if you ask me.

[cloud1414]

So me being at Vegeta vs #18. I can conclude that all the Kai voices have been mixed with the voices from Raging Blast 1. I guess ill just have to get used to it. Why couldn't they just mix it with Raging Blast 2 instead. *Facepalm*

[mysticboy]

Why couldn't they just mix it with Raging Blast 2 instead. *Facepalm*

They couldn't. Not enough lines were voiced in RB2.

[ShinMassa]

How do you unlock different pieces for customization?

[Haseowolf]

So I've had a few hours to play Ultimate Tenka'ichi (Don't care if the apostrophe is not in the official title, I'm putting one in :p)

First things first was the tutorial. It broke everything down by combat mode letting us see how to do certain moves. Now, I didn't realize that the first few paragraphs of text weren't the only explanations right away, so I didn't scroll down and read everything. The game does a pretty good job telling you how to do certain moves and whatnot, but unfortunately it doesn't explain WHY you would use certain moves too well. What helps me lower my opponent's ki? What combo gives me more spirit? Etc.

After the tutorial I jumped right into Story Mode.

Some people care about going through the story, some hate retreading the same old plot over and over again. Frankly, I like to see how other mediums handle the transition from show to game. The 2d animated sequences are, of course, amazing and awesome and exactly what Kai SHOULD have been. When not treated to gorgeous 2d animation, we get some at least decent 3d rendered sequences. While the animation is not on par with something like Budokai 1, I would say that it gives Burst Limit a run for it's money; particularly by not having repeated animations from scene to scene, story arc to story arc. The lips do just keep on flappin' as per usual with Spike games, which is only slightly irritating.

The voice work (I'm playing in Japanese) is pretty darn awesome. I'm not too familiar with the Japanese Kai cast, but I know which ones and such have been replaced and the cast does a good job. Nozawa, as always, is top-notch as the Son family. Horikawa still struts his stuff being the arrogant and confident Saiya-jin prince, Furukawa seems like he hasn't changed one bit since the 90's, etc. Basically, you've heard 'em before, you know what to expect. Now, I've only made it to Goku defeating Ginyu so I don't know about the voices down the line. I've been disappointed with some Wakamoto performances in past games so I've yet to see if he gave a shit this time around or not.

You've all seen the screens and videos so you know what's going on with the graphics. Personally I love them. The models are the standard Spike fare and it looks like they've been touched up here and there as well as the awesome Kanzenban-style texturing applied to them. It all comes down to opinion for these such things. What do I think? I like these models better than Burst Limit myself.

If you'd like, I'd like to talk a little about the combat. A few weeks ago I doubted I even wanted this game. It looked too simplistic and rock-paper-scissorsy. I looked it over some more and thought that I really should give it a chance. I'm glad I did. The gameplay isn't as slow as I thought it would be: pressing buttons, waiting for such and such animation to finish before moving on to the next button prompt, yadda yadda yadda. It's actually a lot more fun and involved when you've got the controller in your hands. The QTEs were instated to help reduce the spamming problem that has plagued the Sparking/Tenkai'ichi Budokai and Raging Blast titles for years and that, coupled with the Spirit Gauge, reduces it immensely. I feel like the fights are fun, varied, and give you a decent enough chance to defend yourself and not be lost while your opponent does an endless combo on you.

It's different from past games, yes. It's not so much intense, fast-twitch button combat, but you know what? It's fun. When I think about it, I get the same feeling I did playing this as I did playing Idainaru Densetsu. I've gotta beat my opponent. I use melee moves to increase certain gauges so as to perform big super moves to dwindle their health. I use ki-blasts to keep my opponent in check and to lower his defenses and ki. I kick, punch, and bounce my opponent up, down, and across the map. I can tag in another fighter to help keep the fight going without losing a member of my team. And you know what? Every single character in Idainaru Densetsu fought the exact same. Same melee moves, same meteos, just different supers. And almost everyone LOVED that game. Ultimate Tenka'ichi does things much the same way. Just give it a try before making your judgments. I learned my lesson :p

So after a romp through Story Mode I knew I had to at least get a taste of what Hero Mode is like.

Perhaps one should finish the Story Mode before doing this as I had far less options for making my character than we know exists. I didn't have any customization pieces unlocked so my character we ultra-generic, but that's okay for now. I wanted to know how this whole character build-up and story went!

You can either move around the map, fighting and progressing through the story, or you can press start, and train with various masters to get more stat-boosting skills or Super and Ultimate Skills. You're equipped master also changes your fighting style (the melee animations, basically) so you can looks like you're fighting as Yamucha or Ginyu. You basically build-up your character and make a mish-mash of your favorite special moves used in the show. Not horribly extensive, but still cool and fun none-the-less! I haven't gotten very far in the story, but I've met a few familiar faces and fought a boss (who is currently wiping the floor with me). It'll be interesting to see where this parallel Dragon World goes and how my character fares.

And of course, I hit up the online matches. I picked just a Player Match since I didn't wanna jump in to ranked matches quite yet. I found someone to play with in seconds and we fought. I played as Kid Gohan and he played as...Standard Hero. Didn't bother making a name, but had played through the Hero Mode enough that he used his Super Saiya-jin form as well. The game played just as smooth as the offline matches did and was very fun. I was pretty proud that I won

And that's where I stopped on Day 1. Overall, I'm liking this game. I don't get bored with the gameplay as I first thought I would. It can get pretty competitive and intense! I saved a replay of my very first fight in Ultimate Tenka'ichi and it's just as fun to watch the match over again, HUD completely disabled, and look in wonder as this awesome fight takes place on my screen with great effects, graphics, animation, and Dragon Ball fighting goodness.

You all probably didn't ask for a review, but I thought it'd be nice to throw my opinion and thoughts out there. This game is fun, I like it. I recommend that if your a pretty big fan of the series (which we all must be if we're here) you give it a try. Rent it or something if you're REEEEAAALY not sure if you've gonna like it, but if you dug Idainaru Densetsu, then you'll have a good time with Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenka'ichi.

[MasterVampire]

Story mode is awesome and probably the best in a DBZ game but the gameplay is really lacking and most of all repetitive and it doesn't really feel fun.

This game is better than Raging Blast 2 in the graphics and story department, but Raging Blast 2 has better gameplay mechanics and more characters.

Even the stage destruction is a bit iffy and there is only 3 main types:
A huge crater, a few small crater holes and a big long trench.

[LeprikanGT]

On the note of repetetive.....they went from not wanting us to spam ultimates and supers to having to spam 4 [] and then then thing where you knock them back three times to build up to a super/ultimate.

Am I missing something in the gameplay or is that the only 2 options we have? -the triangle pursuit and the square pursuit

[Titan]

A few weeks ago I doubted I even wanted this game. It looked too simplistic and rock-paper-scissorsy. I looked it over some more and thought that I really should give it a chance. I'm glad I did. The gameplay isn't as slow as I thought it would be: pressing buttons, waiting for such and such animation to finish before moving on to the next button prompt, yadda yadda yadda. It's actually a lot more fun and involved when you've got the controller in your hands. The QTEs were instated to help reduce the spamming problem that has plagued the Sparking/Tenkai'ichi Budokai and Raging Blast titles for years and that, coupled with the Spirit Gauge, reduces it immensely. I feel like the fights are fun, varied, and give you a decent enough chance to defend yourself and not be lost while your opponent does an endless combo on you.

It's different from past games, yes. It's not so much intense, fast-twitch button combat, but you know what? It's fun. When I think about it, I get the same feeling I did playing this as I did playing Idainaru Densetsu. I've gotta beat my opponent. I use melee moves to increase certain gauges so as to perform big super moves to dwindle their health. I use ki-blasts to keep my opponent in check and to lower his defenses and ki. I kick, punch, and bounce my opponent up, down, and across the map. I can tag in another fighter to help keep the fight going without losing a member of my team. And you know what? Every single character in Idainaru Densetsu fought the exact same. Same melee moves, same meteos, just different supers. And almost everyone LOVED that game. Ultimate Tenka'ichi does things much the same way. Just give it a try before making your judgments. I learned my lesson :p


You can either move around the map, fighting and progressing through the story, or you can press start, and train with various masters to get more stat-boosting skills or Super and Ultimate Skills. You're equipped master also changes your fighting style (the melee animations, basically) so you can looks like you're fighting as Yamucha or Ginyu. You basically build-up your character and make a mish-mash of your favorite special moves used in the show. Not horribly extensive, but still cool and fun none-the-less! I haven't gotten very far in the story, but I've met a few familiar faces and fought a boss (who is currently wiping the floor with me). It'll be interesting to see where this parallel Dragon World goes and how my character fares.

And that's where I stopped on Day 1. Overall, I'm liking this game. I don't get bored with the gameplay as I first thought I would. It can get pretty competitive and intense! I saved a replay of my very first fight in Ultimate Tenka'ichi and it's just as fun to watch the match over again, HUD completely disabled, and look in wonder as this awesome fight takes place on my screen with great effects, graphics, animation, and Dragon Ball fighting goodness.

I recommend that if your a pretty big fan of the series (which we all must be if we're here) you give it a try. Rent it or something if you're REEEEAAALY not sure if you've gonna like it, but if you dug Idainaru Densetsu, then you'll have a good time with Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenka'ichi.

I have to agree with you.I'm very surprised with this game.In some ways, this game reminds me DBZ Idainaru Son Gokuu Densetsu PC Engine.

[Metrite]

Well, after over 24 hours of playing this game, I can say I like everything except the gameplay itself. I am reminded of a certain something from a past game many people like me didn't like very much. Many thought that Budokai 3 was a great game with the only one disappointing part of its gameplay being Dragon Rush, particularly because of the rock-paper-scissors aspect of it. Apparently somebody thought people loved Dragon Rush so much that they decided to make "Dragon Rush: The Game". It felt almost impossible to go more than ten seconds without having something reminiscent of dragon rush happening. They may as well have just made this the game's theme song. I would much rather be manually landing all my attacks and kamehamehas rather than being forced to play a quick guessing game and then sit back to watch a big cut scene of my character doing everything on his own. I guess this game was made to appeal to people who don't care about gameplay as long as there are flashy cinematic scenes. I hope the gameplay of next game we get is nothing like this. Every game up to this point has had gameplay that I either enjoyed or at least found to be tolerable, but the gameplay this time was just annoying for me.

I thought Hero Mode was rather fun, though a bit short and limited. I suppose it is one of those things that had a decent start and we'll just have to hope gets vastly improved in a future game. Add more options like being able to select a few different races and gender and it could be even more fun if accompanied by good gameplay. It was also nice to have a different story to play through for a change, even though it didn't seen too well thought out. Bring character creator back with more options along with better gameplay and a well thought out story for them and I would probably consider one of the best additions ever.

[mikezilla2]

Didn't they say this would be the last "Z" game ?

[Hellspawn28]

Well since there is no help thread yet, how do I beat Oozaru Vegeta? I have been stuck at the part where where crush you with his two hands and you must push B. Every time I press it that it seems like I always fail. What I do since it seems like holding on to B does nothing?

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Well since there is no help thread yet, how do I beat Oozaru Vegeta? I have been stuck at the part where where crush you with his two hands and you must push B. Every time I press it that it seems like I always fail. What I do since it seems like holding on to B does nothing?

I'm just guessing, since I haven't played it and I'm to lazy to look it up, but don't you need to push it repeatedly and fill a meter or something?

[mysticboy]

Well since there is no help thread yet, how do I beat Oozaru Vegeta? I have been stuck at the part where where crush you with his two hands and you must push B. Every time I press it that it seems like I always fail. What I do since it seems like holding on to B does nothing?

Keep tapping B to keep the meter filled.

[mikezilla2]

Didn't they say this would be the last "Z" game ?

at least under the Z moniker ...

[Rory]

Didn't they say this would be the last "Z" game ?

at least under the Z moniker ...

No. Spike said it was (possibly) the last Dragon Ball Spike-made game.

[Hellspawn28]

I remember them saying it would be their last game but there have been talks for another game. Not surprise since it seems like when people said it's the last then they make another one after wards.

Well since there is no help thread yet, how do I beat Oozaru Vegeta? I have been stuck at the part where where crush you with his two hands and you must push B. Every time I press it that it seems like I always fail. What I do since it seems like holding on to B does nothing?

Keep tapping B to keep the meter filled.

Okay thanks since I was having some hard trouble winning. I'm just playing through Hero mode right now, I created Xicor for the fun of it. It does seem like that you can unlock more custom stuff for the characters in Hero mode since I unlock the Ginyu force symbol.

[mikezilla2]

well that sucks , I'm not big on dimps.

[Hellspawn28]

It seems like every time when I keep on tapping B, nothing is working. I hate you can't reset the fight with the bosses or their is no try again option after you lose. I hate siting through the cut scene of Vegeta after he was defeated by Goku in the story every time that I lose because you can't skip it.

[MoltenMan]

Yeah I'm not sure what the deal is with B not blocking when I want it to. Do you have to have one of the gauges up to use it?