DBZ Budokai HD Collection: Official On-Going Thread

[Bluebolt]

Ok my main question is; is there a point in having 3 different HD remakes for 3 games that are VERY similar?

[Rukura]

I'm really torn on what they should do with an HD collection. Yeah, you can go for the Budokai Tenkaichi's, then Budokai's and then one for Super Dragon Ball Z and Infinite World, but....how many people are really clamoring for the first 2 Budokais and Sparkings in HD?

Personally, I'd love to get a digital release of all the old Dragon Ball Famicom and Super Famicom games that I never got the chance to experience outside of crappy emulators (and a proper translation wouldn't hurt either). If not, Budokai 3, Sparking Meteor, Super Dragon Ball Z and Infinite World would be enough for me.

If really do the Budokai Tenkaichi HD Collection....that's gonna be an import purchase straight from Japan. No second thoughts.

[mysticboy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0N8EK0T ... plpp_video

[Insertclevername]

But these games are just mere progression of one another. All that was done was some necessary game play tweaks and new additions to the roster. BT1, now a days, is just heavily outdated by its successors, so whats the point in adding it? I for one wouldn't brother playing it. Maybe if they remade Tenkaichi 3, with some of the music from 2, then that would be a more reasonable approach.

I'm still in favor of a BT3, IW/B3, and SDBZ pack.

[Hellspawn28]

I'm really torn on what they should do with an HD collection. Yeah, you can go for the Budokai Tenkaichi's, then Budokai's and then one for Super Dragon Ball Z and Infinite World

Not a whole lot of people enjoy IW. So I think a collection of Budokai 1-3 would work better since some people would like to re-play through the story modes again in the first two games.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

On second thought, you're right about Budokai 2 being real fun. The board game-like story mode was pretty cool, with it's hidden items, secrets, and divergent story paths.

To think, as a kid, I hated Budokai 2's story mode. I loved the detail put in Budokai 1's story(the cut scenes; the changing intros; the what ifs) so when I saw Budokai 2 was a board game I was disappointed. I was really hoping to get a Buu saga story mode with the same treatment. Now my opinions on the game have flip-flopped to the point where I wish newer games would take on this different type of approach.

But, for those of us who don't remember, what were the actual differences in the mechanics? Things like AI and story mode differences are... well, I guess somewhat relevant, but what about the core games? What could you do in one that you couldn't do in another?

I think I remember reading somewhere recently that in NEO you could manually get out of your lock-on all on your own and fly away for tactical strategies, which was removed in METEOR. Is this true? What other stuff like this was changed? Different types of abilities, mechanic changes, etc.

In the first two Sparking games, you were required to manually lock on to your opponent. This provided some of the dumbest gameplay mechanics possible; you can literally fly past your opponent, who is like a foot away, because you didn't bother to press the lock on button before doing so. I mean sure, I guess it would be a good benefit for playing defense but your really playing off of poor gameplay mechanics as opposed to any sort of real fighting strategy. In Meteor they got rid of the whole manual lock on thing and everything was automatic instead. Everything feels more streamlined and solid because of it and yes, your opponent can still lose track of you, if hit hard enough, but it won't take long for him to find you again.

[Rukura]

I'm really torn on what they should do with an HD collection. Yeah, you can go for the Budokai Tenkaichi's, then Budokai's and then one for Super Dragon Ball Z and Infinite World

Not a whole lot of people enjoy IW. So I think a collection of Budokai 1-3 would work better since some people would like to re-play through the story modes again in the first two games.

That's really neither here or there. I could argue that the majority might not want to play the board game that is Budokai 2's story mode. Instead the issue is just even more dated visuals and less refined games than the 3rd outings that those led to.

If you want completeness, Infinite World exists. The only other stand-alone game to pair it with is Super Dragon Ball Z. The problem is...why get the first two of those trilogies in HD anyway?

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

I'm not saying that I would want an all Budokai collection(it would be just as redundant) however, there are a lot more differences between games to warrant one over the Sparking series. For example Budokai 1 offers a better story mode compared to the other two games, Budokai 2 offers fun what if characters that aren't available in other games, and Budokai 3 has a solid roster with improved combat controls (though I would say I prefer Budokai 2's way of doing ultimates).

I will say IW improves on all three games to make the Budokai games one complete package so making a game with IW, Super DBZ and BT3 would be the best way to go in my opinion but Budokai 3 seems to be the fan favorite and would make more sense to do over IW. Personally I'd be happy with either game as long as the collection wasn't just one series. Like I said before, it would be redundant.

[mysticboy]

Should they re-render the graphics or just upscale and anti-alias them?

[Rukura]

Should they re-render the graphics or just upscale and anti-alias them?

How would either of those options look? (not much "in the know" on making old games hd)

[Saiga]

IW didn't even get a release in Australia, so I never got a chance to play it. I really want to, but it's a bit expensive to get it on eBay and have it shipped here. If they released it in a HD collection, I would absolutely love it. I would also play any of the Budokais in HD, and it's hard to get Tenkaichi 3 now so I'd get that as well, definitely. Hell, I don't like the look of Super Dragon Ball Z at all and yet I'd even play that if it came as part of a collection.

[mysticboy]

Should they re-render the graphics or just upscale and anti-alias them?

How would either of those options look? (not much "in the know" on making old games hd)

If they re-render it, the graphics themselves will be (see the Sly Cooper collection) in HD. I'd imagine this would take some time. Upscaling is just setting the resolution higher (same graphics and everything), Anti-aliasing is basically getting rid of jagged lines after it's been upscaled (see Prince of Persia collection).

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

I've always been curious as to how HD collections can honestly look like garbage, given that consoles are the only thing enforcing a game to be run at the resolution it's run. Considering the games aren't bein rebuilt, shouldn't they simply be re-rendered at native 720p, maybe throw in a little anti-aliasing, and be done with? It doesn't sound that hard.

To differentiate the difference between re-rendering and scaling, PC games, as I understand them, don't have set resolutions; their textures and worlds are built with a resolution and certain level of video card in mind, but through in-game settings or out of game tweaks they can usually be made to natively output in most common resolutions, if not any resolution, with no stretching or scaling necessary. Emulators let you do this with console/gaming portable games. And it makes playing 6th generation console ports on PC a little more interesting; I'm pushing clarity of Halo and Megaman X8 I didn't know they had.

Is it the way PS2 games are developed, or the manner in which they're emulated? Presuming it's emulation.

[goku the krump dancer]

Well I guess this is year number 2 that Namco-Bandai doesn't see my DBZ money. The HD collection is useless to me being that my PS3 is still backwards compatible and I still own all of last Gen's Dragon Ball console games minus Sagas ( which I have to get around to buying).

[Ringworm128]

I hope this end up being true. BT3 with HD graphics and good online play would be great. This does seem likely the Sparking games were pretty popular to my knowledge. I'm not an expert on remastering but is it possible to remaster a 4:3 game into 16:9 without cropping or stretching the image? Because if they could somehow zoom the image out to fit more stuff on the sides then it would be pretty epic playing DBZ in HD 16:9.

[VegettoEX]

I'm not an expert on remastering but is it possible to remaster a 4:3 game into 16:9 without cropping or stretching the image?

It depends on the game, how it was originally programmed, what the assets have for resolution, and how much effort the team wants to put into it. See: PSN/XBLA re-release of Marvel vs Capcom 2. Basing it off the Dreamcast version, they were able to extend the stages to the full 16:9 taking up the entire screen while still keeping the gameplay squarely in the 4:3 area to keep all the gameplay the same.

Because if they could somehow zoom the image out to fit more stuff on the sides then it would be pretty epic playing DBZ in HD 16:9.

Well... umm... Burst Limit, Raging Blast, Raging Blast 2, Ultimate Tenkaichi...?

[dbboxkaifan]

I hope this end up being true. BT3 with HD graphics and good online play would be great. This does seem likely the Sparking games were pretty popular to my knowledge. I'm not an expert on remastering but is it possible to remaster a 4:3 game into 16:9 without cropping or stretching the image? Because if they could somehow zoom the image out to fit more stuff on the sides then it would be pretty epic playing DBZ in HD 16:9.

Raging Blast's another Budokai Tenkaichi for the current consoles.

If Spike/Namdai remaster the games properly in HD (they'll do a rush job, I'm thinking) then it should play smooth within today's standards of gaming.

[sangofe]

I wonder how this would look vs. the original PS3's upscaling on the fly?
I used to play the BT games like that until my brother's ps3 died.

[Super Sayian Prime]

Oh man, those pre-rendered CG openings are going to look awful.

[mysticboy]

Oh man, those pre-rendered CG openings are going to look awful.

Not if they do it right.