Best Dragon Ball Video Game Soundtrack?

[DBZAOTA482]

Even though Kenji Yamamoto is a punk and all, his musical score all the way from the Butoden series to the Budokai series were the golden era.

[MCDaveG]

Anyone who doesn't answer "Super Butoden 2" is wrong and is hereby banned for all eternity.

Vegetas theme, and Trunks theme were my favourites.

I liked Super Butouden 3 a lot more, I guess that this is a farewell

[DarkPrince_92]

Perfect Cell's theme in UB22 is still one of my favorites. PERFECTION!

[InfernalVegito]

Perfect Cell's theme in UB22 is still one of my favorites. PERFECTION!

Have you heard the one from Final Bout? It's basically more orchestral. I love both.

[Thanos]

Perfect Cell's theme in UB22 is still one of my favorites. PERFECTION!

Godlike.

[MajinVegeta]

Perfect Cell's theme in UB22 is still one of my favorites. PERFECTION!

Hell yeah! UB22 is a amazing game. I love Mirai Trunks theme.

[dbzfan7]

The budokai series. The only soundtracks that had me loving pretty much every song. No other dbz game series ever had me love a soundtrack more then the budokai series. I still like some songs from the Tenkaichi series and Raging Blast series, but budokai was always awesome and nostalgic.

[theoriginalbilis]

I guess I'm weird, because I tend not to call out specific game OSTs if they're part of a series. For example, I lump the Super Butoden OSTs all together, mainly because of the similar musical stylings in all three games. Though, SB 1 was the most different, since it was mainly electronic/techno, and subsequent SB games added a little more orchestration/arrangement as time went on. The Budokai series also had very similar compositional styles for all three titles. I'd say Budokai 2 is the "jazziest" though with the Tower of Power collaborations and all.

I'm surprised I didn't like Burst Limit's OST that much outside of a few tracks. That was the first Kenji Yamamoto soundtrack that I felt was "phoned in", with not too many tracks sounding drastically different from one another.

[dbboxkaifan]

I'm surprised I didn't like Burst Limit's OST that much outside of a few tracks. That was the first Kenji Yamamoto soundtrack that I felt was "phoned in", with not too many tracks sounding drastically different from one another.

I have a couple of favourites from the Burst Limit game, one of which is BGM 32, it's obviously a rip-off from Metallica's No Leaf Clover but still awesome.

[VegettoEX]

Man, theoriginalbilis, we're totally on the same page when it comes to stuff. I feel exactly the same way about the music in the first Super Butōden versus the second and third games, yet I still love them all. It's clear that 3 was an extension of two (especially carrying over things like Trunks' theme), and it's even more clear when you consider 3 was rushed out so quickly after 2.

Also feel the same way about Burst Limit and its music. Totally forgettable to me. Granted, my 360 died on me very shortly after getting the game which is why there wasn't a proper, full review on the podcast back then. I've since also picked it up on PS3 and plan on giving it another solid go-around at some point. Been thinking about doing a little look-back-to-the-past section with a few games on the show, but that all takes time, and Battle of Gods will eat me.

[MCDaveG]

Never played Burst Limit, but heard the soundtrack. It was like jam session of Metallica and Limp Bizkit stoned to hell, playing on guitars backwards.... No catchy mellodies, just playing whatever there is.
That's why I prefer synth soundtracks more. You can't have any technique how to play on synth, it will still sound the same, so you have to actually put more emphasis on the melodies (or at least at that time, without the digital enhancement, effects and shit).

[Thanos]

I couldn't agree more about the Burst Limit soundtrack. The last soundtrack that Kikuchi did that was any good was Infinite World... yes, mostly rehashed tracks, but there were a few new tracks that were decent. Not really quite to the standard of Super Butoden/Budokai, that's for sure, but I think the Budokai series was his last labor of love in terms of Dragon Ball soundtracks. And that's what they were--labors of love. Very inspired and beautifully scored.

[theoriginalbilis]

Y'know... I actually rather like the Infinite World soundtrack too. I'm not referring to the recycled Budokai and Burst Limit tracks found in-game; I mean the exclusive compositions that were released on CD.

I feel like Yamamoto definitely put more effort into differentiating the tracks than he did for Burst Limit or even Kai (even though lots of them sound like they may have been plagirized. Both the OP and ED song are super catchy and fun (also two of my favorite DBZ songs), as well as the in-game tracks themselves, which range from jazz, metal, 50s rock n' roll, jungle music, and even friggin' big band. It's a fun listen. Easily Yamamoto's last good work of DBZ games.

[goku the krump dancer]

I don't even remember Burst limit's music , other than the intro of corse. I think I remember the music being actually really low in that game ,so it was often overshadowed by the sound effects anyway.

My favorite DB game soundtrack goes to the Budokai series with UB22 coming in at an EXTREMELY close second.

[dbboxkaifan]

I couldn't agree more about the Burst Limit soundtrack. The last soundtrack that Kikuchi did that was any good was Infinite World... yes, mostly rehashed tracks, but there were a few new tracks that were decent. Not really quite to the standard of Super Butoden/Budokai, that's for sure, but I think the Budokai series was his last labor of love in terms of Dragon Ball soundtracks. And that's what they were--labors of love. Very inspired and beautifully scored.

Think you meant Yamamoto because I've listened to DBZ:IW and there's no Kikuchi original/synthesised tracks.

Plus the games that normally have Kikuchi music are the Japanese releases of Spike DBZ games (BT 1-3, RB 1-2, UB).

[Thanos]

I couldn't agree more about the Burst Limit soundtrack. The last soundtrack that Kikuchi did that was any good was Infinite World... yes, mostly rehashed tracks, but there were a few new tracks that were decent. Not really quite to the standard of Super Butoden/Budokai, that's for sure, but I think the Budokai series was his last labor of love in terms of Dragon Ball soundtracks. And that's what they were--labors of love. Very inspired and beautifully scored.

Think you meant Yamamoto because I've listened to DBZ:IW and there's no Kikuchi original/synthesised tracks.

Plus the games that normally have Kikuchi music are the Japanese releases of Spike DBZ games (BT 1-3, RB 1-2, UB).

Huh...? The Japanese release of Spike DBZ games? Those clearly had the music from the series. I don't think the American release music was composed by Kikuchi...? Shit, I don't even remember. It's been like six years. Damn.

But, back to the topic of his more recent work, it kind of makes it not that big of a loss that Kikuchi stopped doing music for Dragon Ball, since it hasn't been any good since the early 2000's.

[dbboxkaifan]

Kikuchi was exclusively for the Japanese releases of the Spike DBZ games, as listed below:

Kikuchi (Spike)
* Dragon Ball Z: Sparking [Tenkaichi]
* Dragon Ball Z: Sparking Neo [Tenkaichi 2]
* Dragon Ball Z: Sparking Meteor [Tenkaichi 3]
* Dragon Ball: Raging Blast
* Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2
* Dragon Ball: Ultimate Blast
* Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure

Yamamoto (Dimps)
* Dragon Ball Z: Budokai
* Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2
* Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3
* Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai
* Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai 2
* Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World
* Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit
* Dragon Ball Z: Budokai HD Collection (contains that one tiny track)
* Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2

Raging Blast 2 for example had a mix of Kikuchi and Yamamoto to make use of both composers, shame that the western fans never got to enjoy the musical mix too, but at least Yamamoto made its way to Europe/US (for a limited time).

By the way, DB:AA was developed by Dimps, I don't think it's usual for a Dimps' Dragon Ball game to have Kikuchi music.

[Thanos]

Oh Christ, how embarrassing. I was getting Kikuchi mixed up with Yamamoto. Gaaah. Yeah, that makes sense. I was wondering, though. Did Kikuchi do the tracks from the U.S. releases of NEO and METEOR?

[Insertclevername]

I don't know who exactly made them but I know for a fact Kikuchi (or Yamamoto) didn't do either replacement score.

[Kokos]

I don't really think the soundtrack is generally a strong point of the games, but I liked Sparking Neo, Budokai 3 and Super Butoden 2 quite a bit. Not too bad to listen to and there's variety in them. Raging Blast 2 and Ultimate Blast weren't bad either, but I grew a little bored of them.
Would like to give an honorary mention to Legacy of Goku 2, I thought the music is better in the game than in the show.