Why was the Pal PS2 version of Budokai 1 such a bad port?

[90sDBZ]

Seriously why? On PS2 the loading times were ridiculous and took 1 minute per fight on duel mode. There was no option for English voices even though the UK was watching the Funi and Ocean dubs and the NTSC version which came out first had English voices. And the translations for the subtitles were ridiculous such as the Narrator supposedly calling the Z Fighters Androids and Gohan being called Goku's "Friend" and Goku calling Vegeta and Nappa meanies and Vegeta's infamous "Aunt Sallies" line. Plus there were edits for violence in some parts of story to remove blood and holes through characters.

Fortunately every game from Budokai 2 onwards has had a good port. Although I was disappointed the Budokai HD Collection still didn't include English voices for the PAL regions and still had terrible subs.

[Quebaz]

And here was I thinking I was the only one with the terrible loading times in duel, seriously, It's worse than Sonic 06.
Also the subs are bad, really, really bad, sometimes they try to use the American script, other's they use a more faithful transalation, and other times it's just it's ridiculous

"YOU MEANIE!!"
"DOUBLE DARN!!"

[dbboxkaifan]

I tried Budokai 1 on my PS3 60GB and the loading times were pretty quick, graphics looked great and soundtrack is what you'd expect -- marvellous Budokai music. I sure as hell am glad the PAL version featured the Japanese audio rather than the English dub, otherwise I wouldn't have purchased Budokai 1.

On an original PS2 it also loaded quickly so really, that must've been from your disc/version.

[90sDBZ]

I tried Budokai 1 on my PS3 60GB and the loading times were pretty quick, graphics looked great and soundtrack is what you'd expect -- marvellous Budokai music. I sure as hell am glad the PAL version featured the Japanese audio rather than the English dub, otherwise I wouldn't have purchased Budokai 1.

On an original PS2 it also loaded quickly so really, that must've been from your disc/version.

It wasn't just my disc because I also played my friends version of it and they had the same problem. Plus Quebaz says he had the same problem. Also the loading times weren't that bad for Story mode but for Duel Mode were terrible. And I never said there was a problem with the music or graphics. And while you might prefer the Japanese cast the majority of people in the UK who bought it had no experience with that cast so it was a drawback to them. Hell the amount of people that were angry that the HD version still didn't feature the English cast for the PAL version says it all.

[dbboxkaifan]

I remember having a disc which didn't have any scratches at all, it loaded the game perfectly to the menus and then when I were to pick story mode, battle mode or whatever it'd just keep on loading forever. So there's the possibility of being an issue of the disc itself.

[90sDBZ]

I remember having a disc which didn't have any scratches at all, it loaded the game perfectly to the menus and then when I were to pick story mode, battle mode or whatever it'd just keep on loading forever. So there's the possibility of being an issue of the disc itself.

Well when I got mine it was brand new and its always taken 1 minute to load each fight on duel mode. My friends game also had the same problem. What I've found is that if you change it so the text is in French the loading times are sped up a bit to about 30 seconds but that's a pain as you can't understand the move lists.

Another loading issue with it is that when the game goes into the character select screen it stays dark for a few seconds before you can move the cursor and always freezes for a brief instant. You can hear it in the music every time as that briefly pauses with it. Also I didn't even know about those cool stage selection animations until well after I'd bought the game because they take to long to load up in the PAL version that you'll always select the stage before they appear. So far every copy of the game I've played on PS2 has had these same issues. It's actually surprising people didn't return the game to the shop thinking they'd gotten a bad copy when you consider the time it takes to load on duel. When I first played it I actually thought it wasn't going to load when at last after 1 minute it loaded.

[Quebaz]

I'm pretty sure all pal copies of Budokai 1 have the same issue on the dueling mode, my cousin has the same problem. For me, the cast is not a problem, I like the Funi cats and I love the Japanese cast, my really problem is with the subs, which are outright terrible.

"If Goliath could do it, why shouldn't I be able to?"- Seriously, what the heck were the thinking.

[dbboxkaifan]

I timed it and the loading ran for 18 seconds on the Duel Mode, hardly does that make up for 1min at all. Story Mode was pretty much instantly.

So just because you bought it brand new factory sealed it doesn't mean your copy's somewhat faulty which could be as back then they were still getting PS2 games out for the console and not everyone got a proper copy.

There's three scenarios:
1) Works perfectly (Loads everything in a matter of seconds)
2) Semi-faulty (as you claim it takes 1 min to load)
3) Faulty (Keeps on loading forever)

I made a video just to show that my copy works properly: https://mega.co.nz/#!iN5SzD5I!XaeRWGNQL ... -h4Is5hn8M

Anyway, I wonder why anyone would play this game unless for the story mode.

[90sDBZ]

Well that's interesting. Strangely I've known my copy to take about 25-30 seconds if I set the text to French but always a full minute when it's set to English. Was your copy normal or Platinum?

[dbboxkaifan]

It's a normal edition. I also had another normal but gave that to my nephew thinking it'd work on his PS2 Slim but nope, still the same issue happened (forever loading).

[90sDBZ]

I guess it was a pretty random problem then. Mine was the Platinum edition but my friend had the normal one and still the same problem with a minute loading on duel. And I've also found story mode to be a bit inconsistent. Sometimes that loads almost instantly but sometimes it takes about 8 seconds.