"DBZ: Battle of Z" (360/PS3/Vita) On-Going Discussion Thread

[dbboxkaifan]

Properly would be AT LEAST a 6/10.

When it's reviewed especially by a fan of the franchise the score can either be higher or lower than what a non-fan would give it.

ARTDINK tried to replicate the gameplay of Zenkai Battle Royale but failed so hard to do so.

[Blade]

ARTDINK tried to replicate the gameplay of Zenkai Battle Royale but failed so hard to do so.

I actually don't think they did. From the looks of things, they more or less lifted wholesale elements of the game mechanics from 'Gundam SEED Battle Destiny', a game they put out for the PS Vita in 2012.

-- 27/01/14 Edit (Fixed broken quote) --

[radrappy]

Metacritic's score is an overall of 57 out of 100.

Eurogamer Portugal gave it even worse than I thought.. 4/10. http://www.eurogamer.pt/articles/2014-0 ... -z-analise

Their review was done properly and knowing how bad this game's done already there's nothing that's going to save it. It's time for Namco Bandai to bring back the developers who know how to develop Dragon Ball Z games.

Edit: Eurogamer Italy's score was 6/10 - http://www.eurogamer.it/articles/2014-0 ... recensione

so. . .par for course then? http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360 ... ng-blast-2

Also, the game was never going to review great. It's not very conventional, doesn't have a lot of options, and has lackluster visuals. It's not exactly a recipe for critical success.

[dbboxkaifan]

The problem with Battle of Z is that it was supposedly going to offer an amazing 4v4 experience like no other but turns out it's utter shit.

RB2 in a way did feel like an expansion pack to RB1 but it was overall better than it's predecessor, + camera, + gameplay's quicker, + more characters (quantity doesn't equal quality but it was nice to have more), + better music and + more replay value.

I know a lot hated the Galaxy Mode but that was surprisingly fun to complete till the end, and seeing the DBZ shots on the Gallery Section felt nostalgic.

One of the things that I absolutely detested from RB2 were the players online would spam the same attacks making it impossible to have a proper fighting match, one of the bots that plays as such is Freeza.

[radrappy]

The problem with Battle of Z is that it was supposedly going to offer an amazing 4v4 experience like no other but turns out it's utter shit.

I don't think you're giving them enough credit. A full 3d 1 v 1 dragon ball battle experience is hard enough to execute; a 4 v 4 3d fighting game is something that no developer as of yet has been able to crack, especially one that has the demands of the dbz franchise (3d flight, melee based action). Gundam vs Gundam Extreme Versus, probably the best multiplayer 3d versus game on the market, took many, many iterations to get right. And even that game is only 2 v 2.

Again, this isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea and that's completely fair. That being said, I appreciate the creative design choices made to make this game a reality, even if its not GOTY. I would also love a DBZ reskin of GvGExV but that's another conversation.

[Hellspawn28]

DBZ games stop getting good reviews in years. Burst Limit was the last DBZ game that got a good score on most gaming websites and most games from IW - BOZ tend to get crappy reviews. I don't think anyone would be surprise that critics don't like this game.

[Drev]

DBZ games stop getting good reviews in years. Burst Limit was the last DBZ game that got a good score on most gaming websites and most games from IW - BOZ tend to get crappy reviews. I don't think anyone would be surprise that critics don't like this game.

Still far better than Burst Limit, any way.

[radrappy]

Burst Limit reviewed well because it looked amazing and was very easy to play. You don't have to play for very long to realize it's incredibly shallow and not very rewarding, much like the PS3 Naruto titles. Presentation and accessibility are king for today's critics.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

Bust Limit reviewed only slightly better than most other games in the series. However it still falls into the average these games have held since the PS2. The reason it scores higher than the other Dragonball games is because up until Battle of Z, it seems to be the only game with a lot of thought in production. Unlike the first Raging Blast, Ultimate Tenkaichi, or Dragonball Kinect, it's not broken. It may be shallow, but it's definitely complete. It's got a full, well thought out story mode with beautiful cut scenes and a story that seems to capture the important parts of the show without feeling rushed as hell. Aside from the not so great lip sync, there is nothing game breaking; No crossed audio from two different cast(that totally screams LAZY!) and no instances of terrible camera glitches like this one, that happen a lot in Raging Blast.

The online worked well for the time(2007-2008). Online fighting games as a whole were far from perfect or balanced at the time but Burst Limit's seemed to match the standard. I can't say the same for any game after. As the industry evolve the online experience in Dragonball seemed to have stagnate (it's the only thing I'm really worried about with Battle of Z). Given their work on Street Fighter, I'm confident that Dimps would have enhanced the the online if they had continued working on the franchise; well as much as the could with the resources provided by Bandai-Namco.

The Roster was around the same size as Budokai 1 and did a good job of covering most of the important characters from their respected sagas. Yes there could have been improvements, but I can say that about almost every roster this gen. There was also enough to keep you busy(I think they were hoping online would make a bigger splash) for a good amount of time. Unlike both Raging Blast games, it didn't feel like I was being forced to grind through modes in order to feel busy. You wanted to talk about unrewarding look no further than Red Stars and Galaxy Mode. So many hours wasted with not a whole lot to show for it(even within a game like Dragonball).

Burst Limit was a great set up for what this generation could have been, it's just that Spike didn't follow through. We now have like 4 years of rough games to show for it. When stacked up to the expectations set up by Burst Limit(or the generation in general) these games almost fail. A lot of the scores they get are even too nice in my opinion. Burst Limit not only did well for a Dragonball game but it managed to match the standard established by everyone outside the industry. While there are definitely better games that came out at the time, I also didn't feel like I was throwing money away.

[JeffJarrett]

BNo instances of terrible camera glitches like this one, that happen a lot in Raging Blast.

This camera glitch looks cool, Gohan appearing behind Goku once the latter finished his rush and then using his Quiet Rage. Great!

[Levlik]

Apologies if this has already been answered, but do we know for sure whether or not the international version of the game contains the Kikuchi BGM? It's literally been the one reason I'd ever want to play one of these new games and I'm disappointed that every single game since Budokai Tenkaichi has it removed in everything but the Japanese version. I could understand it around the time of BT's release, but given the fact that it literally is the show's music in America at this point with Kai's dub and every DVD defaulting to it, I see absolutely no reason why the music has to be completely removed. I thought we were well past the era of replacing any music to any game or show these days.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Apologies if this has already been answered, but do we know for sure whether or not the international version of the game contains the Kikuchi BGM? It's literally been the one reason I'd ever want to play one of these new games and I'm disappointed that every single game since Budokai Tenkaichi has it removed in everything but the Japanese version. I could understand it around the time of BT's release, but given the fact that it literally is the show's music in America at this point with Kai's dub and every DVD defaulting to it, I see absolutely no reason why the music has to be completely removed. I thought we were well past the era of replacing any music to any game or show these days.

It's not actually about wanting to replace the score just for the sake of replacing it. The English games are released to all English speaking countries, not just the US. As far as I'm aware, the AB Groupe owns most of the the rights to the animated series over in Europe, including the music. They also seem to be dicks in regards to licensing agreements and want to charge absurd amounts to use the original score in the games, as Namco Bandai can never strike a deal with them.

[Drev]

Apologies if this has already been answered, but do we know for sure whether or not the international version of the game contains the Kikuchi BGM? It's literally been the one reason I'd ever want to play one of these new games and I'm disappointed that every single game since Budokai Tenkaichi has it removed in everything but the Japanese version. I could understand it around the time of BT's release, but given the fact that it literally is the show's music in America at this point with Kai's dub and every DVD defaulting to it, I see absolutely no reason why the music has to be completely removed. I thought we were well past the era of replacing any music to any game or show these days.

100% confirmed: only japanese battle of z has kikuchi bgm. Just do like i did: buy it in japanese

[dbboxkaifan]

100% confirmed: only japanese battle of z has kikuchi bgm. Just do like i did: buy it in japanese

So basically buy the game for its music and not that it's a god awful game. You can't polish a turd, remember.

[sangofe]

100% confirmed: only japanese battle of z has kikuchi bgm. Just do like i did: buy it in japanese

So basically buy the game for its music and not that it's a god awful game. You can't polish a turd, remember.

Can't you just choose other back ground music? Or isn't that possible on PS3?

[VegettoEX]

Can't you just choose other back ground music? Or isn't that possible on PS3?

You can certainly play other music in the background, but it's not like it syncs it up so that it loops during a match, goes back to menu music when you wrap up a battle, etc. It just keeps playing music on the background as if you were literally just playing a CD in the background track-to-track.

[SSJ6Goku]

These reviews are more or less accurate in my opinion. However, they seem to stress how the game doesn't follow the story faithfully... and I BET MONEY if the developers tried to recreate an accurate story mode the review would have something like "...replaying the same recycled story again..." For me the alternate story mode events is what attracts me to this game the most.

DBZ is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. If this was(/were) a Mario game these reviews would be all different.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/03/06/ ... -vc-review

[VegettoEX]

If this was(/were) a Mario game these reviews would be all different.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/03/06/ ... -vc-review

I do not follow this at all. I cannot even begin to understand what chain of logic you're following when comparing a present-day review of the first Super Mario Bros. to a timely review of a present-day Dragon Ball game.

[SSJ6Goku]

If this was(/were) a Mario game these reviews would be all different.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/03/06/ ... -vc-review

I do not follow this at all. I cannot even begin to understand what chain of logic you're following when comparing a present-day review of the first Super Mario Bros. to a timely review of a present-day Dragon Ball game.

I'm saying reviewers give Mario games high scores if the games have the same tired story "save the princess" or a different one. DBZ gets marked low if its the same story for being old but also get marked low if they try to do something new like DarkPrince_92 said for not following the original story.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2010/05/21/ ... iew?page=3
http://www.ign.com/articles/2009/11/13/ ... iew?page=2
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/19/ ... rld-review
http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/11/08/ ... axy-review
http://www.ign.com/articles/2002/08/22/ ... ine?page=3
http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/08/05/ ... oss-review
http://www.ign.com/articles/2009/11/24/ ... iew?page=2
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/19/ ... rld-review
http://www.ign.com/articles/2010/06/30/ ... iew?page=2

[dbboxkaifan]

http://bngames.eu/dbzbozcontest

This competition is for European residents only so that means Japanese and Americans are not welcomed to participate, as per the rules.

It ends on February 2nd.

These reviews are more or less accurate in my opinion. However, they seem to stress how the game doesn't follow the story faithfully... and I BET MONEY if the developers tried to recreate an accurate story mode the review would have something like "...replaying the same recycled story again..." For me the alternate story mode events is what attracts me to this game the most.

DBZ is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. If this was(/were) a Mario game these reviews would be all different.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/03/06/ ... -vc-review

That's a silly comparison. You know why Mario games get highly praised? Solid gameplay (by far the best Mario game to date). I don't play Mario games for the story nor do I think anyone else does.

What do we get on Battle of Z? Awful gameplay. Completely different.