My DBZ Video Game Marathon.

[Bullza]

So all this hype for Xenoverse has gotten me interested in playing the games again which is why I bought the Budokai HD collection but then I thought I'd play some of the others aswell just to see how they've evolved over time.

If anyone else wants to comment on any of the older games then feel free to do as I'd like to see other people's opinions as well.

Budokai - 6/10

+The graphics I found surprisingly good and they hold up pretty well for a 2002 game. They aren't cell shaded like the later games but the character model graphics are definitely better looking than in any of the other Budokai games by Dimps.

+The storymode was pretty good and the cutscenes were done very well and there was a lot of them, it's a shame the sequels never really kept this presentation going. I'd say it was probably the best storymode of the four Budokai games just for this reason.

+I liked the capsule mechanic, there was a ton of stuff to buy.

-The translations were bad and in some cases literally laughably bad (Oh you Aunt Sallies!!!)

-The fighting was pretty stiff and you were way too slow moving forward. Most attacks were just too complicated too pull off and just not worth it anyway.

-It was overly difficult in a lot of places. I had the game on normal and really struggled with some fights. I had to put it on Very Easy to beat Cell at the end and even then it took a few tries. Budokai 2 and 3 have this same difficulty spike problem.

-Having two playthroughs was just pointless. Instead of a Goku playthrough then a Z Fighters playthrough they should have just had the one longer playthrough from start to finish.

Budokai 2 - 5/10

+The gameplay was improved slightly, it was faster and you could pull off special attacks without having to do a combo first. You also spent more time fighting in the air.

+The Arenas were more interactive.

-The storymode was dreadful, I'd forgotten how bad it was. It was also just really repetitive having to fight the same opponent 2, 3 or more times before they were defeated. Why they decided to move away from the original's nice cutscenes to a lazy board game I just don't know.

-They added some characters but also took a few of them out like Zarbon and #19.

-The graphics were much worse and the arena's were horrible looking with hardly any detail at all.

Budokai 3 - 7/10

+The gameplay was vastly improved, it added a lot of new features like the Dragon Rush, Quick dodge, Teleportion attacks and Hyper Mode. Transformations were done much better too as it didn't keep disappearing when you were knocked down.

+The graphics were improved, mainly in that the arena's looked much more detailed and the character models were also better though not as good as the original.

+The storymode was another improvement with the ability to fly around the world and land at different locations to talk to characters and find items and Dragon Ball's. You levelled up and got more powerful and the story covered more ground.

-The dialogue being voiced over was inconsistent, there'd be main story cutscenes that had voicing and others that wouldn't and optional cutscenes would have voicing and others wouldn't. Why not just dub it all?

-The storymode would have been better off just being one big playthrough that covered the whole series in order with the different characters as opposed to like 10 short to tiny playthroughs. It just made it really repetitive that way,


So I'm currently in the middle of Infinite World, I'll do Burst Limit after that and then I'll post my pro's and con's for those though only if this thread gets a few responses because I wouldn't wanna just keep bumping it if nobody cares.

[Metis Connetis]

Hey, I'm interested, I love to read about dragon ball games and specially about the "old" ones.

I see you jumped all the Tenkaichi sagas,why?

And I don't think that the Budokai 2's graphics were worst. No way, that cel shading was impressive. If you compare B1 & B2... well, there's an HUGE difference.

[Lord Beerus]

Budokai 3 - 7/10

Aaaaaaaaaand, that's where I stopped reading. Seriously, how can you rate Budokai 3, arguably the magnum opus of all Dragon Ball games, at least on console, a 7/10? It's at least an 8.5. But hey, everyone has an opinion.

[DBZAOTA482]

I'd say Budokai 3 is at least 7.5 or 8 quality and you can also find hidden battles and various other items in Dragon Universe. Even those that would cost fortune otherwise.

[Metis Connetis]

Budokai 3 it deserves 8,5 - 9... until the Tenkaichi saga release. In my opinion it's just a funny cheap fighting game compared to the perfect Dragon Ball simulator the Tenkaichi was.

[Bullza]

I see you jumped all the Tenkaichi sagas,why?

I am going to see about playing those but I wanted to played through the traditional fighting games by Dimps first. They also weren't very long and I was able to get through each of the Budokai games in a day beach but I think the Tenkaichi games are quite a bit lengthier especially the second.

And I don't think that the Budokai 2's graphics were worst.

Well this is a screenshot from Budokai 1



And here's a screenshot from Budokai 2



Now sure one of those is in HD and the other isn't but even then at least to me the original just looks a lot better and smoother regardless. The sky and the ground has a detail to it that the second one just didn't have at all, like this where its just one colour.



Also Budokai had those nice illustrations for the player character that Budokai 2 doesn't have.

Seriously, how can you rate Budokai 3, arguably the magnum opus of all Dragon Ball games, at least on console, a 7/10? It's at least an 8.5.

It's a great game as far as DBZ games go and it is a good game in general but not a great one I don't think.

[Lord Beerus]

Budokai 3 it deserves 8,5 - 9... until the Tenkaichi saga release. In my opinion it's just a funny cheap fighting game compared to the perfect Dragon Ball simulator the Tenkaichi was.

The Tenkaichi/Sparking series score majors points for being a damn flawless Dragon Ball simulator. But as a fighting on its own, there are quite a few Dragon Ball games that surpass it.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Well this is a screenshot from Budokai 1



And here's a screenshot from Budokai 2



Now sure one of those is in HD

Well, there's that- the first is a compressed screenshot of the Hd collection, the second is a compressed (more like mangled), needlessly resized shot of the PS2 game. The point about the skylines is true, but Budokai 2 looks great a higher resolutions too.

Seriously, how can you rate Budokai 3, arguably the magnum opus of all Dragon Ball games, at least on console, a 7/10? It's at least an 8.5.

It's a great game as far as DBZ games go and it is a good game in general but not a great one I don't think.

This bears watching. Do you (royal you, not questioning any one poster) suspend your normal perception of video games because its Dragon Ball, or make compromises for the annual development cycles. If there is a Dragon Ball game that is honest-to-pete higher than an 8/10 I've cleared missed something.

[Bullza]

Well, there's that- the first is a compressed screenshot of the Hd collection, the second is a compressed (more like mangled), needlessly resized shot of the PS2 game. The point about the skylines is true, but Budokai 2 looks great a higher resolutions too.

Here's a more fair comparison then. This is Budokai 1 on the PS2 or Gamecube



And here's one for Budokai 2



Now surely I don't have to explain why Budokai 1 looks better but it's got much better lighting and shadow effects whereas Budokai 2 just looks horribly plain and jagged. Just look at Frieza's tail in both pictures, big difference. Also like I previously mentioned the arena's and HUD look better in the game too.

This bears watching. Do you (royal you, not questioning any one poster) suspend your normal perception of video games because its Dragon Ball, or make compromises for the annual development cycles. If there is a Dragon Ball game that is honest-to-pete higher than an 8/10 I've cleared missed something.

No I don't. I don't give DBZ games an extra benefit of the doubt out of any bias I have for the series, that wouldn't be fair. I also understand that they may have to hold some things back because they only have a limited time to make the game but I wouldn't take that into account either.

The only DBZ game I'd give a score of 8 too would be Legacy of Goku in relation to GBA games in general that I've played.

[90sDBZ]

So all this hype for Xenoverse has gotten me interested in playing the games again which is why I bought the Budokai HD collection but then I thought I'd play some of the others aswell just to see how they've evolved over time.

If anyone else wants to comment on any of the older games then feel free to do as I'd like to see other people's opinions as well.

Budokai - 6/10

+The graphics I found surprisingly good and they hold up pretty well for a 2002 game. They aren't cell shaded like the later games but the character model graphics are definitely better looking than in any of the other Budokai games by Dimps.

+The storymode was pretty good and the cutscenes were done very well and there was a lot of them, it's a shame the sequels never really kept this presentation going. I'd say it was probably the best storymode of the four Budokai games just for this reason.

+I liked the capsule mechanic, there was a ton of stuff to buy.

-The translations were bad and in some cases literally laughably bad (Oh you Aunt Sallies!!!)

-The fighting was pretty stiff and you were way too slow moving forward. Most attacks were just too complicated too pull off and just not worth it anyway.

-It was overly difficult in a lot of places. I had the game on normal and really struggled with some fights. I had to put it on Very Easy to beat Cell at the end and even then it took a few tries. Budokai 2 and 3 have this same difficulty spike problem.

-Having two playthroughs was just pointless. Instead of a Goku playthrough then a Z Fighters playthrough they should have just had the one longer playthrough from start to finish.

Budokai 2 - 5/10

+The gameplay was improved slightly, it was faster and you could pull off special attacks without having to do a combo first. You also spent more time fighting in the air.

+The Arenas were more interactive.

-The storymode was dreadful, I'd forgotten how bad it was. It was also just really repetitive having to fight the same opponent 2, 3 or more times before they were defeated. Why they decided to move away from the original's nice cutscenes to a lazy board game I just don't know.

-They added some characters but also took a few of them out like Zarbon and #19.

-The graphics were much worse and the arena's were horrible looking with hardly any detail at all.

Budokai 3 - 7/10

+The gameplay was vastly improved, it added a lot of new features like the Dragon Rush, Quick dodge, Teleportion attacks and Hyper Mode. Transformations were done much better too as it didn't keep disappearing when you were knocked down.

+The graphics were improved, mainly in that the arena's looked much more detailed and the character models were also better though not as good as the original.

+The storymode was another improvement with the ability to fly around the world and land at different locations to talk to characters and find items and Dragon Ball's. You levelled up and got more powerful and the story covered more ground.

-The dialogue being voiced over was inconsistent, there'd be main story cutscenes that had voicing and others that wouldn't and optional cutscenes would have voicing and others wouldn't. Why not just dub it all?

-The storymode would have been better off just being one big playthrough that covered the whole series in order with the different characters as opposed to like 10 short to tiny playthroughs. It just made it really repetitive that way,


So I'm currently in the middle of Infinite World, I'll do Burst Limit after that and then I'll post my pro's and con's for those though only if this thread gets a few responses because I wouldn't wanna just keep bumping it if nobody cares.

I'd like to point out something regarding your point of spending more time fighting in the air in Budokai 2 than in 1. While Budokai 3 remained unchanged, the HD version of Budokai 1 made some annoying little changes to the gameplay which included altering the effect of moves that would knock your opponent into the air like P+K. While on Ps2 this move would knock your opponent into the air, the HD version changed it so that they simply roll to the ground instead. As a result you spend a lot less time in the air on the HD version than you would on the PS2 version.

Addressing your scores I think Budokai 2 deserves at least a 7.5. Graphically it beat Budokai 1 hands down(although Budokai 1 had the better costumes during story mode). Even though the story wasn't faithful it tried to do something different. I never saw it as lazy anyway. They could have just remade Budokai 1 with the Buu saga added on but instead went for something more original. And the What-If characters in that game were great.

Budokai 3 I'd give at least a 9. It remains the Gold Standard for DBZ games. The game was both easily accessible to newcomers and hard to master for pros. It improved the fighting so much and had a really fun story mode with plenty of replay value.

[Bullza]

While Budokai 3 remained unchanged, the HD version of Budokai 1 made some annoying little changes to the gameplay which included altering the effect of moves that would knock your opponent into the air like P+K. While on Ps2 this move would knock your opponent into the air, the HD version changed it so that they simply roll to the ground instead.

I didn't know that. I wonder why they changed it, it was more annoying that way because you'd lose your transformation when you were knocked to the ground unlike being knocked into the air. They should have left that alone.

They could have just remade Budokai 1 with the Buu saga added on but instead went for something more original.

Well rather than remaking the story covered in Budokai 1 they should have just continued the story from where that game left off by covering the Buu saga and using the same presentation as the original. With a few improvements and additions here and there I think that would have undoubtedly been miles better than what we got.

After playing the game I can see why it was left off the Budokai HD collection.

[Bullza]

Infinite World – 5.5

+Bought back the cut scenes, which was nice as they extended past the Cell saga. They weren’t done nearly as well as in Budokai nor were there as many but it’s better than having none at all.

+Graphics were slightly improved over Budokai 3 though being that this was released 4 years later they should have looked better than they did.

+The minigames made it different. They were more annoying than anything but I’d still rather have had them there than not.

+They finally had the common sense to put a retry option into the battles but…

-…then they removed the option to continue if you failed meaning you had to go back to the map then load it all back up again each time.

-The game play was a step back from Budokai 3. They took out Beam struggles and Dragon Rush and introduced this Aura Spark, which was so incredibly frustrating.

-Yet again they split up the story into two playthroughs, why was it so hard for them to have the game go from Raditz to Buu (or Omega Shenron) in just one play through?

-The story mode was just boring in general, too many fights, opponents with 5 or 6 or more bars of health making the fights just drag out too long. There was also no story or dialogue tying most of the fights together, it was just a string of fights.

-The cutscene graphics were much worse than Budokai’s despite having 6 years on it.

Overall this game really shouldn’t have been made. Not that it was awful, it’s better than Budokai 2 but all the work put into it should have gone into Burst Limit instead. It just felt like a lazy rushed out product. Even the box art looks lame.

[Metis Connetis]

In my opinion, the main problem of Infinite World it's that game called Shin Budokai 2. I think Dimps did a great work in this game, taking some things of the Tenkaichi saga and doing the best Budokai-style game, like the chases or the ultimates. Also, the transformations could be used right from the start.

Then, Infinitw World seemed more a Budokai 3.2 compared the Shin Budokai saga.

[Bullza]

Shin Budokai 2 was the one with the storyline where Buu shows up in Trunks timeline wasn't it? I haven't played that for years either.

Kind of annoying how the PSP games had an original storyline but we had to wait over 10 years for that to finally happen in a home console game.

[Hellspawn28]

I do agree on you on IW. Seeing that it was a bargain bin title at the time then the game is expected to be mediocre.

[DBZAOTA482]

You also forgot to mention how Infinite World took out the multi-directional input combos aspect from Budokai 3 and Shin Budokai.

[Bullza]

Burst Limit - 6.5

+The graphics are really nice, to say it’s seven years old, it looks good even today and until Xenoverse came out was the best looking DBZ game on consoles.

+It had cutscenes again and it didn’t explain the story like Budokai did but they looked great, especially the one’s with Goku and Frieza.

+The gameplay is my favourite of the lot even though a few things were removed and that’s mainly because there was no manual Ki charging mechanic which bogged down the fights in the others so it was much faster paced because it was just non stop fighting without the pauses.

+The difficulty was a lot more manageable and fights didn’t take too long to finish.

+The drama pieces made the fights feel more like the anime than any of the other games have.

+The story mode was finally covered in one playthrough from start to finish.

-The absolute worst thing about the game is the lack of content it offers. I don’t know why the game was such a huge step backwards in that regard as you’d think that Dimps would have had more time to make this one. Whether it was because of Infinite World or they were purposefully holding stuff back for a sequel who knows but here’s what I mean…

-The games story only went up to the Cell saga and seeing as how the games before it had covered all the way through to GT this was just baffling.

-Only 21 characters. That’s half the amount of Budokai 3 and even less than Budokai 1. I understand there wouldn’t be as many characters to choose from but they could have put in Chiaotzu, Dodoria, Zarbon, Jeice, Burter, #19, #20, Mr Satan etc and jacked the roster up to at least 30 characters.

-The game had only 5 stages, that just boggles the mind, Budokai had 9 stages and the other games Budokai games had over 10 stages.

-There was no World Tournament mode in this one (or in Infinite World), no extra mode like Dragon Arena or Legend of Mr Satan, no Capsule system either.

In summary I liked the game, it was fun to play and nice to look at and I prefer it to any of the games that came after it but the fact that it provided less content than the original Budokai game was just not right at all. Had the game been more of a remake of Budokai 3 as opposed to Budokai 1 then I think it would have been the one of the best DBZ games to be made.

[Hellspawn28]

Burst Limit came out in the summer instead the typical Winter release. Maybe Namco Bandai told Dimps that they want the game out sooner than latter. The credits has shown more cut scenes and characters that didn't seem to make the cut.

[Bullza]

Yeah I noticed that myself. After the Frieza saga they had a montage of clips which half showed scenes that appeared in the story but then half that didn't.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lJOaWi-vf_M

I was sitting there wondering if maybe I'd missed out on something because I thought it was a weird way of doing it and why they'd bother to create all these extra character models and set pieces just to show them very briefly in a montage.

It had to have been a part of something that got cut from the game which would be really disheartening if that was the case.

I bet it's as you said, the game was probably intended for a Winter release like all the others but then they had to release it much sooner and all these extra scenes remained unfinished. Maybe Namco Bandai didn't want Burst Limit and Infinite World releasing at the same time and wanted it to spread it out.

[Hellspawn28]

From what I've been told and remember reading that IW was made for the people who didn't have a PS3 and 360 yet at the time. I remember hearing that IW was a quick game to make seeing how cheap it was at the time. Namco Bandai most likely decided to have Dimps make IW on the last minute.