Greatest DBZ games of all time?

[DBZAOTA482]

Not saying that this is the best source. But didn't Budokai 3 win Fighting game of the year or something like that?

No, but Tenkaichi 2 did get an award from X-Play (who normally dislike anime video games) and it was a runner-up for IGN.

Oh Budokai 3 was greatest hits am I right now?

Yes, that's also when the Japanese voices first became an option.

[dbboxkaifan]

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3
Collector's Edition (EU) - September 2005
Greatest Hits (US) - October 2005

So it seems it was first released in Europe with the Japanese audio but this doesn't come as a surprise since we tend to get it earlier than Americans sometimes. In US they didn't even receive a physical release of One Piece: Pirate Warriors it was just a digital copy.

[Gokuden]

I have the PAL Budokai 3, not C.E. though lol. I got it for like 7 eur, and it was mint. The C.E. has long-haired Trunks, a few more costumes, and 2 special characters with lvl 99 capabilities.

All in all, if you got the C.E. back in the day, good on you, but for the money it goes for right now, you could buy 4 vanillas.

I'd say must plays are in no particular order:

BT 1-3 (wii if you can 2-3)
Tag-team tenkaichi (Plays like a portable tenkaichi 2 1/2, which I think stomps Tenkaichi 3)
Budokai 1-3
Shin Budokai 1-2
Attack of the Saiyans
Sagas
Infinite World
Super Dragon Ball Z if you want to simulate the arcade vibe, but you have to work on your characters to get depth, otherwise you will think it's a crappy game with the basic moveset. You level up REALLLL SLOW.

[dbboxkaifan]

Well, in terms of disc content if one purchases Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 Platinum they're getting the same that's on Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 CE, well, except the great packaging.

[Basaku]

How expansive free-roaming really is in Ultimate Tenkaichi? And between that and other PS360-gen DBZ games, is it a good purchase or other titles are much better?

[dbboxkaifan]

How expansive free-roaming really is in Ultimate Tenkaichi? And between that and other PS360-gen DBZ games, is it a good purchase or other titles are much better?

There's not much to do on the free roaming mode of Ultimate Blast, you just have random enemies sometimes Saibaiman and then others to collect the Dragon Balls.

On Tenkaichi 2 you could visit the cities although they didn't allow to freely walk around.

[jda95]

I personally believe Super Dragon Ball Z is by far the best game in the series. By ditching most of the ornamentation and making a strict fighting game made it stand out as a game that I would have really enjoyed even if I wasn't a fan of the series. Attack of the Saiyans and the Origins games were also very solid.

My personal favorite is still Sparking! Meteor, but I can admit that its status is more for the fanservice value than being an incredible game (not to say I don't think it's a good fighting game though).

[Gokuden]

Woops, looks like my list overlooked Ultimate Tenkaichi.

Here is my personal review, and terrible/great moments of the game.

When I first started playing ultimate tenkaichi, I picked the Dragon Ball Z story mode we grew up with. Yes, I was sick to my stomach, and it felt like every 'battle' was a chore, even on hard mode, I kept telling myself to 'push harder' because I wanted to make this $40 game a worthy investment. Nope, still was sick to my stomach, and kept on regretting the purchase until the very last battle where Son Gokou salutes kid Buu into oblivion. Afterwards, I unlocked more movie battles, as only a few were available during the campaign, I was automatically thrust into the Q.T.E. battles everyone lauded so much, and decided to quit.

After having sat through walls, upon WALLS of text to tell me the main timeline story, long as hell loading screens (you'll find them long after you'd rather save your thumbs the stamina for gameplay, rather than uselessly shooting capsules), gameplay that would always go in the CPU's favour 65% of the time, rather than skill... Well... You couldn't blame me.

Contemplating on whether I should put Raging Blast 2 into the Playstation, I realized I hadn't yet played the Original Story Mode, or 'Hero MODE', I thought that if the rewashed campaign of DBZ was any indication, I would rather not. Out of curiosity for the level of customization, I selected the 'Hero Mode' and then the normal hero body. And had a few choices, I was like the reviewers were right this is a p.o.s., but I kept playing, and am glad I did.

The more I played, the more things I unlocked, the more people I met, and more of the story manifested itself right before my eyes. The narrator would actually talk in-game, and the camera would pan out of different corners just like it did in the show. They recreated the show in Hero mode. There were no terrible walls of text, and training with the other characters actually seemed to help my character; as his stats boosted, the more control he had in the battle. No more CPU abuse, that is of course... Until you randomly encounter Oozaru, or have to avenge someone.

Of course, the map was beautiful, and you could visit Tortue Géniale, acquire movesets, and attacks that are hilarious. I had my character's voice (JAP of course) set to evil, and I had him equip a certain volleyball attack, and I was wiping the floor with the opposition, all the while, mocking them in nefarious ways.

I felt like I was living in the Dragon Ball Universe (alternate, of course). The game was pretty realistic as far as RPGs/action hybrids in the DB world go, I went to fight certain teenage siblings after training under 3 masters, and I thought I could progress the story, nope. The twins literally humiliated my egotistical character, spared him, and told him to get stronger, and fight them again.

No biggy, I grinded by doing a tournament, I did well, and then I got some good stat boosts. I tried the same on the weak saibamen, only pathetic increases.
After the tourny, I was able to KO the first twin, but that was after getting 96% of my character's health KO'd (Knocked Off) as well.

I didn't want to grind again, so I said, I'll just fight the Oozaru I've been ignoring because my attacks were pitiful against it. After doing a 4-5 hit combo, I would get 250-300 damage. After the tourny, I was getting 500-650* *(depending on how my timing was, I could sneak in a few extra hits). I wanted to see if the powering up proved to be true, and it did, I finished the beast pretty quickly. With loads of health to spare.

I went back for more punishment from the twins; I didn't hesitate in my attacks, and I still got dished-out. Whenever cpu would attack they would give me a good knocking with either 1300-1800 for one punch. I could manage 700 after several. The hammer attack would give me 700 for one punch.

So, I lost again. But, like in DBZ, sometimes you have to surmount obstacles, even if you are weaker, you have to find a way. Out of laziness, and wanting to see if I could live a battle in typical DBZ fashion (which I usually do in other jRPGs out of sheer laziness in order to prevent grinding) I gave the twins no space, it was so tight. I had 090 health left, and I owe it all to spamming the light melee attacks, making strange combos, and timing when to use my super attacks.

Since I was outmatched, and beat the cpu, it wouldn't have it (Jk), I had done a crazy meelee attack which should have ended c-xx life when I shot the ki blasts, but nooo, it kept going, even after smashing that person into a a boulder, and hitting them with the flying punch (usually at the end of a 30x combo, but did not change the damage accrued), the droid was still kicking, and took me from 12,000 to 090. Only when I hit blast range was I able to fire a ki blast, and kill the 01 health of the opposition.

So, because I was underpowered, and blinked out of joy when I got the opposition down to 01, the CPU took advantage.

During the mission debriefing, my stats exploded because of my underpowered character over compensating (sort of like a Zenkai).

Personally, the game is amazing, just stay away from the main timeline campaign, or play a bit of it every week. It's not fun. Just play Hero mode, it is a hybrid jRPG/Fighter with enough depth to keep you invested. The way they told the hero story, made the main timeline look like an entirely different game.

16/20.

Why? Terrible main timeline campaign; fights are tedious, the storytelling is horrendous, it's worse than how Zelda likes to tell its stories, you can't scroll through them fast, you have to sit there, and get what seems like motion-sickness as the blue-screen twirls around. Terrible loading times, even in the amazing Hero mode. Amazing music, amazing hero mode story.

When I was following the game, I thought the Hero mode was a gimmick, turns out it is really the meat of the game, and the main timeline is just a sideshow, and treated as such.The map is amazing, it's just missing Heaven, Hell, and Demon Realm.

The loading times are what really ticked me, so I would suggest running homebrew on your PS3 to install the full game on the drive, so there's no need to load. :/ Of course, buy a fast HDD 7200 at least.

I would compare this game to dragon ball online.

[Son-Kun!!]

Budokai 1, Super Butoden 2, Legendary super Warriors, BT3

[Avenged]

Dragon Ball Final Bout and DBZ Sagas.

[DBZAOTA482]

Dragon Ball Final Bout and DBZ Sagas.

Really? You best be trolling, Avenged.

[Majin Buu]

In no particular order:

1. Legendary Super Warriors
2. Infinite World
3. Sparking Meteor/Budokai Tenkaichi 3

I haven't bothered playing anything past Infinite World and Sparking Meteor because I feel like with those two, DBZ fighting games hit a creative dead end. None of the fighting games after those two interest me because they just feel like more of the same with moderate adjustments. That, and it feels like these fighting games are all we get now. That's why the non-fighting games have been looking so refreshing to me lately (the Heroes games in particular, which is why it's so irritating that we'll probably never get any of them here in the states). Unfortunately, lately it seems that any DBZ games that aren't big fighting games don't do too well, and thus, don't get many opportunities to improve with sequels. For instance, it's a crime that Legendary Super Warriors never got a sequel or at least a remake.

I personally think the franchise could stand to lay off the fighting games for a little while and focus more on other forms of gameplay.

As a side note: During the Playstation era, I kept hearing that Legends was "the best DBZ game ever". So I find it hilarious that I have yet to see it on anyone's list here. So much for "the best DBZ game ever".

[chaospunishment]

You can't really say that since you literally described BT3

Anyway, mine are

Super DBZ
Goku Gekitouden
Advanced Adventure
BT2

[VegettoEX]

As a side note: During the Playstation era, I kept hearing that Legends was "the best DBZ game ever". So I find it hilarious that I have yet to see it on anyone's list here. So much for "the best DBZ game ever".

I don't see what the problem is. At the time, it may have been someone's favorite DBZ game. There have been dozens and dozens of games since then, so it's incredibly plausible that it could no longer be their favorite game. Opinions can change over time.

[Majin Buu]

You can't really say that since you literally described BT3

Are you responding to me? If so, please elaborate.

I don't see what the problem is. At the time, it may have been someone's favorite DBZ game. There have been dozens and dozens of games since then, so it's incredibly plausible that it could no longer be their favorite game. Opinions can change over time.

Yes, opinions and trends change over time, that's my point. I find it ironic that a game that was once lauded as "the best DBZ game ever", today doesn't even get a shout out in a thread discussing which DBZ game is the greatest. I was also one of those people that thought Legends was the greatest thing ever, but looking back, I don't think it holds up; and I think a lot of people realized that over time given how little attention it's getting here. Nothing wrong with that at all.

[GS7X7]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBB5FonUU64

I think this is probably the best game. It's neither too long (those NES/SNES rpgs, man!) nor too short.

Okay, yes it is short but it offers an incredible amount of payout for the time you have to invest in beating it! And there's no fighting Majin Freeze/Cell a billion times, it's just you clashing with all the bad guys in the game.

It's a shame it's not dubbed or translated, and that there's no multiplayer online option. That's the real payout once you've won the thing and unlocked everybody. (wait.... can people actually play 2-player Playstation 1 games online?)

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

Burst Limit
Tenkaichi 3
DBZ Super Sonic Warriors 1
DBZ Final Bout
DBZ Budokai Shin Budokai 1

[Daimo-Rukiri]

If we're talking about Fighting games.
- Super DBZ
- Budokai 3 (even though controls were weak and it was just too easy)

For RPGs
- Attack of Saiyans
- Super Saiyan Densetsu
- Gokuden 1-2 (not really an rpg, still fun)

[Weejus]

Dragon Ball Final Bout and DBZ Sagas.

Don't do this, man.

Hyper Dimension, Budokai 3, Super DBZ, Legacy of Goku II, and Advanced Adventure are the best in my opinion.

[mcdonough88]

Sparking! Meteor, Hyper Dimension, Kai Ultimate Butoden and Bukuu Ressen.
They get a lot of replay from me.