- December 3, 2002 (North America)
February 13, 2003 (Japan)
Genre(s): Fighting
Developer(s): Dimps
Publisher(s): Bandai (Japan/Europe)
- Infograms(North America)
Overview
Ahh... 2002, back then Dragon Ball Z (and anime in general) was at the height of it's popularity in North America. The series was everywhere... it had multiple toylines, a training card game series, birthday supplies, has been published on newspaper articles, and was the predominant show on the Cartoon Network block Toonami... this new found interest in the show was so great that the franchise as a whole was revived in Japan from years of inactivity in the wake of Dragon Ball GT's lack of success. There's no doubt in mind there would a video game license for this juggernaut of an anime and a Japanese video game development company by the name of Dimps thought "Hey, why not make one for the hottest console on the market?". However, many gamers and older fans of the series alike were skeptic of the game's success as most DBZ games up until that point have amount to little more than low-quality cash-ins... but what does Budokai do exactly to change that? Let's find out.
Gameplay
Budokai is a 2.5D fighting game structurally similar to Soul Caliber or Virtua Fighter and though it resembles a traditional fighter, it's fighting mechanics are quite unorthodox. You can't crouch or jump so there's not much strategy involved when it comes to attacking high or low.. there's only one blocking zone (which can be penetrated with an attack with "Guard Break" priority which are usually rush attacks), there's also a lot of combos and strings to memorize of which depends greatly on the character, and special moves are even executable after performing a specific pre-set chain which does help in reducing spamming but it's not very exciting to pull off in combat either and is kinda useless since good players can do just as much damage with basic combos. On the bright side, the control scheme is easily accessible and the controls themselves are smooth like butter. You have one button for punching called the P button, you have another for kicking called the K button, another for guarding called the G button, another for using energy attacks called the E button, and the directional buttons or analog-stick moves the character. Combining each button can do various types of attacks... like combining the P and K buttons allow you to perform something called the Charged Punch which on depending on in junction to the left or right direction buttons allow you to performing a strong attack that either can be charged into being unblockable or with nullifying attributes that allow you (up to a point) to have armor priority over a normal attack or when clashing with another attack with nullifying attributes lands you and your opponent into a Burst Zone where you both try roll the along sticks/mash buttons faster than the other to come out on top. Budokai has several other mechanics typically not in a fighting game as such interactive environments, flight, the ability to build up energy, and full transformations of which boosts your attack power by 10% with each transformation (making Goku's Super Saiyan form the strongest in the whole game)... but transforming slowly eats away your ki and the more transform the faster the ki gauge drains which makes maintaining a transformation a real bitch as you lose that form if you get knocked down while below the minimum required number of ki bars.
However, I feel there is one huge weakness of the combat system that really holds it back in the end and it's is how limited the amount of options you have in combat. There's not many defensive maneuvers outside guarding, the flight combat aspect of the game is basically the same as fighting on the ground except you're floating as you can't go into or get out of the air without being knocked into it or down from it, and while the basic moves shared between characters are varied one character tends to fight really similar to another so battles often feel like you're trying to outlast a war of attrition so unless you're already a fan of the series, you may not get much enjoyment from the combat.
Content
As for Game Modes, I'd say there quite a bit to do in the game. Budokai's single-player campaign is generically titled Story Mode and in this mode, you're usually placed into a scenario where you have to defeat an opponent with a certain character and certain set of special skills (which I'll get into later) though some battles have you fight under a specific conditions or even a different objective... a bit too short but really effective at what it does as it feels like an actual story. This is also where you unlock most of the characters. The next mode is Duel which is the standard versus mode though one thing that sets it apart is you also have the option to fight the computer, have the 2nd player fight the computer, or have the computer fight itself. There's also the World Tournament in where you select one character to compete one-on-one in 3 classes of choice (2 of them are unlockable)... one each harder than the last and has more contestants with a bigger prize money waiting for you in the end if you go undefeated (the runner-up gets a constellation prize that's half the winner's), and the way of winning is by either KO or knocking the opponent out of the ring.... this is also the only method of earning money (which is Zenie in this game). Then there's Practice which is the game's training mode where you can use another character as a dummy to test your abilities by either having them act in a certain way ranging from doing nothing to performing a specific action (like guarding, deflecting a ki blast, breaking fall, etc.) or using them as a sparing partner so you can get harness your skills, or learning how to perform the moves for character of choice and maximizing damage... it's a great way to learn the roles of the game.
This mode has another unique factor in Budokai's combat system and it's called Edit Skills. It's revolved around a system the game calls the E.S.S (Exciting. Skill. System..... lame) and in this system these special skills are determined by 3 different categories of capsule. The red capsule is a character's special abilities such as Goku's Kamehameha or Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon. There are the death moves which are relatively weak but consume little ki bar, of course transformations as well, and there are ultimate moves which can do loads of damage but take a lot of ki bars. The blue capsule is a character's physical move. They vary between characters and each character has at least 3 of them but they lack diversity. The green capsule is a support skill that enhances a character's abilities in various ways (such as increasing states, restoring health, handicapping your opponent, etc.) and some that do very specific things that only certain characters can equip. Sounds like the makings of a great mechanic in the combat system but it's marred by one problem and it's within the Skill Tray which is what allows you to customize set skills. Each character is limit to only 7-slots which wouldn't be a bad thing if it wasn't for the fact you have to equip two of the same ability or physical capsule to increase it's effectiveness and many capsule take more than one-slot.... for characters like Kid Gohan who have only have 1 or no transformations at all it's not so bad but for characters like Goku who have several transformations... it's hard to make the most out of your custom skill set without Breakthrough (a capsule that allows the character to use all their moves) and getting that opens up another problem within the Skill Shop. The Skill Shop is evidently where you buy these aforementioned skills and you can buy one capsule from each category but it always random... in fact, the only bit of certainty is with the recommended option and even the way that works is for the most parts random. This is also the only effective method of getting the Dragon Balls of which you need all 7 balls in order to wish for each character's breakthrough capsule, though they are rare and really expensive so you'd not only have to constantly go in and out of the Skill Shop before a Dragon Ball become purchasable in the recommended option but you'd have to do quite some grinding at the World Tournament along the way. The constant going back-and-forth between the World Tournament and getting the capsule you want added with the randomness of the Skill Shop can get very tedious, very fast. On a positive note, you can trade skills with other player to bypass the efforts for getting a lot of the capsules via memory card.
The last game mode is unlockable from purchasing it in the Skill Shop. It is called Legend of Hercule and you play as the World Champion Hercule where you have to face all the present fighters Cell Games right from Yamcha to Cell. Some have you fight under a certain condition but for most part you have simply have to beat an opponent under a time limit and you earn score points depending on how well you do in each battle. The mode is pretty limited so it serves as little more than a time killer.
Graphics
Another point in the game comes up a bit short... though that isn't to say the graphics are horrible but they haven't well gracefully either. In fact, even from the time period when the game first came out the graphics on the game weren't very impressive to begin with. Though they do a great job at resembling the look and feel of the anime series, the models are seriously sparse in detail to the point where they could be passed off as clay action figures. The GameCube version of the game does have a more cel-shaded like but it's not nearly as up to par with later games. This is also not even going into how the dull the environments are... there is no life or energy going on in any of them and they mostly take place on some barren wasteland. Even some unique stages like Hyperdolic Time Chamber amounts to being little more than being a stretched out area.
On the positive, it does sport high production values with the particle effects, beams, and auras all being well done and the animation on the characters are quite sharp with consistently smooth framerate though in-game it's clear they share a lot of canned fighting animation between each other.
Sound
One of the game's stronger points... the FUNimation dubbing cast have reprise their roles for the game and they all do pretty good job here though the corniness found in the dub for the anime series can sometimes be shown in full display. The soundtrack in the game isn't anything too fancy but it captures the mood of what's going on and there's a lot of memorial tracks (my personal favorite being the one that plays on the Cell Games stage) right from the calm, yet unsettling in a way, at the same time tune for the vacant yet mysterious Hyperbolic Time Chamber stage to the hard-hitting electric guitar/drums and synthesizers score that plays during the intense battle between Goku and Frieza, and to the triumphant orchestra during the final showdown between Gohan and Cell. The sound effects are also very close to what is found in the anime series and run at a great clip.
Aesthetics
This is probably the game's greatest strength. Although a bit rushed in pacing the game's Story Mode has like the greatest representation of the DBZ story in any DBZ game hands down. It faithfully recreates the events that tale from the Saiyan invasion up to the Cell Games with cutscenes that cover several of the anime series' key moments adding with the fact it gives each Story Mode scenario a recap to the last courtesy of the narrator from the show and the next episode previews which makes you really feel like you're thrown into an episode of DBZ... there's even some what-if scenarios such as "what if Frieza achieved Immortality" or "what if Cell absorbed Krillin instead of #18". Aside from that the menus within the game have several visual cues to the Dragon Ball series such as character being chibi style similar to the tankōbon volumes of the manga with Goku riding on his nimbus cloud in the main menus and Puar turning himself into a menu for the options in Duel. Even the combat for Budokai has many DBZ fighting quintessentials. The mechanic Burst Zone has fast fighting similar to what's found within the show, you can also send opponents flying into environmental hazards, many of the characters' have their signature moves from the series, and ultimate moves are quite a sight to behold as you devastate your opponent. Even stuff like big explosions, destructive environments, and power auras are here for the course.
Overall
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai is not the greatest or deepest fighter out there... in fact, quite far from it even compared to many of the contemporary fighting games but as a game based on the insanely anime series it was incredible for the time. The combat, though limited, is fast-paced and fairly close to the action shown in the show, the art direction just screams "DRAGON BALL", it's easy to get into, and there's a whole lot to do. This game started what I'd like to call the "Golden Age of DBZ Gaming".
I give this game a 7 out of 10.
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