Individual Gaming Aspects
1. GraphicsThe best of any DBZ game hands down. The character models don't look 100% anime-like, and to my surprise, I actually like it better this way. Melee and Specials(whether regular or ultimate) really capture the epicness of the series. It does this better than any before it. The way the battlefield looks after a special/ultimate is amazing, although it does revert back to the original battlefield afterwards(that is slightly disappointing).
2. StoryThe main story is the main story. You probably know it by now, and if you don't, then I suggest you watch Dragonball Kai in jap with english subtitles(easily found just google), then DBZ for the Buu saga. Don't count on the game story mode. It goes into some detail, but a good portion is told through text walls, and that's boring. Plus all games that are based off anime usually never completely follow the way the anime was presented to a T. What it actually does show through cutscenes and in-game fights is very well presented, following the storyline VERY closely, even including some redone HD anime clips of the series. You can tell that if Spike actually had decent time to develop the game(i.e. more than 1 yr) that it would've been really special. As it stands, the main story is 3.5/ 5, above average but not quite there yet.
Hero mode, however, is another story. It's an alternate storyline parallel to that of the canon, where you create your character to try and save the world. How you save the world, I will not say, as I don't want to spoil it for anyone. Just know that it's pretty damn good fun to do so. Creation options are limited at first, as you have to unlock different hair types, clothes, etc. as you play along in the mode. Throughout the mode you get to train under well known Z fighters and/or villans to learn their melee style, supers, and ultimates, leaving you the choice to mix and match which moves you want. Be forewarned, it starts out pretty easy and simple enough, but somehwere around halfway through, there's a sharp difficulty increase, so you will have to level up your character through more training, world tournaments, etc. It's really fun to create your own character and see how they develop, and is easily where you will spend most of your time outside of online. The down side is that you can only create a saiyan, a male saiyan. I can see why only a saiyan when playing through this particular story, but it could've had the option to choose male/female and not had a problem with the development. All in all, a fun mode with very solid foundation for the sequel.
3. GameplayThis is where most who are fans of the series are divided. Some prefer the way Raging Blast and tenkaichi 3 plays, where you control everything all the time. I like how DBZ:UT plays better for one reason and one reason only; It's the closest anyone has ever come to replicating DBZ fights. I don't want a standard fighter skinned with DBZ characters, I want a DBZ fighter, and that's what this delivers. The way the camera cuts when you do any super or ultimate looks like it came from the anime. You have three choices when an super/ultimate attack is fired towards you: Guard/Evade/intercept. What you can choose depends on your Ki level. The interactions look amazing, very true to the series. Of course, you may want the choice of just evading by moving the stick a little to the left or right, but I think this interaction makes for a better dramatic experience, which is what DBZ is all about. Supers/Ultimates themselves are not tied to Ki, but to a Spirit Meter, which fills as you land combos, so you can't just build up Ki, fire ultimate, build up Ki, fire ultimate. Combos/melee are what needs the most work for the sequel. Chain attacks look great, providing great camera angles and explosive blows. The combos leading up to the chain is where it can get repetitive. You combo, then it transitions to dramatic cut of you and the opponent about to clash. You guess what the other will press, ala Budokai 3 for PS2, but this time there's only two choices, so it's down to a coin toss with the added pressure to predict which button they'll press. It would've been better with 3-4 choices, and made it feel less repetitive.
Online is pretty good, with some flaws that make you go: what the hell? It's great that I can use my Hero created character online(be sure to level him up though, as in the beginning he'll be weaker than the stock characters). It's great that you can have online tournaments, but it SUCKS that you cannot watch other people's fights as they participate in the tournament. How they missed that baffles me. So yes, you have to sit there and wait for them to finish while you look at the tournament bracket screen, hoping for the character pic to move up sooner than later. Some people rage quit as well, so don't be surprised if you're kicking butt only to find the connection "time out."
Roster41 characters, but some noticeable ones are left out. Goten and Trunks aren't in the game, yet Gotenks is. SS4 Vegeta and Goku are NOT in the game yet Gogeta is(both SS and SS4). Goten and Trunks I can see, since they dont do much on their own, but they left out SS4 Goku and Vegeta? That's a big miss. This is where longer development time would've come in handy.
Overall Experience:
When it comes down to it, DBZ UT is a fun DBZ experience. It's not the deepest fighter out there, where I have to remember combos, hitboxes, etc., but if I want that, I'll go play Street Fighter. What I want when I play a DBZ game is to feel like I am in their world, following their rules, and that is exactly what this provides. While it does leave some characters out, most of the important ones are definitely in. While it does have some repetitiveness, it also has a lot of spectacle and amazing cutscenes/ camera angles. You can only do so much in 1 year, as Spike had to rebuild EVERYTHING from the bottom up for this game. It finally seems like they have decided to focus on making the best DBZ experience, and not the best fighting game, and I'm thankful for it. A fun game with a great foundation to build upon; if you like DBZ, you can't go wrong with this one.
NoteBandai has publicly stated that this will probably be Spike's last game. However, the next developer will use the assets from this game for the sequel.
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Many have said that "Dragonball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi" was to be the sequel to "Dragonball: Raging Blast 2". I certainly hope that isn't the case, as the fighting system used for this game has done away with the fast paced, vast freedom of movement, intuitive flow and elegant complexity of the "Raging Blast" series. Instead, "Ultimate Tenkaichi" seems intent on trying to combine the "Raging Blast" and "Burst Limit" gameplay styles, but fails utterly.For those who are fans of the last generation series "Budokai" and "Budokai Tenkaichi", the latest generation of games have their modern day equivalents in the "Burst Limit" and "Raging Blast" games. The "Burst Limit" series is similar to the "Budokai" franchise of old; the gameplay largely takes place from a more traditional 2D point of view, with opponents facing off from the left and right sides of the screen. Freedom of movement is limited to how far each character can move away or closer while still staying on screen at the same time. Fans of the last generation franchise often resoundingly agree that "Budokai 3" was the pinnacle of the "Dragonball Z" fighting games franchise, whereas the "Burst Limit" games have been less well received.
On the other hand, you have the "Raging Blast" games, which are modern day recreations of the "Budokai Tenkaichi" series. The gameplay style offers much more freedom of movement and action as you view your character from an over-the-shoulder point of view. The environments in these games are quite large, and you can freely move through them at high speed, allowing you to fly around or rush at your enemy, attacking with long-range energy blasts or short-range punches and kicks. In my opinion, these games are superior to the "Budokai" and "Burst Limit" games as "Raging Blast" does a better job of recreating the feeling of being these incredibly powerful, fast-moving characters. It's also my opinion that the "Raging Blast" games strike the perfect balance of a fighting system that's just complex enough to be fun, but not so complex as to be overwhelming.
Then we have this game; "Ultimate Tenkaichi". If it is supposed to be a member of the "Raging Blast" franchise, the fighting system's been tweaked beyond recognition. Gameplay has been simplified to the point where it doesn't even feel like a real game anymore. You have the same ability to perform long and short ranged attacks like you do in "Raging Blast", but whereas in those games you can move back and forth between the two ranges with complete, seamless freedom, "Ultimate Tenkaichi" makes you wade through transitional animations when your character moves closer or farther, then forces you to use whatever attack type is appropriate for that range, thus completely disrupting the flow and pace of the game.
Of course, it doesn't really matter whether you hit your enemy with energy blasts or punches, because the end result is the same; in either case, you simply push one button three times, watch a series of quicktime events in which you have to push another button at the right moment, then just sit and watch your characters fly around and attack each other. To me, pushing one button every 5 seconds while I watch an elaborate animated sequence unfold that I have no control over is not my idea of a real game. I suppose for very young children this might be fun because it makes you feel like a lot is happening without actually having to learn or do much. But for someone who likes to feel like he or she is actually playing a game instead of just watching it, this is a huge disappointment.
My sincere hope is that Bandai/Namco was simply experimenting when they made this game, and that we'll see a real "Raging Blast 3" that lives up to the highly dynamic, incredibly fun legacy of its predecessors. In the meantime, stay away from "Ultimate Tenkaichi".
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By now, you should know what to expect from a Dragon Ball Z game. Ever since Spike introduced "Budokai Tenkaichi" to the world, DBZ games have fundamentally not changed from entry to entry. Exceptions to that rule are the excellent handheld entries (Legacy of Goku, DB Origins, Attack of the Saiyans), as well as fun, one-off anomalies like Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo or Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit. For the most part, however, Dragon Ball games are sort of like my own Madden: scant variation between each entry, but new little tweaks that make the series progressively stronger. So, imagine my surprise when I discover that Ultimate Tenkaichi finally held true on all of the promises made by it's ambitious developer. As a true-blue Dragon Ball fan and a dyed in wool gamer, I can say that this is the most consistently entertaining DBZ I've played out of every entry I've played since 2003.The shtick is pretty much the same as it has been the past decade: fly around, blow stuff up, pummel a dude, rinse, repeat. But for the first time since 2007's exceptional (and now exceptionally rare) "Budokai Tenkaichi 3", the series makes a big step up from it's past few entries. It's instantly distinguishable from the rather disappointing Raging Blast entries from the get-go, with a major overhaul to it's combat system. Instead of being a blind button-mashing affair, DBZ:UT takes a unprecedented turn for the turn-based.
Let me clarify: this game's combat isn't turn-based, and it isn't button-mashing reliant. Instead, it falls somewhere comfortably in-between, with a system that opens up when a player gets a full combo on a foe. Once the player lands a certain amount of hits, the enemy will be sent flying. It is at this point that a sequence begins where the player must either quickly hit a direction on the analogue stick and the attack button, press a button to negate the attack, or be too slow and get counter-attacked by the enemy. It adds a new level of fun and strategy to the formula, which makes for a much more interesting experience than "jam on the buttons and hope for the best." The most welcome feature kept from Raging Blast, though, is the mapping of special moves to the right analogue stick instead of relying on irritating button combos. This, coupled with the new and improved combat system, makes the games fun to veterans and accessible to newcomers.
Where the DBZ games have fallen short before, though, is in the graphics department. What we've typically received are bland cutscenes, boring but destructible environments, and a decent amount of attention to detail on characters. This time around, everything has received a facelift. Cutscenes finally feel like straight-faced adaptations from classic moments in "Dragon Ball Z', and some new pieces of animation have even been drawn up for the game. Environments are top-notch, with photo-realistic skies and picture-perfect landscapes. The characters look to be ripped right from Akira Toriyama's classic manga and breathed to life via some of the most impressive cel-shading techniques I've seen in quite some time. Damage accumulation on these characters has finally been perfected as well, as their wounds and clothing tears progressively grow worse with each blow.
Just as impressive is the attention to depth in two campaign modes in UT, Story and Hero Mode. The former presents the full span of the Dragon Ball Z and GT series in a way that fans have asked for it to be for as long as I can remember: long, drawn-out, and with a large hub world sprinkled with some extra things to do. The latter is more or less the same, except for the fact that the player is guiding a custom character through an alternate reality that operates parallel to the main DBZ continuity. Honestly, Hero Mode needs a bit of work, because the brunt of it takes place in menus in which the player selects the missions they want to do, and the hub world is scarcely utilized for a while. However, the fact that Spike attempted something new is admirable, and it's definitely something they should refine and perfect for the next entry.
Other than that, there are no major changes to the formula. Standard modes are still here (Tournament, etc), and both Local and Online Multiplayer are back and fun as ever. The cheesy English dub and awesomely melodramatic Japanese voice track are both here, and the music is standard techno/rock/DBZ background music fare. A special note should made to fans of the series that Hironobu Kageyama's original "Cha-La Head Cha-la" is used as the opening, complete with totally new opening animation to compliment it. This is a big treat for longtime fans like myself.
Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi is far from a game-changing, genre-defining experience. What it is, though, is a game to which all other anime-based games should aspire to be like: a perfect balance of accessibility and fan service, with a wealth of content to explore and fantastic production values to back it all up. The DBZ franchise has made it's next big change, and I'm very excited for where it's heading next.
Plot: N/A (it's so established by now, there's no point in grading it)
Gameplay: B+
Graphics: A
Sound: B-
Overall: B+ (very good)
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