Author Topic: Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z- Impressions and Review  (Read 1777 times)

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Offline LordNecross

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Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z- Impressions and Review
« on: February 05, 2014, 09:05:47 PM »


Dragon Ball Z, one of the Most Popular Animes in the West, and at least one everyone has heard about if they haven't watched it. When I saw this gme had come out I knew I had to buy it, being a Fan of DBZ but also because this one differed extremely from other iterations of the DBZ Franchise in gaming.

After watching DSP, DarkSydePhil, play this game and rage alot at some points, I decided I could do better. Not that I don't like the guy or his content he puts out, as I watch his playthroughs more than any other lets player.

So I bought the game knowing sort of what to expect after seeing some game play. I wasn't disappointed as the game is fun and challenging which is a good combination. The Combat is complex enough to allow for strategy, yet simplified enough to not overburden non-fighting game enthusiasts. Fighting games tend to be mostly the type of game this franchise spawns but this one is different, while it involves fighting it does not involve button combos to do special moves and such, at most you will ever do is push 2 to 3 buttons to do something unique. I play the 360 version as I love that console though I hate its offspring, the One, but I believe the controls are relatively the same regardless of console.

The fact this game comes out long after the show itself is long over means they have a full roster of characters, or at least a rather complete one as of course this being the Age of DLC means they have to have something to entice more money out of our pockets. Anyways though, it has most of the Original voice actors for the English Dub, discounting a few but for the most part for fans it will be fun.

Character line up, it seems to have everything discounting Original Dragon Ball, and Dragon Ball GT (The Universally Hated Uncanonical post series to DBZ). I don't know for sure, but I am positive it lacks GT anything. However there is a character in this game I have never seen before, so it is either a Japanese character that never made it to the US from a Japanese only DBZ movie, or it is an entirely new Character for this game specifically or the upcoming DBZ movie I heard about. Either way it seems about everything one would want is present. Some characters are not playable though, such as Tien's side kick Chiaotzu.

The Gameplay is where this game is really unique, it has a card system involved, these cards are like power boosting stat modifiers. They add to ones combat effectiveness and raise the power level of the character. One thing to note is that true to the series, some characters are far more powerful naturally to others, but if you are a good player you can beat Cell with Yamcha if you wanted to, it would be difficult though. So these cards can be collected and purchase with points gained through combat, there are two currencies though DP(Dragon Points) which is easy to accumulate, and PP(Power Points). DP is used to acquire temporary item Cards that are one time use, while PP is used to acquire power cards, or Unique modifier Cards that affect your character in various ways, you can also purchase more powerful temporary cards as well though. So along with these power cards, item Cards and modifier cards is how they are used on the characters. Not every character can equip the same amount of cards, and can usually equip more of one type of card depending on there class.

Discussing class now, this adds a strategic component to the game, as you have you healers(Called Support), your distractors(Which unsurprisingly tends to always be the weaker characters, called Interfere type), your Melee type(I don't even need to explain), and your Ki blast type(Ranged). I find it essential to at least have one support character on the team, as you are asking for trouble without one, even then the AI isn't always 100% dependable but you are screwed if you go combat heavy.

The team you have consists of the Character you choose and three others which should consist of the other classes, usually not the one you are playing though some characters are dual classed, acting as two classes though mastering neither. Your team can also be equipped with cards so I find it pertinent to play continually and gather a good amount of cards to outfit your team, this is also essential to increase their rank as an NPC with the max being 10, Rank for NPCs helps them perform better and act less retarded, they are more dependable when maxed out. You as a player have a rank as well, though its universal and does not reset regardless of your character choice, while NPCs have a set rank that must be leveled up for each character but once leveled they stay leveled even when not used. So when you get a new team it may be good to go back and play past levels, which will be side content level called Age Levels, some being just waves of minion enemies, and others relating to the movies, play these enough times to level up your team then go back once they get at least to 6 and continue playing the story.

When it comes to combat you get three specials for each character, two can be used as long as you have energy and the third is usually a signature attack, usually a ranged or AoE attack some times both that can only be used after accumulating enough energy which is gained through combat. If your run out of energy your character gets gassed, MMA term for burned out, and can't move for a few seconds so be careful and try not to use it all as those few seconds can mean an ass beating. Some characters, usually powerful characters, with a few exceptions the only one I know so far is regular saiyan Goku, is they have an Ultra ability that can only be used during Canonical moments of the series, such as the spirit bomb for Goku, or Father Son Kamehameha for Super Saiyan 2 Teen Gohan, The latter I never accomplished due to being interrupted sadly and to my frustration. You only learn how to do Ultra's though by doing an Extra Age mission which is side content, so make sure to do it, because skipping it means you will be unable to do it at all till you figure it out by stumbling across it, which is rather dumb but I guess they expected players to figure it out by reading the description which tells you the victory condition is to use the attack.

After doing that you unlock a rather expensive item that must be purchased and equipped to a character with an Ultra to use it and only during a mission that allows you to use one, I believe. The good thing about this item is it isn't used even if you fail to do the move, I however do not know if it is used if you are successful which it most likely is, forcing you to save PP to get another one, but it isn't too expensive compared to better cards. If it lasts forever, that would be cool, but it would nullify the need to even purchase it once as purchasing it at all would make no sense. These moves are interrupt-able so it is suggested to be at full health and probably have your team doing its damnedest to keep the enemy at bay, as you must button mash to charge it up. This is where the game puts in a weird little gimmick that seems to not be really needed anymore, during the game you will be prompted to share energy, as if you were sending power to Goku for a Spirit bomb, this coalesced  energy can be seen in the game menu screen as a massive spirit bomb orbiting earth constantly receiving power from around the world from different players. As of now the power is at max, with something ridiculous like 999999999999999999999999, not sure if that is too many nines or too little. *shrug* Anyways sharing energy supposedly provides power to people performing ultras, which probably means the first person to get the game couldn't pull one off till enough people had played. Sharing energy provides PP though, and is the only way to acquire any at all, though apparently later there are cards that boost the amount gained.

Anyways as for difficulty, this game has it, the Bosses are sometimes really unfair, like the show, which I think really fits as being able to kick complete ass through the whole game would make it rather pointless. However if you uber your characters up, you can kick serious ass, but if you play dumb, you can still go down. In combat though any character you are fighting that has a star next to the healthbar means it is a tough enemy, everything else is a cake walk in some cases. Also to note, you cannot bring any character you want to a mission, unless its a side content mission, with the exception of the Ultra Tutorial one, which has set characters, and doesn't let you Ultra be interrupted >:( (DAMN YOU CELLI love you). So bosses are gently-carressing hard as they should be, but if you come prepared you can win and should win. The game is fun and has big boss battles in it, fighting Great Apes, and some other large bosses from the movies.

Overall I like this game, I despise its lack of local multiplayer, but I plan on getting a year of Xbox live anyways.

My overall impression so far is the game is fun and enjoyable, with character banter and the like, and really get me nostalgic for the show. It has enough strategy to be fun, and the combat is satisfy and has impact to it, you can really "Feel" those heavy blows. The graphics are great for something cell shaded, but they aren't super or anything they are just good and true to the show. I will post more later, but for now I am tired of typing this wall of text. Feel free to post your own experience or comments on this game, which may have gone unnoticed by many but I think is worth a look.

Offline LordNecross

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Re: Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z- Impressions and Review
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2014, 08:43:26 PM »
Well I complete the Game Finally and now I can give my final impression/ Review of it.

Right off the bat I will give my score out of ten for this game.

8.5/10

Its a good game, with a few flaws though, which is why its not a 10/10.

First of all compared to other DBZ games the line up is rather lacking, with a max of 70 characters to play and unlock may seem like alot but this is because some characters have multiple iterations, Transformed characters are counted as separate characters in this game. Goku and SSJ 3 Goku are different characters, you cannot go super saiyan in a battle.

However this is simply due to how the game play functions and in no way detracts from the experience. However there are characters included in older games that are simply not present in this one, either because they were considered to minor or are planned DLC or plain considered not Canon if involved in the GT Saga.

When a game like Raging Blast 2 has around 100 playable characters in a game where the character can transform during the fight, then it becomes obvious why Battle of Z's Roster seems limited. The fun I had playing though makes up for this as the characters I actually wanted to play were in the game, and there are a ton of incredibly stupid characters that don't fit the series well anyways, so them not being included is no true loss. Take it as you will.

One of the downsides is the AI when you are playing solo, its sort of hot and cold when it comes to depending on them, though said previously it is important to rank up these characters to make them effective in reacting to situations. However nothing can replace having people online to play with. The AI is not terrible unless you are playing with a fresh unranked team, but in harder levels even top ranked supporting characters may not do there job, so some missions become next to impossible to do, however I am sure that every level can be completed solo with the AI, it gets very difficult to do so though. This is why its a downside, if the AI focused on keeping you alive better, then it would be great, as well as performing their role more effectively. However it is an AI and can only do so much.

My final Gripe with this game is I can almost smell how much of a DLC whore its going to be, with many more movies to do as well as the Garlic Junior Saga, and characters that they will probably put into the game I can guarantee there will be plenty of DLC for this game. This is a negative and a positive all at once, as the game is good and DLC will support the developer, this is bad though as well, as for a game that came out after the Entire series was done, it wouldn't have been too hard to put more content in.

Overall though this game is a blast, it is strategy and fighter both, however not to heavy control wise like traditional fighting games, making it much easier to get into, and the online experience is good as well, so long as you connect to other with a decent connection as well as playing with friends. The Card system also gives plenty of incentive to continue playing, to collect these cards to strength your characters and get the achievements or trophies.

Overall I consider this a great DBZ game and refreshing format from previous formulas. A Must play.