My parents shipped me off to a vocational school when I was 16, at their wits end with my hooliganism. I suppose they thought learning how to weld would sort me out or something. This school was a "last stop" for a lot of kids whose parents ran out of rope to give, or who were otherwise court ordered to attend short of ending up in juvie. A considerable amount of the student body had a rougher background than mine and came from homes more fractured or communities that were deeply disenfranchised.
And everyone there loved Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 (also, Gauntlet Legends, but we're not talking about that today.)
Actually, it may be more accurate to say they just loved Dragon Ball. Budokai 3 was the newest game at the time and so it got the most play, but it was just as common to find kids huddled around a CRT watching Dragon Ball GT. The guy who had that GT set was also had a copy of Big Money Rustlas and I'm sorry to report that I've been conditioned through overexposure to adore both. Many flavors of Faygo touched my lips during this era.
The thing about Dragon Ball is that it had penetrated so many social barriers by 2004 that it had attained total cultural saturation. Playing these games, Budokai 3 in particular, and simply sharing a love for the series helped me expand my social bubble and connect with others during a particularly low point in my life. I also mained Kid Buu, so everyone knew I was a motherfucker. My Dragon Ball GT loving, Juggalo, furry friend taught me to never hide who you are, and who I am is a little pink goblin that can't be touched and will send his fist through the ground to punch you in the groin.
Though I'm typically bad at fighting games, there was a period where I was so practiced at Budokai 3 that nailing precision dodges and teleport chains was purely reflexive. Sure, this is partly due to being confined to a facility where the only other things to do was play billiards or hang out at a rundown single-screen theater that mostly ran crap like The Ladykillers, but you know, some of that was pure talent! Revisiting it now for the first time since leaving that school felt like slipping into a warm bath. Familiar, cozy, and-- whoa wait shit why is Cell spamming his ultimate like that HELP!!
Budokai 3 plays a lot better than the previous two games but is still compromised in several areas. Characters control largely the same as each other with little in the way of unique playstyles, but the capsule system feels more robust and better allows you to create a build unique to you, for example. Techniques look flashy and do well to capture key moments from the show and manga, but the rush attack and accompanying button guessing minigame wears thin and becomes a pace breaker fast. There's a lot of give and take here, but you can unlock Kid Goku so I'm afraid it's just the best Budokai game there is. I'm sorry. I don't make the rules.
The story mode is limited to 11 of the roster's 32 characters, and most of its replayability comes in the form of alternate routes, hidden fights, and secrets. There's a good amount to do, but the jog through DBZ's main four arcs is severely truncated and at times plays fast and loose with its canon (Goku survives the Raditz fight in Piccolo's story, for example, but the game doesn't explore this fully.) Dialog is rife with spelling errors, kerning issues, and there's a number of portraits that are off-model. Characters who existed mostly on the periphery like Tien or Yamcha or even those who were present in the story but largely inactive during long stretches are represented here, but much of their story modes involve bouncing between disperate points on a map to get maybe two or three lines of dialog... Many of the Dragon Ball games of this era just assume you're deeply familiar with the story and don't make much of an effort, so it's not surprising that Budokai 3 offloads a considerable amount of its narrative to your imagination.
And I'm fine with that. Budokai 3 isn't perfect by any means, but like the very boring man that I am, I'm perfectly capable of recognizing its faults and enjoying it regardless. That's only possible with the maturity laying bricks for two years builds... I think, I don't know.
I had planned on replaying this much further down the road (maybe around September), but as Akira Toriyama's untimely passing affected fans all over the world, it made me reflect on my time with Budokai 3 and appreciate something I understood back in 2004: Dragon Ball suffers no barriers.
And everyone there loved Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 (also, Gauntlet Legends, but we're not talking about that today.)
Actually, it may be more accurate to say they just loved Dragon Ball. Budokai 3 was the newest game at the time and so it got the most play, but it was just as common to find kids huddled around a CRT watching Dragon Ball GT. The guy who had that GT set was also had a copy of Big Money Rustlas and I'm sorry to report that I've been conditioned through overexposure to adore both. Many flavors of Faygo touched my lips during this era.
The thing about Dragon Ball is that it had penetrated so many social barriers by 2004 that it had attained total cultural saturation. Playing these games, Budokai 3 in particular, and simply sharing a love for the series helped me expand my social bubble and connect with others during a particularly low point in my life. I also mained Kid Buu, so everyone knew I was a motherfucker. My Dragon Ball GT loving, Juggalo, furry friend taught me to never hide who you are, and who I am is a little pink goblin that can't be touched and will send his fist through the ground to punch you in the groin.
Though I'm typically bad at fighting games, there was a period where I was so practiced at Budokai 3 that nailing precision dodges and teleport chains was purely reflexive. Sure, this is partly due to being confined to a facility where the only other things to do was play billiards or hang out at a rundown single-screen theater that mostly ran crap like The Ladykillers, but you know, some of that was pure talent! Revisiting it now for the first time since leaving that school felt like slipping into a warm bath. Familiar, cozy, and-- whoa wait shit why is Cell spamming his ultimate like that HELP!!
Budokai 3 plays a lot better than the previous two games but is still compromised in several areas. Characters control largely the same as each other with little in the way of unique playstyles, but the capsule system feels more robust and better allows you to create a build unique to you, for example. Techniques look flashy and do well to capture key moments from the show and manga, but the rush attack and accompanying button guessing minigame wears thin and becomes a pace breaker fast. There's a lot of give and take here, but you can unlock Kid Goku so I'm afraid it's just the best Budokai game there is. I'm sorry. I don't make the rules.
The story mode is limited to 11 of the roster's 32 characters, and most of its replayability comes in the form of alternate routes, hidden fights, and secrets. There's a good amount to do, but the jog through DBZ's main four arcs is severely truncated and at times plays fast and loose with its canon (Goku survives the Raditz fight in Piccolo's story, for example, but the game doesn't explore this fully.) Dialog is rife with spelling errors, kerning issues, and there's a number of portraits that are off-model. Characters who existed mostly on the periphery like Tien or Yamcha or even those who were present in the story but largely inactive during long stretches are represented here, but much of their story modes involve bouncing between disperate points on a map to get maybe two or three lines of dialog... Many of the Dragon Ball games of this era just assume you're deeply familiar with the story and don't make much of an effort, so it's not surprising that Budokai 3 offloads a considerable amount of its narrative to your imagination.
And I'm fine with that. Budokai 3 isn't perfect by any means, but like the very boring man that I am, I'm perfectly capable of recognizing its faults and enjoying it regardless. That's only possible with the maturity laying bricks for two years builds... I think, I don't know.
I had planned on replaying this much further down the road (maybe around September), but as Akira Toriyama's untimely passing affected fans all over the world, it made me reflect on my time with Budokai 3 and appreciate something I understood back in 2004: Dragon Ball suffers no barriers.
30
The best of the Budokai trilogy, but still not good—not even close. Yet again, there are several improvements to the core fundamentals; the combat, the visuals, the character roster, all of these receive numerous updates and additions. But the developers are still intent on making a frustrating “story mode” that doesn’t offer anything new, besides mechanics that are pure gimmick so that the player can experience somewhat of a story.
So instead of a board game, this time you’re flying around the world—collecting Dragon Balls, finding optional fights with Saibamen and other obscure DBZ characters such as Cooler, or progressing through the story in the form of mainline battles. There still aren’t any cutscenes, only dialogue boxes with surprisingly mediocre voice acting. This is one of the only times I’ve heard the DBZ voice cast completely phone it in, it's almost like they don't even want to be there? You can play the story mode with different characters, experiencing an array of perspectives throughout every saga, and I’m not a big fan of this feature. It’s needlessly long, drawn out, and boring—not to mention that a few of the characters overlap, meaning you have to do some fights several times between characters. I don’t know anyone who willingly wants to play as Yamcha, Tien, Piccolo, or Krillin. They barely have any attacks, it’s just boring. Like I said before, there are some references to other obscure (at the time) characters, such as Cooler, Broly, and even SSJ4 Goku; but they're hidden in the world, meaning you have to aimlessly wander through it until you see a slight sparkle on the ground. If I didn’t look up videos of this game, then I wouldn’t even know that those characters are in here. It would’ve been cool if instead of those hidden encounters, entire cutscenes and levels were dedicated to them!.. but yeah, they don’t do those anymore.
Combat has very noticeably improved. More attacks. More special moves. More mechanics. There’s a lot more control. I feel like I can actually do stuff with intent instead of mindlessly blocking like I did in the previous games. They add a couple new mechanics that I’m not sure I like though, the hyper mode that allows you to become stronger until your ki runs out isn’t fun to play against, or to even use yourself. If the enemy uses it, you can literally only do one thing until it depletes, evade—because you won’t be able to attack, since they can’t be stunned while in that state. And that isn’t fun, it’s not diverse in gameplay, it’s limited, I don’t see what the purpose of adding it was, since some of the later enemies completely abuse it every chance they get. The dragon rush mechanic is also total ass. It’s pure RNG, and nothing more.
In terms of visuals—again, lots of fantastic improvements. More colours, more effects, everything just looks more like Dragon Ball Z. Even the stages are more accurate and impressive, whilst also being able to transition into other stages based on certain attacks. It’s all really cool.
Replaying these three games recently has convinced me to never touch a fighting game again. I’ve realized that I just really fucking hate this genre with a passion. As a whole, they’re a lot more focused on the fighting aspect than delivering any sort of narrative (without a bunch of dumb gimmicks thrown in)—rightfully so, because that is the main appeal, but to me? They do nothing. Another banger cinematic though!
Playtime: 6.1 hours
Every Game I've Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Dragon Ball Z - Ranked
2004 - Ranked
The best of the Budokai trilogy, but still not good—not even close. Yet again, there are several improvements to the core fundamentals; the combat, the visuals, the character roster, all of these receive numerous updates and additions. But the developers are still intent on making a frustrating “story mode” that doesn’t offer anything new, besides mechanics that are pure gimmick so that the player can experience somewhat of a story.
So instead of a board game, this time you’re flying around the world—collecting Dragon Balls, finding optional fights with Saibamen and other obscure DBZ characters such as Cooler, or progressing through the story in the form of mainline battles. There still aren’t any cutscenes, only dialogue boxes with surprisingly mediocre voice acting. This is one of the only times I’ve heard the DBZ voice cast completely phone it in, it's almost like they don't even want to be there? You can play the story mode with different characters, experiencing an array of perspectives throughout every saga, and I’m not a big fan of this feature. It’s needlessly long, drawn out, and boring—not to mention that a few of the characters overlap, meaning you have to do some fights several times between characters. I don’t know anyone who willingly wants to play as Yamcha, Tien, Piccolo, or Krillin. They barely have any attacks, it’s just boring. Like I said before, there are some references to other obscure (at the time) characters, such as Cooler, Broly, and even SSJ4 Goku; but they're hidden in the world, meaning you have to aimlessly wander through it until you see a slight sparkle on the ground. If I didn’t look up videos of this game, then I wouldn’t even know that those characters are in here. It would’ve been cool if instead of those hidden encounters, entire cutscenes and levels were dedicated to them!.. but yeah, they don’t do those anymore.
Combat has very noticeably improved. More attacks. More special moves. More mechanics. There’s a lot more control. I feel like I can actually do stuff with intent instead of mindlessly blocking like I did in the previous games. They add a couple new mechanics that I’m not sure I like though, the hyper mode that allows you to become stronger until your ki runs out isn’t fun to play against, or to even use yourself. If the enemy uses it, you can literally only do one thing until it depletes, evade—because you won’t be able to attack, since they can’t be stunned while in that state. And that isn’t fun, it’s not diverse in gameplay, it’s limited, I don’t see what the purpose of adding it was, since some of the later enemies completely abuse it every chance they get. The dragon rush mechanic is also total ass. It’s pure RNG, and nothing more.
In terms of visuals—again, lots of fantastic improvements. More colours, more effects, everything just looks more like Dragon Ball Z. Even the stages are more accurate and impressive, whilst also being able to transition into other stages based on certain attacks. It’s all really cool.
Replaying these three games recently has convinced me to never touch a fighting game again. I’ve realized that I just really fucking hate this genre with a passion. As a whole, they’re a lot more focused on the fighting aspect than delivering any sort of narrative (without a bunch of dumb gimmicks thrown in)—rightfully so, because that is the main appeal, but to me? They do nothing. Another banger cinematic though!
Playtime: 6.1 hours
Every Game I've Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Dragon Ball Z - Ranked
2004 - Ranked
Antes que comente, dedico este espaço aqui não como uma crítica ao título, mas sim como um memorando ao Akira Toriyama. Agradeço desde já.
Logo, gostaria de abrir isto falando sobre algo que me recordo e de fácil acesso, que ocorreu em uma edição da revista "Eureka", em fevereiro de 1983, onde Akira dedicou um ensaio ao pai dos mangás, Osamu Tezuka, e um trecho dito ressoa comigo "[...] Pude ler muitas obras de Tezuka na livraria. Como sempre fui exposto às suas obras durante meus anos de aprendizado no ensino fundamental, acredito que fui influenciado por elas sem nem perceber. Tenho certeza de que existem muitos outros grandes artistas de mangá por aí, mas sem os trabalhos maravilhosos de Osamu Tezuka, não tenho certeza se desenharia mangás como faço hoje. Muito obrigado, mestre Tezuka, de verdade![...]".
A sensação de perder alguém que desconheço mas muito admiro é um tanto quanto estranha. Certas pessoas carregam consigo uma espécie de aura mística que beira a imortalidade, e com o Toriyama-sensei não foi nem seria diferente. Como toda criança, Dragon Ball moldou muito do que chamo de Eu, e foi minha companhia por diversas horas que poderiam ter sido solitárias - remediadas pelos nossos queridos personagens muito carismáticos com seus ensinamentos, piadas e combates inacabáveis. É uma memória fraca mas que ainda vive, lembro que sempre que meu pai voltava do serviço (durante o horário de almoço), a gente assistia um ou dois episódios de Dragon Ball Z, isso durante minha infância. Significou bastante pra mim. Em fato, carregou tanta influência em mim que compramos Dragon Ball Final Bout, no PlayStation. Jogo terrível, por sinal, mas que eu amava bastante justamente por ser daquele universo fantástico - um dos meus amigos descobriu que se fizesse um input no menu principal, liberava um grupo de personagens, na maioria Saiyajins. Sem contar nos filmes, nas aberturas, nos brinquedos. Saudades.
Anos se passam e Dragon Ball acabou por tornar-se relativamente distante na minha vida; não acompanhava e não me interessava, mas curiosamente, os jogos ainda viviam comigo, especialmente este, Budokai 3, e a versão modificada por fãs dele, conhecida como Dragon Ball AF. Eu não havia descoberto um gosto musical que eu gostasse em específico, mas o DB AF justamente por ser modificado, tinha faixas de bandas como System of A Down e se bem me lembro Slipknot e Limp Bizkit também marcavam presença (posso estar enganado). É difícil de descrever como era épico apertar R1 e se tornar o Super Saiyajin 4 em um jogo fanmade enquanto tocava B.Y.O.B. de fundo (risos) ou algo assim. Olhando para trás, talvez essas pequenas frações de jogatinas podem ter somado para tudo aquilo que gosto. Foram importantes.
Contudo, a influência do mangaká se encontrava em outras aventuras que fui tendo, como em Chrono Trigger e Dragon Quest. É tão belo como eu nunca consegui fugir de você, sensei. Belo como ninguém jamais conseguiu.
Sendo tão ínfimo e diminuto como sou, me sinto triste por não poder colocar em palavras tudo aquilo que Akira Toriyama trouxe nas nossas vidas, de forma direta ou indireta. Impossível pôr tudo aquilo que sinto aqui. "Inspiração" é tão pouco dado ao tamanho de seu legado, mestre. É dolorido demais que teves que ir, mas mais dolorido ainda da forma que foi. Pode ter certeza que todos vamos sentir sua falta. Por fim, minhas colocações não seriam justas nesta conclusão, então só parafraseio o que você mesmo dissera:
Pude acompanhar muitas obras suas. Como sempre fui exposto às suas obras durante meus anos de aprendizado, acredito que fui influenciado por elas sem nem perceber. Tenho certeza de que sem seus trabalhos, nós não seríamos como somos hoje. Muito obrigado, mestre Toriyama, de verdade!
Descanse em paz.
Logo, gostaria de abrir isto falando sobre algo que me recordo e de fácil acesso, que ocorreu em uma edição da revista "Eureka", em fevereiro de 1983, onde Akira dedicou um ensaio ao pai dos mangás, Osamu Tezuka, e um trecho dito ressoa comigo "[...] Pude ler muitas obras de Tezuka na livraria. Como sempre fui exposto às suas obras durante meus anos de aprendizado no ensino fundamental, acredito que fui influenciado por elas sem nem perceber. Tenho certeza de que existem muitos outros grandes artistas de mangá por aí, mas sem os trabalhos maravilhosos de Osamu Tezuka, não tenho certeza se desenharia mangás como faço hoje. Muito obrigado, mestre Tezuka, de verdade![...]".
A sensação de perder alguém que desconheço mas muito admiro é um tanto quanto estranha. Certas pessoas carregam consigo uma espécie de aura mística que beira a imortalidade, e com o Toriyama-sensei não foi nem seria diferente. Como toda criança, Dragon Ball moldou muito do que chamo de Eu, e foi minha companhia por diversas horas que poderiam ter sido solitárias - remediadas pelos nossos queridos personagens muito carismáticos com seus ensinamentos, piadas e combates inacabáveis. É uma memória fraca mas que ainda vive, lembro que sempre que meu pai voltava do serviço (durante o horário de almoço), a gente assistia um ou dois episódios de Dragon Ball Z, isso durante minha infância. Significou bastante pra mim. Em fato, carregou tanta influência em mim que compramos Dragon Ball Final Bout, no PlayStation. Jogo terrível, por sinal, mas que eu amava bastante justamente por ser daquele universo fantástico - um dos meus amigos descobriu que se fizesse um input no menu principal, liberava um grupo de personagens, na maioria Saiyajins. Sem contar nos filmes, nas aberturas, nos brinquedos. Saudades.
Anos se passam e Dragon Ball acabou por tornar-se relativamente distante na minha vida; não acompanhava e não me interessava, mas curiosamente, os jogos ainda viviam comigo, especialmente este, Budokai 3, e a versão modificada por fãs dele, conhecida como Dragon Ball AF. Eu não havia descoberto um gosto musical que eu gostasse em específico, mas o DB AF justamente por ser modificado, tinha faixas de bandas como System of A Down e se bem me lembro Slipknot e Limp Bizkit também marcavam presença (posso estar enganado). É difícil de descrever como era épico apertar R1 e se tornar o Super Saiyajin 4 em um jogo fanmade enquanto tocava B.Y.O.B. de fundo (risos) ou algo assim. Olhando para trás, talvez essas pequenas frações de jogatinas podem ter somado para tudo aquilo que gosto. Foram importantes.
Contudo, a influência do mangaká se encontrava em outras aventuras que fui tendo, como em Chrono Trigger e Dragon Quest. É tão belo como eu nunca consegui fugir de você, sensei. Belo como ninguém jamais conseguiu.
Sendo tão ínfimo e diminuto como sou, me sinto triste por não poder colocar em palavras tudo aquilo que Akira Toriyama trouxe nas nossas vidas, de forma direta ou indireta. Impossível pôr tudo aquilo que sinto aqui. "Inspiração" é tão pouco dado ao tamanho de seu legado, mestre. É dolorido demais que teves que ir, mas mais dolorido ainda da forma que foi. Pode ter certeza que todos vamos sentir sua falta. Por fim, minhas colocações não seriam justas nesta conclusão, então só parafraseio o que você mesmo dissera:
Pude acompanhar muitas obras suas. Como sempre fui exposto às suas obras durante meus anos de aprendizado, acredito que fui influenciado por elas sem nem perceber. Tenho certeza de que sem seus trabalhos, nós não seríamos como somos hoje. Muito obrigado, mestre Toriyama, de verdade!
Descanse em paz.
Bouncing Recoome's fat ass off the Namek dirt was the highlight of my life
I was afraid that coming back to this game would be a little disappointing, but damn did it prove me wrong. What I truly appreciate about this game is that it's uniquely a Dragon Ball game, not Street Fighter, not Tekken, not Guilty Gear, not Marvel vs. Capcom, not Power Stone, Dragon Ball. Dimps perfects Budokai from this point, the gameplay's snappy and I think this aspect might be contentious the Dragon Rush where your character performs this sequence of barrage attacks that turns into a rock-paper-scissors mini-game, along with the beam struggles and Burst Mode clashes are only enhanced by the game's cel-shaded visuals and animation work. It's a PS2 game with 3D models that replicate Dragon Ball so well for the time and the animations are so expressive and cool as hell, it brings that cocky Toriyama attitude to life with ease.
Kenji Yamamoto might have plagiarized a lot of music throughout his career, but his work screams Dragon Ball Z to me and Budokai 3's original tracks are excellent. It's hilarious that the last time I actually got into this game was when I was in my teens, I did come back to it briefly years ago, but even now the controls and tech are engrained in me from the countless hours playing it. Bulma being cut as a playable character is probably the only genuine complaint I have with this game, despite that it's still one of the best Dragon Ball games ever and arguably the best there is.
Kenji Yamamoto might have plagiarized a lot of music throughout his career, but his work screams Dragon Ball Z to me and Budokai 3's original tracks are excellent. It's hilarious that the last time I actually got into this game was when I was in my teens, I did come back to it briefly years ago, but even now the controls and tech are engrained in me from the countless hours playing it. Bulma being cut as a playable character is probably the only genuine complaint I have with this game, despite that it's still one of the best Dragon Ball games ever and arguably the best there is.
By far the most crazy Dragon Ball game in terms of content when it comes to unlock things.
But it's so much fun!
But it's so much fun!
one of the worst story modes in a dbz game presentation wise, and i dont think losing the interesting what-if? characters from budokai 2 was worth getting movie/gt content. still feels great to play though even if i prefer 2. the game incorporates the osts of all 3 games really well too, you hear a lot more songs from 1 in this one than you did in 2 and the only songs that i think are missing are the tower of power collab tracks from the story mode in 2
1v1 me at west city bro, Saibamen only
DEFINITELY the best out of the Budokai games
Its the best Dragon Ball Z game. Full stop. So many characters to play as and with a system that lets you play them differently than everyone else does. The super moves destroying the stage is a great touch, battle damage on your opponents is cool. Even the way the campaign was played was really neat for this style of game.
The gameplay feels GREATTT i love how it feels, can honestly play for hourss, it's a game i can come back to if i feel bored and need to kill sometime. Dragon universe tho icl i cannot be bothered. Just here to box man
Played it when I was younger and liked it a lot, been playing it a bit now and its good I just suck at it. Overall quite solid.
Probably has the best story mode for old school Dragon Ball games and the extra parts are nice.
The absolute best DBZ fighting game I've ever played, it's the peak. DBZ fighting games will never be this good again.
Ayee probably one of the best DBZ games out there i'll say top 4 for sure
I played a ton of the first two Budokai games on Gamecube when they first came out, but tragically did not have a PS2 at the time. I never got around to playing Budokai 3 until just now, and MAN.
14-year-old me would have loved this so much.
I had a great time! It's really interesting thinking about this in terms of its original release window. Budokai 1/2/3 came out in late 2002, 2003, and 2004, respectively. Can you imagine DBZ having a series with annual releases now? That'd be madness. But in the early 2000s, the Buu Saga had just finished airing on Toonami, and we were all hopped up on Saiyamania, so diet-weebs in their early teens (like me at the time) were easy marks for these. What's most interesting is seeing how they iterated on the concept across the three games, and ultimately, I think 3 does the best job at everything.
The roster is great, but I'm not sure why there are any cuts here, since a lot of the models and movesets seem to be brought right over from the previous titles. Would it have killed them to keep Dodoria, Zarbon, and Android 19 in here? They even made the Cell Juniors and Saibamen playable! On the other hand, we got a couple of GT nods, which at the time still felt like something we cared about. Regardless of how bad that followup series was, the inclusions of SS4 Goku/Vegeta/Gogets and Omega Shenron are flat-out awesome. Also BROLY IS IN THIS. You'd better believe I stuck with that neon-fluorescent-haired maniac through each of the game's main modes.
Let's talk about Dragon Universe for a second. All three Budokai games tell the complete story of DBZ (with the first game stopping after Cell), with a different format each time. The first game does the most with cutscenes, which I was impressed by during my replay this year. The second game goes for the board game route, which I believe would be the best of the three if it didn't make you re-fight every boss so many times. Dragon Universe is the story mode in Budokai 3, and instead of containing a single main story, it chunks out the story bits and lets you play through 10 campaigns for main characters in the saga (plus a bonus Broly rampage campaign, which I completed on every difficulty level). You play from Raditz to Uub, but only participating in the events that are relevant to your selected player. This means that length varies greatly, with Goku's campaign obviously being the longest, Yamcha and Tien skipping the Namek Saga, and Gohan's three campaigns (Kid, Teen, and Adult) all taking different chunks of the story. It's a really neat way to handle everything! But the sheer amount of campaign content means that we're not getting in-depth cutscenes like in the first Budokai, it's just static talking heads now, albeit with solid voice acting from the original actors.
What's most interesting about Dragon Universe, however, is the existence of an overworld. Budokai 2 toyed with this idea, but limited you to a handful of selectable spaces on its board game-like maps. Dragon Universe opens up a small-scale version of the whole DBZ world (as well as Namek) for you to fly across however you see fit. It's pretty rad! The major hiccup is that there are a LOT of hidden secrets and alternate routes in here, and without a guide, you'd be sure to miss out on unlockable characters and moves. It's sort of like the first Legend of Zelda, where if you didn't know which bush to burn, you'd just never see some of what the game had to offer. But we've got gamefaqs, so we're fine.
Tournaments are back, but they're pretty much the same. The new inclusion of instant transmission (teleporting) to get behind an enemy at the cost of 2 ki bars makes it a lot easier to cheese though, as you can often wait by the edge of the ring, pop behind your opponent, and knock them right out of bounds.
Dragon Arena was really interesting. In both this mode and Dragon Universe, you gain Exp and can level up your characters' stats. Dragon Arena gives you 3-5 pre-made characters to fight for every level, from 1 to 100. It's a lot! It's an intriguing premise though, and I had a lot of fun with it.
Budokai 3 doesn't do anything incredibly groundbreaking. The combos and controls are still very simple, especially in a post-FighterZ world, but there's enough to chew on here that I was fully engaged. It felt great to fill in this gap, as I'd been wanting to play this game for nearly 20 years.
Speaking of which, I gotta give those Tenkaichi Budokais a fair shake now...
14-year-old me would have loved this so much.
I had a great time! It's really interesting thinking about this in terms of its original release window. Budokai 1/2/3 came out in late 2002, 2003, and 2004, respectively. Can you imagine DBZ having a series with annual releases now? That'd be madness. But in the early 2000s, the Buu Saga had just finished airing on Toonami, and we were all hopped up on Saiyamania, so diet-weebs in their early teens (like me at the time) were easy marks for these. What's most interesting is seeing how they iterated on the concept across the three games, and ultimately, I think 3 does the best job at everything.
The roster is great, but I'm not sure why there are any cuts here, since a lot of the models and movesets seem to be brought right over from the previous titles. Would it have killed them to keep Dodoria, Zarbon, and Android 19 in here? They even made the Cell Juniors and Saibamen playable! On the other hand, we got a couple of GT nods, which at the time still felt like something we cared about. Regardless of how bad that followup series was, the inclusions of SS4 Goku/Vegeta/Gogets and Omega Shenron are flat-out awesome. Also BROLY IS IN THIS. You'd better believe I stuck with that neon-fluorescent-haired maniac through each of the game's main modes.
Let's talk about Dragon Universe for a second. All three Budokai games tell the complete story of DBZ (with the first game stopping after Cell), with a different format each time. The first game does the most with cutscenes, which I was impressed by during my replay this year. The second game goes for the board game route, which I believe would be the best of the three if it didn't make you re-fight every boss so many times. Dragon Universe is the story mode in Budokai 3, and instead of containing a single main story, it chunks out the story bits and lets you play through 10 campaigns for main characters in the saga (plus a bonus Broly rampage campaign, which I completed on every difficulty level). You play from Raditz to Uub, but only participating in the events that are relevant to your selected player. This means that length varies greatly, with Goku's campaign obviously being the longest, Yamcha and Tien skipping the Namek Saga, and Gohan's three campaigns (Kid, Teen, and Adult) all taking different chunks of the story. It's a really neat way to handle everything! But the sheer amount of campaign content means that we're not getting in-depth cutscenes like in the first Budokai, it's just static talking heads now, albeit with solid voice acting from the original actors.
What's most interesting about Dragon Universe, however, is the existence of an overworld. Budokai 2 toyed with this idea, but limited you to a handful of selectable spaces on its board game-like maps. Dragon Universe opens up a small-scale version of the whole DBZ world (as well as Namek) for you to fly across however you see fit. It's pretty rad! The major hiccup is that there are a LOT of hidden secrets and alternate routes in here, and without a guide, you'd be sure to miss out on unlockable characters and moves. It's sort of like the first Legend of Zelda, where if you didn't know which bush to burn, you'd just never see some of what the game had to offer. But we've got gamefaqs, so we're fine.
Tournaments are back, but they're pretty much the same. The new inclusion of instant transmission (teleporting) to get behind an enemy at the cost of 2 ki bars makes it a lot easier to cheese though, as you can often wait by the edge of the ring, pop behind your opponent, and knock them right out of bounds.
Dragon Arena was really interesting. In both this mode and Dragon Universe, you gain Exp and can level up your characters' stats. Dragon Arena gives you 3-5 pre-made characters to fight for every level, from 1 to 100. It's a lot! It's an intriguing premise though, and I had a lot of fun with it.
Budokai 3 doesn't do anything incredibly groundbreaking. The combos and controls are still very simple, especially in a post-FighterZ world, but there's enough to chew on here that I was fully engaged. It felt great to fill in this gap, as I'd been wanting to play this game for nearly 20 years.
Speaking of which, I gotta give those Tenkaichi Budokais a fair shake now...
This is genuinely one of the best Dragon Ball Z games ever made, and I don't think a lot of things can live up to its quality. It's got a fun story mode, a decent roster, timeless graphics, a killer OST ignoring the composer's plagiarism, and a surprising amount of depth to its combos. Unfortunately, I'm not great at the game, so I can't enjoy it to the fullest extent. My controller certainly isn't helping, either. If there's anything about this game that I have a grudge against, it's the Dragon Rush mechanic. If they removed that stupid rock-paper-scissors crap, this would be a 10/10 in my eyes.
Every latino kid had this one and asked you to play it with him.
The definitive game of the trilogy
Large roster of fighters, plenty of game modes for single or multiplayer, and tons of customization. Plenty of fanservice with canon and non-canon content. The story mode has you replaying it as different characters to see the events of the manga from their perspective, it doesn’t feel repetitive since your character is constantly obtaining new moves to use in the next battle. Story is done through just dialogue boxes so it can feel a bit stale. There’s a newly added experience system that lets you customize each character even further to improve their base stats for some game modes.
Large roster of fighters, plenty of game modes for single or multiplayer, and tons of customization. Plenty of fanservice with canon and non-canon content. The story mode has you replaying it as different characters to see the events of the manga from their perspective, it doesn’t feel repetitive since your character is constantly obtaining new moves to use in the next battle. Story is done through just dialogue boxes so it can feel a bit stale. There’s a newly added experience system that lets you customize each character even further to improve their base stats for some game modes.
A friend and I sank hundreds of hours into Budokai 3 over the course of many years. It still holds up as the most well-rounded game in the franchise--enough of a fighter to allow for a high skill ceiling but not so much that it replaces the aesthetics and fanservice.
The basic combos feel a bit too slow for Z's most intense moments (especially when compared to FighterZ), but the special attacks, teleports, rushes and ultimates make up for it, create spikes in spectacle and build a really satisfying flow. I don't think I've ever learnt to play to a song so on beat as I can recite the different ways to combo into a Kamehameha.
An interesting thing about the combat is that so much of it revolves around stamina. It's the main way to lose unless you don't really know the controls, because avoiding attacks isn't really hard on its own. Not unlike Sekiro, health only really depletes once someone runs out of ki, which is used for every non-meelee action including dodging. The strongest attacks require the player to be in "hyper mode", an enhanced state that drains your ki over time, while ultimate attacks--only possible in that state--automatically cost most of it. Playing becomes a game of tricking your opponent into using it up faster than you, becoming "exhausted" and thus forced to massacre their Dualshock 2 joysticks or die by your hand.
On that note, the game really likes that sort of minigame. My friend and I dislocated several controllers to Budokai 3 (the only survivor is an absolute unit of a GameWare I've owned for like 17 years now--its contents are loose and shake around at the slightest hint of movement but the thing works with clockwork accuracy), because it just keeps asking you to make circles with the stick as fast as possible. Beam struggles, triggered every time two beam specials clash, are the worst offender because they're competitive. Budokai 3's garlic gun VS kamehameha is the Dark Souls of that one minigame from 1,2,switch. The intensity is legit great for local play, but a nightmare for hands and controllers alike.
There's a lot more beyond the combat; the story mode is a neat world map with the option to find alternate endings and hides a lot of the game's unlocks, and there's a whole customization system to edit characters' movesets. There's other minigames, often tied to portraying specific details from the original material either during loading screens or combat. The game seizes every possible chance to reference something, but the feeling is less repetitive than in the Tenkaichis, probably for scale reasons.
Balance is the only thing that's missing from the game, but it's done in the name of reverence for the material and, as a kid, it felt great to see the strongest characters be the strongest.
The basic combos feel a bit too slow for Z's most intense moments (especially when compared to FighterZ), but the special attacks, teleports, rushes and ultimates make up for it, create spikes in spectacle and build a really satisfying flow. I don't think I've ever learnt to play to a song so on beat as I can recite the different ways to combo into a Kamehameha.
An interesting thing about the combat is that so much of it revolves around stamina. It's the main way to lose unless you don't really know the controls, because avoiding attacks isn't really hard on its own. Not unlike Sekiro, health only really depletes once someone runs out of ki, which is used for every non-meelee action including dodging. The strongest attacks require the player to be in "hyper mode", an enhanced state that drains your ki over time, while ultimate attacks--only possible in that state--automatically cost most of it. Playing becomes a game of tricking your opponent into using it up faster than you, becoming "exhausted" and thus forced to massacre their Dualshock 2 joysticks or die by your hand.
On that note, the game really likes that sort of minigame. My friend and I dislocated several controllers to Budokai 3 (the only survivor is an absolute unit of a GameWare I've owned for like 17 years now--its contents are loose and shake around at the slightest hint of movement but the thing works with clockwork accuracy), because it just keeps asking you to make circles with the stick as fast as possible. Beam struggles, triggered every time two beam specials clash, are the worst offender because they're competitive. Budokai 3's garlic gun VS kamehameha is the Dark Souls of that one minigame from 1,2,switch. The intensity is legit great for local play, but a nightmare for hands and controllers alike.
There's a lot more beyond the combat; the story mode is a neat world map with the option to find alternate endings and hides a lot of the game's unlocks, and there's a whole customization system to edit characters' movesets. There's other minigames, often tied to portraying specific details from the original material either during loading screens or combat. The game seizes every possible chance to reference something, but the feeling is less repetitive than in the Tenkaichis, probably for scale reasons.
Balance is the only thing that's missing from the game, but it's done in the name of reverence for the material and, as a kid, it felt great to see the strongest characters be the strongest.
That's why its the GOAT! the GOAT!
This review contains spoilers
One of the best DBZ games ever. Probably my 2nd favorite honestly. Tenkaichi was a departure from this game series style of play and I wasn’t a fan of it. The definitive DBZ experience on PS2 era in my opinion. Has characters from Kid Goku to Omega Shenron!!
ISSO AQUI É A PURA MASTERPIECE DOS JOGOS DE LUTA. a abertura me deixa emocionado e arrepiado ao mesmo tempo, so de escutar a musica eu lembro de quando eu chegava na casa dos meus primos com o ps2 e jogava com eles
One of the best dbz game ever. Just for the intro.
mto foda
o combate parece ruim e confuso no começo, mas se você aprender é um dos mais divertidos e interessantes. melhor que o tenkaichi 3.
Simplesmente fantástico, saudades de ganhar campeonatos desse jogo.
Jogão, tirar x1 nele é uma maravilha
É legal, mas... A liberdade do Tenkaichi me pega mais.
Fun and fast 3D "arena-style" DBZ fighting game. Enjoyed the many unlockables and the fact that the game had a story mode.
However, I remember the loading times on the PS2 were pretty atrocious... not sure if the HD collection sped that up or not, but that'd probably raise the score up by a half point/star.
However, I remember the loading times on the PS2 were pretty atrocious... not sure if the HD collection sped that up or not, but that'd probably raise the score up by a half point/star.