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

i can't lie this might be the greatest anime game of all time,thought it is a dragon ball game and i have quite a bias for it even that aside the game excels at everything that was wrong with it's predecessors while making sure it's very good in its own right.
great roster,even more tighter and fun gameplay(hell i even liked dragon rush)and tons of replayability with Great OST and Graphics.
if i were to name a problem thought is that i wish the selection for Dragon Universe which was awesome but i just wish we would've got Cell or Frieza's Dragon Universe especially since they did included what if stuff though that's just my one major problem besides that game is the GOAT.

Maiagare　junpaku no kumo o miorosu　haruka na sora made
Tokihanatte　jiyû na tamashii kaze ni notte

Soshite yatsu-ra mo yatte kuru
Kono hoshi neratte kuru ze
Araburu yokan　Fight! Fight! Fight!
Ore ga chikyû no tate ni naru

Sô sa tokoton tomarazu tatakau
Aoi chikyû ga tomarazu mawaru tame ni

Tachimukae　Shin’nen o kometa kobushi wa dare ni mo makenai
Misete yare　Asu1 o sukuu no wa kono yûki sa　For The World! 

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.

barely played single player campaign.

the most epic (i mean that in the classical sense of the world) possible fighting game to play with friends.

i remember tripping in my dorm room w frank, scott, & austin and RAGING this game - the button smash QTE were life & death stakes that night.