
Why not allow a choice of AI or online players in a single mode, rather than creating a need to exit to the main menu to access the exact same missions with or without other people? Not only this, but any missions you complete in Co-op only count as completed if you’re hosting the game, which uncontrollably changes between each fight.Īdditionally, both of these modes use the same unintuitive menu, and the same branching mission structure. It makes little sense to me that these are separate game modes. The obvious difference being that one mode allows online multiplayer while the other has you selecting AI controlled allies. You’ll choose a mission, select your character, and play it.

Deceptively, Single player and Co-op mode are practically identical. You will, however, find a “Co-op Mode” and “Battle Mode” on the main menu, each of which is unlocked after playing a certain amount of these single player missions. To clarify, there is no “story mode” in Battle of Z, but rather a selection of missions.

There are plenty of conceivable ideas that wouldn’t be questioned within the DBZ universe, and Battle of Z would have been a great platform to try something new. A tournament in Other World, for example. In fact, what would have been even better is an original story as several aspects of the plot seem to be altered to allow 4v4 fights anyway. However, I would have been much happier for the story to be entirely ignored than to be inaccurately thrown together as it is. To be fair, story is arguably irrelevant in an arcade-style fighting game such as this, especially one that’s been retold so many times. “Goku fought Raditz, and then Vegeta came, and nobody could beat him, but then Goku did, and then they went to Planet Namek” is about the level of narrative you can expect. Throughout the missions, I found myself wondering who could tell a story so poorly, and I could only come to one conclusion: an uninterested parent whose only exposure to the plot is their young child’s ramblings. There is very little exposition, and what’s here is rushed and largely inaccurate to the source material. Whether this is a suitable concept or not, it’s undeniably a unique fighting experience.Īs you might expect, Battle of Z retells the story of Dragon Ball Z throughout its “single player” component, or attempts to at least. Battle of Z’s biggest innovation is team based gameplay, and where previous Dragon Ball games have featured tag teams and similar group battles, BoZ consists of 4v4 fights, in which all fighters are active at once. Although, with that being said, I can comfortably say it’s an improvement on its immediate predecessor, and adds mechanics that are arguably big steps for the franchise. Unfortunately, many of my expectations were accurate. As I saw more of the game, I continued to lose hope for it, and it’s safe to say I had nothing but the lowest expectations for the title come launch. Another new game trying yet another new style unrelated to its predecessors didn’t sound so exciting anymore. In truth, I was expectedly sceptical when I first learned about the announcement of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z. After years of waiting for change, Ultimate Tenkiachi single-handedly revoked almost every piece of excitement I had for an innovative improvement in the franchise. This would repeat until one combatant’s overly substantial health was depleted.

What resulted was a game in which a player would move toward or away from the enemy, and complete a short, single button combo to initiate a game of rock-paper-scissors. Meaningfully complex mechanics evolved through the franchise’s video games were scrapped, and games of chance replaced the great majority of the gameplay. In all my years playing Dragon Ball games, it was disheartening to see what “change” meant. They were undeniably lacking innovation but were consistently decent games none-the-less.īandai Namco must have seen a need for change, however, and in 2011, Ultimate Tenkaichi was released. The Burst Limit and Raging Blast games weren’t much more than recreations of the Budokia and Tenkaichi games respectively. Over the course of the PS3/Xbox 360 generation, though, the franchise continued without any kind of change. With that being said, I think it’s fair to say that I’ve seen the best and the worst of them. For many years I’ve played Dragon Ball games, In fact, there were several instances in my childhood where I would play nothing but Dragon Ball games.
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I love Dragon Ball – all three anime series, the movie specials, and most of all, the video games.
