Dragon Ball Z: Budokai (video game)
From Dragon Ball Encyclopedia, the ''Dragon Ball'' wiki
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, released in Japan as Dragon Ball Z (ドラゴン ボール ゼット, Doragon Bōru Zetto), is a fighting game for the Nintendo GameCube and Sony PlayStation 2.
Contents
Gameplay
Skills
Each character can be optionally customized by using a 7-slot skill tray; players may choose up to 7 skills and assign them to a fighter. Some skills can take up multiple slots. Skills may be purchased from Mister Popo with the prize money from the World Tournament Mode.
There are three types of skills: Special Moves, which includes skills such as the Kamehameha and the ability to become Super Saiyan; Physical, which includes such skills as the Zanku Fist; and Equipment, which includes skills such as the Senzu Bean. One can also purchase Dragon Balls. When you have all of them, Oolong appears and summons Shen Long, giving the player a choice of 3 Breakthrough Capsules; these allow a player to use all of a character's moves and abilities at once.
Story mode
The Story mode consists of 3D cutscenes adapted from the series (though more close to the manga than the anime). Unlike later Budokai games, the story mode is similar to most other fighting games (in which cutscenes occur between battles). The Story Mode covers three Sagas – Saiyan, Namekian, and Android – and the player automatically collects capsules (or sometimes Dragon Balls and characters) at the end of each battle. Depending on which episode is being played, the playable characters are Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, and Vegeta. At the end of every saga there are bonus "what if" episodes, and one plays as the main villain of that saga; Vegeta, Frieza and Cell respectively.
- In Vegeta's storyline, Vegeta, Saiyan Prince, Vegeta and Goku duel, and Vegeta defeats him with minimum effort, driven by the desire to avenge Nappa. Then Krillin and Gohan turn up, and Vegeta beats them separately. After the battle, Vegeta speaks to himself for a minute while Yajirobe sneaks up behind him. Vegeta hears Yajirobe, and, impressed by Yajirobe's bravery, offers him to become his next pupil. Yajirobe refuses, stating that he doesn't want to end up like Nappa. Enraged at being reminded of Nappa's death, Vegeta screams in anger, and becomes a Super Saiyan. The episode ends.
- In Frieza's storyline, Raging Frieza/The True Ruler, Frieza successfully beats Krillin, Gohan, Piccolo, Vegeta, and Goku in battle. He then succeeds in wishing for immortality. Blowing up Namek, Frieza returns to his spaceship, deciding to destroy Earth next. The episode ends.
- In Cell's storyline, Aim For Perfect Form!/A Cold-Blooded Assassin, Future Cell attempts to absorb No. 17 and No. 18, and successfully beats No. 16 in battle. He then absorbs No. 17, but while attempting to absorb No. 18 Krillin jumps in the way, causing Future Cell to accidentally absorb Krillin and lose a lot of power (Cell battles Krillin first, though). Yamucha and Tien then show up to challenge the weakened Cell. He just manages to beat Yamcha, but he is then killed by Tien. The real Cell then wakes up in the middle of the Cell Ring, realizing that it was a dream. He then says that ten days may have been too long to wait for the tournament. The episode ends.
World Tournament
The World Tournament allows players to compete against a computer-controlled character in a martial arts tournament. The prizes could be the following:
- Novice: 10,000 Zeni
- Adept: 30,000 Zeni
- Advance: 50,000 Zeni
Dueling
Dueling mode allows a player to fight a computer-controlled character at a preset skill level, or two human players to fight each other using any custom skills. A player may also watch a fight between two computer-controlled fighters.
Sequels
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai has three sequels: Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3, and Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World.
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi, released in the fall of 2005, is not a true sequel to the Dragonball Z: Budokai video game series; it was developed by Spike instead of Dimps and features a radically different fighting game engine. In Japan it was released as Dragon Ball Z Sparking!, but was renamed for worldwide release to capitalize on the popularity of the "Budokai" brand. A sequel to Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi was released in the fall of 2006. In Japan it is known as Dragon Ball Z Sparking! Neo, but was released worldwide as Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2. In the fall of 2007, a second sequel, released under the name Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! METEOR in Japan, was released worldwide as Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3.
Characters
- Android #16
- Android #17
- Android #18
- Android #19
- Captain Ginyu
- Future Cell
- Cellin *Only playable in Story mode*
- Dodoria
- Freeza
- Son Goku
- Mister Satan
- Kid Gohan (Base, Teen Gohan, Great Saiyaman)
- Kuririn
- Nappa
- Piccolo
- Raditz
- Recoome
- Tenshinhan
- Future Trunks Brief
- Vegeta
- Yamucha
- Zarbon
Gallery
Voice cast
The North American version contains the voices from the FUNimation dub of the anime series and all other localized versions contain the the voices from the Japanese dub with subtitles.
Reception
The game has received less than favorable reviews, many critics complained about its simple interface and the fact that combos weren't worth the payoff. The game has received a 68% on Game Rankings.
Prima's Official Strategy Guide
Prima's Official Strategy Guide was released in 2003, about one year after the video game. The book went into a rather in-depth walkthrough, fighting mechanics, character biographies, and rarity of the capsules. Despite this, the guide had many problems such as the hair of Hercule and Yamcha being different from the anime (the latter is seen in various pictures with his afro). Several ultimates were skipped such as Gohan's Super Kamehameha, Piccolo's Hellzone Grenade, and Goku's Warp Kamehameha. Transformations were even skipped and Piccolo's were misspelled. There was also a Limited Edition DVD with an episode of Dragon Ball GT, Yu Yu Hakusho, and several trailers. The book also gave a very small preview to Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu, while the DVD featured an entire "sizzle" video.
Trivia
- Several songs in the game are based off of songs by Stratovarius.
- "Warrior From and Unknown Land" (Budokai) "Infinity" (Stratovarius)
- "Moving Forward Fearlessly" (Budokai) "Glory to the World (Stratovarius)
- This is the first Dragon Ball Z game to be released for 6th generation consoles.
- The opening from the Japanese version features "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" (the first opening song from the TV series). It is replaced in the American version with the first US theme song, "Rock the Dragon". The end credits, however, feature "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" instrumentals. For some reason, the opening used in the European version is just made of clips from the Story mode and has different music. Speculation led many to believe that this was due to most of the European audience not seeing the proper introduction the anime had, although it was actually seen in some countries like Spain.
- Originally, the European version of the game called Mr. Satan by his original name, but this was changed to Hercule in later releases.
- On the dueling image on the main menu and the PAL boxart, Vegeta is in his Buu Saga attire. Also on the PAL boxart, Vegeta from the Buu Saga is seen with Spopovich and on the back side Majin Vegeta is seen with Babidi and Fat Boo.
- Unlike later games in which transforming gave a slight percentage of attack increasement, each transformation in Budokai gave each character a 10% attack increase, making characters who could transform the most powerful characters in the game, though the Ki consumption rate was incredibly high as characters transformed. Other Budokai games (excluding Tenkaichi) gave characters smaller increases or fixed increases depending on transformations, being no more than 10% extra for each transformation (this makes Goku theoretically the strongest character in terms of sheer attack power since he has the most transformations, though the ki consumption at the point of his Super Saiyan form requires a lot of ki charging and even then is easy to fall to lesser forms).
- The Kamehameha is yellow for everyone except for Cell, while in the anime, the yellow version does not exist. In the colored page of the manga, though, the Kamehameha is most of the time yellow.
- During the story mode's cutscenes inside Turtle Hermit's house, you can see a book on his table which has a blurred image of the cover for the first Dragon Ball manga volume.
- Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon would be purple from this game to the end of the Budokai series.
- On the PAL box art, Spopovich can be plainly seen in the bottom corner, even though Spopovich doesn't make an appearance in any game until Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3.
- During one of the game's cutscenes, Imperfect Cell was mistakenly given the same voice as Perfect Cell, while he was saying, "Nothing can stop me from fulfilling my design! I am perfect!"
- This is the only game in the Budokai series to have Trunks' and Vegeta's Ascended Super Saiyan forms, as well as Trunks' Ultra Super Saiyan form.
- This is also the only Budokai game to feature No. 19, Zarbon, and Dodoria as playable charecters.
- In the scene A Wicked Omen Piccolo see's Cell for the first time he says Cell you monster which is an error because Piccolo did not know who Cell was when he confronted him.
- This is the only Dragon Ball game to have Great Saiyaman and not have Adult Gohan.
- At the end of Vegeta, Saiyan Prince, Vegeta references Goku's first Super Saiyan transformation. Yajirobe turns down his offer to join him because he'd kill him "just like that Saiyan!" Vegeta replies "Just like that Saiyan? Do you mean Nappa? Do you mean Nappa?!" in reference to when Goku responded to Freeza referring to "That Earthling." This is only in the Japanese and PAL versions; in the US version he instead claims that he gave Nappa a warrior's death.
- Humorously, Vegeta does not seem to notice his transformation into a Super Saiyan in the Japanese and PAL versions. This is probably because he has no idea what a Super Saiyan even looks like.
External links
- Official site (English)
- MobyGames.com
- Dragon Ball Z: Budokai review at IGN
- Dragon Ball Z: Budokai at Game Rankings
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