...Budokai Tenkaichi...easily provides the most authentic Dragon Ball Z experience out of any video game so far.
The arenas and backgrounds, while not quite as stunning as the character models, get the job done. One complaint I have about the arenas is the stage boundaries. The multi-colored lines representing the barriers tend to scuff up what would otherwise be a perfect Dragon Ball Z experience.
The sound is satisfactory, but very little of it is new. A lot of the music and voices are recycled from previous games. You'll hear music from Budokai 1-3, and a lot of in-battle voices from those games, as well.
Atari still didn't fix Cell's voice. His voices in the cinematics in Z Battle Gate mode are done correctly, but the in-battle voices are still all from first form Cell. What's more, they aren't even new recordings of first form Cell's voices; they are just recycled from previous games. You would think that, by the fourth game, Atari would get that right.
The subtitles in the cinematics in Z Battle Gate sometimes don't match the voices. It gets to the point where the character will sometimes say something completely different from what is written in the subtitle. That struck me as weird.
Speaking of the cinematics, I'd say they are pretty lame. There is very little action in the cinematics, and they mostly consist of each character performing some kind of warm-up animation, and then taking turns blabbing some poorly-scripted story filler.
For some people, I suppose the option to use the Japanese voices is a plus, but, for me, I couldn't really care less if I wanted to.
Finally, I'm a Yamcha fan, and I have to say that Yamcha's howl at the end of Wolf-Fang Fist is pathetic. Listen to it; it's like a gargled yell. Needless to say, this was very disappointing for me.
The controls were a little tough for me to get used to at first, but, once I got the hang of them, the game was very fast-paced and enjoyable for me from that point on.
The new camera angle seems to work fairly well, although the viewpoint gets skewed to an annoying angle when you get pinned up against a wall by your opponent.
The battle system is simple, but complex at the same time. That is, it is simple to execute the various moves, and fairly easy to string together monstrously cool-looking combos. That's all not factoring in your opponent, though. There are a lot of ways the opponent can stop your combo, or counter it and start his own combo. So, while the battle system is relatively simplistic, battles can still be complex and exciting among perceptive players.
The super moves are quicker, and blend more seamlessly into combat, but that also makes them a lot cheaper. Without upgrading any characters with Z items, a lot of the Finishing Moves deal out almost half of the opponent's health in damage, while only consuming about one-third of the ki gauge. Even on characters with a lot of health and defense, super moves are a tad too good. It's far too easy to just run away from your opponent and fire super moves for the entire battle.
Dodging moves can be easy, if the opponent fires super moves from far away. However, at close range, super moves are nearly impossible to avoid. Blocking is almost always your best option for most situations.
Teleporting is pretty hard, because it seems like you need to execute the teleport mere milliseconds before attack hits you. This makes teleporting pretty risky, unless you're really good at it.
Some of the characters, such as Super Trunks and Broly, are really cheap. The fact that they are slow in no way balances out the fact that normal combo hits don't phase them. Seriously, fighting against Super Trunks is ridiculous, unless you just fly around and use super moves constantly--which is really stupid.
Some of Z Battle Gate mode missions are stupid. A lot of the survival-style battles are way too hard, as they often pit you against an obscenely strong opponent for up to two minutes.
While Budokai Tenkaichi isn't without a few flaws and quirks, it easily provides the most authentic Dragon Ball Z experience out of any video game so far. What really saves this game, in the end, is that it's really fun. Isn't that what video games are all about, after all?