I don't care if they stuff 5,000 characters into one game, it's the gameplay that's bad.
When I got my hands on the game, the first thing to do, with alot of these games, was to get my favorite characters. This means going through the, lord help us, "Z Battle Gate". It's more like "Z Repeat Gate". Since you'll be spending your time playing lots of battle that can't keep up with freshness. These battles are modeled off the DBZ anime. This is interesting, until you hit the long chain of battles with Saibamen, which only difference between the 4-5 battles is a different character, and some condition depending on your character. This should happen only once, until you fight the Kid Cells.
The Z Battle Gate is like one long trial of dedication, because thanks to a non-epic feel to the game, you'll have to tolerate through these battles if you want new characters. Thank god that most of these characters are easily gained just by playing this mode straight through.
So the Z items must add flare to the game. The only Z items I equipped are stat upping items. I really didn't find any use for them other then giving the other modes a try, using these as excuses not to die. Since the Z Battle Gate is pretty straight forward.
The combat doesn't help this. I didn't enjoy this as much as budokai 3 because of the linear moves you are given. You get 1-2 moves that saves your butt from obliteration, 2 good moves, 1-2 super moves, your transformations (if any), and unless I miss something, that's pretty much it. What's even worse is that these moves aren't even epic feeling. Since when did Spirit Bomb only take 2 seconds to cast? It's not Magic Missile.
Though punching and kicking is simple, there are times where you'll have to enter the freeform mode, (You always leave it at the beginning of the fight when you lock on) and then the difficult 3D controls kick in, causing frustration because you can't lock on to the guy that you know is behind you, and is just pelting you with ki blasts.
But surely there must be a great multiplayer, not so great when the multiplayer feels basic. Set health, Z items, go to 1 of 9-10 stages, and just beat eachother until you get bored of that. Really, beating Kid Buu with Hercule might seem fun, but it only lasts one fight.
Throw in a less then acceptable camera and just a couple of tracks from the anime, and you have a bad fighting game. You might unlock all the characters, but unless you're picky about wanting to have Android 17 and have to stick with Goku, there's not really much to have you play this game other then multiplayer that needs to be expanded by playing through hours of boring gameplay. And that's about as fun as it sounds.
Gameplay - Camera angles are going to screw up eventually, and is worsened with no camera settings. Combat is a tad difficult to figure out, let alone survive against better people. The 3 second finishing moves do not feel like DBZ. Haven't really taken advantage of the 3D combat.
Graphics - Graphics looks great....DBZ great. Nothing wrong with that.
Sound - There's like, 4-5 tracks in the game. And it gets annoying after time. There's Japanese voices, but a glitch in the game caused you to wrestle with it in order to keep the voices at normal.
Value - Sure, you can unlock all the characters through the different modes, but the mode's presentation is lacking severely.
My opinion - Can't help but feel that the presentation was rushed. Throw that in the fact that the 3D gameplay doesn't really kick in often, and you got yourself a game that should be played by the fans with lowered expectations.
Good - It's classic DBZ fighting with quite a bit of characters.
Bad - DBZ:Tenkaichi < DBZ:Boudokai 3. > DBZ: Boudokai 2. Nuff said. And who cares if there's alot of characters?