Yet Another Budokai Game, small additions, but still, only worthy of a rental.
When I first picked this game up, i thought, hmm, same graphics as budokai 3 but big environment, seems interesting, shortly after my hopes for this game were shot down.
I would like to get the main problems with this game out of the way before I give ratings to individual parts of the game.
1. Huge world, but still only 1 on 1 battles?! The only reason i personally cared about the large world was because i wanted to do some co-op action, i was hoping for a mix between budokai and the pathetic dragon ball z sagas.
2. Crappy lock on system. The system is greatly flawed, if an enemy is close to you, you will find it almost impossible to run away when low on health, this becomes frustrating on the single player missions where you need to keep away from the enemies for a set amount of time. Another flaw with this system is you can easily catch the AI into a loop where they try to approach you in the same manner, but can easily be thwarted by a simple finishing move.
3. Split screen 2 player, ok, i understand this was unavoidable, but none the less, it is annoying, this lead to the inability to even bother get into the 2 player mode.
4. Pathetic hand to hand battles. Simply bash the square button and different directions, its simply pathetic. In a way they down graded the fighting system, in the other budokai games you have 2 attack buttons, punch, and kick, now u simply have one that does both. However, you will soon find that hand to hand combat is simply flashy and some what pointless, most of your battles will be won by holding the L2 button to charge while bashing the triangle button to pull off a quick finishing move that does the amount of 5000 hand to hand attacks, and im not talking individual hits.
5. Lack of content. Yet again, there just isnt enough content to deem this game worthy of buying, i personally beat this game in less then a week. And i didnt feel even the slightest sense of accomplishment.
Now, to move on to the actual review.
Graphics - 7
Sure the graphics are great, i gave it a 7 because there was not even the slightest improvement i could notice.
Gameplay - 4
Terrible, basically a beat-em up game, smash square button, send enemy flying, hold l2 and smash triangle till you do finishing attack, rinse and repeat.
Sound - 9
This, is simply one of the greatest things in this game, the one reason beign 100% japanese voice recordings. Even if you dont speak the language i HIGHLY reccomend this, the voice acting is just more authentic, the actors are just way more into it. In the US the actors refer to dragon ball z as a childrens tv show, however in japan, the voice actors refer to dragon ball z among other animes as a drama, the story is strong and the actors really are passionate.
Storyplot - 6
Cant really give much of a grade for this, the story is the same in all of them except for small additions that are barely worth mentioning. However, matching the fighting with what happens in the anime is more work then its worth.