I would first like to state that I am a fan of the Dragonball(DB, Z, GT) franchise and that this is my opinion on this game. I highly advise anyone thinking of purchasing the game to rent it first. The game advertises “Go Anywhere”, “Do Anything”, “DBZ Playground” which you will find limited when you play, and frankly I feel lied to. Now the game is not all bad; there are some things that you can work out to get an a somewhat enjoyable experience. Gameplay: It is a pretty basic beat-em-up game. Fighting consists of energy you can shoot and melee attacks. Far as the energy beam go, well every character has the small energy balls they can shoot. Each character has one (yes just one) special attack like the beam cannon or kamehameha wave. Also the ki moves take up energy, so you have to power up to refill it. For the melee combat, it is made of of combinations of buttons. I was hoping for more a free type button masher, but you get combinations. Also bad thing about it is if you mess up or finish it the character stops for a couple good seconds before you can do another. Now the target system, it is pretty bad. Push L1 to lock on, now problem is you really can’t switch between targets. You have to let go and push it again and hope you land on the guy you want to go after. Also the movement for it, you can’t just hold the stick and strafe around. You have to keep taping it to move(however they do a short dash when you do) and this takes a bit to get used to if you play a lot of games that you can just lock on and keep moving. Flying, well I would call it more of hovering. Some were hoping for a game that you can just take off and go. Well to fly you push the jump button, then when you are in the air push it again. This limits you a great deal. If you want to fly higher than normal, you have to find something that you can go up to jump off of. When you are in the air you can still shoot your ki blast and do your punch and kick combos. However, when you do it looks just like you where doing them on the ground. Now the only good thing about the flying is that it take up no energy to use. Upgrading your character consists of collectables. You get Red capsules to increase your health, yellow to increase your ki, and coins to buy combat upgrades for your character. You can purchase new combos, new melee attacks, and new ki abilities. Combos pretty much explains it self. Sad thing for the combos, they all end with the same kick or punch. Some new things for melee like and uppercut for example, also some moves require you purchase one before the other. For example you have to purchases uppercut (which will kind of hit a character up) then you can get smash (which hits them back down). Now ki upgrades. You can get an upgrade to increase your flight speed, fighting speed, and some recovery moves. Also have some stuff I find use less like a move they call sense, which all it does it let the enemies show up on your dragon radar. I never found this useful. Now the move I found to have the most fun with is the teleport move. It is fun to experiment with. (like trying to mimic the warp kamehameha). Levels, well I would either call them a room with invisible walls, or a zoo with invisible cages. They look a whole lot bigger than they really are. Also the maps are very linear. Now there are moments where you can knock an enemy in the background and watch him smack into a mountain (one thing I liked, but it was limited). Also all the boss fights are in a small type area much like a ring in a in a sporting event. Also in just about all the boss fights you can knock them in the background (which looks nice) and they fly back in a rage (which also looks nice). Basically the only purpose it serves is for eye candy. The combat is lacking due to the crappy AI. Only problem you might have in the game is if you get ganged up on. Also this made the boss fights very disappointing. All you had to to is hover above them and most of the times they can’t hit you. They also keep doing the same attack over and over. The boss fights get real annoying because it they are easy yet they have a lot of life, so it turns to a somewhat lengthy pointless fight. To see the combat at is best, you will have to fight with another human controlled players. Best times I had in this game is playing the time chamber level fighting against someone that was controlling the other guy. If you use teleport along with your fighting, you can make it look pretty good, make it look like a real fast dbz type fight, and have fun doing it. I won’t say the combat is slow as long as you have someone to keep it going with you. However, going against the computer controlled enemies through out the game, well it gets stale. Graphics: Well they are not bad. They also have some nice looking backgrounds. It also has its mix of a good looking destruction of environment, and a lot of the bad. First the character, they aren’t too bad but a bit flat in detail. Tho this isn’t really a problem but their mouths and such don’t move when they talk. It really doesn’t matter because you rarely are close enough to notice it. Now the level look alright, back grounds in some look the best, makes you whish you could fly in to it. However the animation for the actions are not that good, and some of the effects are just wrong. For example, you can shoot a small ki blast through the invisible wall and watch it hit something in the back ground. However for some reason you can’t shoot your signature one, once it hits the wall it explodes. Kind looks by when I shoot an invisible wall of air and rocks fly out of it. The explosion animation is the same no matter what you shoot. Also when you knock down a tree it falls after then a couple seconds later you seen an explosion from where it tilted from go up. Why I don’t know. Also just how the effects are used, they just don’t pay attention to the situation. Like when you power up on the ground you see little rocks go up(don’t matter where you see the same thing) and such. If you do it in the air you see nothing but the usually aura go up. However, if you jump and charge up then land on the ground, it looks like the air one with just the aura. Small things like this. Sound: Well it is good. Sound like the show which is good. Bad thing is, it gets repetitive. You can only hear the character scream the same way when the powers up, or hear him call out his move the exact same way for so long. As for the music, it isn’t the same music from the series, but it kind of sounds like it. Over all tho, the sound isn’t too bad. Problems with the game, such as bugs and glitches. First the game did crash on me a few times. In the 2 player mode the controls kind of froze up some times where you could do nothing. Happens mainly where there is a lot of characters on the screen.. The Hud started to act up to. My ki bar some how ended up in the middle of the screen a few times. Also sometimes my player would disappear. I could still fight, but I couldn’t see him and no this is not a technique you can use. Also a big thing is the camera. Lot of the times it will get put itself right through a tree or building which makes it hard to see anything. There is also some clipping problems. Among these there are also a number a small things that happen that will just bug ya. To rap it all up I would give this game a 5.8 out of 10. Just it is not a good game. It does get better as you purchase more upgrades, but the game just still lacks to keep anyone interested for too long. Also it has a number of bugs and glitches that take away a great deal for the game. We where offered a big DBZ play ground, but ended up getting this limited DBZ experience. P.S. Please excuse how it looks, it is my first review and the transfer from word to here didn't go well. If you have any questions or commits (please keep it nice) about something in the game(I did leave some details out) please vist the DBZ: Sagas ps2 board and post them in my topic.
why do i even bother? oh, i have to put down 100 words? oh. ok. Dragon Ball Z Sag Ass for the PS2 is a "fighting game". ok, im not gonna beat around the bush. THIS GAME FREAKING SUCKS! let me start with the con... Read Full Review
This game is bad... REAL bad... There is almost nothing worth while about this game.... The gameplay is slow, easy, boreing and painfully repetitive. The graphics are just plain bad. Nintendo 64 graphics look better then... Read Full Review
