User Reviews (1 - 8 of 8)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Great addition to the Tenkaichi library

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 53 / 55
Date: November 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3

The world of Dragon Ball games has always been a hit and miss one. Many games based on the series have been dismal failures, dragging the already lackluster world of anime gaming down a notch. The only good games based on the series were the fighting games, and even these didn't truly capture the high-flying, butt-kicking excitement of the anime. This was remedied by the arrival of the Budokai Tenkaichi series, which gave DBZ gamers the action they had always dreamed of in a video game. The second installment improved greatly upon the first. And now we arrive at number three.

As a whole, Tenkaichi 3 is a great game, which makes some modest improvements over its predecessor. Sadly though, it isn't the leaps-and-bounds improvement I'm sure plenty of DBZ gamers were hoping for. Despite an improvement here and there, this feels more like what BT2 should have been, more like an expansion pack to BT2 than a full-blown sequel. Let's take a look at where the game succeeds and where it falters.

THE GOOD:

-Massive character roster.
Every character/character state that appeared in the previous installment appears here. But it doesn't stop there! Roughly twenty or so new characters, not seen before in a Budokai Tenkaichi game, are playable as well. Amongst them are King Vegeta, King Cold, Spopovich, Devil Man, Nail, Nova Shenron, and even Arale from Akira Toriyama's other series, Dr. Slump! New versions of old characters have been added as well, namely Goku and Piccolo. In addition, the game also features the characters that were exclusive to the Japanese Wii version of BT2.

-Combat engine remains the same, but gets its share of refinement.
One of the biggest complaints that people had about the second installment of Tenkaichi was that it was far too easy to kill or be killed by spamming the opponent to death with the same special attack, over and over again - or even just melee attacking them to death from behind. This has been remedied. Combos now fade into a teleporting attack, preventing combo spamming. Other little refinements have been made in a number of areas, and they help to prevent these spamming issues the first game had. In addition to all this, you can hit a button combo after launching your attack to improve its power. As a whole the engine in this game feels a bit more "free form" than the last game - even if you're locked on to your enemy, you can still move around freely. It's tougher to find your opponent, which adds to the challenge. Blast 1 usage is also more well-thought than in earlier games.

-Improved computer AI.
If you don't have a human opponent to play with, rejoice! The AI has been given a revamp, and now it plays far better than it has before. Even on normal difficulty, I have lost several fights to the computer - which should say plenty about the fine-tuning.

-The characters are a bit more balanced than the last game.
Some of the so-called "weaker" characters from the last game have been tuned up a bit for this installment. Alternatively, some of the more powerful ones have been toned down a bit, to make the battles a little more fair and even.

-Excellent graphics.
The graphics were one of the best parts of the previous Tenkaichi title. And they're no less excellent here. These graphics aren't going to win any awards or anything, but they're good for what they are. It's tough to bring a 2D anime into 3D, but it's done so well here.

-Bonuses if you own the previous two Tenkaichi titles or have save data.
If you have either one of the older Tenkaichi games, you can use them to unlock additional gameplay modes! Furthermore, if your memory card has save data from either earlier game, you will automatically unlock every character you had unlocked in the earlier title you have data for! That sure beats going through and having to unlock everyone all over again (there are some minor exceptions to this, but I won't get into it here.)

-Multiple gameplay modes.
In addition to the obvious story and tournament modes, this game adds in its share of new modes as well. Amongst these are a mode in which you must win a fight under certain criteria, and several new different tournaments, each with its own way of doing things. The level-up/customization mode has also gotten somewhat of an overhaul. It's good to see they didn't just leave off at the standard, obligatory stuff.

-Story mode has been rethought.
Another big complaint about the story mode in the second Tenkaichi was that you, essentially, had to win every fight, regardless of whether or not it happened in the series that way. Gamers complained about winning these fights in the story mode, only to have their character die in the ensuing cutscene. Fortunately, the mode has been completely redone here. There are multiple phases to a battle, usually employing multiple characters. This results in battles more akin to those of the series. There's even a "what if" mode that presents some new, interesting fights, and a special mode that covers fights from the movies.

-Characters have more individuality than before.
In the previous game, lots of the characters had the same attacks, and nothing set them apart - apart from the way the characters doing them looked. Here, the attacks (in many cases) are made more individual. For instance, with Frieza Form One's rushing attack, he whacks the enemy in the face with his back turned to them, and then smirks. Little touches like this add a lot to the experience.

-More character outfits than ever before!
There are plenty of cool outfits here that weren't in the previous game, including the Toei-miscolored Vegeta from before he arrived on earth, and even Yamcha's old desert bandit attire!

THE BAD:
-Still some key characters missing from the roster.
Why no Garlic Jr. henchmen? Why no Cooler Armored Squadron (other than Salza?) Pui Pui and Yakon appear as parts of Babidi's attacks, but are not playable on their own! Why only two of the evil dragons from GT? What about GT Trunks and GT Vegeta (the unpossessed version?) I was glad to see this game put in a lot more characters, not only from Z but also the classic series and GT, but they missed some key ones.

-Story mode has issues.
I admire the programmers for making a story mode closer to the actual fights in the anime, but because of this, the mode itself is far shorter. I cruised through the good majority of it the day I bought the game! It's not helped by the fact that only the most major battles of the series are covered, and even a few key ones are missing, including Trunks against Cyborg Frieza and King Cold. My last issue with the story mode is that, due to the fights being so long, you can lose in a later part of the fight - and have to repeat the entire fight as a result. It doesn't help things any that some parts of the mode result in instant death. My last complaint is that it doesn't feature the "world map" styling that the previous game had, so you can't go on subquests to get extra items and money (but you can earn these in other modes of gameplay.)

-Characters play too much like they did in the previous game.
Budokai Tenkaichi 2 owners will be disappointed to find that the characters here who were in the last game (over nine tenths of the roster) play pretty much like they did the last time around. Some of them have received no new refinements or special attacks whatsoever.

-Feels more like a Budokai Tenkaichi 2 expansion pack than a full-blown sequel.
There are some new modes and characters here, but it just doesn't feel like a totally new game. Rather, it feels like everything that BT2 should have been to begin with. This doesn't detract from my overall good opinion of the game though.

-Seems like it was rushed out for the holiday season.
There are lots of little production flaws that are noticeable, revealing that the programmers most likely rushed, not refining their work. There are plenty of spelling errors in the game, and some characters don't even talk in the right voice - Super Saiyan 4 Goku talks in the voice of the Kid Goku form he transforms from, for instance. While a good game, it needed more refining.

-Still not enough customization/creation elements.
When is a DBZ game going to give us a "create a fighter" mode? And while we're at it, how about a mode that allows the gamer to customize character outfits and the like? Simply being able to customize a character's stats isn't that interesting.

OVERALL:
Overall, Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is a solid addition to the DBZ game library, which needs every good game it can get. It's not a full-blown, world-scale improvement over the previous game, but it's a nice addition to the series that does surpass its predecessor in most respects. If you liked the previous game, you'll definitely like the latest installment. It stays true to the previous games, but improves just enough elements to stay interesting.

Thumbs up.

Good but this game and the previous game are in a tie

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 12
Date: November 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game a day before it's actual release date and I must say it's a good game. The thing is, well, it's missing some important elements that made the previous game so good. I think in a way that this is Budokai 3 (not this game) over again. If you don't know to much of these games, I will give you a brief history. The 1st Budokai sold well, but the critics hated it (and some of the stuff in that game was kind of cheesy and bad.) so then a year later, the 2nd Budokai came out. The game was not only better than the first one but it had the memorable board game story mode (which was cool and kind of different since these games were mainly for fans of the series and didn't want to see the same crap over and over again) and the graphics were much better looking for the series. Then Budokai 3 came out. The graphics didn't change much and the battle system was kind of the same but went in a further direction to make it look more like the show. The board game story mode was taken out and replaced with the Dragon World (later seen in Budokai Tenkaichi 2) and when a cut scene came along, the characters more like talking heads before the battle started. Then the 1st Tenkaichi game came out and the battle system changed entirely. Unlike the other games before it, it was like Power Stone and a 3rd person shooter mixed. The game didn't have the skill capsules, so they were replaced with status upgraders and the characters had permenant moves. Sadly, this game had (for me anyways) some characters that had moves that totally suck A##! SS4 Goku's most powerful skill was the 10X Kamehameha Wave. So what was his regular move set? the 1st one was energy ball blasts and the other one was the explosive wave. SS3 Goku suffered the same fate as SS4 Goku. By the way your characters couldn't transform (you had to select a character and their form like if I picked Goku, I had to select his Base form or one of his Super Saiyan Forms). Story mode sucked too. It's like Budokai 1's story mode. Anyway to continue on, the 2nd Tenkaichi game was not only a massive improvement to the first one, it was Best of E3 runner-up of 2006 (Mortal Kombat Armageddon was fighting game of the year). Characters can transform, you can place status potoras (earrings) on your character and even level up the character. the Graphics were awesome, Story Mode was like Budokai 3's Dragon World mode. Character moves improved this time. A new Soundtrack was given into the game (instead of hearing the same crap from other previous games) the thing was their was so much to do in that game and not get bored with it for several Months. Then this game came out. I was so excited to play as GT little Goku and a bunch of other characters (Dr Wheelo is in this game by the way.). The move set changed slightly. the thing is that the story mode is more like Budokai 1 and BT1. That sucks. And it's to short, I am already at 65% of the story mode already.

Anyway here's the pros and cons of this game:

Pros:

- GT Little Goku is here and other characters that didn't appear in the other games
- the power struggle (energy blast struggles) system is much better. In the 1st game it only had to be lasers, the 2nd game had both lasers and balls but they couldn't mix. in this game you can use your Kamehameha against the Big Bang attack and have struggles with it.
- SS4 Vegeta has a laser attack for both a regular and a super (Final Flash and Final Shine)
- new soundtrack
- pressing a direction and Square at the same time while performing an energy attack will make your attack stronger
- If you have a Budokai Tenkaichi 1 or 2 game save (I think this is how it happened) you get the same amount of characters that you got from the other 2.....Look in the con section

Cons:

- Exp system gone and replaced by gaining levels to upgrade your potoras bar. so if I gained a level then that means i get an extra space. 7 is your maximum and some skills take up more than 1
- Story mode it awful (only good thing is that the battles for these chapters are looooonnnnnggggg! fewer chapters means longer fights Without a lot of loading)
- Dragon Points (which gain your levels for your characters) are tough to get
- cutscenes are lame (if you have 2 characters talking and then a 3rd will talk but doesn't come into the scene. You can hear voices in your head!)
- Big Characters can't be attacked by Speed rush attacks
- .....but some characters Like SS4 Vegeta or Goku from GT or even SS4 Goku aren't there as default characters. You still have to unlock them.

Both:

- 5 Gokus are a little too many but only because of A. base form gokus can have their own moves (There are Vegeta saga, Frieza/Cell Saga, Buu Saga, DB saga and of course, GT saga Gokus (GT is kid Goku)) and B. The Creators thought mabye this would be a wise idea so that they can have their customers (players) play a certain Goku that would be right for that saga. in other words, they don't want players to Transform into a SS3 while beating the crap out of Raditz (we've all done that before obviously).

Conclusion:

This game is awesome but the 2nd one is just about as good. If you have no.2 and have the idea that playing as GT Goku is fun (like me) so you can eventually get 3, keep them both not only for the disc fusion system but also if you get sick of playing this game and want to start a new file in BT2, that can be a good thing. If you have just this one don't get BT2 and If you have no.2 but want to get no.3 rent it first because everything I put on this review is true. It's not that much of an improvement over the previous game. Also If you see this game in the store and looking at the 2nd or 3rd game at the same price (which rarely happens but sometimes it does) get this one or if you see the previous game 10 bucks less than this one just wait a little longer to get some more cash to get it.

A Step Down...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you have Tenkaichi 2, I suggest you rent this one before you buy it. This title might have more characters, and more stages, which I admit are some great perks, but it cut several features that made Tenkaichi 2 a great game.

This game does have some good updates in the AI, as the fighters are more adept at learning your fighting technique, but the graphics haven't gone up much since the last game, as well as a few other little things that add up to making the game somewhat... lacking.

The Good:
Many characters to choose from. Having over 150 characters does give you the chance to use any character if you liked them in the movies or in the series

Many good stages: good and destructable. That makes for a good fight.

Good Graphics: Haven't gone up much from the second, but still are pretty tight.

Transformations have improved: Tenkaichi 2 introduced transformations to the Tenkaichi name, but they weren't top notch. Tenkaichi 3 offers more realistic (as far as realism in anime/supernatural fighting games go).

The Bad:
The fight's are all bunched up into 1 little block. You can't win one fight, then lose the other and try and win the second fight again. You must re-start the entire fight sequence if you lose once.

No bonus fights: Tenkaichi 2 offered you the opportunity to fight someone else besides the target for the level, to give you the chance to fight with someone new or earn some extra money or experience: This game doesn't even offer you the ability to fly across a map, which is what made the last 3 games good.

Repeat Characters: This game has 5 Gokus. They have to kid Gokus (Dragon ball and Dragonball GT) as well as 3 adult Gokus (one for the beginning of the series, midway, and end of it), to make it seem like the story followed the way chronologically. I guess they didn't want you going super sayain 3 to kill Freiza or Raditz.

Babbling Text: What would normally be a cut scene or a prelude to the fight scene is now just somebody you can't see babbling and conversing with your character or someone else in the background. It's not so much bad, as somewhat annoying.

Confusing upgrade system: It doesn't say the max amount of upgrade you can give a person: The previous game gave people a limit of 20 points to an attribute (health, strenght, speed, etc.) This one is sort of hard to figure.

To conclude, I have to say this game is much better than the first Tenkaichi game, but not as good as the second. I suggest getting the second, but you might as well get the third just to say you have it and for the extra characters.

Solid DBZ Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: November 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The first two reviewers of this game did a solid job of covering the pros and cons of the game. There are just a few gripes that I would add - first, why the PS2??? I was really hoping to see this (or at least A) DBZ title on the PS3. Maybe next Christmas? Second, I was disappointed to find that widescreens are still not supported. Third, I found the sound options very disappointing; stereo or mono??? There have been half-a-dozen DBZ installments over the past 5 years, so I'd figure that the sound an picture would've been bumped up, but on well. Lastly, this really seems to be nothing more than a polished version of Tenkaichi 2. Oh well. Those things aside, this game is still a lot of fun. The list of playable characters is incredible and even though a hand full of characters seen at one point or another are missing, the game isn't missing anyone that I'd ever want to play as. In closing, a good overall game, I'd just like to see it on the PS3 in 1080 widescreen w/ 5.1 surround, then I'd be a very happy camper indeed.

Not a good game but not a bad game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Just as it says this is neither a good game not a bad game. It can seem fun if it is your first DBZ game but bad if this is not the first. If you've played the first 2 games then you'll notice that theres not much different than the the 3. The main difference is the adding of a few characters which you may never play as anyway (freiza's henchmen?) which means once you've unlocked all characters you may never play this game but a couple times then after that its prolly gonna collect dust. However if you've never played the first 2 tenkaichi games then give this a shot-you may just like it. However if you played the first 2, then I recommend just renting first before buying.

Amazon gets a bad review

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: January 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Amazon sent me two of these games when I only requested one. I was charged me for both. I returned one of the games for a refund and never received a refund, event though Amazon confirmed that they received the return. I've emailed Amazon to bring this to their attention and have not received a reply. They still have not refunded my money.

Best DBZ Game Ever. Enough Said.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This Game ROCKS!!! There are so many new battle moves its like a totally differant game the tenkaichi 2. This game's only weak point is its story mode.the battles that are in the story mode are all amazing, but the could be more of them.

Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Third time a cham and with this game they pull you in the world of Dragonball to be as close to the anime as posslibe. With well over 150 fighter to pick from this game will bring the warrior out of anyone.

Review Page: 1 

Actions