Now before we get to the review, let's take the time to give a retrospective on the Budokai Tenkaichi/Raging Blast game series and it's status seeing as this might be the last game of the series. It all started off with a game called Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi(Dragon Ball Z: Sparking in Japan) for the Playstation 2, it wasn't like most 3D fighting games where it is just two (or more, depending on the game) 3D combatants fighting in a 2D-like prespective. Tenkaichi was open-world and allowed you to destroy parts of the environment. It was commercially-successful and received favorable reviews by critics, however it was lambasted by many fans for the lack of diversity in the fighting system and not-so-impressive presentation but they seem to forget that the game was an experiment. Then came Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (Dragon Ball Z: Sparking Neo in Japan) for the Playstation 2 and Wii, it was a huge improvement over the first game. It gave the gameplay a major diversity boost, the presentation, graphics are noticably improved,& the big seller was the OUTRAGEOUSLY LARGE roster. It met the most critical acclaim and it remains the most well-received game of the series even to this day. Then came Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (Dragon Ball Z: Sparking Meteor in Japan) for the Playstation 2 and Wii, it was to be the last game of the series to be released for those two consoles. Tenkaichi 3 didn't do much improvement in terms of gameplay or graphics but the HUGE improvement was in presentation. It may not have met the same critical acclaim as Tenkaichi 2 but it had more fan support. Then came Dragon Ball: Raging Blast, it introduced the highly popular open-world fighting formula into the HD console systems (Playstation 3 and Xbox 360). It gauranteed to step up the gameplay but was actually taking a step backwards and it met less than favorable reception from critics for bad camera angling, controls,& the fact the fighting system encourages spamming too much with the super moves but the game was fairly successful in sales and had a decent following regardless. Last came Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, Spike took note to the problems of the previous game but barely fixed them and actually made many of the problems worse(added with the new problems it introduced), critical reception was even less favorable and unlike the previous game, it sold poorly. This commercial failure had Spike taking hints and actually try to improve over the previous games leading us to the game I am reviewing now that might be the Tenkaichi to end all Tenkaichis. Now with that long-winded Synopsis out of the way, let's finally review the game.

   
Sound

The usual casts are here and finally Funimation were able to fix the inconsistent voice acting for Cell. For those how don't know about this inconsistency, unlike in the original Japanese dubbing, Cell's voice is supposed to change after every transformation as if he were becoming a completely different android but in the games, either Imperfect Cell or Perfect Cell's voice would tend to take over for all transformation. It's been a problem since the Budokai series. Ironically enough, in the in-game cutscenes, characters that have had a voice change for the Dragon Ball Kai Cast(Gohan, Frieza, #18 etc.) will randomly switch between their former voices to their current ones. Aside from that, they get the job done and if you can't bare with that issue then there's still the option of switching to the Japanese dub. As for the soundtrack, it's mostly heavy guitar riffs which are typical of these games and they fit the tone and some are pretty good but overrall they're not something that I would deem as truly amazing.


 

Gameplay

As Spike promised, the problems in the previous two games have been fixed. The annoyance from camera angles are gone (although there are a few bad instances), the controls although still retaining some of the same control schemes (such as pressing and holding on the down directional pad to build up Ki Gauge) are MUCH more adjustable and responsive, and not only that, it introduces an entirely new fighting system, though at first the fighting system may seem disjointing as it's not structured like a normal fighter and chance does play a big role in the fighting but if you play more of it, it'll grow to more fun to play as they've finally found that working formula that makes you feel like you're immersed into a fight scene from the series, and you'll realize that it is not based on chance alone, you'll find out that the game will require you to be a little more strategic with your movements than most fighters and it is also based on Ki and Spirit gauge management. The Spirit gauge is the new function for where you use super/ultimate moves from getting enough hits on your opponent instead of just simply building up Ki by pressing and holding the down directional pad and Ki now works primarily as a defense meganism as it allows you to do such things as countering your opponents combo(s), and to either Guard, Evade, or Intercept your opponents super/ultimate move, Guard requiring the least amount of Ki, and Intercept requiring the most as correctly so given their use. Overall, the fighting system is fairly well balanced.

.......But that's just touching on the good parts though, the gameplay also has some jarring flaws, and it isn't without them. For starters, there could have been a LOT more varity to how the characters play but since the game is more focused on the cinematic aspect than actual gameplay, characters pretty much fight the same and compared to more advanced fighters with an infinite variety of fighting styles for the combatants(even those with less characters), it may short but somehow, the basic fighting system still manages to be plenty of fun regardless.