theman61890's Full Review: Dragon Ball Z®: Sagas for Xbox
I always enjoyed a good Dragonball Z game from Final Bout for Playstation to Legacy of Goku for GBA, they always entertained me. However this game came to me late since I heard bad things about it. I bought the game last month for a bargain price and really glad it was so cheap considering how bad it was. The game was just made so loosely and poorly. This was one of the worst Dragonball Z games I have ever played.
Story
The story of sagas sticks to the storyline of DBZ. You start off in the Saiyan Saga and fight through enemies until you get to the Cell Saga. For those new to the series a bunch of fighters, known as the Z-Fighters travel the Earth and other regions of the universe to thwart away evil beings such as the nefarious Frieza and Cell. The main character Goku is the central hero and is the main savior of the universe, but he does have help from his buddies and family members to help remove evil scum from the universe. The game begins with Raditz kidnapping Gohan, and Goku and Piccolo rush to save him. Amid the levels there are short short cut scenes which are reminiscent of the anime. Even though the game tries to flow exactly whats happens in the show there are some crevices here and there, for example the narrator of the cut scenes describes some battles that never existed between two characters. So even if your very familiar with the story some points might through you off since you know those things did not happen.
Gameplay
The game is a brawling beat em up game, or in other words a button mashing game. The main point of this game is to travel across vast distances and to hack an slash your opposition with a wide array of moves until their respective health bar becomes empty. The controls are a little strange at first considering the placement of the button but are easily manageable by the second or third levels. The game is rather repetitive and boring at times. You can acquire upgrades from gathering coins from around the different levels, but the upgrades aren't all that magnificent.
Flying in the game is reduced to your characters essentially gliding in the air. You fly by double jumping which sucks considering many characters simply cant jump very high. Another bad apart of the game is the hidden walls. In some parts you must defeat all the enemies on the screen or you will be block when you try to enter a different screen by an invisible wall. This is the case for most of the game, they essentially force you to fight e minor characters. Apart from flying mostly everyone has Ki blasts. Ki Blasts are concentrating amounts of energy shot by a character. But the downfall is mostly everyone has one weak Ki blast attack which pretty much renders them only useful for flying
enemies.
Another major part of the fighting are melee combos, which have become a staple in the Budokai and Tenkaichi games. The melee fighting is very slow-paced, nothing like the fast melees in the fighting games. Also the combos are pretty weak considering the best combos for most of t characters are simply four of five hit combos which is a real downsize for the fifty or more combo mashes you can do in games like Budokai and DBZ: Legends.
Another flaw was the poor rendition of special attacks. The fighting and special moves are disgustingly bland. When you do a Kamehameha nothing spectacular happens as it looks like a slightly powered up Ki Blasts. For those whom are new to Dragonball Z the Kamehameha is probably the most legendary and popular move of the show.. Nothing like the huge beams of light Goku shoots in the anime, but rather just a beam of light somewhat bigger than the common ki blast. Also the characters animations during the moves are pretty bland considering the feeling each character gives in their moves when you watch them do the same exact moves on the television show.
The best part of the gameplay is probably the co op mode in which you can go through the story with a partner. Apart form other Dragonball Z games in which you can only fight another human, having one as a partner is very refreshing. This is very fun and tends to remove repetition that would arise from playing the game single player. Easily the best part of the gameplay.
Graphics
The graphics, aren't that great, they aren't that bad, there average graphics. The character's models could have been much better. Also cut scenes could have been rendered better as characters have limited and blocky motion during some cut scenes. There were various levels and though most of them seemed kind of repetitive at times, the worlds you fighting were decent to look at. Like stated before specials were usually rendered pitifully, but one move that really stuck out in my mind was Vegeta's Galick Gun which looked supreme.
Another gripe with the graphics are the things that explode like rocks. For some reason it takes a while for something to explode after its been hit with a Ki blast of something. Also many of the destructible elements looks weak when they explode. Like many of the rocks explode then disappear instantly. Probably the best part of the graphics were the selection screen which were very vibrant, now only if the rest of the game were made like these. The textures of the characters and backgrounds were just to sloppy for my taste.
Sound
DBZ: Sagas doesn't use any music from the anime which really makes no sense considering the show had some great battling music. The generic techno music in this game are really forgettable as the are really really generic game songs. Also the variation is limited when concerning the types of songs. Most of the songs are the same, even in boss battles the music is pretty bland. The only songs I like was that of the title screen which was kind of catchy.
Another bad thing about the sounds is that the moves all sound weak. From the punches and kicks to the ki attacks they were all plain sounds. The punches and kicks sound like generic thuds that you would hear from a Super Nintendo fighting game. And the Ki blasts sounds like there from an atari game. Also there should have been more sounds. More characters should have spoken and the bad guys should have made sounds besides the general snaring sounds most bad guys make in all action type games.
Replayability
When purchasing a game, another thing that is very important to is the replayability. After beating the game, you essentially unlock all the unlockables which are essentially just clips from the show.. The game offers no incentive for going back and beating the game again. The only thing you can obtain is the Pendulum Room. When you beat the game you can replay any level you want with any character. You also unlock two new characters, but considering every character is essentially the same except for their special attacks this is significantly pointless. I realistically beat this game which includes all the extras in about six hours tops.
Rent or borrow this game, unless you collect Dragonball Z games and want to finish a collection which is a reason I bough this game. The game is very flawed in many ways, it flawed graphically with its sounds and animations. Luckily I payed only five dollars for a used version at a local game store. So I guess if you find a version this cheap or even cheaper you can buy it to see how flawed it is.
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