Every year, Atari gives us a new Dragonball Z game, and every year consistently brings improvement in presentation and combat. Sadly there’s always a new problem added to the mix as well, but normally the benefits have outweighed the problems.
Dragonball Z: Burst Limit may be the first exception, with some serious improvements in terms of presentation and a tightened up fighting system, but a stunning lack of options and a real drop in combat depth.
The biggest, most obvious upgrade is that the game is absolutely stunning in terms of animation and color. The animation is better than the most carefully animated DBZ movie, and it shows. A few times clothing clips improperly and there’s some repetition to the power attacks; the impact animation which becomes far too elastic looking. That aside, it’s dynamic, it’s crisp, clean, bright, and altogether excellent, even if lacking in variety.
The voice clips as well are excellent, and provide flavor to the battles. Characters will occasionally yell each others’ names during a fight, and will talk to their support characters during drama scenes and vice versa. Rather than a generic “Have a senzu bean!”, you’ll get “Lord Frieza, take this!” from Ginyu, or “Dad, let me handle this!” from Goku to Raditz. It’s an extra layer of life that is easily appreciated. Of course, the mouth movement is almost never synchronized, but fans of the series have come to expect that sort of thing.
Sadly, the drama scenes, one of the new features, become very repetitive. When triggered by certain conditions, a cutscene plays out. At the end of it, there’s a status boost for someone, or someone is knocked away, an attack defended, quite a few things are possible. The system is great and throws some surprises into fights, and each character has plenty of them. So, while each sound bite is unique between characters and is well done, there are only so many times you can see the same animation repeated for a character. On top of that, there’s rarely actual interaction with the fight, just a cutscene that often ends in a black screen with a flash, implying someone being punched in the face. Or sometimes a generic ki attack being deflected. Sometimes if the scene is the two combatants interacting something happens, but that’s the exception.
The other issue is that the scene, well, it will just play out the same. There’s a point where you’re really sick of hearing “Is…is this really my limit? No, it can’t be! I AM A SUPER SAIYAN!” It’s unskippable in a fight, and while the idea is great, and it provides a solid mechanic, it becomes rapidly annoying. Especially in two player games, where it provides some “DUDE COOL” at first, but shortly players may skip the drama scene selection altogether. It’s a shame because the mechanic is great, but the implementation is rough.
Combat in DBZ: Burst Limit is similar to Tenkaichi, though the aerial battles have been toned down or nearly removed, and control is vastly simplified. No more special attack orbs plus a big bar, and various up/down combos. It’s forward+ki, back+ki, or up+ki for a super attack. When totally charged, players can use an aura spark which provides boosted defense and offense, rapid super attacks, and an enhanced chase attack. Defense is holding the block button down, or tapping it right before an attack and dodging. Tapping with a direction leads to a teleport and a counterattack as well, which can often result in ridiculous chains in two player matches. As a single-player mechanic, it’s not so great, but it functions for the story mode. With two players, the game absolutely shines and the combat is tight.
That said, there’s still a lack of variety to it, with many characters feeling same-y. Essentially fighting just on the horizontal plane with 3d movement to avoid attacks has taken away from some Dragonball feel. Special attacks still all dial in the same, button mashing is still present during struggles, and there’s very little risk vs. reward going on. A full power smash leaves a player vulnerable, but otherwise there are unblockable defensive postures, no manual ki charging (there’s a constant recharge, boosted slightly by dealing damage, stunted by taking damage), and no real battles for position. It’s a little dangerous to use an ultimate attack since it leaves one unable to teleport, but that’s minor overall.
But like I said before, the game absolutely shines in two player mode. The shallow combat is easily picked up, there’s a lot of excitement, and there’s a solid length with a great ebb and flow often enough, especially since players will tend to max out the health, attack, and defense stats. Add the drama scenes, and there’s a really fun game to be played with friends, even with some included annoyances. Hell, it’s even fun to watch, something most fighters can’t claim. The raw energy of Dragonball is obvious, and it’s easy to play two or three hours with four friends, passing the controller off upon loss. Spectators will cheers and yell, undoubtedly, for tense battles and utter decimations. But, that’s the result of the fast pace and flashy moves that show up in the battle. It doesn’t take a lot of skill to pull off, but it’s still a lot of fun to watch.
This is, of course, a review, so I have to issue a few complaints. There’s a pattern emerging. 3 iterations of a series, and a reboot. Budokai did such when I moved into Tenkaichi, dropping most characters and most story progress. Burst Limit has done the same, ending up at a very bare bones amount of characters and ending at the end of the Cell Saga. The presentation is, again, spectacular with cutscene intros and all, though the story stages are few really, as are characters. Unlocking drama scenes requires them being played out in story mode, which really limits what’s available for two player games. There’s also the issue of not being able to randomize the CPU character’s settings in versus mode. Players are forced to pick the ultimate special the computer will use, and the drama scenes. Some probably won’t care, preferring to re-create scenes or form what-if scenarios, but I like a challenge and a surprise. Not knowing what’s coming, having to be ready for anything, is part of the fun against the CPU. Instead, I know there will be a senzu bean and two special attack blocks, and that there will be a Hellzone Grenade. It really limits the single-player replay factor.
More characters are really needed, especially ones that start out at higher power levels. Everyone starts at the bottom, and moves up, and can be knocked back down. It doesn’t really make sense watching Frieza go through four transformations (and it’s annoying to do), then get knocked back down to his original form. And I don’t see why Goku always has to go through kaioken before hitting super saiyan to be honest. It doesn’t mesh with the show, but it doesn’t kill the gameplay, at least. Just annoys.
Dragonball Z: Burst limit gets 3 and a half canes. It’s a three cane game in single-player with decent AI and solid basics, and a four cane game for multi-player. The likely iteration next year will undoubtedly include many more characters and an improved/lengthened story mode, and probably improved drama scenes. Hopefully more open combat as well. For now, it’s no Soul Calibur but it’s a fuckton of fun with friends, and at least worth a rental.
