No One is Safe in Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi

wow

I feel like this is the name of a game that already exists.

Is that really Goku's Japanese voice? He sounds like a kid.

Good to know you unlock more customization options for your custom hero. The total of 3 hairstyles and 4 suits from the get-go was lame.

I hope the game itself gets better as I learn. I buy these every year, and they're never amazing, but this is the first one that didn't give a good first impression (to me - I know I'm deep in the minority with these games :D.)

This isn't budokai.

Is this Dragonball game number 1 million? Or 2 million?

Sweet Mecha Cooler hopefully he is a playable character

I really wish they get Dimps to do the next game. I am really hyped that it has new animation tho.

Goku's japenese voice is awful and I stopped caring about DBZ a long time ago.

Yay, I can finally satisfy my insatiable lust for more dragon ball games... :|

@Vager: That's because people wanted the same voice actor that played Goku in regular ass Dragon Ball. And people apparently would have freaked out if he didn't sound exactly like kid Goku with the same voice actor. Thus, he sounds like a kid.

These actually look like some substantial additions for a DBZ game. I really like the character creation and newly-redrawn scenes from the anime, that should add a bit of depth to the experience.

The gameplay itself looks largely the same, though. It looks like they took some inspiration from Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 (which is a surprisingly good game) with the large bosses and QTEs. Hopefully those fights aren't too annoying.

DBZ games need to get into more of the "What If?" territory that they flirted with in the first Raging Blast game. Playing through the same goddamn sagas over and over is more of a chore at this point, so try some crazy diversions from the story for a change of pace. What do you have to lose at this point?

I don't think I will ever get used to the japanise voices for this series.

These games got too complicated after Budokai 3 for PS2. Also, these HD DBZ games don't even look that good. I mean, compare this to the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm games and it's sort of embarrassing. Then again, TONS of games look like sh*t compared to Naruto; the cel shading, character rigs and animations are unbelievable in those games.

DRAGON! DRAGON! ROCK THE DRAGON! DRAGONBALL Z!

Custom charter is really the only thing that seems interesting about this game, and is something I've felt they could use for a long time.

Hyping Quick time events was particularly silly.

@Morningstar: 9000

Japanese dbz voices are super dumb.

I love the Japanese voices, kind of always surprised when people hate on them as much as they do. Regardless, this game looks alright. I haven't played the last couple of releases, I might grab this one if it reviews okay; not in a rush by any means though.

@adoggz: See below

@texaseanacre: Totally with you. I don't understand the hate for the Japanese voices, considering the love they get from long-term fans over at daizex.com (and me). I could go into another discussion about how I feel Son Goku's (and everyone else's) Japanese VA is appropriate, but I'd just be rambling and probably get shot down here. ;) I had a discussion with some Giant Bomb readers in a previous video post, and I really think the main English fans hate them is that it's not the English dub voices they first heard (which, no offense, sound terrible to me).

Like CharAznable I'd really like any future Dragonball games (not just "Z") to spend more time with "what if" scenarios for the fans. Otherwise, they probably got the 2D fighter as right as they could with Budokai 3. The Tenkaichi games (which is pronounced "Ten-Kiy-Chi", not "Ten-Kiy-Ee-Chi", BTW; the longer pronunciation is a dubbing error) haven't felt quite there, but maybe they'll get it this time!

@texaseanacre:

I'm with you. Can't see the anime without the japanese voices actually.

Kinda odd they keep making the games. I guess kai is getting a new fan base?

@Vager said:

Is that really Goku's Japanese voice? He sounds like a kid.

IIRC the same lady has been doing him since he was a kid in Dragon ball. But man, I totally forgot about Vegeta turning into a giant monkey. That's super dumb.

Everyone is just going to create Crono...

@Young_Scott said:

Like CharAznable I'd really like any future Dragonball games (not just "Z") to spend more time with "what if" scenarios for the fans. Otherwise, they probably got the 2D fighter as right as they could with Budokai 3. The Tenkaichi games (which is pronounced "Ten-Kiy-Chi", not "Ten-Kiy-Ee-Chi", BTW; the longer pronunciation is a dubbing error) haven't felt quite there, but maybe they'll get it this time!

Japanese syllables are pretty short and choppy. Shouldn't it be more Te-n-ka-i-chi. 'Tenka' meaning under heaven (EARTH) and 'ichi' of course meaning the numeral one. Roughly meaning the best on Earth. The 'n' is more pronounce as like a half syllable and the i should be pronounced so you can hear ichi as part of the word to understand the meaning. I don't know. I'm probably wrong.

@Poohkey: No, you're mostly correct, sir! :) That's literally what Tenkaichi means and that is how it breaks down. However, based on hearing Dragonball in Japanese, it slurs together closer in actual Japanese pronunciation, with less emphasis on the "eee" (i) that seems to get heavy emphasis in English. What I've tried to list is how it roughly sounds in English.

This trailer using nothing but the Japanese voice track either shows that the Dragon Ball fanbase has really changed in the US or that Namco Bandai are lazt and didn't really put a whole of thought into their marketing.

While the Dragon Ball fanbase has changed, looking at Namco's histroy, I really feel it's the latter.

I love the Japanese voices of the characters. Honestly, the English dub just sounds down-right dumb, like they're in school reading the lines to the teacher.

And FYI to all those who say the Goku sounds like a kid, that because *drum roll* Bardock, Goku, Gohan, Goten, Goku Jr. and Tullice (from the DBZ movie) are ALL voiced by the same voice actress (just like Naruto).

So what does it mean when a super fan(me) is not in any way interested in this?

I'm sure that I'm not the first to say this but man, Goku's Japanese voice sounds terrible. It's super childish and annoying.

JUST MAKE A PROPER BUDOKAI SEQUEL AND I'LL BUY A DBZ GAME AGAIN!!! I hate these tenkaichi style games.

I'll rent this because, well, I have rentals I need to use :/

Why do I want to play this more than most other triple A titles this year?

aw, got tricked and thought this was a quick look... hope we get one soon!

@texaseanacre: Well keep in mind that most of the US DBZ fans grew up with the US dubs, and after a while (I'm willing to assume) tend to associate that with the show.

I tend to prefer the US voices. Though I grew up with the old dubs, and had a hard time accepting the then new voice acting group when it returned.

@Bakumatsu said:

@texaseanacre:

I'm with you. Can't see the anime without the japanese voices actually.

I have a few Japanese friends who love DBZ and they very much prefer the English voice acting. They say that if more Japanese fans understood English they would prefer it too.

Hm...nope still not feeling like I wanna play another one of these, maybe sometime around the next console generation?

In other news Budokai 3 is still the only really good DBZ game and Dragon Ball Z Abridged continues to be the best way to watch the show.

@thenexus: That's an interesting anecdote. Do they feel the same about the whole series, outside of "Z"? However, In all my time in the fandom and hanging out at daizex.com, I've never heard that; more the opposite, especially with it comes to how, er, "modified" the initial English dubs were with changed dialogue, music and cuts (but that's a whoooole other discussion).

In general, I still really recommend fans watch the series in Japanese starting from Dragonball, to see how the VA's evolve and the depth of their performances (and I feel a lot of Z is given more weight with Dragonball in context, given that they're the same manga). :) But if someone thinks Japanese Son Goku sounds like a kid or stupid, I'm not going to bother to try and change their mind other than to make that recommendation.

Looks awesomely. I'm tempted to buy it. :p

@RockmanBionics: thank you for introducing me to that awesome thing that is DBZ abridged

More impressed by the beautiful re-animated animation.

So, uhhh.... the Dragonball Z Anime actually ended in 1996 in Japan, and 2003 in the US. HOW IS THIS STILL A THING?!?!?!

@RockmanBionics: Dude...you are like...just right on all fronts. Well done!

DBZ will never die!

'You foolish Insects are going to perish! I will make sure of that! ' (generic rock guitar plays in background)

Cool.......probably right.

So is this one easier to play? The games always seem so damn janky.

definitely stealing from Naruto.

Ya...I think I might actually have to go buy this.

All this awesome dbz fan stuff wasted on a game that plays like shit. Is it really so hard for them to just make a Budokai 4 >_>

I'm a 28 year-old man who actually just got pretty excited about Dragonball Z again. I might actually pick this game up and do a little reminiscing... after it drops to $20 or so.

I also can't watch anything but the original Japanese - subbed... the English voices (and script changes) were always garbage.

Oh, man. That Japanese VO. It's tearing apart my childhood.