What’s Good?
I think it’s fairly safe to say that the majority of Dragon Ball Z fans out there will be thoroughly entertained by Burst Limit. Stylistically, this is probably the closest Dragon Ball Z experience anyone can experience in a video game. The story mode, called “Z Chronicles” in the game, covers the first three Dragon Ball Z story arcs starting from the “Saiyan Saga” and ending with the Cell Games from the “Android Saga”; the game also follows extremely close to the story, letting you play out the majority of the battles in the game.
Right off the start, the intro animation looks great and shows off key moments of the anime series. Even better, though, is the theme music. Not only did they have an amazing, upbeat original theme song, but it was still performed by Hironobu Kageyama who has performed almost every Dragon Ball Z theme since the ‘80s. That alone might be enough to catch at least a few fans’ attention.
In terms of staying true to the story, I think the best choice they made was to not have the story mode follow any single character or “side” to the story, instead jumping back and forth between characters on all sides of the story. Along with allowing you to play a more diverse selection of characters throughout the story mode, it also counters too many awkward “I was Tien and I beat Nappa… but he still killed me in the story!” moments.
The cutscenes themselves (rendered in-game) also tell the story very well, at several points playing out iconic moments in the series almost shot-for-shot. I won’t elaborate too much on this point, and instead I’ll just show this:
So yeah. It’s hard not to enjoy moments like these.
The cell-shaded characters all look as good as they’ve ever looked on the new higher-powered gaming platforms (though, as I’m not quite special enough to have a HDTV, I can’t say exactly how amazing they feasible could look with the right hardware). Animation-wise, I’ve no complaints with how the different strings of punches and kicks look. The special attacks, though, feel absolutely spot-on in terms of style. The “pursuit” attack I’ve already mentioned is basically a combo where you smash an opponent and send him flying, followed by a teleport to where they’ll land and smashing them again for as long as you either want to keep it up or as long as you have ki to spend. Hammering people out of the air and watching them crater in the ground also serves for fun times. Touches like those definitely keep the game in line with the source material.
This brings us to the super moves. Again, the game opted to go with a simpler method than the old, complicated “double quarter-circle” motions of the past. Instead, all you need to do is wait for your ki meter to fill up and then press up and the energy attack button together; the game does the rest. They’re very simple to pull off and a pleasure to watch. In turn, the other player has several options to defend: cover up and take less damage, dodge, or maybe even fire off his own blast that clashes with the first, leading to another quick button-mashing competition. Again, all possibilities are things recognizable from the series, so it’s easy to get behind it.
Transformations have remained a staple of the series, and Burst Limit is no exception. Over the course of a match, certain characters (like most of the Saiyans, for example) will have the ability to undergo transformations. It makes for a fun addition to the gameplay to build up your ki meter and then press the “transform” button, trading off a little defensive power for more attack power as well as potentially a new move set. While perhaps not being the game-winning difference in a match (especially considering all the characters that can’t transform), it’s definitely fun to play as someone like Frieza and, over the course of a long match, undergo four separate transformations.
The major new addition to the series, which most people will either love or hate, is “drama pieces”. You remember the part in Dragon Ball Z where Gohan hulked up in the first few episodes, flew out and headbutted Raditz in the stomach and gave Goku and Piccolo an advantage in the fight? How about the part where Piccolo jumped in front of Gohan to block Nappa’s energy blast? These cinematic moments work in the game as drama pieces. Given a certain given condition – for example, taking a lot of damage, performing a specific attack on an opponent, being about to get hit by a specific attack, etc. – the game will frame-wipe to a short cutscene, followed by a status effect bonus (or minus) to the characters in-game.
In “Z Chronicles” mode, drama pieces are preset based on the needs of the story itself, while in versus mode players can select up to three drama pieces before starting a match. The actual status effects vary, and many of them rarely “feel” like they’re affecting the game as much as some of the more direct pieces like “Piccolo’s/Cell’s Regeneration”. Some gamers are also likely to dislike the interruptions in gameplay and be forced to watch cutscenes that they perhaps don’t care about. I myself thought they were a clever way to bring more of the Dragon Ball Z feel to the games, so I enjoyed them for the most part.
Final point about the series I want to mention is that – much like all modern anime – Break Limit is dual-audio, and you can play your game in either English or Japanese. For those who prefer English, all characters in-game are voiced by their respective real-life counterparts from FUNimation Entertainment like Christopher Sabat, Sean Schemmel, and even Vic Mignogna as Broly; for those who prefer the Japanese, they too will get the original voice cast (and get to see them fit the lip flaps on-screen). It’s the basic “sub or dub” decision which most fans will enjoy. Also, for gamers who have never heard the Japanese voices before, I think it will be an interesting surprise to hear what Goku “originally” sounded like – it’s something all anime fans should experience at least once or twice.
