Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 once again takes you through the
Dragon Ball Z storyline from the Saiyan Saga all the way to Kid Buu’s defeat, but at least the Story Mode is different enough from the previous versions of
Budokai that it doesn’t come off as a complete redo.
In the first Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, you went through a quick and dirty Story Mode that didn’t do any justice to the series’ actual story. Budokai 2 made this mode more in-depth and gave you a better idea of what actually went on in the show, and Budokai 3 gives you that depth, but this time, playing as different characters shows you the DBZ storyline from their perspective.
Basically, that means if you play as Goku, you’ll end up facing the baddest of the bads just like from the show, but if you choose someone like Piccolo, you’ll face only the characters he went up against. This is both good and bad. It’s great if you are playing as one of the high-profile characters like Goku, Gohan, or Vegeta, but choose one of the lesser fighters and you will find yourself reading dialog more than actually fighting.
The story mode of DBZ: Budokai 3 is called Dragon Universe and has a feel similar to the Legacy of Goku series on the GBA. You will fly from location to location following the series’ storyline looking for your next fight. Once you find where you are supposed to go (based on the map on the screen), you land, spout off some dialog, and fight. Well, sometimes you fight. There were plenty of occasions when the people on the ground exchanged quips and then flew off again. Again, this was mostly with the lesser characters, but it got annoying fast. At least in this game, you get the ability to fight and unlock the villains of the movies like Brolly and Cooler.
As you progress through a character’s story, you will be able to level him or her up and add experience points to various aspects of the character’s skill set. This makes Budokai 3 have a more RPG feel to it than its predecessors. You can later take these custom characters and pit them against each other in one-on-one matches in the Dragon Arena.
The World Tournament Mode is back and seems to be exactly like it was in the previous game. You choose a character, select the tournament level (Novice, Adept and Advance), then attempt to work your way through the ranks in order to get massive amounts of Zini. One difference, though, is the ability to use the Cell Games Rules. This means that any skill restrictions placed upon you by the regular tournament (like the ability to use fusions) are removed, and the matches become a no-holds-barred battle.
Also back from the previous two games is the Skill-Capsule system. Like the last two games, you buy (or earn) capsules and attach them to various characters. These capsules are the techniques and moves that a character can use while in a fight. Creating a character with the right moves is the key to winning any match.
Hardly anything has changed while in a fight. What changes there are really help to improve the game, however. In the last game, you and your opponent would enter Hyper Mode during certain points in the game. This was a series of rapid stick spins that caused each character to release a volley of punches and kicks. Now, Hyper Mode is something different. When you activate this mode, your character becomes red and you move faster, and each attack you land is more powerful. But when you exit this mode, your character is tired and vulnerable to attacks.
There are also several aesthetic modifications made to the HUD that help in figuring out just how much Ki you’ve built up. All in all, the gameplay aspect of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 improves on 2 as much as that game did on the original Budokai.
