Review: Dragon Ball Z: Battle Of Z

For many years Dragon Ball Z fans have asked Namco Bandai to bring fourth something new to the table after playing their previous games that had more or less the same “safe” formula. They have experimented with some titles in the past such as Dragon Ball Z Kinect and Ultimate Tenkaichi but they ultimately failed (no pun intended). So is Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z a step towards the right direction? Let’s find out!

The Story Mode is more or less like the traditional Dragon Ball Z games but Artdink added their own twists. As the story progresses you can choose almost any character you want from the same saga and once you complete the Buu Saga and unlock the “what if” missions you can choose any character you like to help you in battle. You’ll see some cutscenes here and there but they’re usually so short that they’re easily forgettable and sometimes matches can drag on for as long as 10 minutes. The game can be randomly (and almost unfairly) difficult later on especially when you have to get at least an S rank to unlock your favorite characters.

The game is heavily focused on teamwork so if you and four friends plan to play the Co-Op Story Mode then be sure to have someone who is ready to heal your team because you only get about 3-4 retries and if you lose them you will have to start the mission over. The story has its great moments but the difficulty players will come across in later missions almost makes it more of a chore than a fulfilling experience.

ShonenGameZ hasn’t experienced any problems with the online mode for the couple hours we played it. This game is much more fun when you are playing with a friend or battling against others from around the world in 8 player VS. matches. The online mode is probably what players will most likely invest their time in. With this team system in place it is very likely that clans will form and take on other users across the world.

Is the game worth the purchase? It’s really a mixed bag. While we did have many great moments with the game, the story left us with a terrible taste in our mouth to points where we refused to replay some missions that required S ranks to unlock other characters. That aside, the online portion was very fun to play. We enjoyed teaming up and destroying our opponents with the combos and chain attacks that we learned from after hours of playing the story mode missions.