Vimm's Lair: PS2 Reviews - Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3

PlayStation 2
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Overall:
8.58
8.33
8.78
8.51
Votes: 88
Reviews: 2


Rate this game

Review this game

 

Reviewer: Xblade Date: Nov 1, 2022
So.. I'll just get straight to the point. It is a good Dragon Ball game, with a lot of characters. It isn't perfect, but certainly better than a lot of fighting games coming out. It has some pretty funny secrets, but it has a lot more than just gameplay. But I'll shut up on this part and move on.

Graphics: 7
For a game that came out on the PS2 in 2007, the graphics are still good. While they aren't anything like Cyberpunk 2077 or... Cyberpunk 2077, they are still bearable, and sometimes, even kind of pleasant to look at. There are a few graphical secrets, but you will hardly find them so it isn't worth mentioning them here.

Sound: 9
The soundtrack has some pretty bopping songs, but just a small amount. The sound effects are INCREDIBLE and like it or not, the English voices aren't bad. But that's just my opinion.

Gameplay: 9
The gameplay is repetitive, but, it can still be fun. It isn't supposed to be hyper-competitive, it is supposed to be more flashy and like the anime. Some characters can be really fun to play around with, like Arale. It isn't trying to be Melee 2, but rather its own thing.

Overall: 8
Overall, it is a pretty good game. If you want, try it out. You can always delete it later. It has a wide range of characters, and the upgrade system is actually pretty fun. Like one of the other reviews said, if you want to play around with some of the broken characters, just search up Red Potara codes on GameFAQs and have fun.

This game also runs at 60fps on the PS2, but only 30 on the Wii, so choose your version wisely!

 

Reviewer: You Date: Jun 17, 2022
Ah yes, the most overrated Dragon Ball Z game of all time. For whatever reason, everyone seems to unconditionally love this game and completely ignore all of its flaws, so I decided to review it myself, as fairly as possible.

Do keep in mind that this is just my opinion on the game, so don't take it as a fact.

Graphics: 8
The models are a bit spiky, but they're fairly detailed and look pretty good for a PS2 game. The stages also look nice and are pretty faithful to the show, so a 8/10.

Sound: 7
The sound quality and voice acting is pretty good, whether the music is good or not is subjective, so I won't comment on that. A 7/10 for the sound.

Gameplay: 4
And here is where the problems are, the combat. Most people praise the game for its inclusion of "over 150 characters", but they overlook the fact that only about 30 of them actually had any effort put into their attacks, the rest just getting generic moves such as: "High-Speed Rush", "Full Power Energy Ball" and "Super Explosive Wave". Plus they all have the exact same playstyle, with no unique mechanics to separate them from the rest of the cast.

The story mode is decent and covers most of what happened in the show, but it feels like a step down from Budokai Tenkaichi 2, changing from the overworld design to a menu where you directly pick the levels.

You can also customize characters and give them items to make them stronger, some of which are small stat boosts like "Attack +3" and others cause bigger changes, such as the "Flight" item which allows non-flying characters to remain mid-air instead of slowly floating back to the ground.

As for the other game modes, they're fun, but just small variations of the duel mode, so not much to say about them. Overall, the gameplay gets a 4/10.

Overall: 5
A great DBZ "sandbox", but an mediocre game in general.

I'd recommend you check out the game if you just want to mess around with random characters, but if you're not a big DBZ fan and are just looking for a fighting game, you should probably look elsewhere.

One of the game modes allows you to input passwords to transfer customized characters to different saves. Some of these passwords generate characters with broken dev items that make them almost invincible, if you want to check some out just look up "DBZBT3 Red Potara Passwords", there's also a guide on GameFAQs that explains them with more detail.