Dragon Ball Z: Sagas

"A decent at best fighting game; the norm for DBZ games."

Dragon Ball Z: Sagas, is a good game for a hardcore Dragon ball fan. For someone who used to love the show, but eventually grew out of the Kamehameha Waves, Galic Guns, Spirit Bombs, and Destructo Discs, I was kinda disappointed.

Graphics: 8/10 I can't tell you how cool a fully 3-D Frieza looks. In terms of looks, Sagas is good. Inbetween levels. there are even clips from the show, displaying what happens in the interim, and they are incredibly-detailed clips. It looks like you're watching the show, but in very small boxes.

Sound: 5/10 Usually, a Kamehameha Wave should sound destructive. In Sagas, it sounds like any normal attack. The buildup, the "KAH.....MAY....HAH....MAY....HAAAAAAA~!", is great... when you're able to hear it. In fights with several enemies, in the 7-10 range, Goku "forgets" to use the words to use the attack. The characters all have one-liners, though; the same ONE, over and over. The voice acting sounds like it was BADLY taped... the kind you'd get from a really crappy tape. A saving grace for the sound is that all the voice actors, from Kami to Vegeta to Frieza to Bulma; they're all there. That and they've got fight sounds down. The "instant transmission" sound, the punch landing, most is there.

Gameplay: 5/10 One of the huge things about the game was that you could "go anywhere, do anything". That's not so.

The levels are basic, with basic goals. The first level, where you're Goku, and you're trying to get to Raditz: the objectives are "Collect 4 Z Coins, Clear the area of Saibamen, and defeat Raditz".

The Z coins are in exceedingly high places, but if you jump from a decent height, and double tap the A button, you'll fly... or should I say, hover? There is no flying in the game whatsoever. It's basically hovering, because if you could fly, the character could, y'know, go higher and lower into the air?

Defeating the Saibamen: In the show, the Saibamen are practically bunnies, and the Z Fighters, the wolves. In the game, the Saibamen team up on you, usually in groups of four, five, maybe six. There are even three different types of Saibamen, and one upgraded Saibamen. Now, in groups of several Saibamen, you should just be able to obliterate them all in one blast, right? Nope. More like the Saibamen use their ki blasts, one-after-another, while you watch your character endlessly not block. (Don't even get me started on that right now; I'm not about to start ranting.) And, when you manage to defeat all the Saibamen, and try to get to the next section of the level, Bulma's voice, (one I've come to hate because of this game...) says "You must defeat ALL the enemies before leaving!", and then another group of Saibamen pop up.

Defeating Raditz: Raditz, as are all the other bosses, is severly overpowered. Since when did Raditz have the ability to teleport? If I remember correctly, never. When you finally defeat Raditz, you see the clip, actually showing what happens.

Replay Value: 7/10 The Pendulum mode, which gets unlucked after you complete the disappointingly short story mode, is actually kinda entertaining. It allows you to play back through ANY level of the game, with a different character. For example, I fought Recoome, on a Namek level, with Tien (the three-eyed dude). and I died once. Tien eats a Senzu Bean
(the game's 'lives'), and fights Recoome again. It takes me at least 10 minutes to beat Recoome. It's sad, especially considering when I fought Perfect Cell as Broly, one of the characters unlocked with Pendulum Mode, I won in less than a minute.

Overall Rating: 4/10

Dragon Ball Z: Sagas is a disappointing game, but it was sort of expected, considering the other games of the franchise: Budokai 1, 2, and 3, the HORRIBLE Legacy Of Goku series, and several other failures. I am hoping that the next DBZ game that comes out redeems the entire series... because this one didn't.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/05