Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout

"It's not -that- bad.."

Outset
Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout is supposed to be a '3D' Fighting Game (with polygonal graphics) released on the PlayStation by Bandai in 1997. Its cast is composed of several of the major characters of the Z Arc as well as a few selected characters from GT. The characters are, altogether, Son Goku (GT Gi), SSJ Son Goku (Z Gi), SSJ Son Goku (GT Gi), Chibi Son Goku (GT Gi), SSJ Chibi Son Goku (GT Gi), SSJ4 Son Goku, Super/SSJ2 Vejita, SSJ Vejitto, (Chou) Son Gohan, SSJ Murai No Trunks, GT Trunks, SSJ GT Trunks, Pan, Piccolo, Perfect Cell, Freeza, and Chibi Majin Buu.

Graphics
Graphics, in this case, are an EXTREMELY mixed bag. While each of the characters (save Bebi Oozaru Vejita, who looks like a bunch of jagged polygons jammed onto each other in an attempt to RESEMBLE the villain) are colorful and somewhat detailed (the individual tufts of hair in, say, SSJ Chibi Son Goku are a nice touch), they all have distinctly jagged edges on them, typically in their clothing (Son Goku's winning pose in which he reties the 'belt' to his gi is just an example), and some of their body movements aren't much better. Backgrounds are utter crap, being completely two-dimensional and almost lifeless in real detail, a pallid contrast to the dynamic characters on the forefront. Also, most, if not all of the special attacks look exactly the same, and are in fact smaller then they should actually be: since when is a Kamehameha yellowish-white and roughly the width of a straw? Pitiful.
As something of a subnote, the character portraits are rather well drawn and bely the personality each character tries to convey, whether that be menacing, on guard, et cetera.
5/10

Sound
Another mixed bag, and heavily dependent upon which version you own. I will take the English game into account here, and start off with the abysmal voice acting. Many of the VAs do not fit their characters whatsoever (with the exception of Piccolo, who is admittedly close to his Ocean voice here, and SSJ Vejitto, who does speak in a Fused voice) - Vejita sounds far too British, Pan sounds far younger then she actually is, Son Goku sounds like a surfer/stoner.. et al. Worse yet is that their written dialogues (at least made to match with the Japanese script, a note on this lower) fall out of sync with the movement of their mouths - pitiful. I will admit that the written script is at least decent - despite the obvious corn in voice acting, they have rather excellent dialogue. Characters will often trade comments with certain other characters, such as Pan asking why she has to fight an 'old man' (Son Goku).
The music ranges from merely annoying to sublime. Many tracks were apparently ripped from earlier games, but this is not a bad thing - several of the older DBZ titles had rather catchy songs, including Freeza's theme. There is crap here, too - the Character Select screen theme, for example, is just one example of a theme that can easily get on your nerves if listened to long enough. In pure contrast, the Credits Theme 'Forever' is a perfect concluding piece of music. Go figure.
4/10

<Addenum>
If I were to take the Japanese voices into account for the sound, then the score would have been an 8/10, with a few points deducted for some lacking music. Pity I didn't.

Control
Control is not as crappy as everyone seems to claim. The 'slowness in control' that the game seems to have allows each of the hits to have that much more 'oomph' upon impact. An interesting addition to control, though one that many people don't appreciate due to their being raised with 'hit fast and hit now' fighting games (Tekken, Street Fighter, most other fighting games). In contrast, the 'super' moves are annoyingly difficult to pull off - the button combinations alone made my hands hurt!
7/10

Story
Everyone has to fight Bebi Oozaru Vejita to get the Dragon Balls, or something. Not really much story here.
1/10

Gameplay
Ah, the heart of the matter. To tell the truth, the gameplay itself is solid - the somewhat 'slow' control rate helps add emphasis and just a tad of drama into each individual fight. Each character, when knocked back, will hold themselves for a moment, the game will pause, and they will jump back into stance where the fight begins again. If both opponents launch a super attack at each other, they will meet for a 'Power Struggle' that while difficult to maintain is somewhat thrilling to battle for. There are limited flight capabilities (barred from going too high by an invisible flight barrier) where each character can swoop over and under in an attempt to gain over their enemy. And this is all stacked onto a solid engine that is unfortunately hampered by a few glitches (an attack still hitting an enemy despite the fact that they're over it, for example) that are annoying, but don't make much difference in the end. Overall, your basic fighting game with some interesting twists thrown in.
9/10

Replayability
The 'hidden' characters are basically slightly retextured versions of other characters (SIX versions of Son Goku and THREE of Trunks - all technically have the SAME freaking moves) and can be gained by fighting them and winning in Story Mode or using a cheat code to unlock them all from the start. No biggie there. Build-Up mode is an interesting addition, however - you can fight opponents and gain experience with a certain character. If they use certain moves more, they will gain strength in those moves moreso then others. You can then enter them into a battle with another player via Memory Card as you wish. Very interesting insertion that will help extend the life of this title. Also included are your typical Vs mode and a Tournament mode, where you fight another player with an assortment of random combatants selected from the game's roster.
Decent assortment of extras to keep you playing, but could be more.
7/10

Overall
Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout is yet another flawed Dragon Ball game that is better then people make it out to be. Not the best Dragon Ball fighting game out there, but one of the better ones, and thus worth at least a play. Give it a shot.
6/10 Final Score

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/27/02, Updated 12/27/02