"A just-slightly-above-average anime RPG"

I first played this game a while back, when Toonami still looped the series after Goku made Reccoome look like he was standing still. It seemed pretty damn good, then - but, like the butterfly, it's beauty lasts only if you don't look too close...

Gameplay - 8/10
Most of those eight points came from the card-based combat system: each card, drawn from a 'deck' of five, gives a bonus to the character's strength & defense (determined by values shown on the card) and determines the type of attack that will be used. Thus, normally difficult battles can be made easy by a good hand, and vice versa. However, there is a ceiling to how high a level you can get in each chapter; this is understandable (don't want the Ginyu Force to be TOO easy, do we?), but fighting after you've reached it gets really boring - and you WILL reach it before the end of the chapter.

Music/Sound - 5/10
Blah. Not especially bad, but not especially good, either. The music further suffers from intense repetition.

Graphics - 9/10
Outside battle, the characters are well-made, super-deformed sprites (a la FF3) - in battle, the characters are well-made, well-animated, full-sized facsimilies. Especially nifty are the cut-scenes when a character pulls of it's signature move (Goku's Kamehameha, Gohan's Masenko, et cetera).

Story - 7/10
Following the series from Raditz to Freeza (with one notable, but welcome, exception - make sure Vegeta survives the final battle to see what I mean), even the most passing fan of the series will find no surprises, save a few hiccups created by it's transition from anime to RPG. If you didn't like it before, though, nothing here will change your mind.

Replay Value - 6/10
Eh. Maybe this'd be higher if I were more into the series, but the story was far too linear to allow many reasons to play again - if you beat it, you've seen practically everything.

J-Factor - 8/10 (4/10)
Like I said before, I first played this game a long time ago, WAY before I even thought of learning to read Japanese. Despite this, I had absolutely no trouble figuring out what was going on, even after events stopped resembling episodes I recognized. That's the 8/10 score... but, the 4/10 score is if you really want to know exactly what they're saying. This Japanese in this game is pretty thick, and hard for the average gaijin (read: foreigner) to understand. But, forget about the words and just focus on the actions, and you'll be okay.

OVERALL - 7/10
As an RPG, it's really not very good. As an RPG based on an anime series, it's markedly better, but still has a few flaws. Zed Heads: bow before your One True Game! The rest of us: pass, unless you're pretty bored or want to see what all the fuss is about.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/17/01, Updated 03/17/01