Dragon Ball Z: Sagas

"DBZ: The Uninspired Sagas..."

I've always loved the Dragonball Z series from way back when I was a kid. As any other DBZ fan, I always thought it would make a perfect action RPG. There were a few games out in the market at the time, and the one the shined most was Dragonball Z: Legends for the original Playstation. Although this, along with DBZ: Budokai 3 are terrific adaptations of the Dragonball series into a video game, they are not however, what many DBZ fans have always asked for.

That is why I was hyped when I first heard of a new DBZ action/adventure game coming out for the Xbox. "Perfect! This is the kind of DBZ game I've always wanted" I thought to myself. So you could probably guess I was on the edge of my seat waiting for this game.

Finally, the game arrives. And what do I think? Well, let's say it fell short of meeting my expectations...by a few hundred miles.

STORY (6/10)

Dragonball Z:Sagas tries to follow the story of the cartoon series, like a few other DBZ games. But how well of a job does it do? It has got a few sagas. It begins with the Vegeta saga and ends with the Cell saga, which I don't mind, considering the last RPG on the SNES ended with the Freeza saga. However, it was very disappointing for me to experience it this way. One aspect I don't like is that when you fight certain bosses, the characters that are supposed to fight them
(form the show) do not fight the boss together. Take Raditz for example. In the show, Raditz was fought on by Goku, Piccolo, and possibly Gohan. But in the game, you take him on as one man: Goku. DBZ: Legends did a much better job in this area. What is more annoying is that in battles which your character LOSES in the show, you must WIN in the game, just to progress. This is major ignorance on the part of the developers and clearly this game is developed for children who may
neglect such aspects.

To help tell the story, DBZ: Sagas inserts footage from the anime. But it is more like a recap (a lot like "What happened last episode on DBZ..."). I thought they could have used some clips to help the player get a deeper sense of what they are into. For example, right before a boss fight they could have shown a clip of them powering up, followed by the deep silence and dialogue that precedes just about any DBZ fight.

The story failed to make me feel like I was in DBZ, which is what any DBZ action/adventure/RPG game should do. I had a better experience with the outdated DBZ: Legends.

GAMEPLAY (3/10)

Okay, so, it doesn't have a very good story. How well does it play as a game? The truth is, not very well. One thing I hate is when video games "limit" your freedom, if you want to know what I mean, just play DBZ: Sagas for a few minutes.

There are many things wrong with the gameplay. Correct me if I'm wrong, but DBZ is about fast-paced action, speed, 360° flying, huge fireballs and power-struggles. If I am right, then DBZ: Sagas has failed in representing DBZ.

The melee fighting is very slow-paced, nothing like the crazy-fast series of punches/kicks that you can throw in DBZ: Legends. It's got a few punching a kick combos, however they are poorly executed. Much of the time I found myself flying and throwing small fireballs just to kill the enemies and clear the area. Speaking about clearing areas, you cannot move on until you kill ALL enemies in that area.
So pretty much you are confined a small part of the map until you kill everything. The fighting is too spectacular to make you want to stay, which just drags the boring factor even more. Now you see what I mean by a "limit" on freedoms this game forces. This game has got SO many limits you will not believe it. Get this, you CANNOT jump on rocks, boulders, etc. If you try to land on them from a greater height, you will simply "slide" off. How pathetic.

I was not too impressed by the speed of running and flying. And to tell you the truth, you cannot actually "fly" like the game advertises. It is more like floating. All you do is hit the "A" button once you jump and you float. You can move around horizontally just as if you were walking, but never vertically, which is what true flying is about. Sorry to get your hopes up.

The fighting and special moves are disgustingly uninspired. When you do a kamehameha special move, it is nothing spectacular. Nothing like the huge beams of light Goku shoots in the anime, but rather just a "ball". Slightly bigger than the normal ki blast. What is worse is that unlike DBZ: Budokai series and the anime series itself, there are no "power-struggles" when two special fireballs collide. An exceptional and unique feature of the DBZ series destroyed.

One last thing that bugged me was the horribly long boss fights. It is difficult to fight a boss with melee so again I resorted to floating and shooting fireballs, which gets dull and boring quicker than you can imagine. To make it worse, you could take up to 30 minutes shooting fireballs trying to take down one boss. TERRIBLE.

GRAPHICS (6/10)

Most probably the best part about the game is the graphics. At best, it is decent. Nothing to great, nothing that hasn't been done. They are below my expectations, but they may be acceptable to most. I have nothing more to say.

SOUND (3/10)

One thing that helps make the player feel like he is reliving an animation or movie is the music and the sound. DBZ: Sagas doesn't use any music from the anime, so there goes 5 points for that. It does make use of a few sound effects here and
there, such as the famous fireball siren that can be heard in any DBZ game. There are no screams of rage as teh player powers up or anything like that. The SFX for the special moves are dull as well. I felt they could have done a lot more in this department. AWFUL.

VALUE (4/10)

Hmm...maybe you will have the guts to actually finish this game and then dash it aside or sell it. Or maybe you are more like me and cannot stand a game with so many restrictions and flaws to even hang on.

Buy or Rent?

Thank God I rented!!

STORY (6/10)
GAMEPLAY (3/10)
GRAPHICS (6/10)
SOUND (3/10)
VALUE (4/10)
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FINAL SCORE (4/10)

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