Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku

"A Weak Saiyan Story"

Dragon Ball Z had been known as the best anime/manga to had ever impact fans in Japan and later in North America (in the late 90s). It had inspired books, action figures, movies, and even a history in videogames. Though Dragon Ball Z games had being around since the days of the NES and all of them seems pretty much secured in Japan, there weren't actually a true Dragon Ball Z game available in North America for so long (the only two that came as closest to a true Dragon Ball Z game are Dragon Power for the NES and Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout for the PlayStation, both aren't actually DBZ brand games though) until the release of Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku for the Game Boy Advance by the former company known as Atari originally known as Infogrames in the late 32-Bit era. Legacy of Goku is the first in a trilogy of Dragon Ball Z RPGs to be release for the GBA and for a being the first DBZ game to hit the western shore, it sure didn't make a great splash.

Story:

The entire story follows Goku just like in the manga/anime with Goku's attempt to rescue his son from his alien brother, his odyssey through the afterlife, his training with King Kai, his fight against the Saiyans, his journey through Namek, his duels against the Ginyu Force, and his final encounter with the evil tyrant Frieza.

Graphics:

This game had the most beautiful anime visual on a handheld, nice movie intro taken from the anime series (though a bit grainy and missing few footages) as well as game anime art. The background designs are also very colorful and details especially with all the housing interior where you enter to visit a place such as those dome style houses where villagers lives. Though the backgrounds looks good and all, the sprites on the other hand needs more revision, almost all of them all felt too similar especially with villains like Nappa, the Ginyu Force, and Frieza. Atari could have added a few face expression animations or some more intense attack animations to make them more original but without anything to make them unique, they all feel like NPCs that just does nothing but chase and beat you. Oh and about NPCs, almost all of them are quite boring and useless, not only are the un-important ones the required ones (an old geezer taught me the Solar Flare and not Tien) but the more important ones like Gohan, Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha, Chaoizu, and Krillin are there just for show only, they are not there to help you get to Raditz nor lend their power to help you beat the Saiyans, they are only there because that's where they are supposed to be in the storyline, that's all which are useless.

Music/Sounds:

For a handheld title, the music here are quite decent. They all fit the DBZ universe nicely but other than that not very much of any of them were from the anime. The Japanese opening theme "Head-chala" and the North American "Rock the Dragon" opening song are both absence but in their place is a smoother instrumental bass opening tune that fits the mood. Besides the opening song, the entire game is fully litter with wonderful musical chants and orchestrated scores and all sounds even better if listen with a headphone. Like the music, voice work from the main character is also a plus, just hearing Goku shout "Kamehameha!" is enough to win fans over this.

Gameplay:

The gameplay here is done in the same fashion as most action RPG like Legend of Zelda and Crystalis with the same bird's eye view and the same travel from one location to another. What's wrong with the control, it's slow and weak, Goku can't even fly for a distance and there are limited feathers throughout (why Goku even needs feather to fly is another question), bosses are not the only enemies in the game that can kill Goku, wolves and snakes can also do it as well which now made me wonder why Goku's damn weak in this game. As Goku you could walk in any direction but not diagonally which is awkward, you also had access to a ki blast, melee attack, aerial flight, and ki cycle, almost all of which are useless. Flight is sometime useful but drains the flight meter way too fast and it only lasted for a short while as well as it also limit Goku to not reach far end areas such as a cliff. Melee attacks are also sometime useful if face against a weaker enemy but come as useless if Goku is weak or against a gang of foes such as wolves and those soldiers in Frieza's spaceship. Perhaps the most useful of the three energy attacks is the ki blast, which only comes useful if use from a far and only when the enemy is not in contact with the player, though with its advantage comes the negative, the regular ki blast is very weak (at first) which would then recommend you to use the Solar Flare and Kamehameha more often but once you level Goku up to his maximum level, the regular ki blast itself would become the perfect weapon which then makes both the last two ki attacks useless.

Aside from playing as Goku, you are also given a bunch of quests that must be done in able to advance through the game. Although there's nothing wrong with taking challenge on a good quest, most of the given quest are quite lame such as rescuing victim A at location B to get to location C or find multiple items to help victim A get across location B to location C those kind of quest which are just un-interesting. Besides questing, the game does let you save whenever and wherever so you could always continue where you left off but even with this, the game is still litter with flaw. If you save on an area which you already clear of foes, once saved then replay, all defeated foes that you had defeated when saved would revert back so just be aware of that.

Replayabilities:

For a DBZ game that claims to follow the story throughout three different sagas, it would totally took you close to three to five hours to prove that wrong. Like the anime, you start off in the Saiyan saga but for some reason you never get to fully explore the Namek saga. By the time, you reach Namek, you would had already fought against the Ginyu Force. The entire game is all about Goku's side of the story. That's the main issue here, it's all about Goku and you know what that means, it means you won't get to play as Gohan and train with Piccolo, you won't get to fight the saibamen, you won't get to play as any of the Z warriors and train in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber nor would you get to play as Krillin and Gohan and venture with Bulma to explore the fake Namek; heck, you won't even going to ever encounter a match with Zarbon or Dodoria in this game because let's face it Goku never fought them and so will you. Because of this, the limit to how long you could play with this game is five hours at best, there are no unlockable movie option, no gallery bonuses, no musical jukebox, or any feature that is worth playing for, heck not even a harder difficulty setting which are just disappointing.

Is this game worth getting?

No it isn't but if you are a DBZ fan or collector like the many out there then you might get this but for a true RPG player like myself, I play for quality and this game lack that. Atari (Infogrames) does done well illustrating the DBZ universe and did an outstanding job with the musical scores but what were missing are the epic storyline, the fast pace high flying gameplay, and the unlockable replayability value. Even if this game isn't as good as it turn out to be, it's great to know that there's always Legacy of Goku II to look up which is ten times better than this.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 04/16/09, Updated 09/03/09

Game Release: Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku (US, 05/14/02)