Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku

"What is this?"

Introduction
The Dragon Ball Z series had already finished a couple years ago in Japan when this game was created... Plus, being one of the first Dragon Ball Z games created by a company not from Japan, perhaps people would be expecting too much from this product. However, this would turn out being just a huge failure...

Gameplay
Once you start playing, you will notice that the initial screen in which you are introduced to the story is really poor (just a black screen with random stars and a message box in it), and as soon as you start controlling Goku, you will notice that his controls are quite easy to understand.

Goku (the only controllable character of this game) can fly (using flight charges, which are some items that let you fly as many steps as the number you possess), punch the enemies or use special attacks. First you will just be able to launch random Ki blasts, but later in the game you will also be able to use the usual Kamehameha or a strange attack ("Solar Flare", I guess...) that doesn't even seem to do anything at all.

Then, you will be able to use all these in the battles you will fight across the game. You could think that you have amazing battles against the powerful foes that appear in the series, but most of your time will be spent fighting against snakes, wolves, dinosaurs (a T-rex one and flying one) and the guys from Freezer's army. Only the boss battles were taken from the series, and I don't think that putting Goku in a fight against the type of enemy said above is a nice idea, as we would defeat them with a single finger...

About the quests, this game has lots of them but only some are required to finish the game. Strangely, the only thing you seem to get from all the quests is more experience points, and when you reach the ultimate level of 25, you won't be able to gain any more levels. That seems pretty weird, since most of the games this of type seem to have a level limit of 99 or 100. This way, even if you manage to achieve the maximum level possible, your character won't still be strong enough to defeat some certain bosses easily.

Now, this takes us to the other bugs that this game has, and they are more than we could expect... First, appears that each time you Save (and then Load) the game your health will be completely refilled. The same things goes for items, making your time easy when you want to get a lot of healing items, which are the only usable type of items in this game. Also, if you exit an area and then enter it again, you will get to see all the events in that area again...

Another ugly bug is quite obvious in the boss battles... appears that the enemy only move when you are near him, meaning that you can beat them without even getting near to them, by using ki blasts... And how can they explain that most bosses only have a special attack, and it's ALWAYS the same one?

Finally, I must also say that most of the quests have nothing to do with the series, and fans may find it quite humiliating with the type of quests you will have to perform... for example, there is a time in which Goku is given a quest to find a kid who is lost in the woods!

Personally, I think that this game feels like a random RPG game in which Dragon Ball Z characters were inserted!

Story
If you know the series, everything I will have to say is that this game is based on the Sayan Saga and Namek saga.

If not... well, our famous Goku just met Raditz, a brother which he didn't even knew he had, and he tells Goku about his legacy... Now, he will fight against some of the most powerful foes he had ever seen, and will even have to face the powerful Freezer. Will he be able to defeat them all?

Oh, but there is a slight problem... if you aren't into the story of the series, the game won't give you much details about it. Most of the story sequences are just 3 or 4 different messages, and as you may imagine that doesn't really help you understanding it...

Graphics
Despite not being perfect, the graphics in this game are quite good and you can easily recognize characters, but the powers aren't similar to the ones that appeared in the series.

However, there is something amazing in this game... it contains some small videos taken from the series, and you will get to see 4 or 5 of them during the game! Ok, nowadays this is somehow usual in games for this console, but you should remember that this game was released back in 2002 !

Sound
Apart from some slight sound effects taken from the series (like Goku's Kamehameha sound effect), I don't find the musics to fit this type of game. Ok, they would be great in a random RPG, but they have nothing to do with the series! Like I said before, it's like someone created a random rpg and then added some Dragon Ball Z characters to it!

Play Time/Replayability
Seriously speaking, this game has a small play time and no replay value at all. More experienced gamers will be able to finish it in less than 1 hour, but a weaker player may take 3 or 4 hours to complete it. Quite weak for an RPG, don't you think?

As for the replay value, since this game doesn't have any things to unlock or that type of thing, I guess you will put it away as soon as you finish it once...

Final Recommendation
Are you a huge Dragon Ball Z fan? If not, stay away from this, since there are games way better for you to choose!

Plus, 1 point was added to the score for the simple reason that this game includes small videos, if you aren't interested in that you should REALLY stay away from this...

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 04/11/05