All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright owners. Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai Author- Nnamz25@hotmail.com Version 1 This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of public display is strictly prohibited, and violation of copyright. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTRODUCTION Future Gohan got me pretty hyped for this game. As far as I know there hasn't been a DBZ game where he was a playable character (And no, DBZ Sagas doesn't count as a video game...) so this is really the first time we get to play as him. At first, I was worried that he'd simply be another costume of Gohans. Then when that rumor was debunked, I was worried that he'd simply be a clone of Gohan and have all the same chains and moves. All this was dispelled when I picked up this game and started playing as him. He plays nothing like Gohan, or anyone else in the game. Dimps even gave him unique chains and animations so they really did put effort into him. Overall, he's a very decent character in this game. Finally, we can all play a Gohan that doesn't suck. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ GOHAN'S ADVANTAGES - His counter move, Evasive Kick, is very useful. It makes it so that his opponent simply has one more thing to worry about when attacking him, and could potentially throw his game off. (However like all attacks that cost ki, don't abuse it) - Spirit Shot is an excellent death move. It travels across the screen very fast, does decent damage and comes out very fast. But the kicker is that it's invisible. It's hard to time a sidestep for it if you can't see it traveling at you. It's one of the only death moves which you could throw out once in a while and see what happens. (Again, it costs ki. Don't abuse it) - Elder Kai unlock ability grants a high attack % and a baseline ki of 5. - Last Ditch Power is a great Burst charge. It grants an extra 50% of attack power in exchange for gradual ki loss for 10 seconds. However this ki loss doesn't actually happen, whether it is a glitch or a typo in the move list, Future Gohan gets this attack boost for free. With this burst charge active, Gohan's all of Gohan's combos increase by 50% in damage, putting his max damage combo at over 3100. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ GOHAN'S DISADVANTAGES - The last hit in his SSSS* stun chain doesn't seem to nullify at all, limiting his rushdown capabilities. All other hit's do nullify though. - While fighting airborne Gohan loses the effectiveness of a lot of his stuns and some compromises have to be made, reducing the damage he could do with a combo in the air. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ GOHANS MAIN STRATEGY *Gohan's 2 best forms are his SSJ1 form and his Elder Kai Unlock form. Don't use base or SSJ2. More on that later* Gohan's main combo starter is his "SSSS" chain. The first hit of that chain is rather slow, but has some nice priority on it so you shouldn't be beaten too often by other starters. You'll have to get in pretty close for it though since it lacks a lot of range some other S starters have. There are 2 points of stun within the "SSSS" chain. "SS* or -" and "SSSS*". Use SS- when you really don't have the time to continue the full chain and need to get into your Ultimate quickly, or if you hit your opponent with it quickly while they were able to TC and want to land your Ultimate on them for not reacting quick enough. (Since discernment can't be used on Super Kamehameha) When you do have the time however, try "SS'SS*". Since SS is a stun you have enough time to fully charge the following "S" after it to maximize damage. The two middle S's in "SSSS" have very short charge up times and have nice priority. So against blocking opponents try fully charging those strikes instead of the last one, which is much slower, more obvious and has less priority against attacks. If they avoid the 2 charge strikes then cancel the last hit and be safe. Don't risk it. Gohan's highest priority move is his >S. Throw that out every once in a while when you're defending yourself when low on ki and charge up after it hit's. WHEN TOUSE FUTURE GOHANS BURST CHARGE Using this power when you're low on ki and need to defend yourself is a waste. Your opponent won't stop attacking you if they have the ki advantage just because your attack is high. Attack % means nothing if someone can just perform discernments on you and nail you from behind. Then again, when you have the ki advantage and you activate it, your opponent will go all out on defense and not give you an inch for fear of getting hit by your Ultimate attack when your attack% is at 186%. You won't just be able to walk right and dish out a combo on them, and the fact that Gohan's rushdown game is only average doesn't help. The best advice I could give is to really mix it up with this on. Don't always go for charge attacks in his "SSSS" chain and hope you break through his defenses and land a combo. With Last Ditch Power active things as simple as grabs will do over 400 damage to your opponent. Your opponent will be so focused on your dangerous S chains that they probably won't see it coming. And 3 grabs = 1200 damage, which isn't bad at all. After a few of those your opponent will probably want to vary his defense, which will open up windows for your "SSSS". I suppose the best time to actually use it is when your opponent is fatigued. That way you have ample time to actually perform the move and more then enough time to complete the whole combo on them with the power up active. However this doesn't happen very much at high level play, so don't always wait for it. The best way I found to get someone fatigued is to grab them right after they used a discernment cancel on me when they had less then 4 ki bars. Grabbing them in this case counts as a hit when they have less then 1 ki bar, which will always reverse transformations and can be reversed, and depending on the damage they've taken, will cause them to become fatigued. HOW TO USE EVASIVE KICK EFFECTIVELY As I said before, Evasive Kick is a very useful move if used properly. Upon seeing what it does, people usually just try to spam it and hope to catch all attacks. DO NOT do this. It doesn't work on the com at a high difficulty level and is doesn't work against anyone with a brain in adhoc or Xlink Kai. It is very easy for your opponent to cancel their move into a death move or even an ultimate and nail you before you could cancel it. It's best to feel out your opponent first. If they use lots of rush attacks, don't charge a lot of their strikes or simply charge them too fast you really aren't going to have enough time to use it. However when facing someone who uses lots of slam attacks and charges them a lot, especially against ones who have long wind up times, this move becomes useful. It can be used to interrupt a slow chain of strikes and punish someone who constantly abuses fully charged attacks. Again, this move costs ki, and not only that, if your opponent anticipates it you're in a world of hurt. So vary your defense. Sidestep some slow charges or Aura Burst backstep some of them too. Use Evasive Kick once in a while to throw them off, but it should be by no means used as a "Just Defense". WHAT SHOULD I USE? SSJ OR ELDER KAI UNLOCK ABILITY? SSJ gives Future Gohan access to two great death moves, Evasive Kick and Spirit Shot. However the attack % bonus he gets isn't all that great compared to some other transformations and his Burst charge in the from "Golden Warrior" is useless. It grants a high power bonus at the cost of depleting your ki. But unlike his Elder Kai unlock form, IT ACTUALLY DRAINS IT!!! <_< Your attack will go down for every ki bar you lose too, and after 10 seconds all your ki is gone and you're at the mercy of your opponent. Elder Kai Unlock Ability gives Future Gohan a nice attack boost and a high baseline ki of 5 bars. It also gives him access to the power death move "Z Sword" which does 660 damage UNCHARGED, which is pretty nuts. He also gets Last Ditch Power, which I talked about before. However his Kamehameha death move really isn't anything special especially compared to his SSJ Spirit Shot move. Also, although Z Sword is a good move, Evasive kick does have more uses and is more useful in battle. So which one should you use? Well....BOTH! It depends on who you're fighting. - When fighting against characters like Trunks, Piccolo, Broly and other characters with big reach and long wind up times, Evasive Kick becomes too important a move to not have in your arsenal. Use SSJ against characters like this. - When fighting against characters like Krillin, Kid Buu, Pikkon, Cell or other characters that are great at up close fighting and have short charge times on their starters, the use of Evasive Kick diminishes and the attack bonus and great burst charge of his Elder Kai form become greater assets. Use the Elder Kai Unlock Ability form against characters like these. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ COMBO SECTION (Canceling? Stunning? Juggling? Burst Canceling? If any of these words are new to you or you simply do not know what they mean or how to perform them then read Goryu's Cancel Combo Guide found at this link: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/psp/file/924588/42016 then proceed to the beginners section) ***ALL COMBOS ARE DONE AT MAX KI AGAINST GOGETA AT MAX KI*** R = Rush attack S = Slam attack > = Towards opponent < = Away from opponent /\ = Up on the D-pad E = Energy Button - = Cancel * = Stun ' = Fully charge upcoming move [AB] = Aura Burst -[AB] = Aura Burst Cancel Beginners section (Cancel knowledge not needed) SSJ #1. SSSS*, RRR>R>E [Spirit Shot] 9 hit's, 1027 damage. Opponent gains .5 of a ki bar Elder Kai Unlock Ability #2. SSSS*, RS<E [Z Sword] 7 hit's, 1145 damage. Opponent gains .4 of a ki bar Intermediate Section (Burst Cancel knowledge not needed) SSJ #1. SS'SS*, >>R*, >RRRS-, <R<RS-, RRR>R*, <S<R.>E [Spirit Shot] 19 hit's, 1511 damage. Opponent gains 1.2 ki bars Elder Kai Unlock Ability #2. SS'SS*, >>R*, >RRRS-, <R<RS-, RS<E [Z Sword] 15 hit's, 1655 damage. Opponent gains 1.1 ki bars Elder Kai Unlock Ability #3. SS'SS*, >>R*, >RRRS-, <R<RS-, RS-, /\E [Super Kamehameha] 22 hit's, 2295 damage. Opponent gains 1.1 ki bars Advanced Section Normal #1. SS'SS*, >>R*, >RRRS-, <R<RS-, RS-[AB]S*, /\E [Special Beam Cannon] 16 hit's, 1803 damage. Opponent gains 1.6 ki bars. Elder Kai Unlock Ability #2. SS'SS*, >>R*, >RRRS-, <R<RS-, RS-[AB]S*, /\E [Super Kamehameha] 25 hit's, 2420 damage. Opponent gains 1.6 ki bars As usual (but especially in Gohan's case since I'm on the verge of uncovering some new combos) more updates to come. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Special Thanks CJAYC - For creating the n00b infested boards in which the depth of this series was created. Dimps - For continuing this series. Drunken Pilot, Zejitox, philff138, cml64, Brogeta, Goryus, Sjsman, vegeta1, kekken5, EVIL CAPTIAN AMERICA, SuperShinySonic, superior13 - and the rest of the users on the Shin Budokai: Another Road board who give a damn about the games depth. Copyright 2006 Nnamdi Wosu