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Platform
DS
Genre
Role-Playing
Publisher
Namco Bandai
Developer
Monolith Soft
ESRB
E +10 (Everyone)
Released
November 10, 2009
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Large, colorful sprites
- Flashy combo attacks
- Random enemies that fit well with the DBZ universe
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Repetitive battles that drag too long
- Even longer, narrative-heavy cutscenes
- Filler moments that do little to expand the DBZ world
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Review:
Nostalgia (DS)
Review:
Blue Dragon Plus (DS)
Review:
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS)
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Dragon
Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans
Score: 5.0 / 10
Despite being a franchise largely adapted
into fighting games, turning Dragon Ball Z into an RPG isn’t as crazy an
idea as some may think. Many aspects of the series feature RPG-like
elements, from gaining levels through grinding (or training, in Goku’s
case), food items that restore health (and broken bones), and a
multi-continental world filled with all sorts of bizarre animals and
NPCs (including dinosaurs, dragons, and pigs in slacks).
There have been several attempts in the past to create a DBZ RPG (hey,
that rhymes), but previous efforts have been poorly received and quickly
forgotten, even by the series’ native hometown. But even though the
Dragon Ball series is well over two decades old, it’s still a huge cash
cow, and Bandai Namco seems poised to yank the swollen teat as often as
they can with their newest game, Attack of the
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told many, many, many times across every
conceivable medium, but just in case you haven’t heard it: many years
ago, a race of super-powerful interstellar warriors called the Saiyans
sent a young infant named Kakarot to the planet Earth, tasked with
purging the planet of all life. Due to a amnesia-inducing head injury,
the baby Saiyan is instead raised as Goku, a carefree and good-natured
fighter with dreams of becoming the world’s strongest champion. After
obtaining this title along with a loving wife and son, Goku’s older (and
still quite evil) brother Raditz invades the Earth, kidnapping Goku’s
son and setting off a chain of events where Goku and friends (and former
enemies) must band together and defeat the Saiyan invasion that
threatens to eradicate their world. Battles are waged in truly
spectacular fashion, with characters flying through the air, unleashing
planet-shattering energy blasts, and screaming for five minutes per
episode.
Despite the Z in the title, a good portion of this game revolves around
the final events of Dragon Ball, featuring a younger Goku as he faces
off against Piccolo during the World Martial Arts Tournament. Before the
fateful battle, players assume the role of Krillin, Tien, and Yamcha, as
they engage in some last minute training preparations by doing some
minor quests for Master Roshi. In the anime world, this is known as
filler, and since most major DBZ battles consist of several heroes
facing a single powerful enemy, the majority of AotS consists of long
hikes through deep caves, sprawling forests, overflowing volcanoes and
other “been there, done that” areas before facing off against the
infamous series baddies. Thankfully, as mentioned above, the DBZ series
is filled with interesting creatures, and it’s through these background
characters that Monolith has drawn inspiration from; from Red Ribbon
soldiers to hulking forest animals, each of the hundreds of random
encounters fit with the Dragon Ball world, although their placement in
each area is rather odd and often out of context.
But the random enemies aren’t the real issue here, rather it’s the
numerous times you’ll be encountering them. Often a complaint in classic
RPGs, the rate of random encounters in DBZ can grow quite frustrating,
with but a few steps resulting in a sudden encounter. When engaged
against enemies, battles play out in typical turn-based fashion, where
the party members and enemies each take a turn at pummeling each other
into submission. There are the standard commands for attacking,
defending, using items and performing special moves, although a couple
of additions try to modernize the classic interface; pressing a button
at the right time before an enemy attacks will result in your character
guarding against the attack, greatly reducing the amount of damage
taken. Attacking and receiving damage will also fill up a Rage meter
that, when combined with another character whose bar has filled will
result in an S Combo, a deadly combo that can be unleashed by two or
more party members. Another unique mechanic are Capsules which can be
equipped while navigating the field, offering specific bonuses during
battle, whether it be a status effect on an enemy (such as darkness or
dizziness), a status boost for your characters (poison resistance, etc)
or an extra reward upon victory (extra exp or money).
Yet even with these extra features, battles tend to be too long and
repetitive, especially with the limited amount of special moves learned
by each party member. Boss battles are particularly annoying as they
feature a very basic back-and-forth sequence where one side attacks the
other ad nauseam. Character and enemy sprites are large and animate
well, but the flashy attacks grow thin after witnessing them several
times. Curiously, the voiceovers heard during battle have been left in
Japanese, perhaps a sign that the veteran English voice actors have
grown truly tired with re-enacting the same story arcs over and over
again.
And unfortunately, the story is where Attack of the Saiyans truly
suffers. While the events themselves are presented exactly as they
occurred in the anime series (and even features a few extra moments that
were exclusive to the manga), it’s the pacing of the cutscenes that
border on excruciating. This is mainly due to the small emoticons that
each character displays before speaking, as if the on-screen portraits
weren’t sufficient enough to indicate a character’s anger or
frustration. These emoting pauses between text makes cutscenes run far
longer than is humanly tolerable, and even though the graphics bring
back memories of Chrono Trigger (as it well should, since series author
Akira Toriyama is credited as character designer for the classic RPG),
the small field sprites cause the original story to lose something in
the translation. What’s especially curious is how major moments such as
Dragon Ball’s final tournament are quickly glazed over, which will only
cause confusion among series newbies, and would have served to
seamlessly increase the game’s running time instead of the tacked-on
filler that’s included (in one instance, Goku and Piccolo land on a
nearby island on foot while tracking Gohan, only to resume their aerial
pursuit once he has been located elsewhere. Why they even stopped in
that island in the first place is never revealed, and one can only
continue to wonder why they don’t just fly the majority of the time
instead of using nearby rocks as makeshift bridges to proceed further
on).
Despite the complaints, Attack of the Saiyans is still a decent RPG
adventure, particularly for those who are new to the genre and could use
a good entry point. But for fans of both Dragon Ball Z and RPGs in
general, there are many other titles on both fronts that are more worthy
of their time.
- Jorge Fernandez
(January 19, 2010)
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