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Platform: Gameboy Advance Genre: Action RPG Publisher: Atari Developer: Webfoot ESRB: E (Everyone) Released: June 2003 Support AE! Buy Games Here:
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Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku IIScore: 7.9/10 |
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Pros: -Fantastic
improvement over first LoG game in all areas |
Cons: -Combat system
is oversimplified (don¹t expect to make too many tactical |
Related Links: Review: Dragon Ball Z: Budokai (Playstation 2) |
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"LoG II does a fine job of recreating roughly 40 episodes of DBZ and makes you feel a part of the story."
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“Grrr...huuhnnnnn...just
a…little…longer…almost reaching...full…power…” Those
of you who are fans of the ubiquitous Dragon Ball Z anime series may get
the reference; those of you who don’t, but dig fighting anime, full of
posturing, grunting, power leveling, and flying aliens, might really
like television’s DBZ. If
you fit all of the above criteria, and also have a GBA, you are sure to
enjoy the latest DBZ title from Webfoot and Atari, Dragon
Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II.
This
is a straight sequel to Atari’s first effort, and it has the same
engine. The controls and
interface are pretty much the same, however, every facet of the previous
game has been improved upon: it looks better, sounds better, plays
better, and is much longer. Indeed,
this game covers the entire Trunks Saga (If you don’t know what that
is, time to set your VCR to tape hours of Cartoon Network) and will give
gamers well over 20 hours of gameplay spanning three “episodes,” and
that’s not including the rewarding side-quests. LoG
II is an action RPG, and the
two attacks, melee and range (with special versions of melee and range
as your character progresses) may be a little mundane, but the pace of
the story and the quickness with which your characters “level” their
abilities complements the simplicity of your actions.
The gameplay is actually quite fun and addictive as you progress
through various baddies and bust levels to bust barriers.
One of the primary constructs of the game are the colored and
numbered barriers which unlock the new areas.
You need to have the right level and right character to break
through the barrier. For
example, Goku is the character you need to play to break through the
green barriers, Gohan won’t work in those situations.
In addition to Goku and Gohan, Trunks, Vegeta, and Piccolo are
other characters you get to control throughout the game.
This spices the gameplay up nicely, and once you are far enough
along you can switch between them however you like.
In
addition to controlling multiple characters this time, there are
numerous quests to be had. Keeping
track of all these quests and characters can be tricky, and the personal
journal which each character has in game may be one of the nicest
features in LoG II. It
makes all the little fetch tasks you find yourself doing in the course
of the game easy to manage (One of these tasks includes fetching an
“open faced Club Sandwich” for a local hero!)
Still, with multiple characters to manage and many interesting
locations, including a very cool “world screen” which really
captures the feel of the supersonic flying from the TV series, Goku II
is anything but mundane. Indeed,
the 3D world map which the game switches to as you fly to different
locales is very cool to look at, even on the small screen.
And though the graphics have not improved drastically from the
first game, character models and background are all acceptable as far as
GBA RPG’s go. The
dialogue boxes are particularly sharp this time, and since there is a
LOT of text to read in this game, that’s a good thing.
In addition, it is the faces in the dialogue boxes that are
really going to make fans of the series feel like they are playing a DBZ
game. (It is in these
little dialogue boxes that the gamer can fully appreciate the true glory
that is Dragon Ball Z – the Anime Hair!) The
music may be the best feature of this game (And this is a pretty decent
game.) The developers did a
fantastic job of recreating the series compositions for the small
speakers of the GBA. But to
be honest, I didn’t realize how good a job they did on the music until
I switched from my little SP to my Gamecube’s GBA Player – great
stuff. There is a lot more here for the gamer than the piddly 5 hours of gameplay LoG I offered. Action/RPG players are going to get a lot more enjoyment from LoG II. Fans of the anime series should really be ecstatic. LoG II does a fine job of recreating roughly 40 episodes of DBZ and makes you feel a part of the story. Hardcore DBZ famitsu and casual fans alike should get plenty of enjoyment from LoG II. Paul Michael August 28, 2003 Search for Related Topics: ...More Gameboy Advance Reviews... ...More Action Game Reviews... |
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