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Dragon
Ball Raging Blast 2
Score: 6.5 / 10
Whether you're a fan of anime or not, I'm
sure almost everyone has heard of Dragon Ball. It has had a very
successful run over the years and has developed a huge fan base. It only
makes sense that there are plenty of DB games and with the nature of the
show (action) there should be no surprise that most of the DB games are
fighting games. Some are more on the traditional side, some try to be
more unique and that's where the Raging Blast series comes in.
Raging Blast 2 takes a different approach from the old Budokai games and
Burst limit. The characters can move in all directions with destructible
environments, transformations, and of course signature moves. There is
also 90 characters to choose from.
However, like in previous DB games, too many characters fight nearly
identical to each other (with the exception of signature attacks) which
doesn't provide that
much variety and is a bit underwhelming.
You would think after all these years of DB games that they would try to
take the extra step and put more effort into it, but sadly that's not
the case. It's also kind of boring having to plough through so much,
unlocking a lot of these characters and it becomes a chore.
I admit I haven't played much of the original Raging Blast, but I have
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read that most of the stages are recycled from the first game which goes
to show that Spike (the developers) didn't commit much effort into
making a full fledged sequel to the original. There are a few new
techniques such as the new Raging Soul System which boosts your stats as
well as Pursuit attacks giving the player the ability to perform some
combos (which is actually pretty cool), but there still isn't enough
that makes Raging Blast 2 a game of its own and it feels like Namco
Bandai used the DB name to sell copies which unfortunately, will
probably end up working out for them.
The fighting is very repetitive and again, it does not help that a lot
of fighters are nearly identical to each other, but even putting that
side, the game just feels a bit shallow. The had some potential like
certain moves require proper timing and it would be cool to memorize
them, but too many players just stick to spamming the same moves over
and over again. It gets irritating when you realize if you want to win
then button mashing is the best way to go. The combat could use a lot of
tweaking for players who would actually like to use some skill to defeat
their opponents. One could argue that you can cheat in any fighting game
which is true, but at least in other fighting games (such as the Soul
Calibur series), experienced players can find a way to overcome button
mashers. Spike should take some notes if they plan on making a Raging
Blast 3.
If there is one thing that I would really have to compliment Spike for
is that they really captured the feel and look of the anime. I'm not
talking about the visuals (more on that later), but it's awesome having
the freedom to be able to move anywhere and hitting other characters
through destructible environments just like what you see in the show. I
feel there is a lot of potential here, but when it comes to DB fighting
games, I would have to recommend some older DB titles such as 2008's
Burst Limit for Limit for the PS3 and 360 or Super Sonic Warriors 2 for
the Nintendo DS instead.
There are your usual modes of gameplay such as a Galaxy Mode (Story
mode) where each character has their own story (not that there is much
of one) and special conditions per battle similar to Soul Calibur's
Quest like mode. There's also Arcade, Versus modes (with a split
screen), Tutorial, World Tournament Training, etc. Online Battle sounds
like it could be fun, but that's the most frustrating mode when it comes
to people spamming moves to try and guarantee their victory.
You can access the museum on the main menu which includes pretty basic
stuff such as a character encyclopedia, BGM collection, Battle Replays
and more. The most noticeable being Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the
Super Saiyans. I haven't been brushing up on my DB history, but
apparently it was based on one of the mangas and there was an animation
that was being created, but was unfortunately dropped in the process (at
least for an American release). I guess Namco Bandai decided to contact
the DB licensers and worked something out where the movie could be
finished and it is exclusives available to Raging Blast 2. I can foresee
some DB nuts buying this game for the short movie alone, a smart
decision from the developers/publisher if you ask me.
The eye candy of this game will surely appeal to many DB fans and the
poor camera or broken gameplay might not actually bother some of the
die-hard fanboys or fangirls just because of that. The character models
especially look fantastic and even little details like hair movement are
very nice touches and done well. The music is pretty generic, but the
voice overs are the same as they are in the anime (at least for most
characters to my knowledge) so fans won't find much to complain about
there.
Dragon Ball Raging Blast is for the die-hard fans and only for the
die-hards. I use to be obsessed with DBZ when I was younger, but have
moved on since and consider myself just a casual fan and that's not a
good enough of a reason to buy this game.
