pleasure of reviewing the first game in the Legacy of Goku series. I
commented, "For all of its faults, Dragonball Z: The Legacy of Goku delivered
a decent gameplay experience that left me wanting more." That pretty much
said it all. Roughly one year later, Infogrames (now Atari) has brought us
another incarnation of Dragonball Z. If the first game was a small bucket of
chicken, then this sequel would be the larger order, complete with mashed
potatoes and gravy.
Biting into Dragonball Z:
The Legacy of Goku II for the first time is not unlike eating a fried
drumstick. It has a tasty, crispy coating (the first half hour), an
unpleasant layer of fat (the second hour) and delicious dark meat underneath
(the rest of the game).
The action starts pretty
quickly, but comes to a halt when you reach West City. The Legacy of Goku II
is based on the Trunks saga, which is interesting, and all, but it had one
extremely dull part that could have been left out of the game: a scavenger
hunt. It’s different on the show (though still boring). In the game you must
run around, talk to various people, collect various items and eventually
return a precious key to a mayor who won’t talk to anyone who doesn’t have an
appointment (or something he wants). This sort of thing is very common in
RPGs, and this is an RPG-type game. Still, it wasn’t necessary, and what
follows is so good that you’ll wish this part hadn’t been included.
The developers must have
realized that the first game was just too short, because The Legacy of Goku II
is packed with a lot more gameplay. There are more characters to use, more
moves to perform, more areas to explore and several more enemies to fight.
Although it rarely prevents the player from progressing, there are quite a few
areas in the game that can only be accessed by specific characters. One door
might say have the number 30 written in green, while another has 25 written in
light blue. That means that only Piccolo and Gohan can enter those doors,
provided that they have reached levels 30 and 25, respectively.
Most of the
character-specific areas are either intended to be accessed at specific times
in the game (in which your character will almost definitely be at the required
level), or are considered a side objective that does not have to be
completed. This means that the player has the option to extend the game’s
life, level up each character, unlock every secret and fully conquer the
game. Or the player can simply skip what isn’t necessary.
Even when skipping those
unnecessary parts, The Legacy of Goku II is still more than twice as long as
the original. Aside from the increase in regular thugs, you’ll have many more
boss battles, most of which are more challenging than the bosses from the
first game. As Gohan, you’ll get to spar with friends like Tien, and although
you won’t gain any experience points by defeating them, you will earn valuable
strength power-up items.
The combat has also been
improved. It’s now faster and more entertaining, though still not on par with
the top-tier action/RPGs. Energy blasts are still an important part of
battling, but now the game emphasizes hand-to-hand combat. The androids can
absorb energy, remember? So you can’t just blast them into the sky. Nor can
you blast deformed monsters to smithereens when you have run out of energy
power. Boulders contain energy and health recovery items that’ll aid you in
your quest. You can also regain energy by defeating enemies that are carrying
energy balls (this is random and undetectable).
When becoming a Super
Saiyan, you’ll be able to run faster and attack with 50 to 100% more power.
The Super Saiyan transformation is based on the amount of energy you have, so
if it is completely depleted, you won’t be able to become a Super Saiyan.
There’s a world map this
time around, too. It’s set up just like the world map in Final Fantasy VI.
The reason a world map was necessary is because of the nature of the game. As
mentioned before, many areas are restricted to specific characters, and those
characters must have reached specific levels before they can pass through.
Plus, there are several strength, power and endurance items hidden throughout
the game. If one is missed, you always have the chance to come back and try
to find it later. Furthermore, as time passes, certain parts of the world
will change. They won’t change so greatly that you’ll be in awe, but there
are enough small differences to make them worth revisiting.
When I finished the first
game, I wanted a sequel that was more of the same but improved. I also wanted
a sequel that couldn’t be beaten in one sitting. One year later, that sequel
is here. Dragonball Z fans are gonna love this game, and I’m sure there are
at least a few people out there who will enjoy it even if they don’t like DBZ.
How do I know this? Because I stopped watching DBZ before the Trunks saga
finished. I like the characters though, and Webfoot Technologies has really
done a good job of taking DBZ and turning it into a game.
Gameplay: 7.5
Super Saiyans.
Androids. Guys with really big hair. Yeah, it’s all here, and it’s great.
Dragonball Z: The Legacy of Goku II is what I hoped it would be – more of what
I liked about the first game, only better.
Graphics: 7.3
The Legacy of
Goku II doesn’t improve much on its visuals. The super-brief cinematics are
more fluid (perhaps due to the recent revelation that the GBA can handle
full-motion video), but other than that the graphics are almost exactly the
same.
Sound: 8.8
The Legacy of
Goku II’s soundtrack is an enormous improvement over the original. There are
some familiar tunes, a remixed version of the main theme, and a bunch of
newer-sounding tracks that help push this game towards the full-fledged RPG
status it’s gunning for. The music is extremely varied, ranging from the
usual upbeat songs that Dragonball Z fans expect to hear to deeper, more
powerful tracks that will no doubt catch the attention of the hardcore crowd.
If all Game Boy Advance games sounded this good, no one would be able to tell
that it has such a weak sound processor.
Difficulty: Easy
Just as before,
any problem that is found in this game can be solved by leveling up. The
exception would be the lame scavenger hunt in the beginning, but that really
wasn’t that difficult – just annoying and time-consuming.
Concept: 7.2
Conceptually, The
Legacy of Goku II is not a huge improvement, considering that the majority of
the gameplay style was already laid out for them from the first game. What
the developers did do, however, was take a good concept and make the game
itself – the final end result – a much better experience.
Overall: 7.5
If you buy The
Legacy of Goku II, one thing’s for certain – it won’t give you the DBZzzzzz.
Most likely it’ll keep you up all night, with its lengthier quest and more
involved characters.
