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»Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu
"Dragon Ball Z: ... what?"
Dragon Ball Z has been popular in the US for about 10 years now, and still manages to find a huge audience. With that audience, video games are just another way for the company to generate revenue. Card games are nothing new for the Dragon Ball Z series, but Harukanaru Densetsu (or "Distant Legend" in English, but HD from now on) tries a different formula than the past few games.
A t first, HD comes off as a very complicated game with extremely drawn out and repetitive tutorials that seem to overanalyze everything. These will probably put anyone to sleep, or make anyone skip them. Thankfully, HD isn’t complicated at all and skipping them isn’t a problem. However, not being complicated is one of HD’s greatest flaws. Throughout the game, players will play from the Saiyan Saga to the end of the Cell Saga with four characters: Goku, Gohan, Piccolo and Vegeta. Each character has a part of the story that fits in with the other. In order to progress through the game, you'll have to play with all four characters.
At the start of the game, five cards are dealt to the bottom screen. These five cards have 3 distinct characteristics; Type of card, power level, and guard level. The power and guard levels have values of 1-7, and Z which acts as an 8. The highest value wins. HD plays a lot like a board game, but certain spaces have enemies to fight. The card’s three characteristics determine three things while moving around the board, and also in a one on one battle.
Instead of wasting your time with paragraphs of what these cards do, a simple chart will probably do them more justice:
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Type |
Board game effect |
Battle effect |
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Strike |
Attack first if
there’s a battle in that turn. |
Attack |
|
Hide |
Hide from a random
battle |
Lets you run away
from random battles. |
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Training |
Increase defense
power for that turn. |
Increases the
guard level of other cards. |
|
Reverse |
Gives you five new
cards. |
Switches your
attack power with theirs. |
|
Energy |
Increase attack
power for that turn. |
Increases the
attack power of other cards. |
|
Event |
Calls friends, can
give items or heal you. |
A friend attacks
for you |
|
Use |
Let you use items… |
Lets you use
items… |
|
Z-card |
Anything type you
want. |
Any type you want. |
In each mission, there is some certain place on the map that is the goal and there is a maximum number of turns. It turns out to be a pretty lame experience once the formula starts to wear thin. In the board game, the best cards are hide and cards with high guard. Random battles can get extremely annoying when they happen after every turn. A hide card guarantees an opponent won’t randomly attack. Higher attack cards allow for more moves on the board, but higher guard cards mean less random battles. Other than that, the board game aspect is pretty self-explanatory.
The battles are also a bit disappointing. With a simple mechanism of whoever has the highest attack value wins, the game becomes rather easy and predictable. Cards can be combined into guard or attack combos if their guard or power levels are the same value. They can only be combined in one way though, so don’t expect cards to have both super strength and super guard. Theoretically, with eight card values, a player could have an attack or guard of up to 40. Reverse cards offer some difference, but they can be frustrating due to the simple mechanic. A low value reverse card is possibly one of the best cards to have, because it will take whatever value it is and switch it with the opponents’. Although my fault, I was rather embarrassed and frustrated when my 32 hit attack combo with a guard of 1 was turned around with a low level reverse card and dealt me 31 hits (instant kill). High level energy and training cards are fairly useful to strengthen your cards, and items are good in a pinch, but the battle system really only comes down to attacks and guarding if you can’t attack. Each battle will gain you experience points, and once you reach a certain point, you will level up. At that point, you’ll get a chance to level up a certain characteristic. You will choose between one of five Hoipoi (little capsules), and they will strengthen one of the eight card types. The levels seem to make higher level cards appear more for the types you level up on. The main problem I have with this is that it keeps the game at almost the same difficulty level the entire time.
The card battles are actually presented in a very simple and useable interface. The graphics are clean and look pretty good, but are really lacking when it comes to cut-scenes. There’s not a lot of good animation in anything. The battles show just numbers or your guards or power level rising. If it’s an attack, there is a short clip of a move being done against the opponent, but it’s certainly not all the DS could handle. The story is presented almost solely in text. There are some blurbs of spoken words (which you collect as an added feature of the game), but nothing is that amazing. Dragon Ball Z is just not the same in text for me. When Vegeta said, “It’s over 9000!” or when one of the other characters says, “Yahoo!” or “Yippee!” the game was ruined for me. Text just doesn’t cut it in those situations. The background music is rather repetitive with the same music being played pretty much throughout the entire game.
There is also a multiplayer mode to the game, but it’s only available locally, and only allows for card battles. With a simple battle system, there’s not much fun to be had with this mode.
HD is actually a fairly lengthy adventure, but I would give anyone a great deal of respect if they actually finish it. They would have to have the patience of a god. There is a hint of good presentation values in HD, but there’s not enough to really want to continue. The battle system is too easy, and the game doesn’t have any way of getting better decks. The RPG is limited to levels, which in a card game, is rather disappointing. I would honestly compare this game to twiddling your thumbs. While it’s fun for a while, it’s too easy and repetitive.
Article by: Knives
Posted on: Jun. 6th, 2007 |
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Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| The game is far too simple. There is not much fun to be had here. |
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Graphics |
| The presentation isn’t that bad. It’s clean, and not rushed, but it lacks the cool animations that a game like this should have. |
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Sound |
| The music is extremely repetitive, and even with quite a few voice clips, the story feels like it’s presented mostly with text. |
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Replay Value |
| Probably won’t want to pick this one up again, but then again, there’s no motivation to finish the game in the first place. |
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Comments |
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June 12, 2007 |
Aaron |
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I'm pretty disappointed with this game. I thought that they were redoing the GBC game, but they didn't. This game could have been a lot better if they had.
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