Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit (Hands On Preview)

[TAREK®]

We've taken a few peeks at the progress of the latest in Japanese developer Dimps' surprisingly newbie-friendly brawler: first at GDC a few months ago and then about a week and a half ago. While we were all too happy to run the game through its basic paces, we finally had time to check out the latest build of the title and decided to dig a little deeper into the differences between fighters.

As has been well-established by now, the Dragon Ball Z games are designed from the ground up to be accessible from the start yet reward players that have gotten steeped in the core mechanics for a while. In stark contrast to the rote memorization and frame-counting hardcore feel of fighters like Virtua Fighter, Burst Limit tries to keep the move sets fairly basic. It relies on simple, quick-fire counters and a balance between being twitchy or slightly button-mashing friendly and strategic blocks or carefully timed super attacks.

Balance is the key here, so things like being able to go Super Saiyan unlocks far more powerful basic attacks (and at times even augment move lists with bigger, flashier versions) but also lowers defense. Activating Aura Spark mode boosts defense and turns normal moves into supers, but it also has a very short window with which to unleash hell. The idea is that you can unleash a potent barrage of attacks, sure, but the other player can counter or dodge or even reverse some moves with split-second timing. It takes practice, but then that's why the game offers something for most levels of play.

After running through the tutorial that took us through the basics of movement, attacks, dodging/blocking/reversing and using the Ki Meter to unleash ranged attacks and super moves, we decided to see what the differences were between the various fighters. Being something of a reboot for the series, the absolutely massive triple-digit fighter roster has been trimmed to a more modest couple-dozen, which made understanding how Goku fought different from, say, Piccolo (one uses quicker, more short-range strikes while the other has slightly slower ones with more range thanks to his snake-like limbs). Other fighters, like Tien, seemed a little more juggle-heavy.

What's interesting is that the normal single-player game, Z Chronicles, actually sticks you with a pre-set character and opponent and then plays out the storyline. Once you've beaten that character, a smallish epilogue will play out, but more interestingly, an end-fight screen recaps exactly what Drama Scenes and Battle Objectives (read: basic challenges like "land the first attack" or " "defeat your opponent in 90 seconds") were earned, and then grades your fight on those conditions.

Even cooler: once you've finished a battle, multiple chapters are unlocked, and you can skip along the individual story threads however you want. It's all presented amid a free-floating series of thumbnails with character snapshots and titles to indicate who and where you'll fight. It'll even let you experience the same story thread through multiple perspectives, helping to further flesh out a particular thread. Winning these fights against characters unlocks them as a playable character and in some cases as a partner.

Another thing to consider: Drama Pieces. Not only can you pick a specific character to use at three random opportune times during versus fights (it's pre-set in the Z Chronicles mode), but you can also pick the conditions (or at least vague descriptions) with which it'll happen. It might not happen when you want, but by defining specific moments, the randomness is at least cut down a little. It means that even if your opponent knows what you've picked, they don't know when it'll happen. There's nothing quite so satisfying as watching your life bar get whittled down and moments after a super attack hits, Piccolo swoops in and throws a flying kick into your attacker, adding more fatigue to their meter, which can in turn leave them winded and defenseless enough for your own super attack to be unleashed.






We didn't get a chance to play much beyond the standard plains stage that you've likely seen in most of the early screens (there are only five stages in total), but because you're able to knock fighters up into the air and continue the flight on a "floating" plane, the backgrounds have to have a nice amount of depth to them, meaning far-off objects like the hillside villas in the background will obviously change perspective and move less than stuff far up.

It's a nice little nod to the parallax scrolling backgrounds in 2D fighters, and when combined with things like some solid cel-shading and a nice hint of motion blur whenever the fighters make quick dashes or special moves, the game leans more toward the animations which inspired it. The little cutscenes that play out during super moves complete with screen-slicing close-ups only furthers the feeling of playing an interactive episode of the show.

Though the roster and stages may have been pared down a little to make way for a re-telling of the core storylines, there still seems to be a nice amount of depth to Burst Limit. Things like the Trial Mode (which only had a Survival Mode unlocked, but two other options were hidden) should hopefully add even more distractions to make that purchase price a little more attractive. With more than a month to go before the game hits, we'll definitely be keeping you updated on our progress through the game on the way to a final review verdict. Minimal "It's over 9000!" catchphrase repetitions will be used -- we promise.

Available On: Xbox 360 And PS3
Release Date:
US: June 10, 2008
Japan: June 5, 2008
Europe: TBA 2008
Australia: TBA 2008


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[Sony]

Goku still alive ! did he won agaisnt boubou ?? :P

[FriendOfZeus]

oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy

[TAREK®]

The bad news (for most of u guyz) is that this game is only for 360 and PS3 hard luck PS2 and PC guyz and Best Of Luck 360 and PS3 guyz (us )

[Kingroudy]

lah ya! who cares about games like this!! damn my it's for my little cousin :P