IW Detailed Review 4 GFaqs

Audio Review

It's been a little over 2 years now since Infinite World was released and by now we have all come to explore and love the detail that went into making this game. Not just a Budokai 3 on steroids, but also a brand new fighting experience in it's right. After the competitive fighting disappointed that was Burst Limit for the PS3/360 came this game and left many hoping for a Budokai 4 since. A game made for anyone wanting to become a better Budokai player. Now, to the review.

GRAPHICS 10/10

Infinite World takes the graphics possible on the PS2 system in the DBZ gaming franchise and maximizes them. While at first it may look identical to it's predecessor Budokai 3, the stages, environments and characters all got an added shine to them. The game takes the cell-shaded graphics engine Dimps has used in Budokai series since Budokai 2 and gives it an all new mint look. Some graphical mistakes from Budokai 3 were fixed like adding blue lightning to SSJ2 and SSJ3 forms which was yellow in all previous games staying true to the anime.

SOUND 8/10

There isn't really anything ground breaking in this area. The game hosts all the same soundtracks from Budokai 3 plus remixes of older ones used in other Dimps DBZ games. Some famous soundtracks from Budokai 1 and Budokai 2 did not make it sadly which is a shame. Would have been even better if you had an option to pick the soundtracks that play before you start a battle like Spike developer company has done in most of it's DBZ games. You have the option to pick either English or the original Japanese audio. One note, the cutscenes in English had terrible translation, the words did not fit the pace of the mouth and character movements at all; a problem you don't find if you have the voices language set to Japanese.

STORY 8/10

It's Dragon Ball Z 101. The game follows the traditional DBZ storyline starting with the Saiyan Saga following all the way until the end of the GT Saga. There are mini games you play during the story mode like finding the dragon balls, catching bubbles or running on snake way. While at first interesting they get quickly boring and repetitive. Would have been better if there had been a point system and high score rewards and such to give them more involvement. Very few cut scenes and well done ones using the cell-shaded graphics. Only real complaint here is the few cut scenes part and the sound off sync for English audio.

PLAYTIME & REPLAYABILITY 7/10

The game is not very long, in fact you can beat the game in 2 full days of committed game play. You follow the story mode and beat it once with Goku as your main, then you have to go back and beat it again with the other characters finishing up what is left of the story. Once that is complete you go and buy the fighters road capsule which unlocks a new mode in which you battle over a hundred opponent's in a row unlocking new capsules and more money. Once all the battles in fighter's road are complete and all the events of story mode are complete you have pretty much all but completed and unlocked everything in the game. So once all of this is done you have completed all there is to do in the game, only thing left is to fight and become a better fighter.

FEATURES & MODES 7/10

First and foremost the game did away with the Tournament Mode. While at first it may seem like a bad thing, being an offline PS2 games not more than 2 people will ever play it and you can still just pick the Tournament Stage if you want to fight in it so badly. Not being a PS3/360 game and lack of online causes this game to suffer in this area. The game added 8 new characters; Pan, GT Kid Goku, GT Vegeta, Janemba, Pikkon Great Saiyawoman, Super Baby and Super Android 17. And for some unexplained reason took away Supreme Kai, Cell Jr, Uub and DB Kid Goku out of the game from the previous Budokai 3. Also took away the alternate King Piccolo custom from Budokai 3 Greatest Hits or Limited Edition. The game also did not reinstate Zarbon, Dodoria or Android 19 yet again which many fans had been begging for since Budokai 1. The game did not add any new stages from Budokai 3, none of the stages from previous Budokai games made a resurface in Infinite World. Added on to this, while in Budokai 3 you could pick a stage already destroyed with O button, in Infinite World you have to pick random and hope for it to happen. The game also did not add an INCOMPLETE tag to missions you have not finished. If you enter a mission and leave it without completing it; it will not tell you have not completed that mission. This leaves some people in confusion as they can't figure out what they have not done yet to complete the game 100%. Sometimes after an intense battle session there may be a small case of lag which is rarely experienced. In 2 years of playing this has only happened 4 times with other players sharing the same experience. The game kept the capsule system from Budokai 3, but now instead of gaining character levels, your capsules gain levels and become stronger and more effective. They are now arranged in 3 different categories in your character's capsule tray. Transformations for example all go in one capsule, the higher level the higher the transformation the character can go. And did I mention all capsules only take up 1 slot in the skill tray? Both saving space and allowing for a more unique setup than it's predecessor. The game also does not have a tutorial mode to teach you how to guard cancel which is the main aspect of this game and what makes the gameplay so important.

GAMEPLAY 9/10

If you thought this game was just a cheap Budokai 3 remake, think again. The game takes the gameplay which made Budokai 3 so famous to this day and makes it as hard it is to believe, better. First and foremost the AI in this game is much harder than that of previous Dimps Budokai style games. The AI knows how to make use of all of the game's mechanics like Aura Guard right off the bat, and it can string up combos on you if you leave yourself wide open in an instant. This makes the game a lot more challenging for beginners than it's predecessors, as even in Very Easy difficulty you may find yourself having a hard time beating some major battles. The game did away with Hyper Mode and replaced it with Aura Burn Mode which grants you unlimited teleport and super move ki, prevents you from being knocked back by minor attacks and raises your attack and defense by a small percentage. All this only at the cost of your Ki slowly going down to 0, but unlike in Budokai 3 you won't become fatigued once your Ki reaches 0, but more on that later. The game did away with Dragon Rush from Budokai 3. Apparently Dimps did the correct thing and took away an aspect of the fighting that had nothing to do with fighting and was more like playing Paper, Rock, Scissors. But at the same time made a mistake by taking away beam struggles... instead the attacks just connect and disappear or if on is stronger than the other just over powers it right away... A little sad and disappointing. The game has a move list and combo list like the one in Budokai 3 Greatest Hits or Limited Edition which helps in finding new combos that work much faster. Ultimates can now be done ANY time by pressing Up+O without the need for Hyper Mode as long as your character has enough energy to do it. Regular teleports and Teleport counters were adopted from Burst Limit, so now you can do forward+O to teleport and hit automatically or back+O to teleport and not hit the opponent away automatically. This helps in allowing you a chance to start a combo string from behind. And now the Fatigue system. The fatigue was adopted from Burst Limit as well, taking hits, teleporting, dodging and defending all slow increase your fatigue bar. 2000 damage = full fatigue. Now my only complaint here is that even if you have not gotten hit for awhile it does not decrease, it stays the same. And also if caught in juggle/infinite combo in air like the deadly Dragon Fist with no damage cap your character stays fatigued and can't recover till it touches the ground making it a little overpowered. Something they should not have done. All characters can now do aura dash and move at a faster pace than all previous Dimps Budokai games making the gameplay pace a lot faster. The combos you do in this game also look devastating and are devastating...

FINAL SCORE 8/10

Or 8.166667 to be exact. The game does what it is meant to do perfectly, and that is to develop the fighting in the Budokai games and give it more depth. The added AI difficulty may make this game hard for newcomers to the Budokai experience and quickly turn them away and even some less experience players from previous Budokai games. The lack of features and loss of some of the major playable characters in the previous game is a big blow,but nevertheless they add more to make up for it... (disc memory issues?) The game has a lot to unlock and the new redefined capsule setup allows for more unique customized characters. The characters are all more unique and you can quickly tell each has it's own fighting style. If you want to become a better fighter this is definitely the game for you, if you just want to mess around and have a good time without having to try too hard then the difficulty of this game might not be for you. Great game, added gameplay depth, not enough features, needs a sequel on PS3/360 with online BIG time. May this DBZ Dimps Budokai franchise go on for much longer.

good review, no one will read it most likely though lol.

I will make sure some do ^.^

I get you lol, btw have you played Ultimate Butoden yet?

Also, I've recently started kara canceling in IW with Nappa and broly, how useful would you say kara canceling is overall in IW?

depends on the characters throw. For cell is gold since he lacks any decent guard breakers but his throw starts a juggle.

Broly's Kara throw is godlike, he can literally do it from across the screen.

lol yes, his arm length is huge :p

I might make another tier list for IW, I feel like the other one was made with old Budokai strats in mind, in that it didn't get the whole picture, stuff like karas and untechable knock downs.

The last one Cap made is pretty accurate imo

I found a glitch that gives Goku infinite Aura Burning, so that could change.

I read it =D Great review...Love IW, but ( probably because emotional reasons) IW is my second Favorite dbz game.


B3 Will always be the number 1 *o*

@Brohan

well Goku is already top tier lol and well none of us rly ever use Aura Burn since is kinda broken :p

@Odjinryu

for sure man, b3 started it all ^.^ it was the spark that created the fire lol

Damn this should go into a Wik once its made. Yeh about that, we all should get together and make a Wik already. I know its been mentioned more then once before.

I could make an entry on SRK wiki or something

yes, that would be cool

Good review. However I have a hard time believing you played SBAR if you think IW is the fastest dimps DBZ game. SBAR makes IW look like slow mo.

I played SBAR, owned it for a year before my PSP broke. Only real thing that makes it feel any faster imo is the ki cancelling. I like the game asides from controls feeling a little too flimsy at times, maybe cause of PSP. Would have been better on console I think, more memory space :p It has some nice combos too

Yeah SBAR is the fastest by far.

I think BL could have been fast, the combos are fast with ki cancelling although not very hard. If only the movement speed was faster and with aura dash that game would have been a little more bearable. Took away the speed feel from dbz

True BL had the potential to be the best DBZ fighter, it added alot of things that made sense from a competitive standpoint, ie bursting, stun bar ect. its just one too many small problems stopped it from being excellent. It's still a decent game though imo.

Brohan wrote:I found a glitch that gives Goku infinite Aura Burning, so that could change.

IMO Aura burning is a waste of a button slot, lol. Opponents generally run away when it's activated, and you can be rushed down more easily when you have no ki.

At any rate, Super DBZ will always be my top DB fighter, although IW is a close second. I do wish that the game was more balanced, though. Some characters really are unusable in higher levels of play, and that tends to hinder the appeal of the game a bit. You can't really win with your favorites even if you put tons of effort into it. That said, at least the game is balanced within the top tiers, and more characters seem viable than in MvC2, lol.

AquaTeamV3 wrote:

Brohan wrote:I found a glitch that gives Goku infinite Aura Burning, so that could change.

IMO Aura burning is a waste of a button slot, lol. Opponents generally run away when it's activated, and you can be rushed down more easily when you have no ki.

At any rate, Super DBZ will always be my top DB fighter, although IW is a close second. I do wish that the game was more balanced, though. Some characters really are unusable in higher levels of play, and that tends to hinder the appeal of the game a bit. You can't really win with your favorites even if you put tons of effort into it. That said, at least the game is balanced within the top tiers, and more characters seem viable than in MvC2, lol.

lol, aura burning is for noobs imo :p in IW if you are a vet player and use it is like hitting the easy win button. Granted that your ki does decrease slowly but I become untouchable with that thing. Even the hardest custom AI becomes easy, too many advantages that mode has.

Aura burn originally wasn't supposed to give you Ki back when you combo; that was fixed in the JP version of the game. Still, the fact that it takes up a slot on my controller still seems like a complete reason not to use it. My shoulder buttons have far more important things to do.

Lol All I do is switch Guard to L1 and Charge to X.