History VideoGame / DragonBallZBudokaiTenkaichi

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* WhatIf In this game: [[spoiler: Galactic Tyrant: Frieza defeats Goku and goes on to knock Cooler down a few pegs; The Ultimate Android: Cell beats Gohan and later fights Super 17; The Destructive Majin: Buu destroys the world and later fights Janemba; The Plan to Conquer Earth: The villains actually defeat the Z-fighters; and The Revenge of the Saiyans: The Saiyans rally together to kill Frieza.]]

* WhatIf: Three stories. [[spoiler: WhatIf Raditz lost his memory when coming to Earth, like Goku did?]] [[spoiler: WhatIf Zarbon betrayed Frieza and wanted the Dragon Balls for himself?]] [[spoiler: WhatIf Goku and Vegeta focused on their rivalry instead of fighting Majin Buu?]] They're all unlocked by winning otherwise [[HopelessBossFight unwinnable fights]].

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* WhatIf: Four battles: [[spoiler:What if Goku and Arale had a friendly match?]] [[spoiler: What if Dr. Gero sent Android 16 back in time to kill Kid Goku?]] [[spoiler:What if Bardock actually managed to rally a Saiyan resistance against Frieza?]] [[spoiler:What if Devilman confronted Mecha Frieza's crew when they invaded Earth at the beginning of the Android Saga?]]

** Base Gotenks's plays this trope completely straight where his two special attacks ''and'' his ultimate are identical as Kid Trunks, having Full Power Energy Wave and High Speed Rush with Big Tree Cannon as his ultimate.

** Movie based Sagas only has one fight, and only four was adapted (''Anime/CoolersRevenge'', ''Anime/BojackUnbound'', ''Anime/BrolyTheLegendarySuperSaiyan'', and ''Anime/FusionReborn''). Not only that, but Goku isn't even a Super Saiyan when fighting Final Form Cooler.

** The Heavy Smash command was mapped to the X button following a Rush Attack, as opposed to later games where it could be activated by Square, Triangle or square, square, square, square, Triangle. Like the Ki Wave, this can also be infinitely spammed.
** You have to build up your combo in order to get a full charge, which varies depending on the character in question.

** Only Beam VS Beam and Rush VS Rush struggles were possible, as beam attacks could instantly pierce through any energy ball attacks. Not only that, but you were invincible when firing your energy attacks.

** Janemba's transformation into Super Janemba is the only transformation in the game that takes up a certain amount of health upon activation.

* MultiSlotCharacter: The series does this very often, particularly ''3'', as when a character has multiple forms, the game uses the forms as separate characters, resulting in choosing a Goku and having 7 different forms to choose to start with. ''3'' also splits some of the characters into time periods, meaning that, for example, you can play as Goku from the Saiyan Sage, the Frieza Saga, or the Android and Majin Buu Sagas. Each version and form has their own moveset.

* MultiSlotCharacter: The series does this very often, particularly ''3'', as when a character has multiple forms, the game uses the forms as separate characters, resulting in choosing a Goku and having 7 different forms to choose to start with. ''3'' also splits some of the characters into time periods, meaning that, for example, you can play as Goku from the Saiyan arc, the Namek arc, or the Cell & Buu arcs. Each version and form has their own moveset.

** ''Everything in the game.'' The most obvious examples are certain characters' rush attacks, which are often straight adaptations of combos performed by the character within the show, but how a character moves and fights is more often than not altered to match the show. For example, Super Vegito will mostly use his legs to attack because that's what he did when he fought Buu. Or Vegeta will headbutt like he did to Goku as Majin Vegeta. Piccolo's animation for his fully charged ki blast resembles the attack he used on Raditz at the very beginning of the series. [[ShownTheirWork It's jaw dropping how many details the developers worked into the game.]]

* MultiSlotCharacter: The series does this very often, particularly 3, as when a character has multiple forms, the game uses the forms as separate characters, resulting in choosing a Goku and having 7 different forms to choose to start with. ''3'' also splits some of the characters into time periods, meaning that, for example, you can play as Goku from the Saiyan arc, the Namek arc, or the Cell-Buu arc.

* MultiSlotCharacter: The series does this very often, particularly 3, as when a character has multiple forms, the game uses the forms as seperate characters, resulting in choosing a Goku and having 7 different forms to choose to start with. ''3'' also splits some of the characters into time periods, meaning that, for example, you can play as Goku from the Saiyan arc, the Namek arc, or the Cell-Buu arc.
*** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] but Kamehameha and its Super Kamehameha variant counts as this too. Being a Dragon Ball game, this is very [[JustifiedTrope justified]].

** In Budokai Tenkaichi 2, dropping below 20000 HP (yellow health bar with brown background, one green gauge glowing) will make the character adopt a "damaged" animation. Smashing him onto the ground or hitting him with any energy-based Blast 2 / Ultimate Blast will let real signs of damage appear, as a completely new texture takes over. However, if the character somehow heals beyond that threshold (such as in Training Mode, with some ''real hard'' beatdown), he will stay in his torn clothes, only reverting back to his "healthy" stance.

* MultiSlotCharacter: The series does this very often, particularly 3, as when a character has multiple forms, the game uses the forms as seperate characters, resulting in choosing a Goku and having 7 different forms to choose to start with. ''3'' also splits some of the characters into time periods, meaning that, for example, you can play as Goku from the Saiyan arc, the Namek arc, or the Buu arc

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* LevelUp:
** If the player equips an attribute-enhancing Z Item to a character (such as +3 Health or so), and repeatedly fights with it, this item gains in efficiency as well. Since Goku is the one taking part of most (if not all) of the story mode battles, starting off with basic +1 enhancers will inevitably lead to a OneManArmy. The enhancement's [[CurbStompBattle consequences]] can be seen when replaying any early mission.
** The characters themselves are given a certain "level" which is the sum of their attributes, so any non-enhanced character will be at level 8, since there are 8 attributes at level 1. Each attribute can be raised to 20, making the level cap 160. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Enter level 255 CPUs]].

** Ditto in the Cell Saga, as he finds himself pitted against Perfect Cell for the Cell Games opener. This, however, is a TimeBasedMission, and the game explicitly requires you to stay alive until time runs out.

** In the story mode, Piccolo vs Raditz, Gohan and Krillin vs Dodoria, and Goten vs Gohan are battles that the player is supposed to lose, and if it's his first time playing those battles, likely ''will'' lose. Winning them is optional.
** However, in the Buu Saga, the player eventually controls, of all people, Hercule, against Android 18 in a World Tournament stage.
** Ditto in the Cell Saga, as he finds himself pitted against Semi-Perfect Cell for the Cell Games opener. This, however, is a Time-Based Mission, and the game explicitly requires you to stay alive until time runs out.

** If the player equips an attribute-enhancing Z Item to a character (such as +3 Health or so), and repeatedly fights with it, this item gains in efficiency as well. Since Goku is the one taking part of most (if not all) of the battles, starting off with basic +1 enhancers will inevitably lead to a OneManArmy. The enhancement's [[CurbStompBattle consequences]] can be seen when replaying any early mission.

** And, a first for the series, WhatIf characters. Specifically, Oozaru forms of Saiyan characters who never had one on-screen before (Raditz, Nappa and Turles)

** Ditto in the Cell Saga, as he finds himself pitted against Semi-Perfect Cell for the Cell Games opener. This, however, is a Time-Based Mission, and the game explicitly requests to stay alive until time runs out.

On March 5, 2023, a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W89YDOkaCfo teaser trailer]] was released that revealed a new installment for this series was in the works, more than ''[[SequelGap 15 years]]'' after the third game's release (13 if counting ''Tenkaichi Tag Team'').

On March 5, 2023, a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W89YDOkaCfo teaser trailer]] was released that revealed a new installment for this series was in the works, more than ''[[SequelGap 15 years]]'' after the third instalment's release.

* MovesetClone: A common cause of the game's lackluster reviews; all characters have the exact same gameplay that Budokai Tenkaichi has.

On March 5, 2023, a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W89YDOkaCfo teaser trailer]] was released that revealed a new installment for this series was in the works.

* PowerCreepPowerSeep: In these games, Kid Goku and Raditz can feasibly take on Majin Buu and Broly, and actually win. However, the games' balance generally does mostly reflect the canonical power level of the characters, so the aforementioned Kid Goku and Raditz are thoroughly outclassed by most other characters, while the likes of Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta and Omega Shenron have a significant advantage over the rest of the cast.
* PurposelyOverpowered: As mentioned in the prior entry, the canonical abilities of characters were generally reflected in the games' balance, so the series' strongest characters were made the strongest characters in this game, and some PopularityPower was in play too (for example, Frieza was made much stronger in this game than he canonically was at the time of the first three games' release). This was toned down some in ''Budokai Tenkaichi 3'' though still very much present, and said game would also introduce the "DP Battle" mode in an attempt to balance this, where each player has 15 "Destruction Points" to construct their team with, while each character costs differing amounts of DP depending on how strong the devs intended them to be (for example, Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta costs the max amount of 10 DP, whereas [[JokeCharacter Hercule]] costs only 1 DP).

* PowerCreepPowerSeep: In these games, Kid Goku and Raditz can take on Majin Buu and Broly on relatively even footing.

* AdaptedOut: Zig-zagged. ''Bio-Broly'' is decidedly not included in the story modes of the games. Including 3 where the story mode has all the sagas and movies ''but'' that film. On the other hand, ''World's Strongest'' wasn't included in 2, but appeared in 3.

On March 5, 2023, a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W89YDOkaCfo teaser trailer]] was released that heavily hinted towards a new installment for this series.

Gameplay in this series is focused on freeform movement, literally being able to go wherever the player wanted; take cover and power up or fly right into the opponent's face, it's all your call. There were also destroyable enviroments for the players to knock each other into (or destroy on their own), which may also contain the Dragon balls. (In versus, it's health, ki, and favorite gauge restoratives from [=BT2=] onward.)

* AwesomeButImpractical: Base Form Goku's Spirit Bomb Ultimate is one of the most powerful attacks in the game, as not only is it unblockable, but you can use the "Please Share Your Energy With Me!" Blast 1 to amplify its damage up to three times. However, you are required to use said Blast 1 at least once in order to use the attack, meaning you need to spend somewhere between 3 to '''7''' Blast Stocks (the Blast 1 takes 2 Blast Stock charges to use every time, and 1 Blast Stock is required to enter MAX Power mode). Keep in mind, you can still ''miss'' the attack even with all that hard work. You're better off using Goku's BoringButImpractical combos or going Super Saiyan onwards to use their not as powerful, but still easier to use Ultimate Attacks.

** Rush-based Finishing Moves have infinite range, as opposed to later titles where characters would only dash a certain distance before stopping.
** Goku has to be in Kaioken mode to use the Kaioken Attack