Line #25 VideoGame/DragonBallZBudokaiTenkaichi


1	[[quoteright:256:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Dragon_Ball_Z_Budokai_Tenkaichi_1520.jpg]]
2	The fighting video game series, known as ''Dragon Ball Z: Sparking!'' in Japan, based upon the popular {{shonen}} [[Franchise/DragonBall manga series]].
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4	Unlike the ''[[VideoGame/DragonBallZBudokai Budokai]]'' series, which was developed by Creator/{{Dimps}}, this series was developed by Creator/{{Spike\|Chunsoft}}. While the first game was released exclusively on the Platform/PlayStation2, the second and third titles would get ports to the Platform/{{Wii}}.
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6	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 environments 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.)
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8	On March 5, 2023, a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W89YDOkaCfo teaser trailer]] was released that revealed a new installment for this series -- ''Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO'' -- was in the works for the Platform/PlayStation5, Platform/XboxSeriesXAndS, and PC, more than ''[[SequelGap 15-16 years]]'' after the third game's release (13 if counting ''Tenkaichi Tag Team''). The new installment promises a "historic" amount of playable characters, including from ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', and also the first game in the franchise to use MediaNotes/UnrealEngine 5.
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10	[[foldercontrol]]
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12	[[folder:Tropes present in multiple games, and/or the series as a whole]]
13	* 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''. The movie ''Dead Zone'' was also never included in any of the story modes, but the Garlic Jr. Saga is included in both ''2'' and ''3'', and bring up the events from ''Dead Zone''.
14	* AlternativeForeignThemeSong:
15	** ''Sparking!'' and ''Sparking! Neo'' uses "We Gotta Power!" and "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" as their intro themes, where as in ''Tenkaichi 1'' has an all new original song made for the game, and ''2'' having "Gatebreaker" as its main theme. Averted in ''Tenkaichi 3'', in which all versions uses "Super Survivor", though the English version got a guitar instrumental version of it instead.
16	* ArtificialStupidity: The AI will actually dash into beams and keep edging on opponents despite their gearing up for an attack...among other things.
17	* AwesomeButImpractical: The Kamehameha and other charge type beams look great and do a lot of damage...but they take so long to charge that a character can easily dodge them with simple liberal use of the control stick.
18	** [[AvertedTrope Sometimes though]], this can be circumvented by hitting the opponent with a Heavy Smash, thus stunning them for a few seconds, giving you plenty of time to charge it up to near-full power.
19	* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: In the Space stage, every character can fight on it regardless of whether or not they canonically have the ability to survive a vacuum.
20	* TheBattleDidntCount: The first two games' story modes have [[NoCampaignForTheWicked the player always controlling the good guys]] (minus one specific battle in the Frieza Saga's WhatIf story), even in battles they canonically lose in. The third game would avert this by having them play as whoever is supposed to win.
21	* BattleIntro: Plenty of specific match-ups have their own dialogue, most of them reciting their lines from the anime.
22	* BerserkButton: Broly can go into MAX Power just by saying Goku's (original Saiyan) name.
23	* BoringButPractical:
24	** The explosive wave is the most common Blast 1 attack in the game, but it's a very effective and cheap defensive move when pressured.
25	** Full Power Energy Wave. It's just a laser and half the cast shares the move, but it's quick, strong, and efficient.
26	* CallingYourAttacks: Since this is Franchise/DragonBall, this is to be expected. Interestingly, though, this is [[InvertedTrope inverted]] a lot of the time; many of the attacks are named after a phrase the character says.
27	* CharacterCustomization: All the games allow you to tweak the stats of existing characters.
28	* CastFromHitPoints:
29	** Ginyu's Self-Harm Blast 1 [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin does exactly that]], but at least you get a modest boost to your stats for a little bit.
30	** Tenshinhan's Ultimate Blast eats up a portion of his health at each launched blast, since the attack can be used as many times in a row as wanted.
31	** Janemba's transformation into Super Janemba is the only transformation in the game that takes up a certain amount of health upon activation, taking 25% of Janemba's current health.
32	* ChargedAttack: Rush attacks and Ki blasts. some Blast 2 attacks can do this in ''Tenkaichi 2 and 3''.
33	* ClippedWingAngel: Certain transformations (mostly Oozarus) tend to be worse than their preceding forms.
34	* ComboBreaker: The series has a lot of variations, but uses up Ki and the opponent can counter ''your'' counter attack, to having a BeehiveBarrier sort of shield appear with a secondary ManaMeter that's ''not'' the Ki Gauge, but the delay is longer than the opponents recovery time, so you can't start a combo with it, and an easily executable knockback wave CastFromHitPoints that gives a fair chance to fight back and start a combo.
35	* CurbStompBattle: Players get a unique KO screen (with text that says "[[FlawlessVictory PERFECT!]]" overlaid over the screen) if they manage to defeat an enemy without taking any damage at all.
36	* DivergentCharacterEvolution: As entries of the games have been released, character animations have become more distinct and each blast attack are given a unique name or animation for a specific character that is based heavily on the anime scenes.
37	** Raditz, for example, has a Gekiretsu Madan variant and his Rush Attack is little more than juggling the opponent in ''2''. ''3'' gives him a lone Energy Ball, and a new version of his Rush Attack where he attacks the opponent from behind.
38	** Vegeta (Scouter) and Android Saga!Vegeta are also good examples of this as in the first game, they have completely identical movesets and Blasts to the point that without the scouter, one wouldn't even know who they are playing with. But by the second game, Vegeta (Scouter) received distinct Blast attacks (Such as Final Garlic Cannon and Dirty Fireworks) and both have their own transformations, making for an easier differentiation between them.
39	* DubNameChange: Dragon Ball in general goes through this a lot but some attack names are treated differently from each other where some characters who share the same attack may say the Japanese name instead. A few attacks get a literal translation rather than use their localized names while others go untranslated.
40	** Tien's Tri-Beam attack is written as "Ki Blast Cannon" despite announcing the attack as Tri-Beam. On the other hand, Neo Tri-Beam keeps its name.
41	** Chiaotzu's Ultimate is called "Farewell, Mr. Tien", despite Chiaotzu in the English dub never calling Tien by "Mister". This is because Chiaotzu calls Tien "Ten-san" in Japanese, the -san honorific being a respectful honorific similar to saying Mr., Miss. or Mrs.
42	** Solar Flare is pronounced differently between characters. Early! Goku, Tien and Krillin pronounce it as "Solar Flare" while base form GT Goku says "Taiyōken" instead.
43	** An obscure and slightly downplayed example with Dragon Fist. [=SSJ3=] Goku yells out "Dragon Fist" when using it, despite the dub using the name "Dragon Fire" in its debut in Movie 13. However, the GT anime calls the attack Dragon Fist and the change in name for [=SSJ3=] Goku is likely to keep consistency.
44	* EarthShatteringKaboom: Most characters, such as Broly, Cell, Majin Buu, and ''even'' base form Goku's supermove that would annihilate a stage that isn't the Tenkaichi tournament, Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and simply "Alien Planet", as their Ultimate Blasts will turn both Earth and Namek into a charred wreck. Cue a DistantReactionShot of either planet getting destroyed.
45	* EverythingBreaks: Fitting for the franchise the games are based on, casual battles will result in the arena breaking and shattering if you so much as dash in a single direction for too long, with certain Ultimate Blasts being able to TrashTheSet effortlessly. ''Sparking! ZERO'' takes this to its natural extreme thanks to next-gen hardware, with ''every'' environmental set pieces from rock formations to the ''wind'' reacting to you and your opponent's battle in real time.
46	* FinishingMove: Ultimate Blast attacks.
47	* ForeignReScore: The Japanese ''Sparking!'' trilogy re-uses the Shunsuke Kikuchi's anime soundtrack whereas the North American and PAL releases has Kenji Yamamoto (''Tenkaichi 1'', though it just reuses some tracks from the ''Budokai'' series), Takanori Arima (''Tenkaichi 2''), and Toshiyuki Kishi (''Tenkaichi 3'') handling the games' soundtracks.
48	* GiantEqualsInvincible: Downplayed. While giant combatants can still be defeated by smaller ones, they don't flinch against normal attacks and can't be harmed by (most) combo specials[[note]]There are a few exceptions. some rushes have a "piercing" effect and let them hit giant characters". Some examples include every variation of Dragon Fist, and Tapion and Yajirobe's Ultimate Blast swords slices. In a case of ShownTheirWork, these attacks were used on giant characters InUniverse, usually in iconic scenes.[[/note]]. [[BeamSpam Attacking with Ki-based attacks, on the other hand]]...
49	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Zig-zagged. Fighters can deflect charged ki blasts and send them right back to their creator, but the latter may not fall for it and deflect the blast that was sent back out of their way.
50	* JokeCharacter:
51	** Most of the characters from the original ''Dragon Ball'' cannot fly, have lower health, and have weaker supers. Some of them lack ki blasts at all, having them replaced with a charged strong punch.
52	** Hercule shares all of the weaknesses described above (although he throws rocks instead of a charged punch) with the additional weakness of being unable to flinch ''anyone'' with his uncharged punches. He is also completely useless against even the weakest of giant characters.
53	** Videl is a more downplayed version, but her ki blasts are almost completely useless -- even when charged -- and she only has rush specials that do low damage. And like her father, she is completely useless against even the weakest of giant characters.
54	* KamehameHadouken: It comes with the territory. A large percentage of characters have one, even if it's only the generically named "Full Power Energy Wave".
55	* KiManipulation: Comes with the territory. Most Blast 2 and Ultimate Blasts are these.
56	* LethalJokeCharacter:
57	** In spite of Hercule's flaws, he does have the advantage of having a near perfect counter in his "Present Bomb" technique: any character in range will automatically pick it up, even if they are attacking. This even stops rush moves in their tracks. A good player can strategically use this along with his somewhat fast charging speed to NoSell an opponent's strategy.
58	** Videl may have really weak attacks, but she charges super fast and her rushes come out near instantly. By the time her foe has come out of hitstun, she can usually use another.
59	* LimitBreak: MAX POWER mode.
60	* MarketBasedTitle: What was referred to as the ''Sparking!'' series in Japan was changed to ''Budokai Tenkaichi'' internationally. ''Tenkaichi Tag Team'' still kept the branding despite the game being originally called ''TAG VS'' in Japan. The [[DitchingTheDubNames fourth mainline console game drops this completely]], as it's referred to as ''Sparking! ZERO'' worldwide (though the ''Budokai Tenkaichi'' name is still referenced for marketing purposes).
61	* MechanicallyUnusualClass:
62	** Meta-Cooler and Androids, with the exception of Cell, cannot charge Ki traditionally, and have to wait until the gauge fills up on its own to charge their LimitBreak. Gero and Android 19 function slightly differently from other Androids, in that their gauge stops filling after a certain point, forcing them to either steal energy from their opponent by grabbing them, or absorb ki attacks thrown by their opponent (including specials). In addition, they are all immune to the "Drain Life" attack used by Androids 19 and 20 as well as Cell, and they cannot be sensed by Ki or Scouter.
63	** Many of the human level characters, such as Mr. Satan, Nam, Tao Pai Pai, or Kid Goku, lack the ability to fly, instead trying to stay in the air, and a few introduced in ''3'' even lack Ki attacks, instead having a chargeable stun attack, along with [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the characters having no aura]]. ''3'''s character customization allows you to circumvent the inability to fly by equipping a "Flight" Potara, as well as adding an aura.
64	* MovesetClone: Zigzagged. A number of the Oozaru/Great Ape characters are copies of each other, sharing a lot of abilities, namely rock throwing or mouth blasts. Fasha, Scouter!Vegeta, King Vegeta, and Baby Vegeta though, have their own distinct specials and moves. In Baby Vegeta's case, [[LightningBruiser he's also much faster than the other Oozaru characters]], on top of sharing the super armor and sheer power the other characters do.
65	** Base Gotenks's plays this trope completely straight where his two special attacks ''and'' his ultimate are identical to Kid Trunks, having Full Power Energy Wave and High Speed Rush with Big Tree Cannon as his ultimate (although the ultimate is shared with Super Saiyan Kid Trunks rather than his base form).
66	** Adult Gohan's moveset between Base Form, Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan 2 are all almost identical in ''Budokai Tenkaichi 3''. They all share the Explosive Madan (Super Saiyan 2 Gohan has "Super Explosive Madan" instead) and a similar Full Power Energy Blast Volley ("Full Power Energy Blast Wave" instead for Super Saiyan 2 Gohan) attack while base form and Super Saiyan 2 form both have Super Kamehameha as their ultimate attack. Even one of their Blast 1 slots are shared where both SSJ forms have "Explosive Wave".
67	** Evil Buu and Majin/Fat Buu have identical Blast 2 attacks in ''Budokai Tenkaichi 3''. Their only difference in Blasts are Majin/Fat Buu having "Sleep" and Evil Buu having "Mystic Breath" instead while their ultimates only differ in name as Majin/Fat Buu has the uniquely named "Angry Explosion" and Evil Buu has "Super Explosive Wave" instead. This can be justified as Evil Buu did not have any battles where he displayed any powers unique to himself aside from his "Mystic Breath" attack.
68	** Some attacks have different names but have similar, if not, identical appearances. Android 17's "Photon Flash" SSJ Vegeta's "Maximum Flasher" and Majin Vegeta's "Final Impact" are very similar to each other and both resemble the "Full Power Energy Wave" attack.
69	** Because of the ever-increasing character roster, a lot of characters included had little to no battles which means there will be a lot of generic attacks shared among the cast which includes:
70	*** Super Energy Wave Volley.
71	*** Full Power Energy Blast Volley.
72	*** Super Explosive Wave.
73	*** Full Power Energy Wave.
74	*** Full Power Energy Ball.
75	*** Energy Wave.
76	*** High Speed Rush.
77	*** Chou Makouhou, Chou Makouhou Barrage and Gigant Rock Throw for almost all the Oozaru/Great Ape characters.
78	*** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] but Kamehameha and its Super Kamehameha variant counts as this too. Being a ''Dragon Ball'' game, this is very [[JustifiedTrope justified]].
79	* 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 Saga, the Frieza Saga, or the Android and Majin Buu Sagas. Each version and form has their own moveset. Because of this, ''3'' has 161 playable characters with them being some variants or being composed of a familiar character based on a specific period in the source material.
80	** In ''3'', Goku has five different playable versions of himself (not counting transformations), separated into Early, Middle, End from the ''Z''-era as distinct characters, Kid Goku from the original ''Dragon Ball'', and the GT-version of Goku.
81	** Gohan likewise is split between Kid, Pre-Teen, and his Teenaged selves, along with his Ultimate transformation being a separate character. ''[=BT3=]'' would make his counterpart from Trunks' BadFuture a distinct playable character as well, complete with his own moveset.
82	** The first game in the series would combine Cell and Buu Saga Vegeta into one character slot, Vegeta would end up having five playable variants in ''2'' and ''3'': there's Scouter (his self from the Saiyan-Namek Sagas), Androids Saga Vegeta, Buu Saga Vegeta, [[DealWithTheDevil Majin Vegeta]], and finally Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta from ''GT''. There's also Vegeta from GT when he was possessed by the parasitic Tuffle, Baby Vegeta.
83	** Future Trunks is separated into two characters based on two periods in the Androids Saga; one where he fights with his Sword at the start of the arc, and the another is based on when he came out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and fights without his sword against Cell. ''Sparking! ZERO'' would also add his ''Super'' incarnation as he appeared during the Goku Black/Future Trunks Saga.
84	** Piccolo in ''[=BT3=]'' is represented by his Early and End forms, with the former encompassing his appearances in the Saiyan-Namek Saga and the latter during the Androids Saga after fusing with Kami.
85	** Both Frieza and Cooler in ''[=BT3=]'' are split into separate characters as both their normal selves and their cyborg forms after their near death experiences.
86	** All four variants of Buu are present in the series' roster, including Fat Majin Buu, Evil Buu, Super Buu, and Kid Buu.
87	* MythologyGag:
88	** ''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]].
89	** Furthermore, whenever using either Piccolo (Junior) or Supreme Kai in the World Tournament modes in any game, the VS splash screen will display their names as "Majunior" and "Shin" respectively, said names being the pseudonyms they went under during the tournament episodes they debuted in.
90	* NoSell: Individual game mechanics aside, skills such as Saiyan Soul and False Courage will increase defense to the point that this is invoked with the buffed character taking the damage dealt by the attacks but otherwise being completely unaffected until either the buff expires or a certain threshold of damage is reached, which makes the technique fail automatically.
91	* NotQuiteFlight: Certain characters, namely most of the ones from the original ''Dragon Ball'' cannot actually fly in ''2'', and instead struggle to stay in the air, and fall after a certain amount of time. ''3'' keeps this limitation, but features an item that can cancel it.
92	* OldSaveBonus: ''Budokai Tenkaichi 1'' had a password machine that allowed the player to use custom characters created in ''Budokai 3''. ''Budokai Tenkaichi 2'' rewarded players with a ''Budokai Tenkaichi 1'' save file on their memory card with 100000 Zenny, that game's (and the next one's) currency. The [=PS2=] version of ''Budokai Tenkachi 3 '' allowed players to access one specific mode from each of the first two games using the Disc Fusion feature.
93	* 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 roughly 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.
94	* PurposelyOverpowered: As mentioned in the prior entry, the canonical abilities of characters were roughly reflected in the games' balance, so the series' strongest characters were intentionally 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 somewhat 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).
95	* RecycledSoundtrack: The Japanese ''Sparking!'' version reuses the anime's Japanese score, rather than having the original composition that was used in the ''Tenkaichi'' international versions.
96	* ShowsDamage:
97	** Typically, the amount of dealt damage (and optionally, the combo meter) will show to the side of the character dealing the blows.
98	** 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.
99	** Budokai Tenkaichi 3 differs in two ways :
100	*** The threshold for entering "damaged" stance is 10000 HP. The clothing isn't affected, so a fighter can be thrown around, be struck by several blasts, or even die, and ''still'' have his clothing intact.
101	*** ''Rush'' Ultimate Blasts (such as Super Saiyan 3 and 4 Goku's Dragon Fist) will lead to the opponent adopting their damaged clothing. However, as pointed out, if their health is above 10000, they will still come back up [[SlapOnTheWristNuke as if they were just brought down to the ground]]. Energy-based Blast clashes (say, Galick Gun vs. Final Flash) will end up tearing the loser's clothes as well.
102	*** Common to the two games, as to express how dire the situation is for them, the characters will speak one-liners after the first time they are laid in the ground with their clothes damaged.
103	* ShownTheirWork: Even people who dislike the games admire the sheer amount of this put into each one of them to represent the franchise's long and winding history, including moves, references, and animations that call back to the source material.
104	* SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration: The games, especially ''Budokai Tenkaichi 3'' does a very good job of integrating the story with the gameplay seamlessly. The segregation parts is intentional in the "What-If Saga?" which is designed to be exactly that.
105	** Some minor segregation is base form Goku (Mid) having the Meteor Combination attack, despite being an attack that would be more fitting on Goku (Early) as the attack was only used in ''Dragon Ball'' when Goku fought Piccolo Jr.
106	** Another segregation is that Goku's battle against Raditz in the Saiyan Saga allows him to use the Kaioken-based attacks and Spirit Bomb, despite not knowing theses attacks at this point in the story.
107	* SwordBeam: Some sword-wielding fighters, i.e. Trunks and Yajirobe, have this as a basic charged ki blast or a Blast 2. They're [[UnblockableAttack unblockable]] by regular guarding.
108	* TakingYouWithMe: Chiaotzu, Saibamen, Majin Vegeta, Semi-Perfect Cell and Android 16's Ultimates involve them blowing themselves up. Only Vegeta can use his own "freely", as the others need to grab the opponent first.
109	* WaterIsAir: In-series we've had a couple of scenes with characters seemingly floating and even charging attacks underwater, so it makes more sense than you'd think at first.
110	* WeaksauceWeakness: For all their size, giant characters are just as vulnerable to beams as everyone else, and their large size leave them unable to dodge as effectively.
111	** They sorta make up for it by being immune to grab and rush attacks.
112	* WhatIf: All the games have this to some extent. In some, there are WhatIf battles, in others, whole WhatIf stories, but in all of them, you can get different scenes/quotes in story mode if you win fights under circumstances you're not supposed too.
113	[[/folder]]
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115	[[folder:''Budokai Tenkaichi 1'']]
116	* AdaptationalLocationChange: Gogeta's fight against Janemba happens in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber instead of Hell, mostly because the latter wasn't available in the game as a stage.
117	* ChunkyUpdraft: Appears around the character when they're charging their LimitBreak.
118	* DeliberateInjuryGambit: In the opening cinematic, Piccolo takes a painful-looking punch from Cell in the gut - then grabs his arm and smirks as Gohan hovers into view, charging a Kamehameha.
119	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Aside from the VideoGame3DLeap, there a a bunch of differences that made the first ''Tenkaichi'' game stand out as the experimental transition from ''Budokai's'' 2D roots:
120	** There are no team battles, which means there are also no mid-battle fusions.
121	** You can't transform mid-battle.
122	** You only have one health bar, as opposed to the ''Budokai'' games and future titles giving you at least two to start and expand upon.
123	** Rush-based Finishing Moves have infinite range, as opposed to later titles where characters would only dash a certain distance before stopping for some moves.
124	** Movie based Sagas only has one fight, and only four was adapted (''Anime/CoolersRevenge'', ''Anime/BojackUnbound'', ''Anime/BrolyTheLegendarySuperSaiyan'', and ''Anime/FusionReborn'').
125	** Cooler's pre-transformed state is unplayable.
126	** Goku doesn't turn Super Saiyan when fighting Final Form Cooler in the Z-Battle Gate, unintentionally creating a case where Goku becomes an AdaptationalBadass (or Cooler becomes an AdaptationalWimp, your call).
127	** GT sagas also had one fight, and only two was adapted (The Baby Saga and the Super 17 Saga. Despite [=SSJ4=] Gogeta being in the game, Omega Shenron was not, thus the Shadow Dragon Saga was excluded from the Z Battle Gate)
128	** Only in What-If sagas were you allowed to play as the villains.
129	** Certain characters that would've been logically obtained by playing the story mode were locked behind the Item Fusion menu. This included characters like Full Power Frieza and Super Vegito.
130	** You can infinitely spam the combo Ki Wave attack, allowing you to cheese through certain fights.
131	** 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 performing certain combo strings. Like the Ki Wave, this can also be infinitely spammed.
132	** You have to build up your combo in order to get a full charge attack, which varies depending on the character in question.
133	** You couldn't charge up moves like the Kamehameha or the Special Beam Cannon.
134	** Everyone could only carry 3 Blast Stocks max.
135	** Only Beam VS Beam and Rush VS Rush struggles were possible, as beam attacks could instantly pierce through any energy ball attacks. You were also granted MercyInvincibility when firing your energy attacks.
136	** Your Ki gauge wasn't split into five bars like in the later games.
137	** Having your charge interrupted when trying to enter MAX Power/Sparking mode would reset the blue MAX gauge back to 0, forcing you to charge it back up again.
138	** You have to enter an onscreen button combination to recover from an attack that sent you flying.
139	** You have to wish for Kid Goku, Master Roshi, General Tao, The Great Ape and Great Ape Vegeta (Scouter) using the Dragon Balls, unlike later games where you could unlock them by playing through the story mode or they are already available from the beginnng.
140	** You have to wish for the option to use Password characters. You're only allowed one password character (as opposed to later games giving you 10 slots worth of password characters) and the passwords has to come from ''Budokai 3''
141	** Scrolling through certain characters transformations reveals transformations that would eventually be split off into their own character slot, such as Majin and [=SSJ4=] Vegeta being listed under base Vegeta, and Mecha Frieza being listed under 1st Form Frieza.
142	** Not a single Ultimate Move is capable of destroying the arena.
143	** Dying Namek is not in the game.
144	** DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment was in effect, with Super Vegeta being labeled as Super Vegeta [Super Saiyan], same with Perfect Cell (Labeled as Perfect Cell [Perfect Form]) and [=SSJ4=] Gogeta (Labeled as Super Gogeta [Super Saiyan 4]). Later games would labeled them as simply Super Vegeta, Cell [Perfect] and Gogeta [Super Saiyan 4].
145	** The game randomly chose the battle music for you, unlike in previous games where songs were linked to certain stages/story battles, and in later games where you could freely choose which song to fight to. There is actually one song that is programmed to play when you recreate the original Dragon Ball fights (when you pick Kid Goku and fight against Master Roshi, for example). The song is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-fkqLh7Snc&list=PLp_nLDzWK5NWIv6_9AsMiHPMYhGRPXKdJ&index=19 Move Forward Fearlessly]].
146	** The English version of this game reused tracks from the ''Budokai'' games. ''2'' and ''3'' feature original soundtracks.
147	** Unlike in other games where the story mode is narrated by Creator/KyleHebert, the Z-Battle Gate in this game is narrated by Creator/SeanSchemmel using his King Kai voice.
148	** Some story matches required you to defeat the opponent with a specific attack or survive for a limited amount of time in order to progress to the next chapter. While ''Tenkaichi 2'' does have its share of survival missions, they were ''very'' few and far in-between compared to ''Tenkaichi 1'', and ''Tenkaichi 3'' ends up dropping mission requirements all together.
149	** In later games, most Energy-based Blast 2s were multi-hit attacks, and Rush Blast 2s has each individual hit counted and calculated to generate the total damage. Here, every Blast 2 counts as a singular hit, regardless of how long the attack lasts or how many strikes the fighter gets in during the animation, with only a vague damage indicator appearing at the end if it lands.
150	** Some characters doesn't have their most known moves or those are altered somehow:
151	*** Every "Power Rush" or "Speed Rush" move is visually the same for every character, with a few exceptions.
152	*** There are not techniques that involve third parties coming to help, so some moves like Teen Gohan's Father-Son Kamehameha (ft. Goku) or Gohan and Goten's Family Kamehameha aren't in the game, being replaced by just regular Super Kamehamehas. The closest to a third party in a movement would be Tien screaming "Chiaotzu!" in the latter's Ultimate Attack.
153	*** Goku has to be in Kaioken mode to use the Kaioken Attack.
154	*** The Dragon Fist is not in the game. Super Saiyan 3 Goku has a generic Super Kamehameha as his Ultimate Attack while this game marks the only time Super Saiyan 4 Goku's Kamehameha x10 was restricted to an Ultimate (it was also blue, instead of red).
155	*** Kid Gohan's signature Masenko is restricted as an Ultimate move.
156	*** Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta uses the Final Flash as an Ultimate Move instead of the Final Shine Attack.
157	*** Krillin's Destructo Disk consist in just two energy disks instead of the six he launches in latter games.
158	*** Tien's Ki Blast Cannon (which is actually a Tri-Beam) and Neo Tri-Beam are not only shown as Kamehameha-like blast attacks instead of the square shaped energy blasts they should look like, but they also don't consume Tien's health bar. Also you can't charge Neo Tri-Beam and launch multiple blasts, instead you can throw just one blast.
159	*** Super Saiyan Trunks (Fighter) has a Finish Buster as his Ultimate Attack instead of his Heat Dome Attack.
160	*** Bardock doesn't have his signature Final Revenger or Final Spirit Cannon attacks.
161	*** Janemba's Dimensional Sword Attack is just Dabura's Darkness Sword Attack.
162	* InconsistentDub: A variation in the sense that not every line was dubbed. Trunks' Japanese voice can be heard when launching his Finish Buster ultimate, [=SSJ4=] Goku speaks in Japanese after wining against [=SSJ4=] Vegeta, and Kid Buu is permanently locked to his Japanese voice outside of story mode.
163	* MightyGlacier: The two Oozaru characters. Without the advanced fighting combos of later games, they were all but invincible.
164	* RecycledSoundtrack: For the international release, the game lifts songs from the original ''Budokai'' trilogy.
165	* ThirdPersonPerson: Mr. Popo talks this way in the game, retaining his original speech pattern from the Japanese anime and manga. This is the only English media where it’s present.
166	* WhatIf: In this game:
167	** Galactic Tyrant: Frieza defeats Goku and goes on to knock Cooler down a few pegs
168	** The Ultimate Android: Cell beats Gohan and later fights Super 17
169	** The Destructive Majin: Buu destroys the world and later fights Janemba
170	** The Plan to Conquer Earth: The villains actually defeat the Z-fighters
171	** The Revenge of the Saiyans: The Saiyans rally together to kill Frieza.
172	* VictoryIsBoring: After killing everyone in his What-If scenario, Super Buu goes insane from having nobody left to fight or even talk to.
173	[[/folder]]
174
175	[[folder:''Budokai Tenkaichi 2'']]
176	* AdaptedOut: The ''Dragon Ball GT'' arcs in the story mode completely omit Pilaf turning Goku into a kid. Instead, Goku is either seen already transformed into Super Saiyan 4 or as an adult during each story mode. This includes [[AdaptationalAlternateEnding a completely revised final battle and ending of the Shadow Dragons arc]], where after Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta defuses, the final battle is [=SSJ4=] Goku and Vegeta teaming up to defeat Omega Shenron, cutting out GT Goku's Universal Spirit Bomb finish. In the cutscene that plays afterwards, Goku and Vegeta revert to base form, [[AssetActor represented by their Z-era models]], and go on to find their friends.
177	* AssetActor:
178	** This game's story mode has a segment that covers Future Trunks' past, adapted from ''Anime/DragonBallZTheHistoryOfTrunks'', with the first battle being Gohan training him. Since this game doesn't have a separate Future Gohan model and character slot, he is represented by the teenaged version of Gohan from the Buu Saga, which stands out since he has a different gi and hairstyle than the one Future Gohan has. When you play as Future Gohan against the Androids later in the story, he doesn't have access to his Buu-era forms like Great Saiyaman and Super Saiyan 2 on a first playthrough (they're unlocked while playing the story), but Super Saiyan 1 Gohan [[GameplayAndStorySegregation has access to the Brothers Kamehameha Ultimate Blast attack, which has Goten as his partner, who doesn't exist in the future and wouldn't appear until the Buu Saga]]. Not only that, if one is replaying the story, Gohan will be able to access the Great Saiyaman and Super Saiyan 2 transformations, which he logically shouldn't have either.
179	** Since this game doesn't have GT-era specific models for Goku and Vegeta (outside of Super Saiyan 4), the cutscene that plays after defeating Omega Shenron in the story mode reuses their normal Z-era models after they revert back to base form.
180	* 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 BoringButPractical combos or going Super Saiyan onwards to use their not as powerful, but still easier to use Ultimate Attacks.
181	* BadassBoast: Nearly half of the entrance and exit quotes, and the taunts.
182	* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: The last battle of Raditz's what-if story pits him against his father while he's losing consciousness.
183	* BerserkButton: In Raditz's WhatIf story, he flies into a rage and suddenly becomes a competent warrior when Piccolo calls him a weakling.
184	* CanonForeigner: Oozaru forms for Raditz, Nappa and Turles were created for this game.
185	* CharacterLevel:
186	** 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.
187	** 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]].
188	* ADayInTheLimelight:
189	** Raditz, a character who only appeared in the opening arc of the Saiyan Saga, gets to star in his own WhatIf story, where he loses his memory, becomes an AmnesiacHero, and even warns Goku about the oncoming Saiyan attack from Vegeta and Nappa.
190	** Zarbon, a character who only appeared in the beginning half of the Frieza Saga on Namek, gets his own WhatIf scenario where he successfully manages to scheme against Frieza, pit him and his brother against each other. [[spoiler:He even manages to claim the Dragon Balls for himself and get his wish of eternal youth, but this wish ends up being useless when Frieza discovers his treachery and almost dies fighting him. Zarbon then teams up with Goku to fight off Frieza, which does get him to back off. Unfortunately, due to Krillin using the Earth Dragon Balls to teleport Goku off of Namek, Zarbon is trapped on the planet, while Frieza and Cooler's battle escalates to the point where it is destroyed, Zarbon being killed in the process]].
191	* DevelopersForesight: After using Goku's "Please Share Your Energy With Me!" Blast 1 at least once, you can see the Spirit Bomb charging in the background if you manage to angle the camera just right mid-battle, and when using his Spirit Bomb Ultimate, Goku will always teleport to the place where it's being charged in order to fire it off.
192	* HeadsIWinTailsYouLose: A particular problem in [=BT2=]'s story mode where practically 75% of fights in Story mode more or less demanded a win, yet showed the "winning" character exhausted and whining about his unharmed opponent being too strong.
193	* HopelessBossFight:
194	** In the story mode, Piccolo vs Raditz, Gohan and Krillin vs Dodoria, and Goten vs Gohan are battles that the player are supposed to lose, and if it's the first time playing those battles, likely ''will'' lose. Winning them is optional, but the only way to unlock three WhatIf scenarios.
195	** {{Subverted\|Trope}} in the Buu Saga where the player controls [[JokeCharacter Hercule]] in a fight against Android 18 on the World Tournament stage. While 18 can indeed kill Hercule with just a few well-aimed Blast 2 attacks while even an upgraded Hercule will do the equivalent of ScratchDamage with his Blast 2s, the fight is ''intended'' to be won by throwing 18 [[RingOut out of bounds]], which can be done as easily as spamming Hercule's "King of Dynamite" Blast 2 to throw her past the ring edge. He gets to repeat himself against her and later Krillin in the WhatIf scenario "Destined Rivals".
196	** Subverted in the Cell Saga, he finds himself pitted against Perfect Cell for the Cell Games opener. This, however, is a TimedMission, and the game explicitly requires you to stay alive until time runs out.
197	* LetsYouAndHimFight: A double subversion occurs, as Zarbon manages to set Frieza and Cooler against each other in his what-if story. Later on, Frieza finds out about Zarbon manipulating the events and confronts him, only for a mook to appear and inform him that Cooler has arrived, forcing Frieza to go face his brother.
198	* LightningBruiser: Oozaru Baby and Broly.
199	* LuminescentBlush: 18 sports one of these if you win in Tournament Mode.
200	* PracticalTaunt: several items provide various bonuses if the player taunts the opponent in the appropriate conditions.
201	* RegionalBonus: The PAL and Japanese Wii ports got 5 extra characters (Appule, a Frieza Soldier, King Piccolo, Pilaf and Cyborg Tao).
202	* SlapOnTheWristNuke: This game went the most overboard with the planet-frying attacks. ''3'' toned it back down slightly.
203	* TauntButton: Pressing L1 and up allows the character to taunt their opponent. Their AwesomeButImpractical aspect can be removed by equipping a Z item that makes them useful.
204	* TookALevelInKindness: by the end of the Raditz What-if story, he spares Goku's life despite having the chance to kill him. Lampshaded by Piccolo, saying that Raditz "became soft".
205	* WhatIf: Three stories, unlocked by winning otherwise [[HopelessBossFight unwinnable fights]].
206	** What if Raditz lost his memory when coming to Earth, like Goku did?
207	** What if Zarbon betrayed Frieza and wanted the Dragon Balls for himself?
208	** What if Goku and Vegeta focused on their rivalry instead of fighting Majin Buu?
209	** And, a first for the series, What if characters. Specifically, Oozaru forms of Saiyan characters who never had one on-screen before (e.g. Raditz, Nappa and Turles).
210	* YouCantThwartStageOne: Averted in the What If story "Destined Rivals". With Gohan and Videl dropping out of the tournament early on, Dabura and Babadi don't have the energy needed to properly jumpstart Majin Buu's revival, giving Piccolo and Shin enough time to take them down... and Goku and Vegeta to blow them up to kingdom come.
211	[[/folder]]
212
213	[[folder:''Budokai Tenkaichi 3'']]
214	* AdaptedOut: ''Bio-Broly'' is the only serial movie excluded from the game.
215	* BossAlteringConsequence: ''Tenkaichi 3''[='=]s Dragon History single-player campaign has its story events laid out to replicate the original source material as faithfully as it can be, with certain events being triggered by button prompts (either allowing a new character to switch in, has the character transforming, etc.). If a player defeats an opponent during a certain phase of the fight by fulfilling a specific condition, this can sometimes result in a new final opponent of the chapter:
216	** During the first battle of the Frieza Saga, "Super Saiyan?!" the player is expected to defeat Recoome, Jeice, and Burter in a row as Goku. If the player lets the fight between Goku and Recoome drag out, eventually a prompt will appear, where pressing it will cause Nail to show up. This will result in a SequentialBoss fight where Nail fights Recoome followed by Jeice, though unlike some of the other optional encounters, Nail's health doesn't recover between the two fights.
217	** During the "Cell Games Begin" chapter, if the player loses the prompted fist clash as Goku and gets hit with the following Kamehameha from Cell, when Goku is switched out, Hercule will appear first, allowing the player the chance to win the chapter as him. Downplayed as if the player loses as Hercule, Gohan will be swapped in like nothing happened, only providing an optional dialogue and ending.
218	** During the Buu Saga chapter "Destined Battle," Goku fights Majin Vegeta, if no prompts are triggered during the fight and the player beats Majin Vegeta, the Dabura will come out and fight Goku.
219	** If Majin Buu is defeated by Majin Vegeta during his playable segment in "Farewell, Proud Warrior" and the player only triggers the first event, Babidi will appear as the final opponent.
220	** During "Blaze! Unstoppable Battle", the chapter where Goku fights Legendary Super Saiyan Broly, if the player drags the fight out until Goku's health gets low enough, a button event will appear that switches Goku out for Master Roshi.
221	** During the Dragon Ball GT Saga chapter "Immortal Monster," if the player fights Super Baby 2 as Super Saiyan 4 GT Goku and drag out the fight until a character switch prompt appears, switching out Goku for Pan.
222	** During the Dragon Ball Saga chapter "Goku Strikes Back!", if the player activates the first prompt and beats Demon King Piccolo without activating the second, Tambourine will be the final opponent of the chapter, and you'll have to fight him as Kid Chi-Chi.
223	* CharacterCustomization: ''Tenkaichi 3'' lets you equip 'Strategy' items, that cause AIs of your custom characters to fight a certain way, such as focusing on defense, or focusing on using blast attacks from a distance.
224	* ComebackMechanic: Some Z-Items raise specific attributes starting from when the character takes 10 000 HP in damage. The more he's damaged, the more the buff is effective. Each attribute (attack, speed, defense, ki) benefits of one item, and they only take up a slot out of a maximum of 7 each, so they can easily be assembled together.
225	* CompositeCharacter:
226	** Android 8 is based primarily on his incarnation from the original ''Dragon Ball'', but some of his moves appear to be taken from ''[[Anime/DragonBallThePathToPower The Path To Power]]'', and one of his alternate outfits uses the film's blue and orange coloration.
227	** Android 17 can wear the jacket from his Hell Fighter 17 incarnation, but for gameplay purposes, he's treated as just regular 17.
228	* DecompositeCharacter:
229	** Goku, after having his entire range of abilities for the first two games, even ones he eventually just stopped using, has been split into "Early", "Middle", and "End", which all have abilities and transformations he'd have had at the time (Saiyan Saga, Namek Saga, and Cell-Buu Saga, respectively).
230	** [[AssetActor Buu Saga Gohan was used to represent Future Gohan]] in ''2''. ''3'' has Future Gohan proper as an unlockable character with a more distinct moveset.
231	* DevelopersForesight: All of the fights featured in the Dragon History single-player campaign can be beaten by any of the characters that appear in the chapter, which will result in [[EasterEgg unique ending dialogues and cutscenes]]. This can result in things like Tien or Chiaotzu beating Nappa during the Saiyan Saga instead of them being killed so Goku can take their place.
232	* EasterEgg: All chapters in Dragon History can be beaten in different ways without needing to follow the railroaded or pre-scripted events that can be triggered by certain prompts. While this can result in revised dialogue to reflect the character that beat the opponent, sometimes it can result in a different final opponent for the chapter (see BossAlteringConsequence).
233	* FountainOfYouth: Invoked if you pit GT Goku against Chi-Chi: Goku will wonder if his wife "got smaller" too. Chi-Chi acting much more similar to her adult self by calling Goku a troublemaker seems to confirm it.
234	* GameMod: ''Tenkaichi 3'' has a very active modding community, including fan-made characters and transformations as well as adapting future sagas such as the Battle of Gods and Universal Survival Sagas.
235	* GameplayAndStoryIntegration:
236	** In the original series, Devil Man's Devilmite Beam only works if there are negative thoughts in the target's mind. In the game, it deals damage, but it depends on the character: the more evil they are, the higher the damage dealt. If the target happens to be [[IncorruptiblePurePureness pure of heart]], [[NoSell nothing happens]].[[note]]The production staff really went into depth on this one - if a good or good-ish character has multiple forms, each form has a different amount assigned to it. For example: Normal Goku won't take damage, but Super Saiyan Goku will, likely because he goes from pure of heart to fight-happy. Muten Roshi (pervert) will take more damage than Buff Muten Roshi (desires suppressed), who will take token damage.[[/note]]
237	** While you can't otherwise make a team full of the same character, you can make full teams of Saibamen, Cell Juniors, and Meta-Coolers, which reflect the former two's [[{{Mook}} expendable status]] in canon, and the latter's [[WeHaveReserves abilities derived from the Big Gete Star]].
238	** A character with an Oozaru transformation that never demonstrated the ability to create an artificial moon needs to be playing on a night variant of a stage (which all have the full moon visible) to transform.
239	* GuestFighter: Arale Norimaki from ''Manga/DoctorSlump'', Akira Toriyama's hit comedy manga before ''Dragon Ball''.
240	* IdleAnimation: Each character can only enter this animation once, which doubles as a taunt. In other words, if the character is idle long enough, they will taunt.
241	* LuckBasedMission: Completing a Tournament in World Tour Mode (where the tournament chosen cycles through 5 types depending on the in-game time) can net you different prizes like extra characters or arenas depending on the difficulty you beat it on. However, the difficulty is chosen for you at complete random, so you have to constantly shift the time forward until you get to the tournament you want and ''maybe'' the difficulty you want as well.
242	** Yamcha's Game is a less-complicated example, as the game randomly chooses the character for you. [[LampshadeHanging Even Hercule notes how dumb this is]].
243	--->'''Hercule:''' It looks like the character used will be randomly selected. That's stupid.
244	* MarathonLevel: Survival Mode, which contrary to most usages of modes named that, ends after fifty opponents. Of course, that's fifty opponents in a game where the most you can have in any other mode is five.
245	* MoralityGuidedAttack: The Devilmite Beam, which will not hurt Kid Goku at all but can ''one-shot'' BigBad-level villains.
246	* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Averted. In the story mode, you play as whatever character is supposed to win that fight, this includes Frieza, Broly, and others.
247	* NoSell:
248	** Certain characters will have weak energy blasts bounce off by being in MAX power.
249	** A Red Potara makes it so the most powerful Kamehameha from the most powerful characters in MAX power mode will only do two digits in damage. ''In a game where a health bar is 10,000 points.''
250	** Perfect Guard does this to anything that is blockable.
251	** This is the effect of the Devilmite Beam on someone purehearted like [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Goku]].
252	* PurposelyOverpowered: Red Potara CPU characters that require secret passwords to unlock. Needless to say, they can become quite the SNKBoss if you decide to fight against them. They all have the following Yellow Potara abilities:
253	** Health +30000
254	** All stats +3
255	** Sturdy Body (won't be easily stunned)
256	** Will also easily stun opponents
257	** Guard Crushes remove a huge amount of Ki
258	** Also, can't be Guard Crushed
259	** Health and Ki are slowly recovered
260	** Ki charges ultra fast
261	** All 4 power ups
262	** Vanish Attack/Dragon Homing +2
263	** Blast 1 costs -1
264	** Blast 2/UB/Ki Blasts costs half
265	** Various movements will cost no Ki at all (Dragon Dashes, for instance)
266	** Movements whose costs aren't nullified will only cost half Ki
267	** Auto Afterimage while in Max Power
268	** Takes no damage while guarding
269	** Gains huge advantage in Clashes
270	** Dodging a barrage type Blast once makes the character dodge the rest automatically.
271	** And probably the most overpowered ability of them all, the ability to finish an opponent off with a [[OneHitKO single Blast 2 attack]], dealing 99 999 damage.
272	* ShoutOut: The plot of the WhatIf chapter "Affectionate Android," starring Androids 8 and 16 is very similar to the plot of ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' -- an evil army/scientist (Dr. Gero/Skynet) sends a robot (Android 16/The T-1000) back in time to kill the younger form of a hero (Goku/John Connor), but another robot (Android 8/T-800) protects him. Only difference is that 16 undergoes a HeelFaceTurn and survives.
273	* ShownTheirWork: ''Budokai Tenkaichi 3'' has many hidden details and mechanics in the game to make it as lore accurate as possible. Standout features include Devil Man's Devilmite Beam (which deals damage based on how evil a character is) having different damage outputs for each character where the team went above and beyond. While Goku is canonically unaffected as expected, characters like King Piccolo and Janemba take the most damage, Super Saiyan forms of characters take more damage than their base forms (including Goku) while characters like Goten, Chi-Chi and Arale take no damage. An interesting exception to the Super Saiyan rule is Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta who takes less damage than all the Vegeta forms except base Buu Saga Vegeta.
274	** While a lot of characters are a MovesetClone to each other, other characters have completely original moves. Examples are a lot of Future Trunks' Sword special attacks in his base form and Super Vegito's Final Kamehameha.
275	* SituationalDamageAttack: While most attacks are either fixed or charged, the damage of Babidi's [[LimitBreak Ultimate Blast]] depends on [[LiquidAssets the amount of successful grabs beforehand]], and Devilman's depends on the CharacterAlignment of the opponent -- if they're more evil, they take more damage. Hercule's Dynamic Mess Up Punch will randomly either do 5000 or 1 damage.[[invoked]]
276	* UniquenessRule: The only multiples of a character that you can put on the same team are characters that there are canonically more than one of, such as Cell Jr.
277	* TheVoiceless: An unintentional example. On the Japanese voice track, Super Saiyan 3 GT Goku speaks just fine in battle, but in the English dub, his voice clips are noticeably absent. He's the only character in the game to suffer from this glitch.
278	* WeHaveReserves: In his movie, Meta-Cooler is mass-produced by the Big Gete Star. As such, he's one of the few characters that can be picked repeatably in Team Battle.
279	* WhatIf: Four battle scenarios are unlocked in a separate story campaign, hosted by the Supreme Kai. Other smaller what-if scenarios can be encountered in the Dragon History mode by fulfilling certain conditions.
280	** What if Goku and Arale had a friendly match?
281	** What if Dr. Gero sent Android 16 back in time to kill Kid Goku?
282	** What if Bardock actually managed to rally a Saiyan resistance against Frieza?
283	** What if Devilman confronted Mecha Frieza's crew when they invaded Earth at the beginning of the Android Saga?
284	[[/folder]]
285
286	[[folder:''Tenkaichi Tag Team'']]
287	* BashBrothers: While you can have classic 1-on-1 battles no problem, the entire game is built off of this, as you and your ally can use combination attacks to extend combos and power up your own Super Attacks.
288	* GaidenGame: ''Tenkaichi Tag Team'' doesn't get referred to a lot from the developers or publishers, and even the marketing descriptions for the upcoming ''Sparking! ZERO'' skips over this game's existence entirely despite being part of the ''Tenkaichi'' series.
289	* MovesetClone: A common cause of the game's lackluster reviews; all characters have the exact same gameplay that ''Budokai Tenkaichi'' has.
290	* PressXToNotDie: Some Ultimate Attacks will have a clash meter where you have to mash the circle button as much as possible in order to reduce oncoming damage if you're on the receiving end.
291	* WordSequel: WordOfGod said that every fourth game will have a different title from the others, which may have resulted in fans not accepting it as part of the series.
292	[[/folder]]
293
294	[[folder:''Sparking! ZERO'']]
295	* ActionizedSequel: Even though the foundations are built on top of what ''Tenkaichi 3'' brought to the series, the developers sought to increase it even more with much more dynamic and destructible environments and attacks, movement speed has been greatly increased with additional mobility and offensive[=/=]defensive options, and the Blast Stock gauge (now called "Skill Count") refills at a ''much'' faster rate compared to previous entries.
296	* AttackReflector: The series has always had the ability to deflect basic ki blasts, but ''Sparking! Zero'' brings over from the ''Raging Blast'' series the ability to reflect super attacks as "Super Perception".
297	* BrawlerLock: Super Saiyan Kale (Berserk) and Super Saiyan Broly (Full Power) have a special intro where they grip each other's hands and try to overpower one another through sheer force.
298	* BreakingOldTrends:
299	** This is the first of the series to release with its Japanese name in the west, ''Sparking!'', as the game is called ''Sparking! Zero'' globally. Likewise, it's also the first to not be called ''Dragon Ball Z''.
300	** Blast Struggles no longer require you to rapidly spin any control sticks or mash any attack button, instead taking cues from ''Budokai 3'' where you have to time button presses with a constantly filling gauge in order to boost your strength.
301	* CelShading: The first entry in the series to incorporate this style, taking cues from ''VideoGame/DragonballFighterz''.
302	* DitchingTheDubNames: This is the first game in the ''Sparking!'' series to use the name worldwide, dropping the ''Budokai Tenkaichi'' [[MarketBasedTitle market-based subtitle]]. This led to some confusion amongst fans, though the trailers and marketing still refer to it as a ''Budokai Tenkaichi'' game.
303	* ExpyCoexistence: The Speed vs. Power trailer show Kale and Broly as part of the game's roster, with Kale being a genderflipped expy of the latter (albeit, more based on the original ''Z''-era Broly rather than the canonical ''Super'' Broly). The two have a special intro together, where they both try to overpower one another in a BrawlerLock.
304	* MythologyGag: Goku's transformation into Super Saiyan Blue and Vegeta's transformation to Super Saiyan God are modeled after their same sequences from ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly''. Similarly, one of Goku's pre-fight animations is him bouncing on his feet before taking a stance from the same film.
305	* WordSequel: Averted for the Japanese titles, as the ''Sparking!'' series always had words to indicate it being a sequel, while the English titles play this straight, as they were numbered, though the subtitle is incidentally a number, zero. The choice to use ''Sparking! ZERO'' as the subtitle, [[https://www.ign.com/articles/dragon-ball-sparking-zero-producer-says-game-will-have-budokai-tenkaichis-spirit-nostalgia according to the game's producer Jun Furutani]], was less to indicate this game being a sequel, but being a JumpingOnPoint for newcomers.
306	[[/folder]]

Context VideoGame / DragonBallZBudokaiTenkaichi