The first thing you might notice is that I have a double title for this game. Budokai 4 and Budokai Ultimate. These are two titles that I suggested for this game depending on how you want to take it. If it's simply the next game in the series before more come, you can call it Budokai 4. If you want to call it a true extension of the formula and a final hoorah to the series, Budokai Ultimate gets across that this is the last and greatest in the series, for better or worse.
Now Budokai 4 is a bit different from previous games that I've done this for. Jak 4 and Ninja Gaiden 4 were different Genres, true, but both of them shared enough elements that a lot of what could be said overlapped a bit, making the process easier. Budokai 4, however, is a different beast entirely. So, let's take a look at some of the questions I have to answer.
- How many characters will it have?
- How will the gameplay function?
- What will change from previous entries?
- What dub cast should be used?
- What about art style?
- Costumes?
- How should the story mode be built?
- What new stuff should we add?
- How much of it should be what-ifs?
- What about character customization?
These are all questions that I'm going to have to tackle because we're dealing with a licensed game, a Dragon Ball game at that. So, let's tackle these in order:
How many characters will it have?
This question is a bit trickier than you might initially think. Many who play fighting games for balance might tell you to have a smaller roster of characters to avoid the game breaking to any degree. However, many who play Dragon Ball fighting games do so to play as their favorites. While I don't think this is a valid reason, many people think of Budokai Tenkaichi 3, a.k.a. Sparking!! Meteor as their favorite because it has 150 characters, or so the back of the box will tell you. It actually only has 90 but that's not the point. The point is it has a lot of characters and people love it for that reason.
Of course, Budokai 3's appeal was the fast paced gameplay that was simple but deep and allowed for decent competition. This means that having anywhere near that many characters will ruin the appeal somewhat. However, I do believe there is a solution that we can incorporate which I got from a Budokai 3 mod that was later used in Dragon Ball: Xenoverse. I'll get to that in a while though.
For now, we only need as many characters as necessary to maintain the appeal while still maintaining some level of diversity.
How will the gameplay function?
This is also a bit of a tricky situation because many will assume that the way to go is the way of Infinite World or Burst Limit. However, this is simply not the case. Infinite World made some improvements on Budokai 3 in some ways but a lot of downgrades in others. For this reason we need to backtrack to Budokai 3 and start from there.
Firstly, is Budokai 3's Control Scheme. The Mechanics are as follows:
Square = Punch
Triangle = Kick
Circle = Energy
X = Block
D-Pad = Movement
This may seem small but different button combinations or different methods of input do different things that extend the depth of the gameplay. However, the beauty of Budokai 3 is that everything you'll want to do in the game can be done with some combination of the above buttons.
Sure, you can hit L1 to perform a throw, or you can hit Square and X at the same time. You can hit R1 to Transform, or you can hit Triangle, Square, and X at the same time. You can hit L2 to go into hyper mode, or you can hit all four face buttons simultaneously.
Even the analog sticks are just a different way of using these same mechanics. In that sense this game is pretty simple.
You can tap X to perform a close range dodge, or deflect Ki blasts. Hit X at just the right time and you can deflect Ki blasts back at your opponent. Hold Square or Triangle to charge the attack to break guards or deal more damage. Hit Circle at the end of certain combos to perform Special Moves or do the same thing by pressing Circle along with Left or Right on the D-Pad. While in Hyper Mode you can also perform Ultimates and Dragon Rushes.
Now, here's where Budokai 3's limitations come in. Most characters in the game only have one or two special moves. This is one improvement Infinite World had over Budokai 3. Namely, that characters that only had one special move gained another. However, it failed to fix the core issue.
In Budokai 3, hitting Left+Circle or Right+Circle will perform a special move but Up and Down + Circle did nothing. This left room for more special moves to be given to characters should a sequel be made. Infinite World didn't fix that, it just changed the control scheme and made things impossible to go forward with.
So that's one thing we want to do, give every character 4 special moves. Disconnect these special moves from combos so that they can be used during combo strings or not at the player's behest but every character should have four special moves to increase the mix-up game a bit.
One thing Infinite World did do that I liked was Mini-Ultimates. Mini-Ultimates were things that dealt a lot of damage but were functionally just really powerful special moves. It was a nice idea but it's execution left something to be desired.
However, I think I have a solution. Now, for some of the Mini-Ultimates, this might not have been doable, like Special Beam Cannon, for example. However, let's go through with the example of Kamehameha and Super Kamehameha. In Infinite World Super Kamehameha was a mini-ultimate for Teen Gohan. It required that he spend 4 bars of Ki, roughly 4000 ki points in total, but the attack had a wide reach, could not be blocked, dealt a lot of damage, and could not be beam struggled. This is something I'd like to see implemented as a way for players skilled at Ki management to turn a fight around.
Here is what I'm suggesting. Take Kamehameha, activate it the way you usually would, Right + Circle but hit L2 before it finishes to turn it into a Hyper Special to turn it into Super Kamehameha. This would be relatively easy to implement because every character has some beam or ball energy move and this approach could be modified slightly for physical special moves.
For physical special moves, hit L2 to turn it into a hyper special at any point during the combo to increase damage and keep your opponent guessing.
"But what about characters that have more than 4 special moves? Some characters might only have four, like Kid Gohan or Tien but other characters, like Goku or Vegeta might have way more than 4."
That's a good point, hypothetical reader. However, the solution is not only simple but it also already exists within each respective game's code. Character Customization. Budokai 1 introduced the Skill System where you are given a skill tray and you have to fill up that tray to build your character's moveset. The problem in Budokai 1 that unfortunately did not propose a solution until Infinite World was that the skill tray only had 7 slots. In Budokai 1, each character had so many moves but could only equip 7 if they didn't have a breakthrough. For this reason, the best makeups generally came down to breakthrough for skilled players or the basic combo, viral heart disease, and vaccine for players who needed additional help. This was less of a problem in Budokai 3, which removed a lot of the unnecessary skills but, even in this game, breakthrough was always the best option because it not only gave you every move but it also doubled the damage output on those moves so the only characters who did not have breakthrough as the obvious choice were characters who had a small enough movelist that they could equip a Senzu Bean, or Frieza and Cooler, who have spaceships that heal them and buff them when they die.
Infinite World introduced Skill Tray Categories to the mix, which made customization a bit easier and more dynamic. Because now, there is a set amount of space for your specials, your ultimate, your item, and your support skills which includes any transformations your character might have. This did remove breakthroughs and dragon rushes but there is a solution to that problem.
The solution to the breakthrough problem is to just keep them out entirely. Because, if some characters have more than 4 special moves, a breakthrough would just confuse the game and make it impossible to function. Instead, make the breakthrough's double damage a support skill that comes into play when the entire skill tray is full.
As for the dragon rushes, that only requires a slight modification as well. Make a space for dragon rushes and let that be the end of that.
So by the end of this, we have 1 slot for items, 4 slots for specials, 4 for support skills, one for ultimates, and one for dragon rushes, which gives us ten slots in total. Then add a system skill to the skill shop that amplifies the number of support skills your playable characters can have when you get to the point that you can purchase them.
"But what about characters that have more than 4 special moves? Some characters might only have four, like Kid Gohan or Tien but other characters, like Goku or Vegeta might have way more than 4."
That's a good point, hypothetical reader. However, the solution is not only simple but it also already exists within each respective game's code. Character Customization. Budokai 1 introduced the Skill System where you are given a skill tray and you have to fill up that tray to build your character's moveset. The problem in Budokai 1 that unfortunately did not propose a solution until Infinite World was that the skill tray only had 7 slots. In Budokai 1, each character had so many moves but could only equip 7 if they didn't have a breakthrough. For this reason, the best makeups generally came down to breakthrough for skilled players or the basic combo, viral heart disease, and vaccine for players who needed additional help. This was less of a problem in Budokai 3, which removed a lot of the unnecessary skills but, even in this game, breakthrough was always the best option because it not only gave you every move but it also doubled the damage output on those moves so the only characters who did not have breakthrough as the obvious choice were characters who had a small enough movelist that they could equip a Senzu Bean, or Frieza and Cooler, who have spaceships that heal them and buff them when they die.
Infinite World introduced Skill Tray Categories to the mix, which made customization a bit easier and more dynamic. Because now, there is a set amount of space for your specials, your ultimate, your item, and your support skills which includes any transformations your character might have. This did remove breakthroughs and dragon rushes but there is a solution to that problem.
The solution to the breakthrough problem is to just keep them out entirely. Because, if some characters have more than 4 special moves, a breakthrough would just confuse the game and make it impossible to function. Instead, make the breakthrough's double damage a support skill that comes into play when the entire skill tray is full.
As for the dragon rushes, that only requires a slight modification as well. Make a space for dragon rushes and let that be the end of that.
So by the end of this, we have 1 slot for items, 4 slots for specials, 4 for support skills, one for ultimates, and one for dragon rushes, which gives us ten slots in total. Then add a system skill to the skill shop that amplifies the number of support skills your playable characters can have when you get to the point that you can purchase them.
What dub cast should be used?
The obvious answer to this one is going to be the Funimation cast and, to those of you who guessed it, you'd be right but that answer doesn't go deep enough since there are actually two dub casts. The one for the original series, which was used in the PS2 Dragon Ball games, and the one for DBZ Kai, which is used currently.
Now, it may be possible to add both and just have whichever one you want be put in the settings but that doesn't seem like a very ergonomic solution, since most people will probably just listen to whatever dub is the default anyway, so it would be wasted effort for something that may not even be that big of a deal.
However, I would say go for the Kai dub since that seems to be the one Namco Bandai is going with and, since getting them to make this game will probably be enough of a strain on the relationship as it is, you want to compromise in any area you think can be sacrificed. And, as I said, the dub isn't really that big of a deal anyway.
What about art style?
This is also trickier than it might seem. The obvious answer is going to be cel-shading but, so far, Dragon Ball games have had three distinct styles, the 3D cartoon look, the plastic toy look, and the graphic toy look. 3D Cartoon is Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi, Plastic Toy is Raging Blast and Xenoverse, and Graphic Toy is Ultimate Tenkaichi and DBZ for Kinect.
I would go for the 3D cartoon look, since that works best in my opinion but fans of Xenoverse or Raging Blast might suggest that. I, however, do not think those looks are all that appealing.
Costumes?
Okay, remember when I said I would talk about the character solution? Well, here's where I'm going to do it. A while back I saw a Budokai 3 mod that had an interesting take on how to handle characters. Basically what it did was it made certain characters alternate skins of each other. This meant that they would be on the same skeleton and draw from the same set of animations but this would extend the character roster by roughly as many costumes as the game and console can handle.
For the characters with extensive, identifiable move lists like Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, or Piccolo, this would be largely unfeasible. But for characters like 17 and 18, who effectively have all the same moves, they can be alternate skins of each other, complete with alternate voice clips per costume, similar to the MK9 Sub-Zero method of doing things.
Hell, the video games have already kind of done this by making Nail an alternate skin for Piccolo. Why not take it further? Great Saiyaman could be an alternate skin for Gohan. Vegito and Gogeta can be alternate skins of each other. Cooler could be an alternate skin for Frieza. Bojack could be an alternate Skin for Broly. Cellin could be an alternate skin for the Cell Jr. Gotenks could be an alternate skin for Teen Gohan. Bardock and Turles could be alternate skins of each other. GT Goku and Kid Goku could be the same character as well.
We don't even have to stop at combining characters. Two different costumes for Goku could make Z Goku and Dragon Ball Super Goku. Same goes for Vegeta and Gohan. Alternate skins for Frieza could turn Final Form 100% into either that or Golden Frieza. Evil Buu and Super Buu could be alternate skins of each other, as well as Ultra Buu and Kid Buu.
"What purpose does this serve? You know, besides just being a lazy butt."
Good question. Besides just being lazy, which is what programming is in a nutshell anyway, this could serve a major function of extending movesets for characters that have a move list that's too small to justify a character. Going to the Bardock and Turles example, Bardock and Turles are each lacking in moves. Bardock's only real moves are Riot Javelin and Heat Phalanx. Turles pretty much just has Kill Driver, which, while a cool move on its own, is not enough to justify a moveset. But, if you combine these pools and just make Bardock and Turles alternate skins for each other, you have an extended roster as well as a character that is more viable in a playable scenario.
Goku and Vegeta would benefit less from this. But it would save space in the code and on the console to have Z and Super Goku on the same character, same for Vegeta.
How should the story mode be built?
This one doesn't really have a clear answer because every Budokai game has had a different story mode. However, if I had to pick one, I would make it a mixture of Budokai 3's story and the story in the Xenoverse games. More on that further down.
I would not draw from the other games as those are generally not popular and, while many people have made a big deal about cutscenes needing to be in the story, I honestly don't believe they add much to the experience. Yeah, they look pretty on occasion but, if you're playing the game, chances are you already know the entire story to a T as it is, so why do you need it retold in cutscenes?
The wallpaper approach in Budokai 3 was simple enough that it could open the way for an entire story mode to be made but elegant enough that it didn't get in the way of the core experience, which actual cutscenes would do.
If it's absolutely necessary, you can add cutscenes to the create-a-character section, which I'll discuss further down. Because at least that story hasn't been told to death.
What new stuff should we add?
Two things to start off with: create-a-character system and a story mode for that created character.
For as much as I don't like the Xenoverse games, I'm not against a create-a-character system. I simply believe that its potential is wasted if it can't be thoroughly explored in a game that justifies it. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon had a create-a-character system and, say what you will about the game, but the created character made that game worth the purchase for me.
In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the created character suffered from two major issues: the first is a lack of fatalities and the second was no particular story path for them to go on, just an arcade ladder. Budokai Ultimate doesn't really have these problems. As finishers, Budokai Ultimate can just pull from the list of ultimates other characters have, which would be equivalent to picking your character's available move list. And the story mode could be the story of the Xenoverse games with Budokai 4's combat system.
Online play might be beneficial but only for the purposes of battling other players. A co-op system wouldn't really work for this game and, if we build the game around online, any features that are not online would suffer greatly. All we need is enough servers to populate match making enough for two players to duke it out one-on-one.
Other than that, not a lot of new needs to be added because the Budokai formula is so well put together as it is.
How much of it should be what-ifs?
This is something that normally wouldn't get discussed but, the reason I'm discussing it is because of Dragon Ball Heroes. Dragon Ball Heroes loves its what-ifs. It never goes into full-on fanon territory with Dragon Ball AF or Absalom or what have you but it does have Broly in Legendary Super Saiyan 2, 3, and 4, Majin Bojack, Turles, and Slug, Super Saiyan 4 Gohan, Adult Gotenks, Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta, Trunks, Gogeta, and Vegito, and even Super Baby Janemba.
The reason I bring up Dragon Ball Heroes is because Budokai, Dragon Ball Heroes, and Xenoverse all have one thing in common: the developer. Each of these series was created by Dimps, which means that anything Budokai Ultimate might have might come from Xenoverse or Heroes, which includes what-ifs.
As for how much, honestly, I believe any what-ifs should be restricted to DLC. That way, whatever What-Ifs anyone wants, they can purchase without needing to worry about what they don't want. This can also open the way for community submissions. Or, if you don't understand, Dragon Ball AF, Absalom, or whatever other fan series or fan characters you want added. Since they'll be DLC anyway, there's no need to build stories or context around them. Just give them move lists and you're good to go.
Okay, so I think I covered everything. Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment