DragonballZ: Legend of the SSJ (Warning: Spoilers)

The game that most people call "DBZ: SSJ RPG" for Super Nintendo is not only one of the best Dragonball games ever made, but it's one of the best rpg's as well.

In terms of graphics, there's not much you can expect from a SNES game, but for a game of it's time, it has some great graphics and very good depth. The characters look about as close as you can get on a 16-bit era system and the attacks look extremely well done, especially when you're fighting in rocky areas. For example if you do a meteo-smasher combo, at the end of it you'll knock your opponent through a mountain. Or if you're on the watery namek, you might end your combo with an overhead smash into the water you're floating over. There's not really much to say here, it is an old game, but the graphics are better than alot of SNES games that came out. However the "Quest Mode," seen in all RPG's where the camera is zoomed out and your character explors the map simply looks like crap. The maps and the things on the map look good, but the characters in this zoomed out view are recognizable, but not good.

The game is not very deep at all, I tell people all the time that a DBZ rpg would not be the best way to go, because of the one-track storyline of DBZ. The show is basically fighting, walking, and talking -- that's exactly how this game is, even from the very beginning. When you first start this 1 mode game, you are at the kame house and have a number of people to talk to, they will give you items as well, once you exit you are free to walk or fly around the area. The game is inconstant with the show in some areas though, for example from the very beginning you are fighting Saibamen, even before you fight Raditz. After flying around and get the snot beat out of you since you start off a little too weak, you'll come across some houses, most of them look exactly the same so finding the same house twice is based on how well you rememer the landscape around it. More inconstant things appear as the story progresses, since when did Mr. PoPo live by the Kame House? And when did he get captured by a band of rebel saibamen? After awhile you will find yourself inside a cave searching for Gohan, the caves in the game make the replay value go up alitte, they're not as easy as most SNES rpg's were. It's easy to get lost, and searching through holes will reward you with little capsules, some give you helpful energy or items, and some blast you...very annoying.

After you make your way through, you come out and there are two Raditz??? It seems that the game at times poses two ways for you to go. The first Raditz is much stronger and inside the cave, or you can find your way out and fight Raditz outside beside the capsule where he holds Gohan captive. To make up for some of the inconstant things, there are cool features like cut-scenes from the show. One example is halfway through your battle with Raditz, young Gohan will burst from the capsule and ram into Raditz just like on the show and yes Piccolo finishes them with his Special Beam Cannon. After you follow the long storyline through the first part, you'll find yourself doing all kinds of things. Training with King Kai, training against gravity, training as Piccolo, and even fighting Vegeta and Nappa. This is the second best part of the game, the battle with Nappa is pretty fun, but once you get lucky enough to beat him the real fun begins as Goku takes on Vegeta in a truly epic battle for any RPG. The Kaioken attack looks sweet, the Genki-Dama's long and awesome attack sequence is definitely worth seeing, and you even see a new feature added. Once people get to a certain PL when you rush each other and start doing combos an orange and red aura will form around you to show you that your power is growing. That is until Vegeta turn oosaru, this is definitely a hard task, but once you beat him you can return the favor. Along the way Gohan picks up the Oosaru moon ability and you can use it crush Vegeta and blast him all to bits. Just don't let that mean ole Vegeta use an energy disc to cut your tail off! Once you're done with this you'll find yourself traveling to the best part of the game, Planet Namek....

Once on Namek, this is where the game gets even more fun, as you fly around you will have to fight Henchmen all over the place. And depending on who made it to Namek with you (my team was Tien, Gohan, and Kuririn) you'll have a hard time getting past Namek. As you search for the Dragonballs you'll find Namek villages everywhere and sometimes Nameks will even join your party! As you battle through these even harder caves, you'll meet people like Kui, Zarbon, and even Dodoria who blasts your ship. More nice features are found on namek, like the race mini-game where you (Gohan) run from Dodoria and have to dodge in all directions as he blasts at you from behind. Battling through Namek, the struggle for the Dragonballs is a pretty good ride and once the Ginyu Force arrives the game is nearing it's end. But, here again the game presents you with two choices, as Goku arrives and you take down the force. IF you make it to Captain Ginyu, after a good beating he'll go for his change technique even. You can either throw the frog and have it end like the show or you can let him do it and use his special attack later on. After many battles you finally end up fighting Furiza and battle until you reach SSJ. This increases your power dramatically and gives you enough to beat Furiza, but wait...what's this...Vegeta has done it too.... The end doesn't follow the story, but it's cool and should have been in the series, once Vegeta turn SSJ you and your crew (hopefully including SSJ Gokou) will have to battle the Prince of all Saiyajins. This is where things can be easy or hard, because if you didn't use the frog and you let Ginyu change with someone, you can just use the CHANGE NOW! on Vegeta and your power will grow immensely. All in all the story doesn't sound too long when it's being described, but it ain't short either. GET THIS GAME!

The gameplay of SSJ RPG is definitely unique, the attacks are based on cards to determine both the move, it's power, and it's speed. Each card has a dragonbals on it, in the top left corner of it. The Dragonball with stars on it, determines the attack's speed by the number of stars, so here is an example of what I'm saying. If your Card has 5 stars on it, then chances are very good that you'll attack before your opponent does. However if you have a card with a 1 star dragonball on it, then chances are very good that they'll get to attack you first, this doesn't matter against someone like Vegeta however. He can even get off two attacks in a row on you if you don't have really good cards. The second part of the card, this is the big space in the middle of the card and tells you what kind of attack it is, they have Japanese symbols on them so I can't really explain...You'll easily learn what each card does once you play and see the symbols enough, this I can almost garauntee. Next you have face cards, each of these are found in your item menu and have differemnt ability powers, for example a moon card turns a Saiyajin team member into the Oosaru. Or you may get like a Chi-Chi card which reshuffles your cards, this comes in handy if you have a weak deck to attack with at that moment. And of course others give you energy, but what I found to be the best card of all is the almighty Vegeta card. You get this after you beat him on Earth, and what it does is it'll make him arrive at the scene of whereever you are battle and attack your enemy doing LOTS of damage. So for example say you just cannot get past Dodoria (like me), then use the Vegeta card and he'll come beat the hell outta Dodoria for the whole fight or until he thinks he's done enough.

*Note*: For all you EMU/ROM users, there is an American Patch...

Overall the game is pretty good and although the BG Music can get a little annoying sometimes, it definitely has some awesome effects, graphics, mini-games, and a pretty good storyline. All in all I give it a seven on a scale of 1-10. It's not as good as Final Fantasy, but for any rpg fan or any dbz fan it's definitely one of the best SNES has to offer, get this game!

Preview by SSJ4Gojita

Media:

Strategy Guide/Codes

 

  

Info Sheet

Developer: N/A

Publisher: N/A

Genre: RPG

Platform: SNES

Japanese Release: Out

US Release: Out

Multi-Player: No

Online: No

Rating: 7.5- Could have been longer, annoying music at times, graphics pretty much average.