Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World Review

Hearing about this game for so many years after playing Budokai 3 avidly for so long and also hearing how the game is a "hidden gem" and how some prefer it over Budokai 3 really got me curious in checking the game out. There are also people who think B3 is better. While I can't say the game is just awful, I can't help but admit that the game that game feels like a missed opportunity.

On paper, IW should be the best game in the Budokai series, it feels like a Budokai "greatest hits" of sorts. It has the cutscenes of Budokai 1, the board game and "world map" with the Goku model of it from Budokai 2, the dashing and more refined controls of Shin Budokai, of course it has the visuals, stages, and general content from Budokai 3. This should "feel" like the Ultimate Budokai game but I feel the game makes too many questionable design decisions that actively hinder moment to moment gameplay for me. To put it simpily, this game takes two steps forward while also taking two steps back.

Some good things is that the mini games in the story mode are decent and do a decent job at breaking up the pace of constant fights, and you don't have to do most of them to roll credits which is weird but I welcome it, I just wish these mini games were on the beaten path instead of me looking around on the world map and having them be optional. I am mixed on this. The 3D platformer style going through checkpoints is a DBZ 3D platformer I didn't even know I wanted, I have seen people criticize this but I argue the time is generous enough and the mini game goes by quick enough that it never gets overly grating. Dragon Rush is gone which was the weakest aspect of Budokai 3's fighting, since much of Budokai 3's fighting can boil down into rock, paper scissors matches. I'd say the story mode overall is more satisfying than Budokai 3's since this game's story mode is more of a structured campaign and less of a visual novel with fights.

With all that said, what ruined the game for me?

The "tutorial" or lack there of one really soured the experience for me. Budokai 3 I recall having an actual mode where it teaches newer players the mechanics and rules of the game, and IW does not have this. It does have one on the story mode in the world map but I find it too vague and confusing to feel like I am learning anything since tutorial almost implies you need to learn the mechanics beforehand. I also am not a big fan of "aura burning" and prefered hyper mode. I don't like Dragon Rush, but Hyper Mode in Budokai 3 felt balanced since your health drained really fast and you could risk getting fatigued, now that the fatigue meter and the ki meter in IW are seperate it means I have to keep track of two meters, and it just doesn't feel as intuitive as looking at one meter and this could be me playing Budokai 3 so much but having high ki and getting fatigued just feels weird to me since I am not even sure how you can avoid being fatigued in this game, it just seemed like something that happened randomly and at inconvienent times. "Aura burning" felt useless to me, it might be less so to people who know this game really well, but all it did was drain ki really fast and since the opponent AI is really aggressive, I would lose a ton of health while in this state instead of doing a lot of damage.

I also don't like how in story mode, you won't always have two ki attacks or ultimate moves unless you buy it at the shop, which makes it hard to major damge to enemies. And as a guy who played Budokai a lot, it's just weird that I can't chain combos into energy attacks. It feels strange how for a game that had Budokai 3's visuals, feels and combat system that I can't do this anymore. The lack of beam struggles only adds insult to injury, it may sound trivial, however it takes away how dynamic combat can be since you can turn the tide of battles if you win or lose one. It feels like a step back.

Two big issues that also ruin the game for that work in tandem is how ultimate moves are handled and the aggressive opponent AI. To do ultimate attacks in B3, you need to be hyper mode and risk getting a quick fatigue if you miss the attack, in IW especially when you fight characters with more than 4 regenerating ki bars, they can spam ultimate attacks without the risk of getting fatigued, and when you partner that with how hard the AI is even on easy and the game is just too dull to play since I find it too challenging and the tutorial doing a poor job at preparing me, and I was more frustrated with the game than having any fun.

As somewhat who is really familar with the Budokai games even decades after I actively played them, this whole game feels confused, the differences actively hinder my enjoyment of the game and the similaries made me wish I was playing Budokai 3.

Overall, I should like this game more but the changes and the way teaches it's mechanics and the rules to new players just makes it hard to approach and get consistent enjoyment out of.