After a long absence,Dragon Ball Zgame adaptations are turning their focus back to theBudokai Tenkaichiseries.Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 4was revealed to a massive amount of hype, as while theDragon Ball Z: Budokaitrilogy was considered to have more legitimacy as a fighting game, theBudokai Tenkaichitrilogy had more casual appeal. The original series featured a ton of dream scenarios and a roster that eventually grew to encompassDragon Ball Z, the movies,GT, as well as the originalDragon Ball- and even a crossover withDr. Slump.
The weight of expectation onDragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 4is immense, and whoever is developing it will need to bring their A-game. Due to the massive gap in time betweenBudokai Tenkaichi 3and4, not all the series’ built-up content will likely return. This new title needs to carefully select the most exciting characters to bring back, all while ensuring that the resulting game doesn’t feel too shallow. Building a worthysuccessor toBudokai Tenkaichiis a Herculean task, but a focus on one ofDragon Ball’s signature moves - fusion - could make the process smoother.
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Fusions Have Become an Inseparable Part of Dragon Ball Z
Over the course of its run,Dragon Ball Zestablished plenty of iconic elements that its adaptations strove to replicate. Ki blasts, aerial martial arts, charging, and transformations came up again and again. One othertrademarkDragon Balltechniquethat was introduced late intoDBZ’s run, fusions, first appeared around the middle of the Buu Saga and have remained an emergency gambit for certain characters to power up beyond their usual limits. Goten and Trunks demonstrated the Fusion Dance version of the practice with Gotenks, who was able to quickly match a ghostly Goku’s Super Saiyan 3 form with practically no effort.
Transformations spread from there, though not very far. Goku and Vegeta used the Potara Earrings to fuse into Vegito during their fight with Super Buu, and theDragon Ball Z: Fusion Rebornmovie introduced Gogeta as their Fusion Dance result. Gogeta got his own uniquely red-haired Super Saiyan 4 form inDragon Ball GT, rounding out the four codified fusions available inBudokai Tenkaichi 3. All fusion took was placing the component characters on a single team and choosing to fuse instead of transform. Despite this, the other fused fighters - includingSuper Buu’s absorptions, Majuub, and even Kibito Kai- were just treated as normal transformations.Budokai Tenkaichi 4has a lot of potential to rectify and expand this aspect.
Budokai Tenkaichi 4 Can Truly Represent Dragon Ball’s Fusions
Since the days ofGT, new fused characters such as Merged Zamasu and Kefla have risen to prominence, and both Vegito and Gogeta are now canon with access Super Saiyan Blue. That’s not even getting into fusions like Vegeks happening inDragon Ball Heroesand other non-canon material.Budokai Tenkaichi 4has enough materialto make fusion more prominent than it was in past games, and doing so would help it stand out. The basic, easy-to-understand formula of placing two characters on a team and selecting their fusion mid-battle should remain inBudokai Tenkaichi 4.
One approach to modifying fusions would be making them temporary, but much stronger than a regular transformation. There could also be some fun bonuses mixed in, such as failed Fusion Dance forms as joke options orVegeta using his Forced Spirit Fission abilityto instantly break fusions. An especially interesting setup would be enabling duplicate characters to fuse like Super Android 17, opening the mechanic up to the whole roster. It’s too much to ask for this arena fighter to include bespoke fusions for every character like in the 3DSDragon Ball FusionsRPG, but every chanceDragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 4finds to include a fusion should be taken.
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 4is currently in development.
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