Before I begin, let me say this is a long rant. I love dragonball z, but this game is inherently frustrating and I'm going to list out a bunch of things that bother the shit out of me. Ultimately the devs got their money, I'm going to continue playing this game after this rant, but I had to get it off my chest.
There are so many things that piss me off. Lets start off with some things.
Dumb AI vs. them "cheating" -- The AI is dumb as fuck in this game. If you've played more than a couple hours you will know this. There is no strategy behind what they do, and as far as fighting games go, there is no difficulty involved. The difficulty goes that the character just has more HP/Strength/Etc as you progress through the story and you need to grind to keep up with them.
The AI cheating -- By this I mean the majority of the time when the AI are purple mode, they have infinite stamina/ki. They don't go by the same playing rules as you do. It's not your skill vs their AI. It's you having to figure out a cheap mechanic to beat them.
Obvious critical story modes missed. I understand this isn't the same story mode over and over again as all dragon ball z games have. I like this slightly as it's a new experience. But there are blatant missing events that any serious dragon ball z fan will go wtf once you actually realize. Majin Vegata? Nope. Different cell stages and absorption of the Androids? (Mentioned after cell games, but nope)(I find this important as 1/3 of the entire saga is the cell games with the androids) -- So on and so forth. They skip major events like Majin Vegeta, Uub,
The item system. It's terrible. Character customization? Nah. The only customized part is you selecting the race and how they look initially. Ultimately, if you want to win, you'll have to choose the items with the best stats. They are set in looks / stats and you will pick them if you want to win / get the better item. And with how frustrating the story line can be...YOU WILL pick them.
RNG. This is an asian game, asians like to grind. American's don't. Basic game 101 for any serious game developer. Guess what? The entire PQ system is RNG. Want to get super saiyan? You'll need to meet certain criteria like kill krillin before goku, but the entirity after that is RNG. Does it depend on your performance? Nope. How much health you had left? Nope. How much damage you did? Nope. Did you get Z or S? Nope. It's all random -- all the time. And you'll be grinding a PQ multiple---MULTIPLE times to get what you want. Winning the actual PQ will end up meaning nothing to you at all because the AI is dumb (and in PQ they don't cheat) and success to you will be getting the item. Asians overseas (game 101, look at all RPG / MMO games with a primarily asian/korean fan base. It's all RNG. ***AMERICANS DO NOT LIKE THIS. IT"S CONSIDERED ANNOYING****
And to add some more, lets go back to the story. I'm at the part where you just start versing majin buu for the first time. The fat one. The first battle against him, IN ONE GO, WITH ONE HEALTH BAR, you have to verse 3 at the same time, then, without healing, you have to go against 4-6 more. I lost track of the number because of the sheer stupidity of it all. Hey lets ignore every other crucial story element , and lets focus on having you verse 10 of them in one go...because you know, EXCITING RIGHT? NO!
The combat system overall is lame. It's always been lame. A combination of 2 buttons are all your combos. Typically you'll resort to spamming Ki attacks as a strategy on the AI because of dumb shit like versing 10 majin buu at the same time is impossible if you melee them because they all spam you. THAT OR you have to grind and OVER LEVEL your character to stand a chance
It all seems like a chore. The online PQ system I have more fun raging and bitching alongside the online friends and randoms and talk about how shitty the game is more than the actual game.
There is so much more. It just makes me shake my head at the stupidity of it all. I credit the success of this game ($$$ wise in sales) because it is the first of a kind for next gen consoles and many of the player base with those consoles grew up with DBZ.
Oh and one more thing. What the FUCK is up with the recovery rates of the fighting? An example in Diablo 2, the term Faster Hit Recovery on items increase the speed at which you recover from getting hit with attacks. In this game, anything from a simple Ki blast to a punch, to any other attack makes your character stumble and fall back and it's annoying as fuck. You're smashing buttons hoping your character will get up faster but it is all futile. Blocking blocks way too much damage, and the system is so dumb and complex you'd think, like in Tenkaichi, that if you hit block right as a ki blast will hit you, you'd do some DBZ shit like teleport out the way or something. Nope. Nothing.
Online battles typically are like this, EVERYTIME. Go up to your enemy, start smashing some attacks, teleport behind each other until both of your stamina runs out, then spam ki attacks until someone is dead. It's LAME. No substance. Get outta here with the BS.
The dev guaranteed put more focus into the DLC rather than fine tuning the game. Just watch how much DLC will be for this game.
Granted I did not feel this way initially after playing the game. I have played it for quite a few hours already, and if you haven't reached ATLEAST level 30 (which is nothing in comparison to many of you) -- you won't truly understand.
Oh and off topic now, another game development 101 that you people need to understand is the concept of Cheapness vs Strategy. Difficulty vs Frustration. It's one thing for the AI to dodge all your attacks, teleport out the way, set up nice combos, fake out moves, etc, and another thing for you to have to go against 6 opponents, all of which have more HP than you individually , at once, and all of them have infinite ki and stamina. And what's more frustrating? It's not that you can't beat them individually, or that they react faster than you or pull combos you can't, it's just you can't beat them cuz they spam their infinite ki moves over and over again, and overpower you with sheer force. And another annoying one, is the AI in story mode with the permablocks on . The ones where when you punch them it doesn't even phase them. So stupid.
The game tries to be an advanced, deep game with rich combat, character customization, and so forth. In the end, it's a poorly designed system hidden behind the vail of great graphics and a big name on a next gen system which most fans of DBZ wouldn't even flinch at buying just for the name.
