Dragon Ball Z: Buu’s Fury is the conclusion of the trilogy that spanned the entire length of the anime, from Saiyan saga to Buu saga. As the name suggests the game is set during the Buu saga, which is unfortunately the weakest but the game does a good job of spreading out the story so it doesn’t feel samey. The biggest improvement is in the gameplay, by introducing more unique abilities, a new levelling system, new transformations and an equipment system the game is more fun to play by an order of magnitude. The game also features minor graphical improvements particularly to the ability effects and world detail. Buu’s Fury is an easy recommendation to anyone that is a fan of the anime or action RPGs.

Story

Buu’s Fury is the final chapter of the series and begins right where the previous game ended, with the death of Cell. Although the Buu saga is the weakest saga of the the series the game overcomes some of the problems of the anime by improving the pacing. In Buu’s Fury you take control of five of the saiyans: Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks and Goten. Unfortunately the dialogue in Buu’s Fury is fairly bland and takes some unnecessary deviations from the anime but overall the story is still engaging and always fun to replay. The game features an absurd amount of fan service by featuring popular characters from Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z and it’s great to talk and fight with these characters.

Gameplay

Buu’s Fury is a vast improvement over the previous entries in the series in terms of gameplay though the basic premise is much the same. Buu’s Fury is a top-down action RPG akin to Secret of Mana. Each character features more unique abilities, new transformations and some have fusions, which overcomes a complaint about previous games which was that each character plays more or less the same, thankfully that is no longer the case. To improve the uniqueness of the characters the levelling system has been changed so it now grants allocatable points which you can spend to upgrade your characters as you wish, by focusing on melee damage, energy damage or health. The final improvement is the introduction of an equipment system with an impressive amount of unique options beyond simple stat buffs this system adds a new layer of customisation and depth.

The exploration element of previous series is unfortunately reduced in this game, which greatly reduces the incentive to revisit previous locations and creates a more linear experience in general. However there are many more collectables to find (though good luck without a walkthrough), and the reward for finding all these collectables is very great indeed because it unlocks new playable characters.

Presentation

The graphics of Buu’s Fury is a minor improvement over previous titles. Although the character sprites are much the same the world detail is improved and most noticeably is the improvement to the ability effects. The sound design is much the same and not great overall with bland repetitive music.