Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai - Another Road (2007)

Writing this after 100%ing Another Road and beating Arcade mode with every character.

I like this game. They improved on the first one. More characters and more forms and a story mode that's less infuriating. The core mechanics are the same, but it feels less bad because the story mode isn't forcing you to battle Janemba as the worst character ever so often. The story mode is helped by two things: (1) you can usually choose your character and (2) you can equip boosters to strengthen your character. It seems like the AI is toned down a bit too because they aren't aura dashing everywhere and flexing on you, although it can get pretty difficult to open up their defenses. Both games have great particle visual effects and diverse stages. Visually, they're really solid on PSP. My favorite part of this game is seeing the what if scenarios and seeing how characters would interact with each other. This game did Future Trunks's Majin Buu saga way before DBS did. The execution was awful, but it was neat nonetheless. Now for the bad. The game still doesn't really teach you how to play it. I beat the entirety of story mode before I realized how to utilize a defensive mechanic. Occasionally I'd fight a computer and wonder how they did certain things (eat attacks while taking no damage then following up with a punish and healing all of the damage I did to them instantly), but since I wasn't replaying the same battles over and over, it was more bearable. I think the most annoying thing is that Another Road can get a bit tedious. At certain points, it feels like it's trying to wear you down by sending endless waves of enemies and at a certain point, I was questioning if I was having fun. Overall, I still enjoyed myself and I think a large part of that has to do with the toned down difficulty.