GamerZone

It is no secret that the most popular manga series in the world in terms of global impact is Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball. It would go on to spawn an innumerable amount of merchandise, anime series, and a seemingly infinite amount of video games to the present day. It inspired generations of creatives in every corner of the world including many here on Tumblr. Although Akira Toriyama passed away in March of 2024 the legacy of Dragon Ball continues to be felt the world over.

It is a legacy so enduring in fact that its own creator's passing did little to slow the series down, with projects still being announced for future release. So long after Dragon Ball first changed the world it is difficult to think back on a time where a Dragon Ball game wasn't being released or iterated upon on a yearly basis.

The series had finally begun to slow down in Japan following the conclusion of Toei's filler spinoff Dragon Ball GT, with output on the franchise as a whole beginning to taper off in Japan. That is until Dragon Ball Z began airing in North America adapted for an English-speaking audience as part of Cartoon Network's legendary animation block Toonami, ushering in a whole new wave of popularity for the franchise.

This new wave of popularity from the boom of the series catching on in the west created a whole second life for the franchise which has lasted to the present day, a second life even longer than its first life. Now that is impressive.

I like many other young viewers in the west at the time had become completely enthralled by the Dragon Ball Z anime. After a few months of regular viewing it occurred to me that the series' bombastic martial arts action would make for a great video game. Let's just say that I was right to think that Dragon Ball would make for a good video game because unknown to me at the time the series had already had tons of video games which had already been released almost exclusively in its native Japan, seldomly localized outside of a couple of rare exceptions such as Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout.

Although Final Bout is commonly cited as the first Dragon Ball game to be officially released in North America it is technically predated by the obscure NES title Dragon Power (titled Dragon Ball: The Mystery of Shenron in Japan) way back in 1988. It would be easy to not know this given this game predated Dragon Ball's source material's entry into the west by almost a decade, but looking at the game even in its localized form is unmistakable.

Final Bout was a clunky 3D fighting game on the Playstation with decent graphics and some well remembered voice acting performances, the first time several of the characters on the roster would ever be voiced in English. I actually had the privilege of playing it as a a kid thanks to my older brother buying it for me at a local flea market as a gift for my birthday that year.

As a western Dragon Ball fan at the time it was immensely confusing because this game was such a flash forward to characters clearly so far in the future. What was a Super Saiyan anyway? And who in the world was Cell? As confusing as it all was it also made me extremely curious and helped pull me even deeper into the world of Dragon Ball in the following years.

It might be hard to believe now but there was nearly a five year gap between the release of any Dragon Ball games after Final Bout. As the series wrapped up in Japan a whole new hunger for it was created in North America, a hunger that would be answered with 2002's Legacy of Goku which actually predates the first Budokai game by a few months.

The first Legacy of Goku game was developed for the Gameboy Advance by a small scale studio called Webfoot Technologies. Webfoot was working on the very first Dragon Ball video game developed outside of Japan which must have been a huge honor for them. The team of developers working on the project were massive fans and treated it like a passion project, unfortunately with no budget and a tight deadline that resulted in massive crunch.

I remember during the summer after it was released heading into a game store and seeing it on the shelf and immediately buying it. I still remember the box art clearly to this day, an eye-catching illustration of Super Saiyan Goku in an iconic pose set over a blue background.

Unfortunately the very first American-developed Dragon Ball video game turned out to be a mediocre disappointment which you may find out within moments after you turn on the game for yourself.

The Legacy of Goku is a Zelda-esque role playing game set with top down view set on a 2D plane. Throughout the entire game you play as Goku basically punching and throwing ki blasts at all foes that stand in your way.

Much of the graphical work was done by pixel artist Mandi Paugh whose work resulted in charming and recognizable sprites, and her art is definitely one of the best things about that game in my opinion. The soundtrack consisted entirely of original music unconnected to the series, but composer Ariel Gross did a pretty good job with it and has a few standout tracks that go unreasonably hard given the small scale of the project and a few of the songs are earworms for me to this day.

Despite a few strong elements of the presentation it was still overall lacking and felt incomplete, it would be fair to say the game ultimately felt like less than the sum of its parts. Its story loosely adapted some major events of the story from the introduction of Raditz through the defeat of Frieza but does so with a focus almost entirely on Goku. A difficult task given Goku is actually missing for long stretches of time in the source material, making the story of the game feel a bit unsatisfying.

Many of the series' other major characters infrequently appear and none except for Goku himself are a playable character.

A fairly standard and unremarkable action role playing game, care was taken at least to include a number of signature attacks from the series like the kamehameha and solar flare. These attacks drain a secondary energy meter that replenishes on its own shockingly fast. Much like the source material Goku is able to fly utilizing a third metered resource. Unlike the source material it can be used to trigger an infamously simple invincibility glitch.

Gameplay is about as deep as one could expect for a handheld game at the time on a system that had only two face buttons and two shoulder buttons. Combat is extremely basic with the best strategy usually being to kite enemies around while firing ranged ki attacks. And many of those enemies are largely and inexplicably for this point in the series just wild animals. The combat isn't deep but does require some degree of patience. There isn't much feedback about incoming or outgoing damage and it's shockingly easy to get mauled and lose all your health.

The developers surely knew the gameplay could pose an issue to players because they included a simple enough invincibility cheat. Even as a kid, I knew the game had a ton of problems and could have been much better. It may have been a disappointing game but it was my disappointing game and I played through it at least half a dozen times in my childhood.

Despite the mixed reviews the game was immensely financially successful and would manage to sell over a million copies which is a very impressive feat coming from a small team with no budget and a rough deadline.

The game may have been lackluster but it offered a good look for western audiences at the future potential of the franchise not just as a video game but as a role playing game in particular. It was of course by no means the first role playing game in the franchise but many of us western fans were none the wiser to this fact and we were still very much primed for more Dragon Ball games in the future.

This future would come quickly for Webfoot with its publisher being impressed by the strong sales numbers for Legacy of Goku and approaching the small studio to work on a sequel. This new project would have a much higher budget and be aimed for a release almost exactly one year later. And so Legacy of Goku II was born.

To fans of Dragon Ball the announcement of the game was met with mixed emotions. Many were upset that a sequel was in production at all because they disliked the first game and even I was skeptical. Those doubts would largely be erased when Legacy of Goku II was released, and it's one of the best comeback stories of the era.

Often the best sequels are those that not only build upon the formula of the previous game but also take feedback to heart and address what was either lacking or not working, and Webfoot made sure to communicate that they were capable of addressing the deficiencies in the formula right away.

One of the biggest complaints about the first game is its taking the title "Legacy of Goku" a little too literally by not having other playable characters. The sequel opens with a highly compressed FMV with footage of the anime featuring Gohan, Piccolo, Vegeta, Trunks and Goku himself. All of whom would be playable this time around. The opening cinematic is also set to a familiar rendition of Faulconer Productions' theme for the American version of the TV series adapted lovingly for the Gameboy Advance.

The game features over an hour of music with sound depth and quality that I didn't know was possible on the Gameboy Advance and is drawn from the Faulconer Productions catalogue to faithfully replicate what was in that era the sound of the show to the American audience. I know the Faulconer soundtrack has a bad reputation in many parts of the fandom these days for being loud and overly indulgent at times, however the work that series newcomers Yannis Brown and Paul Carmedy did in adapting the western adaptation's soundtrack created the best versions of many of the songs they arranged for the game.

Many of these songs from this game are the sounds that instantly come to mind when I think of the main characters. I will go further and say this game has the best soundtrack on the Gameboy Advance in my opinion. Additionally the sound effects feel right at home in a Dragon Ball Z adaptation with every punch and ki blast sounding as you would expect from watching the anime.

Artist Mandi Paugh returns from the first game and her charming and vibrant spritework shines brighter as ever, and this time around there's a ton of characters featured in the game meaning she gets to do even more fantastic sprite work. In an attempt to more faithfully adapt the world of Dragon Ball into a video game art designer Andrew Meyers drew many of the game's environmental assets by hand including the entire world map in which he painstakingly recreated details sourced from official data books with a keen eye.

The game features a wide variety of environments from the show that fans should recognize as they venture deeper into the game. It was mind-blowing to walk through the streets of West City for the first time in a video game. Between the sprites, animations and environments the game is definitely a treat to look at.

The visuals and music alone were very deliberate and communicated clearly that although Webfoot was a small developer they were very passionate and wanted to send a clear message to fans disappointed by the first game could expect a bigger, better and more faithful game than what came before it.

Picking up after the first game left off Legacy of Goku II is set after the Namek Saga and the defeat of Frieza. Beginning by throwing the player sixteen years into the future into an era of darkness where Goku had long since passed away, the game makes a very strong first impression through its presentation and faithful adaptation of one of the best bits of Dragon Ball media in the History of Trunks special which in Legacy of Goku II serves as both tutorial and prologue.

There is a much more competent execution on delivering the narrative in this game not only in comparison to the first game but standing on its own as a competent RPG with the dramatic and iconic events of the source material's narrative serving as a much more structured and attentive driver of the gameplay than it had previously.

There is a huge increase in the size of the game's script with its dialogue often sticking pretty close to the anime's English dubbed script where possible although there are a few errors here and there. The game even manages to include a justification for its returning cast of animal enemies being effected by Garlic Jr.'s Black Water Mist, a detail people who were obsessed with the anime loved and made something that previously stuck out as odd feel natural this time around.

Attention to detail and care for the source material was a big focus this time around and the end result of it is that the storytelling has been drastically improved and playing the game really does feel like you have the anime series at your fingertips.

The gameplay itself has also seen some serious upgrades. While it still feels similar to a Zelda style action role playing game, the game has a bigger expansion of its RPG mechanics like an increased level cap and new stat attributes. Players are able to customize their character's individual attributes by consuming stat-boosting capsules scattered throughout the game world which is a great incentive to explore thoroughly.

The basic controls are exactly the same as the first game's layout though thankfully this time the game feels much smoother and movement itself is much better. Your character is no longer restricted to four-directional movement and has full eight-way movement. There's even a sprint added which makes exploration and side content less tedious. You can travel to and from key locations via flying on the world map in a manner almost akin to an airship in Final Fantasy.

The combat is simple enough while also feeling rewarding. Generally while controlling a character you will use melee attacks at close range and ki blasts at further range. A nice quirk of the gameplay is its combo system. Each melee attack performed by the player causes an enemy to reel backwards and if they don't collide with an object in the environment it allows for follow up attacks.

You can chain melee combos together by moving towards an enemy and ideally carefully steering them away from obstacles with your attacks. There is also the addition of charged melee attacks for each playable character which deals significantly more damage but is vulnerable to interruption.

There are now far more enemies to battle with including several more bosses total than the first game. Another important upgrade to the combat system is that every instance of damage is now properly communicated to the player with floating damage values ensuring the feedback is much better and the situations you find yourself in are much more readable.

As mentioned earlier there are now multiple playable characters which is a welcomed improvement and even more impressive is that they all feel distinct from each other. The five main playable characters come with different melee attacks, unique signature energy attacks, transformations, and their own personal stat layouts. Each character also has unique stat growth rates which changes how each feels and distinguish from each other them all further.

The attention to detail the team paid to the anime really comes through yet again with the conversion of each of the series' characters into a playable character and details like the unique way the cast's transformations are implemented add a seriously commendable flavor to the experience.

The main story segments of the game will see you fighting your way through an adventure based on the Trunks, Android, and Cell sagas of the anime. Much to the credit to the game the chaotic nature of the events and the feeling of escalating stakes that these sagas were known for remains intact up to the very end when the credits roll.

As you make your way through the main story there are plenty of optional side quests to complete which have information handily stored alongside the main story objectives in the journal that keeps track of quest information.

At some point you will be able to utilize the Scouter feature which gives you access to game's map displaying your location on a grid and also scan any character in the game, revealing information about their stats and giving them lengthy written histories that references events before the game's story takes place. It is an impressive inclusion that is very easy to miss and really speaks to the dedication and love for the source material.

The dedication extends pretty far, even finding ways to include fairly insignificant characters like Marron. Despite the inclusion of so much from the series Webfoot also slipped in a few original elements such as "the" Vinny and even a pretty overt reference to Ted Kaczynski which are both completely bizarre in context. Side quests range from finding missing Namekians to collecting Dr. Brief's missing golden capsules.

These side stories serve a good purpose in help making the world feel more well rounded and the reward for doing the biggest side quest chains is a showdown against the game's optional super boss, a fan favorite villain otherwise not seen in the game that is introduced to you very awkwardly in an unexpected point of the story.

There is a ton of side content and it all feels like it fits snugly in place as a companion to the main story as the writers had a clear outline for where the story would go and detours they could take without diverting your attention for too long and still keeping the pacing tight enough. Encouraging you to pursue more opportunities to beat up mobs of enemies works with the game's new formula for gating off some areas in the world behind gates that unlock corresponding with specific characters reaching specific level thresholds.

These gates block both main story and side content and can give players motivation to backtrack to older maps in order to open up gates you may have seen previously and it also helps keep the full roster of playable characters leveled up enough to make the main story encounters more manageable.

It was through this abundance of good ideas and good execution that Webfoot showed they were more than deserving of another chance and that they were able to create a more authentic Dragon Ball experience than their first attempt. Reception to the game was overwhelmingly positive in comparison to the first game with both fans and media alike heaping praise on it.

Through their perseverance and humility the small team was able to hit a homerun by every metric and due to how positively the game was received in the west the publisher decided to have a version of the game localized for Japan. There were a few alterations made to this version of the game like updated character portraits which fixed some small mistakes from the original.

It was with this that the team accomplished another incredible feat as Legacy of Goku II remains the only western-developed Dragon Ball game to ever be ported to the franchise's native Japan as of the time of this article. The triumphs of the team wouldn't stop there as a third game in the Legacy of Goku series was eventually released but that is a story perhaps to be told another time.

Thank you for sticking around through the end. This game was a blast to play again for this article and it really holds up, it's just as great to play today as it was when it first came out. I believe this game is a must-play for any fans of the Dragon Ball franchise and it offers a look at a time in the fandom where there was still a pronounced divide between the east and west.

I find it ironic that a game which features time travel as a central part of its story would itself one day act as a time capsule with every aspect of it calling back to memories of a time long since past. The Legacy of Goku series is just one small part of Dragon Ball's history which itself is just one fragment of Akira Toriyama's legacy as an artist, a legacy that marches on into the future all this time later.

Today Dragon Ball games are a dime a dozen but I think one can still see the influence that the Legacy of Goku series had on the landscape of the franchise through titles such as Cyberconnect2's modern console RPG Kakarot.

And who could forget the game's awesome holographic box art?

A gem hidden among the stones, Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II is undoubtedly stardust.