Comparing The Budokai Trilogy Games

[@ProjectGamerYT]

I cannot express how excited child me was when a new Budokai was coming out. Budokai 1 blew my mind when it first released.

[@onthedre]

B1 Still has the most cinematic and engaging story mode imo. When I was like 4/5 and saw Gohan Vs. Cell I was completely engrossed in it. The atmosphere of that storymode was just so perfect.

[@miles6120]

Dude I used to think Dragon Ball Z Budokai was stand-alone fiction. My tiny child mind was blown when I found out this masterpiece of a game was a full on anime.

[@damondriver6363]

Yeah but it's coming out in a different time in the gaming industry. Cookie cutter bare minimum Characters with the rest being paid DLC, just watch. Half assed story, etc inbound

[@Dr._Doppietta]

True, it was a mania back then I couldn't wait for my cousin to come back home with his copy of Budokai 1 to play that bad boy into our PS2.

[@HollowRick]

I remember seeing it all over the cartoon network at the time

[@drinkwwwaterrr]

You have my respect for understanding the difference between cel shading and outlines

[@Accrovideogames]

@@Spiritus-Gladius You mean it's not called perfect cell shading?

[@MarioHernandez-mi8dv]

​@@Accrovideogames*Mr perfect cell shading*

[@whiteraven1992]

Yes, I was that friend who loved using Freeza’s spaceship in Budokai 3 whenever I “lost”, just to annoy them.

[@terrytibbz6820]

I just used to use kid Buu as he was easily the best (and most annoying) character. My friend would spend hours learning all the combos thinking he was great and id just obliterate him with my button bash technique lol

[@MichaelMeaden]

Powerful memories of trying to beat Kid Buu in the campaign on the harder difficulty (to get the last few unlockable capsules) and constantly backing in and out of the capsule shop to get the ones you wanted to appear! Great video. Please do BT series next!

[@bornonmany2sdays]

i just 100% the game after all these years the other day . the shop is brutal

[@kaizoku8087]

Oh god Budokai 2 days 🙃

[@pemo01]

Will always love Budokai 2! I remember vividly playing hours and hours of the story mode to unlock every capsule possible :)

[@Vulpas]

Same, it was very cool

[@supervegito2277]

Budokai 2s story mode is so damn unique... Id love for another game to mix genres like that.. imagine larger maps, units on the same slot fight as a team, fusions lasts X amount of turns and so on.

[@Soulintent95]

I actually really loved 2s board game story. People hate on it but they love b3s story which is literally 80% unvoiced text and crappy pics. At least the board game is more interactive than the mostly empty world you fly around in b3.

[@kaizoku8087]

FAX

[@Omega_1998_]

FACT: The reason Budokai 2 was not remastered as part of the HD collection is because the developers knew that most gamers didn't like Dragon World.

[@kaizoku8087]

I liked Budokai 2 the most due to its story mode and there are more moves to pull off with different button combinations. If everything was combined in Budokai 2 & 3 it’d be perfect.

[@Millacatt]

The best memory I had with Budokai 1; I was having issues with charging Piccilo's Special beam Cannon, The one where you have to rotate the stick(s), I was struggling all day, then my mom noticed i couldn't get past it, then she put her hand on both sticks, and moved them both at the same time, bypassing the whole challenge, I was blown away.

[@cpthuggyface2011]

What worked for me was just rotating the sticks back and forth keeping in the middle, essentially not giving raditz control

[@pablocasas5906]

The Budokai games were very popular in Latin America, especially the Tenkaichi ones. Since Dragon Ball arrived here in the mid 90s most the only DBZ games we used to play before Budokai were one from the Mega Drive and Final Bout for the PSOne, but the Budokai felt more like the anime Something interesting is the amount of mods that people mananaged to make for the games, especially the ones that try to add voice clips from the famous Latin American Spanish dub

[@VagaMundos.]

Mario Castañeda and Rene Garcia 😉

[@gregoryrodriguez5621]

Cañada de la Cumbia 😂

[@Dr._Doppietta]

Y'know, rewatching these games and analyzing their history after all these years, I feel like B1 & B2 were basically a Budokai prototype and a Budokai alpha, with B3 being a beta, especially when you consider how much content that game was supposed to have. All in all, good analysis!

[@boskifigueroa]

When the GOAT Doppietta speaks, we listen 👏💯

[@aiyachristian]

The fact that Budokai 3 is the only DBZ game where you can go from SSJ3 Goku to SSJ4 Goku in one transformation. Fuck the accurate lore, that shit is so cool. ESPECIALLY when Goku did it in the opening intro too, just fuckin badass.

[@TheWolfSharp]

I loved Budokai 3, I remember being fascinated by the transformations in real time when you've played matches agains your opponent; by the time Budokai Tenkaichi 3 got announced, I couldn't be happier, I read about all its details, and how the stages would influence what transformations you could have, how it was going to be the biggest roster they had. It was great.

[@tibocool1328]

dude your channel is making me so nostalgic its amazing.

[@JoeNayDoh]

Budokai 3 is not only my favorite game of the series but my favorite DBZ game of all time. As someone who sucks at fighting games I actually got kind of decent at it I think. Not to mention I even had not playing the game and just creating some Com vs Com "dream bouts" like Frieza vs Cooler or Dabura vs Future Trunks.

[@93rwolf]

Hyper Mode ruined B3. Everything else about it was awesome.

[@OmegaS-117]

I know for a fact that some of those fights in Budokai 1 took me ages to beat like the last Gohan vs Cell fight took me a entire weekend to beat

[@chieflancewaiters]

There was a training on the way to namek fight against fake vegeta where you get 1 bar of health and he gets 3, that suckkked

[@muddymikedd]

I didn't get to watch the show much growing up (just because of bad televised timing), so the Budokai games were actually how I first experienced the story. I didn't get to watch it until my house got an iPhone and all the episodes were just illegally uploaded to KZbin. The good ol wild west days of the site.

[@michaelsears6702]

Same about not being able to watch the series and having to follow the video games to know what’s going on.

[@Blitzer45Z]

I admire the amount of detail you go into this and would love to see the Budokai Tenkaichi series comparasion as well :)

[@DBZdude95]

Thank you Flandrew. This was a great trip down memory lane and your reviews are unbiased which I love. Would love to see you cover the spin offs and the Tenkaichi series especially.

[@thecrazycapn]

I loved the "board game" aspect of Budokai 2 as a kid, although I knew it was only kinda half-fleshed out. When I picked up Budokai 3 at GameStop for $15 a couple years later, I expected to find a new, fully developed board game, and was disappointed.

[@alexmott507]

I just replayed these for the first time in over 15 years! What perfect timing for this upload

[@parhelio___]

Fun fact, the Freeza ship capsule was in in the first game as well.

[@XJ0461C]

I love these chill nostalgia trips so much, your channel is a gem. Thank you for bringing content that matters.

[@Lando-kx6so]

Infinite world should've been called Budokai 4

[@DarkLordofTheRizz]

Budokai 3.5

[@DryRamen]

Fantastic video! Me and my buddy in HS loved these games. Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi carried our after school gaming sessions.

[@geetarmagedon2138]

ngl i really liked the og budokai graphics with no outline. It seems more realistic and softer without the outlines. I always throught 2 and 3 looked worse for some reason as a kid

[@bumblebee123410]

You’re not alone there buddy

[@fatangrygeek5746]

8:04 - Hey look, Master Roshi riding Baby Gamera, That's a cute little easter egg if I do say so myself. I never knew this until I researched Baby Gamera on the Dragon Ball Wiki, but apparently, Dragon Ball Super had two cameos for Baby Gamera. One moment is when Roshi rides Baby Gamera to Bulma's house to be granted a wish by Shenron, and another is Roshi riding to Bulma's again to train for the Tournament of Power. I love that Baby Gamera is still showing up from time to time.

[@Lucsparrowx]

Please do cover more dude! Many controllers... The stalks of the thumb sticks looked like they were nored down by beavers

[@Leonhearth0]

The first Dragon Ball game I've ever played was Final Bout... So needless to say the first Budokai, while lacking a lot from its successors, bring me back so many fond memories. As a kid, I couldn't pay for the game but I had a magasine talking about it and I was dreaming about it at night until my parents gifted it to me.

[@Sakubo]

Thanks for the video. Budokai trilogy and especially the first one was a big favorite of my childhood! I would love to see more videos about the series like Tenkaichi!

[@dcortes92]

I remember seeing the PSP ports for these games and was blown away on how good they looked. I eventually played them and had a lot of fun with them.

[@juliusfilms]

IF Infinite World was called Budokai 4 it would have done really well IMO

[@Gamechamp3000]

Absolutely; I didn't know Infinite World existed until years after the fact, and didn't know it was actually Budokai 4 until within the last couple years. The entire time I was thinking "Jeez, it's a shame they never made a fourth Budokai game"

[@Crowens]

Yeah I found out like last week lol@@Gamechamp3000

[@Kerunou]

Totally. Infinite World was essentially a maxed out and slightly improved Budokai 3. But it was more of the same to reviewers, general fans didn’t know what it was, and it came toward the end of the PS2 life cycle; all those things culminated in all around poor sales. The audience that was built in for that game, didn’t and pretty much couldn’t show up for it for those reasons.

[@geo-305]

Yea but infinite world is so fucking hard

[@SSJ491]

While I had the first three original Dragon Ball Z: Budokai games, I didn't even know there was another Budokai game on the PS2 (referring to Infinite World) when I was at the Target store. So I pick it up and bought it like $40. I played it and it looks very similar to Budokai 3, but they've added features in the game like Aura Burst. But some of the features like Hyper mode, Dragon Rush, and beam clashes were taking out in the game. Even the World Tournament mode was not appearing in the main menu, and I was absolutely shocked.

[@vexzel5550]

Budokai 2 not getting a HD UPDATE will always be one of the most confusing things ever. Like an entire game. Missing.

[@MattwosRandomNonContent]

2:34 That's the Buu Saga version of Saiyaman who wore that towel on his head so his helmet didn't fly off when he went super, which sounds backwards to me and some games do have a Super Saiyan form for the helmeted version anyway.

[@KodyCrimson]

Having played two of the Budokai Tenkaichi games already, I'd be so down to see a comparison.

[@AdriElric]

It's funny how I never watched any dragon ball series, any dragon ball games, and still I love watching my favorite youtubers talk about it. I love to watch people talk about what they like or grew up with.

[@joecal77]

Budokai 3 is so good, and is one of my favorites in the franchise. I prefer the non HD version for the"borrowed" music.

[@Commander-Mazinga4Evah]

0:36 the problem is that in south europe (at least in Italy, idk greece or spain) it came out in 1995

[@mattfick5502]

Great video! I have too many Budokai memories to list, it's such a huge part of my childhood

[@eduardorickrot4763]

I love the story mode and fun what if scenarios of these games. Growing up in a relatively poor country and neighborhood, I didnt actually have a Playstation 2 until the Playstation 3 was already out, and I never had a single game that wasnt pirated. However, I have very fond memories of playing the Budokai games in the early to mid 2000s together with neighbours and friends, at places you would pay for your game time, my eyes glued to the biggest CRT screen available.

[@mwax3124]

I would love to see you do the Tenkaichi games! I’ve recently discovered this channel and over the past month or so have binged most of your videos. Great content! Can’t wait to see more!

[@madladsdabs]

Why is flandrew so underrated? The quality and topics are amazing

[@bigw725]

8:35 “and we all have that one friend” pfft yeah ok mr prom queen

[@TheGodofweak]

I loved all the budokai games but man Budokai 3 was special. That opening song and animation got me so hyped and as a kid who never had access to the extended DBZ universe like the movies, seeing Gogeta and Broly got me so excited to see that there was more Dragon ball content to discover beyond the shows. Not having the internet at the time, I remeber so vividly stumbling across the diverging path in the story mode to fight Broly, which blew my mind. My dad sense my joy in that moment and watched me fight and unlock Broly, its a memory I don't think I'll forget. Budokai 3 had this magic I've only seen FighterZ emulate in brigning people together, even years after Budokai's release friends would want to battle it out, there's just something about the artsyle, the music, the teleporting, how all the mechanics came together that told us this is THE Dragon ball Z game. Others had more characters, FighterZ is probably the best combat system, but Budokai 3 had the most heart.

[@lotus1117]

Great video! Just a Pandora Box of nostalgia for me. Hope you make one for the Tenkaichi games, as well as the XBOX 360/PS3 era games.

[@sasuke082594]

When my dad bought me my PS2 back in 2002, I got two games with it, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, and Budokai 1…. I spent so many hours on both games. Eventually Budokai 2 came out but I never really got to play that one… in 2004 the adverts for Budokai 3 were playing on TV around the holidays so my parents got me the game for Christmas and it was honestly the best Christmas ever. Pretty much I just wanted to say my parents gave me the best childhood and I never really asked for much.

[@juancho5419]

Oh, yess. I need one for the Budokai Tenkaichi series, please. My childhood was pretty much done with budokai Tenkaichi 2 and 3...

[@YoshiTheOreo]

The funny thing about the loading screen minigames and the controllers at that time is the quality of those controllers were so good that I still have mine and they still work. And that was me playing competitively with friends after school.

[@ShogunGin0]

Something to mention about the NA re-release (the Greatest Hits version) of Budokai 3, among those features from the Japanese version, it also has the original Japanese voices as an option. However, the first batch released had none of those features, and was just a reprint of the vanilla NA release, meaning that if you want a physical copy with the additional content, I believe it's a gamble since I'm not aware of any differences between the two. Maybe the UPC was different, I don't remember.

[@Dr._Doppietta]

B3 had 2 different names, "Greatest Hits" in America and "Collector's Edition" in Europe, so it's easy to tell if it's a vanilla or enhanced version of the game.

[@Kirbysansandbootlegsansshow]

5:33 rest in peace boss rabbit and his minions they had a great golden years making mochi

[@finalphoenixable]

Budokai 3 ist such a classic. I play it still today sometimes, its timeless!

[@tristanjordan2709]

What about Infinite World?

[@razumtazum3246]

Would love to see you do a similar video about the Budokai Tenkaichi trilogy as well.

[@Phillylove100]

To ask the obvious question are you going to cover the tenkaichi trilogy?

[@TheAntiburglar]

My god...Krillin with a Machine Gun and that brief clip of that Super Saiyan Goku with Launchable Kamehameha just hit me in the nostalgia so hard that it knocked the Super Saiyan out of me 😵

[@kazuhirokawamoto7213]

finally the budokai series love your comparing videos

[@Chun-believable]

Budokai 2 is such a big part of my childhood and it was the best game ever. Until Budokai 3 came out. That game is still a masterpiece to me. The opening alone, especially the song, brings me such nostalgia that I could cry. Budokai 3 is the best game in the series. Yes, that includes Tenkaichi. I don’t know if Infinite World counts.

[@93rwolf]

Hyper Mode ruined B3. Everything else about it was so awesome, but that stupid Hyper Mode and that boring Dragon Rush sucked all of the fun out of the game.

[@seanb3226]

I always imagined "dress down" Goku as his Thanksgiving dinner outfit 😂 like throw the pigskin around and sit down for dinner

[@smilingsaiyan8357]

The Budokai games all blew me away in the day :) so many great memories with them all :) :) Budokai 3 i found the most addictive back in the day Budokai 1 was the first game i spent my own pocket money on :) would love to see you cover the rest :)

[@supervegito2277]

2:25 Legacy of Goku 2s EU box art also features buu saga cast.. wonder if this is for the same reason.

[@rickdaniel7341]

Budokai 1 was a big part of my childhood. I would play the cutscene of the final beam struggle between Gohan and Cell with the volume all the way up. Drove my mom nuts.

[@Makoto03]

God i loved the Budokai series on PS2. Very nostalgic. Enjoyed the remaster on PS3 too. Wish they would port it again so i could play it on my PS5.

[@dstinnettmusic]

3:35 *Vegeta was overcome with intense empathy*

[@andrewjanzen6460]

Budokai 1 will always have a special place in my heart as it was my first 3D DB game. My poor controller took a beating.

[@johnashiru3952]

Being born and growing up in the UK as well I also remember looking at the front cover Budokai 1 like “This is some bollocks” 😂

[@Nocc2991]

Loves these games growing up. I have so many good memories.

[@dariusdafigga]

Every kid who played Budokai will remember how stressful that Raditz level was Budokai 2 had the best soundtrack of the three (in my opinion) and is the one I have the most memories playing. I was surprised to find how most people felt about the board game style campaign, I loved it and would definitely love to see it return in a new DBZ game Budokai 3 is objectively the best of the three and I loved the Dragon Arena wiping enemies as SSJ4 Vegeta

[@MattwosRandomNonContent]

4:54 Still has nothing on the Abridged Series version wearing a suit.

[@RandomCitizen014]

Loved playing these as a kid. Budokai 1 has a special place in my childhood, I'd rank them 1, 3 and 2. Also loved the legacy of Goku games and Buu's fury.

[@jeuryrabassa4724]

Budokai 3 and Infinite World are my favorite DBZ:Budokai games. There were so much fun to play on the PS2.

[@RomanceDawnEntertainment]

The glow up from 1-3 is insane 😂😂

[@YAH2121]

3:56 this unlocked a traumatic memory i forgot i had

[@isnull_or_empty]

Budokai 1 for me, that game drove my childhood along with DBZ episodes on Toonami. The best times, man.

[@burnout713]

Budokai 1 was one of the first T games I ever got and, as someone who had never (and still has never) seen the show, I remember being absolutely horrified by the first shot of Goku's bloody face hurtling toward the ground, which was one-upped about 15 minutes later with him taking the Special Beam Cannon straight through the stomach complete with a gaping hole rendered in his body. I made sure my mom never saw a second of that game. But even though my memories with the first game are special, I actually had a lot more fun over the years playing through the second one. It makes for a really fun pass the controller co-op game if you have different people control different characters. We actually did exactly that on my old KZbin channel from college and it made for a fun series. After spending time with the first two, I never ended up getting the third; I guess I just kind of thought I had gotten what I needed to out of the series and was evolving into a much more mature gamer with the many superior options available on PS2 at the time. Still look back fondly on those first two games, though, even though I know mechanically they really aren't that great.

[@VLikaru]

I remember the GC version of the 1st game was sold for 20 bucks at Sam's Club, which is the reason I traded it away some time later for a Pokemon Colosseum, which I knew was more expensive. I still regret it somewhat but these games were a great part of my childhood.

[@goranisacson2502]

I only ever played the first one when it was brand new, and yet for some reason what I remember most is the Satan-solo mode. Something about taking the worlds savior and giving him a jetpack that was just so memorably silly in my mind, I guess.

[@Abishek97]

Absolutely loved the budokai series! Great video!

[@dmaster5556]

I used to love setting up scenarios in Budokai 2 to experiment with the different Buu & fusion forms.

[@swempytimes]

I loved these games so much growing up, It's interesting that they put the buu saga stuff on the European version I didn't know that

[@derekknowles5805]

Dbz budokai 2 was the 1st Dbz game I owned on my 11th birthday, Kid Buu was the hardest to beat but liked the fusions and the Buu transformations. Then in 6th grade my friend let me borrow his budokai 3 and I was a amazed by it, the soundtrack was different and Goku ripped clothes also the planets explode. I didn't play Budokai 1 till years later when the HD collection came out

[@LDragon2000]

You must be living in my house because I literally just started playing Budokai 3 last week. another great video would love to see more videos about the Dragon Ball Z games but I think the series peaked with Budokai 3.

[@Naruku2121]

Vegeta had so much Drip with that alternate costume, had no idea that was his EoZ fit at the time.

[@SmazSolaire]

Ah yes, Budokai 1... the game that was my first experience of Dragonball Z in general. I had a friend with this game and at the time I was into fighting games in general. I really liked the simplicity of the combat when playing against my friend in Budokai 1, so I ended up getting the game myself. That was my first experience of the story, the characters and I really enjoyed it! I stuck with the series after that. Even after all these years, I still like popping on Budokai 3 and Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for different reasons. They're genuinely great games!

[@MattwosRandomNonContent]

0:40 New partners? Bandai had been a part of the franchise since it first started.

[@Vexiarla]

as a nintendo household I have so many memories of playing budokai 2 on my gamecube and that damn board game of a world map lol

[@AaronBaker-g8g]

Yes please continue to cover dragon ball games

[@SardonyxBlackstar]

Budokai always had a special place in my heart. I essentially took over my dad's copies of the trilogy and spent countless hours playing them, especially 3. I actually once made an attempt to create a tournament scene for Budokai 3 at my local comic book store. Whiiiiiiich did not work out because I ultimately learned through this just how unoptimized for tournament play Budokai 3 was. An amazing game to play casually, but from a competitive sense, the game is *littered* with broken characters, cheap tricks, and unfair advantages to the point where it just wasn't worth the effort. Still, Budokai 3 remained my favorite Dragon Ball game for years up until Dragon Ball FighterZ released, and I hope someday we get some form of Budokai 4. Tenkaichi is also great, but it just never held a candle to the OG Budokai in my opinion.

[@TruuJones]

Budokai 3 is the GOAT DBZ game easily Edit: Infinite World had improved gameplay but lacked Budokai 3s content like Tournament Mode, Dragon Universe, and Arena modes. I remember getting bored after beating the game b/c there wasnt anything to do after beating it or anyone to play with.

[@Yoskii1235]

3:00 if you only you knew what was beneath the ice berg my friend...

[@jailcatjones3250]

Master Roshi killed boss carrot and gang during his fight with goku. 3 was like crack, the insane roster and the way you can level them up was quite a treat.

[@92BIGRICH]

Budokai 2 was the first proper game I ever completed. Rented Budokai 3 from blockbuster and I always loved how you had to explore to unlock new characters and additional story. Young me was so thrilled when I unlocked Gogeta and Broly. I even started writing walkthroughs for each character's story after figuring out what to do, I just could never figure out how to post it to the super cheats website 😂

[@bobdole776thegreat]

I didn't break any controllers, but I had a few heated moments when going through that one secret mode for DBZB3. There were 3 secret extra hard cpu levels you could set to with z3 as the max, and man getting through all those tough fights on z3 really was a challenge! Went back to it many years later and holy crap I couldn't even beat cpu's set to hard, where very hard was a breeze for me back in the day, ha!

[@danteshollowedgrounds]

Well here's the nine thousandth video that I had never seen before but am gonna leave a lot on about it. So yeah I loved all of them but Budokai 2 was a national treasure to me playing as a kid I just couldn't get enough of it. Especially the soundtracks in Budokai 2 was beyond PEAK, hell Budokain3 had reused some sounds etc.

[@josesosa3337]

I'm half convinced the stick abuse for the beam clashes was a way to sell more controllers. I don't know what they were thinking.

[@Gridlock3]

Budokai 3 will always be my favorite DB game ever.

[@Zack-xu2zw]

PLEASE cover the "other" budokai games. So underrated

[@gatike002]

For some reason i like the strange 3d aspect from budokai 1 looks way better to me

[@Vulpas]

I loved Budokai 2 the most, the quest mode was very fun.

[@yobro6053]

That quest mode was the best feature in the trilogy , budokai 3 was the best imo but 2 had the most unique campaign

[@bubbles46853-ep9if]

The Frieza Spaceship was in 2 as well. And hey, it’s practically the same as the Senzu Bean capsule.

[@Imperatrixxy]

"The [first Budokai] game opens with an in-engine recreation of the first DBZ opening"... unless you were living in Europe. We got a weird montage of in-game cutscenes with one of the game's BGM songs playing in the background.

[@Niosai]

Whoa! Great video! You HAVE to play Burst Limit, it's legally required

[@Flandrew]

Thank you. My friend and I put many hours into Burst Limit back in the day. The should have just called it Budokai HD

[@Niosai]

@@Flandrew The cutscenes are still my favorite in any Dragon Ball game ever (not counting FighterZ, which is cheating)

[@OdinTheUniverseTraveler2003]

Great video. Idea for next video: comparing every version of Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2005)