Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu (Legend of the Super Saiyan) is an RPG/Card Battling Game Hybrid that was originally released in 1992 for the Super Famicom. It is the first ever Dragon Ball game for the console, but is actually just a remake that combines two older Famicom games. Namely Dragon Ball Z: Kyoshu Saiyan and Dragon Ball Z II: Gekishin Freeza. Besides the obvious visual and audio improvements that came from the move from 8-bit to 16-bit, Super Saiya Densetsu also added some characters from the movie and the anime fillers, making for a game that is better than the sum of its parts.
Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu tackles the story starting from Raditz’ arrival on Earth, all the way to Goku – as Super Saiyan – defeating Freeza during the twilight of Planet Namek.
The player will be taking control of various characters in the series, such as Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin, Yamcha, Tienshinhan, Chiaotzu, Dende, Vegeta, Nail, and some minor characters (two Namek warriors and Captain Ginyu). The player will have a little bit of freedom when it comes to choosing which characters to bring along, but the game will force the use of characters that are required for the story. For instance, you can’t use Goku to fight Dabura, because the former is currently traveling by the time Vegeta faced the latter. The game will take that character out of your options by default if needed. There are also times when you can’t allow specific characters to die, in order to be faithful to the source material.
However, there are times when the game will allow you to keep a certain character alive even though he died in the anime/manga, which results in interesting What If scenarios. For example – SPOILER ALERT – keeping Vegeta alive during the last parts of the game even though Freeza should have killed him will result in an after credits fight scene, in which Vegeta turns Super Saiyan (way ahead of schedule) and challenges Goku to a fight.
Gameplay is where things can get difficult for non-Japanese players. As mentioned above, it is an RPG/Card Game hybrid. During the story and navigation parts, you control the characters from a top-view perspective, where they can walk, fly, and ki-boost towards destinations. Once you get to the destination, cut scenes will be triggered and the main fights will follow. All along the way, you can encounter random battles much like a JRPG. The frequency can be too much at times, but thankfully there are powerups that let you dial down the frequency of random encounters.
As for combat, it’s turn-based but instead of a ready-to-use set of commands, you have access to a deck of cards that are separated into different categories of attacks, from melee to projectile, with each card bearing a number (in dragon ball format) for attack and defensive power. These numbers and their category will work in a trump card/rock-paper-scissors-like game where the success of your attack and the damage will be affected by the cards you use and the stats of your character.
Speaking of stats, this is an RPG, so your characters do gain experience from fighting (and from story elements like the training sessions), and their total power is represented by a “Battle Power” or BP. Anybody who’s a fan of Dragon Ball Z will appreciate this mechanic, as it is an accurate representation of the sliding scale of power levels presented in the series. To wit, it’s impossible for a measly Saibaimen with 500 BP to even hurt a powered-up Gohan with 12,000 BP, much less a revived Piccolo with 500,000 BP. And yes, the power levels can go up to the millions, just like the series.
Fortunately, the battles can be enjoyable due to the visual representation of the fights so it’s not like the entire grinding experience is boring. Once you get your characters strong enough, you’ll find less need to grind. If you work hard earlier in the game and keep at it, you’ll have a much easier time during the middle towards the end.
Second, and more importantly, is that the game was only released in Japan. That means A. ) you can’t play it on a Super Nintendo due to region locking and B. ) it’s completely in Japanese. Even if you memorized the story right down to the smallest bits of dialogue, you’ll find it impossible to know where to go next or even what to do at certain points.
BUT WAIT – this is an old, old game and the system it was on is now emulated by various emulators on various systems. Even a midrange Android tablet can emulate this game with no problems at all. Additionally, various translation groups on the Internet have already released English patches for the game. A quick Google search will lead you to them, and to the instructions on how to patch your game images. This manages to solve both problems in one fell swoop.
