I never thought the world of Dragon Ball would be any good as a Role Playing Game, specially developed by the creators of Xenosaga & Baten Kaitos; Monolith Soft.

AotS was released last month for the Nintendo DS in North America & Europe – with disappointing sales, hoping Bandai doesn’t drop for the possible sequels in the near future because this is one hell of a good game for the series. With Chapter 11(of 15) in progress, the game is turning out to be a lot longer than I expected with deeper storyline and a lot of side-quests to to complete in order to move on with the story. A lot of surprises and disappointments which could have made the game much better which will be explained on the full review next time.

The Story
There’s no way I’m going to explain this – AotS only contains the Vegeta Saga. The games storyline is based on the new aired series Dragon Ball Kai, not the original Z. The extra storyline within the game will be explained on the full review.

The Graphics
The “Open World” graphics are decent-to-average for a Nintendo DS game but the small pixelated characters which are easy to tell apart could have been worked on better for the overall look of the game. Aside from the running and flying around the world, the graphics get a huge boost during its fights with more detailed characters and of course their signature moves like kamehameha, masenko, or even special beam cannon from Piccolo.

The Sound
Love DBZ music? Hell yeah! Too bad there is no relative music from the anime series in this game, at all. Instead I get some pretty good music for a simple Role Playing Game. Although the tracks itself seems to be short with over 20 hours in the game, the music can be quite repetitive; I do love the battle song from Raditz though it fits perfectly.

The Gameplay
The game is very simple, turned-based RPG with some extras like a rage gauge to fill in order to use your ultimate attacks. S-Combos also use the rage gauge with two-to-three characters in the battle to perform an attack with 110% more damage than usual if using skills alone. S-Combo’s are unlocked throughout the overall game slowly learning new combination attacks.

Making things easier for over-leveling your party is the save point is almost everywhere giving you not just the option to save your data but completely recover your HP, AP & Health Status no matter what it is even dead buddies. Making the game a whole ton easier yet a whole lot difficult with certain chapters making you solo can be one of the games biggest struggle(leveling up Gohan alone is no fun at all). There’s even a “Block” button assigned for each three characters called “”Active Guard”; pressed within the right time making attacks received cut by 25-50%.

I am glad boss battles can be quite a challenge even if you are over-leveled, one slight mistake can destroy your whole party in a round or two. If you like the Dragon Ball series then you must definitely get your hands on this game. Not a perfect game but a perfect example how a great RPG can be made for the series.