Here's the short version of the review: Get Budokai 3.
Be it not for this game's legion of followers and their dedication to whatever little gameplay there is I would've never gotten this game. I wish things could've stayed that way.
Graphics: 3/10
The graphics in DBZ: Legends are bad, and I'm being generous. The fighters are small and underdetailed, looking as if they came out of a NES game. They are either stretched (resolution wise) or pixilated to the last bit of clothing or skin that they display. They're small and scrawny with barely visible facial expressions or muscles.
These fighters battle it out on huge "battlegrounds" that really cannot possibly amount to anything more than just the same grounds with different wallpapers. There is no difference it ground texture, dimensions, or destructible objects in any of these arenas. They're basically a sorry excuse for a 3D environment in which your characters can duke it out to the death with mediocre special effects and horrendous lighting. The whole game simply feels like a mish-mash of slightly 3D fighters thrown in perfectly 2D backgrounds and looks horrible as a consequence.
Also, just for reference purposes: This game looks MUCH better on a Saturn. The effects look hundreds of times better, the resolution is higher, the load times are faster, etc. If you have a chance, and are really that much of a hardcore DBZ fan, get Legends for the Saturn as it's a totally superior game.
Sound: 8/10
Sound effects in DBZ: Legends really carry a great deal of weight for your average DBZ game. Unlike the weaker US versions of DBZ games (Budokai, etc.) the voices do wonders here, as the Japanese actors deliver their lines to perfection, without hesitation and with true spirit. In lay-mans terms, that means no more botched "Guarghh"s and no more girly battle screams.
Great voice work is combined with an equally as satisfying sound effect component, with each punch, kick and explosion feeling rich and powerful making for a much more enjoyable experience. And that’s good because sound effects make the much needed amends for the music in Legends, which is instantly forgettable. The music is a simple amalgamation of heavy guitar riffs and blood pumping techno that makes for good background, but it's very lousy to listen to.
Gameplay: 2/10
It really boggles my mind as to why DBZ: Legends is considered such a great DBZ game. Legends is far from being a "decent" DBZ game, much less so a good one, thanks to a monotonous combat system, horrible backgrounds and a slew of other minor and major problems.
Let's talk about what makes DBZ: Legends popular before we get to the bad part. The three key components that made DBZ: Legends such a success are clearly the characters, the tag-team battles and the story mode, along with its authentic DBZ “feel”.
At it's time, DBZ: Legends had the most complete roster of characters ever to be featured in a DBZ game. Everyone from regular Gokou to Majin Vegeta were part of the cast. And surprises abounded as far as characters went, as just about EVERYONE in the manga was included in this game, even fully functional Gotenks and Veggitos. The other big component of Legend's charm is the story mode. This mode brims with originality as it asks you to recreate the manga as properly as possible. That means letting characters die, getting beaten before turning the tide and even knowing when to pull someone out or put someone back in. The more accurate your recreation, the greater the enjoyment and the more characters you unlock. What's more, this game is actually based on the manga rather than the anime which is another crumpet of much needed originality in the DBZ universe. Finally, there is the actual battle-system, to be more specific: The tag team fights and the insane pace of the action on screen. The battle system is not only easy to use but it features something no other DBZ game has done well enough: Tag battles with up to three characters all blasting, kicking or punching each other to death. The "feeling" of this game is very, very show-accurate to say the least.
Now, that we're done with the good let's get to the bad because there's a great deal of it. Most importantly comes, obviously enough, the fighting system. While the feeling of being part of a DBZ-like fight might seem great for the first 20 minutes of game time one will soon come to realize just how broken Legends' system really is. There are only 5 attacks in this game, safe for the meteo attacks, and that's being generous. You can either kick your opponent to the left, right or juggle him up or down through the sky. Every now and then, if you're opponent is not careful enough you can catch him in a "rotating combo" in which a character will pummel the other until he or she can counter. That's all you can do to get your power bar filled up in Legends and damage your opponents. It looks fast paced but after you've hit the UP + kick button 30 times, as it's really THAT easy to string together a combo, you're fingers will start crying in pain. What's more, if you've seen one combo in Legends you've seen them all. Basically the only thing one has to do in this game is to keep changing attack positions from below, to the right, or to the left and from the top, to the bottom or in any other combinati, to avoid giving his or her opponent a chance to counter the combo. Countering happens by entering the opposite move of your opponent, say, by entering DOWN + Kick when you’re opponent wanted to try using UP + Kick the 45th in a row. Too bad that the timing for these counters must be SO accurate, that once caught in a combo you have a good chance of never getting out alive.
Sound confusing? Well, it isn't, here's an example: Say you're playing as Vegeta and you've just started kicking your opponent in the air. You've done it about 20 times now and you're thinking you probably should switch to hitting your opponent from the right as if he manages to hit DOWN + punch/kick he can turn the whole string of combos around. That's all there is to this game, and that’s way too much chance and way too little skill.
After a certain number of hits have been landed, your characters get to perform what is called a "Meteo attack" which is the only thing that actually damages your opponent. After anywhere from 2 to 4 of these meteo attacks, you're opponents die and you win. The problem with this system is that, regardless of how many characters you have in a battle you ALL share the same power bar. So if you're team mates are a bunch of idiots and they're always getting beaten you'll be the one to suffer the pain as the meteo attack is delivered to the character with which, or against who, the player is playing. This would not be all that bad if the AI would know what it's doing but, unless it's in the opposing team, the AI acts like a moron regularly allowing its opponent to beat them up to a bloody pulp. Unfortunately, this makes the tag battle system useless when playing with AIs.
Don’t get me wrong though, that doesn’t mean that Legends is an easy game. See, what makes the AI totally superior in this game of luck is that it can READ the moves you imput into your controller, so, before you know it you won’t even be able to land a hit as the AI will always know which direction you’re coming from and it’ll mercilessly counter your attack.
Among the myriad of other problems that Legend has the most important is that it causes boredom and fatigue. It simply becomes IRRITATING to keep on hitting UP + kick 40 times per meteo attack. If you have 3 opponents that means some 140 repetitions of the same movement; this honestly gets to become a pain in the ass… erm, finger. Next, the blocking issue; Legends seemingly ignores the fact that you're blocking when being attacked by more than one character, so while you're blocking one guy, another can come behind you and kick your ass. This makes defensive play out of the question. Legends also comes with my 2 favorite character problems in the world: unbalances and identical moves. As there are really only 5 moves in this game ALL characters share them unanimously, so if you've seen one character do a 30 hit combo (which is poor for a game where a 200 hit combo is common) then you've seen them all. Secondly, but more importantly, the characters are highly unbalanced as stronger characters like Gokou SSJ 3 or Gotenks can not only deal more damage but they're faster and are harder to counter when locked in a combo. Finally, there are the arenas... actually, you can keep that singular: arena. There is only one arena in this game; it just has a bunch of changing backgrounds and different colors of dirt.
Legends does have quite a few modes of play including the obvious story mode, the equally as obvious Vs. mode and a practice mode. However, it also has an awesome "Mission" mode where you must take on a series of "dream matches" set up between the greatest rivalries in the DBZ universe such as an all out between Gokou, SSJ Gokou and SSJ3 Gokou and the other 3 forms of Vegeta. It's actually quite innovative, but it's marred by the fact that the battle system is so broken.
Multiplayer: 5/10
The multiplayer is actually far more fun that the game itself as humans can be much more easily countered than computer opponents and having good tag team battles is actually an option as the AI favors NEITHER of you, as it does in the single player game. It's just too bad that this game doesn't make use of the multitap or the LAN connection. It would've made for some kick ass gameplay.
Overall: 3/10
DBZ: Legends is the kind of game you play for 20 minutes and then you put down because you've seen EVERYTHING it has to offer. It's a repetitive and redundant romp through the much maligned DBZ universe. The only difference here is that Legends has a psychotic following, much like Hyper Dimension, and that it costs 3 times as much as Budokai 3: The only DBZ game worth your time