Like many kids in my generation, I grew up with the English dub of Dragon Ball Z and GT on morning television before school. Fighting games are a natural fit for the series; able to have a wide selection of characters from the series’ cast, while trying to replicate the action that it’s famous for. Unfortunately fighting games don’t always agree with me too well.

This game was ultimately frustrating for me. Part of it was that I couldn’t git gud enough to beat the final mission, losing a half hour on each failed attempt. But part of improving at the game is not just practicing with different characters, but grinding for booster cards, getting lucky with or exploiting the opponent AI, and slogging through the map portions all while drowning in a sea of loading screens. Not to mention the incredibly sloppy proofreading on the script, but that’s just a nitpick.

I don’t want to be unfair to the game, considering my blind spot for “traditional” fighters. By all accounts this is a good example of the genre. I did have fun when I felt evenly matched with the AI. And when the plot went in unexpected directions—such as seeking out the dead Future Gohan in the Other World, snapping him out of his hallucinations of constant android battling with the help of dead Goku and Bardock, and him then somewhat mirroring present Gohan’s Buu arc—I was delighted. Having Cooler, Broly, and Janemba show up in the story is silly and fun. And the game looks great too.

My problem with the missions is how much of an endurance challenge they are. You fly around an overworld map, protecting cities from bad guys. A neat idea in principle, but every map essentially plays out the same and an unlucky matchup late in the mission can really set you back, all the while each clash has multiple lengthy loading screens transitioning to and from the battle mode and rewards screens. I struggled to understand these missions early on, came to really enjoy myself in the middle as the plot went in different directions and I got to grips with it, but by the end had too much frustration and resentment from the growing difficulty curve and my inability to keep up. And that’s even after finding a cheap strategy with Mr. Buu.

Oh I guess I didn’t explain that this game is a scenario outside the bounds of the series; it explores how Future Trunks would have dealt with Buu in his timeline. As such it’s a nice idea with the potential for fanservice, even before they start bringing in the movie villains and revisiting New Namek and the Other World. I really liked how it expanded in that way on what we’ve seen already, although the progress of the plot gets bogged down a little at times to account for more fights. I would recommend it for patient fans or if you have some skill at the other Budokai games, otherwise just watch that one scene from Super where they deal with the “Future Trunks Buu arc” scenario in literally 40 seconds!