If I had directed Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 4 in 2010 (Enmanu16)

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 4 would’ve been, under my direction, the fourth and final installment of the Budokai Tenkaichi series that started in 2005, based on the Dragon Ball franchise created by Akira Toriyama, and this is how I would’ve wanted to make Tenkaichi 4 if I was directing it and deciding how it should’ve been done

Localization
As it happened to every Tenkaichi game before it, the game name would’ve been different in Japan, where instead of being called “Budokai Tenkaichi” the original first game was called “Sparking!”, Tenkaichi 2 was called “Sparking! Now” and Tenkaichi 3 was “Sparking! Meteor”, so Tenkaichi 4, as the concluding chapter as it was, could’ve been “Sparking! Collision”.

In Japan, the game’s soundtrack would’ve been composed of Dragon Ball, Z and GT’s scores taken from the series, but Tenkaichi 4, rather than an original soundtrack made for the game, would’ve been licensed to use Bruce Faulconer’s score taken completely from the series.

Opening Sequence
Despite all previous openings from the Budokai Tenkaichi series centering on some of the Z Fighters, this opening sequence would’ve centered only and completely on Goku, as it is the message I would’ve wanted this game to make, I want Tenkaichi 4 to be a celebration of the legend that is Goku both to the Dragon Ball Universe and to is fandom.

The sequence would’ve started with a battle worn Kid Goku, slowly rising up to stand up to King Piccolo, then quick cut to a Teen Goku doing the same against Teen Piccolo in the Tournament at the end of Dragon Ball, then another cut to Goku (Early) doing the same against Raditz and firing a Kamehameha at the screen.

Then the “Budokai Tenkaichi 4” or “Sparking! Collision” title in inserted

Then we see Goku (Early) and Vegeta (Scouter) exhanching punches at high speed, and destroying the Rocky Area as they do so, then Goku lands on the floor, and he’s suddenly on Namek (now he’s Goku (Mid) facing Frieza who looks down on him from the sky with an evil smirk, then Goku looks behind him and there’s Perfect Cell with his arms crossed grinning at him at the destroyed Cell Games Arena, then for a few seconds the screen is split between Namek with Frieza and Earth with Cell, and Goku is in the middle of both, he breaks the split screen by turning into a Super Saiyan.

He then rushes towards the screen, and is revealed he rushes to trade blows with Kid Buu for a few seconds in his Super Saiyan form, he then transforms into Super Saiyan 3 (making him Goku (End)), the scene then close ups to his face after he transforms and it is revealed he is now Goku(GT), turned into a Super Saiyan 3 as well, and fighting Baby Vegeta in his Strongest Form 2 for like 5 seconds, then it is revealed this is all Goku remembering his previous fights, as he gets ready, in a dark and thundering Rocky Area and with the costume he has at the beginning and final scene of GT, to face Omega Shenron.

The battle between them is fast and very destructive, so destructive it causes many rifts that actually open up dimensions, and it greatly disturbs time, this scene takes up about 30 seconds, and the intro is 2:05 minutes long.

The dimensional rifts during their fight are so intense that, literally, all 7 Gokus from all of Dragon Ball arrive all the scene, from Kid Goku to Goku (GT), and accompany Goku (end of GT) to battle Omega Shenron.

Cornered, Omega Shenron releases the 6 Dragon Balls that reside on his chest, and he summons all other 6 Shadow Dragons (all of them seem to be manipulated, hence Nuova Shenron obeys Syn’s orders) and the most impressive section of the opening ensues, All 7 Shadow Dragons begin fighting All 7 Gokus.

Kid Goku faces Naturon Shenron and whacks him in comical fashion with his Power Pole, Teen Goku faces Haze Shenron and uses Feet Kamehameha to get to him, Goku (Early) uses Kaio-Ken against Rage Shenron, Goku (Mid) uses the Spirit Shot (in Super Saiyan form) against Oceanus Shenron, Goku (End) squares off against Nuova Shenron in his Super Saiyan 3 form (which is stronger than his child form in GT), and fires a Kamehameha that destroys a large part of the stage, Goku GT faces, in Super Saiyan form, against Eis Shenron and finally, Goku (end of GT) fights with Syn Shenron, but Goku doesn’t use any of his forms.

Goku (end of GT) then teleports to the sky and begins forming a Spirit Bomb, all 6 other Gokus then begin glowing blue and merge with the one making the Spirit Bomb, Omega Shenron similarly assimilates all Shadow Dragons and begins powering up, Goku then begins screaming at Omega Shenron, as he seems to throw the Spirit Bomb at him (Goku’s smiling in defiance), and Omega Shenron similarly screams at defiance, they are about to clash as the opening sequence ends.

Gameplay
Tenkaichi and Tenkaichi 2 were about creating a stable fighting system, with enough combos and mechanics to work, Tenkaichi 3 was about taking that fighting system and make it even faster, with more counter attacks and quicker reactions, by the time Tenkaichi 4 would’ve been out, there would’ve been very little to add to an already incredibly established fighting formula, so I would’ve had Tenkaichi 4 center around an aspect that was very untouched since Tenkaichi 2: destructiveness.

That’s right, I would’ve had Tenkaichi 4 take on Tenkaichi 3’s fast paced combat and bring to it a much more alive fighting stage, alongside new additions to the fighting mechanics that will make the player immerse itself even more in the Dragon Ball Universe.

In Tenkaichi 4, every Blast 2 attack, every clash between opponents, and every charged Ki Blast will, instead of a disappearing in a simple explosion, leave a permanent damage to the stage, there will be craters on the ground, sized in accordance to what attack was used. Attacks such as the Super Kamehameha and Big Bang Attack will cause huge explosions that can still harm (albeit slightly) an opponent if it is near it, these explosions are now able also to cause buildings to catch fire if they are nearby as well, burning buildings cause twice the damage to a character if it crashes against it (buildings now are also more durable, taking about 3 times of a character crashing against them to be destroyed, rather than just one time).

There is a new addition to the fighting system called the Dragon Slide, in which, if a character is thrown away by a opponent or misses a Dragon Rush charged punch or kick, the opponent can briefly slide on the ground, sea or air and slowly change its trajectory towards the opponent, making the player able to either charge at the opponent with another Dragon Rush, fire 5 Ki Blasts, fire a charged Ki Blast, or fire a chargeable Blast 2 attack (Such as the Kamehameha or Galick Gun), the Dragon Slide will last for approximately 3 seconds, but consumes great amounts of Ki and can make the character still crash against buildings and rocks while sliding.

There’s now the possibility of performing a Kiai with L2 + Square to blast an opponent away (and maybe catch it off guard), the Heavy Grab mechanic in which, after sending an opponent flying with a punch or kick, and following with a Dragon Rush, the player can stop the opponent from falling with a Heavy Finish, making the player able to keep attacking, the Heavy Grab consumes a lot of ki as well, and it is used by pressing Triangle just when in front of the opponent while in Dragon Rush.

Players can now ascend and descent slowly, rather than on just one speed, experienced players will like descend slowly to the ground as a sign of superiority and dominance against the opponent, players can now Cancel Flight and immediately fall on the ground by pressing R1 + L1, falling from highs into the ground will create a small, permanent crack on the ground. Players will be able to walk and swim if they move the R Stick slowly while on ground and water respectively, if a character is on the ground and its health is red, the character will walk very very slowly and while in pain.

Players can increase their Dragon Rush speed with the Sonic Boom, which in difference to the Z Burst Dash, isn’t evasive, doesn’t cause the player to zig zag, and is better for direct attacks.

Motion Blast attacks will allow Blast 2 attacks that are chargeable to be possible while rushing towards the opponent (normal rush, not Dragon Rush), jumping and during Dragon Slide, the attacks will make much less damage than the stationary Chargeable 2 Blasts but will save the player time, useful for faster attacking.

Beam Struggles, Transformations and Stage Destructions can now be selected to be in real time. Beam Struggles can now have draws, causing a huge explosion (that can make the ground catch fire for a while), real time transformations can be done by holding the R3 Button, it will take 5 seconds to be activated, Stage Destructions will occur by the Ultimate Attack causing a white light that covers the entire stage (and make the character cover his eyes) and by the time the player opens them, he is already in the Destroyed Stage, Stage Destructions can be caused by an opponent being hit with the attack, or the attack simply hitting the ground.

Blast Attacks like a Kamehameha, Galick Gun, Super Masenko, make giant spheres of energy when in contact with the opponent, THEN the blast will dissipate into smoke (that will last a couple seconds, making visibility difficult) if the attack touches the ground, there will be a Moderate Size Crater left in it.

Regular Ki Blasts will leave smoke when in contact with the opponent, making their visibility difficulties, Charged Ki Blasts will leave a fiery explosion which is moderate in size.

If a character descends into water, the other player in the sky or ground WON’T be able to see the character in water, this will facilitate surprise attacks (Goku (Mid) will have the Twin Dragon Shot).

When two characters make a Dragon Rush charged punch or kick and then clash, instead of a mechanic in which the players trade blows while spinning the R Stick, players will now cross each other, and leave a huge Air Explosion which will cause a huge splash of water to rise up (Sea), or leave a Moderate Size Crater on the ground, during this clash in which none of the characters send each other flying away, both characters can perform Dragon Slide and charge at each other again.

OPTIONAL: These don’t necessarily need to have been part of the game, but two new mechanics could’ve been a Fourth Blast 2 attack, performed by either L2 + Left + Triangle, or L2 + Right + Triangle. The other mechanic, was for the player to minimize its Ki / Presence, making the opponent unable to lock on to the player unless seeing him face to face, useful for connecting long range blasts and attacks.

New Characters
Every new Tenkaichi game added about 28-37 new characters, Tenkaichi 3 was indeed crowded, so the characters to be added would’ve been mainly from Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball, the list would’ve been as follows:

Dragon Ball

1. Teen Goku

2. Teen Piccolo (Base, Giant)

3. Bandages The Mummy

4. Master Shen

5. Shen (Kami in Disguise)

6. Staff Officer Black (Machine)

7. General White

Dragon Ball Z

8. Kami

9. Tora (from Bardock: Father of Goku)

10. Android 14

11. Neiz

12. Cacao

Dragon Ball GT

13. Goten (GT) (Base, Super Saiyan)

14. Trunks (GT) (Base, Super Saiyan)

15. General Rilldo (Base, Fusion)

16. Gotenks (GT) (Base, Super Saiyan) (Special character created specifically for the game)

17. Bulla

18. Oceanus Shenron (Base)

19. Haze Shenron (Base)

20. Eis Shenron

21. Vegeta GT (Base, Super Saiyan) (Can then connect to Super Saiyan 4, but rather than just powering up in the transformation cutscene, he receives a Green Energy that is the Blutz Wave)

Extras

22. Krillin (Dragon Ball)

23. Grown Chi-Chi (end of Dragon Ball)

24. Goku Jr (Super Saiyan)

25. Vegeta Jr (Super Saiyan)

26. Bulma (Machine) (Entirely new character created exclusively for the game)

27. Hatchiyack

28. Goku (End of GT)

Character Changes
- Uub can’t transform into Majuub by himself, he needs to fuse with Majin Buu just like Goku fuses with Vegeta to make Vegito.

- Majuub’s Ultimate Blast will be Chocolate Kamehameha

- Teen Goku will have Meteor Combination as his Rush Attack, Goku (Mid) will have either the Twin Dragon Shot or a Rush Attack involving the Spirit Shot as a replacement

- Goku (GT)’s Universal Spirit Bomb will have a cutscene

- Vegeta (GT)’s One Handed Final Shine attack will be his Ultimate Blast in his Super Saiyan form, his Super Saiyan 4 form will have the more powerful, Two Handed Version as his Ultimate.

- Goku (End of GT) will be the only Goku as an Adult not to have the Spirit Bomb as an Ultimate.

- In order to perform EVERY Spirit Bomb, the player MUST utilize “Give me Energy!” first

- There will be 2 Stages which will have augmented gravity, making most players move and power up slowly as if on water

- Android 19 and 20, rather than firing regular Ki Blasts from their hands, will fire small Eye Lasers instead

- Some characters that cannot fire Ki Blasts and fly, will still be able to perform Kiai

- There will be characters EXCLUSIVELY designed for the Story Mode, they will be:

1. Kid Uub (his fighting style will be Krillin’s when he’s shy, but when mad, his fighting style will be Super Saiyan Kid Trunks)

2. Mr Popo (will fight like a much slightly faster version of Dodoria)

3. Baby (GT) (Teen, Adult)

4. Teen Trunks (History of Trunks)

5. Goten (end of Dragon Ball Z)

6. Pan (end of Dragon Ball Z)

7. Mutaito (Dragon Ball) (Will play like a faster Master Roshi)

8. Krillin (What-If Story) (Will play like Android 17)

9. Tien (Dragon Ball) (Will have as his Ultimate Attack the Ki Blast Cannon and will have a Story Mode exclusive “Volleyball Attack”)

10. Yamcha (Dragon Ball) (A slower version of the actual Yamcha) (Will be unable to use Soukidan until his fight with Shen (Kami in Disguise)

11. Tuffle Possesed Goten (the same but with red eyes and Tuffle lines)

12. Tuffle Possesed Trunks (the same but with red eyes and Tuffle lines)

13. Tuffle Possesed Bulla

14. Black Water Mist Yamcha

15. Black Water Mist Adult Chi-Chi (Grown Chi-Chi fighting style)

16. Chiaotzu (Dragon Ball) (A slower version of actual Chiaotzu) (Will be unable to use “Goodbye, Mr Tien)

17. Bulma (NPC) (Appearances throughout Namek Saga, Android Saga, Baby Saga and Shadow Dragon Saga)

New Stages
1. Pui Pui’s Homeland (increased gravity)

2. Capsule Corporation Gravity Room (increased gravity)

3. World Tournament (Destroyed)

4. Fortuneteller Baba Place

5. Planet Tuffle

8. Tree of Might invaded City

9. Inside Buu

10. Waterfall (where Goku fought Cooler)

11. Big Gete Star (Return of Cooler)

12. New Planet Vegeta

13. Lava Place (Broly: Second Coming)

Story Mode
Easily the hardest part of creating this page, since there is no way to top Tenkaichi 2’s excellent Story Mode AND making so many changes to the stages, characters, gameplay and graphics in general, so I made it up like this.

There will be a total of 50 fights in the game, all of them divided between Dragon Ball, Z and GT.

There will be, like in Tenkaichi 2, three What-If Stories, which will be:

- Resolved Earthling (Title in progress)

Set between the Trunks Saga and Android Saga, Krillin chooses to train with Goku for three years while awaiting for the Androids to appear, which gives Krillin a tremendous boost in power.

In this arc Krillin managed to equal Android 20 in power and extract part of his body to create the remote control to Android 17 and his sister’s Bomb, Krillin actually destroys both Androids with the Bomb, and makes it impossible for Cell to develop.

- United Spirit (Title in Progress)

Goten and Trunks use the Fusion Technique against Baby in GT, and with the Zenkai technique, manage to achieve Super Saiyan 3 and expulse Baby out of Vegeta’s body, making him look for a new host

- Disturbed Protector

Vegeta (GT), after Goku leaves with Shenron, experiences self-doubt and anxiety after being named Earth’s Protector by Goku.