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There is a certain anime keen observers have already named from the title of this piece. This series served as a gateway title to the world of Japanese animation, and still does to an extent. It certainly served that purpose for me, loathe though I am to admit how deeply its hooks were sunk into me in the late 90's. As a legacy of the hold Akira Toriyama's mammoth creation had on me, my shelves are crammed with every scrap of official animation from the series, subtitled in Japanese (because of when I bought them) and in SP format to maximize the shelf space required. Thinking now of how much money was necessary to acquire this huge library of 508 episodes, one OVA, 17 movies and three TV specials is something I deliberately refuse to engage in.
This mammoth franchise has certainly not been ignored in the world of video games, but its RPG appearances have served mainly to irritate instead of entertain. Legend of the Super Saiyan, from way back in 1992 on the Super Famicom, at least did things a little differently than the typical licensed game. It got incredibly repetitive towards the end, as only attaining the maximum possible level would let most characters have a chance to survive fighting Freeza, but my review serves as a better means of imparting information. There are also the Legacy of Goku titles on the GBA, which I have not played and most likely will never play given their universally loathed reputation. The Super Famicom also has the two Super Gokuden titles, which I will eventually play and probably have to give scathing reviews to. The vast majority of titles based on this series, however, are fighting games with no real interest from an RPGamer perspective.
The potential does exist for a pretty good role-playing game based off this series. After all, Goku's major aim in life is to become stronger, usually to beat down a big baddie. This motivation follows most of the characters for their own reasons, from Piccolo to Kuririn to Yamcha to Vegeta. All of the major combatants become stronger (by differing degrees, naturally) as the series progresses and constantly find more powerful opponents against whom they must battle. Though many of their techniques were only seen once and then forgotten by the series, each fighter has an arsenal of abilities that could be incorporated into an interesting combat engine. The single best aspect of a potential RPG is the ability to devote more time to story aspects that were glossed over in the original medium, such as how exactly Vegeta and Bulma came to get together and what Goku and Chi-chi's relationship is like. All I can reasonably hope for from an RPG based off this property is that it would be consistently entertaining, and that does not seem an unreasonable hope.
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