BACKGROUND:
A work-in-progress Dragonball Z game made in Sphere, based on the first major arc of the Z anime (Raditz to Frieza).

I started working on this project a few years ago as a standalone battle system in Sphere, back when I discovered this amazing software (I used to work with RM2k3 before). Then I tried to make it into a game with an actual plot, but it didn't really work out and eventually I just kinda left it. Recently found it when cleaning up my old computer, and with the DBZ love reignited by Dragonball Super, I decided to overhaul it into a DBZ battle system, and now hopefully into an actual game.

I decided to go with the beginning of DBZ up to Frieza, since there is no real action RPG game that covers it other than the original Legacy of Goku, which I personally didn't like too much, and also because it was probably my favorite part of the series growing up, and the part which introduced me into the Dragonball world.

STORY:
5 Years after Goku has defeated his nemesis Piccolo at the World Martial Arts Tournament, it is a time of peace on planet earth. Goku is on his way to a reunion with his friends at Master Roshi's house, when a mysterious, powerful being from outer space lands on Earth and begins searching for a person he calls Kakarot.

Meanwhile, deep in outer space, an elite and ruthless fighter called Vegeta is on a mission to conquer a planet with his loyal companion, Nappa.

Follow the journey of Goku and Vegeta in the original Dragonball Z Series, throughout the Raditz saga and onto the end of the Frieza saga. You will experience all of their major events from the series, and a bunch of fun side-quests in-between.

The story takes place in several locations, but two of them are major: Planet Earth and Planet Namek. In both of those planets the game will feature an open-world map with several locations to visit.

PLAYABLE CHARACTERS:

You get to play as the two main protagonists of the Z series: Goku and Vegeta.

FEATURES:

• A map based, active battle system, inspired by The Legacy of Goku Gameboy Advance games, and old school DBZ fighting games.

• Various action-moves to make your playing experience more fun: jump, dash, teleport, sprint, etc.

• A custom menu system with all the necessities.

• A power progression system with stat points to increase your character's strength, stamina or speed by your choice, and skill points to improve your special abilities.

• Z-Cards- sort of a secondary talent system for your character - aquire special cards, learn them, and improve specific skills and battle abilities.

• All the basic functions of an RPG: a dialogue system, save system, questing system, items system and more!

• Custom/Edited sprites by pixel artist George_LN, with high attention to details and smooth animations.

BATTLE SYSTEM:

• Melee Attacks: Punches and kicks with combat bonus.

• Defend by holding down a key to absorb a hard hit.

• Special Attacks: DBZ's most iconic special skills, such as Goku's Kamehameha, Vegeta's Big Bang, and much more.

• A variety of movement abilities: jump, sprint, dash forward and backward, teleport.

• Enemies with a varying difficulty - some are very basic and some can use special attacks, just like the player.

• Friend AI: NPC follows you around, fights alongside you. He's pretty stupid at the moment but he's a good guy.

• Z-Cards: Improve and customize your battle abilities using these. More on Z-Cards down below.

• Several more features are planned, like a beam-struggle system, a combo system to replace the traditional energy/Ki system and more.

MENU SYSTEM:

• Stats: Increase your main combat stats by spending your levelup-earned stat points, and view your current character's status with some depth.

• Skills: Get info on your current character's skills, upgrade them with your skill-points and setup hotkeys for them.

• Z-Cards: Learn, remove, replace and find out about new unacquired Z-Cards.

• Items: Beside using the items you acquire, you can choose to hold a specific item/item-stack, to then be able to use it from anywhere on the game's open map by pressing a hotkey.

• Objectives: get info on your current missions and quests, their rewards and their story.

• Settings: Several game options like music/se volume, health-bar displays and more.

• Controls: Change the hotkeys for every action in the game. To be implemented: full controller support.

Z-CARDS:
Special cards that you acquire throughout the game by questing and exploring. Z-Cards have specific ability changes that are meant to either make you more powerful, or just alter your gameplay a bit. They change all kind of battle mechanics, from adding features to your special skills to just spicing up your melee combat.

Z-Cards are characters specific and are also meant to create a different feel of gameplay between Goku and Vegeta. They each have a rank, going from rank 1 for the simplest/weakest cards to rank 7 for the most unique and powerful ones. The rank is indicated by a dragonball in the bottom corner of the card.

You acquire Z-Cards through questing and exploration. Most of the cards are hidden at start, but once you discover them through leveling and completing quests, you will get hints on how to get them. After you get cards, you can learn them from your Z-Cards menu.

Some cards will be exclusive with one another, meaning you cant have both active at a time, some will have a permanent effect, and some will only have a temporary effect with a cooldown / you will be able to acquire them again (undecided yet).

Here are some example of Z-Cards that are already in the game and working:



MORE:

• YouTube Channel with gameplay videos