Harukanaru Toki no Naka De Review - DS

Once again, a Dragon Ball Z game hits the market with a subtitle that almost no English speaker will understand. “Harukanaru Densetsu” means something like “Legend of a Distant Time,” but it only means that after you look it up in a Japanese-English dictionary. To the Americans, Atari presumably expects to buy this title; it means absolutely nothing at all. It definitely doesn’t mean “card battle game”, at least not in any language known to man.

In a less specific sense, the confusing subtitle does set the tone for the game somewhat. This is a fairly confusing design, even by the persnickety standards of video card games. It explains the rules in a short blizzard of text boxes before essentially throwing you to the wolves – once battles begin, the interface is very heavy on abstract icons and other visual shorthand. If you forget what some random bit of imagery means, you’d better just make your best guess. Figure out how it all works and Densetsu’s a fair diversion for DBZ enthusiasts. It could have made things a lot easier, though.

When to Hold ‘Em

Levels in Densetsu start on an overworld game map with wandering bad guys and a boss at one end. Every turn consists of moving, using one card to create an extra single-turn effect, occasionally picking up an item or other useful widget, and usually having to fight a random battle.

Those overworld card effects are one of the game’s first really tricky bits. See, there are eight different kinds of cards in the game. They’re dealt out at random – this is not a collectible card game, with deck-building and the like. Each type of card does one thing in combat and another thing entirely on the world map. A “Reverse” card, for instance, swaps the power levels of two competing cards in a battle. You can play a low-power Reverse attack and sandbag an opponent who just spent a powerful card. On the world map, though, it’s completely different – it empties out your hand of five cards and draws a new one. There are no notes or reminders concerning each card’s effect, so you’d better keep the manual handy at all times.

Sometimes, though, your card will do nothing at all which can be a source of considerable frustration. Each card, regardless of type, has a power level, from one to Z. In the game’s reckoning of things, Z comes after seven at the top of the power scale. Every turn, you and your opponent pick a card to play and whoever plays the most powerful card sees their card take effect; whether it’s an attack, the chance to use an item, or an attempt to flee the battle.

When you play a low-power card, it often doesn’t matter what kind of card it is. The odds are good that you won’t be able to execute it anyway. Some cards pick up a little slack by compensating with a high Guard value. Guard goes up against an attack’s power rating to see how much damage it deals, but it’s still dangerously easy to draw yourself a hand full of nothing.

When to Fold ‘Em

Despite a slightly tipsy difficulty balance at times, combat in Densetsu has the supreme virtue of moving fast. The cut scenes that show Goku or Gohan or whoever blowing their opponents into the ether with big shiny energy blasts get over quickly enough. The interactive aspects of a battle don’t demand a ton of contemplation. With only five cards to play in your hand at once, you don’t spend a whole lot of time pondering strategy.

The flip side, of course, is that despite the initial confusion of learning which card does what, this isn’t the deepest game of its kind. Come to it looking for Magic: The Gathering and you’ll be disappointed to find something that’s closer to Uno. Presentation makes up for some of that, providing you’re a DBZ fan with an investment in the story. There are four campaigns that follow the exploits of four different characters from the TV show.  Developers do a good job of re-creating those famous battles with lots of cut scenes and well-drawn artwork.

When to Run

As you might expect, Densetsu comes down to the same question most anime-licensed games do. Are you a fan of the series? Then it’ll probably be good enough. Is the series just another cartoon to you? Then go ahead and give it a pass. It’s better than DBZ games used to be – back when nobody, fan or otherwise, could possibly stomach them – but Atari and Bandai still have a ways to go.

Article by: D. F. Smith