In late 2002 DBZ Budokai was released. It had 3 seperate releases- 1 exclusively for Japan voiced by the original Japanese seiyuu, a European/International version, (with English, French, Dutch, Spanish and Italian translations) and one exclusiverly for America voiced by the American voice actors. Originally it had been intended that, instead of many countries doing tons of different dubs, they'd bring back all of the old Japanese DBZ seiyuu and use only them, and then provide translated versions for the rest of the world. But yet, the American version is dubbed- why so? Well according to "Associate Producer" Chrins Ludeen, it's because...

"... decided to include the U.S. voice actors to create something special and familiar to the majority of Dragon Ball Z fan. ... It was something that hadn't been done on this scale before, and never in a Dragon Ball game. In the end, we had a disc full of dialogue and didn't have room for both English and Japanese" (EGM, January 2003, quotes courtesy of Vegettoex's site)

They then go on to state something to the extent, "So for all you hardcore fans, you'll just have to import it yourself." (which is not NEARLY as easy as the guy who wrote that would lead you to believe.) Actually, I'm not too sure about "memory" but considering the fact that the Gamecube version will be significantly revamped it would seem that that was just a lame, light-hearted excuse Chrins Ludeen used to appease the hardcore fans. But anyway, why did they really decide to produce an American dub of DBZ Budokai?


1. FUNimation wanted, for whatever reasons, their national DBZ Budokai release to include the English voice actors. (note- I'm not sure about what versions is selling in Australia, but I am certain that the Canadians are also stuck with the American dubbed version)

2. The American DBZ dub is pretty much the only DBZ version in the world still in the process of being fully dubbed. All the voice actors are here and so it was farily easy to get them all together. Whereas, it'd be more troublesome (and probably more trouble than it was worth) for other already-completed foreign dubs to track down all of their old voice actors.

3. FUNimation would be paid $$$ to dub DBZ Budokai into English.

4. This would discourage any promotion of the Japanese version, and ensure that American DBZ Budokai purchasers will not leave the game feeling interested in checking out the Japanese version. If you're familiar with this site, you'll understand why FUNimation doesn't want to encourage any fans to explore any DBZ version outside of their "homegrown" version.

5. FUNimation would have control over the scripts of the game during the dubbing of it. But very luckily for us, Toei sent down 4 executives to oversee the dubbing of the game. (As this was the first time anywhere a DBZ game had ever been dubbed into a language besides Japanese, Toei considered this to be a "special occasion." Thus, they flew down to Ft. Worth to see how it'd be handled firsthand.) However, there are still some changes.

For starters, the name changes. Like Freiza, Tein and other things. (Mainly our good friend "Hercule") And once again the existence of Goku's family name "Son" continues to be denied anywhere in the American dub. Also, near the beginning Goku says, "My God..." after hearing Raditz comment that the other surviving Saiyajins were even more powerful than him. In the English verison, Raditz comments that that the other 2 Saiyans are even more powerful than him and Goku comments that he'll worry about that later, but right now he needs to focus on defeating him and saving Gohan.

I haven't played through all of English DBZ Budokai yet (I'm waiting until I've gone through the Japanese version first, so I can experience that one first and fully compare the differences- and maybe even write up a review...), but being as this game premiered prior to the American release of Movie 7 (where for the first time ever "real" cursing was formally introduced and formally permitted in a DBZ release under FUNimation's dubbing control) I'm pretty sure there aren't any "controversial religious" things or cursing present.
However, from what I've heard most of the script is actually pretty accurate thanks in no small part to the presence of our good friends from Toei- English Gohan actually says Masenko-HA! (FUNimation and attack names actually being said... CORRECTLY?! That's just crazy man! Christopher Neel Bligh and Barry Watson would be rolling in their graves, if they had any.) And even Vegeta says, "Big Bang Attack!" (Woohoo, no "little going away present" for #19 this time!)

6. FUNimation would be able to use their own voices exclusively. You know, the voices are what really got me when I first played the English version. What I was hoping beyond hope was to hear them use "the best" of the Ocean dub combined with "the best" of the English dub. In other words, you know, Ian Corlett firing a Kamehameha. Scott McNeil demonically firing a "Special Beam Cannon." Saffron Henderson's Gohan instead of Stefany Nadolny's "Ah sure wouldn't wanna be that mountain lion!" low-pitched, "little tough guy voice." (which was mainly the fault of the directors and not her, btw) Ted Cole's incredibly badass, wild Yamucha instead of Chris Sabat's, "Cat likes food, yeah yeah yeah!" Yamucha. And of course, Pauline Newstone's more "serpentine" Freeza instead of Lynda Chambers's horrible, "These balls make me feel something resembling JOY, I THINK! I want to caress them..." voice that should never see the light of day again.

Boy, was I wrong. The main FUNi voices were ALL there, both the good ones (ie, 17 and 18 for example) and bad ones. (though, regardless of which voices were used and how they sounded, they were pretty well-acted- also, I've heard that they use some Ocean people, but I haven't played beyond English Nappa yet. Don't worry, I'll play it and find out on my own eventually) Not only that but the "Head Cha La" sequence, instead of playing "Head Cha La" was playing a remastered, extended-length version of the vomit-inducing, long, long ago retired (and now making it's official comeback) "Rock the Dragon" song. (apparently "added" by FUNimation Studios for "consistency for the American viewing audience"- though fortunately every other song in the game managed to escape their "benevolence")

So I got to thinking, "Why not just get the European version with English translations for the Japanese dub? That'd work out perfect. Plus, I'd get to enjoy the REAL 'Head Cha La opening.'" So I imported me a copy from a UK site (www.gameplay.com- about $70 American including SnH) and what'd I find out? It doesn't work on my American PS2! It was then that I came to learn about the wonder that is "PAL" ("Phase Alternating Line") coding that European televisions, video games and video game systems have. It's basically a system to discourage importing, or whatever. I hate it, and the only interest I have in it is bypassing the damned thing. But how does a "hardcore" fan still manage to play the game even after going through the trouble of importing it a J.dubbed, E-translated, European copy of it? There are several options for fans who've already bought an import of the game.


1. Import a PAL television AND a brandspanking-new PAL PS2. The "simplest" (and most expensive) option.
All this for one game? And the "European" PAL PS2 won't even play any games you buy locally in the States. Ugh.

2. Import a PAL television and get your hands on a mod-chipped PS2.
Heh, now this is what I'm talking about. If you haven't already bought a PS2, look for one with a mod chip built in. Already have a PS2 without a mod chip? Try to find someone to put it in for you or find a way of putting it in yourself. My brother's a computer expert who handled the "mod chip" stuff for me so I'm afraid I don't know how to help you there. Also, the "swap trick" (involving a PS2 gameshark) that normally works for burned games won't work at all for any PAL games.

3. Buy an PAL-NTSC (National Television Standards Committe- thanks to The Wanderer for telling me what this and PAL means) converter program unit to use for your PS2 and/or television. (assuming you've got a modchipped PS2 or PAL PS2).
I'm still unsure about this one. Check below for more information.

4.Take your copy of DBZ Budokai and burn a copy of it on your computer. Then, use a PAL-NTSC converter program off the internet and "fuse" them to make one that's PAL-compatible with it to use in your mod-chipped PS2.
Ah, the cheapest option! Unfortunately, not every PAL-NTSC converter program works. My brother tried a few, but had not luck with it. Eventually, since he had an old, American Commodore television at home that would probably work (and since he was busy with classes- and will continue to be busy for some time) he loaned me his mod-chipped PS2 to use with the television back home. But if any of you have succeded with this trick, then please let me know which PAL-NTSC program you used to get it to work.

5. Once you've got the game and a workable PS2 (mod-chipped or PAL import) then buy a TV tuner card for a PC, then plug ur PS2 into your PC and use the monitor as a TV.
Heh, pretty self-explanatory I guess. Thanks to Alex Clarke for mentioning this step to me.


So eventually I (sort of) went with option 2. The game played fine, but with one noteable flaw- all the colors were gone! It was completely in black and white! On my regular television everything was black and white and extremely blurry when I tried to play the PAL game. But on my oldschool Commodore from the 80's, everything wasn't blurry- but still black and white. (And it wasn't the Commodore itself that had any problems. It played with color for non-PAL game just fine.) I'm not sure why it was able to work there, but it might because that television is capable of adjusting the "shaking" on the screen to make it normal.

So 1 out of 2 ain't so bad, right? Fraid not, without any color the quality is lightyears behind any colored-version. I'd easily prefer the English version over playing the J. version like some colorless 50's movie. So now I'm either stuck with importing a television from the UK to use (preferably a cheap, small to midsized one- though I'm not sure where to look...) or hunting down several PAL-NTSC programs to test with, which is making the hunt to play Japanese DBZ Budokai quite a lot of trouble.

Anyway, also don't forget that more DBZ games will be one the way in the future. For instance, a souped-up remake of DBZ Budokai is coming out in October for the Gamecube and DBZ Budokai 2 is coming out for the PS2 in December. And there will undoubtedly be many other games to come as well, also with their own American dubbing. (Like Yu Yu Hakusho for instance- and who knows how many other? They're already seriously talking about doing a DB one that covers it's whole series.) So in the long run it may be worth it to discover how to get the trick of playing PAL import games to be able to maximize one's enjoyment out of playing the various new DBZ and various different anime games that are bound to come.

Finally, one last thing to warn you about- European DBZ Budokai had it's "Head Cha La" sequence screwed over too. What happened? Well, remember how "Cap'n Ginyu" told me about how AB International (who dubbed DBZ into French- remember, DBZ Budokai was made by a French development team) replaced all of the intro with their own "special intro" which was an incredibly shitty sounding one? That's apparently what happened. The new one features a bunch of very, VERY lame fighting and powering-up sequences to the tune of some crappy, rock/light jazz, wordless song I've affectionately dubbed "Rock the Nothing." (It's even worse than "Rock the Dragon", man...)

So, if you REALLY want to go to the trouble of enjoying the opening sequence the way it was meant to be ("Head Cha La") then you either have to import the game from Japan (which won't have English subtitles at al,l btw) or just play the American version, mute out the crappy "RTD" song and then play a foreign DBZ cd with "Head Cha La" on it in it's place. (definitely the best option for this scenario- not to mention all of the extra songs that you'll have on our brand new cd)

Well, hope this information helps out some of you hardcore fans who'd prefer to hear and play DBZ Budokai in it's original form as opposed to the dubbed version. And if I'm missing any information or you know where I can improt a well-priced PAL television or have successfully done the "NTSC-converted burned disc" trick and tell me more about (specifically, which NPSC program you used) then please let me know.




(8/10/03 update)- I recently ordered a PS2 PAL NTSC Adaptor ( http://shop.infopia.com/Shop/Control/Product/fp/vpid/726394/vpcsid/0/SFV/23630) and tried it out on my Commodore TV. Combined with my non-shaky small Commodore TV, it lets the game play fine there. (though the color quality is still a little off and isn't quite at it's maximum)

However, on my big tv all I can get it to do is give it color- I can't stop the shaking. I think the main reason why is probably because I left the "RF" unit hole empty. (note- if you look at the picture, it's the part on the very bottom of the unit) Basically, the steps I went through with the adaptor were like this...


1. Plug one part of it (the white socket at the end of the cord) into the back of the PS2 into one of the 2 available slots. (the other slot, which it doesn't fit into, is the power slot where you get energy to turn on the PS2)
2. Take a "tripleX2" red/yellow/white wire. Plug it into the Adaptor unit. Then, plug the other 3 ends of them into the tv. This and the prior alone should be enough to give the game color. If your tv is capable of adjusting shaking (or perhaps, is just an old one like my Commodore) then that should be enough to get it to play just right. However, if the TV you want to use can't eliminate the shaking then there's one last step you need to go through...
3. The "RF" (which I believe stands for "Radio Frequency") socket needs something to go in it, and... I think that something then needs to be plugged somewhere into the back of your television.


I asked around at all my local Radio Shack/Best Buy/Gamestop stores (5 so far, and about a dozen different employees) but I couldn't find ANYONE who even knew remotely what the heck I was talking about. But if any guys happen to know what it exactly it is I need to do to complete step 3, please be sure to e-mail me about it. Thanks for all the information so far and please keep it coming!




(10/04/03 update)- Got another response in regards to DBZ Budokai from one Liam Kavanagh.


"Hello,

I've just read your article regarding playing a Eurpoean copy of Budokai on a US PS2. I don't know if it'll be any help, but here's some info.

PAL isn't a system designed to discourage importing. Region codes on DVDs are, but PAL is just a TV signal, the same as NTSC. The fact that they aren't compatible is merely a side effect (and a good one for the companies who hate importing).

They're also the two biggest TV standards in the world. America and Japan use NTSC, while pretty much everyone else uses PAL. PAL is higher resolution than NTSC, but only updates 50 times a second (50hz), whereas NTSC updates 60 times a second (60hz). The end result is, they're not compatible.

Now, we live in a world of games (and movies) being released in different countries at different times. Obviously big movie and game companies don't want Brits buying Japanese stuff, or Americans buying European stuff, otherwise the world would collapse into a big, er, hole of, stuff. But it's not technically illegal, and there are lots of products that can get around it. Over here, for instance, you can buy (for PS2, GC and X-Box) a disc called Freeloader for about 12 pounds. This basically lets you play a game from anywhere in the world on your machine. Of course, then there's a chance people will run into the problems you are having...scrolling picture, no colour, and so forth. Except they don't, because for some reason that I've never understood, pretty much any TV or VHS player bought in the past 7 or so years has been perfectly capable of playing NTSC pictures. That's why I can import American DBZ DVDs, or Japanese ones, and they'll play fine. I need to region hack my DVD player, but that's also stupidly easy to do (and is usually built straight into the DVD player).

Now, I don't know if you can buy Freeloader over there, but the European version does work on US PS2s. And with it, you could play Japanese games, no problem. Playing Eurpoean games does cause a problem though, because unlike European TVs, most American TVs aren't dual format. That is, they can only cope with NTSC signals, not PAL ones. The TVs you've got working are ones that are capable of displaying 50hz signals, but they aren't proper-PAL screens, which is why the colour is black and white. (A similar thing happened with the first dual-format TVs over here). If you could find a TV that is dual format, you'd have no problem.

However, this does mean that you could, techincally, import a European PS2, and Freeloader, and you'd be able to play US games on it no problem at all. Although I'm not sure if the PS2 would be capable of handling the power supply in the US. Britain works on 250v power supply, whereas the US is on 120v, I believe. Lots of things, like computers, are dual voltage, so it might work. The Gamecube would definitly work, because the power supply for that is kept seperatly from the main unit, so you'd just need to pick up a US power supply.

Anyway, I can't think of anything else to say, so I'll shut up now. Good article though, because I was curious if the European version was going to be Funimation-one, or another one (since we now get different dubs anyway, including GT with original music! Woo!). I did notice that it said "Son Gokou" on the back, but I wasn't sure if that was just because someone did a screegrab of the wrong version. Guess now I know. I'm annoyed about them taking off Cha La Head Cha La.

Oh, and if you think you're hard done by, you really should see what it's like being a PAL gamer. Loads of games don't get imported here (because they have to be translated into at least 5 different languages, so companies often don't bother. I'm still annoyed that we didn't get Animal Crossing), and some games have really shoddy PAL conversion jobs, so that the games suffer slowdown and jerkiness. And there's the fact that we get our games about 20 years after you do. All in all, it's extremely annoying."


Whew! Thanks Liam, and all the tons of other people who've e-mailed me during the past few months in regards to this. Hopefully now it shouldn't too hard for any fans reading this to figure out a way to import the game and be able to listen to the original voice acting. Anyway, DBZ Budokai is coming out remastered on Gamecube soon (October 29th... at least here in America) now I'm going to have to write up yet ANOTHER massive-sized update complete with tons of research. And DBZ Budokai 2's coming out in December (the 10th, States again) and... well, I guess now I won't have to write jack on to get it to play properly then. :) Some final questions for all you readers out there, as these are the last remaining "mysteries" and obstacles I haven't fully gotten into that should explain how to get the import to play correctly any of the number of methods listed-


1. How come my American television won't stop the shaking with DBZ Budokai in my mod-chipped PS2 with a PS2 PAL NTSC Adaptor, but it fixes the color problem? (I know that my Commodre copmuter/television monitor has the option to adjust shakiness. So if that's the only problem you have, getting it to play on a computer monitor like this should do the trick) And is there anyway to stop it and fix it so that shakiness isn't a problem on my bigscreen tv?

*. Do any of you know of any Australian gaming stores that allow importing DBZ Budokai to America? (most only import to Australia and New Zealand) I heard that the Australian DBZ Budokai release is just like the European one (only with Head Cha La in it instead of that crappy French jazz/light rock song! I heard it might have different English translations too...) and would LOVE to import a copy of the Gamecube one when it comes out. (hopefully it'll have the J. voice acting too. Then again, there is always the possibility they might decide to give the Gamecube remastered version "bonus" English voices. But hopefully, complicated foreign contracts between Toei and other video game/dubbing companies and contracts with FUNimation and Atari-Infogrames should impede something like this from happening)
(October 31 update- heh, sorry but don't get your hopes up. A big rumor was spread by someone who mistook "Rock the Nothing" for "Head Cha La" and the truth is that "Rock the Nothing" is in the Aussie version too. So, just get the European version that's easier to find as Australia doesn't usually import games anywhere else outside of New Zealand. As for "Head Cha La", again, only the Japanese version contains the original song for that.)


2. Has anyone in America ever tried using a "Freeloader" on an American PS2 and American television with a European game like DBZ Budokai? If so, what exactly were the results?

3. I haven't covered this since I didn't really know anything about it (again, my bro handled it for me) but would of you mind explaining everything a person could possibly want to know about how one "modchips" a PS2 or buys a PS2 pre-modchipped? Also, if you don't have a PS2 chip but are genuinely interested in getting one for your system, this is the best way to find out. My brother studied the hell out of PS2's and their modchips 2 years ago, but completely lost interest in "the scene" once he got what he was looking for for his PS2.


And finally, I should note that Australian PS2 systems are incapable of playing American PS2 games w/out some form of modification, so importing/buying DBZ Budokai directly from Australia (or New Zealand?) won't be enough alone to get the game to play properly. Whew. Hope all this helps you play the game. Oh yeah, Japanese DBZ Budokai rocks! Now if only they'd make a "real" DBZ RPG for America, where we can do stuff like level up characters like Yamucha, Tenshinhan, Piccolo, Kuririn, etc. Enough fighting games, and particularly GBA advance games, start putting out some real RPG games and start using the more powerful PS2 system!

- GreatSaiyaman777