Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3
Also known as: Dragon Ball Z 3 (JP) Developer: Dimps Publishers: Atari, SA (US), Bandai (EU/JP) Platforms: PlayStation 2 Released in JP: February 10, 2005 Released in US: November 16, 2004 Released in EU: December 3, 2004 Released in AU: November 26, 2004 This game has unused playable characters. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has unusual dummy files.

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Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 is commonly heralded as the best of the trilogy, as it introduced movie and GT characters, individual story modes for multiple characters in the form of Dragon Universe, the Cell Games ruleset, and sleeker fighting mechanics such as dodging, teleportation, beam struggles and the immediately scrapped Dragon Rush to the series. It would later be re-released with the first Budokai game in HD 8 years later with altered music due to the composer's plagiarism scandal.

Debug Display

A small debug display allowing you to edit various parameters was used in development. This was operable with a keyboard, however there is no keyboard module on the disc nor does anything in the game reference one anymore.

(Source: Punk7890)

Unused Logo

On the root of the disc is a file named DUMMY.DAT. The first 8MBs of the file is this raw bitmap image. The rest of the data is padding.

(Source: Punk7890)

Dragon Universe Leftovers

To do: Make a sub-page once enough data for this is collected. That includes each character's intro, script implementation, unseen animations (every one of them has a flying/speedup animation for Dragon Universe). Also, rip unused balloons for each character.

Every character was going to feature a Dragon Universe storymode, compared to the final game's 11 (Goku, the 3 Gohans, Vegeta, Krillin, Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha, Uub and Broly).

Most characters, while featuring appropriate intros (along with placeholder backgrounds and unused text) were basically getting started, and as such only have their programmed model floating around their intended world, with elevation set to zero (you're literally at sea level) and a placeholder event at 0,0 coordinates which just resets the whole thing.

Only Nappa and Gero have somewhat implemented world maps in an unfinished state, both using odd backgrounds/characters for cut-scenes (since their ID number was changed during development). One event for Gero actually uses Budokai 2's cutscene style! That should nail how early all this stuff got scrapped.

Some of the characters' cut story arcs include:

• Kid Goku traveling to the future and interacting with the aged cast of Dragon Ball Z.

• One of the Saibamen from Nappa's batch surviving the battle on Earth and fighting alongside the Z Fighters on Namek.

• A Cell Jr. rebelling against his father during the Cell Games.

• Future Trunks fighting Broly, and then travelling to the past to warn the others about his power.
  • Curiously, this storyline has remnants left over in the final game, as Adult Gohan wonders if Broly is "The Legendary Super Saiyan Future Trunks warned us [him] about?".

(Source: [Playlist of cut Dragon Universe Audio Files])

Unused Voice Samples

To do: This game has an INSANE amount of unused audio, hundreds if not thousands of voice clips being scrapped, but left on the disc! Find a way to upload and organize all of these clips! Check the Japanese versions of these announcements to see if there are any differences.

There are... a lot of these, if the sub-page dedicated solely to the game's cut audio in one mode is anything to go by.

Dragon Universe Audio More unused audio than used!

Voiced Tutorial

Unused Character Announcements

Cut characters being referenced by name in the files for the World Tournament Mode is nothing new to the series, as the first Budokai game had announcements for Cui, a non-playable character that only appeared in one cutscene in the entire story mode (as well as for the unplayable Saibaman and Cell Jr. characters). Budokai 3 continues in this stead by having announcements for 5 characters who aren't present in the game, implying that they were intended to be playable at an early stage in development, but were cut somewhere along the line.

Zarbon VS!
Zarbon!
Dodoria VS!
Dodoria!
Android #19 VS!
Android #19!
Shin VS!
Shin!
Bulma VS!
Bulma!

"Shin" was the alias that the Eastern Supreme Kai used when he participated in the 25th World Tournament in the Majin Buu Saga (similarly to how Piccolo uses the title "Majunior"), which is fitting considering that Supreme Kai's announcements are grouped right next to his. He may have been intended to go by that name in the World Tournament mode at some point during development.

Dodoria, Zarbon and Android #19 were all characters who were present in the first Budokai game, but were removed from Budokai 2 and would remain nonentities for the rest of the series. Along with those characters, the what-if fusions included in the 2nd game such as Tiencha, Gokule, and the alternate absorptions for Super Buu did not return either, in spite of advertisements claiming that Budokai 3 would feature every character from the first 2 games. However, the fact that announcements exist for these 3 characters imply that if nothing else, the intention to include them was most definitely there, but for whatever reason, they didn't make the cut. Android #19 in particular was replaced by Dr. Gero/Android #20 in Budokai 2, and seeing how their abilities are near-identical (only Dr. Gero is a more important character in the actual series), #19's inclusion at this stage may have been seen as redundant.

Bulma on the other hand proves of immense interest, as not only is she not a playable fighter and an incredibly strange character choice in the first place, but she has more evidence surrounding her former status as a playable character than any of the other characters mentioned above, so much so that her being playable in Budokai 3 was very widely speculated online in the mid 2000s. She does have a full character model programmed into the game (viewable in the 11th Training mission showcasing Item Capsules) and the bonus "Behind the Screams" DVD packaged with the Collectors Edition release shows her FUNimation actress Tiffany Vollmer recording battle audio (which isn't present on the disc). On top of this, the game's translator Steve Simmons made an admittedly uninformed claim that Bulma may be "playable in some sort of capacity", and hackers were able to unearth a character capsule for Bulma styled exactly like all of the other playable characters ("Bulma can be used in Duel, Tournament and Practice modes."), some even managing to make her playable as an alternate costume for Videl in Japanese releases of the game similarly to how King Piccolo is an alternate costume for Piccolo. However, as these methods involved hacking the game, it is impossible to determine whether this is how Bulma would've been playable in a finished product.

Yet, you can actually hack the game to select the character ID for Bulma (which is the same used in the training mission) and try to play with her. She doesn't have any attacks and can only move/dodge/charge/fly/block/deflect. Any other move results her into playing the capsule throwing animation. You can assign another Bulma in 2P, and her second model will glitch noticeably, since the game probably mistakes them as the same entity for not having alternate costumes. She uses a placeholder voiceset featuring Japanese Goku, and the character announcement for her slot uses Bardock's, although her model isn't loaded in the VS screen and her icon looks like a jumbled mess. Notably, her actual character announcements above are immensely buggy by themselves, and have a tendency to crash more primitive audio rippers.

• 

  Bulma's intro, she stands still like this while the camera does the standard panning.

• 

  Sidestepping

• 

  Dodging

• 

  Deflecting

• 

  Player 2 glitching.

In addition to these four scrapped characters (Dodoria, Zarbon, Android 19, and Bulma), there are also references to models for the other members of the Ginyu Force (Jeice, Burter, and Guldo), suggesting they were to receive new models made specifically for this game. Given they appear with the other in-battle character models in the list, it seems they were planned to appear in battle in some form, perhaps as a new attack for the existing Ginyu Force members (Ginyu and Recoome), or perhaps even playable characters.

World Tournament Announcements

To do: Upload the rest of these clips.

In addition to being the vanguard of unused character announcements, the World Tournament Announcer also has a few miscellaneous audio clips which aren't used in the final game:

"Contestant wins!" While a clip for you losing is used, this generic clip announcing your victory isn't used at all, your character's name instead being announced.

The announcer yelling "Ring Out!". While a sound clip saying "Ring Out!" is indeed used in Duel mode on the Tournament stage, it's said by Goku, not the World Tournament Announcer, who uses a different clip altogether ("Out of bounds!").

Audio announcing the 4th and 5th rounds for the World Tournament. These go unused since the maximum amount of rounds a tournament can have is 5 (on Advanced or the Cell Games), and since the 4th and 5th rounds are the semifinals and finals respectably, clips referring to them as such are used.

Unused Attack Cries

To do: Snuff out the ones which aren't used, and upload the rest of them. A few of them are already lined up for uploading though.

Certain attacks were scrapped in the transition between games, but their audio still remains on the disc:

Found within the audio files for Kid Gohan was this "Kamehameha!" shout. While he could use the attack in the first Budokai game, he is only capable of using the Masenko in Budokai 3, so this clip is rendered unused. Notably, the clip is literally taken straight from the first Budokai game with no changes, implying it may simply be a leftover.

Audio of Android #18 shouting "Field on!" in reference to Energy Field, an attack she could use in Budokai 1 and 2, but left out of her moveset in Budokai 3, probably because #17 and Cell also have this move. Despite Android #18 being able to use this move in Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World, this voice clip is still not present.

Kid Trunks yelling "Buster Cannon!", a move he could use in Budokai 2. As this attack is also used by Future Trunks, this move was likely deemed redundant and scrapped from his moveset in favor of the new "Final Cannon" attack.

An unused recycled version of Gotenks' Galactica Donut attack from Budokai 2, which plays a shorter animation and voice line in this game.

Another recycled clip from Budokai 2, this time of Piccolo charging his Special Beam Cannon.

Unused Dragon Universe Audio

To do: Upload some of the dialogue.

As noted above, every character was intended to have a Dragon Universe story mode, and there are many, many related voice clips in the disc. They commonly consist of introductory dialogue by the narrator, followed by character dialogue meant to reenact events from the series, along with some "what-if" original events for each story. The what-if stories in particular are of interest (especially for characters that did not last long in the actual series) as they include bizarre stuff such as Kid Goku traveling to the present in Bulma's time machine, and a Saibaman surviving and helping the heroes on Namek.

Future Trunks' what if story has some remnants in the final game, as it involves him finding Broly and going to the past to warn everyone that the Legendary Super Saiyan will appear on Earth. Broly's story mode has Gohan stating "is this the Legendary Super Saiyan that future Trunks told us about?" which would make sense had this story been implemented in the game.

The clips have been uploaded to YouTube and are available here.

Unused Dragon Arena Audio

To do: Are some of these actually unused? Clarify this.

It seems that earlier in development, Commander Red would be much more talkative, and allow much more of his hasty impatient personality to shine through in the Dragon Arena mode:

Ambiguous audio clips which could be referring to characters, stages or modes. The third and final clips in particular would likely have played when you dawdled around having not selected an option, a quirk which would eventually become standard in the Budokai Tenkaichi series.

All of these clips are marginally different ways of saying "choose your opponent!", with varying degrees of patience. Commander Red is totally silent on both the character select screen and the list of opponents, unfortunately rendering all of these rather humorous clips unused.

Uub saying "I'll never give up!". This is grouped in with the audio used during character break-ins in Dragon Arena, and occurs immediately before another similar audio clip of Uub's ("I'll never back down! I was trained by Goku!") which is used in this scenario, likely rendering it as an early line.

Miscellaneous Audio

To do: UPLOAD!

"Hey everyone, Goku here!", yet another leftover from the first Budokai game, this clip was used in the little preview snippets following the completion of a certain "saga", mimicking the "next episode preview" tradition standard to the anime series. In the first and second Budokai games, this voice clip is used to test voice volume in the sound options menu.

An odd grunt intended to be used by Meta-Cooler when encountered in Dragon Universe, who usually communicates with an ellipsis. No audio is used at all in these instances.

The game contains an entire voiceset from Goku's Japanese voice actor Masako Nozawa, which is used as a placeholder for the unused Bulma character. Some of the sound effects contained within are rather primitive, making it likely another leftover from the first Budokai game. Around 30-40 clips are included within this set, so only a small sample was uploaded so as not to be redundant.

Unused Music

Another leftover from the first Budokai game, this melodramatic theme was remastered slightly for Budokai 3, and in all instances where it could be used, the remastered variant is used instead. As a consequence, the original mix goes unused throughout the whole game.

This theme, when used in the game, normally transitions into a slick string melody as it plays on. However, this isolated variant which only plays the first half isn't used anywhere, and actually loops incorrectly at the end as another "bonus".

Unused Character Models

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Check the game for more unused models. Video documentation isn't enough given the oversaturation of fan mods importing material from other games.

A full body character model for Frieza perched in his hoverchair can be accessed through hacking the game, although it isn't used at any stage in the game. It was likely meant to be used in Dragon Universe mode, since although the hoverchair is not loaded (as it is stored as a different model altogether), Frieza does assume a sitting stance if he's hacked into that mode. This model can be loaded into battles via the swap method common in mods and functions perfectly fine.

There is also a model of Goku wearing a green scouter, which is meant to represent Captain Ginyu when he took over Goku's body. This model is used in the game, but is only seen once during Krillin's story mode, and said costume is unavailable to the player.

Unused Sounds

Audio of a cash register. It was likely planned to be used for when you purchased Skills in the Skill Shop.

A rather odd sound which could fit in a variety of situations, though it was likely used in one of the menus.

Another weird clip which sounds somewhat like a "go back" sound effect or a scouter.

Textual References to Cut Characters

Opening "SLES 527.30" in a hex editor shows numerous lines of text relevant to development, but quite a few oddities can be glimpsed within the coding. Notably, references to the characters Guldo, Burter, Jeice, Zarbon, Dodoria and Android #19 are grouped in with the rest of the playable fighters in memory. Strangely, Bulma isn't present in this particular list, and there are a few strange romanizations of character names:

GOKOU
GOKOU S
GOHAN S
GOHAN M
GOHAN L
GREAT SAIYAMAN
GOTEN
VEGETA
TRUNKS L
TRUNKS S
KULILIN
PICCOLO
TENSHINHAN
YAMCHA
Mr.Satan
VIEDL
KAIO-SHIN
UUB
RADITZ
NAPPA
GINEW
RECOOME
GULDO
JEICE
BURTER
ZARBON
DODORIA
FREEZA
ANDROID No.16
ANDROID No.17
ANDROID No.18
ANDROID No.19
Dr.GERO
CELL
BUU L
BUU M
BUU S
DABURA
COOLER
BARDOCK
BROLY
1-STAR-DRAGON
SAIBAIMAN
CELL Jr. 

Another list occurring shortly after the one shown details miscellaneous characters (such as fusions, characters appearing in mid-fight cutscenes, and drastic form changes), this one referencing the what-if Fusions and Super Buu's absorptions from Budokai 2 which were cut in Budokai 3, in addition to Bulma as well as Babidi, Kibito and the Super Kamikaze Ghosts:

GOTENKS (GOTEN)
GOTENKS (TRUNKS S)
YAMHAN (TENSHINHAN)
YAMHAN (YAMCHA)
GOGITA (GOKU)
GOGITA (VEGETA)
GOGITA SS4 (GOKU)
GOGITA SS4 (VEGETA)
VEGITO (GOKU)
VEGITO (VEGETA)
GOTAN (GOKOU)
GOTAN (Mr.SATAN)
KIBITO-SHIN
BULMA
BUU (GOTENKS)
BUU (GOHAN L)
BUU (VEGETA)
BUU (CELL)
BUU (FREEZA)
BUU (YAM + TEN)
BUU (PICCOLO)
GOTENKS L
YAMHAN S
GOGITA L
KIBITO
BABIDI
GHOST
GOKOU SS4
VEGETA SS4
M-VEGETA
FREEZA 2
FREEZA 3
FREEZA FINAL
FREEZA FINAL 100 %
MECHA FREEZA
CELL 2
CELL PERFECT
CELL SUPER 
COOLER FINAL
METAL COOLER
BROLY LEGEND

From this set-up, the character list seems to refer mostly to characters which appear in cinematics or have a dramatic change in appearance post-transforming.

Regional/Revisional Differences

The US version has an instrumental rendition of the intro theme "Ore wa Tokoton Tomaranai!", whereas the European and Japanese edition retain the lyrics as sung by Dragon Ball theme maestro Hironobu Kageyama. This is also true for the "full" version heard during the game's credits. Europe also has a language selection, which is common in European releases in the PS2 era. In a reversal of the last two games' European situations, the EU version of the vanilla game's release only has English voices.

The Japanese version is referred to as just "Dragon Ball Z 3", and apart from having the Japanese voices, added 3 more costumes for Goku, Future Trunks and Piccolo that could be unlocked by inputting specific passwords in Dragon Arena mode, as well as a couple of new "Baba's Crystal Ball" videos that can be bought in the shop (those were ads for Budokai 2 and Budokai 3, along with an extended version of the credits with the intro song with footage of the game).

The US and European Greatest Hits/Collector's Edition releases added the Japanese voice track and the new character costumes, but removed the secret 60Hz mode (accessed by holding down L1+L2+R1+R2 at the language select screen on boot up), and the extra videos were omitted. There is also a wider move list that can be seen in the pause menu, as well as minor graphical tweaks such as characters moving their mouths in the menus, lightning in Broly's story mode, and Gotenks' ultimate attack having him directly spit a ghost instead of the white mist from the regular version. Also, neither version's save was fully compatible with saves from the black label release.

When Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 was released as part of the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai HD Collection, it was based on the Greatest Hits version, so it included the bonus costumes and the improvements mentioned above. However, the original soundtrack was replaced by reused music from the Budokai Tenkaichi series (as well as a few from the first Raging Blast game), due to a series-wide plagiarism controversy surrounding series composer Kenji Yamamoto in 2011. Broly's "Gigantic Meteor" ultimate was also subject to minor censorship in the HD Collection re-release, specifically the segment where Broly smashes his opponent's head into the ground, replacing the actual impact shot with a brief cut to white. The attack itself functions exactly the same otherwise. Strangely, this change doesn't happen when performed on a stage without environmental hazards (such as the Hyperbolic Time Chamber).

Here are the codes needed to unlock the extra costumes in the Japanese, Greatest Hits, Collector's Edition and HD versions of the game. Note that those are case-sensitive:

Character	Costume	Password
Goku	Standard costume, with a Halo over his head	JaanaMinna-!ShindaraMataAouna-! ("See ya later, guys-! Let's meet up again after you die-!" Goku says this when returning to the Afterlife with Uranai Baba in Volume 40, Chapter 477.)
Future Trunks	Battle Armor, with long hair	DoumoSumimasenOmataseshimashita ("I'm so sorry for making you wait." Trunks says this when he and Vegeta exit the Room of Spirit and Time in Volume 32, Chapter 375.)
Piccolo	King Piccolo	GahahaSaikouda!!!-Saikounokibunda!!! ("Gahaha, this is the greatest!!! It's the greatest feeling!!!" King Piccolo says this after he kills Shenlong in Volume 13, Chapter 148.)

Interestingly, the King Piccolo costume seems to slightly alter Piccolo's character, as he becomes taller, his special moves are all colored purple, and some of his facial expressions change.