A Deep Dive Into Dragon Ball Tenkaichi 3 Competitive
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 พ.ค. 2024
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Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is one of the most popular and beloved Dragon Ball games of all time, but its competitive side isn't always respected. I decided to take a deep dive, and here's what I found.
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0:00 Intro
0:48 Banned Characters
1:59 The Tenkaichi Scene
2:46 Getting Started
4:12 Playing Online
5:09 Movement and Meta
7:15 Grand Finals Experience
9:08 The Future of Tenkaichi
#Globku #AnimeGames #DragonBall - เกม
The Cell Games Arena being the most competitively viable stage is *also* very much canon...for the same exact reason.
It's the same in fighterZ, cell games arena is the least laggy stage in fighterZ
@@kauanjos3199well that and galactic arena
And the most hyped, since Cell scream is an enjoyment the public can have from Cell.
You people misuse the word "canon" a lot.
I don't think you know what canon means lmfao
Man, you would be surprised about how competitive BUDOKAI 3 actually is.
I'm actually interested in seeing a video about it!
So much cool tech in B3 and IW. God, that shit is so cool.
Having been witness to both competitive scenes for a few years now I would say the games are pretty neck-and-neck but for different reasons of course!
While I'm biased I would personally say the full 3D movement of Tenkaichi games adds a layer of complexity that edges out the budokai series in terms of their skill ceiling. But both are amazing games!
Super dragon ball Z is by far the most underrated and maybe even more competitive than either!
@@DBZscrub Great comment! I have never gotten into BT3 that deeply, so I wouldn't know. But it definitely LOOKS way more complex than I gave it credit for
you mean Infinite World
IW competitive is better
it's insane that this game still has an active competitive scene while it's a ps2 game
Decent design, and devoted fans will always help something age gracefully.
Active yes and no. The interest for that game comes and goes.
I played this game online back in 2007 on the wii version
Well active is giving too much credit
I mean, melee was released in 2001 so not really?
bro scratched the surface and called it a deep dive
😭😭😭
yeah but no one is gonna click on "Scratching the surface of Dragon Ball Tenkaichi 3 Competitive"
I really wish you dived deeper into why cell/17 are the meta picks because, besides the deathbeam, I still have no idea why cell is better than lets say freeza or so
He has a really good melee kit and also has a good blast 1 kit. Combine all of these things and you get a character that has a great combo setup along with great movement. Pretty much why he's the best in the game
Bt3 competitively is really complex and generally what we can say is: Cell is just good at everything he has acess to explosive wave,this can make Cell escape combos easily If used by a smart player so his defense is a bit better due to it,he is also insanely fast his speed allows him to be both better at dealing damage and dodge/punish more effectively,his ranged combat is also incredible as he has a -1 attack (you need to be frame perfect to vanish It) and his ki blasts are really good and the best part is that his melee combos are also great,he literally has everything you can ask for besides armor and him being Broly the clear top 1 of the game.
Cell's combos are betters. Not to mention he has a dash attack that does a two-hit into a combo, unlike Frieza who has a one-hit dash attack. Also Perfect Cell has instant transmission, which is one of the most busted abilities as it forces the opponent to lock off, which can guarantee a free special move attack if you time it well (and if the other player is inexperienced enough to get caught by it)
cell is a jack of all trades, master of all
17's energy balls have tracking so it means it can not only make it harder to dodge but also has a massive vertical advantage. Most attacks that aren't super big can't hit opponents at a high/low angle, 17 can because of the tracking. 17 is usually the 2nd in line because of his lack of active charging but as you can see in the video if you swap after a while in he'll have full ki, so you can immediately deal damage.
SSJ2 adult gohan is also sometimes a subtitude for 17 because his blast 1 which some people consider bad because of the low range is extremely viable in competetive since people very rarely stay far away, and his blast 1 has a massive hitbox to hit at high angles
I wouldn't call this a "Deep" dive, since there's so much stuff to cover anyone would need months in order to discover how much depth this game has to offer; other than that, I really enjoyed the video, top notch editing and quality
I wish he invited you or others to do some sort of deep dive on the game. Big fan bro
I knew you'd watch this lol
You're right. I mean, there are other kinds of competitions. Here, in Argentina, in tournaments, there are bans: Mr. Satan and Arale, and all transformations are banned. I mean, you can play as Super Saiyan, but you have to transform during the battle, which means that you can't be Cell, for example, because it takes too much time to reach the final form.
isnt this game old? There’s no need for competitive in this game or for us to spend more than 10 mins on this. Also I still have this game on the Wii and this was the best DBZ game probably, so I’m not bashing on the game.
Bro made it as "deep" as it took to hit 10min time count
Commentator Hawk here!
I just wanted to chime in on the "virtually every character is Cell" part etc; there are other characters that can compete w/ Cell who aren't high tiers, like Ssj Goku Mid, Super 17, even Salza to a degree (I will die on this hill) but because their tools differ so much from Cell & 17, the key to playing them in competitive is you *have to be great defensively*. Not all characters offer the same tools, henceforth they cannot be treated the same way a high tier normally would.
With the aforementioned characters you want to prioritize defence, & only prioritize offence when you have created an opening or the opponent has given you one. So it's pretty much up to the player if you're going to see characters that aren't Cell, 17, Nova, Broly, Future Trunks and what have you.
If anyone has any questions, I can answer them here or even in the Anime Games Community Discord. Have a great day!
Correct me if I am wrong. But does that mean their 'key' is the explosive wave and energy barrier?
@@JohnDoe-mw8hi Nope!
Every character has their own set of tools they're great at utilizing, and some don't even have any tools whatsoever.
"Key tools" can be these:
- Target Rush (Blast 2 only)
- Safe Combo Attacks (Kiai Cannon, Flying Kick, etc)
- Step-in Kiai Cannon (Ssj4 Goku & Ssj Goku Mid have these and it's safe)
- Unblockable ki blasts after first rush string (Burter as an example)
- Fast, stunning &/or paralyzing charged ki blasts
There are others but you should get the idea. Explosive Wave & Energy Barriers are just safeguards for most characters but both can be punished, especially if you have a character that CAN punish it. Like if you do Android Barrier w/ 17 & you have Majin Buu or Syn Shenron, their ki blast animations are slow so your chance to punish accordingly will be significantly less doable.
TLDR; Target Rush, safe combo attacks, melee start-up, ki blasts, just to name a few.
@@warhawk059377 Alright, defensively is a lot more than a single move. Crazy how much tech there is in this childhood favorite.
@@JohnDoe-mw8hi For sure! Even movement mechanics can be counted as defense tech.
We use to play on the wii years ago bro you use to whoop me with ease we had a whole xa chat room too
That 17 attack at 7:41 was FAST AF
I remember playing to that game everyday after work. 😅 It's my favorite DBZ game. I think I might buy TK4 even if my love for the franchises diminished a bit.
If the new game is good I think buying it could send a message to Bandai that the old style of DB games are still in demand and by a large margin the fan favourite. Hopefully this would encourage them to continue down that route :)
@@DBZscrub i rather they import all the ps2 and psp dbz games over, whatever new stuff they crap out would be as much of a failure as their new db anie
The game is well regarded as the best DBZ game for a reason. Even with awesome modern DBZ games like FighterZ and Kakarot, none come even close to Tenkaichi 3 in terms of sheer content, fan service and a battle system that feels straight out of the anime.
Used to play competitively, now everything is online and the lag can be a little too infuriating. But as someone who knows the game tech in depth, this game I'd argue has a much higher skill ceiling than fighterz and the fact it's a ps2 game that doesn't get balance patches, it's that much more challenging. It's so odd to me to watch videos of this game on youtube with everyone mashing the square autocombo knowing damn well there's the 99.99% of the iceberg still hidden under that.
But I think that makes the game so amazingly good. Scrubs, noobs, pros and veterans alike can enjoy the game, it's accessible to anyone on any skill level
there is a build of Dolphin called Faster Melee 5.9 with improved netplay and emulation optimization that should improve how this game feels to play online. The SSBM community used it before we got Rollback netplay from Fizzi
I had an insane amount of fun participating in this tournament. I've been lucky enough to have known and been part of the competitive community for a while, however this was my first tournament :)
How active is the community? Does everyone just play through discord?
@@snipesmcfreely5879 Pretty much
@@justsolid3201 The AGC discord invite link is broken. Is there somewhere else I might be able to find your guides? I really would like to understand more about the BT3 scene.
i like how people say that the game competitively speaking is bad because its unbalanced, like MVC3 doesnt exist
Acting like MVC3 doesn't have a ton more viable characters.
Vergil is really the only guaranteed slot unless you're running a Heavy team.
@@Shadowlet thats not my point, MVC3 was just the first example that came to mind, my point is that is a double standard, but yeah i am aware that vergil is the biggest culprit of unbalancing, and there are other comps, but i wouldnt say that having a staple is a good thing for this type of game, but the team fighter does give u some wiggle room, even tho i dont like it
@@Shadowletit’s more than just Vergil that’s egregious, it’s:
1)Vergil
2)Magneto
3)Nova
4)Phoenix
5)Zero
6)Spencer
7)Morrigan
8)Dr. Doom
Those 8 are the most bullshit characters in the game and the game still has horrendously unbalanced characters, just not as bad as those 8
@@tearitup5864 Vergil is the only character in that game who is basically a must-pick in any slot but mostly anchor.
@@Shadowlet you obviously don’t watch competitive UMVC3 then if you think that’s the case. The 8 characters I just said are all must pick, literally most matches has to have at least one of those 8 characters per team. Even in tier lists, Vergil is not even the best character in the game, he’s 2nd to zero and dark Phoenix
This makes me even more hyped for Tk4. As a kid i knew the combat to this game had a lot of depth, i always wanted a sequel after growing up cause as a kid i just couldn't experience this game competitively
I just hope Tenkaichi 4 is done properly.
@@Darth_Xionn yeah same, even if 90% of the things are the same as tk3 I'll genuinely be happy, i just hope they don't screw it up
@@joshuaperry2426 What I hope is for them not to remove the secret mechanics classic to tenkaichi for balance, like the genkidama damage or solar flare not affecting some characters, tenkaichi is the ultimate dragon ball game for it's fidelity to dbz, and if they go on a full fighterZ approach where everyone is viable that'd be kinda stupid
@@snake_eater1963 it just makes canonical sense for some characters to be strong, it makes the characters feel unique
why would you be hyped, it's not by the same devs and isn't even using the same engine and cell shaded art style. they could be raging blast 2 devs of all we know and the game would rely on it's cinematic flair instead of speed, camera and sound work and of course the competitive depth of tenkachi 3. what a weird ass thing to just assume you be getting the same line of product
Great way to bring the community together collectively , along with other great anime arena games. 🔥
Amazing tournament and amazing video thank you so much for keeping the game alive 🔥
I'm finding it absolutely Hilarious that a Game as old as Tenkaichi 3 is more Populated then Saitama's OPM Game 💀
Thank you for the overview! I remember dearly the afternoons spent destroying joypads with my friends, and I'm now quite intrigued by the idea of testing my oh-so-rusted skills online!
While that looked amazing, you're right that the meta is absolutely immutable right now. Have you considered running a tournament using the Tenkaichi 4 MOD?
It has more characters, different mechanics, and a team that's consistently doing balance patches, making the meta fluid.
I second this!
Despite the devs honest attempts the game is still quite unbalanced currently and is a step backwards in various departments which makes it less competitively viable compared to the base game. Definitely a lot of heart put into the mod though!
@@DBZscrub Ahh, that sucks. Do you know why it is less competitively viable? Is it the new characters?
@@master6494its the less balanced health!
@@master6494 Less Balanced Health, several under the hood changes to certain moves, the addition of certain moves and really goofy b1s, the list goes on.
Dude thank you so much for making this video. I never put too much effort into trying to get legitimately good at this game when I was younger but even playing it casually I always had a strong feeling that the mechanics had a lot of depth and subtlety.
Wait..... WE'RE GETTING A TENKAICHI 4? WHY AM I ONLY LEARNING OF THIS NOW?!
I’ve been looking for this video ha ha thanks for all you did to research this
im happy u made this vid cause till this day i still play it and its good to see the community grow
Do you play this on pc ?
Yo new globku video lets gooo
Down the road when I am less busy with life, I plan on joining in these tourneys. Me and 4 other friends sit down on a couch and play this on ps2 together ever since the game came out, so I believe i'll be a top contender, as we learned absolutely everything about the game and each character in that time.
When playing competitively, damage isn't always the thing to consider. I find character's blast abilities far more important. What makes cell top tier in my eyes is he has 2 of the best;
Afterimage: Get out of jail free if you aren't in the middle of an action (Far better than ssj4 Gogeta's Wild sense, as wild sense is easily dodged and punished)
Explosive Wave: An instant "get off me" move costing only a single blast stock.
In fact, if against good players, i'd avoid characters with things like Wild sense. If you want to use an afterimage strike ability, only use the ability when your swap character meter is full, or near full, as you will be hopeless after it runs out.
Even if I don't participate for some reasons, I at least believe I have a lot of other combo tips, movement tips and much more to offer not mentioned or seen in this video, and how to make some overlooked characters viable with a bit of cheeky tactics. Anyway, good video. I had no idea people still played this and had tournaments
I’ve wanted a video like this for so long
Cool to see this game going strong. I'm excited and hopeful to see what the next game brings
Just the kinda video I needed rn lol
Grande video! Obrigado por estes videos!
Thank you for covering this.
Thanks Globku for keeping this alive
It won't be for a while until I can finish the patch but I'll be doing an SB2 tournament with a mod (Double Npact that has uploads on the Sho Rose channel) aimed to add flavor and competitive balances. It's not as known for reasons as well as the PTSD Budokai veterans experienced from base game, but it's cool and fun and will be good enough for tournaments after I learn some things to make this next patch happen ☺
I still remember in your Kakorot review how you said BT3 had a way worse battle system than kakarot lol. (A game with way less options and more button mashy)
It just shows how terrible of a player he probably was. In this video he learned a combo I know since I was 10 💀 Saying Kakarot's combat is better then BT3 is an actual sin
@GrandeBigdor RIGHT I literally facepalmed that he learned THE most basic ass combo in the game. Dude didn't even bother to check that it's in tbe command list in the game itself. (The first thing I did when I got BT3 as a kid)
Kakarot Combat honestly wasn't fun specially since there aren't any fun fights in the over world it's just infinite mooks.
@@GrandeBigdor the fact that he says "we used to" is pissing me off, what a weak will loser projecting his insecurities for not even practicing the basics when every ps2 kid were destroying each other in this and b3
Tenkaichi 3 has another mode other than the normal team fight mode, where you choose characters based on their power level or destruction points or whatever they were called, I feel it would be more fun to use that mode for a tournament to see more character variety
The problem with that mode is it's very unreliable as an actual indicator of how good a character is for example perfect form cell (the strongest character) being only a 7, Arale being a 5, Babidi being a 4 etc.
Transformations would probably have to be banned but perhaps there's a way to make it work. I think everyone would run Mr.Satan (DP value of 1) lmao
@@DBZscrubsure but there would probably be more viable teams. There are probably a lot of 2 or 3 point characters that would become viable there because of how cheap they are and that would probably make up for the ones that are overpriced.
Hell, depending on the amount the comunity settle in, Cell would be very expensive if the cap is 15.
You are most likely right about transformations.
@@noukan42 it would certainly be interesting. Might try it out some time.
I´m from Argentina and in the tournaments I saw here *THERE ARE BANNED CHARACTERS* , let me explain:
Gag characters like Arale and Hercule are banned (one being busted af for no reason and the other one being dogshit).
Picking transformations from the character select was banned. Yes, you had to pick Cell default and transform the guy during the match. Fusions, well, you had to pick the characters to fuse and fuse them in match, losing one character but a nice flashy damage dealing fusion.
So here, it is normal to see characters who are good with no transformations whatsoever, like adult Trunks, 17, Kid Buu, Teen Gohan (He is usally transformed cause he is faster and deals damage) and *BURTER* (Because his is hella fast if you know how to execute all with no transformation required).
Welcome to South American Tenkaichi 3
I have a copy of this game. I've had about 3-4 copies in my lifetime. Now only one but it's in amazing condition very clean. Best dbz game ever made
I remember once attending a local tournament, having no experience against actual players, i almost won the first round but lost because i was playing phase 2 Cell against a Metal Cooler (Panicked because we were at our last characters and i tried to drain HP twice with dozens of people watching, so that was embarrassing...). I decided to watch the rest of the tournament, and saw a guy playing Kid Buu and dominating everyone else with him alone.
Even though some characters are more preferable than others, i truly believe you can use at least half of the characters in the roster and still have a chance if you know how to play them well enough.
Great to see a childhood classic being revitalized. Id love to see someone port it for pc whilst also being online. Id love to play this game with the my friends but none of us have a wii :9. Perhaps one day.
from the days when i played this as a kid all i remember is that gogeta was really broken because he could teleport in between attacks around his opponent and the blue guy from the ginyu force had insane combos
I like this sort of content, I'm always curious what competitive games from my childhood look like, reminds me of when you did the clash of Ninja competitive deep dive, would like to see more of this type of content in the future
im happy somebody is finally covering this game, it's surprisingly complex
i'm not happy, the dude is completely missing the point of the combat system and stuff like z vanish and perfect smash is something you need to consistently practice with someone to perfom in actual battle. bt4 will probably be made for these losers who only spam special attacks like rb2 , what a shit game that was
My friends and I used to play this game so much and it was so fun making broken custom characters and then trying to beat each other. I wasnt great but my brother had a like unbeatable custom Tien and after so long my friend finally beat him with a custom Great Ape Baby. It was so glorious.
That sounds really nice, I used to main ssj2 teen gohan so I doubt id be competitive but it still sounds fun either way
Good charged ki blast and fast super move
Me too
This just makes me more exited for tenkaichi 4
I was there to experience Tenkaichi 3 online, and 17, gogeta, and Shenron, and Arale were broken af. Shenron had a move that was just an energy wall that you can't afterimage to avoid, it hits you either way. Arale had a move that would lock you in place, and you can't block her supers, gogeta had ki blasts that track you everywhere.
Thank you!
It's important to note that the BB Kamehameha used as the example at the beginning was uncharged, and therefore not boosted
the GT characters in this game really did it for me, they were so cool, I really hope we get all of them in the upcoming BT4
You know something most people wouldn't say they want back in the new one? ALT colors. I love them.
the S android has a sick forever combo that is so easy to pull off I Loved doing it to friends when they though they won
I really hope they keep and expand on all the interesting and unique aspects from BT3 in 4. Ring out at the World Tournament, Devilmite Beam's variable damage (30,000 damage potential lol), maps with actually functionally different layouts.
Truly has the potential to be the greatest, most accurate Dragon Ball experience out there. FighterZ is an amazing game but it doesn't feel at all like DBZ in comparison to the vanish chains and flashy, map-spanning combos of BT3
Hmmm, I didn't know that about the Devilmite Beam. I'm gonna try it out later.
me and my friends tried the dolphin method, but we found the playing on pcsx2 (either bt3 or the bt4 mod) and having the other connect through parsec made the delay only about 2 or 3 frames(i think)
I would love to watch a tier list video on this game explaining why certain characters are considered good.
i really hope The new tenkaichi will no completely change the gameplay, i would even be happy if the gameplay and movement stay the same and i'm talking even about the timings of the animations but idk how shared of an opinion this is
it's literally rb3
I remember when I was younger accidentally learning tech on this game but I could never practice online because I had Clear Internet (yes that’s how long ago it was) and it was really laggy but I felt confident enough to fight
Yo globku! Anyway you can maybe look into the competitive viability of Bleach Versus Crusade? Got into the game recently and the tech seems insane
Can't wait to see Sparking Zero. Budokai 1 - Tenkaichi 3 we're my childhood. But I haven't played in years. Just ordered a ps2 and Tenkaichi 3. Hopefully, I can prepare myself before Sparking Zero. Imma be rusty as hell. 😅 (Also got a copy of budokai 1, surprisingly no scratches after all this time.)
Idk if anyone who was over 5 and played it back in the day was unaware of how to get about a bar of health out of an opponent with just combos. They were easy and with a simple step cancel you can pretty much chain every LP/HP combo in the menu.
Great video
Cell hiding was crazy 😂 I had to rewind it a couple times
Just watched this video, I used to play like everyday this game and I was so fucking good at it , didn't know that there was competitive tournaments there 😂
Back then I would try to find competitive videos of Budokai and Tenkaichi but searching for "Budokai Tourney" would always get me videos of the game's CPU tournament mode
100x big bang kamehameha gotta be my favorite move or Stardust Breaker
I was intrested in the guides and maybe chatting a bit about the game with actual competitive players, but the discors invite appears to be expired...
Sparking zero competitive gonna go CARZY
CRAAZZZYYY
i like to use kid goku with custom setup for faster blast meter .Then spam after image effect and you become unpunchable . I also like to use yajirobi because senzu beans.
It’s funny seeing these type of ppl going through these combos when Ik literally every control in that game sparking zero GONE BE LIT
Finally people understand how much deep BT3 mechanics are. Same goes for Raging Blast 2.
lol good bait
This is not deep gameplay. These dudes are scrubs in the video lol
Great!!
I've mostly been playing the fan made Tenkaichi 4 lately, super well made
Fuck it why not right
One of my favorite games ever made
damn, now i really wanna get good at this game. it's definitely so much fun when you're a pro at the game
if you wanna get good in the game contact me, i am part of the best players in the world community, also in my channel are a few matches with the best players from Uruguay who ranks 3rd best country in the world of this game
Good luck finding a copy of this game. It's retail value nowadays is crazy! Apparently it didn't sell well when it was first imported from Japan, so it's very sought after.
l'amour de la france pour dragon ball est incroyable. Tres fier de nos francais trop chaud dans tout les domaines
There is so much tech in this game it's crazy 😂
This is pretty interesting, I've always loved Tenkaichi 3 but I never even thought of if it has a competitive scene. Part of why I like it so much is because of how simple and accessible it feels as a fighting game, it's easy to just hop into a match with friends and not feel like there's too big of a skill gap.
Because you're not that good
Can confirm playing the fan-made Tenkaichi 4 that adds so much including Super characters...Perfect Cell can whoop you in Dragon History, I imagine it reflects from the BT3 competitive scene, ended up beating him in Universe 7 tournament stage with Gogeta SSJ Blue tho
Do Budokai 3 and Infinite World next
they don't know the hidden tech dragon ball characters have.
Wish I saw more fusions from actual merging of two characters. You get both their stats as opposed to a "raw pick" of say, gogeta.
8:51 God this game is so cool
It sounds pretty simple on paper, so I assume it's just a matter of practice.
I'm already pumped for tenkaichi 4
sick video
I'm curious why there was little to no mention of Broly being he's the other character in S tier
I still play it. Sometime bt3 sometime fighterz and honestly i like using ultimate Gohan..i can make him deal 15k every combo
do you have a video on that tier list you showed in the beginning?
You really threw that deep dive word outta nowhere huh
I'd like to participate in one of these. Those anyone know a good tutorial of how to install the game?
Much love from Portugal ❤️
Tenkaichi 4 will be the game to bring me back to fighting games.
Good question Tim 😂 iykyk
It's very competitive with my neighbour
Wonder if Globku would ever consider doing a video on Blazblue Central Fiction?
Globku is an anime game normie
I'd love to play T3 at a higher level since I love playing fighting games nowadays and obviously loved T3, but I never had resources or anything. The discord link in the description is invalid though, is there a new one? I'd love to join.
Now I have an interest in picking up this game competitively lol
Pour out one for the ones that only pressed square 5 times
You should see paige he’s the best player in the scene, by far before he joined ppl thought 17 was trash!
YES I didn’t think anyone here knew who he was , hes too good
Paige was on the stream actually, just not playing lol
@@sigmamaverick9215 The best player in the world is called Pandu, he is from Argentina
@@Marchelo1899 we talking about NA (and technically EU) here, not SA. Besides dunno if they use the same comp model, despite being from SA my spanch is not so good lmao
Should've played on PCSX2 via Parsec. I was playing Tekken 8 like that with a friend and it was surprisingly smooth with no input lag or desynchronization
Dang, I thought my gameplay was perfect back then. But from this video I think semifinal is top spot for my skill LoL
I remember hitting people with the Instant Transmission and then spirit bomb with cell. Good times
Playing Tenkaichi with my friends, it was always evident to me that the game had a very high skill ceiling compared to other anime arena fighters. The game has a lot of tricks, quirks and tech that you only learn with practice. You need to learn to take advantage of character states (stuns, blocks, etc), and there's a lot of defensive options for many different situations. It's genuinely not just an amazing anime arena fighter game with tons of fan service, but a pretty solid fighting game as well.
Also, it's not entirely true that the devs didn't care about balance. It's just that the balance is also meant to reflect the power level of characters in the series. Thus, each character has an assigned value depending on their power, and for competitive play, there is a mode where the game gives you a limited amount of points, as a type of currency, to choose your characters based on their power, allowing you to balance between choosing many weak characters or a couple of very strong ones, or anything in between. It's much deeper than most give it credit for IMO.
Honestly, the most tournament viable stage in this game being a... welll... TOURNAMENT STAGE... is just so appropriate.