When you talk about the genre of anime, the Dragonball franchise is usually one of the first names people will bring up, as it is one of the main reasons why anime became so popular with the Western market as it was one of the first gateway titles that people could dip their toes in. Following in the footsteps were several games, and with Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 it looks to give you everything a Dragonball fan could ever want from their franchise. Killer Betties got to ask some questions about the game with the producer Donnie Clay, so click on in and see what he had to say. Plus, three exclusives pics you can't find anywhere else.

1. Right off the bat, one of the big draws is that the game features 100 characters from the Dragonball mythology. How did you go about determining who would and wouldn't be included in the game?

We wanted to offer the most comprehensive character list for any DBZ game (or fighting game, for that matter) so that players could have the pleasure to pick and choose who they want to fight. Character's who have never fought that you've always wanted to have fight can now duke it out in your living room.

2. With 100 characters available, were there sadly any characters that were left out?

Amazingly enough, even with over 120 playable characters there are some that we have not included. We still feel like this game offers a pretty comprehensive experience and if we put everyone in, what would we do next time?!?

3. How many of those 100 are available right from the start of the game and how many do you have to unlock? Also, how do you go about unlocking them for play if so?

There are 25 open to start and you unlock most of the characters by playing through the story mode.

4. After looking at the roster, many of the characters appear to be multiples of each other. There are seven Gokus, nine Gohans, six Vegetas, and six Buus for example. In the case of these multiples, do they all control differently and feature different move sets, or are these essentially only cosmetic changes?

While these changes may seem cosmetic these changes are due to transformations of the characters as they progress in the story; thus, some of their powers alter with each change. True fans of the series will recognize the differences in each of these characters as they come from different parts of the mythology and helped move the story along in very different ways. Also, some of these versions of the characters have never been seen before in a game yet.

5. Continuing with the last question, though there are multiples of several characters, there are still a ton of characters who only appear as one playable character throughout the game. Since there are so many characters in the game, will all of the characters be different from each other in terms of their moves, or is that a case where many of them share the same moves but just have a different coat of paint?

You're going to get some nasty feedback with this "coat of paint" nonsense! LOL! Like I said, true fans know that it's not just a cosmetic change. The moves are different and come with different levels of power.

6. Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 features a Story Mode. What Sagas does the game follow? Does the game stick strictly to the Sagas or are the movies included as well? And how exactly does the Story Mode play?

The story mode features all three parts of the trilogy from Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball GT. The story mode in Budokai Tenkaichi 2 has been really improved over the first Budokai Tenkaichi. The story mode in the original was more of a slide show while the story mode in this game includes about 60 hours of gameplay and is much more RPG like. There are objectives and world maps you fly around as you work through the entire Dragon Ball mythology: Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT.

7. I've heard that the Story Mode features some lite RPG elements. Exactly what are these RPG elements and how are they included in the game?

It will incorporate RPG-like features such as conversing with other characters, mini-games, objectives, points of interest, etc.

8. Could you talk about some of the other game modes besides the Story Mode, such as Ultimate Battle? From looking at the listings, it looks as if this is the more traditional round robin game of Arcade fighters, where players play against player after player till they get to the end boss, but with Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 it seems as if it is broken down into the Sagas as well.

You are correct it is basically a round robin. We just thought it would be fun to set up the ladders according to the sagas.