None of this is at all surprising, really. I could see from one game play video that the combat was a direct copy and paste of the Tenkaichi engine + a few tweaks here and there. Problem is the Tenkaichi fighting system became incredibly dull and repetitive after ten minutes of playing, and the only reason I enjoyed playing it at all as a teenager was because it was DBZ, and I ******* love me some DBZ (I also didn't have many other games for PS2)
You know, this whole situation is actually very similar to the Smash Bros. situation. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about I'll quickly skim over it. Pretty much Super Smash Bros. Melee is seen as the pinnacle of the franchise; it's loved by fans and spectators in general for its fast paced, and highly complex physics based game play. All subsequent releases of the franchise have obliterated what made Melee so unique by removing two of the major factors that increased game play speed (these factors being the ability to reduce wake up time after attacks, and wavedashing, which is a faster and safer form of ground movement). People still get hyped for future releases of the game, though, because they hope that the creators will see the error of their ways and put effort into making another amazing game.
So, what did the Smash community do about it? Well, a bunch of coders got together to mod Melee; they tweaked some imbalances and bugs, and they merged the new roster from Super Smash Bros. Brawl into the Melee engine. It's called Project Melee, and a lot of the community are switching over to this mod of the game. It's the same with Xenoverse, people were hoping that it would be as amazing as it was advertised to be, when the unfortunately harsh reality came to pass that it's essentially the same game from 2005. Budokai 3 was on the right path, and Budokai Tenkaichi took a massive dump on the franchise. Still though, still people like FF cry out, claiming it's going to be the most amazing thing ever, and still people buy it. I think the only people left who will be playing this game in a month are hardcore DBZ fans that like to beat up Buu as Goku when they're stoned, or teenagers who've recently seen Battle of Gods. Just how Project Melee is the ultimate Smash game, ESF is the ultimate DBZ game - I only hope the 1.2.3 engine will play a heavy part of Final's gameplay.
