Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout
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| Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout | |
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| Developer(s) | Bandai |
| Publisher(s) |   Bandai Atari |
| Release date(s) | August 21, 1997 November 1997 October 4, 2002 (Reprint) 1997 2004 (Reprint) |
| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) |
| Platform(s) | PS1 |
Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout (ドラゴンボール ファイナルバウト/ Dragon Ball Final Bout in Japan) is a fighting game for the Sony PlayStation. The game is similar to other fighters, but features 3D environments and characters from the Dragon Ball universe. Besides the typical cast, the game featured unlockable characters, usually being either Super Saiyan versions of existing characters, or alternate versions, such as Kid Goku whereas the standard set featured the Adult Goku.
The original North American edition was released in 1997, nearly 8 years before the premiere of Dragon Ball GT. Only 10,000 copies were produced, due to the series being unfamiliar with audiences. Up until a re-release of the game in 2004, Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout enjoyed some of the highest collectible premiums a PlayStation game has ever seen. Prices on Ebay ranged from $100- $250. It has been one of the PlayStation's best-selling games, with releases ranging from 1997 to 2002 and finally 2004. It debuted in Japan and Europe in 1997, despite Great Britain not seeing a release until 2002
Akin to many Dragon Ball licensed games, the critical response was less than stellar. Frequent criticisms include sluggish control and an overcharge of playable Goku versions.
While Final Bout reaped a long sleet of sales, it was assumed that Bandai was no longer developing games based on the Dragon Ball franchise, and some rare in-production screenshots revealed that the game may have looked sleeker than the final product.
The North American version did not feature the voice actors then working on Dragon Ball Z, opting to go for uncredited voice actors instead, while the European version had the original Japanese voice actors.
While the graphics seem blocky and out of date by today's standards, the music is still held in high regard. The music mostly contains rearranged versions of music used in Bandai's Super Famicom DragonBall games with the exception of a few new songs like Super Saiyan Goku 4's theme "Hero of Heroes".
Also, the game featured one of the first FMV introductions in the DragonBall game series. The video, consisting of entirely new animation shows the various playable characters fight each other, albeit in a non-canonical way. The video is set up to "The Biggest Fight", a song specifically composed for this game and sung by regular DragonBall vocalist Hironobu Kageyama. This would be his last contribution to the music of Dragon Ball Z until 2003 when Kageyama would perform a new song set to another FMV introduction for the game Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 and again for Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3.
