Godzilla: Unleashed (PS2)

[JVM]

I know we had a topic about this before, but I can't locate it and assume it went off with many of the missing Monster Discussion threads I had started. Developed by Pipeworks Software and published/released by Atari (formerly Infogrames) and developed in a few months as to bring the experience of Godzilla: Unleashed, developed as a Wii exclusive title, to the PlayStation 2. While the game faithfully adapts many mechanics, every stage and the story mode, including factions, with minimal differences, the roster and gameplay are a step closer to the predecessor, Godzilla: Save the Earth, featuring the same fighting mechanics and same monster models with modified skins. Showa Gigan returns as an exclusive monster, alongside Battra, who uses the same animations as Mothra with some small changes, and the addition of Obsidius, who utilizes some of Orga's animations, along with a new model and skin. The game has major framerate issues that can hurt the experience for some players, although others are simply glad to have the familiar mechanics of the previous games back.

Resources at Toho Kingdom:
Godzilla Unleashed (PS2) entry in Video Games section
Godzilla Unleashed (PS2) entry in Project G section.
Inerview with Producer Keehwan Her.

Related Threads
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee thread (both versions)
Godzilla: Save the Earth thread (both versions)
Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash thread
Godzilla: Unleashed thread (Wii version)
Colossal Kaiju Combat thread

[SomeknowmeasXeno]

Best version of Unleashed, no doubt. The fighting system in Wii Unleashed is a major step down from the series' standard, it also had a terrible G 90s redesign that ruined his unique design, and the less said about Double Smash the better. Unleashed's story was also great, loved the rpg mechanics, and I really liked Commander Tagaki and Kenji Miku.

[Godzillabrawler]

Best version of Unleashed, no doubt. The fighting system in Wii Unleashed is a major step down from the series' standard, it also had a terrible G 90s redesign that ruined his unique design, and the less said about Double Smash the better. Unleashed's story was also great, loved the rpg mechanics, and I really liked Commander Tagaki and Kenji Miku.

Did we even play the same game? Unleashed is essentially Save the Earth Version 0.0.5. It's an overall worse experience than its predecessor and adds nothing of any note to the formula. It even manages to make it worse somehow by ruining how throws work - throwing enemies just tosses them straight up, so throwing foes into skyscrapers for extra damage is no longer an option, and it was a fun as hell option at that. My overall feel for the game has been "let's take Save the Earth and make it worse, also throw in two clones because a Battra skin is what the fans wanted, not a real Battra".

As for the 90's redesign, you're remembering wrong. PS2 Unleashed was literally copypasta of Save the Earth, whereas Wii Unleashed DID straight up ruin G90's. I will agree on that, but you're confusing versions of the game.

[master_of_monsters]

frankly I think obsidius looks better with the orga body type than... orga

[SomeknowmeasXeno]

Best version of Unleashed, no doubt. The fighting system in Wii Unleashed is a major step down from the series' standard, it also had a terrible G 90s redesign that ruined his unique design, and the less said about Double Smash the better. Unleashed's story was also great, loved the rpg mechanics, and I really liked Commander Tagaki and Kenji Miku.

Did we even play the same game? Unleashed is essentially Save the Earth Version 0.0.5. It's an overall worse experience than its predecessor and adds nothing of any note to the formula. It even manages to make it worse somehow by ruining how throws work - throwing enemies just tosses them straight up, so throwing foes into skyscrapers for extra damage is no longer an option, and it was a fun as hell option at that. My overall feel for the game has been "let's take Save the Earth and make it worse, also throw in two clones because a Battra skin is what the fans wanted, not a real Battra".

As for the 90's redesign, you're remembering wrong. PS2 Unleashed was literally copypasta of Save the Earth, whereas Wii Unleashed DID straight up ruin G90's. I will agree on that, but you're confusing versions of the game.

Yes we played the same game. I'll give you that throws were fucked up, but apart from that the gameplay was absolutely fine because it was just Save the Earth, and STE was great. But Unleashed also had a dedicated rpg story and all new stages so I don't care that it plays just like STE, that's the fighting system that works for the series: not what Wii had.

Also you misunderstand me 90s. I'm glad PS2 Unleashed kept his design from DAMM and STE because it was a unique take on the general Heisei design, big fan of his slimmer, leaner build and blue dorsal plates. I know the Wii design is trying to be movie-accurate but the charm of 90s in the Vortaak trilogy to me was that he was that universes' unique Godzilla, he wasn't from the movies. He may have been there to represent the Heisei era, the reason why I always had the headcanon he was Junior from the end of GvD, but he wasn't Heisei G, he was his own thing. Wii ruined his uniqueness to me.

[GigaBowserG]

Yes we played the same game. I'll give you that throws were skreeonked up, but apart from that the gameplay was absolutely fine because it was just Save the Earth, and STE was great. But Unleashed also had a dedicated rpg story and all new stages so I don't care that it plays just like STE, that's the fighting system that works for the series: not what Wii had.

Also you misunderstand me 90s. I'm glad PS2 Unleashed kept his design from DAMM and STE because it was a unique take on the general Heisei design, big fan of his slimmer, leaner build and blue dorsal plates. I know the Wii design is trying to be movie-accurate but the charm of 90s in the Vortaak trilogy to me was that he was that universes' unique Godzilla, he wasn't from the movies. He may have been there to represent the Heisei era, the reason why I always had the headcanon he was Junior from the end of GvD, but he wasn't Heisei G, he was his own thing. Wii ruined his uniqueness to me.

I wish I could say I liked the gameplay from PS2 GU, but when the controls have a bad habit of freezing up randomly... that really takes you out of it. But the wonky throws absolutely make it way funnier, especially Obsidius's.

[SomeknowmeasXeno]

Yes we played the same game. I'll give you that throws were skreeonked up, but apart from that the gameplay was absolutely fine because it was just Save the Earth, and STE was great. But Unleashed also had a dedicated rpg story and all new stages so I don't care that it plays just like STE, that's the fighting system that works for the series: not what Wii had.

Also you misunderstand me 90s. I'm glad PS2 Unleashed kept his design from DAMM and STE because it was a unique take on the general Heisei design, big fan of his slimmer, leaner build and blue dorsal plates. I know the Wii design is trying to be movie-accurate but the charm of 90s in the Vortaak trilogy to me was that he was that universes' unique Godzilla, he wasn't from the movies. He may have been there to represent the Heisei era, the reason why I always had the headcanon he was Junior from the end of GvD, but he wasn't Heisei G, he was his own thing. Wii ruined his uniqueness to me.

I wish I could say I liked the gameplay from PS2 GU, but when the controls have a bad habit of freezing up randomly... that really takes you out of it. But the wonky throws absolutely make it way funnier, especially Obsidius's.

That's weird, the controls were absolutely fine for me. I also never had framerate issues unless some went Critical Mass in Seattle, and even that was only for a few seconds.

Funny story actually about the throws. Years back, I was playing as 90s (always my main) through story mode, hero path (can't bring myself to betray Miku as Godzilla), and I picked up Gigan in the San Fran mission where the Vortaak invade Earth again. I throw him directly up above me, then I somehow managed to land two, TWO, kicks on him whilst he fell, juggling him through the air, before I sent him crashing into a building with a tail strike. I felt amazing. Haven't been able to pull off a juggle like that on Unleashed ever since.

[Godzillabrawler]

Yes we played the same game. I'll give you that throws were skreeonked up, but apart from that the gameplay was absolutely fine because it was just Save the Earth, and STE was great. But Unleashed also had a dedicated rpg story and all new stages so I don't care that it plays just like STE, that's the fighting system that works for the series: not what Wii had.

Also you misunderstand me 90s. I'm glad PS2 Unleashed kept his design from DAMM and STE because it was a unique take on the general Heisei design, big fan of his slimmer, leaner build and blue dorsal plates. I know the Wii design is trying to be movie-accurate but the charm of 90s in the Vortaak trilogy to me was that he was that universes' unique Godzilla, he wasn't from the movies. He may have been there to represent the Heisei era, the reason why I always had the headcanon he was Junior from the end of GvD, but he wasn't Heisei G, he was his own thing. Wii ruined his uniqueness to me.

Unleashed's story wasn't nearly as fleshed out on this version of the game as opposed to the Wii version, so while you may have enjoyed it, I personally felt cheated when I was essentially given an inferior version of the game. And while I agree that STE is great, the framerate issues, the overall uglier colors, and the throw trajectory absurdity basically ruined any good that STE would have transferred to it. As a whole, I agree that PS2 GU has the better underlying combat, as it was built on top of my favorite Godzilla game, but my point of view is that the changes made to it in GU PS2 nerfed any fun I could have with it. The unique stages are all well and good, but part of the fun I had with STE, for example, was the densely packed city-leveling you could cause in stages like New York and Los Angeles. In Unleashed, while the stages are visually distinct, the lack of the throwing mechanic working right and the overall absence of tall structures made the stages in Unleashed very boring to me (3/4 of Seattle is lame walk-over buildings, for example). New York is my favorite merely because of the skyscraper section, but that's only roughly half the stage. San Francisco, Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney, and Seattle don't have very much cityscape that's as fun or unique as the stages in STE.

As for Godzilla 90's, ironically the Wii GU version of him really isn't all that accurate either. They literally made 1 body model for Godzilla 90's and Godzilla 1954, so the spine size, the proportions, and the way they move is all shared, so the resulting G90's isn't really all that representative of the real 90's Godzilla. It's telling that Godzilla 2000 was simply referred to as "Godzilla" while 90's and 54 had their years tacked on. As for your personal tastes about STE G90's, I really don't see his "uniqueness" as you put it. In fact, I didn't really notice it until recently when I read someone say something about the all-blue spines. Personally, I feel as though the reason G90's looks "unique" in STE and GU PS2 is merely a technical limitation. Without HD graphics, you need G90's to look unique from G2K, who has purple spikes, and the aim of the game is to make the character models agile, and so G90's was slimmed to accomodate that. Thus, blue spines and a slimmer build.

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to dump all over your parade, I'm glad someone enjoys this mess, but to me, Save the Earth will always be the superior experience. The mechanics work better there and the game delivers stronger on virtually every front, even monsters. I'm all for clones, but I would've preferred something a little less atrocious than Battra over Mothra and Obsidious over Orga.

[GigaBowserG]

Speaking of the story mode - did you know if you destroy alien vehicles or buildings on the Mothership, it pisses off the GDF?

[SomeknowmeasXeno]

Yes we played the same game. I'll give you that throws were skreeonked up, but apart from that the gameplay was absolutely fine because it was just Save the Earth, and STE was great. But Unleashed also had a dedicated rpg story and all new stages so I don't care that it plays just like STE, that's the fighting system that works for the series: not what Wii had.

Also you misunderstand me 90s. I'm glad PS2 Unleashed kept his design from DAMM and STE because it was a unique take on the general Heisei design, big fan of his slimmer, leaner build and blue dorsal plates. I know the Wii design is trying to be movie-accurate but the charm of 90s in the Vortaak trilogy to me was that he was that universes' unique Godzilla, he wasn't from the movies. He may have been there to represent the Heisei era, the reason why I always had the headcanon he was Junior from the end of GvD, but he wasn't Heisei G, he was his own thing. Wii ruined his uniqueness to me.

Unleashed's story wasn't nearly as fleshed out on this version of the game as opposed to the Wii version, so while you may have enjoyed it, I personally felt cheated when I was essentially given an inferior version of the game. And while I agree that STE is great, the framerate issues, the overall uglier colors, and the throw trajectory absurdity basically ruined any good that STE would have transferred to it. As a whole, I agree that PS2 GU has the better underlying combat, as it was built on top of my favorite Godzilla game, but my point of view is that the changes made to it in GU PS2 nerfed any fun I could have with it. The unique stages are all well and good, but part of the fun I had with STE, for example, was the densely packed city-leveling you could cause in stages like New York and Los Angeles. In Unleashed, while the stages are visually distinct, the lack of the throwing mechanic working right and the overall absence of tall structures made the stages in Unleashed very boring to me (3/4 of Seattle is lame walk-over buildings, for example). New York is my favorite merely because of the skyscraper section, but that's only roughly half the stage. San Francisco, Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney, and Seattle don't have very much cityscape that's as fun or unique as the stages in STE.

As for Godzilla 90's, ironically the Wii GU version of him really isn't all that accurate either. They literally made 1 body model for Godzilla 90's and Godzilla 1954, so the spine size, the proportions, and the way they move is all shared, so the resulting G90's isn't really all that representative of the real 90's Godzilla. It's telling that Godzilla 2000 was simply referred to as "Godzilla" while 90's and 54 had their years tacked on. As for your personal tastes about STE G90's, I really don't see his "uniqueness" as you put it. In fact, I didn't really notice it until recently when I read someone say something about the all-blue spines. Personally, I feel as though the reason G90's looks "unique" in STE and GU PS2 is merely a technical limitation. Without HD graphics, you need G90's to look unique from G2K, who has purple spikes, and the aim of the game is to make the character models agile, and so G90's was slimmed to accomodate that. Thus, blue spines and a slimmer build.

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to dump all over your parade, I'm glad someone enjoys this mess, but to me, Save the Earth will always be the superior experience. The mechanics work better there and the game delivers stronger on virtually every front, even monsters. I'm all for clones, but I would've preferred something a little less atrocious than Battra over Mothra and Obsidious over Orga.

Oh don't worry, you're not dumping on my parade. I agree that STE is the superior game, I just have a soft spot for Unleashed because it actually tried to give us a story, one that I thoroughly enjoyed don't know about anybody else, and I like the human characters as well: which is a very rare occurrence for me when it comes to Godzilla. Granted Gyzen could have been fleshed out a bit more but Miku and Tagaki were really likeable for me. Plus the kaiju kind of get more 'personality' due to the addition of factions, and what they entail, a welcome addition to the story in my opinion. Yeah, story mode is Unleashed's saving grace for me and the one feature in that game I'll defend to the death.

And hardware limitations and fighting system requirements being the reasoning for the design aside, 90s will always be my favourite Godzilla and I still think it's a unique enough design. I like the all-blue dorsal plates and the body build and the head. Yes, it's because DAMM (and Domination and Super, but I played DAMM first) was my introduction to Godzilla (I actually thought it was just a video game franchise for an entire year until I saw GvKK) that 90s is my favourite Godzilla, and also the reason why I favour leaner and more heroic Godzillas, but I have no shame in admitting that. If people can have HB Godzilla as their favourite, I'm allowed to have 90s as mine.

And I'll also openly admit it is childhood bias that also makes the Vortaak Trilogy my favourite Godzilla continuity. The trilogy is also why FW is my favourite G movie, it's the closest I'll ever get to an adaptation of the games.

But at the end of the day, debates on STE and Unleashed (poor DAMM and Domination getting ignored) aside: I just want another game like this series. Make it play like STE, make the combat a bit more deep if you want, and give us a story mode like in Unleashed. That's all I want, just a '4th' game. I know I'll always have the other 3 games, but just one more is all I ask: there's so much you could do with the gameplay now, and it could look amazing as well. I just want to uppercut monsters through a skyscraper again, but on current gen with today's technology.

Added in 2 minutes 24 seconds:

Speaking of the story mode - did you know if you destroy alien vehicles or buildings on the Mothership, it pisses off the GDF?

They are technically now on Earth, and humanity does have a track record of trying to claim everything as their own... oh who am I kidding somebody didn't program that stage right.

[Godzillabrawler]

But at the end of the day, debates on STE and Unleashed (poor DAMM and Domination getting ignored) aside: I just want another game like this series. Make it play like STE, make the combat a bit more deep if you want, and give us a story mode like in Unleashed. That's all I want, just a '4th' game. I know I'll always have the other 3 games, but just one more is all I ask: there's so much you could do with the gameplay now, and it could look amazing as well. I just want to uppercut monsters through a skyscraper again, but on current gen with today's technology.

This. All of this. Honestly, story mode is just icing for me. I just want to play a new entry in this series, even if it's just a spriritual successor by Bamco or someone else. As long as it's a semi-remake of the DAMM/STE gameplay that lets me wreak as much damn havoc as possible in HD and doesn't feel like it's covered in molasses, I'm golden.

OT: Has anyone ever tried hacking this game? I'd love to see someone take out the garbage throwing mechanics, fix the framerate, and maybe throw in the old STE stages. I wonder if it's even possible.

[SomeknowmeasXeno]

^ Oh it's certainly possible, being the same engine and all. The throws should be relatively easy to fix but adding stages might be a hurdle due to collision detection, I'm guessing, don't quote me on that. Should also be pretty simple to add back in STE's Rage Attacks. I'm unsure on the framerate though.

[The Godzilla King]

OT: Has anyone ever tried hacking this game? I'd love to see someone take out the garbage throwing mechanics, fix the framerate, and maybe throw in the old STE stages. I wonder if it's even possible.

Not possible without the game's source code/assets. Godzilla Unleashed uses an "upgraded" version of the Spigot engine, so the files are not compatible due to some changes in the file formats.

[g2vd]

Best version of Unleashed, no doubt. The fighting system in Wii Unleashed is a major step down from the series' standard, it also had a terrible G 90s redesign that ruined his unique design, and the less said about Double Smash the better. Unleashed's story was also great, loved the rpg mechanics, and I really liked Commander Tagaki and Kenji Miku.

and the less said about Double Smash the better.

and the less said about Double Smash the better.

H̷̖͕̦̟͈̭͍ḙ̭r͈̺̼̘͍̳e̪͟t̩̞ͅi̗̠̝c͕̩͈͇ͅ.̪͕̖.͉͍͞.̣͇̺̭͍.̠͍̼͈͘ͅͅ

[SomeknowmeasXeno]

Best version of Unleashed, no doubt. The fighting system in Wii Unleashed is a major step down from the series' standard, it also had a terrible G 90s redesign that ruined his unique design, and the less said about Double Smash the better. Unleashed's story was also great, loved the rpg mechanics, and I really liked Commander Tagaki and Kenji Miku.

and the less said about Double Smash the better.

and the less said about Double Smash the better.

H̷̖͕̦̟͈̭͍ḙ̭r͈̺̼̘͍̳e̪͟t̩̞ͅi̗̠̝c͕̩͈͇ͅ.̪͕̖.͉͍͞.̣͇̺̭͍.̠͍̼͈͘ͅͅ

Domination was much better.

[Mr. Strange]

But at the end of the day, debates on STE and Unleashed (poor DAMM and Domination getting ignored) aside: I just want another game like this series. Make it play like STE, make the combat a bit more deep if you want, and give us a story mode like in Unleashed. That's all I want, just a '4th' game. I know I'll always have the other 3 games, but just one more is all I ask: there's so much you could do with the gameplay now, and it could look amazing as well. I just want to uppercut monsters through a skyscraper again, but on current gen with today's technology.

I feel this.

[SomeknowmeasXeno]

But at the end of the day, debates on STE and Unleashed (poor DAMM and Domination getting ignored) aside: I just want another game like this series. Make it play like STE, make the combat a bit more deep if you want, and give us a story mode like in Unleashed. That's all I want, just a '4th' game. I know I'll always have the other 3 games, but just one more is all I ask: there's so much you could do with the gameplay now, and it could look amazing as well. I just want to uppercut monsters through a skyscraper again, but on current gen with today's technology.

I feel this.

Oh, one thing Mr Strange. I'd like to thank you and everybody else who worked on these game for introducing me to Godzilla and giving me one of my favourite fighting game series of all time. Thank you. Your games hold a special place in my heart, and I do wish, that some years down the line from now, when (not 'if', confidence is important) I've got my own games out there (I started games design recently, had a project of mine in the concept stages for the past 2 years now) and enough funding and recognition out there I'd like to contact Toho and be the one to continue this series, if you haven't done so yourself by then. Once again, thank you.

[Rhedosaurus]

I got this game via Vimm's Lair. I like Save The Earth better, but it's still a pretty fun game.

[SG-17]

I own the PS2 version but I never really played it, so outside of the story its overall a much worse game than STE?

[Rhedosaurus]

I own the PS2 version but I never really played it, so outside of the story its overall a much worse game than STE?

I can only say this. It's a notch below STE, but it's still a fun and enjoyable game. I do wish the graphics had been upgraded a bit more though. And that the PS2 version also had the Showa Mechagodzilla and King Ceasar.