Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Modding: New characters and stages

Maybe you have already seen several Tenkaichi 3 gameplay videos on YouTube showing new characters like Beerus, Whis or the Super Saiyan Blue in the old PS2 game. This tutorial will show you how it's done.

Just to be clear: I'm not able to create my own characters, but thanks to guys like Kinnikuchi (check out his blog) you can download new characters and stages to modify your own game.

Note: Your PS2 has to be able to run copied games - either with having an integrated chip, using ESR or running the game from the local or external hard disk drive - or via LAN if you like it that way. For testing this whole scenario I would recommend you to have an emulator, but more on that later.

1) Copy the disk to your PC
The first procedure is the same as you would change the background music of the game: Extract your DVD to a local folder in order to apply the patches.

2) Download the patches!
Go to the blog of Kinnikuchi and download the characters or stages available on the download page. And to be clear: These patches don't extent the amount of playable characters - certain characters (mostly weak ones from the first Dragon Ball series) are replaced with the newer characters. Sometimes characters are added by replacing a costume, or some characters do even have new costumes for themselves. Also the new stages are replacing other stages.

3) Prepare the extracted folder
Within the tutorial download from Kinnikuchi you'll get the AFS Explorer and an *.afl file. Before applying the patches, start this explorer tool and select 'File', 'Import AFS file'. Choose the PZS3US1.afs (from your extracted directory). Now import the file name list (´Advanced', 'Import file name list') by selecting the downloaded afl file in order to prepare your game for the new patches and changes within the game. Finish the process by clicking 'File', 'Update'. The game folder is now ready to be patched.

4) Apply the patches

Each download contains a folder with (mostly) a picture of the character/stage, a Readme file (where you can find out what will be changed with this new character/stage) and a dkz file which is the patch. 

Open the patch with the DKZ Studio and select 'Patch', 'Apply patch in folder', where you select your extracted folder. This can take a few moments to finish. 

Now you can apply any of these downloaded patches in the same way. Just read the description in order to make sure that you don't override some characters you may want to keep.

5) Burn it and test it!

In the final step I'd recommend to burn the complete game folders with IMGBurn. In order to test it properly it would be helpful to have a savegame with all characters unlocked. These are available in the Internet, you may just have to convert them for your PS2.

But to make sure if everything worked out, you should better do that with an emulator like PCSX2. 

And if every change is fine, try it on your PS2 - either burned on a disk or installed on your HDD. Have fun with these new characters and enjoy immersing into the world of Dragon Ball Super in an old familiar game!