Dragon Ball Z Side Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans (video game)

Dragon Ball Z Side Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans is a role-playing game released exclusively in Japan on August 6, 1993. Combat takes place in a turn-based format in which players direct the Z Fighters against waves of enemies and bosses drawn from an original storyline. The game is set during the period when the Destron Gas threat has weakened the heroes' ability to use ki attacks, forcing players to rely more heavily on physical combat in the early stages before ki abilities are restored.

Five playable characters are available: Super Saiyan Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, Super Saiyan Vegeta, and Super Saiyan Future Trunks. Players can split the party across multiple locations as the story demands, guiding each character through their own segment of the world before reuniting the group for the final push against the main antagonist. The regular final boss is Ghost Lychee, while a secret true final boss, Hatchiyack, becomes accessible only if the player defeats Lychee without using any items throughout the encounter, rewarding skilled play with an additional climactic battle.

Exploration involves visiting towns to gather information and collect items from NPCs, adding a light adventure structure atop the combat framework. Players navigate distinct world regions including Grand Apollon, the Western Desert, Bunbuku Island, and the Land of Ice, each associated with a specific party member's story segment.

Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans follows an original narrative in which Doctor Lychee and his Dark Planet arrive near Earth. Lychee releases Destron Gas from machines placed across the planet, a toxin that kills all living things and weakens the ki abilities of the Z Fighters. Mr. Popo informs Goku and Gohan of the threat, prompting them to split up alongside Piccolo to destroy the gas machines at four separate locations. Future Trunks and Vegeta join the effort after discovering that Bulma and baby Trunks have been taken hostage by Lychee's monsters.

After the gas machines are destroyed, the ghost warriors of Frieza, Cooler, Turles, and Lord Slug appear at a television station in West City, forcing a multi-round confrontation. Bunbuku Island is destroyed in the fighting, compelling the Z Fighters to collect the Dragon Balls and wish it back before constructing a spaceship to pursue Lychee to his Dark Planet. The final battles on the Dark Planet conclude with the defeat of Ghost Lychee and, for skilled players, the supercomputer Hatchiyack in its humanoid form.

Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans holds the distinction of being the first Dragon Ball franchise game to feature a fully original story independent of the manga or anime. This creative decision gave it a unique identity within the Dragon Ball game library of the early 1990s, when most titles were straightforward adaptations of existing story arcs. The game was released on the Famicom and was the last Dragon Ball franchise title for that platform.

The game's story later inspired an original video animation of the same name and spawned two follow-up games for the Playdia console. Hatchiyack, the secret final boss introduced here, became a recurring figure in Dragon Ball media and is recognized today as an original antagonist with genuine staying power in the franchise. The game is studied as a foundational example of the franchise venturing beyond its source material into original interactive storytelling.