Dragon Ball FighterZ is fantastically animated and one of the more interesting fighting games that I've ever come across. It's an epic game to play by yourself or head-to-head with some friends.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is my first excursion into the Dragon Ball franchise. I never watched the anime, though I frequently came across it on Cartoon Network. The most I knew about the series is that there was a main character named Goku. That’s it.
Having known nothing prior to playing this game, I found myself a little lost in the beginning. Fighting games had never been my thing, and Dragon Ball was certainly not something with which I was familiar. Needless to say, I had my reservations.
I was pleasantly surprised when starting up Dragon Ball FighterZ for the first time. Epic music and visuals came pouring from the screen and I was genuinely excited. It looked amazing. An introduction video played that welcomes you to the game, and I was immediately enthralled.
The Gameplay:
Button-mashing is most certainly not the name of the game here. At least, not if you want to have a fight that looks and feels as epic as it should. Even though satisfactory results come from the practice, it is so much more rewarding to press the right combination to unleash a powerful, debilitating attack.
The control layout feels familiar to the few other fighting games I’ve played, and it is nice being able to use both the D-pad and control stick to control your character. Being able to dash toward or away from your opponent is important, and doing this on the control stick does not work as well as it does on the D-pad. The attack buttons take a little it to get used to, but after some messing around and practice, it’s pretty easy to remember.
The Story:
*Spoilers for the beginning of the game below*
Story mode begins with the player waking up in a Gazebo with Bulma standing over you and asking why you don’t recognize her. As it turns out, the player has inhabited Goku’s body and quickly finds themselves coming toe-to-toe with Android 16.
The first fight, as with most games, acts as a tutorial. The game brings up a window to introduce the player to the control scheme and places them into the fight. Even though Android 16 is not an aggressive first opponent, the game tests your urge to button-mash by providing mini-objectives during the fight which help you get used to attack combinations. These mini-objectives don’t end with the first fight. Doing this allows the player to learn the layout at their own pace and practice without hindering the story progression.
The cutscenes are normally conversations between characters that bring the plot to the foreground. Dragon Ball FighterZ has a nice addition to the dialogue system. If you missed some of a conversation, or accidentally clicked through some dialogue, you can pull up a conversation log and reread what you missed. I don’t know of many games that do this, but it is an appreciated addition.
The Style:
By far my favorite part of Dragon Ball FighterZ, the art and animation are phenomenal. The developers did a fantastic job of bringing a two-dimensional art style into a three-dimensional environment. The fighting animations are clean, and I was constantly in awe of the effects. A lot of effects are 2D animated, but since the developers did such a great job with the conversion, I almost didn’t notice.
Little details are everything in this game. Android 18 with seamlessly flip her hair with her hand as she fights and without missing a beat. If a character is getting low on health, you will see dirt and damage marks on their models. The special attacks in the game are integrated flawlessly, and the player moves into a small animatic of the move and right back out while keeping the same tempo. The environment is interactive as well, with certain attacks changing the scenery or even using it as a part of their move. The background feels dynamic and is integrated beautifully.
Multiplayer:
Multiplayer might be the best and worst part of Dragon Ball FighterZ. My girlfriend and I began playing the local multiplayer mode and had an absolute blast. Neither of us knows anything about Dragon Ball, but that didn’t stop us from having fun.
We are both prone to button-mashing, which led to a lot of “how did you do that”s or “what the heck, that was awesome”s. Being able to play a fighting game with someone who also doesn’t have too much experience in the area was fun until they spam the ranged attack button making it harder for you to approach them.
The worst part about multiplayer is the controllers. If you have more than one set of Joy-cons, use them. We decided to split one pair of Joy-cons, and we each took half. In theory, this is great. If you only have two players you don’t have to go out and buy another controller. We found that this was not the case.
The controllers, being as small as they are, are difficult to hold. Since you no longer have the option to use a D-pad or the control stick, the movement is more restricted as well. Button-mashing became a more prevalent issue because of the controller’s awkward layout. If playing on a different system, this should not be an issue.
Dragon Ball FighterZ feels like an expansion of the Dragon Ball universe. The game expects some level of knowledge of the established world before the player begins, but it isn’t terrible to come up to speed and enjoy the work as an individual piece. The game piqued my interest, and now I want to watch the anime so that I may better understand the game.
