Dragon Ball FighterZ is an exceptional fighting game. Everything about it looks and feels like the 30+ year old franchise, and many of the fights make you want to scream Kamehameha as you decimate your opponent.
The most astounding aspect of the Dragon Ball franchise in terms of gaming is how fresh and relevant each new game has felt, even after rehashing many of the same plot tropes the series has seen over the past 30+ years. Sure, some entries have been better than others, and some have even become cult classics (looking at you Budokai 3); but the biggest judgement facing any entry is the quality of it’s fighting gameplay. Dragon Ball FighterZ not only looks and feels like quintessential Dragon Ball, but it packs some of the most robust and complex fighting mechanics seen in the Dragon Ball video game franchise thus far.
Gameplay
Just to get it out of the way first: I am by no means the world’s greatest fighting game player. Typically, I get mixed up in button combos and end up getting my ass handed to me by any other skilled player. But that didn’t seem to matter for Dragon Ball FighterZ, as the game seemed to ease me into all of the fights to learn the complexities of the game with it’s story mode. Well-placed tutorial fights taught me everything I needed to know to feel like I was actually doing something, while never hand-holding enough to feel like the game was fighting for me. Over a short amount of time I was easily able to learn various super combos and special attacks that made me feel powerful and allowed me to have a tremendous amount of fun.
See, it’s clear that Arc System Works took a lot of mechanics from other Bandai Namco fighters and put them into Dragon Ball FighterZ. Street Fighter, BlazBlue and Guilty Gear inspirations can be found throughout, but all with the care and love put in to make it feel like Dragon Ball. The ability to make your 3-person team, and how each of those fighters work with some better than others was a really fascinating mechanic that forced me to experiment with different team combinations.
For example, for my fighting style, I could never get used to using the heavier characters like Majin Buu or Captain Ginyu, so I was purposefully exclude them from my team. I would always have the light-weight characters like Gotenks, Kid Buu and Teen Gohan making up my team, but would sacrifice a lot of defense to attacks. So, to make up for this fact I learned to experiment. I would eventually settle upon a team of Goku (Black), Kid Buu and Frieza.
Having a nice mix of middle-weight and light-weight characters really worked for my specific play-style, but it really illustrates the fact that players of all types can experiment with their teams to create very different dynamics. Dragon Balls also make an appearance in the actual fights, as players will be able to acquire them when completing certain combos during the match. When a player collects all 7, they summon Shenron to grant them one of four wishes for that match.
There are a handful of modes for players to fight their way through, but the highlights are definitely the online matches, Arcade mode and the Story mode. I fought only 25-30 online matches, and while they worked great and had minimal matchmaking issues, I quickly realized where my skill-level sat when it came to facing hardcore fighting game fans. However, for new players like myself, I found tackling the story mode and then subsequently the Arcade mode to be much more enjoyable to build up my skill level.
The Arcade mode bracket for the Snake Way Course
The central online hub area is also really cool, with a bunch of Chibi-looking avatars running around. Players can acquire new Lobby characters using Zeni to buy Capsules that reward a chance to unlock new ones. While not really the most robust feature of the game, I found it cool to see a different take on the usual Dragon Ball community hub areas of previous games. I only wish there were more characters to choose from from the start of the game, rather than having to unlock them through Capsules.
The chibi-esque online community hub
Visuals
My, oh my, Dragon Ball FighterZ is one gorgeous looking game. Using the Unreal Engine to create pseudo-cell shaded 3D models that look like they were ripped straight from the anime is a sight to behold. All of the characters were so painstakingly recreated, that many of their moves are 1:1 parallels to the manga and anime.
While its safe to say that Dragon Ball FighterZ is the best looking Dragon Ball game, there are a few minor complaints I have when it comes to battle damage on the characters. Yes, while when a character is heavily depleted on health they appear relatively battered and bruised, the same can’t be said about the environments. For many of the fights, characters are blowing up the environment around them and throwing characters through entire mountains. But when those quick cutscenes end, many of the maps look unharmed and unchanged. If Goku uses his Kamehameha to blow someone off the screen, I’d imagine the map to look a bit more destroyed in the background. Or if you kick someone through the map, I’d think that your fighters would be in a new locale.
That’s a pretty destructive blast…you’d imagine the map would change?
But those are just nit-picky complaints I had for what is a hands-down gorgeous game.
All in all, Dragon Ball FighterZ is an astounding game that has earned it’s place in the pantheon of great fighting games we’ve gotten this console generation. I personally can’t wait to see if the fighting game community adopts this game into their hearts and tournaments, as I feel there is limitless potential for the esports aspect of the game.
