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Description
DRAGONBALL FIGHTERZ.
Developed by: Arc System Works.
Published by: Namco Bandai Entertainment.
Genre: Figting Game.
Based on the long running Dragonball series created by: Akira Toriyama.
Rated: 12 (mild swearing and themes).
Special Guest and Edited by

Welcome to another tag team effort with Good Cop (BloatedBeard) and Harvey Bullock (Myself).

In terms of video games based on cartoons, you always know what to expect from the Dragonball Series. Even back in the days of the Super Nintendo, the games would predominantly retell the same 4 arcs from Dragonball Z (Saiyan/Namek/Cell/Buu) to the point of incredible tedium. I think that's why I got tired of playing them in the end, because there's only so many times you can see Goku become a Super Saiyan for the first time or Cell declaring his love for cornbread. The Xenoverse series did make some much needed changes to the formula but it was still going over the same tired story arcs, with the added bonus of the movies. Maybe sometime down the line we'll see a series of games that milk Dragonball Super to death as well. But one never knows, one never knows.

Dragonball Fighterz is a different approach to Goku and his friends energy blasting shenanigans. It's a game based on the show that tells a completely different story... I'll let that sink in for a moment. Yes there may be call backs to the show and only 1 new character amongst the DBZ High School Yearbook that makes up the majority of the roster, but the highest praise I can give it is that it isn't another retread of shit you should probably know off by heart by now.

And thank Super Kami Guru for that!

Okay, let's get this out of the way. Dragonball Fighterz, in terms of its structure and mechanics, is HIGHLY inspired by the Marvel Vs Capcom series. And that's all you're getting on that subject from me. I don't want this to be a review where I just shit on Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite, a big thing I didn't like about Fighterz initial hype. Now granted it was mainly fanboys jerking themselves off, but I don't think there is any point in it here. Infinite was a very flawed product on it's own, but it really has no bearing or connection to Dragonball Fighterz as a whole.... But I'm just gonna put this out there.

Infinite's roster (minus DLC) = 30.
Fighterz's roster (minus DLC) = 24.
(Though technically SSGSS Goku and Vegeta shouldn't count since they were sold as preorder bonuses.)

For everyones bitching about Marvel's roster and how they keep getting shorter, people went oddly quiet over this games roster.

"I'm just Saiyan."

But if you must see me shit on Infinite and call it a bad game, you can see that here.
randomdc3.deviantart.com/art/9…

For the review, I will mainly be talking about the games story mode. I've said before I don't play games online anymore so I won't waste the text on that. BloatedBeard will tackle those features so it's not left out of this review. The presentation is actually a bit of a step up from previous games, but sadly it still relies heavily on characters standing still with minor mouth animations. I had the voices set to Japanese for the first couple of days, but I switched so I could laugh at the hilariously awful Goku Black voice. Yet Goku Black's voice wasn't the most cringe enducing thing about Fighterz.... We'll get to HER in a bit.

Story.
(SPOILER ALERT).

So how do the Z Warriors fair in the world of modern fighting games? Surprisingly well considering the story mode is thicker than a second coat of paint. The game is split between 3 different story arcs (in a similair vain to Sonic Adventure 2) where you can either play as Goku and friends, Frieza and his minions or from the Androids perspective. The problem I found with this approach is that all 3 stories don't connect together but feel like 3 alternate takes on the overall story. The lack of continuity hinders this from being a rewarding experience, for an event in the heroes story isn't addressed in the other two and so on.

The basic plot centers around the Mary Sue character, Android 21, creating an army of clones based on Goku and his friends. Why she's doing this is anyones guess but her whole gimmick feels like a retread of both Cell and Majin Buu's storyarcs. Dammit, Dragonball! You were so close to doing something new but you just couldn't help yourself, could ya? Android 21's actions are shown but I don't recall any rhyme or reason for them. We see her and Android 16 on New-Namek, using the Dragonballs to resurrect Freiza and the other villains because "reasons." She creates an army of clones of the Z Warriors because "reasons." Then she creates energy waves to prevent everyone using their full power because "reasons." And the only way they can use any fighting power is by switching with an artificial soul beca-You get the idea. The artificial soul is kind of explained in the third story arc but it doesn't quite relate to why Goku and his friends all have one inside of them. I understand a fighting games story is about as detailed and complex as a penguin in a go-kart, but this is sloppy even for Dragonballs standards. 16 is only here for nostalgia because he truly contributes nothing to this story. Which brings us to the one aspect I truly despise about the games story.

Android 21.

I know a lot of people like this character, but she really got on my nerves the more the story belched along. When she first showed up, she seemed interesting and a more calculating villain, before back flipping into what can be best described as a cross between an irritating 7 year old and some of the worst aspects of a villain sue in living memory. It also doesn't help that she sounds like Tara Strong's Harley Quinn either, a squeaky prepubescent retard who you just want to decapitate with a wooden cooking spoon. I think the problem here is all her depth and explanation happens in the third story arc which isn't available at the start. So after spending 2 story arcs with her minuscule set up and EXTREMELY ANNOYING personality, by the time the third arc is unlocked I was beyond giving a shit! The only real change with her is during the Android Saga, where she pulls a Piccolo and splits into 2 different beings. One good, one evil (how original) and the game then expected me to give a shit about "the good one" despite the fact the other two arcs have done nothing to set this reveal up or make her an interesting character.

I'm sorry folks, but she is a boring one note villain with no redeeming qualities (besides porn) and I found myself cheering when she died in all 3 arcs. I think what made her death funnier in the Android arc was how the "good" one sacrificed herself (like a good Mary Sue) to save her new friends. Again, the game did nothing to make her likeable in the slightest so her death meant nothing to me. I wouldn't say she was on Infinite's level of awfulness but rather a character that had plenty of potential that was squandered. While it is refreshing to have a female Dragonball Villain (the Universe 6 female sayians don't count fanboys) it felt like a phoned in job on a character I seriously could have done without. Goku and pals even have this sort of "Isn't she so wonderful?" type conversation to further cement said Sue-ness. Granted most of the Dragonball cast classify as Gary Stus in there own right (looking mainly at Goku here) but I just feel Android 21 showcases some of the worst aspects of this type of character.

Waifu assassinating aside, the story did become something a chore due to the rather flimsy opposition the game offered. Fighting the same clones over and over again really dragged out the proceedings at times because you're essentially fighting the same 4-5 fights on a continuous loop. What does prevent things from becoming truly stale is the banter sections when you pair up certain characters together. This is the only major highlight of the story mode (besides 21's deaths) where you have amusing callbacks to the show, what if comments and some genuine comedy going.

In summary - I've played worse storymodes but Injustice 2 is still the measuring stick on how to do these things. Personally I'd suggest not bothering with a storymode all together, but that's just me. What I did find truly dissapointing is how the Super reps are not present within the story, with the lone expecting of Lord Beerus and even then he still doesn't add anything to the story. The Dragonball cast do carry this but the repetetive clones and lack of variety really keep this from being memorable. You'll play this mode once and then never touch it again.

ArcSys games are famous for having pretty lengthy and engaging stories for fighting games - Blazblue had individual character scenarios with their own branching paths, P4A mimiced the Persona 4 cutscenes to a T and had an overarching plot across P4A and P4A:Ultimax, and with Dragon Ball FighterZ it's no exception. The actual series of events within the story are servicable - some things aren't properly explained like why the clones were created by Android 21 to begin with other than to keep her evil side fed, but the revelation in the Android arc about the link being required to keep her from going berserk is an interesting touch. That being said, Android 21 isn't exactly a stellar character by any means - I don't hate her like Random does, her gameplay style and design more than make up for it, but this weird dual personalities thing and her evil side's insufferable voice make it hard to stomach. Is she a Mary Sue? Eh, no more than Goku being a Gary Stu in my opinion, but that doesn't detract from the ever loving charm that comes from pairing different teammates together and getting some of the most endearing and/or hilarious interactions from the Dragon Ball cast in eons.

The actual gameplay of the story mode however is a drag. Fighting the same 16 characters over and over and over again drags on, especially when you have to do it across three arcs that can take an hour or two each, it's just a bit boring more than anything. At least with something like Blazblue you're fighting a different set of characters every time with different reasoning, and sometimes even different consequences depending on if you win or lose. It gave you a reason to try every character's story path, which eventually lead to getting the true ending of the game...well, as long as you completed the right 4 stories. But as I said, it's serviceable and fun to mess around with for the character interactions alone.

Gameplay.

As we mentioned earlier, Fighterz follows a similair design structure to that of the Marvel Vs Capcom series. You select 3 fighters that you can swap out on the fly or call in for assists and the fight is over when all 3 of your opponents have been defeated. I am pleased to say the combat is A+ in terms of function, style and flashy appearences, but I have to grade it a B for how simplistic it is. I'm not asking for 30 button command inputs to launch a Kamehameha or anything, but it felt a tad on the simple side to use the most devastating moves in the game. I was expecting to master Goku Black as my go-to fighter, but I came away from the game being amazing as Yamcha of all people. He really has a decent pattern and attacks that won me a shit ton of fights. Joke or not, Yamcha is the shit in Dragonball Fighterz. There never was a point where I didn't feel incontrol or the game felt unfair. The difficulty depended on my own skill or the character I was using in the story mode. Okay, I don't know if this counts as a glitch, a bug or it's meant to be a thing. I got to the final battle in Fighterz and I accidently quit. 21 was at Level 37 with 19400 HP. I loaded my game back up and I was back 5 chapters because I forgot to save. ..... Yet she was still at Level 37 with 19400HP.

o_O

As much as we're all singing the games praises, I have to be "that guy" and point out it's seriously lacking in content. Granted DLC is on the way to iron out these issues, but as I jokingly mentioned earlier, it's a crime that a fighting game THIS GOOD has so few characters right out of the gate. I think I should mention that I did run into a few technical issues on day 1. Mainly the game kept kicking me from the server, despite the fact I was clearly playing offline. I would like to thank the Dragonball Fighterz Facebook page community for helping me fix this issue and I haven't had this problem since. I did peg this down to day one teething problems that every game suffers with, so it's more of a psuedo-nitpick if anything.

As soon as I heard that ArcSys were spearheading this operation I had the utmost confidence this game was going to be great fun - BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena, Guilty Gear, they've had their hand in some fighting game greats and produce some of higher quality "anime fighters" out there. Speaking of, anime fighter has never been a more appropriate term now seeing how we're dealing with an actual anime property now.

All the ArcSys-anime fighter staples are here and with that Dragon Ball charm attached - 4 attack buttons, air dashes, double jumps, jump cancelling, burst attacks, the whole package really. Where DBFZ mainly differs is the inclusion of the team system from the "Vs. Capcom" series. With three characters to a team each with a unique assist when hiding in the back, there's a surprising amount of variety to be had from the (currently) limited cast of 24 characters - not a bad fare when you consider SkullGirls (the ever wonderful pinnacle of fighting games that it is) had 8 characters at launch. Small roster aside, the major cast of Dragon Ball Z are here as well as some select choices from Dragon Ball Super - and with DLC on the way, this will continue to expand. I do wish you could choose what assists your characters carried a la Mahvel but it gave me an excuse to pick up Vegeta so I'm pleased with that.

As for the actual gameplay itself, it's the same opulent gold standard that is expected from ArcSys - while the game has a lot of options for beginners to pick up the game in the way of the AutoCombos (which is ingrained into the game now as opposed to being a separate "Stylish" option like in previous titles), you are very much rewarded with experimentation. Sure you can Light, medium heavy into an air dash and then a hard knock down, but why do that when you can lift them off the ground with your mediums, jump cancel into an early air combo with a launcher, chase them to extend the combo, do a vanish into a wall bouNCE, GRAB THEM IN MID AIR FOR THE HARD KNOCKDOWN INTO PICCOLO'S LEVEL 1 SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!!!!!

*ahem* Sorry about that, but as you can see while picking the game up is a simple affair as Random said, the amount of options you're given lets your imagination run wild. Not mentioned earlier were the gameplay elements that help make FighterZ its own beast. "Chasing" is a mechanic not dissimilar to the Homing Manoeuvre from the Arcana Hearts series, where you dash straight to your opponent's side through the air. This can also let you dash through basic ki attacks unharmed, but you don't have immunity from beam attacks or your opponent actually being good at the game. If your opponent blocks the chase or reads it they can easily punish you with a launcher and go to town on you. The classic Z-Vanish of DBZ fame is also a great mechanic - spend a bar and appear behind your opponent with a knock down (or not if you're in Sparking mode) and either punish a greedy player looking for the raw level 3 super or extend your combos like a mad man. If all that technical talk didn't register, let's just say you're given a lot of great options to approach, attack and defend with and they're all simple to use.

From my own experiences however, I feel a lot of the cast don't have many unique traits. They're there, don't get me wrong, but it's not to the abundance or creativity you might find in a game like Blazblue - in that game, the Ki button was instead the "drive button" and they provided you with that character's main gimmick. In DBFZ however, the most unique characters in that sense are Android 21 with her skill absorption attack, Beerus with his Hakai spheres you can position on the screen and Captain Ginyu with the fact you have to micromanage the Ginyu Force attacks. Outside of that and specials, a lot of them have the same basic combo strings or approach methods. The most unique character outside of those previously mentioned would be Yamcha for having the most unique behaviours in his entire moveset with plenty of options for mix ups, cross ups and more. Heck, Yamcha is even slated to be top tier - what a shocker!

Now, it's time to tackle the insurmountable horror that dear old Random would be caught dead if he were to use it - the online mode.

Online

Let me be clear about one thing - I don't tend to play games online, and it's been a long time since I used my bandwidth for a fighting game either, the last experience of this was the ever disappointing Street Fighter V. That being said, DBFZ has thankfully cured that phobia by not only being a super fun game, but the online actually WORKS....for the most part. Let's nitpick this aspect step by step:

When you boot up the game, it automatically pops you into a server online and sticks you into the cute little lobby where you run around as Chibi versions of the characters (in typical ArcSys fare). I have no idea what it's like if you don't have an internet connection, but there are offline lobbies if you don't care about fighting other people. In terms of the social aspect, apart from the standard friends list and ranked/unranked search, you also have ring matches which replace the more traditional room system - fully customisable in size, rules and more, including a system I've only ever seen in Street Fighter X Tekken of all games - you can set up a Party Match between you and 5 other players, each taking a slot in one of side of the match. Needless to say, this is an absolute treasure of a mode, made ever better by the fact the netcode for this game makes it run as smooth as oil-slicked butter on ice. I have rarely had a laggy match in this game, which makes me want to play more and get better and better.

Other than all that, you get zeni for doing things like story mode, arcade mode, and random matches and that lets you buy Capsules which give you titles and background for your player card, lobby avatars, different colors for matches, and even things like different commentators for your replays you save such as Freeza and Yamcha. There's also two rewards for getting a cumulative total 300k and 500k zeni (meaning you can still spend the money) - Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta / Goku respectively. If you're willing to cheese the AI in the hard difficulty arcade mode you can unlock the characters by getting A Ranks, or just...yknow, buy 'em with IRL money I guess.

Speaking of unlocking characters, the only other unlockable character in this game is Android 21, a new character introduced into the already debatable canon of Dragon Ball. Unlocking her is as simple as completing the story mode, which Random already covered - but as the saying goes, "in for a penny, in for a pound", so here's my thoughts on the story mode.

Closing thoughts.

Let's summarise this - Dragonball Fighterz is argubly the best Dragonball fighting game ever made. It combines the insane action of the Anime/Manga with a 3 on 3 fighting system that maybe on the simpler side, but is still highly addictive. While I may bemoan the story mode and the dissapointment that is Android 21, it still gets a very high recomendation from me. Pick this game up if you haven't done so already!

With all of that being said, FighterZ brings all the best Dragon Ball elements and implements them perfectly into a surprisingly beginner friendly fighter. From the fun gameplay to the flashiness of the fights, unique dialogue, the music and the dramatic finishers and openers, it's got all the finesse, charm and pure fun that a game like Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite lacked. This game is well worthy of joining the ranks of ArcSys' near infallable library (assuming Blazblue Cross Tag Battle doesn't ruin that...) and it's a blast once you're going head to head with others. Pick it up whenever you can if you're interested - just don't go crying to Shenron when your win ratio tanks if you're not willing to do the work in training mode.

Description
DRAGONBALL FIGHTERZ.
Developed by: Arc System Works.
Published by: Namco Bandai Entertainment.
Genre: Figting Game.
Based on the long running Dragonball series created by: Akira Toriyama.
Rated: 12 (mild swearing and themes).
Special Guest and Edited by

Welcome to another tag team effort with Good Cop (BloatedBeard) and Harvey Bullock (Myself).

In terms of video games based on cartoons, you always know what to expect from the Dragonball Series. Even back in the days of the Super Nintendo, the games would predominantly retell the same 4 arcs from Dragonball Z (Saiyan/Namek/Cell/Buu) to the point of incredible tedium. I think that's why I got tired of playing them in the end, because there's only so many times you can see Goku become a Super Saiyan for the first time or Cell declaring his love for cornbread. The Xenoverse series did make some much needed changes to the formula but it was still going over the same tired story arcs, with the added bonus of the movies. Maybe sometime down the line we'll see a series of games that milk Dragonball Super to death as well. But one never knows, one never knows.

Dragonball Fighterz is a different approach to Goku and his friends energy blasting shenanigans. It's a game based on the show that tells a completely different story... I'll let that sink in for a moment. Yes there may be call backs to the show and only 1 new character amongst the DBZ High School Yearbook that makes up the majority of the roster, but the highest praise I can give it is that it isn't another retread of shit you should probably know off by heart by now.

And thank Super Kami Guru for that!

Okay, let's get this out of the way. Dragonball Fighterz, in terms of its structure and mechanics, is HIGHLY inspired by the Marvel Vs Capcom series. And that's all you're getting on that subject from me. I don't want this to be a review where I just shit on Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite, a big thing I didn't like about Fighterz initial hype. Now granted it was mainly fanboys jerking themselves off, but I don't think there is any point in it here. Infinite was a very flawed product on it's own, but it really has no bearing or connection to Dragonball Fighterz as a whole.... But I'm just gonna put this out there.

Infinite's roster (minus DLC) = 30.
Fighterz's roster (minus DLC) = 24.
(Though technically SSGSS Goku and Vegeta shouldn't count since they were sold as preorder bonuses.)

For everyones bitching about Marvel's roster and how they keep getting shorter, people went oddly quiet over this games roster.

"I'm just Saiyan."

But if you must see me shit on Infinite and call it a bad game, you can see that here.
randomdc3.deviantart.com/art/9…

For the review, I will mainly be talking about the games story mode. I've said before I don't play games online anymore so I won't waste the text on that. BloatedBeard will tackle those features so it's not left out of this review. The presentation is actually a bit of a step up from previous games, but sadly it still relies heavily on characters standing still with minor mouth animations. I had the voices set to Japanese for the first couple of days, but I switched so I could laugh at the hilariously awful Goku Black voice. Yet Goku Black's voice wasn't the most cringe enducing thing about Fighterz.... We'll get to HER in a bit.

Story.
(SPOILER ALERT).

So how do the Z Warriors fair in the world of modern fighting games? Surprisingly well considering the story mode is thicker than a second coat of paint. The game is split between 3 different story arcs (in a similair vain to Sonic Adventure 2) where you can either play as Goku and friends, Frieza and his minions or from the Androids perspective. The problem I found with this approach is that all 3 stories don't connect together but feel like 3 alternate takes on the overall story. The lack of continuity hinders this from being a rewarding experience, for an event in the heroes story isn't addressed in the other two and so on.

The basic plot centers around the Mary Sue character, Android 21, creating an army of clones based on Goku and his friends. Why she's doing this is anyones guess but her whole gimmick feels like a retread of both Cell and Majin Buu's storyarcs. Dammit, Dragonball! You were so close to doing something new but you just couldn't help yourself, could ya? Android 21's actions are shown but I don't recall any rhyme or reason for them. We see her and Android 16 on New-Namek, using the Dragonballs to resurrect Freiza and the other villains because "reasons." She creates an army of clones of the Z Warriors because "reasons." Then she creates energy waves to prevent everyone using their full power because "reasons." And the only way they can use any fighting power is by switching with an artificial soul beca-You get the idea. The artificial soul is kind of explained in the third story arc but it doesn't quite relate to why Goku and his friends all have one inside of them. I understand a fighting games story is about as detailed and complex as a penguin in a go-kart, but this is sloppy even for Dragonballs standards. 16 is only here for nostalgia because he truly contributes nothing to this story. Which brings us to the one aspect I truly despise about the games story.

Android 21.

I know a lot of people like this character, but she really got on my nerves the more the story belched along. When she first showed up, she seemed interesting and a more calculating villain, before back flipping into what can be best described as a cross between an irritating 7 year old and some of the worst aspects of a villain sue in living memory. It also doesn't help that she sounds like Tara Strong's Harley Quinn either, a squeaky prepubescent retard who you just want to decapitate with a wooden cooking spoon. I think the problem here is all her depth and explanation happens in the third story arc which isn't available at the start. So after spending 2 story arcs with her minuscule set up and EXTREMELY ANNOYING personality, by the time the third arc is unlocked I was beyond giving a shit! The only real change with her is during the Android Saga, where she pulls a Piccolo and splits into 2 different beings. One good, one evil (how original) and the game then expected me to give a shit about "the good one" despite the fact the other two arcs have done nothing to set this reveal up or make her an interesting character.

I'm sorry folks, but she is a boring one note villain with no redeeming qualities (besides porn) and I found myself cheering when she died in all 3 arcs. I think what made her death funnier in the Android arc was how the "good" one sacrificed herself (like a good Mary Sue) to save her new friends. Again, the game did nothing to make her likeable in the slightest so her death meant nothing to me. I wouldn't say she was on Infinite's level of awfulness but rather a character that had plenty of potential that was squandered. While it is refreshing to have a female Dragonball Villain (the Universe 6 female sayians don't count fanboys) it felt like a phoned in job on a character I seriously could have done without. Goku and pals even have this sort of "Isn't she so wonderful?" type conversation to further cement said Sue-ness. Granted most of the Dragonball cast classify as Gary Stus in there own right (looking mainly at Goku here) but I just feel Android 21 showcases some of the worst aspects of this type of character.

Waifu assassinating aside, the story did become something a chore due to the rather flimsy opposition the game offered. Fighting the same clones over and over again really dragged out the proceedings at times because you're essentially fighting the same 4-5 fights on a continuous loop. What does prevent things from becoming truly stale is the banter sections when you pair up certain characters together. This is the only major highlight of the story mode (besides 21's deaths) where you have amusing callbacks to the show, what if comments and some genuine comedy going.

In summary - I've played worse storymodes but Injustice 2 is still the measuring stick on how to do these things. Personally I'd suggest not bothering with a storymode all together, but that's just me. What I did find truly dissapointing is how the Super reps are not present within the story, with the lone expecting of Lord Beerus and even then he still doesn't add anything to the story. The Dragonball cast do carry this but the repetetive clones and lack of variety really keep this from being memorable. You'll play this mode once and then never touch it again.

ArcSys games are famous for having pretty lengthy and engaging stories for fighting games - Blazblue had individual character scenarios with their own branching paths, P4A mimiced the Persona 4 cutscenes to a T and had an overarching plot across P4A and P4A:Ultimax, and with Dragon Ball FighterZ it's no exception. The actual series of events within the story are servicable - some things aren't properly explained like why the clones were created by Android 21 to begin with other than to keep her evil side fed, but the revelation in the Android arc about the link being required to keep her from going berserk is an interesting touch. That being said, Android 21 isn't exactly a stellar character by any means - I don't hate her like Random does, her gameplay style and design more than make up for it, but this weird dual personalities thing and her evil side's insufferable voice make it hard to stomach. Is she a Mary Sue? Eh, no more than Goku being a Gary Stu in my opinion, but that doesn't detract from the ever loving charm that comes from pairing different teammates together and getting some of the most endearing and/or hilarious interactions from the Dragon Ball cast in eons.

The actual gameplay of the story mode however is a drag. Fighting the same 16 characters over and over and over again drags on, especially when you have to do it across three arcs that can take an hour or two each, it's just a bit boring more than anything. At least with something like Blazblue you're fighting a different set of characters every time with different reasoning, and sometimes even different consequences depending on if you win or lose. It gave you a reason to try every character's story path, which eventually lead to getting the true ending of the game...well, as long as you completed the right 4 stories. But as I said, it's serviceable and fun to mess around with for the character interactions alone.

Gameplay.

As we mentioned earlier, Fighterz follows a similair design structure to that of the Marvel Vs Capcom series. You select 3 fighters that you can swap out on the fly or call in for assists and the fight is over when all 3 of your opponents have been defeated. I am pleased to say the combat is A+ in terms of function, style and flashy appearences, but I have to grade it a B for how simplistic it is. I'm not asking for 30 button command inputs to launch a Kamehameha or anything, but it felt a tad on the simple side to use the most devastating moves in the game. I was expecting to master Goku Black as my go-to fighter, but I came away from the game being amazing as Yamcha of all people. He really has a decent pattern and attacks that won me a shit ton of fights. Joke or not, Yamcha is the shit in Dragonball Fighterz. There never was a point where I didn't feel incontrol or the game felt unfair. The difficulty depended on my own skill or the character I was using in the story mode. Okay, I don't know if this counts as a glitch, a bug or it's meant to be a thing. I got to the final battle in Fighterz and I accidently quit. 21 was at Level 37 with 19400 HP. I loaded my game back up and I was back 5 chapters because I forgot to save. ..... Yet she was still at Level 37 with 19400HP.

o_O

As much as we're all singing the games praises, I have to be "that guy" and point out it's seriously lacking in content. Granted DLC is on the way to iron out these issues, but as I jokingly mentioned earlier, it's a crime that a fighting game THIS GOOD has so few characters right out of the gate. I think I should mention that I did run into a few technical issues on day 1. Mainly the game kept kicking me from the server, despite the fact I was clearly playing offline. I would like to thank the Dragonball Fighterz Facebook page community for helping me fix this issue and I haven't had this problem since. I did peg this down to day one teething problems that every game suffers with, so it's more of a psuedo-nitpick if anything.

As soon as I heard that ArcSys were spearheading this operation I had the utmost confidence this game was going to be great fun - BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena, Guilty Gear, they've had their hand in some fighting game greats and produce some of higher quality "anime fighters" out there. Speaking of, anime fighter has never been a more appropriate term now seeing how we're dealing with an actual anime property now.

All the ArcSys-anime fighter staples are here and with that Dragon Ball charm attached - 4 attack buttons, air dashes, double jumps, jump cancelling, burst attacks, the whole package really. Where DBFZ mainly differs is the inclusion of the team system from the "Vs. Capcom" series. With three characters to a team each with a unique assist when hiding in the back, there's a surprising amount of variety to be had from the (currently) limited cast of 24 characters - not a bad fare when you consider SkullGirls (the ever wonderful pinnacle of fighting games that it is) had 8 characters at launch. Small roster aside, the major cast of Dragon Ball Z are here as well as some select choices from Dragon Ball Super - and with DLC on the way, this will continue to expand. I do wish you could choose what assists your characters carried a la Mahvel but it gave me an excuse to pick up Vegeta so I'm pleased with that.

As for the actual gameplay itself, it's the same opulent gold standard that is expected from ArcSys - while the game has a lot of options for beginners to pick up the game in the way of the AutoCombos (which is ingrained into the game now as opposed to being a separate "Stylish" option like in previous titles), you are very much rewarded with experimentation. Sure you can Light, medium heavy into an air dash and then a hard knock down, but why do that when you can lift them off the ground with your mediums, jump cancel into an early air combo with a launcher, chase them to extend the combo, do a vanish into a wall bouNCE, GRAB THEM IN MID AIR FOR THE HARD KNOCKDOWN INTO PICCOLO'S LEVEL 1 SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!!!!!

*ahem* Sorry about that, but as you can see while picking the game up is a simple affair as Random said, the amount of options you're given lets your imagination run wild. Not mentioned earlier were the gameplay elements that help make FighterZ its own beast. "Chasing" is a mechanic not dissimilar to the Homing Manoeuvre from the Arcana Hearts series, where you dash straight to your opponent's side through the air. This can also let you dash through basic ki attacks unharmed, but you don't have immunity from beam attacks or your opponent actually being good at the game. If your opponent blocks the chase or reads it they can easily punish you with a launcher and go to town on you. The classic Z-Vanish of DBZ fame is also a great mechanic - spend a bar and appear behind your opponent with a knock down (or not if you're in Sparking mode) and either punish a greedy player looking for the raw level 3 super or extend your combos like a mad man. If all that technical talk didn't register, let's just say you're given a lot of great options to approach, attack and defend with and they're all simple to use.

From my own experiences however, I feel a lot of the cast don't have many unique traits. They're there, don't get me wrong, but it's not to the abundance or creativity you might find in a game like Blazblue - in that game, the Ki button was instead the "drive button" and they provided you with that character's main gimmick. In DBFZ however, the most unique characters in that sense are Android 21 with her skill absorption attack, Beerus with his Hakai spheres you can position on the screen and Captain Ginyu with the fact you have to micromanage the Ginyu Force attacks. Outside of that and specials, a lot of them have the same basic combo strings or approach methods. The most unique character outside of those previously mentioned would be Yamcha for having the most unique behaviours in his entire moveset with plenty of options for mix ups, cross ups and more. Heck, Yamcha is even slated to be top tier - what a shocker!

Now, it's time to tackle the insurmountable horror that dear old Random would be caught dead if he were to use it - the online mode.

Online

Let me be clear about one thing - I don't tend to play games online, and it's been a long time since I used my bandwidth for a fighting game either, the last experience of this was the ever disappointing Street Fighter V. That being said, DBFZ has thankfully cured that phobia by not only being a super fun game, but the online actually WORKS....for the most part. Let's nitpick this aspect step by step:

When you boot up the game, it automatically pops you into a server online and sticks you into the cute little lobby where you run around as Chibi versions of the characters (in typical ArcSys fare). I have no idea what it's like if you don't have an internet connection, but there are offline lobbies if you don't care about fighting other people. In terms of the social aspect, apart from the standard friends list and ranked/unranked search, you also have ring matches which replace the more traditional room system - fully customisable in size, rules and more, including a system I've only ever seen in Street Fighter X Tekken of all games - you can set up a Party Match between you and 5 other players, each taking a slot in one of side of the match. Needless to say, this is an absolute treasure of a mode, made ever better by the fact the netcode for this game makes it run as smooth as oil-slicked butter on ice. I have rarely had a laggy match in this game, which makes me want to play more and get better and better.

Other than all that, you get zeni for doing things like story mode, arcade mode, and random matches and that lets you buy Capsules which give you titles and background for your player card, lobby avatars, different colors for matches, and even things like different commentators for your replays you save such as Freeza and Yamcha. There's also two rewards for getting a cumulative total 300k and 500k zeni (meaning you can still spend the money) - Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta / Goku respectively. If you're willing to cheese the AI in the hard difficulty arcade mode you can unlock the characters by getting A Ranks, or just...yknow, buy 'em with IRL money I guess.

Speaking of unlocking characters, the only other unlockable character in this game is Android 21, a new character introduced into the already debatable canon of Dragon Ball. Unlocking her is as simple as completing the story mode, which Random already covered - but as the saying goes, "in for a penny, in for a pound", so here's my thoughts on the story mode.

Closing thoughts.

Let's summarise this - Dragonball Fighterz is argubly the best Dragonball fighting game ever made. It combines the insane action of the Anime/Manga with a 3 on 3 fighting system that maybe on the simpler side, but is still highly addictive. While I may bemoan the story mode and the dissapointment that is Android 21, it still gets a very high recomendation from me. Pick this game up if you haven't done so already!

With all of that being said, FighterZ brings all the best Dragon Ball elements and implements them perfectly into a surprisingly beginner friendly fighter. From the fun gameplay to the flashiness of the fights, unique dialogue, the music and the dramatic finishers and openers, it's got all the finesse, charm and pure fun that a game like Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite lacked. This game is well worthy of joining the ranks of ArcSys' near infallable library (assuming Blazblue Cross Tag Battle doesn't ruin that...) and it's a blast once you're going head to head with others. Pick it up whenever you can if you're interested - just don't go crying to Shenron when your win ratio tanks if you're not willing to do the work in training mode.