Dragon Ball FighterZ may be the next great fighter title. Not just for the Dragon Ball franchise, but for the genre in general. Gameplay wise things control similarly to other DBZ fighters, but there seems to be an added element that gives everything a hint of Marvel vs Capcom. The matches we played were 3v3 last man standing rounds and gave off the same high-intensity energy of the show’s fights.
A long time ago it used to be hard to find or be a fan of anything anime. Not only was there a social stigma attached to it, and imports were expensive and hard to find. This was around the time I learned about Dragon Ball Z. My fandom went as far as getting a hold of import copies of the DBZ fighting games for the SNES. Since then, there have been very few, if any Dragon Ball brawlers that hit the same mark for me as those original titles. Until now…
Arc System is primarily known for their Blaz Blue and Guilty Gear franchises which have a very stylized, traditional animation look to their titles which make them a perfect fit for a fighting game based off an anime. Things are already looking smooth, like the transitions between new characters entering the ring after their teammate falls. The dev team is making sure that the game will run at 60fps with 1080p resolution to really give it that anime polish.
And the super ultra mega fireball move sequences have all the powering up, screaming and eyebrow twitching that fans are expecting. And much like MvC, you can “Z-Chain” your super moves together with your other teammates, or call them in for an assist when you’re in trouble. Our limited time didn’t really give us a chance to get too familiar with the combat system beyond the basics, but we were able to figure a few quick combos and chains within the first few minutes of picking up a controller.
The only characters available during our demo were Cell, Majin Buu, and Frieza as well as Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan in their Super Saiyan forms. Who else will make the final cut? It’s hard to say, but there’s such a rich history that the final roster is bound to draw from all the story arcs. And when was the last time you played a Dragon Ball game that didn’t have a bazillion characters to choose from?
Dragon Ball FighterZ isn’t due out until some time in 2018 for PC, PS4 and XB1. Which means this isn’t even the game’s final form! We’ll be sure to keep you up to date with new character announcements and game features as they get announced. You can pre-order for XB1 or PS4 here.