Dragon Ball FighterZ is a 2D Fighting Game based on Dragon Ball franchise for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC, and it was developed by Arc System Works and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.
Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. It was started out as manga series was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995.
As manga series has been adapted into two anime TV series such as Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z which together were broadcast in Japan from 1986 to 1996.
Dragon Ball follows the adventures of the protagonist Son Goku (which mostly we referred him as Goku) spends his childhood days of training martial arts. He then meets a young girl named Bulma who persuades him to join her quest in exploring the world to find an mysterious seven orbs known as the Dragon Balls which summon a wish-granting dragon, while Dragon Ball Z continues the adventures of Son Goku as an grown adult, who along with his companions, defend the Earth against villains ranging from aliens, androids and magical creatures.
Since the release, Dragon Ball has widely become one of the most successful manga and anime series of all time with the manga sold in over 40 countries and the anime broadcast in more than 80 countries.
It was highly praised for its art, characterization, and humour of the story, as well as many manga artists citing Dragon Ball as a source of inspiration for their own now popular works.
Many people had talked about Dragon Ball Z which is the reason why it became popular across the world and is considered one of the most influential in boosting the popularity of Japanese animation in Western culture has impact on global popular culture such as artists, athletes, celebrities, filmmakers, musicians and writers across the world.
It also spawned into films, both animated and live-action, collectible trading card games, numerous action figures, along with several collections of soundtracks and numerous video games.
From my childhood, I remember first time watching Dragon Ball Z when its aired on channels like Cartoon Network in late 90's, as well as CNX in 2002 and Toonami 2003.
I was blown away with over-the-top battle scenes between the heroes and villains start beating the shit out of each other with many rapid fists, quick teleporting, charging up their power level with loud screaming (becoming Super Saiyan form), shooting numerous of projectile blasts, launch them into destructive environments, and making whole world collide with finishing blast (such as spirit bomb and KAMEHAMEHA!!!) is what made the whole show entertaining.
In video game series based on Dragon Ball franchise, I've been previously playing some of the titles back then such as Dragon Ball Z 2 -Super Battle for Arcade (via Mame 32), DBZ: Supersonic Warriors and DB: Advanced Adventure for GBA, and Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limits for PS3 which these are the game that I ever played except most of DBZ games on PS2 such as DBZ: Budokai and DBZ: Budokai Tenkaichi which I heard most of the DBZ fans really liked these games a lot back then.
I couldn't get into with games like DBZ: Raging Blast and DBZ: Battle of Z which aren't as good compared with DBZ: Burst Limit, and I don't mind the DB: Xenoverse 1 and 2 which is kinda okay but it's not perfect fighting game based on the franchise that I wanted till Dragon Ball FighterZ came around in 2018 which is 3 on 3 fighting game similar to Capcom's fighting crossover series such as Marvel vs Capcom.
I did not expect the game turns out to be one of the better fighting game based on Dragon Ball series which I am glad that I found the right game that I wanted so badly over the years since I haven't had any decent Dragon Ball games after DBZ: Burst Limit.
It's one of the game developed by a same team behind their talented work on unique fighting game titles such as Guilty Gear, Blazblue, Persona 4 Arena, and the most recent title Granblue Fantasy Versus. What made Dragon Ball FighterZ destroys the competition is the inclusion of recognisable rosters, well-written story arcs, 3 on 3 matches on both online and locals, and the art-style visuals is what really beating the shit out of Capcom's recent fighting game title such as Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite which is the crossover fighting game had suffered with lackluster story, missing favourite roster, and less stylised art direction got horribly flopped at the release with low sales target as opposed to this game had sold over 6 million copies worldwide becoming one of the commercially success video game title based on everyone's favourite manga franchise is the reason why the game got it right so far.
After spending whole week of playing this game, I am so happy to see how the game turned out with many surprising results that made me very pleased the most, while I will explain some of the bits further on this review.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game takes place sometime between Universe 6 and Future Trunks arcs of Dragon Ball Super.
It focuses on the game's main antagonist Android 21 was started out as human researcher but she is now Android created by the Red Ribbon Army.
She had a son who became the model for the design of Android 16 and uses the 7 orbs of Dragon Balls to resurrect Frieza, Cell, Nappa, and the Ginyu Force as well as seals away the powers and souls of all Earth's strongest warriors.
It splits in 3 story arcs such as Super Warrior Arc which focuses Goku and his friends reunite together to find their way of regaining their powers as well as finding the truth behind the Earth's current crisis, while Enemy Warrior Arc focuses on Frieza recruits with the Nappa, Ginyu Force, and Cell to battle the clones and eventually confront the true culprit, and lastly Android 21 Arc focuses on mostly Android 21's saga.
The story in the game is basically a different timeline sets in universe of Dragon Ball Super. Unlike the whole season of Anime TV series, this game is rather has their own original storytelling such as the introduction of Android 21 and splits with 3 story arcs which I got to say the story concept is pretty amazing as being highly faithful to Dragon Ball franchise.
You have Goku and his team reunite together to battle out against clones as well as restoring their normal abilities, but I'm kinda surprised that the long-time villains such as Freza and his crew are originally attends to kill Goku and his fighters, but instead they had no choice to agreeing with them to fight against not just clones but confronting the mad scientist who was responsible for the disastrous crisis.
You have link-up system which is shiny-orbs souls can possess the warriors by speaking to them deep inside and provide them important strength which really helps them to change their heart for its decision making and acceptation which works pretty well during the in-game conversation with 2 possible outcomes affecting the game's story.
I also liked the in-game conversation on linked event where you as a inside soul and your characters getting to know each other which is nice for them to make their opinion and thoughts about you in general.
The game has many memorable cast of characters such as everyone's favourite kakarot Goku is one of the most ironic anime characters that we all love him as a great fighter and personalities, and of course he has 2 sons such as Gohan and Goten are included in the game as well except his angry pissed-off wife Chi Chi which thank god she's not in the game to yell at them just like she did on the Anime TV series.
Then you have Vegeta, a former villain but later now heroes, sure does have an anger issues especially he didn't like being roasted by Goku's trolling jokes, and of course he's married to Bulma as well as he has a son called Trunks who is a half-human saiyan.
I also liked the tiny bold-headed Krillin who is a best friend of Goku as he fights every villain along with Goku or before him and is often depicted as the comic relief due to his baldness.
He is not the only bald headed character in Dragon Ball series, so you have one-eye Tien, big brute Nappa, and green humanoid Piccolo.
Then you have Krillin's blonde wife Android 18 teamed up with her brother Android 17 and high-ranking soldier Android 16 under Red Ribbon Army to battle against the clones.
One of the character that is ridiculously cringefest is Yamcha are by far the weakest fighter in Dragon Ball history which really adds his silliest humour such as his infamous death pose that made me laugh a lot, jeez what a f***ing noob.
Then you had big round fat Majin Buu who was known for taking joy in fighting and scaring people as well as turning people into candy-like food such as sweets, lollipop, cakes, and doughnuts where he gobbles it ups so fast which is the reason why he is big rounded fella.
It has Frieza and Cell who are well known for being Goku's all-time nemesis as well as their intense abilities and their evil personalities which made them an recognisable villains that also got popular in Dragon Ball franchise.
The game introduces Android...what's 9+10? 21...ah yes Android 21 is one of the first villain that never featured in any Anime TV series not even the manga book, so instead she's more of the original antagonist for video game title.
First of all, she started out as human-like android from the beginning acting out as innocent scientist who struggles to control her hunger till she's becoming even wicked as she's turned into true Buu-like form which causing her to become a power hungry monster just like most of the Buus did a same thing like turning people into candy and eat them.
What made me more surprised about the character is that she's one of the most strongest of all-villains supressing the likes of Cell's and Frieza's power level which I got to say that she's ridiculously powerful than ever was.
The presentation in the game is fantastic thanks to art direction and designs which is faithful to not just most of the Arc System Works fighting series, but also a whole Dragon Ball universe that fits perfectly in the game as you can tell the settings is heavily based off the Anime TV series like Dragon Ball Z with exact same locations and designs.
It has stuff like world tournament arena which is a martial arts tournament filled with cheering audience, cell games arena which is one of the cell's constructed area, outer space with planet earth and moon seen at background, land of the kai's sets on a grassy land with waterfalls, west city is an urban street area with multiple buildings and cars, wasteland has huge crater, cavern takes place inside of cave with lake and pillars of rock, rocky field has noon and evening time with multiple rock formations and plateaus, islands is an ocean forrest stages, planet namek is namekian's home places, and galactic arena is a futuristic fighting arena.
I got to praise the overall design of visual novel during the cutscenes which feels more refreshing and refinement than any of Arc System Works games with added character animation that can move and talk as opposed to games like Blazblue and Persona 4 Arena, it shows more details of backgrounds and environments in each locations to make the whole scenes well presented, and the style of camera work with more than 10 angle.
I got to say I really love the finishing sequences known as destructive finish where one of the player finishes the opponent with deadly special attacks causing the whole world collide with huge explosion of Ki blaster projectiles is looking fantastic.
I got to say this is by far one of the best art direction of all fighting games they created making it a highly faithful to Dragon Ball franchises as a whole.
Overall, it has amazing story, beloved cast of characters, and fantastic art direction.
Gameplay
The game gives you an option to select any of game modes such as story mode, arcade mode, practice mode, local battle, battle dojo, and online matches.
You can select either single or 3 vs 3 match with different time limit, difficulty, and win points. You will have character selection to pick any 3 of your roster against either player or bot and then select any stage to fight.
At the in-game match, you have the health bar at the top of the screen as well as special meter bar on the bottom screen which I will explain it for later in this review and then you have 4 basic attacks such as weak attack, medium attack, strong attack, and Ki attack.
The weak attack are basically much quicker to perform combos but has low damage attack, the medium attack are just mid-balanced which is easier for player to perform low-range special attack, the strong attack has high damage which you able to launch them in mid-air, and then finally Ki attack lets you shoot projectiles known as Ki blast which worked effectively in long-range attacks.
Then you will have 3 different dash attacks such as dragon rush can break through an opponent's guard if successful which offers a choice between an aerial combo or forcing the opponent to switch to a different character, while the super dash is an flying attack will home in on the opponent's lead character and is able to pass through weaker projectiles, and lastly you have vanish attack as a shortcut which instantly teleport behind an opponent's character and strike them in the back.
Your character can be switched with one of the other characters at any time by holding one of the assist button, while you can also call one of their other characters to perform an Assist move by simply press the assist button which allowing you to perform simultaneous attacks and combos with the entire team.
On the bottom of the screen, your special meter level can expand up to 7 so you can able to perform an finishing combos or projectiles resulting with the most powerful attacks on opponents with ambitious damage hits, so you will have special cutscenes of dramatic finishes that appear at the end of a fight depending on the characters involved and stage which can be applied after using special finishing moves.
The game includes 7 orbs of Dragon Balls that allows players to gather these together one by one as your specific dragon balls can be obtained by successfully performing a multi hit combo with the amount of hits demining which ball is given. Having all 7 Dragon Balls fused together which summons Shenron the Green-Dragon which gives you an 4 options such as restoring health, making you immortal, bring back ally, and gaining ultimate power.
On story mode, you will have map selection where you can freely navigate the locations to fight against any of clone enemies or bosses. On the ally menu, you get to select any of playable ally can be unlocked throughout the chapters and you have an option to add the enhancements such as attack, defense, Ki charge, EXP points, and etc. benefits your player's abilities.
Speaking of beneficial, you can improve your character's skill level by fighting many of clones in each map which resulting levelling up your skills adding reduced damage hit and increases attack making you feel stronger enough to fight against any enemies and bosses with higher skill levels.
So far, each of the game modes are pretty damn amazing. I had blast with the arcade modes as well as the local battle which includes tournament matches and 2-player versus plays pretty well for most of the part and you can also enjoy the online battles which includes ranked match, casuals, arena, and world match.
I also liked the practice mode for its training practices and combo challenge tutorial which encourages player to learn all the advanced moves and techniques to become a fighting game expert.
The story mode is filled with not just has the excellent battles and skilling up players, but it has an amazing stories throughout the game.
You will be awarded with Zeni points per match which you can spend these from shop to unlock stuff like stickers, messages, icons and etc.
As each of the game modes are quite fun to play, the fighting controls plays outstanding because it feels very smooth and responsive throughout the game thanks to button mashing combos and destructible special moves keeps the ongoing pace of the fighting system feels more impacted.
Despite all the positive parts in the game, there are one things that I feel annoyed is that it has tutorial being repeated in some 1 or 2 levels on Super Warrior Arc which kinda get tiresome pretty quick but thank god it didn't happen to rest of the levels.
Overall, it has amazing story modes, enjoyable local matches, and outstanding fighting system.
Graphics
Dragon Ball FighterZ definitely has the best looking graphics of fighting game genres thanks to Arc System Works was very known for its anime-style visual design that ran really well for modern PCs and consoles with no major sign of slow-downs and delays.
As the game was based off Akira Toriyama's beloved franchise still retains a same visual art style as the manga series, it looks everything beautiful for its nice background details of landscape and the environmental levels on foreground feels bold and colourful that gives the game's personality look refreshing for the modern fighting games.
The use of special effects looks stunning on most of the parts such as shooting out Ki blast, charging up your Ki power, the destructible explosion, and the teleporting vanish looks very faithful to it's franchise.
The character's design is just like we know from the franchise which is the reason why they are so recognisable with familiar faces and their awesome haircuts made them so memorable.
Overall, it has great visual design, stunning special effects, and amazing character's design.
Music and Sounds
We all know Arc System Works made the best original soundtrack of each fighting game series mixed with epic metal sounds and some orchestrated style. It was composed by Toshiyuki Kishi, Hiromi Mizutani, Kenji Katoh, and Reno did a marvellous job creating the soundtrack mixed between the likes of Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball TV series that really makes you feel ready to pump up for super saiyan action.
I also liked the sample of sound effect they used it from Anime TV series with recognisable projectiles sounds and POW fist effects during the battles and I gotta give the game credit for voice casting from the Anime TV series such as the likes of Sean Schemmel voiced Goku and Christopher Sabat voiced Vegeta in English dubbing, while the original Japanese voice of Goku, Gohan, and Goten was voiced by Masako Nozawa.
Overall, it has rockin soundtrack, classic sound design, and has original voice cast.
Special Features
The game does have 3 unlockables rosters like Goku and Vegeta as Ultra Instinct form and Android 21, and shop places to unlock icons, stickers, and messages.
The game does have 19 additional DLC rosters which is cool, but unfortunately you had to pay all 3 fighter pass to unlock these roster which is not worth for £64.97 where as you can also buy DLC characters like Master Roshi, Broly, and Android 17 individually just for £3.99, but thankfully you didn't lose all your favourite base roster like Goku, Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, Piccolo, Krillin, Gohan, Buu, and Android 18 which I am glad the developer team has fully understands the importance of Dragon Ball characters in their fighting game.
Overall, fine features.
Advantages
Fantastic art direction
Great selection of base rosters
Amazing story modes and 3 on 3 matches
Outstanding fighting system
Stunning visual effects
Rockin soundtrack
Classy sound design
Disadvantages
Tiresome tutorial levels
Overpriced fighter pass
Final Verdict
Presentation 9.5/10 - amazing story, beloved cast of characters, and fantastic art direction.
Gameplay 9/10 - amazing story modes, enjoyable local matches, and outstanding fighting system.
Graphics 9/10 - great visual design, stunning special effects, and amazing character's design.
Music and Sounds 9/10 - rockin soundtrack, classic sound design, and has original voice cast.
Special Features 7/10 - overpriced fighting pass, but has 3 unlockable rosters and some miscellaneous stuff.
Overall 9/10 - Dragon Ball FighterZ is clearly not just being one of the best fighting games released in 8th generation console era, but also one of the better video game title in Dragon Ball franchises that got it everything right what I wanted.
It's one of the fighting game that Capcom should have been done it same for the first place after their disastrous of Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite couldn't give their series an justice for lacking many content and has lackluster story mode as opposed to Arc System Works putting their OVER 9000!!! magnificent effort for adding memorable base roster, enjoyable 3 on 3 matches, well-written story, quality visuals, and smooth fighting gameplay is what makes the game epically fun.
I highly recommended to not just the fans of the Dragon Ball franchise, but also a fans of the 3 on 3 fighting games in general should feel much appreciate to play this awesome super saiyan fighting game action.
KAMEHAMEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
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