Dragon Ball FighterZ
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Release Date: January 26, 2018
Platforms: PS4, PC, Xbox One
Rating: Teen
Genre: Fighting
Rock The Dragon
Written by Jesse Seilhan
Few franchises have found a way to be both overwhelmingly popular and underwhelmingly represented in video game form as Dragon Ball Z. The Budokai and Xenoverse series’ have both tried to recreate the anime magic of pitting hundreds of insane characters against one another in flying fisticuffs, but nearly every single one lacks the connection to the source material or an engine quick enough to accurately represent what makes DBZ so much fun. Who would have guessed that a fighting game built by Arc System Works (makers of BlazBlue and Guilty Gear) would be the savior, but Dragon Ball FighterZ is the best love letter fans of the series could have ever hoped for.
As a fighting game, this title is insanely fun. It takes a bit from other anime fighters but really feels at home in the Marvel vs Capcom camp, with screen jumps, tag-ins, and dramatic combo counters that soar near the hundreds. You pick three characters from a roster of over 20, from throughout all Dragon Ball franchises, from the original to Super. This means you can play as three different Gokus against enemies that never knew of one another. Once the battle begins, the animation and art style is strikingly perfect, looking exactly like the cartoon, even as things pop off and fireballs start flying. Rounds can be finished with a flourish, kicking your opponents into a mountain or destroying the planet you’re standing on, making the next round begin in a pile of rubble and ash caused by your super fireball.
Those aforementioned fireballs are easily fired, as every character literally has a fireball button, meaning you don’t really need to apply old Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat techniques to this game. As with any good fighting game, the barrier to entry is low while the skill ceiling is enormous. If you are the type of gamer that likes sitting in the lab and cranking out combos until you can pull off a 30-hitter in your sleep, this is the game for you. The dynamics between characters and tag-in potential means you are always just a button input away from stringing together something truly impressive and the host of online battle options means you should always have someone to play against. Unfortunately, the story mode is not where you’ll be spending most of your time because it is forgettable.
The main DBZ narrative is sort of insane and all over the place, which could easily translate to a fun and compelling single player storyline for this game. Instead, we have an amnesia story where Goku doesn’t know who he is, clones have invaded the planet, and you fight wave after wave of pushover robots that don’t really teach you anything about the game nor compel you forward to see the next flaccid cutscene. Even if you don’t want to play against others, the game immediately forces you into a lobby with other players, who are split between training, online battles, and “arena” battles, which act like a King of the Hill type mini-tournament that is always moving. But these lobbies aren’t always stable, meaning you kicked out from time to time and are forced to find another lobby before you can literally do anything. Once you get into an actual match, the servers seem to hold up fine without much lag, but the road to get there is sometimes brutal.
If this was just a review of the time between the word “FIGHT” and “VICTORY,” this would be a glowing recommendation. The moment-to-moment gameplay is unlike any other fighter on the market and brings together so many different styles and characters into something really fresh within a stagnant scene that rests on minor iterations from sequel to sequel. For Arc to have crushed it so hard on their first time out is remarkable, but the lack of modes, a less-than-forgettable storyline, and lobby server woes makes it stumble just enough to cause an issue. Still, this beloved franchise has never been so lovingly crafted and put on display in a way that both fans and newcomers can enjoy. Anime fighters have gotten a bad rap over the years, but Dragon Ball FighterZ is a stellar first entry into what should be a long-running series.