Dragon Ball FighterZ is a product of the Arc System Works development team, the team responsible for the respected Guilty Gear and BlazBlue series and which has worked on Dragon Ball games on a number of occasions, but this is the first game they made for the home consoles. The developer in question likes two things: hand-drawn 2D graphics and gameplay based on combo moves. This makes them an ideal candidate for making Dragon Ball games.
The complete look of the game, voice acting (yes, it’s possible to choose original Japanese voices), moves, punching opponents through the mountains and all the other details are at the top level and stand alongside their animated equivalent. The Arc System team has performed attack animation and moving characters in a fairly low number of frames per second, while everything else spins in the set 60 fps, which gives the impression of an animated cartoon without having a bad influence on the performance and the fluency of the fight.
This fight in Dragon Ball FighterZ is based on the six fighters (three against three), with the ability to change characters in the middle of the fight. Thanks to a little thicker energy meter and the three characters that need to be defeated, the length of the fight can be stretched to ten minutes.
FighterZ is suited for new fighters in many ways, primarily with easy-to-perform combination of one-button action and special endings that can easily be overcome. Perhaps the biggest plus for beginners is a literally identical schedule for all combatants, which will greatly facilitate the entry into a fight in which you control three characters alternately.
When performing a special attack, Goku will produce the famous Kamehameha, Beerus will surround himself with light balls that explode, and Ginyu can do his famous attack of switching bodies, which can turn the fight for 180 degrees if the opponent did not practice with this character. Diversity is really felt with fighters and you will certainly spend days making a perfect team.
The game also offers a really deep level of manipulation of the court, defensive and counter-attack. In the event that your opponent spams you with energetic attacks, you can pull him out of the line by one combination and you can start the combo. The opponent is constantly holding the defense key? Do not worry, run a combination of teleporting behind him or a capture that will crush his guard. Every problem has its solution, and success is just a matter of “reading” the opponent and the reaction speed.
Of course, there is a variety of special hits that you achieve by using a Ki Meter that you can recharge at any time during the fight, but this will leave you open for the opposing attacks. Also, by running the combo in the lower part of the screen you get dragons balls so if you gather all seven during the fight, you can invoke the dragon and choose a renewal of energy or a stronger impact stroke. All this is raised to the level of combining more with other fighters, where you have to create common combos and special attacks that you combine one after the other. This is a real little paradise for competitive fighters.
As for the mods offer, in the singleplayer section we have Story, Arcade and Training mods. The Story revolves around the clones of popular fighters that have begun to emerge in the world, with mysterious Android 21. The story mod in the narrations can be fun, especially with the interaction between various fighters before the fight that will put a big smile on the face of Dragon Ball fans. Still, most of the stories are unnecessarily long and sometimes difficult. If you are not an exaggerated fan, you can slip through it in a few hours to unlock the main villain.
If you really want a challenge and preparation for online battles, then make sure to go to the Arcade mod where you can get annoyed in the right way while trying to pass the heaviest level. Once you’re ready for online battles, you have standard rated and unrated matches available. Unlike the open beta version that was catastrophic with its server, Dragon Ball FighterZ is quite stable and if you set it to hit you up with close opponents of similar network speed, the fighting takes place without major problems.
There is also a fun way of moving between mods with the help of chibi characters. Walk with the little characters on the miniature hub becomes tedious after some time and you will most likely use a regular menu, but at first it can be innocently fun. In addition, you earn your Zeni and Premium Z coins that you cannot buy with real money, and are primarily used for opening loot boxes that contain extra chibi characters, different colors, special inscriptions, shouts and other exclusive cosmetic items.
Dragon Ball FighterZ will primarily be celebrated for its graphics that appear to be more spectacular than the animated series at some moments. However, it’s not all about the looks, so after the enjoying in the visuals, you can still enjoy the gameplay through the attacks available for beginners but also flexible enough for masters above 9000. It can easily be said that Dragon Ball FighterZ is the best that this genre currently has to offer and will certainly be an inevitable member of the gaming parties in front of the small screens.
