Dragon Ball Z has always benefited from a strong history of fighting games. While it has certainly suffered from a few duds, the Budokai Tenkaichi series and Xenoverse duology alone put it head and shoulders above the competition. With that being said, FighterZ might be the single best adaptation Dragon Ball Z has ever benefited from.
The story mode this time is largely original one, with a brand new villain. Clone copies of heroes and villains alike have begun appearing across the world while following a mysterious new villain. Rather than playing Goku himself this time, you are a disembodied soul which has somehow become fused to him and is linked to this mysterious new threat somehow.
The actual levels themselves are a more dynamic version of the maps used in Budokai 2, but blown up to a global scale. In each one you need to reclaim new territories, and choosing when to upgrade your abilities and swap out fighters to recover between battles. The dynamic nature of the maps allows for a few remarkable surprises to arise even after hours of gameplay.
Outside of the story mode itself however, the core gameplay is the best one you should have hoped for with a Dragon Ball Z release. Fast, kinetic and often filling the screen with ki blasts, Arc System Works have approached it with the same attention to detail as BlazBlue, but from an entirely different direction. While precision here is rewarded and careful actions will win out, there’s a balance between super and standard attacks which allows you to turn the fight around at almost any moment and recover from an abrupt loss.
The fighter roster itself is the vast ensemble of colourful characters you would hope to see, while retaining the distinct powers, styles and qualities of each figure. More than simply the abilities and visuals, the basic attacks and speed of certain strikes match up with the distinct styles found in the anime itself. Android 16’s heavier counters and blows feels inherently different from the likes of Zarbon’s precision strikes. Also, for those wondering, yes, the more insane abilities like Ginyu’s body swapping stunts are in here as well.
These qualities alone would be enough to turn out a great game, but what elevates it to the next level is the tagging system, where you can take up to three fighters with you at a time. Battles become a case of switching out fighters at the right moment, which offers a surprising amount of longevity to fights. It allows players to make a few inherent mistakes without losing the battle entirely, and while the same time prevents them from dragging on for minutes on end. There’s even a very subtle but quite brilliant mechanic to this. Both the exchanges between characters as they are swapped out and the fact that both fighters are swapped to their neutral positions allows for a moment to catch your breath and even sidestep certain moves if timed correctly.
Unfortunately, FighterZ is let down by a few bizzare development quirks. The inability to directly invite players from your friends list on most devices slows down the experience in multiplayer, and the issue is only exacerbated further thanks to a surprising lack of lobbies. What’s more, a few interface elements heavily favour style over functionality, such as the use of an overworld in favour of a traditional menu. It certainly looks nice, but after a while you start to realise just how it prologues selecting basic options. When it comes to the core gameplay, there is also a definite leaning toward ease of use over mastery.
A few particular characters are capable of pulling off very long combos with minimal button prompts. This allows it to have a much broader audience than most traditional fighting games, and lacks some of the frustration inherent in these fighters. However, similar decisions led to Kung Lao dominating rosters in 2011’s Mortal Kombat.
FighterZ certainly has its flaws, but that doesn’t change the fact it’s an utterly exceptional fighting game. For some this will be an exciting new way to see Goku beating seven kinds of hell out of Frieza, but for many others this is the spiritual successor to Marvel vs. Capcom 2 we have been waiting on.
DRAGON BALL FIGHTERZ / DEVELOPER: ARC SYSTEM WORKS / PUBLISHER: BANDAI NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT / PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION 4, XBOX ONE, PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
