Dragon Ball FighterZ

Genre: Fighting Game

Players: 1-6 Competitive Tag Team (Local / Online)

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Review:

Okay, so moment of honesty here – it’s always daunting for me to review a traditional Fighting game like this because I’m not exactly a tournament-level player, and I can’t talk knowledgeably about the intricate game systems on a given fighting game. I know about counters and cancels and super-moves and whatnot, but I’m not the one to talk to if you want to know how all of these game systems tie together and how well they’re implemented. So if you need an expert’s opinion on a fighting game, I’m not it.

What’s more, I know nearly nothing about the Dragon Ball license. I’ve never watched a single episode. So if you want to know how accurately this game depicts the Dragon Ball characters and world… I’m not that guy either.

Yet, Dragon Ball FighterZ is one of the most highly-acclaimed fighting games in recent years, so I’m not going to ignore it just because, when it comes to this game, I’m a filthy casual who doesn’t know a Goku from a Gohan or an Android 16 from an Android 17. So take this review for what it is: someone who enjoys fighting games coming in fresh to this game and its license and giving impressions of it from that perspective.

And let me say, from my perspective… wow is this game impressive.

In terms of presentation, this game’s visuals seem to be using a combination of exquisitely well-animated hand-drawn 2D graphics and extraordinarily-detailed cel-shaded 3D visuals that mesh so well together that it’s honestly difficult for me to tell where one ends and the other begins. Again, I haven’t watched any of the shows this game is based on, but just judging by the snippets I’ve seen over the years, the job this game does imitating the visual style and presentation of the anime is absolutely uncanny. Plus, this is all at high resolution and framerates that do not seem to have suffered even a tiny bit for their transition to the Switch.

To complete the presentation, this comes with fully-voiced characters (both in the default Japanese and in English), and a soundtrack that matches the high energy of its source material. Plus, as an olive branch extended to franchise noobs like me, the game’s story centers on someone completely foreign to the Dragon Ball universe inhabiting the body of main character Goku in the midst of a crisis caused by an invasion of evil clones, meaning this game’s plot carefully treads the line between being fanservice for fans of the franchise as well as being not too off-putting for someone who doesn’t have a clue who any of these people are or what’s going on.

As for the gameplay itself, this game is an over-the-top 2D Fighter in the same vein as the Marvel Vs. Capcom titles, complete with those games’ tag-team mechanics and absurdly high combo counts. However, here again this game tries to cater both to veterans and newbies alike, and in this it largely succeeds. The game’s control setup has buttons for light, medium, and strong attacks, one button devoted exclusively to projectile attacks, one devoted to projectile-countering dash attacks, one devoted to shield-breaking attacks, and two devoted to calling on either of your helper partners, with special moves primarily consisting of half-circle motions with a button press, and combinations of two buttons. Compared to the complex inputs that many fighting games call for, this is extremely accessible.

That’s not to say that there’s no depth here – this game has plenty of different types of moves and systems for those who want to dig deep into its mechanics, and mastering each characters’ various combos will take practice and skill that a button-mashing newbie won’t be able to do… but this is still a game that will be loads of fun for that button-mashing newbie.

For the transition from newbie to more skilled player, this game offers both a “dojo” as well as pointers in the game’s story campaign to help ease players into its depths. This was definitely welcome, though I will say that I wish there were a more comprehensive training system to ensure that the massive amount of information about these game systems was properly retained. I admit, I felt like kinda’ a dunce trying to remember all of the different techniques that were being tossed at me.

When this game released, I note that many were complaining about the game’s lobbies being empty, but I can say that this is not a problem currently. No doubt in part due to this game’s excellent reputation combined with the frequent sales it has enjoyed, the online lobbies were quite alive and well when I looked in on them, with plenty of players chomping at the bit to kick my butt. Getting into an online match, I didn’t notice any problem with lag either, as players… well, proceeded to kick my butt. Hey, I’m not too prideful to admit that I’m not very good at this game.

Aside from the daunting amount of stuff to learn that newbies face in this game, there is one other complaint that I can make about it – everything in this game is over-the-top. That might not seem like such a bad thing, but when attacks frequently fill up the entire screen or cut to a close-up shot of a character charging up a massive attack that will send an opponent through a mountain in the distance, shattering it, it’s hard to feel that any one attack is especially noteworthy or powerful, and it adds to the confusion of just what the heck is going on.

One other thing: The base game comes with a selection of 21 characters, with roughly an equal number of additional characters offered via paid DLC through the game’s three season passes. This isn’t particularly generous, but given that the game’s Ultimate Edition routinely goes on sale for under $30, this is fairly forgivable – at that price, this game is an absolute steal.

Ultimately, when it comes to complaints, I feel like anything I have to say feels pretty weak, and may be in part a product of my lack of expertise with Fighting games. Dragon Ball FighterZ might be daunting for players like me, but it’s still an absolute blast to play, with a killer presentation, tons of depth, that seems to do right by its license at every turn, and even tries its darndest to ease in less experienced players while still catering to the pros. In short, if you’re a fan of Fighting games or Dragon Ball in any capacity and don’t already own this game on another platform, this should be considered an absolute must-buy.

tl;dr – Dragon Ball FighterZ is an over-the-top 2D Fighting Game in the same vein as the Marvel Vs. Capcom series, with explosive 3-vs-3 tag-team battles. This game absolutely earns its reputation as one of the best fighting games in years with its absolutely spectacular presentation and excellent deep but accessible gameplay. If you’re a fan of the franchise or just someone who enjoys Fighting games, this game absolutely needs to be in your collection.

Grade: A

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