Chances are, you’ve come across several Dragon Ball games before. There’s the long-running Budokai series, Dragon Ball Xenoverse, and a whole slew of other games based on the popular franchise. Of course, these different games have their own appeals, but none of them are arguably quite as exciting as the recently announced Dragon Ball FighterZ.
At E3 2017, we managed to spend some time with the new fighting game, and we were left very impressed. In fact, we imagine fans of the franchise – and fighting game fans in general – will want to keep an eye on Dragon Ball FighterZ: it may just be the most impressive Dragon Ball game yet.
Unlike the most recent Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Dragon Ball FighterZ is a 2.5D fighting game. What makes this entry in the franchise particularly noteworthy is the fact that it’s developed by Arc System Works; the very same developer that worked on the popular Guilty Gear and BlazBlue fighting games.
This being an Arc System Works title, expectations are high for Dragon Ball FighterZ. Well, after playing a few – okay, more like 10 – matches of FighterZ, I can say that it’s a very, very fun fighting game. The controls are simple to grasp, pulling off gorgeous-looking Ultimate Attacks is both satisfying and easy, and with a little experimentation, I can chain together combo attacks pretty consistently.
Arc System Works definitely nailed the fighting game aspect of Dragon Ball FighterZ, but that’s only one part of what makes it such an appealing game: FighterZ’s art style is very impressive too. The first time I looked at this game’s trailer, I was really, really impressed with the graphics. In fact, it’s almost like watching a scene from the anime; Dragon Ball FighterZ is probably the closest thing to playing an actual anime.
However, many aspects of Dragon Ball FighterZ still remain relatively unknown. So far, only six characters make up the roster: Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Perfect Cell, Frieza, and Majin Buu. On top of that, it’s not known yet if the game will feature any sort of story mode, which is actually one of the strong points of Arc System Works other titles. BlazBlue’s great storytelling is my personal favourite part of the game.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is a very promising fighting game. Thanks to its simple controls, FighterZ is easily accessible to fans of the franchise. But at the same time, this game has the potential to be a competitive fighting game too: its fighting mechanics certainly has some complexities to it. I, for one, still can’t quite figure out how to do aerial combo attacks.
Hopefully, Dragon Ball FighterZ will feature more than just gorgeous graphics and a robust fighting system once it’s released. The game is set to launch sometime in early 2018 on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, as well as PC.
