Dragon Ball FighterZ
Arc System Works’ new fighting game is revealing its true power
PC, PS4, Xbox One
The popularity of Dragon Ball Z has led to countless translations, spin-off series, endless merchandise and some 17 movies. It’s also inspired a glut of thoroughly average videogames, but Arc System Works’ forthcoming fighting game has already suggested it’s set to break that curse. Our latest session with this expertly presented game shows the dev team is not content with simply making a decent Dragon Ball tie-in: it’s also confident enough to make one that pushes some boundaries.
It all stems from a desire to make Arc’s famously complex brand of fighting games more accessible. Bringing the appeal of Dragon Ball and the technicality of the genre together is a challenge, producer Tomoko Hiroki admits. “It’s not just about difficult controls or combos,” she tells us. “It’s about mind games and strategy, the combination of characters you choose and deciding when to use Z-assists [that tag in another character]. We want people to use Dragon Ball FighterZ as a way into the genre.”
An obsessive amount of work has gone into recreating the anime in frameperfect detail – something which Hiroki and team believe will incentivise casual Dragon Ball fans to master their characters. “Letting players move their favourite characters the way they move in the anime, and launch their iconic attacks, is one of the ways that we can make them want to train and become better.” For dedicated fightinggame fans, winning has long been its own reward: for a Dragon Ball enthusiast, the act of becoming the hero with such astonishing fidelity could well be enough to spark real interest in virtual sparring.
Make no mistake: for all the game’s
simplified quarter-circle motions and powerful universal abilities – teleports, guard-breakers and counterattack-denying super dashes are performed using the same inputs for every character – Dragon Ball
FighterZ runs deeper. The faithfulness to the anime is more than fan service: it has sparked some surprising riffs on genre tradition. New roster addition Krillin can heal himself and teammates. One of his special attacks will occasionally see him throw out his fanfavourite Senzu Bean: it restores around a quarter of a health bar when picked up. Tag in a teammate – before an opponent snaps the bean up for themselves, preferably – and it can turn a match around. His other attacks are trickier to execute, and significantly weaker. “We made Krillin into a character like that for balance, both in terms of a Dragon Ball game and a fighting game,” says Hiroki. “In the anime, Krillin doesn’t fight using his strength – he uses his mind. If he fights Goku one-onone, Goku’s going to win. But FighterZ is 3v3, so we thought that if we used Krillin as a support character, we could include him in the game in quite a unique way.” We’re concerned, not just about the impact that it has on a match-to-match basis, but about serious players feeling forced into picking Krillin. How can that be avoided? Hiroki’s reply is honest. “There’s really no answer yet: we’re still making adjustments. We don’t just think about balancing one character against another, but the relationship between that character and their team members. We do want to make it that so users don’t have to use specific characters.” Ultimately, we’re cautious but hopeful, given Arc’s track record, and it’s impossible not to respect the commitment to the source material that’s led to this balancing headache. More, Hiroki admits, will likely follow: “We are planning to include characters that need to be used in all sorts of unique ways, rather than only valuing strength.” This non-traditional approach extends to
Dragon Ball FighterZ’s extra modes. While information on the story mode is light – it will be a brand-new, fully animated tale, centred around the series’ mysterious android characters – Party Match is a wonderful prospect. It’s a six-player online brawl in two teams of three: each person controls one fighter in the team, and tagging the next character in means calling the next player in. It’s a recipe for slapstick and chaos; online players will also be able to cheer or shame teammates in a realtime chat window using silly stamps and phrases.
Namco and Arc hardly seem to be putting a foot wrong in their attempt to reconcile the wants and needs of two very different audiences. The devil’s in the detail, mind you, and anything gimmicky or unbalanced will be quickly dismissed by the hardcore community. But if Dragon Ball FighterZ can deliver on its ambitious goals, it could set a new precedent for the genre. And if not, well, at least it looks fantastic.
“We are planning to include characters that need to be used in all sorts of unique ways”