Dragon Ball is one of the longest running franchises in anime history. Getting its humble beginnings with a bizarre monkey boy saving the world from a goofy megalomaniac, evolving into the high-stakes combat-based action series that garnered popularity in the west, and continuing to this day with a mix of comedy and action, it’s fair to say that Dragon Ball is the series many people think of when discussing anime. There was also GT, but we don’t talk about the dark times.

Over the years there have been dozens of games based on the series. Starting on the NES and continuing until today, the reception for each has been… mixed, to say the least. Aside from a few exceptions, the Dragon Ball games haven’t really struck a chord with mainstream audiences.

This was what Arc System Works wanted to change. They conceived of a fighting game that would showcase their talents demonstrated in the BlazBlue series as well as appease fans of the anime with an original story, breathtaking graphics, and an incredible attention to detail. Let’s take a look and see whether or not they delivered on the concept in Dragon Ball FighterZ.

Okay, so I’ve got the game booted up and I’m ready to get into the action, but oh, wait. Guess I need to check for DLC… and connect to the internet… And pick a lobby okay seriously what is this?! 

So as it turns out, Dragon Ball FighterZ requires players to use a hub world populated by chibis to access different parts of the game. Right off the bat this kind of leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Not only is this lobby stuff getting in the way of the game, but there’s a very limited number of lobbies to enter per region, meaning most are either full or nearly full upon loading.

At least after getting into a lobby things are pretty straight forward. Just pick an avatar and explore the islands to reach the game mode you wish to play. While I do wish there was a menu-only option for those of us who just want to hop right in, the fact that offline lobbies are an option does prevent this choice from being too intrusive.

As far as the hub itself goes, they allow for some customization and communication through the various avatars, stickers, and preset lines players can chat with. It’s cute, but really doesn’t mean much for the overall product.

Being new to the game, I naturally started by heading towards the tutorial area in order to learn how to play. The tutorials are fairly extensive and include those for the general controls as well as combo lessons for each playable character. 

The only issue here is the lack of a conceptual fighting tutorial. The game expects that players have tried out other fighters before this and doesn’t really teach the flow of combat at all. 

Sure, a fighting game newcomer would be able to get a handle on the controls and a veteran might be able to make good use of the combos, but as someone around the middle to low end of the skill spectrum the game seemed to give lessons in how to control the game without actually teaching how to play.

With the tutorial out of the way, the story seems like the next natural step. The plot takes place over the course of 3 arcs, one for the heroes, one for the villains, and one for the androids. 

In each arc, the player controls a soul that’s taken over the bodies of our main character  and happens to be the only thing allowing them to fight against an army of clones that’s destroying the world.

Each arc is different, but plays out the same way. Our heroes team up, save their friends, and find out the issues with their powers have been caused by the evil android 21. She plans to power everyone up so she can satiate her unending appetite for strong beings. Everyone must then join forces to stop her and save the world from being turned into delicious candy.

This narrative has potential, but makes a lot of missteps along the way. First, the game doesn’t seem to really know how to deal with the souls linked to the characters. It’s never made clear how many there are, why the characters can sometimes move freely but other times can’t, and in the end the plot stumbles over its own sci-fi elements.

Also, the three different arcs were advertised as the same story from three different perspectives, but instead are three entirely different stories crammed into one game. It’s a really strange choice that results in nothing but confusion as characters from one arc enter another with no rhyme or reason. 

When two arcs differ in how they set up certain characters, which are we supposed to believe? It lessens the impact of the story as a whole since we the audience have no clue which arc is supposed to be what actually took place, making it all meaningless.

On the positive side, if a certain set of characters is chosen before a fight, you’ll get to see some light quipping and some legitimately funny scenes. It’s always great to get some extra scenes with characters long since passed. Like Ginyu. Especially Ginyu.

That said, having to hear every single character in the game remark about how creepy it is to see their clone gets pretty repetitive pretty fast. Particularly since these moments don’t really add anything to the game or story.

In fact, there are a lot of weird choices that hinder the presentation. For one, the english voice acting isn’t all that great. There are some standouts and Sean Schemmel does a fantastic job playing Goku as always, but I still highly recommend sticking to the more consistently stellar Japanese voices.

In addition to that, the cutscenes are surprisingly low quality. There’s a lot of jumpy cuts between lines of dialogue, loading screens between scenes, awful lip syncing as everyone just kinda opens and closes their mouths to talk like a bad Newgrounds animation from 2008, and some really bad effects work in the 3D space. 

For something that looks so close to the anime, it’s a shame they couldn’t put the same effort into the scripted sequences as they did in the actual fighting. What’s worse is that the framerate somehow dips down to about 12 during each of these scenes, leaving everything feeling unfinished and janky.

Normally the story mode wouldn’t be such a big deal in a fighting game, but considering this one is based on an established and beloved series, I feel it’s important to touch on how accurate and well-done the developers have been to the franchise. In that regard, they get top marks for being faithful, but the overall quality is underwhelming.

It feels more like a filler arc for super than a full-fledged standalone adventure. There are also a few odd similarities that make it feel like a combination of the Android and Buu arcs from Dragon Ball Z. Still, it’s enticing enough and 21 is a welcome villain, so I’d call the overall experience acceptable.

Mechanically, this mode has a weird map with RPG elements built in to try and differentiate itself from other fighting games, but it all just feels tacked on and unnecessary. It’s not really a bad thing, just an odd choice.

Each set of fights is placed around a map and players can either attempt to take the shortest route to the boss or fight around to try and level up before a fight. Also, nearly every battle is against clones, giving a feeling of monotony. Winning can net some power ups to be used in future fights, but health isn’t fully recovered after a fight, making it risky to level up.

This can lead to a lot of frustrating moments when a character is underleveled. When I fight an AI, I expect it to be a battle of skill between me and the programmer and this reliance on levels can leave some fights completely unbalanced and unfair, which is made crystal clear by the final boss.

After everything you earned during the game, the final boss comes along and takes away all of your buffs, all of your teammates (who presumably just stand around and watch for the duration of the fight), has the ability to heal incredibly fast, and is massively overleveled. 

You’re given one character from your team to use and if she doesn’t happen to be the one you’ve been levelling up then you could end up like me and be 21 LEVELS BELOW YOUR OPPONENT, who is then able to demolish you in only a few hits. It’s completely ridiculous and a frustrating way to end the game.

Eventually I figured out that the point of the round was to hold the boss off until time ran out and not to knock her out. This is implied by the story, but every other mission in the game states that letting time run out will result in a player loss and there’s nothing on the fight screen to indicate this change, making this a jumbled confusing mess of a finale, even if the story does wrap up in a satisfying way for the final arc.

With all that said, most of these flaws can be overlooked if the combat is on point and I have no qualms with saying in that regard Dragon Ball FighterZ is the best damn Dragon Ball game ever made. There’s just so much going on here that it’s difficult to know where to begin, so let’s take a look at the presentation.

The game is absolutely gorgeous, running at a flawless 60 frames per second. The visuals are breathtaking and everything from the menus to the character designs are just so slick it’s a clear love letter to any Dragon Ball fan.

Each attack, special move, and combat style also oozes personality such as Frieza keeping his arms smuggly crossed while fighting or Beerus having a nonchalant attitude for all his attacks. It’s practically an interactive version of the anime.

Even the environments and moves combine to make for an immersive experience. Including knocking someone past the end of the screen to destroy a huge structure, flying into battle after someone’s been knocked out, and something no other Dragon Ball game has been able to recreate in a fun and balanced way- teleporting behind your opponent to score a quick hit or continue a combo.

The music is also fantastic. The up tempo soundtrack perfectly sets the tone for a fight and really gets things hyped up. The ability to choose a specific track for each stage before fighting is a nice touch. The only gripe I have is just how repetitive that pre-fight music gets having to hear the same 10 second loop of a song over and over.

Mechanically, FighterZ is mostly a typical fighting game. You have the light, strong, and heavy attacks, combos, a beam attack, jumping, blocking, all the standard stuff and it all works just about flawlessly. What makes this game stand out isn’t how it manipulates its fighting to suit the franchise it’s based on, but how it uses the franchise it’s based on to improve and diversify the combat.

As such, the characters have much more variety than is typically present in a Dragon Ball game. Ginyu can summon his teammates to attack for him. Nappa can plant saibamen. And I was going to complain about the lack of a joke character, but then I found Yamcha. The game really did make sure each character has a purpose despite the relatively small roster.

The combat also hits that perfect note of simple to learn and difficult to master. Most characters have the same set of moves outside of some exceptions, involving a quarter turn and a button press for most special moves. For those who want to go the more technical route however, there are a variety of combos, tricks, and devastating attacks that can leave your opponent reeling. 

Each fight consists of two teams with three characters each duking it out. Teammates can be swapped out at any time for a quick hit or called in for backup in a combo. When a teammate is switched out, they begin to slowly recover some of their health until called back into the fight. It’s a clever system that’s not exactly new, but works wonders for the pace of combat.

Then there’s the dragon ball system. Doing really well in a fight can net the player all 7 dragon balls, with which they can wish to revive a teammate, increase their attack strength, recover health, or improve their defense. It’s tricky to get Shenron out of this hiding place since an opponent aware of your goal will probably try to stop you, but if successful the reward is definitely worth the effort.

As far as the intricacies of combat go, I only have one complaint. Now take this with a grain of salt as I’m not exactly the best fighting game player outside of Smash, but I could swear the quarter turns on the stick are a bit too fickle. 

Being even slightly off can make your character just flail around instead of performing a super move and it really could have used some tweaking. Aside from that though the controls are air tight.

Completing the package are the other locations in the hub world. The replay area allows you to take a look at matches featuring players from around the world providing a healthy dose of inadequacy. 

Though the constant spam of stickers during each replay tends to get annoying, it also allows you to keep records of you past battles, which can be good for learning how to get better and where to improve.

The shop allows you to purchase a random item to add to the sticker and avatar collection. Luckily there’s no microtransactions for something this small, but I do wish there were more fighting skins to unlock that weren’t just a simple color change.

The arcade mode features a tournament-style ladder as you climb to the top fighting more difficult opponents as time goes on. These can be really challenging and make for a fun addition, even if they’re so basic that they just feel like a tacked on afterthought.

Then there’s the arena match, where you can challenge other players in your lobby to a fight. This is practically pointless because with so few players and so many things to do in each lobby, I never once found anyone willing to fight.

Lastly, there’s the online mode. This is where you put everything you’ve learned to the test as you go on to fight real people from around the world. 

There are spectator modes to check out how others play and maybe learn a thing or two, casual mode for practicing new techniques or characters, and a ranked mode to try and take opponents down in order to rise up the ladder.

All of these work well and the only times I noticed lag or had a disconnect were when I accepted matches from people who had bad connections, so it’s pretty impressive and definitely where most people will end up spending their time when the story is finished.

While the game usually does an okay job of finding someone within your skill level, every once in a while you’ll be fighting someone much better for some reason, making for a relaxing break as you can just set the controller down and watch as your opponent manages to kill you like you’re Krillin in the middle of a saga.

Still that feeling of finally overcoming an opponent after two rematches is what makes this game so great as you really feel like you’ve accomplished something and proved your skill surpasses that of your opponent’s. This is the key factor that shows this game isn’t just a good license game, but a magnificent fighter in its own right.

All in all, Dragon Ball FighterZ is a fantastic fighting game and a nostalgic love letter to the series wrapped in a pretty mediocre package. Getting to the combat and doing anything outside of the fight isn’t really interesting and typically feels unfinished or tacked on, but once the punches are flying it’s a welcome addition to the fighting game scene. Which is why Dragon Ball FighterZ for the PS4 gets an 8.5 out of 10. 

It has its issues, but I still believe this is the best game the Dragon Balls series has ever been attached to and I’m sure the competitive scene will be thriving for quite a while. That being said I hope you enjoyed this review. If you did, be sure to subscribe subscribe subscribe to see future videos and as always, have a mighty nifty day today!