DRAGONBALL FIGHTERZ - REVIEW

By: ZelyhonOccasionally, there are combinations that seem so obvious in retrospect that you wonder why people didn't think of them so much earlier.  These are the situations where you just slap your forehead and wonder why it took someone else pointing it out to notice what was otherwise an obvious idea.  Combining the cast and art style of Dragonball with the technical fighting game prowess of Arc System Works is one of these situations.For my money, there is nobody out there that does old-school 2D fighting games better than Arc System Works.  You can keep your Street Fighter permutations or whatever the newest version of Mortal Kombat is or any of the other, smaller series.  Give me a Guilty Gear or a BlazBlue any day of the week.  That being said, I enjoy playing fighting games relatively casually, as a couch co-op experience.  I say this in order to give some context for the below review.  I like fighting games, I play them a fair amount, but I'm not the type who puts in hours upon hours to get the timing on that one Roman Cancel on your combo just right.Dragonball FighterZ is a 2D fighter very much in the mold of Marvel Vs. Capcom, with three characters to a side that can be switched almost at will and who can be summoned in for assists or chain supers.  The game includes 24 characters to pick from.  Continuing the comparison to Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, this is a substantially lower number.  While some may see this as a disadvantage, I didn't mind the smaller roster.  Even if it is smaller, each character is very well defined in their playstyles and role within a team.  There's enough diversity to learn who fits your style and practice with them.On that note, the movelist of the characters feels somewhat trimmed down from ArcSys's previous works.  Most characters have essentially three or four special moves, pretty much all of which are quarter circle forwards or backwards then one of the face buttons.  Each character then also has a level one super which is quarter circle forwards and a trigger button.  Each one then also has a level three super which is quarter circle backwards and a trigger button.  While there are some permutations, the basic controls for most of the moves is the same from character to character.  Each of the special moves have several varieties depending on which button is used, usually changing the distance moved or attacked.  This, to me, shifted the combat somewhat away from the need to memorize different character's specific inputs and more on learning when and how to use them effectively.  What one character does with a particular input is so much different than another that you still need to learn when to use each move and at what intensity.The game also looks beautiful.  The graphics look like they were pulled out of how I remember Dragonball looking, which is to say they look way better than Dragonball actually looks.  The animation is smooth and transitions well from one attack to the next.  Even beyond that, the many, many touches added on really make it feel like an episode of the show (in particular, the aftermath of finishing an enemy with a meteor attack and seeing the absolute devastation from whatever super ki blast).  The voice acting also feels right out of the show.  As someone who watched the show on Toonami back in the day, I switched to English pretty early and have enjoyed the nostalgia of hearing a lot of those voices again.  They feel spot on from back then.The story in story mode is quite interesting from where I am in it.  Fighting games might not always have the most focus on story, but since so much of the appeal of FighterZ is based on the show the characters are coming from, they put in some good work to include a relatively engaging story mode.  It's so much fun putting random characters on the same team and watching them have a little scene before the match interacting with each other.  Even outside of story mode, there are a lot of custom intros depending on who is setting up to fight.  Touches like that add a lot to the game.I've mainly played with the story mode and training so far.  These sorts of games, to me, are best played with couch co-op as opposed to over the internet with random people.  That being said, I've played around with online enough to get a feel for it.  It does a generally good job with running smoothly and connecting in relatively short order.  There were some hiccups at launch regarding finding open lobbies, but they mostly seem to have eased up at this point.  The decision to have a hub world reminds me of Xenoverse to an extent.  There are definitely times when I feel like having a menu option would have been appreciated.There are a couple things that I have questions about in the game.  While the ability to summon Shenron is thematically appropriate, I don't know how much it really adds to the game.  The conditions to unlock it feel so far removed from ordinary play and so weird to try and hit that I doubt many will incorporate much of it into their strategies or be able to rely on it as a comeback tool.  That being said, its existence doesn't really detract anything either, so it's not too bad.  Also, I appreciate that a game like this will almost always have DLC at this point and that they didn't lock a full half of the cast behind that (BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, please don't do that...).  However, when you're selling a season pass like FighterZ does and including those characters, I'd like to know who I'm getting before I buy it.  If Mr. Satan isn't included in the DLC fighters, count me out (I kid, but only partially.  Seriously, put him in the game.  You've already given yourself a narrative excuse for why he could fight on the same level as the others.  Just do it.)All in all, FighterZ is well worth adding to your collection if you are a fan either of the show or of fighting games in general.  Go and get it if either of those things are up your alley.