Dragon Ball FighterZ Review - Fantastic graphics, accessible and fun combat system

There are a lot of video games inspired by this Japanese animé, with a popularity that several generations of fans have been able to grasp. In recent years these fans have received Dragon Ball Xenoverse 1 and 2, excellent examples, but Dragon Ball FighterZ is a separate case. Here are the priorities on the combat system, gameplay and graphics. Almost immediately when the game was shown at E3 2017 it seemed to contain the potential to grow into something special. The multiplicity of beta tests that have taken place over the course of recent months have helped to reinforce that idea. Now that we have played the final version we can confirm that Dragon Ball FighterZ contains spectacular graphics and fun gameplay, but lacks in content.

The game succeeds in delivering the acceptable minimum: offers Story mode, online gameplay and Arcade mode; all integrated into an online hub (which also works offline). It's enough to keep players occupied, but when you come from Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 you miss the huge amount of content from that game - including the number of characters. The most important names are present: Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Cell, Gohan as well as more recent fighters, such as Beeru, Hit and Goku Black. There is even a completely new character: Android 21.

It is a reasonable list, but far from the most complete that we have seen in a 'saga' game. Many of the secondary characters are missing and also some 'forms' of some fighters have been omitted. You can not play as 'normal' Goku or with the different forms of Cell and Frieza. There are some transformations in the game, such as Goku SSJ3, but these are part of a 'special move' and then disappear again. This limited selection of fighters and the inability to transform characters during battles will certainly disappoint some players.

Then we have the Story mode, which is our biggest disappointment of the game. It is a completely original story, which is a plus, that it focuses on how mysterious energy waves have stolen the power of virtually every fighter on the planet. Only those who contain an "unknown soul" (the player) can get his strength back. The story is told through scenes between the battles with the in-game graphics, but the script is weak and childish - although not very different from the formula we have seen in the past. The strange thing is that the animations in these scenes are not smooth, it almost seems that frames are missing. The story also includes the appearance of malicious clones scattered around the world; clones that are inspired by the different characters from the game. These are clones that serve as the enemies in Story mode; which means that you fight against the same opponents time after time.

Story mode is divided into three chapters that tell the same story from a different perspective. If you finish the first part, there are still many questions unanswered. These are answered in the following two sections.

Each chapter contains a 'folder' that works like a board on which different game pieces are placed. One is the main fight to continue with the story, but there are also secondary encounters where you can win objects and battles that unlock additional characters. The number of steps that the player can take on this board is limited, but we always had enough steps to achieve most goals without problems. Sometimes there are extra battles when you explore the map and these give you extra benefits if you win, but they are not easy. Unless we have missed something, there is no way to change the difficulty in Story mode and we managed to win the lion's share of the battles without losing any health. There are some fights that serve as 'tutorials', but even those are not actually tutorials. Even fights against higher-level characters were ridiculously simple.

This takes all the stress out of Story mode, since it costs virtually no effort. Maybe we are missing something: an obscure option that we could not find; or maybe Arc System Works is working on a ' Day One patch' that needs to change this. What we have played, however, was far too easy. In addition, the story is not interesting and the battles are enormously repetitive. In other words, it is easy to understand why we were so disappointed with the Story mode of Dragon Ball FighterZ.

We enjoyed the Arcade mode the most. Here the level of difficulty is better balanced and gradually became increasingly challenging. There are three variants of Arcade mode - with three, five and seven fights - and each has a Hard mode for players who are looking for a bigger challenge.

However, the biggest challenge will be online against other players. With the version that we played, the servers, and thus the online mode, were not yet available. From what we have played in the beta versions, however, this all seems to work well. Besides the fights you can deal with other players in the central square. You can choose which character you are walking around (in chibi form) and there are a range of items to unlock to suit them. New characters, colors, titles and stamps can all be unlocked by purchasing capsules. These are 'loot boxes' that look like capsules, which are for sale with coins that you earn by playing. It also seems possible to buy these with real money, but since the online options were not yet available, we can not confirm this. That said: the content from the capsules is purely cosmetic.

The best element in Dragon Ball FighterZ is the graphics. It is spectacular how the 3D "modeling" in the game so imitates the animated style of the animated series so well. It looks like a real episode, with detailed characters and excellent visual effects. The sound effects are also what you expect from a Dragon Ball game and fans will enjoy the option to play with English or Japanese voices. And then we have the gameplay.

Dragon Ball FighterZ works as a 2D fighting game and contains an extremely smooth and fast game style. It is all very spectacular, with relatively accessible gameplay. The combinations are easy to perform and the game keeps a good balance between the core of the series and a more traditional fighting game.

The combat system is based on three-to-three fights, although only one fighter is active on either side. You can switch between fighters at any time and also call for help. This is important and to be successful in the most challenging battles, you need to learn how to best turn on this help and know the right time to switch between characters. If a character does not participate, they can get some health back, which also has a tactical role in the game. However, the biggest problem with this system is that it can be very confusing on the screen. With such fast gameplay and effects that fill large areas of the screen, it is sometimes difficult to see what is happening.

The characters have their differences, but in terms of control they are almost the same. It is something that we see more often in games that are inspired by animé, but it does get some depth and variation from the gameplay. The important thing to remember, however, is that Dragon Ball FighterZ's combat is accessible and fun, while allowing players to show their skills.

Dragon Ball FighterZ is a real fighting game, which in terms of gameplay comes closer to something like Injustice 2 and Street Fighter V, than Dragon Ball Xenoverse or Dragon Ball Battle of Z. The graphics and gameplay in Dragon Ball FighterZ make it the best game in the series that we have played, but we think there is still much to improve in terms of content. Last year we saw some great fighting games, such as Injustice 2, Tekken 7 and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. In comparison with those titles, Dragon Ball FighterZ is closer to Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, which in our opinion was the least of the three. If you are a Dragon Ball fan, then this is a blind purchase - as long as you do not mind choosing gameplay and graphics for content.

➕ Fantastic graphics, accessible and fun combat system; new story; the most important fighters are in the game.

➖ Story mode is very repetitive and long-winded; in terms of content very moderate, completely compared to Xenoverse 2.

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