It seems that it was yesterday when the first trailer of Dragon Ball FighterZ was seen in the middle of Microsoft's E3 conference. What many had demanded, a game of the series in 2D fighting format, came to life. 7 months later it is before us. On January 26 for sale on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
Dragon Ball FighterZ, analysis with its final note
This analysis has been updated after deepening online modes and their performance
That every year there is at least one Dragon Ball game seems something accepted by all. It is a saga that carries dozens and dozens of titles behind them, of very different quality according to the moment, the genre and the company behind the development. But there are very few who have managed to attract attention and focus all the lights as the case of FighterZ. Announced at E3 2017, where it was already playable for the first time, and with an expert company in fighting games such as Arc System Works behind its back, the title dazzled those who saw it from home, but especially those who could prove it. The ultimate Dragon Ball? Now we can say ... Yes.
FighterZ is a very different title than what we have seen inside the Dragon Ball license in recent years. With the advent of 3D, sagas such as Budokai or Tenkaichi were the great dominators and examples to follow. This resulted in endless proposals that drank from such deliveries. From Burst Limit to Raging Blast , with forgettable games in between like Ultimate Tenkaichi or Battle of Z. The 2D fights were relegated to some portable deliveries, with the Supersonic Warriors or the underappreciated, unfortunately, Extreme Butoden.
Among all the tide of Dragon Ball games ... Where are the most similar to what I wanted to propose FighterZ? Far or hidden. The first one that comes to mind is Hyper Dimension (SNES, 1995) , for its 2D fighting soul rather than Dragon Ball game, the first presence of combos, the elimination of combat flight mechanics (no at least totally free as we had seen in the Butoden) and the importance of body to body. The second, Super Dragon Ball Z , title that happened without penalty or glory in the time of Playstation 2 but had behind him Noritaka Funamizu, one of the producers who worked at Capcom with Street Fighter. His idea, first fight game and then, Dragon Ball. With a system of deep and varied combos, worthy of the genre but far from the spectacular that offered you names with much more flash: Budokai and Tenkaichi.
And this is what Dragon Ball FighterZ offers, above all. Be a great fighting game. The title of Arc System Works and Bandai Namco does not want to compete with the heritage of the saga because, basically, they do not play the same league. He wants, and he gets it, to be an excellent title within the team-based fighting games. Heirs of Marvel vs Capcom. And this nuance is important, because its characteristics also differ from others of the 2D mamporros genre, as we will see later. But in addition to its playable essence, FighterZ also wants to be the perfect replica of Dragon Ball in the form of a video game. And that fidelity in movements, animations and dozens and dozens of details make it, as we said at the beginning, the final Dragon Ball. Because it's an excellent fighting game ... And because it'sa brilliant tribute to the work of Akira Toriyama.
Light, fire ... And show
Initially, FighterZ surely is not a game for everyone. The staunchest fans of proposals like Xenoverse or the aforementioned Tenkaichi will probably not find their way if they are not familiar with more traditional fighting games and, why not say so, with Tag Team Battle . As in the big deliveries of Capcom, this style of team play is based on a very spectacular staging, a very high combat rhythm and the search for the longest possible combo to kill our enemies. It's easy to get lost in the first bars because there are support characters in combat, there are special attacks on all sides and the action unfolds at a dizzying speed while you're a good time without touching the ground. FighterZ is, in short and seeing that Infinite has not set, the heir of the mythical It's Mahvel Baybee. But with Goku.
We are facing a 2D fighting game by teams of three characters in which the player has to finish with the three fighters of the rival team to take the victory. The basic features of these battles are: there are no rounds, only one character from each team can fight at a time but the others can enter with some support attack, you can change the character whenever you want (once a change is made, you must wait for a recovery time) and we have three main elements in the hud: the life bar, the Ki bar to make special attacks and the Sparking, which we will talk about later.
Accessible: a huge entrance door...
The title is aware of the huge Dragon Ball fan base behind it, and the work of Arc System Works has been to try to make it despite being talking about a very specific branch of 2D fighting games not suitable for Everyone, has created a huge gateway for less experienced players. This is seen in two design decisions: the main one is the type of inputs needed to make the attacks. Almost all are made with a quarter moon forward or backward and an attack button. There are no charging characters, or movements that can be a nuisance like the classic shoryuken(forward, down, diagonal down-forward). This simplifies learning in such a way that without ever having played with a character, you know that with these forward or backward movements "things come out".
The other are the already hackneyed autocombos. Repeatedly pressing square or triangle (PS4 version), a spectacular single sequence comes out that, in addition, in the case of the triangle ends with a special attack. One of the surprises, so to speak, that left the beta open a couple of weeks ago was to see some criticism about the supposed simplicity of the game and the ease offered by the autocombos (supercombo in the game). And we say surprise because it is not something invented in this game. Marvel vs Capcom 3, Persona 4 Arena, Blazblue or Guilty Gear are demanding titles and sagas, present in the great professional championships of the genre and nobody ever questioned the learning behind them because they have self-combos that at the medium level do not even consider using. Comments, in addition, possibly from those who did not delve into the options of the game and stayed in what they could do by crushing buttons. Something that, as seen in the beta, can serve with rivals of initial levels, but that up some ranges are no longer seen for various reasons.
In any case, supercombos are a help for those who want to enjoy the game alone or with friends at home and not find themselves without tools to pass the story mode, for example. That is his main task, to approach the neophyte player in fighting games but lover of Dragon Ball to this delivery without fear. And if you like it, you will learn. Insurance. Because the autocombo offers combinations of 20-25% of life, but that's nothing in a game with these characteristics. If anything, the Marvel proposals are the concept of maximizing damage in the best possible way. How to extend the combo. And taking into account that a rival with a certain hand can take half a bar of life with one of them, 20% in 20% based on autocombos we will have complicated.
...To a deep and creative combat
We have three attack buttons (weak-medium-strong), a fourth (X) for unique attacks based on Ki bursts, two top buttons to make the assists of the characters of our team and the other two as shortcuts for the player with control: grabs and special attacks. Simple controls for a tremendously imaginative game. To this are added many classic mechanics of the type of game: double jump, long jump, dashes on the ground and in the air (Does anyone really think that all this is about to be and that the game is just crushing a button?) they are more than mechanical to play with the opponent's distance and look for an opening, the exact moment. Each character has unique attacks with the aforementioned moon room and some attack button (those of Ki, like Kame Hame Ha,A Kame Hame Has Mighty, Final Flash, Burning Attack, Deadly Ball, etc. With a faithful recreation within the Dragon Ball world.
The offer is completed with the sprint of Dragón - a grip but spectacular because it sends the rival to the air to follow a combo - and the superacometida, that sends our personage towards the rival at full speed and, if it impacts it, it can introduce a combo; the load of Ki -unusual-, disappearance (spending a bar of ki we appear behind the enemy and we strike him a blow) and sparkling explosion or sparking, which gives you benefits for a limited time (as the equipment is worse, harder) and regenerates life during this period. A tool designed as a last breath to search for the comeback, basically.
Invent the longest combo
FighterZ is a game in which the user is constantly searching for a small opening to start a combo. And once he gets it, he needs to squeeze it to the fullest. We do not have any combo breaker (beyond recoveries as long as the opponent is not quick to follow the chain), and this, which is so classic in Tag Team Battle, means that when you hit, you have to get the most out of it your possibilities Several examples -which you can see in the A21 video that heads the text- to see the player's options:
The autocombo is a closed attack, with start and end and limited damage. On the other hand, something more personalized has more damage%: if we press down and round - strong blow -, we make an aerial anti that sends the rival through the air. If we immediately press round again, we make a rush to go to heaven against the opponent. There we can hit several normal shots and if we finish with the strong attack, we knock the opponent to the ground. Once there we can introduce a special attack that enters combo. The damage of all this is noticeably superior to the autocombo.
But there is more. If instead of starting the sequence with an air anti and a rush, we do it manually, we will deal more blows before going to heaven. All the characters can raise the opponent's ground (juggle) based on normal attacks. For example, most can enter below + medium attack and then medium attack, causing the rival to rise and with a mini jump we can start hitting it already in the air. Once here, you can throw it in the distance and make the attack and follow the combination of before, knock out and put the special. The more skill, the more damage ... Although FighterZ is not only what we can do with a character, but what we can combine with all three at once.
If we add to this description of attack options the variants of the assists, we have a game full of possibilities. Each character has an attack in assistance mode that goes from a melee hit to an attack of energy, a protective barrier or others. These elements allow, for example, restart combos. We finish a combination, an assistant appears, hits the opponent and we, recovered from the sequence, start another combo. The creativity and the ingenuity to think not only about characters that you are good at, but also know how to combine with these small details, are key.
Also at the strategy level: when they hit us, there is a blue bar in the lost life zone that marks what we can recover if we are outside the ring. Therefore, making a combo that ends with a character change so that it regenerates life is also a good idea, and part of the development of combats that are never the same.
Because that is one of the keys of the game: the combats are varied, intense, you can learn new things to each fight and always give second chances to the players. The emotion of changing a character on time to die, of entering a special attack with the specials of the other companions at the same time, or of activating the Sparking and with a single fighter to finish with the three opponents that seemed to have the victory in her hands. All at a frenetic pace and all with the epic of the characters and movements of Dragon Ball ... To which we must add the system of dragon balls. It is not easy to appear (we need to make combos of 10, 20, 30, etc. to collect the seven balls and then two more conditions to activate them), but Shenron allows us to become invincible, recover life, give us an extra Sparking or recover a Allied and that, too, can change the tables of a combat.
Characters: the 24 elected
Although the attack commands are similar in each of the fighters, the differentiation between them is key to understanding the long journey that the game will surely have. Each fighter has its particularities, its unique attacks and its way of introducing combos. And that, that even differentiates between a Goku SSJ and its Blue version , reaches enormous extremes if we compare other characters.
Yamcha is a melee show, capable of linking unique attacks like no other; Freezer is the classic zoneador that has an enormous number of attacks at a distance; Beerus can distribute energy balls around the stage and play with them from a defensive or totally offensive perspective; Hit is very demanding, but with attacks that occupy the entire screen and ability to be in front of us or the other end without realizing it; A16 is a grappler with devastating grapples and desperate combos playing with the wall (because yes, in FighterZ it is also played and much with the bounces on the walls, like MvC); or adult Gohan, which bases its success on the melee and on unlocking power to do more and more and more damage to be devastating only with punching.
No two characters are the same. And while Gotenks surprises you with combined attacks in the air, Piccolo bitterly grabs you with his outstretched arm and his deceptions appearing at our backs or just above us. It is difficult to point out a unique style, since they all have their details. A18 combines with A17, a permanent support that has and that allows you to create unique combos, such as: lift the enemy to the sky and instead of following the combo with her, use A17 to send it back down where the Android can follow the sequence.A21, character and villain created for the game, can absorb up to 4 unique attacks of the enemies, making that according to the opponent have some combos available and others not. And so we could continue with Ginyu and the use of his colleagues from the Special Forces, Nappa sowing saibamans or Krillin throwing senzu seeds and using Solar Flare to block the enemy.
In any case, the template looks like this: Goku, Vegeta, Teen Gohan, Freezer, Cell, Majin Buu, Trunks, Piccolo, Krillin, A18, A16, Gotenks, Nappa, Yamcha, Tien, Ginyu, Adult Gohan, Kid Buu, Beerus , Hit, Black Goku, Goku SSB, Vegeta SSB and Android 21. Much has been debated about the template, but little could be improved base. Surely Vegetto is the most missing character (they did not put him in Extreme Butoden either) and with him, names like Broly (he has a special relationship with videogames since Butoden 2) and Bardock They would have been the perfect icing. Any other name enters the debate of the preferences of each one, but we believe that when we imagine a staff of 24-27 fighters, there would be the great majority of the chosen ones. We will see, in any case, where are the shots of the DLC (8 characters), a common policy in the genre for almost a decade that, yes, was not exempt from criticism especially for having announced without the game to the street or the closed template.
The history of A21
The title comes with the story mode as main, though not unique, claim for the offline player. The plot is divided into three arcs -connected by the same plot thread but not happening in the same space- that narrate, roughly, the following: Clones of Z warriors are appearing all over the earth, the villains have been reborn that Goku and company won at the time and in all this is involved Android 16 and the mysterious A21. Without wishing to enter too many destripes, Goku appears unconscious in Bulma's house. This is due to a technology called link that makes someone (the player) is inside the body of Goku and he can not control his own body. Convoluted, very extravagant and highly unnecessary, but the player's link with the characters is part of the plot to justify several things (including the scale of power).
Beyond this, the plot but above all the dialogues and encounters between characters accompany correctly . The chapters are interspersed with scenes and various dialogues. Once in matter, the development is simple: we have to reach the head of the map passing through several boxes. we have 20 turns to finish the map, so we can decide to go the quick way or try to complete the map as best as possible, either with special events (when Kid Buu appears), rescuing allies that we can then use in combat or learning in tutorial missions. As we move forward we will raise the level and get objects to modify the experience: energy enhancers, regenerators of life, gain more experience by combat, raise or lower the level of enemies or win moreZeni are some of these capsules that we can equip. When we gain level, we improve our link with the characters and that gives us dialogs and confessions of the most curious in some cases.
The story mode lasted for nine hours, three for each arc, the last being the shortest. Its main drawback is that it is exceedingly easy in the first two arcs (Saiyans and villains) and it is nothing of the other Thursday in the saga of the androids. The good and really challenging is the difficult mode that is activated when we finish the three frames. We can start with the level we have at the end of normal mode, but with very superior enemies, the most present Game Over account and management of the team, now yes, interesting: we can equip some character that we set aside in the first return win more experience, another have regeneration of life because it is our leader and if we kill it badly and another that contributes more zenis to spend then in the store. Also decide who fights. If we keep our best man for the final boss, can recover life but maybe that level 20 Krilin that replaces him in the team dies three shots against level 50 enemies. In short, the proposal of the story mode makes sense. That's why it would have been interestingadd the hard mode from the start.
Arcade trails, training, tournaments ... And shop
The offline proposal continues with other modes that are worth stopping. The main one is the Arcade , divided into three paths of three, five and seven battles. Depending on the rank with which we finish each fight, it makes us go one way or another, being the S / A the most complicated to achieve because the level of the rivals grows. Once we finish a path, we are opened in difficult mode, challenging especially in the 5 and 7 bouts if we want a high rank. And with certain rewards they give, it's worth trying. The route system according to our range achieved makes it a fairly rejuvenable mode - especially in difficult - although we do not have end of characters or something like that. To this is added the tournament mode, that allows to create competitions of up to 16 players (with or without CPU) and the local mode where we can compete with friend or with CPU in several levels of difficulty (prepare for the maximum level and the barbarities that can be done).
On the other hand, we have the essential training mode. On the one hand, mechanics tutorial that is always good to review. On the other, 10 challenges per character that show a tiny part of what can be done in the game. Important are challenges 9 and 10, since they teach some combos that the player should then learn to improve by personalizing the sequence. Where? Easy: in training mode, ideal for memorizing and naturalizing combinations that must then be executed on the battlefield.
Finally, we have a store to buy capsules that allow us to customize our avatar in the game hall. You can touch titles to put in our online profile, stamps to show in the hall, card designs, colors of characters and room characters. Everything focused on our visible face in the game servers. If an object is repeated, it becomes a premium currency. And no, there is nothing of micropayments or something like that as had been speculated.
The great tribute to Akira Toriyama
One of the great virtues of the game is to be faithful to the work it represents. It is not easy to do what they have done, but yes, you can replicate Dragon Ball to perfection without a camera behind the character, without flying mechanics to use and without being in combat in a three-dimensional plane. There are so many details that look solid at 1080p and 60fpsthat we would not finish. From the design of all the characters, full of details and that seem anime in movement, to the scenarios that are vandalized throughout the fight (even the background falls to pieces if we are diverting Ki attacks with X when they throw them at us ), going above all for fidelity 1: 1 in the movements and attacks. The Kame Hame Ha with instantaneous transmission of Goku to Cell is done with the same pose, the Final Flash of Vegeta makes you want to shout it with him; Freezer's lethal finger shooting at full speed, the melee hits that Gohan hit Super Buu ... We could fill pages and pages.
But it's not just the special attacks, it's the movements (Cell and its deadly embrace), the Ginyu special forces doing what they know (Guildo stopping the opponent, Burter flying at full speed), Kid Buu hitting the ground and pulling out the right leg where is the enemy, the masterful manner with which they have recreated the temporary jumps of Hit, the blows that send off the stage -and in some cases we change the map- to the enemies ... A wonder that also stops in minor details. If we start a fight with adult Trunks and Gohan, the first one tells him how you have so much power without transforming into Super Saiyan, evidencing that they are two characters that were never found in the original work. And like this, several examples that demonstrate the unhealthy level of detail with which the game counts. We do not need to talk about the dramatic scenes that recreate momentazos of the anime and that are the perfect icing for a game that respects and elevates the work on which it is inspired with a mime worthy of tasting in every little element it shows.
At the sound level,the game has different aspects. On the one hand, both the special effects and the voices of the characters are its great asset. Everything sounds like anime. From the steps of Cell to Frieza's evil laughter, through the blows, the sound of a Big Bang or grimaces that also evoke details extracted from the anime, such as Son Gohan saying weakly "Kame Hame Ha" before throwing it, without preparation previous, to Cell. What sounds is like what we see: Dragon Ball. No more no less. All this, of course, with the voices in Japanese. The soundtrack, varied in themes (there are by stage, of certain events in the story and by character), is sugarcane and high rhythm. It sounds good but it is not what stands out in the section because of the power of the other elements. Here, yes, a nuance is missing. after years asking for it, when it is announced that we will have the songs -some- of the anime ... These arrive for a fee.
Great online matches; Improper management
Since midnight on the 26th it was possible to play the title online, thus accessing all the modes that we still needed to know. The first thing we have to emphasize is that the games we have been able to play on all three platforms have an exemplary netcode, with negligible lag and no feeling of failing a combo or finding ourselves in any disadvantage due to technology (provided that the bars connections are green or higher). It has also improved a lot the matchmaking, especially if we compare it with the first days of the beta. Games that are relatively soon and that match you, except in some cases, with rivals that respond to the parameters we were looking for. No complaint in this regard.
The system to fight equal or informal matches is the same as the beta. We enter a server but the search is not only within those 64 players. When it jumps game, we can check if the rival interests us (connection and rank) and we go for it. The game invites us to go winning points, climb up and reach the top, naturally also losing them if we fall defeated against enemies of lower rank. Who does not want to compete and prefers to train online, has informal games.
The setback that we see the online system of the game today, and that surely will change, is that the mechanics to make rooms to fight with friends or other members of the server is confusing and fails a lot. We can create sands with all kinds of parameters (up to eight players at a time), do it privately, filter by connection or level, etc. In the hall of the game we see how "circles" are created where people can unite. There you can make the classic king of the track or the famous Party Match, six players face to face where each one controls a single character. Unfortunately, this system fails. On many occasions, when we try to enter a room he will say "he has not been found". Even if it is open and there are free spaces. It has happened to us often, in the same way that we say that when we have been able to enter everything has worked well: we can stand in line to fight, or in the line to see how others fight. In any case, the game asks for a revision of this system. We have even gone to empty servers with a friend and there was no way to connect with the room. To all this is added Arena mode, which allows players to fight against the same server, although their links also have some error. Surely it would be better to have a system of more invitations to use to play with friends,
PC: an exemplary version
One of the great surprises that Dragon Ball FighterZ leaves us is the PC version, which consolidates itself as a tall port and leaves behind the fears of itself. Arc System Works would keep the type in performance (it did not become beta on this platform) as in possibilities. The game, simply, looks spectacular at 4K and 60 frames per second and has a large amount of customization elements so that everyone can play it by adjusting different parameters. It allows to adjust resolution, vertical synchronization, image quality (from maximum to low), anti-aliasing quality, post-processing, textures, shadows, effects and a system to optimize the experience and that does not affect the online game. To highlight as a curiosity that the title in low parameters seems to be a tribute to the original Budokai,
conclusion
Dragon Ball FighterZ unites perfectly the idea of being a true title to the work of Akira Toriyama with being, also, an excellent fighting game capable of entering competitive circuits. We are before one of the references of the generation without any doubt: frantic, varied, full of combinations and with a creative component to find the longest possible combo that will delight lovers of the genre. Something that, moreover, is not at odds with being accessible to those who are fans of Dragon Ball and want to enjoy the game without any competitive will. Because no, FighterZ is not a simple game. What it does is add options for everyone to find a place, but these are totally useless for those who really want to dedicate themselves to the game in depth. The differentiation between characters, their depth when creating combos, the importance of assists to invent new combinations and the management of various game mechanics make us have many surprises to discover in the playable.
If we add to this a masterful audio-visual section, full of sick details that demonstrate the extreme fidelity of the game with respect to the Dragon Ball universe, the result can only be brilliant once we take control. At modality level, it has options to catch who does not want to play online. A 9-hour story mode with its ups and downs at the level of plot and little difficulty, but compensated by a difficult way unlockable really challenging and that exploits the mechanics of this modality. Arcade routes, tournaments and a complete training mode to practice and improve with each fighter are other proposals of the title.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is, in short, the game of the license that best understands the essence of the fight genre and in turn fuses it with a constant tribute that come together especially in online rings: face to face against other users is where we can fully exploit all the good that the game has. And find, as happens in the manga, always a rival more powerful than us. Arc System Works has created, none other than the Dragon Ball game that we had always expected. And a new way of understanding the license that will surely have a long journey in the coming years.
The best
- Endless possibilities at the playable level: how to generate ever longer combos is an exercise in creativity
- The difference between characters and their unique proposals
- Spectacular, frenetic and varied, no two matches are the same
- Accessible playable elements for those less familiar with the genre
- The "difficult" modalities of the story and the arcade provide a challenge for the offline player
- At the audiovisual level it is a marvel
- Unhealthy level of details that make the game a constant tribute to Dragon Ball
- Netcode perfect and seamless when we play online
Worst
- The story mode has a very debatable argumentative element and little difficulty; It would have been a good idea to activate the hard start mode as an option
- So many years asking for the soundtrack of the anime and when it's offered ... it's via DLC
- Setbacks to play with friends: the system is confusing and not polished in this sense
A reference title in its kind, which stands out above its competitors and which you will enjoy from beginning to end, surely several times. A game destined to become classic over the years.
1-6 IMAGECREDIT
THANKS FOR READING, ALSO CHECK OUT MY PREVIOUS REVIEW ON Panzer Dragoon Saga, Retro Analysis
