Dragon Ball FighterZ is an upcoming 2.5D fighting game developed by Arc System Works and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, based on the Dragon Ball franchise for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows.
Story
Goku and his friends must fight a new battle against a revived Android 16 and an army of super androids designed to resemble and fight just like them. The story is split into three chapters: the Super Warriors Arc, the Super Villain Arc, and the Android Arc, each of which follows the story from the perspectives of Goku, Frieza, and Android 18 respectively.
Playable Characters
- Android 16
- Android 18 (w/ Android 17)
- Android 21 (Majin Form)
- Beerus
- Captain Ginyu (w/ The Ginyu Force)
- Cell
- Frieza
- Gohan (Teen/Super Saiyan 2)
- Gohan (Adult)
- Goku (Super Saiyan)
- Goku (Super Saiyan Blue)
- Goku Black (w/ Zamasu)
- Gotenks (Super Saiyan 3)
- Hit
- Kid Buu
- Krillin
- Majin Buu
- Nappa (w/ Saibamen)
- Piccolo
- Tien (w/ Chiaotzu)
- Future Trunks
- Vegeta (Super Saiyan)
- Vegeta (Super Saiyan Blue)
- Yamcha
Gameplay
The gameplay borrows concepts from several other fighting games, primarily the Marvel vs. Capcom series’ control scheme and team mechanics. Players each select three characters to form a team. One character is controlled and can be switched with one of the other characters at any time. Players can also call one of their other characters to perform an “Assist” move, allowing simultaneous attacks and combos with the entire team. All three of the opponent’s characters must be defeated to win the game.
The universal “Vanish” and “Dragon Rush” moves resemble the Roman Cancel system commonly found in Arc System Works games and Guilty Gear Xrd’s Dust attacks respectively, while the “Super Dash” move resembles the Homing system of Arcana Heart. Players can also “Ki Charge” to manually increase their super meter, similar to previous Dragon Ball fighting games.
The game also includes other features, such as “Come on Shenron!”, that allows players to gather the Dragon Balls one by one as the fight progresses by special moves and combos. Once all seven are assembled by a player, Shenron appears to grant a wish and allows players to choose one among the following benefits: increasing their fighter’s strength, revive a fallen ally, recover a fighter’s health or increase resistance to damage. Another feature is the “Dramatic Finish” mode, in which if some characters win the fight against specific enemies, special cutscenes are triggered related to events from the Dragon Ball series.
Release date
The game will be released on January 26, 2018, internationally and February 1, 2018, in Japan.
