I’ve watched a couple episodes of Dragon Ball Super, but have yet to commit myself to watching it through from the beginning. But then Dragon Ball FighterZ comes along with an open beta and I’m hooked, despite the medium change. What we’ve been given is a massively polished 2.5D fighter that is fantastic even without the Dragon Ball series attached to it. Arc System Works are pros at developing high quality, fast-paced fighters that can’t seem to miss the mark.
Open Beta, Open Wallet
With the FighterZ open beta, you’ve got 11 characters to pick from, including Goku, Android 18, Beerus, Krillin, and Frieza. Each character oozes with charm and plenty of over-the-top voice lines straight out of the anime. The main way of playing is 3v3 tag-team bliss. You only have a few accessible areas during the open beta, including training and online play.
After doing a bit of training to get familiar with the intricacies of the fighting system, I jumped into a few casual matches. Online wait times varied from about half a minute to several minutes. You can walk around the chibi hub world while you wait, but there’s not much to do, besides checking your setup and looking through options.
Gameplay Is Child’s Play
I was surprised at the smoothness of combat, although I probably should have expected it. Attacks and counters flow into each other like some sort of hyperactive dance. You’ve got ranged attacks, special moves, and standard attacks to contend with. I’ve yet to fully explore the deeper recesses of the fighting mechanics, but I seemed to do pretty well when I tried my luck online. It was easy to jump into the game after just a few minutes of tutorial and feel comfortable. If you’ve played other 2D fighters, you’ll feel a sense of friendly deja vu with Dragon Ball FighterZ.
The game does enough to set it apart from other fighters, mainly through its flashy animation and slightly-divergent take on classic gameplay. The gameplay is less focused on being precise and more interested in keeping things fast and vibrant. I didn’t really experience online problems like some people were reporting, even though I tried twice, several hours apart. It’s looking like FighterZ is going to land on its super-sized pointy feet without a problem. Look out for our full review as the release date approaches.
The open beta ended January 16 but will be returning at an unannounced date for 24 hours. Dragon Ball FighterZ launches on January 26, 2018.
