I joined the DBFZ community a little late, so I know this review is a bit overdue. My last two fighting game reviews went over nicely. Mortal Kombat 11 and Power Rangers: BFG were great games. MK11 was an easy review because I like the game so much. Power Rangers was pleasantly surprising, so that made that review easy. Dragon Ball Fighter Z was not easy to review. I’ve owned this game for about a month and I’m still very confused. I don’t understand it at all, but I’ll admit I enjoy it. I have played a lot and I’m not bad at it, but again I’m still not sure what the hell I’m doing. In other words: I suck at this game and I can’t figure out why.

The Story Mode
DBZ games are always the same thing, over and over again. Saiyan Saga, Frieza Saga, Android/Cell Saga, Buu Saga… Luckily Fighter Z does not follow that narrative. With plenty of fighters, including the Dragon Ball Super cast, this story does not feel stale at all. It has its own story with clones and a whole bunch of other stuff happening. I don’t fully understand what’s happening, but I do know that this story is unique from the TV show because Cell, Frieza, and Buu have all interacted at some point or another. The story mode itself is a little confusing. It’s like a board game (similar to DBZ: Budokai 2 on PS2), but there’s very little direction. You just move around and select fights with other pieces. Your team levels up as you go, and you can add upgrades to your fighters. I’m a big fan of progression rewards, so this adds a nice touch to the game. The rewards however are not very helpful. I’m several levels into the game and I can only obtain level 1 support pieces. To summarize, the story mode is good. It has a fresh story, progression rewards, but is confusing and has little direction for the player. It’s too messy.

The Roster

The roster is great. Again, its a breath of fresh air from the past DBZ games I’ve played. Plenty of fresh faces are playable like Android 21, Cooler, Jiren, and Beerus. The Dragon Ball Super characters add plenty of diversity. Each character has their own special moves, ki blasts, and distinctive attacks. No player really has the same style, so they all have their own unique fighting style. I have no complaints about the roster whatsoever.

Overall
The gameplay is fast paced. The story is decent. The roster is expansive and includes newer faces to the franchise. Although I truly feel like I haven’t fully grasped the true concept of this game, I’m still playing it frequently and that’s a good sign. Overall, I’ll give it a 7.8 out of 10. Maybe once I get really good at the game the score will go up. We’ll see how long that takes.

Written by Andrew Silvers

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