"Dragon Ball FighterZ" Official Discussion Thread

[fadeddreams5]

This game is what I've been waiting for a very long time--a competitive and possibly tournament viable DBZ fighter. Looks great. Hopefully it turns out to be really good.

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

Why, oh why in a competitive fighter would you want three versions of the same character? What possible improvement in gameplay can you get by throwing in 2nd form Cell in there? It'd be nice, if he added anything to the game besides bloating the roster, but thankfully this is not that kind of game. No "Super Perfect Cell"? Oh my god man, that's about the whiniest thing I've heard so far..there's almost no gameplay difference (visually and/or mechanically) for having "Super Perfect Cell". You know what? Him taking up another character slot for this psuedo-form is lame. That is not "content", that is "fan service". And I am not for more fanservice at the cost of resources that are used to develop the gameplay.

Why would various forms have to play completely differently? Transformations should just be stat boosts, not considered as or demanded to be separate forms. I was always fine with the Budokai format handling them. I don't see why it wouldn't apply here if Golden Freeza is just a boost. It would be like expecting all the Super Saiyan forms to play differently when they're the same character. For Freeza and Cell I can understand not needing their prior forms, (Freeza most so because he has so many) but even still its not impossible to do. They just shouldn't be their own characters. With Cell, at most his Super Perfect form should at least be the parallel boost to a Golden Freeza. I can accept that fanservice because it shouldn't compromise the roster if they aren't pulling a Xenoverse with it. The only characters I see that would bloat the roster are the henchmen characters like Tagoma, or forgettable characters like the U6 characters.

[Zidiane]

Why would various forms have to play completely differently?

There's a serious expectation in traditional competitive fighters (which this game is trying to be) for each character to play uniquely. It's one of the reason the fighting game crowd tends to avoids many traditional DBZ fighters, many characters tend to feel same-y (even when they aren't various forms).

Transformations should just be stat boosts, not considered as or demanded to be separate forms.

The thing about having them as stat boosts in this game is that it'd plain be too much work:

https://twitter.com/jchensor/status/875164101055348737

Let's say they added Imperfect Cell and gave him his transformations as supers mid-match, allowing him to have a full moveset as Imperfect Cell, then a full moveset as Semi-Perfect Cell, then a final moveset as Perfect Cell. It would basically be committing the work needed for 3 separate characters into one w/out really getting more than one character out of it. In traditional DBZ games, fairly certain they don't animate each individual frame to stretch to the move, like the linked tweet above mentions, so the work on the new model is just pasted and given virtually the same moves. That can't be done (edit: easily) for this type of game.

If they're going to have multiple forms, they either need to look virtually identical (Golden Freeza, Longer Hair on SSJ3 Goku), or they need to be separate characters.

[jcogginsa]

I could see Imperfect Cell being a fairly distinct character from Perfect Cell. Though I'm not gonna complain if only one of them is in the game.

[MCDaveG]

I've never had Kikuchi score in video game... Sadly :)Had to import Sparking! Meteor to enjoy the full DB sim.

Oh, well I thought that the Kikuchi score was the default Japanese track considering that was usually what I would hear with the DB related things in Japan, I didn't know that the music was only used in the Sparking games. So I was mistaken.

No, not at all my friend! To be true to the facts, you are not mistaken, Sparking! and Raging Blast series in Japan had the Kikuchi score on default, but what I meant was, that in Europe and USA, we never had these scores and had replacements simmilar to Kenji Yamamoto's BGM from Budokai.
And that is why I wouldn't mind having Kikuchi OST at least in one game But that won't happen because of some copyrights issues (probably being darn expensive) from Japanese label that has rights to the DB and DBZ scores from Kikuchi.

[sophitia]

Why, oh why in a competitive fighter would you want three versions of the same character? What possible improvement in gameplay can you get by throwing in 2nd form Cell in there? It'd be nice, if he added anything to the game besides bloating the roster, but thankfully this is not that kind of game. No "Super Perfect Cell"? Oh my god man, that's about the whiniest thing I've heard so far..there's almost no gameplay difference (visually and/or mechanically) for having "Super Perfect Cell". You know what? Him taking up another character slot for this psuedo-form is lame. That is not "content", that is "fan service". And I am not for more fanservice at the cost of resources that are used to develop the gameplay.

Why would various forms have to play completely differently? Transformations should just be stat boosts, not considered as or demanded to be separate forms. I was always fine with the Budokai format handling them. I don't see why it wouldn't apply here if Golden Freeza is just a boost. It would be like expecting all the Super Saiyan forms to play differently when they're the same character. For Freeza and Cell I can understand not needing their prior forms, (Freeza most so because he has so many) but even still its not impossible to do. They just shouldn't be their own characters. With Cell, at most his Super Perfect form should at least be the parallel boost to a Golden Freeza. I can accept that fanservice because it shouldn't compromise the roster if they aren't pulling a Xenoverse with it. The only characters I see that would bloat the roster are the henchmen characters like Tagoma, or forgettable characters like the U6 characters.

I believe a simple "stat boosts" is still a nightmare to balance.

[cringey]

[..] I don't care much competitive gameplay, I care about a good DBZ game with a decent Story Mode and having Super Perfect Cell would fit in. Also it looks like it don't crossed your mind that you can just have SP Cell as a transformation to Perfect Cell the same way is SSJ3 to SSJ Goku. Or let's just have SSJ Goku vs. Majin Vegeta and pretend that Goku is a SSJ2 there, make just Teen Kid Gohan the only able SSJ2 fighter in this game. How nice it would be.

ASW is aiming to satisfy the fighting game community but it's cool if you don't care about competitive gameplay, Dimps got you covered with XenoVerse (3). Also, SSJ3 is just part of Goku's Ultimate and in Cell's case having Super form is useless since there is not much of a difference (visually).

[Jord]

I for one hope that the BGM will be like the trailer music. Kikuchi-san's score is amazing in the anime but doesn't translate itself well to games which fights have a higher continuous pace. The anime fights are generally slower and have a lot of talking/reactions between moves which is why Kikuchi-san's score works so well; he strikes that tricky balance between fighting and the rests between moves. I played Sparking Meteor with the Kikuchi score and it's fun for a while but he novelty wears of quickly.

[MathSSJ]

2) I don't care much competitive gameplay, I care about a good DBZ game with a decent Story Mode and having Super Perfect Cell would fit in.

Start dropping your hopes because the game is being developed by a studio that makes competitive games, not crowd pleasing fighting games, and a competitive game with a small rooster is what you will get.

Define small though.

While anything above 30 is way too much, having less than 20 can actually be a detriment. As far as we know, characters seem to have only one assist and being forced to use, say, SSj2 Gohan if you want an anti-air assist that's reliable can really lead to a stale meta. If this game is truly intending to be competitive, we need options to deal with stuff in the game.

[Roronoa-pt]

My ( nearly ) perfect roster for the game.

Heroes:

1. SSJ Goku - Classic outfit
2. SSJ2 Gohan ( Youth ) - Cell Games outfit
3. Ultimate Gohan ( Adult )
4. Super Vegeta - Cell Games outfit
5. SSJ Future Trunks ( Teen ) - Mecha Frieza outfit
6. Piccolo
7. Super Vegetto
8. SSJ3 Gotenks
9. Tenshinhan - Shin Kikoho's outfit
10. Kuririn - Classic outfit

Rivals:
11. Super Buu ( Gohan absorved )
12. Pure Buu
13. Mr Buu
14. Merged Zamasu
15. Black
16. Ginyu
17. Frieza ( Final Form )
18. Perfect Cell
19. Beerus
20. Hit
21. #18
22. #17
23. Piccolo Daimao ( Youth restored )

Bonus:
24. SSJB Goku- RoF outfit
25. SSJB Vegeta - RoF outfit

[Zidiane]

2) I don't care much competitive gameplay, I care about a good DBZ game with a decent Story Mode and having Super Perfect Cell would fit in.

Start dropping your hopes because the game is being developed by a studio that makes competitive games, not crowd pleasing fighting games, and a competitive game with a small rooster is what you will get.

Define small though.

As big as Dragon Ball is, this is still the first attempt at a game like this in a long time and there probably is some amount of uncertainty. Hardcore DBZ fans who expect 50 character rosters may be unhappy, so I'm expecting reservations as far as how much money they're willing to put into development.

Let's look at some recent fighting games and their character counts when they first release to help us gauge what can be expected in a roster.

Street Fighter V: 16 characters (brought to 28 after all Season 1 and Season 2 DLC)
Guilty Gear XRD: 13 characters (brought to 25 after a console port and 2 title updates)
Mortal Kombat X: 24 Characters (brought to 33 after DLC)
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger: 12 characters (latest BB has 35 characters after 6 title updates)

Those all aren't team fighters though. Of the team fighters (which are limited), here are char counts:
Skullgirls: 8 characters (brought up to 14 after DLC)
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: 18 characters (brought to 26 characters after console port)
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: 36 characters (brought to 50 after UMVC3 and DLC)
Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite: 28 characters (roster was leaked)
Street Fighter X Tekken: 38 characters (increased to 55 through DLC)

The highest character counts are all well established franchises with game formulas that have been proven succesful over many iterations. DBFZ is still a relative gamble, so take that as you will. I'm expecting right around 20 (give or take 5) characters before DLC, which from what I've seen will all be incredibly unique in how they play and can help their team.

TL;DR: If you're expecting a bloated roster filled with characters who don't feel distinct from one another, and you don't care for differences between characters but instead just want to see as big a fanservice roster as possible, it's a good idea to temper your expectations.

[Spenzer]

Any chance of a V Jump leak popping up today?

[RedHeat]

Any chance of a V Jump leak popping up today?

Isn't that on the 20th?

[TheDBZmaster100]

Interesting interview from Game informer

Bandai Namco On Why A 2D Fighting Game Was the Right Choice For Dragon Ball

"Dragon Ball FighterZ was one of the biggest surprises of this year's E3. With its gorgeously detailed renderings of classic Dragon Ball characters like Goku, Vegeta, and Frieza, its ferociously cluttered combat, and high-octane anime midfight scenes, it shocked many at Microsoft's E3 conference.

To learn more about what why Bandai Namco teamed up with Arc System Works for the game, why 2D was the right call, and how the game will address the issue of retreading the same characters and storylines from previous games, we caught up with producer Tomoko Hiroki."

Game Informer: When did you start talking with Arc System Works about creating a fighting game?

Tomoko Hiroki: We actually worked with Arc System Works for Extreme Butoden (which is a 3DS game), so when we were working with them we eventually came to the conversation of, “Okay, how about creating a genuine 2D fighting game based on Dragon Ball for (at the time) the next generation of consoles.

Game informer What was it about Arc System Works that attracted you to them for the 3DS game in the first place?

Tomoko ; Because we’ve had games like Super Butoden (a fighting game that released on the Super Nintendo - Ed) we’ve had a lot of fans saying, “We believe the roots of Dragon Ball [in games] are actually 2D fighting games.” And we knew that Arc System Works had this pedigree. That’s where we felt their appeal was, and why we’re deciding to work with them.

Game informer;How much attention did you pay to making sure the game is accessible to newcomers?


Tomoko; We’ve actually focused on making it accessible for those casual fans, as well. One of our big goals is to have those Dragon Ball casual fans realize how fun a genuine fighting game can be through this game. And we want eventually, those guys, to become actual fighting game users. So that’s where this project all began. So, we’re constantly thinking about satisfying obviously the core fighting game audience, but also Dragon Ball fans well.


Game informer; How much will thee to teach new players how to play the game? Arc System Works has always been really good about having these tutorials for players to learn the game.

Tomoko; You’ve got a really good point, and that’s what we’re working on right now, actually. Since we’re still really not in early, but like a midpoint of development, that’s exactly what we’re making right now, because we want to make it easier for users to join in. It’s difficult for us to give you details right now because we’re still making it, so maybe in our next interview we’ll be able to give more details.

Game informer; In the fighting genre, Arc System Works’ Guilty Gear is seen as the deep end of the pool. What sort of changes did you look for in that system when creating Dragon Ball FighterZ? Did you look at anything in Guilty Gear and think, “That shouldn't be in this game?”

Tomoko; We weren’t really thinking about it in terms of subtraction. It was all about looking at different games and looking at their pros and cons and trying to bundle that all together and think, “What’s best for Dragon Ball?” and create something new. So, I don’t think there were specific features that we were thinking of not including.

GAME INFORMER; A lot of the recent Dragon Ball Z games have been fighters, but they’ve been three-dimensional, behind-the-back, split perspective games. Why shift from 3D to 2D?

TOMOKO; We’re trying to aim for the core fighting game fans as well as the casual fans, and for esports these types of 2D fighting games are very hype right now. And so we thought that this kind of huge movement in terms of esports, and combining that with a franchise that’s loved throughout the world like Dragon Ball would be a perfect match.

And this time around, were focused on this highly animated expression, and so we wanted to combine 2D and 3D. So the game looks 2D, but the characters are based on a 3D model, so that you can change the angle of the camera and reproduce the famous scenes of Dragon Ball.

GAMEINFORMER; You mentioned esports. Do you have any plans about what you’re going to do with the game once it comes out? Will you support tournaments, or have your own series?

Tomoko; We don’t have details right now, but we are considering that. And I do understand that esports is really a community, fan-driven society so I guess it’s all up to the users I would say, but we want players to give us their feedback as much as possible before and after the game is released so we can keep on polishing the game.

Game informer; For of Dragon Ball Z games, the story is set in stone. Are you planning to go back through the series’ classic sagas again or do you have any plans for how you’re going to deviate from that?

Tomoko; I can’t go into details about the story right now, but what I can say is that we’re trying to deliver the story to users from a different approach from previous Dragon Ball games, so we hope they can look forward to that.

Game informer; Of the six characters in the demo, who are you most excited about? Which character are you hoping makes the cut?

Tomoko; My character out of the six we’ve revealed so far is Majin Buu. He’s quite unique and technical. You can probably tell that he’s not moving that fast because he’s like the heavy-type character, but he’s got a long reach. For example, his arm stretch out, or he can take a part of his body and throw it at the opponent, so he’s unique in that way. For the characters we’re looking forward to in the future, we obviously can’t say specific character names, but we would rather say that the characters that we’ve revealed so far are quite standard, but we can definitely tell you that the characters in the future are going to be more unique.

Game informer; If at all possible I would love to see Arale from Dr. Slump in the game.

Tomoko; We heard that.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/ ... -ball.aspx







- Jetpack or hovering boots


- mechanise with her various capsules


- she had flying nimbus

Knowing arc systems love for female characters.

[Noah]

Tomoko; I can’t go into details about the story right now, but what I can say is that we’re trying to deliver the story to users from a different approach from previous Dragon Ball games, so we hope they can look forward to that.

Interesting, I hope there are nice What-If stories like in the Supersonic Warriors series.

[Kanassa]

Tomoko; I can’t go into details about the story right now, but what I can say is that we’re trying to deliver the story to users from a different approach from previous Dragon Ball games, so we hope they can look forward to that.

Interesting, I hope there are nice What-If stories like in the Supersonic Warriors series.

But then that wouldn't be a different approach.
Edit: Misread you.

[Hellspawn28]

[spoiler][/spoiler]
I made the poor decision to look at some comments on a few Dragon Ball FighterZ videos on YouTube. ...It was not a good idea.

It seems like most DB fans are not big fighting games fans or just casual video game fans. They like Dragon Ball games for being typical DB games and not real fighter games.

[jcogginsa]

Not gonna lie, I think it's a bit silly to have Goku turn SSJ3 for a Kamehameha Ult. If he's gonna be SSJ3, use Dragonfist XD

[DBZAOTA482]

[spoiler][/spoiler]
I made the poor decision to look at some comments on a few Dragon Ball FighterZ videos on YouTube. ...It was not a good idea.

It seems like most DB fans are not big fighting games fans or just casual video game fans. They like Dragon Ball games for being typical DB games and not real fighter games.

Well... fighting games in general are pretty niche so naturally a game like FighterZ would alienate a subset of the DB fandom. Even Budokai isn't completely safe from this over since Tenkaichi came out.

[Almighty Majin]

Well the story would have to be completely original considering how the roster is and an original story is always nice like how the Supersonic Warriors games and Extreme Butoden have had.

The roster is not going to be huge and it doesn't need to be that way either so long as the characters presented are the most significant ones and have unique play styles from each other.