MonsterVine received a code for both Dragon Ball FighterZ and the FighterZ pass for review.
I’ve written quite a lot about Dragon Ball FighterZ, as my passion for Dragon Ball and smooth fighting games made it a dream game for me. But as titles like Street Fighter x Tekken and BlazBlue: Continuum Shift can tell you, how DLC is handled can play a major part in how a fighting game is received, and in how long it stays alive. With the announcement of Base Goku and Base Vegeta as the next DLC characters to be added to FighterZ, now feels like the perfect time to talk about how FighterZ does DLC properly.
At the time of writing this article, Dragon Ball FighterZ has four DLC characters: Bardock, Broly, SSGSS Vegito, and Fused Zamasu. These fighters were released in groups of two with two month gaps between each release, with Base Goku and Base Vegeta slated for a fitting early August release. Each character runs for $4.99, while the 8-character “FighterZ Pass” is $39.99. While this is a pretty steep price, the characters themselves are incredibly well-made and, in my opinion, worth grabbing.
Every fighter released so far feels like an entirely new and fully-developed character, each with their own vastly different playstyles. Fused Zamasu and Vegito are technically just different versions of Goku Black, Vegeta, and Goku, yet they don’t feel overly derivative. Broly’s ridiculously damaging hits and knockbacks are fitting for his character. His style also makes him unique, as there’s no other character that’s quite like Broly. The same goes for Fused Zamasu, whose erratic and unpredictable projectiles and supers are both in-line with his character and fun to play.
Aside from gameplay, each DLC character is full of references to Dragon Ball, from the new Dramatic Finishes to basic attacks that are taken straight from Dragon Ball’s manga panels. I like that Arc has gone all-out to appease fans of the series, as this level of dedication is hard to come by in any medium. If anything, I’m amazed that they reference Episode of Bardock of all things, though I can’t deny that Super Saiyan Bardock looks incredibly cool.
I’m incredibly pleased with how Dragon Ball FighterZ has handled its DLC thus far. We’re only halfway through the planned characters for the “FighterZ Pass”, but the current additions already feel like irreplaceable parts of the overall roster. From what we know about Base Goku and Base Vegeta, it sounds like they won’t be too similar to their various other forms in the game, which is a good sign. Few fighting games could have three slightly different-looking versions of one character that are all unique, but FighterZ continues to impress by doing just that.
