Dragon Ball: The Breakers is a strange game based on an intriguing concept. If it hooks you, Breakers can be a lot of fun – despite its rough edges. With a bit of refinement and some additional characters (and perhaps a transition to free-to-play), The Breakers could be a wacky and good time.
Dragon Ball: The Breakers
Developer: Dimps
Price: $20
Platform: PS4, PS5 (reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC
MonsterVine was provided with a PS5 code for review
I’m absolutely a sucker for anything Dragon Ball. At the same time, asymmetrical multiplayer games (and multiplayer games in general, for that matter) have never really been my bag. So, I hoped that The Breakers would be the thing to get me hooked, and while it is quite fun at times, it can be a bit of a slog to get to the fun.
The concept of The Breakers is pretty great – what is it like to be a regular person in the world of Dragon Ball? As it turns out, pretty terrifying. With Frieza, Cell, and Buu all flying around and destroying stuff on a whim, being Bulma, Oolong, or a random Earthling would kind of suck. Running around, hiding from villains, distracting them, and fleeing areas that are about to be decimated is a lot of tense fun, as you can hardly fight back as some random person
One thing that The Breakers does well in each match is incentivization. There’s always a chest or cave to plunder for valuable stuff nearby, all while avoiding a fierce foe who can kill you in a flash. Meanwhile, being a Raider allows for concerningly fun power fantasies. Destroying whole areas of a map, absorbing civilians, blowing up buildings, and hunting down players as Frieza, Cell, and Buu is a blast, as it effectively portrays just how scary these villains can be.
On the other hand, the way The Breakers has some ridiculously egregious monetization – especially for a non-free-to-play game. Gacha systems are bad enough in free mobile games, but in a paid game, there comes the feeling that you should get a good deal of content for what you paid for. Having content locked behind payments is, unfortunately, nothing new, but the additional barrier of having your content be luck-based is terrible. I hope the game either goes free-to-play or gets a bit fairer with how much it gives you.
“There’s plenty of potential for The Breakers to become a bizarre but addictive asymmetrical multiplayer game beyond these flaws.”
Interestingly, this game is apparently canon to the Dragon Ball Xenoverse series. This makes sense since the story revolves around tears in space and time that allow for these villains and characters to be in these iconic locations at the same time. I’m curious as to whether additional story content will be added to the game going forward, which will expand on this connection.
It’s genuinely wild how little The Breakers teaches you regarding its mechanics. The tutorial essentially shows you how to move, revive people, and complete the Survivor objective. It doesn’t teach you what the currencies are, how to obtain and power up skills, how to play as a Raider/villain (which is half of the game’s appeal), how to properly use a transphere, and more. It’s ridiculous and makes your first few matches boring and frustrating – not a great way to start.
There’s a lot of jank in The Breakers as well. I cannot completely comprehend how using a transphere and fighting a raider works, as sometimes I’ll do well while other times I won’t have a chance to get a single hit in – even when fully charged. The fighting doesn’t feel great, making Survivors and Raiders the more fun roles to play as.
There’s plenty of potential for The Breakers to become a bizarre but addictive asymmetrical multiplayer game beyond these flaws. When you get the hang of things, The Breakers can be incredibly fun. It’s just getting to that point that can be frustrati
The Final Word
Dragon Ball: The Breakers is a very peculiar game that pulls off its concept but is held back by jank and ruthless microtransactions. With some changes (likely to a free-to-play model) and additional polish, The Breakers could be the dark horse asymmetrical multiplayer game. Until then, though, it’s just a fun but flawed game for Dragon Ball megafans.
MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average
