Please note that I’m reviewing the game along with Season 1, 2 and 3 altogether.


‘Dragon Ball: FighterZ’ is with no doubt one of the best, if not the best, Dragon Ball fighting game that has ever been released.
For decades us Dragon Ball fans have awaited for a game to exceed legendary iconic marvels such as ‘Dragon Ball: Budokai 3’ and ‘Dragon Ball: Budokai Tenkaichi 3’ in terms of entertaining gameplay, with some games that came close to scratching the surface, but nothing really to ever hit home and actually capture the fighting intensity that Dragon Ball represents.

This long-awaited dream has finally come true when ArcSystemWorks, who are responsible for many complex and beautifully-structured fighting games, have decided to work this Dragon Ball game with pure dedication and effort.


+ Animation, Graphics and Cinematics: A fast-paced game, the fights incorporate the sheer-intensity and destructive-scale that the show demonstrates with beauty.
The game has beautiful graphics that completely capture the ‘old-school’ style of Dragon Ball we all know and love, from the facial expressions of characters, fighting poses and choreography, to the well-defined muscle mass Dragon Ball characters had in the nostalgic Cell Saga.

The tiniest of details in the show are implemented into aesthetic animation. Game is overall extremely cinematic, from camera angles to perspectives.

+ Soundtracks: Themes are well-composed, from heavy rock music to jazz and techno, most which significantly amplify the intensity of fights and are in general really good.

+ Gameplay: Gameplay is faced-paced, fluid and very entertaining. You build a team of three characters and face-off against a team of three others, many characters have great synchronization with each-other, and can be used to devise all sorts of interesting attacks and combos. The game offers great universal mechanics such as light and medium to heavy attacks, assists, tag-teams, rushes, dashes, ki-charging, vanishes, specials and Level 1 or Level 3 Super attacks, and much more.

+ Easy to learn, hard to master: Game is extremely challenging and satisfying, is rather beginner-friendly for a competitive fighting game, and offers basic universal auto-combos that assist the novice player in grasping how the game works rather quickly.
After mastering the basics (Auto-combos, blocking, vanishing, dragon rush, punishing etc.) the player can advance onto discovering an endless amount of complex combos. Practice mode is convenient and a great way to improve.

+ Creative Mechanics: Each character offers different moves and mechanics which vary greatly from another.
Great examples of unique mechanics per character include the fact that Super Baby 2 can revive dead enemy assists to fight by his side, Ultra Instinct Goku can dodge attacks, Goku (GT) gets stronger Level1/3s the less characters in his team, Ultimate Gohan gets stronger the more he uses his Level1 and Super Saiyan Blue Goku, Vegeta and Gogeta have Level5s.

+ Great Character Roster and Choices: Let’s not talk about the game yet, but rather about the franchise as a whole. Being a Dragon Ball game, the developers obviously have a large pool of characters to choose from. Obviously the average character in the show besides being “strong”, flying and shooting ki-blasts has little to offer in terms of an interesting moveset. Very few characters actually stand-out in terms of originality within their powers, but those who do stand-out rarely debut in previous games.

A game such as FighterZ needs as many characters with original moves as it can get, and thankfully, the developers seem to be aware of that and follow suit.

Now let’s talk about the game. Characters that made it in FighterZ with original movesets whilst barely making their debut in any game prior include Android 16, Hit, Janemba, Gotenks, Kefla, Videl, Merged Zamasu and Super Baby 2.

Characters like Dabura, Pikkon, Majuub, Ribrianne and Omega Shenron are prime examples of characters who have original powers and can offer interesting mechanics in the game, with less-predictable characters already been added, it's possible for many more unique ones to come.

+Balance: As FighterZ is basically the first Dragon Ball competitive fighting game, the character roster tries to be as balanced as it can power-wise, "contradicting" the power-scaling that was set in the show and in previous games.
Even games such as ‘Budokai 3’ and ‘Budokai Tenkaichi 3’ had characters such as Gogeta and Vegito intentionally outshine everyone with brimming power, which isn’t always good as it can take away the fairness and turn people away from other different characters in the existing roster.
Overall, every character here stands a fair chance against the other, the pros and cons even out.

+DLCs that offer great content: Season passes have been worth it until now. The developers put their soul into the new content and characters. Prices seem fair, though I recommend getting them at a discount.


- No Crossplay: Player base quantity can largely vary, while it is high when new content is added to the game, on other days player-quantity may be underwhelming, and that’s a big shame.

The game is available for PC, PS4, XBOX ONE and the Switch, combining all four bases together could give the game the online player-quantity it deserves, but as far as I know there are no mentions to include such a feature.

- Re-Used Model and Moves for Base / SSJ/ SSJB Goku and Vegeta: Some movesets are copied and re-used in different Goku’s/Vegeta’s, which I find lazy and unpleasant.

SSJ Vegeta’s appearance is supposed to take after his ‘Super Vegeta’ form in the Cell Saga, an upgraded state of Super Saiyan which is why he is so muscular. The same Vegeta model which happens to be ultra-buff is again re-used for Base Vegeta and SSJB Vegeta, both who are supposed to be noticeably skinnier.
SSJ Goku and Vegeta also have the exact same appearance (clothes and everything, minus the hair) as their SSJ Blue counterparts.

- Boring Storyline: While the story is comedy gold in terms of interactions, it's so easy it's a joke, and so long it's exhausting. The fortunate thing is that it doesn't represent the game at all, and only takes after a small percentage of what the game has to offer.

- Few Stages: The game has 41 Characters w/ DLC included as of Season 3 and offers only 11 stages (14 if you count different versions of the same stage).

- Voice Acting (English Dub): The voice acting of the English dub has many inconsistencies throughout the game. Goku Black alone has three different voices. In regards to voice acting, I advise playing the game in Japanese dub.

- Underwhelming AI: The AI in the game is disappointing and easy. Only in casual / ranked matches will you find a decent challenge. It is best to play against another person.

- Ignoring the DBS Manga: The game heavily references frames from the franchise, but the DBS Manga seem to go unnoticed. A prime example is that SSJB Vegeta’s Level 3 could have easily incorporated Vegeta’s manga exclusive most-powerful attack, Gamma Burst Flash, but instead is a Final Flash, exactly like his SSJ counterpart.



All in all, ‘Dragon Ball FighterZ’ is the game that we have all been waiting for.
Despite the flaws mentioned above, the pros far outshine the cons. It captures the style and intensity of the show, has entertaining gameplay, and has great depth from great cinematic pieces to endless possible combos.

Along with previous work of the same developers, this is a fighting game that can potentially get love and support from the fans for the next decade.

If you’re a lifelong Dragon Ball fan and/or want to get into fighting games, getting this game is a must.