The Identity Crisis of Dragon Ball Games
Dragon Ball is immortal. I’m convinced that Akira Toriyama has an actual set of Dragon Balls and has wished for an everlasting stream of revenue and legacy. Jokes aside, DB has transcended every medium you can imagine, everyone from every walk of life seemingly loves Dragon Ball in their own distinct way. And what is sometimes underestimated is how much the fandom (for many) was cultivated by the video games released. Dragon Ball FighterZ became a smash hit with everyone from critics to fighting game fans and has become a mainstay at major fighting game tournaments like EVO. With Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, a brand new open world action RPG launching in January 2020, I think its apt time to look back on how Dragon Ball games have been perceived in the past, especially in terms of their genre and how publisher Bandai has marketed them.
Despite being the grandfather of modern Battle Shonen manga, Dragon Ball actually doesn’t have that many full-blooded fighting games under its belt. Fighters wouldn’t be as much of a big deal as it was/is if DB has a storied history with 2D fighting games. The truth is DB has always had an innate identity crisis when it comes to both producing and especially marketing their video games. Whilst I can’t speak for the Japanese audiences perspective, as a western fan of both Dragon Ball and video games in general I’ve sensed a great disconnect over the years with what many of the annual DB games present themselves as and what that actually end up being.
Discounting Fighterz, if you said ‘Dragon Ball Fighting Games’ as Western Fans, our minds would probably wonder to the Budokai Series which as the first major Dragon Ball game we got our hands on. Now compared to later entries the Budokai series is actually much more in line with what a fighting game is: Special moves, combos, versus and tournaments game modes etc. But the Budokai games have elements that really go against the methodology of fighting game design, with the ‘Dragon Rush’ system implementing chance into combat and the equip-able capsules being able to bestow additional perks/abilities, Budokai doesn’t quite feel at home as a fighting game.
It’s the Tenkaichi games (Sparking! In Japan) where Dragon Ball really moves away from fighting games and into 3D battle arenas. With the behind the back third person camera perspective, vast rosters and newer unconventional control schemes, it was clear that these games were more intended to be ‘Dragon Ball simulation’ games, being a full-on button mashy power fantasy that rather than being a competitive game. The Tenkaichi series lets you live out the feeling of a fully powered Dragon Ball character. And as a result balance was never a concern or staple of the series. But because its more of a recognisable genre name then ‘Dragon Ball simulator’ or (at the time) ‘3D battle arena’, the Tenkaichi series was still labelled as a fighting game adding further to the identity crisis of this franchise.
Super Dragon Ball Z was a slower more technical fighting game with a difficult learning curve that enjoyed a brief cult following in Japan.
Japanese DB fans actually have a much wider and more appropriate choice of actual fighting games, with the Super Famicon Super Butouden series, which is much closer to fighting games at the time like Street Fighter (with a hint of Darkstalkers) and other games like Hyper Dimension and Super Dragon Ball Z (which even had the pedigree of having Akira Nishitani, famous for Street Fighter 2, Final Fight and Street Fighter EX directing it). These games are definitely traditional 2D fighters, but outside of Japan their popularity is quite niche. Until FighterZ it seemed that the wider western Dragon Ball fanbase wanted and preferred these simulator games above all else.
The reason I’m talking so much about the technicalities of fighting games is that it’s important to understand the appeals of a games genre and what audiences expect when you say a game belongs to a certain genre. The recent Xenoverse games and their predecessor Battle of Z, are the biggest examples of Bandai misunderstanding both the games that they’re marketing and their audiences. Despite the fact that if you look on the back of their boxes or gander at the online store, you’ll see that they are tagged as fighting games, but of all the Dragon Ball games, I cannot make this clearer:
THESE ARE NOT FIGHTING GAMES.
Battle of Z in particular, which was decried by both critics and fans for its apparent lackluster fighting system. But Battle of Z was never designed for every player to mash buttons relentlessly. Battle of Z was a committed real time action RPG: characters had different classes/roles during battle and communication with one’s team were essential for both success and a good time. The power fantasy of everyone picking Super Saiyan God and going mad trying to wreck your opponents isn’t going to reward you. Battle of Z required players to play support, play interference, it required some basic form of strategy and variety and didn’t quite reward the expected power fantasy that we might come to expect from Dragon Ball games.
The game worked on a card slot system, where characters could equip attributes and stat buffs that they unlocked throughout the game. The way that it balanced itself was that powerhouse characters like Super Saiyan’s would have less equip slots than say the humans or base forms of the same Saiyan characters. There were 4 categories –
Battle of Z’s card system balanced characters by having higher powered characters have less card equip slots and vice versa.
Melee Type: skilled at close combat, can combo with melee attacks. Attack Type moves are Kaio-ken Attack, Dance of the Sword, Recoome Kick.
Ki Blast Type: skilled at long range battle, can make consecutive attacks using the Genki Gauge. Ki Blast Type moves are Consecutive Energy Blast, Death Beam, Spirit Ball.
Support Type: powers such as health regeneration and support abilities. Support Type moves are Health regain blast, Fighting Pose.
Interfere Type: adept at abilities that interfere with the enemies’ movements. Interference Type moves are Solar Flare, Chocolate Beam, Drain Energy.
It is key that teams are balanced and playing with other people in order to create a much more enjoyable experience is far better than being paired with the game’s A.I. team mates. For instance, say if I was playing Krillin, who in the game is a support type, my goals would be to hang back and support other my teammates who were actually dishing out the damage, whilst I cast heals and disruption beam based attacks on occasion.
It was in the players hands to play their specific role in battle, it was the way Battle of Z was supposed to be enjoyed. Granted, I’m not saying that Battle of Z is a hidden masterpiece, the game still suffered from over grinding and its characters and environment weren’t modeled the best either. But what I am saying is that had the marketing for this game been more appropriate, I think that the games reputation would have left a significantly better taste in the mouths of the Dragon Ball community. Ultimately, I think that fans at the time wanted Battle of Z to be something it wasn’t: being released in 2013, it was coming off the heels of Dragon Ball Z: Kinect and Ultimate Tenkaichi, two very reviled games in Dragon Ball’s recent memory. It was clear that the Fan base wanted a return to form in some way, something more akin to the traditional 3D arena battle games/Dragon Ball simulators, but Battle of Z was never designed to be that.
Though it could be argued that Battle of Z committed to the integration of RPG elements significantly more than either Xenoverse games. The Xenoverse series so far has had the biggest case of an identity crisis, and whilst Bandai’s promotion for these games wasn’t as blatantly misleading as Battle of Zs, the actual game itself throws a lot against the wall and some of it just doesn’t stick: One of Xenoverses biggest draws and what ended up being one of its best elements was its Custom character option. Everyone has their own original Dragon Ball character (and if you haven’t ever thought up of your own Namek Saiyan hybrid that can go Ultra Namek God 2 Mystic Ascended then you are lying) that they can customise and rock the dragon with. And Xenoverse was exactly that for a while, but in-between charming fan service and neat ‘what if’ time travel scenarios, cracks began to appear in gameplay. If Battle of Z was an attempt to be a full co op action RPG, Xenoverse is an attempt to be a hybrid one: trying to appeal to both fans of action RPGs and those who wanted button mashy Dragon Ball simulators.
And it doesn’t quite work for either camp.
Unlike Battle of Z, Xenoverse put more focus on stat distribution rather than classes. Whilst each race does come with some minor perks, it doesn’t limit you massively in what you want your character to specialise in. But the problems arise when it doesn’t commit too much to either its combat or balancing its attribute distribution. Its an uneven fusion that’s not deep enough for either interest. Added to that a dull grind for skills, mediocre hub world, and with clothing and accessories having such specific buffs and draw backs on stats that you might end up if messing up your whole characters build if you want to dress well. This made Xenoverse (whilst certainly enjoyable) leaving a lot to be desired as an RPG. And another one of the most complained about elements is the almost forced multiplayer elements. In the simulator games like the Tenkaichi series, there is a lot of fan love for the multiplayer element. It’s the equivalent of smashing your action figures together in a big fan service sandbox. Tenkaichi 3 in particular is praised endlessly by fans for its vast roster of 130 plus characters (though if we’re being honest most of them are pallet swaps of the same 3 or so character types repeated infinitely). But in both cases, they were not designed majorly with multiplayer in mind and so attempting to play competitively leads to massive a unbalanced cluster where it doesn’t matter about your skill in combat if you’re up against someone who has maxed out their stats in the right arbitrary way and spams the most powerful super moves in the game until victory. Xenoverse is still an RPG and stats/numbers mean everything when it comes to battle.
With all this considered, I’m actually very pleased with how Bandai has marketed Kakarot so far, being up front about the RPG relements as well as showing off elements of the game other than combat. Seeing Goku’s down time and having fishing as a mini game is a very charming call back to the original Dragon Ball, as well as demonstrating that this won’t just be a better looking Tenkaichi clone with tacked on progression elements. With Cyber Connect2 at the helm (known for the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games and Asura’s Wrath) I have renewed confidence that Kakarot might be a pleasing game. Dragon Ball has a long history with all sorts of video game genres. From area battlers, 2D fighters, card games action, beat em ups and turn based RPGs, there’s plenty of options, but until recently more of those options were either relegated to imports or a trip to Japan. Now that Dragon Ball is more global than ever, we’re finally getting access to Dragon Ball content we wouldn’t think would be localised 5 years ago. With both Dragon Ball Fusions and Dokan Battle (despite its… ahem… ‘questionable’ quality) it proves that the modern Dragon Ball fan base is varied enough that we don’t need to be spoon fed the same kinds of games in order to be appeased. With its complex localised history and numerous media there’s a type of Dragon Ball fan for every day of the month, and that means more niche genres can have enough support in the west so we can experience other sides of Dragon Ball games.
Kakarot allows you to play as ‘bad man’ pink shirt Vegeta, therefore validating its right to exist
So, I’m glad we’re getting a single player focused Dragon Ball game. Yes, granted its once again Raditz to Buu which we’ve grown to know and tolerate… but this is a good steppingstone. If Kakarot is successful at being a solid RPG, we may have more original single player titles on our hands in the future. Maybe covering Super more in depth, or maybe a more refined shot at the Xenoverse story line, only with a much heavier focus single player combat and exploration. Regardless I look forward to the future of Dragon Ball games and hope Bandai can be honest and embrace all the genres that Dragon Ball is capable of.