Dragon Ball FighterZ Character List and Details
Timeline
The story in Dragon Ball FighterZ takes place during Dragon Ball Super, around the Future Trunks story arc. While the story is unique to the game and not canon, it does reference previous points in the anime and manga. Goku and the Z Warriors wake up suddenly to find a new enemy, Android 21 has weakened their powers and forced them to team up with once dead villains, Cell, Frieza and more. You can check out the story trailer to see some of this future timeline from Dragon Ball Super.
While the story will be completely new and non-canon, the game covers characters from all of Dragon Ball Z, as well as bits of Dragon Ball Super. You can see in the character list below that there are characters that come from all different timelines and sagas within the DBZ universe, but we won’t offer any additional spoilers for those planning to run through the story mode once they get the game.
Gameplay
We’ve taken a much closer look at the gameplay in Dragon Ball FighterZ, and broken down the basics of the game for those who need a headstart on the open beta in January, but as a basic overview the new title is a 2D fighting game with 3D character models that looks very similar to the Guilty Gear series in terms of visual style.
That shouldn’t be surprising given the developer of the title, Arc System Works. However, while the game certainly has an anime-style look to it, and even a few gameplay elements that resemble Guilty Gear, it’s a 3-on-3 fighting game. Taking a closer look at the trailer, the game plays somewhat similar to the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
The game is 3 vs. 3, but it uses an assist system like many of the Marvel vs. Capcom titles. The matches are essential 1-on-1 with the ability to call the other two characters as assists. We don’t yet know how the characters will tag in and out, or if you can choose different assists for the characters that aren’t actively playing in the match, but the trailer clearly shows multiple characters fighting on-screen at the same time.
As soon as more details are available we’ll update this section, but for now if you want to start training for this game, it’s probably best to play Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 or the latest version of Guilty Gear.
Character List
We now have the full list of launch characters in Dragon Ball FighterZ, as well as the first two of eight total DLC characters. For now we have confirmation that Broly and Bardock will be the first two DLC characters to hit Dragon Ball FighterZ, followed by Merged Zamasu and Super Saiyan Blue Vegito.
Broly and Bardock released on March 28, 2018, with Merged Zamasu and Vegito set to release sometime in May. If you don’t pick up the FighterZ Pass each character will run you $5, but if you’re looking to get most of the DLC characters, the FighterZ Pass is a better bargain.
Broly is a large brawler, similar to Android 16, while Bardock has a level three super move in which he turns Super Saiyan. More DLC details should be released around the middle of May so stay tuned to this article.
Now that the game is available, the PC version has been data-mined. While anything from the data mine should be taken as 100 percent rumor, there is evidence of the potential DLC characters. You can find this rumored list below, but please remember this is strictly based on information from data-mining and has not yet been confirmed. We expect more DLC character information to be come in V-Jump magazine sometime in mid March.
Confirmed Characters
- Android 16
- Android 18 with Android 17 Assists
- Android 21 (Evil Majin Form)
- Beerus
- Buu (Kid Buu)
- Buu (Majin Buu)
- Frieza (100% with Golden transformation)
- Ginyu with Ginyu Force Assists
- Gohan (Cell Games – SSJ2)
- Gohan (Buu Saga – Ultimate)
- Goku (Normal, SSJ, SSJ3)
- Goku (Super Saiyan Blue)
- Goku Black (Super Saiyan Rose) with Zamasu Assists
- Gotenks (SSJ3)
- Hit
- Krillin
- Nappa
- Perfect Cell
- Piccolo
- Tenshinhan with Chaozu Assists
- Trunks (SSJ Future)
- Vegeta (Normal, SSJ)
- Vegeta (Super Saiyan Blue)
- Yamcha
Confirmed DLC Character List
- Android 17 (Ranger 17 from DB Super)
- Bardock
- Broly
- Cooler
- Merged Zamasu
- SSB Vegito
- Base Goku
- Base Vegeta
Confirmed DLC Season 2 Character List
- Broly (DB Super Version)
- Gogeta (SSB)
- Jiren
- Videl w/ Great Saiyaman
Developer Info
Dragon Ball FighterZ is being developed for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC by Arc System Works using Unreal Engine 4. Fighting game enthusiasts should have a pretty good idea of who these people are, but for anyone who isn’t a hardcore fighting game fan, Arc System Works is the developer behind the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue fighting game franchises.
They also have experience with other Dragon Ball games, having worked on Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butōden for the Nintendo 3DS a few years ago.
Stay tuned to Prima Games as we’ll have more in our Dragon Ball FighterZ game hub over the coming weeks and months leading up to the January 26, 2018 release date, including a breakdown of the gameplay.
