While Guilty Gear Strive might be the new hotness for the fighting game community, work has continued on transforming Arc System Works' other massively popular fighting game. Previously, the Dragon Ball franchise had only really received non-traditional 3D fighters and action RPG adaptations for games. However, it wasn't until Dragon Ball FighterZ where Arc System Works designed a true-to-form fighting game around the iconic anime and manga characters from the Dragon Ball universe. The game's popularity had faded over time due a number of issues like game balance and lack of rollback, but FighterZ got a huge jolt of life just recently.
As of August 10, with version 1.28, the latest changes coming to Dragon Ball FighterZare substantial in both form and function. While fans will understandably be disappointed that rollback netcode was not among the changes, the FighterZ gameplay experience has genuinely changed on a foundational level. Universal changes to battle design and reversals, as well as the buffing of nearly the entire roster of characters, brings a lot of big changes to the way Dragon Ball FighterZ is played. The Dragon Ball fighting game has received a ton of significant adjustments that potentially makes Dragon Ball FighterZ much more dynamic at all levels of play.
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Tons of new features added in Dragon Ball FighterZ's latest patch enhance the capabilities of players mid-set, on both offense and defense. First is the changes to guard cancelling, which players are now able to do in the air for one bar spent, but now players can spend 2 Ki bars to perform a guard cancel vanish. Guard cancel vanishes can be initiated during blockstun as a metered, near-instant reversal on opponents. This is arguably the perfect balance of introducing another avenue of reversal for players, whilst also adding a justified cost. Considering the type of fighting game that FighterZ is, being able to use meter to escape block strings is a positive change that encourages more offense.
Another interesting defensive change is the usage of Ki charge; Ki charging can now deflect any opponents Ki blast "frame one," and players can continue Ki charging after being hit by a Ki blast. Players don't take any damage from that one move, and are rewarded with meter during the process, which is also kind of insane. Additionally, players can dragon rush out of Ki charge to punish an opponents Ki blast when they're vulnerable as well.
One particularly noticeable offensive change, that's almost certainly going to change how Dragon Ball FighterZ plays on a higher level, are the Z change adjustments. Now, players can special-cancel Z change mid-combo, potentially allowing for new combo routes and blockstring/high-low mix-ups. The patch notes do state that "these Z changes have different properties from normal Z changes," though it doesn't elaborate on anything besides the fact that they're now special-cancellable. The full list of Dragon Ball FighterZ's system changes can be found in the Twitter thread above.
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All of those changes are without even discussing any of the character-specific changes, of which there are several. Nearly every character on the roster has received some degree of buffs from the previous version, with standout changes being Goku Black, Piccolo, Zamasu, and several more. Basically, rather than attempting to balance buffs and nerfs between various characters in the current competitive meta, Arc System Works and Bandai Namco essentially decided to buff all of the major characters altogether. Essentially taking the same approach with the universal changes, players will find that offense is going to be the name of the game in Dragon Ball FighterZ.
It's an interesting evolution for the game after its initial popularity and the years following release. Dragon Ball FighterZ gameplay, at least on a higher level, had a largely defensive meta centered around blockstrings, mix-ups, optimal high-damage and long lasting combos. Defense is tough in FighterZ strictly due to the amount of mix-ups that the offensive opponent has. However, with the changes that have come in this latest update, it's clear that Arc System Works is attempting to encourage consistent offense from both sides of the match.
Giving players several more reversal options, defensive mix-ups, alongside the massive list of buffed characters, largely turns Dragon Ball FighterZ into a very different game. Mechanically speaking, players on the defensive have a ton of more options to initiate reversals and punish greedy offensive opponents compared to previous patches. Gripes of no rollback netcode aside, the new changes coming to Dragon Ball FighterZ very transformative, and could turn it into a very different game as the meta evolves.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One
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