Recently, Bandai Namco announced the next consoleDragon Ballvideo game.Dragon Ball: The Breakerswill be coming to PC and consoles in 2022, and it’s not going to be the usualDragon Ballfare. TheDragon Ballfranchise has long been associated with fighting games. Many have come out over the years with varying quality and reputation amongst fans, but recently Bandai struck gold withDragon Ball Xenoverse 2andDragon Ball FighterZ. Both games have sold over 8 million copies, one because it’s a comprehensiveDragon Ballsimulator and the other because it’s the best fighting gameDragon Ball Zhas ever had. It makes sense to deviate from the genre now as those are hard to top.
Dragon Ballis no stranger to trying different genres, either. The series has a surprisingly long history of RPGs and action-RPGs, the mostrecent of which wasDragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Adaptations of Goku’s journeys are very popular, and the format allows for lots of non-canon content to be worked in as well.Dragon Ballhas tackled a ton of genres over its history, butThe Breakerslooks to be taking the franchise in an entirely new direction with an experimental genre that has been slowly growing over the past few years.
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What is Dragon Ball: The Breakers?
Dragon Ball: The Breakersis an asymmetric multiplayer game with a setup similar toDead by Daylightand theFriday the 13thgame. Up to seven players will take the role of Survivors, normal citizens of theDragon Balluniverse who have been sucked into the Temporal Seam and must attempt to escape. The eighth player takes the role of a Raider, appearing as either Cell, Buu, or Frieza to wreak havoc on Survivors and their attempts to escape. Raiders grow stronger over time, so Survivors need to gear up and move efficiently. A power imbalance of this severity has not been seen in anyDragon Ballgame before this, andThe Breakersis built around it.
In their quest to escape the Temporal Seam and the efforts of one ofDragon Ball’s powerful arc villains, the Survivors need to team up and use everything at their disposal to win. A Super Time Machine lies on the playing field, and Survivors need to get it working and climb on to it to escape and win the match. To do this, they will have to use vehicles, weapons, tools, and weapons around the map to get an edge and complete objectives.Dragon Ball Z’s typical focus on combatand high-flying mobility has not gone away, as it appears that developer Dimps is bringing the feel of itsXenoversegames to this new title. Still, a Survivor player does not want to fight a Raider head-on when they can avoid it.
How Dragon Ball: The Breakers Differentiates Itself
Everything aboutDragon Ball: The Breakersisradically different from otherDragon Ballgames, and even mostDragon Ballmedia. The focus on escape and a feeling of helplessness in the face of an otherworldly foe is not something theDragon Ballseries has given much of a spotlight. Sure, there are plenty of times when outmatched fighters try to buy time for a more capable ally to arrive, but untrained civilians don’t get involved in major fights. It’s going to be interesting to see how this game is balanced when its closed beta test comes out, and what tools and powers both sides are allowed to use.
Dragon Ball: The Breakersis probably an experiment by Bandai Namco to see if its Shonen Jump properties could beused in an asymmetric multiplayer context. Even amongst the wider context of anime games, there’s nothing this focused on asymmetric goals. The closest examples would probably be players being able to control raid bosses inDragon Ball Xenoverse 2, and that still takes the form of a fight. Even though this is likely trend-chasing on Bandai’s part, it’s still a breath of fresh air in the anime game space. Hopefully,Dragon Ball: The Breakerswill be a successful trial for alternative adaptations of popular properties, and fans can see a more diverse output of licensed games in the future.
Dragon Ball: The Breakerswill launch in 2022 for PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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