Dragon Ball FighterZ's Story Mode Gets My First Playthrough, and It Already Feels Like a Love Letter

I sat down to play Dragon Ball FighterZ's story mode for the first time. I have played the game itself before, but never touched this campaign, so I went in mostly blind, only knowing bits and pieces of what happens. My overall take after working through the first several chapters is that it is a lot of fun, clearly made with love, but already showing some signs that it could wear thin.

The moveset design feels like a genuine tribute to the manga and anime

The thing that kept putting a smile on my face was how many attacks are pulled directly from the source material. "So, this game is a love letter to the manga and anime," I said, and I meant it. The sound effects are lifted straight from the show, and seeing moves ripped right out of the manga and anime never stopped being satisfying to watch play out on screen.

The story mode structure is basically Budokai 2 with a new coat of paint

The map screen, where you move your character space by space with a dice roll, immediately reminded me of Budokai 2's story mode, which I liked a lot back in the day. I had heard beforehand that this game takes that same Budokai 2 structure and builds on it, and based on what I played, that tracks.

Playing as a silent, amnesiac stand in inside Goku's body is a creative twist

The setup has your silent protagonist waking up with amnesia inside the body of the main cast, and I was not expecting to like it as much as I did. "This is a very unique way to do a silent protagonist though," being placed inside the actual body of the show's lead is a genuinely clever way to handle a silent protagonist.

Some of the dub choices still bother me

A few translation quirks stood out right away, like a line where a character calls Goku "Son Kun" in Japanese but the localization changes it to just Goku. I also flagged how Majin Buu's dub only habit of referring to himself in third person does not happen in the Japanese version or even the Spanish dub, and I do not care for it.

It beats Xenoverse 2 for me, but the repetition worries me a little

Compared to Xenoverse, which feels more like a Dragon Ball simulator to me, and which I eventually found repetitive and stopped keeping up with, this plays more like an actual Dragon Ball fighting game. I said Sparking Zero still feels the most like a real Dragon Ball battle, but I prefer 2D fighters in general, so this is more up my alley. Still, I was honest about where I landed after a few chapters: "The story mode seems repetitive, I will say that." Part of me still wants to see the whole thing play out anyway, and I plan to continue the run next time.