Ladies and gentlemen, yet another Dragon Ball Z game is just around the corner. That’s right, the Z Fighters are back and not in your stereotypical fighting game. After the success of Dragon Ball Fighter Z, Bandai Namco is back with another Dragon Ball Z game, but this time with a twist. The next Dragon Ball Z game is called Dragon Ball The Breakers, an asymmetric action game. For those unfamiliar with asymmetric action games, Dead by Daylight, Predator: Survival Grounds, Secret Neighbor, and Friday the 13th. So how does Dragon Ball The Breakers compare to other asymmetric survival games?
For our PAX West 2022 preview of Dragon Ball The Breakers, we had the opportunity to play a round as the Raider (Frieza) and another round as the survivor. This was my second time playing the PAX West demo. Having a better understanding of how to play both the survivor and raider roles made the game even more enjoyable. For this appointment, we started out by playing the survivor role first.
Survivor
As survivors, our two goals were to either survive or assist our team in escaping. In order to escape, the seven survivors must either defeat the Raider, escape using a super time machine, or escape using a regular time capsule. In order to power the Super Time Machine, survivors must gather the five-time machine keys and take them to designated areas. Once the key is planted, it can not be destroyed by the raider. If the raider attacks while planting the key, it is canceled.
When survivors first spawn into the map, they must open chests in order to find materials; materials can also be gained by rescuing citizens. Chests can contain Dragonballs, Radars, Senzu beans, equipment, and power blocks. Power Blocks allow survivors to transform to help fight off the raider. Most power-ups only have a short window to be used to either fight or fly away. Radars will help players find the keys, dragon balls, citizens, and equipment.
Once the zones are either secured or destroyed, players must take either the super time machine or a time capsule. The Super Time Machine must be activated by at least one player and its activation speed is based on how many time keys were placed. Destroy Zones time keys still count towards the grand total. If a player chooses, they can escape in a normal time machine; however, they must maneuver it through the map in order to escape and it can be destroyed.
During our time as survivors, we were able to link multiple keys and find two dragon balls. Sadly, we still lost to the raider due to staff assisting them.
Raider
After playing as Cell earlier in the week, playing as Frieza was a cakewalk. With Frieza having the ability to fly, finding survivors and powering up became an unfair match-up. Frieza is able to use Zarbon and Dedoria to locate survivors; the two can also incapacitate a survivor if enough damage had been dealt. There is something satisfying about slaughtering the survivors or watching them crawl away trying to get help.
After killing enough survivors, the raider can destroy a portion of the map. We found that destroying a part of the map where a key had been found but not planted. Any survivors still in the blast zone, would perish to the almighty power of Frieza. Our time as Raider was rather short due to slaughtering the survivors in rapid succession. Only one key was planted and the last survivor tried to escape in a manual time ship. Do you know what’s better than slaughtering survivors? Slaughtering them as they flee in their ships. As the last survivor tried to escape, we managed to blow up their ship. And as they crawled begging for mercy, we blew up the planet.
Verdict
Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball The Breakers does a great job combining the popular Dragon Ball franchise with an asymmetric survival action game. The survivor’s side could be fined tune since the Raider has almost all the power. We look forward to seeing how Majin Buu compares to Frieza and Cell. The game as a survivor feels more like you are biding your time til death. With a month until the game’s release, it is up to Dimps Corporation to fine-tune the game. We had a lot of fun in either role, but hope that the developers give the survivors additional skills to load into the map with.
Dragon Ball The Breakers is set to release on October 14th, 2022. The game will release on PC, PS4, PS5, Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Are you excited about this upcoming game?
