Live Magazine April May 2017 Issue

along and build up your levels, Pan
(from Dragonball GT) and kid Goku
(from the original Dragonball) will
join your party. Each character has
their own abilities, with Pan being
able to heal your allies, Goku being
insanely strong, and Goten
and Trunks being able to fuse into
Gotenks.
The game features an extensive
tutorial with key aspects of
the battling system explained by
Nappa and Raditz. As the game
continues you learn that while you
currently have a team of five warriors
you will need to recruit more.
Fighters can be found through side
missions or by recruiting them in
battle. This is where the parallels
to Pokemon begin to appear.
Battles are a strategic affair, and
it can appear to be a little confusing
at first. Your fighters square off
against each other, five a side, in
a round arena. The bottom of the
screen has a scrolling bar with the
warrior avatars moving along it.
Once they reach the end they can
make a move. Some characters
will move faster then others, but if
you hit them their turn will be delayed.
If you knock them out of the
ring and they go right to the back
of the bar.
As you fight your team will move
around the battle arena. This can
make for some entertaining attacks,
as you are able to hit enemies
into other members of your
team, who will promptly hit them
back. Playing pinball with the enemies
will cause additional damage,
and hitting them into their team
mates will injure those they hit.
One immediate criticism of the
game is that it can take a good 20+
hours to get to the point where you
can recruit warriors in a fight. After
a short tutorial with Master Roshi,
and a side quest to recruit a lady
he is keen to meet you’re good to
go. There are over 1000 warriors
in the game, including various incarnations
of Goku and Vegeta.
To unlock areas of the game and
meet more powerful fighters you
need to collect the coloured orbs
that you are awarded for battling.
There are 5 colours, and one of
the benefits to recruiting more
warriors to your team is that you
can hold more orbs.
While most of the fighters you recruit
along the way are made up
fighters for the game, who you are
likely to never use, occasional battles
will see you fighting some of
the main heroes and villains from
the franchise. Finding special areas
of the game will see you facing
enemies from that part of the main
storyline. For example, a quick trip
to Dr Gero’s secret lab will unlock a
battle with Androids 16, 17 and 18.
Many of the characters designed
for the game have clothing or accessories
that any fan of the franchise
would recognise. Chi Chi’s
helmet from Dragon Ball has made
an appearance, as has the clothing
worn by Beerus. 30+ hours of
gameplay has seen 85 characters
unlocked, so there is plenty to
keep you busy.
The game has been criticised in
the media for repetitive battles, but
at its core this game is a JRPG. The
question you need to ask yourself
8/10
is how many games in this genre
don’t have repetitive battles with
hours of required grinding? Not too
many, it comes with the territory
and has done so for a good few
decades now.
The music is a little strange, with
the odd Disney-esque track playing
while you fly around. It just
doesn’t sound like Dragon Ball
music, but this is why Nintendo included
volume control on the 3DS
console. The voices are all in Japanese,
which is a little disappointing
considering many of the Dragon
Ball games released in the west
feature the Funimation dub cast.
The graphics are nice and colourful,
and a lot of care has gone into
the character designs, something
that wouldn’t have been easy
when dealing with over 1000 generic
characters. While Dragon Ball
Fusions doesn’t take advantage of
the 3D features of the 3DS, it isn’t
something that you miss.
Dragon Ball games have been a hit
and miss affair since the first title
released on the Super Cassette
Vision console in 1986. Thankfully
Dragon Ball Fusions gets the formula
just right. Whether you’re a
Dragon Ball fan or enjoy the Pokemon
series but need something
new, you’ll definitely find something
for you in Dragon Ball Fusions.
BY PAUL MONOPOLI