Few things are constant, but it seems that there will always beDragon Ballfighting games.Dragon Ball FighterZis the most recent entry in that genre, and fans are loving it for a lot of reasons. Not only are the visuals crisp, but the gameplay is some of the best to come out of the fighting game genre as a whole in a while. Recently,Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta was added as a new playable character, and while fans are loving his design and moveset, it does make one classicDragon Ballfighting game problem clearer. Balance in fighting games is extremely important, but these characters are canonically anything but balanced.
It should be said that this issue inDragon Ball FighterZis nothing new. For a long time, players have had access to the likes of Broly, Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta, and even other fusion characters like Vegito and Kefla. All the while, players still have the option to pick human characters such as Krillin or Yamcha despite the obvious gap in their power levels. As more and more powerful DLC characters are added to the game, the issue simultaneously becomes more apparent but also starts to matter less and less.
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Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta’s Power Level
In terms of raw power level, it can be difficult to enumerate just how strong these characters are. There’s no official guide to state whether or not Super Saiyan 4 is stronger than Super Saiyan Blue, andDragon Ball FighterZeven pokes fun at that withSuper Saiyan 4 Gogeta’s Dramatic Finishagainst his Super Saiyan Blue counterpart. Regardless, there are a few things that are clear in terms of power. The only character inDragon Ball: GTthat was ever able to stand up to Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta was Omega Shenron, and even this is being too generous.
That means thatany character on theDragon Ball FighterZroster, fromDragon Ball ZorDragon Ball: GTshould be considered canonically weaker than Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta. Things get a bit more complicated when it comes to characters fromDragon Ball Super, however. These include Beerus, Golden Frieza, Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta, Goku Black, Fused Zamasu,Broly, Android 17, Hit, Jiren, Ultra Instinct Goku, Kefla, and Super Saiyan Blue Vegito and Gogeta. Among these powerful characters, it’s easy to say the only ones that might challenge Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta are Beerus, Fused Zamasu, Broly, Jiren, Ultra Instinct Goku, and the SSB fusion characters.
Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta VS Everyone Else
That’s only seven out of 43 currently playable characters that would be able to keep up with this powerhouse, so what about the other 36? How canDragon Ball FighterZjustify any of these other characters like Nappa, Base Vegeta, Ginyu, or Videl fighting alongside or even against them? Although it is difficult to say, it’s likely thatSuper Saiyan 4 Gogeta could take on most of these members of the cast singlehandedly, but again this is nothing new. The same holds true for Beerus, an actual God of Destruction, yet he is consistently ranked towards the bottom of mostDragon Ball FighterZtier lists.
The obvious answer is that balance supersedes canonical power levels in fighting games. IfDragon Ball FighterZtried to represent how strong characters actually are, then no one would play as Krillin, Nappa, or any earlyDragon Ball Zcharacter. With that in mind, there’d be no point in including them in the first place. The game would bereduced to aDragon Ball Superfighting gamewith a significantly smaller roster, and even then certain characters would dominate others. For this reason, power levels are thrown out the window from a development standpoint.
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Dragon Ball Super’s Approach to Power Levels
All that said, there is one way thatFighterZcan keep all these characters together, and that’s by subscribing toDragon Ball Super’s take on power levels. DuringDragon Ball Super, especially in the Tournament of Power arc, fans get to see that power level isn’t everything. In these battles, even those that are traditionally considered fairly weak get a chance to shine, using their experience, strategies, and wit to best opponents that are much stronger than they are. There’s even a scene where Krillin almost manages to ring out Super Saiyan Blue Goku, and in the manga, Master Roshi goes toe-to-toe with Jiren for a short while.
Back inDragon Ball Z, this type of thing would never have worked. In the Namek Saga, Goku is able to handily defeat Recoome thanks to his immense speed and overpowering aura. This isn’t indicated to have anything to do with the two’s skill at fighting, as earlierRecoome managed to thrash Vegetafor the same reasons. Still, it does make for a more interesting show when fights aren’t predetermined by arbitrary power levels, and gives side characters without access to godly power ups a chance to show what they are made of.
Dragon Ball Games and Power Levels
This approach only goes so far, however, and there comes a point when the power level differences are just too vast.OtherDragon Ballgames have taken a different approachto this in the past. Though there are plenty of fighting games that decide to put all the characters on an even playing field regardless of their power level, there are some that opt to remain true to their canonical levels of strength.
Agreat example of this in action isDragon Ball Xenoverse. Although most players choose to use their custom characters, they do have the option of using stock characters from theDragon Ballfranchise. As more of an Action RPG than a fighting game, it becomes clear that certain characters are just outright better than others. Kid Gohan, for example, has much worse stats that Adult Gohan. This makes sense, but does trivialize the existence of Kid Gohan to a degree. Even still, thanks to a different moveset some players still choose him. This is a problem that likely won’t disappear any time soon, and fans have had an easy enough time suspending their disbelief so far.
Dragon Ball FighterZis available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
