Tokyo Game Show 2022 Complete Coverage

Tokyo Game Show 2022 - Dragon Ball: The Breakers is Exactly What it Appears to Be

At Tokyo Game Show 2022, I was able to spend some time playing Dragon Ball: The Breakers. And let me tell you, it is exactly what it appears to be: a Dragon Ball-themed Dead by Daylight clone (for all the good and bad that entails).

The setup is simple. Seven civilians are pulled into a mysterious rift and have to scour the map for keys to a time machine to escape. Meanwhile, the villain hunts the civilians—and if a civilian is killed twice, they are out of the game.

However, just because the base concept of the game is similar to Dead by Daylight, that doesn't mean there aren't additions to the formula that set Dragon Ball: The Breakers apart. As the villain powers up, they are able to destroy full areas of the map, reducing the places the civilians could be hiding in. Meanwhile, the civilians are gathering items to use against the villain. And every 30 seconds, survivors can call a Saiyan Spaceship and quick-travel to another location.

But perhaps the most enjoyable addition is that there is a second way for the civilians to win. As they explore the map, they can do various tasks—like helping NPCs—to level themselves up, allowing them to transform into one of several Dragon Ball heroes for a limited time. This lets them fight the villain directly. And if they are able to deplete the villains HP, then they win the game even without using the time machine.

Unfortunately, my hands-on experience with the game went the worst way it could possibly have. I spawned directly next to Cell—and he ate me. For the next minute I could do nothing but wait until another random player decided to finally come and bring me back to life. By this point, Cell was already in his third form and had eliminated a fifth of the map. He then decided to camp the body of one of our teammates and like moths to the flame we came in one-by-one to die. But, suddenly, he left, allowing the last of us a clear chance to resurrect our friends.

…It's then that he destroyed that entire area of the map, killing us all in one fell swoop.

I have to say, I didn't really have much fun with Dragon Ball: The Breakers but I feel that it has more to do with bad luck than the game itself. There is a lot that looks like it could be really fun in the game. The group before me in line ganged up on Frieza—transforming into Goku one after another while a single player readied the time machine for launch. My only real worry about the game is how balanced it will be between the villain and the civilians but we'll just have to wait for the official release to see how that pans out.

Dragon Ball: The Breakers is scheduled to be released on October 14, 2022, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.