There have been a lot more of these real-time strategy action games popping up in the past couple of years. Honestly, it's a little shocking that it took Dragon Ball this long to jump on the trend. Having a simple team-based fighting and strategy game that allows for co-op on multiple platforms with crossplay with one of the most popular IPs on the planet feels like a no-brainer. Maybe developers GANBARION and publishers Bandai Namco really wanted to make sure that the formula had been perfected before they took Dragon Ball into this particular world of gaming. Regardless of the reason, do they deliver on some of the best elements this genre of game has to offer?

When you're in the throes of a match, things can feel kinetic and exciting enough to hold your attention. The game is very similar to capture the flag, where you need to take down your enemies' bases in a fixed arena setting before they take yours. In this case, the arena bases are represented by the Gods of Destruction from the Dragon Ball Super anime. After you take down all of the gods of destruction, you're able to steal your opponent's Dragon Ball to win the match. However, the Gods of Destruction have their own health and can only be attacked when Lord Zeno incapacitates them, which happens at distinct times during a match. So you can't just dash the Gods and capture your opponent's Dragon Ball right away.

I was a little bit worried when I got the rundown of this gameplay loop, as I thought I would be forced to wait around until the time to attack my opponent's Gods. Turns out that wasn't the case, as there is plenty to do in the meantime. The battle arena is riddled with lower-level enemies like robots and grunts that you can quickly fight to level up. You start each match at a low level, but you gain levels and experience by taking out these grunts or by attacking enemy players. The higher the level, the higher your health is, the harder your attacks hit, and you might even gain access to specific moves or transformations that will benefit you during the match. There is no permanent death, so if your health runs out, you'll be placed in a time-out state, unable to do anything for a couple of seconds. However, the time-out duration increases every time you die, so the idea is to get taken out as little as possible because when you can't do anything, that gives your opponents time to take out your Gods of Destruction.

There's always something to do in the middle of a match. From the dozens of matches that I played so far, most of them don't last more than a couple of minutes. Jumping into a new match happens pretty quickly, and all the controls are responsive. The core component of this game is teamwork, so don't expect to win a match completely on your own unless the opposing team has absolutely no idea what they are doing. That being said, there are ways to tip the scales in your favor, because after experimenting a little bit, it is clear that some characters are just naturally better than others.

But I'm not sure what the point of playing certain other characters is when a handful of them don't feel as good or strong. Characters like Vegeta and Goku can turn Super Saiyan and have all of their moves be stronger once they hit a minimum level cap during a match. Some characters like Buu and Dabura have moves that either paralyze or debilitate you for a couple of seconds, which makes it very easy for you to be taken out. Characters are divided into classes, and you are given support guardians that can allow you to mess with your opponent or augment your abilities. Compare that to characters like Kale, who can't even stay in Super Saiyan for long and needs to recharge. When things get competitive, a lot of the matches can unfortunately feel the same because everyone knows who the better characters are. I personally would've liked it if the abilities of some of the other characters offered other distinct advantages that would've allowed more varied styles of gameplay in the middle of a match.

But that's not the only thing I would've liked, as the rewards don't feel that substantial at launch. Maybe more things will be added later, but you can unlock different forms of currency and rewards by fulfilling certain requirements or just by playing the game naturally. It's actually fairly easy to unlock a lot of things in the game. The trade-off is that the things that you are unlocking or purchasing aren't worth it. Obviously, you can unlock some more characters, but outside of that, most of the rewards are cosmetic. You can unlock different colored outfits for almost all of the playable characters, and a lot of them look ugly.

None of this is helped by the fact that the game doesn't look that good. It runs smoothly, and in the middle of a match, the camera is pulled back so it gives the illusion that you're playing on an interactive game board. The battlefield even has destructible environments. During character selections or when navigating the main menus, all the character models don't look that good up close. I appreciate some of the cell shading on the models, but the textures make them look very lifeless. Even if the idea is that they are supposed to be based on Dragon Ball figures, there are ways of invoking that feeling without diminishing the appeal of the original art style. If anything, I feel like a more unique aesthetic would've benefited this game a lot more because it looks very standard, and I feel like I'm questioning what I'm looking at half the time.

Music is solid with some distinct sound effects. Dragon Ball games have always had very distinct and crunchy sounds, with this one being no different. We have a few stray voice lines throughout the game, but they only show up occasionally. Given the nature of this gameplay loop, it's understandable not to expect full voice acting. If you're already a fan of this type of game and Dragon Ball, you could have a lot of fun. It nails down a lot of the essential elements that make this type of gameplay loop work with a Dragon Ball theme. You won't feel bored during a match, and jumping into a new one right after the first one is pretty easy. I wish there were more to the game outside of the basics. I wish there were more that you could do on the battlefield. I wish the character selection didn't feel so random or that the rewards were actually worth the grind. It makes me wonder exactly how long this game's shelf life is going to be.