Fighting Games Friday — The FighterZ of E3 2017

While E3 tends to be a large event for video game announcements, it’s never that big for fighting games. There are times where new projects are announced, but in many cases, publishers will simply wait until other events scheduled around the same time. Localizations of anime-based fighters tend to be unveiled at Anime Expo, which happens in early-July; those from larger publishers often wait until promotional events at Evo, the biggest fighting game tournament in the world.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any fighting game-related announcements at E3. In fact, E3 2017 turned out to be an exception, as a potentially big one was revealed this year.

That title was Dragon Ball FighterZ, a Dragon Ball-based fighting game coming from Guilty Gear-developer Arc System Works. While its existence was leaked when someone at publisher Bandai Namco Japan accidentally sent out the press release two-and-a-half days early, it was formally announced during the Xbox Briefing on Sunday. The trailer and gameplay videos show how the developers have impeccably captured the look of the anime despite using 3D polygons. While that’s no surprise to anyone who’s witnessed the same visual techniques in the Guilty Gear Xrd games, a Dragon Ball game will reach — and is reaching, in this case — a far larger audience. Fortunately, ArcSys knows this, which is why they’re making it easier to play compared to their more core-aimed fighters.

FighterZ is a 3-on-3 title that will feature multiple characters from the series, though the name suggests it will mostly focus on Dragon Ball Z. Thus far, Goku, Gohan, and Vegeta have been revealed for the heroic Z Fighters side, while Frieza, Cell, and Buu have been revealed for the villains. Given that the Saiyans (and half-Saiyan, in the case of one) are already in Super Saiyan form, don’t expect to have choices between Goku, Super Saiyan Goku, Super Saiyan 3 Goku, etc. like some older DB fighting games.

FighterZ being a 3-on-3 fighter isn’t the only part that sticks out from a gameplay perspective. It will also have assists, tagging, level 1 and 3 super attacks for each character, and special transformations for certain others (like Golden Frieza). It sounds reminiscent of a Capcom vs. game, which also applies to how it looks in motion. Given how there’s a new Marvel vs. Capcom game coming soon, it didn’t take long for a rivalry between fans of both to emerge, especially considering Capcom’s newest effort drops features fans enjoyed from previous installments.

Dragon Ball FighterZ will release on PS4, XB1, and PC in early 2018. Before that, a closed beta session will be held sometime this summer, which will give those who can’t wait to play it a chance to try it out. More characters are scheduled to be revealed in next week’s issue of Japanese manga magazine V-Jump, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, that upcoming MvC game is Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, which was also on display at E3. As mentioned in previous posts, this will be a 2-on-2 fighting game like the older Marvel vs. games and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, and not like the last two MvC games. It will also have no assists, which have been traded out in favor of simply tagging the other partner in to extend combos, though characters like Ultron and Rocket Raccoon will have their own assists as special techniques. It will also include the Infinity Stones as another gimmick, which unleash specific powers when one is used.

Those gameplay elements may be unfamiliar to some fans, but many of the characters revealed aren’t. At E3, Dante (from Devil May Cry 3 again), Radd Spencer (from Bionic Commando), Zero (from Mega Man X), and Arthur (from Ghosts & Goblins) were revealed for the Capcom side. For Marvel, Thanos, Gamora, Dr. Strange, and Nova were confirmed. Of those, only Guardians of the Galaxy’s Gamora is new to the franchise, while Thanos is returning from Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The others were present in the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 titles.

A new story trailer was also shown at the PlayStation briefing, which provided another glimpse at the heroes who will oppose the reign of Ultron Sigma, a fusion of Marvel villain Ultron and Mega Man X’s Sigma. It further emphasized how seriously Capcom is taking the game’s story, something further proven when they dropped a demo of it for shortly after the briefing for PS4 and XB1. The intention of this was to presumably give players a better opportunity to see how the presentation will be, and if that’s the case, this could be a rough experience. It feels as if the story makes excuses for fights to happen, and they’re all against variations of the same controlled drones from Ultron Sigma. The main fighting is fun, though it will take some time to adjust to the new mechanics.

The presentation highlights the underwhelming character models, which look bland not only compared to the aforementioned DBFighterZ (Note: Both games run on Unreal Engine 4), but also MvC3. It’s especially bad in the case of Chun-Li, and Dante to a lesser extent, and feels as if Capcom didn’t have much money to fund this game’s development.

Since Infinite is due for a September 19th release, they won’t have much time to polish the visuals unless they delay it. Hopefully they’re able to work some miracles, but in Capcom’s case, sometimes the miracle never happen.

Blade Strangers was the most surprising fighting game announcement at E3, and one of the strangest overall. It’s a 2D indie fighter that uses sprites from rotoscoped 3D models, and takes characters from side-scrolling brawler Code of Princess, platformer Umihara Kawase, and Metroidvania-style platformer Cave Story. It’s far from the kind of fighting game you’d expect to see at E3, let alone at all given its cast members. It will have simple commands similar to titles like Super Smash Bros. combined with the speed and complexity of titles like Guilty Gear and Street Fighter. Basically, this game is all about having bizarre, unforeseen combinations.

There are legitimate questions regarding its potential quality, though. General movement looks too sluggish compared to many other 2D fighters from the videos shown, which makes matches move at a snail’s pace. The game is also developed by Studio Saizensen, who worked on the very divisive Blade Arcus from Shining, a fighter that contained characters from Sega’s newer Shining games. Hopefully the developers are taking the feedback they’re receiving to heart, and will adjust the game accordingly.

Blade Strangers is due for a release this fall; but given that its publisher, Nicalis, is known for delays, don’t be surprised if it slips. If that gives the developers more time to polish it, that won’t be a bad thing.

Fighting game fans are currently dividing their time between Injustice 2, Guilty Gear Xrd: Rev 2, and Tekken 7, but it’s nice to know there are more games on the horizon they may want to make room for. Keep reading this feature weekly for more on how these games, and more, develop.