When tackling such a fan service-oriented title like this, I think the most important thing I can do is establish that while I have some passing knowledge of the Dragon Ball franchise, I am by no means a fan, and certainly not terribly knowledgeable. That said, Dragon Ball FighterZ was a helluva lot of fun, full of over-the-top spectacle and generally approachable and solid mechanics, so I was absolutely down to see what this new title had to offer. While it still has some of the same play elements and general feel, what sets this title apart, by far, is the obvious drive to honor the series and its fans as fully as possible. So, in general how much you love the anime and its loads of characters will probably be the biggest possible driver for how much you’ll want to have this game in your collection.

Starting with the good news, and likely for big Dragon Ball fans the amazing news, the game is chock full of characters, explorations of storylines and lore that have some interesting branching paths, super-destructible environments, and over-the-top visuals. There’s an obvious goal here to make gameplay look as much like the anime as possible, and more often than not it does an outstanding job of that. Better yet, the staggering amount of outstanding voice work helps to further flesh out this love letter to Goku and company, including quite a lot of trademark drama as everyone gets charged up and super aggro. While the fighting controls and style do take some getting used to, hitting the training modes will generally do a fair job of preparing you for success. While winning is heavily dependent on blowing your enemy away with your souped up attacks, not losing is also a valid strategy helped greatly by learning how to block and counter when things start getting ugly for you. Of course, if you’re struggling, you’ll also have a number of Accessibility options available to you as well to help smooth the experience out a little more.

On the “less good” side of the coin is the fact that unlike FighterZ, which felt like fighting game fans could jump in and get their groove on even if they didn’t know about the Dragon Ball universe, this feels more like a “fans only” experience overall. Granted, you could buckle in and use this as the spark to get you sucked into everything Dragon Ball, but if you aren’t, so much of what makes this experience special can feel quite wasted on you. There are still things that you’ll be able to appreciate, but lacking the connection to the characters and all of its odd storylines the moments here are meant to honor, will more likely fall a bit flat. Regardless, this is a game overflowing with characters, content, personality, and heart. If you’re a true fan it’s likely an easy purchase, and one that will give you many hours of enjoyment. For everyone else it’s more of a crapshoot most likely.