Dragon Ball Fusions flew completely under the radar for me.
I've been in a Dragon Ball mood as of late since I've caught up on the episodes in the current Universe Survival arc and I've also started re-watching Dragon Ball. I went searching for some Dragon Ball video games to play and Dragon Ball Fusions came up. This game actually released back in November last year on 3DS and went largely unnoticed and below average reviews. I picked it up for relatively cheap and started the game up.
Fusions begins with you creating a character to go through the story with.
You can be either a Earthling, Saiyan, Alien (Namekian etc.), or Offworlder (Kai, Buu race). Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. After you create your character you are placed in the middle of helping your friend and rival Pinich gather the Dragon Balls to make the wish of creating a tournament to decide the strongest warrior ever.
Once this is done, the two of you are sucked into a time portal and find out your wish has come true. The interesting thing about this is that the tournament is decided by 5 man teams that must fight their way to the World Tournament arena and that anyone is viable. Including those from other universes and timelines such as Kid Goku from the Dragon Ball era and Pan from Dragon Ball GT. You join a team with Goten and Trunks and later recruit Kid Goku and Pan and fight in the tournament.
What's really fun about the game is that instead of traditional fighting game mechanics, the game takes on a more turn based RPG with a triangle system in effect.
Power beats technique, technique beats speed and speed beats power. Everyone has their own special attacks and moves that cost Ki points that are generated on each of the combatants turns and by attacking and defending.
When you are attacked, you're given an opportunity to defend yourself with guarding the directions from which you are attacked. Your guard only covers 3 blocks in front of you so that leaves your sides and back open and it becomes a guessing game. The AI is pretty smart in choosing where to attack and it nearly defeated me on some occasions.
Nearby team members can join in on the attack and rack up more damage. This can send your opponent flying out of the ring and thus skipping their turn until it comes back to them.
The main mechanic of Dragon Ball Fusions is, well, fusing. In battle, all 5 team members can fuse into one powered up character called an Ultra Fusion. This lets you unleash huge amounts of damage on enemies for a limited time ending in a grand explosion. You can also fuse characters outside of battle such as Kid Goku and Krillin and any of the NPCs you recruit to your team.
Dragon Ball Fusions is a fun game that was ultimately missed out on.
The lack of English voice acting hurts especially if you don't enjoy the Japanese voices. Since I've been watching Super subbed, I've gotten used to the voices. It's very interesting and different from what to expect out of a Dragon Ball game.
I recommend checking this game out.
