Merry Almost-Christmas everybody! Normally I’d take this
time to talk about another list of things from this past year as a means of
reflection, but screw that noise, Dragon
Ball FighterZ is almost here and I wanna talk about that, because I am
ECSTATIC to play this game. I didn’t get in on the closed beta and I’ve
basically blocked out the weekend of January 14th-16th as time to play it
and learn some of the characters I’m interested in most (Teen Gohan, Trunks,
Hit, Beerus for those that care). There’s still one lingering mystery over the
game: who are the eight DLC fighters going to be? We haven’t gotten many hints
and there’s speculation abound, so, I’ve decided to throw my hat and hopes into
the ring!
First, I’ll mention that I didn’t include some characters
either because I believe that they’re either going to be included before the
final release date, or that they might not be popular enough choices to fly
near the developer’s radar. Not that I wouldn’t want to fight as Chi-Chi, but I
don’t know if they would be willing to pull that off.
This is also a list that combines characters I somewhat
expect to be included as well as characters I hope to be included. I tried to
keep it reasonable but I think I’ve got a few choices that could end up being a
good amount of fun if included.
I should also note that the list isn’t in any particular
order of preference; so, without further ado, let’s get it going!
Caulifla (w/ Kale) OR
Kale (Berserk) w/ Caulifla (SSJ2)
Given that the DLC won’t be coming out for some time after
the game is released, this should give the developers plenty of time to study
all the fighting that Caulifla and Kale did during the Tournament of Power and
turn it into a game. While some may argue that including more Saiyans would be
a bit of a nuisance, keep in mind that neither fight like any Saiyan we’ve seen
before. I believe there was a point made in the early goings of the fight
between the two Saiyan women and Goku that they’re mostly street fighters, that
Goku could defeat them through technique alone.
My preference here would be to have Caulifla as the leading
lady, if only because I do think she’s a shining star from the tournament, and
could have a wild moveset to toy around with. Her design isn’t too difficult,
and having Kale in the supporting role would make narrative sense, as that’s
how things have always been.
Now, having Kale in with her Berserk form would allow for
something in in a Dragon Ball game: discounts Broly. And while I
personally dig the hulking monstrosity, I also dig character, and Kale is the
best version of Broly we’re probably going to get. Having Kale in her Berserk
form gives us a character with depth and fills the slot that Broly normally
would as the insane heavy hitter with flashy beam attacks and rad power-ups.
Maybe some people want Kefla in this spot, but, eh. I’d
prefer to have the girls, and have the girls together, like how Tien has
Chiaotzu or the Androids are together. It gives the game another element and
allows for a few more characters with a tag-team element to them. Having just
Kefla is cool but I don’t know if it would be better than the wild style of
Caulifla or having Kale in place of Broly.
Obviously I think Broly is going to be in the game, I don’t
think there’s anyway we’re going to escape that. He’s one of the most popular
characters in the franchise, which is why, of the two, I expect to see Caulifla
heading any Universe 6 DLC characters over someone like Cabba or Kale. She is
the definitive Saiyan leader that we know about and has already shown Kale to
be her subordinate at times, despite the now-significant power gap. Plus we’ve
seen the two fight alongside one another with cool combo moves.
Appule
This one’s a bit of a joke but come on, why not? Appule
never gets his time to shine, except in the Xenoverse games, but then there’s a whole hodge-podge of them.
We need one, definitive version of Appule, who could have a intriguing fighting
style. Appule would use his laser blaster to good effect and maybe you can have
a limited resource of laser blasts per use, which would have someone keeping a
steady eye on a meter, forcing them to balance between beam attacks and melee.
Plus his ultimate could be him, I don’t know, summoning the rest of the Frieza
Force to his aid, or maybe Zarbon and Dodoria come to his aid at the last
second.
There are a good amount of wacky things that can be done
with Appule and it’s just fun to see one of those Frieza Force morons around in
the game.
King Cold
Because why not? Seriously, why not? How many big, hulking
bruisers are in the game? I get that the game is fast-paced and that most
characters are going to be fairy nimble, but why not have a heavier character
around. King Cold is massive in stature, which could add an interesting dynamic
to getting around in him the ring or trying to use jumping attacks against him.
Plus Frieza’s dad never gets enough respect. When was the
last game you could play as King Cold, Budokai
Tenkaichi 3 for the Nintendo Wii? Having King Cold as a playable
character leads to us seeing something new for the game that could maybe only
be occupied by Super Buu, who is also quite large, but is also super fast.
It’s also interesting, with King Cold, that his major
negative could also be a major positive: we’ve never seen him fight. The only
attack we’ve ever seen him perform was swinging a sword down on Future Trunks
and that’s it. So while he has no definitive moves, you could also arm him with
an arsenal of brand new moves. Maybe incorporate some of Frieza and Cooler’s,
but more refined versions of the techniques since it’s likely he taught them
the Death Beam and the Death Wave. We don’t need him to transform or anything
crazy like that, but it’d be nice to give him a little moment in the sun.
Master Roshi
Given his recent successes in the Tournament of Power and
sudden revitalization in Dragon Ball as a whole (appearing in Resurrection ‘F’ and earning major
fan respect in the Tournament of Power), Master Roshi almost seems like a
choice that’s far too obvious. He’s got an obvious moveset with the Kamehameha
and the Mafuba, we’ve seen him fight, he’s got a second form he can go into,
and he would pair well with Goku and Krillin on a team of three.
Plus, this style of fighting is more his style, against the
arena fighters of the past. Master Roshi is a great martial artist on the
ground, so we could see some really cool, old-school Jackie Chun moves from the
early World Martial Arts tournaments at display (maybe that could be a
character skin later down the line?).
Having his bulked up form would also give Roshi two styles
of play: old, weaker, but more spry, and bulked up and empowered but unable to
move quite as fast. There’s so many different ways to go with either form, too.
And like I said, he’s risen recently in popularity amongst the fans, so now’s
the time for old Muten Roshi.
AND TURTLE CAN BE HIS SUPPORTER ALLY BECAUSE WHY NOT
Toppo
“What about Jiren”
“Jiren is so cool”
“Toppo is annoying”
“Dyspo is best bunny”
Look. I get it. Jiren’s cool. Jiren’s going to be the iconic
antagonist coming away from the Tournament Power, being right at the center of
attention for the Internet-breaking episode where Goku first accesses Ultra
Instinct.
But isn’t it a bit…I don’t know, much? I don’t see much fun
out of playing Jiren. He’s overpowered, yes, but his fighting, of what we’ve
seen, doesn’t match the fast, jumpy animations that the game presents.
“Neither does King Cold!”
Yes, but that’s the point, King Cold would be a major
bruiser that, if he locks you in the corner, is almost impossible to get by.
Plus Jiren doesn’t have much of a personality. Toppo, though? Toppo would be
amazing.
We’ve seen several of his moves already, key among them
being the awesome Justice Flash. We know how he fights and we know that he has
cheesy one-liner dialogue that was practically made for fighting games. The
Pride Troopers outfit is also ripe for recoloring, which FighterZ is
shown to be exemplary ay, and you know Toppo would be down for that.
I also like the idea of Toppo on a team with Captain Ginyu
and Adult Gohan (who will hopefully have some kind of Great Saiyaman skin). You
could have a Tokusatsu/ Super Sentai/ Power Rangers-esque team-up right
there! It’d be awesome!
Toppo just seems to be far more of a joy than his Universe
11 counterparts. He has tons of dialogue to use, he has flashy movesets, and
his design is just goofy enough to go with the game. He’s fast but hits hard.
Watching him swing those huge fists around would be great, especially with how
the game is looking now. The opening animation of the fights when the two
fighters collide? Toppo’s fist would take up the screen, that’s be awesome!
Plus, who else on the cast has that good of a moustache? No
one.
Mercenary Tao
Sort of some deep cuts with this one, but again, a unique
fighting style, and one that could go complete without heavy beam attacks and
rely mostly on close combat. There could be a ton of good combos involved in his techniques that lead to serious melee damage against the opponent, or that can be topped off by a Dodon Ray attack.
What Tao brings to the table, more than anything, is just great variety. Every other fighter we already know about, with the exception of Hit, is going to specialize in beam attacks to some variety. Tao could be an incredibly nimble fighter that cancels out fighters that emphasize distance. I imagine him having a fighting style similar to The Flash in Injustice, where he's lethally quick in close quarters, but not all that great at a distance, except for when he uses the Dodon Ray to close that gap.
Plus it's another character that can pay homage to the series. This game looks pretty set on honoring the source material as much as possible, so it'd be fitting to take a character from the original Dragon Ball and bring them in. Since so many fighters are already from the original DB (Goku, Krillin, Piccolo, Roshi, Tien, Yamcha), there aren't too many to choose from outside of Chi-Chi and Tao. Tao, stylistically, just fits in better.
Unless you can get Kaioken Chi-Chi. In which case I'm 100% for that.
Bardock (w/ Kid Goku)
Bardock's another character I'm fairly certain we'll get, but this time, I'd like to add an unusual spin to it: have his supporter be Kid Goku. We've never seen them fight together and it'd be something neat to see. We've seen Bardock already and it's all basically the same over and over again, so throwing in a unique supporter would give him an extra edge and perhaps give players a reason to look into playing as him.
It also gives another reason to pay homage to the original Dragon Ball by allowing Goku's moveset to include things like the Power Pole, where he can attack from a distance while Bardock battles up close; or maybe Goku closes in with a Dragon Fist and Bardock fires energy beams. There can be a ton of cool combinations to use together with these two, and I think, thematically, it would be super neat to see father and son finally fight alongside each other. Normally in DBZ games we see Bardock confront Goku and then decide to test his son's prowess. Well, if this is his younger kid, maybe he'll want to train him instead?
This also would not be Super Saiyan Bardock, in keeping with the traditional aspect of it. It would be regular, old-school Bardock and the classic Dragon Ball Goku fighting side-by-side, father and son.
Vegito
Obviously.
So why Vegito over Gogeta, some may be wondering? Oh, well, you see, it's quite simple:
A-hem.
So those are my hopefuls for the Dragon Ball FighterZ DLC, whenever it gets announced/ released. Some of these, I think you can see, are way more plausible than others, and there are still many others that I'd like to see. I really do hope they eventually decide to add more characters and expand the roster, since this game does have a ton of potential behind it to last a long time; or at least until the next game like it rolls along.
The hype train keeps a' rollin'!
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