Stronger characters in Dragon Ball FighterZ have longer cool down periods for assists, can be used less often in battle
Last month, Dragon Ball FighterZ producer Tomoko Hiroki explained how weaker characters in the series' lore will be able to combat the stronger fighters in the upcoming 2.5D fighting game. "It could destroy the image of Dragon Ball if, for example, a weak character could destroy Goku," she said in an interview with Siliconera, noting that power levels were being taken into account.
One way the development team is aiming to balance this is by assists. Hiroki said that though there will not be characters specifically used as support for their team, there may be characters who are better at assisting than actual fighting.
Today we learn a bit more about how assists will work in Dragon Ball FighterZ. Speaking to Red Bull at EVO 2017 this past weekend, Dragon Ball FighterZ director Junya Motomura shed more light on this subject, detailing how the weaker characters assist's function in battle.
"We didn’t design it for certain characters to be support, exactly," Motomura explained. "It’s just that their assist moves have more situations that they can be useful than others.
"If you have a team filled with these characters, then you’d be able to use their strong assists to take down the stronger characters."
On the other side of the coin, stronger characters in Dragon Ball FighterZ will actually have assists with longer cool down periods. This will help further close the gap between the powerful and less powerful.
"Also, in design, the stronger characters are designed to have longer cool downs on their assists, so their assists can be used less often," Motomura said.
— Dragon Ball FighterZ director Junya Motomura.
Speaking more on the topic of game balance, Hiroki addressed how FighterZ would differ from Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden -- the 2D fighting title with assist characters that saw a release on Nintendo 3DS. Though these two Dragon Ball-themed fighters are similar in their foundations, Hiroki notes that Butoden was developed with a different audience in mind.
"A big part of Extreme Butoden’s audience was children who enjoyed the anime, where as FighterZ's audience will be people who enjoy a more serious fighting game," Hiroki explained. "We learned that kids really like fireballs, and they were designed to be enjoyed in single play [of DBFZ]."
Hiroki goes on to say that the team does not want FighterZ to be a "fireball game," and that counters for them have been implemented. They hope to have close match ups in Dragon Ball FighterZ, and will be balancing accordingly.
For more about Dragon Ball FighterZ, be sure to check out Red Bull's full piece.
