Dragon Ball Fusions

As one of the premier IPs for anime and manage, the Dragon Ball series has long had many fans. It is regarded as one of the most popular anime and manga series in the West, too, and for that reason it has been the home of many games and recreations. One of the most common genres for Dragon Ball games is role playing games, and BNE Entertainment appears to have release another RPG for the series in 2016.

Known as Dragon Ball Fusions, this game was released in 2016 and while it didn’t exactly pull up trees it was well liked by the small crowd who picked it up. Is it worth trying out today, though? Or would you be left disappointed?

An interesting concept let down by a lack of detail

The main concept of Dragon Ball Fusions is that it allows you to create your own character and take part in the Dragon Ball world. A little like the popular Dragon Ball Xenoverse series, this puts you front and centre of events taking place within the story. You essentially take on the role of your own self-made hero.

Then, you spend your time building teams, collecting various characters from the Dragon Ball series, and then fusing them together to make new heroes. These fusions can then be used in battles. The battles, though, are pretty rudimentary and lack anything like the depth one would get from a more traditional DB game. The RPG elements are decent, but it lacks the same overall roundedness of other titles in the Dragon Ball series.

While the likes of Goku’s Legacy might play quite differently, they offered a more traditional RPG experience. For Dragon Ball Fusions, the main appeal is collecting heroes and building teams.

An intriguing concept that needed polish (6/10)

While the core gameplay loop of building teams and collecting (and fusing) heroes is a fun one, it does lack a little bit of extra polish. This means that the general storyline and the combat system are quite basic and generic. Not only can this limit the enjoyment when playing for more than a few hours, but it actually takes away from the sense of fun and progress that comes from team building.

When the combat feels so lacklustre and dour, it is hard to enjoy the overall experience. Whilst the thrill of putting together heroes from the Dragon Ball world is great fun, the lack of real enjoyment in the combat removes much of the fun that should have been involved in playing this title.

Pros

• Interesting idea of character building and squad development
• Fusion system is fun and allows for some intriguing experimentation

Cons

• Gameplay loop is repetitive and time consuming
• Takes a lot of effort to see small gains for your team
• Battles are boring and generic compared to other DB titles