Title: Dragon Ball Fusions
Developer: Ganbarion (Jump Ultimate Stars, Pandora's Tower)
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
System: Nintendo 3DS
Genre: "Collect & Power Up RPG"
Release: 4 August 2016 (JP) / 22 November 2016 (US) / 29 November 2016 (CA) / 13 December 2016 (MX) / 28 February 2017 (EU) / February 2017 (AU)
FATURES:
- Create your own character from different species from the franchise, including Namekian, Saiyan, Earthling and more.
- Turn-based, action RPG with positioning-based mechanics reminiscent of marbles and rock-paper-scissors systems.
- An Original Story featuring some of your favourite Dragon Ball characters! (And Yamcha)
- Fly through the sky of an amalgamated Dragon Ball world and collect hundreds of characters!
- FUSE YOUR CHARACTERS to create unique combinations!
- Use arbitrary fusions (Street-pass) to fuse any two characters. Over 146000 possible fusions!
- Bra is playable!
- Includes content from Dragon Ball Super!
- Local multiplayer, and eventually online multiplayer!
- Future support! Online multiplayer and trading, new characters and fusions (including some from Super)! Update will come early 2017.
In the far future, two youths gather the Dragon Balls. Their wish? "To hold the greatest martial arts contest ever!" The eternal dragon grants their wish, and bends space and time to bring together the greatest fighters of all times!
Alongside your favourite Dragon Ball characters (and Yamcha) you'll find many original characters which you can collect! Defeat certain opponents with a zenkai attack during battle to recruit them into your party! Gotta catch 'em all!
There are many types of fusions in Dragon Ball Fusions, but the star of the game are the EX Fusions! Using special rings designed by Capsule Corp, anyone can fuse, regardless of power levels! Just head into your ship and fuse whomever is compatible.
Potara fusions (earrings) are technically available in-game, although the results of these are simply characters as far as the game is concerned. To use Metamoran dance fusions you have to do so in battle.
Ultra fusion was created (by the Ginyu Force?!) to allow 5 people to fuse into one supremely powerful being. Fill your Ultra Gauge in battle and initiate a fusion of your entire party, and everyone caught in the range of your fusion is free game... for as long as the fusion lasts. Ultra fusions are dependant of the race and gender of the one who initiates the dance, so see if you can see all 9 variations.
Additional, arbitrary fusions (KF) allow you to fuse any two character through StreetPass. Only one can be had at a time, but this allows over 146000 possible fusions in total!
Dragon Ball Fusions is a turn-based RPG, with small action elements. You have a party of five which you populate with characters recruited throughout the game. (Default party is your character, Goten, Trunks, Pan and Kid Goku). Each character is one of three types (Power, Technique, Speed) which affect the character stats, interactions and ki attacks.
Positioning is key! The arena is a wide place, and you can attack from any side! Attack a character where they don't guard to knock them back! You can even chain these knock-backs and send them crashing into their friends, causing a marble-like chain, damaging multiple enemies. Hit them into your own characters to bounce the enemies between them for extra damage. If you manage to send them flying out of the arena and ring them out, they'll receive even more damage! Position teammates next to your character when performing melee attacks for support. Be aware of AoE (area of effect) attacks and your position to your advantage!
Turn order is determined by the line at the bottom of the top screen, which shows portraits of the characters in the battle moving toward the right. When a portrait reaches the right, it's that character's turn! However, just because a character is closer to the end of the line doesn't mean they'll go first. A faster character may catch up and even surpass a slower one! Turn order also is affected by the special moves used and damage received. Ring-out an opponent to send them to the back of the line!
Ultra fusions and zenkai attacks allow you to enter an action minigame where you can beat up your opponent and obtain Ki Orbs needed to use Special Attacks. Fill the Ultra Gauge to unleash on your enemies! Watch out if you use a zenkai attack, though, as the enemy can counter you and escape.
Famitsu: 8, 8, 8, 9 [33]
Gameblog.fr - Romain Mahut: 8 (French)
Attack of the Fanboy - Dean James: 3½★ - "Liked It"
Slant Magazine - Jed Pressgrove: 4★
Destructoid - Peter Glagowski: 6 - "All Right"
High-Def Digest - Tyler Treese: 4★
More reviews to be added as they come
Q: What's up with those release dates?
A: I wish I knew! The release dates are a granulated mess. The US version was available since the 16th of November, even though the release date was the 22nd after being pushed forward from December. There's no real convincing reason why the game is coming out for most of Europe until 2017. Note, also, that the dates here come from online retailers so brick and mortar shops may release early, hopefully?
Q: How's the character creation?
A: Fairly in-depth as far as appearance goes: You can choose from 5 races, 4 of which have two genders, with Namekians being agender. The race even changes certain attributes. You can change your height, hairstyle and colour, voice, skin colour, face, and the colour of your clothes. You can also wear different costumes as you progress through the game. It's not exactly as in depth as Xenoverse 2 but it's more than serviceable.
Q: Is this dubbed?
A: Nope! However, this is not a bad thing! The game itself has very little spoken dialogue, and that's mostly exclamations when text boxes pop-up. You're not missing anything by not having voice over in other languages.
~Announce Trailer trailer~
~First 85 minutes~
~GameXplain First Look Livestream~ (Warning: 3 hours long)
This is my first OT and I kinda did it on short notice. If I made a mistake or messed something up, feel free to correct me! OP's is being updated, so if you have a video or screenshots or reviews you want up here, feel free to inform me! Have fun!
May or may not display correctly on (mobile) dark theme.
