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On the surface, Dragon Ball: The Breakers appears to be Dimp’s break into the asymmetric survival genre dominated by games such as Dead by Daylight. That is mostly true, but this is not a copy-paste of that formula. Dragon Ball: The Breakers stands out among its peers for its unique game mechanics, large sprawling arenas and faithfulness to the source material. Never before have players been able to fully embrace what makes characters like Cell so terrifying as they evolve. Even a single moment wasted by the Survivors can be the difference between winning and losing.
However, Dragon Ball: The Breakers also stands out for some of its questionable choices, such as implementing a Gatcha system, ambiguous objectives and the power balance’s pure one-sidedness between the Survivors and the Raider. The Survivors are under the guidance of the Time Patrol, the guardians of time that return from the Dragon Ball: Xenoverse series, and yet they are nearly helpless in the face of the giant bug man.
After a few hours of playing the Dragon Ball: The Breakers, the Survivors had only won twice. Both wins were thanks to the Survivors going pseudo-Super Sayian and wailing on the Raider until he was out of health. The Raider won every other match, and it wasn’t even close. By the time the Super Time Machine was ready to be worked on, the Raider was likely on their second or third level and had eliminated numerous Survivors, leaving the team in dire straits. Holding off the Raider while attempting to boot up the machine is a nearly impossible task if there aren’t enough teammates left in the game, but reviving takes away precious time from accomplishing other goals.
It might be worthwhile to move the Super Time Machine’s location match to match to give Survivors a fighting chance. Having its location randomly generated may help prevent the Raider from bolting to it and destroying it as soon as they can. It would also make more sense that the controls for a world-saving Super Time Machine would be hidden from the enemy rather than be out in plain sight. That said, winning as a Survivor was extremely satisfying, especially while watching the cutscene that showcases the Survivors eliminating the Raider. Similar to Dragon Ball Xenoverse, the customized characters can look very cool or just downright goofy, and it was cool seeing how other players got creative with the character creator.
The best part about being the Survivor, however, is Dragon Change. Dragon Change — the ability to borrow the powers of Super Warriors like Piccolo and Goku (and maybe some less-than-super warriors like Yamcha) — can mean the difference between staying alive or being eliminated. Using this power at critical moments makes players feel like they are going Super Sayian or using Kaioken to get out of a tough situation. It isn’t a permanent boost, but it can turn the tide when needed.
The world also feels very authentic to Dragon Ball, from the buildings to the mountains, and it is large enough for the Survivors to hide from the Raider effectively. However, the world is also mostly empty. From a gameplay perspective, this makes sense. However, seeing Frieza’s ship empty, save for an occasional Time Patroller emergency supply box or a scared civilian, makes the world feel more like a fan-made amalgamation of Dragon Ball assets rather than an official Dragon Ball title.
The beta graciously awarded players some currency to buy items and summon for Transpheres; however, earning more was quite the grind. Inevitably, players in the beta did not get to try out everything it had to offer due to the low rate at which they earned currency and the presence of a Gatcha system. Players wearing the default clothing options (or, in some cases, unequipping all of their clothing items) populated almost all matches because they had spent all their currency on one expensive piece of clothing or the coveted Spirit Siphon.
The Spirit Siphon is the main way to unlock new Transpheres and Skills for the Survivor. The pull rates are available, but the fact that it is there does not bode well for the monetization the game could implement upon its full release. It would not be surprising if microtransactions litter players’ options to enjoy the game, especially when unlocks already feel like a grind. This is a shame because there are excellent skills that players could only get if they got lucky on the Spirit Siphon, such as Goku’s Kaioken Rush. Using Kaioken to quickly punch the Raider in the face while they were attempting to absorb a teammate was very satisfying, even if it didn’t do much damage.
At the very least, the Online worked well and the gameplay ran smoothly, though it occasionally got stuck on a white screen before a match. The actual matches were fine, but there is a lot of information given to players at any given time, such as what Survivors have Dragon Balls and what areas still need to Power Keys set, which clouds the player’s hud. Due to this, it was hard to tell when a friend needed a revive or where the Raider was when the game was displaying their location. Shrinking these or making some of them represented by simple symbols could help alleviate this problem.
Overall, Dragon Ball: The Breakers checks all the boxes for anime fans: faithful to the source material, customization options and an overall fun time. However, the game could use some rebalancing, as winning as a Survivor feels nearly impossible, despite multiple ways for them to win. On the flip side, the game feels like the most authentic way to experience being a Dragon Ball villain, and it will be exciting to see how Dimps implements more Raiders into the game. Dragon Ball: The Breakers releases in 2022 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC.
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