History YMMV / DragonBallFighterZ

* FanartAtFirstSight: Once Android 21's initial design came up, internet artists went wild and fanart of her popped up left and right, though considering the series rarely had female fighters take the spotlight, it was understandable. While eventually it was revealed that was just her de-powered form and her real fighting form skewed closer to a more female Majin Buu, ironically her regular form would be made playable as well years after the game's release.

*** One side argues that it allows casual players to at least be able to play the game and make it look fun and impressive--which, when combined with its juggernaut license, makes this a perfect [[GatewaySeries gateway game]] into the wider UsefulNotes/FightingGameCommunity. A large number of pros are even fine with them, some even going as far as to say that complex input motions do not make a game deep, and that there are enough advanced mechanics that a better player ''will'' still win even against auto-combos.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: ''[=FighterZ=]'' gained a lot of its early popularity from [[UsefulNotes/FightingGameCommunity the FGC]] due to its accessible yet deep gameplay. However, when the game was released, another PeripheryDemographic arose for the Story Mode, which features a lot of [[ContinuityNod past references]] to ''Dragon Ball'' lore and fun interactions between the characters. One of these routes is an admittedly humorous story path involving Frieza as a VillainProtagonist, and another focuses on Android 21 and her backstory. That's not even getting into the personal scenes involving [[PlayerAndProtagonistIntegration characters interacting with the Earthling Soul]], which some found [[Heartwarming/DragonBallFighterZ particularly heartwarming]]. For some, ''[=FighterZ=]'''s story is so well-done and entertaining that hours-long videos have been posted on the cutscenes alone, and it's easy to forget that there is actually a ''game'' attached to it.

** The PC version, when lowered to the minimum settings, has been affectionately dubbed "the [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS 3DS]] port."

** With the ''[[VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse Xenoverse]]'' community, as per the usual CasualCompetitiveConflict in fighting games. The ''Xenoverse'' community has shunned the game for being 2D, having a much smaller roster, and potentially not having as many fan favorite characters. The UsefulNotes/{{fighting game community}}, however, is wholly behind the game due to its deep fighting mechanics and smaller roster of highly individualized characters, going so far as to call it the "best ''DBZ'' game ever". Additionally, the developers expressed interest in bringing it to EVO, a wish that was granted when ''[=FighterZ=]'' was announced to be part of EVO 2018.

** ''[=FighterZ=]'' has been hailed as the first "serious" ''Dragon Ball'' game, as well as the first one aimed at the fighting game community rather than the more casual, mainstream audience of the previous titles. In actuality, this isn't the first game to go this route. In 1996, ''Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension'' was released for the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom]]. It features a more distinct ''Franchise/StreetFighter''-style gameplay than its predecessors at the time. Another attempt was ''Super Dragon Ball Z'', which was released in 2005. It was even headed by a developer who had worked on the ''Street Fighter'', ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'', ''Marvel vs. Capcom'' and ''VideoGame/SNKVsCapcom'' series. Unfortunately, it wound up being overshadowed by the far more successful ''VideoGame/DragonBallZBudokai'' and ''VideoGame/DragonBallZBudokaiTenkaichi'' series. For that matter, ''[=FighterZ=]'' also isn't Arc System Works' first ''Dragon Ball'' game, being preceded by ''Supersonic Warriors'' and ''Extreme Butoden''.

** The developers have said that the catalyst for the game was ''Extreme Butōden'' for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS.

** One can expect to see a ''lot'' of Ultra Instinct Goku when fighting online. He's already one of the most attractive choices for most players being Goku's most powerful form and having some of the flashiest animations in the game. But these flashy animations aren't just for show, as his large toolkit not only gives him options other characters lack, but they are also relatively easy to use. Examples include his massive autocombo that easily beats out other normals, two frame 1 invincible moves which must be accounted for on his recovery, and other Specials that have high priority over other moves and are difficult to punish. This makes UI Goku one of the easier characters to succeed with online, as his bevy of strong and easy options can be befuddling to newbies and irritating to play around even for more experienced players, compounded by input lag generally favoring his high-priority options. And despite being very newbie-friendly, he averts being a SkillGateCharacter due to the sheer strength of his options which can be exploited even further at higher-levels of play.

** Starting Season 3, the much maligned "Team Yasha" featuring Blue Gogeta on point, Android 17 mid, and Vegito Blue with all three using A assists, named after the French pro player who dominated the game with it, became the most common team combination by far. The team was able to kill any full health characters with two combos thanks to their incredible damage output and ki generation, the team members had great synergy thanks to the special tag mechanic, and it was near impossible to challenge them since their assists were defensive in nature that allowed you to start a full combo from any assist hit. The Gogeta-Vegito shell was the core of the team too as they complemented each other well, and some players swapped 17 out for their choice of character, often SSJ4 Gogeta or Lab Coat 21. Arc Sys tried to cripple the team by halving Blue Gogeta and Vegito's ki generation, and while that did drive off most of the bandwagoners it didn't stop the competitive scene with the EVO 2023 finals featuring Yasha against Hikari with both players using Team Yasha.

* Due to the fact she was released as the biggest GameBreaker possible, Labcoat Android 21 managed to go above and beyond complacent gaming syndrome into being considered downright mandatory to include on a team if you wanted to win. At one point, all but one player in the top 8 of the Combo Breaker tournament had her on their team.
* Starting Season 3, the much maligned "Team Yasha" featuring Blue Gogeta on point, Android 17 mid, and Vegito Blue with all three using A assists, named after the French pro player who dominated the game with it, became the most common team combination by far. The team was able to kill any full health characters with two combos thanks to their incredible damage output and ki generation, the team members had great synergy thanks to the special tag mechanic, and it was near impossible to challenge them since their assists were defensive in nature that allowed you to start a full combo from any assist hit. The Gogeta-Vegito shell was the core of the team too as they complemented each other well, and some players swapped 17 out for their choice of character, often SSJ4 Gogeta or Lab Coat 21. Arc Sys tried to cripple the team by halving Blue Gogeta and Vegito's ki generation, and while that did drive off most of the bandwagoners it didn't stop the competitive scene with the EVO 2023 finals featuring Yasha against Hikari with both players using Team Yasha.

** Goku Black's voice, both in English and Japanese, thanks to the EvilIsSexy factor involved; the English version gives him a [[EvilBrit British-accented]] variation on Goku's normal voice, while the Japanese version is creepy and menacing and largely considered (by Western fans) to be the best out of Creator/MasakoNozawa's ''Dragon Ball'' voices.

* EvilIsSexy: Many like 21 due to her being an attractive villain. Her OneWingedAngel form takes this even further, being more revealing and only coming into play after she drops her act. She's also ''extremely'' popular amongst the "vore" crowd, overshadowing even her Good form amongst that group. [[ImAHumanitarian For obvious reasons]].

** More like "Wasted a good character concept", but Base Vegeta is based mainly off his fight with Goku and only has a few moves inspired by things after the fight, such as his fight with Cui and the Ginyu Force. This resulted in some feeling he was one of the weakest designed characters since he not only borrows many animations from his regular Super Saiyan form, but also lacks moves that would have fit well into his arsenal, especially compared to Base Goku, who has a unique moveset based off elements from various fights in the series.

** Ultra Instinct Goku. As early as his reveal, his reception was already somewhat mixed, as he was the ''third'' version of Goku sold as DLC, and thus the fifth Goku overall. But Ultra Instinct is also one of the most popular and iconic elements introduced in modern Dragon Ball, and the unique aspects of the technique seemed to make for a distinct and interesting moveset. Viewpoints would be split even further following the character's release, and the subsequent exploration of his extremely potent and loaded kit. UI Goku would prove to have tools that were easy to throw out, annoying to punish, snuff out many options, and able to force the opponent to respect him in ways no other character could. Many players found him to be a blast to play with his flashy animations and powerful tools, which quickly made UI Goku one of the most commonly used characters by beginners and pros alike. However, many found him downright infuriating to fight and tedious to constantly see, as well as enabling to reckless playstyles and overcentralizing the meta.

* ItsPopularNowItSucks: The game is packed with awesome characters [[WorldOfBadass doing what they do best]]. That said, the inevitable online popularity of characters like Goku, Vegeta, and [[EvilIsCool Black]] has led to some players choosing a more niche team just out of pure aversion to these ubiquitous Saiyans. Some fans may take this even further and refuse to use any Saiyan in their team out of complaints of the whole race being a SpotlightStealingSquad (not helped by more than half of the DLC characters across the Season 1 and 2 Passes being Saiyans themselves, [[MesACrowd including alternate forms and incarnations of the aforementioned Goku and Vegeta]]). Nappa, being a MemeticLoser as canonically the weakest Saiyan in the current roster, is usually an exception to this.

** Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta received this reputation too, with how lackluster and weak his toolset was compared to his regular Super Saiyan and Saiyan Saga variations, such as a super that could be cancelled but with little utility and an overhead grab special that could easily whiff and be blocked. It wasn't uncommon to see parody videos with Vegeta as the ButtMonkey, but a large majority of them focused specifically on his SSB variant. This attitude died down after Season 3 saw him get a much needed amount of buffs, but even after that the fandom still believe his CatchPhrase to be "I NEED HELP!"

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeDM1ZjMK50#t=5s I'm goin' to JAIL!]] [[labelnote:Explanation (Story Mode spoilers!]]The reveal that Android 21 is younger than ten years, and thus younger than Goten and Trunks, has made many fans feel betrayed and embarrassed that they were lusting after someone who is technically a child. Other common reactions to people pointing out Android 21's age are explanations that this estimation clearly discounts her human life before she became an Android (seeing as 21 was old enough to marry and have a son who in turn was apparently old enough to serve in the Red Ribbon Army) and "If she's 10, I'm 10."[[/labelnote]]

---> '''Ginyu:''' You're 21?!
** Goku Black's accent is very [[SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound hit]] or [[{{Narm}} miss]], depending on who you ask.

* NotSoCheapImitation: ''Dragon Ball Fighter Z'' follows the success of tag-team Fighting Games like the ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom'' series (and in particular, the third game, some of the mechanics of which are also used in DBFZ), but is also critically acclaimed, has 2+ million sales and is often deemed as a new contender against the MVC series, especially in the wake of the disappointments aimed at ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite's'' problems.

** The fact that two of the DLC characters are another version of Goku and Vegeta was not taken well by the time the dataminers found information about them, much less when they were announced. As stated above, a prevailing feeling is there were already too many versions of both characters.

** While Baby was a surprising yet welcomed inclusion to the cast, he is easily the most wasted character out of any DLC character, having absolutely ''no'' interactions with the cast outside his own lines(not even with ''GT GOKU''), he won't be acknowledged by anyone in-universe, making it feel that despite having a very unique ability and a defined moveset with a fair share of MythologyGag, it is confined entirely to Baby. Even Cooler, who is limited in both appearances and motivation, has a significant amount of lore and interactions with characters that came before and after him, where Baby does not. One of the biggest and notable ones is the lack of interactions between Baby and Goku Black, both villains who performed [[GrandTheftMe Grand Theft Mes]] to both the strongest main protagonists, Vegeta and Goku, respectively.

* WinBackTheCrowd: While the game had been going strong for a few years, the end of Season 2 is thought of as a low point in the games lifecycle. While Season 2 brought some welcome additions to the cast like Gogeta and Super Broly, the mechanics were slowly getting staler and team hierarchies were becoming rigidly defined. Couple this with the introduction of GT Goku and the heavy buffs for Teen Gohan, and the competitive scene was considered to be "solved". Season 3 introduced a bunch of new balance changes that redefined several character roles in fun ways, as well as diversifying team building through adding new assists for every character. Along with this came a suite of performance changes like the Limit Break mechanic, improvements to Vanishing Attack, and changing EX moves to use half a bar. The result is that Season 3 has already gotten people back into the game, excited to see what other changes Arc-Sys will bring to the tablet.

** Cooler as well, thanks largely in part to Shoyoumomo singlehandedly bringing him into the spotlight with his "Fake Patchnotes" series. There's more memes of Cooler then there are for the rest of the cast, at least for DBFZ.

** "Team [[HasTwoMommies My Two Dads]]" for the team of Gohan, Goku, and Piccolo, since Gohan's fighting alongside both his dad and his most prominent, non-blood-related father figure.

** While also a high TierInducedScrappy, Cell was one of the most hyped characters in early versions of ''[=Dragon Ball FighterZ=]'', with his [[SuddenlyShouting intro]] being such a meme that crowds would be ''disappointed'' if a player didn't let the animation play out so that they could yell with him. Cell's playstyle is also extremely combo-heavy, with death or near-death almost assured on any hit. On rare occasions, he even had a special animation with Teen Gohan (one of the lowest tier characters in the game)[[note]]Though was later discovered to be high tier in the right hands, as his shortcomings make him much more skill-intensive than the other characters.[[/note]] which replicated probably the [[SignatureScene most famous scene]] in all of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. Though that was unlikely to happen due to how rare it was to see Teen Gohan played in the first place, let alone win against Cell. That rarity only made the times it ''did'' happen more special, though.

** [=☐/LLL=][[labelnote:Explanation]]Used when describing characters who are [[TierInducedScrappy hated]] for having spammable light combos (which are done using the square button on the [=PS4=] controller), like Bardock or Vegito.[[/labelnote]]

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Season 3 Patch 1.25 introduced Master Roshi, but also gave a number of buffs to TierInducedScrappy Jiren, in the form of making many of his counter specials stronger and have a wider variety of things that it actually counters, including projectiles. The patch also saw buffs to SSB Vegeta, turning him from an absolute joke into a very well-rounded character with solid damage potential and some good keep-away tools. While neither buff set has made their respective characters top-tier, they've both gone from absolute bottom of the barrel picks to being fairly solid options overall.

* TierInducedScrappy: Moved to [[TierInducedScrappy/DragonballFighterz its own page]].

* WinBackTheCrowd: While the game had been going strong for a few years, the end of Season 2 is thought of as a low point in the games lifecycle. While Season 2 brought some welcome additions to the cast like Gogeta and Super Broly, the mechanics were slowly getting staler and team hierarchies were becoming rigidly defined. Couple this with the introduction of [[TierInducedScrappy GT Goku and the heavy buffs for Teen Gohan]], and the competitive scene was considered to be "solved". Season 3 introduced a bunch of new balance changes that redefined several character roles in fun ways, as well as diversifying team building through adding new assists for every character. Along with this came a suite of performance changes like the Limit Break mechanic, improvements to Vanishing Attack, and changing EX moves to use half a bar. The result is that Season 3 has already gotten people back into the game, excited to see what other changes Arc-Sys will bring to the tablet.