Video Game / Dragon Ball Legends

Dragon Ball Legends is a Dragon Ball mobile game for Android and iOS made by Namco Bandai in collaboration with Dimps. The game involves a tournament from across all of time, but also the tale of an amnesiac Saiyan from the ancient past presumably named "Shallot". By joining the Tournament of Time, Shallot intends to find any clue to his true origin.

The gameplay seems to take notes from several contemporary Dragon Ball games: players build a team of six fighters, similarly to Dokkan Battle, but they only take three of them into actual battles, in a system similar to Pokémon. The fighting can be noted to be similar to Dragon Ball Xenoverse, with players being able to move around in a 3D enviroment, using basic melee combos and ki blasts as well as having access to stronger special attacks at the cost of Ki. Finally, having three fighters that you switch between on command and all of them sharing a pool of energy for special attacks is reminiscent of Dragon Ball FighterZ, although there are no assist attacks.

While the fighting system is simple to be fit for playing with one hand on a phone, it is still rather diverse and action based. The developers also seem to have a lot of focus on Player Vs Player, showcasing capable connectivity over large distances, and allowing PVP to be played with no energy requirement.

---

This game includes the following tropes

• Absurdly Low Level Cap: The max level each character can reach is 5000. Sounds like a lot, right? You can easily reach that point in 3-6 minutes max thanks to the EXP Bonus event and the training menu. Justified, as PvP mode is the game's bread and butter, the devs wants you to use your shiny new units as soon as possible.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Babidi is far more competent than he ever was in Z, having successfully set off a chain of events that allowed him to collect enough energy to awaken Buu without anything being the wiser, offering Buu candy instead of threatening him with being sealed away, successfully corrupting Turles, Raditz, Gero, Bojack, Kale and Ribrianne to do his bidding, and managing to have a small army at his disposal, and overall being a schemer who can set up surprise attacks. However it is later revealed that the reason for this was cause Babidi was under the influence of the true Mastermind behind the Tournament of Time who is by far a much more competent villain.
  • Saiyan Saga Gohan gets a bit of a beef up here. Where in Z Gohan is powerful but terrified out of his wits over the power and brutality of the Saiyans, here he's put through a Training from Hell by Nappa and Vegeta (the same Saiyans he freaked out over in canon) and is not only strong enough to fight on par with them, but is also the one to deal the killing blow on Raditz.
  • Here, adult Chi-Chi is strong enough to hold her own against Android 14 and 15.
• Adaptational Wimp: While Frost was never one of the most powerful fighters around, Legends has him struggling and eventually meeting his end by First Form Frieza, even after he had eaten a synthetic Fruit of Might.
• Advanced Movement Technique: "Stepping", which is caused by flicking forward or to the side in order to cancel out of a Strike or Blast animation to either evade an attack or to give you an extra card or two to continue piling on a combo. Combine this with ki-charging and you can become a powerhouse capable of pulling off long combos ending with a Super or Ultimate Arts.
• An Arm and a Leg: In a surprising move, Legends Limited SSJ Future Gohan YEL is rendered with only one arm, as opposed to previous Dragon Ball games featuring him which kept his other arm due to Japanese censorship laws forbidding dismemberment. For reference, the last time we saw one-armed Future Gohan in a Dragon Ball game was with Legacy of Goku II, a western-developed game released in 2003 and Dragon Ball Z: Sagas, which was released in 2005.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • You don't summon the characters proper, but rather their Z energy, meaning that if you get a duplicate pool, they will accumulate Z energy and limit break, powering them up.
  • Characters that turn into Super Saiyan 3 can only do so on a time limit of 40 seconds. Thankfully, the timer only goes down when the character is on the field, meaning they won't lose potential damage by switching out.
  • There is an option in story mode to make all characters in your party about the same level as the AI, which means that certain challenges that would ordinarily be next to impossible thanks to doing too much damage or not enough, is much more realistically possible.
  • Choosing cards with dragon balls on them will immediately add the dragon ball and bring the user closer to a Rising Rush regardless if the user was able to properly attack or not, making it easier to collect them for future use.
  • When revisiting older stages in order to complete their challenges, you can activate a Level Limiter that will cap your party to a certain state in order to prevent you from defeating the enemy team too quickly before you have a chance to complete one challenge.
• Artificial Stupidity: There are some cases where during local Co-Op stages (where a bot controls your partner instead of another human player) where the AI won't do anything but take attacks from the boss character, forcing you to use cover change just to save their asses. Full Power Battle does nothing but highlight these issues, as the AI will allow themselves to get hit by the boss's Area of Effect attacks, or do nothing to try and stop them from unleashing their Ultra Bursts.
• Auto-Revive: Working differently compared to Endurance, some characters like Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Kid Gohan [Piccolo Assist] will have abilities that would let them revive with a large health pool while gaining an entirely new skillset, making them even more formidable after a perceived death.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Shallot's Super Saiyan 3 transformation is still undeniably powerful compared to Super Saiyan 1 and 2, but unlike those previous transformations or his future Super Saiyan God form, Super Saiyan 3 runs on a timer that lasts for 45 Counts. And you can only transform once per match, so once the SSJ3 power runs out, Shallot will be left hitting the dirt as he lacks his main source of damage dealing.
• Badass in Distress: The true mastermind behind the Tournament of Power has taken Supreme Kai hostage, forcing Beerus to orchestrate the whole thing using King Kai as a proxy.
• Badass Normal: Launch is an overall average human woman (or as average as a woman with a split personality that switches with a sneeze can be) with little in the way of martial prowess in comparison to most of the cast and who compensates for a lack of ki control with a jetpack and lots of guns, but she can hold her own against the Physical Gods of the universe in this game.
• Battle Intro: If they are selected as the first fighter slot, the ULTRA Rarity cards will play out a special animation of the character transforming or powering up when the match begins.
• Beam Spam: One per match, if Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta manages to land a Big Bang Kamehameha, he can launch it again, free of charge. And if you had another Super Move Arts Card on stand by, he can fire off a third Big Bang Kamehameha in a row.
• Call-Back: In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, after the Universe 6 saga segment, the Supreme Kai of time suggested the idea for a tournament from fighters from across time. Seems her idea came true, but is unknown if she is involved in the game story.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Oh boy, where to begin? For starters, the AI can and will restore their Vanishing faster than you can, they can tag out almost instantaneously, there are cases where the opponent will read your inputs, and don't even think about using Card Destruction skills, as they will still combo you even though their entire hand should be devoid of any Arts card.
• Counter-Attack: Some characters have this baked into their kit, either as a Special Arts card or as a special Cover Change action. However, most often than not, all these do is break the opponents combo, and it's usually Super and Ultimate Arts cards that can be chained into them.
  • The Legends Limited transforming Namek Saga Goku has this as part of his core moveset in Super Saiyan form. If an enemy tries to attack him with an Arts card while in his ready stance, Goku will counter with an enhanced version of his Angry Kamehameha, one that can bypass an opponent's endurance skill.
  • YEL Tapion, Magenta, and Legends Limited PUR Cell (Pefect Form) has this as a Dead Man's Switch. If they are defeated in battle, then they'll summon Hirudegarn and Cell Max respectively (or in Cell's case, revert to his Semi-Perfect form and suicide bombing), which will then unleash a devastating attack that deals damage to the entire enemy team.
• Crisis Crossover: The game story is of an entire tournament from fighters from across all of time, including characters from the original Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Super.
• Cycle of Hurting: In the beta, escaping the combo of damaging cards is impossible, meaning that if you get hit once, opponent can spend all their Ki to usually kill that character. In the full version you are able to switch characters between the card attacks, and although you still can't escape the combo, you can reduce the damage taken by switching to a character with element advantage.
  • There are some characters, like BLU Super Saiyan Blue Vegito, that can draw cards upon landing a successful hit with a Strike or Blast Arts card. Combined with attacks that can inflict Faint, Special Arts or Main Abilities that can reload your cards and restore Ki, as well as the near-unavoidable Rising Rush, it is entirely possible to stun-lock and kill any opponent regardless of type.
• A Day in the Limelight: Appule, of all people, becomes a recurring side character to help you out for Part 2, fleshing him out a bit more than he normally would be. Unfortunately, he is cut down by Frieza fairly early on.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Any ability that involves absorbing Ki-based attacks does not work against any Muggles using rocks, bullets, and missiles in place of Ki.
  • Likewise, any universal animation that requires a character to attack with an energy blast will be replaced with a bomb if the attacking character in question has little-to-no Ki abilities.
• Died Standing Up: In Part 7, Book 6, Chapter 5: "The Bonds of Friendship" After being defeated by Bardock, Super Saiyan 3 Shallot, & Super Saiyan 2 Gohan (Youth), Fusion Android #13 despite losing feels strangely at peace and finally understands who it means to fight of his own free will rather than just to fullfil his programming. Content to have fought of his own free will, Fusion Android #13 dies standing with a smile on his face, seemingly earning Shallot's respect in his final moments. Unfortunately, Super Buu (Gohan Absorbed) somewhat ruins the moment by blasting Fusion Android #13 to smithereens and proceeds to mock both his defeat and death to the indignation of Shallot.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Due to the game's story bringing characters from different points of canon, how certain characters die will differ due to different character interactions:
  • Where Raditz dies by Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon, taking Goku with him, here Saiyan Saga Gohan kills Raditz with a Masenko.
  • In canon, Appule is killed by Vegeta during his escape from Frieza's ship. Here, Frieza kills him for allowing Android #19 to reveal his location.
  • In canon, both Dodoria and Zarbon fall to Vegeta's power. Here, Frieza kills them for siding with the imposter Frieza.
  • In canon, Frost is erased from existence by Present and Future Zen'O. Here, he dies at Frieza's hand
  • In canon, Nappa and the Ginyu Force all die to Vegeta. Here they take each other out.
  • In canon, Frieza suffers a Rasputinian Death culminating in Trunks slicing him up. Here, Super Saiyan Shallot blasts him.
  • In Tree of Might, Turles falls to Goku's Spirit Bomb. Here the Saiyan in Red kills him.
• Double Unlock: The extra passive abilities for Zenkai Awakened characters suffers from this. It isn't enough that you have to raise them to the required Zenkai rank to unlock them (Rank III and VI respectively), but you also need the Soul Boosting and Zenkai Souls required to actually obtain them from the upgrade board.
• Dub Name Change: Interestingly, certain characters who show up here have different names compared to what was used previously. For instance, Super Android #13 is referred to here as "Fusion Android #13"
• Early-Bird Cameo: any characters show up before they're expected to, barring obvious mainstays such as Beerus and Whis. Like Frost, who shows up during the Frieza saga portion of the game, or Dabura, who shows up before the androids even first appear.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Initially, a character's level cap was tied to their class rank. So if you wanted to raise a character to Level 5000, you need to get them up to Godly Class. Keep in mind that boost souls was really hard to come by in earlier revisions.
  • GRN Beerus not only didn't have a Legendary Finish at launch, he wasn't even classified as a Legends Limited character. A later update eventually gave him a much needed LL buff long before the developers thought to Zenkai him, thus making him the first Legends Limited character by proxy (If you want to argue semantics, then Super Saiyan 2 Youth Gohan is the first Legends Limited). As of this writing, Beerus is the only character to get this treatment.
  • Speaking of Super Saiyan 2 Youth Gohan, he and the Family Kamehameha Super Saiyan Goten are the only Legends Limited characters to not have a special win screen when delivering the Coup de Grâce with their Ultimate Arts.
• Flawed Prototype: The Fruit of the Tree of Might used by the imposter Frieza. Oh, sure you get a power boost like usual, but they tend to sputter out, dropping your ki down badly. Frieza uses this in a glorious Batman Gambit to defeat the imposterFrieza/Frost.
• Funny Background Event: One of the variations in the summoning animation includes Tao flying by on his pillar instead of the usual Freeza Force pods.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • During his fight with Dabura, Cabba will reveal he learned the Super Saiyan 2 transformation off-screen, and the story will have him in this form. There is no Super Saiyan 2 Cabba playable character, though.
  • Cell will impress Shallot by copying his Wild Cannon attack. Cell cannot perform this attack during gameplay.
• Handwave: Nappa's revealed survival is this. He casually says the attack that took out the Ginyu Force and him actually only brought him to the verge of death, but he recovered and has been wandering around since then.
• I'm Standing Right Here: When Bulma proposes that she could share some information about the Earth and the tournament to Shallot, he starts to very loudly think about how he should take advantage of that, and upon being pointed out to that everyone could hear him, he just announces that he'll "bleed them dry of their knowledge".
• Last Chance Hit Point:
  • Endurance skills works like this, as it allows characters to tank an attack that would otherwise kill anyone else while giving them extra HP as a breather. Be warned that there are some attacks that can negate this, and Legends Limited Super Saiyan Rosé Goku Black is designed so that any attack he launches can nullify Endurance.
  • Indestructible skills function similarly, but instead of allowing a character to tank a would-be fatal blow, it lets them survive a would-be fatal combo and recover some health once it ends. Since these are classified differently from Endurance, that means any Endurance-nullifying attacks won't work against them.
• Limit Break:
  • Some character abilities work in this way, requiring some conditions to be fulfilled before they can be activated.
  • Rising Rush is a combination attack that can be performed after using 7 cards marked with a dragon ball.
  • Getting Z energy of a character you already have has them gain higher stats when they cross thresholds, which is also called a limit break.
• Loose Canon: While the game is not part of the main continuity, the characters introduced in Legends don't contradict the series beyond their representation here, with Shallot and the Hooded Saiyan giving some insight on the Ancient Saiyans from Planet Sadala.
• Luck-Based Mission: In Raids and harder Hyperdimensional Co-Op difficulties, one of the challenges requires you to initiate a Dual Impact. Do not expect to complete this on the first try, as you and the boss first have to clash Red Strike Arts cards to initiate the first part of the clash, followed by your partner needing to follow up with a Red Strike or Yellow Blast Arts card. However, there will be multiple times where the boss will never use a Strike as a combo opener, times where you will lack the Strike Arts card needed to clash with the boss, and times where the first part of the clash will be initiated only for your partner to screw it up by using a Green Special, Blue Super, or Ultimate Arts card, which always cancels out the Impact clash.
• Magikarp Power: When you first get him, Shallot is introduced as a HERO card that is soon brushed aside for other, much stronger characters of EXTREME and SPARKING rarity. However, once you start unlocking Shallot's Super Saiyan transformations, he'll soon become a powerhouse in his own right, eventually being paired in his Super Saiyan God state side-by-side with other high-tier units like PUR Super Saiyan 4 Goku or GRN Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta. The 5th anniversary update takes things further, with Shallot being able to become a SPARKING rarity card after a certain point in the main story as well as reach his own Super Saiyan Blue form.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter:
  • Ultra Instinct -Sign- Goku on the surface may seem like every other Legends Limited character, except he has an exclusive dodge gauge that works differently from the normal Vanishing Step. If Goku is at a standstill and is about to come into contact with a tap, Strike, or Blast attack, he will auto-dodge and break the enemy's combo for as long as he has a sliver of meter left in the dodge gauge. This gives him a defensive edge over every other card to the point where he's considered a "Easy to learn, hard to master" character. This extends to his mastered Ultra Instinct form, where Goku also gets the added benefit of countering and damaging the opponent whenever he dodges an attack, as well as being able to auto-win all Dokabaki Impacts.
  • Tag characters are units that have two playable characters rolled into one. Lacking the traditional Main Ability gauge, Tag characters have a Switch Gauge instead that let's you switch out the current character with another similarly functioning, yet mechanically different fighter (For example, RED Android 17 & 18, 17 is more focused on healing and keeping distance with Ranged attacks while 18 leans more rushing down the opponent with Strike cards and locking them down into a combo). On top of that, the unit's Element attributes will switch when tagging out (PUR SSB Goku & Vegeta, Goku is strong against GRN and weak against YEL, while Vegeta is strong against YEL but weak against GRN). Careful planning with Tag characters is essential to bring the most out of them against the various teams you'll face locally and online.
    • Super Saiyan 3 Goku & Super Saiyan 2 Vegeta (Angel) twists this on its head thanks to the nature of the Transcendent Kamehameha attack, which can activate after Goku and Vegeta tag switch two times. The next time Vegeta tags in, you and the opponent put in a downplayed moment of Controllable Helplessness as neither can switch out, use their Main ability, or activate Rising Rush until the Unique Gauge drains. From there, Goku unleashes a punishing Kamehameha that attacks the entire enemy team.
    • Similarly, YEL Gamma 1 & 2 also has a similar mechanic with Gamma 2's Core Breaker mode, which is activated after four switches instead of two. However, since Core Breaker is a Taking You with Me attack, that means Gamma 2 will be rendered unplayable for the rest of the match.
  • PUR Captain Ginyu is a downplayed example of this, as his Auto-Revive functions on chance instead of being automatic, and his chance at a successful revive can be raised depending on the attacks dodged, the amount of Special Moves and Super Attacks he successfully pulls off, whether he's able to activate his Main Ability on time, and how many of his allies are have the Namek Saga and/or Frieza Force tag and whether or not they're downed. A successful revive gives him Goku's body to switch with and makes him even more dangerous than before, while failure has him switch with a Namekian frog and be instantly taken out of the match.
• Never Shall The Selves Meet: Jaco imposes this on Teen Bulma, refusing to let her meet her older self for fear of ruining the timeline.
• Overly Long Fighting Animation: Legendary Finishes, for the most part, are usually short and direct with their references, like with Future Saga SSB Vegeta or Movie 9 Super Saiyan 2 Gohan. But then you have characters like Bardock and Full Power Jiren, who's Legendary Finishes just goes on and on and on. It's usually telling that the losing party in a PvP match would much rather forfeit than let the animations play out most of the time, and using said long-winded Legendary Finishes during Co-Op or Raid events is a surefire way to get groans out of your partners.
• Power Creep: Maliciously so, given this game's nature. The developers have tried to balance this out with Zenkai Awakenings, giving older cards stats buffs and new/revamped abilities, but it's a crapshoot as to whether or not the Zenkais are actually helpful in the current meta, or are just there to exist as bench warmers for the newer units. There's also the Tier system in PvP, where older units are given higher stat boosts compared to the newer ones, but it still doesn't remove the fact that the older units are still vastly outmatched in every way, so winning with a Z-Tier unit boils down to pure luck.
• Product Placement:
  • Much like with its sister game Dokkan Battle, any cards and events featuring Android 21 has a Dragon Ball Fighter Z logo watermarked in the bottom right corner.
    • As of September 2021, this also applies to the Kakarot Goku card released to celebrate the launch of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, specifically its Nintendo Switch release.
• Red Herring: A cross-media meta example, where it's easy to make the case that the developers were forced to do this in regards to Gamma 1 and Gamma 2, as while they were released on schedule, the sudden delay of Super Hero going from an April release to a June/August release means they couldn't really afford implementing descriptions or animations that could potentially spoil key parts of the movie. This goes double for Gamma 2, as part of his passive has him gaining 7 Dragon Balls for a Rising Rush if he manages to last until the final 10 Counts of the match, making players and fans think the Red Ribbon would use Shenron in some form... except in the film, the Red Ribbon never mentions Shenron's existence.
• Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: Deliberate. Certain scenarios in Story Mode will set itself up for certain fights that will force characters into your team. Likewise, there are also Story chapters that will either restrict you into only using Shallot, or lock you out of using him at all. Other than that, you're free to use whatever character you so choose.
• Socialization Bonus: Legends attempts to do this when it comes to Dragon Ball hunting, as you have to scan the QR codes from other players' accounts to get either a Dragon Ball or any other item bonus. The problem is that what you get is completely random, and you can only scan three codes per day. Combine this with the Dragon Ball hunting campaigns being no longer than 15 days at most and you could go through multiple socialization campaigns without finding a single Dragon Ball.
• Taking the Bullet: Cover Change works like this. If you switch characters during a combo, the character switching in will shove the other one out of the way and take the attack.
• Taking You with Me: GRN SPARKING Android #16, GRN EXTREME Saibaman, PUR EXTREME Chiaotzu, RED SPARKING Majin Vegeta all have this as an Awakening Arts, sacrificing themselves to instantly kill the active enemy (which also nullifies any Revival skills the might have). YEL Legends Limited Gamma 1 & Gamma 2 also has this with Gamma 2's Core Breaker, but unlike the others, Gamma 1 will still be able to carry on the fight following Gamma 2's Desperation Attack.
• Training from Hell: Nappa puts Shallot, Zahha and Saiyan Saga Gohan through this so they can be strong enough to defeat Raditz.
• The Gods Must Be Lazy: Once again, Beerus is out and about. Once again, he's doing jack all. Though this situation is one he would actually combat himself, if he wasn't being forced into inaction.
• Useless Useful Spell: RED Pikkon and GRN Zamasu [Goku Black Assist] can use their Special Arts cards in order to reduce the opponent's Vanishing gauge to 0. This may sound useful, considering how GRN Kaioken x20 Goku or Super Saiyan Future Gohan can regain Vanishing like no one's business... except that debuff can easily be countered by tagging out, which instantly restores Vanishing. To make matters worse, said Vanishing reduction effect only applies once per match.
• Wolverine Publicity:
  • The tutorial boss is Broly. Nuff said. And the second premium banner released has Broly as the featured character.
  • As of the 5th Anniversary, many players have taken notice on the disproportionately large amount of focus the Universal Survival Sagas has in the game, having the largest amount of representation in the game (Movie Sagas notwithstanding), along with having two Anniversaries themed after it back to back. This extends to the Future tag characters as well, with many of its characters being used as hype fuel when they don't have a Fusion to fall back on or a new movie to promote. It doesn't help that both Future and Universal Survival Saga are also some of the most highly advantaged characters in the online meta, with characters like the transforming GRN Goku Black and ULTRA Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken Goku lasting for years compared to the entirety of the GT or Saiyan Saga roster.

---