I was expecting Nappa, as not only does his status as the series’ premiere “super huge muscular guy who attacks with overwhelming force” make him a perfect pick as a niche for a 2D fighter (seconding the theory that he’s going to be like Hulk in MVC, or perhaps like Arcsys’ own Potemkin), but also so far there’s been no reps at all from the early days of Z (except arguably Vegeta, who is explicitly based off of his Cell Saga incarnation).
Wasn’t expecting Ginyu, though. Mostly as they will have to put a lot of effort into differentiating him, since besides the body switch there isn’t that much distinct about his fighting style. Maybe they’ll do a thing where different poses are integrated into his style to give him different buffs and effects or something.
edited 18th Oct '17 1:43:16 PM by KnownUnknown
When you have a franchise with Loads And Loads Of Characters it's the easiest way to work in as many as possible. It's why I wish MVC would bring back the dedicated assist character idea from the first Marvel vs. Capcom at some point. I love all those cameos.
They're not focused on much because they're not really there. Some characters have a gimmick or theme to their attack names and maybe one or two unique attacks but I don't recall those ever mattering in the grand scheme of things excepting that time Frieza screwed himself with his Destruco Disk knockoffs.
Yakuzu's right. Most of the characters do have intentionally distinctive ways they approach fights. It's not always obvious and bogged down by the series formulaic-ness, but it's there.
It's most clear with the villains, who each have a very different ways from each other of carrying themselves in a fight, have clearly different kinds of moves and techniques they prefer, and simply exert their power differently. Among the heroes, Vegeta is probably the most immediately obvious - to the point where he's the anime poster boy for stuff like More Dakka (which in turn was used as a basis for his projectiles in this game).
Those style often took the backseat to keeping the fights' formula straight, especially when adapted to the anime thanks to the way the filler tended to pad out fights, but they never really went away, they were just put more out of focus. Gohan is probably the most obvious of the main characters, because he came into his own as a fighter around the point where the series started that shift - outside of the way he acts as Saiyaman, adult Gohan doesn't really have much that makes him much distinct from any of the others (which is one of the main reasons I'd prefer Saiyaman (with Saiyaman 2) over Ultimate Gohan in this game).
But one of the things Arcsys keyed into pretty well is in taking those distinctions - even at their most slight - and trying to turn them into various gameplay styles. They don't completely succeed, but a lot of that mechanical sameyness is on them and can be ironed out with the right tweaks.
edited 18th Oct '17 9:05:09 PM by KnownUnknown
I can't really blame people for making that assumption because any time Dragon Ball is parodied, it's almost always summed as "screaming and lots of explosions and energy waves" and the series fighting choreography started to take a real hit by the Buu saga.
So by that point, what was once a parody is almost considered common knowledge nowadays.
That is a good point about Gohan actually; even from his adolescent Super Saiyan 2 self, his most notable move is the Father-Son Kamehameha. Beyond that, he doesn't have much of a distinctive fighting style. Especially as an adult, and it's really apparent in most games where he's playable as he tends to have a really generic moveset.
Saiyaman is a bit better, but he's mostly a gag character (not there's anything wrong with those in this game). Same with Ultimate, as he's more of a melee fighter then (Seriously, he only ever used a Ki blast once or twice as Ultimate) with shorter, but heavy blows...like how SS 2 plays in this game.
edited 18th Oct '17 10:13:34 PM by BlackYakuzu94
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.I watched the whole show from start to finish as a kid and watched most of Kai, too. The fight choreography decayed long before the Buu saga, and frankly it was never that great compared to even newer shonen that followed it.
I can't really blame the show since it kind of escalated to a point where raw power trumped anything and new forms are what excites fans the most (the turnaround among fans on Super once Goku's latest shiny new form came out is kind of hilarious, and of course we have SS Blue in this game, and I won't be remotely surprised if a quarter of the roster are just more snowcloned form characters going forward), but ever since the Cell Saga it's mostly just been a beam cannon show.
edited 18th Oct '17 10:17:40 PM by Hashil
I was thinking around the Android Saga as when the genre shift started becoming more of a formula, with fights slowly but not completely becoming more standardized, but it's not an exact point. And like I said, it still never went away regardless.
Like a lot of series, much of the stuff DBZ is iconic for isn't quite as overplayed as it seems. It's something I really started noticing when comparing DBZ to GT or even Super, where the series' formula - including (among loads of other things) the archetypical fight choreography - is imitated but without a lot of the meat that really made them work.
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I always associate adolescent Gohan with "zipping around faster than the eye can see one-shotting everything in a single strike," which I assume is rather bad for game balance.
edited 18th Oct '17 11:51:43 PM by KnownUnknown
I feel like Extreme Butoden is a good point of reference since that was also developed by Arcsys. Nappa even uses a Saibamen like he does in this game.
https://twitter.com/tatsunical/status/917124761951412224

Nappa has been playable before TFS people...
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.