Path of the Scrublord: How Dragon Ball Fighterz Got Me Into Fighting Games

Fighting games are that horrible mix of totally observable and utterly inaccessible. Anyone can tell you what’s happening in a Street Fighter match. They might not know the difference between a crush combo and a super cancel, but they can usually tell you which hulking dude beat the other one. And really, that’s where my insight into fighting games started. Watching the odd EVO game or stream where although I didn’t know exactly what was happening, I could at least see who was winning.

I’d played tonnes of fighting games in my youth but that never really lead me to properly understand them. I’d spammed laser eyes as Devil in Tekken 2, learnt the odd super move in a game here or there but I never really got the grammar of what makes fighting games work. I was exactly like most people who pick up a fighting game. I liked the shiny, flashy stuff but couldn’t really tell you what I was doing or why. To be honest, at about 20 I’d given up on understanding fighting games. I thought it was the kind of thing you needed to play with your big brother as a kid or hang around with some serious aficionados to really start to understand. Like MOBAs, water-sports or black holes, it was just going to be one of those things I knew both existed and I’d never really get.

Then one day, about 40 matches into new Arc System Works game Dragon Ball FighterZ, it suddenly clicked. My eyes rolled back into focus, I looked my operator dead in the eye and said, “I know kung-fu.” And it’s all because of a few very simple, ridiculously clever systems.

Fighting games are essentially a very complicated game of rock, paper, scissors. Every scenario has X number of things you can do and depending on said scenario, you’re either going to win, lose or draw. Once you know every move that can be played (in this case, rock, paper or scissors), the game becomes picking the right move for the right scenario. Fighting games are just this scaled up, so you can do multiple things in any given scenario. You are anticipating your opponent’s move (e.g. rock) and asking yourself when they make said move, how are you going to react to either win or draw. (So to continue the analogy if you think your opponent is going to play rock, you can either play rock for a draw or paper for the win). Fighting games might look all shiny and crazy but really that is all you have to think about.

What can my opponent do in this situation?

What do I think they will do in this situation?

What can I do to either beat it or draw?

Repeat until someone dies.

The simplest example of this decision making in actual fighting games are grabs. Grabs beat blocks. So if you think your opponent is going to block, instead of choosing to punch or kick, you choose to grab and win that scenario. It really is that simple, and if you discount execution (which we will get to later), this is the best way to get to know fighting games. Learn what you can do, learn what you opponent can do, learn what of those things beat each other, do them until you win. This is the first reason that makes Dragon Ball FighterZ so accessible, because the moves that beat other things are not only bloody obvious, they’re universal.

Dragon Ball FighterZ ‘s characters all have the same basic list of moves that act as the rock, paper, scissors etc. of the game’s fighting system. When you start the game, there are a few basic techniques that every character has and consequently you are going to spend a lot of time using. (This isn’t everything but as a new player you’re pretty much going to spend most of your time with these starting few.)

“Dragon Rush,” is a grab that beats blocking characters with a flurry of punches and then launches them into the air for a free combo. (in this context “free” basically means unblockable)

“Super Dash,” makes your character fly across the screen at your opponent through ki blasts (which are just ranged fireballs) and if it hits, sets you up for a free combo.

And “Vanish,” which instantly teleports you behind your opponent and hits them with a heavy attack.

All of these shared moves are executed with a single dedicated button or by pressing two buttons at the same time. And I cannot begin to tell you how satisfying these three things are to execute.

Dragon Rush is a grab with a big lunge on it that then automatically sets you up for a free air combo. This means every time you guess that your opponent is blocking, you get to do a little damage and a free chance at a big combo. This is brilliant because it solves the problem of not being able to do any damage against a blocking opponent. You haven’t got to understand the difference between high or low blocking and which attacks do what. You just know that if you are getting blocked out, do the move that always hits and sets you up for a combo.

Super Dash solves two problems. Getting near people and zoning. Ever played a game where someone is just so good you can’t get close to them? Or worse, played Street Fighter against someone who is so good at throwing Hadoukens you can’t get near them? Super Dash shoots you across the screen, though ki blast (think fireballs or hadoukens) and if it hits, lets you start a combo. Nothing feels quite as good as guessing someone is going to try and ki blast you and watching energy balls bounce off you as you Super Dash towards your opponent and start comboing them. No sitting in the corner, no waiting for you opponent to stop with the fireballs. If you spot the chance to get in on your opponent, it’s going to happen in about one second tops.

Last but by no means least is Vanish. At the cost of one bar you can instantly teleport behind your opponent and hit them with a massive heavy attack. Guessed your opponent is about to do a huge attack or got yourself pinned in the corner? Press two buttons to instantly escape and smash them across the screen to get a bit of breathing room.

Now that’s a lot to take in but basically it boils down to this. If your opponent is blocking, far away, shooting you with loads of ranged attacks or simply has you pinned down in the corner, you are ALWAYS one move away from countering them regardless of which character you choose. Plenty of fighting games have built in counters to moves but few of them work this simply and none look this cool. These aren’t complicated parries or crazy secret tech, they are instant answers to the things that make fighting games frustrating. The things which stopped me from understanding what exactly fighting games are all about because I simply couldn’t counter my opponent and start doing things.

It cannot be overstated how important it is that the above moves are easy to execute. To go back to my rock, paper, scissors, analogy, the reason that everyone in the world can play rock, paper, scissors is because all you need is a functioning hand. This is the second reason DBFZ has got me into fighting games. Nothing is that hard to execute.

Every character in DBFZ can execute a combo by pressing light or medium attack over and over again. And their special moves are all variations of a quarter circle motion and a button. This means that by hammering a single button or by having a working knowledge of what a circle is, you can execute a cool, damaging attack with any character in the game. This means that even on your first ever game of DBFZ you know how to do damage and how to make stuff look cool. I have never, ever landed a real combo in a Street Fighter game. And to pick up a game that let me do that in an instant was a massive breath of fresh air… I was actually doing it.

This sounds exceedingly obvious but if you take this easy execution of damage and combine it with the earlier tools that counter annoying fighting game tactics and let you start trying things out, you’ve got a game that is not only incredibly simple to pick up, but to understand. You catch your opponent blocking, press a single button to use your Dragon Rush and launch them into the air, then press the same button four times to get some damage out and throw some super cool Super Saiyan madness attack. Where in other games I would of been asked to win a rock, paper, scissors battle to start an encounter, then remember a series of complicated button presses to make my guess worth it (by converting said guess into damage). This game lets you get that hit in straight away with zero knowledge or executional skill. It actually rewards you for not knowing which buttons to push and for that, I cannot thank it enough. I might not know what does what, but thanks to simple mechanics I can actually play this game and start to learn its systems. I might be loosing, I might not be sure exactly what is happening but I was definitely playing a fighting game properly. And to be brutally honest, I don’t think I’d ever done that before.

So here I am, 176 online games in with 52 wins to my name and I’m utterly addicted. This simple roadmap, these obvious but flashy tools that the game has given me has allowed me to get into it in a way that no other fighting game has. And best of all? All the stuff I just described is only scratching the surface. There are guard cancels, you can tag in on a super move, reflect attacks, juggle into tags, do real more damaging combos and a whole other series of things that I’m slowly but surely learning. But the only reason I got here without frustration, boredom or controller throwing, was because of simple mechanics that made the game accessible to both play and learn.

Yes I’m just scratching the surface. But scratching the surface has never felt so simple or looked so damn cool. If you want to try out fighting games, try out DBFZ.