The Dragon Ball FighterZ Tutorial Doesn't Suck Anymore (Part 3)
Dragon Ball FighterZ is probably the single game I’ve played the most over the past three years. While there have certainly been fighting games in the past with which I’ve become obsessed, but never quite for this length of time. I’ve been with it since the game’s initial release, as both a fighting game fan and a closet fan of Dragon Ball Z. I’ve seen the “vanilla” version and the various tier lists of characters transform into what it currently is. While there were some changes made by developers over the past few years with which I’ve disagreed, I can say that I think the game is in its best state thus far. Hopefully, if the next Guilty Gear comes out with quality net code and the developers at Arc System Works can provide some insight into their team, we’ll get a new version of the game that actually works online. It’s a tall order of a request, but that’s all I would want, at this point in time, to make it the perfect fighting game for me.
Image: Bandai Namco
However, all that being said, let’s get to the real point of the article. I’m familiar with fighting games. I’m probably more familiar than most people since it is a niche within the video game industry. Nonetheless, I had to go to the internet and watch professionals play this game when it first came out to learn all the different fundamentals and mechanics that the game didn’t bother to share with me. I’ve been critical of the game’s tutorial system in the past and voiced my opinions about how the game would not share certain fundamental knowledge with its basic new players and more advanced players (see the links at the end); it seemed to leave even the most familiar players out to dry. With the release of Season 3 of Dragon Ball FighterZ, there was an extensive update to their tutorial system, in which they added numerous details to how everything worked and what was disclosed to you as a player. I was prepared to hate it some more. In fact, I did, that is, until I actually started writing this article and collecting screenshots.
I was legitimately going to publish how the new tutorial doesn’t go into nearly enough detail about some core fundamentals. I had written all my criticisms down and just went back to collect screenshots. Then I tried out this tournament of power option in the new training area, and after “leveling up” my training level, suddenly, more tutorials were available. All of the new, advanced tutorials were exactly what I was looking for. So, that experience rendered my criticism pretty pointless. That being said, I still want to publish something and I think I deserve a little egg on my face for my lack of due diligence in the first place. Not to mention, I’m a little too lazy to write a whole new article. So, here’s the original article I wrote below. But read on with the understanding that everything that I say is missing is actually there once you level up in the training area.
Overall Improvements to the Tutorial
I recently went through the whole tutorial experience to make sure I got everything that was new and old in the tutorial all over again. The tutorial has, at the very least, become far more extensive and involved. Before, the tutorial for new players was a relatively brief affair, especially for a game that allows you to control three characters on your team at once. There were some short tutorials on basic movement, what each button did, and extremely simple combo challenges for characters. But when you compare the amount of information contained in other similar tutorials in simpler games, it left a lot to be desired.
New Features
Season 3 has brought about a ton of new changes. The developers thought that it was necessary to provide some information about how to interact with all these new features that Season 3 has included in the experience and I applaud them for providing some tutorials to go over the significant changes that Season 3 brings. In fact, all these tutorials for the new features are comprehensive enough to explain to anyone, new or experienced.
New Assists
Perhaps the biggest new feature of Season 3 was the addition of new assists for every character in the game. Every character got an alternative assist that is very specific to the moveset of the character, as well as a more universal assist. These are displayed as A, B, and C assists. A and B are the more specific assists with a standard cooldown and are more specific to the character, which makes them both useful and unique to a team’s chemistry. C assists have a much longer cooldown, however, they are more universal in their usefulness. There are a few characters with more unique C assists, but for the most part, they all do the same thing of hitting the opponent multiple times and setting them up for a full combo. While it’s a little boring to have every character do the same thing, it also balances out the roster a lot and makes it so there’s no reason for you not to use whatever character you want on your team.
Image: Bandai Namco
EX Moves Buffed
One of the best changes of Season 3 is the reduction of meter cost for EX moves. The tutorial demonstrates how the powered-up special moves no longer cost as much energy as they once did. It’s a simple change that doesn’t require much explanation, but it’s a great and welcomed change.
Fuzzy Strikes Removed
“Fuzzies” are a fighting game term that mostly has to do with the idea of “instant overheads.” I just committed a sin by defining a term with another term you may not know. Essentially, if a character is crouching and blocking, they are not susceptible to low hits but can be hit by “overhead” attacks or jumping attacks. Big characters tend to take up more space on the screen in which they can be hit. This means that, even if certain characters were crouching, they were still large enough to be hit by a character who was jumping and attacking in an arc that wouldn’t hit a normal-sized or small character. It’s a short and limited explanation of the mechanic, so I apologize, but essentially, you can’t do that anymore. It was a big problem for big characters at high levels of play and often had a significant impact on how frequently you saw players choose these taller characters. Hurray for variety.
Snap-Back Loops Removed
Image: Bandai Namco
One of the strongest strategies in the previous versions of DBFZ was a ‘snap-back loop.’ When you would use the game’s ability to kick one of the opponent’s characters off-screen and force a different character on-screen, that incoming character would come on at the same speed and timing every time and would have a limited ability to respond. This would put the person performing the snap in an extremely advantageous position because they could do mix-ups and force the incoming player to guess how to block a lot of the time. It also slowed down the pace of the battle substantially and made for somewhat boring spectating experiences. The timing of the snap-back has been changed and now the incoming player has control over how immediate or prolonged the period is between entering the screen.
New Dragon Rush and Vanish Cancels
By eliminating Fuzzies and Snap-Back Loops, the developers have definitely balanced the game, but that makes it also a lot harder for players to open up their opponents. To counterbalance this, they’ve added the ability to cancel a light attack into the game’s standard throw, aka Dragon Rush. It’s a simple change that seems effective a lot of the time. They’ve also made it easier to land after a successful Vanish cancel. So, they essentially made vanishing a little bit stronger as well.
Limit Break
Image: Bandai Namco
Perhaps the most controversial change is the addition of Limit Break. This is a mechanic in which the last character on a team gets a 10% increase in their damage output when all other members of the team have been eliminated. It’s meant as a comeback mechanic and it certainly has proved as such in my own experience a lot of the time. Having played a fair amount, I see the difference and I don’t mind it. However, I also don’t think the game needed it.
Stuff that was Previously Missing
I won’t go into too much detail here but I will point out the tutorials that have been added in Season 3 which actually give a bit more information that was desperately needed years ago.
Sparking Combo Basics: You can cancel the overhead attack by sparking
Using your assists to keep moves safe including changing characters
Using special moves to keep moves safe
Using staggered pressure to open up opponents and recharge assists
Basic blocking fundamentals
Image: Bandai Namco
What is Still Missing
While there were some significant improvements to the tutorial system in pointing out certain fundamentals and mechanics of the game, there are still some mechanics that the tutorial neglects to focus on. The list, thankfully, is relatively short and applies mostly to people who will play the game for a significant amount of time. I will separate these subjects into their own sections to break down and, hopefully, help anyone who has recently picked up the game and stumbled upon this website looking for answers.
Z-Changing
While there are tutorials about changing characters during a super attack, the tutorials still do not cover other instances of changing characters which you see done by high-level players. One is the idea of changing characters after a “smash” attack. It is perhaps less frequently used, but it would still be an important concept to share with new players. Two, it doesn’t mention how it would be a good idea to change characters while your assist has your opponent locked down. This is a far more frequent and useful concept to share. Three, it still doesn’t show how to change, mid-combo, into another character’s superattack. Since this command is different from any other command in the game (because it involves a half-circle motion), and is perhaps the most useful thing of the three to know, I find it absurd that this is still absent from the tutorials.
Vanishing while Sparking
While the tutorials have improved how the game teaches players to use the “sparking blast” mechanic to their advantage, it still leaves out the ability that is perhaps the most important about using your character in this mode. By holding down the “vanish” buttons while in sparking mode, you can teleport to the other side of the opponent without attacking. This allows your character to safely escape pressure or continue a combo in a fun and unique way. It’s a shame this is still not covered.
Sparking Specials
There are other details about sparking that are not explicitly disclosed in the tutorials. For instance, did you know that the cooldowns for assists dramatically change if you call an assist while in sparking? Did you know that the point during the combo in which you initiate sparking has a dramatic effect on the amount of damage and hit stun done to your opponent? These sorts of details would be nice to see flushed out more.
Frame Data & Combo Insight
Frame data is something that a lot of new players don’t really understand and may not care much to learn. However, if a new player wants to get better at the game and spends a fair amount of time playing, it might behoove them to spend some time understanding what moves to use to start a combo, end a combo, or escape a dangerous situation. The game does not tell you that if you use the Vanish ability on the ground, and your opponent blocks, you are still in control of the situation because you are in “Plus frames” and can therefore continue pressure. If you use Vanish while the opponent is in the air in any way, you will not be in the same advantageous position when you land the attack and will have to go on the defensive. This is stuff that experienced players can figure out through trial and error over time, or by looking at frame data, but new players are just going to get frustrated and not understand why they can’t do what they just did a second ago. NetherRealm added this sort of information to Injustice 2 and Mortal Kombat 11 with their tutorials, so why not DBFZ?
In case you skipped the intro and just looked at the headings and came here, again, I realize all these tutorials that are “missing” are actually in the game. I was just too stupid to find them immediately. Obviously, these tutorials that they’ve added, while very useful to new players, don’t affect my experience much. This is fine because I’ve been playing this game for a while and would not likely benefit from new tutorials anyway. I just wanted something to write about concerning my favorite fighting game these days. I found it, but it turned out that I was wrong the whole time. If you haven’t played the game before, now’s the time to learn it.
If anything I mentioned in this article seemed unclear to you, I recommend going back through the other DBFZ articles I’ve written. Thanks for reading!
