Games Ryosuke Hara On The Comedic Appeal Of ‘Dragon Ball: The Breakers’ Ollie Barder Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I cover gaming in Japan as well as the pop-culture here. Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories.
Got it! Sep 16, 2022, 11:04am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin ‘Dragon Ball: The Breakers’ is released this October. Bandai Namco One of the more eclectic games on the way is the asymmetrical survival multiplayer game Dragon Ball: The Breakers . I caught up with the game’s producer, Ryosuke Hara , to find out more.
With the game launched this October, I wanted to know more about the game’s powerful Raiders. “At launch, the game will have three Raiders for players to experience – Cell (which players got to play as during our Closed Beta), Frieza (who was playable during our Closed Network test), and Majin Buu (which players will get to enjoy playing as – or against – at launch). We will have more updates to share on future content shortly.
“In addition to escaping the Raider via the Super Time Machine and through individual time machines, players can use Dragon Change to temporarily acquire abilities a Super Warrior would have by equipping up to three Transpheres, which contain the souls of Super Warriors. Players can activate Dragon Change by collecting a given amount of Change Power on the map. This is only a temporary countermeasure though, as Raiders can still easily overpower Survivors, so players need to be strategic with how they use it.
“One last note, if Survivors collect the Dragon Balls on the map, they can summon Shenron to increase their Change Power to Level 4, which allows them to transform into a Super Warrior, and go head-to-head against a Raider. Raiders can also summon Shenron by collecting 7 Dragon Balls, so players should keep this in mind as they play. ” As there are lots of Dragon Ball games out there, I wondered how The Breakers would differentiate itself from those.
“There are lots of Dragon Ball titles, most of them are fighting games, while others let players experience the original works in-depth. However, we wanted to know if this was enough to show the appeal of Dragon Ball as a whole, so we questioned this ourselves. We wanted to see how using the characteristics of Bulma , Oolong , and regular civilians would appeal to Dragon Ball fans and explore that further.
MORE FOR YOU ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Finally Has An Actual 2021 Release Date Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Not A Sure Thing, Says Director ‘Genshin Impact’ Still Refuses To Increase Anniversary Rewards, Despite Fan Outcry “After we thought we could use Bulma and Oolong and normal civilians, we wanted to make a game that compared superhumans versus ordinary civilians. By not having the game focus on the superhuman perspective, but on the civilians of Dragon Ball , it would make for more dramatic and extreme battle situations. This is how the asymmetrical gameplay came about.
At the same time, asymmetrical games have been quite popular. By combining this game genre and this concept of Raiders versus Survivors, we’ve thought to create a unique game. “To clarify, The Breakers focuses more on normal civilians.
So, in this game, you can control Oolong, Bulma, and the Farmer alongside regular Survivors. That’s one of the rarer points, as you can’t mainly control these characters in Dragon Ball Xenoverse and Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot . Survivors have their work cut out for them in ‘Dragon Ball: The Breakers’.
Bandai Namco “In addition, The Breakers is not using Unreal Engine. The studio Dimps is using their own proprietary engine, which is also what Xenoverse 2 runs on. So, for Xenoverse 2, it is not using Unreal as well.
As an aside, The Breakers is actually part of the Xenoverse universe, and it utilizes the same assets from that game. As such, because of this, there was no reason to use Unreal for this game. ” For people unfamiliar with the game, I asked Hara how he would best describe it to people.
“We would describe this as an asymmetrical Dragon Ball game, with an overall concept of showing the overwhelming power of iconic rivals like Frieza and Cell compared to regular civilians. When you play as the Raider, players can feel how exhilarating it is to unleash that immense power against average people. As Survivors, players can achieve an immense sense of satisfaction by successfully escaping from the Raider before they are defeated.
“In this game, you can equip survivor skins like Oolong and Bulma, where you can access unique skills per character. For Oolong, you can transform into objects and deceive the Raider. For Bulma, you can use her charming pose to distract the Raider and escape.
“The reason why we chose Oolong and Bulma is that, going back to the beginning of Dragon Ball , there were a lot of normal civilians. Oolong and Bulma were icons of the original civilians, so going back to those two was why we chose Oolong. “While Akira Toriyama was not involved with this game, in the original Dragon Ball manga, it used to be more comedic in the beginning, and so, we wanted to respect those comical elements, and Toriyama-sensei, by leveraging these aspects in our game.
The focus on Dragon Ball’s comedic tone also helps The Breakers stand out from other releases I think. “There are a lot of asymmetrical games out there, and one of the biggest differences from those games is the unique combination of Dragon Ball and asymmetrical gameplay. There are also a lot of horror elements in other asymmetrical games, but in The Breakers , we have a different atmosphere.
By using those special skills and attacks unique to Dragon Ball , players can enjoy The Breakers in fun and panicky ways. Compared to other asymmetrical games, it is certainly more comical. Also, because how each match is different, players are incentivized to continually keep playing.
“In short, this game is focused on Survivors, and “The Breakers” refers to these Survivors. By that, it’s referring to how players will overcome the despair of being hunted by the Raider, and how to break out of the chaos. That’s why we chose to name the game Dragon Ball: The Breakers .
” Dragon Ball: The Breakers will be released on October 14 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC (compatible with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S). There will also be an Open Beta that runs from September 21 to 25 on all available platforms. Follow me on Twitter , Facebook and YouTube .
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From: forbes
URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2022/09/16/ryosuke-hara-on-the-comedic-appeal-of-dragon-ball-the-breakers/