Dragon Ball games usually follow a very specific, very safe blueprint. You pick Goku, you fly around a 3D arena, and you mash buttons until someone hits a cinematic Ultimate Attack. But back in 2014, Artdink and Bandai Namco decided to get weird. They released Dragon Ball Z Battle of Z, and honestly, the community still hasn't fully processed what that game was trying to do. It wasn't Budokai. It definitely wasn't Tenkaichi. It was a team-based, four-player cooperative brawler that felt more like a raid in an MMO than a traditional fighting game.
Most people hated it at launch.
The critics tore it apart for its floaty physics and the lack of a traditional local versus mode. If you wanted to fight your friends, you had to go online. In 2014, that was a bold move that backfired spectacularly because Dragon Ball fans are, if nothing else, traditionalists. They wanted to sit on a couch and beat each other up. Instead, they got a game where you had to manage "GENKI" energy and coordinate heal spells. It was jarring.
The Team Dynamic Nobody Asked For (But Some Loved)
The core of Dragon Ball Z Battle of Z is the class system. This is where the game deviates from every other title in the series. Characters are split into four distinct roles: Fighting, Ki Blast, Support, and Interference.
Think about that for a second.
In what other world is Goku categorized as a "Fighting Type" while someone like Android 18 is a "Support Type" who exists primarily to give energy to others? It changed the fundamental DNA of a Dragon Ball fight. You couldn't just 1v4 the entire Ginyu Force by being better at combos. If you didn't have a Support character backing you up with heals or a Ki Blast type providing cover fire, you were going to get overwhelmed. The AI was notoriously aggressive. It didn't wait its turn. It just jumped you.
This created a specific kind of chaos that hasn't been replicated since. You'd have four players all locked onto different targets, or all four dog-piling Great Ape Vegeta. It was messy. It was loud. It was undeniably Dragon Ball in its scale, even if the mechanics felt a bit like they were held together by duct tape and hope.
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The Problem With Combat Depth
Let's be real: the combat was shallow. You had one melee button and one Ki blast button. You didn't have the intricate 50-hit combos of FighterZ or the directional inputs of Budokai 3. Most of your time was spent chasing enemies through the air because the knockback physics were tuned to eleven. You’d hit a guy, he’d fly three miles away, and you’d have to dash for five seconds just to catch up.
It felt floaty.
Weightlessness is a common complaint in 3D anime games, but Dragon Ball Z Battle of Z took it to an extreme. Since the game was designed around 4-on-4 combat, the developers couldn't make the individual 1v1 mechanics too complex, or the screen would have become an unreadable nightmare of particle effects and button prompts. They sacrificed depth for scale. Whether that was a fair trade depends entirely on how much you enjoy "Sync V-Abilities" and "Max Chain" attacks.
Why the Graphics Still Kind of Hold Up
Visually, the game was a departure from the cel-shaded look that dominated the era. It had this strange, plastic-like sheen on the character models. It wasn't "realistic," but it was vibrant. The environments were massive—they had to be to accommodate eight people flying around at Mach speeds.
If you go back and play it on a Vita or a PS3 today, the colors pop in a way that Xenoverse often misses. Xenoverse went for a slightly grittier, washed-out look. Dragon Ball Z Battle of Z felt like a toy box. The character selection screen alone, with its cards and customizable items, felt like you were collecting physical merchandise. It was tactile.
The Card System and Customization
Instead of leveling up stats directly, you equipped cards. These cards were the lifeblood of your build. Some boosted melee, others reduced the cost of special moves. It was a precursor to the "Z-Soul" or "Super Soul" systems we see in modern games.
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The grind was real, though.
If you wanted the best cards—like the ones that gave you infinite energy for a limited time—you had to S-Rank the hardest missions. This meant dealing with the game's biggest flaw: the partner AI. If you weren't playing with three actual humans, your AI teammates would often stand around like they were waiting for a bus while Frieza blasted you into orbit. It was frustrating. It was punishing. But when a plan actually came together, and you saw four players coordinate a "Meteor Chain" to bounce an enemy back and forth like a hacky sack, it was glorious.
The Cultural Context of 2014
To understand why Dragon Ball Z Battle of Z exists, you have to look at what was happening with the brand at the time. Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods had just come out. The franchise was waking up after a long slumber. This game was the first time we got to play as Super Saiyan God Goku or Beerus in a console title.
It was a transitional period.
The "Meteor" and "Blast" era was over, and developers were desperately trying to find the "next big thing" for Dragon Ball gaming. They were experimenting with Kinect games (which we don't talk about) and mobile-style mechanics. Battle of Z was the peak of that experimentation. It took risks. It failed in many ways, but it wasn't boring. It wasn't a retread of the same game we'd been playing since 2004.
The Legacy of the "Large Scale" Battle
The DNA of this game lives on, mostly in Dragon Ball Xenoverse. The multi-man battles, the quest-based structure, and the emphasis on a customizable "loadout" all started here. Even the giant boss battles—fighting Great Apes or Hirudegarn—were refined in Battle of Z before becoming a staple of later titles.
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But it’s also a warning. It’s a reminder that fans care about local multiplayer. The backlash against the lack of split-screen was so loud that it arguably changed how Bandai Namco approached the next five years of development. They realized that you can't strip away the "couch" element of a fighting game without losing the soul of the community.
Facts Most People Forget About the Game
- The Vita Version: It was actually one of the better-looking games on the PlayStation Vita. While the console versions felt a bit empty, having a full-scale DBZ brawler on a handheld was a huge deal at the time.
- The Soundtrack: It didn't use the Bruce Faulconer score or the original Shunsuke Kikuchi music. It had a generic, rocking soundtrack that somehow fit the frantic pace of the 4v4 matches.
- The "Special" Outfits: We got Naruto-Goku. It was a pre-order bonus or DLC that put Goku in Naruto’s Sage Mode outfit. It was the ultimate "early 2010s" crossover moment that felt like a fever dream.
How to Play It Today (If You’re Brave)
If you're looking to revisit Dragon Ball Z Battle of Z, you’re going to have a bit of a hard time. It’s not backward compatible on modern consoles. You need a physical copy for PS3, Xbox 360, or a Vita.
Here is what you need to know if you're diving back in:
- Don't play it like a fighter. If you try to play it like Budokai, you will hate it. Play it like a third-person shooter or an action RPG. Focus on positioning, not frame data.
- Focus on the Support Role. The game is significantly easier if you play a support character and keep your idiot AI teammates alive. Use characters like Gohan (Kid) or Android 18 to keep the heals flowing.
- The Card Shop is your friend. Spend your premium points on high-level cards early. Don't hoard them. The difficulty spikes around the Android Saga are brutal if you haven't boosted your defense.
- Embrace the chaos. This game shines when things are falling apart. When there are lasers everywhere and three different people are screaming "Kamehameha" at the same time, that's the intended experience.
Dragon Ball Z Battle of Z isn't the best game in the series. It’s probably not even in the top five. But it’s an important piece of history. It represents a moment when the developers weren't afraid to break the mold and try something fundamentally different. In a world of safe sequels and recycled assets, there's something respectable about a game that swings for the fences and misses by a mile.
If you find it in a bargain bin, grab it. Just don't expect it to be the game you remember from your childhood. It's its own weird, flawed, energetic beast.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Check local retro gaming shops or eBay for a PS3 or Xbox 360 copy, as digital stores have largely delisted the DLC.
- If you're playing on an emulator, look for "60 FPS" patches to fix the choppy animations that plagued the original hardware.
- Join specialized Discord communities or subreddits focused on "Obscure DBZ Games" if you want to find a group for the 8-player online Battle Royale mode, which is the only way to experience the game's true potential.