21 Takeaways From Our Time With The Dragon Ball FighterZ Beta

Dragon Ball FighterZ from developer Arc System Works was one of the big surprises to come out of E3, and this weekend, select fans finally got a chance to try it out with the game's beta.

Game Informer's fighting game expert (Suriel Vazquez) and Dragon Ball expert (me) both spent time with the game this weekend taking note of its assorted mechanics, as well as some other benign oddities we noticed while playing. You can watch the video below to hear us talk about our points, or you can check out the written list below.

• The end user license took way too long to agree to. Or, you could say it took me too long to realize you could hit right on the d-pad to scroll faster.
• The chibi versions of the Z-Fighters are adorable, and you can make them stand inside one another to make them look very stupid.
• You can use Dragon Ball stamps in the lobby to confuse those around you.
• The replay mode is a nice way to watch good players play well, but it’s chaotic.
• You can spam a picture of Cell yelling and it's a lot of fun.
• Krillin likes to pretend he doesn’t know who his wife is in the lobby area for some reason.
• In the beta there were closed off areas showcasing familiar Dragon Ball Z locales like the ship to take you to Namek, Kame House, The World Martial Arts Tournament arena, Cell’s Combat arena, Snake Way, a snowy place, and an area that looks like it may be West City, if the round thing in the corner is any indication.
• The area where everyone stands around fighting is kind of ridiculous, but in a charming way that I like.
• You set your team before you start matchmaking, as opposed to choosing your fighter right before the match starts.
• Android 16’s Ultimate Z kills the opponent, but it almost kills him, too.
• Android 18’s Ultimate Z calls in her brother, 17, to help, or Krillin if they're on the same team.
• Majin Buu’s Ultimate Z turns you into a cookie that he eats, and if he kills you with it, he swallows you.
• Goku goes Super Saiyan 3 for his Ultimate Z.
• Gohan’s Ultimate Z calls in his father to help, just like he did when he defeated Cell.
• Frieza’s Ultimate Z makes him take on his Golden Frieza form from the movie, Resurrection F.
• You can delay swapping to your second character's super for a while (Suriel was able to catch someone off guard with this).
• Powering up isn't super useful, since it's easy to react to and punish it. Suriel was only able to do it once without getting hit.
• Super dashes were very common in the people we played against, but you can beat them with attacks if you see them coming.
• Like in Marvel Vs. Capcom (another team fighter), you can beat an assist and deal damage to two characters at once in a single combo. The damage to the secondary character isn't as severe as in Marvel, though.
• You can block ki attacks, but you can also swap them away.
• The beta was entirely in Japanese, but the final game will offer English voice-over options.

Dragon Ball FighterZ releases PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC February 2018.