Dragon Ball Legends: The new free to play mobile reference?

After Dokkan Battle , which sits alongside Clash Royale and Summoners War among the most profitable applications of mobile blinds, Bandai Namco is back with a new " Gacha " free to play Dragon Ball with seductive promises. Remarkable visuals for mobile games, 3D and real-time battles for PvP, a gameplay that really involves the players, a license that still unleashes the crowds ... Dragon Ball Legends has everything from the perfect pool to golden eggs, to which the fans of the manga of Akira Toriyama are likely to fall addicted.

KAMEHAMEHA AT THE END OF THE THUMB

Seeing a new video game stamped Dragon Ball is always exciting for anyone who has been rocked by the sound of "Cha-La Head Cha-La", "We Gotta Power" and other animated credits of the anime. Even when it comes to an umpteenth Gacha for smartphones, these games in which we must repeat the chain of missions not always exciting, patiently bailing his stock of a currency (here, crystals of time) that the we can also acquire by unsheathing the blue card, and advance characters recovered mostly through random draws. Goku, Vegeta, Freezer and Company are here represented in the form of trading cards. Until then, nothing new ... at least, that's whatsee our heroes modeled on a 3D aerial battlefield.

No more colorful Ki balls to line up and turn-based action: Legends swaps Dokkan Battle's gameplay reminiscent of Puzzle Bobble for real-time, more brutal and dynamic, but no less strategic battles. Here, no time to breathe: you have to fight against the screen to give basic shots, slide his finger so as to dodge the attacks and move his character in beautiful decor reminiscent of Xenoverse. It is also necessary to manage judiciously its gauge of Ki in order to use the cards of "arts" available at the bottom of the screen. These can trigger automated combos melee or distance, special attacks (Kaméhame, Masenko ...) or benefit from a stats buff. Uninterrupted action time of one to two minutes, until the three characters of one of the two camps are all KO The strategy keeps an important role, a wheel of the elements coming to emphasize the team composition. As high as the stats of your Broly "Sparking", the rarity of highest card, blue color, it will be naturally disadvantaged in front of a Yamcha "Extreme", the scarcity just inferior, of green color.

The gameplay offers a good compromise between grip, tactics and dynamism for a particularly engaging set . Everything is scripted and automated, but the feeling of gameplay is more than pleasant. The graphic rendering is impeccable: the colors are bright and explosive animations faithfully transcribe the gestures of our own heroes . The action also offers the luxury of not rowing a fart, even without owning a trendy smartphone. At first glance, Dragon Ball Legends is full of sight, so as to better attract the player into the complex, and often cruel, gear Gacha.

THE SHALLOT CASE

Unlike other Gacha who start directly with a first random draw, Dragon Ball Legends puts us directly in the control of a new character common to all players: the well-named Shallot. This Saiyan "lost in time" and amnesiac, straight out of the imagination of Mr. Toriyama please, acts as protagonist of the original scenario that we follow in Legends, in a story mode divided into chapters and missions. Level originality, it does not break three legs to a Saïbaïman, so that we will quickly abuse the function "pass" for dialogues. It is about yet another spatio-temporal problem with Trunks as master of ceremonies, a tournament pitting fighters of all times and an unknown enemy threatening the tranquility of the Universe.

The ideal context to gather Broly, Freezer, Pan, and other heroes existing in different chronologies, even if currently it is necessary to be satisfied with about fifty characters . As you might expect, additional warriors invite themselves regularly to the party, especially through scripted events each bringing about ten additional fights. In one month of the game's existence, we were able to face Nappa and Raditz during the Arc Saiyan, then the Ginyu Commando during the Arc Namek. If some passages are put aside, we can only appreciate these events, illustrated with images directly taken from the anime, which come to energize our routine on the game.

Bandai Namco reproduces here a loop of gameplay proven time and again in the Gacha market. We spend our energy points to advance in the story (our gauge always contains ten maximum, and reloads one point every 15 minutes), our characters become stronger, and our account increases of "Z level ". At the heart of the progression: a system of missions that offer rewards by accomplishing various and varied game facts. The peculiarity is that there is no autoplay, unlike many Gacha. To progress, you have to really play, chain the fights and juggling between a dozen different menus at loading times often lengths.Difficult not to quickly feel the weight of repetitiveness, a default inherent in the genre of Gacha, since the gameplay is never renewed.

For short game sessions (20-30 minutes), there is plenty to have fun and progress without a hitch. The energy limitation, however, requires a daily return to the title to hope to tour the 100% temporary events before they disappear. Especially since we must also take the time to invest in the most advanced game mechanisms. Just look at the card of a character to see the extent: passive capabilities that offer several possible synergies, talent trees and equipment to boost the statistics pure level of friendship to transmit the special ability to one character to another ... a bunch of systems can be exploited in order to perfect his team. The hardest farmers have something to do, but the title does not forget to let the skills of the player behind his smartphone weigh in the balance. That's pretty good, since Legends is first and foremost thought for PvP.

PVP WITHOUT FUSS?

After tightening your thumb and hurting the battery of your smartphone to compose a sufficiently robust team, comes the moment to launch in PvP. The reasons for doing so are many, starting with the competitive side, articulated around a system of rankings and ranks that leave gleaming beautiful rewards at the end of each season.(every two weeks or so) Get ready to wake up the Ultra Instinct that lies dormant in you: stay on the alert at all times, use the dodge wisely to teleport behind the opponent and enjoy the opening to trigger a combo if the timing is good. Once a combo cashed, the only way to defend yourself is to switch between two characters to better cash the shots. It's all about making the right decision at the right time, paying close attention to visual cues. Of course, the "whales", these players who spend lavishly to fill their collection of cards, have a definite advantage. In particular, the faulta system of duplicates uncommon: a card retrieved in multiple copies is converted into "Power Z", resource that slightly increases the statistics of the character in question futures. Rest assured: if you know how to play and your fighters are well trained, it is quite possible to get by any opponent.

Playable without limits, with relatively stable servers as long as you are in 4G or Wi-Fi, PvP is the mode where you will spend most of your time after exhausting your energy supply. For a free to play, having a game mode to turn to without fear of being stopped is more than appreciable . Especially since it also allows you to quickly accumulate time crystals at each rise of rank, and to take advantage of Adventures and Workouts, the two "passive" game systems, especially useful to start. Fighters are sent on a mission, and they return automatically after half an hour by bringing back with them training objects, Zennis or fragments of soul for the trees of talent.

CRYSTAL BALL

Of course, Dragon Ball Legends does not escape its nature of Gacha free to play. Difficult, however, to criticize the way this model is applied here. The incentive to purchase is minimal, the title does not suffer insurmountable peaks of difficulty that artificially slow the progression, and most importantly, everything can be unlocked by playing. Already remarkably generous in connection bonuses and other special gifts, it also offers the opportunity to make a daily draw of 20 crystals (against the 100 usually requested) on each banner, in the manner of Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius. Knowing that finishing the daily missions, which requires just fifteen minutes, grants 20 crystals, Bandai Namco found the ideal way to retain its audience.

With this in mind, additions to content are already playing a key role. It does not happen a week without a chapter in the Story or Events mode, allowing everyone to unlock fighters (including Sparking!), To be added. Dokkan Battle regulars will also be pleased to see that Legends has inherited its extended maintenance. Invocation portals are becoming rarer, which allows time to enrich its collection while ensuring not to upset the balancing currently in place. If the meta-game and the possible strategies are limited for the moment, they may quickly diversify. The foundations laid in a few weeks are in any case exciting. Let's just hope that, like Dokkan Battle, the card's power curve does not explode prematurely, or the fighters in vogue become obsolete.