The newly announced Dragon Ball: The Breakers is the latest game in the Dragon Ball series, and the announcement trailer promises something radically different from what players have seen in titles like Xenoverse. The series has been going strong with the success of Dragon Ball Fighterz and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. However, The Breakers is taking a different approach, with its trailer already showcasing its Dead by Daylight-like qualities.
In The Breakers, players will play as bystanders who attempt to survive an attack from either Frieza, Cell, or Buu, and escape from their doomed timeline. The concept of battles taking place across time does hearken back to the Xenoverse games and their series-spanning plot following the adventures of the Time Patrol. With the success of the Dragon Ball: Xenoverse games, it makes sense that they would include some similar elements in a new game. However, outside of a few breadcrumbs in the premise, it is clear that The Breakers will be a far different experience than anything offered in Xenoverse.
One definite difference is that, unlike most Dragon Ball games, The Breakers is not in the fighting genre. The players who aren't playing as the Raider will have to do their best to evade him at all costs, otherwise the Raider will not only kill them, but evolve from doing so. As a result, not only will the other players not be fighting for most of the game, they will be doing everything that they can in order to avoid confrontation at all. It is a Dragon Ball game about surviving, not fighting. This is reflected in the characters featured in the trailer, Bulma and Oolong, who rarely appear in other Dragon Ball games due to their lack of fighting prowess.
Dragon Ball: The Breakers Isn't A Fighting Game
There is one other thing that sets the two games apart. In Xenoverse, the player is tasked with fixing problems in timelines so that history can continue as it should. However, in The Breakers, the timeline is already doomed, and there are no Z Fighters or Time Patrollers on their way to help. The only thing that the survivors can do is try to escape before the Raider finishes the job and wipes them out as well. It borrows much more from horror games like Dead by Daylight than it does from any Dragon Ball game, characters notwithstanding. There is no epic battle with the big villain. Instead, the most the player can accomplish is not dying.
The Breakers looks set to mark major tonal shift from Xenoverse and the wider Dragon Ball franchise. Dragon Ball is traditionally a series famed for its action setpieces and amazing fights, with heroes and villains alike having dramatic entrances and amazing displays of raw power. Instead, The Breakers will put players in the shoes of those on the sidelines of those fights, the people who have their day ruined by the villain and can only hope to survive. It's quite a departure from Dragon Ball's heroes who always grow stronger.
Dragon Ball: The Breakers is building up to be a wholly unique entry in the franchise. The series has featured elements of horror previously, but never before in any of the Dragon Ball fighting games. The jump from putting players in the shoes of powerful protagonists with endless determination, to near-powerless people just trying to survive, is a major one, but it could yield impressive results.