If Dragon Ball FighterZ is getting more characters next year, who seem the most likely?
Based on the DLC we saw during the game's first year, these candidates seem to have a pretty good shot
Dragon Ball FighterZ was released in January of this year, and has been doing exceedingly well both commercially and competitively.
Throughout the year, we were treated to eight DLC characters as part of a Season Pass, and given the huge success of the game, it seems likely we'd get another one, though it hasn't been officially confirmed yet.
Last week, I did a piece on what seemed likely as far as additions to Dragon Ball FighterZ overall went if we do indeed get a second season of additional content.
Since then, it's been suggested to me that I do another one that focuses more intricately on the characters specifically, and although I already outlined in broad strokes who I think seems likely for next year if we do indeed get additional fighters, this one will go a bit more in-depth with the characters I'm looking at.
It bears repeating that there's no confirmation we will get a second season of DLC for Dragon Ball FighterZ, nor that any such potential season would contain additional characters, but given the current state of the fighting game genre and how well Dragon Ball FighterZ has done so far, it would be quite a surprise if we didn't.
Now, while one year isn't enough to base a pattern on, it's really all we have to focus on for the time being. This year, we received Bardock, Broly, Fused Zamasu, Vegito, Base Goku, Base Vegeta, Cooler and Android 17 as downloadable characters. Based on these, I have some thoughts on what we could be getting in 2019, based around the same categories, so let's have a look.
Dragon Ball Super characters
Obviously, Dragon Ball Super is the hottest candidate for more content, and has some notable characters showing up in the last arc that aren't part of the game, with the most recent character being Fused Zamasu from an earlier arc.
Being the first canon continuation of Dragon Ball in roughly 20 years, it's no surprise that Dragon Ball Super became popular, but more importantly, something that the companies would want to push. New characters, new forms, new powersets — there's a lot of value here from a merchandise, and of course, video game perspective.
Right now, the Super characters (or from the movies preceding it) present in the game are Beerus, Hit, Goku Black, SSGSS Goku, SSGSS Vegeta, Fused Zamasu and Vegito. There's also Super content on previously existing characters, the most obvious one being Android 17, but also Frieza having his Golden form.
With the Tournament of Power arc being the climax of Dragon Ball Super (at least for now), it seems fairly obvious that they'll want to include characters from it, especially now that it's fully over. Since we already got two Super characters as DLC this year, Fused Zamasu and Vegito, presumably started on right around the time that arc ended, I'd wager some Tournament of Power characters will be incoming.
The obvious standout is Jiren, who is the strongest foe Goku has faced yet, and the main obstacle to overcome in this arc. Another prime candidate comes in the form of two female Saiyans from Universe 6, Caulifla and Kale, who end up doing the Potara fusion to become one. While they could also be added individually, the fused form is their most powerful, and seems more likely.
Finally, Goku reaches a new height in order to defeat Jiren, generally referred to as Ultra Instinct Goku. While I don't think anyone's exactly burning for another Goku to be added to the game, he's the main character, and I don't think anyone was truly burning for a SSGSS Goku to be added, either, but that still happened.
My prediction for DLC from this section: Jiren, Kefla, Ultra Instinct Goku
Classic characters with renewed importance
Before Dragon Ball Super ever came about, Dragon Ball had a very strong cast of characters with varied personalities and powersets. While some characters tended to fall to the wayside, especially the longer the series went on, new ones were also introduced, and in the end, there are a lot of Dragon Ball characters to choose from when making games.
One such character was Android 17, who was common in merchandise and games, who received a new level of importance and relevance in the Tournament of Power arc, when he was brought back to help our heroes, with increased power and new abilities.
Out of the DLC characters from this year, he's the only real example of this phenomenon. You could also look at Frieza as a character who has returned in a big way through Dragon Ball Super, but he was always going to be in the game even if he hadn't gotten new significance due to his already iconic status in the series.
Looking at the Tournament of Power, few characters that had been sidelined really stepped out of their zone, but one old timer was brought in to support the team, namely the Turtle Hermit himself, Master Roshi, one of Goku's very first martial arts trainers.
As far as regular humans go, Master Roshi excels and is definitely past what should be the human limit, but with the power scaling in Dragon Ball he's fallen far behind the current status quo. In a game, though, that doesn't really matter — he was deemed more valuable than Yamcha, for example, who's already part of the game's roster.
Even though he didn't make any gigantic moves, he's an enduring character who's been there from the start, has a lot of unique moves to pick from, and is highly popular and iconic. Master Roshi would be a very welcome addition to the roster, and is likely to please both nostalgic fans who don't really follow the series anymore, and people who are excited about the new content.
As for his general abilities and history, I talked about it a bit already in this previous piece.
My prediction for DLC from this section: Master Roshi
Non-canon and movie characters
If you're a longtime fan of the series, you're well aware that most of the movies for Dragon Ball, while sometimes awesome, are typically not canon to the series, and in most cases can't even be canon due to timeline placement.
Characters being canon or not has never stopped them from becoming popular, though, and one of the characters in this area, Bardock, was in fact so impactful that Akira Toriyama himself decided to pencil him in to the manga after he saw the Anime special based on his last stand against Frieza, though his origin has later been retconned to the quite controversial Dragon Ball Minus which has extremely mixed reception.
Nevertheless, Bardock is now considered canon to the series. The other two characters who fit in this category from this year's DLC are Broly and Cooler, though the next Dragon Ball movie is set to fit within Super canon and reimagine Broly, so they can bring him in to the main timeline as well.
These are fairly obvious picks — Bardock is the father of Goku, meaning he's a significant character to the story despite not appearing in its main chapters, while Broly and Cooler are the only two villains popular enough to headline more than one film each, with every other movie villain relegated to just one main appearance each.
So with those obvious picks out of the way, is there room for more from the movies? Without a doubt. While all the other characters share the distinction of only being villains in one film each, it's obvious from previous merchandise and games that some are simply more popular than others.
Two characters who stand out in this regard are Bojack and Janemba, from the 9th movie and 12th movie for Dragon Ball Z, respectively. These two characters have quite the history in games as well, with Bojack appearing as far back as the 1993 fighting game Super Butoden 2 on the SNES alongside his sidekick Zangya, and Broly.
There's no guarantee that they'll contineu to add movie villains to Dragon Ball FighterZ at all, but both of these have proven quite popular in the past, and would surely make fans of the movies happy, so I personally think we'll get more, especially since that was the biggest grouping for this year's DLC.
My prediction for DLC from this section: Bojack, Janemba
Lower priority Dragon Ball Z picks
There are a lot of fights in Dragon Ball Z that people remember fondly, and it's common for games to have you re-enact all the battles from the series as much as you can. This was not part of Dragon Ball FighterZ, presumably because there wouldn't be that many battles to fight. This is because of a relatively small roster, and minor villains not really being in the roster.
The four major arcs of Dragon Ball Z, the Saiyan Saga, Namek Saga, Androids/Cell Saga and Buu Saga each have minor antagonists that were a thorn in the heroes' sides briefly, and that remain popular game picks which I think are quite likely for us to see.
Filling out the roster with tried and true combatans is definitely something DLC could be good for, since the launch roster would mainly want to focus on getting the very most important characters in there first. None of these really have a claim to fame big enough to replace anyone from the original roster, but now that we have them, they're solid additions I think might happen.
Raditz from the Saiyan Saga sounds more important narratively than he ended up being, since he's Goku's brother. His battle against Goku and Piccolo kickstarted the series for many, who hadn't experienced the regular Dragon Ball, and it is quite the defining moment for the series overall, seeing Goku and Piccolo join forces, as well as Goku actually dying in the battle (they have the Dragon Balls available — don't worry).
He uses several moves that have later been given names in the game series, and he's a strong fighter in his own right. It'd also allow us to make a Raditz, Nappa, Base Vegeta team, and that's just plain amazing.
Zarbon is another antagonist who had notable battles against Vegeta, and served as Frieza's right-hand-man for most purposes, though he is outranked by the Ginyu Force who are only brought it in under extreme circumstances.
He has the ability to transform in battle, something he prefers not to do as he values his beauty, and this could make for an interesting gimmick. Think of it almost like a stance change, where he'd have more brutish and heavy attacks in his monstruous form, while being more elegant and speedy in his normal form.
Dr. Gero is another character who is hugely important narratively, but doesn't do that much fighting in the series. He's the creator of the Androids and Cell, carrying on the grudge against Goku after he destroyed the Red Ribbon Army in early Dragon Ball, as well as the man who made Cell. This is even more relevant in Dragon Ball FighterZ, since Android 21 was created for the game.
Eventually, Gero made himself into an Android — Android 20 — and he fights briefly in the series before being killed by Android 17. There's still much you could use for a Android 20 moveset that isn't currently in the game, such as his energy absorption ability through the palms of his hands. He also has eye beams and the scene where he almost killed Yamcha by impaling him — there's more than enough to make a hype moveset, for sure.
Finally, in the Buu Saga, the most menacing opponent before Majin Buu himself is revived is the King of the Demon World, Dabura. A powerful fighter in his own right with a wealth of different energy attacks, he also has other interesting areas that would make him a fun character to add.
He uses a sword when he fights (the only character currently in the game to do so is Future Trunks), but perhaps more intriguing is his ability to turn his opponent to stone by spitting on them. There's a ton of stuff you could figure out with this, especially with ArcSys and how many interesting gimmicks they tend to put in their games, so I really hope they end up going for him as DLC.
In the end, this is an area I find difficult to call. I think all four of these have decent chances, but since I also firmly believe in my previous picks, I'd only expect two from here. I can't really call it, but I think two of these four are extremely likely to be joining the roster in 2019.
My prediction for DLC from this section: Two out of four from Raditz, Zarbon, Dr. Gero and Dabura
What do you think about the chances of my picks? Any characters you're hoping to see next year, or any characters you're expecting to see? Let us know in the comments.