Team Dimps is no stranger to the game Dragon Ball. They have spearheaded the development of several titles such as the Dragon Ball Xenoverse series, the Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi series, and the Super Dragon All Heroes series. From the fighting game genre to the TCG genre, they understand the power of the Dragon Ball universe in its many forms and now they have stepped up to the new challenge of creating an asymmetrical multiplayer survival game!
Dragon Ball: The Breakers is the latest game developed by the Dimps team and it will release for PS4 on October 14th. Before launch, we want to bring Dragon Ball fans and game fans alike. play Survival a chance to hear more about what’s behind -developing footage with an exclusive interview with the Dimps team and our own Bandai Namco Entertainment producer, Ryosuke Hara!
Thank you for joining us for an interview at such an exciting time for Dragon Ball: The Breakers! Please introduce yourself and your role in the game.
Ryosuke Hara: Hi, I’m Ryosuke Hara, producer of Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.
Yoshiya Otsuka: Nice to meet you. I’m Yoshiya Otsuka, developer at Dimps Corporation.
We are happy to invite you to the interview! As you work on producing several Dragon Ball titles, we wanted to ask you what excites you most about working on Dragon Ball: The Breakers?
RH: From a broader perspective, it was exciting for us to take on the challenge of developing a Dragon Ball game that has never been done before. While there are challenges because of the unprecedented nature of the project, at the same time we can experience a level of excitement that the makers of Dragon Ball games have never experienced before. From a smaller perspective, as a Dragon Ball fan, I really enjoyed spending some time thinking about what kind of skins the Raiders and Survivor characters would add and what skills to include to make it more interesting. Every time I do this, I realize that the appeal of Dragon Ball is unexplored and we haven’t fully exploited it yet.
It’s an incredible achievement for Dimps having more than 20 years of experience developing Dragon Ball games. What excites you most about working on Dragon Ball: The Breakers?
YO: What excites me is that this is a game that breaks the rules of previous Dragon Ball games. Dragon Ball is traditionally a one-on-one game, or game in which players fight in teams of the same number of players. However, the game is an asymmetrical one-on-seven action game that challenges the genre in a way that has never been tried before. Additionally, instead of controlling main characters like Goku and Vegeta, the player will control ordinary people in the Dragon Ball World, such as Bulma and Oolong, who were unplayable in previous Dragon Ball games. this. We hope that our customers will enjoy the Dragon Ball world that they have not been able to experience in previous Dragon Ball games.
We’d be happy to be able to ask both of you some questions to learn more about the development process. For starters, what considerations do you need to take when developing an asymmetrical multiplayer survival game with 7 survivors trying to escape a super powerful Raider?
RH: The concept of “superior difference in strength” is unique to Dragon Ball. There are many asymmetric fighting games in the world today, but I don’t think there is any game in the world where characters from the same universe have such a big difference in strength compared to Dragon Ball.
YO: The balance to create an asymmetrical 1 vs 7 game, while creating an “overwhelming power difference unique to Dragon Ball” is one of the factors we’ve been careful about. It sounds contradictory at first because we want to achieve an overwhelming power disparity while maintaining balance, but without this balance, the game won’t work. Even now, we’re still tweaking the balance through testing right before launch. Since we will continue to operate the game after launch, constantly tweaking the balance while adding new characters will be an ongoing issue.
During a match, survivors can encounter one of three Raiders – Cell, Frieza or Majin Buu. As the game begins, the Raider begins with its first form and then evolves over time. This is an exciting and dynamic element unique to the survival game genre as it allows Raider players to also develop their strategy during the match. It also creates a sense of urgency for the remaining Survivors! How has your team implemented the concepts of each form into each Raid player?
RH: To summarize, we differentiate our play styles in the following ways:
- Umbrella: “Comprehensive Type” with fast growth and stable search skills
- Frieza: “Technical type”, where the key is to use his search skills
- Buu: The “High Risk, High Return Type” develops slowly but hunts for Survivors instantly in the second half of the game.
Which Raider design do you love and why?
RH: I like Frieza better. I can place Zarbon and Dodoria anywhere on the map with my skills and I can place them well to have Survivors lurking around or place them in front of Survivors to prevent them from respawning. born by other Survivors. This raider is fun to use as it offers a wide variety of strategies.
YO: I would say Cell. When you select the Umbrella and the game starts with the larva, that’s when you feel this is something you can only experience in this game. In a sense, Cell is a character that symbolizes the game, so I hope that you will become Cell and strive to go from larva to final form.
Caption: Not the gameplay scene.
The Breakers has a unique twist to the survival game genre where the main goal of survivors is to escape instead of focusing on combat. What is the reason for this element of the game?
RH: BNE has produced a lot of Dragon Ball games. Most of these games focus on battles and retell the original story. While I feel that this is to be expected, given that is what Dragon Ball looks like and what many people find appealing about it, I also wonder if that is really the only appeal of Dragon. Ball or not, and at the same time, I always had a vague feeling that this was not the case. I came up with the idea that the threat of super-soldier battles could be felt more strongly by viewing them not from the point of view of the powerful characters, but from the point of view of ordinary people. often, taking a little cue from the existence of unique characters like Bulma and Oolong, who have no superpowers and don’t participate in battles. Furthermore, the “asymmetrical battle” game genre is already well known in the industry and the development of this title started from the point of view that the combination of this game genre and asymmetrical battles has can create new IP value and synergy.
In The Breakers, there’s a game engine called Dragon Change where Survivors can borrow the power of Z fighters, but it’s more often used as a means of escape than combat. This is a bit different from other Dragon Ball games where the main focus is on battles. How did they design survival characters who are basically helpless?
YO: In order to create the concept of “superior strength difference that can only be achieved in Dragon Ball”, introduced by Hara-san, “escape games” fit this concept rather than games based on combat was developed earlier. On top of that, by letting ordinary people in the Dragon Ball world like Bulma and Oolong be part of the game, it resulted in an experience never before seen in the game when based on the original story.
In what other way does this game bring elements of the Dragon Ball series to make it a recognizable part of the universe? (What are some of the iconic elements of Dragon Ball and the moments in the story that players can find as they go through different matches and maps?)
RH: This game takes a different perspective from previous Dragon Ball games, with elements representing the original story scattered throughout the game. The most obvious examples are Bulma, Oolong, and Farmer, who don’t have superpowers. Their traits and skills won’t be used in previous fighting games, but the title is designed in such a way that they can use it to their full advantage. On the Raider side, the evolution, destroying areas, defeating civilians, and other experiences roaming the map as an enemy character are all new origin story experiences. There are many other elements in the game, such as summoning Shenron by collecting 7 dragon balls, using different skills, Changing Dragons, etc., but I hope that you will experience it for yourself. them while playing the game.
Finally, it would be nice to end with some cool tips for players! What are some of your tips for being a Raider and being a Survivor?
RH: We believe that the shortest way to defeat Survivors is for Raid gamers to use their eyes and ears to search for survivors, in addition to using their special skills and moves. In particular, the ears tend to be neglected, so we hope that you will put on your headphones and search for the Survivor effectively. It is important for Survivors to simulate in advance what they will do when attacked by a Raid. At first, they may try to escape by simply running, but of course Raid gamers will catch up soon, so we want you to customize your own escape after understanding the characteristics. his skills.
YO: Survivors will prefer to cooperate with other players to escape, but there are many elements for players to communicate with each other, such as stamps, emojis and cues, so we hope that You will enjoy the game using these elements. We hope that you will enjoy the game as much as we do. The Raiders also have custom voices that allow them to say Cell and Frieza’s lines at any time from the original story. Cell and Frieza’s ability to speak lines in combat situations similar to those in the original story is another way to enjoy the game! These items will be added to the game in the future, so we hope that you will continue to enjoy the game long after its release.
Thank you so much for taking the time to discuss Dragon Ball: The Breakers in detail as we get ready to launch the game on PS4 this October 14, 2022!
