d lisboa @DLisboa14 - Twitter Profile

This is going to be a long post and it’s something that I’ve been discussing a lot recently in videos but just going to describe what the current issue is. Disclaimer that this is not meant to be a doom and gloom post but to be an attempt to explain what I believe to be the biggest problem in the game that has been bubbling since pre Legends fest (which I discussed back in November and warned them about back then). Also, I don’t think we’re in a red alert situation yet but it certainly feels like we’re getting closer and closer to one with almost each release. Goku & Bardock’s problem is the same problem almost every offensive unit in the game has: you simply cannot combo. Battle system restrictions + the most egregious disrupt we’ve ever seen all combine to create an environment where after using 2 maybe 3 cards in a row it becomes impossible to continue, which is what this unit wants to do. They’ve implemented so many countermeasures against combos, sidestepping, and chargestepping that outright spamming cards is the overall better offensive strategy in most instances. This is why characters like RED Broly and Legend Rose are some of the few units who can actually combo because they thrive off of just spamming cards. All of the disrupt, autocounters, battle system restrictions, supporter effects, etc. all combine to create way too many restrictions on what the player can do at any given point but where it’s most tangible is for characters designed around combos like Goku & Bardock. A typical example is you find yourself in a situation where you do not have any switches available and have 1 or 2 cards in your hand with enough ki to choose 1 of them. Not a lot needs to happen for you to end up in a position like that because of how restrictive everything is now. This results in leaving the player with almost no decision making power which is the core element of what makes games fun and engaging. It really does feel like they’ve almost designed themselves into a corner after just barely a year since resetting their design philosophy prior to the 7th anniversary. To me, it feels like we are in an extremely similar situation to what we saw in late 2024/early 2025 but in the exact opposite direction - instead of nonstop offensive combos, we’re now experiencing an environment where combos are pretty much nonexistent and I don’t really see a way they can realistically get back to a balanced ecosystem of offense and defense outside of simply rethinking the design philosophy yet again (IE higher damage guard numbers across the board but less disruption effects). It feels like there is an extreme lack of grand vision when implementing mechanics on characters. How do these mechanics not just affect the character but also the overall game? What characters, tags, and new mechanics do we plan on implementing in the near future that can coexist with this new release and how will they interact with each other? These are basic, novice level game design questions that do not seem to be explored by the devs whenever new character releases. This is extremely apparent due to the huge delta in performance for new releases and buffs for old character such as zenkais and unique equipment. Not enough time and effort is going into playtesting and I would also argue not enough is going into the planning phase either since a lot of these problems are also conceptual that don’t even need to make it to the testing phase to begin with. I understand that a lot of these changes were made to dumb down the “skill” level needed to be able to achieve good performance in the game to a comical degree. (IE the infamous ki reduction on backfloat 2.7 battle system change). But at what point is it dumbed down enough? I implore the development team to reevaluate what type of environment they want to cultivate in this game because I don’t see things ending well if they continue down the same trajectory.

98

2K

152

247

179K