Dragon Ball: The Breakers is an unlikely new direction for Dragon Ball games, but also a promising one.
The newly revealed title from Bandai Namco looks to be a Dead by Daylight-inspired asymmetric online multiplayer game which locks a group of seven survivors in a struggle to escape from a lone raider. Potential survivors include familiar characters such as Bulma and long-suffering pig-man Oolong, while the raiders' ranks are composed of Frieza, Cell, and Majin Buu (at least to start).
Enter the temporal seam. Will you match as one of the 7 survivors or with you take the role of the rival Raider? Introducing #DRAGONBALL: The Breakers, coming in 2022. Closed Beta Test coming soon to PC.Pre-order: https://t.co/JN7MiV80QN pic.twitter.com/3fBjU01eQPNovember 16, 2021
We don't typically think of Dragon Ball as a horror series, but Dragon Ball: The Breakers seems to embrace just how terrifying it would feel for a regular human (or pig person) who is trying to survive in a city under siege by an unknowably powerful entity. Since each match takes place in a "temporal seam" separate from the main timeline, there won't be any help from Goku and the gang; the survivors' only hope is to find a means of escape.
Meanwhile, playing as a raider lets you enjoy the villains' fantastic power without being immediately counterbalanced by the Z Fighters' ever-rising power level. Destroy whole portions of the map to give survivors less room to hide, track them with your unique abilities, and catch them one by one to evolve into a more perfect form.
Dragon Ball: The Breakers is headed to PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2022, and PC players will have the first chance to try it out with a closed beta test "coming soon."
Meanwhile, it looks like the Dead by Daylight studio may have a new AAA project in the works for Xbox.
