He’s no Jackie Chun, but he will do.
Bandai Namco announced Master Roshi as the next character to be included in FighterZ Pass 3 during the Dragon Ball FighterZ Show stream last Saturday. Players were also given a brief outline of what to expect from the game in terms of its official National Championship and additional Dragon Ball FighterZ Show streams. While viewers were told upfront that the character reveal wouldn’t occur until an hour into the stream, there was still a fair amount of information presented to keep them interested throughout the wait.
With all major competitions transitioning to online, players have been asking developers for revisions to the online system in many fighting games. The hope is that instead of simply updating their standard delay-based netcode, developers would replace it with a more stable and efficient rollback netcode. Unfortunately, at least for now, Dragon Ball FighterZ will not receive any rollback updates in the near future, as confirmed by Tomoko Hiroki, the game’s producer.
While sure to disappoint those hoping for better online capabilities, Hiroki did announce additional balance updates coming to the game, with a large focus on the Z-assist mechanic. Hiroki noted that while previously adding three assists per character allowed for more experimentation, there are still many characters with assists that go unutilized. The hope is that with additional balancing, more assists will become viable for competitive play.
To work around the current online connectivity issues with players at long distances, the team is planning the Dragon Ball FighterZ National Championship. This online regional tournament puts players from selected nations against others in their country with the playoffs bringing the winners together at the end of the year. The nations include; France, Spain, Japan, and the United States. The US starts out split between the west and east coasts and narrows down in later matches. More details are to be revealed in the future as once the players reveal takes place in September.
Speaking of September, that’s when the Turtle Hermit, Master Roshi himself, arrives in Dragon Ball FighterZ as the third character in FighterZ Pass 3. While we got our first look at Master Roshi during the stream, it was incredibly brief, and for some, myself included, not worth the wait. The portion of the trailer that showcases Master Roshi only includes an auto combo and a victory animation bringing his total showtime to about 13 seconds. While Dragon Ball FighterZ trailers have been historically short, this is a new experience altogether.
Understandably, development for games and all media needed an adjustment period for the current pandemic, but with this being the last bit of information for the game since Ultra Instinct Goku’s inclusion in May, it would have been appreciated to have gotten something more substantial. Even the artwork for the two remaining characters would have helped bring more excitement to the stream than what was presented, especially considering fans were aware of the Master Roshi announcement since July, even if Bandai Namco tried to play off otherwise. We don’t even have an exact date for when Roshi will release, but if the past is any indicator, it will be one of the last days of September.
All we learned from the first look is that Master Roshi uses the Evil Containment Wave or Mafuba as one of his super moves and that for some reason, his Dragon Ball Super design was chosen instead of one of his more traditional appearances. No turtle shell, no orange shirt, no Jackie Chun alternate, and no swole install (at least for now). All we know for sure is that we get the old man in a tank top and a pair of brown pants. Players won’t have to wait too much longer to learn about the character though since there will be a specific Master Roshi showcase featured in the next Dragon Ball FighterZ Show also planned for sometime in September.
The road for Dragon Ball FighterZ DLC announcements has always been a long one. Little did we know that the first FighterZ Pass would be the most plentiful one, with the highest number of additional characters and releases done in pairs instead of one at a time. Since then, updates have been in short supply with announcements typically leaked from issues in Shonen Jump and not spoken of by the game’s own channels for an undetermined amount of time with each release.
While these Dragon Ball FighterZ Show streams seem like a step in the right direction, only getting 13 seconds of new character content in the first entry does not instill much confidence. Perhaps it would have been better to hold off any announcement until the character was ready for a substantial showcase. It will definitely be interesting to see how the future of the game is handled with later events.
What do you think about Master Roshi in Dragon Ball FighterZ? What do you hope to see from his showcase next month? What is your feedback for the next Dragon Ball FighterZ Show? Who’s on your wishlist for the last two characters in FighterZ Pass 3? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Bandai Namco