Arc System Works was the perfect fit for Dragon Ball FighterZ

Producer Tomoko Hiroki talks developer choice and how they don't want to "reproduce the anime" but rather the image that users keep in their minds.

We sat down for a chat with producer Tomoko Hiroki to learn more about the spectacular visual treat that is Dragon Ball FighterZ.

"When making this game we thought that there could be noone else to work with but Arc System Works, because in terms of the fighting game genre Arc System Works is known for their genuine and hardcore fighting games. So we wanted to reproduce that in this game as well."

"The second [reason] is we wanted create a very high-end animated [...] expression as you can probably tell through the trailers that we've released and Arc System is known for that so for these two reasons we thought that Arc System was the only developer that we could work with in order to create something great."

The brilliant over-the-top animations of the game was really well received during E3 and Hiroki explained that it wasn't always looking this good in development.

"To be completely honest it was really difficult for us to bring together this supra high-end anime expression. Even before going into the graphical engines, since Dragon Ball has been running for such a long time if we simply reproduce that anime that's been running 20 years ago then it's not going to feel new and I'm sure that players will feel that it feels kind of old when you look at it as a game. Even if Dragon Ball was running 20 years ago in the user's mind they're constantly refreshing visuals. All the time. Every time they remember Dragon Ball it's very vivid. So if they just see a simple reproduction they will definitely feel that it's old. And we've been getting internal feedback from our company saying that it kind of feels old. So at one point the visuals of this game weren't that good. What we've been trying to really work on with the development company is how to not change the image of Dragon Ball and yet bring something new to the users. I would say, not reproducing the anime, but reproducing the memory that the user has in their mind."

The conversation also revolved around the character roster, assist moves, and more.

Dragon Ball FighterZ is due out on PC (digital), PS4, and Xbox One early next year.