With the launch of the new Dragon Ball Super Fusion card game by Bandai Namco, players quickly downloaded the game to give it a try. However, one glaring issue emerged: the client’s lackluster design.
This iteration of the Dragon Ball Super Master card game aimed to rectify past mistakes by offering a less complicated experience, catering to casual players. Fans of the One Piece Card Game may notice similarities, though differences lie in the mana system and Combo effect.
Visuals and Sound
Unfortunately, the game’s visuals appear dated for a 2024 card game, compounded by constant bugs and maintenance downtime during the first week of release. This experience echoes the troubles faced by DC Dual Force, which shut down within five months of its launch.
In addition to the visual shortcomings, players have voiced complaints about the voice lines and sound effects. The game lacks support for English players, offering no English voice lines whatsoever.
Moreover, the absence of a logout button in the client presents an inconvenience. If a sibling wishes to play using their favorite Dragon Ball character, such as Vegeta, they’re out of luck unless they have their own PC. While some players have found workarounds, they involve either tampering with files or creating a new Windows account.
Card Acquisition
If you’re a free-to-play player, RUN… Run, and don’t look back. Seriously though, the Gems reward system is awful. It barely rewards you for the time you spend playing the game, and it’ll likely take you months to build a complete list of popular meta deck. While playing with prebuilt decks is an option for new players, competing against better decks becomes increasingly challenging over time.
The game seems tailored towards players who purchase physical cards and redeem codes for digital content or those willing to invest heavily in booster packs. While a monetization system encouraging pack purchases for access to new and powerful cards is acceptable, an atrocious reward system like this risks driving away potential players crucial for community growth.
Not on Mobile
I can’t stress how the lack of mobile support is a significant oversight considering the vast mobile gaming market. Look at Marvel Snap, for example, aggressive monetization but provides a rewarding system, at least for new players, and gets them hooked to the game. After that, it slowly forces you to start spending money if you want to play with the “new cool toys”.
Second Dinner’s approach with Marvel Snap, releasing it on mobile first before launching a PC version, exemplifies the importance of tapping into the mobile player base.
Gameplay
Dragon Ball Super Fusion has a fun gameplay to it. Players select their own Leader and build a deck around it, with leaders having 8 health. The primary objective is to reduce the opponent’s health to 0.
The gameplay incentivizes taking early damage to reduce the leader’s health to 4, triggering an “Awaken” state and unlocking a unique ability. Despite its flaws, I found the gameplay engaging and see potential for expansion content.
If not for the game’s poor visuals and exploitative monetization model, Dragon Ball Super Fusion could have been a standout title.