Dragon Ball fans cautiously optimistic following Budokai Tenkaichi 4 reveal

Many Dragon Ball fans are excited but apprehensive following Bandai Namco’s announcement for Budokai Tenkaichi 4.

There’s been plenty of Dragon Ball content for gamers to enjoy in recent years from Dragon Ball FighterZ to Dragon Ball Z Kakarot and Xenoverse 2 but one series that has been left dormant until now was the beloved Budokai Tenkaichi arena fighting games.

On March 5, 2023, Bandai Namco surprised everyone by revealing Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 4 during the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Championship Tournament. The title will be the series’ first mainline entry since Budokai Tenkaichi 3 was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2007.

A lot of fans were hugely excited by the announcement but many members of the Dragon Ball community are also apprehensive given the current climate of DLC in fighting games, especially the tendency to lock characters behind a paywall.

Dragon Ball fans apprehensive about potential character DLC in Bodukai Tenkaichi 4

In a March 6 Reddit thread on the Dragon Ball FighterZ community, many fans have expressed their apprehension about possible paywalled DLC being present in Budokai Tenkaichi 4, with one user stating:

“Kinda worried ngl. With how fighting games are now and what type of audience there is, this can turn out to be a flop. I wouldn’t bother picking the game up at all if it has DLC characters that you need to buy.”

Other users have echoed this sentiment, with one simply predicting that the game “will have 300 characters…locked behind DLC.”

Another user said, “if we were in 2012 I would be excited for this game but nowadays with the state of the industry, I expect few characters to be vanilla version, most from Super, and then a couple of DLC characters or even season passes.”

One of the most celebrated parts of the original Budokai Tenkaichi trilogy was the player’s ability to control so many fighters from the Dragon Ball universe, from the strongest Saiyans to beloved side characters, thanks to the game’s massive character rosters.

The first title featured 64 characters, the second had 100 and 136 character transformations, and the third included a whopping 161 different forms alongside its 98-character roster.

Given this beloved aspect of the series, it’s understandable that fans are feeling cautious about the possibility of characters being locked behind a paywall in the upcoming title.

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