Following up on my review for Dragon Ball Fighter Z for TGON, I decided to take a closer look at each of the characters featured in the game and breakdown the way they fight. Some of these pieces will feature two fighters if its the same fighter with two different forms like Teen Gohan and Adult Gohan, etc. On top of this, I’ll may also include rumored versions of the character that might come in the future as download content.
First up we’re going to cover Goku in both his base SSJ form that’s unlocked right from the start and then also his hidden SSGSS form — also known as Super Saiyan Blue in the dub version of the anime.
SSJ Goku
The basic Goku that everyone has access to when you first start the game is SSJ Goku. This Goku is actually very easy to get into with lightning fast combos and relatively simple combos to learn. In order to do any of his signature attacks, all you have to do is rotate the joystick a quarter circle forward combined with any of the face buttons to do dashing downward haymaker and if you reverse the quarter circle backwards Goku will unleash a set of offensive kicks that change depending on the light, medium, heavy buttons pressed. These two moves are relatively safe to use when in a jam and hard to punish if blocked. You can easily chain these two moves together and launch opponents into the air. The auto-combos that are included with the rapid pressing of the light or medium attacks will instantly use either of these two signature moves. Also since these are signature moves they won’t waste a bar of ki and instead will build it up.
Now to the move that you’re probably wondering about, SSJ Goku’s Kamehameha has four form!. The first one is relatively weak but fast to unleashed and requires a quarter circle rotation forward on the joystick combined with the ki blast button, Goku will then fire off a weak Kamehameha that you can blast if on the defensive but don’t expect this to finish fights at high play.
Then there is the standard quarter-circle forward plus the grab button which will cause Goku to fire off a medium sized Kamehameha. This one is different in that it will used up a bar of Ki to fire off but the turn on to it is that it can be charged up to three levels and then let go of to cause massive damage. Also this medium sized Kamehameha is included in the auto-combos of both the light and medium buttons as the finishing blow. Another neat tidbit of the unleashing the move will cause the game to pause briefly as Goku charges up. This may give your opponent time to block or dodge the move if you do it far away, but if unleashed at point blank range it gives little time an evasive. If you press the dash button while doing this instead of the grab button, Goku won’t fire straight ahead but instead in a diagonal motion upwards. This is a neat trick to punish jumping players.
The next style of Kamehameha is the Warp Kamehameha. This is done by rotating a quarter-circle backwards and then pressing either the grab or dash button to warp behind your opponent. This can be charged in the same exact way as the regular Kamehameha, but with the added effect of warping behind your opponent. If you use the grab button version, Goku will fire straight ahead after warping; and if you use the dash button version Goku will fire diagonally upward after warping. This is quite useful if your opponent is constantly turtling you and you want to close the distance. Weirdly enough Warp Kamehameha isn’t a move that the game boast in players using but at the same time it’s a key move for victory if you’re playing as Goku against other players.
Goku’s final Kamehameha is actually his finishing move that combines all of the above mechanics into a Super Saiyan 3 Super Kamehameha. Here Goku, will transform briefly into a Super Saiyan 3 and build up power for a Super Kamehameha and then warp directly to his opponent’s face and blast the beam at them. If it connects, a large chunk of life will be taken off, around 45% or even more if done off of an impressive combo. If done as the final move against your opponent, it may trigger a dramatic finish by either destroying the stage completely or by vaporizing your opponent — but this depends on the opponent and stage for it to happen.
Goku’s Kamehameha’s outside his finisher version can all be trigger together with other team characters and is a good to push back the enemy. While it looks nice paired with other beam attacks, I wouldn’t recommend it and instead op to have it paired with characters who are non-beam attackers like Cell, Frieza, Piccolo, etc.
Goku in all honestly plays exactly like how Ryu and Ken would play like in any of the Street Fighters. You can apply the same type of high and low attack priority as Goku and lay the hurt on your opponent. However because he’s so simple to use and easy to get a handle of, he’s used practically by everyone, both new and old competitive players alike. This doesn’t make him bad, but at the same time winning as him is nothing to brag about. It’s Goku after all.
Photo Source: Bird Studio/ Shueisha, Toei Animation/ Bandai Namco
SSGSS / SSB Goku
This Goku is actually unlocked by clearing a hard course of arcade first, by buying the day one version of Fighter Z or by buying the season pass which will unlock him instantly. SSB Goku plays similar to regular SSJ Goku but also is slightly different in his stats, abilities and properties. As SSB Goku, new players/fans of the character should focus more on finishing the fight as fast as possible instead of prolonging it, this is mostly due to the fact that he has a big Akuma complex to him, all the power but can easily be defeated by players who know what they are doing; in other words his defense isn’t that great with a low health pool.
SSB Goku’s quarter-circle forward/backward signatures are nearly identical to his SSJ counterpart that players are use to, however they both hit way harder then normal but on the flip side can be punished easier by opponents if blocked.
SSB Goku’s Kamehameha’s are relatively the same, but a bit faster to dish out yet deal a bit weaker damage compared to his SSJ form, however his actual finisher is far more stronger then the Super Kamehameha that the SSJ Goku has and justifiably so! It’s his SSB Kaioken Kamehameha X10, here Goku will wrap his SSB form with his Kaioken ability from the anime to boost his Kamehameha to the max. It is insanely powerful if it connects and can actually drop a character outright if tied together with a 10x combo. If you’re on the receiving end of this attack, block at all costs. But that’s the thing to using this move, it’s one of the biggest gambles of SSB Goku, you can deal a massive winning blow against your opponent but if you miss, you can instantly lose as SSB Goku. Proceed with caution!
Rumored: Base Goku
This Goku is rumored to be a new download content character coming soon, so take this with a massive grain of salt! He’s supposed to be based on how he was originally in early Dragon Ball Z during his fight with Vegeta on earth in the Saiyan Saga. The speculation on how he will fight is that he will be faster then the other Gokus in the game using Kaioken abilities to up his power. Not much else is known about him and weather or not the rest of his moveset will be the same as the other Gokus.
