Dragon Ball Fighter Z — Character Breakdown: Bardock

Following up 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.

Last week I covered both Goku’s presented in the game, Super Saiyan Goku and Super Saiyan Blue Goku. This week I’m going to shift gears an talk about the first DLC fighter of the game and the father of Goku, Bardock

Bardock

The father of Goku actually plays very differently then his son and is more similar to his grandson, (Teen) Gohan instead. Bardock is not a projectile heavy fighter firing beams everywhere who can inflict damage from far away playing it safe, instead he’s a rush-down type of fighter. What this means is that Bardock will have to get in from a medium to close range and lay the hurt on the opponent. But because he’s like this, his combos are actually much more responsive and easier to pull off compared to Goku and the others.

Once you study his string of attacks and what flows well between them, you can easily juggle your opponent with ease and unleash devastating specials at them. All of Bardocks specials require the same exact inputs the other fighters have, there is nothing advance to what he does in terms of pulling them off. Just be sure to stay close to your opponent and get your hits in. What i’ve found with Bardock that if you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re just firing off specials left and right, you’ll end up getting punished, since a lot of his attacks if blocked leave you wide open and easy pickings. So be careful!

Thankfully Bardock does have a nifty projectile attack called Riot Javelin. This is perform just like Goku’s regular Kamehamehas by rotating forward a quarter-circle on the joystick and pressing either light, medium or heavy attack buttons. Bardock will throw a small-like Spirit Bomb ki blast at his opponents which packs a punch but if thrown from far away is easily blockable. But the special feature of this move is the fact that the lower health Bardock has, the more powerful Riot Javelin will be! Use it whenever you’re in a bind up close and it can tip the fight in your favor.

Bardock has a special that is like a spinning top as he swings his arms wildly while dashing forward. This is actually performed by rotating backwards a quarter circle on the joystick while pressing either the light, medium or heavy attack buttons. Depending on which one pressed it’ll make you move further forward. This move is useful if you want to close the distance between you and your opponent without leaving yourself open for a few seconds or to chain your moves together into a rush down attack.

Bardock’s actual finisher is pulled off just like Goku’s and anyone elses in the game; and that’s by rotating backwards a quarter-circle on the joystick and pressing the grab button once you have 3 or more ki bars to spend. This will activate Bardock’s Saiyan Spirit/Brave Heat finisher where he will transform briefly into Super Saiyan 1 and unleash a point blank blast at his opponent. It’s not the flashiest finisher in the game, but it has a nice easter egg of seeing Bardock becoming Super Saiyan 1 — it doesn’t last after completed — and can be changed into it from any combo you can think of. The downside of the move though is that it’s easily blockable if you do this from far away, so use this when up close and immediately after a combo that lands.

With Bardock, don’t expect to win much fights with him alone or along side other rush-down characters like Teen Gohan, I recommend him however to be paired up with a projectile character and a defensive character; for example: Vegeta and Broly. Bardock should be treated as the character who chips down your opponents health if they pick a projectile type, once they switch to a defensive or rush down character, switch Bardock out for someone else on your team. If you do this, you should secure victory for your side!