First Thoughts: Panini America’s Dragon Ball Z CCG

Well it has been quite the exciting weekend, with the long awaited return of the Dragon Ball Z CCG after ten years being announce and getting our first look at a good chunk of the cards. So how are things shaping up so far? We’re just going to take a look at what has been released so far and give some of our thoughts on it. This is far from a review, we could only do a fair review after seeing all the cards and in their final versions with the complete set of rules. Here we just have a handful of cards, many are not their final version and the only rules adjustments we’ve had have been passed on by word of mouth. So let’s cover what we have seen.

25 Saiyan Empowered Mastery

From the looks of things, it seems like everything is going to be standardized: strict 60 card deck size and playable personalities go from Lv. 1-4, both of which were things I wished we would’ve seen in the old game. No more characters having inherent advantages just from the amount of levels the character had, and the sixty-card deck size takes away some of the forgiveness that larger decks would afford you in just mindless beatdown.

I also like from the looks of things that character levels are much more cohesive in their abilities from one level to the next. While it does look like some characters were clearly made to work with certain styles, it does seem as though there is a little bit of flexibility there which avoids having strictly “generic” powers while also not locking you into a play style. The only personality to give me a little pause for concern is the Super Saiyan God Goku promo, whose improbably high power levels combined with an ultra generic yet useful personality power (in fact the only personality or mastery card that gives you an essentially free card draw). To further compound this, the Kaioken Enhanced Goku Lv. 2 can infinitely lower you back down to your Super Saiyan God state, negating any leveling through anger or IT’S OVER 9000! I’m curious to see how much abuse that chain will be able to get out of Saiyan Empowered Mastery.

06 Goku 2

 

Following that, as I alluded to earlier it’s really great to see that there aren’t many effects that you can start the game with that will instantly give you card advantage (the only I noticed so far was the previously mentioned Super Saiyan God). In the old Z, especially towards the end of the game, many characters just couldn’t compete against characters and/or styles that would basically allow them to start with a hand double the size of a normal hand. This movement towards archetyping of characters and styles is definitely very welcome, with decks and styles being more clearly defined and characters working better with some styles than others rather than the bland and generic mishmash of the old game.

The one thing I wish they would’ve moved away from was power levels. All of these characters seem fine and playable now, but when you start bringing in powerhouses like Majin Buu or even Cell into the mix I fear these personalities will end up in the trade binders like their Saiyan Saga ancestors did ten years ago. A color system would’ve been much better for determining power, at the sacrifice of a little bit of flavor. The only way I can see this being remedied is if the power chart never changes and all future characters are made with power levels to fit that chart. However since power levels are dictated by licensing guidelines, I doubt that will happen.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how things have shaped up so far, and so honored to have been named as a reason for the game’s return. I can’t wait to see how the game turns out after release.

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Later, BroZ

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