In my first post for Middle of Nowhere Gaming, I talked about the Dragon Ball FighterZ closed beta and the sign up for it. At the opinion part of the post I had hoped I would get my hands on a PS4 beta code by the time the beta rolled out; even signed up for three different emails to increase my chances. It seemed lady luck shined her light on me because I got a beta code much to my surprise. When I say surprisingly I mean it because friends I know who are the biggest fans of fighting games did not get one, I was the only one they knew who actually got one.

Out of the four playable sessions for the weekend of the beta, I played through three of them. I played maybe twenty plus matches, a lot of matches were played that weekend is what I’m saying. Into the beta itself though, from the title screen, it starts off asking what region you are playing the game in, personal fighter name and the region lobby rooms you want to play in.

After choosing which lobby room to play in and after a certain amount of loading time I got into the lobby. Getting into the lobby you control a smaller cute version of one of the playable characters for the game, it is up to you which one you’re comfortable controlling in the lobby. Your team and location for your matches can be edited in the main menu in the lobby. There are multiple team slots so if you’re not comfortable just choosing one three-man team then this feature is great for you.

One more thing in the menu I love is the option to customize the button inputs for gameplay. Not being forced to play a game one way or three different control setups is a breath of fresh air. Playing the game in my unique custom setup is something I love about this game, I hope this feature stays in the final version. I wish more games did this, to be honest.

Getting into a match for the beta did not take that long but I feel the waiting time could be improved a bit. Watching your character in a classic power-up stance get’s a little boring after a while. Getting into the gameplay itself, I’ve never personally played an Arc System Works game before Dragon Ball FighterZ. The 2.5D of Arc System Works’ engine can only be described as perfect, the way it feels and the graphics make it look like an anime in motion unlike other 3D looking anime games; which is amazing to look at every time. It feels so good to play in three versus three gameplay and personally overwhelming at the beginning for me.

Over time I got better at playing the characters I was controlling during my weekend play. Speaking of characters, there was quite a selection of controllable characters for the beta. These characters include Saiyans like Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Future Trunks as well as villainous characters like Frieza, Android 16, Android 17, Android 18, Cell and Majin Buu. Side characters like Piccolo and Krillin are also present. Personally, I went with Gohan, Vegeta, and Krillin which you might also know as team three star; it’s ok if you don’t get that reference.

The only real criticism I have is the lag and it may be because my internet is not good, there were times I  was 20 frames per second behind in the beginning of the beta. Streaming on Twitch was the main culprit behind that, but as soon as I stopped streaming then the gameplay started to feel normal. I just hope before release day that the developers try to fix that problem for players whose internet isn’t super fast, it would be appreciated especially on my part.

As far as the players I faced in the beta I like to think I did pretty good, there was only one match I remember early in the beta I did really horrible in. I was up against a pro player, I did not get one hit in while I was in a match with this person funnily enough. The more I played the beta the more I felt getting actually good at the game. I went from a pretty bad player at the beginning to by the end a pretty good player by my last match.

I’ve been a fan of Dragon Ball since I was a kid, but I’m not really a huge fan of fighting games. I was only motivated to sign up for the beta by a friend who really loves his fighting games. I have to say I already preordered the game through his excitement alone but after this beta, I’m very confident in the decision to preorder Dragon Ball FighterZ and my own excitement for the game. If there is only one fighting game you can put your money on, then I would advise you to put it on Dragon Ball FighterZ, there is something special that hardcore and casual fans of the fighting genre and Dragon Ball series will enjoy. I know I’ve taken that away after playing the beta personally.

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Dennis B. Price is an Associate Writer for MONG and loves Video Games, DC/Marvel(equally), Anime, Wrestling and other nerdy things. Check him out on his Twitter.