8/10: In short, the best DBZ fighting game to come out in over a decade, and stays true to the format that made BT3 and Raging Blast such fun games.

The long is, it's not perfect and there are some big issues that unfortunately cannot be ironed out or fixed by updates. The UI is atrocious especially in the character select screen. There are thankfully filters that help you locate people better if you really need it...but it's something we have to live with. It's not unplayable and with some time you can remember where everyone is...but it is pretty bad.

Secondly the actual gameplay is great but there are some obnoxious choices that slow down the flow of combat. Camera angles and distance can make it difficult to keep track of fast paced action and the default controls feel awkward and clunky. Standard and "classic" both need manual tweaking in order to fully bring out the best of the combat thanks to the addition of new skills and abilities.

Lastly the story mode is....OK. I have put in 6 hours into the game so far and finished the goku black storyline and got up to the future Trunks saga in gokus storyline. I went back and did some of the "what-if" scenarios which are cool but sadly they lose the appeal pretty quickly since there isn't anything that really stands out much. One example is a choice you get in the cell saga where you can skip waiting for Vegeta and Trunks and go fight cell. And if you do certain conditions you unlock a new branch that has you fight the androids (16,17,18). It wasn't anything memorable or interesting. That being said the story isn't really bad so it is what it is. Personally I'd like them to add in sagas instead in a future sequel and add in this story mode as side content.

Now that I got the bad out of the way I'll go into what is great about the game and why I recommend it. The battle modes are a lot of fun and offer a wide range of different options to make fights in a way you want. You can customize the cpu characters with items that boost stats, prevent transformations and even change the way they fight. Unfortunately the AI is your standard brain dead arena fighter AI but you can work around this to make the cpu more enjoyable.

The big highlight here is the custom battle mode which is amazing and the greatest thing I've ever used in a fighting game. I hope that they continue to expand this technology and use it for all future arena fighters because it really is fun. It is very vanilla but still offers a decent amount of settings ranging from poses, positions, camera angles, different text options and filters to really make your own story. You can add different scenes also so you can create a flash back mid battle if you want. There's also different commands that change the way the battle goes and what triggers them.

I can go on and on about what makes this game so special and fun. Despite the small gripes I have this game is a gem and something you will not regret getting.

As an added bonus I played it entirely on steam deck and it runs well but needs some tweaking. Set the resolution scale to 80% and set everything to low and you'll hit the 60fps. Because it's an anime game it won't look bad but don't expect anything beyond that at the moment. Unfortunately the engine needs to run at 60fps or else the entire game slows down and it's CPU dependent so we're stuck with this until Bandai fixes it (if they can) but it does work. You can also play online!

This is a phenomenal game. One of the most incredible and passionate stories you can ever play in an RPG and this is one of the generation defining games that will live with you forever. My playtime is non-existent because I play offline on my steam deck so ignore that when reading my review.

However do not buy this game, and if you must buy it buy it on sale. ZA/UM was taken over by a team of terrible people, specifically Tõnis Haavel who is a fraud, a cheat, and destroyed the original creators lives and then removed them from the project.

They deserve no respect, no praise, and should not get any credit at all for this masterpiece. If you have other means of playing this game for free (through legal means like family sharing.) then do that. Tonis deserves to live in poverty