News

Dragonball Online RPG's Promo, Gameplay Videos Posted

The Bandai Korea entertainment company, the NTL game developer, and the Korean CJ Internet service provider presented more details and footage from the upcoming Dragonball Online massively multi-player online role-playing game at a press conference in the Seoul Plaza Hotel on February 14. The Japanese game news website 4Gamer.net has posted a promotional movie from the conference, and the Korean game news website GameMeca has posted that promo and a gameplay video. The gameplay video includes character customization screens, interaction with non-player characters, and player-versus-player combat.

The game is jointly developed by Japanese and Korean staffers, and is set 250 years after Akira Toriyama's original fighting manga. (According to the producers, Toriyama is supervising the designs of the characters and monsters.) In this Age 1000 era, the world is at peace until mysterious invaders appear. Despite the timeframe difference, the producers are promising that players can recreate the feel of the original manga with battles in Dragonball's signature Tenkaichi Budōkai tournaments and "time machine quests." In time machine quests, players can travel back to the time of the original manga and meet their favorite characters and recreate famous story arcs. Players can also choose to search for the seven Dragon Balls that are crucial to the original work's plot.

The producers also promise the system will feature three species (Human, Namekian, Majin), each with unique attributes and classes. The gameplay will incorporate transformations as well as character leveling through occupations. The combat system will have chained attacks (the ability to set up various combinations of attacks) and HTB battles (the game's setup which enables players to easily launch attacks found in the original manga, like Kamehameha and Genki-dama).

The producers are aiming to start service in Korea in 2008 and in Japan in 2009.

Thank you to Timothy Werner for the news tip.

Sources: GameMeca via Curse.com, 4Gamer.net

Image © Bird Studio/Shueisha
© DBO Project
Created & Developed by NTL