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REVIEW
Dragon Ball Legends still lands the punches eight years in.
Bandai Namco's card-battler-RPG has been running on the same swipe-and-tap combat loop since 2018, and the anniversary treadmill keeps the roster moving faster than most gacha games dare.
BY THE APP COMRADE DESK · MAY 11, 2026 · 4 MIN READ
DRAGON BALL LEGENDS
BANDAI NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT INC.
OUR SCORE
7.4
GOOGLE PLAY
★ 4.3
PRICE
Free
In-app purchases
Eight years is a long time for a mobile fighting game to keep its footing, and Dragon Ball Legends has done it by refusing to break the one thing that worked. The 2018 combat loop — swipe to dodge, tap to strike, hold to charge a Rising Rush — is the same loop in 2026, only now there are roughly four hundred playable characters layered on top and an anniversary-event treadmill that runs the calendar.
The pitch is the simplest version of the licensed-game contract: if you want to throw a Kamehameha on a phone screen and watch Goku and Vegeta crash a beam-struggle cinematic against a real opponent on the other end of a matchmaking queue, this is where you do it. Bandai Namco has kept the cinematics good, the matchmaking fast, and the new-character pipeline relentless. What it has not done — and what it would be naive to expect a gacha game eight years deep to do — is rethink the monetisation curve.
The honest verdict separates two audiences. For the player who treats Legends as a half-hour-a-day ritual built around the daily event quest, the free-to-play experience is enough to keep the combat fresh and the roster expanding. For the player who wants to climb to the top of PvP Arena, the wallet bill is real and the dupe-driven Z Power system makes “real” mean “considerable.” The game has earned the long run, but it has earned it in a category that has never figured out how to be generous.
The combat reads like an arcade fighter dressed in a card game's clothes, which is exactly the trick the source material needs.
FEATURES
Dragon Ball Legends is a real-time card-battler built around three-on-three teams of Dragon Ball characters drawn from the manga, the various anime continuities, and the Super and GT branches. Combat is a swipe-driven 1v1 duel: tap a card to throw a strike or ki blast, swipe to dodge or step, hold to charge a Rising Rush — the cinematic super that's been the game's signature finisher since launch.
Progression runs on the genre-standard treadmill. Characters are pulled from a banner-based gacha with Chrono Crystals (premium currency), and each fighter has a separate "Z Power" track that levels them by collecting duplicate pulls. PvP runs through a ranked ladder ("PvP Arena") with seasonal resets; PvE is structured around a long story mode, daily and weekly event quests, and the rotating anniversary events that anchor the game's calendar.
Free to download with in-app purchases for Chrono Crystal bundles. No advertising. The 2024 and 2025 anniversaries each added new mechanics — including Z-Awakening and the more recent Ultra rarity tier — that the developer has continued to fold into the regular pull pool.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
The combat genuinely feels like Dragon Ball, which is the hardest thing a licensed game has to nail. Rising Rush cinematics, vanishing-step counters, and beam clashes are read as fluid animation rather than the still-card crossfades most card-battlers settle for. Cards still drive the loop, but the surface reads like an arcade fighter — which is the right register for the source material.
Bandai Namco has kept the live-service cadence credible across an unusually long run. Eight years in, the game still ships seasonal events, new character banners, and balance patches on a regular schedule. The PvP matchmaking is fast and the netcode for a touch-input fighter is more stable than it has any right to be on mid-range Android hardware.
ROOM TO IMPROVE
Monetisation is the structural caveat, and it's a real one. The top tier of competitive PvP is dominated by players running the latest anniversary-banner Ultra characters, and keeping pace requires either patience measured in months or wallet depth measured in three figures. The Z Power dupe system in particular punishes free-to-play players: a character is functionally weaker until you've pulled them six or seven times, and the math on free Chrono Crystals does not favour you.
The new-player onramp is also creaking. Eight years of mechanics — Z-Awakening, Zenkai Awakening, equipment, Boost Panels, the Ultra tier — have piled on top of the original 2018 design without anyone reaching for a reset. The tutorial covers the basics but a returning player from 2020 will spend a real evening figuring out what's changed.
CONCLUSION
Install if you grew up on Dragon Ball Z and want a fighting-game-shaped daily ritual that respects the license. Skip if competitive PvP whales make your jaw clench, or if you've sworn off gacha pull screens. The roster keeps growing, the combat still reads cleanly, and Bandai Namco has not yet shown any sign of letting the lights go out.