Dragon Ball Legends Producer Talks Character Choice and Shallot’s Super Saiyan Potential

Dragon Ball Legends has quickly taken over mobile phones across the world ever since it debuted last year, and Dragon Ball fans from all over have quickly latched onto the massive roster and fun action. It’s gotten so big in fact that on May 25th, Dragon Ball Legends will be holding its first-ever global tournament in Las Vegas. To celebrate such a big occasion, ComicBook.com actually got the chance to speak with the game’s producer, Keigo Ikeda, all about the game, its reception, and more.

More specifically, Ikeda dished — via email — about many of the elements of the game such as what goes into choosing a character for the game, which characters are on the table, new characters, and even the potential of the new Saiyan Shallot’s Super Saiyan power.

ComicBook.com: How does it feel to have seen the overwhelmingly positive response to Dragon Ball Legends?

Keigo Ikeda: The world of Dragon Ball as an animated series and comic has been really popular worldwide. We aimed to let our players relive the memorable moments and freely control the characters that they know and love. Looking at the feedback from our players, we’d like to think we’re on the right track.

How does the Dragon Ball Legends team decide which characters are added to the roster?

We understand that all players have their own preferences for which characters they want to see in Dragon Ball Legends. To account for the preferences of the player-base, the team has its own “formula” of sorts to decide on the roster. While we can’t spoil all of the details, just know that we as a team value all characters and would like to have them appear in-game in the best possible situation.

There are characters from Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Super, and even Dragon Ball GT! Does that mean any character can be added to the game?

This connects to how the character roster is decided, but we aim to have all characters (who’ve fought anyone) appear on Dragon Ball Legends. We’d like to think that’s another quality of the game: The variety of characters available from the original series.

How does the team decide on what Ultimate Moves to use for each character?

They are decided based on the current character rosters, and the game-balance perspective. When certain characters receive the spotlight, it allows for players to focus on them through gameplay. From a Dragon Ball fan perspective, any fan would like to see Ultimate Moves available for any and all characters, and we understand that.

Fans have loved the new Saiyan, Shallot, and his mysterious swordsman ally Zahha. Was there any pressure behind introducing these new characters to fans?

The original storyline of Dragon Ball Legends is an entirely stand-alone experience. The original characters are something unique to this game, and we hope that Shallot and Zahha will be accepted by the entire community of the Dragon Ball series fans one day.

Is there a chance Zahha will be playable outside of the story someday?

Maybe. [smiles]

Shallot going Super Saiyan was a huge moment in the story that fans absolutely loved. Is there a chance Shallot can go beyond?

We’re really happy to see the positive response towards Shallot. Through the storyline of Dragon Ball Legends, we hope that more players will feel invested to him and Zahha. As for Shallot’s transformation, all I can say is that he will not give up on going beyond.

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The Dragon Ball Legends Showdown in Las Vegas will take place on Saturday, May 25th at 1 PM PDT. For those interested in watching the showdown go down, Bandai Namco will actually be streaming the event live on YouTube. You can check it out at the link here.