Boy this was a surprise, huh? This weekend we had the very first ever EVO held in France, and a slew of announcements occurred there, with probably the most shocking being the reveal of Arc System Works’ Dragon Ball Fighter Z receiving an update alongside a new character in Super Saiyan 4 Daima Goku to go alongside the top 8 for the game (which you can watch here).

Dragon Ball Fighter Z was a game that was massively beloved by the fighting game community, but years of awkward balance patch decisions as well as ArcSys moving on to develop Guilty Gear: Strive put some wear and tear on the Fighter Z playerbase until eventually it faded from the spotlight. But now, in an unprecedented turn of events, the near decade old game is going to receive a new character as well as a balance patch.

The new character is one thing, no doubt some people are excited to see Super Saiyan 4 Daima Goku, even if he’s the tenth Goku or so on the roster, but the balance patch is the big news from this announcement. As I said, Fighter Z had slowly bled out over time through a series of awkward balance adjustments that drove a lot of people away from the game, so a refocused effort to balance Fighter Z might just revitalize the game. Alongside a universal change where a perfectly timed Z-Reflect can lead to a punish, every character is going to receive balance changes.

Like I said, Dragon Ball Fighter Z used to be a beloved game in the fighting game community. With ArcSys taking another look at a game that has long since been thought dead they can revitalize the title and inject some more lifeblood into the scene. Fighter Z has a lot of appeal both competitively and casually, and the Dragon Ball IP will forever be one of the most popular in the world. This will bring more eyes to the game and hopefully diversify the fighting games with active playerbases even more.