Dodgeball Academia Xbox Series X Review
Game: Dodgeball Academia
Publisher: Humble Games
Developer:
Dodgeball and RPG’s are not something you’d immediately think of, although with Dodgeball Academia both have been brought together to marvelous effect.
Dodgeball Academia’s story is nice in the way that it forgoes the usual saving the world storyline of such an RPG game, instead focusing on a Dodgeball tournament. There’s other stuff that happens in between and there’s a generous helping of humor to liven things up, but if you are looking for a real sense of threat in a story, then this isn’t going to hit the spot like a well-aimed dodgeball to the face.
Before speaking about how this thing plays, the first thing that really struck me with the game is the glorious cartoon-style visuals. Character models are large and charismatic and the visual vibe that the developer was going for is clearly in the style of Japanese animation, and it’s really stands out when it comes to such cartoon inspired visuals. It really does jump off the screen with its energy and colour.
Dodgeball Academia first drops you into a dodgeball school environment, with further environments in and outside the school grounds opening up to you over time. Across these environments, you’ll be participating in story quests as well as side tasks, finding helpful items, with the story taking you from day to day, and dodgeball battles happening aplenty.
When it comes to the combat, Dodgeball Academia offers a fun and simple time (albeit a bit scrappy), although there’s also a certain level of depth in there, highlighting the character abilities and timing-based gameplay as good examples. You are able to switch between different team members to make use of their individual skills. Like any RPG worth its salt, your party roster also grows in size over the course of the story, and it’s possible to have up to three of your characters on the court in a battle.
You can charge up your throws before you toss a ball, leading to extra damage if it hits, while you can also time catches or counters (determined by the character) to stop yourself from being struck by any incoming balls, and different balls also appear across the game, each behaving in a different way. Special Balltimate abilities can also be unleashed when a characters bar is full, with Otto turning a ball into a powerful fireball for example, and Balloony healing himself as well as any team members nearbu.
Characters also have their own individual focus abilities. Focus can only be applied (by holding down a charge button) when at least two balls are on the opponent’s side of the court, meaning that it must be used tactically. Otto’s focus allows you to further charge up your Balltimate meter, allowing for a quicker charge, while Balloney heals the team slightly, Mina and Suneka increases the team’s strength, and so on. Focus definitely adds more depth to battles, and making use of it tactically can mean the difference between victory and defeat, particularly in the game’s tougher battles.
As an RPG, characters gain experience and level up over time, gaining new perks. You are also able to equip your characters with various stat-enhancing equipment, and in a nice touch, healing items work differently based on a characters like or dislike, which means this is something to take note of when outside of battle.
Dodgeball Academia is a fun, frantic and quirky sporting RPG that might feel a tad scrappy from time to time in its execution, but there really is so much to like here in its 12 or so hours running time, including its fast-paced and responsive dodgeball battle, its silly story as well as its delicious and charismatic visuals. With everything said, excuse the pun but this is definitely a game that I recommend shouldn’t be dodged.
