dragon ball heroes

Developed by Bandai off the heels of Dragon Ball Z Kai, Dragon Ball Heroes is an arcade trading card game (carddass) using the Dragon Ball property, later renamed to Super Dragon Ball Heroes. It is infamous in the West for its perceived fan service, giving characters access to forms they previously hadn't obtained/used, and just generally being absurd in its plotlines.

Starting with Dragon Ball Heroes: God Mission, more plot elements were introduced into the game (largely drawn from Dragon Ball Online, similarly to Dragon Ball Xenoverse that same year), and has since developed it through several mediums, including the arcade game itself, its manga adaptations (Toyotarou's Victory Mission, and the more faithful Nagayama Yoshitaka serializations), its handheld console adaptations on Nintendo platforms, and an anime adaptation starting from its-then-latest storyline, Universe Mission. All of these adaptations have story elements that add or diverge from the original arcade game, and could thus be considered their own separate timelines to some extent, similarly to its relation to the Xenoverse series.

Dragon Ball Heroes would largely be confined to Japanese shores, but from July to October of 2018, the arcade game was shown in 7 North American towns as part of an American tour, marking its first appearance overseas. The 2019 game Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission, the fourth console adaptation of the arcade game for Nintendo Switch, would be the first to not only properly release in English, but also internationally.

Currently, the arcade game is set to cease operation before November 2024. It will be available as a separate mode in the game Dragon Ball Super Divers, which will replace the Dragon Ball Heroes machines.

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