Dragon Ball: The Breakers doesn't sound like a typical game in this franchise. Whereas most Dragon Ball games are just like the TV show, where you fight, improve your abilities, and explore outlandish places, The Breakers focuses instead on running and hiding. That may not sound like much, but the trailer makes the concept make sense. Indeed, Dragon Ball offers such a vast universe that it seems odd that game developers are content to confine it to two or three well-known genres.

Namco Bandai released a teaser trailer today (November 16) on its official YouTube channel, announcing Dragon Ball: The Breakers. For those who haven't seen it yet, we've embedded it below:

Dragon Ball: The Breakers is an asymmetrical action game in which seven players work together to survive against a single player-controlled antagonist. The villain player controls DBZ's eternal enemies Frieza, Cell, and Majin Buu, while the survivor is a civilian.

Unlike most DB heroes, the survivors in this game do not have the ability to fight back against their evil conquerors. Instead, Bandai Namco explains, they must "rely on various power-up items, weapons, and steerable vehicles to fight and evade the raiders while searching for a super time machine to escape from oblivion." No release date has been set for the game, but Bandai Namco has promised a closed beta "in the near future."

In other words: seven players must evade one super-powerful monster, which becomes more powerful as the game progresses. It is a bit reminiscent of the ill-fated "Evolve," but perhaps "Dead by Daylight" is a more apt comparison.

Namco Bandai revealed a few more details about The Breakers. For example, players will be able to customize their own survivors and purchase cosmetic skins (the trailer featured series regulars Bulma and Oolong). It also appears that data can be transferred between "The Breakers" and "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2," but it is not clear exactly how the two games will work together.

What is more interesting about "The Breakers," however, is that we have never seen anything like it in a Dragon Ball video game. Survival/horror multiplayer games don't exactly scream "Dragon Ball," but perhaps that's why it's timely. We've already controlled Goku and defeated his enemies dozens of times. We've created our own avatars, honed our fighting skills, competed in countless fighting tournaments, and played against him on trading cards at least three times.

Dragon Ball: The Breakers explores what the DB setting might look like from a layman's perspective. Without a central power fantasy, it would be fascinating to see what this world would look like. If the game turns out to be good, so much the better. And if Namco Bandai is willing to take even more unusual risks with this license, it will have accomplished something truly special.