Dragon Ball XenoVerse Review
DragonBall Z. One of the worlds most popular anime’s of all time. A fast paced but dragged out fighting anime with memorable interesting and likeable characters in a compelling universe. By nature, many fighting games have been made off DragonBall Z. Fast paced fighting with an already written out story with a huge fan base go hand in hand for a video game? Well it’s been a while since there has been a great Dragon Ball Z game. The fast paced nature of the series naturally means the games will try to emulate the tempo of the series. Throw in a classic style 1v1 fighting styled gameplay but with elevated fighting allowing for horizontal and vertical gameplay, with the ability to smash people into the environment making it destruct, and with transformations, ki blast energy waves and teleport dodges, and you have the dragon ball z Budokai series. Renacting the story from the Anime series was the main mode of the games. This for me gave it a huge edge over any other fighting game series out there, and for me personally was my favourite fighting game franchise of all time.
After that the Dragon Ball Z games moved away from that style and made the gameplay more casual, but allowed for a true 360 degrees fighting in an arena kind of style where you can fly around and battle in the big environment in the map.
Xenoverse takes the same direction, but with multiple fighters on screen, designed to be a multiplayer fighter. Dubbed to be a MMORPG fighter, it certainly is innovative and ambitious. It has been a long time since there has been a truly great Dragon Ball Z game. Does the ambition carry through to be a success and does this return the fighting series back to winning form? Or is this yet another Dragon Ball Z game to pass on?
After that the Dragon Ball Z games moved away from that style and made the gameplay more casual, but allowed for a true 360 degrees fighting in an arena kind of style where you can fly around and battle in the big environment in the map.
Xenoverse takes the same direction, but with multiple fighters on screen, designed to be a multiplayer fighter. Dubbed to be a MMORPG fighter, it certainly is innovative and ambitious. It has been a long time since there has been a truly great Dragon Ball Z game. Does the ambition carry through to be a success and does this return the fighting series back to winning form? Or is this yet another Dragon Ball Z game to pass on?
A MMORPG fighter sounds great on paper, and is a fantastically innovative idea. This is the kind of games I want to see, something to really push the boundaries of a fighter. A fighting game that has depth outside of the gameplay and real replay value. Being able to fight whilst levelling up your character and unlocking new moves in an online dragon ball z universe… This is my kind of game, it sounds like a game I have been crying out for ages… but it’s not exactly quite as good as it sounds, it’s not executed expertly everywhere.
The actual idea is genius, it’s a fantastically ambitious idea and it is successful in terms of the core concept. The RPG element and Online element make this a truly unique fighting game and a truly unique dragon ball z game. For that reason it makes it a fun and addictive experience. Potentially this game could have been the greatest fighter of all time if all the areas of the game were expertly crafted. It is not to say this game is a failure, but it’s just quite dam average in a lot of areas and it does have flaws. The game falls short of being a truly great game, but there are a lot of positives to take from this game purely because of the whole concept of the game.
Lets go into detail.
The actual idea is genius, it’s a fantastically ambitious idea and it is successful in terms of the core concept. The RPG element and Online element make this a truly unique fighting game and a truly unique dragon ball z game. For that reason it makes it a fun and addictive experience. Potentially this game could have been the greatest fighter of all time if all the areas of the game were expertly crafted. It is not to say this game is a failure, but it’s just quite dam average in a lot of areas and it does have flaws. The game falls short of being a truly great game, but there are a lot of positives to take from this game purely because of the whole concept of the game.
Lets go into detail.
The story. The story is original and I like how the story revolves around your custom character, but it feels like it doesn’t really go anywhere, and is quite short lived in my opinion. I like that they tried something different and made a parallel universe spin off of the original dragon ball z storyline, where you must fix the events to make it correct and help fight alongside the Z fighters so that the result of history will still be the same as it originally was. However the characters behind the changing in time aren’t very memorable. I think the story makes great sense for you to have a custom character and the game essentially revolves around your user created character. However I take much more enjoyment from playing the original story and playing as the real original dragon ball z characters in the story mode.
Your voiceless character also makes a lot of moments in cut scene dialog feel weak and it makes your character lack personality. It also makes character relationships with your character not feel that believable to the series because of this. Your character will just use weird facial expressions to react and answer to things and it’s a real shame they didn’t add any voice acting for custom fighters.
I won’t be too critical though because I like how they made a real effort to create a story around your created character, it makes sense, it’s not terrible, its just a little bit weak compared to the actual anime series.
Also on a side note, the voice acting for everyone else is good and most of them are the same voice actors or sound as authentic as the voice actors from the show, which is important. However they really need to change the voice actors for Freiza and Goten… they sound very off… to say the least, and they’re quite irritating.
Your voiceless character also makes a lot of moments in cut scene dialog feel weak and it makes your character lack personality. It also makes character relationships with your character not feel that believable to the series because of this. Your character will just use weird facial expressions to react and answer to things and it’s a real shame they didn’t add any voice acting for custom fighters.
I won’t be too critical though because I like how they made a real effort to create a story around your created character, it makes sense, it’s not terrible, its just a little bit weak compared to the actual anime series.
Also on a side note, the voice acting for everyone else is good and most of them are the same voice actors or sound as authentic as the voice actors from the show, which is important. However they really need to change the voice actors for Freiza and Goten… they sound very off… to say the least, and they’re quite irritating.
The audio on a whole has most of the sound effects from the series, but the overall audio is quite cheesy. The music is quite generic and repetitive and gives the whole tone of the game to feel cheesy and childish rather than epic or emotional like the bruce falkinder soundtrack did in the English dub of the TV series. Great music would have added much more emotion and drama to the fights and cut scenes. A larger of variety of music would have been nice but again it’s not a huge flaw.
The game has a co op or solo quest mode known as Parallel quests. This is the main mode of the game and where you will be spending most of your time.
Each quest is unlocked as you progress through the sagas of the story quests. These are missions trying to more emulate the actual real dragon ball z storyline, but are more mission scenarios with certain win conditions and objectives to recreate what happened in the actual anime. There are some though that are either entirely made up or have a different twist on them, which is creative and I like them. Here you can choose any character you have unlocked to do the mission, you can also still play as your created character too, and you also can choose any fighter you want alongside you if play solo.
The game has a co op or solo quest mode known as Parallel quests. This is the main mode of the game and where you will be spending most of your time.
Each quest is unlocked as you progress through the sagas of the story quests. These are missions trying to more emulate the actual real dragon ball z storyline, but are more mission scenarios with certain win conditions and objectives to recreate what happened in the actual anime. There are some though that are either entirely made up or have a different twist on them, which is creative and I like them. Here you can choose any character you have unlocked to do the mission, you can also still play as your created character too, and you also can choose any fighter you want alongside you if play solo.
The basic princeable around the game design, is you having to play quests to unlock things for your character whilst earning money and xp to level up your character in a huge dragon ball z universe of other players, which is fantastic, it is a great idea. Absolute genius. The problem however is how tedious they made this system pan out.
The story mode will be played for the main incentive of unlocking more characters and parallel quests and locations. The main incentive to playing Parallel quests is to unlock items and new moves. You are rewarded with new moves or items either through RNG (random chance) or through certain win conditions. Usually you will have to achieve certain win conditions to have a very high chance of landing that item or move etc that you want, but it’s still not guaranteed that you will get it that time. Some unlocks are incredibly rare such as Super Vegeta or any of the desired abilities unlocked from the “super saiyan bargain sale quest”, and they are very frustrating to get, you need to be very lucky to get it which is disheartening but thankfully from my experience, the drop rate for most things seem to be pretty fair.
This means that for some quests, you will be playing the same parallel quests many many times to try and get the unlock you want.
Not to forget to mention that the levelling system is very steep. It takes a lot of hours to dig in for your character to actually become strong. Half of the lifespan of your levelling progression you will spend grinding and still being weaker than the default real z characters to choose from. Unfortunately, the games reward system whether that’s through xp or the items gained are too stingy, with their intention of wanting you to play more, but it just leads to repetitiveness. It is a cheap way to get you to play the same small amount of content over and over. It is maximising playtime through playing the same thing over and over to get the chance to get an item. Similar to games like Destiny and The Division, it is disappointing to see so many games go down this route. The whole concept around it being a RPG is fantastic, but I just wish there was more content and less stinginess in the reward system that forces you to play the same content many times. I don’t mind having to play the same content more than once as it makes the battle or saga feel a bit longer winded like the actual anime series is. I just wish it were a bit more generous, because having to play missions 100s of times is a tad too much.
The story mode will be played for the main incentive of unlocking more characters and parallel quests and locations. The main incentive to playing Parallel quests is to unlock items and new moves. You are rewarded with new moves or items either through RNG (random chance) or through certain win conditions. Usually you will have to achieve certain win conditions to have a very high chance of landing that item or move etc that you want, but it’s still not guaranteed that you will get it that time. Some unlocks are incredibly rare such as Super Vegeta or any of the desired abilities unlocked from the “super saiyan bargain sale quest”, and they are very frustrating to get, you need to be very lucky to get it which is disheartening but thankfully from my experience, the drop rate for most things seem to be pretty fair.
This means that for some quests, you will be playing the same parallel quests many many times to try and get the unlock you want.
Not to forget to mention that the levelling system is very steep. It takes a lot of hours to dig in for your character to actually become strong. Half of the lifespan of your levelling progression you will spend grinding and still being weaker than the default real z characters to choose from. Unfortunately, the games reward system whether that’s through xp or the items gained are too stingy, with their intention of wanting you to play more, but it just leads to repetitiveness. It is a cheap way to get you to play the same small amount of content over and over. It is maximising playtime through playing the same thing over and over to get the chance to get an item. Similar to games like Destiny and The Division, it is disappointing to see so many games go down this route. The whole concept around it being a RPG is fantastic, but I just wish there was more content and less stinginess in the reward system that forces you to play the same content many times. I don’t mind having to play the same content more than once as it makes the battle or saga feel a bit longer winded like the actual anime series is. I just wish it were a bit more generous, because having to play missions 100s of times is a tad too much.
Building a character and character customisation is good and really is the life and soul of the game, it’s something they got very right. Lets get down to the basics of the stats for a character. Health is… well pretty self explanatory… a stat that increases the amount of damage you can take until you are KO’d.
KI is essentially your attack energy, and Stamina is essentially your Defence energy.
Ki is primarily used for special attacks, whether that is KI attacks (big energy wave attacks like for those that don’t understand) or strike attacks which are basically special melee attacks. Think of KI blast attacks as powerful ranged attacks using energy blasts, and strike attacks as special melee attacks. Ki is also consumed when in a transformation, and depletes over time whilst you are in a transformed state. The more KI you have, the more of these attacks you can do before running out, or the longer you can stay in a transformation for. Ki charges back up by performing melee hits or charging your energy up through a move, better versions can be acquired allowing you to charge your ki faster.
Stamina is your defensive energy. This is mainly used to dodge attacks, by pressing X or A whilst an enemy is attacking you, you can teleport behind them which is by far the most effective trick in the game. When you are against the ropes getting pounded the way to escape out of it is teleporting behind them. There are also defensive counter attack moves that can be used that can blast them away from you, this uses stamina and not KI. Stamina is also consumed when you are charging an Ultimate Super KI attack (basically a special move that uses up more KI and does more damage than a normal super KI attack). If you are being attacked whilst your character is still in animation, you wont take any damage and will carry on doing the animation to launch the attack. However if you run out of stamina because they have inflicted too much damage on you whilst you are still in animation, your characters attack will fail and you will be hurt and often knocked over. When in animation of doing an Ultimate Ki attack, the damage you take will consume Stamina rather than Health.
Stamina will naturally regenerate.
Ki blast super stat, is well the KI blast special attack damage.
Strike super is the melee special attack damage.
Basic Attack is how much melee damage you will do from just normal attacks.
The depth behind the stats and how it plays in a fight is very interesting and makes for some interesting character creations. It is one of the biggest reasons why I am so enticed by this game, this and the loot system that is tied to all of this.
KI is essentially your attack energy, and Stamina is essentially your Defence energy.
Ki is primarily used for special attacks, whether that is KI attacks (big energy wave attacks like for those that don’t understand) or strike attacks which are basically special melee attacks. Think of KI blast attacks as powerful ranged attacks using energy blasts, and strike attacks as special melee attacks. Ki is also consumed when in a transformation, and depletes over time whilst you are in a transformed state. The more KI you have, the more of these attacks you can do before running out, or the longer you can stay in a transformation for. Ki charges back up by performing melee hits or charging your energy up through a move, better versions can be acquired allowing you to charge your ki faster.
Stamina is your defensive energy. This is mainly used to dodge attacks, by pressing X or A whilst an enemy is attacking you, you can teleport behind them which is by far the most effective trick in the game. When you are against the ropes getting pounded the way to escape out of it is teleporting behind them. There are also defensive counter attack moves that can be used that can blast them away from you, this uses stamina and not KI. Stamina is also consumed when you are charging an Ultimate Super KI attack (basically a special move that uses up more KI and does more damage than a normal super KI attack). If you are being attacked whilst your character is still in animation, you wont take any damage and will carry on doing the animation to launch the attack. However if you run out of stamina because they have inflicted too much damage on you whilst you are still in animation, your characters attack will fail and you will be hurt and often knocked over. When in animation of doing an Ultimate Ki attack, the damage you take will consume Stamina rather than Health.
Stamina will naturally regenerate.
Ki blast super stat, is well the KI blast special attack damage.
Strike super is the melee special attack damage.
Basic Attack is how much melee damage you will do from just normal attacks.
The depth behind the stats and how it plays in a fight is very interesting and makes for some interesting character creations. It is one of the biggest reasons why I am so enticed by this game, this and the loot system that is tied to all of this.
You will have gear that can be unlocked or purchased with in game money that will essentially boost certain attributes in exchange of decreasing a different attribute whilst changing the appearance of your character. For example, Piccolos cape will increase Ki but decrease Health. Or Goku’s clothes will increase health but decrease attack. The attributes assigned to each gear feel very balanced and are all important. It leads to quite a strategic character building. For me I built my character mainly around having a large amount of KI to maximise the usefulness of the Super Saiyan transformation so that I can stay in that form as long as possible. However I always found myself having gear to boost KI but in exchange it would decrease my KI attack, which balanced it out and was a frustrating trade off, In a good way.
You also have an equipable item called a Z soul. Almost like a perk that’s extremely useful. Some will have different effects for example one of Vegeta’s Z soul will be transforming into a Super Saiyan will increase your KI aka slow down the rate that your KI drains in Super Saiyan and increase KI attack damage. As you progress through the game, better Z souls become available and some are extremely vital. Finding the right Z soul for you is tactical and very intriguing to learn about new ones and to try and acquire what ones you need.
Also a good trade off I learned was there is two types of the Super Saiyan/SS2 transformation. There is the regular SS/SS2 or there is Super Vegeta/ SV2. SS’s primary effect increases melee damage. Whilst Super Vegeta’s primary effect increases KI blast damage. The game does not explain this to you anywhere by the way. I had to look this up on the Internet. That’s a poor showing from the developers there. Both allow you to infinitely use Super/Ultimate KI blast attacks and won’t drain your KI any faster or use any KI. Once your KI is drained from the transformation however, you will return back to your normal state and KI attacks will use up KI.
You also have an equipable item called a Z soul. Almost like a perk that’s extremely useful. Some will have different effects for example one of Vegeta’s Z soul will be transforming into a Super Saiyan will increase your KI aka slow down the rate that your KI drains in Super Saiyan and increase KI attack damage. As you progress through the game, better Z souls become available and some are extremely vital. Finding the right Z soul for you is tactical and very intriguing to learn about new ones and to try and acquire what ones you need.
Also a good trade off I learned was there is two types of the Super Saiyan/SS2 transformation. There is the regular SS/SS2 or there is Super Vegeta/ SV2. SS’s primary effect increases melee damage. Whilst Super Vegeta’s primary effect increases KI blast damage. The game does not explain this to you anywhere by the way. I had to look this up on the Internet. That’s a poor showing from the developers there. Both allow you to infinitely use Super/Ultimate KI blast attacks and won’t drain your KI any faster or use any KI. Once your KI is drained from the transformation however, you will return back to your normal state and KI attacks will use up KI.
KI blast moves, melee moves and transformations can be unlocked through completing Parallel quests as I said before but you can also unlock some of the best moves, typically a signature move from a specific character through adopting them as your mentor. NPC’s will be randomly scattered across the lobby. Different NPC’s will spawn each time you re enter the lobby but some characters will have a much more rare spawn rate than others. For example I have never seen Goku spawn in the lobby before thus have never had the chance to make him my mentor.
To progress with your mentor, you must talk to them in the lobby and they will give you a quest where you will fight them and have to achieve a certain objective, which then rewards you with one of their moves. After that, you must go off and play the game more until the bar is progressed enough for you to be able to come back to them to learn more. I don’t mind this system, but it is really steep and it takes far too long to progress with mentors, baring in mind you can only have one at a time so trying to progress through all mentors takes a very long time and becomes a tedious process just like the majority of the game can be like.
I would just like to add that the game does a very poor job at explaining things to new comers. In fact it does not really explain any of what I have just explained at all. Knowing what different thing’s purpose are, is something that is learned over time. Strange for a game with not a huge amount of depth in gameplay has such a steep learning curve at first. I recommend looking at some YouTube videos before screwing up your characters stats. There is a strategy to adding attribute points to each stat.
To progress with your mentor, you must talk to them in the lobby and they will give you a quest where you will fight them and have to achieve a certain objective, which then rewards you with one of their moves. After that, you must go off and play the game more until the bar is progressed enough for you to be able to come back to them to learn more. I don’t mind this system, but it is really steep and it takes far too long to progress with mentors, baring in mind you can only have one at a time so trying to progress through all mentors takes a very long time and becomes a tedious process just like the majority of the game can be like.
I would just like to add that the game does a very poor job at explaining things to new comers. In fact it does not really explain any of what I have just explained at all. Knowing what different thing’s purpose are, is something that is learned over time. Strange for a game with not a huge amount of depth in gameplay has such a steep learning curve at first. I recommend looking at some YouTube videos before screwing up your characters stats. There is a strategy to adding attribute points to each stat.