Hey Dragon Ball Fans! Been looking for a good Dragon Ball game to play? Then look no further! After all the past Dragon Ball games being lackluster or just poor concepts that made it into actual development, most fans will agree there hasn’t been a truly good Dragon Ball game since Dragon Ball Budokai 3 and Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 3. Until now that is. Dragon Ball Xenoverse puts a fresh spin on a timeless story that we all know and love. Xenoverse starts off with you having to create your own character. There are quite a few options to choose from. There are the Saiyan, Earthling, Namekian, Frieza, and Buu class.
All classes have their pros and cons, and players are informed of what they are before finalizing their decisions. There are MMO elements to the game as well such as leveling your character. Also, interacting with other players in the central hub world known as Tokitoki city which I will explain later on in the review.
I have tinkered with all classes and they all are fun; however, Saiyan seems to have the slight advantage, and I will tell you why soon. First, lets get to the controls. The controls of the game are really simple and easy to learn. Everything feels great right from the beginning, and you’ll easily pickup the basics and be fighting your way to Frieza in no time. However, there are difficulty spikes in the game that will require one of two things: Either grinding in the games Parallel Quest for experience and moves, or learning advanced fighting techniques to help you in combat (aside from the normal combos in the game that are listed for you).
There are advanced techniques you pretty much have to figure out on your own such as: how to snap vanish or teleport to continue a long chain combo, or how to successfully block parry on time to stun the enemy and slightly gain a bit of ki. It’s like any other fighting game really. The more you play the better you will get. All that being said, the control scheme of this game seems a lot more fine tuned than previous games. You can easily transition from beating down your opponent with your fist to blowing them away with various ki blast.
Now let’s get to the story. As I mentioned the story is the same old Dragon Ball story we know and love, but with a fresh twist. After you have created your character you find yourself summoned to this strange place and are greeted by none other than Future Trunks. After fighting him and fulfilling his request he explains you’ve been transported to Tokitoki City by Shenron. Trunks explains that he wished for a fighter of great strength to help him, and then Shenron sends you. He then goes on to explain that he is a Time Patroller and that his job is to monitor the timestream for any abnormalities or corruption to them that would alter the past, and fix them when found. Not soon after this you see your first corruption. It’s Raditz fighting with Goku and Piccolo, except things aren’t going down as how we all remember them. There is something wrong and you soon notice what that something is. You agree to go help and are transported to that time and it just feels epic to put it mildly. I won’t spoil any of the story or what happens as it was amazing to me. I think any Dragon Ball Fan will love it. You continue on through the Dragon Ball Z saga to the end of Buu in the main story of the game and to the epic finale of the games own original characters’ story.
It doesn’t stop there fans, no not by a long shot! As I mentioned earlier about grinding for exp, which I will touch on here soon, the game has Parallel Quest. Yup, things that didn’t really happen are in the game just for pure fun. Some of the last few quest are more torture than fun, but overall the entire experience is a blast to go through and enjoy. Through these quest you gain exp for your character to obtain levels. Each level you gain you get 3 points to spend towards 6 different skills, each one contributing to how your character will end up upon reaching the level cap. How you choose to make your character is totally up to you. I went for a high stamina, basic attack, and ki blast build. You can choose to make your character however you like. Aside from exp you gain from quest, you also, at random, will aquire new clothing items or accesories for your character that affect stats as well as stat boosting items called Z-Souls to equip. You’ll also gain new moves like the Kamehameha or Big Bang Attack..
There are other ways to gain moves outside of the Parallel Quest missions (which I will refer to as PQ from here on out). In the game you can take up a master. Depending on your level, certain masters may or may not be availble to appear; however, all appear at random once you meet the level requirements. This means you may be level 60 but still seeing the beginning masters pop up and not the ones you want. You can change your master at anytime. The goal though is to max your companinonship meter with your master to learn all the moves they have to teach you, then move on to the next. At least that is the way I did it. There are a total of 8 Masters, and new masters will be included in the DLC which I will talk about at the end of this review.
Now lets touch on why I said Saiyans seem to be a bit overpowered. It’s for this small simple fact: Each class has their pros and cons. Namekains stamina, for example, rebuilds very quickly. Earthlings ki recharges automatically. Frieza class characters’ small ki blast can paralyze. You’re getting the idea right? Well, Saiyans have low health but make up for it in a BIG way. For one, when you unlock your Super Saiyan form (Yes, Transformations are here but only for saiyans. Earthlings can only use Kaiokin) you can constantly fire your ultimate and super moves without it draining 1-3 bars at a time. Instead, in your Super Saiyan state, your ki constantly depletes; and if you don’t charge it you’ll revert back to your normal state. When this happens you’ll lose all stamina for a short time; which means you will not be able to block or snap vanish dodge. You are wide open. But still, the fact you can constantly fire blast makes you a force to be reckond with, and it’s bad if you get caught in certain moves.
Lets get to the multiplayer aspect of the game. The game has full Co-Op for PQ’s, but PQ’s ONLY. This means you cannot Co-Op with a friend in story mode. It’s you against the world with that one. As far as PQ’s go, you and up to two friends can tackle the PQ missions together. The game also has 3 different versus modes to choose from. Player battle where it can be 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3 battles. Endless battle which is like king of the hill. The winner stays and the loser gets replaced by someone in your lobby waiting to play the winner. Last but not least, ranked match. This, for the most part, is filled with people who will do everything to win; including spam attacks you can’t get out of if you get caught in them. Overall, I had more fun in player battle and endless battle than ranked battle.
Lastly, lets get to the amount of content actually in this game. As I stated before, the story goes from Raditz until the end of Buu. There are tons of PQ to play. Some of which you have to unlock by finding characters within Tokitoki city with a blue question mark over their heads. The game also has a secret set of extra story missions that I won’t spoil, but I will say they are movie or side story arc characters who may or may not be canon. Overall, the game took me about a week to finish but I did play this constantly. Your average gamer can and likely will spend 2 or more weeks with this game. That’s just with the content that’s availble to you at the beginning. There are also 3 DLC packs coming for this. One of them is out already, which adds new characters, moves, stages and Z-Souls as well as new PQ’s to play. There are still two more coming. With the last one being from the new DBZ movie. The DLC is priced at $9.99 each, or if you want to save a little cash you can buy the season pass which I believe is $24.99.
This game, overall, has been nothing but a joy to play and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Dragon Ball! Even those who aren’t fans, it’s just an entirely great game to play and have fun with. I say if I had to rate this game on a scale of one to ten I would rate it at 9/10!