Dragon Ball Xenoverse

Dragon Ball Xenoverse continues the legacy of its outrageous predecessors in this installment by mixing in smooth gameplay and detailed animations with the ability to create your own character within the Dragon Ball universe. While other Dragon Ball games may have satisfied a childhood desire of mine to be able to send out a Kamehameha at my enemies since the early 90’s in video games, Xenoverse leaves its own mark by establishing an even faster pace of combat.

While your foes can seem intimidating at first, you’ll be able to train under some of the greatest masters in the universe to hone your skills in Tokitoki City while reliving the best moments from the manga/anime. Though it is not without its faults, Xenoverse was respectable title that brought a lot of unique ideas to the table for future installments.

Restore History

If you’re like me and you’ve had friends who have played Xenoverse, you have likely heard a lot about the online community and the level of challenge it brings to the table, but probably haven’t heard a lot about the main story. As a newcomer in this universe, while you train under a historic Dragon Ball master of your choice, you will be tasked with restoring the timeline by reliving the most epic battles throughout Dragon Ball’s history. Going up against the likes of Frieza, Cell, Vegeta, and several others will pull you in battle after battle as you try to stop Towa and Mira from meddling with such events.

As a whole, the plot is simplistic and easy to follow – it wasn’t truly the focus of the developers. With any title that deals with time travel/even alteration, there are bound to be a few plot holes that develop, but none break the immersion too greatly. Either way, the plot acts more like ‘background noise’ to the huge battles around each corner, which is probably what you’re really here for. Regardless, the campaign/story are enjoyable and help teach you the basics effectively.

Face Your Rivals

Xenoverse plays similarly to a lot of other arena-style fighting games, a bit of Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, or Tekken, but gives you huge arenas to fight in along with the ability to fly. You are given a general move set which depends on the character type you choose in the beginning - Earthlings, Saiyans, Namekians, Majin, or Frieza Race – along with special abilities with each. For example, Saiyans have low health but in exchange have much higher attack stats. Additionally, your character will also be able to level up into an ultimate skill, like Blue Hurricane or Death Meteor, which enables you to finish off opponents powerfully.

From there, the gameplay is all about learning how best to vanquish foes without being stricken down first. Learning the game is a given in the campaign, but playing online can teach you a thing or two much quicker once you’re crushed by a player who’s been around for the last few years, as I was. Unfortunately, being five years after launch, it can be difficult to find a good match online due to lower player counts. Lastly, controls for all these moves are tight and responsive but were greatly improved upon and sped up in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2.

Aside from that, some moves are much more powerful than others and will inevitably be spammed by both you and the AI to a frustrating degree, which can be twice as aggravating given the amount of grinding required to complete the game’s repetitive side quests.

Bottom Line

Grinding and spamming aside, Dragon Ball Xenoverse provides every player with a great opportunity to enter the DB series of fighting games.

Pros

• True to the anime/manga
• Fluid/innovative combat
• Challenging but fair battles (off and online)

Cons

• Graphics are true to the art style, but a bit outdated
• Online is nearly dead
• Story original, but nothing to write home about