Rock the Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2

Given the opportunity to review Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 by our friends at Bandai Namco, I took up the chance to get back into my childhood fandom.

So, let’s talk about what the game is first.

If you haven’t played the first Xenoverse, the sequel is pretty much the same game with new bells and whistles added: it’s an Action RPG with some fighting game elements. Unfortunately for me, I’ve been craving a Dragon Ball fighting game. I gave Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 a fair shot as well, and you know, I was fairly surprised.

The mechanics of the game play fairly well. You create your own character to insert into the world of Dragon Ball. You have the choice of race between: Saiyan, Majin, Namekian, Frieza’s Race (btw how has his race been unnamed for this long?) and Human. You also get to select between Male and Female – except for the Namekians and Frieza Race.

All your favorite moves from the series can be learned from masters, who turn out to be several notable characters from the series. RPG mechanics like stat and equipment management are also a part of the game.

The main plot revolves around the player being a new recruit of the Time Patrollers, who exist to protect the timeline of the Dragon Ball universe. You partake in several key arcs of the series, i.e. Frieza saga, Cell saga, etc, and help “correct time” by ensuring that scenes play out like they did in the source material. This is done by taking part in a SEMI-fighting game esque battle system.

If you’re familiar with the previous Dragon Ball games (namely: Tenkaichi, Raging Blast, and of course the previous Xenoverse) you’ll get the hang of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2’s battle system fairly quickly. It’s also quite similar to the recent Ultimate Ninja Storm games, so if you have any experience in those, this will be an easy pick up.

The battle system is akin to an action game. You occupy a fully-3D space (which you can also fly around in) and you can either throw ki blasts or perform melee attacks on your opponent.

Overall, I’d say the game is pretty well executed. The battles are fun enough to play around with, and you get to live out your Dragon Ball fanboy dreams by partaking in the series’ most notable arcs.

However, the game doesn’t come without faults. Customization is SEVERELY limited. You don’t get enough options to tweak your characters, so you’re bound to find a look-a-like online (Hell, half the people I’ve seen online look like some variation of the main characters of the series).

The game itself is also repetitive. After the 20-or-so hours sunk in, I find no need to go back to it. The missions are pretty much all identical, either being: beat X or collect X amount of Dragon Balls. After a while, it gets boring.

In conclusion, I’d say that if you’re a fan of the series, give Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 a try. I have no doubt that you’ll enjoy the game. For people like me though, Budokai 3 is still the last best Dragon Ball fighting game.

Another thanks again to Bandai Namco for providing the codes for the game and the screenshots!