Dragon Ball Xenoverse - Review
Dragon Ball as a series has been around for some time and since the first video game adaption, players have been able to take on the biggest and baddest enemies the series has, but players have never been able to play as themselves, well with Xenoverse that changes.
The game actually has a unique story to tell in that two adversaries are going through out time and altering what history should have been, in order to syphon power for unknown reasons. The result of their manipulating history is that events no longer play out as you know them to, Raditz will avoid the final attack from Piccolo or Frieza will jump to his final stage to wipe out those that oppose him.
Trunks, as a member of the Time Patrol uses the Dragon Balls to summon a fighter with the power to help him restore events to how they should be. This is where you are given the tools to create your own fighter, you can choose the race of your character and then gender, if the race allows it and then finally choose what you avatar looks like. You can create a Dragon Ball version of yourself or go all out and create the most exciting and strange looking person possible. The options for personalisation are not as deep as in other games, but with all the other characters I have seen, I never saw anyone else that looked like me.
Once you have created your character and proved your worth against Trunks, you are sent out on your first Time Patrol mission, helping Goku and Piccolo defeat Raditz, but it is not straight forward as you might think. As all fighting games have shown the objective is to get your enemies health down to nothing, but with Dragon Ball Xenoverse you have a series of side task you must also consider when going into battle, most of the time you will fail if your health gets to zero, but there are times when the requirements will to not let your computer allies fall, which means you need to focus your attacks on the main objective but also keeping other forces away from your team.
It is this balance that you need to keep at the front of your mind while fighting, which is pretty easy to do thanks to the simple yet in depth combat mechanics at play. Using two of the face buttons you can perform some devastating combo’s and by using a modifier button, you can unleash some truly epic moves, like the classic Kamehameha. When you are taking part in Time Patrol missions, you will be in combat all the time, so learning the moves is important, but also knowing when to not attack is critical. The game provides you with a lock on assist, so you can help track the person you are fighting against, which results in the camera doing some random moves from time to time, but also means you can fly straight towards them when you need to, the problem with the lock on is that it won’t always follow the moves.
Many times during my fights I was attacking an enemy and then had the character dodge the attack and appear behind me, but as I was in the middle of a combo, I was stuck attacking nothing. My character would punch and kick the air and then when they did stop, usually resulted in me getting a lot of hits. Whenever this occurred, I would get away from my attacker, turn around and then head back into the fight. The most annoying part though is that when you get your opponent down to a set level of health, a cutscene will trigger and something happens, but when the cutscene ends and your back to fighting, your health remains the same, where your opponent’s health is back up to full, or close to it. I can’t begin to tell you how many fights I lost this way.
Thankfully, the game is not all fighting, there are alternate missions you can do called, Parallel Quests, this side quests provide you with the chance to try new things, collecting Dragon Balls, or taking Krillin on in a fight. Sometimes they are just more fighting, but if you are not engaged, you can get out and explore the area you are in and locate items, which you can use back in Toki Toki City. This side quests are also good for helping you level up your character, which if you don’t do, you will get beaten really quickly in the Time Patrol missions.
Toki Toki City is a place where you are going to spend a lot of time, it is where you accept the Parallel Quests and also where you can customise your character. You can also purchase items that can help you in battle here, which you will need to do, health, stamina and ki energy recharges are important and can help turn a battle, the problem with Toki Toki City is it is boring to explore. The shops are located in one area, with the battle and parallel quests another and the remaining area is dedicated to Time Patrol missions and tournaments. If you are playing online, you will see players just popping in at random, filling up the space, when not playing online, you will see the characters in the world, but you won’t be able to interact with them.
You are also stuck with inverted controls when you are in the city, what you use for jump in battles and Parallel quests is not the same when you are in the city. Far too often I found myself wanting to jump only to initiate a conversation with someone instead, while not an issue, it was annoying. Located around the city are fighters from the series, whom you can apprentice under and learn new moves, in order to do so though, you will have to be a set level for certain characters and then you need to defeat them in battle. Levelling up your character happens quite a lot too, the game is generous that even when you fail a mission, you still earn xp, which will allow you to boost your stats outside of battle.
One area where the game has no issues is the presentation, if you have seen any episodes of the tv series, it will make sense right away, the voice acting is spot on as well, with each of the characters saying new things as history changes. The fighting spaces are large, but bland in their appearance, the world will crumble under the weight of the fights being carried out there, seeing the ground being shredded from a massive energy attack is pretty cool, but then the game repairs it and you have no visual indication that anything ever happened. The same can be said for Toki Toki City, the spaces are very bland, the shop distract has the most personality, with shops having their wears out on display. The other areas are barren when there are no other players around, benches that are scattered around the world, can neither be sat upon nor jumped over.
Overall Dragon Ball Xenoverse is an interesting game, it is giving players to actually explore the world and interact with the characters like never before, but with its horribly wonky fighting camera and bland fighting spaces, it makes the purpose of the game a chore to do. Fans will get a kick out of seeing changes to the history, even if only for the briefest of moments, but for everyone else, it might be best to pass it by.
The Score
7.0
Review code provided by Bandai Namco
The Pros
+Getting the chance to explore the world of Dragon Ball as yourself
+Simple fighting mechanics mean anyone can play, but there is also some depth for fighting game fans
The Cons
-Frustrating fight camera makes things more difficult
-The world is bland and almost bereft of things to do
