Dragon Ball Xenoverse Game Review

The last Dragon Ball game I owned was "Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout" for the Play Station 1 that was released on 1997, and it was a gift from a friend back in the days of the PS1... after that the last DBZ game I played was "Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2" for the PS3; and I never bought it actually... it was a friend who brought it over one night; but I have never really been big on DBZ games despite being a fan of the franchise.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse is the very first DBZ game I was legitimately interested in picking up;  something about what I saw got my attention... not only the character creation and gameplay aspects, but also the story line seem to be finally attempting something different than all the other DBZ games before it (they all retell the same sagas over and over again); I pre-ordered the game and bought it has soon has it was released for my country.

The story is set in the age 850 (60 years after the ending of Dragon Ball GT), somebody is making changes in history, making alteration to the course of time in the universe, Trunks (the one who traveled back in time during the Cell Saga) is now leader of the time patrol and asks Shenron for a strong warrior to defend time, that is your avatar... very early it is reveled that the once behind all the distortions in time are the time breakers, Towa and Mira... is up to you and Trunks to take back the dragon ball history. Even though the story is not oscar worthy, I wasn't expecting it to be great, it is however a good story that mends well with the series in the way of how it unfolds; it´s also great to see your character interact with legends of the dragon ball universe.

The new warrior is the character you create right at the beginning of the game, you can be a saiyan, earthling, majin, namekian or the unnamed frieza race; the main campaign takes you through the main Dragon Ball Z sagas starting from Raditz´s arrival to earth. each saga has only a handful of mission with simple objectives to accomplish with conditions that can make you fail, the game indeed does get harder has you progress through the story, so leveling up is important before moving forward in the story, only to simplify some of the difficulty spikes you will find, this process can be annoying even though to me it wasn't a problem has I am the kind of player that likes to play side quests has I play the main story.

The game is not so much a fighting game has it is an RPG... you will be doing parallel quest while playing the main campaign, only because you will need to level up, not only does the player win exp, but also zeni (the games currency), special loot items and even have your character learn a particular skill that can´t be learned another way, this encourages replaying missions if you desire to get the best goodies in the game or just a particular item but the absolute best part of it is the fact that you can play it in coop with other players. Has I said before the games mainly feels like an RPG game, creating your character and leveling him/her up, but is also a fighting game that it´s simple enough for people to pick it up and play... in time I personally started to discover my own combos by experimenting with super moves I had acquired and see witch combination worked best, I like this element of experimentation and finding new skills is awesome; it doesn't feel like their system has rigid mechanics where you have to fight specific commands or combinations. There is also the inclusion of PvP mode where you can pit your costume character against other players costume characters and test your skills against player controlled opponents from 1vs1 to 3vs3 matches.

It´s not all good however, the server is terrible... you will be waiting for a while to connect online, and when it does it usually kicks you immediately out of the session and you have to wait again for it to connect... and that is if it does! because otherwise you will wish for an error connecting only to finally be able to play the game. Another thing is the Tokitoki City itself, everything is administered through the city, you want to play with a friend local match? you gotta select your character, wait for it to connect to the server, load the game and walk all the way to the dude that allows you to play local 2 player. It´s the same with the stores, the online battles, parallel quests having both for online and offline on separate positions... etc. Online battle against other players are also problematic, not only is it troublesome to find good sessions but while in an online fight there sometimes are punches connecting after you hit the opponent or vice versa.

Has I said before if you just want the campaign experience, you will eventually have to do the parallel quests weather you want to or not; the difficulty spikes get very high if you are at low level to face the missions at hand and you will be frustrated guaranteed... parallel quests seem optional but they are more obligated than you think.

I believe the question everybody asks themselves is the fallowing:" Is Xenoverse the best DBZ game ever?"... to that I cannot say because unlike some people I am not familiar with the Budokai or Tenkaishi games (the best DBZ games according to fans), but I can say that is not a masterpiece; it has too many problems and lack of core components that it´s hard to call it a great game in any regard... if anything, Xenoverse is above average.

If I had to give this game a score it would be a 6 or a 7 out of 10, and I say it with kindness because if anything the developer "Dimps" has shown love and care for the DBZ license by writing a story mode instead of replaying the DBZ sagas again (there is only so many times you can kill Cell); the gameplay is simple to understand after a while, creating your own avatar and having him/her play a major role in DBZ history is a great feeling has a fan of the franchise... but the online management is bad, grinding can be tiresome after a while, visuals are more at home with PS3 than PS4 and there  are too many hours to be invested to unlock every fighter, yet I am glad I bought it and I have been having fun playing it witch is why it hurts to talk about the flaws Xenoverse has, but I can´t turn a blind eye to them.

Should you buy Dragon Ball Xenoverse? Yes IF you are a DBZ fan and can put up with the flaws of the game... but I see potential; a ground work has been set for a sequel that if done right it can improve upon everything this game has done, even add more customization options, improve the RPG elements with higher stats increase and make it the best game it can be... but until then I am fine playing this game.

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I promise next post will be the Jurassic Park movie review; I just had to get my thoughts of Xenoverse off my chest! Aside from finishing the first chapter of the comic.

Stay tuned!