MadCap's Game Reviews - "Dragon Ball: Xenoverse"

A game review from me of something somewhat vaguely topical and current? Say it isn't so!

Now that I've gotten that bit of snark out of the way, let me just say that I don't consider myself an anime fan. I enjoy certain animes and have many friends who are very big into it, but as a genre I'm just not all that keen on it with very, very few exceptions. Three of those exceptions would be Pokemon, the original Yu-Gi-Oh!, and of course, Dragon Ball Z. I remember back in the era of Toonami or the later 90s and early 00s when they would air DBZ along with a pheltora of other shows like Thundercats and ReBoot and I was blown away from how utterly different it was from anything else I had ever seen before.

And, of course - like every other anime and its mother that got localized for America - games were made for animes that got shipped to the States as well. As part of the Dragon Ball saga, I've played the first Legacy of Goku on the GBA (which I enjoyed), Ultimate Tenkaichi 3 (which I did not), and Raging Blast (which I still wish I had). Though considering the sheer mass of them, I was inevitably going to run into yet another game I'd want to play and thus I did when I heard of Dragon Ball: Xenoverse.

I also saw TeamFourStar's Let's Play of the game (or, at least, the first five or so episodes) which both sold me on the game and prepped me for what is to come, so I admit I did have a little bit of foreknowledge going into the game.

Several iconic moments from the show have been well recreated.

The plot is about as simple as one would expect from an anime - that is to say, somewhere between "Do You Read Sutter Cane?" and the ending to Rob Zombie's Halloween 2 - with Future Trunks from the anime working alongside the new character the Supreme Kai of Time and finding out that someone or something is going back through the timeline of the Dragon Ball Saga in order to distort it...for some reason. Thus, Trunks gets a hold of the Dragon Balls and makes a wish to Shenron for a warrior who can help him stem the tide of evil.

And thus, to character creation! You are given the option of starting as a Human (male or female), a Saiyan (male or female), a Majin(male or female), a Namekian, or a member of the Frieza clan. Each race has their own respective pros and cons, such as Saiyans having high fighting ability but low health but get stronger when revived in combat, or the Namekians having high health and defense, or Majins being able to tank like nobody's business. There's also a fair amount of customization with the faces, eyes, and hair as well as the height and build of your character regardless of race or gender. As well as voice sets, which is a bit dd for a character that never speaks, but then I get to hear battle dialogue in the voice of Abridged Nappa and everything is alright.

Personally, I went for a Saiyan character and christened him "Butarega" coming up with the mental backstory that he was a Saiyan from a timeline where Bardock had killed Frieza and thus Planet Vegeta had been saved from annihilation. No doubt pissed about being pulled away from wherever he had been at the time (I hadn't gotten that far in thinking him up at the time), he was nonetheless happy to beat Trunks from pillar to post in the tutorial before getting the chance to do some more fighting.

And a side note for when you create your first character: I hope you're satisfied with them, because the other slots will be locked until you complete the main game.

The combat is actually fairly fluid, perhaps a little too much so. Matches can be up to as many as 3 vs. 3 in any given situation, and the map environments all definitely have a lot of space to move around in. Of course, that won't keep the enemy AI from turning everything into a big ol' fustercluck by ganging up on one member of your team - most likely you - and pounding them into a lovely Senzu Bean paste.

"I am the hope of the universe!!!"

And thus, the importance of grinding levels is learned when - after a few missions of some fair challenge - the player gets blindsided by certain enemies such as I was by Frieza during his first appearance in the main questline. Luckily, the hub world of Toki Toki City also hosts "Parallel Quests" that are unlocked with each chapter that the player can repeatedly play in order to grind levels and even occasionally acquire unique moves or gear. The player gets three points for every level up to be distributed to their attributes.

The stats are neatly arranged to cover everything - Your character's Ki, your Stamina, and your attacks of different varieties. Top tip for anyone planning to do a Saiyan character (and thus a Super Saiyan, because you know you're going to): Make sure to boost your Ki and Stamina especially. I've only gotten so far as the Buu Saga now and unlocked Super Saiyan 1 through an absurd Parallel Quest and it eats through your Ki at a ridiculous rate, leaving you with no Stamina once you drop out, which is a real pain if you don't realize you're about to run dry and three versions of Majin Buu are just waiting to gang up on your sorry Saiyan butt.

Which does bring up a complaint I have about the combat. The game features a lock-on mechanic to keep track of a certain enemy and display their remaining health and the like. It works in theory, but it seems to only serve as that display and little else. While it doesn't happen often, I've had situations where my character will be targeting an enemy right above him and then fire a Light Grenade or a Kamehamaha straight down.  If I'm going to lock onto an enemy, then that's the target my attacks should be firing at. And no, I'm not complaining about an enemy dodging an attack, I'm simply asking why there's a lock-on feature when it doesn't lock-on?!

But going back into things I like about the game, player character have the option of training with heroes and villains from the show (almost all voiced once more by their VAs from the Funamation dub) in order to unlock the use of new moves and other goodies. Butarega ended up seeking out Piccolo, then Vegeta, and luckily discovered that you can switch between trainers with no penalty and eventually come back to finish up with a previous one. While it's not necessarily to train up with a character, it is encouraged and as Piccolo puts it in-game "one move can be the difference between victory and defeat".

Moves can also be purchased from the Skill shop in the industrial area, as can various outfits and accessories that can be equipped. While the accessories are all just aesthetic, the outfits can provide various boosts or reductions to skills and attacks. Butarega, a proud Saiyan, eventually took up the armor of Raditz when he got it, but soon switched to the more practical (and stat improving) Ginyu Force set, complete with a sapphire blue "new" scouter.

Further helping in the boosting area are Z-Souls and Capsules that can be purchased or created in the Item shop or the Mixing shop, respectively. Z-Souls are items that can be equipped and can provide help in battle provided certain conditions are met. When a player completes training with a master, they'll get a unique one specific to them that can be anything from a stat boost to the master showing up in battle to assist. Hell of a morale boost when Lord Beerus shows up to bring the thunder of damnation down on your enemies, I tell you what.

Capsules are filled by Shards, which can do anything from giving a player health to refilling their Ki and some can even scatter health and ki around for teammates in battle. They can also be equipped to one of four "Battle Item" slots that can be used while out on missions. However, each slot can only be tapped once during a battle, so don't expect to be able to pull out 100% healing more than once in a battle.

Goku's just jealous of his Super Saiyan swagger...

Also, you can unlocked certain moves and items through missions. Before anyone tells me there's some kind of method to it, there isn't. It's just pure random number generation. Basically, use whatever you like. If the game doesn't want you to get the Big Bang Attack, you're not going to get it this round. Keep grinding.

Beyond the mechanics, most people would probably rag on the story given that time travel in the Dragon Ball anime doesn't work like the game has set up (something that was made very expressly clear in the Trunks and Android sagas of the anime), but the game does actually bother to try and explain that so that the hardcore fans won't maim them.

God has time machines that don't create parallel timelines.

...no, I'm not kidding.

This, along with classifying GT as a splintered off timeline that isn't in canon with the rest of the Dragon Ball universe, is pretty much sure to keep the more rabid hardcore folk off of their backs about all the continuity problems.

Also, if you're sick of the plot or the Parallel Quest, you can go into a more tournament fighter-style mode where you select two characters and they battle in an arena of your choosing from maps you've unlocked. Nice as fighting practice to get the controls down, but it's important to keep in mind that your character only gets Zeni (money) from it, not experience.

There's also a 2-player fight that for some reason is with the multiplayer "World Tournamnent" mode...but I didn't got for that because I don't care for multiplayer as a rule as my long-time readers will well know.

But with my only real complaint being the sharp spikes in difficulty (very sharp, seriously they need to nerf some of the NPCs in quests significantly) that force the player to grind continuously and a lock-on system that does anything but, I have to say that I do find the game enjoyable. Yes, even the grinding occasionally. The combat is rather fun and engaging, which is all you can ask for in a fighting game. The difficulty curve needs a hell of a tune up and sure, it's self-insert fanfiction of the highest caliber - your character being this super badass that shows up out of nowhere and suddenly has enough power to stand shoulder to shoulder with Goku and take on 100% Power Frieza - but at least it feels like you earned it.

It is hilariously satisfying to be beaten down by Perfect Form Cell only to come back after some more training and beat him into the ground. It's an awesome feeling when you, in base form, are stretching out Majin Buu like long strings of Laffy Taffy with the techniques that you've learned and the power that you've gained. Leveling up, growing stronger, it all feels very reminiscent of the show as you grow stronger to take on the next big threat, even pushing yourself to your limit time and time again to do just that.

Get on out there, Future Warrior, time needs a-saving!

Dragon Ball: Xenoverse is now available from Dimps and Bandi Namco for Playstation 4, Xbox One, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, and Steam.

This review is based on the Xbox 360 version.

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