I remember waiting for last year’s DragonBall Xenoverse with bated breath. New and mysterious characters. History-changing alterations to the main DragonBall story that hadn’t been switched up in years. A compelling character creation system and solid RPG is what DBZ fans had been clamoring for. Xenoverse delivered in all of those regards, and Xenoverse 2 meets all of those same points. Unfortunately for this years sequel, it feels like a copy-and-paste sequel with many of the gameplay elements. A lot of the UI is pulled straight from Xenoverse 1, and many of the same shops and items are directly pulled from last years game. Fans of the original Xenoverse will feel right at home with the combat, mostly due to the fact not a lot has changed in terms of fluidity that the original Xenoverse delivered upon. But even though many of the elements are pulled straight from last years entry, Xenoverse 2 is able to stand on its own as a solid step forward for the DBZ and Xenoverse franchise.
Gameplay
Players throughout Xenoverse 2 will be doing one of two things: fighting throughout the various highlights of DBZ history or purchasing and upgrading their Z-Fighter to be more equipped to fight. Combat this year is still fun and exciting, yet entirely too easy. Many times I found myself able to hit the same combo over and over to defeat an enemy, with little to no resistance. This was often a let-down, seeing as some moments built up to a big boss fight (such as the fight with Frieza or the Giant Ape Vegeta), but those bosses never felt menacing as they should when I was able to beat my opponent to a pulp.
Veterans of Xenoverse 1 will find that they are able to import many of the Z-Skills and equipment from the first game into Xenoverse 2, which gives a huge advantage in the early-game missions. Players will find their initial Xenoverse character enshrined as a hero in the DBZ universe, which is a very cool touch to keep the continuity of the games intact. Factions have also been introduced with Xenoverse 2, and provide plenty of interesting side-missions and activities for players to complete. Most of the factions rely upon combat missions (like the Saiyan faction or Namekian faction), but I found the most interesting to be the Majin faction. By joining the Majin faction, players will be able to bring food to Majin Buu so that he can reproduce and create a family. The more food players are able to give Buu, the more family members he produces. These family members will then go out on their own into the world and retrieve various items that the player can then collect. I found it a nice touch in a game that seemed to solely rely upon combat missions, and fit the Majin Buu character really well.
The story of Xenoverse 2 is almost a re-hash of the first entry of the series. Players must travel to different points throughout the DragonBall history to correct the various changes that the evil Towa and Mira are causing. Fans of the series will find plenty of the story arcs to be different enough to enjoy, but I found that the use of some side-villains as some of the biggest threats in Xenoverse 2 to be a bit jarring. Xenoverse 2’s early missions have Turles and Lord Slug as the immediate threats to DragonBall’s history, two of the arguably worst villains in the series. While certainly it wouldn’t make thematic sense to have players face off against the more well-known villains right off, these sort of deep cuts in the DragonBall lore could have been used to use more provocative villains.
With that being said, Xenoverse 2 is still a ton of fun to jump into and clean up some missions. DragonBall fans will find plenty of offerings in the lore and fan service. Combat, while entirely too easy, is still fun and dynamic and is totally “DragonBall”. Character customization is a ton of fun as well, and I found that playing as the Majin race to be the most fun and dynamic (although most fans will likely want to choose the Saiyan race for obvious reasons).
Visuals/Audio
Xenoverse 2’s art-style is impeccable. The cell-shaded character models have never looked better, and the cutscenes ripped directly out of the anime look jaw-droppingly amazing with the cell-shaded models. Each character oozes personality, especially the player-created characters. Emotes and different fighting styles give each fighter a distinct and unique approach to combat, so no two character or race play the same. Many of the special moves (while still the same from Xenoverse 1) felt heavy-hitting and destructive, and each were easily recognizable from the DBZ manga and anime.
The character customization and equipment management in the game is fantastic, although I do wish they had added in one feature in particular. While I definitely appreciate the number of fan service nods in the equipment you can acquire throughout your playthrough of Xenoverse 2, I found that I could never really get my character to look the way I wanted her to look. A way to keep the appearance of a certain set of armor while upgrading the stats would have been a great way to really make my created character “mine”. I mean, after all, Goku has worn the same outfit for decades and has still gotten more powerful!
The audio is hit and miss for Xenoverse 2. While the game throughout sounds distinctly “DragonBall”, from the music to the Ki-Blasts, some of the dialogue left me a bit confused. All of the main characters voice-acting is fantastic, with many of the anime voice actors returning to voice their characters, but the player-created characters voices never really fit. My Majin character in particular had a voice that was pretty awful, as she sounded bored and unenthused any time she performed a special move. Hearing perhaps the most iconic and adrenaline-pumping line in all of DragonBall with “Kamehameha” in a monotone and lackluster voice really brought down the mood.
