"But Spencer! What on Earth is a Dragon Ball!?" Dragon Ball is a franchise originated from a manga and anime series from the 60's. It became a massive hit both in its native region of Japan as well as in the United States and, strangely, Brazil. Long story short, it stars Sun Goku, a martial artist who is eventually revealed to be a Saiyan, a race of shape-shifting primates from outer space. He, along with his ever expanding list of friends and allies go off on adventures that range from competing in martial arts tournaments, to saving the world from a pair of time traveling robots, to keeping a literal god of destruction complacent by feeding him pudding. Yes you read that last one correctly. "But wait!" You cry. "That description has nothing to do with dragons or balls!" The titular Dragon Balls are an item that, when all seven are gathered in one place, summon a giant dragon that will grant whoever summoned him one wish. Usually, the current villain is seeking to use the Dragon Balls for something sinister, like immortality or ruling the galaxy.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is a sequel to, you guessed it, Dragon Ball Xenoverse, an action-RPG set within the Dragon Ball universe. In both games, you create your own character, customize them with different outfits, and learn how to use the signature moves of (almost) the entire cast of series, from Prince Vegeta's Final Flash, to Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon, to Goku's most well-known (and most frequently parodied) attack, the Kamehameha (pronounced "KA-may-HA-may-HA"). Anyway, the story of Xenoverse 2 has the same general story concept as the first game. Your character is a part of the Time Patrol, who are basically the police of the Dragon Ball universe. You travel through time to the various highlights of the series, such as when Goku fought Emperor Frieza for the first time, or when Vegeta sacrificed himself to destroy Majin Buu, and after a mysterious time travelling villain changes the past so that the bad guys win, you do everything you can to get history back on track. In other words, this game is the perfect way to get a recap of a 50+ year old show with thousands of episodes released throughout its life, compressed down to a 3-5 hour long beat-'em-up RPG. Of course that play time is only if do the main story campaign exclusively while ignoring the optional side content, in which case your play time can sky rocket to 30-50 hours. Yeah, there's a lot of optional stuff to do in this game.
The game's story is fine for what it is, an excuse to have your nifty O.C. interact with the many, many, MANY characters from the series (all of whom are played by their original voice actors as well). That being said, it does run into the problem of making Trunks (one of my favorite characters) look incompetent purely for the sake of game play. In the first Xenoverse, he rarely interacted with you or the other characters outside of battle, since in that game Trunks served the role of Mission Control for the Time Patrol. He still does that, but takes a more hands-on approach, which ironically worsens his character by having him make glaringly stupid mistakes just so he doesn't steamroll the combat encounters for you (keep in mind, when you start the game, your character is barely stronger than the average human, while Trunks is a Saiyan samurai who managed to kill two of the most dangerous villains of the show, Frieza and Zamasu, by himself). I know some people might prefer the more hands-on portrayal of Trunks and are glad that he can finally stretch his legs and fight some baddies alongside us, but I honestly kind of prefer how he was handled in the first game, with him essentially being the Nick Fury to our metaphorical Avengers.
On a more positive note, the combat system in Xenoverse 2 is fantastic. While it is a RPG first and foremost, it has a fair amount of fighting game mechanics to it as well. You have a button for light attacks (which are fast but weak), heavy attacks (which are slow but powerful), a button for firing energy blasts (tap for rapid fire, hold to fire a specialty blast, and what those do vary from character to character), and a button to perform a Vanish. Vanishes are a kind of short-range teleport (and a long-time staple of Dragon Ball fight scenes) that can be used to either dodge incoming attacks or extend your combos. On top of this, you have four special moves that can be performed by holding down the right trigger on your controller (I played the Switch version, controls may vary) and then pressing one of the face buttons (for me it's X, Y, B, and A) at the same time. On top of THAT, you have two Ultimate Attacks (with lengthy animations that not only look cool, but also pack quite a punch), the ability to Transform (what that does depends on your character's race, since each one gets a different alternate form), and a Evasive Skill, which is for all intents and purposes, a counter. You can also dash by pressing and holding the left trigger. The only thing you can say bad about the game's combat is that the camera can occasionally get stuck on something, but those instances are, in my experience, few and far between. But anyway, the combat is simple (by fighting game standards) and not a single button feels wasted on the controller, and I honestly like that.
But how do you get these fancy special moves and Ultimate Attacks? The same way everyone else on this show makes any real progress towards anything, by doing a boatload of training! Fortunately for you, the process of training has been streamlined so you don't have to wade through half a season of filler content before you start seeing the results of your hard work. All you have to do is go to the hub word of Conton City, meet up with fan-favorite Dragon Ball characters (and Jaco, for some reason), and talk to them. They'll give you the challenge of defeating certain opponents with fixed load outs, and if you win the challenges, you get to keep that move and add it to your arsenal. You can also choose to take a specific character on as your personal mentor, which results in those characters ranking you at the end of each mission. Some of their voice lines for certain ranks are hilarious, such as Perfect Cell telling you that he "would totally hug you right now! ...If that was a thing [he] did." When you get a Z Rank (the game's equivalent of a Perfect score). Or Beerus mumbling "I was rather looking forward to this, you know..." when you get a B rank, obviously disappointed with your performance.
The character creation/customization options are also great. You can choose one of five races (that have game play benefits and are not just cosmetic), the gender, the skin tone, the hair color AND hair style, the eye shape, nose shape, ear shape (assuming the race in question has ears), the height and weight, and the voice. Granted, most of the voices just give your character regular grunts and maybe a one-liner when using Ultimate Attacks. However, the voice my character (a female Majin because I wanted to be original and not be a male Saiyan shamelessly ripping off Goku like everyone else) had was hilarious because she sounded bored and apathetic to everything. Where everyone else was shouting and yelling at the top of their lungs, my little Majin girl was dully saying "Galick Gun" or "DIE DIE Missile Barrage" absentmindedly, or blandly muttering "ow" when she took damage. This isn't a problem by the way, because I found my character's complete lack of motivation hilarious and worthy of more than a few silly head-canons. Also, fun fact! Some of the voices for your character were provided by the lovely people from Team Four Star, who are most well-known for making Dragon Ball Z Abridged, the fan-made parody that recaps the whole show while simultaneously poking fun at it. It's hilarious and not at all family friendly, and the fact they got them to do official voice work for an actual Dragon Ball video game is frankly amazing. And yes, those voices replace all of the grunts and battle cries with Dragon Ball Z Abridged jokes, such as shouting "GEOMETRY!!!" when using Tri-Beam, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!!!" when using Crusher Volcano, and my favorite of the bunch, "Try Hard Attack!" when using literally any of Vegeta's moves.
The game does get slightly repetitive, as most of the missions usually boil down to "Defeat all Enemies!" or "Defeat the Boss!". There are some optional missions where you have to gather up the Dragon Balls and deliver them to the Capsule Corp. Time Machine, usually under a time limit, but those are few and far between. Unless you go out of your way to play those missions, since they are a decent way to farm collectibles (there are other, faster methods, but these missions are the easiest way to collect stuff en mass). There's also a mini game that plays eerily similar to a game of Yu-Gi-Oh (just replace the cards with figurines), but I haven't really messed around too much with that. But from what I did play, it was a pleasant change of pace.
Also, the game has raid bosses, not unlike an M.M.O.R.P.G. (such as Word of Warcraft or Star Wars: The Old Republic) where a team of six online players work together to face incredibly difficult challenges (don't worry, all of the raids are completely doable by yourself, if online interaction is not your thing). Some of the raids are better than others. While they do offer a nice challenge, some of them are, for lack of a better term, cheap. But if you think that the raid bosses are poorly designed and overpowered, don't worry, there's a Player Vs Player game mode known as Crystal Raids, where one player gets to play AS a raid boss, and everyone else work to together to beat you. And the same cheap tricks that regular raid bosses have (such as a shock wave that pushes everyone out of the arena, forcing them to backtrack) are now at your disposal. Have fun!
| Fun Fact! Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 was released in America right before the Tournament of Power Saga in Dragon Ball Super, so this game marks the American debut of Hit (pictured above, the dude in purple) |
Anyway, a quick little something I would like to address. You know how you can create your own character in this game, and have that character be one of five races? Those five races not only have different stat spreads (the RPG mechanics revolve around adjusting your stats and skills), but each race not only gets a different version of the opening cut scene (Frieze Clansmen eavesdrop on the Emperor of the Universe himself training a new generation of henchmen, The Majin intro has your Majin visit a now reformed Majin Buu, who is trying to learn how to read, etc), but they also each get a unique transformation. These transformations are not created equal, unfortunately. Saiyan characters get, to the surprise of no one, Super Saiyan Mode (and ALL of its upgrade forms, such as Super Saiyan Blue, or Future Super Saiyan), which boosts all of their stats and gives them unlimited energy, in exchange for gradually draining said energy (Supers and Ultimate Attacks no longer cost any energy to use, basically). Frieza Clansmen get Golden Form, which is for all intents and purposes, the exact same thing as Super Saiyan Mode. Namekian characters get Giant form, which is by far the most visually impressive of the transformations, as your Namekian grows to near-Godzilla sizes and your offense and defense get a massive boost (the catch being you move slower while giant). Majins get Purified Form, which turns you into a palette swap of Kid Buu, but with some buffed up stats. And finally, Humans get... The Power Pole and the Flying Nimbus (the former being a magic bo staff, the latter is a cloud that gives people the power of flight). Yeah, they don't transform into anything at all. They just borrow the tools Goku had when he was younger but no longer needs because his more recently acquired powers render both the Power Pole and the Flying Nimbus redundant. To be fair, humans don't really transform into anything, neither in real life or in the show this game is based on. But at least the tools from the early days of Dragon Ball got brought out of retirement!
One last thing before we move on to the presentation, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 does have some backwards compatibility with the first game, and when starting up a new save file, you can choose to have some select stuff carry over to this game (namely, your O.C. from the first game shows up in the story campaign as an N.P.C.). Because the first game never released on Switch (it came out in 2012, just about five years before the Switch existed), this feature is absent from the Switch version of the game. In addition to this, some story missions were recycled from the first game specifically so people jumping into Xenoverse 2 while skipping the first game can get caught up to speed. This may annoy some people who were expecting completely brand-new content. On a more positive note, this game has received a plethora of DLC content, such as new characters, moves, optional side stories, and more. Case in point, just three days before writing this review Bandai Namco announced that Android 21, the main antagonist of the side-scrolling fighting game Dragon Ball Fighter Z would be getting her own DLC pack.
As for the presentation, this game looks great. The character models are on point, the animations for the Ultimate Attacks (and even some Super Attacks) are flashy and over-the-top while still being as show-accurate as humanly possible, and most of the backgrounds and settings look distinct. I would say this is nicest looking Dragon Ball video game ever made... But Dragon Ball Fighter Z exists, and while that game exists, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 will only be the SECOND nicest looking Dragon Ball game ever made. But on the bright side, the pause menu looks really nice. I don't why it looks as nice as it does, but something about it is visually appealing to me.
Now, as for sound and music, something I feel is a missed opportunity is that the opening cinematic for Xenoverse 2 is just Trunks (and Corona, who is basically the Goddess of Time in this universe) doing an in-universe advertisement for the Time Patrol. I consider it a let-down considering how awesome the first game's opening cinematic is. In that cinematic, it's a beautifully animated fight sequence where Goku, his son Gohan, and his friend/rival Vegeta all working together to fight dark, shadowy versions of Frieza, Perfect Cell and Kid Buu all while the theme song from the original anime blares triumphantly. They could have done something similar, but maybe use the theme song from Dragon Ball Super and have the fight sequence involve characters from the Tournament of Power (such as Hit, Kale, and Jiren). It would have been the perfect way to outdo the original game's opening while also showing off stuff from Super.
The voice acting is for the most part, fantastic. Granted, I played the game with the English dub, and purists might say "But Japanese voices are the only real way to enjoy the game!" And to that I say, you all do realize that in the Japanese version of the show, Goku never had his voice actor changed at all, right? Hence, Goku has a voice that sounds like a child. I'm sorry, but the juxtaposition of seeing a grown man, a fairly beefy and muscular one at that, speak with the voice of a five-year-old is too jarring for me. Which is a shame, because Frieza's Japanese voice is perfect. But in regards to the English voice acting, it has a few odd deliveries of certain lines, such as when Goku's father Bardock is mounting a last stand against Frieza's empire, and demands that Frieza face him in battle personally, English!Bardock delivers the line strangely calmly, as if he's more mildly annoyed that Frieza is about to commit mass genocide on the Saiyan home world, while the Japanese version has Bardock deliver the line with righteous fury and primal rage, which fits with his character more and makes more sense given the situation. And what's worse is that the animation team based the lip-sync and body language off the Japanese version of the game, so the calmer portrayal of Bardock in the English version doesn't even match up with his body language, which again, fits the angrier, Japanese version better. This was not the fault of the voice actor, who really is quite talented, as apparently Bandai Namco's localization team is infamous for giving vague and confusing direction to voice actors. But when the voice actors know what to do, they give their best possible performance.
| *OH HO HO intensifies* |
The music is simply great. Most of the songs were pulled straight from the anime, along with all of the sound effects. Most of them sound triumphant and awe-inspiring, which fits the overall tone of the franchise. I will say the default music for the hub world, while catchy at first, does get annoying very quickly. Thankfully you can change the hub world music in the Settings. The same applies to combat encounters, though the default battle music is nowhere near as grating as the hub world music. But the best music in the game is the music that plays when you visit Hercule's house. That tune is funkiness personified.
In conclusion, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is a great game, with very few flaws. In regards to the age-old debate of whether to pick this up or go with Dragon Ball Fighter Z, it depends on what you want out of a Dragon Ball game. Do you want an action-RPG that doubles as a greatest hits album of the show? Or a competitive fighting game with a stylish art style that puts all other fighting games to shame? One game is good at selling you on the power-fantasy and wish-fulfillment of being an unstoppable anime hero in the Dragon Ball universe, while the other game is a chance to let the rest of the cast shine for once. As for people who played the first game, Xenoverse 2 is, simply put, more of the same, plus a little extra. If you liked the first game, you'll love this game. If you didn't like it, don't bother. But anyway, I give Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 8 glowing beefy were-monkeys from space out of 10.
P.S. As I have been a fan of Dragon Ball since I was 3 years old, I may or may not be biased.
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