Dragon Ball Xenoverse returns building upon the success of the original Xenoverse title with new characters, new abilities, and a wider area to explore. With the level of popularity and success that the original Xenoverse garnered, Dragon Ball Xenoverse has massive shoes to fill. Get your scouters ready as we look at the newest installment.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse was an incredible new idea that helped regain fans who stopped playing the DBZ games. Creating a new MMO style game built around the Dragon Ball Z universe was a 90’s kid’s dream come true! While fun, the actual execution of the world was rather stale and bland; sadly Xenoverse 2 does little to change this.

Xenoverse 2 starts off like the first title of the series with your character being chosen for the time patrol to stop “evil-doers” from disrupting the timeline. With the assistance of Trunks and your character from Xenoverse 1, which you can import, you must ensure that events that occurred stay untouched. The two antagonists, Mira and Towa, return to wreck more havoc on the timeline with a little help from Turles and Lord Slug. While the addition of Turles and Lord Slug add a few additional battles, much of the first half of Xenoverse 2 feels like they just copied and pasted scenes from the first game into the second; the ending of the Frieza fight is 100% cut and pasted from the first Xenoverse! This isn’t to say that the story mode is bad though. The game perfectly replicates scenes from the show in a way that the DBZ games have failed to do in the past. When it comes to DBZ, we go to the anime for story; the gameplay is what matters for Xenoverse.

When it comes to Dragon Ball games, players want incredible combat and Xenoverse 2 delivers. Watching a fight in Xenoverse 2 is almost like watching the anime itself. With fast paced battles, massive ki attacks, and incredible transformations this game hits all the right marks. With further advancements on combos, new transformations for players (including the ability to go SS3), and the ability for those of the Majin Buu class to become Kid Buu form adds some significance to others classes.

While online gameplay stays relatively untouched, new features add to the already well put together mix. Upon facing certain enemies in Parallel quests, your teammates can be afflicted by mind control and a few other ailments that can not only kill them, but turn them against you. While things like this may be viewed as gimmicky, it does add a new element to playing online and emphasizes the need for communication.

While the Dragon Ball games have always been known for stellar presentation, to the level that it looks identical to the anime, Xenoverse 2 comes as close to perfect as I’ve ever seen. Whether you’re in battle or watching cutscene, the game looks just like the anime. This level of detail not only is incredible to look at during gameplay, it helps further immerse fans of the series in a way many anime based games fail to do. Add in the original voice actors lending their talents to the game, and much of the music used in the anime, and Xenoverse 2 pulls off quite possibly the best adaptation of an anime based game I’ve ever seen.

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Xenoverse 2 is a marvelous game that provides an incredible experience, but litters it with an “MMO” element that continuously misses the mark. While I enjoy the ability to create a character that becomes a focal point in the story, elements such as Conton city feel like a waste of time. Combat makes up for this by perfectly recreating the look and feel of the anime. If you’re a Dragon Ball fan, this game is a must play for the combat alone.

The Breakdown

Pro’s

• Incredible combat that perfectly represents the anime
• Feels like you’re watching the anime when playing
• Online Gameplay is fun

Con’s

• Conton City, like Toki Toki City, is more of an annoyance to traverse than anything else.
• Much of the story is exactly like the first game
• Too many villains to look exactly like Goku.