Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Preview
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 finally arrives today. The first Dragon Ball Xenoverse game was a massive success, selling over a reported three millions copies worldwide. The Dragon Ball franchise is stronger than it’s ever been right now. Akira Toriyama is working on new Dragon Ball stories with the recent movies. On top of that, there’s a new anime series with Dragon Ball Super, which he’s also working on. Super has just started simulcasting in North America, Latin America, South Africa and Australia across Crunchyroll, Daisuke and Anime Lab. Not to mention, the video game franchise for Dragon Ball is going strong as well, starting with Xenoverse. That continues with Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. The game recently finished its open beta phase right ahead of its full console launch.
The first Xenoverse really played like the first Dragon Ball game for the next console generation. It had a great character creation feature, which is back for Xenoverse 2. It had a 3D hub world, and it had a fun take on the Dragon Ball story that was completely original. You play a character who has to stop two villains from tampering with the timeline of Dragon Ball history. Xenoverse 2 looks to build on that story. In the sequel, players can actually transfer the data of the character they were able to create in the last game. However, that character does not appear to be playable for the main campaign in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. Instead, gamers will create another new character as the central hero for the story.
Xenoverse 2 has an even bigger, more massive open hub world to play around. Conton City is massive and even bigger than TokiToki City in the last game. Destructoid reports that the game world has a number of cool areas players can explore. These areas include Capsule Corp, planet Namek, Buu’s House and even Outer Space. All these areas were a part of the game’s open beta. Additionally, specific areas will designated depending on the type of race the character has created. So, gameplay will be affected by the type of original character that Dragon Ball fans have created.
If there is one drawback for Xenoverse 2, it seems the campaign has the player going through many of the same battles and stages as the first game. Recent reports, including the aforementioned one from Destructoid, indicate that early gameplay levels and battles in the beta for Xenoverse 2 are identical to Xenoverse. However, the good news is that the game will have even more Parallel Quests and remastered quests than Xenoverse. Parallel Quests enable players to relive key moments from Dragon Ball lore, except there’s a twist in that they get to play them out with some different conditions and fighters. Completing these quests earns players special rewards in the forms of items and skills. Xenoverse 2 actually has more than twice the amount of Parallel Quests than Xenoverse.
One of the other exciting new gameplay modes is Endless. This allows players to fight with no battle timer to determine who the best fighter is in a battle to the finish. Another new match type is the “No-level Match.” This Versus gameplay mode allows for players to fight against each other without any stats. This is a fun new mode that allows players to test their true gameplay skills without any handicaps or over-powered characters. These different matchups will definitely serve in spicing up online versus gameplay for the franchise.
Another great new gameplay mode revealed by Bandai Namco Entertainment is the 6 v 1 Expert Mode. Players can play with their friends in six versus one matches. The catch is that they will be playing against a giant adversary, such as Vegeta in his Giant Ape form in the mission Depths of Despair. These missions are designed to give players a higher level of difficulty, but it also empowers players to feel like a Saiyan in the fight of their lives, just like in the series. Vegeta in this form will have some insane combo attacks and his giant Laser Mouth attack as well. You can see a gameplay video of a 6 v 1 Expert Mission below.
It’s almost like this mission is the Dragon Ball Xenoverse version of a Raid from a multiplayer role-playing game like World of Warcraft or Destiny. The catch is that the fight still has a 10-minute timer, so it will only end after the time-limit is up or the giant foe has been defeated.
Xenoverse 2 game producer Masayuki Hirano also revealed in an interview with Bandai Namco UK that players do not have to arbitrarily form a six-person team for this gameplay mode. Sometimes the situation could change, and the number of players fighting each other could be different. Hirano stated in the interview:
So we are focusing on 6-player co-operation, you will be gathering with 5 allies to fight against a really strong enemy. We want players to focus on the outcomes and situations that change during the 6-player co-op. For example, your allies’ may be brainwashed by the enemy or they might launch a scattering attack where your allies are sent to a different dimension. So it’s not always 6 vs 1, it may even become 5 vs 2 or 4 vs 3. The outcome really changes depending on the enemy’s attack. You may have to fight a different enemy in a different dimension or you may have to fight against your allies or maybe even yourself!
Overall, this mode looks like a welcome addition to the Xenoverse series. Despite some similar gameplay missions and quests, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 appears to have a nice level of gameplay depth with hours of fun.
Graphics and character designs also look nicely spruced up. Since the game was strictly designed for the current console generations, players don’t have to worry about playing a downgraded or lesser version of the game either.
In short, it’s a great time to be a Dragon Ball fan, and the Xenoverse series is a big part of that. It’s a huge improvement over seven years ago, when 20th Century Fox released a horrendous live-action movie called Dragon Ball Evolution that offended and revolted fans. Now, the franchise seems healthier and stronger than ever. Hopefully, fans can ride out this reinvigorated form of Dragon Ball for a while. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 arrives on October 25 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC. Check out the official site for details on how to purchase Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2.