DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE

Gameplay – 3.5/5

Dragon Ball XenoVerse is a continuation of popular Dragon Ball Z, so the whole gameplay is about fighting. Unfortunately, the most important part of the game is quite frustrating. There are quite a lot of kicks and punches with combos and special attacks, but they all lead to the same result. All rivals simply fly away after any type of attack and that looks like disrespect to fans of the original anime. There’s no strategy behind fightings in this game. You just have to kick and punch in a repetitive manner to gain mana (it’s called Ki) and activate some furious magic attacks. These ultimate attacks are very effective, but they work out only in half of cases. Sometimes they simply penetrate your competitors without any effect on their health or stamina.

Graphics and Audio Effects – 4/5

Visuals in Dragon Ball XenoVerse are quite simple, but fully relevant and authentic for an anime-based franchise. Characters are thoroughly ported into 3D with all textures and anime-image features like dashes, gradients and colors. Special effects for attacks are borrowed from the actual anime series and look just great along with worked character animations. On the other hand, you may feel a bit frustrated about 2D sprite backgrounds. They provide a feeling of an old arcade machine that is not up to place in a RPG from 2015.

Immersion – 4/5

This is a totally honest Dragon Ball XenoVerse review, so you have to know that this game is not really a brilliant works of digital art. However, it’s worth at least a single walkthrough for any Dragon Ball fan. The plot and the scenario perfectly complement the original anime and previous games of the franchise. This chapter is quite expensive, but offers about a hundred of hours of quests and fightings.

Controls – 4/5

Dragon Ball XenoVerse sticks to classic 3D arcade fighting mechanics, so it is played the best with a gamepad. If you want to use mouse + keyboard configuration, then prepare to learn some new finger positions to perform combos and ultimate attacks.

In-game purchases

The are no available in-game purchases, but the main character always needs to be upgraded to complete harder missions. In-game currency and skill points are used for that purpose.

To Sum Up

Dragon Ball XenoVerse is definitely a great complement for any Dragon Ball fan collection. It has multiple gameplay drawbacks, but a very good scenario and multiple easter eggs for real DB geeks.