Dragon Ball Xenoverse can not be denied, becoming one of the most anticipated Bandai Namco products of the year. There are several fundamental reasons for the enthusiasm of many gamers to enjoy it. First, of course the fact that it will be the inaugural product leading to the latest generation platform, hope to see the unprecedented quality of visualization to be very high. Second? The fact that he will offer a more innovative side of the story and make the main character of your own concoction a focus. Third and foremost? For sure, PC. Dragon Ball Xenoverse is the first Dragon Ball game to be officially released for this super dynamic platform.
You who had read our preview before of course already know what kind of impressions offered by this one game. Contrary to the excitement you may find in cyberspace, we include gamers who put a big question mark on the main design foundation that Bandai Namco and Dimps offer in it. Focusing on a grindy multiplayer and gameplay experience, we even capture the sensation that feels so famiiar with Destiny. There is a need to take a repetitive process that continues to be repeated to be able to "enjoy" this one game. Something we certainly regret.
So, what is actually offered by Dragon Ball Xenoverse this? Why do we call it a tiring game? This review will discuss it more deeply for you!
PLOT
Most of us know Dragon Ball, whether from the manga version or anime itself. This franchise, more than 20 years old, is popular all over the world, not only because of its cool character design but also from the concept of destructive combat on an unprecedented scale. Interesting again? It also includes one of the anime adaptation game franchises that live for so long, even across generations with unparalleled success. With the development of a story that is not significant since we last knew it, developers of course need a new way to exploit the existing side of the story. For this one matter, Dragon Ball Xenoverse executes it appropriately.
Instead of taking you back along the tracks of Goku et al's battle history against the super-powerful enemy variations that have been told dozens of times through the game media, Dragon Ball Xenoverse is built with one conditional scenario, through a simple phrase, "What Happens If ..". A scenario that allows developers to re-juxtapize this iconic franchise bout, changing outcomes, and making you the main character who is in charge of making them right back, like the Dragon Ball you've been familiar with.
You'll be acting as your own concoction character, called by Shen Long to Toki Toki City for the help of future Trunks. The world is no longer the way you know it, and all the end result of the iconic Dragon Ball event has changed. No more Goku's victory over Raditz, Gohan's body lies beneath Cell's feet, and the world is crushed by Gai's greed. With the power of the Supreme Kai of Time, you are required to serve as a Time Agent, passing a book called Book of Endings and Beginnings to return to each of these historical moments, fixing it to produce the Dragon Ball story outcomes we've known for a long time. The investigation turned out to unravel the mystery that all these peculiarities do not just happen. There is a mastermind with no less power that makes chaos this time.
Who is the mastermind? What motives motivate them to do this "ignorance"? What iconic battles should you fix in it? All the answers to this question you can answer by playing Dragon Ball Xenoverse this.
Focusing Your Own Character
One concept that has been surprisingly well executed by Dragon Ball Xenoverse is the fact that unlike the previous series that asked you to act as the main protagonist character in the story, you are now required to save the universe with your own concoction character. With modification of appearance that is quite varied, you can build a character that feels quite personal. The best part? Dragon Ball Xenoverse also provides quite a variety of races like Earthlin, Majin, Namekian, Saiya, and Frieza each with their own strengths and weaknesses. We ourselves choose a female Saiyan character to satisfy the curiosity that can never be obtained from the manga or anime version of it.
This character is your life, the key to all the experience that Dragon Ball Xenoverse wants to offer. It is interesting to see how the "strange" character that comes out of your imagination has managed to find its own place in the epic Dragon Ball saga. Walking through time and trying to fix the Dragon Ball story you've been familiar with, you'll also meet some of the "new" plot interpretations that invite laughter. The freedom that the Dimps have to modify the story as they please leads to many memorable moments that deserve thumbs up. As an example? When Ginyu succeeds in getting Vegeta's body, for example, using his iconic body swap. Seeing Vegeta in Ginyu Forces style is enough to make us smile broadly.
But not just from the side of the story alone, even all the elements of gameplay offered Dragon Ball Xenoverse culminate in the same one estuary - strengthen the main character that you racik own. The series of quests and side quests that are offered will culminate in the accumulated number of experience points and the money needed to strengthen your character. For each level increase, you can distribute skill points to various attributes.
Dear thousand dear, from here the frustration when playing Dragon Ball Xenoverse already appeared. What is article? Regardless of the variety of attributes that can be built for your character, countless DB Xenoverse fails to communicate to you exactly what effect each attribute generates. It's not like an RPG action game, with elements like Strength, Luck, or Dexterity that are well known and widely used. How do you build your character according to your needs and style of play if you yourself do not know what effect it actually generates if you focus on the min-max style for one of 6 attributes: Health, Ki, Stamina, Basic Attacks, Strike Supers , & Ki Supers.
Although you can use different characters to complete the various side quests that exist, the main story progress can still be solved with the character you are racik. Therefore, strengthening them becomes essential. In addition to improving attributes, you can also embed variations of equipment with their own unique effects to support the attributes you prioritize. Not only that, there are a series of variations of the stance you embed and items to heal certain statuses that you can carry every time you fight. In essence, Dragon Ball Xenoverse will spin on one keyword - strengthening your concoction character. That is all. All the grinding processes you are forced to traverse end up on this one goal.
Upsetting and Exhausting!
Broadly speaking, Dragon Ball Xenoverse actually offers a gameplay mechanism that is qualified to represent the genre of fighting that he stretcher. You will not meet a cinematic approach like in the previous Dragon Ball series, where the fight is now running faster and active. It is easy to master, but can also be explored with a certain level of complexity. As usual, there are some elements of the bar that need to be considered like Stamina to avoid enemy attacks or Ki that need to be sacrificed to issue a destructive ultimate attack or just a regular Ki attack. The battle itself runs in a vast three-dimensional arena, with the freedom to move horizontally or vertically.
The battle mechanism that he stretcher is counted fun. You are forced to launch a combination of your own creative attacks to inflict massive damage as short as possible. As for those who are attacked, looking for timings to counterattack becomes something essential. But did he manage to capture the exact atmosphere of Dragon Ball anime battles? In speed, yes. But visually? Unfortunately no. The switch to the next generation console does not necessarily make Xenoverse able to capture the dramatic essence of each battle appropriately. Some of the effects that should appear in the format of "wow", such as kamehameha attacks or switching into Super Saiyan should be appalling look so ordinary. Worse yet? Performance-enhanced performance does not allow the effects of destruction on your "play" arena. The building is not destroyed, the mountain does not collapse, there is no giant hole when the ray ball attacks you miss. Disappointing, of course.
But the source of disappointment takes root from other mechanics. Mechanics enough to upset you and get tired in a very short time. As we talked about in the previous preview article, surprisingly, Dragon Ball Xenoverse strongly emphasized the grinding mechanism for the main characters to continue the story. Sensation like Destiny is clearly reflected, but in a more "light" format. At least, for every side mission you complete, the reward you get is obvious and feels right to take the time. But from another aspect, Dragon Ball design Xenoverse counted "defective".
The problem is, grinding on Dragon Ball Xenoverse begins to emerge not as freedom, a routine that gamers usually do to gain certain advantages. In DB Xenoverse, Grinding is a must. What is article? Because believe it or not, for you who even just want to enjoy the existing storyline, would not want to be encouraged to take this one process. This game is designed with an unreasonable difficulty level every time you meet a new story chapter. It jumps high, making every new enemy present with damage and power that is almost impossible to overcome by the strength of your character now. The result? You are "forced" to take on existing side quests to gather the level and equipment you need to strengthen your character. Still not strong enough? Repeat the same process, until finished. Tiring.
Worse yet, all the other elements that should be built to support your grinding action end up making it even more irritating. There are times when you have to take the same mission over and over again just to gain experience points. This will not be a problem if the variations of the side missions offered are diverse and unique to each other. However, not with DB Xenoverse. Some of these missions are very similar, resulting in a very repetitive gameplay sensation. Usually leads to beat the sequence of characters that appear sequentially to the end. Hit and beat enemies whose characteristics are no different for 15 minutes? Even sometimes ask you to do it 20 enemies in a row? Instead of something fun, grinding on Xenoverse DB feels like a myriad of homework your teacher throws in the holidays. Feeling improper, does not seem to contribute to the experience you should get, or even can say - injure it.
Still not enough? Welcome to the fact that no AI can rely on this game. Some side quests called "Parallel Quest" do allow you to carry two companion characters. Some of the main quests also sometimes ask you to protect one AI character until he / she should not die until the story goes to the next stage. Does this AI support you? They are extra weights! AI-AI "supporters" can never make any significant contributions and more victims. In the end, you also have to kill all the enemies that exist while your AI performs obscure actions that are not even enough to reduce 25% of the total HP enemy. While on the other hand, the enemy treats your AI support character like a sasak boxing.
Does it sound annoying to you? Hang on, DB Xenoverse still has not stopped acting there. With an enemy quantity that can reach 2-4 enemies at once when dealing with you, death should be a consequence that you often face. The bad news, Xenoverse DB checkpoint system is also no less bad.
With battles in one chapter commonly divided into several coherent sessions, it's almost impossible to ensure your HP bar remains full to the end, much less with the quantity of enemies you face. But instead of providing checkpoints in every cut-scene, Xenoverse DB prefers to force you to repeat the progress back from the start if it's killed in the middle of a battle, despite the fact that you've reached a specific story session in the chapter. The result? You have to take all the battles you did 10 minutes ago back. If you are still killed in the same place? You have to do the same thing again !! The only way to minimize the frustration of this mechanism is to prepare many healing items before the fight, that's all.
The level of difficulty that feels frivolous, the battle is always the one-sided both in terms of quality and quantity, the grinding is a must, the gameplay is very repetitive, reinforced by the lack of information offered in the game, Dragon Ball Xenoverse is not a game that can be enjoyed, at least from our glasses. There are more and more annoyed and tired, that you are forced to do the same thing over and over again. Worse than Destiny? At least in Destiny, the main story sessions can be solved even if you are only at a low level. In DB Xenoverse? Do not expect.
Multiplayer is a Solution?
To simplify the existing grinding process, you can indeed make the multiplayer mode seemingly positioned Bandai Namco as the backbone of the Xenoverse DB community itself. Via a simple portal inside Toki Toki City, you can search for any team that needs help completing a particular Parallel Quest. Of course, completing Parallel Quest accompanied by an extra 2 other human users who are able to act more effectively than AI will help you finish the battle faster, especially if one of them is a veteran who already understands what to do. But is multiplayer a solution for Xenoverse DB grinding?
So far, he was a more rational answer. Supported with voice chat, especially if you have a physical friend who also plays the same game, at least this repetitive gameplay can be tolerated even further. But for you who play this game yourself without friends in the real world, Xenoverse multiplayer mode, like Destiny, can feel empty. There is no chance to interact with each other, other than toying with a myriad of emoticons and fixed predictions. You can not speak directly, there is no auction house system to exchange loot effectively, and the trading system offered is also very limited. Everything is empty.
What if you include gamers who are more happy with competitive mode? You can fight in 1 vs 1 or 3 vs 3 versions against other users from different parts of the world. But as far as the observations that exist, this one mode seems only designed for gamers who are already equipped with super powerful equipment and a combination of attacks that are not less deadly. You low level who want to just have fun? You will be faced with nightmares.
Conclusion
Dragon Ball Xenoverse ended up being a disappointing product in our eyes. The switch to the next generation platform opens up much hope and anticipation, but Bandai Namco and Dimps seem to fail to execute the core things that should be their focus. At least, we still get the quality of the story deserves thumbs up, at least the courage to modify a plot that we have known since a dozen years ago. The opportunity to create your own character as well as RPG games and focus on making it stronger is also a welcome approach. But beyond these two things, Dragon Ball Xenoverse is a nightmare.
Grinding is imperative, the quality of visualization is not fantastic, there is no damage to the environment system, repetitive mission variations, the level of difficulty that makes up, the annoying checkpoint system, until the voice acts are flat so its own record. As if all the experience we got from Destiny and all the frustrations that surrounded it back again in Xenoverse, but in the worse portion at some point. The fact that you will not be able to finish the main story without doing the grinding process first there is a very unfortunate slap.
So, do you have to play Dragon Ball Xenoverse at this time? Paying full price for it we do not recommend, unless you are a gamer who does not mind the repetitive gameplay and grinding process is exhausting. But for gamers who do not, or at least love the thrill of a more straightforward and cinematic Dragon Ball game, Xenoverse DB is a nightmare you should avoid.