Review #218: Dragon Ball Xenoverse

 This ain't gonna be pretty.

 First things first, if last gen ports of current gen games are gonna be this terrible, just don't bother. No, really. Xenoverse is a game I've been kinda hyped about ever since it's initial announcement. I watched a lot of videos, and tiny details like characters swimming while under water pumped me up in all kinds of ways. But I was worried, worried because Dimps' last anime game was Saint Seiya Brave Soldier, and worried because it was very ambitious with its 3 vs 3 battles, and feared for the X360 and PS3 ports. The good news, is that they did a couple of things right... the bad news, is that the game suffers from an identity crisis and terrible performance issues on last-gen platforms.

 One thing people usually bring up about Dragon Ball games is that they always cover the same storyline, but I never cared, I like faithful adaptations, and while I don't consider myself a fan of the franchise(Just the games!), I've yet to get tired of replaying the same story over and over again. This game borrows heavily from Dragon Ball's 'expanded' universe, with Mirai Trunks(Ahem, 'Future Trunks') being part of the Time Patrollers. You get to play as your very own created character, you are even allowed to pick gender and  race from Human, Saiyan, Namekian(Male only), 'Frieza's Race'(Male only) or Majin and each one having their own strengths or perks. Regardless, you are the latest addition to the corps, summoned by Shenron, and must help Trunks 'fix' the timeline that a couple of villains are altering by powering up the villains of the series. This means that you get to fight alongside the Z warriors as the Ultimate Gary Stu/Mary Sue, y'know, even a Human is able to keep up with a souped up Majin Buu! One thing that I couldn't help but notice is that your character isn't... they don't acknowledge his presence a lot of times. The game has a ton of gorgeous cutscenes, and the rest of the characters barely even look in your direction, most of the time, although they reference him a bit more in the in-game dialogue, plus, there's some unique lines depending on your race!  I didn't really care about the story, but I'd lie if I didn't crack a smile here and there, and there's a couple, but just a couple, of truly genius moments. All in all, I didn't care for it, but it's far from being bad, and they could've gone with the trite 'evil clones' story(Which Dimps actually used on their Shin Budokai PSP games!), but they didn't! Oh, and by the by, the story does a lot of jumps and what not, so it expects the player to know DBZ's storyline, unless they want to get lost or have things make no sense to them.

 As I mentioned previously, one of my biggest gripes with the game is its Identity crisis, it doesn't know if it wants to be an MMO-like game or an RPG. Instantly you'll notice that there are no menus what so ever, everything is done by picking you created character and walking over to a counter or a NPC. And even then, there's not a whole lot of 'modes', there's the Story Mode(Talking to Trunks), Parallel Quests(Online and Offline), Offline(CPU) and Online Battles(Player), as well as Tournament and VS Player(Local). Here's the thing, there's very little in the way of options. As far as VS CPU goes, you can't change the difficulty setting, and they are slightly challenging, I'd say that they are harder than Story or Parallel Quest CPUs! And even then, and this goes both for Online and Offline VS, you can't change number of rounds(Defaults at 1) or how long the match lasts. What the hell? That's not even the kicker, Local VS Player can only be done 1vs1 and only on the World Tournament Stage. There's a reason for it, it's the smallest stage, so the camera can keep both characters on-screen at the same time, still, it's pretty lame, they could've shrunk  the invisible barriers on the other stages or something. And probably you noticed already, but there's no Training Mode, there's no way to lengthen the duration of a round, and the only way to battle a dummy is by going Local 2Players and pummeling a defenseless second player.

 And I'm not even done with issue like these, how about the fact that the character roster isn't very well balanced? Certain characters are just naturally good done others, and there's nothing you can do about it. There's these 'mob' characters, Saibamen, Frieza's soldiers and Cell Jrs, and they are absolute garbage, any character can easily dispose of them, so why even bother including them in the roster? No, really, I can't even try to figure out combos since the VS CPU can just own me in seconds flat when using these buggers. Y'know, a lot of people took issue with the 47 character roster,  but I think it's just fine, it has all the necessary characters and then some, and being the first entry on a pseudo-fighting game, I think it's forgivable... even if the combat system isn't exactly deep, but more on that later. But even then, I have issues with the character roster outside the quantity... Movesets are defined by costumes. That's right, 'ripped clothes Goku' not only has different stats than 'normal' Goku, but it also has different moves and special moves. It's so shortsighted, and it annoys me even more because the game has some costumes that no other Dragon Ball game has! But picking 'pig-tailed Videl' is just a death sentence because her stats are terrible and her specials are worse. I don't know whose idea was it, but it's aggravating. And I wasn't planning on holding the DLC against it, since it seemed to have been made after the game was made, and they were GT characters.... but DLC pack 2 makes two of the unique villains playable. Enemies that you fight in the game, that obviously have their model and animations done, can only be played by buying the 2nd DLC Pack. Really? I mean, REALLY?

 Not done yet. Character creations offers more than a fair amount of customization options, which I really liked, but it doesn't come with a few short comings. For instance, costumes affect your stats. I've heard that when you reach max level these don't matter all that much, but having to look ridiculous just because you want a melee oriented character is a bit annoying. Costumes and stats should've been kept separate. And among these tonnes of customization items, which are divided in torso, legs, hands and feet,  you can find a lot of 'character costumes'(Say, Goku's Gi), even some from characters that didn't make it into the game, which sounds awesome.... but you can't change the color of these, which is very disappointing. Still, when it comes to character creation, it's mostly a hit, not only can you create some of the missing characters, you can have some pretty hilarious combinations, like a flesh-colored Majin, with a Super Saiyan-hair wig and wearing a Saiyan's costume for kicks and giggles. Basically, I think the Character Creator is great, but it needs some tweaking.

 Nope, not done yet. When not doing the Story Quests, by talking with Trunks, you'll be doing the Parallel Quests. Parallel Quests are sidequests of sorts, like an MMORPG, that you can take at any time, and bring buddies or CPU allies. All of these come with their own set of rewards, and optional objectives to fight powerful bosses. It sounds great, and on paper it is, there's over 50 of them even, but they come with a lot of issues. Where to start.... The RNG(Random Number Generator) which governs what and IF you get a drop(reward) is downright evil, which translates to a lot of replaying. That's one thing, but remember the optional objectives? You can't see what they are until you clear them for the first time, and sometimes, even if you clear them, the 'boss' won't come. Some of the rewards can only be obtained IF you defeat the boss, and even then, it's still a random drop. It translates to a lot and a LOT of retrying and replaying. Finding the Dragon Balls and finding Mentors(NPCs that can teach you some skills) are also random. So, want a particular skill? A costume piece? Get ready to replay the hell out of certain missions until they drop. Fun. And in an ironic, twisted way, it actually works in your favor, since later Parallel Quests get unfairly challenging, so you will need to grind.

 And no, I'm most definitely not done. Most of these quests allow you to bring 2 Player buddies or 2 CPU allies. Lemme warn you right now, if you plan to play offline, be ready for a world of pain. Allied CPUs are stupid, plain and simple, they will watch you get pummeled without trying to aid you, they will push enemies out of your combos, and they will get wrecked by enemy CPUs. And the best part about it? The enemy CPU will help each other, you'd think that in a 3 VS 2, your 2 allies would be able to keep 1 CPU at bay while you defeat the other one, but nope, they will let the other enemy come and interrupt your combo while they just... watch. And that's one of the biggest issues, the game is balanced for 3 players, but CPU allies get wrecked and are downright useless, but you still want to bring them and hope that the other CPUs get diverted by them while you try to pick'em off one on one, one by one. And you are allowed to bring healing items, some which you can even use on the CPU... but there's certain missions that require you to protect a third CPU(Protection/Escort missions, always a pleasure)... and these CPUs are as dumb as your allies, but you can't heal them. Even better, later in the game enemies gain super armor just because, and some escape techniques that can't be avoided if you are mid-combo, and the allied CPU will always be close by, watching or trying to push the enemy out of your combo, so they will eat that attack, an attack that you can't stop them from using. Fun.

 There's more. It seems that the game favors 'beam spam' builds. From what I've heard, hybrid melee-beam characters struggle the most throughout the game, and then melee specialists(My build) will also have a bit of a hard time. And it makes sense that ranged characters would have an easier time seeing how the game plays, but you can't respec your build unless you gather the seven Dragon Balls and wish for it... instead of one of the 3 Dragon Ball-exclusive characters or costume pieces. Still, I've avoided talking about the game's main source of frustration, and it only applies to the PS3/X360 port of the game, the framerate. If at any time there's 4 or more characters on screen, the framerate will dip horribly. Playing on the World Tournament Stage or the Namekian Water Stage is a nightmare, particularly on 3 VS 3. And the thing is, most fights in the game, either Story or Parallel Quest battles, are made up of four fighters or more.  And yes, you could just opt not to bring CPU allies, but you need them as fodder. The worst part about it, is that on the few instances that the framerate didn't drop, like 1 on 1, I had fun with the game. Still, the framerate issue also applies to the MMO overworld. Initially, it runs flawlessly, but even if you never go online, after a certain Mission, it will populate it with NPCs.... and then you'll be running underwater from place to place. The Framerate issues made everything about the game more annoying, I'm sure that if it wasn't so terrible, I could've dealt with a lot of the game's issues, but the framerate affects everything. Grinding means that after each Parallel Quest, whether you won or lost, you have to walk back to the counter, because it couldn't just spawn you back in front of it, all while dealing with slowdown, only to enter the same battle again, which will probably play in slow motion due to the amount of fighters on screen. It's incredibly annoying.

 The fighting is very fun, albeit simple. You have weak attacks(Square), strong attacks(Triangle), Ki blasts(Circles), blocking(L1) and dashing(L2). While floating, you can go up by holding X or go down by... holding L3(Pure genius), but this is the only confusing bit about the controls, luckily, since when the framerate is steady, controls are very responsive. Each character has four special moves, which you can cherry-pick if it's your created character, and you gain access to them by holding R2 and pressing a face button, while L2+R2 allows you to use your Ultimate attacks. X doubles as the 'dodge'/'pursuit' button, press it while under attack to spend 2 stamina bars to teleport behind the enemy, or press it after a combo to pursue them. As I said, it's a very simple game, but it's also fun. Still, it lacks depth, Budokai this is not. Going back to the game not knowing if it was a Fighting game or an MMO, if you play online battles, it's very possible to be paired against a higher level enemy, which is always fun.

 Graphics are gorgeous, kinda, since you have to deal with heavy slowdown! One thing I adored, and wish more games would do, is that it uses a super oversaturated color palette, everything is very colorful and in your face. I love it. The game might also have the best stages in a Dragon Ball game EVER, they are huge, and with a ton of different structures or geometry, and there's a ton of them! However, I did notice that there are some odd... quirks. Like in Parallel Quests, it's not unusual to get short scenes when new fighters arrive, they might even talk some trash... but their mouths won't move. Cutscenes have always been one of Dimps' fortes, and it's no different here. The soundtrack is... Well, let's just say that the opening song is a new rendition of Cha-la Head Cha-la, and it's awesome. That little I heard of the in-game music was also fairly good... when you can hear them over the SFX and dialogue! As per usual, I played with the Japanese dub, and it's as good as always, and while there's the English dub, I really can't comment on it, but general consensus is that it's good.

 For as much as I hated about Xenoverse, I still think that this is an excellent foundation for future Dragon Ball games. Dial back a bit on the MMO elements, allow for more customization when it comes to online and offline battling, separate costumes from stats, ease up on the RNG-related drops and add more depth to the combat, maybe bring back cancels. Oh, and for the love of god, downgrade the graphics on PS3/X360 ports or just don't bother at all, because I'd rather not play at all over playing under water.
 3.5 out of 10.