DragonBall fans Worldwide are very excited about the release of the latest DragonBall game called DragonBall Xenoverse. Thanks to Bandai Namco Games we got the opportunity to test this game for you. Developer Dimps wants to set new innovations with the online-components in the games series. Players are able to create their own character which get more and more powerful. The game puts us in known battles of the TV-Series and Mangas. You can play this game alone or with friends online. The question is: Does it work well?

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Unfortunately, we have to decide if we prefer to play on- or offline very soon in the game. After some loading screens, quick battles and finishing to create our character the game starts in the Toki Toki City. Trunks waiting there for us. In this game players are a kind of Time-Police. Someone tampered the space-time continuum to change the past. They mingle in important battles of the past and change the endings of them, so that these villains get more powerful. The player’s mission is to change it back into the right way. The story is told in typical anime-style sequences. Unfortunately, we have to say that this sequences and especially the funny videos are not so good as the scenes known from the TV-Series or Mangas.

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Between the fights we are running in the ‘Toki Toki World’, talk with people or other time-fighters and equip our character for the next fight or story-mission. If players have a problem to win a fight they are able to train their character in some side quests. These ‘side fights’ are also playable with friends or other online players. You are also able to fight versus classic DragonBall characters or play online tournaments in this part of the game.

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Real DragonBall fans will recognise the entrance into the game. Here you can see and fight with Son-Goku against Freezer and other known characters. Like in other Dragon Ball games before players are able to fly in the fights, too. Because of this the game has a positive distance to other Beat’em Up games. We like that they did not change the fight system too much. Players are also able to hide themselves behind some rocks and have to attack the enemy at the right time.

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You do not need to know high complex shortcuts like in Street Fighter and other similar games. We like that we are able to choose the ‘Kamehameha’-Attack or other gigantic energy balls out of a menu that we can open by pushing the L- or R-Trigger. Thanks to the small number of combos we are able to fight quickly very well. It is more important to do the right attack at the right time and to use the arena for evasive actions than to smash furiously on the controller.

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Lets take a quick look at the music in this games. Unfortunately, while running through Toki Toki we heard the same lame song over and over in a loop. We would prefer to hear more known original tracks from the TV series.

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What we like is the new character editor. At the beginning of the game players are able to create their own character. We think that the most players will decide the Saiyajin race, but they are also able to choose the Majins, Humans, Nameks or Members of the Freezer-Clans. Players can also choose between male or female characters. This game has not many different figure components, but we had no problems to create our own personal fighter. We get more modification opportunities because of getting new costumes while we played the game.

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We realized very quickly that there are differences between the fighters. Most of the fighters can shoot the same fireballs or energy balls, but a high or fat fighter from Namek is slower than a good trained or thin human. On the other side, the fighter from Namek can do more damage to you. If players working on a strategy to win the fight they have to keep this in mind.

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Thanks to weak enemies at the beginning of the game we thought that we are too good. Especially if we fight against many enemies, the camera begins to swing from side to side. It could happen that the camera position changing very fast to the side after hiding behind a rock. And this is a bit frustrating because you do not see the enemies or their positions anymore.

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We had lot more fun in the battles against one or two enemies. Players have to pay attention if they fight against defensive enemies. In this battles players have to attack this kind of enemies before they can do their defense explosions for example. Players without being patient can lose the fight quickly. We found out that the fights are not great balanced. Your character is able to win attribute points, can take purchased energy capsules and learn special attacks like in a RPG. You can also find some collectibles in the arenas. These are useful to transform them into something like Stamina Pills or mix them into other useful stuff.

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We think that the system fits great to the DragonBall universe. Both, Mangas and Animes focusing on defeating stronger enemies and to border his own overcome. And DragonBall Xenoverse has the same basis, too. We think that losing a fight is not so frustrating like in other games.

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We also think that the first side quest which we have to win with friend is much to easy. We recognized that the number of players has no influence on the difficulty of the level. The challenge increases later in the game. It is also possible to recruit AI-Figures instead of other online players. This works like the Drivatar-System known from Forza Horizon 2 (jadoRendr’s Forza Review): Players get money for clothes or other stuff if a virtual fighter wins a battle. Unfortunately, we can not say how good this AI-Figures imitates the fight style of their owners. It is also possible to start an on- or offline versus match against other players. This works with the two teams of three players very well. To use the most known characters as an avatar you have to play them available.

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Lets talk about the graphical things. Unfortunately, we have to say that the game is running only in 30fps on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. We have to add, that the gaming world has not a lot of details and look more like a game for the PlayStation 3. Every DragonBall fan knows how the fighters punch or throw the other one through rocks or into the ground. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of things we can destroy in this game like in the TV-Series or Mangas. Buildings or stones shatter very unspectacular. Because of the fights created craters disappear after a few seconds. We are missing the enorm havoc known in the templates.

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We think that the developers wasted a lot of potential with the animations and the design of staging a special attack. We have seen more lovely made animations and effects in older DragonBall games. The resting and breathing animation, the transition from the rest to the attack animation and other details were made better than in this game. There are no differences between the PlayStation 4 and XBox One version but we found out that the controls are more adapted for the PlayStation 4 controller.

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We have to say that we had no problems to connect to the multiplayer part of the game. We could play the side quests with other players very well and the game did not crash at any time. The many loading screens did not bother us after some minutes of playing. Unfortunately, there are a lot of loading breaks but we think that each of them is very short.

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OVER 9000?

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Dragon Ball Xenoverse deterred me after the first few minutes. No detailed arenas, many loading breaks, the swirling camera and other things had given me the feeling of playing an older game but after a few minutes we had a lot of fun. We love that we can create our own Dragon Ball character. The best thing: We get the opportunity to be part of the DragonBall history. There are not a lot of variations possible but who has not even dreamed about to have his own character in the DragonBall universe. We get motivated by getting more powerful attacks and new stuff for our character. We love the possibility to fight some quests with friends and other online players. We also like the unconventional combat system that still produces a very unique and fast feeling of the fight.  We can say that the basics of the game are very good. We think that Bandai Namco did not invest enough human power to do a perfect game. We think that some of the fights we have to win are to hard and some are too easy. We also think that the developer should implement more elemts that give us the feeling to fight this gigantic epic battles known from the Animes and Mangas. Not only the arenas but also the animations could be much better. The game looks to much as a game for the last console generation. We have to say that the game entertained us very much but we think that only real DragonBall fans will have the fun that we had with this game.

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