Fans of the popular anime Dragon Ball franchise are probably more than curious about the release of Dragon Ball XenoVerse, or Dragon Ball XV. The game was released on February 24, 2015 in North America for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, and it will be coming to Windows on February 27. So far, the reviews have been positive, even with the high expectations for its franchise tie-in.
Dragon Ball is no stranger to video games, as the anime has influenced fighting games since the 1980s. Attack of the Fanboy has stated that one of the biggest complaints of a Dragon Ball related game is that the player is essentially going through the same story every time. Granted, the epic storyline was an immensely popular series internationally, but nothing new was offered to Dragon Ball gamers, until now.
In Dragon Ball Xenoverse, the player can create his or her own character much like those in popular MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games. This custom character is essentially put in as a Time Patroller in order to stop a group of time travelers who want to mess up key elements from the Dragon Ball storyline. This makes the gameplay interesting and also a love letter to its fans, and the player is fully customizable and can be one of five different alien races.
Dragon Ball XV is both an MMO and a fighting game. The fighting involves characters who have to do a series of special moves, and Dragon Ball is famous for epic fight scenes on a massive scale where characters defy gravity and shoot mammoth rays of energy at each other. Unlike a lot of fighting games in the past, the special moves are easier to select, but there is no training option.
As for the MMO element, players get to run around the city of Toki-Toki, which is a futuristic place that resembles a lot of the MMO games of the past and includes a lot of side-quests. One complaint from PlayStation Lifestyle is the MMO element feels out of place with the massive fighting element, as the MMO avatar cannot really interact with objects and remains landlocked unlike the fast-paced interactive fighting scenes. Still, the MMO framework makes it easy to meet and play with other players.
The reviews of Dragon Ball XV have been, for the most part, positive. The aforementioned PlayStation Lifestyle gives it 7 out of 10, and Attack of the Fanboy gives it 4 out of 5 stars. It might not be the greatest game ever, but it is certainly a step in the right direction for a gaming franchise that has taken a few years off.
For those that don't know much about Dragon Ball's legacy, it was originally adapted from a manga created by Akira Toriyama, who published this saga in Weekly Shonen Jump in the eighties. Dragon Ball was then made into an anime series, and then a sequel called Dragon Ball Z. The story is about Goku, a boy who is trying to obtain the seven Dragon Balls, and it is very massive in its storyline and battle scenes.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse is available on the console now, with it coming to Windows on February 24. Check it out for yourself and leave a comment if you agree or disagree with this review.
