Riding the wave of the enormous success of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 1 and the great popularity of Dragon Ball Super, Bandai Namco has entrusted the development to the Dimps team for the creation of a new video game dedicated to the famous manga and sequel of DB Xenoverse 1: Dragon ball Xenoverse 2! Did the title impress us? Find out in our review!
- TITLE: Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
- GENDER: Beat 'em up
- PLATFORM: Xbox One (tested version), PS4 and PC
- RELEASE DATE: 27/10/16
- DEVELOPER: Dimps
- PUBLISHER: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Over the years, countless Dragon Ball titles have been developed, and nearly all of them obviously followed the narrative strand of the original story, making the player relive the manga's unique battles with our favorite characters. Unlike the other titles, the Dragon Ball Xenoverse saga does not put us in the shoes of Goku and his companions, but allows us to create our own alter-ego character who will interact right in the world of Dragon Ball through battles and dialogues with the most loved characters. created by Akira Toriyama. Specifically, we will impersonate a time patrol, and our job will be to protect the story by avoiding any interference due to time travel or the overlap of alternate realities. The main enemies are two old acquaintances, namely Mira and Towa, both characters created specifically for the story in the previous chapter. In Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2 they are back to twist the story once again, but this time they can count on two much more allies, including Tarles and Slag.
At the beginning of the game, we will have to create our hero by choosing among the five races available: terrestrial, saiyan, namekian, majin and clan of Freeza. Each of these breeds is endowed with unique characteristics, abilities and transformations. Grounders are the most balanced on close combat, both Namekians and Majin have good health and stamina, while Saiyans and those belonging to the Freeza clan are more likely to dominate the battle with aura shots. The choice of race must be made based on your style of play, and depending on what kind of warriors you are. The game editor allows you to choose from a variety of faces, hairstyles and colors superior to the first chapter, without reaching the depth of other editors seen in some titles. The characters created also have statistics, which can still be customized and enhanced by spending the skill points earned by leveling up with the experience obtained at the end of the various missions. The new central hub of Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2 is chock full of secondary activities and characters, and even playing perpetually offline it is still populated by NPCs with the strangest aspects. If instead we decide to dive into the online hub, we will be able to organize ourselves for missions with friends or simply have fun with the various poses and animations available. It is also possible to fly around in search of objects scattered around the map or talk to the various NPCs, so I strongly suggest you get the flight license (you will unlock it automatically as the main story continues).
And now let's move on to the gameplay side. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 offers few substantial innovations, taking up almost every aspect of the previous chapter, but fortunately the developers have perfected everything with some small tricks. The combos now chain together in an extremely smoother way, and make the most of the various special moves, allowing the player to create unpredictable and definitely spectacular attack patterns to see. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 it certainly offers more stability than its predecessor and this has also been done in particular with the transformations. Specifically, on Dragon Ball Xenoverse 1 the Super Saiyan allowed you to repeatedly spam the finishing moves, but fortunately this possibility has been completely eliminated.
In addition to the story mode and some special events, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 offers a good variety of side missions. The parallel missions then return (also playable in online co-op), which, however, for about 3/4 have been taken with both hands from the first chapter and reported on the second, leaving little room for really new missions. The masters are also returning, which this time we will be able to complete much faster than in the previous chapter. And finally, leaving out the usual versus, we can finally talk about the online component of the title: slightly improved in stability, but in any case the lag will often be present, especially in 3 vs 3. On the technical department, comparing it with the previous chapter, we can immediately notice a general graphic cleanliness, but nothing so far from what Xenoverse 1 proposed. The characters obviously therefore boast more defined and detailed models, with even more realistic animations and facial expressions, and in particular the CG movies make the key moments even more epic and spectacular. The stable frame-rate at 60 fps is also very good, showing no failure in almost any situation.
After having praised the new Dimps title so much, I think it's time to expose the flaws as well. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 actually takes too much from the first chapter, especially as regards the parallel missions taken in weight by Xenoverse 1, so everything has already been seen. Serious shortcomings especially among the playable characters, specifically: the transformation of Zarbon, the two transformations of Freeza, the second transformation of Cell and so on. Too bad also for Black Goku without the Super Saiyan Rosè, which surely would have given an edge to the character.
In conclusion
In conclusion, I can say that Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is a good title. Dimps's new creature offers an original story, fun side missions, but everything is taken too much from the first chapter. Too bad also for the shortcomings in the game roster.
