Dragonball Xenoverse 2 : Review

Presentation of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 :

Dragonball Xenoverse 2 is a fighting video game which focuses on team battle and online play, even thought the game has a solo mode and one on one fights are possible.
Xenoverse 2 was released in 2016 on Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC Steam.
It is the second episode of the Xenoverse Serie and just like in the first episode, the player has to create a character and make it evolve to complete the game's quests.

The game modes of Dragonball Xenoverse 2

The story mode of Xenoverse 2

The player has to help Time Traveler Future Trunks stop Towa and Mira, who are back after the events of Xenoverse 1 and who are still trying to change the outcome of the different events of the Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball GT Sagas.

The parallel Quests

There are around 150 parallel quests in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and with them, via some of them, the player can replay the events of the Dragon Ball Series but on the side of the villains.
In some parallel quests, Time patrollers controlled by the AI appear and if the player fights them and defeat them, he will get bonuses (like precious items and even some dragon balls).
The parallel quests can also be played online alongside others players.

The Time rifts

The Time rifts are special quests.
With them, you can obtain Time Eggs which in turns can be used to unlock a secret mission in the Story Mode.
You can access theses missions by crossing 5 time portals in Conton City.
Each one of theses portals lead to a different area : Mister Satan's House, Capsule Corporation, Guru's House on Planet Namek, Majin Buu's clay house and Frieza's vessel.
Once he reaches theses places, the player will meet characters who will give him special missions.

The Expert missions

The Expert missions are the most difficult quests in the whole games.
In this timed quests, the player teames up with characters who are randomly created by the AI and other other online players to beat one or several enemies in a given time.
Theses are the only missions in the whole game where you can see 6 Vs1 fights.
What makes theses quests particularly hard is the fact that the enemies have way more lifebars than usual and also three Time attacks in top of their normal attacks.
The first Time attack is an enormous energy ball which the player and his teamates will have to throw back at the enemy.
If the team fails, then they will become heavily damaged.
Anwyays, it takes time for the team to succeed or lose, so time will be lost.
Then comes the second Time Attack : The enemy opens time rifts and throw the player or some of his teamates inside before closing them.
The consequence ? The characters thrown inside theses time rifts are sent to maps who contain enemies and they must be beaten to return to the map where the rest of the team still fight the main enemy of the mission.
The third Time Attack is a technic which change the player or some of his teamates into evil characters.
If the player is hit by this attack, he will be transported in the Crystals arena where he will have to defeat his evil twin in order to go back to the arena where his teamates are still fighting the main enemy.
When theses are the other characters from the team who are hit by this attack, they become evil and will turn on the team.
The only way to bring them back to their senses is to defeat them.

The free fights or Duel matches

In this mod, the player can have 1Vs1, 2Vs2 and 3Vs3 matches against the CPU or other players.

The training mode

With the training mode, you can of course learn how to use the gameplay mechanics and perform combos but this mode is also useful for testing the items and see how much damage they do (in this mode, the damage is indicated at the right of the screen).

The Tournament mode

Dragonball Xenoverse 2 has a Tournament mode but it is online only (You can't participate in a tournament if you play in solo).

The trainers' quests

The normal trainers quests

There are several trainers in Conton City and if the player talks to them, they may give him quests to do and if the quest is a success, then the player will earn a new move.

The special trainer quests

At particular times, some trainers may offer special training to the player.

From trainer to master

The player can ask a trainer to become his master and if he works his affinity level with, the trainer then may go help him to complete missions when he is in difficulty.

The challenge quests

The Old Supreme Kai who is near the Orange Star School in Conton City teaches the player some advanced moves and combos.
The player won't earn anything outside of it, excepted a trophy which he has to possess to complete the game at 100%.

The gameplay of Dragonball Xenoverse 2

The gameplay of the game from the Xenoverse series are a mix between Tenkaichi 3, Zenkai Battle Royal, Battle of Z, Budokai 3 and Dragon Ball Z Saga (for the cooperation aspect).
In this second episode, the combat system is an improved version of the Xenoverse 1 combat system.

Gameplay mechanisms returning from Xenoverse 1 :

The fights are still fully in 3D and the characters can run, fly, swim and use light or charged melee attacks as well as super moves in duel matches or team battles.
When a character is hit by a powerful attack, he becomes visually battle damaged and the fights can end with a draw and a double KO.
In some missions, the fights take place in several arenas at once (in this case, they are joined together by travel portals.
The characters can teleport behind the opponent(s), they have throwing moves and the Namekian characters arms can extend to catch the opponents who are outside their reach.
Also, melee clashes are included in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, same for the battle of energy beams (when characters fire energy blasts at the same time), excepted for some ones which pierce through normal energy blasts.

New gameplay mechanisms coming to Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 :

The Saiyan characters created by the players ca now transform up to the Super Saiyan 3 form.
Several transformations can now be used during a fight (Example : Super Saiyan, SSJ2, SSJ3).
The Namekian characters created by the players can become Giants.
The Frost Demons and the Majin characters created by the players can now transform.
Human characters created by the players have an awaken state.
A Dragon Rush has been added to the gameplay and it can be use to pursue the opponent when he being projected farther away from the player. This allow to pursue him and to make longer combos.
An endurance bar has also been added to the fighting system in order to limit the spams (which was a big problem in Xenoverse 1).
It is also possible to break the guard of the opponent and to send back the small energy blasts.
When it comes to the melee attacks, there are now more precises and the impacts have been improved.
In Xenoverse 2, the Tokitoki city is 7 time bigger than in Xenoverse 1, has been renamed Conton City and the players can use small vehicles or fly to roam through it (so it is faster to travel).
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 has a way bigger roster than Xenoverse 1 and it isn't necessary anymore to farm the secondary quests in order to collect rare or missing items.
The animations are better, faster and it is the same for the visual effects, whether the game is played on PC, PS4 or Xbox One.

Xenoverse 1 flaws which haven't been fixed in Xenoverse 2 :

It isn't possible to win by ring out in the Tournament Ring Arena.
The hitting animations when the characters are hitting each others are still a bit clunky (even if it's way better in X2).
The game calculates the projection angle so the characters who are projected avoid the obstacles (walls and others). As a result, if you project a character who has a building behind him, then he will be projected... at 45°, so perpendiculary... to avoid the collision with the building.
And it is the same if the opponent has his back not far from the arenas limit. For me, it is one of the biggest flaws of the game.
Not only it isn't realistic but it is also annoying if you want to pursue the opponent to continue a combo.
It is especially a problem in some arenas. Because if some arenas are big, some of them are a little bit too small for a game where up to 7 characters can fight it out in team battles.
The AI of the allied characters is still too average, even though they are useful for keeping the enemies busy, wake up the players and teamates if they have been knocked out and they are also useful against giant characters. That said, it is better than in Xenoverse 1, especially since some updates of Xenoverse 2 improved the AI.
The transformations of some characters are missing (like Frieza form 2 and 3 or Cell form 2) and many transformations of other characters are considered as normal characters. When it comes to this, this is somewhat disappointing.
If the camera's distance and angle have been improved since X1, it is still far from being perfect in team battles.
Also, most of the damaged effects left on the ground disappear after a few seconds (but this can be fixed by mods, thought).

Flaws and glitches in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 :

The background musics in Xenoverse 2 are average and to get good ones, it is necessaryt to buy the anime music pack.
Sometimes, enemy characters can be projected outside the arenas limit (and particularly during the Expert Missions) after an enemy has used a gigantic energy ball. And in this case, it is necessary to restart the mission. Thanksfully, the add-ons have now fixed most of theses problems.

More infos about Dragonball Xenoverse 2

The characters of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2

The base game has 86 characters (if we count the transformations which the game considers as normal characters) and with the DLCs, it has over 125 characters.

The game includes characters from Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Super and the animation films.

Xenoverse 2 characters list

The characters included in the base game, so without the DLCs :

The characters editor of Dragonball Xenoverse 2

Like in the first episode of the series, in DBXV2, the players has to create a character with the characters editor in order to accomplish the main campaign of the game.

The characters types in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 :

To create his character, the player has the choices between 8 types :

- Saiyan (M)
- Saiyan (F)
- Human (M)
- Human (F)
- Namek
- Frost Demon (Frieza's clan)
- Majin (M)
- Majin (F)

The player can create up to 8 characters in total and each of them can be declined in several versions (and so have different costumes, skills and super moves added to their inventory).
Also, during the game it is possible to completly change how a character looks by making a wish with the 7 dragon balls.

The arenas included in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2

Originally, there were 28 playable arenas in the base game plus one arena (The interior of Frieza's ship) which was playable only during some quests. And later, several DLCs have also added new arenas.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 : Arenas list

Planet Tsuful.

Planet Namek (Day, in fusion).

Archipelagos.

West City (Normal, Ruins, Industrial zone).

Capsule Corp.

Ruined Futuristic City (Where the events with Goku Black take place).

Tournament Ring.

Landing runway.

Beach.

Glacier.

Underground lake.

Mountains (Day, Night).

Plains.

Sacred Tree.

Cell Games Ring (Day, Destroyed).

Open airs.

Kami's Lookout.

Time Chamber.

Sky.

Space (Around Planet Earth).

Space (Around Planet Vegeta).

Crystals Room.

Universe 6 Tournament Ring.

Kaioshin World.

Hell.

Dragonball Xenoverse 2 is available in several versions

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Standard Edition

This is the base game without the DLCs : By buying this version of the game, you will still be able to buy the Season Pass, the Extra Pass and even DLCs piece by piece later if you wish so.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Season Pass, Extra Pass, Season Pass Collection

The Season Pass and Extra pass both includes new characters, arenas and skills.
The Season Pass Collection includes both of them plus some newer dlc packs.