Dragon Ball Xenoverse - Maxi-Geek Preview

There are only a few properties that keep going long after the source material has ended and Dragon Ball is one of them. Over the years, gamers have been treated to some pretty decent titles, but never before have they been able to take part in the fights we all know as themselves.

I recently went hands on with the game and was able to sample a little bit of everything that the game has on offer. My session started out simple enough, I was Goku, taking part in some of the classic fights from his past, Freeza, Cell and Majin Buu, but as each fight ended, something strange was happening, the characters were getting back up, a purple energy wrapped around them and then their eyes went red.

It seems something is going wrong with history, events that played out as we know them too are changing and the Time Patrol have noticed. Trunks a member of that Time Patrol has used the Dragonballs to ask Shenron to summon a fighter who can help restore the balance to the time line. That fighter is you, well a Dragon Ball version of you and in my time with the game, I ended up creating the most ludicrous fighter possible, the hair was as wild as Gokus, the eyes the same as Krillin, the chin inspired by Mr Satan.

I did not want to spend a lot of time cycling through the options for the rest, but it boils down to colour, size and race, the options were not as in depth as other character creation tools, but they did not need to be. Once my creation was complete I was released into the world, well the realm of Toki Toki City, the hub for the game where Time Patrol members can be found along with shops and missions. But before I was even able to explore, I was attacked by Trunks who want to ensure that he was sent someone who could help.

It was at this point the tutorial was presented and I was instructed on how to fight, which turns out was not needed as I had just done it before as Goku. After winning the fight, I was able to explore the city and speak to the people there, of which there were not many, but it was nice that the city was not crowded with people when I was just starting out. After sometime exploring and interacting with people, I was all set for my first Time Patrol mission and boy, was it a doozy. Any fan of Dragon Ball Z will remember that Goku sacrificed himself to take down his brother, with some help from Picollo, well with the mysterious purple energy effecting the bad guys, Raditz was able to break Goku’s grip and avoid the attack, which resulted in Goku being defeated alone.

Of course, that is not the right series of events, so I was sent in to correct them, after sometime I was able to take down Raditz and restore the timeline, but this was only the beginning. It was after that I was introduced to another series of quests, which are not about restoring anything, but collecting and fighting. Doing these missions is not crucial to the game, but it does allow you to unlock new items and gear.

From there, I jumped back into the main quest line of restoring the past and I was taken to the fight against Napa and Vegeta and after many attempts I was defeated. This was a testament to how much the games mechanics need to be adhered to, I usually ran in and punch and kicked until I won, but there are times when blocking, dodging and even retreating are needed.  While I would like to say I learnt from my defeat and came back stronger, it was not the case. But as the game is out next week, it wont be long until I am able to get my revenge.

From the brief time I spent with the game, I came to two conclusions, firstly I am not that good at fighting games and secondly and more importantly, the team behind the game have taken the time to try and build a Dragon Ball game where the player is the star as for how well that will work in the long term is yet to be seen.