Dragon ball Xenoverse 2 Review: Nostalgia goes so far

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 : Steam Version

The first Xenoverse was a delightful nostalgia trip, and little more. It had a lot of problems: Lame  buffs and super high HP made up for poor enemy A.I. The story mode could not be properly replayed without going into the games files and deleting shit, and despite online play options, there was not much a community. Xenoverse 2 takes off where Xenoverse left off, you can even upload your gameplay file from Xenoverse one. They’ve also improved on most aspects of the game; unfortunately the game suffers from several flaws.

Gameplay as improved a good deal since the first game. Like Xenoverse 1 the gameplay is a mix of RPG-style leveling and fighting game mechanics. The buffs which make bosses hard have been improved. They’ve been given better endurance rather than the no knock back buff featured in the original. The effect is similar but it’s much less annoying. Leveling also feels like less of a grind. Only the last few levels were annoying to get. Instead there are extra quests to keep you playing. Also improved is the “mentor” system which allows you to train with characters from the series and learn new moves. In the original game you had to wait for the character you wanted to spawn on the map and stick with him for a long time to get all his moves. Now they just spawn somewhere on the map and the tutorials become available as you pass various tests in game. You can redo the main quest as a new character and the many races and stat builds let you try a lot of different strategies. I made both a ki blaster build and a melee build, both were substantially different experiences.

Online play was where the game fell flat. The developer clearly tried to improve online play with more and better quests, but several fundamental problems were left unaddressed. The game gives you preset chat options and voice chat only in combat. There are only a few people doing multiplayer quests at any time and good luck trying to make friends or have a conversation. This is a major let down because it would have let you connect with other players and fans of the Dragon Ball series. It would have added a ton of replay value to the game, making you play far past the point where you’ve unlocked everything and leveled up your character. Now it’s like you’re playing by yourself with lots of other people doing the same. Even on multiplayer it feels like you’re playing by yourself. I never once had a conversation or traded jibes. It was boring.

The story mode is not bad. In terms of writing it is probably better than the first game, but it lacks impact. I already fought Radiz, Freeza and the other bad guys in the last game. The nostalgia has worn off. This nostalgia thing is something the writers could not really account for, but it makes a real impact on the player’s enjoyment.

So in the end nostalgia only goes so far. It was a fun game, but there are enough mistakes that I don’t really want to keep playing. I will probably come back for the added content eventually, but the addiction did not last long for this one. There was a lot of hidden potential in this one that was never tapped.

6.3 out of 10 .

-Gedaemon