This is basically my childhood Dragon Ball game, the one I have played the most alongside Xenoverse 1 and maybe Budokai Tenkaichi 3. It's kind of a mixed bag, though. I feel like i'm inmensely biased because of my personal history with the game, which is why i'm rewriting this review, as my previous review was maybe a little too positive; i'm not changing the game's score though, because that's still the score I would personally give it, but I feel as though it's a good idea to talk about the negatives and all of the nitpicks I have with this game despite how much I like it.
The combat is good in my opinion, not the most stunning fighting mechanics ever made but they're solid enough and pretty fun and i'd argue they're at least somewhat mechanically deep, with stuff like ki blast cancelling and such. What sells this game is mostly being able to assemble your own moveset mishmashing skills from just about every conceivable character and/or moment in the show, and it does a damn good job at that. I personally really enjoy setting up a bunch of presets with all of my favorite skills and different super souls and transformations to experiment with. Talking about transformations, the first few the game added, like SSB and SSBE, are kinda mid. Not really though, but they're more like flat stat boosts that render previous transformations obsolete, which kinda sucks. Some of the more recent transformations though, like Beast or Ultra Instinct, are incredible. They have a lot more sauce, little gimmicks that change how the character plays, with downsides and upsides or exclusive functions. That starts setting down a pattern: all newer content is much, much better than what used to be there before. It feels like an obvious statement, but given how much rougher and outdated most launch skills, models and animations are (because they are ported from XV1 which, may I remind you, is a game that released for the PS3 and the Xbox 360), it just feels like there's a big disparity that has never been quite fixed. It feels like the developers are terribly afraid of doing a little bit of a quality sweep to the old content, or what's most likely, they don't think it'll be worth the money. Xenoverse 2 has been a big cash cow for 7 years and it's probably going to continue being that. While more recent DLC (like the upcoming Future Saga Pack 1) definitely feel like they're worth the price, some of the older ones might as well be a robbery. At least in the year of the lord 2024 they all go on sale pretty often so getting most of them won't be all that expensive.
The game's story is just kinda alright, like XV1's was, nothing terribly interesting, which feels like kind of a waste of the whole time travel concept. Then again, that was fixed with DLC (how strange) thanks to the Infinite History mode and all subsequent little missions which all manage to actually show cool and interesting what if's and team ups instead of the main story's typical "we're just gonna make this guy stronger with magic".
The game's shading and visual style is the biggest elephant in the room, and I have mixed thoughts about it. On one hand, it looks like booty cheeks, everyone looks oiled up like they're about to have a twerk off and textures sometimes look like they were drawn with a marker. On the other hand, it's kind of charming? I have to admit it has grown on me. I don't really have any arguments to defend it though. It probably qualifies as stockholm syndrome. My biggest gripe with this game that I've had ever since I started playing is the fact that hair doesn't spike up in super saiyan. Some people might think it's not that big of a deal, but it kills my vibe so bad I have to use super saiyan wigs to feel good about myself. Kinda sucks because there isn't a lot of wig variety either, nor have they had the guts to at least add more hairs to the character creator that look better when transformed. To add salt to the wound, transforming hairstyles have been in DB The Breakers for like a whole fucking while now, and I have no idea why it hasn't been ported over yet. XV2 and DBTB are like flesh and bone, they share every fucking asset, i wouldn't be surprised if half of DBTB's code was just rehashed from XV2, so why don't they port it? What stops them? Like, genuinely, what stops them?
The customization is a whole other thing, but it's also not as bad as people might make you think. For a game that's branded as the "make your own unique super cool guy" game, you have very little customization in terms of body. Few hairs, eyes, mouths, whatever. A lot of characters will end up looking the same. Billions and billions of white men collectively decide to use Gohan's hairstyle. The pretty decent clothing variety serves as a little bandaid, and does allow you to make some cool combinations. The only big issue with clothing is that colorable clothing was kinda scarce and limited to original outfits, but as of recent more colorable versions of actual DB character's clothes are being released so that's not too big a deal anymore. The accesory system is lame and kicks in another episode of "why didn't they port this from the breakers?".
I gotta say, I really like Conton City as a hub. I do wish it was more interactable, cause at a certain point it just becomes a little redundant. Stuff like Krilin's milk delivery missions I enjoy in particular, because it's a slightly more casual activity that's kinda funny. Given that this game is meant to be the personal dragon ball simulator, I think it's cool if it does that in more fronts rather than just the fighting. I'll give some extra credit to the soundtrack. It's not super remarkable, but I really like the vibes it creates.
This is a game that I enjoy a lot despite it's flaws, it's sort of a comfort game for me. I'm still split on whether i'd prefer XV3 to be made or XV2 to keep living for longer. It mostly depends on the how willing the team is to make more big changes for stuff like graphics and customization. I have a lot of hope for the future, though. Every update under the new producer has been a certified banger and has made a lot of great changes and additions that have been in demand for a lot of time, so I trust that eventually he'll build up the game to a much better state that I feel it deserves.
man i fucking hate this game
The combat is good in my opinion, not the most stunning fighting mechanics ever made but they're solid enough and pretty fun and i'd argue they're at least somewhat mechanically deep, with stuff like ki blast cancelling and such. What sells this game is mostly being able to assemble your own moveset mishmashing skills from just about every conceivable character and/or moment in the show, and it does a damn good job at that. I personally really enjoy setting up a bunch of presets with all of my favorite skills and different super souls and transformations to experiment with. Talking about transformations, the first few the game added, like SSB and SSBE, are kinda mid. Not really though, but they're more like flat stat boosts that render previous transformations obsolete, which kinda sucks. Some of the more recent transformations though, like Beast or Ultra Instinct, are incredible. They have a lot more sauce, little gimmicks that change how the character plays, with downsides and upsides or exclusive functions. That starts setting down a pattern: all newer content is much, much better than what used to be there before. It feels like an obvious statement, but given how much rougher and outdated most launch skills, models and animations are (because they are ported from XV1 which, may I remind you, is a game that released for the PS3 and the Xbox 360), it just feels like there's a big disparity that has never been quite fixed. It feels like the developers are terribly afraid of doing a little bit of a quality sweep to the old content, or what's most likely, they don't think it'll be worth the money. Xenoverse 2 has been a big cash cow for 7 years and it's probably going to continue being that. While more recent DLC (like the upcoming Future Saga Pack 1) definitely feel like they're worth the price, some of the older ones might as well be a robbery. At least in the year of the lord 2024 they all go on sale pretty often so getting most of them won't be all that expensive.
The game's story is just kinda alright, like XV1's was, nothing terribly interesting, which feels like kind of a waste of the whole time travel concept. Then again, that was fixed with DLC (how strange) thanks to the Infinite History mode and all subsequent little missions which all manage to actually show cool and interesting what if's and team ups instead of the main story's typical "we're just gonna make this guy stronger with magic".
The game's shading and visual style is the biggest elephant in the room, and I have mixed thoughts about it. On one hand, it looks like booty cheeks, everyone looks oiled up like they're about to have a twerk off and textures sometimes look like they were drawn with a marker. On the other hand, it's kind of charming? I have to admit it has grown on me. I don't really have any arguments to defend it though. It probably qualifies as stockholm syndrome. My biggest gripe with this game that I've had ever since I started playing is the fact that hair doesn't spike up in super saiyan. Some people might think it's not that big of a deal, but it kills my vibe so bad I have to use super saiyan wigs to feel good about myself. Kinda sucks because there isn't a lot of wig variety either, nor have they had the guts to at least add more hairs to the character creator that look better when transformed. To add salt to the wound, transforming hairstyles have been in DB The Breakers for like a whole fucking while now, and I have no idea why it hasn't been ported over yet. XV2 and DBTB are like flesh and bone, they share every fucking asset, i wouldn't be surprised if half of DBTB's code was just rehashed from XV2, so why don't they port it? What stops them? Like, genuinely, what stops them?
The customization is a whole other thing, but it's also not as bad as people might make you think. For a game that's branded as the "make your own unique super cool guy" game, you have very little customization in terms of body. Few hairs, eyes, mouths, whatever. A lot of characters will end up looking the same. Billions and billions of white men collectively decide to use Gohan's hairstyle. The pretty decent clothing variety serves as a little bandaid, and does allow you to make some cool combinations. The only big issue with clothing is that colorable clothing was kinda scarce and limited to original outfits, but as of recent more colorable versions of actual DB character's clothes are being released so that's not too big a deal anymore. The accesory system is lame and kicks in another episode of "why didn't they port this from the breakers?".
I gotta say, I really like Conton City as a hub. I do wish it was more interactable, cause at a certain point it just becomes a little redundant. Stuff like Krilin's milk delivery missions I enjoy in particular, because it's a slightly more casual activity that's kinda funny. Given that this game is meant to be the personal dragon ball simulator, I think it's cool if it does that in more fronts rather than just the fighting. I'll give some extra credit to the soundtrack. It's not super remarkable, but I really like the vibes it creates.
This is a game that I enjoy a lot despite it's flaws, it's sort of a comfort game for me. I'm still split on whether i'd prefer XV3 to be made or XV2 to keep living for longer. It mostly depends on the how willing the team is to make more big changes for stuff like graphics and customization. I have a lot of hope for the future, though. Every update under the new producer has been a certified banger and has made a lot of great changes and additions that have been in demand for a lot of time, so I trust that eventually he'll build up the game to a much better state that I feel it deserves.
man i fucking hate this game