Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 review

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is the largest Dragon Ball world yet

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, the sequel to Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball Xenoverse fighting role-playing game, is now available on the Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Developed by Dimps, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 doesn’t aim to reinvent the wheel, but rather provide a more substantial and refined experience that builds upon the original’s successful formula.

Game Details

Platform: Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Developer: Dimps
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Genre: Fighting, role-playing
Modes: Single-player, multiplayer
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Relive the most epic Dragon Ball moments ever

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 continues two years after the story of the original game, where a group known as the Time Patrol formed to keep history from being manipulated by the villains Towa and Mira. But, now they are back! Once again, you get to create your own Time Patroler and take them into battle. Going back in time to relive some of the biggest moments in the Dragon Ball timeline.

With new surprise characters and the involvement of your old and new created characters—the story of this game had me genuinely speechless. If you are fan of the anime and want a bit of nostalgia, then you will love this.

A brand new city hub seven times bigger than the original

Gameplay wise, you will spend your time jumping between big battles and roaming around the open-world town of Conton City. Here, you can take on side missions or visit the school to learn new techniques to advance your character’s training level. It’s also a large multiplayer hub where you can meet other players and do quests with them.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 features some deep battle mechanics with lots of special moves and combos to master. Compared to Dragon Ball Xenoverse, the combat system has been vastly improved in almost every aspect.

A faster-paced Free Battle mode with two new combat features

Free Battle gameplay in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is more fast-paced than its predecessor. Attacks appear smoother and aesthetics of the beams blasts, characters, and stages have been vastly improved. Hitboxes have been cleaned up, which result in a lot less back hits. This means, that when shooting at an opponent in front of you it doesn’t miraculously hit the opponent standing behind you.

Combos have been simplified and also extended. There are two new combat features, which have been added for all characters called the Aura Burst Dash and the Heavy Smash. These new moves help alleviate the issues of slow ultimate attacks not connecting and online players constantly running away.

The Aura Burst Dash allows any character with at least one bar of stamina to race from the other side of the map and strike their opponent. This forces your opponent to run away and block or dodge the attack. On the other hand, the Heavy Smash allows any character to strike a powerful blow. In turn, this drains all your opponent’s stamina—disabling them from blocking for a certain amount of time.

Slightly refined Parallel Quests

Parallel quests are pretty much the same as they were in the first game. They are fun to play with friends and to grind out for points. It is now much easier to repeat the same quest with friends by allowing you to retry any mission whether you win or loose. Changing from quests is much faster, as you now respawn virtually right behind the reception area.

Unfortunately, a few times I did get stuck in a portal online, which forced me to restart my game. I would have liked to be able to switch to a new quest without having to walk to the reception. All in all, the good far outweigh the cons. The fact that all of the problems from the first game were fixed in someway or another, I’m thoroughly satisfied with the improvements.

Six player fun with the all-new Expert Missions mode

Expert missions are a cool new feature that allow six players to face several opponents under a set amount of time. This isn’t just a giant boss battle with six people, sometimes your opponents aren’t even giants. And, sometimes they can be five giant opponents—one after another under the same clock.

There are lots of cool scenarios can happen in this mode. From getting put into a mind control and forced to play against a clone of yourself, to being knocked into another stage and having to fight your way back and defeat your opponent under that set amount of time. These expert missions are some of the hardest modes in the offline part of the game. So, if possible, I highly recommend playing them with friends.

The Dragon Ball anime brought to life

As you might expect, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 looks and sounds absolutely astounding. Visuals are noticeably upgraded from the first game, and the game contains some very nicely animated cut-scenes that will have Dragon Ball fans drooling over.

The sound is top notch as well, using English dub voices as a default. Thankfully, you have the option of switching to the original Japanese voice track, which stars all the most familiar voices from the past 30 years. Both tracks are great, so no matter what your preference may be, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 has you covered.

Final Thoughts

If you aren’t a Dragon Ball fan, you’ll still have a lot of fun playing Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. It features a decent 3d fighting battle system, and offers up a good challenge for anyone new to the Dragon Ball Xenoverse series. On the Switch, you can unlock and play the story quests from the first game. Meaning, you are essentially getting two games in one package.

Conton City is roughly seven times bigger than Toki Toki city from the first game. Due to the expanded size, you no longer have to worry about overcrowding when you are in the multiplayer online section of the game. Finding your friends online is much easier, and you can register with a team so that you can do multiple quests with the same team of friends.

Though it is often thought that Dragon Ball gamer communities are small niche communities, in my experience they are fairly large and I never had a problem finding someone to play against online. On the other hand, if you played and enjoyed Dragon Ball Xenoverse—then get this game now. Even if you didn’t play the first game and are a Dragon Ball fan, you will not regret getting this game.

+ More character creation customization options
+ Epic story mode cutscenes
+ Improved hub world exploration
+ Smoother and faster fighting
+Tremendous amount of replay value
+ Story quests from the first Xenoverse game can be unlocked and played

– No new character races
– Some Dragon Ball characters still cannot transform in-game

OVERALL

Gameplay: 4/5
Graphics: 4/5
Sound: 4/5
Lasting Appeal/Replayability: 5/5

Overall Rating 4.25/5 (85%)

Get Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.