Dragon Ball Xenoverse was a nice surprise when it launched last year. After the absolutely abysmal Ultimate Tenkaichi in 2011, the release of Xenoverse made it clear that a decent Dragon Ball Z game could be made for the modern generation. Just one year later and Bandai Namco have returned with a sequel offering new characters, missions and gameplay mechanics as well as offering content from the new anime Dragon Ball Super.
I put over 100 hours into the original game because, hell, the Xbox One was new, I’m a Dragon Ball fan and I just wanted a fake MMO to sink hours into. For all of its problems, including random server crashes and a God-awful camera, Dragon Ball Xenoverse was a gigantic, colourful journey through the Dragon Ball timeline that fans loved.
The main problem with Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 then is that it’s exactly the same as its predecessor. With the same combat system, as well as the same problems such as the camera not locking on properly, the majority of the same moves and clothing items and repeats of the same fights from the original game, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is more of an expansion pack than a full-fledged sequel.
Set just one year after the events of the original, previous villains Towa and Mira are repeating the same villainous schemes of the last game by going back in time and corrupting the events that are supposed to occur in the Dragon Ball Z anime. It’s your job, as a new time patroller to help Trunks—and your character from the original Xenoverse—to stop Towa and Mira by traveling through time in a weirdly coincidental chronological order and kick the bejesus out of them.
For avid players of the first game, Xenoverse 2 offers very little. The new hub town of Conton City has a lot of side activities including joining Frieza’s army, feeding Majin Buu and even becoming the third Great Sayaiman but apart from that the majority of Xenoverse 2’s content is incredibly similar, if not identical to that of the first game. The exact same structure is used for finding materials, buying skills and clothing, playing through parallel quests and even going to the Time Nest to play through story content. The majority of clothing items and skills even have the exact same stats as they did before with only a few handful of new skills actually being that useful.
The new side missions are welcome although they feel more like DLC content instead of a new game. A new addition that is welcome, however, is that of Expert Missions. Expert Missions are eight-player boss rounds where the enemy has increased health and damage. Unlike normal fights which usually consist of boosting towards your opponent, punching them a lot, hitting them a special move and then repeat, Expert Missions change things up by having you destroy crystals, fight possessed versions of your teammates and even get sent into parallel dimensions. While all of that sounds cheesy, the rare occurring Expert Missions are actually great fun and do a lot to shape up combat that becomes very monotonous after your first ten hours of play.
For new players to the Dragon Ball Xenoverse series, this version is a game that seems very geared towards existing fans of the series. Unlike the original, a lot of cutscenes and story details are missed this time around which makes the game feel like even more of a rinse and repeat effort. Unlike the PS2 Budokai games, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 doesn’t stay focused on the story but instead puts 90% of its effort into the gameplay which will no doubt leave many players confused as to what the events of the game are even supposed to be.
Xenoverse 2’s simplistic combat system is very easy to access, though. Newcomers should find no problem in getting used to the game’s cluttered but intuitive control scheme, although, as players of the first game would expect, the game will throw some big difficulty curves at you. Fans of grinding should love Xenoverse 2 though as the frequent difficulty curves will require you to farm XP through parallel quests, online fights and even through the many side quests hidden around Conton City.
Summary
Players of the original Xenoverse will be annoyed at the simple rinse and repeat of Xenoverse 2’s already repetitive gameplay. Fans of the Dragon Ball series who haven’t played the original will be pleasantly surprised at the amount of content on offer but constant grinding, repetition, and simplistic gameplay may turn players away from Bandai Namco’s second attempt.
Lewis is a games journalist, freelance gaming and consumer-tech journalist. They contributed 344 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: has since served as Editor-in-Chief at StealthOptional and Gaming Editor at MSPoweruser, with bylines at Gfinity Esports and FRVR.