Home Gaming Kamehamehooray! Dragon Ball Z Xenoverse isn’t terrible

Kamehamehooray! Dragon Ball Z Xenoverse isn’t terrible

4 min read
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I have zero love for Dragon Ball Z. I can’t say I particularly care about Goku, Gohan, Krillin, Piccolo, Vegeta or any of the other asinine characters that seemingly take days to hurl fireballs at each other. Still, a great, great many of you do – and tomorrow, there’ll be a new Dragon Ball Z game for you to play. Is it any good though?

Well, our own Darryn seems to think so. He’s putting the finishing touches on our own review, but he’s pretty pleased with the game. It seems quite a few other critics also think it’s worth playing – though admittedly, scores are rather mixed.

Push Square – 8/10

DBZ (1)“Sadly, if you’ve been holding out for a more traditional Dragon Ball fighter, Dragon Ball XenoVerse isn’t it. It is, however, a well realised and refreshing take on Akira Toriyama’s universe, which allows fans to appreciate the source material from a whole new angle. Accessible, bombastic combat, entirely customisable characters, and some fantastic online functionality give the game a unique identity, and arguably make it one of the most ambitious licensed titles that we’ve seen in years.”

God is a Geek – 6/10

DBZ (2)

“At this point in time, it is not unreasonable to expect spectacular, fully destructible environments. When playing a Dragon Ball game, one expects to be able to punch someone through a mountain, drive foes deep into the earth leaving an epic crater, and generally smash things to smithereens. The level of damage you are actually able to inflict is pretty underwhelming. Soaring through the skies or diving beneath the surface of the water is thrilling, seeing the way your opponents grimace when you beat them, or cackle after laying the smack down on you, is excellent. But this is far from being everything a fully interactive Dragon Ball Z battle could and should be in 2015.”

Xbox Achievements/PlayStation Trophies – 55/100

DBZ (3)

“A love letter to fans, Dragon Ball Xenoverse features almost every character, masses of content and the trademark vibrant and frenetic art style. Unfortunately, it’s not really much fun to play, succeeding in being something of a repetitious slog. A game for the Dragon Ball purists, Xenoverse is unlikely to appeal to anyone else.”

PlayStation LifeStyle – 7/10

DBZ (4)

“So, while fans of the series will find a great deal of content to keep them entrenched into the world of Dragon Ball, anyone who hasn’t had a history with the seasoned mechanics will undoubtedly find themselves button mashing their way through the confusion and hoping for the best until things make sense. While anyone who doesn’t know anything about the history of the series, or just been away from it for some time, will be completely in the dark through most of the experience, as it does rely wholeheartedly on your understanding of who is who, but, also given that the story is far from the reason anyone is going to want to play this, I guess that doesn’t matter all that much either way. “

4 Geeks Like You – 8/10

DBZ (5)

“I never imagined that any Dragon Ball Z game coming after the mess we got with Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z could earn a spot next to the top games in the series. I mean, even when I received my copy, I still thought to myself that I might have to walk away from this during the following week.

I can say with 100% certainty that Dragon Ball Xenoverse is a must have for any Dragon Ball Z gamers out here. The game isn’t without fault, but I believe that if Dimps fixes the problems with Xenoverse & expand on making the battlefields expansive & the fights more engaging, the next possible game to come from the Xenoverse series could end up close to perfect.”

Worlds Factory – 78/100

DBZ (6)

“A unique storyline, lovely graphics, and intense but sometimes awkward battles make for a great Dragon Ball game, even though I can see its flaws. Getting used to battles was tough, but rewarding and now my Saiyan Cabbage almost feels like a true Dragon Ball character.

While this is a game I wouldn’t recommend to all fighting game fans, I would definitely suggest it to everyone who enjoyed the Dragon Ball anime and manga. If you ever wanted to feel truly a part of Goku’s world, this is the closest we’ve ever been able to get. A beautiful, yet flawed game that is hugely charming despite never feeling perfect.”

While I’d rather eat my own face than play this, it seems that it’s a pretty good one for fans of DBZ and its universe.

Last Updated: February 26, 2015

40 Comments

  1. Admiral Chief

    February 26, 2015 at 11:31

    “While I’d rather eat my own face than play this”
    HAI

    Reply

    • Spathi

      February 26, 2015 at 11:40

      Asians and their weird food fetishes! 😛

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief

        February 26, 2015 at 11:41

        IKR?

        Reply

      • Norm

        February 26, 2015 at 13:10

        HAHA!

        Reply

  2. Admiral Chief

    February 26, 2015 at 11:33

  3. Dutch Matrix

    February 26, 2015 at 11:34

    Is Dragonball Z still a thing? My gosh… Humanity is doomed, after all. 🙁

    Reply

  4. Umar

    February 26, 2015 at 11:35

    LOOOL you honestly seem like you’ll do a number of terrible self-inflicting injuries instead of playing certain games.

    Reply

  5. Umar

    February 26, 2015 at 11:36

    Also..F**king love DBZ!! Watched a few vids and it looks great. Story seems fresh this time around as it doesn;t strictly follow canon…

    Reply

    • RinceThis

      February 26, 2015 at 12:16

      What? Hero is a hero, until new bad guy appears. Hero gets beaten, then next fight hero pulls out a 9000+ move and wins? *RUNS

      Reply

  6. Hammersteyn

    February 26, 2015 at 11:55

    Those scores varies more than Piccolos power level. I mean just how strong is he?

    Reply

    • Pariah

      February 26, 2015 at 11:55

      Do you mean the original Piccolo, or Kami, or Kamiccolo?

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        February 26, 2015 at 11:58

        Every time the Saiyans ascend he fuses with or eats somebody to increase his level.

        Reply

        • Pariah

          February 26, 2015 at 12:02

          Eh, it never matters. He’s like a typical ‘kaaner, talks big, and acts all tough, but really he’s just a weak green dude who can’t do shit.

          Reply

          • Matthew Holliday

            February 26, 2015 at 12:46

            “those who cant do, teach”

          • Pariah

            February 26, 2015 at 12:49

            Such a bullshit philosophy really. Only those that CAN do, should teach.

          • Matthew Holliday

            February 26, 2015 at 13:00

            well, he can do, in terms of martial arts, hes atleast as good as goku and vegeta.

            he just lacks the raw power to compete with them.
            he peaks at his fuse with kami thing, which puts him on par with cell v2 or the androids, but thats it, thats his power ceiling, did a year in the time chamber to fight perfect cell and even then, the results were minimal, he could couldnt even keep up with the cell juniors.

            in terms of the actual philosophy, i dont think “doing” has anything to do with it, sure it helps, but the knowledge of how to do, rather than the ability, is more important imo.

    • Umar

      February 26, 2015 at 11:57

      LOL…that was really funny……

      Reply

  7. RinceThis

    February 26, 2015 at 12:04

    “Darryn seems to think so” that’s about as validating as saying “Umar likes this JRPG” HAHAHA

    Reply

  8. Anon A Mouse

    February 26, 2015 at 12:05

    Too bad there is a 3 hour cooldown time between each move.

    OK I lied and made that up, but that’s how it’s supposed to be if the follow the series.

    Reply

  9. TehBrad

    February 26, 2015 at 12:06

    Is this how we review games now?

    It doesn’t suck.
    Not as bad as I was expecting.
    Meh.
    Bathroom break material.
    Perfect for when you have nothing else to play.
    I expected less.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      February 26, 2015 at 12:21

      jernilizm

      Reply

      • Norm

        February 26, 2015 at 12:42

        WE BE HAVING IT!

        Reply

    • Geoffrey Tim

      February 26, 2015 at 12:30

      This…isn’t our review. Our review will be out later. This is a round up others’ reviews.

      Reply

      • TehBrad

        February 26, 2015 at 12:37

        Not taking a dig at you guys 😉

        Just that we have been burned by so many games of late that we seem to expect the worst.

        Reply

        • Geoffrey Tim

          February 26, 2015 at 12:42

          This should actually be how we review games.
          “it’s ok!”

          Reply

          • TehBrad

            February 26, 2015 at 13:12

            We expected it to suck harder than a toilet plunger but it was surprisingly bearable.

            “I enjoyed it but I wouldn’t recommend it.” – Me. I’ve mentioned this to someone after they asked me how a new game was.

  10. Norm

    February 26, 2015 at 12:40

    Can imagine Darryn walking around asking “Do you even Kamehameha Bro?”

    Reply

  11. Matthew Holliday

    February 26, 2015 at 12:51

    looks better than past versions of the free fighting thing, but i’ll wait for the new movie to get my DBZ fix
    http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/dragonball/images/d/d2/Dbz_movie_2015_poster.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141121010716

    Reply

  12. shantanu

    February 27, 2015 at 03:29

    Whatever this time it got a full different story arc from the other dragon ball series.

    Reply

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