By the time I realized that the open beta for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 was running, I was halfway into this past weekend. My time with the game might not have been as extensive, but I put enough time in to give my impressions.
The first thing I can happily say about Bandai Namco’s latest entry is that it feels like the original, only more polished. I’m a complete DBZ dork, and any chance to smoothly play in-universe makes me happy. The first game made me happy – so long as I wasn’t stuck in the interminable loop that was the server issues. Thankfully, Xenoverse 2’s beta didn’t have that issue. Of course, it’s a beta, so we shall see when the game launches for real.
One peeve I did have was with the game’s insistence upon startup that I load a character from the previous game. I didn’t play Xenoverse 2 on the PlayStation 4, so I had nothing to load. The incessant dialog boxes, however, kept coming. I hope that the character load is smoother in the final version.
Once in, I was given a quick backstory and asked to create a character. The character creation screen is similar to Xenoverse 1’s, a fact that will make my daughter extremely happy. In tribute to her, I rolled a female Majin – still the most adorable character available. A few new customizable options are available, but this area was left alone for the most part.
It’s once you hit the hub world that you realize how much better things are. The new hub world, Conton City, is way better than Xenoverse 1’s Toki Toki City. Conton City is bigger, there are more things to do, and there are mini hub areas for special missions. Best of all, even though Conton City is bigger, getting around is a snap. If you can’t be asked to run there, you can use the hover board. There are also teleports that zip you across the map with ZERO load times. Very nice!
Once you are in combat, you realize the improvements continue here. Combat is quicker and more strategic. The control scheme is streamlined, allowing easier chaining of abilities. New attacks are added to increase the strategic ability. Best of all, you get to see your enemy’s stamina bar as well as yours. It may not seem like much, but being able to see how much health your opponent has left is a plus.
All this extra combat goodness zips by at 60 FPS, versus the original’s 30. I’m not sure if the framerate contributes to the speed of the game’s combat, but battles are way more frenetic and packed with more blasts flying back and forth. When attacks hit, they feel more satisfying, and chaining supers immediately after is simple and effective.
The servers for Xenoverse 2 were well-behaved during the open beta. If that holds up to release, that in itself would be cause to celebrate. But the new bits I got to sample made me even more excited. I will have to temper my enthusiasm some, as the original was great but flawed. I saw enough during the open beta, however, to make me feel like this game will be more fun than the original.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 releases for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC on October 25th in North America, worldwide on October 28th.
