This review from yours truly will contain certain spoilers so if you haven’t played either of them please refrain from reading this review until later on.
That said, I wanted to cover two games I’ve beaten the campaign on in my streaming absence. Those of you who know me personally know that I am also an avid Dragon Ball Z fan, playing games ranging from Dragon Ball Z Budakia all the way into Dragon Ball Z Budakiatenkiachi 1 2 & 3 (Reviews I will cover later and likely spelled wrong) into of course Xenoverse 1 & 2. Having watched Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and Super from ages 7 and up I can truly say The Dragon Ball Z franchise was one series that thrusted me into the world of Anime.
I want to begin by giving a bit of personal backround. In Xenoverse 1 I began my journey as a human warrior named Wizurii. Eager to prove himself among other alien warriors he eventually met up with a strange Nemekian in light blue clothing whom mysteriously vanished half way through defeating the true antagonist to Xenoverse 1: Demigra.
In Xenoverse 2 however Wizurii, like his Nemekian friend, vanished shortly after saving all of the timelines but before that he had a daughter. Brea was a human like her father, but she did not care for all the gossip surrounding her father being the savior of the timelines and the one who defeated Demigra. Instead she took fascination in playing around in Frieza’s army eventually becoming one of his top generals surpassing both Zarbon and Dedoria. It would become her fate to continue to cross paths with the true antagonist to Xenoverse 2: Mira.
Xenoverse 1&2 Comparisons
Xenoverse 1 & 2 respectively feel like they have interesting concepts but fall to the wayside with rushed story writing. I’m sure some of you remember playing Budakiatenkiaichi 2 or 3 and those games took practically all day to complete their campaigns with 1 z-fighter and each z-fighter had different interactions depending on which character you were completing the campaign with.
The same cannot truly be said about Xenoverse 1 and 2 because if you are truly dedicated, both campaigns can be completed in 3 hours or less and the story events hardly change if at all regardless of who you play. which was vary underwhelming to say the least for two $60 games when they came out. I wasn’t angry, I was just disappointed compared to the other Dragon Ball Z games I have personally played prior to the Xenoverse series.
Xenoverse 1 and 2 both provide the nostalgic rush as all other Dragon Ball Z games usually provide allowing you to relive the memories of the television series whilst adding some cool and interesting “what if” plot twists. Things like “What if Raditz didn’t fall to Special Beam Cannon?” or “What if Turles and Lord Slug were even stronger prior to facing off against Goku?” these were the scenarios that prevented me from putting down the controller when playing Xenoverse 1 and 2 campaigns respectively.
There is something to be said about the battle mechanics in Xenoverse 1 and 2 because it is something I feel the did some good things on whilst some of it just feels way too cut and dry. For one, engaging in melee fights is pretty exciting in the sense that beating enemies to a bloody pulp just to teleport behind them and smash them into a rock is additive as hell.
However when it comes to Ki attacks, nothing feels like it is definitively a learned technique. Instead, it just feels like the developers copied and pasted the animation onto your created character and just played back the animation which makes ki attacks feel vary underwhelming to fire off in my opinion. None the less tho, character growth is also a factor that kept me returning to both games.
Xenoverse 1 and 2 both allow character creation but it falls to the wayside for the same reason Ki attacks do. The animation and individuality is cut dry because the outfits feel copy and pasted onto warriors rather then making it feel like the article of clothing belongs to them. Even custom warrior cloths although custom warrior cloths kind of redeems itself a little by at least allowing players to color their outfits.
Something I really like about both games that involve character growth is of course the sensei’s that become available to you as you progress through Parallel Quests or Through Campaign. Each Sensei is a character from the franchise of Dragon Ball Z. More than the myriad of copy paste technique you can potentially learn they also become the voice over when you are graded on your performances in both the campaigns and Parallel Quests.
I can definitively say the villain in Xenoverse 1 just feels like a clown with a Cell complex whereas Mira from Xenoverse 2 feels like the true protagonist Xenoverse 1 should have focused on and continued to develop as telling a story that goes in two different directions is kind of hard to keep balanced especially when one villain is more influential and likable than the other.
Finally I will part with this bit of advice. If you are truly looking to play Xenoverse 1 and 2 and get the most out of it? Grab a friend and do Parallel Quests together. The Campaign is underwhelming and doing Parallel Quests alone seems arbitrary when you can make a ton of zenni alone just by doing the Campaign on either game. But doing Parallel quests together with a friend quite literally is the most fun I’ve had in Xenoverse 1 and 2 but don’t just take my word for it. Go out and see for yourself. -MysticBeast