DBZ XENOVERSE!!!!

[Enishi]

Finally something that shows that this game is actually promising. From some of the gameplay here it's interesting that it does remind me a little of ESF, though it just seems slower.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhefT6Rxvbc

I really like character creation and customization
Does this game have decent multiplayer?

 

[pumadace2000]

Unkown. Steam tags say it has both co-op and Multiplayer, but since he reviewed a copy quite before it's release I doubt he had the chance to try MP.

 

[IFlip92]

Well, chalk this as the 2nd worst DB game right after Ultimate Tenkaichi imho considering they had no technology limitations this time...

- Clunky battle mechanics, no skill involved at all. Characters are slow to Guard, you can't interrupt your attack to suddenly block and you can't block/interrupt if someone has started an attack on you; the pace is all over the place from fast to slow to "why the **** is my character taking 2-3 seconds (literally) to turn around and face the enemy that just blew past me/dodge/changed lock to?"

- Lock-on is downright annoying, in fact it's a struggle to even face the opponent the right way. If you face the wrong way and keep mashing buttons, you will continue to attack that way until you stop, after you stop for 2-3 seconds, your character will finally turn. No words to describe...

- Controller bindings are unintuitive. Block on LB, who the **** thought that was a good idea? Separate button for Vanish/Teleport.... seriously? L3 to descend and A(Xbox) or X(PS) to ascend, wtf? In some places you use A to interact while in others you use B, cos **** consistency?

- Limited amount of skillsets. You can only have 4 Supers (including Rushes and Utility), 2 Ultis (Transform/Powerups are Ultis) and 1 Ulti Escape/Interrupt thingie. So you learn all the techniques in the world but you can only use 7, cos **** logic.
- Less combos than ever and every character has the same ones but with different animations
- No signature moves per character. Like seriously, I get this game is made around the idea of Customizable characters, but each race should have at least 1 signature move... They have unlockable ones for certain races (2 at most, don't get too happy), but guess what, Frieza race doesn't have any specific ones for some reason (looked through all), while 90% /220 total (no exaggeration) of items are cross compatible with all races.

- The scouter item discovery is badly implemented. Sends you to 1st Person but you don't have time to look around in a fight at all, plus you can't fly fast, collect things or run when using it, successfully defeating its purpose and making it an annoyance.

- The free roam area is incredibly stupid and I want to expand on this a bit: you can jump but there's nothing to jump over as you get stuck on every object you would try to jump over Eg. bench, you can't fly for some stupid reason, you can't run for a reason beyond stupid, the drawdistance is pitiful at most so everything just looks like a rough sketch until you get up close, the whole free roam area basically shouldn't exist, it would of just been easier to make an interface which would spare us a lot of time wasting. (This is on PC as well! I dread to think what it looks like on consoles!)

- Dialogues with NPCs are a bleeding pain to all my senses (except smell probably)

- Only Saiyans have transformations for some reason, even though I can think of 100s of ways of making all classes transform. Eg. Majin transform can be easily narrated in using those time distorting guys to try to make him evil or something, Humans can unlock their potential to Mystic through the Supreme Kai of Time, Namekians can have like a choice to split bodies early on and have an AI bot do parallel bodyguard work and choose to merge at some point (easily narrated in), Frieza can just transform upon reaching certain levels. Point being, if I can think of ways to implement transformations for all of them, it can't be that damn hard to have been done.

- Maps are still ******* small and there's virtually no destruction, apart from some very short lasting decals and average sized rocks that take ~5 Ki blasts to blow up at any level which makes no sense...
- None of the Ki/Physical moves have any impact behind them and stamina is just a ridiculous inconvenience that could have just as well not existed and everything would have been fine.

- NO POWER STRUGGLES??! WHY??? You clash with someone and you just get a little cinematic (which never changes btw) after which you just break up like a schoolyard fight and land away from each other. No analogue spinning, button mashing, head-nodding, nothing...

- Don't even get me started on the item drops. The side quests (Parallel Quests or PQs) say they drop these good Abilities and Armour, but in truth, they are random drops. A small search on the Internet will tell you how many people haven't got the Raditz armor promised in one of the first PQs even after doing it 10 times or more.

-Terrible Tutorial that barely teaches you basics. Had to ask the robot outside the Tutorial, which serves some basic information as pictograms, which one was my Stamina Bar and which was the Ki bar as it's not clear. Nothing and noone teaches you Rushes, or how to follow-up on combos/vanishes.


All bad points I can think of right now, I might edit some more later. There's also good points but not enough to overshadow its downfalls. It takes more steps backwards than forwards. To me, Raging Blast series was still the best presented DBZ and a true continuation of the Tenkaichi series. This game is basically a very bad attempt at an MMO. If it wasn't digital only I would throw my poo at it. (yes it's a monkey reference)

Conclusion: They made the game fast-paced and multiple enemy orientated, but don't give you the tools to react and deal with that.

 

[Sting]

Well, chalk this as the 2nd worst DB game right after Ultimate Tenkaichi imho considering they had no technology limitations this time...

- Clunky battle mechanics, no skill involved at all. Characters are slow to Guard, you can't interrupt your attack to suddenly block and you can't block/interrupt if someone has started an attack on you; the pace is all over the place from fast to slow to "why the **** is my character taking 2-3 seconds (literally) to turn around and face the enemy that just blew past me/dodge/changed lock to?"

- Lock-on is downright annoying, in fact it's a struggle to even face the opponent the right way. If you face the wrong way and keep mashing buttons, you will continue to attack that way until you stop, after you stop for 2-3 seconds, your character will finally turn. No words to describe...

- Controller bindings are unintuitive. Block on LB, who the **** thought that was a good idea? Separate button for Vanish/Teleport.... seriously? L3 to descend and A(Xbox) or X(PS) to ascend, wtf? In some places you use A to interact while in others you use B, cos **** consistency?

- Limited amount of skillsets. You can only have 4 Supers (including Rushes and Utility), 2 Ultis (Transform/Powerups are Ultis) and 1 Ulti Escape/Interrupt thingie. So you learn all the techniques in the world but you can only use 7, cos **** logic.
- Less combos than ever and every character has the same ones but with different animations
- No signature moves per character. Like seriously, I get this game is made around the idea of Customizable characters, but each race should have at least have 1 signature move... They have unlockable ones for certain races, but guess what, Frieza race doesn't have any specific ones for some reason (looked through all), while most of the Human/Saiyan ones are cross compatible with all races.

- The scouter item discovery is badly implemented. Sends you to 1st Person but you don't have time to look around in a fight at all, plus you can't fly fast, collect things or run when using it, successfully defeating its purpose and making it an annoyance.

- The free roam area is incredibly stupid and I want to expand on this a bit: you can jump but there's nothing to jump over as you get stuck on every object you would try to jump over Eg. bench, you can't fly for some stupid reason, you can't run for a reason beyond stupid, the drawdistance is pitiful at most so everything just looks like a rough sketch until you get up close, the whole free roam area basically shouldn't exist, it would of just been easier to make an interface which would spare us a lot of time wasting. (This is on PC as well! I dread to think what it looks like on consoles!)

- Dialogues are a bleeding pain to all my sense (except smell probably)

- Only Saiyans have transformations for some reason, even though I can think of 100s of ways of making all classes transform. Eg. Buu transform can be easily narrated in using those time distorting guys to try to make him evil or something, Humans can unlock their potential to Mystic through the Supreme Kai of Time, Namekians can have like a choice to split bodies early on and have an AI bot do parallel bodyguard work and choose to merge at some point (easily narrated in), Frieza can just transform upon reaching certain levels. Point being, if I can think of ways to implement transformations for all of them, it can't be that damn hard to have been done.

- Maps are still ******* small and there's virtually no destruction, apart from some very short lasting decals and average sized rocks that take ~5 Ki blasts to blow up at any level...
- None of the Ki/Physical moves have any impact behind them and stamina is just a ridiculous inconvenience that could have just as well not existed and everything would have been fine.

- NO POWER STRUGGLES??! WHY??? You clash with someone and you just get a little cinematic (which never changes btw) after which you just break up like a schoolyard fight and land away from each other. No analogue spinning, button mashing, head-nodding, nothing...

- Don't even get me started on the item drops. The side quests (Parallel Quests or PQs) say the drop these good powers and armor, but in truth, they are random drops. A small search on the Internet will tell you how many people haven't got the Raditz armor promised in one of the first PQs even after doing it 10 times or more.

-Terrible Tutorial that barely teaches you basics. Had to ask the robot outside the Tutorial, which serves basic information, which one was my Stamina Bar and which was the Ki bar as it's not clear. Nothing and noone teaches you Rushes, or how to follow-up on combos/vanishes.


All bad points I can think of right now, I might edit some more later. There's also good points but not enough to overshadow its downfalls. To me , Raging Blast series was still the best presented DBZ and a true continuation of the Tenkaichi series. This game is basically a very bad attempt at an MMO. If it wasn't digital only I would throw my poo at it. (yes it's a monkey reference)

Conclusion: They made the game fast-paced and multiple enemy orientated, but don't give you the tools to react and deal with that.

So you actualy played the game?

 

[IFlip92]

Yes. 8 Hours into it. Failed maybe 4 times, level 13... Just met the antagonists.

 

[pumadace2000]

Funny you mentioned bad attempt at making an MMO since it has been made based on a bad attempt at an MMO, that is now gone.

But hey funny story. At least it's the best DBZ game on PC. Har-har!

 

[IFlip92]

But hey funny story. At least it's the best DBZ game on PC. Har-har!

That's true :laff:, but only because it's the only one :-/

PS: There's also NO training mode... a lot of people seem to like the game for some reason though...

 

[pumadace2000]

PS: There's also NO training mode... a lot of people seem to like the game for some reason though...

Maybe because even toddlers can count the amount of DBZ games available on PC.

Now I know Namco are complete idiots when it comes to this, but did you ever try the mouse and keyboard controls?

 

[IFlip92]

Now I know Namco are complete idiots when it comes to this, but did you ever try the mouse and keyboard controls?

Actually, I haven't because of the obvious reasonable predictions of what that might be like. I shall try tomorrow and let you know.

 

[Sting]

a lot of people seem to like the game for some reason though...

Everything that is new and based on what they like can be good for them.
Specialy its only 1 game on the pc as you said.
But ask them again in a few months or see how active they will be in a few months....

 

[pumadace2000]

Everything that is new and based on what they like can be good for them.
Specialy its only 1 game on the pc as you said.
But ask them again in a few months or see how active they will be in a few months....

I doubt the in a few months part, because Naruto shippuden (both of them) are still loved.

I think it's more a matter of: Does the game work? Yes. Is it playable? Yes. Can you get at least SOME enjoyment out of it? Yes. Are you somewhat grateful that this game actually made it to the PC, because oooh namco is soooo good to us now? Yes.

Results: Good game. 9/10.

 

[FalconFury]

ESF! I am sorry. You took so long. XENOVERSE!!! I AM COMING! and if you ain't playable on my computer then I WILL INCREASE MY SPECS!

 

[Ryokeen]

Then do that, i tested it for a short time( XV ) and well it's just another DBZ game with slightly different controlls and weird melee teleportation to hit someone
Also they should unpack the character models..there is still some foil on them ^^

 

[IFlip92]

I doubt the in a few months part, because Naruto shippuden (both of them) are still loved.

I think it's more a matter of: Does the game work? Yes. Is it playable? Yes. Can you get at least SOME enjoyment out of it? Yes. Are you somewhat grateful that this game actually made it to the PC, because oooh namco is soooo good to us now? Yes.

Results: Good game. 9/10.

Perhaps I am just asking the wrong questions. But then again I am not one to settle for half measures and those questions seem to set the bar very low. Naruto games continue to be much better.

Later Edit:
Tried mouse and keyboard, sucks even more because you still need the lock-on (read forced to use when hitting someone) and can't just use the mouse which is a major part of the problem in the first place. I am now level 20 trying to fight Frieza and this is where I'm gonna stop playing as the game has become a complete screw-up with the addition of what appear to be infinite Evasive Ultimates from the AI which is such a cheap way to mask the AI's downfalls which I have experienced so far. My supporting characters keep dying because of the enemy AI, with what appears to be infinite stamina, keeps spamming those Evasive Ultis and anyone that gets focused can just be spammed to death.

Can't get any substantial combos going because the enemy will just interrupt you using those Evasives and the Guard ability is so OP that Frieza can throw a Deathball at you and you will barely take damage if you manage to block it (vice versa with my Ultis), keyword being IF, because blocking continues to be my biggest gripe with the game as it barely works the way it is implemented because of what seems to be absolute lack of reaction time to button presses. It's like playing NBA 2K all over again... My 2nd biggest gripe with the game is the separate Teleport button which is also the Jump/Ascend button which makes it difficult to #1 escape being comboed #2 chase-up on rushes and combos, because of the button layout (tried all 3 layouts, all unintuitive and clunky, the problem is literally the separate Teleport button which should have never existed in the first place).

 

[pumadace2000]

I actually got to play it quite lengthily and I have to say that all the gripes IFlip92 has are absolutely and totally 100% bull-shiiiii... ok no. They ain't giving me no fat check for this so yeah. He's right.

I will say though that the keyboard and mouse controls worked far better for me than the controller that I only tried once and after many migraines I stuck with kb and mouse. How it basically plays is like ESF, but with a lock on and with much more stun-lock spamming nonsense. You thought it was bad in ESF that you can get chain-simple meleed and die when you can't do shit, well this is even worse. I did manage to figure out how the game works somewhat, by trying my hardest to always be the one who spam-stuns rather than get spammed with stuns. I managed to make it to the Cell Games. Out of curiosity how many hit combos did you manage IFlip92? I managed a maximum of 38 (correction 45) stun-lock spam combo melee hits. I'm not taking a piss at you btw, I'm just curious how far you managed to push yourself with the controller, because maaaan that thing is so bad.

I called that the game looks like shit and guess what, it does look like shit. Yes everything has been cranked up to max. So don't ask. It looks like shit. Shiny sparkly shit.

Also some of the missions can eat my ****, as they are horrendously executed. Also I will add the fact that it get's worse than evasive ultimates. Enemies will at time be invulnerable for no reason. They are not blocking. They just stand there, you hit them and nothing happens and they immediately retaliate and stun lock the snot out of you. Oh and spoilers. Hercule (**** that name, Mr. Satan) can fly. Don't (seriously please don't) ask me why.

Also IFlip92, one final thing. I hope you actually remembered to boost your stats, because in my first time trying the fight with Vegeta and Nappa I was getting my arse handed to me and I had no idea why the hell that was. How funny would it be if you actually managed to make it to Freeza despite being horribly underpowerd with shitty controls?

A good thing about the game. Some of the twists are fun to see. Having Vegeta as your master is hilarious, because I always find it funny when he *****es at me for failing a mission.
Enemies are a bunch of cheap-arse horses... wait, that's a bad. Yeh that's all the good I can count.

Also I could lie and say I feel sorry for FF, but I don't enjoy lying, so I won't.

Final verdict from me (even though I didn't finish it, but I don't give a shit) Play Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3: Full burst. The only thing that game does worse than Xenoverse is the 30fps lock. But if you're itching for anime-series based games that one is it. It has better everything than Xenoverse... well maybe Xenoverse has more gameplay, but some of the gameplay is so tedious and annoying I will take 30 minutes (that is no joke btw) of cutscenes any day and now it's cheaper. If this game was £19.99 I would give it a pass. But with it being £39.99 WITH a £19.99 season pass, which means incoming DLC it can pretty much go **** itself. Go buy GTA V for that price. You can't do much worse than THAT for THAT price.

 

[hleV]

I can't be bothered to read the thread... Is story mode even remotely decent? I suppose I could try the game out, would be using keyboard though.

 

[pumadace2000]

I can't be bothered to read the thread... Is story mode even remotely decent? I suppose I could try the game out, would be using keyboard though.

Let's see. Story. Well you of all people should hate it: A) NOT IN THE MANGA B) It screws with what is in the manga more than the show.

If you can overlook those things you may get some enjoyment out of some of the alternate things that happen with each saga. Also do bear in mind that to go through the story you have, absolutely HAVE to do side missions, to gain levels otherwise you will be critically underpowered against your opponents. Some of them are enjoyable I'll give them that, but it pretty much is designed to slow down speed-runs I'm afraid.

I will also say that so far that the way you get to play through each of them is pretty repetitive. I mean like the first Assassin's Creed you will most likely figure out the rinse and repeat formula for each mission.

I would recommend keyboard and mouse use. Yes.

Oh and avoid if you absolutely hat the very idea that Mr. Satan can fly.

 

[hleV]

I don't hate stories that are not in the manga. I hate stories that try to fit into the manga continuity but fail. Most movies don't, I suppose Xenoverse doesn't neither. Plus it has Time Patrol theme, which was in DBO and interests me.

 

[IFlip92]

I don't hate stories that are not in the manga. I hate stories that try to fit into the manga continuity but fail. Most movies don't, I suppose Xenoverse doesn't neither. Plus it has Time Patrol theme, which was in DBO and interests me.

Hlev in that case you might like it. I personally like the idea of the story and the antagonists are cool in both narrative and design. I especially like Mira, he reminds me of Bleach.

I actually got to play it quite lengthily and I have to say that all the gripes IFlip92 has are absolutely and totally 100% bull-shiiiii... ok no. They ain't giving me no fat check for this so yeah. He's right.

I will say though that the keyboard and mouse controls worked far better for me than the controller that I only tried once and after many migraines I stuck with kb and mouse. How it basically plays is like ESF, but with a lock on and with much more stun-lock spamming nonsense. You thought it was bad in ESF that you can get chain-simple meleed and die when you can't do shit, well this is even worse. I did manage to figure out how the game works somewhat, by trying my hardest to always be the one who spam-stuns rather than get spammed with stuns. I managed to make it to the Cell Games. Out of curiosity how many hit combos did you manage IFlip92? I managed a maximum of 38 (correction 45) stun-lock spam combo melee hits. I'm not taking a piss at you btw, I'm just curious how far you managed to push yourself with the controller, because maaaan that thing is so bad.

I called that the game looks like shit and guess what, it does look like shit. Yes everything has been cranked up to max. So don't ask. It looks like shit. Shiny sparkly shit.

Also some of the missions can eat my ****, as they are horrendously executed. Also I will add the fact that it get's worse than evasive ultimates. Enemies will at time be invulnerable for no reason. They are not blocking. They just stand there, you hit them and nothing happens and they immediately retaliate and stun lock the snot out of you. Oh and spoilers. Hercule (**** that name, Mr. Satan) can fly. Don't (seriously please don't) ask me why.

Also IFlip92, one final thing. I hope you actually remembered to boost your stats, because in my first time trying the fight with Vegeta and Nappa I was getting my arse handed to me and I had no idea why the hell that was. How funny would it be if you actually managed to make it to Freeza despite being horribly underpowerd with shitty controls?

A good thing about the game. Some of the twists are fun to see. Having Vegeta as your master is hilarious, because I always find it funny when he *****es at me for failing a mission.
Enemies are a bunch of cheap-arse horses... wait, that's a bad. Yeh that's all the good I can count.

Also I could lie and say I feel sorry for FF, but I don't enjoy lying, so I won't.

Final verdict from me (even though I didn't finish it, but I don't give a shit) Play Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3: Full burst. The only thing that game does worse than Xenoverse is the 30fps lock. But if you're itching for anime-series based games that one is it. It has better everything than Xenoverse... well maybe Xenoverse has more gameplay, but some of the gameplay is so tedious and annoying I will take 30 minutes (that is no joke btw) of cutscenes any day and now it's cheaper. If this game was £19.99 I would give it a pass. But with it being £39.99 WITH a £19.99 season pass, which means incoming DLC it can pretty much go **** itself. Go buy GTA V for that price. You can't do much worse than THAT for THAT price.

Yes I have leveled my character's abilities, but at first I made a Frieza for 2-3 levels, until I found out he has no transformation, then I switched to Saiyans because I just ****ed my fantasy Frieza character as I thought he would transform (eg. not tall enough, wrong choice of face mask etc.). Now I have a level 20 Saiyan with quite flat hair and I'm hoping when he transforms that hair will spike up (probably wishful thinking). Highest combo for me was probably around 25 hits because I can't bloody understand how you're meant to follow-up on some of them and most of them seem to have a pretty short chain before the end punch which usually sends them to the floor. Not talking here about that spammable X and 2xY combo which can be continued forever which me as well as everyone else has discovered (funnily enough, considered a bug). But with those Evasive Ultimate they can just **** me over with anything I try since they can be triggered even while taking damage. So how you got to 40~ is beyond me because I put points in my Basics and Strikes and Saiybamen die in around 10 Hit combos and anything beyond them either use Vanish, Ki Blasts to stop you or Evasives in my experience. I am just so used to the responsiveness of the characters in the old games, where when I press block it would happen when I need it, not 2 seconds after when my face is already punch pie.

I want to make a Frieza character since their Ki Blast is like a stun move, but the other slots only unlock after beating the game mode at least once, at which point you do get to keep and access everything you have unlocked from previous playthroughs. So I don't really fancy deleting my level 20 saiyan so I can start over...

Just found this video and seems to be helpful (for me at least) regarding following up on combos + I find you have to use Ki Blasts a lot to continue the stun-lock spam (they cost no Ki either so might as well):
[video=youtube;GctOnMdKYDY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GctOnMdKYDY[/video]

The lack of any kind of clashes and struggles is beyond disappointing. Nevermind the stupid fact you can't fly or run in Free Roam which defeats the purpose of even having a Free Roam. Had so much fun with those two things in Budokai 3. Thank the universe for PCSX2. I'm going back to Budokai...

 

[GodGoku]

would be using keyboard though.

I tried that, next day was forced to use my brothers xbox 360 controller, gameplay improved XD