This past weekend Dragonball Xenoverse 2 had an open beta and players got a chance to try out the new game before its October 25th release while also allowing the developers to test the game out to see what needed tweaks and strengthening. We played through the open beta and got some info for you.
Dragonball Xenoverse 2 is definitely an evolution of its first entry in the series, even from the moment you start the game you already get a glimpse of how much bigger this entry is. The central hub, Conton City, is at least 3 times bigger than its predecessor Toki Toki city and has A LOT of quests and objectives contained in it. Some of these are your typical story and parallel quests that we saw in the original game. There are also various quests from time rifts that you can take on. Some of these are like more difficult parallel quests where you face of against empowered versions of enemies you have already fought but other quests have you focusing on a rather different set of objectives. Such as getting food for Majin Buu so that he will exchange food for items or training with Captain Ginyu to join Freiza’s army. Each of these new side quests also has extra quests available to you depending on what race you chose to make your character.
These extra quests are located at various other time rift locations located throughout Conton City. You can locate these quest locations by either talking to a transfer merchant or by simply flying over to them once you have access to a flying license. (The game does not allow you to fly around Conton City until you do this.) Each of these Time Rifts contain a specific memorable location from the Dragonball universe.
For example:
-If you chose to be a member of the Freiza Race, you will have access to additional quests at the time rift that contains Frieza’s ship.
-If you chose to be a Namekian, you can visit Elder Guru’s house and will have access to bonus quests from him.
-Humans may take on extra quests by popping in and seeing Hercule and the Great Saiyaman! (Yes he is back and he has sidekicks!)
-Majin can gain access to their race specific quests by visiting, you guessed it, Majin Buu!
-If you chose to go the way of the Saiyans, you can access your race specific quests by visiting Capsule Corp and talking with Vegeta.
Speaking of Capsule Corp, lets talk about that for a minute. If you visit Capsule Corp you will find Bulma and Vegeta happily living out their wonderful married life. JK, they are being just as nitpicky as normal and being ridiculous but by visiting the clothing mixer shop you can apparently combine your equipment into something called a QQ Bang. This item is apparently much stronger than normal equipment and you may only equip one at time.
We also got to see the various transformations of the different races. Here are a few screenshots for you below
The Majin gain access to what was called Purification which basically turns you into Kid Buu form. The transformation also appears to actually change your skill set and gives you access to some of Kid Buu’s signature attacks such as vanishing ball. This form drains stamina and lasts for as long as the player’s stamina does and can be reverted back from at any time the player chooses.
The Namekians give you access to gigantic form. (That’s not the technical name for it but that’s basically what happens when you transform as a Namekian.) This giant form changes your skills as well and pretty much gives you access to various range ki blasts that you can fire almost halfway across the map actually. The ki attacks here were useful once you go used to them but took a little bit to master. This form drains stamina and lasts as long as the players stamina does and can be reverted back from at any point the player chooses
The humans transformation is less of a transformation and more of a summon. They gain access to Nimbus and the Power Pole. The Nimbus and Power Pole summon will probably end up being one of the most underrated aspects of the game simply due to the fact that it isn’t a true “Transformation.” That being said, summoning Nimbus and Power Pole actually is quite the power up in game and allows you to have extremely long range melee attacks and much faster movement speed than you normally would, allowing you to zone out enemies in the game that aren’t in giant form. The utility of this was incredible and actually proved to be more useful than even the Saiyan transformation in regards to winning fights with normal sized enemies. Humans still need to watch out for long ranged ki attacks though. Nimbus doesn’t quite help with this. This form drains stamina to determine how long you remain on the Nimbus and can be reverted at any given time the player chooses.
Frieza race members gain access to Frieza’s signature Golden Form which from what I could tell in game allowed the player greater attack strength overall similar to Super Saiyan transformations. Frieza race members retain all of their skills and attacks while in this form and can choose to revert back at any given time.
Last but not least, the Saiyans gain access to what is probably one of the most recognizable forms of the series, the Super Saiyan. The difference this time around is that unlike in Dragonball Xenoverse 1, you can transform into different levels of Super Saiyan all via one skill. That means you don’t need to have a specific Super Saiyan 2 or 3 skills to use those forms. In Dragonball Xenoverse 2, which level you transform into is determined instead by the amount of ki that you have access to at that given moment of transformation. If you have 3 bars you can transform into Super Saiyan 1. If you have 4 bars of ki, then you transform into Super Saiyan 2. If you have 5 bars of ki then you transform into Super Saiyan 3 and lose your eyebrows. Those are all the forms of Super Saiyan that we found in the beta but it is possible that later on Super Saiyan Blue could be added into the transformation if the player has access to enough ki bars.
The combat of Dragonball Xenoverse 2 functions similarly to that of Xenoverse 1 but has far more complexities and intricacies to it then its predecessor. The easiest way to summarize it all would be to say they raised the level of skill it takes to be good at the game by adding in many more ways to combo and chain your attacks and assaults together. While at the same time giving the player a good set of tools to deflect or avoid incoming assaults by an enemy. This manages to make the game both easier and more difficult while still being gratifying for veteran Xenoverse players all the same time. By allowing quickly beat enemies who don’t have all the intricacies down yet but at the same increasing the challenge of enemies that have mastered the combat system. The game also does away with the dreaded Super Saiyan spam where players transform into Super Saiyan form and have unlimited ki access and just spam ultimate attack after ultimate attack until the foe’s hp is gone. Instead, Super Saiyans have the same amount of ki access as everyone else in the game and their skills will drain ki like all others skills would.
Outside of that, the game functions similarly to the original in that you are trying to hunt down Mira and Towa and stop them from altering the timeline any further than they already have and repair what you can from the timeline. You are enlisted as a Time Patroller again, although this time you aren’t created by Shenron via a wish from trunks and instead you are simply recruited. Trunks apparently is not the example to follow according to the Supreme Kai of Time as she references his interference and changing of the timeline from the android saga. You work alongside Future Trunks, Supreme Kai of Time, Elder Supreme Kai and interestingly, the player’s character from the first Xenoverse to attempt to stop Mira and Towa from altering the timeline any further and stop their nefarious deeds once and for all. This time around though they have recruited some new allies to their cause such as Lord Slug and Turles and you battle them at various points in the story as they try to negate your attempts to save the timeline. While the game is a sequel and what we got to play was only the beta, it showed that already, the developers have been hearing the cries of players everywhere and taken the Dragonball Xenoverse series to the next level by delivering even a beta that showed a lot of promise and to me felt more enjoyable than its predecessor. Even despite the fact that the game didn’t give you access to 3/4 of Conton City and didn’t actually give you access to many of the new activities and side quests, the game still felt refreshingly new and a huge improvement and advancement of the original Xenoverse time traveling adventure.
But what about you? Did you play the beta and if so what were your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!
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