Ten years is a long time between sequels, but apparently not long enough for me to forget how Dragon Ball Xenoverse works. Within minutes of starting Xenoverse 3 at Gamescom, I was flying around an icy battlefield, firing Ki attacks at Frieza Force soldiers and trying to keep track of enemies moving at ridiculous speeds around me. Then Broly showed up and things became a little more complicated. Yup, this is definitely Xenoverse again.
That familiarity isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Xenoverse has always been about putting your own character inside the Dragon Ball universe instead of simply letting you replay another Goku story, and the third game is taking that idea much further. My Gamescom demo only gave me two preset characters to choose from, so I couldn’t spend twenty minutes creating some horrible-looking Saiyan before actually playing, but the full game will give players far more freedom to create their fighter and decide how they want that character to fight. After playing through the Glacier mission, I think that’s also where Xenoverse 3 becomes a lot more interesting than simply being another sequel with prettier graphics.
Okay, I remember this
The Glacier mission was mainly built around combat and gave me plenty of enemies to test everything on. Together with Brett and other members of the Great Saiya Squad, I fought my way through Frieza Force soldiers and robots before eventually facing Broly. If you’ve played Xenoverse before, you’ll know roughly what to expect. You’re flying freely around larger 3D environments, locking onto enemies and combining regular attacks with Ki blasts and much bigger Super and Ultimate Attacks. It still gets wonderfully chaotic when several fighters are involved. Characters are flying in every direction, attacks are exploding around you and somebody can suddenly come crashing into the fight while you’re concentrating on another enemy. I needed a little time to get the controls back into my fingers, especially when switching targets and moving around the battlefield, but it didn’t take long before I was chasing enemies through the air and throwing increasingly ridiculous attacks at them.
Ki plays a bigger role than simply being the bar you empty whenever you want to fire something spectacular. Taking damage and relying too heavily on Escape Vanish can drain it as well, while a properly timed Perfect Guard can prevent that loss and even give some Ki back. I certainly wasn’t perfect at using all of that during a short Gamescom session, but it made me pay more attention instead of continuously throwing special attacks until something died.
Of course it had to be Broly
The final part of the demo put our squad against Broly from Dragon Ball Super, which was a rather effective way of showing how Xenoverse 3 handles larger fights. He can take a serious amount of punishment and having several characters attacking him at once makes the screen about as calm as you would expect from a Dragon Ball fight involving Broly. This was also where I started using some of the newer systems more aggressively. Soul Assist allows you to call upon the power of a familiar Dragon Ball character during combat. Different characters can provide different kinds of support, and the ability works with charges that return after a cooldown, so I couldn’t simply keep calling for help every few seconds.
Soul Switch goes considerably further. During the demo I could use Future Trunks (Z), essentially switching into Trunks for a limited period and gaining access to his fighting style and attacks while also recovering my health. Considering I was busy getting slapped around by Broly at the time, the healing part was rather welcome. It also looks exactly as ridiculous as you want something like this to look. Xenoverse 3 isn’t trying to make Dragon Ball combat subtle. Ultimate Attacks fill the screen, characters transform and Broly happily throws everybody around when you give him the opportunity. Visually, the game looks very clean and the animations during those larger attacks have received plenty of attention. Watching is one thing, but actually triggering one yourself and seeing half the screen disappear underneath another enormous attack remains a big part of the fun.
My character, my moves
The part I didn’t really get to test is possibly the part I’m most curious about. Xenoverse 3 is going much harder on creating your own Dragon Ball fighter, and the two presets available at Gamescom only gave me a small idea of how differently characters can eventually play. The full customization system lets you build a fighter around attacks, skills and fighting styles connected to famous Dragon Ball characters. Those connections also feed into mechanics such as Soul Assist and Soul Switch, so picking the heroes you associate with your character isn’t purely cosmetic. You can take inspiration from the characters you like and start mixing those elements into something of your own.
That sounds like exactly the direction Xenoverse should be taking. We’ve already played as Goku, Vegeta, Trunks and the rest of the Dragon Ball cast in countless games. Xenoverse has always given me the opportunity to stand next to them instead, and being able to decide much more precisely what kind of fighter I’m bringing into that universe makes far more sense to me than simply adding another enormous character roster. There’s also the new AGE 1000 setting, with West City acting as an important location and the Great Saiya Squad playing a central role in the adventure. I only got a brief glimpse of that side before the demo sent me towards the Glacier, so I can’t say much about how interesting the new story will eventually become. My session was clearly there to let me fight rather than spend half my appointment walking around West City.
Early conclusion
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 felt immediately familiar once the fighting started, but Soul Assist, Soul Switch and the increased focus on creating your own fighter give it some interesting new ideas to work with. The Gamescom demo was mostly one big fight towards Broly, so I still want to spend much more time with AGE 1000 and especially the full customization system. As a first taste after ten years without a new Xenoverse, though, I had a lot of fun.