During our time at E3, Namco-Bandai invited us to an exclusive first look into the trailer and a short glimpse of developmental gameplay footage of Dragon Ball Xenoverse before anyone else. And while we were not able to take pictures of their demonstration that was still in development, what we saw is more than enough to get us excited.
What is Xenoverse about, you ask? Well, here is the thing: we aren’t sure. To clarify, nobody really is. But here is what we do know:
- The Game is being developed by Dimps, the team behind the original Dragon Ball Budokai series
- Xenoverse is the first Dragon Ball Z game that is designed for PS4 and Xbox One (though it will be available on PS3 and 360 as well)
- The story goes at least as far as the Majin Buu Saga
- There will be new characters and locations introduced to the story (seen in the trailer below)
- It looks fantastic
If you have not seen the trailer yet, take a look below.
Notice that mysterious fighter in a Capsule Corp jacket (much like the one Future Trunks wears)? So did everyone else. And it begs the question, “who is he?” Which was the first question we had asked. Of course the guys of Namco-Bandai wouldn’t tell us.
After a brief Q&A, we got a chance to witness a demonstration of gameplay from a developmental copy of the game. The opening title screen said “Dragon Ball Project”, to put that into perspective. But even with the expectation that the game was not ready to be tried by our hand, after watching a few seconds, we practically begged to give it a go.
The first thing we witnessed was Goku facing off against Cell during the Cell Games. The arena is massive and so are the environments. And they look great. Textures were surprisingly smooth and character movements were fluid, even at this early in the development stage. Watching ki blasts slam your opponent into the ground was an exceptional eye-pleaser. Each and every tile of the arena is completely destructible, shown after Cell smashed Goku into the center of the ring.
Next up was between Kid Buu against Goku, who transformed into Super Saiyan 3 mid-battle before taking the fight underwater.
Side Note: We were not sure how long the player would be able to sustain an underwater battle, though we did ask if there would be a meter representing an air gauge. Though they could not answer directly at this point in time, it sounded like it was being considered.
Of course we left with more questions than answers, but were not disappointed with what we saw. If the game looks this fantastic so early on, we have high hopes for the final project. Character locking too made it seem relatively easy to keep track of fast-paced moments across the screen, even when flying around at exceptionally high speed. Watching the arena and ground crumble to pieces after being slammed into by a player knocked from the eye was particularly satisfying.
For now, there is not much more to tell, but one thing is for sure, we are really looking forward to plot details as they unfold and how this ties into the Dragon Ball Lore. Especially with this mysterious futuristic city and Capsule Corp. fanboy sporting the scouter and Super Saiyan God-like hairdo popping up here and there.
Developed by Dimps for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, and PS4, Dragon Ball Xenoverse has not received a release date at this time. But we will keep you posted.
