Recent reviews by Effestiar

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Got this for free from humblebundle.
And I still want a refund.

There's positives to this game but it sure isnt the gameplay.
The art was decent and if the story wasn't hidden behind abstract choices perhaps even that would be neat.
But as it stands, just go play scp containment breach or alien isolation. Major letdown, even worse than outlast.

Atleast in outlast you could mess up and die between the boring jump scares.

I'm torn over this one. Xenoverse 3 will probably be a recommended item, but to anyone thats wondering if they should get this game:

Are you a dragonball z fan then yes, get this game. There's a lot of flaws in here, but you'll be able to look past them and have a really enjoyable time.

Not a dbz fan: The gameplay faults are still too big. Wait for xenoverse 3, or better yet.. raging blast 3.

_____Extended review_____

Gameplay:
The gameplay tries to take what worked best in xenoverse 1 and improves upon it.
Allbeit the combo system is relatively simple, through combo cancels and teleports can you chain together many different combos and juggle your opponent around. While this system seems to work for the most part, the problem seems that a lot of combo's, even basic ones are programmed in such a way that they will randomly miss and have your character strike air instead. This seems to become truly apparent in the first cooler and frieza fight, where it seems the hit detection is just abysmal.

The customization seems to be plentiful and will give many a fan enough to create his ultimate z warrior with. Allthough for most of us, wanting to experiment with other characters, the current system of being forced to restart storymode, is problematic. (This may be fixed later.)
The much hated RNG system from xenoverse 1 had made place for one that is far more reliable. No more hours of searching for that one item that you so despirately want. No more looking for specific trainers, reloading the game multiple times to find the person you desire.

You still can not make custom created characters fight against eachother, or choose offline 1vs 3 matches. But the removal of super armor(a mechanic that pretty much broke the game) that was present in the first game, has made this game far more enjoyable.

Graphics:
Simply put, the graphics are wonderful. Allthough there's a glaring difference between the character models and the backgrounds. The models look close to their animated counterparts but the backgrounds are a bit realistic in comparison. Problem lies with the way backgrounds are modeled. A problem that the lead designer should have picked up on. Backgrounds were not modeled to work together with this shader.

Story:
While it's nice to see yourself placed in a dragonball story, the complete idea of having a time patroller is one that is filled with plotholes. You're the protector of history and have to make sure no alterations get made. Sounds good in practice, if it wasn't for the fact that you're protecting an already altered history. (Trunks coming back to warn the z warriors, anyone?) Add this to the fact that the entire story is shallow to begin with and it becomes a more painful grind rather than anything else. Having said that, some of the dialogue will surely make you dbz fans squeel with joy.

Music:
Ouch. Spend 5 minutes in the main hub and you'll find yourself marching to the beat. And not in a good way. More in a "Lock me up in an asylum" kind of way. Despite a few atrocious tunes in the hub-world, the in-battle music which ranges from a variety of genres is luckily of a higher quality.


In conclusion.
Xenoverse 2 is the game that xenoverse 1 should have been. There are still blatant flaws that need to be addressed and show a lack of caring from the developers side. But dragonball fans will be able to see past these flaws and have an enjoyable experience. The combat system, while miles ahead of the first game, has fundamental flaws that can seriously ruin one's day. Dragonball fans will easily be able to look past these flaws, but if you're looking for a fighting game, best keep your money in your pocket. Atleast till hit detection is fixed.

In short:
I do recommend this game, but only to hardcore dbz-fans who do not mind grinding for equipment.
If you're one of those people, rest assured, you'll get your moneys worth out of this game.
If you're not, you better stay away from this one. Save your money for a sequel.

Extended info:
Despite this game having great customization which you can find in both equipment and the way your character gains strength as you level up. (You gain status points which you can use to increase their offensive or defensive capabilities like you see in many rpgs.) It fails on a few key elements.

First and foremost, there is the AI in dragonball xenoverse. You'll often hear people complaining about the difficulty of xenoverse, and where in some games this comes from a dangerous but fair AI (-read 'Dark Souls'-) in xenoverse the difficulty comes from the unbalanced power of the AI opponents.

All fighters in xenoverse have a stamina bar, and if you want to use evasive moves, or block incoming attacks, your stamina will drop. The problem is that many of these evasive moves also inflict damage on the attacking enemy.
In a player versus player match this would not pose a threat but the AI seems to have a different stamina bar that regenerates ridiculously fast in comparison to that of a player. This means that the AI is going to spam these evasive moves to get out of a players combo. When sooner or later you yourself run out of stamina and your opponent doesn't, be prepared to take in damage despite having the upperhand. This damage will be magnified if there is a level difference between you and your opponent. Did I mention many strong opponents can't even begin to be combo'd unless they lose stamina first?

Another issue is the hub world.
I understand what the developers wanted to create, but they made some mistakes here. For one the world is far too big for what is actually in it. The running around is boring and annoying in an otherwise fast paced game. This is made worse by the fact that after each mission you'll be dropped at a difference place than where you accept missions. This should be easily fixable by adjusting 3 lines of code however.

Another thing I should mention is that there is a transformation that is only available to the saiyan race. This transformation called super saiyan, unlike its effect in the dbz universe, presents the player with a 'limited' time of being able to spam ultimate and super attacks. While this will not pose a problem in pvp to experienced players who can dodge these attacks, it does seem to be the best way to counter the unbalanced AI. This ends up demoting the at first difficult AI to nothing more than silly target practice.

Despite all of this, you can have a lot of fun teaming up with up to two friends simultaneously to tackle missions and grind for equipment. Which brings me to the last problem of this game.
Many rpg games, including this one will give you slightly random rewards. This is a great way to add replayability and fun, trying to get that one special item. The problem here however is how xenoverse handles this. Instead of only rewards being random, some events that give you these chances to obtain rewards are also random. Quite a mouthful, right? Let's rephrase that, you'll have a random chance, to obtain a random chance, to obtain your item. This is simply bad design that leads to frustration. Especially considering some of these random events, aren't random, but need to be triggered by certain hidden objectives that are nowhere mentioned in the game. This way you never know if that event that might give you your desired item happened by chance, or by some random teammate's health being below a certain point when you finish the mission. A perfect example of bad design.


So, yes, this game has flaws. A lot of flaws. But there is a silver lining to it all, if you are true dragonball fan and you like games where you have to do repeated tasks to get your favorite items or level up, you'll like this game. You'll probably end up getting mad once or twice, but I can assure you it's worth a buy.
If however either one of those two conditions are false. Avoid this game at all cost.