Last year's Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z did something almost unprecedented for the game series: introduce new story elements from the latest movie. With a series of tales that have been rehashed as many times as the majority of scenarios in the Dynasty Warriors series, seeing a new plot component injects an unexpected breath of fresh air into the experience, even if the game was mediocre. For the series debut on the new consoles, Bandai Namco Games went back to Dimps, one of its most trusted developers, to get a game that's fresh in as many ways as possible. What they got was a new story placed in a pseudo-MMO in Dragon Ball Xenoverse.

The story setup is quite daring for a series that's so set on sticking to the established script. Having been called on by the Kai of Time for traveling through time, Trunks becomes part of the Time Patrol, a force consisting of other time travelers who police the timeline and ensure that the events of history aren't altered. Unfortunately, a duo of time travelers has been altering historical events and potentially unraveling the universe. Using the seven Dragon Balls, Trunks asked Shenron to summon a warrior to become the latest member of the Time Patrol and fix things. This is where you come in.

Instead of playing as an established character or going through a roster of well-known characters, you create a fighter of your own. You can choose between five different races (Earthling, Frieza, Majin, Namekian or Saiyan), each with inherent strengths and weaknesses. For example, Saiyans have less health but a great amount of attack power while Namekians regenerate some health when close to death. There are even a few gender differences since female Earthlings can regenerate ki faster. The creation process is much more involved than what was in Ultimate Tenkaichi, with plenty of colors to choose from for clothes and eyes and different styles for hair, mouths and noses, all of which are done to match the Toriyama style. It isn't the deepest system, as you can't fine-tune things like height and build type beyond five distinct markers, but it's diverse enough to give you a variety of characters.

After creating your character, you're introduced to the hub world of Toki Toki City. Split into four different sections, it acts just like any other town in a typical MMO. You can buy new consumable items for combat, and you can obtain new special moves. You can buy costume pieces that act like armor, and you can use this place to apply some skill upgrades. You can obtain masters here who teach new moves as you progress, and you can send and receive gifts to other players. Though you can do all of these offline with a bunch of computer-generated people in the world, the appeal is in doing all of this in an online version and watching other people populate the area with their own creations. Missions, however, are the heart of the game, since that's what you'll work on the most.

Missions are split up into two types, each one taking advantage of the fractured nature of the timeline. Story missions take on the series' main story arcs but with several twists. In the opening arc, Raditz moves out of the way to ensure that only Goku is killed before he finishes off Piccolo. Later on, with that section fixed, both Nappa and Vegeta are in great ape mode while the Saibamen are stronger and more plentiful. In all cases, you join the battle alongside the heroes in that time period and help them fight the new threats so history is correct by the end of the fight. With the tale going to the events of the "Battle of Gods" movie, you're given a pretty comprehensive altered version of the story that can last an average of eight hours of fighting.

The second kind of mission you'll fight are parallel quests. Like the story quests, these also take place in nearly impossible situations created by the broken timeline, but there are a number of key differences beyond the fact that you need to beat the related story mode arc first. These missions can be taken on solo or with up to two other partners consisting of either computer-controlled fighters or real players. A majority of these missions also let you choose from other characters of past timelines along with your own created fighter. Some of these missions let you use a scouter to find enemies and items in a stage, so that adds something else to the combat.

Though it isn't a real MMO in the strictest sense, Xenoverse has some MMO traits. The story quests are important, but they take a back seat to the parallel quests, which comprise the bulk of what you'll be playing. This also doesn't count the random missions that major characters give you, such as you being able to fight alongside Raditz against Piccolo and Goku. You can also go on a mission to get the Dragon Balls and make a wish for yourself several times over, unlocking various characters and items in the process. There's also a chance to engage in versus matches against others in the World Tournament, though the number of people playing that mode versus the parallel missions is much smaller. Your level cap for your character hovers around 80, and beating all of the story missions unlocks more character slots, up to eight. The missions may feel a bit repetitive, as many have you facing the same enemy types again and again, but the dedicated fan will find almost limitless content here.

With so much content to go through and very stable online performance, the only question that remains is in the quality of the combat. To start, the fighting is closer in style to the Tenkaichi series than it is to the Budokai series. The camera shifts to a three-quarters, behind-the-back view at all times, whether you're on the ground or airborne. The face buttons take care of light and heavy attacks as well as projectiles and jumping, which also doubles as upward flight. You can unleash special moves, and you have temporary boost items. As far as anime-specific moves go, you can get into the rapid hitting bouts but not into the ki beam tug-of-war battles. Some of the races are known for transforming, but only the the Saiyans can do that in the middle of a fight.

A simple combat system isn't necessarily a bad thing, as demonstrated by the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm series, but that doesn't really make for exciting combat. Part of that is because you can stick with the same combos for most of the game and be successful. You don't have much of a dash move. It becomes difficult to get the correct timing for blocking moves, so you're forced to hope that spamming the block button gives you a lucky chance. Finally, the environmental destruction from these massive fights is quite limited. Holes formed by missed ki blasts are quickly filled up while still in the player's line of sight.

From a technical standpoint, the camera tends to create a few issues. The presence of rocks and other obstacles means that the camera can get caught in the environment, causing quick camera jerks or tighter zooms that hide the action. Even at an optimal zoom, you're not aware of where people are in the battlefield, so you'll only notice another opponent going after you if you catch them before they strike. The camera issues aren't enough to make the system terrible, but some tweaking for better fight awareness would've been nice.

Even if you can handle those quirks, the combat tends to favor enemies, sometimes unfairly. Enemies have no trouble teaming up on you, but your AI partners fail to do the same, often leaving you to fend for yourself in a fight and failing to capitalize on a good combo. If you catch an enemy from behind while they're unleashing a ki move, you'll be hit by the blast even if none of the energy is directed toward you. The biggest gripe is in the story missions, where some of the battles are interrupted with a cut scene, resetting the positions of every fighter before the skirmish can continue. Worse yet is the fact that enemies often regenerate health during these breaks while you have to trudge along with your remaining health. It tends to make the early fights much more difficult and later ones almost impossible unless you grind on parallel mission and carry healing items.

The series has always strived for graphics that matched the anime, and while this entry has certainly succeeded in that regard, it has also gone a bit overboard. Character models move rather nicely, and the lip sync matches the Japanese voices rather than the English ones. The character models are accurate and sport some great details before and after a battle. There's also some interesting lighting that makes the shadows look great but gives each fighter a plastic shine. Environments are rather simple, which isn't necessarily a dig since the anime is the same. The frame rate holds pretty steady without dropped textures, though the particle effects could've used a bump to be in line with those seen in other games. Also, both the offline and online versions of the hub world suffer from lots of character pop-up. They don't impede movement, but it is surprising to see another player appear a few feet in front of you while you're walking.

The sound, however, has taken a step back when compared to earlier entries. Aside from the original Japanese theme, the rest of the soundtrack is rather flat and generic. The soundtrack also seems absent in parts of the game, as some fights and tutorial sessions start off in relative silence. Dying and winning also come without any fanfare, sucking the feeling of reaching either of those states. The voice work is good, as always, with the player being given the choice between Japanese and English. The performances are good, and during fights, you often hear the characters tailor the shout-outs to you. As expected, voices aren't used throughout, as any dialogue in the hub world is often met with grunts.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse is a game for the fans. They're the ones who will appreciate seeing the well-known story arcs through different perspectives and being able to play them out in unconventional ways. The amount of activities, sizeable amount of content, and the good character creation system will also make them happy. They'll also be able to forgive a combat system that works in base terms but isn't as robust as players have seen in prior titles. For everyone else who is mildly curious about the video games based on the series, it might be best to wait and hope that a possible sequel will be better.

Score: 6.5/10