Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 slammed its way onto consoles in late 2016 (PS4 Review), where it garnered a mixed reception. Now that this massive, both in scope and explorable areas, game has landed on the Switch, the question is if it will hold up on Nintendo’s big handheld/little console.

For those unfamiliar with the series, or this game, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 tells a story of Mira and Towa who are giving enemies throughout history strength using the Tree of Might. This is causing imbalances to the timeline as bad guys who lose their fights are suddenly overpowered, needing to be stopped by Trunks and the others in Canton City.

You create your character from any of the races, and gender where applicable, with enough options to make your unique Dragon Ball styled character. You will then be dropped into Canton City where you are tasked with getting stronger and helping the Supreme Kai’s along with Trunks to go through time to help ensure these fights go the way they were supposed to. All of this while you make your way towards Mira, Towa and the mysterious masked Saiyan.

The writing and dialogue throughout the game is super corny. This is important to note as it may turn some people off, but it hits a certain nostalgic note for me, where it’s as corny as the TV series ever were. Thanks to its silly premise, it allows us to go through time with our unique character and take part in the battles we spent many years watching in the series.

Canton City is also littered with a region for each race where you get specific missions from characters belonging to that race, as well as other Dragon Ball characters scattered through the city. These characters all train you and teach you their iconic attacks, hammering home that fan service the game is dripping in.

The biggest fear I had going into the game, was the drop-in power from a PS4 to the Switch’s power. Fortunately, the gameplay is still fun and I never hit any snags. It’s still not perfect, gameplay can get repetitive, but this is less of an issue on the Switch as you can jam out in handheld mode while something else is on the TV.

The only other issue is the potential loss of graphical quality. I noticed a slight downgrade when the game was docked but a significant one in handheld mode. This is notable with the jaggies along the lines of the cell shaded character designs. Despite this, the graphical downgrade was only notable when I was looking for it and it was easy to stop noticing it as the game is still gorgeous, especially when you think about the fact that you’re playing it on a handheld.

Online works well, as it did in the original versions of the game, where you can get into fights or take on missions with others online. The lack of a native Switch voice client sucks here, but it’s still better than nothing and provides some more content if you feel the many hours weren’t enough.

There are some Switch specific features including using motion controls to steer your way around Canton City and even using the joycons to enact actions to perform attacks. This is a neat feature, and a bit of fun to pay with, but it doesn’t elevate past being a gimmick, which can be ignored if it doesn’t tickle you.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is a great addition to the Switch for anyone who hasn’t played it before, or someone who wants to play it all again on the go. For anyone happy with their first playthrough and no interest of returning then there won’t be enough here to justify the purchase.

The post Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Nintendo Switch) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

There is something to be said for a good slice of fan service.  Sometimes it is used sparingly as nods back to the originals, other times it is dripping in it to the point something feels like fanfiction.  Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 very much feels like the latter, but not in a bad way, more in a way that gives someone like me who has not been in the Dragon Ball world for a long time an experience dripping in nostalgia mixed with a fun role playing experience.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is a role playing game(RPG) where you create a character from one of five races (Namekian, Earthling, Saiyan, Frieza race and Majin) where you are tasked with helping keep the time line of the universe intact.  Starting out the game you create your character by picking a race, gender where applicable and then changing some physical characteristics.  The character creation tool is perfect, there is plenty of variety, but not to the point where you will spend hours making it just right, usually unnecessarily, which is a big win for me.  There are some minor start differences between the races, but if you are anything like me, you will just go by who looks coolest.

Your job is to help the Supreme Kai of time and others including Trunks to save the universe from influence.  This is being caused by Mira and Towa who with some help are strengthening enemies using power from the Tree of Might, giving them an advantage in the fights they lost in the past.  The main beats of the story are going to these fights and helping make sure they end the way they were supposed to, while fighting off the team belonging to Mira and Towa in the process.  I felt the story built a creative way to allow you to fight the fights, while being its own story that fits into the universe.

The writing itself is just corny enough and thoughtful enough to be from the story.  With some decent enough voice acting I certainly enjoyed the story, as its own quirky experience.  Some dialogue changes from characters depending on your race, like Saiyans commenting on you being another Saiyan, especially in early fights when they think there are only three of them and Frieza being surprised to see another Saiyan.  These little nods I noticed early and throughout the game it made the story tie in to your created character more.  Occasionally dialogue seemed to be only made for males as my female Saiyan was referred to as him a few times but I can overlook those minor missteps.

The gameplay itself is a fighting game as you would expect from Dragon Ball, but its leveling, your applying points to your attributes and the mission structure made it feel very much like a RPG.  You fly around Canton City where you can do missions, go shopping and train.  Inside Canton City are mini areas held in rifts with one for each race.  You can go to any of them to do missions, but being of that race gives you some extra bonuses.  The better of these are the Namekan ones where you need to collect Dragon Balls, while there is a fight going on, which strikes just the right balance between frustration and being just easy enough to complete.  Another side mission that stands out is delivering milk for Krillin which is a bit dumb, but it is nice to have activities that are a break from just fighting and it definitely makes the game feel more RPG like.

All over the city are characters from the series and each of these will teach you their moves.  Throughout the game, based on your level and which missions have been completed different characters become available and training by fighting them, is probably the most notable fan service.  Learning destructo disc from Krillin and death beam from Frieza were just so fun.  Learning these moves becomes more important as you can only carry four into a fight so getting more powerful ones that suit your fighting is crucial.  The fighting itself is relatively easy to pick up and run with, but it has a lot of nuances which are worth learning.  I redid a lot of the tutorial lessons for some as it is really worth sinking the time in as it makes the fights better and a lot more enjoyable if you are willing to spend that time.

Aesthetically the game is gorgeous, throughout the years the Dragon Ball games have got better and better at cell shaded three dimensional graphics and this game is no exception.  The animations to include my custom character were surprisingly good and multiple times throughout the game I took note of how it fit together so well. Unfortunately, the music is not quite so good, especially in Canton City where it has some just awful music that gets old very fast, and you will spend a lot of time there listening to it.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is not a perfect game and does not do anything overly new.  What it does provide is a fun RPG set in a universe many of us will have nostalgia there that gives a lot of fan service without feeling like pandering.  For someone who has not played the other Xenoverse game, or been in touch with Dragon Ball for a few years now I had no issues picking up the game and having a blast.