Does Dragon Ball really NEED a Xenoverse 2?

By RAWKHAWK2010 - (laughs)

Two Februaries ago I told KoopaTV's readers to expect an article on Dragon Ball Xenoverse. Well, that never happened. Not due to me getting lost on the Road of Life later that year, but instead mostly due to Dragon Ball Xenoverse just not really being all that great.

And it wasn't all that terrible either, which meant it wasn't good enough to praise or bad enough to decry.

It wasn't...Perfect.

Xenoverse was an enjoyable enough experience. I dressed my dude up, taught him new moves, had awkward conversations with character models who looked like they had been dipped in lighter fluid, and kept Demon God Demigra from rewriting the history of Dragon Ball. After a half-decade streak of Dragon Ball games that no one played or liked, Xenoverse appeared to lay some impressive groundwork for what would undeniably be the most important few years for Dragon Ball since the few years a few years ago.

...Then Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. and DIMPS release a trailer for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and “our mission” is to save the exact same history we just saved!

Granted, we don't know everything yet. And granted, it looks like an added hook is that we'll also be visiting the future. ...Except, one problem, the future depicted is the same future we saw explored 25 years ago in Trunks’ alternate timeline, which means it's as much the future as Raditz getting Special Beam Cannon'd for the 50th time. Xenoverse 2's alternate-history scenarios will no doubt be amusing, but said alterations have to literally be without consequence so that the history police can show up and easily revert everything.

Meanwhile, the real future is currently being explored in Dragon Ball Super. Super didn't start out too hot either (literally a retelling of Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F' with changes here and there), but the series is now doing wholly original stuff -- original stuff that breathes a breath of fresh air into all areas of Dragon Ball and not just its decades-old battles. Original stuff like Goku coming down with “Delayed Onset Ki Disorder” and accidentally Instant Transmissioning into Bulma's bedroom!

#NotAllSaiyans

Battles might be the most important aspect of Dragon Ball in the eyes of its fans, but that doesn't mean that that's what it should be all about. Policy is the most important aspect of politics in the eyes of many politicals, but a big reason for the Trump Phenomenon is that The Donald's value goes way beyond just that. My main requirement for a Dragon Ball game/president isn't for them to check all the boxes of my pre-decided bingo board, it's for them to go the way of the Sakurai Checklist™ and check boxes I didn't know even existed.

Whether it requires vehicles or solitaire or any other number of avant-garde stylings, I frankly just want to be surprised -- and in more than just one area. So do your part and Make Games Surprising Again, 'k DIMPS?


What do you want out of a modern-day Dragon Ball game? More Dragons? More Balls? Sound off in the comments beneath!


It turns out that Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 was preventing an even better Dragon Ball from coming out...