New Dragon Ball Xenoverse Steam DLC 2 Patch Introduces Minor Graphics Bug

The second DLC pack for Dragon Ball Xenoverse has recently dropped, and with it comes

• a level cap increase: from 80 to 85, 
• a new Master: Pan, 
• several new PQs and Timequests: I didn't count how many, you'll beat it in less than 15 mins anyway, 
• new playable characters: Eis Shenron, Nuova Shenron, Mira, Towa, 
• New Z Souls, 
• Random Bug Fixes: no more milky way cheesing
• a Rudimentary anti-cheat measure that prevents you from logging in if you hacked your savefiles: it reportedly checks the amount of stat points you have vs. your level, and if it exceeds the normal amount it blocks you from logging in. So no more hackers with 100 points in all stats. They have to delete those characters to get in.

However, the patch is not without its hitches. One change seems to have introduced a minor but very noticeable graphics bug during the select screen: the overlay effect that was supposed to be a blurring is now black.

According to a discussion over at the Steam forums of Xenoverse, the game now uses DX functions that are not supported by DX10.1 and older. This means players using cards older than the GT 400 series are affected, which is a shame because there are a a lot of video cards from the 200 series that are still capable of running modern games (basically the gDDR5 version of GT 240 and the higher models. The GT 260 and its bigger brothers, in particular, can still hang with current cards as long sa you turn off a few stuff and avoid 4K.)

No complaints from the AMD camp, but that's probably because the oldest AMD cards that are fully DX11 compliant are the 5000 series (the same gen as nVidia's 200 series.) There's probably nobody using a card from a previous generation while still expecting a 2015 game to run glitch-free, or at all.

One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 and Saint Seiya Soldiers' Soul Coming to PC

So, it seems like Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst, as buggy and unoptimized as it is, actually did a lot of good as it finally convinced Japanese devs that there's a lot of money to be made on the PC platform regardless of the piracy problem.

And it's not no-name devs that produce non-licensed games either. We're talking big names here. Bandai Namco has been releasing games for the PC platform since ever, but they're now releasing anime and manga-based games that in the old days would have been exclusive to consoles. OTOH, One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 has been confirmed to be coming out on PC a few months ago, but it's exciting to know that the Steam store page is already live.

We also have the less popular in the West, but generally more popular and iconic Saint Seiya coming via Saint Seiya Soldier's Soul:

So right now we have Dragonball Xenoverse, two Naruto Games, a Saint Seiya, and a One Piece game coming up? It seems like the next couple of years is a good time to be a PC gamer and a manga/anime fan at the same time. That's just the confirmed games, though. Rise of Incarnates, if it's successful, may finally convince BAMCO to bring the Gundam VS games to the PC. And what about Bleach? Surely whoever is the license holder right now will see how successful Xenoverse and the Storm series is even if they're buggy messes? Come on, devs. Our wallets are ready. Get to porting.

Problems with Dragonball Xenoverse (Steam)

Okay, after several more days of playing with the Steam version of Dragonball Xenoverse, the main problems have become apparent. Don't get me wrong, it's still worth the full price - but you may want to lower expectations if you're looking for a competition-friendly, and technically sound multiplayer gaming experience. Off the top of my head, Xenoverse has the following problems:

Balance

Right now, balance is completely borked. Players have learned how to abuse certain races' special abilities to stack the odds in their favor when it comes to PVP (e.g. Saiyans going SSJ and spamming ultimates.) It doesn't make it impossible to beat them using the other races, but it will require more strategy and definitely gives one class a big advantage. Single player is also affected in this case because the CPU opponents that are in SSJ form will not revert to their base form, so they always have infinite ki and are able to spam ultimate attacks. Some parallel quests are almost impossible to beat because you'll be juggled by three SSJs. You can beat them by being really good or by using one of the OP Z-souls, which brings us to another borked aspect of the game...

...some Z-souls are so overpowered that they make the rest useless and turn PVP into a mess. It used to be that the neither kami nor piccolo Z-soul allowed players to be immortal due to the massive HP regen when ki is full - DIMPs at least fixed it. Now the new broken Z-soul is the Bwa ha ha thanks for the energy one, which heals a player back to full every 2nd or 3rd hit.

Technical 

On the technical side, the biggest problem is server availability. You'd have to chalk this one up to the popularity of the franchise, but it's made worse by the fact that even the Single Player mode of the game tries to connect to the servers. IMO, they'd lessen the stress on their servers A LOT if they changed the game so that single player is completely offline, and that the character data is only updated/saved to the servers when people enter the multiplayer. You could understand the online only approach if it's being used as an anti-piracy measure, but I don't think pirates are deterred. In fact, I think people playing the pirated copy of the game are in a better place since they don't need to connect to the servers and will have a much easier way of playing the game.

There's also a minor problem with the fact that the game relies on FPS for timing. The broken Z-souls is one of the side effects, as the ticks in regen/healing seem to be tied to FPS so people playing in 60 fps or more will have ridiculously high HP regen ticks. Some effects also get borked if you're not locked in 30fps - such as the vanishing move or some ki blasts (the former makes you reappear in the same place, while the latter disappears.) Locking the FPS to 30 fixes these problems.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse (PC)

It’s a bit difficult to pigeonhole Dragon Ball Xenoverse into a specific genre. It’s essentially a 3rd person fighting game with MMORPG trappings. If you’re one of the lucky few who managed to experience the short-lived Dragonball Online MMO, Xenoverse is basically that game wrapped around an updated iteration of the Budokai Tenkaichi series.

Gameplay

The game starts by dropping you in the middle of various fights between Goku and the franchise’s main villains – from Freiza to Cell, to Buu – but these are not full fights but a mere sampling of the gameplay you can expect when you get to the meat and bones of the game. It’s a trick that RPGs use regularly (re: start you off with a high leveled, fully-geared character and a strong boss monster before taking everything away and forcing you to fight rats.)

There’s no tutorial yet in this intro, but it’s easy to get a basic idea of the controls since there’s prompts appearing when you push buttons. Long time players of the Budokai Tenkaichi series might be familiar with the control schemes: you have two buttons for attacks, one for ki blast, and another for mobility. Then you have a key for lock-on, one for blocking, and trigger combinations that give you access to special and ultimate attacks.

Dragonball Z Supersonic Warriors

Dragonball Z: Supersonic Warriors gives you control of one of the many Z warriors or the series’ villains (from Vegeta to Buu) and lets you duke it out with another fighter on a wide open area. Unlike traditional fighting games where you can walk, dash, and jump, this game lets you float and dash in any direction. Mobility may be limited at first due to the floatyness of the controls, but you’ll be able to fight much better once you learn how to use the ki dash in order to speed up your moves.

When it comes to fighting, you have a light and heavy attack. The R button charges your ki, and pressing any of the attack buttons while charging will let you do either a heavy or light ki blast, depending on which attack button you pressed. Pressing both attack buttons while holding the R button will let you do a super, the type and direction of which will depend on where you are relative to the opponent.

Dragon Ball Z: Legacy of Goku 2 (Gameboy Advance)

Back in 2002, Webfoot Technologies released Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku on the Gameboy Advance. It was an attempt to marry the Dragon Ball Z license with the action RPG genre. Unfortunately, the dialogue was awkward and the combat was clunky and unsatisfying. The game ended up being a disappointment for fans of the Dragon Ball franchise and fans of the action RPG genre.

Rather than give up, Webfoot technologies tried again after a year by releasing a sequel, Dragon Ball Z: Legacy of Goku 2 , and it’s a good thing they did because not only is it a significant improvement over Legacy of Goku, it also stands as one of the better examples of the action RPG genre on the Gameboy Advance.

Dragon Ball Z: Legacy of Goku 2’s story picks up where the first one left off: at the start of the Cell Saga, putting you in control of a pre-teen Mirai Trunks as he watches his timeline’s Gohan die at the hands of the Androids. Then you gain control of young Gohan in the present timeline for the obligatory tutorial. Thankfully, the tutorial is short and you soon find yourself thrust into the story proper – with Cyborg Frieza and King Cold’s arrival and their defeat at the hands of a now adult Mirai Trunks. From thereon, you play through the game while being given control of various characters, all the way to the Cell Games story arc.

Dragon Ball Origins (Nintendo DS)

Dragon Ball Origins is a third person action adventure game in the same vein as Legend of Zelda, based on Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga and anime franchise. Note the absence of the “Z” prefix – this game is based on the early parts of the series, with a young Goku who exhibits powers and abilities above those of normal men, but not at the point where he shoots lasers that can level planets and move faster than the speed of light.

In a way, this is a good thing because this allows the game to focus more on exploration and challenging combat, because Goku doesn’t have the option to just Kamehame Wave every problem until it gets solved. As mentioned above – it’s a Zelda-like game so you’ll be fighting various cannon fodders, the occasional end level boss, and will be faced with various puzzles. There are a couple of frustrating parts in the game, as some levels that require backtracking, but the puzzles themselves aren’t too difficult and can be solved without the need for a FAQ.

Dragonball Z: Shin Budokai 2 (PSP)

Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball Z franchise no longer require an introduction, so we’ll go straight to the introduction of Dragonball Z: Shin Budokai 2 (Dragonball Z: Shin Budokai Another Road in some regions) for the Playstation Portable.

As the title implies, Shin Budokai 2 is actually the second in a series of “Budokai”-style DBZ games on the PSP, but there’s no sense in reviewing the first one, because there’s nothing in it that isn’t included in Shin Budokai 2, which also included a ton of new content and several minor tweaks to the gameplay.

If you’ve played the Budokai games on the PS2, you’ll find Shin Budokai to be familiar ground. It’s basically a more streamlined version – combat is faster and controls are simpler. It’s easy to describe Shin Budokai as “Budokai-lite,” but it would be an unfair description because the PSP fighters brought a number of improvements to the table.

Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout (Playstation)

Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout is not the first Dragon Ball fighting game on Sony’s Playstation console, nor is it the first Dragon Ball game to appear on a 32-bit console. However, it is the first Dragon Ball game to make use of a fully 3D engine, making it a landmark of sorts.

Normally, I would start the review proper by outlining all the positive things about a game, but unfortunately I can’t think of one good thing about Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout. The intro FMV, perhaps. Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout had a really kick ass FMV intro, which you can watch below:

Dragonball Z Budokai 3 vs. Infinite World: Which One Should You Choose?

Dragonball Z Budokai 3 and Dragonball Z Infinite World may look like the same game if you’re just looking at screenshots and videos, but the truth is that there are major differences between the two and you may end up enjoying one over the other, depending on your priorities and preferences. The question is: what exactly are the differences?

First things first: one thing that both Budokai 3 (whether plain or collectors/greatest hits edition) and Infinite World have in common is that they make Budokai and Budokai 2 unnecessary – they vastly improved the gameplay, added more content, and even polished the visuals (especially when you compare both against Budokai’s crude graphics.) They’re also both exclusive to the PS2, barring the HD re-release on the PS3. Budokai 1 and 2, on the other hand, were also released for the Gamecube.

Now, let’s get back to the differences:

Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu (Super Famicom)

Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu (Legend of the Super Saiyan) is an RPG/Card Battling Game Hybrid that was originally released in 1992 for the Super Famicom. It is the first ever Dragon Ball game for the console, but is actually just a remake that combines two older Famicom games. Namely Dragon Ball Z: Kyoshu Saiyan and Dragon Ball Z II: Gekishin Freeza.

Besides the obvious visual and audio improvements that came from the move from 8-bit to 16-bit, Super Saiya Densetsu also added some characters from the movie and the anime fillers, making for a game that is better than the sum of its parts.

Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu tackles the story starting from Raditz’ arrival on Earth, all the way to Goku – as Super Saiyan – defeating Freeza during the twilight of Planet Namek.

The player will be taking control of various characters in the series, such as Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin, Yamcha, Tienshinhan, Chiaotzu, Dende, Vegeta, Nail, and some minor characters (two Namek warriors and Captain Ginyu). The player will have a little bit of freedom when it comes to choosing which characters to bring along, but the game will force the use of characters that are required for the story. For instance, you can’t use Goku to fight Dabura, because the former is currently traveling by the time Vegeta faced the latter. The game will take that character out of your options by default if needed. There are also times when you can’t allow specific characters to die, in order to be faithful to the source material.

Dragonball Z Tenkaichi Tag Team (PSP)

Dragonball Z Tenkaichi Tag Team is basically Budokai Tenkaichi 3 in portable form, with one major change: as the title implies, it now features true tag team action wherein 4 players can fight in the arena at the same time. BT3 only has 1 vs. 1, with the ability to switch to different characters.

Graphics-wise, they chose to forego cel-shading and just went with the traditional textured polygons, which sadly made the game look rough and less anime-like, especially when compared to the other series of Dragonball games on the PSP, the Shin Budokai series. It still looks good so it’s not a dealbreaker. It just feels like a step down visually.

Gameplay remains largely the same. You fly around a large stage and have the option to use ki blasts, gigantic beams, or melee the heck out of your opponents. All of the combat features that you would expect from a Dragonball game are there – in-game transformations, beam struggles, teleports, meteo attacks, etc. You won’t miss anything if you’re approaching this game straight from Budokai Tenkaichi 3. However, there’s one minor change that kind of breaks combat a bit: your opponent can now move while you’re in the middle of launching a super attack.

Bleach: Versus Crusade (Wii)

Bleach: Versus Crusade is a 3D fighting game based on Tite Kubo’s long-running and extremely popular shonen franchise. It features 25 playable characters taken straight out of the Bleach manga and the anime as well as several of their alternate forms/transformations.

The game primarily uses the Wiimote and nunchuk for its controls, with the nunchuk’s joystick controlling the movement while the shoulder buttons and the wii mote buttons control the jumps, teleports (sonido and flash steps, actually), and special attacks. Normal sword attacks are handled by the wiimote’s motion controls, with the direction of the attacks corresponding with the direction of your wiimote slash.

The controls in Bleach: Versus Crusade is a significant step up from Bleach: Shattered Blade, as matches will no longer devolve into wagfests, mainly because the game now rewards strategic use of the attacks instead of being dependent on how fast you can shake the wiimote. However, being a fighting game, it’s still not as intuitive when compared to a gamepad setup, which is why it’s a good thing that the developers included support for the gamecube and the classic controller. I don’t use numbers to rate games but if I did, that move alone should be worth a point or two.

Visually, Versus Crusade had the right idea when it went with cel-shading – not just because it provided anime-like visuals, but also because it meant that the visuals aren’t hindered by the Wii’s hardware limitations. Versus Crusade looks as good as you would expect a Bleach game to look on a seventh generation console.

Super Dragonball Z (PS2)

Super Dragonball Z is a fighting game on the PS2 that was developed by people who were part of the original team responsible for Capcom’s Street Fighter II, which explains why the game does not feel like a Dragon Ball game, but more of a 3D fighter that uses Dragon Ball skins. Don’t take that to mean that this is a bad game, though – it’s perfectly playable and enjoyable enough. It’s a very good fighting game, it’s just not a good Dragon Ball game. There is a difference.

Graphics-wise, Super Dragonball Z is a treat. Using the manga as inspiration instead of the anime, the visuals are crisp, bright, and do a good job of bringing the Dragon Ball manga to life. The beam attacks are a disappointment though, as they look like crude mode 7 effects from the SNES era, which is inexcusable considering that the PS2 is perfectly capable of producing decent looking beams using the framebuffer, as proven by other Dragon Ball games like the Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi series.

Dragon Ball Kai Ultimate Butouden (Nintendo DS)

When the Nintendo DS got Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2, gamers were willing to cut it some slack even though the overall quality of the game was way below the PSP’s Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai, citing the Nintendo DS’ underpowered hardware as the reason why a decent Dragon Ball fighting game wasn’t possible.

And then came Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butouden, which proved that it had nothing to do with the hardware - the Nintendo DS was perfectly capable of carrying a bonafide 3D fighting game that can at least come close to the PSP’s admittedly superior offerings.

Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butouden is the spiritual successor to the Super Butouden series on the Super Famicom back in the 90s. While not made by the same developers, majority of the gameplay mechanics from the original Butouden series found their way to the DS, with some minor tweaks and polish, of course.

New J-Stars Victory VS. Video Features Fist of the North Star’s Kenshiro

Namco Bandai has just posted a new promotional video for their upcoming 3D brawler, J-Stars Victory Vs. This time around, it focuses on a bunch of its playable characters facing off against their respective adversaries. One of the more interesting parts here is the sequence featuring the characters Kenshiro and Raoh, the protagonist and main antagonist from Fist of the North Star.

You can check out the video below:

Dragon Ball Z Taiketsu (Gameboy Advance)

I’m going to break form a little bit in here. I’m not going to waste any more words building things up only to tell you this one simple truth: Dragonball Z Taiketsu for the Gameboy Advance is a really crappy game with no redeeming value whatsoever. Even if you’re a very big fan of the franchise and only have a Gameboy Advance to your name, there are better Dragon Ball games for your device and your money is much better spent buying those.

Dragonball Advanced Adventure (GBA)

Dragonball Advanced Adventure is a 2D side-scrolling action game for the Gameboy Advance that is based on the exploits of the series’ protagonist, Son Goku, when he was still a young boy. It follows the events since the start of the anime all the way to Goku’s first defeat of King Piccolo – along the way he’ll meet Bulma, Krillin, Oolong, Yamcha, Tienshinhan, Puar, Hermit Turtle – and fight against the Red Ribbon Army, Pilaf, and the aforementioned Piccolo.

Advanced Adventure is easily one of the best games you’ll find on the Gameboy Advance (it’s probably right up there with Astro Boy: Omega Factor) even if you don’t like anime games. Both presentation and execution are top notch, and it’s got extra game content up the wazoo.

Visually, Dragonball Advanced Adventure takes its cue from the anime, and does a good job with it, at least as far as the Gameboy Hardware can offer. The colors are bright and crisp, and the sprites are well-detailed. The sounds are well-done, with the intro theme perfectly mimic-ing the show’s intro, while the voices are spot-on for the characters.

Gameplay, as mentioned above, is 2D sidescrolling action. Goku can walk, run, block, jump, and punch, but also has access to a variety of special attacks such as his trademark Kame Hame Wave and his power pole, which has the power to extend all the way to the moon if the user wills it, but only manages to reach across the screen for this game. Advanced Adventure also has shades of MetroidVania, as paths can branch and some destinations can be reached through different paths. However, the player is not required to stick to one path and those who have no patience for exploration can take the shortest path – the game knows that it’s a beat ‘em up and doesn’t try to force you into playing a different game, except for those stages where you have to play a SHMUP.

The enemies in the game are varied, but not varied enough to not require palette swaps. Thankfully, the pace moves fast enough and you are not forced to kill enemies except in some cases, so if you find yourself getting bored hitting the same dog-guy over and over, you can choose to jump over his head and skip the fight. Or heck, you can bust out one of the two screen-filling supermoves to clear everything.

Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo (Wii)

Let’s get this out of the way first. Unless you’re a REALLY, REALLY big fan of the Dragon Ball series – the one with Goku as a young boy with exceptional martial arts abilities, not the one where he’s a blonde man who can punch cities into dust – you’d best stay away from this title. That’s not to say that Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo doesn’t have any redeeming value. It’s a actually a decent game, Dragon Ball fan or not, and has extra content that would put other games to shame. It’s just that even with all the polish, graphical and content-wise, it still only comes off as a mediocre game.

Adding insult to injury, the Gameboy Advance’s Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure manages to do everything that Revenge of King Piccolo aspired to do and more, for a fraction of the hardware power. Which means Revenge of King Piccolo is further demoted from being a mediocre game to being an unnecessary one.

Battle Stadium D.O.N. (PS2)

Battle Stadium D.O.N. is basically Super Smash Bros. with anime characters. What makes it special is the franchises that were included in this crossover fighting game – D.O.N. stands for Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto.

Don’t expect accurate representations of power levels, as the game is balanced so that no single character will be overwhelmingly stronger than the rest (which is what would happen if they stayed true to the power levels in their respective franchises – characters from Dragon Ball will destroy everyone else). But the visuals do look like they came out of the series (though they are modeled more after the manga than the anime), as the characters use their trademark screen-filling attacks and all have transformations. The stages may be constrained but they do capture the look and feel of their respective franchises.