Dragon Ball: Xenoverse arrived in February 2015 as the first entry in its own series and the first Dragon Ball fighting game built around full 3D battles in the style of the Budokai Tenkaichi line. Dimps developed it; Bandai Namco Games published it. It shipped on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC. It is a spin-off of the Dragon Ball franchise.
Toki-Toki City and the Third Character Creator
Xenoverse is set almost entirely inside 3D areas modeled after notable locations in the Dragon Ball universe. Players reach them from a hub called Toki-Toki City. Fighters move free-roaming through large spaces and can fight on the ground, in the air and underwater.
The game is the third Dragon Ball title to offer character creation. The first was Dragon Ball Online, the second Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi. Customization covers race, gender, facial hair, body features, clothing and voice effects.
There are five playable races: Saiyans, Namekians, Earthlings, Majins and Frieza’s race. Each carries its own advantages, bonuses and shortcomings. A created character can become an apprentice of the original Dragon Ball characters to learn their special moves and access specific costume items.
An Original Story, Borrowed Bones
The plot is entirely original and stars the player’s custom fighter. It borrows elements from the Dragon Ball Online MMO. Returning villains Towa and Mira manipulate the history of the Dragon Ball universe. Time Patrol Trunks asks Shenron to send him a hero who will help restore the timeline.
After history shifts during the Saiyan Saga, the Future Warrior meets the leader of the Time Patrol, the Supreme Kai of Time, and her bird, Tokitoki. More changes follow in the Frieza Saga, where the Warrior meets Towa and Mira and barely beats Mira.
Back at the Time Nest, the Supreme Kai of Time explains that Towa is stealing energy to break the seal on the Demon Realm by manipulating history. She notes a previous attempt to invade the Time Nest failed. The Warrior is sent back to the Frieza battle and eventually to the Cell Games, ending in another fight with Towa and Mira.
After that defeat, the pair flee to Trunks’ original timeline and manipulate time until Trunks is nearly erased from existence. The Warrior is sent to rescue him from Androids 17 and 18. As she escapes, Towa reveals she made two changes to the timeline that put Trunks in danger. With no clue when the second change happened, a mysterious individual offers to take the Warrior there, and the player accepts. The Warrior then rescues Trunks from Cell, who had absorbed Trunks’ original 17 and 18. Trunks and the player beat Cell, and the Warrior returns to the Time Nest. A change in the Buu Saga follows.
Shenron and the Hero Who Restores the Timeline
The premise is the reason this game exists. A custom fighter dropped into canonical history is the only idea that justifies a character creator in this franchise. Ultimate Tenkaichi had the creator; Xenoverse has the reason.
Time Patrol Trunks asks Shenron to send him a hero who would help him restore the timeline.
That is the whole pitch, and it is a good one. The story is not interested in retelling Dragon Ball. It is interested in letting you stand inside the moments you already know and watch them go wrong.
The Hub That Holds It Together
Online multiplayer runs through Toki-Toki City. It is a hub where players form groups and take on cooperative, time-traveling missions. Single player, multiplayer and co-operative modes are all on the box.
The city is the game’s best structural idea and its biggest bottleneck. It gives the time-travel premise a physical address, then makes you walk it.
Ground, Air and Underwater
Combat carries the load instead. Battles run in three dimensions, with the camera sitting side-on. Characters speak during fights, and they show facial expressions when they land a strike or take damage. That last detail does more work than it sounds like it should. A licensed fighter lives or dies on whether a punch reads as a punch, and Xenoverse sells the hit.
Free-roaming has limits. Players get some freedom to explore the planet Earth as it exists in the Dragon Ball universe, plus a handful of other locations. It is not an open world and does not pretend to be one.
The Timeline, and What It Costs
Here is the schedule the story follows, in the order the Warrior lives it.
| Stop | Era | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saiyan Saga | History altered; Warrior joins the Time Patrol |
| 2 | Frieza Saga | Towa and Mira appear; Mira barely defeated |
| 3 | Frieza battle, revisited | Energy theft tied to the Demon Realm seal |
| 4 | Cell Games | Towa and Mira defeated |
| 5 | Trunks’ timeline | Trunks nearly erased; rescue from Androids 17 and 18 |
| 6 | Trunks’ timeline | Second change; rescue from Cell |
| 7 | Buu Saga | Further change in history |
The structure is a tour, and it knows it. Seven stops, each one a familiar fight with a wrong outcome. That is a cleaner organizing principle than most licensed games manage.
Where the Ambition Outruns the Game
The seams show. Five races with distinct bonuses sounds generous until you notice how much of it stays on paper.
The Buu Saga change that closes things out is setup, not payoff. Xenoverse 2 arrived in 2016.
Eleven years on, the first game reads as a premise that outran its own machinery. The story is the part that holds. A custom fighter dropped into canonical history is still the best argument anyone has made for a character creator in this franchise, and the seven-stop tour through broken timelines gives the campaign a shape most licensed fighters never find.
The hub is the weak joint. Toki-Toki City gives the time-travel premise a physical address, and that is all the source claims for it. The rest of the game’s problems are quieter: five races whose differences are stated rather than felt, arenas that exist to be crossed.
What matters is the premise. It is the one idea here that a sequel could build on, and the 2016 follow-up is the proof that someone thought so. The critic aggregate sits at 7.3 of 10 across 22 outlets — a score that says competent, not essential. That reads right. Xenoverse is a foundation, and it is honest about being one.
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