Dragon Ball Xenoverse

OK, so I definitely shouldn't have chosen a saiyan as my character.

SSJ was too enticing.

SimianWonder wrote:

I'm still undecided, especially since the Ps3/360 era DBZ games were pretty average.  SO, the real question; does this feel like it could ever be better than BT3?

I believe that it has the potential to be a damn good series if Bandai Namco decides to have Dimps build up on it and produce some sequels(and given the sales and positive reception, that may be the case). Despite the combat taking some getting used to, this release has laid the groundwork fairly well, with mostly polished and smooth gameplay mechanics. It also has a decent amount of content for a first installment done from scratch.

All in all, it's been a fairly fun game so far and much more playable than last gen's Spike titles, but I still need to see how it fairs in the long-run when the story mode is over and done with. After that, you'll just be working together with peeps online to clear up PQ missions and collecting things, which hopefully doesn't feel too grindy. Dabbling in the online matches(both solo and team-based ones) and tournaments will probably keep it from getting stale.

Kaio wrote:

(I chose melee because I forgot Sora told me to choose ki and now I'm fucked because the game is littered with mega-armored broken characters).

I don't think there's much of a problem if you're still very early in the game and you haven't poured all your points into the melee stats. I think that choice at the beginning is just to establish what moves you'll be getting at the start, but soon enough, you'll be unlocking a lot of blast moves(or you can just purchase some in the skill store when they're available) and can just customize your guy to use ki-based attacks. Just start putting all your points in the Blast stat and you'll be okay. It might be problematic if you're too far along, though.

Ah, one bit of annoyance I've found as you progress through the story are some of the battles where multiple enemies can just gang up on you and not give you space to breath. You're not actually cheated out of a match so easily, nor do you get that much damage taken from them, but it can be a little irritating when you wind up constantly having some enemy come up behind you and shoving their foot up your ass while you try to make your move.

Fortunately, only two battles focus on this very heavily. I've actually yet to tackle the second one, but hopefully it isn't as bad as the Majin Buu onslaught where I was forced to just swoosh about and keep using supers and ultimate attacks against an army of Fat Buus with super armor. :S

I had to invest in health early on because it's so shitty (a good combo from Saiyan saga enemies already significantly dents your health bar). Also I HAD to do a bit of melee leveling because otherwise I'd be entirely worthless.

I'm investing in blast supers now. I had Piccolo and Vegeta as mentors (the latter made me go two levels up after beating him lolwut) so I have two blasts now as well. Ultimate is still worthless energy blast volley though.

What's the point of investing in ki? You can already get one ful bar after doing one combo.

You can get a significant amount of ki bars if you invest a good deal in it, but it's mostly useful for ki-based and long ranged fighters that focus on blast supers a lot.

As I've finished putting 100 points into my Blast Super stat, I'm being extra crazy and using only 25 on Ki, and 75 for Stamina. Being a human, that Ki Regen they get with their race doesn't make having a good deal of bars that necessary, and more stamina means more vanishing.

Also, you needn't waste points in HP much, let the costume store aid you there. Buy a mix of clothing that can boost your HP and whatever other stat(s) you'd like.

I wish the game had a training mode. I have no idea how to do combos.

From what I've been trying out as I went through the game, after you do a full combo string that knocks back the opponent(or just add the Circle + Triangle knockback attack in the middle of your string), you must quickly press x and you'll character will dash/vanish to the opponent, and you can do another combo. There's a little bit of timing involved, as the opponent can go flying past you if start attacking too early or too late as they come right at you.

When you successfully hit 'em after the vanish, then you just keep building off of that, and mix in supers and so forth. There's more in-depth stuff like canceling involved, but I need to look into how that exactly works. Probably guarding or stepping in or something. I think the guarding one applies to those strings where your character auto-dashes to the opponent at the end of them, as if you don't guard-cancel during them, you just do a standard ping-pong combo finisher.

By the way, don't bother pressing L3 for descending, I noticed that double-pressing X changes it to going downwards too.

Edit: Yep, the guard-canceling is for when you do a ping pong at the end of certain strings. The moment you teleport after the hit, guard and pummel away.

My copy should arrive tomorrow, suffice to say first port of call will be making Simihan in the CaC. Hopefully it's more robust than Ultimate Tenkaichi's fun-but-limited attempt.

It's alright. I just wish there were more hair options. Eveeeeeeeeerybody seems to pick the Buu Saga Gohan hair style, too. Got a gajillion of them running around.

How do I vanish to avoid beam supers?

SOK wrote:

It's alright. I just wish there were more hair options. Eveeeeeeeeerybody seems to pick the Buu Saga Gohan hair style, too. Got a gajillion of them running around.

Yeeeeeeeah.

Simian always has that hairstyle too.

SimianWonder wrote:

A little self indulgent perhaps, but some more DBD images, courtesy of the much maligned DBZ Ultimate Tenkaichi...

Simihan talking down to someone...

Spoiler:

A light conversation a few moments before caving someone's skull in...

Spoiler:

Short tempered as ever...

Spoiler:

Something we won't see for a long, long time...

Spoiler:

Asking someone politely for their two balls... innuendo, anyone?

Spoiler:

Simihan vs Kaiolino!

Spoiler:

I was going to try and use some UT footage for helping describe some of DBDs fights; obviously I wouldn't post images in the text, that'd be far too intrusive, but perhaps have an image or short video here to illustrate a scene or two.  Any ideas?  Anyone in favour, or opposed to the idea?

Golden Boy wrote:

How do I vanish to avoid beam supers?

I'm not sure you can do the normal X button vanish once they actually touch and you get hurt by one of the first hits of the beam, but can try to quickly step(tap L2 + a direction) to the side and stuff to avoid 'em as they come towards you. There's also a special Step Vanish where, after tapping the step button, you press X quickly during the animation to vanish over a good distance to wherever direction you were point. If you have three bars of stamina, you could also just use the L2+R2+X escape move, which I think can help avoid/block them(at least ones where your character does a super explosive wave-type thingy like a bunch of AI enemies do all the dang time).

SimianWonder wrote:

Yeeeeeeeah.

Simian always has that hairstyle too.

BwahahahahahahahahhahaIknow.

I used the Yamcha style. No one has glorious flowing hair like the Yam.

I've only been playing for an hour or so, but I've got to say I'm really pleasantly surprised by how good this is. It's a genuinely good DBZ game, and I haven't said that since BT3.

Dimps also already has the decency to patch whatever minor screw ups and balance issues they can find.

One thing I hope they patch soon is the whole RNG shtick for certain Ultimate Finishes in parallel quests. A lot of these quests have special drops given to you after you fulfill special conditions and fight additional opponents at the end of them, however both the drops AND said additional opponents have a good chance to not appear even when you have fulfilled said conditions. While I don't expect them to give these rewards a higher drop rate, I would at least appreciate them making it so those extra opponents would most definitely appear at the end of the mission if you did all the hidden conditions that are supposed to summon them. Relying on luck for TWO things is a bit much and you can spend aaaages on one mission trying to get one thing.

I'm glad luck has been on my side for a few things, though. In just one attempt at farming it, I successfully got this borderline broken Z-Soul where, if you allow yourself to get knocked out, your character will revive with a little health and have infinite Ki. I can't wait till they inevitably nerf it.

One other thing I'd like them to add in an update is the option to invite friends into the multi-lobby you're in. For some dopey reason that isn't available.

Oh yeah, screw the RNG, it totally pisses me off. I really like the game so far, but I think Battle of Z's combat system were better.

I'd place XV's combat as a whole above BoZ's, but BoZ handled crowd control a little better.

Is the RNG here as bad as Destiny's?

Anyway, having got Simihan up and running, it's been a mixed bag. There seems to be a reasonable amount of depth to the combo system; I've no idea how, but I managed to chain a light string with a special move, into a heavy string with a Super finish. I tried to replicate it, but couldn't.

I do have a couple of gripes though; obviously, like 90% of those playing I'd wager, Simihan is a saiyan. During a couple of the parallel quests things were fine, but I took a mission from Raditz in Tokitoki itself where you help him fight Goku and Piccolo, and I got wrecked. One special move took half my health, whilst my attacks barely made a dent. it was only a one-star difficulty as well. Weird.
Also, as I specced into ki blast style my melee attacks are pitifully weak. Some of the longer fights have degraded into nothing but ki-spamming, which is a more than a little dull. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to getting stuck into the mechanics a little more. Once I know what I'm doing, I'll doubtless enjoy it even more.

EDIT: Quick question; is it possible to rent other people's CaC characters? Could I, for instance, hire Sora or Chou's CaCs to help me out? That would be freaking sweet.

Is it even possible to win the 4-star missions with CPU partners?

Goddammit, not content with having similar issues with Destiny, apparently if the game struggles with connecting to the XV servers, you simply can't play the game.

Go online after you start the game.

When there are server issues, stay disconnected from PSN, start the game, then sign on again. You'll be able to play in the solo lobby and continue story mode and such, and will also be able to do online battles and parallel quests and so forth.

Golden Boy wrote:

Is it even possible to win the 4-star missions with CPU partners?

Yeah, those early ones aren't too problematic, but there are some late parallel quests where those automatic CPU partners you have to babysit can get screwed easily. I've been fortunate that they haven't gotten themselves killed just yet, but during the Ultimate Finish segment where I can try and beat the final opponent, they do get offed pretty quickly and I don't get the extra prize. >: S BoZ's nightmare partners resurfaces.

Quote :

Quick question; is it possible to rent other people's CaC characters? Could I, for instance, hire Sora or Chou's CaCs to help me out? That would be freaking sweet.

I'm not entirely sure. but apparently there's a chance that people's CACs can be hired in the offline team registration after you have connected with online lobbies and such beforehand. I do know that those Time Patrollers you can sometimes face in PQs for a possible Dragon Ball drop are actually other people's CaCs. I do not believed these hired characters can assist you in story mode, though. The story's an entirely solo effort, so the pizazz of using our guys to assist you in PQs isn't all that when you could just have our actual lovely selves to accompany you anyway(and fortunately, you can invite friends into PQs easily).

I think my guy may have actually been hired or fought with while I was offline once, as today I got an "Auto-Patrol" message when I entered a lobby, showing score results or somethin'.

I already feel like I'm screwed because I put a lot of points in health and melee. I'm only lvl 11 so hopefully I can right my wrongs. >_>

I think you can manage. You'll be around level 40 at end game, so you can still shift into a ki-based style. For now, just do a lot of clothing management and equip pieces whatever pieces you've earned or can buy that boost ki blast supers.

Alright. I do have a lot of money right now. There's not much armor to buy now though. Should I hold out for better, more expensive armor for now?

Also, do your attacks get stronger the longer you train under someone? Like, I'm training under Vegeta now, so does the Galick Gun get more powerful the more missions I do?

I'm at the Buu saga with my melee-based character and I'd no trouble so far. However, PQs seem impossible. I actually just spent 50k zeni buying health items.
Also, fuck Hercule's PQ. I've done it over 10 times and the extra boss won't appear.

I think the mentors give you their Z-souls which buff their special attacks once you complete the training.