I vividly remember where I was when I read the news that Akira Toriyama died. I’ve written about it before, and it’s why Dragon Ball Sparking Zero felt like a celebration of his life’s work. Now, Xenoverse returns after 10 years with Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, and in doing so shifts gears for the video games that Toriyama both worked on and inspired.
But this isn’t because Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 is turning away from everything that the Xenoverse franchise and Dragon Ball have done so far. It’s because Xenoverse 3 is a passing of the torch, and during our Summer Game Fest Play Days hands-off demo, we got to see exactly how the team at Bandai is going to tackle this gargantuan undertaking.
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
Turning the next chapter for Dragon Ball video games is starting at a time we’ve never seen before, with characters we’ve never seen before. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 takes place in Age 1000’s West City and features brand-new characters like Brett (yes, his name is Brett), with the base models for player avatars John 1000 and Jane 1000 illustrated by Toriyama himself. With new characters and old, players will rise in the ranks of the Great Saiyan Squad, fighting alongside allies as events there begin to take shape and distill a new story for the franchise.
Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 is a new story in a new age, but it’s still holding onto the past, even if lightly.
To start, players can customize their characters and race, choosing between Earthling and Saiyan, as shown in our hands-off demo. Additionally, your home base will be entirely customizable to your own liking. A messy room to start, you’ll be able to organize it and decorate it how you want as you progress through Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3.
Throughout Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, you’ll work with new and old characetrs to complete missions in a squad of four—featuring you and three other Dragon Ball characters. The battles themselves work as expected for the Xenoverse franchise, with full movement and combat. Saiyan characters are able to go Super Saiyan, and other characters on the roster perform some of their iconic moves.
Getting to know characters through battles and relationships with new established characters in the Dragon Ball universe is really the game’s appeal as of now. Despite being set in a time period far removed from the events of the previous game and one the franchise has never seen before, the developers aren’t trying to say goodbye to franchise foundational characters just yet.
During our Play Days preview, we got the chance to meet and see Gamma 1, Future Trunks, Bulma, Vegeta, and even Broly. While the developers said their place in the story would be explained, I couldn’t help but see the inclusion as a way of holding Toriyama close. Sure, there is a lore exploration as to why that version of Trunks and his family have made it to Age 1000, but that lore element feels like a convenient explanation, not the meaning behind the choice.
As a bridge game, Bandai has its hands full striking a new original story on its own without the creator’s involvement, and by including the franchise’s icons, it’s difficult to understand whether this will work as intended. Holding onto the past also means standing in its shadow, and it can come off as not wanting to be parted from it.
That said, this game feels like it’s aiming to pick up the torch from the franchise’s creator. While we didn’t get all the information on the game’s original narrative beyond the mission and combat structure for rising through the ranks of the Great Saiyan Squad, the game’s story is where its success will lie.
The use of 2D traditional Dragon Ball animation to open the reveal trailer, rather than the game’s 3D anime style, also does a lot of the work to link the game to the franchise’s past while establishing something new with characters we’ve never seen before, and even offering a glimpse of one we have (hi, Piccolo), even if it’s just fan assumptions based on costume and the back of a head at this point.
Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 isn’t trying to be a bold new world, but one still connected to its past.
Throughout the Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 presentation, the representatives made it clear that the story is a transitional title for the franchise. As they described the game and the developers’ intent, it was clear that a world without the characters that raised us in the room and them wasn’t something they were ready to do. And in a way, I admire that.
The passing of the torch to a new time period and an original story hasn’t always gone well in Dragon Ball history. As the hands-off demo continued, it was easy to sense both reverence for what came before and a tinge of holding back. It is important to note that the demo appointment lasted only about 30 minutes, so saying we saw the very tip of the iceberg is true.
Still, there was something somber about how the game was presented, in the language used to describe it, and in the assurance to the audience that Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 would feature a character Toriyama designed that we had not yet seen. The big question that Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 will have to answer is whether that reverence holds the game back or allows the developers to meet the fans where they are.
At its core, though, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 is still about the combat, and what we saw of that was exciting. Whether it was the character swapping format that allowed for exciting combos, or the ability to call in support from a character not in your party to pull off even more action. The combat is what people come to this game series for, and the developers don’t evolve combat that much, outside of party involvement and commands.
With so little shown during Play Days, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 is like a character waiting to be unlocked. The reality is that Xenoverse 3 has the potential to be a big new path forward for a franchise without the man who created it in video games and manga.
The love for Toriyama and his world comes through in spades, even with the little we got to see. But will it come out of the shadow and effectively pick up his torch? We’ll just have to wait and see more before making that call. Right now, though, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 has promise and purpose; it just has to meet it.
