Dragon Ball: Xenoverse

My first few hours with Dragon Ball Xenoverse felt like a wish granted by Shenron himself. Picking a race, sculpting a Namekian with a ridiculous spiky mohawk, then jumping into iconic moments from the Saiyan Saga as my own original character - that hook is genuine and it works. The premise is clever: a mysterious force is corrupting the Dragon Ball timeline, making villains like Nappa and Frieza dramatically stronger than history remembers, and Future Trunks pulls your created warrior across time to fix it. For any fan who grew up watching these sagas, seeing your custom fighter step in mid-battle and change the outcome carries real weight. The character system is the clearest strength here. Five races - Saiyans, Namekians, Earthlings, Majins, and Frieza's Race - each carry distinct stat profiles and perks, so your choice actually shapes how you play. You pump three attribute points per level up to a cap of 80, collect gear that boosts special powers, and unlock signature moves by training under mentors like Goku, Vegeta, or Piccolo. Equip Galick Gun on a Frieza Race fighter, swap in Kamehameha as your super, layer on some Saiyan armor - the mix-and-match loop is legitimately satisfying and keeps the loot grind feeling purposeful for a while. Parallel Quests, a large bank of side missions that can be tackled in co-op, add solid replay hours, and the Toki-Toki City hub lets you see other players' creations wandering around before you group up. Here is where the candid part starts. The combat is accessible but thin. Basic combos chain light and heavy strikes into aerial launchers, and cinematic ultimate attacks look great on screen, but the toolkit runs dry faster than the quest list does. Enemy AI swings wildly between pushovers and sponge-fested difficulty spikes, and the random reward system means you can complete a Parallel Quest with a top rank a dozen times and still not see the skill you need. The loot RNG is the single biggest friction point the community consistently flags, and it has not been patched out. Lock-on during multi-enemy fights is also noticeably fussy, which stings in a game that regularly throws three-on-one scenarios at you. It is also worth being clear about one thing: Xenoverse 2 exists and improves on nearly every system here - tighter combat, a bigger hub, better online stability. If you are coming to this series fresh in 2025, the sequel is the smarter entry point. Xenoverse 1 makes most sense if you want the original story arc, can find it cheap, or simply want to see where the DNA of the series started. The 90 percent positive Steam rating reflects genuine franchise affection and the novelty of the character creation concept doing something no Dragon Ball game had properly done before it - and that novelty still holds up enough to make the first run through the story enjoyable for any fan of the anime. Alex, Scout Team