Dragon Ball Xenoverse’s problem with power-scaling:
It’s always a shame complaining about a favourite thing: books, TV, or most relevant, games. Dragon Ball Xenoverse shot up to the top almost before I even played it; and that’s not hyperbole, I watched some on YouTube first. The second game had me even more, but that’s not the topic here. Not because they improved the formula, but because I’ve forgotten.
Just briefly, Dragon Ball Xenoverse is a four-dimensional fighting game, with flight adding a whole ‘nother element to the gameplay. There are laser blasts, explosions and really, really hard punches. And just to add another personalised cherry atop this fruit bowl, there’s character customisation.
I’ve only been writing this blog for one, maybe two years, and I’ve repeatedly spoken about my love of customisation in games. This game allowed you to make female Super-Saiyans before the series author did. You travel through time and laser the ever-loving-shed out of the heroes and villains throughout the story. And there happens to be the problem.
Power is a big thing in Dragon Ball Z, moving into the realm of literal gods. Seriously, the hero Son Goku literally achieves divine powers, shooting god lasers at gods. And over the course of what appears to be- I dunno, a day?, we somehow keep up with him.
Ah, but that’s not what I’m whining about tonight; I want to discuss the gameplay which is actually important (let’s pretend the undefined time period is years, there’s little reason not to). With the scale of conflicts ramping way up, how did the developers let us experience this?
They kinda didn’t.
Admittedly, the first time I faced Full-Power Freeza alongside Super-Saiyan Goku, I was overwhelmed. They felt so fast that I couldn’t keep up! That didn’t happen again, and even later playthroughs didn’t have me feel the same rush.
Instead it became tedious.
Sure, it was always a little bit tedious. Any group more than one will use the weak “ki blasts”, that is basically harmless laser shuriken, to disrupt everything you do! In a combo? Interrupted. Using a special move like the famous Kamehameha? Interrupted. And because it stuns you a little, it’s only too easy to get stun-locked by Freeza, Buu and Cell and be unable to move. You probably won’t die, but that makes it worse! You’re just sitting there, raging about being unable to do anything.
This is there from the beginning, but as things get more “difficult”, naturally you get attacked by more enemies so this keeps happening. And then there are the “super-shields”, which is something given to stronger enemies like Super-Perfect Cell that stop them from being stunned. This means many abilities don’t work and you feel like you aren’t doing anything to them while they constantly break your combos. Again. And again.
That isn’t difficult, it’s tedious.
But that’s all they really do. Outnumber you, tank hits, and fucking run in circles. I literally have a video saved where a Cell Jr flies in a blinding, pointless circle around me like a glowing green fidget-spinner. Which is another annoying factor where they hop about for ages, neither attacking nor defending, just dancing because the A.I. kinda sucks too.
This is a huuge problem for a franchise like Dragon Ball, and the problem shouldn’t be how to hit with the Kamehameha, but instead how to out-skill Goku with his own attack. Enemies should have their own style, even if it’s just a few different types, so that Vegeta doesn’t fight like a Saibaman. So Freeza doesn’t dance like Captain Ginyu (nobody wants to see that!).
And to make things worse, they had the means to do it well. With strike and ki attacks they could have included physical and ki defense, so without creating a jack-of-all-stats you will struggle with enemies, but find a way to deal with them. I can imagine Freeza having a resistance to ki, Humans being weak to ki, while any Saiyan would have a general but weaker invulnerability to both.
And then there are the transformations and other power-ups.
Freeza transforms, Goku transforms, Buu transforms- heck, even Launch transforms. There are the various levels of Kaioken, there’s Potential Unleashed (aka. Gohan’s Mystic form), there are even poses that grant buffs. It should even be possible to create new enhancements based on what’s in the source material for those who aren’t fortunate enough to be a member of a transforming species.
These transformations could really be more than the minor buffers that they are right now; they could be what makes the game truly challenging. And I’ll say it now, nerf them for online PvP, that’s fair. But having a means to transform and turn Freeza from a nearly impossible challenge to a reasonable one is fantastic for both making things easier, consistent, but also providing an optional challenge.
And at the end of the day, Dragon Ball Xenoverse is fan service, so service the fans.
Include these transformations with weaknesses and tactics and then you could not only increase playtime but do so in a fun way that fits nicely with the source material. Plus it has that always amazing power fantasy that games are the perfect medium for.
I am aware that Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 attempted this, but it was poor. Giantification? A fucking cloud?! Turning into a child with none of your chosen skills? No.
No.
Having Potential Unleashed only be accessible at max level is a cruel joke that actively hurts the game.
I’ll mention that I don’t typically play video games on Hard or Insane difficulties because they so often (but not always), turn enemies into ducks from which bullets run off like water. Punches do nothing, lasers do nothing. It’s tedious and only second to those that heal but never attack in a turn based game (looking at you, Pokemon).
It’s not fun. It’s not good design. It’s the easy way to make things difficult. As someone who gets excited and inappropriately breathless from a close match, this is very upsetting, especially given all the good in the game. It’s otherwise fun, flashy, you make your own character and the world of the source material allows for you to learn your favourite and new favourite skills without breaking the rules.
And yeah, my new favourite move is Milky Cannon.
