An Exciting New Future for the Xenoverse Series

Of all our contemporary pop culture icons, nobody has put in a harder shift than Goku. And after forty years of licensed video games, you’d think the poor guy might have earned a rest. Thankfully for us and fans of the legendary Dragon Ball franchise, Bandai Namco disagrees, and the recent string of high-quality tie-ins looks set to continue with Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3.

Gamer Guides was invited to check out a hands-off demonstration of the recently announced sequel, and while the question of how and where the hardest-working fictional man in showbiz will show up in this latest entry wasn’t answered (a big talking point for fans), as with the previous Xenoverse games, he’s not really the star of the show. Once again, you’ll not only create your own custom character and follow in the footsteps of the series mainstays, but make your own stamp on the events of the Dragon Ball timeline along the way.

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You’ll meet new characters, as well as familiar faces, in Age 1000.

Tale as Old as Time

Story details are being kept under wraps for now, but it seems the time-traveling shenanigans the series is known for will play a part. The first two games inducted your protagonist into a sort of time police, zipping around the Dragon Ball timeline, raking up our favorite spiky-haired hero’s past traumas, and participating in climactic battles across the franchise’s storied history to fix anomalies and set the timeline straight. It’s a great pitch, but the real draw was the deep combat mechanics and RPG-style character customization, which allowed you to create an authentic original character in the universe we all know and love, and help them grow from a Yamcha-like underdog to a Goku-rivalling god across the course of the game.

Xenoverse 3 looks set to expand on both of those core ideas. It takes place in Age 1000, a brand-new futuristic setting with original characters “brought to life” by the series’ legendary creator, Akira Toriyama, who very sadly passed away in 2024. The level of his involvement in the creation of this new timeline isn’t clear, but the setting and characters certainly look the part.

The demo introduced us to Brett, an original Gohan-esque character, who acts as a companion (and a proxy voice) to your mute player character. Brett is a key member of the GS Squad, the protectors of West City in Age 1000. It wasn’t long before some familiar faces made an appearance. Bulma appears to play a major role in the story, and Vegeta and Future Trunks were hanging out in the hub world. The narrative framing that brought them here isn’t clear, but series producer Masayuki Hirano has been keen to stress the importance of “connection” as a key theme. What this means for the broader narrative remains to be seen, but finding out what connects the returning characters to this new setting and your protagonist will play an important part in Xenoverse 3.

West City Story

The setting of West City will be a familiar one for Dragon Ball fans, and it’s where you’ll spend your time between missions. Our demo began inside an apartment that acts as a home base, where you can customize your character and change their appearance at any time. The improved visuals were immediately apparent, with a denser and more detailed presentation than Xenoverse 2. The iconic city itself looks great, with the clear blue skies, palm trees, and the distinctive bubble-shaped buildings capturing the Dragon Ball aesthetic well, only this time with a slightly more high-tech, futuristic sheen.

We were shown only a small slice of the city hub area, and so the full scope of it and the freedom with which you have to explore are yet to be seen. But Bandai Namco is promising plenty to do in the city itself, which can be explored at your own pace. It’s also populated by NPCs dishing out quests, which take place in separately instanced combat encounters.

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Characters and environments have had a nice visual boost.

Flexible fighting

We were shown a full playthrough of a side quest with a simple “Defeat all enemies” objective, showcasing the new combat and customization mechanics. You can assign three companion characters to build a four-character squad this time around, meaning greater freedom to adapt and customize your squad’s fighting style to meet whatever challenge each mission presents. Customization ran very deep in Xenoverse 2, and it seems like things will be taken to another level here. It also means more expansive combat encounters, with more enemies and greater opportunities for interaction with squad mates.

The gameplay itself doesn’t stray far from the established template, with mechanics-heavy, fully 3D arena-style battles that see you flying and boosting around, blasting and smacking enemies in the trademark hyper-kinetic Dragon Ball style. As in Xenoverse 2, you’ll be given free rein to assign moves and abilities on a per-character basis to create unique builds that complement each character’s style.

Simple light and heavy attack combos can be freely combined, and each character has a set of cooldown-based Super and Ultimate abilities, bringing in heavier and more cinematic attacks that can inflict secondary effects and statuses, like draining Ki. Ki functions slightly differently in this iteration, with stamina no longer a factor. You can spend your Ki on offensive and defensive skills and traversal abilities, which can be recharged with a well-timed Perfect Guard. Taking hits will drain your meter, while draining an enemy’s Ki will open them up for follow-up attacks for big damage.

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Combat animations are excellent in Xenoverse 3.

A Little Help from My Friends

Rounding out the move set are Soul Abilities. Soul Assist brings in your allies for flashy duo attacks, and Awakening Skills from Xenoverse 2 return, allowing transformations like Saiyans going Super. New to Xenoverse 3 is Soul Switch, allowing you to temporarily transform into another character from the classic roster, inheriting their full set of skills, and a nice boost in power. Activating Awakening Skills or Souls Switching refills your health and grants access to the most powerful moves in your arsenal, so the timing of unleashing them will be key to clearing tougher encounters.

If the Soul Abilities are the headline new feature, it’s the focus on cooldowns over resource management and combining the Stamina and Ki functions from the previous games that might be the most impactful changes to the core combat. Until we get our hands on the game, it’s hard to say for sure, but a more streamlined playing experience appears to be the goal, hopefully without feeling oversimplified.

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The all-new Soul Switch lets you transform into classic Dragon Ball characters.

Third Time’s the Charm

After smacking around a bunch of Frieza’s lackeys and a handful of android enemies, the mission culminated in a brawl with Super-era fan favorite Broly. It was every bit the high-energy, flashy, and chaotic spectacle we’ve come to expect from the Xenoverse series. One thing we can say for sure is that it looks tremendous fun.

Xenoverse fans have been well fed since the release of the second game, with DLC released at a regular clip for ten years. But from this early showing, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 will be something to get excited about when it releases sometime next year. The brand new original setting, meaningful gameplay changes, and increased customization options should make for a substantially different game. In the meantime, we can all go back to debating if and when the big man himself will make an entrance.