Zarbon from the Xenoverse 2 trailer
Hello everyone, I am George.
This is my first blog post which aims towards a discussion on Xenoverse 2. I hope I am not misplacing this somewhere I shouldn't. I wish to give my opinion on the subject and see what the rest of the community thinks.
So! Xenoverse 2 is just around the corner and I am sure everyone here is very excited. Bandai has listened to many of our plights and delivered (quickly I may add) the second chapter to our Time Travel extevegaza. I am very excited for the new features in the hub world, the promised greater ease of social interaction, the improved fighting mechanics and all that good stuff. Many fans are also excited for the addition of fan favourite characters even though I am still hoping for some of mine. But there are also some characters that will make most of us say "meh!", "whatever!", "Who cares!" or even "Don't waste your time on that!". So on that note, I would like to start this discussiong with one question "Why add Zarbon and Dodoria into the game?" and then
Dodoria fro the Xenoverse 2 trailer
Majin Vegeta Xenoverse 2
I'll expand on a broader topic about the fundamental concepts for this game and what I expect to see in it.
It would seem that most don't care about these two characters, they are no-one's favourites and no-one will want to play wih them. Well, I think the commonly attributed dissing of these two underdogs overshadows how much they, as characters, are pivotal in the originals story's development. And since Xenoverse is a greatly story-centered game (and an original one at that), I think, it is worthwile to discuss why these two can provide a great service to the story; because Zarbon and Dodoria help expand and develop the story and plot and I'll argue "why". Firstly, it is through these two that we get an understanding of the Frieza army and its intricacies. They are Frieza's two right hand men and represent the greatest rank for Frieza-soldier officers and authority. They are not just fundamental as plotdevices to get an idea of the vastness of Frieza's influence and power by comparison, but they also set up the entire events in the Namek saga in more ways than one. It is through them that we get to see Vegeta's character truly come to life as well as giving reason for his mutiny and helping his development as a fighter which is truly what makes up for the whole setting of the Namek saga. Vegeta is the one who we follow through his service in the trenches of the galactic army's world and hierarchy and Zarbon and Dodoria are key characters in this scene. They have a relationship with Vegeta: of respect since they are his superiors, of rivalry since he strives to be but also undenyably considers himself the best and of loathing for representing his enlsavement. And that is what is going to play a key role in Vegeta's turning over and which will ensue all the events to come; or at least half of them, on the Frieza side, not the earthling side. So, If not for them, there would be no chase for the Dragon Balls, no fight with against the Ginyu force, no Super Saiyan and no Vegeta as we know him. Anyway, it is pretty obvious that they hold an important role and they open up a large variety of story telling possibilities for our time traveling story. With these two added to the mix we can expect to have a lot of interesting scenarios: one where they do not compete with Vegeta, or one where they do kill him, or even one where they don't get killed by him. There are so many possibilities. If we get to see them however like that will depend on what direction they're headed with the general idea for the story in Xenoverse 2; not just with these two but with all of the story. And sadly, from what I can see, it's not very promising.
So far the trailers have showed us everything. The story and storytelling won't be much improved or more intricate than the one in Xenoverse. We can already see the comeback of the messy systems we had before. Starting with: the same kind of cutscenes that failed to convey much tempo feeling and meaning in the first game, but that ultimately got the job done even though they were so clumsily executed they took from the experience (in my opinion). The plethora of other confusing and unfitting narrative elements also make a return in the form of the player-input dialogue. Where you are required to press a button to make the conversation go on, for no reason. Obviously, it is meant for those who set the game to Japanese and want to have time to read the dialogue in english or something. Other than that, this system has no purpose since you cannot vary the inputs, so yours is unnecessary anyway. It has minimum to no animations and just involves standing and hearing plain dialogue which makes for a very mechanical feel. For its little benefits however, this storytelling method doesn't hold back on sacrificing a lot in terms of conveying the events, the pace or the feeling of the moment, even less so than the cutscenes. This said, we're left with the animated segments which randomly appear and sadly fail at giving off any interest that may be drawn from the anime. Especially since the quality is, let's say, not up to Dragon Ball Heores standards. What is new on the list however are the CGI cutscenes which most probably pop up at some point inconsistently throughout the story just like the animation. So yet another narrative method, which (to its merits) seems to exceed the others' expressive potential but which I feel is just going to get lost with rest in the soup/the mess of elements we now have. In the end, the indecisiveness with regards to the narration seems to be detrimental to the telling of this original story; at least it was so in the original Xenoverse. Even though you would think they would pay more attention to that given the nature of the game, which is strongly axed around the narrative. It is a shame, especially since Xenoverse has demonstrated it can convey a large variety of facial expressions through it's character models and their animation, even though it does it inconsistently. Considering however that previous games such as Burst Limit have succeeded in telling a satisfying story through their own in-game graphics (even though they were many leagues lower than Xenoverse's) I think it's a real waste of potential and opportuinity, and of Zarbon and Dodoria. XD There! I threw a joke in cause this was getting a bit too serious.
So! Even though Zarbon and Dodoria could bring an interesting touch to the story, regardless of how interesting they are to play with, the bigger issue here is the quality of the product. I think we should all try to be more demanding of this game; in terms of its story in this case, I'm not analysing the gameplay right now. What I fear is that we will be served some generic story and Dragon Ball will fall down to a purely comercial, standardised game with no substance. I believe Dragon Ball can offer so much, be it in the games, or the anime and I hope for the best as we get into this seuquel, though what I am observing so far is displeasing and disappointing.
I hope I could capture your interest with my arguments! :) What do you think about all of this?