‘Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2’ Review, News & Update: A Peek Inside The Epic Anime’s Struggle In The Video Game World

"Dragonball Xenoverse 2" has just been released, but the reviews aren't looking too good. The franchise seems to be struggling when it comes to the video game industry and the million-dollar question is, "Why does a game based on one of the most popular anime in the planet is struggling in the video game industry?"

"Dragonball Xenoverse 2," the sequel to the game the same title, was released five days ago and got a passing score of 7.5/10. This is a little higher than last year's 6.7/10 based on the current review by IGN. 

Like most of our beloved anime, the "Dragon Ball" series began as a Japanese Manga created by Akira Toriyama and was introduced in 1985. "Dragon Ball" has 519 chapters and 42 volumes. The manga was so successful that it inspired the anime producer TOEI Animation to create the world famous "Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z."

Dragon Ball basically is a story about a boy named Goku, who is on a quest to look for seven magical balls called Dragon
Balls. The seven Dragon Balls once found will summon Shenlong who will grant one wish to the individual who found them. The world of "Dragon Ball" is a mixture of superhuman entities like aliens, androids and Saiyans who either want to destroy or protect the planet.

"Dragon Ball" has entered the video game for quite some time already. The first game made for the home console was released in 1990 for the "Famicon or Family Computer" game console by Nintendo. Fast forward to the present, "Dragon Ball" is still thriving to compete with other games in the market and has a version in each video game device, from mobile phones to the next gen consoles.

The question on why a video game made for a worldwide phenomenon like "Dragon Ball" is struggling in the video game scene may be answered by one factor, and that would be the game's storyline. A franchise as big and as popular as "Dragon Ball" has a fixed storyline, which makes the characters and the story predictable and redundant. Another possible factor would be that the game is trying so hard to mirror the anime series, which makes it an RPG while trying to merge itself into the fighting game scene, and RPG gamers and fighting game communities are not that similar. IGN reviewer Vince Ingenito wrote: "By the time the credits rolled out, I had only unlocked a fraction of the Skills."

The release of "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" is great as the game has improved in some aspects since the last version, however, the game needs a little bit more tweak and needs to decide which genre the next version will be classified under. Leave your comments below if you think otherwise.