YMMV / Dragon Ball Xenoverse

For tropes related to the sequel, see Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2.

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• Accidental Innuendo:
  • After completing your first Time Patrol assignment, you get this little tidbit...
    Trunks: "Thank you so much. That was wonderful. I didn't think it was your first time!"
  • Once Captain Ginyu has been mentoring you for a while, he'll eventually feel confident enough to show you how to handle his big, purple Milky Cannon.
  • There is also Mind-controlled Trunks's dialog after hits are blown.
    Trunks: It's ok... Just... hit me more
• Alt-itis: Because of the multiple races, the sheer amount of customization options and moves, and that a few are exclusive to a race, the game encourages players to create multiple custom characters. And since progress is carried over for all of a player's characters, there really is no setback to creating a new character aside from having to level them up. Slightly curtailed by there only being eight slots, and more heavily curtailed by the complete inability of custom characters on the same account to interact with each other in any way (no, you can't even select different CaCs as partners or put two CaCs against each other).
  • Discouraged in the second game where new characters have to independently complete the story and unlock parallel quests and other events.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • The legendary, fearsome, unstoppable Great Ape Vegeta. Way too slow, way too clumsy, way too massive a target to be a a threat in any sense, much like Demigra's final form. He doesn't even mitigate it with high defense or anything beyond an easily-emptied secondary health gauge you need to chew through to get to his actual health. Emptying said gauge forces him to a complete halt, allowing you to wail on him with everything you've got before rounding it out by grabbing his tail: all in all, a single use of that combo will reduce the big lug's health by at least half right on the spot.
  • The story builds up Mira as a dangerous, unstoppable force and a worthy rival for the Time Patroller. The gameplay tends to make him a bit too fond of standing around getting lasered instead of fighting back, and he's often less difficult than the end-of-chapter bosses he inevitably precedes. In fact, it is entirely possible to just stand back and keep hitting him with Super Ki Blasts the first time you fight him on Namek, and you can easily get a Z rank on the mission from not taking any damage.
  • The final battle with Demigra is a walk in the park after the hell the last few battles put you through. Demigra powers up to his final form, but while his strikes hit like a truck, he telegraphs them from a mile away making them easy to block or dodge. Not only that but Super Saiyan 3 Goku will show up to help you after a certain amount of time has passed. Overall, despite being built up as such a significant threat and even boasting that no one has seen his final form and lived, the Demon God goes down pretty easily.
  • Invoked whenever Hercule shows up in a Parallel Quest. He gets the fanfare of any intruding fighter only to be swatted away like nothing.
• Awesome Music:
  • XENOVERSE is not without its extreme music. The more hardcore metal approach helps enhance how dire most situations can be. Theme of the Mountains,
  • The theme for Planet Namek, which is followed by the Destroyed Planet Namek rightfully playing during the SSJ Goku vs Frieza fight.
  • Theme of West City: Suburbs pumping you up for several fights across the game.
  • The Theme of Supreme Kai's World which plays during the SSJ3 Goku vs Kid Buu fight. Rightfully so called "Endurance" by some.
  • The Theme of the Underground Lake which plays during the SSJG Goku vs Beerus fight.
  • Power of a Super Saiyan God (Theme of Kami's Lookout) though plays on the Kami's Lookout stage, is rightfully reminded "Power of a Super Saiyan God" parallel quest.
• Broken Base:
  • No beam struggles. Many people saw beam struggles as a Scrappy Mechanic that only promoted Button Mashing, while many other Dragon Ball fans saw beam struggles as one of the best features in Dragon Ball games by Dimps.
  • When you make a new character, it doesn't restart the story for that specific save file. All progress is carried over for all of a player's characters; such as missions, money, items and mentors. On the one hand, some people believe there really is no setback to creating a new character aside from having to level them up, giving them some advantage and less frustration in leveling up. On the other, some people think it’s boring and doesn't motivate them if they can’t replay the storyline and earn back everything, feeling like going to the Time Vault to simply re-try the missions isn't as fun or doesn't have flow to it.
  • Some people don't like Eric Vale having a noticeable rasp in his Trunks voice compared with his earlier portrayals of the character. Some don't mind. It most likely came from his years of voicing Sanji in One Piece with a modified version of his Trunks voice, featuring a notable rasp. This problem persists with these fans for Xenoverse 2 and Super, as he still has the noticeable rasp (though it's toned down for Super).
• Breather Level:
  • Finally! Raging Super Saiyan has you and a pissed off Super Saiyan Goku vs. Frieza. You can sit back and watch and still get a Z-Rank.
  • The final battle against Super Perfect Cell. Super Saiyan Gohan will do the job for you.
  • The last Time Patrol for the Majin Buu saga has Kid Buu vs. two Super Saiyan 2s and you. Kid Buu often gets blasted away with a constant stream of ultimate attacks, going straight to the next phase of the fight before you take any meaningful damage. Unfortunately, the next stage is a total Escort Mission, with Goku unable to defend himself while he charges the Spirit Bomb, all while Kid Buu rushes to beat on him.
  • Dragon Ball fetching missions can easily be this if you're only interested in getting the Dragon Balls and know your way around the map. Even in later missions where you're getting chased down by swarms of flying brick enemies, you're still only obligated to grab three Dragon Balls and get the fuck out of dodge ASAP to clear the mission.
• Complete Monster: The Demon God, Demigra, was imprisoned in a crack in time by the Supreme Kai of Time. To free himself, he sends out an image capable of acting on the physical plane to cause chaos and distort time. One of the timelines has him brainwashing Piccolo into trying to kill Goten and Trunks. Another has him trying to brainwash Beerus into destroying Earth. After his release, he plans to destroy the universe and reshape it so that everything revolves around him.
• Critical Dissonance:
  • Famitsu rated this game lower than the much-maligned Battle of Z and Ultimate Tenkaichi. Some people do not agree.
  • Many other critics have rated this game around a 6 to 7, a mediocre score, while many fans say that Xenoverse is a really good game, if not the best DBZ game yet.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Percel, an NPC who is a member of Frieza's race, and is dealing with timeline troubles of his own. He mentions that King Piccolo absorbed Kami (which would make him too strong for the heroes of that era) and that King Piccolo's army is at war with the Red Ribbon Army who now have Android soldiers. Then Babidi came along, and now he's fighting a three-way war. His story makes him out to be a total badass Hero of Another Story and some people think he should have his own DLC.
  • Taino, another NPC who is a female Majin and a giggly Ginyu Force fangirl, has many players wanting to join her Taino Force.
  • Cell is considered one of the most popular mentors, particularly because he gives one of the best Ultimates, and because of this line.
  • Both the Supreme Kai of Time and Demigra are also quite popular, although they only qualify as darkhorses for the franchise as a whole since in this game they are major characters.
• Evil Is Cool: The mentor mechanic gives players the option of becoming Cell's apprentice or Frieza's right-hand man, both of which come with their... ah, perks (Cell's being the Foe Yay Shipping detailed just below and Frieza turning out to be a surprisingly Benevolent Boss towards your character). It doesn't hurt that they both come across as Affably Evil in their respective PQ end lines, unlike the other mentor characters who are mostly Stern Teacher types that berate your character for getting anything less than a Z rank.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Cell comes off as this regarding the Hero, finding them interesting, willing to train them despite them supposedly being beneath him, coming across more like a Tsundere than a Jerkass, and his comments towards them sound between his usual Memetic Molester tone to even Adorkable. Especially if he's their mentor.
  Cell: Splendid! Now this is a true fight! I would totally hug you if that was something I did!
• Game-Breaker:
  • Android 17's Super Electric Strike, a.k.a. "the Rug Beater" (taken from how 17 always says "I'll beat you like a rug!" when he uses it). A deceptively long range attack that will hit every enemy in a 100 degree arc in front of you, is extremely damaging even by Ultimate attack standards, and is very fast, allowing for rapid-fire chaining from one into another. The only downsides are it can be blocked, and actually unlocking the move is one of the most headache-inducing grinds in the game. It has since been nerfed, giving it weaker tracking and it can no longer hit enemies that are directly in front of the user.
  • Beerus's Sphere of Destruction is capable of one-shotting a level 80 character. On top of that, as mentioned by a comment, it has smart tracking when timed properly.
  • Burter's Blue Hurricane utterly destroys any Great Ape, even the otherwise-terrifying level 80 Great Ape Baby. That alone wouldn't qualify it for GB status, as Great Apes are relatively rare enemies in this game compared to others (being limited to just one story mission and a small handful of PQs), but in the hands of an advanced player Blue Hurricane can lay waste to anyone. Its deal is that it does more damage the higher up on the map the enemy is, and lasts longer the more enemies it hits. With a bit of effort positioning opponents, Blue Hurricane can demolish 3 human players as quickly as it does poor Great Ape Baby.
  • Blue Hurricane needs more love. Make a Saiyan. Level him/her up to level 45 – 50 (easy enough with a few runs of Parallel Quest 53). Equip Super Saiyan and Blue Hurricane. Congratulations. You now have everything you need to solo Super Super Ultimate Series of Battles without Tien’s Z-Soul, and perhaps even get to the Ultimate Finish!
  • Frieza's Death Ball attack has quick start up, homing, and power. Combined with a Z-Soul that grants infinite ki when low on health, this spells trouble. And oh, it can be chained right into another use. Later clobbered with a series of nerfs that reduced its tracking considerably.
  • For most races, Golden Frieza's Emperor Death Beam is completely useless as it uses all of your Ki up in one strike. Super Saiyans can spam it all day long. Tremendous power, good tracking and can hit multiple enemies at the same time? Oh, and it hits up to 31 times. Even the most difficult Parallel Quests can become cakewalks with this set up. Bonus points if it's Super Vegeta transformation and the "I Am Super Vegeta" Z-Soul, which has similar benefits to "Super Saiyan Bargain Sale" Z-Soul, but also increases the damage Ki-based super and ultimate moves do.
  • Recoome's Fighting Pose K renders your character Immune to Flinching, allowing you to muscle through attacks that would otherwise interrupt your actions and escape from attacks that would normally lock you in place until they finish. Normally, the effect only lasts for 15 seconds (the shortest duration of any Fighting Pose), but using any other Fighting Pose will refresh every Fighting Pose effect currently in effect. Pairing Fighting Pose K with Fighting Pose E (which raises basic physical attack and lasts 30 seconds) is a very powerful combo for any melee fighter.
  • Any Saiyan using the Super Saiyan or Super Vegeta skills can use any skill they want for 0 Ki while the transformation lasts. Repeatedly using Special Beam Cannon which is quick, semi-accurate, and guard-piercing with enormous range, or Perfect Kamehameha, which is enormous and deals amazing damage, can swiftly destroy many opponents. You can also still use the Ki-charging moves while in Super Saiyan/Super Vegeta, meaning you can usually keep the transformation going infinitely.
  • Super Vegeta 2 + "It's like a Super Saiyan bargain sale!" Z-Soul + full set of Vegito's outfit + Perfect Kamehameha = the highest damage output in the smallest amount of time in the game.
  • With Kaioken X20 and an only moderate stamina investment, Tien's Neo Tri-Beam becomes every other race's answer to the Super Saiyan transformation. The Neo Tri-Beam has huge range, great hitstun, and amazing tracking that conspire to make it very difficult to avoid without indestructible obstacles to hide behind and very difficult to escape once initiated, hits hard and repeatedly with decent knockback (stripping away Super Armor while protecting the user's), and the player can spam it by spending stamina. It's normally balanced by the steep stamina cost of each blast, but the Kaioken X20 transformation does for stamina what the Super Saiyan transformations do for ki (making it unlimited to use while slowly draining it), allowing for ludicrous single-target damage that tears through anything short of an enemy with full double-health bars, and even then deals significant damage. The only downsides are the long vulnerable period after the attack and the length of time stamina takes to regenerate compared to ki, both of which can be mitigated with the right Z-souls, builds, and tactics, and the fact that, since it distributes out its damage into lots of smaller pieces, damage mitigation abilities are disproportionately effective against it.
  • The Z-Soul "I'm neither Kami nor Piccolo now" grants several amazing effects. If your Stamina is at maximum, your character auto-guards any attacks, if guarding is possible. If Ki is at max, health gradually recovers. And just equipping the Z-Soul raises all stats. It's useful for almost any build, but is especially powerful with a melee build making use of the aforementioned Fighting Pose K, as the healing nicely covers the reckless fighting style that goes hand in hand with being Immune to Flinching. An earlier Z Soul, called "Feel the wrath of a Namekian!" has similar benefits, but offers a defense boost at max stamina instead of auto-guard. These Z Souls work very well on a Human, who also gain an offense bonus when at max Ki.
  • Ginyu's Z-Soul "Aren't I Nice?!" gives you extra ki generation while any other buff is active, and doubles the duration of all buffs. It's basically an extra super mode on any CaC that can be activated with a simple fighting pose - and it's essentially infinite ki for Earthling CaCs. And unlike many of the other examples here, it was completely removed from Xenoverse 2.
  • From the DLC, the Z-Soul "Let me show you my evolved self" gives one constantly recovering ki, as well as increased stats and health regeneration at low health, in essence giving anyone a good portion of Earthling, Namekian and Saiyan racial abilities and making it much easier for glass cannon builds to get off ultimates. It's obtained relatively easily as well, as your only opponent in the "First Training" parallel quest is Frieza in his 4 forms, and, while taking some time to take down, he's quite vulnerable to simply being mobbed by a low-level player and AI helpers, as opposed to No Selling attacks and spamming specials as Saiyan bosses are prone to do.
  • For most custom character combos, there is a very basic combo that goes: one-to-three light attacks; two heavy attacks. The last two heavy attacks work as an uppercut launcher, leaving the enemy prone in the air and ready to be juggled. This combo can therefore be chained almost infinitely, meaning so long as the enemy doesn't use an evasive skill, they can be juggled for the entirety of their life bar.
  • The story quest "Team Up with Beerus" is ideal for grinding. It can be cleared in a minute, gives out something like 20,000 EXP and Zenie, and with the right equips can be cleared as early as level 10.
  • A better mission to grind is Parallel Quest 43, where you have to collect three Dragon Balls while avoiding Frieza, Cell, and Kid Buu. You have two characters join you to be your meatshields while you search for the Dragon Balls. Yes, it's possible to fail this a couple times, but the reward is worth it. After collecting all of the three Dragon Balls, the mission ends and you get about 30,000 EXP as a reward. If the character you're using is level one, they will level up to LEVEL 15.
  • Parallel Quest 53 is no slouch in grinding material, either. It's a much easier version of Parallel Quest 43 (only 1 enemy which happens to be Broly, you get an additional meat shield along with your selected partners in the form of Videl at the start, and when she gets knocked out Goten and Trunks joins in). It offers just about as much EXP and the map is much smaller, meaning you can find the Dragon Balls more quickly. Also, the enemy doesn't even show up until you pick up your first dragon ball, so you can safely scout out their location to minimize search time once you start.
  • PQ's dealing with Great Apes, especially the final DLC Quest, "Return Of The Giant-Ape Festival" are probably the EASIEST and most rewarding grinds you could do short of the Dragonball hunting missions. Due to the nature of attacking Great Apes NOT being tied to your level, even someone as weak as LV.1 can, with relative ease, topple a Great Ape in just four or five well-timed grabs (Remember to grab its tail again while its defense is broken!). An even more reliable way to wreck Great Apes is to have a Strike-focused character (or Burter if you don't have the skill) spam Blue Hurricane, which is more reliable and quicker than grabbing the tail (which can fail if the ape throws you off) and can damage the ape at the tail end of the attack and possibly even finish it off.
  • Grappling in general, especially for players who've invested in physical strikes. It deals plenty of damage, while offering minimal chances for the enemy to recover between getting up and getting grabbed again, making it ideal for cheesing past tough boss fights... as long as they lack Super Armor and aren't Immune to Flinching.
  • Squishy Wizard builds (particularly when made on a Saiyan with Super Saiyan equipped) can be powerful enough to tear through endgame bosses about as easily as cutting through butter with a flaming, lightsaber chainsaw. Especially if you spam the bigger, more cool attacks.
• Goddamned Bats: Saibamen (and their pallet swapped variants), Frieza's minions, and Mini-Buus.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • A glitch during a transformation cutscene can end up with your character glowing like a Super Saiyan.
  • In some versions of the game a number of Z-Souls are bugged, which can result in you ending up with unlimited Ki, Stamina or Health. They've mostly been patched though.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Future Bulma is nowhere to be seen even though Time Patrol Trunks is the same Trunks from the Android/Cell Sagas. In Dragon Ball Super, she was murdered by Goku Black.
  • Supreme Kai of Time tells Trunks that altering the past is a sin, and he joined her to make up those mistakes, even though it was a lie. In Super, time-traveling is a serious crime according to Whis and is limited to the Supreme Kais. Beerus actually considers destroying the Earth as punishment. Even more, part of the reason why Goku Black chose Future Trunks' timeline to attack is because he was angry at the Earthlings for violating the time law by creating a time machine, which created new Time Rings. Goku Black and Future Zamasu call Trunks a sinner who killed the Earthlings because of his selfish time-traveling. They also blame him for creating Goku Black since if Goku had died to the heart virus like he was supposed to, Present Zamasu would have never taken an interest in Goku's body and used the Super Dragon Balls to take it.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Vegeta's amazement towards Kid Trunks being a Super Saiyan while thinking anyone can do it now becomes this when Saiyan created characters can now do this.
  • Bardock and Broly are the both canon and non-canon characters respectively to become Ensemble Dark Horse in the franchise, more points by the fact that they appeared in every Dragon Ball Z game since Budokai 3. And the Secret Mission? Help Bardock defeat a powered up Broly in 2 missions.
  • Abridged!Nappa once said that he was hilarious and we would quote everything he said. Then this game comes along...
  • Yusuke Watanabe's original concept for Beerus in Battle of Gods was of a character that infected people with evil. Demigra's dark magic does exactly that—and between Towa and Mira's version and then his own use of it, Beerus' dramatic fakeout is the first time it is seen failing.
  • Similar to what's said in the Trivia section, Whis and Mira have a special intro with each other during vs. mode in which Whis says Mira is looking quite pale. What makes this a little humorous is that Mira was called the "pale man" in Dragon Ball Online.^note  Whis calls Mira pale even though he is clearly blue-skinned.
  • In the game, TP Trunks has no idea who Beerus was until the Supreme Kai of Time told him he's "the freaking God of Destruction". In Super, Future Trunks reacts very badly when he finds out he's in the presence of Gods and starts pleading.
  • When Beerus suggests killing Demigra personally, Supreme Kai of Time panics when he made the suggestion, thinking if he does fight him, he'd wind up destroying the Time Nest. The hilarious part is that Beerus in Super can kill someone just by saying "Hakai"^note  meaning "destroy", completely atomizing someone without any significant damage to his surroundings.
  • While Natsuki Hanae was played the Time Patroller and Jaco around the same time, given that Xenoverse and Resurrection F were released two months apart, other Time Patroller seiyuus would eventually play some Dragon Ball Super characters later on. Those are Nobuyuki Hiyama (Barry Kahn and Prum), Masumi Asano (Cocoa, Helles and Lilibeu), Yuka Komatsu (Caulifla), Ryōko Shiraishi (Sanka Ku), and Jiro Saito (Gril).
    • Similarly, on the English side for the Time Patroller's voices, Caitlin Glass would eventually voice Vados, Clifford Chapin would play Cabba, Patrick Seitz would voice Jiren, and Elizabeth Maxwell would voice Caulifla.
    • Rather than in Super, Houko Kuwashima provides the voice of Android #21 in Dragon Ball Fighter Z. Although to be fair, she'd already had some prior involvement with Dragon Ball in the past, providing voice work for the Episode of Bardock special and Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters.
• Ho Yay: One of the NPC's, Harry, seems to have a crush on Trunks as he liberally describes him as handsome the the Future Warrior.
• Hype Backlash: While there's a lot of hype for the character creator, some people find it to be more shallow than reported. Having to use a handful of presets instead of something more open-ended, clothes giving stat bonuses (and many being difficult to even acquire) that make wearing what you want make you weaker, clothes with preset colors you can't change, and a lot of the available items just look ridiculous.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: Not the game as a whole but specifically the story. Taking out the Forced Level-Grinding, the story mode lasts only around 5 hours. Half of what was promised.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Some people have admitted that the fact they can have Abridged!Nappa as their character's voice was the deciding point in buying the game.
• Low-Tier Letdown: Male Saiyans have the lowest stats in every category except for basic attack damage and their melee combo potential is near-nonexistent compared to every other race/gender combination, so they're not well-liked by the fandom.
• Memetic Badass: Percel. His backstory made him an Ensemble Dark Horse and many view him as a total badass who should get his own DLC.
• Memetic Loser: Yamcha if his "Death Pose" super is any indication. Also, Mr. Satan per usual.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • HEY!!!^note Whenever you talk to Trunks, he greets you with this line, delivered with an unusually high amount of enthusiasm.
  • Guys...^note During the cutscene where Trunks's existence is jeopardized by Demigra's interference, he utters this line moments before the player goes into the fray. What makes this so memorable is just how half-assed the delivery is, causing many to believe that it came from a failed take or from another VA. This moment ended up becoming popularized thanks to Team Four Star, and Trunks's VA wound up getting pestered about it on Twitter as a result.
  • Cell would totally hug you - if that's something he did. Bakas.^note Comes from Cell's quote if the player gets a Z-Rank in a mission with him as their mentor.
  • There is also "Super Saiyan...Four". ^note Said by Super Saiyan 4 Goku during his intros against some characters such as Gohan, Vegeta and Nuova Shenron. Multiple comments have pointed this out. It's like he's trying to sound sexy and intimidating at the same time.This continues in Xenoverse 2 by the way, even though it's the same intros.
  • BEAT IT! And take your planet with you! ^note Said by Cell when he uses his "Perfect Kamehameha" ultimate move.
• Moral Event Horizon: Demigra's villainy starts out being too generic and abstract to feel genuinely awful... and then he starts taking an active role in proceedings by brainwashing Piccolo into trying to murder Goten and Trunks, the two children he was acting as a Parental Substitute for. Brainwashing people into ruining the heroes' day may be the standard MO of the villains in Xenoverse, but that was pretty uniquely sadistic.
• Narm
  • Voice option 7 has "Ha ha ha, mmmm!"
  • Future Trunks' extremely sharp and curt "HEY!" whenever you talk to him.
    • Even worse, during a cutscene in the Future Trunks Saga, Trunks says "Guys..." in a really flat and lifeless manner, which does not fit the mood of the scene at all. ^Explanation  Thanks to Towa messing with time, Trunks is fading from existence, and both the Future Warrior and the Supreme Kai reaffirm that they'll do whatever it takes to save Trunks because he's their friend. The line read completely clashes with Eric Vale's normal performance, leading to theories that it was performed by someone other than Vale.
  • Bardock is supposed to say "This will change everything!" when he tosses his Riot Javelin. For some reason, he'll just keep shouting "EVERYTHING!".
  • Super Saiyan 4 Goku tries a bit too hard to be cool sometimes.
    "Ah, when i'm Super Saiyan... FOUR, even the scorching hot 6000 degree heat won't hurt me."
  • If you see Goku on the horizon and have a fighting style that has a lot of launchers, then get ready to hear Goku shout "Not BAAAAD!" several thousand times over.
  • Near the end of story mode after Demigra is beat the first time and teleports back to the time vault, Goku and the Time Patroller get knocked down for the count. Goku isn't able to move, Trunks is too worn out and injured to anything and the Time Patroller is dying. All hope seems lost as the camera starts to go black and go off the side. Suddenly, Tokitoki just makes a randomly loud noise and narms the whole scene.
    Tokitoki: KIIIIIII!
  • A small one but wearing certain clothes can be this. You can put the Turtle Hermit outfit on your character and show-up to stop Cell or any of the other villains... while dressed-up in beach clothes.
  • The way that everybody (except Cell, for some reason^note In what was apparently a developer oversight, he refers to Frieza's race as the "Frost Demons" if you fight him with a Frieza's Race Player Character in the PQs.) goes out of their way to avoid actually addressing Frieza's Race by an actual name because no one wants to give the race an official name, using instead the laughably vague "Frieza's Race" or "Frieza's Clan" placeholders to. Even when it's members of said race themselves. This carries over to the sequel.
  • During Parallel Quest 6, when Gohan arrives as the player's next opponent, his model has his jaw hanging open the whole time. While it's supposed to be because he's screaming, due to the player previously "killing" Piccolo and Gohan wanting to avenge him, the expression makes Gohan look like he's saying "durrrrr" instead.
    • To make matters worse, Gohan's jaw is also clipping through his clothes.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Trailers and scans have shown that certain characters will turn evil throughout the story, including the Z-Fighters. During this state they have red eyes and black markings under their eyes that looks like black blood.
  • You know you're dealing with some of the greatest villains in the universe when they can make Mr. Satan, of all people, terrifying.
  • Worse still: in the Bad Future version of Gohan's final fight with Cell, it's implied that Mr. Satan actually kills Goku!
  • Both this and a Tear Jerker, but many of the changes Towa and Mira make to the timeline that The Bad Guy Wins can be pretty shocking to fans of the show, such as Raditz getting out of Goku's hold, so that Goku only gets hit by the Special Beam Cannon, then killing Piccolo, and afterwards laughing manically. And later during the Gohan's fight with Cell, having 2 Cell Jrs. survive to help Cell during the final beam clash to overpower and kill Gohan. Much to Piccolo's horror.
  • To say nothing of the changes Demigra is capable of given that he makes Piccolo kill Goten and Kid Trunks and is capable of controlling Vegeta, Gohan, Gotenks and even Time Patrol Trunks during the final arc. Oh, and he nearly enslaves the Future Warrior as well...
  • The Z-Warriors being overwhelmed and swarmed by amped up Saibamen, and the fact that no matter how hard Tien and Yamcha hit them, they keep getting back up. And then there's the brief glimpse of Goku pushed to his limits while trying to survive against a Great Ape Vegeta and a Great Ape Nappa.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: The Para Para Brothers were fairly disliked and among some of the silliest Dragon Ball GT characters. But the Dancing Parapara skill is quite popular in this game due to its use as a trolling mechanic, as well as the fact certain characters saying the incantation and doing the dance can be cute to watch.
• The Scrappy: Time Patrol Trunks is seen as this by some people. He serves as your mission control, which is all well and good, until he starts giving unreasonable demands in the middle of a mission. The most notable are during the Dragon Ball missions where he tells you to find four more....when you've got like a minute, and then more enemies show up. Also many don't like him during the story when he decides to challenge with you, both Beerus and Whis to convince Beerus not to fight Demigra, which would most likely cause the Time Nest, and by extension Time itself, to be destroyed.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Quite a few unfortunately; and many of them return for the sequel. Oh joy...
  • If you want to charge your own ki, you have to equip the skill to do it. And the manual ki charging itself is fairly slow, though you can later purchase upgraded versions of the skill to fill your ki much quicker.
  • The Super Saiyan transformation: It slowly drains your Ki, but it boost your abilities and it also lets you use Special Attacks and Ultimate Attacks for practically zero cost. Also your Ki won’t increase in this state and you fall back to base state, if you run out of Ki. It uses up an Ultimate slot, though, so you need to know, if you either want 2 Ultimate Attacks, one Super Saiyan state and one Ultimate Attack or 2 different Super Saiyan transformations. Luckily, there are moves that let you charge your Ki, at the expense of an attack slot and leaving you wide open. And fighting against it is also a pain, particularly when enemies are in the mode constantly.
  • Players cannot change the color of costume sets, namely ones that belong to other characters. This is alleviated by the ability to change the color of individual clothes or more generic sets. Also, since clothes have stat values, it's all too easy to end up with a set of clothes you like that clash with your build.
    • Case in point, the Time Patroller's outfit. It's actually pretty cool, combining elements of both Trunks' and Piccolo's outfits, you get it as an endgame reward providing you know where to look, and it provides a hell of a meaty bonus... that's utterly, UTTERLY useless to a mixed tactics or blast-based character.
  • The Create a Character mechanic in general has a lot of important information that is never revealed to the player. For instance, if you build a "bulky"-type character specializing in ki attacks, you'll be giving up 33% of your total damage with them!
  • You can't make a new character until you beat the entire story with the first character you make. Plotwise it makes sense, but it does mean you're stuck with whatever race you chose first for quite a while. Though you can delete the character and create a new one, retaining any story and skill progress you had with the first character. You still have to level up from 1.
  • The loot drops being determined by the very stingy Random Number God is considered quite obnoxious, especially since some specific pieces of loot are required to progress in training with mentors.
  • The Random Number God also applies to whether the requirements for the Ultimate Finish activate, which means that even though all of the requirements for the paths for an Ultimate Finish are achieved, it still might not activate, denying the player any of its drops.
  • Stamina in general is an tricky mechanic. Whether you're getting punched out of your usually-invincible ultimate attack, getting juggled while you wait for it to regenerate, or just trying to block something really beefy, you'll never feel like you've got enough even if you never spend any on the useful teleport moves that drain two bars of it or the Kaio-ken transformations that are the only ones non-saiyans get. And it doesn't regenerate if you're making any kind of attack either.
    • Normally, if you get knocked away by an attack, you can get back up in mid air. If it happens while you're out of stamina, you're stuck slowly flying in that direction until you hit the ground.
  • The tracking on the Z-axis can get really funky. If the enemy is above you diagonally, and you attack, there's a good chance you'll just keep attacking in a straight line instead of tracking back to your target.
  • Cutscenes can be really annoying as it tends to interrupt your attacks and if you activated your Super Mode, your ki/stamina still drains while the cutscene is running. On the other hand, health/ki/stamina regeneration also keeps going.
  • The version 1.07 patch apparently fixed it so that, when a player summons the Dragon and uses the wish "I want to grow", which raises their level, it can now only be used once. Before this, it could be used an indefinite number of times. This patch coincided with the raising of the level cap from 85 to 99. Fans were not pleased.
  • Super Armor. Beerus' tail, the goddamn Super Armor on bosses like Frieza, Cell, and Demigra's penultimate battle shove said battles right past Fake Difficulty into parts unknown. There's no indication whatsoever as to its durability, heck it may even drop at random, there's no way to tell. But as long as its up, it's pretty much impossible to land a hit on them without them simply powering through and catching you in a lethal combo.
• Shocking Moments:
  • The amount of customization and battle options as well as the new story has made most of the fandom surprised and pleased.
  • Many of the Supers and Ultimates impressed many fans, especially the melee ones which have quick and complex combos and can be chained, leading to even more insane combos.
  • This was pretty much the reaction when it was revealed that Takahata101 would be using his Nappa voice as a voice option for a Future Warrior.
• Spiritual Adaptation: Being a game where you play as a time cop, and Set Right What Once Went Wrong through creating Close Enough Timelines, it's one of the closest there is to Time Squad: The Video Game.
• Squick: While it is never brought up in the game, as Mira's creator, Towa is technically his "mother". She and her "son" are married and have a child together.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: One of the fight tracks is mostly the chorus part of "The Beautiful People". It fits in perfectly when it's used in GT battles.
  • The "Character Select" theme sounds very similar to Coldplay's "Viva La Vida".
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Although they weren't made by Dimps, many fans consider Xenoverse to be this towards Ultimate Tenkaichi, Battle of Z, and especially Dragon Ball Online (which this game is a Spiritual Successor to).
• That One Level: A handful of them in the main campaign, along with many sidequests.
  • The World Tournament Stage, at least for PS3 and 360 users, due to its small size and animated crowd that can cause some severe lag. It doesn't help that it's the only stage that can be selected in offline multiplayer battles.
  • "Spaceship Sneak Mission as Ginyu", the third story mission of the Ginyu Force Saga. In this mission, you have to defeat 20 Frieza Soldiers while keeping Gohan and Krillin safe. The problem? You are playing as Ginyu due to him switching bodies with your character during the last battle. Now Ginyu himself has a decent moveset, but the problem is with protecting Gohan and Krillin, who often get separated from you and ganged up on by the Frieza Soldiers. Another problem comes from the fact that you cannot control the camera when locking-on, as the camera controls changes who you lock onto. This normally isn't a problem... when you're out in the open. This level has you in a cramped circular hallway with one room in the center. And you can't cheese this by bringing All-Energy Capsules, since they don't work on your allies, since, as Ginyu, they aren't YOUR allies. A couple of effective strategies include luring enemies into the large, round central room of the ship (which makes it easier to keep an eye on your allies) and making extensive use of the Milky Cannon, which causes a large explosion and thus can hit multiple enemies at once.
  • Following this level is another really tough one. Right after that, you have a three-stage battle against Ginyu in your body with Goku. Like in canon he switches with Goku when his HP gets low. The problem? Your HP starts off at half, and Goku is simply inept at this moment. Ginyu has extremely powerful attacks and once his HP gets low he calls in Guldo. While Vegeta shows up, Guldo can and will paralyze you and allow Ginyu to attack you. If you didn't bring any healing capsules, get ready to die alot.
    • Not long after this you have to tackle "Emperor Frieza!", which has five stages to it. Again, it starts out relatively simple enough but then Frieza transforms straight to his final form in the second stage. Bad enough on it's own, but in each stage of the fight Frieza automatically regens all his health back while you don't have that luxury. By the time you finally make it to the final leg, if you had not already wasted all of your healing items, you must now protect Goku who's charging a Spirit Bomb. If Goku dies, which he can due easily since Frieza loves spamming his Ultimate, you'll have to start the battle over from the very beginning.
  • "Time For a Test! Beerus and Whis", the last story mission of the Battle of Gods saga. Both Beerus and Whis have super armor, both like to gang up on you, and Beerus loves to abuse his "Sphere of Destruction" ultimate, which can kill you if you're careless (or getting attacked by Whis when he throws it). You have Trunks to accompany you in the fight, but he is no help at all, and Kami have mercy on your poor soul if he gets KO'd before you can take out either Beerus or Whis.
  • The second story mission in the Buu Saga can be this. You have to fight three copies of Fat Buu at the same time, with only Super Saiyan 3 Goku to help you. Thankfully Goku does a good job of being a meat shield and can take chunks out of the Buus, but halfway through, Goku has to split, and you're forced to fight SIX Buus all by yourself. Granted, they're weakened versions, but they still pack a punch and will absolutely wreck you if you let them dog-pile you. The only way to win is to defeat a certain number before Trunks bails you out, and if you're not over-leveled, that means a lot of kiting and a lot of praying.
  • Bardock's first mission takes the pains of the Beerus/Whis battle and multiplies it tenfold! You have to protect Bardock from infinitely spawning Frieza goons. Bardock is a complete Leeroy Jenkins and will charge head-first into a group of mooks who will then surround him and deplete his health in seconds. Even if you make it past that section of the mission, you then HAVE TO abandon Bardock to be murdered by mooks while you desperately try to kill Frieza before Bardock bites it. Spamming AOE Ultimates is pretty much the only way to prevail, and even then, that's just a maybe. Bardock's AI was later improved in updates, making this mission much less of a slog.
  • Hey, buddy! Gosh, I really hope you're maxed level with very high stats dipped into your attack pool when you tackle the final Extra Saga mission. What's that; you aren't and haven't? Well, then have fun getting steamrolled by a big, beefy psycho Saiyan whose AI only acknowledges your existence and has nigh-unbreakable Super Armor. Bardock tries to help, but... trying to lead Broly into his path is liable just to get your face caved in that much sooner.
  • Cruel Androids of the Future: If you had trouble getting through the Cell Games, then this mission will stop you dead in your tracks. It requires fighting both 17 and 18 at the same time while keeping Trunks alive. Both are stupidly fast and strong and 17 has an attack that he loves to spam, which is nearly impossible to avoid if you're anywhere in front of him and will kill you instantly if your health is low enough. Since AI partners also have the habit of rushing headfirst into combat, this will kill Trunks far more often than any of the androids' other attacks unless you take out 17 first. Grinding until you're a high enough level to get past this is very much a must if you want to keep your sanity intact.
• That One Sidequest: Several of the Mentor and Parallel Quests tends to fall under this.
  • Vegeta's last two Mentor missions. The first one has you at low health, which can get taken care of with a healing capsule but you still have to go through practically two fights with him, one at base form and one at Super Saiyan. The next one is even worse. Even though you start at full health. You have to whittle him down three times, including a third phase where he goes Super Saiyan 2. You also only have 5 minutes to defeat him, which is likely not enough time if your not leveled enough.
    • Before even then, Vegeta asks you to bring him a specific Z-Soul: "I am the strongest on Earth!" Said Z-Soul drops from a Parallel Quest, and as was mentioned in the Scrappy Mechanic entry, the Random Number God is a very stingy god. You can't progress with your training until you bring Vegeta the Z-Soul, so unless you've got the Devil's luck, you're likely going nowhere with your training with Vegeta for a while.
  • Cell's second Mentor mission. You have to defeat three Cell Jr.s without dying, which sounds easy enough — however, once you kill one, two more take it's place, and now you have to kill two more while having four of them repeatedly gang up on you and knock you out of your combos/supers. And he put a 5 minute time limit too, so you can't simply wait to recharge or fly away from them to get your wits about. Thankfully, the Super Move Cell gives you in the first mission "All Clear" is perfectly suited for this kind of scenario as it can be used while guarding and activates in a wide arc that can knock back multiple enemies at once. If you talk to him in Toki Toki City, Cell even mentions how useful it is when you're beig mobbed by multiple enemies at once. Making his second mentor mission the perfect test of how well you've mastered the "All Clear" attack.
  • ANY MISSION INVOLVING FINDING THE DRAGON BALLS. These have to be among the most annoying quests in the game (right after the 'keep The Load' alive quests), where you have to search a broad map for the Dragon Balls, which are usually being held within the vicinity of enemies. This isn't so bad when it comes to the first time you do the Quest on Namek, in which you only have to fight low-level members of Frieza's army and Guldo of the Ginyu Force (remember that Guldo was the first of the Ginyus to be killed). Then comes the other Quests, the harder versions, where you're fighting multiple enemies and the clock, trying to find the Dragon Balls. It's even worse when the Radar shows the ball as being about three feet inside the barrier that keeps you in the map. And what's even worse than that is scenarios like these, where one finds all the initial Balls, but then Trunks tells them there's more Dragon Balls to be found, and they're already nearly out of time. Then another enemy shows up, and the person playing the game calls it a day and goes to cry into their pillow.
  • Quest 37 - Potara Warrior: It requires you to protect Super Buu for several waves on powerful opponents. It's much more difficult then it sounds especially since his AI runs right into the opponents' special attacks and the all-regen capsules only work on the allies of your choice not the quest ally, so you cannot heal him either.
  • Quest 47 - Super Super Ultimate Series of Battles: You're required to go at it completely solo the first time, without even AI partners, and while it starts off easy the later fights involve three Super Saiyans all juggling you with unlimited Beam Spam. And you need to fight two groups of three, first Vegeta, Trunks, and Future Trunks, and then Goku, Gohan, and Goten. And when that's done, then you need to 1v1 SS3 Goku. Worse, this mission is where you get the "I... I'm OK..." Z-soul, which is required to finish Gohan and Videl's training missions. Expect to grind out this mission a lot in order to get it. At least you'll be able to bring along some backup for any repeat attempts of it after your first successful one, though. Quest 32, Super Saiyan Bargain Sale, is similar, only that you fight three groups of two (Goten and Trunks, Vegeta and Super Trunks, and Goku and Gohan), and it, too, is very unfair and does not allow you to bring allies the first time through. Basically, the game is trying to make you ragequit at this point.
    • It gets worse. No matter how long the battle goes, none of the Super Saiyan opponents ever run out of ki. This means that the computer is cheating, and that to circumvent it, you yourself have to resort to cheating with a trainer.
    • These two missions are so bad that Dimps included with DLC 1 a specific Z-Soul created just for the purpose of getting through them: "Haaaaaaaah!", which you get from completing training with the DLC mentor Tien and successfully sparring with him after. It makes you completely immune to Kamehameha spam. The good news is that if you download the DLC from the start, you can train with Tien early and have this Z-soul on hand by the time PQ32 comes along. The bad news is a new player will have no idea of the hell that awaits them, making this very much a case of Guide Dang It! (and borderline Sadistic Choice for players who don't like spending excess money on microtransactions, as these missions practically force the player to choose between shelling out for the DLC or praying the AI doesn't spam them into the next dimension with Kamehamehas (hint: God won't listen).
    • Words alone don't do justice to the cheapness. You really have to see for yourself to understand why these two quests qualify perhaps more than any others for That One Sidequest status (skip to 0:26 for the massacre that would make Broly himself jealous).
  • Small But Strong: Did you think DLC would be exempt from the artificial stupidity or general haxness of missions? You underestimate Dimps. The DLC quest seems simple enough at first. Fight GT Goku, GT Trunks, and Pan. Could be worse, right? Except, you have to kill Goku and Trunks before Pan, and then wait for the FINISH! to appear before you can kill Pan, so you trigger the Ultimate Finish. All of this would be fine and dandy if Pan's A.I. didn't charge in directly at anyone firing any moves, even sometimes directly at your super moves, as if she's ASKING to die. She's going to die several times, so much that you'll give Voldemort a run for his money in keeping a child alive until you kill them at the right time, and this Quest is nearly impossible to do without a human partner who knows what they are doing (which isn't many as far as the Online play is concerned). And to make it worse, even after you keep Pan alive, Trunks and Goku will get back up, transform further (SSJ and SSJ3) and then after you beat THOSE two, Goku will turn into a Super Saiyan 4. And grinding it is the only way the stingy, miserly RNG will ever give you the Super Spirit Bomb, or the z-soul that makes it work. Have fun!
    • This particular mission seems like it was almost designed for Cherry Tapping, as it can be completed without a human partner (reliably in fact, once you work out how) but it requires a specific AI partner to deal with Pan: a character weak enough not to kill her, strong enough not to be killed by her, and with moves that will stall her from throwing herself in your way. Ringing any bells? Yup, it's Guldo of the Ginyu Force! That squat little alien who most players will probably forget about after getting through the Frieza Saga makes an otherwise controller-throwingly hard mission almost something reasonable. You'll still have to be careful with your AOE attacks lest Pan slip away from your Guldo(s), but with 2 of them on your side (or Guldo and one of the Mook fighters if Pan is going down even to them) grinding this mission becomes a lot more bearable. And when you consider the name of this quest, almost a bit of Fridge Brilliance.
    • The sequel adds in Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta to assist Goku in the final stretch. Have fun again!
  • Insidious Plot: The normal goal of this mission is simple, defeat Towa and Mira. While that is pretty simple, Towa doesn't appear until Mira has lost about 75% of his health, and he has Super Armor which makes dealing damage without spamming ultimate moves a pain in the ass. Luckily Towa does not have Super Armor and is easy to put down. The REAL kicker is getting the Ultimate Finish. To enable the Ultimate Finish you have to beat Towa and Mira within three minutes, which is pretty simple if you can get past Mira's Super Armor easily, but then you must beat Towa and Mira AGAIN with a Time Patroller in Training joining in on the fight....did I forget to mention the whole mission only has FIVE MINUTES TO BEAT IT!? Even if you get lucky enough to beat Towa and Mira within three minutes, have fun trying to do it again with a third opponent to face as well with only about two minutes remaining on the clock without a good team.
  • Eternal Rival: The second to last Parallel Quest of the third DLC and arguably the hardest of them all. In this quest, your pitted against Goku and Vegeta who transform into every single form of Super Saiyan every time you defeat them. Every time they revive, they come come back with full health, essentially putting you through a Marathon Boss Battle. The real challenge comes when they final get to Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan forms as they fight more aggressive, do far more damage, they both have three bars of health apiece, and have massive super armor.
  • Finding the Dragon Balls in general so you can summon Shenron is a pain in the ass. Unlike before were you find them after destroying terrain such as mountains or buildings, or buying them at stores, you now have to do stages where a Time Patrol in Training shows up, this can be irritating as you can have streaks of them not showing up. And even if they do show up and you defeat them, there's a chance that you still won't get a Dragon Ball after defeating them! The capricious whims of the Random Number God practically mandate Dragon Ball hunters to camp out in the third PQ, killing Krillin, Tien and Yamcha over and over again in the hopes that a Time Patroller will show up (and that said Time Patroller will drop a Dragon Ball upon defeat).
  • Speaking of Dragon Balls. You need to get them if you want to change the size, voice or the skin color of your character.
  • Let's Train: Finishing it is pretty easy, but getting the Ultimate Finish (and thus the Super Dragon Flight skill) is painful. This involves killing Trunks before Vegeta, then Goku before Gohan. Sounds easy. Now remember that Gohan has half Goku's health and Trunks won't show up until Vegeta has already lost a good bit of health. Then add in the fact take into account that the AI loves to Gang Up on the Human in this level. This means that oftentimes you'll throw out a Super or Ultimate only for the character you're not targeting to jump in front of you and take full damage, dying (since they have less health) and screwing up the chance for an Ultimate Finish. And because the AI partners seem to invariably zoom in on the weaker fighters first, you'll almost certainly have to get through this one either alone or with a human partner.
  • Saiyan Warriors: This one is just a straight fight. But what a fight. It starts off with Nappa and Raditz, then moves up to SSJ Goten and SSJ Trunks, then SSJ Gotenks. That's the first area. The second starts off with SSJ Future Trunks and SSJ2 Gohan, then moves up to SSJ Goku and SSJ Vegeta, then finishes with Vegito. The third area starts with Bardock (who goes SSJ after taking damage) who is soon joined by Mystic Gohan and SSJ3 Goku. Beat them all and Legendary Super Saiyan Broly shows up; he leaves to Area 4 after taking damage. In the fourth area, you just have to defeat him. But if you go for the Ultimate Finish, he gets back up only to be joined by SSJ Vegito and SSJ3 Gotenks. It's the longest single PQ in the game and even a high-level character may have trouble surviving such a marathon.
  • Jaco's second and third mentor missions, Rare Metal? and What The Heck... respectively. The former starts out simple enough by having you fight some randomly generated CPU players, which would be fine if it weren't for the fact that one could potentially have moves like ''Planet Burst'' in their moveset. As if that weren't bad enough, the last leg of this match has you fight three of them at once. The latter is an entirely different beast; you start out fighting a bunch of Appule and Raspberry fighters at once, and they love to gang up on you and whittle away at your precious health. They can potentially go down easily, but when you get to the last two fighters, you get to deal with an Appule and Raspberry fighter with Super Armor and a ton of health. And to top it off, both missions trick you into thinking they'll be an easy time by being listed as Two-Star missions. Oh, and you have a 5 minute time limit on both. So even if you can somehow survive, you're still hurting for time even then.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Mira and Demigra in a sense, as both characters were intended as playable at one point and the special quotes they would have had with specific characters still exist in the game's code. Demigra in particular has distinctive quotes for both his normal form and his final form, some of which would have been quite cool to play out from a story sense (such as Piccolo challenging him as payback for controlling him in the Story Mode).
  • Mira at least eventually went to use, as he and Towa were both Promoted to Playable in DLC 2. Demigra remains wasted, though, and with the sequel out now, he probably always will be.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Unlike the Saiyan and Namek Sagas, the Android and Buu Sagas are scarce in content, containing only a few battles from each arc and skipping over a large amount of content solely to speed up the plot involvement of Demigra. Many more battles could have been altered by the villains in these two latter sagas, which would have resulted in more playable content.
  • The "change the future" idea ends up majorly underutilized in the main story, as it seems Towa and Mira can't come up with anything more creative than "give a villain a powerboost" (who the protagonist then beats up), and we're given little to no opportunity to see the sort of crazy What If? scenarios that might be made by their efforts. There's also never a case where, say, the player might need to beat up one of the good guys to keep the timeline on track (for instance, a good guy winning when they're not supposed to). Some more creative situations happen once Demigra gets involved, but, it unfortunately comes at the expense of the plot's pacing.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • A producer of Dimps acknowledged in an interview that the developers saw the mistakes and overall underwhelming nature of the previous Dragon Ball game, Battle of Z, and stated that Xenoverse was a way of making up for it and wanting the please fans again.
  • Has also done this for DBZ games as a whole for many fans, with a lot of people calling it the best DBZ game since the Budokai games and some going so far as the best DBZ game period.

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