Gamers district

Remember Dimps? The company behind the awesome Budokai series on the Playstation 2, well they're back, after a few years away from the Dragonball franchise they've been handed the keys to try and fix the damage caused by the previous Dragonball title "Battle Of Z" on last gen. The question is did they succeed? When announced Dimps would be developing the next title in the Dragonball franchise which later came to be known as Xenoverse, fans (including me) of the original Budokai series pretty much died with hype (metaphorically speaking of course) so there was a lot of high expectations, so no pressure Dimps you just have thousands of people childhoods resting on your shoulders. Xenoverse is also the first title in the franchise making the leap to next gen which if you think about it is now the current gen but it would still be released on last gen and pc.

Dimps decided to make a bold decision and implanted an RPG element into the game. The story is pretty basic. Someone is changing key moments in the Z fighters timeline which trunks who somehow in the future is a time patroller summons Shenron and wishes for a powerful warrior to help him and correct the timeline, this is where we the player get to create our own DBZ character (yes you read that right) unlike ultimate tenkaichi where your custom character had his own story seperate from the main DBZ sagas in Xenoverse the custom story is the only story blended in with the DBZ universe by travelling through time and correcting the timeline in various DBZ sagas including the Saiyan and Cell saga.

Character creation is pretty cool you have a lot more options than you did in Ultimate Tenkaichi ranging from jaw line to pupil colour, you also for the first time in a DBZ game get to choose what race you want your character to be, you can choose Saiyan, Earthling, buu, namekian and friezas race. I of course went for Saiyan race as I wanted to go super Saiyan (I mean come on who wouldn't). Now as this is an RPG style game your main hangout is a place called toki toki world which is populated by other NPC who you can interact with, real players who are in your Lobby have their names in yellow. Now to me this was off putting as I don't really like RPG games and if you don't this game might disappoint you but speaking of people who play a lot of RPG titles this game has hit their sweet spot as servers are having issues as they are constantly being overloaded with many fans trying to grind for items. Speaking of grinding this game requires a lot if you want to get the skills you'd like, you can do this by taking part in something called parallel quests, they are Xenoverse version of side quests each have their own difficulty rating and win conditions. The cool thing about this is you can take up to two support characters with you to help with the quest you can also choose to do offline or online parallel quests, online lets you team up with real players to take on these quests rather than the computer which can be really enjoyable and humble if you find good people to play with.
The upgrade system is quite of a let down for me as the amount of items you can have equipped is limited if you want to equip super Saiyan you have to sacrifice a ultimate slot but then you can just spam your ultimate move to get an easy victory which to me feels a bit of a cheat. But I'd say what really got to me is that you have to equip ki charge to be able to charge your ki faster otherwise the ki charges itself over time. So the RPG is a real hit and miss if you like RPG you will probably love this game if you prefer the original style this might disappoint

RPG element aside how does the combat handle? Well to me it doesn't look much different to the Battle Of Z style in gameplay you can be fighting several enemies at once and don't know if you're hitting them or if they're hitting you. I highly recommend you level up before taking on story missions as low levels it will take some time to clear it. Destructible environments are present in the game but at such a small scale you don't notice them for example doing final flash along the ground causes a path of mud but as soon as you've done your move its back to green grass, it's the grand scale destruction in the past games that really made me feel powerful, smashing people through mountains destroying a whole battlefield with spirit bomb were great and awesome but sadly Dimps chose not to implement it in this game which is a shame. Landing an ultimate can be annoying as most times you will miss and even funnier an enemy can be punching you while your causing chaos with an ultimate move which can be kind of strange and unrealistic (DBZ and unrealistic where have I heard that before hmm?).
Graphics on the other hand aren't brilliant but they aren't terrible with current gen running at 30FPS it looks smooth but if you're on pc 60FPS looks gorgeous but you know not all of us can afford high end gaming PCs least of all me but that's ok because graphics aren't everything.

Sound in this game is done quite well in some aspects but the scripted dialogue can be out of place and slow at times not to mention sometimes what's written in the subtitles is completely different to what is actually being said. Sound isn't my strong point so I won't dwell much on it but you can feel the pleasure of landing punches on your enemy even if it's hard to make out on screen if you're even landing them.

Overall this game is a hit and miss with RPG and non RPG players. I don't hate the game but I don't exactly love it, the combat system needs work and the customisation needs a make over and maybe add a non RPG mode for us DBZ fans who prefer the classic style of the beloved budokai series.

Rating: 6.8/10

My 3D Render
Professional Example

Next time i think i could improve is not spend too much time thinking of ways to model and just go for the simplest option.

I think i need to improve on modeling bigger objects in less time also i need to practice with more lighting and start learning advanced texturing instead of just drag and drop. I also need to start exploring other tools and modifiers to broaden my 3D skills and make my models more professional.

I think my Salts Mill modeling went well but it took too long, i also got my texture right for the buildings and environment but the thing that went well the most was my animation the end result was real smooth as i did it in 30fps.

my time management was probably the weakest point during the project as i spent too much time on one building and came very close to not having my work rendered in time.

in the past year i have learned many skills including how to do stitching (dot to dot in 3D) i also learned more about texturing, animation and basic lighting.

Id have to say i am most confident with animation and stitching at this stage but will try to get more confident with modeling.

I think in the end i didn't get what i intended at the start but i got something better even with obstacles with program compatibility and technical issues.

In my eyes i have got a long way to go to reach a professional standard with the lighting, modeling, texturing etc but with practice i will get there.