Our buddy Josh (“Kendamu”) is out at E3 taking in the gaming greatness and had a chance to stop by Bandai Namco for an interview with the company and to get some quick impressions of the newly-announced Dragon Ball XENOVERSE for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

The version of the game being shown is a very early prototype. Part of the company’s goal with the game is to bring in new stuff that has never been seen before in an “unparalleled Dragon Ball experience”. Some of these features will include destructible stages, lighting, and particle effects. There will be mid-battle expressions — as seen in one of the early screen shots with Super Saiyan Goku punching Freeza in the face — in very fast-paced battles that look and feel just like the anime.

The company hopes to incorporate fun-but-accessible controls, but goes on to explain that it is still a fighting game; chaining combos is still important. Transformations will be in real-time (and at least up the chain of power; they are unsure at this point about reverting back down), and are not set to be classified as separate characters.

The mysterious new character is still being held close to their chest, but the company does note that it is quite intentional that he seems to have features from many other, established characters in the series. The time machine, hourglass, and other features in these futuristic locales will all tie together.

The battles themselves feature free movement with a mix of ki-based attacks and hand-to-hand-combat. There is set to be more strategy such as being able to cancel out of super attacks and the ability to make your own combos. Super special attacks will be cinematic as we have seen before. A “strong” attack button can be held longer for an even stronger attack; other controls include a weaker attack button and a ki button, which should sound familiar to players of Dimps’ prior games, who the company explains really understands the franchise.

All versions of the game will share the same release date, which has not yet been announced, but is set to be revealed some time before the end of 2014.

Big thanks to Josh for doing a little legwork for us!