"Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" Official Discussion Thread

Discussion of all things related to Dragon Ball video games (console and portable games, arcade versions, etc.) from the entire franchise's history.
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Bardock God of Time
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Re: "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" Official Discussion Thread

Post by Bardock God of Time » Sun May 03, 2026 6:40 pm

One mechanic I've seen suggested is beam clashes, I don't think beam clashes would really work in Xenoverse's type of gameplay (same with Fusions)

I just want them to focus on making the character creation and mentor customization more in depth: more races, custom aura colors, more body types, moveset options, hairstyles instead of wigs

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Re: "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" Official Discussion Thread

Post by Yuli Ban » Sun May 03, 2026 9:51 pm

Grimlock wrote: Sun May 03, 2026 12:43 pm Please stop asking/wanting Xenoverse (or any game, for that matter) to have battle mechanics from another line of games. It's stupid and it's unrealistic. Battle mechanics is one of the main factors that separate a game from another, it's one of the things that help a game to have its own identity. You can't in all seriousness want Xenoverse to have Budokai Tenkaichi combat. This will never happen, this should never happen. If you want to play a game with Budokai Tenkaichi battle mechanics, play a Budokai Tenkaichi game.

Expecting this to happen is just setting yourself for disappointment. And it will definitely not be the game's fault (or one of its cons) when they don't give you what you unrealistically want.
Well that's why I say it's the dream, I never said I actually expect it. The dream Xenoverse would have all these things. The same way the dream sandwich would probably bankrupt me or give me a heartattack.
Realistically unless you had some advanced AI vibe coding slop at superhuman levels or a team of 5,000 professional coders, I don't even want to imagine the complexity of BT3-level combat for over a hundred series characters AND the dynamic fuzzy possibilities over god knows what the player themselves creates, with all the special attack equipping, race and clothing states, and whatnot. That makes sense; it's the golden pipe dream to have a Xenoverse game that dares, but I'm not going to expect it.

It's only something to dream about because I've always felt Xenoverse's combat felt... off. I've long struggled to describe what it is about it, and why Xenoverse feels unsatisfying compared to the Tenkaichi/Sparking series (prior to Zero) when ostensibly they play similarly, and thus Tenkaichi is the easiest reach.

The only battle mechanic that does, however, bother me they never implemented in Xenoverse is, and will always be, Ultimate Tenkaichi's custom mentor-based combos. That one is almost inexcusable in a game all about custom characters and mentors. I don't even necessarily buy the "balance" argument just because I feel there's been ways to mitigate this, again such as with buffs and nerfs to other abilities. The mechanical possibilities of such a thing (learning individual characters' combos, or being part of a dedicated school) opens themselves to a game like Xenoverse's story and game-meta almost on principle, so it's kind of sad we might never get that unless we're lucky. Likewise I don't fully buy the idea that this is difficult to implement compared to Sparking-type gameplay because player-created mods allow you to swap fighting styles with no breaking of the meta or the spaghetti code. It's like auras (one of the most basic free mods is literally an aura swapper): if it's that easy for modders to do and it fits the vibe and ethos of the game, then it literally has to be a corporate decision as to why it's not in there.
Again... distantly, I can give Xenoverse 1 and 2 SOME benefit of the doubt. They were made in a very different era of Dragon Ball, when the IP just wasn't bringing in anywhere near as much money and was largely seen as retired, and by those standards, the Xenoverse games were AAA titles in comparison to what we had been getting.
Here though, I can't help but raise expectations that they at least consider something like it.

Now I don't expect this one outright and I might just be misreading promotional material, but there's a part of me that wonders if XV3 is going to lean in as hard towards being "arena fighter Dragon Ball Online" as possible and literally involve you creating multiple characters to create a party, or at least being able to create a party from other NPCs and online PCs. It's probably not their intention, but you never know.


Edit: just to ground my argument about the BOTD for XV's lack of polish in many areas still being a step up at the time
A thread from 2018 I bookmarked
Limit-Breaking wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 12:13 pm This comes from a released article of this year and deserves a lot of attention, and i will go into showing what they had said as well as leaving you links if you want to see it. I hope You enjoy :D

Dragon Ball Super Tv Series came to a close this year, and many wonder if they will come back with a new series or why they should. Well Dragon Ball Ip Sales is a perfect reason as to why the show has a high chance of coming back. No joke all you have to do is take a look into Bandai namco Sales From 2018 and it will leave you jaw dropping.

Image
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Dragon Ball brought in all kinds of cash for Bandai Namco in 2018. The fiscal year, which ranged from April 2017 to March 2018, saw Dragon Ball rake in nearly 98,000,000,000 yen.
Yes, that is nearly 100 billion yen. Convert that to USD, and you will find that Dragon Ball’s IP sold about $888,256,418 which is nothing to sneeze at.

The 2018 fiscal year saw a sharp rise in profits from even the 2017 records as it brought in about 61.1 billion yen. 2016 was marked at about 35 billion yen, and Dragon Ball was only clocking in at 6.4 billion yen before Dragon Ball Super got its debut. So, you can see what kind of cash the revival brought to Bandai Namco since the company does oversee all of the series’ merchandise.

Not only did Dragon Ball bring in serious cash for Bandai Namco, but it did what many thought was impossible. In 2017, Mobile Suit Gundam still outsold Dragon Ball thanks to its massive Gunpla market, but the Saiyan series managed to beat out the mecha franchise in 2018. Dragon Ball sold nearly 98 billion yen in 2018 which eclipsed the 68.3 billion yen Mobile Suit Gundam brought in. And, if Bandai Namco did all its forecasting correct, then Dragon Ball will beat out Mobile Suit Gundam once more in 2019.

Not only that but they expected in 2017 that dragon ball was going to drop 15 billion yen once 2018 came around, so they thought it would go from 61.1 billion yen to 46.1 billion yen in 2018. But instead Dragon Ball increased from a 61.1 Billion yen to a whopping 97.9 Billion yen Within just a year. Basically it gained more money, and had an increase of about 36.8 billion yen in 2018.


It would be considered crazy to drop a franchise like dragon ball at this point in time especially the amount of money it's making. Either way i hope you enjoyed the topic and
Down below are the links for the article and Bandai namco IR Financial Results.

http://comicbook.com/anime/2018/05/15/d ... ney-anime/

https://www.bandainamco.co.jp/cgi-bin/r ... ry_id=5900
And a 2025 update of sorts
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It really needs to be understood how little Dragon Ball was bringing in circa 2008-2016 to understand why games from that era felt more rote, less polished, and increasingly slapdash. Series was over, Kai wasn't doing great, and 7th gen development costs were massively higher. Battle of Z had a 3 year development cycle and even it felt like the most generic possible "DBZ Game on Autopilot"
So Xenoverse not reaching the full extent of its potential in retrospect makes more sense. Why put in AAA levels of funding if you're expecting maybe a million in sales at most, and often aren't even reaching that anymore? Xenoverse 1 was enough of a success to warrant a sequel that mildly improved off Xenoverse 1 to fix a few of the problems players noted, and they probably thought XV3 would come a year or two later realistically. Then the Super era began and the rest is history


That is also why my expectations are higher, however, and why I do hope they pull out way more stops. There's far less of an excuse this time around.
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Re: "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" Official Discussion Thread.

Post by IntangibleFancy » Wed May 06, 2026 6:11 pm

Grimlock wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2026 8:50 pm It might be too early, but here's what I think at this moment:

Yes, the game takes place in AGE 1000, but there's little to no relation to Dragon Ball Online, in virtually all senses. They asked Toriyama to come up with his own version of the world set two hundred and sixteen years in the future but without the Time Patrol stuff. Notice how Majins and Namekuseijins don't appear at all, it seems to be just Earthlings. And that one in an alley with a Saiyan tail, if I were to guess, that's a synthetic tail, he's not really a Saiyan (also that hair... Not really an usual Saiyan hair, right?). I don't know what to make of the "Demon Realm pop singer", though.

That's the vibes I'm getting from all that was revealed so far. Of course, this is all from a lore perspective I'm talking about. I'm sure we will still be able to create and play as a member of all those races and apparently one with a pointy ear (from the Demon Realm, perhaps?). I might be terribly wrong and I truly hope I am, I don't want Dragon Ball Online content to vanish entirely, they can reduce it, sure, but let it still be part of the game to some extent.

One more thing: if the previous trailer already confirmed something neat (spiked-up hair upon transforming), this one already confirmed something not-so-neat (still no voice acting for the protagonist. Bummer).

I noticed that too. And I kinda don't like it. I also don't like the hard futuristic vibe they're going for. I get that it's in the future so it kinda goes with the territory, but with the DBO trailer it actually felt like that living, breathing dragon ball world that they claim Age1K/XV3 is going to be.

I also really hope the game doesn't just take place in new West City because the second interview and the description is giving me that impression. I'd rather them let us be able to travel to a version of Planet Vegeta and Sadala in Universe 6, or Planet Namek or Yardrat. Because small hub worlds for these places with their own lore and worldbuilding is far better than an inspired district in West City.

I guess it's all too much to judge off of a preview though.
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Re: "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" Official Discussion Thread.

Post by angeldreamZ004 » Wed May 13, 2026 4:10 am

IntangibleFancy wrote: Wed May 06, 2026 6:11 pm
It depends on the way you see it though. The official description of the game on Steam puts a lot of emphasis on you exploring a "New Dragon Ball World" a "Unexplored Dragon Ball World", a "New Experience".
They never said that this would be similar to the world seen in DBO, but the same description says "the world of Dragon Ball continues to expand" so I know what you mean.

But we need to remember one thing. If this game is called Xenoverse 3 and they're very likely going to make battles similar to XV1 / 2, then we can take what is seen as a pattern in Dragon Ball games, where most fights happen in deserted places or open fields (which is quite accurate to how is in the regular series), most of the maps aren't cities or places that resemble what we see in the trailer.

Also, note to the Great Saiya Squad having to investigate incidents. These incidents can very well take place outside the city, this could be very well where we go to more deserted areas / open fields / natural environments to fight. Remember Gamma 1? He's seen flying over a snowy place.
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Re: "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" Official Discussion Thread

Post by Hellspawn28 » Wed May 13, 2026 12:14 pm

Do you think all of the DLC from XV2 will be in the base game?
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Re: "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" Official Discussion Thread

Post by angeldreamZ004 » Wed May 13, 2026 12:30 pm

No because if they include all characters and adapted content from XV2 DCLs, that will mean XV3 will barely have anything to cover in its DLCs. Its future would basically be DLC with characters from the Moro Arc, Granola arc and the characters who are only seen in Sparking Zero for example (like the Pilaf-Majunior arc characters, who are completely absent from XV2. Though I personally think XV3 is more willing to include stuff from the early original series as well in the base game)

I believe the game is going to include most of what already exists in animated format. Gamma 1 is seen in the trailer, meaning that the base game is going to have stuff from Super Hero which was the penultimate content we got in animated format. I think Daima stuff is very likely going to be in the base game as well given how it was being made a few years prior to Toriyama's death and the game was being developed at the same time. The reveal trailer also shows characters such as Beerus, Broly from Super and Gohan from Super Hero.
So I think XV3 will be covering all of those mainline stories and only ignore the XV2 DLC characters that they don't consider important, like...Videl (Super)

Outside from that, stuff that is going to be left out are those that are either minor, or hadn't Toriyama involved, such as GT (as usual lol)
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Re: "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" Official Discussion Thread

Post by Bardock God of Time » Wed May 13, 2026 2:04 pm

I feel like the only missing DLC characters would be the Ultra Supervillain versions

They'll have some new villain powerup form in XV3 probably

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Re: "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" Official Discussion Thread

Post by Hellspawn28 » Wed May 13, 2026 8:55 pm

XV2 had XV1 DLC on the base game. So I hope XV3 won't make us buy the same characters twice.
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Re: "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" Official Discussion Thread

Post by Yuli Ban » Wed May 13, 2026 10:05 pm

Hellspawn28 wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 8:55 pm XV2 had XV1 DLC on the base game. So I hope XV3 won't make us buy the same characters twice.
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Re: "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" Official Discussion Thread

Post by miguelnuva1 » Fri May 15, 2026 12:41 am

Hellspawn28 wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 8:55 pm XV2 had XV1 DLC on the base game. So I hope XV3 won't make us buy the same characters twice.
XV2 has too many characters considering we have a new art style but I can see a lot of them returning.

Throw out all the Ultra Supervillian characters/what ifs and they might get close.

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Re: "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" Official Discussion Thread

Post by The Dark Knight » Fri May 15, 2026 1:01 am

miguelnuva1 wrote: Fri May 15, 2026 12:41 amXV2 has too many characters considering we have a new art style but I can see a lot of them returning.
If they're going to reuse all the same animations and base character models, then chances are everyone will return. However, if everything is getting rebuilt from the ground up, then a lot of people are going to be disappointed with the roster.

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Re: "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3" Official Discussion Thread

Post by Trouser » Fri May 15, 2026 6:25 pm

I just want an open world and lots and lots of Trunks' versions.
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