I believe I checked everything relevant in this DLC. I think overall it's a cool DLC, though there are flaws, especially stuff that makes me not see this expansion the way they probably expected.
I think the new characters in general look good, though a few of them feel like a downgrade from their Sparking Meteor versions to me, and I think could be added more to some of them like Android 8, they could take inspiration from the 1996 movie, but they decided to take the safe route, which okay is decent. I don't understand the omission of characters like Cyborg Tao, but I like how the new ones look, Jaco has reference to his manga. The new costumes and their references are cool too.
The 4 new character stories are cool too, only thing that bothers me is Tenshinhan stopping at the Freeza arc, Yamcha having the Saiyajin arc only and Kuririn skipping the Saiyajin arc for some reason, which is just lazy, but I'm at least happy they included the pre-ToP Super filler. Obviously the slide show problem continues, but I already got used to that a long time ago. The difficulty seems very unbalanced, so I expect they'll change that in a few days.
The new mode seems fun, I find it funny how the little story it has is a cheap copy of the Tournament of Time from Legends.
But now the time to address the elephant in the room, which is the price, actually isn't the major problem in my opinion, but how it's pretty much all content that should be in the base game already, and this was the big problem I felt when going through this dlc content, which didn't really make me feel it's something new, but rather just what was left out from the normal game.
-Most if not all the characters were discovered to have been cut from the base game previously.
-The new mode and stories could've very well been free content honestly, if they don't want those who don't buy this dlc playing with the “new” characters, they could solve this by removing them from the new mode, and allowing them to appear for those with the DLC only.
-The new stories also have absolutely no justification for being paid content, as the 4 stories are for characters already available in the regular game. I would understand if the new stories were for DLC characters, but it's not the case. Their “justification” is that in the Tenshinhan story, the moveset from his Tenkaichi Budokai version is used, like, wtf, why not just use the same Tenshinhan from the base game then? The story doesn't have any pre-Raditz segments after all.
The game should've released this year honestly, I don't like how it was rushed, but I actually personally would've forgiven them if it still came out the way it did, but this DLC was free, or much cheaper, so those who paid for the beta test in 2024 would be compensated, because unfortunately they sold a beta test under high price and they're using the cut content to sell it twice. All of it should be free, or most of it if I'm being generous.
Unfortunately we don't live that reality, so I personally think this DLC is just not worth it, i don't like this kind of practice and I for sure wouldn’t buy it (also because of my conditions). But a lot of people got excited and still bought it anyway, after all this franchise has a lot of loyal fans and the company knew they could do this because these fans would buy it (to make it clear that I'm not judging or complaining about these fans, after all some of them are users in this forum. Everyone knows what they do with their money. I'm just commenting on how this is a reality)
I think it's very weird because when it comes to Xenoverse 2, a very short time ago released DLCs where you actually got genuine new content instead of cut content, and if you bought the pack sets, you would get the upcoming content without having to pay for them twice. A much fairer practice imo, Sparking Zero itself had it with the Season Pass. But it doesn't stop here, as I think there's something worse.
It's important to remember that this same game had the Ultimate Edition, which pretty much became obsolete now thanks to the Legendary Edition which made things cheaper for everyone who bought it now! They just treated anyone who bought the Ultimate Edition like a Baka! For me it shows they just get worse with time, I don't remember something like this with any other Dragon Ball. It makes me fear how much of this practice they are going to adopt for Xenoverse 3, I think the chances of them repeating this for that game are high, I hope not, but it's unlikely. It doesn't make me happy how the success of this franchise made them feel so accommodated to the point of mistreating the fans and their money like this, I know there are other companies and franchises that already do stuff like this for a longer time. But I don't remember something like this happening with Dragon Ball before, so it marks a new low for Bandai with this franchise imo.
Anyway, just a big rant from myself at the end, as those aspects just got in the front of everything else to me, but I still liked the new content, I know what I said above probably isn't a surprise for anyone here. Honestly I would prefer if from now on they just have regular DLCs only, so every player will have the same experience and not fall for traps like the Ultimate Edition nearly 2 years ago (it was literally removed from Steam), I don't think they should do a “Meteor” DLC, much less if it's paid again, unless the content feels genuinely new and not stuff that should've been in the game already from the start. If it will be another true ultra edition, no way. But those who actually play it might know better than me.
Using what they've done here as a basis, people would buy the base XV3 game in 2027, I would recommend them to avoid any higher editions, then wait until 2029 for the expansion with the possible cut content. Of course supposing that XV3 will have the same treatment as Sparking Zero, which i hope will not. Selling the beta base game of Sparking Zero was one thing, I don't like it but okay if they are forced to meet schedules, and players can simply buy that base game + the future dlcs separately, completely ignoring any higher editions. Now Selling a beta Legendary Edition was new for me, I already view that as a scam.
The negativity aside, here's a cool video showcasing the changes and upgrades made to this.
✪ Good Afterlife to Toriyama, the Ultimate Consciousness of the Dragon Ball World. Good Mortal Life to Toyotaro, the Successor. ✪