- Primary Subject: Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3
- Key Update: Soul Change mechanic allowing players to transform into iconic characters.
- Status: Analysis
- Last Verified: 2026-07-10
- Quick Answer: We analyze the initial gameplay reveal of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, praising its graphical leap while expressing concern over a lack of significant gameplay evolution.
I want to be excited about Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3. While it looks like a huge graphical leap (not surprising considering Xenoverse 2 launched in 2016), the gameplay showcase left me wanting a proper evolution of it.
I love me some Dragon Ball. I grew up watching everything, from the original series, DBZ, even the despised Dragon Ball GT. Of course, the games were a huge part of my formative years. Something like Xenoverse was a dream come true. You not only got to be a part of the canon, but you got to reshape it with your very own unique character.
I played my fair share of Xenoverse 2 back in the day and dipped after a few updates. The combat was okay, but the content eventually lost me. Color me excited when I saw a brand-new follow-up build for newer hardware was announced.
Sadly, the recent gameplay showcased on July 9 didn’t pique my interest as much as I had hoped. Glimpses of interesting content were shown, like a whole city to explore, and new mechanics like being able to summon iconic characters and fight as them for a certain amount of time. You can also use them as assists in combos while playing as your character-created fighters. This is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the game, as it ties the Xenoverse franchise even more to the original canon. In the demo, Future Trunks and Vegeta were used both as a Soul Assist and to show off the Soul Change mechanic, but I’m sure there’ll be dozens of characters to choose from.
The Soul Change is an incredibly cool mechanic. Contextually, the Z-Warriors are among the strongest fighters in the universe, and they seem to have nailed that power fantasy by making them much more effective in combat compared to your character.
All that being said — everything else felt samey. Combo structure is the same as most Dragon Ball arena fighters, and after sinking over a hundred hours into Sparking Blast, I’ve had my fill of that. So what else is new in Xenoverse 3? So far, as I said, not a whole lot. Which is a shame.
There are also rumblings about transformations lasting only around 60 seconds based on a timer shown during the gameplay stream. This is still unconfirmed, as some users speculate the timer is the cooldown before you can go into another transformation (like going from SSJ1 to SSJ3). If it were to be confirmed, it’ll make things even more disappointing.
I get the game is coming out next year, but the first showcase being so bland just made me disappointed. I’m hopeful more systems can be shown in the near future. But as it stands, other than pretty visuals, I might stick to more Sparking Zero for my fill of arena combat.
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