Team Naruto or Team Dragon Ball?
At the recent Bandai Namco event in Dublin, it was revealed that two new Anime Fighters were stepping into the arena:
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution and Dragon Ball: Xenoverse.
Now obviously, fans of either series will be all over their own respective franchise like flies on a bowl of delicious jam. But for those who are dipping their toe into this jam- sorry, genre, for the first time, which direction should they take?
Which series has the most to offer newcomers?
Which game will reap the most rewards?
Well, we can’t say for sure, but here are some hints that we gathered from the trailers and what Namco had to say about them.
The first thing we noticed, in both trailers, was that each game boasts that stereotypical OTT style that we’ve come to expect with anime brawlers. To be fair, it was hard to miss. There is a lot of gravity defying and giant fireballs present in both games, so no one needs to worry about these games losing their pep!
But whereas Dragon Ball is continuing to expand in terms of size and scale (which we’ll come to in a moment), Naruto is going for a more intense route in terms of combat and story. And what better way to bring this across than with the inclusion of robots?
Yes, the trailer we saw was heavily focused on the arrival of Mecha-Naruto and the intimidating Mecha-Kurama, who, for those who aren’t familiar, is essentially a giant robot fox/airplane hybrid.
While it doesn’t look like this installment of the franchise is set to do anything revolutionary, these new characters do add a certain zest to what is already an exciting game. Mecha-Naruto in particular looks genuinely creative in terms of his movement and fighting style. He crawls around on all fours a lot, and is somewhat reminiscent of the forever creepy Voldo, from the Soul Calibur series.
With the added bonus of being able to fire missiles, he should make for a formidable opponent. Whether he will be a secret character, boss character, or whatever, remains to be seen, but we figure he has enough personality that he will probably have a prominent role in this new story.
While Naruto is only set to be released on current gen consoles, Dragon Ball Xenoverse is set to release on both current and next gen, and it shows some signs of advancement in terms of gameplay as well. Whereas in previous games, you could have up to 4 players fighting at a time, Xenoverse allows you to play with up to 6.
This isn’t an entirely new concept, Marvel Vs Capcom 3 gave you 3 vs. 3 as well. That said, MVC3 was a 2D brawler, whereas this is a 3D open world. To have that many characters on-screen at once, in addition to DBZ’s distinctively manic gameplay, should mean a very exciting experience for players.
As well as this, the game looks terrific, taking pains to exhibit the neat next gen graphics that many of us have shelled out a lot of money for. Again, it uses a heavily stylized cel-shaded art style that is particularly well suited to this game and its intense action.
It was while we were admiring these graphics that we realized the narrator was talking a lot about “breaking tradition” and a “new excitement”. And that was when we were introduced to Xenoverse’s new character. As seen below, he has flaming red hair, a cape and a ‘Capsule Corps’ logo on his arm.
While Namco refused to go into any major details on who this character was, his appearance still indicates a new direction for the Dragon Ball series. Whereas previous games have stuck quite rigidly to the established Dragon Ball Z storyline, we learned that this game is set to buck the trend and explore an entirely new story in the DBZ universe.
“We are VERY excited about this character,” a Namco representative told us. Allegedly, he will have a major role to play in this new chapter, which suggests he may be the main character you play as in the Story Mode.
So, while DBZ is clearly taking some steps forward towards evolving the Anime Brawler, Naruto still seems more than capable of holding its audiences’ interest by exploring established trends and adding robots.
Both games feature new, and very different, characters, each one seemingly representative of their stances on the genre. Naruto may have more of the same, only better, but DBZ is taking a risk.
Which course of action will play off in the end?
Only time will tell.
Both Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution and Dragon Ball Xenoverse are set for a late 2014 release.
Check out both trailers below
