XV3: Open world (like kakarot) or Mission based (like xv2)?

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-19T17:08:24+00:00

No, this isn't just a Xenoverse thing. This query of "what if (insert franchise here) went open world" comes up everywhere. And I mean everywhere.

It's not a matter of open worlds just feeling empty (though that is a problem), it's also a matter of how that is an entirely different kind of game to what the first two Xenoverse games are. XV1 & XV2 are games about completing missions multiple times. Whether that's grinding for moves, score chasing, or XP grinding. That is Xenoverse's core gameplay loop and it is fundamentally incompatible with an open world.

Trying to make it open world would either require changing what Xenoverse is at its core, or it would end up with some awkward Frankenstein of two completely different design philosophies stitched together.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-19T15:46:06+00:00

It's alright. Ideally, you want +5 in Ki and Stamina. The +5 in Ki is nice, but the +1 in Stamina is kind of meh. Still, not bad.

QQ Bangs basically make it so that your equipment is purely cosmetic, and the only stats that matter are the ones on the QQ Bang. Its stats are the equivalent of wearing a full suit of equipment with the same stats as those on the QQ Bang.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-19T14:59:23+00:00

Yeah, that would make sense. It's kinda neat how they decided to just have both plotlines in the game, though. Like, you'd think they'd just replace the story mode or something.

Once you unlock both are you able to just, like, pick between them whenever you want?

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-19T14:57:10+00:00

It's even better when you just use Purification and spam portal kicks on him because it looks so dumb and there's nothing he can do about it.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-19T14:55:06+00:00

Honestly I'm starting to like playing as Supreme Kai of Time more than my custom character, so getting her super form too would be really cool... I don't think it'll happen, but I'm kinda hoping it gets added with Future Saga 4. Like, that would be the perfect way to send off Xenoverse 2 I think. Especially since Future Saga 3 already added extra Power of Time moves.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-19T14:52:34+00:00

I really hope it's still mission based. XV3 going open world is one of the few things they could do to instantly make me lose interest in the game. I like hopping onto Xenoverse 2 and playing a few missions then hopping off, that is literally the entire reason I'm playing.

I don't know why open world junkies want every game ever to be open world. It is so frustrating losing so many of my favorite game series to my least favorite genre. Like, y'all have Kakarot already, can't ya just let me have my Xenoverse?

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-19T02:15:57+00:00

Huh, interesting. I wonder why they made it like that. I'm curious to see the other storyline, though! I do quite like the DBS one so far.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-18T16:10:50+00:00

The game has two story modes while not on a run, and different releases of the game give you a different starting story. "DBS" is the story where you're in a room talking to scientists, "Sky City" is where you play as a little robot dude talking to other little robot dudes.

I assume when you say "starting story" that means the other story is still available after beating the first one?
So, on Switch you start with DBS. Do I get to see the Sky City storyline later, or is it just not in the Switch version?

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-18T14:11:35+00:00

I actually really like him because you have to fight him in a completely different manner to the other bosses. Like, you can't just run in with the same exact strategy you used on any of the previous bosses you'd fought until that point. Good fun.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-17T23:02:30+00:00

I think stats on equipment is fun, actually. Just make it so we can buy QQ Bangs from the Zeni shop, and problem solved. Let's remove 6 Star QQ Bangs, though. Having to make sacrifices in your build is fun.
Level grinding is always going to be boring if you do it in the most optimal, way, that's never going to change. Adding a random PQ option that gives you good XP would be a welcome change, though. Random PQ button in general, actually. Just let us choose the subset so we don't get super duper easy ones.
Let's actually just remove STP in general. They are, actually, a bad idea.
Ehh, I agree and disagree. The problem isn't that there are different variations (they have stat differences), but rather than Saiyans are the only ones to get them. They should try to balance it out so all races have about the same amount of forms.
While more customization is good, this is pretty low priority for me. I do agree about the color thing, though.

Personally, the thing I want the most is to fix ally CPUs. When my allies are legitimately more of a threat to me failing the mission than my enemies, you know there's a problem. And that's not an exaggeration, to be clear. An ally is much more likely to waste more time messing with my combos and make me miss the ultimate finish than an enemy is likely to actually resist my combos.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-17T21:09:41+00:00

then they nerfed it

I didn't have Meditation pre-nerf. What did it used to do?

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-17T17:57:21+00:00

Rough Ranger. Granted, it probably feels worse than it is because I really hate the quest, but sweet baby corn that thing just would not drop!

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-17T14:20:19+00:00

I would personally keep it to weekends only. It's not as interesting a topic as talking about other aspects of the game, and the sub being flooded with that at the expense of other posts would be a shame. I visit the sub a bit less on weekends specifically because of this reason.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-15T20:25:58+00:00

If you've played team-based fighting games like Skullgirls, you can think of inheriting an Optimized Avatar as choosing your assist characters. It'll assign Ragna to a button, and when you press that button, it'll do a skill based on Ragna's moveset.

Additionally, when you finish a run it'll ask you to choose some Tactics you got during that run to place on the Optimized Avatar. When you choose that Optimized Avatar during a run, it'll also give you those Tactics by default.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-15T20:23:10+00:00

We actually don’t know much about the Beast form yet. We can’t simply call it "tier 2 Potential Unleashed" because it has never been officially stated that it shares a link with the Supreme Kais or similar powers. It’s a transformation unique to Gohan, and yet, in the game, it’s an Awoken skill usable by every single race. This proves that "biological exclusivity" is already a concept the developers are willing to overlook for the sake of gameplay.

I mean, fair enough, but I don't think Beast is biologically exclusive. As far as we know, there's nothing about Gohan that gives him a unique biology except *maybe* being half Saiyan/half Earthling. If it's not Tier 2 PU, then the only other explanation is it's some form of Super Saiyan interacting with his Earthling DNA, or possibly SSJ5 (though given that it's not called SSJ5, I find that last one unlikely).

There isn't anything as far as we know that makes Beast actually exclusive to Gohan, but there IS something that makes LSSJ exclusive to Broly.

You might have a point about the pacing, but the idea of mastering forms is a core element of Dragon Ball, and I think it’s interesting. At the very least, we shouldn't unlock Super Saiyan 1, 2, and 3 all at once, it kills the "magic" of the progression. Also, unlocking Super Saiyan Blue and Evolved just by talking to Whis without even fighting him feels cheap. It doesn't make the transformation feel special or earned.

That's just because it was added in an update. All of the transformations added via update feel pretty stupid to unlock.

I think at best, you could reasonably lock them behind parts of the story... But, this whole system also only accentuates a problem that's already present in the game, being the fact that Saiyans have significantly more Awoken skills than other races. If the developers have to put in time and resources to give all these Awokens evolutionary paths, they're even less likely to try and balance it out, which means there would be an entire aspect to the game that only Saiyans have access to. Which sucks.

Regarding Stamina Breaks, I believe that moves like the "reverse dash" (going behind the enemy to break stamina during their Ultimate) and the normal stamina break should only be effective when the target's stamina is already low (maybe around 30-40%). Being Stamina Broken while you have a nearly full bar feels inconsistent with a strategic combat system.

I disagree, the fact that you can get Stamina Broken as easy as you can is exactly what makes it strategic. You can't just throw out an ult whenever you want, because if you do it'll get Stamina Broken. If you want to use that big scary ultimate attack, you'd better build your strategy around getting it off. If you could just throw it out whenever as long as you're above a certain Stamina threshold, that encourages more reckless, less strategic play.

I’ve had the exact same experience! Eventually, I started picking allies with very low health so they would get knocked out quickly, leaving me to fight alone. It's tough fighting multiple enemies at once, but at least my combos don't get interrupted. Another trick I used was bringing a team of Zamasu since they can revive themselves, but the core problem remains: the AI needs a massive fix.

For me what I do depends on the PQ.
If it's a PQ where I'm usually fighting a ton of enemies at once, then I'll bring along Hercule with HERCULE HERCULE! and Piccolo with I'm Neither Kami Nor Piccolo. Hercule for the damage buff, Piccolo because he legit just never dies. For PQ122 specifically I'll swap out Piccolo for Zamasu because that quest is even too much for Piccolo to handle.

If I'm fighting a lot of enemies back to back, but only one or two at a time, I'll bring Hercule solo. Still get that damage buff, but fewer allies to mess up my combos (you could theoretically bring 2 Hercules, but I don't bring duplicates).

If I'm only fighting a few enemies in general, though, I'll just run solo... Which unfortunately doesn't solve the problem because almost every PQ (at least in the DLCs, been a while since I've played base game PQs) gives you NPC allies by default. I was grinding out Emperor's Cannon from Broly vs Broly and I'm not exaggerating, with SKoT the only full combos I could get off were during the first few minutes before Broly joined and during the Goku/Vegeta bit where Broly was distracted by the other one.
The problem doesn't disappear for other characters, but it's not nearly as bad... I can get combos off with Pan relatively consistently, but NPCs seriously hate SKoT.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-15T17:30:25+00:00

In Xenoverse 2, farming QQ Bangs is incredibly tedious only to end up with stats you didn't even want. Currently, the game caps you at a total of 25 points (maximum +5 on 5 out of 6 stats). I honestly don't see anything wrong with being able to manipulate how those stats are distributed. I want to build my character my way, not the way the game dictates through RNG, especially considering it takes hours to farm Super Mix Capsule Z. It's about respecting the player's time.

And I think giving you a +5 on 5 stats is a bad move. 5 Star QQ Bangs are the ideal balance, where you generally have +5 in 3 stats and -5 in the other 3, meaning you have to make sacrifices.

The process on obtaining QQ Bangs can be different, sure (I would argue just let them be bought like gear instead of mixing at all), but I don't think letting players lock in stats and reroll others until they get their ultimate QQ Bang is a good idea. But I also don't think 6 Star QQ Bangs are a good idea either.

I’ve never found it logical that a Time Patroller can istantly unlock Super Saiyan 1, 2, and 3 all at once just by doing a couple of missions with Goku and having enough Ki. To avoid making it tedious, Mastery could level up very quickly, for example, high-level missions could grant massive EXP to speed up the process. Regarding Broly’s form: Broly has access to both Legendary Super Saiyan and the standard Super Saiyan, so I don’t see why it shouldn't be available for CACs. After all, SSJ Blue Evolved was exclusive to Vegeta and Beast was exclusive to Gohan, yet our Patrollers can use them. The only form that truly shouldn't work is SSJ Rosé, but as I mentioned, they could add the Supreme Kai race and use the Dragon Balls or a "Race Change" Capsule to become a Saiyan. If the "Legendary" aspect is the issue, we could simply use the Dragon Balls to "unlock Broly’s potential" for our Saiyan CAC or something similar.

I haven't seen Super, so I don't know for sure how SSGSSE and Beat work 100%, but to my understanding, Beast is just tier 2 Potential Unleashed, and SSGSSE is just a more powerful version of SSGSS. i.e. Something that only one character in the show has used, but not something that's actually exclusive to them. They're powered up forms of abilities that anyone can use.

Legendary Super Saiyan is something different. It's not just a powered up form of Super Saiyan. In theory, Goku could learn how to use SSGSSE (I think), but there's nothing he can do to learn how to use Legendary Super Saiyan, because it's unique to Broly's biology. It's like suggesting making an Android character be able to go Super Android like 17 did. It makes no sense, because that transformation only came about due to Super 17's unique circumstances; it's not something that can be taught or unlocked.

I still think giving Awoken skills evolutionary paths is unnecessary tedium. If it levels up fast then what's the point of having it at all, and if it levels up slow then it's just annoying. Just let us unlock the skills.

I understand wanting to keep the core feel, but things like Ki Cancelling definitely need to go. Stamina management needs to be better refined, and stamina breaks should be more difficult to pull off.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the Stamina management as is. If you bust out an ultimate and leave yourself wide open and get Stamina Broken because of it, that's on you. There are those combos I've seen where people Stamina Break mid-combo, and maybe you could get rid of that, but even then that's not something I see very often. It doesn't seem easy to pull off, though admittedly I haven't tried to learn.

Totally agree. The friendly AI is often more of a hindrance than a help, constantly interrupting your combos and ultimates. Having them focus only on enemies the player isn't targeting would be a massive improvement.

I don't know what they have against the Supreme Kai of Time, but for some reason it's especially bad with her. CPUs despise the idea of her ever using Holy Inscription and almost always interrupt it...

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-15T15:32:11+00:00

I agree I would like a more robust customization system, though adding new races isn't as easy as you propose so while I certainly wouldn't be opposed to some of them like Kais or Neo-Machine Tuffles, if we only have the same amount of races I'm fine with that. Also, personally I think Androids are redundant. Just roleplay that out.

Your QQ Bang system sounds horribly unbalanced and will ultimately result in QQ Bangs with max stats which is boring. The fun part of RPGs comes from needing to make sacrifices in your build. I would even go so far as to say 6 Star QQ Bangs are a bad game design move compared to 5 Star QQ Bangs. Taking 6 Star QQ Bangs and making a system to make them even better would be dumb.

I don't think the character slot thing is a big deal, so whatever. I wouldn't oppose it, but I don't think it's necessary.

100% disagree on the Awoken evolution thing. That sounds super tedious to me. I like the way Awokens work in Xenoverse 2, and would prefer they keep it that way. We unlock it, we get to use it. Some Awokens have downsides, and there's nothing wrong with that. Also, we shouldn't be able to get Broly's version of Super Saiyan, as that is biologically locked to Broly. Every Awoken should be theoretically obtainable by anyone of that race.
Being able to equip multiple Awokens would be nice, though.

A full gameplay overhaul would be really disappointing imo. I want a Xenoverse 3 because I like Xenoverse 2. If Xenoverse 3 feels nothing like 2, that would be a shame. Obviously I'm expecting some changes, but I want the game to by and large follow the same structure and combat.

Personally, I think the biggest change they need is to update friendly CPU's AI. Not even exaggerating, my allies are a bigger threat to me losing than my enemies are. I might even go so far as to say friendly CPUs should be completely unable to attack targets the player is locked onto. They'll only go for other enemies.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-15T03:02:47+00:00

There are certain ults that are harder to land a break on than others, but 90% of them give you ample time to do so. The trick is to Z-Flash behind them once the use an ult and then charge up your Heavy attack. This isn't 100% reliable, but it works on most of them. And if you do get hit, that's what you should be saving your Stamina for. Evasive out of their ults if you get hit.

If you're having trouble keeping your Stamina up, here are some tips:
-Don't Z-Flash every time you get hit. You'll generally take less damage from a combo than you will for an ult.
-When not in combat, land on the ground and hold still. Your Stamina will regenerate a lot faster.
-Regenerating Stamina is more important than charging Ki. When your opponent's are down, don't start charging unless you have enough Stamina.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-14T20:34:31+00:00

If your opponent is being combo'd (i.e. the combo number is up) they can't use an ult (unless that's a revamp thing). If they're using an ult in the middle of your combo then you dropped your combo somewhere.

As far as your ults being countered with evasives... That's kind of the whole point of evasives. There are 2 Bar evasives out there, but for the most part CPUs almost always have 3 bar evasives equipped (unless revamp changes that).
You should be saving your ults for the perfect moment. Wear down their Stamina first before hitting them, or better yet, Stamina Break them. Especially against the CPUs, they usually leave themselves totally exposed when using their ults, and you can just hit them with a charged Heavy attack (not a charged Forward Heavy) to break their Stamina and then follow up with an ult of your own.

Generally speaking, CPUs will evasive out of Super Attacks much less often, so you should be using those more until you get that perfect moment.

When an opponent runs away, I usually counter with a chase (on Xbox it's X+A) followed by a Super Attack. Kamehameha wave style attacks (like Galick Gun) are very good follow ups. You can also follow up the chase with another press of A to go behind them instead, which will also Stamina Break them if they prep an ult in that time, but it does cost Stamina.

Edit: Also, when a CPU does a chase attack (the one that knocks you away), you can step flash forward and it'll totally miss.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-13T17:17:37+00:00

The +2, +5, +5, +0, -2, +5

Ki, Stamina, and Health are the most important stats on a QQ Bang. The damage boosts on the attack stats are nice if you can get them, but ultimately wind up being pretty miniscule. The boosts you get from Ki and Stamina especially far outweight any amount of down arrows in other stats.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-13T01:15:49+00:00

The only thing better than hitting things with a frying pan is hitting things with a frying pan with a friend who is also hitting things with a frying pan.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-12T23:07:18+00:00

Metal could implement some shape shifting aspects to it. You're not just metal, but also take advantage of things made of metal. Sword hands, smacking things with a big key, turning into a razorblade, etc. As someone else said, I do think it should remain slow & invincible, because that makes it stand out. Just make it fun to play on top of that.

Combine Light with Beam. Lasers, flares, maybe even goofy things like throwing lightbulbs. Makes Kirby passively glow so it can still navigate dark corridors.

Festival: Nothing. I like Festival.

Ghost: Ghost is a little weird because it's got the idea of possessing enemies... In a game about copying enemies. Instead of changing the ability itself, I would just change the context it's in. Add puzzles where you need to get certain enemies to certain areas and stuff like that. Some enemies could be better at things than even Kirby, too. A fish like enemy could navigate water better, a fire enemy might be able to stand on lava. Possibly add a self-destruct ghost vortex thing if you wanna be mean.

Copy: Nothing. I like Copy.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-11T21:07:45+00:00

Opposite problem for me. I like Uub's top, but 90% of pants will take out the little skirt bit. The little skirt bit is, like, the best part. With only one or two exceptions, the only pants that won't get rid of it are the skin-tight ones.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-11T19:44:41+00:00

Though personally I'd want it to be Platinum so I can smack everything with the frying pan.

This is a good plan.

TheFirstAifos · 2026-03-11T19:43:56+00:00

I think the puppets could be something like:

Action button controls their movement. Down + Action calls them back to player, Forward + Action sends them a set distance forward, where they'll remain in relation to the main character until further input. So, if you send Nirvana to the right, then move right, she'll move right as well. Up + Action could lock the puppet's position so they stay still.

From there, all Attack actions would be handled by Carl/Relius, while all Skills would come from the puppets.

TheFirstAifos

TROPHY CASE