The Dragon Ball series has been a long franchise from anime to games. Luckily I was able to interview Masahiro Kashino (Dragon Ball Xenoverse – Development Producer) and Hiroshi Waki (Dragon Ball Xenoverse – Technical Director / Manager) about the new and up coming game.
So let the interview questions being~
The Dragon Ball series has been going on for a long time from anime to games. In terms of the game series which I played since the PS1 version. How do you come up with the ideas for each release?
Masahiro Kashino/Hiroshi Waki: Let’s see, as you know we starting making the games from Budokai PS2 to Xenoverse. Each game we make we always try to improve the game play, fighting and anything that our fans wants us to improve. Xenoverse was a big step forward now; the players are able to create their own avatars, learn skills from their masters and play the story mode with it.
I’m sure you know in Bandai Namco there is the Naruto fighting game. In the previous game release (Naruto Storm 3), there was a Goku costume for Naruto. Do you think there will be one vice verse for Dragon Ball Xenoverse?
Masahiro Kashino/Hiroshi Waki: I know about that. I don’t think we will be including the Naruto costume in the new Dragon Ball Xenoverse game as the main purpose of the game is that you will be under taught under your master. From there you can choose and design your clothes based on that. Having a 3rd party costume in this game wouldn’t meet our expectations and purpose of the game.
In terms of the map size, how big is Xenoverse compare to Burst limit.
Masahiro Kashino/Hiroshi Waki: Hmm if you compare the smallest maps in both games. They are roughly the same size; the bigger maps however are bigger in Xenoverse roughly by 1.0.
From the Pre-TGS event, there was talks about the Steam version and how you are trying to make it more competitive. How is this going?
Masahiro Kashino/Hiroshi Waki: The project is going on very well. The transition between the console and PC isn’t that hard to port over though we are trying to improve the game as well as the PC has higher performance compared to the consoles. We’re currently working hard on making the game competitive and hopefully it will be.
I see that you have the collection edition figure (Trunks) on the table with you. What decided that Trunks would be the figure? Why not one of the popular characters such as Goku or Vegeta?
Masahiro Kashino/Hiroshi Waki: Very good question. We chose Trunks as he has a big impact in the story for Xenoverse. As you know by our trailer, history is being changed by an unknown force and it is up to the player to fix it. Trunks supports the player through out the game hence why we decided to choose him. In addition to this the Japanese Collectors edition did not have the Trunks figure and I personally want it myself. However I can’t.
Last question as time is nearly up so I’ll make this a fun one. In Japan; Goku is probably the strongest character in the manga/anime world. In the west; Superman is the strongest. In a fight between Goku and Superman who would you think will win and why?
Masahiro Kashino/Hiroshi Waki: *Laughs* Ahh this is a very tough question. They both can fly so that doesn’t give any advantages to either however I believe Goku should be able to win because he knows Ki Blasts moves. Superman doesn’t have beam attacks.
Superman does have the eye lasers though.
Masahiro Kashino/Hiroshi Waki: Even with the eye lasers, he would hit superman from far range and when he is stunned, Goku will hit him with the Kamehameha wave to finish him off. That’s how I would image it.
*Times up – Interview session over sadly*
Dragonball Xenoverse will be coming out on February 13th 2015 in EU with the Steam version coming out on 17th.
Those who pre-order it will receive Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta as a playable character, along with two Frieza Battlesuits: gold and crystal. The pre-order will be a downloadable content as well.