For the “Dragon Ball” series of games, recreating those familiar characters and battle scenes is naturally an important way to attract players. But in the “Dragon Ball Strange Wars” series, players can also become part of the “Dragon Ball” story: choose their own race, learn the moves of familiar characters, and gradually grow into a unique warrior in this world.
During Bandai Namco’s media trial event on the eve of TGS2026, I experienced some of the online content of “Dragon Ball X-Men 3” and interviewed the producer of this game, Shinyuki Hirano, after the trial. This trial mainly opens up character creation and multi-player cooperative PVE missions, and has not yet touched on the complete story mode.
Like the previous game, this game still regards self-created characters and growth system as important parts of the experience; at the same time, the new world view and the customization mechanism surrounding the “soul” also constitute the content of this game worthy of attention.
Enter H1000 and make yourself a super warrior
“Dragon Ball X-Men 3” will provide two parts of content: one is a story-centered single-player mode with more than 25 hours of content; the other is a multiplayer game, including cooperative PVE missions, as well as four-on-four and one-on-one PVP battles.
The story of this game takes place in a new future – H1000, about 200 years after the end of the original story of “Dragon Ball”. In this world where Akira Toriyama participated in world view construction and original character design, players will embark on adventures with the characters they created. Since there is no open story mode in this event, I cannot yet judge the specific appearance of the new world and how it will be connected with the familiar world of “Dragon Ball”. However, at the scene, the producer emphasized that there will be many new stories surrounding the H1000 in the official version.
For players of the series, creating their own characters has always been an important feature of “Dragon Ball Xeno Wars.” This game further expands the character customization system on this basis. The official version is expected to provide six optional races, including Saiyans, Earthlings, Namekians, Frieza races, demons and cyborgs; however, only the first four races are open for this trial.
Different races not only affect the character’s appearance and growth direction, but are also related to their respective awakening skills. For example, Saiyans can transform into Super Saiyans, and Earthlings can use Kaioken. Players can also gradually adjust the character’s abilities and fighting methods through equipment, skill combinations and other customization elements.
The most noteworthy change in this game in terms of character performance is a series of new systems centered around “soul”.
The first is soul support. Players can summon auxiliary characters during battle, which will provide buffs or directly participate in attacks. According to the official introduction, different characters bring different support effects, and players can match them according to their own fighting style. Another new system is soul exchange. Players can let the soul of a specific mentor reside in their character, thereby obtaining the corresponding character’s combat posture and representative skills.
In addition to soul support and soul exchange, players can also freely choose special moves and ultimate skills, and further adjust combat performance through equipment and ability configuration. These systems together form the character development framework of this game. The character used by the player is no longer just a self-created warrior with a specific race and appearance, but can also gradually form different fighting styles through the combination of skills, mentors, souls and equipment.
This media trial has opened three multiplayer PVE missions, namely “50-player sparring”, “guarding communication devices” and “research to prevent replicating monsters”. Officials recommend that players experience them in order from low to high difficulty.
Among them, the difficulty of “50-person sparring” is one star, and the main enemy faced is the Cultivator (Evil); the difficulty of “Guarding the Communication Device” is two stars, and the enemy is the five members of the Ginyu Team; and the last “Research on Preventing the Copy Can” is the most difficult of the three tasks, requiring dealing with Evil, Extreme Flame, and Toppo.
Before entering the mission, players can adjust their configuration through combat settings. This trial provides six preset sets, corresponding to melee planning, tank defense, auxiliary planning, counterattack and destruction, maneuver balance, and long-distance specialization. Players can first choose a preset that suits them, and then further adjust it according to actual needs.
In battle, the character’s movement performance and fighting style are directly linked to the equipped mentor soul. Choosing a different mentor will not only change the set of special moves, but also the character’s flight, movement, blocking, and even the actions and combos of normal attacks will change accordingly. In other words, even if you use self-created characters of the same race, you can get a different combat feel by choosing different mentors.
This is also the more interesting part of the character customization system in this game. Players no longer just strengthen their characters by adjusting skills and attribute values, but can also start with action performance and gradually form their own accustomed fighting style.
As for the actual fighting, the battles in this game can be said to be quite lively. After all, one of the most recognizable battle scenes in the “Dragon Ball” series is where the characters constantly change positions while moving at high speed, attack continuously, and then use various moves to blast away their opponents. This game also continues this rhythm: using light and heavy attacks to combine combos, using sprints and pursuits to close the distance with the enemy, and then interspersing special moves and ultimate skills to extend the continuity of the attack as much as possible.
At the same time, the enemy’s strength will also affect the rhythm of the battle. By reducing the opponent’s strength with continuous attacks, I can follow up with a more powerful pursuit after the opponent falls into a defense-breaking state.
However, this high-speed combat also brings another problem. In some relatively small spaces, characters move frequently, and enemies constantly change positions, the battlefield can easily fall into chaos. Sometimes, even though you are still chasing the target, the enemy in your sight is already intertwined with other characters, making it difficult to accurately judge the opponent’s position for a while.
Although the scene is lively enough, when multiple enemies act at the same time, I need to spend more attention to identify the target, confirm the location, and then decide how to attack next.
Judging from this experience, the combat in this game not only emphasizes speed, but also attempts to use the mentor soul, combat style and skill combination to allow players to form their own habits in this high-speed combat framework. As for whether different Builds can bring about sufficiently distinct differences in play styles, and whether the content of the game is rich enough, more in-depth experience is needed to judge.
After the trial, we interviewed the producer of “Dragon Ball X-Men 3”, Masayuki Hirano, and discussed issues such as the construction of the world view of H1000, the innovation of the series’ gameplay, as well as the growth and combat balance of self-created characters.
The following is the text of the interview
Q1. H1000 is a new “Dragon Ball” world in which Mr. Akira Toriyama is deeply involved in world view construction and original character design. In the process of developing the settings, character designs and concepts left by the teacher into H1000, which content was directly inherited from the design left by the teacher, and which parts were further supplemented by the development team? How did the team respect the creative style of Akira Toriyama while retaining the characteristics of the “Dragon Ball Xeno Wars” series itself?
Hirano: Akira Toriyama-sensei left behind a lot of content, including the world view, characters, and technology-related settings in this world. As for the world view of H1000, it basically follows the settings and ideas left by the teacher.
Therefore, the more important task for the development team is to think about how to combine the original content of the “Dragon Ball Xenoverse” series with the world view of H1000, and to continuously make adjustments in the process.
The “Dragon Ball Xenoverse” series has always attached great importance to allowing players to personally enter the world, start adventures with their own characters, and make themselves stronger through growth. This is also a very important feature of the series. Therefore, when developing this game, we also hope to continue to retain this point, so that players can develop their characters according to their own ideas and experience their own adventures.
Q2. “Dragon Ball Xeno Wars 2” has been in operation for nearly ten years, and many players are already familiar with the original gameplay and system of the series. What innovations have been made in the core gameplay of this game, and what elements have been retained? In particular, what is the core of the design of the newly added mechanisms such as soul exchange and soul support? Does the team also hope to use this to improve the problems of repeated combat routines and gradual homogeneity of gameplay in the previous games?
Hirano: If we want to talk about the innovation of this game in terms of gameplay, I think it can be mainly divided into two aspects.
The first is the story and world view. As mentioned before, this work is based on the ideas left by Akira Toriyama and presents a new world that has not been shown before, as well as many new characters. The “Dragon Ball Xenoverse” series has always regarded bringing players a new “Dragon Ball” experience as its core concept, so we hope players can enjoy this new world view.
Another important change is the freedom of character customization and construction. Whether it is the appearance of the character, the skill set, or the actual gameplay method used by players, this game hopes to provide a wider range of choices than the previous game.
Systems such as soul exchange are also related to the future technology settings left by Mr. Akira Toriyama. We hope to integrate these settings into the game and combine them with the original mentor system of the series.
In “Dragon Ball Strange Wars”, players can learn from their favorite characters and gradually become stronger through practice. The mentor system itself is an important part of the series experience, and new mechanisms such as soul exchange and soul support will also be related to the mentor system.
As for whether these changes hope to improve the repetitive combat routines and homogeneous gameplay, the answer is yes. This is exactly what we hope to achieve by expanding the character building space. We hope that players can find the most powerful way in the game and create their own strongest warrior.
Q3. Self-created characters have always been an important feature of the “Dragon Ball X-Men” series. This game also allows players to decide what kind of hero they want to be as an important part of the adventure. On this basis, does this game provide a more detailed way of character customization and growth? At the same time, how does the team take into account the fun of players freely creating characters and the balance of combat between different characters?
Hirano: Regarding the diversity of character construction and combat balance, this is indeed an issue that requires great attention during the development process. As this game provides a richer set of construction options, how to maintain a balance among these different combinations becomes even more important.
During the operation of the previous game, we encountered some situations where the balance was deviated due to updates. Therefore, when developing this game, we also hope to re-examine the balance between different races so that each race can exert its own characteristics in a relatively fair environment.
The same goes for skills. We will comprehensively consider the power of skills, cooldown time, attack range and other factors to make adjustments. We hope that each skill can become a choice that players can consider when building their strongest character.
For us, the focus is not on letting all players end up using the same strongest configuration, but on the basis of ensuring a balanced battle, allowing players to have more different choices and find the fighting method that best suits them.
Q4. Finally, please ask the producer to say a few words to the players in the Chinese community.
Hirano: At present, we have disclosed some game information, but there are still many new contents that have not yet been announced. As subsequent information is gradually released, players’ understanding and opinions of this game may also change, and we hope that this change will be positive. Therefore, I hope everyone can look forward to the content that will be released next.
The “Dragon Ball Xeno Wars” series has been with players for a long time, and we have been thinking about the experience players expect and how to allow everyone to enjoy the game for a long time. I hope that players who have been supporting “Dragon Ball X-Men 1” and “Dragon Ball X-Men 2” will also like this game and continue to enjoy the game in “Dragon Ball X-Men 3”.
