While fans have all sorts of concepts for the seemingly inevitable Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, the unannounced sequel could end up learning the most from Dragon Ball Heroes.
The Dragon Ball Xenoverse series has been running alongside the Dragon Ball Heroes trading card game for around five years. Although the two can be seen as drastically different, they have exchanged a few ideas in that time. Given that Dragon Ball Heroes has been around twice as long, however, the series has had a lot more time to learn and grow into what it is today. The next entry into the Xenoverse series should borrow a few of these ideas if it wants to catch up quickly.
Original Stories
While the Dragon Ball Xenoverse titles do feature a fair amount of lore behind them, there is a lot more that could be done with its unique setup. The time patrollers, a group that exists outside of Dragon Ball's original canon with sole purpose of travelling to a multitude of different timelines where anything can happen, are mostly confined to visiting the same moments in Dragon Ball history that most fans have watched or played through countless times.
For the most part, Dragon Ball Heroes tells wholly original stories even with its limited story segments. These arcs cover all-new territory for the Dragon Ball franchise, even introducing new lore to the series. These stories aren't always a hit and the power scaling can be incredibly off (as seen in the Super Dragon Ball Heroes anime), but they do have their highlights as well. The Xenoverse games have the potential to tell far more grand stories than what fans have seen in Super Dragon Ball Heroes. Fortunately, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2's latest DLC does hint at Fu playing a bigger role in the future, which could spell big things for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3's plot.
New Characters
The characters that Dragon Ball Heroes continues to introduce to the franchise are easily one of the greatest things about the spinoff series. Like some of its plots, these characters don't always meet the standards of Dragon Ball canon and some carry a very different feel from an Akira Toriyama original design. The characters that do mesh well with fans though, like the evil Saiyan Cumber, instantly rise to the top of popularity polls, even with their extremely limited plot relevancy.
The next Dragon Ball Xenoverse game can rework characters like Cumber or members of the demon race like Salsa or Shroom into real characters that fans can like beyond their designs. The first two Xenoverse entries have already taken steps in the right direction with original villains like Towa, Mira, and Fu, but they aren't nearly as developed as they could be, even in comparison to their Dragon Ball Heroes counterparts. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 could really work at turning the Xenoverse series into a universe all its own if it gave new faces a chance to shine in the same way that the time patroller avatars do, rather than relying on the cast fans are already so familiar with.
More Race Options
Customization is probably the biggest selling point of the Dragon Ball Xenoverse series. Right from the beginning, players can create their very own avatar with up to five races to choose from. It's an amazing concept that many fans have appreciated from the very beginning, creating their original Earthlings, Saiyans, Namekians, Majins, and members of Frieza's race. It's funny though, that even though Dragon Ball Heroes has never put emphasis on a character creation system, it's introduced more races than the Xenoverse games.
There a lot of potential races that could be introduced in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, but the ones already found in the Dragon Ball Heroes series that need to be brought over to Xenoverse are the Androids, Kai, and Demon Realm races. Seeing as members of all these races are already present in the Xenoverse series and players can even train under them, there's no reason why players shouldn't be able to create their own.
Accessible Transformations
Both the Dragon Ball Xenoverse series and Dragon Ball Heroes excel in the category of fan service. While the Xenoverse series plays things a bit safe, however, Dragon Ball Heroes goes all out in terms of "what if" stories. Characters like Gohan and Broly can unlock Super Saiyan 4, Trunks achieves Super Saiyan 3, and even Super Saiyan God. The Super Dragon Ball Heroes anime has even gone on to introduce a new form, the Super Saiyan 4 Limit Break. Transformations have never been the defining point of the Dragon Ball franchise, but they have been featured in some of the more iconic moments and many fans love to have a new form to look forward to.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 should allow players to forge their own path with their character. A member of the Saiyan should not only be able to go the route of the Super Saiyan God line or Super Saiyan 4 (and whatever comes next). In the Dragon Ball Heroes game, players can already access ultra instinct with their avatar hero, a form players can't reach in Xenoverse 2. Even Towa and Fu have reached new forms in the Dragon Ball Heroes series that haven't made their way to the Xenoverse games yet. Rather than limiting itself only to what was seen in the anime and movies, the next Xenoverse game should step forward first and offer never-before-seen forms for its customizable races. If done correctly, it could give fans something entirely new to look forward to and one day achieve for their characters.
The Dragon Ball Heroes and Xenoverse series are both incredibly ambitious in their own ways. There's no clues as to when Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 will get an official announcement, but hopefully Dimps brings some of its brighter ideas from Dragon Ball Heroes into the next entry.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.