Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 gets first major gameplay trailer

Published Jul 9, 2026, 12:28 PM EDT

Unfortunately, there's also a change to Awakening (basically going Super Saiyan) that has many Dragon Ball fans quite miffed: this mode is now active for a limited time.

Set in “an unexplored Dragon Ball world: Age 1000” (for context, this means it takes place after the main series, as Goku was born in the 700s), the game centers on a player-created avatar. In the trailer, the player picks the default Saiyan preset, J. Age — a reference to how fans nicknamed this character John Dragon Ball when the game was first announced.

After they exit a customizable apartment that serves as a home base, they enter the hub area, where users can congregate online. Then J. Age departs on a mission that showcases the basics of combat. The standard moves from the previous game are all there: light and heavy attacks, boost chase, supers, and ultimates. Supers consist of power blasts and other big abilities that enter cooldown, while Ultimates are massive strikes with a longer wait time between uses.

As for the new additions, Soul Assist lets the player call in legendary Dragon Ball characters to lend a hand (in this case, we see Trunks and Vegeta make appearances). Then there’s Soul Switch, which lets the player become their Soul Assist character for a limited time. J. Age transforms into Trunks, who has faster cooldowns and character-specific moves.

Then there’s the feature that Xenoverse-heads are pissed about: the changes to Awakening. Awakening is an alternative to Soul Assist that lets the player character enter a power-up state. For Saiyans, this means going Super Saiyan, but it’s different depending on whether you pick an Earthling or another species.

The problem, in the eyes of many fans, is that unlike the previous games, this power-up is a limited-time boost: in this case, J. Age only gets the Saiyan's signature golden locks for 60 seconds. “I hope to see the whole community bashing this idea nonstop until they change it, because they won’t do anything if they can pretend it’s only a minority of people,” wrote one Reddit user.

“Yeah i’m gonna be honest this is terrible,” another said. “One of the best parts of 1 and 2 was being able to maintain your transformations. If they want timers then there needs to be some sort of a mastery mechanic. We know characters can master super saiyan to stays in it indefinitely, so let us do the same. To make forms always limited is just going backwards and it sucks.”

While making Awakening mode indefinite again would probably be a major balancing change, Xenoverse 3 still doesn’t have a specific release date. It is currently set for 2027, so it may be possible to make the alteration if the dev team is so inclined. Until then, some are calling for Dragon Ball enthusiasts to “bully them the same way Sonic fans bullied the first Live Action Sonic Movie into remaking his character design.”

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 will launch for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X in 2027, so there's still plenty of time to come to grips with this change.