For roughly 4 a long time, Dragon Ball has been synonymous with a single title: Goku. The franchise’s subsequent main launch is now handing that function to someone else — and the newcomer’s title might go for a firmware model quantity.
Say whats up to J-Age, the silver-haired hero spearheading the motion in West Metropolis within the far-future AGE 1000. He’s been put in as the brand new default protagonist of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, the third chapter within the Xenoverse collection from Bandai Namco Leisure. Gamers who would slightly craft their very own hero can nonetheless accomplish that. However for the primary time ever, the franchise has seated an unfamiliar face in Goku’s outdated spot — and it’s billing him because the star of the present.
The legacy of 291 episodes
Some perspective on what J-Age is moving into. Dragon Ball Z, the direct follow-up to 1986’s Dragon Ball, aired from 1989 via 1996 and delivered 291 episodes of an grownup Son Goku standing guard over Earth. Androids, mystical entities and a warrior race commanded by Vegeta all got here knocking — and someplace amid all of it, Goku had to determine methods to be a father to his boy, Gohan. No small ask.
That run cemented the present’s place among the many best anime ever made and turned Goku right into a bona fide icon of the medium. Greater than 4 a long time after it first hit screens, the franchise stays a juggernaut. It simply isn’t constructing this specific launch round Goku.
An all-new sort of Dragon Ball sport
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 is an upcoming action-adventure RPG that was first revealed again in April 2025. Per the official synopsis: “DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE 3 is a very new Dragon Ball expertise, the place you determine the hero you need to be in an unexplored way forward for the Dragon Ball world.”
You’ll battle shoulder to shoulder with franchise icons, and there’s even the choice to construct a fighter solely of your individual. The late Akira Toriyama, who created the franchise, is honored as properly: his most iconic characters characteristic because the Nice Saiyan Squad makes its method via a wholly new world.
The white-haired lead, up shut
A seven-minute gameplay presentation gave followers their first actual have a look at the sport, and that footage is the place J-Age made his debut because the default Saiyan protagonist. Favor to design your individual hero? That alternative remains to be on the desk. Go for the default, nonetheless, and also you’re controlling somebody utterly unknown in a collection outlined by 40 years of familiarity.
The footage exhibits J-Age preventing alongside three fellow members of the Nice Saiyan Squad. Due to the Soul Help/Soul Swap mechanic, you’ll be able to summon icons akin to Future Trunks and Vegeta into battle, then morph into them and wield their talents. That’s the type of edge that may determine sure fights when you roam the world and brawl across 3D arenas.
Mark 2027 down
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 arrives in 2027 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Sequence X/S, and all the things suggests it would hit simply as exhausting because the entries earlier than it. Whether or not J-Age can shoulder the burden of the person he’s succeeding is the one query no person can reply but.
Goku required 291 episodes to set the benchmark. J-Age takes his first crack at clearing it in 2027.