Dragon Ball XenoVerse 2 Players Come Together to Pay Their Respects to the Late, Great Akira Toriyama

Manga icon Akira Toriyama’s untimely passing has led to an outpouring of emotion across the entire Internet, with tributes being paid all over social media. But one particularly poignant post that caught our attention is this clip of Dragon Ball XenoVerse 2, where fans all gathered in a lobby to pay their respects to the legendary artist:

It’s perhaps worth reiterating the enduring success of Dragon Ball XenoVerse 2 in this moment. We recently reported how the game, first released on PS4 in 2016, is still attracting over one million players per month. An upgraded PS5 version, with transferrable save data, will launch in May, ensuring the title lives on for many more years. None of this would be possible without Toriyama’s vision.

As we mentioned at the top of this article, tributes have been pouring in from all over the world. For example, in Germany, Borussia Dortmund posted this photograph of star player Marco Reus mimicking the kamekameha:

PlayStation also acknowledged the auteur’s legacy, attracting over 300k likes with a simple GIF:

And the official Dragon Quest account, a series which Toriyama famously designed the characters for, described him as a “true visionary [for] the global entertainment industry”:

Next month, on 24th April, you’ll be able to experience Toriyama’s acclaimed one-off manga Sand Land in Bandai Namco’s promising action RPG adaptation on PS5 and PS4. We can’t think of a more fitting way to honour an incredible career, and we’re looking forward to bringing you our review later in the year.