For kids of the 1990s, Saturday mornings were the closest thing to a holy time as one could get in terms of entertainment. The 1990s introduced kids to a plethora of shows be it cartoons both new and old, live-action showcases like “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers”, and even an hour of WWF wrestling to cap it all off before college football & basketball games started airing. During the middle of the decade something unexpected happened as Japanese animated programming started finding its way across the Pacific full of terrible English dubbing and obvious poor editing to censor some of a show’s more gratuitously violent moments. Anime (or the terribly dubbed “Japanimation” as it was originally called by the woefully unaware) found a footing in west thanks to distribution companies choosing & working with the best of the best shows Japan had to offer (or least the most easily marketable to kids of both genders).
While girls (and even quite a few boys including yours truly) embraced the early weekday morning action of “Sailor Moon”, Saturday mornings were for the rowdiest of boys looking to rock the dragon courtesy of “Dragon Ball Z” – the story of a simple family man who just so happened to be an alien purged from a planet full of great, globe-conquering warriors. The expansive narrative of “DBZ” found itself being retold through various mediums including several video games across multiple consoles like the “Budokai” series on the Playstation 2 and now the eighth generation’s tour de force “Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot”. Being a big “Dragon Ball” fan, I was understandably excited to see if the “Kakarot” not only did the series’ story justice, but also delivered on perfectly presenting those epic encounters between Goku and his various indomitable adversaries.
Did I Complete “Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot”?
Rather than just stick to the easy route of doing a linear storyline presentation of “Dragon Ball Z”, developer CyberConnect2 created an open world crafted after all the landmarks & arenas seen throughout the “Z” series including King Kai’s small planet, West City housing Capsule Corp, and, of course, Goku’s home. Beyond the story missions full of battles both grandiose & annoying, there are a hefty amount of side missions scattered throughout the multiple chapters making up the game’s overall four arcs plus nearly three dozen more post-story. These side quests usually don’t go beyond whatever character being utilized performing fetch quests or defeating the same rudimentary enemies that will appear on the maps.
The side missions’ most appealing aspects are usually the characters that present them, as some are old characters from the original “Dragon Ball” series either not seen in “Z” or are barely given any screen time. There are also more powerful, high-leveled enemies for the player to conquer if they want to for a bonus boss battle that will potentially prove tougher than any other fight during the story including the post-story, training-specific, level 100 opponent full of more tricks than Super Buu. My original goal was to simply finish the story and all the side missions, but upon discovering the rather encouraging trophy list, I sunk in the time and got that platinum trophy after a little over fifty-five hours.
Did “Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot” Live Up to the Hype?
While the biggest draw for some in regards to “Kakarot” is to relive an obvious abridged version of an extensive manga & anime franchise, “Z’s” combat featuring one-of-a-kind battles against intergalactic beings, androids, and even a monster made of pink goo provides the most excitement both in its most celebrated forms and here. The player can mix striking with Ki blasts, blocking (which features a “Guard” system that wears down the longer a character blocks incoming attacks until the energy shield breaks & leaves a character stunned), and dodging with a properly timed dodge opening up the enemy to a counter attack. The legendary super-powered Ki attacks like Goku’s “Kamehameha” and Piccolo’s “Special Beam Cannon” can be activated at any time during battle as long as the character has enough Ki.
But players can’t spam those special attacks as enemies will too dodge & sprint across an “arena”; leaving the protagonist vulnerable to be slapped down into the ground. Players can hold down a single button (the triangle button on the PS4) to refill their Ki and even enter “Surge” mode thanks to the same button being held for an extended period that will power up everything that character does for a short time including their finishing blow. As the story progresses so does the ability to pull of “Z-Combo” attacks if the player has two supporting characters in their party. These supporting characters also can perform one of two assigned special Ki attacks at the player’s command during battle – a mechanic that’s somewhat broken as even in a stunned state they can suddenly perform, say, Krillin’s Solar Flare attack when the player orders.
All of the action takes place in a hovering state similar to the combat in “Dragon Ball Xenoverse”, but feels a lot tighter and more responsive than its obvious inspiration. With each successful battle or even following an extensive cutscene, characters are given experience points and orbs with the latter being responsible for purchasing skills in every playable character’s skill tree. Some skills are locked until the player completes the “Training Grounds” side missions that are unlocked via story progression and, most importantly, D-Medals found throughout the world. Orbs litter each area so the player can fly around and pick them up if they choose to; though waiting until the availability of the Dragon Balls to make wishes for orbs proves more beneficial in the long run from a time saving perspective. Cooking is also a thing to potentially benefit the player’s experience with full course meals cooked by Goku’s wife Chi-Chi giving minor permanent stat boosts. But none of this really matters in regards to enemy difficulty because of the game’s leveling system.
“Kakarot” is nothing short of generous in regards to EXP dished out to put whatever main character is the current focus at or near the level of their current enemy. When learning the ropes, battles like the ones with Raditz and Nappa can provide some impressive challenges. Unfortunately by the story’s end due to both the leveling system, the enemy AI never evolving, and the lack of an actual difficulty setting, the boss battles against the likes of Perfect Cell and Majin Buu become laughably easy. Even the “Villainous Battles” the game warns players about featuring brutish, higher leveled foes are mostly one-hit-kill encounters if the player waits to the last act to complete most of them as these “dangerous” enemies are capped at specific levels; never rising to match the average level of the playable characters. There’s no need to grind EXP or even invest in a lot of healing items for the narrative’s missions & fights because of the game’s lack of overall difficulty (though some of the post-story fights can be arduous if the player uses under-leveled characters).
The other issue with the game’s combat is definitely the camera. At times the camera will go into walls & landmasses after a character is knocked backwards, will shoot upward haphazardly to follow the opponent currently focused on via the game’s hard-lock system, and the odd decision to cut off and make irrelevant a player’s special Ki attack if the game decides during a boss battle to do a cinematic close-up of the enemy’s next maneuver. While the battles are mostly fun (specifically the boss fights and not the same hundreds of fights the player will have with Red Ribbon Army robots or Frieza’s grunts that, for some reason, still populate Earth after their master is cut down), it’s hard to deny that some glaring flaws hinder the overall enjoyment.
For those dedicated to “Kakarot’s” source material there will be some disappointment connected to a mostly satisfying narrative presentation. “Kakarot” hits all the high notes in regards to the retelling of each major saga witnessed during “Z”. Between each story arc is an “Intermission” sequence that actually does a great job adding some character development usually focusing on Gohan including the fallout of the Cell Games. Even without doing the side quests or collecting items to improve the game’s training options, “Kakarot” will take players at least forty hours to finish the main story; and even then it feels a tad underwhelming. Beyond the expected feeling of seeing this story before in a better fashion there is the fact certain moments & scenes had to be cut for time constraint reasons such as Vegeta’s emotional explanation as to how he reached the level of Super Saiyan.
And some of the moments that weren’t cut don’t have the same pop or flair as their counterparts usually thanks to the static cutscenes implemented a majority of the time featuring stiff animation and terrible lip synching. The full-blown, non-interactive cutscenes are absolutely gorgeous with a majority of them occurring in the first two arcs. Though the side missions do a nice job presenting Easter eggs, they too suffer from bland presentation and an overall unappealing mission structure most open-world games house including extensive fetch quests (though some work incredibly well thanks to the characters involved like Krillin becoming just as perverted as Master Roshi). The developers mostly did their best considering how much they had to work with, but it still feels underwhelming considering some incredible moments in the series just don’t translate well in “Kakarot”.
Beyond the main & side missions are other objects like the aforementioned training sequences. Players can also get Bulma to build vehicles for racing, play baseball in an elementary version of the same baseball mini-game seen in the “Yakuza” series, and fishing for that next big meal. None of the mini-games leave a lasting impression, but it’s nice to have some variety there. But nothing ties this game more to the RPG genre than the “Community Board”. By attaining “Soul Emblems” via successful story and side missions, the player can place these Pog-like items on one of the eight board categories headed by certain characters like the most battle-focused “Z Warrior” board or the “Adult” board to help cut down on those item prices when purchasing materials & food. Most “Soul Emblems” come with boosts if said “Soul Emblem” is placed in line with another like Goku and Gohan’s. The benefits of building each board can be miniscule at best at lower levels like getting just plus one percent Ki attack boost and pretty impressive when a board is maxed such as getting an extra 100% EXP boost. The overall enjoyment of mixing & matching Soul Emblems is hard to deny while reaping the potentially game-changing rewards.
From a technical aspect, “Kakarot” is a mixed bag. Though recent updates have helped improve loading times on consoles and fixed problems like certain side missions not appearing on the map if the player saves beforehand and quits to the title screen, the game still features frame rate drops, graphical glitches, the aforementioned camera issues, and the extensive “Z Encyclopedia” to view all the game’s collectibles causing “Kakarot” to crash when opened.
“Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot” is the epitome of an anime & manga experience turned digital; obviously rewarding dedicated fans without offering anything new or remarkable all the while alienating newer fans who will definitely not fully understand why a little boy would turn into a gigantic ape during a full moon.
Should You Play “Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot”?
“Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot” is obviously a game made by “DBZ” fans for “DBZ” fans looking to revel in abridged nostalgia with a fun combat system hampered by camera issues & a lacking difficulty. There is a lot to do including side missions, mini-games and playing around with the game’s most RPG-centric aspect in the “Community Board”, but none of it feels necessary to enjoy the overall presentation. Die-hard “DBZ” fans will have a fun time mostly throughout, though the constant low-level enemy encounters and some choices in regards to the narrative presentation will definitely have some gritting their teeth due to tedium. “Kakarot” is a game “DBZ” fans should definitely check out with no need to rush & pick it up when it not on sale, and the uninitiated should rent it if they can. But even then don’t set your expectations too high like someone being blown out of the atmosphere by a Kamehameha wave.
