This Many Cutscenes?! Wongerz Reviews Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot!!
/Unlike many people, I didn’t grow up with Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball franchise.
In fact, it wasn’t until during high school that a friend introduced me to it (a friend who, for the record, is possibly the biggest Dragon Ball fan in Australia!).
But because of his infectious enthusiasm, I now consider myself a fully-fledged Dragon Ball aficionado. I’ve watched through the Dragon Ball (1986), Dragon Ball Z (1989), Dragon Ball GT (1996), Dragon Ball Z Kai (2009) and Dragon Ball Super (2015) anime television series multiple times in English and Japanese. That goes for all of the Dragon Ball animated feature films, too.
And yes, I’ve read most of the original Dragon Ball manga (1984-1995)!
The story of Dragon Ball Z, which departed from the light-hearted tone of Dragon Ball, had me captivated immediately.
It had frighteningly cruel villains (like Galactic Emperor Freeza) who could destroy entire planets with a finger. But it also had unshakeable martial artists (like Son Goku) who were determined to push themselves by challenging those villains, resulting in some otherworldly battles. At times it could be scary, heartwarming, sad, exhilarating and even inspiring.
It’s hard to think of many battles that aren’t iconic, even in mainstream popular culture. And that’s why Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (CyberConnect2) has me so torn.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is an ‘all-new way to experience the story of Dragon Ball Z’. But sadly, it’s far from the best way to experience Dragon Ball Z.
Again, I feel torn. I’ve played many videogames based on Dragon Ball – particularly the more recent titles, starting with Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 (Spike, 2010). With the exception of Dragon Ball FighterZ (Arc System Works, 2018), nearly all have tried to translate the lightning-fast, gravity-defying battles of Dragon Ball into three-dimensional gameplay. And usually with mixed results, I might add.
Which is why Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is also surprisingly addictive. Not only has the three-dimensional combat been streamlined, but the open world and role-playing game (RPG) elements are a breath of fresh air for Dragon Ball videogames.
At first glance, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot does not seem terribly different from other Dragon Ball games. As in many previous games, you’ll relive the four principal arcs of the Dragon Ball Z story – the Saiyan Saga, Freeza Saga, Cell Saga and Buu Saga.
But Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is in fact very different from previous Dragon Ball games.
There is no massive roster of playable characters. There aren’t even any local or online multiplayer modes - this is an exclusively single-player experience. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot does not fancy itself as another fighting game, but is a hybrid of an action-adventure game and an RPG (with some fighting game elements).
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot presents players with sweeping open worlds to explore in real time. The Earth, Planet Namek and Other World appear as they do in Dragon Ball Z and are separated into enclosed areas (for shorter loading times). After playing the game for a while, you can fast travel to any area from a convenient World Map.
These areas are large but are populated with mountains, lakes, rivers, cities, bridges, islands and, of course, iconic Dragon Ball landmarks. Some, like Capsule Corporation, appear within larger areas to give them context. There are plenty of humans, robots and creatures to interact with, too.
The detail and fan service here is staggering and, much like with New York City in Marvel’s Spider-Man (Insomniac Games, 2018), there are hours of fun to be had in exploring and taking in the sights.
To fight battles, you’ll walk, run, fly or drive (yes, drive) to where your enemy is located in the world.
The same goes for interacting with friendly characters. Gone are the days of simply selecting interactions from a menu. Now, you’ll have to make your own way around – and you’ll definitely feel a sense of urgency as you speed towards various battlefields!
As you fight, you’ll unlock more playable characters – but the roster is unusually small, for a Dragon Ball game.
Thankfully, the critical warriors from Dragon Ball Z are covered. Depending on where you are at in the story, you’ll switch between Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, Vegeta and Future Trunks. For specific battles, you’ll control a fused warrior, like Gotenks or Vegito.
You also have access to a roster of friendly fighters who, though not playable, can be customised and assigned to fight alongside you at certain points during the story.
Each character has individual special attacks, skill trees and experience. You’ll spend more time playing as certain characters over others so, in what might be an unintentional (but not inaccurate) reference to Dragon Ball Z, some characters will always be more powerful than others. Fortunately, every new character that you break in is at least as strong as the last one you controlled.
Because Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot features few playable characters and no multiplayer functionality, it does not balance enemy characters with a mind to making them playable in multiplayer modes (as is done in many fighting games).
This means that story battles are more like boss fights, in that each is distinctive.
Boss characters have unique special attacks that often dwarf anything that your character can currently muster. You’ll need to devise a solid strategy to evade each attack and be savvy enough to see them coming. Otherwise, you’ll die before you can land any hits of your own. These defensive tactics are not easy to master (as I discovered while fighting Raditz), but you can at least be sure that each fight is different.
You’ll still battle a variety of ‘cannon fodder’ enemies, including Red Ribbon robots and Freeza Force soldiers. These enemies are everywhere and relentlessly chase you once they spot you. Unfortunately, fighting so many of them quickly gets dull. Each type of enemy has one set of attacks and can be quickly defeated each time with the same strategy. Still, they do spice things up in some otherwise empty areas and are a good way of strengthening your character.
Speaking of battles, the three-dimensional fighting gameplay in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is more streamlined than it has been in many recent Dragon Ball games.
There are certainly familiar moves - like Ki Blasts, Super Boosting and Ki Charging. But some are noticeably absent, like heavy and light attacks. There are a few new moves, like Burst (which blows swarming enemies back) and Step (which allows you to quickly dodge in any direction).
Step, in particular, is extremely versatile. Not only is it enormously helpful for avoiding even the largest of special attacks, but it is also an effective means of precisely managing the distance between you and your opponent without taking damage. And, if you can dodge an attack with just the right timing, you’ll temporarily slow your opponent!
You can also take a selection of Super Attacks, Transformations and Healing Items into battle. Super Attacks return from earlier games, and have been streamlined; there aren’t nearly so many to choose from as there were in Dragon Ball Xenoverse (Dimps, 2015), for example.
Transformations are unchanged from previous titles, too. They significantly increase the strength of your character for as long you can sustain them by Ki Charging. Healing Items are extremely useful, but can take all the challenge out of a fight if you rely on them too quickly. They are best used only when you’re on the brink of defeat, to keep yourself going!
The battles in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot are bookended with cutscenes that adequately retell the story of Dragon Ball Z. But this retelling is rife with problems.
The first, and likely most glaring to a newcomer, is the sheer weight of content. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot covers four sagas of Dragon Ball Z. That represents over 300 chapters of manga and 60 hours of television. A near-complete playthrough of this game takes roughly 50 hours and worryingly, a conservative estimate would place a third to a half of that time on watching cutscenes.
But yet, some iconic battles seem to have fallen through the cracks. During the Cell Saga, Future Trunks engages Perfect Cell in an intense battle that (painfully) teaches him that strength isn’t everything. Towards the end of Dragon Ball Z, Goku even encounters and fights Uub, the good reincarnation of the evil Majin Buu. These battles are iconic in Dragon Ball Z, but are skipped over as if they never mattered.
The in-engine cutscenes are also stiff and bland to look at, lacking many artistic and dramatic qualities that made Dragon Ball Z so enthralling to watch. This is offset slightly with a small helping of original story content, but for hardcore fans of Dragon Ball Z, this retelling is difficult to sit through at times.
Thankfully, the cycle of long cutscenes and short battles is broken by a goodly amount of RPG elements.
These manifest throughout the open world and are designed to give you an advantage in battles. When you’re not fighting or exploring the open world, your character can collect fruit, hunt animals, go fishing and mine for minerals. These items can be sold and traded at cities and villages, but are mostly used for cooking (and eating) meals.
As you might expect, eating food is a significant source of strength for your character. Meals will have different effects on your character on the battlefield, so you’ll need to do a bit of reading to know what to eat (and what ingredients are needed) to gain a desired effect in battle.
My favourite addition is the ‘Community Board’ feature. Over the course of the game, you can earn a ‘Soul Emblem’ representing each character in Dragon Ball Z. You then place these in special communities to increase your effectiveness at skills like cooking, training or fighting.
Your proficiencies will grow even higher if you can connect the Soul Emblems of related characters together, like Goku and Gohan (Ultimate Father-Son Team), for example. The effects are difficult to see during gameplay, but if nothing else will appeal to those Dragon Ball fans who enjoy collecting things!
There are also numerous side objectives to complete in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, varying the pace even more.
These are typically given out by more obscure characters featured in the original Dragon Ball anime, like Android 8. In most cases, your character will be asked either to defeat a group of enemies, collect a certain number and type of items or talk to another character somewhere.
These quests become available to you based on your current strength, but are never too difficult. Other objectives include destroying enemy hideouts, fighting mysterious ‘Villainous Enemies’ and resurrecting fallen villains with the Dragon Balls (which you can collect to make wishes!).
There are many quests, collectibles and items in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. So the game will occasionally give you ‘intermission’ time. Between sagas, you’ll be given free time to explore the open world, complete quests, eat meals, learn new techniques or do anything else that you need to do before starting the next saga. This time lasts for as long as you want it to, and you can play as any available character of your choosing!
After you finish the story, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot cuts you loose to enjoy a generous amount of additional content at your leisure.
If you forgot to complete any side quests during your playthrough, you can go back and finish those with the Time Machine. But several new quests will open up to you, forming a short (but touching) epilogue. These are certainly the more worthwhile quests, as completing an earlier quest (at the peak of your strength) will take all of one second.
Other objectives (including Gravity Room Training and Villainous Enemies) will remain active for you to complete. And Bandai Namco have just released DLC featuring characters and transformations from Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (2013)!
It’s difficult to recommend Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot to anyone who isn’t already a fan of the Dragon Ball franchise – but not because newcomers won’t enjoy playing it.
But because there are far superior ways to experience the story of Dragon Ball Z for the first time that will leave a much greater impact. While you’ll certainly get the gist of the story by playing this, you won’t get the same emotional return for your time. The game just doesn’t do it justice.
I suggest that people who are looking to get into Dragon Ball pass on Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot until they have (at least) watched the Dragon Ball Z Kai anime television series, first. It removes much of the filler material that the original Dragon Ball Z is now infamous for!
For fans, if you can forgive the omissions from this retelling of the Dragon Ball Z story, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot will grant your wish for a game that explores the world of Dragon Ball in detail and delivers a fresh (and gripping) gameplay experience.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot released on January 16, 2020 and is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. This game was reviewed on PlayStation 4.