Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (2020)

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero may be the new hotness today, but I decided to take my Dragon Ball Daima-fueled interest in the franchise and go back to finally check out 2020's Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. I grew up with the Legacy of Goku games on the Game Boy Advance, titles that don't really hold up well on revisit, but nevertheless have left a lingering interest in the potential for an adventure title set in Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball universe. So when Kakarot was announced, my interest was piqued... Just not enough to buy it at its launch price. And I'm glad I waited, because I don't think this game really accomplishes what I want from a Dragon Ball adventure title.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot tries to marry the beloved storyline of DBZ with RPG and action-adventure mechanics. But its ambitious commitment to retelling the lengthy 26-volume storyline of the iconic manga feels like it's at odds with the game's structure. Don't get me wrong, I love Dragon Ball Z. But trying to cram all of its story arcs into a single game inevitably leads to spotty storytelling. The major moments are beautifully done, filled with great music, saturated colors and dynamic visual flair. But the parts in-between, the parts that make up the majority of the game, feel like they are generations behind.

At times, Kakarot feels like it was intended to be an open world, exploration based experience. The game world is split into several large zones that are filled with items to collect, fishing spots, racing minigames and hidden nods to the lore of the Dragon Ball franchise. But the game only emphasizes these things during sparse moments in between the times it has you locked into its main story--a story that has already been told time and time again in other video games and media. And even when it's focused on that story, there are random fades to black with the narrator telling you that something has transpired, or slideshows to fill the gaps that bland dialogue sequences can't fill. This is all to say: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is obviously not going to be the optimal way to experience this story. I wish they would have tightened the scope or even opted for something entirely original that would let you become more immersed in its world.

Combat works well enough, and I enjoyed the way that some of the boss fights keep you on your toes by introducing unique mechanics. But in a franchise filled with excellent fighting titles such as Dragon Ball FighterZ or the Budokai Tenkaichi games, the combat feels rather shallow in comparison, and its surrounding mechanics don't really make up for it. The process of improving your fighters is serviceable, but there aren't any interesting choices to make in the RPG skill trees that the title presents. Other mechanics, such as cooking, healing items and a community board can basically be ignored without punishment. Side activities almost always consist of bland fetch missions or quests that have you fight one of a dreadfully small pool of minor enemies (90% of them are either robots or Frieza force baddies). Only a small handful of these are memorable thanks to the ways they deepen Dragon Ball lore, such as the questline surrounding animorphaline, or the quest that reveals the moment Goku and Chi Chi got it on to conceive Goten.

That leaves us with a mediocre retelling of Dragon Ball Z with shallow combat and even shallower RPG mechanics. If you're a Dragon Ball fan who's looking for a comprehensive retelling of the entire storyline, this will certainly scratch the itch. After all, Kakarot isn't awful--but I'm downranking it from 3 stars to 2 stars for one simple reason: I find it very difficult to recommend Kakarot when there are many superior Dragon Ball video games out in the world. If I could go back in time to my past self from 2 weeks ago, I'd tell him to just go replay Budokai Tenkaichi 3 instead.

Huge Dragonball fan here.

I first got into the series during 2020. A month before a worldwide pandemic captivated the world, I decided to start watching Dragonball. It was my first dive into anime, and still safely sits within my top three animes OAT (realistically #1). I love this series. The motivating messages, amazing characters, and blood pumping fight scenes are just some of my favorite parts of Dragonball. I've played Xenoverse 1 and 2, Fighterz, and now this. I originally played this back in 2021 on my Xbox and got through the Cell saga. I eventually put it down mainly for the same reasons I have listed here , but this time I was determined to see this game through. Here's my review for Kakarot.

This game is deep. It's probably the best way to experience the story of Dragonball (Z) outside of the manga and anime. All major sagas are included here, with additional dlcs that cover OG Dragonball sagas, and tv specials/movies. While it's nice that everything is included, I still think the best way to experience the story is through the anime.

The visuals within the game are stunning. Specifically certain fight scenes, transformations, sequences, etc. The world itself isn't too impressive graphically, but it embalms Toriyama's art-style fairly well. Game looked pretty especially during major boss fights.

The combat definitely felt repetitive. Once you learn how the I-frames work, it's a pretty easy game. Mash B/square, when the opponent goes flying hit them with a beam/super attack. Spam A/X when they're attacking, or left trigger and X/circle to basically get a few seconds of i-frames. I didn't LOVE the combat here. It got stale after a while, even if it looked visibly impressive. There's skill tress for each of the playable characters so it tried to keep things fresh by upgrading moves and introducing new moves, but it wasn't enough for me. Some moves felt like they had no weight/damage behind them. I'm not sure what Bandai could've done differently, but the combat felt repetitive and exhausting to engage in at times. Every character felt the same for the most part, and they all play extremely similarly. I played the game on hard mode from beginning to end, with all dlcs included. I also restricted myself from using healing items within battles as I felt this would've made the game to trivial and "not integral" to the story. I wanted the challenge. Overall I'd say the game is fair in it's combat, and I only struggled on a few fights.

Goku vs Vegeta. This was a wakeup call. I went into the fight half health from the previous fight with Nappa, and man this fight took me a solid bit of time. The combat hadn't begun to feel stale at this point so it was still enjoyable overcoming the challenge of this fight.

Bardock vs Frieza (DLC). This was maybe one of my favorite fights in the game. Dodging Frieza's moves felt like something out of an action game rather than a fighting game. I really enjoyed this dlc and playing as Bardock. It was a tough fight, but I still enjoyed it.

Trunks: The Future Warrior of Hope (DLC). HARDEST FIGHTS IN THE GAME PERIOD. Almost every major boss battle in this DLC is hell. The androids are monsters in this timeline, and they show it. To say I struggled beating them would be an understatement. The cutscenes/battle cutscenes are really well animated in this dlc, but they put this dlc into overdrive in terms of challenge. Absolutely the hardest challenges I faced during my time with this game.

Final Kid Buu fight. This was probably the toughest fight in the bas game (either this or Vegeta). By this point the combat had gotten stale. I did not enjoy this fight, even though I love Buu and the visuals are well done here. I really just wanted the game to be over and I was more relieved than excited when I finally beat this boss.

As my title says, this game felt like a chore to play at times. My OCD would never let me ignore side quests, and honestly they're awful here. I hated seeing side quests pop up knowing I "had to" complete them. I could've ignored them, but I couldn't. I did not find the open world fun to explore what so ever, and the additional gameplay features like fishing were a snooze fest. Any time I was outside of the main story completing side quests I contemplated just quitting the game early like I had previously a few years ago on my Xbox copy. The RPG elements are not engaging at all. I never felt the need to go out and grind the random enemies as I only struggled a handful of times in the main story. And even then, that struggle was nothing in comparison to having to go out into the bland open world and grind. Same goes for cooking. Hardly ever used it. Just didn't feel a need to. Never built the machines because why? I can fucking fly around everywhere. Why would I want to build a flying car/ride a robot. Seems like padding for no real reason. Also the music here leaves MUCH to be desired.

Another negative was the crazy amount of dialogue. Maybe it's because I know the story but oh my god I hated sitting through the dialogue in this game. I honestly felt like I spent 20-30 hours of my 60 hours gameplay just watching the screen spamming A. Horrendous.

I just finished Goku's next journey dlc tonight and it was just more of the same. The very last thing I did in the game was the final fight against Vegeta. Honestly one of the best fights in the game, and I actually kind of enjoyed it. The animators went crazy. A good callback to one of Goku's earliest fights in Z, and it was done well here in Kakarot. I wanted to finish this game for real before Dragonball Sparking Zero released. I made the deadline. I've never played a Budokai game, but Sparking Zero looks promising. I'm hoping I enjoy it a lot more than Kakarot. I left some things unfinished in Kakarot like some training challenges, a few sub stories in the dlcs, etc. I have no desire right now to go back in and grind these out. The main story and the main stories from the dlcs are complete. I'm glad this game is off my backlog honestly. It felt like I had to slog my way through it at times. The Cell and Buu sagas especially felt waaaaaay too dialogue heavy. Not as well paced as the Saiyan and Namek sagas in terms of gameplay. I honestly don't know if I'd recommend this game to anyone. Even as a Dragonball fan I felt bored at times. I feel like the 3 stars I'm giving this game is mainly due to the fact that it's Dragonball. It's probably closer to 2.5 stars realistically.

I don't like this game and abandoned really quickly. It wasn't the mediocre combat and exploration systems, but the fact I watched the anime a lot when I was a kid and I just can't stomach having to watch the same plot again, even with the changes it made.

But I really liked the DLC Bardock: Alone against fate, based on the now uncanonized TV special starring Goku's dad. Why? Because I just watched it a couple of times more than 20 years ago. It also adds a lot of context and background to the main character, his companions and the planet Vegeta. I didn't even mind having to fish!

You can read my full review of this DLC on GamerFocus. As usual, its in spanish.

It also has an unlockable story where you can control Vegeta when he was a child.

In conclusion, the Bardock DLC wasn't anything special. I won't even call it "Good". But I kinda enjoyed it because I'm a huge Dragon Ball nerd.

Está entrega presenta una innovación en el ámbito general del juego, ya que al ser un mundo abierto nos da la posibilidad de movilizarnos con los personajes principales de la saga Dragon Ball por todos los rincones de cada zona que nos permite explorar el juego, además de que cada personaje tiene su propia rama de habilidades, poderes y transformaciones, los combates son casi idénticos a los de los juegos pasados, ya sea los Budokai Tenkaichi o los XenoVerse o cualquier juego de Dragon Ball con un combate en tercera persona a mapa abierto.

I’m a big fan of dragon ball z and anime in general. I remember the first teaser trailer for this game and it said “dragon ball z: project z action rpg” I was super hype for it because I was very curious about the action rpg part. Then I got skeptical because I was worried they was gonna stop at the cell saga. Then my hype went back up because it turns out it’s going beyond that. Fast forward, I never got the game because I saw the gameplay and it wasn’t a must buy it. Got it for my birthday and it’s on.

Let’s see how this goes.

Dragonball Z Kakarot (January 17th)-Starting out, i wanted to get this game but i wasn't sure if i was actually going to enjoy this game, so i never did. and then, close to the end of the year, it went on sale for a pretty decent price, and my girlfriend ended up buying it for me as a christmas gift. So what can i say about this game? well it's dragon ball z, of course, as in all these dragonball z games one way or another, you're playing from the point goku introduces his son to all his friends 5 years after the battle against piccolo, up to the point Goku is Wishing for Kid Buu to be reborn as a good guy one day. Like all these dbz games always do, you end up playing this same story all the time, i really wish they'd go all out and actually start us off in the very beginning of the dragon ball story and makes its way all the way up to the end of Dragon ball super or GT or something, but that's just unrealistic, i know. But besides that wishful thinking, This game is actually very good. After playing Xenoverse 1 and 2, i think kakarot was a great way to relieve the story, without our avatar character joining the fight with powered up villain's, actually getting to go through the whole Z storyline felt so fresh. And you get to see a bunch of the characters that they still haven't brought into the xenoverse world, like android 19 and 20. 20 is such a important character to the cell saga that it's ridiculous they haven't added him in still, plus android 19 being the iconic moment we got to witness the birth of SSJ Vegeta, i just can't believe they still never added them into the game. But yeah, in this game we actually got characters that should be in it: The androids, all the frieza forms, the cell forms, the super buu absorption forms and then other characters like ChiChi, ox king, Fortune teller baba, chiotzu, puar, oolong. ect. You can really tell the people who made this game actually had some love for the dragonball series because there was a bunch of dragon ball series characters hanging in the world for side stories. Android 8, Nam, Tao Pai Pai, tien and chiotzu's old master i forget his name. Upa and his father, Suno, freaking Arale-chan and senbei and the gatchan thing from the Dr.Slump series, Launch! i was so happy to see her in this game. every time I saw anybody from the dragon ball series, I'd be happy cause i didn't know who to expect to be in this game besides android 8. There's a lot of side stories in this game too, so many that I didn't even finish them all in the end, maybe one day lol, It was really nice seeing some of the irrelevent characters getting some screen time from the side stories though. I haven't played all the dragonball games but I do feel like this game's world was probably the best for exploration, like I used to think budokai 3 had the best world to explore but I think this game takes that now. You would select which part of the area you wanted to go to and then the map would be pretty big to explore and fly through, find side stories, get minerals and ingredients, continue the main story, find dragon balls scattered across all the areas, fish, shop, collect z medals to help powerup your characters. find these memory things that show us a screenshot of episodes from dragon ball with a description of what was going on in the screenshot. I really liked those and thought they were cool to find, there was a whole bunch too that I am still missing.

Then there are the battles, I'm not sure if it's that I suck at them, but the battles were pretty irritating at times, Like when I was fighting in battles the enemies would Constantly interrupt my attacks but I couldn't do the same to them when they would be using their Ki attacks, and they'd constantly launch me, it was a pain usually and aggravating. This game is Supposed to be a Rpg, it is. You level up, your hp and power increases as you level up but that's it. it's nothing like where you'd select your attack and then the enemies select there attack, like I thought it was going to be when I heard it was a Rpg. It still plays like dragon ball games usually have been playing these days, press L3 to speed towards the enemy, spam O to punch and kick, hold L1 and one of the four action buttons to use your special attacks, hold L2 to guard, hold R1 and one of the four action commands to have your allies use their special skills. when both your teammates in the party have their gauge filled up after using their special skill assist, you can press L1 + R1 for a Z combo attack where the 3 will attack the enemy and end it with them all using their strong Ki attack together. I do kind of feel like I prefer the battle system for xenoverse compared to this one. I wish that this game included the filler stuff from the series, like the garlic jr arc would've been cool to play, and the movies. But of course they skipped out on that content, more wishful thinking. And as always, they do it all the time, but they make the god of destruction movie and the resurrection F movie part of a 3 pack dlc, who knows what the final pack will be but the developers said where the first two were more considered boss packs, the last one will be a story pack. Idk what that means, but it'd be nice if it was the universe survival arc, but that would mean skipping out on the universe 6 vs 7 arc and goku black arc, so I'm just going to assume it's probably the universe 6 Vs universe 7 arc. Oh and also the characters, there's only about 5 playable characters, Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo, and Future Trunks which the only way to play as him again after the cell saga is to do one of the side stories after beating the game. I know you played as goten and Gotenks but idk if you can unlock them for actual post game stuff. And then you have the other characters like krillin, yamcha tien chioutzu, goten, kid trunks, android 18 that you can bring into battles with you and have them use their attacks in the quick assist skills buttons, but that's it, no playing as them or anything. It doesn't really bother me though. There was also these community boards where you could place the character medals you got from doing sub stories or progressing through the game. Each community board had it's unique effects, like there was a few community boards with a community leader, goku was the leader of the Z warriors board, which strengthened attack and defense I think. Chichi was the leader for the cooking board, which if you increased its level you'd get better effects for having chichi cook you a full course meal. Master Roshi was the leader of the adult board which wasn't very useful. King Kai was the leader of the Training board which would increase your battle exp. which was very useful. Popo was the leader of the God board, Yajarobi was the leader of the adventure board, bulma was the leader of the technology board, some of these boards were very useful, while others were pretty useless to me. And they also threw in these minigames. I'm not sure why but there was a racing time attack minigame and a baseball minigame. I really don't know what the point of these two games were but they were there lol.

I guess that's about everything I have to say about Dragonball Z Kakarot. The experience was pretty enjoyable, it lasted me throughout December into January with a playtime of almost 180 hours, I would rate this game a 7 out of 10.

Enjoyed this a lot, sure the storyline has been repeated in so many games now but it hasn't been done as detailed as in this. Combat was enjoyable enough to not become repetitive and some of the cinematics are incredibly detailed. Exploring locations was a blast and there is so much lore to uncover that even myself a fan of over 20 years can easily get lost in. Side quests unfortunately were a bore (most of them) and the lack of voice support for them was an odd choice, and I really wasn't a fan of the broken levelling up system.

PROS

• A true love letter to Dragon Ball Z fans, bursting with content and cameos
• Flying around the game's bright anime world is kinda neat for a while

CONS

• Lifeless story sequences, largely due to sparse, ineffectual sound design
• Tedious, repetitive combat that wears out its welcome almost immediately
• Bloated by many unnecessary systems and mechanics
• Non-combat objectives are universally rudimentary
• Exploration mostly boils down to collecting thousands of glowing orbs
• Nostalgia aside, Dragon Ball Z is just kinda stupid  🤷🏻‍♂️

DBZ Kakarot has no hand holding whatsoever and makes you dive right into the action. The game is a visual treat, a brilliant fighter and definitely a nostalgic trip for the fans of the series.

It's a miracle how they've compressed all the sagas in one 60 hour game. I platinumed it in roughly 65 hours. The side quests get somewhat repetitive but otherwise, it's a must play. Especially for the fans of the series.

tl;dr Extremely disappointed in the game. While I did enjoy it, I can only attribute it to the Dragon Ball coat of paint on top of it.

Mechanically this game is a mess. The game is divided into two main parts and minigames.

Exploration is bare-bones. Moving around the game is fine. Initially the flight controls were a bit odd but once you get used to adjusting altitude, moving around is fine and the world is huge so it's pretty easy to get lost in the world of dragon ball, but other then that there isn't anything else to keep you engaged. The point of exploration is to acquire materials, be they z orbs or cooking materials. Most of these tasks are boring but the good thing about it is that you are never required to grind to achieve good stats, food, upgrades, etc as the game gives you enough materials by doing story quests and side quests. The biggest downside to exploration are the nagging random encounters which give next to no xp and bog down the pace of the game.

Combat is... bad. It's quite simple, which is not necessarily bad, but everything about it bugs me. It's really spammy, timing for dodging seem to always be off, enemies mostly soft lock you with ki attacks but still don't do enough damage for it to matter. It just doesn't seem balanced. You either get stun locked, or you stun lock the opponent, but if it's a group fight, the former more likely.

To talk about the story of the game I have to mention Unreal Engine 4, and the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series made by the same developers.

First, the game is made in ue4. I love this engine. It has allowed indie devs to make some great games, but when I see "made with ue4" on a AAA game it makes my skin crawl because it probably means they are using the engine to save money and have the game easily be cross platform. Not bad things but also invites half assing. I played this game on pc with the mouse and keyboard and unsurprisingly it was hell. The delays in combat might honestly be due to some m+k delay due to the game. Directional dodging sometimes just ignores direction and where stuff is mapped on the keyboard is just terrible. Also mouse buttons, and scroll whiles are not mappable and sometimes clicking yes on menus with the mouse click doesn't work, or you are taken to a different menu. Unreal engine by default works with m+b and joysticks, so I have no idea how keyboard input is busted. Now on to the storm games. This series is known for having over the top set pieces everywhere where the game can get away with. So when it was announced that this studio is gonna make the game I thought we'd get a flashy extravaganza, but even on that front, the game still disappoints. It seems like only the buu saga had the storm pizzaz while the other sagas were ripped wholesale from the anime. Another thing with the storm series is that it's meant to have local coop and online matches, meaning the combat needed to be streamlined, while here it feels like because here because it's a single player game so the combat was rushed or half assed.

The only thing keeping me engaged were the side missions. They are a neat additions to dragon ball.