Prior to the release of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment promised that this game would be the most accurate telling of the classic Z saga story in a video game to date. It's clear as fans dive into this game that Bandai Namco lives up to this promise, but in doing so, leaves manyof the game's details to fall to the wayside. Still, though, many fans of the franchise may consider this one of the best Dragon Ball Z games currently available and what it does set aside isn't incredibly detrimental to it.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot players will go through saga after saga, defeating bigger and bigger threats to the Earth from Raditz all the way to Kid Buu. There's a few moments where the game doesn't reflect the story in way fans would expect, whether that's omitting the classic "over 9000!" line or skipping over Snake Way, but then there's moments that add more emotional impact to the story, such as the opening sequence between Goku and Gohan.
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This emotional impact adds one key detail to the game that is not reflected in other Dragon Ball Z games: a good pacing. In the franchise's fighting games, it seems players can blow through the fights available in a short time span and only glance over the story as a result. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot slows things down and allows the story to develop naturally, giving character's time to reflect upon and grow from the events that surround them. As such, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot's length, roughly 30 hours for a standard playthrough, is genuinely reflective of the care developer CyberConnect2 shows the story more than anything else.
Of course, DBZ: Kakarot's story involves fighting and perhaps this is where the game shines the most. While the controls are hard to learn, they're simple to master, meaning playerswill grow alongside their characters throughout each fight developing their own approach to combat. Everything players would expect is there, from Super Saiyan transformations to classic Super Attacks, but then it goes a step further: the combat in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot reflects the direness of each situation accurately.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot redeems Raditz, for example, through an engaging boss fight that is not normally reflected in the character. He is generally used as a tutorial and seen as a pushover by the fandom, but in truth, he was a real threat when he arrived on Earth in the anime. The combat reflects that and forces players to take his challenge seriously. On the other end, in moments where the player character would outshine the villain, the combat is less challenging and instead allows the players to dominate the opponent in a way akin to the anime. And when two combatants would be equally matched, it feels that way as well.
This creates a really high immersion factor for the game, as players can truly feel like they are in the shoes of the titular character or any number of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot'splayable characters. Even as players jump characters for certain fights or quests, that immersion is never really lost and can carry players through the very end of the game. It's clear that DBZ fans are the intended audience from the way the game embodies the story and enraptures the player all the way to the moments of fan service.
Whether it's the return of minor characters like Nam the Peddler, Eighter, or the inclusion of extra Dragon Ball Z characters not in the original anime, it's clear that players are front and center. It's the small details like these characters or moments typically skipped over in a video game that stand out the most, and it all fulfills Bandai Namco's promise.
Unfortunately, this praise cannot be applied to more generic fights and activities, as oftentimes these feel uninspired. As Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot players fly through the world, there will be various enemies that can be engaged in the field, and it doesn't take long for these enemies to become monotonous because they are all effectively the same. The game only features a handful of enemies like these that can be engaged in the field, withDBZ: Kakarot's challenging "villainous parties" typically only being powered-up versions of these generic enemies. These parties do play a bigger role in the game, though, but that won't be discussed here due to spoiler concerns.
Basicenemies can easily be defeated with instant victories, though, once players reach a certain level and gain the ability to fly through and defeat them. If it weren't for this feature in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, it seems safe to say these enemies could be avoided altogether, but that can be applied to most of the game's RPG elements as well.
Simply put, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is a DBZ game first and an action RPG third or fourth. Many of its system like leveling up, gathering Z-Orbs, completing substories (sidequests), cooking for stat buffs, fishing for food, collecting Zeni, upgrading the training room, building cars and robots, and stockpiling DBZ: Kakarot's Soul Emblems serve little-to-no purpose or have nothing to really incentivize the activity. These all feel like unnecessary supplemental systems to pad out the game.
Leveling up, for example, often happens for story reasons that jump the characters significantly, instead of naturally needingDragon Ball Z: Kakarot players to level themselves up. And while the level difference is a big concern in the early stages of the game, players can easily dispatch enemies 20-30 levels higher than them by the end of it. This is without having gathered Z-Orbs to power up, as the story provides more than enough for the player, or buffs from fishing or cooking, as they are easily forgettable.
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Players will also quickly amass Zeni, or trade items that can be sold for a lot of Zeni, but it can really only be spent on the aforementioned items or certain details like building and upgrading the training room. If building Dragon Ball Z Kakarot's vehicles like the car and the bipedal walker, and gathering material and Zeni to upgrade the training room, were not tied to the game's trophies/achievements, then there would be no reason to even engage in them. The training room grants nice, unique perks, sure, but they don't have any serious impact, while the car and walker literally have no impact.
Soul Emblems are a little interesting, as after completing certain tasks, players are rewarded with these tokens that can be assigned to community boards. These grant players buffs in certain areas and can be leveled up via gifts in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, but unless they're maxed out, they don't really have any discernible influence on gameplay.
Yet, perhaps the biggest culprit of these supplementary systems is the side quests found in the game, as more often than not, they fall into one of two categories: fetch quests or defeat X generic enemies. Some are interesting, some have a nice little story, and some allow players to interact with smaller characters like Korin, but when all players do is fetch them materials or defeat the same enemy all over again, it loses its impact in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.
Sadly, this bleeds over into the game's intermissions as well. Between each saga in DBZ: Kakarot, players are granted an intermission to do smaller activities like play baseball or repair a space ship, but once again, these are comprised of fetch quests. One intermission in the middle of the game will feel like a prolonged series of fetch quests just to proceed the story, which is painful for all gamers to endure.
This likely means that quite a few Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot players, especially those who aren't completionists, will navigate away from these systems to focus on the what the game excels at, its representation of the story and its combat. With that in mind, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is an easily lovable game, and fans of the DBZ franchise would do well to check it out to experience the epic saga once again, just this time in all new light.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarotis out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Game Rant was provided an Xbox One code for the purposes of this review.
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