Saiyan Hello To a New Video Game
Dragon Ball Z Kakarot remains faithful to the beloved anime it’s based on
By Kevin Rodriguez
Dragon Ball Z Kakarot remains faithful to the beloved anime it’s based on
By Kevin Rodriguez
With Bandai Namco’s new game, Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, comes my childhood memories of Saturday nights watching Dragon Ball Z. When this game was released, I felt such a wave of nostalgia and excitement — it is, by far, the best game I have played in my life. Indeed, with CyberConnect2 as a developer, came the best animations and fight scenes I have seen in the entirety of the Dragon Ball franchise. As a lifelong fan, I could see how every animation was made to mirror the anime perfectly, with an additional elegant flair that makes the fights feel original.
The story takes after the Dragon Ball Z anime from the Saiyan Invasion through Majin Buu arc. In an interesting twist, the game aims to bring an all-new single player open world experience to the franchise, while still relying on the fan-favorite saiyans of Goku, Vegeta, Trunks, Gohan, Goten and a namekian Piccolo to play to the franchise’s powerful fanbase.
Moment to moment gameplay consists of exploring the world, spending time fishing, searching for the Dragon Balls, completing side quests or just fighting random enemies. Battles comprise of your quick attacks, super attacks, support attacks, transformations, energy blasts and shortcuts to items. Battles grow in excitement as time goes on because the longer you’re in the battle, the harder it becomes, giving the player a sense of relief if they’re able to survive. During a battle, while you try to use super attacks or normal attacks be careful because they can be disrupted by the enemy.
After completing the story, you can roam the world and chose characters to use for the random fights you encounter along the way. While I played through the game, the usefulness of these features became apparent and started to grow on me, especially during the emotional scenes that occur in the story. As they add more content, I’m hoping they add the Dragon Ball Super story into the game.
Unlike past iterations, the Dragon Balls now give you options to get money, rare items, Z orbs or to fight past enemies again. Training is also an option, in case you want to gain more powerful attacks. While training, you can learn a new attack by finding a certain item called a D Medal, though I personally find the requirement tiresome. D Medals are hard to find, as they are hidden around every part of the map and while I was playing, it took me more than 30 minutes to find 3 D Medals — and that’s on multiple maps.
Even so, this game is a must buy for people who love or have watched Dragon Ball and I also recommend it to anyone who like single-player open-world games.
The story takes after the Dragon Ball Z anime from the Saiyan Invasion through Majin Buu arc. In an interesting twist, the game aims to bring an all-new single player open world experience to the franchise, while still relying on the fan-favorite saiyans of Goku, Vegeta, Trunks, Gohan, Goten and a namekian Piccolo to play to the franchise’s powerful fanbase.
Moment to moment gameplay consists of exploring the world, spending time fishing, searching for the Dragon Balls, completing side quests or just fighting random enemies. Battles comprise of your quick attacks, super attacks, support attacks, transformations, energy blasts and shortcuts to items. Battles grow in excitement as time goes on because the longer you’re in the battle, the harder it becomes, giving the player a sense of relief if they’re able to survive. During a battle, while you try to use super attacks or normal attacks be careful because they can be disrupted by the enemy.
After completing the story, you can roam the world and chose characters to use for the random fights you encounter along the way. While I played through the game, the usefulness of these features became apparent and started to grow on me, especially during the emotional scenes that occur in the story. As they add more content, I’m hoping they add the Dragon Ball Super story into the game.
Unlike past iterations, the Dragon Balls now give you options to get money, rare items, Z orbs or to fight past enemies again. Training is also an option, in case you want to gain more powerful attacks. While training, you can learn a new attack by finding a certain item called a D Medal, though I personally find the requirement tiresome. D Medals are hard to find, as they are hidden around every part of the map and while I was playing, it took me more than 30 minutes to find 3 D Medals — and that’s on multiple maps.
Even so, this game is a must buy for people who love or have watched Dragon Ball and I also recommend it to anyone who like single-player open-world games.