Dragon Ball Z Kakarot has had a steady stream of DLC since it launched three years ago, the most recent of which tells the story of Goku’s father, Bardock, will show you there’s plenty of story to tell in that universe.
Kakarot isn’t perfect, but it’s one of the best representations of Akira Toriyama’s wonderfully colorful world in interactive form. All pieces are available for the big sequel that builds on established systems and mechanics and raises the stakes higher, possibly retelling the events of Dragon Ball Super and the colors Its different new hair. However, I really think that the most potential for a follow-up to Kakarot lies in Goku’s previous years, a game that retells the original Dragon Ball.
What makes Dragon Ball Z so appealing is also what usually works against it: escalation. It’s all about taking things to the next level. DBZ deals with afterlife, alien planets, time travel, and robots. Planets are destroyed, characters are killed, resurrected, killed again, and they regularly undergo drastic transformations – in some cases, multiple characters are fused together to create new characters. It’s a lot. After a certain point, everyone was ridiculously overpowered to the point of being unimpressed. DBZ is the furthest thing from what you would call “grounded”. In fact, at various points, the ground literally get blown up and characters just fight while hovering in the air – and maybe that doesn’t make for great gameplay?
Even starting from scratch, Dragon Ball Z Kakorot feels like you’re jumping into someone else’s save file in the middle of the game and playing an overpowered character who has so many abilities unlocked – and In a sense, that’s right. You still level up and unlock moves, but at the start of Z, Goku is one of the strongest fighters on the planet. He can fly and fire energy blasts without even thinking about it, and Kakarot’s playstyle reflects that. It took Goku three episodes to form the mental bomb he threw at Frieza, and that was a two-button combo?
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Meanwhile, Dragon Ball starts from square with classical martial arts. Initially, Goku mainly relied on his fists, paws, tail, and electric poles while fighting. Occasionally, he would resort to a wave of Kamehameha as a last resort, but something primarily melee combat on the ground could produce a sure-fire defeat. Make those ranged attacks a special occasion. Or, maybe that’s where the side characters come in? Ask Bulma to whip Uzi or turn Oolong into a rocket.
One of the complaints about Kakarot is that the open world feels empty, and while that’s true, it might go unnoticed if players explore it at a different pace. With the push of a button, Goku can explode and zoom halfway across the map. It’s interesting but also makes the world’s past blurred. In Dragon Ball, Goku spends most of his time walking or riding in a variety of cool-looking vehicles – many of which are already present in Kakarot. Sure, he gets the Flying Nimbus pretty early on, but it’s also often out of sight. I don’t know, make Nimbus like Torrent in Elden Ring, the magic ride sometimes is completely up to you.
Another complaint about Kakarot is that in between epic fights against iconic villains, a lot of time is spent fighting the same handful of enemies. Random encounters with Saibamen, the pirate robot, Frieza’s henchmen keep happening. None of this sounds like they should really pose a threat to earth’s mightiest heroes, but you’ve got to have something to fight between the beats of the grand story. Oh, and since most of the journey is in the air, all enemies need to be able to fly. In Dragon Ball, Goku constantly encounters thugs, thugs, henchmen and many other mediocre bad guys. Honestly, Goku joining the Red Ribbon army is practically a video game already: he fights his way up floor by floor in the Muscle Tower, defeating tons of the usual grunts and encounter a new unique boss every few levels.
One thing I love about Kakarot is that its structure resembles the Yakuza games – a mix of epic story missions, silly side quests, and fun activities. One thing the Yakuza series has proven over and over again is that as long as there’s something new to do in the game, no one gets too mad at the map being re-used and I’d love to see that approach taken in this.
Given the massive global success of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super, the power surge is clearly not a deal-breaker for many fans, and for many, bigger is always better. . Kakarot is the third best-selling Dragon Ball Z game to date, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Bandai Namco went the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” route – but we’ve got a LOT of game DBZs. , would it be nice to see OG get some love, perhaps to celebrate some important milestone… like 40th anniversary next year? It’s not the craziest thing anyone could wish for.
