Previously on Dragon Ball Z: The franchise suffered through decades of bad games, but then a hero arrived at the last second to save the day in the form of 2018’s Dragon Ball FighterZ. An anomaly in the annals of Dragon Ball gaming history, DBFZ combined amazing visuals with a fighting engine that did justice to the source material.
But was it a fluke? More importantly, could that magic happen again but as a role-playing game? The answers to these questions and more is today’s episode of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, by developer CyberConnect2 — known for the cult favorite Asura’s Wrath.
And here’s the thing about Kakarot that I’m sure most of you could already guess: If you aren’t a fan then this game just isn’t for you. This isn’t to speak about the quality of the presentation, gameplay, or story-telling in Kakarot. These games simply aren’t made to convince a non-believer in regards to the source material.
Nobody has ever picked up one of the billion Naruto arena-battle games released in the past two decades and said: “Huh, this game of angsty, magical tweens obsessed with shouting the names of their attacks sure seems neat, better go figure out where they all came from!”
Grade: ★ ★ ★ ½
System: XBox One, PS4, PC
No. Players: 1
Published by: CyberConnect2
Genre: Open World RPG
Rating: T
And continuing that tradition, Dragon Ball Z: Kararot isn’t going to bring new fans into the fold. However, what it does accomplish is far greater. While not recreating the wheel in regards to gameplay, Kakarot is the first Dragon Ball Z game to succeed in retelling the classic anime’s tale without sacrificing something in return.
Past titles such as The Legend of Goku series on Gameboy Advance told the whole story, but in a truncated, mobile package. None up to this point combined anime-quality graphics with gameplay and storytelling that compliment and even expand upon the beloved source material.
An open-world adventure in the Dragon Ball universe is a perfect fit for the source material and one of Kakarot’s biggest strengths. Goku’s world is beautiful and expansive, though maybe not the most interactive. Being able to zip around at high speeds at the Z Fighters while taking in each of the original show’s story arcs is a big selling point, along with the additions that CyberConnect2 made along the way.
When I say that Kakarot is a complete retelling of the Dragon Ball Z tale, I do mean everything and more. Honestly, one of my favorite aspects of the game is the gaps in the story that the game takes time to fill in that the anime and manga never did. Sure, these are inconsequential moments such as finding out what happened to Launch, the goings-on of villains like Mercenary Tao, and any storyline having to do with Yamcha.
But it’s these small moments where the game finds itself as a true companion piece to the anime, something that no other anime game in the past has accomplished. In most titles, you’re lucky to get a recreation of the plot’s broad strokes and some non-canon filler along the way. Kakarot slows down and gives the characters room to breathe, which also helps peel back some of the old jokes and tropes about Dragon Ball Z that the show doesn’t deserve.
Sure, DBZ is a show about beefy men punching each other and screaming, but it also is about the relationship between father and son, competitor and rival, and everything in-between. Characters like Gohan get a bigger role while also changing some of his interactions with other characters -- such as his mother, played as a complete tiger mom in the show, but here played as concerned, but sympathetic.
That’s a huge change and one that helps overcome the game’s meandering shortcomings.
The combat isn’t going to win any awards and may outright put people off from Kakarot. The arena-based, button mashy brawls are all about one-button combos and flashy energy attacks, and never gain any intricacy. The bigger fights that await at the end of each arc do have context-sensitive moments that add to the storytelling, but the game also provides no indicator of how they trigger.
Mission variety in-between the big moments is also one-note. While the game does go into the backstories of forgotten characters, those missions often don’t amount to much more than “Go to a place, find the thing, go back.” It leaves a majority of the game’s smaller moments feeling monotonous.
All that said, Kakarot is a visually appealing companion to the greatest anime of all time. Fans of the show, whether lapsed or enduring, should absolutely jump into Goku’s shoes and spend some time with Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Just be sure to prepare yourself for a lot of downtime between major moments, such is the curse of waiting on Goku to arrive and save the day.
Huh, I wonder if that’s going to become a trend?
Contact William Harrison at: DoubleUHarrison@gmail.com or on Twitter @DoubleUHarrison.
• IN REVIEW
What: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
Grade: ★ ★ ★ ½
System: XBox One, PS4, PC
No. Players: 1
Published by: CyberConnect2
Genre: Open World RPG
Rating: T
Grades: Outstanding; ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Very Good; ★ ★ ★ ★ Good;★ ★ ★ Fair;★ ★ Poor; ★
First Published February 6, 2020, 3:06 a.m.