Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot fans have been waiting quite a while for news about the game, and it seems that the recent V Jump scans have finally answered that plea. Contained within the scans full of Dragon Ball Z related news was yet another glimpse at the Card Battle mode coming to Kakarot soon, this time with a promise that it would arrive with the next update. Unfortunately, the next update doesn't have a release date/window yet, so that isn't much to go off of, but it should be arriving soon. Though the images don't show everything, a lot of information can be gleaned from them, including a possible connection to YuGiOh.
For the uninitiated, since Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot released back in January of this year, Bandai Namco has been mostly silent about the game's future. Leaks and scans such as this have kept interest in the game alive to a degree, only releasing one DLC in the past 7 months is causing many to lose interest. It's possible that this card game might actually revitalize the game, bringing it back to its former glory, but it could also flop and be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
DBZ: Kakarot and YuGiOh?
If this talk of YuGiOh x Dragon Ball is causing flashbacks to TeamFourStar's Cell VS Yami Yugi video, don't worry, as it probably won't be anything like that. The reason for this comparison is simple, and it has to do with the design of the cards. It appears that every card shown so far in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot's upcoming card battle mode has both an attack and defense stat, similar to YuGiOh but unlike any previous Dragon Ball Z card game seen before. This format is familiar, and though there is no guarantee that it will work the same way, it does seem likely.
Players may also be acquiring cards in a similar manner to YuGiOh, through good ol' booster packs. The scan below shows a card vending machine that looks exactly like the real life card vending machines found in Japan. Hopefully these won't require real money and will instead take the in game Zenny, but it does seem that players will need to buy cards to increase the size and power of their decks. While this may seem strange to some, it will finally give players something to do with all the Zenny they got from making wishes on Kakarot's Dragon Balls.
Breaking Down DBZ: Kakarot Cards
Look at the Vegeta card on the bottom right hand corner of this page, where he seems to be using his iconic Final Flash technique, there are five main points of interest. The first thing to look at is the number circled in the top left hand corner. As far as anyone can tell, this is likely to be the cost of the card, in other words, players will need to expend that much energy to play the card. Energy is found in a similar looking yellow circle on the bottom left side of the battle screenshot and will likely fluctuate throughout the battle.
Next, fans will notice the stars located on the right hand side of the card itself. These obviously indicate rarity, although it is still unclear how high rarity can go. In other Dragon Ball Z card games, seven was the max, likely a reference to the 7 titular Dragon Balls denoted by star numbers. In the bottom left hand corner of the card players will notice a colored symbol; this most likely is the card's element or type. These could either play off of each other in a Pokemon type fashion, with certain elements being better against others, or could be used similarly to YuGiOh in which certain cards only affect certain types.
Finally, the blue and red numbers likely indicate attack and defense, or perhaps HP. Looking closely reveals that the blue number is shown next to a fist while the red one is shown next to a heart, further cementing these claims. If this is like YuGiOh after all, destroying an opposing card will require the player to attack it with a card whose attack power is higher than the target's defense/HP rating. That would end up being the basis of the card battle.
DBZ: Kakarot Card Battle Advanced Mechanics
Looking at this page reveals a few potentially more advanced mechanics. First, notice the green box with the number 11 in it. It seems as though this represents some sort of reserve for using special attacks like the Kamehameha shown on in the battle above. This is very similar to the original card battle scan shown but in much higher quality. Second, astute fans may notice that the four elemental/attribute symbols are also located above the energy pool, and are likely expended to use these special abilities.
The Gotenks card is also interesting, namely because the cost in the upper left hand corner is in a red diamond rather than in an orange-yellow ball. This could denote that he is extra rare, but one would think that the number of stars on the side would do that. Despite costing more and having more frills on the golden edge of the card, Gotenks is actually worse than Vegeta from the previous image based on what can be seen. The attack and defense stats are lower and the rarity is the same. This indicates that there must be other information on the card that isn't available yet.
Will Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot's Card Battle Save It?
It's difficult to say whether this will be enough to hold fans over until the next big content update, especially considering many thought Kakarot's DLC 2 should be announced already. While some may dislike the idea of adding a card game to Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, it's important to remember that it is free content and no one is forced to engage with it. Finally, it's worth re-emphasizing that all of this is simply speculation based on the V Jump scans shared by Dragon Ball Hype, in the end the final product could be very different than what is described here.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.