Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is a game many of us have been waiting for for years. It’s a title that zones in on any and all nostalgia for the franchise and magnifies it into something not only beautiful, but tangible. It’s a video game that manages to be a competent RPG while retelling what is arguably the greatest chapter in the Dragon Ball saga. 

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At the same time, Kakarot is a sloppily made game with tons of bugs and a gameplay loop that, while fun, never really asks much of the player. Anyone looking to be challenged by their gaming look elsewhere. Those who just want to kick back and revel in Dragon Ball should make themselves at home. 

10 Loved: The Combat

Kakarot’s combat is kind of like Xenoverse’s, but not quite. The button mapping is different, but the general spirit behind combat is the same: chain combos and relish in the spectacle that is Dragon Ball. Kakarot thrives most during its boss fights, where enemies only get more aggressive the closer they get to death. 

Never has a battle system so well captured the intensity and chaos of action in Dragon Ball Z. Vegeta raining down a storm of ki blasts from overhead onto Goku is a gameplay scenario that manages to instill drama into what would otherwise be a simple one on one fight. Combat doesn’t have too much depth, but it’s exciting and engaging. Which is all a Dragon Ball game needs. 

9 Didn’t: The Difficulty

dbz kakarot raditz

Outside of a few key boss fights (and you’ll remember them,) Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is not a difficult game. In fact, it’s one of the easiest Dragon Ball games in recent memory. Just about anyone can get through the game comfortably with very little to no effort. Hell, grinding might just ruin Kakarot outright since nothing would be a challenge. 

This is an RPG where just a few levels completely trivialize combat. Anyone looking for a challenge should honestly skip as much side content as possible and just stick to the story. It might not be the most engaging way to play, but it’ll undeniably ensure that the combat can shine. 

8 Loved: The Story

dragon ball z kakarot montage

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot bites off more than it can chew adapting four fairly lengthy story arcs, but it does the best job of any Dragon Ball game covering the whole Z-era. Attack of the Saiyans is still the best adaptation as far accurate stories go, but Kakarot has the presentation to carry its story. 

Not just that, it adapts more than any other game in the series, touching upon every single major beat. Some details are basically mentioned in passing, essentially meaning Kakarot isn’t a replacement for either the manga or anime, but it’s an incredibly fresh way to experience Dragon Ball Z’s story in a way that feels both comprehensive and satisfying. 

7 Didn’t: Goku's Character Development

Super Saiyan in Dragon Ball Z Kakarot

Although Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot adapts the story incredibly well, it does drop the ball when it comes to the characterization. Goku in particular ends up hurt the most as he’s barely a presence during the first half of the game. Since most character beats are relegated to side content to keep the story moving at a flow– and Goku is often unplayable– it’s hard to get a read on his arc. 

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His identity crisis with his Saiyan identity was subtle enough in the manga, but it’s non-existent in the game. Keep in mind, the title is Kakarot, suggesting Goku’s arc would be at the forefront. You can still get a sense of Goku’s arc by lingering the overworld the few times he’s playable during the first two story arcs, but don’t expect the same development present in a typical RPG. 

6 Loved: The Music

dbz kakarot vegeta cutscene still

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot would already be home to a great score if it were only made up of tracks present in the anime, but the fact that the soundtrack is not only styled after Shunsuke Kikuchi’s score for Dragon Ball elevates it to possibly the single greatest Dragon Ball soundtrack in history (second to Super Butoden 2, of course.) 

The battle themes in particular are probably the best the series has seen on the video game end. They actually capture the sound and tone of the anime. At the same time, there are plenty of modern sounding tracks like the boss theme against Raditz and the shockingly amazing theme that plays in the fight against Guldo. 

5 Didn’t: The Leveling System

DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT_20200119212631

The leveling system isn’t aggressively bad, but it’s the bare minimum in a franchise that’s had much better leveling systems. Worse yet, Kakarot is a game that borrows quite a lot from Xenoverse, but what it doesn’t borrow is arguably its best aspect: the progression system! Instead, leveling in Kakarot is very impersonal. 

There’s a skill tree that’s fun enough to unlock new notches for, but most everything important will be unlocked just by playing the story casually so there’s never a real itch to get stronger. Which is a shame considering that’s one of the main tenets that make up Dragon Ball

4 Loved: The Cutscene Direction

piccolo death kakarot dragon ball

 

 

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot’s cutscene direction is downright incredible, and it manages to brilliantly reinterpret several key scenes from the manga and anime in gorgeous fashion. The use of color and the framing make some of Dragon Ball Z’s most important fights come to life in ways that even the anime can’t compare with. 

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Piccolo’s death and Goku turning into a Super Saiyan for the first time stand out as two of the best cutscenes in the game, proof that the cutscene directors understand what was at the core of the characters. This is a game that accurately adapts Goku’s sorrow over killing Freeza on Namek. Not even the anime does that! 

3 Didn’t: The Sidequests 

Most open-world games have terrible side quests and while Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot isn’t exactly open world, it still abides to the design philosophies of the open-world genre as far as side content goes. To be fair, there’s plenty to explore and uncover in the game so it’s not like all the side content is a wash, but the side quests are especially mediocre. 

The best ones involve characters active in the main plot like the Earthlings during the Saiyan arc, but those aren’t nearly as prevalent as the handful of side quests randomly puked onto miscellaneous pre-Z era characters. At best, they’re battles. At worst, they’re mindless fetch quests. 

2 Loved: The Pacing

While sidequests are a pace breaker, they’re a pace breaker completely at the control of the player. Don’t want to do side quests? Don’t bother. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is a game that lends itself to any play style. Its core story moves at such a brisk pace, the only way it could be better is if it were the manga. 

Kakarot shatters the notion that Dragon Ball Z is slow and that characters spends hours charging up. Just playing Kakarot, one would immediately understand that Dragon Ball is a fast, frantic series with action and drama that never lets up. 

1 Didn’t: The Title

To Kakarot’s credit, the game does go out of its way to make sure Goku is a constant presence. Even the Cell saga, a story arc where Goku is largely absent in, has its intro fleshed out so Goku is overall more active. At the same time, Kakarot can only do so much to make Goku the focus in a part of Dragon Ball history where him rarely being the focus is part of that era’s identity. 

To say nothing of the fact Kakarot is blatantly contextualized around Gohan. Most of Goku’s characterization ends up even further shoved into the background than usual, but Gohan still has a very active and present arc. He’s the character players control in Intermissions, he’s the character the majority of the story is framed through, and he’s the character players spend the most time controlling. 

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