Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is coming packed with various RPG features such as sidequests, multiple playable characters, and a ton of mini-games like fishing, driving, eating, playing baseball, and more. One minor feature that has been mentioned but never fully addressed in the ability to sense Ki. This likely explains how players move from major story point to major story point, but a new detail concerning it has recently been revealed for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.
As players fly, drive, or ride robots around the open world section of DBZ: Kakarot, they will be able to occasionally sense the ki of a special enemy. These enemies have a dark, evil aura and are described as incredibly tough and hard-to-beat battles. Chances are, these enemies won't exactly be canon and are just ways for players to get extra experience and the like, as the rewards for these enemies are said to be big.
What exactly those rewards are, though, remains to be seen, but speculation suggests it could be anything from bonus experience and certain in-game items to something like a new move or perhaps even one of DBZ: Kakarot's Dragon Balls. This would be an interesting way for the latter to come into play, as while their function has been revealed, how to find them has not.
Dragon Balls also play a similar function, as players can reportedly wish to face off with certain enemies again. This would break canon somewhat, as players could face enemies like Cell as Adult Gohan or perhaps even Frieza as Vegito, in a move that is clearly fan service. Considering how these special open world enemies come into play, it would make sense for the two DBZ: Kakarot functions to be somewhat related.
Outside of these special open world encounters and repeating fights through Shenron, there's another way random enemy engagements happen: they can hunt players. For example, in DBZ: Kakarot's Vegeta gameplay, a group of Frieza soldiers were shown to fly up and engage Vegeta in 3v1 combat. With the various ways fights can engage in combat, it seems safe to assume that there will be some variety to combat, and players should be wary when engaging one of the aforementioned "evil aura" enemies.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot releases January 17, 2020, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Ken Xyro