With how big of a game DragonBall Z: Kakarot by Bandai Namco and CyberConnect2 is, I wanted to give an initial impression now that I am 11 hours into the main storyline. Please keep in mind that I have only just completed the Frieza saga and did the first few fights into the Android/Cell saga. The overall goal with this is to express how the general gameplay is and to give an idea of what you can expect if you plan on purchasing this recently released beast of a game. I also am taking this opportunity to be highly detailed on some aspects that I typically would summarize in a full review.
Gameplay
One of the first things I did when I loaded up was begin collecting the orbs that are located everywhere around the world. This is how I was able to practice and master the art of flight control while giving myself a boost in the red, blue, and green power orbs that are used to unlock more moves or power those moves up. It turns out the collecting orbs isn’t really a chore because of how many there are and how easy it is to gather a bunch of them while just traveling to your current story quest destination. However, if you do choose to fly around and collect them then there are a few neat tricks like doing a barrel roll through the big rings to collect the lot all at once, speed fly through a trail of them to get them quickly or even take the occasional wind tunnel that auto-flies you through a segment of orbs collecting for you with zero effort of your own. Also, note that you get plenty of orbs at the end of each fight, so omitting the option to fly around and collect them yourself wouldn’t even affect you negatively, but it is a nice boost to have and a fun way to practice flight control.
As you see in the title, I have called the game an RPG Lite. What I mean by this is that they take all the aspects of an RPG character progression system and applied that to the game while the actual world itself is broken up into segments rather than being open like a regular RPG. Honestly, I think this was a brilliant move on the developers part.
To break down the RPG menu, you have the Community section which lets you put the soul emblems of each character in one of many different categories. Connecting specific characters together in each category can give their stat’s a boost and each category gives different benefits to the player based on what level the category is. Then you have the Item Consumption aspect, which is split between character consumption and soul emblem boosting. If it is an item for the player, it is typically something that will help heal the player, unless it is food in which it will give a temporary stat boost. However, if it is something for a soul emblem then that is how you raise their category-specific level and friendship level. Both of these levels come in to play as the category-specific one will level up that category with the more high-level characters in it, but the friendship level increases how much of a boost combining characters together can give the category.
Now, the main part of the RPG menu is the character section. This is where players can go into the move list and use the orbs to unlock new moves or make the ones they have a higher level. You can also get “know-how” stats which are basically stat boosts such as 5% break damage which can be equipped to the character. Each character has their own menu and will have to be leveled up individually. Once you have the moves unlocked you can organize them however you want so that they are accessible in battle which includes the option to pick what two moves the character has while playing as a support fighter for you.
The last thing I want to go over is the battles themselves. There are two ways that fights can be started: one being a random encounter while you are flying around the world, and yes this happens way more often than I expected, or from the queue of the story mode. Random encounter fights have enemies that are generally weaker than you, but the story mode fights are always either equal or stronger than you. I found most fights not too hard to beat, but once the main fight comes up I would struggle through a few losses. Fights that took me more than one try to beat include Piccolo vs Raditz, Vegeta vs Dodoria, and Goku vs Burter and Jeice, but there were a few others.
Fights themselves are very open and could end up going in all directions, just like in the anime. Their fast-paced intensity will need to be met by the player and you will need to balance the use of your energy as you use them for vanish movements (which is your dodge), quick flight toward the enemy, and most of your attacks. You can gain energy by landing some melee attacks which I find to be one of the main ways to fight anyways, giving the fight experience a natural balance flow.
Expectations
So far they have been amazing with how accurate and detailed their story mode has been for each saga. I hope to see this amount of effort continue all the way through to the end of the Buu saga. The eleven hours I have already put into the game has been through doing story missions only, so there is sure to be hours of entertainment left to experience by doing the side missions.
Because I have been skipping side missions, I also hope there is a chance for me to go back to old saga’s once I complete the game so that I could do these side missions. This is something I hope to see in a free roam continuation option or even some kind of special New Game+ mode.
I haven’t come across this experience yet, but there are some characters that change throughout the story such as Kid Gohan to Teen Gohan to Gohan and Great Saiyaman. I have been powering up Kid Gohan throughout the first two saga’s and I hope that once I unlock Teen Gohan that the stats I have put into the character are moved forward to the new version of him. There are sure to be other characters like this to mention as well, so let’s hope they took this into consideration overall.
Conclusion
So far, I have been absolutely enjoying DragonBall Z: Kakarot! It feels like the true ultimate experience you could want from playing through the classic anime series and lets you explore every aspect of it without skipping anything other than filler episodes. There is an obvious amount of care that was put into this game and I am looking forward to completing it all the way through! Be sure to check back next week for my full review.
