Video Game Review: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

Studio: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment

Genre: Action RPG

Platform: Playstation 4, Xbox One, PC

Over the 36 years since Dragon Ball first touched the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan, Dragon Ball and, more recognizably, Dragon Ball Z have become cultural icons in anime. The fact that Dragon Ball still has a serialized manga to this day in the form of Dragon Ball Super should tell you how strong its popularity still is. Whether you were a fan of the series a kid, are still a fan today or could never find yourself getting into it, no one can deny the impact Akira Toriyama’s franchise has had not only on anime and manga but on pop culture as a whole.

In the last three-and-a-half decades we’ve had nearly 100 games based on the Dragon Ball franchise spread across various platforms, from consoles and PCs to mobile games and arcade machines. And over these many gaming devices we’ve gotten the privilege to experience many different genres of gaming through different variations of storytelling whether it’s a rehash of the series or a game-original plot. Prior to 2020, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 was my favorite Dragon Ball Z game because to me it feels the most like DBZ. Strong characters are ridiculously strong and have moves that can wipe out health bars in seconds, while weaker characters even when given custom items struggle just to compete. With this newest game from Bandai Namco, however, will BT3 remain on top?

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot takes players through the four major arcs of the series: the Saiyan saga, the Frieza saga, the Cell saga, and the Buu saga. The story is told through missions where players take control of a variety of characters to enact different moments of the series. From playing as Goku flying on the Nimbus towards Raditz to Gohan preparing for the Cell Games, the story missions give players lots of different characters and moves to keep them entertained.

The best part about this game is its presentation. The game feels so very DBZ, from the music taken straight from the original Japanese soundtrack to the phenomenal voice acting from series veterans. I played with the English dub and absolutely loved Sean Schemmel and Christopher Sabat continuing to give their all with the voices of Goku and Vegeta. It’s so great hearing two guys who genuinely love the characters they’ve played for over 20 years perform.

On top of that the animation, especially when talking about the cinematic cutscenes, is incredible. The character models look updated and modern while still paying homage to the original style, and the cutscenes take classic scenes from the series and give them flashy updates in the best way possible. The scene with Goku defeating Recoome is my particular favorite of the game, and I’ve watched it multiple times outside of playing the game because of how insanely cool it is. Every time the cutscenes are directly adapting the source material players in for a treat, even if it’s just a short scene.

The gameplay feels very similar to Xenoverse but updated slightly. In Xenoverse a lot of the combat devolved into spamming your ultimate move over and over until you won the battle, and while you can do the same here I would say that the general combat is much more enjoyable overall so I tended to use a lot more physical moves. How better to feel like Goku than to completely overwhelm an opponent with superhuman martial arts before blasting them away with a Kamehameha? 

The overworld consists of multiple areas you can travel to which then open up into smaller pockets of open world. While the open world isn’t incredibly expansive, there’s still something incredibly satisfying about taking off into the sky and flying past iconic landmarks from the series including the Kame House, Capsule Corps, Yamcha’s old hideout in the desert, and even King Kai’s planet. Within the open world, you can often find other characters from the series and interact with them for funny bits of dialogue or occasionally side missions. And it’s not just major or secondary characters. There are nostalgic faces abound within the open world, and fans of the series will appreciate seeing plenty of familiar faces around the world. After a certain point in the story, the Dragon Balls begin appearing in the open world as well which you can collect and use to make wishes for money, rare items, or resurrect past foes to challenge again. 

While I did enjoy a lot about this game, it’s far from perfect. Not all of the voice-acting is always top-notch, and I noticed at some times it felt like the voice actor did not understand the context of the line they were reading so the delivery did not match with the tension of the scene. This could be more of a fault of the editor rather than the voice actor, but it still made some sequences in the game feel stilted. 

The cinematic cutscenes are absolutely amazing, but many of the other gameplay-model cutscenes feel like action figures talking to each other with how stiff the characters look.

The gameplay is fun but it does get repetitive after a while. While I did find it more enjoyable than Xenoverse, I will give it to Xenoverse for having a much larger pool of moves to choose from to keep things interesting. Each character has their own skill tree and access to their individual unique move list, but ultimately Xenoverse has a far wider variety of potential moves.

The overworld, even with all the characters in it, is pretty devoid of activities to partake in. The fishing minigame is so utterly basic and barebones that you could essentially do it with your eyes closed (I tried it myself). The “hunting” is nothing more than running after animals you can easily outrun with your super speed and punching them to get their meat. And the driving is not fun or satisfying at all. Even riding the Nimbus isn’t fun because of how much slower it is than straight-up flying which I found to be a particular bummer.

There is also a serious issue with fetch quests in this game. While I don’t think there is necessarily a lot in it, the game has the tendency to piling multiple fetch quests onto the player back to back at certain sections of the game so players feel fatigued by it much faster. 

Lastly, I have to comment on the fact that even though this is marketed as an action RPG the RPG elements are very, very basic and the community board system altogether is a very unnecessary part of the game. Collecting all of the soul emblems was pretty fun, but the actual implementation leaves a lot to be desired.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is a game that I highly recommend to fans of the series. This game won’t convert anyone to the franchise on its own, but fans will have plenty to appreciate with this newest game entry. I won’t call it my favorite DBZ gaming experience (nothing will ever dethrone you, BT3) it’s still a very fun game and it’s definitely earned a spot in my “Top 5 DBZ Games of All Time” list.

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