Game review 24 January 2020, 21:42

author: Michael Grygorcewicz

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Review – Five Days of Fun with Average Game

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is a game for fans still overflowing with sentiment to Son Goku. And only for them. Everyone else should keep on looking.

The review is based on the PS4 version. It's also relevant to XONE version(s).

I didn't believe it would work, and I had three reasons. Firstly, Dragon Ball Z is a weak foundation of a typical role-playing game. "Z" almost entirely boiled down to infinitely long battles, which isn't really enough to warrant a game based on exploration. The classic Dragon Ball would be a much better choice here. But the classic adventures of little Goku are not as popular as the stories of Z Warriors, so why would anyone want to start with them, even if it would mean a more succinct experience...

Secondly, if Kakarot really has to be an RPG based on DBZ, then – for the love of Beerus! – don't squeeze everything into a single game! I mean, it's nearly 300 episodes of animé! Pushing that into a 40-hour game complete with all mechanics etc, can have only one outcome: cutting and reducing the plot, so that the original story becomes a dull summary. And thirdly – after the absolute train wreck that last year's Jump Force proved to be, my credit of confidence for Namco Bandai's anime has sharply decreased.

Fortunately, I eventually found I was partially mistaken. Perhaps Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot isn't a perfect game, but it also isn't miserable, as I was afraid it would be. But, make no mistake, it's merely average; based on outdated ideas, in some instances obviously half-baked, it's a game you cannot play without occasional frowns. And if, by chance, you are fans of one of the most popular animé that raised an entire generation of players, you'll be able to have fun. But before that happens, you will face an absolute disaster.

Mr. Hitchcock! Where's the earthquake?

The beginning of the game is terrible. Seriously, I can't think of any other game that would offer equally disappointing opening. After launching Kakarot and completing a very short training battle with Piccolo (it's not that bad yet), we end up in a forest in the mountains, as Goku, where we spend time with several-years-old Gohan. And so, it begins. The environment is ugly. Invisible walls are everywhere. Gohan moans constantly, repeating the same sentences over and over again over the tears. That's not what fun looks like.

What about us? Our mission is exactly what you'd expect from a Dragon Ball Z. Collecting apples from trees. Escorting Gohan to the hunting ground – which isn't easy, since the kid is pretty timid, and if you leave him just a few feet behind, he starts crying. He also gets stuck pretty often, since the AI, primarily designed for flying, can't really handle walking. There also is fishing. And eventually – flying the Kinto cloud. But don't worry! In this case, there's also enough invisible walls to prevent any (oh, terror) exploration...

The first two hours of Kakarot are a nightmare reminiscent of the worst design decisions from a decade ago. Or even before – I feel devs knew to avoid solutions like these even in times of PlayStation 2. But it's worth to gnash your teeth for an hour or two, because as soon as we go through this chasing apples and babysitting Gohan nonsense, the game begins to open up its virtual world for us, moving on to events that are remembered from the anime. And then it becomes interesting.

I've traveled all over the world, from Satan City to Namek

Once it shows its true face, you realize Kakarot is based on three, closely related foundations – weak exploration, decent battles, and a nostalgic rehearsal of a well-known and beloved storyline. This former fails from the very beginning, when it's promptly revealed that it has no positive aspects. It gets a little better later on, but even then, it remains a chore throughout.

The game world is divided into many separate areas, which gradually access as you progress in the story. Moving between them requires waiting out a loading screen every time. We can traverse the lands using different vehicles, but once we unlock the ability to fly, it becomes almost completely redundant. Each location is of a fairly large size, so if you like the very simple flying system, you will have some fun.

Unfortunately, the world in Kakarot is ugly and technologically backward. The cartoonish style tends to conceal this a bit, but it isn't enough to hide the terribly blurry, low-res textures, some rather rudimentary destruction of environment (we crush concrete blocks by flying through them, but a car on the road is unstoppable), the NPC character models are embarrassingly poor, and they often don't even move. The unreadable minimap was also annoying – it's hard to find, marking anything manually is impossible because the cursor doesn't really want to cooperate with the analog knob.

This world is also just empty. If you're not feeling like following the main thread at any given moment, and you'd like to do something else, but the range of side activities is really limited – you can go fishing, which is fun for about a minute, mow down cannon fodder, look for some loot, do a few quests, and that's it.

The side quests have some potential, but only them. If only they were more complicated than the simplest, randomly-generated tasks: collect some vegetables, defeat a group of enemies, move to another map (waiting for it to load) to talk to someone, get to the next location (waiting again...), defeat a group of cannon fodder and return to the starting location (loaded again). Once every several tasks we will be rewarded with a funnier dialogue, but this isn't enough to consider them something more than small fillers.

Over time, the open world gains a handful of more interesting diversities – we can start looking for the Dragon Balls (unfortunately, since they're scattered all over the different maps, there are more loading screens to watch than in the actual game), fight with stronger versions of previously defeated bosses, play baseball, or take part in unusual races. Exploration is this minimally diversified, but the problem is that we get access to these activities too late in the game – at a point when I was fed up with it. The adventure module mostly hurts Kakarot – I feel like I'd be better off if it didn't exist at all, and the game was instead based solely on cut-scenes and combat.

This isn't even my final form!

Battle is the salt of the earth in Dragon Ball. This has always been the case, and is no different in Kakarot, where we fight at nearly every occasion – within the main plot, during side quests, while freely exploring the world. Even special challenges that allow you to obtain new skills are simply duels. CyberConnect2 created several hits in the popular, acknowledged series of fighting games about Naruto, and instead of reinventing the wheel, decided to just use their experience. The game comes with a fighting system copied almost directly from Ultimate Ninja Storm. The effect is quite good.

During collisions, the camera hangs behind us, and we can safely fly around the map. The basic set of strikes is very simple – we have separate buttons for melee attacks, firing energy bullets (they are mostly useless), charging the Ki, and defense. About the only thing you have to do is press the defense button every now and then, and mash the attack – subsequent attacks are combined into combos automatically. In more difficult fights, just add dodging into the mix, and you should be alright.

But this approach is boring. And not very spectacular – now, you can say a lot about Goku, but certainly not that he isn't very spectacular. So eventually, you start experimenting in the duels, using more interesting techniques, such as special team attacks, if we have comrades on hand, super heavy attacks, with the iconic Kamehameha at the forefront. Conversion to new Super Saiyan levels – balanced so that the power gain comes at the expenses of some minor restrictions. Perhaps even strengthening and healing items collected in passing during the exploration. Over time, we also begin to find and use the seemingly invisible, but existing nonetheless, differences between individual playable characters.

These combinations don't make the fights more challenging, but somehow make them just more enjoyable. Sometimes it's even satisfying – when we find a clever combination of several different methods that yield very good results. In contrast to exploration, the combat is quite spectacular. Cyberconnect2 has successfully brought the well-known aesthetics of animé fights, and the screen flashes with giant explosions or instant teleportation. Boss fights are varied and come with nice cut-scenes – bosses have special attacks that are easy to avoid, but nice to look at.

Personally, I went through three stages of feelings about the battles in Kakarot. At first, realizing the similarity to Ultimate Ninja Storm series, I was happy with how they look. After a few hours, it began to irritate me with dull repeatability and simplicity. And then I started experimenting, and learned to love them. It isn't surprising, but you will really be able to enjoy them, and they represent the most powerful section of Kakarot's mechanics.

Over 9000!

The developers actually achieved this – the game's plot covers the entire content of Z, without abridge. Raditz' arrival on Earth, which was the new opening for Dragon Ball. Legendary events on the planet Namek. Fighting androids and Cell is, in my opinion, the highlight of the series. A monumental final showdown with Buu. Everything is here, contained in thirty or up to forty hours of play time.

Transferring the story to the game world didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought. Yes, it had to be reduced in thickness a bit, so we won't see quite a few classic scenes, or even entire subplots, and the characters are also a bit less complex. But by cutting, sneaking, and re-assembling, the employees of CyberConnect2 somehow managed to fit all the main, iconic scenes into the game, creating a kind of interactive summary of the universe.

However, a person familiar with Dragon Ball will not find anything surprising in the script. And for the fans, it will be a very pleasant nostalgia trip to the past. The campaign was pretty boring at times – mainly when subsequent sagas begin, or when the artificial content fillers take your time. However, the action eventually gathered momentum, and I got to important events like fights with Frizer, Cell, or Buu, and the simple clips on the game engine were replaced by beautiful, pre-rendered cut-scenes, and for a short time I felt like a teenager again.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, however, seems to understand perfectly well that this license is its biggest (the only one?) power, and it holds its entire weight on it. In side quests, we regularly meet familiar characters. Collectibles allow you to reminisce the events of the original Dragon Ball. The soundtrack contains tunes taken directly from the animé. In the dialogues, the characters speak with well-known TV voices – both in English and Japanese.

Shenron! Fix this game!

Unfortunately, the technical condition of the game is very poor. I have already mentioned that the game is a little outdated – combat looks quite cool with various visual bells and whistles, but in exploration, things aren't so good; during cut-scenes on the game engine, the game just looks ugly.

Generally, it could definitely use a few additional months of testing – the release version comes with a slew of bugs. Oh, the things I saw! Locked flying during exploration. Full deactivation of the Ki and block energy regeneration in one of the battles (this was fun, because it resulted in the coolest, most tactical duel that took place during the entire game). Dragon Balls appearing on the map, but not actually being there. Schrodinger's side quests, which supposedly were, but in fact they were not. Usual crashes of the game also occurred, but against the background of other glitches, they don't sound so interesting.

More Yamcha than Kakarot

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot – not great; not terrible. This game is outdated, has a lot of errors, and some poorly implemented mechanics. These defects, although clearly visible, are nothing more than a nuisance, and they ultimately do not prohibit enjoying the game. On the other hand, though, all the successful elements – above all, the combat system – are nothing but just "alright." Same goes for the mechanics. Neither good, nor bad.

What certainly deserves praise is the fact that the developers definitely did justice to the franchise, serving a proper nostalgia trip that respects the old guard. So, whether you enjoy Kakarot actually depends on how much you love Dragon Ball in general.

If you can't imagine repeating the entire "Z" at least once every year, the new game from CyberConnect2 might be a pretty good way to experience the same thing again, but this time in a slightly different way. If you are just bored, you feel you need this world, and you do not have the strength and time to once again wade through almost 300 episodes of the animé – the concise form of Kakarot should also satisfy you. But if you're not really crazy about Dragon Ball, or you just never got hooked, this game will do absolutely nothing for you.