Quick Look: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

"You got...

...

...Yamcha."

This calling back to Tenkaichi and the GBA games is exactly why I want this game. I know that style isn't for everyone, but I'm totally on board.

I've never really understood the appeal of replaying through an established story through a videogame. It can still work if it's purely an action game, but in an RPG? I don't wanna spend 80 hours watching a tedious, poorly-paced version of a story I already know.

I guess part of the problem is that DBZ is not really well-suited for sidestories. The world of DBZ was never very sketched-out (especially compared with other popular shonen), so there isn't a ton of opportunities to tell a story other than Goku/Gohan vs Frieza/Cell/Buu. But compared to FighterZ, this just seems like a bad use of that license. Wandering through a big open meadow where random DB characters pop up for no reason and tell you 2 lines of dialogue? What am I supposed to get out of that?

It can be done well. I think naruto shippuden ninja storm 4 boruto edition does what this game wants. Those games get laughed at by critics or non fans but once you play them they are actually well made for a tie in game. The even add story lines that are canon to the story and flesh out back stories the main story had to skim over. Example the game has an entire hours worth of extra animated footage you unlock to flesh out the villains formation. The games also have fancy finishers, story minigames, and even the naruto creator admitted the game did a greater job at action scenes then both the anime and his own work. That's how the stuff should be done. This game was just a lazy over advertised cash grab. DBZ fighters is a studio effort to make good work (made 4 million sales and hasn't pushed out a sequel yet). The naruto games also have a level of simplicity mixed with high level mind games. The type of mind games you get from footsies on big input button heavy games between two champs. The same reason i like power stone 2 in that its easy for everyone to learn in minutes but mastering comes from how great you are at playing with the set of simple rules. Point is some people do get joy out of anime games but its rare they get a budget or a studio that cares and most turn into these lame arena games when they aren't meant to function that way. see examples. https://youtu.be/rHrgAI7CYmU?t=1729

https://youtu.be/6ZLsQjIn2bA?t=1106

https://youtu.be/y0NOzp-GTAo?t=1699

@chaser324: A couple of the voices sound the same or close enough to the show's dub, but Gohan's is horrible. Granted, I have a low opinion of the dub in general, but that is definitely a different actor. To be fair I guess he also LOOKS too old so maybe they just voiced for the model they were given by the devs.

Now that DBFZ exists, the only other DB game I want is a Snake Way endless runner

The bit where you can run up to Vegeta and Nappa and just talk to them gave me MK Deception Konquest vibes--all harassing Shao Kahn--but man, it's got none of the charm

Well, I can at least say this is the first Dragon Ball game to make me rage quit at Raditz. All the dodging and attacks just feels so unresponsive, which is something that I don't remember having a problem with in the Xenoverse games.

I like the way Capcom's Rival Schools games approach "unwinnable" fights, in that they're totally still winnable, but improbably difficult, especially for first-time players. In that, you're typically given a very limited amount of time with the opponent's AI jacked all the way up, and health/damage in its favor. You lose, the story progresses as usual. You win, you tend to get a little "how did you do that" story exchange and/or immediately warp to the final boss. Obviously, that would require some tweaking for a game where the main draw is re-telling an established story, but again, typically only players who have mastered the mechanics would see it.

I'll be honest, this doesn't seem very cool, much less mondo cool.

This game is fun. I wish the combat was better and a little more in depth but I'm enjoying it so far. Also, yes, the flying is terrible.

@archnite: Oh good! It wasn't just me that thought that. They're either using the same UI artist or someone else inspired by P5's UI treatment.

I'm still perplexed why no one was given the budget to make this game like 15 years ago. It would've been killer back then.

@jeff@janman Watching the gf play the game pacing does improve. Post-Frieza the game's side stuff really takes off (getting the Driver's License isn't as solid as the episode, but Yamcha being constantly shat on even in his quests is great). Collecting the Dragon Balls extends through all the regions (the rewards are a little lackluster, but you can bring non-canon enemies back to life on Earth like the Ginyu Force) so I get why they blocked it off in the beginning. Enemy difficulty still a little on the easy side beyond the Ginyu Force/Frieza.

EDIT: Yeah the hearing same barks from the start, the weird cutout fights/moments and constant shots facing away from the camera make this feel like a *real* budget title made for people who never touched the other games/interacted with the franchise since they watched it on toonami. The increased challenged from the random encounters which force you to use their systems really don't make up for everything else being mediocre.

Did anybody else noticed that, during the Nappa+Vegeta arrival cutscene, when Nappa blows up the town (at 45:56), there's a engine runtime error on the top left of the screen?

It says "PROJECT DOES NOT SUPPORT WHOLE ????? POINT LIGHT SHADOWS
C01_050"5010_cdm.PointLight.

Jeff says it's the day one patch, so this is just a retail product throwing up exception errors? :D

Man listening to the same four notes play over both the open world traversal and the cutscenes is such a bummer. It's like they hired someone whose only job was to take any sort of excitement or uniqueness out of every moment present onscreen.

I love the story this comment tells. It was a rollercoaster.

This game's biggest crime looks to be releasing 15 years too late.

The real tragedy of Jeff getting way into Dragon Ball is not having Vinny for the QLs. But Jeff & Jan is always a mondo cool pairing, so I'll take it.

Really my main takeaway from this is that I kinda want to listen to all of All Systems Goku again. Perhaps I'll actually go back through Kai alongside it this time.

Dragonball more like D nutz!!!!

This is such a good DBZ game. It's a shame Jeff doesn't like it. The Vegeta/Goku fight is where it really gets into a groove with some great animation and effects to make the great moments really amazing. Jeff's right that there are too many systems, but the rest of the game holds up well. It's probably the best DBZ game outside of FighterZ.

Jeff now has the burden of knowledge of knowing that DB games could be so much more XD

Gonna be honest, the game Jeff wants sounds like dogshit. Running on a featureless road, collecting dragon balls, losing 20 times in a row before you can win, etc. It just sounds tedious.

I'll definitely be getting this after it eventually goes on sale, it actually looks like an ok game to me, personally.