DBZ: Kakarot Review; Game Stays Loyal to Anime

DBZ: Kakarot Review

Here’s a treat for you, my DBZ: Kakarot Review! I got my review copy of DBZ: Kakarot and had the pleasure of playing it for a couple of hours. I had gotten through part of the first Arc of the story where I beat Raditz, Nappa and Vegeta during the Saiyan Saga. While playing, I kept in mind the keypoints I wanted to talk about so that I can present to you my thoughts for the game!

Controls

Firstly, let me get it out of the way and say that I haven’t touched a PlayStation controller for the past 4 to 5 years. Despite that, getting back into the feel of it was not that difficult. The first battle threw me off the deep end as I had to immediately fight a simulation of Piccolo with nothing but a quick diagram of the button mapping. It was a little overwhelming for me at first and I felt a little sheepish as I pounded Piccolo with my fists over and over. However, the next few battles would slowly introduce the various mechanics, like the methods to counterattack while on the defensive and all the ways you can utilize your Ki in battle.

Combat uses a similar control setup to Jump Force. You can attack, dash, charge your Ki and launch simple Ki projectiles with the face buttons. To do bigger, flashier Super Moves, you hold down R1 and press one of the face buttons. I appreciated the fact that time would slow down when you press R1 so that you can deliberate whether you want to spend your Ki on a Super Move or just have time to recall which face button would launch what Super Move. 

Defense is all packed into the R2 button. Guarding with R2 would reduce incoming damage, and you can pair R2+Square to send melee attackers flying or R2+X for an Instant Transmission-style counterattack. 

Lastly, you can transform into any forms you’ve unlocked by holding down L2+R2 and pressing one of the face buttons. That means you could potentially have access to 4 different transformations in a fight! Overall, I felt that they handled combat very smoothly and combat felt very intuitive.

My only complaint is that aerial controls during exploration felt clunky. Instead of controlling where you go with the right stick, you use right shoulder buttons to ascend or descend. Oftentimes I would have to stop moving to get a better view of my surroundings for a collectible that’s on the ground. Thankfully, you won’t have to traverse higher or lower too often, only for rarer collectibles.

There was a distinct sense of satisfaction as I got a little better after each fight. By the time I had reached Raditz (the mini-boss for the first chapter), I felt in-tune enough with the controls that any mistakes I made was solely because of my own poor decision making. All-in-all, it’s a huge plus that a player like me that was so out of touch with PlayStation games was able to get into the flow of Kakarot’s battle system so quickly.

My only complaint is that aerial controls during exploration felt clunky. Instead of controlling where you go with the right stick, you use right shoulder buttons to ascend or descend. Oftentimes I would have to stop moving to get a better view of my surroundings for a collectible that’s on the ground. Thankfully, you won’t have to traverse higher or lower too often, only for rarer collectibles.

Graphics

The graphics are absolutely gorgeous. The landscape and sceneries were vast, colorful and varied. Even the signature “empty non-descript canyon” where many fights took place would be surrounded by interesting cliffs, greenery and wildlife. 

The animations during cutscenes and fights are fluid and satisfying and I didn’t notice any awkward animations or transitions during gameplay like in Xenoverse 2. The way attacks would leave behind Ki particles, the smooth teleports and dodges…even the dust that would kick up and abundant rock-exploding action during a fight felt very loyal to the original anime series, albeit graphically updated to modern standards. 

The cutscenes are immersive and nostalgic, as they follow the anime very closely. It was heart-wrenching to skip cutscenes because of how good they were. I felt like they had practically remade the anime series on the PS4. 

Gameplay

Exploration Mode

There is a huge game world to explore in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. You can gather, fish and hunt animals for ingredients which can be used to cook consumables which give can give powerful temporary buffs or weaker permanent stats. There are also various collectible photographs lying around, including nostalgic screenshots from the anime. Upon picking these up, Goku would give a flavorful quip to comment about that moment. There are also plenty of Z-Orbs and D Medals lying around that you can pick up to power up your characters. 

Also, during exploration there are wild animals and enemies lurking about that may ambush and attack you, which gave off some Pokemon-y vibes. Your health does not recover after fights, but they do recover in between story battles. There are campfires where you can restore your health or eat the food that you’ve cooked for buffs (which will also restore your health). 

In the Exploration world, there are various NPCs that may give sidequests to complete. Completing these would usually reward items and a good chunk of EXP. Main story missions show up as red beacons of light, while side missions are blue beacons. This made navigating towards them fairly simple, especially since half of the cliffs are breakable and you can just plow through them while flying.

Community Board

A unique method of Character progression is the Community Board. There are a few types of boards that you can develop, each managed by a Community Leader. Goku on the Z-Fighters Board which will give offensive boosts; Chi-Chi on Cooking Board will increase success rates and potency of meals, the Adult Board (managed by Master Roshi, of course) gives better buy and sell rates, as well as frenzy chance; King Kai on the Gods Board will give more money and items; Mr Popo on the Training Board will give better Defense and EXP rates; Bulma on the Development Board will give better Machine success rates and reduced Zeni costs.

You develop these boards by putting various characters’ Soul Emblems in to slots on the board. Being adjacent to certain other characters can trigger combos for bigger bonuses. For example, when Goku and Gohan are adjacent to each other, they’ll get a Father Son combo and get extra levels while the combo is active. 

You can improve the relationship with individual characters by giving them gifts you find through exploration, which will level them up. As your relationship with that character gets better, they will give you rare, powerful items at certain breakpoints. 

Manipulating the Community Board and arranging Soul Emblems is part of maximizing the effectiveness of your party!

Cooking

Cooking while straightforward, is very powerful. You can cook regular meals or full courses. Both types will give a temporary timed buff and a small permanent stat boost. Full courses are more potent and require more ingredients as well as a recipe, which has to be hunted down in the Exploration map.

Skill Tree

There is a skill tree that you can spend your Z-Orbs on to develop your character. Things that you can purchase include passive effects like increased damage dealt to stunned enemies, a bigger combo count or better resource generation. You can also upgrade your Super Moves to deal more damage. There are certain Super Moves or Passives that will be locked behind story progression and need to be unlocked by completing Mental Simulations.

Overall, I think that this system is the weakest out of all of them. The characters’ skill trees all feel similar with the only differences being their Super Moves. Everyone will have the same upgrades like Extra Guard Break, More Damage to Stunned and Melee Combo +1. Meanwhile, upgrading Super Moves only seems to increase the damage they deal.

Mental Simulations

During your trips across the Exploration world, you might come across beacons that prompt you for mental simulations. Unlocking these fights would cost you D-Medals. After that, you will have to beat the simulation, which can range from fighting a powerful nemesis, to three copies of yourself . If you best it however, you will unlock new Super Moves that you can learn. This also means that certain Super Moves will not be unlockable until you have access to that map. The skill tree will tell you what story chapter onwards will it be unlockable, however, which is quite convenient. 

My Progress & Experience

The main focus of the game is to let you relive the story of the Dragonball Z series and they have done a wonderful job. The levels and story missions were very immersive and I found myself looking forward to the next objective, despite having seen the whole anime series and knowing what happens. The lore and storytelling is accurate enough that I feel confident in saying that DBZ: Kakarot can be an effective replacement of the anime as an introduction to the Dragonball Z series to any newcomers. You can grind against wild enemies for EXP, develop your Community Board and Skill Trees by foraging the exploration map and prepare food buffs for upcoming story battles. In hindsight, I would HIGHLY recommend taking your time strengthening your characters as key story fights can be brutal if you are ill prepared…like I was.

To my surprise, Raditz was a very challenging fight. I regret rushing through the story because of how eager I was to see all the mechanics and gameplay elements. I was two levels lower than Raditz, and only had the simplest Food Buff available. During the fight, Raditz had some cool QTE-like attacks where I had to dodge his lasers by flying higher or lower. The fight was brutal and I had lost 5 times before succeeding on my 6th try. Even then, I only beat him by the skin of my teeth. I felt equal amounts of frustration and satisfaction as I got better at reading his attack patterns and formulating new strategies to cope with them after each loss.

Despite the rough start, I actually enjoyed my fight with Raditz a lot! The pace of combat while I was fighting against him was a little slower than most Dragonball series games with non-stop melee brawling. Because of the disengage tools and devestating melee combos Raditz had, I find myself backing off (whether by choice or by getting flung away) often enough that I had time to think of my next course of action and plan ahead. This felt really fresh to me and I was going through some Dark Souls vibes because of how telegraphed the attacks were. I had thoughts like “Oh, I lost half a health bar? I deserved that, I should have guarded instead of trying to dodge.” or “I should have backed off instead of trying to get more punches in.”

At this point, I started to understand that the pace of gameplay has to be slower. I became more careful and cautious in understanding the enemies’ attacks. I formulated new strategies and looked for windows where it was safe to retaliate. I only lost once against Nappa with Gohan, and actually managed to beat Vegeta with Goku on my first try with a sliver of health left.

The fight with Vegeta was really close. I had to use my newly unlocked Kaio-Ken to get enough damage in. Transformations are risky to use because they will slowly drain health and Ki. And being stuck in a transformation while you’re busy dodging multiple waves of energy beams will quickly burn through your health for nothing and it can add up quickly if you’re not paying attention.

The slower gameplay might put off some fans, especially if they’re more akin to the traditional fast-paced style fighting games. However, I found it to be very refreshing and rewarding when I know that I played smartly to earn my victories.

Conclusion

Overall, I highly enjoyed my experience while playing the game and I’m so excited to play more of it. The controls were intuitive enough and I think it definitely passed the test if I can enjoy the game in about 20 minutes of practice despite my 4 year hiatus from PlayStation games. The graphics are AMAZEBALLS and I absolutely love the aesthetic that the game brings. The lore and flavor that the game brings to you is also super on point and the progression systems are interesting enough to keep you constantly occupied.

The only things that I can wish for would be a better, mechanically deeper Skill-Tree system as the current one seems a little simplistic (getting deeper into the game might fix this but I doubt it) and better controls for aerial movement. I give this game a solid 8/10. I really want to rate this higher but the skill tree is somewhat of a letdown.

If you enjoyed this writeup of my DBZ: Kakarot review, you read more of our coverage on the game.