In Bandai Namco's latest Dragon Ball spin-off, you can completely re-enact the story of Son Goku from the Saiyan saga. Instead of just concentrating on the battles again, this time the game even offers a world to explore and an extensive RPG base. What sounds very good on paper, however, has to deal with all sorts of problems in reality.
The new action role-playing game from Bandai Namco advertises with a complex level system, an open world and many new elements that are supposed to bring life to the now quite dusty brawler. That sounds like a promising new start, but at its core Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is the same game as always, just packed with all kinds of mini-games and collectables that you don't need to play through.
An often empty world
The story of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot begins as always with the Saiyan saga, the arrival of Radditz on Earth. But instead of just going from fight to fight, you can always move freely in the world of Son Goku and look at all the locations that you know from manga and anime: from the kame house of the old lord of the turtles, about the hiding place from God, right down to Master Kaio's little planet.
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However, whether you really want that is another question, because the individual maps, which can be controlled via a quick travel function, are appallingly empty and have little to offer apart from the sights. Here and there is an NPC standing around, giving you an indication of where to find rare materials. Every now and then a kind of pterodactyl flies past you and animals run around in the woods every now and then.
There is only a bit of life in the cities and villages, but you should put on your blinders there so that you do not realize that they are practically only inhabited by five character models that are constantly repeating themselves. Or that unsightly bugs cause an NPC to hover half a meter above the ground, to be level or to disappear into a wall.
The rest of the world is a mixture of trees, mountains and a few houses that all look the same after just a few minutes of play. Only the underwater world is even emptier and more dead, in which a weak and faceless underling of the bad guys attacks you every few meters, which you may knock down for a few experience points and Z-balls.
As the story progresses, there are some optional tasks, but these only serve the collectors who are after the rewards, because the content of these side missions is total cheese. Either you're shooed from A to B to collect any items, ingredients, or crafting materials, or you're supposed to spank one of the faceless underlings just mentioned. Sometimes you can even do both.
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Then there were the enemy bases, for example towers of the Red Ribbon Army or flying saucers from Freezer's troop. In these locations, you can get somewhat rarer materials and ingredients after destroying the base. Which means in plain language: briefly interrupt the flight, shoot a few energy balls at it and the problem is solved.
Just like everything else you do apart from the fighting, the implementation has little to no impact on your chances of completing the campaign. And to make matters worse, the 08/15 random opponents are hanging around there too.
Fish, cook, munch, exercise, repeat
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is full of mini-games and other challenges that can best be called occupational therapy and which you cannot escape in the campaign yourself. They also provide the opportunity to learn new skills apart from the plot, to improve known attacks and to polish up your values. So if you don't just want to go from fight to fight, you can't avoid these distractions.
Such as cooking, which temporarily gives you better status values, depending on which dish you choose. First you need the necessary ingredients. Some of them are just lying around in the world, others are given as rewards for completing tasks and some you have to fight your way through, for example by shooting Ki at a dinosaur until it faints.
Or you go fishing. For this, Son Goku (or his son Son Gohan) sticks his tail, which he apparently has in his pocket all day, on the extended back and then hangs it in the water.
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If you want to improve permanently, you have to collect so-called Z-balls, which are available in different colors and which are needed to strengthen your skills. These beads are practically everywhere and will automatically go into your inventory if you fly close enough to them. You can also get them by fighting and completing side missions. As soon as you can collect the seven Dragonballs, you also have the opportunity to wish for a large amount of Z-balls from Shenlong.
And then of course there was the community board, another reason to complete all sorts of side missions to grab the rewards. This feature is also a gimmick that you can ignore if you are not interested and that only pays off for two types of players: those who have serious problems in getting ahead in the story and those who want to receive all trophies / achievements.
These are seven categories that improve different values of your characters, or bring various advantages in the game. For example, better offers when buying and selling items, higher success rates in mechanical engineering, better status values and so on and so on. Each category has a leader, to whom you can add other characters that you unlock via main and side missions, thereby increasing the overall value.
The higher the value, the better the bonuses. And if the figures that were connected in this way fit together, there are still a few extra points. You can also unlock treasure maps and rare items via the community board by giving the corresponding figures gifts that are also lying around the world as balls or can be won on side missions.
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And so almost everything is interlinked. You manage a pastime to get better scores on another, and keep repeating this until it finally has an impact on the gameplay. And then the result is usually only that an already very easy game, which has no alternative levels of difficulty, becomes much easier.
Always level well
If you want to learn new skills, you can do this in two ways: First, characters learn new attacks if you progress in the story. And on the other hand, you can face various opponents during training. If you defeat them, for example, the Kamehameha becomes the Super Kamehameha. Of course, these training fights only take place in the head of your character and the opponents here can also consist of three Son Gokus.
At a certain point, you can also collect the eponymous Dragonballs that fulfill your every wish, for example a bunch of Z-balls or rare items such as gifts and materials for building and cooking. Since Shenlong can be called every 20 minutes outside of the story, this is a good way to quickly collect Z-balls or to pile up money.
Effectful fights
Ki attacks, melee attacks and up to four special attacks are available in the battles, you can block, keep the enemy at a distance with Ki discharges, carry out follow-up attacks and call a maximum of two helpers who support you at regular intervals with your own special attacks and Depending on your type, either attack opponents, defend yourself, or a bit of both. You can transform yourself, use items and start Z-combos with your helpers.
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Despite all these options, you usually only need two buttons. The one to block and the one to dodge. Once you have learned how to deal with them, every fight becomes child's play and even seemingly overpowering opponents can be defeated with little effort. Even if you ignore all side missions and mini-games, you can be victorious by stoic blocking and evasion.
At best, for newbies, the battles could be quite tricky at the beginning, since all sorts of things have to be taken into account at the same time, which can be quite overwhelming. The thick blocks of text that serve as a tutorial don't make it easier, quite the opposite. Reading through up to four pages of explanations before going straight to the point is anything but easy for beginners. However, the first opponents make it easy for you, which leaves enough time to familiarize yourself with the key assignment.
The camera can become a problem in the battles, because you have little influence on its orientation and in the heat of the moment you like to push a small mountain between you and your character.
The feeling is missing
The story of Dragon Ball Z is almost certainly known to those who are considering buying this game, but it seems a bit disturbing how carelessly it is told. Only a few video sequences connect the individual scenes with each other. Most of the time, the characters just face each other and let text walls rattle down on each other.
As is often the case with such Japanese games, only the key scenes are fully set to music, less important conversations are only initiated with a single sound of the character. Other parts of the story are not shown or discussed at all, instead a box pops up in which you are briefly described what just happened. There is also a background music that is annoying after a few minutes because it consists of only a handful of songs, half of which also seems to be a variation of Chala Head Chala.
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