Dragon Ball Z Kakarot was announced in January 2019 under the code name Dragon Ball Project Z and has been garnering the attention of anime fans ever since, after all, Bandai Namco has been around for a long time. Do not release games focused on new stories and do not release a game focused on the narration of the events of the classic anime. With its release on January 17, 2020, we were finally able to get our hands on CyberConnect2's action RPG, which has the premise of making us relive all the intrigue of Dragon Ball Z, from the fight against Raditz to the defeat of Kid. Boo.
Hello I'm goku
Dragon Ball Z Kakarot takes place between the beginning of the Saiyan saga and goes all the way to the end of the Majin Buu saga, with some space between one saga and another so you can freely explore the map behind d'other things to do. I think 39% of the people reading this review know what the story of Dragon Ball Z is about, so I'm not going to focus that much, but I'm going to appreciate and talk more about the side quests in the game. However, I have to comment on the affection that CyberConnect99 has put on the key scenes of Dragon Ball Z. The way they tell the story of Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, and the rest of the Z Warriors in this game is excellent and, daring. I mean, exciting (I may or may not have cried in the Majin Vegeta vs. Majin Buu fight). So with that out of the way, let's talk about the side quests. No matter if the game tells the story of Dragon Ball Z, you can still find various original Dragon Ball characters, such as Android 2, Tao Pai Pai, and Shen, among others. And each of them has side quests to give our characters, all with an extra dose of nostalgia for always being something related to their characters in Dragon Ball. However, the side quests end up getting a bit repetitive after a certain amount of play time, and can even be divided into three types: confronting a character, facing a common enemy (Saberman, Red Ribbon robots, etc.), or collecting materials.
And that's going even further!
As an action RPG, hopefully there are ways to earn experience points for our Z fighters and improve their attributes and abilities. attacks, like the classic Kamehameha, and in fact, Dragon Ball Z Kakarot brings several ways to improve our characters. The first is to improve the skill tree of each character. To do this, you need to collect orbs scattered around the world. This may seem boring to most people, as flying around taking one orb at a time is quite tiring, however it is possible to acquire orbs as rewards for battles. So before you know it, you'll have more orbs than you need to upgrade all of the character's attacks. The second way I would like to do is eat. After all, a Saiyan's appetite is only as big as their will to fight. This is why it is possible to hunt and fish animals, then roast them on fire, giving a permanent boost to certain states of your characters, in addition to a temporary boost. But if you want to eat something better prepared, you will have to take ingredients to Goku's wife, Chi-Chi, to create a complete meal, with even better effects than normal food. While playing Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, whether in main or side quests, you will meet certain characters and they will join your community board. Each community board has different buffs for your team, such as a ki boost, damage, health, duration of food effects, enemy orb drops, etc. You can also train at specific points on the map to unlock new attacks, and at some point in the game, train at the Capsule Corporation to learn new passive abilities.
My commitment is always to win, even without variety.
Let's move on to one of the main parts of the game, the combat. But before that, a little consideration: I played the PlayStation 4 version of Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, so I'll discuss the PS4 controls in this part. The in-game fighting can be scary at first, especially when they show the tutorial with the controller and what each button does. But after two fights you already understand that in fact everything is extremely simple. The "triangle" is used to transport the ki, the "square" is used to send unique ki attacks, "X" is the button we use to dodge the attacks and "ball" is the button you press the most, because it is giving physical attacks. Also, with a large amount of Ki, if you press L1 and one of the four buttons mentioned above, your character will use a special attack, such as Kamehameha, Dragon Fist, and Big Bang Attack. That's it, the only variety you'll find in combat will be in boss fights, where each boss has slightly different mechanics than the other (but most of them have super armor that prevents them from being affected by their attacks). . Also, all combat can be reduced to a single "ball" press, seeing your character do the same attack over and over again and perform special attacks until your enemies are down. As this is a game from CyberConnect2, the same makers of the Naruto Ninja Storm franchise, I wasn't expecting a tough fight, especially since it's a simpler game, but, just like the developer's other games, I thought by placing your analog to the right, down, or up during the attack, your character would do a sequence of different attacks. It doesn't really have an impact on the game, but it would be interesting to not always see the same sequence of punches and kicks.