There have been open-world Dragon Ball Z games before, (2016’s Xenoverse 2 instantly springs to mind) but Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot feels like it could be the best of the bunch.
In Kakarot, you follow Goku’s story, episodically from battle to battle, through his Dragon Ball Z journey; we don’t know how far this goes currently, but it definitely reaches as far as the Cell saga.
The only difference is, between fights, you get to explore the environment, and boy is it huge. Zipping around on Nimbus, its very easy to get lost in the majesty of the open world, tall mountains and valleys, crags and plateaus, bridges and towns. A tiny speck in the distance turns out to be a very Toriyama dinosaur, twenty times as big as you, rampaging around.
Beat up that dinosaur, and you’ll get meat! Mmmmm, meat! Cook that meat back at Goku’s house, or catch giant fish! Collect metal and stone to craft new support items for Goku! Find abandoned Red Ribbon Robots and fight them in aerial battles to get XP! Find characters scattered around, and fulfil their quests for extra goals! I found Android 8 and Nap, both from original Dragonball, which is pretty great, adding some connection between the first and second DB series. I also found Master Roshi and considering his lecherous speech bubbles, I can only imagine his quests in the finished game are gonna be… accurate and in keeping with the series canon.
The chapter we played was the opening Dragon Ball Z arc, with Goku and Big Green himself, Piccolo, teaming up to rescue Gohan from Raditz. The Raditz boss fight was a lot of fun; not just the expected Dragonball combat; energy shots, punches, dodges and blocks, but some very cool special attacks that test your reactions. Raditz can flood the field with numerous, but dodgeable, large ki blasts, or fire two oscillating beams that switch between high and low, needing you to dodge accordingly for minimal damage.
More so than any Dragon Ball Z game I’ve played before, does Kakarot encapsulate the experience of watching Dragonball. The designs, the sounds, the feel, the world, the mountains that collapse when you get punched through them, this is everything I’d want in a narrative-driven Dragon Ball game.
Fingers very crossed this feeling extends to the full experience when Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot smashes its way onto PS4, Xbox One, and PC next year (2020).