Bandai Namco invites us to play Dragon Ball Z Kakarot on PS4 for 3 hours, in which we control Goku, Gohan and Piccolo and face Vegeta.
The story of Dragon Ball Z, with which many and many of us grew up, returns once again with a face lift that suits him very well. From the extensive range of video games based on the Dragon Ball universe that we know, Kakarot is special for adding the RPG genre to the action-packed battles we are used to. Thanks to Bandai Namco, we were able to put ourselves at the controls and play the title for 3 hours a month before its launch (on January 17, 2020) on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. If you want to discover what we think of the work of CyberConnect2, join us in this detailed text.
A story we know and a wide range of characters available
The starting point of Dragon Ball Z Kakarot is the memory that Goku keeps from the fight against Piccolo, which happened years ago. This is the first action scene in which we can begin to take control of the game. Whether we have previously played titles in the Dragon Ball saga or not, we assure you that it will not cost you to put yourself in the skin of Goku and start making attacks and dodges, charge Ki to gain energy and throw it at the opponent, carry out super -Attacks and, ultimately, win in all the battles that put us ahead.
Back to the present, they present us with Raditz, an extraterrestrial who goes to Earth with the mission of finding the so-called “Kakarot”. As for Goku, he lives a happy life in the company of his family: his wife Chi-Chi and his son Gohan (4 years old). Shortly after advancing in the story we will also meet such mythical characters as Bulma, Muten Rōshi and Krillin, who will be joined by others such as Yamcha, Kami, Chaozu, Yajirobe, Enma Daio, King Kai, Nappa and Vegeta, among others , as the plot progresses. The extra point in favor of Kakarot is the fact that we can control various of these characters, so not the whole game will be from Goku's playable perspective.
As you can see, the story we will play in Dragon Ball Z Kakarot is what we already know about the original manga and anime. We know that the plot reviews various sagas and for what we have been able to play in the mentioned 3 hours in which we have been at the controls, we confirm that the story is practically 1: 1. To give you an idea, that game time gave us to complete about 5 chapters and we managed to beat Raditz (ending his saga), start the Training and jump to a more advanced game to face Vegeta with the help of Gohan and Krillin.
In addition, in the past months we have been confirmed by many more characters (and advanced or merged versions of the previous ones) such as Vegito, Gotenks, Freezer, Cell and many others. With all this, the game promises to be very extensive in terms of duration and true to the story of Dragon Ball Z. But the really important thing here is what it adds. Those points in which it innovates and that make Kakarot a game that is worth being played beyond just by reliving the great story it tells.
A series of semi-open worlds to explore
If we return to the starting point of the game, where Goku wakes up from his daydreams, the task we have to do is very simple and mundane: pick apples and some fish for Chi-Chi. We control Goku and Gohan flutters around as we stroll through the first semi-open stage of many that we will have the pleasure of visiting. In order to accomplish this first mission, we must only pass over some glows that indicate the presence of items, in this case in the treetops indicated by little Gohan.
As for the fish, we managed to catch them through a simple but funny minigame in which Goku will use his monkey tail to fish (or a rod in case of carrying another character, such as Vegeta). It has no greater mystery, we just have to select a bait, shake the tail so that they bite and press the button indicated at the right time in order to get hold of the prey. Thanks to this we can cook them in a bonfire or in our home and by eating the food we get we will get special effects and boosts in defense or attack, for example.
As we move forward in history, the available worlds will expand and we will be able to visit a greater number of locations. As we have mentioned, these are semi-open worlds, so exploration will be a key factor when discovering them. We can move quickly thanks to the ability to fly, the Kinto cloud and others, while collecting Orbs Z (essential to acquire Super-attacks), we stop wherever we want to pick up items and talk to NPC that will grant us side missions.
During our game session we were able to carry out some of these optional tasks and we can affirm that, despite their simplicity, they are interesting in order to delve deeper into the lore, meet again with various characters that the most fans of the saga They will immediately recognize and obtain useful items to develop our skills and improve our statistics. Examples of this are finding a lost book or killing enemies that haunt a certain village.
Another interesting point that invites the exploration of the worlds are the collectibles, at least those that we could discover in the first bars of the game. This is a series of photographs that are actually fragments extracted from the original Dragon Ball anime and that will be accompanied by a reminder of that specific part of the story.
On the other hand, the fishing minigame will not be the only one that allows us to add moments of extra fun to the story. A few months ago it was confirmed that Kakarot will also have a Home Run minigame available, which recreates an anime scene starring Gohan. Like this one, we will find more activities that CyberConnect2 has designed in order to bring a new dimension to the history of Goku and the rest of Dragon Ball Z characters.
The Soul Emblems and Community Planks system
As for the connections with these characters, the game presents a system of Community Planks that will be unlocked as we meet more and more characters. Some examples that we could unlock in our game session were the Warrior (skills that increase the parameters of the ki and attacks), the Cook (increase the positive effects obtained from the food), the Adult (lower prices in stores and others) and the Adventure (recover more health, resistance, etc. with items). Each of them is related to a series of characters, so if we want to improve that skill tree and get some of them we must complete missions with certain characters or overcome key points in the story.
This is where the Emblems of the Soul come in. It is a kind of "round tokens" of each of the important characters in the story. Once we obtain them we must assign them to their corresponding community board (for example, Vegeta, Trunks and Goku in the Warrior's), in addition to combining them with each other. Thanks to this we will obtain special enhancers and bonuses.
In addition, by combining different characters with each other we will also unlock exclusive dialogues between these characters, so this will add extra value to the Community Planks and Soul Emblems system. Learning to manage it will depend on us and the time we invest in developing these relationships by fulfilling side missions and beyond the progress along the main story line.
Another useful system that Dragon Ball Z Kakarot puts at our disposal is the Training Fields. They are spread over different areas and allow us to face enemies or Z warriors that we have already faced in the past (even ourselves). Upon completing this training, we will learn new super attacks and strengthen those we already have. An example of this is to turn our Kamehameha into a Superkamehameha.
Battles full of action and adrenaline
We cannot fire this text without trying the combat system. Despite the fact that the game is an RPG, the action is an essential part of every Dragon Ball title that is worth it and that is why we were able to play multiple battles in the 3 hours we were at the controls. To do this we have a series of simple controls that will gain in complexity as we unlock super attacks and new skills.
The first thing we must learn is to dodge and block, in addition to counterattacking when we do the same and to give various punches and simple kicks if we talk about close combat. Simple energy balls are the most effective and fastest method of throwing from a distance, while flying and moving quickly across the battlefield will help us get closer to the enemy.
As for the super attacks, we must load the ki bar before we can perform them. As you know, we can control several characters (in our case we could control Goku, Gohan and Piccolo) throughout the adventure, so each of them has a series of skills and particular attacks. Learning to use them and their range of success (if they are melee or remote, in a straight line or chase the target, for example) is key in order to hit the target and gradually reduce the various life bars with the That enemies count. Of course, the most important battles will feature various phases interspersed with epic cinematic scenes that seem to have emerged directly from the anime.
To help in the battle we will have the assistance of various support characters, which will appear at certain points in the story and some battles to help us. We cannot control them directly, but we can select when we want them to carry out their super attacks in order to be strategic and combine them with ours to win.
Leveling up and working on improving our attacks and character skills will be necessary if we don't want to sweat by having to face the main enemies of the story or any common enemy we encounter in the wide world. A detail to be grateful for is that we can start battles with various beings by running into them in the open field and that some of them will surpass us in level. This creates a balanced experience in which the difficulty of the game will be linked to our level of skill at the controls or how much we work to improve our protagonist.
Definitely…
The graphic section of the game, as you can see in the images and videos that accompany this article, stands out for its color and definition, while remaining faithful to the graphic style of superior quality to which we are accustomed. On the technical side, on the other hand, we have to point out some descents of frames in scenes of a lot of action and somewhat high load times. None of this prevented us from progressing in the game, so it is not serious mistakes, but they are aspects that we would appreciate seeing polished for the launch of Kakarot, on January 17.
To conclude, we must point out the fact that at the end of the long game session we were left wanting more. Although Dragon Ball Z Kakarot does not innovate too much in the playable section (we have seen the mini-games on multiple occasions in other titles, the open stages are nothing of the other world and the secondary missions are too simple), it is appreciated The RPG touch and scan. These leave it up to the player to develop as much as they want their skills, relationships with characters and others (which we have discussed in previous paragraphs) or leave everything aside in order to focus on the main missions.
The story of Dragon Ball Z Kakarot we have already seen it and many of us know it in detail, but still it is pleasant the feeling of nostalgia that invades us by reliving the mythical scenes of anime and manga once again, in good graphic quality and with the option of controlling the most memorable characters in the saga. To be able to live first hand those battles that the Z Warriors fought against all the enemies that wanted to destroy the planet Earth.
This long and exciting story will return to our PS4 and Xbox One consoles, in addition to PC, on January 17, 2020. We will have to wait for that moment to check 100% the result of the work of CyberConnect2 and Bandai Namco Entertainment, But what we can move forward for now is that it has left us with a good taste.
