Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

[Captain Cadaver]

A look at the new DLC:

[youtube]6u5YzXOv1Q[/youtube]

So, Golden Freeza's a Level 170. Well, with there having been enough time that anyone who's had the previous DLC will have had more than enough time to max out all characters, this is going to be a oneshot situation . Really, it seems counter-intuitive to have the boss of a new DLC be at a lower level than the previous DLC's two sidequests required. Hell, even the base game had a Level 200 SSJ Vegetto and SS3 Gotenks as bosses for those who decided to fight all the villainous opponents a second time. Really seems like they should have increased the max level to at least 300 or so.

Also, an update to the game a few weeks back has brought in the card game feature that can be played either from the main menu or by interacting with the game machine in Satan City (in the market square), as well as Villainous Mira now being a boss.

It does seem pretty bad that we've had to wait so long for this when it's the 3rd DLC that's advertised as being a truly expansive one with a new story arc. Hopefully, game development and current events don't cause that to be delayed until 2022 .

 

[Pocket-Gog~]

Xenoverse 2 is better

 

[SSJ2]

Xenoverse 2 is better

 

[Pocket-Gog~]

Xenoverse 2 is better

The truth hurts

 

[Symbiote]

I still haven’t finished the story for this game. Stopped at the Majin Vegeta vs Buu fight.

 

[Classic Adamas]

This thread is almost two years old and yet I still know next to nothing about this game.

Hearing good things. I'll probably buy it for PC next year.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

It's definitely the best DBZ game when it comes to not just the execution of its story, but how side content enhances the series with expansion to the world building and the plugging of a few plot holes such as 4 people being in the Rosat during the Boo Arc, plus the open world can be nice to explore. It's combat is pretty average and there are a few other minor flaws such as the laziness of the Freeza Soldier designs or the loading screens when switching between areas (even though they're nowhere near as bad now as they were at launch), but it still has far more pros than cons and is easily the quintessential DBZ RPG.

 

[Classic Adamas]

That makes it intriguing to me. I'm not the biggest fan of the fighting games, and I feel the story tends to be poorly executed compared to RPGs like Legacy of Goku 2, Buu's Fury and Attack of the Saiyans.

 

[Symbiote]

It’s pretty much Legacy of Goku with better graphics.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

It’s pretty much Legacy of Goku with better graphics.

And a better telling of the story, and better combat, and better side quests...better everything, really.

 

[Pocket-Gog~]

It's definitely the best DBZ game when it comes to not just the execution of its story, but how side content enhances the series with expansion to the world building and the plugging of a few plot holes such as 4 people being in the Rosat during the Boo Arc, plus the open world can be nice to explore.

To be completely honest, I wouldn't be praising the side quests because they're mediocre at best. Most if not all side quests just involve loading some funny dialogue and beating up the same place holder enemies. The lore that the game reveals are either just Toriyama tidbits revealed in interviews (Yamcha cheating), or so bizarre and out of left field that it's cause for derision (The animal people being literal furries.) You also gain nothing from these side quests too, no cosmetics, new outfits, attacks, abilities. I'm not even sure if any of them even change the map in some form.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

To be completely honest, I wouldn't be praising the side quests because they're mediocre at best. Most if not all side quests just involve loading some funny dialogue and beating up the same place holder enemies. The lore that the game reveals are either just Toriyama tidbits revealed in interviews (Yamcha cheating), or so bizarre and out of left field that it's cause for derision (The animal people being literal furries.)

That's true for some of them, though far from the entirety. Ones such as Dende upgrading the Rosat help plug plot holes within the original manga and things such as Pilaf's royal lineage was never covered in detail prior to the game even in interviews.

You also gain nothing from these side quests too, no cosmetics, new outfits, attacks, abilities. I'm not even sure if any of them even change the map in some form.

You gain emblems for a fair few of them, which can really buff certain attributes on the community board when levelled up significantly (eg. being able to gain up to 2x normal exp), as well as some entries in the encyclopedia for those interested in that. The amount of exp. from completing them or doing some of the battles within them if they're against a significant character is also the best way to level up if lacking the DLC (or not wanting to grind against Whis). Whilst it may not seem like a lot, there's also various selling items as rewards, which is fairly valuable when considering actual battles don't provide any zeni.

 

[Pocket-Gog~]

That's true for some of them, though far from the entirety. Ones such as Dende upgrading the Rosat help plug plot holes within the original manga and things such as Pilaf's royal lineage was never covered in detail prior to the game even in interviews.

But even then, the best side stories the game has to offer only fix certain plot points in the manga, or at the very least flesh out some events that happened off screen. But these side stories never lead to any new or interesting locations, they don't have new enemies. They're embarrassingly barren.

You gain emblems for a fair few of them, which can really buff certain attributes on the community board when levelled up significantly (eg. being able to gain up to 2x normal exp), as well as some entries in the encyclopedia for those interested in that. The amount of exp. from completing them or doing some of the battles within them if they're against a significant character is also the best way to level up if lacking the DLC (or not wanting to grind against Whis). Whilst it may not seem like a lot, there's also various selling items as rewards, which is fairly valuable when considering actual battles don't provide any zeni.

Kakarot is a game where you don't really need to grind all that much, since you only need to be around the same level as required in the story to progress. This is further exasperated by the game being a complete push over with the exception of some special bosses. You can get all the EXP you need in the game by just flying around and fighting random enemies on the map. This isn't like Nier Automata where solely doing the main quest/fighting random enemies will leave you under leveled.

There isn't a lot the side quests offer, I'd argue that they don't really offer anything besides EXP or emblems. Kakarot is an open world RPG, but as an open world RPG it's incredibly lack luster. There's a crippling lack of enemy variety in the world, there's limited to nonexistent character customization, there's nothing to really explore in its large open world. The side quests are mediocre. Ironically enough and this always gets me, is that the most original content Kakarot has to offer is the Mira and Towa quest.

Which is literally Xenoverse 1.5 in terms of story.

 

[Future Warrior]

DLC 2 is a huge improvement over 1. I actually had fun with it.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Just played through all of DLC 2's main story and can agree it's definitely an improvement, both on the previous DLC and its source material. Here's a few of the main details for those who haven't played it when it comes to new additions and deviations from FnF:

- Freeza's revival is treat as through the post-game substory of Goku reviving him, Cell and Dabura rather than retconning it.
- We're actually shown Goku and Vegeta attaining SSB.
- Horde battles are a new feature in which you have to defeat a certain amount of enemies (usually 100-150) that are mainly Freeza Soldiers with a few mini-bosses such as Zarbon or Ginyu. This is probably the best addition as, even if overlevelled, oneshotting them casually is probably the closest Kakarot's combat has come to replicating the anime/manga and is ultimately Xenoverse's large battle against fodder done right.
- The max level has been increased to 300, though you won't be able to cheese it with sacred waters as they only work until Level 250. Instead, if wanting to grind to 300, you can replay the DLC from the beginning via the Time Machine once completing it.
- The previously revived Freeza henchmen from the substories return. As Piccolo's group, you take down Cui, Dodoria and Zarbon whereas Gohan beats the Ginyu Tokusentai. This is a lot better when it comes to giving the support cast some shine than the film or Super, seeing as how we don't have them just getting punk'd by Tagoma 2. The battles also have some unique dialogue depending on what team members you choose. I chose Tenshinhan and Goten for Piccolo's team, with Tenshinhan commenting that he'll make up for not being able to help out on Namek and Goten is excited to see aliens but quickly decides to beat them up when realising they're bad guys. I chose Kuririn and #18 for Gohan's team, with Kuririn commenting that he's become far stronger than on Namek even if the Ginyus have, whereas #18's dialogue is far more bland in just wanting to end things quick.
- Vegeta confirms Goten or Trunks should be capable of easily handling Freeza, being a final nail in the coffin against that small, strange minority of the fanbase that genuinely believe the kids can't beat Namek Freeza.
- Freeza is in his true form by the time Goku arrives, suggesting Gohan and co. were capable of forcing him to transform.
- Goku isn't caught off guard at all, thereby making his characterisation far better than the film or Super. Instead, Vegeta just chooses to butt in once Freeza goes Golden and Goku has a full fight with Freeza after the time reset. Also, the end of the boss fight has a unique finisher rather than switching to a cutscene once you KO Freeza much like the SSG fight against Beerus did. As far as the actual boss fight, Freeza is no joke even if you've overlevelled. Even at around Level 265 as Galu, the Level 170 Golden Freeza was still able to deal some decent damage to me when not taking things seriously. Good to see the game made up for the vast potential gap in levels.
- The narrator foreshadows Goku and Freeza meeting again for the ToP at the end, suggesting we'll get Super content either as later DLC or a sequel game.

There's also 3 new substories I have yet to do, so I'll get back to what they offer later. All in all, the DLC wasn't expansive, but what it offered was a pleasant surprise.

 

[Papasmurf]

- Vegeta confirms Goten or Trunks should be capable of easily handling Freeza, being a final nail in the coffin against that small, strange minority of the fanbase that genuinely believe the kids can't beat Namek Freeza.

The DBS manga itself has Goten and Trunks above a Cell Jr., so this isn't even worth noting.

- Freeza is in his true form by the time Goku arrives, suggesting Gohan and co. were capable of forcing him to transform.

This makes no sense since it seems to be implied that the likes of the GInyu Force or Zarbon were able to give the lesser Z senshi a hard enough time, and Gohan is stated to be rusty which makes it likely that he's at SSJ3 Gotenks' level at most. Guess they need to keep wanking the Boo arc like Tracetaro did with Dai Kaioshin and Kid Boo in the Moro arc

- Goku isn't caught off guard at all, thereby making his characterisation far better than the film or Super. Instead, Vegeta just chooses to butt in once Freeza goes Golden and Goku has a full fight with Freeza after the time reset. Also, the end of the boss fight has a unique finisher rather than switching to a cutscene once you KO Freeza much like the SSG fight against Beerus did. As far as the actual boss fight, Freeza is no joke even if you've overlevelled. Even at around Level 265 as Galu, the Level 170 Golden Freeza was still able to deal some decent damage to me when not taking things seriously. Good to see the game made up for the vast potential gap in levels.

Perhaps the low level is to suggest that Freeza made no effort to master his Golden form before invading Earth, whereas it seems that they stabilized the SSJB form to some degree prior to Whis sending them off to fight Freeza.

- The narrator foreshadows Goku and Freeza meeting again for the ToP at the end, suggesting we'll get Super content either as later DLC or a sequel game.

Hopefully they make a new game, because just getting U6/FT/ToP/Broly DLCs a la Xenoverse 2 is gay and if they wait a year or two, we'll probably see the currently manga-exclusive arcs animated.

 

[Papasmurf]

It also seems that Freeza most likely won't be added as a playable character even if the ToP is added to Kakarot, seeing as Golden Freeza seems to be treated as a separate character from regular Freeza rather than a transformation of 4th form Freeza. I guess most of the villains' transformations were separate characters anyway, but it's worth noting since Freeza was very instrumental to Universe 7 winning the ToP alongside Toriyama's Gary Stu #17.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

This makes no sense since it seems to be implied that the likes of the GInyu Force or Zarbon were able to give the lesser Z senshi a hard enough time, and Gohan is stated to be rusty which makes it likely that he's at SSJ3 Gotenks' level at most. Guess they need to keep wanking the Boo arc like Tracetaro did with Dai Kaioshin and Kid Boo in the Moro arc

Gohan isn't suggested to have a tough time at all with the Ginyus though and Piccolo seemed to stomp Zarbon, Dodoria and Cui, only noting at the danger it poses if Freeza's made similar gains to them, not to mention it wasn't made clear if he even needed to use his Ultimate form which the game treats as a transformation a la Super. Gohan was also under the impression that they could at least stall until Galu arrived, which would be near impossible to do if inferior to his 1st form alone and not being able to pad time against fodder soldiers like in the film/Super.

 

[Papasmurf]

Fair enough. I just watched the pre-Freeza portions of the DLC on Youtube and took the statements about the amazing GAINZ that the Freeza soldiers gained to mean they were a challenge I suppose.

And fuck, I just spent like thirty minutes fighting Whis as Level 52 SSJ Galu on my backup file to gain SSJ2 prior to the Boo arc... and in doing so erased my main file which was on autosave. Ouch. Guess I'll need to level up a lot over the weekend to make up for it

 

[Future Warrior]

I think some leaks a while back implied it was gonna be the Zamasu arc for DLC 3. Honestly, I kind of want to fight Hit with his time-skip ability.

I'm almost 100% certain we're gonna see the DBS Broly movie in this too, with SSG Vegeta using a specific attack from it and the Freeza mini spaceship design being taken from the movie as well.