The Game that Loves to Fight Itself - Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot review 

Even if the game is not perfect, you gotta admit that the cutscenes look AMAZING

You forgot to mention it's also missing some big moments that aren't in that probably could've and should've been put in like Goku's training with King Kai in the Saiyan saga and Goku's warp Kamehameha he did to Cell and Vegeta's awesome charging up his Final Flash and blasting Cell with it also. Heck, since the game is named after Goku they could've put in the Otherworld tournament at the beginning of the Buu saga so you can start it off playing as Goku instead of Gohan like all the other sagas do, maybe even have a section where you get to see some of the things Goku did in Otherworld that wasn't in the anime or manga before he comes back for the World Martial Arts Tournament just so you can have more gameplay with him.

Only thing I remembered from playing this game was in the very start, during the tutorial. There's an optional side quest you can take from master roshi to go find his dirty magz that the turtle hid, and when you confront the turtle about it hes all "I really wish muten roshi wasnt such a massive pervert, please dont give these back to him" and I'm just like "Me too turtleman, but 300xp"

Playing the first time is a fun experience, but side missions were way too boring and I hated some of the main story missions such as searching for said item or material to progress through the story. I remember when I played for the first time I was so stocked for the Cell saga, but all of a sudden Chi-Chi gave me this random mission to search for like multiple different material. I quickly turned the game off after that.

**tries to play the main story** Bulma: "Go gather these 3 items."

As a long-time fan of the IP and a long-time player of the games (including the RPGs on the Famicom), I would say Kakarot is overall a great experience. It's a loveletter to the fans, but the primary issue was that it wasn't the complete vision. The developers had even stated how difficult it was for them to remove development time from cutscenes such as Vegeta's final flash so they can meet deadlines. I can understand people who grew up on the Tenkaichi games to eventually feel this way about Kakarot, but I don't. This goes way back to the Famicom, and while I would hardly call it perfect, Kakarot-among other Dragon Ball games-is a fantastic release.

I just wish you could still fight the villains even after reviving them with the Dragon Balls and defeating Mira once and for all. I want my level 300 Cell

The one thing I don't forgive them for is that they cut out Vegeta's Final Flash in the Cell Saga. That was the best best moment for me! And that hurt me. Something else that hurt me was the fact that we couldn't play as Super Vegeta in the open world. Like that's one of his forms! And Trunks' ASSJ/Super Trunks form as well! Give ASSJ alot of strength but lacks in speed. C'mon

I personally think they should of made this a dragon ball (all the kid goku adventures) game first with how that part of goku story would of meshed way better with this games open world/rpg ideas and could of been used as a like a testing grounds for stuff that could of been made or improved on for this game

There are definitely a lot of things that the game missed, but overall it is extremely fun and felt satisfying to play

I remember Tenkaichi 2 story mode being long as hell. I was on the buu saga clocking 55 hours and in still had the GT portion to go through, but it was good!

Honestly I can say that I do like this game. It honestly reminds me of the older Dragonball games fro back in the 2000s. It’s definitely my favorite game of this decade so far but I feel like that’ll change soon with Budokai Tenkaichi 4. In all seriousness it's kinda rare to see a negative review that gives the game a fair assessment unlike the ones I saw when this game first came out. It's kinda why i dread listening to these negative reviews cause most of the people shit on the game while ignoring the good it has and also making it sound like it's worse than it is. For me this game is an 8/10. Probably an 8.5/10 with the DLC included. It's a good/solid game that while not perfect hits all the right notes that an old Dragonball like me was looking for for sometime.

I feel robbed that we couldn't play as the great ape in the bardock story. Especially after they kept hyping it up. "It's a full moon!! We get to go great ape on them!!" Only to get it as a freaking cutscene.

The only downside it had for me was not being able to beat up buu as Goten

game is really fun for one playthrough, the dlc are also fun to play through once. its def missing something though.

Xenoverse was also like an rpg arena fighter hybrid.

Playing it again a second time when the upgrades for consoles came, i had sort of the same feelings in realizing this games flaws (even though i had some main critiques in my first playthru). If this game had no budget limit, all out team who knew about dragon ball and previous dragon ball games, this could of been the best dbz game of all time imo. They literally could of just combined Legacy of Goku 2 and Buu’s Fury (obviously not copy and paste but expand upon those games ideas and make it better with the more better access to technology hardware we have now). Imagine a game of dragon ball, dbz, movies saga, and the dlc’s. With better fleshed out combat system, and gameplay mechanics from legacy of goku 2 and buu’s fury 😭😭😭😭

Can't wait to see your game, buddy!

One thing I feel worth mentioning is that when you got to the gameplay you mentioned how tenkaichi and Xenoverse are more fun despite the style being generally the same, and I think it comes down to the freedom these two games give in terms of combat compared to Kakarot, Xenoverse 2's plethora of super attacks and unique combos for every created character and original character make you able to string together different stuff and explore with different characters and builds using the different mechanics of the game, Tenkaichi has several different mid combo and finishing attacks and dash attacks and several ways to chain supers, sure its expected of Kakarot to not compare since its an RPG in comparison but for people who regularly DB games they'll definitely notice the downgrade in terms of combat Overall great video, sums up my frustration with the game pretty well despite how much fun I've had with it

19:45 as a person who got max level in all characters and completed all side misions and fights i see this as absolute skill issue (Humor)

The fact that there was NO ANIMATED CUTSCENE FOR THE FINAL FLASH really upset me on first playthrough :/

I think that if kakarot allowed you to play as more than the 5 characters throughout the story I would have liked so much more, like how budokai tenkaichi 3 does like playing as frieza and beating on the heroes.

Tbh my only real problem with the game is because of some of the most popular moments MISSING. Them not adding The Final Flash cutscene was CRIMINAL.

You forgot the worst thing. The Obnoxius unavoidable fights with "red ribbon army robot" and shit that are forced upon you every 5 seconds you spend free roaming. Seriously, who tought that was a good idea, all they had to do was make them optional and that's it.

Budokai 3 had the best free roam exploration and discovery ever. I still remember finding Korins tower and being like no way!!! Finding locations from the anime in the world were like a real discovery

This game isn't perfect, but I really enjoyed my time with it tbh.

After playing through the story and beginning the post game content (Not including dlc yet), I personally enjoyed the gameplay, side content and the collection things. Its tedious and time consuming, but thats something that isnt so bad depending on the game

It’s refreshing to see a fair review about this game. I watched a let’s play and to be honest it felt like it dragged a bit. The graphics looked _so_ pretty though.

I'm playing mostly to rewatch the story that I haven't watched since I was a kid. I'm 10 hours in and seems good so far!

From the beginning of the game, the mechanics felt a bit clunky to me, and i could never make it pass raditz. I thought i was weird for not liking the game, thanks for thr validation!

I was disappointed when I couldn’t be super trunks and super Vegeta against Cell

I just wish abilities woulda been dumbed down to represent character strength in the beginning arcs. Like how in the saiyan arc goku is flashing around all over the place when it should of just been flips and dodges. Love the idea of the dragonball dlc arc but pre adult goku flashing around old demon king piccolo is kind of lackluster

I was very surprised by this review, me and my bro loved Kakarot and we played it through to the end, especially the combat. However, actually watching through, I can see why this game is divisive. Like you say, it's great when played in small doses, which is how we played it since my brother's not always around. Since we didn't have too much time, we also skipped most of the side missions. The combat never got stale because we never played too much at a time, and every new playing session we'd have unlocked some new move, transformation, etc.. Each of this game's big fantastic cutscenes would always stick in your mind until the next play session, the game always felt fresh. But looking back at it critically, I guess that's not really how most people would play this. I actually think I would agree, that this game would get pretty boring playing it every day for a couple hours to beat it. I guess it's not the type of game you sit down to spend your afternoon. You pick it up, do a few missions, get some new moves, and head out. To be fair, I do play a lot of games this way, but it's definitely not how most do.

Man.. you really ramble through this video.

I adored this game. But I didn't really understand the basic combo system. I feel like even Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and 3 had a lot more combo depth for each individual character. At least I'm able to control what I do with a quick tap of the triangle button in the middle of a combo. I'm left wondering how combos are even meant to work here. And I find the easiest way to tackle most any challenge is to charge my Ki and ability spam. Don't get me wrong, if you struggled with the Budokai Tankaichi games, you can do that there too. But if you learn the basic combo system in those games, you can absolutely dumpster the enemy A.I. in a way you never thought possible. In 3 in particular, Max Power state has so much more going on for it than just access to a big fancy finishing move. Plus I miss the super dragon rush that completely burns your Ki more or less to near instantly fly to your opponent. It wasn't Ki efficient next to normal Dragon Rushing, but it was cool as Hell. Plus boss stagger is just kind of bizarre in Kakarot. Not helping is how one-sided the powered up state thing is. And I'm not talking about their scripted moves you have to play dodgeball with, those are cool. I mean the power up with that meter that I forget the name of. When they get it, their stagger power goes way up. But ours doesn't. It fills so slowly for most of the game; it sucks it can't just be our clap back mechanic. Our opportunity to absolutely dumpster the bosses. Show them we mean business. Stagger them more easily, get them stuck in combo strings more easily. Plus the training with Whis mechanic is kind of awful. Can make for a good repeat playthrough of the game ... If you want to one shot everything. But he mainly serves for a level grind. And then the Beerus boss. Beerus is so horrifically overstatted, which is understandable canonically, but also bruh this sucks: that you need to use permanent stat boosters past max level to even compete with him. He basically nullifies the point of the fast forwarded max level grind for Goku and Vegeta. All it amounts to is helping them grind for materials faster because they're basically invincible to every other opponent now. One final note, but whomever decided Goku should only have that one scream when he powers up fully is a lunatic. I mentioned thatgauge is ungodly slow early game, so it should be more meaty. But by the end of the game, that sucker fills up so fast that Goku's powering up grunt will haunt my dreams.

They missed so many opportunities to make this a great game, it's like they don't want you to play but instead watch cutscenes. They spent all this time making all these menus and boards etc etc but the actual gameplay is very little just the combat fishing and collecting things. I was playing and got to snake way.....I got exited thinking oh boy are they gonna make me run and jump along snake way like a platformer as mini game? Noooooo ofc not I get a cutscene. I get to King Kai's planet......again I get exited thinking they're gonna make me catch Bubbles and Gregory? No ofc not, instead of some fun gameplay I get a cutscene instead. All these missed opportunities for good gameplay, I could go on and give more examples that would make this a great game. It's a damn shame because some things in the game are good and this could have been the best dbz game but they missed the mark a bit. It still also has a LOT of good things though, I'm enjoying playing it.

One thing I liked was when Goku fights Freeza and does the Kaioken Kamehameha. Sean Schemmel usually doesn’t do his Kamehameha yell in the style of Masako Nozawa but for that scene he did! And I thought it was a cool detail to notice

collecting the Z orbs as i fly around this game gives the same sorta dopamine rush that collecting studs in a lego game gives

Aside from all the fetch missions and some of the side missions I still love the game the last time I played was around it came out back in 2020 and I’m playing it again currently and I still do enjoy the gameplay

Personally I really really want to like this game but the lack of combat strings like the old games ruins it for me

I just redownloaded it. The controls killed it for me first time round couldn't stomach more than an hour or two. But now you can change the buttons it's going so much smoother. Still not perfect but damn it's night and day.

Ssj3 comparison was spot on

Honestly love this game

The only problem I got with the game is how easy and the lack of fighting in a boss fight. They spend too much time using special moves and don't actually fight you head on meanwhile that's all you do. I'm just wondering when they're gonna fight back. Henchmen are more interesting fights than bosses. Otherwise I like it

Asides a little bit of xenoverse 2 this is my first real dragon ball game since the days of buus fury and tenchiachi or however it’s spelled . So far it’s pretty fun . The “open world “ aspects leave some things to be desired but the story is really hitting with me thus far . I think a big part is I haven’t watched dragonball z since it originally aired when I was younger . So it’s been like 15-20 years since I’ve seen been through sayian and frieza saga

Man! I still love this game!

I'm playing through it for the first time and immediately ran into all of these problems and yet I still am determined to beat it! I think because of all the wonderful fan service and refences for the hard core fans!

I still wants to see movies in kakarot like broly or gogeto someday to maybe come back to that game

Another thing I kind of see in this game is the lack of in-game content. There could've implimented fun actual training to level our characters, a mode, something but.....nothing. Now to be fair, Bandai waaaay back like we talking 2019 before the game was out, did say that it was made for new audience in mind, so I was to expected something like this but....not at all like how Z kakarot turned out. Now a very reliable source on twitter has tweeted out that for season pass 3, Dragon Ball Super is suppose to be the next dlc pack which i'm stoped for if nothing changes. But for now, I can agree wit u on this but I can't be entirely upset cuz Bandai said especially before Z kakarot came out that, they would only be focusing on Z nd Z only for the newer fans nd not going to the movies or super but....that all changed wen a new producer was on Z kakarot sooo yea. But even still, i can understand why this game kinda turned out how it did, there js problems with it

I love this game and they have the best rendition of Vegito

I somewhat enjoyed my first playthrough. My second was tedious af. My third was actually fun cause i did the dlc before starting the maingame and basically one shot everyone with a gutpunch.

No idea why but i just thought of a way they could add different stages to Kaioken instead of just the normal one

Yh ur totally right second half of the game did not receive the same love as the first half. Sad really, maybe we can hope for a remaster one of these days.

Such an underrated RU-vid channel!

Earned a sub today

imagine a naruto game like this man it would be aweome

The best part of this game imo were the boss fights. And it's such a shame you can't replay them on your level, or on their level. What use is it to replay the Raditz bossfight with my level 120 Goku, if Raditz goes down in literally one punch

I’m ngl I’ve had this game since launch and I still haven’t finished it the farthest I’ve gotten is the beginning of the Android saga I need to finish it

you can hold block and then right click (i play on keyboard) and it'll literally give you invincibility for like 1 second with the only drawback being it consuming ki 💀 you can EASILY cheese ultimate moves with it by just spamming it repeatedly

Probably explains why i loved playing till the namek saga. Then stop playing entirely during the andriod saga

The game is great and the DLC'S are good however there is no replay value that is all.

The sidequests are forgettable, yea but i dont even think thats the biggest problem with their implementation. It feels like for a majority of the time, the takes control from you or atleast wont let you do the free roam stuff because it absolutely has to have you do the main story. Part of why theyre forgettable is because you can only do them when the game TELLS YOU you can do them and not when you feel like doing them

the moment i saw that cuberconnect was gonna make the game i knew what type of game it would be, not that i would know exacly but atleast a general gist about it all flair no substense, that outside of the combat and the amazing cutsceans there wouldent be mutch then just basic things you can do like collect things

the dlc is really annoying because if i forget to save the auto save does nothing and it saves like every hour so i cant get to the levels to level up my character even more for getting ssb or play dlc side missions

I’ve played that game and the people that don’t have it are missing out

i just got the game and its awesome i just got to namek saga

My only real problem with Kakarot is how everything dropped off after the frieza saga like you said. The game felt very gritty and immersive like early dragon ball z did. The last half was boring and generic imo.

I get it but its still very fun as well the dlcs

Amazing adaptation for any DBZ fan but huge missed opportunity. Zero replay value and too much grind. Still play it and look at the mod scene on PC: allowing us to play with more characters, skip the grind and introducing new mode such as a versus mode to keep the game alive plus all the fighters outfits. Big thanks to the modding community. Still love this game and hope for some GT DLC. kakarot is the new Sagas but better and improved. I never thought I'd see such a beautiful video game adaptation.

It’s a really good game, my favorite one or really near the top

I actually enjoy this game very much just for the rpg elements

THEY DIDNT EVEN SHOW THE FINAL FLASH😭

the only real redeeming part of this game for me is the visuals and that's it

That’s the thing I do not care about cut sense I care about game play .. but kakarot is just a one button mash game !

Respectfully i think DBZ kakarot is one of the best 7/10 games i ever played LOL

It’s good when it wants to be

I've played the game like 3 times and I still love the game. Everything about the game (besides a few fetch quest missions). Overall I'd rate the game a 9.5 out of 10. Below rdr2 and the Dying Light games

I've always hated CyberConnect 2 and this game perfectly demonstrates exactly why.

Nice vid

They will make it better

this plays exactly like battle of Z for ps3 and vita.

Them taking out final flash is the most insane shit ever

I WAS THINKING THE SAME ABOUT HOW SAIYAN SAGA AND FRIEZA SAGA ARE DONE MUCH BETTER THAN CELL SAGA THAN BUU SAGA

IMO the dlc like future trunks and bardock are at times more well paced than the actual game

Fights are fun and the scenes are great, but the overworld and side missions are total ass. Somehow a DBZ game just doesn't have a vs mode or tournament mode. Also this game should've covered all of DragonBall, not just Z and then some Super in the dlcs (plus the 23rd tournament in dlc 5). Game should've started off with kid goku meeting Bulma then gone from there. It's a game that advertises itself as the story of Goku, but has like 40% of the series missing.

The game is not perfect yes, but is still one of the best rpg and Dragon Ball games i ever played. Also, hell no the manga isnt better than the anime lol

It’s top 5 in my opinion 🔥🔥🔥🔥it’s a fresh take on the story vs. the repetitive story in other games plus the fighting was lit

Gotta admit tho, the Future Trunks DLC was peak fiction

I swear I would’ve forgiven this game if they didn’t cut the FINAL FLASH!!! IT WOULDVE LOOKED SO COOL

This is gam is pretty good and looks good don’t see much flaws and my brother did drop it cuz it was “boring “ and the disease thing where you lose hp in fighting

I finished the game + DLC 1+2 (it was on sale. I got it as a bundle. Base + DLC 1+2 all under $15) I hate some parts of the game where I have to find the parts for Bulma. Like...I dont care anymore....just move on with the story! Also in the Cell saga, when Goku and Chichi was in a picnic Honeymoon, Bulma told me(as Gohan) to find 3 parts at the mountains and that whole mission was ass! How can I find the parts when enemies keep jumping on me!? Fuck! Almost dropped the game at that part.

i think the game should've been split into 2, for each half for a better budget, more time an effort and also to have harder fights

Think one of the biggest things that kinda put me off was the voice acting, at best it is pretty good but at worst it sounds phoned in but that is almost more of an issue of toei's voice acting direction.

This game is like, we go no further than the story of goku....release Super saiyan god content and go back and tell the Bardock story and the first time Goku fought piccolo...which confuses the hell out of people.

good review

I feel like general combst is fine but boss fights seem like they use the red aura attacks all the time that are almost unavoidable and cheap plus while you are trying to combo the boss just breaks out of your combo super easy. Overall it feels cheap like the game doesn't know how to balance the tougher fights. Also the tutorials suck.

Dude you are telling me this game is based off an anime? Dude thats cool. I like the game. Its slow and it takes its time. It feels kind of like the yakuza games I honestly cant tell you why it feels that way but it does

Great video , Thank you ! Hope your channel grows ❤

I was excited for Kakarot, because it's an RPG and I really enjpy that genre. But the more I think about it the more of a mess this game is, the presentation is so inconsistent, the combat is easy but random encounters are worthless and leveling up is super constricted until post game. The numbers in this game are so massive it's impossible to even gauge your progression, there's so much stuff in the game that's just a waste of time and inconsequential.

I dunno man, I loved and continue to love this game. I don't really care for the flaws, for me they're pretty minimal.