Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Hands-On Preview E3 2019 | Faithfully Recreates the Anime

Goku's adventures in Dragon Ball Z are one of the most notorious and beloved tales in entertainment. Attempting to recapture the intense battle found in the anime has been a difficult task for video game developers. With Dragon Ball Fighter Z Arc System Works successfully created a title that provided that high-accelerating combat that people crave from the series. And with Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot the developers at Bandai Namco and CyberConnect2 have done it again.

I had the chance to demo Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot at E3 2019 and as a fan of Dragon Ball this game made me smile all throughout.

The demo had me replaying the legendary battle between Goku and his brother Raditz. But before we dived into the boss fight I was able to explore the wide open area. Goku is giving the chance to complete optional objectives and face other enemies to boost his own power. With Kai orbs littered around that provide a general direction of where the missions are located.

The map itself was huge but made easy to explore thanks to Goku's high-speed flight. While the game does remain loyal to the source material players will encounter characters never seen in the Z series. Launch and Android 13, who was major characters in Dragon Ball, were rarely seen in the Z series. In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot they're seen interacting with Goku once again and providing new missions for the player to complete.

The game's combat system is where Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot truly shines. The game has 2 systems, combat, and exploration. When in exploration you can use high-speed flight and locate optional objectives. When in combat, the interface changes to a third-person perspective where Goku's vision is fixed on a specific enemy.

Goku is equipped with strong melee characters along with Kai abilities. The blast requires charging of your Kai meter while the melee attacks can be triggered by simply hitting the specific button. While it's tempting to simply spam the melee button and charge forward, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is all about tactics. The Red Ribbon robots you encounter can be easily defeated but Radtiz is a different story.

Like the anime, Goku and Piccolo face against the Saiyan warrior until the second part where Goku must fight him alone while Piccolo charges his special beam cannon. Radtiz is anything but easy and the developers did a fantastic job conveying that strength, with Goku constantly overwhelmed by his older brother. But that's the challenge, with the player having to constantly use the space to avoid attacks, plan out counter attacks, and attempt to system Raditz's high energy blasts. 

Dragon Ball Z's story has been retold throughout other games it seems that Dragon Ball Z: Kakorat will be the ideal experience. It not only faithfully retold the first battle in Goku's journey in the Z series effectively but did it in a way that didn't seem like just a simple rehash. The combat and optional objectives each provided more weight to this adventure and the main battle itself was an endurance. Showcasing how much Goku had to do to not only survive these battles but become the legendary warrior he is now.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot will come out in early 2020 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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