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DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT Five Years On
Growing up, I would spend mornings and evenings watching Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and the ever-so-slightly frowned upon Dragon Ball GT. I loved all of these anime, and because of that, I became addicted to any videogame adaptations. But, my all-time favourites were torn between the Legacy of Goku games and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3. But, this all changed when I played a certain game that came out five years ago: DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT.
At the time of KAKAROT'’s release, there hadn’t been many games much outside the arena fighter, and at that point, I didn’t have much hope. Sure, I enjoyed Dragon Ball FighterZ, but I always loved the sense of adventure of Dragon Ball games. The fighting was always fun, but I loved flying around, meeting different characters from the original series that were otherwise forgotten, and just… the ridiculous shenanigans.
I know that Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 was a game that really fulfilled my childhood wish of making my own original character and having them trained by the world’s greatest. Yes, it was fun making my own OCs and experiencing the story again. But, DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT brought me back to the days when I would be excited to see what Goku and Krillin would get up to next. The fact that they’ve since added the final world tournament of the original Dragon Ball will always give me joy. That, and it really embraced more of the world, and it’s always been that feature which I loved the most.
Before KAKAROT came out, I can’t lie, outside of Xenoverse 2 and FighterZ, my absolute favourite game in the series was the 3DS’s Dragon Ball: Fusions. It was goofy, and childish, bringing in elements from Xenoverse, the OG series, and combining it with a genuinely cute chibi art style. Plus, you could fly around and explore, causing a ridiculous amount of chaos. So when I saw that DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT combined essentially everything I loved, well. That was that.
DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT was essentially an open-world adventure, with the trademark battles that we all know and love. I was ecstatic. In the time since KAKAROT came out, we’ve also been gifted with the likes of Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, and sure, it’s fun but… it didn’t mesh with me in the same way. I didn’t feel like I could spend hours on it at a time. But KAKAROT? Well, I spent hours on it when I got it on PlayStation 4, so I thought, “You know what? I’m gonna play it all again from the beginning, and have fun with the DLCs too.”
Admittedly, I was going to write a different article about DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT in honour of the fifth anniversary, where I completed the game. But, alas, that did not go according to plan because life decided to do a thing. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been excited about replaying it. The moment I re-downloaded it to my PlayStation 5, beginning from scratch, I was just as excited as I was before. It was just so goofy. I always found the fact that you could fish with an artificial tail hilarious, but I forgot just how many Red Ribbon bots were running around causing chaos. That, and the dinosaurs. The fact that you can hunt the dinosaurs in this adaptation will always be a hoot for me. And you could run and drive around.
Look, one of my favourite fillers was the one where Goku and Piccolo were forced to get their driving licences by Chi-Chi. So, being able to drive around was always going to be something I enjoyed. But, not only that, you could meet OG members of the Dragon Ball cast from the old world tournaments.
In the five years since it was first released on 17th January, 2020, I can safely say: it holds up. It’s still the perfect game to scratch that nostalgic itch, bringing me back to the days when I’d sit down in front of the TV, questioning if anyone knew how minutes worked.
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