Hello, fellow Z Fighters! Today, the embargo lifted for review coverage ofDragon Ball Z: Kakarot. You may be wondering where the DualShockers review is for the anticipated RPG, especially since it is the first “big” game of the year. Well, I can confirm we do have the game, but because of timing, we will not have the review out this week.
As you may have seen on our newsfeed last week,Dragon Ball Z: Kakarotis quite a large game. In fact, it is said to take roughly 40 hours to complete if you mainline the story. However, there is over 100 hours of content overall. That is a whole lot of game. In order to get a good grasp of what Bandai Namco and CyberConnect2 have in store for theDragon Ball Zfans, and since we only received that game on Tuesday, we are unable to give you full review at this point.
When I say “we,” I mean me. I, Senior Staff Writer Michael Ruiz, will be reviewingDragon Ball Z: Kakarot. I don’t know why I keep saying we as if I am the all-knowing DualShocker, the leader of DualShockers, but here we are.
Anyways, I have played roughly 7 hours of the game so far. I can confirm it is definitely aDragon Ball Zgame that will retell every saga, beginning with the Saiyan Saga. Right now, I am at the beginning of the Frieza Saga, where Gohan, Krillin, and Bulma just landed on Planet Namek with Kami’s ship.
Joking aside (yeah, that was a poor attempt at a joke), I am enjoying my time. The first hour has been a slog, which isn’t out of the ordinary for a video game. It does bog you down with lengthy tutorials, and introduces you to these systems in ways that feel nonchalant. It is a bit overwhelming at first, but after an hour or two, I got accustomed to all its systems.
It also has a very neat look.Dragon Ball Z: Kakarotattempts to emulate the animation style of the anime while still being a functional environment you can explore. There are moments that look absolutely incredible, especially when in bigger cities. How they’ve rendered the architecture really looks like a live depiction of those once flat cartoons. However, once you get into more wild environments, it kind of just looks like a 2D object in a 3D environment. It’s a bit jarring, but it looks pretty good overall.
I have had some performance issues here and there, but overall it has kept a steady frame rate. These stutters would occur at the end of a battle or during cutscenes, but it never really impeded my time playing.
Expect my review ofDragon Ball Z: Kakrotwithin a week. Until then, I’ll have a guide up that will (hopefully) help with character progression, as well as a video showing some of the beginning portions of the game very soon. Thanks for your patience,
