Honestly, most Dragon Ball games are just fighting games with a thin coat of yellow paint and some spiky hair. You know the drill. You pick Goku, you fight Vegeta, someone screams for three minutes, and then you do it again in a slightly different arena. But Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot hit different when CyberConnect2 released it. It wasn't trying to be the next Budokai Tenkaichi or a technical masterpiece like Dragon Ball FighterZ. It was trying to be a simulator. A "living the life of Goku" simulator.
That’s a big promise.
Most people bought it thinking they’d just be mashing the circle button to fire Kamehamehas. They did do that. But they also spent four hours fishing with a prosthetic tail and looking for high-quality carrots in the woods. It’s weird. It’s janky. It’s also probably the most honest adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s work we’ve ever seen in a digital format.
The RPG Elements Most People Missed
Everyone talks about the combat. The combat is fine. It’s flashy. Your screen will be covered in blue light and particle effects every five seconds. But the actual "meat" of the game is the Community Board system. This is where the game actually rewards you for knowing the lore.
Basically, you collect Soul Emblems. These are little coins with character faces on them. You stick them on different boards—Adventure, Cooking, Development, etc. If you put Krillin next to Goku, you get a bonus because they’re best friends. If you put the Ginyu Force together, you get a massive boost to your stats. It turns the entire cast of the show into a giant puzzle.
It’s not just busy work. If you ignore the cooking mechanics, you’re basically playing the game on hard mode. In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, eating isn't just for healing; it’s for permanent stat growth. Chi-Chi is arguably the most powerful person in the game because her Full Course Meals give you permanent boosts to your HP and Melee Attack that you literally cannot get anywhere else. You’re hunting dinosaurs not because it’s fun—though it kinda is—but because you need that Tier 3 Prime Marbled Dino Meat to survive the Buu Saga.
👉 See also: No Holds Barred DBD: Why the Hardcore Community is Actually Splitting
It’s the Small Moments, Not Just the Big Beams
We’ve all seen the Father-Son Kamehameha. We’ve seen Goku turn Super Saiyan on Namek a thousand times in a thousand different games. Kakarot does those scenes well, sure. The cinematic flair is top-tier. But where it actually shines is the stuff in between the sagas.
Remember the episode where Goku and Piccolo try to get their driver’s licenses? That’s in here. It’s a mandatory sub-story. You actually have to drive a hovercar through checkpoints while Piccolo sits in the passenger seat looking miserable. It’s ridiculous. It’s filler. It’s exactly why the original anime felt so special.
The game fills in gaps that the manga skipped. You get to see how Gohan felt living in the wilderness alone for months. You see the awkwardness of the Z-Fighters during times of peace. CyberConnect2 included a "Z-Encyclopedia" that is honestly a masterpiece of archival work. It tracks everything from the brand of fridge Bulma uses to the specific biological makeup of a Saibaman. For a fan, it’s a goldmine. For a casual player, it’s probably overkill. But that’s the charm. It doesn't care if you think it's too much information.
The Difficulty Spike Nobody Warned You About
Let’s talk about the combat for a second. It looks simple. You have a melee button, a dodge, a block, and your specials.
But then you fight Raditz.
✨ Don't miss: How to Create My Own Dragon: From Sketchpad to Digital Reality
Raditz is the first "real" boss, and he is a brick wall for players who try to play this like a standard button-masher. The AI in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot doesn't play fair. Bosses have "super armor" periods where they turn red and your attacks don't stagger them. If you keep punching, you will die. You have to learn the rhythm of back-stepping and burst-dodging.
By the time you get to the DLC—specifically the "A New Power Awakens" and the "Trunks: The Warrior of Hope" chapters—the game stops holding your hand. The Trunks DLC is especially brutal. It captures the hopeless, grinding atmosphere of the future timeline. You’re constantly low on items. The Androids are terrifying. It shifts the game from a power fantasy into a survival RPG. It’s a tonal shift that most licensed games wouldn't dare to try because they're afraid of frustrating the player. Kakarot leans into it.
Why the Open World Feels "Empty" (And Why That’s Okay)
A common criticism is that the world feels empty. You fly over these massive landscapes like the Southeast Islands or the Gizzard Wasteland, and there isn't a traditional "quest hub" like in The Witcher 3.
That's intentional.
The world of Dragon Ball is meant to be vast and sparsely populated. Most of the map is just nature, dinosaurs, and the occasional Red Ribbon Army robot. The joy isn't in finding a town with fifty NPCs; it’s in the movement. Flying at high speeds, picking up Z-Orbs, and smashing through mountains feels incredible. The game uses a "boost" mechanic that distorts the screen and creates sonic booms. It makes you feel the scale. If the world were cluttered with icons and fetch quests every five feet, you’d never just stop and appreciate the fact that you can fly from one end of a continent to the other in ninety seconds.
🔗 Read more: Why Titanfall 2 Pilot Helmets Are Still the Gold Standard for Sci-Fi Design
Technical Nuances and the 2026 Perspective
Looking at the game now, especially with the "Next-Gen" updates that pushed the frame rate to a stable 60fps on modern consoles, the art style has aged beautifully. Cell-shading is a bit of a cheat code in game development because it doesn't "rot" the way realistic graphics do.
One thing that still bugs people is the "Card Warriors" mode. It was a standalone card game added after launch. It’s fine, but it feels like it belongs in a different universe. Most people ignore it, and honestly, you should too unless you’re a completionist. The real value is in the main story and the "History of Trunks" and "Bardock: Alone Against Fate" DLCs. Those expansions showed that the developers were willing to go darker and more serious than the base game’s relatively light tone.
Misconceptions About the "Kakarot" Title
The game is called Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, but you spend a massive chunk of time not playing as Goku. In fact, Gohan is the protagonist for about 40% of the game. You also play as Vegeta, Piccolo, and even Future Trunks.
Some people hated this. They wanted 40 hours of Goku. But the game understands the source material better than the marketing did. Dragon Ball Z is the story of Gohan’s growth and Vegeta’s redemption just as much as it is about Goku’s fighting spirit. By forcing you to play as Piccolo during the Saiyan Saga, you feel how much weaker he is than the invaders. You feel the desperation. If you were Goku the whole time, the game would be too easy. The struggle is the point.
Actionable Tips for New and Returning Players
If you’re jumping back in or starting fresh, don’t just follow the golden quest marker. You’ll burn out.
- Focus on the Cooking: Always visit Chi-Chi before a major boss fight. The "Meat Lover's Meat Feast" is a game-changer for the Frieza Saga.
- The Training Room: As soon as you unlock the Training Room in Capsule Corp, use it. You can unlock new skills and upgrades that aren't tied to your level.
- Don't Grind Random Mobs: The XP from random robots in the world is pathetic. You get 90% of your levels from main story missions and sub-stories. If you feel underleveled, do the side quests with the blue exclamation points. They offer massive XP chunks and Soul Emblems.
- Master the Burst: Hold the guard button and hit the "ki" button when an enemy is attacking you. It creates a shockwave that knocks them back. It’s the only way to stop a boss who is in a "Red" super-armor state.
- Use the Dragon Balls: Once they become available, you can hunt them every 20 minutes of real-world time. Use them to wish for Z-Orbs or to bring back defeated bosses for rematches. It’s the fastest way to max out your move set.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot isn't a perfect game. It's got some repetitive side missions and the inventory management can be a headache. But as a love letter to the franchise? It’s unmatched. It respects your time as a fan by giving you the tiny details that other games ignore. It treats the world like a real place, not just a backdrop for a 1v1 fight. That’s why it’s still being talked about years later. It has soul. You can't patch that in.