Gohan has always been a fan favorite character in Dragon Ball Z thanks to his massive potential to be more powerful than either Goku or Vegeta. For most of the fan base, his desire to study and be a scholar instead of a fighter is what holds him back from greatness, and tends to be an annoying part of his character. For this reason, Future Gohan (the version of Gohan from Future Trunks' timeline) is even more beloved by some, as he places his training and skills as a martial artist above all other things. In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot DLC 3, players actually have a chance to play as this character, but fans are wondering how long this will last.
There will be major spoilers ahead for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot's third DLC, although anyone that is familiar with the story of Future Trunks shouldn't be surprised by anything discussed herein. In order to talk about how much Future Gohan is available as a playable character, it is necessary to consider the events of the first two episodes in this DLC. A small detail about the ending of the DLC will also be revealed, so players wanting to figure out everything for themselves should turn back now.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot - Playable Future Gohan
Future Gohan is indeed playable during Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot DLC 3, but just like other fan favorites before him (ie. Vegito and Gotenks), his screen time is somewhat limited. To be fair, this makes sense within the story, as Future Gohan dies relatively early on in the DLC, but it will still no doubt come as a disappointment to some fans. Despite this, Future Gohan can level up and does have access to his own skill tree, but even this is limited. At the very start of the story, Future Gohan's skill tree is maxed out.
This makes Future Gohan much more powerful than Future Trunks to start off, but even that can't save him from his predestined cutscene death. Before this tragic event, there are about three mandatory story fights in which the player takes control of Future Gohan. All three of these are against Androids 17 and 18, but one is under slightly different circumstances. While main story fights just require players to beat the Androids, the Android Assault tutorial instead gives players different victory objectives.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot - Free Roam Future Gohan
The story of DLC 3 is told through the eyes of Trunks rather than Gohan, so players aren't able to free roam as Future Gohan very often. That said, there is one point in the story where Trunks is incapacitated. During this time, players are given control of Super Saiyan Future Gohan and allowed to free roam, albeit with some fairly heavy restrictions. There are no enemies to fight, and invisible barriers have been placed up around the map to prevent Future Gohan from wandering too far from his destination. Players are instead forced to head straight to the Androids and play out Future Gohan's final battle.
Thankfully, that doesn't mean that players are restricted to the aforementioned three story battles, as there is a way to continuously play Future Gohan during this section of the story. It may not be ideal, and does require the player to do some fairly counterintuitive things, but it will at least gives players another chance to fight with Future Gohan's unique moveset. This involves a new mechanic that was added to Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot with DLC 3, the Android Assault feature. If players understand this, they can play as Future Gohan as much as they want.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot DLC 3 - Android Assault
Early on in the story of DLC 3, players will be introduced to the Android Assault feature. During certain free roam parts where Future Gohan is in the party with Future Trunks, Red Ribbon Army drones can be seen patrolling the area. If these spot the player, they will alert the Androids and initiate an Android Assault. Future Gohan is always the playable character during these battles, with Trunks taking the role of a support character. Unfortunately, these battles play out very differently than a regular fight.
The implication is that the Androids are far more powerful than either Trunks or Gohan at this point, so the only hope of survival is to escape. Doing this requires the player to meet one of two victory conditions, both of which will be shown at the start of the fight. Usually these involve reducing the Androids' HP far enough or stunning the opponent, but it varies with every fight. Even though the player is in control of Trunks during the free-roam, they will do the fight as Future Gohan. This isn't the case for random encounters fought during this portion of the story, however.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot DLC 3 - Time Machine
Just like the main story, after players finish all the main scenarios in DLC 3, they will gain access to the time machine. This allows them to go back to previous story moments and repeat certain fights. This allows infinite replayability of Future Gohan, but all the same caveats still apply. Players can only every use this character against the same two opponents. Thankfully, since players can't efficiently level grind Future Gohan, the fights against the Androids should still feel like an uphill battle the second time around, but this could also be viewed as a downside.
Once players have leveled up Trunks in the DLC, the teen version of the character will retain that level when going back in the time machine. This means that even in the Android Assault battles where Trunks is a support character, it's possible that these enemies will be one shot by Trunks before players get much of a chance to do anything with Future Gohan. This all highlights a major problem with Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot's endgame, as there are many different characters that simply don't get enough attention.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
