Recently, credible Dragon Ball reporter Dragon Ball Hype revealed an image of the tree from Beerus' home planet in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. By all accounts, this seems to indicate that Kakarot's first DLC will adapt the events of the Gods of the Universe Saga, including content from Battle of Gods and possibly even Resurrection F. This is understandably exciting for fans, as many hoped that Dragon Ball Super would be added onto the game through DLC, but many are forgetting a crucial fact which is likely to cause disappointment. Because of this, it is unlikely that the game will ever venture further into Dragon Ball Super than Goku and Vegeta's fight with Golden Frieza.
For those unaware, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot was released alongside a mysterious season pass which fans knew very little about. The only information available about what would come with this season pass was 1 new story arc and 2 original story episodes. Finally fans have a better idea of what to expect, and those that were hoping for Dragon Ball Super to be adapted in some way are thrilled, while others who had their fingers crossed for content from Dragon Ball: GT or even the original Dragon Ball are a little less lucky.
DBZ: Kakarot Season Pass
Thankfully, the Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Gods of the Universe DLC fills out the season pass quite a bit. There isn't a ton of mystery left in it aside from what the original story episodes will entail and whether the story arc will include both Battle of Gods and Resurrection F content or just drop off after Goku's battle with Beerus. The former seems more likely, given that the two are technically part of the same saga. It is safe to say that this season pass definitely won't venture beyond Resurrection F, but what about future DLC moving foward?
Battle of Gods and Resurrection F
It is a little known fact that these two movies are actually Dragon Ball Z movies, not Dragon Ball Super movies. Their full titles are actually Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F. Given that Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot adapts the events of Dragon Ball Z specifically, it seems like it should have been common sense that these two final pieces of DBZ content would be adapted to close out DBZ: Kakarot. These two movies are the only canon Dragon Ball Z movies, and are grouped together as the Ending Group that finalizes Dragon Ball Z's run.
It is true, though, that the events of both Battle of Gods and Resurrection F are also in Dragon Ball Super, but they are slightly modified. The rest of the events of Dragon Ball Super never take place in Dragon Ball Z, including the Universe 6 Saga tournament, the Future Trunks Saga, and the Universal Survival Saga. If these events were ever to be adapted in the style of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, it would almost certainly have to be as a standalone game, perhaps titled Dragon Ball Super: Kakarot.
DBZ: Kakarot Doesn't Need More DLC
There is perhaps a reason that all of this somewhat unfortunate news could be construed as positive. Ultimately, the framework of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot as it stands simply could not handle too many expansions. Expansions are typically defined by things like level cap increases, new abilities, and new stories, and while Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is certainly capable of supplying the last of those three, the first two would be rather difficult to achieve.
DBZ: K already has an absurdly high level cap of 250, an unnecessary level of power given the challenges available for players to face. Players at level 250 would easily overpower even Kakarot's secret boss with relative ease. Increasing the level cap too far beyond that would not only be mostly pointless, but would completely make all other content in the game obsolete. Regarding new abilities, Kakarot's skill tree is already rather expansive, and not much would be gained by simply adding more nodes to existing abilities. That said, the cast of Dragon Ball Super stick to their tried and true techniques for the most part, meaning there isn't much room for expansion.
Dragon Ball Super: Kakarot
The only realistic way that Dragon Ball Super's story could be adapted into a Kakarot style game would be as its own standalone game. Such a game would overlap with Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot's Gods of the Universe DLC in much the same way that Dragon Ball Super overlapped with the movies, beginning at the Gods of Destruction Beerus Saga. With a full game, though, developers would be able to dig much deeper into the events of this arc, as rather than adapting a movie that is less than two hours long, they would be adapting a fourteen episode saga.
CyberConnect2 could also use this opportunity to update its systems, including combat mechanics and the Community Boards feature. While everything in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot certainly worked, there were some that felt like most of the auxiliary features could be largely ignored and that the combat got stale after a while. Changes to these things as well as crafting a framework which is more suited to the god-like scale of Dragon Ball Super would do great things for the franchise and pave the way for future Kakarot installments to adapt other things such as Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball: GT.
Fans should still be excited about the upcoming Gods of the Universe DLC for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, but would be wise to temper their expectations about the rest of Dragon Ball Super making any kind of appearance. That said, there are several references to Dragon Ball Super in DBZ: Kakarot which imply that a sequel game is not too far-fetched, so there is still hope. The best thing for fans of Dragon Ball Super to do would be to continue to support Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot as vocally as possible in an effort to make it clear that it would be a mistake not to make a sequel.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
