Fans of the Dragon Ball franchise are hyped for Bandai Namco's upcoming action adventure RPG game Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, and for good reason. Bandai Namco has promised to deliver the most faithful retelling of the story of Dragon Ball Z to date, and from what has been shown in trailers and screenshots, it seems to be keeping this promise.
This game differs from previous Dragon Ball games in many ways, but one major difference has struck many fans as odd: the game will not feature a multiplayer mode of any kind, instead focusing entirely on the single player campaign. While this may upset some, it will actually do wonders for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot and enable the developers to fully deliver on their promise.
For those unaware, almost every Dragon Ball Z game in recent memory has been keyed as a fighting game of some sort, whether that is the two dimensional fighting game style seen in the Budokai series or the more recent Dragon Ball FighterZ, or more free-flowing three dimensional styles like the Dragon Ball Xenoverse series. The common denominator in all of these games is the emphasis on replayability as a Dragon Ball Z fighting game.
While most of these games had story modes which retold the story, they played out as a series of text boxes or cutscenes broken up by fights between two well-balanced characters. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot aims to change this motif by removing the multiplayer aspect altogether and more accurately representing the battles Goku and his friends face.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with fighting games, and there are many extremely successful and incredibly entertaining Dragon Ball fighting games in particular, they do have one trait which makes them unsuited to faithfully retell Dragon Ball Z's epic story of constantly growing stronger and shattering limits. Fighting games, by definition, require a level of balance between characters to make the game both fun and fair. If one character is clearly better in some way than another, then it would make no sense for that character to be played or even be included in the game. This resulted in fights in previous Dragon Ball games, like the fight between Goku and Vegeta, being mostly equal.
This obviously is not faithful to the source material, as Vegeta is stronger than Goku during the Saiyan Saga. It was an uphill battle which fighting games simply cannot simulate. Yes, Goku did come out on top eventually, but it was certainly a trial that forced him to push past his limits and nearly destroy his body in the process. Fighting games tend to emulate this simply by giving the enemy more bars of hit points or arbitrarily allowing them to do more damage, but even that doesn't quite capture the feeling of facing a foe who outclasses the player. The CPU controlled Vegeta is still shackled by the same rules as the player because he can be played in multiplayer outside of the story mode.
By contrast, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot has the freedom to make certain boss enemies feel like bosses. Rather than being restricted to making Vegeta feel and fight exactly like Goku, developers can give Vegeta techniques in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot which are completely overpowering, test players skills by making his mobility leagues above that of the players, and ultimately represent his superiority as a fighter so that the player and Goku both must give everything they have in order to overcome the challenge.
While Vegeta does become a playable character later, he retains that level of power. This doesn't pose a problem because other characters also get stronger, and (as is always the case with Dragon Ball Z villains) the next foe is always stronger. When the player faces Frieza, he will undoubtedly be far stronger than Goku and the others, and the same can be said for Cell and Majin Buu. These kinds of uphill battles are necessary to accurately represent the story of Dragon Ball Z, as the theme of growing stronger to overcome challenges permeates the entire show.
Aside from that, developers will have more time and resources to devote to making the story as inclusive and smooth as possible. It has already been confirmed that the game will feature numerous side quests, some of which are only available to certain characters, certain filler scenes from Dragon Ball Z, original characters like Bonyu, former member of the Ginyu Force, and even rarely recreated moments like Raditz's encounter with the farmer with a shotgun. None of these sorts of things appear in the story modes of other games because too much time and energy is spent on balancing all characters and providing enough replayability value through the fighting system.
And it is probable that Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot will not suffer from a lack of replayability. Even disregarding all of the numerous sidequests, potential for grinding levels a, and the like, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot will likely be replayable on different difficulty levels and may even feature a new game plus system. There is also the potential of DLC which could add stories based off of movies, Dragon Ball: GT, or perhaps more likely, a DLC for Dragon Ball Super. Either way, fans will likely get a lot out of this game, and it should provide players with the chance to relive the story they love without having to go back and watch every episode again.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot's decision to do away with a multiplayer mode is a bold move indeed, and naturally there will always be some who decry it for this, but the benefits that come along with it are undeniable. Players will see these benefits firsthand as the awesome story of Dragon Ball Z unfolds in front of them with stunning accuracy and engaging gameplay. Though it is unfortunate that this game can't be enjoyed with friends in the traditional way, the single player games industry has been somewhat lacking as of late with heavier focus on competitive multiplayer experiences, and Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is sure to fill that gap nicely.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is set to release on January 17, 2020, for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
