DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT - A NEW POWER AWAKENS SET

I went into Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot - A New Power Awakens Set the way most RPG-heads approach a licensed action game: with measured expectations and a quiet fear of shallow systems. The result is exactly as complicated as that sounds. CyberConnect2 has crafted something that is genuinely wonderful as a love letter to the Dragon Ball Z anime, covering the full arc from Raditz all the way through the Buu saga, and genuinely mediocre as an RPG. Both things are true at the same time, and which one dominates your experience depends almost entirely on whether you care about Gohan's emotional journey. The progression systems look deeper than they are. You collect coloured Z Orbs scattered across open-world zones to spend on a Super Attack Tree, you level up through combat and side missions, you eat meals cooked by Chi-Chi for temporary and permanent stat boosts, and you manage a Community Board that slots soul emblems of Z-Fighter allies to unlock passive bonuses. On paper that is a solid suite of interlocking mechanics. In practice, the levels scale politely around story checkpoints, the skill unlocks arrive mainly through plot progression anyway, and the cooking system rarely demands serious engagement. The Community Board at least has a personality to it, a light social-management layer that rewards Dragon Ball fandom in a way the rest of the progression does not. It is the kind of system that makes an RPG specialist like me lean forward, then sigh when the depth does not follow through. Combat sits in a similar awkward middle ground. The main story boss fights are genuinely spectacular, the kind of cinematic brawls where you finally get to punch Frieza in his smug gold face and feel the weight of it. Outside the major encounters, though, the formula is simple: read visual cues, block at the right moment, rotate through your special moves, repeat. There is no meaningful build variety to speak of. Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, and Piccolo each have their signature moves, but they control almost identically across the board, and transformations like Super Saiyan add power rather than mechanical complexity. If you came here from Dragon Ball FighterZ hoping for tight technical combat, you are in the wrong game. The side content is the weakest link: fetch quests, generic Frieza Force fodder, and repetitive sub-stories that occasionally offer a charming glimpse at minor-league DBZ characters but mostly pad the runtime. Where Kakarot genuinely earns its audience is in the sheer density of fan service and narrative fidelity. The slice-of-life moments, Goku fishing, the family meals, the quiet scenes between fights, give the story a texture that the anime's pacing never quite had time for. The A New Power Awakens DLC portions cover the Battle of Gods and Resurrection F storylines from Dragon Ball Super, adding Lord Beerus and Gold Frieza encounters that are short but punchy. Note that the Trunks: The Warrior of Hope DLC is not included in this PC edition of the set, which is a real omission since that chapter is the most narratively ambitious of the post-launch content. Steam's Very Positive rating with 93 percent approval across tens of thousands of reviews reflects a fanbase that found exactly what it came for: a faithful, playable retelling of one of anime's most iconic stories. Buy it if the Dragon Ball Z story has a hold on you and you want to inhabit it rather than observe it. Approach it as a pure RPG looking for build depth and mechanical reward past hour 20, and you will find a padded XP grind wearing a Saiyan costume.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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