DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT - TRUNKS - THE WARRIOR OF HOPE (DLC)

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot - Trunks - The Warrior of Hope is a standalone story DLC set entirely in Future Trunks's apocalyptic timeline, the one where the Z-fighters are dead, androids 17 and 18 have reduced civilization to rubble, and a teenage Trunks spends his days fighting a losing battle alongside Future Gohan. If you watched that arc as a kid and felt something crack open in your chest, this DLC was made specifically to twist that knife. CyberConnect2 leans hard into the tragedy here, and for once the licensed anime game actually earns its emotional beats rather than rushing past them. Gameplay sits inside the same action-RPG framework as the base game. You control Trunks and, during key story moments, Future Gohan, moving through a stripped-down open world that reflects the desolation of a humanity on its last legs. Combat is the familiar Kakarot system: real-time brawling with ki blasts, super attacks tied to a resource bar, and stat growth through leveling. The android encounters are tuned to feel oppressive, which fits the narrative tone. Do not expect deep build variety here. This is not a game about optimizing skill trees across forty hours. It is a roughly four-to-six hour story experience where the mechanical goal is mostly to survive long enough to watch the cutscenes, which are genuinely excellent. What works is the writing and pacing. The DLC does not pad the runtime with filler side quests the way the base game occasionally did. It stays focused, hits the major beats from the TV special, and adds just enough expanded character interaction between Trunks and Gohan to make the ending land harder than it probably should for a Dragon Ball game. The voice performances (Japanese and English both) are strong, and the production values on the cinematics are among the best CyberConnect2 has delivered. If you care about whether choices matter or whether narrative rewards replayability, the honest answer here is no on both counts. This is a linear story DLC with no branching paths. But the story it tells is one of the better ones in the Dragon Ball catalog, and the game respects it. What does not work: the open-world segments feel thin. The future timeline map is small and sparse, intentionally so thematically, but it means exploration has almost nothing to offer. Boss difficulty can spike unevenly depending on your level. And if you bounced off the base game's combat before reaching hour twenty, nothing in this DLC changes that calculus. It is mechanically more of the same. The value proposition depends almost entirely on how much Future Trunks means to you as a character. For RPG players hunting for systemic depth, branching choices, or a meaty side-content loop, this is the wrong address. For Dragon Ball fans who want a respectful, well-produced adaptation of one of the franchise's most emotionally resonant storylines, it delivers more than most licensed tie-ins manage. Requires the base game, plays in a tight single session, and leaves you feeling appropriately wrecked. Monika, Scout Team