The arpg game Dragon Ball z: Kakarot, developed by Cyberconnect2 Studios and published by Bandai Namco, has been on sale for nearly a month, and the game has sold well, with a user rating of 8.4 on the Metacritic website (taking the ps4 version as an example), which is a good result as a fan-oriented comic game.
The game topped the UK game sales charts for two consecutive weeks, ranked 4th in January sales in Japan, and received "special praise" on steam.
On the subject of how to please fans, Dragon Ball z: Carcarot handed over a good answer. Most players' praise for the game focused on the high restoration of the comics and the enthusiasm they evoked, but at the same time some people complained that the game was boring. These reviews beg the question: How does it meet the needs of its fans? In addition to pleasing fans, what is the overall level of the game?
Compared with the previous "Dragon Ball" theme game, the gameplay of "Dragon Ball z: Kakarot" is more popular.
As a world-renowned hot-blooded juvenile comic, Dragon Ball began its path to game adaptation as early as 1986. In the early years, the game adaptations varied in various genres, including side-scrolling shooters, action-adventure genres, and even card battle RPGs. After Street Fighter 2 set off a fighting game boom in the 1990s, the Dragon Ball adaptation began to tilt towards this genre as a whole.
After the combination of "Dragon Ball" and fighting games, there have been many classics, far from the "Super Martial Arts" series on the SFC platform, nearly "Dragon Ball z: Electric Light Flint" in 2007 and "Dragon Ball: Gladiator z" in 2018. Among the more than 60 adapted games (excluding online games, mobile games, and arcades), fighting games account for more than half, and after entering this generation, there has been no adaptation of other types of fighting. Although the fighting game is good, after all, the threshold is high, and many players can only be deterred.
There is no distinction between the two types of fighting and arpg, but in terms of audience breadth, arpg is undoubtedly superior. In Dragon Ball z: Kakarot, even handicapped parties who struggle to get fun from fighting games can reduce the difficulty of the game through numerical cultivation. The game has a level setting, but it will not deliberately card level, follow the main line, occasionally do side quests, and the level can fully keep up.
The game also includes standard Japanese RPG gameplay, such as hunting, cooking, and fishing. There are many ways to make the protagonist stronger, such as cooking in the game, in addition to providing a limited-time buff for the protagonist, but also providing a permanent base attribute bonus. I am also worried that if I can't beat the boss, I can prepare more blood medicine when fighting. In addition, the game is not without consideration for players who want to challenge high difficulty, after the plot is carried out to a certain extent, there will occasionally be "berserk enemies" on the map, which is more intense than the main line boss, and more powerful "berserk" enemies will appear after all defeated.
Of course, cooking is not unconditional, you need to buy or collect ingredients first
Skill tree in the game. Some skills (such as the Magic Light Killer) are unlocked by the story, and some skills need to be acquired by completing challenges
Soul Emblem and Community System in the game. By collecting and matching different emblems, you can give your character a variety of attribute bonuses
As a fan-oriented game, Dragon Ball z: Carcarot is a good example of how to adapt a well-known anime into a game. In my opinion, it has two advantages: the first is that the production team understands Dragon Ball and has done as much as possible to restore it faithfully; the second is to capture what the fans most want to experience in the game.
Faithful restoration of this is well understood. First of all, the game chooses the most exciting "Dragon Ball z" in the original comic as the main plot, and the storyboard is as close as possible to the original. The game is divided into 4 chapters, namely saiyan chapter, Friza chapter, cyborg chapter and magic man Puwu chapter, and between the different chapters, similar to the "next trailer" in the cartoon, as if really paying attention to the version-making animation. This process arrangement seems a bit old-fashioned, but it is something that fans are happy to accept. Moreover, the broadcast standard of "Dragon Ball z: Kakarot" can exceed the average remake of the animation a lot.
The game includes almost all the famous scenes in the World view of Dragon Ball Z, such as the island of the Turtle Immortal, the temple, the Xidu, the venue of the World's First Budokai, and the capsule company where Bulma is located, which are reproduced in the game. The features of the scene also follow the original settings, such as "Sendou" that can harvest 100% health regeneration at intervals in the temple, and Bulma can be asked to make a vehicle in the capsule company.
Imitating the next trailer of the cartoon, Goku will also use narration to remind everyone to continue playing
The game adopts a large map setting with sub-regions, and frequent reading bars when switching regions is a problem
The game's collection "Memories of Goku", in which each memory appears in line with the original plot
The high degree of restoration alone is still not a good adaptation of the game, at best it is a remake of the animation, not to mention that it is limited by the length of the game process, and the plot must be deleted. Another advantage of Dragon Ball z: Carcarot is that it captures the needs of fans who want to substitute for the protagonist when they enjoy anime. This demand is embodied in the "Dragon Ball", which is to play the invincible Saiyan.
This game has done a lot of homework in having players play as Saiyans (in fact, Bick). From the perspective of manipulatable characters, if the form after the combination is calculated, a total of 7 characters can be manipulated, namely Monkey King (Kakarot), Sun Wu Rice, Bik, Bejida, Tranx, Gotenks, and Begit, which basically covers the protagonists of each stage. However, it is still a pity that companions such as Klin and Tianjin Rice can only appear in the team as auxiliary roles.
From the perspective of the game experience, we can control the characters to achieve what the protagonist in the comics does, such as jumping directly into a tall building after accelerating and running, hunting giant dinosaurs in the wasteland, or smashing the rocks that stand in the way during flight.
The flying feel of this game is quite good, which is important as a game that requires frequent rushes. The feeling of soaring through the map reminds me of the thrill of manipulating a spider around the city in Marvel Spider-Man.
The game can only stun but can not kill the dinosaur, a tribute to the plot of Gohan's cultivation in order to always have meat to eat, every day from the dinosaur's tail to cut a little meat but do not kill it
Skimming the water when flying will stir up waves, rubbing the ground will also leave traces, and the details are OK
As a fighting nation Saiyan, the core of course is the combat experience. The combat part of this game is relatively easy to pick up, using a kind of adsorption combat similar to the "Kingdom Heart" series, no matter where the character is in, as long as the attack button is pressed, it will automatically move in the direction of the enemy. Like most action games, this game also has a "perfect dodge" system, when it is timely to dodge the enemy attack, it will make the enemy's action into a period of delay, but the game's judgment of "perfect judgment" is more relaxed.
All characters in the game have a common skill, "Air Burst", which can bounce enemies away when used, and they will also be in a hegemonic state, which greatly enhances the character's life-saving ability. The relatively less hardcore combat system allows light players to play the fast attack of the anime and manga, and of course, it also reduces the studyability of the game.
Restore the anime's moves and mirrors, so that the game reproduces the Saiyan-style battle. You can give your enemy a heavy punch that smashes the ground and then pick up the Turtle Sect Qigong, or you can learn from Bejida to frantically use the "Prince Tactics" from a distance to fire air bullets at the enemy. If you use Qigong skills with your enemies at the same time, you can also trigger the "opposing wave" scene, at which point you can complete qte and blast your enemies into the sky. The richness of these gadgets is not as rich as the "ace air combat" complex combo like "Devil May Cry 5", but it is enough to satisfy fans.
A game adapted from a fan to a game or ip should meet the needs of fans, but it is not easy to achieve this goal. Even top genres like Star Wars, before the release of The Fallen Order, hadn't seen a game that satisfies fans for years. From this point of view, Dragon Ball z: Kakarot is a positive example.
When enemies are severely damaged in battle, there are also such comic-style exaggerated shots
Because I took care of the screenshot, I lost this "wave"
Just talking about dragon ball z: Carcarot's pleasing to fans, it is definitely intentional, but this shows how perfunctory it is in the creation of the open world.
The game's maps are not seamless, but each area provides a relatively large space for free exploration, which is worth affirming. However, when it comes to how to fill the map, cyberconnect2 Studios didn't give a good answer.
The game's enemy encounter mechanic is somewhere between "Bright Thunder" and "Dark Thunder". Players can not see enemies without pressing the shortcut key to open the "Hawkeye" mode, even if the Hawkeye is turned on, they cannot see specific enemies, only a clump of "gas", the player will automatically trigger the battle when they approach the gas. Since you can't open Eagle Eye when you are in a hurry, this makes it difficult for you to avoid the enemy in fact, often triggers the battle by mistake, and when you really want to fight and level up, you can't find the enemy easily and quickly, which is really confusing.
You can place enemy models directly on a large map, but you don't
The most widely distributed collecting element in the game is called the "z-bead", which is the number of points for learning skills. In fact, as long as the player fights normally, he can get a lot of "z-beads", and then collect it from the map is obviously a bit redundant.
Another example is the Red Ribbon Legion stronghold in the game. The stronghold is a regular filler in the open world, but the stronghold of this game is so simple that it is destroyed directly with qigong bullets, without any operability to speak of, and after destruction, it is only to give some painless props.
If the stronghold gameplay is just a mince, then the "Dragon Ball" collection gameplay, which is the core of the "Dragon Ball" theme, is truly disappointing. Collecting Dragon Balls, like all other collection missions, just hold down the Eagle Eye button to see where the light glows, then run over and pick them up. And that's not all, when the player runs 7 maps and repeats the work 7 times, most of the wishes that can be fulfilled are to resurrect the villains to fight? Well, I admit it's a lot like Monkey King's idea, but can't we give some better reward options?
The "z-beads" that are spread all over the world don't seem to be of much use except "filling the map"
I really can't think of what this stronghold play means...
I chose "Become Rich", but the money I gave was not enough to buy even a few bottles of big blood medicine
In general, a large number of side quests are an important part of the open world. Dragon Ball z: Kakarot has some clever ideas about the insertion of side quests. The game rarely encounters side quests when advancing the main plot, and can only advance the main line linearly, which ensures the coherence of the plot experience, after all, the plot is good, after being interrupted by 10 side quests, it is difficult to go up the emotional padding. When you defeat one of the more important bosses (such as Bejida or Frieza), the game will enter an intermission phase, at which point the side quests will appear in large numbers, giving people a sense of relaxation after the big battle, and the rhythm is comfortable.
During intermission, you can travel around the world to meet your companions, and sometimes discover some heart-warming stories
However, the interspersed rhythm of the side lines is good, but it cannot make up for the drawbacks of the repetition of the side quests. Almost all side quest routines are to go to a certain place to find someone first, and then there will be enemies to stir up a fight, or the mission object wants to compete with you, or collect items. After doing these tasks 5 times, it is difficult to feel fun anymore. Not to mention that the types of enemies in the game are too monotonous, as an evil organization that has long been annihilated by Sun Wukong, the robots left behind by the Red Ribbon Legion inevitably appear too often. All kinds of redundant and repetitive designs make the game's "open world" not only not bring a sense of immersion, but become a burden.
Overall, the pros and cons of Dragon Ball z: Carkarot are stark. On the one hand, it has a high degree of restoration to the original work, the battle performance is magnificent, and the main line experience is smooth, on the other hand, it has problems in the open world gameplay that cannot be ignored.
This situation has caused a split in the evaluation of this game, in the eyes of many Dragon Ball fans, it is a feast worthy of praise, in the eyes of passers-by players, it seems mediocre. I personally largely tend to the latter, but I am also full of understanding of the former, after all, everyone has their own "life push" IP, this IP out of a game, but also understand the fans, has been a rare and valuable thing.
Finally, I still have to give readers and friends a little purchase advice. Dragon Ball z: Carcarot, as a fan-to-fan game, allows players to relive the original anime plot (although it is inevitable that there are deletions) and experience the thrill of playing a Saiyan, which is a game that "Dragon Ball" fans cannot miss. But if you're not a fan, the drawbacks of repetitive gameplay can be infinitely magnified and require caution.
Sometimes I feel like the mindset of playing this game by myself is like the average person in final chapter Armageddon – tired and persistent. On a distant planet, Kakarot is collecting Genki from the world in order to unleash the "Genki Bomb" to defeat the arch-villain. I raised my hands high, feeling the energy draining, from energetic to exhausted, but still reluctant to put my hands down.
After all, it was Kakarot's "Yuanqi Bomb"!
In the final showdown with Puu, did you raise your hands?