Game Review: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot – A New Power Awakens (Part 1) (DLC)

Release date: 2020
Version played: PlayStation 4 in 2020

The first of three planned DLC expansion stories for the Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot video game released in 2020 is A New Power Awakens (Part 1). Essentially a streamlined version of the Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods movie, this expansion will provide one new boss battle against Beerus, the God of Destruction himself, as well as the opportunity to train with Beerus’ assistant, Whis, to earn huge amount of experience points for all playable characters.

+ the battles with Whis and Beerus are a lot of fun, though Whis caps out well below the highest attainable level. Beerus, however, is a monster to fight, even when you are as strong as you can be, using the best attack choices and buffed up from full course meals. It’s a genuine joy to fight and lose to him over and over (sometimes, it’s not even a close fight) before that final victory
+ overall, the new experience point boosting items are good, but only really because the level cap is so high.  At the end of the base game, I had Gohan as my strongest character pre-DLC, at 121, but now both Goku and Vegeta are 250, and as it currently stands they are the only two able to train with Whis. It’s a hollow feeling, power levelling the other characters with items

– this is very, very short, and I finished the whole thing, including excessively long cutscenes, in about an hour (except for defeating Beerus, which itself took a bit longer). I was hardly expecting another full saga, but this was barely even related to the Battle of Gods movie
– as mentioned, it is a hollow feeling and very unrewarding to power-level the characters through items, but considering the huge gap between where my characters were and the top level possible, it’s the only option. I just wish you use more than one item at once

> as a bonus aside, Trunks’ Time Machine is now operational in the main game, allowing you to go back and re-clear any story missions with a higher grade, as well as clean up any missed sub-stories. It’s a very welcome addition

Should you play this game: As far as DLC goes, this was severely lacking. Compared to any of Red Dead Redemption‘s Undead Nightmare, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey‘s massive DLC packs or The Witcher III‘s Blood and Wine to name but a few, this was incomparable. If this (and presumably two more based on Resurrection F and maybe Broly) are all that is to be included with the season pass, I will be very, very disappointed.