Game Review: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot – A New Power Awakens (Part 2) (DLC)

Release date: 2020
Version played: PlayStation 4 in 2020

The second addition of DLC expansion stories for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is A New Power Awakens (Part 2). After Part 1’s retelling of the Battle of Gods movie, this downloadable content is a streamlined retelling of the final Dragon Ball Z film, Resurrection F (spoiler: the F stands for Frieza). Goku and Vegeta continue their training with Whis and Beerus, but Frieza has returned and sets his eyes on Earth, and vengeance on Goku. A new gameplay mode, “Horde Battles”, sees up to a team of three face off against hundreds of mooks at once before the stronger enemies make their presence known.

+ the horde battles are a fantastic new addition, and really feel like the ‘cannon fodder’ battles that the movies present. Playing as the stronger Z Fighters and mowing through hundreds of replaceable goons before having to fight a “named” opponent (here a Frieza Force member, or Frieza himself) is both true to the style of the series, and at times a genuine challenge
+ like the previous episode expansion, there is a new level cap and with that comes new skills. Goku and Vegeta get the Super Saiyan Blue form, whilst most playable characters get a new beam attack. The support characters also receive new passive abilities. It’s a small but welcome addition
+ a recent update also added the new “Dragon Ball Card Warriors” mini game, separate from the main campaign. It’s kind of cute at first, but far too full of pay to win mechanics. In my handful of forays into the online battles, it was immediately made clear that if you want to stand a chance, you need to be buying a lot of the top tier card packs. Still, if you’re into that, or don’t mind getting stomped every 3 out of 5 times, this might be something to check out

The ultra creatively named Super Saiyan Blue transformation

A novelty side distraction, instead of anything worthwhile for season pass owners.

– once again, this DLC is incredibly short, completed in barely an hour. My understanding is that the next DLC pack will be significantly larger, but so far both these two new additions are not worth the price of the season pass/Ultimate Edition
– I can’t understand why we can’t play as the bad guys. Everyone from Raditz to Kidd Buu have models and form changes (where applicable) in the game already, and they use melee and beam attacks just as the heroes do. Surely letting us play as Golden Frieza can’t be so difficult they just scrap the idea altogether

>I can’t help but notice the similarities in the logos of Dragon Ball Card Warriors and my favourite Samurai/Dynasty Warriors. A Dragon Ball musou game would be an immediate collectors edition pre order, even if it sucked. Gosh, I love me a good musou (which is also a hint for another upcoming game review)

Should you play this game: While the new Horde Mode is fun, it is certainly not a game-saver, and frankly this is just so short I cannot fathom why it has taken over a year for these two DLC packs to be released and nothing else. Beggars can’t be choosers, as they say, but if someone were to have purchased an Ultimate Edition under the promise of three DLC packs, I imagine that they might be pretty damn pissed.