PixlBit

One of my more recent purchases was the Switch version of Dragon Ball Z; Kakarot, which was on sale pretty cheap at GameStop. The game has been out for awhile on PS4 and Xbone, the Switch finally got a late port. So I picked it up. I'm a sucker for RPGs, after all.

So I've just completed the Saiyan/Vegeta Saga, which is where Goku defeats Raditz, gets killed by Piccolo, and trains with King Kai, while Piccolo takes on the training of Gohan, all to prepare for the arrival of Vegeta and Nappa on Earth.  I watched the Saiyan Saga all the way back in 1996, when it represented DBZ's US debut, which in my area was at 6 in the morning on Sundays. On an interesting side note, when I first saw DBZ in TV Guide, I was struck by how much it looked like Dragon Warrior (Quest) and Chrono Trigger. For most people these days it's the other way around.

It's actually turned out to be a really fun game. I'd always kind of wanted a single player Dragon Ball RPG, so this game was exactly what I wanted here. It's not likely to replace Dragon Quest XI S anytime soon, but it's still a fun game where you can explore the Dragon Ball universe, relive your favorite stories from the first few seasons of DBZ, and do sidequests. I do kind of wish they'd gone more in depth into some of the funnier episodes of the saga, like Goku having to train by trying to catch King Kai's pet monkey Bubbles on a planet with several times the gravity of Earth, but overall this game is doing the job.  The game also looks pretty damn good, even on Switch, where it impresses me once more that we basically have playable cartoons nowadays that look almost as good as the studio animations. The battle system is somewhat reminiscent of fighting in the DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi games, though much smoother and more streamlined.

The Switch version comes with A New Power Awakens DLC, which must be downloaded if you want to play it, and can be played at any time. The game also features a pretty comprehensive in-game encyclopedia of the characters, story, enemies, and much more. There is unlockable artwork from the Dragon Ball series as a whole that can be found in various places. The game is also much more fully voiced than Japanese RPGs other than Final Fantasy or Tales tend to be. 

Honestly, if you're looking for a good Dragon Ball game, you can't really do much better than DBZ: Kakarot. It's a solid RPG and my favorite Dragon Ball game of all time.