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In truth, while Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is undeniably a simple game, it’s one with a truly impressive amount of love and passion flowing through its veins. This is a game that simulates the Dragon Ball Z experience better than any other title in the series, and underneath the surface level is an experience that, while not deep, is richer than most have been giving it credit for. 

10 Surge Spam

Get to know the Surge Meter ASAP, because it can be the difference between life and death in some of the trickier battles. Directly to the right of the player’s health and Ki, when full, players can charge up their Ki to the max and enter a Surge state where they’re faster, their attacks hit much harder, and they can spam attacks like a monster. 

This works best with Ki attacks like the Kamehameha, Masenko, and Galick Gun (though Piccolo’s Super Explosive Wave makes amazing use of this little trick.) With the right timing and enough Ki, it’s possible to lock enemies in a loop of Ki blasts. While in a Surge state, you can fire off attacks mid-animation. Simply trigger your next Ki attack right before the current one ends. 

9 A Barrel Roll

Pretty much everyone who’s read or watched Dragon Ball has at one point attempted to teach themselves to fly ala Gohan to Videl in the Majin Buu arc. There’s no shame in it. Dragon Ball’s depiction of flight is dynamic and exciting. Who wouldn’t want to take to the skies at high speeds? Kakarot makes flight even more enticing by littering the sky with Z-Orbs, the game’s “currency” for progression, so to speak. 

It’s not unusual to find a rather large ring of Z-Orbs that Goku or whoever won’t be able to gather all of. That’s usually because you’ll be flying at high speed. Simply slow down and press the uppermost face button to do a barrel roll, collecting all the Orbs in the process. Goku can also do this on Nimbus.

8 Play As Trunks After Beating The Game

As is the case in the main canon, Future Trunks is absent from the story following the end of the Cell Games. Unlike in the manga, he doesn’t even get his epilogue, with Cell’s defeat skipping straight to the next Intermission with no gameplay in-between. It’s disappointing, especially since Trunks is barely playable in the Cell arc as is. (His fight against Perfect Cell is also skipped.) 

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Thankfully, it is actually possible to play as Trunks again. After beating the game, Trunks will be at Capsule Corp. with his Time Machine. From there, he’s fully playable and a proper party member yet again. There isn’t much to do post-game, but his Time Machine suggests that’ll change very soon…

7 Grind Without Fighting

Combat in Kakarot is great! During boss fights. Random battles can be something of a chore. Enemies are often pathetically easy and a game that already has lengthy load times doesn’t need another minor time sink to throw at players. Worse yet, random battles don’t award enough Z-Orbs to make the time spent battling worthwhile. 

At the same time, an RPG demands players level-up. The solution? Just avoid battling. At a high enough level, players will be able to circumvent random battles altogether. Simply charge into the enemy on-screen at high speed and they’ll go down, rewarding you with everything they would have dropped after a battle. Considering this takes seconds, grinding suddenly becomes very doable. 

6 Dash Attack Enemies

Movement can be tricky to get used to, especially since there are two distinct control schemes between fighting and exploring. In combat, it’s not unusual to rely on dashing to cut some distance between the opposition early on. It ensures one stays safe in battle and it’s true to the show in many respects. 

As combat intensifies, however, it becomes more and more important to zip around the battle arena fast. By pressing the left analog stick, players will dash attack enemies. It takes up a little bit of Ki, but not enough to be a problem. Dash attacking and then launching into a melee combo is a very reliable way of gaining an upper hand in battle. 

5 Engage In Beam Struggles

Beam struggles are a huge part of Dragon Ball’s identity and make up some of the best moments in the franchise. Nothing to this day quite tops Goku and Vegeta’s beam struggle. Unfortunately, it’s entirely possible to play through Kakarot without experiencing such an epic moment in Dragon Ball history. 

At the same time, the fact that players need to trigger beam struggles themselves just makes the act so much more rewarding. Enemies will actually highlight the trajectory of their beam attacks during their charge up, simply charge yours in time and players will be forced into a button-mashing beam struggle. 

4 Finish Fights In Style

Surging out isn’t just good for spamming Masenkos in Vegeta’s face. They’re a fantastic way of ending a fight in style. Finishing off an enemy while Surged out with a Ki attack will result in a cinematic where the beam fires off into outer space. The stronger the attack, the more impactful the cinematic. It’s a nice touch and one hell of a way to end a tricky boss fight. 

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In general, fighting while in the Surge state makes combat far more visually dynamic. Every punch and kick has this deeper weight to it, and Super Attacks can really send enemies flying. Melee Super Attacks even trigger brief cinematics where players land even heavier blows on their opponents. 

3 Gather The Dragon Balls As Much As Possible

The nature of the Dragon Balls in Dragon Ball’s story essentially means that any game adapting the main story will only have a few instances where characters will interact with the titular wish-granting orbs. Kakarot gets around this by just fundamentally changing how Dragon Balls work in the context of the game. 

They can be collected at any time during Intermissions, and they only require 20 real-world minutes to recharge, not an entire year. This makes the process of collecting the Dragon Balls very easy. There’s some waiting involved, but with wish options that involve bringing Raditz and the Ginyu Force back to life, we can all afford to be a little patient. 

2 Ignore All Of The Side Content And Be Just Fine

There seems to be this prevailing notion in gaming that players must be able to do everything. Not just that, an intended play order should prioritize side content above the main story, so players get the most of their games. It’s an approach that makes sense, but it’s also one that kills otherwise good games. Like DBZ: Kakarot! 

Want a game with an actual difficulty curve? Avoid enemies and side quests. Want a game that’s well-paced from beat to beat? Avoid side quests! The only downside to this approach is that a fair bit of characterization is actually tucked away in ancillary dialogue. But hey, no one’s saying not to explore.

1 Get A History Lesson In OG Dragon Ball

If Kakarot does one thing right, it’s capturing the feel of Akira Toriyama’s world. Dragon Ball doesn’t indulge in worldbuilding often, but the world that is there is rich and full of history. Nothing proves that more than the many collectibles players can find on the overworld. In OG Dragon Ball relevant locations, players can actually find items that recap previous events in the story. 

From the first hunt to the Dragon Balls to the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, there’s a lot of history to be uncovered within Kakarot. So much, in fact, you could argue that it’s possible to get a sense of everything important that happens in Dragon Ball through the recaps. You’d miss the character arcs and themes, but Kakarot is more of a museum in this regard than anything else. 

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