This is simply the best dragonball Z game. It's not a 2D fighter or "self-insert" game like most of the others, it's just plain and simple Dragon Ball Z from start to finish(and with a bunch of added content in DLC).
For me, i never enjoyed the Xenoverse games, i didn't mind the character creation stuff, it's just those games became about outgimmicking the opponent in PvP, and PvE just had the enemies turn into damage sponges. I don't mind having enemies that don't die in one punch, but when i have to fight 80 different grunts who are on par with my character at all times it gets boring. Kakarot fixes this by having the low level enemies have a range of levels they are at per chapter(so 1st chapter enemies will never be above level 5 and so on as the game progresses) and after the main story the enemies level up with the character.
I think this system works as it keeps the grunt enemies low level for a majority of the game, and once you hit the post content you need to level up a lot to go do the DLC's(though the first one is objectively a training DLC and nothing more)
Pro:
+ Story is DBZ, it's great, they even change up certain minor things to make it better(adding effects and and either cutting or changing smaller interactions, like Vegito being more smug with Kid Buu)
+ Combat is fun and easy to get into for non-fans. It's not a combo heavy game, it's the perfect mix of simple action. And even better chaining attacks is still possible. Though with most fighting games you will find ways to break the AI and cheese it(like using solar flare to cancel out enemies special attacks(the ones with little videos))
+ Lots of side content that's not terrible, yes there are "SPECIFIC" missions that are a pain in the ass(Like the ones where you have to collect materials that are rare), but you can usually get the pain in the ass missions done in 30 minutes(which is too much if you ask me, but it's shorter than other games i've seen do a similar system).
+ DLC is pretty good, haven't done the Daima stuff yet, so if you have issues with that, disregard here, but the Bardock story is good, and i really did enjoy the Martial arts tournament, i will say i kinda hoped the beerus DLC would be locked to the postgame since you can access it immediately and become WAY OP at game start.
Cons:
- I find that my least favorite aspects when playing are the collectibles you need to get skills later on, it's my big bottleneck late game, but i do know of ways to get lots of orbz quickly. Generally if i don't remind myself i need to collect some orbz every so often during the story i find myself doing grinding in the post-game which i don't like to do.
- I don't like that they give a bunch of characters "skill" trees when the main focus is clearly Goku and Vegeta, i mean it's nice, but at a certain point there is no reason to upgrade Gohan and Piccolo. Gohan gets most of his best skills for free like Goku and Vegeta do, so spending skill points on him is kinda redundant since you'll barely use him after the story.
- I wish the game offered a little more in the way of letting the player know about certain unique actions like beam struggles, but i guess that's more on me not trying to do it first chance i got.
Overall i give the game a solid 9/10(and a personal 10/10 for all DBZ games). it hits the itch just right, never outstays it's welcome or becomes to tedious that i want to put it down, i usually find myself playing it each year. Don't worry about specs, my old PC ran it on max and it wasn't that powerful, so most computers should be fine, maybe dont' play HD if you have an older PC.
