Dragon Ball Z Kakarot: Review of the third DLC on the story of Trunks

Although the videogame adventures of Son Goku led us to unprecedented battles and divine transformations, there was a story that the developers of Dragon Ball Z Kakarot had not yet told us. The epic of Trunks, his dramatic experience in the future dominated by the Androids and his journey of hope through time, with the aim of saving his friends from a brutal and unjust end. The third, and perhaps last, DLC of the CyberConnect2 action RPG has arrived in our digital libraries and is ready to let us experience one of the most exciting parentheses of the entire Dragon Ball mythology.

The warrior of hope

From a purely narrative point of view, the expansion entitled “Trunks: The warrior of hope“transposes in videogame format the events that the staff of Toei Animation condensed into the splendid television special called Dragon Ball Z The story of Trunks (and not only that, soon there may be surprises coming) and tells us about the terrible adolescence of Vegeta’s son before to make his miraculous journey through time to warn the Z Warriors in the past of the advent of the Androids.

From this point of view we are faced, without a shadow of a doubt, to the best Dragon Ball Z Kakarot DLC: abandoned the narrative flatness of the first two expansions, which in terms of adaptation left a lot to be desired by relegating the narration to the minimum terms, this time the development team has not skimped at all regarding the script and the scenic layout, finding that cinematic verve that had characterized the video sequences of the main adventure.

The most intense moments of the television special, such as the incredible clash between Gohan of the Future and the cyborgs, or even the first transformation of Trunks into Super Saiyan, are re-proposed with the spectacular directorial care that distinguishes CyberConnect2. On this front, in short, we feel completely satisfied.

The threat of the Androids

It is perhaps on an exquisitely playful level that some doubts emerge about Kakarot’s third DLC. Given the narrative nature of the production, in fact, the expansion turned out to be a bit sparse in terms of content.

The secondary missions, for example, are stripped down to the bone, and as far as the main tasks that make up the campaign are concerned, it must be said that this additional content does not shine at all in terms of variety. Much of the story, in fact, now focuses on the training of Trunks, who faces several times his teacher Son Gohan to transform into Super Saiyan, now on the raids of Number 17 and 18, which put a strain on the stamina and skills of survival of the last two Z Warriors left alive after the terrible extermination carried out by the two merciless Androids. In the course of the main plot, in short, the goal is only to face Goku’s son in training and the cyborgs in battle, with a few small exceptions between one narrative interlude and the other: the game world is in fact littered with robots belonging to the Red. Ribbons that patrol the neighboring areas of the cities, ready to detect any form of life to brutally exterminate it. In short, while traveling from one area to another more attention must be paid to enemy sentries, now more alert and ready to attack with greater cruelty.

Although they are few and essential, we enjoyed some secondary missions, in which the development team has once again shown that they want to deepen the narrative universe of Dragon Ball even going beyond the mythology of the anime and manga of Toriyama: for example, during the DLC you will have the opportunity to explore a little more deeply the state of mind of a Chichi now a widow and apprehensive about her son’s vindictive crusade, or to find the group composed of Roshi, Oolong , Pual and Tartaruga in the famous submarine scene featured in the TV special.

Finally, the DLC about the warrior of hope proved challenging enough: although repetitive, the various battles against the Androids increase in difficulty as the plot progresses, and in some moments the boss fights were really difficult.

In the course of the approximately 3 hours necessary to complete the expansion, in fact, we struggled a lot especially when – in the role of Future Gohan or Trunks in the final stages of the story – we had to face C-17 and C-18 alone, exposing ourselves to their insidious distant rays and above all to their deadly combined techniques.

At the beginning of the adventure we started with a Trunks, thirteen years old and playfully a bit limited by the few skills available, at level 20, while his mentor started with a rating of 25. The numerous battles of the main quest, however, it won’t take long to get you to at least level 40 and beyond, especially if you choose to complete the expansion one hundred percent.