Dragon Ball Z: Kakarotprovided players with an incredible single-player experience that allowed them to relive the greatness that was theDragon Ball Zanime. This included rare moments likeRaditz’s first battleand filler episodes like Goku and Piccolo getting their driver’s licences. Nevertheless, some fans are wanting to see multiplayer of some sort added into the game through an update or DLC, but others understandably have reservations about this. Multiplayer is a broad category, and there are certainly some types of multiplayer that would help or hurt the game far more than others would.
For those unaware,Dragon Ball Z: Kakarotis strictly single player. There is no option for player versus player fights, no co-op, and not even any kind of online features. This was actually touted as a benefit during production because it meant the team could focus on crafting an exquisite single playerDragon Ballexperience amidst a sea of multi-playerDragon Ballgames. Now that the game is out, though, and most have at least beaten its main story, fans are looking for some way to imbueDragon Ball Z: Kakarotwith more longevity, and multiplayer seems to be the most obvious answer.
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PvP in DBZ: Kakarot
The biggest problem with including PvP in any game is balance. Games likeDragon Ball FighterZare entirely built on the concept of competitive multiplayer, but require frequent updates to balance characters, shake up the meta, and keep the game enjoyable. While this is fine for a game in this genre, it would not flow well inDragon Ball Z: Kakarot, which is much more story oriented than anything. If developers were spending all their time balancing characters so that players could battle each other, not as much care would go into producing DLC content or adaptingDragon Ball Super.
That said, if PVP were to be added toDragon Ball Z: Kakarot, it would likely be very small in nature. No changes to the combat system should be expected, meaning that certain techniques likeVegeta’s Big Bang Attackwould likely dominate. Additionally,Dragon Ball Z: Kakarothas only five playable characters (not including Vegito or Gotenks), which in terms of fighting games is an extremely limited roster. Put simply,Dragon Ball Z: Kakarotwasn’t built to support this kind of gameplay, and that’s okay. If competitive multiplayer were added, it would likely be just as an aside for players to try a couple times before digging back into the story and side quests.
Cooperative Play in DBZ: Kakarot
Including a co-op multiplayer game mode seems much more feasible forDragon Ball Z: Kakarot. This game is built on the concepts of PvE, and it is unlikely that any DLC or update will change that core fact. With co-op multiplayer, though, that doesn’t have to change. Players can still work together to face down themany enemies found in theDragon Ball Zstory, and there is already precedent in the game for such a thing given that the player can enter battle with up to two party members at a time.
If this were to be implemented, it stands to reason that other players would take control of one of the support characters in the party. Whether or not they would be limited to playing the characters which are currently playable or if purely support characters likeKrillin and Android 18 would be made playable inDBZ: Kakarotis anyone’s guess. The former seems like the easier solution in terms of workload for developers, but would make those support characters even more obsolete than they already were.
There are a few problems with this, however. Although there are several opportunities for the player to gang up on enemies three to one, keen-eyed players will notice that the AI often doesn’t do this.Support characters inDragon Ball Z: Kakarottake a much more supportive, less direct role in combat usually, hanging back and firing long range blasts, helping to keep foes busy so the player doesn’t get ganged up on, and only really jumping in to help the player get out of a combo. This kind of behavior is intended so that the computer controlled characters don’t get in the way of the player, ruining combos and strategies, but still seem useful.
A human player is not in any way likely to behave like this. It’s very possible that if two players decide to gang up on one enemy that they could knock the enemy out of the other player’s attacks or cause similar problems. This admittedly could be mostly circumvented with good communication among players but is a problem nonetheless. Additionally, since party size currently can’t exceed three, there is the matter of how many players the game would support. It would seem strange to only allow two players if there’s already a third CPU floating about, butthere aren’t a lot of three player games.
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Indirect Multiplayer in DBZ: Kakarot
The final, and perhaps most likely, form of multiplayer that fans ofDragon Ball Z: Kakarotcould see in the near future would be indirect multiplayer. This means that players do not directly interact with each other by controlling characters on the same save file, but instead have indirect effects on each other’s worlds. This would play out similarly to how signs and bloodstains work in theDark Soulsfranchise, or howDeath Strandingallows players to leave giftsfor each other. How this would manifest inDragon Ball Z: Kakarotremains to be seen, but perhaps allowing players to use other player’s characters as support characters or making community boards more of a shared online feature could work.
Ultimately,Dragon Ball Z: Kakarotdoesn’t need multiplayer or any online features for that matter.Kakarotplays perfectly well as a single player masterpiece, and many fans would be remiss if a focus on developing multiplayer aspects caused the emphasis on and quality of single player content to diminish in any way. That said, there are usually few drawbacks to adding optional features to the game, so as long as multiplayer isn’t forced onto players in any way andDragon Ball Z: Kakarotcan still be enjoyed the way it was originally intended to be enjoyed, then a multiplayer update would be more than welcome.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarotis available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
