The direction this game is headed in is...confusing...

[MaChao]

First and foremost, i really adore the game.
DBZ as a franchise doesn't lend itself well to anything but a straight up fighting game.
The source material lacks proper mooks and is itself heavily structured around 1 on 1 bouts.
DBZ: Kakarot, while certainly not perfect, did a pretty fine job to handle it.

The base game had its issues though.
Its biggest flaw, if you ask me, was its abrupt ending. Once you were done with its story mode and tackled its secret boss fight, there was very little to come back to.
Most of its side activities were superfluous and proper side quests were few and far between.

This was reflected through its character level caps.
The main story content lies around Lvl. 80-ish, the bonus boss around Lvl. 100 and with a Lvl. cap of... 250...
And after you were done with everything, there was no feasable way to achieve that number either. The biggest repeatable fights you had left offered poor EXP awards.
To add insult to injury was the fact, that characters like Goku still had skills left to unlock past Lvl. 100. It all just felt unfinished, it was clear that something was still missing. And, well, it was, we knew from the start that there would be 3 pieces of DLC coming.

Then its first DLC arrived, based on "Battle of the Gods"...sort of...
While the vanilla game did a really fine job to follow the original story of DBZ, its first DLC felt hollow and superficial at best.

Not only wasn't it integrated into the game at all, being a mere menu option, it also came without any proper story integration at all.

Beerus and Whis are just there, whith Whis mentioning that they actually "aren't supposed to meet that way" and all you get is a completely empty map only filled with collectible power orbs and gimmick items that help you fill the EXP gap left by the base game.

The DLC itself was nothing but a new training "simulator" similar to the one the base game offered already, just with Beerus and Whis as your enemies.

The dialog in between these training sessions implies that the whole thing is meant as nothing but a power leveling tool in disguise. Not only does it award the before mentioned EXP items, it also unlocks Goku's and Vegeta's various transformations with a very clumsily handled "You know that i already can do that" if you unlocked and form in the base game already.

This DLC is also where that Lvl. cap of 250 comes into play, as its last challenges are set around this. Basically boiling down to a glorified EXP item farm devoid of any story.

And now for the new card game that's coming up as part of a free DLC expansion...
There's nothing inherently wrong with minigames like this. The Witcher 3's Gwent became its own mini franchise for instance.
Even Dragonball Xenoverse 2 had a similar card game added to it. But there is one key difference:

Xenoverse 2's card game was integrated into the game as a whole.
It had its own little story about Bulma trying to make it popular around Conton City, it had a significant single and multiplayer component, and it didn't feel "off" in both gameplay and narrative.

DBZ: Kakarot was a strictly single player experience. It had no online or offline components to it whatsoever. Until now, since based solely on the trailer footage, it seems that the card game is exactly that, a purley online multiplayer component.
And i would dismiss it as a nice little sideline gimmick if the game itself wasn't presented so intricate that you could have very well offered it as a small standalone product.
There was plenty of thought put into it. It's a new game, not copied over from either DB: Heroes or Xenoverse 2. It's a new, original card game...

But why? It clashed heavily with the rest of the game which desperately needs more content.
An open world game with little to no end game, a more than shallow first major DLC that provided a poorly handled fix for issues that shouldn't have been there in the first place is getting a multiplayer mode in form of a card game no one really asked for, all while it's major DLC is mearly teased and releases of significant updates the game so desperately needs are drip fed and few and far between.

The way this game is handled is befuddling. The base game is such a rough yet charming love letter to fans and full of untapped potential, yet it's completely underused in any major capacity.

Xenoverse 2 managed to surprise me time after time with free updated that provided new and fun activities to the main game with DLC expanding on established content.
DBZ: Kakarot, even after its first batch of DLC, remains in the same position it was after release. A game that abrubtly ended offering little else to come back to.

We still have two major DLC's to go. The next one will be something about Golden Frieza and probably similar to the first DLC.
And then there's the new Story Chapter. With the first two batches themed around "Battle of the Gods" and "Ressurection F" it's fair to assume it's going to be yet more DB Super content, probably centered around the Universal Tournament to promote Ultra Instinct, which is all the rage now...

But it's also one of the parts that's incredibly light on actual story...

So yeah, all i can say is, that the way this game has been handled after release, especially if you compare it to the support other Bamco Dragonball games got, is confusing at best.
It's a money printer desperately begging for paper...and no one seems interested in filling it up...

[9xR3LOAD3Dx9]

While i share your sentiment towards this game do remember that this free dlc (with mtx included) took priority over paid dlc, even with the covid pandemic as an excuse they spent so much time on this dlc while the main game has 0 to little content left for it, no real fan service, no costumes, no vegito no gotenks, no new game plus, i mean even budokai tenkaichi 2 and 3, 10 year old games had way much more replayability, it’s just baffling. Also they started working on DLC2 way later than they started working on the cardgame, you can check that on steamdb. They should really take notes from CD projekt red

[MaChao]

Originally posted by 9xR3LOAD3Dx9:

While i share your sentiment towards this game do remember that this free dlc (with mtx included) took priority over paid dlc, even with the covid pandemic as an excuse they spent so much time on this dlc while the main game has 0 to little content left for it, no real fan service, no costumes, no vegito no gotenks, no new game plus, i mean even budokai tenkaichi 2 and 3, 10 year old games had way much more replayability, it’s just baffling. Also they started working on DLC2 way later than they started working on the cardgame, you can check that on steamdb. They should really take notes from CD projekt red

Is MTX for it confirmed? I wouldn't put it past Bamco to do it though, considering how they are nickel and diming TP Medals in Xenoverse 2.

But yeah, this card game wouldn't cause any ruckus if it was added to a completed game, after all announced content has been dropped.
Now it simply comes off as insult to injury really.

[Hernok]

Anyone of you have the time to read this posts? and the time to write it?

[GameFreakLuk1986]

Yeah Bandai isn't very smart when it comes to DBZ games. They should stick with Digimon.

[Elhoim]

Yeah, I kinda expected them to actually fix some of the storyline holes in the updates, and replace some still images with actual cutscenes.

[Sathona]

Originally posted by 9xR3LOAD3Dx9:

While i share your sentiment towards this game do remember that this free dlc (with mtx included) took priority over paid dlc, even with the covid pandemic as an excuse they spent so much time on this dlc while the main game has 0 to little content left for it, no real fan service, no costumes, no vegito no gotenks, no new game plus, i mean even budokai tenkaichi 2 and 3, 10 year old games had way much more replayability, it’s just baffling. Also they started working on DLC2 way later than they started working on the cardgame, you can check that on steamdb. They should really take notes from CD projekt red

take notes from a company that doesnt pay well and overworks their employees to the point they are ill? is this what you want people to look up to? please.

[MaChao]

Originally posted by Sathona:

Originally posted by 9xR3LOAD3Dx9:

While i share your sentiment towards this game do remember that this free dlc (with mtx included) took priority over paid dlc, even with the covid pandemic as an excuse they spent so much time on this dlc while the main game has 0 to little content left for it, no real fan service, no costumes, no vegito no gotenks, no new game plus, i mean even budokai tenkaichi 2 and 3, 10 year old games had way much more replayability, it’s just baffling. Also they started working on DLC2 way later than they started working on the cardgame, you can check that on steamdb. They should really take notes from CD projekt red

take notes from a company that doesnt pay well and overworks their employees to the point they are ill? is this what you want people to look up to? please.

I can't say anything about their payment, but where did you get that they are "overworked to the point that they are ill" from?

[Demian DeVile]

I can't say anything about their payment, but where did you get that they are "overworked to the point that they are ill" from?

about the payment I have heard nothing but it's confirmed that they have a 100h week till release of Cyberpunk (wich is now 3 weeks later)
so yes the crunch is making them ill

[MaChao]

Originally posted by Demian DeVile:

I can't say anything about their payment, but where did you get that they are "overworked to the point that they are ill" from?

about the payment I have heard nothing but it's confirmed that they have a 100h week till release of Cyberpunk (wich is now 3 weeks later)
so yes the crunch is making them ill

Last thing i've heard that they all agreed to add another work day to their week instead of another major delay (which happened now regardless).

But regardless, the comparison was lacking in general. As much as i like CDPR in general, the dev cycle of Cyberpunk has been a mess and is certainly nothing to take notes from really.

[Bootleg VHS]

This actually could have been something the game would have benefited from on a replay if it was handled differently. Make the cards rare drops, additional side quest loot, and things that can be found in hidden nooks and crannies. Integrate some kind of PvE mechanic to it like Triple Triad in FF8, and Tetra in FF9. From a meta perspective it would be a bit off, but from a gameplay one, it would give exploration a much needed boost.

[MaChao]

Originally posted by Deus Vult:

This actually could have been something the game would have benefited from on a replay if it was handled differently. Make the cards rare drops, additional side quest loot, and things that can be found in hidden nooks and crannies. Integrate some kind of PvE mechanic to it like Triple Triad in FF8, and Tetra in FF9. From a meta perspective it would be a bit off, but from a gameplay one, it would give exploration a much needed boost.

Exactly this!