It’s a good time to be a Dragon Ball fan! In recent years, many amazing Dragon Ball games have been released across several consoles, from the Xenoverse series to Dragon Ball FighterZ, and most recently, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, a game that fans have been asking for since The Legacy of Goku.
While Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot couldn’t be any more different, the similarities in the combat got us thinking about certain things each game did better than the other.
10 Kakarot: Side Activities
In Xenoverse, there’s not much incentive to do anything besides fighting.
In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot however, players who want to take a break from fighting can collect the Dragon Balls, partake in car races, fish and hunt, collect rare items and orbs all over the world, and can spend hours flying around huge maps that feature some of the series’ most iconic locations, like the World Tournament arena or Capsule Corporation.
9 Xenoverse: Character Customization / Playable Characters
There’s no question as to which game provides more options for character customization. Xenoverse 2 gives players the option to create their own warrior from five different races from the show, each with their own combos, transformations, strengths, weaknesses, and exclusive super attacks to compliment a diverse character roster of heroes and villains from all across the franchise. This ensures that no two players will ever go into battle with identical characters.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, on the other hand, only limits players to taking control of Piccolo and the other Saiyans. That means that Z-Fighters like Tien, Krillin, Yamcha, and even Androids 17 and 18 aren’t playable characters. Sure, players can select which moves Goku can use in battle, but this is shallow compared to what’s possible in Xenoverse.
Kakarot players can’t even change outfits at will, meaning they’ll only get to see Vegeta in a pink shirt once per playthrough.
8 Kakarot: Gathering The Dragon Balls
Without the Dragon Balls, Goku and his friends wouldn’t have made it this far. Every Dragon Ball game involves these wish-granting orbs in some way. In Xenoverse, players can collect them by defeating Time Patrollers during side quests and praying they are awarded one for defeating one of these powerful adversaries.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot remains truer to the series. With Dragon Radar in hand, players will fly all around the world as they collect all 7 Dragon Balls. While this makes them relatively easy to collect, this experience mirrors the way in which Goku and his friends would go about retrieving the Dragon Balls today.
7 Xenoverse: Combos
As we stated in a previous entry, Xenoverse gives players more options in terms of character customization and playable characters. Not only do the genders within each race fight differently, but so does every character, with different combos that they can use to position their opponents for a victory-sealing stamina break.
Light attacks and heavy attacks can be strung together for different effects during fights, and while the same can be said for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, there just isn’t as much variation in how many different combos a single character can execute.
6 Kakarot: Cutscenes
Cutscenes in Dragon Ball Xenoverse didn’t really improve too much from Xenoverse 1 to Xenoverse 2. While it’s always nice to see your custom character right next to famous Dragon Ball heroes, all of these cutscenes could be skipped with minimal effect on the story. Many of the cutscenes in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, in contrast, are pretty unique, depicting familiar events in an alternative, highly-stylized fashion.
In a very memorable example, Goku elbows Recoome, interrupting his ultimate attack while creating a shockwave that decimates the rocks behind the Ginyu Force member, emphasizing an iconic moment that was definitely underplayed in the anime. This makes fans feel as though they’re watching an alternate version of the anime, although we do wish that certain iconic scenes from the show, like Vegeta’s first Final Flash, were included as cutscenes in the game.
5 Xenoverse: Transformations
It’s a given that every Dragon Ball game must include Super Saiyan 1, 2, and 3. Along with these iconic transformations, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot players can also make use of the Kaioken, a full-power transformation for Piccolo that’s on-par with Super Saiyan, and Gohan’s iconic Potential Unleashed form.
These transformations pale in comparison to the sheer amount available to players in Xenoverse 2. Each race has access to the Potential Unleashed transformation along with their own race-specific transformations, like a Golden Form for Frieza’s race and even a gigantic transformation for Namekian warriors, not to mention the fact that Saiyans can even tap into the powers of Super Saiyan Blue. Not only do these transformations feel unique, but they aren’t just plain power multipliers, forcing players to change up their fighting style depending on which transformation they decide to utilize in battle.
4 Kakarot: AI Intelligence
The AI in both of these titles isn’t anything to write home about, but we will say that the AI in Kakarot feels just a bit more thought-out than the AI in Xenoverse. In Xenoverse, it’s near impossible to get computer-controlled characters to transform, and they often opt for the same automated strategies to take down player-controlled characters. Enemies in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, while they are largely predictable after a few minutes of fighting, vary up their moves, keeping players on their toes during fights.
They won’t just stand there and get hit by a Kamehameha, and when players are outnumbered, they’ll be spammed with attacks from all sides by enemies who will heal one another, boosts each other’s attacks, and even summon more allies to the battlefield. The same can be said for computer-controlled support characters, who will often join players in launching ki blasts or assaulting an enemy up-close without even being prompted to do so, truly making players feel as if they’re never alone in battle.
3 Xenoverse: Story
While Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot does present the events of the anime in a different style than previous games, Xenoverse goes one step further to give us a brand new story.
Featuring heroes and villains not seen before in the anime, like Towa, Mira, Demigra, the Supreme Kai of Time, and Time Patrol Trunks.
2 Kakarot: Difficulty
Neither Xenoverse 2 or Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot are difficult games. The inclusion of items that players can use to recover huge amounts of health makes it easy to prevent dying even once during a playthrough. While we do think that Xenoverse features more challenging battles, leading to a harder time acquiring that S-rank, the fact that players can easily enlist the help of others to help them beat even the hardest parallel quest makes things a lot easier.
While the computer-controlled teammates that the game offers may not last two seconds in a difficult quest, other players will know how to hold their own in a fight. In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, players can challenge enemies who are at a much higher level than them, and will often find themselves taking a lot of damage from these opponents. What makes this different from Xenoverse is that there’s no one else who can help you should you find yourself in a tricky situation.
1 Xenoverse: Community
Recent Dragon Ball games have centered more on fighting than exploration, which is why titles like Xenoverse and FighterZ have featured a multiplayer aspect that lets players challenge one another in battle. This online feature has been critical to expanding the life of these games, promising players a unique experience every time they pick up the controller.
Xenoverse has such an active community because players can interact with one another in the game. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot’s focus on single-player gameplay makes this impossible. Sure, players can chat about the game on forums, but they’ll have to fly around the skies of Goku’s world all by themselves.
NEXT: The 5 Best Things About Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (& The 5 Worst)
