Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Dragonball Z: Kakarot Part 5 - Second Variety

 

It's time! It's Android time! Look at their massive foreheads. However, the threat posed by these guys is nothing compared to the threat posed by...Android 20? What?


This saga starts out with a Gokou vs Trunks fight, which is pretty cool since they're about even here.

Mentioned it before, Trunks is basically Kyle Reese. And this was definitely intentional, given that one of the androids (16) is basically Arnold.

Trunks tells our heroes about the arrival of the androids, then he just sorta sods off. Not sure why he didn't come back for the actual fight.

Chi-Chi goes ballistic. Gohan should be in school, not fighting aliens and robots from the future! She has a point.

The surly Yajirobe hides out at Korin's Tower. Starting from this point in the game, you can get Senzu Beans by stopping in here. Those are full heals that put even Vita Drink L to shame. However it's a good idea to keep using the drinks for now and save the Senzu Beans for when character HP gets even higher.

Side Note: It just me or is Yajirobe like the most protected guy in this series? He has a few key moments of importance and never actually shows any weakness or gets beat up.

The beans are pretty limited and you can only get so many of them at a time. Not sure if it's based on game time or progress or what. I just stop in here every couple of hours and go "THREE BEANS PLEASE!" to get another few beans. Like E-Tanks in classic Mega Man, knowing when to hold these and when to use them is crucial to success.

The fetch quests and filler return with a VENGEANCE at the start of the android saga. So many fetch quests at this point and it's just plain irritating. This game has the potential to be great, just needs less filler. The crazy part is how some of the show's battles were left out. If they needed to add lots of filler to the game because there wasn't enough to fill an RPG, why remove actual fights from the show?

Vegeta (w/ pink shirt) finds Bulma to be highly annoying, and vice-versa is likely also true. The more annoyed they are, the more they secretly want to jump each other's bones. I wonder how Yamcha would feel about Vegeta staying at casa del Bulma.

No, really?

MORE FETCH QUESTS BAY BEEEEE

Luckily we have a map that tells us where all the drops are, so these fetch quests don't take very long. They also give you an excuse to fly around the overworld.

...there are just so many of them.

Here's Bulma, appalled at what she's witnessing.

LOL

This is tremendous.

Next up is another of those overly-difficult training sessions that are way harder than the actual fights are. This one pits modern pink shirt Vegeta against Saiyan Saga Vegeta. For whatever reason the training simulator version of Vegeta is stronger than modern Vegeta, and proceeds to whoop me.

Vegeta: "ARGH"

"AIYEEE"

"MY EYEEEE"

"NOT THE GROINNNNN"

Finally I get a damn attack off and unleash the Gallick Gun. This move got like no use after the Saiyan Saga and it's unfortunate because it's a good one.

The thing about this is... when a nice guy is nice all the time, it goes largely unnoticed or taken for granted. When an asshole is nice once in a while, it's seen as some sort of laud-able thing. "He CAN change!"

What follows is a driving minigame that actually isn't bad at all, and I wish the game had more of these.

Launch is really upset because Tien is nowhere to be found. Did these two ever actually get together in all these years? It seems like they did, but we never actually see them together or get any kind of confirmation. Regardless, Launch wants Tien in HER promised land, so it's time for another fetch quest.

That's right, I must fetch Tien.

But how does Tien's hetero lifemate Chaozu feel about all of this?

We get these two back together so Launch can do...whatever it is that she does with Tien.

TIME FOR ANDROIDS YET PLS?

Nope, gotta do MORE TRAINING. This next fight pits Vegeta against ultra-OP versions of Nappa, Raditz, and a Saibaman. I had to burn through heals on this and all I could think of was how ludicrous it was.

Most of my losses so far have been on training missions that I just wanted to get over with, or weird fights that shouldn't have been hard, like Burter/Jeice. If I'm gonna get some losses, can it be against formidable foes like Freeza and Cell? The difficulty of this game is all over the place. It isn't a curve, it's a roller coaster. Raditz (the first boss) is one of the tough fights in the game, while all of Freeza's forms were easy. Though at least Raditz being tough makes sense as your characters are very outgunned for it.

FINALLY. Jeebus. We've arrived, after a long line of fetch quests. They might as well have just added the Garlic Jr saga in for all the filler we've had.

Android 20 completely has his way with poor Yamcha, who also has to watch his former woman run around with another guy who is better at everything than he is. Except height. Yamcha still has height!

Android 20 is basically Doctor Wawee. In the show I think it was implied that Android 19 was the stronger of the two by a good margin, and the one designed to do the fighting.

We get a quick Gokou vs Android 19 fight before Gokou gets chest pains and has to go. Android 19 is a little bit tougher than most of the foes in this game because he can block/absorb energy attacks. However he doesn't do this very often.

Then we get one of my favorite fights in the series, Vegeta vs Android 19. This is Vegeta's debut as a Super Saiyan, AND he busts out the Big Bang Attack for the first time. It's worth noting that in this game, the Big Bang Attack is probably the best single move any character gets. A direct hit does a lot of damage, but more importantly, it explodes into a giant AOE that still does like 80% damage to everything caught in the area. It's very hard to miss with this move, and it burns through enemies.

With Android 19 fairly easily dispatched by Big Bang spam, it's time for Android 20. This should be no problem if it's anything like the show.

We're actually playing as Piccolo for this fight...and it's the hardest fight in the game. No joke.

He has the same ability to absorb energy attacks that Android 19 has. Problem is, he uses it a LOT, and the CPU seems to be able to react almost instantly to you firing an energy attack. No matter how well you time your attack, no matter how tied up he is in animations, he's gonna break into an absorb by the time it hits. A single energy attack can restore like 20% of his health, too. And he has a ton of health. What it comes down to is that you basically need to just use melee attacks for the whole fight. Which puts you in range for his other absorption attack, where he jumps on you like a metroid and leeches a bunch of health (probably around 10%).

This fight can go on and on and it's borderline exhausting. I've beaten the game now and I can still say this was the toughest fight. Was also worried about burning through too many senzu beans, which you really do not want to do here.

Look at these star-crossed lovers! So much romance!

I wonder what bebi Trunks' power level is

I stop at the tower and restock on these. My best guess is that they regrow at 1 per hour of game time. Probably active game time, I doubt leaving the game idle for ten hours and returning would work.

THREE BEANS, PLEASE!

Dr. Gero keeps his lab up in the frigid mountains. Given how totally OP he is in this game, I don't know why he's bothering to hide.

This leads to the awakening of Androids 16/17/18, with 17 promptly murdering Android 20. In the show, Android 18 proceeded to obliterate Vegeta in a fight. Here, it's a regular battle, and it's even winnable. At this stage of the game, any Vegeta fight is going to be on the easier side due to the Big Bang Attack.

Trunks FINALLY bothers to show up again at this point.

But wait! There's something else afoot. A giant beetle has come from the future, and our heroes find his shed shell.

It's Cell, who is basically Android 21 but not really. So now we've got him to deal with as well as the trio of androids that were just unleashed.

It's all good, this next part is probably my favorite part of the whole series.

Just one video for this episode. Vegeta vs Android 18 was a pretty solid fight in this game, compared to the show where it was just an annihilation.



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