This game could have easily just ended after the defeat of Freeza and left the rest for a sequel. In this day and age, it's pretty cool that they just went ahead and kept going with it.
Rewatching Kai fairly rapidly, along with playing this game, has made me realize that nearly all of the conversations in DBZ are about power levels and the characters literally comparing themselves to each other. Well, comparison is the thief of joy. Also, it gets annoying after a while waiting for any of these guys to TALK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE.
We get some training time with Vegeta and Trunks in the Room of Space (Spirit?) and Time. This'd be a primo time for some father/son discussion but all they talk about is power levels. Trunks diffuses the situation by assuring Vegeta that he has a much larger penis. This is actually the best way to diffuse Vegeta at any given time.
Back in the world, Piccolo is now Kami-colo, which is a huge powerup, and leads to one of my favorite fights in the show...
...Piccolo vs Android 17. It's great to see Piccolo fighting an important battle on his own, and their evenly-matched-ness makes for a really fun one.
But wait! Cell has arrived, and he has absorbed enough garden-variety humans to now be Super Saiyan level. I guess Super Saiyan Plus since he's above both of these two.
If the average human has a power level of like 5 (maybe 10 if they're really swingin' some pipe), then Cell would have had to absorb like 50 million people to get this strong. I'm calling bullshit.
Cell, of course, absorbs Android 17. In a way, this is another 3 way battle like the early Namek Saga.
Cell goes to Form 2! I like how his forms are a lot more spread-out and not burned through all at once like Freeza's. His new form is totally invincible against our heroes.
Vegeta and Trunks emerge from the Room, and now Trunks is full-on long-haired Mirai Trunks.
Now we get some Gokou/Gohan training battles, which is pretty cool. Again though, they don't do much with it dialogue-wise.
Overconfident SSJ1.5 Vegeta shows up to beat down Cell's invincible new form, as Power Level Fest 2k22 spirals out of control!
Another fun battle as Vegeta, because...
...Big Bang Attacks absolutely wreck.
Win the fight, and then Vegeta decides to spare Cell and let him power up more. Vegeta only cares about fighting strong opponents. You know, a moron.
Trunks steps in! Of course, it doesn't matter, because...
...Vegeta makes sure Cell gets his perfect form. If only Dr. Gero were around to see this!
After Cell dispatches Vegeta, the game completely skips Trunks vs Cell. I wanted to see Trunks go to his SSJ1.75 muscle form. Another weird omission, like Form 1 Freeza.
Gohan reaches Super Saiyan during his room training. It's a more subdued Super Saiyan than the others, because they're saving most of the spiky hair for his upcoming new form.
Gohan gets a new outfit. This is my favorite version of Gohan in the series, Super Saiyan with Piccolo's duds.
Gokou has a meeting with Cell, and the Cell Games BEGIN! But first...
...this super-random training match between Gokou and Kuririn. What? Why?
WHY IS THE GAME MAKING ME MURDER KURIRIN
With a bunch of Cell fights looming, I load up on heal potions. Also need to go get senzu-
-what? NO BEANS?
Got a pretty good stock, regardless. This can actually get me through the rest of the game.
I actually stop and do one of the sidequests at this point. This one involves helping Android 8, from the OG Dragonball series.
"Fungaaaah!" he says.
Gotta say, the sidequest rewards aren't super inspirational. However, I'll do this to help out Gokou's childhood buddy.
Next up...a Dragonball hunt? They're seriously throwing a bunch of filler in right before you fight Cell?
THAT SOUND YOU HEAR IS THE MOMENTUM SLIPPING AWAY
Oh thank GOD
Yeah, Chi-Chi, that isn't gonna happen. GET OUTTA THERE, GOKOU!
*POP*
Even with all this padding, we unfortunately don't get a "Create Goten" minigame. Now that's filler I could get behind.
Now we get a bunch of Mr. Satan nonsense! Pro-him news crews are on hand to try their best to polish this turd and make Mr. Satan look like he's actually accomplishing something against Cell.
Next up, Gokou vs Perfect Cell, another of the show's best fights. The animation in this one is incredible and it steals a lot of thunder from the following Gohan/Cell fight. In the game...well, it's just another typical battle, but it's still fun to see.
Gokou's Kamehameha is doing over 10k a hit now.
Cell can generate these purple fields that completely negate energy attacks. At least he doesn't absorb them like Android 20. That would have made Cell easily the toughest foe in the game...and maybe he should have been.
Here's the battle, it's a good one. That's right, I wasn't gonna miss an opportunity to record a fight of this scale.
Trunks is over here talking sense. It's like when a raid leader from a high-end guild in an MMO joins another guild and tries to help them out with some strategy, and they're all like "lol okay Einstein" while pouring Brawnado on their plants.
A lot of what happens in this saga is tantamount to child abuse. Of course, Gokou turns out to be right about all the things in the end. But at first...it's very uncertain.
This could be another good battle. Unfortunately in the show it's just a one-sided beatdown of Gohan.
The game, of course, gives us a real fight. GET 'EM, GOHAN!
We get the whole Cell Juniors thing. Luckily this is one of the few multi-enemy fights that isn't horrendously tough.
Interesting how you play as Gokou for this one, probably because Gohan is busy standing around.
We get the infamous Android 16 murder that sets Gohan off and provokes Super Saiyan 2. However, the iconic music from this part isn't in the game.
Way more damning: The iconic music isn't in Dragonball Z Kai either.
SSJ2 is like everything I wanted out of SSJ1. Spikier hair, electricity, bigger aura.
This is it.
What could be the final battle of the game...and probably should be.
Gohan easily thrashes Cell, he tries to blow up the world, Gokou sacrifices himself to whisk Cell off into space, yadda yadda.
It'd be less yadda if it meant much. How can we miss Gokou if he never leaves?
Nice moment with Kuririn and Gohan here.
The nice moments don't last because TRUNKS DIES. The show kinda telegraphs this by pointing out that he's the "only one the Dragonballs can actually revive" at this point. Well, there's also Gohan.
Cell returns, now with SSJ2 aura, and we get the REAL battle.
In the show, this wasn't much of a battle (it ended very quickly with the beam tug-of-war) but here it's a full-on fight to the finish. Gotta say, it feels like a final boss even if it isn't.
One of Cell's super moves has him splitting into all these images and unleashing Predator-beams.
Post-fight, Gohan unleashes a Kamehameha and finally slays Cell. Even here, Gokou helps him do it...or so it appears. I think Gokou was just there in spirit as "support", not actually lending energy to it. Though it's hard to tell. All in all, this was one of the highest points of the show.
Gokou realizes that trouble follows him around and that he's better off staying put in the afterlife. Apparently he can use King Kai's 7G antennae to communicate with his friends. ...then he never bothers to again for like seven years.
Kuririn with a great line. Gokou is thrilled to be dead! Not only is it a mere speed bump, it's the best way to get powerful in DBZ.
Here's the last fight between SSJ2 Gohan and Super Perfect Cell, which feels very much like a final boss battle. I wish we'd gotten more of a fight between these two in the show.
Regardless, now that my favorite saga is over, it's onward and...upward? To the Buu Saga.
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