Dragonball Z: Kakarot Part 11 - History of Trunks

 

Time for a mini DBZ Month of sorts as I have a few things to wrap up in that category. DBZ 2-3 Weeks? I don't know. Starting off with the third of the Dragonball Z: Kakarot DLCs, which continue to be great. Got two more of these to cover, and apparently they've still got ANOTHER two in the works for some later time. Maybe those can be in next year's DBZ 2-3 Weeks.

We get a recap of the original timeline where the Androids demolished Earth's mightiest heroes. It's kind of surprising that Piccolo was the first to go. He's very aware of this, and points it out during his battle with Android 17 in the show.

Also weird how the original timeline's version of the Androids is much weaker than the prime timeline's version, yet were vastly more successful. One thing I've determined when it comes to DBZ's time travel / Android storylines is that the less you really think about how much sense they make, the better.

Nice, we open with a sparring match between Future Trunks and his teacher, adult Gohan.

Gohan's probably stronger here than most of the Gohans we've gotten post-Cell.

And...this actually takes place at a later year than the end of the whole Dragonball Super series, as it stands now. Of course, this future is no longer the future of the characters in the series, but it still exists as its own pocket dimension I guess. Which begs the question of why characters in Super still refer to this future as their actual future when everything's totally different in their timeline. ...like I said, better off not thinking about it much.

If it isn't already clear, this DLC covers the History of Trunks special from midway through DBZ's run. It wasn't a DBZ Movie per se but it was more robust than a standard episode. It and History of Bardock were two of the finest things DBZ produced in its original run. The good news? History of Bardock is the next DLC after this one. The bad news? Both of these Histories have been retconned and futzed with a bit since then by later movies and shows. Kakarot usually stays very loyal to how things were during the original run.

One of Trunks' signature moves is Gohan's Masenko, which is a nice nod. Not sure if he ever uses it in the show, but he probably does at some point.

Gohan is doing a pretty good job fighting off the two androids by himself while he tries to get Trunks trained up. If they can both SSJ they'll probably have this won, but Trunks hasn't been able to do it.

The fights in this DLC are pretty tough though and it's a large step up from the main game. Not being able to bring your heavily-built characters from the main story means the challenge is back. Can't bring anything from here to there either. Unlike the first two DLCs which basically add areas to the main game, this one is completely standalone. Looks like this is going to be the norm going forward with the remaining several DLCs.

In this nightmarish hellscape, just having an opportunity to have food and the company of family isn't something to take lightly.

It isn't just the two main Androids either. The landscape is crawling with all kinds of lesser hunter-killer mechs that patrol for human scum.

Gohan listens to the radio to keep track of where the Androids are wreaking havoc this time. He should get on there and start giving inspiring speeches like John Connor.

More battles, and Gohan can only get lucky for so long. This time around they get the better of him. Which begs the question of why Gohan wasn't getting stronger from all these fights. He should be outpacing the Androids by a lot since their power levels aren't going to zenkai boost upward every time they fight.

Though I think Super retconned some stuff and now Androids (and Freeza race) level up from training the same way Saiyans do, removing the Saiyan advantage of gaining power a lot quicker than anyone else. I don't know though, I haven't seen all of Super yet.

Future Gohan's SSJ hair is kind of short and anemic compared to other Super Saiyans. Including himself in the main timeline.

Soon after, Gohan loses his arm while defending Trunks. Now he's at a big disadvantage against the Androids, and next time they'll likely finish him.

Bulma probably hacked into some of the flying hunter-killer drones and had them do her spying for her.

Some nice character moments. This is something the whole game of Kakarot does pretty well. Since it's an RPG, it has to break things up with slower-paced segments, so you get a lot of things like this, or Gokou spending time with Gohan as a kid, that you didn't really see in the show. I maintain that Kakarot is an underrated DBZ game. I've certainly spent more time on it than any other DBZ game.

The thing about that is that Gokou makes friends out of like 75% of his mortal enemies. So not that weird.

They've got an imminent battle coming up and Trunks still can't transform. He insists on going with Gohan regardless.

Gohan stealthily knocks him out and leaves on his own. He knows that if Trunks goes and gets killed, then Earth has nobody left with any chance.

This is it, the big final battle between now-gimped Gohan and the Androids. He seems to know this'll probably be it for him, but goes anyway.

This one's a battle in the rain, and Gohan gets very slow/sluggish as the fight progresses.

They slay him, and that's it for our boy. Not gonna lie, it's not easy to see a bunch of characters you like end up as corpses in a hellscape, but at least it's an alternate timeline.

Trunks continues his training and lays low for 3 years. Eventually he does figure out SSJ, but it still probably isn't enough on his own. Luckily, our heroes have come up with a better idea...

...a Time Machine. Create a new past where none of the bad stuff happened and the good guys won. They make it clear that this isn't a closed loop situation, and by going back he's just creating a new timeline where things have a chance to go right.

But wait! The Androids have found our hero before he can Become Kyle Reese. It's another battle, and at least this one goes better than Gohan's fights with them did.

After a good fight... Trunks loses.

Yep, yet again, the androids reign supreme. They leave Trunks alive so they have someone interesting/powerful to beat up, I guess.

Trunks gets to the Time Machine and takes off, putting the past right. I believe this is where the History of Trunks special ended.

I was a little surprised the DLC was over already. Except...it isn't. After a quick sum-up of Trunks' time with our heroes throughout the Cell Saga, we get to see what happens when Trunks goes back to the future. Now a much stronger version of SSJ. That's right, they went above and beyond with this one, and History of Trunks is actually just the first half of the DLC.

Next time: Trunks gets revenge. And...Dabura?