Dragonball Z Kakarot Part 19 - -DAIMA- Adventure Through The Demon Realm PART 2 - First Half

 

Daima was the last thing Akira Toriyama left us with, and as weird as it is, it's a pretty cool final present for the fans. It takes place after Dragonball Z and has our heroes go on a new adventure, serving almost as a bridge between Z and Super. It would have made a lot more sense if it had come out in the 2000's, between the two shows, rather than recently when most people are just waiting for the Moro Arc. Regardless, I really like Daima, and it feels almost like someone mixed DB, DBZ, and DBGT in a bowl and added all the Toriyama-isms they could.

That said, it's full of plot holes and retroactively causes quite a bit of early DB Super to not make sense (wondering if the strangely-named "DB Super Beerus" exists mainly to smooth that out and explain why nobody uses their new abilities from Daima during the first arc of Super...eh, probably not)

Daima Part 2 is, as of now, the final DLC released for Kakarot. The game that just keeps on giving. Part 1 covered the first half of the Daima series and Part 2 covers the second half. Problem is, going from one to the other totally resets your characters.

Part 2 starts with a quick recap, and you fight the Tamagami again. Or at least, a quick, much easier version of the fight. As awesome of a fight as this was at the end of Part 1, it's kinda weird to do it again at the beginning of Part 2.

Recap: The villainous Demon King Gomah, brother of Dabura, used the Dragonballs to turn our heroes into kids. Then his seedy assistant, Kaioh Shin's evil brother Degesu (seen here), kidnapped Baby Dende to make sure our heroes couldn't wish themselves back to full strength.

After these morons traveled across realms and kicked the beehive, our heroes were forced to give chase into the Demon Realm. Kids or not, they're still quite strong.

There's a third faction in this battle: The nefarious Dr. Arinsu and her Something About Mary hairdo.

In the previous episode, she toiled at a Majin-creating cauldron with her witch assistant and they created Majin Kuu here. He's a Majin Buu clone...but not as strong as Buu. Heck he isn't even as strong as a Tamagami. So he's kinda useless in this story and can't really accomplish anything. Poor Majin Kuu. Will he ever have his moment?

Anyway, everyone involved is racing to get the Demon Realm Dragonballs from the three Tamagami. Gomah is hiding in his castle, wondering why he started this mess for himself.

It isn't a "total reset", I should rephrase. You start at a baseline at the beginning of Part 2 (level 80 with abilities that make sense) but it would have been cool to keep your stats from Part 1. I was level 85 with a bunch of extra abilities beyond what it starts you with here, and you have the capability to train for even more there. Turns out there was zero point in doing this once you get and move on to the second part.

In Part 1 our heroes traversed the huge Third World of the Demon Realm, which is a big dusty zone. This new DLC has the Second World and First World. Neither is big at all compared to the Third World. Basically Part 1 was where you had all the exploration, sidequests, and relaxing Kakarot RPG-like gameplay. Part 2 here is where you have the story and a bunch of boss fights.

If this place looks familiar, it's because the Second World is the original home of the Namekians. They had to flee here because of the tyranny of Dabura and Gomah, and they terraformed Planet Namek to make it look like the Demon Realm.

The cool thing about Daima is that it finally ties together a lot of elements, like King Piccolo being a "demon king" in Dragonball. Turns out Namekians actually ARE demons in a purely literal sense of the world, hailing from the Demon Realm originally.

To sum up:

Demon Realm Third World: Lesser demons, all of your imps, ogres, goblins, and general low-level weirdoes from the Dragonball series.

Demon Realm Second World: Namekians. The more civilized, more powerful residents of the underworld. Had to flee eventually, so now the Second World is mostly uninhabited.

Demon Realm First World: Kaiohs and Majins, the high-level denizens and aristocrats of the spirit world, your Daburas and Babidis and Kaiohshins.

A ship arrives carrying these three. Not sure why Bulma is here, but now Gokou and Kaiohshin have some backup at least. Piccolo never really does much in this series, and Gohan is nonexistent lol. Vegeta gets to do some major fighting though, and joins Gokou as the two main characters you're playing as in this DLC. That actually explains why they reset Gokou's stats to a specific baseline. If they hadn't, players who pumped up Gokou in Part 1 might have had him significantly more powerful than Vegeta here and had no reason to ever play as Vegeta.

Piccolo doesn't remember this world at all, because his father left it to try and conquer Earth before he was even born.

...I need to watch the original Dragonball series again. I watched it once over a long period of time, circa 2008-2015 or so. While I like DBZ more, DB is pretty damn good and very underrated. Every arc tells an interesting story. There are saga-ending foes like Young Master Roshi, Tenshinhan, Piccolo's Father, and eventually Piccolo himself. Gokou vs Tenshinhan is the best moment the latter ever gets in the series and one of the most well-choreographed martial arts fights they ever animated. The final DB arc with a now-grown Gokou and Piccolo facing off is as good as any arc in DBZ.

One of Daima's many plot holes is that Piccolo doesn't remember any Namekian language, so he can't use the Demon World Dragonballs (which raises the question of how our heroes plan to use them when they do get them). Piccolo was born too late to know Namekian, yes, but he absorbed Kami. He absorbed Nail. Both of those were massive boosts that made no sense, and they gave him the memories of those guys. He should know Namekian as a result.

Well...with many things in the Dragonball verse...it's best to just not dwell on it much. Just smile and nod. And I've been way too verbose/detailed so far in this post, time to just start recapping this DLC and get on with it.

This weirdo right here is Hybis. He's...an oddball. Nobody really knows what Hybis' deal is. He just sorta hangs around. He's unsettling.

Our heroes encounter the creator of the Tamagami. This ancient Namekian isn't strong himself, but he's capable of creating incredibly strong mechs. He also has the power to control the Demon Realm Dragonballs. So he could be the key to them getting their kid forms back. Or not. He can't really go anywhere.

Our heroes find out that he's the one who got the Namekians off of this world when things went south, and got them to a new world. Piccolo thanks him for doing this.

Elsewhere, the nefarious Dr. Arinsu has been hard at work in her lab, and has created a NEW Majin...

...Majin Duu! This one is much stronger than Majin Kuu, and probably about on par with Majin Buu (or close). This one is strong enough to defeat a Tamagami, but it has one weakness: It has to be continually fed to stay at a high level. This isn't a problem because Majin Kuu can keep throwing food at him. Their next objective is to go after the First World Tamagami and take it down.

At the same time, our heroes are gearing up to fight the Second World Tamagami.

Hope everyone is keeping all these Majins and Tamagochis straight. In any case. this will get our heroes their second of the three Dragonballs and put them in the clear lead. However, if they don't get to the third before Arinsu does, then we have a Mexican Standoff.

Vegeta gets to fight Tamagami 2 since Gokou dealt with Tamagami 3. This one has an aquatic theme, wielding a trident.

The fight itself takes place entirely underwater. Here's Vegeta unleashing his Galick Gun, which is my go-to move in this game.

The first major DBZ fight I ever saw as a kid was Gokou vs Vegeta, so the Galick Gun has sentimental value.

The Tamagami is no joke. After all, even Dabura couldn't beat these guys and he was Super Saiyan 2 level. So Vegeta stops beating around the bush and unleashes the new power that he achieved since Dragonball Z ended:

Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta! Fans have wanted to see this for AGES. His hair isn't very long, though, for an SSJ3. Gotenks had similar hair to Vegeta and he got the full length.

Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta is basically Super Sonic. He's a lightning fast golden hedgehog. Looking forward to seeing the adult version of this later once we get our full power back.

SSJ3 Vegeta just completely thrashes the Tamagami. It's an awesome victory lap after the tough initial fight with it. Not sure why Gokou didn't do this in his own Tamagami fight. I think he stayed at SSJ1 or 2 the whole time and it went on a lot longer. Gokou just...does that.

Elsewhere, Majin Duu defeats Tamagami 1 with an assist from Majin Kuu throwing chocolate to him. Way to just rob our heroes of another boss fight, in a series that only had a few boss fights to begin with!

The Tamagami won't give up the 'Ball until they answer an impossible math question, though.

Majin Duu...answers it. So he's as strong as Majin Buu and also hyperintelligent. This gets Dr. Arinsu one of the Dragonballs. So out of the three Demon World Balls, our heroes have two and she has one, with none left on the board.

Well, there's officially another player on the board. There's no way Majin Duu could defeat Gokou or Vegeta, though, so it seems we've ended at Mexican Standoff.

Tamagami 1 is pretty bad-ass and wields a sword. I like that each Tamagami has their own weapon type. Tamagami 3's giant mallet was probably the coolest one.

Gomah is shocked...SHOCKED that the guys who defeated Majin Buu are now steamrolling the Demon Realm. At this point he's hiding in his palace with Degesu, with no real options. What exactly was his plan if the Earth kids went after him? And why didn't he wish for them to be reduced to a power level of 1 or something? Turning them into kids just bought him a decade or so before they would have been a threat again anyway. Daima makes no sense.

Oh shit! Not... The Five!

...Who are The Five?

"Once I have to start counting on more than one hand, it gets complicated!" says Gokou.

At this point I have to fight lots and lots of Gendarmerie, the Demon Realm's troops. It's cool seeing Gokou and Vegeta fighting side by side. I stick to controlling Vegeta during all these fights, because he's considerably stronger than Gokou (who for some reason refuses to go SSJ3 himself, and can't seem to unlock any top-tier moves, either). One cool thing is that you can issue commands to the character you're not directly controlling.

Kamehameha!

Galick Gun!

Hybis!

On his Interdimensional Television, Gomah watches our heroes. That creepy Hybis guy lurking around, it turns out, is wearing the Third Eye Belt. Taking the Third Eye out of it and putting it on your forehead makes you all-powerful. This solves all of Gomah's problems! If he can get the Hybis Belt, he can put on the Third Eye and become super powerful.

Well, good thing he completely lucked into this plot development!

The key to victory in Kakarot is to pack a lot of healing items. Daima here has an assortment of Healing Bugs for sale, and I grabbed a ton of them. Turns out they really aren't that necessary here compared to the main game and some of the earlier DLCs. There's very little level spread between you and your foes in this DLC, so nothing is ever particularly out of your league without heals.

Elsewhere, Hybis gets ambushed by... a Pretty Girl!

Gomah is so inept that he sent this girl to get the belt. Rather than sending, I don't know, a powerful minion to grab it, he sent this random girl to try and talk him into handing it over.

This is SO WEIRD.

She offers him a smooch and he turns it down. Hybis has no need for smooches. He is Hybis.

Instead he asks for her hat, and trades his belt for it. Now he has a big yellow hat. He sticks his arms out.

The Pretty Girl has no idea what this belt does, and takes it back to Gomah while Hybis stands around T-posing.

Elsewhere, our heroes fight more Gendarmerie! Lots of tedious horde battles in this DLC, but not as many as the Resurrection F DLC (where I think you fight Freeza's entire army). This gives me an opportunity to show off Gokou's Super Spirit Bomb.

It's bigger and more damaging than the regular, basketball-sized Spirit Bomb, and the first Spirit Bomb that's actually worth using given how slow they are.

But wait! The Five have arrived. It's... The Gendarmerie Force! Five elite troopers, Gomah's emergency minions.

In the show, this fight takes place entirely off-camera (yeah, they weren't even important enough to get their own battle), as all five of them get thrashed by Vegeta in the background while other stuff went on.

Here? You get to play out the fight. This kinda makes up for not being able to fight Tamagami 1. Get 'em, Super Sonic!

Here's the Big Bang Attack! Probably Vegeta's second-strongest move, behind the Final Flash (which sadly seems to be absent here). Big Bang is a thrown energy ball that causes a concentrated explosion.

Guile Flash Kick! Well, that's it for The Five. Vegeta basically whooped their asses. This might actually be the "toughest" fight in the DLC because it's a five-on-one and you get pummeled with attacks. It's nothing a few heals can fix.

Gomah looks on from his palace in shock. Well, Gomah. You're a moron. Our heroes are basically outside the front door now.

But what of the nefarious Dr. Arinsu and her one ball? Well, we'll figure that out too. She definitely isn't on Gomah's side, so maybe she'll hand it over and agree to work together.

The bad guys have one last play: Have Degesu threaten to SHOOT BABY DENDE.

Piccolo warps in with a chop! This is Piccolo's one shining moment of Daima. At least he got one! Gohan is off reading the Encyclopedia or something.

Pansy (remember her?) catches Baby Dende. Pansy is pretty cool, and she really didn't need to be. I think people expected her to be an annoying character. But nope, she's fine. I like her more than Pan in GT; She's the Pan stand-in for Daima, which is effectively a retelling of Dragonball GT with Toriyama involved (and thus canon).

The Pretty Girl returns with the belt. Looks like Gomah's fortunes are about to change!

This girl seemed like she was gonna be important in some way, but nope. She collects a bunch of loot and leaves. Who was that?

...who is Hybis, for that matter?

Anyway, Gomah now has Hybis' Magical Bullshit Belt, and can become all-powerful! ...or at least, roughly as powerful as Golden Freeza.

Equipping the Third Eye transforms Gomah into this new super form, which I will call... Giga Gomah. He's now way stronger than Dabura, or even Majin Buu, ever were, and the size of a small building. And yeah, I'm curious who would win a fight between Giga Gomah and Golden Freeza.

So if the Demon Realm had a Magical Bullshit Belt all this time, why didn't everyone run around trying to get it? How did HYBIS end up wearing it? Why didn't Dabura get this before he tried to invade Earth?

So many questions. Part 2 of the Daima DLC is too big for one post, so tune in next time for the big final battle.

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