"Your strength is truly amazing, Kakarot. Majin Buu has become too powerful for me, it's as simple as that. You're the only one who can fight him now. You've always been like this, ever since the day I first met you, when my conquering of frontier worlds brought me to Earth. You were always ready to meet a challenge, even when it was bigger than you were. On that day, I committed my life to surpassing you, having no idea just how far you would go. Then, at last, it happened... Fueled by my self-loathing, I too transformed. After living every moment of every day for the singular purpose of reigning over you, I finally became a Super Saiyan myself! The prince had reclaimed his throne and fulfilled his destiny! But no matter how strong I became, your power still exceeded mine... At first, I thought it was your loved ones: that it was your instinct to protect them that spurred you on and pushed you beyond your limits. And certainly, that was part of it. I've seen enough of that clown smile to know how much they mean to you. But over the years, I realized there was more. I made a family of my own and it still wasn't the key. It's something else in the way you approach a battle... I used to fight for the sheer pleasure of it, sparing no one. I killed for dominance and to feed my insatiable pride. But you never fought to kill or even to win, only to test your limits and become the strongest you could possibly be. You showed mercy to everyone, even your fiercest enemies, even me! As if you knew one day I would possess this tiny sliver of a soul... How can a Saiyan fight with such power and at the same time be so gentle?! It makes me angry just thinking about it... Or perhaps it's my anger that's made me blind to the truth for so long. I see it now... I only fought to push down others, you only fight to push yourself! Hang in there, Kakarot! You are number one!"
— Vegeta finally accepting that Goku is better than him, speeches like these inspired me throughout my life. Thank you Akira Toriyama. This game is probably one of the best video game adaptations of Dragon Ball Z.

At the beginning it appeared to be a phenomenal game, but as the hours went by, I started noticing it's only a mid title wrapped up in amazing visuals.

• Single player JRPG with semi open world regions a'la Dragon Age Inquisition. I'm surprised this isn't another Budokai Tenkaichi clone. They actually wanted to create something different and I applaud them, even though the end result is full of open world tropes, e.g. endless collectibles, or meaningless side quests.
  
• Looks really frigging good. It's really hard to create convincing 2D anime characters in a 3D engine. Sometimes it makes them look really weird. Look at Xenoverse 2. In Kakarot they somehow made it work, though in bad lighting they still appear derpy. Not only that, but they added incredible details, e.g. Goku's Gi and hair have actual physics. Pre-rendered cutscenes are absolutely phenomenal.
  
• Combat appears to be similar to Budokai Tenkaichi, but it plays very differently against bosses. It plays more strategically. They have attacks you need to avoid, phases activated at specific health levels, including stuns, AoE with visible affected area indicators, and super powerful beams.
  
• Some quests flesh out the story better, e.g. Gohan's relationship with Android 16 which gives some insight on why he was so influential in his SSJ2 transformation. You also unlock a fair number of side quests post-game.
  
• Great attention to detail, e.g. the character icons are updating as the story progresses. I love the references and collectibles from the original Dragon Ball series.
  
• Community Boards are an interesting concept, though only two of those are worth the effort.
  
• QoL where, after getting all items needed for a side quest, you're automatically teleported to the quest giver. Manual saves.

Unfortunately...

• In reality it's Dragon Ball Z: Son Gohan. Goku, aka Kakarot, is a side character in his own game. Yes, DBZ is more Gohan centric, but both in anime and manga Goku is present much more frequently than in this game. I guess Kakarot is more marketable, but this is bordering on false advertising.
  
• Bosses force you to think strategically, but combat mechanics themselves are fairly shallow and spammy; Xenoverse has more depth. I hope you enjoy all enemies having super armor on command 80% of the time. Solo battles against multiple opponents (i.e., all skill fights) are incredibly annoying as you're being tossed around like a ragdoll, trying to get your bearings, being forced to spam specific moves, preferably AoE ones. Particle effects of some blasts can literally obscure the entire screen making you blind to everything that is happening around you.
  
• Namek is disappointing, as it's just a single map in which you're being more or less railroaded with invisible walls.
  
• Almost shocking number of cutscenes, but it's to be expected as it follows the storyline very closely. All of them can be fast forwarded, thankfully. At the same time, some key moments are straight up missing, e.g. traversing Snake Way, training with Kaio, Vegeta's Final Flash against Perfect Cell, Goku giving Cell a Senzu Bean, or Gohan playing with Cell too much which was one of the major causes of Cell being able to blow himself up.
  
• All minigames are throwaway: racing (in a DB game?), fishing, baseball. All of these are here because someone, at some point in the series, performed those activities. You'll do them once, get the achievements, and then never touch them again.
  
• It's a JRPG with random encounters... but they're pointless. Grinding XP is not worth the effort, since all playable characters in the main story receive enough XP to catch up to the required level when their time comes. Farming orbs that are dropped by them is only worth it for the absurdly expensive DLC abilities of Goku and Vegeta.
  
• Loot is meaningless. All ore and car parts are for racing minigames nobody cares about. All food: apples, meat, apples, fish, apples, carrots, apples, rice. Have I mentioned apples yet?... You'll never eat food; at best you need it to complete side quests. There is no need for the buffs it provides with the exception of Beerus boss fights. Zeni? You'll use Zeni to upgrade the Gravity Room and maybe buy healing items, though those quickly become plentiful. That's it. D Medals and Z Orbs are the only noteworthy ones.

• DLC 1: A New Power Awakens Part 1 is just Goku and Vegeta being randomly teleported to Beerus' planet and trained. No story. There's only 2 side quests, the rest is essentially XP grind with new attacks and Super Saiyan God transformation.
  
• DLC 2: A New Power Awakens Part 2 has a short story, in addition to an even higher level cap, Super Saiyan Blue, a horde mode, and even more XP grinding. Level 300 Beerus fight is the true final boss fight of the game.
  
• DLC 3: Trunks - The Warrior of Hope is the first DLC worth a damn with a story 4-6 hours long. It not only covers the future version of Android/Cell Sagas, but also Majin Buu Saga, which was only briefly mentioned in Dragon Ball Super. It's sad, it's satisfying, it's epic. No wonder it's everyone's favorite DLC... because it's the best one.
  
• DLC 4: Bardock - Alone Against Fate. You can explore a small portion of planet Vegeta which, correct me if I'm wrong, is a first in DB video games. 4-5 hours long and doesn't go above and beyond like the previous DLC, with the exception of a short section with Kid Vegeta. Bardock's portrayal is that of the Bardock - Father of Goku TV special, instead of Dragon Ball Minus, or DBS Broly. It's a bit of a missed opportunity: no Great Ape combat, no King Vegeta, Gine, Raditz, Paragus, Broly. Nothing transfers to the main game. The negative reviews are not because the DLC is bad, but because it's only good, when it could have been amazing.
  
• DLC 5: 23rd World Tournament - started it, didn't finish, I was too tired of the game.
  
• DLC 6: Goku's Next Journey - starts with fight against Kid Buu, the same as in the base game. Then after the introduction, first thing you have to do is catch 3 fish. I quit.

One and done. No replay value whatsoever. Feels like a prequel to a much better game. Enjoyable, but buy on sale.

Fun 2 in 1 game. Has a card game and a story game. Combat is a bit repetitive tho