I’ve already written about how much I lovedDragon Ball Z: Kakarot’s latest expansion, Goku’s Next Journey,for how it tackles a portion of the anime and manga that most of the games in the series rarely bother withoutside of a nod here and there. But it’s not just the story and character focus that makes it the game’s best DLC so far.
As much as I loved flying around as Goku and talking to Pan, Goten, Trunks, and Chi-Chi ten years after the events with Kid Buu, Goku’s Next Journey also understands that fighting and intense battles are equally important to Dragon Ball. We see this with the boss battle against Uub and training with Goten,but the best example of it is the optional post-game fight with Vegeta.
Goku and Vegeta have one of the most well-known rivalries in all of media, but we don’t actually get to see them battle all that much in the original series. Beyond their original fight and their rematch in the Buu saga, they don’t actually fight all that much. In fact, aside from those examples, the only time they ever have an all-out match is in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
Vegeta might seem weaker than Goku since he can’t use Super Saiyan 3, but he’s actually won most of the times they’ve fought. In fact, it’severy timeif you don’t count Yajirobe and Krillin interfering in the first fight.
That makes his surprise appearance as the final true boss of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot a fitting treat, especially since we’ve never seen End of Z Goku, arguably his peak before Super was a thing, fight Vegeta at all. That made me happy enough but I was even more surprised to see it become my favourite battle between these two iconic characters.
Once you finish the main story, a side mission begins that has Goku training up for a mysterious and powerful opponent, who turns out to be Vegeta. After meeting at the site of their first battle, things start off well enough, with the two recapping their history (complete with Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm style mid-match flashbacks) and warming up for the real deal.
After a while, Goku and Vegeta both transform into their strongest forms, complete with an awesome cutscene showing Super Saiyan 3 Goku’s hair growing (something you don’t get in most games) and Vegeta making Super Saiyan 2 look like a true beast instead of just the predecessor to SSJ3.
This is when things get really intense, as Vegeta proves himself to be one of the game’s tougher bosses thanks to his near-constant super armour and incredible projectile game. All the while, the two discuss their relationship and how they’re motivated to be better because of their rivalry — one of my favourite aspects of their relationship.
Seeing Goku and Vegeta fight at full strength was already cool enough, but the highlight of the match and what cemented it as not only the best boss battle in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, but perhaps one of the best battles in Dragon Ball history, is when Goku and Vegeta are all out of strength and back in their base forms. Just like in their very first battle, Vegeta flies up to the sky and fires out a Galick Gun, which Goku counters with his Kamehameha.
As Goku and Vegeta struggled in a nostalgia-dripping beam clash, I was smiling from ear to ear at the obvious parallels with their first battle, which is animated beautifully and looks cooler than anything Kakarot has done up to this point. The kicker is when Vegeta starts losing the beam clash and breaks out of using Galick Gun to sneakily fire off his strongest move, Final Flash, in the middle of the struggle.
It’s an incredibly cool moment that rivals Goku’s infamous Kamehameha against Kefla and is a great nod to Vegeta being the smarter warrior out of the two and tricking his opponents into letting their guard down. My jaw was on the floor with this interaction, not just because of how cool it is to see a mix-up of the usual beam clash, but at how clearly it understands the difference between the two characters.
In fact, that might be my favourite thing about the rematch - its treatment of Vegeta. For far too long, Goku has been the star of Dragon Ball and presented as its undisputed strongest character, leaving Vegeta to the sidelines despite being the character with the more interesting arc and motivations. Here, though, the pair are presented as equals, with Vegeta keeping up with, and even overpowering, Goku in what most would consider to be a lesser form.
This fight also spits in the face of the argument that Goku would definitely win any fight against Vegeta since he has Super Saiyan 3. Clearly, that’s not the case.
The fight, typically, ends without a clear winner, which is another thing that I love so much about it. Ten years after the fight with Kid Buu, Goku and Vegeta have evolved beyond the need to define who is stronger out of the two of them and that’s made clear here as Goku discusses his reasons for fighting.
Not only does it make for a perfect ending to Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, but this rematch between the two mighty Saiyans understands their characters so well while also giving us some of the coolest moments I’ve seen in Dragon Ball in a long time. And all without Super Saiyan God or Ultra Instinct, to boot.
