Dragon Ball Z3 3360 Kakarot confirmed that its upcoming fifth DLC will feature brand new playable characters and gameplay features. This new character will be Tian Xinhan, a top student at Crane School, who was one of Goku’s early opponents in the original Dragon Ball series. Considering this DLC will focus on the 23rd World Martial Arts Championship – the final arc before Dragon Ball’s transition to Dragon Ball Z – it contains all the fights the heroes will encounter before the tournament’s final confrontation with Piccolo. As such, the DLC will focus on replicating the tournament itself in gameplay and rosters in a few different ways.
Before Dragon Ball phased out human characters, one of the characters Goku competed with was Tien, who defeated his Three-Eyed Crane School student after a tough fight in the previous game. The fight also managed to transform Tien from villain to hero, and later became an ally of him and the Z-Fighters. However, the 23rd World Series also brought an end to his Crane Gakuen life, and he will face off against the former killer Taobai Gang. Players will be able to relive his battles with the Cyborg Assassins in Kakarot’s fifth DLC.
This can be seen in the screenshots provided by Bandai Namco, which show both Tao and Tien taking to the stage of the match. It also shows a screenshot of Tien using his signature attack, the Tri-Beam. Additional screenshots from Goku and Piccolo’s final match show some new moves, such as Goku’s stomping Kamehameha. Many fans were delighted to see Tien confirmed as a playable character, many felt he was a rather overlooked character compared to the likes of Vegeta and Piccolo.
Another tweet revealed a new feature that’s part of Dragon Ball Z:’s fifth DLC, Ground Battles for Kakarot. As the name suggests, these battles take place entirely on the ground. The rules for these ground battles are also slightly different. According to the tweet, players could be knocked out or kicked out of the ring for an instant victory, or had to knock their opponent down to a count of 10 to win. If the player is knocked down, they need to play a small mini-game to get back up.
The change makes sense, as the series was still focused on martial arts and hand-to-hand combat before Dragon Ball Z’s escalating stakes made every battle bigger and grander. No release date has been set for this DLC yet, but these new details have fans excited to experience this climactic Dragon Ball arc again.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is out now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.