Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot has the luxury of having a massive fanbase behind it due to being a Dragon Ball game. As such, when the official cover art for the DBZ: Kakarot released to the world, it drew in quite a diverse set of opinions: i.e., some hated it, some loved it.
One prominent figure in the Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot community on Youtube posted his opinions on Twitter, airing his overall dislike for it. He was then challenged to make a better cover piece for the game, leading to his below cover art.
The official cover art for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is relatively tame and simple. It features a deep red backdrop and adult Goku riding the Flying Nimbus. Considering the name of the game decided to use Goku’s more exotic moniker in “Kakarot,” this cover felt tonally quiet and ineffective to some people. So, YouTuber Totally Not Mark worked to convey the exact opposite of this feeling when creating his redesign. The result was a piece that captured all the essential aspects of Goku in a single shot: his childlike innocence, his solemn anger, his heritage, and his most influential catalysts.
The piece displays Goku through a collective four distinct objects, stages, and people: the four-star ball, Kid Goku, Super Saiyan Goku, and Frieza. The four-star ball, of course, is the very first Dragon Ball Goku made contact with and the thing that connected him to all of his friends on Earth.
Both Kid Goku and Super Saiyan Goku together show off the duality of Goku’s personality (his innocence and anger) along with his Saiyan heritage (Kid Goku representing the Great Ape transformation and the Super Saiyan transformation representing itself). As for Frieza, he’s Kakarot’s greatest catalyst of all. He’s the reason Goku was sent to Earth in the first place and the individual who pushed Goku into a position where he could fully explore the power given to him by his ancestry.
All of these things define Kakarot and tell his story in a single snapshot, which is what Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot aims to do. If it lives up to that promise, the players are in for a treat for what seems to be a promising Dragon Ball game.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot will be available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One on January 17, 2020.
