Some ofDragon Ball Z’s later sagas involve a number of fairly confusing plot devices, but few are as complicated as the time travel that permeates theAndroid and Cell sagas. Now withDragon Ball Z: Kakarotrevisiting the story of the original anime and manga series, gamers are experiencing the twisting timelines and convenient plot points.
Thanks to the meddling of Future Trunks, a number of important moments in Earth’s history are altered, with consequences that wind up extending all the way toDragon Ball Super. As a result, the timeline ofDragon Ball Z: Kakarotis split into at least three separate realities, with two being bleak, post-apocalyptic wastelands and the uncertain future of the present.
Present Timeline
The present timeline ofDragon Ball Z: Kakarotis where players will spend akk of their time in, as they control Goku and his friends battling against the Androids and eventually going toe-to-toe with Cell. This timeline is only available because of theintervention of Future Trunks, the mysterious Super Saiyan who appears to quickly dispatch Frieza as the tyrant appears on Earth. However, it’s what he does for Goku that changes the course of history for the present timeline.
When Future Trunks appears and meets Goku for the first time, he gives the legendary savior a bottle of medicine that is supposed to help him survive an illness that was meant to kill him in the future. As a result, Goku is able to survive long enough to join the fight against the Androids, eventually leading to a confrontation with Cell, who brings his own wrinkle in the timeline. As Goku and the others go head-to-head with Cell, it becomes apparent that Doctor Gero’s most powerful creation yet comes from a timeline separate from both the present timeline and Future Trunks' timeline.
Of course this ends positively, as long as the players can beatthe Androids and Cellas they play through their respective sagas inDragon Ball Z: Kakarot. However, there are now two separate timelines splitting off from the present one. Those alternate timelines are where things get complicated, as the death of Goku from heart disease pushes for the destruction of the world at the hands of the Androids and a bleaker fate for Future Trunks at the hands of Cell.
Future Trunks Timeline
Technically the original timeline of Earth,Future Trunks comes from a desolate futurewhere the world has been decimated by the Androids. The only surviving members of the mainDragon Ball Z: Kakarotcast are Gohan and Trunk’s mother Bulma. However, Gohan doesn’t survive for long, as he ends up sacrificing himself in order to allow Bulma and Trunks to finish the time machine that sets the events of the present timeline in motion.
This is also where Trunks learns how to transform into a Super Saiyan after the loss of his closest (only) friend and mentor Gohan at the hands of the Androids. That is of course well after the Androids rip Gohan’s arm off have already killed off the rest of the fighters strong enough to put up even the hint of a fight against Android 17 and 18.
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After these events, Trunks goes back to the past to save Goku and the present timeline, but his future remains unchanged. However, thanks to training with Vegeta in the hyperbolic time chamber, Trunks is able to return to his future and save what remains of his timeline by destroying the Androids and killing a weak Imperfect Cell. Unfortunately, this isn’t the only ending possible for Trunks' time traveling adventure, as seen in alternate iterations of the franchise.
Cell Future Timeline
The Cell that the player fights inDragon Ball Z: Kakarotdoesn’t come from the present timeline, as Trunks and Krillin destroy it before it can fully develop. Although, Cell isn’t from the Trunks future that the game follows either. Instead, he is from a future where Trunks successfully went back in time and stopped the Androids by saving Goku, then after doing some more training withthe Super Saiyans of the pastis able to go back to the future and dispatch the Androids himself.
Unfortunately, this version of Trunks doesn’t know that Cell even exists and is caught off guard by the enemy, who kills him and takes his time machine for his own. However, with the Androids dead,Cell can never attain his perfect formin that future, so he travels back to the present timeline when the Androids are still alive and tracks them down there. All anyone knows of this timeline is from hearsay and getting the story straight from Cell himself.
Even in the originalDragon Ball Zanime and manga, all fan see of this timeline is a few quick flashes as Cell explains how he killed Trunks and traveled back in time to become Perfect Cell. However, this is clearly the bleakest timeline of them all, but thanks to the efforts of Gohan in the series, and the players inDragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Cell is eventually destroyed. IfDragon Ball Z: Kakarotever introducesarcs fromDragon Ball Super, then we might eventually see the final consequences of all of this time travel.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarotis available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
