Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot has finally opened the floodgates on DLC 2 news, and fans have a lot more information now than they did even a week ago. While this has been a positive thing for the most part, it has also seemingly confirmed certain suspicions among fans about what the DLC will look like, and it seems likely that it will repeat many of the same mistakes that were made in the first DLC. It’s no secret at this point that fans weren’t too happy about how DLC 1 played out, and though the Beerus boss fight was incredibly tough, it simply wasn’t enough to hold fans over.
But DLC 2’s failures may end up going beyond that, as there’s a chance that one of the game’s most underused characters could be cast further into oblivion with the events of this DLC. When Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot was first announced, one of its major selling points was the introduction of a brand new, original character designed by none other than series creator Akira Toriyama himself, and thus Bonyu was created. Upon seeing her, fans were excited for more female representation in the world of Dragon Ball, and people were generally hyped up to get to know the character better. Unfortunately, she didn’t play much of a role.
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Bonyu never actually makes an appearance within the game, as although the player does get to do battle against her, it is just a simulation of her based on battle data found within crashed Ginyu Force Attack Pods, not the real deal. Fans do get some insight into her personality from this fight, but that quickly faded away when it became clear that the level 100 Bonyu training was the best way to grind experience and reach max level in DBZ: Kakarot. At that point, Bonyu essentially became a glorified punching bag.
What is known about her from Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot‘s base game is that Bonyu was once a member of the Ginyu Force. It is reported that she left that group because she thought their poses were stupid, indicating that she is a much more serious fighter than them. In terms of power, she likely wasn’t stronger than Ginyu as that would have made her the leader, but it is implied that she outdoes the rest of the Ginyu Force in terms of both raw power and intelligence. Her main purpose was to serve as the brains for the group, something the Ginyu Force is clearly lacking now.
Anyone that played DLC 1 of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot knows that Bonyu wasn’t in it at all, but it did affect her in an interesting way. Though not the most glamorous position to have, Bonyu was important to the game before as players would need to spend a lot of time with her in order to max out their characters, but with DLC 1 Whis replaces Bonyu as Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot‘s best grind, taking even that small honor away from her.
As it stands, players with the DLC have literally no reason to return to Bonyu’s training missions. She no longer provides the best experience per fight, she can be easily one-shot by most players thanks to Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot‘s level cap being 150 levels above her and the introduction of Super Saiyan God, and the fight itself isn’t interesting enough to warrant revisiting. This all comes together to be a pretty disappointing revelation for fans that were looking forward to Bonyu being developed as a character and playing a meaningful role in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot in one way or another.
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Though not technically confirmed, the recent DBZ: Kakarot DLC 2 scans indicate that Golden Frieza is going to be the next boss battle episode antagonist. Some of the main supporting evidence for this are images of Goku and Vegeta doing battle with what appears to be the Frieza Force Army on Earth, a scene which many will remember from Resurrection F. Regarding Bonyu, this could go one of two ways: either this is her chance to return to the forefront of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot‘s evolving story or it is the nail in the coffin that consigns her to oblivion.
The reason being Bonyu’s connection to Frieza and his army. Though it is clear that Bonyu no longer associates with the Ginyu Force, there’s nothing to indicate that she cut ties with Frieza’s army altogether. Though she wasn’t present on Namek during Frieza’s search for the Dragon Balls, it is entirely possible that she was off somewhere else doing the evil emperor’s bidding. If she is going to make a comeback, Bonyu should return with Frieza to invade Earth, perhaps taking over the role that Ginyu played in this story instead.
The biggest problem with this approach is Bonyu’s power level relative to just how far Goku and Vegeta have come. Theoretically since she was serving under Frieza, she couldn’t have been stronger than him during the events of the Frieza Saga. It is possible that she has trained and gotten stronger in the meantime, but to be able to challenge Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta seems unlikely. All that said, there is some precedent for it within the game itself.
This may be a factor of gameplay not fully representing the story’s narrative, but Bonyu’s level 100 training mission is extremely powerful all things considered. In that state, she is clearly more powerful than Majin Buu much less Frieza, and at low levels even Super Saiyan 3 Goku can struggle to take her down. Again, that may not be canonically accurate, but if she were to return perhaps she would be able to put up a fight, at least for some of the other Z Warriors. Regardless, most fans would like to see this character take a more important role and really get fleshed out, but it remains to be seen whether or not Bandai Namco will take that route.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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