Dragon Ball fans are eating really well right now. Everyone knows that the franchise is huge, but we’re entering one of those Dragon Ball resurgences right now that I haven’t experienced since 2015 when Dragon Ball Super began and the production of Dragon Ball games started to ramp up again.
Now, just this week, we have a brand new series that’s begun to air with Dragon Ball Daima, as well as the sequel to my personal favourite Dragon Ball game of all time with Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. Both of these releases help celebrate the 40th anniversary of the franchise and Sparking! Zero especially is a love letter to those that enjoy the Dragon Ball games. It delivers on a ton of things that players have been begging for, for many years, keeps a lot of what made the Tenkaichi (Sparking! In Japan) series so great while adding new features and boosting the presentation so much that I don’t think anyone would argue that the 17 year wait for this sequel hasn’t paid off.
Sparking! Zero for those that may not be aware, is a 3D arena fighter and acts both as a sequel to 2007’s Budokai Tenkaichi 3 and a soft reboot to the Tenkaichi series, known in Japan as Sparking! Tenkaichi 3 was one of my most played games during the PS2 era, and I, along with many many others have been begging for Dragon Ball games to go back to this formula for a very long time. It’s finally happened, and while the game does have some noticeable issues, it nails the core of what I wanted from the game. It has a huge roster of characters, great performances, fantastic presentation and modes that will have you coming back to the game for a long time to come.
The first thing I did was jump into the game’s story mode, which here is called Episode Battle. Unlike other Dragon Ball game story modes which have you play through the series’ key fights in order from beginning to end, Sparking! Zero changes things up a bit by having the story broken up by character. You’ll have 8 characters to choose from and you’ll play through their individual story and engage in key fights from their story. This does unfortunately result in some cool moments being skipped or only available from the perspective of one character. One really cool thing about this mode though is the addition of Sparking Episodes. These combine the What-If scenarios that featured in Tenkaichi 3 but this time they can occur right in the story mode if certain conditions in specific fights are met. They then divert the timeline to show a new non-canon what-if scenario that offers a nice bit of freshness to the Dragon Ball story, especially for those that are very familiar with the source material. The only downside is that the unlock conditions for these Sparking Episodes are often difficult to find, fully understand or clearly know what the requirements to unlock them are. Looking up the mission details in the pause menu will provide a hint to what’s required to achieve the alternate path outcome but not specifics e.g ‘Beat Majin Buu quickly’ but not tell you the definition of what ‘quickly’ is.
My only other gripe with the main story mode of the game is how quite a lot of it is presented as a slideshow. While there are in-engine cutscenes that are fully voiced and scattered throughout the mode, a large number of the story is shown as a still image on screen with accompanying text of what’s going on in the scene. These are fairly short and the focus is clearly designed to get you onto the next fight as soon as possible but I would have loved for the story mode to be fully voiced and fleshed out similarly to how the earlier Naruto Ninja Storm games or even how DBZ: Kakarot did it, but what is here is fine for a moment to moment refresher of the series. It does make me wonder how easily someone who isn’t familiar with Dragon Ball, it’s story and characters would be able to follow along with the overall story though.
Outside of the story, the game does feature a number of other modes you’ll be able to enjoy, with a number of them being staples in the fighting game genre. There’s a practise/training mode, battle mode that can be enjoyed against a cpu, player vs player or even online against others in ranked mode, a fun tournament mode that replicates the conditions of a number of Dragon Ball’s key tournaments and introduces some fun battle limitations and also a new mode called Custom Battle. I believe this is going to be the mode that keeps people coming back to the game, especially those not interested in ranked online, for a long time to come. This mode allows you to create your own what-if scenarios, including custom fights and tailor things like the cutscenes, dialogue, camera angles etc that take place before, during and after the fights. You can even introduce your own custom win conditions, battle limitations and key events that occur when specific conditions are met, allowing you to create the battles you’ve always dreamed of, or play the custom battles others have created and shared online. Because yes, after creating, as long as you’re able to beat the mission you’ve crafted, you’re able to share it for the world to enjoy.
The launch roster sports a very impressive 183 characters, featuring characters from all across the series’ 40 year run. It is missing a few key characters that I would have love to have seen, but the introduction of Super characters into the Tenkaichi series for the first time is an easy trade-off. It is also confirmed that even more characters will be coming to the game in post launch DLC which will take the player count to over 200. I loved that each character does have their own individual specs that make them feel slightly different than another even though each character is capable of utilising the same fundamental set of moves. And seeing the androids not able to charge Ki, or Whis being able to auto dodge plays into their attributes from the manga and was a nice added touch. You’ll also get to witness some cool character moments between specific characters as they face off, which are always awesome to see and offer plenty of references and Easter eggs to events from the anime that fans will recognise.
From a presentation standpoint, Sparking! Zero is absolutely amazing. The character models, colours, and the vibrant and destructive environments looks like they’ve been pulled right out of the manga. The game is fast paced and very flashy and feels like you’re right there watching your favourite fights play out. It also really sounds like Dragon Ball. I don’t mean that just because the amazing voice cast all came back to re-record new lines of dialogue for the game and give stellar performances, but everything from the Ki blasts, the punches, the teleportation sounds the charging aura of the characters, it’s all perfect and really sells that this is Dragon Ball.
At the forefront of the game is it’s combat, and it’s been quite some time since I’ve played Tenkaichi 3, but I was quickly reminded just how deep the combat system can be in a fighting game where everyone is able to utilise the same fundamental move set. It’s not on the level of Tekken for example, when it comes to complexity and competitiveness. But there’s still a lot of nuance and strategy required to be successful. Such as learning how to read the actions of certain characters, knowing when it’s worthwhile spending a vanish to not get hit or timing a revenge counter to gain the upper hand, knowing when it’s the best time to fly in and perform a rush attack vs pushing back and utilitising the time to charge up ki to be able to perform a special or ultimate attack or keep it banked to spend on defensive manoeuvres. The game really keeps you on your toes at all times and ensures you stay engaged and focused. Because in a game as fast paced as this, battles can turn at the flick of a switch if you make a mistake and your opponent takes the opportunity to punish you.
When it comes to the minor issues I had with my experience of Sparking! Zero, there was the aforementioned choice to have the story be largely slideshows, I would have also loved if there were more fully voiced scenes, or at least consistency with when moments would be fully text based or performed because the performances when we get them are awesome. I also feel like the game all-round could do a better job at explaining key things. There’s the alternate path requirements I touched on, but also core things such as detailing each part of the menu UI, strategies, explanations on when to defend and when different defensive methods are more valuable than others etc and even mechanics such as why and how to collect the Dragon Balls which are needed to be able to make wishes and ties into the accessories and unlock able s side of the game. Explanations for some of these concepts are available but hidden away within reference menus and I feel like a better implementation would help ease the overall learning curve of the game, especially for new players. I also really hope that Spike Chunsoft find a way to be able to extend local multiplayer further than just being available on one stage. Given that the only available stage is the very bare Hyperbolic Time Chamber, I’m going to assume this is caused by a technical constraint, I just hope it’s an option that’s still looked at in future given it’s something I utilise when playing with family at home.
Overall, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a great 3D arena fighter that honours the core Dragon Ball series and is also a celebration of the classic, and much loved Tenkaichi series. It’s currently the best looking Dragon Ball game thanks to its stellar presentation and its various modes will appeal to all players, no matter how seriously you like to play your fighting games. While it’s not without some issues, it still nails most of what it sets out to do, and I really hope we don’t have to wait another 17 years for the next follow up.
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9
- + Huge cast of playable characters
- + Looks and sounds just like Dragon Ball
- + Modes that offer a lot of replayability
- + Some really cool What-If scenarios
- - Doesn’t explain the core concepts overly well
- - Would have liked less slideshows in the story mode
