Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero

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Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero

It is that time once again, where we got a new video game entry for the Dragon Ball franchise.

For those who are somehow unfamiliar with the Dragon Ball franchise, Akira Toriyama’s work had its beginning as a weekly entry into Shonen Jump all the way back in 1984 and received its own manga distribution in 1985. Ever since then, it has received multiple adaptations in the form of anime, live-action movies, and video games. There is still more planned, but today we will focus on the new video game entry.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is the 4th one in a series of games called Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi. Each of the entries is either called with numbers in order of their release or their alternative name scheme, which includes Sparking in the name. The third one, called Sparking Meteor, was released in 2007, but many different games have been released since then. Things in the gaming industry and in general have changed quite a lot since then. The Budokai Tenkaichi series has always been very loved by the fans, which brings a lot of pressure with itself on Sparking! Zero. Can it live up to those?

For the sake of including it, this review is based on the Ultimate Edition on Steam. This edition comes with the season pass and some other small cosmetic DLC parts. I appreciate that these come with not needed content, and I will tell you more about those at a later point.

The take on the story

You can indeed experience the main story of Dragon Ball Z in Sparking! Zero. But to be fully honest with you, the way it goes through it is very shortened and dumped down. We are jumping from fight to fight without all the in-betweens. In cutscenes, character models are sometimes a bit stiff, even completely still, and have no movement whatsoever. A funny but interesting feature is that you can change the camera perspective during those scenes and see the scene from the eyes of the character you are playing as. Overall, it does give the important key moments, but if you are new to Dragon Ball, this is not the way to learn and experience the journey of Son Goku and his friends. If I were to write it out here, it would be way too much as well.

Here is how Sparking Zero! presents the story to us. The main course is separated into “Episode Battles”. You pick a character, for example Son Goku, and go through their Episode Battles, namely the main story, albeit in the aforementioned matter. We are going from the beginning of Dragon Ball Z all the way to Zamasu.

Another important part and what makes it interesting are the alternative timelines and occasions that you can experience, called “Sparking Episode”. If you can meet certain conditions in battle, you will get to experience something new and unique. The thing here is that some of these will be very hard to achieve as the game is on the harder side. While there is an easy mode, it also disables the ability to unlock the new Sparking Episodes. To give a rough example without spoiling anything, what if a fight had a different winner? What are the consequences? The possible outcomes and turns the story could have taken are handled fairly well and are an interesting experience. While these are on the shorter side, they are a nice addition.

Besides the Episode Battles, you can select “Custom Battles”. These are another way to experience some of the battles that happened during Dragon Ball Z. This is where the challenge is truly starting. Imagine them as bonus battles with a high LVL and special conditions and restrictions to make it even harder. Those looking for the hardest experience against the game itself will be at home here.

While there are some pre-made ones, you can also make your own Custom Battles. You can make your own battle and change characters’ effects and other elements to create your own experience. You are even able to edit your own event scenes however you want. Now this feature would be amazing if you could share your battles and experience the work of others, wouldn’t it? And that is exactly what we can do. In “World Library” you can share your own Custom Battles and also enjoy those from others. It has a like and ranking system, which makes it easier to find well-received Custom Battles. You will even be able to play as Chi-Chi if you manage to find a Custom Battle with her so go check them out!

Are we still over 9000?

Now let us sit down and talk about the heart of the game, namely combat. For those who played the predecessor, Budokai Tenkaichi 3, I could just say that if you are using classic controls, it is more or less the same as Budokai Tenkaichi 3 with some new elements. It does feel very familiar and seems similar to me, and I consider that a good thing as it is the successor. To manage that after 17 years is quite frankly amazing. The really sad thing is that the tutorials in the game are quite frankly really bad. From some people I talked with, the combat seems really scary and complicated at first but is a joy once you are in there. It is on the hard side, and some story missions, especially their conditions to unlock the Sparking Episodes, make you feel this.

Now what is combat like? This is going to become a bit messy, but please bear with me. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a 3D 1v1 (one versus one) fighting game. We can fly up, so verticality is included. Sometimes your team only has one character and sometimes up to five, and you can switch after a certain amount of time or upon being defeated on your current active one. You have a ki bar, which is your energy for special moves like ki blasts. There are items that change your character’s stats and give bonuses. You can taunt your opponent with emotes as well if that is your thing.

You have your normal attack combo, your heavy attacks, and your special moves. Then you have directional heavy attacks and special moves. Mid-combo you can do follow-up dash attacks. If you want to look more fancy while draining a bit of ki, you can teleport mid combo and mix it up even more. If you want to do a normal jump instead of flying to initiate a combo from a falling attack, that is also possible. Grapple is part of the course as well. You have ki blasts, rush attacks, and ultimate blasts. Techniques like the Solar flare are included in your tools. Defend yourself with blocking, dodging, perfect dodging, or using other means. Some characters can transform in combat; this includes fusions. Again, as this was very important to me, we do have our transformations as they were in Budokai Tenkaichi 3.

There are many more aspects to it, but I will stop here. Please keep in mind that all characters are attacking in their own matter and have their own variations of attacks and moves. They all play a bit different from each other. Oh, and last but not least, the characters do take visible damage, including clothes getting torn apart. This was another thing that was weirdly important to me in Budokai Tenkaichi 3, and I’m glad to see it’s still the same. Overall, the combat feels like a worthy successor.

To go even further beyond

Let me tell you some weird but super interesting details about this game. Many of these were also in Budokai Tenkaichi 3. When you fully charge up your ki bar, it gives a little knockback to your opponents. Some weaker characters, like the original Dragon Ball characters, such as master Roshi, did not have this effect. Thinking about it and trying characters out, it seems to be power-related, but nothing is officially confirmed.

Mentioning charging up your ki, try doing so under water, and you will notice that it is slower than outside of it. The change here is that in Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Androids, who charge ki automatically and cannot do so manually, were safe from this. In Sparking! Zero, they are also affected by it when under water.

If your opponent is unloading on you and you are unable to get out of their combo, you can do something called a “revenge counter”. Now the interesting part only happens if your opponent is countering your revenge counter. This causes a short but cool cutscene and sends you flying.

There are some unique animations between specific characters. If Son Goku Super Saiyajin 3 grapples Majin Buu, instead of his normal throw, he will stretch his cheek and throw him. Vegeta Super Sayajin Blue will do a very cool thing we have seen in the anime when he grapples Goku Black. Another one includes Broly, and there are many more to find for us.

They went as far as to give alternative ultimates, albeit I was only able to discover a single one so far. When Broly (Super) uses his ultimate, which is a rush, and hits an opponent that is close to a wall, it drastically changes what he is doing to his opponent.

The last one I am going to tell you here is about one of my favorites, Master Roshi. He is wearing sunglasses. So a solar flare technique does not work on him. But if you damage him enough and his outfit gets shredded, his sunglasses are gone. You probably guessed it already, but now a solar flare does work on him. Try it out yourself!

It is fascinating that we had those and more details in the game 17 years ago, and even today they stand out.

Online and ranked

Besides the Story you can of course play online. Now interestingly this is where you can play offline as well, naturally against CPU enemies. But hold yourself you are able to play split-screen multiplayer offline as well. This was very unexpected to me but I love that they included this. There is also the option to go into training here. Battle training is the games attempt at teaching you how to play. Personally, I thought it was rather badly executed but maybe there are people out there who find the way it was made good.

The actual online battle can be separated into different parts. First is the normal online battle. You could also call it a casual online battle as it’s really just that. You fight against other players without a ranking or anything attached to it. Playing with your friends is made thankfully easy. Just use a room ID and you can see who is the stronger one.

On the other hand, there is ranked. This is where you go if you want to challenge other players who are trying to be the best at this game. Sadly, I have to warn you. You will face a lot of Vegito’s and Gogeta’s. From my experience at least most people are playing the Characters that tend to be on the high end of the power level.

The last online and offline mode you can play is the beloved World Tournament. Pick a premade one in the spirit of tournaments that actually happened in Dragon Ball, like the Cell Games. Alternatively, you can set it up with specific rules to your liking. To name some you can set a time limit, Hp recovery after a match and allow or deny flying. It has all your typical settings that you will need.

Missions and Wishes

As you play the game, you will almost always get multiple notifications about all the progress you make. Let us take character proficiency and using ultimates as an example. The more you use a character, the higher the proficiency goes. It does have a couple stages at which you get rewards and stops at a certain maximum. The same goes with using ultimates and pretty much everything else you can do in the game. Completing those things is what the challenges are. They are called “Zen-Oh’s Orders”. Additionally, to this, you have “Whis’s Wishes”. Those are more or less the same but different goals and requirements. Completing those or finishing a battle will give you some Zeni to spend. Zeni is the currency used on earth in the Dragon Ball universe and also in this game. On what I will leave for later.

Another way to earn rewards is to collect the title-sharing Dragon Balls. This time around we have all three versions that we can collect. As we have always known, each of them has their own Shenron, and they do come with their own rewards. The way you find or earn the Dragon Balls depends on which ones you want. For some, you simply have to do 10 fights in a specific character’s Episode Battles and for others, you have to finish a Sparking Episode. The wishes include many different things. From more characters and more outfits to simply Zeni. You can stash up on items or wish for more titles. Surprisingly, you can wish for something called “Dragon Orb”. These allow you to simply unlock one of the Sparking Episodes. So, if you are really stuck and cannot fulfill the combat condition for one, you can alternatively look for Dragon Balls.

Shopping and Customization

Now that you have played a fair amount and feel rich, it is time to go shopping. Visit master Roshi, sit on his couch like it’s yours, and start to spend your cash. First, you can buy “Ability Items”. Those change or give stats to your character when you equip them. You have a setting to disable them in online play as they can give an unfair advantage.

Next, very important, you can buy playable characters. While you get some from playing the Episode Battles and specific ones from one of the Shenrons, you will buy most of them right here. To change how they look, you can buy outfits for them as well. You will have a good amount of outfits from Episode Battles as well. Lastly, for characters, you can buy voices. These will give emote voiceovers, and as it sounds, they will change what characters say during emotes.

To change the game itself a bit, you can buy BGM. There’s many to choose from, and I’m sure there will be a couple you will enjoy. For your training sessions against CPU enemies, you can buy strategy items. Equip these on characters and set them as CPU to train against. A CPU with an equipped Strategy Item will behave differently than a normal one. This can be useful if you want to train something specific. The last part of the shop is the player cards. These are just backgrounds for your player card. Do not forget to look at master Roshi’s magazin when you leave to see a good old surprise.

While simple, you do have a player card, which is shown when you do online battles. On page one it shows your player’s level and name. You can select a favorite character and game mode. Additionally, a favorite BGM and stage are also part of it. You may select a small symbol and title to top it off. The second page shows your online ranked match win rate. Also, how many matches you played and won. If you are playing Custom Battles, these are shown here as well. How many posts and replays you did. The number of your favorite battles and the likes you yourself received.

Conclusion

If you are only here for the main story i sadly have to say that you will most likely be disappointed. But if you are here for a good Dragon Ball fighting game, then you are right at home. Scary at first, the depth of the combat with all its combinations and amazing animations will leave you asking for little. The little special interactions you get here and there add a nice finishing touch to it. Crossplay would have been a nice addition but so far, the only thing we know is that we will not have it at launch. This means we might get it later down the line.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is overall, while not without flaws, a worthy successor in the Budokai Tenkaichi series.

Det Bra

  • Depth of combat and combos
  • Amazing animations in combat
  • Addition of custom battles and online function

Det Dåliga

  • Lackluster tutorials
  • Story presentation
  • No cross play at launch
8

Skriven av: Patrick Henkelmann