I still remember it as if it were yesterday when my mom purchased a copy of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (BT3). I played many Budokai games beforehand, so of course, I had to get my hands on the latest one at the time. However, I was not ready for the amount of content this game would have. With a plethora of fun offline modes, a huge roster of 162 characters, a fantastic library of music, and a bunch of Dragon Ball characters just talking to you on the menu screens, Budokai Tenkaichi 3 became a masterpiece in my eyes. Honestly, that is the biggest reason I am a Dragon Ball fan to this day. Fast forward 17 years later, and here I am, writing a review for the next iteration of the Budokai Tenkaichi series: Dragon Ball Sparking ZERO.
This game is essentially Budokai Tenkaichi 4, a title many of us could only dream about. Due to the gravity of that name, fans had massive expectations for it, including myself. Does Dragon Ball Sparking ZERO live up to its predecessor? Let’s talk about it!
Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO Has A Huge Roster of 182 Characters!
Arguably, the biggest part of this game fans were looking forward to is the character roster. As stated previously, Budokai Tenkaichi 3 had 162 characters in its roster, making it the biggest fighting game roster at the time. For the past 17 years, this left fans dreaming about how a potential Budokai Tenkaichi 4 would have even more characters, especially with the latest franchise inclusions of Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball Legends, Dragon Ball Daima, and more. Having said all of that, I am proud to say that Dragon Ball Sparking ZERO has 182 characters in its launch roster, not counting the upcoming DLC characters that are coming soon. Pretty much every Dragon Ball era is represented in this roster. However, I personally think that we are missing out on a few characters.
In particular, there is barely any representation of the original Dragon Ball story except for Kid Goku. I was disappointed not to see warriors like Demon King Piccolo, General Blue, and Mercenary Tao. There are also characters like Supreme Kai and Pikkon who didn’t make it to the final cut. Sure, some of these characters could potentially be DLC, but I was at least hoping for more OG Dragon Ball representation aside from Kid Goku.
Regardless, the final roster is just enough to satisfy Dragon Ball fans. The inclusion of the Frieza Soldier character shows that the developers understand how important it is to include even the smallest of side characters in the roster. Additionally, many characters in the game have unique special character intros with other characters before battle. The previous Budokai Tenkaichi games also had this, so it’s nice to see that Sparking Zero continues the tradition. Overall, I look forward to seeing how this roster develops!
Unlocking Characters, Collecting Dragon Balls, and Getting Merch
Unlocking characters in Sparking ZERO can be done in a few ways. You can either play through the story, gather the Dragon Balls and wish for some, or go to the shop. That’s right, you can collect the Dragon Balls in this game to wish for many rewards. You can summon either Shenron, Porunga, or Super Shenron for different strength levels of wishes. Collecting Dragon Balls comes from doing daily missions that Whis and Zen-Oh ask of you. Additionally, the shop consists of ability items for characters, costumes, emote voice lines, BGMs, and much more. So have some fun trying to grind for everything you can get in the game!
A Lackluster Story Mode Filled With Cool What-If Scenarios
The story of Dragon Ball is vast, with 40 years’ worth of explosive content. Many of the previous Dragon Ball games have awesome story modes that try to make you invested. Even if I’ve seen the Dragon Ball story so many times, each game I’ve played told it uniquely. Unfortunately, I really can’t say the same about Sparking ZERO‘s story mode.
For context, in Sparking ZERO, Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo, Frieza, and Goku Black all have episode battles that you can choose from. Within these episode battles, you play their entire character arcs in a series of fights. The cool thing about this mode, though, is that you can alter their stories in a vastly different direction from the canon by completing certain battle objectives or making certain on-screen decisions. For example, what if Krillin fought against Raditz with Goku rather than Piccolo? What-If scenarios were one of the coolest parts of Budokai Tenkaichi 3, so it’s great to see them come back.
However, the What-If paths are the only real enjoyable part of this story mode. There is no Dragon Ball GT story, nothing from the movies, and not even anything from the original Dragon Ball. Everything is just all of Dragon Ball Z to the end of Super‘s Tournament of Power. Even then, quite a few battles from Z and Super are skipped. Combine that with episode battles that are filled with mostly screenshots and reels to tell a story, and it just feels lackluster compared to its predecessors. If you are someone looking to learn the Dragon Ball story through a game, you are much better off playing Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.
Suggestions
I would have much preferred that they had the story mode consist of separate modes for What-If fights, Dragon Ball Z arcs, Dragon Ball GT arcs, Dragon Ball movies, and Dragon Ball Super arcs. They could’ve then added Daima, the original Dragon Ball, and other stories as DLC. It would’ve been very nice if they added enough original Dragon Ball characters to have the story mode for it, too, but we can’t all have what we want, I guess. I could live with the style they used to tell the story in terms of using screenshots, reels, and some cutscenes to simplify things, but at least have the entire Dragon Ball story so far in the game. But hey, if you don’t see a Dragon Ball story that’s playable in episode battles, you can make one!
Make Your Own What-If Story?!
As mentioned earlier, the previous Budokai Tenkaichi games were known for their fun What-If story battles. Sparking ZERO takes this to another level, allowing players to make their own custom battles. This custom battle mode actually has a lot of surprising depth to it! You can pick which characters appear in your story, modify how cutscenes will play out, control what characters will say in a scene, and much more. Even tiny details, such as picking which music you want to play in a scene or trigger effects in battle, make it feel like you are making a movie. For players who don’t want to work too hard to make a custom battle, there’s a simple version that allows you to make a story very easily. There’s even a Bonus Battle mode where you can enjoy custom battles that the developers made.
But that’s not all! You can also send the custom battles you created straight to the internet through the World Library. Players worldwide have uploaded battles they’ve created to this feature, and it’s so awesome. Some players even went out of their way to make story battles that never made it into the actual story mode, like Goku and Vegeta vs the Meta Coolers. Others have gotten creative, creating What-If stories like What if Hercule beat all of the Fusion characters or What if Yamcha beat Jiren in the Tournament of Power?
I think this is a fascinating feature to have for this game, as you could get lost making and playing stories for days, months, and even years. I’m very curious to see if the developers plan to update it with more content in the future.
Chi-Chi’s Encyclopedia Is Back, and It’s Better Than Before!
Another fan-favorite mode from Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is back in Sparking ZERO: the Encyclopedia! In BT3, the Encyclopedia had Chi-Chi providing her opinions about all of the characters in the entire roster. This time around, in Sparking ZERO, she is accompanied by Bulma and Videl which looks like a Discord call. It’s really cool to see all three of their inputs on certain characters that they might’ve never met before in the canon story. By the way, Chi-Chi still calls Super Saiyan characters delinquents, so get hyped about that.
Honestly, though, this game just has that “family-friendly” vibe overall. As you switch menus in the main menu screen, you see Goku going from area to area, similar to how Naruto does in the Ultimate Ninja Storm games. Each area has some of Goku’s friends, and they interact with each other. For example, Goku appears on Dende’s Lookout in the Shenron menu and appears on Hercule’s house in the Encyclopedia menu. It takes me back to how the characters would appear in the BT3 menus, so I hope new Dragon Ball fans appreciate this a lot.
High-Speed Combat With a Ton of Depth!
I’m going to be completely honest: I wasn’t ready for the depth of this game. It still feels like the Budokai Tenkaichi games, but its combat is a lot more evolved. You have so many defensive options to get the opponent off of you, such as perception, revenge counter, super counter, and much more. Additionally, the offensive options you have to overwhelm your opponent are smash attacks, teleports, overheads, lows, grabs, and guard crushes. You can also dash behind your opponent from a far distance to get straight into action and do fancy combos.
Having said all of that, many of the options in this game have answers to them, including combos, because you can break out of them. This fills the game with interactions where you can anticipate the opponent’s next move because of how predictable they are. If this sounds overwhelming to you, don’t worry, as the game has a helpful tutorial. The training mode is also something worth looking at because it has a ton of features. I think this game does a really good job of making Xenoverse, Raging Blast, and Budokai Tenkaichi players feel at home with the gameplay, so give it a shot!
Also, the fan-favorite beam clash mechanic is back! There are also grab-and-rush attack clashes that keep the battle tension heated. Moreover, I really love how cool some of the super attacks look in the game. Some of them look like they are straight out of the scenes the developers took it from. However, Goku’s Meteor Combination attack is nowhere to be found in this game, and it personally pains me. It’s such a beautiful move, and I figured it would look great in Sparking ZERO. Fingers crossed that the developers add it to the game sometime in the future.
Engaging and Comfortable Online Experience
With every fighting game that is released, the online experience is always one of the biggest concerns. Players want to be able to compete against others worldwide or even fight against their friends. Additionally, people want to know if the netcode is fine so that connectivity issues are rarely encountered. That being said, I’m proud to declare that Sparking ZERO‘s online modes are good enough to suit your needs. You have your typical player matches, ranked matches, and lobbies, along with an online tournament mode. In tournament mode, you can create a tournament and customize it in a way that fits how you want to compete. Similar to the previous games, you can play the Cell Games, Other World Tournament, Yamcha Games, and much more.
As far as connectivity goes, Sparking ZERO is actually not bad! Most of the fights I experienced have felt very comfortable with no lag. There were a few matches I played where there were hiccups, but they were very rare. This game does a great job at trying its best to put you up against players who have a great connection with you.
Team Building
However, something that is present in both the online and offline competitive modes is DP battles. The way DP battles work is that each character on the roster has a particular number of points that they are worth. You have to make a team that has a total of 15 points, so you have to be very smart with the teams you make. I personally got lost creating different teams that have different strategies. For example, I might want a team filled with characters who can heal themselves. I also might want a team of people who only have Afterimage Strike as a skill so that I can teleport attacks freely. Once you start trying to make teams that fit the way you want to play, the game starts to open up a lot!
Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO Review – The Budokai Tenkaichi 4 You’ve Been Waiting For!
Overall, I think Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO is a solid product that gets the important jobs done. The character roster is even bigger than BT3‘s, you can experience and make your own What-Ifs stories, and Chi-Chi’s encyclopedia is back! While the story mode is a bit lacking, and the roster is missing a lot of original Dragon Ball characters, such as Demon King Piccolo, it’s okay! You can have a group hangout with your friends, play a whole bunch of matches against each other, and have so much fun with the presentation and combat. So what are you waiting for?! Budokai Tenkaichi 4 awaits your purchase!
Disclaimer: Bandai Namco provided Final Weapon with a PlayStation 5 copy of Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero for review purposes.
