After many months of waiting, finally came one of the most anticipated games of the Dragon Ball franchise, known as DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO, a title that came to recover the classic style of gameplay seen in one of the most important sagas of all, Budokai Tenkaichi. And since its announcement a lot of information was unveiled, such as game modes, trailers where you could see the graphic quality that this would have and especially the persoanjes, being that it sought to be the most ambitious with a staff of 182 characters covering the main plots of the work. With that said, is this the best Dragon Ball game ever?
The story of DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO
One of the first points to touch to know DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO is the story, and as many expected, each of the sagas seen throughout countless adaptations will be told: the Saiyajin saga, Freezer’s saga, Cell’s saga, etc. But in this game they have different spices that may attract the attention of fans, the main one being the ability to change the story as it is normally known, although this will only affect the specific combat and not the main plot.
For example, as soon as the game starts, in the Saiyajin saga, Goku has to go to fight against Raditz who has taken Gohan, for this, in the original story, Piccolo proposes to make a truce and go for the boy, but in DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO we are given a choice whether to take the Namekian’s help or go on his own. If he decides to go alone, it will be Krillin who will accompany us, so the battle will be Goku and Krillin against Raditz, although the final outcome will be the same as everyone knows, but reaching this with another route can be interesting.
On the other hand, although we know the same story that has been seen in the past, DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO adds a much more interesting way of looking at it, in this case we will be able to choose several main characters and go through the main plot from their point of view, fighting their battles. That is why from the story menu, in addition to Goku, we can use Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo or even villains like Freezer or Goku Black, which will give even more fun to relive a story that has marked many over time.
The gameplay of DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO
The story being an important aspect, what is really key in this game is its gameplay, and the most fanatical fans of the iconic Budokai Tenkaichi saga will feel right at home, as this game really takes all the basics seen throughout the saga and enhances it in an excellent way. Each attack is executed in the same way as it was known at the time: quick hits with one button, small bursts with another, combos that are executed by combining these two buttons and the devastating attacks that each character has in his repertoire.
The Kamehameha, Galick Ho, the mythical Genki-dama, all the attacks seen throughout the series are executed by their corresponding characters, being that we will have to charge our ki with one button and then with another while we do it we perform our favorite attack at the cost of a little of the energy collected. In addition, each of the characters has two extra abilities that will give you some advantages and that follow the line of what we have seen in the story: the most current variations of Goku can teleport, Kid Buu sleeps to recover energy or Hit can move in time to surprise the opponent.
But to be able to perform these types of skills, you must obtain points from the skill bar, which allow you to perform these moves, but above all open a very dear possibility and that fans of the Dragon Ball franchise love: the transformations. And it is that this movement so characteristic in so many characters like the Saiyajin with their levels, Freezer with his different forms or Cell reaching his perfect form as it was known, will be present in DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO, and the variety will be total, adding many more ways to fight.
In addition to these transformations, we must talk about the fusions, and there are more than two characters who can do it besides Goku and Vegeta, as both Goten/Trunks and Caulifla/Kale have this ability, which can be executed if they are both in the team and with the necessary points. This is also very reminiscent of the Budokai Tenkaichi saga and, as we mentioned, this game takes a lot from its “spiritual predecessor”.
Además de las habilidades, la movilidad en este juego es vital, ya que a diferencia de lo visto en una de las últimas entregas centradas en el combate como lo es FighterZ, este nos da una libertada total de movimiento en los campos de batalla que además son muy amplios y completamente destructibles.
En ellos podremos caminar, correr, saltar y sobre todo volar por todos lados para combatir, y aunque puede llegar a ser tedioso ir acercándose a tu rival, DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO arregla esto con el modo “persecución” que, a cambio de un poco de ki, te lleva de frente a tu rival. Con esto no se pierde el frenetismo de la batalla y se pueden disfrutar al máximo.
The character roster in DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO
Undoubtedly this was one of the most talked about points all over the internet, as soon as the game was announced, will there be many characters, will a few come out and then all the others will be paid, and although many were impatient, the truth is that the template seen in DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO is excellent. With 182 characters available out of the box, not only are the main faces you would expect to see covered, but they also took the trouble to bring in less important characters, but who are a perfect addition to the roster such as: Freezer’s Soldier, Cui or Ribrianne.
With these, the variety at the time of playing is impressive, being that DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO respects the power ranks, since if, for example, Jiren and Saibaman face each other, the former will win because of the great difference in power. What remains to be seen is how these differences affect the online fights and if it can become a problem for all the fights to have the same type of characters, but there are so many characters that even those in the top of power are many: Jiren himself, Goku Ultrainstinct, Whis, Bills or Gogeta SSJ4 and yes, even the GT saga is in the game.
Similarly, although the roster is the most complete of all and will be large enough to give dozens of hours of entertainment, having fun with a variety of the largest that can be found in a game, also in the future more characters will arrive. And is that the missing, although mostly minor, there are also many that could have been output, such as those seen in Dragon Ball: Super Hero, the latest film in the franchise and has a repertoire that will add in the future.
The game modes of DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO
Another point to touch on in this new game is the game modes, and with so many characters available, fans will want to use them to the fullest, which is why DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO doesn’t cut corners when it comes to available game modes. From the start, besides the story mode that we commented, there are several ways to play, such as the most basic being the training camp, where you can choose a “guided tour” to learn how to play or free training to master each character.
After this we have the classic battle mode, where you can compete against the CPU or online, having in turn different modes within this, and is that the fights can be by team 5 vs. 5 or go down to 1 vs. 1, even for the most experienced can play variations as 1 vs. 5. Here you can also choose the map where to fight, being that, although they are few, they present some of the most important seen in the history of Dragon Ball, as the planet Namekkusei, The Chamber of Time or the Martial Arts Tournament.
And with this opens another game mode: the World Tournament, where you can not only compete in this tournament so representative of the franchise, but the different ones that were given throughout history, such as Cell or the Tournament of the Force, each with its own established rules. And if none of these convince you, you can set up your own tournament with your own rules to find the strongest character or player, since these can also be played online.
But it’s not all about fighting in DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO, since in addition to the modes of this style, the game has other more “simple” modes, such as a store where you can buy accessories, costumes, music or business cards and several characters that will be unlocked only here. In addition, we find in this part with the option to customize, and is that each character can further raise its power by placing skill items of all kinds, such as to charge ki faster or a tougher defense. Although there is also room for simpler things, such as gestures and outfits that are obtained either in the store or by playing the story.
In addition to this, among the extra options, such as the gallery where you can find information about the characters to refresh your memory and see your stats, there is a section called “Get out of there…” which allows us to invoke one of the three dragons of the wishes seen in the series: Shenron, Porunga or the Divine Dragon to grant us a wish, which can be more money, new aesthetic objects or, best of all, new characters. And for this you need to get the dragon spheres, which are found by completing the story missions or with side quests and challenges that Zeno Sama himself will give us.
Custom Battle mode
And although the aforementioned modes are very important, without a doubt the most striking of the additions is the so-called “Custom Battle”, where players will be able to create their own battle scenario: from the characters involved, the combat environment or more. This will give a great opportunity for fans to create their desired scenes with every single detail changed to their choice.
But if you are one of those who don’t like to go to all the trouble of making some of these fights that are awaited by the whole community, DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO also brings an option that will make everyone happy: the World Library. Here all fans will be able to share their work, with a ranking system that will filter the best ones and where we will surely experience the most striking stories, coming from the minds of some of the best players of the franchise.
Graphics and Sound of DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO
Finally, one of the most important points to talk about DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO its graphics, which had already dazzled many with the first trailers and exploited the full capacity of the graphics engine Unreal Engine 5. But once you start playing the title, everything seen is improved: the scenarios (completely destructible), reflexes, movements and more are made with a level at the height of the current generation consoles.
But without a doubt, the ones that get all the praise are the characters, made with the highest technical quality and that give the feeling of having come out of the anime to be played. Every detail of these characters is made with total care and the scenes where we see them transforming will make the hair of more than one fan of the franchise or someone who is not very close to it stand on end due to their impressive quality.
As an added bonus, as well as the characters, the visual effects of the attacks get all the praise in DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO, being that every hit, kamehameha or ki blast no matter how small it is explodes in a similar way to how it was seen in the animated series. With these points we can say that graphically the game is up to expectations and even surprised even more by the care of its details.
As for the sound section, this is also at the height, being that the main one, the voices of the characters, can be enjoyed either dubbed into English or with the original Japanese voices, to live an experience as close to the original work, with what is available is equally enjoyable. For its part, the soundtrack is excellent, with a repertoire of songs that fit perfectly to the situation we are living and that will further elevate the excitement of each battle or calm us after these.
Conclusion
After months of waiting for the release of this game and many more for the appearance of a worthy successor to the Budokai Tenkaichi saga, it can be said with total certainty that DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO managed to do so not only with flying colors, but to surpass what was seen with the previous installments, both in technical quality and content. Thanks to everything mentioned in this review, this is the definitive Dragon Ball game, which will be loved by fans of the franchise, as well as those outside the world, who will find an almost perfect fighting game.
Let’s remember that DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO will be officially released on October 11 for Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 5 and PC consoles, although those who have purchased any of the special versions are already playing it since October 7. If you haven’t got the game yet, you can purchase it from this official link.