Dragon Ball Sparking Zero: A unique experience. A fighting game that will test both the strategy and nostalgia of Dragon Ball fans.
Image credit: PlayStation / Sony Interactive Entertainment promotional art.
Source: PlayStation
Summary
- Name of the game: Dragon Ball Sparking Zero
- Launch dateOctober 8, 2024
- DeveloperSpike Chunksoft
- Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
- Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox XIS, PC
- Genre3D Fighting, Action
- ContextBudokai Tenkaichi: It is the successor of our beloved childhood saga Budokai Tenkaichi, a fighting game based on the Dragon Ball universe, with a huge roster of characters, frenetic combat and mechanics faithful to the anime.
History and narrative
The narrative follows the line of fighting games based on the world of Dragon Ball, specifically focusing on Dragon Ball Z and the most recent Super up to the power saga. The story is presented in a straightforward manner with the most important points of each saga dividing it by characters, Goku being the story with the most events, Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan, Trunks from the future, Jiren and Goku Black. Each character has their own line of events and What If, which are battles based on what would have happened if a character did X action instead of the one we saw in the anime. These characters are well represented.
The story of Budokai Tenkaichi was never his forte, but it focuses more on combat. This time the story is presented in photo mode and at some points with some cinematics, which may generate a dislike on the part of some players, however it is not an impediment to enjoy the story and to tell the truth, those who play Dragon Ball already know what the story is about and we know the events of the anime very well. Perhaps here the point to consider is that it is very direct and skips several battles of several characters that I consider memorable, so you feel that the story moves very fast.
The positive thing is that this complements the What ifs very well, if you go through them you will find interesting stories based on an alternative world where the decisions of the characters were different, this helps to increase the number of hours of gameplay and not feel like the typical dragon ball game with the same story that we all already know.
Additionally, the game has a custom battle mode where you can find battles already made by the game known as Additional Battles, which are alternative battles to the story, some follow a very small story and others do not. In my opinion, these battles are the least attractive of the game and even creating your own battles was not something interesting to me, plus the victory conditions of these battles are sometimes ridiculous at times, where you must beat the opponent in a certain time, but they do not place a timer during the battle or at the time of reading what you must do to win which to understand the conditions could resort to look for other means those conditions. This seems to me a development error, I had never seen in a game that they put challenges with time without telling you how much time you have and that makes it sometimes annoying, because you can continue fighting without knowing that you have lost the battle because you do not know how much time you have to do it and this also happens in the What if of the main story.
The story is acceptable for the What if, if there were not I would say that they did not invest much in this part, but knowing that the budokai tenkaichi were not his forte it seems to me that what they have is acceptable, although it could be better. The story can offer you about 15 hours approximately taking it to 100% depending on the skill of the player.
Gameplay
The most important part for a fighting game, its gameplay. My favorite characters are: Gogeta SS4, Gogeta Blue, Goku SS4, Gohan and Broly (not very good in combat, but I like him as a character). What are your favorite characters in the game?
The combat system is deep, with mechanics of combos, real-time transformations and ultimate attacks. The combat maintains the same essence of the budokai tenkaichi of that PS2, it brought me back to my childhood and brought me many memories, really in this section you can see that they invested everything because the level of detail in combat is excellent and this is the best of the game. Taking into account that the game has 182 characters, yes within that amount we have multiple versions of each character, for example, Goku has about 20 versions.
The game has a high replayability, having so many characters with different mechanics, combos and moves, each one has its own essence as we would see in the anime, each one has its own special attacks and there are also designs for each one that can be purchased in the in-game store with in-game money, the famous Zeni. In addition to that the game offers other game modes such as tournaments and an online mode.
Its controls are fluid, you can opt for the new controls set by the game or the classic version with the controls of the PS2 games, it is up to the player's choice. It offers a somewhat short tutorial, but then you can find more tutorials in the menu to improve your skills. Mind you, I find it has a demanding learning curve for new players to master the mechanics and controls, which can be frustrating for some, though it shouldn't ruin the experience.
Graphics and visual design
There really isn't much to say, impressive character modeling, with detailed textures and fluid animations. Art style faithful to the anime, with spectacular visual effects, seeing those effects in practice is like watching the anime enhanced. Compared to other fighting games, it is at the height of the best graphically, the maps are very well done and have their animation when for example Namekusein is destroyed.
Sound and music
Soundtrack with iconic themes of the franchise and new high quality compositions. The startup music is good and the menu music is also good, but only those are the ones I would remember. Striking sound effects, especially in combat.
Excellent voice acting in Japanese and English, although I would have liked them to add Latin American Spanish voices, which is not available nor other languages.
Difficulty and accessibility
Several difficulty levels, I did not pass the normal difficulty and even for those of us who are not very good at this kind of games already this difficulty is enough because it can be challenging even at medium levels for some battles, still I would say it is an easy game because of the options it has for everyone.
It also has some accessibility options, but could be improved in aspects such as subtitles and control settings.
Additional Content
The game has an online mode, where for me here if there is a fall in the game, the combat is excellent both offline and online, but the issue of how the online is designed seems terrible to me. Really, it does not help much that the online is made in waiting rooms, for those who want to play online be prepared to wait quite a long time watching their cell phones waiting for an opponent to appear or join a room where you must wait for the other rivals fight for your turn, an inefficient and unattractive system.
The attraction of this mode is its combat and that's why I think people play it. And don't even try to look for matches to play tournaments because it can take hours to play one. You can also use filters to better find your opponents, although these filters do not seem to me a very good way to search for games and could be better optimized, for example, there is a language filter which is to match you with people who speak your language, but all this does is limit you to find players and the truth is that I go to play and fight with the opponent, I will not talk to that person. The online, it seems to me a gambling idea, but in the long term it will die.
Technical Aspects
Solid performance on PS5 with stable 60 fps and fast load times. I have read of some users with minor bugs, but no serious issues. In my case, I had none and no performance issues so I found the game to be very stable, thus maintaining good quality.
Value for money
The initial price in the store is 70 US dollars plus taxes which vary from country to country. Now, in my case I paid full price, but is it really worth what they charge? If you are a fan of fighting games of this type, dragon ball and the budokai tenkaichi saga if it is worth it for the quality of the combat and if you are going to get everything out of the game. For someone more casual, I wouldn't pay more than $50, so you could wait for a bargain. Still, the game seems to me to be well priced for its fans and its quality justifies it despite its flaws.
Trophies
- Platinum obtained: Yes.
- Percentage of trophies: 100%.
- Estimated time: 20-25 hours. In my case, it took me 30 hours because of the trophy for playing 100 battles. online and its waiting rooms.
- Platinum difficulty: 3 out of 10. It is an easy and fun platinum. Currently, 2.1% of PlayStation players have obtained it.
Conclusion
Dragon Ball: Sparking ZERO is the definitive game for fans of Budokai Tenkaichi and Dragon Ball in general. Its spectacular combat system, faithfulness to the anime and large amount of content make it a must-have title for fighting game lovers. Although it has some weak points, its overall quality positions it as one of the best Dragon Ball games to date.
My final rating for DRAGON BALL SPARKING ZERO is:
4.3/5
