Four hours. Almost 4 hours, that’s the time Bandai Namco gave me for the latest hands-on preview of Dragon Ball Sparking Zero a month before its release. It’s one of the most anticipated games of this year, because on the one hand, the series is making its big comeback after 17 years of absence and unbearable waiting, but also because it decided to bring together all the ingredients that fans of Dragon Ball and spectacular fighting games demand. Today, I’m going to give you new details on the game, on the gameplay, on some elements of the development, because I also had the opportunity to talk with Jun Furutani, the producer, but above all I’m going to show you new and exclusive gameplay of all the characters from Dragon Ball GT, but also those from the OAVs like Thales, Metal Cooler, Bojack, C-15, Janemba, Tapion, Garlic Jr, Baddack and many more. Do you like beautiful images? Do you like the show? Do you like explosions? Stay tuned, I’ll treat you…
First thing to know and that I can confirm to you, is that there will be many more characters than the 164 that were announced so far. I know that the information leaked in recent days following the hacking of the Famitsu editorial staff, but also of the game’s cover that was found in the wild, but yes it’s true, at the launch of Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, there will be more than 180 fighters. It’s simply a record and it’s a wish on the part of the developers to please the players as much as possible. Spike Chunsoft knows that this Sparking Zero is highly anticipated and they have done everything to be as generous as possible. More than 180 characters therefore, knowing that DLC will further enrich the roster, we are clearly hitting the record of the entire video game, it’s pretty insane. By the way, Goku version Dragon Ball Daima will be in the game, but to get it, you will have to pre-order the game, because it is the pre-order bonus. The character appeared in the build I had, but it was locked and I am not allowed to show it to you by the way.
200+ CHARACTERS WHEN DLC COMES OUT
So yes, out of the 182 fighters that we will have in this Sparking Zero, some characters like Goku, Vegeta, Trunks or Gohan can appear in 10 different versions. Normal Goku, Goku Kaioken, Goku Super Saiyajin 1, Saiyajin 2, Saiyajin 3, Blue Saiyajin, Ultra Instinct, etc etc. For some, this is how the developers artificially inflate the roster and even if most of these duplicates allow transformation to higher stages, I wanted to know why the development studio multiplied certain characters so much and if they had thought about making only one single version of Goku or Vegeta with all the transformations and all the attacks available? Well Jun Furutani, who is the producer of Sparking Zero, told me that it was mentioned of course, but that this choice is not viable. Why? Simply because characters like Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks and others have evolved enormously over the arcs and years and it was complicated to unify everything. But that’s not all, the developers also take into account that players also have their preferences. For example, some will love Goku Super Saiyajin 2 and hate Goku Saiyajin Blue, which is also my case. So by choosing a character pre-disposed to be playable in a particular state, a specific transformation, we please the player and above all we save a lot of time. Because the guy who doesn’t like Goku Saiyajin Blue is not going to bother transforming Goku up to this stage. And then you also have to imagine the number of manipulations to do with so many transformations, it quickly becomes a mess. And what Jun Furutani says, it makes sense, it’s even quite relentless.
FUN AND TAPE FIRST, BALANCE AFTER
I also mentioned the balance in the game, because in any self-respecting fighting game, what we are looking for is balance in the characters, that one character does not have the advantage over others, and let’s not lie to ourselves, in the Budokai Tenkaichi series, balance has never been a priority and that’s ok in truth. And it’s even logical. Mr Satan, Yajirobe or even Babidi cannot compete against a Broly, a Gogeta or a Goku Ultra Instinct, it’s not logical. The presence of these characters that I can describe as wacky are there for fun, to tell ourselves that we can play them, even if they remain limited in their power and their attacks and it’s not serious. It’s something that is accepted. If we want to win a fight, whether locally, online or in a tournament, we obviously take the characters who have the best chance of defeating the others.
Regarding the gameplay, almost everything has been said about Sparking Zero and we know it, it’s the gameplay of Budokai Tenkaichi 3, but more evolved, more spectacular, with new elements to make the fights even more faithful to the anime. On this point, the sensations are still as good and for this 2nd hands-on session, I was able to go a little further in the subtleties and I found in particular how we could achieve the ultra dynamic dodges that we could see in some trailers. In fact, these ultra stylish dodges are triggered as soon as you manage to use perception in the right timing, like a perfect dodge and in this case, the little animation takes place. It’s not easy and given the mess that are the fights in Sparking Zero, I might as well tell you that placing a perfect perception will not be every time. But one thing is sure, when you take it out, it’s total satisfaction.
PAY FOR YOUR OFFICIAL MUSIC!
This 2nd preview hands-on was also the opportunity for me to go further in the Story mode, the famous Episode Battle, since Bandai Namco had given us 30 minutes to do Goku’s story and 30 minutes to test Black Goku’s. Which means that yes, the DBZ arc will not be the only playable arc and I am very happy about it, because it is true that the studios tend to bore us with Freezer, Cell and Buu. OK, these are the original arcs, but after 35 years, we know everything by heart and it’s a bit annoying. So here, we are going to talk about Dragon Ball Super, but Jun Futurani still specified that the Story mode will be less elaborate than Dragon Ball Kakarot for example, which is a real narrative solo experience, while Sparking Zero is more about the fights. On the other hand, for the Dragon Ball GT arc, it is not planned that we enter it and it is a shame. Even if it is not a very popular arc, I would have loved for a studio to try it.
The last point I would like to mention is the music. I saw that the information had circulated a little on social networks, but not necessarily officially, or at least there was no specific announcement on this point, but the official music of the anime will be present in the game. In Japan, they will be integrated into the Ultimate version, while in the rest of the world, there will be two packs to download, two paid packs obviously. Bandai Namco knows perfectly well what it takes by offering them as additional content to pay for, because it is obvious that everyone will dig into their pockets to pay for the official music. In truth, I am salivating in advance, but it will be crazy to hear Head Cha-la, We Gotta Power or Dan Dan in the game, not to mention the rest of the official sounds.
That’s what I could tell you for this last preview of Dragon Ball Sparking Zero before the release in a month. I hope that this information has informed you well, that these unpublished images have also delighted you. I literally have 4 hours of gameplay footage on my hard drive, so I can tell you that I’m ready for the full test. Well, it will be in 1 month to know whether or not Dragon Ball Sparking Zero will be the banger that was promised…