The Problem with Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero

[「eduard」]

First of all, I do not want to start a ragebait discussion but rather write a detailed critique of the game and its features. Personally, I grew up with the Dragon Ball games and was really looking forward to the fourth installment of the Sparking series. However, after 20 hours of gameplay, it has only turned out to be a nostalgia trip and not the complete product that was promised to us by the community. Once again, the greed of the video game companies has grabbed us by the throat and ruthlessly sold us a demo instead of a full-fledged game. Not to mention that there are still no bug fixes, which should have been easily addressed.

Now, let’s begin with the main points of criticism.

The Story Mode

When I started the game, my goal was to play through the story mode immediately. Many would now say, “But the story has been explained a thousand times; if you want to play the story in detail, just play Dragon Ball: Kakarot.” I must say that the Budokai Tenkaichi series is one, if not the best series of all Dragon Ball games. Bandai Namco should have realized that alongside all the nostalgic players, there are also many new players who have never played a Dragon Ball game and for whom this is the very first Dragon Ball game. Presenting the story through individual characters is simply the most vague and terrible idea they have ever had. I mean, some story mode elements are not even lore-accurate and have little to do with the actual story, like Jiren's. On the other hand, I had to fight Kid Buu three times at the end of Vegeta's storyline before that bastard Goku even finished his damn Genkidama. What surprised me was that Vegeta's story was just straight up over after the Buu Arc, as if he never had a proper fight or moment in Super. I also find it strange how the What-If levels are unlocked; no matter how fast I am, it’s simply not enough for the game to unlock the What-If story despite achieving the alternative goal. Additionally, the entire GT story, as well as the individual Z films and the new Broly film, are missing. Unfortunately, Bandai Namco does not have the licenses for the manga; however, they could have still made an effort to obtain them, as it could have brought more to the game. While Budokai Tenkaichi 3 isn’t particularly great in terms of story, those who played Budokai Tenkaichi 2 will know how good and perfect the story mode was, as both the story and the What-If campaigns were mwah 10/10. You can argue about the CPU; those who struggle against Great Ape Vegeta shouldn’t be surprised why they can’t progress—I found him easy and beat him on the first try. Try playing Jiren's story, where you have to defeat C17, Golden Freezer, Vegeta Blue, and Goku Blue all at once without your health bar getting healed even once. But it’s not just the storytelling in the story mode that is bad, but also those atrocious cutscenes that were sometimes low quality or even just slideshows. It was an incredibly disappointing moment for me. Sometimes, I wish I had just purchased the Standard Edition instead of the Ultimate Edition with the meager storyline. Mind you, the game is only 30 gigabytes in size, which already shows me that we are only getting a skeleton with a bit of flesh for the story mode, but enough about the cooked story mode, let’s move on to the next point.

Character Selection

Who the hell at Bandai thought it would be a good idea to treat individual transformations as separate characters, especially since several characters were simply not imported from the old game into the new one? Many playable characters from Dragon Ball Classic, Dragon Ball GT, and Dragon Ball Z/Super are missing. Examples include Pikkon, C17, Taio Pai Pai, Kid Chi-Chi, Grandpa Gohan, etc. Characters from other games like Hatchyak would have been great, but we as fans are only given the bare minimum that is expected. Game of the Year? More or less unfulfilling when they only release half the content. Cursed be the developers for taking away the best and most fun characters from us. I also find this ugly character select screen incredibly off-putting; I much preferred the style of the old games. The UI of Sparking Zero is also a disaster. I could write thousands of other annoying factors here, but I believe you get what I mean. Here’s a list of characters that are missing: Android 8, Arale, Chi-Chi, Devilman, Fasha, General Blue, King Vegeta, Nail, Nam, Nouva Shenron, Ice Shenron, Tambourine, Supreme Kai, Kibitokai, Garlic Jr. (Base Form), Salza, Zangya, and Pilaf Machine.

Why did I get the Season Pass? Yes, there will be three more DLCs, but quarterly. What do I care about 20 more characters when most of them are again transformations or low-level characters?

Controls and Fighting

One word before I start: Huh?

I spent a lot of time in training mode, but when I try to use what I've learned in practice, it doesn’t even execute. I also don’t understand why they introduced an automation mode for the controller? This isn’t how you learn a fighting game and especially not the controls. I notice that every idiot in ranked plays with this god-awful setting and doesn’t do anything skillful. Moreover, fighting consists only of spamming the square button, and there are no real combos. This is yet another sign of unfinished work. Auto-combos are not real combos, @Bandai Namco. The number of special and ultimate attacks is practically 1:1 compared to the other games, which is why I don’t understand what people were expecting. It’s not like Xenoverse, where you have 3 ultimates + 4 specials. What really frustrates me are the bugs and glitches in ranked. As soon as your opponent has a different controller setting than you and is considered Player 1, you’re screwed. Since I’ve played the old installments, I naturally play on classic, but as soon as the glitch appears, it becomes luck-based how well your opponent plays; otherwise, you’re hard stuck at the B4 rank. I also had the issue where my character just kept charging and didn’t throw a single punch. What the hell is that? Also, the flying speed is way too slow, and it doesn’t register when I press R2 + X + X; instead, it performs a grab. What annoys me the most is the length of the attacks. Once you start the attack, it begins the yapping, and then your opponent destroys you while you watch for 15 seconds as your ass gets handed to you, no cap.

The Maps

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, you guys cooked but also messed up. What the hell is the Tournament of Power map? Where is Kame House? Where is Muscle Tower? Where is Hell? Where is Glacier? Where is Kami’s Lookout? All things that could have been easily included, showing that the game was secretly rushed. If we consider how much time passed between the teaser and the release, the teaser was more of a graphical presentation and ultimately just a cutscene to reignite the hype. The maps are larger, yes, but they could also be prettier and better. While there was some effort, it’s not everything that was promised to us.

Other Game Modes

The tournament mode is just standard; there’s nothing to complain about, but that’s where it ends with the modes. There’s no Ultimate Battle with Sim Dragon, Mission 100, or Survival. They could have also introduced a legacy mode where you could play the old installments. If you remember Tekken 5, that was already possible.

Online Multiplayer

The online multiplayer has significant issues with lags and connection drops. It’s frustrating to face opponents in ranked matches only to be affected by connection problems. Often, you win a match, but the connection drops, causing the results to not count. The player experience suffers tremendously under these technical deficiencies.

Balance and Gameplay

The balance between the characters is catastrophic. Some characters are so overpowered that they seem nearly unbeatable in ranked mode, while others have little to no chance. This leads to an imbalanced gaming experience, where character selection decides victory or defeat instead of the player’s skill. The developers should have invested more time in fine-tuning the characters to create a fair and competitive gaming environment.

[「eduard」]

Does anybody also have this issue with the connection problem and can tell me how to fix it?

[Tuze]

I watched the original angryjoe review of Kakarot game recently, and I also remember what happend to game "The Breakers". Suddenly I'm not so surprised this game's problems. Bandai seems to be some kind of milker/slop publisher, who does checklists and wants to make big money, like ubisoft before collapse (why else would there be 100 ultimate edition available + extra dlcs even for ultimate owner to buy). It's not going to happen but maybe some other publisher should be publishing DB games.

[Grubbs008]

It's just an Arena fighter, Xenoverse was much much better. No idea why it's so expensive.

[Yorae]

Hmmm i havent played it yet but watching the videos i dont find it that amazing like some peoplle overhype it, i am sure its still fun but one thing i find funny is not many talk about the price tag on everything about this game, the company is pure greed with this game and they succeed with this too, they already say how much money they made specially from the european and american fans putting the japanese sales to shame :D

Sad to hear about the issues with story mode i used to love to play it in all games, some more enjoyable than others.

Kakarot had its issues and limitations but i loved the game til was done with it, also played all the tenkaichi, budokais etc before, final bout, legends, battle 22, the sega and nitendo ones :) but this one i will wait a year or so probably when the prices are lower and if game is still considered decent, i do agree thou that tenkaichi was best experience with the games for me.

To bad there isnt a character leveling system anymore like final bout the idea was completly forgotten but i know well why its not easy to implement and balance but was a cool idea at the time, gave game some logenvity too :)