Ahead of and in conjunction with “DAIMA Character Pack 2” releasing a few days later, Bandai Namco has announced a slew of updates coming in a patch for Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO — the patch (bringing the game up to Ver.2014.013.003.009.008) is set to hit 21 September 2025.
Of particular note detailed in more depth alongside the respective DLC announcement, the new stage — the arena Gomah creates in the First Demon World during the final battle of Dragon Ball Daima — is available for free to all players through this patch.
General Changes / Adjustments
Stages
- added the First Demon World stage.
Single Battle
- Characters who recover health upon transformation will no longer do so.
- Characters who can transform will receive a permanent attack power buff when transforming using a skill sock. This buff is removed when reverting the transformation.
Feature changes / Adjustments
Options
- Added an option for displaying the edge of the battle area, allowing players to choose a method where the boundary appears when approaching it.
Game Mode Changes / Adjustments
Episode Battle
- Adjusted the difficulty of some stages in accordance with the battle system adjustments.
Custom Battle
- Added 2D cutscenes and text.
Ranked Match
- Players will now receive a minimum of 50 points regardless of the difference in rank points.
- At the end of the season, players ranked 1st to 100th will receive a text title indicating their rank.
- Similarly, for character ranks, players ranked 1st to 100th will receive a text title indicating their rank at the end of the season.
Battle System Changes / Adjustments
Short Dash
- Players can now perform another short dash immediately after starting one, but only once.
Ascent / Descent
- Increased the speed of ascent and descent at close range.
Quick Ascent / Quick Descent
- Increased Ki consumption.
General Ultimate Blasts
- Reduced the damage reduction correction when hitting with Ultimate Blasts during combos.
Ki Blast Deflect
- Players can now quickly perform Smash attacks during Ki Blast Deflect.
Super Counter
- Ki will no longer automatically recover during Super Counter.
See Through
- The follow-up techniques after a successful Perception can now be charged by holding the Perception button.
Sonic Sway
- Fixed an issue where follow-up attacks after Sonic Sway could be guarded for some characters.
Revenge Counter
- Fixed an issue where the activation window for Perception against Revenge Counter was shorter than intended.
Guard Break
- Fixed an issue where Smash attacks in the same direction could not break guards after a Guard Break.
Paralyzing Smash Ki Blast
- Increased Ki consumption.
- Revenge Counter can now be used when hit from the front.
- Hitting twice in a combo will now cause the opponent to be blown away instead of being paralyzed.
Tornado Slash
- Fixed an issue where guarding could be inserted during Tornado Slash.
Skill Changes / Adjustments
Dyspo: Super Maximum Light Speed Mode
- An icon will now be displayed during the effect duration.
- Ki consumption for short dashes is reduced during the effect.
Blast Changes / Adjustments
General Unblockable Rush Blasts
- Can now be evaded with auto-evasion skills such as Afterimage Technique.
Character Changes / Adjustments
Gogeta (Super), Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan
- Increased the attack power of the Smash Ki Blast performed on the spot.
Whis
- Adjusted the blast “Overture to Destruction” to be less likely to hit opponents directly above or below.
Other
Battle Rules
- Fixed an issue where stepping out of bounds during battles with ring outs would not result in a ring out.
Online Match
- Fixed an issue where the on-screen UI was sometimes not displayed.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO released on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (via Steam) 10 October 2024 in Japan, and 11 October 2024 internationally. As opposed to the completely separate Dragon Ball Z (“Budokai”) series developed by Dimps which came before it, the Sparking! series — developed instead by Spike — featured 3D arenas with an over-the-shoulder camera angle. The new game’s title of Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO falls more in line with the original trilogy’s naming scheme in Japanese. The three Sparking! games — the original, NEO!, and METEOR — hit the PlayStation 2 over the course of 2005 to 2007, with the Nintendo Wii also receiving ports of the second and third games. The game series was released numerically under the “Budokai Tenkaichi” moniker internationally. A fourth games — Tag Vs. in Japan; Tenkaichi Tag Team internationally — was released on the PlayStation Portable in 2010. Spike (as Spike Chunsoft) later went on to also develop the crossover fighting games J-Stars Victory VS in 2014 and Jump Force in 2019.