"Sparking! ZERO" Official Announcement & Pre-Release Discussion Thread

[Thanos]

I dunno what to think about it. I would've preferred a budokai 4 over this.

You mean Infinite World?

That's a Budokai 3,5 to me.

No shot Budokai comes back concurrently with FighterZ still being relevant. They'd definitely do another FighterZ before reviving Budokai because of, ya know... money and stuff. Budokai would basically be FighterZ without the competitive longevity. Not saying it won't ever happen (maybe it won't?), but FighterZ is doing way too well for them to sideline it in favor of Budokai. It wouldn't surprise me if it happened someday but I'm sure it would be way off.

[budokaifanatic007]

You mean Infinite World?

That's a Budokai 3,5 to me.

No shot Budokai comes back concurrently with FighterZ still being relevant. They'd definitely do another FighterZ before reviving Budokai because of, ya know... money and stuff. Budokai would basically be FighterZ without the competitive longevity. Not saying it won't ever happen (maybe it won't?), but FighterZ is doing way too well for them to sideline it in favor of Budokai. It wouldn't surprise me if it happened someday but I'm sure it would be way off.

With that logic you could say the same with Xenoverse as its a 3D DBZ fighting simulator and now we have Tenkaichi so why not have a more casual friendly 2.5D game?(FighterZ isn't a 2.5D game but you get the idea)

[miguelnuva1]

FighterZ Budokai and Tenkaichi could all coexist as long as they were released 3 years between each entry.

Xenoverse and Tenkaichi are the ones that might cannibalize each other.

[Super Saiyan Swagger]

Death to Xenoverse. I’m sick of that series. If they add character creation to Tenkaichi 4 then it’s all over.

[IntangibleFancy]

Realistically, how much representation could Super get in this game? Outside of the obvious picks like MUI Goku and Kefla. There were quite a few that should be in more of the games but don’t get enough recognition beyond Heroes and Dokkan

I’m talking about some of the “obscure” characters like Ganos and Anilaza. Or Magetta and Botamo. Then we have characters like the GoDs that don’t really have a moveset, but could have one made for them. BT3 did that for a few characters and I think the gods are important enough to warrant it

[sangofe]

That's a Budokai 3,5 to me.

No shot Budokai comes back concurrently with FighterZ still being relevant. They'd definitely do another FighterZ before reviving Budokai because of, ya know... money and stuff. Budokai would basically be FighterZ without the competitive longevity. Not saying it won't ever happen (maybe it won't?), but FighterZ is doing way too well for them to sideline it in favor of Budokai. It wouldn't surprise me if it happened someday but I'm sure it would be way off.

With that logic you could say the same with Xenoverse as its a 3D DBZ fighting simulator and now we have Tenkaichi so why not have a more casual friendly 2.5D game?(FighterZ isn't a 2.5D game but you get the idea)

How can you say Budokai and FighterZ are the same?

[emperior]

It’s weird that it took them this long to do a new Budokai Tenkaichi. The name alone will make them a lot of money.

Maybe they will also decide to do a Budokai 4 afterwards? Though Dimps is likely at work on a Xenoverse 3.

I bet this one is being developed by Spike Chunsoft. Maybe they started developing it right after Jump Force.

I am not a fan of how Jump Force-ish Namek is looking in the teaser. It doesn’t fit with Goku’s model and I hope that they will change it. Hopefully scenarios will also keep being destroyable.

[nato25]

I wonder how they'll handle giant characters in this one. I feel like it's likely they'll get cut all together due to being hard to accommodate, but the new games have really done away with misrepresenting their size in favour of being more faithful. Not sure what a happy medium is.

[miguelnuva1]

I wonder how they'll handle giant characters in this one. I feel like it's likely they'll get cut all together due to being hard to accommodate, but the new games have really done away with misrepresenting their size in favour of being more faithful. Not sure what a happy medium is.

Most likely back to the Tenkaichi size.

[Jord]

I wonder how they'll handle giant characters in this one. I feel like it's likely they'll get cut all together due to being hard to accommodate, but the new games have really done away with misrepresenting their size in favour of being more faithful. Not sure what a happy medium is.

Xenoverse handled the size of giant characters pretty well.

[nato25]

True I had forgotten about the giant namek transformation. Was that all they had playable?

[MCDaveG]

I bet that Moro, Granolah and anything from Super manga is just wishful thinking of fans, unless they will adapt the characters and stories in anime format before or after the game is released.
Not even Dragon Ball Heroes is touching on this subject.

Yes, there was the Trunks Buu arc in Kakarot, based heavily on the manga, but it already expanded on few stillshots from anime and was covered by naration from Trunks there.

I guess that DLC format in this day and age is given. Hopefully, it will cover new characters if there will be some new movie or series,
but I can see them go with core roster relying heavily on the main DBZ and Super and fill the blanks afterwards.
We know for sure that Super is in and was marketed as such in the teaser, because it is the newest entry, showing Goku's most powerful and most recent form, DBZ will be in as well as the most popular series in the bunch and I wonder, if they will include GT and Dragon Ball as BT3 did. Also wonder, if there will be some original game characters like Hatchihyakku, Android 21 or Mira as the game will probably be more grounded in anime status quo as opposed to the idea of history timelines in Xenoverse.

And if they are going with in-game graphics like seen in the teaser, I have strong belief that the roster won't be nowhere as huge as in BT3.
We know that the development gets more difficult and time consuming with each console generation than before and we have no idea how much time they had to develop...

Jump Force was a dissaster tho... fingers crossed!

[Cold Skin]

Surely the roster won't be as big as BT3, for more than one reason. As others have said, the jump to a new generation with more complex models and animations to build is enough to always make them cut the roster in all DB games. Nowadays, creating new assets and environments and models take more time and efforts for a dev team than ever before.

Then, they have no interest in giving you the game with the most numerous roster there's ever been from the get-go, it's in their interest to give you part of it to show what it could become in due time and show you that you'll have the biggest roster ever WHEN you've gladly bought dozens of DLC packs for it over the next few years.
The objective is not to satisfy you from the start and make you think "I'm actually fine with the game as it is, no need to spend extra money, it's already like a graphic remake of BT3!", it's actually to make you think "oh, it is sort of like a demo of an enhanced BT3 and it will become as massive as BT3 and even more if I buy it!"

So it's both technical aspects of developing a brand new game with new models and graphics and also business plans that make it likely to have a roster that's at least divided by two compared to BT3.

Having to choose way less characters than in BT3, they will focus on those that are essential to go through the story of the various arcs, which will surely include DBZ and DBS.
So for the roster, I guess you can basically see what the first Xenoverse was like in the base game and expect the same in this new Budokai Tenkaichi.

Super Saiyan Blue on Namek probably doesn't mean a thing story-wise, it was just to play on the Super Saiyan transformation transitioning from old gen to new gen and surprise you with Super Saiyan Blue to clearly state "this is not just a remake but it is a new episode with the forms and characters that have been created since then".

The graphics look great and I think we can thank Fighterz for that, with Bandai Namco or the devs realizing what you can actually do. With Fighterz' fixed camera and manual touch-ups being hard to reproduce when it's a "3D free cam" gameplay AND in a game supposed to have many more characters, I wouldn't be surprised if they searched for styles and methods to get close to those graphics for characters even though the camera is not preset, with the way they set up the lighting, the cel shading, etc... It could also be that they took a hint from this Fighterz method and actually do manual touch-ups too for the transformations (like the one we see in the video) and special attacks, since the camera would be preset like cutscenes for those.

My bet for the story mode is that it will do what BT3 did and sort of cover DB, DBZ, DBS and DBGT (though DB could potentially be left out of this first "new Tenkaichi" and DBGT could be relegated to DLC content - perhaps with no story implementation). Basically see Fighterz: DBZ and DBS from the get-go, the rest coming as optional DLC.
I wouldn't be surprised if they did things like BT3 for the story: special attacks and transformations would naturally act like cutscenes, just making you trigger them at specific times of the battle.

I think no character creation will be there: they will keep it as a gimmick that's meant for the Xenoverse games. You want the greatest roster ever (in due time through DLC) and relive the story battles? Buy Tenkaichi Budokai! You want to create your character and see time distorsions and altered events? Buy Xenoverse! That would basically be the idea.

Like some others, I believe the title won't be Budokai Tenkaichi 4 ultimately. Because it would be like a statement that 4 is going to build on the basis and roster of 3, having more than the episode before just like every previous game of the series. So if the roster does get cut as expected by some people like me, they won't number it as 4 "giving you more than the third game", but as an alternate Budokai Tenkaichi altogether! "New Budokai Tenkaichi", "Budokai Tenkaichi Super", all bets are off... But you know what? Given the popularity of a certain form that is sort of the stopping point of the anime episodes right now, I'm gonna place my bet on "Ultra Budokai Tenkaichi", with the name referencing the highest level to date (Ultra Instinct) and the "ultra" mention inspiring that this is a boosted, super-graphics and (in due time) super-roster iteration of this series of games.

[Koitsukai]

Is there an estimated date for the release? based on previous games I mean, how long does it usually take to go from the trailer to the release? this one doesn't have a trailer yet.
I remember watching Kakarot's trailer around september '19 and the game came out in january '20, and IIRC, the "new DBZ game on our way" news for Kakarot came out early 2019, so like a year for that one.

2023 is off the table, I guess. Mid-2024? late 2024?

[budokaifanatic007]

No shot Budokai comes back concurrently with FighterZ still being relevant. They'd definitely do another FighterZ before reviving Budokai because of, ya know... money and stuff. Budokai would basically be FighterZ without the competitive longevity. Not saying it won't ever happen (maybe it won't?), but FighterZ is doing way too well for them to sideline it in favor of Budokai. It wouldn't surprise me if it happened someday but I'm sure it would be way off.

With that logic you could say the same with Xenoverse as its a 3D DBZ fighting simulator and now we have Tenkaichi so why not have a more casual friendly 2.5D game?(FighterZ isn't a 2.5D game but you get the idea)

How can you say Budokai and FighterZ are the same?

That’s what I’m saying, they’re not similar at all..

[Nickolaidas]

I read somewhere that it's going to be Super-focused, and that Moro will be in this one, but I have no official document stating this.

I hope it's not true. I mean, Super Arcs after proper Z Arcs would be cool and all, but Super-focused? Would be a BIG mistake.

Could be a chance to have the entire cast of the Tournament of Power, though.

[shadd21]

I'm expecting the game to have 60-80 characters at launch, with every non-DB and movie(except maybe Cooler and DBZ Broly) from from BT1 returning, with a sizeable amount of DBS characters.

Seeing how the BT3 footage in the teaser showed SSJ4 Goku, i'm going to assume GT characters are a safe bet as well

[budokaifanatic007]

So apparently the code name for this game is "Sparking Zero".

[Hellspawn28]

My predictions for the roster (Some characters will probably be cut)

Early DBZ Goku (Base, Kaioken)
DBZ Goku (Base, SSj, SSj2, SSj3)
DBS Goku (Base, SSj, SSj God, SSjB, Master UI)
DBGT Kid Goku (Base, SSj, SSj3, Golden Oozaru, SSj4)
Saiyan Saga Vegeta (Base, Oozaru)
Post-Saiyan Vegeta (Base, SSj, SSj Grade 3, SSj2)
Majin Vegeta
DBS Vegeta (Base, SSj, SSj God, SSjB, SSjBE)
GT Vegeta (Base, SSj, SSj4)
Gogeta (Base, SSj, SSj Blue)
SSj4 Gogeta
Vegito (Base, SSj, SSj Blue)
Kid Gohan (Base, Oozaru)
Cell Saga Gohan (Base, SSj, SSj2)
Adult Gohan (Base, SSj, SSj2, Mystic, Beast)
Kid Trunks (Base, SSj)
Kid Goten (Base, SSj)
Gotenks (Base, SSj, SSj3)
DBZ Future Trunks (Base, SSj, SSj Grade 3)
DBS Fturue Trunks (Base, SSj, SSj2, SSj Rage)
Early Piccolo (Base, Giant)
Morden Piccolo (Base, Orange, Gaint)
Kuririn
Yamucha
Chaozu
Videl
Mr. Satan
GT Pan
Raditz
Nappa
Saibamen
Freeza's Soliders
Dodoria
Zarbon (Base, Monster Form)
Guldo
Recoome
Burter
Jeice
Captain Ginyu
DBZ Freeza (Base Form, Second Form, Third Form, Final Form, 100% Full Power)
DBS Freeza (1st form, 4th form, Golden Form)
Coola (Base, Final Form)
#16
#17
#18
#19
Dr. Gero
Cell (Imperfect, Semi-Perfect, Perfect, Super Perfect)
Cell Jr
Spopovich
Dabra
Fat Buu
Grey Buu
Super Buu (Base, Gotenks Absorbed, Gohan Absorbed)
Kid Buu
Beerus
Whis
Jaco
Shisami
Tagoma
Frost
Cabba (Base, SSj)
Hit
Goku Black (Base, SSjR)
Zamasu
Merged Zamsu
Toppo (Base, God)
Kale (Base, LSSj)
Caulifla (Base, SSj, SSj Grade 3)
Kefla (Base, SSj, SSj2)
Jiren
DBS Broly (Base,
DBZ Broly (Base, SSj, LSSj)
Gamma 1
Gamma 2
Cell Max
Janemba (Base, Transform)
Tapion
Hirudegarn
Baby Vegeta (Base, Second Form, Third Form, Golden Oozaru)
Super 17
Third Star Dragon (Eis Shenron)
Forth Star Dragon (Novua Shenron)
One Star Dragon (Base, Super (Omega) Shenron)

[Saimaroimaru]

Ah the days when people posted their character roster wishlists. This is gonna be fun.