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

[Nickolaidas]

While the characters and effect look incredible, that game clearly has a problem with colors.
The World Tournament looks horrible with that green tint. Or maybe is a artistic choice? If so, what a bad taste.




Here's a comparison with the usual colors:

Hmm, perhaps it is nearing dusk or somethinig? Or maybe you are right, maybe it *is* an artistic choice, like many of the new Resident Evil games have this obsession with using a yellow hue in the colors. We'll see.

[budokaifanatic007]

Apparently the Japanese got a more recent build for their demo.

[DarkPrince_92]

There's something I've noticed and finally confirmed. If you pause it at 18:01-18:02 and scrub between the frames you can see the face texture changes right after Frieza's intro. I couldn't place it at first but a lot of characters are doing this in all the gameplay. I'm pretty sure the texture quality shifts once they're further away from the camera and my guess the camera stayed on his face a frame or two longer than it should have

Peep: https://youtu.be/PyXcPN2LQXY?si=mhzoLTe7PXKJiRZq&t=1082



Side note: Seeing DBS Content with the OG DBZ Sfx makes me happy.

[The S]

I hope we can write our own dailogue and have the characters possibly say them out loud.

That seems incredibly improbable.

[Rinsankajugin]

I've noticed a few things. It seems that Super Saiyan DBS Future Trunks is pretty much Super Saiyan Rage in all but name, since it has the aura and the Final Hope Slash ultimate. On a similar note, Super Saiyan Blue DBS Vegeta's skill list includes Gamma Burst Flash from the manga, but more importantly, a skill called "Limits? I Break Them!" and Final God Explosion as his ultimate. Much Like SSB Goku's Blue Kaioken and Golden Frieza's "True Golden Frieza", it seems like Super Saiyan Blue Evolution might just be a part of regular SSB Vegeta's moveset.

[Bardock God of Time]

I've noticed a few things. It seems that Super Saiyan DBS Future Trunks is pretty much Super Saiyan Rage in all but name, since it has the aura and the Final Hope Slash ultimate. On a similar note, Super Saiyan Blue DBS Vegeta's skill list includes Gamma Burst Flash from the manga, but more importantly, a skill called "Limits? I Break Them!" and Final God Explosion as his ultimate. Much Like SSB Goku's Blue Kaioken and Golden Frieza's "True Golden Frieza", it seems like Super Saiyan Blue Evolution might just be a part of regular SSB Vegeta's moveset.

I find that odd because Evolution Vegeta is on the cover of the game, so is SS Rage Trunks

I mean, I'm personally not going to complain because that means more room for OG DB and GT

[Innagadadavida]

I noticed a few things in the Game Modes Showcase video with producer Jun Furutani. The quote in the picture above, in addition to a statement that the game was developed with a focus on single player and online multiplayer, all but confirms that local multiplayer was an afterthought. I guess there is no reason to blame the developers for making a decision not to devote resources to a feature that they don't believe will impact sales. That's probably an accurate assessment.

With that in mind, I guess it's nice that its even there at all. Clearly it was not a priority, and I can't fault them for it. I'm still planning on buying the game, so it's not worth voting against with my wallet. For me the local multiplayer is what kept the discs of the previous games in the console. However, given the way the industry has changed since then and the landscape of local multiplayer games on the target systems... This is par for the course. I still have the old games, after all.

I also noticed something else in the 11 Minute Episode Battle video from Summer Game Fest 2024.

For one, it stood out to me that the animations of characters speaking was synced to the dub dialog. As I looked closer, I think I have identified that the dialog animations are not animated by a person, but they appear to be synced to the waveform of the audio file the cutscene pulls from. You can see a brief flash of mouths opening in an unnatural way at the end of some lines of dialog, which I can only assume was the result of machine work. In the Raging Blast games, mouths were not animated around lines of dialog at all and instead played a tweened loop of opening and closing positions. That was a big complaint of mine in the past. I recall saying that it looks like everyone is saying "DA DA DA DA DA DA."

Mouth animations are a laborious task and offloading that to the computer is a preferable solution to no synced dialog/animation. The human work put into this game is much better spent on more creative tasks. Not to mention, no matter what language you've chosen to play during cutscenes, the animation will fit the speech. That being said, while in some instances it looks fine, there are some moments where it looks off. I hope this tech improves if it's implemented in future games.

I also want to add that I'm pleased the publisher did not choose to rename this game "Budokai Tenkaichi 4" and instead kept the original title. Reading comments from casual players, it seems clear that there isn't much confusion about the linage of this game despite the break in branding consistency. And "Sparking Zero" rolls of the tongue much better. If you need more than one hand to count the syllables of a subtitle, you're doing something wrong. Also, as everyone here knows, Budokai Tenkaichi is a backwards phrase that was only chosen to associate the Sparking games with the Budokai series (and because most English speakers won't know the difference). Keeping the name the same across all regions is respectful to the developers' vision.

I'm pretty excited about the way this whole project is shaping up. Bravo to all involved.

[Mr Baggins]

Stuff like Rage Trunks, Blue Kaioken, Blue Evolved and True Golden Freeza were always slight twists/variants on existing forms rather than all-new transformations, so I prefer them just being integrated into the moveset if we're gonna have them. That seems to be what they've done here for the most part, so that's neat.

I don't expect any characters or transformations from the DBS manga to be included for a long time, if ever, but here's hoping that UI Goku at least won't be exclusively shirtless for like the trillionth time.

[mecha3000]

It's kind of surreal to see a no-brainer game feature like local multiplayer that I grew up with on games from PS2 to PS3, now be not included due to the gaming landscape changing. Like others have said, it does make me feel a little old, but at the same time, I ONE THOUSAND percent get why they didn't include local multiplayer. And I hope people are grateful they found a way to include it at all within the limitations of the game they had already developed. Gaming has changed significantly since Tenkaichi 3 so I get their decision (despite more recent games like Xenoverse and FighterZ having local multiplayer???).

Besides, for anyone who wants a Tenkaichi 4 with unlimited local multiplayer, download Team BT4's BT4 mod or like others have said, wait for modders to work their magic.

[VegettoEX]

(despite more recent games like Xenoverse and FighterZ having local multiplayer???).

Xenoverse 2 also has similar restrictions for local matches, and FighterZ is a traditional side-view, single-screen fighting game with everything already on display at once.

[Rinsankajugin]

It's kind of surreal to see a no-brainer game feature like local multiplayer that I grew up with on games from PS2 to PS3, now be not included due to the gaming landscape changing. Like others have said, it does make me feel a little old, but at the same time, I ONE THOUSAND percent get why they didn't include local multiplayer. And I hope people are grateful they found a way to include it at all within the limitations of the game they had already developed. Gaming has changed significantly since Tenkaichi 3 so I get their decision (despite more recent games like Xenoverse and FighterZ having local multiplayer???).

Besides, for anyone who wants a Tenkaichi 4 with unlimited local multiplayer, download Team BT4's BT4 mod or like others have said, wait for modders to work their magic.

A lot of people don't realize that not all fighting games are equal. Traditional fighting game local multiplayer is completely different from Splitscreen arena fighter local multiplayer. Hell, as far as I know, the Tenkaichi series is one of the few games that does splitscreen. And yeah, while Xenoverse 2 does have local multiplayer, it doesn't have splitscreen, so you can only fight on 6 specific maps.

Remember, splitscreen means the game has to render the characters and stage twice over from two different angles. With all the added Unreal Engine 5 effects Sparking Zero has, I'm not surprised splitscreen is stuck to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. I know people point fingers to the Xbox Series S for these shortcomings (the devs themselves have even said as much), but it wouldn't surprise me if the Series X or even the PS5 had trouble rendering splitscreen for such a high-speed, particle effect-fest of a game like this.

I'm sure PC players will figure out some workarounds, though...

[JulieYBM]

Woah, I forgot about this awesome little piece of choreography from Dragon Ball Super. I'm glad to see techniques like this being referenced in video games now. Does anyone remember which episode this was from?

[Rinsankajugin]

Woah, I forgot about this awesome little piece of choreography from Dragon Ball Super. I'm glad to see techniques like this being referenced in video games now. Does anyone remember which episode this was from?

Goku used that against Rozie during the Tournament of Power. Which reminds me, can't wait to see her get added, I like Bruce Lee-type fighters.

[Kanassa]

Anybody seen any gameplay video where a Spirit Bomb is used? The closest I got to see was Future Trunks' ultimate.

https://youtu.be/4BoWoJnjLLY?si=3gzTRoKNSENvl4T9&t=494

[Nickolaidas]

Anybody seen any gameplay video where a Spirit Bomb is used? The closest I got to see was Future Trunks' ultimate.

https://youtu.be/4BoWoJnjLLY?si=3gzTRoKNSENvl4T9&t=494

Okay, this ... this is so effing cool. And I'm talking about the arena cutscene, causing the map to expand.

I'm definitely pre-ordering this once October hits.

[Koitsukai]

I also hope we get a fully dressed UI Goku. I guess it shouldn't be a problem, it's just another skin, but seeing how it was only shown in the manga, I'm scared we won't get it. Logically, we should, but I'm not sure how much anime-only this will be.

Do we know if there are beam clashes like back in the day when your thumbs were in serious danger?

[mecha3000]

(despite more recent games like Xenoverse and FighterZ having local multiplayer???).

Xenoverse 2 also has similar restrictions for local matches, and FighterZ is a traditional side-view, single-screen fighting game with everything already on display at once.

See, I had a feeling when writing that post that one of those games might've had local multiplayer restrictions, but I wasn't sure. My bad. I never played the multiplayer and just assumed.

[Hellspawn28]

I look forward to doing Mr. Satan kills the universe for my what if.

[goku the krump dancer]

Anybody seen any gameplay video where a Spirit Bomb is used? The closest I got to see was Future Trunks' ultimate.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TBT2HkM78ow

This one has it.. at least the DBS version from the ToP it’s pretty cool. Though I still think Budokai 3 is the standard for stage/planet explosions, the Namek explosion in this game is cool though.

[Yuji]

Rage Trunks is its own transformation in the game, from what I've seen. I wouldn't be surprised if Evolution is too and SSB Vegeta just shares the final explosion due to a lack of another ult.