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

[jjgp1112]

Damn, they went 10.5 Toonami in the latest trailer

[sunsetshimmer]

I always felt like the Tenkaichi series desperately needed some kind of moveset customization like the budokai games had. Not only did it solve the problem of needing 4 different versions of the same character, it also gave us some really cool stuff like seeing Majin Vegeta in his Saiyan arc armour.

That's exactly what i kept saying to everyone who defended having multiple versions of the same characters. If they are so afraid of base Goku using wrong version of Spirit Bomb against Frieza why not just give premade movesets in story mode and let people customize their characters in pretty much any other mode. Seeing how they put effort to create really powerful custom scenarios mode that would work well with custom movesets. What if i want my Z Goku to use kaioken in base but still be able to go all the way to SSJ3? Can't do that.

Also didn't they say that some outfits may alter characters movesets already? If it's true it means it's already coded and there is no need to keep all these versions. Xenoverse even changes transformations available when changing costumes. They could pretty much make single Z Goku at least.

It's just awkward cause we have two versions of Android 17. None of them have any extra outfits i believe (or they were not unlocked in any of videos i've seen). If they don't want to let players freely change movesets they could at least make DBS 17 an outfit for regular 17 and give him different moveset. Also 18 is single character with DBS 18 being an outfit so it makes things double awkward.

[Lukmendes]

OG isn't unpopular at all, it's aired on TV in plenty of countries, it's mostly just the US that kind of skipped over it, which has unfortunately skewed a lot of western fans minds. Even in the recent Goku Best Bouts poll, Jackie Chun vs Goku was the number 1 voted fight, and this was a world-wide poll. While it is unfortunate that there isn't much OG representation in the base game, I'm pretty sure we're going to get plenty of DLC. Kakarot got OG DLC not too long ago.

That poll was basically rigged in Roshi's favor, since the poll was divided in four sections, and the one Roshi was in in covered the beginning until the 21st tournament, so the only real competition he had was Nam. So anyone who bothered voting in that part would probably default to him.

If he had to compete with the rest of vanilla DB, then he would be competing against the Tien battle during the 22nd tournament, Grandpa Gohan, king Piccolo, and 23rd tournament Piccolo, so he wouldn't be first place so casually everywhere.

Speaking of that, 23rd tournament Piccolo got the short end of the stick with the the way the sections were separated, since the third section starts with him and ends with Z's ending, so he was competing directly with Vegeta and Freeza.

Honestly it'd make a lot more sense to let people vote four times than these arbitrary sections, because if my favorite fights are Grandpa Gohan and king Piccolo, then I can only vote for one, but if it's king Piccolo and 23rd tournament Piccolo, then I can vote for both? It's stupid.

Meanwhile, DBS Trunks doesn't have Rage...or SS2..Just a weird mix of the three forms.

They could've just made SS2 and Rage Trunks into transformations of Z Trunks and give them the moveset DBS Trunks has for base and SS1. It's baffling they didn't think of that.

[Rinsankajugin]

I've noticed something interesting in various Sparking Zero videos. There seems to be some sort of option for techniques in the customization menu, but no one has used it yet so I'm not sure what that option does.

[Lukmendes]

I've noticed something interesting in various Sparking Zero videos. There seems to be some sort of option for techniques in the customization menu, but no one has used it yet so I'm not sure what that option does.

I keep hearing that in story mode, early Goku doesn't have Kaioken techniques until post Raditz, so it's possible you can just change what blast 2s the characters have, maybe even blast 1s.

[GTx10]

Pikkon isn't in this game either? I swear I did not see him. You got Jamemba and not the green insult machine? Madness.

[Nickolaidas]

I'm pretty sure that's how single-player tournament mode worked in older games, so it's not really surprise.

Yup.

[FiReFTW]

I've noticed something interesting in various Sparking Zero videos. There seems to be some sort of option for techniques in the customization menu, but no one has used it yet so I'm not sure what that option does.

I keep hearing that in story mode, early Goku doesn't have Kaioken techniques until post Raditz, so it's possible you can just change what blast 2s the characters have, maybe even blast 1s.

Looks like you haven't been paying attention, characters have different costumes, different costumes have different movesets.

[Jord]

To me, this game is beginning to look like a whole bunch of hot air. Yes it has a lot of characters (although counting forms of the same character as separate characters is kinda silly), but it lacks in arenas. And 182 "characters" sounds cool but if 90% of them plays the same, it gets boring fast.

[FiReFTW]

To me, this game is beginning to look like a whole bunch of hot air. Yes it has a lot of characters (although counting forms of the same character as separate characters is kinda silly), but it lacks in arenas. And 182 "characters" sounds cool but if 90% of them plays the same, it gets boring fast.

Well thats just your personal opinion which you can have, but your expectations are unrealistic.

1.Stages, ok... we could have more stages I agree but its not easy to make huge big arenas with destructable enviroment... that doesn't mean the game might not add more stages down the line, they just might, lets just wait and see.

2.Characters playing the same or not is completely wrong and also unrealistic, the characters play pretty much like in the previous tenkaichi games, there is no difference, they have some unique moves, attacks, grabs, and also unique specials... what else do you want? And on top of that they even have some unique mechanics now like UI Goku or Whis with autododge and who knows what else, which is even more unique than in previous Tenkaichi games, and guess what those games were fire and people loved them.

If you expect each character being completely and absolutely different then its not the game for you because this game never was that and never will be, thats impossible even if you have 30-40 characters, even
Even DB Fighter Z that has around 40 characters while it may have some more quite unique characters than a game like tenkaichi budokai has a majority of characters that play very similar or almost the same.

[omegalucas]

The Tenkaichi series was always more about feeling like you're fighting a Dragon Ball fight, the spectacle and speed of it. The competitive fighting game side of it was never the main appeal. Although I do agree on the lack of stages, and it's also a pity that only Namek seems to be destructible.

[FiReFTW]

The Tenkaichi series was always more about feeling like you're fighting a Dragon Ball fight, the spectacle and speed of it. The competitive fighting game side of it was never the main appeal. Although I do agree on the lack of stages, and it's also a pity that only Namek seems to be destructible.

What do you mean? All the stages are destructable.

[Jord]

To me, this game is beginning to look like a whole bunch of hot air. Yes it has a lot of characters (although counting forms of the same character as separate characters is kinda silly), but it lacks in arenas. And 182 "characters" sounds cool but if 90% of them plays the same, it gets boring fast.

Well thats just your personal opinion which you can have, but your expectations are unrealistic.

1.Stages, ok... we could have more stages I agree but its not easy to make huge big arenas with destructable enviroment... that doesn't mean the game might not add more stages down the line, they just might, lets just wait and see.

2.Characters playing the same or not is completely wrong and also unrealistic, the characters play pretty much like in the previous tenkaichi games, there is no difference, they have some unique moves, attacks, grabs, and also unique specials... what else do you want? And on top of that they even have some unique mechanics now like UI Goku or Whis with autododge and who knows what else, which is even more unique than in previous Tenkaichi games, and guess what those games were fire and people loved them.

If you expect each character being completely and absolutely different then its not the game for you because this game never was that and never will be, thats impossible even if you have 30-40 characters, even
Even DB Fighter Z that has around 40 characters while it may have some more quite unique characters than a game like tenkaichi budokai has a majority of characters that play very similar or almost the same.

I completely agree with you. It's not the game for me. It's still interesting to follow this game though.
I would say that I'd rather see less destructible arenas so that we could have more arenas. With such a focus on the Broly movie, with the pre-order bonusses centered around it I would expect at least an ice arena.

[FiReFTW]

To me, this game is beginning to look like a whole bunch of hot air. Yes it has a lot of characters (although counting forms of the same character as separate characters is kinda silly), but it lacks in arenas. And 182 "characters" sounds cool but if 90% of them plays the same, it gets boring fast.

Well thats just your personal opinion which you can have, but your expectations are unrealistic.

1.Stages, ok... we could have more stages I agree but its not easy to make huge big arenas with destructable enviroment... that doesn't mean the game might not add more stages down the line, they just might, lets just wait and see.

2.Characters playing the same or not is completely wrong and also unrealistic, the characters play pretty much like in the previous tenkaichi games, there is no difference, they have some unique moves, attacks, grabs, and also unique specials... what else do you want? And on top of that they even have some unique mechanics now like UI Goku or Whis with autododge and who knows what else, which is even more unique than in previous Tenkaichi games, and guess what those games were fire and people loved them.

If you expect each character being completely and absolutely different then its not the game for you because this game never was that and never will be, thats impossible even if you have 30-40 characters, even
Even DB Fighter Z that has around 40 characters while it may have some more quite unique characters than a game like tenkaichi budokai has a majority of characters that play very similar or almost the same.

I completely agree with you. It's not the game for me. It's still interesting to follow this game though.
I would say that I'd rather see less destructible arenas so that we could have more arenas. With such a focus on the Broly movie, with the pre-order bonusses centered around it I would expect at least an ice arena.

But we still don't know if this is the end all be all for arenas, we might very well get DLC's or Packs with extra arenas in the future. Especially if the community is very loud about it.

[omegalucas]

The Tenkaichi series was always more about feeling like you're fighting a Dragon Ball fight, the spectacle and speed of it. The competitive fighting game side of it was never the main appeal. Although I do agree on the lack of stages, and it's also a pity that only Namek seems to be destructible.

What do you mean? All the stages are destructable.

I meant when you throw a larger special attack and the planet blows up and transitions to a different destroyed stage like in the Tenkaichi and Budokai games. That only happens in the Namek stage.

[Gt91]

Have you noticed the level of detail in the combat?
UI Goku and Whis dodging hits, Gogeta ss4 kicking aura hits etc.
It's something truly beautiful!

[Jord]

That is true. I would expect that if we had a Kami's lookout and/or ice arena, we would have seen them during the trailers. Your point makes me wonder though, has there ever been DLC for arena's in previous games? I know FighterZ got the space galaxy arena in an update but are there other games that offered new stages this way? Or even paid stages DLC?


In other news, IGN uploaded Trunks story mode playthrough footage in it's near entirety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4USzR1F-Fz0

Seems a lot of story telling is done through screenshots.

[Makaioshin]

That is true. I would expect that if we had a Kami's lookout and/or ice arena, we would have seen them during the trailers. Your point makes me wonder though, has there ever been DLC for arena's in previous games? I know FighterZ got the space galaxy arena in an update but are there other games that offered new stages this way? Or even paid stages DLC?


In other news, IGN uploaded Trunks story mode playthrough footage in it's near entirety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4USzR1F-Fz0

Seems a lot of story telling is done through screenshots.

XV2 included new stages like the U6 arena, ToP stage, and I think the RRA base. I imagine when they do SH and Daima they will include new stages there to tell those stories but I am not sure about them going back and adding missing ones not tied to anything.

[MisteryOne]

I don't think it's entirely fair to critize the decision of having quantity over quality, as that is pretty much what people liked about Tenkaichi 3 and what they have been asking for in a sequel for so many years.

Like yeah it may not be my cup of tea anymore, but younger me would have loved it, and since that's what they were going for, personally I think it's fine that they went for the (admitedly arrificially inflated) character count rather than focusing on other things. And the Custom Battles thing seems surprisingly detailed and exactly what a lot of people like to use Tenkaichi 3 for.

There are still lots of things I'm not a fan of, like the mentioned Trunks situation, Vegeta's Evolution form, the strange way Super is represented (like skipping the Champa arc, not having the full Trio de Dangers, giant Bergamo, the U6 fighters and others but instead focusing on SS2 Cabba of all things), the lack of Super Hero in the base game and so on, but all things considered, since it's a game pretty much made from scratch unlike Tenkaichi 3 and it was a concious decision to pursue quantity, I would say the game is pretty impressive. Like yeah, most characters will play the same, but this is not FighterZ, making them different was not a priority.

Speaking on strange decisions tho...I don't understand why Jiren is one of the Story Mode characters. He has only been in one arc and his entire point was that he easily won every battle except obviously his last one. Can you really make any interesting what ifs o even a good story from him just defeating various opponents in the ToP? The only cool what if I can think of, the Pride Troopers meeting the Zamasu duo, could already be done with Goku Black's story. I guess he was picked back when development started since five years ago he *was* the hot thing, the opponent everyone had on their mind. But even then, it's going to be so weird seeing Goku's more fleshed out story compared to his. Maybe I'm missing something my lack of creativity can't allow me to see...?

Pikkon isn't in this game either? I swear I did not see him. You got Jamemba and not the green insult machine? Madness.

I know that Tapion was in Tenkaichi 3, but it's so funny seeing him over Pikkon. I don't care about either character, but the later definetly has a lot more fighting scenes to make a moveset out of. I can understand maybe excluding Kaioshin, since his Daima version will probably be in, but still.

Then again Super 17 is also not in despite being one of the big villains of GT so...I guess they had to make cuts.

[Rinsankajugin]

I know the Tenkaichi/Sparking series are arena fighters, but I wouldn't exactly call them shallow. It's been a while since I played BT3, but I definitely remember each character having like 40-50 different combos. Comparing that to most modern arena fighters, where every character can barely crack 10 unique combo strings is a tad disingenuous. And that's not even going into all the defensive mechanics the series has, which Sparking Zero has added a few more.

I do understand the qualms about the roster though. While I was excited to see Goku (Mid) again, it is understandable that stuff like that only pads the roster out more than it needs to. And if the Raging Blast-style customization is returning as hinted at in the customization menu, it does make one wonder why these various Gokus and Vegetas still exist as separate characters. Some of them probably have different combo strings, but at that point it'd probably be best to put all of those strings onto one Goku or one Vegeta. Sure, they'd have a bigger moveset than most other characters on the roster, but I'm sure it'd be worth it.

I think in the future, I might consider making a list of a more streamlined, RB-styled Sparking roster, including everyone from this roster (minus the saga-variations) as well as some of the omissions of the previous game and glaring newcomer losses.