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

[FortuneSSJ]

Started playing yesterday:

- The game is visually beautiful and It's still hard to believe Spike reached this quality
- The menus are the best I ever saw in a DB game. Love the colors and how animated they are, instead of being static.
- Gameplay is what I expected from a Tenkaichi game. Saw a lot of people on twitter having trouble against Oozaru Vegeta, but so far I'm doing good. Probably newbies who aren't experienced fighting against Giant characters.

[TechExpert2021]

- The menus are the best I ever saw in a DB game. Love the colors and how animated they are, instead of being static.

The game's menus are the best part of the game. However, the text font (I believe it's the Arial typeface) used in the menus in the non-Asian-language international versions of the game looks generic, especially dialogue text.

[AndLad92]

Just got the game today and have played for a few hours. I'm really having a very hard time with the controls! Even though I'm using the classic controls, I can't seem to use almost any of the numerous combos and such from Tenkaichi 3. It's really hard and I don't experience the same feeling at all. What do you guys think?

[90sDBZ]

Did anyone else who got a physical copy not get their pre-order bonus email yet?

I was looking on reddit and it seems to be a widespread issue with several retailers.

I remember having a similar issue with Tekken 8, were Amazon didn't send me the code until almost a week after launch. I purposely avoided Amazon for this reason (their page for SZ doesn't even mention the bonus), and went with HMV instead. Hopefully they send it soon.

[GTx10]

My physical pre order had the code on the receipt. Do you have your receipt?

[90sDBZ]

My physical pre order had the code on the receipt. Do you have your receipt?

Thanks for the reply.

It's all good now, they've emailed it to me.

[Jord]

One visual thing whether I'm not sure if I like it or not is how much the hair moves. It's visually striking and at the same time it looks off since we're not used to it from previous games or the actual animated series.

[FiReFTW]

Just got the game today and have played for a few hours. I'm really having a very hard time with the controls! Even though I'm using the classic controls, I can't seem to use almost any of the numerous combos and such from Tenkaichi 3. It's really hard and I don't experience the same feeling at all. What do you guys think?

I think only one thing, change your controls to standard, 99% of the players use standard because its way easier and better in every single way.

[Cold Skin]

Great game overall, has the potential to become the ultimate Dragon Ball sandbox with its creative mode.

Unlocking some what-ifs can be very tough sometimes, but luckily the dragons can lighten the conditions to unlock them, so they're not inaccessible forever even if you can't manage to pull of some extreme conditions.
Giving you back the money you paid for a shop character/costume when you meet the conditions to unlock them is a good idea too. Essentially, you don't have to worry about spending money for nothing when you could have unlocked it later, you will be refunded for your investment, and if you're not, it means you wouldn't have had the item anyway so you had to pay for it.

In creative mode, a simple change that would open up a lot of doors would be to let you choose the characters' costumes for your scenarios, as the clothes can be indicative of the time period your character comes from and it includes torn clothes too, which can be helpful for your made-up stories as well. Plus, it gives extra incentive to unlock/buy the costumes.
Right now, you can only pick the default appearance. So no DBZ Bardack and his visions, no "leftover from Great Saiyaman" for Gohan, no Whis gi for Goku and Vegeta, no Saiyan battle suit for Goku and Gohan, etc...

The search for the 5000 lines can be long too to find what you're looking for, maybe they should add some kind of search by word, classifying them in alphabetical order so that for example you can search in the "T" and you have a full alphabetical order of words in T to scroll down to "Training" for example and have all sentences containing that word appearing.
I know it might be easier said than done, but it would be one of the most handy way to find all lines that could involve what you're looking for, such as all sentences that include "training" or "win" or "dead" or "wish" or "strong", etc...

There's potential to add a lot of costumes in the shop to extend the length of the game, since it's more hours spent to collect the money and it's motivated to play in your favorite outfits or add them to scenarios.
Some obvious things are absent: Goku's casual clothes when waiting for the Cell Game, same for Gohan, Kid Trunks and Goten's casual clothes often seen in DBS, Vegeta's "Bad Man" pink shirt, Goku's casual clothes from DBS, the epilogue costumes and countless more...

Those are little things that could improve the potential of infinite stories and the comfort in creating those.

[FiReFTW]

Its so confussing that everyone's story is on the same map, I think I completed goku's story 100% but I don't know for sure because so many locked battles from other people, so its extremely overwhelmingly confussing on the map...

[Rinsankajugin]

Just a heads up, it seems like someone datamined the game and uncovered code for cut characters who were supposed to be on the base roster.
Seems that Spike Chunsoft had planned a bigger roster than what we actually got, WAY bigger...

Spoiler:

• Oozaru Kid Goku
• Pilaf Machine
• Nam
• Android 8
• General Blue
• Tao Pai-Pai
• Devilman Spike
• Grandpa Gohan
• Tambourine
• King Piccolo
• Chi-Chi
• King Vegeta
• Fasha
• Appule
• Shin
• Kibitoshin
• Great Saiyaman 2
• Pikkon
• Base Garlic Jr.
• Salza
• Zangya
• Jaco
• Tagoma
• Mai (probably her Future version)
• Grand Priest
• Zeno
• Zeno's Assistant
• Champa
• Vados
• 1st Form Frost
• SS1 Caulifla
• Basil
• Lavender
• Brianne de Chateau
• Sanka Ku
• Soas Roas
• Super 17
• The other Shadow Dragons (Nuova, Eis, etc...)

[Grimlock]

If true we were severely robbed, then. I would very much haved liked to play as King Vegeta, Serypa and Daishinkan. It already sucks as hell that not even Super Saiyan Bardock is in this game. What is this, the 2000s?

There's still DLC, sure, but... Also sucks I would have to pay for them.

[Mr Baggins]

Oh yeah, now that it's been a few days I guess I should summarize my thoughts on Sparking! Zero as a dude who didn't play much of the Sparking!/Tenkaichi series...

Positives:

+ The roster is phenomenal and I won't pretend it isn't just because it's missing a few guys that can be added later anyway. I'm hardly bummed over the exclusion of fodder aliens from the Tournament of Power or Super 17 or Bio Broly, so while your mileage may vary, almost all of my picks are in. My boy Jaco didn't make the cut, but that's okay! Hopefully this gets the Xenoverse 2 update treatment moving forward.

+ Combat-wise, this isn't Tekken where every character practically feels like a different game in and of themselves, but it's not trying to be. Much of its depth comes from its large pool of mechanics as well as the player's own mastery and interplay of those mechanics, which is already more substantive than most arena fighters out there. A lot of the characters feel unique enough for what the game is trying to accomplish.

+ Adult Goku's character model is hands down my favorite Goku model in any game ever. The stylistic direction in general is my favorite in any DB game. Glad to see Bamco finally embracing the modern artstyles of Toriyama, Nakatsuru, Toyotaro, Shintani/Onishi, etc. — I'm totally here for the thinner arms, larger eyes, and actually realistic necks that don't look like oversized tumors. If people want the old style they can always go replay the old games.

+ While the standard story mode paths are just kinda whatever, it's those alternate what-if routes that really shine. They're surprisingly good. For a minor example and without spoiling too much, there's an opportunity for Goku to actually meet Android 17 during the Cell arc, and their interactions ended up feeling a lot truer to themselves than I was expecting. Rarely do writers not named Toriyama manage to get the characters right, but this does very well for what it is. You can always use dragon orbs if an unlock condition is too hard to pull off.

+ Custom Battle mode is the Mario Maker of Dragon Ball and I love it. Easily the highlight of the game for me, rough edges aside. I will never be Toriyama, but it's always fun to be able to breathe life into the goofiest DB esque scenarios I can imagine. I've already spent hours on this, and I can see it getting the most of my playtime in general after I've unlocked/completed everything else.

Negatives, most of which are outweighed by the positives:

- Enemy AI is bizarre and kind of broken. The CPU is seemingly an expert at interrupting your combos and vanishing around constantly regardless of difficulty level, yet somehow dumb enough to stand completely still at long distances for long periods of time to let you rev up your ki and proceed to spam techniques or ultimates at them until you win, even on the highest possible difficulty setting. Ultimates themselves also seem overpowered, probably because they're so easy to abuse throughout a fight.

- The number of stages and outfits is admittedly lacking, even if I really like what they've done with the stage effects. Beerus's Planet is a glaring omission for a game so focused on Super, not to mention it's been a staple of the modern games; even the Z-focused Kakarot included it. No good reason not to make accessories universal to the whole roster, either.

- The preselected dialogue and captions for Custom Battle are a fucking nightmare to sift through, holy cow. How was this not playtested? There's only one way to filter them, the filter categories are extremely limited, and absolutely nothing here is listed alphabetically. Again, I'm in love with the mode, but this part in particular needs some tweaking.

_________________

Good game overall, and most of the issues I mentioned can just be improved upon later on. Even as a guy in his mid 30's who prefers 2D style fighters on average and thinks most Dragon Ball games belong in the bargain bin, I'd say it's worth playing for any DB fan. 8 Gokus out of 10.

[SelfTrainedNamekian]

i was about to praised the hell of this game and i probably should. but i checked berserk form DBS broly and they made him WAY WAY too slow.

Z broly is actually faster then he was in BT3 and RB2. (was way too slow on those games) berserk kale is not that bad... i guess she isnt the fastast but shes okay. other bulky characters that i expected to be slow are now faster (garlic jr especielly) bojack,android 13 are okay i guess. base android 13 has actually pretty fast animaions. suprisingly its 16 and berserk DBS broly who probably the slowests outside of giant characters which suppose to be slow

berserk DBS broly shouldnt be that slow. just because hes a bulky character. jiren is also a bulky character and look how fast they made him. toppo is a bulky character and hes not even near as slow as berserk dbs broly.

DBS broly first 2 forms are actually okay. its his berserk form where hes turning into a slow tank. probably the slowest attack animations in the game. (giants outside) berserk broly actually should have been an OP character like jiren. he went toe to toe with gogeta blue and broke dimentions. he shouldnt get this treatment, really. never in the movie did i get any imperssion that broly is a slow character. not in the super movie. not in the Z movie. not in super with berserk kale. i expected super trunks to be slow. he was the worst character in bt3. but they actually improved them quite a bit. its only berserk broly that i dont like. dont know if there will be any way to change it with mods. the only mods i think will work are cosmetic ones. dont know if you can copy another's character animation and and change characters existing ones. probably will break the game.

still like this game.

[Cold Skin]

Oh, and one thing: when I'm failing the abusively-timed secondary objective for the 52nd time, I still don't need to be forced to wait for the result screen to finish and the next cutscene to have started for five seconds before I can quit to the map and go back to the proper level, and wait for five seconds before you can skip the recap and wait for five seconds before you can skip the cutscene.

When you're bound to repeat something 75 times before you have the slightest chance of succeeding, the least you can do is offer an immediate retry option.

[Mr Baggins]

Oh, and one thing: when I'm failing the abusively-timed secondary objective for the 52nd time, I still don't need to be forced to wait for the result screen to finish and the next cutscene to have started for five seconds before I can quit to the map and go back to the proper level, and wait for five seconds before you can skip the recap and wait for five seconds before you can skip the cutscene.

Can relate. The secondary objective for that sparring episode at the end of the Trunks story is absolutely brutal, and unlike some of the others, there's no way to know you failed until the fight's already over. Whoever designed that one was feeling just a bit sadistic that day.

Was worth doing for what it unlocked though.

[FiReFTW]

Oh, and one thing: when I'm failing the abusively-timed secondary objective for the 52nd time, I still don't need to be forced to wait for the result screen to finish and the next cutscene to have started for five seconds before I can quit to the map and go back to the proper level, and wait for five seconds before you can skip the recap and wait for five seconds before you can skip the cutscene.

Can relate. The secondary objective for that sparring episode at the end of the Trunks story is absolutely brutal, and unlike some of the others, there's no way to know you failed until the fight's already over. Whoever designed that one was feeling just a bit sadistic that day.

Was worth doing for what it unlocked though.

They really should have made some information about it, like timers and also objective listed bottom right or something...

[Trouser]

Just a heads up, it seems like someone datamined the game and uncovered code for cut characters who were supposed to be on the base roster.
Seems that Spike Chunsoft had planned a bigger roster than what we actually got, WAY bigger...

Spoiler:

• Oozaru Kid Goku
• Pilaf Machine
• Nam
• Android 8
• General Blue
• Tao Pai-Pai
• Devilman Spike
• Grandpa Gohan
• Tambourine
• King Piccolo
• Chi-Chi
• King Vegeta
• Fasha
• Appule
• Shin
• Kibitoshin
• Great Saiyaman 2
• Pikkon
• Base Garlic Jr.
• Salza
• Zangya
• Jaco
• Tagoma
• Mai (probably her Future version)
• Grand Priest
• Zeno
• Zeno's Assistant
• Champa
• Vados
• 1st Form Frost
• SS1 Caulifla
• Basil
• Lavender
• Brianne de Chateau
• Sanka Ku
• Soas Roas
• Super 17
• The other Shadow Dragons (Nuova, Eis, etc...)

That's nice! Still, shame they weren't planning on adding Trunks (GT), Goten (GT) and proper Vegeta (GT) on the base roster. Instead they wanted to add some BS characters from U2...

[Gt91]

I'm loving the game, although some things can always be improved.
Story-wise, I love what-ifs! In Gohan's story there is one in particular that is wonderful.
I would like them to focus on this in the future, also adding new transformations for the characters. For example, I would have given Trunks SSGod/Blue in the Tournament of Power.
I hope they put new what-ifs stories in the future, like for Bardock, Cooler, Future Gohan and other characters who also have new transformations (ss3, golden form etc).

Oh and let's hope they add the second part of Vegeta's story too!

[Xeogran]

Just a heads up, it seems like someone datamined the game and uncovered code for cut characters who were supposed to be on the base roster.
Seems that Spike Chunsoft had planned a bigger roster than what we actually got, WAY bigger...

Spoiler:

• Oozaru Kid Goku
• Pilaf Machine
• Nam
• Android 8
• General Blue
• Tao Pai-Pai
• Devilman Spike
• Grandpa Gohan
• Tambourine
• King Piccolo
• Chi-Chi
• King Vegeta
• Fasha
• Appule
• Shin
• Kibitoshin
• Great Saiyaman 2
• Pikkon
• Base Garlic Jr.
• Salza
• Zangya
• Jaco
• Tagoma
• Mai (probably her Future version)
• Grand Priest
• Zeno
• Zeno's Assistant
• Champa
• Vados
• 1st Form Frost
• SS1 Caulifla
• Basil
• Lavender
• Brianne de Chateau
• Sanka Ku
• Soas Roas
• Super 17
• The other Shadow Dragons (Nuova, Eis, etc...)

Zeno, his assistands and Grand Priest playable? I understand case for the latter two because they're amazingly strong fighters, even if we never saw them fight, but Zeno himself?