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

[JulieYBM]

I probably glanced over it while multitasking lol

[Cold Skin]

Looks like Shallot has no Girl Talk dialogue. For shame!

The character commentary is overall really disappointing. Half of the comments are “who is that” or “I don’t get it” are is just way less entertaining than Chichi’s comments in BT3 who just made remarks like she knew everyone and everything that happened.

It's only natural for the Daima and GT characters, but what's weird is that they seem to know the characters from Z movies which can't have happened either in the main timeline (for a big majority of the movies at least). Logically, they should be wondering about who they are too and judge them only on their physical appearance.

You can bet that for Shallot, they would also be saying that he looks like a Saiyan and perhaps comment on the armor being different than what they know from Vegeta's, but they wouldn't know who he is either.

[Scsigs]

It confuses me when someone says Super shouldn't be represented in the games at all.

No one is saying it shouldn't be represented, but rather it shouldn't be above other parts of the series. It makes no sense to include 3 characters from universe 2 and that giant from universe 3, while the likes of King Piccolo and Super #17 were left out. There's also that universe 9 character who could've been left out in favor of anyone from original Dragon Ball.

Kaboom LITERALLY SAID IT SHOULDN'T! Do you have the memory of a goldfish, my guy? And then he responded to you saying this & you conveniently ignored it & just responded to someone else. Way to undermine your own point trying to refute mine. He hates Super so much that he says it shouldn't even be in the games. That is outright insanity. Super is not even remotely the worst thing this franchise has produced. When you have a good half of the Z movies, Evolution, GT, etc to compare it to, Super doesn't even crack the top 10 worst anything.
Now, Super's far from perfect. The first 2 arcs were pointless because the Battle of Gods is a legit near perfect movie & the Res F arc didn't add anything meaningful to the movie's story or plot, the fact that Toei rushed it into production & didn't give the animators enough time to do their jobs lead to some really bad animation days, the first theme song sucks, the ending of the Future Trunks Arc undermines anything they were trying to build up to, Goku's flanderized into an idiot because Toriyama wasn't helping with the writing of the characters, the overall themes & messages I feel Toriyama was trying to put into the show weren't capitalized on, etc. However, I'd take the worst of Super over anything GT because GT genuinely felt directionless, the series gets downright unbearable to watch at points because a lot of what happens in it feels pointless, the action is boring a lot of the time, & the animation has a lot of the same problems as Super, but to a lesser extent.

As for character rosters in the games when attempting to choose characters for them, this was inevitably going to happen. Finding a good balance of characters is hard in a game like this where you have 4 different TV shows, 20+ movies, & some specials plus auxiliary material you can maybe pull from. Although, it doesn't help when they bloat the rosters of these games by counting every transformation as their own characters even though no other games in the franchise do that because they're transformations, not separate characters. Even then, I had my own complains & criticisms of the base roster. Super 17, King Piccolo, kid Krillin, the Pilaf gang, Mercenary Tao, etc. from OG DB & GT not being in the game made absolutely no sense to me especially when they were in BT3. Hell, not even XV2 has a lot of representation for every part of the franchise. They have absolutely no representation for OG DB or tertiary characters like the Saiyans not in the core cast or that are more popular from the Bardock special, etc. But, of course they were going to prioritize Super over everything else. Super is the newest entry in the franchise & has the biggest cast of a lot of the others shows, or at least the most additions. It's legitimately a goldmine for these kinds of games that love to bloat the rosters. This is a thing we're going to have to accept is going to happen. However, they also haven't done themselves many favors by not adding to the missing characters with the DLCs. I know they had the Super Hero pack pre-planned before they released the game, so I can excuse that, but not gauging the reactions to the missing characters & doing a DLC pack or 2 around them I think was a big mistake. I know they wanna capitalize on Daima, which is fine & makes sense, but that's still stupid.

[miguelnuva1]

I'll never forget a post I read about Evolution that said if it had different names, wasn't connected to Dragonball and was released as a Disney channel orginal movie it would be goated like Zenon and Halloween Town lol.

[JulieYBM]

I'll never forget a post I read about Evolution that said if it had different names, wasn't connected to Dragonball and was released as a Disney channel orginal movie it would be goated like Zenon and Halloween Town lol.

I haven't watched Dragon Ball Evolution since, like, 2008, but I'm not sure that it functions as even a good film lol.

Oh god, Zenon and Halloween Town? That's some nostalgia I haven thought of in twenty years lol

[miguelnuva1]

I'll never forget a post I read about Evolution that said if it had different names, wasn't connected to Dragonball and was released as a Disney channel orginal movie it would be goated like Zenon and Halloween Town lol.

I haven't watched Dragon Ball Evolution since, like, 2008, but I'm not sure that it functions as even a good film lol.

Oh god, Zenon and Halloween Town? That's some nostalgia I haven thought of in twenty years lol

To me is passable. It sucks as a Dragonball film and I would never intentionally put it on but I wouldn't run for the hills if somone wanted to watch it.

Their is a rift review of it online that made me laugh at the ridiculousness of the film.

Godzilla 98 was more insulting to me however.

[Grimlock]

This conversation has nothing to do with the game.

Hopefully the inclusion of Shallot means the arrival of other, unusual characters such as Tarble, King Vegeta, Chilled, Kuriza, Abo, Cado, Neko Majin. Those would be far more interesting to see and play as than adding obvious ones from the series. And perhaps it would even get me to buy this game, despite the fact that it unnecessarily retells a very old and known story.

Also, Super Saiyan Bardock or Time Breaker Bardock, because we are in 2025, not in the 2000s. His absence is a mistake that has yet to be corrected.

[JulieYBM]

I'll never forget a post I read about Evolution that said if it had different names, wasn't connected to Dragonball and was released as a Disney channel orginal movie it would be goated like Zenon and Halloween Town lol.

I haven't watched Dragon Ball Evolution since, like, 2008, but I'm not sure that it functions as even a good film lol.

Oh god, Zenon and Halloween Town? That's some nostalgia I haven thought of in twenty years lol

To me is passable. It sucks as a Dragonball film and I would never intentionally put it on but I wouldn't run for the hills if somone wanted to watch it.

Their is a rift review of it online that made me laugh at the ridiculousness of the film.

Godzilla 98 was more insulting to me however.

Oh, for sure. I keep forgetting that the film exists because it's just that forgettable lol

[miguelnuva1]

I played with Shallot today and he's fun. It makes me want at least SS and SSG from him though. It would be cool if they couldnadd the forms in the future. Would also love Giblet, their fusion and Zahaa.

[MCDaveG]

It's funny, how on reddit, many people were like "we are so back"...
I must say, Shallot looks cool, plays good... and after like 15 minutes, I am done with the DLC.
If he had at least few SSJ forms, more dialogue options, man, these are the small details that make a ton of change.
DLC 2 was really bad in terms of content, but Vegeta mini was lot of fun and still is, so it probably made me spend more time with the DLC than it warranted for.

Unfortunately, Shallot leaves a sour taste in my mouth with thinking at what could've been, it it wasn't just a basic cross promo.
We are so not back and nope, this doesn't open the door for possibilities like Super 17, King Piccolo etc.

But not to be completely negative, the patch changes are definitely interesting. I would've deleted the game if it wasn't for the DLC3 coming up sometime somewhen in the future and I am keen on going back and try online without facing the same cheese.

I do understand some of the wishful fans tho, I'd love to believe that Bandai will not be the shit company they are and they are delaying the last DLC which might come with some content surprises and more than just bunch of characters before pulling the plug on the game.
But in the end of the day, Bandai is mostly shit company, hence I don't expect anything.
In the end, Shallot is incredibly basic add-on in promotion of predatory gacha game after all.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

I do understand some of the wishful fans tho, I'd love to believe that Bandai will not be the shit company they are and they are delaying the last DLC which might come with some content surprises and more than just bunch of characters before pulling the plug on the game.

I honestly think that this game will benefit from a sequel far more than additional DLC. I can see Zero being similar to XV1 where it sets the ground work for the series, while its sequel ends up being like XV2 with years worth of support.

[miguelnuva1]

Zero suffers from being a reboot and a sequel to Tenkaichi 3 at the same time.

Most of the Dragonball games we love didn't get to that level before at least a sequel, so if Zero two was a thing I feel it would last much longer than Zero did with people.

Online and competitive have really changed how people view games because Zero sold very well, that's what Bandai will see first.

They already got their money so at worst they don't make a sequel or a sequel is slower out the gate. This game has already done what they wanted.

[Scsigs]

I'll never forget a post I read about Evolution that said if it had different names, wasn't connected to Dragonball and was released as a Disney channel original movie it would be goated like Zenon and Halloween Town lol.

I very much disagree. At the very least, the Disney Channel movies are entertaining & entertainingly bad at worst. Like, Return to Halloweentown & Teen Beach 2, I didn't like, but at the very least they had good bits to them. DB Evolution doesn't even have that. It'd be seen as 1 of the lesser DCOMS if so. The DCOMS also have a production team that knows how to work within their limitations in terms of budget & they don't go too ambitious beyond that with special effects & shit. Evolution was largely shot on sets & green screens & doesn't even look good for its budget. When there are Tokusatsu movies that only cost their companies a few million dollars to make to Evolution's $30 million & they look better even with some choppy CGI, there's something seriously wrong with the movie. And I know they were trying to make a world that resembles Toriyama's, but they couldn't even do THAT right. IMO, you need to shoot in a country like Japan to even get close to that.

This conversation has nothing to do with the game.

People went off on their own tangents. You just ignore them & continue the actual topic.

Hopefully the inclusion of Shallot means the arrival of other, unusual characters such as Tarble, King Vegeta, Chilled, Kuriza, Abo, Cado, Neko Majin. Those would be far more interesting to see and play as than adding obvious ones from the series. And perhaps it would even get me to buy this game, despite the fact that it unnecessarily retells a very old and known story.

Also, Super Saiyan Bardock or Time Breaker Bardock, because we are in 2025, not in the 2000s. His absence is a mistake that has yet to be corrected.

King Vegeta was in BT3, but I wouldn't expect anything from Yo Son Goku & Friends Return or Neko Majin. As much as Shallot is a deep cut from another game, he's a game original character that they can do whatever with. No idea if they could adapt anything from the other 2.

Super Saiyan Bardock is possible, but who knows. His only real game appearances being DBZ For Kinect & XV2. We'll see what they choose to do, though.

Zero suffers from being a reboot and a sequel to Tenkaichi 3 at the same time.

Most of the Dragonball games we love didn't get to that level before at least a sequel, so if Zero two was a thing I feel it would last much longer than Zero did with people.

Online and competitive have really changed how people view games because Zero sold very well, that's what Bandai will see first.

They already got their money so at worst they don't make a sequel or a sequel is slower out the gate. This game has already done what they wanted.

I can agree. With the subseries like Budokai, the Tenkaichi games, Xenoverse, Legacy of Goku, etc. They took at least 2 games to get good. Budokai 1 hasn't aged well, but 2's aged better than a lot of people wanna give it credit for for instance. However, we're in the age of live service games, patches, & DLCs, unlike BT3. They can adjust the game & keep doing DLCs for as long as Bandai wants to continue supporting them to make this the definitive Sparking/BT game they want to. Granted, they need more good single player modes & to add to the story modes to do that, but yeah,

[Vegeta th3 4th]

They already got their money so at worst they don't make a sequel or a sequel is slower out the gate. This game has already done what they wanted.

I actually think a sequel will be the next game we get in 2026. The foundation and majority of characters are already in place, so two years to tighten up the gameplay and add additional modes and stages isn't unreasonable.

[MCDaveG]

I do understand some of the wishful fans tho, I'd love to believe that Bandai will not be the shit company they are and they are delaying the last DLC which might come with some content surprises and more than just bunch of characters before pulling the plug on the game.

I honestly think that this game will benefit from a sequel far more than additional DLC. I can see Zero being similar to XV1 where it sets the ground work for the series, while its sequel ends up being like XV2 with years worth of support.

XV2 was quite unprecedented tho in this regard. Sparking!ZERO had no reason to be the way it is, as it was blatantly rushed to earlier release with lack of content. XV1 was quite complete in this regard, with ton of accessories and customization options. Hence IMHO, it's like apples and oranges.

In this day and age, I would opt for upgrade and would even pay for it, like what they did with Street Fighter 5. SZ sequel will only be the same game repackaged with more content, which is something they can do no problem with what is released.
XV2 changed significantly from the first game and vastly improved. SZ is quite good gameplaywise, compared to XV, so why change something that works quite well, when the issues lie somewhere else.

I won't support sequel to SZ at all with my wallet, as the way I see it, they have a lot of trust to build upon from Bandai Namco publisher perspective, which they broke with me with this game. I won't be supporting half assed cashgrabs they pull on us, as I have no trust that they will deliver the second time and why should they after this.

[Dbzfan94]

Looks like Shallot has no Girl Talk dialogue. For shame!

The character commentary is overall really disappointing. Half of the comments are “who is that” or “I don’t get it” are is just way less entertaining than Chichi’s comments in BT3 who just made remarks like she knew everyone and everything that happened.

It's only natural for the Daima and GT characters, but what's weird is that they seem to know the characters from Z movies which can't have happened either in the main timeline (for a big majority of the movies at least). Logically, they should be wondering about who they are too and judge them only on their physical appearance.

You can bet that for Shallot, they would also be saying that he looks like a Saiyan and perhaps comment on the armor being different than what they know from Vegeta's, but they wouldn't know who he is either.

I must have forgotten that they do comment like they do know the movie characters which is cool. Still think they should have commented on GT and Daima regardless of timeline shenanigans but glad it’s not as bad as I remembered.

[goku the krump dancer]

No one is saying it shouldn't be represented...

I am. A completely uninfected-by-Super game would be freakin' great, honestly. The closest we've gotten recently was Kakarot, with the only explicitly "comes from Super" element that I can remember being the Trunks DLC's inclusion of the future-timeline fight against Bobbidi and Dabra.

Unfortunately, any franchise-spanning combat-sim game like the Sparking! series will now inevitably have stuff from Super stinking it up, so I don't have any real hope in that department. I'd like to see a return to making games that specifically focus on one particular chunk of the franchise at a time.

Keep in mind, moving forward there’ll most likely be two SS4 Goku’s in future fighting games now with GT and Daima. It’s a shame cuz I would’ve been down for a Xeno Goku but that seems even less likely to happen now.

[Scsigs]

XV2 was quite unprecedented tho in this regard. Sparking!ZERO had no reason to be the way it is, as it was blatantly rushed to earlier release with lack of content. XV1 was quite complete in this regard, with ton of accessories and customization options. Hence IMHO, it's like apples and oranges.

In this day and age, I would opt for upgrade and would even pay for it, like what they did with Street Fighter 5. SZ sequel will only be the same game repackaged with more content, which is something they can do no problem with what is released.
XV2 changed significantly from the first game and vastly improved. SZ is quite good gameplaywise, compared to XV, so why change something that works quite well, when the issues lie somewhere else.

I won't support sequel to SZ at all with my wallet, as the way I see it, they have a lot of trust to build upon from Bandai Namco publisher perspective, which they broke with me with this game. I won't be supporting half assed cashgrabs they pull on us, as I have no trust that they will deliver the second time and why should they after this.

XV2 was very much like Budokai 2 where they refined the gameplay in certain ways & made a whole bunch of positive changes around it (& let's be honest, Budokai 2 is only remembered as either a bad or underwhelming game because the story mode turned some people off even though it had a TON more replay value than 1 & 3 rather than anything being fundamentally wrong with it). Sparking Zero while they could add to the base game experience & tighten up some of the gameplay systems, I think is probably some of the best gameplay of the Sparking/BT series. I gotta be honest, playing BT3 as a kid, I couldn't figure out the gameplay beyond doing basic combos & then doing a special attack. SZ has a more intuitive gameplay system than the previous games, tbh. The problem with SZ is the fact that they mainly focused on bloating the roster & the online play rather than providing a suitable single player experience passed the story mode. So many people have fond memories of the previous games because they were able to really dig into the different modes because it was made in a time before online multiplayer really took off.
Not only that, but it was clearly rushed when it was only like 66%-75% complete & should've had another 6 months-1 year of dev time so they could properly polish & add content to it. Like, I understand that Bandai wanted a game out to coincide with Daima's release (even though Toei botched the release of Daima, having the English dub come out 3 months later for no reason as well as very weird marketing & shit), but this game shouldn't have been released when it was & now they don't have nearly the same playerbase as they initially did & will never be able to get them back.

Keep in mind, moving forward there’ll most likely be two SS4 Goku’s in future fighting games now with GT and Daima. It’s a shame cuz I would’ve been down for a Xeno Goku but that seems even less likely to happen now.

Unless they were to do crossover content with Dragon Ball Heroes, that ain't gonna happen & I don't know why you'd expect it to, I'm sorry. Not even XV2 has tapped into doing Heroes content & that game legit ran out of content to adapt so quickly & the dev team was so desperate to revive interest in it that they brought in Fu from the scrapped DB Online content & started a new storyline with him (which should've been developed into its own game so we don't have endless dry spouts of content, but whatever), which has been some of the best content in the game. And, imo, that's the game to start tapping into Heroes content, not SZ.

[goku the krump dancer]

Keep in mind, moving forward there’ll most likely be two SS4 Goku’s in future fighting games now with GT and Daima. It’s a shame cuz I would’ve been down for a Xeno Goku but that seems even less likely to happen now.

Unless they were to do crossover content with Dragon Ball Heroes, that ain't gonna happen & I don't know why you'd expect it to, I'm sorry. Not even XV2 has tapped into doing Heroes content & that game legit ran out of content to adapt so quickly & the dev team was so desperate to revive interest in it that they brought in Fu from the scrapped DB Online content & started a new storyline with him (which should've been developed into its own game so we don't have endless dry spouts of content, but whatever), which has been some of the best content in the game. And, imo, that's the game to start tapping into Heroes content, not SZ.

Trust me, I had/have ZERO expectations of anything like that happening, I was just speaking hypothetically.

I will say though, XenoVerse seemed more like a cousin to Heroes than a spiritual successor to DB Online, actually now that I type that both heroes and XV could be soft successors to DB Online being that Towa, Mira and mostly Fu are the primary antagonists and that your created character/selected avatar could fall in line with DBO’s idea that majority of earth’s population is either part Saiyan or a Namekian offspring or a Majin offspring.

But the plot of both Xenoverse and Heroes are pretty identical, you’re created character (XV) or Avatar(Heroes) join Time Patroller Trunks in helping him keep the events in every timeline flowing the way they should and not being altered by the demon realm villains with some twists here and there to keep things fun. The Time Patroller versions of the main cast are called “Xeno” Goku, Vegeta etc and Xeno is the name of the console games and your CC is a Time Patroller. I’m honestly shocked devs never decided to port atleast some of the heroes stuff over to the console games, maybe it’s a rights thing because it’s obvious money being left on the table .

Side Note : I’ve almost been under the impression that the new characters in Infinite World were just Carddass models ported over and reworked into the Budokai fighting engine. Of course I have absolutely no solid proof of that but my hot take comes from the fact that GT Goku, Baby, Super 17, Pikkon, Janemba and Pan all have finishers that don’t have a “Defense wins” animation yet every other character that was built from the ground up for the Budokai games does? I think those characters don’t have alternate finisher animations because there weren’t any in the Carddass games, as far as I know if the defending player did wins the finisher mini game it just resulted in them taking less damage but the full animation sequence would still play out.

[SelfTrainedNamekian]

i think i know why i hate this game so much. it teases you with showing you backgrounds that you cant reach in the maps. the maps are really small. as small as bt3 if not more. you are constantly locked in a box of an arena where you are constantly get stuck in the invisible wall. that off course add to the fact that you beraly even got maps to begin with.