Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO PS5 Review. It’s been almost seventeen years since the Budokai Tenkaichi series had a new title, with fans of the franchise wondering if a new entry would ever see the light of day. However, Dragon Ball fans can finally breathe easy as Sparking Zero, the news title in the Budokai Tenkaichi franchise, gives fans exactly what they want: over-the-top battles with completely unbalanced characters and gorgeous particle effects.
Dragon Ball Sparking Zero PS5 Review
Reliving The Dragon Ball Saga With Some Twists
Sparking Zero boasts many modes for players to indulge in and provides a story mode that follows Goku and his more prominent allies across his various battles, from the Saiyan Saga to the Tournament of Power. You can experience the climactic battles through different character perspectives and experience their battles: Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, and some villains such as Goku Black and even Jirin.
Though fans will know just how these battles have played out and have experienced them through the various Dragon Ball titles released in the past, one cool thing these stories allow you to do is change how things play out. For example, Goku can survive his battle against Raditz, which is one of many instances where you can alter the outcome of battle. It adds to the story and allows veterans to play “What If” scenarios.
Over-the-top battles are what Dragon Ball is all about, and Sparking Zero doesn’t shy away from that. You can experience the most significant battles of the franchise or even make your own. Combat in Sparking Zero plays like you remember from the Budokai games while incorporating some improvements from Xenoverse 2 and even the action-adventure game Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.
More Complicated Than It Needs To Be
A lot goes into the gameplay of Sparking Zero, so much so that it may be a little overly complicated. The first thing everyone should do when they start the game is go into the game training program to learn as much of the game mechanics as possible. Sparking Zero is an unforgiving game. You’ll be challenged if you don’t learn the various counters, blocks, deflections, and counter-blocks you can pull off.
Enemies are relentless, even on the easiest difficulty setting. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, constantly under the barrage of my opponent’s rushing attacks. I needed to learn to counter them because they countered everything I threw at them as if they were playing with a cheat code.
To master and survive in Sparking Zero, you must learn the timing of attacks to block them, dodge them, and counter your opponents. Some of these abilities will see you slow down time to counter an opponent’s attack by pressing the circle button, but they can also counter your attack with the same ability.
Pressing the block bottom right as a rush combo attack is about to connect with you, and you teleport behind your opponent to gain the upper hand at the cost of a Ki bar.
Precision In Chaos Will Save You’re Life
None of this is easy to do as it requires precise timing. The game doesn’t provide much wiggle room, so you can imagine how hard it can be when things move at blinding speeds. Once I mastered some of these mechanics, I enjoyed the game a lot more. Countering attacks and dodging abilities at the precise moments provide an adrenaline rush. I question whether the frustration is going to be worth it for a lot of players.
I do not doubt that there will be players who master many of these mechanics, and we’ll see some incredible battles that match the earth-shattering fighting we’ve seen in the anime and manga. Sparking Zero allows you to create these battles; I can’t wait to see them.
Each character has four skills they can utilize and one Ultimate attack. Two of these skills can be used as boosters or quick defensive skills. They include raising your attack or defense, pushing an enemy away, or even paralyzing or stunning them, depending on who you’re using.
Earth-Shattering Attacks Are Hard To Land
These skills require points you earn over time as a bar fills up next to your health. The other two abilities are a beam or Ki attack and a melee rush attack. These are the movies most will remember from the franchise, such as The Kamehameha or The Big Bang Attack.
The Rush attacks see you dashing at your opponent to pull off a cinematic melee combination attack. Each of these attacks takes up Ki. The more power the attack has, the more Ki it takes up. The Ulitmate attack is activated when you charge your Ki past its full limit and enter awakening mode. This mode sees your Ki bar slowly draining but allows you to pull off longer combos and boosts the damage of all your attacks.
The actual Ulitmate Attack will be the finishing move of each character—Vegeta’s Final Flash or Super Saiyan 3 Goku’s infamous Dragon Fist.
The major problem with all of these abilities comes with landing them. You can use the booster skills just fine, but landing a Ki or Rush attack is another story. You’ll learn quickly that landing these attacks will mostly come after you stun or knock your opponent down. Sending your opponent flying after a quick combo rush is your best chance to land these.
If you pull off a Ki or Rush attack, your opponent will likely block, deflect, or dodge it. Even at point-blank range, your chances of landing these attacks are lower than expected.
Berserker Barrage
You have plenty of offensive moves to try to gain an advantage. This is not a button-masher type of fighter, and trying to do so will probably end with your character taking a beating.
You can pull off easy combos by mashing the square button, but combining it with the triangle button will switch your simple Ki blasts into melee combo attacks that will see your character pull off some unique combos, much like in a fighting game.If your character is strong enough, you can also charge up your melee attacks to break through an enemy guard. If they aren’t, they will push them back.
This is where balance comes into play. Sparking Zero is the most unbalanced fighter you’ll ever play. With over 180 characters, you won’t balance any of them out. Some will always be better than others. This, unfortunately, means most characters won’t ever be played online or even by me. I’ll give them a shot, but they aren’t long-term.
It’s not because the characters are flawed. They just aren’t vital. Based on his stats, Hercule is a fan favorite but the weakest character in the game. He also can’t fly, limiting him to ground combat, which is horrible because the camera gets stuck behind objects or even goes through the ground sometimes.
Plenty Of Customization And Unlockables
The environments are memorable to those of the franchise. The Cell Games arena is littered with destroyed military vehicles, while West City features plenty of destructible buildings to blast through and send your opponents flying. The destruction in the game is overall pretty solid and varied, with character models also sustaining damage when clothing gets destroyed.
There is more to do in Sparking Zero than just one-on-one battles. You can have custom team matches with multiple characters on your team, participate in various World Tournaments, and even make your own with custom rules for local and online battles.
Every battle earns you Zenny to use in the games shop, where you can buy new characters not unlocked through the story mode, different costumes, battle themes, and even unique capsules that provide passive boosts to characters, helping you make your favorite fighter a little better and stronger. These capsules allow you to gain extra Ki or increase your attack and defense at the start of battle.
You can complete the Challenges presented by Zeno. These challenges range from pulling off ten Ultimate attacks to winning a certain amount of battles. Completing these will increase your proficiency with specific characters or even unique titles to display on your character card that other players can see when you enter an online battle.
Whis also has his challenges that unlock Dragon Balls. When you collect all seven, you can make a wish to unlock new characters, costumes, or capsule times, among other things.
Creating You’re Own Scenarios Could Have Been Done Better
One unique mode is the Custome Story Builder. You can create your battles and distinctive scenarios here, although the tools provided aren’t the most robust. The idea, in theory, is excellent, but the execution, on the other hand, is time-consuming and annoying.
You can use presets of camera angles and scenes. When you select a scene, you can rotate that camera during a specific moment, zoom in and out, and slow the rotation of the camera down. You can also change the camera filter if you so choose.
Once you make the scene and select what characters appear, you can choose their stances, but things get a little iffy until you get to the dialogue. You can’t type in your dialogue; you must settle for preset options for the characters’ words, and they’re admittedly not the best. You can even unlock more or even buy more with Zenny if you want to.
While you can filter them out by character and other options, this doesn’t help things much. You can’t filter through dialogue based on individual characters, and so constantly searching for good dialogue to make your unique scenarios isn’t enjoyable and time-consuming.
Incredible Effects And Voice Work
Visually, the game is beautiful. The particle effects, in particular, are awe-inspiring, and some characters’ unique aura and Ki attacks are stunning. Even the animation work on some attacks is fantastic. I did find that some cutscenes in the game weren’t fully optimized and had a little blur and pixelation, but it didn’t deter me from enjoying the fisticuffs.
The voice work is top-notch, with almost everyone returning to reprise their roles, while the soundtrack is equally impressive with some epic pieces (some of the tunes are even taken from the Dragon Ball Super serie).
DragonBall: Sparking Zero may be the game most authentic Dragon Ball fans have been waiting for. Is it the best game the franchise has produced? Not in my opinion, but it is one of the most enjoyable, featuring great cinematic combat with fantastic effects and destruction stays faithful to the source material. Still, many will find plenty of frustration in the game’s unforgiving difficulty and AI that sometimes feels like it’s running on a cheat code.
I had a lot of fun with Sparking Zero, although it came with frustration. Still, with plenty of content to dig through, and a cast of characters featuring every central character that’s ever appeared in the franchise, Sparking Zero may very well be the ultimate Dragon Ball title fans have been hoping for.
Dragon Ball Sparking Zero releases on October 11, 2024.
Review code kindly provided by PR