Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero started out as a new fighting title that generated a lot of hype leading up to its early October release. It received a lot of praise at launch and for a brief window after, but it didn’t take too long for the warts to begin showing.
Fast forward to just last week where the two finalists for the Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero French online qualifier were disqualified from competing after using “exploits” in the game that also happen to be completely practical and the strongest techniques in the current competitive meta. Needless to say, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is in need of changes, and here are some ways to fix it.
Fighting game content creator and Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero commentator Tyrant_UK recently put together a video that offers several different ideas on how to fix the game in its current state. He walks us through five improvements that could help make the game more stable and a better competitive experience overall.
Right out of the gate, Tyrant discusses the Z-Counter mechanic that ultimately results in “vanish wars.” To put it simply, players are able to vanish and reappear behind their opponent, and this not only effectively evades oncoming attacks, but makes it so that players can repeat this over and over again dodging the attacks that are meant to punish each vanish.
Tyrant suggests that Z-Counters get toned down as they are just too strong right now. A cooldown system for using these vanishes could help them not be abused so frequently, or the mechanic could be made more punishable if it becomes overused to prevent the flow of matches being slowed to a crawl as competitors continue to play on the defensive.
Number 3 on this list, by Tyrant’s own admittance, probably should be at the top of the heap for fixes that need to happen. This issue is none other than the constant running away that plagued the France qualifiers and lead to both finalists being disqualified.
As it stands currently, players can constantly fly away from their opponent making it nearly impossible to actually hit them. What’s worse, certain characters like Dr. Gero and Android 19 do not spend any ki energy to perform these maneuvers, which means they can do it forever and run out the clock.
This style of play is currently favored by the game mechanics, and in turn, it ends up being the strongest tactic to use in competitive play.
Tyrant recommends that the effectiveness of these tactics be reduced down starting with making Dr. Gero and Android 19 actually spend ki when doing them, or the introduction of a time-based mechanic that has notable negative effects if a player runs away for too long could help prevent it from being the main focus in gameplay.
You can check out the full video below for more ways Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero could (and should) be fixed.