Across its 40-year history, Dragon Ball has amassed hundreds of characters and different versions of them that are recognized all around the world, however, not all of the warriors receive the same amount of attention and representation when it comes to the video games — especially to the point of Goku and Vegeta.
There’s even one particular version of Gohan that had never been playable in a Dragon Ball fighting game before despite being a favorite for quite a few fans.
That’s all about to finally change, though, with the launch of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero later this year to bring the Budokai Tenkaichi series of arena fighters back after basically 17 years.
Sparking! Zero is slated to include a total of 164 characters at launch (plus a bunch more with DLC) as the largest roster for the series ever with a bunch of first time inclusions, especially from later in the Dragon Ball Super anime with some obvious picks like Kefla — but also those who played smaller roles like Bergamo, Dyspo, Kakunsa and Ribrianne in the most recent trailer.
And of course Bandai Namco has to add in at least 10 new variations of Goku and Vegeta to bump those numbers up too.
But who we’re talking about today has been around a lot longer from around the middle of Dragon Ball Z.
If you haven’t guessed it by now, we’re putting the spotlight on Future Gohan.
Now I know what you’re probably thinking, “sure we never got him in Dragon Ball FighterZ, but Future Gohan was in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 and Raging Blast 2.”
That’s true, but not in the way most people probably remember him or recognize for the Saiyan defeated by the future Androids.
Sparking! Zero is the first fighter to actually feature Future Gohan with only one arm as a playable character, and both his base and Super Saiyan versions can be used.
Never looked better besides the whole missing arm thing
This added detail is greatly appreciated for longtime fans of the manga / anime to really stand out from the rest of the cast in a way that only really he can, and that includes myself as someone who owned and watched the VHS of Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks countless times growing up.
While missing his arm probably won’t really impact his gameplay, they will have to at least give him some unique animations that aren’t just borrowed from Adult Gohan, and we can already see a bit of that in the trailer from earlier this year.
We’ve also seen some fans sharing their excitement for Bamco specifically using this version of Gohan after losing his arm to Android 17 (and 18 in the anime).
Future Gohan looks so good in Sparking Zero
AND THE ONE HANDED KAMEHAMEHA pic.twitter.com/kmo9deXevN— Komi (@KomiCh_) April 30, 2024
Some of you may have memories of Future Gohan only having the one arm in Budokai Tenkaichi 3, but that was never included in any official version of the game (just fan mods).
Funnily enough, they did make him still fight like his left arm was broken and only used his right most of the time, so maybe they just didn’t want to go through the extra work of rigging just one model specific for Future Gohan when it’d be much easier to just make adjustments to Adult Gohan.
Looking like Gohan has double the amount of arms that he should in BT3
Now this isn’t the first time one-armed Gohan has been playable in a Dragon Ball game since he was in the Trunks DLC for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot as well as things like Legends and Dokkan Battle, but it’s surprising it took them this long to do so for any fighting game.
It’s going to be very interesting to see what all Future Gohan can do differently from all of his other variations included in Sparking! Zero and how strong they’ll actually make him considering the developers aren’t trying to make a competitively balanced title here.
We also want to see how much Story Mode content he’ll be included in as well as any new What If? campaigns or brutal first-person moments versus the Androids.
As for other versions of the character, Sparking! Zero is set to feature at least Kid Gohan, Teen Gohan, Adult Gohan and Ultimate Gohan with all of their respective transformations although Beast Gohan will presumably be DLC
Plus, hopefully we can get this Future Gohan in a Dragon Ball FighterZ 2 if / when that ever becomes a reality.
And speaking of FighterZ, CEO 2024 recently paid tribute to the late Akira Toriyama with an extra special championship belt for DBFZ at the event.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is set to release on October 11 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.