Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero was an immediate smash hit after quickly becoming the best-selling Dragon Ball game ever in the United States already, but the game has definitely had its share of issues too.
With a big update slated to hit Sparking Zero at some point this month, it appears some lucky players got their hands on the changes early.
The Bandai Namco booth at Manga Barcelona in Spain reportedly featured a new Dragon Ball build that quickly became noticeable.
People like Tamurex began sharing photos and supposed information about the update from the event that should definitely shake things up a bit in terms of both characters and features.
Hey, I think that there’s a new Build on Barcelona, it’s on a official Bandai Booth
It has split screen on all stages and on Character Select it says the cost of the Super Attacks pic.twitter.com/ERIEH2WmwC— Mekanemu | Tamurex (@MetalFreezer300) December 5, 2024
As for balance changes, quite a few abilities allegedly had their skill count requirements increased by 1 level to nerf them a bit like Ultra Instinct Goku’s Greater Potential, Bardock’s Shockwave of Rebellion, False Courage and supposedly every move that applies instant Spark.
On the flip side, Saiyan Spirit had its cost decreased a level though Afterimage Strike reportedly is the same despite calls for the powerful technique to be nerfed too.
Hello there pic.twitter.com/9OJPK7WBro
— Mekanemu | Tamurex (@MetalFreezer300) December 6, 2024
One of the most interesting changes, however, comes on the feature side that should make players pretty happy.
Images are being shown of Sparking Zero running split-screen matches on more stages like the world martial arts tournaments arena and Namek though it could apply to all of them.
This would be a really nice upgrade because this Dragon Ball game launched with the option to only play locally on the Hyperbolic Time Chamber stage, which was disappointing.
Some that are similar to the ones I’ve been posting, but I’ll put them here anyway pic.twitter.com/U2gUg7jY3r
— Mekanemu | Tamurex (@MetalFreezer300) December 8, 2024
Developers previously pointed to technical issues standing in their way, so it seems they’ve been able to push past those limits — though it may come at the cost of visual effects, fidelity, and / or performance.
More images of the reported update build also show what appears to be a new way to organize the character select screen.
Instead of having every transformation for every character just put into one giant list, you may be able to simplify that down to only one form on the main screen with their different versions then popping up upon selection like previous Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi games.
SPARKING ZERO MIGHT ACTUALLY RELEASE THIS MONTH THEY ARE COOKING #SparkingZero pic.twitter.com/3yMLM42kJm
— Sparking! ZERO News (@DBSparkingNews) December 5, 2024
Other screenshots, however, show the select screen looking the same as before, so it may be an optional feature to use soon.
One photo also suggests characters like Super Saiyan Gogeta may have an updated model, textures or lighting that makes his skin tone appear much lighter than it currently does though it’s hard to say for certain without direct footage.
Here are some more photos that I didn’t published (I think) of the unreleased Build pic.twitter.com/d1MhUNrOmY
— Mekanemu | Tamurex (@MetalFreezer300) December 8, 2024
The official Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Dramatic Showdown tournament series has been facing controversies these past few weeks when players were reportedly warned to stop using a flight exploit with the Android characters before getting disqualified days after the fact anyway.
And when a very similar case appeared to occur during a different qualifier, the event organizers supposedly let the tech slide without issue.
There’s obviously much more issues for Sparking Zero outside of the tournament space, so it’ll be very interesting to see how Spike Chunsoft and Bandai Namco attempt to approach the game’s balance now.
Sparking Zero’s update is slated to release at some point in December, so we should be hearing more about it very soon as well as the official patch notes whenever they drop.