Dragon Ball: Sparking Zerohas been released to wide acclaim, and quickly sparked active speculation around its DLC prospects. Thankfully, the game’s Season Pass has already made the general scope of its first wave of DLC.Dragon Ball: Sparking Zerohas nominated two series to spearhead this effort, but it may quickly run into a wall with one of them.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s Season Passwill feature as many as twenty characters, which are currently stated to hail from bothDragon Ball Super: Super HeroandDragon Ball Daima. Both were well-received recent entries in the series, and deserve the spotlight because of this. However, they also share a limited scope, which may pose a particularly large problem forSuper Hero.

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Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Has Limited Options For Super Hero DLC Characters

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Has Already Confirmed Two Super Hero Characters

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zeroplayers are largely in the dark on specific DLC characters, with two notable exceptions.Dragon Ball: Sparking ZeroteasedDaimaDLC, but only recently revealed greater detail. By contrast,Sparking Zeroadvertised its Season Pass with the simultaneous announcement of two characters. The headliners in question are Gamma 1 and Gamma 2, two androids introduced inSuper Hero, who followDragon Ball’s classic enemy to ally formula.

As the most prominent original characters inSuper Hero, theGamma Androidscertainly seem like perfect picks forSparking Zero’s DLC. However, they also bring to light an unfortunate truth aboutSuper Hero’s potential on the roster. At the end of the day,Super Herosimply doesn’t have a wealth of characters forSparking Zeroto draw from.

Dragon Ball: Super Hero Has Some Obvious Favorites for Sparking Zero DLC

Thanks to the inherently limited scope of a movie, it’s relatively easy to predict who the other representatives fromSuper Herowill be. Gohan and Piccolo are the main heroes ofSuper Hero, which has madeBeast Gohan and Orange Piccolointo some of the most highly requested characters inSparking ZeroDLC discussion. Cell Max serves as the film’s final antagonist, so it would make sense for him to join the fray as well.

While these characters definitely deserve a spot inSparking Zero, the potential inSuper Hero’s roster falls off hard from there. More importantly, the most obvious inclusions bring an even more challenging problem to attention. Beast Gohan, Orange Piccolo, and Cell Max all have one thing in common that could spell trouble for their reception asDLC fighters inDragon Ball: Sparking Zero.

Dragon Ball: Super Hero Would Boost Sparking Zero’s Many Alternate Forms and Transformations

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s full rosterhas more than 180 characters at this point, so the 20 provided by the Season Pass is no small boost. It’s currently unclear if those 20 will be solely relegated to the two series mentioned, and what the split will be. Regardless,Super Hero’s impact on this number would actually be even smaller than one might expect.

In closecomparison to previousBudokai Tenkaichirosters,Sparking Zerolargely inflates its character count thanks to a sizable number of alternate forms and transformations. When accounting for these duplicates,Sparking Zero’s roster is still huge, but much smaller than advertised. These alternate characters tend to have more diverse movesets than in previous entries, but they still aren’t exactly original characters.

For better or worse,Dragon Ball Super: Super Herois pretty much guaranteed to continue this trend. Beast Gohan, Orange Piccolo, and Cell Max can all be considered alternate forms in one way or another. Likewise, Orange Piccolo and Cell Max alike can grow in size, which will also add another alternate version of them to the roster.Cell Max is a lackluster antagonistin the first place, but he would technically qualify as the most distinct of the three, with the others simply adding transformations to existing characters.

Of course, there’s inherently nothing wrong with alternate forms. In fact, they’re practically essential to the series' history, even if they don’t align with what many people might expect out of DLC. Beast Gohan especially has enough power to craft an inspired design, but these increasingly limited options suggest thatfutureDragon Ball:Sparking ZeroDLCshould draw from a different well.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero

WHERE TO PLAY

DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO takes the legendary gameplay of the Budokai Tenkaichi series and raises it to whole new levels. Become a super warrior and experience the earth-shaking, limit-breaking power of DRAGON BALL battles!Unleash the strength of over 180 fighters from DRAGON BALL Z, DRAGON BALL Super, DRAGON BALL GT, and selected DRAGON BALL movies, all in the base game! Each character comes with their own signature abilities, transformations, and techniques.Make the destructive power of the strongest fighters ever to appear in DRAGON BALL yours!Engage in heart-pounding, high-speed 3D battles that stay true to the anime and video game series, with breathtaking visuals and authentic combat moves like beam clashes, rush attacks, movements too quick for the eyes to see, and planet-razing ultimate attacks.Challenge other players online to test your skills, or sit down with friends offline to hone your skills exclusively in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber! Fight your way to become a champion across various tournament modes and victory conditions.Conquer the action-packed battles from the beloved original story, or discover and unlock new encounters for your favorite Z-Fighters and more. Relive your favorite moments from the series through cutscenes you’re able to experience from the perspectives of eight characters!Recreate your favorite battles from throughout the DRAGON BALL story, or set up your dream story battle with your favorite characters! Share your creations with other fans and experience the battles brought to life by imaginations around the world.