Dragon Ball: Sparking Zerois rich with content in every sense of the word, and nowhere is this more true than in its roster.Dragon Ball: Sparking Zerohas game modes and battle mechanics of a similar scale, but its massive number of playable characters helps give shape to everything else. At first glance, something like this may seem too good to be true, but the truth can only be fully uncovered upon further inspection.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s full rosterat launch was advertised to have 181 characters. With the addition of Goku (Mini) as a pre-order bonus, that bumps the number up to 182. Finally, DLC is expected to increase this number further, withDragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s Season Pass including 20 new playable characters. Ironically, the extra version of Goku included as a bonus does illustrate an important truth about the game’s total character count.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s True Roster Size Explained
How Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Inflates Its Official Roster Size
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zeroinflates its official roster size by a large degree, and the reasoning should be easy to spot. The game features a very large number of duplicate characters, most of which are made up of transformations and other alternate forms. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and is in fact something thatSparking ZeroandBudokai Tenkaichihave in common.
Dragon Balltransformationshave been a huge deal for quite some time, and that goes doubly so for theBudokai Tenkaichiseries specifically. However, they do certainly make some sections of the roster seem redundant. Thankfully,Sparking Zero’s alternate forms rarely feel redundant to play, especially compared to their counterparts in previousBudokai Tenkaichigames.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s Roster Is Smaller Than It Seems
Regardless,Sparking Zerohas leaned more into alternate forms than ever before. For example, there are around20 versions of Goku inDragon Ball: Sparking Zero. When accounting for these extra versions of each character, and promptly cutting them from the count, one can begin to paint a much clearer picture ofSparking Zero’s roster.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s Fusionsare a slightly different case from transformations. For example, Gogeta is a distinctly different entity from Goku and Vegeta. Furthermore, Gogeta and Vegito are especially different characters, despite being Fusions of the same two characters. After this groundwork is laid, all other alternate versions can be rolled in with one another.
This means thatDragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s versions of Vegetashould include everything from Great Ape Vegeta to Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta. In short, if two fighters share the same name, they’re the same character. There are some exceptions, such as Future Trunks and Trunks being different characters, but these are few and far between.
Using this relatively strict methodology, the roster can be split into original fighters and alternate fighters. Still, there are a few notable observations that players can make. The first thing that should become immediately apparent is that alternate fighters do happen to outnumber their original counterparts. This isn’t all bad, as the discrepancy in question is rather small. Likewise, this specific dynamic is definitely to be expected. After all, characters likeGoku and Vegeta contribute several variantseach. Meanwhile, there are very few characters with no transformations at all.
Regardless, the general narrative this split creates should be relatively clear. Although the roster is smaller when making this adjustment, it’s still utterly massive. There is a large gap between 81 characters and 182 characters, but an 81-character roster is still nothing to sneeze at. Not only is it much larger than mostotherDragon Ballgames, it’s bigger than most fighting games in general. At the end of the day, it even appears to prove the point that transformations aren’t a negative burden on the game’s roster whatsoever.
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 can 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.
