Sparking Zero Should be Called the Sparking Paradox as it Threatens and Saves the Franchise Simultaneously

Put FighterZ in a blender with Budokai Tenkaichi, start it up, and you’ll find a new juicy game, Sparking Zero. It certainly has snatched the best Dragon Ball game crown from the previous games. It’s a full-on Dragon Ball package serving nostalgia to the longtime fans and a visual spectacle to the fans who were introduced to the series later in their lives.

As far as my experience with the game tells me, and of course the statistics, this game is awesome, or as many have called it, peak. But then I thought of that yin-yang symbol; there’s some bad in good and vice versa. This game here may have had a bad effect if we look closely.

It’s Not the Fans of Today, But the Traditional Ones That May Feel Alienated

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero has an arsenal of new features and mechanics. Of course, we must expect it to be as we are in the ninth generation of consoles after all. Unreal Engine just added that much-needed salt to it.

I didn’t simply call it a breath of life for Dragon Ball for no reason. It pays attention to even the tiniest details and tells stories from new angles. For now, there are eight playable characters in Episode Battle. We should hope for more coming to the roster.

Sure, the game incorporates the core features from the previous Budokai Tenkaichi games, but they were refined from top to bottom. Goku’s Spirit Bomb Ultimate now feels like watching an anime and not playing an arena fighting game. The cutscenes take up too much time away from the action.

But then, when we give it a thought, the anime’s fans, especially the traditional ones, stand at risk of alienation. As we are seeing new stories in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero coming to fruition, it’s becoming complex. Those fans experiencing them may feel they aren’t into the same universe they used to explore on TV during their childhood days.

It’s a video game so what-if scenarios are something inevitable. But a linear story is something that many prefer, even if it is adapted in a different medium. That is to say, keeping things as they are is the best way to keep their legacy.

The problem becomes bigger when we take into consideration that it’s an online game and obviously more DLCs are to come. The now eight-player Episode Battles could become sixteen-players and so on. More what-ifs, more risk of those traditional fans turning their backs to it.

The Right Balance Will Take the Dragon Ball Game a Long Way

Now I am not saying to keep those what-ifs away and keep the story as it has been in the manga and the anime. Stringing together odd stories won’t be fruitful. Keeping the balance is the key.

Doing too much will always fan those flames that’ll burn the entire forest that once humans adored. Stirring a hornet’s nest isn’t really a wise thing to do. Neither is it fun when things start to drift away, like in the case of Modern Warfare, losing their essence. You can see the disaster Call of Duty has become today for the context.

The best course to avoid doing that would be to listen to the community. The fans are always pointing out things, some good, some bad, but all in all, they are the key to keeping things alive.

The game is by far the best tribute to Akira Toriyama and Bandai Namco of course won’t want it to go bad, especially when it comes to the traditional fans. But then in order to keep it that way, it needs to look at it the right way.

Sparking Zero is one long journey; it became crystal clear after 3 million people flocked in to get their hands on it within just 24 hours of its launch. To keep this journey fun, there needs to be a right balance between innovation and tradition in the Dragon Ball game.

How was your experience with Sparking Zero? We would like to know about it in the comments section below.