The meeting between the manga Dragon Ball and video games have been obvious since 1986, the year the animated series was launched in Japan. However, few adaptations of Akira Toriyama’s work have been unanimously praised.
In 2018, Dragon Ball FighterZ set the bar so high that none of his successors was able to challenge his supremacy. Calibrated to meet the requirements of both fans of the franchise and those of fans of fighting games, the title also impressed with its visuals modeled in a stunning manner on those of the anime. Difficult to compete with such a successful adaptation… unless you go where even the Arc System Works title had not dared to venture.
The rebirth of DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi
Well before the release of Dragon Ball FighterZanother adaptation had already managed to catch the jaws of fans of the license. We are then in 2005 and the publisher Bandai Namco is looking for a way to turn the page Dragon Ball Z Budokai.
Considering the possibilities offered by the PS2, it now seems possible to aim for much more ambitious 3D gameplay which would be closer to the whirlwind clashes between Super Saiyans described by Master Toriyama in the pages of his manga.
Dragon Ball Z : Budokai Tenkaichi then dares to propel the fights into completely disproportionate 3D areas. The confrontations gain in verticality and extend as well on land as in the air or under the surface of the waves. There will clearly be a before and an after DBZ Tenkaichi in terms of proposal.
Because he is the first to have managed to transcribe so well the sensation of speed and freedom of movement felt while watching the animated series. Its two sequels will take up the torch with dignity in 2006 and 2007… then radio silence.
The crazy bet of Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero
Finally resuming its name of Japanese origin, Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero is taking the crazy gamble of resuscitating the branch of Tenkaichi with today’s means. Everything that was the strength of the first parts is preserved in this 2024 episode which adds a visual rendering even more faithful to the anime, without any possible comparison with the first three opuses.
Despite certain imperfections linked to the lack of finesse of the environments (the underwater fights are the best example), never a video game adapted from Dragon Ball had never managed to get so close to the animated series. Because the Spike Chunsoft studio has made a point of designing settings that are very largely destructible, hence the difficulty of making them both credible and functional.
Especially since the size of the zones is truly astonishing. This also explains the decision to limit split-screen combat to a single setting (the room of spirit and time) so that the game remains sufficiently readable during local apocalyptic jousts.
If they wish to put the results of their training to the test, players are invited to participate in online matches, or to try to win the many championships inspired by the series.
The rules are skillfully renewed while multiplying the nods to the manga, the title showing an almost unhealthy respect for Toriyama’s work. The most attentive players will not fail to appreciate the fact that the projections vary, for example, depending on the nature of the enemy or the evolution of the character’s abilities.
Respect and attention to detail
The desire to stick as close as possible to the original material is visible in each aspect of this adaptation. She also explains the division chosen to tackle a task as pharaonic as that which consists of transposing 40 years of a manga in constant evolution into a video game.
This solution also seems the most logical when we think about it seriously. Rather than completely sabotaging the balance of chances by allowing the most powerful characters to access all of their abilities, the designers preferred to divide them into a multitude of variations.
This is the reason why a protagonist like Son Goku comes in more than ten distinct variants which each have their own specificities. And even if the most advanced forms of the Super Saiyan have the possibility of transforming, the gap in strength remains controlled.
Better yet, this allows the story mode to hold the attention of the player, impatient to discover what special attacks will be accessible in this or that variation of their favorite character. To summarize decades of evolution condensed into eight scenarios, Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero wants to be ruthlessly expeditious.
On the one hand, it’s extremely frustrating to see the story move forward so quickly, without really stopping at crucial moments. On the other hand, this choice seems inevitable to retrace all of the arcs of the series, from the arrival of the Saiyans on Earth to the outcome of Dragon Ball Super in animated version.
For the first time, all the protagonists have access to all of their respective transformations, up to the most recent. This even includes the different forms imagined through the films and series Dragon Ball GT. A good way to satisfy everyone, even if we would obviously have loved if the game offered scripted episodes for all the playable characters.
An unthinkable challenge, knowing that their number reaches the staggering threshold of 182, not counting the few surprises planned in DLC (downloadable content). For the record, this quota was not chosen at random: it corresponds to the number of participants in the qualifiers for the 22nd martial arts tournament mentioned in the pages of the manga.
Play technique or instinct
The great strength of Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero lies in the way it takes the universal gameplay of Budokai Tenkaichi to address all audiences. How to find the right compromise between technique and accessibility to satisfy both fans of the franchise and die-hard fans of fighting games? By offering two distinct and complementary approaches which, once mastered, reveal real subtleties.
The speed with which ki is accumulated to chain together special attacks allows neophytes to immediately enjoy reproducing the most spectacular powers from the anime. But the level of mastery required to correctly use counterattacks and prevail in melee confrontations provides just the right amount of technique to meet the expectations of experienced players. Clearly, everyone is free to adopt the style that suits them best and the whole thing is full of possibilities, such as ranged attacks that collide or the different types of counters planned to get out of any situation .
If we can overcome the main scenarios by limiting ourselves to the most instinctive techniques, the level of mastery required gradually increases when we become interested in alternative stories. Because the title includes some surprises in the progress of the different arcs, in the form of branches to unlock according to very specific conditions. Even though we know the series like the back of our hand, we inevitably let ourselves be surprised by these surprising choices which sometimes lead to amusing variations of the main story.
A 100% customizable experience
By integrating as many elements relating to the anime as possible Dragon Ball Superthe title aims for unprecedented exhaustiveness in the field of video game adaptations of the franchise. Even if the most attentive have already noted the absence (at launch) of certain secondary characters who were nevertheless playable in DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3. And this gargantuan content inevitably makes you want to stage improbable fights, never before seen in the series.
This is precisely what Custom Battles mode allows us to do by giving us the means to shape our own battles to share them online with the gaming community. A good way to extend challenges infinitely, beyond matches online and championships. Especially since the store is full of additional outfits to unlock to personalize the appearance of our heroes, not to mention the capsules to equip as accessories and the wishes you can achieve by summoning the dragons using the 7 Dragon Balls.
Including the essential Japanese voices as well as an assortment of careful, but somewhat off-topic, compositions, the game would have deserved to directly integrate the original music from the anime, rather than offering them via paid DLC. It will be interesting to see to what extent players will be interested in this addition to relive the highlights of the animated series as closely as possible. Hoping that this list will especially leave a place of choice for the themes imagined by Shunsuke Kikuchi for DBZ and not just the most well-known generics.
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