Okay, I'm going to start by pointing out that dragon ball sparking zero is definitely NOT a good dragon ball game. It fails on several different points while ABUSING on the nostalgia of many fans who “PLAYED” budokai tenkaichi 3. As someone who has played pretty much every dragon ball game that has come out in the last 20 years, I feel deceived for having expected something decent out of this one. That being said, let's get right into the problems present in this game:

Gameplay - It's easy. Yes, the game is absurdly easy! I picked it up on the day it was released (2024/10/10) and, on the same day, I completely finished goku's story (with all the what ifs) without the slightest problem. Contrary to what it might seem based on the complaints I've seen online, the game is actually outrageously easy. What's more, the gameplay is much more arcade-like than any other fighter games in the arena fighter segment. There's no real complexity to the dodge and vanish system present in it. What's more, at least when it comes to the game's online play, precisely because of the way the vanish system works, the combos you can use (which are already few) are reduced even further! Any combo using vanish attacks can be easily countered... And that wouldn't be a problem, if it weren't for the fact that you're ultimately limited to just 2 combo types(to not end up countered by someone vanishing mid combo). It completely destroys the sense of real difficulty. In a high-level battle, the one who best masters the vanish system wins... turning the experience into something more like an interactive turn-based game.
There are many things I could say about the complexity of the game present in the original BT3, but that would exceed steam's character limit, so I'll just leave this note here explaining why I haven't compared both.
Btw, since I played most of the game with steam in offline mode, the number of hours currently on my profile doesn't represent my actual gameplay time, but you can confirm that I closed that part of the game by looking at the achievements on my profile.

Story - Now, the story mode here has been done with an exceedingly high LACK of care. Most of the story scenes are made using 3D animations of the lowest quality. I wasn't expecting much from the story mode itself, considering that the previous one(BT3) summarized the story in a strange way too (the only exception being Budokai Tenkaichi 2), but this is just a lame boss rush. It's sad to see fans defending this barbarity in a game that costs over 60 dollars.

Soundtrack - The game's basic soundtrack, that is, not including the anime soundtrack DLCs, is alright~. They're not memorable enough to stick in your mind after playing (and even less so to get you excited), but they're not bad enough to kill your desire to play; they're okay. On the other hand, the dlcs with anime soundtracks are a massive pain in the ass. They fade out when played in the middle of fights, the loop is weird (if one stops playing, it takes a relatively long time of silence before it plays again) and the price of these soundtrack DLCs is too high for what they offer.

Additional features - The game's menus are interesting, the feature to see how Bulma, Chichi and Videl react to each of the fighters is wonderful and the number of characters is really high. On the other hand, the character selection menus, the lame local MP and the game's emotionless tournament mode are awful.

Conclusion - It's an average game, but hardly worth more than $60. I particularly expected a lot more than what was delivered, but given that dragon ball fans thrive on hype and nostalgia, it's hard to expect a significant improvement in future updates and/or games in the series. Feel free to buy it on sale for less than $20, as that's what it's worth.

Okay, I'm going to start by pointing out that dragon ball sparking zero is definitely NOT a good dragon ball game. It fails on several different points while ABUSING on the nostalgia of many fans who “PLAYED” budokai tenkaichi 3. As someone who has played pretty much every dragon ball game that has come out in the last 20 years, I feel deceived for having expected something decent out of this one. That being said, let's get right into the problems present in this game: Gameplay - It's easy. Yes, the game is absurdly easy! I picked it up on the day it was released (2024/10/10) and, on the same day, I completely finished goku's story (with all the what ifs) without the slightest problem. Contrary to what it might seem based on the complaints I've seen online, the game is actually outrageously easy. What's more, the gameplay is much more arcade-like than any other fighter games in the arena fighter segment. There's no real complexity to the dodge and vanish system present in it. What's more, at least when it comes to the game's online play, precisely because of the way the vanish system works, the combos you can use (which are already few) are reduced even further! Any combo using vanish attacks can be easily countered... And that wouldn't be a problem, if it weren't for the fact that you're ultimately limited to just 2 combo types(to not end up countered by someone vanishing mid combo). It completely destroys the sense of real difficulty. In a high-level battle, the one who best masters the vanish system wins... turning the experience into something more like an interactive turn-based game. There are many things I could say about the complexity of the game present in the original BT3, but that would exceed steam's character limit, so I'll just leave this note here explaining why I haven't compared both. Btw, since I played most of the game with steam in offline mode, the number of hours currently on my profile doesn't represent my actual gameplay time, but you can confirm that I closed that part of the game by looking at the achievements on my profile. Story - Now, the story mode here has been done with an exceedingly high LACK of care. Most of the story scenes are made using 3D animations of the lowest quality. I wasn't expecting much from the story mode itself, considering that the previous one(BT3) summarized the story in a strange way too (the only exception being Budokai Tenkaichi 2), but this is just a lame boss rush. It's sad to see fans defending this barbarity in a game that costs over 60 dollars. Soundtrack - The game's basic soundtrack, that is, not including the anime soundtrack DLCs, is alright~. They're not memorable enough to stick in your mind after playing (and even less so to get you excited), but they're not bad enough to kill your desire to play; they're okay. On the other hand, the dlcs with anime soundtracks are a massive pain in the ass. They fade out when played in the middle of fights, the loop is weird (if one stops playing, it takes a relatively long time of silence before it plays again) and the price of these soundtrack DLCs is too high for what they offer. Additional features - The game's menus are interesting, the feature to see how Bulma, Chichi and Videl react to each of the fighters is wonderful and the number of characters is really high. On the other hand, the character selection menus, the lame local MP and the game's emotionless tournament mode are awful. Conclusion - It's an average game, but hardly worth more than $60. I particularly expected a lot more than what was delivered, but given that dragon ball fans thrive on hype and nostalgia, it's hard to expect a significant improvement in future updates and/or games in the series. Feel free to buy it on sale for less than $20, as that's what it's worth.