Budokai Tenkaichi impressed at the time with its action-packed 3D fights. As we know from almost every Dragon Ball game, the stories from the anime were also re-enacted. The fourth part continues exactly this path. We can already say in advance: The first few minutes feel immediately familiar. As if the series had never been away.
Let's take a look. We've played the episodic battles, classic battles and custom battles. The latter are a very special highlight for fans of the series. But more on that later.
If we think back to the predecessor, the stories were divided into different sagas. Sparking! Zero follows a similar path. Instead of sagas, however, we focus on individual characters.
We started with the story about Son Goku and started at Muten Roshi's Kame House. The story begins with the Sayajin Saga and Raditz's appearance. It is not yet known whether we will delve into the stories before Z later. But what we do know is that Super is definitely part of the episode fights. We fought them as Goku Black and Zamasu respectively. But it is also conceivable that the Goku and Frieza paths will lead there.
Source: Bandai Namco
The short cutscenes before and after a fight are initially very neat. Provided that the characters and camera do not move too much and avoid close-ups. If too much is happening in the picture, the pre-rendered scenes appear messy and unnecessarily pixelated. Close-ups of faces appear a bit stiff in places. This is particularly noticeable in dialogues. But we still cannot generalize. Scenes immediately after a fight, which take place in the same location, are much less prone to errors.
The developers apparently deliberately added images of key sequences to the cutscenes to conceal the inaccuracies. This didn't help, but it does make for a nice change.
The heart of the game is the battles. Occasionally we can slightly influence the story before a battle. Before our clash against Raditz we decide to fight together with Piccolo. Alternatively, we could have gone it alone. The decisions seem to be the new what-if aspect in Sparking! Zero. In Budokai Tenkaichi 3 there was also a separate arc for this.
Source: Bandai Namco
Now it's time to get into the fight! With the rose-tinted glasses of a Dragon Ball fan, the fights are an absolute delight. Punches, kicks and combos are very fast and feel wonderful. With teleportation and targeted dodging and blocking maneuvers, we get the feeling that we are really reenacting the anime.
But this also means standing around in the world and charging up your Ki. This unlocks new, more powerful attacks in five levels. We also need the power to fire small energy charges, boost ourselves towards or away from the opponent, and level up and down quickly.
To avoid getting too lost in the 3D world, we always focus a little on the opponent. With a few exceptions, our attacks are aimed directly at our opponent. If he is not visible, perhaps because he has just entered the field, we must first search for him.
In the meantime, we recharge our Ki or increase the skill counter. The small number under our character bar is essential for further skills, our maximum strength and transformations.
With the maximum power, individual super attacks can be carried out. These are directly linked to a stylish animation, which is mostly taken from the anime faithfully. For Gotenks' Boo-Boo Charge Volleyball, for example, Piccolo comes to the rescue, even though he is not actually involved in the fight.