Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero has taken the Tenkaichi legacy very seriously

More than a decade has passed since the release of Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 3, a game that was conceived as the culmination of a saga, a celebration of the manga and anime products that had been released up to that point. As the years passed, Bandai Namco continued to develop new products, most notably Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and Dragon Ball FighterZ, two long-running projects that continue to this day. But finally, the dream has come true: Budokai Tenkaichi 4 is Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero and its developers have taken the legacy of the classics very seriously. In a group interview that MeriStation participated in, producer Jun Furutani emphasized this.

Budokai Tenkaichi as the foundation for everything else

“The first step was to review the combat system of the previous Budokai Tenkaichi. The producer commented that this was the basis for building everything else, so they put “a lot of effort” into it. “The next step was to see what new actions and moves could be implemented on top of that to make it more modern and fun. Of course, this game was released 10 years ago, and it was very important that users who played the old title and play the new one touch the controller and get the feeling of ‘hey, this rings a bell’ like the previous video games. I hope players will feel nostalgic,” he added.

“On the other hand, there are a lot of new players who don’t know the old games. The combat system was a bit complex, very fast, and it’s not that easy to get into. That’s why they added a feature that allows you to perform combos in a simpler way. In other words, making the game more accessible was one of the tools used to refine the systems.

Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero will be released on October 11 for PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC.