Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is the upcoming installment in the fan-favorite Budokai Tenkaichi series of games, which have been around since 2005. It is also the first time the Sparking prefix for a series title universally hasn’t been restricted to Japan.
Previous fighting games in the anime haven’t had crossplay because of the additional challenges associated with balancing the capabilities of different platforms. Similarly, the upcoming title will also not support crossplay natively, but as per fans, the custom battle feature could be a workaround.
Custom Battles in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero and Why They Could Be Cross-Platform
Sparking Zero has been a game that many fans have been hyped about ever since the game was first announced in 2023. The game has not only been the latest tile based on the IP in a very long time but is also part of the Budokai Tenkaichi series, widely regarded as the best among all the others.
The game’s Japanese website states that the game will not have cross-platform, at least on release. Moreover, if previous titles are any indication, the game probably won’t have cross-platform. This also sparked a discussion on the game’s subreddit:
But the game offers one of the best features, making it one of the best video games based on the anime ever to come out: Custom Battles. Custom Battles will allow players to participate in additional scenarios and create their own scenarios and battle situations.
A Redditor posed a question about the mode, and the answer to that could decide how well-received the game mode proves to be:
While there are potential challenges regarding cross-platform support in a computationally demanding fighting game, there shouldn’t be many issues with sharing custom scenarios. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean the game would allow custom battles.
Sharing Custom Battles in Sparking Zero Depends on How the Mode Is Implemented
Dragon Ball Sparking Zero recently confirmed that it would feature local co-op, which fans were hoping for as traditionally, Budokai Tenkaichi games have featured the game mode. However, since Custom Battles is a novel game mode, it isn’t known how it would be implemented.
For example, in the comment section of the Reddit post linked above, someone proposed if there is a central system hosted on Bandai Namco servers, it would make the mode custom battles more accessible:
But as per the video shared by the game team titled ‘DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO – Game Mode Showcase,’ the game mode is almost as intricate as a level designer. Its intricacy and varying resource requirements for different scenarios could make implementing it as a cross-platform feature challenging.
What do you think of the custom battle game mode? Do you think there is a chance that players can create custom situations and share them with others on different platforms? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
