Interview: Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO is less about balance and more about feeling as overpowered as you should playing Gogeta 

Bandai Namco Entertainment will be releasing Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO on October 11, 2024 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam).  

It is the first new game in the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series since 2007’s Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3. For the uninitiated, games in the Budokai Tenkaichi series are third-person 3D arena fighters. Packed with dramatic attacks, a large roster of playable characters and dynamic 3D fields with plenty of space to zoom about in, the series is highly popular among Dragon Ball fans. To find out more about what’s in store for players in Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO, the series’ first game in 17 years, AUTOMATON spoke to producer Jun Furutani at a recent playtest event in Osaka earlier this month. 

―― Please could you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your career so far. 

Jun Furutani (Furutani hereafter): I’m Jun Furutani, the producer of Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO. I have previously worked as a production assistant on third-party IPs, and have also been involved in things like managing Dragon Ball FighterZ.  

―― Congratulations on Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO. How did people react when the game was announced in June? 

Furutani: We received a very warm response from the fans, and they seem delighted, so I am extremely happy. It made me want to work even harder so that the new game lives up to fans’ expectations, especially after such a long gap in the series. 

―― Did you have a key word or theme for the development of Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO? 

Furutani: There were two. The first was “getting into the role.” I think the Budokai Tenkaichi allows players to enjoy playing the game as if they were the characters. For example, if your opponent shoots a Garlick Gun at you when you’re playing Vegeta, you can opt to shoot back a Kamehameha instead of just dodging. We believe that this Dragon Ball-enacting style of gameplay is what made people fall in love with the game series. That’s why we’re making sure Sparking! ZERO gives players an even deeper version of this experience. 

The second theme is “evolving tradition.” This is the first new title in the series in 17 years, and the Budokai Tenkaichi series has been loved by many people since its beginning, so we have been making this game with the aim of creating a legitimate evolution of the series – in other words, the kind of gameplay and immersion into the Dragon Ball world that will make people say “this is the definitive Budokai Tenkaichi game.” 

―― Spike Chunsoft is leading the development of Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO, as they have with past series entries. What do you think are the strengths of the current development team? 

Furutani: I can feel a deep affection for Dragon Ball and the Budokai Tenkaichi series from Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO’s development team. They are great at inferring the kinds of features fans would like to see in the game and making them happen. They’ve been able to pull off real-time effects that are only possible due to how much technology has evolved in recent times, and I think it’s wonderful. 

―― I heard that the impetus behind the development of Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO was to surpass previous games in the series, as the evolution of hardware has made it possible to do things that weren’t possible before. Could you explain in detail about what you have been able to achieve thanks to advances in hardware? 

Furutani: We don’t want to merely make things more technologically-advanced, but rather, we place importance on how we can use this technology in a Dragon Ball-like way. Of course, the number of effects on screen and the quality of the graphics have improved compared to previous titles. But it’s how we use the technology that is important. It’s all about making the game feel good in a Dragon Ball-way.  

If you unleash a high-speed Dragon Dash, it kicks up dust and breaks rocks with a bang. Goku has superpowers, so even when he is just building up his Ki, it makes the trees and grass shake. It is only now that we’re able to express all of this in real time, and it’s things like this that will make players really feel like they’re in Dragon Ball and are becoming the characters. 

―― So, advances in hardware have enabled you to give players a deeper Dragon Ball experience. Are there any things that were difficult to express in previous games that you were able to realize in Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO?  

Furutani: This game uses Unreal Engine 5, which allows for more natural expressions of destruction. Instead of something breaking in a pre-determined way, you can have something break in response to specific situations. Also, in Sparking! Mode, as you channel more and more Ki, the weather changes, becoming thunderous. There are many other things, but this is one example of something we were only able to do with this new game. 

―― When Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO was announced, you commented that, “This game is not an esports game like Dragon Ball FighterZ.”  What kind of game is it? 

Furutani: Esports games are understood to be the sort of game in which players can enjoy highly competitive battles where the character are balanced in a fair way. On the other hand, Sparking! ZERO’s focus is on immersion, and we wanted to make it a game that people who like Dragon Ball even a little will surely enjoy. We value the Dragon Ball experience more than the esports experience.  

For example, I think Gogeta is known for being super strong, and we made him very strong in the game. Characters like Mr. Satan who tend to have a tough time in the story are also likely to struggle in-game. Making characters who are strong in the source material feel overwhelmingly strong in the game is another way we hope to deepen the Dragon Ball experience for players. So, Sparking! ZERO is not like an esports game, but it’s not like a party game either….err, I guess you could say it’s a Dragon Ball game? (laughs). I’d like to settle on this. 

However, we have implemented a cost system called DP, in which each character has a predetermined cost – this makes it so that the combined strength of all the characters on each team is aligned and players get to enjoy fair battles. 

―― It’s a fighting game, but characters who tend to struggle will find it hard to beat the stronger characters. That’s interesting. 

Furutani: Simply put, that might be the case. But it’s not like you can’t take damage (if you are a strong character), and as it is a game, there are also common actions that all characters can perform. If you make good use of technique, you can defeat the strongest opponents regardless of which character you are playing as. I think that’s part of the fun. I hope that people enjoy using characters because they love them. 

Sparking! ZERO is not a party game, but we have added a system that allows casual players to enjoy the game too. This includes a kind of assist function that was not available in the previous games. For example, if you mash the square button on PS5, you’ll get a satisfying full combo. The game has been designed so that people with different strengths and weaknesses can enjoy playing it together. In this sense, I think it could be fun to play like a party game. 

―― Now I see what you meant when you said it was neither an esports game nor a party game, but a “Dragon Ball game.” Moving on, Dragon Ball is a global IP with a huge following in the West. During game development, are you conscious of these Western fans?   

Furutani: We don’t focus on any specific region, but rather look at things from a global perspective. However, there has been one big change. 

――What change? 

Furutani: In the West, the series has been released under the name “Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi” up until now. But this time, we went with the (previously only Japanese) title “Sparking!” worldwide. 

―― I was aware of this difference and found it interesting. Could you tell us about the reason behind the different names? 

Furutani: This was something we were worried about, and there’s been a lot of disagreement… Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 and the other previous titles in the series were released at different times in Japan and overseas. This is what contributed to it being named the “Sparking!” series in Japan and the “Budokai Tenkaichi” series overseas. However, nowadays, it is common for players to form communities across regions, share information with each other and become friends. The new game is being released simultaneously worldwide, so we thought it would be better if the game had the same name so that people could discuss it using the same words. When it came to picking the name, I felt that Sparking! was the original name, so we decided on that. 

However, we are aware that there are many people who are attached to the name “Budokai Tenkaichi,” which is why we have included it at the end of the trailer and in the game. The idea is for Sparking! ZERO to be treated as a new entry in the Budokai Tenkaichi series, and we are promoting it as such. 

―― Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is highly rated in Japan, and in the West it’s even called things like “The best Dragon Ball simulator ever.” Are you aware of this reputation? How do you expect to meet these expectations?   

Furutani: We are aware of and are happy to see such enthusiastic comments. On the other hand, we also feel we have to live up to these expectations. I think the expression, “The best Dragon Ball Simulator” is close to the concepts of immersion and becoming the character that I talked about earlier, and I think it also means previous titles in the series were able to achieve that. I’ve heard from players of previous games that they also enjoyed the unspoken rules I mentioned, like “If your opponent shoots a Garlick Gun at you, return fire with a Kamehameha.” 

This is our first new game in 17 years, but we have carefully crafted it to recreate the best parts of the past games while maintaining the feel of the series. I think this is an important point to get right for the game to be accepted by fans. From there, we’ve taken the game to the next level, introduced new systems like the Revenge Counter and Super Perception, all in pursuit of making the action even more Dragon Ball-like.  

We believe that pulling off seemingly useless, flashy moves is what makes the Dragon Ball experience enjoyable – sure, you can dodge your opponent’s attack, but why not shoot it with your own and counter? We’ve evolved the game by adding new things to the existing mechanics of the series. We hope that you will enjoy these aspects of the game.  

―― Budokai Tenkaichi’s appeal is the experience of becoming Dragon Ball’s characters, and the fact that you’ve made this the focus of Sparking! Zero’s development concept seems to be a kind of answer to fans’ expectations. We’re looking forward to the game’s release. 

Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO is scheduled to be released on October 11 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam) (please note that release date may vary slightly depending on your time zone). It is currently available for pre-order. Please check the official website for more details. 

Interviewer/editor/photographer: Ayuo Kawase 
Translator: Verity Townsend 

※Images are from an in-development version of the game 
©Bird Studio/Shueisha/Toei Animation 
©Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.