DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO Producer Explains the Long Wait for More

The Dragon Ball franchise is one of the most recognizable properties in the world, with a variety of manga, TV shows, and video games created out of it. The Dragon Ball Sparking video game series was incredibly popular in Japan. Known as Dragon Ball: Budokai Tenkaichi series internationally, it garnered fans around the globe to where there were three separate mainline entries for the PlayStation 2 and a spin-off for the PlayStation Portable.

However, the series seemingly ended in 2010, with no more Budokai Tenkaichi games released. But when Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero was announced in 2023, fans went wild. After 14 years, one of the best 3D fighting games was back.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is set to release on October 11 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. With so much time passing, we caught up with producer Jun Furutani at Summer Game Fest 2024 to talk about why Bandai Namco decided to go with its original Japanese name, how the video game industry has grown since the last main entry, and what kind of characters we can expect to see in the roster.

Why did it take so long to make Sparking! Zero? Tenkaichi Tag Team came out in 2010 and Budokai Tenkaichi came out in 2007.

Jun FURUTANI: It’s been a while since Budokai Tenkaichi 3. We felt that this was a completed series. After that, we had many other Dragon Ball series of video games. In between new technology and new consoles, we felt that this is a good time to bring this series back so that people can feel the evolution with Sparking! Zero.

Speaking of new technology, what are the main differences between developing the series in the mid to late 2000s and recent game development?

FURUTANI: The possibilities are endless with new technology. One thing that we focused on was the real-time effects animation that you can add to games today.

For example, how will we define Goku’s ki-charging animation or his launching a Kamehameha beam? We decided to work on wind effects, the ki charging effects, and the destruction of your surroundings. All this is possible thanks to new consoles, and we worked a lot to bring an even better Dragon Ball experience for the players.

This series was previously known as Budokai Tenkaichi outside of the West. Was there a particular reason to go with the original Japanese title this time around?

FURUTANI: That was an interesting discussion. “Sparking” was the original name of the series, and it’s well known overseas as Budokai Tenkaichi. But now, time has passed, and games today are released worldwide simultaneously. It was very important to think about the community worldwide and how they interact, so we decided we needed the same name worldwide.

Split-screen is a hallmark of older games before online multiplayer was mass adopted. When we look at games today, many don’t have split-screen but have online multiplayer. Can you tell me the process of developing Sparking! Zero‘s split-screen component?

FURUTANI: I just wanted to remind people that we do a split screen, but it’s only on the Hyperbolic Time Chamber stage. One reason is that there are not as many objects on that stage.

This was one of the challenges during the development because this game was made first for a solo and online multiplayer experience on one screen. We also wanted to make sure that the Dragon Ball experience could hold up and that the game itself could support the real-time interaction and animations.

What can we expect from the character roster in Sparking! Zero?

FURUTANI: We can for sure say that there is an unrivaled number of characters compared to previous games. That’s what we can say at the moment. We’ll have more communication in the future regarding particular characters that people would like to see.

Of course, we want to keep adding more after launch. We’ll announce the DLC and the Season Pass for this game. We have more than 20 characters that will be added to the game, including from the Dragon Ball Super movie and the Dragon Ball Daima series.

Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings Inc., is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.