Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has been out for nearly two years now. The first true foray into the Budokai Tenkaichi template in ages, Sparking! Zero hit fans like a Spirit Bomb with its expansive lineup, anime infused arena battles, and crazy tag based team matchups. With two prior DLC pack drops already (one based on Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero and one based on Dragon Ball DAIMA), the latest offering, Super Limit-Breaking NEO DLC is now here. And this one is so jam packed with content that it almost feels like the developers were trying to outdo themselves.
The new DLC pack doesn’t just add a staggering 33 new characters to the roster, It also brings a ton of new cosmetics, stages, and an entirely new single player mode to the mix. And while that sounds like a lot of content, the Super Limit-Breaking NEO DLC is more of a welcome addition to what already exists in the main game versus some kind of elevating and transformative DLC experience. In essence, fans of the game are going to love it, but people who didn’t fall in love with it at first won’t likely be swayed into returning through it.
A Staggering Roster
Let’s talk about the main reason fans are excited for the DLC. One of the best and most fun aspects of any fighting game is the roster reveals, and DLC drops are no exception. From Smash Bros to Street Fighter to any other number of FGC entries, finding out who is becoming playable is a huge deal for fans and onlookers alike. 33 new fighters join, bringing the grand total to an almost unreal 238 playable fighters.
That far eclipses Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi’s previous record of 161 by a comfortable margin. Which makes sense, considering that Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball DAIMA, and the modern films (Battle of the Gods, Resurrection F, Broly, and Super Hero) didn’t exist. So who is joining? You can expect legacy characters like Android 8, Chi-Chi, and General Blue from the original Dragon Ball series, for starters. There are also a few Dragon Ball GT joining the fray like Super 17 and GT Vegeta.
Now, some of these aren’t the most hype characters around (We still love you, Cheelai!) and some are so important or popular it’s a shock they weren’t in the base game, but they all result in a lot of gap filling in the roster and leaving the entire game feeling more complete. There are still some holes to fill, but until Dragon Ball Super resumes or we get more DAIMA DLC, it is safe to say the roster we currently have is exceptional.
New Looks and Locales
One of the more lowkey fun aspects of Dragon Ball games and their DLC has been the customisation. And Super Limit-Breaking NEO continues that trend with roughly 20 items that expands the cosmetic options available to players. Not only do these outfits change the appearance of certain characters, but they can also change the Super Attacks. It’s always fun when the Super Attack changes to match what happened in the anime when the character had that outfit on. It’s a really nice touch that goes to show how much care the developers put into stuff like this. This is also a neat way of “adding” a new variant of a character without having to actually make a roster option feel too copy/pasted.
Super Limit-Breaking NEO also brings with it four new stages to the mix, a very welcome addition since stage variety was one of the weaker aspects of the base game. The two best ones are Kami’s Lookout and Kame House, two classic locales that seemed criminally lacking when Sparking! Zero first dropped. While four stages doesn’t sound like a huge amount, especially compared to 33 fighters and 20-ish cosmetics, they’re still a sight for sore eyes. Each stage has a great amount of space to play with, and the destruction aspect (especially at Kami’s Lookout) is fantastic.
Limit Breaker Journey
And finally, we come to the arguably one of the most intriguing and substantial aspects to the Super Limit-Breaking NEO DLC – the Limit Breaker Journey single player semi-roguelike character empowerment campaign mode. While undertaking this mode, players can power up their favorite characters, increasing their stats to improve themselves into potentially godlike versions of their base models. There’s something poetic about maxing out Yamcha’s stats to the point where he just stomps the competition. In Limit Breaker Journey, you pick a character, and then take them on a randomized adventure. You’ll then choose events and battles to participate in from a World Map. Success grants experience and skill points. Failure sends you back to square one.
While the concept of a roguelike Dragon Ball mode sounds great in theory, in practice it becomes more of an exercise in frustration. Not because the mode itself isn’t fun or well thought out. The events and battles are varied, the rewards themselves are excellent, and being able to power up a favorite roster is genuinely fun. The problem is the difficulty. And not in a “git gud” kind of way. This mode features some truly brazen spikes in difficulty that hit at random, regardless of the difficulty marking on the map. And when defeat wipes out what you’ve been gathering up (but not all progress, thankfully) it gets rough on the morale.
“The biggest sin of this mode is that the spikes happen so randomly and can vary so wildly that there is no real preparation”
The biggest sin of this mode is that the spikes happen so randomly and can vary so wildly that there is no real preparation. You better hope your Vanishing timing has gotten to your A-game level, because you’ll be relying on it almost immediately. Despite that major misstep, the mode has a huge amount of replayability. And because you can take your beefed up characters into other single player modes (and certain multiplayer modes) to wreak havoc with them, there is a lot of incentive to endure the pain and grind those stats away. The end result is a character that feels distinctly yours. You them up in a way that suits your playstyle. Are you all about rapid ki generation? Maybe all about speed? Maybe you want to shore up the weaker defenses of a more glass cannon character? The choices are yours, and the possibilities are expansive.
Verdict
Overall, the Super Limit-Breaking NEO DLC felt very beefy. While the price tag of $30 may make players balk, in the end you have to ask yourself if the price is worth the content. 33 fighters is nothing to sneeze at. A whole new mode of endless potential – and hair pulling inconsistency – gives diehards a never ending supply of content. New costumes and stages are always welcome. The DLC may feel safe, but it’s a big extra helping of what made Sparking! Zero already so beloved. Super Limit-Breaking NEO succeeds because it gives players more of what they love while adding enough newness into the mix to feel worthwhile. It’s iterative in a good way. Channel your inner Lord Yamcha and dive in!
Score: 8/10
The Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Super Limit-Breaking NEO DLC launched July 30 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Reviewed on PS5, review code provided by the publisher. For more Dragoon Ball: Sparking! Zero, check out our review of the base game.
