One of the most requested features for Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero was bringing back local multiplayer to relive those epic battles against our close friends, and those wishes did not go unfulfilled. However, it came at the cost of no stage variety at all, as only one is available.
The Hyperbolic Time Chamber is confirmed to be the only stage where players will be able to fight in the local multiplayer mode. The info came from the latest Game Mode trailer, where producer Jun Furutani went over the latest trailer presented during the Summer Game Fest 2024. The trailer highlights some of the game modes included in the game, such as a new story mode, What-if scenarios for the main story, and creating your own custom fight scenarios, complete with cutscenes.
As Furutani explains these new modes, all eyes suddenly focus on the long-requested local multiplayer mode. Its existence was denied during the game’s first announcements, much to Tenkaichi fans’ dismay. However, it was added later in development due to popular demand, but not without the restrictions mentioned above. Local 1v1s were only implied to be Time Chamber-locked at first, but it was now officially confirmed.
According to Furutani, one of their goals with the game was to demonstrate the current generation’s true power by adding effects such as destroyed scenarios, the wind blasting at each attack and the weather changing whenever you charged up your Ki. Translating these elements to a split-screen game would be difficult, so they never considered adding the mode in the first place.
After some long consideration, they eventually decided to implement the feature. But to avoid further problems, they opted to lock the mode to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. With those circumstances in mind, it was the best stage choice as there are little to no environments to be messed with. Therefore, there shouldn’t be any problems with destructible scenarios, weather effects or any other effects conflicting between the screens.
This is still a huge bummer, though. While technical limitations are understandable, I’m sure most fans wouldn’t mind having toned-down effects if it meant getting more stage options. They could’ve at least given us the World Tournament stage! We still have time until the game comes out, but it’s unlikely that more stages will be available on release. There’s always a chance for the best, but I wouldn’t get all my hopes up.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero will be available on October 11, 2024, for Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.