Summary
According to a recent interview,Dragon Ball: Sparking Zeropossibly won’t have any form of split-screen multiplayer.Dragon Ball: Sparking Zerohas been one of the most anticipated releases forDragon Ballfans, as it is a direct successor to theBudokai Tenkaichiarena fighter games. It features a lot of the classic gameplay from past titles in the series, including destructible environments, transformations, and a large roster of characters. One of the strongest aspects of theBudokai Tenkaichiseries is its multiplayer mode.
In theoriginalDragon Ball: Budokai Tenkaichiseries, players could play together in local PvP, with the third game introducing online multiplayer. While the online mode was criticized for being archaic and barely functioning, fans have nostalgic memories of playing these games with friends and engaging in kinetic battles with its huge roster. Split-screen multiplayer is still available in some games today, letting gamers play with each other locally. However, it appears this function may be axed forSparking Zero.
This information comes from a recent Twitter thread posted by LaunSSJ, which was translated by ShonenGameZ. It supposedly contains details that were gathered from an interview withSparking Zero’s producer, Jun Furutani, and two French streamers. According to Furutani,Sparking Zerowon’t featuresplit-screen local multiplayer, not because the developers don’t want to include it, but due to issues related to Sony and Microsoft, stating the situation is “complicated.”
Why Doesn’t Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Have Local Multiplayer?
Furutani states the developers are trying to find a solution to include split-screen multiplayer, but for now, fans shouldn’t expect the feature in the game. ShonenGameZ puts forward that this omission could be due to Sony and Microsoft’s policies, which currently favor selling more consoles to consumers. Furutani says the situation may still evolve, as the team is aware of the fans' demand forincluding this feature inSparking Zero. Furutani also mentions that adapting games to the Xbox Series S console has been a challenge as well, which may be part of the reason why this feature was omitted.
Many fans were disappointed to hear thatSparking Zerois supposedly axing this feature, lamenting that one of the biggest draws of theBudokai Tenkaichiseries was its multiplayer and getting together with friends to battle it out as theirfavoriteDragon Ballcharacters. The possibility of having the multiplayer modes regulated to be strictly online was seen as a bad move.
Furutani says the team is very open andwishes to improveSparking Zerowherever possible, with series producer Ryo Mito gathering global feedback for the game. Despite this news supposedly coming from Furutani, fans should still likely wait until this detail is confirmed by Bandai Namco and Spike Chunsoft, as plans could change, andDragon Ball: Sparking Zeromay get split-screen multiplayer before launch or later down the line.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
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The fourth mainline entry in the Budokai Tenkachi series, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is an in-development arena fighter developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco.
