With all the knowledge you have gained during the battles, it’s time to practice them in real action and showcase your skills in DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO. In this article, we will explore the two main battle modes – Episode Battle and Custom Battle. Additionally, we will provide a comprehensive guide to the Tournament Mode, where you can organize unique competitions online and offline, choosing from premade options or setting the rules yourself.

The Episode Battle mode in DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO offers an immersive experience by allowing you to experience iconic battles through original situations of the DRAGON BALL anime series from the perspective of 8 different characters: Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo, Future Trunks, Goku Black, Frieza and Jiren. 

Playing an Episode Battle isn’t just about simply following the original storyline: Your choices matter! When you progress through the battles and complete certain victory conditions, you will sometimes face alternative scenarios that deviate from the traditional storyline. 

You can discover these alternative scenarios either by making the choices presented in the original scenario or by making choices that differ from the original. Completing secondary objectives during each battle can also influence the characters and lead to different outcomes. 

For example, have you asked yourself what would happen if Goku transformed in a Super Saiyan before even reaching Namek? How would the next events on this exotic planet play out? 

The story map feature provides a visual representation of your progress, allowing you to have an overall perspective of the story. It is also more convenient if you want to go back to history and change the choices you made. 

Battle Part

In addition to the narrative aspects, Episode Battle mode also includes intense combat scenarios that are integral to the DRAGON BALL series. You will engage in battles that are faithful to the way the characters fight in the anime, utilizing a variety of fighting techniques and special moves unique to each of them.  

These battles are not only a test of skills but also a crucial part of storytelling, as the outcomes of these fights can affect the direction of the original scenario. Whether you are facing off against strong enemies or participating in pivotal moments of the series, the Episode Battle mode ensures that players experience the thrill and excitement of DRAGON BALL combat while reliving the storyline they have chosen to follow.  

Custom Battle is a game mode exclusive to DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO, it allows players to create custom scenarios by using a wide range of options to create their dream scenario. There are several ways to enjoy this mode, which we explain here below.

Bonus Battles 

Bonus Battles are special battle scenarios that have been created and designed for you to enjoy. You can join the battle directly with default characters, dialogues, and combat rules. These battles feature unique character matchups, written dialogue and victory conditions, creating an experience akin to playing a make-believe scenario.

The interface of each Bonus Battle will have tags displaying keywords, which indicate various themes and details, such as difficulty, the stage where the battle will take place, special victory conditions or other tags that you will find useful to understand what the scenario will show. 

For example, in one of these scenarios, Perfect Cell will challenge God of Destruction, Beerus, to test his new perfect form before chasing down Goku. 

Some Bonus Battles are initially locked, and you need to complete other Bonus Battles to unlock them. You will also receive rewards the first time you complete a new Bonus Battle. Hone your skills and try to complete them all!

You can also access the Effects Table in each Bonus Battle after completing it. Effects Table are essentially a list of effects that trigger when certain conditions are met. For each battle, there can be up to 3 tables, but only one of them is active at any given time. By inspecting the Table’s contents, you can read the Trigger Conditions and Special Match Settings that it contains. 

In the Trigger Conditions settings, you can see which effects have a chance to trigger during combat. Every effect is associated to a condition that allows the effect to manifest in the battle: dialogues, forced character switches, increase in CPU level, or even forced transformations can all be effects applied to the battle based on some conditions triggering. 

For example, you can read one effect as: “If Time Elapsed is equal or higher than 60s” THEN “force the active character to switch”. 

Remember that every Trigger Condition can be associated with multiple effects: this means that it is possible to trigger more complex events, such as not only forcing an enemy to switch out after a certain time has passed, but also boosting all their stats and forcing them into Sparking! Mode. 

In the Special Match Settings, there are some effects that directly impact the final outcome of the battle. For example, “Defeat a specific character” or “Time Elapsed” can be set as the conditional win effects. 

After completing a Bonus Battle, you will be able to view the effects it used and copy them when creating your own battles in the Custom Battle Mode.

Custom Battle Mode 

Seeing the intense battles and exciting dialogues in the Bonus Battles, don’t you feel the urge to design your own battle scenes and storylines? Custom Battle mode will allow you to unleash your creativity and create everything freely. 

You can choose to change and customise one of the scenarios already present in the Bonus Battle (Choose the “Copy Edit”) or create a battle from scratch (Simple or Normal type). 

Normal Edit Mode 

Next, we will guide you through building a battle through the Normal Edit mode, which will serve as your introductory guide to Custom Battles. Normal Edit allows you to edit battles however you want and it is great for those who are sticklers for details. 

As you can see from the screenshot, the Normal Edit allows you to customise everything in the battle, which includes:

a. Battle Characters: You can choose which characters will appear in the battle. The player’s team and opponent’s team can include up to 5 characters each.

b. Guest Characters: Guest Characters cannot participate in battle, but will appear in event scenes instead. But you can only set a maximum of 10 Battle or Guest Characters in total.

c. Free choices: Select “Free Choice” to allow players to choose whichever characters they like for their team. If you upload a battle marked as Free Choice to the World Library, any players who try out your battle will be able to use the characters of their choice.

d. Secret Characters: You can hide which characters appear in your Custom Battle to keep things secret and surprise players who decide to play your battle.

2. Battle Environment 

Battle Environment settings allow you to change the battle’s stage, background music, and custom rules.

a. Stage and BGM: The stage you select will be used during event scenes. 

b. Rule Settings 

You can change the battle’s time limit, toggle out-of-bounds losses on or off, or set other restrictions like banning Switch Outs or Transformations. 

*Out-of-bounds losses are only available on certain stages. 

a. When you want to add an effect to a battle, you will need to create a trigger condition to go with it. 

b. After selecting the slot that you wish to use, you will move to a screen where you can assign the effect’s trigger conditions. Once you have assigned the conditions, you can choose what will happen when the effect is activated. 

c. You can link an effect to a trigger condition by selecting the condition with your cursor and pressing the + icon to add the effect. 

d. After selecting a slot for the effect, you will proceed to the settings screen where you can change the details of the effect. 

4. Scene Settings 

a. Scene Settings allow you to assign which scenes will play at the start or end of your battle. You can also choose different scenes to play depending on whether the player wins or loses the battle.  

b. Create your own event’s scenes from the Editor screen and experiment with different conditions and effects to make your battles even more exciting. 

You can adjust the text, images, and music that are used for the intro of your battle. Preset images are also available for you to choose from.  

Thumbnail setting allows you to change the preview image shown when your battles is selected. 

a. You can set up to 4 thumbnail images to cycle through. 

b. Tags can be used to search for uploaded battles. You can attach up to 2 tags for each battle. 

Simple Edit mode 

If you want to create a simpler scenario or create one faster, Simple Edit mode will allow you to do so by selecting a shorter range of options to facilitate the creation of the Battle based on a template.  

In Simple Edit mode, just choose a direction for your battle and the editor will put one together for you! You can then further edit the details to your liking. Use this to get a feel for how to put together an entertaining battle. 

Here are the options you can change: 

After editing, you can do a test run and choose to save or delete the battle before exiting the battle editor. 

The World Library is an online platform where players can share and download battle scenarios created by others. Through this platform, you can experience the creative works of other players from around the world and share your own creations. 

In Tournament mode you will be fighting against other characters in various types of tournaments, both online and offline. In this mode, you can create your own tournament or use tournament rules presets. 

In Online Mode, you can compete against opponents from around the globe. You can create or join online tournaments, set their own match rules, and compete with others to win the championship. 

In Offline Mode, players can compete in tournaments against computer-controlled opponents or compete with your friends next to you. 

Tournament Rules 

In different Tournament modes, you will experience matches with completely different, and even opposite, battle rules. Here is a summary of the rule presets: 

Create Tournament 

Tournament Mode also allows you to set your own battle rules and match opponents. In “Create Tournament”, all the rules are blank, and you can freely set up your desired Tournament Rules. 

With a variety of game modes to explore, DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO offers endless excitement and strategic depth for fans and newcomers alike. Whether you’re diving into the intense battles in the Episode Battle Mode, crafting your own epic scenarios in Custom Battle Mode, or competing in the dynamic and varied Tournaments, there’s something for every type of player. So, gear up, unleash your creativity, and get ready to experience the ultimate DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO. 

DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO is available now for PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam®.

For more information about DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO or other Bandai Namco Entertainment Asia products, please visit our website or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, LINE and YouTube.