Sparking Zero's Story Mode almost made me go Super Saiyan

Key things

• Budokai Tenkaichi games have always been known for offering a challenge, but Sparking Zero is on another level.
• I probably don't need to tell you that Great Ape Vegeta is a huge pain, but things only get worse from there.
• Shouts to Goku Black, Jiren, and Merged Zamasu for raising blood pressure this past week.

The way you turn Super Saiyan has changed over the years (shoutout to Cabba's back armor), but it first happened in Dragon Ball Z due to Goku's intense and extreme rage over losing one of his best friends at the hands of Frieza. We see how important anger is to transformation again in the Cell Saga when Gohan goes further and reaches Super Saiyan 2 after succumbing to his true anger after the death of Android 16.

I've never felt loss on the same level as Goku, Gohan, and the rest of the Dragon Ball Super Saiyans, but over the past week I've felt like I could snap and go Super Saiyan at any moment. Why, you may ask? Because Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero's story mode is surprisingly brutal and painfully reminiscent of the hardest sections Budokai Tenkaichi 2 has to offer.

When I first started Sparking Zero, I was pretty sure it wouldn't give me any trouble. Not only because I'm a Budokai Tenkaichi and Raging Blast veteran (cool, I know), but also because I've tried a few events with it and had about four hours to get used to its controls. This conceit disappeared the moment I went into Goku's story mode.

“I'll break you!”

Going up against Raditz as Goku sans Kaioken was a harsh lesson that Sparking Zero takes canon power levels very seriously as he wiped the floor with me without a problem. It was a tough pill to swallow, but since it was canon to the story, I was allowed to move on to the battle against Vegeta.

The Prince of All Saiyans was easy enough to defeat in a Saiyan-on-Saiyan match, but things quickly turned furious when he cheated and transformed into his monkey form. Giant characters are a returning feature from Budokai Tenkaichi 3, and are just as broken and annoying to fight in Sparking Zero, as they don't get caught by most normal attacks, deal a lot of damage, and are somehow just as fast as regular ones. fighters.

Giant enemies are by far the worst part of Sparking Zero's list, even though it's a really cool thing. If I see someone using them online, that's an immediate turn off for me.

This resulted in the big ape beating the ever-loving chump out of me multiple times in a row and forcing me to listen to the same monologue about Grandpa Gohan on loop. Since Goku doesn't technically win this fight against Vegeta in the manga and anime, I figured Sparking Zero would throw me a bone and let me lose, but it's one of the few fights you have to finish.

What followed was 30 minutes of muffled cursing and sweaty palms trying to give Vegeta a fair fight before I threw in the towel and dishonestly went for a good old Kamehameha spam. I ended up winning the battle, but I'm not sure it's a victory Goku would be proud of.

I can't wait to see the back of Goku Black

Those early encounters were enough to tell me that Sparking Zero doesn't mess around with its story mode, but things got a lot easier once I tried out some of the other modes and got to grips with the mechanics. With a new mastery of disappearing and countering under my belt, I jumped back and went through almost all of Goku's story mode once more with much less trouble.

That was until I came face to face with Goku Black and Zamasu. While most normal fights give characters three or four health bars, Episode Battle goes classic Budokai Tenkaichi by doubling that number, making fights much longer. Combine that with their AI being clearly set on the hardest difficulty setting and not letting you breathe at all, it was a really painful moment as the pair kicked my Super Saiyan Blue ass all over town.

It's even worse when Fused Zamasu rears its ugly head as it has multiple attacks that can clear multiple health bars at once.

After feeling the hair on my head stand up like I was going Super Saiyan myself, I finally cleared the chapter and found myself in the Tournament of Power. This saga has never been seen in any BT game, but has some of the strongest enemies Goku has ever faced, including Jiren and Kale. The fight against Jiren might have been one of the scariest I've had in a game in a very long time, reminiscent of some of the hardest moments in BT2 and 3, and one that gets even worse when you do it in reverse as Jiren. alone.

Future Trunks (Won't) Be The Death Of Me

Goku's Episode Battle is the longest in the game and full of tough fights, but it's not the one that gave me the most trouble. That honor goes to Goku Black's story mode, where you play as him and Zamasu against Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta, and eventually even Vegito Blue. It was pure hell because they are some of the most powerful characters in the game with the biggest health bars.

That's bad enough, but the worst comes in the final fight against Vegito Blue and Trunks. Those two are tough, never mind that you have to take a Spirit Sword Slash from Trunks to beat the fight, which means waiting for him to use his ultimate and somehow keeping your health bar stable enough after Vegito Blue just grabbed him.

As of this writing, I still haven't solved this fight because the requirements are so specific and annoying and leave everything up to Trunks' AI. Spoiler alert: he doesn't like to do his finishing move and will take you out before he even goes into Sparking mode, no matter how much you run and hide.

You can get an alternate ending for defeating Trunks and Vegito Blue, which is ironically easier than letting them end in such a specific way.

This may all sound like a point against Sparking Zero, but like Goku himself, I love the challenge of fighting hard. Sparking Zero has some mechanics to help with this, like Dragon Orbs to make it easier to wipe out secondary targets, but it mostly doesn't hold your hand and expect you to learn it inside and out.

While I respect the grind and love how classic Sparking Zero can feel at times, it won't fix the irreparable damage that Great Ape Vegeta, Jiren, and Goku Black did to my blood pressure. I don't even have golden glowing locks to show for it.