In continuing to amaze fans of the late Akira Toriyama’s beloved franchise, Bandai Namco has revealed that a number of Dragon Ball GT characters will be included in the base roster of the upcoming fighting game Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO.
Bandai Namco shared the news about Dragon Ball Sparking Zero’s updated roster through a surprising trailer, as released on September 11th, which initially teased content from Dragon Ball Super before quickly pivoting to reveal its GT-related surprise.
Following this shift, fans were treated with to the news that the game’s roster will include the following GT fighters:
- Goku (GT)
- Pan (GT)
- Goku (GT), Super Saiyan
- Baby Vegeta (GT)
- Goku (GT), Super Saiyan 3
- Super Baby 1 (GT)
- Super Baby 2 (GT)
- Uub (GT)
- Majuub (GT)
- Goku (GT), Super Saiyan 4
- Great Ape Baby (GT)
- Syn Shenron (GT)
- Omega Shenron (GT)
- Vegeta (GT), Super Saiyan 4
- Gogeta (GT), Super Saiyan 4
And though not every significant GT fighter made the cut, as both Syn and Eis Shenron are missing, the inclusion of these non-canon characters in Sparking! ZERO is still a significant victory for fans who feared these characters might be either left out of the game entirely or relegated to DLC.
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Often referred to as the black sheep of the franchise due to its lack of involvement from Toriyama, GT follows the adventures of Trunks, Pan, and a de-aged Goku as they travel the universe looking to collect the Dark Star Dragon Balls in service of returning the Saiyan legend to his regular form.
And though the series was, for many years, intended to serve as the ‘ending’ to the overall franchise, the green-lighting and subsequent continued production of Dragon Ball Super cemented the non-canon status of GT, as the events in the former directly contradict those in the latter.
As noted above, in such previous Dragon Ball games as FighterZ and both Xenoverse outings, such GT characters were typically relegated to DLC, thus locking their use by players behind both a pay- and time-wall (as the DLCs released well after their respective base games).
But thanks to Sparking! ZERO bucking this trend, GT‘s dedicated fan base can now battle it out as their favorite characters, from Baby Vegeta to the almighty Super Saiyan 5 Gogeta, without any having to jump through any additional hoops.
In addition to these character reveals, the new trailer also offered a brief glimpse at the game’s lightning-paced combat and large, destructible environments.
And thanks to the power of Unreal Engine 5, this next entry in the beloved Sparking! series (titled Budokai Tenkaichi in English) will ensure that the game has the visual fidelity that players have come to expect from current-gen titles.
Developed by Spike Chunsoft, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is set to release on October 11 – and given the long-overdue spotlight it’s shining on GT, it certainly looks to be shaping up to be both a must-have for fans of the franchise and an overall unbreakable diamond of a game.
