Originally released back in October 2024, this week Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO receives its “Super Limit-Breaking NEO” paid downloadable content expansion (sporting over 30 new playable characters), alongside a free patch update enabling compatibility with the new content, adding a new theme song, and adjusting various gameplay elements.

The patch — already available, having released earlier this week — brings the game up to version 3020.019.003.012.013. The “Super Limit-Breaking NEO” paid downloadable content pack releases today across most platforms, with the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 editions receiving it some time in 2027 (in line with their overall later release date compared to other platforms, and ongoing staggered release of prior downloadable content).

Of particular note is the addition of a new theme song for the game: “ZERO” by Hironobu Kageyama.

NOTE ABOUT NAME SPELLINGSThe following patch notes and game update text below are pasted verbatim from official English-language websites operated by the game’s publisher. These name spellings reflect those historically used in FUNimation’s English dub of the franchise, which at times changed character name pronunciations to a point that veered wildly off course anything resembling their original form, and do not necessarily reflect Kanzenshuu‘s style guide (or even those of Shueisha/Toei in Japan). We encourage you to explore our wiki for articles regarding specific characters and their name sources and spellings!Patch Notes

Changes and Adjustments Affecting the Entire Game

Stages

• Added Rocky Land (White Valley), City Ruins (Clear Skies), and Molten Lava.

BGM

• Added “ZERO”.

Feature Changes & Adjustments

Options

• Added an option to toggle the aura change that occurs when characters trained in “Limit Breaker Journey”, a mode added in the Super Limit-Breaking NEO DLC, perform a Ki Charge.

Game Mode Changes & Adjustments

Custom Battle

• Added high-difficulty battles to Extra Battle.
• Added new editable elements such as 2D cut-ins and text.

Offline Battle

• Adjusted CPU behavior.
• When characters trained in Limit Breaker Journey are available, a rule setting has been added to enable or disable their use.

Player Match

• Added the ability to enable or disable the use of characters trained in Road to Ultimate Limit-Breaking when creating or searching for rooms.

Survival Mode

• Increased the number of battles in the round-robin survival challenge.

Battle System Changes & Adjustments

New Action

• Added Linked Blast, a new action that allows a switched-in character to immediately fire a Blast attack upon entering battle.
• Added Sparking! Boost, a new action that consumes additional Skill Stocks to enter a more powerful Sparking! Mode.

Z-Search

• Adjusted the duration before Z-Search is lost so that it varies depending on the opponent.

Melee Attacks (General)

• Defending characters now recover a small amount of Ki when hit by melee attacks.

Burst Melee

• Adjusted to make activation easier even when Guard Assist is enabled.

Smash Ki Blast

• Adjusted hit stun on impact to reduce the likelihood of consecutive hits.

Short Dash

• Adjusted so that stepping is easier to perform when closing to short range via Short Dash.

Ascend / Descend

• Destructible buildings and rocks can now be destroyed through rapid ascents and descents.

Skill Changes & Adjustments

Vegeta (Super), Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan – Limits?! I Break Them!

• Reduced Skill Stock consumption.

Blast Changes & Adjustments

All Rush-type Blasts that can cancel certain Energy Projectile Blasts

• Adjusted to make it easier to nullify applicable projectiles.

Majin Duu – Rolling Attack

• Can no longer be countered with Super Perception.

Ribrianne – Maiden’s Charge

• Can no longer be countered with Super Perception.

Kakunsa – Primal Charge

• Can no longer be countered with Super Perception.

Vegeta (Mini), Super Saiyan 2 – Head-On Impact

• Can no longer be detected/countered with Super Perception.

Character Changes & Adjustments

Adjusted Skill Stock Recovery from Ki Blast Deflection

• Goku (Teen)
• Videl
• Master Roshi
• Master Roshi, Max Power
• Mr. Satan
• Saibaman
• Guldo
• Android 19
• Dr. Gero
• Frieza Force Soldier
• Broly (Z)
• Lord Slug
• Spopovich
• Goku (Mini)

Attack Power Now Increases as Health Decreases

• Goku (Z – Early)
• Goku (Teen)
• Majin Vegeta
• Future Trunks
• Future Trunks, Super Saiyan
• Goku Black
• Goku Black, Super Saiyan Rosé
• Shallot
• Gohan (Future)
• Gohan (Future), Super Saiyan
• Bardock

The following characters now recover Ki more quickly while stunned, and gain more Ki from button inputs during recovery:

• Goku (Teen)
• Majin Vegeta
• Gohan (Future)
• Gohan (Future), Super Saiyan
• Super Trunks
• Master Roshi, MAX Power
• Frieza (Z), 2nd Form
• Frieza (Z), Full Power
• Majin Buu
• Mr. Satan
• Bardock
• Nappa
• Super Zarbon
• Dodoria
• Recoome
• King Cold
• Broly (Z), Super Saiyan
• Broly (Super), Super Saiyan
• Super Garlic Jr.
• Lord Slug
• Cooler, Final Form
• Bojack
• Full-Power Bojack
• Syn Shenron (GT)
• Spopovich
• Fused Zamasu, Half-Corrupted
• Ribrianne
• Majin Duu
• Third Eye Gomah
• Shallot

For all of the following Vegeta variants, Ki consumption for Rush Ki Blasts, Dash Rush Ki Blasts, and Jump Rush Ki Blasts has been reduced, while their attack power has been decreased:

• Vegeta (Z – Scouter)
• Vegeta (Z – Early)
• Vegeta (Z – Early) Super Saiyan
• Super Vegeta
• Vegeta (Z – End)
• Vegeta (Z – End), Super Saiyan
• Vegeta (Z – End), Super Saiyan 2
• Majin Vegeta
• Vegeta (GT), Super Saiyan 4
• Vegeta (Super)
• Vegeta (Super), Super Saiyan
• Vegeta (Super), Super Saiyan God
• Vegeta (Super), Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan
• Baby Vegeta (GT)
• Vegeta (Mini)
• Vegeta (Mini), Super Saiyan
• Vegeta (Mini), Super Saiyan 2
• Vegeta (Mini), Super Saiyan 3
• Vegeta (DAIMA), Super Saiyan 3

When reflecting a Blast with Super Perception, the reflected Blast will now travel toward the opponent.

• Goku (Z – End) Super Saiyan 3

Others

Font

• Changed the game’s font.

Other

• Improved overall stability and performance.

“Super Limit-Breaking NEO” Paid Downloadable Content PackAvailable for a separate $34.99 charge, the “Super Limit-Breaking NEO” paid downloadable content pack adds in 33 additional playable characters, plus a variety of new outfits, stages, and story mode/scenario expansions.

Playable characters (x33)

• Nam
• Eighter
• General Blue
• Mercenary Tao
• Spike the Devil Man
• Grandpa Gohan
• Demon King Piccolo
• Goku (World Tournament)
• Tien (World Tournament)
• Chi-Chi
• Ma Junior
• Ma Junior (Giant)
• Salza
• Zangya
• Pikkon
• Supreme Kai
• Mighty Mask
• Uub (Kid)
• King Vegeta
• Fasha
• Tora
• Bardock, Super Saiyan
• Chilled
• Jaco
• Champa
• Cheelai
• Vegeta (GT)
• Vegeta (GT), Super Saiyan
• Trunks (GT)
• Trunks (GT), Super Saiyan
• Hell Fighter 17
• Super 17 (GT)
• Nuova Shenron (GT)

Outfits

• Goku (Z – Early)
• Goku (Z – Mid)
• Goku (Z – Mid), Super Saiyan
• Goku (Z – Late)
• Goku (Z – Late), Super Saiyan
• Goku (Z – Late), Super Saiyan 2
• Goku (Z – Late), Super Saiyan 3
• Goku (Super)
• Goku (Super), Super Saiyan
• Goku (Super), Super Saiyan God
• Goku (Super), Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan
• Goku (Teen)
• Vegeta (Super)
• Vegeta (Super), Super Saiyan
• Vegeta (Super), Super Saiyan God
• Vegeta (Super), Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan
• Gohan (Teen)
• Gohan (Teen), Super Saiyan
• Gohan (Teen), Super Saiyan 2
• Gohan (Adult)
• Gohan (Adult), Super Saiyan
• Gohan (Adult), Super Saiyan 2
• Piccolo
• Piccolo (Fused with Kami)
• Krillin
• Trunks (Melee)
• Trunks (Melee), Super Saiyan
• Trunks (Kid)
• Trunks (Kid), Super Saiyan
• Videl
• Frieza (Super)
• Golden Frieza
• Bardock
• Bardock, Super Saiyan
• Android 17 (Z)
• Android 18
• Vegeta (GT)
• Vegeta (GT), Super Saiyan
• Trunks (GT)
• Trunks (GT), Super Saiyan
• Goku (World Tournament)
• Ma Junior

Stages (x12)

• Kame House
• Kame House (Twilight)
• Kame House (Night)
• Kami’s Palace
• Kami’s Palace (Twilight)
• Kami’s Palace (Night)
• Stratosphere (Planet Vegeta)
• Stratosphere (Earth)
• Bitter Tundra
• Bitter Tundra (Twilight)
• Bitter Tundra (Night)
• Bitter Tundra (Spaceship)

New mode

• Limit Breaker Journey

Episodes Battles (x4)

• Krillin’s Saga
• Yamcha’s Saga
• Tien’s Saga
• Cell’s Saga

Bonus Battles (x13)

• “The Almighty Evil Containment Wave”
• “Who Will Defeat Goku?”
• “Janenba’s Defeat!”
• “Meet Super 17, the Ultimate Android!”
• “Stopping Bojack’s Plan”
• “The Galactic Patrol’s Secret Weapon”
• “I Only Get Riper With Age!”
• “Chaos! Joining Forces to Overcome All?!”
• “An Unexpected Savior” (Super)
• “To Be the Best: The Ultimate Test”
• “Alone Against fate”
• “Go, Mighty Mask, Go!”
• “A Dream Realized: The Universal Tuffleization Plan”

Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO released on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (via Steam) 10 October 2024 in Japan and 11 October 2024 internationally, with ports to the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 coming roughly a year later.

As opposed to the completely separate Dragon Ball Z (“Budokai”) series developed by Dimps which came before it, the Sparking! series — developed instead by Spike — featured 3D arenas with an over-the-shoulder camera angle. The new game’s title of Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO falls more in line with the original trilogy’s naming scheme in Japanese. The three Sparking! games — the original, NEO!, and METEOR — hit the PlayStation 2 over the course of 2005 to 2007, with the Nintendo Wii also receiving ports of the second and third games. The game series was released numerically under the “Budokai Tenkaichi” moniker internationally. A fourth game — Tag Vs. in Japan; Tenkaichi Tag Team internationally — was released on the PlayStation Portable in 2010. Spike (as Spike Chunsoft) later went on to also develop the crossover fighting games J-Stars Victory VS in 2014 and Jump Force in 2019.

The post “Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO” New “Super Limit-Breaking NEO” DLC Launches appeared first on Kanzenshuu.