With Dragon Ball Sparking Zero now available in early access, players have finally experienced this highly anticipated return to the Budokai Tenkaichi series. So far, the reception has been overwhelmingly positive, and the game is seeing massive commercial success - even before its full release.
However, some concerns have emerged within the fanbase, with many players arguing that the game is unfairly difficult. Let’s look at these difficulty concerns and explore how they might impact the game when it officially launches.
Sparking Zero Fans Criticize Game's Difficulty Despite Its Success
The release of Sparking Zero has been met with an overwhelmingly positive reception. Many early reviews praise the game's extensive roster of unlockable characters, all available for free, and its thrilling story mode, which revisits the iconic journeys of the Z-Fighters. Sparking Zero has already surpassed other popular fighting games like Tekken, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat regarding player engagement, with a peak concurrent player count of 91,005 on Steam.
This is an outstanding performance for an early access title. For those planning to join in when it officially launches on October 11th, the player numbers are expected to rise even higher. However, despite the game’s massive success, many players have raised concerns about its difficulty. The r/SparkingZero subreddit has been abuzz with threads discussing the game’s seemingly unbalanced challenge.
In one discussion, players described the difficulty as "way too hard" and "borderline impossible," with one reminiscing, "This feels like my childhood when I couldn't beat a level because I was bad and just a kid." Another remarked, "Did anyone even playtest this? Because this is just f***ing absurd."
A major complaint seems to center around the AI in story mode battles, with players arguing that it contributes significantly to the game’s difficulty. One user pointed out, "It feels incredibly unfair. The AI input reads everything and dodges all my combos, and I can never recover fast enough to avoid getting hit by their ultimate. It f***ing sucks."
Another player echoed these frustrations, saying their experience with the AI has been miserable, stating, "Opponent perceives or Z-vanishes 4000 times in a row because it input reads." They added, "AI deals 18 quintillion damage with a standard punch, and when I hit them, I barely chip their health."
The difficulty seems to be a significant concern for many players, with both the AI mechanics and the overall character scaling coming under fire. That said, the game is still in its early stages, and we can likely expect patches to address these issues as developers receive more feedback.
If these concerns are resolved, we are confident that fans who have yet to try Sparking Zero will have a smooth experience when it fully launches on October 11th, 2024. We look forward to seeing you all in the game - good luck with your training!