Summary
Beyond letting you play as your own custom character, one of the staples of theXenoverseseries is its focus on what-if stories.Dragon Ballgames have almost always had these kinds of alternate universe battles, and they’ve always been a highlight, but Xenoverse was the first to base its entire setting around a messed-up timeline.
For the most part, though, Xenoverse’s approach to battles-that-could-have-been has always felt a little contrived. While there are some good moments like acorrupted Super Saiyan God Vegeta going up against Goku instead of Beerus, it mostly just involves villains being made stronger than they’re supposed to be so you may jump in and save the day.
That works for the type of game that Xenoverse is, but it’s always felt like a missed opportunity to have a world like Conton City full of different versions of Dragon Ball characters and not do more with them. WhenDragon Ball: Sparking Zeroconfirmed that it’d have what-if battles and showed an example of Goku going Super Saiyan on Earth, I immediately knew that it understood the assignment better than Xenoverse.
Spoiler warning for Sparking Zero’s Sparking Episodes below. You’ve been warned.
Sparking Episodes Are Sparking Zero’s Highlight
I had no idea just how far Spike Chunsoft would go, though. Not only is Sparking Zero full of little moments where you’re able to choose an outcome or witness an alternate, usually happier, ending, but it also has bigger what-if scenarios known as Sparking Episodes.Each character with an Episode Battle has their own Sparking Episodeand they’re all surprising in different ways, but just as wish-fulfilling for a Dragon Ball nerd like myself.
The first Episode Battle I encountered was Goku’s, which has him surviving his encounter with Raditz. So far, so obvious, but that change leads to him training Gohan himself and preparing for the battle against Vegeta and Nappa without training with King Kai. Although this feasibly means he’s weaker without Kaioken, it also means he’s there to save Yamcha and Tien from dying like they normally do.
Giving Yamcha the respect he deserves is already a win in my book, but things get really interesting when he goes toe-to-toe with Vegeta. Without King Kai’s techniques, Krillin ends up being killed by Great Ape Vegeta, which causes Goku to go Super Saiyan early and wipe the floor with him.
Again, it’s not the most surprising what-if scenario, but it’s already leagues above what Xenoverse is doing. Things got even more interesting when Goku ventured to Namek alone to find the Dragon Balls there. I was expecting Frieza to show up, but it turns out that he’s already dead at the hands of Super Saiyan Vegeta, who was spurred on by his loss against Goku in that same form to become one himself.
Gohan’s Sparking Episode Is Pure Wish-Fulfillment
That twist was enough to make for an interesting what-if story, but it had absolutely nothing on Gohan’s Episode Battle, which had my jaw on the floor. In this alternate scenario, Gohan taps into his Ultimate form while battling Frieza during the events of Resurrection F, which lets him finish the battle before Goku and Vegeta get there while reminding him how little he’s trained.
This pushes Gohan to start training harder than ever and become Universe 7’s top fighter, above even Goku. Not only is this exactly what Gohan fans have wanted for years, but it also leads to an amazing twist. With Gohan as top dog, the Goku Black saga is completely turned on its head with Gohan Black now being the villain instead of Goku.
This leads to an incredible performance from Kyle Herbert, who really hams it up as Zamasu in Gohan’s body.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when Gohan Black appeared on screen, especially since he’s got a unique model and even a variant of his Ultimate Form instead of Super Saiyan Rose. There’s a lot of meat to the alternate saga too, as it goes on for a few battles and sees Gohan and Trunks working together to face the deadly threat. It’s exactly what fans have been hoping for and the sort of thing that Xenoverse desperately needs to be doing.
Gohan’s Episode Battle is the best of the bunch, but there are some great moments in the other campaigns too. Piccolo’s sees him training Gohan in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and teaching him not to lose control against Cell, while Frieza’s story shows him beating Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta and getting control of the Tournament of Power’s team, which can funnily enough include the Ginyu Force.
Sparking Zero already has so much going for it that I would have understood if its what-if scenarios were more basic, but that’s not the case at all. How it managed to have such a massive roster and still put out some of the most interesting alternate scenarios in Dragon Ball history is mind-boggling, and proof that Xenoverse really needs to go all-out and make that the focus of its inevitable third entry.
