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The Saiyans of the Dragon Ball universe look just like any human, but they have one key difference: they have a tail like that of a monkey. Any Saiyan with a tail can, when looking at the moon or any brightly similar shape, transform into a giant ape the size of King Kong.
This is a widely known fact by fans, and some of these great apes are present inDragon Ball: Sparking Zero, but not as many as there were in Budokai Tenkaichi 3. Characters like Bardock or Teen Goku, who used to have this transformation, no longer do, so why is that?
The Great Ape Form
As stated before,any Saiyan with a tail can transform into a Great Apewhen looking at the moon, and this wasthe main method of conquestthe Saiyans had: they would arrive somewhere at night,look at the planet’s moon, and start a rampage of hundreds of giant monsters to beat their enemies into submission.
Of course,not all Saiyans can control this form; only the elite are either capable or taught how to maintain their consciousness. They even developedspecial armor that can stretchto unthinkable levels, so they are still protected and fully clothed when transformed.
Ways To Induce And Prevent Transformation
Since the Saiyans were known forconquering multiple planets, they needed a wayto transform without a moon; it limited the time of day they could attack orprevented them from using the strategy altogetheron planets without a satellite. For this,they developed the Power Ball.
This is whatVegeta uses during the Saiyan saga, essentially working asa portable tiny moonthat he can use to transform. It seems that this is a technique knownby all Saiyan elites, but other “lesser” Saiyans can still use someone else’s Power Ball, like what happened with Gohan.
To prevent or revert the transformation,the Saiyan’s tail needs to be cut. Saiyans don’t seem to lose balance when they lose their tail, butconsidering that most of them can fly, it might never have been a factor to begin with.
The Great Apes Of Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 3
Since Sparking Zero is widely considered to bea spiritual successor to Budokai Tenkaichi 3, many of the characters present in one game were expected to make it to the other. Of course,not everyone made it, but we still have many new characters, and old favorites like Super 17 can still potentially make it as DLC.
Several Saiyans were part of that roster, and all the ones with a tailcould transform into their Great Ape form.This turned them intopowerful giant characters, slow in their movements butimmune to most grab and rush attacks.
The characters below are all the ones that can transform into the Great Ape form in Budokai Tenkaichi 3, most of them needingto look at the moonto transform:
Yes, as Goku (Teen)
Transformation
Yes
Out of the characters present in Sparking Zero,only Vegeta and Baby Vegeta can transforminto their Great Ape form. Now, Baby Vegeta is a special case, but the original Vegeta from the Saiyan sagais just a Saiyan like any other, so why can’t the other Saiyans transform in Sparking Zero?
Why Are There So Few Great Apes In Sparking Zero?
We can’t know for sure why most of these iconic monkeys didn’t make it into the roster, butthere are two likely reasons:They eitherdon’t fit the storyof the games, orthey required too many special mechanicsto make them work.
The Lore Reason
We don’t know the logic behindwhat transformation makes it and what doesn’tin these games, but the rule of thumb is that if it didn’t appear in the show, thenit shouldn’t make it into the game.This is the case, for example, for Gotenks or Goku (GT)being unable to turn into Super Saiyan 2; they have the 1st and 3rd forms, but since they never used the 2nd form, it isn’t in the game.
The same happens withforms that are barely used, like Goku’s Super Saiyan 3 form in the Super Saga or Vegeta’s base form during GT.They did have these formsduring their respective arcs, butsince they did little fightingwith them, those formsdidn’t make it in.
As such, while characters like Bardock or Nappaused to be able to turn into a Great Apein Budokai Tenkaichi 3, andthey have the biology to do it, they never did so in the show. However, the one that stands out using this logic is Goku (Teen), sincehe transformed several times during the show, but his lack of control of the form makes it strange that he would willingly turn into it.
The Mechanical/Balance Reason
Four out of the five characters that are missing their transformationneed the moon to do so, a celestial body that only appears inspecific variants of certain stages.This made it so that if you wanted to use these forms,you had to pick them outrightor make sure tofight on the right stage.
This already presents a problem with online match balance, sinceno other type of character has a map requirement, making the Saiyans feel incomplete if chosen at certain stages. On top of that,local matches would be completely locked outof transforming into the form, sincethey can only fight in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
On top of all that, there is the very real fact thatmost of these Great Ape forms are too similarto one another. The movesets of both Great Ape Vegeta and Great Ape Babyalready feel strangely similar, and the level of power between the two is meant to be astronomically large.
