DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO: How to Unlock Alternate Paths

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In the “Episodes” game mode inDragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, there are many alternate story paths that all branch from certain events in the series—each range in what happens and how in-depth they are. you’re able to get a quick and simple alternate ending, a bonus fight, or a whole new arc depending on what character is being played and where you are in their story. Goku is the character with the most content, so you will see the most alternate endings in his story. But how do you unlock these branching paths?

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Choosing the Opposite Dialogue Option

Picking a new unknown path option will unlock new paths.

The first thing you can do to tell if an episode arc has a branching path is to see the icons on the main image for the story. There will be a sign and two lines; one is a thicker line formed with arrows and the alternate route is a thinner dotted line. One of the earliest examples of this is the Goku vs Raditz fight at the start of the game. You can choose to work with Piccolo or leave without him and fight Raditz with Krillin. Once you complete these fights, you’ll see all the new ways these arcs can come to a conclusion or change in the smallest ways. But this isn’t the end for the alternate paths. There are still some more ways to unlock these new stories.

Check for Alternate Objectives

Pausing battles with branching paths in the map will show you Alternate Objectives.

When starting up an episode, a battle that has a branching path will show you some “Alternate Objectives”. But sometimes you won’t be able to see this objective until you’ve finished the respective fight, so you may not be able to see that alternate ending right away. In the pause menu, you can click on “Battle Details” to see all the conditions of the fight you are currently in. If you are lucky and manage to do this optional objective even without knowing what it was, you will be rewarded with that new outcome. The goals are usually simple and easy to do, like “Reduce enemy health quickly”, which can be done relatively easily once you’ve gotten the hang of the controls. But in later fights, this is going to be a pretty significant challenge for some characters.

Some paths will require you to also take down a character without taking too much damage, then make an optional choice later on in the episode route. There won’t be a huge number of these in the game, but they are all there with a varying number of these new paths of our favorite Dragon Ball Z and Super arcs. Always make sure to go back and check “Battle Details” in fights before the branching paths if you are stuck on the paths that aren’t unlocked for you. If you are stuck in a fight and struggle with the optional objectives, you’re able to also use a Dragon Wish with the Dragon Balls to make these slightly easier. The time limit will be more forgiving, but the fight will not count as a win towards any streaks you might have.

Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero Frieza’s Final Form-1

Now that you know how to check for these alternate paths, all you need to do is go ahead and explore everything in the game! There are a total of 8 characters for you to explore with, some will be much shorter than others and some might have a ton of alternate endings in their shorter stories.

Review: DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO

A successor to Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi spectacularly enters the ring.