Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Won’t Stop Adding Gokus — Are We at 39.375 and Is Bandai Out of Ideas?
Orange gis everywhere: a tidal wave of Goku cosplayers stormed the convention, turning a casual fan meetup into a supercharged spectacle and pushing a world-record attempt to new power levels.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero keeps finding new ways to add more Goku, and at this point I’m half-convinced Bandai Namco is speedrunning the concept of running out of Gokus. DLC 3 drops September 24 with a fresh trailer that recreates Daima’s final battle — yes, that one — so consider this a light spoiler warning.
What’s in DLC 3
Daima fans, you’re eating. Six new characters are incoming, two of them unmistakably Goku-shaped:
- Goku (Mini) Super Saiyan 4
- Goku (Daima) Super Saiyan 4
- Vegeta (Daima) Super Saiyan 3
- Majin Duu
- Third Eye Gomah
- Giant Gomah
Notably, the pack treats Goku (Mini) Super Saiyan 4 as a separate character slot, which matters for the extremely serious science of Goku counting.
The great Goku audit: how many Gokus are in Sparking Zero?
Depends how you define a whole Goku. The answer swings wildly based on what you consider a separate character versus a transformation versus a fusion versus... genetics. Yes, it gets weird. Dragon Ball weird.
The strict crowd says transformations and alternate forms don’t count as full Gokus. By that standard, you’re looking at nine distinct Gokus: Goku (Z-Early), Goku (Z-Mid), Goku (Z-End), Goku (Super), Goku Black, Goku (GT), Goku (Teen), Goku (Mini), and Goku (Daima).
I’m in the other camp. If the game itself is slotting Goku (Mini) Super Saiyan 4 as a unique pick, then transformations are clearly treated as their own thing. Counting forms pushes the total to 24, including: Goku (Z-Early); Goku (Z-Mid); Goku (Z-Mid) Super Saiyan; Goku (Z-End); Goku (Z-End) Super Saiyan; Goku (Z-End) Super Saiyan 2; Goku (Z-End) Super Saiyan 3; Goku (Super); Goku (Super) Super Saiyan; Goku (Super) Super Saiyan God; Goku (Super) Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan; Goku (Super) Ultra Instinct; Goku Black; Goku (Super) Ultra Instinct -Sign-; Goku Black Super Saiyan Rose; Goku (GT); Goku (GT) Super Saiyan; Goku (GT) Super Saiyan 3; Goku (GT) Super Saiyan 4; Goku (Teen); Goku (Mini); Goku (Mini) Super Saiyan; Goku (Mini) Super Saiyan 4; and Goku (Daima) Super Saiyan 4.
If you want to go even further down the rabbit hole, some folks argue fusions should count as half a Goku. Using that logic — factoring in the various Gogetas, Vegitos, and Fused Zamasus as 0.5 Goku each — the total climbs to 29.
Last year, Aftermath ran a pretty exhaustive Goku census that included transformations and fusions, then added one more wrinkle: Cell contains some of Goku’s cells, so each Cell should count as one-fifth of a Goku. That bump lands the tally at 30.
And if we’re counting genetics, we have to be honest about the slippery slope. By the same logic, Goku’s kids are partial Gokus. There are 14 Gohans in the game, which equals seven Gokus, plus two Gotens, which equals one more Goku. We’ve already been counting fusions, so the three Gotenks come to another 0.75 of a Goku. Super Buu with Gohan absorbed adds 0.25, Super Buu with Gotenks absorbed tacks on 0.125, and Pan contributes another 0.25. Do the math and you land at 39.375.
By my very scientific math, we’re at 39.375 Gokus. I feel like Scott Steiner, and the numbers are spelling disaster for anyone trying to audit this game.
Whatever camp you’re in, DLC 3 hits on September 24 and nudges the Goku-o-meter higher. At this rate, Sparking Zero might actually achieve its mission of being the ultimate Dragon Ball fighter simply by sheer volume of Son Goku alone.