Bandai Namco battling GTA's CJ, Shrek and anime girls in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero

UPDATE 31/10/24: Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero players creating custom battles with artwork showing modded characters will face a ban, its development team has now said.

Eurogamer highlighted the issue earlier this month, and noted how artwork for the game's custom battles was being uploaded showing modded characters, such as Shrek, and examples of inappropriate character poses.

"We recommend you delete any custom battles containing MODs immediately to avoid a ban," reads a statement from the Dragon Ball Games account on social media platform X. "Please note that our support team cannot address any issues or appeals caused by the use of MODs. We appreciate your understanding and continued support for the game."

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero publisher Bandai Namco declined to comment further when contacted by Eurogamer. Our earlier report is below.

ORIGINAL STORY 18/10/24: Images featuring the likes of Shrek and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas protagonist Carl Johnson have managed to find their way into the PC version of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, thanks to an exploit in its Custom Battle mode.

Custom Battle mode allows players to craft their own unique stories in-game, using any of the 182 available characters on the roster. (To be clear: this roster does not include Shrek or CJ.) These stories can then be uploaded to Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero's World Library, allowing other players to access, like and even share any of the Custom Battles that end up being featured.

This mode should only allow players to create battles using the assets and tools that Sparking Zero provides, but some people have found a way to circumvent these restrictions through the use of mods.

The images you attach to your Custom Battles can only be taken using the game's 'Thumbnail' function, which allows players to take an in-game screenshot. While this limits the images you take to ones captured in-game, it does not account for PC players being able to include replace the game's original character models using mods.

Take, for example, the GOKU DRIP on all Goku mod, which gives the character some snazzy new clothes. Sparking Zero won't realise anything is amiss when uploading a screenshot of it to the World Library servers.

The same is true of the CJ mod, which I spotted in an image for a Custom Battle earlier this week. It does seem Bandai Namco is aware of the issue though, as this Custom Battle has since been pulled - although I've now seen other unauthorised images already started popping up in its place.

Some of these are completely innocent in nature, such as one that features Goku wearing his costume from the Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie, or another that has a thumbnail of Super Saiyan 4 Broly (neither of which are available in Sparking Zero).

But, of course, there are less wholesome examples. I came across an image that featured Shrek battling a couple of women from the anime "Uma Musume Pretty Derby", including a shot that showed one of the women's underwear. There's further potential for misuse here, too, as there are already a few different Sparking! Zero nude character mods. It only takes one idiot to upload a screenshot of one of these X-rated offerings for Bandai Namco to find itself in truly hot water (the game has a PEGI rating of 12).

At least, if the disappearing example of CJ is anything to go by, Bandai Namco is aware of the potential issue - even if there's no permanent yet fix for the exploit itself. We've contacted Bandai Namco for more, and to find out if a patch is in the works. Perhaps the publisher can even nerf the Afterimage Strike skill while its at it.

"Sparking! Zero is everything Dragon Ball fans will have wanted, but it's also just a blast for those unbothered by its extensive fan-service," Lewis Parker wrote in Eurogamer's Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero review.