As a huge Jump fanboy, few things were as exciting about E3 week as having the chance to play the recently announced crossover fighter Jump Force. A 3D fighter reminiscent of the Budokai Tenkaichi series, Jump Force brings the most iconic Jump manga and anime series together, with major franchises like One Piece, Dragon Ball, and Naruto at the forefront. The demo I played at E3 was quite fun, and managed to show off some the mechanics that lie under the surface of Jump Force’s combat system. Though it could use a couple visual touch-ups, Jump Force certainly shows promise as a 3D anime fighter, so long as the final roster is strong.
From what I played, it seems that the base gameplay of Jump Force is fairly easy to pick up. You and your opponent both choose three characters and battle in a 3D arena until one player runs out of health. The fact that each team shares a single health bar is quite interesting, as it makes switching between characters more about match-ups than health preservation. Benched fighters can be used for assist attacks alongside their role as swappable characters. Each character has a few regular attacks and combos that fit their roles from their respective franchises, like Luffy’s various “Gum-Gum” attacks and Goku’s martial arts. There are also special attacks that use up your special meter, each based on a more powerful move like the Kamehameha or Zoro’s 1080 Pound Phoenix. The attacks are pretty to look at and full of the ridiculously destructive power that the shonen genre is known for.
“Awakenings” will play a big part in Jump Force, though not all characters will have an Awakening mode. Awakenings are transformations that certain characters can perform. Luffy can go Gear Fourth (Boundman specifically), Naruto can go Sage mode, and Goku can go Super Saiyan. I couldn’t trigger the transformation (I think the controller at my station was wonky), but it’s only natural that a game based on so many shonen series would have crazy transformations play a large role in combat.
The most exciting thing about any crossover fighter has to be the roster. During our closed-door presentation on Jump Force, multiple manga panels were shown for a moment at a time as a brief history of Weekly Shonen Jump was explained to the group. The manga panels seemed to primarily feature main/playable characters, while a few prominent panels had characters not yet announced. Dragon Ball’s Vegeta and One Piece’s Sanji and Blackbeard were shown; all characters who could definitely work as playable characters (and let’s be real, a Jump game without Vegeta is impossible to imagine). While this is by no means confirmation that these characters are playable, I think this is a decent hint if nothing else. I’d say that if Light Yagami, of all characters, is involved in the game somehow, that’s a good sign that Bandai and Shueisha are open to all types of series. I think characters from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Fist of the North Star, Gintama, My Hero Academia, and Bleach are pretty safe bets at the moment, though I’m open to surprises.
The one thing I hope to see improved as development for Jump Force continues is the texture of its characters. Though I love the style for being a tasteful mix of realistic and the different artstyles of each series, there’s a strange shine to each character model that makes them look a bit like mannequins, especially when combined with their somewhat blank faces. These are all things that I expect will be fixed as development continues, but it’s important to point them out regardless.
Jump Force is set to release for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC in 2019, and I’m incredibly excited for the game to come out. I loved the demo, and I’m looking forward to seeing the roster fill out in the coming months. If you like anime or 3D fighting games, make sure Jump Force is on your dragon radar.
