Last weekend I had the chance to partake in the closed beta for Bandai Namco’s upcoming crossover fighting game, Jump Force. I was incredibly excited going in, as I’m quite passionate about Jump and its properties, and even I was pleasantly surprised at how fluid the game is, and at how gorgeous it looks. I’m even more excited for the full game’s release, and I hope it can live up to my now heightened expectations.
The beta’s roster was surprisingly robust, with characters from almost each series announced thus far (no Yugi, unfortunately). I tried just about every character, though I found that Seiya and Hisoka were particularly suited to my playstyle. Combat is primarily done in close proximity, as most of the beta’s characters were better suited to close-range combat. The available stages were pretty big though, so there’s plenty of room for ranged battles.
The fast pace of battle combined with the fairly simple controls work perfectly for this sort of fighting game, making it more accessible to people who just want to play as their favorite characters in a crazy 3D fighting game. The characters all play in ways that suit their manga/anime counterparts, though some characters definitely felt far stronger than others. Still, the sheer hype that comes from each transformation and special move is difficult to describe, especially if you love Jump and its franchises as much as I do.
The special attacks and visual effects that litter combat are all beautiful to look at. Freeza’s Death Ball and Seiya’s entire moveset look genuinely stunning, as do all the other energy attacks/blasts that many characters use. Something about the look of the energy as it crackles and pulses with light makes energy blasts look as flashy as they are dangerous. Some of the character models still feel at odds with Jump Force’s more realistic aesthetic, with Blackbeard standing out as one of the creepiest models in an anime game. It may be because it was mainly the mouths of each model that were animated, so I hope the full game has a bit more work put into the expressions of each character.
One of the most surprising things I discovered in the beta was the ridiculous level of detail that Jump Force puts into how battle-damaged each character becomes as they take hits throughout a match. Cuts, bruises, and scuffs slowly cover each character, while clothing articles and accessories get torn or completely fall off after a character takes enough damage. Some characters even have referential battle damage, meaning their injured appearances are in reference to their different looks from their respective series.
As I battled as Hisoka, I found his shirt would get torn away bit by bit, until he looked as he did after his battle with Chrollo in a recent volume of Hunter x Hunter. Freeza loses the end of his tail like he did on Namek, even Seiya’s headgear and armor broke off as I fought, making him look identical to his manga counterpart after being injured throughout the series. I didn’t expect to be so impressed by something as minor as battle damage, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise.
The one major issue I had with the Jump Force beta was its framerate. During special attacks or combos, the already somewhat low framerate would drop considerably, ruining a visually-stunning moment by making it incredibly choppy. I’m really hoping that this gets fixed by launch, as it can really put a damper on some of Jump Force’s many exciting moments.
I quite liked Jump Force’s beta overall, as it made me even more excited for the game. Though I really do hope the facial animations and framerate issues are fixed, I’m completely ready to dive head-first into what seems to be an exciting and fanservice-filled crossover game. Now if we could just get Gintoki in there…
