Jump Force is an unfortunately messy anime fighter that doesn’t quite nail style or substance. While the gameplay can be fun for short periods at a time, the painfully rushed story and awful visuals make it difficult to recommend Jump Force to any but the most dedicated Jump fans.
Jump Force
Developer: Bandai Namco
Price: $59.99
Platforms: PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One, and PC
MonsterVine was provided with a PS4 copy for review
I think it’s fair to say that few people were as excited for Jump Force as I was. Shonen Jump manga is simply one of my favorite things in the world. I’ve got shelves of Jump magazines, manga volumes, and figures from most of the series represented in Jump Force. I played the Japanese Nintendo DS crossover games (Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars, amazing games by the way) for countless hours as a teenager, despite my inability to understand Japanese. I made a short YouTube series about J-Stars Victory Vs., and imported it using the scant funds from my high school part-time job. Basically, I love Jump, and I desperately hoped I would love Jump Force, so it pains me to say that Jump Force is a rushed and janky mess.
The story of Jump Force is it’s unfortunate lowest point, which came as a surprise to me. The story features original characters designed by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, and features some of the best characters in any anime or manga. The story squanders all this potential in two major ways: its boring narrative and awful cutscenes. Jump Force’s story revolves around you, the reader, who becomes a Jump hero after being nearly killed by Dragon Ball’s villainous Freeza. A mysterious force has recruited some of Jump’s greatest villains to help him merge our world with the world of Jump, meaning it’s up to you and the heroes of Jump to save both worlds.
This story could have been a lot of schlocky fun if done right, but it quickly devolves into battling clones of villains and generic enemy grunts in an effort to protect the world. It drags on and on until you reach the end, which hits you with a needless plot-twist and an overpowered boss fight. The one interesting storyline, which follows Death Note’s Light Yagami as he manipulates everybody, has no real payoff. It’s a disappointing story all around, making it a complete slog to get through after completing the first few chapters, even for the most dedicated Jump fans.
“Then there’s the animations, which are unnatural and occasionally seemingly non-existent.“
The cutscenes are a whole other story, as they range from stiff to horribly buggy. The pseudo-realistic visual style that Jump Force has works against any form of facial expression. This makes the characters look like they’re in Disney World mascot suits, as lines of every emotion are conveyed with the same plastic face and exaggerated body gestures.
Then there’s the animations, which are unnatural and occasionally seemingly non-existent. There’s a scene in the story where Freeza is supposed to fly upwards into a portal, but it looks as though his model, in its idle position, is simply sliding upwards in a hilariously awkward fashion. Mouth movements rarely fit their lines, and in a very strange case, Ryuk (Light’s companion) is completely silent, despite his subtitled lines. It all feels messy and rushed, which is truly an absolute shame.
Thankfully, there’s some fun fanservice here and there to somewhat make up (very, very slightly) for the disappointing story. Watching Naruto compare Black Clover’s Asta to Rock Lee, both of whom lack the super-power that their respective worlds thrive on, is heart-warming, as is seeing Kakashi try to reign in Yu Yu Hakusho’s Yusuke Urameshi as he runs makeshift classes at the base. This is the kind of interaction that I really like to see in crossover games, as it makes sense contextually and satisfies fans of both franchises.
Jump Force’s gameplay can be quite fun, though it isn’t particularly deep or enthralling in the long-term. Like many anime games, Jump Force is a 3D arena fighter that has two teams of three try to defeat one another with huge special attacks in a destructible environment. You can do light and heavy attacks, grabs, special attacks, ultimate attacks, evades, and transformations. The one thing that stands out is the use of a shared health bar. Rather than giving each character their own health bar, your entire team shares one health bar. This means you have to be strategic about which characters you use and when you switch out. It’s a neat idea that is executed well enough, it’s just that the core gameplay can get repetitive pretty quickly.
“Still, the fanboy in me is appreciative of the whopping four Hunter x Hunter characters, as I didn’t expect to receive any more than two.”
The character variety helps in this regard, though the roster feels a bit too safe, despite some odd exclusions. Gintoki (GinTama), Suguru (Kinnikuman), Tsuna (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!), Toriko (Toriko), Ryotsu (Kochikame), and Arale (Dr. Slump) are all baffling exclusions that make this celebration of Jump feel a bit lacking, as these excluded characters have all been major parts of the magazine over the years. Don’t get me wrong, the present characters are great and fun to play as. It’s just that, barring a couple exceptions (Ryo from City Hunter and Dai from Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai), there aren’t really any surprising or unusual picks. Still, the fanboy in me is appreciative of the whopping four Hunter x Hunter characters, as I didn’t expect to receive any more than two.
Visually, Jump Force is confusing. Sometimes it goes for a gritty and realistic aesthetic, while at other times, it will try to emulate the animated and enthusiastic feeling that anime and manga are so good at. This makes some characters look alright, and others look awful. In trying to bend the styles of all these different series to fit Jump Force’s mold, the game ends up with an inconsistent appearance that simply doesn’t look good. It often looks like a model’s eyes are photoshopped onto its face, which can be very unnerving to look at.
On the other hand, the particle effects and environments in Jump Force are outstanding. Every laser beam, flaming punch, and explosion looks gorgeous from the second it appears to after its gone, thanks to small details like residual environmental damage. Transformations normally look excellent as well, from the appearance of Kurama in Naruto’s ultimate attack to the intentional and eerily lifeless gaze of Gon’s ultimate form. Even though a lot of Jump Force looks poor, it really knocks its particle effects and environments out of the park.
It’s worth noting that Bandai seems pretty enthusiastic about fixing Jump Force up a bit through patches (the first of which is said to fix bugs and reduce load times), so it may be worth coming back to this one in the future. But the extent to which the game will be fixed remains to be seen. I sincerely hope it gets substantially better, but until it does, I’ll remain skeptical.
The Final Word
I really wish Jump Force was a better game, but as it is, it’s a fun anime fighter that is dragged down by its mediocre story, awful animations, and confused visual style. You may still enjoy the fanservice and roster (lacking as it may be to some) if you’re a huge Jump fan, but unless it receives some serious work through post-launch patches, you’d be better off sticking to Jump Ultimate Stars.
MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average
