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Year 8 Student's Game Review: Jump Force (2019)
Posted on March 05, 2019
Reviewed on PS4
By Luke, year 8
Jump Force is a 2019, M-rated crossover fighting game developed by Spike Chunsoft (creators of Danganropa, Steins; Gate and Zero Escape) for the 50th anniversary of Weekly Shonen Jump (publishers of Dragon Ball, Bleach and My Hero Academia).
After our reality collides with many of the Shonen Jump universes, earth is attacked by “Venoms”, an army created by Kane and Galena with the help of Aizen, Hisoka and more.
To defend against this new threat, a group of Shonen manga heroes are created called “Jump Force” including characters from HunterxHunter, One Piece, Bleach and more.
During a battle against Goku and Frieza, you get caught in the fight leaving you injured, but with the help of a special relic, you are granted powers and a spot in the Jump Force.
Jump Force requires 17.77 GBs to run, and when Jump Force does run, it runs at a smooth 30fps on all systems (PS4, PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro) with minimal drops occurring during certain cutscenes.
Jump Force’s story begins on a high note but takes a steep drop in quality right after creating a custom character for you to play as. Jump Force’s story is long and repetitive, making you go through hours of poorly animated cutscenes, most of them lacking voice acting, and tedious fights until it kicks off.
Although having a cast of 40 playable characters from 16 different manga, ranging from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure to Yu Yu Hakusho, Jump Force does not embrace the manga’s story and genres, and instead goes for a new and serious tone which at times comes off too strong and lazy.
But gameplay/combat is Jump Force’s saving grace, combat is fast and complicated giving you a roster of 40 beloved characters all from Shonen Jump with all individual move sets to fight with. Combat is simple to learn but hard to master, giving a range of moves from simple to signature available in its flashy tag team matches.
Outside of combat, you can explore the hub world, where you will start quests, join online matches and challenges, while also upgrading and buying outfits for your character.
Jump Force’s graphics are great, with most worlds and characters translating to its new realistic and anime combined style well. Shonen’s cell shaded manga style fits right in with Jump Force’s realistic settings.
But even with the great graphics Jump Force suffers from poorly animated and stiff cutscenes, with repeated actions and frozen facial expressions, the only good part is the Japanese voice acting, which most cutscenes are devoid of.
But even with all the flaws and lack of polish, I still had a fun time watching all the interactions between my favorite characters and making my dream matches come true.
RATING: 6.5/10
Jump Force fails at creating a compelling hero story, but with a large roster of 40 beloved characters from classic manga, fun interactions and flashy fast combat, I still found myself having fun hours later.