[Impressions] Jump Force Closed Beta

I’m going to be honest, no matter how big of a fan I am of a lot of the anime/manga series featured in Jump Force, my potential interest in the game dissipated as soon as I finished watching the announcement trailer at this year’s E3. Even if I more or less keep track of what new characters are announced just for the sake of the crossover fantasy, my decision has always been to not buy the game. However, I was one of the people that received a code for the first closed beta of the game and of course I had to take the chance to play the game myself.

What do I think of the game, now that I have actually played it? Honestly, not many of my thoughts are positive. For starters, I want to actually praise the game for the roster of characters available on the beta: fifteen characters total, featuring One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, Hunter x Hunter, Dragon Ball and a couple more. On the other hand, even if this was a closed beta, Bandai Namco decided to host only four two-hour online sessions over Friday and the weekend. To top it off, let’s just say the schedules weren’t the best for me as an European and, during the times I had the chance to play, I was met with “servers are currently undergoing maintenance” screens. Ultimately, I was able to play 30 minutes of combat against the CPU.

But what did I think of what I played? Just as I thought from what has been shown so far, the game is mediocre. Saying most of the budget went towards paying the licenses for all the series is one of the truest statements you can make about the game. Animation-wise, characters are as stiff as a board, not to mention their dead-fish eyes. Seriously, those introductions before battles start are incredibly awkward, with the “team leaders” spouting some generic line and the camera slowly showcasing each team. Before moving on to the actual gameplay, I just want to state my disappointment in regard to the characters themselves. Not to the choice of characters, rather their characterization. They just spout their most famous lines or perform their epic attacks with no context whatsoever. All the built-up tension that leads up to characters performing their ultimate attacks in their corresponding stories amount to just charging up enough energy and pressing two buttons in the game. I know this next part is rather out of scope for the developers but seeing Goku’s Spirit Bomb and Luffy’s Gear Fourth attack leaving the same consequences in the stage detracts a bit from the experience. At least the transition to a fully 3D environment is not as awkward as I first thought it would be for the majority of the characters, so far.

And now, the juicy part: the gameplay. Surprisingly, the combat saves and kills the game at the same time. Let me explain: combat is completely bland, you can keep mashing the attack buttons and you’ll pretty much keep attacking the enemy as long as you want. To make matters worse, all those big explosions going on due to the special attacks make it really hard to keep track of where the characters are, so you’re pretty much better off smashing square or triangle in hopes of continuing to attack. More often than not I had to look at the health bars to see if I was attacking or being attacked, instead of being able to just look at the action. Lastly, and keeping in mind this is a beta, combat options felt way unbalanced. While melee fighters like Vegeta, Naruto or Gon felt like they were moving at half speed, even if their attacks still felt impactful and powerful, choosing sword-wielding characters like Sasuke, Ichigo or Zoro were clearly the better option. Their attacks were fast, flashy and encapsulated the over the top action of the anime/manga series Jump Force makes use of. Even if when using these characters combat is still brain-dead, at least it feels more fun in an arcade-y fighting game type of combat.

I can’t deny that the idea of a crossover with all these characters whose stories I enjoy reading and watching in the same videogame is exciting but, when the game in question is such a mess, I can’t bring myself to look forward to it at all. Picking specific characters for combat allows for some over the top fun, but the way it is headed, this game won’t be good for more than that, a twenty-minute session of dishing out anime attacks with some of your favorite characters that is quickly forgotten.

Oh, one last thing: if you’re going to have an avatar system that produces results as embarrassing as the default avatars available in the beta, please just remove the system altogether, people will be better off playing with the characters from their favorite series.

If you want to watch some gameplay, you can watch this VOD of me streaming the closed beta.

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