Table of Contents
Jump Force comes to our consoles and computers as a way to honor one of the most important comic magazines of all time. To our disappointment we find an empty game of complexity and even pampering for the original works.
For many, the name of Weekly Shonen Jump is not well known, but for fans of the manga world it is one of the highest quality seals, as it is the most important manga magazine, consumed weekly by millions of people and where entertainment giants such as Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto, Bleach and dozens of other series were born, series that crossed their national barriers and became pop icons of the entire Western world. Everyone knows things like the long battles of Dragon Ball and the eternal soccer fields of Captain Tsubasa (Oliver and Benji), to give a few examples, and all that nation of manga series that were published in this magazine.
Note: This analysis has been done with the output version of the game, after which it was reported that there would be patches to correct errors that we will mention in this article but that at the time of writing these lines we will not be able to verify.
Periodically the license of the magazine is sold to make video games that honor the history of the magazine and this time it is Jump Forces' turn to celebrate the XNUMXth anniversary of the publication. And let's face it, I was very excited to see it myself, but after spending a dozen hours, two of them in matches at home, we can declare that the game is all intentions without knowing how to do anything right, at least not at the level of polishing a game with this level of marketing.
In lazy and careless story mode
When we started Jump Force I wanted to do the basics: a home fight. However, you must start with the story mode, where we will see how our world is being destroyed by the forces of Freeza. In his confrontation with Goku we will be one of the fatalities due to collateral damage, after which we will be forced to create a personalized character, although we are not facing a character creator as complete as others, since all the elements are taken from other fighters and there are no clothes or hair that are not from Jump characters, although there are color variations.
Later, after some scenes that today we cannot jump, we will enter the lobby with which we can make the expected fights locally, but focusing on history, we find the minimum to say that there is a story as such. The quickest summary is that the different dimensions and worlds are intermingling and dark forces want to take advantage of it, for which there are some dark cubes that turn the heroes into characters thirsty for fight and evil. It is not the most complex story, because it directly seems taken from a scriptwriter with serious time constraints to spin a story that justifies bringing together characters from worlds and timelines that cannot be done at the same time.
However, in order to make a great plot, they have failed to present the characters in context. It is true that it is funny to see how some scenes arise thanks to the mixture of characters that had never been together, but there is nothing left in the story, only the main story remains and now, sometimes with serious errors when explaining the background of the characters as a time where the Joestar story failed. Yes, Jump Force is a fighting game and it is not the usual thing, but I am not asking for something great either, just something coherent, no matter how simple it is but that respects the characters, especially when it comes to a crossover. And the missions are not complicated either: see scene, defeat a character see scene, which also is not that there is much action, mostly they stay up and from time to time they get into battle position and react as if they felt pain. The plot really does not give for more, but it is not an important point here.
Nice to see, not so much to play
Something that has characterized many series is the concept of characters with more charisma than personality, which is the ability to make you want to accompany a character despite not having many details as a person. Something similar is what we find with this game, because graphically it looks great, with some graphic details that really shows that they really knew how to do it well, because they achieved a defined style that looks very good despite being characters that come from very different series .
In battle the effects are spectacular and make the battles very enjoyable to watch. Effects such as fire, magic, and various forms of energy make it look like a series of competent CGI, with animations of battles that are flashy to the limit, but sadly weigh on the gaming experience. Visually it does not help anything in combat, since a third-person camera on the shoulder does not help much in combat, which in single-player mode gives some discomfort but locally makes a person always at a disadvantage.
We are facing a style that makes it look very good in photos, but when playing it ends up distracting, which is not accompanied by the fact that animations outside of special movements are difficult to read, something that should be a crime not to be able to implement in a game of fight that we pay at the price of Triple A.
To finish, the combat is presented as simple, since it does not have complicated concepts in itself, but thanks to the fact that we cannot telegraph the movements clearly, it is difficult to counter the opponent's movements and position ourselves. And in full 3D scenarios we have not found ways to interact with the environment, making the sets matter little or nothing.
Jump Force disappoints while waiting for new patches to fix it
Jump Force has arrived at a top-tier fighting game price, with a season pass included. However, it is nothing more than a simple crossover made with more desire to advertise Jump without trying to take care of a product that defends itself, and that sadly I cannot recommend it to the most staunch and not so demanding fans of the series. Playing gets to the point of being tedious due to the repetition of missions with combats that are sometimes overwhelming.
Unless they make a noticeable upgrade that greatly changes the camera and combat, we see no way to recommend this game other than at a serious price discount after adding more characters. A shame since we are facing one of the most promising license games.
