Bringing together in a single fighting game the greatest successes of Japanese manga is nothing new. How not to remember with nostalgia Jump Super Stars in 2005, its sequel, Jump Ultimate Stars the following year, but also J-Stars Victory VS+ in 2015, a title which celebrated the 45th anniversary of Shonen Jump and which had was developed by Spike Chunsoft. Despite a mediocre result and the general boo of fans, Bandai Namco Entertainment has once again placed its trust in the Japanese studio. If the production time of Jump Force remains to this day a total unknown, it is however very easy to see the strings used by the developers to set it up. Three-quarter rear view, arenas closed but large enough to move freely, the possibility of charging his Ki to swing overpowered attacks, the integration of nervous dashes to spam the opponent, Spike Chunsoft applies once again the same recipe, the one that the studio has been recycling for too many years. How indeed not to see the skeleton of the mediocre J-Stars Victory VS+ and One Piece Burning Blood, both in their approach and their structure, with the difference that this time, we have to manage a team of 3 fighters with the possibility of changing partners on the fly, or of using them as simple assists. This was already the case in the not so distant Dragon Ball FighterZ, except that the implementation could not be more natural and instinctive (we press L1 / LB or L2 / LT to call his teammates in support, we maintain L1 /LB or L2/LT to switch between characters). In Jump Force, and for some incomprehensible reason, the opposite is imposed. The assist intervenes by holding L2/LT, while the character switch is done by briefly pressing L2/LT. Confusing and inconsistent as can be. As much to tell you that you will mix up your brushes, maybe even throw your controller on the ground several times, so the mapping of the keys is absurd.
A VERY NICE BORDEL
This obviously leads to messy fights in which you don't feel like you're in control of your actions. But this visual cacophony is not only due to the inadequate position of the keys, it is also the result of clumsy game design choices, starting with the problems encountered via the perspective offered in the game. Because if the view of three- quarter offers a dynamic rendering in its proposed angle, it disadvantages on the other hand the adversary who is in the distance; a bit like the player who finds himself at the top of the court in a game of tennis. Usually, to balance things out, the developers think of splitting the image in two, especially when it comes to local Versus, but here you will have to get used to the fact that in the distance, on the horizon, we leaves with a certain handicap. To this visual discomfort is added another problem: the management of the camera. Jump Force clashes being on more or less open ground, with great freedom of movement, the camera must try to contain itself, trying to keep its focus on the raw action. The reality is unfortunately quite different, since the camera never manages to remain stable. With the ultra-speed movements of the fighters, the fact that we are able to dash at the speed of light, to teleport behind the opponent's back and that the angle retained remains this three-quarter rear view, the camera no longer knows where to turn. It goes in all directions, sometimes to the point of spinning nausea. This obviously shows an action that is often illegible, sometimes muddled, since these reversals of perspective are added to an anthology of effects of all kinds. Balls of fire, aura of power, debris, geysers of light, the screen quickly becomes saturated, to the point of dealing with a mush of polygons that turns to indigestion. So yes, it's true that the first parts can be pleasant, sometimes quite enjoyable, but after the discovery, we discover with horror all the tricks of this mainstream fighting game, oriented above all for the very general public and only for him.
UNILATERAL GAMEPLAY
And that's where Jump Force's gameplay is disappointing. When we know that a year ago, Arc System Works managed, with Dragon Ball FighterZ, to bring together weekend gamers and pro-gamers around the same title, it is regrettable to return to a game thought only of a certain category of players. Because if the accessibility of Jump Force is in no way a defect, quite the contrary, it is its lack of depth that ultimately got the better of it. There is indeed very little room for improvement in the title of Spike Chunsoft, which relies only on the simplicity of executing attacks more impressive than each other. There are of course subtleties in the game system, with this possibility of spamming the opponent, by deliberately rushing at him, or by teleporting to better surprise him, but that's it. Worse, the gameplay of Jump Force being essentially based on the offensive side that creates a flagrant imbalance between the players. Impossible indeed to establish a certain strategy. Impossible to play the mind game. Everything rests solely on the brutality of the actions; the stuffing in short. This is all the more obvious since there is not much variety except for the auto-combos to be made by hitting the Square / X key. So yes, we can try to make small combinations by using assists, but it's still limited. Worse, just to take the player even more by the hand, Jump Force sets up the display of the Furies to be triggered when you hold down the R2 / RT button. All you have to do is choose the second button to press to trigger this or that attack, depending on the state of your power gauge.
Because if the accessibility of Jump Force is in no way a defect, quite the contrary, it is its lack of depth that ultimately got the better of it. There is indeed very little room for improvement in the title of Spike Chunsoft, which relies only on the simplicity of executing attacks more impressive than each other.
All of this is a bit low on the front, while the host of characters present in the roster could have brought some great diversity to the fights. It is only the aggressiveness that pays off, especially since among the 40+ protagonists available, all play the same way. No one stands out in the mechanics, it's always the same way to play, whether you play as a hero from Dragon Ball, Bleach, Saint Seiya, City Hunter, My Hero Academia or even Yu-Gi-Oh. So of course, we can only appreciate and congratulate the generosity of such a roster, even if we have to admit a choice that is not always relevant for some belligerents. Similarly, we see that some licenses (Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto) have received preferential treatment with significantly more characters to embody compared to others. But let's not show off, if there's one thing that Jump Force can hardly be faulted for, it's its 5-star cast. Too bad the rest does not follow.
UNCANNY VALLEY
And among the things that make work when launching Jump Force, it is obviously its artistic direction. The realistic aspect opted by the developers is quite simply abominable, and it is an understatement to say it, certain characters being more failed than others, in particular the characters of Dragon Ball, One Piece and Saint Seiya, i.e. those with which ones we play the most – too bad. Worse still, the game manages to offer several types of chara-design, as if an adjustment was made at the last minute, following negative feedback from previews and players outraged by such an emetic rendering. But the graphic atrocities don't stop there, since our heroes also lack facial expressions, they even tend to be frozen like wax dolls, a rendering that is found throughout the AD as well. It's even more obvious when you start the solo adventure, where the title of Spike Chunsoft displays its bad visual taste all the time. To this we must add animations from another era, that of first generation PS3 / Xbox 360 games, where the characters gave the impression of moving with a stick stuck in their ass, if you allow us the expression . It is also during the cutscenes (which we can fortunately skip – thank you patch day one) where we witness the disaster, with a total absence of staging, dialogues of an extreme platitude, the whole served by an OSEF scenario, written one evening when the devs probably didn't give a fuck anymore.
But the graphic atrocities don't stop there, since our heroes also lack facial expressions, they even tend to be frozen like wax dolls, a rendering that is found throughout the AD as well. It's even more obvious when you start the solo adventure, where the title of Spike Chunsoft displays its bad visual taste all the time. To this must be added animations from another era, that of first generation PS3 / Xbox 360 games...
The transition is all found to now evoke the single-player campaign, also copied and pasted from another game from the Bandai Namco catalog. No need to dig very far to see that the structure has been completely re-pumped to that of the Dragon Ball Xenoverse, a commercial success of course (10 million games sold for all of the two episodes), but clearly not a qualitative reference when it comes to acts to be a minimum objective. Basically, we start on the creation of an avatar to shape from head to toe, with many customizable physical characteristics, knowing that we can change our character over the course of the adventure, especially in terms of its technical performance. Because even if you will remain a no-name among its manga stars, you will be able to acquire their signature-moves according to your affinities. In this regard, be aware that you will be asked from the start to display your preferences by choosing a team to follow. Goku, Naruto or Luffy, which team do you want to join? Everything will also depend on the direction you want to take in the evolution of your powers. In truth, the choices offered have no impact on the scenario, nor even the evolution of your avatar, since he will play like all the other heroes on the roster, since he copies their attacks.
WITHOUT STRENGTH OR HONOR
Still, we spend hours wandering around this painful level-design hub, where we meet other connected players with whom we communicate via stanzas that spin the drone. The atmosphere is deleterious as possible, and the few dialogues that we are offered trigger hives so much we are swimming in the most complete discomfort. We were talking to you earlier about this completely absent staging and these sketches that are tièp, you have to see it to believe it. For a game coming out in 2019, that's clearly messy. As for the story that was invented to justify the meeting between all these characters from different manga, it's confusingly insipid. We give you the pitch in a few words: Frieza and his army land in our reality, in Times Square, to do the usual dawa. Visibly aware of his actions, Goku and Trunks arrive in turn to try to thwart his demonic plans. In the general fight, Goku dodges Frieza's shot, which will then kill an ordinary citizen, you in this case, the player. Thanks to an artifact out of nowhere, Trunks will resuscitate him and recruit him with him. Here he is then a member of Umbras, a kind of militia that tries to keep the balance between the real world and the manga universes. It's up to the hero player to come to the aid of this growing threat, while at the same time trying to break the spell cast by Frieza on the fallen heroes. Seriously? This is when this crazy adventure begins, strewn with tutorials, uninteresting and repetitive missions, dubious choices, anxiety-provoking dialogues and moribund walks in this hub where everyone doesn't care about others. We spent more than 8 hours there for the purposes of this test (we're talking about the solo campaign, eh, cumulatively, we're around 15 hours of play), as much to tell you that these are 8 hours of our lives screwed up. The most total anguish.
