Game: J-Stars Victory Vs.+
Available For: PS4, PS3, PS Vita, (Reivewed on Vita.)
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Spike Chunsoft
MSRP: $59,99 (PS4), $49.99 (PS3) and $39.99 (Vita, digital only.)
Importers went crazy back in 2014 when J-Stars Victory Vs. hit the Japanese PS3 and Vita. This crossover fighter that brought together Shonen Jump’s most popular franchises and characters into one explosive package was never expected to arrive outside of Japan. Much like Jump Superstars for the Nintendo DS, we figured licensing issues would be tough to sort out, especially for a niche title such as this. Yet, Namco Bandai surprised us late last year when they announced that not only would the game receive a Western release, but it would include an extra game mode and a PS4 release as well! Now dubbed J-Stars Victory Vs.+, characters from Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, and so many more franchises will finally get to brawl in the West. Now that the title has come and gone, was it worth the wait?
J Stars uses a somewhat basic model for its fighting mechanics, which typically take place as a two on two showdown with a third character acting as support. Standard matches end once the first team reaches three KO’s, but can vary depending on how many people are fighting in that particular battle. On the surface, every character is essentially the same, with a weak, strong, and special attack button making up their offense. Special moves cost meter, which can be charged up at any time, while tapping the block button right before you’re hit results in a teleport behind your opponent, leaving them wide open. I mean sure, you could just block, but absorbing too many hits will result in a guard break, with no choice but to accept your incoming punishment. Double jumps, dashing, and the ever important lock on button round out the game’s basic functions, with these three moves being especially vital since it would be easy to get lost in the game’s mostly large 3D arenas. Nothing sucks more than getting ambushed because you had no idea where the enemy was.
Using a unique momentum meter that constantly fluctuates as the fight goes on, once one team shifts it all the way to their side, the team will be able to activate their Victory Burst, a temporary state where their attributes are slightly boosted. More importantly however, is that players can choose to sacrifice time in this state in exchange for an Ultimate Attack, your character’s strongest ability that has the potential to do HUGE damage to the opposing team. Great for when you’re behind in a battle and need to shift the tide of battle, or when you’re dominating and want to put an exclamation point on your win, watching these animations, (and the resulting destruction,) is often rewarding.
As I mentioned, at first glance, each one of the 39 playable characters has similar combos and team attacks, making the core mechanics feel repetitive quick. What fixes this however, is that most characters have special properties that usually reflect their powers from their respective properties. For example, Goku and Vegeta can both charge up their second meter just as fast as their first, (as opposed to most of the cast’s meter gain slowing down after the first one is filled,) and once maxed, results in a Super Saiyan transformation. Naruto absorbs and stores his energy all at once, doubling his meter after risking precious seconds being completely vulnerable, can switch to Sage Mode, giving him the option to throw his Rasenshuriken, and gains a completely different move set during a Victory Burst with his Nine Tails Mode! Yusuke will revive in his demon form at no cost if KO’d during Victory Burst, but will immediately fall once it ends, while Seiya will sport his golden armor… The list goes on and on. So while the depth of the mechanics might not be all there, the special traits of each character still keep most of the cast varied, especially for fans who follow these Jump properties closely.
Then again, what good are the fighting mechanics if we don’t mention the modes? J-Stars has a variety of ways to put this fighting to the test, including Free Battle, Arcade, Victory Road, Online and J-Adventure Modes. Most of these are your standard fighting game affair, with Free Battle letting you fight against the CPU or your friends locally with custom conditions, Arcade, where you fight a series of enemies with increasing difficulty, (though this game’s version has a variety of tracks to take on set by how hard it is to at the start, much like Mortal Kombat), and Online, where you fight friends and strangers alike in this strange space we call the Internet. Just expect lag. And rage quitting. And no penalty for those who quit while those who stay get no reward. If you couldn’t tell, Online isn’t worth the trouble.
While these staple features are all well and good, most of the game’s unique single player content comes in the Victory Road and J-Adventures modes. In Victory Road, players will pick a team and take on themed battles against the CPU, where you’ll have to meet certain requirements during battle to earn a 100% clear rating on each fight. As you progress, the fights will continuously alter their settings and completion conditions, so it’s constantly asking you to approach battles differently. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t actually tell you what the challenge conditions are until AFTER the fight, so that bit of forced replayability will likely have completionists playing through each fight more than once.
J-Adventure on the other hand, starts off strong, but wears out its welcome for far too long. Choosing between one of four paths led by either Luffy, Naruto, Toriko or Ichigo, each story follows these characters as they navigate Jump World, a land where all these characters exist in the same universe. While attempting to assemble a team of fighters to win an upcoming tournament, each path leads to different partners, support characters, and missions to find on the world map. Using a ship to traverse the world, (which gains enhanced mobility as the story progresses,) players will earn precious currency to unlock new ship parts, characters, and J-Cards, items that can tweak the attributes of your team, while leveling up their fighters. Unfortunately, this is a case of too much of a good thing. Each story is so long that it’s unlikely that players will be able to get through one path, let alone all four. The camera is too close to your ship, often leading to accidental battles against opposing ships in the environment, and with no way to back out of them once their triggered. What’s worse, is that once your main objective in the story mode is complete, a whole new plot point opens up, extending the game even farther when you’ll likely be tired of the adventure mode by then, kind of like certain Shonen Jump stories that drag on 500 chapters past what should have been their ending point. Even though I had fun playing J-Stars, the combat is too shallow to maintain interest for that long, especially when you’re forced to play as the same three characters for the majority of these adventure sections.
So is J-Stars the dream crossover that Playstation fans have been waiting for? Not exactly, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of fun to be had. Between the huge character roster, the unique abilities for each fighter, lots of goods to unlock and plenty of modes to use them in, fans of at least a few of these properties will surely enjoy picking their favorite manga fighter and pit them against an opposing team. Yet, the shallow core mechanics, the overly drawn out story mode that’s seemingly mimicking the 700+ chapter stories from the Shonen Jump books, poor online and artificially lengthened content is sure to be put off some people. If you’re an anime or manga fan, you’ll surely have a great time with J-Stars Victory Vs.+, but everyone else would do well to get their fighting fix somewhere else.
tl;dr:
+ A huge roster that will surely satisfy the Shonen Jump faithful.
+ Unique abilities for most of the cast, adding a feeling of authenticity to their portrayal.
+ A good amount of modes to play around with.
+ Tons of unlockables, including characters, ship parts, and customizable cards.
– The core mechanics are shallow, forcing most of the characters to feel identical from a basic combo standpoint.
– Story mode is far longer than it should be, failing to keep an already repetitive experience interesting for long.
– Some modes like Victory Road are artificially lengthened by withholding challenge requirements, while the rest of the modes don’t offer anything new.
-Online is a mess.
Final Score: 3/5