User blog:Steven Star/J-Star Victory Vs. Review

The popularity of anime currently might not be at its zenith. There’s still a group that has quite a lot of fans and many if not all of the series popular in America. With such series as Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, and more hail from the Weekly Shonen Jump corporation.

For years, Shonen Jump rarely crossed over, and if they did few if any video games or specials don’t even came to America. However, that changed with the release of this game. Few figured this would make it over to the United States, and yet it had.

There had been games in the past which had the various series from Shoen Jump interact but mostly on portables or only one or two series. However, this game, J-Stars Victory VS for the PS3, Vista, and PS4 is a game where Thirty Nine of these characters are fighters in a battle royal type fighting game, J-Star Victory Vs. +.

The premise is the battle royal type of fighting game, like Power Stone or Dragon Ball: Zenkai Battle Royale, involves 3D movements and a combat system that depends on more than just outright depleting your enemies health bar to win. At last, anime/manga fans can have Goku smash down with Naruto or Luffy or whoever, or Yusuke Urameshi dealing with Ichigo Kurosaki. Oh god, this was the best! From well-known series like Dragon Ball Z and Naruto, to vintage classics like Fist of the North Star and Saint Seyia, to series that many might not even be aware that they existed till now like Luckyman, Hell Teacher and Assassination Classroom. J-Stars Victory VS has quite a vast cast to give players a game that has all the aspects of the history of Shonen Jump. The Roster is the freaking best. All 39 playable character handle well, no matter if you know that character or not. Hell, Hiei is one my main and I don’t even read or watch YuYu Hakuska. Even did fairly with the villain, like Frieza, Sōsuke Aizen, and Togoruo (or his younger self, I don’t know. :s) Even the addition for the assist characters, fighters that only show up to perform a move and leave that range. With the selection of support characters further widens the number of guests in this battle royal. Some examples being Ruika Kuchiki from Bleach, Hisoka of HunterXHunter, and the lovely Miss. Lala Satalin Deviluke.

Between this large cast and the many stages that look right out of the various series the cast of fighters hail from it would seem that J-Stars Victory VS succeeds in being a tribute to the Shoen Jumps forty five plus years of history. Of course, despite this there is still a glaring question, is the game fun to play? The answer is, mostly yes but mileage will vary depending on how big an anime or manga fan you are, compeer to other lazy-rushed out Anime based video game that just there to made a cash-grab.

This game is heavy on team matches, you can fight solo matches but most of the time you have a teammate to fight two other fighters at once. During battle, You have weak attacks and strong attacks, and most fighters can pull off one or two special moves. While, not quite an extreme selection, at least more than one move. Your purpose like any fighting game is to beat your enemies till they are down, but this game is not purely about beating down your opponent. After doing well in fights, you have the option to go to a “super” mode with your partner. This allows fighters to use their ultimate attack for a limited amount of time. Some super moves can be more useful than others, I suppose it's a tactic to know when to use the “big” guns. Being your foes enough times let you gain one third of the gauge, thou their respawn a few second later. Winning the battle need you to fueled of three sections by KO’ing the opponents side. The WIN gauge at the top of the screen have to be filled; the gauge fills one section each time an opponent is defeated.

In addition to that, use also have a energy bar. This allows you to perform some special moves, and also lets them run and dash. The bar can be charged, and if you charge it enough some even power up. (Such as Goku going Super Saiyan or Ichigo putting on his Hallow mask.) While good, the combat can be a tad chunky at time. While you can use a dodge move to evade attacks, it's not the most smooth of processes at times, leaving you open to get smashed and bashed with a frequency more than some would like. Oh, and for even forget about the invincibility flame! =-=

The looks of an anime inspired video game are important because if it don't feel like the game, it's feels like the source material then well. It's just turns many off. It’s challenging enough to get the feel of just one series but pulling off that dozens of different characters look like they are from their own series is something that could easily be a disaster. Thankfully, more or less the graphic designers managed to pull things off well enough n this game. However, the graphics are far from flawless, everyone more or less looks like from the series they spawned from but, the models do look a tad, but, it's still passable and considering how many series had to be stuffed in to one game.

As for where the combat takes place, besides the basic Versus mode. There also a Arcade mode for the English version, where you fight opponents to win in the most basic fighting game manner. We also have a Victory mode where you fight teams one after another with a special condition or so each time to get points.

As for the story, J-Adventure mode, this story mode in the game is…not that good. The gist of story mode is that it takes place in Jump World, an combination of the diverse characters' realities. The story is divided between four different chapters, each focusing on a different character exploring Jump World, building a team to compete, and working to achieve their own personal goals. But no matter who you chose you mostly just fight, sail around on a ship, fight more, sometimes with more precise win conditions, and keep fighting till the end. The story mode is just only voiced for a fraction of it, mostly just grunts and whatever, and it does repeat a lot. A hell of a alot. You think this story mode may involve bad guys, but their just bosses of the story. At least, the interactions are nice and it's better than just having a simple arcade mode as the sole one player experience. The only real happen to played this mode is to unlocked the characters. Speaking of characters…
 * The Pursuit Chapter focuses on Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach), Tatsumi Oga and Baby Beel (Beelzebub), and Hiei (YuYu Hakusho). *The Hope Chapter focuses on Naruto Uzumaki, Yusuke Urameshi (YuYu Hakusho), and Gon (Hunter X Hunter)
 * The Motion Chapter focuses on Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece), Ace (One Piece), and Pegasus Seiya (Saint Seiya)
 * The Research Chapter focuses on Toriko, Zebra (Toriko), and Goku (DragonBall Z)

Beside the negative part I mention (Tedious part, invincibility flame, and story mode) The starter roster is crap. Only 6 out of the 39 cast (Goku, Naruto, Luffy, Toriko, Ichigo, and Gintoki Sakata.) In order to unlock many of the fighter and all of the support cast in many of their amazing series, you have to not only buy their at the J-Shop, but also boost your friendship stats. Because otherwise, you’ve only allow to buy 2 characters with Level 1 Friendship. (Money not really a issue, it’s common.) Even level up just let you buy 5 characters…each level! Maybe it’s just me, but Zebra is the beast when I face in several Side Quest in Story Mode. No matter what his or your partner is, he kept beating me rapidly. Facing he and Gon made me losing serval time, until I played as Hiei. (He’s alway a life savior.) Don’t worry, I’ll don’t hate Zebra in Toriko. I don’t even know the Toriko series, but…ugh!

As I said there are things, that could be better, but it looks good enough to really feel like your favorite heroes and villains from the Jump series are fighting each other. The combat is not perfect, but fun enough to be enjoyable as long as you're not hyper picky about how a fighting game plays. It may not be the best game for a Fighting game tournament but J-Stars victory is a great game for anime fans to have a blast at parties. I support to buy this game if you willing to do the work to get everything. Trust me, this is one of the best crossover that Anime had!

…By the way, can people please shut down about Natsu from Fairy Tail not being in this game. Fairy Tail isn’t from Shonen Jump, so it’s didn’t fucking count. We’re not turning him as the next Crash Bandicoot, guy!