J-Stars Victory vs PS4

After waiting over a year, anime and manga fans can rejoice as J-Stars Victory VS+ has finally made the trip to the west.

With an ensemble cast of over 50 characters, there should be at least a few people that anyone picking this up will know, with the likes of Naruto, One Piece, Rurouni Kenshin, Jo-Jo’s Bizarre Adventure, Saint Seiya, and so many more. The game consists of several modes for you to sink your teeth into, such as the story-driven J-Adventure, or the all-new Arcade Mode, which did not appear in the original Japanese release. As for the actual fighting, each character has a set of strong or fast combos to utilize alongside a set of special moves that will be more recognizable for some, such as Naruto’s Rasengan or Sage Mode. While some steps are taken to give a few characters a bit of uniqueness, such as Kenshin being able to charge up to double stamina, the variety still feels a little lacking, and some fighters feel samey.

Fighting gamers looking for a serious competitive game should look elsewhere; as this game’s balance is a little… off, to say the least. Supposedly, this version of the game contains balance changes based on reaction to the original release in Japan, but some characters can feel overpowered in the hands of the computer, such as Tsuna & Reborn, who will spam long-range beam attacks like they take no energy at all, while you’ll struggle to pull that many special moves off successfully without depleting your own stamina, making it impossible to block the damn things. What should be simple balance can quickly turn into a rage fest, as it feels like sometimes your AI partner is deliberately gimped compared to the enemies you’ll face, but yet you share the losses, so even if you don’t die at all and come close to nailing three kills for the victory, your AI partner has died three times, handing you an automatic loss because he doesn’t even know how to block or evade sometimes.

The J-Adventure mode, while a little strange to play through, does deliver on a decent story to tie up the various in 4 separate arcs, and for your first few hours, should be your main mode of play, if only to get the ball rolling on unlocks. What can be rather tedious and time-consuming however is that three separate experience bars control what is unlocked, and they do not fill with any haste at all. Most players will just go for the Friendship bar, as that gives you more unlock slots for fighters, as the effects from each type (Friendship, Effort, Triumph) are small and mostly unnoticeable.

It’s always nice to see when Japan releases games that you normally wouldn’t expect to see this side of the world due to licencing, (this isn’t the first Shonen Jump related fighting game after all) but all the same, there are other games I would rather see come over here first, (it’s a pipedream, but Super Robot Wars, please) and while I’m all for crossover fighting games, they really do need a little more polish than this. I can be forgiving as long as it’s fun, but only so much, particularly for a game that costs £55.