Bandai Namco has long been a leading developer of licensed anime games. However, their recent release, Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash, does not meet their usual standards. This game is inspired by the widely popular Jujutsu Kaisen manga and its anime adaptation. Despite the significant potential of this intellectual property, it is disappointing to witness its underutilization in a brawler game that fails to introduce any novel features.
The sole commendable aspect of Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is its graphics. The game successfully emulates the visual style of the anime, including the character models and the limited number of cutscenes, which are well-animated and detailed. Beyond this, there are few, if any, positive aspects to highlight.
The gameplay of Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is disappointingly bland and lacks depth. Despite initial optimism for the game’s potential, the experience falls significantly short of expectations, offering neither enjoyment nor novelty. The game’s presentation mirrors this lack of depth, with a main menu that more closely resembles the interface of a DVD or Blu-ray selection screen than that of a modern video game. This suggests a minimal effort in crafting an engaging product, relegating the game to the lower tiers of mobile gaming quality at best.
The development process behind this game remains unclear, especially considering Bandai Namco’s established history of releasing successful licensed games based on popular anime series such as One Piece, One Punch Man, My Hero Academia, and Naruto. The company’s experience and reputation in the genre raise expectations, making the underwhelming nature of Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash all the more surprising.
The game’s story mode attempts to follow the narrative arc seen in the Jujutsu Kaisen anime, beginning with the conflict between Ryomen Sukuna’s Curse and Yuji Itadori. Despite Itadori’s lack of inherent powers, his ingestion of Sukuna’s finger grants him cursed abilities, propelling him on a mission to collect cursed objects. However, the game’s storytelling falls flat, offering nothing new to fans of the series. For those unfamiliar with anime or manga, the game fails to provide a coherent narrative, relying on sparse cutscenes and static artwork accompanied by poorly executed text to convey the story. The objectives within each story mode mission do little to enhance the experience, mirroring the game’s overall lack of engaging gameplay.
The game introduces 2v2 battles as a novel concept, aiming to add an interesting twist to the combat system. While this idea is appealing in theory, its practical execution falls short of adding the necessary depth to make it engaging. Similar mechanics of team-based attacks have been effectively utilized in other games within the genre, including the latest Mortal Kombat game. However, Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash simplifies the controls to such an extent that battles often devolve into repetitive button-mashing. Players execute combos and special moves with minimal variation, and certain characters appear unbalanced, undermining the competitive aspect of the game, especially in online multiplayer settings.
The potential for dynamic cooperation in fights is undermined by the game’s reliance on automatic combos, which can lead to frequent knockdowns and poorly synchronized attacks between team members. This results in either prolonged animations or reliance on the less strategic auto combos during critical moments. Despite featuring over a dozen characters, none offer a genuinely enjoyable gameplay experience. Additionally, the online multiplayer aspect suffers due to a lack of players, rendering the game’s community nearly inactive and unable to sustain ongoing engagement.
Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash represents a notable disappointment and is difficult to recommend. Its appeal is largely predicated on the inherent potential of the Jujutsu Kaisen IP, yet the game fails to do justice to its source material. It is a disservice to the franchise, failing to capture the essence and excitement that fans have come to expect. There is hope that Bandai Namco or other game developers will eventually harness the full potential of the Jujutsu Kaisen IP to create a game that truly embodies the spirit and adventure of the series. However, Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is not that game.
Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash Game Information
- Price: $59.99
- Publisher: Bandai Namco
- Developer: Bandai Namco
- Platform: PS5 (Reviewed)
- Disclaimer: A review code was given by the publisher
