J-Stars Victory Vs+ Reviews
Despite a great cast of characters, J-Stars Victory Vs.+ fails to leverage their charm on or off the battlefield.
J-Stars Victory VS+ fumbles what should have been a glorious, celebratory experience. It's combat is banal, its design is overcomplicated and its presentation is completely halfhearted. Even so, there's a lot to be said for the pure fanservice of J-Stars Victory VS+.
The flaws will probably dampen your enjoyment too much – and, to be fair, there are more accomplished fighting games out there.
While J-Stars Victory VS+ doesn’t compare to the previous Shonen Jump crossover titles, it is definitely a must get for Shonen Jump fans who would love to see their favorite characters clash in battle.
Manga die-hards are bound to get a real kick out of J-Stars Victory VS+. The level of fan service here is on point and there's a solid fighting game to back it up. That said, after just a few hours it begins to lose steam, becoming less and less appealing as something you'd want to play for long sessions.
Manga and anime fans will no doubt get some pleasure out of the game's endless array of cameos, but viewed on its merits as a fighting game this is a clear defeat.
Ultimately, J-Stars Victory VS+ only succeeds as numbers on paper, the game itself being largely disappointing. The roster have had much of what made them unique stripped down, stopping me getting truly excited about the characters I knew and preventing me getting a sense of which characters were worth me investing future time watching. The mechanics are shallow, the fanservice is surface level and it only succeeds in terms of its pure number of supported characters. Overall, I walked away rather disappointed.
J-Stars Victory VS+ is built specifically for fans of the numerous franchises represented within with an enjoyable story mode, but outsiders will likely find nothing of interest here.
But, looking past the identical campaigns, the bland environments, and the poor graphics, J-Stars Victory VS+ is actually a fairly enjoyable game. With its fast-paced combat, large cast of Shonen Jump characters, and strategic card system, J-Stars can offer hours of solo or multiplayer fun. If you want a game with decent combat, it might be a good idea to check J-Stars out. However, if graphics are important to you, you might want to take a pass on this one.
Fans looking for a fighting game with deep gameplay that rewards mastery of game mechanics best look elsewhere. Fans of the characters that just want to run amuck with them for awhile should be pleasantly diverted. At least for awhile.
If you are looking for a unique distraction from all the serious fighting games, this is the one to own. Fans of anime need not even hesitate.
An accessible and ultimately enjoyable brawler, J-Stars Victory VS+ may not hold the attention of dedicated fighting fans for long, but it's sure to provide plenty of entertainment for those that are interested in the included manga and anime franchises. A solid character roster coupled with some eye-catching combat is what this beat-'em-up is all about – even if it could afford to take some more risks, given the wealth of source material on offer.
J-Stars Victory Vs. + mostly gets the job done when it comes to delivering a manic anime-based brawler for fans that have been waiting for the next Jump Superstars. But more could've easily been done with it, especially with the presentation and the fighting system. It has its moments, but they're more based upon the involvement of human competition instead of the evolution of the themes at hand. Worth a try, but don't expect the next Smash Bros.
J-Stars Victory Vs+ is a game that has the look, but just couldn't follow through on the execution. While it may be cool to see characters like Goku and Medaka fight head to head, the fact that the act of participating in said fight isn't very fun makes the whole moment lose its magic.
J-Stars Victory Vs+ is more middle-of-the-road bad— it's never especially frustrating, but it's also never especially exciting.
A large part of your enjoyment of this game is dependent on how well you know these characters and how invested you are in their respective series. If pitting Ace against Akainu doesn't bring a tear to your eye, you might not enjoy this game as much as I did. If you're an avid anime and manga fan then you'll most likely appreciate this celebration of it. With some polish and refinement; it could be a great series. I really hope that this isn't its final form.
J-Stars Victory Vs+ brings together some good fighting moments with popular Bandai Namco licenses, while offering up somewhat addictive, yet sporadic, gameplay flow. Improvements in environment variety, CPU artificial intelligence and visuals could help to make this a more memorable brawler in the future, as it falls short in these categories as it stands.
.J-Stars is another case of a Japanese game that preaches convincingly to its chosen choir.
Heavy on fan service, J-Stars Victory VS + is going to sell to its core target demographic regardless of what score we afford the game. The ability to play as so many characters is a unique selling point on its own, and the fact that the game behind this crossover of universes is relatively solid will just be a bonus.
Brimming with a variety of characters and fan service, yet lacking the fluidity of Spike Chunsoft previous fighting games. Casual anime fans need not apply.