J-Stars Victory Vs+ Reviews
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.
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.
J-Stars Victory Vs+ is more middle-of-the-road bad— it's never especially frustrating, but it's also never especially exciting.
J-Stars Victory VS is very playable. But, when you consider that the entire purpose of this game's existence is to act as fan service, the fact that it fails to offer the kind of fan service that would have had fans clamouring for it is incredibly disappointing. There are so many directions Namco Bandai and Spike Chunsoft could have taken Victory that to produce a merely playable brawler is just not good enough.
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+.
Not awful, but disappointingly lazy
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.
Despite a great cast of characters, J-Stars Victory Vs.+ fails to leverage their charm on or off the battlefield.
J-Stars Victory Vs+ is an exceedingly hard game to effectively score. It's aimed at a very specific fanbase, and those not familiar with at least a few anime or manga series will find little to catch their interest here. The target audience will find fanservice through and through, and this will be an instant buy regardless of reviews or scores. For those on the fence it's worth the price for the experience alone, and to help support more of these titles being released outside of Japan. While J-Stars may be fundamentally flawed in many ways, it offers something many fans never imagined they would get to experience, and it has some truly great moments.
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.
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.
J-Stars Victory Versus+ has a lot of heart, but that heart doesn't guarantee good gameplay. Players who are looking to see a slam-bam mashup of their favorite fighters will have some fun with it, but the unbalanced and repetitive core gameplay and lackluster story mode don't do the game any favors. The title is boosted somewhat by the obvious love for the properties, but at the end of the day, the gameplay needs to be better to keep up. There's still fun to be had, but J-Stars Victory Versus+ is for die-hard fans only.
.J-Stars is another case of a Japanese game that preaches convincingly to its chosen choir.
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.
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.
The flaws will probably dampen your enjoyment too much – and, to be fair, there are more accomplished fighting games out there.
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.
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.