Developer: Byking Inc., Gemdrops Inc.
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X
Genre: Action Brawler
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc
Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is a 3D fighting action game held in the world of the Jujutsu Kaisen manga. Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is developed by Byking inc, Gemdrops, Inc. and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. This review was done for the PC, but the game is also available for the Xbox series, PlayStation series and Switch.
Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is a game that you can play by yourself or with another player. Battles max out to a player count of 2 people. The story for this game follows the first arc of the anime. In Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash, the story revolves around a character named Itadori Yuji, a high school student who has extraordinary strength. Itadori encounters a cursed object, a finger, which he ends up swallowing, giving him a powerful curse. Upon swallowing this powerful curse, Itadori gets led into the world of jujutsu sorcery, where he meets many other students, mentors, and villains.
The game offers many different game modes to try out. Story mode is the single-player mode: it follows Itadori’s journey, where he tries his best to collect all the fingers of Sakuna’s curse to lift the curse. There are multiple episodes within a chapter that the player goes through to progress with the story. I found the story mode to be quite captivating as it gets the player immersed into an exhilarating, action-packed storyline, with the addition of players getting to be part of the battles. It’s similar to watching the anime but being able to actually control the characters to defeat the fights. Online versus mode is where you can play ranked (after each round, you get a rank and currency/items to use in-store/customization) and exhibition battles that both play in a tag team format. Online co-op consists of 2 modes: rush and survival. The rush mode allows you to play with the CPU (single-player) and two-player. Survival, battle mode where the difficulty is set to hard mode. There is an online lobby where you can set the options for your game and play with another player if you’d like. The online lobby is not great if you want to play with friends from other regions, as the lag is tremendous. Lastly, there is Free Battle, where you can select the four opponents and change their settings. This mode is similar to combat training to help players get used to the character’s abilities and controls.
The controls of the game are very easy to get used to, and at the beginning, you go through a tutorial that explains much of the mechanics and combo moves. I like that the controls are also shown on the screen, which is quite important for players to remember special moves. Some combo moves had a bit of delay, but besides them, there was no other issue with the controls. Controls are well-mapped and easy enough to pick up.
The game has a great resemblance to the art style of both manga and anime, and it’s done at quite a good level. The characters in the game look very similar to their style of them when they were in Fortnite, which gives them a much more cartoony look than the visuals in the cutscenes. It’s a distinctive art style that is extremely detailed and expressive. The cutscenes just seem as if you’re flipping pages through the manga and the voiceovers; it makes it ten times better. The narration in this game, with the complementation of the music, really sets the mood/atmosphere for each scene.
For instance, when Itadori tells a sad story, the music becomes very mellow but then switches to something more instrumental to feel the urge of motivation that comes to him. The battle music is also quite epic, which gets the player amped up for an exciting battle. The characters are drawn with bold, bright colours that help convey the intensity of the action-packed nature of the series. I like the in-game environment for the battles, as things break around when characters are using their abilities to give the game more realism.
When it came to the fighting system, it seemed that the combat felt clunky here and there, which took away from the combat. There seems to be delays in between the combo and the special skills that cut away from the player’s time. One specific combo that takes forever to accomplish is when combo attacks with an NPC character. Another thing that seemed a bit iffy with the combat system would be the ranking. I felt that getting an S rank was much easier than it should be, which takes away from the ranking. The ranking consists of getting achievements done and successfully beating the enemy, but I wish that difficult battles were a bit more difficult. Lastly, there is difficulty in telling if attacks are actually dealing damage, and at times, it seems none of the normal attacks deal any damage whatsoever, which is a bit annoying.
As someone who does not know much about anime or manga, I found this game to be extremely fun to play because it really sets the scene in this new world. You do not need to be someone who is well versed in these characters, as the story mode does such a good job at playing out the story. I just loved being able to play the different characters as each one of them was so unique with their abilities that kept the game from being repetitive. There are a few issues with the combat, but the overall experience with the story and unique characters makes the game exciting. I prefer playing through the story mode more than anything, as the other modes tend to get a bit boring after a few rounds. My only issue was that I was a bit confused as to why the co-op mode was not unlocked. At first, I believed maybe playing more throughout the story, but the co-op mode still did not seem to unlock. All of the online battles are 2v2 battles, and they allow you to pick from the character range.
There’s a lot of different things about this game that I love. First, the customization is an extra bit added by the developers, which is such a fun way for players to make their characters look the way they want. This also brings purpose to a relationship system introduced in the story mode that helps unlock various items and collectables. My favourite combat move would have to be the joint attack, as the cutscenes for those are so clean in the game that it makes the fight scenes just so worth it. What I really enjoyed about this game is that it sets the scene for a good action-packed battle. Personally, I do not find the online battle modes to be as exciting compared to the story mode because I found the fun to be all in the story mode of this game.
The player I played this game with had some comments about the game themselves. Vroggo said the following, “Playing Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash was a very compelling and exhilarating experience. The many unique moves and combos of each character show that. As someone who follows the anime, I appreciate that “story mode” incorporated just enough content from the anime to showcase each playable character and their skill sets but also embrace and stay in line with the series’ original appeal to potentially newer audiences, if any. At the same time, still stays true to the game’s fighting-focused intent. Playing Rush Battle with another player was a lot of fun. When playing games, I like to play supportive/backline characters, like Megumi or Nobara. Multiplayer game modes, like Rush Battle, allow me to be in those roles. I just enjoy being able to stun, help make openings for my partner to land hits on the enemy, and coordinate my attacks with my partner when possible. On the other hand, it did take a while to be matched with another, and some minor lag issues did occur as I was playing. However, it didn’t hinder my experience while playing with another more experienced player.”
If you want to play a game where you can play as jujutsu sorcerers from the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, then this game offers action-packed 2v2 combat with a thrilling story that captivates the players. The game features a range of characters, maps, and game modes to have fun playing either by yourself or a friend. If you’re looking for a game that has amazing cutscenes and tells a compelling story that you can be a part of, then be sure to check out Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash!
Overall: 7/10
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