Jujutsu Kaisen today is one of the most popular anime that exist, and its success has extended far beyond the series itself, reaching movies and now a new medium, video games. A few weeks ago Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash was released, a title that sought to bring the best of the combats within this world of wizards against demons and allow you to control some of the best known faces of this vast universe that was formed since its inception, but was the game at the height of a franchise as important as Jujutsu Kaisen?
The story of Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash
For those who already know the story of Jujutsu Kaisen for having read the manga or watched the anime will not be surprised with the plot of this game and is that like other titles based on famous anime, what this will do is to tell the same story known: Yuji Itadori is a high school boy who one day, after several events, swallows one of the fingers of Sukuna, the most powerful demon of all, making this now inhabits his body, thus beginning a path that will lead him to seek the other parts of this demon.
Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash will tell the story through the use of different frames extracted from the anime, with the background voices of the characters that are part of these, only having animations for the key moments of the story. In the game there are really very few moments where we see cinematic 3D models, while everything else will be presented through these static images. The player will progress through the most important parts of the story of the saga, with the confrontations seen until the end of the first season and also in Jujutsu Kaisen 0.
Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash gameplay
Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is a fighting game that falls into the subgenre of “arena fights”, where the characters fight within large scenarios with a lot of mobility, being that the variety within this title allows us to enjoy different types of fights. Among these we have the most classic fights of 2 vs. 2, but any type of variation can be achieved up to 4 combatants in the field, from 1 vs. 1 to 1 vs. 3, the options for the player will be several.
To fight, the characters have their own set of moves, ranging from a simple combo that is executed by pressing the attack button several times, special attacks specific to the character and the possibility of using two ultimate attacks. The first that is executed alone, while the second can be enabled by attacking with your partner, giving in turn some interesting combinations such as the one with two characters that have history between them, such as Gojo with Nanami or Itadori with Todo.
And although the combat is the main attraction that this game would have to have is that in the end it sins of repetitive where many of the battles are summarized to mash the attack button to use the main combo, which will automatically execute one of the character’s special moves, thus making the fights last less. On the other hand, although many of the ultimate attacks are visually very good, others border on the ordinary, even giving the feeling that a simple attack has been performed a little more “flashy” than the rest.
Game modes available in Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash
Being a fighting title, the game modes that this game presents are the classic ones, where we will not only have the story mode mentioned above, where the player can experience the main battles of the plot of Jujutsu Kaisen as well as Jujutsu Kaisen 0, but also some extra fights seen in the anime and manga, more secondary and some others made for this game. In addition, players will have modes to continue playing once the story has concluded.
Among these modes we have as most notable the online, which not only has the normal fights against other players, but also a cooperative mode where you can play with another user in 2 vs. 2 fights, to increase a little more hours of play. Finally we have the free battle mode, which also serves as a training mode, since the player can modify the conditions of combat, from how many will fight to play with infinite meters or that the CPU is immobile.
Graphics and sound
This is one of the points in which Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash stands out the most, even with this review made on a last generation console such as Xbox One, we see that the graphics in the game more than meets, from the modeling of the characters very similar to those seen in the anime, as in performance. And is that having very fast fights in large environments that the game has no frame drops is a point to highlight very favorable, thus giving the feeling at all times that you are watching, saving the distances, an episode of the anime.
For its part, the sound level is one of the best in the game, first by the voice of the characters themselves, which can be heard with the English translation or the most important with its original language to further increase the feeling of closeness with the anime. Meanwhile, the soundtrack of the game goes according to each situation that is being lived, with the fights full of adrenaline music and menus with songs like the reversion of the famous opening Kaikai Kitan.
Conclusion
Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is the first time that a franchise as important as Jujutsu Kaisen gets fully into the world of video games, being that it was really half-baked. By having such a basic gameplay system, the title will become repetitive in a short time, and it is also not long enough for the player to experience much of it, where in addition to the classic modes there is a store where you can buy items that can be obtained by playing, but it will not take long to get bored.
On the other hand, it is the most fanatical fans of a saga as beloved as this one who will enjoy the game more than the aforementioned problems, where the approximate 5 hours that the story mode lasts, together with the online or free mode, will be enough for their enjoyment. And although Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash has 14 selectable characters, each one of them has their own abilities when it comes to playing, so this point in favor can make you feel comfortable enough with this title that finally leaves much more to be desired.
Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / Series S and Microsoft Windows from February 1, 2024. We thank Bandai Namco for providing this key for review.