Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash is a new fighting game based on the popular anime series. Unfortunately, it fails to deliver a satisfying gameplay experience despite some enjoyable moments. The $60 price tag is hard to justify given the issues with the combat system and overall lack of content.
The premise of the game allows players to battle using characters and abilities from the supernatural-action anime. This results in some fun fan service for fans of the franchise.
Additionally, certain fighting encounters and cutscenes capture the captivating style of the show.
However, the gameplay itself suffers from strange design choices and clunky mechanics that hold back the experience. The controls lack responsiveness, resulting in a disjointed flow during fights.
There is also not enough depth or variety in the combat to sustain interest. The mechanics feel outdated compared to other modern fighting games.
While it offers some amusing references and sequences for dedicated fans, Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash fails to deliver a satisfying gameplay foundation around its supernatural fights.
As it stands, it feels like a missed opportunity given the rich combat potential offered by the license. Unless you are a hardcore fan hungry for any bit of content from the franchise, it is hard to recommend at full price.
Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash, A Disappointing Missed Opportunity for Fans
As an avid fan of the Jujutsu Kaisen series for years, I had high hopes that Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash would finally deliver an enjoyable console game set in a captivating world and starring the beloved characters.
Unfortunately, while the game introduces potentially interesting mechanics around building up and unleashing Cursed Energy, the implementation falls flat.
Most attacks feel sluggish and unsatisfying to pull off, especially in the context of team battles where timing and coordination matter. Even landing ultimate moves, which should provide exciting payoffs, can be inconsistent and fail to activate when they seem available.
While comparisons could certainly be drawn to other anime fighting games, I was reminded most of Dissidia Final Fantasy in the way Cursed Clash tries, but fails, to create engaging interplay between standard attacks for building resources and more powerful curse-fueled moves.
In the end, as a Jujutsu Kaisen fan, I found the overall experience deeply underwhelming given the rich material the source provided.
The dull combat precludes what could have been an exciting chance to play as and alongside favorite characters from the franchise in a video game adaptation worthy of its anime counterpart.
Unfortunately, Cursed Clash does little to scratch that itch despite hints of promising mechanics, leaving the wait for a truly great Jujutsu Kaisen game ongoing.
A Mixed Bag of Gameplay Frustrations and Nostalgic Charm
One major frustration is the seeming imbalance between your own abilities versus enemies – they can easily evade or block your attacks while you often feel helpless under an onslaught of hits you can’t escape.
While unleashing flashy moves with favorite characters offers brief enjoyment, glitches, and unbalanced mechanics too often undermine the fun.
The story mode features both still image slides and fully animated cutscenes that recreate iconic moments, providing fans with nostalgic touchpoints. The additional relationship-building short story scenes are also nice character-focused extras.
However, actually playing through the story can grow repetitive and tedious – too many battles stack you alone against multiple enemies, overly testing the systems clearly designed for two-on-two fights.
Certain bonus win conditions for missions or online co-op seem blatantly skewed as well. For example, some demand avoiding extensive combos from foes while providing little means to reliably dodge or guard against them.
The result ends up being frustration through repetition rather than a rewarding gameplay challenge.
The online co-op mode stands out as a more enjoyable element, letting you team up remotely or take on missions solo with added roguelike mechanics.
Binding Vows provide stat boosts at the cost of certain tradeoffs, allowing you to creatively customize fighters against swarms of enemies and curses.
Despite still suffering from some combat issues, the effort put into this mode gives a better multiplayer experience than the lackluster offerings of story or standard versus.
Unfortunately, many design choices around the user interface are baffling or lack polish. The character select for practice resembles a spreadsheet rather than displaying exciting models and stances.
Menus overall feel dated compared to the slick presentations other anime fighters can pull off while better organizing the flooded screen space.
Customization does allow adjusting looks from silly alternate outfits to canon gear, a nice cosmetic touch.
The pre-order bonus of a simple baseball mini-game also charmingly brings to life a beloved arc from the manga in novel form.
