Shonen Jump, the weekly manga anthology, is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary this year. Even if you're not an "anime person" and don’t recognize the name of the magazine, you’ll almost certainly recognize some of the series that have come out of it. Titles like Dragonball, Death Note, and Naruto all found their start in the long-running weekly magazine. Pulling from this storied history, with heroes like Goku and Naruto, Jump Force is set to bring together the biggest stars in anime.
Many details are yet to be revealed, but with what we know Jump Force is shaping up to be a dream collaboration for fans. With developments still coming out about the game, we’ve collected up all the details on Bandai Namco’s star-studded brawler.
What is Jump Force?
Jump Force - Goku, Luffy, and Naruto promotional art - Old experts on cataclysmic threats.
Coinciding with Weekly Jump Magazine’s anniversary, Bandai Namco has announced its latest action title: Jump Force. The upcoming fighter sees the worlds of Dragonball, One Piece, Naruto, and many more colliding with ours. Along with their lands encroaching into real-world locations such as New York, Hong Kong, and the Matterhorn, heroes and villains are taking their battles on our plane. As old (and new) enemies face off around the world an all-powerful threat looms to threaten all realities.
Shonen Jump is no stranger to having its characters get the fighting game treatment and developer Spike Chunsoft has utilized their properties in an ensemble fighting game before. What separates Jump Force from the other titles featuring a mash-up of Shonen Jump’s heroes is rather than recreating scenes from their manga the fight is taken to real-world Earth. With their new backdrop has come some aesthetic changes toning down cartoonish aspects and striving for a style closer to realism. Small changes such as Luffy’s formerly cloth shirt now having more of a leathery texture or Goku’s training Gi being made of a coarse material help the characters to pop while maintaining the integrity of their original design.
Jump Force Release Date
The reveal trailer premiered recently at E3 2018. Many details are yet to be announced as only a handful of characters have been revealed. The game is currently slated for a 2019 release on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Jump Force Gameplay
Jump Force’s Gameplay Mash-Up - See a portion of the cast in action
Jump Force will be a fighting-action game with more emphasis on pick-up-and-play controls. The game will not rely on complicated control stick inputs like other fighters such as Street Fighter or Tekken, instead it will use a more simplified system for accessibility. Producer Koji Nakajima has said that the goal of the game was as a celebration of Shonen Jump’s 50th anniversary and as such making it playable by fans of all skill levels was a high priority.
The biggest focus though seems to be on the story mode, unraveling why the Shonen Jump worlds have come to collide with ours. But with a storied catalogue to pull from, Jump Force promises to bring a sizable cast for fans to pit against each other in dream match-ups. The full breadth of game modes has not been announced yet, online multiplayer is expected to ship with the game.
It might seem like a tall order having enhanced humans fight powerful aliens like Goku and Frieza, but balance has been the first consideration with all characters. Each character was built from a blueprint of functionality, then designed and refined to represent what made fans love about the respective characters. Part of this representation is through the Awakening system, acting like a revenge meter it builds as you take damage from your opponent. When you activate Awakening your character will become more powerful, or in the case of some characters, completely transform into their advanced form.
Super Saiyan Goku - Transformations will be a big part of the characters
Before the start of a match players will form their team of three fighters and select their location. Matches are more focused on being fast and furious with big damage and flashy super moves than on technical defensive options. To this end of quicker matches, your team shares one health meter, so unlike other tag fighters like Dragonball FighterZ losing a character doesn’t mean bringing in the next, it brings the end of the match.
Jump Force Trailers
Jump Force’s Announce Trailer - Bask in the care put in to the characters’ design.
The only trailer released so far has been with the announcement at E3. The trailer opens with a narratation explaining that all Shonen Jump worlds have existed independently, unaware of and not interacting with each other, until mysteriously they all collided with our world. As we see teases of the three respective heroes of Naruto, One Piece, and Dragon Ball Z, we’re also introduced to Frieza who is, in a gross display of evil joy, slicing through and collapsing the buildings surrounding him.
Frieza is caught off guard by Naruto watching him from up high who uses his Multiple Shadow Clone Technique to duplicate himself and charge down towards the scene of the destruction. Luffy is also seen excitedly swinging in while Goku transforms into his Super Saiyan form for a fight with his old foe.
We see some gameplay as Luffy punches Frieza, transforming into his Fourth Gear form and pummeling him into the ground. Naruto then strikes at Frieza before transforming into Sage mode with the Kurama link. A Super Saiyan Goku kicks Frieza back and forth through the air before charging and launching a Kamehameha.
The trailer reverts to prerendered footage as the three heroes gear up for a strike in unison. We see the Jump Force logo with a design suggesting colliding worlds in the background. Before the trailer closes the camera pans to Death Note’s Light and Ryuk observing the destruction below.
Jump Force Developer
Jump Force is being developed by the 30-year veteran development studio Spike Chunsoft. Spike Chunsoft is well known for making beloved Japanese series such as Dragon Quest, Mystery Dungeon, and Danganronpa. The developer is well known for its character-driven games, so fans should expect their favorite characters to be represented with a lot of care and love. The studio has a pedigree of combining Shonen Jump heroes in a fighting game with 2015’s J-Stars Victory VS.
Spike Chunsoft has about 200 employees but it hasn’t been confirmed how much of the studio is devoted to development. Producer Koji Nakajima has worked on several One Piece and Dragon Ball titles previously. He has stated that there wasn’t any collaboration with the original authors of the series, but the current publishers of the manga have been involved throughout the development.
Jump Force News
Since its announcement recently at E3 new characters have already been announced for Jump Force. The soul reapers of Bleach, Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchiki, and Sosuke Aizen will be joining the fray. While we only have screenshots of their gameplay, with the strength to protect earth from evil spirits they should have no problem facing the full realm of Shonen Jump heroes.
While it has been teased that while there should be plenty of surprise announcements coming, it is confirmed that they won’t be stretching the definitions of fighters. As funny as it might have been, characters from titles like Prince of Tennis unfortunately likely won’t be coming to defend our planet from the greatest threats never been seen. It has also been confirmed that Death Note’s god of death Ryuk will be involved in the game, but only in story and not as a playable character for being too powerful to match the rest of the fighters.
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