Developer: CyberConnect2
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Platform: PS4, PS3
Tested on: PS4
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Eyes of Heaven – Review
Since the dawn of well… Forever, most anime games are somewhat a niche market, which mostly the fans are fond off. Sometimes, we do get a game that manages to capture the attention of bigger audiences, and leaves them with their mouths open. So as most of us at 3Rd Strike are fond of the anime, we were hoping and of course wondering if Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Eyes of Heaven would be able to rise to the occasion.
Story
Eyes of Heaven starts with a boss battle, where we take control of Jotaro Kujo, who is the protagonist from the Stardust Crusaders Arc. We’ll leave in out the name of the antagonist from the this epic fight, since se don’t want to start off with a spoiler. It mostly serves as an epilogue and in some way as a tutorial.
After this, it really takes off and to Jotaro and his allies surprise, they immediately have to face characters out of the Jojo’s Adventure universe who died throughout all the different arcs. After a few battles, they meet the exentric Robert E.O. Speedwagon, who explains them why these events occur. With their new find ally, they will have to travel through time and space, visiting different sagas from the series. While doing this, they are also on the hunt for parts of the holy corpse, which provides a way to turn their old friends back to their former selves and of course save the world.
Graphics
From a visual point of view we can’t complain, since they truly reflect the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s well known flair. The environment is detailed, near enchanting and has a wide range of colours ,while the frame rate is refreshingly stable. The cell- shaded art seems to be they only way they could go, since this made us feel we actually were living the anime. What also captured our eyes, was the eye for detail the developer had for each single character. Not only the look of the characters, but also every detail of their movement is identical to the anime and this really boosts the game experience.
Sound
The soundtrack in this game is a banger, it literally fits in perfectly and adds to the experience as a whole, while being loud, straight to the point and riveting. We weren’t in the least bit surprised, since developer CyberConnect2 already showed they master this art through out the Naruto Storm games. The voice actors were also an added value, since the characters sound like their ‘original’ representations, a must in any game that spawned from an anime.
Gameplay
The combat in this fighting game is somewhat of a hit and miss, while it has an undeniable flair, it does not always tends to work in the way we want it to. Combos are easy to perform since the button combinations are pretty simple, but this does not translate perfectly between our controllers and screen. On the plus side, it offers a huge variety of spectacular combos that can do some real damage, but don’t really add as much depth as we wanted to. All fighters are stand users, which means they battle through some sort of entity, that does the fighting for them, instead of the hand- to hand combat we are accustomed to. It can also get a bit too hectic, since the story mode is two- on two in an extremely wide area. We also had moments where we randomly fell down from tall buildings and AI- controlled characters literally ran into walls and remained there.
Besides the story mode, Eyes of heaven also contain an art gallery, with items we unlock by playing the game, this is mostly fan service. This can also be said for the entire game, while being enjoyable as a newcomer to the series, you will be left with a lot of questions, since we don’t get plenty of background information. Also featured are an on- and offline mode where we can test our skills against the CPU and friends. We get to choose between a one- on one and two- on two mode. Since it contains around 50 characters when you unlock all, this will be a true road to mastery. Each and every fighter has their own, unique fighting style and this will be tough to master. On a side note: Since we never managed to enter an online fight, we cannot take this into consideration, but we will of course add this to our conclusion when we finally manage to effectively play it.
Conclusion
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Eyes of Heaven is truly a piece of fanservice, made by a developer with a passion for anime. Towards the general public, this sadly works against them since the game could have been more explanatory towards potential neo fans. We still applaud them for this work of love though, since they managed to capture the Jojo atmosphere throughout the story, graphics and of course the music. While the gameplay was promising, it sadly fell short upon execution on several occasions. This game is must buy for the fans, and could be a decent brawler for players who enter this universe for the first time, even though we would advise them to read the manga or watch the anime.
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