Last weekend was New York Comic Con, and Bandai Namco was there with one of their newest games set to release early next year, Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash. We got a chance to do a gameplay test and while expectations are high (JUJUTSU KAISEN is my favorite manga/anime of all time), I was pleasantly surprised at just how great this game is going to be.
In terms of gameplay, I am hopelessly attached to third-person story games. The Last of Us is essentially home behind the PS5 controller for me, so I can’t say I have a ton of battle game experience outside of Mario Kart. However, when you wave Satoru Gojo in my face, I’m listening, so I’ll put aside my differences and battle in these Cursed Technique showdowns 2 vs 2 style.
I immediately loved how large the battlefield was, my partner in crime Megumi was nowhere to be seen as we took on Yuji and Nobara. The controls are far more complicated than I was expecting, but not difficult, allowing for some need to strategize your moves over Tekken-style button mashing (you know what I’m talking about) including Doman Expansions and a nice tag team move if your partner is near.
The battles are timed, giving you a clock to race against and raising the stakes as you run around blasting Hollow Purple or giving someone the old Itadori “left-right-goodnight,” with each team getting a limited number of respawns after knockout before you’re done for good. My round ended up in a draw, so you need to be quick and efficient to get the W.
The graphics checked all my boxes and gameplay was smooth, but there were a lot of techniques I wasn’t able to play around with in the short time, such as wall-running and the tag team attack, but that’s just more to look forward to once the game releases. If anything, my interest is even more piqued knowing I can’t master the art of Cursed Technique battles in a short time, I like a little something to work towards.
With outfit changes and a story mode to boot, I was sold. Especially after finding out about the DLC featuring the first arc of JUJUTSU KAISEN season 2, Hidden Inventory/Premature Death. As much as I love season 1, the thought of being at the helm of the Gojo vs Toji fight got me even more excited than I already was. Story Mode in the base game is set to take you through the events of season 1, including Todo and Itadori’s fight with Hanami (time to do the Boogie Woogie!).
I’d say the one drawback is that you can’t play with two players on the same console, only online. This was a bit of a letdown since I was looking forward to destroying my partner in battle here at home, but I’ll have to settle to taking the fight online where at least you can battle other players, which is a great feature.
Right now, confirmed playable characters are Yuji Itadori, Megumi Fushiguro, Nobara Kugisaki, Gojo Satoru, Maki Zen’in, Toge Inumaki, Panda, and the legendary King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna. (We are holding our breath for Nanami Kento though, so don’t make us wait too long.)
There are four different preorder options:
- Base Game only (pre-order bonus: Jujutsu High First-Year outfit set)
- Digital Deluxe Edition including Jujutsu High First-Year outfit set, DLC: Hidden Inventory/Premature Death, and the Jujusta Baseball Mini-game
- Digital Ultimate Edition including all of the above plus digital artbook and soundtrack and DLC: Anime End Theme 1 Outfit Set
- Physical Collector’s Edition (available here) with the Base Game, pre-order bonus Jujutsu High First-Year outfit set, and an exclusive 12×22 wall scroll featuring art by creator Gege Akutami featuring Satoru Gojo and Yuji Itadori
Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash releases on PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox X|S, Xbox One, Steam, and Nintendo Switch on February 2, 2024.
Stay tuned for a more in-depth review upon release!
