“JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven” – Bandai Namco – PS4 – 06.28.16 – $59.99
Licensed games are always a gamble, especially when anime is involved. Developers have to juggle the monumental tasks of staying true to the feel of the source material while also creating an engaging game. “Eyes of Heaven” is a lot like its source, in that to an outsider, it appears near incomprehensible, but if you’ve wallowed around in the muck of fighting games before and you’re already a fan of “JoJo,” then I can recommend the game to you without a second thought.
The story mode for “Eyes of Heaven” picks up at the end of “Stardust Crusaders” (part 3 of the manga), with the climactic battle between DIO and Jotaro Kujo serving as the game’s “tutorial.” I use the word loosely, because the only explanation of game mechanics you get is three walls of text, after which the game lets you loose, for better or worse.
After the battle and as the Part 3 story winds down, the canon railroad gets split in two. A character from Part 1 emerges through a portal carrying a mummified piece of Christ’s body, two formerly dead Part 3 characters pop up as possessed versions of themselves to kick things into motion (and provide an introduction to the two-on-two fighting system), and Jotaro and company start to track down the bits of Jesus across space and time, thereby halting the plans of a nebulous villain referred to as The Noble One (though it doesn’t take a series fan much to figure out that it’s just DIO rocking a new name). The ensuing story chapters take you through all 8 parts of the JoJo universe, with more and more characters becoming available for play as you progress.
While playing a fighting game for story is akin to going to a burger joint for a salad, I found it a lot of fun watching the interactions between the different Joestar generations. Most of story mode consists of two-on-two battles, but there are a couple exploration stages, mob battles, and other various minigames thrown in to keep things interesting. Previous battles can be replayed for higher ranks, with each rank rewarding you alternate colors, costumes, dialogue lines, and quotes for your fighters. An in-game shop supplies you with support items that can give you an edge in story battles, as well as letting you purchase the unlockable costumes if you don’t feel particularly thrilled about clearing a certain mission with an S ranking.
“Eyes of Heaven’s” roster is top-notch. Each character has their own particular set of abilities based on their fighting styles (Vampire, Pillar Man, Hamon User, and Stand User, to name a few), with skills and stat boosts unlocked as you gain experience with them, although thankfully, all characters have their full movesets unlocked from the start in the game’s Free Battle mode.
What it lacks in mechanical meat, “Eyes of Heaven” more than makes up for in aesthetic.
As a brawler, the game works but at times it feels a bit thin. Too many of the stages allow for you to simply run for half the match without actually coming into contact with your enemies. The guard and recovery mechanics work some of the time, but without much explanation of the mechanics you’ll find yourself button mashing and wondering why the guard you pulled off three seconds ago won’t work anymore. The lack of explanation of the different fighting styles also hamstrings the game. Series newcomers won’t necessarily know the mechanics behind why some characters take damage while standing on spikes, some don’t, and some are only immune to damage while their stamina meter remains full. The whole “Only a Stand can damage another Stand” shtick also falls flat at times, mostly because for brawlers with smaller Stands like N’doul or Narancia, you’d be hard pressed to actually connect an attack on their Stand at all.
What it lacks in mechanical meat, “Eyes of Heaven” more than makes up for in aesthetic. Every aspect of the game oozes style, from the menu design to the vibrant color use to the terrible English localizations of certain stands to avoid copyright issues (looking at you, Cool Ice, Flaccid Pancake, and Spicy Lady). There’s more than enough content for a JoJo aficionado to sink their teeth into, but a series newcomer might be better off playing the game after consuming the related media.
Loath as I am to do so, “Eyes of Heaven” is one of those games that I can’t recommend to anyone who hasn’t at least seen or read some of “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” beforehand. As a fan, I felt like I was more willing to overlook the less polished facets of the game, if only for the sheer joy it brought me to see Old Joseph’s iconic ‘OH MY GOD’ worked into his ultimate attack animation.