JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven
Overview -
Developer CyberConnect 2 returns to Hirohiko Araki's world-famous 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure' manga and anime series for a sequel to 2014's 'All Star Battle,' changing the gameplay dramatically from a standard 2D fighter to a 3D, 2v2 arena brawler featuring an entirely new story supervised by Araki himself.
Video Review
While it's not a terribly technically impressive game to look at, CC2 sidesteps this with an absolutely terrific rendition of the manga's incredibly unique artstyle, making each character look incredibly authentic. Animations are lively and fun to watch, and each stage is fun to look around and explore. The presentation of this all is absolutely the game's strongest suit, and it's great that the visual direction is so wonderfully handled.
Audio Review
There's a jazzy, upbeat soundtrack for much of the game that works really well, coupled with more aggressive standard rock pieces. It's nothing terribly spectacular, but it's all fun to listen to and makes the game a fair bit more exciting. There's also a ton of terrific voicework here, too, and while there are discrepancies between the game and anime's cast, due to the currently airing Part 4 not being available when the game launched in Japan, every cast member throws in some excellent performances.
Final Thoughts
An absolutely terrific love letter to 'JoJo' that’s marred by being an extremely mediocre game. For fans of the franchise, there's enough love and care poured into this that it at least warrants a look, but for everyone else, the basic gameplay just isn't enough to make this a worthwhile package. The potential for a terrific 'JoJo' game certainly exists, and if CC2 ever steps back to the franchise, I'll definitely check out what they do next, but right now, this just feels like a bit of a misfire, a game designed with love for its parent franchise above playability.