Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash Review – A Disappointingly Cursed and Shallow Domain Expansion 

Mangaka Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen is arguably one of the biggest anime and manga franchises on the planet right now, yet somehow Cursed Clash took every misstep and failed to capitalize on even a small percentage of its success. Even with low expectations, the experience of playing Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash could be described as dismal, and is certainly easy to see the game as a vapid attempt at taking advantage of the IP’s popularity for some quick cash.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is not just any arena fighter, but one that serves as an epitome of the genre’s frequent pitfall of uninspired gameplay. It failed at even the fundamentals of providing serviceable controls and every movement feels horribly clunky and floaty as though they are fighting against your command more than the opponents on screen.

Too Cursed for Fun 

A distinguishing aspect of Cursed Clash compared to others in the genre is that there was an attempt to emulate the convoluted Curses of Jujutsu Kaisen. However, in an attempt to do so, Cursed Clash created a frustratingly unfun and underdeveloped gimmick that plagued the entire core of the game.

In Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash, your fighters, or sorcerers, can only deal damage to opponents with moves enhanced with Curse Energy, which are generally moves at the end of your strings. Yes, you read that right, you can only deal damage with a small handful of moves. As you battle, you slowly build up your Curse Meter to eventually unleash special moves known as Cursed Energy Techniques and Awakened Moves, which are hardly ever useful in most battles.

Despite having 16 playable sorcerers, which is cool for fans of the series, none of them really stands out as their moves are limited, with most sharing the same basic attack strings and “Extraction Techniques”. This results in a mundane combat loop where you could just spam a single button and see opponents getting away healthy as most of your attacks deal no damage with the exception of that few hits that do.

Speaking of dull gameplay, Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is certainly cursed with horrendous character balance as anyone without ranged attacks might as well stay on the bench forever. Ranged characters with zoning capabilities are straight-up miles better than any other fighters. Melee-only fighters struggled greatly due to the already sluggish controls that make gap closing a chore, but what punishes them more is the outrageous pushback range after hitting a blocking opponent. So for easy victories, it is such a no-brainer to pick up a zoner and spam your ranged attacks, while only blocking when opponents somehow get close.

Watch the Anime 

Even the story mode is as barebones as you could get, featuring no original story and reducing the terrific anime adaptation by Studio MAPPA into a PowerPoint slideshow with audio stripped directly from the anime series. The story covers the events from the anime’s first season as well as Jujutsu Kaisen 0 but without the high-octane animation work. If you have caught up with the anime or manga, there is absolutely no point in re-experiencing a less exciting version of the story.

Story mode aside, the game does offer other content. As a fighting game, the core mode would obviously be Online and Offline Battle, where you can fight together or against others. Since there is no crossplay support, the online match-searching experience was rather abysmal.

There is also co-op play, which is a mode for you to grind for currency to be used to buy items and level up characters. In this mode, there are other sub-modes, including Rush Battle for the grind and Survival for some test of might. Both sub-modes are, unfortunately, rather half-baked and made for some boring experience.

Verdict 

If curses are generated through negative energy in Jujutsu Kaisen, then playing Cursed Clash has certainly incarnated many Cursed Spirits. Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash greatly failed at capturing the absolutely ballistic brilliant fights of the anime and manga with a gameplay that is shallow, unrefined, gimmicky, and massively frustrating.

It even dared offer a story mode that retold the events of the anime with a dull visual novel-style presentation that lacks the pizzazz of the manga. Meanwhile, other modes are equally flawed and felt shoehorned in to pad the content size.

The only redeeming quality of Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is its visuals that present the characters in 3D, which is fun for fans but in no way as glamorous as it should be. Considering its price tag of $60, the game feels like a highway robbery with a quality this lackluster.

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Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is currently available for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows PC via Steam.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash

Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment

Developer: Byking Inc.

Release Date: 2024-02-02

Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Master the Jujutsu of your favorite Sorcerers and Cursed Spirits! Bring a friend and dive into the world of JUJUTSU KAISEN in this action-packed, 2-on-2 fighting game!

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