During this weekend's E3 presentation, Bandai Namco unveiled a surprising trailer for Jump Force, a title that's frustratingly vague until you connect the dots to Weekly Shonen Jump, the manga magazine that has been running strong for 50 years now and features some of the world's most famous anime titles and characters. Now, in Jump Force--or when it arrives in 2019 on multiple platforms--players will have the chance to pit top-tier fighters from across disparate stories against each other in ways that fans could only have dreamed of up to this point.
The trailer itself looks awesome and it confirms eight characters: Naruto's title character and his rival Sasuke, the perennial Dragon Ball protagonist Goku and his nemesis/pal Frieza, One Piece pirates Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro, and Death Note's Light Yagami and the shinigami Ryuk; it's unclear if both Light and Ryuk are playable but the others certainly are. But that's just scratching the surface since Jump Force has access to a massive amount of characters, some of which will be making their first-ever video game appearance.
Check out the insane trailer for Jump Force below if you missed it during E3:
Universes collide as legendary manga heroes and villains are transported to our reality. Massive battles fill epic locales as good and evil clashes, while humankind hangs in the balance. Look for more details on JUMP FORCE soon and UNITE TO FIGHT in 2019!
As Eric Hartness, Vice President of Marketing for BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc. said in a post-press conference interview:
“With Jump Force, we are thrilled to bring to life Shueisha’s deep catalogue of beloved franchises that has produced some of the most popular pop culture characters to ever come from Japan. Jump Force gives fans of manga and anime a dream opportunity to see their favorite heroes come to life in our world in a globetrotting adventure filled with explosive battles of epic proportions.”
Now those titles and characters that have already been announced boast huge character catalogs in their own right, but Shueisha also sports such manga/anime titles as My Hero Academia, Bleach, Yu Yu Hakusho, Assassination Classroom, Blue Exorcist, One Punch Man, Hunter x Hunter, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Yu-Gi-Oh! and, of course, The Prince of Tennis. (I hope I can recruit Ryoma Echizen to lead a sports-based fighting team; it would make sense considering that a new OVA installment is on the way! "You still have a ways to go.") The possibilities are almost endless with this title, meaning it should not only have longevity for Bandai Namco but also act as a solid cross-platform marketing tool for Shueisha for years to come.
Here's what else Bandai Namco's game page promises for Jump Force:
- A unique setting, merging the Jump World and the Real World.
- The Jump Force, an alliance of the most powerful Manga heroes from Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto and much more
- Realistic graphics bring Manga characters to life like never before
- XBOX ONE X Enhanced / PS4 Pro Support
Stay tuned in the months ahead for more as we hear it! Who do you want to see become a playable character? Let us know in the comments below!
