Jujutsu Kaisen Phantom ParadeJP 9.0 RPG Strategy PC Version

✨Overview

Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, another highly anticipated mobile game anime adaptation, is finally out now, but only in Japan for the time being. Developed by Sumzap, Phantom Parade brings players back to the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, offering a turn-based RPG experience, a retelling of its story, as well as new content.

The game made its debut on November 21, 2023. However, there is no official confirmation regarding its release in regions beyond Japan. The launch coincided with a significant pre-registration milestone of 1.5 million, which rewards all players with an SSR-Guaranteed Gacha Ticket.

📖Story and Presentation

Phantom Parade embarks on the well-trodden path of retelling the TV anime’s narrative while injecting freshness through new Japanese voice overs with original voice actors reprising their roles, plus new original storylines. It introduces a few original characters too, treating both seasoned fans and newcomers.

The cutscenes are recreated stills of anime scenes or presented in a visual novel style dialogue format. To be honest, it’s not that compelling and you’ll probably not get invested in the story especially if you are a newcomer to the series.

🎨Graphics and Art Style

For me, the art style is a refreshing (or classic) take on Anime-video game adaptations. Instead of using the now popular cel-shaded graphics to effectively translate the 2D anime into 3D form, the characters and elements in the game are designed with a flat, two-dimensional appearance, resembling paper cutouts that are animated on a side-scrolling background. It looks like Fate Grand Order or perhaps Darkest Dungeon sometimes in terms of how the characters move.

Because of this 2D design direction, the visuals actually look much closer to their anime counterparts than let’s say going with a cel-shaded design. The animations are still fluid, and they really bring the characters to life.

🎮Gameplay

Phantom Parade follows the footsteps of popular turn-based RPG gacha games like Fate Grand Order and Naruto Ninja Tribes. The gameplay revolves around assembling a team of characters from the Jujutsu Kaisen universe, each with unique abilities and attributes. The progression mainly involves advancing through the story, farming for upgrades, and acquiring new characters through gacha pulls.

⚔️Combat

The battles are all in side-view, with your team and the enemies positioned alongside each other, taking turns to attack. Each character variant has its own unique ability sets— one basic attack, two abilities that cost mana to activate, and an ultimate ability (with a matching flavorful animation)—charged by the continuous use of attacks. Up to two characters’ simultaneous ultimate abilities can be chained together, resulting in a combo attack.

A weakness system is in place, imposing penalties or resistances depending on the type of unit and attack used. Additionally, enemies feature a defense break system that inflicts massive damage bonuses once broken. As build a team by collecting and selecting various characters from the Jujutsu Kaisen universe, different variants of characters that has their own upgradable power levels, distinct abilities, and attributes that affect the team’s overall performance.

⏫Progression

Honestly, there isn’t much to do here other than continuing to progress through the story and farming for upgrades to pull new characters. So, your enjoyment really depends on how much you love Jujutsu Kaisen and if you are open to experiencing the story again (plus excited for the new original story content) in a different medium.

💵Monetization

As is typical in the free-to-play mobile game model, Phantom Parade incorporates in-app gacha purchases. Players can expedite their progress or acquire premium gacha pulls by spending real money. The game features different banners, and the initial experience has been generous for me, I already got 2 SSR characters within the first hour of play, including one from a free SSR ticket.

📊Technical Performance

In terms of technical performance, Phantom Parade delivers a visually appealing and smoothly animated experience. No crashes, no performance issues, and it’s not really resource intensive for my Snapdragon 888 device, no heating or battery usage issues. However, the current limitation of being available only in Japan and with Japanese language support poses a huge barrier for international players.

⚖️Conclusion

I feel like Jujutsu Kaisen Phantom Parade is doing just a tad bit above the bare minimum for a game, which is very unfortunate. As a turn-based RPG gacha game, everything it has, I have already seen before. As mentioned earlier, only try this if you want new story content, a retelling of the anime in video game format, and/or if you just plain love Jujutsu Kaisen and would consume any form of Jujutsu Kaisen content coming your way. Even then, the game is only playable in Japan and is only available in Japanese. I would highly recommend waiting for this game to mature some more and maybe get a global / english release before trying it out, if it will even come to that point.

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Just hope and wait for a global release for the time being | Review - Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade

Jujutsu Kaisen Phantom ParadeJP 9.0 RPG Strategy PC Version