Have a Most Excellent (Bizarre) Adventure in JoJo’s Eyes of Heaven

During Bandai Namco’s private studio event last week, and more specifically the opening presentation of games that would be shown to us, the one that stood head and shoulders (and dat hair, tho!) above the rest was the pose-happy crazies from the Joestar universe.

And I immediately thought to myself, “Anime fighting games have been getting better the past few years… and I could use some hairstyle recommendations.” Hell, I’ve played and reviewed plenty of these games—and I'm always looking for a fun, new haircut—so I should have some idea of what I’m doing by now.

So after the presentation was over, and I checked my hair (which is growing out from a mohawk currently, so it’s in its own state of follicle flux), I waltzed over to the right set of TVs for a demo. Maybe because I like the shiny-shiny men, or the sparkles, or the sparkles after they’d punched one another senseless. Who’s to say? The human mind is a fickle thing.

Drawing on its namesake more and more every time, the latest JoJo fighting game featuring the entirety of the Joestar friends/enemies/family barbecue is different from the previous titles in the franchise I’ve played. Every one of them has been a fighting game of a sort, but every time it’s a different way of beating the holy hell out of the pose-happy cast—first as a traditional one-on-one fighter from the '90s, then as a one-on-one but three-dimensional romp filled with environmental dangers and side-stepping multi-plane fighter. Eyes of Heaven appears to habe a higher resolution than when the last JoJo title I played, so I was drawn into the TV setup both watching over somebody’s shoulder and playing it myself.

Instead of the more traditional “fighting game” we come to expect, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven for PS4 is a two-on-two arena fighter, with arena hazards and even traps to be set and pick-ups to throw at opponents. Over 50 characters pack the roster of multiplayer combat, with multiple arenas with different environmental traps. Every character looks just as you would hope he or she would—cel-shaded, colorful, and fluid as they stroke and dash across the screen, setting alight the same amount of sparks as a 1990s Power Rangers episode.

Each character appears to have his or her own set of jab-to-heavy combos. Special attacks are two-button set-ups that need to charge back up after their use. It makes for very easy entry, though while combos can be interrupted with a “backstab” move by a teammate, there doesn’t appear to be as much depth as one might expect from a more traditional fighter. There’s plenty of those attacks though for every character, so there’s lots of room for experimentation (aka button-mashing) by testing every character’s moves via online play, as fights are 2-4 players online (only one mullet-wielding player per console). It would have been great to have two consoles set up there to test this out, but alas, I played alone.

Still, setting up traps and launching an opponent onto a bed of spikes, or off the ledge of an interconnected set of buildings, is satisfying I guess (though it would have been more satisfying if I could’ve seen the person I’m playing against flinch as they saw their life meter drop). Running from the heat of battle and trying to set up obstacles along the way or even find a lamp or something to set your opponent on fire (it causes temporary but continuous health reduction; hey, that hair gel can burn awhile!) is amusing and not terribly common in fighting games.

Thankfully, it’s slightly easier to keep track of who is where on the screen, what they’re doing, and what should be done to stop/help them. The lock-on system can get a player in trouble, however, as it’s annoying switching between targets. I found fights easier when I just swung at whatever dastardly haircut was right in front of me.

Playing the completed game will determine whether or not Eyes of Heaven is actually is the best of the franchise, but simply as a game it’s not bad so far, especialyl for a JoJo game. After watching a few matches by another journalist at the even, then getting my hands on it myself, it’s simple enough to get started, so the only question will become just how much depth is there once players can put hours or days into honing their skills? In just a few minutes I felt like I had plenty of skill, but sometimes I overestimate my own capabilities… or I’m just playing the AI and it’s not difficult enough. Either-or works for my ego, really.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven is scheduled for a June 28th release, complete with all of the Japanese DLC included in the package. So if it’s your bag, get ready for a Bizarre summer… and I’ll drop a few bucks on some better hair gel. Just talking about this game is making me miss my mohawk.