Despite taking the world by storm with its big E3 reveal, Jump Force didn't exactly hit the mark in the way that many anime fans hoped it would. Fortunately, that doesn't mean that an improved sequel is out of the realm of possibility.
Having been developed in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Weekly Shōnen Jump, the expectations for Jump Force were extremely high from the beginning. It didn't live up to the hype that surrounded it in a lot of ways, but the crossover anime fighter did still manage to garner a loyal following. For many of those fans, a burning question is whether or not a Jump Force sequel will happen in the foreseeable future. Nothing has been announced, but there are some pretty strong arguments for why Jump Force 2 could happen and how it could end up being even bigger than the first.
Expanding Roster Potential
To this day, Jump Force continues to fill out its roster with fan favorite characters from the many series featured in the game. One of the main purposes behind most anime games is to promote its source material, and Jump Force has the rare opportunity to do this easily with some of the most recognizable faces in anime at its disposal. This frees the game up to include characters like Dai, the protagonist of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, giving the series exposure on a grand scale before new material for the series surfaces elsewhere.
A Jump Force sequel could continue to promote upcoming anime while honoring the classics. There were a number of huge Weekly Shonen Jump titles that didn't get a spot in Jump Force that many fans would've loved to see. Series like Gintama were huge icons for the publication before ending and it would be a shame for them to never get the same kind of treatment given to Naruto and One Piece. Similarly, a sequel to Jump Force would be a great time to promote a series like Shaman King, which currently has an anime reboot being streamed on Netflix. If planned correctly, Jump Force sequels could become very lucrative promotional tools.
Jump Force's Achievements and Lessons Learned
Despite its mixed reviews, Jump Force did manage to make an impact on the market for most of the platforms it was released on. It was among the top selling games in North America in 2019, also making it one of Bandai Namco's strongest launches in the west to date. The Nintendo Switch port of the game (which only released last year), was one of the top selling Switch titles in Japan during its first week of release. If Bandai Namco could reach such heights with a title that was met with mixed review scores, an improved game could perform even better.
Now that Jump Force has been around long enough, the majority of its strengths and weaknesses have been discussed at length by its player base. This gives Bandai Namco and Spike Chunsoft a better outline of what players would be looking for in a sequel. Most successful fighting game franchises don't end up knocking it out of the park with their first entry. If the Jump Force series were to steadily improve with each entry in a similar way to the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm series, fans could be in for a real treat.
The first Jump Force laid out a mostly solid groundwork for future games to build on. The biggest criticisms toward the game are often related to its presentation and optimization. Cutting down on load times and using a visual style that lends itself better to an anime art style could be the key to Jump Force 2's success. A sequel to Jump Force could be a game changer for anime fighting games. With a few tweaks and changes, Jump Force 2 could very well end up going above and beyond the expectations that were set for the first game.
Jump Force is out now for PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.