Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions review

Isometric-based strategy that’s fast, accessible, and lets you let loose with Loid Forger.

Leaving your home to live in another country is poised to produce culture shock. Of course, moving can be especially distressing when it’s accompanied by grief. And that’s the situation that drives the storytelling in Shueisha Games’ Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions. Here, the family of ten-year-old Damien leaves France to go live with his grandmother following the recent death of his grandfather.

The plot revolves around Damien’s approach to coping. Here, the protagonist leans on what he knows about Japan: imagining himself inside a manga fighting alongside different Jump+ personalities. Across a succession of turn-based battles played on isometric stages, Damien confronts different types of anxieties. So, when he’s trying to calm his stressed-out dog in real life, Damien’s alter ego and make-believe allies face off against a nightmarish kaiju-sized canine.

One Speedy SPRG

But before showdowns like this occur, you’ll fight angry clusters of small jagged-mouth creatures and adversaries that look like hand-drawn adaptations of DOOM’s Cacodemons. Here, Captain Velvet Meteor pares the strategy role-playing genre down to the fundamentals. The result is combat that feels lively as you move the two heroes around, positioning them for individual attacks, harnessing Assist Combos, and even dishing out Power Combos once you’ve collected a trio of golden orbs from defeated opponents.

Given The Jump+ Dimensions’ mobile origins, it’s not surprising that the turn-taking is delightfully quick. With markers indicating the positions needed to activate the cooperative strikes and the right analog stick handling directional aiming, setting up a turn rarely takes more than a few seconds. Likewise, enemies move and strike quickly on their turns, ensuring the pace of battle is never slowed.

The Feel of Fodder Underneath Your Boots

Adding to the game’s sense of swiftness is the sheer dominance of your attacks. Walking over groups of small enemies automatically kills them- and it’s persistently satisfying to stomp across four or more groups. Best of all, each kill gradually refills your health meter, removing the need to open any sub-menus for restorative items.

Expectedly, larger enemies demand different approaches. However, there’s always a strategy that can be exploited. Discovering these techniques is part of the game’s enjoyment, as each Jump+ ally dishes out different styles of assaults that cover everything from barraging a wide swath of the battlefield to laying a pathway of powerful devastation. Feel limited by the four-space limitation on each turn? Captain Velvet Meteor allows you to bank additional spaces, which can be immensely helpful when your heroes are nearly surrounded. Oddly, you can’t rotate the perspective of the fights and there’s no context-based transparency- so units can become concealed. It’s an annoying quirk, for sure. But mercifully, the difficulty is muted, so it probably won’t be the direct cause of your defeat. And while the campaign is concise, additional mission types would have been welcome.

More Yor

Given that beloved characters like Naruto Uzumaki, Ichigo Kurosaki, and Monkey D. Luffy, are all part of Shueisha’s publishing, you might expect The Jump+ Dimensions to flaunt some serious star power. But sadly, the title adopts a more restrained approach. Sure, inclusions such as SPY x FAMILY’s Loid Forger, ‘Tis Time for “Torture” Princess’ lead, and the Slime from Slime Life inject a bit of fan-service into the game and offer some well-written dialog. But the lack of voice acting feels like a missed opportunity.

Typically, mobile game ports starring manga characters are a reason to worry. But Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions is the odd exception. There are no gacha pulls or (at present) even DLC. Instead, a single purchase provides players with about ten hours of accessible, fast-paced strategy, highlighted by moderately popular manga characters. Even if you only recognize one or two allies, Captain Velvet Meteor might still please.

Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions was
played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.