I Just Want a Jujutsu Kaisen Horror Game

In a month, we can expect the first of — what I assume will be many — Jujutsu Kaisen console games. JUJUTSU KAISEN CURSED CLASH will be out on 1st February, and with it, I’m both a little bit excited and dismayed.

Having been a fan of Jujutsu Kaisen for the past few years, I’ve been excited for there to be a game release. Hell, I even got a JJK Tamagotchi a few years back, and it’s still a strong hyper-fixation of mine. After all, while it’s very much a battle anime/manga, it leans pretty heavily into the horror genre.

So, I’m going to get into a few details about why I’m a little disappointed that we’re going down the traditional shonen fighter route. Of course, I get why, but also, why does it have to be this way?

Just to throw it out here now, I’ll be throwing some spoilers for the anime here. For obvious reasons, I won’t go into too much detail about the Culling Game Arc, but the ones that have been animated? Yeah, I’m going down this road.

From what I’ve seen of the CURSED CLASH trailers, it’s going to be a 2V2 fighting game and appears to lean more into focusing on the first series of the anime. Sure, it will have the Hidden Inventory/Premature Death Arc as bonus content in the deluxe editions, but if you’ve watched the first series, you’ll know that there’s some spooky stuff going on.

I mean, there have been some smaller Jujutsu Kaisen games released before in Japan, or that one web-based one that needs to be played in one go (one day, I will write about that game, but for now, it remains on my shelf, ominously), and they haven’t been solely battle-based. While fighting has been a part, it hasn’t been the central theme. Instead, they have leaned more into the Curses that you can investigate as a Jujutsu sorcerer.

Jogo is one of the characters who has a pretty horrific introduction in the anime by literally burning a bunch of people alive for no reason.

Some of my favourite elements of the series have involved its horror leanings. There’s Mahito and his Idle Transfiguration, which can turn humans into curses, and, of course, the general horror of facing different curses. For those new to Jujutsu Kaisen, allow me to explain that Curses in the series manifest through negative feelings and cursed energy. So, in a nutshell, Jujutsu sorcerers, such as the main characters, need to investigate the source of the cursed energy and exorcise these curses before they hurt any non-sorcerers.

While the current Culling Game Arc and the Shibuya Incident Arc have leaned more heavily into battle manga territory, the earlier arcs focus a little more on fighting the Curses themselves. I would have loved to see more of a focus on this, but again, I understand that shonen fighters tend to be a safe bet for fans of the genre. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t hope to one day see a Jujutsu Kaisen game that will focus on the actual life of a Jujutsu sorcerer.

Just imagine having to investigate Curses to try to find all of Sukuna's fingers.

Seriously, I just want to investigate curses and take the time to culminate in a fight with them. After all, there’s a lot that you can be creative with here and lean into more original storylines that, while might not be canon, could still be fun if you preferred the first arc.