The bulk of the gameplay is based around using koma ("panel" in Japanese, referring to the panels in a manga comic) that represent characters to create decks on a four by five grid. Koma come in various shapes and sizes, taking up one to eight blocks. There are three kinds of koma that can be initialized in battle; Battle, Support, and Help koma, with decks needing at least one of each type and an assigned leader before being playable. Battle koma are 4-8 block koma that represent playable characters. They are based on various manga panels and are used to represent what kind of special attacks the characters have. Support koma are two- or three-block koma that represent non-playable characters that can perform actions such as attacks, healing or status effects. Help koma are one-block koma that can give different boosts to characters they are placed next to. Each battle koma comes with a certain nature. These natures (Knowledge, Strength, and Laughter) act in a Rock, Paper, Scissors relationship with Strength beating Knowledge, Knowledge beating Laughter, and Laughter beating Strength. The stronger type will deal more damage to the weaker type. New komas can be unlocked by clearing challenges in Story mode, or evolving existing komas using gems collected in Story Mode to unlock new paths and komas, such as stronger variations of Battle koma.
Battle[edit]
Battles commence in arenas made to look like the page of a manga. Each arena has a unique background and obstacles based on the different manga series. They also contain a variety of different platforms. Many are static while others will move, break, or disappear and reappear randomly. Certain walls and floors are also destructible. During battles, players use their Battle komas to attack opponent, defeating them once they have taken enough damage, or knocked them off the stage.
New features[edit]
Jump Ultimate Stars has been changed slightly from the gameplay of Jump Super Stars. Jump Ultimate Stars gives battle characters the ability to dash and to do a new attack while guarding, which, instead of breaking the guard of the opponent, forces them to change characters, and can be identified by a green glow coming out of the characters which executes it. Also, certain 7 and 8 panel koma (along with certain 5 and 6 panel koma) obtain a visual difference during battle as opposed to the appearance of the 1-6 koma of the very same character, some of this variations also bring a totally different set of attacks to the character (e.g. Naruto becomes Kyubii Naruto for his level 7 & 8 koma). Battle characters now have a new ability known as Ultimate Actions (UA). These UA are different for each character, as some recover health, other recover sp, while others can be used to dodge enemy attacks. Another new feature added is the Evolution Chart. This area allows players to upgrade their characters by spending gems(currency earned for ko'ing opponents) to buy a new koma. Each character has a chart, starting from the 1 block help koma and branching off into the 2 and 3 block Support and the 4 to 8 block Battle koma. Some characters have alternate block paths which unlock a different type for that character (e.g. Goku as a laughter type instead of a power type), while others can be used to unlock koma for characters from the same series, quizzes for the series, and new worlds in the story mode.