JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle Review

Back in 1999 Capcom released the first JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fighting game for the arcades in Japan, Europe and North America and eventually ported the 2D anime fighter over to the PlayStation and Dreamcast. 15 years later, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle arrives in North America and Europe.

Developed by CyberConnect 2 (Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm fighting game series), JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle brings together the eight arcs of the JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure Manga series featuring characters from each series. The game features five main modes including Arcade, Campaign, Versus and Practice modes along with a customization and gallery mode. Money is pretty easy to earn through fighting and completing special missions in the campaign mode.

The game features a cast of 32 playable characters (plus 9 DLC characters to be released later) from the eight different arcs from the JoJo manga series. The game has an interesting take on battles, since characters have one of five battle styles which differs how they play:

• Hamon – Ability to recharge your special meter
• Vampirism (Dio only) – Can absorb some of your life
• Mode – Drains your bar to activate a special mode that give you new abilities and moves but once it drains you are stunned for a moment
• Stand – Best known for the original Capcom game summon a partner who fights with you in battle
• Mounted – Character rides a horse which can be unmounted while collecting items to increase powers
• Baoh Armed Phenomenon (Ikuro Hashizawa only) – Ikuro has the ability to transform his body while fighting and gains new abilities with the more damage he receives.

While each character has their own unique fighting style, the moveset for everyone is roughly the same. Don’t expect a balanced game, since you have characters who can freeze time, ride giant horses in battle, and drain life. However, that just adds to the challenge. Characters can hard knock down opponents and humiliate drain their special bar, parry or counter attacks. When fighting, you’ll have to worry about stage traps and more. Supers in the game are called Heart Heat Attacks which drain one super bar. Great Heat Attacks drains 2 super bars and feature a cinematic attack which are fun and painful to watch.

In story mode, players are treated to a shortened story. Players will be fighting enemies. The story features voiced dialogue and battles straight out of the manga. Completing each arc unlocks new characters to use in other game modes and rewards.

Campaign mode is a bit weird to explain, since there are some changes compared to the Japanese version. Players can unlock certain items by defeating characters in the game. You can use more of your energy bars to gain power ups or weaken enemies. Energy bars are gained pretty fast, so they essentially are pointless. Bandai Namco Games will also release new campaign packs every so often for players to come back to.

Final Reaction

CyberConnect2 has really done a great job creating an anime feel to the game, that includes really detailed characters and locations along with over-the-top animations with the special attacks. The different characters from all eight arcs of the JoJo’s manga series are really given some great life in a new world. 

If you are looking for something technical, this isn’t the right game for you. Instead this is a more casual, with a semi limited move, fun game to enjoy while still being challenging when playing with friends offline and online.

Rating: 4/5 Atoms

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle
Developer: CyberConnect2
Publisher: Bandai Namco Games
System:PlayStation 3
Price: $59.99
Available Now