JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R from Bandai Namco and CyberConnect2 Co. Ltd is a remastered version of the original PS3 exclusive title from almost a decade ago. Now players can finally enjoy a JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fighting game on multiple platforms and with brand new voice recordings and adjustments which make it truly excel.
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If you’re a fan of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime and manga, a fighting game based on the franchise will already sound great to you. You can “ORAORAORAORAORA!” to your heart’s content here and it’s great!
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is a fighting game that works in a similar manner to Bandai Namco’s other fighting games but with added JoJo’s flavour. You can do a light, medium and heavy attack, dodge and “Style”. Pressing the button assigned to Style allows you to perform additional attacks based on the character you’re playing as.
The battle styles are important in the game because they are what sets each character apart from one another. Each character in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R plays out differently and players will easily spend hours getting to grips with each one. Ultimately you will settle on some favourites but given the extremely extensive roster here, that will take you quite a while.
Circling back to the gameplay though, players can play through a selection of “Panels” in the All-Star Battle mode. This is the game’s story mode and it roughly follows the major battles of the anime itself. There are some extra battles in the story mode too but these are optional and tend to feature some bonus modifiers which makes things a bit more complicated. There are also “Boss” battles in the story mode and these need to be unlocked by beating the previous battles in each story panel.
If you’re brand new to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure series, the story mode isn’t really going to help you get up to speed with everything. You’d best watch the anime itself or read the manga for the full picture otherwise you’ll just be confused as to what is going on and what’s happening. The remaster does a good job of adjusting the characters to fit more in line with their current designs from the anime. The voice actors who lend their vocals to them in the anime have also recorded lines for the game and overall, the remastered game is the definitive version of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle.
Getting to grips with the game’s fighting mechanics is not too difficult. Players will primarily have to learn how to dodge, attack, flash cancel and pull off heart heat gauge attacks. Using the style button and stands, you’ll unleash some really powerful attacks and it’s all about reading your opponents moves and acting accordingly here. If you’re looking for an extremely technical fighting game, this isn’t it. This is a fun-fest for fans of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime for the most part.
Is that a JoJo’s reference?
Players will also have access to an arcade mode with a challenge and endless mode contained within. There’s also a versus mode and you can opt to play the game online too though doing this is a less than stellar affair given the lack of rollback netcode.
There’s a gallery mode in the game which has a very large selection of music and character models and outfits which can be viewed. There’s a tonne of illustrations too and these can be unlocked simply by playing the game. It’s highly recommended that you check out the gallery because there’s so much in here, it’s really enjoyable browsing through everything.
Graphically, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is beautiful with the remastered visuals being very eye-catching. The attacks and special heart heat gauge attacks are amazing to behold. There’s nothing like seeing an enemy get pummeled to oblivion in crisp HD visuals with special effects flying everywhere.
The soundtrack of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R perfectly fits the game. The voice acting however is the star of the show here with the newly recorded voice lines by the actual anime’s voice actors really adding that extra layer of authenticity to the game. If you’re a JoJo’s fan, you’ll definitely love this. Unfortunately though, there is no English dub here so if you’re a fan of the English dub, you’ll be disappointed.
Final Verdict
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R remasters an already great fighting game from a while ago and brings it up to speed with modern standards. The lack of rollback netcode can be seen as a bit of a letdown but the sheer amount of content on offer here as well as the extensive roster of characters from all JoJo’s arcs makes this the definitive JoJo’s fighting game. Grab this if you’re a JoJo’s fan and a fan of fighting games. You’ll love playing it either solo or against friends and family.
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