JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R Review

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is a remastered version of the PS3 exclusive JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle which first released in 2013 in Japan followed by a 2014 release in Europe and North America. Unlike other fighters, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is a pretty straight forward, story-less 3D fighting game.

As with any fighting game, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R offers a handful of game modes. The main one is the All Star Battle mode where players are tasked into clearing a plethora of missions/objectives with specific characters. Battles will also have special rules such as the opponent’s health slowly refills. Each battle has a difficulty level assigned to it varying from 1 to 5 stars; the more the stars, the harder the challenge is. There’s also hidden objectives to be accomplished that will be “cleared” when meeting the requirement; more often than not, it’s performing a specific attack.

One of the beneficial things of the All Star Battle mode is it’s a great way to sample the game’s massive roster of 50(!) characters out of the box. For each mission, you’ll be force to use a specific character; it’s a great way to find a favorite without having to go through the random minutia of Practice mode, albeit it can be helpful to master a character. Once you’ve cleared a set amount of “tiles”, you’ll unlock a special boss battle, harder than other challenges.

That being said, how does the combat handle? It’s fine, although feels a bit stiff; it’s easy to play, albeit hard to master. You have a light, medium, and heavy attacks, a dodge button. Blocking is done by holding the opposite direction, akin to the Street Fighter games. As you dish out and receive damage, your Heart Heat Gauge slowly fills up to level 1 and 2. Once filled, you can use it to perform stylish, over the top and overpowered special attacks. There’s also a Style button whose abilities are determined by the character’s combat style: Ripple, Vampirism, Mode, Stand, Mounted, Baoh Armed Phenomenon, and Ogre Street.

Along with the challenging All Star Battle mode and aforementioned practice mode, players can jump into Arcade, Versus, and Online battles. There’s also a Customize mode where you can customize your favorite character(s) by setting Taunts and Victory set. Finally, there’s Shop & Gallery where you can buy things like 2D Art, Music, Medals; among others with gold obtained in All Star Battle mode.

Sadly, not all is perfect in JoJo’s world. The first nuisance being this game can be daunting for newcomers, unless they spend a bit of time in Practice mode to get a feel of the game’s stiff control/combat and various colorful characters. The other annoyance is the abrupt difficulty spike in the All Star Battle mode. While one and two stars difficulty are fair and will give newcomers a fair challenge, starting at three star difficulty, the game cranks it up to 11 and some battles are harder than they should. Also you’ll often see cutscenes mid-battle when you or your opponent are performing special attacks; it’s fun at first, but it gets annoying over time as it stops the flow of battle.

One thing this game does amazingly is definitely the presentation. The game looks great, each of the 50 characters has their own look, style and personalities. Stages are also well designed and highly colorful. The cutscenes mid-battle are intense and very stylish. The voiceover work is fine, albeit a bit over the top at times; nothing really special. Same goes for the game’s soundtrack, however fans of the long-running manga will surely appreciate and recognize it.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is definitely a welcomed addition to the fighting genre. While the combat does require a bit of getting used to as it feels stiffer to control than say Tekken 7 or Mortal Kombat 11, the huge roster of characters, handful of game modes will keep players enthralled for the foreseeable future. And if you’re a newcomer, it might take a bit longer to get a grasp of things, you don’t need to understand the franchise’s lore to enjoy it. If you’re looking for a new fighting game to sink your time and teeth, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is worth every peny.