Originally released in 2013 as a Playstation 3 exclusive JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle receives a modern touch with the release of “All-Star Battle R”. Following the source material the story follows the Joestar family and their decades long battle with Dio Brandon & his band of allies. The remaster (remake?) having had time to adjust to present day has chosen to model itself much closer to the anime produced by David Productions rather than the initial source material like the original title.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is a 2022 fighting game and remaster of the 2013 original, it is developed by CyberConnect 2 and published by Bandai Namco. It is currently available on current and last gen consoles and PC via Steam.

Editor’s Note: A Playstation review copy of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle was provided by Bandai Namco in support of this review. Medium spoilers for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure source material may be present within this review. 

Relive your favorite moments from JoJo in All-Star Battle R.

Anime and manga series JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is in a rather healthy place right now. Stone Ocean’s first two parts of the anime adaptation are available on Netflix. Part 8 of the manga recently wrapped up with Part 9 on the way. And the series’ popularity is at an all-time high presently. There’s perhaps no better time to take advantage of a new video game release than this moment in it’s history. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R while not an original title feels the long empty void that is a lack of regularly release video games based on JoJo.

All-Star Battle R features a massive roster across most JoJo parts.

THE GOOD: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R follows the plot of the series in which the Joestar family faces a generational spread threat of Dio Brandon, as well as Harmon (formerly) and Stand users. Each part of the series features a new member of the Joestar family based within a different period of time such as the 1800s or 2000s. The previous Joestar or at the very least characters from the previous parts often make returns usually older, wiser, and stronger than initially introduced to aide the current Joestar. The series really tends to lean on it’s more macabre elements as time goes on with mangaka Hiroshi Araki definitely seeming to fall more in love with the idea of a grotesque & horror like theme at least for a time anyways.

That’s pretty much the JoJo series’ core at a glance. In regards to All-Star Battle R it’s probably what you’d expect from arena style anime fighting game. You have your combo attacks & special moves to deal heavy damage to your opponent’s health bar. There’s also opportunities to use the arena itself as a weapon for damage such as falling chandeliers. There’s a Style button in which you can use seven fighting styles including Vampirism, Stand, Mode, Ripple, Mounted, Baoh Armed Phenomenon, and Ogre Street. Each style has their own uniqe advantages and disadvantages in battle and are based on the multitude of fighting styles and abilities from within the series with the exception being Ogre Street which is exclusive to the game and Speedwagon.

On the defensive there’s blocking which is done with corner buttons as well as a dodge button. Players also have access to the Heart Heat Gauge which builds as you deal and take damage. When built up enough the gauge allows players to do major attacks usually with a cinematic flair similar to those used by the characters in the series. All-Star Battle R also has dramatic finishes that when certain conditions are met in certain stages a scene from the manga/anime will be played after performing the correct move within the given scenario.

Anime onlys beware! This game follows the flow of the manga and it covers all eight parts so spoilers will be a plenty.

All-Star Battle R boasts a huge roster of 41 characters from the franchise. 14 are unlocked in the initial base game where as the remaining 27 are unlocked via the gameplay modes as well as additional downloadable content which can be purchased. Story mode (now All-Star Battle mode) is again more or less what you expect with it covering scenes from the source as well as providing the option to do “dream battles” that were never realized in the series. You can also unlock a reverse battle in which you play as the antagonists. As previously mentioned Story mode also unlocks brand new characters to play around with. In addition to this, DLC characters will unlock new story scenarios for story mode also.

Campaign mode oddly enough is an online mode where players play to unlock customization medals which allow you to customize any character you unlock. These customizations include colors, sound effects, taunts, costumes, and many more character attributes. You can also do certain missions for medals in Campaign mode which grants players gold to make purchases for items such as art in the shop. There’s also a versus mode which supports local and online play and a 3 on 3 mode as well as tournament functions.

Despite being ahead in content All-Star Battle R wants to be more streamlined with the anime as well with anime character designs and voice overs.

THE BAD: If you aren’t typically a fan of the fighting game adaptation of anime & manga games then you might not want to check this one out. Also one major issue with All-Star Battle R is that it’s super spoiler heavy and the only way to really avoid this is to either just skip out on half of the game until you’re caught up (RIP anime onlys) or just not play it at all.

All-Star Battle R features a story mode in which players can go through all the series’ arcs in addition to dream fights.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is an excellent modern coat of paint for an already solid two console generation old game. While a lot of the changes can be viewed as mundane if you never experienced the original it does breath a new bit of life into the title like any remaster should without feeling like too much. I do think that it’s smarter to use the anime caricatures this time around with the designs and voice acting. That being said the original should be commended for going well out of it’s way with it’s presentation in that regard as the anime was very far behind the source at the time. If you don’t really play around with anime fighters often JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R should be one to try due to the mere love poured into from CyberConnect2 alone. It rivals the same love David Productions gives with the anime adaptation every time they get to use the license.