What IS JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure?
- July 16th, 2012
- By MogKnight
When Capcom announced a few days ago that JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure HD Ver. would be released through digital distribution, I’m certain that there were a few eyebrows lifted. It’s a very obscure IP when it comes to Western Audiences and for great reason as barely anything from the series came out of Japan.
What we got over out of Japan was Volume 3 of the Manga series which was translated and released here in 2005 and the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure game that was released on the original PlayStation and on Dreamcast, as well as Arcades. There were actually two JoJo fighting games released, though it’s more or less a “Champion Edition” of sorts.
While I can sit here and lecture everyone about the many story arcs of JoJo and the various games that we may never see here on Western soils, I want to concentrate more on the fighting game that will be coming out in about a month and specifically the third story arc that has Jotaro Kujo.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure was originally a Japanese manga created by Hirohiko Araki that appeared in Shōnen Jump for many years and still continuing. There were some OVAs released, some even making their way to North America. However, this series has gone through many years without seeing any sort of TV-based anime series until it was recently announced that one would be starting later this year in October.
The third story arc titled Stardust Crusaders involves main protagonist Jotaro Kujo. Him, among many others, have the power to manifest a Stand, which are physical manifestations that allows the user to essentially have a powerful tool for battle. Of course, you have to be the “chosen” to wield such power and determining if you’re worthy or not can lead to some devastating results.
Dio Brando is the main antagonist of the series despite only appearing in story arc 1 and 3. If you’ve been around the internet as long as I have, you might know him at the guy who yells WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY, makes time freeze, and dropping road rollers on people. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Observe this video!
Oh yeah, he’s also a vampire. Not like the Twilight vampires, mind you. He’s 10000% + 1 cooler.
There’s a huge diversity among the characters in JoJo and you’re almost certain to find someone who will suit your needs when it comes to fighting. Story-wise, JoJo does have a story mode in the Arcade/Dreamcast version that is filled with cutscenes in between battles. The PlayStation version took this to a whole different level, unfortunately I doubt it will be making a return in the HD remake. Even then, the huge variety of characters and different fighting styles is more than enough, really.
The story mode in the game is not just a straight up bout-to-bout affair either. There are some fights that are designed to test your ability to move around, namely the desert run and the fight with the huge gigantic unblockable ball.
However, is this a good fighting game? It’s very enjoyable with the limited amount of time that I got to play with a few friends of mine. In JoJo’s, the Stand mechanic doesn’t apply to everyone and everyone’s Stands have different functions. Jotaro, for example, can either have his Stand out and have his normal attacks replaced with a new set of attacks, or he can choose to not bring out his Stand and use his stand as a way to apply separate pressure
There’s also a playable dog and a bird that puts Shmup ships to shame.
If anything, JoJo is over the top with a lot of crazy things going on that just simply don’t make any sense. You won’t find yourself at a complete loss, but you will find yourself laughing and dodging cars that are springing up from the floor. It predates a lot of “anime” based fighting mechanics, so you won’t find yourself roman cancelling or anything like that. This doesn’t mean that JoJo’s a plain game, in fact I think this combo video can show you just how far you can take the game.
As JoJo hits its 25th Anniversary and Namco Bandai bringing out their own game with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle, and of course Capcom bringing over an HD version of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure to XBLA and PSN, now is a great time to catch up with the series. The anime comes out October to Japanese TV, the HD ver. comes out August 21st-22nd to XBLA and PSN, and who knows! We might even see All-Star Battle overseas if the fans demand it!
