.gif)
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (video game)
Encyclopedia
is the commonly given name to any one of the versions and ports of a fighting game developed by Capcom
based on the Japan
ese manga
of the same title
. The games were developed by the same team who are responsible for the Street Fighter III
series.
It was originally released in the arcade
in 1998
on the CPS-3
arcade system; this version was known outside Japan as Jojo's Venture. An updated version of the game was released in 1999
as , becoming the sixth and last game released for the CPS-3 board (the second-to-last being the third revision of Street Fighter III
, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, released only a few months earlier). Console
ports for the PlayStation and Dreamcast were also released that year.
The game combines Capcoms trademark anime
-inspired graphics, as seen in the Darkstalkers Series, with the colorful characters and events of Hirohiko Araki
's creation, resulting in a highly stylized and detailed visual style. It also features many of the gameplay mechanics seen on previous Capcom fighting games, such as the use of power gauges for super moves, as well as a brand new Stand Mode, consisting on a guardian spirit that accompanies each character and can be summoned or dismissed at will by the player, resulting in variations on the character's move list and abilities.
Original author Hirohiko Araki
served as a consultant for the game and created exclusive pieces of artwork for its promotion and packaging; most notably, he developed from scratch a new character design for Midler, since Capcom was interested in using her in the game and she had been only vaguely shown in the original manga.
, who, after developing the bizarre supernatural abilities known as the "Stand" and learning from his grandfather Joseph Joestar
of its relation with their bloodline and with the ancestral enemy of his family, the vampire Dio Brando
, embarks on a quest to defeat Dio and save his mother, whose life is threatened as she's been unable to control the power of her own stand.
The game's events and characters are based on the third part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
manga
series, usually titled Stardust Crusaders
. Many of the events featured in the game (as well as some character designs) directly contradict the depiction of the story in the OVA
adaptation, so the game should be considered to be specifically based on the original manga.
The game uses a simplified 4-button control scheme, consisting of three attacks (light, medium and strong) and a Stand button, which switches the character's stand On and Off (see Stand Mode below)
ing, absorbing residual damage when blocking special attacks, powered-up special moves, etc.
Most of the game's specific mechanics derive from the introduced Stand Mode. For example, attacking the physical manifestation of the enemy's stand will cause damage on both of them; this is a crucial strategic element, since many of the special moves and attacks send the stand away from the user, adding the difficulty of protecting both of them at the same time. On top of the usual health bar and power gauge, there is a third meter, the Stand Gauge, which decreases when the stand is damaged and refills when the Stand Mode is switched off; if this gauge is depleted, a Stand Break is caused, and the character is paralyzed and wide open to any attack for an instant.
Other features of the Stand Mode include summoning the stand with an instant attack, the possibility of "programming" attack patterns on the fly and unleashing them at will, "releasing" the stand and controlling it directly, and so forth.
Some characters lack an "active" stand, though; some of these "passive" stand users introduce even more complex and specific mechanics into the game, such as Hol Horse's gun-stand or Mariah's magnetic stand.
The stands create strong differences between the characters, and force often radically different offensive approaches for each one; this "character-dependent gameplay" style would be present in posterior fighting games, such as the latter entries of the Guilty Gear series; insterestingly enough, both that series and JoJo's Bizarre Adventures include many Rock music
references.
's system, if certain attacks of the same strength and same intensity occur and collide at the same time, clashing occurs. This only happens with characters with an Active Stand. It is hard to see this system in action as it happens very seldom. Currently, it is unknown if the new Active Stand-wielding characters introduced in the 2nd JoJo game can cause attacks to clash. In some cases, clashing can lead to a Blazing Fists Match. (see below)
.
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
based on the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
of the same title
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
is a manga written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. Every main character's name in each part can be read as JoJo. The manga, published by Shueisha, first ran in the magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1987 to 2002, before being transferred to the seinen magazine Ultra Jump in 2004. The current story...
. The games were developed by the same team who are responsible for the Street Fighter III
Street Fighter III
is a fighting game in Capcom's Street Fighter series, originally released as coin-operated arcade game in . Street Fighter III was produced for the CD-ROM-based CP System III hardware, which allowed for more elaborate 2D graphics than the CPS II-based Street Fighter Alpha games , while revamping...
series.
It was originally released in the arcade
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
in 1998
1998 in video gaming
-Events:*Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 1st Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo to the AIAS Hall of Fame*British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosts the 1st annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards...
on the CPS-3
CPS-3
The or CPS-3 is an arcade system board that was first used by Capcom in 1996 with the arcade game Red Earth. It was the second successor to the CP System arcade hardware, following the CP System II...
arcade system; this version was known outside Japan as Jojo's Venture. An updated version of the game was released in 1999
1999 in video gaming
-Events:*British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosts the 2nd annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards*March – Game Over republished as “Game Over: Press Start to Continue”...
as , becoming the sixth and last game released for the CPS-3 board (the second-to-last being the third revision of Street Fighter III
Street Fighter III
is a fighting game in Capcom's Street Fighter series, originally released as coin-operated arcade game in . Street Fighter III was produced for the CD-ROM-based CP System III hardware, which allowed for more elaborate 2D graphics than the CPS II-based Street Fighter Alpha games , while revamping...
, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, released only a few months earlier). Console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
ports for the PlayStation and Dreamcast were also released that year.
The game combines Capcoms trademark anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
-inspired graphics, as seen in the Darkstalkers Series, with the colorful characters and events of Hirohiko Araki
Hirohiko Araki
is a Japanese manga artist. He left school before graduating from Miyagi University of Education.Araki is best known for his long running series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump starting in 1987. The story is full of references to Western music and Italy, both of which...
's creation, resulting in a highly stylized and detailed visual style. It also features many of the gameplay mechanics seen on previous Capcom fighting games, such as the use of power gauges for super moves, as well as a brand new Stand Mode, consisting on a guardian spirit that accompanies each character and can be summoned or dismissed at will by the player, resulting in variations on the character's move list and abilities.
Original author Hirohiko Araki
Hirohiko Araki
is a Japanese manga artist. He left school before graduating from Miyagi University of Education.Araki is best known for his long running series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump starting in 1987. The story is full of references to Western music and Italy, both of which...
served as a consultant for the game and created exclusive pieces of artwork for its promotion and packaging; most notably, he developed from scratch a new character design for Midler, since Capcom was interested in using her in the game and she had been only vaguely shown in the original manga.
Story and Setting
The story follows the adventures of a Japanese teenager Jotaro KujoJotaro Kujo
is a fictional character from the Japanese manga series, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and the protagonist of Part 3. He has a recognizable attire of a blue trenchcoat-length school uniform jacket with yellow chains on the collar....
, who, after developing the bizarre supernatural abilities known as the "Stand" and learning from his grandfather Joseph Joestar
Joseph Joestar
is a fictional character from the Japanese manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Joseph is the main hero of Part 2, and also plays a significant role in Part 3 & 4. In his younger days, he had black hair and muscular build, but in his older age, he wears a hat and sports a yellow shirt and khaki pants...
of its relation with their bloodline and with the ancestral enemy of his family, the vampire Dio Brando
Dio Brando
is a fictional character from the manga and anime series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. He is the primary antagonist of Parts 1 and 3, although he is also considered to be the main villain of the entire series, as his actions affect the JoJo universe long after his death...
, embarks on a quest to defeat Dio and save his mother, whose life is threatened as she's been unable to control the power of her own stand.
The game's events and characters are based on the third part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
is a manga written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. Every main character's name in each part can be read as JoJo. The manga, published by Shueisha, first ran in the magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1987 to 2002, before being transferred to the seinen magazine Ultra Jump in 2004. The current story...
manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series, usually titled Stardust Crusaders
Stardust Crusaders
, initially referred to as , is the third story arc in the Japanese manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It spans chapters 114-265 of the series, which were collected in volumes 12 to 28 of the Jump Comics tankōbon edition...
. Many of the events featured in the game (as well as some character designs) directly contradict the depiction of the story in the OVA
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (OVA)
are two OVA series, that were adapted from Part 3: Stardust Crusaders of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga, by Studio APPP in Japan....
adaptation, so the game should be considered to be specifically based on the original manga.
Gameplay
The basic rules of the game are those of a standard fighting game : one-on-one battles consisting of two or three time-limited rounds, in which the goal is to deplete the adversary's health bar using both regular attacks as well as character-specific special and super moves, which require the input of button combinations and/or spending accumulated energy, outputted in a power gauge which fills with every attack.The game uses a simplified 4-button control scheme, consisting of three attacks (light, medium and strong) and a Stand button, which switches the character's stand On and Off (see Stand Mode below)
Stand Mode
Fighting with the Stand Mode "On" enhances both the character's offensive and defensive abilities; these improvements heavily depend of the character and stand, but some common ones are for example double jumpDouble jump
Double jump may refer to:* Double jump , performing the same jump twice in a row in cheerleading* Double jump , Two revolutions in a figure skating jumps* Double jump...
ing, absorbing residual damage when blocking special attacks, powered-up special moves, etc.
Most of the game's specific mechanics derive from the introduced Stand Mode. For example, attacking the physical manifestation of the enemy's stand will cause damage on both of them; this is a crucial strategic element, since many of the special moves and attacks send the stand away from the user, adding the difficulty of protecting both of them at the same time. On top of the usual health bar and power gauge, there is a third meter, the Stand Gauge, which decreases when the stand is damaged and refills when the Stand Mode is switched off; if this gauge is depleted, a Stand Break is caused, and the character is paralyzed and wide open to any attack for an instant.
Other features of the Stand Mode include summoning the stand with an instant attack, the possibility of "programming" attack patterns on the fly and unleashing them at will, "releasing" the stand and controlling it directly, and so forth.
Some characters lack an "active" stand, though; some of these "passive" stand users introduce even more complex and specific mechanics into the game, such as Hol Horse's gun-stand or Mariah's magnetic stand.
The stands create strong differences between the characters, and force often radically different offensive approaches for each one; this "character-dependent gameplay" style would be present in posterior fighting games, such as the latter entries of the Guilty Gear series; insterestingly enough, both that series and JoJo's Bizarre Adventures include many Rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
references.
Bonus Stages and Special Battles
Across the game and if certain conditions are met, the player will have to clear special stages and face secret opponents in which special rules apply and which reenact certain chapters of the manga that were less "translatable" as regular combats. Among these special events are a sidescrolling sequence in which the player has to overcome a water stand and find its user N'Doul, or a special battle against the Death 13 stand.Clashing
Similar to Guilty GearGuilty Gear
is a series of sprite-based competitive fighting games by Arc System Works and designed by artist Daisuke Ishiwatari. It is popular with fans for its detailed anime-style graphics, original characters, hard rock/heavy metal soundtrack, unique gameplay, and its numerous references to rock and heavy...
's system, if certain attacks of the same strength and same intensity occur and collide at the same time, clashing occurs. This only happens with characters with an Active Stand. It is hard to see this system in action as it happens very seldom. Currently, it is unknown if the new Active Stand-wielding characters introduced in the 2nd JoJo game can cause attacks to clash. In some cases, clashing can lead to a Blazing Fists Match. (see below)
Blazing Fists Match
One of the less known features of the game, but also one of the most impressive, it's caused when two certain opposing special moves performed by certain characters at the very same time collide; the player/s are then prompted to quickly bash the attack buttons to win a Blazing Fists duel and decide who will receive the damage, a feature first seen in Samurai ShodownSamurai Shodown
Samurai Shodown, known as in Japan, is a competitive fighting game produced by SNK for their Neo Geo arcade and home platform. In contrast to other fighting games at the time which were set in modern times and focused primarily on hand-to-hand combat, Samurai Shodown is set in feudal-era Japan ...
.
Protagonists
- Jotaro KujoJotaro Kujois a fictional character from the Japanese manga series, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and the protagonist of Part 3. He has a recognizable attire of a blue trenchcoat-length school uniform jacket with yellow chains on the collar....
- Joseph JoestarJoseph Joestaris a fictional character from the Japanese manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Joseph is the main hero of Part 2, and also plays a significant role in Part 3 & 4. In his younger days, he had black hair and muscular build, but in his older age, he wears a hat and sports a yellow shirt and khaki pants...
- Young JosephJoseph Joestaris a fictional character from the Japanese manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Joseph is the main hero of Part 2, and also plays a significant role in Part 3 & 4. In his younger days, he had black hair and muscular build, but in his older age, he wears a hat and sports a yellow shirt and khaki pants...
- Mohammed Avdol
- Noriaki KakyoinNoriaki KakyoinNoriaki Kakyoin is a fictional character from the Japanese manga series, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. He is easily recognizable in his green and tight student outfit, green eyes, two cherry-shaped earrings and pinkish red hair with a unique "side hair"...
- New KakyoinNoriaki KakyoinNoriaki Kakyoin is a fictional character from the Japanese manga series, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. He is easily recognizable in his green and tight student outfit, green eyes, two cherry-shaped earrings and pinkish red hair with a unique "side hair"...
- Jean Pierre PolnareffJean Pierre Polnareffis a fictional character from the Japanese manga series, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. He went with Jotaro Kujo and company to get revenge for his sister, who was raped and murdered by J. Geil...
- Iggy
Antagonists
- Dio BrandoDio Brandois a fictional character from the manga and anime series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. He is the primary antagonist of Parts 1 and 3, although he is also considered to be the main villain of the entire series, as his actions affect the JoJo universe long after his death...
- Shadow DioDio Brandois a fictional character from the manga and anime series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. He is the primary antagonist of Parts 1 and 3, although he is also considered to be the main villain of the entire series, as his actions affect the JoJo universe long after his death...
- Devo the Cursed (or D'Bo)
- Rubber Soul
- Hol Horse and J. Geil
- Hol Horse and Boingo
- Midler
- Gray Fly
- Mannish Boy
- Kameo
- Enya Geil
- Daniel J. D'Arby
- N'Dour
- Chaka and Anubis
- Khan and Anubis
- Black PolnareffJean Pierre Polnareffis a fictional character from the Japanese manga series, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. He went with Jotaro Kujo and company to get revenge for his sister, who was raped and murdered by J. Geil...
and Anubis - Mariah
- Alessi
- Pet Shop
- Vanilla Ice (or Iced)
Versions