Nintendo Switch Review Code Provided by Bandai Namco
Known as, and proven to be, one of the wildest and weirdest popular anime to date has to go to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. With its rise in popularity, it was only a matter of time before we got a fresh game for the series. That’s where CyberConnect2 and Bandai Namco step in to release JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R. Much like their similar game from 2013, this time CyberConnect2 brings an updated and upgraded experience to JoJo in the battle arena genre.
Gameplay
When you first load up, the game forces you through a quick tutorial match to show you the initial controls. This does well to give a faint idea of controls, but you will want to spend some time in the practice mode to really get the moves down. You can check your move list in the pause menu once you load up with your character of choice.
Choosing a character might be a bit difficult as well since the roster holds upwards of 50 different playable characters! Hosting characters from every story arc in the franchise’s anime series, you have characters with different fighting styles including Hamon, Stand, and Mounted. The easiest place to start is by picking your favorite character in the series and seeing how their style works for you, but don’t shy away from trying out the more unexpected characters as you never know which play style matches you best.
Of course, one way to find a character you like to use is by making your way through the All-Star Battle Mode. Here you will find multiple match-ups, separated by the season they took place, and that each season hosts a final boss fight. To unlock the boss fight, you simply need to beat a few of the battles in that season. For instance, Season 1 only requires you to win three of the seven fights presented to unlock the boss fight. Each fight presents the two characters in them with the one you play as on the left side and a star ranking system to represent the difficulty of the fight. The best part is that you don’t have to unlock seasons and instead they just have all fights available right from the start so you can jump to your favorite segment in the series.
You can also test your skills in the Arcade mode with two different versions. If you want to simply see how long you can last, you can go with Endless mode which will have you fight until your health bar drops. If you want to climb a ladder of slightly more challenging enemies until you beat all eight of them, you can go with the Challenge mode.
Now, you can’t have a battle arena game without the player-vs-player aspect! That’s where versus mode comes in, offering a local-based fight in either Single Battle, Team Battle, or Tournament Battle. This mode can be done as player-vs-computer if you want as well. While Single Battle is self-explanatory, Team Battle is a 3-on-3 match where each side has three characters that can change out. Tournament Battle puts eight players into a match-up where you eliminate each other until there is a fighter that Stands above the rest.
Once you have your skills and confidence high enough, you can head to the Online mode and try to take on players all around the world. Here will be your toughest fights because players will always end up being better than their computerized counterparts.
Before moving on, let’s go into a few specifics of the actual battle segments. The arenas themselves are built in a 3D style while the fight is mostly done in a 2D style format. You can move side-to-side, including dodge rolls, so that 3D element does come into play, but it is more hard stuck in 2D for the majority of the combat.
Players will need to utilize their character’s abilities if they want to have a leg up in the match. This means understanding your move list well enough to know your low, mid, high, jump, and ranged attack options. Not to mention your grapples, supers, and how to best utilize the energy bar. Every character has a super attack that does a crazy ton of damage, but you have to build up the energy for it. You can use energy for smaller attacks that hit a little harder than a normal attack as well. So energy management plays a role in the overall combat as well.
On top of knowing your main character, you will also have an assist character that can do an assist attack for you. Knowing how each character provides an assist can change up the different strategies you try to work with. Don’t forget to give different characters an attempt to be your assist!
As I mentioned, the characters you play will all be quite different from each other. It turned out my favorite characters from Season 2 were a bad fit for my style and I had a lot of struggled losses trying to make them work. It wasn’t until I moved on to my Season 5 favorites that I started to find a better fit for myself. Don’t hesitate to try different characters even though it may take a little bit of time to really know what you are working with once you start.
Audio and Visual
They did a brilliant job on both aspects of this game! Not only were they able to keep the battlegrounds, atmospheres, and characters within Hirohiko Araki’s captivating art style, while providing accurate expressions and great graphical quality. Plus, the Stand special move cut-scenes were always entertaining to watch play out.
Then there is the music and voice work in the game that is also properly done. Not only did they have a musical quality that is significant and matching to the anime, but they also had original Japanese Voice Over actors provide a memorable experience and had them deliver their characters signature catchphrases.
Replayability
There is always room to grow and improve with battle arena games. With a roster as big as this one, multiple game modes to play against players and computers alike, and a growing community behind the JoJo fanbase, there is definitely going to be a ton of replayability to this game!
What It Could Have Done Better
After playing this game on the Switch, I do have to say that I don’t recommend this platform unless you use controllers other than the Joycon’s. I thought this would be a fun battler title for on-the-go combat, but I ended up playing it docked at home with my controller instead.
Verdict
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is the exact battle arena title that every JoJo fan has been waiting for! With a bunch of different game modes, the ability to have specific characters face off to recreate battles from the series already preset and given a purpose to be fought, a huge roster, an art style that stays true to its predecessor, and all the other aspects that prove this game was developed with passion and care, there is so much to appreciate about the game. Truly a marvelously designed battle-r that I can see anybody who enjoys the fighting genre playing, if not mastering!
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is now available on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
