All-Star Battle/Dio Brando

Dio appears in the fighting game as two separate fighters; the first being "Dio Brando" from Part 1 Phantom Blood, and the second being "DIO", from Part 3 Stardust Crusaders. This marks him as one of only three characters with two incarnations in the game, the others being Young/Old Joseph Joestar and Original/Kosaku Yoshikage Kira.

Vampire characters (Dio Brando, DIO and Vanilla Ice) and Pillar Men characters (Wamuu, Esidisi and Kars) can't fight on stages that contain sunlight. To play on those stages they need to be equipped with the Red Stone of Aja on the character select screen, which is unlocked by beating their respective parts in Story Mode.

Dio Brando from Phantom Blood uses the rare Vampirism Style as part of his moveset, which allows him to follow up on any number of his skills with attacks that let him steal small amounts of his opponent's health or even Heart Heat Gauge.

This is also the first piece of JoJo media to feature Takehito Koyasu as Dio's Japanese voice actor, replacing all of his other voices prior. Since this casting decision, Takehito has remained as Dio's voice actor for the anime adaptation, as well as future, related games like Eyes of Heaven and All-Star Battle R.

Gameplay
Dio has 900 HP. His moveset mostly comprises the vampiric feats he had done in the original manga.

He falls into the "rushdown" archetype of character, wielding high-speed mobility and a healthy mix of unblockable attacks, command throws, and high-low mix-up attacks to maintain an overwhelming offensive against a defending foe. His aggressive playstyle is compounded by his ability to freely cancel many of his skills into his dedicated Super Jump, rendering many maneuvers safe that would otherwise leave him vulnerable. Dio also has multiple ways to chain into his signature Vampirism-style abilities while attacking to rapidly take both his opponent's health or Heart Heat for himself. His HHA is a very valuable asset, dealing all of its damage in a single hit and striking at all ranges, allowing him to readily punish unwise actions regardless of distance and potentially inflict massive Counter Hit damage in the process.

Dio's core weaknesses are lower-than-average health to offset his Vampiric powers, as well as the potency of his aggression being affected by his foe's own familiarity with him. Without proper handling, placing him in high-risk combat scenarios can lead to massive amounts of health lost, and even with his Super Jump ability there are always gaps in his offense that a savvy opponent can exploit. Because of these, he must not make himself too predictable in order to continue taking the advantage of his formidable offensive potential.

As a whole, Dio is a extremely tricky, aggressive, close-ranged fighter. He holds the means to repeatedly assault his foe from multiple angles with few obvious openings for counterattack, and exert constant pressure until he finally bypasses their defense. Using his great maneuverability, he ultimately aims to get within melee range of his opponent and then continuously force them to guess how to properly defend against his physical onslaught.