All-Star Battle R

"All JOJOs Unite! Fight for Your Destiny!"

- Tagline

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 オールスターバトルR) is a fighting game based on the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure franchise, developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game released on, , , , , and. All-Star Battle R is a remastered version of the 2013 fighting game All-Star Battle, featuring new game mechanics and playable characters.

The international Steam version and Japanese console versions of the game released on September 1, 2022, with the international console versions and Japanese Steam version releasing the following day. As of January 31, 2023, it was made available on the, being playable for free on for a limited time or purchasable separately.

Summary
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R was first announced by Sony as part of the PlayStation State of Play event on March 9, 2022, with a release date of early fall of that same year. It was also later announced by Bandai Namco that the game would be available on the Nintendo Switch, Steam, Xbox Series X|S, and the Xbox One. The color palettes and designs of Part 1 to Part 6 characters in All-Star Battle R are noticeably different from those of the original All-Star Battle, having been modified to closely follow the looks in the various anime adaptations of the series. In addition, the available Japanese voice actors working on the anime reprise their roles in All-Star Battle R.

All-Star Battle R released with a Standard Edition, Digital Deluxe Edition, and Collector's Bundle. The Standard Edition only includes the game, while the Digital Deluxe Edition includes the full game, the first season pass, and a color set for Jonathan, Joseph, Jotaro, Josuke, and Giorno, based on their white outfits in the JOESTAR The Inherited Soul event. The Collector's Bundle includes the full game, the special event color set from the Digital Deluxe Edition, and a Special Color version of the Grandista series Jolyne Cujoh 10 inch statue. The European version also includes a Jolyne Cujoh prison plate, the season pass, and a collector's box. The Japanese version also includes the digital soundtrack and has the option to get the bundle with or without the season pass. Later, alongside the announcement of the Season Pass 2, an Ultimate Edition of the game was announced and is slated for release on June 14, 2023. This version of the game includes the full game, the first and second season passes, and the special event color set from the Digital Deluxe Edition.

An early-access demo for the game, exclusive to the and, was released for the public on June 16, 2022 and was available to play until June 22, 2022. The only playable characters in the demo were Jonathan, Jotaro, DIO, and Jolyne. Online Mode and Practice Mode were the only two playable modes. A new demo featuring Jotaro, Jolyne, Ermes Costello, and Foo Fighters was available exclusively at Anime Expo 2022, from July 1 to July 4, 2022. A new stage was featured, called the Everglades, which portrays the farm of the Green Dolphin Street Prison. The demo was only playable against CPU, with no multiplayer available.

Another demo was available at EVO 2022, which featured the Versus and Practice modes. The playable characters included Jonathan, Joseph, Jotaro, Josuke (4), Giorno, Jolyne, Johnny,, Wamuu, Iggy, Shigechi, Diavolo, Foo Fighters, Gyro, and Ikuro Hashizawa. Two tournaments were held at the event featuring the demo, both with first place receiving a and the exclusive Jolyne figurine that is included in the collector's edition of the game. Second and third place also got the figurine.

Currently, a demo is available for the full game, featuring, like the EVO 2022 demo, only the Versus and Practice modes (on top of Options). Unlike the EVO 2022 demo, there are only 5 playable characters, being Joseph, Jotaro, Jolyne, DIO, and Yoshikage Kira. Further restrictions include a lack of the Customize mode, Stage Select, costumes and gold. Furthermore, save data from the demo version are not transferrable to the game's full version.

Gameplay
The gameplay of All-Star Battle R is based on the one-vs-one 2.5D fighting game style of All-Star Battle. Mechanics such as Easy Beat, Stylish Evade, Heat Heart Attack and Rush Mode return in this game with slight differences.

An additional gameplay mechanic named Support Attack (アシストシステム) allows players to summon a second character during a match, allowing them to chain together longer combos, set traps, or use long-range attacks as an Assault Assist. Assist characters can also be used to break an opponent's combo with a Reversal Assist, though this produces a longer cooldown (shown by the assist character's icon being tinted red). The lights below an assist character's icon act as an indicator of how many more times they can be used within the round, with the maximum number of lights differing by character. Each character has a unique assist attack that falls into one of several types, creating a new layer of strategy when selecting characters.

In addition to Support Attack, another gameplay mechanic by the name of Stylish Guard (スタイリッシュガード) has been added, allowing players to buffer a Stylish Evade until it is triggered by an attack (similarly to many characters' counter moves). This allows players to create an opening to counterattack, but the move's reliance on predicting the opponent's attack and immobilization of the character performing it serve as drawbacks.

Beyond the new game mechanics, a number of other elements have been tweaked compared to the original All-Star Battle: After receiving feedback from the Early Access Demo survey, more features were adjusted:
 * Improved framerate: The framerate of the game has been doubled to run at 60 FPS on both consoles and PC, with the exception of the Switch version, which is still locked at 30 FPS.
 * Improved game speed: The time it takes to perform an attack has been decreased, resulting in faster battles than the original game.
 * Added hitstops: Hitstop is a fighting game term: when you strike the opponent, both parties momentarily freeze, emphasizing the power of impact. Attacks and guards now implement this feature, making the game feel smoother and more tactical than the original All-Star Battle.
 * Added input buffers: Relaxed the number of input frames available before the next action. Thus, players can now chain attacks more easily than before.
 * Added dash jumps: The player can jump while dashing, allowing them to jump at a lower height than a normal jump.
 * Improved movement speed: All characters have had their walk speed increased. However, the animations have not been sped up, causing characters to appear to slide across the ground as they walk. The extent of this graphical oddity varies by character.
 * Simplified move commands: Intermediary command inputs (such as the ↘ in ↓↘→) can now be omitted, making it easier to activate skills.
 * Attack adjustments: The behaviors and power of some techniques have been adjusted. Notably, the power and Heart Heat Gauge cost of a character's Great Heat Attack now changes depending on the amount of gauges accumulated: two gauges grant 100% power, 2.5 gauges grant 120% power, and 3 gauges grant 150% power.
 * Ripple move cost increase: Barring moves that drain the Heart Heat Gauge, Ripple moves have had their cost universally increased to half a bar of Heart Heat Gauge, forcing characters that utilize the Ripple Style to be more careful with their Heart Heat usage.
 * Camera-shift taunt adjustment: A full camera-shift taunt can now only be performed once per match, and any subsequent attempts will activate a normal, cosmetic taunt. On the other hand, the amount of Heart Heat Gauge depleted has been increased from one tenth of a bar of Heart Heat Gauge to a full bar.
 * Assist type cost split: Assault Assists and Reversal Assists now have individual cooldowns and numbers of uses per round. Assault Assists are represented by circular pink nodes, while Reversal Assists are represented by diamond-shaped blue nodes.
 * Practice Mode overhaul: Practice Mode now features a variety of new options. Players can now quickly reset by pressing the pause and taunt buttons simultaneously, change round-start positions, and even record actions for the Player 2/computer-controlled enemy to execute.

The version 2.0 update to the game on June 11, 2023 added a Standby Practice option to the game's Online Mode, allowing players to sharpen their skills in Practice Mode while searching for online opponents. Upon finding an opponent, the player can accept or deny a match directly from Standby Practice; this confirmation prompt can be turned off by the player if they wish to automatically accept any challengers.

Cross-Platform Play
The game does not support cross-play between different platforms. However, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 players will be able to play against one another. Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One will also be able to play against each other.

The Nintendo Switch version can also play multiplayer offline through local communication by wirelessly connecting with another Nintendo Switch. It is not possible to play by using the sideways, so each player needs their own set of Joy-Cons.

Downloadable Content
There are currently seven paid DLC characters planned for All-Star Battle R in two separate season passes. The first paid DLC character, Risotto Nero, released on October 27, 2022. The second DLC character, Rudol von Stroheim, followed suit on February 2, 2023. The third DLC character, Keicho Nijimura, released on March 24, 2023. The final DLC character, Parallel World Diego, was announced on May 31, 2023, and is slated to release on June 16, 2023. Alongside the release of Parallel World Diego's character trailer was the announcement of a second season pass containing three additional DLC characters and another pass-exclusive costume. The three DLC characters included in the second pass originate from Vento Aureo, Diamond is Unbreakable, and JoJolion, and are scheduled to release in early autumn, mid-to-late autumn, and late winter respectively.

Weather Report and Enrico Pucci (Final), a separate version of Enrico Pucci that includes use of the Stands C-MOON and Made in Heaven, were announced on November 25, 2022 alongside the Kennedy Space Center stage from the original. All three were released as part of a free update on December 1, 2022. A version of Pucci more closely reflecting the original game had previously been announced in August 2022, prior to the game's launch.

Each season pass grants early access to the characters within the pass two days before release. The first season pass also includes two exclusive alternate outfits ("Rohan Kishibe First Appearance Costume" and "Muhammad Avdol's Father? Costume"), while the second includes another exclusive alternate outfit ("Giorno Giovanna Haruno Shiobana Costume"). The Digital Deluxe Edition includes the first season pass along with an additional set of "The Animation Special Event" costumes for Jonathan, Joseph, Jotaro, Josuke, and Giorno based on the white outfit designs featured during 2021's JOESTAR The Inherited Soul event. The Ultimate Edition includes everything in the Digital Deluxe Edition along with the second season pass. Pre-orders for any version of the game also received a bonus Green Dolphin Street State Prison Jacket costume for Jolyne, which was later made available for purchase.

Game Modes
All-Star Battle R contains the following game modes:

Stages
As a fighting game, All-Star Battle R features several stages representing the different locations featured in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series.

All stages from the original All-Star Battle are available. Additional stages have also been added to the game, including several from Eyes of Heaven. The Stage Hazard and Situation Finish mechanics have returned as well, and new Stage Hazards and Situation Finishes have been added to the game's new stages.

★ Denotes stages that are new to All-Star Battle R and did not appear in the original All-Star Battle.

Playable
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R has a base roster of 51 playable characters, with two additional characters added in a post-launch update and at least 7 paid DLC characters planned. All characters from All-Star Battle return in the remaster. However, C-MOON and Made in Heaven have been removed from Enrico Pucci's moveset, which has been radically altered to compensate for the missing Stands. Both Stands were later re-added to the game as part of a separate version of the character.


 * New Characters


 * Robert E. O. Speedwagon, Mariah, Pet Shop, and Diego Brando were confirmed as new additions in a trailer released on May 26, 2022.
 * Jotaro from Part 4, Yukako Yamagishi, and F.F. were revealed at Anime Expo on July 1, 2022.
 * Trish Una and Prosciutto were initially unofficially revealed, having been unintentionally included in game menus shown in promotional materials when the game was first announced. Alongside Ghiaccio, they were the final characters to be officially revealed at Gamescom on August 24, 2022. Pesci was also revealed to be included with Prosciutto as a duo character.
 * Risotto Nero was announced as the first downloadable character for the game during a streamed event for the Stone Ocean anime adaptation. The character was formally released on October 27, 2022.
 * Weather Report and Enrico Pucci (Final) were revealed on November 25, 2022, along with the Kennedy Space Center stage. All three were made available for free as part of an update on December 1, 2022. A version of Pucci from the original had been promised before launch.
 * Rudol von Stroheim was revealed as the second downloadable character in the season pass on January 19, 2023. He was formally released on February 2, 2023.
 * Keicho Nijimura was revealed as the third downloadable character in the season pass on March 3, 2023. He was formally released on March 24, 2023.
 * Parallel World Diego was revealed as the fourth downloadable character in the season pass on May 31, 2023. He is slated for release on June 16, 2023.
 * It has also been announced that three more characters are coming in early autumn, autumn and late winter, the new characters are from part 5, 4 and 8 respectively

Online Events
There are currently 12 weekly online events planned, with the first coinciding with the game's launch on September 1, 2022. After the 12th event concludes, the events will loop from the start. Any cosmetic reward not obtained during the event's first run can be purchased later in the Gallery Shop.