Dio Brando/Games
In Video Games
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (SNES)
Dio appears as the final boss of the game. Unlike the manga, the player battles against Dio with everyone all at once (including Jotaro, Kakyoin and the then-meant-to-be-deceased Iggy and Avdol.) He primarily uses his Stand, The World, and its time stop ability to deal major damage to the player characters. However, if the player obtains a special cap item for Jotaro before the battle, Jotaro can use the "Idea!" option to use his own Time Stop and deal major damage to Dio.
Unlike in the manga, Kakyoin can survive this final fight with Dio, and Jotaro must wear a special school cap to harness the power of Star Platinum's time stop as opposed to it being an innate ability.
Dio also sporadically appears throughout the game to taunt the heroes and comments on what tarot cards have been chosen for the heroes.
Cult Jump (GB)
DIO appears as one of the ten characters from the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure franchise in the game.
Heritage for the Future (PS1/DC/Arcade)
Shadow Dio
Shadow Dio is the form Dio is in for most of Part III until after Vanilla Ice kills Avdol. In this form the merger between his head and Jonathan Joestar's body is incomplete and as such he is not at his full power, with an example being shown in most of his attacks such as his light and heavy attacks involving his fists being used with an open hand, and The World being shown as a faint silhouette. In this state he is slowly regaining his strength while waiting for the merging to complete.
In the game where Active Stands are prevalent, he can deal a lot of damage with full offensive attacks without an Active Stand. He also has a reversal move, a reference to his encounter with Hol Horse, that helps this play style to be more effective, which can be used either for offense or defense.
While not shown in the manga or anime in earlier chapters, he is shown to be capable of throwing knives early on. Throw Knives, while not too fast for up-close attacks, can push enemies further back and gives him a semblance of air defense. The angle of the knives can be varied (straight forward or in a fanned-spread either upward or forward, and he can throw knives twice. The first knife throw has a large amount of hitstun and can be used to ease into combos.
His eyebeam projectile can be charged to an incredibly powerful and unblockable level, sometimes causing a Stand Crash in one hit.
His Stand attacks are effective as surprises, and capable of juggling. Combined with his own attack, he deals a lot of damage in a short time, more so within The World, when he stops time. This can be used for a strong style of zoning (not unlike the future Persona 4: Arena game coincidentally). Even though he lacks the more defensive and utility-type traits of having an active Stand, he has a lot of creative combos, frame traps and lockdowns with his Stand attacks.
His Super Combo, "Punishment", deals heavy damage if it connects. However, it cannot be incorporated into combos easily and works better as a counter Super. His other Super Combo, called "Charisma", takes two levels of power, but the buds coming out of his hair are unblockable and home in on the enemy. The slow start-up animation of this move requires it to be a part of the combo, in order to be able to perform the move without being interrupted by the enemy's attacks.
If Shadow Dio is transformed by Alessi's Stand, instead of turning into a younger self, he will transform into Wang Chan carrying Dio's severed head in a jar from the final few chapters of Part I.
DIO
This is the form Dio is seen in after taking Joseph Joestar's blood and completing the fusion of his head to Jonathan Joestar's body, causing him to regain his strength and become even stronger than before and act similar to how he was in the past. A majority of his "open-handed" attacks are now properly clenched into fists (his light and hard attacks), signifying his better control over the body.
His moveset now resembles Jotaro's, with a few touches of his own. In contrast to Jotaro, DIO is more effective with his Stand on. His Stand combos are effective at dealing a lot of damage to the enemy in a short time. As such, DIO specializes in quick disposal of an enemy.
His Blazing Strikes can be manipulated to hit low, where the enemy must guard low. This makes his attacks unpredictable, keeping opponents on their toes. His Space Ripper Stingy Eyes attacks, now with different commands, are now completely unblockable, though the animation is notably slower and lack any ability to cause a Stand Crash right off.
His Road Roller, though weak in JoJo's Venture, now deals greater damage in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. His Chi no Shoukan (Bloody Summoning), added in the second game, requires the enemy to be hit before he sucks their blood. The scene when he connects with the move is considerably graphic, with a cutscreen of the enemy's face being punctured by DIO's fingers.
While he does have considerable damaging potential, he does have handicaps; His super moves cannot be integrated into combos in such a way that they will chain together. However, his super moves have a degree of invincibility, which increase his effectiveness in close-quarter battles, even when predictable. DIO players tend to rely on frame traps or mistakes from the enemy to inflict damage. To be able to use him well, DIO players must have the reflexes to perform their super moves at the right moment and often with right judgment.
His The World - Time Stop is particularly deadly at 10 levels of power. He can deploy a lot of knives (particularly the Active Stand version of the Super Move) repeatedly, especially point blank on the enemy, and perform Road Roller before the power gauge goes below level 1. If the enemy is big in size, the more the enemy will take damage from the knives. It is a gamble though to successfully perform The World against a human player, but the damage it inflicts is worth the effort.
His time stop ability can be foiled by attacks that bring total invincibility to its user, Vanilla Ice being one such character. True to the manga and anime, Jotaro also can ursurp the timestop from DIO if he does his own timestop command in the right moment.
If DIO is hit by Alessi's Stand, instead of becoming a younger version of himself, DIO will turn into Nukesaku.
Vento Aureo (PS2)
DIO appears in the game's opening, as the intro starts with Giorno looking at a picture of his father in his wallet (replicating the action taken in an early chapter from Part V).
Jump Super Stars (DS)
DIO appears as a playable character in Jump Super Stars. He can only be unlocked after clearing the game once.
He has three potential "battle panel" formations: a 4-block, a 5-block and a 6-block. All three have his characteristic "MUDAMUDA!" stream of punches as one special attack. His other special attack varies depending on the formation: With the 4-block, it's "The World, Circle of Knives", with the 5-block it's "The World, Road Roller" and with the 6-block, it's "The World, Time Stop". He also features in two "support panels" - the 2-block "Eye-Crushing Kick" and the 3-block "WRYAAAAA!" - and one "help panel" which renders the player's battle character immune from damage for a short period of time.
In terms of playing style, he is best for long-range attacks and uses a combination of punches and kicks. The World gives him a longer range than most characters, but at the cost of his speed. Dio is able to drains an opponent's health in close quarters (via sticking his fingers in their neck) and transfers it to himself. He can use "Space Ripper Stingy Eyes" as a regular attack, and has an aerial move which involves throwing knives.
Interestingly, he receives a power boost when his "battle panels" are placed beside those of Hao from Shaman King and/or Papillion from Busou Renkin. He is also able to perform a special tag-team attack with Sasuke from Naruto called "Sharingan World", whereby DIO's homing daggers and Sasuke's shuriken slice through all enemies on the screen.
Jump Ultimate Stars (DS)
DIO returns in Jump Super Stars' sequel, Jump Ultimate Stars. He retains all his previous playing styles.
In Ultimate Stars, he receives a power boosts come from being beside panels for Giorno Giovanna (by asking if DIO is one person with two bodies, which part is his father), Jonathan Joestar (who mocks him with his iconic line "MUDAMUDA!") and Taizo from Taizo Mote King Saga (who asks if DIO remembers how many pairs of underwear have he wore to this date, making fun of another Dio's classic line).
He also turns to be an ally boost to Frieza from Dragon Ball Z series (asking if Frieza also seeks for immortality, referencing his own immortality due to his vampirism powers) and Dr. Mashirito from DR.Slump series (asking if Mashirito thinks the same of him, after winning comes world domination, a goal shared by both villains).
Phantom Blood (PS2)
Dio Brando appears in this game and has multiple different playable versions such as "Young Dio", "Joestar Mansion Fight Dio" and "Vampire Dio". The game also has a mode called "DIO MODE", where the player faces all the battles from Dio's perspective (with new events, like Zeppeli surviving Tarkus' battle and then confronting Dio along Jonathan).
Notably in one variation on his final fight with Jonathan, Dio can instead briefly plant his head on the body of the drunken priest Styx before making his final move. The player can also win the boxing match between Jonathan and Dio, leading to a scene where Dio claims Jonathan cheated and hit him with a rock.
All-Star Battle (PS3)
Dio appears in the PS3 game as two different fighters; He appears as "Dio Brando" from Part I, and "DIO", from Part III. This marks him as one of the only two characters with two incarnations, the other being Joseph Joestar.
Dio Brando
Dio Brando (from Part I) uses the "Vampirism" style, allowing him to drain the blood of his enemies and regain "silver health" which shows up when taking damage (This silver health will not appear if he is attacked by Ripple moves or certain Stands). His moveset revolves around his vampiric abilities such as high jumping, increased strength, freezing his victim, and sucking their blood, emphasized by him able to chain a number of his moves into his blood draining.
His HHA move is Space Ripper Stingy Eyes. If this move is used to KO Jonathan, a special animation will play where Jonathan futilely tries to block the beams and whispers "Erina..." as he falls. Dio's GHA has him reach for the opponent to freeze them, mock them for their weakness and pummel them before uppercutting them into the air and smashing their frozen form to bits (in the exact same way he did to Dire and reduce him to a head).
His alternate costumes comprise of several outfits he wore during Part I, as his first costume has his cape and feathered shoulder pads outfit (the same he wore during the night of his transformation) and the second one is his attire seen in his first battle against Zeppeli and Jonathan (similar to his default costume, but without the scarf).
DIO
"DIO" (from Part III) retains his vampiric blood drain move, but instead primarily uses the Stand style. His moveset makes use of The World to either pummel his victim or use brief time stops to mess with the opponent's mind, such as one move where he casually walks toward them and seemingly warps out of their reach if they hit him during this time.
With his Heart Heat Gauge at Level 2 and above, DIO can stop time and attack his opponent at his own leisure until the gauge runs out completely. He also possesses a throw move, wherein he has The World grab his opponent and punch through their body (in the same way he killed Kakyoin and tried to kill Jotaro), although this cancels out the time stop immediately. Jotaro can counter this with his own time stop, allowing both of them to move within stopped time until one of them runs out of gauge first, wherein they will be left open to the other until both Heart Heat Gauges are empty.
DIO's HHA is similar to Shadow DIO's "Checkmate" super from the Capcom game. DIO mockingly notes how pale his opponent has gotten and kicks them. If this hits, they are sent flying as he stops time and surrounds them with countless knives, before resuming the flow of time and letting the knives skewer them. If the special Time Stop move is active, the HHA will change to DIO launching an array of knives in one specific wave, but does notably less damage. If quick enough, he can utilize his HHA twice during stopped time if his Heart Heat Gauge is at Level 3.
DIO's GHA is his infamous "ROAD ROLLER DA!" move. If The World's opening punch strikes the victim, DIO stops time and brings the now memetic road roller down on his victim and elbows the vehicle repeatedly before jumping off and resuming time, thus allowing the vehicle to explode as it is crushing his opponent. If the same move is done against Jotaro, unlike most characters who are helpless when crushed by the roller, Jotaro summons Star Platinum to try to punch the roller away. If the Jotaro player inputs Jotaro's own Time Stop move during this time, a special animation will play where DIO is blindsided by Jotaro stopping time. While this doesn't negate the damage of the whole attack, it does negate the damage of the steam roller's explosion.
DIO's alternate costumes include his jacket-less 'High' form (the same appearance after sucking Joseph's blood), his "Shadow DIO" form complete with a blacked-out face (similar to his first few appearances in Part III), his normal attire using an long cape (the one he wore up until Kakyoin's death) and the outfit he wore on the cover of Over Heaven.
DIO (Part III) is also the character with most pre-fight dialogues with other charaters. Having conversation with Jonathan, Jotaro, Old Joseph, Polnareff, Kakyoin, Avdol, Hol Horse, Vanilla Ice, Giorno, Enrico Pucci, and both parts of himself (Part I and Part III).
DIO (Part III) was the most voted character for the fan-vote JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle League and even won the tournament, beating Jotaro Kujo in the final match.
Stardust Shooters (Android/iOS)
DIO appears as one of the several Part I and Part III characters who possess a Metal Strike, with several different appearances.
For his Part I variations, his younger self's Finish Move attacks the opponent with a punch followed by a fingerprint (mimicking the same finishing blow he dealt to Jonathan in their first fight), while his vampire versions attack the opponent with his fingers while sucking their blood.
For his Part III variations, his Shadow Dio Finish Move makes him attack the opponent with his hair, while his normal version attacks the opponent with his Stand's "MUDAMUDAMUDA!" rush.
By being the greatest villain in the game, his Metal Strikers are naturally the hardest ones to obtain in the game, usually requiring special conditions and tasks to be earned.
J-Stars Victory VS (PS3/PS4/PS Vita)
Aside being mentioned by Jonathan only once in Story Modee, he does not appear in form in the game, but hidden data was found in the game for him and Jotaro as playable characters (alongside other Jump characters Yoh and Dai, from Shaman King and Dragonquest respectively).
However, unlike Jotaro, DIO did not even receive a character stance or moveset. Reasons for his cut are unknown, but it can be assumed it may have been due to the Stardust Crusaders anime not having yet aired by the game's release, complicating his inclusion since the game tries to be more faithful to the character's anime counterparts rather than their manga appearance, and even being spoilers for audience who did not know his abilities or appearance at the time.
Eyes of Heaven (PS3/PS4)
Dio Brando (Part I) was confirmed for the game alongside Iggy, N'Doul and Old Joseph, while DIO (Part III) was confirmed alongside Vanilla Ice.
Dio Brando
Dio Brando (Part I) returns in the game and appears as one the 6 playable characters in the second demo. Since most of the character assets for the game were reused from All-Star Battle, not much has changed from his playstyle.
His attacks consist entirely of his vampiric capabilities, being able to freeze his opponent and fire off his Space Ripper Stingy Eyes as a projectile. His Style Action has him grab the opponent and syphon their blood for his own health, an ability that can be easily incorporated into many of his combos.
He has special dialogue when teamed up with Jonathan, where both, while showing great disdain for the other, reluctantly accept them as a partner.
Dio may form a special tag team with his Part III Stand-wielding self. Their DHA consists of Dio freezing the opponent as DIO pummels them with The World into the air, before Dio fires off a Space Ripper Stingy Eyes. DIO shifts his head to the side to avoid the attack and watches as the beams obliterate the frozen opponent.
Much like every character from Part I through Part III, his main color scheme is now based on his anime appearance, and his outfit is changed to match as well.
Tournament
Dio Brando is paired with Joseph Joestar (Part II) in the Eyes of Heaven tournament.
DIO
DIO (Part III) returns, and since most of the character assets for the game were reused from All-Star Battle, not much has changed from his playstyle.
His Style Action is The World's signature time stop, which ties with AU Diego for the longest in the game among time-stopping characters (five seconds).
He also has special dialogue when paired with Jonathan: While Jonathan agrees to fight with DIO for the battle only, DIO notes that such a statement only proves that they are the same person. Aside from his Part I self, DIO also shares tag teams with Giorno Giovanna and Enrico Pucci, specifically the version of Pucci that has Made in Heaven as his Stand (New Moon Pucci).
Much like every character from Part I through Part III, his main color scheme is now based on his anime appearance.
Tournament
DIO is paired with Jonathan in the Eyes of Heaven Tournament.
Heaven Ascension DIO
A version of DIO exclusive to Eyes of Heaven, Heaven Ascension DIO appears in the game. Through some unknown means, DIO achieves his goal of "obtaining heaven" and as a result, obtains complete god-like powers and his ultimate Stand, The World Overheaven.
His role in the game's Story Mode is not yet known aside from that he is the game's main antagonist.
In popular culture
- Zephyr, one of the bosses in the video game Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow as well as Portrait of Ruin, pays homage to Dio Brando. Besides a habit of bending over backwards, he has the ability to throw knives, as well as freeze time with a shout of Toki yo Tomare!!! ("Stop, O time!", translated to "Time, be still!" in the English dub of Portrait of Ruin, where Zephyr appears as a bonus boss.). He also faces the protagonist in a clock tower, a reference to Dio Brando's fight with Joseph Joestar and Kakyoin in the first half of the Dio's World story arc.
- Sakuya Izayoi from the Touhou Project series is likely an homage to Dio. She is not a vampire, but the servant of Remilia Scarlet, who is a vampire. Her main power is manipulation of time - usually demonstrated by stopping it completely. She attacks by throwing knives as well. Some of her spell cards involve stopping time and making many knives appear around the player, and one of these cards is even named Illusion World "The World". In the fighting game spin-offs, she has many time stopping special moves, one of which is called "Sakuya's World", which acts in the same way as Dio's time stop move in the JoJo fighting game.
- Ironically, Miyuki Sawashiro, who voiced Sakuya in the Koumajou Densetsu II fangame, voices Jolyne Cujoh along with seiyuu Ryou Hirohashi as Reimi Sugimoto and Eri Kitamura as Yasuho Hirose (who voiced in the same fangame Touhou characters Youmu Konpaku and Remilia Scarlet respectively) all in All Star Battle, with Youmu being a possible reference to Jean Pierre Polnareff.
- The characters Robo-Ky and Justice (Guilty Gear) from the 2D fighter series Guilty Gear (series) both make references to Dio's 'The World'- Robo-Ky in the form of the "Muda" battlecry with a barrage of punches in an Overdrive attack, and Justice in the form of a "WRYYYYYYYYY"-like battlecry and pose in both her victory poses and her most powerful Overdrive attack, Gamma Ray.
- Furthermore, Dio's current seiyuu, Takehito Koyasu, also voices Zato-1/Eddie in this game, a necessary change after the death of Eddie/Zato-1's orignal voice actor, Kaneto Shiozawa.
- Neo Dio a character from World Heroes, another 2D fighting game series, can shout out "MUDA MUDA MUDA!" as a taunt. His visual design also pays heavy homage to Baoh, and his arm blades could also be seen as tribute to both Baoh and Kars as well.
- In the online game, Erepublik, Dio Brando is God.
- In the popular pixal avatar site Gaia online, there are obtainable item series known as the "RIO Star" series. These items show resemblances to Dio's outfit in Stardust Crusaders. There are also "Back/Tails" accessories that are called "K.O. Star (Za Warudo)" and "K.O. Star (Time Stop)" which is obviously a reference to Dio's stand, The World (Za Warudo).
- Cheria Barnes from Tales of Graces has a fighting style based off of Part 3 DIO's abilities. She attacks using throwing knives as well as stopping Time. However her main focus is to heal the rest of the party, in the story this is done by touching the effected area, much like how Dio healed Pucci's disfigured foot.
- Peacock, a playable character from Skullgirls, is able to make a steamroller fall on her opponents like Dio in fighting games. If the hit connects, the little fellow Avery has the same behavior and pummels the steamroller until it explodes as seen in this video. Valentine, another playable character, throws scalpels like Dio throws knifes. By setting up Valentine's scalpel throw as an assist move, and with good timing and luck getting the steam roller, it's possible to recreate the Road-roller combo from HftF since time freezes during the roller drop.
WRYYYYY
"WRYYYYY!" (ウリイイイイイ, Uriiiii. Also pronounced Ree) is a shriek/war cry given off by vampires throughout JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It is used to represent the frozen, possibly slowed and heavy breath of vampires, and frequently cued to strike fear into their opponents and/or the reader/viewer. While all vampires in the series are prone to doing so, this noise is most commonly associated with Dio Brando himself.
A resurgence of popular interest in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure occurred when "WRYYYYY!" began making the rounds as an Internet phenomenon on Futaba Channel imageboards. Sparked by a Flash movie called "Mudah.swf" which features stick figures performing the signature attacks of five different characters from Parts 3 and 5 of the series (This was due to the fact that only series 3 and 5 had games at the time). Dio Brando's clip features his use of The World (often pronounced intentionally as "Za Wārudo", to mimic how Dio pronounces it in Japanese) to freeze time, throwing a barrage of knives, and finishing his dying opponent off by dropping a steamroller on him, atop which he leans back and exclaims "WRYYYYY!". This proved hilariously random to those unfamiliar with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Another phrase popularized by the animation is "Muda!" (which translates to "useless" or "futile" in Japanese) which is Dio's (not to mention The World's) battle cry.
The recent English publication of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (which begins at the start of the third arc) uses the spelling "WREEEEE!", which reinforces the proper pronunciation (at the cost of obscuring the connection to the Internet fad, however given the rather offensive nature of 4chan, where the meme was most popular, it is possible that it was a deliberate act of distancing itself from the fad and 4chan).
In All Star Battle, and in the anime, Dio does the noise with his own voice naturally as a violent scream, as opposed to the Capcom game making use of a voice synthesizer for extra shrieking effects.
As Giorno, Dio's son, uses "WRYYYYY!" during one of his fights, it is possible that the battle cry may be hereditary, since Giorno is not a vampire (but still may be a half-vampire, and thus a dhampyr). Another instance which supports this idea is when Dio's Steel Ball Run counterpart Diego also uses the WRYYYYY battle cry, during his battle against Valentine.
The World and Time Stop
As evidenced above, Dio's enunciation of his Stand and its power has also reached significant popularity, the full line in question being: THE WORLD, Time, stop! (
The line is later followed by: Time resumes. (時は動き出す, Toki wa Ugokidasu) But most well known version is And now, Time resumes (そして、時は動き出す, Soshite Toki wa Ugokidasu) from Heritage for the Future.
Major Battles
- Dio vs Jonathan Joestar (As children)
- Dio vs Jonathan Joestar (In the Joestar's Manshion)
- Dio vs Will A. Zeppeli & Jonathan Joestar
- Dio vs Jonathan Joestar (During the climax of Part I)
- DIO vs Noriaki Kakyoin
- DIO vs Joseph Joestar
- DIO vs Jotaro Kujo
Trivia
- Part I references the musician Ronnie James Dio, whereas DIO in Part III is named after Ronnie James Dio's band, DIO. Subsequently, in Part III his name is almost always written "DIO", in English.[citation needed]
- The trick he used on Hol Horse by instantly going trough spider webs without damaging it is a reference to Bela Lugosi's first scenes in Dracula (1931).
- Araki also mentions Dio's name originally being based off the word "God" in Italian, strengthening his megalomaniac personality and his project to create a new world for him and his subordinates, as implied in Stone Ocean.
- Similar to their nemesis, Dio and his SBR counterpart, Diego, have some resemblance, both of their defeats include complete decapitation: Dio beheads himself to prevent the Ripple from destroying his body whereas Diego's head was later used to defeat the second Diego.
- In Heritage for the Future, when hit with Alessi's stand, he turns to Nukesaku, and as Shadow Dio, he turns into Wang Chan (who carries Dio's head in a glass jar).
- Dio's underwater slumber could possibly be a reference to the lyrics of Holy Diver. "Holy Diver, you been down too long in the midnight sea."
- The bridge Jotaro defeats Dio on is the Qasr al-Nil Bridge, which connects downtown Cairo to Gezira Island and the Zamalek district. Its coordinates are 30.043747°N 31.229464°E.
- In the Capcom fighting game, Dio is voiced by Isshin Chiba, who also voiced Jedah Dohma in "Vampire Savior", a previous Capcom game. Chiba is also commonly known as the voice of Jin Kazama in Namco's "Tekken" series.
- Interestingly enough, in later Tekken games featuring Jin, he can be heard sayng "Mudada", which is Dio's catchphrase, though in Tekken, it's transatled into "Pointless" instead of "Useless". Another thing of note is that they respectively show traits mirrored by certain characters from the opposite series, with Dio having merciless and somewhat sadistic characteristics shared with Kazuya and Heihachi Mishima, while Jin on the other hand, is a cold rebel actively trying to stamp out their influence akin to series protagonists Jotaro Kujo and even Giorno Giovanna to Dio's influence on their bloodline.
- In the Phantom Blood movie, Dio is voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa, who also voiced Soma Cruz, a main character from Castlevania, another vampire-related franchise. Soma is revealed to be a reincarnated Dracula, making him a vampire of sorts as well.
- In a similar bizarre coincidence, Dio is voiced by Patrick Seitz in the anime's English dub, who also voiced Dracula in the Castlevania series.
- In Araki's top Ten Favourite Characters in 2000, Dio ranked as 10th, being the third main villain in the countdown.
- At the age of 120, Dio would have been the oldest (somewhat) human-born character in history at the time of Part III, the oldest human-born male to ever live, and the fifth or sixth oldest person to ever live, depending on the day he was born, being behind the four Pillar Men.
References
- ↑ Gorgeous Irene Ch 1
