The game combines Capcom's 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 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: a character's Stand can be summoned or dismissed at will by the player, resulting in variations in the character's move list and abilities.
The most significant addition present in the PlayStation port is Super Story Mode, an overarching campaign mode that incorporates battles, mini-games, and quick-time event stages to adapt every fight in Stardust Crusaders. Other additions include the new characters and storylines from Heritage for the Future, a Training Mode where the player can practice strategies, and two extra modes that provide bonus content as the player gains points in Super Story Mode.
The basic gameplay mechanics are those of a standard fighting game: one-on-one battles consisting of a series of rounds, in which the goal is to deplete the adversary's Vitality Gauge using regular attacks and character-specific special and super moves. Special and super moves require the input of button combinations and/or accumulated energy, which is displayed in a Super Combo Gauge that increases every time damage is dealt or taken.
The game uses a simplified four-button control scheme, consisting of three attack buttons (light, medium, and heavy) and a Stand button, which switches the character's Stand Mode on or off. Pressing all three attack buttons triggers a invulnerable forward dodge; pressing the three buttons while blocking pushes the opponent back a set distance. Depending on which button is used to select a character, a different color palette will be used for that character.
Two single-player modes are available: Super Story Mode, which follows the plot of Stardust Crusaders beat-for-beat and incorporates special gameplay modes, and Arcade Mode, which functions identically to Heritage for the Future's Story Mode. In addition, there is a two-player VS Mode and a Training Mode to practice moves and combos in. As the player clears stages in Super Story Mode, they can earn up to fifty JoJo Ability Points for each stage; as the player earns more JoJo Ability Points, additional extras in Gallery Mode and Book Mode are unlocked.
Stand Mode
Fighting with Stand Mode on enhances a character's offensive and defensive abilities; these improvements heavily depend on the character and Stand, but the most common benefits are double jumping, absorbing residual damage when blocking special attacks, and more powerful special moves.
Stands themselves are physical extensions of their users, and thus damage and attack effects inflicted upon one carries over to its user. Like avatar/puppet-based characters in other fighting games, Stands are able to act independently of their users, allowing for several offensive gimmicks.
Most of the game's unique mechanics derive from the introduced Stand Mode. Many special moves and attacks send a combatant's Stand away from its user, making it more difficult to protect both at the same time; each character's orientation is based on their position towards their opponent, and not necessarily the opponent's Stand. If a character is damaged while their Stand is far away, the damage received is doubled. On top of the Vitality Gauge and Super Combo Gauge, there is a third gauge, the Stand Gauge, which decreases when a character's Stand is damaged and refills when Stand Mode is switched off. If this gauge is depleted, a Stand Crash occurs, leaving the character paralyzed and open to attack for a moment.
Another feature of Stands is Tandem Attack, which can be executed once a character has one stock of the Super Combo Gauge to expend. During the extended startup flash, inputs can be provided for the character's Stand; the Stand will then perform these button inputs on their own as a Program Attack, leaving the user free to do as they please and attack simultaneously. Controlling the Stand directly by performing a special move will cancel the Stand's predetermined onslaught early, however. Weapon Stand users such as Hol Horse and Joseph Joestar, who are unable to separate their Stand from themselves, can instead perform a Real Time Attack, in which most of their moves can be chained into one another until the stock is emptied.
Some characters lack the ability to enter Stand Mode, such as Mariah and Evil Incarnation Dio; these Passive Stand Users introduce their own complex and specific mechanics into the game. Several nonplayable characters (Gray Fly, Enya the Hag, Death Thirteen, Judgement, and N'Doul) are either present in Stand form only or move completely independently of their Stand.
The mechanics of each Stand create strong differences between the game's characters, and force different offensive approaches for each one. This "character-dependent gameplay" style would inspire several subsequent fighting games, such as the latter entries of the Guilty Gear series (which, interestingly enough, also contains rock and pop music references).
Clashing
If certain attacks of the same strength and intensity occur at the same time and collide, clashing occurs. This only happens with characters with an Active Stand. It is hard to see this system in action as it happens very infrequently. This mechanic would later be incorporated into future JoJo games, such as All Star Battle
In some cases, when two certain opposing special moves are performed at the very same time, a Blazing Fists Match can occur. When this happens, both combatants are prompted to rapidly tap the attack buttons to win the duel and decide who will receive damage, a feature first seen in Samurai Shodown. This feature has since been adopted and expanded in All Star Battle.
Bonus Stages and Special Battles
In some battles in Arcade Mode, special rules are applied in order to reenact certain chapters of the original manga that were unable to be adapted into the normal circumstances of the 1v1 battles.
N'Doul is not fought directly; instead, the player character finds himself on a corridor level and must reach N'Doul at the end of the level. Throughout the stage, Geb will attack, and the player must avoid the Stand's attacks by jumping or dashing.
Mannish Boy (or rather, Death Thirteen) can only be fought in Arcade Mode if the player clears the first five stages without using continues and while playing as one of the heroes. His attacks exploit the dream-like nature of his stage, as well as the absence of his user. Whether the player wins or loses against Death Thirteen, they are allowed to continue Arcade Mode.
Changes from JoJo's Venture
Every character from [JoJo's Venture] is available from the get-go, along with five new characters: Hol Horse, Anubis Dual-Wielding Polnareff, Mariah, Pet Shop, and a newly-playable Vanilla Ice. In addition, four additional hidden characters have been added, these being Rubber Soul, Khan, Hol Horse & Boingo, and Fearless Kakyoin. Additional palettes for each character have also been added to be used with the Stand button. Less significantly, Vanilla Ice's boss AI has been toned down, and Proud Lineage Joseph now wears his tank top from Battle Tendency.
Venture's menu systems have been mostly redesigned. Sound effects throughout the game have been added or changed, and the startup animations for super moves and Tandem Attacks have been altered. The Super Combo Gauge now resets to one stock after every round, unlike in Venture where it would keep energy between rounds. A save system has been added, and an in-game Option Mode allows you to adjust several game settings.
Jotaro removes Kakyoin's flesh bud at the hospital immediately after defeating him as an antagonist. In the manga and anime adaptations, Jotaro takes him to the Kujo household and removes the flesh bud there.
Perhaps due to programming constraints, much of each character's story in Arcade Mode is not logically explained. One example is in Kakyoin's storyline: after encountering Jotaro, his story immediately jumps to Devo without introducing his victim Polnareff in Hong Kong first.
Many character-altering injuries were downplayed or outright cut, such as with Polnareff and Iggy.
The playable villains have very different storylines from the manga in Arcade Mode. Most minor villains turn on Dio in their single-player storylines, while Dio himself must face a surviving Avdol and Iggy in his storyline.
New scenarios were also written for Fearless Kakyoin, explaining his lengthy hospital stay as a result of Mannish Boy's revenge, and Proud Lineage Joseph, explaining his appearance as a result of Alessi's Stand ability.
Midler is seen with a new character design as the result of a collaboration between Araki and Capcom. She has been drawn by Araki with this new design ever since.
In Arcade Mode, Jotaro taunts N'Doul instead of talking to him after defeating the latter.
DIO's explosive death is more violent in the game, as only his bloodied lower torso is left. In the manga and anime, his upper torso remains, sans his decimated head.
Steely Dan's brutal punishment by Jotaro in Super Story Mode is remarkably shorter than in the manga. In addition, many of the scenes depicting Jotaro's suffering at the hands of Steely Dan was cut.
Enya is killed after being defeated by Jotaro in Super Story Mode, whereas Steely Dan executes her in the manga and anime.
While D'Arby's minigames are rigged to lose on the first play in Super Story Mode, it is possible to legitimately win in D'Arby's minigames when replaying them through Book Mode (double-check this).
Name Changes
Many of the names in the game's English localization have been changed, mostly due to copyright issues.
While some of its sound effects have been borrowed from the Darkstalkers series, the unique sound effects used in this game have been recycled several times in other titles from Capcom, including Capcom vs. SNK 2, Capcom Fighting Evolution, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and even the Street Fighter IV series.
Regarding the Darkstalkers series, Evil Incarnate Dio uses a voice filter similar to that used by one of the games' characters, Jedah Dohma (from Vampire Savior). In addition, Dio is voiced by the same voice actor as Jedah (Isshin Chiba) in this game. This adaptation is the only time Dio's voice is rendered with a filter; in all other adaptations, he speaks without any notable filters or distortions.
Some of the visual effects used in this game (particularly the sparks, dust, and super sparks) have been borrowed from Capcom's Marvel vs. series.
Homages
The game pays homage to other JoJo-related media that came before it.
The normal color scheme used for The World's armor and skin bears a striking resemblance to the one used in the 1993 OVA.
One of Avdol's alternate color schemes colors his coat red and his shirt yellow, causing him to resemble his appearance in the 1993 and 2001 OVAs. Joseph Joestar and Polnareff also have alternate color schemes that resemble their OVA appearances.
One of Iggy's special moves creates a giant wave of sand that flows in the opponent's direction, similar to how he attacks Vanilla Ice in the 1993 OVA.
DIO’s Road Roller super move has him pummel a steamroller repeatedly until it explodes. The explosion aspect mirrors the 1993 OVA, where DIO instead uses a tank truck that explodes after he pummels it.
In turn, later JoJo games pay homage to this game.
In All Star Battle, Dio Brando's Space Ripper Stingy Eyes HHA uses the same animation as DIO's version of the move in this game. Furthermore, DIO's HHA move in ASB functions similarly to Evil Incarnate Dio's "Checkmate!" super move.
All Star Battle has two DLC costumes for Jotaro and Polnareff based on promotional material for this game.[1]
GioGio's Bizarre Adventure, another JoJo game developed by Capcom, features an orchestral rendition of Polnareff's theme as the background music for Chapter 11-1. In addition, some cutscenes use the villain intro theme from this game's single-player mode.
Besides being based on Part 3 (Stardust Crusaders), this is the first game to have elements from more than one JoJo part.
Part 1: Wang Chan is used for Evil Incarnate Dio's child form when he is affected by Alessi's Stand ability; a shot of the Stone Mask appears when a Stand Crash occurs; both versions of Dio have Space Ripper Stingy Eyes as a special move.
Part 2: Proud Lineage Joseph is based on Joseph's appearance in Battle Tendency, and as such uses several techniques from the part; Caesar appears in Proud Lineage Joseph's version of one special move, while Lisa Lisa appears in Old Joseph's version of it.
Part 4: The Stand Arrow appears during Polnareff's Requiem super move; one of Jotaro's alternate color schemes colors his coat, hat, and pants white, causing it to resemble his Part 4 outfit; one of DIO's alternate color schemes colors The World pink and blue, giving it an appearance similar to Crazy Diamond.
Part 5: Chariot Requiem appears as one of Polnareff's special moves; one of Polnareff's win quotes references his future appearance in Italy; on the world map used in Story Mode, Italy is marked by Giorno Giovanna's ladybug brooch.
Iggy's second special is a reference to the Shun Goku Satsu move used by Akuma in the Street Fighter series. This is further evidenced in the game's debug mode, where an unused graphic shows the kanji for the word dog (犬, inu) stylized in a similar manner to Akuma's kanji for heaven (天, ten).
Another connection to Street Fighter can be found in the animation used for the round announcements, as the ripple effect is borrowed from Ryu's Shin Shoryuken move in Street Fighter III: The New Generation.
Localization
As JoJo's Venture marks the first time that a JoJo game was released outside Japan, the game changes the names of several characters to avert possible legal issues. Most of these localized names have never been used since.
The blood in the game is colored white in international releases, and DIO's defeat in the single-player mode is changed from his upper half exploding to him being sent flying off-screen (where he presumably dies).
Near the start of N'Doul's bonus stage, Geb reacts to the dead helicopter pilot's watch alarm and cuts off his hand. This is cut from the international release.[2]
For its PlayStation release, even the Japanese version of the game is censored.
The game's English logo became the de facto English logo of the JoJo franchise's games until 2014, as All Star Battle adapted the style of this game's logo. However, as of Eyes of Heaven, all English logos of the series now follow the style introduced by Crunchyroll.
Okawa voices the narrator in the anime, and reprises his role as Weather Report in Eyes of Heaven.
Throughout the game, characters are shown to be aware of the player.
Devo outright threatens to curse the player next in his ending.
Mariah flirts with the player in her ending.
Anubis Dual-Wielding Polnareff 'attacks' the player after running out of victims in his ending.
Both Evil Incarnate Dio and DIO point at the screen in one of their win poses, though DIO goes a step further and 'attacks' the screen with The World afterward.
Joseph shows a spirit photograph of DIO to the player in one of his win poses.
One of Hol Horse's super moves involves him shooting the player's camera, creating shards of glass for Hanged Man to jump between. In addition, one of Hol Horse's win poses sees Hanged Man appear in the player's camera in a menacing manner.
Easter Eggs
Holding Light Attack and pressing Start with Kakyoin, Fearless Kakyoin, or Vanilla Ice causes them to perform a different taunt.
Joseph Joestar and Midler have a special intro where Joseph tricks High Priestess into thinking it destroyed his hand.
Iggy and Vanilla Ice have a special intro where Vanilla Ice breaks Iggy's sand decoy of DIO.
When fighting Jotaro, Avdol, Kakyoin, or Polnareff, Proud Lineage Joseph has a special taunt wherein he predicts their own taunts.
Hol Horse will say "Aye aye, sir!" when using his special after the opponent is caught by his Hanged Man special move.
Jotaro, Joseph, Kakyoin, Devo, Polnareff, Avdol, and Fearless Kakyoin have a special intro against DIO where they yell his name.
Glitches
If a player is playing as Jotaro or DIO, they have a very small window of time to perform a time stop at the end of a round. If they are successful, time will stop as the next round starts, before the opponent can recover their health; thus, if the opponent takes damage while frozen, they will automatically lose the round once time resumes.[3]
If Avdol enters Stand Mode, plants his Ankh super move, and holds one attack button, he can remain invincible for two seconds.[4]
Chaka's VS Title appears when challenging a glitch character.
In the character select menu, pressing up and left quickly when selecting Avdol or up and right quickly when selecting Kakyoin will show glitched characters; pressing up, down, left, or right will show different character slots. Some of these glitched characters are playable and show corrupted sprites and moves; others will crash the game and display short pieces of garbage text on a black screen. If another player joins the game in the place of a glitch character, the usual text shown will instead show Chaka's VS Title in Story Mode.
Pressing the Stand button and then spamming up and down quickly with Hol Horse & Boingo will spawn a duplicate Boingo in the air. This duplicate Boingo can hurt the enemy, and will disappear if he is offscreen or Hol Horse is hit. Hol Horse can spawn as many of these duplicates as he wants.
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