
A remastered complete with additional features, characters, and combat adjustments, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R remains a classic adaptation of the popular anime and manga property at its core. The attention to detail is often excellent, with the game referencing all kinds of dialogue and events from Hirohiko Araki’s original work. It’s a cliché when discussing anime-based titles, but it’s really a love letter to everything JoJo,
The playable roster consists of 51 characters, and the variety is very, very impressive. It’s a dream for every contestant to feel unique in such a huge cast JoJo Fans, and casually it’s a pleasure to explore each character’s options.
Get stuck, though, and All Star Battle R is probably one of the most technical anime-based fighting games of modern times. It has combos, cancels, assists, sidesteps, specials, super—everything you’d expect from a fighter teetering on the edge of pleasing the competitive scene. There’s a depth here that most anime adaptations get away with easily, and learning the ins and outs of the system can be really rewarding.
On a mechanical level it’s a rock solid fighting game, and a decent amount of single-player content means you can ease yourself into the experience before hopping online. But unfortunately, the online offering is where All Star Battles R is flat. The game’s delay-based netcode is incredibly inconsistent, various network errors are all too common, and – perhaps most unforgivable – there is no rematch option after the fight is over. It feels like an online mode straight from 2014, when the original All Star Battles launched on the PS3 — and that’s not enough here in 2022.
It’s a shame that the game’s online suite is so far behind the times, because All Star Battles R is an otherwise brilliant ode to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. A technical fighter who always deserves a second chance.
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