The original Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle for PS3 was a fair realization of the flamboyant, pose-fest, though it could be pretty stodgy to play thanks to the rough online experience and microtransactions. Luckily, developers CyberConnect2 decided to reinvent the game for all modern platforms with a few tweaks.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R will bring in new techniques like dash jumps and support attacks, altering the characters’ move lists, simplifying the move commands, and boosting the game’s speed. It’s all at 60 FPS too, and everyone up to Part 6 now has the same voice actor as the anime. There are also ten new characters available by default. Many of them are coming back from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven, but others are completely new. So, who are they?
10 Robert E.O. Speedwagon
The first part in the Jojo saga is seen as fairly dry nowadays, but this hatted ex-hoodlum is considered one of Phantom Blood’s most popular characters. After an encounter with Jonathan Joestar in London, he gave up a life of crime in favor of helping him with his unique family predicament with Dio Brando.
Most of the cast use Stands, Hamon, or Modes. But Speedwagon has his own unique Ogre Street Style, which involves calling his old gang from London’s roughest neighborhood to bring the pain. They can attack Speedwagon’s opponent directly, hold them in place, or join in with his Heart Heat Attacks and Grand Heat Attacks.
9 Mariah
The original All Star Battle was rather light on ladies, with only Lisa Lisa, Jolyne Cujoh, and Ermes Costello turning up. So, All Star Battle R boosts that end up with four new fighting women. The first of the bunch is Mariah, Stardust Crusaders’ Dio devotee with the fetching red hood and a grim sense of humor.
She originally caused trouble for Joseph Joestar and Muhammad Avdol by tricking them into touching her stand Bastet. It made them gradually more magnetic until they were immobilized. She isn’t quite that OP in the game, though she can still pepper her opponent with magnet-propelled nuts, crush them between cars, and cut power cords to give them an extra shock.
8 Pet Shop
Also known as "Animal Shop," Dio’s pet falcon is notorious in Jojo games. He was so broken in the Capcom fighting game, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future that he was often banned from tournaments. Then he was broken again in Eyes of Heaven!
In both games, he was immune to low attacks because he hovered in place. He was also a small target that could fly out of his opponent’s range and hit them from afar. Yet he’s also a popular antagonist, most famously known for his fight with Iggy, the Stardust Crusaders’ dog. Aside from being able to fly, peck, and scratch, he can use his stand Horus to form giant icicles to smash his foes with.
7 Jotaro Kujo (Part 4)
The game already has two Dios via his Phantom Blood and Stardust Crusaders’ incarnations, so why not two Jotaros as well? The protagonist of Part 3 became a side character in Part 4, Diamond is Unbreakable. He often served as a mentor to new hero Josuke Higashikata and provided a decisive move here and there to help turn the tide in the good guy’s favor.
He still uses Star Platinum like his younger self, complete with the same pummeling fists and time-stopping abilities. However, he has a different moveset, complete with a projectile attack, and a new Grand Heat Attack based on his fight with Part 4 villain Yoshikage Kira.
6 Yukako Yamagishi
Fellow Part 4 protagonist Koichi Hirose thought he hit the jackpot when Yukako confessed her love for him. Then he learned all too soon her affection was more than he could handle, and that love can turn to hatred all too soon. Yukako’s stand, Love Deluxe, gives her control over her own hair à la Millia Rage in Guilty Gear.
As dainty as she looks, her hair can gather together for some hard-hitting attacks. It can smash through her foes’ defenses or grab them for some crushing throws. Particularly for her Grand Heat Attack, where she slams them multiple times before piling the pressure on.
5 Trish Una
Though she didn’t know about Stands until she partnered up with Giorno and the gang, the daughter of Part 5’s villain Diavolo had one since her youngest years. It just didn’t manifest until she was the team’s only hope against the Notorious B.I.G. (aka Notorious Chase).
With Spice Girl, Trish can soften up her opponent’s defenses literally, as her Stand can mollify anything it touches. It can also smack them about with a weapon, or straight up pummel them to pieces. Sometimes the direct approach is the most effective one.
4 Prosciutto & Pesci
Prosciutto was leaked alongside Trish way back around the time of All Star Battle R’s announcement. Though it wasn’t known he’d be a double-team character. Like Chang & Choi in Capcom Vs SNK 2, or Ferra/Torr in Mortal Kombat X, Prosciutto fights with his brother Pesci.
The two were previously stage hazards in the original All Star Battle and Eyes of Heaven. Now they bring the fight directly to their opponents, with Prosciutto doing most of the main attacks while Pesci throws the odd jab or special with his stand Beach Boy. It’s a fishing rod with an infinitely long reel that can phase through matter, hook onto anything, and pull its target in for Prosciutto’s Grateful Dead to finish off.
3 Ghiaccio
When the original All Star Battle adapted Part 5, Vento Aureo, it only had Diavolo representing its villains. Its story mode ended up quite lacking as a result. All Star Battle R thankfully beefs them up a bit with Prosciutto & Pesci, and Ghiaccio: one of the more popular baddies. Maybe it’s because his stand, White Album, is one of the more unique ones in the series. It gives him control over ice and takes the form of a nifty suit of armor.
Otherwise, it might be because he’s the anime equivalent of the Angry Video Game Nerd. He wears glasses and gets unreasonably peeved over small things. His Grand Heat Attack has him freeze his opponent in place before leaving them at the mercy of his infamous rant about why nobody called Venice "Venezia" outside of Italy. That sounds silly, but it hits as hard as anything Star Platinum can throw out.
2 Foo Fighters
Even though Part 6, Stone Ocean, is the latest part to get adapted, All Star Battle R only has one extra Part 6 character. Instead of reusing Eyes of Heaven's Weather Report, they went for another overlooked staple character: Foo Fighters. Known as F.F. for short, Foo Fighters is not actually the woman doing all the fighting.
They’re a bunch of plankton given a collective conscious when they absorbed a Stand Disc Father Pucci threw away into their swamp. After an encounter with Jolyne, they took over the body of a deceased prisoner, so they could help her out undercover. They can shoot plankton shots from their hand like a gun or shoot part of themselves into the opponent to beat them up from within.
1 Diego "DIO" Brando
Another Dio? Not quite. Diego Brando shares a name and voice actor with his more famous counterpart. But he’s as different from him as Part 7’s hero Johnny Joestar is from Part 1’s Jonathan. Diego is a jockey determined to beat Johnny and Gyro at the Steel Ball Run. Yet as self-interested as he is, he isn't a full-on bad guy.
In fact, he was a victim of Dr. Ferdinand, whose stand Scary Monsters could turn people into dinosaurs. Even after Johnny and Gyro finished him off, Diego took Dr. Ferdinand’s stand for his own to get the upper hand. So now he can turn into a beast or turn others into beasts. Whichever gets him ahead in the fight.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R is currently available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.