Looking at JoJo’s from a Fresh Perspective

Do you consider yourself a JoJo’s aficionado? If you’re here, then you probably do on some level. There’s a lot that we in even in this fairly self aware fandom, as in all fandoms, have just come to accept. So it’s worthwhile to appreciate someone looking at it from the start. Sometimes those are bigger deal people like this little video from Giant Bomb on the new English release of ASB. Well, “little” is a misnomer with this being an hour. It’s all just a little testing ground of the game. You’ll see a lot of Jonathan since he’s probably the easiest to pick up on the fly. Also the English. Some of them, like the above, are creative, let’s call it.

Like normal, the site is giving me crap about embedding something not from YouTube, so you can follow the link here to see it. Give it a look. It’s an interesting experience. And don’t take it too seriously.

“How Deep Can I Go?”

Yeah, I’m not not posting that picture. This is a screen taken from the English version of ASB with Jolyne’s final line after her HHA courtesy of williamzeppeli tumblr. That certainly is an interesting decision for that line.

But to give this a little more weight, would you like to see some of the other translation decisions? Someone was nice enough to drop a huge list of changes gleaned from promo material on the localized version onto Pastebin. It’s pretty massive, so I’m only going to post the name changes then give the links at the end. Directly quoted:

Character names seen in-game:

Jonathan Joestar

Will A. Zeppeli (Will Anthonio Zeppeli seen in menu screenshots)

Dio Brando

Joseph Joestar

Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli

Wamuu

Esidisi

Kars

Jotaro Kujo (Star Platinum)

Muhammad Avdol/Mohammed Avdol (different spellings between builds)

Noriaki Kakyoin

Jean Pierre Polnareff/Jean Pierre Eiffel (different spellings between builds)

Hol Horse

DIO

Josuke Higashikata 4 (Shining Diamond)

Okuyasu Nijimura

Rohan Kishibe (Heaven’s Door)

Koichi Hirose

Shigekiyo Yangu (Harvest)

Akira Otoishi (Chili Pepper)

Yoshikage Kira (Killer Queen is mentioned by name on Namco websites)

Kosaku Kawajiri (Deadly Queen, Feral Cat, Bite the Dust) (Killer Queen is mentioned by name on Namco websites)

Giorno Giovanna (Golden Wind)

Bruno Bucciarati

Guido Mista (“Bullets” in a dialogue translation)

Narancia Ghirga

Diavolo

Jolyne Cujoh (Stone Ocean)

Ermes Costello

Father Pucchi (Enrico Pucci is seen in menu screenshots)

Johnny Joestar (“Tusks” appears in a move’s translation)

Gyro Zeppeli (Ball Breaker)

Funny Valentine

NPCs:

San Tan

Nukesaku

Guess

F.F

Jongalli A

Pesci (Fisher Man)

Lucy Steel

Diego Brando

Joshu Higashikata

MIA, not seen in any form yet:

Lisa Lisa

Old Joseph Joestar

Iggy

Vanilla Ice

Panacotta Fugo

Narciso Anasui

Josuke Higashikata (JoJoLion) (presumably Josuke Higashikata 8)

Ikuro Hashizawa/Baoh

I emphasize the Polnareff change to Eiffel because that’s just dumb. Might as well just name him Baguette Man with his stand Riposting Chevalier and be done with it.  “Stray Cat” to “Feral Cat” is also kind of odd considering that Stray Cat is a fairly normal term, but I’m not going to question copyright fears.

You can find the whole of this collection here for names and here for in fight dialogue.

(Thanks JoJo’s thread for posting both of these.)

All Star Battle English Version Physical Copies Now Available

And it is about that time. The English version of All Star Battle is now available for preorder directly from Namco-Bandai. It’s ~$50 flat out, probably not including shipping, and is supposed to be a limited physical run. I’m surprised there’s a physical run at all because I expected PSN only. If you want the box that probably comes with translated manual, it is available.

Unfortunately, based on the screen caps, the game is the vanilla edition, not some sort of Super ASB with all the DLC characters packed in. That’s not really surprising if disheartening, but at least we are in the post however many patches it’s been now. They do not indicated any name changes that I can see, though they are probably in there. Only a few names are shown, and they weren’t the kinds of names that would be changed. You’ll have to check it directly.

[Edit: Destructoid has an article with a bit more of the technical specs including mention of framerate, patches, and western additions including a new arcade mode.]

This Opponent… I’ll Need My Clown Mask! All Star Battle Campaign 3 Comprehensive Costume and Color Video!

Always good about getting these out, Vish has published the next compendium of JoJo’s ASB costumes. As before, you can navigate to the character of your choice with the annotation based menu to see that character’s new costumes and colors with sources and a little demo of them in gameplay. I particularly like Lisa Lisa’s jester mask and Noir Cars, and I always like seeing that the colors come from a source rather than just messing with a Photoshop filter and calling it an unlockable.

There should be two more of these, I believe. The Vanilla Ice and Anasui one and finally the Baoh one.

Baoh- Baoh- Baoh- Baoh- Baoh Phenominon. Baoh ASB Demo Videos

And that brings us to the Armed Phenomenon. And you’ll be hearing about that ad nauseum. Baoh as the character fights fine, I suppose. I really did think the laser version of Break Dark Thunder would be the GHA, but it works more like Dio’s Space Ripper Stingy Eyes. What’s unfortunate is the narrator. I appreciate wanting to be as close to the source as possible, but the voice being so prominent makes hearing “BAOH” over and over kinda grating. You probably get used to it over time, but still. Outside that, he’s interesting enough. I wouldn’t have expected him to have an aerial projectile. Hell, I didn’t expect him to have a projectile at all. Didn’t know Baoh could throw his arm blades.

Outside that, we’ve also got the GE punch, the counter hair taunt, the Joseph taunt, and the GHA/HHA video. Here I don’t mind the narration because I like the idea that Josuke and Joseph can hear it. Where else would the insult come from, or Joseph’s sense of smug self satisfaction? Or do they just look at Baoh and know? The punch is also great because of how little Baoh seems to care. “Barubaru” translates as “yeah, whatever.”

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle English Release Date and PV 1

I’ve never been so pleased to see the English version of the JoJo’s logo. This is the PV for the English version of ASB. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before if you kept up with all the PVs before the Japanese release, and only goes up to Part 3 probably to link it with the anime. It does have a run down of each character in those parts, but not the DLC characters. That means that you’re probably going to have to buy them separately, which isn’t honestly surprising. It’s not so bad because now we can now buy the DLC much easier. I just hope they keep the reduced cost instead of bringing back the full cost as CC2 is getting ready to do in a few weeks. Even easier to get, $6 a pop is still a little nuts.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle will be released in the US, EU, and Australia in spring 2014.

Baoh, the Bastard, Gets His Own V-Jump Spread! And then Some Worse News

And it all comes down to a psychic parasite infested blue man. Or orange in this case, I suppose. I’m not sure if that’s something the person who took this image did or V-Jump or what, but whatever. The important thing is that we know now that what seems to be his GHA is Break Dark Thunder, so Baoh does, in fact, have a laser cannon.

The other moves they show, I can’t tell what they are. I’m only familiar with Baoh from the OVA, but I’m pretty sure he can shoot needles from his hair, he has the arm blades like Cars, which I why I thought Baoh would end up as an alternate costume for him before Baoh was announced, I think he can discharge electricity in general in addition to powering that laser, and I know that he can melt people by grabbing them.

I knew I kept this around for a reason

The melting I can see as a HHA since Break Dark Thunder should be his GHA. If it is, I hope CC2 goes the extra mile and makes a unique melt animation for everyone like what they did for the Gold Experience punches. He was a bewildering pick at first, but I could see Baoh being a lot of fun visually.

The 5th All Star Battle Campaign, “Armed Phenomenon,” will launch on November 14th.

(Thanks to Araki’s World Tumblr for the picture and the news.)

[Edit: As for that second date in front of Baoh’s right foot, December 2nd, that is far worse news. It’s a little blurry, but if I’m reading it right, it says that the campaign where the DLC characters are half off, ¥300 instead of ¥600, that I thought was supposed to last forever will end on December 2nd. It does make sense since Baoh is supposed to be the last guy. The last a little over two weeks is supposed to be a grace period to get it all, but still annoying. Grab them up fast if you haven’t already.

Thanks to Douwe in the comments for pointing that out.]

The Red Light of Nothingness and the Mutilating Not Boyfriend! Vanilla Ice and Anasui Fight Demos

You know, it’d honestly slipped my mind that it was getting to be time for these two to be coming around. I think we’re starting to settle down with all the DLC characters almost all the way out, and I’m taking the new campaigns for chances to get extra costumes while taking breaks to listen to those voice clips of yelling for as long as the voice actor’s lungs held out. Still, I was interested in Vanilla Ice, so let’s check this shit out courtesy of Vish.

Anasui seems pretty straight forward, but that makes sense when you think about it. Picking him for the game seems kind of strange to me because I don’t remember him having many significant fights that were really visceral. There was Yo-Yo Ma and he was part of Bohemian Rhapsody, but those weren’t really as much about just beating the shit out of someone. Because of that, he has what kind of looks like what Fugo had in just hitting guys with a few throwbacks to Diver Down’s ability outside the HHA and GHA, though without accidentally poisoning yourself so better. I was expecting him to be more based around what Abdul can do with Crossfire Hurricane Variation but more versatile since DD can move around more freely through things. I do like the placing Diver Down through the floor so it can ORAORA someone in the back, though, so maybe this just needs a different playstyle to really shine.

Vanilla Ice does look interesting. The red glow for the void area makes sense since fighting an invisible character would suck just as much for the opponent as the one using them. He also seems geared towards basic aggression, having Ice’s kicks from when he was kicking Iggy to death was a nice aesthetic touch, but maybe with a bit more movement planning. Some of the moves I’m not sure what do like when Cream makes a hole in the floor because it seems to take just long enough for the opponent to come up and kick your face off. I’m also interested in that going Stand mode makes it so you are inside Cream but not the void, so you become somewhat intangible to move around. Seems abusable on the surface, but it’s not that different from most teleports. There’s also sending Cream all over the place, and Ice does get blood sucking and a cute Light Shoryuken like punch, so I think he can go places.

By the way, Vanilla Ice is voiced by Hiroyuki Yoshino (Solf J. Kimblee in Full Metal Alchemist to cover the psycho murderer part, and Brief from Panty and Stocking to cover the creepily idolizing someone part,) and Anasui is still voiced by Yuichi Nakamura. See you guys in a little while for a little bit of LASER CANNON.

[Edit: And you can now add in Josuke’s Hair Insults, Joseph’s Counter Taunts, Giorno’s Face Punches, and the GHA and HHA videos.]

“I Was Busy Being Purple in the Corner.” All Star Battle Campaign 2 All Costumes and Colors with Origins

Another campaign, another slew of unlocks, but we’ve also just passed one by. For those of you curious, Vish has another compilation of every new costume and color from ASB Campaign 2 with their origins as to the original work and whose ass you need to kick to unlock them. There’s lots and lots of characters to go through, 22 total this time. Like before, you can thumb through them however you want by using the annotation menu to skip to your preferred character.

The depths of JoJo alternate clothes and colors to plum are deep, and do you have to have gone far to catch them all. I barely even noticed purple Kakyoin on that one cover, and I’d never heard of that artbook that one Jotaro costume came from. I assumed it had been from some Stone Ocean cover I’d forgotten about. Your fandom combing continues to impress, ASB Team.

ASB Changes and You by Josuke Higashikata

Small post about a big update. That video is a demo of the new 1.3 ASB released today, the 11th, using Josuke to show the adjustments that the game has gotten in this pretty sizable update. Combos and canceling more easily handled, but I don’t delve into fighters often enough to tell just by looking.

For those of us like that and those who want to know every in and out of the new update, there is also a full translation of the notes from the official website that detail every single change that’s been made to the game by BuddyWaters from the JoJo Forums. You can read that translation on William Zeppeli Tumblr. The same Tumblr also has a translation of the proposed changes for ASB 1.4 done by another member of the JoJo community SingerOJosuke fW. These are less a “we’re going to change this” and more a “here’s some stuff that we’re kicking around.”