ASB League Groups C and D Highlights Reel

The Nico recording highlights are up, and I’m starting to sense a trend in these fights.

Group C

Group C was another grouping of stand vs. non-stand. Rohan was  of particular interest to me because when this game was being announced, Rohan was someone I was sure wouldn’t make it into the roster. Heaven’s Door is cool and all, but it didn’t seem like it would be suited to a fighting game.

As before, if you’re waiting for the full stream to see who won, be aware I’m posting the results table below the link to the fight.

Turns out I was totally wrong because Rohan is the taker of today’s first blowout victory. His ability to seal away parts of or all of your attack just destroyed the opposition. Part of that is probably that the CPU doesn’t take into account that they can’t do any moves, so after getting hit with the seal, they’d just sit there twitching while Rohan hits them in the face. That let him get strong rallies where he might have otherwise lost.

Kira vs. Wham was a pretty nice fight because the technique is very key. Kira is suited to keeping his enemies away and picking at them with bombs where Wham is a close range brawler. Once Kira was able to get him away and use Sheer Heart Attack to deal with Wham rushing towards him, he had a better command of the fight, but when Wham was in his guard, there wasn’t much he could do.

Will was fine. His moves are pretty good, and I like that he has a good agility. It just didn’t serve him too well in this fight. Rohan and Kira move on to the Top 16.

Group D

Stand users abound and also a horse, which I think is a fair balance. Based on how well Johnny was able to do with Slow Dancer, seeing Gyro fight on horseback was going to be interesting. Giorno was also important because him having GE Requiem was a cause for concern with how ridiculously powerful it is.

Not that it mattered at all. Not even with that he is invincible while transforming could Giorno get away from being the one shut out in this group. That’s the trend I’m noticing. It’s confusing, though, because his fight with Gyro ends with him getting a counter that knocks Gyro off Valkyrie, but then he loses. I don’t get it.

Koichi is this group’s star. His ability to keep his opponents at a distance is what allowed him to completely control every match. The only person who really had a good beat on him was Jolyne, who is suited to barricading herself while hitting the opponent with her longer than normal range stand shoot. She also combos very well into the baseball move. Koichi’s, I guess, zoning is what makes him able to wreck everyone.

Gyro is somewhat lopsided. He does fantastic while on horseback, completely wrecking Giorno’s shit in the first half of their fight, but the moment he fall off, he doesn’t seem to be able to handle himself as well. This is why Jolyne and Koichi were able to handle him so well, and may be why Giorno lost if he did which I’m not sure about. With their longer range moves, they were able to knock him off very effectively which kept his stronger mode largely held down. Koichi and Jolyne move to the Top 16.

Look forward to the full stream video sometime this weekend and the Groups E and F fights next week.

(Thanks to JoJo F2C for posting this. You can also watch the videos there if you prefer them to Polsy.)

Edit:

As a bonus, remember the punchable Friend Frog?

Yeah…

Dad! Stop Interrupting my Fights with the Local School Children! The Rohan, Cars, and Kira Move Special

It is that time again. Time again to see what the new ASB kids can do. Like last time, there is a translation lovingly done by someone from the Dustloop forums, SoWL. I’ll go ahead and just cross post that, so if you’d like to open up the Famitsu page from this link in a new window so you can read along, by all means. I’ll be posting the pictures for the characters and for their Great Heat attacks, so check out the Famitsu page for the whole set.

Kishibe Rohan (CV: Hiroshi Kamiya)

Battle Style: Stand (Heaven’s Door)

A character featured in part 4. A popular manga artist who lives in the town of Morioh. Selfish and assertive, he does not care about people’s reactions when it concerns his creative thinking, making him look like a weirdo to outsiders. However, as long as he gets material for his work, he’s ready to face any hardships for the sake of being the ultimate artist. By using his Stand, Heaven’s Door, he’s able to turn people into books, read their experiences, and even make his own corrections.

Command move: Safety Lock
While his Stand is turned off, Rohan can perform this move by pressing Weak, Medium, or Strong attack button. If the enemy hits the picture Rohan draws in midair, he can seal off that attack. However, this effect ends after a certain amount of time or when Rohan is knocked down. If the enemy gets another one of his moves sealed, it overrides the old seal.

Command move: I’ll mess your “Ability” real good!
While his Stand is turned off, you can seal off the enemy’s Style button with this command move. This effect ends after a certain amount of time or when Rohan is knocked down.

Normal throw: Rock.
A throw that blows the enemy away by hitting them with “rock” from rock-paper-scissors.

Command move: I’m growing!
The Stand appears and unleashes a flurry of punches and slashes! After hitting the enemy, you can follow up with “Maybe I’ll incapacitate you” or “My body got blown away at the speed of 70 km/h !”.

Command move: Maybe I’ll incapacitate you

Command move: My body got blown away at the speed of 70 km/h !
By writing these words on the enemy, Rohan can send them to the opposite side of the screen at frightening speed

The taunt pose is sure to make the fans smile.

Special taunt
This taunt comes out when Rohan taunts in response to the opponent’s taunt. His Heart Heat Gauge recovers back the amount lost due to the taunt.

Heart Heat Attack: I’ll take your “Reality” for myself!
With this HHA, Rohan rips out a lot of pages out of the opponent. The damage is small, but he seals all their command moves for a set period of time.

Great Heat Attack: Heaven’s Door
Rohan writes down “I cannot attack Kishibe Rohan” on the opponent. This attack seals off every single attack, but only lasts a set period of time.

Yoshikage Kira (CV: Rikiya Koyama)

Battle Style: Stand (Killer Queen) (Sheer Heart Attack’s CV: Kashiwakura Tsutomu)

A character featured in Part 4. A serial killer who tries to live the life of a common salaryman who just “can’t help but kill people”. His Stand, Killer Queen, can turn any object into a “Primary Bomb” with a single touch. He uses a detonator to blow up the touched object at any time he wishes. Moreover, Killer Queen’s left hand has Sheer Heart Attack, a tank-like tracking “Secondary Bomb”. It relentlessly follows the target until they explode.

Command move: Anything it touches is turned into a bomb
Kira tosses a coin projectile at the opponent. In addition to exploding on contact, you can trigger the explosion again with additional inputs. By the way, make sure to stay away from the explosion, since it can hit Kira, too.

Command move: Primary Bomb
The opponent becomes a bomb with a touch. You can follow it up with “I’ll break you apart!” at any time you want.

Command move: I’ll break you apart!
As the name suggests, the opponent is blown up into pieces!

Command move: You bastard!
Killer Queen unleashes a flurry of punches!

Command move: Whack!

Command move: I’ll break you apart!
After hitting the enemy with the coin bomb, you can blow them up at any time you want.

Normal throw: You should try and learn from me

Taunt

Heart Heat Attack: I’ll blow you to smithereens!
Kira strikes a pose with Killer Queen, and then beats up the enemy. Then, after blowing them up into the air, he triggers an explosion, blowing them away

Great Heat Attack: Sheer Heart Attack
Sheer Heart Attack starts following the enemy, shouting “Over here!” and making a great explosion after finally reaching them. By the way, it cannot move if it’s hit by “3FREEZE” of Koichi’s Echoes Act 3.

Cars (CV: Kazuhiko Inoue)

Battle Style: Light Mode

A character featured in part 2. The extremely intelligent leader of the “Pillar Men”. His Light Mode allows him to protrude shining blades out of his limbs, the so-called “Bright Sabers”. To overcome the Sun and become the “Ultimate Being”, he has created the “Stone Masks”. To obtain the “Red Stone of Aja” required to complete the mask, he fights with Joseph with everything on the line.

Command move: Light Mode
By activating this skill, Cars emits a bright light, making some of his attacks unblockable.

Special move: He can pull blades out of his legs too!!

Command move: A sneak attack, cruel and extremely skillful!

Command move: I’ll smash you against the wall!

Command move: That blood-freezing brightness!

Command move: All that counts is to get the final victory!!

Command move: Bright Saber Mode
While in Light Mode, Cars can activate Bright Saber Mode by spending 1 level of Heart Heat Gauge. Not only do his blades become unblockable, but his command moves also gain other additional properties.

Taunt

Heart Heat Attack: Bright Saber
After cutting the opponent, Cars pauses for a moment. Then, after they fall down, he rushes forward for an instant finishing blow!!

Great Heat Attack: This is the birth of Cars, the Ultimate Being!!!
By donning the stone mask with the Red Stone of Aja embedded inside, Cars evolves into Ultimate Being! As Ultimate Being, he gains traits of all sorts of living beings!

Special move: This can’t be…!?
Cars transforms his arm into an octopus tentacle and raises it upwards.

Guard
The attack is blocked with a crab-like armor.

Special movement: Flight
By holding down the button, Cars can move freely in the air. Of course, he can still attack while flying.

Special movement: Air dash

Command move: It’s the Ripple you little piece of shit!!
For the Ultimate Being Cars, even the Ripple breathing is possible! He can focus the energy gained from the unique breathing technique and attack with it!!

Command move: Genetical data transformation
Cars can attack the enemy from afar by transforming his body into a squirrel or a piranha. He can even do it while in midair.

Whew, that was a lot more robust than I was originally expecting. I posted the taunts because I wanted to post Rohan’s, so I figured I should just post them all, and I can’t not post Squirrel Hand, but we’re not done yet. We’ve also got the reveal on the new stage, the Yoshikage Esta, featuring a guest appearance by Kira’s long lost Polaroid. We’ve got a small peak at the editable sound effects that you can customize each character with. A small bit just reconfirming the situation finishes, where you win a fight in such a way to mirror the original manga/anime.

And we now know that we’ll be able to ORAORAORAORA to our hearts content.

And that’s it. Our next stop should be the big trailer on Sunday. Because they’ve only just done these three, that day should be our first chance to see the new Part 5 kids in action. Look forward to it.

(All images from Famitsu as you can tell by their watermark. © Famitsu, Hirohiko Araki, Shueisha, LuckyLand Communications, CyberConnect2, and NamcoBandai)

The Third All Star Battle Commercial Has No Weakness!

Terrence is starting to lose it. I mean his blood because it’s all being punched out of him.

Despite that I named the article after Kira, the commercial is pretty evenly spread amongst the characters that are mentioned. Kira just gets a slightly bigger scene where he blows up Okuyasu. You get to see him launching Sheer Heart Attack instead of it just being in the air. Good enough for me. Maybe we’ll get to see Another One Bites The Dust soon.

Preorders for JOJOveller Now Open!

We’ve run out the clock. It’s time for JOJOveller. (Sound Warning)

A massive compilation cap to everything about the 25th Anniversary of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Artwork, documentaries, interviews, the works. It’s all here.

The Artbook

The JOJOveller Artbook focuses mainly on Parts 6 through 8. It contains some stunning artwork in the same vein as the artwork in JOJOmenon. Also, it blows up because Kira got into the production line.

The Stand Book

You know how there were little readouts on the Stands in between chapters that gave a brief overview of a Stand’s ability, powers, and whatnot? This is going to be that, but so much more comprehensive. Power ratings, ability comprehension, various artworks, and all for every single Stand that has appeared since Part 3.

The History Book

The History “Book” is actually a book and video interview with Araki. Go back in time and look at everything JoJo including Araki himself stepping back and looking at his whole 25 year magnum opus where he will apparently be revealing classified JoJo information that we’ve never heard before. Maybe he’ll explain how Gold Experience Requiem works.

The Documentaries

There are two documentaries in this collection. The first one is the JOJOmenon video that was part of an Ultra Jump release a little bit ago. They put up a new, more robust preview video.

The second one is a little sitdown with Araki at his desk walking us through his creative process in “The Making of JoJo.”

The amount of artistic media that he goes through to make his artwork. I never would have guessed he uses airbrushes.

Special

This isn’t as much part of the book itself as the PV I embedded up at the top. The big deal for this page, though, is the bonus images. All these pictures that I’ve been using are on the page, but what they are is the physical JOJOveller book being affected by different stand powers. You can probably guess what most of them are. The site will release all these pictures on a schedule as wallpapers for desktops. Currently, the only available ones are Echoes Act 3 and Cream. They’re all available in two sizes. The next one, the exploding one, will be available on the 26th.

So how do you get it? Reservations for copies are now available through a number of different sites and also a printout order form you presumably mail in to somewhere. I would go through the Amazon page. It’s going for the heavy price of ¥20,000 ($209) and here’s the big part: JOJOmenon will officially ship on September 19th, but preorders are only being accepted until Tuesday May 7th, Japanese Standard Time. If you’re looking to own, you need to move fast.

Edit: There will also be information released alongside Chapter 19 of JoJolion in the most recent Ultra Jump.

(All images Copyright Luckyland Communicaitons, Hirohiko Araki, and Shueisha)

All Star Battle PV 4 Subbed! “I’ve taken the meaning out of your language.”

I assumed you guys would be interested in knowing what they were saying. It helps me out. I didn’t know what it was JoJolion Josuke was doing during his Grand Heat, but the friction stealing is cool. Okuyasu calling Giorno names makes way more sense than insulting his topknot that he totally has. His classic style “uurrryyy” is also a nice touch.

(Thanks to JoJo Tumblr for being that chain link. You can see the original post here.)

All Star Battle PV 4! Father vs. Daughter, Gun vs. Gun, Vampire vs. Pompadour, RERO vs. RELA

Yeah, that’s the way to do it. Can we agree that we’re coming into ASB with a little “who’d win in a fight” mentality? The moment Mista and Hol Horse were both set to be in the game, I was thinking about who has the better gun stand. But the stand out rivalry is obviously the all out cage match of Cherries vs. Cheese.

The gameplay that we got to see with the main showcase characters, Johnny, Johnathan, Will, and JoJolion Josuke are pretty interesting. I was wrong about what move I thought would be the On Fire Fist, but we knew it would be there. Zoom punch got my attention because it looks like it sticks for a second instead of retracting immediately. If it does, it could be really awesome for anti-air because an opponent could misjudge the time and still jump into it. Will also has it, so I await my match where we sit across the ring just doing that at each other.

Johnny looks like he’s either going to be the character that’s really hard to use because of his very limited movement when not on Slow Dancer but very rewarding if you can handle him or the character that caters to spamming because he’s going to be projectile heavy. That does follow; his power was shooting his fingernails, but I don’t want that to mean he’ll be the back-up-and-shoot-you character.

JoJolion Josuke I think is going to be the trap/counter character with that all based around the soap bubble. I’ve got to give CC2 some credit for what they used for his moves because you see him using a bunch of soap bubbles as a barrier around his body like the shaving scene. He also does that at a distance, but I’m mostly interested in when the screen goes black. That specific bubble will steal the players’ “eyes” by blacking the screen so whoever’s JoJolion Josuke can get a free hit. That’s going to be really hard to use for human player because it blanks the screen, but there may be more to it than what’s in the PV.

Oh, and Kira. He has Sheer Heart Attack, but that’s all they’re telling us. I figured he would also be a counter/trap character because of the way Another One Bites the Dust works and all the bombs, but it’s not in the PV. At this point, I think we can be clear that Kira is DLC only. The way he’s rolled in with the Hayato Memo Book and the specific mention of PSN in the text on the still intro page (edit: and that he’s listed as such on the official character page.) You gotta buy him extra. If you don’t want to mess with getting foreign DLC, you might want to import fast.

From the depths of silence Awaken thepillarsbeyondtimetogcouraofcrimood- … From the depths of silence Awaken

I love this fandom. Maybe it’s because JoJo’s itself gets really creative, but the fanworks are just incredible.

Give it a second to pick up. The moment you realize what’s going on, your mind will be blown. What really impresses me is that this could have just been the first part of the video and that would have been cute, but the number of stand powers and which powers they are at times this video is able to make use is incredible. It would have never entered my mind to use KISS, but it was so cool when it happened. See how many you can identify without using the tags as a cheat sheet. Hell, it may not work because I’m not sure I got them all.

All Star Battle PV 4 Preview Images

Now this Famitsu article contains more disclosure on JoJolion Josuke.

So we’re going to have an after battle grading system ala Street Fighter 4. Fair enough. I wonder what the quality is determined by. Maybe it’s your combo rating, but I could see there being a posing quota you have to reach to get above a C.

These images were taken by a Famitsu rep at the CC2 special even a little bit ago. You can tell based on that title card that at least some of these pictures are part of a new PV. Lots of JoJolion Josuke, who will be voiced by Mitsuaki Madono (Pizza in GaoGaiGar Final, Noriaki Kakyoin in Heritage for the Future, Toru Adachi in Persona 4.) What I really love is that the white version of his outfit, the most normal colors, is the alternate colors against the orange version. JoJo colors are so fab that alternate crazy colors are the boring ones.

But what’s got my attention the most is that Kira and Sheer Heart Attack are in this PV. When I read the Famitsu article that I posted before this one, it did seem to say that Kira was going to be a DLC character that you could get through a promo included with the first run of the game. But here he is in the PV like he’s just going to be around, so maybe not. Kira will be voiced by Rikiya Koyama (Shinigami in Souleater, Mamoru Takamura in Hajime no Ippo, Duke in Tales of Vesperia.) I hope I am wrong about Kira being DLC only and that he’s in the game proper. The PV that comes out on the heels of this should clear it up.

There are a few more characters and events bumming around.

RERORERORERO at the start of every fight

And there are a couple of displays.

The full display version of the special figures

And some demo booths. Go Josuke! Punch your ancestor!

Look forward to PV 4 soon.

(All images from Famitsu. Copyright CC2, LuckyLand, Jump, and Hirohiko Araki. Thanks to Goon Kurtofan for finding this)

OPJ Podcasts! “OPJ’s Bizarre Podcast – Part 4: You’ll Be Eaten By Feet!”

What a beautiful morning! What a beautiful Ducast!

It returns with the best part yet! Diamond is not Crush! Or Diamond is Unbreakable because that doesn’t sound as Engrish. Not that you’ll be lacking for translation problems or anything. It’s ok, someone explodes a motorcycle. You’ll be fine.

Download it here!
Send questions, complaints, an requests for autographed body parts here!

ROUND FOUR

JOSUKE HIGASHIKATA

VS.

PRETTY MUCH EVERYONE IN THIS TOWN