ASB League Quarter and Semi Final Full Fights

Much faster. Maybe someone put these up early last week and I just never noticed until yesterday, but we now have a Nico video of the fights from today’s stream. [Edit 1: And also two YouTube videos now] This includes the Quarter and Semi final fights meaning that we are now in the finals. The last match will take place a week from today on ASB Launch Day.

I know the AI matches aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but these are actually not bad matches outside a few of the normal hiccups. No one can pass through Star Platinum’s Impenetrable Wall of Fists, and Kakyoin and Johnny continue to shoot like the CPU can’t decide if it wants them on auto-fire, but the exchanges are a lot more active. Dio manages to put the hamper on Kakyoin by warping to him. He’s up against the green stone wall with Kakyoin both shooting and effectively trapping him, but once he turns it around with his Knife Heat, he rallies like a train. That knife super really hurts.

Jotaro vs. Koichi has some decent exchanges, though it takes more than half of Koichi’s life bar to get there. You will hear more ORAORA than you have ever heard before, but once Koichi manages to get in, there’s some decent back and forth. It helps that watching Star Platinum’s grab where he holds the opponent up by the scruff of their neck and then hurls them into the ground is very satisfying.

Dio vs. Caeser was probably the best one, though. The speed, the fuck your projectiles attitude that Dio has, the time stop. It was nice. Dio stoms all over Caeser, but it’s nice to see their close up exchanges early on in the fight. The time stop is a good showing. They handled very well the way that it works with the opponent moving normally as their being hit but freezing after the damage animation is over. Good detailing.

And thus it comes down to the touch of destiny. The finals will be Jotaro vs. Dio for the crown of the JoJo’s Throne. The final match and the game itself run a week from now. You can also look forward to a video of the whole stream officially from NamcoBandai probably somewhere between Friday and Tuesday. I’ve heard there are some more fun host shenanigans.

[Edit 2]

There’s the shenanigans. The beginning part is them using Johnathan to show off Customize Mode, specifically the placing of sound effects. It looks like we won’t be able to make our own clouds. You have a set list of words/sounds you can pick from and can mess with their dimensions however you like. No covering Johnathan in 「ゴゴゴゴゴ」 it would seem, though that one is probably one you can pick form the list.

There are two bonus player “fights.” I say “fights” like that because these are being used for specific demoing of moves and features. Not that that’s a bad thing. You get to see Johnathan’s alternate outfit as inspired by that one manga cover as well as a few combos from him and Part 1 Dio. The big showing, though, is our first look at calling Stairway and C-Moon. The way it works in gameplay is sort of like King Crimson in the Part 5 game seemingly without a time limit. Pucci and Stairway move at normal speed where the opponent moves at something like half speed. They can presumably fight back, but they are offensively gimped. It’s the reward for the difficulty of pulling it off. On top of being a giant target while doing that floating away, you also have to build the Green Baby meter up to call C-Moon in the first place. Pucci does have a move to build it, and C-Moon does persist between matches, so I see it being used for claiming match point if it doesn’t end up being too cumbersome.

ASB PV 6 Full Subs

I had forgotten that someone would come along and sub the PV, but man am I appreciative. There’s a lot of small nuance to be picked up here and there. I had no idea that Abbacchio would be the one in charge of replays or that Terrence would be the one showing off models. The little details like that really make me appreciate the effort put into the game even more. It’s an even better showing than I would have expected all the way around.

All Together Now! All Star Battle PV 6!

I’m just going to say this now: Valentine fighting using an American flag may be the best thing this game has ever given us. Or, I guess you’d call it a Valentininan flag when he uses it? Regardless, that is easily my favorite aesthetic yet. I like things like the way Another One Bites the Dust pulls Hayato out of nowhere just so Kosaku can blow someone up, and I like that you go to space when time is accelerating beyond human perception into the realm only visible by gods, but there’s something special about the president pulling you into another dimension by slapping you with a flag. I also like the way he appears from it.

So here it is, the final stop before the game comes out. The new characters are the stars this time, flag, discs, frozen chunks of corpses, and time warping children bombs and all. We also get to see some situation finishes like the one at Dio’s Castle. Right at the end, we also see some of the menus. Story mode is of particular interest because it looks like you’re picking only from the main JoJo cast. If that is the case, I immediately go to that each character would follow the story of their own part, but the character roster isn’t geared towards that. If it works that way, Jolyne would have one fight with Pucci and maybe also a fight with Jotaro until the end. It’s just not enough, so I assume there’s more to it. I just don’t know why you’d have what looks to be like such a limited choice of characters for it then.

We saw the announcement characters and some alternate costumes. I don’t think the Darby Brothers need any introduction, but I’m happy to see Ringo Roadagain and Abbacchio. The most noticeable alternate costume is Johnathan’s, his green outfit he makes his most famous cover pose in. There were also some other ones, Josuke in something red, Joseph with a riding cape, and Jolyne in something fanserive looking, but most of those go by too fast for me to get a real beat on which outfits they are.

22 days. It’s almost right at our doorstep. I imagine there’s time for one more Famitsu special, and there’s also ASB League which I should be able to get you later today.

Dio and Pucci’s Famitsu Special and the Mystery Man of Group G!

Woo, has this day been big for ASB. There’s a new Famitsu special for Pucci and Dio. SoWL over on the Dustloop forums has already grabbed it up and translated away. I’ll quote here with a few pictures, so if you’d like to open that up and read along, go ahead.

Dio Brando (CV: Takehito Koyasu)

Battle style: Blood-sucking
A character featured in part 1. A ruthless, but intelligent individual. He was adopted by the Joestar family in his youth after his father died, but plotted to overtake the household for his own ambitions. When his plans were revealed to the public and he was surrounded by police, he donned the stone mask in the last attempt to escape punishment and turned into an immortal vampire. He decided to use this power to control an army of zombies and rule the world, feeding on humans. In gameplay terms, he can follow-up particular hits with his “Blood-sucking” ability, draining enemy’s health or Heart Heat Gauge. As with other vampire characters, a portion of damage Dio is dealt recovers over time, though it is vulnerable to Ripple attacks.

Command move: Kikareitouhou (“Vaporized and frozen”)
The move deals little damage, but freezes the opponent for a while. Additionally, it can be followed up by blood-sucking.

Command move: I got your artery!
By piercing the enemy’s neck, Dio can deal damage to them while healing yourself at the same time.

Command move: KUA!

Command move: So, you broke five to six ribs!?
A follow-up to “KUA!”. A powerful kick to the opponent’s sides.

Command move: Do you intend to defeat this Dio!?
A follow-up to “So, you broke five to six ribs!?”. After freezing the opponent with Kikareitouhou, Dio performs a powerful uppercut.

Command move: URYYY!!

Counter-move: It froze in an instant!
By guarding the enemy’s attack with this move, Dio can freeze them for a while. If he does, he can follow it up by blood-sucking.

Command move: You are but a monkey!
The ability to jump with a vampire’s power. You can also use this move to cancel certain attacks.

Command move: Weakling, weakling!

Command throw: Useless useless useless!

Normal throw: What a fool!

Taunt

Heart Heat Attack: Space Ripper Stingy Eyes
Bodily fluids are shot from the eyes under extreme pressure! An excellent Heart Heat Attack to use at long range.

Great Heat Attack: I will give you a cruel and painful death!
After freezing the opponent with Kikareitouhou, Dio beats them up and performs a strong uppercut! As the enemy falls to the ground after the uppercut, they shatter into pieces!

Enrico Pucci (CV: Sho Hayami)

Battle style: Stand (Whitesnake / C-Moon / Made in Heaven)
* Whitesnake and C-Moon are voiced by Takuya Kirimoto
A character featured in part 6. DIO’s best friend and a priest serving at G. D. St. Prison. When he is disturbed, he calms himself down by counting prime numbers. To overcome fate, he will do everything to see DIO’s plan of “Attaining Heaven” to completion. The ability of his Stand, Whitesnake, allows Pucci to read and extract other people’s memories and Stands by turning them into “Discs”. When he reaches Cape Canaveral, Pucci merges with the green baby born from DIO’s bone and gained C-Moon, a Stand that can manipulate gravity. C-Moon can reverse an object’s gravitational pull by attacking them, turning them inside out. By reaching a position where it affects gravity the most, Pucci’s stand evolves into Made in Heaven, allowing him to infinitely accelerate time and achieve infinite speed.

Normal throw: Realize your insignificance as you crumble away!
The throw that’s universal for all Stands. Pucci kicks the opponent and grabs their face.

Command move: Finally got it from you! (with Whitesnake)
A move that deals damage to the opponent and extracts their Disc. If this move hits, Pucci holds onto the Disc. While doing so, he can seal enemy’s command moves.

Counter-move: It’s an “Illusion” (with Whitesnake)
A counter-move that hypnotizes the opponent, leaving them defenseless. If you get behind them, you can kick them behind their knees, knocking them down.

Heart Heat Attack: Did it… Not bad… (with Whitesnake)
Whitesnake thrusts his fingers into the opponent’s head and slowly pulls out their Disc. You can get the opponent’s Disc on hit.

Special move: 14 Keywords (with Whitesnake)
As Pucci recites the “14 Keywords”, the “Green Baby Gauge” at the bottom of the screen fills up! If you manage to fill it completely, your stand evolves to C-Moon!

Blowback move: My body is the “Center” (with C-Moon)
A move that can only be performed if the opponent is within a certain distance from you. If successful, the enemy is blown extremely far away.

Command move: Only deal one punch (with C-Moon)
The Stand quickly rushes forward and throws an unblockable punch. If the opponent is hit, they become affected by the “It’s turning inside out!” effect.

Command move: Now you’ve lost both of your arms!! (with C-Moon)
The Stand throws an unblockable punch with both fists. If the opponent is hit, they become affected by the “It’s turning inside out!” effect.

Command move: Stay out of this! (with C-Moon)
The Stand hits the ground at the certain distance, sending fast debris towards the opponent.

Taunt

Great Heat Attack: Made in Heaven (with C-Moon)
After you perform this Great Heat Attack, Pucci gets caught in a window frame and starts to float slowly upwards. When you reach the height where the gravity is affected the most, the stand evolves into Made in Heaven. When it does, it starts accelerating time, making everything move extremely slowly. Moreover, Pucci himself starts moving faster.

Command move: The knives! (with Made in Heaven)
Two or more knives at once are thrown in midair!

Command move: Where is he!? (with Made in Heaven)
Pucci instantly teleports somewhere near the opponent.

On top of that, we’ve got a look at the Space Center hazard. It kinda makes sense where the pull of gravity changes what surface it pulls you towards. There’s also the Situation Finish at Castle Dio. It looks like I imagined. You just sort of get punted out the window, and it looks so fun.

I’ll save my attempt at analysis of the characters until after we see them play, and it won’t be long. ASB League has revealed their Group G. It contains Part 1 Dio, Pucci, and a Mystery Character. The UStream channel seem to list the broadcast date of this as August 7th, two weeks from today. That day, we will also be getting PV 6. The mystery character should be in it, and that will probably close the door on new, non DLC characters. Me, I’m hoping for Valentine.

(Images from Famitsu, translation from Dustloop. Thanks to both of them)

Fly Away Forever! Dio and Pucci Scans Number 2

Small update on Pucci and Dio, alongside a scan with a still better view of Pucci’s stands. These and a translation of a few new elements introduced in the same spread are courtesy of mikestrider on the JoJo forums. Credit where it’s due, I’ll quote his translation directly.

HQ Ultra Jump scans

Dio’s Battle Style is “Vampire” or “Blood Sucking” whichever you prefer.

The Situation Finish at Dio’s Castle is reinacting the scene where PB Dio falls off the side of the castle if he loses on the stage.

The Cape Canaveral stage is officially called “Kennedy Space Center”

The stage itself is essentially a hazard. Due to C-Moon’s powers, the stage changes gravity and the ground where you fight changes.

As a Situation Finish, if an opponent is sent flying, they’ll forever fly away.

I wonder what it is Dio’s fight mode will do. Will it work like ripple and just make him generally stronger? Maybe drain touch? That could get pretty rough if it’s not balanced properly. His castle situation finish sounds like good style. I imagine that it’ll look like the one in the Yoshikage house where, if you win with a super, the loser will fly backwards and out the window.

The Space Center stage sounds troubling by description. All the hazards up until this point have been one hit tricks if you stand in a little area for too long. A whole stage hazard that’s always active sounds like it could be really disruptive. That said, I don’t know what exactly it does. It sounds like the gravity switch will make it so where you’re standing will change randomly or at set intervals. I don’t know if that will interrupt what’s going on at the time or just be a cosmetic change, but if it’s the second, I don’t know how that’d be a hazard. At least the situation finish sounds hilarious. It may be because I’m imagining it as being like Galactic Punt from P4, which is also hilarious.

Tomorrow would usually be the day for a new ASB League, so maybe we’ll get to see some gameplay with these two.

Our Magificence Cannot be Limited to a Single Page! The Dio Brando and Pucci Super Spread!

Oh, that’s just beautiful. You look so good Pucci, and so do all your stands. Not that we should be surprised, but you get stand discs, and they work somewhat like Rohan’s writing power. I’m hoping that isn’t not that you twitch when you try to move, but rather that it locks you to only using very basic attack. There’s also something about stealing powers, but it’s pointing at C-Moon when it says that. Stairway works as you’d expect. Using his power makes the opponent slow to a crawl due to Pucci’s perception. It’s like how Diavolo worked in the Part 5 game, but that is how Pucci fought with Stairway.

Oh, and Dio. He’s pretty well done. He has his freezing power, but he also has his ability to suck blood. If you freeze a character, you can drain them dry and replenish your own health. He also gets Space Ripper Stingy Eyes. That may result in some spamming, but I don’t mind because I love the name. Go nuts with it.

Actually click the pictures this time to see the HQ versions. I posted the Japanese versions, but the linked versions are the translations from the JoJo Forums. The vampire in the bottom of Dio’s page has something fun to say.

“Is that ‘riiii’ spelled with a ‘w’ or a ‘u,’ Lord Dio?” Part 1 Dio and Enrico Pucci Announced!

(Edit 2.5: Got a new picture from JoJo F2C, then immediately found the translated HQ version from HurricaneCrew. You can see the Double Dio now, and Pucci’s stands are now much easier to see. You can also read it.)

Against my expectations, we’ve got Dio Number 2. Or is that Dio Number 1? I guess it doesn’t really matter, but that’s another big time character set, and he brought a friend. Now we’ve started fleshing out Part 6, though Part 1 Dio’s announcement might overshadow that slightly.He’ll likely be called “Dio Brando” in kana to contrast “DIO” of Part 3.

If you look in the corner under Pucci, you can see both Whitesnake and Made in Heaven, as it will probably be called. Because of that, playing as Pucci should let you use Made in Heaven in direct combat instead of as an ultra or something like I figured it would work. How will that work? Will Pucci get crazy fast and teleport around insanely? Will it do something to the round clock? What if you turn the round clock off? I also can’t discern C-Moon in there, but it probably is. (Edit: Someone pointed out the text that actually says C-Moon right over him. It’s being slightly swallowed by the glare right of MIH.) That’s going to be hard to fight.

Also, NamcoBandai put out a new video as a commercial for ASB League. There’s also a character trailer during it’s second part, which is the bulk of the video. It’s a massive comprehensive collection of everyone we’ve seen up until this point and a little bit extra on characters we haven’t seen in a while. I had forgotten that Kakyoin had his move where Hierophant goes inside your body, and that Okuyasu has a move where The Hand just keeps stomping on you for a minute. Very cool, just like how Speedwagon withdraws at the end of the video.

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.

Saturday? It’s Time for a JoJo’s Explosion!

Little bit of a break before finishing up with GMX. Lots going on in JoJo’s world, so have a triple update!

First up: Since DUWANG Subs 4 is finally out, it’s time for Oft he seveen days periodf DUWANG PRINCE KING: The Third Trophier.

Come on! My enemy frog is right over there!

Second: Eric’s Wacky Tumblr Blog has posted a full version of the JoJo’s: The Animation Opening Theme. I don’t have an image for that, but this happened in this week’s episode and was cool:

Everything about The Animation was building to Josuke vs. Highway Star, but this is also pretty nice.

Third, and finally: JoJo’s Year approaches its end as we get framed and sent to prison! It’s time for Part 6: Stone Oc-
Third, and finally: JoJo’s Year approaches its end as we get framed and sent to prison! It’s time for Part 6: Stone Oc- HEAVY WEATHER

So yeah, it’s time for “OPJ’s Bizarre Podcast! Part 6: Look at All These Livers!”

Download the MP3 Here!
And The Internet Archive has started providing torrent links, so Download the Torrent Here!
Send questions, complaints, an requests for autographed body parts here!

ROUND SIX

JOLYNE “CUJOH”

vs.

Fr. ENRICO PUCCI

WITH SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCES BY

MAZINGER Z, TETSUJIN-28, TETSUWAN ATOM,

KENSHIRO, RAOH and MORE!

Also, I couldn’t not put this in since we forgot to mention it.