Today marks the start of a three part series in which we’ll cover the upcoming JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure HD Ver. The goal is to give you an overview of the game and its bizarre roster, as well as introduce some of you newcomers to the weird world that is JoJo. There’s a lot of information, so let’s get right to it.

First off, what is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure? It’s a Capcom fighting game based on the third story arc in the manga of the same name, written by Hirohiko Araki (which, by the way, is available through Viz Media  and they have all editions of Part 3 up for sale). In the game, as well as in the manga, the characters battle each other with the help of Stands (more on that later) which are the key unique element that sets this game apart from all other fighters out there.

The story in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure revolves around the main character Jotaro Kujo and his quest to kill Dio Brando as well as save his own mother; at the same time, Dio is very much interested in killing Jotaro, so he hires assassins and mercenaries to do the dirty work.

You see, 100 years earlier, Dio became a vampire and tried to kill all members of the Joestar family to take over their possessions. Jonathan Joestar (Jotaro’s great-great-grandfather) sunk to the bottom of the ocean after Dio cut off his own head to prevent Jonathan’s attack, Ripple, from reaching his brain. Fast-forward 100 years to the present day and Dio now has attached his head to Jonathan’s body and is after the remaining Joestar family members. On his way, Dio too develops a Stand. Holly Kujo, Jotaro’s mother and also a member of the Joestar family, also has the ability to possess a Stand. However, when Dio develops his Stand, this causes a reaction in Holly. As she does not have the power to fight it off, this causes her to become ill. Now the clock is ticking for Jotaro – he only has a few days to save his mother before all this Stand business does her in! Now with the help of his grandfather Joseph Joestar and a few friends he finds on the way, Jotaro sets out on the journey to kill Dio Brando as soon as possible!

So what’s unique about JoJo’s fighting game mechanics? Well, I did mention the Stands earlier; they are main unique feature in this game, and they come in three different types. There are Acitve , Weapon and Passive Stands .

Active Stands

When triggered, Active Stands appear on the screen alongside your character and often times have their own set of attacks and/or modify some of your character’s special and super moves. Some Active Stands may also grant your character double-jumps, air-dashes, or even Stand Releases and Tandem Attacks. By releasing your Stand, you can control it freely and independently from your character. Tandem Attacks function slightly different: you can queue up a couple of moves for your Stand to perform, and then you can use your main character to attack at the same time.

Weapon Stands

These do not generate a separate entity, but remain at your character’s hand. They can extend your character’s reach, damage and combo potential, as well as having a special mode in which they can combo any series of attacks for a short period of time. Both Active and Weapon Stands have a Stand meter that works similarly to your health meter, but for your Stand. If your Stand meter is depleted, a Stand Crush occurs, leaving you open for attacks. The Stand meter can be recharged when the Stand is off.

Passive Stands

These are actually inherent traits of each character and do not have a Stand meter. They have fewer disadvantages in that sense, while still being very useful. Most Passive Stands may look like an Active or Weapon Stand at first glance so they can be deceiving. Passive Stand characters tend to have very unique offensive options that really make up for the lack of an Active or Weapon Stand; so don’t shy away from trying them out.

Well, that’s all for a quick overview of the game. Actually I didn’t get to play the original game back in the day on a CPS-3, Dreamcast or PlayStation, so I’m very excited to see JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure HD Ver. coming out in high definition and with a set of solid online features.

Also, if you have played the original, you’ll be glad to know the Versus and Arcade modes are coming straight from the CPS-3 and Dreamcast versions, while the Story mode comes from the PlayStation side. It’s really a complete package!

Anyways, next time we’ll start a breakdown of each individual character so stay tuned!