JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険) is the name commonly given to any one of the versions and ports of a fighting game developed by Capcom based on Part III: Stardust Crusaders.

It was originally released in arcades in 1998 on the CPS-3 board; this version known outside Japan as JoJo's Venture. An updated version of the game was released in 1999 as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 未来への遺産), becoming the sixth and last game released for the board. Console ports of this version for the PlayStation and Dreamcast were released that year, while a high-definition version was released for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in August 2012; making this version the most popular among players.

Profile
The games were developed by the same team responsible for the Street Fighter III series.

The game combines Capcom's trademark anime-inspired graphics, as seen in the Darkstalkers series, with the colorful characters and events of Hirohiko Araki's creation, resulting in a highly stylized and detailed visual style. It also features many of the gameplay mechanics seen on previous Capcom fighting games, such as the use of power gauges for super moves, as well as a brand new Stand Mode, where the Stand can be summoned or dismissed at will by the player, resulting in variations on the character's move list and abilities.

Hirohiko Araki served as a consultant for the game and created exclusive pieces of artwork for its promotion and packaging; most notably, he developed from scratch a new character design for Midler, since Capcom was interested in using her in the game and she had been only vaguely shown in the original manga.

These games were among the first pieces of JoJo-related media released in North America, exposing the characters to many western players for the first time.

Story and Setting
The game's events and characters are based on the third part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Part III: Stardust Crusaders. Many of the events featured in the game (as well as some character designs) directly contradict the depiction of the story in the OVA adaptation, so the game should be considered to be specifically based on the original manga.

Gameplay
The basic rules of the game are those of a standard fighting game : one-on-one battles consisting of two or three time-limited rounds, in which the goal is to deplete the adversary's health bar using both regular attacks as well as character-specific special and super moves, which require the input of button combinations and/or spending accumulated energy, outputted in a power gauge which fills with every attack.

The game uses a simplified 4-button control scheme, consisting of three attacks (light, medium and strong) and a Stand button, which switches the character's stand On and Off (see Stand Mode below)

Stand Mode
Fighting with the Stand Mode "On" enhances both the character's offensive and defensive abilities; these improvements heavily depend of the character and stand, but some common ones are for example double jumping, absorbing residual damage when blocking special attacks, powered-up special moves, etc.

Most of the game's specific mechanics derive from the introduced Stand Mode. For example, attacking the physical manifestation of the enemy's stand will cause damage on both of them; this is a crucial strategic element, since many of the special moves and attacks send the stand away from the user, adding the difficulty of protecting both of them at the same time. On top of the usual health bar and power gauge, there is a third meter, the Stand Gauge, which decreases when the stand is damaged and refills when the Stand Mode is switched off; if this gauge is depleted, a Stand Break is caused, and the character is paralyzed and wide open to any attack for an instant.

Other features of the Stand Mode include summoning the stand with an instant attack, the possibility of "programming" attack patterns on the fly and unleashing them at will, "releasing" the stand and controlling it directly, and so forth.

Some characters lack an "active" stand, though; some of these "passive" stand users introduce even more complex and specific mechanics into the game, such as Hol Horse's gun-stand or Mariah's magnetic stand.

The stands create strong differences between the characters, and force often radically different offensive approaches for each one; this "character-dependent gameplay" style would be present in posterior fighting games, such as the latter entries of the Guilty Gear series, which, interestingly enough,also includes many Rock and pop music references as well.

Bonus Stages and Special Battles
Across the game and if certain conditions are met, the player will have to clear special stages and face secret opponents in which special rules apply and which reenact certain chapters of the manga that were less "translatable" as regular combats. Among these special events are a sidescrolling sequence in which the player has to overcome a water stand and find its user N'Doul,a special battle against Death 13  or a minigame when the player must find Arabia Fats to defuse his stand The Sun.

They also include other special matches as well, but those were exclusive for the PlayStation port via the Super Story mode such as Gray Fly, Enya Geil, Captain Tennille Imposter (in an interactive movie), Forever (in an interactive action sequence), Nena (interactive movie scene), ZZ (interactive movie scene), Steely Dan (side scrolling shooter), Cameo, Telence. D'arby (interactive movie scene),Daniel J.D'arby(interactive minigame) and Kenny G interactive minigame).

Clashing
Similar to Guilty Gear's system, if certain attacks of the same strength and same intensity occur and collide at the same time, clashing occurs. This only happens with characters with an Active Stand. It is hard to see this system in action as it happens very seldom. Currently, it is unknown if the new Active Stand-wielding characters introduced in the 2nd JoJo game can cause attacks to clash. In some cases, clashing can lead to a Blazing Fists Match. (see below)

Blazing Fists Match
One of the less known features of the game, but also one of the most impressive, it's caused when two certain opposing special moves performed by certain characters at the very same time collide; the player/s are then prompted to quickly bash the attack buttons to win a Blazing Fists duel and decide who will receive the damage, a feature first seen in Samurai Shodown.

Secret Factors
A interesting feature of the Super Story mode is the activation of secret factors. As the game itself is really faithful to the original manga series, playing out the scenario akin to official canon will activate these factors, if the player do it right, it gives them a high ranking upon winning the scenario,and is a unique feature that also celebrates its source material and rewards fans and readers of the series.

This feature appaeared again in  Le Bizzarre Avventure di GioGio: Vento Aureo  which is also a game based on the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure license and a Capcom product.

Alessi Mode
When Alessi uses Sethan to de-age the characters some of them turn into minor characters instead of their child forms. In the Dreamcast version there's Alessi Mode, which allows these de-aged characters to be played in a set of rules (Both players fighting as the kid counterparts for the whole round or the characters turning into children during a Stand crash). This mode is unlocked by finishing Challenge mode with Alessi
 * Kid forms (Jotaro, Kakyoin, Avdol, Polnareff, Devo, Middler, Pet shop, Vanilla Ice, Alessi)
 * Young Joseph (Joseph)
 * Teenage Joseph (Young Joseph)
 * Iggy's older design (Iggy)
 * Disguised Fat Woman (Rubber Soul)
 * Boingo (Hol Horse paired with Boingo)
 * Unnamed boy possessed by Anubis (Chaka, Black Polnareff)
 * Unnamed cow possessed by Anubis (Khan)
 * Unnamed boy with Hanged Man in his eyes (Hol Horse paired with J.Geil)
 * Unnamed old woman from Mariah's fight (Mariah)
 * Nukesaku (DIO)
 * Wang Chan (Shadow Dio)

Differences between JoJo's venture and Heritage for the Future

 * A changed Guard Cancel motion.
 * New moves for several of the returning characters.
 * A minor change to Jotaro's Puttsun Ora.
 * DIO is now selectable from the beginning.
 * Vanilla Ice becomes a playable character.
 * A major variation of Polnaref is available (Black Polnareff).
 * Three brand new characters are selectable (Pet Shop, Mariah, Hol Horse).
 * There are four additional hidden characters (Rubber soul, Khan, New kakyoin and Hol Horse w/Boingo).
 * The opening and closing credits,as well as the "character select" theme are different.
 * The "Survival" option has been replaced by a 10-battle "Challenge Mode".

Arcade
The initial arcade release of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was released on December 2, 1998. An English-translated version was released in Asia under the shortened title of JoJo's Venture, which predates the officially licensed English adaptations of the original manga and anime (hence the name change). It was followed by a fully revised version titled JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future, released on September 13, 1999, which featured eight additional playable characters. An English version that was released in Europe retained the full Japanese title of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Console
Two console versions were produced. The PlayStation version is based on JoJo's Venture, but features some of the additional characters from the second version of the arcade game and an exclusive "Super Story Mode" that adapts the entirety of Part 3,Although there are a few unnoticible frames missing from the Playstation port and the sprites have less detail(specially the Stands). The Dreamcast version, also released in 1999, features both, the original and revised versions of the arcade game in their original forms.The English versions changed the spelling of all the characters to avoid the copyright involved in their names, which reference many singers and songs.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure HD
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure HD is a High-definition port of the original game, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future.

This game is different from CyberConnect2's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle game for the PlayStation 3 console. The HD version costs US $19.99 on both PSN and XBox Live.

The game was released on PlayStation Network on August 21, 2012, and on Xbox Live Arcade on August 22.

The game, apart from upscaled graphics, include tweaked dialogues and fonts. Notably, it uses the super chime from the first JoJo's Venture, like it did with the earlier Dreamcast port. Transparency has also been properly applied, replacing the sprite flashing once used. There are options to use the original graphics style, however.

Story Mode
The HD update features the option to play in either the classic arcade style or an “Arcade SD Mode,” which has pixel-like art like the original games.

Online Play
The game supports online play that includes the ability to filter opponents by location and connection speed, similar to the systems seen in Super Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

The online mode introduces a new eight-player multiplayer mode where players can compete (while waiting to compete) for a chance to compete in the final showdown.

Differences from the manga

 * Jotaro removes Kakyoin's implants on the spot after defeating him as an antagonist. In the manga (as well as the anime adaptations), Jotaro takes him home and relieves him of DIO's slavery.
 * Perhaps due to programming constraints, much of their character story is not logically explained. One example is in Kakyoin's storyline, where after encountering Jotaro, his story shifts to Devo, fresh out of victimizing Polnareff, instead of introducing Polnareff in Hong Kong first.
 * The playable villains in the story have some of their storyline and concepts fleshed out. One example is Anubis, where the potential of betraying DIO is expounded.
 * Midler's new character design is the result of the collaboration of Hirohiko Araki and CAPCOM. She was not properly seen in the original manga storyline, and is merely a minor antagonist with few details. However, Capcom wanted to have her as a playable character and asked Araki to come up with a new design for her. She has been drawn by Araki in this new design ever since.
 * Her name has also been carried over to the new Stardust Crusaders anime, but this new character design was not.
 * Jotaro disses N'Doul instead of talking to him after defeating the latter. This was properly represented later in the game's Super Story Mode.
 * In the English version of the game, the Super Story Mode sequence of Kameo has Polnareff and Avdol dropping pebbles on his breathing pipe. The Japanese version retains the rather-unsettling way of ratting out Kameo—by urinating into the breathing pipe.
 * Steely Dan's brutal punishment by Jotaro in Super Story Mode is remarkably shorter than in the manga. This is probably because of memory constraints in the PlayStation, where the mode is only available.
 * Enya Geil is killed after being defeated by Jotaro in Super Story Mode, whereas in the manga, Steely Dan executes her.
 * In the Japanese version, on N'doul's bonus stage, he reacts to the dead helicopter pilot watch's alarm and cuts his hand. This was cut in the english version
 * Dio's explosive death is more violent in here, where only his bloodied lower torso is left. In the manga and anime, at least his upper torso remains, sans his decimated head.
 * If the game is set to certain regions or the game's regulation is set to enabled or, in the HD remake, expressions are disabled, Dio simply flies offscreen to his doom.

Name Changes
Because JoJo makes many references to band names, it was necessary to rename the legally-troublesome names to be acceptable for release outside Japan. The following are name changes that are significant:
 * J. Geil was renamed as J. Gale.
 * Enya was renamed as N-Yah.
 * Devo was renamed as D'Bo.
 * Arabia Fats was renamed, oddly, as Alabia Fats.
 * Vanilla Ice was renamed as Iced. However, the English version still references the original namesake with his new winquote "You had a problem, I just solved it".
 * Mariah was renamed as Mahrahia, an exaggeration of her original name.
 * Kenny G was renamed as Ken-E Gee.
 * Rubber Soul was renamed as Robber Soul. The renaming fits him as well as it also touches his ability of stealing the essence of his victims.
 * Steely Dan was renamed as S-Terry Dan, a distortion of the original name.
 * Oingo and Boingo were renamed as Oing and Voing.
 * Some characters had only one letter changed, like Chaka to Chaca, Iggy to Iggi and Alessi to Alessy.

Trivia

 * Heritage for the Future marks the first time that a JoJo-based game has seen an English release, albeit with changed names to avert possible legal issues. It is likely that this exposure, along with the Viz Media dub of the OVA, is what made Jotaro and older Joseph more recognizable than the other JoJos and DIO the most popular antagonist, and perhaps the reason why the English version of All-Star Battle had Jotaro, Star Platinum and Dio in its cover art, as opposed to all the protagonists faces reflecting on Jotaro in the Japanese cover art.
 * The game was also the reason behind the popularity of the series, or perhaps particularly on Part 3 since the OVA at first, until 2012 - onward to all parts, internationally.
 * The game's English version logo seems to have become the defacto English logo of the series, as even All-Star Battle has adapted the overall look of the English language logo, which was first seen in this game.
 * The game pays homage or picks up inspirations from other JoJo-related medias that came before it:
 * One of Avdol's alternate color schemes turns his coat red and shirt to yellow, similar his apparance from the 1993's and 2001's OVA. The same goes for Joseph Joestar, Polnareff and Black Polnareff, both of them having alternate color schemes that resemble their OVA apparance.
 * Hacking the game reveals an unused variation of DIO's mansion stage, where a window is wide open, sunlight flowing into DIO's coffin. This is likely a reference to how the party attacked DIO in the OVA, vastly different from the manga.
 * Likewise, later JoJo games pay homages or made references to this game:
 * The underlying mechanics of All-Star Battle largely borrows a lot from this game.
 * In All-Star Battle, Part 1 Dio's Space Ripper Stingy Eyes HHA uses the exact same animation (Including Dio rearing backward) as DIO's version of said move in this game, and DIO's HHA move in ASB is very similar to Shadow DIO's "Checkmate!" super.
 * All-Star Battle has two alternate free-DLC costumes for Jotaro and Polnareff, based off of promotional material for the game.
 * Golden Whirlwind for the PS2 (also by Capcom) features an orchestrated rendition of Polnareff's theme from this game.
 * Besides being based on Part 3 (Stardust Crusaders), this is the first game to have elements from more than one JoJo saga.
 * From Part 1: (Wang Chan as Shadow Dio's "child" form during Alessi's stand ability as well as both Dios having Space Ripper Stingy Eyes as a special move).
 * It has elements from Part 2 (Young Joseph as playable character, Caesar appears in one of Young Joseph's special move in one of several manga panel flashbacks as well as Lisa-Lisa doing the same for Old Joseph's version and the Red Stone of Asia is used as one of Young Joseph's supers).
 * From Part 4: (the Stand Arrow appears in Polnareff's "Requiem" super)
 * From Part 5: (Silver Chariot Requiem appears as a super combo for Polnareff and one of his win quotes translates to "We'll meet again in future...in Italy.").
 * One of Jotaro's alternate color scheme recolours his coat, hat and pants white, much like his Part 4 outfit (seen in some of the manga covers).
 * In one of Dio's alternate color scheme, "The World" is pink and blue giving it an appearance similar to  Crazy Diamond.
 * Three of the game's seiyuu, Mitsuaki Madono (Kakyoin), Hōchū Ōtsuka (Joseph) and Sho Hayami (Vanilla Ice) return to voice different characters in All Star Battle (Madono voices Part 8's Josuke, Hōchu voices Hol Horse and Hayami voices Enrico Pucci).
 * Hayami reprised his role as Vanilla Ice in the Stardust Crusaders anime.
 * The HD version is the first console release of the game overseas in which the player can uncensor the game, via the "Expressions" option. Setting it to "Original" restores red blood graphics as well as Dio's Story Mode defeat animation of him exploding violently.
 * Although the ingame drawings for every character remain true to the original Part 3 art style with larger muscular body builds, promotional art for the game depicted most of the characters as drawn using Part 5's more wiry build type.
 * For its Playstation release, the game has sketchy censorship, even in its Japanese version as it did not retain much of the violent animations in Arcade Mode, not even Dio's explosive death.
 * While some of its sound effects have been borrowed from the Darkstalkers series, the unique sound effects used in this game have been recycled several times in other titles from CAPCOM. It has been reused in Capcom vs. SNK 2, Capcom Fighting Evolution, and even in the Street Fighter IV series.
 * Some of the visual effects used in the game, particularly the sparks, dusts and super sparks have been borrowed from CAPCOM's Marvel VS series.
 * Despite Alessi's name being changed, Young Joseph's opening still has the original name. This was changed in the console and HD versions of the game.
 * If the player is using either DIO,Jotaro or shadow Dio and they are caught in Timestop,they can input the timestop command and effectively steal the timestop.
 * The characters introduced in  the Heritage for the Future update have no A.I (Artificial Inteligence) at all. It wasn't until the PlayStation port that Capcom give those character A.I for the Super Story Mode.