I first heard about this title back when a youtuber by the name of MegamanNG showcased this game back in its initial release. 2 years later, I decided to watch the anime (which is my favourite anime of all time). I was reminded of this game and decided to purchase the game on PS3.
This game has a variety of modes, including Arcade, a Story mode that goes through all 8 arcs, Gallery mode, Online and a Campaign mode, which allows for costumes to be unlocked upon beating a campaign. Similar to iPhone games, Campaign mode has an energy system and you'll use one each time you go into a battle. This type of mechanic is a hit or miss. For me, it's a miss as I really don't see the reason for such things to exist in a console game.
All the characters have different styles according to what they used in battle for their respected arcs. These styles are Mode, Hamon, Stand Vampirism, Mounted and the Baoh Armed Phenomenon for the guest character, Baoh. Each style has its own given abilities like Mounted characters can use a horse or Hamon users can charge their Heart Heat gauge using the Hamon Breath technique. The gameplay in this game can feel a bit unresponsive at times but its really fun! You can string together combos and deal out massive damage. Also, using the Easy Beat system in-game allows you to combo into a Heart Heat Attack for more damage.
The visuals from the in-game characters to the stages look amazing! I especially love the manga art style they went with as it really captures the essence that you are reading the manga. As for stages, all of the stages are based on major locations throughout Jojo's Bizarre Adventure like Cairo City from Stardust Crusaders and Dio's Castle from Phantom Blood. All of these stages have stage hazards that can be activated if a player falls onto one and the Dramatic Finishes which are based on certain events in the anime/manga i.e Dio's first defeat or Kakyoin's death.
Unfortunately, there are a few apparent flaws that were found when I played this game. The first problem is the DLC. What I had noticed when I was playing Arcade mode was that all the DLC characters were there in the game as opponents. What this clearly shows is that Namco pulled a Capcom and put the characters on the disc and barring them behind a paywall. This was a greedy move on Namco's part that shouldn't be repeated.
The second flaw is the Story mode. To be honest, it felt a little bare-bones in terms of the way they handled it. I feel that the devs could have handled the story mode a little better than just some text with short dialouge parts in the beginning an end of the arcs. Thankfully, the creator Hirohiko Araki will be handling the Story in the new Jojo title, Eyes of Heaven, so that's good at least.
Lastly as I mentioned earlier, the Campaign mode feels like a free-to-play iPhone app, which is bad because of the fact that you would have to wait to play the Campaign again should you run out of energy.
Overall, Jojo All Star Battle is a fabulous fighting game for the PS3! Playing as any of your favorite characters in the Jojo universe and battle it out on your favourite locations has never been as good as this game! The devs did a fantastic job on the game and I enjoyed every single moment of it!