Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

J: (closing the front door) Um, you do know that the Jojo fighting game came out in the US. It's not a YCPT.

YJ: (justin crossing in front of YJ) NO! I was talking about the PS2 game!

J: OH! Phantom Blood? That's a great game!

YJ: NO! Ougon no Kaze!

J: But, Phantom Blood has a better...

YJ: Yeah, but THIS one has STANDS!

J: OK! You're right!

YOU CAN PLAY THIS!

GioGio no Kimyou na Bouken Ougon no Kaze

J: So now this series has been going on for a long time. Since 1987. And I have been reading this series since 1989. So when they started to bring out games fo the series...

YJ: He began to go ape-shi---

J: YEAH! So about that! (glares at YJ)

(gameplay)

YJ: So this guy got the Sufami game as SOON as it came out, thanks to Funco Land.

J: And it wasn't until later that I saw the arcade game in the mall and---

YJ: And he played that damn thing all the time!

J: Then I got the Playstation 1 version of it---

YJ: Both the import AND the American version---

J: For both the PS1 and the Dreamcast...

(Camera)

J: Because I am obsessive like that. (embarassed)

YJ: Uh-huh...

J: And then there was this game. (holds up the game box) Ougon no Kaze. It came out from Capcom in 2002 and it made me--

YJ: Squeel like a little girl.

J: Yeah... ... ... ... GLEE!

(gameplay)

J: It's an interesting game that goes along the storyline of the fifth Jojo series: Golden Heritage. It follows Giorno Giovana as he joins an Italian mobster gang where all the members are stand users.

YJ: Now, we're not the ones to go into that... but I know someone who's just as big a Jojo fan as you are (points to Justin).

J: Sir? (motions to the camera)

(Rollo T)

(Rollo's info about Jojo 5 story)

(camera)

YJ: Stands are the souls and inner spirit of people. Sometimes they appear as skills, like Mozart had, but if someone has a fighting spirit then it might just take a physical form.

In the Jojo stories, they introduced stands in the third series. And that's the series VIZ comics chose to translate... so you can go out right now and read that story right now. They've published 12 of the tankoban so far.

J: Now the fifth series touches several years after the third series and goes all the way to Italy... and Dio's son. How Dio got a son, we all have no idea. He's not a vampire and he's not evil. Well, he wants to lead the mafia, but only to bring order. Very non-Dio-ish.

YJ: Yeah, real weird! But MAN there are some great characters and stands in this series! Sticky Fingers which creates zippers in objects, Sex Pistol which is actually five little stands that can ride bullets and kick it in a new direction... and Justin's favorite: MOODY BLUES which re-tells the past.

J: Yeah, it's not a powerful fighting stand, but it's an AMAZING concept for a former police detective like Leone.

And then there's the star: GioGio whose stand, Gold Experience...

(camera)

J: Araki is a huge Prince fan.

(gameplay)

J: Can make new life forms from things. He can turn a lighter into a flower, for example, or produce a growing tree from nowhere to escape from someone.

(camera)

YJ: So, ok. This game isn't going to be as straightforward as other games he shows you all. This one is going to be kinda' difficult to navigate.

J: Yeah. I mean it's a different kind of fighting game in that...

(gameplay)

J: ... It's a fighting STORY. As the story progresses you take part in battles as they appeared in the manga. And if you gain enough points by doing well or doing specific moves from the manga, you can unlock several things in the gallery mode.

(camera)

Here's the controls:

(gameplay)

The left analog stick makes your character move around the screen.

The Square button is a series of punches, and Circle is a rolling dodge.

The X and triangle buttons vary from character to character, but they're mostly strong attacks.

Pressing the L1 button brings out or puts away your character's stand. The R1 button will cause your stand to make a quick attack is the stand is put away.

If the character's stand is out, pressing the X triangle or R1 buttons will do a special move, once again, depending on the character.

A stand will block automatically if it is out as long as you aren't attacking.

If your character is caught in a hold move, shaking the left analog stick helps you escape.

(camera)

There are many other advanced attacks, but these are the ones you need to know to play.

Now, the best way to play this game is to just try to kill your opponent. If there's a timer counting down, then you either have to hit him a number of times or to survive that long.

Really, without giving you a walkthrough of each stage... let's go through each stand ability and that way you can use your own judgement as to what's going on.

So let's tackle the playable characters and how to do their moves.

(gameplay)

First there's Giorno Giovanna with his stand Gold Experience. And we told you about him already.

Then, there's Bruno Bucciarati with Sticky Fingers. When his stand is off, he can make a zipper in the ground and disappear.

Narancia Ghirga has his stand Aerosmith. This stand can fly around and seek out enemies using a radar system.

Purple Haze is the stand of Pannacotta Fugo, and is deadly in that it has a poison in its fists that drain the enemy.

Then there's Justin's favorite Leone Abbaccio with Moody Blues. His stand will mimic Leone's moves, sometimes up to 10 seconds.

Guido Mista with Sex Pistols. A bad-ass with a gun. His little stand helpers can move bullets en-route causing a ricochet effect.

There's Trish Una with Spice Girl. Her stand... is... weird. She doesn't start with a stand... you have to get a broach to activate it.

And finally, Jean Pierre Polnareff with Silver Chariot. You may recognise him from the Capcom versus game.

Then, there's the enemies

Black Sabbath - This stand attacks from the shadows and is damaged by sunlight.

Little Feet - This stand can make big things small, and small things big.

Man In The Mirror is different from the third storyline stand, Hanged Man, this stand causes your movements to be reversed... and he can move from the mirror realm to the normal world through them.

Grateful dead causes people to age unless they are kept cool. Watch out for his long reach.

Beach Boy is just plain odd in that it's a fishing pole. But stand user Pesci can really cause damage with it! Don't let it hook you.

White Album creates ice and is protected by a shield. You'll have to really dole out the damage while avoiding his speedy attacks.

Notorious BIG only works when the stand user dies... and it is an UGLY strong stand. Just try to avoid it as it just gets bigger and controls stuff.

Oasis and Green Day work together as a team. Oasis makes rock into mud and swims through it. Green Day makes a dangerous mold that damages you should you go lower than when it touched you. Seek the high-ground with fighting this guy.

And there's the big bad-guy from this story arc, King Crimson! He is one powerful baddie in that he causes time to skip causing him to seemingly teleport across the screen.

(camera)

There's tons of unlockables with this game and you can always go back to previous chapters to try to get better scores and find secret factors. Secret factors raise your health in the game and are necessary to find to unlock everything.

The gameplay is very involving and will beg for a re-play, but with it being so story driven it can be hard to appreciate this game or its predecessor.

Unfortunately, when watching the story, it sometimes seems like a bad Japanese dubbed movie since the mouths move odd to the words being spoken. It's a nit-picky thing though.

And finishing the story mode doesn't really get you anything new except Another Story Mode.

There's also a lack of a versus mode here which would have been very nice so that you could try out characters against each other.

But the

(camera)

YJ: So, to wrap things up...

J: EVERYBODY JOJO POSE! (both pose)

Graphics - Cell Shaded / Pretty good Music – Very good Replayability – High Cost – Uncommon – $15-$35


 * Menu: Japanese & English
 * Storyline: Japanese
 * Game Interaction: Japanese
 * Save: Auto save default is off

(gameplay)

J: This game was going to be released in the USA as GioGio's Bizarre Adventure, but the artist Hirohiko Araki refused to allow Capcom to change the rock-referencing names in it...

YJ: GOOD FOR HIM! I mean he made VIZ change back the sound effects in the manga before it went to tankoban form because he said that the sound effects are just as big a part of the artwork as the character drawings are.

So you'll probably have to read the fifth series of manga in scanlation form. You can find it at places like OneManga.

(Camera)

J: Now, we're not telling you that scanlations are good or bad. We're just not gonna tackle that. But Viz has done a great job translating the third series... even though the last issue is coming out in August.

I mean if you can buy the American or Japanese tankobons, then by all means buy them.

I did! (proceeds to pull out ALL his manga for show)

YJ: (looks at them all and gets embarassed) Nutjob.

(music starts) (credits)

You Can Play This!

Starring JewWario

With Rollo T & Yanki J

Episode 3.9 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure'

Written and Edited by J. Carmical

'Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken Ougon no Kaze' © Capcom

Online Scanlation of Part 5 (chapters 441-594): OneManga.com

Jojo Posers: Rollo T Psychotaku PsychoNeko

Title Card: X Cross x-cross.deviantart.com

Music: Funk Famiyama © Skitch

Music: FFujiyama © 誰得P (Dare Toku P)

BUY THE SERIES FROM VIZ!

(credits cut off suddenly)

YJ: I can't believe that you're so nuts about that story. (gets up to leave)

J: Oh yeah? Well, well what about you and that school of yours?

YJ: What? You mean my school in Japan?

J: Yeah, what was the name of the place again?

YJ: Ah yeah. (thinks fondly) It was called---

(credits end)

END