Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R is a remaster of a fighting game from the Playstation 3 era, and it’s struck a chord with Jojo and fighting game fans alike, but the online play threatens to reduce what would otherwise be a prosperous life and community for the game. The title released on September 2, 2022 has been enjoying a well-received release in spite of an unplayable online experience, but most fans worry about its future performance as time drags on. Modern fighting games are usually made or broken through their online netcode, and ASBR possesses netcode that clearly leans towards the broken side.
All Star Battle R is a Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure dream match not unlike Dragon Ball FighterZ (which recently upgraded its net code), with a rogues’ gallery of fan favorites and underdogs battling it out in matches colored with that trademark bombastic flair. The rerelease adds new characters, modes, and cosmetics along with balance and bug patches, including whole new mechanics like assists. Unfortunately, for all of its changes fans applaud, the online netcode feels just as bad as it did in 2014. All the bad fighting game netcode staples appear constantly in online play: input delay reaching over a full second, mid-match loading prompts, visual stuttering, desynchronization, and matches failing to load entirely.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R‘s online is just as broken as when the original version launched on the Playstation 3, and the reason why lies directly in the original release – it’s the same netcode from nearly a decade ago, just retooled and reprogrammed to operate on modern systems. Online fighting game netcode has improved exponentially over recent years with the advent of rollback netcode and the necessity for pristine online play due to the COVID-19 pandemic making it harder to play with others locally. Netcode solely working off of delay compensation just doesn’t serve the strict input windows and breakneck speeds of fighting games. Fighting game netcode from 2014 sticks out like the sorest of thumbs, and it’s dragging ASBR‘s chances of staying relevant down deep.
All Star Battle R‘s Antiquated Online Risks Its Longevity
Bandai Namco and Cyberconnect2 brought Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R to modern consoles, but it’s complete with painfully retro netcode. Bandai Namco is a popular and prolific game company with games like Tekken and SoulCalibur along with an impressive spread of non-fighting games. Cyberconnect2 made the original Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle along with many other fighting game adaptations of popular anime/manga series. All of these Cyberconnect2 games under Bandai’s wing share something other than their manga roots, and that’s uniquely terrible online play. Even for old delay-based netcode standards, most of these games were (and still are) nearly unplayable online even in the best of conditions.
Unfamiliarity with rollback netcode makes some developers hesitant to use it, but Cyberconnect2 didn’t even attempt improving what it could within its own means and repackaged the same netcode that was already broken, or alternatively, Bandai Namco didn’t let them fix it. The blame is unclear, but the effects are crystal. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R has incredible potential in the still-active fighting game community both in the casual and competitive sphere, but without at least decent online play its chances for realizing that potential are shallow indeed. Games with poor netcode may have found a compliant audience in the past, but with so many other fighting games offering fantastic rollback netcode such as Guilty Gear Strive and King Of Fighters XV, ASBR‘s sloppy execution of an integral gameplay feature could find it just as short-lived as its original outing.
