Joestar Struck is a fun little otome game that lets you date any of the first four JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure protagonists (Jonathan, Joseph, Jotaro, and Josuke) in a Japanese high school setting. The development team had previously released a demo of Josuke’s route about a year ago, but now we’ve got the full game to explore!

You’ll love this Ren’Py visual novel if you can’t get enough of these boys with just their canon stories alone. The player character has no set gender and the romance elements only go as far as kissing, so it’s accessible for all orientations and age groups.

The standout feature of Joestar Struck is its commitment to maintaining the integrity of Araki’s original manga. The four JoJos never act out-of-character, the player character fits in with them nicely, and sneaky references to other aspects of the JoJo canon are hidden everywhere for players to find.

Since this is a free indie game made by a small team, the routes are relatively short and the art is either repurposed from official material or drawn by the developers themselves. It’s not the most polished experience, but the ramshackle presentation gives the game an atmosphere of wholesomeness—a feeling that this is a passion project made by fans who truly adore the series.

A visual novel ultimately lives or dies on its story, so we’re happy to say that this fan game succeeds in that category. It’s set in the present day at a Japanese high school for delinquents, where Jonathan is a teacher and Joseph, Jotaro, and Josuke are students. Ages and relationships are fudged a bit to fit all four characters in the same setting, but it doesn’t affect anyone’s personality, so no harm done.

The player character transfers into the school and spends the summer with their new friends—going on trips to the beach, trying to take care of a flour sack “child”, breaking into the school to change a grade, and many more charming hijinks. You grow closer with them over time, learning their personal struggles and helping them through hard times. It’s absolutely adorable.

The dialogue choices presented in the game aren’t mind-blowing, but they make sense and don’t trick you. If you know the characters well enough from the original canon, you can navigate your way to the good endings with little trouble. The routes are also varied enough that you don’t feel like you’re repeating the same story with a different love interest. Jonathan takes you to a football game, Joseph and Caesar have a mysterious history with each other, Jotaro must be approached very carefully, and Josuke can’t go to the beach because his grades are too low. We still can’t figure out how to get every single ending, but we’ll keep trying!

With Joestar Struck, you can while away a few pleasant hours with a charming story that brings your favorite characters to life in a familiar visual novel setting. It still has some issues due to its low budget and recent release, but it’s still such a fun little game that we’ll absolutely come back to play it again when Team Scallywag comes out with a new update. If this sounds like your cup of tea, you owe it to yourself to give Joestar Struck a try!