Why Does the Dreamcast JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Have Two Games on One Disc?
There were two arcade releases: the original of December 1998, exported as JOJO's Venture, and Heritage for the Future in September 1999, with the roster grown from 13 to 22. The Dreamcast version (1999) contains both games in their original forms on a single disc. Here is what that means, and how it differs from what PlayStation owners got.
WHAT IS ON THE DISC
Venture and Heritage, in their original formsCapcom released the game twice in arcades: the original JoJo's Bizarre Adventure in December 1998 (sold abroad as JOJO's Venture) with 13 playable characters, and the revision Heritage for the Future in September 1999, which expanded the roster to 22 and closed out the CPS-3 board's life. The Dreamcast version does not merge them or pick one: it includes both games, each in its original form, selectable on one disc.
GameSpot's review of the Dreamcast release put the value plainly: functionally, you are getting two games in one, and the newer of them was at the time available in Japanese arcades only.
THE CONTRAST WITH PLAYSTATION
A mixture there, the originals hereThe PlayStation version took the other road. It is built mainly on the first arcade game, borrows some of Heritage's characters, and adds an exclusive Super Story Mode retelling Stardust Crusaders, a mode the Dreamcast version does not have. (The American Dreamcast box even mentions Super Story Mode on its back cover, an error MobyGames' version notes flag openly: the mode is not in the Dreamcast game.) Each machine got something the other did not; only the Dreamcast got the arcade games themselves, whole.
That is the whole claim, and it is a strong one: for the arcade record, the Dreamcast disc is not a port of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It is the archive of it. The production story around both games is on the history page.
THE GAME ON THE SHELF
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, on Dreamcast