JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future was originally released as JoJo's Venture in December 1998. This version suffered from a rushed development, reflected by the abundance of unused assets in its code, including both finished and unfinished sprites for various attacks, cutscenes, and HUD elements. An updated version would come out eight months later, this time using the series' full title and adding the Heritage for the Future subtitle. A significant chunk of the unused assets in JoJo's Venture would be polished up and incorporated in this newer version.

In a video interview with former Capcom game designer Shinichiro Obata, he stated that the reason why the character Pet Shop is so overpowered to the point of being banned in competitive play is because he was originally intended for the PlayStation version and not arcade one, as such he wasn't really intended for competitive play.

However when the updated arcade version JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future was in development, Pet Shop was added as a playable character and Mr. Obata couldn't help but notice how weak this version of the character was. So he started doing everything he could to buff Pet Shop, with Mr. Obata himself remarking that he “might’ve overdone it”.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future was named after Stardust Crusaders' (the story arc in which this game is based on) original name during serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jump, Part 3 Jotaro Kujo: Heritage for the Future.

If the player is using Hol Horse (w/Boingo) and starts shooting Up and Down, a glitch will occur where a multi-hit, floating Boingo trap will appear. The Boingo trap stays in the air until the opponent touches it, and deals 10 hits in total.