32 - Bar Fight
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Last time, we got a big ol' plot dump not about JoJo Part 3, but about The 7th Stand User itself. This time, we're hitting the road again.
Since the numbers we use in the west are also called Arabic numerals, I was wondering about this. Turns out you'd more accurately call them "Western Arabic Numerals". These are "Eastern Arabic Numerals", aka the versions used in the Arabic alphabet.
19th-century Egypt used the Ottoman piastre as its currency until Muhammad Ali (not that one; the one who basically founded modern Egypt) had the country start producing its own coins and currency. They had a gold coin called the "bedidlik", but as trade with Europe and the UK rose in prominence - spurred by the Cotton Famine of 1861-65 - it eventually became known as an Egyptian pound. In Arabic it's called a "gineih", from the English "guinea" coin. The piastre survives as the 1/100 subdivision (cents, if you will) of the Egyptian pound.
In 1989, the exchange rate between USD and EGP was 1 to 0.87, so this would have been roughly $53,276. In 2025 money (well, March 2025 money, who the fuck knows what's going to happen the rest of the year at this point) this would be $137,092. If the bill were in March-2025 Egyptian pounds, you'd be rung up for about $916 and change.
This choice is only available if you have over 10 FP with Kakyoin.
Thank god, a hub where everyone's just at the hotel rather than scattered everywhere. I could use a break.
We're still on track. At this point, we should be okay just hitting every single FP event. First up, Jotaro.
I'm not 100% sure what this is meant to be, though the anime has an original scene around this point in the story (right before N'doul) where the Joestar boys talk on the phone with Joseph's wife Suzie Q.
Kom Ombo is one of the smaller hubs, ellipse-shaped not unlike Baby Park from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Interacting with the car will let us move on when we're done.
These days, something like two-thirds of it is sugarcane. They're also looking into building giant solar energy plants out on the plains.
These drinks are some of the more consistent curatives, especially in battle, so having slightly better versions is nice. They heal the same flat amount, but a few extra percentage points can mean a lot.
We haven't seen this enemy icon before. It's meant to be a crosshairs.
Taking advantage of the background like that is some really clever sprite work, I think.
We grinded a ton, so most encounters ain't shit, but Snipers are flat out immune to short range attacks and have a chance to OHKO. They also like to flee.
This game takes place in 1988-1989, which would be right at the tail end of the Soviet-Afghan War. This could be any number of incidents.
The mercenary shop sells much of what the secret shop back in Karachi did, though there is a new addition.
Expensive, and Cascada has the Sun Laser, but we still pick up a few. Couldn't hurt.
The rest of the encounters around are the usual Mounted Soldiers, Elements of Freedom, and She-Zombies. It feels like they've been around forever, but that's mostly because of the hiatus.
There's something funny about being better friends with Iggy - whom we've known for literally two days - than Polnareff, our comrade-in-arms for most of the game. I guess that's dogs for you.
I'll go on my obligatory wiki-walk-fueled tangent about this next time.
I don't think I've shown this one off yet?
By the way, if you try and use a combo attack while one member is unable to act, it still drains the 100 SP from both characters. Real cool.
I have mixed feelings about trying to speak other languages in situations like this. Obviously English imperialism is not great, but is there any way to seem more like a rube than bungling a common greeting? Then again, maybe people find it hilarious, like I do when Joseph shouts English swear words.
I actually quite like this event, because it's not really attached to a gag or a reference or anything like that. It's simply acknowledging that Abdul would have regular friends and connections in the area. It's easy to get wrapped up in what the protagonists are doing, so this adds a smidge of depth I can appreciate.
There's definitely a bespoke combo with Quicksilver and Abdul, but sometimes you end up with a generic combo animation where they just use a "normal" attack. I'm not sure what causes it.
I almost forgot to enter some of these buildings because I played about half of this update before realizing I wasn't recording and had to reset.
Beer is quite popular in Egypt, with local bouza (sometimes referred to as "liquid bread") ranging back to circa 4000 BC. Due to the Muslim restriction on alcohol, Egypt also has a particularly large non-alcoholic beer scene.
We already have all of these from Aswan.
I don't know anything about the Egyptian music scene. Instead, have this youtube video about Middle-Eastern music:
Mel Brooks is still working in the industry at like 98 years old, and I don't think I've ever seen allegations of him doing anything heinous. Though maybe I'm tempting fate.
Also, did you think this game would have a reference to fuckin Spaceballs of all things?
I'm sure this has nothing to do with anything. At this point, we've looped around the entire map.
The Dying status halves your stats and reduces HP by 3% every turn.
Thankfully, one turn is enough.
The cup on the bar is gone. When we turn to leave, the table attacks us.
Shocking Blue last attacked us in Singapore. It was hiding behind a sewer grate and was quite tough for that point in the game.
If you try the door...
Objects in the bar start flying straight at you!
You can't progress until you've defeated Shocking Blue a good five times. Then, if you try to leave again...
Comically racist character alert!
Solid out-of-context text box.
She says "monkey" like Frieza does: with a hard M.
Abdul also has some unique dialogue here if you bring him instead.
The Hong Kong Harbor Bunny Girl was just so popular that they had to bring her back for Season 2.
There's also additional dialogue with Mariska if you're using a male player character, plus the option to fight her 1-on-1. I checked with Jotaro and Iggy, but they don't have anything to add. Back to the main timeline.
If we had spent any actual time fighting Mariska, she would have thrown knives to inflict bleed and lamps to inflict paralyze.
See you again!
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