This must be the work of an enemy Stand! - Let's Play JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The 7th Stand User

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Last Fixed Update: 11 - Monkey Magic
Latest Update: 27 - The Hunt for High Priestess
Next Update ETA: 😬

This Let's Play began in February 2024 and was originally on the defunct social media website Cohost.org (rest in peace). For now the LP is mirrored at Auldnoir forum. I'm slowly reconstructing it here because 90% of the images were hosted on Cohost and will become dead links shortly; at present all of the links and images still point there. This is an ongoing effort.

What is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure?

It's a long-running (since 1987, so before the Berlin Wall came down) manga by Hirohiko Araki, first serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump - the magazine that brought you Barefoot Gen, Mazinger Z, Space Adventure Cobra, and some other shit I guess - and eventually in Ultra Jump, the same company's monthly version aimed at older audiences.

Rather than following the same plot and characters for 35+ years, JJBA is broken up into distinct parts which each have their own casts and core conflicts. There is continuity between them - usually old characters reappearing in more secondary roles - but each part can be taken as mostly standalone, following a different "JoJo" on a different "Bizarre Adventure". As of this writing, the manga is in Part 9, aka The JOJOLands.

The most famous and iconic arc is Part 3, Heritage for the Future, better known these days as Stardust Crusaders. It ran from 1989 to 1992 and introduced the concept of "Stands" (read: bespoke special abilities), changing the landscape of the battle shonen genre forever. The tail end of Part 3 got a 6-episode anime OVA adaptation in the mid-90s, followed by a much worse 7-episode prequel in the 00s that tries to cover entirely too much ground. It didn't get a full anime until 2014, as part of David Production's decade-long project adapting Parts 1 through 6.

Cover of Weekly Jump starring JoJo Part 3

The cover of May 1, 1989's Weekly Jump, featuring Jotaro and Joseph

What is The 7th Stand User?

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The 7th Stand User is a fangame made by Clayman. You play through the story of JoJo Part 3 as the eponymous 7th party member: an original character with their own original Stand who's just part of the gang. If this sounds like some fanfic-y bullshit, that's because it kinda is. That said, the game is clearly a labor of love and in my opinion taps into the right kind of JoJo style bullshit... when it isn't word-for-word retreading Part 3.

The game expects you to be familiar with the entire JoJo series - especially Part 3, for obvious reasons - and I'll point out other references where/if I deem necessary, but there shouldn't be anything too egregious. If you're really worried, read the manga or watch the anime, it's all out there.

Gameplay wise, 7SU is made in RPG Maker 2000 and aesthetically patterned off The Final Fantasy Legend - aka Makai Toushi SaGa, the first SaGa game and the first Square game to sell over a million copies - for the Game Boy. This means it's a good 'ol monochrome, grid-map, turn-based JRPG. I originally played the monochrome version, but for this series I'll be playing the "R" patch for the first time, which includes a number of quality of life features such as color(!), removal of certain tedious random elements, and more lenient requirements for NG+.

Japanese cover art of Makai Toshi SaGa, aka The Final Fantasy Adventure

What is with this Let's Play?

Everyone already knows the video venerables like @chipandironicus, but I've always had a soft spot for the screenshot LPs from the old days (well, 10-15 year old internet "humor" aside). The Dark Id probably singlehandedly spread the gospel of Yoko Taro in the early 2010s, Orange Fluffy Sheep shattered mechanics over his knee, and Didja Redo's script rewrites were a remarkable fusion of comedy and drama. It always made way more sense to me than video as a format for RPGs, which generally necessitate a ton of reading or menu-ing that isn't necessarily exciting to watch.

Does that make it a particularly good format? Maybe not (especially in cohost's narrower post window), but this is my tribute to those I've enjoyed, as well as a harsh lesson to myself about how much tedious work it takes to filter through and format all those images.

The plan, for now, is to do multiple playthroughs of The 7th Stand User using a different Stand each time, allowing me to showcase the game's surprising layers of minutiae and hidden elements despite its slavish adherence to the source material. Something I also always liked about screenshot LPs was reader participation, and there's a decent amount of wiggle room in this game.

Update: Polls are now closed, the 7th Stand User is...

(Art by the incredible RoseNonsense)

Cascada, aka "The Machine"

Stand: 『Quicksilver』

(Long-Range Special-Type)
This Stand appears as a cannon on the user's arm. It can convert minerals into Stand power and blast it at its foes, like a battery that uses metal as fuel. It can be detached if necessary. As far as Stands go, its pure destructive capability is top of the line.