I missed out on playing this for a few weeks, but I’m finally back at it. So, after this long break, what do I think going back into it?

Let’s talk about fangames. What do I like to see in a fangame? Well, being a faithful adaptation of the source material is one quality I definitely like to see, but another quality I uphold is being able to do its own thing. A faithful fangame is good, but a rehash is boring – it needs its own unique spice to things.

For example, Mario fangames. There’s a lot of Mario fangames that are just “hey here’s Mario 3/Mario World/etc again but my own levels.” There are plenty that take Mario in a different direction like Kaizo hacks, taking the spirit of the series into its own unique realm. But Mario romhacks that are just standard levels? Come on buddy. In particular, one that sticks out in my mind is Psycho Waluigi, this Mario platformer that has a cool unique mechanic where Waluigi can telepathically pick stuff up.

“But Dari, don’t talk about Mario fangames, Nintendo’s going to -” Look, I am nothing. Barely anyone listens to me, I’m complete dogshit, just completely worthless. Absolute fucking idiot. Anyway, I don’t understand how Mario Fan Game Galaxy still exists in spite of Nintendo’s overreach but I’m not complaining.

So, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure! Besides the stuff at the beginning and your OC’s involvement, 7th Stand User‘s starting to diverge from canon and I think it’s interesting stuff that sticks to the spirit of the series. Like, Jojo is one of those series that feels rife for fan stuff like this because:

A) Stands are a concept that presents a whole lot to think about. Like, what powers would your OC’s Stand have? What kinda appearance does your Stand have and does it kinda synergize with your own? What cool poses do you do with your Stand?

This is a no shame zone, so for example, my self-insert’s Stand would be [Black Paint]. which is a horrible dark humanoid being whose only facial features are those horrible mouths on the Year of the Snitch album. They can create mouths in things that can talk on my behalf (with the lack of voice commentary, you can imagine that I hate talking) or just kinda bite things. Black Paint just eats shit and dies in a straight up fight, though, just like me.

B) The source material is already ridiculous, so who cares if somebody makes their own wacky adventure based on this?

So, while the main Stardust Crusaders plot is going on, there’s a whole bunch of other stuff going on that you’d miss if you don’t bother poking around areas before progressing the plot. Like hey, apparently there was an optional boss working under Dio that I missed in the very first area, because I guess I thought Kira was the only one. In particular, there’s the group of Stand users called the Slaves to Fate led by Vins, who are off doing their own things. Unlike Dio, Vins goes out of her way to confront you and beat you to death with her own hands. I respect that.

Accompanying Polnareff when he tries to confront Hol Horse and J. Geil is probably the biggest divergence so far in that you’re just thrown into a whole new route entirely. I think it’s real fascinating and it’s cool that the developer thought to put this stuff in. Well, having to fight your way through the Middle-East conflict zone sucked, though. Gotta love a big maze full of random encounters that can easily shred through you.

But yeah, I’m still loving 7th Stand User, in spite of that gameplay frustration! I probably would have played this anyway if it was just a straight adaptation of Stardust Crusaders with your OC, but the game’s clearly trying to go in its own directions that I dig and I’m looking forward to seeing where it leads.