JJOCT7 R3M13 Quality

Judge Baldr (Arch)

The Middleman has finally been unmasked. And now? There’s nothing more to do than fight. Brighid Rhodes and Kid Savage find themselves face-to-face with Ichi Ni San Go in a bittersweet brawl (more emphasis on the bitter). In such a pivotal battle, how do our combatants do?

Starting with Kid and Brighid, the former wastes no time in launching a car at Ichi using his Stand, as he rushes in to make the “Killing Zone”, a small space where Kid can strike out at Ichi with limited counter opportunities given her slight range disadvantage. He uses this Zone throughout the fight to keep the pressure on Ichi as often as he can. While Kid is busy rushing Ichi down, Brighid takes some time to set up, tearing her jacket up to make strips of cloth to wrap around Outlando d’Amour’s knuckles, giving her the means to shoot pressurized blood from her knuckles, aptly named Blood Knuckles. She seeks to disable and hinder Ichi, rather than dedicate a full-on attack to her, using the Blood Knuckles to blind her when given the chance, and to strike her in places that would wear out her already weak stamina. In the beginning, we have a clear dynamic between these two fighters: Kid handles the offensive role, white Brighid lends herself to a support role. A solid start.

As the fighting goes on, Kid is generating his Wetlands, using the water to slow Ichi down, while using the moss created through these wetlands to cover any holes that Ichi might be able to enter or exit the Backstage through. Brighid continues her hinder game. From here, the pair discusses defenses against the Middleman’s various tools she could use to attack them, offering a good few options such as disarming her with a punch from Knock You Out and using the duo’s relatively good agility to dodge projectile attacks. I would have preferred a little more time being spent on the concept of disarming by breaking the objects in Ichi’s hands. Getting in close enough to target an object in her hand, even with Knock You Out can create unintentional openings that I believe a simple range gap cannot tackle alone. Not to say it isn’t an effective strategy, because it is. It just comes with a little more risk than is initially presented. I would’ve also liked to see a few more countermeasures for the Alchemical Cacti beyond simply batting them away. Given the watery environment the duo seeks to foster, an attack from either powder could prove deadly, slowing them down at best and electrocuting them at worst. This is a small gripe for an overall solid strategy, but I felt it needed addressing all the same.

Overall, I’m giving this strategy a 7! Bridghid and Kid knew what they were doing throughout the whole match. They take great advantage of the 2v1 presented to them, making sure to cover each other in the areas they are lacking in. They work together as a wonderful duo, and beyond a few gripes, they put out an excellent strategy to take down the Middleman! Well done!

Onto Ichi, we start with some early Setup in the Backstage. From here, she seeks to engage in trickery and sabotage. Throwing rocks from various exits, observing her opponents from the other world to find opportune places to strike, and using the cacti to freeze any water or blood around her opponents, as well as electrifying those sources if any of that is on the opponents proper. Ichi is a slippery opponent, one you certainly shouldn’t let your guard down.

From there, she goes over the weapons she will be using for the duration of the match, in addition to the objects from the Backstage. Each one offers a tactical advantage in addition to a fun theme (more on that in Jojolity), turning Ichi into a well-rounded killing machine. The Stake is used for disabling her opponents and keeping them in place. The Pain offers consistent damage as a whip, especially to vulnerable areas of the body. The Foot offers Ichi defensive measures and can also be used for heavier attacks. The Fist is used throughout to turn the tide of battle to her advantage, and the Blade is used to punish both enemies and herself whenever they are overreaching. With six arms and six weapons, Ichi is a dangerous force to be reckoned with, worthy of her status as Middleman to the Metropolis Suite.

Overall, I’m going to give this strategy an 8! I found that while it was more of an explanation on how the different parts of Ichi’s kit were to be used in the fight, it was sufficiently thorough in its explanation. She offers a terrifyingly clever threat to her opponents, leaving little room for error on their part. Its a solid strategy! Well done!

Judge Mr. X (Ceep)

Starting with Ichi, and I really like this plan! It’s very simple and straightforward, beating down whoever is most open and taking favorable engagements with your wide array of weapons to bring to bear. Your offensive game is absolutely on point with the micro. You wield the weapons very intelligently, making use of Ichi’s six armed Stand and the unique advantages that having such a Stand gives; being able to break apart setup and go at opponents from multiple angles at the same time.

I think that also on the macro, your overall positioning game works well, constantly dipping in and out of combat to try and set up a sort of ‘rolling jumpscare’. Your disengagements are also serviceable, keeping you roughly out of the way of major heat. I think that defensively is probably the weakest part of Ichi’s strategy overall. While her high agility lends her a certain verve defensively, I think considering Kid’s ability to decrease that agility advantage that more care particularly interacting with kid or Knock You Out may have been warranted. I also feel, offensively, that given Brighid’s 5 Stat in dodging, that more particular care taken to putting her in the ground would have gone a long way.

Still, this is a very solid strategy with a lot going for it. I feel that a solid 7/10 is earned! Good job!

Moving onto Kid and Brighid. Again, this is a really solid strategy! I think that the goal of splitting Ichi’s attention and milling her down over time is strong, and is competently executed upon. The micro for Kid in particular was enough to convince me that he isn’t popped like a balloon by Ichi once he’s in position to go after her, and Brighid has solid enough positioning to avoid being caught out by Ichi. Once you get her in a pincer, it really does turn into a wonderfully overwhelming strategy that overloads Ichi’s ability to defend from all angles.

I think that the only major issue I have with the strategy is getting to that point. While your opener is strong, I feel that the ability of ｢Skibabopdadopbop｣ to reposition Ichi isn’t as delicately handled as it needed to be. That’s not to say you don’t have solid options for Ichi if or when she gets away; spreading the swamp and moss will shut down her options as the wetland spreads, but it leaves especially Brighid more vulnerable to getting jumped. I think your plans for if Ichi gets away work, don’t get me wrong, but they aren’t quite up to the same polished shine as your offensive plans.

Overall I feel another solid 7/10 is earned. There isn’t really any weak link in your strategy as much as it feels like there’s one area that could have been stronger.

Judge Regenerator (Alpha)

Oh Boy, it’s time for another boss match! Let’s see what we’ve got on the table… well, I can’t do this’n any justice with my opening statements, at least, not without severe mentions of gore, trauma, and other horrors best left for the strat-writers. In case you haven’t, go read those!

I’ll start with the players, partly because I can’t decide which funny nickname to use in place of- wait! I got it! The Low-Hanging Fruit! WATER CLOSET!

So anyway, I’ll do something that I normally wouldn’t, and try to be brief. The players’ strat has a very strong grip on what it wants to be both mechanically and narratively, with the brunt of plays being based around the split between the characters’ headspaces going into the fight, and their different, yet similar, goals. One wishes to kill the middleman, while the other wishes to kill the idea of the middleman, which is easier said than done.

Between the more major cruxes, I will say that I did enjoy the interplay of Kid and Brighid learning around each others’ styles as the match rolled forward. It’s a very nice touch, both thematically and mechanically! Oh, as a mention, I’ll be reading the character-voice sections after I delib, so know that I’m strictly talking about the mechanics at this juncture.

So, dialing back to the earlier crux of ‘what it wants to be mechanically’, the dual split of characters moving section-by-section to take advantage of how their kits can, and do, play into each other folds nicely with your JoJolity, so stay tuned for a more in-depth look at that.

With that said, I feel like this deserves an **8**!

Moving onto Ichi, we have a much more strat-type strat. I don’t mean this negatively, or use it to add connotations to it, but it is practically all mechanical writing. It’s good mechanical writing, mind, but we’ll get to that.

From the get-go, we have a very strong set of opening moves, which flow into a very strong set of midgame moves, which flow further… into another very strong set of midgame moves. The idea is to hammer away at the opponent with an interchangeable series of moves until they are dead, and that’s perfectly respectable.

Now, to elaborate a bit more on the ‘moves into moves into moves’, the strat is built very modularly, meaning that any one piece could supercede any other piece at any given time, so any one move could take the place of any other move at any other time. Savvy? Good, you get a gold star, it’s a lot to keep track of.

I’m not particularly remiss that there is no real ‘hard finisher’ or ‘massive, arena-seat-selling play’, as the parts and parcels do add up to a greater whole.

I can see giving this one a solid **7**.