JJBA OCT #8 R1M18 Jojolity Deliberations

Judge Mario

This time around, we have a pair of “Embody” Jojolities - Typhon 8 being asked to embody the corporate interests of their employers, and Dexy’s Midnight Runners being asked to embody the spirit of dashing thievery! Embody Jojolities have often been some of my favorites, so let’s see how everyone did with this pair!

Starting again with Typhon 8, the name of the game here is “calculated loss” - the players here chose to interpret their employer’s interests as “keep anything of value, and destroy anything else” - it’s replaceable, after all! If something’s not worth keeping around, better to get rid of it and get something better later! Their whole strategy revolves around this idea, destroying the objects they don’t need, letting artillery destroy the buildings… even the narrative is about Wave Welder being a willing pawn to be sacrificed when they aren’t useful anymore.

And yet… I have to admit, it all felt weirdly one-note to me. The Garbage Disposal is brought up again and again, but… there’s not really anything else, at least in the mechanics. Nothing else the players do felt like it particularly followed that thread of cold, calculated losses in the same way, so I can’t help but be left wanting more.

I also feel that, for as much as I praised the narrative before, the story and takeaways from it are almost the exact opposite to how Sal & Wave Welder act in the mechanics. Wave Welder’s story is emphasizing how they don’t particularly value their own life, and are willing to die for EP Oil if it means financial stability for their family… but then in the mechanics they’re largely focused on defense and covering for Sal, and very rarely if ever put themself in danger. The story is still great, to be clear - there’s just a bit of cognitive dissonance to me.

For these reasons, I again waffled on my score, between a 6 and 7 this time… and I think I tip towards a high **6**. I liked the direction you took things, I just ultimately wish you’d gone farther with it.

For Dexy’s Midnight Runners, the approach was to do things in as slick and stylish a way as possible. And that’s definitely true of your opener and your finisher, with complex, dazzling maneuvers that would feel right at home in a heist movie. It’s very fun stuff!

However, like with Typhon 8, I kinda just wish there had been more. Much of the midgame isn’t nearly as befitting of the theme here as the opening and ending, instead focused on simply falling around the map or shooting out windows / opponents. It’s effective as a strategy, but it doesn’t especially give me the “dashing thief” vibe in that same way.

Also, this doesn’t affect my score, but there’s a *remarkable* lack of theft for a Jojolity about embodying thievery - a missed opportunity, I suppose.

As with Typhon 8, I waffled between a 6 and 7, and again I think I will give out a high **6**. Where T8’s Jojolity was robust but one-note, DMR feels to me a bit more varied but with less thorough application, ultimately leaving the two at similar levels of “a bit underwhelming”. Again, I liked the direction - I just wish you’d done a bit more.

Judge Stream

T8:

The narrative throughout of Wave Welder’s history and philosophy of why she does that work she does was incredibly good, and I thought it punctuated each part of the strat very well. This is employed mechanically within the strategy, essentially treating assets as disposable so long as it’s for the good of your corporate interests. I do think that there could have been a bit more variety worked into the strat mechanically in this regard, but I do think that overall the ideas were delivered very cohesively and elegantly. I’m going with a 7/10.

DMR:

I thought that your approach to embodying dashing thievery was generally solid, with a good incorporation of the narrative and pulling off plenty of stylish plays. The focus on mobility seemed like it fit the concept of making your location unpredictable well, though I do think at times you played a bit louder when it seemed like leaning a bit stealthier would help you in both categories. In general, I felt like the vibe was there but was missing a throughline to help keep it more cohesive, and could have used more actual ‘thievery’. Still, I think this warrants a 6/10.

Judge Rocket

Starting with DMR I think that y'all do a solid job here. Taking a more “oceans 11” cinema approach to the gentleman thief is a fun way to approach this jojolity, and you combination of witty banter and high octane, stunt like maneuvers and cleverly set up setpeice moments evoke this jojolity in a way that I did not expect but appreciated. While this may have missed the mark on being a classic gentleman thief style of gameplay, the genre twist was sold well enough that I think a decent 7/10 is fair here.

Moving on to T8, you guys struggle a bit more to sell the professional act. While there are hints of it throughout the strategy, it never really manages to coalesce in a way that both feels impactful on how you play the match and robust. While your narrative was excellent, it also was not particularly felt in the strat text itself. It is due to these factors that I believe that a decent 6/10 is fair here. With more focus and consistent mechanical implementation this could have been far more impactful.