It’s rare in this day and age that we find a game that truly reaches us. For all the technology advancements, games still lack that critical element of being human. We search for it. We look for the most fleeting moments of humanity in games so that we may latch onto some emotion even for the briefest moment. But once in a while, a game, a story presented through that media, comes around and shows us what it is it means to feel.
This is one of those stories. This is the story of Jotaro Kujo.
JoJo no Doki Doki or JoJo’s Dangerous Palpatations is a visual novel framed as the sequel to the commercially successful and critically acclaimed JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 17: Phantom Battle of Steel Lions in the Ocean of Golden Stardust Diamonds set after the dimensionally displaced Jotaro Kujo sacrifices himself by forcing Neo Star Platinum: The Universe to combine with the negative black hole created by Cyber Dio x3442 in an attempt to turn it back into a positive black hole thus forcing him into a new universe with a whole new back story but with the same family members and old enemies so he doesn’t have to update his cell phone contacts. The will of the universe is precocious, not cruel, after all.
It is there that he meets a new friend, Outdated Internet Reference. While Reffy tries to use her old humor to raise the spirits of the now entirely normal high school student Jotaro, the memories of how cool he is locked eternally away in his soul allow him to resist the call of cheap humor. However, whether it be the effects of the new universe on his personality or that he sees a little of his long lost wife turned space dinosaur, he allows Reffy to come with him on his quest to help Grandpa Joseph with his fledgling farming business.
What proceeds is a journey of self discovery for both that will tug at the deepest reaches of your heart. Exploring Reffy’s past to find that she wasn’t always on this road. After their daughter was born, her husband left for parts unknown in the pursuit of something he never talked nor left a phone number for. She was left with only a few options: turn LOLs on the street corner for nickles, or work in “The Factory.” The words send shivers up Jotaro’s very spine as memories of his own mother returning from “The Plant” covered in green. He didn’t ask, and she didn’t say, but he knew the pain that’d turned Reffy to such debauchery. Hand in hand, and one crack in the ice that surrounds Jotaro’s heart, they make their next step together.
But is this partnership to be? Is the universe willing to let these two seek the small comfort only the two of them can offer each other? No, it’s never that simple. One day, after chasing off a wild Dio Silk Hair from the carrot patch, the world finally catches up with them.
Speedwagon, this universe’s equivalent of Speedwagon, busts down the door in a flurry of his signature cherry blossom pedals. It’s time to collect, and Jotaro is left at a loss. He and Reffy have no money. The JoJo’s Bizarre Fruit Cart business only just started, and yet here he is. The tension reaches a peak, and we’re left at the end of Part 1.
It’s a wild ride, and you owe it to yourself to see how these character develop. It’s rare that a game can bring me to tears, and this game isn’t an exception to that, but it might have been able to had I not been busy eating steaks with my fists while playing it. The highs and lows are are so sharp you’ll get whiplash just from how well it toys with your emotions. At least the first time. When you run the second time in “Glitch Party” mode, it’s a little harder to get wrapped up in the emotional journey of the angry Joseph face and his pet Polnareff breed terrier trying to have a tea party. That’s more of a bonus if you remember to play the game a second time after marker fumes have started to kick in, though, so you didn’t hear that from me.
You can download the game free of charge for Windows, Mac, and Linux here. Just remember to bring a tissue. Or a steak and some knuckle dusters.
One Pixel Jump 