#n'dour

[footballfaces]

N'Dour (Fiorentina)

[fifthnail]

@schadenfredde request is done!

[riastarthe]

i kept starting this post and then kept realising that i needed to provide more context for basically everything about this, and now i've started a whole second post! jesus.

JJBA: The games

last autumn i secured a physical copy of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Heritage for the Future edition of CAPCOM Secret File. the secret files were a series of booklets, 27 in total and 12 pages each, published by CAPCOM between 1994-1999, about their various games. There's a list of them here.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, JoJo's Venture, JJBA: Heritage For The Future... these games are all called JJBA, but, they're all just part 3, Stardust Crusaders. i'm not sure how much i need to say about JJBA/Stardust Crusaders here, because you probably either know what it is or have (voluntarily or otherwise) absorbed information about it thru like, a collective unconscious or something.

why so many?? why do people like this so much?? well, at face value, Stardust Crusaders is appealing for a lot of reasons.

Part 1 - Phantom Blood is a period piece/vampire story set in the late 1880s, introducing us to the central Joestar family and their adopted son turned enemy, Dio Brando, along with the existence of magical/supernatural objects and abilities.

Part 2 - Battle Tendency is a more Indiana Jones/Sherlock-esque narrative set in the late 30s. continues with a new Joestar generation, new abilities, jokes, and tragedies.

both of these have a smaller central cast and there are early themes here that the manga author, Hirohiko Araki, didn't keep as he was fleshing out the story. so, unlike its predecessors, most of the themes and ideas Stardust Crusaders explores are carried throughout the rest of the parts.

Part 3 - Stardust Crusaders takes place in the late 1980s. this one is more of an ensemble with a very modern/popular shounen setup which makes it more familiar to people who've grown up with The Big 3 (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece) and other popular series (Boku no hero Academia, Kimetsu no Yaiba) that all have more in common with this setup. A band of weirdos, a legacy, a taciturn protagonist, a big flamboyant villain with villainous friends, powers, monsters of the week, compelling emotional beats... it's got broad appeal and is the easiest entry point into the series. this part introduces more special powers, specifically Stands-- a sort of spirit or aura with a typically (but not always!) humanoid form that can make attacks or take damage for its host/user.

there are 8 parts in total, with plans for a 9th recently announced. and while all related, each part takes on different things-- different protagonists, with different lives, exploring different aspects and exceptions to what's been introduced already. a lot of fans might just stick to their favourite part and not continue with or have the same relationship to the other parts of the series, if they even read/watch them at all. the parts do, though, reference one another, sometimes in small ways, but typically plot-relevant ones, even tying up or bringing back plot points from much earlier, thereby expanding this immersive world. the scope is limited to the family, but their roles within and relationship to that family evolve and intensify in emotional complexity as the series continues. the series also shifts from shounen to seinen (switching too from Shonen to Ultra Jump) although it bridged this from the beginning, and even as a shonen, employed adult themes with older characters. in fact, if shounen is for "adolescent boys," a slim few of the characters themselves fit this description, never mind the makeup of the fanbase.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (1993)

the first JoJo's Bizarre Adventure game was developed for the Super Famicon/SNES system by WinkySoft and released in 1993 as part point-and-click, part side-scroller RPG.

here's a promotional video for the famicom release,

and if you've ever seen screencaps like these, that's where they're from:

JoJo's [Bizarre Ad]venture (1998)

in 1998, Capcom made the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fighting game for the CP System III arcade boards and for the Playstation 1-- in the west, this game was simply known as JoJo's Venture. this was the final game made for the CP System III and the last proprietary system board Capcom produced before moving to the Sega Dreamcast-based Naomi platform (which, while an acronym-- or technically a backronym, because-- it was named after Naomi Campbell, apparently.)

in Jojo's Venture, there's also a mistranslation where Jotaro's mom refers to Joseph Joestar as her uncle, rather than her father/Jotaro's grandfather.

Re-release (1999)

in 1999, that game was further revised and re-released into arcades and onto the Dreamcast. if you're interested, here's someone comparing the Dreamcast experience to the PS1, although iirc they don't take into account elements like the loss of Story Mode.

when these games were brought to the US, they were at the time the only English-language JJBA material available, and so most people were primed for Stardust Crusaders before any other part of the series. as far as i've been able to confirm, the subbed and dubbed edition of the collected JJBA OVA would come later, in 2003-2005.

within this, i get a little lost about which assets belong to which edition, so forgive me. i only have a japanese version of the Dreamcast edition, but i've encountered the 1998 version of the game in the wild, at a dusty old arcade on the coast of Maine, USA. from what i understand, the first releases were both fairly simple , with major alterations made to the story in order to fit on these systems.

my favourite villain in Stardust Crusaders is N'doul, and that's the whole reason i got the Secret File.

why is he my wife? i don't fucking know it will take a million years to explain (and something i'll do gladly) because it's heavily based in context and framing, tonal shifts and such. it makes as much sense as anything else, which is none or a lot. this series is a circus and no matter who it is, your fave is the king clown.

essentially, what got me is that N'doul is the first enemy the group fights after arriving in Egypt, their ultimate destination, which marks a tonal shift in Stardust Crusaders (whether you're reading it, or watching it, or playing these linear games) that i find compelling. at the very least, he comes with implications of a shift, including in how each character reacts to the fight and the expanse of the fight itself in the desert, and what their enemies' fealty to Dio means. in the manga, in the OVA, in the anime, in the games, Jotaro reacts the same way: first horror, and then admiration.

here's N'doul in the booklet for the famicon release, along with some fellow freaks.

not only is he a honey, he's objectively a honey compared to his squad.

while only the Crusaders are playable in the 1993 version, many of the enemies are playable in the next versions, including Dio, Anubis-possessed Polnareff, young (Battle Tendency) Joseph Joestar, Matrix Mode Kakyoin, Hol Horse...

here's some shit that really cuts me up! N'doul, too, was originally planned as a playable character in Heritage for the Future, to the point of him having both sprites and artwork assets that are easily acquired via hacking, and concept art in the design files describing how he would fight.

in Stardust Crusaders, there's a stand user named Alessi who uses his powers to de-age his enemies, turning them into children. (it sucks mostly.) so basically anyone who might fight against Alessi gets a kid/younger version to match. in addition to the above concept art, there was also this

here are some of his game sprites, as ripped by Magma MK-II:

there's more information and opinions about this on The Cutting Room Floor:

Due to the fact that many of his stand's attacks are drawn with the reflection of the desert in it, it's likely that he was kept a sub-boss so that Capcom didn't need to redraw all of his stand's sprites.

you can see what the writer on TCRF meant by the added complexity in the water, potentially necessitating detailed edits that wouldn't be required for other stands.

here's someone's playthrough. as you can see, his water-based attacks are mostly at ground level-- you have to run/jump through the desert until you finally reach him, at which point you can kill him in one blow because he has only 5HP.

this should start at 1:00:27, but if it doesn't, that's where you need to be!

one fun fact is that in order to fight N'doul in story mode, you must play as Jotaro 😌 (in Oingo & Boingo's Gallery Mode, you can fight him as any of the characters.)

however, if this is Super Story mode, it seems to be missing some of the background assets, parts of the cutscenes, and/or may even be a censored version (the censored versions crop up a lot in the Western releases.) i know for a fact i've played a different version: as you move through this boss fight, you see a downed helicopter and the body of its pilot. this follows the manga and anime plotline, where N'doul uses his water to attack them. The pilot was wearing a wristwatch with an alarm, and when it starts beeping, N'doul reacts harshly to the sound and destroys it-- cutting off the man's hand in the process.

here's that moment in the manga,

and here's how that looks in the uncensored game,

hell yeah. really freak em out.

N'doul's theme in the game is also a straight up banger!!

Visit Original Link

the full soundtrack is available for download here.

Since then

in the mobile game JoJo Stardust Shooters (which ended in 2021) N'doul's skills formally classify him as a Sniper. he's a long-range stand user, patient, traveling from place to place in pursuit of his enemy, waiting for long periods of time until his prey is exactly where he needs them to be, and then takes the shot. then he will fall back, and because of the distance, the enemy (whether or not they can detect a fellow stand user) may not be able to track him. not all stand users can take advantage of distance; many stands are close-range only.

when we look at his stats, it's clear that sniper suits him perfectly and differentiates him from other characters, including their iterations as playable characters in video game format:

if i'm understanding correctly, we're meant to interpret the low precision this way: being blind, he can't 100% accurately choose his target through sight, only guessing at them through what he infers through sound. it's weird though, because in the manga and anime we basically only see him nail the right person, decimating the main team quickly, and in his very first appearance, catches fly mid-air. so idfk!!!

not everyone likes to play as a sniper, and it might be especially confusing in a fighting game that's so similar to the Street Fighter format-- where incorporating a distance aspect to each stage might not be appropriate, ultimately. in 2015, n'doul was included in the roster for the Bandai-Namco joint Eyes of Heaven, developed by CyberConnect2 fr the PS3/PS4.

[jojoprideflags]

Trans flag but it’s color picked from N’Doul!

[j0jolion]

How do you think N'doul would confess to their crush?

N’Doul confessing to a crush:

He’s not typically a man to beat around the bush. If he likes you, he lets you know pretty straight forward. While teasing you always gets him a mixed reply of ‘Stop it, you!’ or ‘W-What?’ He’d much rather just take the chance than let it slip away.

When he confesses to his crush, it’s a simple declaration of ‘I like you,’ and ‘you make me happy, حبيبي.’ He has no fear (one fear) when it comes to confessing. If you say no, he’ll either try to win you over after the fact or move on.

If you accept, he’ll obviously be one of the happiest men alive. Rewarding your answer with praises of love, and how he’ll be able to treat you so well. But after you accept, be careful not to make this man angry. He’s not vengeful per say, but he won’t take kindly to you playing with his affection.

[salaisi]

N'doul

[captainbaddecisions]

I love my n'son

[i-am-just-a-dreamer-ball]

N’Doul commission for @kaunietepurple ! Thank you so so much and I hope you like it!

Commissions | Ko-Fi