Fresh. Let's Play Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass!

There's a very definite theme to this area, that's for sure.



We're now in a cabin in a valley of some kind.



Right, that's Sunshine unlocked. Now that we have Grumble Bear, it's not as valuable for the moment, but hey, no real reason not to get this.



The first part of this area is kind of just going where it takes you, but it gets a little trickier later.



You'll know you're close to the real puzzle once you see this pattern.



Yeah, this looks important. In we go.



Back in a bed again.



We've arrived in a castle of some kind.



Our goal is to enter the area under the clock, but it'll only work under certain circumstances, and we're not there yet.



That doesn't make sense, but at the same time, it does. Am I gonna have to shake some sense out of you?



Challenge accepted, let's go.



There's four exits surrounding the clock building.



Each time we arrive in that hallway, one of these doors will appear through one of those exits.



Entering it causes us to appear in a bed...



That then takes us out of that side room. We need to, in short, exit each of the four side rooms from a bed.



Each time we do, a neutral Sleepwalker will appear in another one and say another line, which should help you get your bearings.



I can't really explain it any more than that, though. This area has a lot more dream logic to it than the rest of the game so far.



If nothing else, keep going when things change.



Getting kind of sick of the word "dream" right about now.



The location of the Sleepwalker and the door appears to change every time you go through a door, I think.



Nearly there, I think.



Yeah, that does it. Once the clock starts running backwards, you can head in.



Ordinarily, this would be an endless staircase, but with the clock running back, we can progress.



Let's go meet Ebeezil.



Hi.

Ebeezil's pretty unique among all of the nightmare antagonists in the game, but we'll learn why that is later. For now, though, he's threatening our existence, and that's not cool.



He's definitely a fan favorite out of the antagonists, and it's not hard to see why, that haughty demon lord aesthetic is a hell of a draw.



Music: A Cocoon Throbbing in a Dead Man's Mouth

We're still gonna clobber him eight ways from morning.

Ebeezil starts the fight off by tagging everyone with an incurable Lethargic effect, which drains MP every turn. This puts a harsh timer on the fight if you want to get anything done. Beyond that, he wields a number of moves we've already seen from his realm's denizens (particularly the dream-diving instakill of the Sleepwalkers and the chanting telegraphing a blizzard the Metrognomes do), as well as a single-target lullaby and two scythe moves: a cursed slash that inflicts Withering (minor damage over time to both HP and MP) and a maniacal slash that hits the party. Every five turns, he'll take the fight to the dream world, which inflicts Sleep on everyone including himself, and as the lore has indicated, this is extremely bad news. See, Ebeezil can act while sleeping, and his moveset becomes WAY meaner: he'll either dream of plague (party-wide Sick and Immunodeficiency, which blocks healing), famine (entire party loses 50% of max MP) or the apocalypse (just boatloads of magic damage).

The best approach to fighting Ebeezil, to nobody's surprise, is to just gun it as hard as you can from square one. Ebeezil has a lot of nasty tricks, but not a lot of damage output, and the Lethargic effect leeching your MP away means you better use those power moves early, or not at all. Jonathon is absolutely an MVP for this fight IF you have items to work with: he can get someone more MP than Ebeezil can take with Choco-Cola, keep the party awake with Natural Alarm (especially with the Spring-Loaded Jacket), and, of course, just nuke Ebeezil all to hell with attack items that don't care one whit about his MP.



HOW'S THAT FOR A WAKE UP CALL YOU GOTH WITH DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR



Music: The Noble Sea

Curiously, this doesn't feel like we won in the long term, and Ebeezil doesn't seem particularly perturbed by their loss. But, again, we'll come back to break this down later. At the very least, we can read the fear represented by this nightmare zone as a fear of sleep, which doesn't sound that scary until you remember that Jimmy is eight, and when you're eight, your fear of monsters under the bed is one of the most real and vivid threats in the world. You don't want to go to sleep because you're worried you might not wake up.



Speaking of sleep, it's late for me, so we'll just grab the treasure here and call it.



Immunize (30 MP) is a Jonathon-exclusive manual, and it's a pretty powerful move, too. You remember Helga's list of status immunities, right? Sick, Sleep, Afraid, and Immunodeficiency? Well, what if we had a manual that not only blocked those status effects, but also cured Sick and Immunodeficiency (and maybe the other two) outright? Immunize is really, really good, but that MP cost is way pricey for this stage of the game, so only use it when necessary.



Master Criminal (10 MP) has a much better formula for theft success than Grift, although it also uses LUK in its formula. Since a lot of enemies tend to have one thing you can steal from them that really makes the fight go in your favor (or, of course, rare furniture), Master Criminal is a generally handy move to have on someone with high AGI, high LUK, or both. Naturally, Helga gets this for now.



Right, good night.

Next Time: I'm, you know, a real live knight. Or, I was. I guess I'm just a bouncer now.

Cordelia Mouse is a good girl and her faults are easy to relate to.

Music: Adventuring for Beginners

Hey, it's the Guitar (+3 ATK, 1/6 of the Musical Set). Not exactly surprising so many pieces of this set are from Sweet Melody, huh.

Also: today's update goes on for a while. Sort of lost track of time. It's a fun game!



Music: Butterscotch Train

Forgot a toybox here, apparently. Maybe in the dark cave where Johnny Knives went?



Oh, huh, never checked down this way before.



And we got interest out of it, too. Not bad!



Music: Adventuring for Beginners

I buttslam around a few other areas, but most of the remaining treasures are off-limits. You can usually tell what areas have treasure gated by nightmare zones by the number of toyboxes: so far, most of them have had a solid set of three at the end, which is exactly how many knocks we get here in Giant Garden. But for now, there's only one nightmare zone we can access, and I can guarantee we'd get our asses kicked if we tried it.



Music: Fortress of Nitwits

Literally nothing left in the Wilted Lands except this mirror. I'll show off the text for bird form as well:



Music: Let's Color Today

Right, time to get some good ol' plot going on. Mute Notes, if you recall, is where Punch Tanaka's informant is supposed to meet us.



Music: Carton of Smokes, Half-Smoked

Welcome to the noir section of the game.



We'll check the bank since it's literally right by the entrance.



Look At That Monay



Y'know what, Mr. Grouse? You're kind of a complete douchebag and I think I hate you.



The private eye next door (and there is always a private eye next door in noir stories) is currently busy.



Well, enough waiting, let's track down the informant.



That seedy bar looks promising, but first we have to talk to Ms. Robin and check out that silly boat.



New town, new equipment, now with options for Helga and Jonathon. Spoilerpopped equipment, as usual. I buy two copies of the Black Spiral manual and both furniture pieces.



Black Spiral (15 MP) is Crush, but magical and slightly more powerful and expensive. It's pretty good for really anyone who wants a bit more magical oomph. In our current party, this mostly means Jonathon, but Helga can also make good use of it if you want.



At least you didn't turn into a jerk like Mr. Grouse. You're cool, Ms. Robin.



Just one sailor at the boat here.



Well, we may as well check out the bar here. Not like there's much else to do here.



Music: Adventuring for Beginners

Let's finish off the Kiddy Set with the Toy Box (+1 LUK)...



And the Rocking Horse (+1 DEF).



And that completes the Kiddy Set. We could use both this and the Rustic Set if we really wanted to, but... nah.



Music: Carton of Smokes, Half-Smoked

Let's check out the scene in the Wharf Dog, shall we? Pretty busy place, surprisingly.



Thanks for the heads-up, little buddy!



Hm. Maybe we should be more careful of mystery fish...



His brother seems all right by me.

I consider this a good thing.



This mysterious, familiar-looking sailor doesn't have anything to say to us. Maybe the guy across from him can explain.



Huh, okay.



Got here just in time for the show.



The other band members are giving a pep talk to the guy with a bit of stage fright.



Oh hey Roland.



What's it to ya? You wanna start something?



And then we had a really rowdy no-holds-barred proper bar brawl, but it wasn't actually that exciting and we put everything back afterwards, so let's move on.



What, why can't you sell us grape juice?



That does seem to be the direction the story is going for, yes.



The party goes to get themselves some seats, while the bank teller from before moseys on in.



Ah, sorry. Go right ahead.



Let's make sure to hit every branch of the noir tree as we fall down, shall we?



Gotta have the torrid relationships gone bad or whatever, too.



Can we go back to messing with seasons and staring down apocalyptic entities of sleep?



There he go.



I hear you. Working under Mr. Grouse is probably great if you're already rich. I wouldn't know.



We can talk to the rest of our party here to progress the scene.



Now, I couldn't tell you why Jimmy locked Jonathon Bear in the closet. And if it was unprovoked, I could understand Jonathon being salty about it. But there's definitely more to this story than we're getting now, and Jonathon's claiming to be our best friend REALLY hard right here.



You're always pissed, though. That's just your default state of mind. See, watch this.



Now, observe what happens when we do the same to Helga.



Conclusion: Buck is always pissed. It's science, man.



Well, you told Jimmy a million times, but one more won't hurt.



It's time for the show. Make sure to watch to the end, there's a bit of a twist.



Music: I Won't Come Back



Music

At the end of the song, the lights go out. And when they come back up...

It's not real noir until a murder happens.



And when a murder happens, right behind them is...



Music: Carton of Smokes, Half-Smoked

The private eye, here to crack the case.



And right behind them is a monologue.



It's hard to tell by the overworld sprite, but it looks like his entire bottom half is literally missing.



The clues are already here for this one, but no harm in a more detailed investigation.



Is this really the time to be doing this?



Eh, whatever.



Go right ahead.



Well, I do appreciate a good exemplar...



Music

Oh no.



Music: Worm Party

No, I've got it, thanks.



Music

The lights go out partway through Information Guy's tutorial.



Guess the murderer doesn't like Information Guy either.



Another murder, right under our noses!



Well, yeah, priorities, I guess.



Music: Carton of Smokes, Half-Smoked

Anyway now for the part where we talk to everyone. Absolutely none of them will have useful clues for us.



It's useful to get perspectives from everyone, though.



I've been using imagination all game, Jonathon Bear! IT ISN'T HELPING!



Absolutely, little buddy.



Good gravy, you're almost as bad as Jonathon.



Unsurprisingly, the entire band wants nothing to do with Mute Notes now.



Henry's taking things a little more seriously, at least.



Uh, Roland? Priorities.



Nobody else had anything really important to say, so we'll get this moving.

The first clue, at least, seems sound to me.



I'm ready. What you got for us?



Who could it be? Hmm...



...Are you SURE you're a private eye?



Like, does he even have teeth to gnaw on bones with?



Ah, this is the false accusation part of the noir story, is it?



Man you are REALLY reaching on this one huh.



Music

That changes things.



Music: Carton of Smokes, Half-Smoked

You are phenomenally bad at your job.



Well, we still have a murderer (and an informant) to track down.



Hm... something that runs fast, crawls around, and tears people apart and gnaws on their bones? First step of a closed room murder, Ludwig: make sure the door is actually closed.



It is pretty impressive that we got everyone into here though.



Yeah whatever we'll follow you.



Not through the vents, that'd be weird.



And it was closed when we entered the restroom. So that means...



That's a pretty big hitch in the plan. And there's no way to reach the other islands very easily, since Unbreakable Bridge is the only bridge out of Sweet Melody.



That's noir talk for "there's a boss fight coming up so be ready for that."



Music

And sure enough, right in the back alley by the bar, we meet The Dog again.



Not long enough if we're seeing you again.



Music: Skin Thieves

What the hell is your problem with Jimmy, dog? Jimmy didn't do anything wrong!



The dog says nothing further, but instead starts swelling and throbbing...



Before assuming this twisted form.



Music: A Cocoon Throbbing in a Dead Man's Mouth

Just like the Queen Bee, the final boss of Sweet Melody is something horribly twisted and mutated. The Mutt is a pretty straightforward fight, but like Ebeezil, this is a fight you want to handle quickly, because for every 20% of its max HP, the Mutt will inflict Miasma unavoidably and incurably on the party, with each infliction ratcheting up the damage over time an extra 5% of everyone's max HP. That said, the Mutt doesn't have much in the way of techniques: it's got a bite, a roar that hits everyone and leaves Jimmy Afraid, and a deep, mucousy growl that telegraphs either a four-hit rampage or a diseased claw attack that damages the party and inflicts Sick. The damage can pile up pretty quickly, especially at the end, but there's no real strategy here that you wouldn't already know from playing other RPGs: hit the other guy in the face really hard, don't die.



Music

With one last horrid growl, the Mutt finally goes down.



Music: Carton of Smokes, Half-Smoked

Nobody inside the Wharf Dog has any clue about how the case really went down here.



That's not a bad idea. If we're sailing with Captain Fish's crew, we can get to other islands!

Okay, but hear me out: what if you went back to being a proper Legato Knight?



There we go. One down, three to go.



Y'know, I think Jorgen only got hit because he looked like Jimmy, sort of. Poor dude didn't deserve that at all.



Well, there's four of us, but sure, Jimmy can tag in as a sailor for a bit.



If you're playing along at home: make sure you take care of everything you need to do in Sweet Melody and Homeflower before you agree to this. You'll have to get through the next area in full before you can backtrack. We're good, though.



Really, anywhere new is good. That just improves the odds of finding Lars or Andrew (or GAMM-E, but she feels slightly lower priority somehow).



Music

It's hard to get any sleep. The boat rocks too much, and SOMEONE keeps trying to play mindgames. But I do appreciate that Buck gave up the bed to Jimmy and slept on the floor. He's still a jerk, but he's trying.



Music: Bucket of Stink

When we awaken and disembark, we find ourselves in a new land. Jimmy doesn't know where he is, but I can tell you that we've arrived in Blood Marsh, on the island of Grim Echoes, for what that's worth.



Fair enough, and exploring is pretty fun.



Six treasures here.



Well, you know him better than we do, so if you say so.



New place, new perspective. For the record: you can't use the Emergency Exit here until we get out of Blood Marsh.



Hey again, mystery fish. We heard a very interesting fact earlier today. Want to trade for the fact about you being able to swim in weird blood water?



Guess not.



This area has a kind of annoying puzzle gimmick. There's a few holes in the ground that produce swamp gas, and you can build up pressure by blocking them with skulls. The skulls can be slowly moved around with the Low-Level Goon's ability.



Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

Remember the Rad Ghost? The Skeleton Fop is the financial equivalent of that, and they're a pain to get money from but in different ways. They're immune to all attacks, and will simply spend the first turn musing at how whimsical the battle is. They have four Weird Bones, and stealing three out of the four of them, or waiting until the second turn, will cause the Skeleton Fop to run away. If you steal the right one...



Haha! First try!



LODS OF EMONE

The correct Weird Bone is random each time. Again, stealing the wrong one causes it to flee. Good luck.



Music: Bucket of Stink

This area feels spooky, but it feels seasonally spooky. Nothing as horrifying as the rotted beehive or anything.



Just shoving a skull.



Can't go beyond there right now, the door is too visual.

If you want to get this area done quickly, go north.



This takes us to a place with one familiar face and a bunch of unfamiliar ones.



This is the Scriff village. Scriff are rat people, I guess. That's cool.



I... don't. But I'm sorry that you have a dilemma to work through.



Don't mess with Ms. Robin.



Her inventory is unchanged from Mute Notes, except for the furniture, which gets bought with our Skeleton Fop money.



I'd ask you to take us with you, but you're probably already carrying trade goods.



Timothy's keeping an open mind about things.



You'd think we have to talk to the chief and do a quest for them and enlist their help and all that. But nah.



They're plenty accommodating, but have nothing to offer us.



The actual way to progress is to go check out the one guy's weird garbage.



Music

I knew it, Mr. Marvelous is a cursed aspect of some kind of entropy god, isn't he.



Music: Worm Party

Or not. The statue's head comes off and hovers lazily around.



How whimsically spooky!



It's the work of a g-g-g-GHOST!



Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

Pattern recognition's probably kicking in for a lot of you, so let's hit the notes here. The Rotting Jack O' Lantern is an undead foe that sports a pretty serious physical attack resistance due to all the incorporeality, so if neither Buck or Helga has a Black Spiral manual on them, Jimmy and Jonathon are going to have to be your damage dealers for this fight. The Rotting Jack O' Lantern can shoot Ghost Fire at one person for magical damage, cause the entire to combust for weak magical damage, or chuckle for a turn to telegraph a big firestorm attack. What's more, when it drops below 70% max HP, the Rotting Jack O' Lantern will Concentrate, boosting its powers for three turns, and from then on out it will refresh this buff whenever it expires. Since Buck and Helga can't do much damage, they should stick to support as much as possible. In particular, it's a good idea for Buck to Insult the Rotting Jack O' Lantern out of its telegraphed move, and sometimes even when it's not telegraphing so you can eat a turn of the Concentrate buff. Just be mindful that the Rotting Jack O' Lantern has no physical moves, so don't get cocky and try to tank with Revolting Blob here. Your better options are Happy Little Sunflower and Red-Billed Squawker as far as forms go.



Time for a new one.



Music: The Noble Sea

This one got a little bit heavier than the rest, huh?



But it's worth it.



Because now we have my favorite form, the Rotting Jack O' Lantern!



Happy to help!



The field action of the Rotting Jack O' Lantern lets us burn down stuff! What kinda stuff? I dunno, flammable stuff.



We'll start with these plants, though.



Handy! Once this is done, navigating Blood Marsh becomes a lot less of a hassle.



In fights, the Rotting Jack O' Lantern is defined both by its incredible magical power and by its fine control of MP expenditure. Every level of Rotting Jack O' Lantern gives us +1 MAT.

Ghost Fire (10 MP, unlock at level 5) is a more general-purpose magical attack than Sunshine, hitting harder and costing slightly more. It's all right, I suppose. Not much to say about it.

Combust (15 MP, unlock at level 10) is another multitarget attack. It hits slightly harder than Fierce Growl, so it's easier to build up into an encounter-clearing technique. There's some distinction between physical and magical offense that won't matter until later in the game, which might account for the stat differences of these moves compared to, say, Bully and Fierce Growl.

Matter Transfer (unlock at level 15) gives Jimmy a way to replenish his MP midfight, and that's obviously really good. The problem is that this costs him HP to do, and that can be tricky if you're in a situation where you need to Matter Transfer to keep going. Still, the return on this is respectable, especially if you have good healing to make up the cost. Right now, this will get Jimmy around 30 or so MP.

Brainiac (passive, unlock at level 25) works exactly the same as all the other moves that have preceded it, and is a very nice thing to invest in.

Mana Burn (10 MP, unlock at level 40) is the real key to unstoppable power. The MP drain is only checked at the end of the turn, which doesn't ever roll around if you've already left the encounter looking like a smoking crater. It's nice that it works for physical attacks as well as magical ones, so even if you don't invest in Rotting Jack O' Lantern over Grumble Bear, you can start the fight in this form, use Mana Burn, swap over to Grumble Bear, and use Rampage to remove a sucker from existence.

Spectral Body (passive, level 50) was my ticket to clearing the postgame of Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass on my first playthrough. The holy weakness may as well not exist, very few enemies use that type, and the inability to heal doesn't apply to regen effects like Nourishing Roots. This allows Jimmy to completely no-sell the bulk of the attacks in the game, which is exactly as powerful as it sounds. There's other ways to break the postgame wide open, but this one is mine.



Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

The encounters for the area finally decide to make their entrance, starting with the Bog Lurker. They can attack normally, or disappear into the bog below, becoming immune to physical attacks and telegraphing them emerging to land a fearsome attack that leaves the victim Afraid.

Bumba can either attack, do a bite to hit harder, or hock up something gross to make someone Sick. Both of these enemies, as you might guess, are undead.

Music: Bucket of Stink

Right, let's let the captain out.



Just watch yourself from here on out.



hehehehehehehe



Oh, the Rotting Jack O' Lantern can also hover over short gaps, achieving the same effect as the Red-Billed Squawker.



The Rusty Hook (+20 ATK, +5 MAT) is a pretty good weapon for this stage, especially for Buck. As fun as the Rad Sneakers have been for him, it's time for him to get back to what matters: hitting things really hard.



In the northeast corner of the marsh, we find a cracked rock. There's two of these, and we need to cover one of the swamp gas pockets with a skull to open the other.



It's flammable, but not flammable enough yet.



Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

We can encounter hostile Scriff Tribesmen out in Blood Marsh. They can normal attack, use their torch to magically attack, or chuckle to telegraph an area fire attack. They're also capable of fleeing at low health, and hold a new kind of furniture. Master Criminal makes it easy pickings.

There's also Swamp Gas, another kind of undead that has a heavy innate physical resistance. It can either attack or pass through someone, freaking them out and inflicting Afraid.



Music: Bucket of Stink

The other pocket of swamp gas is to the north of the Scriff village.



And the skull is somewhere between them. I'll save you the trouble of seeing me drag this all over the place slowly and just cut to:



Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

Me getting pestered by a Necromancer. They can attack normally, summon hellfire as a magical attack, or revive dead teammates at half health. I'd say they're real jerks and they suck to fight, but neither they nor their allies tend to be very hardy, so I can live with it.



Music: Bucket of Stink

Got that plugged up...



And that unplugged.



We get the tunes on the right...



And some very normal furniture on the left.



Let me in, nerd.



The Rotting Jack O' Lantern can briefly extend their visual range in dark spaces with a flicker of flame, but it doesn't last long.



That's Grim Echoes for you!



The Wormwood Stick (+5 ATK/+20 MAT) is a great way for one of your characters to start being full wizard. Jimmy and Jonathon are good choices, as before.



By playing with the fire effect in this creepy hands tunnel, we can uncover a secret path!



Just walk through the wall, no problem. This will be the last stop for today, for pacing reasons, and also because this update is long as hell anyway. I just really like this game and think it's fun to play, guys!



Down we go!



Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

Bog Lurker wanted to show off their cool submerging trick.



Music: Deep, Dark Well

Now, this might make you think we're in another nightmare zone, but that's not quite right. It's still a scary place, but it's not going to have anything any tougher than usual Blood Marsh encounters.



Just take in the scenery for now.

Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

One new encounter for the area: Bramble Bushes, which are always set to Counter. They either attack or do nothing but watch you on their turns, and you can reveal the Scriff Tribesman hiding inside by stealing the Brambles.



Music: Deep, Dark Well

No more fight coverage. Just us going around and around as we head down this cave.



But if we head up instead...



Aha, looks like this is Buck's memory cave.



Don't know what he's talking about, but he's going nuts on that wall.



I don't have a name for this area, but it's definitely fitting that Buck's memories are in the first area that's just naturally spooky.



I'm on full-on encounter ignoring mode right now, by the way. I'm tapped on resources and we still can't Emergency Exit, but I wanted this done sooner than later. That's on me, I guess. Clean Getaway is seeing constant use.



Monster Teeth aren't normally enough to count as an upgrade, but Buck with the Rusty Hook can make them work, even moreso than the Jacks.



This is what big brothers do to bond with little brothers, confirmed.



There's four memories to each secret area, so we'll keep going.



Scenery's not as nice as Singing Water Cave.



Jimmy likes video games. Buck thinks they're a waste of time. Well who's got the cool leather jacket now, huh?



Down here ought to be the last one.



Nearly there.



Just past the giant monster skull...



This is the earliest memory of Buck we can find. And it's hard to tell, but he looks almost Jimmy's age! Even that early, he's still all about strength, huh.



We get ourselves one last piece of furniture for our troubles. But we're done for now, and gotta backtrack out...

Next Time: But, if you're planning on jumping, then you should just stop being silly and jump.

Truly that dog is WORST DOG.

I'm sure a scene like this has probably never (or only rarely ever) been shown in any actual noir fiction but it does seem perfectly in character for a noir private eye. (Which makes me wonder - what kind of hard liquor goes best with cheap Chinese takeout?)

Music: Bucket of Stink

It's time for another content warning, this time for suicide. Oh, and also getting out of Blood Marsh.



The weird tunnel ends shortly past the detour into the memories of Buck.



We emerge next to some tall dead grass.



Flower time!



Wonder what we'll get this time.



Another phone booth, eh? Maybe we'll get an answer this time.



Doesn't cost us, because communication is free in the land of dreams.



Hey Windsor. Tell Roland I said hey, too.



Music: Knuckle Sandwich and Ladyfingers

Oh hey Punch Tanaka.



You doing okay?



Hey, you didn't do all bad. You warned us about the dog, and we beat it thanks to that! No more dog problems!



Hey now, that's no way of thinking. Come on over here and get a hug (may include shaking).



Music

WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL JONATHON



Sensitive nothing, I'm currently in favor of kicking that bear down off the side of the bridge first.



Music: Knuckle Sandwich and Ladyfingers

No, not later, you come back here right



NO!



...That's what you have to say for yourself? Really?



Music: Bucket of Stink

We need to find a way to get him out of the party.



Were you always like this? Is this why Jimmy locked you in the closet?



Music: Let's Color Today

Well, in any event, we've gotten out of Blood Marsh.



Welcome to Grim Echoes. Of course the island is shaped like a skull why wouldn't it be.



Music: Adventuring for Beginners

We got new furniture to screw around with here, enough that we can disregard common sets for the moment. (I, uh, totally forgot to demonstrate the common furniture we bought in Blood Marsh though.)



Let's get started on the Spooky Set with the Slaughter Table (+3 AGI, 1/6 of the Spooky Set).



And the Screaming Face (+3 MAT, 1/6 of the Spooky Set).



I've been getting really lucky from the Skeleton Fops.

Music: March of the Corgis

We'll stop and check in with Windsor again for a moment. There's a few loose ends to handle in Sweet Melody right now.



Sometimes we have to work a bit more than usual to do what we love.



Anyway, let's see if that switch can take the full force of a Grumble Bear!



Music

Huh, that's odd.



Cecilio doesn't react to the switch, or us talking to him, in any way.



That switch appears to have stopped time throughout Legato.



We can make use of this.



The eyes aren't able to react to us in this state, so we can go through.



This leads to the lightbulb and this toybox. Which makes me wonder... how many other toyboxes remain in Legato?



Eight?! That's wild! I only saw the three in Harply's mansion, and Helga won't let us mess with them. No idea where the rest are, but it seems Legato has even more secrets to uncover.



We'll set things back in order before we go.



Music: Butterscotch Train

Hmm... we got Windsor from the other end, so maybe if we call from here, we'll get a Scriff to talk to!



Then again, it is pretty far from the village.



That's not a Scriff at all.



Wonder what happened.



Music: Carton of Smokes, Half-Smoked

Mute Notes has quieted down, and it might feel like there's not much left to do here, but there is something.



A lot of the lightbulbs in the game are VERY tricky to track down for one reason or another, and may require you to wrack your brain something fierce to obtain. No sweat if so: Ludwig can drum up, if not their outright location, at least hints for how to get them.



He'll offer to look through an island once you've "cleared" it, I think. And you can, naturally, only ask about areas in that continent that you know about.



He'll also let you know if you've found one already, just to keep the record straight.



So of the locations he's offering, we still gotta find the one in Cloudy Hill and the one in Blue Staff River. But I have a pretty good idea about the latter, so...



Oh, right. Anyway we'll go get cash, send him to investigate Cloudy Hill, and go clean out Blue Staff River.



Music: Butterscotch Train

Yeah this one's kind of obvious huh.



Nothing to it.



Music: Bucket of Stink

Let's go see if whoever answered our call is still there.



...They are not.

But hey, they slammed a path through the tall grass to the lightbulb, so that's convenient.



Music: Let's Color Today

Moving on, though.



Music: Haunted Bicycle

Whispering Valley is about as unpleasant as Blood Marsh, but in a very slightly different way.



This is probably a factor.



Four toyboxes here.



Toys, huh?



There's Claire, but it looks like she's already busy with something, and can't return while there's conflict here.



So there's two ways you can approach this section. You can either barrel through Turnbuckle's blockade, or enter the mansion. Both of these will disperse his forces enough to progress to the end of Whispering Valley.



But why not both, I ask?



You want to try stopping a Grumble Bear? Good luck.



Music

Let's go.



Music: The Thresher

The toy soldiers rush forward as we start the battles!



Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

Two new enemies in this formation. Cavalry can use a normal attack, a bite, or telegraph a three-hit rampage by trotting in place.

Pollyanna is a magical foe with weird mind powers. She can attack someone and Startle with them, or rotate her head 360 degrees to prep some mind-control waves. If a party member is mind-controlled, they'll attack someone on their side of the fight each turn while it's active. Startling Pollyanna will, fittingly, break the Mind Control effect. We can steal a Dolly from her, of course.



Music: The Thresher

One wave down!



What, we aren't right now?



Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

Gift Boxes are kind of annoying, but they put up a scarier front than they actually affect in practice. They've got a resistance to all attack types, so focusing them down is harder than usual for the area. They'll always throb one turn and then open the turn after, which defeats them. The effect depends on what's inside: they can contain bombs that damage everyone in the fight, a boxing glove that punches one of your party members WAY hard, noxious gas that inflicts Immunodeficiency and Sick on everyone, or ghosts that can inflict Afraid on everyone.



Music: The Thresher

Who's next?



Huh, are these supposed to be toys Jimmy no longer plays with, then?



Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

Jack-in-a-Crates can be one of three potential enemy types. They'll spend the first action they get revealing themselves, and have resistances against everything while closed, so what's our first one?



More like a Jacked-in-a-Crate.

Anyway, this muscular version can either do a normal attack, or flex to prepare for a powerful slam attack next turn.



Music: The Thresher

WRASSLIN'



That'd be scarier if you guys were doing anything whatsoever to stop me.



Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

We're not yet at the point where Rad Ghost XP is in line with encounters here, so it's worth it to try to take this one down. It's certainly fast, but not as fast as Jimmy with Hyperactivity up. Hell, it might not even be faster than Jonathon with his bonus from the Spring-Loaded Jacket, and Jonathon can oneshot them with Sunshine. Course, we have to be mindful that the Necromancer doesn't revive it right after.



Music: The Thresher

That said, we're high enough that taking one down isn't a guaranteed level for that form. Very sad.



Right, just gotta break past this doll phalanx and we're good.

Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

These fights are good opportunities to try to steal the Dolly, but even if you don't pull it off here, you'll have more options. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of random encounters here, though.



Music: The Thresher

The last line has been breached!



Dang! Deploy it now!



Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

Another Jack-in-a-Crate, what've you got for us...



Huh, I guess popping out also has a chance to make someone Afraid. In any event, this Jack wields magic: single-target fire and ice magic normally, and it can chant in a strange language to telegraph a firestorm that hits everyone.



Music

That's the last of them.



We could just leave for the end of the area, but I'd rather save that for next time. I'm trying to curtail my playing time a little more, which is hard because this game is fun as hell!



Music: Haunted Bicycle

Yeah we did! You want some too!?



Oh, all right then.



Music: Adventuring for Beginners

Here's the Dolly (+2 MAT, 1/5 of the Girly Set).



Music: Carton of Smokes, Half-Smoked

I check in with Ludwig for the clue about Cloudy Hill. He wasn't able to make much headway, but we did learn that scaring the cloud girl causes her to Mallow, so we might be able to use that.



Music: Haunted Bicycle

Anyway, let's infiltrate a mansion why don't we.



Nice place.



Where's a good spot we can enter from...



This'll work.



Music: Little Ballerina in a Mahogany Box

We're in. Let's take a look around.



Ah, I see that this is the adventure game gimmick area. Fun fact: early during development, Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass was supposed to be a multi-genre game that switched it up between areas, and there's still some shades of that visible in certain parts.



I get that these genre shifts aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's a pretty good way to convey the haunted mansion feel they're going for here.



It's pretty friendly, too. Anything you can take will be easily indicated, like so. But Jimmy's not old enough to drink!



Probably important, but we don't have a way to dislodge it.



We gotta get through this door. Maybe wallmouth can help.



Y'know. As you do.



They seem to be pretty happy with their lot in life, so to speak.



Anyway, we got some wine, you want it?



Uh-oh. We maybe should've fished that out first. Well, the good news is that we can get you something for that.

Let's... not mention the bad news right now.



Here goes nothing.



You have no nose, so we can't ask you to hold it.



Okay, that's actually kind of creepy.



Well, hopefully that's the last we have to see of the wallmouth.



We're now able to access basically all of the mansion, and there's a TON of rooms to work with here.



Directly across from the wine cellar is a small library.



There's a ladder for reaching the higher shelves back here. We can move it as a Low-Level Goon, but there's nothing up there to get right now.



The mansion layout is symmetrical, for the most part.



Weird door in the center room.



I don't know what to make of that. Guess if we get four teeth, we can open this.



There's unique "wrong item" text for everything here, but documenting it all would take a lot of time and rob you of the mystery of finding it out yourselves.



Next to the dining room, unsurprisingly, is a kitchen.



Good thing we've already got Antibodies. Grab a handful, Jimmy.



Don't like that.



The spice rack does not appear to be cursed or haunted in any way, thankfully.



Next room over is a sewing room.



Again, we don't need it yet, but we may as well load up our pockets now.



As we take them, the spinning wheel creaks to life. Guess a ghost is using it.



Let's clean out the second floor entirely before climbing the stairs.



Guess this is a botanical study? Not exactly a greenhouse if it's indoors with no windows.



Hello. No, we're not here to play.



This should handle the plant nicely.



Just gotta find an appropriate delivery method.



Perfect.

Eat up.



I don't know that we needed to do this.



But I wanted to.



Next door is a chemistry lab.



How very situational.



Hm... Maybe if we had something to fill it further with, the tooth would float to the top.



Each end of the second floor has stairs leading to a different hallway on the third.



Nothing important in here.



This room north of the stairs is very dark.



The lights are just at the back, thankfully.



Nothing's in there, though, and we can hear the switch clicking off again after we leave. Guess whatever lives in there likes it dark.



Well this side of the third floor's been a dud. What about the other side?



Right first.



Nope, don't like this room.



At least she's not doing the jumpscare thing. Those are annoying.



We can use the water here, at least.



Maybe go right under the faucet for this one?



North exit on the east wing is locked.



All that remains is a smaller reading room. We can do whatever the shelf downstairs needs to do with this.



Wonder what'll happen.



Wait, that's it? Rude.



After leaving, we hear a heavy thud.



Aha, there was a secret entrance.



I'm guessing that if the hungry plant was still alive, their vines would be blocking this.



This should let us enter the room upstairs.

It's nice that there's been no encounters throughout this, but it gets sort of dull.



Maybe this room will change that.



Nice to meet you, Adaline!



The lights suddenly go out, and we hear a faint giggling.



Sure!



The first room to check is the plant room. As we leave, we hear a crash of something breaking and another giggle.



Oooh, handy! We snag a few.



We next find Adaline in the library, on top of a shelf.



By the time we get the ladder anywhere near her, she's already left.



We take a break from hide and seek to get this tooth.



Nice. Three more to go.



Adaline's moved to the dark room.



As we switch the lights on, the shadows living here scatter, leaving behind...



Mystery box! Hell yes we're reaching in.



Two down.



Hm... feel like I did something like this in another game.



I'll try to be careful here.



If we leave Adaline here, we'll get encounters in Turnbuckle's mansion from here on out.



Let's not do that.



Y'know what? You're welcome, Adaline!



We're going to meet Turnbuckle pretty soon.



We've got three of the four teeth needed to get in here.



The last one, unfortunately, was eaten by the mouth. But we can get it back with a little creativity.



They really, REALLY want more blood to drink, and we can provide something similar, but that doesn't get the tooth out on its own.



We can flavor the water with meat extract...

That'll approximate the flavor.



And that covers the texture. But we need a secret ingredient to get the tooth back.



Hope the mouth is close enough to human to count.



No part of that felt good, but we've got the fourth tooth now.



That's the door to Turnbuckle himself.



I like the lamps.



Music

Interesting boss speech here. Because yeah, we're fighting.



Music: A Cocoon Throbbing in a Dead Man's Mouth

Turnbuckle takes the same basic idea of the Queen Bee fight and makes it a little more interesting by summoning Gift Boxes throughout the fight. Ordinarily, Turnbuckle's moveset is to either normally attack, attack and Startle with mind powers, or telegraph a party-wide version of that with his eyes glowing. However, he'll also revive fallen Gift Boxes every so often, and adds an untelegraphed Counter and a magical Barrier effect to his repertoire if any Gift Boxes are alive. Barriers outright Reflect any magical attacks that hit them back to the sender, so attacking Turnbuckle at all when Gift Boxes are out is a bit of a risky proposition, although if you're at full health it's unlikely a reflected spell will drop you.

There's a lot of overall useful options for this fight. Immunize completely negates two of the four possible moves the Gift Boxes can pull, so you can test your luck for a mere 30 of Jonathon's MP. Alternating between physical and magical attackers means that even if Turnbuckle does throw a defensive move up, you're still going to get some damage through without bleeding your way toward it. And since the Gift Boxes always take a turn to open, you can stagger the effects from them with well-timed Startle effects. Turnbuckle is a really fun fight on the whole, since he's definitely not pulling any punches, but neither does he curtail your own options. That's something Kasey very much tried to avoid in the encounter designs for this game, and I really love that.



I finish the fight in Bear form since hey, I didn't use it much on my first playthrough.



Music: The Noble Sea

Turnbuckle's mansion is a little different from most of the nightmare zones, and that's precisely because Turnbuckle, more than virtually any other boss in the game, doesn't actually want to hurt Jimmy. As much as the mansion dealt in horror, Jimmy was never in any danger throughout, and despite engaging with some pretty creepy entities, they were all ultimately friendly to him. The mansion doesn't even generate encounters unless you leave Adaline's wound open. If anything, the fear here isn't Jimmy's, it's Turnbuckle's. Sure, there's the whole "haunted" aspect there to be afraid of, and there's probably a degree of guilt involved over abandoning your childhood "friends" but the lack of edge to this entire encounter makes it stand out to me.



Let's check the attic before we go.



Well that is just adorable as all get out.



The Loaded Dice (+30 ATK) might sound a little risky as a normal weapon, but they're still amazing for Buck. The ATK boost is really solid for his other techniques, and he has a chance of attacking twice, which means rolling twice, which means that variance can get more in our favor.



Furniture!



Reckless Charge (40 MP) is what happens when Buck looks at Head-On Collision and just scoffs and says he can do better than that. This Buck-only manual is, hands down, the single strongest attack skill in the game. The costs are absolutely monstrous, even outside of this point in the game, but if you want to point at something and make sure it's killed all to hell in one turn, you have Buck hit it with a Reckless Charge.



Music: Adventuring for Beginners

Here's the Jack O' Lantern (+3 MDF, 1/6 of the Spooky Set). Like how the Musical Set was emblematic of Sweet Notes, and the Floral Set is emblematic of Homeflower, this set's looking very much about Grim Echoes.

Next Time: This isn't your decision to make. You don't get to choose what to forget.

YOU ARE A VERY BAD BEAR, JONATHON.

BTW, interesting touch having this scene set on a backdrop with a silhouette of a tree with what looks to be the silhouette of a hanging corpse.

What are you talking about, Jonathan Bear is a very good bear who just cares about us so much.

I really, really love the survival horror mansion segment of this game. That's the good stuff.

"Hold my root beer."

Music: Haunted Bicycle

Can't believe that last update was me trying to cut down how much I was playing. Friggin' genre shifts.



I don't think I'd call being an imperial colonist "lame", Claire. I'd have a lot harsher words for that. But hey, that's one more Legato Knight down, we're just missing Coltrane and LeGrange.



Only one treasure left in Whispering Valley, so let's get through this last bit of it.



The caves are better lit than in Blood Marsh but no less spooky.



Not a very long cave.



Despite appearances, we actually want to go west for the toybox and north for progress.



That's the last toybox. No sign of a lightbulb yet.



Oh hey guys.



LOOK AT THIS GOOD DOG



Very good. We'll keep that in mind for the next time we pet him (i.e. as soon as we're done here.)



This deal Rubik's offering is a tricky proposition. We can carry ten Super Balls, I think, which gives Jonathon a LOT of firepower to work with, but that Mecha Super Ball is WAY hard to get extras of, and I distinctly remember my postgame fights using a handful of them for a specific fight. But we gotta go back and get some money first, of course.



Music: Oh-So-Cool Castle

I wanted to change up the music in the Clubhouse for a bit, and Oh-So-Cool Castle is a really nice track that doesn't get much airtime.



Music: Haunted Bicycle

Remember what I said about niche strategies requiring spiking LUK? This is one of them. The Mecha Super Ball, combined with certain gear and passives that skyrocket your LUK and item damage, can disintegrate postgame bosses. They're also a MAJOR pain to get more of.



Anyway, not much further to the area end.



To the west is a grimacing smoke cloud. We can't affect it in any way right now, nor can we bypass it.



To the east we find... huh. Giant pile of toys, I see.



I kinda figured Turnbuckle was being metaphorical about the fire, but no there's a literal furnace right here huh. You can even see a little Turnbuckle doll off to the right.



Let's check out the shed.



Only inhabitant is a weird little Frankenstein monster guy.



The only exit in Whispering Valley is on the other side of the furnace, so I think we have to stay until your shift's done so the fire dies down.



I guess this is the core of what everyone was talking about when they referred to Grim Echoes as a place where unwanted things go.



Don't mind if I do.



Music

Understandably, Jimmy's having some trouble sleeping.



What's Jonathon up to now?



Neither of our family members is getting up. Jimmy's got to face this himself.

...I think Jimmy's got an opportunity here.



He's become a liability. We're going to have to. Do it, Jimmy.



It happens instantly. Just the soft thump of the impact, then the brief flicker of the flames.



But, of course, it wouldn't be that easy.



Somehow, impossibly, Jonathon Bear is still standing.



Music: Skin Thieves

Oh. That explains a lot.



There's the Pulsating Mass again. Whatever it is, it reached Jonathon before Helga did.



Jonathon's visage finally burns away, but I somehow don't think we've seen the last of him.



Music

At the very least, he's no longer an active member of the party.

The game will do this any time you're unlikely to see a given party member returning for a significant amount of time. We still can't use the Immunize manual since that's Jonathon exclusive, but everything else he had is fair game.



I think Jimmy's okay with no Jonathon Bears, Helga.



That's about as comforting as Buck ever gets.



Music: Haunted Bicycle

Thanks for hosting us.



Turnbuckle's not here anymore. Shame about that, I'd welcome him to my party over Jonathon.



Music: Let's Color Today

What else remains for us on Grim Echoes?



There's an amusement park over there, but no way to reach it. Current estimate is that it's at least 700% haunted.



We can check this place out, at least.



Music

Wind's pretty harsh, but there's no monsters around, at least.



Kinda looks like a mall, huh?



Well. It probably was a mall, once.



Everything's closed. This place looks totally abandoned. Not surprised, with it being in a far-flung corner of Grim Echoes.



What's through here?



Oh, I REALLY don't like that graffiti.



Finally found an open store.



We didn't get much sleep at Gunther's place, and there are beds very much meant to accommodate our current party. I think whatever happened here has long since passed, anyway, so yeah.



Not to say our sleep is restful.

Jimmy awakens to static.



Weird, that wasn't on when we passed by earlier.



It's anomalous, but I withhold my right to be terrified until given ample evidence.



Music: Hotel at the End of the World

...What.



All that suspense, and this is what we end up seeing?



The stores are open now, so that's neat. This guy sells all of the battle items Rubik was offering in Fermata Forest, so we have a place to stock up on those now that Jonathon is no longer in the party and their value has sharply lowered.



Oooh, that saves me some backtracking.



Is this metacommentary about how the arcades of the 80's have died out in response to home gaming? Or just a bored kid?



No reason not to, says I.



Hey guys, how'd you get here?



Ah, right, we gotta get that Futuristic Set shown off. And hey, new manual! Prices are starting to climb a little more than we're used to, though.

Pulverizing Light (15 MP) is literally identical to Magnificent Combo, but it also tags the same undead weakness Sunshine does. It's a really nice manual for a lot of characters, and both Buck and Helga can make decent use of it, but I'm not quite gutsy enough with my finances to buy two copies, and Buck already has Magnificent Combo anyway.



You're going to have to find your own answer there.



Look at you, little buddy, not even afraid of the ghosts and building up that local knowledge! I'm proud of you! Wonder what happened a year ago here, though. Not like Grim Echoes was ever really a bustling metropolis.



Mr. Grouse has even managed to expand his business into the afterlife, apparently. Taxes is currently winning against death.



Music: Oh-So-Cool Castle

Let's get that Futuristic Set shown off, starting with the Mainframe (+1 MAT).



There's also Quince-3 (+1 DEF)...



A Hologram (+1 MDF)...



And a Containment Pod (+1 LUK).



Fun and all, but I'm going to ignore set bonuses for now. I know, we only have the eight slots of furniture and can only have two common sets active right now, but +1 to eight stats and +5 to two doesn't sound as appealing as +3 to eight stats.



Music: Hotel at the End of the World

HEY HELGA WANNA TEST YOUR NEW MANUAL OUT



Dang, of course they flee even on the overworld.



Ghost restaurant, huh?



Sure, this could be interesting.



Wonder what kind of specialty they have here.



Thanks, mate.

Buck you're saying that like Jimmy isn't eight. Come on.



Truly the dinner of a hip chick.



Man he really is a meathead, huh.



This is a very good kid's menu. I'm sure Jimmy would be content with any of these, but personal pizzas are always top tier selections.



Be sure to tip them generously, Helga.



Coming from Buck, that's like Prince Sidon level pep talk.



Hanging around with a bunch of supports and carrying a First Aid manual might be rubbing off on him.



We're gonna stick together for sure.



Well, that sounds perfect, but, uh...



This is not pizza. This isn't even close to pizza.



Okay, Helga, I get that you want to be polite, but no. We asked for things that were definitely not blood, and were served blood. That's not ghost cooking, the blood wasn't even heated.



Music

Don't do it, Jimmy.



Before we commit, the lights go out.



Music: Hotel at the End of the World

Nope, not liking this.



It's not even an order mix-up, we are literally the only customers here.



Helga is being extremely relatable right now and I don't like it.



Well, at least we can find out why the mixup might've happened.



Okay, that makes sense. Let's leave, how about.



Yeah, this isn't the work of ghosts.



Music

It's the work of none other than...



The 50's Style Vampire!



Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

The 50's Style Vampire has a few unique tricks, but we just got Reckless Charge and Pulverizing Light, so he really doesn't get even a second to demonstrate what he can do against our unstoppable powers. He sports a bloodsucking bite that drains health, and he'll have some choice words about the vampires of today, telegraphing a powerful Black Fountain spell. Once he drops below half health, he'll go Ethereal, sharply boosting his physical resistance and changing his moveset. He can invoke a wave of darkness to attack everyone magically, cackle to either telegraph Black Fountain or a Barrier that reflects magic, or materialize around you to leech health from everyone and lose the Ethereal status. But, again, we kind of walloped this guy effortlessly. I'm a little surprised at how quickly it went.



It's that time again!



Music: The Noble Sea

When you're this empathetic, you can be a goth edgelord even at the tender age of eight.



THIS ISN'T EVEN HIS FINAL FORM



The 50's Style Vampire brings a set of weird, but handy, abilities to the table, both inside of battle and out.

Music: Hotel at the End of the World

While the 50's Style Vampire grants +1 MDF with every level, it's hard to really say it's got a coherent theme to its powers. There's really just kind of a grab bag here, almost like the design is expecting you to focus on another form with higher priority (particularly Revolting Blob or Rotting Jack O' Lantern), and only invest in 50's Style Vampire to the point where you get the powers you want. There are some pretty nice moves to get here, though.

Leech (5 MP, unlock at level 5) is the only lifedraining move in Jimmy's arsenal, and the damage from the bite is pretty low, but it's well-suited to a physical beeftank build. Like Nourishing Roots, the heal effect here bypasses the effect of Immunodeficiency to my knowledge, which means you can use it with Spectral Body (but if you've invested in Rotting Jack O' Lantern that hard, is your ATK really going to cut it?)

Energize (unlock at level 10) is the exact same move Jonathon previously held as unique. And, as usual, Jonathon's stats and moveset make him worse at using this move normally than Jimmy is. There's a lot more ways for Jimmy to be a reasonable MP battery than Jonathon, and besides, screw that guy!

Barrier (8 MP, unlock at level 15) is really good. Getting this ability if you're using Revolting Blob actively is a very good investment, and lets Jimmy easily stonewall magically-inclined foes: use Undulate to force them to attack Jimmy, and then bounce all of their meanest spells right back in their faces! What's more, this also negates any extra effects from their attacks, like Startle, and forces them to take it.

Tangible Aura (passive, unlock at level 25) is what you use if you are worried about magic but don't feel like abusing Barrier to deal with that. Naturally, this goes together really well with Spectral Body.

Black Fountain (20 MP, unlock at level 40) is Jimmy's best single-target magical attack. Anything you want Buck to do with Magnificent Combo as a physical move, Jimmy can answer with Black Fountain as a magical counterpart. The damage is even better, and the MP cost is pretty easy for Jimmy to mitigate.

Dark Ritual (passive, unlock at level 50) is MP regen, and pretty good MP regen too. Choco-Cola counts as good MP restoration, but this can just automatically do the same thing except better over a few turns. And by the time you've gotten this, you've got Black Fountain, at the very least, as a way to spend that recurring MP easily, to say nothing of Mana Burn.



Well, if there's one thing I know about 50's Style Vampires, its that they're VERY sharply dressed.



Unfortunately, they only sell two clothes here. There's the Ghost Clothes (+1 DEF/+30 MDF):

Or a Moth-Eaten Jacket (+5 DEF/MDF):



Wonder what's in the dressing room?



Just a mirror, huh? Well, let's test out that mirrorjumping power!



The color fades from the world around us briefly, and we end up...



Somewhere similar, but different.



Yes excuse us while we jump back through the mirror dimension and go withdraw money from the ghost bank.



Don't know what I expected here.



Let's try the Funhouse mirror next.



Huh. Toybox is closed, the vendor is alive, and there's a mouse here.



Peculiar.



Don't think we've met a Mr. Mouse before. He's going through a hard time right now, so we'll leave him be.



One more track for the pile.



Music: Oh-So-Cool Castle

Here's our Severed Hand (+3 LUK, 1/6 of the Spooky Set).



Music: Cloud Sundae

It's finally time to follow up on Ludwig's clue about this place.



Sure enough, the monstrous visage of the 50's Style Vampire terrifies the cloud girl to tears, bring out a rainstorm.



We head to this spot south of the rainbow bridge...



And float across the gap, reaching this puddle. Guess the lightbulb would be too far down to interact with normally.



Music: The Toys Move on Their Own

On our way back through Whispering Valley to field test the 50's Style Vampire a little more, we find the last Jack-in-a-Crate. This knife-wielding ghoul is exceptionally speedy, and sports both a normal attack and an area-attacking flail.



Music: Haunted Bicycle

Anyway, let's spook ourselves a smoke cloud.



It's nice to be the scariest thing around.



That'll do for now. Let's get back to Ashby's, there's one last thing we can check out.



Music

The 50's Style Vampire's mirrorjump doesn't work on just mirrors. Anything sufficiently reflective will do the trick, like this TV screen. Which takes us into...



Music: Jonathon Bear's Theme

Oh no. No, I don't want to go here.



Music: Terminal Broadcast

But here is where we are.

Welcome to Jonathon Bear's Playtime Forest.

Next Time: Today's a special day. Do you know why? It's another day I can spend with you!