Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass (Beware, Spoilers)

[FelixSH]

I'm finally playing this. It's fun! I like the job system, and am curious which forms I'm going to get. The atmosphere is pretty great, and, not surprising anyone, feels pretty Earthbound-y. Considering how few abilities I have, it seems like they will give the player a lot of options for later battles.

That said, I hope Giant Garden is an exception and not the rule for the way dungeons are designed. It's sort of a teleportation dungeon, and through the lack of any kind of ingame map, really confusing to get through. Considering that it's a very early game dungeon, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Please, can anyone tell me that dungeons will not all be labyrinthine messes? Or better, that non are, and this was just an exception?

Really, I enjoy the game, but I wandered just too long through that dungeon and am kind of annoyed that something like that is not only in the game, but also so early. Still looking forward to playing more very much. Really want to help those bees, and stop those jerks that badmouth me.

 

[Kalir]

I did an LP of this game back on the old forum! It's a very good game.

 

[FelixSH]

I always wanted to read it, but also knew that I would play it myself someday. But I think you brought the game to my attention? Thanks!

 

[FelixSH]

I went back to the bees. That was an unpleasent visit. The queen...dear god, that game is intense.

 

[nosimpleway]

Kalir's LP brought about a week or two of me watching other LPs about games that, respecting spoilers here, follow the general sort of themes as JatPM, probing at the idea like poking a sore tooth with your tongue.

 

[aturtledoesbite]

To answer your question, the teleport maze is unique.

But, uh

As you saw, you may have preferred teleport mazes over what you get.

 

[FelixSH]

I reached the Mutt, and he is just obnoxious. I think Jimmy wasn't able to do anything, because he, and only he, was always scared, or afraid, or whatever the status effect is after the barking. What's up with that? Why Jimmy? Why him every time? I would like to actually use him, to slow this stupid dog down. After Jimmy finally got a round to do anything, I had to defend with everyone, because the dog prepared for his super attack, and just killed the teddy bear.

I dunno, I understand that this game isn't easy, but straight up not letting one of my characters act at all, because of a status effect that randomly hits, but actually hits every time, seems stupid? Especially when I can't remove it? Or did I miss anything? I think all I have is healing for common status effects, and stuff to revive people. Not that healing would help, the effect always lasts only one round anyway.

Edit: Beat him. The fight was alright, what made me angry was that the Afraid-status was applied every single time to Jimmy, and only him. Can someone explain this to me? I guess there is a mechanism there, and it wasn't just weird, awful bad luck.

 

[Serephine]

Jimmy is 5 and scared of dogs.

Also feel free to turn it down to Easy mode, it's there for a reason and this game isn't particularly easy to begin with, I spent a lot of the middle game with it on just to reduce time spent trying to get on the exp and money curve.

 

[Kalir]

Also, if slowing down the Mutt is what you needed, you can find a weapon in Giant Garden that applies Sticky to normal attacks, which is usually enough to have even Buck's Insult stop enemies.

 

[FelixSH]

Yeah, I got just angry because I got caught off guard by the sudden difficulty spike the Mutt was. Sorry, I shouldn't get so angry at games.

The battle became way more managable, when I made sure to keep the mean dog stickied, which made it easy to stop his super attack with insult. Which made the fight way easier.

Thanks for the tips, I will keep easy mode in mind for later on.

 

[Serephine]

This game has hard bosses, straight up. There's a boss in the area after the one you're about to reach/probably have since Sunday that I had to be convinced to keep playing after it handed me my ass so soundly, and it comes out of fucking nowhere so I hadn't saved in a while.

Have you been checking back on areas that seemed suspicious or like they required forms you didn't have at the time? This game is absolutely riddled with secret areas that offer up a bunch of both fun, "fun", and interesting stuff and powerful equipment, but they're all hidden a little or a lot out of the way.

 

[FelixSH]

This game has hard bosses, straight up. There's a boss in the area after the one you're about to reach/probably have since Sunday that I had to be convinced to keep playing after it handed me my ass so soundly, and it comes out of fucking nowhere so I hadn't saved in a while.

Do you mean the toy? That one was surprisingly manageable (wanted to write easy, but, yeah, not really), but he destroyed me at my first try. It was also very sad. And then there was the scene in the next area, with the fire. Me sad.

And no, I'm now only going back to look over old places. I reached the mountain, left from the starting area, but stopped after a bridge collapsed and left me back a good bit. At the beginning, I guess?

Next, I will try the place in the cave, the way that was closed of by a spiderweb. I have to power to get through this now.

By the way, how many forms are there in this game? And I think I don't understand how the equipable powers work. I have six slots, but only the two with the star in front are actually there for me in all forms. What's up with the other four slots?

Edit: Found out how the power slots work. Makes sense, and I remember the game hinting at this.

 

[Kalir]

By the time you finish the next island, you should have all the forms you'll use for most of the game.

Or to be more direct: excluding base Jimmy form, there's 7 forms for most of the game, and then two "bonus" forms you won't get until very lategame.

 

[aturtledoesbite]

Do you mean the toy?

No, I think I know which one they mean. They were saying "the area after the one you're about to go to", so not in spooky land.

 

[FelixSH]

I changed the thread title, because I am the only one playing this for the first time at the moment. I'd still appreciate not to be spoiled much. Mainly, don't tell me about the horror that awaits me and general story stuff, feel free to tell me about mechanics and gameplay stuff.

Ah, my bad, I didn't read Serephines post properly. I'm curious now, I have reached Dragon Quest Island, so I should get to the boss soon.

Toy Story Island was heartbraking and horrifying. It takes the themes of the movies and goes all out horror with it. All toys go to literal hell.

And then there is Jonathan, and the whole part where you see the add for the show, and then the dungeon was amazing. Especially how it started so nice and easy, with Jonathans, uh, friends just being like on tv and pretty easy, to the creepy, red-eyed silhouettes, and then to just straight up abominationes.

I actually had to scream, when the fight with Jonathan started. Two times. God, he looked horrifying. The fight was surprisingly managable, but in the end, I used up all my healing items and was on the brink ofvdeath, just to be saved by a crit from Buck.

He is gone now, isn't he? I got his equippment. Of course now, when he showed how much he loved Jimmy by sacrificing himself.

I want to mention that Helga is great. Partly, she is a great white mage (not too squishy) but she is also a great, caring and loving mum. I love having her and her sunshine personality on my team. It was actually painful, when she found out that Jimmy had stolen the bear.

She will die too, right? (Don't answer that)

Honestly, while I liked the start of the game well enough, I didn't really get too much into it on the first island. There were highlights, like the bee dungeon (dear god) and the mutt, but elsewise, it didn't quite grab me.

Than I came to Toy Story Island, and now I'm all in.

Oh, one question: In the very first area after your house, right at the start, there is a littly guy who starts crying, when I use the vampires scare-ability, and it starts to rain. Just in general, is there something to be found that way, or is it just flavor?

And thanks for the stuff you have already answered. I appreciate the help.

 

[Fyonn]

Oh wow. I never found anything I could do with the vampire scare ability.

 

[Serephine]

Felix, buddy, you better buckle the fuck up, things aren't going to get better any time soon, you're about to start getting into The Shit.

Also yes using the Scare ability there unlocks a path to at least one chest, look around some more.

And if you haven't found any of the optional dungeons I would recommend asking for hints because they're not only good for mechanical rewards, they all tie into the core message of the game in meaningful ways. And, um, there's a dungeon located at The Big Bridge that's Fucking Rough, just gonna throw that one out there for free because it did a real fucking number on me.

 

[FelixSH]

Thanks, I was sure that there was something in the cats house, but didn't find anything when I first entered it, when it started getting accessible.

Aside from that, I found die mountain to the left of Jimmys house, the additional dungeon in Giant Garden that I can now access and the dungeon with the the who waked up and the universe ends.

Any other on the first two islands? Just a general hint for the area is enough where they are is enough.

I planned to go through them anyway soon. Except for the mountain (named "???"), I stopped at tthe part with the wind and read that people fight the boss on level 40. I'm at 20 now and have only two team members, so I think I will leave the rest and the boss for later.

 

[aturtledoesbite]

There's one near the Petty Thugs' base that you can probably easily handle (mechanically speaking) by now.

There's one around Legato that will crush your bones and spit out the dust.

There's a different kind of place around the river area.

That's all that come to mind right now.

 

[MetManMas]

I really hope this game comes to platforms other than computers eventually. It wouldn't be too much trouble to get a cheap laptop that could handle it, but I want it on my Switch and phone.

 

[Nich]

This thread is really making me wish I could reread Kalir's LP of this game.

 

[Super Megaman X]

I really hope this game comes to platforms other than computers eventually. It wouldn't be too much trouble to get a cheap laptop that could handle it, but I want it on my Switch and phone.

Absolutely this. ^ I don't know much about this game, but from the bits I've heard it sounds absolutely my jam, but I don't PC game. It's just not my thing.

 

[Kalir]

The archive will be back eventually!

And yeah, my rule of thumb for the side areas is "fuck it, facecheck that shit and see if it kills you". The penalty for getting thrashed isn't a large one.

 

[FelixSH]

After taking a break for some time (over a month, wow), I got back to this game. Before the break, I made it through all of Dragon Quest island. Which was the easiest, so far? I managed to defeat every boss at the first try. I mean, they were hard, but pretty managable. And Lars was surprisingly useful. I think I got somewhat lucky, when I fought against Chancellor Pulsating Mass. His mind control nonsense made me nervous, but I beat him, though got nearly killed myself. That's were I took the break, because...

The monsters on the next island are jerks. The equations that have to be killed at once, or they will just revive the other one, are annoying. This Onefish enemy was weirdly hard to kill, and hit like a truck, for some reason? And most enemies have some sort of gimmick, that makes them kind of annoying to deal with.

Then I reached the Eyes, and they basically mind controlled me to death, before I could kill one of them. Which made me decide to quit, for now. I guess I could take a second try at Mr. Cats dungeon. That one was hard, but somewhat managable, including the boss, before he went all aggro on me. The Alice in Wonderland dungeon was useful for a bit of grinding, because some of the enemies can be killed fast enough for them to not get an attack in, but that one still kicked my ass, as soon as I got a bit unlucky.

Just one question about the Eyes boss: Does one eye get a boost, after I kill the other? Or can I just focus on one, and have the battle get easier afterwards? Seems kind of unlikely, but it's not an easy fight and focusing on one monsters seems like the obvious choice. I just don't want t o do that, just for the other one to go full berserk.

 

[Kalir]

The Lingering Eyes boss is probably one of the most annoying in the game, especially if you've gotten used to Lars employing Counter Stance regularly. And while the remaining eye doesn't get any stronger once you take out the other one, they do have the ability to revive their partner to their current HP total.

If you want Lars to remain useful even without Counter Stance shenanigans, I suggest relying on Afternoon Nap to basically no-sell single-target attacks (and they don't have area attacks unless they do their telegraphing twitch). I know that startling enemies will break Mind Control effects they have active, but I don't know how that works for the Lingering Eyes, so I can't advocate for that strategy in practice.

 

[FelixSH]

Thanks for the tips! I was surprised by how stron the Eyes are, considering that it isn't the boss of a Horrifying dungeon. Caught me realy off guard.

I did use Lars that way, but I didn't think of using Afternoon Nap this way.

I'll report back.

 

[FelixSH]

I found a bit more info on the Lingering Eyes on the Steam forum, specifically that they only do the really annoying stuff, when they are closed. Which you can control, as every hit changes the status from closed to open and vice versa. Was still not easy, but made the fight very managable.

I already made it a bit further in, teamed up with Sailor Moon and just beat Principal Pulsating Mass. I can't imagine beating him the first time, with all the things that are going on, but after reading about which bat does what, it was a pretty managable fight. Not easy (all the boss fights demanded all my attention), but I never was in danger of a wipe.

Sailor Moon is now part of my team. I like that.

I don't think I like Jimmys dad that much. I mean, he is competent and very intelligent, but he also doesn't seem to show much emotional effection for Jimmy. He clearly cares about him, wanting him not to fall back on his studies, but he expects so much of the little guy. In between the Visual Novel parts (which were very enjoyable, by the way), he only talked about how they had to do stuff, but he never said a single word of encouragement to his son. He also never got angry, but still. And it's not that he is, in general, emotionally detached, which you can clearly see whenever he is with Helga. But while she is always so nice and emotionally nourishing, he is just straight up business, seemingly all the time. I get that he doesn't like Lars, and Punch Tanaka just seems so clearly like bad influence, if you don't know him. But he doesn't even try to be nice to Sailor Moon (I honestly forgot her name now), which seems pretty jerkish. She looks weird, but still. And honestly, they all worked together to get the stupid book, he could at least be thankful to her, and to Lars, who clearly worked hard to help out here. But no, not even a nice word to Jimmy, if I remember correctly. Just talking about their next step.

I miss Helga. She was so nice. And a great healer, too.

School was interesting. Aside from being a Visual Novel, I mean. I'm curious if this is Jimmys actual experience with school. The lessons seemed fine, Jimmy didn't pay attention all the time, but he learned stuff. But it makes it seem like Jimmy didn't get along with his classmates and was bullied. We certainly learned that about Lars. Dunno, I like these people, I want them to be happy. Which I should say goodbye to, I guess, this game doesn't do "happy" a lot.

Lars makes me so sad. I know, he is pretty much a fuck-up, but he also clearly had a horrible experience at school. He just didn't seem to be able or prepared to deal with life, and got stuck somewhere. He is clearly a nice person, even if his behaviour with women isn't ideal, and it seems like he needed some professional help that he never got. There is a part in the fishs dungeon, where we learn that Lars had a job interview, and just didn't go. Which is, of course, a bad move and an adult should know better. But it also seems like he is at least somewhat depressed. He is a good friend to Jimmy, and he tries to help out, at least here. So we can assume that, if there is a simple problem, he is totally ready to help. I guess the world is just too complicated for him. I can, somewhat, relate, even though I would never not go to a job interview.

 

[nosimpleway]

There's a throwaway line in one of the side dungeons that made me instantly lose any sympathy for Jimmy's Dad that I had remaining.

 

[Kalir]

If nothing else, Jimmy at least understands his dad and gets along with him despite his formality. Not to excuse Andrew on anything, but they still have a healthier relationship there than, say, Jimmy and Buck.

You are 100% on the ball about Lars. He's got hella depression, which leads to both his biggest flaws (inability to properly adult, messed up views on women and race) and his biggest strengths (keen emotional wisdom, willing to help others out at constant expense to himself).

 

[FelixSH]

I think I made it to the end part of the game. Just got Sailor Moons spaceship (for some reason, her and Lars declaring that they are getting married, then producing a gigantic ladder and going up to the moon was the weirdest thing in the game, for me), and I think I have to find/kill six things before the door to the pulsating mass opens.

Aside from side-dungeons, is there a place where I can buy new equipment? Better than the stuff in Shinryu? I still only have looked into the new accessible places, and walked out immediately. Except for Information Guy Island, where I lost horribly against the Totem. Will get back to that jerk later.

Still got destroyed by Mr Cat. Which is a bit weird, as the story bosses haven't given me too much trouble for a long time now. I mean, I can get his health pretty low, but at some point, he uses the earthquake spell a bit too often, and I die.

Oh, and I got Punch Tanakas form. Which looks neat, especially the level up bonuses.

Next point of order is to just do all the side-quests and just everything that I can find, and maybe the door will open, then. I guess I'll try my luck with the arena and this boardgame dungeon. They have interesting stuff there.