History VideoGame / JimmyAndThePulsatingMass

* BookEnds: You begin the game with Buck as your only party member. You [[spoiler:fight The Pulsating Mass with just]] you and Buck at the very end.

** The Arcade in Shinryu has four mini-games. There's a Skee-ball game, a Whack-a-mole game, a Rock-Paper-Scissors game, and a timing-based game called 'Punch Tanaka's Ultimate Man Test.' The games all give tickets that can be redeemed at the counter for various items and equipment.
* MirrorBoss: [[spoiler:The second Jimmy in Central Stamen can transform into different monsters, just like you can. He has the same attacks, too, for the most part.]]

* StoneWall: The Revolting Blob, which takes a penalty to magic attack but specializes in defense. It can also provoke enemies to draw attacks.

** An Edge from the Triangle, Square, Pentagon, and Hexagon enemies, which turns the enemy into the one with one less side- or, if you steal it from the Triangle, [[PuffOfLogic makes it case to exist]] because there is no shape with two edges.

* BigBad: The titular [[EldritchAbomination Pulsating Mass]] is the entity that seeks to corrupt and destroy Jimmy's dream world out of hatred for Jimmy, and is the employer of the Petty Thugs as well as implied to be responsible for creating or corrupting the [[BonusBoss Nightmare Zone bosses]]. Though its nature is never fully revealed, it is indicated to be [[spoiler:a representation of the real-world Jimmy's [[TheTopicOfCancer cancer]]]].

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Pulsating Mass is a malignant all-consuming blob of flesh that rots and corrupts everything it touches, and nothing seems to be capable of putting it down. [[spoiler:In other words, [[TheTopicOfCancer cancer]]. The metaphors become more prevalent after the game's WhamEpisode, especially in Central Stamen, where Jimmy collects "medicine" that alleviates the worst of the Buddy Bees' symptoms but also makes him weak, tired, and depressed. In Heart Prison, he gives an especially sick Buddy Bee all three types of medicine at once...only for the Bee to die anyway, its last words asking how Jimmy can possibly stand taking so much]].

* EverybodyHatesMathematics: The Secret Meridian is populated by sentient numbers and its random encounters are LivingPolyhedrons or AnthropomorphicTypography. The Asymmetrical Cavern takes this further, as it's filled with abstract shapes while its BGM bombards you with random numbers without any sense of rhythm. Given that Jimmy's father is his math tutor, it's implied that the Cavern is derived from Jimmy's aversion to complex math that's beyond his understanding.

** In the boss battle against Mutt, its howling attack has a side effect of making Jimmy afraid. Later, in the Abandoned Gigaplex, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Buck narrowly saved Jimmy from being mauled by a dog]].

* KatanasAreJustBetter: [[spoiler: Johnny Knives, or rather "Johnny Katana," would agree.]]

** Appearing in a mini-dungeon accessible in Shinryu after completing a short side quest are Super Rad Ghosts. They have ludicrous amounts of speed (to put it in perspective, 661 agility isn't enough to out-speed it,) their ennui attack hits the entire party, they have 2,000 health, and they always appear with [[CatsAreMean an Unlucky Neko, whose only actions are to waste a turn or insta-kill a party member by tearing their guts out.]] Combined with its allies, you can get a bit over 10,000 experience from one.

** A somewhat stealthy one involves the Onefish and Twofish enemies. They're also [[Creator/DrSeuss red fish and blue fish.]]

** [[spoiler:The moment you directly fight The Pulsating Mass has it take the form of a giant, fleshy labyrinth, with a spherical core that possesses the ability to mimic whoever it chooses. [[VideoGame/EarthBound In other words, Giygas' Devil's Machine.]]]]

** Terminal, which kills a character after 3 turns and is only used by [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Super Deathbot 5000]] and [[spoiler: The Whisper Weaver.]]

* SetBonus: If you collect all furniture of a set and put them in your Clubhouse, you can enjoy an additional perk on top of the items' bonuses.

* SickeninglySweethearts: Andrew and Helga are very much in love and call each other sappy pet names all the time. Even their battle stats are built to match: Andrew is the BlackMage to Helga's WhiteMage, and both will always be the same level and have the same amount of max HP and MP.

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:The conclusion to the first visit to the Central Hub. The Pulsating Mass wins, the Secret Knowledge is lost, Punch Tanaka sacrifices himself, and it becomes clear that, in the real world, Jimmy's hospitalized and doesn't have much time left. The remaining dungeons all deal with how Jimmy's family has affected him throughout his life, and how they try to cope with his sickness.]]

* InGameBankingServices: There's a bank that stores money, giving a 20% interest rate, which is useful because you lose half your money if you die and AdamSmithHatesYourGuts. Moreover, [[spoiler:you need $100,000 in your account to enter the Accelerated Dynamics side dungeon]].

* SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear: Averted -- Any time you lose long-term access to a party member, all their equipment will be automatically returned to your inventory.

* SpamAttack: Buck has a 25% chance of hitting twice. This can be boosted with certain equipment, such as Buck's Mixtape.

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:The first visit to Central Hub. The Pulsating Mass wins, the Secret Knowledge is lost, Punch Tanaka sacrifices himself, and it becomes clear that, in the real world, Jimmy's hospitalized and doesn't have much time left. The remaining dungeons all deal with how Jimmy's family has affected him throughout his life, and how they try to cope with his sickness.]]

* NoSell: Helga's optimism gives her immunity to common status effects (Sick, Sleep, and Immunodeficiency.)

** Startled stuns a character for a turn, but becomes Alert when it wears off, preventing stun-locking. There are also variants like Afraid, [[HeroicBSOD Heartbroken,]] and Crying, which aren't blocked by Alert and may last multiple rounds.

** Turnbuckle, the {{Optional Boss}} of Turnbuckle's Mansion, is the leader of the Whispering Valley's toy army. He used to be a toy Jimmy used to play with, but was left forgotten and was on his way to be destroyed to make way for new toys and memories about them. To avert his and his fellow forgotten toys' fates, he built a mansion to serve as a sanctuary for his kind, and built an army to [[VengefulAbandonedToy claim revenge on Jimmy]] for stopping playing with him. In the end, as he perishes, he spends his last words [[GracefulLoser expressing gratitude]] that Jimmy visited his mansion and was willing to play with him one last time, accepting his impending death.

** InvoluntaryShapeshifting: In the Dark Dungeon, Jimmy is forced to switch to a random form each floor and can't change in battle. This also applies to the fight against the Dark Demon, where Jimmy randomly switches to a new form every three turns.

** Only one Nutrition Cube can be held at a time, due to Rubik only selling you them if you don't have any.

** The Dark Dungeon, a board-game like area with 100 floors and the ultimate super boss, the Dark Demon.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Pulsating Mass is a malignant all-consuming blob of flesh that rots and corrupts everything it touches. [[spoiler:In other words, [[TheTopicOfCancer cancer]]. The metaphors become more prevalent after the game's WhamEpisode, especially in Central Stamen, where Jimmy collects "medicine" that alleviates the worst of the Buddy Bees' symptoms but also makes him weak, tired, and depressed. In Heart Prison, he gives an especially sick Buddy Bee all three types of medicine at once...only for the Bee to die anyway, its last words asking how Jimmy can possibly stand taking so much]].

* DyingDream: [[spoiler:The ending]] implies that [[spoiler:the entire game]] is the dying dream of [[spoiler:a child with cancer]].

* BackgroundMusicOverride: Par for the course for the more Nightmare Zone dungeons, which use their own special themes.

* BodyHorror: Almost every Nightmare Zone in the game features this in spades.

* CatchingSomeZs: Multiple:

* TwentyPercentMoreAwesome: The FlavorText of Buddy Bee Honey, is "50% friendlier than normal honey."

** The Nightmare Zones are the primary ones. These dungeons tend to be chock-full of difficult enemies, and provide a sizable bulk of the horrific imagery present throughout the game. All of them feature an OptionalBoss to cap them off.

** Only one Nutrition Cube can be had in the demo, due to Rubik only selling you them if you don't have any.

* FlavorText: available for just about every item and skill you encounter.
** Items:
*** Ants on a Log: A healthy snack consisting of celery, peanut butter, and raisins;
*** Red, Blue, and Yellow Balloons: A latex balloon filled with helium. [[HeliumSpeech Uncle Lars can breathe this and talk like a chipmunk]].
** Skills:
*** Low-Level Goon: Bully: Utilize your brawn to hide your low self-esteem.
** You can also gain the flavor text for enemies by Grifting Knowledge from the Bookworm enemy in The Great Library.

* GameOver: Rarely occurs, and losing the tutorial battle leads to DevelopersForesight.
** Losing against an enemy usually just means being moved to a safe area and losing half of your money.
** If you deliberately lose against the Revolting Blob (which must be planned, as even going AttackAttackAttack would lead to a victory), Buck tells Jimmy that he's not leaving until the Blob is defeated. Since Lars is blocking the exit to the house, leaving is impossible, and the only path forward is to defeat the Blob.
** If the Doomsday Clock in the Black Prophet battle strikes {{thirteen|IsUnlucky}}, then one happens.

* HellIsThatNoise: The vast majority of the optional areas don't feature traditional BackgroundMusic, instead opting for horrific ambient noises or distorted samples to help signal that you're entering a nightmare.
** Special mention goes to Counting Backwards From Infinity, in which the player is subjected to having numbers rapidly shouted into their ears by several disembodied noises.

* InGameBankingServices: There's a bank that stores money, giving a 20% interest rate, which is useful because you lose half your money fi you die and AdamSmithHatesYourGuts. Moreover, [[spoiler:you need $100,000 in your account to enter the Accelerated Dynamics side dungeon]].

** [[DamageOverTime Sick]], which deals 30% of a party member's maximum health at the start of a round. There's also Acid and Poison (which the player can use and deals damaged based on the user's MAT,) and Infested, which is used solely by the Gut Worm enemy and deals 60% of a character's health per turn.

* ThirteenIsUnlucky: "Thirteen" is the name of one of the enemies that appear in the side dungeon at [[spoiler:Unbreakable Bridge.]]
** [[spoiler: When the Doomsday Clock strikes thirteen in the fight against Black Prophet, the fight ends with a Game Over.]]

** The Nightmare Zones are the primary ones. These dungeons tend to be chock-full of difficult enemies, and provide a sizable bulk of the horrific imagery present throughout the game. All of them feature a BonusBoss to cap them off.

* BrutalBonusLevel: The game is stuffed with {{bonus dungeon}}s already, but the standard "post-game bonus dungeon" found in most [=RPGs=] does exist. The Heart Prison awaits you after you complete the game, and it is ''tough,'' split up into 8 segments that each require you to bring along a certain party member. Each is filled with strategically crafted encounters consisting of powered-up versions of various monsters from the game designed to be as annoying as possible, powered-up versions of previous {{bonus boss}}es, and a final encounter against [[spoiler:a hateful version of Jimmy's family]] which is one of the hardest battles in the game.

** Items are capped at 10 to a stack, and you're only allowed one stack at a time.

* PercentBasedValues:
** The Ants on a Log restore "50% of max HP".
** Buck's Nerd Bash skills, are some of which are presumably basing their percentages off the standard Attack commands:
*** Bully does 150% physical damage
*** Mag Combo does "300% physical damage", with a "two-turn cooldown".
*** Inner Rage boosts the ATK stat by 50%, while removing player control of Buck.

* RandomEncounters: Though they can be avoided if your level is high enough.
* {{Retraux}}: The graphics have a grainier and more retro style than most RPG Maker VX games, the aesthetic is very obviously ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}''-inspired, and the world map uses the same style as ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''.

* SnakesAreSinister: This probably has something to do with why the boss of the SurpriseCreepy BonusDungeon in The Wilted Lands is a giant snake.

* SurpriseCreepy: At first, the game seems like a typical light-hearted adventure through a dream-esque landscape.[[spoiler: Then you return to the Buddy Beehive and find it's suddenly turned into a nightmarish labyrinth of undead mutated bees, and it doesn't get any better from there.]] Another example is the beach of Bonita Vista, full of vacationers and hot babes, but half of it has been abandoned, and you see piles of trash everywhere... cue rotting beached whale carcass (the area's BGM is even named "Dead Whale").

See also ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Lisa}}'', ''VideoGame/SpaceFuneral'', ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}'', and ''VideoGame/{{Annventure}}'', other ''[[VideoGame/EarthBound1994 EarthBound]]''-inspired [=RPGs=] with dark atmospheres.

* DiabolusExNihilo: The [[AntagonistTitle titular villain]] is one of these: for some reason, it just showed up one day, dead set on killing Jimmy. Everything that comes out of its mouth[[EldritchAbomination (s)]] is [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech a long tirade about how much it hates jimmy and how gruesome his death will be.]] Every other antagonistic force in-game has deeper motives, including the ones that it corrupted. [[Spoiler: Which makes perfect sense when its [[TheTopicOfCancer true nature]] becomes apparent.]]

* DeathIsCheap: Generally dying causes you to lose half of the cash you're carrying and boots you to the world map (or some other safe place). In the [[MiniGame Dark Dungeon]], you lose all the Dungeon Points earned that run instead. Turned UpToEleven with the Life Insurance, which you get by defeating [[spoiler:Mr. Grouse]]. It completely removes the Dollar penalty from dying.

** The Nightmare Zones are the primary ones. These dungeons tend to be chock-full of [[DifficultySpike difficult enemies]], and provide a sizable bulk of the horrific imagery present throughout the game. All of them feature a BonusBoss to cap them off.

** The Mouse family sidequest concludes this way as well. [[spoiler: Cordelia is kidnapped by Mr. Cat, and you arrive far too late to save her from being brutally raped and murdered. You do at least kill Mr. Cat, avenging her death (and the deaths of his other implied victims) and sparing future victims. But Mrs. Mouse dies from grief not long after. At the very least, Timothy returns home to be with his family as they try to move on.]]

** The Mouse family sidequest concludes this way as well. [[spoiler: Cordelia is kidnapped by Mr. Cat and you arrive far too late to save her from being brutally raped and murdered though you at least kill Mr. Cat, avenging her death (and the deaths of his other implied victims) and sparing future victims. Mrs. Mouse dies from grief not long after but Timothy returns home to his family to be with them as they try to move on.]]

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler: After seemingly defeating the Pulsating Mass once and for all, Jimmy winds up back in his house. From there, he can either select party members from across the entire game and [[PostEndGameContent re-enter the dream world]] through his closet, or he can leave his house through the front door. Leaving this way causes Jimmy to wind up in a world devoid of any color, almost looking like it was drawn entirely in pencil. Jimmy can't re-enter his house from here, claiming he can't remember what the inside looks like, so there's only one direction to go. During this entire segment, you can hear the sound of a heart monitor beeping in the background. After travelling for long enough through the now barren landscape, Jimmy walks over to the edge of the very cliff where Helga woke him up at the beginning of the game. A cut-scene then plays where we're shown a close-up of Jimmy looking over the horizon and saying "I'm Sorry"... which then bends into a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything straight, flat line.]] After one last title drop, the game fades to white, and the player is booted back to the title screen]].

* BittersweetEnding: Verging on DownerEnding. The implication is that [[spoiler:Jimmy has terminal cancer, represented by the Pulsating Mass itself, and is full of self-loathing at his weakness and the pain that his sickness has caused others. The "victory" he achieves by the end of the game just allows him to forgive himself and die in peace]].

* TheTopicOfCancer: [[spoiler: The word is never said outright, but strongly implied by the presence of the Pulsating Mass and the game's final act.]]

See also ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Annventure}}'', two other ''Earthbound''-inspired [=RPGs=] with a dark atmosphere.

* KnifeNut: Johnny Knives, who uses knives, as his name suggests. Amusingly, his knives can be stolen, turning him into the depressed and ineffectual "Johnny No-Knives".

''Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass'' is an ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}''-inspired [[RolePlayingGame RPG]] for [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] by [[Creator/{{Housekeeping}} Kasey Ozymy, a.k.a Housekeeping]]. The game uses UsefulNotes/RPGMaker VX Ace as its engine, but has an entirely original soundtrack and artwork.