Journey into the mind to end the nightmares.
Figment is an Action-Adventure game with Puzzle Game and Musical elements, released by Bedtime Digital Games on September 22, 2017.
The main character, a humanoid in some sort of animal onesie (or possibly with actual animal parts) named Dusty is a figment of imagination living in a person's head and protecting him from various nightmares with his sidekick, a bird named Piper. Dusty has been out of action for a long time at the beginning of the game. Piper begs him for help defeating the three nightmares who have invaded the mind. Dusty initially only goes with Piper because one of the nightmares stole his drink and scrapbook, but as the game goes on, he becomes devoted to protecting the mind world once again.
The game is notable for having a beautiful art style combining hand-drawn/painted elements with 3D elements. Because of the mind/dream setting, there is some surreal imagery and unique world and character designs.
The game is available on pretty much every store and Operating System going (with the notable exception of the Xbox One, which is in development); Steam, GOG.com, Epic Games Store, Nintendo Switch, Apple's App Store, Android via the Google Play Store, and PlayStation 4. A port for MacOS can be found via Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store, and a Linux port can be found via Steam and GOG.
A short prologue to the sequel, Figment 2: Creed Valley was released 16th of January, 2021 with the full game releasing March 9th, 2023. In it, Dusty and Piper go on a new adventure to rid the titular valley from a new threat.
Not to be confused with a certain purple dragon of the same name. Or the comic featuring that certain purple dragon.
Now has a character page under construction.
This game provides examples of:
- Advancing Boss of Doom: Two of them in Creed Valley:
- The first one is against the Black Hog during the tutorial, with the Hog charging Dusty down as the player retraced their path to escape.
- The second sequence happens against the Jester after Dusty's plan to capture them fails, and they fill with rage, grow to a titanic size, and run Dusty down.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: In Creed Valley, you briefly play as Piper when Dusty suffers a Heroic BSoD.
- Ascended Meme: The fandom has made jokes about Mayor Relic's rhythmic and rhyming speaking patterns being rap verses, and during the Figment 2 Post-Credits scene, he spits a few actual verses.
- Artistic License – Medicine:
- Justified. In his song, the Plague erroneously lists autism as one of the diseases he plans to give to Dusty through a vaccine. Autism is a mental disorder, not a disease, and it certainly can't be spread between people like diseases can, with or without vaccines. The developers clarified in a comment on their YouTube channel
that this line was intentionally incorrect because the Plague is all about spreading medical fears, even if they are totally illogical. - The Plague is killed by having a bucket of water dumped on him. While a nightmare representing the fear of disease may not follow the exact rules of an actual germ, you can't kill germs with just water unless it's really hot, and water sitting in a bucket is not nearly hot enough (unless it's very hot in the mind world. But if it was, the heat in the air probably would have killed him before the water did.)
- The sequel has the Discarded Opinions Song" as before it is justified by the singers being wrong opinions.
- Justified. In his song, the Plague erroneously lists autism as one of the diseases he plans to give to Dusty through a vaccine. Autism is a mental disorder, not a disease, and it certainly can't be spread between people like diseases can, with or without vaccines. The developers clarified in a comment on their YouTube channel
- Black Bug Room: The final level is set in the conscious mind which represents recent thoughts, but since the person whose mind you're in was in a car crash it gradually turns into this with broken roadsigns, giant mangled car wreckage and objects belonging to the passengers strewn about.
- Call-Back: The Discarded Opinions Song in the sequel has lines like "seatbelts are for the weak" and "i can still drive cause cause its only my fifth beer'' which explains the car accident in the first game.
- Chewing the Scenery: The singer in the "Plague Song" music video.
- Ear Worm: In-Universe. Piper thinks the Plague's song is catchy and in the sequel she's ecstatic when it looks like the Jester will start singing.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: Dusty kills the Spider Queen by swinging a pendulum/clapper to smash her against a clock tower bell.
- Genre Mashup:
- The game itself is a puzzle action-adventure with musical numbers.
- The Plague's Song is technically a rap song, but it's performed entirely in a Metal Scream, and is backed by a marimba and tuba... with a jazz organ solo!
- Irony: During a low point while fighting Fear-Of-Loss Dusty says that there's no point in fighting him because another nightmare will take his place, The Jester from the sequel has Resurrective Immortality due to how bad the mental problems that created him got so he can't be replaced by someone else. Rather, he's actually a part of the mind gone rogue due to said problems.
- Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: a minor case, collecting Remembranes shows you the key memories of the person whose Mental World you're in, which gives clues to the backstories of the villains. His father dying of a disease created The Plague, his brother's spider collection created The Spider Queen, and the deaths of his parents and his brother moving overseas created Fear-Of-Loss. In the sequel, it's implied that getting married and having a child created the Jester. Or perhaps not, as its revealed he's a part of the Mind as well.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: One of the lines in the Discarded Opinions Song is "videogames can't be musicals"
- Mental World: The setting of the game.
- Cerebrum City: Hub City
- Freedom Isles, representing the right side of the brain: Band Land, World in the Sky
- Clockwork Town, representing the left side of the brain: Clockworks Area, Eternal Engine
- The Conscious Mind, which contains mundane and recent thoughts: In the Doldrums with the last part being a Black Bug Room too.
- Introduced in the Sequel: Creed Valley, where the Mind's worldview is maintained
- Merry in Minor Key: In Figment 2: Creed Valley:
- Double subverted with "Dance Like an Idiot," the Jester's song, which they sing snippets of throughout the game. It's in A Minor, and the lyrics are all about letting go of logic and giving in to craziness. Since the Jester initially seems to be evil, the minor key definitely helps their song sound like a Villain Song. However, they're Good All Along, and they just want to restore a sense of childish innocence and fun to the Mind.
- Zig-zagged in "The Dance-off, Pt. 4," which is sung near the end after Dusty finally befriends and makes peace with the Jester. The verses are in a major key, but the chorus is reprised from "Dance Like an Idiot," except in B Minor and with slightly altered lyrics.
- Double subverted with "Dance Like an Idiot
- Musicalis Interruptus: When you beat the Final Boss of the first game he crashes into the dashboard of the crashed car breaking the car radio which turns of the backround music and creates a ramp for you to progress.
- Puzzle Boss: The first two bosses of the first game fight you conventionally at first but become this in their final confrontations, inverted with the final boss.
- Sheathe Your Sword: How Dusty and Piper finally defeat The Jester.
- Systematic Villain Takedown: The story begins when Dusty, a retired guardian of the Mental World where the game takes place, is antagonized by the Fear-Of-Loss, an evil nightmare. While chasing the Fear-Of-Loss, Dusty learns that two other nightmares, the Plague and the Spider Queen, have taken residence in different regions of the mind. Dusty goes on a quest to kill all three of them, with the Fear-Of-Loss coming last, to restore peace to the mind.
- Two Guys and a Girl:
- The three main heroic characters are Dusty and the mayor, who are male, and Piper, who is female. However, the mayor does not accompany Dusty and Piper on their adventures.
- The three nightmares in the first game also fit this trope. The Plague and the Fear-Of-Loss are male, and the Spider Queen is female.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Exploited. The Plague Rats actually attack by vomiting.
- Villain Song: Each boss of both games has one:
- The Plague has "The Plague's Song" about the disgusting ailments he wants to give the protagonist.
- The Spider Queen has "The Spider Queen's Song" about how she and her spider subjects like to crawl on people to scare them For the Evulz.
- The Fear of Loss has "Fear of Loss" Part 1 and Part 2 about how he sees everything as worthless and believes that Dusty and Piper should give up too.
- In the sequel The Black Hog has a song about the fear of the dark.
- The Jester sings one called "Dance Like an Idiot" about how they want to "liberate" the mind by throwing it into chaos. Subverted in that they were actually Good All Along. They later sing a Dark Reprise during the finale called "Looks Like an Idiot to Me". This version is more overtly sinister because they're going through a case of Then Let Me Be Evil.
- The Plague has "The Plague's Song
- You Dirty Rat!: Plague Rats, the Plague's minions, which help him spread filth around the mind world, and attack the protagonist by vomiting.
