A Small Dissertation on Jimmy & the Pulsating Mass Console Edition's New Content (Spoilers for the Entire Game)

Jimmy & the Pulsating Mass is a tragically ignored modern JRPG classic so there's almost no information out there about the Console Edition's new content, not even on *either* of its wikis. Pretty sure I'm one of the only people on the planet who's actually finished all of it, so I thought I'd make a post so it's all documented somewhere. Disclaimer: I played the Steam update containing all the new content, so I can't comment on the graphical changes and such still exclusive to the proper Console Edition.

Jimmy fans are probably most interested in the two new Nightmare Zones. The alien on the Anomaly Comet lists both of them, although you won't receive anything new from him for clearing them. The first zone is found on the game’s sixth continent, Shinryu, in its arcade. There’s a big Mr Marvelous wheel set up in back—keep playing until you lose all your money on-hand (it’s designed for you to lose it quickly) and security jails you. There’s a drainage grate in your cell you can use the blob form to enter, taking you to Shinryu’s sewers inside of which a group of slime people created a community. From there, just explore the area thoroughly and you'll find the Nightmare Zone easily enough--this is the sewers area shown in the trailer, the Slime Nest.

The boss is a massive slime mass named Groan, there's footage on YouTube of the battle. It's pretty standard aside from the fact he hides from any damage until you defeat his underlings, which he can summon more of. Beating him rewards you with three items:

• A Bunch of Slime --> Offers solid Defense + Magic Defense boosts as well as immunity to Startle at the cost of lowering your Agility to 1. A boon for any party builds which rely on bulking up an individual character whom you'd want to act last anyway and allows you to accomplish that without sacrificing their weapon slot for the Cartoon Hammer.
• Cheater's Manual --> Consumable item which either gives you 1000 tickets for the Shinryu arcade when used or allows you to instantly beat the high score of any arcade game upon starting that game. This is a godsend for obtaining the Shinryu Stone, which is now necessary for 100%, more on that later.
• Perfect Pitch --> The one new Skill in the Console Edition and it's a doozy. This operates like the "Throw" ability in Final Fantasy on steroids: you can throw almost any of your weapons and each one has a different effect when thrown generally related to their weapon properties. For example, throwing the 138 gun deals 6 hits of 138 damage each to random enemies, while others deal damage based on your non-attack stats and still others can inflict status ailments or grant buffs. You can always choose to just throw a Nearby Rock to deal 200% luck-based damage though.

I beat the main story before tackling this dungeon, so I don't know the recommended level, but it seemed like you could clear it before the game's third act. The enemies here are a mix of goofy and creepy.

The other Nightmare Zone's much harder both to find and complete. You'll need the Phoenix form from the Volcano which requires activating 25 Lightbulbs across the world to enter. Once acquired, return to Ebeezil's Domain under the ice in Fermata Forest--there will now be two braziers in front of the clock. Light those with the Phoenix form and you're in the new Nightmare Zone. I highly recommend finishing the Heart Prison postgame dungeon and maybe even the Dark Dungeon before entering as the enemies encountered here are the most powerful in the game, bar none. The game files refer to this Zone as Deeper Dreaming.

The boss of this area is Ebeezil in a two-phase fight. The first is a tougher version of his base game fight, only now there's a 10-turn time limit before he inflicts an instant Game Over, just like the Black Prophet boss. His second phase has him turn into this sleep paralysis demon which hits like a truck. The time limit's gone, but he now inflicts party members with Drowsiness, which leads into Comatose: an incurable form of Sleep which doubles any damage dealt to you.

Beating Ebeezil rewards you with three items:

• Ebeezil's Scythe: The most powerful Physical attacking weapon--175 Attack boost and it insta-kills any standard enemy. Very useful for grinding Super Rad Ghosts.
• Dream King's Crown: Provides a hefty boost to Magic Attack while the wearer will automatically cast a stupid-powerful party-hitting spell with a 400-500% damage modifier while asleep at no other cost. This also works with the Comatose status.
• Bottled Scream: This is a consumable item which startles the enemy regardless of their Alert status that is refreshed after every battle. Super useful for any remaining superbosses.

But wait, there's more! The base game had 8 super-hidden Stones (including the Shinryu Stone I mentioned earlier) which did nothing besides unlock some extra vignettes in the VIP Club. They now serve a material purpose: bring them back to Ebeezil and you can challenge a harder version of his fight. Defeating Ebeezil at his peak rewards you with his battle music to play in the Clubhouse Jukebox and the Marvelous Phone 2.0.

This lets you call damn near every character in the game at random each of whom has a unique message: NPC, enemy, and player character alike including separate messages if they're in or out of your party. Even the Pulsating Mass has an ominous message for you. All-in-all it's a cool Easter Egg which offers one last round of interactions with this game's colorful cast, but a couple characters offer more substantial prizes too! You can call the shopkeeper to access a special discounted store where you can buy every consumable item, including the Super Mecha Ball otherwise only purchasable using arcade tickets.

The most interesting call is to a mysterious salesman who gifts you the Accursed Remote. Its attack is an instant-win button: the entire enemy party is dealt their max HP in damage, it even works on bosses.

Besides that, you can rematch DeeDee, Johnny Katana, and Big Norman anytime by talking to Johnny in the Arena's bar. Challenging him on Hard Mode and stealing Johnny's katana now causes him to whip out a badass new sword which turns him into a fairly difficult boss. Defeating him rewards you with that sword: Ghost Eater offers a solid attack boost and deals 3 hits at random without triggering counterattacks. Hard Mode changes many enemy and boss behaviors, some to a greater extent than others, it's not just a raw stat boost kind of difficulty modifier.

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Any time there's new content added to a game, I always wonder what the authorial intent is, especially in a game so rooted in allegory. The Shinryu dungeon to me mainly serves as a mechanical update addressing frustrations with the arcade, adding another way to dodge Startle while guaranteeing you act last, and providing a useful means of weapons disposal without simply selling them. Jimmy fans know the Nightmare Zones all represent a fear of Jimmy's. Groan reads like an especially misanthropic hikikomori: he's located under the arcade of a Japan-inspired metropolis, is obsessed with playing games, and overall acts like an entitled manchild angrily shunning his neighbors away. He could represent not only a fear of slime and over-consumption, but also agoraphobia.

However, it's Ebeezil's new dungeon what's stuck in my head. Decay is prominent throughout; the literal castle structure's falling apart and navigating the zone requires you actively contribute to it. The NPCs transform into generic person-shaped static expressing their pain and suffering. You return to a monochrome version of the first town Smile where there's a static person for each remaining NPC in that town expressing that person's darkest fears and deepest pain. Drinking from the HP-restoring fountain causes Jimmy to reflect on how he's forgetting core memories and joys. Jimmy's body is a temple and it's collapsed beyond repair, yet he keeps going. It's probably relevant that a lot of the enemies in this area can be tied to a member of Jimmy's family (Raging Demon's a bruiser like Buck, Mocking Laughter's always smiling and plays a supporting role like Helga, Death Orchid's a powerful magic user like Andrew, and Tree of Woe looks like it has Lars' beard and depression).

Challenging Ebeezil feels less like fighting a superboss and more like keeping a helpless man prisoner as he begs you to let him sleep and end his forced preservation of the Dream World. At the same time, Ebeezil's connection to the 8 Stones, title as King of Dreams/Nightmares, and ability to actually end the Dream World after his countdown suggest he might be the only entity besides Jimmy in the Dream World to be a real character. Something Jimmy somehow made contact with and entrapped to preserve his state of denial. He works as either a separate entity or yet another allegorical character in the Dream World.

More than anything, I think it's a callout of the player for continuing to engage with this doomed world. This rings even truer considering collecting the 8 stones requires you to accomplish just about everything possible in-game, wringing every drop of content dry, desperately hoping there's a way to prevent the game's tragic ending despite all evidence otherwise. Even the Accursed Remote can be read as the game saying "That's really all, folks; it's time to change the channel and move on." It's messed up and I love it.