Post by Kyu in Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass comments

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I'm about 25 hours in, and while I mostly really loved it, I had a pretty big issue with it. I'll talk about the positives first, and then get into my problem, after a spoiler warning.

First, the positives: the art style is charming, especially the overworld sprites. The battles offer a good variety between battles with a trick to them, and battles testing your knowledge of the combat system and character abilities. I like how the game juggles characters in and out of your party, it keeps battle interesting and you on your toes. The game has a good mix of quirky, heartfelt, and horror, and while it goes fairly hard on the cartoon gore, it manages to stay grounded with the more cheerful sections in between.

~~ Here's the spoiler warning, for the game up through the sequence at the end of the library. ~~

After the library boss sequence, Jimmy and Lars end up on a beach, with Lars giving a little mini monologue about how he feels a bit directionless in life. This monologue becomes a rant about how he wants a Perfect Asian GF, who would never complain about the fact that he sucks. There's no commentary from Jimmy, or any other character, and this little monologue doesn't seem to get acknowledged afterwards. (I only got like, 30 minutes after this part, to be fair.) As someone who *is* Asian, and who has dealt with this kind of behaviour in the past, it was honestly really upsetting to hear this ideology come uncriticized out of the mouth of a character portrayed as a hapless but well meaning guy. Let's be clear - whether this is intended as a joke (or to setup some future event) it's an uncritical lighthearted repeating of a way of thinking that hurts Asian women every single day. It's said in a way that is clearly not meant to have any introspection at all, from the mouth of a character the player is meant to empathize with and enjoy being around. It's worth noting, as well, that there isn't a single female character who clearly reads as Asian in the entire game, at least up until this point.

I'm not going to say others shouldn't play this game, but personally, it felt like a giant red flag telling me that this game wasn't for me. As much as I wanted to see the ending, for my own sake, I've decided to put the game down for now.

my VODs from playing this game, for more of my thoughts

Devery2 years ago (1 edit) (+7)(-14)

For real. It gets even worse just after that as well. I've gotten some mild spoilers and I have a guess at what the game (eventually) might dig at but it remains very uncomfortably unresolved for many hours afterwards (Edit: It doesn't dig at it. It plays it straight and honestly is just plainly bad writing for this part even if the dev was attempting nuance). There's a certain cost even if the game is setting something up artistically.

zanathan_aisling2 years ago(+3)(-11)

Yeahh for real I love this game for like, Every Single Other Part Of The Game Being Great and can even kinda understand Lars being.... like THAT as meant to represent how "sometimes family members have really really cruddy worldviews and a small child might not understand how thats extremely bad" but then the rest of the island being "haha y'know anime!?" is just friggin' insufferable. And makes the Lars stuff worse. And how its resolved is like, ugh. Not good. The rest of the game is like a 10/10 for me which makes it suck even more.

ThacoBell2 years ago(+8)(-1)

"like THAT as meant to represent how "sometimes family members have really really cruddy worldviews and a small child might not understand how thats extremely bad""

That's exactly what it is. You were so close to getting it. The rest of the island is Jimmy innocently trying to make Lars happy, without realizing any of the implications of it, because he's eight.

zanathan_aisling2 years ago (1 edit) (+4)(-4)

Oh i understand that, it makes sense in context, but. one can argue its value regardless. Can't help but think there was a way to get that point in a different way? i wouldn't argue it isn't coherent or thematically sensible it just kinda sucks anyways to have stuff like that thrown around regardless of the intent being decent. Should've been handled with better sensitivity, despite its intentions, is how i guess I'd put it, i suppose.

It's not like I'm advocating that the story should've gotten into a 30 minute sideplot of the player getting told that racism is bad over and over either, its fault isn't in being too subtle lmao. (Heck, the sense of subtlety and its depiction of a three-dimensional nuanced family from the viewpoint of a not-terribly-nuanced but empathetic child's perspective is the emotional core of the friggin' game.)

ThacoBell2 years ago(+5)(-2)

This makes me intensely curious. How would you do it differently? What would more sensitivity look like in this context?

KeronCyst2 years ago(+1)(-18)

Wow. That's crazy. Thanks for sharing this. I will not be playing this game.

ThacoBell2 years ago(+10)(-2)

There isn't a criticism in game, because eight year old Jimmy doesn't realize the toxic nature of it, and the entire game is from his point of view and his understanding. Its worth nothing that every single family member is shown to have at least one major flaw that is simply shown and not commented on. The game trusts the player to recognize what is happening. None of them are shown to be perfect or indicated in any way that we are supposed to agree with them 100% of the time.

Buck's temper is the most obvious example, but Lar's lazy nature and disconnect from reality is consistently shown throughout the game. There's also Jimmy's Mom's ambiguous bipolar disorder, or his dad's intellectual distancing and his inability to both recognize or properly deal with Jimmy's learning disorder. These are all shown as is with no commentary from Jimmy, with the player trusted to put the pieces together. Only Buck ever gets a call out, and not by Jimmy. So its consistent throughout the game.

chump change2 years ago(+1)(-4)

ah yeah... on rewatch that does make me bristle to watch to come out of nowhere; at the time it passed over me as another sad sack quote unquote characterization of Lars but as a sad sack white dude I'm sorry you had to read that. if I can speak for the developer then I'm beyond sure they didn't mean for that to be hurtful. they're good people and like it was for me it must have been a blind spot, tropes and character aside. I can't quote from memory any specifics about this that happens in between that and Lars' arc concluding but I don't believe it gets worse than that scene, or at least that overt.

FatKidWitAJetPak1 year ago (1 edit)

I understand how that would offend you, but the context is important that perhaps would help you understand the game further. Major, end-game spoilers below. Please proceed with caution:

All characters speaking are based off what Jimmy believes they would say. It's all in his head. He has cancer and is in a coma in a hospital bed. All these experiences are from the mind of an 8 year old child. This is why certain ideologies are overly simplified. The world is much more complex than these ideologies, and the horrors and issues that bombarde jimmy's reality, which he is overall powerless against regardless of his strength, are represented frequently, such as the mouse being raped and killed by Mr. Cat or Jimmy being required to still use the banking system even after beating the CEO in battle because the system of capitalism is too powerful for him to face.

Lars explains his perspective on his desires in a partner in an over simplified way because its Jimmy imagining what Lars would say. Jimmy does not have a firm understanding of how that may be inappropriate as he is 8 years old.

itch.io

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