Long after the events of the first game, the age of Armaboggin has come upon The Heights and the spirit of the Smoking Hot Babe beckons once more. Only this time, the player is not alone in their ascent, for they are but one among an entire new generation of mudmen known as the Redfins. And powerful warlords have amassed entire armies in their pursuit of the Babe, including Lord Justiciar Judge Gregg of Throne, and Evil Lord Krulk of The Lands Where the Sun Don’t Shine. Can a lone mudman of little renown best these menacing foes and reach The Top?
Players exploring the world and jumping up will seamlessly meet with other players and it's on them only if they decide to become friends or enemies, or if they stay that way. The first game's formula of platforming is entwined with a brand new fighting system, where players will clash with both NPCs and other players as they climb towards the Babe. The varied equipment and character upgrades is set to enhance replayability and give players a breadth of fighting and cosmetic options.
Links: Steam store page
; Gameplay Reveal Trailer; Developers news page.
Tropes featured in pre-release material
- Amphibian Assault: In the gameplay reveal, the party of jumpers fights against a number of frogs.
- Amphibian at Large: Frogs are the size of a man. The Grode is a frog as large as an elephant.
- Art-Shifted Sequel: Emphasized in the trailer which opens with the pixelated Jump King from the first game confronting a three-dimensional boss from the High Order, who smashes him into the third dimension and a new artystyle.
- Ass Kicks You: The Famished, owing to their monstrous obesity, are fond of butt-stomp attacks. You get to emulate them if you brandish the Gnoddrick's Ladle.
- Battle in the Rain: The party of jumpers faces off against ratlings and approaches a hold of the High Order guarded by one of their knights during a storm.
- BFS: The Claymore, Odachi, Zanzibart's Greatsword and Ultra Great Sword are huge swords longer than a man. Trolls Iron Sword is so huge it doesn't even function as a cutting weapon, but as a bludgeon.
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Humans. As it turns out, humans are spawned from the mud of The Bog, with different skin tones (including pink, green, and marble) based on the mineral composition of the region where they spawned. Aside from the Smoking Hot Babe of legend, they all seem to be male. Gargoyles from the first game weren't being metaphorical when calling humans "mudmen".
- Carry a Big Stick: The Bogo Club is a tree log with one end carved into a grip and the Gnarly Bludgeon is a rather ordinary large wooden club.
- Checkpoint Starvation:
- As with the first game, there are no safety nets beyond the rock bottom.
- The Handmaidens of the Lady of the Bog offer you their services as a fast-travel system, but they're only eager to bring you bogwards and down. Going higher is allowed only on the basis of coming back after being taken lower to begin with, across links that are created by downward travels and severed by returning. No climbing can be skipped with their help.
- Character Customization: Both cosmetic and gameplay-influencing customization, including leveling, is mentioned in the features on the game's store page.
- Classified Information: The article showcasing directional platforms, almost all meaningful information is covered with black bars of [REDACTED].
- The Conqueror: Or rather, Konqueror Krulk. He intends to konquer Everyonde.
- Directionally Solid Platforms: One-way platforms were announced in a heavily blanked out article. Gameplay trailer shows that players can also drop down from them climbing off the side of them and letting go.
- Disciplined Spearman: The attribute of Composure is a phlegmatic disposition associated with spears and halberds, as an opposite and counterpart of choleric Impulse. Players require enough Composure to properly wield various polearms.
- Basic spears and halberds are used by the well-organized, if inexperienced, Redcrown Knights.
- Captain Gnoscome of the High Order 5th company wields a glaive plated with gold that befits the rest of his ornate armor.
- Played with the Famished, who are a faction of gluttonous Fat Bastards which use spears and skewers for the sake of advantage by any means to keep their slave-driving way of life with as much ease as possible.
- Distant Sequel: Store page declares the game "takes place in an Era far removed from that of the first game".
- Dramatic Thunder: Lightning bolts shoot in the background as the jumpers approach the keep of the High Order.
- Drone of Dread: A jarring sound breaks up the cheerful track when suspicious Onion Knight meets with the party.
- Dangerous Backswing: Heavy attacks with BFS weapons such as the Claymore, Zanzibart's Greatsword and the Ultra Great Sword can hurt those both in front and the back of the wielder.
- Elite Army: Even the lowest ranks in the High Order are said to be able to defeat multiple Outlaws alone.
- Face Plant: Every high fall concludes with a shameful and painful sudden stop face-down.
- Falling Damage: Falling from a height a fair bit larger than the usual max power jump saps a little bit of health from the player, but even extremely long falls don't hurt harder than a single hit from an actual enemy.
- False Friend: Any player can tag along with fellow jumpers for some time, then turn against them whenever they wish. Showcased in the gameplay trailer with Onion Knight, who represents a regular player, attacking the party after earning their trust.
- Fictional Zodiac: Red-Fish-Constellation is responsible for the Redfin generation — player characters — and it's the only constellation mentioned. The Chosen One is prophesized to come from the Redfins.
- Foreshadowing: The Fat Onion Knight does not contribute to the fight against the frogs, hinting he's not really on the side of the party of jumpers.
- Ground Pound: Famished Knights and their leader Lord Gnoddrick use butt-stomps as one of their attacks. By wielding the Gnoddrick's Ladle, you can smash people with your arse as well.
- Human Ladder: Players can raise their shields so that other jumpers can stand on them and enjoy an elevated position for further jumping and fighting.
- Humongous-Headed Hammer: A massive warhammer adorned with Order's insignia is a weapon of choice for the elite member of the High Order who pummels jumpers in the trailer.
- Horns of Barbarism: The Barbarian starting inclination and Lord Krulk are muscular barechested warriors who wear horned helmets.
- Horns of Villainy: Lord Krulk is explicitly described as Evil and his outfit has two pairs of horns — a pair on his black crown, known as the Crown of Rephim, and another on the helmet that crown rests on.
- Instant Flight: Just Add Spinning!: One of the attacks available to the Chaos-worshipping Grudaz Goons consists of jumping up and extending their airtime by spinning their flails above their heads for a couple seconds before swinging, to throw off the player's timing.
- In the Back: Fat Onion Knight slashes the Jump King from behind with a scythe unprovoked as the latter is cheering with his friends after defeating the frogs.
- Legend Fades to Myth: Due to the passing of ages, the Smoking Hot Babe is regarded to be just a myth and a "delusion".
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Jumpers are equipped with shields that can be used to block attacks.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: Because letting the players use the respawn point as an anchor protecting them from falling lower and lower would be too gentle. Running out of health is punished by making the player fall off the side of usually solid platforms for around a length of a screen.Put simply, you do not die when you die and you do not respawn when you die. In other words, permanence is maintained!
- Pelts of the Barbarian: Lord Krulk wears a black pelt on his back.
- Prolonged Video Game Sequel: Even in Early Access JKQ is much bigger than the entirety of the first game with its DLCs.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Krulk's outfit is mostly red and black, in particular The Crown of Rephim he wears is pitch black and marked with a slitted red eye.
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Sequel Difficulty Drop: Zigzagged. Jump King Quest combines both platforming and combat, while Jump King was purely platforming. As hard as the Main Tower is, players returning to it after finishing New Babe+ and Ghost of the Babe find it a walk in the park, and modded maps put the even those DLCs to shame. In order to have a difficult and unhinged, but not completely unapproachable game, the platforming was dialed back to the vanilla Jump King levels of difficulty. That doesn't mean Jump King Quest will be easier either, as adding combat to the mix produces what developers put as "the most INTENSE vacation you'll ever have". - Sliding Scale of Cooperation vs. Competition: Deep in Dynamic Alliances sphere. In stark contrast to Dark Souls series, players do not take on hostile or cooperative roles assigned by the system, not even hidden ones. Nexile puts it as "no distinctions in the game system between friendly and enemy players". Offering other players help, hindering them or simply ignoring and passing them by is all in how one acts.
- Shout-Out:
- Two iconic impractical fat armors from Dark Souls appear in this game — the Ser Onion set is a lookalike of Siegmeyer and Siegward and the Famished are a faction of practically Smoughs.
- Game description page uses the phrase "a mudman of no renown", taken straight from the intro of Elden Ring which refers to the player character as "a Tarnished of no renown".
- The article on the High Order mentions that one of their sayings is "I HATE CHAOS", an infamous quote from Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (see the appropriate section here).
- The tweet unveiling the game's Steam page is krulkposting: "What is the next step in Krulk's master plan?"
- Sinister Scythe: The Reaper is a scythe weapon. Used in the trailer by the Fat Onion Knight.
- Smug Snake: The ever-grinning Percy Nileborne is said to be charismatic, graceful, generous, and gallant. He was also spawned from The Bog at the same time as the player, making them "as cousins", and at the start of the game he gives the player the key needed to escape their prison cell. Despite this, Percy never seems to be around when there's fighting, and the timing of his appearances gives the impression he is taking advantage of the player to ease his own journey through The Heights.
- 2½D: Gameplay remains on a two-dimensional plane, but the elements of the world are now modeled in 3D.
- Vader Breath: Onion Knight is heavily breathing as he appears from behind the Jump King.
- Visual Innuendo: The torso piece of the Ranger set piece comes with a sack on its waistbelt that is positioned and shaped in more than a passing resemblance to a scrotum.
- Visual Pun: The gameplay reveal trailer drops the release date in the season of "Fall 2024"note as the Jump King is falling down in slow-motion.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Evil Lord Krulk's top is covered up only with a couple leather straps. The starting set for the inclination of the Barbarian is scarcely armored as well.
- Wolverine Claws: The Claws of Malkonnen are furred gloves with lengthy spikes on the knuckles.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Krulk is titled Konqueror and he konquers.
- Back to The Bog.
