->''"Oh my gosh! A talking kitty!"''

An AffectionateParody {{RPG}} made for UsefulNotes/RPGMaker 2000.

Jay, an everyman living in a town like any other, and his [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend friend Carol]], are having an average day... until they encounter a [[TalkingAnimal talking lion]]. Said lion was once a man named Atolla, who was [[ForcedTransformation turned into his current form]] by the evil wizard Antignarot, who wants to - you guessed it - TakeOverTheWorld. Atolla enlists Jay and Carol to aid him in his quest to stop Antignarot, and thus begins the titular Journey.

Said Journey is full of colorful characters, witty dialogue, and [[{{Troperiffic}} every RPG trope and cliche in the book]], which are relentlessly skewered by the cast. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades for everyone!]]

The game is noteworthy in that 90% of its graphics and music are made up of the default RPG Maker 2000 materials, but it makes up for this with clever design and superb writing.

It can be downloaded [[http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/jay/ here]].

A VideoGameRemake, ''Jay's Journey Reimagined'', [[https://jaysjourney2016.wordpress.com/ was announced]] alongside its UnCanceled sequel, ''Jay's Journey 2: Worlds Apart''. A demo is currently available for the games.

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!!This game contains examples of:

* AccidentalMisnaming: Jay can never remember Antignarot's name. [[spoiler:[[MaliciousMisnaming He later admits that he's just making fun of him.]]]]
* AllInARow: In towns only. On the world map the [[PartyInMyPocket party's in your pocket]].
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: According to Jay, the party's limited to four because [[BreakingTheFourthWall the game was made with RPG Maker]].
* BaitAndSwitchCredits: You can safely ignore everything in the opening scroll; it even eventually admits, toward the end, that it's got nothing to do with the game.
* BareFistedMonk: Atolla. No skills and no weapons, but doesn't need them: his normal attack hits like a truck. Puff and [[spoiler:Globule]] can't equip weapons either, although they do have skills.
** [[spoiler: Atolla also turns out to have the Martial Artist class once you turn him back into a human, if only to justify why he still can't equip weapons. Oddly, his attack animation is the same as in lion form, implying he has claw weapons of some kind.]]
* CannotTellALie: Puff, just like all the other wind dragons, is literally unable to speak falsehoods.
* CaptainErsatz: Shade strongly resembles Shadow from FFVI, down to having a past revealed entirely through flashbacks.
* ChainOfDeals: The game contains an extensive trading sidequest. [[spoiler:You need to complete most of it to get the [[GlobalAirship airship]], and, optionally, the rest of it to get Jay's InfinityPlusOneSword.]]
* ChoiceOfTwoWeapons: All the human player characters [[spoiler:except Ames, prior to ''Reimagined'']] can equip two different weapons. For example, Jay can equip [[HeroesPreferSwords swords]] and [[KatanasAreJustBetter katanas]], and Carol can equip [[MagicStaff staves]] and bows.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The gem dragons.
* TheDitz: Max.
* DreamingTheTruth: Gaia gets a dream that consists entirely of characters repeating lines from earlier in the game (and her reactions to them), which helps her realize some important things. And to repeat all of the game's {{Running Gag}}s in a single scene.
* ElementalRockPaperScissors: The six elements come in pairs that are strong against each other: fire vs. ice, wind vs. earth, and light vs. dark. In addition, several characters in the party ([[PlayingWithFire Carol]], [[AnIcePerson Frost]], [[BlowYouAway Puff]], [[DishingOutDirt Gaia]], [[LightEmUp Cindel]], [[CastingAShadow Shade]], and [[NonElemental Pixie]]) specialize in one element. ''Reimagined'' adds [[MakingASplash Ames]] to the mix, and adds elements to characters like Jay and Atolla who didn't have them in the original (though Jay doesn't cast offensive magic, and Atolla can't cast magic at all.) ''Jay's Journey 2'' features a new dragon character, Kanos, who specializes in [[ShockAndAwe lightning]].
* FrictionlessIce: In the bonus dungeon. [[AnIcePerson Frost]] can walk on it normally, however.
* FunetikAksent: One NPC in Jay's hometown of Pecot speaks with a cockney accent for no apparent reason.
* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Antignarot. See TakeOverTheWorld below. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that his generic megalomania is a result of having his brain scrambled by a wayward magic spell from the ''real'' villain, Xanabas.]]
* GlassCannon: Pixie is the best example of this, as she learns ridiculously strong nonelemental magic but has few hitpoints.
* GlobalAirship: You go through several boats as well as a balloon and a tank. The different vehicles can only travel over certain terrains (shallow water, deep water, cliffs, mountains), requiring you to switch between them so often that the characters begin complaining that they really need an airship. [[spoiler:They get one.]]
* GoldfishPoopGang: Thinbeard the pirate and his dragon, Az. Thinbeard is constantly referred to, in game, as "[[LampshadeHanging Annoying recurring wannabe RPG villain]]".
* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler:Carol, who is one-quarter elf.]]
* TheHero: Jay, of course.
* IdiotHero: Max. [[spoiler:Of course, what do you expect from someone whose brain has been scrambled by an evil spell?]]
* InexplicableTreasureChests: Lampshaded, of course.
* InterchangeableAntimatterKeys: Keys tend of mysteriously disappear once used. Jay thinks he keeps dropping them at first.
* IrrelevantSidequest: The trading sidequest.
* LethalJokeCharacter: See MagikarpPower, below. Also, [[TheDitz Max]] is the best healer in the game.
* LetsSplitUpGang: The [[spoiler:final dungeon AND boss]].
* LoadBearingBoss: [[spoiler:Antignarot]]
* LovePotion: Once you find her again, [[spoiler:Carol is under the influence of one of these. Luckily, Gaia finds out and swaps it with grape juice.]]
* MagikarpPower: [[spoiler:Globule the slime]] starts out with pathetically low stats, but levels up much faster than the others and gains huge stat growths at later levels. By max level, all his stats are maxed automatically and he learns devastating spells.
* MagicKnight: Cindel is the leader of the magic division of Pecot's military.
* TheMedic: Max only learns healing magic, although most of the mages learn at least one healing move.
* MediumAwareness: Almost every character exhibits this.
* MetalSlime: Purple slimes evade most physical attacks and tend to flee but drop tons of experience.
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Frost.]] Despite the fact that you also have a mind-reader on the team. [[spoiler:He [[HeelFaceTurn comes back]]]].
* NoFourthWall: Really, the game doesn't break the fourth wall so much as burn it to the ground and gleefully dance on the ashes, from the introductory sequence onwards. It's where half of the humor in the game comes from.
* OmnicidalManiac: Antignarot becomes one of these [[spoiler:after Jay and Carol put the idea in his head]].
* OneWingedAngel: [[spoiler:Antignarot does this after you beat his human form.]]
* PartyScattering: Happens fairly early on; it even takes a while before Jay manages to find all of his old teammates.
* PermanentlyMissableContent: [[spoiler:Ames will be lost forever as a party member if he dies fighting the Emerald Dragon. You either need to beat the dragon with just Ames and Cindel or use a secret passage to fight it with Jay and the others first.]]
* PlotTailoredToTheParty: Each of the puzzles in the bonus dungeon can only be solved by one party member [[spoiler:except Ames, who just gets a teleporter to the end. This prompts him to [[LampshadeHanging yell at the programmer]] for being uncreative and not giving him a unique skill]].
* PopQuiz: One pops up randomly in Antignarot's tower. Jay stammers a bit from sheer confusion.
* RedemptionDemotion: Used and lampshaded when Shade joins you. See this game's entry on the article.
* RunningGag: "It's the truth!" Max's stupidity and obsession with talking kitties. Jay's many nicknames for Antignarot.
* SamusIsAGirl: [[spoiler:Shade.]]
* SaveThePrincess: Your primary goal for the first section of the game is to rescue the queen of Pecot.
* SecretCharacter: There are two: [[spoiler:[[MagikarpPower Globule the slime]], who can be found in the Pecot castle sewer,]] and [[spoiler:Ames, who joins you if he doesn't die fighting the Emerald Dragon]].
* SequelHook: So many. [[spoiler:The hooded lady (revealed as [[IneptMage Joann Light]] in the double feature's demo), the pendant, Carol's elf grandmother, Pixie's seal on Xanabas...]]
* SolveTheSoupCans: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] with the Puzzle Rooms in each town [[spoiler:and Antignarot's fortress]].
* StatusEffects: There's even a character who specializes in them.
* {{Stripperiffic}}: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] heavily with Gaia, the flirty earth mage who runs around in a bikini.
* TakeOverTheWorld: Antignarot's original goal is to take over the world [[CardCarryingVillain because it sounds like fun]]. He gives this up once Jay explains to him the exact logistics behind what taking over the world would entail. [[spoiler:Hearing this, Antignarot resolves to simply [[NiceJobBreakingItHero destroy the world instead]]. Just as fun and much simpler.]]
* ThatManIsDead: "Shade" says this of Tezla. [[spoiler:Unusually for this trope, ''[[SamusIsAGirl she]]'' isn't [[LiteralMetaphor speaking in metaphor]].]]
* TheUnintelligible: [[spoiler:Globule talks in phrases similar to "glubble blub blubble". Upon completing a sidequest to get a Slime Medal, Globule and another slime spew out so many message boxes consisting of nothing but bubble-speech, even the game gets confused.]]
* ThisIsASong: The later demo of ''Jay's Journey 2'' has Ames sing a song to himself:
--> '''Ames:''' Ames's theme, yeah, this my theme. This is my theme song, it's my theme song!
* UrbanLegendOfZelda: InUniverse example. If you don't [[spoiler:rescue Ames]], then when you reach the Dragon's Den, you'll find [[spoiler:Ames]] who claims to [[spoiler:still be alive]] through one of these. Then he admits he's just messing with you, tricks like those never work.
* VideoGameRemake: ''Jay's Journey Reimagined''
* WelcomeToCorneria: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when an NPC [[NPCRoadblock won't respond to Jay's requests to unblock the path]] to a [[DoorToBefore shortcut]].
** At one point, Jay also demonstrates that invoking this is the best way to fool someone who is looking for a main/player character.
* WhiteMagic: Cindel is a white mage, specializing in Light elemental magic. However, she is not the best healer.
* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: You can tell when things get serious when Jay calls Antignarot by his proper name.
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