The Pines twins, pixelized.
PinesQuest: (A Romance of) 2Dimensions, often shortened to PinesQuest 2D or PinesQuest 2Dimensions, is a Gravity Falls fan game created by T.N. Newton (along with a handful of contributing artists). The game is a dungeon crawling RPG that serves as a Fan Sequel to both the official browser game PinesQuest
and the show itself, picking up right where the TV series left off.
After their summer of adventure, Dipper and Mabel Pines are on the bus headed home when they suddenly find themselves somehow transported back to Gravity Falls. As they attempt to figure out what's going on, they realize many areas of the town have become labyrinthine, and the supernatural creatures they've encountered (even those that were previously friendly) are now hostile towards them, attacking them on sight for unknown reasons. The rest of the game involves the Pines family and their allies trying to solve this new mystery and discovering the secrets of Bill Cipher, his past and his home universe: The 2nd Dimension.
A demo version of the game containing the first three dungeons and four playable characters was released on July 31st, 2016. An extended version of the demo, with five dungeons and six playable characters, was released on June 18th, 2017 and can be downloaded here (note that the game only runs natively on Windows, but includes suggested workaround methods for running it on a Mac). The full game, which will contain eleven total dungeons and nine playable characters, is currently still a work in progress. The game's production blog can be found here.
PinesQuest 2D contains examples of:
- Adaptational Badass:
- Dipper and Mabel were resourceful Action Survivors in Gravity Falls, but lacked the physical strength to fight off most of the various monsters without help or using their wits. In PinesQuest 2D however, they are able to defeat the monsters they were forced to evade and flee in the series, using weapons and spells.
- Pacifica, a normal kid in the series, is in the game a skilled archer and can inflict various status ailments to the enemies, as well as use an earth spell to damage them.
- Soos can use lightning spells.
- Aliens of London: A. Tad Square, a square-shaped creature from another dimension who serves as the game's primary merchant, speaks with a distinctly English accent.
- An Adventurer Is You: Once the game is finished there will be 9 playable characters in the party, 4 of which can be used at a time.
- Dipper is a combination of a buffer and jack-of-all-stats. Early game he is the latter, with decent stats (especially defense) across the board and versatile abilities. As the game goes on he gets more buffing abilities then any other character. His buffs focus on defense more than any other stat.
- Mabel is a healer and a curer, the only one you have for about half the game. She also doubles up as a rather powerful DPS, with powerful physical and magical attacks. Her defense is somewhat underwhelming.
- Soos is a tank and a jack-of-all-stats. He has good physical attack and a variety of magical attacks and support abilities. Although he does not excel in any one area, he makes up for that with the highest HP in the game.
- Wendy is DPS, specifically she is a Fragile Speedster and a Glass Cannon. She has high physical damage and agility, meaning she hits hard and fast. This comes at the price of weak defense and weak magic attack.
- Stan is DPS-tank hybrid. He hits hard and has good defense, but low agility. He also has some dubuff and buff abilities.
- Pacifica is a Fragile Speedster with the highest agility stat in the game but poor defense and HP. Her primary focus is on debuffing.
- Gideon is a tank-mage hybrid, with good defense and magic abilities, but poor agility and physical attack.
- Bill is a nuker, with the highest magic attack in the game. However, he has very low defense and HP, making him a Glass Cannon.
- Ford is a jack-of-all-stats with decent stats across the board and a large variety of abilities. However he does not excel in any area.
- Ascended Meme: The design of A. Tad Square, along with his Punny Name, are references to the Gravity Falls fandom's theories about the character Tad Strange before he was introduced proper in the episode "The Stanchurian Candidate". This is even lampshaded at one point by Square mentioning he's often mistaken for a fellow named Tad Strange.
- Soos also tells Square that he looks "more like a Dot Matrix", referencing another name for the character that grew out of the fandom's Tad Strange speculation.
- Badass Adorable: Mabel is as adorable as in the show, but also wields Light magic able to do more damages than Wendy's axe or Stan's brass knuckles. Dipper and Pacifica also qualify, due to being Adaptational Badasses as well; the first wielding a spear and Wind magic, the second using a bow and Earth magic.
- Back from the Dead: Monsters that clearly were destroyed during the Pines Twins' adventures (such as the living Wax statues or the Summerween Trickster) have been mysteriously brought back in the new Gravity Falls in which the characters are trapped. Discovering why is one of the mysteries the Twins are trying to solve.
- Brown Note: Strange symbols in various places cause headaches if viewed too long without a proper means of translation.
- Elemental Powers: Most of the characters are associated to one or several elements, with the exception of Stan.
- Face–Heel Turn: Monsters that had parted on good terms with the Pines Twins (the Gnomes, the Manotaurs, Archibald Corduroy) or that always were friendly (the Multi-Bear) had inexplicably become hostile towards the Pines Twins in the new Gravity Falls in which they are trapped. Discovering why is one of the mysteries the Twins are trying to solve.
- Flunky Boss: Probabilitor The Annoying, the first boss of the third dungeon, is fought alongside Hot Elf and one Orc Guard.
- Genre Shift: Although they share the same style of pixel art graphics and many of the same assets, the original PinesQuest was a The Legend of Zelda style action-adventure game. Meanwhile, PinesQuest 2D is an EarthBound-esque turned based RPG, but with more of a focus on dungeon crawling.
- He Knows About Timed Hits: The first tutorial is given by Dipper finding a random pamphlet frankly telling the player how movement and the menus work. He's a little confused by this, but brushes it off. Mabel also finds one explaining the magic system.
- Papa Wolf: Stan, big time. One of the first things he says to Dipper and Mabel after they're reunited is to remain with him so he can protect them. (He also includes Soos and Wendy in his Declaration of Protection.)
- Ship Tease: Dipper lets out an excited "YEAH!" when Mabel suggests to Pacifica that, since she can't phone for help, she can join their group to discover what's going on. He then awkwardly calms himself, before complimenting her skill with a bow.
- Shout-Out:
- The title of the game is a reference to Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott. The Mysterious Note items obtained by defeating bosses also contain excerpts from the novella.
- Dipper mentions that, with her bow and arrows, Pacifica is like the girl from "The Deadly Tournament For Teenagers in a Dystopian Future" books or something.
- Tsundere: Pacifica towards the twins, big time. Soos even uses the word two times to describe her attitude.Pacifica: But don't get the wrong idea! I'm not doing this [helping you] because I like you guys or anything! I just don't have anything better to do!
Soos: Yup, totally tsundere. - Wake-Up Call Boss: The Shapeshifter, who's fought at the end of the third dungeon. It is imperative to make good use of the buffs and debuffs in order to survive his powerful physical attacks. (And using Stan is almost mandatory since he's the only one who can reduce the Shapeshifter's strength.)
