History Characters / WikiSandbox

* BossSubtitles: Only given to major bosses. The Big Four are each the "scourge[? Probably don't want to copy open-''Zelda'' too much]"

** [[spoiler:Zelpea impaling herself with the Sword of the Center to quickly power herself up was described as causing a spray of blood out of her back, with the blood forming her wings as Pure Zelpea. After impaling herself, she also goes limp for a period of time and technically ''dies'' before the Relic magic revives her, meaning that the story briefly described her bloody, impaled corpse. In the game, a much smaller amount of blood is seen directly at the point the sword impales her, the wings are made out of pure energy, and she transforms to Pure Zelpea almost instantly with no sequence of her falling over dead. She is still considered a legal zombie.]]

*** "Censorship." While the game still has plenty of top and rear nudity and it is still relatively violent by "harem comedy" standards, it being somewhat TamerAndChaster and ''especially'' LighterAndSofter compared to the webnovel is polarizing. There is a division between whether or not what made the webnovel stand out the most compared to other harem/poly stories was that it pulled no punches with Zelpea's brutality and played it straight, emphasizing how despicable her methods and philosophy are; and if the webnovel leaned ''too'' hard to the point of being needlessly edgy ([[spoiler:Eansy's death]] especially being a point of contention on this) and that the work is more enjoyable without mentioning of impaled corpses considering its genre. The lack of depicted frontal nudity to the point that even the webnovel available for reading in-game slightly edits these to tone the descriptions down a little is near-universally seen as a step down, even if the reasons for it[[note]]To avoid an Adult Only rating by the ESRB and keep the potential for console releases without making the hypothetical "console version" censored compared to the Steam release, something Water ''absolutely'' did not want to do[[/note]] are out of Water's control.
** For issues not relating to the webnovel, there's the comparisons with open-''Zelda'', and whether or not the game's deviations from ''Breath'', ''Tears'', and the like in formula make for a better or worse experience. One key difference is that unlike any of the open ''Zelda'' games, you ''must'' take on the Big Four and cannot simply go straight to the final boss, ''and'' that there is a linear series of Main Quest missions ''after'' the tutorial area to reach Zelpea, playing out more like a traditional and linear action adventure in that regard. This is also a similar structure to Water's predecessor game mod ''Nymph Quest''. Supporters say that ''Biome Artists'' still offers tons of freedom in its own way

'''Hank Hill''' is one of the currently three new characters of Blue Edition. He is unlocked by collecting two or more "fire" items in one run (Hot Bombs, Pyromaniac, Mars, )

Hank is a melee-themed fighter. In place of tears, he performs a series of kicks, which can be made in to a short-chain combo that could end in him making a leap and causing a feiry shockwave when he lands. In place of bombs, Hank can also throw "propane charges" that automatically

*

'''Fanart Eve''' is one of the currently three new characters in ''Blue Edition''. She is unlocked by completing the Age Up Challenge.

Like the other modded characters, Fanart Eve does not fire tears. In her case, she uses a gun as her primary form of attack instead.

''Biome Artists'' has an assload of characters. And that's not even counting the possible "spinoff" stuff.

* The Elements[[note]]Tropes applying to the group as a whole[[/note]]
** Main Characters/The Neutrals/Region Class 0s[[note]]Zoap, Arime[[/note]]
** Region Classes 1-50; "Brights:"
*** Main Bright Regionals/Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Regionals[[note]]Elfriede (4), Lana (8), Dottie (12), Bethany (16), Kristen (20), Alexia (24), Jasmine (28), Frida (32), Hilda (36), Cassandra (40), Gratia (44), Lara (48)[[/note]]
*** Quaternary and Quinary Bright Regionals
** Region Classes 51-100; "Darks"[[note]]Naytileek (98)[[/note]]
** Region Classes 101-200;
** Region Classes 201-300;
** Region Classes 301-400;
** Region Classes 401-500;
** Region Classes 501-600;
** Region Classes 601-700;
** Region Classes 701-800; "Bright Transparents" and "Dark Transparents"
** Region Classes 801-900; "Miscellaneous"
** Region Classes 901-1,000; "Miscellaneous"
* Villains:
** The "Big Four" and Their Subbordinates[[note]]Kat's Watchers (Kat Vanilly, ), Enery's Research Team (), Scraps' Riders (), Pearl's Dangerous Jewels ()[[/note]]
** The Blossom Kingdom '''(Unmarked Spoilers)'''[[note]]Mansia, Neon, Anis, Eansy, Dragon[[/note]]
*** Princess Zelpea '''(All Spoilers for Part I Unmarked)'''
** The Overgrowth and Related '''(Major Unmarked Spoilers for Both Parts)'''[[note]]Various Overgrowth Monsters/The Growths, Royciel[[/note]]
* Allies:
** Friends and Family of the Elements[[note]][[/note]]
*** Zoap and Arime's Friend Circles[[note]]Olivia Emazh, Eoflitt Swyyx, Dave Everydave, [[/note]]
***
** Mentors and/or Other Professional Biome Artists[[note]]Atbash, [[/note]]
* Other:
** Historical Characters[[note]][[/note]]



--------------------
!! ''Winx Club''
!!! OC Villains
[[folder:Headmistress Tatzelwurm]]
* EvilGloating: Can engage in this from time to time.
* EvilOldFolks: She's the elderly headmistress of Toldrask School of Light and Shadow Arts and a nasty person to boot.
* LightIsNotGood: She's an old fairy and has a surprisingly malevolent personality. Moreover, in her days as a former student in Alfea, she was known as Ilya, the Fairy of Stained Glass. Stained glass is used to decorate the windows of churches, adding to her Light-themed appearance.
* MookMaker: After getting ahold of [[TomeOfEldritchLore Goetia]], she can resummon the Creatures of the Dark into varied and more powerful forms than in canon's Season 1 and send them back at will whenever she needs it. Moreover, she can create {{Evil Knockoff}}s of Fairies and Witches, with their worst traits exaggerated. As an example, the Nebula clone is so revenge-happy she'd [[DisproportionateRetribution go murderously ballistic on anyone who mildly inconvenienced her no matter what]].
* SwapTeleportation: After trying to learn teleportation from her ward Hedera, who is a Witch, she can only teleport by swapping places with people. She took a liking to it because of the potential to confuse and kill her enemies, never mind the power to get them hit with their own powers or friendly fire.

!!! Canon Villains
[[folder:The True Shadow Phoenix]]
The Shadow Phoenix in its true form, manifested as a gigantic construct of fire and black smoke that vaguely resembles a bird. Its corrupting power is capable of warping people into skeletal, anthropomorphic, phoenix-like beings serving as its vessels, which explains the presence of Lord Darkar, who was actually a normal human until going into contact with the Shadow Fire.

----
* AboveGoodAndEvil: Despite being mostly presented as an evil creature throughout the Magical Dimension, especially in Domino, the Phoenix doesn't really care about such a dichotomy. Instead, it only seeks to cover the universe in darkness and nothing else.
* ActuallyADoombot: Lord Darkar, despite all his power and desire to control the Magical Dimension, turns out to be a vessel for the real deal.
* AdaptationalAbomination: In canon, Lord Darkar ''is'' the Shadow Phoenix and a powerful threat to the Magical Dimension. Here, they're separate beings, with the True Shadow Phoenix being an all-powerful EldritchAbomination hellbent on destroying all light in the Magical Dimension.
[[/folder]]

** Kat is one of the few bosses that can only be fought at night, and she employs a visual effect that cloaks the sky red and teal, also making Dualite's Yellow Moon appear blood red. The Blue Moon appears [[AlienBlood Saypant-blood teal.]]

**

**

**

** Most of the ''Nymph Quest'' superbosses have a "counterpart" in ''Biome Artists''. [[spoiler:Master's is Hedge, with both characters blatantly being based off of Hank Hill, ]]
** Borrgon resembling the title town of WesternAnimation/GravityFalls is by itself a ShoutOut. However, its Bonus Quest is a loose re-creation of ''Run: [=.GIFocalypse=]'', a fanfic by Water that serves as a major "template" for the story of ''Biome Artists''. You progress through a series of floating artificial islands in a chain, fighting stand-ins for the deans (a Wood Artist in the forest, then the islands have an Electric Artist, Water Artist, Earth Artist, Meat Artist, Ice Artist, Paint Artist, Sound Artist, Poison Artist, Wind Artist, Glow[?] Artist, Fire Artist, Mist[?] Artist, and Force Artist), ending in a fight with a Dean Dove {{expy}}. Standing in for [=.GIFfany=], the end of the quest strongly points in the direction of the satellite that Ninthee is accessable in, although she can be fought without knowing the town of Borrgon even exists.

** After the explanation that the world is grouped in to three tiers, with the skies and underground being considered large enough to have their own "maps" even in-universe, a player might be curious as to what's above and below the Blossom Kingdom. However, the Underground counterpart of the Blossom Kingdom is inaccessable at first -- there is no entrance to it from the Kingdom itself during the tutorial or beyond the BorderPatrol, and when entering the Underground layer, the ''whole'' perimeter has a very suspicious giant wall of floor-to-ceiling rock in an almost circular formation, where the game otherwise avoids doing this. The Sky is suspiciously empty, but entering it will still provoke the wrath of the Kingdom Guards. [[spoiler:Turns out the Underground houses the bulk of the Lab, and this place is visited during the Main Quest that becomes accessable after taking down half of the Big Four. The Sky, meanwhile, is where Neo Blossom Castle becomes located in the endgame, and in the postgame ]]

** The Saypant Metropolis is brutal. It is a vast DungeonTown that spans the Surface, Underground, and to a lesser extent even the ''Sky'' Layers and despite having a full map at all times, it's still labrynthian and very easy to get lost there. The place is ''teeming'' with powerful criminals that aren't aligned with any of the Big Four (meaning that is no respective Big Four boss quest that would thin them down to any significant degree), and the Big Four mooks that ''are'' there [...] This place is required to visit at least once in the Main Quest, and you will spend a ''lot'' of time here in Arime's Recruitment Quest.

** Arime ''easily'' has the longest and most difficult recruitment quest, with multiple boss fights (three increasingly difficult fights with Arime herself, one with Rot not counting his HopelessBossFight, and [[spoiler:]]), about half the action taking place in the {{Demonic Spider|s}}-infested Saypant Metropolis, and a series of other deals and fetch quests done on tight time limits. And the game encourages the player to tackle this on relatively early, in line with how Arime's own arc is handled in the first half-quarter of the webnovel. If you want to actually ''romance'' Arime afterwards, you'll find that despite her ChickMagnet status, Arime herself is surprisingly hard to please ''romantically,'' with her values dropping like a stone should the player do too much

So ''VideoGame/BugFables'' comparisons, and spoilers for the postgame of that: The Hedge sparring match is like [[spoiler:the equivalent to the Team Maki sparring match, the "final" challenge of sorts. Meanwhile Iris is more like Team Slacker, an ''extra'' difficult postgame battle that requires top-notch play. If I become a sadistic developer I may even give her an equivalent to the ''fucking'' bazooka attack. I mean, it actually kinda fits Iris' character and Death by a Thousand Cuts Sans-ish fighting style to just blast with a weapon that can inflict multiple status ailments all at once.]]

!! The Entrants

[[folder:Xedic Zyvis]]
At first glance the "leader" of the group, but in reality the one who merely talks the most. He perhaps has the strangest ability out of the gang, with his skill revolving entirely around his ''scarf,'' Fleecy. He calls himself (semi-ironically) "the Sensational Scarf Kid".
----
* AchillesHeel: His ''entire'' gimmick is his scarf. Take that from him, and he's as strong as an average kid.
* ApologizesALot: Tends to do this when nervous.
* BigEater: Xedic is known to eat a ''lot.'' He isn't really picky what kind of food he eats, or...where it comes from, in some cases.
* BreakThemByTalking: He quite enjoys mocking his enemies (or just people he deems jerks).
* CheerfulChild: He's quite optimistic and upbeat.
* ConsistentClothingStyle: Always shown with his gray jacket and black-and-white plaid scarf.
* CripplingOverspecialization: Xedic can use his scarf to perform a vast range of rather unrealistic feats. The fringes are capable of enlarging, sharpening and firing towards targets at high speeds. The scarf itself can extend beyond its normal length, return after being thrown, solidify itself and act as an effective melee weapon (blunt ''and'' edged), return like a boomerang after being thrown, and grasp (and break) objects. When in defense form, Fleecy can protect him from poison and mind control, deflect attacks and even grant him the power to ''fly.*'' Naturally, he can do ''none of this'' if his scarf is stripped from him, and he can only recall Fleecy if he can physically see it. The few times his enemies have managed to separate him from Fleecy, he is defeated extremely quickly.

----

!! The Borden Estate
[[folder:Geraldine Borden]]
The main antagonist of the story. A rich old woman motivated by infertility and mommy issues, who spends her time indulging in bizarre sexual fantasies, conspiring with her right-hand man Fuchs, and luring children to participate in her deadly playground games while forcing their parents to watch.
----
* BigBad: The main antagonist, and more than deserving of the title.
* FanDisservice: The sex scenes between her and Rock are not pleasant in any form.
* GroinAttack: After [[spoiler: receiving a well-deserved beatdown courtesy of Rock, she finally dies after being dropped onto an upright shard of glass]].
* SymbolicMutilation: [[spoiler: Having sexually abused Rock for years, he kills her in the climax by slamming her down onto an upright piece of glass]].
* WouldHurtAChild: Geraldine gets immense enjoyment from making parents witness the deaths of their children.

[[folder:Adolpho Fuchs]]
Geraldine's assistant. A Nazi who escaped punishment during WWII, she recruited Fuchs to develop the playground for her, and is just as villainous as her.
----
* LastNameBasis: His first name is Adolpho, but the characters and narrator refer to him as Fuchs.
* TheDragon: Fuchs is the story's secondary antagonist beneath Geraldine.

[[folder:Rock Stanley]]
Geraldine's adopted son, muscle, butler, and general focus of her abuse. He is tasked with approaching families to invite them to the playground, and overseeing the parents while they watch.

* BerserkButton: Hearing Caroline tell Donnie [[spoiler: "You're mine!"]] just like Geraldine does to him causes [[spoiler: Rock to fly into a fit of rage and beat her to death]].
* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler: Fed up with Geraldine's physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, Rock's fight with her in the finale is hardly even that, with Geraldine being given a well-deserved pummeling]].
* Determinator: Rock endures injuries that would kill a human relatively fast, [[spoiler: but he makes it all the way to the very end before he finally succumbs to his wounds]].
* EarnYourHappyEnding: After suffering for years at the hands of Geraldine and Fuchs, and watching numerous innocent children die on her playground (while also being forced to lure more in), Rock [[spoiler: breaks free from his adoptive mother's abusive hold and stops the game, freeing the remaining survivors and killing both his captors in the process. He spends his final moments doing the one thing he never got to do as a child: playing happily on the playground]].
* GeniusBruiser: Though Geraldine frequently insults his intelligence, Rock is by no means stupid. This comes into play during the final act, where he uses his knowledge of [[spoiler: the mirror hall's construction to outwit his adoptive mother]].
* GentleGiant: He cares deeply for the victims Geraldine forces him to bring to the playground, especially Donnie, who he sees himself in. [[Main/AvertedTrope Averted]] with Geraldine and Fuchs (and eventually Greg and Caroline), who he despises.
* MeaningfulName: "Rock" is a very fitting name for such an immensely strong man.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Rock delivers a ''brutal'' one to [[spoiler: Geraldine]] in the climax. After he finally [[spoiler: grabs hold of her, he lets her know exactly what he thinks of her by way of slamming her face into several mirrors, ''through'' multiple walls, breaking her mouth open with the... ''instruments'' stuck to her mirrors, and finishing it off by dropping her [[Main/GroinAttack bottom first]] onto an upright glass shard]].
* PummelingTheCorpse: [[spoiler: Rock blows way past simply killing Caroline and outright [[Main/NoHoldsBarredBeatdown mashes her head in]]]].
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Rock sees it this way in the end, believing that while he deserves to die for being part of the playground, the innocent parents and children lured in by Geraldine don't. He ultimately frees them]].
* TheBigGuy: A massive man with highly impressive strength.

[[folder:Wanda]]
* WeHardlyKnewYe: She is only mentioned once, and it's after she's been bludgeoned by Geraldine.

[[folder:Mildred Borden]]
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Although we see her death at her daughter's hands, as well as her influence on Geraldine, she's been dead for decades prior to the main story.

!! The Grimley Family
[[folder:Tom Grimley]]

[[folder:Molly Grimley]]
* FinalGirl: [[spoiler: All of her children are dead, but she and her husband Tom are the only adults to survive]].

'''Sugou:''' SHUT UP! (''Sugou uses mind control, which Kirito fights'') Your foolish defiance cost me EVERYTHING! My dreams, my career, EVERYTHING! So listen carefully, Kirito... You are nothing but a filthy roach who along with that bastard, stuck your noses where they didn't belong! If it wasn't for such a damned streak of luck you had at ALO, all the world would have been MINE! You are nothing but a simple moth that got lucky not to get burned in the flame! [[YoureNothingWithoutYourPhlebotinum YOU WOULDN'T EVEN BE WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW IF IT WASN'T FOR THAT BASTARD!]] Yes, Kirito, you're just a little boy who never had, have, nor will have any REAL POWER! But this, unfortunately for you, ends now. (''cackles an EvilLaugh as he advances on Kirito'')

*** Main Bright Regionals/Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Regionals[[note]]Elfriede (4), Lana (8), Dottie (12), Bethany (16), Kristen (20), Alexia (24), Jasmine (28), Frida (32), Hilda (36), Cassandra (40), Gratia (44), Lana (48)[[/note]]

** The Overgrowth and Related '''(Major Unmarked Spoilers for Both Parts)'''[[note]]Various Overgrowth Monsters, Royciel[[/note]]

** Mentors
*** "Old Man" Hedge

*** Pre-Cataclysm[[note]][[/note]]

** [[spoiler:No matter what sidequests the player does or how many/how few Elements are recruited, the final boss with Pure Zelpea will have a battle with a full party of all 1,002 of them. Unrecruited Elements will be hired as part of the Overgrowth Research Team at some point when starting the chain of events in the final mission, and will be the ones that fly in upon the Relic shield around the Neo Blossom Castle being dissabled. Because of that last part, they ''won't'' be around to fight Zelpea's "normal" form, [...] After the fight, they will go off to their own original locations, which justifies needing to do their Recruitment Quests to permanently add them to the party in the postgame. This is downplayed as if the player recruited everybody prior to the showdown anyway, they won't get any party member benefits, and the jet that picks them up will be automated as it was in the webnovel.]]

** The world in general is structured differently from how it is stated to be in the webnovel. The biggest being that it's a key element that in spite of the "nature" theme with the Superbiomes/Regions and the like, there is very little "wilderness" that isn't claimed in the webnovel, and that towns are densely packed together due to the high population of the world. The game has a more traditional "towns with stretches of wilderness in-between" world structure akin to other open world titles where there most of the surface area has barely a hint of civilization -- especially in the Quaternary, Quinary, and "minor" Shade/Tint Regions, which tend to just have one town each.
** The storyline where Rot [[BullyingADragon "kidnaps"]] Zelpea does not happen, as Rot is relegated to Arime's Recruitment Quest. Instead, Zelpea's assault on Bright Chartreuse plays out differently, and she leads several more raids on other regions.

** The postgame elaborates more on the story behind the Overgrowth,

** Zoap and company learn ''full'' Flight as opposed to just Zoap alone and a few air-oriented allies having the Glide as early as the end of the Biome Artist Licensing Exam, as opposed to the webnovel where Zoap learns flight on the eve of the Bright Red-Green mini-arc and the other Elements learn it ''much'' later than that. The reason being is to justify the game's fast travel system, the characters fly directly from one area to another. [[spoiler:Given that while portrals and teleportation ''are'' possible in the setting, they aren't ''invented'' until a certain major point in the story]].

** Absent from the webnovel, the player could have Zoap take off the ''left'' arm of Arime in their final battle should they take the option by having him slice it off with his plasma shield. This does not make much of a difference in gameplay, and is really meant for more of a moral test of the player, if they believe that Arime deserves "an arm for an arm" or not. Arime is understanding of this and takes it well, [[spoiler:While it is ''not'' made in to an artificial being like Zoap's arm is, Responder ''will'' take the attack personally ]]

** For deep waters, flying over the ocean is one of the more dangerous things you could do, as not only are there several pirates among all factions that ''love'' to attack with submerged vehicles, but there are also seamonsters that are significantly less friendly than the average land or freshwater wildlife. The Abyss especially has tons of the latter,
** For creepy crawlies, the BigBad employs the use of spiders, or spider-like creatures just referred to as [[CallARabbitASmeerp "Nightmares,"]] in her attacks. There is also "The Bottom," a cave that makes up one of the deepest spots in the entire map, loaded with

** [[spoiler:Attempting to go in to Layer 5 of the Overgrowth before reaching the Main Quest where you explore it will have an Approacher instantly kill the Elements, even if the player was heading in the "right direction" to get past the "maze segment." This will also happen if the player veers off the path during said quest. In the late and postgame, the Overgrowth becomes '''relatively''' safer, with the Elements being given "Life Bubbles" that repell the most powerful monsters ]]
* BossSubtitles:

* FinalDeathMode: Simply called "Death Mode," it does ''not'' apply permadeath in the sense that downed party members stay down (they are "knocked out" rather than killed, and can be "revived" by items), but it will erase your save file on a GameOver.

** You almost never fight wild animals unlike most open world action adventure games like this, because Biome Artists are supposed to be

** Arime at the very beginning. She has her own party -- of fifty [actually thinking of changing this, since I'm leaning on keeping the "initial group of 100, then after a major turning point there's 900 more" limited to the ''Zenith Nymph'' stuff, and Arime starting with a gang of fifty was based on that -- Zoap would get a gang of fifty, they'd clash, and then Arime's team would slowly join, making the "initial 100" together], compared to Zoap's mere one ally in Alexia. She has significantly more health than him and her attacks hit like a truck. It ''is'' possible to beat her and her gang with absolutely perfect play and keeping up with her for a good long while (or by playing on a NewGamePlus), which nets a secret joke ending
** Atbash is another subversion. In the webnovel, she was effectively a WakeUpCallBoss, giving the Elements a real challenge, and they managed to eek by just barely on the skin of their teeth (missing the ''actual'' point of her SecretTestOfCharacter, getting recruitments). Since this would translate to inconvenient gameplay by placing a very difficult yet "barely beatable" challenge early on in the game, she's handled like this, being an intended loss of sorts to move the story forward. Beating her is still possible, which will play out similar to the webnovel, with the Elements managing to successfully take a coin from her. Unlike Arime at the beginning, beating her has the same net result as losing. Losing will simply have CutscenePowerToTheMax happen where the initial five Elements will pool together their plan from the webnovel and trick the coins out of her.

* OurNudityIsDifferent: No place in Dualite cares about bare chests, for men or women. Rear ends on the other hand are usually

** Fail to get the [...?] in the Side Quest "Showtime," and the player is treated to a CutawayGag of the setting's equivalent to ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', consisting of a Saypant Peter Griffin-like trying to pull open a door for a minute before realizing it's a push door. This is the only cutscene aside from the credits that cannot be skipped.

* PurelyAestheticGender: It is a major intent with the game that changing the genders/body types of the Elements will change as little as possible. They have the same stats, dialogue, and access to all the same gear. The game takes it a step further by even having their pinup images posed the same way, AdjustableCensorship also erasing male-presenting nipples as well[[note]]although this is because Water is a believer in topfreedom. There are also a few edge cases where the issue would be gray -- a couple male characters with breasts, a couple female characters with "masculine chests," nonbinary and androgynous characters, etc. Erasing all nipples entirely is the "safest" course of action regardless[[/note]], [...] One story-related result is that Zelpea's "motivations" for obsessing over Zoap and one of the ways she trash-talks the Elements are tweaked slightly, as "They can't even have children" wouldn't make any sense if Zelpea and Zoap themselves

** A video game with hundreds of recruitable party members is not new to this, nor the ''Nymph Quest'' mod predecessor. ''VideoGame/TheCaligulaEffect'' has over five hundred party members; Water isn't familiar with the game itself, but heard of this tidbit of it [apparently the sequel tones it down to like 150. That's disappointing, "hundreds of party members" could be its DancingBear, I'd say go further]

* SalvagedStory:
** [Because I'm ''sorta'' rethinking the whole "Part I" and "Part II" thing and I may actually just end the webnovel on Zelpea's death, especially if I scrap the whole "save the 'Other 900' for a sequel bit" and integrate them in the main group] The Overgrowth was polarizing in the original webnovel because of how it seemed to be setting up a greater mystery, but this wasn't fully addressed until a rather controversial sequel story. While some readers liked the use of keeping an ongoing mystery and having some questions unanswered as fanon fuel to help the story's longevity, others found that the Overgrowth in its ''entirety'' was underused to a disappointing extent, and that keeping the nature of the inner Layers unclear was more frustrating than creepy. The game... [[spoiler:''does'' integrate the aformentioned sequel concept by exploring the innermost Layers in the postgame and has a Royciel superboss, but handles it ]]

** The Saypant Metropolis is brutal. It is a vast DungeonTown that spans the Surface, Underground, and to a lesser extent even the ''Sky'' Layers and despite having a full map at all times, it's still labrynthian and very easy to get lost there. The place is ''teeming'' with powerful criminals [...] This place is required to visit at least once in the Main Quest, and you will spend a ''lot'' of time here in Arime's Recruitment Quest.

** Arime ''easily'' has the longest and most difficult recruitment quest, with multiple boss fights (three increasingly difficult fights with Arime herself, one with Rot not counting his HopelessBossFight, and [[spoiler:]]), about half the action taking place in the {{Demonic Spider|s}}-infested Saypant Metropolis, and a series of other deals and fetch quests done on tight time limits. And the game encourages the player to tackle this on relatively early, in line with how Arime's own arc is handled in the first half-quarter of the webnovel. If you want to actually ''romance'' Arime afterwards, you'll find that despite her ChickMagnet status, Arime herself is surprisingly hard to please ''romantically,'' with her values dropping like a stone

* EmotionEater: His New Mate Chopper, made from the Gigas Cedar's resources, feeds on people's fear, anger, pain, and despair for small stat boosts, while retaining the ability to feed on death for massive, permanent boosts.

** Zoap and company learn ''full'' Flight as opposed to just Zoap alone and a few air-oriented allies having the Glide as early as the end of the Biome Artist Entry Exam, as opposed to the webnovel where Zoap learns flight on the eve of the Bright Red-Green mini-arc and the other Elements learn it ''much'' later than that. The reason being is to justify the game's fast travel system, the characters fly directly from one area to another. [[spoiler:Given that while portrals and teleportation ''are'' possible in the setting, they aren't ''invented'' until a certain major point in the story]].

** Zoap loses his right arm to Arime's plasma blade during the Blossom Kingdom invasion at the beginning of the game. Thanks to the advanced healing, this is not that big of a deal in the setting, and he gets a new one grown. However, it's not finished until after he passes the Biome Artist Entry Exam and he spends the whole Exam with a prosthetic made of wood and vines of his own Biome Arts. Gameplay-wise, he plays the same (the arm loss is carried out through cutscene after the near-forced loss to Arime, and by the time the player resumes control of Zoap, he has the artificial arm), but this factors in to the story in two ways. First, Atbash uses her Biome Arts on the plant arm to show to the Elements how {{Combat Pragmatist}}s may "fight dirty." Second, [[spoiler:Zelpea uses the arm as a "large" source of DNA from Zoap and gets genetic engineers in the Blossom Kingdom to mix it with her own DNA believing that it will make her a superweapon. This creates Dragon, who failed to have the Relic immunity Zelpea wanted, ]]

** Starting off with a one-of-a-kind (or otherwise ''extremely'' rare) TooAwesomeToUse item that grants a full recovery: In this case, the Spectrum Buffet

* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Deconstructed. The main characters are ''not'' subject to this -- it's spelled out very clearly that use of the Biome Arts takes years to master, with none of the heroes being exempt from this (even Iris, who was a prodigy, trained rigorously when she was a kid to become the youngest-ever person to pass the Entry Exam, and she just ''barely'' squeaked by a passing grade. Iris was actually a poor Biome Artist at first, and only became the elite she is now by continuing training for over a decade). While they ''do'' learn additional ElementalPowers fairly fast, it's stated that this is because they are derived from similar techniques (effectively, telekinesis on different forms of matter, or projectile spitting from relevant magic-charged plants) -- simply studying one Art is difficult, but after learning that, one can "branch out" and use similar skillsets. The character that ''does'' have an innate power is actually the BigBad, Zelpea, as it's said that Relic usage requires almost no training

* OpeningTheSandbox: The beginning of the game is spent in the Blossom Kingdom, and you cannot leave. After that, you're stuck in the temporary town that Zoap and Alexia are in with little to do until you sign up for the Entry Exam; trying to leave would just have Alexia lecture you about not being able to afford the travel. [Earlier I said you'd have access to all of Bright Green but on second thought with what I'm going for this would probably not be a good idea.] During the Exam, you're automatically sent from one Region to another, and again cannot leave past a certain circle or else a teammate will call you out. After passing Atbash's test and being warped one more time to the Elements' home, you have the ability to fully explore ''anywhere.'' The game even encourages this by having the easiest missions set a good distance away, opening up the Fast Flight mechanic (which previously couldn't be used) and then finding out that the full explorable area is actually gigantic, and the game deliberately kept the player in smaller, enclosed areas just to emphasize the freedom getting a Biome Artist license gives the characters.

** The Elements strip down inside their home or when in an inn, but these segments are framed to hide frontal nudity. Cutscenes where they walk around and talk make a RunningGag out of it, with later mission cutscenes getting increasingly outlandish (the early ones just have the initial Entry Exam quintet behind a table for most of it). When the player gets the option to freely walk around and chat with the Elements, and thus rotate the camera, they're ''all'' placed in ways such that their legs or arms would block a view, or they happen to have an object like a pillow held on their laps and over the offending area. Showering Elements have conspicuous CensorSteam or CensorSuds, both of which can be unlocked as their own "outfits" later.

** While Arime is infinitely more likeable than any of the above three, she's not the best person, and she still severs Zoap's arm in the prologue (and forces him to take the Entry Exam with a prosthetic until he gets a new arm grown). Even ignoring that her battle with Dragon is one big LaserGuidedKarma where Dragon (semi-unknowingly) calls her out and explains that the whole reason why Dragon exists is ''because'' of the arm-severing, completing Arime's Recruitment Quest sees one big, flashy showdown where the player can ''definitely'' pay her back for the attack at the beginning of the game, down to cutting off one of ''her'' arms (which was not something that happened in the webnovel). And to players who thought she was EasilyForgiven in the webnovel, Zoap can actually turn down her apology, although this has zero gameplay benefit as there's just about no downside to recruiting her, and it's always possible to just have Zoap accept her apology and let her in the group at any point after.

* SlowPacedBeginning: Like with the webnovel, the start with the Biome Artist Entry Exam is a bit rough, except unlike the webnovel, even the ActionPrologue in the Blossom Kingdom isn't too much. The Blossom Kingdom mostly consists of an optional training sandbox followed by a HopelessBossFight.