History VideoGame / GuardianTales

In short, imagine ''VideoGame/MapleStory'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY games of old]]...with a hint of ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'', a smidgen of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', and a ''[[ShoutOut/GuardianTales crap-ton]]'' [[ReferenceOverdosed of references tossed in]].

''Guardian Tales'' is an action [[RolePlayingGame role-playing]] [[GachaGames gacha]] mobile game created by American-Korean studio Kong Studios and published by Creator/KakaoGames (Global and Korea), bilibili (China), and Kong Studios themselves with assistance from Yostar (Japan). It serves as both the canonical sequel and spiritual successor to their previous game ''Dungeon Link'', a puzzle-style mobile game launched in 2015 and shut down in 2019 published by GAMEVIL[[note]]Now [=COM2US=] Holdings[[/note]]. It was initially soft-launched in Southeast Asia on February 24, 2020, before its official global and Korean release on July 28 of the same year. The Chinese version followed on April 27, 2021, and a Japanese version was released on October 6 of the same year, with redone art from multiple illustrators and new/re-recorded Japanese voice acting. A port on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, with Kong Studios self-publishing again, would later release on October 3, 2022, 2 years after global launch and a year after CN and JP.

* FloatingContinent: Your main base of operations, Heavenhold, is this. You can build several facilities there to generate Gold over time and garner Soul Points from all your owned Heroes. These Soul Points can then be used to upgrade facilities or get special rewards. It is later revealed that [[spoiler:Heavenhold was actually supposed to be a powerful weapon that the Hero Kaden spearheaded the building of 500 years ago as a preemptive plan for any future invasions, but he suddenly vanished afterwards, leaving Heavenhold in an incomplete state. "Completing" Heavenhold then becomes the end goal of Season 2 as a whole. Later chapters in said season would hint at Heavenhold's true nature being a HumongousMecha, an idea further fueled by World 16's FinalBoss stage being set [[https://i.imgur.com/TkUGWZH.jpeg in front of a mysterious mecha's face]] located within the deepest floors of Heavenhold.]]

* HumongousMecha: The Iron Teatan in Chapter 2 and in the Science Club in ''21 Kanterbury Street''. [[GlassCannon Weapons for days, but easily dismantled.]] There's also the mecha Champion hinted in both the silhouettes in each chapter's ending card and the Season 2 teaser trailer, [[spoiler:which is heavily implied to be Heavenhold's complete form.]]

* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: Downplayed and inverted, while not really that "hardcore" the Japanese release, and the optional per-character artwork switching introduced around the same time for the global versions, has almost all the characters drawn as bonafide moe-blobs, even making the male knight even prettier than he was.

* ImprobablyFemaleCast: Male heroes are very few and far between, especially within the Unique Heroes space[[labelnote:*]]Only four male heroes have been released post-launch: Alef, Garam, Kamael, and Claude[[/labelnote]], which has become one of the more vocal criticisms with the game as a whole[[labelnote:*]]The longest gap between a male hero's release to the next is 9 months (Garam to Kamael)[[/labelnote]]. [[WordOfGod The developers attribute this mentality of theirs]] to the main demographic of the game being males.

** [[spoiler: In the Halloween short story, it is implied that the Halloween monster, posing as the Princess, is causing a time loop to force everyone to indefinitely enjoy Halloween (reminiscent of the [[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya Endless Eight]].) Only when the knight starts messing with the time loop and refuses to trick or treat does the monster freak out and disappear, ending the loop.]]

->''This is your story.''
--> -- '''The Knight's Book entry.'''

''Guardian Tales'' is an action [[RolePlayingGame role-playing]] [[GachaGames gacha]] mobile game created by American-Korean studio Kong Studios and published by Creator/KakaoGames (Global and Korea), bilibili (China), and Kong Studios themselves with assistance from Yostar (Japan). It serves as both the canonical sequel and spiritual successor to their previous game ''Dungeon Link'', a puzzle-style mobile game launched in 2015 and shut down in 2019 published by GAMEVIL[[labelnote:*]]Now [=COM2US=] Holdings[[/labelnote]]. It was initially soft-launched in Southeast Asia on February 24, 2020, before its official global and Korean release on July 28 of the same year. The Chinese version followed on April 27, 2021, and a Japanese version was released on October 6 of the same year, with redone art from multiple illustrators and new/re-recorded Japanese voice acting. A port on the Nintendo Switch, with Kong Studios self-publishing again, would later release on October 3, 2022, 2 years after global launch and a year after CN and JP.

Gameplay is similar to [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda a certain famous action-adventure game]], but with the same "twin-stick" controls on other widescreen mobile games. You have a button to attack, a button to run, and a button to utilize the Weapon Skill of the character you're playing as. If the required conditions are fulfilled, you can perform a Chain Skill with other Heroes, which can have different effects depending on who you chain it with.

In short, imagine ''VideoGame/MapleStory'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY games of old]]...with a hint of ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'', a smidgen of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', and a ''[[ReferenceOverdosed crapton]]'' of references tossed in.

!Guardian Tales provides examples of the following:

* SeriesMascot: The Little Princess, due to her EveryonesBabySister and HundredPercentAdorationRating status, as well as her overall role in the story, not to mention the fact that she's voiced by Creator/RieKugimiya in Japanese. She even made her way to become the game's newest app icon, succeeding Lilith and the Female Knight.

** Kaden's demon mentor-of-sorts Lilith and his heroic predecessor Erina stopped adventuring and eventually went back and ruled over the Demon World.
** Plitvice and her fellow gods mostly lost their powers following the burning of the World Tree some time after said game.

** [[spoiler:May also be the case for the main story itself. First hinted at during World 11 Nightmare through the Savior's dialogue. Then at the beginning of World 13, you're temporarily given control of the Other Knight, whose world had seemingly ended after killing the Savior, when a fairy-like being appears and suggests they be taken to the next loop for a "second chance". In addition, the fairy-like being refers to the Other Knight as "winter farmer #83452781'''6'''". For reference, the "credits roll" that appears near the end of Prologue and the start of World 12 contains the numbers "83452781'''7'''" which could refer to the current Knight.]]

* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Devils and demons are common species in the planet. Beyond a greatly extended lifespan and some minor physical/magical changes, they are effectively the same a humans with no innate inclination to evil.

* PhantomThief: The game has the infamous criminal Lucy as its resident recruitable phantom thief. Nari can also be one with her own phantom thief costume, which [[VideoGame/Persona5 definitely isn't referencing another famous phantom thief]], that can be bought from the Arena shop for Battle Medals
* PineappleRuinsPizza: One of the [[PoisonMushroom Cursed Artifacts]] found in the KAMA-Zone is the Pie from Hell, which is just a slice of pizza with pineapple on it.

** The Hero Kaden, protagonist of ''Dungeon Link'' and a young hero from 500 years ago who would later end up stopping the great evil looming over the world with a PyrrhicVictory by burning the World Tree and making humans and gods lose access to holy magic. Some time afterwards, he learned of the coming danger of the Invaders far in his future. Together with Queen Lili and Demon Queen Lilith, Kaden sought out the Champion's Sword and built Heavenhold as a weapon to be used centuries later by his successor, the Knight. For unknown reasons, he disappeared without a trace before he could his preparations.

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Heavenhold's androids are all fully sentient, have individual personalities with the full range of human emotions, eat specially-made food, rest by sleeping, and, apparently, have confirmed souls. If it wasn't for their stilted speech patterns and drill "ears", they would be indistinguishable from humans. For inexplicable reasons, almost all of them share a distinct [[LazyBum lazy streak]] that leads them to slack off on their duties whenever possible.

* RobotGirl: A whole fleet of identical robot girls man the Heavenhold, programmed to obey the holder of the Champion's Sword. They're also used to upgrade facilities, and you can buy or find more scattered around the world to upgrade more buildings at once, much like [[VideoGame/DragaliaLost the smithwyrms.]] They are advanced enough to not only have individual personalities but are so [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots human-like]] as to actually have souls that go to the After World like any other mortal (a fact that causes significant confusion to the staff of the underworld when attempting to judge one). Two of them, the only surviving combat models from their initial production, become playable characters with unique third one from an in-universe new production joining later.

** There's mention of something called "Labose" that humans created that eventually overgrew their home planet and then drove them off. [[spoiler: Then Lorraine finally mentions what she is: that same corruption.]]

* ActionGirl: A fair measure of the Heroes you can recruit for your party are girls.

* AdvancedAncientHumans: Around Tetis are ruins and artifacts of an ancient civilization with highly advanced technology. Much of the ruins resemble modern, real-world human buildings and machinery, but some hold much more futuristic technology. The nations of Tetis have varying degrees of access to these [[LostTechnology relics]] based on location, partially explaining why modern Tetis technology can seem so [[SchizoTech wildly inconsistent]].

** The Legendary Hero Erina, a human hero from ''Dungeon Link'''s backstory who defeated the four Demon Gods 1500 years ago and sealed them within herself, giving her near-immortality as she becomes the Demon Queen Lilith's closest confidant even in the present day.
** The Hero Kaden, protagonist of ''Dungeon Link'' and a young hero from 500 years ago who would later end up stopping the great evil looming over the world with a PyrrhicVictory by burning the World Tree and making humans and gods lose access to holy magic, then later disappearing without a trace while seeking out and preparing the Champion's Sword and Heavenhold for his successor, the Knight.

* PromotedToPlayable: Case in point: [[{{Planimal}} magical-alpaca]][[LittleBitBeastly -with-a-human-form]] Mayreel, who was only Bari's Exclusive Weapon for almost a year since the latter's release in May 2020. And she even powercreeps her hard.

* SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids: World 12-1 shows that even the non-combat Heavenhold androids are equipped for aerial combat. They're nowhere near as powerful or durable as true combat androids like Mk. 99, but they can hold their own surprisingly well for handful of maids and construction workers. They do make passive-aggressive complaints about this not being their jobs throughout the stage, however.

''Guardian Tales'' is an action [[RolePlayingGame role-playing]] [[GachaGames gacha]] mobile game created by American-Korean studio Kong Studios and published by Kakao Games (Global and Korea), bilibili (China), and Kong Studios themselves with assistance from Yostar (Japan). It serves as both the canonical sequel and spiritual successor to their previous game ''Dungeon Link'', a puzzle-style mobile game launched in 2015 and shut down in 2019 published by GAMEVIL[[labelnote:*]]Now [=COM2US=] Holdings[[/labelnote]]. It was initially soft-launched in Southeast Asia on February 24, 2020, before its official global and Korean release on July 28 of the same year. The Chinese version followed on April 27, 2021, and a Japanese version was released on October 6 of the same year, with redone art from multiple illustrators and new/re-recorded Japanese voice acting. A port on the Nintendo Switch, with Kong Studios self-publishing again, would later release on October 3, 2022, 2 years after global launch and a year after CN and JP.

* FloatingContinent: Your main base of operations, Heavenhold, is this. You can build several facilities there to generate Gold over time and garner Soul Points from all your owned Heroes. These Soul Points can then be used to upgrade facilities or get special rewards. It is later revealed that [[spoiler:Heavenhold was actually supposed to be a powerful weapon that the Hero Kaden spearheaded the building of 500 years ago as a preemptive plan for any future invasions, but he suddenly vanished afterwards, leaving Heavenhold in an incomplete state. "Completing" Heavenhold then becomes the end goal of Season 2 as a whole]].

->'''World Complete.'''
->''The Champion's Sword partially recovered its power.''

* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: Due to the live-service nature of the game, the level cap grows with each story update, in addition to 5 bonus levels when limit-breaking units. Currently, it's capped to Level 84 once the player reaches World 15, which can be increased to 89 at max limit break.

* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: [[spoiler:As of the end of Chapter 15, Heavenhold, and at least [[BrainwashedAndCrazy four of the Champions]], have been commandeered by the Invader's First Corps Commander, former-Queen Camilla.]]

** After reaching a high enough guardian level and clear a rift stage with three stars on full auto, you gain the option of autoclearing the stage. This lets you quickly do your daily awakening dungeons and get your coffee spent farming whatever resources you wish to farm so you can move on to other content.

* AntiPoopSocking: As with other gacha games, the game has a stamina system (called Coffee) in which 1 Coffee is restored every 10 minutes, with a hard cap of 76 Coffee as of the latest updates. Initially, this was fully enforced and was a major gripe for many players. It would later be alleviated by the fact that the game would now give free 50 coffee at 12nn and 7pm per day.

* ArtificialStupidity: The auto AI does a decent enough job of avoiding some boss attacks, but they'll also sit there and take other attacks, especially since computer-controlled characters can't run. Cursed Towers in particular are NOTORIOUS for allies standing on the attack indicator right until the laser fires and kills them. Some characters' AI also fishes way too hard for optimal damage or healing at times and will happily throw themselves in the line of fire to do so.

* BittersweetEnding: In the ending of Season 1, [[MultipleEndings you either]] [[spoiler:travel back to your past leaving the future [[TheMultiverse which can't be altered]], or stay in the future and leave your Little Princess behind]]. Both can be thankfully chosen again if you decide to re-enter the level to try and get the other ending.

* NearVillainVictory: [[spoiler: The Unrecorded World. The situation is horrible when you get there as humanity as we know it is on its last legs. Even worse is that without your timely reappearance, the Invaders would have killed everyone a day or two later.]]

* PartyScattering: The Champions gathered so far in Season 1 end up getting split apart right at the start of Season 2 after the fall of Heavenhold and subsequent crash onto Demon World soil. The Knight now has to look for them again alongside gaining the batteries needed for Heavenhold's full activation.

* RobotGirl: A whole fleet of identical robot girls man the Heavenhold, programmed to obey the holder of the Champion's Sword. They're also used to upgrade facilities, and you can buy or find more scattered around the world to upgrade more buildings at once, much like [[VideoGame/DragaliaLost the smithwyrms.]] They are advanced enough to not only have individual personalities but are so [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots human-like]] as to actually have souls that go to the After World like any other mortal (a fact that causes significant confusion to the staff of the underworld). Two of them, the only surviving combat models from their initial production, become playable characters with unique third one from an in-universe new production joining later.

** The end of World 15. [[spoiler:You, the Princess, and the Demon Gods manage to successfully infiltrate and destroy the Invader Queenship sieging the Demon World capital, although the Invaders'1st Corps Commander was nowhere to be found, and Queen Lilith, Erina, and the various law enforcement groups for the capital manage to push the Invaders back... but then one of the soldiers alert you all of an unidentified flying object floating towards the capital in place of the Queenship... It was Heavenhold, hijacked by the 1st Corps Commander, who escaped before you even got to the ship's bridge, with the accompanying cutscene showing she has corrupted the Champion's Sword by brainwashing four of the eight found Champions (Marianne, Marvin, Craig, and Coco), moving the ownership of said sword to her... What's more is that she had already obtained the two remaining Mana Singularity Drives needed to power Heavenhold and access its true form. And that's not all, '''then''' the cutscene finally reveals who the 1st Corps Commander actually is: it's Queen Camilla, getting TheBusCameBack treatment after going AWOL since the start of the story]].

* WorldOfJerkass: Mount Shivering. The Snowman tribe is practically defined by its FantasticRacism of the Innuits. The Innuits are better, but still have their moments as a few side-stages show. There's an Ice Witch also over there that likes to go on random hunts just to sate her ego, and the one time she does it on screen [[AssholeVictim will probably not be met with sympathy for the victim]].

* HotterAndSexier: The Japanese redesigned artwork is known for placing the female characters in more revealing variations of their outfits and suggestive poses. Many of said characters received significant [[BuxomIsBetter "enhancements"]] to their figures in the transition, as well.

* {{Gainaxing}}: Noticeable in animated character art. Especially with the more stacked members of the roster. The [[HotterAndSexier alternative Japanese art style]] makes it more pronounced, even in characters who didn't initially exhibit it.

''Guardian Tales'' is an action [[RolePlayingGame role-playing]] [[GachaGames gacha]] mobile game created by American-Korean studio Kong Studios and published by Kakao Games (Global and Korea), bilibili (China), and Kong Studios themselves with assistance from Yostar (Japan). It serves as both the canonical sequel and spiritual successor to their previous game ''Dungeon Link'', a puzzle-style mobile game launched in 2015 and shut down in 2019 published by GAMEVIL[[labelnote:*]]Now [=COM2US=] Holdings[[/labelnote]]. It was initially soft-launched in Southeast Asia on February 24, 2020 before its official global and Korean release on July 28 of the same year. The Chinese version followed on April 27, 2021 and a Japanese version released on October 6 of the same year, with redone art from multiple illustrators and new/re-recorded Japanese voice acting. A port on the Nintendo Switch, with Kong Studios self-publishing again, would later release on October 3, 2022, 2 years after global launch and a year after CN and JP.

* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: Due to the live-service nature of the game, the level cap grows with each story update, in addition to 5 bonus levels when limit breaking units. Currently, it's capped to Level 84 once the player reaches World 15, which can be increased to 89 at max limit break.

* ADayInTheLimelight: The purpose of both side and short stories is to give the spotlight to certain characters as they become either the Knight's confidant at the time, or the leading character for a while.
* AdvancedAncientHumans: Around Tetis are ruins and artifacts of an ancient civilization with highly advanced technology. Much of the ruins resemble modern, real world human buildings and machinery, but some hold much more futuristic technology. The nations of Tetis have varying degrees of access to these [[LostTechnology relics]] based on location, partially explaining why modern Tetis technology can seem so [[SchizoTech wildly inconsistent]].

* AmbiguouslyGay: Female characters treated the same by the Succubi as the male characters. In the Succubus Town level, some Succubi will put you through Dream Therapy, and in your dream they go on a date with you. Therefore, every female character theoretically goes on a dream date with the [[OneGenderRace all female Succubi.]] Justified in a meta sense as the story mode's script believes that you are the male Knight, and the game does not acknowledge which character you are actually playing as.

** After reaching a high enough guardian level and clear a rift stage with three stars on full auto, you gain the option of autoclearing the stage. This lets you quickly do your daily awakening dungeons and get your coffee spent farming whatever resources you wish to farm so you can move onto other content.

* ArtificialStupidity: The auto AI does a decent enough job of avoiding some boss attacks, but they'll also sit there and take other attacks, especially since computer-controlled characters can't run. Cursed Towers in particular are NOTORIOUS for allies standing on the attack indicator right until the laser fires and kills them. Some character's AI also fishes way too hard for optimal damage or healing at times and will happily throw themselves in the line of fire to do so.

* BeefGate: World 10 lets you progress all of three screens before forcing you to fight a boss three levels above your standard level cap with only your lead unit. The good news is that you've just unlocked the last piece of content geared towards character improvement, so if you can't clear the fight you can at least get your characters prepared.

* CharacterSelectForcing: Some Tower levels require you to have a "Cannon Dealer" hero, or someone that can hit differing heights and/or through walls. You'll have to [[TrialAndErrorGameplay test out your ranged attackers]] to figure out who can do so. The Towers of Horizon take this a step further and outright lock out anyone that isn't the correct element.
** For some reason, the melee character Lilith can clear these stages, and yet the game doesn't mark her as such. If you're wondering how, Lilith can use a skill that damages enemies (and increases her damage to them by marking them) and this damage from this skill is what enables her to hit enemies the game says she shouldn't be able to.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Park illegally in the Guardian Tales universe and you will subject to having your vehicle smashed to pieces and blown up.

* FillerArc: World 6 is much shorter than the other worlds and has no champion to find for the Guardian Sword, basically only existing for you to finally recruit Dolf and Amy and for the increased level cap upon finishing the world. The Nightmare plot isn't much better, although there is a side-area that shows how Oghma came to be.

* {{Gainaxing}}: Noticeable in animated character art. Especially with the more stacked members of the roster. The [[HotterAndSexier alternative Japanese artstyle]] makes it more pronounced, even in characters who didn't initially exhibit it.

* ImprobableWeaponUser: One of the main weapon types is ''baskets'', generally used by healers and caster-types. While quite a few weapons of this type are actual baskets, a lot of the exclusive baskets are simply magic catalysts such as a magical bead or fan. In general, anything that wouldn't readily fit into one of the other weapon types is usually categorized as a basket for convenience, which leads to "baskets" encompassing very diverse collection of weapons and tools.

* MoodWhiplash: Beneath the cutesy and nostalgic art style lies a rather dark tone that you can clearly see for the first time in as early as the opening stage of World 2, with you getting to see a Teatan mother get stabbed in front of you. And to twist the knife further in, you're treated to the sight of her child looking for her right in the next screen, and you can even follow him back to the previous screen to see him trying to "wake up" his mother. The game keeps this tonal whiplash in later chapters.
* MoreDakka: Gun-wielding units are generally this, but no one encapsulates this trope more than Future Knight and her giant {{Magitek}}-powered gatling gun Cosmic Destroyer, which can unload more than 40 bullets in one magazine + being able to shoot more with her weapon skill while she reloads, practically having a infinite magazine.

* PremiumCurrency: Gems, which are split between Free Gems (obtained through participating in multiplayer modes) and Paid Gems (obtained by paying real-world money). In-universe, Gems are noted to be capable of healing and even [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist reviving downed characters]], as seen with the Little Princess being capable of healing characters by throwing gems at them whenever she's in the party. Also, the Little Princess may also find such gems and give it to you whenever you log back in to the game, also seen in-universe in the ''Rue the Red'' side story, [[spoiler:the 300-gem chest the Future Princess had inside her tent while waiting for you to come back in World 10, a gem being used as one of the ingredients of the cure-all potion found in World 11, and the Little Princess's use of gems as a healing item in your fight against the Other Knight in World 13]].

* RobotGirl: A whole fleet of identical robot girls man the Heavenhold, programmed to obey the holder of the Champion's Sword. They're also used to upgrade facilities, and you can buy or find more scattered around the world to upgrade more buildings at once, much like [[VideoGame/DragaliaLost the smithwyrms.]] They are advanced enough to not only have individual personalities, but are so [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots human-like]] as to actually have souls that go to the After World like any other mortal (a fact that causes significant confusion to the staff of the underworld). Two of them, the only surviving combat models from their initial production, become playable characters with unique third one from an in-universe new production joining later.

** Heavenhold is sometimes romanized has "Hevenhold."

* TakeThat: A [[PoisonMushroom Cursed Artifact]] you can find in Kama-ZONE is called the "Pie from Hell" that mentions that you'd lose your appetite forever after seeing it. You'd think it's some sort of [[CordonBleughChef some sort of crime against the concept of food]], right? Nope, it's just [[StockYuck a pizza with pineapple on it.]] The story ''Afterworld Inc.'' takes it even further by showing that the name is literal: one of the punishments for evil souls after death is to make pineapple pizza until they work off their karmic debt.

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: Has happened in multiple occasions:

** World 15: Riding a Demonic Dragon to fly towards an Invader battleship above the skies of the Demon World capital. Similar to ''Rue the Red'''s but focused only on dodging incoming fire.

** Occasionally, a blimp will fly in from the left side of Heavenhold towards the landing zone on the north-eastern area carrying some of your Facebreak followers on a rope, who you can tap for Soul Points. You don't have to wait until it reaches that landing zone, however: If you notice the blimp in time, you can tap the passengers '''before they get over Heavenhold''', causing them to plummet offscreen.

** Stage 10-2 goes into much more detail on what has happened, and then has the DreamingOfThingsToCome scene: [[spoiler: Soon after you go to sleep, you're awoken the by Invaders launching an all-out attack to finish off Heavenhold, and you go to HoldTheLine with the Princess, Craig, Lavi, Marshmallow, the Mad Panda Gang, and Sohee manning a laser cannon. The situation gets progressively worse until you are thrust into a HopelessBossFight that lasts all of about three seconds, FissionMailed, thankfully it was AllJustADream]]. When will it be coming? Oh, tomorrow.
** Worlds 12 and 13 waste no time in setting the plot back on track after the Unrecorded World, and boy they're not pulling any punches. World 12 opens you up with [[spoiler:Heavenhold being sieged by Invader fighters, shot down by the mothership and then transported to the Demon World, where everyone ends up scattered and someone has managed to steal your identity, rendering you ''persona non grata'' and even have you branded as a criminal!]] Then when this plot is continued in World 13, what should have been a meeting involving politics and ethics is disastrously derailed by [[spoiler:an utterly horrifying and brutal terrorist attack on Lilith Tower and the surrounding city, turning the chapter's story into a survival thriller where you have to sneak around terrorist patrols and rescue survivors of the initial attack.]] And for World 13 in particular, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero making the wrong choices (or failing to take decisive action at key momens)]] can and ''will'' [[PlotlineDeath get people killed]], impacting the outcome of the ending.

** The end of World 15. [[spoiler:You, the Princess, and the Demon Gods manage to successfully infiltrate and destroy the Invader Queenship sieging the Demon World capital, although the Invaders'1st Corps Commander was nowhere to be found, and Queen Lilith, Erina and the various law enforcement groups for the capital manage to push the Invaders back... but then one of the soldiers alert you all of an unidentified flying object floating towards the capital in place of the Queenship... It was Heavenhold, hijacked by the 1st Corps Commander, who escaped before you even got to the ship's bridge, with the accompanying cutscene showing she has corrupted the Champion's Sword by brainwashing four of the eight found Champions (Marianne, Marvin, Craig, and Coco), moving the ownership of said sword to her... What's more is that she had already obtained the two remaining Mana Singularity Drives needed to power Heavenhold and access its true form. And that's not all, '''then''' the cutscene finally reveals who the 1st Corps Commander actually is: it's Queen Camilla, getting TheBusCameBack treatment after going AWOL since the start of the story]].

** There's mention of something called "Labose" that humans created that eventually overgrew their home planet and then drove them off. [[spoiler: Then Lorraine finally mentions what she is; that same corruption.]]

-> '''Beth:''' [[spoiler: [[TheReveal For the survival of humanity!!]]]]

* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: [[spoiler:As of the end of Chapter 15, Heavenhold, and at least [[BrainwashedA dCrazy four of the Champions]], have been commandeered by the Invader's First Corps Commander, former-Queen Camilla.]]

** The story also assumes the Knight fights alone when they don't have any GuestStarPartyMembers joining them. Any party members that the player has is completely ignored.

* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: [[spoiler:As of the end of Chapter 15, Heavenhold, and at least four of the Champions, have been commandeered by the Invader's First Company Commander.]]

** Rue the Red: A VideoGame/StarFox-style ShootEmUp, complete with barrel rolls for days

* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: Due to the live-service nature of the game, the level cap grows with each story update, in addition to 5 bonus levels when limit breaking units. Currently, it's capped to Level 81 once the player reaches World 14, which can be increased to 86 at max limit break.

* TheProphecy: The whole deal with the 13 Champions and the Champion's Sword, with a lingering hint of ProphecyTwist as the narrative goes on. It's better explained in the Video Record obtained in World 13: [[spoiler:according to cave murals found by Astronaut No.7, when darkness comes and threatens humanity, [[TheChosenMany 13 heroes]] will step up to fight against this evil. [[HeroicSacrifice One will end up dying while protecting their comrades]], while the leading hero will wield the [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement sword of light]] to finally banish the darkness. If ever the darkness returns again, a new set of 13 and the sword of light will rise again to protect humanity, repeating the prophetic cycle]]. Astronaut No.7 [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this trope by mentioning it almost sounds like them given their current situation[[labelnote:spoiler dialogue]]''"An unknown monster, 13 explorers, and 12 remaining Tetitians... No.13's sacrifice..."''[[/labelnote]].