History VideoGame / IllusionsOfLoyalty

* BonusBoss:
** The Wyvern in the Robin pass. It'll be fought if your group chooses to loot some suspicious-looking corpses. Of note is its Dive Bomb skill, which can easily kill a character at full health.
** Then, there's the Necromancer in the Forest of Woe. He won't attack you of his own volition, and if you approach him, he'll just ask to leave you alone. Otherwise, though, you are in for a tough battle with him and a pair of his undead minions. (One of whom, a shield-bearing skeleton, will also regularly try to block all damage on his behalf.)
** Lastly, it's also possible to fight the greater Painspawn sealed off by the Eutorians.

* DemBones: There's one skeleton in the BonusBoss battle against the Necromancer in the Forest of Woe. Unlike most examples, this skeleton is an elite enemy, and the primary damage dealer of the group. He also has the ability to protect the Necromancer himself from all damage.

* AGodAmI: Eutorian mages have shades of this. Once they realised that they have begun summoning creatures from the realm of God of Pain, their reaction is excitement at having tapped into the power of the Gods.

** The Wyvern in the Robin pass. It'll be fought if your group chooses to loot some suspiciously looking corpses. Of note is its Dive Bomb skill, which can easily kill a character at full health.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Blue-haired sniper Sarah Hawke.

To dispel any suspicions of disloyalty, he volunteered to lead his firing squad. Queen Sophie, understanding his devotion and knowing he would do anything to prove it, thus orders him and his squad on a highly-secret mission to cross the border to a third nation, Eutoria, and assassinate their Queen Anne,. Moreover, simple assassination is not enough: Gaius must be implicated, so that Eutoria will finally abandon its neutrality and join Styx in an open war on Gaius. Otherwise, Eutoria itself will enter war on Styx, only hastening its defeat. Sniper Sarah Hawke, Scout Eric Wilder and assassin Lize Baroque are the three trusted companions who'll accompany him in what may well be a suicide mission.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: "''Ideals? A few flimsy ideals were worth all this? How many died, Brother?''" Julius Logan asks this of Bruce, the night before his execution, and he can only say that he's not afraid of death, which his brother scoffs. [[spoiler: In the end, Bruce's ghost asks the same question of Julius, after his actions also caused him to end up in the very same cell, on the eve of his execution. The reply is also the same.]]

* BonusBoss: the Wyvern in the Robin pass. It'll be fought if your group chooses to loot some suspiciously looking corpses. Of note is its Dive Bomb skill, which can easily kill a character at full health.

* CounterAttack: Lize Baroque's Malevolent Riposte is an Advanced Skill that lets her block all attacks and automatically them for three turns. It is especially powerful in combination with Logan's Rally Cry.

--> '''Julius Logan'''

--> ''As a soldier, it is my duty to obey the Queen. Questioning the Queen may as well be treason. Her word is law. A disloyal commander is nothing more than a broken tool. I will not let Styx down, no matter the cost.''

''Illusions of Loyalty'' is an EasternRPG made in UsefulNotes/RPGMaker by Aegix_Drakan, and released in 2013. It follows the story of Julius Logan, a captain in the army of Styx, a nation at war with the neighouring Gaius, a war they’re losing because of the heavily defended mountainous border that separates the two. The people are dissatisfied, and rebellions spring up, often with the direct support of Gaius. One of these rebellions has been suppressed by Logan in the prologue; he didn’t falter even after it turned out to be led by his own brother.

* AIIsACrapshoot: In the Dariel City inn, there’s an old person who’s afraid of golems, while his grand-daughter is trying to assure him.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: "''Ideals? A few flimsy ideals were worth all this? How many died, Brother?''" Julius Logan asks this of Bruce, the night before his execution, and he can only say that he’s not afraid of death, which his brother scoffs. [[spoiler: In the end, Bruce’s ghost asks the same question of Julius, after his actions also caused him to end up in the very same cell, on the eve of his execution. The reply is also the same.]]

* BattleThemeMusic: The game randomly picks one of several every time a normal battle starts. They’re quite cool, though they’re all out of the default VX Ace selection.
* BonusBoss: the Wyvern in the Robin pass. It’ll be fought if your group chooses to loot some suspiciously looking corpses. Of note is its Dive Bomb skill, which can easily kill a character at full health.
** Then, there’s the Necromancer in the Forest of Woe. He won’t attack you of his own volition, and if you approach him, he’ll just ask to leave you alone. Otherwise, though, you are in for a tough battle with him and a pair of his undead minions. (One of whom, a shield-bearing skeleton, will also regularly try to block all damage on his behalf.)
** Lastly, it’s also possible to fight the greater Painspawn sealed off by the Eutorians.

* CounterAttack: Lize Baroque’s Malevolent Riposte is an Advanced Skill that lets her block all attacks and automatically them for three turns. It is especially powerful in combination with Logan’s Rally Cry.

* DemBones: There’s one skeleton in the BonusBoss battle against the Necromancer in the Forest of Woe. Unlike most examples, this skeleton is an elite enemy, and the primary damage dealer of the group. He also has the ability to protect the Necromancer himself from all damage.

* EvilutionaryBiologist: Eutorian mages excel at this. They have already learnt how to summon creatures like Earth Spirits, minor Painspawn and Minotaurs to back their armies up. However, that wasn’t enough for them, and so they have tried to summon a [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Painspawn]] directly into the body of a convicted killer, with predictable results.
* EvilVersusEvil: The implied future outcome in two of the endings. [[spoiler: Queen Sophie, who had just sent Logan to the firing squad to ensure her plan succeeds and he’s undoubtedly a traitor to all, is planning to invade Eutoria after Gaius is defeated, and specifically holds the Golems back in order to let Eutoria be weakened in the war. However, the Eutorian Archmage Adam, who became a Regent after Queen Anne’s death, is preparing for that eventuality by re-authorising research into Greater Painspawn: demons that are as powerful as they’re uncontrollable.]]
* ExtremeDoormat: Logan is this when it comes to the orders from above, and especially from the Queen. As Lize Baroque says at one point, he "can’t think enough for himself to betray his country."
* TheExtremistWasRight: Vanguards are an order that is strongly against usages of magic they consider inappropriate, and because of it, they have slaughtered many of the Eutorian high-ranking mages and even members of their royal family. On the other hand, you can find reports by those mages that detail their attempts to summon creatures from the realm of God of Pain, and then put them into bodies of convicted criminals. The predictably disastrous results still haven’t discouraged the Archmage Adam from willing to try again. [[spoiler: After the death of Queen Anne, he becomes Regent and immediately re-authorises the Painspawn research.]]

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Queen Sophie of Styx is the most unambiguously evil character in the game. The game begins with Julius fighting to bring down the rebellion against her, which involves him going against his own brother. Then, even though he volunteered to lead his brother’s firing squad, the Queen still suspects him, and sends him on what is practically a suicide mission to prove his loyalty. And after he returns, [[spoiler: she still orders him executed in order to ensure no-one suspects it was she, and not Gaius, who ordered the murder of Queen Anne. Her plan also involves taking over Eutoria and eventually the rest of the world after the battle with Gaius is done.]]

* GoodScarsEvilScars: Baroque has a large, thin scar on her left cheek. Julius has a large scar going over his left eye. Both characters are highly morally ambiguous. Erik Wilder, who’s the most positive character of the group, apparently has a scar on his left arm that everyone assumes is from battling monsters, but was actually left by his daughter.

* IronicEcho: ''"Ideals? A few flimsy ideals were worth all this? How many died, Brother?"'' Julius Logan says these words to Bruce in the prologue, just before he’s about to be executed. In the end, [[spoiler: Bruce’s ghost says these exact words to Logan now that he is in the same cell, also about to be executed.]]
** In fact, the entire conversation Bruce and Julius have at the start is shown again near the end, only [[spoiler: only this time the roles are reversed, with Bruce saying Logan’s lines, while Logan’s replies are implied to be same Bruce had said in the speech bubbles at the start.]]
* LastNameBasis: Julius Logan only calls Sarah Hawke by her last name, even though they fought together for more than five years, and she saved him many times. She calls him out on this during the campfire talk at the Robin’s Pass, but he doesn’t budge. It’s strongly implied he’s doing this in order to suppress his growing feelings for her, and so prevent them from interfering with the mission.
* LifeDrain: Lize Baroque’s Blood from the Rose. Its description implies she literally drinks the blood of the enemy to heal herself. It’s useful in combat, although it’s often more cost-efficient to let Hawke or Wilder heal her with one of their abilities, and save the Aggression for Malign Riposte.
* MeaningfulName: The sniper under Logan’s command is called Sarah Hawke. The Hunter is Eric Wilder. Lize Baroque is an assassin and a gambler.
* TheMedic: Sarah Hawke is the one who fulfils that role in the group. Her First Aid is a Basic skill that heals 35% of a character’s health and also cures bleeding, and can be used outside of combat as well. However, she can deal plenty of damage as well, and possesses other crucial skills like Silencer.
* MirrorCharacter: While it’s never said outright, the game strongly that Julius and Bruce are just two sides of the same coin:
** Bruce ultimately sacrifices the two rebels he knew by name and seemed to care about by throwing explosive in the midst of fighting, killing them alongside soldiers and Golems. He dismisses a question about it with "''I don’t want to hear it! Tragic accident! End. Of. Discussion.''" [[spoiler: Logan also comes to regret, yet still go through with the process of sacrificing his companions on the way back to Styx.]]

** [[spoiler: Take the coward’s way out. Logan stabs himself in his cell. He’s consigned to the void, and we see him wander through it and past the ghosts of his friends, as we see them all get killed where they were left behind. He finally makes it towards his brother’s ghost and everything fades to black.]]

** Subverted when fighting the Eutorian patrols. If the mages are present, they can heal everyone, and by a considerable amount of health. However, that can be dealt with by using Wilder’s Silencer on them, and re-applying it when it’s about to run out. The real priority should still be the other soldiers, as they deal a lot more damage than the mages ever could.
* SpaceFillingEmpire: The entire continent is only taken up by three countries: the Styx, the Republic of Gaius it wars against, and the neutral Eutoria. It’s implied there are other continents and countries, though we never hear them mentioned.
* SquishyWizard: Averted with the Eutorian Mages. They have as much health as the armored Soldiers and Shieldmaidens guarding them, if not more. However, their fire spells are not much more effective than those soldiers’ attacks, and so they’re mainly relegated to the support role.
* StoneWall: The protagonist, Julius Logan, is one in combat, since his default attack is no stronger than that of everyone else, while his skills are mostly about buffs (Rally Cry, Defensive Orders) or crowd control (Brutality). He even has a skill that draws enemies’ attention towards him (Cover).

* WhamLine: There’s one at the end of the prologue, when Logan finally captures Bruce, and only then outright calls him brother.

* WithThisHerring: Even though you’re leading a team that is supposed to pull off the impossible and assassinate the Queen of Eutoria all by themselves, you still can’t get anything more than the standard Styx army equipment.

* WrenchWench: There’s a wounded girl in the Castle infirmary who longs to get back up to fix golems, in spite of her cracked skull.
* YouAllLookFamiliar: The game only uses default VX Ace facesets, and so characters who aren’t plot-relevant often share faces. In some scenes, like in the Dariel City church, it’s possible to encounter two people next to each with the same facesets.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: This happens to [[spoiler: Logan himself, after he returns from the mission. He can choose to accept this and play the charade to the end, take the coward’s way out and kill himself, or reject it and then miraculously break down the cell door with bare hands and then murder the Queen and all the guards and Golems in his way.]]

* NotSoDifferent: While it’s never said outright, the game strongly that Julius and Bruce are just two sides of the same coin:
** Bruce ultimately sacrifices the two rebels he knew by name and seemed to care about by throwing explosive in the midst of fighting, killing them alongside soldiers and Golems. He dismisses a question about it with "''I don’t want to hear it! Tragic accident! End. Of. Discussion.''" [[spoiler: Logan also comes to regret, yet still go through with the process of sacrificing his companions on the way back to Styx.]]
** Of course, there's also the IronicEcho at the end, which makes the idea even more blatant.

* FamousLastWords: The rebels in the prologue all say something with their dying breaths. One simply goes "No….it…can’t…end…like…this"
** [[spoiler: Logan, in the loyal ending]]: ''"Everything I did was for Gaius! Down with Queen Sophie!"''

* GradualGrinder: Awrathea, the spider boss of the Pass, is one. It doesn’t deal a lot of damage compared to BonusBoss Wyvern, or the bosses afterwards, but it has a very high defence, and can buff itself with counter-attack.

''Illusions of Loyalty'' is an EasternRPG made in VideoGame/RPGMaker by Aegix_Drakan, and released in 2013. It follows the story of Julius Logan, a captain in the army of Styx, a nation at war with the neighouring Gaius, a war they’re losing because of the heavily defended mountainous border that separates the two. The people are dissatisfied, and rebellions spring up, often with the direct support of Gaius. One of these rebellions has been suppressed by Logan in the prologue; he didn’t falter even after it turned out to be led by his own brother.

* AntiHero: Julius Logan is one.

* CounterAttack: Lize Baroque’s Malevolent Riposte is an Advanced Skill that lets her block all attacks and automatically them for three turns. It is especially powerful in combination with Logan’s Rally Cry. Arawrathea boss at the Robin Pass can tense up its body to gain Counter status, which lets him do the same.

* ExtremeDoormat: Logan is this when it comes to the orders from above, and especially from the Queen. As Lize Baroque says at one point, he “can’t think enough for himself to betray his country.”

* FamousLastWords: The rebels in the prologue all say something with their dying breaths. One simply goes “No….it…can’t…end…like…this”

* GradualGrinder: Awrathea, the spider boss of the Pass, is one. It doesn’t deal a lot of damage compared to BonusBoss Wyvern, or the bosses afterwards, but it has very high defence, and can buff itself with counter-attack.

** Rebels. Bruce is willing to sacrifice his own friends for the sake of the plot succeeding. After you put it down, you can also talk to the people who would've all been killed by the rebels had they succeeded, and discover the corpse of a young conscript murdered in the street.

* {{Tank}}: The protagonist, Julius Logan, is one, since his skills are mostly about buffs (Rally Cry, Defensive Orders) or crowd control (Brutality). He even has the skill that draws enemies’ attention towards him (Cover).
* TheMedic: Sarah Hawke is the one who fulfils that role in the group. Her First Aid is a Basic skill that heals 35% of a character’s health and also cures bleeding, and can be used outside of combat as well.

* WolfPackBoss: The boss of the Forest of Woe are the three mutated flowering plants, Weeping blue, Singing Green and Laughing Red. Singing Green is the most powerful one on the whole, but the other two are still no push-overs, and they all excel at supporting each other.

'''Illusions of Loyalty''' is an EasternRPG made in VideoGame/RPGMaker by Aegix_Drakan, and released in 2013. It follows the story of Julius Logan, a captain in the army of Styx, a nation at war with the neighouring Gaius, a war they’re losing because of the heavily defended mountainous border that separates the two. The people are dissatisfied, and rebellions spring up, often with the direct support of Gaius. One of these rebellions has been suppressed by Logan in the prologue; he didn’t falter even after it turned out to be led by his own brother.

** Then, there’s the Necromancer in the Forest of Woe. He won’t attack you of his own volition, and if you approach him, he’ll just ask to leave you alone. Otherwise, though

* Vanguards are a minor order that isn't concerned with the wars, and only wishes to keep dangerous magic in check. To that end, they've assassinated many Eutorian mages and even royal family members, and so get killed on sight in that country. Yet, they ''were'' trying to keep the Eutorians from summoning demons far beyond their control, through methods involving prisoner sacrifice, amongst other things.