History VideoGame / MARDEK

* ItemCrafting: Alchemy and smithing are available with the help of certain [=NPCs=]. Presumably, this will return in Chapter 4.

* StealthPun: There's a famous playwright known as "wobble-scimitaire". Hm...[[Creator/WilliamShakespeare sound familiar]]?

* SerialEscalation: The first chapter had three small dungeons and a couple very short boss fights. The second had several mandatory dungeons, multiple bonus dungeons, and much longer and more difficult bosses. The third was much, ''much'' longer than either of them ''and'' had several sidequests and LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters.

* BGMOverride: In the arena, the battle music plays uninterrupted until the end.

* BGMOverride: In the first area, the "Mighty Heroes" track plays over everything else up until the boss fight.

->''"Oh no! A [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere plot-unrelated boss monster]]!"''
-->The titular character, Mardek, on being roared at by a Zombie Warrior

* [[spoiler: SecretTestOfCharacter: Qualna, via the King attempts to do this to Mardek & Co. by obtaining the Elemental Crystals. Despite that his disguise, Clavis explains about the balance of the world and lectures them when they obtain the Water Crystal, it fails.]]

** [[spoiler:SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear: Hope you don't leave Deugan and Emela with plenty of gear by the end of Chapter 2 without banking them first!]]

** Slides toward GreyAndGrayMorality in Chapter 3, as [[spoiler:Rohoph's KnightTemplar tendencies start to become more pronounced. By the end of the chapter, he's JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope so much that he's starting to verge on CompleteMonster.]] Additionally, the story dwells a good bit on the fact that even actions taken fighting an indisputably evil villain (namely, [[spoiler:Steele]]) can have wider negative repercussions.

** There's a guy [[DroneJam hanging out in front of the sewers]] in Chapter 3 who's role-playing as [[VideoGame/{{Sonny}} a zombie who wakes up on a boat with amnesia and a message he can't read, and he meets a blind guy, and...]]

* {{Dronejam}}: If you revisit the mine after the plot events there, you can talk to the miners there. One miner who wanders around can end up blocking the one-square wide passage to another miner (who almost lampshades it by talking about how there's nothing up there for you). In addition, [[spoiler: when you revisit Goznor after it has been overrun by zombies, one might be blocking the path to the sewers, leaving the player with the choice to wait for it to eventually wander out of the path or just screw it and kill him.]]

* ElementalPowers: There's even one Governance de Magi member for each element! (Well, except for Fig, since Fig-elemental people are exceptionally rare) This is pretty much {{justified}} by in-universe reasoning. It's just how their governmental system works.

* PaintingTheFourthWall: The Governance de Magi members all talk in glowing letters with a fancy font. Clavis even points it out when Rohoph takes over briefly while he's talking to Mardek.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: Abdication annuls not just the current ruler's right to rule, but that of their ''entire bloodline''. Therefore, if [[spoiler:King Gonoroth]] abdicated, [[spoiler:Donovan]] would ''not'' become king, even though they say they would at one point.

** [[FinalFantasyVI Zach, who NPCs will tell you would slit various peoples' throats for various sums of money.]]

** [[FinalFantasyX 'I want to be a warport when I grow up!']]

** Another one for Enki, he's a mysterious, rarely-seen character, whose middle name includes "seph", and wields a katana. [[FinalFantasyVII Hm...]]
** When [[spoiler:King Gonoroth gets possessed by Qualna in chapter 3]], a random NPC comments how he hopes it's not [[FinalFantasyIV the Archfiend Cagnazzo.]]

** Muriance, a thief (well, bandit, actually), claims to be a [[FinalFantasyVI 'Treasure Hunter']] when you meet up with him in chapter 3.

---> "It's a bookshelf full of various magazines and annuals about weapons. It includes such eccentric models as [[SuperMarioRPG a handheld paper fan]], some kind of hairclip or headdress, [[FinalFantasyVII a megaphone]], and [[ImpossiblyCoolWeapon some kind of]] [[FinalFantasyVIII strange sword-combined-with-a-gun]]. [[LampshadeHanging Who'd use such ridiculous things?!]]"

* StealthPun: There's a famous playwright known as "wobble-scimitaire". Hm...[[{{Shakespeare}} sound familiar]]?

** If, as implied by one bit of dialogue, the Mysterious Man is actually ''saying'' "[PROFANITY]ing", not actually swearing, it's either a ShoutOut to {{Discworld}}'s [[Discworld/TheTruth Mr. Tulip]] or a case of great minds thinking alike.

* ThemeNaming: Three members of the Governance de Magi are named Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar, after the [[WordOfDante (legendary, non-Biblical)]] [[TheBible names of the three magi that gave gifts to the Baby Jesus in the Bible]]. The apparent leader is also named Anu, the Mesopotamian god of the sky.
** It's also possible that these characters may be a [[ShoutOut shout out]] to VideoGame/ChronoTrigger.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Two examples. The first one, which makes up the two optional boss battles, involves a [[StarfishAliens starfish alien]] [[EldritchAbomination eldritch abomination]] that lands on Belfan and starts annihilating [[MeaningfulName (thus its name)]] and begins wiping out the first civilization before humans came to power. In a desperate attempt to save themselves, [[spoiler:they use their magic to seperate its spirit from its body, hoping it would just stop moving or something to that effect; all that did was made the monster even ''more'' destructive and prone to rampaging than before. Not only that, but you find out by reading the encyclopedia by defeating its soul next that had its trapped soul been left alone long enough, it could have eventually formed a new body anyways, repeating the process. Nice job breaking it, guys!]]

-->Emela, [[DiscussedTrope discussing]] [[WhatMeasureIsAMook What Measure Is A Mook]]

** Actually, most, if not all, of Pseudolonewolf's older games happen in a shared universe. So we might just be able to meet [[LizardFolk Arkus]] [[SpacePirate Zei]] one day.

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Pressing the Escape key pauses the game, as one might expect. However, similarly to ''VideoGame/CaveStory'', pressing it again will quit the game! You have to press Z to actually unpause.

* ElementalPowers: There's even one Governance de Magi member for each element! (Well, except for Fig, since Fig-elemental people are exceptionally rare) This is pretty much {{justified}} by in-universe reasoning. It's just how their governmental system works.

** In Chapter 3 you can buy a weapon usable only by a character that's considered missing-in-action as of second chapter's ending. It sprouted fan speculations about the character returning in a future installment.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Only in MARDEK 3. [[WordOfGod Word Of God]] states it was hell to write the side dialogue for all of them and less are coming in the next parts.

** Mardek's father was named Enki. Because of Belfan's naming system, Mardek's full name is Mardek Innanu El-[[TheEpicOfGilgamesh Enkidu]]

** It's also possible that these characters may be a [[ShoutOut shout out]] to [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Chrono Trigger]].

* YouALLLookFamiliar: Heavily, heavily lampshaded; for instance the inn patrons in Canonia comprise the same "Bloke" half a dozen times, and another house contains a dozen of the same "Chap". And that's not the only time you see either of them...

** Made easier if Legion has Spirit Nova. It removes more than half of their HP, and so lowers them to mere {{Demonic Spider}} level. Still is guaranteed to kill at least one person, though.

** Tell me you found out how to do that Trade Quest to get [[spoiler:a {{Bonus Boss}} and Sslen'ck's best axe]] without a walkthrough. You didn't either, did you? (Well, the [=NPCs=] did tell you about this stuff, but how many of you remembered?)

* HiddenInPlainSight: [[spoiler:Qualna. Twice. First was the really obvious king, complete with {{Mind Control Eyes}}. Then there was Clavis. He seems to know as much as Rohoph, yet seems to be a human mage. He can get anywhere he wants to, even the bottom of a lake. Often he seems to be directly in your path. He is Aether, and is against fighting and "removing Keystones" whenever possible. He is a powerful "Equilibriumancer" (Aether magic specialist). And he has the same robes and eye color as Qualna's ... eye-dot-sphere thing. Yet, most people who have not yet completed the game do not realize that he IS Qualna, in a human disguise. Neither did Rohoph.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Two examples. The first one, which makes up the two optional boss battles, involves a [[StarfishAliens starfish alien]] [[EldritchAbomination eldritch abomination]] that lands on Belfan and starts annihilating [[MeaningfulName (thus its name)]] and begins wiping out the first civilization before humans came to power. In a desperate attempt to save themselves, [[spoiler:they use their magic to seperate its spirit from its body, hoping it would just stop moving or something to that effect; all that did was made the monster even ''more'' destructive and prone to rampaging than before. Not only that, but you find out by reading the encyclopedia by defeating its soul next that had its trapped soul been left alone long enough, it could have eventually formed a new body anyways, repeating the process. Nice job breaking it, guys!]]
** The other example is after defeating the final boss of the chapter [[spoiler:turns out that Qualna was actually the least affected by the Violet Crystal, merely ''acting'' like it affected him like the others in order to not be run off just like Rohoph. Not only is he aware that the Violet Crystal has, slightly, affected him somewhat AND he wants to destroy it just like Rohoph wanted to, helping him no less, but he's aware that the Violet Crystal has greatly affected Rohoph just as much as the other Governance de Magi. While he wanted to help Moric in the last chapter, Rohoph is in his [[KnightTemplar Knight Templar]] mode and simply wants to kill off Qualna because he's supposedly evil too. And, even after giving his word that he would let Qualna go to the afterlife afer his death, Rohoph ''still'' seals his soul in a crystal. You find out from the dreamstone he drops that he was genuine in his desire to help Rohoph and destroy the Violet Crystal, which means Rohoph just sealed a harmless, innocent person and the only member of his race that wanted to ''help'' him. Nice job sealing him, {{Jerkass}}.]]

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Sslen'ck and almost all LizardFolk in the game qualify.

* TakeThat: Rohoph makes a jab at ''VideoGame/{{Sonny}}'', a rival Flash RPG when talking to an NPC in Goznor, sarcastically remarking that the plot of someone waking up a zombie is thrilling. Note that in the same line of conversation, Mardek (who is normally regarded as fairly dim) likes the idea of the plot!

* StepfordSmiler: Most of the workers in the Warport.
** Considering they're demons, though, this is not really surprising.
* TakeThat: Rohoph makes a jab at ''VideoGame/{{Sonny}}'', a rival Flash RPG, when talking to an NPC in Goznor.

* TakeThat: Rohoph makes a jab at ''Sonny'', a rival Flash RPG, when talking to an NPC in Goznor.

** There's a guy [[DroneJam hanging out in front of the sewers]] in Chapter 3 who's role-playing as [[{{Sonny}} a zombie who wakes up on a boat with amnesia and a message he can't read, and he meets a blind guy, and...]]

* TakeThat: Rohoph makes a jab at Sonny, a rival Flash RPG, when talking to an NPC in Goznor.

* AuthorFilibuster / SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: YourMileageMayVary on which one the WhatMeasureIsAMook discussion is.

* QuoteMine: Elwyen is happy when she can quote Mardek telling her she's hot. Note that Mardek was telling her this [[ConvectionSchmonvection in a]] [[EverythingsCoolerWithLava volcano]].

** Lovely Elfs can drop an item called "[[LegendOfZelda Elf Cap]]".