Line #45 VideoGame/EarthDefenseForce2017


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/edf2017_sm_4831.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:[[TemptingFate Pssh, this is nothing!]]]]
3	''Earth Defense Force 2017'' is a ThirdPersonShooter developed by Sandlot and published [=D3Publisher=] for the Platform/Xbox360 as a budget title. It is also the follow-up to the Japan and Europe-only ''Earth Defense Force 2'' (released as ''Global Defense Force'' in the European version).
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5	The events of the game see you assume the role of a soldier known only as Storm-1, a member of Storm Team in the eponymous Earth Defense Force, in order to fend off an invading extraterrestrial army. Said army happens to consist of giant ants, giant spiders, [=UFOs=], gunships, several flavors of titanic robot, some Godzilla-sized monsters and a mothership powerful enough to kill you and everyone you've ever met.
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7	The game later received an UpdatedRerelease on the Platform/PlayStationVita as ''[[SuperTitle64Advance Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable]]'' featuring online multi-player and the return of the Pale Wings. A SpiritualSuccessor to this title, ''VideoGame/EarthDefenseForceInsectArmageddon'' by Vicious Cycle, is also available on the Platform/Xbox360, Platform/PlayStation3, and Platform/{{Steam}}.
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9	A direct sequel titled ''VideoGame/EarthDefenseForce2025'' was first released in Japan on July 4th, 2013 for Xbox 360 and [=PlayStation=] 3. The game was later released in North America on February 18th, 2014 and then in Europe on February 21st.
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11	Not to be confused with the ShootEmUp game, ''Earth Defense Force'' by Jaleco or the other EDF ([[ComicBook/AlbedoErmaFelnaEDF Extraplanetary Defense Force]])
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13	Good luck out there!
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15	----
16	!!All right men! Show those Ravagers who's boss with these tropes!
17	%%* ActionGirl: The Pale Wings in the PS Vita re-release.
18	%%* AlienInvasion: It's what you're trying to stop.
19	* AllMythsAreTrue: More like all Japanese [[BMovie B-Movies]] are true.
20	* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: In the later levels some of the enemies are just [[GiantEnemyCrab upscaled versions of the regular enemies]], also contains {{Kaiju}}.
21	* ArtEvolution: The enemy [[HumongousMecha robots]] and [[FlyingSaucer spaceships]] look much more like they were from early Japanese [[BMovie B-Movies]] of the 50's and 60's, also the "[[CaptainErsatz Saurus]]" enemy went from looking like Godzilla to looking like the American Godzilla when it changed its name to "Vallak".
22	* AwesomeButImpractical:
23	** The hand-thrown grenades are basically this compared to actual grenade launchers. Their damage is enormous compared to other rockets and grenades you have, but because of the awkward aiming and the relatively low range, it's difficult to actually hit anything reliably.
24	** Several of the weapons classified as Special Weapons also qualify as this. The Impulse line of weapons have enormous damage if most of the shots connect... but actually getting them to hit reliably is extremely difficult. The C## bombs are easier to use thanks to their massive blast area and enormous damage, but you have to wait for enemies to cross their path.
25	** The sniper rifles suffer from this too; they're powerful, but each shot can only kill one enemy at a time, and the only times you'll need concentrated firepower like that are against the boss monsters, and Hectors. One exception exists in the form of the Stringer and Stringer J2: they pierce through all enemies they hit and can be useful for smashing through crowds of lined up Hectors as well as bugs. There's no variants strong enough for Inferno though, a problem that's rectified in EDF 2025/4.1.
26	* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: As you progress, you may come across weapons made from Ravager technology, however most of them like A1 Plasma Launchers are mostly useless since they cannot be reloaded. [[spoiler:That is until you get the Genocide Gun, the game's ultimate weapon.]]
27	%%* BeneathTheEarth: The [[ThatOneLevel insect hive missions]].
28	%%* BigCreepyCrawlies: The bug enemies.
29	* BlessedWithSuck:
30	** One type of hand grenade, the [=MG13=], is absurdly more powerful than previous models, and has a fantastic blast radius. The downside? It's so heavy, you can't throw it more than a few feet forward, and you're not immune to the explosions from your own weapons. There is one level where you can safely use it, though. This would be the underground area consisting of a large vertical passage with spiders milling about at the bottom. You start at the top, and from there you can safely throw down [=MG13's=] to blow the spiders to smithereens. This could count as a Disc One Nuke, because this tactic even works on Hard, and can get you some very powerful guns a little early.
31	** The [=MG13=] can be thrown a reasonable enough distance. It simply requires you to run forward and jump, then at the height of the jump throw the grenade. You will land before the grenade does, so immediately rolling away will put you out of the blast radius. This moves the [=MG13=] away from [[BlessedWithSuck Blessed With Suck]] and a bit closer to [[DifficultButAwesome Difficult, But Awesome]].
32	* BlindIdiotTranslation: Certain parts of the game could be considered this, especially the dialogue in Mission 14:
33	-->"Come in HQ. This is Scout Four. The Mothership has moved to this location. We've also discovered a four-legged fighter robot."\
34	"What do you mean 'four-legged weapon'?"\
35	"This is HQ. All troops, begin your assault. Destroy the four-legged walking weapon."
36	* BoringButPractical: The majority of the assault rifles, and to some extent the basic rocket launchers and grenade launchers. Although it's important to balance the two weapons you choose for each level, almost the entire game seems to want you to stick with an assault rifle and rocket or grenade launcher.
37	* BottomlessMagazines: Despite the fact that you have to reload most of your weapons, you never run out of magazines. There are a few weapons which have limited ammo.
38	* BraggingRightsReward: The InfinityPlusOneSword does a million damage, but you need to beat every stage at the hardest difficulty to get it.
39	* BugWar: The majority of the time you'll be pitted against titanic ants and spiders. Granted, spiders aren't insects, [[Music/BillBailey but in this war they've chosen to side with the insects]].
40	* BulletHell: A horde of bugs, giant robots, and flying alien ships with MoreDakka shooting at you at once? Yeah, it has elements of this.
41	* {{Camp}}: It's a budget game where you play as a little guy who runs around blasting everything from giant bugs, giant robots, flying saucers, and {{Kaiju}}-style monsters. It might as well be called ''BMovie: The Game''.
42	* ContinuityReboot: Well, to what degree the series has much of a story. It's back to 2017 and only ground infantry like the first game, while 2 took place in 2018 and had the first appearance of the series' alien-tech-using jetpack troops.
43	* DieChairDie: More like "Die Building, Die!".
44	* EasyModeMockery: ZigZagged. You get better weapons on harder difficulties [[spoiler: and can only earn the Genocide Gun by completing the entire game on Inferno]], but it's a good idea to play one of the stages on easy to get lots of armor, as Inferno is {{Unwinnable}} otherwise.
45	* EliteMook: Storm-1 starts off as this -- a member of the more elite Storm teams of basic EDF infantry. It doesn't take long before he's being given tactical command of operations and directly counted on for the most dangerous assignments after his habit of coming back alive from sometimes literally impossible missions where he's frequently the sole survivor starts becoming clear.
46	* EverythingBreaks: Not only does it all break, but you also get [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential no penalty for blowing up buildings]] to get a better shot at your enemies.
47	* FakeDifficulty: The game has no auto-save. It's easy to forget this, which has led to a ClusterFBomb from many a gamer who just cleared a few tough stages on inferno as they instinctively hit the power button.
48	* FloatingContinent: [[spoiler:The Mother Ship.]]
49	* FlyingSaucer: The Enemy drop ships sort of resemble saucers with some sort of tail assembly.
50	* FriendlyFireproof:
51	** Half used. The RedshirtArmy can't hurt you with their weapons (Which is good, because then they'd be nearly as dangerous as the ravagers.) but they can send you flying through the air for a few precious seconds with an ill-timed rocket. You can easily kill them though, so watch it with that shotgun.
52	** Averted in Local Co-op play. It is entirely possible to blow each other away by accident or on purpose.
53	* GiantSpider: Oh yes. Even if you're not an arachnophobe, you have to admit they're pretty damn ugly. Oh yeah, they [[InASingleBound can]] [[LightningBruiser jump]]! And on top of that, they can stun you with webs that slow you down and deal damage simultaneously, a guaranteed quick kill on higher levels.
54	* HeartContainer: Armor pickups. You start with 100 maximum health, and each Armor item you get will increase it by 1, but only after you finish the level. It's necessary to beef up your health for each difficulty level, due to how much more damage enemies can deal to you.
55	* HordeOfAlienLocusts: Pretty much the [[AllThereInTheManual reason the aliens are attacking]], also they use [[BugWar giant insects as troops]].
56	* HumongousMecha: Most of the series robotic enemies, especially in the third game with the "Walking Arms".
57	* HyperspaceArsenal: Averted. For all the 150+ weapons you can unlock, you can only carry ''two'' at a time.
58	* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: The game's five difficulty levels are Easy, Normal, Hard, {{Harde\|rThanHard}}st, and [[NintendoHard Inferno]].
59	* InfinityPlusOneSword: There are quite a few of these, mostly unlocked on Hardest or Inferno.
60	* InsectoidAliens: Its not revealed whether the aliens are this or if they just have a thing for giant bugs as shock troops.
61	* ItsUpToYou: Your allies are essentially little more than meat shields on higher difficulties. On lower ones they're a bit more useful but will likely take heavy casualties anyway.
62	* JetPack: The Pale Wings use them to fly high into places Storm-1 can't.
63	* {{Kaiju}}: Several of the non-robotic enemies in the games, in the first two games the [[CaptainErsatz "Saurus"]] enemies are [[Franchise/{{Godzilla}} giant fire breathing dinosaurs that even stand upright and move awkwardly like a man in a suit]].
64	* KillItWithFire: Flamethrowers are among the miscellaneous weapons you can unlock. Although the first model (which the game specifically notes as "a gas burner for welding") is horribly weak, there are later models which are viable for combat, especially against giant ants. They don't have much range and don't actually set enemies on fire, but the flames can deal very effective damage, and they can stun enemies which prevents them from attacking you.
65	* LivingLegend: Storm-1 gets quite a reputation for repeatedly achieving victory in even extreme circumstances and surviving what should be certain death. By Mission 39, his mere presence on the battlefield is enough for EDF Command to consider the possibility of victory in what would otherwise be a hopeless situation.
66	* MacrossMissileMassacre:
67	** The FORK missile launchers. These fire a spread of tiny high-speed homing missiles. However, the effect is somewhat lost since they usually home in on only one enemy at a time, and they don't fly around chaotically.
68	** Most enemy [[HumongousMecha mech]] or [[FlyingSaucer spaceship]] attacks also consist of either this or BeamSpam.
69	* {{Minimalism}}: There's really not too much more to the game than running around blowing the crap out of large alien ''things''. Two weapons, no reload button, no characters or plot to speak of, just targets.
70	* MookMaker: The giant flying {{dropship}}s, the Walking Fortress, and [[spoiler:the [[FinalBoss Mother Ship]]]].
71	* MoreDakka:
72	** Nearly every type of enemy has a projectile attack except the red ants, but the greatest example would be the Walking Arms, massive bipedal robots that can use various types of arm guns. Some have plasma bombs or energy mortars which they can use to bombard you from a distance, but others come equipped with machine guns that can fire enough bullets to ''make the game lag''. Of course, one specific endgame weapon gives you this trope as well; [[spoiler: the [=AF20-RAR=], which fires 60 rounds ''per second'', and has a magazine holding ''999 rounds''.]]
73	** Some of the Rocket Launchers in the game follow this. The Vocano series launchers fire off their entire ammo stock in trigger pull versus the standard one at a time approach of the other rocket launchers.
74	* NewGamePlus: Sort of. You already have access to all of the game's difficulty levels, but you have to unlock each stage by beating the one before it, regardless of what difficulty you play on. You keep all the weapons and life-up bonuses you got, and can play each level as many times as you want.
75	* NintendoHard: Any difficulty other then Easy or Normal, especially if you have not gained armor or weapons by doing them in order.
76	* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: No matter how far you fall, you won't even sprain an ankle. You also have a surprisingly slow terminal velocity.
77	* OneManArmy: Storm-1, being the only man capable of killing all the Ravagers. His/her teammates are little more than distractions.
78	* PainfullySlowProjectile:
79	** Taken to an extreme with the P89 Bound Gun, which fires bullets that move so slowly you can outrun and hit yourself with them.
80	** The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin aptly-named]] Tortoise Guided Missile.
81	* PoweredArmor: The Battle Machine Vegelta, a bipedal mecha-suit.
82	* RandomDrop: This is how the Weapon items work. For each one you get, after finishing the level the game randomly picks a weapon out of all the weapons you can unlock on that stage of that difficulty level. If it's a weapon you don't have yet, it gets added to your selection. If you already have it, it doesn't count for anything.
83	* RedshirtArmy: Moderately useful in some situations, seeing as they can absorb the brunt of the enemy's attack. Their survival rate is still absurdly low though. And at higher difficulties... [[DeadManWalking Well]]... They're even all wearing red. Including [[SubvertedTrope Storm-1]].
84	* SentryGun: Some of the top tier weapons in the game, particularly in Inferno difficulty, are the deployable ZE series of turrets. They have a lengthy 20 second reload time, but if you dual-wield them it's possible to have a set of 3 firing constantly, reloading one while another is deployed. They also work as a backup weapon to provide some cover for a difficult wave if you're using a more conventional weapon in the other slot. The only thing they can't deal is sniping long distance targets such as the dropships, the four-legged mech, or the Mothership.
85	* ShoutOut: To many [[BMovie B-Movies]], ''Film/{{Them}}'' and ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' are the most notable.
86	* SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness: Played straight as an arrow. As you play through the game, you'll get better weapons in later levels. When you play on a higher difficulty level, you get even more powerful weapons. Each of the weapons has a minimum stage and difficulty level to be unlocked. For instance, if a weapon will only be unlocked at level 15 on Normal or later, you can unlock it on any level after and including 15 on Normal, and any level on Hard or higher. You can still get the Normal level weapons on Easy, though.
87	* TankGoodness: The E551 Combat Vehicle Gigantus; in other words, a combat tank.
88	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:The Genocide Gun. Inflicts 1,000,000 points of damage, more than enough to one-shot bosses, and enormous explosion radius, reducing about half the buildings on a city map to rubble.]]
89	* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Actively encouraged by the ridiculously stupid NPC allies. In any mode outside of Inferno, it's better that you kill your allies rather than letting them fire rockets at your back. It's especially fun since they ''never'' blame you for killing them. Obviously, it's the alien's fault when you drop a C20 in the middle of your allies and blow them into the stratosphere.
90	** VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: ...then you realize that your allies don't deal friendly fire damage (they'll knock you into the air if they hit you with a rocket, but that's it), and every ant, spider, Walking Arms, and gunship on the map is now aiming for you, and only you.
91	* UnnecessaryCombatRoll: Not only are you able to continue reloading your gun while rolling, but doing so repeatedly is almost twice as fast as running.
92	* UpdatedRerelease: ''Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable'' for PS Vita, which adds online multi-player and brings back the [[ActionGirl Pale]] [[JetPack Wings]] from ''Global Defense Force''.
93	* WaveMotionGun:
94	** The walking fortress (a humongous four-legged battle machine) has an allegedly 300-foot plasma cannon which can easily destroy an entire city with just a few shots. ("A plasma cannon that size can't possibly exist!!" as the game puts it). [[spoiler:The Ravager's mothership also has an equally devastating laser gun.]]
95	** [[spoiler:The player can earn one after beating all the levels on Inferno.]]
96	* WeComeInPeaceShootToKill: It's initially all but completely taken for granted that the Ravagers will be peaceful and benevolent, and there's even initially some doubt whether the giant insects are related. Bizarrely, they're actually labeled Ravagers ''before'' it's concluded they're hostile.
97	* ZergRush: The bug enemies standard tactic, the red ants in particular seem to specialize in this.

Context VideoGame / EarthDefenseForce2017