Line #140 VideoGame/EarthDefenseForce2025


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/edf2025_300px_8278.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:BIGGER, BADDER, AND MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN EVER.]]
3	''Earth Defense Force 2025'' (known as ''Earth Defense Forces 4'' in Japan) is a ThirdPersonShooter developed by Sandlot and published by D3 Publisher. The game is a direct sequel to 2007's ''VideoGame/EarthDefenseForce2017'', taking up the story [[TwentyMinutesIntotheFuture 8 years later]].
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5	The Ravagers have sprung up from underground [[AlienInvasion to invade Earth]] once again and it's up to the Earth Defense Force to stop them. If you're familiar with the previous games in the series, you should know what to expect: players will take control of a foot soldier and gun down any-and-all Franchise/{{Godzilla}}[=-=][[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever sized]] [[BigCreepyCrawlies bugs]], [[HumongousMecha robots]], and other monstrosities the Ravagers sics at Japan (and you).
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7	Unlike Vicious Cycle's ''[[VideoGame/EarthDefenseForceInsectArmageddon Insect Armageddon]]'', this installment retains the BMovie charm and sense of scale the series is known for. Taking cues from all three of its predecessors (most notably ''Earth Defense Force 2''), the game features four playable classes this time around. Rangers, the standard infantry unit; Wing Divers, female soldiers equipped with jet packs to fly; Air Raiders, support soldiers that can call in air strikes, vehicles, and other support items; and Fencers, walking {{Powered Armor}}ed men with long-range artillery, a sledgehammer, pile bunker, and dual-wieldable chainguns. Enemy variety has also been stepped up along with the addition of online multiplayer for up to four players, allowing you and your three other EDF team-mates take on the Ravager horde together.
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9	The game was released on July 4, 2013 in Japan, February 18, 2014 in North Amercia, and February 21 in Europe for [=PlayStation=] 3 and Xbox 360. The game had several pre-order bonuses, depending on where you pre-ordered the game, but has become available for free. One of them in Japan was a crossover with ''VideoGame/DreamCClub'' where Mian and Setsu are featured in ''2025'' as balloon decoys for your Ranger and Air Raider respectively to use in combat if purchased directly from [=D3=] Publisher. ''Dream C Club: [=GoGo=]'' also featured the Pale Wing's uniform from the Japan-exclusive ''Earth Defense Force 2''. [=GameStop=] pre-orders offers the Air Raiders Weapons Pack, which includes a gold-coated model of the [=BMO3=] Vegalta with a combat burner to throw flames and take flight for short periods of time when equipped plus Pure Decoy Launcher (Setsu). Amazon pre-orders offers the Ranger Weapons Pack, which includes Volatile Napalm Discharge Device and the Pure Decoy Launcher (Mian).
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11	An UpdatedRerelease titled ''Earth Defence Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair'' was released for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 in December 2015, which was also released on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} in July 2016.
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13	The reboot titled ''VideoGame/EarthDefenseForce5'' was globally released on April 11, 2019.
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15	----
16	!!The EDF will show the Ravagers what we've got with these tropes:
17	* AccidentalAimingSkills: It's not uncommon for a player to miss their intended target and hit something equally important or dangerous anyway.
18	* ActionGirl: The Wing Divers, an all-female division of jetpack-wearing badasses and in the early part of the game touted as the perfect counter to the giant insects.
19	* AlienInvasion: The Ravagers have returned again to attack the Earth. They invade from forces left behind and a new invading space space force.
20	* AliensAreBastards: The Ravagers again are attacking the Earth trying to exterminated humanity without rhyme or reason. Again they unleash hordes of giant mutant monsters of all shapes and sizes to try and wipe out humanity.
21	* AmazonBrigade: The Wing Divers are an all-female fighting force, although the lore reasons behind this are never established (beyond just the aesthetic value).
22	* ArtificialStupidity:
23	** AI Wing Divers like to repeatedly jet up in the same location to the point of ''running out of energy.''
24	** Your fellow EDF soldiers also have a distressing habit of walking or flying in front of you just as you fire off a powerful weapon with a dangerous area of effect. This has predictably infuriating results.
25	** In enclosed areas like tunnel missions, EDF troops will call out nearby bugs, and proceed to open fire... into a wall, because while they are close by, they're still not visible yet.
26	** Fencers AI teammates do not make use of their shields whatsoever, and do not actively attempt to boost dodge away from attacks, meaning they're slow attackers without the durability or mobility the class is known for and are perhaps the most useless class when it comes to AI teammates.
27	* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: In addition to the normal giant insects, there are a few especially large species such as the King Spiders that dwarf buildings.
28	* AttackAttackAttack: Beyond use of specialized units in certain scenarios, this is the general plan for both the EDF and the Ravagers. Both sides will just keep attacking until the other is effectively wiped out.
29	* AutoSave: A first for the main series.
30	* BadassArmy:
31	** The E.D.F. is very strong despite their being blindsided by the alien invasion. The NPC soldiers become tougher and deadlier the higher up in difficulty one goes. It goes to the point where one of the better strategies for farming new equipment is to run away from the fight, and come back to pick all the boxes when the E.D.F. troopers have killed most of the bugs/Ravagers.
32	** Applies to the EDF in story as well as gameplay. The Ravagers return with multiple motherships. In ''2017'', just one of these ships was nearly unstoppable. Out of the 10 that are on their way to Earth, about half are destroyed by the E.D.F.'s planetary defence weapons before they even arrive. Most of the ones that do make it are destroyed about half way through the game by both the player character, and other squads in offscreen battles.
33	** This is inverted on lower difficulties, where E.D.F. soldiers will be messily slaughtered by small groups of insects. It only gets worse when the giant robots show up.
34	* BattleCry: Chanted by the EDF troops and a faux news reporter in a viral ad for the game. Specifically "EDF!, EDF!, EDF!"
35	* BeamSpam:
36	** Several enemy types have energy weapons that fire several shots or are "Laser Machine Guns".
37	** Some of the Wing Diver's weapons give the player the ability to spray energy weapon fire at their enemies, most notably the short-range Rapier that practically makes the user a ''walking laser rave party.''
38	* BehemothBattle: The EDF's [[HumongousMecha Walking Fortress Balam]] versus the Ravagers' {{Kaiju}} Erginus.
39	* BeeHiveBarrier: The Ravagers Shield Bearer mechs DeflectorShield is a beehive barrier. The large shield dome of the shield bearer specifically has the characteristic segmented look of a honey comb.
40	* {{BFG}}: The game is chock full of BFG's wielded by the players and allies as well as the Hectors/Walking Arms with their BFG guns including the big artillery arms.
41	* {{BFS}}: The Fencer can wield very large sword weapons of various types.
42	* BigCreepyCrawlies: The many bug enemies such as varieties of ants, wasps, and spiders. The mission pack DLC adds mutant and metallic varities of these enemies as well.
43	* BloodierAndGorier:
44	** Players and troopers attacked often give off red mist spray of blood into the air.
45	** The exaggerated gouts of blood appear every time a biological enemy is injured or destroyed.
46	* BlownAcrossTheRoom:
47	** When an enemy is killed by a powerful weapon the bodies tend to be flung away with a fair bit of force.
48	** Some attacks such as the plasma artillery from the Hectors, can send players flying ''miles''/''kilometers'' when hit.
49	* BoringButPractical:
50	** The Ranger and most of his weapons. There's really nothing particularly exotic about the Ranger. He can't fly, he doesn't call down artillery strikes or summon tanks and mechs, nor does he dual-wield huge guns and melee weapons. He's in the middle in most attributes, but he's the best for raining hell on the battlefield with his extremely practical weapons and getting in the driver's seat of any extra vehicles the Air Raider calls in.
51	** Some of the Air Raider's items fall into this category. Letting allies lock on faster with missiles and buffing their defense or damage isn't very interesting, but it can make a huge difference in a close fight, especially because the latter applies to all friendly AI in range too.
52	** [[CombatMedic Healing items]] when playing online on higher difficulties can be very helpful. With the level lock you won't be able to steamroll your way through them due to stronger weapons being restricted, unless you've done some serious grinding get the ability to turn it off, and the higher difficulties are designed to make it more difficult to avoid being hit. Healing weapons can both help top off your team's health as a Ranger, but not yours unless you're using capsules which are more limited than the spray, or help your team hold out and regain their health, in addition to making revivals with more than 2 players almost trivial as you can just heal the other person, let them revive the teammate, and then heal both up to max. So long as you're careful the limit on healing shouldn't cause any problems since it can be supplemented by health boxes.
53	** There are also plenty of weapons are just easier to use and deal damage more consistently than others, such as picking a mundane weapon over its harder to use or more specialized version or picking smaller, more controlled explosives over massive but harder to contain ones.
54	* BugWar: A large number of your enemies are giant bugs of various types. See also BigCreepyCrawlies entry.
55	* BullFightBoss: Fighting an Erginus without a Balam essentially turns into this.
56	* ChainsawGood: One of the more interesting Wing Diver weapons is the Laser Chainsaw, which fires a chainsaw-shaped torrent of energy in a narrow cone. It will eviscerate any bug up to medium range.
57	* ChainmailBikini: Lampshaded by the Wing Divers' own conversation. Sometimes they'll complain about not wearing actual armour suits even though the lighter uniform makes them light enough to fly in the first place. That said, the amount of armor they do wear (or lack thereof) isn't gratuitous by the standards of this trope. They wear more of a metallic one-piece swimsuit.
58	* ChargeAttack: Fencer swords and hammers have can have multiple modes depending on their level of charge, sometimes acting like completely different weapons at different levels.
59	* CombatMedic: The Ranger and Air Raider both have healing weapons in the form of Reversers for the former and Life Spots for the latter. The Ranger also has a group heal ability, where any time he picks up a health pack, every NPC soldier under his command gets healed as well.
60	* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: In your favor. NPC troopers armed with the AwesomeButImpractical, reverse-engineered Ravager tech rifles don't have the same ammo limitations as the player[[note]]in the player's hands, the same laser rifle only has one charge before running out[[/note]] letting them provide BeamSpam cover fire.
61	* ContinuityNod: One of the EDF soldiers late in the game will talk to his fellow trooper about a [[VideoGame/EarthDefenseForce2017 "legendary soldier from the Storm Ranger squad"]], who turned the tide of a Ravager invasion all by himself. The other soldier dismisses it as a myth, though. Some dialogue has rumor spread that they're now a member of [[PlayerCharacter Storm Team]].
62	* ConvenientlyEmptyBuildings: Although nearly every building which isn't currently holding up a web can be destroyed, they all appear to have been evacuated.
63	* CoolBike: There is a two person motorcycle vehicle that has a sidecar with a machine gun. Yes, you can drive a machine gun armed motorcycle to fight hordes of giant bugs, 50 foot tall killer robots, and any other enemy they throw at you.
64	* CoOpMultiplayer: Present in this installment like its predecessors, in local split-screen co-op and, like ''Insect Armageddon'', online multi-player.
65	* CripplingOverspecialization: Walking Fortress Balam was built to fight Erginus, and fighting giant enemies is all its good for. It's so slow that it can't effectively defend itself against large groups of smaller enemies (flying ones especially), against which even its massive amount of health won't save it.
66	* {{Crossover}}: Between this game and ''Dream C Club''. In ''EDF 2025'', the Ranger and Air Raider can use the Pure Decoy Launcher to create balloon decoys of Setsu and Mian respectively. Likewise, ''Dream C Club: [=GoGo=]'' featured the Pale Wing's uniform from ''Earth Defense Force 2'' for the girls to wear.
67	* CycleOfHurting:
68	** Players caught by the Hector energy machine gun are typically blinded and partially stun locked making countering them almost impossible.
69	** The smaller rapid fire laser cannons can sometimes injure players just as they are getting up from the rag doll state which can result in them being tossed around and injured further.
70	** Hectors are one of the units most vulnerable to this, as taking damage will throw off their aim and force them to spin up their lighter weapons all over again, or make them waste a heavy cannon shot completely. This is also why the flamethrowers and flame revolvers are such potent weapons.
71	* DeathFromAbove:
72	** Several enemies attack the player from above, notably the various gun ship enemies. The various bugs will climb buildings and attack or shoot the player as well.
73	** Several weapons have projectiles fly up high, then dive down on the target below them.
74	** One of the weapon types of the Air Raider is to call in various air/support strikes, often raining fire from above the battlefield.
75	** Some of the HumongousMecha enemies get in on the act and use the height advantage to fire down on the player, and the Hector's long range plasma artillery can still swat the player from clear across the map.
76	** Player summoned and driven missile artillery vehicles which fires multiple homing missiles which usually need to be fired at a high angle causing the missiles to turn around at a high point and seek out the targets below.
77	** Wing Divers also utilize this trope when they attack from above, especially with explosive weaponry.
78	* {{Deconstruction}}: Of The PowerFantasy, albeit in a rather subtle fashion. Your characters partake in many missions, and just about every one of them ends with a victory, and on lower difficulties, those victories can be nearly effortless. However, the aliens are not just attacking everywhere you are, but everywhere you aren't as well. Unfortunately, without the hypercompetent, seemingly immortal heroes with an ever-expanding arsenal and ever-improving armor backing up the EDF forces literally everywhere else on Earth, the overall war is going extremely poorly. No one else improves, grows, or gets any better equipment, just you. This quickly turns into nightmare fuel as you hear radio chatter about things like how over half the human race is wiped out, or how everyone else is giving up hope as all of their friends and family are wiped out by the Ravagers. People are panicking, screaming about how they don't want to die or how they've effectively given up hope. No one stands any chance against the Ravagers, and people are dying by the billions as the fight goes on, and literally, no one is paying any attention to your accomplishments due to it being a single drop of water being thrown onto a roaring planet-sized inferno. With all of the power to stop the alien invasion concentrated in the hands of four people, tops, the fight to save the world goes exactly as well as can be expected.
79	* DeflectorShield:
80	** A new type of enemy HumongousMecha creates a shield bubble forcing players to walk inside to destroy any targets and the generator. See also BeeHiveBarrier.
81	** Some of the enemies' Hectors now have a hand mounted energy shield to help protect them against the player's fire.
82	** Enemies that have a shimmer effect on their surfaces are shielded and take more damage to kill.
83	* {{Determinator}}:
84	** You better believe the E.D.F. is a whole army of them. They refuse to back down in the face of overwhelming numbers, superior technology, and will not surrender since the Ravagers want every human dead.
85	** Near the end of the campaign, the E.D.F. is basically defeated. Their HQ has been found and destroyed multiple times, most of the planet is trapped beneath World Eaters, and they've already issued instructions to the civilian populace to begin a guerrilla fight against the Ravagers. The player's squad, which has been fighting through increasingly insurmountable odds as the game progresses, is part of the E.D.F.'s final, desperate assault on the 'Brain' controlling the invasion. As the attack fails and the last hope of the planet fades, the squad's status as a group of Determinators is revealed and immediately [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]]:
86	-->'''Tactics:''' Attack units almost destroyed.
87	-->'''HQ:''' We couldn't match their strength...
88	--> '''Tactics:''' No, not yet. Someone is still fighting. It's the Storm Team!
89	-->'''HQ:''' Are they immortal or something?
90	** This is essentially how the E.D.F. ultimately prevails. The last couple missions before the final stage all but state the E.D.F. has given up as a whole, and is less interested in winning than in [[DoNotGoGentle killing as many Ravagers as possible on their way out.]] The surviving troops manage to succeed so well in this task that the 'Brain', which previously ran screaming from them in a previous battle, is personally coming after them, giving them the opportunity to win the war.
91	* DevelopersForesight: The communication menu in multiplayer has a message for practically every situation that can occur in-game. There are a huge amount of gestures that most players wouldn't have time to access during a fight, with an added bonus of Air Raiders' backpacks actually responding to what their operator is doing.
92	* DestructiveSaviour: There is no penalty for demolishing buildings in the battlegrounds. A long mission in a city will usually see that place a flattened pile of rubble. The [=E.D.F.=] is defending the Earth, not the property of Earth!
93	* DieChairDie: Just like in the previous games. You can wreck random buildings, cars, and various items on the field with no consequences whatsoever.
94	* DifficultButAwesome:
95	** The very existence of the DLC missions is this trope; the enemies are tougher and more dangerous, but they also net more items per mission play through.
96	** The Fencer class exemplifies this trope. The class moves differently than any of the others classes and players have to learn to deal with momentum built up from running around. It also requires learning how to deal with its slow attack speed on most weapons, setting up both DualWielding loadouts to maximize mobility due to the jump and dash effectively being SecondaryFire on the weapons and guns damping the turn rate compared to melee weapons, and most importantly, knowing how to LagCancel the side dash. But once mastered, the Fencer becomes a LightningBruiser that can outrun most vehicles, dance around enemies' attacks while hitting hard, and soften up enemies from a distance with heavy artillery fire once in position. Once a player masters the various aspects of the Fencer class it becomes an impressively powerful and fun to play character class.
97	** The vehicles that can be summoned by the Air Support character. Piloting and aiming them requires copious use of the directional pads, have no means of reloading once their guns are empty and can be slow as all out depending on the vehicle summoned, but once you get used to them, you can deliver so much hell on your opponents.
98	* DualWielding: Fencers can carry four weapons at a time and wield two at once in two different weapon sets.
99	* EliteMook:
100	** Red Gunships are just tougher palette swapped gunships that have more health, fire higher number and more powerful shots, and fly faster.
101	** The Giant Red Ants are basically the black ants from the first level but with more health, more speed, no ranged attack, and a more powerful bite attack.
102	** PaletteSwap and simply making some enemies larger with more health, damage, and speed is common throughout the game. This includes two different varities of smaller dragons by colour but also giant "mutant enemy wasps that are larger red versions that have been beefed up in speed, attack, and health.
103	** The various enemies in "Time of the Mutants" DLC has several stronger palette swapped enemies. Examples include Silver Spiders, Gold Ants, Green Ants, Purple Retarius, and other coloured enemy variants. Mutant enemies encountered in the main game also appear as do palette swapped KingMook examples.
104	* EarthIsABattlefield: The Ravagers are attacking the entire planet. The EDF fights them at number of global locations.
105	* EnergyBow: A sci-fi variation on the energy bow. The Pale Wing character uses weapons that appear to be high tech crossbows and bows that shoot some sort of energy projectile.
106	* EnhancedArchaicWeapon: The sword, shield, and war hammer weapons of the Fencer. They are basically medieval weapons designs given a sci-fi twist to fit the game.
107	* EveryBulletIsATracer: Pretty much every shot you fire will be a tracer to help the player track the projectiles path.
108	* EverythingBreaks: Many of the structures in a city-scape can be blasted into rubble. See also DieChairDie.
109	* ExcusePlot: The Ravagers are invading! Go join the Earth Defense Force and fight them off! Who needs immaculate plotlines and [[LargeHam cholesterol-free]] voice acting when you can just blow thousands of giant bugs into purple goo?
110	* FireBreathingWeapon:
111	** Flamethrower weapons making KillItWithFire possible for both the mechs and players via flame thrower type weapons.
112	** Dragon enemy types will fly around spewing fire onto the player and NPC allies.
113	* FlashStep: Melee weapons for the Fencer also come with side dash functionality that effectively turns the MightyGlacier into a LightningBruiser once you realize you can LagCancel it with a shield deflector, or better yet, with a Javelin.
114	* FlechetteStorm: Some of the limpet bomb guns charges send out a shower of flechettes that often ricochet at least once when detonated.
115	* FlyingSaucer: The air foil saucer drop ships make a return and this time they are accompanied by plate like ships that can lock together to form a larger ship.
116	* FragileSpeedster: Wing Divers. They have incredible speed and maneuverability thanks to their jet pack. However, they're also lightly armored, so can't take too many hits like the other classes can.
117	* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Justified since there are battles the player isn't participating in, but it can sometimes be really jarring to hear dialogue bemoaning the seemingly hopeless war or your team mates cowering in fear while you effortlessly tear through wave after wave of aliens singlehandedly. This is backed up by the fact that while Storm Team always survives, the more numerous yet less prestigious troops accompanying them are often reduced to less than half their original count by the end of each mission, if they aren't wiped out completely. Radio commentary in various missions also suggests the E.D.F. is fighting a desperate battle and suffering extreme casualties despite Storm Team's string of successes.
118	** The mission in 4.1 that introduces the player to the Walking Fortress Balam expects the player to kill the Erginus in the level with it, and after the Erginus is killed the dialogue will state the Balam is capable of defeating Erginus. If the Balam is destroyed and the player kills Erginus on foot, there is no change.
119	* GatlingGood:
120	** Gatling guns make a return on the mechs.
121	** The Fencer Character can DualWield Gatling gun weapons.
122	* GiantSpider: The jumping wolf spider like aliens and their large "King" variant make a return. This game also introduces a new giant spider that weaves webs on buildings that resembles a Golden Orb Weaver. All the spiders shoot out web to attack the player.
123	* GrenadeLauncher: A sort of mid-range explosive weapon with some firing exotic projectiles. Often fired with a ballistic arc.
124	* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: The players are trying to help completely wipe out the Ravagers on Earth. It helps that the creatures are all either giant bugs, drones, or giant robots. Further adding to it is the Ravagers always initiate the war with an apparent goal of completely wiping out humanity turning this into a kill or be killed conflict.
125	* GunsAkimbo: The specialty of the Fencer who can wield two of any of his giant gun weapons.
126	* HighlyConspicuousUniform: Played with. Thanks to the players' ability to change the colour scheme of the classes this can range from being relatively low key to extremely obvious.
127	* {{Hitscan}}:
128	** Some of the weapons in the game especially high velocity or laser beam weapons are hit scan weapons.
129	** Averted for almost everything else, it's notable with the assault rifles of the Ranger that some of them have the advantage of especially fast-moving bullets as part of descriptions. Plasma weapons such as the Ranger's Plasma Bombers and the Wing Diver's plasma weapons are especially sluggish to the point where a Wing Diver can accidentally fly into her own shot.
130	* HomingLasers: One of the Wing Diver's classes of weapons is a set of homing weapons which are specifically lasers.
131	* HomingProjectile: There are several varieties present in the game from missiles to homing lasers.
132	* HordeOfAlienLocusts: The believed behavior of the aliens and their chief motive for the invasions. The Ravagers are hypothesized in game to be here to strip Earth of its various resources.
133	* HumongousMecha:
134	** The Hectors, otherwise known as "Walking Arms". They are about 30 feet tall and wielding massive weapons.
135	** The Aliens Giant Walking Fortress makes a return and are taller than even the Hectors/Walking Arms and are as tall as some sky scraper style buildings.
136	** BMX 10. Large pilotable mech that almost resembles something out of Warhammer 40k armed with rail guns and missile launchers. The mech is comparable in height to the Hectors/Walking Arms.
137	** The Aliens Tripod mecha, Deroy, looks like it was ripped right out from The War of the Worlds. They tend to be at least roughly as tall as some large buildings or taller for the "elite" variant.
138	** The Shield Bearer, a walking deflector shield that is 'gigantic.' The unit is larger than most tanks.
139	** The Argo, a flying battleship that transforms into a 300 meter tall mecha.
140	** In EDF 4.1 the Air Raider can summon the massive Walking Fortress Balam. There are also a few levels where you get to pilot one that's brought onto the map. This mecha is also sky scraper tall and towers over Hectors/Walking Arms.
141	* HyperSpaceArsenal: Players carry multiple weapons that often would be at best difficult to carry stored. Multiple missile launchers, large energy weapons, Gatling guns, cannons etc.
142	* ImpossibleItemDrop: The enemies drop armor upgrades, health, and weapon boxes. None of the enemies should be carrying EDF-specific gear. This is the most obvious with the drops from the biological enemies.
143	* ImmuneToFlinching: One of the main advantages of vehicles is that, outside [[HumongousMecha Walking Fortress Balam]] getting smacked by a {{Kaiju}}, none of them react to heavy attacks at all.
144	* InfiniteSupplies:
145	** Played straight with the majority of the players weapons and equipment. The player has an infinite supply of ammo, but they do need to reload.
146	** Averted with certain weapons which can't be reloaded because the required equipment is too cumbersome to carry, as well as all vehicles.
147	** This is also PlayedForDrama with the Ravagers, who can teleport transport ships directly to Earth and have weapons that can [[spoiler:cover the entire planet.]]
148	* ItemFarming: Enforced. It doesn't matter how good of an [=E.D.F.=] soldier you are, you will need to spend time grinding out armor and better weapons in order to not die instantly on later missions.
149	* ItsUpToYou: Most of the time, the battle will be decided by you, though your allies can win some battles entirely without you.
150	* JavelinThrower: Using his Javelin Catapult series weapon, the Fencer can impale foes with an indirect-fire barrage of special alloy spears.
151	* JetPack:
152	** The Wing Divers use them to [[{{Flight}} fly]].
153	** Some of the Giant Mechs the players can pilot appear to have jump jets and jet packs mounted on them.
154	** The Fencer's load out can give them some form of JetPack. Even without them equipped the armor appears to visibly have it still mounted, but not useable without the right weapons equipped.
155	* JigglePhysics: Although it can be tricky to see with the camera, Wing Divers do have this.
156	* {{Kaiju}}:
157	** Some of the giant monsters resemble Kaiju. Specifically giant bugs, giant robots, and even dragons.
158	** 4.1 added the Erginus, a Godzilla knockoff and a reference to the giant lizards in past EDF games.
159	* KingMook: Several of the insects have KingMook variants that are just larger and more powerful palette swapped versions of enemies. A couple other enemies also have KingMook variants including Erginus[[note]]a Godzilla like monster[[/note]] and the dragon enemy boss.
160	* KillItWithFire:
161	** The tagline for the [=PS4=] port ''Earth Defense Force 4.1'' is "KILL IT WITH FIRE."
162	** The Fireghost variant of the [[HumongousMecha BM03 Vegalta]] packs [[GunsAkimbo dual flamethrowers]] and [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter dual shotguns]] to demolish anything that gets close. It makes short work of Hectors even on [[HarderThanHard Inferno]] difficulty!
163	** There is a line of flamethrower weapons for the Ranger.
164	** Meanwhile, the Fencer doesn't get mere flamethrowers, but [[RevolversAreJustBetter Flame Revolvers!]]
165	** The ranger has access to incendiary grenade launchers which fire incendiary shells.
166	** One of the DLC weapons for the Fencer is a RecursiveAmmo fire bomb missile which lays a trail of burning pillars when it is fired.
167	* KillSat: Air Raiders can come across an air strike called Spritefall, which is a laser satellite up in orbit. Activating it tends to scare the mission control operator.
168	* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Many of the guns and other weapons in the game are kinetic projectile based weapons. The Ranger class uses a large number of kinetic weapons as does the Fencer. Even the Air Raider either uses kinetic based weaponry or their various bits of gear utilize it in some way. The only exception is the Wing Diver who specializes in energy weapons.
169	* LagCancel: Essential for mastering the Fencer's [[FlashStep side dash]], and generally done by using the shield deflector right after the dash ends.
170	* LandMineGoesClick: The various mines you can deploy tend to go click a split second before they go off.
171	* LeadTheTarget: Some of the weapons require a little lead time due to projectile flight times and/or ballistic trajectories.
172	* LegendaryInTheSequel: One of the songs refers to Storm-1 as "a legendary hero from eight years ago."
173	* LethalJokeItem:
174	** The Ranger's Acid Gun is little more than a Super Soaker that shoots acid at short range, but that aside it's one of the best early-game short-range weapons in terms of damage output, ammo capacity and rate of fire.
175	** The Ion Mirror Shield seems highly impractical as a shield due to its low integrity and general impracticality of spamming the deflector to avoid damage. That is until you realize that spamming the deflector is how you LagCancel the Fencer's dash, the Ion Mirror Shield has the lowest energy use for the deflector, and the level 0 version has a short reload time once you run out of energy from rampant deflector use. Simply put, it's the item that most reliably enables the Fencer to be a LightningBruiser.
176	* LeotardOfPower: The Wing Divers' uniforms are more {{Stripperiffic}} than the Pale Wings' uniform from ''Earth Defense Force 2017''[='=]s PS Vita re-release.
177	* LightningBruiser: You fight a ton of huge enemies that are deceptively mobile, but the Erginus takes the cake. Despite being bigger than the Walking Fortress Balam built to fight it, the Erginus is faster and can even jump into the air.
178	* LightningGun: Some of the Wing Diver weapons fire a powerful burst of lightning.
179	* LivingWeapon: The various organic enemies are all living weapons. These are the most common enemy type encountered in all their varieties.
180	* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe:
181	** The Fencer can use a variety of shields to protect themselves from damage from the enemies, or even deflect projectiles back at the sender.
182	** Some Hector variants have a portable "energy shield". See DeflectorShield above.
183	* MacrossMissileMassacre:
184	** Some of the players' weapons function like this by locking onto multiple enemies and spamming multiple missiles.
185	** A Player pilotable Missile Artillery tank that rapidly fires its entire load of guided missiles.
186	*** An advanced variant that fires RecursiveAmmo missiles that split into further smaller missiles before impacting the target.
187	** One of the Mini-Mech vehicle types has shoulder mounted mini missile pods that look like something right out of an anime like Macross.
188	** The Fencer has several series of multiple missile launchers designed to fire a mass of missiles all at once including a variant that fires them high attacking arcs that then come down on top of the enemy.
189	* MightyGlacier:
190	** The Fencer hits hard, is the only class capable of DualWielding, can carry a shield that can reduce damage taken and even deflect attacks, and his armor level develops the fastest out of all the classes. However, he's slow to turn when using guns, has poor acceleration when trying to run, has to restart his run whenever he attacks or stops moving, some of his guns have terrible recoil that paralyzes him for a second or two after firing, and using a shield reduces his movement to a crawl.
191	** This can be subverted by equipping weapons that give him [[FlashStep side thrusters]], like most melee weapons. The cooldown on the dash can even be [[LagCancel cancelled]] by activating the shield deflector right after the dash ends, turning the Fencer into an outright LightningBruiser that can cross the map at high speed, consistently evade enemy attacks and one-shot most enemies with a good melee weapon. On top of that, melee weapons don't slow down the Fencer's turn rate at all, so you can switch to melee to prevent those pesky Ravagers from attempting to flank you.
192	** Of the vehicles, the best example the Walking Fortress Balam. It is so slow that it can't avoid attacks from anything besides Erginus, and its only form of attack without an extra driver is very slow. But it has by far the most health of any vehicle so it can easily take the damage unless it's up against a swarm of small flying enemies, and its fists can take out most enemies in a single hit.
193	* MiniMecha: Range from car-sized Vegaltas to the 50 meter tall Balam.
194	* MissileLockOn:
195	** The players weapons get a bounding box and cross hair with a beeping sound indicating it is tracking an enemy. The icon will flash and emit a sound letting the player know they can fire the weapon.
196	** Subverted with some of the Fencers missiles which instead require the target to be designated by an Air Raider equipped with a designator weapon.
197	* MissingBackBlast:
198	** None of the rocket launcher weapons have any form of back blast when launched besides some visuals.
199	** Subverted for the missile launchers. The missile launchers use a realistic soft launch[[note]]A small charge kicks the missile out of the launch tube where the main motor kicks off and launches the missile at full speed[[/note]] which mitigate or eliminate backblast.
200	* MonumentalBattle:
201	** Tokyo Skytree is the central landmark of one mission map, though the surrounding area isn't entirely accurate to its actual location. Being part of the terrain rather than an environmental object, it has MonumentalDamageResistance.
202	** The first mission to attack the Giant Insects' subterranean breeding ground begins in Tokyo Station before moving into the subway lines and then underground caverns. It's not so lucky, as the main platform and several tunnels have been damaged by burrowing ants.
203	* {{Mook}}:
204	** The game is full of Mooks of varying types. The most bog standard being the Black Ant enemy type. This is the very first enemy type that you will fight in the game.
205	** AirborneMook: The silver flying gunships serve as massed disposable enemy mooks and are the first flying mook the player encounter.
206	** MechaMook: The bog standard Walking Arms aka Hectors serve as common giant robotic mooks.
207	* MoreDakka:
208	** Although Rangers can achieve some impressive sprays of bullets with just an assault rifle, the Air Raiders up the ante with vehicle-mounted machineguns while the Fencers can [[DualWielding dual-wield]] ''handheld Gatling Guns.''
209	** Some of the Wing Diver's laser and beam based weapons focus on this feature. The rate of fire on many of her weapons is 60 shots per second. For comparison the Fencer can only achieve this rate of fire by dual-wielding the lightest versions of his gatling guns, while the Ranger only gets it for his non-recharging laser rifles.
210	** The [[TankGoodness Titan]] in addition to its main gun, sports two cannon turrets on top of its main turret, plus two grenade launchers, or in higher level versions, missile launchers, and its machine gun.
211	* MookMaker:
212	** The Walking Fortress spawns several varieties of enemies for the player to fight.
213	** Both types of drop ships operate like this spawning enemies from their undersides in large numbers.
214	** The giant wasp hive until destroyed constantly spawns wasps.
215	** The various "Bug Holes" you will encounter can spawn enemies in large numbers.
216	** Part of the "Earth Eater" ship is enemy spawner panels that spit out several enemy types.
217	** "The Mother Ships" will spawn multiple enemy gunships when they are around to attack the player.
218	* MultiMeleeMaster: The Fencer can carry any DualWielding combination of axes, swords, spears, warhammers or shields at the same time. This is mostly viable only if the Fencer has overpowered weapons and armor or is playing on a lower level of difficulty where ants are the only enemy.
219	* NoScope: None of the zoom capable weapons require the player to use the zoom to shoot enemies. The weapons accuracy remains the same in zoomed in or out making them useful at pointblank range as well as long range.
220	* NoSell:
221	** The first usage of the Shield Screen baffles and confuses everyone in HQ when they first encounter it. It deflects low mass, fast moving items like missiles and bullets, but they figure out that high mass, slow moving items, like, say, humans, can slip through, which leads to deployment of the Fencers to fight the shield bearers.
222	** When Erginus first appears, everyone is frightened that the beast is so ''tough''. Indeed, your character could be outfitted with high-leveled weapons at that point and would not hurt it at all.
223	** The Fencer can also achieve this with his vibro hammers, which absorb damage when they attack. Time it right and you can brush off an airstrike.
224	* NoRangeLikePointBlankRange:
225	** Anything with a "D" or worse in accuracy will pretty much require this, though damage doesn't actually drop with distance until the bullets [[ArbitraryWeaponRange cease to exist]].
226	** A favorite strategy of most insects. Their ranged attacks are usually low damage shotgun style attacks, but at point blank no amount of armor will save you.
227	* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: You will never take any damage from falling, regardless of height.
228	* OurDragonsAreDifferent: There are flying dragon like monsters that breathe fire and grab the player in their mouth and maul them. [[spoiler:They also apparently evolved from the giant insects.]]
229	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: In the final mission, the only thing stopping a mothership from intervening and annihilating Storm Team is when a silent and presumed destroyed section of command independantly works out what the EDF remnants are trying to do and targets a secret satellite weapon onto the mothership. Said mothership never reaches the battlefield.
230	* OneHitKill: Sniper rifles and the Fencer's handheld cannons and [[PileBunker Blasthole Spear]] will usually do this to most enemies. Additionally, the Mothership's [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Genocide Gun]] will instantly kill you if you're caught in the blast.
231	* OneHitPolyKill: Several weapons available to players fire shots that are capable of penetrating through any enemies in their path, no matter how many there are. There are also plenty of explosive splash damage weapons that are more than capable of blowing multiple targets to pieces.
232	* OneManArmy: Though technically you're just one soldier, on some maps you're by yourself, or the NPC soldiers all get killed, making you utilize this trope as you slaughter every single enemy on the map by yourself. If playing with other players, it turns into BadAssCrew.
233	* OnrushingArmy: The most common tactic of the enemy bug hordes is to just rush forward in one large noisy mass.
234	* OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture: A common aesthetic with the various advanced or sci-fi weapons.
235	* PainfullySlowProjectile: Some of the assorted projectiles have a fairly slow travel speed like the Air Tortoise. They can take a sometimes dangerously long time to reach their target, but you will know when they land.
236	* PileBunker:
237	** The CC Piercer spear line of melee weapons for the Fencer. It pierces the target and explodes!
238	** The Blasthole Spear. Low fire rate, but high damage and surprisingly high range, both of which increase on followup second shots.
239	** The Flashing Spear, which trades off raw single-shot damage for rapid-fire capability. There's still an initial delay before it fires, however.
240	** The Blast Twin Spear, which is effectively a ''double'' Blasthole Spear!
241	* PlasmaCannon:
242	** The Ravagers' Walking Fortress, Hectors, and a few other enemies utilize some form of plasma cannon, often lobbing the shots from long distances as a form of artillery.
243	** Wing Divers get access to a whole line of plasma cannon-like weapons as part of one of their weapon classes. Including an example that strongly resembles the Ravager plasma artillery projectile.
244	* PoweredArmor: The Fencer class, as well as the RedShirt versions. It's an up-close-and-personal unit with katanas, mechanical war hammers, [[GatlingGood Electric Gatling Guns]], and various [[{{BFG}} shoulder-mounted artillery.]]
245	* PowerFist: The Fencer's Jackhammer mixes this trope with the PileBunker, being a armored gauntlet that can rapidly punch a target.
246	* {{Samurai}}: From [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgj2RsawbIc the game's third trailer]], the Fencers are "[[EverythingsBetterWithSamurai the Samurai]] of the 21st century". They also bear some resemblance to European knights with the use of the large shields. The Fencer also has themes of medieval knights mixed alongside the strong samurai theme.
247	* RagdollPhysics:
248	** Some of the enemies go limp and just fall over like a rag doll. Notable in the original Hector arms enemies.
249	** Players tossed into the air by explosions, enemies grabbing and throwing them, or otherwise forcefully propelled go rag doll in the air until they land on the ground.
250	* RandomlyDrops: Has returned with a vengeance after Insect Armageddon's level up system. All weapons are randomly found in crates dropped by enemies along with armor upgrades and health kits.
251	* RareRandomDrop: Although technically all weapons have an equal chance of dropping, on higher difficulty levels the range can go from 50 levels or more, meaning you will see a lot of repeats of low quality trash before getting that coveted level 90.
252	* RayGun:
253	** This general weapon type is the forte of the Wing Diver class. They will utilize any number of energy weapons throughout the game.
254	** Several of the Ravagers weapons are a form of ray gun or another.
255	** Both the Fencer and Ranger get ray gun type weapons.
256	* RealTimeWeaponChange: Weapons are swapped in real time without use of a menu via one of the buttons on the controller.
257	* RecursiveAmmo:
258	** One of the Naegling Self-Propelled Rocket Tanks has a variant that fires missiles that split into a swarm of smaller missiles.
259	** One of the Fencers missile variants fires missiles that shower an area with bomblets.
260	** There are a few variants of Fencer Artillery that eject explosive bombs along its flight path.
261	* RedshirtArmy: Although sometimes the NPC soldiers can hold their own, nobody seems to care if they get slaughtered en masse by the insects or a particularly trigger-happy player.
262	* RevolversAreJustBetter:
263	** The EDF are particularly fond of Revolver Cannons on their mechs, a real-life loading method for large-bore weapons that moves shots from the magazine into a multi-shot cylinder.
264	** The Fencer gets the [[KillItWithFire Flame Revolver]], a ''flamethrower revolver'' that happens to be one of the most devastating close-range weapons you can use - if you can manage the recoil.
265	* RuleOfCool: Aside from the B-movie charm, the game revels in a sense of unbridled cool. Players use a wide variety of unique weaponry to flatten giant bugs, robots, alien vehicles, etc.
266	* SceneryGorn: Between the various giant robots and players using explosive weapons, the cityscape frequently gets flattened. The buildings and other structures often fall in a variety of satisfying ways, only leaving behind rubble piles. The destruction is not strictly limited to buildings.
267	* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Most likely intentionally, given the very B-movie-esque atmosphere. Mass, distance, and size are never really an issue. Real life wouldn't allow for arthropods the size of semi trailers, robots that look like NoodlePeople would collapse under their own weight, and alien motherships are smaller than real-life cargo ships. But none of that matters because [[RuleOfCool spectacle and absurdity]] trump realism.
268	* SecondaryFire:
269	** A variety of weapons and equipment require or make use of a secondary fire for their full range of capabilities.
270	** Placeable weapons like turrets and bombs need to be activated.
271	** Sniper weapons have a scope function.
272	** Some of the Air Raiders weapons shoot remotely detonatable {{StickyBomb}}s.
273	* SentryGun: Just like in the last game there are deployable sentry gun turrets that will track and fire on various enemies when they are activated.
274	* SequenceBreaking: There's nothing stopping you from playing [[HarderThanHard Inferno]] difficulty from the word go, which can net you weapons you can't even get in Normal.
275	* SerialEscalation: A player starts their career in the E.D.F. responding to a possible prank call about giant insects attacking. Lo and behold, giant ants are climbing all over the city and trying to eat the citizens. Wing Divers deploy to take advantage of the lack of flying insects, then giant spiders trap them in webs that stretch between office buildings. Giant leaping spiders show up in massive swarms. Finally, the Ravagers come back on the scene with dozens of Hectors and their humongous Mothership. This is a summary of the first 12 missions out of 80. This will get to the point where just giant ant swarms are viewed as the good old days.
276	* ShootEverythingThatMoves: Pretty much the objective of nearly every mission is to find everything that isn't a fellow EDF soldier and shoot it until it dies.
277	* ShortRangeShotgun: Some of the shotguns are not good beyond point blank ranges, while others subvert the trend quite nicely.
278	* ShoulderCannon: The Fencer can use various shoulder-mounted weapons, including shoulder mounted cannons.
279	* ShoutOut:
280	** Like the rest of its series, both its Japanese name (''Chikyu Boeigun'') and its Western one are the same as the organization from the ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' franchise.
281	** Erginus is one to the Kaiju of ''Film/PacificRim'', having blue bioluminescent patches all over its body. Walking Fortress Balam similarly takes design elements from the same movie's Jaegers, as well as ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' city-bots like Metroplex or Fortress Maximus, even having window-like details on its limbs.
282	* SlowLaser: Just like in most scifi b-movies expect nearly all of the of the energy weapons to fire visible light low velocity laser shots.
283	* SniperRifle: Several varieties of sniper rifles show up namely for the Wing Diver and Ranger classes. There are even sniper cannons for the Fencer.
284	* SpentShellsShower: Some of the high rate of fire high ammo capacity weapons will eject a shower of shells when being fired.
285	* SpiderTank: The Depth Crawler is a four legged tank variant piloted by players. It takes the spider part of spider tank quite literally with the Depth Crawler able to move up walls and across ceilings just like a spider. It can also leap around just like the jumping spiders in the game.
286	* StarterEquipment: All player classes start out with a basic weapons set until they can start collecting additional weapons via drops.
287	* StickyBomb: The Air Raiders signature weapon. It fires a variety of projectiles that stick to their targets before being detonated.
288	* SuperPersistentMissile: Many of the missiles will constantly chase the target until it hit or hits an intervening object.
289	* SwordBeam: Some of the Fencer's sword weapons shoot out a energy blade beam. One variant is able to hit a target 500 meters away as its Level 3 attack.
290	* TanksForNothing: NPC controlled tanks often end up this way, getting easily killed unless you babysit them and kill any enemies approaching them. In one level, a Ravager walking fortress simply steps on a giant tank as it tries to back away from it after the tank's attack fails to damage it.
291	* TankGoodness:
292	** The E5551 Gigantes tank, which is similar to the one from ''Earth Defense Force 2017''
293	** The Negring Self-Propulsion Rocket Tank, a MacrossMissileMassacre tank.
294	** The Epsilon Armored Railgun. More of a [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter Self Propelled Rail Gun artillery then a tank.]]
295	** The E651 Titan armed with the Requiem Gun. When fired it recoils hard enough to push the tank around.
296	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverKill: Nothing is stopping you from calling a missile strike to deal with a handful of ants.
297	* TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Despite the last known appearance of Giant Insects happening in Arizona around the time of ''VideoGame/EarthDefenseForce2017'', they reemerge in Tokyo. While none of the maps are exact copies of any area, each has a distinctive and recognizable building or landmark.
298	* TripodTerror: The aliens deploy tripod war machines that use leg mounted lasers for BeamSpam, {{PlasmaCannon}}s, and their spiked feet to attack the player.
299	* TwentyMinutesIntotheFuture: The games plot takes place 8 years after the events in VideoGame/EarthDefenseForce2017. The EDF and the rest of the earth have taken the technology of the Ravagers after having defeated them and used it to rebuild the earth. Elements of that same technology also went into rebuilding and improving the EDF giving us the four character classes.
300	* UrbanWarfare: Many sections of the game take place in cities with a variety of buildings. The built up areas are meant to look like various parts of Japan's urban landscape in a vague way.
301	* UtilityWeapon:
302	** Weapons that use explosives can be used to clear out areas congested by buildings, creating room for a killing ground and denying the aliens a high place to attack the player from. It is not an uncommon tactic for players laying deployable weapons or equipment to level surrounding buildings with explosive weapons before luring enemies into the deployable weapon kill zones. Due to how vehicle drops work, clearing out some space can make room for players to receive the larger vehicles.
303	* VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zigzagged]].
304	** The lower level Man-portable flamethrowers for the Ranger class are about as useless as ever. The very first one is literally a blowtorch that is effectively useless. Until players unlock the more powerful flame throwers for the Ranger the weapons tend to be too weak to use.
305	** Flame throwers equipped on some variations of the [[MiniMecha Velgata]], however, are basically twin cones of constant pain that pierce through swarms of Ravagers with ease and only get more powerful with more powerful units.
306	** Another example are Flame Revolvers used by the Fencers. Part of the Automatic Artillery line of weapons they can be powerful but have numerous flaws. The weapons have long spin up times to begin firing, have excessive recoil making aiming one being fired difficult at best, and you can only fire one at a time or that excessive recoil will exceed the players ability to fight the recoil and just point straight up. They are almost exclusively limited to use in tunnels but are beat out by better weapons available to the fencer.
307	* VillainForgotToLevelGrind: Fully averted. The E.D.F. used the 8 year gap to improve their military power, but the bugs were evolving into more dangerous forms during that time. The Ravagers themselves brought more forces from home, and continue to unveil new weaponry as the war goes on.
308	* WalkingTank:
309	** Did you think this military has those fancy-pants [[ImpossiblyGracefulGiant Japanese models]] for their giant robots? Nope. Every mecha is slow, turns like a drunken whale, and won't get you to the other side of the city in less than 15 minutes. That's okay, since the bugs will come to you.
310	** In EDF 4.1 the Depth Crawler SpiderTank is directly referred to as "the new tank" when it is dropped off by the choppers.
311	* WaveMotionGun: A late tier/end game Wing Diver weapon that fires a giant forward traveling wave of energy that flattens multiple city blocks and pretty much kills any enemy it hits. The game lists it as a "Grenade Launcher".
312	** Motherships employ a "Genocide Gun" that fires a powerful sweeping laser that can flatten city blocks and fry soldiers [[OneHitKill in one go]].
313	* WeWillUseLasersInTheFuture:
314	** The EDF has developed energy weapons from studying Ravager technology.
315	** For the Ranger and Fencer, there's a reason to have them as a secondary gun. The weapons have high damage and a high rate of fire. They can be found in lower difficulties/stages. Unfortunately since these classes don't have reactors to recharge them on the battlefield, they can't reload.
316	** Wing Divers use a wide variety of laser weapons that are recharged off the wing divers built in reactor.
317	** The Air Raider can even call in laser cannon strikes from a satellite in orbit.
318	* WickedWasps: You'll be going up against giant hornets this time around. Hornets that resemble the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet Asian giant hornet]].
319	* ZergRush: The main insect tactic is to swarm the enemy until nothing remains.

Context VideoGame / EarthDefenseForce2025