| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/odin_sphere.png]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | -> ''War will spread across the world.''\ |
| 4 | ''The winning country will rule over the entire land.''\ |
| 5 | ''That accursed cauldron served as a trigger.''\ |
| 6 | ''It is cataclysm's womb, and it should not exist.'' |
| 7 | -->-- '''Velvet''' |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ''Odin Sphere'' is an ActionRPG published by Creator/{{Atlus}} and developed by Creator/{{Vanillaware}}, released in the late end of the Platform/PlayStation2's life cycle. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | The game opens in an attic room, where a young girl named Alice is [[StorybookOpening reading her grandfather's books]], a series of stories about a magical world... |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The nation of Valentine used to be a prosperous kingdom, until the greedy [[BigBad King Valentine]] held control over a magical relic called the "Crystallization Cauldron". He used it to conquer the nearby nations, but eventually lost control of it, and watched as it destroyed his kingdom almost overnight. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Now, several other nations are fighting over the ownership of the Cauldron, and thus the world. The war is told through the separate viewpoints of five characters: |
| 16 | |
| 17 | * Gwendolyn, [[{{Valkyries}} valkyrie]] and youngest daughter of Demon Lord Odin of Ragnanival, called "Odin's Witch" by the faeries. She yearns for her father's approval above all else. |
| 18 | * Cornelius, the prince of Titania who gets [[ForcedTransformation transformed into a rabbit-like Pooka]] and must find a way to break the curse and stop the villain who has taken his place. |
| 19 | * Mercedes, a fairy of Ringford who has to take over as Queen after her mother dies. |
| 20 | * Oswald, the fearsome Shadow Knight who has a contract with the Queen of the Dead for immense power in exchange for his soul. |
| 21 | * Velvet, one of the [[LastOfHerKind last survivors]] of the kingdom of Valentine who tries to avert the disasters of the coming Armageddon. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Aside from its multiple playable characters and connected story, ''Odin Sphere'' is notable for its high-quality 2D art, in an age of 3D UsefulNotes/PolygonalGraphics. The game's story, characters, and other tropes were heavily inspired by Myth/NorseMythology, and especially Music/RichardWagner's ''Theatre/DerRingDesNibelungen''. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | An UpdatedRerelease, ''Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir'', was released for [=PS3=], [=PS4=], and Platform/PlayStationVita on January 14th, 2016 in Japan and in June that year in other territories. It features Platform/HighDefinition graphics and the ability to switch from the classic gameplay mechanics to revamped ones based on ''Odin Sphere'''s [[CreatorDrivenSuccessor successors]], ''VideoGame/MuramasaTheDemonBlade'' and ''VideoGame/DragonsCrown''. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | Previews: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo11vp8cd_8 Japanese Reveal Trailer]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1-79TS8dJU US Reveal Trailer]]. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | Has also spawned an ongoing spin-off manga, ''Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir ~Little Fairy Queen~''. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin It focuses on who you'd expect.]] |
| 30 | ---- |
| 31 | |
| 32 | !! ''Odin Sphere'' provides examples of: |
| 33 | |
| 34 | * AboveTheInfluence: [[spoiler:Gwendolyn's relationship with Oswald is unsettling, until you play through his side of the story and find out that not only is Gwen ''not'' under a love spell, but Oswald, who didn't feel right about having her whammied into loving him, went balls-out questing for a way to avert the spell before discovering that the spell was never cast in the first place.]] |
| 35 | * AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: The level cap is 99, but you can reasonably complete the game at a level much lower than that. The recommended level for entering a character's endgame is approximately Level 39 and the final boss can be easily handled at Level 50. The [[BossBonanza Book of Armageddon]] does feature a difficulty jump, but at that point you can stock up on end-game items and materials for all your characters and reasonably conquer it at Level 60. |
| 36 | * AbsurdlySharpBlade: The Psyphers are known to be the most powerful weapons in the ''Odin Sphere'' universe, being able to pierce through even dragon scales. If any of the main characters were using a normal weapon, it's doubtful they would have gotten as far as they did. |
| 37 | * AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The Three Wise Men's hideout in Titania Capital is evidently big enough for a huge serpent dragon to move in freely. |
| 38 | * AchillesHeel: All of the heroes for their respective final boss fights. For example, [[spoiler:King Gallon]] believes himself to be invincible, as only a person with Titanian royal blood ''and'' Odette's power over death can actually kill him. [[spoiler:It happens to be Oswald.]] |
| 39 | * ActionBomb: There are enemies fought in the fire stage that attempt to blow themselves up once their HP reaches zero. While getting near them causes your character to take Burn damage, what makes them annoying is the fact that while their HP reaches zero, they can still move and jump towards your character in an attempt for a suicide attack. Fortunately, there is a visible animated cue before they blow up, and the proper way to deal with them even while they have zero HP is to hit them once, and immediately jump back. |
| 40 | * ActionizedSequel: Actionized ''Remake'', but still in the same vein. ''Leifthrasir'' takes practically all of the methodical, item-juggling combat of the original and throws it straight out the window, replacing it with full-on fast-paced Action RPG mechanics based on the game's successors. |
| 41 | * AdamAndEvePlot: One of the ancient prophecies foretells that only ''two'' people survive the Armageddon to revive the world. [[spoiler:Gwendolyn and Oswald. Velvet and Cornelius survive as well, but as Pooka... Only to regain their human shape in the Good Ending]]. |
| 42 | * AllThereInTheManual: Inverted. You're better off NOT reading at the very least Velvet's character profile in the manual, because the fact that [[spoiler:she's secretly Odin's illegitimate daughter]] would have otherwise been quite a surprising twist the first time you play the game. |
| 43 | * AllThereInTheScript: |
| 44 | ** The two Pooka who work in the restaurant and cafe are named Merlunch and Meriene, respectively. This information is only available in the art book. |
| 45 | ** The names of Gwendolyn's Spear (Gungnir) & Cornelius' Sword (Almacia) are only mentioned in the Art Book, the other weapons are named in the game. |
| 46 | ** The artbooks come with additional information not mentioned in the game, such as the Goblins already rotting while still living, the origins of the Frost Bens, and even the heights and weights of the playable characters |
| 47 | * AlwaysChaoticEvil: Goblins, former Pooka who became Goblins ''because'' they were Evil. They make their lives either by stealing or mugging. When King Valentine returns from the Netherworld, they go back to serving him. While some are non-hostile and occasionally even serve as vendors, their dialogue makes it clear that it is due to their cowardice and/or greed rather than genuine altruism. |
| 48 | * AmazonBrigade: The Valkyries of Ragnanival, and the Inferno King's Vulcan soldiers. |
| 49 | * AmbidextrousSprite: Weapons and such switch hands as usual, but the game mostly justifies it by having the characters shift said items to opposite hands when turning around. However, the designs on Brigan's shields will switch places every time he turns around while Ingway's dagger will constantly switch hips during cutscenes. |
| 50 | * AnIcePerson: Gwendolyn is capable of using Ice Skills in the remake. Cyclone bottles and Whirlwind potions, which are used by all members of the cast, also contain ice properties. |
| 51 | * AnachronicOrder: One would easily think that each book is a sequel to the previous, but no. The story runs on simultaneous, interconnected arcs. Fortunately, the Story menu provides a chronological order of all cutscenes so that the player won't get lost in understanding the story's complex timeline. |
| 52 | * AnimationBump: ''Leifthrasir'' improves the existing attack animations of the playable characters compared to the original, while adding dozens of new skills. And the game runs at 60 FPS to boot! |
| 53 | * AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: You have to use all the characters in the finale. All characters have slightly (Gwendolyn, Cornelius, and Oswald handle fairly similarly overall) or greatly (Velvet and Mercedes handle quite differently than the others, including each other) different play styles. |
| 54 | * AntiFrustrationFeatures: |
| 55 | ** HP does not gradually decrease after battles in the fire and ice stages, allowing the player to patch themselves up, or harvest food items without worries. Likewise, HP won't decrease in the final boss areas of said stages, as the player is already presented with a much more difficult foe at hand. |
| 56 | ** In ''Leifthrasir'', during Mercedes' [[UnexpectedShmupLevel shooter-style boss battles]] the POW meter never depletes, so you're free to really play it like a shmup. |
| 57 | ** If you die during a stage, the remake kicks you back to the prior screen, effectively resetting you to right before you started the stage. |
| 58 | ** Many of the game's most annoying enemies (like Titania's wizards and Oozes) were toned down for the remake and there is now an option to [[spoiler:restart the book of Armageddon without finishing it]], a blessing for completionists trying to unlock all of the scenes. |
| 59 | ** The story is split amongst 5 campaigns with {{Time Skip}}s galore, and it would be an absolute nightmare trying to keep track of what's going on were it not for a handy cutscene theater that sorts all cutscenes both by character and in overall chronological order, even providing brief synopses of each one. |
| 60 | * ArrangedMarriage: The fate of valkyries too wounded in battle to continue their careers as warriors is to be married off and serve as housewives / child-bearers. They consider it a FateWorseThanDeath. |
| 61 | * ArtEvolution: The art piece that became the cover for ''Leifthrasir'', made 9 years after the original release. It shows the evolution in George Kamitani's style; it has the main playable cast with more realistic body proportions, longer limbs compared to their in-game selves who look more cartoony, and more somber coloring compared to the bright colors he originally used. |
| 62 | * ArtifactOfDoom: The Cauldron, which not only helpfully [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver pulses with evil red light]], but serves as a catalyst for the wars that consume the world, and [[spoiler:drains the very life out of the universe via its creation of psyphers]]. King Valentine also boasts in Armageddon that these wars were AllForNothing, as he has cursed the Cauldron to [[spoiler:turn anyone but him who tries to use it into a pooka]]. |
| 63 | * ArtStyleDissonance: The anime art direction is colorful, charming, and full of all sorts of cute-looking characters like the Pooka. The story, on the other hand, is very dark and grim. There's a lot of death and misery, there are some very convoluted politics at work between all the characters, only a little humor to speak of, and [[spoiler:the best ending is only barely [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]].]] |
| 64 | * AssKicksYou: The Titanian Axe Guards do this as their jumping attack. It's also the fastest and hardest to dodge jumping attack. |
| 65 | * AsteroidsMonster: In ''Leifthrasir'' the King Ooze mid-boss spawns normal slimes and eventually splits up as you damage it. |
| 66 | * AutomaticCrossbows: The Tasla Psypher, later upgraded and renamed Riblam ("The Piercing One" in old dwarvish). Comes with homing SecondaryFire! At least Mercedes' crossbow is [[AWizardDidIt explicitly magical]]. |
| 67 | * BackstabBackfire: Skuldi begs Oswald to let him live after he has revealed Gwendolyn's location. [[spoiler:Oswald turns around and seems to consider it, at which point Skuldi attempts to attack him from behind... Only to get killed by the Shadow Knight. Oswald's thought process reveals he never intended to spare him, as he's too dangerous.]] |
| 68 | * BarbieDollAnatomy: |
| 69 | ** Vulcans, in their transformed state. |
| 70 | ** In the remake, one of the forms of the Myconid midboss in Ringford resembles a naked woman. |
| 71 | * TheBattleDidntCount: The typical result of not fighting the final bosses with the correct characters. Of particular note is [[spoiler:Onyx,]] who either has [[spoiler:his vulcans]] kill the player off-screen, sees [[spoiler:Gwendolyn kill herself trying to fight him]], or {{No Sell}}s [[spoiler:Oswald before goading him into overusing his shadow form to turn himself into a revenant]]. |
| 72 | * BecauseDestinySaysSo: Like the Norse Ragnarok, the circumstances surrounding TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt are already pre-ordained. This means that it doesn't matter how badass a given character is or how handily they win a given final boss fight; if they're not the person prophesied to stop that particular disaster, they will at best succeed only to drop dead, and at worst die failing to accomplish anything at all. |
| 73 | * {{BFS}}: |
| 74 | ** Cornelius inverts this; his broadsword is reasonably sized for a human, but his Pooka body is ''way'' too small to wield it the way he does. |
| 75 | ** The Vulcans' FlamingSword is at least half as big as their bodies. |
| 76 | * BigDamnHeroes: |
| 77 | ** Gwendolyn does this twice: She swoops in to rescue Velvet from Brigan and her father's soldiers and later rescues Oswald from Odette's clutches. |
| 78 | ** Oswald repays the favor by saving a falling Gwendolyn. |
| 79 | ** Cornelius infiltrates the Titanian sewers to save Velvet from mind-controlled Belial. |
| 80 | ** [[spoiler:As a frog, Ingway does this multiple times in order to save Mercedes from certain threats.]] |
| 81 | * BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:It's TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, and only four of the main characters remain alive. That said, it's more Ragnarok in practice, Gwendolyn and Oswald become the Adam and Eve to a new world, and, in the complete ending, after untold millenia, Cornelius and Velvet finally lift the Pooka Curse on all the afflicted living and dead. In the UpdatedRerelease, Mercedes and Ingway are seen [[TogetherInDeath about to be reunited in the afterlife]]]]. |
| 82 | * BizarreSexualDimorphism: |
| 83 | ** The mini-boss Vulcans and Onyx all appear to be of the same race, but while normal Vulcans grow horns, have their hair replaced by fire and become naked when they transform, Onyx changes into something somewhat akin to a Balrog. |
| 84 | ** Female fairies have colorful butterfly wings, while males have (possibly vestigial) wasp or housefly wings. |
| 85 | * BleakLevel: |
| 86 | ** While none of the levels are sunshine and rainbows, Netherworld Endelphia is a barren land with almost no lights, full of ghosts and really spooky monsters. |
| 87 | ** Volkenon, which takes place within an active volcano. |
| 88 | * BlindIdiotTranslation: The translation is rife with careless errors (as opposed to {{Woolseyism}}s), showing up about every 5 to 10 lines. It is a testament to the strength of both the original script and the English performances that the story remains a highly-regarded part of the game. |
| 89 | ** The game has some lost nods to self interest [[GreenAesop damaging the environment]] making the devastation surrounding the Cauldron no fluke. |
| 90 | *** Odette has a very good reason to punish Psypher wielders explaining, "[[spoiler:You toy with the cycle of souls using that spear.]]" It was scrambled into the oddly arbitrary "[[spoiler:You're risking your very soul by playing with that spear.]]" |
| 91 | *** Mercedes's RousingSpeech originally pointed out [[spoiler:humans also need Fairies to keep the earth bountiful for sustenance. Odin's lust for power was violating the natural order that kept his own people alive. Her anger was less about him invading the Fairies' land and more that he was callously ruining the very world. Emphasising True Names and being a NatureHero also [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadows]] Mercedes's own [[RuleOfSymbolism True Name]].]] |
| 92 | ** Oswald's odd morality as a political assassin gets lost. "[[spoiler:As you commanded, I have disposed of the Paladins in opposition.]]" became "[[spoiler:As you command. The Paladins who were in opposition have [[DirtyCoward hidden themselves in secrecy]].]]" Hence his [[{{Foreshadowing}} ominous exchange]] with a Paladin beforehand. |
| 93 | ** The above becomes unintentionally [[HypocriticalHumor funny]] when combined with a later fudge -- Oswald kills a villain with the justification, "[[spoiler:I cannot allow someone as [[{{Hypocrite}} evil as you]] to continue to live...]]" Especially since he highlights his own lack of morals first. Originally he just said "[[spoiler:[[CombatPragmatist You're too dangerous to let live]]]]". |
| 94 | ** Others are very random. A resigned Lilipat's line, "[[spoiler:So the army we cobbled together was not enough after all,]]" became "I suppose random assaults proved to be an effective strategy in this situation." It did not match any context, making it blurted out of nowhere. |
| 95 | ** The full scale of Ingway's manipulations near the end of the fifth book. "[[spoiler:If the Halja come this way, I shall easily be able to sneak in," was "With the Halja headed this way, it should be easier for her to sneak in.]]" Unknown to everyone, he [[spoiler:had helped Mercedes save Brom from the Underworld]] during her story. |
| 96 | ** Had trouble looking for [[EyeOfNewt Troll Molars]] until late in the game? They switched the word "Trolls" with "Goblins" in your main hint. The trolls are supposed to be the yeti-like creatures at Winterhorn Ridge. [[GuideDangIt Not that the game lets you know this.]] |
| 97 | * BoringButPractical: |
| 98 | ** The Phozon Release skill does not offer anything in combat (either offensively or defensively) other than releasing a new batch Phozons. If the player has a full Psypher gauge, they can simply spam this skill and re-absorb the released Phozons for some Psypher LevelGrinding, especially if Spirit Stone is equipped. However, this cannot be perfectly abused as the skill requires a full Psypher gauge per cast and that re-absorbing would only restore up to 60% of the gauge, which means that the gauge will eventually deplete and players cannot indefinitely spam this in one area. Phozon Release can also be used as a substitute for the Rosemile plant and offers a way to grow the planted seeds should the area be drained from Phozons. |
| 99 | ** The Muggle fruit and its seed. While the fruit provides an acceptable amount of EXP and HP restoration, fully consuming one Muggle gives you back its seed to your inventory (compared to the other fruit and meat which only provide throwable items once consumed). This can put you into a loop of HP level grinding from planting the seed, using Phozon Release to grow it, harvesting the fruit, eating it, and planting the seed again, etc... |
| 100 | * BossBonanza: Except for [[spoiler:The Beast of Darkova]] (who still gets greatly upgraded with lots of new attacks) and [[spoiler:Onyx]] (who just gets a stat upgrade), the rest of the bosses during the Armageddon book are brand-new. |
| 101 | * BossRush: |
| 102 | ** The final chapter consists of challenging the five prophecied disasters that bring about the end of the world. |
| 103 | ** In the remaster there is a post game dungeon, Churning Rift of the World, that has you fight through EVERY boss in the game, including the new bosses from each area. |
| 104 | * BossSubtitles: Before fighting the final bosses of each stage, their name will be displayed on-screen, followed by a title such as "Oswald, Shadow Knight" or "Velvet, Forest Witch" |
| 105 | * BraggingRightsReward: The Royal Orb, an endgame-grade equipment item that is acquired from beating Churning Rift of the World. It gives as much DEF as an Ancient Crystal +2 and burns through Phozons at an abnormally high rate in exchange for a percentage increase in damage to normal attacks that's equivalent to your Level as long as you have Phozons left to burn. Unfortunately, if you're strong enough to beat Churning Rift of the World, you don't need it anyway, and unless you go out of your way to max out every single skill, it's AwesomeButImpractical due to how fast it eats Phozons. Subverted if you decide to start an [[NewGamePlus Xtra New Game]], where having a Royal Orb automatically starts you off with a pretty solid equip item, and if you don't care about skills, it's a very good source of instant burst damage if you've been saving up the Phozons for it. |
| 106 | * BreakTheCutie: Mercedes. Initially by the end of her book, she's overcome her initial hesitance and weakness, fought against and defeated Odin, and is now considered a true queen with every right to be proud of her accomplishments. [[spoiler:During the Armageddon, Ringford is easily burnt down by King Onyx's march and, shortly before their battle that results in her and Onyx [[MutualKill killing each other]], the Inferno King taunts her for the destruction of her country. More so, as Mercedes dies, she doesn't refer to Ringford as ''her'' kingdom — she refers to it as her mother's, apologizes for having failed to save it, and proceeds to call herself ''useless.'' Struggling to live up to her mother's name only to have all of her achievements stripped away in a instant does ''not'' make for an even bittersweet death.]] |
| 107 | * BreakingTheFourthWall: [[spoiler:In ''Leifthrasir'' the "Curtain Call" trophy is earned when the shopkeeper hands you a Valentinian coin. The trophy's description even says as much]]. |
| 108 | --> "Received a coin during the curtain call." |
| 109 | * BulletHell: Some bosses and enemies just love to clog the screen with projectiles, sometimes until the game suffers a severe amount of lag. Cornelius' fight with Belial probably takes the cake for this. Fortunately, the game seems to be able to keep up in the remake, with little to no lag. |
| 110 | * CallARabbitASmeerp: Pookas look exactly like rabbits, only they walk on two legs and can talk. We also have Napples, Carroteers, Habaneristos, Onionnes, and Turnies. No points for guessing what they're supposed to mean. |
| 111 | * CallingTheOldManOut: |
| 112 | ** Velvet angrily calls Odin out on his [[spoiler:banishing Gwendolyn from his kingdom for saving her from execution, which was all just to please him, saying if he really was relieved Velvet was alive, he wouldn't have punished Gwendolyn so]]. |
| 113 | ** Ingway [[spoiler:allies with Odette to attack Ragnanival and transforms himself into the Beast of Darkova]] for the express purpose of calling Odin out over the fact that, after Ingway [[spoiler:caused the destruction of the entire country of Valentine in order to save Odin]], Odin callously dismissed him with a "well done, traitor" and claimed the Cauldron without ever showing him an ounce of gratitude, affection, or regret over what happened. |
| 114 | * CastFromHitPoints: |
| 115 | ** Although there are no actual attacks of this nature, the "V" alchemy potion causes the player's next attack to inflict [[ArmorPiercingAttack armor piercing]] damage in direct proportion to their HP, at the cost of reducing their HP to one afterwards. |
| 116 | ** The damage from the Variance potion is 5 times current HP minus 1, since that last point is used to keep you alive. Nice damage, but incredibly risky, even if you've got an Ancient Crystal to revive yourself in case you do get hit. |
| 117 | * CatchAFallingStar: Happens in the last book when [[spoiler:Gwendolyn tumbles off Leventhan's back and Oswald catches her just before she hits the ground.]] NotTheFallThatKillsYou is, of course, in full effect. |
| 118 | * {{Cerberus}}: The Darkova spell (or ''curse'' to be precise) turns the caster into a gigantic beast resembling the three-headed hellhound. |
| 119 | * CharacterDevelopment: The five main characters all learn and change because of their tribulations throughout the story. Probably the most impressive with Mercedes, who starts out as a weak and [[BrattyHalfPint generally bratty little girl]] and turns into a bow-toting fighter well-worth being queen. |
| 120 | * ChargedAttack: |
| 121 | ** Mercedes can fire a spray of homing shots with her bow. Velvet can also fire off her chain to attack enemies from a distance. |
| 122 | ** In the remake, almost all the playable characters gain a skill that requires them to charge the attack before releasing it. |
| 123 | * ChekhovsArmory: |
| 124 | ** Defeating enemies releases "Phozons", which you collect to increase your weapon's attack power... And [[spoiler:the events of Armageddon are specifically triggered by King Valentine ordering the Cauldron to suck all the Phozons out of the entire world.]] During the game's good ending, [[spoiler:after Armageddon has destroyed everything else, Velvet uses the Cauldron to break everyone's weapons down, releasing all the [[LifeEnergy stored Phozon energy]] back into the world.]] |
| 125 | ** Fairies have two names, a given name and a True Name. All the true names are (like everything else) based on Norse mythology. [[spoiler:The World Tree in the prophecy is Yggdrasil, Mercedes's true name.]] |
| 126 | ** Cornelius's uncle had been removed from the the throne by his grandfather for falling in love with and marrying a commoner girl. [[spoiler:His name was Edgar, Oswald's father. Oswald has royal blood and Odette's power, allowing him to slay King Gallon.]] |
| 127 | ** One reason Wagner is so pissed off at humanity is because someone stole one of the dragon eggs. [[spoiler:That was King Valentine and the dragon would hatch to become Leventhan, one of the disasters of the Armageddon.]] |
| 128 | * {{Chickification}}: Valkyries fear this more than death itself. They dread surviving their dangerous lifestyle long enough to be married off, since Ragnanival menfolk apparently tend to be sexist assholes. [[spoiler:Given that Gwendolyn is so dutifully obedient, for all her spirit, she's very fortunate in that her husband absolutely refuses to treat her like an object, and is perfectly okay with her continuing to be a warrior]]. |
| 129 | * ColossusClimb: The final battles against [[spoiler:The Cauldron and Leventhan]] to reach their [[AttackItsWeakPoint weak points]]. |
| 130 | * {{Combo}}: Just like any side-scroller RPG, this game allows you to chain combos by repeatedly pressing the attack button. There's also the chance that the final hit of the combo deals increased damage. However, enemies can interrupt your combos if you get damaged enough. |
| 131 | * CompetitiveBalance: The faster paced and more action packed style introduced in ''Leifthrasir'' isn’t some one-sided gameplay overhaul where the player characters become more versatile while the enemies remain the same as they were. The enemies were given more HP and they've become more aggressive and come in larger numbers, but the real notable changes were given to the bosses: In addition to having much more HP, they've turned into real sponges, and some have new attacks that are completely devastating. Then there's the exclusive bosses only found in ''Leifthrasir'' who've been made from the ground up with the new gameplay in mind, with a whole gallery of varied attacks that will annihilate those who aren't well prepared. |
| 132 | * ConvectionSchmonvection: Averted in the original; characters gradually lose HP if they don't use a "Cooler" potion in the volcano level or a "Warmer" potion in the snow level. This is gone in the remake, with Cooler and Warmer potions instead being used as a means to prevent, and reduce damage from status attacks caused by enemies rather than the stage itself. |
| 133 | * CriticalStatusBuff: The Adversity Ring increases your character's attack power as their HP decreases. |
| 134 | * CurbStompBattle: |
| 135 | ** [[TheDreaded Oswald]] has something of a reputation for this. During the first battle between the Aesir and the Vanir, he effortlessly cuts down every Aesir in his way, and Gwendolyn's attempt to fight him barely lasts much longer before he overpowers her. |
| 136 | ** It's heavily implied Odin vs Elfaria was this in Odin's favor, given Elfaria's OhCrap expression once Odin brought out the [[EpicFlail Balor]] and launched his BadassBoast before unleashing a Phozon Burst from it. Regardless, it ends with Odin receiving no notable injuries while Elfaria is fatally injured. |
| 137 | ** During Armageddon, [[spoiler:the Netherworld and Fire Kingdom armies led by Gallon and Onyx respectively run rough-shod over the other kingdoms in their path with barely a pause. Ragnanival and Ringford at least have the excuse they had exhausted themselves in their own war first, but poor Titania is destroyed without a prayer.]] |
| 138 | * CutAndPasteEnvironments: The background of the stages you visit in a certain location all look suspiciously similar. |
| 139 | * DamageOverTime: In addition to its set of StatusEffects, there are fire and ice levels which sap 1% of your character's HP at regular intervals unless you drink an appropriate curing potion beforehand (or have elemental protection equipped). The effects of these levels are gone in the remake. |
| 140 | * DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Dying only returns you to the start of the level in which you died. Which is fortunate, considering [[NintendoHard how often it happens]]. This is more prevalent in the original than in the remake since the combat in ''Leifthrasir'' is more balanced and makes killing enemies easier. |
| 141 | * DeathIsCheap: Zigzagged. Characters can and do [[KilledOffForReal die for real]], but then again, the main cast keeps going into the Underworld to fight Odette and drag people (either dead or banished there while still alive) back (hell [[spoiler: Oswald]] dies ''twice'' and comes back both times.) It isn't until [[spoiler: Odette is KilledOffForReal and the Underworld is sealed off]] that death becomes absolutely permanent. |
| 142 | * DeathOrGloryAttack: The Variance Potion makes the next attack deal a value of 5x (Current HP – 1). It is surely devastating against bosses if you have high amounts of HP before unleashing the powered attack. The catch? Your HP will be [[HPToOne set to 1]] afterwards, making it risky if you are surrounded by enemies. |
| 143 | * {{Deconstruction}}: Of the tropes related to prophecies (i.e. NoManOfWomanBorn, ProphecyTwist, PropheticFallacy, {{Seers}}). All the prophecies seem to have twists in them, which make the words harder to decipher, or be taken at face value, and some parts of the prophecy are overlooked, but would turn out to be the most crucial factor. But in spite of all these, the prophecies would still turn out to be true, you cannot fight them, and someone attempting to go against them would meet a brutal fate in the end. For example, Onyx even uses a prophecy related to him to justify and remind that only the [[spoiler:World Tree]] can kill him and nobody else can. He's overlooked the factor that [[spoiler:Mercedes' TrueName is Yggdrasil]]. Due to all these twists and unexpected turns, the {{Seer|s}} dragon Hindel has ''stopped'' giving out prophecies altogether because many misinterpret his words in the end, and that Hindel himself wasn't able to predict such vague twists. |
| 144 | * DegradedBoss: Inverted. The Hajla are usually fought as mid-bosses, but in Oswald's story two of them are fought as chapter-end bosses. |
| 145 | * DestructibleProjectiles: Thankfully, this trope applies, otherwise it would be BulletHell. You can destroy any magical or elemental projectile fired at your enemy, conventional thrown weaponry such as axes and bombs, will be deflected instead. |
| 146 | * DoomsdayDevice: The Cauldron can function as one of these if used improperly, as it functions by absorbing [[LifeEnergy Phozons]] from the world to produce the red artificial Psypher crystals. When Odin restarts the Cauldron near the end of Mercedes' story, it starts withering life in Ringford near the border of the ruined kingdom of Valentine. [[spoiler:King Valentine orders it to absorb ''every'' Phozon in the land at the start of Armageddon, triggering the long-awaited death of the world as it begins to collapse, and having the baby Leventhan devour the massive Psypher crystal forged from it in order to grow into the massive dragon that will finish off the world. Ironically, in the good and best ending, Velvet used the wrecked Cauldron and the Psyphers of herself, Cornelius, Gwendolyn, and Oswald to release Phozons back into the world in order to help it begin anew.]] |
| 147 | * DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Failure to follow the prophecies to the letter (choosing each character in order) during the final battles results in the world completely doomed with no hope of restoring it. The outcomes of each battle from a wrongfully chosen character are either generic or unique.]] |
| 148 | * TheDragonslayer: Anyone who wields a Psypher has the potential to be one, as they're among the only weapons that can reliably pierce [[SuperToughness dragon scales]]. Specifically, Oswald kills Hindel and Wagner, Cornelius fatally injuries Belial, and [[spoiler:Gwendolyn takes the cake by being the destined slayer of Leventhan, who grows large enough to encircle the entire continent of Erion ''at least''.]] |
| 149 | * DualBoss: Several boss battles have you face off against two bosses at once. |
| 150 | * DubInducedPlotHole: In the first chapter of Velvet's story, Skuldi bargains with her for King Valentine's Book of Transformation (or "book of secret arts" in the Japanese version) in exchange for bringing her to the Netherworld and meet the imprisoned [[spoiler:King Gallon.]] But this ends up contradicting a scene in Cornelius's story where [[spoiler:Urzur had been coercing King Edmund into giving up the Book, which somehow fell into Endmund's possession instead. Rewatch the events in chronological order, however, and you will learn that Urzur wasn't coercing Edmund for the Book but rather the Titanian royal family's secret power.]] Due to the game's instances of BlindIdiotTranslation, it's likely that the localization team mixed up the Book of Transformation with [[spoiler:the royal family's secret.]] |
| 151 | * DuelingPlayerCharacters: Several of the boss battles are the other characters in the story. Gwendolyn fights Velvet and Mercedes, Cornelius fights Velvet ([[spoiler:actually Ingway in disguise]]) and Mercedes, Mercedes fights Oswald, and Velvet fights Mercedes. |
| 152 | * DungeonShop: Vendors can be found in certain levels on every stage. While some, like Titania, aren't too far-fetched, it's a wonder merchants wander around the peaks of Winterhorn Ridge or the lava pits of Volkenon. The Netherworld, however, actually has dead souls as vendors. |
| 153 | * DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler: Ingway after the Darkova is beaten, Belial when freed from a spell]]. |
| 154 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: In the bad ending, [[spoiler:everybody dies and there is no hope to restore the world]]. In the good ending, [[spoiler: Everybody dies except four of the five protagonists. Oswald and Gwendolyn earn their happy ending together and help usher in a new world, and Cornelius and Velvet survive as Pooka. Mercedes dies, but is reborn as the World Tree, and in ''Leifthrasir'' is reunited with Ingway]]. In the best ending, [[spoiler: Cornelius and Velvet become human again]]. The good ending requires the player to [[NoManOfWomanBorn interpret a series of prophecies]] so that each of the five heroes fights during the Apocalypse in the correct order. Unfortunately, to get the best ending the player has to [[OneHundredPercentCompletion see every cutscene possible]]... Including the DownerEnding cutscenes that spring from messing up the correct boss fight order. This means you have to fight through the Apocalypse at least four times total in order get the best ending. ''Leifthrasir'' fixes things immensely both by allowing you to skip scenes you've already seen and allowing you to return to the attic after you've viewed what you needed, making it so that you only need to actually see the bad ending once. |
| 155 | * EarnYourBadEnding: The final ending has [[spoiler: everyone in the world dead or worse. For this to happen, you simply have the characters play out of order. However, select characters have their own unique DownerEnding depending on the boss they are pitted against.]] |
| 156 | * ElementalPowers: The remake adds a variety of elemental-based skills for all playable characters, with one character focusing on a single element; Ice for Gwendolyn, Lightning for Cornelius, Light for Mercedes, Dark for Oswald, and Fire for Velvet. |
| 157 | * EndOfAnAge: Big time. And that's the ''good'' ending. |
| 158 | * TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Much of the game concerns Ragnarok, the end of the world in Norse mythology, and if it can be prevented. [[spoiler: It isn't, as it ultimately happens anyway.]] |
| 159 | * EngagementChallenge: Subverted. In order to get the ring from Wagner, Odin asked Oswald to slay the dragon for him [[spoiler: since Odin made a blood pact with Wagner, and thus can't harm him]]. He offered a castle to Oswald at first, who wasn't interested until Odin offered his daughter Gwendolyn. |
| 160 | * EverybodyDiesEnding: In the bad ending, [[spoiler: every playable character dies after they face one of the disasters, and Erion is completely destroyed.]] |
| 161 | * EveryoneIsRelated: To ridiculous amounts. [[spoiler: Mercedes loves Ingway who is the twin brother of Velvet, and Gwendolyn is their half-sister who is married to Oswald, who was adopted by Mercedes's cousin and is secretly the long lost cousin of Velvet's lover Cornelius.]] Yeah, you'd be better off drawing a diagram. |
| 162 | * EvolvingWeapon: The Psyphers grow more powerful the more Phozons they collect, increasing their attack power and acquiring new spells. |
| 163 | * ExactWords: |
| 164 | ** Odin really tripped himself up when he tried to get the magic ring Titrel from the dragon Wagner, insisting that all he wanted Oswald to do was ''slay the dragon''. After it was done, Oswald decided the ring would make a great wedding gift for his new wife and refused to hand it over, a nice play of LoopholeAbuse. Oops! |
| 165 | ** The Prophecies state that [[spoiler: only two humans will survive the Armageddon and rule the new world, indeed only two humans survived, Gwendolyn and Oswald; Cornelius and Velvet were not humans anymore, then again all other races, including Pookas, died as well and a millennia later Velvet and Cornelius became human again, so they are just that good at avoiding fate]]. |
| 166 | * ExperienceBooster: |
| 167 | ** You can buy a Spirit Gem from the very first merchant you encounter, after the first stage of the game. Equipping this item increases the experience that your Psypher Weapon gains when you absorb phozons. You don't need to have it equipped all of the time, so you can just swap it on whenever you're done killing a wave (or entire level) of enemies. |
| 168 | ** Yogurt Potion increases the amount of experience that you earn from food. In the remake the higher the grade of the potion, the higher the percentage increase. |
| 169 | * ExposedToTheElements: At least four of the heroes climb the snow filled peaks of Winterhorn Ridge with their legs and arms exposed. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in [[{{Stripperiffic}} Velvet's]] book. Even her ''belly'' isn't covered. Then again, Warmer potions help keep the heroes warm. |
| 170 | * FairySexy: The fairies you encounter have much revealing outfits, except for Mercedes who is still a child. |
| 171 | * FakeInteractivity: This is used in a bonus scene you can get if you wait a few seconds after receiving the "Fin" screen in the ending. [[spoiler: The merchant [[BreakingTheFourthWall speaks to directly the player]] and waits for the response. The scene ends with the merchant asking, "Ah, you are a writer?" and then begging the player to tell him the title of the book they're writing, which then appears on a black screen in white letters: ''ODIN SPHERE''.]] |
| 172 | * {{Fanservice}}: Evident for the three female playable characters. Ingway also counts as he has a ripped abdomen. |
| 173 | * FateWorseThanDeath: |
| 174 | ** Marriage, to the valkyries. Most of them would sooner die than give up their warrior lifestyle to tend house and bear children. The fact that most of their prospective husbands are sexist assholes may have something to do with it. |
| 175 | ** Pookas were once [[spoiler: human citizens of a kingdom befelled by their mad ruler. An incident with the Cauldron cursed them all into rabbits, goblins or ''something worse''. No matter what, though, they are all immortal and cannot truly die. King Valentine wants to trigger TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt in part because ImmortalityHurts. In the GoldenEnding, Velvet would rather be normal because a Pooka's immortal body wears away sooner or later.]] |
| 176 | * FinalBossPreview: An interesting example. [[spoiler:Inferno King Onyx and the Darkova are fought as the {{Final Boss}}es of Oswald and Velvet's stories respectively, but they serve as the preview to their appearances during the BossBonanza of the final book, where they show up with upgraded stats and new moves]]. |
| 177 | * FlunkyBoss: Every. Last. One of them. Midbosses included, will summon other enemies for the player to fight. The Queen of the Dead in particular never seems to ''stop'' summoning them. |
| 178 | * FoodPorn: There are a lot of exquisite meals to be had from the Pooka restaurants as well as the traveling chef in ''Leifthrasir'', and they ''all'' look massively appetizing. |
| 179 | * ForcedTransformation: |
| 180 | ** Cornelius is transformed into a rabbit-like "Pooka" even during his opening prologue, later learning that it's (more or less) irreversible, and that the entire Pooka race share the same curse. [[spoiler:Velvet receives the same fate during the Good Ending, and both of them manage to reverse it for the living and the dead by collecting all of the Valentine coins]]. |
| 181 | ** Mercedes encounters a talking frog early in her story, who was also once human. [[spoiler:It's Ingway, who ticked off the Wise Men and was subsequently cursed by Urzur.]] |
| 182 | ** And of course, the "Frog" {{Status Effect|s}}, which can be cured (or caused) by a "Metamorphosis" potion. Which, ironically, comes with CollisionDamage jumping attacks and [[UniversalPoison poisonous]] touch built right in. |
| 183 | * ForcedTutorial: The entire first story, ''Valkyrie'', has tutorials spread around that are unskippable in your first playthrough. Thankfully, when you revisit previous areas or start the book over, you don't have to deal with them again. |
| 184 | * ForegoneConclusion: |
| 185 | ** When you first meet Mercedes, she's queen of the fairies. When you start playing as her, her beautiful mother tells her she's leaving for the war. |
| 186 | ** When you play Gwendolyn's first chapter, you slay Vanir soldiers by the dozen, and defeat the dragon who served as their trump card. When you play as Oswald, you hear Vanir soldiers, before that very battle, [[SuicidalOverconfidence saying Gwendolyn is no match for them anymore]] and that [[DramaticIrony the dragon will secure their victory]]. |
| 187 | * FramingDevice: The story is portrayed as a series of books that a little girl (Alice) is reading in her attic. [[spoiler:However, Alice eventually turns out to be a much more important framing device than usual--because ''she'' finds the very last coin that Cornelius and Velvet need to return to their human forms, so Alice is responsible for Cornelius and Velvet finally getting a happy ending.]] |
| 188 | * FullFrontalAssault: Normal Vulcans in their transformed state become completely naked. |
| 189 | * FunnyAnimal: The Pooka are rabbit-folk the size of dwarves that talk and walk like humans. [[spoiler: It makes sense seeing as they're actually humans who were cursed into that form.]] |
| 190 | * GameFace: |
| 191 | ** All Vulcans have humanoid forms, but their real forms are fire spawned creatures with live fire generated from them. Normal Vulcans turn naked, grow horns, and have their skin covered by magna, hardened, and blackened. Onyx turns into a small Balrog. |
| 192 | ** In Ringford, the Myconid boss has three forms. One of them is an adorable little mushroom that can still cause quite a bit of damage. The other two, though... |
| 193 | * GameplayAndStoryIntegration: |
| 194 | ** During the Armageddon sequence, not only does the narrative require you to use specific characters for each of the bosses, their style plays to the matchup. Most obviously: [[spoiler:Mercedes can safely attack King Onyx from afar with her crossbow and the platforming sequence against the Cauldron was designed with Velvet's jump physics in mind]]. |
| 195 | ** In order to break the curse placed upon them, the Pookas aim to collect all Valentine Coins. Some food recipes require you to trade coins in exchange, and these are no other than Valentine Golds and Silvers. |
| 196 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: Most prominently when you fight other main characters as part of one character's story; they're several dozen times more powerful than they would be at that point in time in their own story. This is painfully obvious when you're forced to fight Mercedes, who is one of the hardest PC-boss fights, but when you get to ''her'' book, she starts as the weakest of the five. Of course, "[[MagikarpPower starts]]" is the keyword here. |
| 197 | * GameplayGrading: Except for boss battles, you are rated on how quickly you defeated enemies and how little damage you took, with higher rankings resulting in more treasure after the battle. Additionally, any points in excess of the given rank will be carried over and applied to the next battle's score. |
| 198 | * GetBackHereBoss: The Wise Men love to teleport around everywhere. Half of the battle is getting to them quickly enough to actually damage them. |
| 199 | * GottaCatchEmAll: The motivation behind the Pooka running a restaurant chain -- they want to recollect all the old Valentine coins to break their curse. [[spoiler: Only two Pooka survive to enjoy it, though the dead ones probably also get released from the curse post-mortem. This isn't a small thing, considering the Pooka curse not only makes one agelessly immortal while alive, but also ageless ''and indestructible'' when dead. Which means that if the curse ''wasn't'' broken, [[FateWorseThanDeath all of the Pooka would have spent eternity as forever-rotting corpses in a dreary graveyard world.]] But now they finally get to move on.]] |
| 200 | * {{Gotterdammerung}}: By the end [[spoiler: just about all magic, dragons, and fairies disappear from the world. The Aesir fall against the armies of the Netherworld and the Vanir are scorched by the Inferno King's march.]] |
| 201 | * GradualRegeneration: The Psypher Heal skill heals 1% of your max HP per second, but your character remains stationary while it is in effect. However, this can be interrupted by enemy attacks, or done deliberately by the player upon pressing other buttons or moving the character. |
| 202 | * GrayAndGreyMorality: None of the principle protagonists are evil, but many of them staunchly oppose one another for various reasons, and all of their [[NiceJobBreakingItHero assorted actions]] lead to TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. |
| 203 | * GuideDangIt: Getting the best ending requires that you pick exactly the right playable character to defeat each of the five disasters, and knowing which character needs to face which disaster requires that you know some very obscure information. The items explaining the prophecies give hints on the order. Just in case, however, here's the list: |
| 204 | ** Gwendolyn needs to face [[spoiler:Leventhen the Last Dragon. The dragon can only be permanently defeated by someone who knows its weakness, and Griselda told Gwendolyn to "knock down the crown", because the dragon is getting its power from King Valentine's crown, which is lodged on one of its horns. Only Gwendolyn can win this fight because she's the only one Griselda told about the crown.]] |
| 205 | ** Cornelius needs to face [[spoiler:the Demon Beast Darkova, a forcibly transformed Ingway. A prophecy states that "no man" can defeat Darkova, and that "the one who removes the torment is mine own son". The one who helped foretold the prophecy was a former king of Titania. Cornelius, fortunately, is both Titanian royalty and not a man at the time, he's a ''Pooka'', so he can defeat the beast.]] |
| 206 | ** Mercedes needs to face [[spoiler:the Inferno King Onyx. A prophecy has foretold that Onyx can only be stopped by the World Tree, so Onyx thinks he's unstoppable since there don't seem to be any jumbo-sized trees around. However, as it happens, fairies don't reveal their true names until they die, and Mercedes' true name is Yggdrasil--a.k.a. ''the World Tree'', so she's the only one who can successfully kill Onyx.]] |
| 207 | ** Oswald needs to face [[spoiler:Gallon, the King of the Netherworld. King Gallon thinks he's invincible because he can only be killed by a) Titanian royalty, and b) someone with Odette's power, who therefore can break Gallon's regenerating curse. In Oswald's case, not only does he have Odette's power, but he's also secretly Titanian royalty himself--he's the son of Edgar, who Gallon banished, and a peasant woman. So Oswald's the only one who fits both requirements.]] |
| 208 | ** Velvet needs to face [[spoiler:the Cauldron. She's the one who knows how to disable the Cauldron, and King Valentine will not finish her off after she does so because King Valentine will recognize Princess Ariel in her and stop.]] |
| 209 | * HappyEndingOverride: The first four books end on a victorious note for the hero involved. All of which goes out the window once the final book begins. |
| 210 | * HarderThanHard: Collecting all text, recipes, and alchemy mixtures, or simply beating the game in the UpdatedRerelease, grants you access to Heroic Mode. In Heroic Mode, your HP never increases, which means you both have to get ''really'' good at dodging attacks and do everything you can to increase your attack power. |
| 211 | * HeadsIWinTailsYouLose: |
| 212 | ** Only a specific character can truly defeat a given disaster during Armageddon. Anyone else will simply die trying, at best achieving a MutualKill while otherwise failing to do much more than temporarily stalling the disaster. |
| 213 | ** Even if Velvet defeats Beldor after falling into his trap, the other Wise Men will still overpower and capture her anyway. |
| 214 | * HeKnowsAboutTimedHits: Every character has a different fighting style, so the first chapter of each of their stories starts with a quick training mission to explain the controls. |
| 215 | * HiddenElfVillage: The Pooka village is built underground, since the land of Valentine has turned into a battleground for the Aesir and the Vanir. Very few know how to find it without help, but the cooking is supreme! |
| 216 | --> '''Pooka''': "It took a lot of work to get it all down here!" |
| 217 | * HoistByHisOwnPetard: An especially tragic example occurs to [[spoiler: Ingway. He uses the Pooka Curse on Beldor in order to save Mercedes... Which allows Beldor to stick around in an undead form after being killed. When Ingway turns himself into the Beast of Darkova, intending to stop the Cauldron and prevent Armageddon, Beldor is able to take control of him by magic and force him to attack Ringford instead]]. |
| 218 | * HorrorHunger: The spell [[spoiler: of Darkova]] seems to cause the user insatiable, sadistic hunger. Both [[spoiler: King Gallon and Ingway lament that the hunger is eating away at them.]] |
| 219 | * HyperactiveMetabolism: |
| 220 | ** Consuming food restores your health ''and'' gives you experience points for increasing your maximum health. |
| 221 | ** In the remake, your maximum health and your attack power are grouped into the same experience pool, so making your character stronger and in a quicker amount of time is just a matter of how often you eat at the restaurants. |
| 222 | * IfICantHaveYou: |
| 223 | ** After being beaten, Onyx considers [[spoiler: keeping Gwendolyn eternally asleep because he knows he can't make her love him. He is stopped by Oswald.]] |
| 224 | ** Twisted but played straight by King Valentine to his daughter. [[spoiler: He strangled her because she bore Odin's children.]] He couldn't bear the thought of her loving both her father and his enemy. |
| 225 | * ImmuneToFlinching: The "Painkiller" potion protects the player from flinching and knockback, while the "Fire / Ice Spirits" potions protect the player from up to three hits. Most bosses can technically be made to flinch, but it takes a ''lot'' more work than garden variety {{mook}}s. |
| 226 | * ImpossibleHourglassFigure: Pretty much any female character, including the female enemies. The Vulcans have an especially narrow waist and large hips. Much like the male characters, the character design for the females is very exaggerated. |
| 227 | * ImpossibleTask: |
| 228 | ** Referenced by Gwendolyn; apparently, Odin gives these to people frequently, and Cornelius is just the latest unfortunate. However, he manages to succeed, with a little help from Gwendolyn. |
| 229 | ** Onyx tries to do this by asking Oswald to [[spoiler: defeat Leventhan]], as a way to indirectly MurderTheHypotenuse. Gwendolyn is not having it. |
| 230 | * ImprobableUseOfAWeapon: Cornelius twirls his sword like a helicopter blade to glide through the air. |
| 231 | * InASingleBound: Some of the {{Sub Boss}}es have Mario-like jumping ability. The mains aren't far off, although at least two of them are wholly or partially capable of flight. |
| 232 | * InfinityPlusOneSword: Actually it's an equip item but still, delivering all the recipes to Maury in ''Lifthrasir'' will earn the player Maury's Bell, which not only has the maximum 55 defense on it, but let's the user take a page from ''VideoGame/DragonsCrown'' and go beyond their max health through food, easily allowing them to hit 7,000+ HP. |
| 233 | * InexplicablyPreservedDungeonMeat: Zigzagged, both killing enemies and clearing out stages will yield treasure chests that sometimes contain minor food items like milk and hot cross buns. With some of these areas it makes sense, like when you're fighting in the capital of Titania or Ragnanival, or on the Valentian battlegrounds where there's tons of soldiers running around everywhere, but then there's also the monster-infested Elrit Forest and the Volkenan Lava Pit where it's less likely to stay fresh. Once the player gets to the Netherworld, however, they quickly find that the only food items that get dropped are old and withered. |
| 234 | * InMediasRes: The game begins in the middle of a battle between Ragnanival and Ringford, with little explanation on what they're fighting over provided on the outset. For added effect, Gwendolyn's story has the latest starting point of all the characters in the overall timeline. |
| 235 | * InterfaceScrew: In several areas, your minimap is unavailable. |
| 236 | * InterfaceSpoiler: The skill tree in ''Leifthrasir'' reveals what locations your PlayerCharacter will be going to at least one chapter ahead of time. |
| 237 | * InterspeciesRomance: |
| 238 | ** Velvet and Cornelius after Cornelius is cursed into a Pooka. [[spoiler: Subverted since Velvet is also transformed in the true ending and they ultimately remove the curse and become human again.]] |
| 239 | ** Ingway and Mercedes [[spoiler: even when you don't take Ingway's frog form into account.]] The former is a human while the latter is a fairy. |
| 240 | * ItemCrafting: Done for potions and recipes. |
| 241 | * JigsawPuzzlePlot: The story prior to [[spoiler:Armageddon]] is spread throughout five books telling different parts of the story from the perspectives of five different characters. Trying to keep track of everything -- such as who does what, what goes where, and when what happens -- ''might'' have been extremely frustrating, especially if you're trying to figure out how the ring Titrel is passed from person to person or how each character pursues their agenda. It doesn't help that the game often jumps through hoops of AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent. ''Thankfully'', the game provides a cinematic theater organized into a comprehensive timeline to properly keep track of everything in a chronological order. |
| 242 | * KaizoTrap: Averted in boss fights. Even if the fight ends with the player and the boss taking each other out, the victory will still go to the player. |
| 243 | * KickTheDog: Occurs with Onyx during the Armageddon chapter on the True End route. [[spoiler: Right when Mercedes is mourning Ingway's death after discovering his corpse, he comes over and gleefully teases her over the fact that her forest has been burned to the ground, ignoring the fact that she's grieving her lover in favor of making her feel even worse. Goes on to become ShootTheDog in the ensuing boss fight.]] |
| 244 | * KillerRabbit: |
| 245 | ** When Leventhan appears for the first time, it is just a cute, little baby dragon with an oversized crown and an eggshell for a helmet. The same hatchling dragon gives Oswald a CurbStompBattle and later attacks Gwendolyn with powerful fire attacks that can OHKO her if she is too underleveled. In the remake, it even gains a new attack in which Leventhan throws a humongous fireball to the ground that causes massive damage. |
| 246 | ** Cornelius is a literal killer rabbit seeing as he's a Pooka and has a magic sword. |
| 247 | * KungFuProofMook: The green Ooze enemies in Titania capital receive only ScratchDamage from melee strikes, a major problem for Cornelius. But they die quickly when hit with a [[KillItWithFire "Napalm" potion]], or Mercedes's crossbow. Blizzard potions, Oswald's [[SuperMode Shadow form]], and Velvet's homing chain will also OneHitKO them as well. They've been fixed in the remake where they now take as much damage from regular hits as with other enemies and don't require specific moves / potions / spells to defeat easily. |
| 248 | * LadyOfWar: |
| 249 | ** The valkyries are graceful females with armour allowing room for their wings. While they are primarily armed with spears, they function as slashing weapons. |
| 250 | ** The female fairy soldiers of Ringford's armies are described to be like this. While they don't have armor like the valkyries (and lack it), they gracefully fly into battle with bows, arrows, and magic staffs. |
| 251 | ** While their true colors aren't shown until the Armageddon book [[spoiler: where their armies burn Ringford to ashes,]] the Vulcans possibly count too seeing as they're an near all-female race who hold flaming swords and loyally stand by their king. |
| 252 | * LastStand: Mercedes's battle against [[spoiler: King Onyx. The forest is in ashes, Onyx feels gleefully destructive, but Mercedes decides she must be a queen to the very end and takes him down by herself.]] |
| 253 | -->'''Mercedes''': I won't stop drawing my bow... |
| 254 | * LeaningOnTheFourthWall: |
| 255 | ** [[spoiler: During the best ending's post-credits scene, the shopkeeper talks to an unseen writer about how peaceful everything is, but he faces towards the screen while doing so, making it look like he's addressing the audience]]. |
| 256 | ** [[spoiler: During the bad ending, Myris exclaims who would wish the world dying around her, and that it's a "terrible ending"]]. |
| 257 | * LethalLavaLand: The Fire Kingdom, home to the fire that existed before the birth of the world, which is also the source of life of the Fire People, whose true forms are made of animated lava. |
| 258 | * LevelGrinding: In the original, this can be done in two ways as the HP and Attack (Psypher) levels are increased by separate gauges: |
| 259 | ** As mentioned in BoringButPractical, equipping the Spirit Stone, casting Phozon Release, and re-absorbing all released Phozons allow the player to quickly increase their Psypher Levels with a full Psypher gauge. The bright side is that it can be done even if there are no enemies. |
| 260 | ** Hoarding recipe materials allows the player to spend a lot of time in the Pooka restaurants, eating the high-EXP foods for increasing their maximum HP. It also helps that there are shopkeepers just outside the restaurant (or that you can teleport between the Pooka Village and your home base in some of the chapters) that sell some of the rarest ingredients - You can essentially go back and forth between buying stuff and eating stuff as you grind for HP levels. If the Yogurt is used in dungeons, this can also be done after combat. |
| 261 | * LevelUpFillUp: Your HP will be refilled every time you gain a new HP level. |
| 262 | * LifeDrain: The Vampiric Ring allows you to absorb HP by attacking enemies. |
| 263 | * LifeEnergy: Phozons are the source of life in Erion. Fairies are composed of Phozons and when they die, the Phozons return to the land to be used anew. Psyphers, utilizing their powers by absorbing Phozons are actually destructive because of that, and it's telling that the natural blue Psypher crystals can only be found in the Netherworld. |
| 264 | * LimitBreak: ''Lifthrasir'' gives each protagonist a powerful cinematic attack that they can obtain in their epilogues. While they do deal astronomical amounts of damage, [[AwesomeButImpractical they take a whopping 50 PP to use]]. |
| 265 | * LiterallyShatteredLives: Upon defeat, the Vulcans will [[TakenForGranite turn to stone]]. And since all of them float, even when turned into stone, gravity will pull them down, shattering them into bits. |
| 266 | * LivingShadow: The Revenants ("Bugbears" in Leifthrasir) in the mountain are huge walking shadows that sometimes materialize when they fight you. In the past they were Shadow Knights as well and wielders of the Belderiver, but now they've degraded into tormented wandering souls. [[spoiler: Oswald turns into one of them if he tries to take on King Onyx in the Armageddon.]] |
| 267 | * LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: An unfortunate trade-off for the abundance of wonderful, high-resolution, hand-drawn art running in the [=PS2=]'s engine, but that doesn't make it any less annoying when it happens. The [=PS3=] port of the original fixed some of it. Completely gone with the Remaster, as there are virtually no loading times. |
| 268 | * LostWeddingRing: Simple math -- Oswald gives Gwendolyn the ring that her father wants very badly, and she wants her father's love. [[spoiler: Oswald takes the news very badly.]] |
| 269 | * LoveAtFirstSight: |
| 270 | ** Oswald seemed pretty taken with Gwendolyn the moment he first laid eyes on her while sneaking into Ragnanival. Granted, she did have her hair down and was wearing an evening gown at the time. [[spoiler: Alternatively, that just got him to notice she ''existed'', and see her as a woman rather than just an enemy soldier. He probably also sympathized with her singular desire to make her father happy. But actually falling in love with her required losing his purpose in life, seeing a symbolic vision of her which gave him hope, and remembering a dragon's advice that "the bird" would be his destiny. Also the thought that Gwendolyn would love him, as Odin promised, since he was desperate for ''anyone'' to love him at that point.]] |
| 271 | ** Mercedes, technically, given that the first time she sees [[spoiler: Ingway's human form]], she's quite clearly smitten. Ironically in the ''Little Fairy Queen'' manga, it's heavily implied that [[spoiler: Ingway]] fell in love with Mercedes when he got a good look at her during their first meeting. |
| 272 | * LoveHurts: Love, the difficulties it brings and its consequences are a driving force behind the story. Many characters are motivated by romantic or familial love, and the BigBad's horrible actions are the result of feeling betrayed by the daughter he loved greatly. |
| 273 | * LoveMakesYouCrazy: King Valentine. His daughter falling in love with [[spoiler: Odin and bearing his children (Velvet and Ingway), to him, meant that she didn't love him anymore and so he killed her with his bare hands. Overlaps with LoveMakesYouEvil as the main reason why he's an OmnicidalManiac -- he can't live with himself even after death knowing he killed her. But it's also strongly implied that enchanting the Valentine kingdom's coins made him a little crazy to begin with.]] |
| 274 | * LuckyCharmsTitle: The logo for ''Leifthrasir'' is rendered as LEIFÞRASIR, with a thorn. Thorn is a regular letter in Icelandic and Old Norse, but is unlikely to be widely recognised. |
| 275 | * MagicKiss: |
| 276 | ** Apparently the kiss of a powerful fairy is capable of breaking certain curses, namely the more potent version of the frog transformation. [[spoiler: After spending the first four chapters of Fairy Land trying to convince Mercedes to kiss him, Ingway is finally freed of his frog form after Mercedes gives him a peck on the head.]] |
| 277 | ** Subverted with Oswald. While his kisses certainly aren't magic, a kiss is the key to waking Gwendolyn from her slumber. |
| 278 | * MagicKnight: The remake turns Gwendolyn, Cornelius, and Oswald into this. They're still martial warriors, but now they're capable of casting spells that utilize [[AnIcePerson ice]], [[ShockAndAwe lightning]], and [[CastingAShadow darkness]] respectively. |
| 279 | * ManipulativeBastard: |
| 280 | ** Odin and Gwendolyn will refer differently to each other (princess versus valkyrie, father versus king) in order to provoke different reactions. Any time Odin wants something from Gwendolyn, he'll play on her emotions, interchanging familial address with knighthood rank. |
| 281 | ** The Three Wise Men. Each is stationed as a powerful advisor for the three main kingdoms in Erion, and all are working to bring forth the coming of Armageddon. |
| 282 | ** Ingway, who manipulates Cornelius, the Wise Men, Odette, and even Velvet, who is his twin sister, all in the name of achieving his goal. |
| 283 | * MeaningfulName: The UpdatedRerelease's subtitle, Leifthrasir, refers to one of two humans who were foretold to survive [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Ragnarök]] and [[AdamAndEvePlot repopulate the world]]: Leif / "Life" (a woman) and Leifthrasir / "Lover of Life" (a man). At the end of the game, you discover [[spoiler: Gwendolyn and Oswald were Leif and Leifthrasir respectively.]] |
| 284 | * MechanicalAbomination: The Cauldron is fairly unsettling in appearance, undulating not unlike a mechanical organ. [[spoiler:Then, in the Book of Armageddon, it gets up and walks, with large blue cables flailing about its sides like large blood vessels.]] |
| 285 | * MercyInvincibility: Occurs if an enemy attack knocks you to the ground. The "Painkiller" potion, which blocks {{knockback}}, unfortunately prevents this from kicking in. |
| 286 | * MetalSlime: Fittingly enough, a normal slime miniboss in the remake is probably one of the more convenient ways to amass a large amount of Phozons for the purpose of leveling up your skills: since it's an AsteroidsMonster that creates smaller slimes as you keep hitting it and each of those smaller slimes releases Phozons when killed, you'll gain around 150-200 Phozons on average every time you fight it. It's also one of the best places to use Gold potions that increase coin drop rate from killed enemies, including the rare Valentinian coins if the potion has high enough of a rank. Unfortunately Gwendolyn can't fight it and has to use other methods to get enough Phozons to level up her skills. |
| 287 | * MonsterKnight: Ringford has ''{{Unicorn}}'' Knights in its ranks. |
| 288 | * MushroomMan: Appears in Ringford as a miniboss in ''Leifthrasir''. It shifts between three forms. One is a tiny little mushroom with slight anthropomorphic behaviors which is fairly weak. The second is a hulking fungal giant that grows a sprawling field of [[PoisonousPerson poisonous mushrooms]]. The last is a dangerously agile and [[CuteMonsterGirl very attractive mushroom girl]]. |
| 289 | * MutualKill: Happens a lot in the Book of Armageddon, depending on who you send to fight whom. [[spoiler: Canonically, only Mercedes suffers this fate as she and Onyx destroy each other during their battle. However, in the incorrect pairings, this is a more frequent occurrence, particularly in battles against Darkova or The Cauldron.]] |
| 290 | * NewGamePlus: |
| 291 | ** The player can "re-read" a character's book after completing it, playing through the story with the same levels and items they had when finishing it. For a more literal "re-reading", there's also the Archive Gallery, which allows you to skip all of the gameplay while enjoying all of the story from all five characters, piecing together how the different threads fit. |
| 292 | ** In ''Leifthrasir'' there's Xtra New Game, which lets you carry equipment, items, levels, and skills into a new file, and find stronger accessories. |
| 293 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: Almost ''everything'' done by the main characters to further their own agendas unwittingly ends up making the Apocalypse happen. In fact, just using [[spoiler: Psyphers is slowly killing the world by disrupting the cycle of souls and new life]]. They are the Cauldron on a smaller scale. None of them know of the negative consequences their own actions result in. The only character who is fully knowledgeable on Armageddon and is actively attempting to stop it is [[spoiler: Velvet]], who still isn't exempt from this. |
| 294 | * NintendoHard: As with all Creator/{{Atlus}} titles, this one is no exception. Enemies and projectiles flying off in multiple directions simultaneously can occasionally trigger a [[DisasterDominoes cascading disaster]]. For example, you can get dizzied by a laser beam, torched by wizard's flame, [[ForcedTransformation turned into a frog]] and ''then'' [[DeathFromAbove one-hit killed from above]] by a midboss' jumping attack. All within the span of ten seconds. The remake is much more forgiving compared to the original, although if you choose to play Hard or Heroic mode, it becomes as difficult as the original. |
| 295 | * NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: None of the principle protagonists are entirely good or entirely evil. Sadly, many of those who do more kind acts than bad end up suffering as a result. |
| 296 | ** Gwendolyn saves Velvet from being executed by Brigan so that her father won't suffer the pain of losing someone he loves. For her trouble, she gets stripped her status as a Valkyrie and wed off to a stranger, though things do improve for her since said stranger truly loves her and isn't the abusive asshole she feared he would be (and implicitly what most Valkyrie end up with). |
| 297 | ** All Cornelius wanted to do was see Velvet and express his undying feelings for her. What happens? [[spoiler: A jealous Ingway curses him into Pooka and he's sent to the Netherworld by the Wise Men.]] Much of the first half of his story is him just looking for help, only to either be attacked, forced to do some difficult task, or being outright humiliated. It isn't until he gets horribly wounded rescuing Velvet from separate encounters with Mercedes and King Valentine that things actually start looking up for him. |
| 298 | ** Probably the worst case ends up happening to Mercedes, whose entire plotline is essentially a ShootTheShaggyDog story. She successfully quells a rebellion instigated by her cousin, calms a raging dragon, returns a frog to its human form [[spoiler: and falls mutually in love with said human]], rescues a dwarven blacksmith from the Netherworld, and defeats the most feared warlord in the land, earning the respect of everyone in Erion. What happens? [[spoiler:First she loses the spoil of her victory to the banished daughter of said warlord. Her kingdom is destroyed and all its citizens slaughtered, she discovers that her lover died before they could meet again, and the final battle she has against Onyx ultimately results in a MutualKill.]] |
| 299 | * NoManOfWomanBorn: |
| 300 | ** Onyx is doomed to be stopped by TheWorldTree. Since there's no known World Tree in Erion he therefore believes he's impossible to kill. [[spoiler: Mercedes's true name is Yggdrasil, the name of the Norse mythology world tree, and to get the good ending you must have her kill him.]] |
| 301 | ** Because of an immortality curse that Odette cast on King Gallon, [[spoiler: only someone with Odette's power can kill him. On top of that, it was prophesied that only someone of Titanian royal blood would kill him. Fortunately, it turns out that Oswald meets both criteria.]] |
| 302 | ** It is said that no man can defeat the six-eyed beast. [[spoiler: In order to get the good ending, you must defeat it with Cornelius, who is no longer a man, but a Pooka.]] |
| 303 | * NoOntologicalInertia: Plants wither once their fruits have been harvested. |
| 304 | * NonCombatEXP: In this game, you ''don't gain EXP'' by simply killing enemies - You absorb Phozons to increase your Psypher Levels (attack power) and you eat food to increase your HP levels. |
| 305 | ** Changed in the remake so your characters now have normal levels and enemies drop EXP, but eating food is still the best way to increase your experience (eating one of the weakest healing fruits to killing 30 enemies), and eating gives you an instant increase to HP. Phozons are now used as a currency to upgrade skills or feed seeds. |
| 306 | * NonMammalMammaries: The [[AmazonBrigade Vulcans]] in their true form are supposed to be [[MagmaMan lava elementals]], but they do sport some jiggly boobs. One of the forms of the Myrconid, a shapeshifting boss that resembles a mushroom, resembles a beautiful young woman with large assets. Also the female Geist seen in the Underworld are big-breasted. Weirdly inverted with the Pooka females, who ''are'' mammals. |
| 307 | * NotSoDifferentRemark: |
| 308 | ** In Gwendolyn's story, the [[SpiritAdvisor blue bird]] intentionally notes this about Gwendolyn and Oswald's desire to have the love of someone they care about: Gwendolyn for her father Odin and Oswald for Gwendolyn herself, clearly wanting her to admit that Oswald isn't a bad guy like she's trying to tell herself. |
| 309 | ** In Oswald's story, Oswald himself admits this to [[{{Jerkass}} King Onyx]] [[spoiler:regarding their feelings for Gwendolyn and their hidden fears she would only see them as monsters]], which is what motivates his SympathyForTheDevil attitude after their fight. |
| 310 | ** In Velvet's story, Velvet calls out her father Odin to be this with her grandfather [[BigBad King Valentine]], a [[ArchEnemy man Odin despises]], due to how they both [[spoiler:brought pain to a daughter who loves them despite their abuse and only realizing how they truly felt for said daughter when their actions separate them (Odin banishing and putting Gwendolyn in an enchanted sleep, Valentine strangling Ariel to death)]]. |
| 311 | ** During Armageddon, [[spoiler:Ingway calls himself and his hated/feared grandfather King Valentine to be very much alike in how they're both men who lust for power. Right before revealing exactly [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique what kind of power he's obtained]].]] |
| 312 | * OlderThanTheyLook: [[spoiler: Cornelius and Velvet lived centuries after the Armageddon in the True Ending and finally amassed every single Valentine coin. They break the Pooka curse on themselves, reverting back to humans, looking exactly the way the were before getting cursed. No one would think they are actually over a millennia old]]. |
| 313 | * OneHeadTaller: |
| 314 | ** Both artbooks state that Cornelius stands at 183cm (6') while Velvet stands at 166cm (5'4"), with their height difference very noticeable during cutscenes where Cornelius isn't a Pooka. |
| 315 | ** Ingway and Mercedes. Although Ingway's official height isn't listed, Mercedes is said to stand at 151cm (4'11 1/2") in her artbook profiles (whether this includes her wings or not isn't stated). During the cutscene where [[spoiler: Mercedes breaks the frog curse on Ingway and returns him to his human form]], she quite clearly barely reaches his chin. |
| 316 | * OneHundredPercentCompletion: Doing everything right (completing all of the story chapters, watching all of the cutscenes, and eating all of the available foods) nets you [[spoiler: a bonus scene where Velvet and Cornelius collect all of the Valentinian coins and undo the Pooka curse]]. |
| 317 | * OurDragonsAreDifferent: There are three dragons in the game: Hindel, a wise, future-seeing dragon who offered advice to the fairies and Velvet before being killed by Oswald as a demonstration of his Psypher's power; Belial, whose compassion to humans doomed him into being deceived by the Wise Men and being enslaved by their magic; and Wagner, the enormously angry King of Dragons who refuses to listen to reason until you beat the tar out of him first. And then there's Leventhan, the Last Dragon, one of the prophesied Five Disasters. As the game draws primarily upon western fairy tails and epics, the dragons follow the western prototype of reptilian appearance and breathing fire. |
| 318 | * OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: The only dwarves that are ever seen are all old, short, balding, bearded guys who universally love blacksmithing. Even the Lillipats -- dwarves allied with the fairies, and forbidden to forge anything -- remain largely the same. |
| 319 | * OurElvesAreDifferent: The faeries of Ringford (led by ''Elf''aria, and her nephew M''elvin''), take the role of the "elf" race in this story. The fairies are mostly of the Wood Elf variety, secluded in their country, being expert bowmen and are in-tune with nature and Phozons. |
| 320 | * OurGargoylesRock: Some of the enemies encountered in Nebulapolis are small Gargoyles that can only be engaged in combat by getting near their statues. |
| 321 | * OutsideTheBoxTactic: Glue Onyx to the spot with an "Ooze" potion to stop ThatOneAttack. Doesn't work anymore in the remake, unfortunately. |
| 322 | * ParentalFavoritism: Early on, it becomes painfully obvious that Odin shows more love to Velvet (who resents him for very good reasons) than to his other children (who absolutely revere him or, in the case of Ingway, despise him). This still doesn't stop him from allowing her to be executed to save face in front of his vassals. Odin's not exactly Father of the Year. He eventually admits this and starts to regret it. |
| 323 | * PayingInCoins: |
| 324 | ** The player can invoke this trope. You have to manually select the coins you want to pay with when buying things. The coins vary from the cheap Ragnanival Silver (worth 1G) to the rare and valuable Commemorative Coin (worth 20G). It's possible to buy expensive things and pay them with a truckload of Ragnan Silver. This comes in handy when you reach the Pooka Village and find out that the restaurant and cafe only accept Valentinian coins (and require a specific type for each dish.) |
| 325 | ** The remaster streamlines this system, removing the necessity of manually selecting which coins you use for purchases and combining Ragnan Silver and Titanian Gold into a single "Gold" pool for shopping purposes. Valentinian coins are now held completely separate from your everyday cash and are only accepted at the Pooka restaurants, rather than being spendable at other shops. |
| 326 | * PermanentlyMissableContent: Do ''not'' spend Valentinian commemorative coins (the highest denomination of coin) anywhere except at Pooka restaurants. The remaster reworks the currency system so that the Pooka restaurants are now the only place you ''can'' spend Valentinian coins, removing the risk. |
| 327 | * PersonalSpaceInvader: The green Ooze enemies in Titania capital. They also happen to be Onyx's weakness in the original. |
| 328 | * PlayingWithFire: |
| 329 | ** Velvet can use Fire Attacks in the remake. |
| 330 | ** All characters have access to "Blaze" or "Volcano" potions, which cause various fire-based effects. |
| 331 | * PowerGlows: All Psyphers are attached with red or blue crystals that occasionally glow. Though it becomes more evident as the player absorbs Phozons - the crystals visibly shine. |
| 332 | * ProphecyTwist: Quite a few. The vague wording of the prophecy of the Armageddon leads to many [[PropheticFallacy Prophetic Fallacies]] as well. Hindel, the future-seeing dragon, lampshades this and is something of a deconstruction. Because every hint of the future he gives always had twists, he stopped giving help. As for the twists themselves: |
| 333 | ** "A fiery six-eyed beast speeds the guiding hand of salvation. The one who removes the torment is mine own son." [[spoiler:Ingway uses a secret Titanian spell to transform into the Beast of Darkova, a three-headed (and thus, six-eyed) beast. The one who can kill Ingway and free him from the curse of his transformation is Cornelius, the Titanian prince, as only Titanian royalty can fell the Darkova.]] |
| 334 | ** "The Lord of the Netherworld emerges in a triumphant march of death. One that threatens the darkness is the shadow of the lost master." [[spoiler:With Odette dead, King Gallon, himself an undead Beast of Darkova, is unleashed, destroying Titania and killing his own son, King Edmund, as he leads an army of the damned into the land of the living. As with Ingway, the only one who can kill Gallon is someone of Titanian royalty, but because of his undead nature, it must also be someone with Odette's power over death. Oswald fits both bills: as someone whose soul was offered to Odette in exchange for power, he has many of her powers over death; but he is also the son of Prince Edgar, King Edmund's brother and son of King Gallon, thus making him Titanian royalty.]] |
| 335 | ** "The looming blaze cometh, burning down the forests. The flood of fire that man cannot withstand is halted by the world tree and vanishes." [[spoiler:With the Fire Kingdom sinking into the sea, Inferno King Onyx launches an invasion on the human world, burning through Ringford. Onyx, himself, is confident that he cannot be bested, because the "world tree" in the prophecy doesn't exist...or at the very least, not as a tree. The one destined to defeat Onyx is actually Mercedes, whose [[IKnowYourTrueName true name]] is Yggdrasil -- the same name as the world tree. After the credits roll following the GoldenEnding, to further reinforce the symbolism, a tree grows around Mercedes's crossbow.]] |
| 336 | ** "Though blades and arrows are unleashed, the flooding fire cannot be stopped. It can only be chained." [[spoiler:This psalm references Velvet's Psypher, the chain Graveyrl. Pitting any other character against the Cauldron results in its furnace core being damaged, resulting in it GoingCritical. Velvet, on the other hand, has the ring Titrel, which can safely shut down the Cauldron without making it explode.]] |
| 337 | ** "The Lord of Snakes consumes all left behind. Born in chaos and fire, sleep in mother's arms, life disappears from the land, all comes to an end." [[spoiler:The Lord of Snakes is Levanthan, who is hatched in the Fire Kingdom, then further incubated within the Cauldron before emerging as a massive continent-spanning serpentine dragon. As for who the prophecy calls to face Levanthan: the task must fall to Gwendolyn, who -- if the other prophecies have been fulfilled -- is the last remaining human woman in the world, thus becoming the mother of a new humanity, alongside Oswald, after Velvet uses the Cauldron and everyone's Psyphers to revive the world.]] |
| 338 | ** The prophecy also alludes to two "crownless princes" who will rule over the world after Armageddon. [[spoiler:This refers to Gwendolyn and Oswald, both of whom are of royal blood, but by the end of the game, are not in any position of power: Gwendolyn, because she was exiled from Odin's kingdom for disobedience; and Oswald, who is the son of the exiled Prince Edgar of Titania. In essences, two princes (or a prince and princess) who had been robbed of their crowns.]] |
| 339 | * ProtagonistCenteredMorality: A number of characters are at odds with each other (such as Mercedes and Odin,) so how they're portrayed differs between campaigns. For example, Ingway, in Cornelius' campaign, is a snide JerkAss who curses Cornelius so that he can't be with his sister Velvet. Then he appears in Mercedes' campaign, where he's far more likable, even becoming a love interest for her. Then he appears in Velvet's campaign, where he's back to being a JerkAss, but is portrayed far more tragically as his and Velvet's backstories are fleshed out. |
| 340 | * RandomDropBooster: The Luck Stone equipment increases item drop rates. |
| 341 | * RareCandy: Eating food prepared in the Pooka restaurants not only provides experience towards a level-up (see HyperactiveMetabolism), but an immediate boost to the character's maximum HP. |
| 342 | * RealAfterAll: The whole game is just a series of stories read by Alice in the attic. Getting to the True end, she is saddened at how the story ended, then noticed the latest book's cover ornament looks like a Valentine coin. She takes it off and prays that the Pooka would find the coin until she reminded herself that it was only a story. [[spoiler: After she leaves, a portal opens up to reveal Cornelius and Velvet coming out to retrieve the coin and leave a final book in its place. This heavily hints that the world Alice and her family lives in is actually the future after the Armageddon happened]]. |
| 343 | * RecurringRiff: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-jznhkAL_4 "Odin Sphere's Theme"]] makes numerous appearances throughout the soundtrack, including the title theme, the world map / FinalBoss theme and the FinalBoss theme for the Bad Ending. |
| 344 | * RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Odin, Ingway, and Belial]]. |
| 345 | * RewatchBonus: Surely, you'd want to access the Story option from the pause menu, it allows you to view all cutscenes that you've previously unlocked, as well as displaying a chronological timeline to tell which cutscene runs concurrently with another. In other words, the menu puts together all scenes in a cohesive manner, like assembled jigsaw puzzles of a complex plot. |
| 346 | * RoaringRampageOfRomance: Gwendolyn and Oswald, which is very, very loosely based on Wagner's ''Theatre/DerRingDesNibelungen''. They meet on a battlefield and between the two of them have stormed cities and [[ToHellAndBack literally]] gone to hell and back for each other. [[CannotSpitItOut Without even knowing how the other feels.]] |
| 347 | * RousingSpeech: Mercedes delivers one to her kingdom as they prepare to meet the Aesir in combat. It shows just how far she has come as a leader. |
| 348 | * RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Four of the five main characters are princes, princesses, and queens. [[spoiler: Even Oswald turns out to be a long-lost prince of Titania, and Cornelius' cousin.]] Even the supporting cast gets in on this. The only royal who doesn't really do anything is King Edmund, who's just too old and feeble at this point (but still has [[spoiler: killing his father after he transformed into the Darkova and ran amok]] [[RetiredBadass as part of his backstory.]]) |
| 349 | * SadBattleMusic: For the FinalBoss fight if the player is on the track to the Bad Ending. |
| 350 | * SceneryGorn: |
| 351 | ** [[spoiler: During Armageddon. Perhaps the biggest example being the fight with King Gallon, where the player can watch Titania slowly crumble and sink into the sea in the background.]] |
| 352 | ** [[spoiler: During the battles against the Darkova and King Onyx, Ringford is up in flames.]] |
| 353 | * SceneryPorn: Absolutely ''gorgeous'' 2-D artwork. Some enemies like Belial and Darkova are also incredibly detailed and beautifully animated. |
| 354 | * ShieldedCoreBoss: The "King of the Underworld" in the final chapter. Destroying his three heads is not enough to kill him, but it does expose his heart to damage, at least until his heads regenerate. |
| 355 | * ShockAndAwe: Cornelius can use Lightning Attacks in the remake. |
| 356 | * ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: Mercedes' story. Faced with the collapse of her kingdom in the face of all-out war against the Aesir, Mercedes [[ComingOfAgeStory overcomes her own immaturity and nervousness]], rallies her kingdom, reforges her mother's sacred weapon and defeats the Demon Lord in single combat, securing the cauldron and negotiating a peace treaty for her country. Along the way, finds her OneTrueLove, who promises that they will one day meet again. All quite rousing... Then we get to the Book of Armageddon and see that, almost immediately afterwards, the Fairy Kingdom was destroyed and her people slaughtered by the Fire Kingdom, Ingway gets killed before Mercedes can ever see him again, and she quickly joins him after a [[MutualKill battle to the death against Onyx]]. Turns out just about everything that happened in the Fairyland book was for naught. Mitigated slightly in the final unlocked scene of the game, a still image indicating that Mercedes became a literal world tree and her and Ingway are together in death somehow deep within her roots.]] |
| 357 | * ShoutOut: |
| 358 | ** The Napples return from ''VideoGame/PrincessCrown''. A common misconception is they are also a reference to ''VideoGame/NappleTaleArsiaInDaydream''. |
| 359 | ** Lots and lots in regards to Norse Mythology. Aside from the more obvious things like Odin, the Valkyries, Nidhogg and Yggdrasil, there are also the locations in the game. Ragnanival-> Asgard; Ringford-> Vangard; Endelphia-> Utgard; Titania-> Midgard. |
| 360 | ** A large portion of Mercedes' and Ingway's intertwined plot reminds one of ''Literature/TheFrogPrince'', where [[spoiler:a kiss from the princess turns the frog back into his human form.]] |
| 361 | ** In ''Leifthrasir'', Gwendolyn's Ultimate Move greatly resembles Lenneth Valkyrie's Nibelung Valesti from ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile''. For bonus points, both games are heavily inspired by Norse Mythology and feature playable Valkyries. |
| 362 | ** The Dragon Wagner is named after Music/RichardWagner, who wrote ''Theatre/DerRingDesNibelungen'', upon which ''Odin Sphere'' itself was based upon. |
| 363 | * SimultaneousArcs: Each protagonist's arc crosses with another's at some point. They even face the same bosses and visit the same stages while the others are busy somewhere else. The in-game theater provides players with an exact timeline. Most notable is the portion of the story that takes place in Titania, which plays into the story in how the Wise Men are ultimately defeated due to being separated by the other characters. |
| 364 | * SingleUseShield: The "Fire / Ice Spirits" potions surround the player with three rotating elemental spirits, which can absorb one strike each. |
| 365 | * SlippySlideyIceWorld: Horn Mountain of Winterhorn Ridge is a snowy mountain where ice elementals will try to freeze you and the low temperature slowly depletes your health if you lack a "Warmer" potion. |
| 366 | * SnicketWarningLabel: The sixth book is titled "Armageddon"; [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt guess what happens]]. |
| 367 | * SpellMyNameWithAnS: The English translation by Atlus USA changes many of the character names in terms of spelling, even though most of them are pronounced the same. For instance, Odin was originally "Ordyne" while Ingway was "Yngwie." |
| 368 | * StarCrossedLovers: Since love is a major theme, almost every pairing in the game deals with outside influences threatening to tear them apart. |
| 369 | ** Gwendolyn and Oswald fall in love with each other and are married, but there are others who would rather have one of them for themselves; Gwendolyn was originally promised to Inferno King Onyx as his bride by Odin while Oswald's soul was sold to Odette in order to obtain the powers of the Shadow Knight. |
| 370 | ** Velvet and Cornelius love each other, but Velvet's kingdom has long been destroyed and Cornelius is a prince, meaning his father isn't particularly excited about their affair. Additionally, Ingway, Velvet's brother, is categorically opposed to her seeing that "oaf" [[spoiler: and is the one who curses Cornelius into a Pooka in order to try and keep them away from each other.]] |
| 371 | ** Mercedes eventually falls for [[spoiler: Ingway]], but the fact that he's [[spoiler: a DeathSeeker with really dangerous plans for himself and ends up becoming a TragicMonster means their story doesn't end well. How it ends is determined by the route the player takes during the Armageddon.]] |
| 372 | ** In the backstory, Odin and Princess Ariel of Valentine fell for each other without knowing their identities. Since their kingdoms were at war, the romance ended tragically. |
| 373 | * StatusEffects: Poison, Flame, Freeze, and [[ForcedTransformation Frog]]. |
| 374 | * TheStinger: [[spoiler: If you manage to get the best ending, there's a post-credits scene where a shopkeeper talks to an unseen traveler about how peaceful everything is and the playable cast all make an appearance one more time. The shopkeeper trades the traveler a Valentine Coin and reveals the traveler is a writer, implying the traveler is Alice's grandfather (the writer of the books)]]. |
| 375 | * StorybookOpening: Each character's chapter is a book Alice is reading. [[spoiler: However, some of the endings imply that it isn't a work of fiction.]] |
| 376 | * {{Stripperiffic}}: |
| 377 | ** In Velvet's chapter, several merchants comment on her outfit. One of the merchants in the snow level says something to the effect of, "You're up here on this mountain and you're dressed like ''that?'' You're tough! Buy a warming potion, will you?" The other mountain merchant wonders if the "half-naked chick" is just a hallucination. |
| 378 | ** The female fairies of Ringford also count, as they wear nothing by elbow-length gloves, knee-high boots, and bikinis to battle. In sharp contrast, the males wear full body armour. |
| 379 | ** The Vulcans, in their human forms; they're pretty much wearing vinyl thigh-highs and halter tops more boob window than shirt. |
| 380 | * SuicidalOverconfidence: In Oswald's book, you can hear conversations between Vanir soldiers who, after the initial skirmish witnessed in the prologue of Gwendolyn's book, feel secure in their chances against the Aesir, including confidence in Belial's might and writing off [[DespairEventHorizon Gwendolyn]] as no longer a credible threat after killing her older sister in said skirmish. This in spite of the fact that the Aesir still have Brigan and Odin. [[ForegoneConclusion As anyone who's gotten far enough in the game to hear these talks would know,]] [[OneManArmy Gwendolyn]] not only becomes the most dangerous thing to sweep the battlefield aside from Odin because of her DeathSeeker mentality, said dragon, which was supposed to be their trump card, is delayed and defeated by Gwendolyn, resulting in Odin getting to Elfaria and mortally wounding her, sealing an overwhelming victory for the Aesir. |
| 381 | * SummonMagic: |
| 382 | ** Mercedes has the ability to summon a butterfly that attacks with her when she's firing her bow in the remake. Different butterflies has a different direction of attack. |
| 383 | ** Fire Spirits and Ice Spirits Alchemy Potions summon [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Fire Spirits and Ice Spirits]]. In the original game, the spirits will block 3 hits no matter how strong the attack. In the remake, they assist you by dealing damage to those who get close to you and inflict their element's status effect (burning or freezing) on the enemy. |
| 384 | * SuperMode: |
| 385 | ** Oswald gets Shadow Form, an ability that transforms him into the Shadow Knight by holding the the Attack button for a few seconds. This mode greatly enhances his abilities, but jacks up his POW consumption to such a high rate that it's AwesomeButImpractical without an auxiliary item to rapidly restore POW. |
| 386 | ** ''Leifthrasir'' replaces Shadow Form with Berserk Mode. By filling the Berserk Gauge through attacking or getting hit, Oswald can transform into the Shadow Knight with R1 + Triangle. While in Berserk, Oswald's damage, speed, attack speed, and Skills are all greatly amplified with no drawbacks. Oswald can also learn skills that grants Berserk certain boons, such as reducing damage taken by half. |
| 387 | ** In ''Leifthrasir'', Cornelius can find the Psypher Skill Lightning Saber. Lightning Saber causes Cornelius to point his Psypher skyward until it receives a lightning strike. If the skill is successfully performed without being interrupted, Cornelius enters a pseudo-super state where his movement speed increases to insane levels, his attack speed goes up, all of his attacks fire electric shots that have a high chance to stagger or inflict Dizzy, and his dash attack transforms Cornelius into a redirectable bolt of electricity that leaves behind a trail, inflicting damage over time to enemies that come into contact with it. |
| 388 | * TakingYouWithMe: |
| 389 | ** [[spoiler: Belial killing Urzur, who had been controlling him, just before he dies of his mortal wounds.]] |
| 390 | ** There's also the {{Action Bomb}}s in the Inferno Cavern, whose dying explosion is typically a OneHitKill. |
| 391 | ** Many alternate Armageddon scenes have [[spoiler:a dying Ingway backstabbing one of the Three Wise Men]]. |
| 392 | * TalkingAnimal: |
| 393 | ** The dragons are all capable of human speech with the exception of Leventhan. |
| 394 | ** Compared to all other frogs seen in the game, the Frog that appears in Mercedes's story is more than capable of offering a few snarky quips. [[spoiler: It makes sense seeing that the frog is really Ingway, who was cursed into that form.]] |
| 395 | * TeleportSpam: The Mage enemies and Wise Men bosses love to teleport around everywhere. |
| 396 | * TertiarySexualCharacteristics: |
| 397 | ** Fairies are humanoid and don't really require this, but even so Female Fairies have larger butterfly-like wings, while Male ones have small grasshopper-like wings that are too small to fly with. |
| 398 | ** Female Pooka's hoods are decorated and they wear aprons, while the male Pooka designs are simpler. |
| 399 | * TitleDrop: [[spoiler: During the best ending's stinger; the book the traveling author will write is going to be titled ''Odin Sphere'']]. |
| 400 | * TogetherInDeath: |
| 401 | ** [[spoiler: Odin and Griselda]]. The former literally embraces the latter's ghost in death, finding solace in that they will at least be reunited. |
| 402 | ** [[spoiler: Ingway and Mercedes. It's not as apparent in the original, but the remake features an alternate end card showing that the roots of the World Tree have extended down into the depths of the Netherworld where Ingway is.]] |
| 403 | * ToHellAndBack: Every playable character visits the Netherworld at some point. |
| 404 | ** Gwendolyn visits it in the final stage, to [[spoiler: free Oswald from Odette's clutches.]] |
| 405 | ** Cornelius is sent there in the beginning of the game so he wouldn't interfere in the Three Wise Men's plans. He escaped. |
| 406 | ** Mercedes descends there voluntarily to find Brom, a legendary swordsmith who had been banished there. |
| 407 | ** Oswald is sent there twice. The Halja take him when he's cursing Melvin's betrayal and when he's heartbroken by [[spoiler: Gwendolyn's seeming rejection of his feelings.]] |
| 408 | ** Velvet goes down there with Skuldi to see [[spoiler: King Gallon]] and learn more about the Psalms foretelling Armageddon. |
| 409 | ** Odin and the Three Wise Men know ways in and out of the Netherworld, causing Odette much annoyance, since she doesn't particularly like them. |
| 410 | ** King Valentine was imprisoned there for years after the destruction of his country, but manages to escape as a skeletal Pooka due to Cornelius's unwitting help. |
| 411 | * ThemeNaming: |
| 412 | ** Every (named) female Pooka has a name that begins with "M". |
| 413 | ** The Wise Men have names derived from the Norns: Urzur (Urd), Beldor (Verthandi, also known as [[Manga/AhMyGoddess Belldandy]] in Japan) and Skuldi (Skuld). |
| 414 | * UnexpectedShmupLevel: In ''Leifthrasir'' two of Mercedes' mid-boss battles, against a Vulcan in the Volkenon Lava Pit and the Dwarven Battleship in the Storming Battlefields, have her take to the air to face off against them. [[AntiFrustrationFeatures She even gets unlimited POW meter for the battles]]. |
| 415 | * UnintentionallyUnwinnable: During Chapter 2 of the original, try not to have a full bag when you get to the Forest of Elrit. The Alchemy system is introduced there, and there are things you'll need to pick up in order to move the game along. If your bags are full when the Tutorial begins, you won't be able to drop excess items to make space since it disables all but the Materials you pick up, effectively casting you into limbo unless you reset the game. |
| 416 | * UselessUsefulSpell: The "Killer Cloud" potion leaves behind a toxic cloud that kills anything after a short delay, regardless of how much HP it has left. Unfortunately, this has a tendency not to work on boss enemies, but ''always'' on you. Sure, it kills slimes, but you've always got Napalm for doing that cheaper. Fixed in the remake where it's essentially a beefed-up Toxin potion from the original. |
| 417 | * VideoGameCrueltyPotential: It's always to your advantage to slaughter animals that you personally raise from birth. Most notably are chickens, which, upon being hatched, grow up and lay eggs as you feed them seeds. [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Once you've gotten all the eggs you want from them]], you can then kill the bird, harvest its meat, and turn it over to a Pooka chef who will in turn cook a succulent meal that will raise your stats. |
| 418 | * VideoGameRemake: ''Leifthrasir'', which includes remastered graphics, a redone translation, and, most notably, a heavily overhauled gameplay system that more closely resembles Vanillaware's more recent HackAndSlash titles like ''VideoGame/DragonsCrown''. For fans of the original, the game also includes Classic Mode, which is simply a straight port of the original [=PS2=] version with the graphics and script of the remake. |
| 419 | * WeBuyAnything: Including half-eaten, rotten fruit and bones left over from chicken or lamb. |
| 420 | * WeaponsThatSuck: The Psyphers have crystals that suck in the Phozons (i.e. life energy) in the wielder's vicinity. In-game, it also increases their level and attack power, while additionally providing new skills. |
| 421 | * WhoWantsToLiveForever: It is barely alluded to in the game itself, before the very end, but the Pooka curse confers ageless immortality on its victim, probably as a side effect of being eternally unbreakable. Becoming a humanoid rabbit in exchange for living forever might seem like a good deal, until you realize that it does not confer any sort of HealingFactor. Pooka who suffer fatal injuries [[ImmortalityHurts still die and rot]] and become the ghouls hauling candlesticks around the Netherworld. [[spoiler: King Valentine's actions heavily imply that the ghoul Pooka cannot ever be permanently destroyed, except by something that presumably kills people DeaderThanDead, like Leventhan's phozon absorbtion. Cornelius and Velvet end up living for an extremely long time after the events of the game, and during the bonus ending, before they return to normal, Cornelius doubts whether they should abandon eternity in company of each other for a brief human life, but Velvet convinces him that living forever apart from everyone else, in hiding from normal humans and childless, wouldn't be worth it.]] |
| 422 | * WingsDoNothing: Male Fairies have purely decorative wings. Justified; their wings are puny and they wear heavy plate armor. Female Fairies wear no armor and have bigger wings, so they can fly. |
| 423 | * YouAreWorthHell: |
| 424 | ** Gwendolyn does [[ToHellAndBack literally go to hell]] to save Oswald, just as Mercedes does to save Brom. Likewise, Oswald goes to the hellish, fiery Volkenon to lift a curse from Gwendolyn. In fact, all the main characters [[ToHellAndBack visit the Netherworld]] for one reason or another, whether to save somebody or the entire world. |
| 425 | ** [[spoiler: In the best ending of ''Leifthrasir'', the World Tree is revealed to have extended its roots into the depths of the Netherworld where Ingway is. Seeing as the World Tree is heavily implied to be a reincarnated Mercedes...]] |
| 426 | * YouBastard: The bad ending. |
| 427 | -->[[spoiler: '''Myris''': Whose wish was this? [...] [[LampshadeHanging This... This is a terrible ending...]]]] |
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