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1[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/download_657.jpeg]]
2 [[caption-width-right:1000:[[TheGunslinger Shoot first, ask questions later.]] [[JigsawPuzzlePlot You'll be doing a lot of both in this game.]][[note]]From left to right: [[TheHero Zephyr]], [[MysteriousWaif Leanne]] and [[TheBigGuy Vashyron]][[/note]]]]
3
4->''"As time's gone by, we've been steadily losing all sorts of technology and specialist knowledge. But guns are still as prevalent and deadly as ever. I guess we've lost our wisdom, but not our nature..."''
5
6Known in Japan as ''[[MarketBasedTitle End of Eternity]]'', this is an {{Action RPG}}[=/=]{{Eastern RPG}} for the [[PS360 PS3 and Xbox360]] created by Creator/TriAce and published by Creator/{{Sega}}. It was released in January 2010 in Japan and in both America and Europe in March 2010.
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8TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, the world has become a [[AfterTheEnd complete wasteland]] unable to support human life. As a last resort, humanity built a giant tower-like clockwork machine called Basel that would purify the environment in the immediate area. The last remnants of humanity flocked to live within and around the machine itself, turning it into the last bastion of civilisation in the world.
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10Hundreds of years later, the people of Basel have forgotten the original purpose of the machine, or even that there is a world beyond its borders. However, Basel has begun to break down and a mysterious ailment called Spontaneous Death Syndrome is striking down citizens seemingly at random. In response, the ruling Cardinals begin to plot ways to save their people from Basel's impending failure.
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12Meanwhile, three individuals -- [[TheBigGuy Vashyron]], [[TheHero Zephyr]] and [[MysteriousWaif Leanne]] -- try to eke out a normal life for themselves in the middle of Basel. They work together as a Private Military Firm: [[TheGunslinger gun-slinging]] mercenaries who will do any odd job that pays well. However, their {{Mysterious Past}}s are catching up to them and sending them on a collision course with forces outside their control or comprehension.
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14The Battle System of this game uses a mix of both EasternRPG system and ActionRPG elements, allowing the characters to move in real-time while shooting enemies with their array of guns and explosives in [[RuleOfCool amazing maneuvers]], yet still maintaining a turn-based pace.
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16Leanne, Zephyr, and Vashyron appear in the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS game ''VideoGame/ProjectXZone'' and its sequel. Leanne also cameos in another Creator/TriAce and Creator/{{Sega}} game, ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarNova''.
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18A remaster of the game entitled ''Resonance of Fate 4K/HD Edition'' was announced and released for Platform/PlayStation4 and [[Platform/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] in late 2018. Unlike the original game, ''4K/HD Edition'' was self-published by Tri-Ace exclusively, and is the first game that the company has self-published.
19
20!!This game provides examples of:
21* AbnormalAmmo: There are [[HollywoodAcid Toxic,]] [[FireIceLightning Fire, Freeze, and Electric]] bullets and grenades. And then there's the Dog Droppings, which are only ''mostly'' dried out.
22* AccidentalPervert: Zephyr ends up walking in on a showering Leanne in the beginning of Chapter 2 during a blackout. He says he didn't see anything, but "he's good in the dark."
23* ActionBomb: Several enemies have explosive body parts. This can be quite advantageous if one, say, shoots them while they're grouped and [[SingleStrokeBattle wins the encounter with one bullet]].
24* ACupAngst: Vashyron and Zephyr occasionally make such comments about Leanne's minute figure. A notable scene occurs when the trio meets with Lady Barbarella (who has a BuxomBeautyStandard figure), who gives them a mission to fetch a rare bottle of wine. Vashyron, who is partly paying attention to the mission details, retreats into a little fantasy where he contemplates Lady Barbarella's assets and relates them to wine and grapes.
25-->'''Vashyron:''' ''[in his fantasy, while doing a weird dance]'' If you're serious about letting loose with those bunker busters... Don't be surprised when I return fire with my trusty magnum.\
26'''Vashyron:''' ''[focusing, stops dancing]'' No! No. Have to focus! Come on, Vashyron, keep it together! What'd she want? Not a war, it's...\
27'''Vashyron:''' ''[losing it again, dances faster]'' Wine! Of course! Fermented grapes!\
28'''Vashyron:''' ''[staring at Barbarella]'' Full, ripe grapes need fertile soil. That's it! It's so obvious.\
29'''Vashyron:''' ''[back to reality, looking at Leanne's chest, thinking to himself]'' All we have are raisins. ''[cue Leanne elbowing Vashyron in the crotch when she notices]''
30* AerithAndBob: Zephyr, Vashyron, and... Leanne? Less so in the Japanese version, where she was called "Reanbell".
31* AfterCombatRecovery: If you win a battle, all Scratch Damage is healed and the Hero Gauge is restored to full. However, if you run away, all damage sustained is carried over to the next battle.
32%%* AfterTheEnd
33* {{AKA 47}}: All the guns in this game are clearly real-world guns with different names. One random [=NPC=] possibly {{Lampshade}}s this by noting that of all the technologies humanity has lost during its time in Basel, guns don't seem to be going away anytime soon.
34* AllThereInTheManual: Apparently some information like Basel's original purpose (air purifier), the name of its creator (Redel) and [[spoiler: Zephyr's past as an experiment]] are taken from a [[NoExportForYou Japan-only design book]].
35* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: The Japanese cover has the three main characters staring up at Basel. The American cover has all three characters brandishing guns in action poses.
36* AmusementParkOfDoom: The ancient amusement park "Neverland" is the game's BonusDungeon. It's buried in the innermost depths of Basel, and is accordingly stuffed to the brim with the deadliest monsters you'll find in the game. According to the description of the Black Energy Hex you need to unlock the place, [[AllThereInTheManual Neverland was supposed to be a private park for the Cardinals and their families]].
37* AndYourRewardIsClothes: You can find some while scrounging around. Also applies to the last bosses in Neverland.
38* ArbitraryGunPower: Downplayed. Guns obtained later do have slightly better base damage, but only marginally. Most of their increased performance is due to having more attachment slots.
39* ArcWords: "Never stop imagining the possibilities."
40* {{Arcology}}: Basel is a huge (i.e., "a small country can fit ''within this building''" huge) ClockPunk tower that feeds not just food, water, and electricity to its inhabitants' homes, but actual LifeEnergy to the inhabitants themselves, who drop stone dead when the machine wirelessly transmitting it to them breaks. A plot point is that it's breaking down ([[spoiler:JustAsPlanned, since it's almost done cleaning its corner of [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalypse Earth]] of pollution]]), with all the attendant problems.
41* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Zephyr's assessment of what they do in chapter 14:
42-->'''Zephyr:''' We deliver wine, help build statues, and even stop the odd terrorist!
43* AttackItsWeakPoint: Many enemies have points that are more vulnerable to attack than others since they have less armor (body parts) covering that area. Some even have body parts that, if destroyed, result in a "Direct Kill" even if its main health bar hasn't been damaged. If you want a better chance of milking an enemy for items, though, you're better off breaking them down part by part before going for its main body.
44* BadassBoast: The characters dish these out constantly whenever they enter Hero Actions, but Vashyron squeezes off a particularly good one against [[spoiler: Cardinal Rowen, considering he's telling off the leader of the known world after storming his home base]]:
45-->'''Vashyron:''' You really think you have a chance? You're nothing but a common thug. We are the ''merchants of death!''\
46'''Vashyron:''' "My fallen enemies and forgotten lovers outnumber the stars in the sky!"
47** Even the humanoid enemies can throw a few good ones (backing it up depends on their levels though).
48--->'''Shadowy Gangster:''' You came to the wrong place! We're the dregs of the dregs! You won't find a deadlier spot in all Basel!\
49'''Cardinal Guards:''' We grow stronger with each passing day, not like you vermin.
50* BattleInTheRain: On a rainy bridge, no less.
51* {{Bathos}}:
52** Can be created by the ''player'', of all things. Some of the outfits are downright ridiculous, and when worn during some of the more serious, heartrending scenes can add levity.
53** Also intentionally used here and there to help set the game world's tone. For instance, the Arena is known all throughout Basel for two things: brutal bloodbaths, and the fantastic soft serve offered at the concessions counter.
54* {{BFG}}: One of the final bosses uses an enormous gun that's almost as big as its wielder, which also has a bayonet that appears to be a jackhammer.
55* BigDamnHeroes: Leanne has one in in Chapter 10 when [[spoiler: she saves Zephyr from Lagerfeld]].
56* BlingBlingBang: The [[InfinityPlusOneSword strongest guns in the game]] are all "Golden" versions of other weapons. Additionally, [[spoiler: Garigliano]] wields a golden revolver, and [[spoiler: Rowen]] uses a [[GunsAkimbo gold revolver and a silver revolver at the same time]].
57* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Normal attacks from guns and grenades don't move the target much, but multiple or powerful attacks can knock an enemy into the air, where shooting them from above will smash them against the ground for damage to all body parts with enough force to ''bounce back into the air.'' Killing an enemy makes them fly like a ragdoll.
58* BonusDungeon: Neverland is the most obvious example, but there are also several other dungeons in the game which are purely bonuses or only used for sidequests.
59* {{Bookends}}: The first Story mission concludes with Leanne teaching Pater to confirm his quartz by holding it up to the light. [[spoiler:In TheStinger, she holds up her hand against the sun, during which her eyes light up like Pater's did, implying either that she has her quartz safely in her possession, or that she's no longer bound to the mechanism tying her lifespan to her quartz]].
60** The opening movie of the game has Zephyr being shot and (as later clarified in the story) surviving due to Zenith's intervention. After beating the final boss, [[spoiler:Zephyr shoots Rowen in the back, who is also spared by Zenith, along with the other cardinals they fought to get to him]].
61** In his first conversation with Leanne as they fall from Chandelier, Zephyr says to her, "Don't look away," gesturing to the lower levels of Basel that they're hurtling towards. At the end of the game, Zephyr reprises this conversation, [[spoiler:this time pointing to the outside of Basel, where a rain of flower petals indicates that life has finally returned to the world beyond]].
62* BoringButPractical:
63** For hard fights against melee-only enemies, jump on top of a wall and just use normal attacks against them. The AI seems somewhat aware of this, as they will try to run as far away from you as they can.
64** It's explained that the number of spontaneous deaths dropped dramatically after Rowen was put in charge. Even though Rowen isn't totally sure about the cause of the problem and how to completely stop it, all he had to do was [[spoiler:stop civilian miners from carelessly extracting quartz by buying them off and letting his experts do the job, as he knows for sure that shattering any piece of quartz means someone in Basel dies.]]
65* BottomlessMagazines: The size of the magazine on the gun determines how many shots you get each time you shoot at an enemy. You have to recharge the attack gauge to get off another series of shots... however, the heroes are rarely shown to reload during this charging period (though sometimes they discard supposedly empty magazines during certain animations). This is especially obvious during Hero Actions, since the character is continually running, jumping, and [[UnnecessaryCombatRoll rolling]] between bursts of shot.
66* BraggingRightsAward: By the time you manage to get all the golden guns from [[BonusDungeon Neverland]], ''you won't be needing them''. On the one hand, the golden guns are indeed the most powerful weapons you'll get in the game; on the other, earning them proves you're capable enough without them, especially since you couldn't get them without going through the hardest dungeon in the game.
67* BreakMeter: Dealing Direct Damage has a chance to break the enemy's HP gauge. Broken enemies will be briefly stunned and unable to move or attack. Additionally, dealing damage down to the broken point in the gauge will restore one bezel of the Hero Gauge. On the flip side, if one of your characters' life bars is depleted by Scratch Damage, you lose one bezel for every 1000 HP, and your enemies can pick up broken bezel shards and heal themselves.
68* BrokenBridge: This game may be the new reigning champ of this trope. Between the Core Lifts which require passes obtained during certain missions, the colored hexes that can only be unlocked with the corresponding colored energy hex, and oddly shaped hex patterns that can only be unlocked with certain shapes of energy hexes, you won't be doing any SequenceBreaking. This does have in-universe ramifications, since a large part of the problems faced by Basel's inhabitants is the tower's various parts breaking down; a single elevator not working can starve a town in the depths, since suddenly there's no safe way to transport food or medicine to them.
69* CampGay: The bartender of Le Chit-Chat Noir. For bonus points, the waitress seems to be bisexual.
70* CartographySidequest: Completely filling a level with energy hexes allows you to teleport back to your HQ from any [[SavePoint Energy Station]] you erect there. There are also useful items ([[AndYourRewardIsClothes and fashion items]]) hidden in the most unlikely places on all the maps, so filling them in is usually worth the time.
71* CasualDangerDialogue: In spades. It's not uncommon, particularly in long boss battles, for enemies and the party to talk to each other, often as they are being shot repeatedly with several clips from a sub-machine gun.
72* CharacterCustomization: The characters' costumes can be changed, even their individual eye colors. Best of all, any changes you make carry over into the cutscenes!
73* ChargeAttack: Basic combat involves charging a gauge while focusing on a certain enemy. You can layer them for a powerful single attack, with a growing amount of combat bonuses, or fire as soon as it fills for more [[SpamAttack spam.]]
74* CherryTapping:
75** Killing enemies with dog droppings. As the description says, the damage is mostly psychological.
76** It's also one of the core gameplay elements. Damage can only be truly dealt by hitting an enemy with Scratch Damage attacks then following up with a Direct Damage attack. This can lead to many situations where you can unload 10,000 rounds of Scratch Damage-dealing SMG rounds to no palpable effect, only to finally finish the big guy off with a single bullet from a handgun.
77** Unarmed Attacks count as this: no weapon customization, never gets stronger, no skills, only one maximum charge, charges slowly (compared to guns with lots of scopes, anyway), doesn't work during Hero Actions or Tri-Attacks, and requires you to be standing close to the enemy. There's a trophy for killing 30 enemies like this.
78* ChestMonster: There are monsters that wear the game's version of treasure chests in addition to those that disguise themselves as ExplodingBarrels. Fortunately, they're easy to spot thanks to the monster name and HP gauge present on them.
79* ClockPunk: Basel. There's rarely any part of the game world that doesn't have a giant gear or thirty around.
80* CognizantLimbs: Most enemies have multiple body parts, which act as a shield from certain angles for their main body. Destroying a body part nets you a Hero Gauge bezel and any items that part might have, but you get no experience for attacking it.
81* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Direct Damage weapons are red, Scratch Damage and weapons that cause Scratch Damage are blue. Even the color of the [[EveryBulletIsATracer tracer rounds]] reflects this.
82* CombinationAttack: The Tri-Attacks somewhat work this way, as it enables all three characters to act simultaneously and shoot things.
83* CostumePorn
84* CovertPervert: Zephyr, in the ChristmasEpisode.
85-->'''Leanne:''' Aaah, this skirt's too short!\
86'''Zephyr:''' ''[muffled due to reindeer costume]'' Now all we need is a trampoline.\
87'''Leanne:''' ''What'' did you say?\
88'''Zephyr:''' ''[louder]'' I said, [[LameRhymeDodge the hem looks really keen]].\
89%%
90%% Crowning Moment/Music "tropes" go on their subpages or the YMMV tab. Not here.
91%%
92* CrypticConversation: Rowen and Sullivan's specialty. Vashyron has a few with people from his past, as well. The way the story is told in bits and pieces actually makes most of the dialogue come across as this, until you progress further into the game and get to see how all the scenes fit together in context.
93* DamageTyping: Direct Damage, which is lethal but puny, and Scratch Damage, which is non-lethal but big. A single point of Direct Damage "triggers" Scratch Damage into becoming lethal.
94* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: You can retry a lost battle at a low cost (or an alternative and more expensive option that also restores your Hero Gauge), and you don't even need to die to resort to this.
95* DeusExMachina: There's a huge chain of ''literal'' examples in the ending, [[spoiler:when all the Cardinals you've killed up to that point just get up again. ''Resonance of Fate'''s god ''is literally a machine'', and there's some kind of black-box subroutine that makes it choose to spare certain people's lives at critical points; Cardinal Rowen spends most of the game trying to add more people onto God's protected list, hence the Cardinals and himself reviving. The same black-box plays a big part in the protagonists' back-stories; all 3 were saved by that function, making them figures of interest to Rowen]].
96* DefeatMeansFriendship: Zephyr and Vashyron first met when Zephyr was on a rampage in the Crank Seminary and the latter was called in to take him down; Vashyron beat him and took him in.
97* DesignItYourselfEquipment: The guns can be enhanced in extremely ridiculous ways using a grid-based modification system. You can do things like attaching barrels to your gun clip, and you're seriously underpowered if your handgun doesn't have at least five scopes attached. You don't even need to care what your barrels are pointing at. In fact, to most effectively fill the grid, you'll have to install them pointing ''up''. It's just too bad the attachments are InformedEquipment, as it would have been hilarious to see the characters actually carry and fire the kind of Frankenstein monsters that gun customizing inevitably produces.
98* DiscOneNuke: If you're willing and [[HarderThanHard able]] to complete the various trials in the Arena, you can get a Desert Eagle handgun right at the beginning of the game. It's noticeably more powerful than your starting handguns and gives you a bit of an edge for the first few chapters.
99* DodgeTheBullet: The Hero Action makes your character do this while running or ''jumping'' in the air. Don't just keep spamming Hero Actions, though, as using up all your Bezel points will lock you in Critical Condition, where pretty much the opposite of this trope takes effect.
100* DoNotRunWithAGun: All three players can shoot ''while'' running and jumping... and flipping, rolling, gun-twirling, spinning, ''doing the Worm'' etc.
101* DubNameChange: Reanbell is known as Leanne in the Western releases.
102* EarlyGameHell: A lot of the game's difficulty is front-loaded, especially Chapter 3. The Hero Gauge is so short that every hero action in a prolonged engagement becomes a dicey proposition, ways to make characters meaningfully more powerful are expensive (and on your first play, [[GuideDangIt arcane]]) and levelling up past a certain threshold will massively hurt your survivability. Once better guns and attachments become more attainable, your weight limit goes up a bit, and you come to grips with the combat system, it eases up.
103* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:The Main Characters have made it clear they won't be manipulated, Leanne has her quartz safe, and the characters are outside Basel, revealing that the poisonous gas has gone inert, allowing them to re-inhabit the world outside the tower]].
104* EasterEgg: If you don't start the game after the opening scene where Vashyron fights Zephyr and wait for a couple of minutes, another scene will play wherein Sullivan introduces Zenith to Rowen and explains how they now have control over it. The menu background also changes after this scene.
105* EgoPolis: Paterpolis. The place is a GhostTown that Cardinal Pater inherited from his father, and he spends most of his time trying to bring life back to the area. The sidequests dealing with it involves clearing out baddies and linking Effect Terminals to it, in an attempt to make Paterpolis habitable again.
106* EnemyChatter: All of the humanoid enemies talk during battle. In later boss fights, the heroes respond.
107* EscortMission: Escorting a ''statue'', of all things. Good thing it's MadeOfIron. Oddly, the monsters seem quite happy to focus on attacking the block of stone then say... the three people [[GunFu shooting at them while doing flips]]. They must really hate art! On the plus side there is an option to effectively pay to heal the statue to full strength if you need to. Sure, it will cost a boatload of money, but at least the developers realized the usual loathing of escort quests and gave an alternative option.
108* EternalEngine: The whole game takes place in a massive clockwork tower, which is where all humans in the world now live. However, the tower is degrading slowly, partly due to wear-and-tear surpassing maintenance, and partly because people mine the gears for rubies, which serves as currency for Basel's inhabitants.
109* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Cardinal Rowen, according to Familiar Staffer.
110* EveryBulletIsATracer: Only applies within gameplay, for what it's worth; averted in cutscenes.
111* EverybodysDeadDave: Happened to Vashyron in the past when he still worked for the Cardinal.
112* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Zephyr, Vashyron and Leanne all have blond hair as their default (and starting) selection. To be fair, they're not all the exact same shade of blonde.
113* ExplodingBarrels: A few lying around in the stages while the drum-bots' drums function as these as well.
114* {{Expy}}: The trio look VERY similar with the trio protagonists of ''VideoGame/WildArms''' [[VideoGame/WildArms1 first game]]. Zephyr to Rudy, Leanne to Cecilia, Vashyron to Jack.
115* {{FanService}}: The clothing store sells physics-enabled skirts for Leanne with no leggings that fully show her underwear during combat during various flips and tumbles. They are ''by far'' the most expensive items in the game.
116* FakeDifficulty: At several points in the game, you're reduced to two characters. That's when you realize how useful those Tri-attacks are. There are also points where you're reduced to ''one'' character, but fortunately you should be able to [[GunsAkimbo dual wield a machinegun and handgun]] by that point, making it only slightly harder than two characters. On the other hand, it's a brief break from constantly having to plot your Hero Runs to maximize Tri-Attacks.
117* FiringOneHanded: The weight stat limits you from going GunsAkimbo right off the bat. As you level up, the weight cap also rises, allowing you later to go beyond this trope.
118* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
119** In the early chapters, the characters often comment on how Leanne isn't very useful, which isn't exactly held up in gameplay since she's just as useful as Vashyron only with less health and with healing items instead of grenades.
120** No matter what type of insanely-tricked out monstrosities you customize your guns into, you only see the default models in gameplay.
121** As the opening cutscene proves, submachine guns are just as deadly as handguns (at least as far as environmental damage goes.) Upon playing the game, you will quickly learn that it's quite difficult to actually defeat any enemy with just a submachine gun alone.
122* GargleBlaster: While at Cardinal Theresa's home, Zephyr takes a sip of champagne; cue SpitTake and him coughing and choking.
123* GlobalCurrencyException: The Arena shop is the only place in the game where you need to exchange Arena coins for items instead of Rubies.
124* GoryDiscretionShot: One of the two pre-game cutscenes makes you think this is happening, but the opening cutscene proves that what you think happened, didn't. [[spoiler:Or at least it didn't play out the way you think it did]].
125* GrayAndGreyMorality: Essentially, the villains have an arguably noble cause. Unfortunately, this required some rather detrimental sacrifices on the part of our protagonists, who are technically mass murderers. [[spoiler:The antagonists win with no real/detrimental long term affects, and some possibly quite good ones. The protagonists are just trying to live their lives, and need to impress upon the antagonists the importance of leaving them alone. They do so with gusto. The protagonists could be said to have won MORE]].
126%%* GuideDangIt: The game doesn't tell you that you can move the gun itself (plus all currently-attached parts) around the customization grid with the right analog stick. It ''really ought to''. [Granted, it's not clearly instructed, but it is indicated at least in the upper-right display when you've selected an already-attached part.]
127* GunAccessories: The game's customization system encourages you to go full-on [=TactiCool=] with your guns; multiple barrels, sights, foregrips, handguards, etc.
128* GunFu: The combat system involves shooting people up into the air, jumping up yourself, and shooting them back into the ground so they bounce a bunch of times. Or you can jump up right off the bat and go for the squishy bits in the middle.
129* GunsAkimbo: You can have any of them do this, but you have to meet the weight requirement, which you won't be able to do until they're at least close to level 30. You can, however, sacrifice some customization parts if you really need to dual-wield sooner.
130* HeroicRROD: Zephyr, in the prologue video. Vashyron and Lagerfeld find him in a church, surrounded by corpses, clutching his head and a handgun while visibly shaking. He quickly snaps and starts shooting and screaming maniacally. Depending on who you ask, he's either a "Bedeviled child" who committed an atrocity, or a hero for the downtrodden. He joins Vashyron as a hunter.
131* HollywoodAcid: Toxic weapons do a large amount of Direct Damage, and then a tiny amount of it until it wears off. Funny enough, it seems to be some sort of weaponized illness, since accessories that resist it are "germ-proof".
132* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: The weapon customization system allows for this. Want a gun with five barrels, half a dozen scopes, two magazines, and three grips? Go right ahead. Several attachable magazines have attachments that only allow you to attach scopes to it... scopes that could not feasibly point at anything other than the gun's magazine. Once you start attaching more barrels to the undersides of your other gun barrels, you have to stop asking how the physics works.
133* ImpracticallyFancyOutfit: Leanne's fancy high-heeled boots makes you wonder how her heels aren't in pain from running and jumping in those things a lot. (Of course, Leanne also wears high heels ''when she's lounging around the house in her [=PJs=]'', so maybe she's just used to it by now.) Barbarella throws in an option of a bottoms for Vashyron that are made of the same fabric as her unmentionables. They are called 'Panty' and they are silver.
134* ImprobableAimingSkills: All three main characters, really, starting in the opening cutscene with Zephyr shooting through a rope to rescue a plunging Leanne.
135* InfinityPlusOneSword: The golden machinegun and three golden handguns found in [[BonusDungeon Neverland]].
136* InformedEquipment: While the clothing your characters wear shows up even in cutscenes, and the guns your characters have equipped do show up in battle, their accessories and gun modifications do ''not'' show up. Unfortunate, considering how hilarious seeing those modifications in use would be.
137* InterfaceSpoiler: There are several terminals with offensive effects on the top three levels of Basel, despite having only safe hexes. [[spoiler:There are several dungeons to explore there, including the final areas of the game]].
138* InterruptedSuicide: As shown in the prologue, Zephyr first met Leanne when he saved her from jumping to her death off of a bridge.
139%%* JigglePhysics: Countess Barbarella...
140* JigsawPuzzlePlot: Dear ''god'' yes. For those utterly confused: [[spoiler:The Zenith System essentially protects humanity from dying of unnatural causes (like the lethal environment of the outside world) by strictly regulating their lifespans through the quartz; in other words, you can only die when the Zenith System decides you die (or when your quartz is broken). But Rowen and Sullivan are both trying to free humanity from the control of the Zenith System because it's starting to break down and kill people spontaneously. Rowen does it by taking control of Zenith, but suffers a crisis of faith since he's gone from worshiping God to ''being'' God. Sullivan does it by experimenting on Rebecca -- a mutated human who can survive outside Zenith -- and incorporating her traits into himself. Zephyr was one of Sullivan's experiments, which gave him superhuman powers but also drove him insane. In the end, Rowen is fatally wounded but survives, proving that he had succeeded in gaining total control over the Zenith System. Sullivan has Rebecca break his quartz and survives, proving that he had also succeeded in separating himself from the Zenith System]].
141* LargeHam: Absolutely everyone with a speaking part longer than one sentence. The Cardinals are all a little off, and are otherwise defined by one personality trait each that they take up to eleven. Our heroes alternate between quirky and homicidally insane.
142* LeapAndFire: If you don't do this at every given opportunity--''you die!'' Do this too much--''you die too!'' The key is to make sure you're taking out enemies, or at least body parts of enemies, to make up for the Hero bezels expended to keep doing this throughout a battle.
143* LevelGrinding: You can do this in the Arena (hint: keep swapping weapons). While there, you can also grind for money and item drops.
144* MachineWorship: Zenith. [[spoiler: It was built by humans long ago to regulate Basel and the quartz in order to keep humanity alive]]. By the time the game opens, however, humanity worships it as a god and most are unaware of its true nature.
145* {{Malaproper}}: The MG Gangster and [[UndergroundMonkey variants]] taunt party members with "You're gonna have more holes than a beehive." It's "Swiss Cheese" he's thinking of.
146* MolotovCocktail: Why yes, and it's also classified as a thrown incendiary. Comes in regular, plus, double-plus, and EX versions.
147* MoneyForNothing: Between the relatively lucrative Story Missions, an Arena where you can win up to almost twice what you spend on one battle challenge, Silver and Gold Chips gained from performing Bonus Hits or Smackdowns on enemies which are only useful for selling, and even a gun customization part (Compact Scope β) that sells for more than it costs to make, you'll eventually be swimming in rubies [[note]]the official game guide even explicitly tells the reader about Compact Scope β's value at the point it's possible to do this, showing it's a deliberate move [[/note]]. It's no wonder the game even has a clothes shop where you can spend some money even if the costumes don't actually have any practical benefits. In the Remaster, the Compact Scope β exploit has been patched out, but the trope still generally applies regardless.
148%%* MonsterArena
149* MookLieutenant: A game mechanic inherited from ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile2Silmeria''. Certain enemies are labelled "Leader"; killing them results in the others [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere leggin' it.]] They may or may not be the most powerful enemy in the encounter. Sometimes used to justify why there's a mix of enemies; such as a horde of goblins being led by a single Yakuza tough.
150* MoreDakka: If you launch Tri-Attack and spam attack every time it's just enough to shoot, it results in this, and there is even a Trophy/Achievement for making 500-hits chain.
151* MoodWhiplash: Chapter 11 is dark and ''very'' emotional, Chapter 12 is a humorous episode involving Leanne and Zephyr being body doubles for a bride and groom while Vashyron, unknowingly, accepts a job to kidnap a certain blonde bride. Chapter 13 is a ChristmasEpisode where they toss presents at children in funny outfits. Chapter 14 swings back to dark.
152* NewGamePlus: Two versions: One's a traditional NewGamePlus where you keep many things from your previous playthrough, including your levels, items, and uncolored hexes; the other where you carry over far fewer items, but can access a harder difficulty mode, where enemies have higher HP. The latter can be repeated multiple times, up to the tenth difficulty level where foes have 5x as much HP as the first playthrough!
153* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: Used in all its trope-y glory in the opening cutscene.
154* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Early on, in the middle of a blackout, Zephyr claims to be "good in the dark". Considering he says that shortly after accidentally walking in on Leanne in the bath (thinking she was being attacked by a monster), Vashyron just runs with it and keeps making fun of Zephyr about it every time it comes up.
155* OptionalBoss: Several of the Red Hex battles on the world map, the Arena bosses that appear every 5 ranks, and ones in the optional dungeons. None of them are required for plot progression, and they are frequently a much greater threat than the enemies around them when they appear.
156* TheOverworld: The game takes place entirely within one tower. This tower is big enough to warrant having a hex-grid-based world map to travel between cities and dungeons. You can also activate terminals on the world map to give yourself bonus effects in combat, if you connect it to a dungeon or, better yet, the Arena.
157* OverworldNotToScale: Basel's building or dungeons are proportionally represented on the map.
158* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling:
159** Using the same kinds of energy hexes that unlock the world map can also be used to activate terminals on the map that allow for special status effects in any battle taking place in a hex the terminals are joined to. A common investment of time is to activate the Exp x1.5 and Double Effect terminals on Level 6, Item x1.5, Rare Item x1.5 and Double Charge Speed on Level 5, and another Item x1.5 on Level 4, and join them all using the same colored hexes connected through the various elevators directly to the Arena. Terminal effects can be joined to dungeons through the overworld map, which the Arena technically is. And because you gain items and experience in arena battles (not always the case in a typical [=RPG=]), when the above terminal effects are present, every battle gains you ''triple'' the normal experience, ''four times'' the normal amount of item drops, ''double'' the number of rare items, and charging weapons is done at ''four times'' normal speed. Using the Exp Trainer item allows for double experience gained and is stackable with terminal effects... and with itself. A character equipped with two Exp Trainers in the above scenario can conceivably gain ''twelve times'' the standard experience in an Arena battle. When fighting on the higher Arena ranks of whichever chapter you happen to be in, it is common to gain 3-4 levels per battle.
160** A very rare enemy within [[BonusDungeon Neverland]] is called the Gold Flan, sporting three hundred ''thousand'' health and Scratch Damage regeneration surpassing anything else in the game. On one hand, it's immune to Hawk Eye/Full Scratch, so it seems hard to even start wounding, much less kill; on the other hand, it's especially vulnerable to elemental weapons. Give your Scratch Damage gunner any Hollow-Point elemental round, and both they and whoever shoots at it next will gain a ton of experience. Or you can just grind Scratch Damage off it all day until the rest of the enemies get too hot and/or it flees. Whoever's wielding an SMG can easily level it up all the way to 100 just from this one enemy.
161* PermanentlyMissableContent: A very palatable version. Sidequests are tied to particular story chapters and will be missed if you advance the plot without completing them, but the game makes ''absolutely sure'' that you know this so you don't skip any by accident.
162* PlotArmor: An important plot point revolves around in-universe plot armor. [[spoiler: The Zenith System controls life and death. This does not necessarily make you "Immortal", as getting severely sick or wounded can cause the system to decide that it is your time regardless; i.e. if you're shot, you will ''probably'' die; furthermore, the system has started to break down and kill people spontaneously far before their originally-designated time (such as the late Prelate Freida). However, there are rare occurrences where the system, for unknown reasons, will invert this law and '''prevent''' a person's death from something that really should have killed them (such as a direct shot to the head somehow missing in spite of the barrel being in the victim's ''mouth''). This is important for the three main characters, as all of them '''should''' have died in the past, but were spared by Zenith]].
163* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Not really evident, but the main characters work for Vashyron. There's an explanation in the verse about how the work is stretched and Private Military Firms began to take any job offered in the bounty office, explaining why you do a lot of menial tasks.
164* RagdollPhysics: Especially obvious when you kill a leader and he or she flops around in slow motion.
165* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Zephyr. Described almost word for word by Website/ThatOtherWiki.
166* SexySantaDress: Leanne gets one for the story mission in Chapter 13. The dress is later available in the BonusDungeon, Neverland.
167* ShoutOut: The monster Pater draws in Chapter 8 is a [[Franchise/{{Alien}} xenomorph]].
168** The "Hunter" outfit sets available late in the game via purchase and pickups in an optional dungeon make the characters look like ''Franchise/SuperSentai''. Additionally, if you wear the full set and win a battle, the characters all do a special win pose.
169** The description for one pair of sunglasses [[SunglassesAtNight begs you not to wear them at night.]]
170* ShipTease: Zephyr and Leanne. He [[RescueRomance saves her life]], gets slapped for [[AccidentalPervert accidentally]] seeing her naked (maybe), and then there's the wedding job scene. That said, neither actually seem to express any major attraction to each other beyond being comrades.
171* SickEpisode: Leanne's out with a cold for most of Chapter 6.
172* SideQuest: A bounty board puts up new ones every chapter.
173* SliceOfLife: Very much so in the first chapters. The three protagonists pretty much treat being badass GunKata specialists as just another day job.
174* {{Steampunk}}: The setting and many of the costume designs are obviously heavily influenced by this genre. Oddly, the other half seems to be influenced by modern Japanese fashions.
175* SuspendSave: If you're too far from a save point, you have the option to save your current game state in the pause menu by choosing Suspend.
176* TeamDad: It shows especially when Lagerfeld comes to kill Zephyr, how Vash feels about his companions; acting lightly at first, when Lagerfeld invokes a friendship between them thinking that will give him the boy, Vashyron snaps and blocks Lagerfeld way to come in.
177** And there is the wedding job:
178--->'''Vashyron:''' Daddy does not approve!
179* ThemeMusicPowerUp:
180** Turned on its head if your Hero Gauge goes empty. While in Critical Condition, the music switches to a track named [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2RSx_OA8mw "Danger Danger"]].
181** There is also a variant of the straight version of this trope: when you use a Hero Action, the music changes to a more upbeat version of the area's battle music.
182* ThrowDownTheBomblet: Vashyron starts with the grenade box, but any character can equip it and throw flaming, electric, frozen, or dog-shitty death.
183* TimeSkip: Between the opening cutscene and the prologue and between each chapter. You may not realize how much time is passing until you reach chapter 13 and find out the first twelve chapters covered 8 months.
184* TriggerHappy: The heroes' magazines aren't bottomless, but they don't so much reload as just stop shooting for maybe a second. Popping off half a dozen full clips in one jump isn't too hard.
185* TrueCompanions: It's already obvious from how much they snark and banter at one another, but as their pasts catch up to them, the three leads' bond of friendship becomes much clearer as they refuse to let each other face their demons alone, no matter how hard they try to keep to themselves.
186* TwentyBearAsses: Heavily invoked in the first half of the game.
187* UndergroundMonkey: Oh my yes. Gremlins, dwellers, gangsters, and gears are found everywhere in Basel, with minor variations throughout. Usually, they've got different guns and better armor setting them apart from their counterparts higher up.
188* UnderratedAndOverleveled: The game manages a little of this and OverratedAndUnderleveled during the beginning of the game. Vashyron is an experienced war hero who taught the others everything they know about fighting, Zephyr is much younger, but was trained by Vashyron for some time and Leanne is a naive newbie. Logically one would expect that their combat strength would be Vashyron > Zephyr > Leanne, but the game starts them out as nearly identical in strength (though Vashyron does have a little more health, they're mostly interchangeable this early on). This wouldn't be too bad if the in combat banter of the first quarter of the game didn't make constant references to Leanne being inexperienced and supposedly weaker then the rest of the team.
189* UniversalAmmunition: Whoever has the magazine case equipped can use any ammo the party has stocked, regardless of what kind of gun it is.
190* UnnecessaryCombatRoll:
191** You would think that Vashyron would prefer to just shoot behind him or run backwards or pretty much ''anything'' other than doing The Worm...
192** You can squeeze an extra second or two out of your hero action if you jump towards the end of your movement.
193* UrbanSegregation: Easy to see how different life is on the various levels of Basel, especially when one just looks up at Chandelier. This doubles as an example of GameplayAndStoryIntegration; there are no random encounters on the overworld in Chandelier, the only enemies to be met up there are highly-paid guards who are assigned to specific locations.
194* VariableMix:
195** World Map locations and towns have two different tracks for Day and Night. Combat locations also have two songs, an intro that plays by default, and a more upbeat version played during a Hero Action.
196** Equipping the special item Hi-Pod found in Neverland (where this trope actually does not apply) will make the BGM default to the upbeat version whether you perform a Hero Action or not.
197* VirtualPaperDoll: You can really customize the main character's appearances, with all articles of clothing, hair color, eye color, and accessories all being changeable. These modifications are even visible in cutscenes, which can turn otherwise serious scenes [[{{Bathos}} comedic]].
198* WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou:
199** If any character dies, it's GameOver. There are no revival items in the game -- dead is dead. Fortunately, you can retry any battle for a small fee, and you can do so even before your character dies.
200** If you defeat an opponent during a battle who is designated as a "Leader", everyone else will immediately turn tail and run, regardless of how much of an advantage they might have. They even [[RandomlyDrops drop the loot]] you normally get for beating them, making this a ''very'' useful tactic.
201* WakeUpCallBoss: The Tar Man in Lucia is, in effect, the game testing you on how well you know the combat system, in the sense that if you don't have it worked out by now, you won't last five seconds.
202* WrongGenreSavvy: There's a blackout at one point, and Leanne (who was in the bath at the time) shrieks a few seconds later. Zephyr figures they're under attack ("Monsters? Here?!") and runs off to help... and gets smacked for his trouble, leaving a red hand-print on his face.
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