The various denizens and monstrosities that occupy Brutal Orchestra's interpretation of purgatory.
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Nowak
Zdzisław Nowak
"What?"
The main character, a recently-deceased man looking to pass the time until his murderer enters Purgatory and he can get revenge.- Amnesiac Hero: Nowak can barely remember his previous life before Purgatory, and Bosch has to explain to him that he was killed and fell into it. Hard Mode reveals that this is because his self and memories were split between him and Bosch.
- Anatomy of the Soul: Of the three archetypes, he is the Spirit, being the "real" Nowak, the main one we follow, and the most real embodiment of his original self and the part of him that persists into Purgatory.
- Dead to Begin With: The game starts with Nowak landing in Purgatory and meeting Bosch. This is actually a subversion, as Bosch later reveals that it is a Dying Dream and they have minutes to hours to find peace in death.
- Disney Villain Death: Bosch clarifies that Nowak fell to his death. He didn't die immediately, and the whole game takes place in the "hours to minutes" between him passing away.
- Driven to Suicide: It's left somewhat ambiguous, but it's heavily implied Nowak's mental health got the best of him and he jumped to his death. When Nowak asks Bosch how intentional it was, Bosch hesitates before saying it doesn't matter anymore.
- Gold-Colored Superiority: Nowak is colored gold, and is The Hero and leader of the group.
- Hidden Depths: When talking to Zanguango after sparing This Pitiful Corpse, Nowak mentions that he used to be an artist. He also mentions having dealt with mental problems and intrusive thoughts.
- Last-Name Basis: Is only referred to as "Nowak" throughout the entire game. Understandable, considering his full name is Zdzisław Nowak, and most English speakers would have a tough time pronouncing, let alone typing, his first name.
- Meaningful Name: "Nowak" is a Polish surname that means "newcomer." The game opens with him freshly entering Purgatory- and thus he is a newcomer there. Furthemore, his first name "Zdzisław," can mean "glorious-" as befitting a glorious golden skeleton.
- Nice Guy: While the player has a few options to be cruel such as not accepting Anton's apology, Nowak otherwise comes off as respectful and sympathetic to other denizen's plights. He is more than willing to put his foot down when push comes to shove, such as trying to sucker-punch Burnout when the latter insults him.
- Only Sane Man: Compared to every other thing and person in Purgatory, he's rather level-headed.
- Skull for a Head: His head is a shattered golden skull.
- Surrogate Soliloquy: Nowak makes one to Gospel, a statue he can find in The Garden, where he confides how how confused and afraid of dying he is to it. Then Gospel joins the party.
Bosch
Bosch
"We won't regret this."
Nowak's guide through the game, a skull-faced shade who opts to help Nowak for no reason.- Anatomy of the Soul: Of the three archetypes, he is the Mind, being the personification of Nowak's mental health issues and inner thoughts.
- Be as Unhelpful as Possible: Takes plenty of opportunities to make Nowak's life harder by neglecting to mention crucial mechanics or explain them properly, and also refuses to bring back dead allies despite admitting he absolutely could.
- Blob Monster: A skull-faced demon made out of oil.
- Enemy Without: Bosch is Nowak's mental health affected by his psychological issues and self-loathing personified. After sparing This Pitiful Corpse, Bosch talks about how the living Nowak put him through hell worse than anything they've dealt with in Purgatory.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite being an oil-demon and more than he initially seems, Bosch objects to some of the things that Nowak finds:
- Bosch calls Boyle a dick when the latter insults Nowak. He also suggests murdering Arnold when he does the same.
- Some of the party members he finds strange and abhorrent, such as Pearl eating the skeleton she was traveling with, Thype eating the stones he was carrying, and Splig's more aggressive red personality. He also is hesitant to talk to Fennec, and the player has to go against Bosch's wishes to recruit him.
- When the sleeping man mutters something about minorities under his breath, Bosch exchanges a concerned wince with Nowak.
- Fate Worse than Death: When Nowak presses Bosch who he is at the start of Hard Mode, Bosch says that what Nowak put him through in life was agony, and says that while Nowak has no recollection of their death, Bosch felt every bit of pain from Nowak's fall until Nowak pulled them both into the Dying Dream.
- For the Evulz: Bosch says that he wants nothing in return from Nowak when offering to help torment the man who killed him, seemingly just wanting the thrill. This is later subverted when it's revealed that there is much more going on, and when Cranes asks Bosch if he wants "to uproot what remains of the Garden", Bosch quietly nods.
- His Own Worst Enemy: As a manifestation of Nowak's mental health issues and inner thoughts, he serves as this for the first half of the game. After Nowak's talk with Zanguango, the two halves reconcile their differences enough to work together.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: Bosch needs Nowak to kill This Pitiful Corpse in order to kill them both for good and tries to trick Nowak into doing it. Bosch later says that he doesn't want the Dying Dream to prolong, and only wants to end his own suffering.
- Invisible to Normals: The people who can see Bosch can be counted on one hand, Nowak included. Cranes can do so implicitly because of how spiritual he is- and because Bosch "wishes to be seen." Ichor gains the ability to see Bosch during the final part of his quest, and Osman Sinnoks can see him because of his ties to Nowak.
- Jerkass Realization: A Downplayed Trope. Bosch explicitly says he isn't going to apologize for tricking Nowak into trying to finish the job, but he realizes that being mad and cruel to him is not helping either of them, and they have more pressing matters at hand. From Hard Mode onwards, he becomes a lot less snide and more genuinely helpful.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Named after the real Hieronymus Bosch, a surrealist painter best known for his depictions of Hell. Not only was he a big inspiration for the art of Brutal Orchestra, it ties with Nowak's previous occupation as an artist.
- Purple Is Powerful: Bosch serves as Nowak's demonic benefactor, being his source of power and guide around Purgatory because Bosch can only very limitedly interact with the world without him. He also is a blackish purple color, and purple serves as his Color Motif. He proves how powerful he is by dealing over one billion damage to Nowak during his Villainous Breakdown.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Much like how This Pitiful Corpse is Nowak's body, Bosch reveals that he is also an extension of Nowak. More specifically, his intrusive thoughts and the Id out of the Freudian Trio.
- Villainous Breakdown: Bosch has a tantrum when Nowak spares This Pitiful Corpse, killing Nowak more than once out of rage.
Nowak's Murderer (Spoilers)
This Pitiful Corpse
"This is your last chance."
The final encounter of the game's normal path and the one who "killed" Nowak. The truth of the matter, however, is much more complicated...- Anatomy of the Soul: Of the three archetypes, he is the Body, as he is quite literally Nowak's decaying corpse and the vessel for both Nowak and Bosch.
- Body Horror: The left side of his head is heavily damaged, with some of his skull exposed. This serves as Foreshadowing that he is Nowak's dying body.
- Disc-One Final Boss: The final boss of normal mode, and not much of a boss at that. Letting him use "Reject Death" unlocks the second half of the game.
- Duality Motif: Has two different colored eyes, one yellow and the other purple, which can be seen most clearly in the ending. It doesn't take a genius to decipher which characters these are supposed to represent.
- Finishing Stomp: Nowak performs the Coup de Grâce by stomping his skull in, revealing the golden skeleton underneath as Nowak's floating skull fragments move in tandem.
- Sheathe Your Sword: In order to progress the plot and unlock Hard Mode, Nowak has to ignore Bosch and let This Pitiful Corpse survive for two turns.
- The Last Dance: After Nowak and company kill one of the two final bosses, he stands up and creates one last piece of art using his blood as paint on the wall of the Quarry before finally succumbing to his wounds.
- Tomato in the Mirror: He's Nowak himself, as the result of a possible suicide attempt.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Choosing to kill This Pitiful Corpse leads to a bad ending where Nowak is stuck in a void with Bosch gleefully abandoning him, but promising he won't be going anywhere.
- Walking Spoiler: Everything about this encounter is a spoiler in itself.
- Zero-Effort Boss: Deals zero damage, and goes down very quickly should the player choose to kill him.
Party Members
In General
- Obvious Rule Patch: Every party member capable of healing themselves has some sort of detail to keep them from being able to tank everything that comes their way: Hans and Clive have a passive that stops them from self-healing if the wrong color of pigment is used, Cranes gives himself Curse after refiling his own health, Splig and Dimitri only have pitiful healing as a small side effect of utility moves, and Thype has both Withering and the least maximum health of any serious party member making tanking as him alone impossible. The only real exception is LongLiver, whose health gets converted into buffs or debuffs often anyway.
Boyle
"Do I look like I have something better to do?"
A snarky red skeleton in a military outfit who joins the party during the tutorial. He makes use of both solid offensive and defensive skills in battle.- Dirty Coward: Lampshaded by his "Cowardly Entrenched" skill, though subverted once he ranks up enough.
- Jack of All Stats: Has the most health out of the starting party, solid DPS, and is able to give himself Shield.
- Jerkass: In the tutorial, his introductory scene has him give Nowak the silent treatment, before condescendingly making fun of Nowak over a Freudian Slip.Bosch: "God, this guy's a dick."
Hans
"I will accompany your travelling party until I succumb to asphyxiation."
A strange alveoli-like creature who joins the party during the tutorial. She hails from a colony of various organ-like creatures supporting some kind of superorganism. She specializes in healing allies and debuffing enemies.- The Blank: When she takes off her mask to better communicate with Leviat, all that's under it is an orifice.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Her dialogue features odd talk of integrating and colonial masses. It's revealed later this mindset comes from her old colony.
- The Medic: Her abilities focus on healing.
- No Biological Sex: She has no understanding of gender as a concept, and only uses female pronouns because she likes how they sound.
- Pet the Dog: When recruiting Leviat, Hans agrees to be re-integrated into the colony, but only after she helps Nowak to his destination. She also tells Leviat to cover its "orifices" as to not frighten Nowak and Bosch.
- Super Gullible: Believes everything Griffin says, to the point where she believes nudity to be synonymous with invisibility.
- Super-Speed: She's capable of moving much faster than the rest of the party, but never does so she doesn't make them feel bad.
Anton
"Alright, let's go get into trouble!"
A cocky skeleton who joins the party after being paid 10 coins across runs. His abilities are highly unpredictable and rely on chance.- Balance Buff: Update 1.3.3 buffed his "Shank" ability's damage output, as well as adjusting the pigment requirements for most of his attacks to make them more easily useable.
- Cool Mask: Wears one that covers his skull.
- Greed: Refuses to even consider joining the party until he's paid. When Nowak misinterprets his upturned palm as an offer for a handshake, he seems almost disgusted.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: With the Skittish passive, every time he uses an ability, he forcefully moves to one of the adjacent tiles. If you're trying to keep your party placement precise, this can cause problems.
- Random Number God: Is based heavily around this trope, with two of his moves doing a random amount of damage and randomizing your stored pigments respectively.
- Small Name, Big Ego: He plays up his abilities a lot.
Splig
"Our blood pact still stands."
A red humanoid and a blue humanoid stitched together who join the party if talked to after a party member died or was abandoned. They specialize in manipulating health colors, plus a bit of healing.- Body Horror: The two bodies are stitched together quite crudely, leaving a gap where part of the inside of their heads are visible.
- Evil Virtues: The red half might require a sacrifice to join, but once it's done they'll always honor it. In contrast, the blue half goes along with anyone as long as the red half doesn't oppose it.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Splig's two halves exhibit these traits. Color-Coded for Your Convenience, too.
- Two-Faced: The blue half is calm and friendly, while the red half is much more twisted.
Pearl
*Pearl licks its lips.*
A purple clam-like monster with a ravenous appetite who joins the party if talked to after completing 40 battles across runs. She deals high damage at the cost of a lot of pigment.- Horror Hunger: Pearl desires the corpses of those Nowak's party leaves in their wake, joining after they amass enough kills. In battle her attacks consist of powerful bites. She's even eaten her own children.
- Meaningful Name: She looks like a clam, after all.
Burnout
"Alright golden boy. Let's go find out how you die."
A sadistic black skeleton who joins the party if Nowak proves his worth by sucker punching him after talking to him. He can dish out high damage, but his moves get weaker over time.- Balance Buff: Received a multitude of small buffs in Update 1.3.3, slightly increasing his damage output at higher levels and changing his "Exit" ability to also reset his lost damage.
- Crutch Character: He seems very powerful at first glance, but his abilities' decreasing damage and difficulty managing pigment overflow cause him to fall off hard in longer fights.
- Dirty Coward: One of his abilities has him flee from the battlefield.
- Expy: Their personalities couldn't be further apart, but his Crutch Character status, ambiguous morality and Red and Black and Evil All Over color scheme are all intentional references to Azazel.
- Heel–Face Turn: Found with a group of thugs who mock Nowak, but he joins the party if Nowak can get him interested. He isn't doing so for any noble reason, but he proves himself to be a powerful ally nonetheless.
- Meaningful Name: He's powerful, but gets burnt out quickly.
- Playing with Fire: At higher levels, his "Exit" ability also leaves the enemies in flames.
- Sadist: Joins Nowak's party because he wants to see Nowak's death.
- The Un-Smile: Flashes one of these whenever Nowak recruits him into his party.Nowak: "Hey, are you still willing to tag along-"Burnout: *A threatening grin widens on his face* "Yeah, I'll tag along."
-
Word of Gay: According to Talia
, Burnout is in the asexual spectrum.
Fennec
"No, I have a serious health condition."
A blue skeleton covered in spikes who joins the party if Nowak convinces Bosch to let him. He plays defensively by setting up armor for himself and allies.- Attack Reflector: If an enemy damages Fennec, his bone spurs will damage them in return.
- Cursed with Awesome: When asked, Fennec's spikes are revealed to be a "serious health condition," and he describes them as the opposite of having a power. His ability to damage enemies back when attacked make them incredibly useful in combat.
- Face of a Thug: Fennec is found surrounded by impaled corpses. Bosch assumes the worst and wants to avoid talking with Fennec, and will only relent if Nowak is persistent on it. When spoken to, Fennec reveals himself to be exceptionally pleasant and is offended when Nowak asks if he has "cool spike powers" based on his appearance.
- Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Has the ability to reroll what ability an enemy will use this turn, at the cost of some HP.
- Stone Wall: Focuses on setting up a good defense.
Thype
"We are now friends. It has been decided. I love you."
A strange blue humanoid with a white mask who joins the party if talked to after every boss of the first area has been defeated across runs. He specializes in healing and debuffing.- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Has Withering as a passive, meaning he'll instantly "die" if he's the only remaining party member, though it's been confirmed that he rather just gets distracted and leaves.
- Cool Mask: Wears a white one.
- Squishy Wizard: His healing abilities are very potent, but his health is the lowest of any party member. note
Griffin
"After stripping me of my melted garment, they declared "he is gone" as my physical body had become invisible."
A delusional and heavily bandaged humanoid who joins the party if talked to after completing three battles without taking damage. He specializes in high damage at the risk of taking high damage himself.- Captain Ersatz: He both shares a name with The Invisible Man (1933) and is wrapped up in bandages and claims to be invisible.
- Dressed to Heal: Subverted. Despite the bandages and crosses, he's an offensive ally.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Implied. Spotlight shows him wearing nothing from the shoulders up, and Hans believes "invisibility" is synonymous with "nudity" because of him.
- Glass Cannon: Griffin can easily dispense large amounts of damage in one turn with Spotlight on, but it doubles all incoming damage, leaving him very vulnerable to most attacks.
- Informed Ability: Frequently insists that he's invisible when he can usually be seen perfectly fine.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: While he's clearly visible while in your party and while talking to him, he is able to watch your battles without being spotted by Nowak.
- Nerf: In Update 1.3.3, his multi-target attack was changed from costing three red pigment to one. While this makes it easier to use, it also means Griffin generates a lot more pigment than before, getting a net gain of three pigment when attacking two enemies with it. This makes pigment management much more difficult.
- Nightmare Face: While it's usually obscured by bandages, the Spotlight effect shows what's underneath, and it's not pretty.
- Odd Friendship: Is pretty good friends with Dimitri, although their conversations mostly consist of Griffin monologuing.
- Rapid-Fire Interrupting: He frequently interrupts Nowak during his dialogue.Bosch: "If he cuts us off one more time I'm going to kill both of you and then myself."
- Small Name, Big Ego: Not much unlike Anton, he plays up his own abilities quite a lot, and demands that Nowak proves he's worthy before he'll join.
- Unusual Pop Culture Name: Named after Peter Griffin, much to Talia's dismay. Him sharing a name with The Invisible Man (1933) is actually just a funny coincidence.
Arnold
"Sorry if I was a dick earlier."
A pitiful skeleton who initially insults Nowak, but joins the party if he sympathizes with him. His abilities are weak, but can scale in power over time.- Lethal Joke Character: Under incredibly limited circumstances and utilizing excellent positioning, Arnold can spend dozens of turns building up damage in order to one-shot even the final bosses of the game.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Arnold is a blubbering jerkass when he is encountered on normal mode, but if the player forgives him later on, he is much more pleasant and compliments Nowak before joining the party.
- Joke Character: His abilities are very underwhelming and come with self deprecating titles at all ranks. While they scale in power by buffing each other, these buffs are reset if he takes any damage.
- Master of None: Comes with an attacking move, a healing move, and a buffing move, but can't do much with any of them.
- Nervous Wreck: The moment Arnold takes any damage, he has a panic attack, which removes the buffs to his attack and healing accrued through his abilities.
Dimitri
"Arguing with you is more painful than killing myself."
A depressed burning skeleton who joins the party if Nowak pulls him out of the fire. He specializes in field control with area of effect attacks.- Difficult, but Awesome: He has a lot of damage potential with his abilities, but since he attacks so many targets, he generates a lot more pigment than most party members. Using him effectively takes careful management to prevent too much overflow.
- Driven to Suicide: The reason he's found in a campfire. He only sticks around if pulled out because he doesn't want to keep arguing.
- Odd Friendship: Is pretty good friends with the immolated Griffin, although their conversations mostly consist of Griffin monologuing.
- Playing with Fire: His main source of damage.
- Nerf: As of Update 1.3.3, his level 4 "Torch" ability only inflicts 3 fire, as opposed to 4.
Mung
"*Glub.*"
The weakest enemy in the far shore, turned into an ally.- Joke Character: Very low health, one attack that only does one damage, and no way to rank up.
- Monster Allies: A mung that fights alongside your party.
LongLiver
"It witnesses LongLiver, it will shepherd LongLiver to the endless feast."
A purple parasite who may join the party if talked to after enough party members died over runs. He specializes in single target damage and controlling enemy movement.- Anti-Escape Mechanism: Applies Constricted to the space in front of him, preventing opposing enemies from moving.
- Damage-Increasing Debuff: Entering enemies afflicts them with Parasitism, causing them to take more damage from other party member's attacks.
- Life Drain: "Drink the Fluids" heals LongLiver equal to the damage dealt.
- Parasitic Horror: He's a parasite who battles by controlling and feeding off enemies.
- Phallic Weapon: Shaped vaguely like an arrow, can penetrate enemies to make them vulnerable or party members to protect them, and has a skill that eventually gains the title of Soul Mate Symbiosis. Even the developers point this out:
According to Talia, LongLivers girth is more important than Longlivers length. ;)
According to Nico, LongLiver is long enough. There is no elaboration.
Clive
"You'd only get hurt without me."
A tall red humanoid in a blue cloak who joins the party after being talked to in three different runs. He has a wide variety of potent abilities at the cost of a lot of pigment.- Anti-Debuff: His "Resolve" ability can remove any status effect from himself, even Curse and Scar.
- Heroic Resolve: Uses this to heal and remove debuffs from himself.
- Jack of All Stats: Can dish out good damage, inflict debuffs, manage pigment overflow, and heal himself, on top of high health.
- Technical Pacifist: He's sworn off fighting multiple times, but never stuck to it.
Kleiver
"Shhh..."
A red humanoid with a rectangular helmet who joins the party if talked to after killing 35 Music Men across different runs. He has a variety of high damaging attacks.- Armor-Piercing Attack: His "Silence" attack can hit through shields.
- Cast from Hit Points: His "Cacophany" attack deals decent damage and allows him to act again at the cost of some health.
- Cool Helmet: Wears one that covers his musical tumor and prevents it from growing.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: He really doesn't like Music Men.
Cranes
"Heh. It was foretold."
A rotting corpse that joins the party if talked to after 20 party members have died across runs. All of his abilities focus on healing.- Anti-Debuff: One of the only party members capable of removing Curse.
- Cast from Hit Points: Can heal allies at the cost of his own health.
- Let's Meet the Meat: His "Eat My Flesh" skill implies as much. While it heals others, it also damages Cranes.
- Shows Damage: The more "Eat My Flesh" is used, the more flesh comes off his body until only his skull is visible.
- You Can See Me?: Cranes can see and talk with Bosch, smiling when addressed and replying "Because you wish to be seen" when asked how.
Agon
"AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
A severed, perpetually screaming humanoid who joins the party if talked to before any party members die. He focuses on support and healing, but can't be healed himself.- Back from the Dead: Has the unique ability to revive dead party members.
- Meaningful Name: It's one letter off from agony.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Can't be healed in any way, but makes up for it with a high health bar.
- Overly Long Scream: His intro cutscene has several pages of text dedicated to it.
Rags
"Can't talk. Killing god."
A bandaged psychic who joins the party if talked to after defeating an Ungod. She specializes in crowd damage by linking her health with enemies.- Attack Reflector: Any enemy applied with Linked will also take damage when she does.
- Kill the Ungod: You're required to do this to unlock Rags, even though you don't actually kill them.
- Meaningful Name: She's covered in rags.
- Rage Against the Heavens: She views the Ungods with contempt, only available as a companion after you rebel against them as well.
SmokeStacks
"Hey, can I bum some trash?"
A small creature with a factory-like shell who may join the party if talked to after discarding enough items. His abilities focus on managing excess pigment.- Extreme Omnivore: Eats trash, including whatever items you throw away. This can include bandages, casts, needles, and leeches, among other things.
- Fantastic Racism: Reacts as such when Nowak calls him a "garbage gnome" over a misunderstanding.
SmokeStacks: Hmm, bigotry aside, I have no intention of robbing you.
- Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Uses his own, custom cuss words, such as "Klunted Geegs"
Leviat
""Your autotomy will be chemically forgiven if you reintegrate immediately""
A pile of flesh who joins the party if Hans agrees to re-integrate into its colony after helping Nowak. It boasts powerful damaging and healing abilities, at the cost of damaging itself or other party members.- Cast from Hit Points: Most of its abilities have this drawback.
- Combat Medic: Depending on Leviat's ability line-up, it can be this. However, Leviat's sole healing move is similar to Cranes' in that it requires a sacrifice of HP from either Leviat itself or the party member to its left.
- Never Given a Name: Had no name before joining the party. Leviat was a nickname Hans came up with when it did.
- Punny Name: Try joining the names of Leviat & Hans up.
- The Quiet One: Only ever talks to Hans and other members of the colony.
- Super-Speed: Like Hans, though it never holds back from using it and always arrives at destinations before the rest of the party.
Bimini
"Take one step closer and I will cut your head off!"
A sword wielding girl who joins the party if paid 50 coins. She can deal high damage as long as the opponent is unarmored.- Ambiguously Human: Bimini looks the most "normal" compared to everyone else in the game. She is wearing a mask though, so jury's out on if she's as normal underneath it.
- Cool Mask: Wears one with red and purple markings.
- Creator's Pest: Bimini was designed as an answer to Talia's frustration with games that featured "anime girls" being disproportionately successful on Steam and Itch.io, as well as a Take That! against critics of her earlier games who were allegedly fans of Dating Sim games. She was intended to be a parody of the "cool anime girl with a sword cliché" but quickly unironically became the favourite character of Nicolás Delgado and most playtesters. The very wiki of the game states this was the largest "L" Talia took during Brutal Orchestra's development.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Can deal out damage on par with Griffin effortlessly and generate a huge amount of shield while removing Scars and Ruptured, but all that comes at the cost of having odd pigment costs and one health, meaning she requires allies to work effectively- allies who will be in danger thanks to Divine Protection.
- Eat Dirt, Cheap: Got her immortality from eating mud out of a dried up fountain of youth.
- Glass Cannon: Arguably deals the highest damage in the game and has only one hit point. Subverted in that the damage she takes is redirected to her fellow party members. If the rest of her party has died, however, then she is completely defenseless.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Her health caps at just one hit point, but her "Immortal" passive ability redirects damage from her to other party members to compensate.
- Non-Standard Character Design: In a cast full of skeletons and Body Horror, she resembles an ordinary girl with a sword.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: In this game, "immortality" means "if hit, redirect the damage you'd take to your allies." She makes this clear before being recruited, and consistently refers to this quality as a curse as it wound up killing her sister.
Gospel
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's unclear where exactly its abilities come from, or how it inexplicably ends up everywhere the party goes. Word of God only states that the world moves around it.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Can't attack, not even with the "Slap" ability almost every character has. Like Agon, it can't heal. It can't even rank up, swap positions, or generate pigment. It's entirely focused on its supporting abilities.
- Stone Wall: Literally. Gospel has the most health out of any party member in the game, but none of his abilities deal damage whatsoever. His massive health pool is one of his strongest assets, and "Icon of Strength" redirects all incoming damage towards him.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Adding to Gospel's enigmatic nature, Bosch makes no direct comment about the statue and Nowak "recruiting" it at all.
Mordrake
"...please return... ...forever..."
A mysterious individual wearing what appears to be some kind of space suit. Mordrake's power lies in his ability to summon clones of himself.- Body Horror: His clones look like a pile of kidneys stapled into a very rough humanoid shape. They're also an accurate copy of what Mordrake looks like under his suit, due to genetic damage from cloning himself countless times, to the point he can be considered a type of cancer.
- Companion-Specific Sidequest: On top of being an unlockable party member, Mordrake has a quest that can only be completed after getting every other achievement in the game.
- Crossover Cameo: Odd example in the sense that it's Played for Drama. Mordrake is the protagonist of Devour, a cancelled game by Talia that is referenced incredibly often in Brutal Orchestra. He's fully aware of this, and is deeply envious of Nowak because of this. Once thirty final boss unlocks are gathered and he finally manages to speak with Nowak, he begs him to tell him his existence meant something to him- Which Nowak can't do. He doesn't know Mordrake since nobody knows Mordrake. Telling him that would be a lie. Mordrake accepts this, and asks him for an alternative favor:
Mordrake: I need you to forget me. Wholly forget me.
- Secret Character: Has significantly more difficult unlock requirements than the other party members, requiring the player to earn thirty final boss unlocks before recruiting him to their party.
- The Minion Master: Mordrake's strength come from his ability to spawn clones of himself, each of which carry a weaker copy of his moveset.
- Zerg Rush: As his clones can be re-summoned and death in Brutal Orchestra is common, this strategy is encouraged.
Purgatory's Denizens
Bronzo, the Shyster
"So how about those two coins?"
Click here to see Bronzo the Bastard.
An unusual skeleton that asks Nowak for coins.
- Cash Gate: In order to progress his side quest, Nowak needs to give Bronzo increasingly large sums of coins.
- Crossover Cameo: Originally from an old game by Nicolas Delgado, one of Brutal Orchestra's developers.
- Flunky Boss: In his final phase, Bronzo gains the ability to summon any enemy in the game to fight on his side, including bosses, with the exception of Sepulchre and another copy of himself.
- Fourth-Wall Observer: Breaks the fourth wall when first meeting Nowak and after completing his quest. He does it one more time at the end of his boss fight.
- Leitmotif: Pay to Play, which is remixed into his boss theme, Midas Touch.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Played for Laughs. After Nowak punches out Bronzo's tooth, both Nowak and Bosch immediately regret it, which leads into Bronzo's Precision F-Strike.
- Open-Ended Boss Battle: The first four phases of the fight are this, as Bronzo cannot deal damage to you and only takes away coins. The lose condition of the fight is having all of your coins taken, but you can continue your run even if you lose.
- Optional Boss: After completing Bronzo's sidequest, he can be potentially fought as an optional boss in subsequent runs.
- Precision F-Strike: At the end of phase one, Nowak punches out Bronzo's tooth, which leads to him dropping one of these.
- The Hilarity of Hats: Starts out bald when you first meet him. On his fourth encounter, he's used the money you've accrued to purchase a hat. He describes this as an accident that has left him financially destitute.
- Walking Spoiler: He's just a surprise after another.
Emissary of the Ungod
"Noowaak."
An emissary of the Ungod that asks Nowak for a favor.- Character Tics: Does a "Small prayer" with its single hand after every time it mentions the Ungod.
- Developer's Foresight: It tasks Nowak with killing the Unfinished Heir to please the Ungod. Should the Heir have been defeated prior to meeting it, Bosch will recognize it from the emissary description and instantly finish the quest before it beings.Nowak: Uhh, excuse me, Mr. egg man, thing.I think we already killed that thing.Emissary: Oh....This is an unexpected development.Our Ungod will be pleased.*It does a visibly awkward prayer with its hand.*
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: After the quest is completed, it promises audience with the Ungod, "Eventually." Nowak and Bosch immediately realize what this means.Bosch: What a waste of time.
- Extra Digits: The hand sticking out from the egg has a sixth finger, just like the Ungod.
- Mouth of Sauron: Speaks to Nowak on behalf of the Ungod.
- Sssssnake Talk: Does this during dialogue.
- Vagueness Is Coming: At the end of its quest, it declares that Nowak will soon have audience with the Ungod. What this entails is unclear to Nowak.
Fogs
"Next time we meet you shall decide your fate."
A mysterious entity with the ability to alter Nowak's future.Anti-Frustration Features: Completing Fogs' quest will put him next to the Orpheum's boss gate from then onwards, and if interacted with he will allow you to choose between The Witness and The Divine as the Final Boss of the Garden for twenty coins, letting you choose what unlocks you want to try for instead of relying on the Random Number God.
Ichor
"Oh! Hello. Are you also a traveller?"
A stranger seeking safe passage through Purgatory.- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Ichor's stated goal is to one day become the moon. In his final conversation, the headless Ichor talks to Nowak as if he's viewing him from the sky, and after completing his quest, the moon has changed into the shape of a fetus.
- Dissonant Serenity: When encountered in The Garden, Ichor is mortally wounded, but he speaks joyously about what he's found on his pilgrimage.
- Let Them Die Happy: As Nowak speaks to a headless Ichor, the latter declares that he's tired, and that he wants to finally join Nowak's party. Nowak, struggling to maintain his composure, tells him yes, but that he should rest first. Ichor dies moments later.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: One of the few unambiguously kind and innocent characters in the game, hoping to one day become the moon. They die (or perhaps Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence) at the end of their sidequest.
Metal Corpses (The Director)
"A face, father needs a face."
Click here to see its true form.
A pile of strange hollow bodies in the Orpheum.
- Crossover Cameo: The body that the player creates for one of the metal corpses is the Dollmaster, a playable monster from Video Horror Society that was made by Hellbent.
- Have a Gay Old Time: Asks Nowak for a "fetishnote touched by a demon" in the fifth stage of his quest.
Dollmaster: Do you have it? The fetish?
Nowak: Yes, but please stop calling it that.
- Theme Song Reveal: The background music when talking with the metal corpse clues you in on its identity, as it's the main menu music for Video Horror Society.
Zanguango
"Do you hear that?"
A mysterious guitar player.- Allohistorical Allusion: When Nowak mentions the name of Bosch, his guide through purgatory, Zanguango immediately draws a connection to the real-life artist Hieronymus Bosch.
- Character Signature Song: Zanguango, a song that is exclusive to the scene where Nowak speaks to him and is named after the character.
- His Own Worst Enemy: Implied by his last words to Nowak.Zanguango: Oh kid, we never crossed paths. We've just been in the same place.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Though only around for a short time, Zanguango reminds Nowak of the real Hieronymus Bosch, his own artistic ambitions, and helps him come to terms with his inner demons.
- One-Shot Character: Only speaks during one scene of the game. He appears again at the end of the credits, but says nothing.
- Nice Guy: Talks to Nowak after sparing This Pitiful Corpse and driving Bosch away. He ends up helping Nowak quite a bit just by talking with him.
- Proverbial Wisdom: Has a few wise words for Nowak during their conversation.Zanguango: Well a broken clock is right twice. And if a clock can muster that... Then you'd be shocked by what a broken person can do.
- Skeletal Musician: A skeleton residing in purgatory that plays the guitar.
Normal Mode Enemies
Mung
Large red fish with a knack for piloting human corpses.- Gigantic Adults, Tiny Babies: Grows up to become a "Mungodo." While never fought in game, Mobius is standing atop the corpse of one such Mungodo, which occupies three tiles instead of one.
- Puppeteer Parasite: Are capable of piloting corpses and becoming Mud Lungs.
- Terrestrial Sea Life: Large, red fish that appear in the sandy deserts of purgatory. According to Talia, they move around by galumphing like seals.
Mud Lung
A mung piloting a corpse. Significantly more dangerous than its legless counterparts.- Parasite Zombie: As stated in the Mung entry, Mud Lungs the result of a corpse being piloted by a Mung.
Fla Ming Goa
- Dance Battler: Fla Ming Goa's sprite dances about, and her move "Fandango" shuffles all enemies while slightly healing them.
- Fan Disservice: Has constantly flopping breasts, but it's a bit hard to appreciate them when they belong to a corpse being piloted by a fish.
Keko
Flarb
Flarblet
Moby Dong
- Meaningful Name: Moby Dong's name is based on the titular Moby-Dick.
- Palette Swap: A near-identical copy of the "Flarb" enemy, with a different colored-sprite and blue health instead of red.
- The Magnificent: "The Legendary Moby Dong"
Jumbleguts
Spoggle
Music Man/Woodwind/Chordophone/Psaltery/Singing Stone
- Brown Note: Each of the ascended forms of the Music Men have one or more musical attacks that directly damage or debuff your party.
- Overzealous Underling: According to the Emissary of the Ungod, the Music Men are this.Emissary: "The music men are degenerate sssycophants and that our Ungod takes no interest in shhhhepherding."
- Self-Disposing Villain: Singing stones have the Withering passive, which kill them if there are no other non-Withering enemies on the field.
- Fan Disservice: Chordophones have visible breasts. They're also an unholy mix between an acoustic guitar and a jaundiced penis.
Revola
Scrungie
Hard Mode Enemies
Wringle
Voboola
Kekastle
Conductor/One Man Band
- All Your Powers Combined: Once it turns into a One Man Band, it can do any move the individual intruments can. As such, any tropes that apply to normal Music Men also apply to it.
- Elite Mooks: A much stronger form of the Music Men, and lugging around way more tumour as a result.
- Increasingly Lethal Enemy: Understandably, it is deemed an Abomination after transforming. This means it acts one more time for each turn it stays alive. It can also give itself Spotlight while still a Conductor, doubling damage dealt and received, which works out in its favor due to having seventy health.
Maniskin/Inner Child
- Self-Disposing Villain: A Maniskin's fighting style consists of applying Linked to itself and the opposing party member, then hurting itself while Linked is still in effect, then repeat until dead. It doesn't help that they do this after linked has worn off for your party but not for themselves and their allies.
- Inner Children aren't much better, as they only ever deal Scratch Damage to themselves or the opposing party member.
- Sheathe Your Sword: Attacking a Linked Maniskin while a party member is also Linked will deal the same damage the Maniskin takes to them. Thankfully, Linked will wear off at the end of the turn.
- Unique Enemy: Only one or two encounters in the Orpheum feature Maniskins and Inner Children, making it possible (and quite likely) to go through the area without seeing them.
- Who Needs Their Whole Body?: Upon dying, Maniskins have a chance to decay into an Inner Child, which is a hyperparasite piloting the Maniskin's lower body.
Silver Suckle/Gilded Gulper
- Elite Mooks: Gilded Gulpers are, as one would expect, much stronger versions of the Silver Suckles who sometimes appear when the latter reproduce.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Both iterations have the Withering passive, which kills them if there are no other non-Withering enemies on the field.
Zeitgeist
- Fan Disservice: This thing is what happens when a "In His Image" and a "In Her Image" are left together at the end of a turn... and it's absolutely disgusting.
Skinning/Shivering/Scattering Homunculus
Choir Boy
- Combat Sadomasochist: The masochist passive it has grants it one more action per turn every single time it's hit. It can hit itself, and does so very often.
- Final Boss Preview: Those Ungod-ish hands it can sometimes summon? they're actually the Cognizant Limbs of Heaven itself.
Sepulchre
- Boss in Mook Clothing: Two hundred health and a hell of a Luck-Based Mission to boot. It even has its own achievement when killed.
- Mook Maker: Every turn, It'll kill every other enemy in play, heal an amount equal to the health they had, then summon four other random enemies at the cost of its own health.
- Luck-Based Mission: Can spawn EVERY Mook in the whole game, except for itself and fellow Mini-Boss Ungod.
- Real-Person Cameo: The dead man that appears on a throne after its defeat is specifically Pope Innocent X.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Because it needs to hurt itself to spawn enemies, it's very unlikely that the final blow will actually be dealt by you.
- Glamour Failure: Parodied. The Wiki claims that the Pope sitting on a gilded throne that appears when it dies is actually what it looks like all the time, and that, according to contemporary psychoanalysis, "seeing religious figures as organs or instruments is a sign of deep unresolved traumas."
Giggling Minister
- Luck-Based Mission: One of the only attacks it has that isn't preeceeded by random movement is Mind Games, which has a 1/8 chance to kill a party member on the spot, otherwise it does nothing.
- Visual Pun: It has a beak, and Mind Games will play the middle finger animation if it doesn't trigger its instant kill. It's a bird, flipping the bird!
Xiphactinus and Gillicus
- Battle Theme Music: Three Storms Above the Mountain of Steam.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: Similarly to Sepulchre, the strength of this enemy is not made clear until combat actually begins.
- Increasingly Lethal Enemy: "Persistence of Time" deals a very small amount of damage to both itself and your party. However, Xiphactinus and Gillicus uses it once every turn, and each usage has a 50% chance of increasing its damage by one. While this does increase damage to itself, Xiphactinus and Gillicus have 180 hit points while the majority of the party members, even when at max level, usually have less than 30.
The Far Shore Bosses
Roids, the Juggernaut
"Reminds you who's boss."
A wrestler who can attack several times, but loses attacks from taking too much damage.- Cool Mask: Wears a white bloodied mask with a heart symbol.
- Mighty Glacier: Attacks many times per turn, potentially dealing a lot of damage. However, Roids suffers from Overexert, which means that significant, repeated damage can cancel his entire turn.
- Top-Heavy Guy: Has a huge abdomen and beefy arms, but very scrawny legs.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Inverted with his BackBreaker special. According to Wikipedia, a Backbreaker is performed by picking up your opponent then letting them fall down back-first on your knee or some other hard place. According to Roids, a wrestler himself, it's performed by picking up a human spine and punching it until a disk slips, and can somehow hit two people at once, though this may be justified due to his Top-Heavy Guy status meaning he had to improvise a way to perform it without using his legs.
Trigger Fingers, the Coward
"On the wrong side of history."
A panicked skeleton who makes reckless use of a gun.- Boom, Headshot!: His aptly named "Headshot" attack, which is a One-Hit Kill with dealing No Kill like Overkill levels of damage. A party member who dies to it also unlocks an achievement word for word for this trope.
- Dirty Coward: Committed suicide, likely to escape the consequences of being "on the wrong side of history."
- Driven to Suicide: He is holding a gun to his head during the battle, and his boss theme is named "The Other Escape".
- In-Series Nickname: The name "Trigger Fingers" was given to him by Bosch.
- Major Coward: His title describes him as a coward, and based on his uniform, it's safe to say Trigger Fingers was a high-ranking member of whatever group he was a part of.
- No Kill like Overkill: Most characters will have the base maximum health of around 10-30 HP, and even most bosses tend to be in the low hundreds at the highest. Trigger Fingers' "Headshot" attack deals 1945 damage.
- Sheathe Your Sword: Depending on which moves Trigger Fingers is using, sometimes players are better off not attacking the boss in order to avoid risking a potential One-Hit Kill.
- The Faceless: Wears a sack over his head, so players never get to see his face. According to the wiki, he's a skeleton underneath.
- Those Wacky Nazis: His uniform and description of being on "the wrong side of history" alludes to such. Ditto the damage of his insta-kill being 1945.
Hickory, the Fire and the Flames
"Fall in love all over again."
Two pyrotechnics that battle together.- Battle Amongst the Flames: Their entire arena is covered in a blazing inferno, and one of them can also cover the battle area in fire.
- Battle Couple: Their "Burning Passion <3" ability seems to indicate this."Fall in love all over again."
- Dual Boss: Unlike the other early bosses who usually summon a Mook if anything, you fight two distinct monsters that work together.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Hickory (the one with the fuel can) was once called a "Fruitcake boy" by Boyle during an argument, but neither remember each other. Hickory (the one with the flamethrower) was personally responsible for immolating Griffin, but neither are "mentally well enough" to understand this.
- Gasoline Dousing: The one with the gas can can cover party members in oil, which makes the damaging flames of its partner much more deadly.
- Ironic Name: "Hickory" is a common name for a genus of tree native to north america. These Hickories are arsonists.
- Lightning Bruiser: One has Slippery, and both have Skittish and Multi-Attack, ensuring they'll both move and attack a lot.
- Shout-Out: They're a gay couple with the same name, as a reference to 2017 romance drama Call Me by Your Name, and the Man on Fire on the background of the fight is a reference to the Flaming Man enemy from Lisa the Painful.
- Team Killer: Maybe, just maybe. Since the Hickories fought together in the war (implied to be World War II) and one of them personally immolated Griffin, who has a surname of Welsh origin, that would suggest they were fighting against the Allies were it not for their name deriving from a type of North-American tree. Along with that, seeing how the U.S. Army introduced its own man-portable flamethrower in 1942, it's possible Hickory could have turned it against his fellow soldier and dragged it into the afterlife. Not to mention that Hickory is noted to be Ax-Crazy, maybe more than enough to set his own allies on fire.
Mobius, the Widower
"Life finds a way..."
A blue fisherman equipped with a spear.- Amazing Technicolor Population: He has blue-colored skin.
- Animal Nemesis: The Mung and Mungodo that reside within the Far Shore.
- Crusading Widow: According to lore, Mobius' slaughter of the Mung and Mungodo is a misguided attempt to bring back his lost love.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Unlike most enemies in the area, which have red health, Mobius has blue health, potentially creating overflow if the player can't use the blue pigment. He also combines status effects to deal a lot of extra damage. Being well versed in these mechanics is necessary to make it through the fight.
The Unfinished Heir
"The blood pumps."
Click here to see its true form.
A malformed bird monster encountered if its egg is allowed to hatch.
- Art Shift: The only boss whose "Special Attack" cutscene has a color other than white and black other than the Divine: When the egg hatches, you're treated to an ultrasound of the Heir with its body highlighted in red.
- Body Horror: A disfigured neck, exposed heart, and a pile of intestines pouring out of its abdomen.
- Early-Bird Boss: Well...
- More seriously, it shows up in the very first area of the game, where your party is at level two at best. Its ability to inflict Frail and attack at the same time, hide its actions and eventually having so many actions per turn the timeline can't contain them all make this an absolutely brutal fight.
- Fetus Terrible: The result of the egg hatching too early.
- Flunky Boss: Occasionally summons Tainted Yolk that obscure what abilities it will use.
- Improbable Weapon User: It attacks with its own placenta.
- Increasingly Lethal Enemy: It boasts the Abomination passive, meaning it gains one more action per every turn it remains alive. With three hundred health, it'll eventually fill the timeline completely.
- Luck-Based Mission: It randomizes the color of every pigment you have after it takes damage, meaning any ability that needs more than yellow pigment to produce is slave to a dice roll.
- Marathon Boss: It has 300 health, more than both of the final bosses, though it's mitigated by the fact that it frequently damages itself.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Along with it potentially providing you with the pigment you need via randomization, it can also use "Return To The Womb" which drains some pigment and deals a bit of damage to itself, meaning pigment overflow is nearly impossible in spite of its Leaky passive.
- Super Boss: It's an extremely difficult encounter, but the egg can be destroyed before it hatches or ignored entirely.
The Orpheum Bosses
Ouroboros, the Leviathan
Swallowed by the Sea
A huge worm stuck in a loop.- Amnesia Loop: The central mechanic of the fight. While the player isn't privy to which move Ouroboros is about to use, each encounter with him has a set pattern of three moves that he repeats indefinitely.
- Body Horror: Much like the original game, his body has been cut and decayed in several places which exposes his bone and viscera.
- Boss Vulnerability: While Ouroboros can be attacked at any time, he is most vulnerable after using "Starvation." Not only because it means he won't use his strongest move for another two turns, but also because he inflicts Frail on himself.
- The Cameo: Ouroboros is an Orro from Swallow the Sea, the previous game from the developers.
- Death by Cameo: Since the game takes place in purgatory, this is the case even if you fall against it.
- Cognizant Limbs: The head, body, and tail all have separate health bars. Only the head needs to go down for the fight to end.
- Heal It with Blood: Should the body be damaged enough, its blood is used to heal the head.
- Intimate Healing: Occasionally, rather than attacking, it restores a party member's health with a kiss.
- Ouroboros: Named after the concept. It's represented by using its attacks in a repeating cycle.
Charcarrion, the Messiah
"You can never escape this."
A decaying carrion that continuously resurrects.- Came Back Wrong: Charcarrion's immortality has grown weaker over time, leading to its resurrections becoming more and more imperfect. In the boss fight itself, it comes back with less and less Max health every time it's resurrected.
- Deal with the Devil: According to Talia, Charcarrion's immortal state is the result of a deal made with an unknown demonic entity.
- Last of His Kind: Its race was once dominant in Purgatory, but after entropy slowly took the others of its kind, it's the only one left.
- Messianic Archetype: Aside from its title being "The Messiah," Charcarrion's resurrection animation shows it in a Crucified Hero Shot and both of its passives are fairly direct in the allusions to Christ.Fatalism: "This being is the Messiah and as such it's fate is protected by forces above and below.."
- Resurrective Immortality: Its main mechanic. When its HP reaches 0, it becomes a corpse, which will take heavy damage from decomposition before using Martyrdom to bring itself back to life with reduced Max health.
Smoothskin, the Orphan
"Please don't leave..."
A lonely Lamia-like creature that creates statues to keep it company.- Abusive Parents: All but stated through the abilities of his visages. Father's Visage uses an attack called "Tough Love", Mother's Visage uses "Dependancy", healing a party member while also giving them scars, and My Own Visage's "Trauma" ability features an animation of what seems to be Smoothskin being torn apart by its parents.
- Flunky Boss: Smoothskin will summon Visages that will shield and health each other (and sometimes damage Smoothskin) while also laying on extra hurt to your party.
- Healing Boss: Smoothskin's special move, "Trauma," deals damage to Smoothskin before significantly healing him.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: If he has low enough health, the damage from the "Trauma" ability will kill him before it can heal him, ending the fight. There's an achievement for accomplishing this.
The Ungod
"As all things should be."
The hand of a divine entity summoned by a successful sacrifice.- Extra Digits: Has six fingers on each hand.
- Samus Is a Girl: Its emissary, added in the Egg of Incubus update, refers to it with she/her pronouns.
- Super Boss: Completely optional, for good reason.
- Would Hurt a Child: Remotely; it specifically requests Nowak to let the Incubus' egg hatch so she can oversee the slaughter.
The Divine (Unmarked Spoilers)
Heaven
"Heaven awaits."
An entity taking the form of colossal wolf skull with many arms.- Boss Vulnerability: Every turn, It'll use Omnipotence after its main action, inflicting one Scar on every member of the party and leave, spawning two Incarnate in its stead. It'll return a turn later once the Incarnate "die" from using their attacks. That, along with the fact it boasts two hundred health, turn it into a good candidate for a Damage-Sponge Boss.
- Cognizant Limbs: For parts of the fight it attacks with two arms, both with their own health bar.
- Epileptic Flashing Lights: Come Home's animation plays over a rapidly flashing multicolored wall of lines, in stark contrast to every other special attack animation in the game.
- Final Boss: One of two, the other being Osman Sinnoks.
- Final-Exam Boss: Pigment is only available normally every other turn, from two hands that replace Heaven (one red, one of the other three colors), as Heaven is the only boss that has the useless gray health color. That along with the chance it'll flood your pigment bar with sixteen pigment via Penance mean encyclopedic knowledge of how Pigment works is necessary to beat it.
- Genius Loci: Supposedly, it is The Garden, just in another form.
- Human Sacrifice: The fight is built around this. Every other turn it unleashes devestating debuffs or a One-Hit Kill on the middle party member, and if it can't it will deal high damage to the entire party.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: According to the developer, the only reason you have a fight with it at all is because it's only trying to bring you around to its point of view instead of just "claiming" you. In that case, its instant kill move Come Home is likely to be this.
- Ret-Gone: The animation for Heaven's One-Hit Kill, "Come Home," shows a fetus being erased from existence by Heaven before the targeted party member dissolves into nothing.
- Second Coming: Discussed and played for laughs with an acheivement with the same name as its trope, given for having a specific party member die to one of Heaven's attacks twice in the same fight.
- You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Heaven as shown in game is not the entity's true form, and according to the wiki's Lore section, its appearance is a manifestation of Nowak's fear of death.
The Witness (Unmarked Spoilers)
Osman Sinnoks
"None of this was ever real."
A mysterious man who knows about... something that Nowak has done in the past.- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Downplayed. Despite appearing as a naked bald man, Osman has nothing downstairs- though he still has nipples.
- Cryptic Conversation: Osman speaks in an unusual manner and references concepts that the player is never given direct definitions of.
- Dual Boss: In his second phase.
- Final Boss: One of two, the other being Heaven.
- Final-Exam Boss: If your knowledge of how Brutal Orchestra's positioning works isn't absolutely perfect, you'll suffer.
- Full-Frontal Assault: A bit more literal than most examples- not only is he completely nude every time he's on screen, he always faces the screen during the fight against him. If the Psychopomp implications are truthful, this could be seen as a "one with nature" version.
- Mirror Character: Nowak and Osman are described as occupying "the same spot in existence" and being related in an ontological sense, and Osman features multiple traits which illustrate this: Nowak has the Parry skill which hits the enemy in front of him and moves them randomly, while Osman's Left Intrusion and Right Extrusion hit the party member in front of him and then move Osman himself predictably. In fact, Parry at level one deals five damage, the same as (X)trusion.
- Nowak has the ability to Focus by using an ability, while Osman can use Concentration to move to his left and right. Even Mortal Horizon could be seen as a counterpart to This Pitiful Corpse's Reject Death, what with them appearing in opposite ends of the Hard Mode storyline.
- Like Nowak, Osman also splits into two halves upon dying, although Osman and Sinnoks are much more coordinated than Bosch and Nowak. They also have the Dying passive like This Pitiful Corpse.
- Only a Flesh Wound: He takes enough damage to split his body in half, yet he keeps on fighting."Upon death Osman Sinnoks is merely wounded."
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: The only boss who talks to Nowak before the battle."Breathe deep. This you will not forget."
- Psychopomp: Implied. Osman speaks in an inscrutable manner, which can make it difficult to ascertain who or what he is. However, when Nowak and Bosch declare that they have no intention of dying, Osman declares that if they will not walk, he will carry them himself.
- Sequential Boss: First you fight Osman, then you fight his two halves.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Osman Sinnoks' One-Hit Kill, "Mortal Horizon," is a move that "instantly separates fiction from reality." When this move is used, the screen is torn in half and the targeted party member dies.
