Darth Wiki / Burning Rhapsody 4

The sequel to Burning Rhapsody Gaiden. Also called Gaijin Goukaroku Goshin.

This continues on and closes the Foreigner Story Arc. However, Zen'i reprises his role as main character, returning to Hokkaido after hearing of the Kinma after the Foreigner incident.

The story is divided in two parts:

• Evolution covers the investigation of the Kinma.
• Twill covers the journey of the Aya sisters, who are acting for a mysterious purpose.

Burning Rhapsody 4 features examples of:

• Demoted to Extra: Kyoku, despite being The Rival to Zen'i, only appears twice in the story, once right at the start of Twill, when he and Eri are revealed to have already awakened Suzume, and the second time during the final battle at Takamagahara.
  • Out of the original ten, three (Yuun, Itami, and Nii) do not appear in any capacity.
  • Sora beat Bijin and Kai in Evolution, but it's a Meaningless Villain Victory, as he's so hurt he spends Twill recovering while Bijin and Kai are active.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Lampshaded with Saki and Akira, who meet each other for the first time here. Both Zen'i's half-sisters (though with different parents) and resent him for killing the parent he shared with them, but Saki has moved on from trying to kill Zen'i while Akira hasn't.
• Immediate Sequel: Subverted: While the storyline basically picks up where Foreigner left off, there's a time gap large enough that it takes place the following year.
• MegaCorp: Junichi's Zaibatsu is grown to engulf all of Ezochi, furthering the Anachronism Stew.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted, Twill throws a second Rin into the mix, though she's referred to as Lin, because she's Chinese, or Kirin.
• Power Creep: Represented in Evolution by all the newly-playable characters being at least sub-bosses.
• Promoted to Playable: Bijin, Kai, Sora, Tora, Ryou, and Takeru were all seen as NPCs in Gaiden, but become playable here.
• The Reveal: Sora's status as Final Boss of Evolution seems misplaced, even though he is recognized as stronger than Sabaki by the slimmest of margins. However, Twill reveals his full name is Sora Akaba. This is the family name of Suzume, the local incarnation of Suzaku, meaning he literally has a god's blood. He even credits her awakening for his victory in Evolution.
• Rival Final Boss: A unique to Zen'i case of this being the first game to avoid Kyoku being his final boss.
• Rivals Team Up: Instead, they fight together against Tora at Takamagahara.
• Sequel Escalation: The first game was about political battles. Newlight added a blatantly super-powered element as the Big Bad instead of just an agent of chaos. Gaiden introduced bloodlines and artificial life, but 4 introduces super-humans and Gods into the cast!
• Title Drop: Goshin stands for "five gods". Twill outright involves five gods.

New characters:

No new characters are introduced in Evolution, but some characters make their playable debut.

Kai

Tropes associated with Kai:

• He Knows Too Much: In Evolution, he's sure Tora is after him after the Godframe project broke up.
• Two Guys and a Girl: His arrival in Twill completes one such trio, with Zen'i as the other guy and Sayaka as the girl.
• Villainous Rescue: Subverted, as while he does save Zen'i and Sayaka, Kai was the Token Good Teammate.

Bijin

Tropes associated with Bijin:

• Rōnin

Sora Akaba

Tropes associated with Sora:

• Battle Among The Flames: The two stages in which he's met: the Burning Gold Tower and Burning Battlefield. He's responsible for both fires, by the way.
• Stuff Blowing Up

Promoted to Playable in Twill:

Suzume Akaba

Tropes associated with Suzume:

• 11th-Hour Superpower: Her awakening served as one to Sora.

Takeru Gen'ei

Tropes associated with Takeru:

• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being a god of darkness, he's not evil per se.
• Making a Splash
• Spanner in the Works: He and Ryou turn on Tora during Evolution, negating most of the support of the Kinma.

Ryou Aono

Tropes associated with Ryou:

• Evil Versus Evil: The last time Ezochi was mentioned in-story was the backstory to Zen'i and Kyoku's rivalry before the original installment, and Ezochi had gigantic Majins. Ryou mentions going out of her way to rid the island of them entirely.
• Heel–Face Turn: She starts out pestering Bijin, Sora and Sabaki for their loyalty
• Magical Eye: Averted. When she meets Yasuke and mentions the Majins, she mentions that either they were scared of her because she shares their dragon eyes, or they were scared of them because they recognized her dragon eyes. The eyes themselves have no power of their own.
• Spanner in the Works: He and Ryou turn on Tora during Evolution, negating most of the support of the Kinma.

Tora Shirakoshi

Tropes associated with Tora:

• Final Boss: In Twill.
• Non-Action Big Bad: In Evolution, he's The Unfought.
• White Hair, Black Heart: When awakened.

Introduced in Twill:

The Aya Sisters (Sayaka, Michiyo, Keiko, Eri and Yumiko)

A family of ritual dancers.

Tropes associated with the Aya sisters:

• Celibate Hero: They all swear to go back to seclusion after dealing with the plot, and thus have to swear off relationships.
• Competence Zone: The Aya sisters are 16 to 20 years old, and are the primary protagonists (though always supporting in nature) of Twill. Though they're far from the only competent characters, they treat other characters (such as 24-year-old Kyoku and Zen'i) as old.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite being primarily dancers and presenting themselves as harmless girls (Eri excepted), they can kick ass in a fight.
• Geisha: Explicitly not, as Michiyo has to point out to Yasuke.
• Magic Dance: They are ritual dancers, so their duty is to perform one. They dance to awaken Gods, and later do a dance to use Amanoukihashi.
• Pocket Dimension

Tropes exclusive to Sayaka:

• Attention Whore: Downplayed, but she actually enjoys dancing to get attention.
• Dance Battler: They all dance, but only her and Yumiko dance while fighting.
• Foil: She joins Zen'i during Twill. Unlike her sisters, she doesn't actually help awaken gods, she only helps hold Tora back.

Tropes exclusive to Michiyo:

• Shipper on Deck: For Rin and Yasuke. She's so obvious to it being obvious that they end up being a thing by the time she leaves.

Tropes exclusive to Keiko:

• Middle Child Syndrome: Averted. She's the de facto leader, and served as the leader and planner for the awakening of the gods.
• Reluctant Warrior: She doesn't like fighting.

Tropes exclusive to Eri:

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite being excitable, enjoying fighting, and getting lost easily, she is serious about her duty.
• Early-Bird Cameo: She appears extremely early in Twill, in the company of Kyoku and Suzume no less, and then isn't seen until the meat of the Aya sisters' plan is revealed.
• No Sense of Direction: She tends to get lost easily. When she reunites with her sisters, Keiko points out that she's glad Eri didn't get lost.
• Spirited Competitor: Unlike her sisters, she enjoys fighting.

Tropes exclusive to Yumiko:

• Dance Battler: They all dance, but only her and Sayaka dance while fighting.
• I Know Madden Kombat: She mentions liking skating and has a Slide Attack.

Ouji Rin / Huang Lin

A Chinese girl who was attracted to Japan and travels to Hokkaido.

Tropes associated with Rin:

• Bad Powers, Good People: Her earth element is a thing, but her void element is the more evil-looking power, with it being so supremely powerful it even nulls Zen'i's destruction magic.
• Bullying a Dragon: A frequent target, due to being Chinese. She puts up with it until Junichi tries to assassinate her with the help of Gun and Haruki, at which point she reveals herself as Kirin, asks Yumiko to stand back and flattens the three in about ten seconds.
• Mana Burn: In gameplay, her gimmick is that she can reduce the opponent's Burn gauge.
• One-Steve Limit: There is already a Rin, and she isn't out of this game, though they rarely share screentime, at which point she is referred to as Kirin.
• Optional Boss: She can be fought in a special fight, with her unique Arena, the Starfield House. However, she doesn't replace the Final Boss.
• Story-Breaker Power: Her Void Element. It works on almost all normal magic, but also on Zen'i's destruction magic, which she mentions descends from it. It even works on the Gods. The only thing it doesn't negate is Amanoukihashi.