Darth Wiki / Neowulf The Hunter

The walled city of Jericho is one of several sprawling Haven cities. It's nestled in the middle of the Machinelands, a wasteland covered by decrepit, languishing factories and power generators. The Machinelands and the rogue drones that patrol the wastes are leftovers from the War that Nobody Remembers. The advanced technology and immense wealth experienced by Havenites means they almost never have to look outside the city walls.Trey Venator was supposed to be a soldier. He applied and was accepted into the Military Academy at sixteen years old, which is a little old for the position. He only intended to serve a short two year tour, after which he'd find a normal job and maybe start a family when he gets older.

Then the Machines came and invaded Jericho, led by an android in red armor.

A devastating attack nearly kills Trey, and his life is saved with cybernetic implants. When Trey comes to, he is told that Jericho is under siege by a group of powerful and intelligent androids called Neo-Soldiers and their army of Machines. The professor who saved his life tells Trey he has two options.

One; finish his treatment and find a different career path, where he'll be free to stay with his family and take shelter should the fighting get worse. Two; partake in the professor's experimental weapons program and be permanently fused with a prototype suit of battle-armor, and lead the City's repulsion of the invading army. When Trey realizes that he's the only candidate capable of using the prototype, he feels he has no choice and accepts.

Six months later, a savior to the city's woes arrives in the form of Neowulf, Jericho City's own Neo-Soldier, a veritable one-man army capable of trashing any Machine in his path and going toe-to-toe with their masters. His mission is simple; respond and repel. Wipe out any machines that get inside the city walls and take out their leaders. Find where they're coming from if possible. Save as many lives as possible.

City good, Machines bad.

But Trey will soon discover that it was never so simple. What begins as a few skirmishes every month escalates into a full-blown war. Slowly the long history between the Machines and the City comes unraveled, and Trey will be confronted with revelations about his home and the nature of his new body.

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Neowulf is a project JHAkrasia has been entertaining since he was twelve years old and it has changed and grown with him as a person and this is no less than its fourth or fifth iteration and there might honestly be more coming. It's an amalgamation of Mega Man, Kamen Rider, X-COM, and anything else he thought was cool at the time, Gnosticism too, maybe, who knows.

In its most basic form, it would be a long-form epic either in the form of a book or a graphic novel. In its ideal form, it would be an action-adventure-strategy-resource-managing-pyschological-soulsborne game with a branching storyline depending on how well you do. Obviously sitting here as an Unpublished Work means it is none of those things.

But if it were...

The Core Gameplay Loop

It would build off of elements teased but never realized in the X, Zero and ZX series of games. Like X5, you have a limited amount of time to complete every stage. Deploying on a mission takes time and energy, so the time between missions is spent researching enemy technology, building weapons and upgrades for Neowulf's arsenal, and speaking with the supporting cast to flesh out the world and characters until it's time to set out.

Stages are just like anything you'd find in Mega Man or any adjacent series, with a set order of enemies and environmental challenges, culminating in a boss encounter.

You have a set amount of lives to complete a stage, and losing all your lives will not result in a game-over, rather you'll be sent back to the base. This gives you the chance to use what resources you've secured to better your chances, upgrade your weapons, buy some items like an extra life or two, and when it's time to deploy you can try the stage again. Completing a stage means you acquire the boss's special weapon or upgrade, and other stages may be affected by the sudden withdrawal of enemy forces. Enemy placements might change, environmental challenges might become tougher, etc.

Skills and Upgrades

Unlike a soulsborne or RPG, there are no personal stats. Neowulf has a set amount of armor, health and attack power that increases as the game goes on, and that's it. Speed and any other value are fixed unless there's a specific upgrade for it. Most upgrades will consist of enhancements/variations to his arm cannon or melee attacks or ways to upgrade his mobility. To attack, Neowulf can either fire his cannon or tear machines to shreds with his claws. Every boss has a unique upgrade for beating them. Early on, boss upgrades will give Neowulf mobility options like a double-jump or an air dash to make his movement more flexible.

One of the first upgrades you receive is the charge shot. Other upgrades will be a melee dash-attack, or an extra move for your melee combo. Later on, bosses will give Neowulf actual weapons that he will incorporate into his arsenal. These don't need to be manually selected and won't languish away in a pause menu, they will become integrated to Neowulf's moveset. For example, acquiring the sword from one boss will add a rising slash to Neowulf's melee combo. It just so happens that one boss is weak to this specific move, and beating him will land you an upgrade that another boss is weak to, and so on.

Elemental Energy and Weaknesses

An Elemental weakness triangle exists, kind of. Fire, Ice, and Lightning are called Expanding, Absorbing, and Transferring energy types respectfully. Miscellaneous or Special energy exists, and it covers odd elements like soundwaves or Pure Energy, this is what Neowulf happens to fall under. They likely follow the same pattern from the Zero ZX series. Just like Zero, you can only select one element to use at a time, but like ZX, each element has a specific moveset outside of your basic claws and arm cannon, and defeating bosses of the same element will unlock inputs for more attacks for that element.

• Special: Neowulf's default moveset will focus dealing fast combos with his claws and keeping enemies back with his arm cannon. Any miscellaneous weapons will fall here.
• Expanding: Fire Weapons will dish out large swathes of damage at mid-range.
• Transferring: When he's using Lighting type weapons, the emphasis will be on speed and chip damage.
• Absborbing: His attacks will be more slow and hard-hitting with Ice-type weapons.

Bosses are weak to specific elements, but their true weaknesses are a specific weapon. This means so long as you have at least one weapon from each element handy, you'll always have a chance at beating the boss, so the order you fight them in still has an impact on your run. Element resistances do not exist. Even if you don't have the right weapon or element, the remaining three each have about an equal chance of succeeding.

Shield and Health

Neowulf has a recharging shield and a few pips of health. His shield wears out fast, and he'll lose a pip of health if he's hit before it recharges. Stronger enemies and bosses will take out multiple pips at a time. Healing during a stage requires a rare health pickup, or a healing item that can only be constructed at the base. His health pool and shield size can be upgraded over time by spending resources.

Normal enemies usually don't have a shield, but minibosses and bosses do. Their shields must be whittled down before Neowulf can knock out one of their health pips.

Boss Fights

If Neowulf does well and staggers a boss or miniboss, a unique animation will play when they lose a pip. If Neowulf can use their weakness and stagger them enough times, he will get the chance to execute them and end the battle instantly. If Neowulf is dominated by the boss, he may get executed himself, which will have a unique and brutal death animation. If it doesn't send him straight back to base with heavy losses, an execution may end the game instantly and require loading a save. Battles will most likely be set to blazing, cheesy J-rock, and the lyrics will kick in for the final stretch of the fight.

Progressing the Story and routes

Stages may become slightly more difficult with each attempt. Beating a boss means you will have an easier time going forward because Neowulf will have a necessary upgrade and be all the stronger for it, but it doesn't guarantee the rest of the game will be a cakewalk. If a specific amount of in-game time has passed, the story will advance, a new selection of stages will appear and the previous ones will become inaccessible, regardless if you beat all the bosses, or any.

Story Missions will become available at certain points in the game and transition the story to the next set of bosses.

Failing to beat bosses will have lasting repercussions on the war. However, if Neowulf does very well and beats every boss, the Machines will get desperate, and a different route in the story will trigger. The boss lineup will stay the same, but stronger enemies and different side-missions will appear. You may even receive new allies back at the base depending on which route you end up on. Some boss encounters outside of the lineup will only trigger on certain routes.

If Neowulf defeats enough bosses and makes it to the third act, the Assault on the Machine's headquarters will become available, and this will serve as the final stages of the game. Neowulf can no longer return to base, and has one last chance to upgrade and buy items, after which he must use anything he has sparingly. If he failed to beat a boss, they will show up here as part of a Boss Rush. If a boss was defeated, they may appear here in a weakened state. If they were executed, they will be filled in by a weaker spare body devoid of personality, or not at all. Some unique bosses will appear depending on which stages you beat. The final boss, the leader of the Machine invasion waits at the far end, but only if Neowulf fights their final form can he truly end the war and save Jericho, and that's only possible if he's reached the true route.

Endings

There is a True Ending to the game. Beating every boss and getting every upgrade and beating every stage as fast as possible will give you the good ending, which will have a satisfying conclusion but will leave some greater questions unanswered. You can of course receive the bad ending, which will be appropriately bleak and depressing especially if you managed to do very poorly. You may not even make it to the final stages if you can't defeat enough bosses, the game will just end with Jericho overrun and Neowulf defeated. The true ending requires a certain events to have taken place by the time you reach the final wave of stages.Story and dialogue will be instantly skippable to make repeat playthroughs less of a chore.

Also that's only for the first entry. There are at least two other books/games. The same principles will apply, challenge stages to acquire materials and unlock upgrades to beat more stages, alternate story routes, pyschological themes, punctuated with over the top boss fights.

Characters

Heroes

Trey Venator/Neowulf

Jericho's first and only Neo Soldier.

• Arm Cannon: Neowulf's primary weapon is the Warwolf, which unfolds from the armor on his wrist. It launches spheres of kinetic energy.
• Berserk Button: Even with his violent disposition Neowulf is calm and collected towards his enemies and will weather a fair amount of banter. The only time he truly flies off the handle is when Maria is in danger.
• Big Brother Instinct: Trey sees himself as the only thing standing between the machines and his sister. If Machines get anywhere near the Compound during the course of the story, the first thing he'll do is make sure Maria is safe.
• Blue Is Heroic: Neowulf's armor is navy-black, but the color of his energy is blue, and he's at the forefront of humanity's war against the Machines.
• Bottomless Magazines: His Warwolf armcannon doesn't use traditional ammo, so he can fire it indefinitely. Charged Shots require chunks of his shield as fuel.
• Broken Pedestal: Trey used to admire his older brother Erikhai and think he was a hero. His opinion changed drastically when Erikhai was absent for their parents' death, and he decided that his big brother didn't care about him or Maria. When Erikhai went missing, he didn't shed a tear, and to this day he still resents him.
• Byronic Hero: He operates under the belief that if he kills every Neo Soldier he can have his normal life back. He soon realizes that his normal life may be gone forever, and facing the Machines again and again is more bearable than trying to reintegrate.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Trey is Choleric, with a strong sense of right and wrong, but he faces his duty with resignation and isn't as compassionate as he wants to be.
• Henshin Hero: Trey can go from his civilian outfit to his armored form in a matter of seconds. He's told it's thanks to transer technology, something only possible thanks to his implants. His comrades use similar armor, but they have to physically attach it to their bodies before activating it.
• Not So Above It All: Trey tries to stay serious, but he's not above some playful ribbing with his sister and his best friend Shane. His sense of humor dries up when he's fighting, but some Neo Soldiers, like Gigas, he cannot take seriously and will tease mercilessly.
• Unorthodox Reload: He can fire the Warwolf indefinitely, but if he stops firing after a prolonged period, his idle animation will add him venting heat from his armor.
• What You Are in the Dark: While transformed, some of Trey's inhibitions disappear, which makes Neowulf appear like a Superpowered Evil Side. Whereas Trey was notorious for turning the other cheek instead of fighting back, as Neowulf he's much more temperamental.

Maria Venator

Trey's sister, a communications officer. She's in charge of the database and saving the game, which the player can access by talking to her during intermissions.

Ren Derelicta

A squad commander, the man who raised the two siblings.

Shein Iphon

Trey's best friend, a weapons mechanic. He can upgrade Neowulf's armor and weapons in exchange for resources.

Lance

A squad leader, a normal soldier. The player can speed up or delay the time until the next mission by talking to him.

Professor Guan

The lead scientist behind Neowulf. He will occasionally take Shein's place for fabricating weapons, but he can also research enemy weapons and artifacts for greater rewards down the line.

The Machine Army and Neo Soldiers

First Wave

A trio of individuals sent to test the City of Jericho and lure out Neowulf, and their wardog.

• Galberos the Hellhound - Three dog-like mechaniloids that can combine into a single hulking brute. Gives Neowulf the ability to charge all of his attacks when defeated.
• Rai the Chaser - Fast as lightning, sent to disrupt the city's power grid. Gives Neowulf the Transfer Element when defeated.
• Armorak the Elder - A slow moving colossus who guards a facility where human experiments were taking place. Gives Neowulf the Absorb Element when defeated.
• Feng the Undying - A prophet of the Monad with the appearance of a Phoenix. Gives Neowulf the Expand Element when defeated.

The Deleters

Four Neo Soldiers who's specialty is assassinating their kind. Neowulf is marked for death, and these four are sent to the city to dispose of him.

• Ternima the Siren - A spear wielding assassin holed up in a communications tower. Gives Neowulf the Delphina Spear, which adds a twirling melee attack for his Transferring Element arsenal.
• Kegare the Stained - A ninja for all intents and purposes who infiltrated a government office. If Ternima is killed before him, he will engage Neowulf at the beginning of his stage. Gives Neowulf the Kagerou blade, which adds a rising sword attack to his Expand Element arsenal.
• Khoi the Crescent - Covered in blades, fought atop a speeding express train. Gives Neowulf the Kaggen knifes, which expands his default melee options.
• Shina the Huntress - A white-armored Neo Soldier who was locked in a secret bunker near Jericho. Gives Neowulf the Kamui, which expands his projectile attacks for his Absorb arsenal.

The Judicators

Judicators are Neo Soldiers designed specifically for besieging the Havens. They arrive in Jericho and destroy a district to begin their conquest, and Neowulf must eliminate each of them before the city is overrun.

• Hydras the Trapper - An aquatic Neo Soldier who tries to flood a district of Jericho. Gives Neowulf the Typohnic Cord, which adds a grappling attack to his Absorb arsenal.
• Rekka the Burning - A sword wielding Neo Soldier whose body is perpetually on fire. Gives Neowulf the Meiji, which gives him a new projectile attack for his Expand arsenal.
• Templar the Pillar - A giant heavily armored Neo Soldier. Gives Neowulf the Calibur blade, which gives him a new melee attack for his Transfer arsenal.
• Nox the Lurker - A Neo Soldier with the appearance of a giant bat, who attacks a hospital complex. Gives Neowulf the Vladra, which adds a sonic blast to default arsenal.
• Fracture the Broken - A Neo Soldier with a similar appearance to Neowulf and Phaaz. Gives Neowulf the Phantasm barricade, which adds a heavy melee attack to his Expand arsenal.
• Azraeus the Healer - A skeletal Neo Soldier, responsible for placing the Ether Bomb. Gives Neowulf the Mercy staff, which adds a slow-moving but deadly melee to his Absorb arsenal.
• Gigas the Mighty - A bulky Neo Soldier, the newest Judicator. Gives Neowulf the Titania, which expands his melee attacks.
• Baron the Unstoppable - A Neo Soldier with superspeed. Gives Neowulf the Overlord, which enhances his dash.

Other Neo Soldiers

These Neo Soldiers are from different Hives or different factions within the Machine army but have been summoned to fight in Jericho.

• Phaaz - The Red Neo Soldier who first attacked Trey, an independent agent who came to Jericho of his own accord. Wields a sword that can destroy Neo-Soldier cores. He will ambush Neowulf throughout the game, and depending on the Route, he may take Fracture's place as one of the Judicators.
• Orobos - An ancient Neo Soldier, possibly the oldest to exist. Only awakens if Neowulf does well enough that the Machines become desperate.

The Machine Hive

• The Oracle - The core of the Machine's neural network. She is not a Neo Soldier, just an augmented human fused to a control tower.
• The Dead Beast - A mass of cores and discarded machines sitting at the bottom of the Hive. Must be confronted depending on the route taken.
• Baoth - The leader of the Hive.

Tropes that will probably never ever be used go here:

• Adjective Noun Fred: Metal Meta Neowulf.
• After the End: No recognizable country or city exists in the world where Neowulf takes place. The story takes place on a colonized planet where information about their origins has been outlawed by the government.
• Anime Hair: Ideally.
• Artificial Human: Subverted. The citizens of Jericho and other humans are wholesale and are not tampered with. Artificial humans don't exist so much as artificial souls. Sometimes the Unity will fabricate a personality to load into their Husks and deploy it as a Neo-Soldier.
• All Your Baseare Belong To Us: Depending on the story route, Neowulf's base of operations the Compound will be invaded by Machines around halfway through the game. In the good or bad route he'll have to play defense and repel a swarm of machines from getting inside. In the true route, Orobos will attack the base and single-handedly cripple it.
• Aura Vision: Maria was born with a strange form of Synesthesia that makes her see a specific color when she looks at somebody. When someone's happy or angry their color practically glows, when they're sad it dims, and when they're given over to a vice the colors fade until they're almost gray.
  • It isn't mere synesthesia, it's a sign of her affinity for Essence, something that ran in the family, a trait she shared with their father. Because she's sensitive to the Essence of Nature, she can essentially see somebody's soul, and each soul has a specific color, not unlike the different energy types used by Machines and Neo-Soldiers.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: In a perfect world the soundtrack would be dominated by heavy electric sounds and metal screaming. Boss fights would have unique songs that represent their character and motivations with lyrics that kick in during the final stretch of the battle.
• Awful Truth: Neo Soldiers aren't just highly intelligent infiltration androids, they used to be human. Normal people like Trey were kidnapped against their will and turned into living machines.
  • Trey wasn't cybernetically enhanced and bonded with a battlesuit. His physical body was beyond saving and he effectively died after the Machine raid. The professor put him through the same process as any Neo Soldier, his entire being was converted into Essence and placed inside a fullbody prosthetic called a Husk. Nobody outside of the Professor and the top brass are aware, and depending on the route taken in the story, Trey will never find out.
  • The Machines run on Essence, a power source created by converting living beings into pure energy. Each Machine is animated by an incomplete human soul.
  • The reason Phaaz is so familiar to both Maria and Trey is because he's none other than the converted form of their long lost older brother, Erik. He's been a Neo Soldier for too long and can't remember who they are or who he is.
• Back from the Brink: Trey survives having his core nearly destroyed and is brought home by Phaaz at the end of the story, after which he spends the better part of a year recovering.
• Bittersweet Ending: Jericho is saved, but an entire district was lost to the Unity's ether bomb, and there are more Hives out there waiting to prey on the remaining Havens. Erikhai is alive, but he's been consumed by Phaaz and can't recognize his family. Trey survives the war, but his soul was literally damaged in the process, and he knows he'll likely be fighting until the day he dies.
• Boss Banter: The more intelligent Neo Soldiers will taunt and harrass Neowulf during their fights.
• Boss-Only Level: The first encounter with Orobos has you walk through the destroyed Compound before triggering his boss fight.
• Boss Rush: Just like Megaman and adjacent, every boss you previously fought will be rematched for the final stages, with some variations depending on if you actually beat them beforehand. They may scale to the player's current equipment, or they may be the same as when you first encountered them. If select bosses were executed, a new unique boss will take their place. Unique Boss encounters during the final stages are a sign that you're on the Golden Route.
  • The fight with the Oracle involves fighting several floating pods that holographically project the forms of the various minibosses fought throughout the game. These must be destroyed in order to get close enough to damage The Oracle herself.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Familial example with Trey and his sister Maria.
• Checkpoint: Losing a life during a stage will send you back to the latest checkpoint. Boss fights have automatic checkpoints right before the encounter. If you run out of lives, you'll return to base and have to start the stage from the beginning.
• Close-Range Combatant: Phaaz starts this way. He carries a sword and a shield, and he has a few ranged attacks, but he'll almost exclusively attack with his sword.
  • All Deleter-type Neo-Soldiers only use melee weapons, and Shina doesn't use any weapons at all, sans her clawed gauntlet.
• Curbstomp Battle: Engaging a boss when you're hurting for upgrades can turn into one of these. Storywise the first fight with Orobos is definitely one.
• Cyborg: Trey's body is augmented after the incident at the academy. His strength is enhanced, his need to eat and sleep are basically eliminated, and he can don a powerful suit of armor at any given time. Which is all a lie. Trey is less a cyborg and more an android with a human conscious placed inside of it, and the prosthetic body is so convincing that he's none the wiser for most of the story.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: A Neo Soldier making their energy core go critical. Their cores don't just contain their power, it contains their personality and soul. Damaging their core floods their body with extra energy, but it also gives them maybe five minutes to finish their fight before they set off a small nuclear reaction from the sheer force of their entire life force exploding. Only Deleters are capable of destroying cores directly, while some Neo-Soldiers like Phaaz wield weapons capable of doing the job.
  • Shina does this during the true path in a (futile) attempt to kill Orobos. This inspires Neowulf to stab himself with Phaaz's sword during the final battle with Yaldabaoth to set off his core as a final push.
• Deadpan Snarker: Trey will rib Maria and Shein occasionally, but he tends to stay pretty serious. Shina when recruited is extremely blunt and without reservation and will tell people precisely what she thinks of them if asked.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Both Shina and Phaaz will join Neowulf's side shortly after their defeat depending on the route you're playing.
• Death as Game Mechanic: Run out of health and you'll lose a life and retreat to a checkpoint. Lose all your lives, and the mission is a failure and you'll return to base, and you're one step further from completing your mission before time runs out. This makes lives a precious commodity without them completely bottlenecking your progress. The in-universe explanation is that Neowulf will be retrieved moments before death, but this costs energy and they can only afford to do it so many times before they have to extract him permanently. If Neowulf is executed by a boss, there is no chance to retrieve him, and the game will end.
• Death by Origin Story: Trey and his sister Maria are orphans. Their parents were killed by the first Machine raid over ten years ago.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Losing lives won't end the game, but they will severely hurt your chances of beating the stages and acquiring every upgrade.
  • If a boss manages to execute Neowulf however, the game will end immediately.
• Death Seeker: According to the Data Logs and Holy Scriptures the player can find, the Deleter Khoi assaulted a slave who had fallen in love with him, and the guilt drove him to fight Neowulf and have his core destroyed. Depending on how you play, you can opt to spare him instead.
  • Phaaz was one of these before he discovered Neowulf. Counter, Trey shows shades of becoming one during the true route, but he seems to get over it.
• Defector from Decadence: If Shina is captured and interrogated, she willingly surrenders her intel and offers her assistance in repelling the Machines. She doesn't like the Havens, but she absolutely hates the Machines for converting her into a Neo Soldier against her will. She'll even accompany Neowulf on certain missions if she's recruited.
• Downer Ending: The bad ending would see Orobos storm Jericho and go on a rampage. The Compound is destroyed, Phaaz is killed, and even if Neowulf can beat Orobos the war is already lost.
• Earth All Along: The planet Neowulf takes place on isn't Earth, it's one of many colonized planets that was cut off from the rest of the fleet.
• Elemental Motifs: The three siblings, Erikhai, Trey and Maria all line up with air, earth and water.
• Elemental Powers: Each Neo Soldier has an element assigned to them, but some individual Soldiers will have their own variation.
  • An Ice Person: Armorak and other Absorb Neo-Soldiers typically have ice powers.
  • Energy Absorption: Orobos uses his Transfer Energy to absorb the Essence from Neo Soldiers and machines. He can also use it in reverse to charge objects with energy.
  • Gemstone Assault: Shina's Absorb Element manifests as crystal spires she can grow from the ground to stab enemies. She can also fire crystals from her gauntlet ala the Needler.
  • Shock and Awe: Rai and other Transfer Energy Neo-Soldiers' powers are represented as Lightning.
  • Light 'em Up: Phaaz's Expand Energy is represented by lights and lasers.
  • Making a Splash: Hydras can move freely underwater and uses high-pressure jets of water and waterjets to attack.
  • Playing with Fire: Feng and Rekka are Expand Neo-Soldiers who use hot jets of flame to attack.
• Enhanced Interrogation Techniques: Once it becomes possible to restrain and capture Neo Soldiers, Neowulf has the option to take them back to the Compound to be interrogated. This gives the player instant access to some research, upgrades and some additional resources. Because Neo Soldiers are completely mechanical, extracting information is as simple as plugging some cords into their bodies and extracting the data forcibly. The interrogated Neo Soldier then has their ability to transform hamstrung and they are thrown into containment.
  • If Shina joins the Compound, she will personally see to interrogating captured bosses, and unique sequences will trigger with her playing badcop. She will provide the player with a Neo Soldier's history and background if Neowulf talks to her after each interrogation.
• Emotionless Girl: Shina is cold and aloof and rarely emotes when she isn't transformed. She claims that her conversion has made her less than human. She still has flashes of emotion, so she's likely not as detached as she lets on.
• Encyclopedia Exposita: The Machine Databse is a catalogue upkept by Maria. Neowulf can review every machine enemy and Neo Soldier after he beats them. There are three entries for each enemy, one is a report done by the Compound, the other is a short comment from Maria, and the final entry is an encrypted piece of Monad scripture that acts more like an excerpt from a medieval bestiary. The Monad texts provide some foreshadowing about the true nature of the machines and the backstories of the Neo Soldiers.
• Energy Being: All Neo Soldiers are this. They're just the soul and essence of a human being trapped inside a core, which is then placed into a husk.
• Face Death with Dignity: Many Neo Soldiers will go down kicking and screaming, but the more sane ones are thankful to be freed from their torment. Khoi, Fracture and Phaaz are more than happy to lay down their weapons and take a knee once their cores have been destroyed.
• Female Monster Surprise: Nox and Templar have absolutely no tells that they're anything but male, Nox moreso, until they start talking of course.
• Foreshadowing: Early on Trey is told that a defeated Neo-Soldier will have their consciousness retrieved for the Machines to redeploy in a new body, which isn't dissimilar to the player losing a life. Every life lost is a literal body destroyed, and Trey's consciousness is transferred to a new one with him none the wiser.
• Grey-and-Grey Morality: While the Havens have oppressive and questionable laws in place, they ultimately do little harm to their people or others, as opposed to the machines. They also built their energy grid upon the very power source they outlawed, Essence. The Machine Army is the remnant of a generation of slaves and workers who built the cities in the first place and weren't allowed inside, so their war with the cities is for retribution as much as it is about conquest. Though the Machines are the more obvious threat, the Havens have the potential to be just as bad if not worse.
• Go Through Me: Shein will futilely attempt to shield Maria from Orobos when he invades the Compound.
• Home Base: Neowulf is stationed in an underground bunker in the middle of Jericho which is internally referred to as the Compound, which houses the city's Anti-Machine force. The Compound has one of the few working Transer systems in the city and is used to teleport Neowulf to the thick of the action once it is fully charged.
• Healing Potion: Energy cores and repair pods can be manufactured at the Compound, one restores Neowulf's shield with some overcharge, the other restores one pip of health. As the game progresses, more powerful items can be manufactured at a higher cost.
• The Hero Dies: Neowulf will sacrifice himself to kill Orobos in the bad ending.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Most Neo Soldiers are incapable of destroying their own cores, the exception being Deleters who are expected to kill or be killed anyway. Neowulf needs Phaaz's blade to stab his own core and set it off during the final battle.
  • Orobos is utterly incapable of harming himself in any meaningful way. His core is also much more durable than any other Neo-Soldier, meaning even someone with the means to execute him will have an almost impossible time.
• Info Dump: You're reading one.
  • The enemy database will gradually fill with entries on Machines and Neo-Soldiers as you beat them. One page will have a summary written by Maria herself, and another page will be a partially translated encrypted message from the Machine Network which describes the enemy's history and their place in the army. They are vague and ominous and paint most of the Machines as singular mythic specimens not unlike old medieval bestiaries.
• Item Crafting: The research and development arm of the Compound requires the player acquire specific machine parts to make items and upgrades. After a certain point, the player will have the option to just pay extra to bypass the needed ingredients or time required to build it.
• Just a Kid: Trey is exasperated that most of the fighters in his platoon are younger than him. They're no less capable at fighting machines. Other Neo Soldiers like Shina will remark how young he is in comparison if they seem him without his helmet.
  • Orobos has the physical appearance of a fourteen year old when his armor is off, which makes him younger than Maria.
• Klingon Promotion: There used to be nine Judicators, but Orobos killed their leader when he was awoken, so now he leads them himself.
• Late to the Action: If Orobos attacks the Compound, Neowulf will be unable to transfer back to base and has to run home. Once he gets there, he finds Lance and his team dead, most of the faculty hurt or hiding, and Orobos has cornered Maria and is about to kill her.
• A Lighter Shadeof Gray: The Havens have their own dark history but in the present day do much less killing than the machine army.
• Locomotive Level: Neowulf must chase the Deleter Khoi across an express train and battle him in the engine room.
• Loss of Identity: Reading the Sacred Scriptures shows that nearly every Neo Soldier used to be a perfectly normal human before they were converted, and several of them can't even remember their human lives. Phaaz is in the midst of one of these, believing that he and Erikhai are two seperate people.
• Lost Common Knowledge: Study of religion and mythology is banned, so most Havenites have no clue where Neo Soldier names like Armorak or Hydras come from.
  • The very war that led to the creations of the Havens in the first place is almost completely forgotten about because knowledge and information was intentionally suppressed. This was done so that nobody could learn about Essence or that the Havens were using it to power their cities. This comes back to bite them when the Machines, an enemy that runs on Essence, come knocking and nobody knows how to deal with them.
• Love at First Punch: Maria bemusedly surmises that Trey's fascination with Shina began during their first battle.
• Machine Blood: Neo Soldiers and Machines both spurt fluorescent fluid when wounded.
• Make Some Noise: Nox's primary form of attack are sonic shrieks from her mouth.
• Mana Shield: Some attacks use Neowulf's shield as a resource meter. These attacks are powerful but also risky to pull off, because they leave the player one hit closer to losing a pip of health.
• Mechanical Abomination: The Machines are perfectly mechanical, but they scream and bleed like any organic organism. The Hive is filled with Mechanical Meat Moss.
• Too Many Mouths: Nox's eyes are replaced by a toothy maw alongside her actual mouth.
• Mêlée à Trois: Neowulf vs Phaaz vs Orobos, if he's awoken during the story. Neowulf and Phaaz have a score to settle, but Orobos has his own motivations and attacks both.
• Mission Control: Maria serves as Neowulf's communication officer and will sometimes comment on the current mission or react to developments with other Neo Soldiers.
• Missing Mission Control: Halfway through the game, Trey can't get a hold of his sister after a successfull mission, and that's when he realizes the Compound has been compromised.
• Multiple Endings: Good, bad, and True endings.
  • The Good Ending sees the Machines repelled and Jericho saved. Shina survives and joins Jericho permenately, but this route doesn't delve into the nature of Neowulf's body or Phaaz's backstory which leaves Neowulf no remorse in killing him.
  • The Bad Ending sees the city invaded instead of assaulting the enemy base. Neowulf, Shina, and Phaaz join forces to defeat Orobos, and they're succesful, but they're all dead when its over.
  • The True Ending sees Orobos killing Shina, and Neowulf joining forces with Phaaz to storm the enemy base where they battle Monad and Yaldabaoth, which breaks the chain of command and ends the war. Neowulf's essence is permanently damaged and he will suffer from emotional trauma going forward, and Phaaz delivers him back to his family before disappearing.
• One-Hit Kill: Executions will instantly end a Neo Soldier's life, and each boss has unique execution animations whether the player is giving one or receiving one.
• Power at a Price: The process for becoming a Neo Soldier basically turns you into an immortal living weapon at the cost of your human body.
  • Jericho and other Havens use EON, the Essence of Nature, which is created from living things including humans to power their city. Essence is a perpetual energy source, so the Havens don't actively harvest humans because it isn't necessary. The Machines raid human settlements to replenish their supplies to be sacrificed to power their weapons.
• Power Copying: Neowulf has the ability to swap elemental affinity on the fly and lean new attacks from enemy Neo Soldiers. He can even take their weapons and use them himself, which shouldn't be possible under normal circumstances.
  • Orobos can shape his body into any weapon he sees, and he instantly makes himself his own arm cannon after meeting Neowulf.
• Prison Break: If Orobos invades the compound, he'll let loose any bosses the player had captured, and they'll be refought for the boss rush.
• Psychic Children: Maria's affinity for essence. It's implied her condition isn't as rare as she and her brother are lead to believe. Oracle was one of these before she was taken by the Machines and plugged into their network.
• Recruitment by Rescue: Well, forcibly restrained and then rescue, anyway. Shina is the only Neo Soldier who will join Jericho in the fight against the Machines if she's captured instead of killed. She was being held against her will in the first place and wasn't in control of her actions when she attacked Neowulf, so it checks out that'd she be partial to some payback.
• Right in Front of Me: Many of the soldiers stationed at the compound don't realize that Trey is Neowulf and will wonder out loud about his abilities or if he's even human.
• Rule of Symbolism: The enemies and their beliefs are rooted in esoteric Gnosticism.
  • The Monad sees the Havenites as the children of the Archons, who enslaved their ancestors, and they see Neo Soldiers as Aeon, powerful servants who fight for their freedom.
  • All Machines are constructs filled with essence, which is basically distilled human soul. They react violently and aggressively because the human parts inside them are in pain, which fits the concept of fragments of Sophia trapped inside mortal husks.
  • Monad, the individual the organization is named after, is nothing more than an artificial intelligence who's convinced that it is human and the creator of all Neo-Soldiers in the first place.
• Soul-Powered Engine: Essence of Nature or EON is an energy source created by turning a living creature into pure energy, and it's the defacto energy source of the machines.
  • Neo Soldiers are created by turning a human into pure Essence and placing it inside a mechanical body.
• Ship Tease: Maria has a crush on the Squad captain, Lance, and they get some dialogue together no matter what route you take. Trey takes a shine to Shina once she joins, but she doesn't, or rather can't return his feelings.
• Shout-Out: What did the author think was cool at the time?
  • Neowulf himself is a Megaman expy, complete with an arm cannon and a younger sister to angst over him. His helmet and armor resemble old Metal Heroes from the eighties.
  • Phaaz is a red, elite android soldier with a sword like Zero.
  • Feng is Tajadoru with the serial numbers filed off.
  • Orobos fills the niche for Bass, but his armor resembles the Manga/Guyver, and his Worm That Walks tendencies bring him close to The Thing.
• Suicide by Cop: Khoi attacked Jericho and wreaks havoc to goad Neowulf into destroying his core, as he had lost the will to live on after lashing out and hurting a normal human who had feelings for him. The player can spare him if they've unlocked the ability to capture Neo Soldiers, and he'll express his displeasure with living on if he's interrogated. He'll return during the true route, during which he turns on his allies and lets Phaaz and Neowulf through on their way to Yaldabaoth.
• Stealth Mentor: Phaaz's ambushes throughout the game are tests of Neowulf's resolve and skill, and if he deems him worthy he'll let him go, but he still tries his hardest to kill him, which brings him closer to a Sink or Swim Mentor. His reasoning is if Neowulf can't last long in a fight against him, he has no chance of stopping the Machines.
• The Empath: Because she can literally see someone's soul at a glance, Maria is good at reading people and is an excellent judge of character. She can tell by their 'color' if they're happy or sad, but she's frustrated because she never knows what to say to people when she can clearly see if they are hurting inside. She gets second-hand depression from watching her Brother's mental health deteriorate throughout the story.
• Taking You with Me: Any boss that gets their core destroyed will try and catch Neowulf in the explosion.
  • Shina deliberately destroys her core and holds Orobos in place so that he takes the brunt of the explosion.
• Targeted to Hurt the Hero: Orobos goes straight for Maria when he invades the Compound solely to get Neowulf mad. It works.
• Tastes Like Purple: Maria has some form of synesthesia that makes her associate colors with specific people. At first her family assumed it was just clinical, but when Trey realizes her colors line up with the types of energy used by Machines and Neo Soldiers he thinks there may be more to it.
• Villainous Breakdown: Monad really believes that he's the scientist who discovered EON and Essence. When Neowulf and Phaaz call him a fake, he declares that if he isn't real, then the world they're living in isn't real either.
  • Orobos just wants to die. That's why he's such a monster, if he does enough horrible things, someone powerful enough to kill him will show up eventually. In the True Path, Neowulf refuses to kill him and tells him to live with the choices he's made.
• We Have Reserves: The Machine Hives have no shortage of robotic soldiers to deploy against Jericho.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Shina is stoic and cold, and says she can't feel affection or loyalty because she's no longer human. Nonetheless she forms a bond with Maria and Trey and takes unnecessary risks to keep them safe once she's recruited. If Trey has had enough dialogue with her, towards the end of a route he'll try to confess his feelings to her, but she gently lets him down and says even if she wanted to she couldn't reciprocate. Ultimately, even if her emotions were stunted, she still shows love through action by sacrificing herself in the true route.
• The Worm That Walks: Orobos is nothing more than a Neo Soldier core surrounded by fleshy tendrils composed in the shape of a human body. When he transforms into his armored form, he's actually tearing his skin off and reforming it into leathery armor. He can dislocate and extend his limbs if he needs to during combat, but it takes a lot of concentration.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Slaves under Monad truly believe that the Aeons are heroes on a mission to destroy the oppressive city of Jericho, at least most of them do, and they're not completely wrong.

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And we served them in Fear and Slavery...