Technically the first Spectral game, meaning the Spectral Force series and its children series should be under it, but Genre Shift and Sequel Displacement puts Force as the face of the Neverland games.
Shinsengumi Gunrouden (a.k.a. Code of the Samurai)
ASCII Media Works
Dengeki Playstation (a gaming magazine)
The story opens with three Ordinary High School Students—the sourpuss Hyōma, the hyperactive Shizuku, and the cowardly Hayatemaru. They agreed to ditch school one day to investigate a strange cave that is said to hold mystical power. The story goes that if one prays there, his/her wish will be granted. However, when they reach said cave, something bizarre happens and they are sucked into a parallel dimension: a world called "Endia" ("the end of all worlds"). Endia is composed of a ring of islands, and oddly, has a sun that never sets. Hyōma is separated from his friends and encounters a purple-haired girl named Rin Sunroad. Rin is a "Gate Master"—she can operate special terminals that allow the transport of goods and even people. She tells him that he is a "Knight" (a person who is usually pulled from another world). Hyōma finds his friends early enough and must now gather an army of fellow Knights, and take part in a race to find the Keys, which may be the vital items that allows everyone to return to their own worlds—or even new Knights to join Hyōma's and Rin's cause.Has a Spiritual Sequel of sorts in Cross Edge, another Massive Multiplayer Crossover involving Idea Factory with a Trapped in Another World premise. Zelos and Meu appear in both games.
Provides examples of:
All There in the Manual: The bookshelf in the hub provides info on each character, their Realize weapons, personal bio, origin, and even artwork.
Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can only have 5 units sortied on the field at any given time, out of your lot of 40+ units.
The game Rebirth Moon was erroneously translated as "Reverse Moon". While リバース could be either "Rebirth" or "Reverse", this is a game that had a Latinised name visibly displayed on the its logo and in the address of its official website.
Defeat Means Friendship: Beating certain boss characters with a specific unit (sometimes the killing blow must have the unit in Realize mode) causes the boss character to join Hyōma's party after the fight is won.
Dull Surprise: Doesn't even begin to describe how bad the acting is. It sounds like 9th grades being forced to read aloud from a book that none of them are interested in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bangt7d9vGA Thankfully, it's possible to switch to the Japanese voice track in the settings.
Fragile Speedster: Mika is quite fast and can strengthen Beyond the Grave if she participates in a combo attack with him, but it doesn't take much to knock her out of the fight.
Guide Dang It: Standard fare for Idea Factory games and this one is no exception. Finding all possible playable units is no easy task and to get some of them requires counterintuitive or obscure actions, and there's no real hints anywhere.
Heel Face Downgrade: That boss character that had a ton of hit points and resilience? Joined your party? Well, the good thing is that you don't have to fight him or her anymore, but once on your side their incredible power is all but gone, as well as most of their hit points.
Hub Level / Player Headquarters: Hyōma and company find a summer house on a nearby island and lay claim to it because "no one's using it". Hyōma can speak to up to three characters that randomly spawn in the base, arrange his army, use the terminal to accept missions or shop/upgrade weapons and so on.
Improbable Weapon User: Zard the "old-fashioned" detective uses a Kingdom Hearts-esque giant key during Realize, Gepetto uses his trademark puppet Cornelia when in Realize, Rocketbilly Redcadillac uses his electricity-shooting guitar when in Realize, etc
Mighty Glacier: Beyond the Grave is quite a damage sponge and hits hard, but slow. He can grow out of this and catch up with other units, with the right accessories.
First, concerning the other major game region. This game was not released in Europe, which is odd considering that Europe had in general received more games that featured the characters in Chaos Wars, and in particular the Spectral games. But then again, that might be the reason as copyright issues are always tricky with crossover games.
Second, within North America. This game was sold as an exclusive to a video game retailer who only had branches in the United States.
Opposite-Sex Clone: Endia, the "boy of the sun", was a construct created by the Will of the Egg of the World, which also created Rin, the gate master.
Paper Fan of Doom: These are Shizuku's weapon of choice when in Realize mode. Outside of battle, she tends to playfully whack other characters with them.
The Power of Friendship: In a sense—some characters (Grave and Mika, Billy and Juji, Hyōma and his two friends, etc.) have a passive skill called "Friendship"/"Partner". It raises the attack power of the characters when they participate in combo attacks.
Koyuki Saitō/Little Snow, since her first appearance in Spectral Force, had been consistently voiced by Makiko Ohmoto in just about all of her appearances in numerous subsequent games*
Sinister Scythe: Hiro's Realize weapon is a large scythe, although she's not evil at all—she's practically one of the first few party members you get. Scythes/sickles are also a weapon class.
While Hiro is not evil, she IS ruthless and without mercy (she outright tells Hyoma she will kill him if he becomes a burden or, worse, an obstacle), and in her own canon she has a Superpowered Evil Side that revels in wanton destruction and cold-blooded murder due to it representing her repressed demonic nature. The scythe is more fitting than it appears at first.
The Unexpected: This game getting a US port. At least half of the non-Original Generation characters have not made an appearance in any previous game for that region.
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