Epic Battle Fantasy is a trilogy, soon to be tetralogy, of flash games developed by Matt Roszak.You play as a Magic Knight-type character in Pirate gear who uses "Bushido" (and a rather impressive collection of specialized swords and other weapons) along with his team mate (Word Of Goddenies any further relationship), a Fanservice-y mage named Natalie (or Natz for short). The plot for the original game is literally non-existent; you just fight wave after wave of enemies with the occasional stop at a shop to buy items. The second game continues the fight-only tradition (with an actual plot this time), but now there are save points and a minigame you can play to earn more money for the shops. After defeating the final boss, a neo-Nazi named Lance who tried to take over the world, he sides with the heroes and joins the party for the third game.The third game in question involves the heroes (along with Lance, now a member of the team) cruelly reduced to Level 0 after releasing an Eldritch Abomination named Akron by poking it with their weapons. The game now uses a more traditional RPG approach, where the characters walk around a world map, level up, learn new skills (and re-learn old ones), etc. They travel across several locales, do optional fetch quests for NPCs, and get into the occasional minigame.Following the third game, two Spin Offs have been created, based on different game types: The first is a Touhou-style Bullet HellShoot 'Em Up, titled Bullet Heaven, released here. The second is an action Platform Game, titled Adventure Story, released here.You can play the games on Newgrounds or Kongregate *
These links are to Newgrounds, while the Spin-Off links are to Kongregate.
Affectionate Parody: The first two games can be seen as this, exaggerating the linearity of Eastern RPGs, particularly Final Fantasy, but also showing how fun they can be. The third game becomes a straight Eastern RPG, however.
Airborne Mook: Most flying enemies in general have high evade rates, making them a pain to hit if you don't debuff their evasion beforehand.
Always Check Behind the Chair: Some treasure chests in the third game are hidden behind the Obstructive Foreground, requiring the player to check behind places like bushes, a gravestone, and a snow sculpture.
Author Appeal: Matt (the author) loves cats. Especially armless and legless cats, like the series' mascot NoLegs.
He stated that he made the series so he can see a game with everything he liked.
Auto Revive: Status effect gained by casting revive on an alive player; this even happens with spells like Natz's Genesis limit break, giving all characters Auto Revive status.
Awesome, but Impractical: Matt's Soul Eater sword, which greatly boosts his physical attack at the cost of large cuts to everything else. It's just not worth it on most difficulties, or in the third game without extensive upgrading.
The Catastrophe summon in the first game, which most people recommend using once in the entire game, to deal the last blow to the final boss, because it nearly kills Natalie when used. Ion in the second game does damage to both party members, though the damage isn't quite as bad. The two self-damaging limit breaks in 3 are pretty tame by comparison, especially since you're already spending your whole limit bar and want to get as much bang out of that turn as possible.
Awesome But Practical: The Deep Blue gunblade in Epic Battle Fantasy 3. It's unique as one of the few Water-element weapons/skills usable by the player in the game, and completely dominates the Desert and Lava portions of the game because of the abundance of enemies weak to water or take neutral damage from water. In addition, the gunblade's abilities itself are fantastic: the primary stats boosted by the weapon are Atk and Magic, which go hand in hand with its upgradable ability to counter AND a chance to cast Flood when attacking (including when counter attacking!). Even its "Unleash" special synergizes well with Lance by boosting his Atk by up to 50% when fully upgraded, allowing him to use his Unload spell to inflict massive damage before repeating the combo with more Atk buffs.
BFG: Lance likes them. Some enemies also use them. The Gunslingers in particular have a massive cannon that attempts to instantly kill a party member. This is also lampshaded ingame: when the attack is first used, the characters mention that if it hits, your chances of survival are low, but with a gun that huge, their accuracy can't be good...
That's without even getting into all of the giant energy weapons, like the Protector's super cannon.
A lot of Matt's swords. Meow Meow the kitty wields a huge meat cleaver to chop your enemies into pieces.
Some enemies too. Akron's lower body is able to belch a massive Laser Blade for massive damage to the whole party. His Evil Worm can also regurgitate a huge sword to hit a party member. Swordslinger robots possess enormous swords as well.
Taken Up to Eleven in the third game. First, the whole group throws up while eating slimes (except for Natalie; she threw up before she could eat one). Then it is implied that they ate the Giant Squid boss. Finally, Matt and Lance try to eat the last Woolly Mammoth after defeating it. Only Natz's pity for the creature saves it from becoming dinner.
After the party defeats a turtle enemy:
Matt: Let's make a turtle soup out of this guy!
In the volcano area, Matt comments that it's a shame they didn't get to kill whatever left those giant skeletons around, because the lava would've made it easy to cook. A few screens later they fight a dragon, though sadly aren't shown eating it.
Boss Banter: Akron reveals his origins (or what he can remember of them, anyways) and contemplates the purpose of his existence while pummeling the living daylights out of you.
The party themselves, of course, provides this for most of the bosses in 3.
Boss in Mook Clothing: The three monolith enemies in 3, immune to all but two or three elements each and with loads of health, who alternate between moderatly effective attacks and whole-party-hitting lasers powerful enough to one-hit-kill which inflict status effects (freeze for the first, dispel for the other two, and instant death as well for the last on Epic mode). And they buff each other. Oh, and they always use the laser on their first turn, and unless you manage to stun one somehow they'll continue to all fire them on the same turn for the whole battle.
Boss Rush: There's one in Adventure Story, along with a "Foe Rush" which has rooms of the regular enemies from each level. Interestingly in the boss rush the arenas have been upgraded to make the fights much harder.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the third game, Natz says, "Why are the jellyfish flying? Would it be harder just to draw some water underneath?"
In the first secret area, Lance speculates that the author was too lazy to add a background.
In one of the first two games, when Natz does her limit break and thus gets a jiggly breast close-up, she then has a chance to comment "That's enough Fanservice for now."
Breath Weapon: Many enemies. Akron has no arms to use for his casting poses, therefore alternative ways to cast his spells are necessary. His first form has an electric breath and a dark breath, his second form has a humongous mouth and as such has an energy sword "breath", a dark beam breath, a huge death ball breath... His Evil Worm has a bubble breath, a dark breath, and a poison breath. Same goes for the Sandworm. The Hydra heads also like their breath weapons...
Bullet Hell: The Bullet Heaven spinoff. Lance also has a fire-elemental attack in the third game that is named Bullet Hell, and the animation really fits.
Cameo: Lots and lots, including several bosses in the first game, many of the summons, and a lot of the NPCs in the third game. Cameos are generally from anime and Pokemon.
Canon Discontinuity: The second game makes no mention of the first game's final boss outside of his suicide explosion.
Slimes tend to have this as a constant expression. Except when attacked.
Censor Box: Used during the beholder's "secret move". Also on naked NPCs.
If the players are to be believed, the beholder's "secret move" is exactly what you'd expect.
Natz: Eww. I hope I don't get pregnant from this.
Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: Averted. Matt can instantaneously switch swords, but doing so eats up a turn. The third game follows suit for all characters, though multiple pieces of equipment can be changed at once.
Charged Attack: A lot of enemies in all three games - especially bosses - have at least one of these. Many of them are so ridiculously strong that they're practically a One-Hit Kill unless you use your Defend Command.
Continuity Nod: In the first game, one of the bosses has a Charged Attack, which, when charging, triggers a warning saying "Brace for beam cannon". The final boss does this as well, his saying: "Brace for spirit bomb". The main concept is "Brace for X." The Cosmic Monolith's strongest attack involves it using a very low-damage ray to tear a rift in the ground. This prompts Lance to say "Oh Crap, brace for... that."
Zombie Goku carries a scar from his previous battle with Matt in Brawl Royale (although the scar is much smaller than you would expect for a guy who got perfectly bisected).
The final outfit that can be found for Lance is his German officer uniform from his appearance in EBF 2, minus the swastikas.
Cool Sword: Loads of them appear in the series that define this. Naturally, it's Matt's Weapon of Choice.
Creepy Cool Crosses: They appear a lot in the series, mainly in White Magic spells. However, the fourth game has them as decorative "flair".
Cute 'Em Up: The Bullet Heaven spinoff pretty much defines this.
Degraded Boss: The Beholder, Zombie Hydra, and Sandworm are back in the 3rd game as enemies. Fortunately, they have far less hit points, the Hydra can no longer revive each head, and the Sandworm isn't assisted by its tail.
Natalie states that she warned the other two not to touch it, but, like always, she was soundly ignored.
Downer Ending: The first game, in which Zombie Goku's death explosion not only nearly kills the heroes, but also severely devastates the world. The second game has you dealing with the fallout.
Nearly occurs in the second game when Matt and Natz are graphically poisoned to death due to eating a dead sand worm. Luckily for them, an aptly named angel comes along to save the day.
A seal enemy, shown in the second game's gallery. It's not going to be in the third game either.
The concept art in 3 shows a badass looking Lava Golem the creator admits he never got to use.
As seen in the opening cutscene/introduction and the very last cutscene with the final boss, Lance was supposed to have a Wave Motion Gun attack that shot a golden laser. He does eventually get that attack, though, but in 3.3.
Elemental Powers: Oh boy... first there's the basic stuff like fire, thunder, ice, and earth, along with rare (as of the third game) elements such as water and wind, where only a few attacks and items deal them. There is also dark and holy, but then it gets weird since poison (which mostly goes for plant/organic themed things) and bomb are also counted as elements.
on the subject of holy, Natz' bomb in Bullet Heaven is as of the time of editing a page image
Eldritch Abomination: Akron, the demon. After being awakened, he makes a black hole in space and causes a volcano to erupt, along with warping space and leading the protagonists to the town.
Enemy Scan: In the second game, Natalie could summon a Scanbot, and in the third, Lance had a Scan skill. Both games had medals for scanning enough enemies.
Essence Drop: In Adventure Story, enemies drop hearts and green bubbles, which restore your health and mana respectively.
Eye Beam: Akron's fire spell. Oddly, until he's severely damaged, his eyes are actually hidden under mummy bandages. How he manages to cast this fire beam without burning through them is anyone's guess.
Fake Difficulty: The first two games become really hard if one party member dies, since you only have one left. Even worse, some enemies stun or freeze you... with a high chance of doing so. Meaning, you could have to sit out a turn with nobody else to help you getting attacked until you can fight again. And if there are multiple stun/freeze enemies, God help you.
The second game's Hydra boss can be a particularly bad offender. The boss has two parts, both of which have an instakill move. It is entirely possible for both heads to use this move on their first turns, forcing the player to restart an already annoying chapter. Fortunately, the move isn't guaranteed to work every time, and Matt can obtain a skill which gives him a chance to survive any blow - including the aforementioned insta-kill move - with exactly one Hit Point left. (Cue Limit Break.)
Flunky Boss: Every damn boss in the third game is this. Even the Pyrohydra, who at first seems to avert it by being a Dual Boss instead, starts summoning minions when reduced to one head.
Gainaxing : Not only does Natalie happily jiggle here and there, clicking her boobs while she's standing still will make them bounce. You get a medal for doing it enough.
Please don't leave 1,000 comments about this again.
Game-Breaking Bug: In the second game, if you kill the last zombie hydra with the Legend attack, the game might freeze and you will be unable to proceed to the next level.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Unless you've checked the art gallery (or have seen the creator's other works), you will have no idea that ZombieGoku is the final boss of the first game.
Not to mention that it's common in the games to face mecha bosses after defeating typical fantasy-setting mooks.
Giving Up The Ghost: Happens whenever Matt, Natalie, and Lance die. Strangely averted for Anna.
Gratuitous Greek: The lower part of Akron regurgitates a giant, glowing red sword with Greek Letters on it, which spell out Destroyer. Meaningful Name?
The bonus levels in 3.3. They're just upgraded versions of the bosses. This being a Bullet Hell game, have fun finding the parts of the screen that aren't occupied with pain!!!
Heel Face Turn: This apparently happens each game. First, No Legs joins your party in the second game, when in the first game he rides the first mini boss, and then the Beholder joins too (and then it's an enemy in 3 again). Then, of course, Lance after you beat him in the second game.
Ice Breaker: The other way to get rid of the freezing effect besides healing is to get attacked while frozen, for bonus damage. Lampshaded by an NPC in the third game as you go into Glacier Valley that it's probably a bad idea to do that to allies, and it's better to heal them. Also lampshaded by Natz when she first uses Regen, remarking that it'll probably be a good way to get rid of freeze.
Infinity+1 Element: Bomb in the third game. There are huge stretches of the game where almost every enemy is weak to it, and almost nothing actually resists it except a few fire enemies; most importantly it is the weakness of every clay and golem enemy, who otherwise rarely match in the elements they aren't immune to, and all three monoliths, which each are immune to all but two or three types. Lance gets two bomb weapons and two bomb specials regardless of weapon, and they'd all be solid choices even without the element. In the hands of enemies it's nothing special, except that only four items resist it and it can be hard to recognize.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: If the second NPC preview tells anything, there may be at least two: one male, one female. In the world map, they are both found at Rock Lake, which could imply that it's a nude beach.
Turns out they're not "innocent", however...
Matt: Don't come any closer, gramps. You'll scar this girl for life.
Instant Runes: They frequently pop up whenever a spell is cast. Matt, Natalie, and Lance also have unique ones representing them and cast them when defending.
Karma Houdini: Arguably, Lance. The guy tries to take over the world after it was left in bad shape from the first game, and in the scene before you fight him, it's hinted that he killed basically anything in his way. His comeuppance? He joins the party because he used to be the male lead's friend. *
That, and also because he and the male lead grew to admire each other's fighting spirit during the battle. Or something like that.
Lance: "Don't worry, it's solar powered. Minimal damage to the environment and radiation, but still lethal. I'm quite proud of it."
Kleptomaniac Hero: In the third game, you can actually walk around in a world map. And thus, this trope is born.
Lampshaded in Glacier Valley if you go to an igloo. Matt will wonder if the vikings will mind if you take their stuff, Lance will say that you'll need to anyway if you want the treasure hunter medals, and Natalie will try to get them to stop stealing everything. Lampshaded yet again when you come across another unlocked tent in Volcano Peak, at which point Natalie agrees to steal things.
Lampshaded early game if you find the "secret" back area of the shops where you can loot the shopkeeper's treasure chests. Natz will question if it's stealing, and Matt will only reply "Just take it and run!"
Last Lousy Point: Certain single coins or far-off chests in Adventure Story can be this.
Ms. Fanservice: Natz is slowly becomingis this. Heck, it gets taken to a whole new level in the second game's Game Over screen, where her dress is nearly ripped apart. You can even click her breasts to induce Gainaxing. Taken Up to Eleven in the third game with her Cat Girl and Cow Girl outfits.
Multi Melee Master: Matt, in all three games. Excluding a few pieces of concept art, it's never shown where he stashes all of his swords; in battle, he just glows and voila, the sword changes.
Mythology Gag: The presence of the Light Warriors sculptures becomes a bit funnier when one realizes that the author previously worked on a popular series known as "Attack of the Black Mages", the fifth of which marked the appearance of his current artistic style (as well as Natz's debut).
There is a NPC named Mao in Glacier Valley who will say a line from the creator's first animation, "I no speak england".
New Game Plus: In the third game, it's possible to start a new game while retaining your levels, skills, items, etc. It is very satisfying to go through again and easily destroy every single boss that gave you trouble previously.
Nice Hat: Matt always wears a pirate hat in the games. In the third game, he even swims with his hat on. The third game gives him and Lance different hats to wear, but chances are you'll never see them without a hat on.
Ninja: In the third game, there's Ninja equipment for both guys and Natz.
Number of the Beast: In Bullet Hell, you get a medal for dying with over 666 bullets on the screen.
No One Gets Left Behind: Humorously averted in the third game. Matt expresses fear over crossing an unstable bridge, Lance just says that the party isn't coming back for him if he falls.
One-Hit Kill: The first two games have a pattern where the second-to-last boss and the last boss have one. One of the zombie hydra's attacks, and one of the tank's cannons in the second game, and the spirit bomb and mega lazer in the first. Thankfully, all of these (except for the Zombie Hydra's instant-death spell) are Charged Attacks, and they aren't true One-Hit Kills - they just do such ridiculously high damage that they might as well be. As long as your HP is high enough, you can use the Defend Command to avoid utter annihilation.
In addition to all of the above, one of the platforms that the Valkyrie (aforementioned tank) can bring up to assist itself is a nuke-launching station. Its only attack is to advance a countdown. And the nuke will be launched at you when it ends. The only way to save yourself from that one is to demolish the nuke station before this can happen. And it's entirely possible for it to have two nukes being prepared for launch simultaneously. For more Final Boss cheapness, Goku from the first game still gets to take his turn after his Spirit Bomb lands. Thankfully (or not,) he never spends that turn charging up another Spirit Bomb. Instead, he uses one of his other super-painful moves. Though he can*
and probably will when at low health
launch another Spirit Bomb on the turn after that.
The third game adds in a handful of regular enemies that can use these (or, more specifically, that instant-death move that the Zombie Hydra used. You'll know when this is the case because the display indicating how much damage you took will read "DEATH" instead of a numerical value. By the way, that little Grim Reaper isn't the only enemy move that can cause instant death anymore... it's just the only one that's guaranteed to be a One-Hit Kill if it connects. And you've got quite a few One-Hit Kill moves in your arsenal, as well (though most of them are functions of specific weapons.)
On top of all the instant death attacks in EBF 3, Doomsday counts too, and is a definite That One Attack; if you don't have sufficient dark resistance, you WILL die.
Panty Shot: While averted, Lance seemed to get flashed◊ when the party tried to jump across a cliff. After he made it, Matt tried to carry Natz across, and accidentally held her at a rather awkward angle.
Parasol Parachute: The last hidden item in Adventure Story. Surprisingly good as a sword too.
Peek-a-Bangs: Anna's hair shades nicely over her right eye.
Tank Goodness: In the third game, Lance has an ability where he orders his boss tank from the second game to fire its machine guns at the enemy. If you find and completely upgrade his old Nazi hat and outfit from the second game, the tank will randomly fire either its machine guns or its main cannon (and sometimes both) at the enemy for free.
Don't forget one of his limit breaks, in which he pounds the tank into the bad guys and then blows it up.
The Power of Rock: The Power Metal attack, which plays a small bit of "Through the Fire and Flames".
Too Dumb to Live: The three characters are not bright. They die in the second game when they eat a sandworm, despite knowing that it had attacks that implied it was obviously poisonous. Then, they poke a chained, obviously evil demon that steals their power. Lampshaded in the third game, when they admit that solving a puzzle hurt their heads.
Note that the Swastiska on Lance's uniform faces the opposite direction from its Nazi-emblem variant. This version of the Swastiska is, believe it or not, the Buddhist symbol for peace... which is a neat reflectionon Lance's ultimate goals.
In the third game, you can re-attain the outfit and equip it on Lance or Matt. It provides a notable amount of Dark resistance, and when maxed out, will provide extra tank attacks randomly.
Sequel Hook: The second game tells you that you get a new party member at the very end of the game.
Schmuck Bait: Matt has a move called "Screamer", as in the "Scary Maze" kind of screamer.
According to the creator, it's a picture of his dog with the colors inverted. Note that this revelation shows up in the art gallery of the first game - the other two use the exact same screamer image.
Self-Imposed Challenge: Play as one player. Or two in the third game, seeing how there will be up to five enemies in one battle in contrast to the first two games' three, one player will be nearly impossible. Although stunning and freezing enemies will make such a challenge harder.
Stuff Blowing Up: All three final bosses explode when killed (well, only the top half of the third one explodes, the rest seems to fade away... see for yourself). Justified in the second game's final boss, as it is the tank (no, not the pilot).
Super-Deformed: The party in the overworld map is drawn in chibi style in the third game.
Too Awesome to Use: The Ion attack in the second game. While you can use it whenever you want, doing so causes extreme damage to the entire party. In the third game, Lance and Natz both have attacks that hurt the party: Nuke and Black Hole, respectively (though not Ion).
In addition, Meow Meow and Catastrophe in the first. Summoning Meow Meow featured a 30% chance of his sword breaking and damaging the party as well, and Catastrophe's third sword always hit P2 (Natz) for high damage.
Wave Motion Gun: a lot of the enemies. Also, Lance's bomb in 3.3.
Wake Up Call Boss: The Wooly Mammoth boss can kill the party within a few turns if you're not careful. It basically serves to teach that there are more aspects to gameplay than attacking and using spells.
any further relationship), a Fanservice-y mage named Natalie (or Natz for short). The plot for the original game is literally non-existent; you just fight wave after wave of enemies with the occasional stop at a shop to buy items. The second game continues the fight-only tradition (with an actual plot this time), but now there are save points and a minigame you can play to earn more money for the shops. After defeating the final boss, a neo-Nazi named Lance who tried to take over the world, he sides with the heroes and joins the party for the third game.The third game in question involves the heroes (along with Lance, now a member of the team) cruelly reduced to Level 0 after releasing an Eldritch Abomination named Akron by poking it with their weapons. The game now uses a more traditional RPG approach, where the characters walk around a world map, level up, learn new skills (and re-learn old ones), etc. They travel across several locales, do optional fetch quests for NPCs, and get into the occasional minigame.Following the third game, two Spin Offs have been created, based on different game types: The first is a Touhou-style Bullet Hell Shoot 'Em Up, titled Bullet Heaven, released here
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