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Solatorobo
Solatorobo: Sore kara Coda e is a 3D Action RPG and platform game published by Namco Bandai in Japan the 28th of October, 2010 and developed by CyberConnect2. It is a Spiritual Sequel to the 3D anime-style Action Adventure and platform game Tail Concerto, the first game produced by the developers. Solatorobo is considered to be the third of the Little Tail Bronx series, and was released in Europe and Australia in July 2011 as Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, with a US release confirmed at E3 2011, although the release date (September 27th) wasn't given until a few days later.

The game is set in the same universe as Tail Concerto, floating islands above a sea of plasma inhabited by dog people and cat people, but is now set in the Shepherd Republic instead of Prairie.

In the game, you play as Red Savarin and gameplay focuses on controlling his Mini Mecha, DAHAK-AZI03, or simply DAHAK. The combat usually involves picking things up and throwing them at enemies. The DAHAK is also customizable, with different armor types made for different combat situations (speed, defense, power, etc.). The game also boasts a large selection of side-quests which help flesh out the world the player is in and various mini-games, including airship racing and giant hermit crab fishing. Notable for being absolutely gorgeous for a DS game and having 100 different advertisements made for it aired on the 21st of October in a successful attempt to break a world record. Also, Yoshitake Taniguchi of Super Robot Wars fame was in charge of the Mini Mecha designs.

Now has a character sheet in progress!

For another game that also involves mechas, Petting Zoo People and grabbing+throwing gameplay, check out Mischief Makers.

Solatorobo contains the following tropes:

  • Adventure Friendly World: About half the world's economy seems to revolve around moving crates around and mercenary-work.
  • Adventure Guild: The people running the quest brokers, apparently descended from mercenary groups. The Kuvasz Guild is currently the largest one.
  • Aerith and Bob: We've got Red and Bruno (common dog names) and Alicia (common human name) running around with Béluga (a type of whale), Opéra (like the music), and Chocolat and Waffle. Then there's the question of what Elh's name even came from.
  • Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The final battle takes place in a Tartaros with bright lights and floating cubes.
  • Amazon Brigade: The Pink Peaches sky pirates are composed only of women.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore: The Japanese boxart◊ features the protagonist trio goofing around on Dahak and generally looking happy (Elh is even Giving Someone the Pointer Finger). The European boxart◊ features Red standing solemnly with his Stun Gun (and also manages to spoil both Red's Trance form and the fact that the world has a mysterious origin and is not just a simple setting). The American boxart◊ tries to Take a Third Option, with Red looking determined but upbeat and Elh being rather pensive.
  • Animal Jingoism: The island of Mau is almost exclusively inhabited by Felineko, due to their proficiency at using Nono. Around the island are several statues of an evil dog god, deliberately kept upside-down to take away his power. However, they welcome Red as warmly as Elh, just commenting that they don't get many Caninu coming around.
  • Animal Stereotypes: A few are taken into account in the two races. Caninu are described as loyal, friendly, good at physical labor, and like eating hard foods. Felineko are described as fiercely independent, quite aggressive, moody, calculating, and agile. One stereotype that only applies in-universe is the Caninu's proficiency for technology contrasted by the Felineko's proficiency for magic.
  • Anti-Villain: The Kuvasz special operative unit.
  • Artifact of Death: The amulet takes the life of whoever it chooses for the Rite of Forfeit.
    • Only The Chosen May Wield: Though it turns out Hybrids like Red, Nero, and Blanck are immune to it and can go through a Rite with no ill effects.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The Gratuitous French soundbytes are... very... gratuitous, and may not make very much sense if you actually understand the language, even at a fairly basic level.
  • As Long as There Is Evil: At the very end of the game, Baion warns Red that if the planet ever sees the inhabitants as a threat to it again, like with humanity, he will return to execute the "Reset" order.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: There are giant birds in this game which are twice the size of the average person.
  • Bait-and-Switch Boss: Red finally wises up and answers the third guardian's riddle, gaining the last piece of the Magic Flute without having to fight him. However, at that exact moment Blanck shows up and a boss battle against him ensues.
  • The Battle Didn't Count: The first battle versus Nero and Blanck outside their robots. After getting them to half health, they just say they're tired of playing around and just shoot a huge, undodgeable fireball at you.
  • Beam Spam: How the the Titano-Machinae Lares and Lemures attack air ships and open a rift for Tartaros.
  • Big Badass Wolf: The Precursors to the Caninu were the Wolves, who were highly skilled in the magical arts (unlike their decedents) and good with technology, first providing robots to Shepherd during the Hundred Lilies War five hundred years ago.
  • Big Creepy Crawlies: Some of the enemies Red encounters.
  • Bland Name Product: The Stardogs Coffee shop.
  • Boss Rush: Two are available as endgame, repeatable quests.
  • Can Not Spit It Out:
    • A minor, nameless female NPC constantly tries to tell herself to spit something out to another male NPC. Subverted when the guy just owes her some money.
    • Also Elh to Red, so, so much.
  • Cartoon Bomb: The weapon of choice of the Black Cats Gang's battle balloon.
  • Cast of Snowflakes: Just about every NPC has a unique sprite, and even generic enemies have some personality attached to them. Lampshaded during one sidequest:
    Red: Another "unique" character I have to deal with. Gimme a break...
  • Cats Are Magic: Felineko are stated to have a great interest in and aptitude for spells. Averted with the Felineko Precursors, the Lions, who are said to have had absolutely no interest in magic of any sort, relying solely on their physical strength.
  • The Cavalry: When Red is facing Nero while the Dahak is being repaired, Chocolat and Elh come in to drop the Dahak Mk. 2 just in the nick of time.
  • City of Canals: Spinon.
  • Changing Parts Is A Free Action: Middle of a fight? About to die? No problem, just pause everything, open the hatch on Dahak, and switch the parts out to your heart's content!
  • Character Portrait: Most everyone has a portrait, except perhaps for a very few minor NPCs. Most of those with portraits also have multiple portraits for various moods/facial expressions as well.
  • Chekhov's Gun: One early side-mission in Pharaoh has you searching trains for suspicious packages. You find a high-grade explosive in one of them, which makes a reappearance much later on, prior to - and as part of - the attack on Tartaros.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Functions as a bit of Deus ex Machina after the final boss. Baion is subdued and even admits he's proud of Red, but Tartaros is about to return to its alternate dimension, threatening to take Red with it. He moans that he'll never make it out in time, since Septentrion has reverted to Dahak and can't fly near fast enough. Baion tells him that, since his Mini Mecha is made out of nanometal, all he has to do is wish hard enough and Dahak will do whatever he wants it to. Well, wouldn't THAT have been useful to know earlier!? For even more Deus ex Machina, even Septentrion alone isn't fast enough; Nero and Blanck's spirits have to give it an extra power boost to get Red back to his friends.
  • Clingy MacGuffin: The medallion has chosen Red and thus cannot be used without him. Sucks to be him.
  • Collection Sidequest: Catching the Black Cats Gang members for their photo pieces. Also serves as a Shout Out to Tail Concerto, which also had a photo piece Collection Sidequest and had you capturing Black Cats Gang members on a frequent basis.
  • Colossus Climb: Minor example, to defeat the superheavy prototypes on the Golden Roar you need to get a crate, jump on top of it, then jump onto the top of the prototype and yank out the power crystal, rather than throwing its cannonballs back at it like most similar enemies.
  • Colourful Theme Naming: Red, Nero (black), and Blanck (white). The Red Data Children, a series of sidestories, details four more "failed" hybrids - Rose, Rouge, Vermillion, and Carmine - who are all named after shades of red as well.
  • Compliment Backfire: When Waffle tries to complement Alicia for looking pretty in a princess dress, she just gets mad at him for comparing her to Theria.
  • Continuity Cameo: Waffle Ryebread, Princess Terria, Cyan, the Black Cats Gang, and Mamoru from Mamoru-kun are all confirmed to make an appearance in the Shepherd Republic. You also get to fight Cyan once in the arena and again as a DLC quest.
  • Cool Airship: Although the Asmodeus and the Royal Envy are somewhat standard, the Golden Roar of the Kuvasz definitely applies, housing a Wutai palace on top of it.
  • Cooldown: Present only in the fishing minigame. Any weapons are able to be fired until they run out of ammo.
  • Creating Life: The Juno, thousands of years ago wiped out humanity and the rest of life on the planet and created life from "data" of the old world. Apparently, some of the DNA got mixed up.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Anju religion is essentially Catholicism WITH BIRDS! To be able to enter their holy forest where all the birds live when they're not guiding souls to the afterlife, you need to obtain a string of rosary beads, and lore says they always have a Bible on hand and worship in churches on Sundays.
  • Cute Little Fangs: In some shots, Chocolat and Elh. Red's teeth are highly visible when he smiles, but tend to be a triangular mess of shark-teeth and not particularly "cute".
  • Darker and Edgier: Compared to Tail Concerto anyway.
  • Darkest Hour: When Bruno awakens Lares using Red's life.
  • Death Is a Slap on the Wrist
  • Defeat Means Friendship: A quest with Alman has him asking Red to teach his new apprentice to work harder. The apprentice wants none of it, telling them to leave him alone, and eventually prompts Red to fight him. Once beaten, his attitude does a 180 and he'll do anything "Boss" Red tells him to, including working as hard as he possibly can.
  • Difficulty Spike: The Boss Rush quests after the end of the game. The game proper gives you a very generous amount of health throughout, so dying is not a big issue for the average gamer. There are save points before the bosses restoring your health. The Boss Rush, however, gives no recovery spot whatsoever and increases the damage the bosses need to be defeated, making it much harder than the rest of the game. At least the bosses are split into two different quests.
  • Disc One Final Dungeon and Disc One Final Boss: Lares and Bruno, respectively. They do a real good job of hiding that it's only Disc One, too; running the credits after completion and labeling that part of the game the "Final Chapter" (the next part winds up being "Part Two Chapter One").
  • Distressed Damsel: In a downloadable quest, you need to rescue Opéra from a cave-in in Shetland.
  • Do a Barrel Roll: When in flight mode on the Dahak, press R to spin in mid-air. Unlike most barrel rolls, this is a form of attack rather than dodging.
  • Doing It for the Art: A ten-year production cycle, seven of which was spent on World Building. It shows.
  • Doomed Hometown: You get your first few quests in Airedale before Lares sends his shades at you and razes parts of the town. It gets better, thankfully. There's also Ragdoll, the hometown of the Paladins which gets razed by Baion prior to the game.
  • Earth All Along: A more unique variant. The existence of the Old World is revealed to be underneath the Cloud Sea, and almost immediately after, it is revealed the Old World is actually Earth. The game later clarifies the matter once the group reaches Earth: the floating continents in the game were actually once part of Earth's land mass.
  • Emotionally Tongue Tied: Red can turn into this, depending how you play one sidequest. In a new, "special" simulation, Elh admits that she wants to stay with Red forever, and you're given the dialogue choices of "I'd better be honest too" and "Too embarrassed to say".
  • Enemy Mine: The Kurvasz, Howler Sky Pirates, and a train conductor join forces to procure a powerful bomb to help in the fight against Tartaros.
  • Everything's Better with Spinning: Lots of things spin. Certain enemies attack by spinning around like tops (and then get dizzy, leaving them open to throw combos) and the Type R set for the Mk 2 allows it to fall much slower by holding the jump key to spin.
  • Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Futzu Tower is lacking in the evil (although it is definitely related to the antagonists) but it fits the ominous aspect of the trope well.
  • Expanded Universe: The Red Data Children series of side novels, as well as a radio play of the same and some 4koma comic strips, seen in Japanese here and a partial English Fan Translation here (comics are safe; rest of site is NSFW).
  • Fighting For Survival: Everyone against Tartaros, but it's only Red who manages to get inside and deliver the final blow.
  • Filler: Despite the ONE HUNDRED ADVERTISEMENTS containing a lot of information on character bios, gameplay mechanics and lore, there are some... very random, tangentially related, and (somewhat) funny little sketches here and there. Prize for most unrelated commercial has got to go to sneezing man.
  • Fishing Minigame: In it, you use a harpoon shooting mecha to fish for gigantic hermit crabs with airships the size of small buildings attached to them.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: The guard in Spinon has a quest requiring you to tame two giant killer fishes. He calls them Cathy and Anna. When you find a third giant fish, he decides to name that one Mary. At the end of the quest, he says if he ever finds another, he would name it after Red.
  • Flying Seafood Special: Sky fish, obviously. However, it's a rare delicacy, as the crystal in its scales make a lot of it inedible.
  • Foreshadowing: See Colourful Theme Naming.
  • Fragile Speedster: The Type R Dahak Mk. 2 model naturally increases your mobility at the cost of defense. Given how little damage the enemies do anyway, however, you probably won't notice the fragile part.
  • Freudian Trio: Red is constantly the impulsive Id, but Elh and Chocolat take turns playing Ego and Superego. Normally, Chocolat is Mission Control and Elh is in the field helping Red, but when Elh's betrayal in the Rite of Forfeit is concerned, Chocolat becomes the mediator helping to reconcile the two.
  • From the Mouths of Babes: While Elh manages to confuse Red and Chocolate about being female, one of the orphans immediately realizes she's a girl and asks her why she dresses like a boy. Red replies that it makes it easier to play, volunteering a flustered Elh for babysitting duty.
  • Fungus Humongous: Viszla.
  • Fun with Acronyms: CODA, which stands for Continent Orientation Defloat Alignment.
  • Fur Is Skin: Everyone has both body fur and head hair.
    • Humanoid Female Animal: Most of the girls have a decidedly more "human" look to them, with peach or tan fur and shorter muzzles than their male counterparts; this has confused many players into believing Chocolat is a Felineko.
      • Merveille is an exception, having a longer muzzle but peach fur.
  • Furry Reminder: Red spends a great deal of time chewing on a Stock Femur Bone, and Caninu are shown as catching flying discs in their mouth like regular dogs in lore.
  • Giant Enemy Crab: A common enemy, the Crustacrab and its baby variants. An even more giant version with a large airship or an entire small island can be fished in the Fishing Minigame.
  • Giant Flyer: The Master of the Clouds, who is used to travel from Shephard to Earth.
  • Goggles Do Nothing: A lot of characters in this game have goggles, which can be justified by the setting. Some characters never take them off, while others never wear theirs. However, Red never wears his pair and Chocolat's pair is also fairly questionable, what with her flying within the airship's already protected cockpit.
  • Gondor Calls for Aid: To fight against Nero, Blanck, and eventually Tartaros, Red enlists the help of Opéra and the Kurvasz, who then put out a call for everybody to help. And they do.
  • Gotta Catch 'Em All: The gang of mischievous kittens, and their stolen photos Red can collect to complete his photo gallery. Red even says that he's "gotta catch them all" when Barry the photographer sends him to find the rest of the photos.
  • Gratuitous French: The dominant language of the Shepard Republic is French. Fittingly, most of the characters say a little stock French phrase before engaging in dialogue. Nom d'un chien!, indeed.
  • Grid Inventory: The Dahak can be upgraded with modules slotted into a grid, but the entire grid isn't available at first. Finding Power Crystals to unlock new slots is one of the main reasons to search areas thoroughly! The modules come in all shapes and sizes, including some of the classic Tetris blocks. Once you get the Mk 2, the total unlockable space increases as well, allowing for further enhancement.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: A common tactic when fighting multiple enemies is to throw one at another, damaging both.
  • Hearing Voices: Red hears the evil kind when the Order is given.
    • Living Emotional Crutch: Elh becomes this during that time, talking to him to keep him calm. Considering he tried to strangle her the first time he heard the Order, she has good reason to keep him calm.
  • Heartwarming Orphan: The orphans at Bassett: Albert, Biscotte, Charlotte, and Arzene.
  • Heavy Sleeper: A female vendor NPC spends the entirety of the game dreaming of money. She even manages to sleep through a kaiju attack and the final large scale battle at the climax of the game.
  • Heel Face Turn: The Kuvasz Guild, after Opéra takes over due to the death of Bruno.
  • He Is Not My Boyfriend: Elh and Red, though the phrase in question isn't used directly.
  • He Won't Come For Me: The Kurvaz capture Elh to use as bait to make Red turn over the medalion, but Elh says that won't work because she betrayed him, tried to sacrifice him in the Rite of Forfeit, and he won't come.
  • Hey, That's My Line!: Obviously, the train conductor in Pharaoh didn't get his job just so that Red could steal his "All aboard!" line.
  • Hilarity Ensues: Expect this a few times in the main story...and roughly 90% of all the quests make Red go through odd things with all the NPCs while also commenting on the odd-jobs he takes. That ranges from people being so dang unsettling on sight to him to his own adopted sister berating him of all the stupid common sense he has.
  • Hindenburg: The first airship you're on is named the Hindenburg. Naturally, it goes down in a ball of flames, though at least this time we know exactly what happened: Lares.
  • Holding Paws: Red and Elh are forced to, during Merveille's "special" training simulation, which was just her way of getting Red to finally admit his feelings. It eventually leads to a "You two can let go of each other now."
  • Hostage for MacGuffin: At the end of Samoyede, Bruno kidnaps Elh to make an exchange for Red's medallion and indirectly his life.
  • Humanity's Wake
  • Human Sacrifice: The medallion requires the sacrifice of the person it chooses in order to active the Rite of Forfeit or the Rite of Awakening. This is implied several times in the story and it gets much more obvious the closer that Elh gets closer to being able to seal Lares, finally coming out on the Golden Roar.
  • Humans Are Bastards: The reason why the Juno offered to wipe the planet clean and start over, giving it a chance to recover.
  • Hybrid Monster: What most of the non-robot enemies look like.
  • Hyperactive Metabolism: It even heals your robot somehow.
  • I Ate What?: Venom Barnacles are a delicacy, and can be a key component when making a stew. No, really!
  • Immortal Life Is Cheap: Averted. Red is upset at the thought of having to leave Elh inside Lemures while he takes on Tartaros. She points out to him that she is technically immortal, and he notes that somehow, that doesn't make him feel any better about it. Considering Baion wiped out the rest of the Paladins and her form of immortality is just "never ages but can be killed", he's right to worry.
  • Immortality Begins at Twenty:
    • Played straight by Béluga, but averted for Elh, who seems to be stuck as a teenager. After losing her immortality, she comments that she seems to have finally grown a bit after three hundred years.
    • Also played semi-straight by Baion, who looks somewhere in his forties.
  • Interrupted Declaration of Love: In one sidequest, Elh and Red. She says she hasn't been able to feel happiness or love in years, but has finally begun to feel them again with him. He says he's got something he needs to say to her as well, but then the simulation ends and he loses his train of thought, though he remembers vividly that he was going to say something important. She decides she'll just be patient and wait until he can tell her himself (despite the fact that it was her confession that prompted his in the first place). Of course, that was Merveille's plan all along.
  • Interspecies Romance:
  • Ignorance Is Bliss: Elh doesn't let Red know the true cost of sealing Lares to gain his cooperation.
  • Inevitable Tournament: Averted. The tournament in this game is completely optional. Only a few battles even give the skill points required to access higher ranked quests and progress the story.
  • In Your Nature To Destroy Yourselves: Baion makes this claim during the final battle, comparing the wars fought by the Caninu and the Felineko to the now extinct humanity which destroyed itself.
  • Journey to the Center of the Mind : Red goes through one after the game's midpoint via Virtual Training Simulation.
    • Face Your Fears: One of the simulations has him facing his worst fear: losing control and killing everyone he cares about.
    • White Void Room: Since Red's memories are more or less completely MIA, the simulator shows the facility where Merveille and Baion created him as a series of semi-disconnected, floating white rooms.]
  • Kill It with Fire:
    • Baion's Mini Mecha, the BERIUS P-2, is specialized in this.
    • Certain other minor enemies as well, plus flamethrower traps placed here and there.
  • Land Down Under: The Futzu Tower is this twice over, being both literally on what used to be Australia and located down under the clouds. Perhaps surprisingly, the only place where everything is trying to kill you is inside the tower; the small path outside is perfectly safe.
  • Late Arrival Spoiler: The European boxart shows Red's Trance form and advertises the fact that the world has a "mysterious origin" and is not simply a fun setting.
  • Lift of Doom: Two elevators have you dodging moving flamethrowers in the Golden Roar.
  • Living Battery: While they don't require one to operate, Lares and Lemures will turn you into one in exchange for controlling them.
  • Lost in Translation: In the EU version, a few of the puns get lost. One instance is Kuvasz which is renamed "Kurvaz" and the misspellings of Princess Terria and Stare Pris's names (Theria and Stair respectively).
    • Mis-blamed: All of the above are actually the official romanizations given out by CyberConnect2 itself, as can be seen in the Japanese commercials which use the Roman alphabet to spell the aforementioned names. Nintendo of Europe simply went with those over keeping consistency with the Atlus-translated names in Tail Concerto.
  • Lost Superweapon: The Titano-Machina.
  • MacGuffin Delivery Service: The Kurvasz allow Red to collect the stones needed for the Rite of Forfeit before stealing them to use in their own Rite of Feasting to superpower instead of seal Lares.
  • Malevolent Architecture: Bruno designed the Golden Roar to have lifts of doom and buzz saw staircases. Lampshaded by Red.
  • Mana: Nono.
  • Man-Eating Plant: The carnivorous roses in Viszla.
  • Maybe Ever After: Both new couples, Red with Elh and Béluga with Merveille. Strongly implied that they will in the future, but nothing definitive yet.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Red's mecha is named after Azi Dakaha, a Sumerian demon.
    • Lares and Lemures are named respectively after guardian deities and vengeful spirits from ancient Roman religion.
    • Tartaros is named after an ancient Greek deity associated with the underworld.
    • Opéra's mecha Tiamat is named for a chaotic Babylonian sea goddess.
    • Nero (black) and Blanck (white) represent Yin and Yang. Red the character is the odd sibling out and the one lacking the "perfection" given to Nero and Blanck, just like red the color, which in Yin-Yang symbolizes the absence of both.
  • Men Don't Cry: Red seems to hold this view, as after saving Elh from some bugs and getting told to stay away, he teasingly asks "Eyes red from crying?" Of course, by that point everyone knew Elh's a girl and Red was likely just being a bit of a jerk. Red himself also lacks any sort of crying sprite.
    • Tender Tears: Elh apparently does not have a problem with crying, possessing at least two separate sprites with small droplets at the eye corners and displaying them without shame (the above comment to stay away was because a second wave of bugs was coming). The second opening animation even includes a Sparkling Stream of Tears.
  • Metaphysical Fuel: Crystals. They are also the driving force that started the war which ended humanity, representing a darker side of the trope.
  • Mighty Glacier: The Type G Dahak sacrifices mobility for regenerating health, more defense, and the ability to block attacks. It also comes with an impressive variant of the ground throw.
  • Milestone Celebration: This game is considered to be CyberConnect2's 15th anniversary celebration, being a sequel to the very first game they developed.
  • Minecart Madness: A returning element from Tail Concerto in the mines of Shetland.
  • Mini Mecha: Cranked up from Tail Concerto. All the major characters seem to have one this time.
  • Mix-and-Match Critter: The Giu (not appearing in the main game) are a mix of boars and cows. They serve the role of livestock.
  • Mole Miner: Appears as a recurring enemy in the game, in various sizes.
  • Named Weapons: The Mini Mecha all have names (some are appended with a serial number, but when referring to them that part is usually dropped, giving each a personal name).
  • Nanomachines: Used to explain some of the magic which happens in the game, like Red's Dahak fusion.
  • New Age Retro Hippie: The music man in Airedale, who advises Red to "feel the waves, man" and provides the ability to gather music notes from phonographs and hornweed to be used to purchase songs.
  • N.G.O. Superpower: The Kuvasz Guild, had ( Red destroyed one) four battleships including the Golden Roar (see Cool Airship above) and used them and legions of infantry with mechs to intimidate local governments.
  • Nice Shoes: The people in the Shepherd Republic wear shoes that leave paw prints due to a strange bump pattern on the sole. Shown here.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The Mini Mecha designs can be pretty weird, including a wizard based design and a cowboy based one.
  • No Biochemical Barriers: Not only can vastly different races within the species breed freely (foxes with wolves and housecats with lions, for example), but Caninu and Felineko can have children with no problems as well.
    • Hollywood Genetics: The children will be either Caninu or Felineko, not some sort of dog-cat hybrid.
  • No Export for You: Thankfully averted, both for Europe, and America.
  • No Social Skills:
    • Béluga can't socialize very well, so after the Kurvasz join forces with the heroes, he leaves the jobs involving others to Red and Elh. This only comes out when dealing with strangers, however; he seems perfectly capable of talking to his teammates without trouble.
    • Elh isn't particularly skilled in social graces, either, but is at least able to talk to villagers without making them angry.
  • Not A Date: Elh manages to turn a flower-picking quest into something that's nearly a date, complete with several rounds of small Dialogue Trees (though each question only affects the lines immediately after it and the quest/pseudo-date continues as normal afterward whether your response made Elh happy or not). Red, dense as ever, just thinks Elh's being a little weird and does not notice the date-like atmosphere. Of course, she was being a little weird, since she was stalling for time before having to perform the Rite of Forfeit. Doesn't change the fact that she was doing it because she's quite fond of him.
  • Notice This: Places that hide rings or P-crystals have blue sparkles over them.
  • Oddly Visible Eyebrows: Most everybody has bangs of some sort in their face, but this does nothing to hide their eyebrows.
  • Off Model:
    • The European boxart◊ shows Red with gold glove plate edging (it should be white) and furry glove trim (he has none, though he does often roll up his sleeves and expose a lighter cuff at about the same point).
    • Elh's eyes are occasionally shown as red, including in the second opening sequence◊, despite officially being gold. Varying shades◊ of orange◊ or light brown aren't uncommon, either, and sometimes they're even drawn as Technicolor Eyes, with red shading and cream highlights on a gold base.
  • One Hundred IN Eight: The game broke a Guinness world record by running 100 different commercials in 8 hours on its release day in Japan.
  • Oral Fixation Fixation: Red is always holding a bone between his teeth. In lore, there are even a variety of "Bite Styles" that dog people can use, each with its own fashion sense, and girls are apparently considered delinquents for chewing on them.◊
  • Orphan's Plot Trinket:
    • Invoked by Elh to get into the canals in Spinon, telling the worker that they dropped a pendant from Elh's dead mother in there. Of course, as soon as the worker opens the sewers for them, the waterworks immediately stop and it's back to business as usual, causing Red to comment on how creepy it is for someone to be able to turn their emotions on and off like that.
    • The actual pendant that Red found on the Hindenburg also counts, as it's one of the last Paladin relics.
  • Palette Swap: The Pink Peaches gang has the exact same robots as everyone else...except they're pink.
  • Panthera Awesome:
    • The Lions, Precursors to the Felineko, did not rely on magic due to their sheer physical strength.
    • Béluga is a lynx and Calua is an ocelot (who seems to be lacking in the spots).
  • Party in My Pocket:
    • Elh appears in cut scenes or otherwise pops up to talk, but is never visible following Red or riding the Dahak with him.
    • Likewise, when Red tells other characters to follow him somewhere, they're never shown doing it but will appear when they need to say something.
  • Pervert Revenge Mode: Elh, after the second Shower of Awkward. Considering it's actually all in Red's mind, he technically went vengeful on himself.
  • Pet the Dog: In a downloadable quest, Opéra accepts a job for the people of Shetland to make up for harassing the town during their search for the crystal stone.
  • Petting Zoo People: The Felineko and the Caninu.
  • Poor Communication Kills: There is a quest where Cocona receives a letter from the Howler sky pirates warning her of their imminent arrival, and its Red's job to stop them from apparently attempting to kidnap her. After fighting off a few of them, their leader explains that the sky pirates are just really big fans of hers and wanted to get some autographs. The letter was just a friendly warning about them coming over, which is hard to come across as benign, given their occupation.
  • The Power of Friendship: What Red says keeps him going even when things get rough. Also the reason he claims they will not dissolve into war like the humans did, since they only began to war on a global scale when they stopped helping each other get better.
  • Precursor Killers: The Juno to humanity. In an interesting twist, they actually only made the suggestion and provided the kill program. The humans are the ones who made the final suicide call, seeing it as the only way to end their wars and give the planet a chance to recover without them.
  • The Promise: Elh promises Red a billion rings if he helps to complete the Rite of Forfeit. Of course, Elh actually doesn't have a billion rings and, if the Rite had gone as it usually did, Red wouldn't have needed them anyway. Red survived, however, and instead of being angry, he just invited Elh to join his team - ostensibly to work off that debt, of course, but nobody was fooled.
  • Protection Mission: During Red's Journey to the Center of the Mind , the software begins by creating a warmup for him from his memories. He winds up defending Elh from a bunch of bugs, seeing as that's what he considered the most laughably easy thing to come up with.
  • Psychopomp: The Anjalists believe that birds guide souls to the afterlife.
  • Punch Clock Villain: The Kuvasz special ops forces. Calua is mostly just having fun and goofing around. Gren is a noble soldier who considers Red to be a Worthy Opponent, and Opéra shows displeasure at the more ambiguous moral choices she has to make as the leader.
  • Punny Name:
    • Chocolat Gelato.
    • Caninu is a Portmanteau of "canine" and "inu" ("dog"). Likewise, Felineko is a portmanteau of "feline" and "neko" ("cat").
    • Not to mention most of the place names.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: Kuvasz's Special Ops elite unit.
    • Terrible Trio: Opéra (boss lady), Gren (calm and composed lacky), and Calua (goofy lacky).
  • Rainbow Speak: Red is for items or people vital to the plot, Green is for important-but-not-quite-vital sentences, and (Blue in parenthesis is for thoughts or whispered words.)
  • Real Women Never Wear Dresses: In-universe, this attitude (and a literal instance) is the whole reason for the photo collection sidequest: Alicia got a photo taken while wearing a princess dress, and she's so embarassed by it the has her gang swipe all the photographer's photos. Waffle eventually sees it and compliments her, but she's offended by the comparison to Princess Theria.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni:
    • Calua Napage and Gren Sacher of the Special Office elite unit, respectively. They're even Color-Coded for Your Convenience.
    • Also Blanck and Nero. Again respectively, although the their color schemes are switched.
    • The major villains of each storyline: Bruno (red) and Baion (blue).
  • Regional Bonus: The US release skips the "downloadable" part of the DLC; those quests are unlocked like any other as you go through the game.
  • Religion is Magic: Most followers of Oshilasama are able to cast spells using Nono, thanks to years of rigorous training that looks a bit like stereotypical Shaolin monk exercises (though some degree of natural talent is required for training to do anything, and usually only men are allowed to train, though women can be born with the talent). The name of the religion seems to denote they worship someone named Shila (with o and sama for politeness's sake), but precisely how that worship is carried out is never mentioned - maybe the god/goddess just likes to watch Cat Folk sweat?
  • Rent-A-Zilla: The Titano-Machinae Lares, a 5 kilometer (over 3 mile) long monster and Lemures, which also appears later on.
  • Rescue Romance:
  • The Reveal: Two actually:
  • Rite of Passage: In the religion of Oshilasama, young Felineko become men by mastering magic in the island of Mau.
  • Running Gag: In the 4koma comics, Red is always using his robot◊ to help◊ with his◊ laundry◊.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: The scatter rats.
  • Self-Imposed Challenge: During a Duel Ship tournament, Red promises a Fangirl of his that he will beat the battle in 3 minutes. When the announcer/referee hears about this, he goes ahead and makes it official, making the match timed. After this battle, the arena begins to hold special battle conditions in more of its traditional leagues.
  • Sequel Hook: A ridiculous amount of foreshadowing is piled on you after you beat Bruno. Ranging from subtle like Merveille and Béluga's expressions to obvious, like the ominous silhouettes of the new villains or Lares's glowing eye and restarting core. Luckily, this is all just mid game.
  • Shared Universe: with TailConcerto and Mamoru-Kun. All three series were set in a Post-Apocalyptic Earth as well.
  • Shipper on Deck: Merveille is this to Red and Elh in the DLC quests, so much.
    • Everyone Can See It: Chocolat and Béluga also seem to suspect something is going on with the two of them and smirk about it, but they don't push too much.
  • Ship Tease:
    • A lot between Red and Elh during the main story, but much more so in the DLC quests.
      • In #5, they both act embarassed when Red sees Elh in her cheerleader outfit, not to mention the fact she's disappointed if Red doesn't manage to beat the track record (which is the condition she agreed to in order to wear that outfit in the first place).
      • In #7, she gets extremely upset when Red has Princess Terria and Toffee fangirling over him, and in the end Red admits he wanted to give her the tournament prize as they make up.
      • #8 borders on "They Do with the Serial Numbers Filed Off". See Interrupted Declaration of Love.
    • Béluga and Merveille also get a lot. They are mostly seen together in the main quest and in the DLC quests Béluga gives a field of flowers hologram for Merveille and tries to impress her in an arena fight.
  • Shout Out:
    • The information terminals on Earth were apparently made by CyberConnect. Not the Real Life developers, but the CyberConnect Corporation from .hack, as the logo accompanying the CyberConnect name is only used by the fictional counterpart (the closest the real company has is their current logo, which still has a notable difference of incorporating a "2" in the image). It may induce Epileptic Trees if one thinks about it for too long.
    • You can also see Kite's outfit on a mannequin in the tailor shop at Pharaoh.
  • Show Within a Show: Apparently, there's a popular anime in the game called "Super Mewly", which looks surprisingly like Astro Boy.
  • Shower of Awkward: Done twice, ending any confusion over Elh's gender. Modesty Towels prevented those moments from being even more awkward.
  • Sidequest: Full of them. They're optional, of course, unless you happen to need to be a slightly higher Hunter rank to take a plot-relevant quest. Not all quests will increase your rank, however.
  • Sky Pirate: Along with the Black Cats Gang making a cameo, the series introduces many new pirate factions: the Clappers, the Howlers, the Peaches, and the Gulls.
  • Slasher Smile: Red Savarin gets an absolutely crazy one when The Order is given. His usual upbeat, happy-yet-stubborn demeanor means it's even creepier.
  • Sole Entertainment Option: Averted in the lore, where "disc playing" (frisbee), Giu fighting, television, radio shows, sky racing, quizzes, and heavy-lifting, smashing and redecorating contests are available to the people of the Shepherd Republic. You only participate in the last five, though.
  • Sound Stone: The Flute, which is used to call the Master of the Clouds.
  • Spikes of Villainy: If fur counts, then a lot of antagonists definitely fit this trope. These include Bruno, half of the sky pirates, captain Grumpf, etc.
  • Statuesque Stunner: At 180cm/5'11", Merveille is the second-tallest character with a given height, towering over most other characters. The tallest is Bruno (190cm/6'3"), but he's not exactly attractive. Opéra is quite tall compared to most of them, being 170cm/5'7".
    • Teens are Short: A possible attempt at justifying the above, as Merveille is 29, Bruno is 40, and Opéra is 20. Red is 17 and 140cm/4'7", Calua is 18 and 145cm/4'9", Gren is 19 and 160cm/5'3", and Chocolat is 13 and a mere 120cm/3'11". While their exact ages aren't given, due to their more private natures, Elh and Béluga are stated to "look about" 14 and 18 and be 130cm/4'3" and 160cm/5'3", respectively.
  • Staying Alive: After the credits roll for the first time, Lares' eyes begin to glow under the water. And, of course, it comes back for the second half of the game.
  • Steam Punk: Coal and crystals are the only forms of energy available in this world, the latter being able to also create heat, electricity, and light. Steam is seen used a lot in the game, including powering most robots.
  • Strength Equals Worthiness: The three Flute Guardians will allow Red to fight them if he can't answer their riddles. Of course he chooses to fight; It doesn't take as much thought!
  • Stuff Blowing Up:
    • One quest has you mining some minerals when the supervisor's men refuse to work. The supervisor provides you with some explosives to help you get through the mine, and makes a slight "miscalculation" in the amount of gunpowder needed, resulting in the mine nearly collapsing on Red. Of course, his reaction is just, "Oops, enjoy the fireworks!"
    • Most enemies also explode when you defeat them. Makes sense for the robots; not quite so much for the giant bugs or mice.
  • Stylistic Suck: When a guy gives Red a quest to take a box from his ex, he opens the box to find out that it contains a notebook of very sappy and poorly written poetry from the quest giver. He and Chocolat get a few laughs out of it, but it somehow wins the ex over.
  • Take Your Time: Lares is about to be reawakened? The enemy captured Elh? Then succeeded in waking Lares? Nah, go ahead, go fishing, go toss some crates around, see how long it takes you to break 'em!
  • Tennis Boss: A large majority of the bosses, although it's not so much hitting projectiles back like tennis, but rather catching them and throwing them back, like dodgeball. This is also a valid tactic for most of the normal enemies you encounter.
  • Terrible Trio: The Kuvasz special operative forces.
  • That's No Moon: ...that's Tartaros.
  • Thousand Origami Cranes: The final DLC quest has Red travelling to every continent and having almost every unique-NPC help the orphans of Bassett create one. It's quite heartwarming.
  • Three Amigos: Red, Chocolat, and Elh, by the end of the story. Subverted in that both sidekicks are female.
  • Through a Face Full of Fur: Elh and Chocolat often, as well as other characters occasionally. Considering the races of the setting, any time someone blushes it's this trope.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: Red Savarin. To a lesser extent, Nero and Blanck when they turn into Caninu.
  • Too Much Information: Hey! Did you ever wonder how an airship toilet would work for furries? Well now you know! Enjoy!
  • Trailers Always Spoil: The EU trailers for the game reveal a few plot details, such as the fact that the world underneath the clouds is Earth and that the animal people used to be humans.
  • Training from Hell:
    • Implied to be done by Suzette to her workers to get them to fight in robot matches better.
    • The training grounds on Mau.
    • Arguably the Virtual Training Simulation.
  • Transforming Mecha: DAHAK can use "Mode Change" from his battle forms to an anchor-shooting mecha and a flight mecha. There are also variations of his standard fighting mecha available after the half way point.
    • And improved versions of those are available in New Game Plus mode, once you reach the Duel Ship. They're not cheap though!
  • Tron Lines:
    • Lares and Lemures have a ton of these, but it's much more obvious from the inside.
    • The Futzu Tower makes especially gratuitous use of this trope.
    • Harder to notice, but the guardians of the magic flute also have a few.
    • And while it may be difficult or nearly impossible to see in-game, this spoilerific piece of concept art reveals that Red's Dahak-fused Trance form has them.
  • Unlockable Content:
    • The Library contains a good deal of lore and is essentially the developers showing off their World Building skills.
      • Mass Monster Slaughter Sidequest: Unlocking the History section requires you to "defeat lots of enemies". Just how many is "lots" has never been counted, but even playing through the whole game isn't normally enough to completely unlock the entire History section.
      • Rewarding Vandalism: The Lifestyle section suggests that you "break a lot of stuff". Considering that one form of entertainment for the masses is a contest of scrap metal smashing, that's not such an odd suggestion for the world.
      • Talk to Everyone: Unlocking the section about the Races of the world requires you to "talk with many people". Once again, how many is "many" is not quantified, but apparently it's just number of times you've spoken to someone, rather than the number of unique people you've spoken to.
    • Double Unlock: Cutscenes and music are unlocked as they are seen/heard, but to actually be able to play them at any time, you have to purchase them. Cutscenes cost 300-500 rings, which can be gotten just about anywhere, but music must be purchased via the use of notes than can only be obtained from phonographs and the oddly-musical plant hornweed.
    • Post End Game Content:
      • New Game Plus: Also contains New Game Plus PLUS!
      • Playable Epilogue: Certain sidequests are only available after the end of the game. They cannot be completed in the New Game Plus mode until the story is beaten again.
  • Unsettling Gender Reveal: When everyone learns that Elh is female, Red absolutely flips out and complains about being tricked for so long. Perhaps he was getting a little Sweet on Polly Oliver and worried that his previous Squick at Alman was secretly a case of You Are What You Hate?
  • Unusual Euphemism: Furballs!
  • Vampiric Draining: What Lares and Lemures do to anyone who tries to merge with and control them, eventually draining the Life Energy of their "masters". Being immortal, Elh and Béluga are able to control them without dying, though the "excess" Life Energy is siphoned off and they lose their immortality.
  • Viewers Are Morons: The game is constantly reminding you that floor switches need something heavy sitting on them to activate, and maybe you should go fetch that giant box over there. This is due to focus groups with elementary school children testing to see what things they tended to forget.
  • Villain Exit Stage Left: Taken to a ridiculous degree. Almost every single enemy capable of speech that you defeat apparently gets out of a battle alive. Especially if their machine explodes and leaves no trace of them, even when the machine is flying over the abyss. Sadly averted for Nero and Blanck, however.
  • Villains Out Shopping:
  • Virtual Training Simulation: The Golden Roar has a laboratory which, among other things, has a simulation room.
  • Voice Grunting: Type B: Voice clips.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: The only sentient anthropomorphized animals are cat people and dog people. There are lizard/insect hybrids, fishes, and large rodents which act as the monsters in the game. There are fish and cow-like animals called Giu which serve as a food source, with the cow animals also providing milk.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
    • How Blanck and Nero justify their furry killing sprees. Due to them and Red being Not so Different, this causes Red to consider the validity of this trope when applied to feral bugs in a subplot.
    • Likewise, Baion asks Red and Elh if they think humans would find the Caninu and Felineko races to be suitable successors to planet Earth when he meets them in the Futzu Tower.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer:
    • Dahak is capable of lifting and tossing things. Naturally, this applies to each and every enemy you encounter, though at least it varies between picking up the enemy itself and picking up the enemy's projectiles to return them. At least until Red learns to control his Trance, in which case Ki Attacks become a viable option.
    • Likewise, Red isn't very good at solving riddles. So, when the guardians of the flute ask him riddles, he just jumps right in and attacks them instead.
  • With a Friend and a Stranger: Red with his sister Chocolat and newcomer Elh.
  • With This Herring: Red goes up against what amounts to professional military troops with combat mecha and ancient weapons of mass destruction with a robot that is designed to be a cargo hauler. This is kind of like going up against tanks with a forklift... and winning anyway.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Seriously, what was in that file that got burned up on the Hindenburg?
    • The game does state that it was a file containing a list of cash transactions. It isn't specified what for though.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Elh and Béluga admit that their lives feel more meaningful after losing their immortality..
  • Wolf Pack Boss: At one point, you fight all three members of the Kuvasz special ops forces at once.
  • Womb Level: Lares and Lemures. Don't think about it too much.
  • Word Salad Lyrics: "And Then To CODA" certainly qualifies. Aside from some mentions of the sky and winds, the lyrics have nothing to do with the plot or setting of the game.
  • World in the Sky: The setting for most of the game.
  • A Worldwide Punomenon: The soundbytes, such as Red's aforementioned "nom d'un chien!"*]]. One of Opéra's is a fairly subtle combination of "meow" and "oui".

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