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Recap / Soul Tide

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Main Story

    Prologue 

Graveland

Dire Forest

    Chapter 0 and 1 - Upper Forest 

    Chapter 2 - Lower Forest 

Yomi Marsh

    Chapter 3 - Shallow Area 

    Chapter 4 - Deep Area 

Wild Crater

    Chapter 5 - Steppes 

    Chapter 6 - Mountains 

    Chapter 7 - Barrens 

Star Ruins

    Chapter 8 - City of Zoek 

    Chapter 9 - Dome 

    Chapter 10 - Ruins 

Monsta Play

    Chapter 11 - Unicorn 

    Chapter 12 - Zebra 

    Chapter 13 - Kirin 

Snow Realm

    Chapter 14 - Mortal Tundra 

    Chapter 15 - Elysian Pantheon 

Litoris Stories

    Chapter I 

    Chapter II 

    Chapter III 

    Chapter IV 

    Chapter V 

Events

    Golden Bough and Seven Wishes 

Game Mode: Exploration (RPG)

The story follows Dreizehn suddenly waking up in the middle of a forest. Remembering only her death before this, she roams the forest and stumbles on a village, where the villagers give her a place to stay. Among them is a girl named Gigi, who takes an interest in being Dreizehn's friend.

Tropes being wished of the Golden Bough:

  • Foreshadowing: The "Seven Wishes" is a not-so-subtle hint to how Gigi transforms into one of the Seven Sins to make her wish.

    Crescent Express 

Game Mode: Point Collection

Tropes happening on the Crescent Express:

    Dream Quest v1.0 - Coco vs CastleSatania 

Game Mode: Minesweeper

The Evoker and Coco wake up one day to find the mansion devoid of inhabitants, finding only a note from someone who's remarkably demonic and selfish, and a game console that Coco turns on without caution. The two then find themselves in another land where they're told by a talking caterpillar (who denies being Deanna when asked) that they—the Dragon Slayer (Coco) and her Grand Sage (the Evoker)—must head to the castle of the Demon Empress Satya, and defeat her and her four minions!

—In truth, this is a video game simulation devised by Satya as one of her usual but uniquely elaborate way of killing time, having managed to rope all the Dolls in to help her. That said, a familiar presence moves behind the scenes to defeat the Evoker...

In celebration of the Chinese New Year, the rerun of this event on 29 January 2024 makes some changes, such as switching Loot Bags to Red Envelopes and changing the title screen to a Chinese theme.

Tropes in play for Dream Quest v1.0:

  • Dungeon Bypass: Exaggerated into a Running Gag; the story starts out as you'd expect of a hero and their partner setting out to defeat an Evil Overlord and her Elite Four minions. It's just that Coco tends to wander off the path laid out for them whenever something catches her attention and forces the Evoker to follow, which then ends with them taking down a monster and finding an alternate path—straight past the Dolls playing as the actual minions.
  • Elite Four: The Demon Empress' four minions, who are four Dolls set up as 'miniboss battles' for Coco and the Evoker. The problem is that our two heroes keep getting off-track no thanks to Coco's wandering around, then running into monsters that they assume are the minions. They are, in fact, the Sins in disguise trying to take down the Evoker.
  • Feed It a Bomb: In a sidequest, the Evoker encounters a blind woman who has somehow adopted Gluttony pretending to be her daughter, and is asked to gather apples for said (monster) baby; after returning during the second part of the questline, the Evoker says he got apples—red ones that explode, which he shoves into Gluttony's mouth before subtly moving the woman away for her safety. Regardless of whether you decide to back off on the woman's request, who is aware Gluttony isn't 'normal', or continue hunting Gluttony anyway, the Sin gets away scot-free.
  • Mythology Gag: The start of one to be exact. In every Dream Quest event and some others after 1.0, there will be a caterpillar who the Evoker may question whether they're Deanna or not.
  • Updated Re Release: As of the 29 January 2024 update, the event celebrates the coming Chinese New Year by changing "Loot Bags" to "Red Envelopes", the title screen themed after Chinese-style New Year celebrations, and characters here and there saying Happy New Year.

    Dream Quest v2.0 - All Hail Empress Coco 

Game Mode: Minesweeper

The second version of Dream Quest comes back for the Evoker and Coco! This time instead of getting kidnapped, they have been invited to act as testers for the Templar Order's virtual reality game project, only, their roles are a reversal of the first game's; the pair now act as the Demon King (Coco) and her Tutor (the Evoker) trying to rebuild their city and prepare for the heroes—the Seven Sins (more specifically an incensed Pride) who have returned to avenge their failure in v1.0—coming to slay them.

Next-gen tropes seen in Dream Quest v2.0:

  • Anti-Climax: The battle with the Seven Sins... or rather, Pride, the only one left in the end since the other Sins ditched her out of laziness or other reasons. This left her alone against the developed Demon City's defenses, namely Akaset, Juewa, Satya and Inori, who all rained down missiles that didn't leave Pride any chance to fight back.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: The game's sidequests reveal that Pride was able to trick the former Demon Lord into giving up her position, which is what allowed the Sins to take over as the game's heroes and left the former Lord slated for deletion.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: As with the previous event, the Seven Sins except Pride are only in it because Pride dragged them along to take revenge on the Evoker.
  • Villain Protagonist: Played for Laughs on the Evoker and Coco's part on the Demons' side, given that these are just their roles in the game and nothing to be taken seriously. The 'heroes' on the other hand are Pride and her fellow Sins, who are most certainly going to slay them.

    Playtime's Over 

Game Mode: Exploration (Dual Team)

Tropes abandoned in Playtime's Over:

    Wonderland 

Game Mode: Exploration (RPG)

Tropes being dominated in Wonderland:

    Illusionary Sins 

Game Mode: Linear Stages

The Evoker is given a task to help the Executor in charge and Combat Simulation Terminal SID30072 create accurate simulations of the Seven Sins enemies. Because 72 lacks human emotions and adheres to the Templar Order's code of virtue, this leads to weak creations of the Sins due to her lack of understanding, which the Evoker solves along the way.

Over the course of the story, 72's understanding of sin gradually grows with every lesson the Evoker gives for each one, in turn empowering the simulations as planned. That said, 72 secretly develops affection for the Evoker from his caring guidance, further fanned by the Executor by telling her about how the Evoker has girls around them, including sister terminal 75, to help her feel Envy.

At the last session, 72 manifests Pride, officially marking her full understanding of the Seven Sins. Though the Evoker and the Executor celebrate, 72 suddenly takes control of the Pride simulacrum, which she then uses to go outside. Panicking that 72 may have gone berserk from constant immersion as the Sins, the Evoker attempts to stop the terminal only for her to reassure that she's still in control and reveal that she was jealous (of the girls around the Evoker), hence her using the simulacrum to physically interact with the Evoker.

Confused, the Evoker thinks that she was jealous about him getting to eat food in the real world, so he solves the problem by taking her to his home. Despite the misunderstanding, the arrangement works, and the Evoker's task is resolved.

Tropes simulated in Illusionary Sins:

  • Lampshade Hanging: The Evoker and SID30072 point out a couple of oddities the Seven Sins have, which is inevitable since the AI has to mimic them. For example, Wrath, who only has a tube top over her chest, is described to be more Stripperific compared to Lust.

    Stringed Puppet 

Game Mode: Linear Stages

On one ordinary day in Litoris, the Evoker is hit by a truck. When the Evoker came to, he found himself in a room similar to the Templar Order's own evoking room, faced with an irate Deanna—only, this is not the same sorceress he knows, but someone else with the same face named Vista.

With the tactical artificial intelligence Nill Ponder chiming in, it is explained that the Evoker's soul has been evoked to another world as a "puppet" by Vista, a "puppet master" of Public Security Section 6 fighting monstrous "aberrations" terrorizing the city they are in. Though he cannot summon his Dolls to his side, he can use their powers and abilities, allowing him to defeat the aberrations with ease. Satisfied with their puppet's performance, Nill orders Vista to live together with the Evoker in her apartment.

Tropes dancing under strings in Stringed Puppet:

  • Calling Your Attacks: According to Asuna in Part 3 of the story, the Evoker does this whenever he uses a Doll's skills, much to his embarrassment at being called out.
  • Running Over the Plot: The Evoker gets Trapped in Another World in one of the most clichéd ways of the genre: getting hit by a (mechanical) truck. His body back in Litoris is thankfully still alive, but it'll deteriorate without his soul still in the other world.
  • Summon Magic: In a reversal of what the Evoker usually does, he's the one getting evoked to another world by Vista to become a "puppet", which is that world's equivalent of Dolls.

    Monster Academy 

Game Mode: Dating Sim

It was during a spring morning that the Evoker shows up before an academy. He is now attending this institution as a new student, but in truth, this is an undercover identity for his real goal as an Evoker: to stop its students subconsciously letting their monster powers affecting the simulation they are in.

As explained in a meeting with Dallian, the Evoker's contact posing as a nurse, Monster Academy is a project started by the Templar Order to foster peace with the monsters of Graveland by letting them understand human life through human education. These monsters had their memories rewritten and powers suppressed beforehand to keep them from going berserk, but their powers are seeping through their seals, manifesting in the academy's forest as monsters that are explained to the students by the faculty as moving dummies to practice combat magic on. The Evoker is called on to intervene—not to slay these past foes, but by romancing them, letting these monster girls (yes, the students—and a teacher—are all girls) understand love, thus calming them.

From here, a strange, romantic school life with these girls learning about love starts.

Click here to see Monster Academy's dedicated recap page.

    Golden Crepuscule 

Game Mode: Linear Stages

These tropes are being piloted in Golden Crepuscule:

    Dream Quest v3.0 - Wild West 

Game Mode: Minesweeper

The Evoker is once again brought in to test the latest iteration of Dream Quest, now set in a wilderness full of gun-toting cowboys—except he accompanies Dallian, roleplaying as the protagonist bounty hunter, as her wife. Upon staying in a house to wait for the game's story to begin, three monsters—a caterpillar, a bird, and a butterfly—burst in, demanding to know Dallian's identity. As soon as she answers who she is, the monsters (despite the Evoker seeing the lack of hands) draw their guns, open fire, kill her, and run away. Though the Evoker is unscathed, he fears the worst until Dallian reveals she only turned into a ghost, albeit confused by this turn of events. The story going from a bounty hunter's adventure turning into a quest for vengeance, the Evoker takes up the bounty hunter's revolver, Betty the Bee, and sets out along with Dallian to find the three monsters.

Let's take a look-see of these tropes in Dream Quest v3.0, partner:

    Cultivation Cradle 

Game Mode: Exploration (Dual Team)

In the middle of a mission, the Evoker finds himself waking up in a house he does not recognize. When he finds Lilyiro and Juewa, who were on the same mission with him, they don't recognize him at first because, somehow, he has been turned into a hedgehog! Following some instructions to take a shovel and a bucket outside, they make their way out of the strangely spacious house, fighting off cabbage monsters and slimes, and find the owner of the house: a green-haired little girl with pointy ears who farms for a living.

When the team and the farming girl—who introduces herself as Dolores—meet, the girl immediately tasks them with farm work, though it's only when they are finished that the elf mistook them for workers she hired.

Cultivation Cradle is growing these tropes:

    Stellar Castaway 

Game Mode: Point Collection

A Stellar Castaway has brought these tropes with her:

  • Great Offscreen War: The peace conference the Evoker participates in is being held for a war that happened between several intergalactic nations between the Evoker's world, Juewa's and Akaset's, one that kept going for years, if not a century.
  • Tabletop RPG: The ending reveals that the entire story is just a roleplaying session between the Evoker and Silenus, the latter being the gamemaster and 'the narrator' the Evoker talks back to.

    Abyssal Delusion 

Game Mode: Linear Stages

From an Abyssal Delusion these tropes came ashore:

  • Continuity Nod: The prologue makes one to the previous event, Stellar Castaway, about Silenus's tabletop roleplays.
  • Tabletop RPG: Played straight at the start, where the team decides to play one to pass the time after the Dolls have gotten into Silenus's TTRPG sessions, only for it to be cut short when monster attack their train. The rest of the story seems to play out like one set in The Shadow Over Innsmouth, not helped by Silenus forced to act as an allegory to an NPC innkeeper, but the danger is real.

    Dream Quest v4.0 - Web of Spies: Vanner Empire 

Game Mode: Minesweeper

On one quiet night, the Evoker and Ennis share a private moment together where after the spy expresses some concerns about the Evoker's rumored interest in monster girls, she kisses him, giving the Evoker some haunting words about a story that should not be in the time of the Vanner Empire as he loses consciousness. This brings us to the latest version of Dream Quest:

It is A.C. 1462, in a time when the once-prosperous Vanner Empire is on the brink of ruin, under threat by two major forces: the Sanctuary and the Kingdom, both of whom have sent spies into its capital of Isbrula. The Evoker is a spy of the Sanctuary, trained by his instructor, Asuna, to infiltrate Isbrula's government. Despite the thorough preparations, Asuna warns her student to be careful, having been unable to foresee the future of the operation and surmises the presence of an exceptional individual.

Secretive tropes lurk in the shadows of Dream Quest v4.0:

  • Character Focus: Ennis takes center stage, made all the more fitting given she was—and still is—a spy.
  • Out of Focus: Lampshaded In-Universe, as hinted by Ennis's comment on monster girls at the prologue. The entire reason this particular Dream Quest happens is because after several events in a row (starting from Illusionary Sins to Golden Crepuscule, also Simulacrum Trial which happened after Cultivation Cradle) where the Dolls have barely any presence and the Evoker gets the eyes of other girls, a diary entry by Ennis reveals all of them have created the event to put themselves as the main actors, all to remind the Evoker that his true love is with them.
  • Spy Fiction: This version of Dream Quest is set in one, where numerous spies, the Evoker included, are lurking around the Vanner Empire to seek information and either bring about its downfall or protect it. Though there aren't any tuxedos and martinis, the numerous mind games and cloak-and-dagger nevertheless form a major amount of the plot.

    Monster Academy: The First and Last Academy Festival 
The monster-student girls of Monster Academy are acting up once more. After the Evoker's withdrawal during the last semester, he enrolls once again to deal with the disturbances with his romantic wiles (for what else is a Chick Magnet like him supposed to do?)

However, this new semester comes with new encounters and new happenings. And with these exciting events on the horizon, so begins another romantic school tale.

Click here to see Monster Academy's dedicated recap page.

    Dream Quest v5.0 - Revenge of the Sins 

Game Mode: Minesweeper

The fifth edition of Dream Quest has come—with the Evoker logging into the game in a starfighter in space being chased by two black starfighters, much to his shock, before he is hailed on the comms by Silenus of the Rebel Squadron Command Center to land on the planet below, then tells him to trust in the "Electro-Magnetic Force". Between the fighter's damage and his inexperience, the Evoker has to go for a crash-landing, before which an ominous warning flashes on the screen: "Until the crisis of Dream Quest: 6 days"

Managing to walk away from the crash, the Evoker finds himself still being chased by the Imperials of the now-named event's antagonist, the Dark Lord of the Sins. Just as he is about to be found, blue lightning surges and defeats one—its source came from Dreizehn, who the remaining fleeing Imperial identifies as a lightblade-wielding Arc Knight commanding the Electro-Magnetic Force. In the time the Evoker and Dreizehn caught up with each other on the situation however, the Imperial blows up the other stranded fighter, cutting their ticket off the planet.

In the duo's search for a way to contact the Rebel Alliance, they find a tavern owner who at first appears sympathetic to the Rebel cause, but the Evoker somehow hears the owner from afar the same as Dreizehn, selling out their locations to the Empire out of fear of being seen as their enemy. They waste no time escaping, Imperial starfighters showing no restraint as they bombard the tavern. Dreizehn fends off the first few hostile starfighters, but just as they are about to be overrun, a white starfighter eliminates them in time, then lands in front of our heroes. Climbing out of it is Miyo, who is about to take them to the Rebel Alliance's base when a mysterious figure in black armor holds them in place with an invisible grip on the starfighter—that figure is Imperial Supreme, enforcer of the Empire, and another user of the Electro-Magnetic Force. Dreizehn attempts to break Imperial Supreme's hold, until the Evoker joins in and finds power rushing through him, freeing them to leave and discovering that he, too, is a would-be Arc Knight.

On the way to the base, they are met by Captain Emerald, the caterpillar monster antagonist of the previous Dream Quest who is now fighting for the sake of their new home planet by defending the game. Upon arrival, the full situation is debriefed by Admiral Starmoth and Dallian: the Dark Lord of the Sins is a hacker that is leading the Empire to destroy the planet the base is on (though the reasons for why are not known at the moment), which is modeled after Continent Crescent and acts as the last firewall of the game, and has stopped the developers from interfering, while leaving those who already have accounts in the game like the Evoker the only ones capable of action. The Empire has built a planet-destroying moon base known as the "Dread Star" that will soon assault the planet, thus the Evoker must learn to become an Arc Knight within three days before it happens.

The Electro-Magnetic Force flows through these tropes:

  • Affectionate Parody: The entire event is a space opera story taking cues from Star Wars, more specifically A New Hope and the next two films of its trilogy.
  • Arc Villain: The event's subtitle, Revenge of the Sins, implies that the Seven Sins... well, Pride is up to something again just like all the other Dream Quest events, as the "Dark Lord of the Sins". She isn't the villain this time, being forced to serve as The Dragon of the Dark Lord under the name "Imperial Supreme"; that Dark Lord is actually a parent who hacked into the game to delete it because their kid is wasting their time addicted to playing it.
  • Continuity Nod: The Miss Furry of the event is the same caterpillar monster met in Dream Quest v3.0, who now calls themselves Captain Emerald, this time fighting for the developers after they compensated the monsters with an entire planet.
  • Last of His Kind: Both Dreizehn, and later the Evoker, qualify as the last Arc Knights (besides Imperial Supreme) after the Arc Knight Order got wiped out by the Empire.
  • Lightning Can Do Anything: In a discussion between Ithil and the Evoker, amongst other things, the Electro-Magnetic Force can perform telekinesis, telepathy, Combat Clairvoyance, channel lightning into weapons to turn them into lightblades, repair physical damage, create tools, enhance weapons with materials...
  • Magic Knight: The Arc Knights wield lightblades in conjunction with control over Electro-Magnetic Force. To qualify as one, they only need to be users of lightning, which is why all the Dolls in the event are those who have the Lightning element.
  • May the Farce Be with You: The event's story is a nigh parallel of the original trilogy starting from A New Hope, along with a couple of names getting the Bland-Name Product treatment. To name a few:
    • The event title, Revenge of the Sins, is definitely not Revenge of the Sith.
    • The Arc Knights are people who have control over electricity termed the "Electro-Magnetic Force" and wield lightblades (which are actual blades that conduct electricity until they glow). There used to be an Arc Knight Order, but they all got taken out by The Empire before the Evoker and Dreizehn came.
    • The event's antagonists are The Empire, which is winning against the Rebel Alliance. By the time of the story, the Rebels are mounting a final defense on a planet about to be targeted by a planet-destroying moon base called the "Dread Star".
    • The Big Bad of the story is the "Dark Lord of the Sins", who has an enforcer suited in black robotic armor and wielding a red lightblade, known as "Imperial Supreme".
    • The Dark Lord is taken out by an irate Supreme-Supreme from just having broken free of their control, before Force-pushing them into the Dread Star's firing cannon—a mirror of Palpatine being killed by Darth Vader having a change of heart and throwing his former master down a shaft.

    Death Island 

Game Mode: Point Collection

An unnamed figure offscreen talks to Clotho, warning her that her newfound family might hate her for this. Still, the Evoker and his Dolls have been working overtime and stretching themselves to the limit that they might forget about the upcoming Two-Year Anniversary, thus necessitating whatever it is she had planned.

The Evoker finds himself suddenly in a room, along with every single inhabitant of the mansion (and Anastasiya). On a wall appears the projection of a woman in a black party dress, naming herself "Justice Kamen Lady K"... who suspiciously looks like Clothotho—Clotho apparently has never seen her before despite the Evoker calling out on her bad acting. "K" informs them that they are in a survival game taking place on "Death Island", where they must survive for a week on an island avoiding its dangers and are not allowed to leave it; the winner who makes it to the end gets to spend a ten-day holiday tour of Continent Crescent with the Evoker, plus a "best Doll" title. Right off the bat though, Anastasiya is turned into a collectible game card for mocking the rules, followed by Asuna becoming a plushie because she used her foresight, then Ennis a rose for investigating the mastermind's identity. Then the game begins proper.

On the first day of the death game, Silenus and Akaset somehow have already prepared an interstellar warship to take with them the Evoker and effectively skip the game, though Ao Ling crashes in on their plans, arrogantly offering to transform into a dragon to do the same. Then the would-be ship pilots are turned into capsule toys for attempting to cheat; Ao Ling follows suit for talking about her plans aloud, forcing the Evoker to return to the others.

Tropes to survive through on Death Island:

  • Unwinnable by Design: Played with, but still of the Nasty type. It becomes increasingly clear that the rules are deliberately made to disqualify participants, not helped by K eliminating people however she feels like it or not explaining all the rules beforehand. The first few trials were at least fine if it weren't for the Dolls being too careless, but in Chapter 6, Satya and Inori got eliminated for not reading the super tiny words on a nearby signnote , while Minerdwen unlocked a spaceship the party has to escape in, which turns out to be poisoned according to yet more missable text on the ship, while Lin gets the boot too for just reading said words.

    Miracle Contract 

Game Mode: Linear Stages

The ordinary days before summer break of a presently drowsy high school student gets a bit more exciting when a transfer student named Hoshimi Asuna comes into class, taking the seat next to him and calling him by name. When she explains it as magic, the student hides his surprise, for he is a magical girl contracted to a spirit named Rym, fighting aberrations, monsters born from negative emotions. Hiding a wound on his arm he got from fighting last time, he drifts to sleep on his desk.

The Evoker is then roused awake by Virgina in the mansion during the afternoon at 2, having stayed up playing a video game with Asuna and Silenus last night. Virgina however sees the wound on his arm and bandages it, though neither knows how it happened. Coming down for lunch, the Evoker meets Asuna who also just woke up, relating to him her dream that is all but the same as his, apparently based on the game they had been playing. Seeing that Silenus hasn't woken up, the Evoker goes into her room to do so, only to find her sleeptalking and somehow gaining wounds as she fights aberrations in her dream. While panicking over what to do, a sudden bout of drowsiness takes him asleep.

The student Evoker is suddenly on the school's rooftop, fighting aberrations alongside a blue-haired scientist girl—Silenus, though he only feels familiarity with this stranger. They are then joined by Asuna's timely reinforcement, revealing herself to be a magical girl like the scientist. Before they could explain further, apparently still retaining most of their memories than the Evoker, he wakes up and remembers his "dream", whereas Silenus and Asuna remain asleep. Realizing that the shared dreams are no accident and the damage incurred in them gets reflected onto their real bodies, the Evoker traces the problem to the video game he and the girls played last night. Miyo, having missed the game session to take care of paperwork, explains she and Asuna found the game disc in an antique shop in the Trade District; when she and the Evoker play the game together (it being a two-player-only game), the Evoker becomes certain the contents of the game are the same as his dream... but he once again falls asleep.

In the dream, the Evoker had been suddenly told to flee from the "strangers" after the night's battle by Rym, who we see is a pink bird. She explains that the strangers wielded unknown magic, saying they are best left alone so that the Evoker can focus on defeating the Otherworldly Abomination, an aberration said to be the most powerful by far. Still, homework does not do itself—ignoring Rym telling him to skip it, he takes out his workbook and finds Rym's name on it, who apparently practiced her writing on it. But before he could do anything, he senses aberrations next to office buildings, and fights them alongside an office lady he briefly remembers as Miyo.

Back in the waking world, Ennis was unable to trace the disc's origins while the Order determined that the disc is at least not apparently magical, and the Dolls who played the game still sleep with no signs of curses on them. Ennis speculates that the game induces hypnotic suggestions in those who play it, so she induces a suggestion in the Evoker that will call forth his unconscious memories even if the dream blocks his memory. In the next dream, the Evoker is in class again, except Silenus shows up as a student and Miyo the maths teacher. When the three new girls leave upon seeing Ennis outside the room, the Evoker detects aberrations in a shopping mall, ignoring Rym's advice to leave the aberrations to the strangers, and again with her warning to run away once Ennis shows up. With a snap of her fingers, her suggestion works with the Evoker regaining his memories... and now conscious that he is a boy in a magical girl outfit, to the Dolls' mirth.

By the light of Shera, there tropes transform for justice in Miracle Contract!

  • Call-Back: When the Dolls talk about the lifeless atmosphere the game world has, Silenus mentions having seen one before. She refers to her past world, which had been on the verge of destruction and caused the people to live however they want without hope for the future.
  • Casual Kink: Every Doll in the story gets excited over seeing their Evoker being a magical girl, to the latter's great shame.
  • Mind-Control Device: When investigating how the game pulls in people into dreams, Ennis explains the premise of digital hypnosis, the Evoker compares it to a hypnosis app. Ennis is understandably questioning of how he learnt that term. It turns out that there wasn't any mind-control involved and that the game was a manifestation of the miracle Rym wished with all her being, which pulled in the Evoker and his Dolls for help.
  • Shout-Out:
    • As if the magical girl shout-outs weren't enough, the event currency is called "Grief Seeds", which are dropped from defeated aberrations just like the Witches of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The magical girls in Soul Tide thankfully don't need purification, though.
    • During the final battle against the Otherworldly Abomination, Silenus questions their odds and wonders if this is their Kobayashi Maru.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: The entire story takes notes from the ending of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, where Rym (a substitute for Homura), the last surviving magical girl of the final battle against the Otherworldly Abomination (Walpurgisnacht's analogue), calls for a miracle that it finds in the Evoker and his Dolls.

    Immortal Ascension Tales 

Game Mode: Exploration (RPG)

Immortal Ascension Tales cultivates these tropes:

  • Animate Inanimate Object: The Qing sisters are sword spirits who each take the form of a flying sword. Only immortals of a certain level can see their human forms.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • Unlike the past RPG-style events, you only need the Pill Furnace and the required ingredients to craft pills to upgrade the Qing sisters and Juewa's skills, with later Dolls joining already pre-upgraded to the max.
    • In Chapter 5, all the monsters here will yield all manner of crafting materials, even that of gathering spots, to speed up your pill and artifact-making, saving you time compared to past chapters where monsters only ever drop one kind of material.
  • Bait-and-Switch: In Chapter 2, the party goes to defeat the yokai eating sacrificial children. Juewa spots a pair of horns swimming through the lake, and players would likely be reminded of a certain Dragon Sovereign... but nope, it's an entirely different person known as Akaset, the Azure Dragon.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Featured Doll twins Qing Dai and Qing Hao are the primary leads for this xianxia-style event, though Juewa gets some spotlight too.
  • The Four Gods: The classic four Chinese gods known here as the Four Divine Beasts show up as Dolls met in this order: Akaset the Azure Dragon, Alisa the Black Tortoise, Juewa the White Tiger, and Silenus the Vermillion Bird.
  • Foreshadowing: A book at a fishing spot by Elder Taishang's house talks about man and fish's mutual envy for being able to walk on land or swim in water respectively, which also summarizes the usual dog-eat-dog culture of cultivation genres like this world. Not only does it foreshadow Taishang's plan to turn the Evoker's ascension ceremony into her own cultivation ritual out of "envy" of the Evoker's power, envy is also a central theme to the Bottle Immortal's life of having to slay countless people fearing or wanting her power, while she herself desires life outside the bottle.
    Fish swim in the pond, people walk on the shore.
    Fish envy people's ability to walk, people envy fish's ability to swim.
    To swim or to walk, to walk or to swim.
  • Karma Houdini: Downplayed in that Yuki's bogus Lotos Sect actually did produce capable immortals who were then absorbed into its actual counterpart, the Lotus Sect. According to Nicolette when asked about her task, the former leader now works as a senior sister shopkeeper in the Lotus Sect, though that's a far cry from Nicolette keeping her Elder position.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: For an unknown reason, the Evoker, the Qing sisters, Juewa, and other Dolls in the event have lost their memory and have established themselves as inhabitants of this world. The Evoker manages to recover their memory in Chapter 4, followed by the Qing sisters in time to sacrifice themselves to send the world outside the bottle.
  • Master of None: The Evoker's broad soul frequency that accepts all variety of Dolls manifests in this world as a "multifarious spirit root", which lets him use all elements but would take way too much time to improve compared to having fewer roots—not that he could even grow after joining the Lotos Sect. It's later revealed in Chapter 2 that his powers manifest in his artifacts—namely the Qing sisters—where his bond with them is his strength; if the sisters grow, then so does the Evoker, though the same applies for the death of either party.
  • Rare Candy:
    • In Chapter 2, Dolores will give recipes to make individual skill upgrade pills for Qing Dai, Qing Hao, and Juewa, which require a Core of a Celestial Beast, Dragon Essence, and Heartwood Essence each. This won't be necessary for later Dolls who join your party, who already come upgraded.
    • Chapter 2's tasks "Pet Master" and "Senior Brother" will reward you the Life-Origin and All-Spirit Pills respectively. Life-Origin Pills are required to upgrade spirit pets (and feed a mystery woman in the same chapter), which require a Core of a Celestial Beast, Dragon Essence, and Heartwood Essence, while All-Spirit Pills are used to upgrade the Constellation Sword, requiring three Beast Cores.
  • Spirit Cultivation Genre: The game is a parody of one, the setting being that of any generic xianxia you might've seen where cultivators, sects, pills, soul stage power levels, flying swords and so on are common. Accordingly, Dolls who are related to the genre (Qing Dai, Qing Hao, and Qu Ling) or fit into stereotypes (Yuki the shady merchant, Nicolette the pill alchemist, Dolores the immortal herb farmer, etc.) show up.

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