After Armageddon Gaiden: Majuu Toushouden Eclipse translation is a Japanese RPG released in 1994 for the Sega CD. It was developed by Pandora Box and published by Sega as part of their Mega RPG Project initiative. The game has never left Japan or been translated into English. An English release was planned by Working Designs under the name A Side Story of Armageddon, but was canceled due to the Sega CD losing support.
A nuclear war has brought human civilization to an end and left the Earth a barren wasteland. As if awakened by humanity's dying screams, demons rise from beneath the earth and conquer the lands for their own. The few surviving humans are given the role of being the demons' livestock. In time, the Earth becomes known as Eclipse - the land in which no light reaches.
After a hundred years of strife, Eclipse has been brought under the rule of the tyrant Volzark. Under him, demons have been made to form towns, raise humans in farms, and act more civilized. It's here the story's five protagonists enter the picture - Radune the dragon, Jakos the ifrit, Dhalzam the golem, Freya the succubus, and Loperus the slime. The five of them served as Volzark's most powerful warriors during the war, but are now wanderers seeking a purpose in the now comparatively peaceful Eclipse. Their travels take them down a strange series of events as they begin to uncover the history of the ancient civilizations of Atlantis and Mu and the origin of demons, and they find themselves the last hope for both humanity and demonkind in stopping the evil entity Ra Mu from wiping out all life on the planet.
For a similar game, see Last Armageddon, which After Armageddon Gaiden acts as a Spiritual Successor to. Last Armageddon was also written by Takiya Iijima, before he left Brain Grey and formed his own studio Pandora Box. As Pandora Box doesn't own the rights to Last Armageddon, the games aren't directly related but share similar premise and themes.
After Armageddon Gaiden contains examples of:
- Absurdly High Level Cap: The absolute level cap for each stat is 99, which a character can reach once they achieve an ultimate evolution for the first time. You can beat the game though with most of your characters' stats not even coming close to that. Even at the end, your stats will mostly be in the 20s and 30s. The only things that will possibly reach higher than that without a lot of grinding are Radune and Dhalzam's Attack and Jokos and Freya's Intelligence.
- Advanced Ancient Humans: Atlantis and Mu, two technologically advanced human civilizations that existed tens of thousands of years ago.
- After the End: Human civilization has been wiped out by a nuclear war. The Earth is now mostly barren and ruled by demons. And then partway into the game Ra Mu summons a storm of meteors that destroys demon civilization and reshapes the land, putting the game double After the End.
- Always Chaotic Evil: As a rule, demons are all amoral, and they all seem to love fighting and killing. When it's revealed that demons are all mutated humans, it's said that the process causes them to lose their human heart. Somewhat subverted, as not only are the main characters able to regain their human hearts, but the humans and demons living peacefully together at Oasis Jupiter implies that demons can change and become peaceful.
- Ancient Evil: Ra Mu. He was a member of the ancient Mu civilization that tried to take over the world. After being stopped he went into hiding underground for thousands of years until his next chance to enact his plans.
- Apocalypse How: A Class 3 happens around a hundred years before the game starts, with a nuclear war completely destroying human society. It turns out it's not the only one. Thousands of years ago the Atlanteans caused a global cataclysm to sink both their society and Mu to stop Ra Mu's evil plans. And partway into the game, Ra Mu summons a meteor storm in an attempt to wipe out all life that destroys the new demon society and dries up the oceans.
- Arcadia: Oasis Jupiter. An idyllic, verdant town run by King Jupiter whose inhabitants live safely and with no worries for resources like food.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The only authority demons respect is one coming from power and violence. Volzark rules Eclipse because he's the strongest demon with the biggest army.
- Atlantis: Atlantis is one of two ancient advanced civilizations involved in the plot.
- Big Bad: Ra Mu, and ancient being from Mu who created demons and wants to wipe out all life on Earth.
- Big Good: King Sol, the ruler of Atlantis. His spirit now resides within an ancient Atlantean ruin where he guides the protagonists in defeating Ra Mu.
- The Big Guy: Dhalzam. He's a big, lumbering golem who speaks in few words. He has high HP, Attack, and Defense, but low Agility and magic stats.
- Blob Monster: Loperus, a green slime monster with a single eye.
- Blood Knight: Demons in general act like this. This includes the five protagonists, who are known and feared as berserk warriors and find the current peace boring. They grow out of this though as they regain their human hearts and memories, instead, continuing to fight for justice.
- Dark Action Girl: Freya fits the bill, being a powerful succubus with a love for battle. She's the most cruel and abrasive of all the protagonists. Though she mellows out a lot after regaining her emotions and human memories.
- Depending on the Artist: The main characters' depictions on the game's front cover are a bit off from how they look in-game. The most noticeable is Jokos, who's bald on the cover but has a full head of hair in-game.
- Draconic Humanoid: Radune. He's simply referred to as a dragon, but he's a humanoid the size of a human.
- Dragon Knight: Radune is shown to have been a knight when he was a human. Which makes him a literal dragon knight. He even has Excalibur as his ultimate weapon.
- Elemental Embodiment: As part of their quest, the protagonists meet with five spirits that are the wills of elements making up the universe. They are the Will of Water, Will of Fire, Will of Earth, Will of Wind, and Will of Void.
- Elemental Powers: Each of the main characters specializes in a certain element of magic. Which later turns out to be a plot point, as each one of them was infused with power from a different elemental Will when they were turned into demons.
- Blow You Away / Shock and Awe: Radune specializes in wind magic, which also includes some lighting-based attacks.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Dhalzam specializes in earth magic, fitting him being a rock golem.
- Making a Splash / An Ice Person: Freya specializes in water magic, which includes many ice and cold-based spells.
- Playing with Fire: Jokos specializes in fire magic, fitting with him being an ifrit.
- Power of the Void / Non-Elemental: Loperus at first glance specializes in non-elemental magic, as that would be the normal reading of mu-zokusei (無属性). However the revelation later that he gets his power from the Will of Void makes it clear that he actually uses nothingness and void-based magic. His spells include sound waves, vacuum cuts, magic nullification, and summoning horrors from the void.
- Elite Four: The four angels that serve under Ra Mu and act as boss fights across the game, Uriel, Rafael, Gabriel, and Mikael.
- Evolution Power-Up: A major mechanic of the game is the evolution system. Partway into the game, the party gains control of a stable of 200 humans injected with demon DNA and a machine that can evolve demons into stronger forms. Once per level up, each party member can eat one of the humans and use the machine. They get an increase in one stat based on which human they ate, and they can transform into a different form. Each form has a different special ability or two. The characters also each have four emotional stats that increase or decrease based on the humans they eat. When a character has at least one emotion capped out at 99 or -99 and has their unique accessory, then they can evolve into one of four ultimate forms (each tied to a different emotion) which have multiple powerful special abilities.
- Final Solution: Ra Mu acts to try and exterminate all life on Earth.
- For the Evulz: Ra Mu is said to have tried to take over the world for demonkind thousands of years ago. When the protagonists question Mikael on this and how it doesn't fit with his current actions though, Mikael admits that Ra Mu and the four angels just want to destroy everything because they've found joy in killing for its own sake.
- Gaia's Lament: The nuclear apocalypse has left the world a barren wasteland where even trees are considered a rare sight. Ra Mu's meteor strike then makes this even worse, causing the oceans dry up. The protagonists see glimpses of the Earth's natural state for the first time when visiting some of the dominions of the Ten Kings and are blown away by its beauty.
- Gaia's Vengeance: The idea is discussed at one point when the party examines an old medical textbook. Jokos explains the concept of metabolism to Radune and theorizes that perhaps the will of the planet itself causes extinction events when a dominant species becomes too populated, such as dinosaurs, humans, or demons. The theory is never confirmed, but the name of the final boss implies they may have been on to something.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: After the party finally defeats Ra Mu they break through a door and go deeper into his base. They find a strange fleshy cave with a giant monster inside, which King Sol telepathically tells them is a monster called the Will of the Planet created by Ra Mu to suck the life from the Earth and all creatures on it. There's no further build-up or explanation to its existence, other than a couple of vague hints to its name. The party fights it as the final boss.
- Golem: Dhalzam, who is a standard looking rock golem.
- Identity Amnesia: It turns out that the protagonists are actually ancient Atlanteans who were chosen as heroes to stop Ra Mu. They attempted to use Ra Mu's evolution machine to turn themselves into demons to fight him, but were captured, forcibly transformed, and had their memories erased so Ra Mu could use them himself. The Ten Kings of Atlantis slowly help them recover their memories and emotions so they can battle Ra Mu at full power.
- Infinity +1 Sword: Right before the final dungeon, King Sol gift the party with five weapons that serve as ultimate weapons for each character. Each one has extremely high attack power and attacks twice when used, first a regular attack and then an elemental attack based on that character's element. These are Excalibur for Radune, the Demon Lance for Jokos, the Demon Axe for Dhalzam, the Ice Flail for Freya, and the Kris for Loperus.
- Item Crafting: They game has no shops, instead all items and equipment are made by the party using Dust obtained by killing enemies. Though since you don't need to expend specific items to make things, just a number of Dust, it effectively acts like a shop that you can open at any time and gains new items based on your party's levels.
- The Leader: Radune. He keeps calm when the group argues and keeps them working together, and most often speaks on the group's behalf and makes decisions on where to go.
- Left Hanging: At the very end, after the group has beaten Ra Mu and restored the planet, Jokos decides to separate from the rest of the group to do his own thing. After the other four leave, he makes a declaration that he will take over the new world and the game abruptly ends. Presumably, a sequel would have followed up on this, but one was never made.
- Mad Scientist: Ra Mu. Before he became a demon, he was a Mu scientist who invented the method of becoming a demon as a mean of achieving immortality. Jokos is also implied to have been one, since his memories show him as a scientist working on some powerful weapon and his words after regaining there are erratic and aggressive, a contrast to the other characters feeling more calmed and inspired from regaining their memories.
- Our Genies Are Different: Jokos, a fire-elemental ifrit.
- Percent Damage Attack: The Gatling ability halves an enemy's current HP.
It works on bosses. - Precursors: Atlantis and Mu, two ancient advanced civilizations who left behind many ruins and are the origin of the story's conflict.
- The Quiet One: Dhalzam. He rarely speaks, and when does he says few words.
- The Smart Guy: Jokos. He's the most knowledgable of the group and often explains things to them. He's even referred to by others as the group's well of wisdom.
- Stat Grinding: Party members don't gain EXP and levels like most games. Instead, each one of a character's eight stats (HP, MP, VI, Attack, Defense, Intelligence, Magic Resist, and Agility) have their own separate level and EXP. Killing enemies gives EXP to all of your party's stats, but taking certain actions will gain that character extra EXP (attacking physically for Attack, using magic for Intelligence, etc.). When a character's stat gains a level the stat's actual effective number increases. Each character has separate bases and growth rates for each stat, so everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Characters do have overall levels, which increase as their stat levels increase, though all it does it is determine when they can use the evolution machine. Stats also have caps to them that need to be increased by evolving. At the start, each stat for every character has a cap of level 20. Each time they evolve into a specific form for the first time their stat caps increase by about 3 to 7. When they first enter one of their ultimate forms their stat caps all increase to the final cap of 99.
- Succubi and Incubi: Freya is a succubus. Although she never actually acts in a particularly sexual way the entire game.
- Theme Naming: King Sol and the Ten Kings of Atlantis - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. They are all named after major celestial bodies in the solar system. Their temples are even decorated with the matching astrological symbols. By extension, most of them are also named after Roman gods, which fits the aesthetic of their clothes and temples.
- To Serve Man: Humans are demons favorite food, and they run humans farms to have a constant supply of them.
