The world of Asdivine was created and is governed by two Deities: The Light Deity, Illumiere, who governs birth and the Shadow Deity, Noctodemus, who governs death. For thousands of years, the two worked together in perfect harmony until one year prior to the events of the game, when a massive explosion of light appeared in the sky and the number of monsters suddenly began to increase.
Meanwhile, at a quiet orphanage at the outskirts of the Gutenberg Kingdom, a young man named Zack and his childhood friend Stella prepare to return a wildcat that they nursed back to health back to the nearby forest while discussing their future plans. As they venture into the forest, they encounter a mysterious being of magical energy that attempts to possess Zack but the wildcat, Taking the Bullet, gets possessed instead. The cat begins to talk and claims to be the Light Deity!
In an attempt to see if such claims are true, Zack and Stella name the cat Felix and leave home to seek the advice of the kingdom's High Priestess to verify Felix's claims and attempt to solve the mystery of what happened one year ago.
It has a direct sequel that takes place two years later (and follows the path of Zack's solo True Ending), Asdivine Hearts II, released on consoles in early 2019.
This game provides examples of:
- Action Girl: All of the girls who join the party as well as Elsyfe, Oliver's parallel world counterpart, who heads the town patrols and, according to Zack, has the hands of an experienced swordswoman.
- Anti-Villain: Noctodemus is trying to ensure his own survival because the waning faith in him would soon mean he would cease to exist, the balance would tip entirely towards light, and all worlds would collapse as a result.
- All Men Are Perverts: The party does not get good first impressions of their neighboring state outside of the kingdom when the border guards use a body search as an excuse to fondle the girls while the governor's son shamelessly flirts with Uriel in a manner that borders on harassment. Also played especially straight with Julius.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: In the Normal Ending, Noctodemus dies, forcing Illumiere to replace him as the Shadow Deity while Zack has to take the position of Light Deity.
- Bait-and-Switch: One sidequest has a little girl ask Zack to sell Felix to her and accepting the quest means accepting the sale. When called out on it, he explains his plan to make a stuffed animal version of Felix to give to the girl instead.
- Battle Couple: Zack and Stella in her True Ending.
- Be Yourself: Zack's advice to Stella when she considers mimicking the mannerisms of the other girls in the party.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The primary reason why Zack is a Chick Magnet. While he can be blunt and doesn't like good manners, he's always looking out for everyone around him.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: A downplayed version but the English translation has its share of spelling and grammatical errors.
- Bonus Dungeon: The Tower of Trials: Requires being on the True Ending route and spending 100 AHP on the key to open it.
- Blind Seer: Luna, who has so much inherent magical potential that it rendered her blind. Celine, her parallel counterpart, is disappointed at not having even a fraction of that same potential.
- Broken Bridge: Towns and dungeons will not appear on the world map until they become relevant to the plot. The game itself Lampshades this with, if a sign points to one of those inaccessible areas, the name will be "Smudged out with mud" at the time but be readable when the relevance hits.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Stella's been in love with Zack for years but can't bring herself to confess it. Same with Lars towards Luna.
- Catchphrase: Felix exclaims "Meowzers!" any time he gets kicked around.
- The Chew Toy: Any physical pain that's played for laughs will almost always happen to Felix. Even after returning to normal, Zack gives her a Dope Slap for lying to him by omission earlier.
- Chick Magnet: Zack is in a party of five with four women. All four of them (and some minor characters, including Celine's sister) fall for him over the course of the game.
- The Chosen One: Every so often, both a Light and Shadow Progeny are born. In most cases, they live their lives normally, but also have the potential to replace the existing Deities if necessary. Zack does this in the Normal Ending.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Stella reveals Zack has always had this since he was a kid in the Normal Ending.
- Crash-Into Hello: The party's third encounter with Julius and Vanessa involves accidentally ramming into them with an out-of-control mine cart.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Celine vs. the border guards. They didn't stand a chance.
- Be at a significantly higher level than the enemies in the region you're currently in, turn on Battle Shortcut, and every regular battle that doesn't contain a barrel or boulder to break will instantly end with, "Achieved an overwhelming victory!"
- Cuteness Proximity: Celine has a huge weakness for cute animals.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Both Stella and Uriel's natural element is Shadow. The Shadow Deity isn't outright evil either.
- Demonic Possession: Happens to several characters, including Julius and Vanessa prior to their final encounter followed by Queen Gloria in the final act.
- Dirty Coward: Julius is quickly revealed as one as he splits the party and tries to kill them in a sneak attack, but especially after the Shadow Deity runs out of patience.
- Disc-One Final Dungeon: Phantasma for the first act and Sephiroth Tower for the second. Noctodemus is even the boss in both.
- Doomed Hometown: In a twist, Zack and Stella's home orphanage is not this, but rather Uriel's home village one year ago.
- Double Entendre: In Bernolt Temple, after Stella pulls out her whip again on Zack for saving her from falling into a pitfall.Zack: Surprised? She's had the habit of flailing that thing around ever since she learned how to pick one up.Celine: I-I see... That's an unusual habit to have.Uriel: If you're going to keep doing that, Stella, chose a target and actually hit it.
- Dying as Yourself: Noctodemus in the Normal Ending after expending too much of his power but also regaining his sanity.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Uriel's fashion sense combined with Proper Tights with a Skirt and Showgirl Skirt.
- Everyone Can See It: Celine tries very much in vain to hide her love of stuffed animals.
- The Evils of Free Will: The basic reason why Shaddai wants to recreate the worlds and replace the Deities in the True End path.
- Foreshadowing:
- Uriel's memory of Zack saving her life and her being an Identical Stranger to Prince Lawrence both foreshadow that parallel worlds exist and that she is from one of them.
- The discussions about the Light and Shadow Progenies being drawn together whenever they're born. Though only the True End route reveals that Stella is the Shadow Progeny.
- Freudian Excuse: Oliver, Governor Hyde's son, falls for Stella after she scolds him for being a Spoiled Brat and he explains that no one's ever spoken to him like that since his mother died.
- Game-Breaking Bug: The Vita port can potentially crash while navigating screens outside of battle that will load enemy sprites (Monster Guide, Guild Mission menu). It's best to wait for each sprite to finish loading before trying to navigate further along each menu lest the game and the entire Vita crash.
- Gender-Blender Name: Even after no longer possessing the wildcat, the Light Deity changes her name to Felix and tells the wildcat its new name is Lumiere.
- God Needs Prayer Badly: Felix grows stronger with every act of faith given towards the Light Deity. This is also the main reason behind the Shadow Deity's actions.
- Goldfish Poop Gang: Julius and Vanessa quickly turn into this.
- Global Airship: Earned shortly before entering Phantasma, though it can only land on grass at first.
- Heroic BSoD: Uriel after learning that Julius, not Zack, is the one who saved her life and the one she owes her debt to.
- Hidden Elf Village: Uriel grew up in one, explaining why she didn't recognize that she had been transported from Reveria to Asdivine.
- Human Sacrifice: The governor of Alvin wants to offer one up to try and curb the monster infestation. Shortly after that, Uriel reveals that such a practice was common to the point of being the first resort in her home village and she later reveals she was raised to become one. It's no wonder her Dislike in the status screen is "Cultures steeped in religion."
- I Choose to Stay: Prince Lawrence chooses to not return to Asdivine.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Felix when revealing when, as the Light Deity, she had to kill her own Legions as there was no other way to stop them from trying to kill Noct and tip the balance of power in her favor, which she did not want.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: Julius's attitude after kidnapping Uriel.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Against both Queen Gloria when she's possessed by Noctodemus and Noct himself in the Normal Ending's final battle.
- I Owe You My Life: Uriel is convinced Zack is the one who saved her life when her village burned down, despite him never having left home. She joins the party to follow after him regardless.
- Identical Stranger: Uriel bears an uncanny resemblance to the missing Prince Lawrence and several people comment that she would be his twin if he was born a girl. She's a parallel world version of him.
- Jerkass God: Felix starts off like this but begins to settle down as the game progresses.
- Jerkass Realization: When Felix thinks, "Here I am, a deity being lectured by a human on the intricacies of humans. ...Maybe I should pay more attention."
- Lampshade Hanging: "You don't get to stay silent all this time and then show up at the last minute to run the show!", Uriel feels the same way as the player when Shaddai appears out of nowhere on the True End path.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The characters whenever a tutorial gets discussed as they reveal their knowledge of the Help section and saving the game.
- Level-Up Fill-Up: Gaining a level will restore that character's HP and MP, but not skill gauge.
- Limit Break: Utilizing skills or spells enough times in a row will cause a Break, allowing using another set of skills or spells for 0 cost. The Trust Gauge also fits as a party-wide one.
- Love Dodecahedron: Zack is the only guy in the party with four women. All of them fall for him over the course of the journey and the only one who can't see that is Zack himself.
- Memento MacGuffin: Seeing Lawrence's pendant is what allows Queen Gloria to free herself from Demonic Possession.
- Metal Slime: Metal Cores, Bi-Cores, and Metal Slimes all qualify, and they can be found on islands that are available after getting both the airship and ship. Even when other enemies at the end-game begin to give out more experience on average, they remain the best source for SP grinding.
- Missing Child: Queen Gloria fearing for the well-being of her son, who had been missing without a trace for a full year. Him being sent to a parallel world in an accident doesn't help either.
- Moral Event Horizon: In-Universe, the group is about to declare that Julius has crossed this after revealing that he was the one who led the monsters to destroy Uriel's home village just to loot the place, but Uriel states that his having done that actually saved her life and she ended up meeting Zack as a result.
- Multiple Endings: Determined by Relationship Values that affect both the Normal and True endings.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Lumiere upon realizing faith in Noct was beginning to wane, risking his existence, and how she failed to see any of the signs of that being what he was trying to tell her.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Celine bemoans this is her fate once people learn she has a stuffed animal version of Felix.
- Other Me Annoys Me:
- Zack definitely doesn't get a good first impression of Julius, his parallel world counterpart. It only gets worse from there and they even get into a fight during the end credits.
- Uriel with Prince Lawrence is a more straightforward example as they constantly resort to name-calling.
- Peninsula of Power Leveling: Available in both overworld areas as soon as the airship and ship are obtained, respectively. There are both the Metal Slime and end-game enemies versions.
- Poor Communication Kills: The Shadow Deity spends the first 2/3 of the game trying to drop hints on his plans to the Light Deity, only for Zack to figure them out first and then wonder why he didn't simply tell her.
- Relationship Values: In-game events and certain items will raise or lower the party members' trust with Zack. This determines the charge rate of the Trust Gauge as well as the ending.
- Replacement Goldfish: Zack has a discussion with Celine detailing how someone could have the same abilities as her but could never be her because she's the only one of her in all of the worlds. This helps her begin to overcome her I Just Want to Be Special complex.
- Rescue Romance: Uriel has been smitten with Zack since he saved her life two years before the game. She doesn't take it well upon learning that Julius was the one who saved her.
- Rewriting Reality: What the Shadow Deity does to Reveria, removing the Light Deity from history and being worshiped as the sole Great Deity.
- Running Gag: Nearly every time Zack opens a locked door the door goes flying off its hinges as if it had been blown open despite him just barely touching it and one of the girls tells him to be nicer to the doors.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Celine, the High Priestess, beating the snot out of a couple of border guards would likely spark a huge incident between the two countries, except for the fact that she did it because the guards were abusing their position and using detainment as an excuse to sexually assault two young girls.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Julius and Vanessa decide that working under the Shadow Deity isn't worth risking their lives and run away together. He catches up to them.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: Julius and Vanessa with each other. Subverted with Julius as he's just leading her on.
- Stalker with a Crush: Oliver turns into one for Stella.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Continuing to land hits on an enemy that's had its HP fully depleted will grant Exp and SP bonuses the more hits that are landed on it.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Celine spends a good deal of the game ashamed of herself for her lack of magical abilities but, when the party begins to be overwhelmed by a force that affects magically-inclined people, Celine realizes that she isn't affected and now her greatest weakness has become a strength to allow her to carry the others forward if they need her for support.
- Through His Stomach: Uriel's internal thoughts in one Trust event reveal that this is her reason for wanting to learn how to cook.
- Time Skip: The Stinger of each Normal and True Endings take place several years after the final battle.
- Took a Level in Badass: After being scolded by Stella, Oliver begins to take life more seriously, strives to become a responsible adult, becomes the new governor, and even has a Big Damn Heroes moment in single-handedly saving the party from some soldiers.
- Tranquil Fury: When told that the governor of Alvin intends a Human Sacrifice, Uriel can be seen visibly trembling with rage but doesn't blow up.
- True Companions: The party declares themselves as such by the time they reach Phantasma and Felix cements it by finally calling everyone by name.
- Villainous BSoD: Noctodemus becomes more unhinged in the final act as he begins to believe Lumiere has betrayed him and killed his Legions when they sacrificed themselves through disobedience to give Lumiere a chance at stopping his plan and saving him.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Zack and Felix quickly evolve into these.
- Walking the Earth: Uriel in both endings.
- We Could Have Avoided All This: Spoken nearly word-for-word by Felix after the final boss in the Normal Ending route.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: When Illumiere fell from Eternia, a full year had already passed on Asdivine by the time she hit the ground.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
- Celine is worried about a non-fatal version of this as her sister could potentially replace her as High Priestess while she's on her journey. In general, she's also afraid of becoming useless to those who rely on her.
- Julius gets a major warning from the Shadow Deity that he's coming dangerously close to this in their final conversation.
- Your Tomcat Is Pregnant: A variant given Felix is a male wildcat but is possessed by a female deity. The girls never realize this until Felix admits so during the game's Furo Scene.
