Video Game / Ayakashi: Ghost Guild

Ayakashi: Ghost Guild (あやかし陰陽録, Ayakashi Onmyouroku) was a Zynga game for mobile platforms. A Card Battle Game originating from Japan (specifically, Zynga's Japanese branch before it closed at the end of 2012, and the development then shifted to Zynga's Chinese branch before it closed in February 2015), it has been translated into Chinese, English, Korean, and major European languages. The key mechanism in Ayakashi: Ghost Guild is cards, or daemons which are collected, enhanced and used for battle. There was also a central story running throughout the game. Various statistics govern the ability of players to explore the story line and use their cards for battle, while events provide additional opportunities for card collection.

You step into the shoes of a ghost agent, or onmyouji, and are tasked to solve supernatural anomalies that happen in modern-day Japan with the help of your spiritual companion, Mira.

Due to Zynga's Chinese branch being shut down in February 2015, the company decided to pull the plug on the whole thing and ended the game's operation on April 30, 2015. However, there were efforts being made to revive the game. For instance, the original dev team behind Ayakashi: Ghost Guild reformed themselves as a brand-new independent company named Mira Miracle and developed a sequel on top of developing a brand-new Card Battle Game: Otogi: Spirit Agents (which itself would shut down in December 2021).

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This game provides the following tropes.

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Kotetsu's sword is described in her Flavor Text as being able to cut through anything.
• A-Cup Angst: In the "Trouble at the Old Inn" event, Kenshin Uesugi is jealous of Shingen Takeda's well-developed figure.
• A Ghost Agent Is You
• All Myths Are True: Many creatures from Japanese lore appear here, though there are creatures from Western lore that appear as well.
• Animate Inanimate Object: Anima daemons, who are souls of objects. They range from ancient weapons, modern firearms, to Shaved Ice.
• Beach Episode: The "Sengoku Swimsuit Scene" event.
• Cap: Normally, the maximum level a daemon can achieve depends on its rarity. For example, a rank 1 card has a level cap of 30, while a rank 5 card has a level cap of 70. The Limit Break feature, which was introduced in December 2014, allows all daemons to break the level cap in two ways: by fusing a daemon with an exact copy of it, or having Da Liu Ren, a special daemon, fused with it. Note that for the second method, the rarity of the host daemon and Da Liu Ren must be equal, or the rarity of Da Liu Ren must not be higher than the host daemon's.
• Cute Ghost Girl / Cute Monster Girl: Many Phantom-type daemons are this.
• Cut Short: Due to Zynga pulling the plug on the game, the game's story stopped at Chapter 17, part 1. There might be hopes of the story continuing as a result of the original developers wanting to continue the game even without Zynga's backing.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Anima beats Divina, which beats Phantom, which beats Anima.
• Face–Heel Turn: Chiyome Mochizuki in the "The Ninjas' Elegy" event and Sister in the main story both turn against you once the major enemies in their respective stories are defeated.
• Full-Frontal Assault: The aptly-named Full Frontal Ninja, who believes he performs best when not constrained under clothes, which he considers some sort of Power Limiter. Most people he encounters (up to and including the police) would really rather he was.
• Gender Bender: Many daemons, whether fictional or based on Real Life, are made female in this game. Examples include Shuten-doji, Behemoth, and Nyarlathotep.
  • The "Sengoku Swimsuit Scene" event is essentially this en masse, to the point that Kenshin Uesugi is a walking lampshade of this and Clap Your Hands If You Believe.
• Historical Domain Character: Several Real Life figures, such as people from the Sengoku Era, can be made your daemons. Some of them are even gender-bent.
• Hot Springs Episode: The "Trouble at the Old Inn" event.
• Improbably Female Cast: While the actual plot tries to keep important roles mostly gender-equal, there's roughly 3 to 4 female daemons for every 1 male.
• Little Bit Beastly: Many of the daemons possess the ears or tail of the creatures they are based on.
• Mercury's Wings: All of the angel daemons have small wings where her ears should be.
• Moe Anthropomorphism: Anima-type daemons are essentially these, as they are all tsukumogami, or inanimate objects that gain sentience either after 100 years or after gaining strong feelings towards their masters. Mira is one, as she is the soul of an ancient mirror.
• Monster Compendium: The daemon scroll catalogs all of the daemons in the game.
• Odd Name Out: The members of Bayashi-5, a boy band, are Miyabi, Yuta, Taiju, Setsuna... and Julien.
• Punny Name: Many Anima daemons such as Jane Saw, Anne Droid, Sylvia Spoon...
• School for Scheming: The "Camelot Academy for Ghosts" event.
• She Is All Grown Up: Barbetta, after you've transmigrated her.
  Barbetta: Buongiornol! Well, what do you make of the new me? I'm totally capable now!
  • In general, any daemon who has the ability to transmigrate will literally grow up.
• Shout-Out:
  • The card Red Eye, added for the "Hazy Moon Delight" event, bears a lot of resemblance to Reisen Udongein Inaba, on appearance, description, and ability.
  • You can get John Lennon as your daemon.
  • The flavor text for Emperor Hadrian is a reference to Thermae Romae.
  • Rat Clan: Marley is a whole reference to Bob Marley.
• Single-Minded Twins: Gemini. Justified, as one of the twins cannot properly channel her power without the other.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Anima-type daemons beat Divina-type daemons; Divina-type daemons beat Phantom-type daemons; and Phantom-type daemons beat Anima-type daemons.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the "Wondrous World of Weaponry" event, Kotetsu, one of the rank 1 starter cards, trained a lot (off-screen), and returns as a 5-star card with superb stats and skill.
  • Kotetsu's fellow rank 1 starter cards Ameno Uzume and Pipe Fox also have 5-star "focused" forms and appear in the "Ancient Japan's Got Talent!" and "Neverending Christmas" events, respectively.
• The World Cup: The "Ayakashi Cup" event is based on this. Note that the event took place in Brazil in-game and ran around the time of the real-life 2014 World Cup.
• Youkai: Many Phantom-type daemons are these. The kanji that represents those creatures is even the first kanji for youkai (妖怪).