Video Game / Eredia The Diary Of Heroes

A Dark Fantasy JRPG created by Potatobrain Games, using RPG Maker MV.

It chronicles the tales of Kenrad and company as they get caught up in a war in the world of Arlis.

You can get it on Steam and itch.io.

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The gameplay provides examples of:

• Always Check Behind the Chair: Some pretty random places contain useful items like the books you can sell at the Southeast Aegean Post Office. Pots and crates are noted in-universe as "chairs" that people rarely check, yet should for the loot.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: You start playing as two very-high-leveled characters named Giraldus and Vishael. After they die (happens early on), you then take control of Kenrad. During the Miralian Banquet, you have the option of playing the Kredvale Arc where you take control of Ariel and (later on in that arc) Aedius, before going back to Kenrad and crew.
  • In the World of Smiles, this happens for each of your party members, each with their own sort of messed-up dream sequence. You have to play as each of them alone before they regroup.
• Autosave: Happens every time right before you enter a different map.
• Backtracking: You do this in some dungeons, especially in the Kilvari Black Caves in the Schekova Area.
• Bag of Sharing: Played with. At several points in the game, you switch viewpoints between different parties, and they each have their own inventories.
• Beef Gate: The early part of the game has many high-level areas such as Mt. Aedelen that the player most likely won't be ready for until they complete more of the story and easier areas first.
• Broken Bridge: There is a bridge between the Miralia and Midglen areas, though you can't cross it until roughly the time you get to Miralia through the Forest of Confusion.
• Counter-Attack: Elric has a chance of passively doing these with the right Trait and equipment setups. Some bosses can also do this. Some can counter physical attacks, some can counter magical attacks, others can do both.
• Duel Boss: You even get a Fighting Style to make these fights easier.
• Fetch Quest: An early contract in Midglen is this, involving getting someone's sheep to return home.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Your actions in the game can affect things like the endings, what happens to NPCs, etc.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Before the game really starts, there's Iscarioth of the Dark Silver. There is also the Smilemaker, though in his case it's not hopeless if you get the three archdemons stuck in his realm to help you out.
• Item Crafting: At various towns, the first of which is Dolonde.
• Limit Break: Every party member gets one when they get to around level 30. Most major story bosses after you get to Miralia have at least one, as well. Shirven in particular has two: Solar Armageddon and Meteor Armageddon, the latter of which makes the former look like a joke.
• No-Gear Level: The Schekovan Banquet contract has you hunt down the guy planning to kill all the guests, all without any of your equipment.
• Numerical Hard: The difficulty in the harder modes comes mainly from enemies getting higher stats. Though to help balance that out, they also yield higher experience gains.
• Old Save Bonus: The sequel to this game will let you load your save from this game for bonuses. Though that save has to be one in which the game was beaten. And last saved on a certain map.
• Randomized Damage Attack: Gamble Strike.
• Regenerating Health: Some skills and equips can give your characters HP regen. Notably, the Daevara Staff actually lowers your HP regen, which ties into how they're noted to drain the life force of their wielders in the contract you discover them in.
• Relationship Values: Referred to in-game as Friendship Points, these let you see certain side stories of your allies (provided your points with them are high enough).
• Sliding Scale of Linearity vs. Openness: A Level 4 example. While you do have to progress the story to go to new places, the amount of sidequests you can do and optional areas you can explore at each point in the story is rather large. Even sidequests and dungeons that are meant to be done at higher levels can be accessed early.
• Socketed Equipment: All equipment can be socketed with runestones. The most common equips can only have one runestone each socketed in them while the rarest can have up to four.
• Spell Levels: Various skills have tiers in their descriptions (ranging from E to S) suggesting their overall power or usefulness. For example, Tier D offensive attacks usually do more damage than Tier E attacks, while Tier C's do more than Tier D's, and so on.
• Timed Mission: Quite a few where failing means Game Over.
• Turn-Based Combat: Uses the Charge Turn Battle System.
• Underground Level: The tombs around Atthiri.

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The story provides examples of:

• Abandoned Mine: The Daverdi Mines where you carry out the Lizards Steal Steel contract.
• Action Girl: Rillina, Rurouna's sister. There's also Ivy, Akia, Fiona, among others.
• Adults Are Useless: Averted. All of the playable party members are adults, and there are hardly any non-adult competent characters in this game.
• Alliterative Name: Quite a few characters' names.
  • Party members: Kenrad Krauser, Rurouna Rhys, Sharina Sanakia.
  • NPCs: Benedict Borealis, Kargen Krauser, Katrina Krauser, etc.
• Anti-Hero: Much of the main playable cast, some more willing to fill the role than others.
• Big Bad: Each main story arc has at least one.
• Big Damn Heroes: Happens at least a few times between both contracts and the main story. It's thanks to that, that the party managed to defeat the Smilemaker in the World of Smiles.
• Blood Knight: Shirven, Van Amarek, Giraldus, etc.
• Bloodless Carnage: Despite this being a Dark Fantasy game.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: In the Schekovan Banquet contract, it turns out that Harvey the butler was behind the attack on the guests. The reason he orchestrated that was because the banquet was apparently offensive to Schekovan traditions.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Bernard, Giraldus, and Rojan, to name a few.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: While Ken considered taking the A Maiden's Lament contract:
  Sharina: "No! I hate haunted houses, ghosts, and haunted house ghosts!"
• Broken Bird: Akia, Vinoche's former student. Which led to her Start of Darkness.
• Calling Your Attacks: Vishael, Shirven, and Arshen have done it at least once.
• Capital City: Schekova used to be this for Aegea, but at the time the game takes place in, it's Miralia. An NPC suggests Schekova would've remained the capital if it weren't for its Endless Winter.
• Caps Lock: Used to suggest a character shouting or emphasizing a word in their speech.
• Cash Gate: Some objectives require you to fork over money to progress, like getting to Merille's room in the Forbidden Love Hotel or finding who's behind the Daevara Staves in Atthiri.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Apparently the Smilemaker did this to the three archdemons he imprisoned in the World of Smiles as revenge for unanimously voting to get him banned from Sargoth's Realm.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Shirven had one in his hometown of Kovid. His mother tried to poison him so that she'd have one less mouth to feed, but his beast senses picked up on this and he killed her in retaliation. Dimadella reported this to the village authorities, causing the village to turn on him. Due to this, Shirven holds a grudge against both his village and Asanthi.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Three Cthulhus: Smilemaker, Asanthi, and Shirven. Though in the case of the latter, it's only because Ariel managed to invoke the Eredia in a moment of desperation.
• Doomed Hometown: Kovid, thanks to Shirven wanting revenge.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Vishael. Kenrad also (perhaps jokingly) mistakes Arshen for one before seeing his face.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Averted. Kenrad and crew actually gain fame for their accomplishments, leading to them getting contracts such as the one for taking out the Cult of Sargoth.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Beast Blood can turn you into this. Anastacia also turns into one during the R-Lab contract. There are also quite a few of these as enemies.
• Encounter Repellant: Some equips and items can do this.
• Endless Winter: Schekova and the towns near it.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Shirven would rather let at least some of Kovid's kids survive than just torch them along with that place.
• Foreshadowing: The Underlord's invitation being sent to both the heroes and the True Demons they're hunting.
• Exposition Fairy: Elric often serves as this, at times getting called out by Kenrad for being a Captain Obvious.
• Fantastic Racism: A common, frequently-noted problem in Arlis.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Atthiri is apparently this for Egypt.
• Freak Out: Dimadella, naturally, freaked out over the safety of the kids she was taking care of when Kovid was getting burned to the ground. The kids were purposely spared, but Shirven himself didn't care to tell Dimadella before burning her down to the ground.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Dark Silver is implied to be this. The Mirage may also qualify.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Those given the Beast Blood by Asanthi through a spell (as opposed to drinking it) become vastly more talented than just about any human. Before Akia was kicked out of Midglen, she managed to perfect and improve upon the Sylphic Wind technique which not even Kenrad could get close to learning... even after beating the Smilemaker.
  • This sheer talent is why Arshen wanted to kill Akia as soon as possible before she could get strong enough to take even him down. Turns out he was much too late.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Averted. Kenrad uses a bow.
• Hidden Elf Village: Va'Aila, Sharina's home town is hidden in the Everyn Woods. Though it's not as hidden as the Lamia Village which is also in Everyn.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Shirven hates Asanthi for giving him her blood, since doing so destroyed any chance he had at a normal life.
• Incompatible Orientation: Played for laughs when you're told of how Elric used to crush on Ivy during the Miralian Banquet. And when you try to get Ivy to seduce a shopkeeper in Atthiri for the Daevara contract.
• Insane Troll Logic: Ken's the one most often guilty of this, to the chagrin of most of his teammates. Especially Elric.
• Large Ham: The Smilemaker and at times Kenrad.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Also a gameplay mechanic, adding to the Gameplay and Story Integration.
• Lazy Bum: Before you played as him, Kenrad was apparently this for a while due to how his father was sent off to war. He got better thanks to some nudging from Ariel.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Kar'Arthra Caverns.
• Loophole Abuse: Elric takes advantage of this if you decide to go after Jacques in the A Maiden's Lament contract.
• Love Triangle: In Floreigne, there was Kaulzer, Medgrid, and Nuvira. You get the option to non-literally murder the hypotenuse by telling Nuvira about how Kaulzer stole her panties.
• Mask of Sanity: Shirven is capable of acting like a polite but ruthless villain, but he's the more kill-happy one between himself and Akia. He destroys his hometown out of revenge, uses overkill spells on a group of weak bandits, and when sufficiently angered, kills Arshen despite Akia stating she needs the hunter alive. After the battle, it's revealed the reason he's less famous between the two is because he leaves fewer survivors.
• Medieval Stasis: Played with. The client of the "Ugh… goblins!" contract wants to improve explosive technology to more modern levels. The goblins he wants exterminated mainly harassed him to prevent that and invoke this trope. In fact, the game even lets you defect to the goblins' side!
• Ms. Fanservice: Ivy, sort of... She dresses rather provocatively, but her sex appeal is rarely called attention to after you first meet her in the Abandoned Lighthouse. During the Schekovan Banquet contract, Ruro was one to the male guests attending. Ken was even called out for staring at her boobs.
• Multiple Endings: They vary depending on the choices you make.
• Noob Cave: The mines in the outskirts of Midglen are this.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Ivy, or rather, Catherine Brandine.
• Rescue Arc: The contract where you have to save a noble's daughter from a magic-induced coma by wandering into some kind of wonderland and taking her back.
• Red Baron:
  • Of the True Demons (the first two have two each):
    • Alice: Unholy Maiden and Abyssal Maiden
    • Flaine: Golden Knight and Golden Blade
    • Hawk: The Hunter
    • Calrix: The Dual Thunder
  • The Smilemaker, strangely, doesn't have one. Despite being vastly the strongest of them within his own world.
• Revenge Is Not Justice: Daevara constructed and delivered cursed staves to a weapons shopkeep in Atthiri which would not only shorten the lifespan of mages who use it, but condemn them to the Realm of Sargoth. This was all to upset the balance of the six dimensional realms to provoke Sargoth to declare an interdimensional war, so Daevara would rise above on top after the three realms destroy each other. This was all because he was treated like an outcast for having mixed blood of humans, demons and angels. Sharina calls him out on his atrocious plan.
• Running Gag: Ken with some of the nicknames he gives people. Especially for Sharina and Elric.
• Sequel Hook: The game makes no attempt to hide this is just the first of a multi-part saga at the end.
• Smug Snake: Hawk, one of the Cult of Sargoth's True Demons. To a lesser extent, Alice of that same cult.
• Start of Darkness: Happened to the known inheritors of the Beast Blood.
• Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Mariselle of the A Maiden's Lament contract. She doesn't look like one, but until you calm her down, she certainly behaves that way towards the party.
• Stripperiffic: Ivy and quite a few NPCs.
• Summon Magic: Alice's bread and butter.
• The Corruption: The Beast Blood. Those who drink it turn into monsters shortly after. The stronger the drinker was, the stronger the monster they become.
• The Lost Woods: The Miralian Forest (aka the Forest of Confusion) and the Everyn Woods.
• The Needs of the Many: Invoked during the later parts of the Sargothite Arc. And during the gardening contract in Miralia.
• The Reveal: The host of the Eredia in this game is... Ariel
• The Rival: Hawk served as this for Kenrad, Flaine as this for Aedius.
• Unfortunate Names: La'Vorde O'vario. Ken (being Ken) was quick to take advantage of that one.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Kenrad and Elric, Kenrad and Ariel, Kenrad and Sharina.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Amaroth is suggested to be this with how much gray morality there is in this game.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Sharina wants world peace and equality between races, and is usually the first to show sympathy towards villains who were harmed by racism.

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