Video Game / Evolution

aka: Evolution Worlds

Mag and Linear.

Evolution (known as Shinkisekai Evolution in Japan) is a bipartite JRPG originally released for the Sega Dreamcast in 1999. It was developed by Sting Entertainment and published by Ubisoft in North America and Europe. In Japan it was published by ESP (Entertainment Software Publishers).

The story follows the adventures of Mag Launcher and his companions. Set in a fictitious age of exploration, most of the characters wield "Cyframes", i.e. lost technology discovered in ancient ruins. These Cyframes are sought by adventurers who explore the ruins to find and sell them. Mag comes from a family of gentry fallen on hard times: The running gag is that Mag can never pay off the Launchers' debts no matter what he does. He is most-often accompanied by a bean-counting Battle Butler (Gre Nade) and a Mysterious Waif who is highly-sought by the villains of both games (Linear Cannon).

Evolution is a roguelike which make use of Turn-Based Combat and Pre-existing Encounters. The main gimmick is the Cyframes themselves: each has interchangeable parts (that cannot be unequipped) that offer different special attacks and stats. Not every character can utilize Cyframes, and the ones who can't have to level-up and learn set skills the old-fashioned way.

The first game, The Quest for Sacred Device, revolved around Mag's hub town (which linked to various dungeons via his family's biplane) and a seedy military leader with an interest in Linear. It also had a downscaled port for the Neo Geo Pocket titled Evolution: Eternal Dungeons.

The game had one sequel, Far Off Promise, and a Compilation Re-release for the Gamecube, Evolution Worlds: this adventure saw Mag and company going on the road. It was set in a far-off town connected to dungeons via a new railroad network. An optional third-person view was added, unlike the original which was strictly top-down. Once again, Linear found herself a target, this time of a white-haired villain with a shared lineage and a hatred of humanity. The ending wasn't exactly open-ended, but a few plot threads were left hanging (mainly to do with Linear's origin), and a follow-up seems unlikely.

A novelization of of the first game was also released... in Japan. A series of gag strips also ran in the Japanese Official Dreamcast Magazine, the first 36 of which were also released with the Evolution 2 strategy guide (once again, in Japan). The initial three strips that ran in Sega Saturn Magazine were included in the first game's strategy guide.

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This game contains examples of:

• Action Initiative: Run into an enemy from behind, the music sounds happy and you get free turns to happily punch your enemies. Have an enemy run into YOU from behind, the music gets daunting and you stand still while the enemy beats your head off your shoulders.
• Adaptation Distillation: Evolution Worlds makes some major compromises to the first part.
  • Pannam Town is cut down in that the bar and Chain's mobile home cannot be entered, meaning Chain and Pepper now wait outside their respective buildings.
  • Two civilian buildings in Pannam Town are also locked and the characters within are cut.
  • The Cyframe shop in both Pannam Town and Museville share the same layout.
  • While the Society building still remains, it cannot be explored as Mag and Linear automatically talk to Nina and leave afterwards. This means the backroom showing the dungeon treasures cannot be accessed and means that items cannot be appraised, rendering Nop Demoted to Extra.
  • The Pannam Port is cut, along with most of Mag and Linear's first visit to the KronPrinz. The game simply skips from Mag and Linear leaving the Launcher residence to arriving in Eugene's throne room.
  • The dungeons themselves are generic and seemingly based on the Bonus Dungeon from Far Off Promise rather than the distinct dungeons seen in the original. Even the music is taken from the Blaze Ruins in Far Off Promise, rendering the dungeon theme from the original game unused. The exception is the original final dungeon, which appears in a heavily cut down form.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: Worlds is bad at this, especially towards the end.
  • Eugene's introduction is greatly trimmed down, including the scene where he initially believes Linear to be an offering to him, enraging Mag. Interestingly Voice clips for the scenes remain in the data of the game's data.
  • Inspecting the instruments in Eugene's command room will reveal that the reason the ship is exploding is because Mag kicked a grenade into the engine room, which was explicitly shown in the original game.
  • Crossing into Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole, the escape sequence was also severely trimmed. The port removes the sequence where Mag and Linear are separated from the rest of the party, explaining how the others got back to the seaplane and why Mag and Linear needed to find a different escape route.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In the original World of Sacred Device, Pepper Box is introduced on day 3, after the first dungeon (Day 2 is strictly Mag and Linear's visit to the Kronprinz). In Worlds, the opening cutscene leads into her introduction, meaning that she meets Mag and Linear on day 1.
• All in a Row: In the first game, Mag always heads the line. In Far Off Promise, the party's leading member can be rotated with the three characters moving around, doing so gives some kind of bonus for exploration (Mag can destroy boxes and stone pillars, Chain can make the party run faster, etc).
• All There in the Manual: Supplementary material gives off a few more details for the game, such as the characters' ages and zodiac signs.
• Arbitrary Gun Power: Every enemy in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. There are even TANKS you have to fight, yet they seem to do as much damage as a normal enemy.
• Action Initiative: Run into an enemy from behind, the music sounds happy and you get free turns to happily punch your enemies. Have an enemy run into YOU from behind, the music gets daunting and you stand still while the enemy beats your head off your shoulders.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: Both games suffer from this. This is the first game's Japanese box art, this is the EU box art, and this is the US boxart. Downplayed with Worlds as even the Japanese boxart is serious.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: 3 people max on your team, 4 max on enemy teams, however most bosses come with only one enemy: the boss itself.
• Authority Equals Asskicking:
  • Carcano's men will follow his every word.
  • Say what one will about Eugene, but he is a military prince and he will gladly remind you of that.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Two of Pepper's skills, Trigger Happy and Pepper Flash, can easily do 9,999 damage at high levels, but they both cost all of her FP to use, and their power is linked to her remaining FP.
• Battle Butler: Gre is entirely capable of serving Mag at home and on the battlefield despite his age. He also fights without the use of a Cyframe and, unlike Linear, has no hidden powers.
• Barbarian Tribe: There are enemies based on this.

• Battle Theme Music: In addition to a boss and final boss theme, the battle music changes depending on the situation of the battle (normal battle, Mag's party has the advantage or the enemy has the advantage). Evolution 2 also gives Carcano and Yurka unique boss themes.
• Battleship Raid: The end of the first half of the games sees the party storm The 8th Imperial Army's battleship to rescue Linear after Eugene kidnaps her.
• Big Bad: In the first game, Eugene. In the second game, Yurka fulfills this role
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Some of the enemies are Spiders are as big as the party. And then there are huge robot spiders in the Very Definitely Final Dungeon that take up all the enemy side. Killing these hard-hitters net you lots of EXP.
• Big Damn Heroes: In Far Off Promise, Pepper makes her introduction saving Mag and Linear from the Storm Bird after it turns out to be Not Quite Dead. After that, she can be recruited for dungeon missions at the bar.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Prof. Whitehead tends to be really nice towards Mag and the rest of the characters, but he's secretly trying to obtain ultimate wisdom all for himself.Whitehead ends up feeling guilty for using Mag and for trying to finish his plan. He feels so guilty for helping Yurka achieve his goals that he offers to help Mag and co. as much as he can.
• Black Market: Mag can eventually buy goods from Carcano's cronies once he gains their boss's respect (even though Carcano himself seemed to show respect to Mag before their fight).
• Blow You Away: One of Carcano's attacks is called like this word for word. It blows enemies away.
• Bonus Dungeon:
  • World of Sacred Device has one of the ruins blocked off by the military early into the game. In the post-game, the ruin that was blocked off becomes available.
  • Far Off Promise has The Tower of Despair. It's unique in that enemies give little EXP but more TP than usual, making it ideal for grinding skills. The limit of how many floors one can go through changes each in-game day in sets of 10 (up to 50 ^note though each 10 marks a checkpoint that the player can start at next time and there is a unique prize at the end each time. It also has an underside, accessible on a New Game Plus, with the same amount of floors.
• Boss Rush: The boss of floor B50 of the Tower of Despair is a boss rush starting with Izmail, going through the bosses of the main three dungeons (all exactly the same level and difficulty as their first encounters) and ending with Navarin.
• Bowdlerize: Worlds cuts out some of the cruder jokes such as changing the anecdote about Nina getting drunk and stripping to her doing the Macarena. While it's hard to make out during gameplay, the Pannam Bar also has a sign denoting it specifically as a milk bar.
• But Thou Must!: There's no way to take Linear off the party to ask another member to join during ruins exploration unless she's kidnapped. Justified in that Mag promised his father to not leave Linear alone. After finishing Euegene and escaping the Kronprinz in World of Sacred Device, you can remove Linear and use any set of three teammates you want with Mag even able to go it solo in dungeons now.
• Can't Drop the Hero:
  • Mag is the main character, therefore he must always be in the party and controllable, so you cannot get rid of him whatsoever... Not like you would want to.
  • Linear is like this during the main campaign, and must always be in your party no matter what until the postgame^note In the first game.. Before the postgame during the The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, you are required to have at least two other characters in your party at all times, and Mag must be one of them while Linear cannot be for story reasons.

• Chain of Deals: A brief case happens in the second game, kicked off by finding a secret item in the Blaze Ruins. Completing the chain nets you a dowsing stone, which is used to more easily detect hidden areas.
• Chaste Hero: Mag can't really understand the theme of love, not even when Nina seems infatuated about Gre.
• The Chessmaster: Yurka is this: his only purpose for helping Whitehead being to open the path to the ancient civilization by controlling Mag and his party to search the keys hidden in the ruins.
• Chest Monster: Overlapping with Ambushing Enemy. While the chest themselves don't contain enemies, dungeons in Far Off Promise contain scenery that Mag can smash to uncover hidden chests. Said scenery can also contain monsters and even both.
• Chick Magnet: A rumor in the Society explicitly says that Carcano is popular among girls.
• The Clan: Chain's family is a clan.
• Climax Boss: Eugene, as a result of the games being combined, is demoted to this in Evolution Worlds. His mech is even nerfed as a result.
• Combining Mecha: The Ulticannon is an angel-like machine which needs both Yurka and Linear to work properly. However before you get the chance to fight it, Linear breaks out from the machine. Yurka, driven insane with jealousy, descends into madness, and the robot's loosely angelic-look turns into a gruesome devil-look, complete with a beating heart-like organ hanging to the right side.
• Cool Helmet: Mag is always wearing his headgear wherever he goes...and whenever he goes to sleep^note In Worlds at least, as The World of Sacred Device'' has a separate model of Mag without his helmet. It doesn't really bother him at all.
• Cool Shades: Pepper owns a good one.
• Costume Evolution: Mag, Linear and Chain's outfits got overhauled in Far Off Promise: Mag and Linear get matching jackets while Chain gets a blue shirt and some kind of pouch. Worlds keeps Chain and Mag's updated designs, but reverts Linear to her original design.
• Crazy Jealous Guy:
  • After Linear is persuaded back into returning to Mag's side, Yurka, while still in the Ulticannon, starts to wonder why he's feeling jealous all of a sudden.
  • A very young kid behind Chain's bus home has the hots for Linear, but he doesn't like the idea that Mag escorts her everywhere she goes.
• Critical Hit: Shown by the enemies having a different hurt animation.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Upon fighting Carcano the first time, he'll go down without much trouble. However, he was letting his guard down to make time while his men were stealing appraisal items on the train. The next time Mag meets him face-to-face, he's tougher to beat.
• Cute Mute: Linear starts out as this, somehow inverting the Heroic Mime status for Mag. By the second game or the second half of Evolution Worlds, she becomes the Shrinking Violet.
• Damsel in Distress: This was obviously bound to happen to Linear judging Mag's father told him to keep her safe from everyone at all times. The second time this happens is subverted since she's convinced to leave Mag to keep him safe instead.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Yurka gets this treatment, but he dies. It's speculated that he will return one day to be friends with Linear and everyone.
• Defend Command: On top of reducing damage, it increases the amount of SP restored.
• Degraded Boss: A weird cross-game example (except in Worlds): The original Evolution had Shadenischus as the boss of the Shades Ruin. The top floors of the Tower of Despair have turrets as enemies that, when run into, trigger fights with "Shadenischus II".
• Demoted to Extra: The Society staff outside of Nina in the first half of Worlds due to the port stripping out the ability to explore it: Nop's only speaking appearance is during Pepper's introduction, meaning he cannot Appriase items, Leonardo only appears in the background and the backroom featuring the artifacts ^note along with the artifacts themselves cannot be accessed, meaning that the curator, Peab, is cut completely.
• Denser and Wackier: The Dreamcast Magazine comic in spades. Outside of the occasional Black Comedy Burst or Mood Whiplash and the comic depicting Linear arriving at the Launcher residence, the comic in general is much weirder and humor-based than the actual games.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • Mag's father, Asroc Launcher. The last communication Mag ever had with him was a note telling Mag to watch over Linear.
  • Chain's father is never seen in-game and she's instead watched over by Easter and Kashim. Her comments in the Dreamcast version, however, suggest that Chain's parents merely live abroad rather than actually being missing. The Dreamcast magazine comics subvert it with Chain's father making occasional appearances.
• Disc-One Nuke: Mag's hand parts, which you have at the start. By gaining TP you can learn two really strong attacks pretty early: Dive Punch, which hits every enemy doing lots of damage) and Magna Rave, which hits one enemy but is the strongest attack in the game.
• Disc-One Final Dungeon: The Kronprinz in Worlds, due to it no longer being the final dungeon. Outside of a few enemy waves, there is nothing but a Boss Rush with three bosses one after another (with breaks in-between all of them). It's entirely jarring if you didn't store many healing items and didn't do some Level Grinding beforehand. And yes, to add insult to the injury, it's a temporary Point of No Return till you save Linear.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Eugune's Mech during the rescue attempt, but only in Worlds; In World Of Sacred Device, he's the Final Boss.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Linear's Ocarina offensive spells practically has boulders fall on the enemies.
• Distressed Damsel: Poor Linear will never have a chance to fight the final boss on both parts.
• Drunk on Milk: On a little note, Pepper comments how she and Nina of all people went to drink milk one night and the latter got so drunk that she started dancing the Macarena.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: The Launcher family (Mag included) is respected among other adventurers...but for the wrong reasons. The only people who respect them are Nina, who starts respecting Mag after he completes story missions without problems; Gre by default, and Prof. Whitehead. Carcano really warms up to Mag, giving him some well-deserved respect even before he's fought. Prof. Whitehead thinks very highly of Mag and appreciates the work he's done so far till the point they meet except he's really using him for his own selfish goals.
• Easily Forgiven: Mag (somehow) convinces Whitehead from arresting Carcano despite all the trouble he's been causing to the Society for a long time ago with the idea that he'll repent for his actions soon.
• An Economy Is You:
  • Where are people supposed to buy food in Pannam Town?
  • This is averted for Museville, but then you'd say everyone eats three kinds of fruit and gets Drunk on Milk at the local bar.
• Enemy Summoner: The Lynx monster type can howl to call more of its friends to battle.
• Energy Weapon: Pepper's Moranna Solnier can fire energy weapons in addition to what is implied to be more traditional rounds.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Carcano's lot refuses to kill people while on the job, but they only steal appraisal items.
• Face of a Thug: For some weird reason, both the item and equipment vendors in Museville are rocker dudes.
• Feuding Families: The Launchers have been long rivals with the Gun Clan.
• Final Dungeon Preview: In World of Sacred Device, Mag and Linear are summoned by the 8th Imperial Army, prompting them to visit their warship on day 2. Later, Mag's party raids it to rescue Linear. Worlds downplays it; The scene instantly cuts to the ship's throne room, not allowing the player to explore it and the cruiser itself is heavily cut down anyway.
• Flavor Text: A surprisingly robust amount. In the first game, Mag comments on whatever he's looking at. In the sequel, the flavor text and conversations with the townsfolk are instead for whoever is in front of the party. There's even even cases where certain characters will have drastically different reactions to certain object or even react differently to objects that you'd think would share the same text as something else. In both games, most of the flavor text changes towards the end of the game where the party tells themselves to focus on finding Linear. Worlds varies it depending on what part the player is in.
• For Science!: Whitehead's whole motivation to uncover the ancient civilization behind everyone's backs.
• Global Airship: Mag's Sea Otter Seaplane can get him to anywhere in the first portion. Averted in the second portion, which simply has the party leave town.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: During his boss fight, you can see Yurka has one over his right eye.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: This is one of Carcano's skills that he can use with his Cyframe. Outside of battles, he uses this to sneak into the Society Museum to steal artifacts. Moreover, he uses this to enter the building after Linear is persuaded to leave Mag behind. Since Carcano revealed his secret, he won't be able to use it to plan surprise thefts anymore. But then again, he did say he was going to turn into a better person.
• Humans Are Flawed: Yurka doesn't really like humans because of this reasoning since he and Linear are Evolutia. He comments on this when getting rid of Whitehead for his fascination with the ancient civilization.
• I Have No Son!: A kid selling fruits in Museville will go through this if Mag and the party don't buy anything from him.
• Improbable Weapon User: Mag's Cyframe is essentially a Power Fist that can be upgraded to wield hammers, bowling balls, and bug spray. Chain's Cyframe is a jet pack with a giant blade sticking out at the back. Linear uses a Frying Pan of Doom. Unequip Gre's and Linear's weapons, and they punch their enemies with their bare hands.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: There's a large number of chests containing healing items, the same artifacts over and over, and an inexplicably large number of Cyframe parts that your friends can easily use.
• Item Crafting:
  • The first game has a somewhat rudimentary one. The sequel improves it, but it's still more useful for clearing up inventory space than actually combining items.
  • The second games also has certain appraisal items that can be combined; Sometimes they create items, other times they create new appraisal items that are more valuable than the parts seperately.
• Kid Hero: Mag. Chain somewhat is one.
• Killer Yoyo: Yet another weapon for Mag's Cyframe.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: How is anyone going to tell at first glance Chain is a girl? It helps that she's got a voice and female pronouns used on her. Mag lampshades this during the opening sequence.
• Left Hanging: Downplayed: While Far Off Promise did go into the nature of Evolutia (and by extension, Linear) and answered some of the questions regarding the ancient civilization, there are still a few lingering questions. The biggest is the fate of Asroc and his wife, with their disappearance and lack of communication remaining unexplained.
• Lethal Chef: Gre uses food to damage enemies and lower their stats or cause status effects.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Sheol ruins is located inside of a volcano, complete with lava in the upper floors.
• Level Scaling:
  • This can be the games biggest helping point or massive flaw depending on how you look at it. The bosses scale much faster than the player, and the final boss, Eugene's battle mech, is the biggest threat, the higher level you are the more impossible he is to beat, and he will always be above your level. This is no longer an issue in the remake.
  • Evolution 2 does away with level scaling for the most part (they no longer scale above you, but they do increase a little below you to be somewhat of a fight), but uses it in the Tower of Despair.
• Lightning Bruiser: Mag is easily the swiss army knife of your party. He dishes out great damage, gets very good skills and cyframe parts (more than any other character), can even gain healing parts, and easily makes up the best part of your team no matter what. It's ironic considering he's required to be in the team at all times.
• Lives in a Van: Chain, Easter, and Kashim all live in a bus they park in town. It's a crowded place with a couch functioning as a pull-out bed, a single bathtub in the back with a curtain drawn, and clothes hanging above it. The whole place is incredibly cramped, and it is implied that Chain takes the "bed", while Easter and Kashim sleep on the lawn furniture outside the bus.
• Lost Technology: The Cyframes used by the cast are remnants of the ancient civilization. Every adventurer's dream goal is to find Evolutia, a legendary cyframe with godlike power. While Evolutia itself is a machine, its two main components are more biological in nature.
• Lost Superweapon: Evolutia, a legendary cyframe said to have the power to elevate humanity to the status of gods. What nobody realizes is that Evolutia is a literal superweapon, designed to carry out a cycle of destruction and regeneration after the ancient civilization believed that they reached the end of their evolutionary path.
• Magical Flutist: Linear uses an ocarina to use magic on the party or the enemies.
• Magical Girl: Linear by default, being the only party member who can use healing spells. Though this becomes even more apparent once she grows wings to save Mag from exploding with Eugene's ship.
• Marathon Level: The levels in Evolution get exponentially longer as the game progresses^note The exception to this is the Bandit's Trap in Far Off Promise, which has a more complex way of getting through it as a result. This culminates in the Society Dungeon/Mystery Dungeon at the end of Far Off Promise, which has 24 floors^note for comparison's sake, that's just shy of half of the Tower of Despair's floors., not including the boss floor. Mercifully, the 16th floor adds to allow you to leave after defeating Yurka, but it's telling that the aesthetic and enemies within the dungeon change from the 16th floor onwards when none of the other dungeons in Far off Promise do.
• Marshmallow Hell: This is what Pepper seemingly does to Mag to heal his HP. He seems happy about it, though.
• Market-Based Title: Evolutia became Evolution Worlds in the west.
• Missing Mom: Mag's mother is never shown. Same with Chain, although Chain's comments suggest that she's fine.
• Ms. Fanservice: Pepper. Half ripped jeans, curled blond hair, jacket ripped open showing a black bra, and her theme music which is saxophone music.
  • Another girl in town is implied to be naked. Though no skin is seen every dialogue with her speaks directly about the fact that she's wearing nothing but a leopard print fur coat until her luggage arrives. Makes you wonder why she was only wearing the coat by itself in the first place.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: After Linear reunites with Mag at the end of the Society Dungeon, Yurka turns insane with jealousy and attempts to murder the party.
• Mysterious Waif: Linear. You never get a full explanation as to what exactly happened to her or why she's mute in the game, but she certainly has a lot of mysterious air about her. Mysteriously shows up one day, is timid and quiet, turns out to be Evolutia...
• New Game Plus: Evolution 2 has a New Game+ rather than the first game's Extended Gameplay. The primary differences are that the Tower of Despair now has an underground section, which follows similar rules to the top half, and the Launcher family debt returning as a mechanic after its absence in the first playthrough.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Mag's Moment of Awesome gets screwed over by a tank bullet exploding on him and Linear that he accidentally caused.
• Nostalgia Level: The Tower of Despair in Far Off Promise is modeled after the dungeons from World of Sacred Device, bringing back the rougelike random floor layouts and only having checkpoints at specific floors. It also brings back enemies from the first game rather than using ones from the second game's dungeons.
• Nothing Up My Sleeve: Yurka's sleeves are so long they are a few inches away from touching the ground. He can, however, use magic with them.
• Obviously Evil: If Eugene's Leitmotif and entrance didn't give it away, then asking for the pretty shy Linear to become one of his maids while disregarding everything about Mag's exploits probably will.
• Older Than They Look: Mag, Linear, and Chain are 16, 17, and 15 respectively. None of them look even close to their age. Lampshaded in various places, such as a pipe in Mag's front yard that was used to track his height: Looking at it reveals that he hasn't grown any taller since age 10.
• One-Man Party: Mag is easily the strongest character. The other characters levels will appropriate to what level you are, but Mag always seems to have the edge in strength.
• Only in It for the Money: If you do a mission with just Mag and Linear, your entire win bonus goes straight into your pocket. If Gre is in your party, he'll make you use 30% of your bonus to pay towards your debt (which you should do anyway so you're not losing anything) and after it's paid off, he'll never make you do anything with your money again. Chain, on the other hand, takes 30% of your bonus for herself, and Pepper takes 60%. The worst part, you never get this money back, so it's basically losing massive chunks of change for having people in your party. If you were to net an incredible 100,000 in the game and had Pepper in your party, you lose 60,000. The worst part: bonuses are a one time thing, going back and beating the dungeon again means nothing, the money is gone. You'd think they'd have it at least available for item purchase but nope, Mag's gotta spend his cash on Naolin's and Red Viper. It pretty much makes it not worth taking them at all for any stage, or swapping them out just at the boss fight for either Gre, or just Mag and Linear. It doesn't matter anyways, they scale to your level and gain TP for fights despite being back home.
• Outlaw Town: Pine Village, Carcano's hideout, is just a big town over the water fully inhabited by thieves.
• Overly Long Fighting Animation: Magna Rave and Sledge Hammer have very long animations.
• Palette Swap: Enemies in a particular dungeon tend to get recolors further in. At the very least, they tend to get different skills than their originals.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: A variation with the Tower of Despair: It's a terrible place to gain levels as the enemies in there give little EXP, but it is a great place to learn skills as the TP earned there is far more plentiful. The game itself even encourages this.
• Perpetual Poverty: Downplayed. The Launcher Family is popular among other hunters in that they have an horrendous debt to pay to the Society, so Mag has to Work Off the Debt to keep his Big Fancy House.
• Playable Epilogue:
  • The original game gives you one bonus dungeon (which is one of the five you didn't pick during the game), the ability to freely choose dungeons and the ability to take Linear out of your party.
  • Far Off Promise uses a New Game Plus system instead, but has a final section after the Final Boss where Mag can explore Museville and talk to the various characters on the way to meeting Linear at the hotel.
• Point Build System: You can gain TP in the game, which can be used to learn new skills.
• Power Gives You Wings: Linear suddenly creates a phoenix-like form to fly away with Mag to save him from being killed. Sure enough, as the destructive counterpart to Linear, Yurka pulls his long blue wings out when he's fought. And true to the trope, he really is a deadly boss.
• Punny Name/Theme Naming: Mag Launcher, Linear Cannon, Gre Nade, Chain Gun and Pepper Box. Eugene Leopold is less obvious, but may be a reference to warships which have used those names.
  • Several of the Cyframes are named after historic aircraft, such as Mag's Airacomet, which is named after the Bell P-59 Airacomet and Pepper's Moranna Solnier, after the Morane-Saulnier N.
• Rank Up: For the second part of the game, Mag's achievements are recognized by the head of the Society, prompting him to take more quests around the main HQ. At certain points, Mag also gains the ability to carry more items.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: The 8th Empire becomes interested in some strange energy patterns coming from Pannam Town, suspecting that Evolutia is hiding somewhere.
• Recycled Soundtrack: It varies. Far Off Promise reuses some tracks from the original, primarily the general battle themes. Other reused tracks such as leitmotifs retain the same style as the originals, but are subtly touched up or refined (compare Linear, Chain or Pepper's themes from the first game to the ones in the second, for example).
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Yurka has red eyes and is a very hard boss.
• Required Party Member: Linear. She cannot be dropped from the party until the final dungeon, when she's forced out. After the final boss, she's no longer required.
• The Reveal: Linear? Yeah, she's the Evolutia. Nobody could find the legendary Cyframe since everyone thought it was a relic or a machine, but not a sentient human(?) being. Eugene manages to find this out by using a hi-tech radar.
  • The second part ups the ante by not only revealing that the mysterious Yurka is also Evolutia and Linear's destructive counterpart, but by having him reveal the circumstances which led ancient civilization to create Evolutia and wipe themselves out.
• The Rival: Chain during the first five minutes of the game. After that, it doesn't really sound like she's being a rival at all if she demands Mag to take her to dungeons all the time.
• Roguelike: Elements of this are in dungeons, though the battles are turn-based. The first game even randomizes the dungeon layouts, although 2 and Worlds do not.
• Run, Don't Walk: Though they had a button to walk, it isn't needed and doesn't do anything.
• Save Point: In the first game, they're located in certain spots in town and on the final floor of a dungeon. In the second game, the changes to the save system mean that they now only appear on the boss floor.
• Shipper on Deck: Kashim literally admits Linear is better off with Mag than with Chain. It helps (or not) that he really doesn't like Chain.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: The Stinger of the second game reveals that The Society failed to pay for the Launcher Family's lodgings at the Museville hotel, the bill totaling a staggering 300,000 dinale. Guess what you get to pay off in the New Game Plus?
• Shop Fodder: Appraisal items are items specifically designed to be turned into the Society for money (or potentially an item). The second game has a list keeping track of what items have been found and allowing the player to read the item's Flavor Text even after handing it in.
• Slasher Smile: Eugene does this whenever speaking to Linear or whenever he slowly descends into insanity.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Crypt Maze is an Underground Level that introduces slippery floor. Thankfully, the ice floor is not made of Frictionless Ice.
• Smug Snake: Prince Eugene oozes smugness in his introduction.
• Space Zone: The Descent Ruins, on the latter floors, have a cosmic theme, with stars in a void.
• Status Quo Is God: The Launcher Family's debt is implied to have been a constant, at least since Mag's grandfather. Even if Mag pays off his debt prior to the showdown with the 8th Empire, the Sea Otter will break down afterwards off-screen, prompting the Society to bail the Launchers out and plunge them into debt again. Mag can then subvert it by paying off the debt yet again... only for the ending of Far Off Promise to double-subvert it... only for the New Game Plus to allow the player avert it.
• Succession Crisis: The Gun Clan has been known for having male heirs as the ones turned into adventurers. But then they came to a full stop with Chain. To remedy this issue, the clan had no choice but to give Chain special education so that she could continue their legacy.
• Superboss: The Tower of Despair has Izmail, the boss of the 50th floor. The basement floor has Navarin, a stronger variation of Izmail, at the end of a Boss Rush.
• Surfer Dude: The Cyframe mechanist in Museville looks like this.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: No, Carcano isn't going to help Mag and the others get into the Society Museum to rescue Linear. It just happened.
• Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: Usually boss floors always lack any monsters besides the boss itself and contain both a save point and a warp point to exit the dungeon, usually across from each other. While less so in the first game (due to Mag's comment upon arriving at the last floor which clues in the player), this is moreso in the second game which hides an Upgrade Kit close by for good measure. The Society Dungeon breaks this rule a bit, with the bosses being a floor above the safe points and the first warp point appearing after the boss.
• Tank Goodness:
  • Mag and Linear face a big one as a boss and then run away from an army made entirely of smaller ones. Later Mag and his rescue party face another big one as a boss while trying to get to Linear.
  • Weirdly enough, both Forest Depths and Crypt Maze have tank-like bosses that are not related to the dungeon element-wise. The latter does employ an ice attack though, but that's it. The Society Dungeon's first half also has small tank enemies.
• Tech Points: The characters all have a wide movepool to which they can unlock by gathering TP in battles. Since Linear and Gre don't have the same benefits to upgrade/change their weapons like the other Cyframe users of the party, they instead have more areas they can choose from the beginning. In Evolution 2, there's a dungeon specifically made so that the party gains more TP than EXP from the enemies in there.
• This Is a Drill: Carcano's Cyframe other skill.
• Thriving Ghost Town: There's only about 10 NPC's and the majority are useless. Except for the shop owner, upgrade shop, missions, and appraisal, everyone else does nothing whatsoever except talk about totally irrelevant things or mention stuff you already know.
• Time Skip: The sequel takes place six months after the events of the first.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Mag and Linear are this trope, with Linear being One Head Taller than Mag.
• Too Awesome to Use: Cosmo Fruit.
• Top-Down View: The primary camera angle in the game. Far Off Promise adds a behind-the-back camera but also leaves the original.
• Train Job: On the way to Museville, the train you're taking is robbed by Carcano.
• Tsundere: Chain. This is even mocked at the beginning of the game when she begins making fun of Mag until Mag embarrasses her with the word cute, at which point she tries to defend herself but just takes off flustered.
• Underground Level: Crypt Maze and Carcano's Thieves' Trap.
• Underground Monkey: Most enemies in later dungeons go through this (sometimes in the same dungeon), but they do have different abilities to compensate.
• The Un-Favourite: Easter and Kashim really doesn't like Chain. They even implore Mag to take her to dungeons just so that she's not around the house.
• Unwitting Pawn: Mag, Linear and the rest of the party are this, with the Launchers having been invited to Museville under the claim of the Society recognizing Mag's skills when in actuality they're being used by Prof. Whitehead and Yurka to get the keys to the Society Dungeon. Whitehead himself ends up being one to Yurka as he helped Yurka in order to be the first to learn the secrets of the ancient civilization and was unaware of Yurka's true intentions until it was too late.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Carcano just so happens to have a legion of fans.
• The War Sequence: A really over-the-top cutscene happens when Mag and Linear run away from Eugene's tank army. What's really shocking is that Mag's Power Fist actually manages to fend them off with an earthquake...except a tank falls back in a hole while firing a bullet up to the air that screws his moment by falling on both of them.
• What the Hell, Player?: Some of the Flavor Text chastises the player for looking too heavily through other people's stuff. This is especially true if one exploits dismissing party members. Normally, as an example, Mag will chastise himself for trying to look through Linear's things, however if one dismisses Linear from the party while in her room, she doesn't reappear until reentering the room, giving different dialogue when interacting with her bed, closet, dresser, etc, and some of it admonishes the player for trying to look through her things without permission.
• White Mage: Linear is this, having a large amount of spells and even a special move that may allow her to convince an enemy to flee the battle. Downplayed with Gre who is more combat-oriented and has support skills.
• Work Off the Debt:
  • Both Mag and Chain were left with a huge debt after their parents disappeared. Chain paid it off by selling her house, while Mag is playing this trope. By the end of the second half, it turns out the Society didn't actually pay for the lodging in the Museville Hotel, so the hotel owners added 30,000 to the Society's bill, adding it all up.
  • In World of Sacred Device, this is a gameplay mechanic: Mag can go to the Society and put money towards clearing the debt. Far Off Promise drops this mechanic until the New Game Plus.
• World of Pun: Most of the main cast are named after weapons^note Mag Launcher and Linear Cannon are terms used in the anime Fang of the Sun Dougram for various types of Magnetic Weapons. And Prof. Whitehead for his white head.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: With no need to find the keys with the unconditional help of Mag's actions, Yurka knocks out Whitehead.

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