Video Game / Flawed Crystals

"Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks."

Flawed Crystals is a Steven Universe text-based horror RPG fangame made by A Friendly Irin and Farla in Twine, as an alternate universe to the fanfic The Darkness Between Stars.

Set in an Alternate Universe where Rose Quartz actually shattered Pink Diamond, the Gems leave Steven behind to fight the Diamonds themselves. They succeed in shattering the Diamonds but return from the mission corrupted themselves; Steven and Connie now need to track them down, capture them, and figure out a way to restore them to their former selves.

The game is equal parts RPG and fanfiction, with the RPG-style dungeons balanced with character- and dialogue-focused healing scenes. Its major focus is on character study, with each gem's section exploring details of their history and personality that went unaddressed in the show itself.

Can be played here. The game's build notes, as well as extensive commentary from both developer and artist about the inspiration and creation of the game, can be found here. A short tie-in story called Dissonant Harmony, which tells the opening "cutscene" from the gems' perspective, can be read on both AO3 and FFN.

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This game provides examples of:

• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Unlike her canon self who abandoned the Breaking Point or her The Darkness Between Stars counterpart who considered using it as a last resort, this version of Bismuth manages to create a long range weapon called the Sonicator which allows the Crystal Gems to successfully shatter the Diamonds with minimal casualties at the beginning of the story.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: The last gem you recruit (probably Bismuth) will be this, as at that point the only thing you can use them for is the final dungeon. Fortunately, the non-linear nature of the game means the 11th hour ranger isn't fixed, and you can get more use out of them if you grab them earlier in a different playthrough.
• 11th-Hour Superpower:
  • When Jasper is fully healed, several of her abilities are upgraded to stronger variants. This occurs right before the Point of No Return and The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
  • Inverted in the final dungeon, where Stevonnie will lose abilities after every battle due to the corruption damaging their psyche.
• Absurdly Low Level Cap: The level cap is relatively low, at 35. You're likely to reach at least 30 easily by the end of the game.
• Accidental Murder: Throughout most of the game, exhausting HP only results in a Non-Lethal K.O.. But during the Final Battle with Steven, if you defeat him, he will actually die, because he is organic and can't recover from mortal wounds like the gems can. Bismuth will warn you of this if she's been recruited as will Garnet.
• Action Bomb: The Serpent enemies in Pearl's dungeon, which have only one attack: exploding to deal a ton of damage. They will spend the first turn picking a target to help you brace for impact... unless you're doing Pearl's dungeon last, in which case they will explode immediately.
• After-Combat Recovery: With a few exceptions; during the apple portion of the Barn and the first run through the Strawberry Battlefield, this is turned off, forcing you to retain damage across battles. The limited uses for Steven's Lick ability also do not recover after battles, only on return to the hub.
• The All-Concealing "I": A rare second-person example. In the bad endings, after Steven is killed, you're suddenly transferred to a new scene, still in second-person. This is designed to mislead you into thinking Steven survived, but it's quickly revealed that the viewpoint character has changed to Connie.
• All Just a Dream: Not for the story as a whole, but the canon ending of the show is revealed to be a wish-fulfillment fantasy Steven fell into when he was unable to accept that his mother Rose Quartz would shatter another gem, mainly Pink Diamond.
• All-Loving Hero: Steven plays this straight throughout the main game, much in line with his canon self. Though he disagrees with the others and their use of the Sonicizer to shatter the Diamonds, he understands that it had to be done and that he hopes to have a normal life after this. During the final dungeon, this part of his character is deconstructed. Steven valued loving everyone, even the monstrous Diamonds, more than he valued justice. This led to his fantasy of making up the canon ending, where the injustices against the gems are swept under the rug so that everyone can get along. Steven ultimately admits that he cared more about inhabiting the persona of the all-loving hero than he cared about what people actually needed.
• Alternate Universe Fic: Passive-aggressively termed "Rose Quartz is Rose Quartz". Rose Quartz is, obviously, a Rose Quartz and not Pink Diamond. Several other changes are made as well: During this continuity's version of "A Single Pale Rose", Pearl showed Steven a memory of Rose actually shattering Pink Diamond. Unlike canon, Steven takes this horribly and stays in Rose's room for a week, which causes him to become delirious, resulting in Greg taking him to a hospital. A few months later, Bismuth was reunited with the Crystal Gems, Lapis Lazuli and Lars returned to Earth, and work began on a special weapon to assassinate the Diamonds, bringing us to the opening scene. In addition, it is later revealed that Steven had a Freak Out and made up the canon ending of Steven Universe within Rose's Room to cope.
  • It's also an alternate universe to their other fanfic, The Darkness Between Stars. Unlike that story, all of the Diamonds are shattered at the beginning of this story, causing all of Homeworld] and the Crystal Gems to become corrupted. Jasper ends up having far more prominence here than she did in that universe and ends up being key to uncorrupting Steven with the finale being far closer to home in both a literal and metaphorical sense.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: After Steven wipes her memories, Jasper thinks she and Stevonnie are on the same team. Obviously, this is very much not the actual case. For most of the game, this is turned around from its usual form, with Steven potentially snapping at and abusing Jasper due to his fear and past conflicts with her, much to her confusion. It's ultimately revealed that this is what's driving Jasper's corruption: Her memories have been tangled up with Ocean Jasper, the corrupted Crystal Gem she fused with, and she can't remember which side she's supposed to be on. You can attempt to exploit this by telling her she was a Crystal Gem, but Connie will give you a horrified rebuke and tell her the truth instead.
• Amnesiacs are Innocent: Jasper, after losing her memory, becomes childlike and naive, reverting to her instincts of protecting a commander (even though the commander she was designed for is nowhere to be found).
• Antepiece: The boss of every area uses abilities introduced to you through the enemies leading up to them; for example, the enemies in the Kindergarten use weak Counter Attacks to prepare you for the boss, which revolves around a much more dangerous counterattack. Each boss also uses similar abilities to those they use when they are healed and join your party, giving you an idea of how to use them yourself.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Items can be sold back for the same value as their buying price, to avoid punishing the player for misclicking or buying stuff they don't need.
  • Stevonnie cannot be cracked. Since they're the only character who can cure cracked status, it would really suck if this wasn't true.
  • If the player loses to Pearl, the game allows them to return straight to the fight without having to go through the rest of The Great Desert. The same thing applies to Amethyst in the Alpha Kindergarten.
  • Multi-hit attacks with multiple targets^note except for the Perfect Crystal's "Rain of Sorrows" cannot hit the same character multiple times, preventing them from disproportionately affecting smaller parties. (If the number of conscious gems is lower than the number of hits, the excess hits will actually miss completely.)
  • Normally, battles follow a format of every player character acting at once, followed by every enemy acting at once. This isn't a problem in the early game, but in the late game with party sizes of up to 6 or 7, it's possible for enemies to gang up on individual characters and annihilate them even from full health. An update late in development allowed the player to end their turn early, which would only run a number of enemy turns equal to the number of player turns taken, followed by resuming the player's turn. This allows players to space out enemy turns to avoid this problem.
  • After completing the game, you can warp back to before the Point of No Return with your stats and levels intact, in case you forgot to make a backup save or if you want to replay the game to see any of the bad endings.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Averted. You don't have to leave any gems behind; they will all join your party when they're healed, leading to a gradually increasing party size. Of course, enemy groups will also get bigger to match. According to the author, this was intended as a form of Gameplay and Story Integration by demonstrating The Power of Friendship.
• Area of Effect:
  • Amethyst's specialty. Her regular attack hits a full row of enemies, and her ultimate attack hits the whole party.
  • Pearl has an ability that hits a column of enemies, and there are attack items corresponding to row, column, and hit-all attacks that anyone can use.
  • The Perfect Crystal's "Oblique Asymptote" ability has a unique area, hitting gems in a cross pattern.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Bismuth's Shifting Strike and Pearl's Eclipse. Several enemies have similar abilities as well.
• Battle Theme Music: To maintain a level of consistency in the soundtrack, the game uses several tracks composed by Kasey Ozymy:
  • Regular fights use "The Toys Move On Their Own", one of the battle themes from Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass.
  • Boss Battles and Mini Bosses use "A Cocoon Throbbing in a Dead Man's Mouth" and "Righteous Scrabble", the battle music for horror and non-horror bosses respectively in Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass.
  • The Final Boss uses "The Person In The Calamity", the final boss theme from A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky.
  • The superboss uses "Blood Therapy", the Climax Boss theme from A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky.
• Beat the Curse Out of Him: Averted — beating the corrupted gems only stops them from rampaging. To heal their corruption, you have to perform a Journey to the Center of the Mind.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Once the corruption takes hold of him, Steven's dark side is revealed to be a controlling, petulant, holier than thou individual who can't stand the flaws of the Crystal Gems and wants them to change the way he wants them to — effectively making him exactly like White Diamond in canon.
• Beef Gate: While areas truly can be tackled in any order, a few discourage you from attempting them early.
  • The Forge, unlike other areas, starts at tier 4, so you will need to either get a few other gems first or do a lot of level grinding before you stand a chance of completing it.
  • Pearl. Though her area isn't any more difficult than the others, her Boss Battle is brutal at lower tiers, as it's a Wolf Pack Boss rather than a Flunky Boss with easily-dispatched Mooks. This is intentional according to the developer, who believed it made more emotional and narrative sense to force the player to wait before rescuing Pearl.
• Beige Prose:
  • Most enemy descriptions are fairly ornate, but corrupted Steven's description simply reads, "A corrupted fusion of a human and a Rose Quartz."
  • The boss rematches in the final dungeon have their previous descriptions replaced with terse one-word adjectives, with Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl's being exact quotes of White Diamond's insults towards them in the canon finale.
  • The same thing applies to the Perfect Crystal during the fight against it.
• Be Yourself: This winds up deconstructed hard during the final battle. At this point, Steven has become completely corrupted, saying that he's perfect the way he is despite the Crystal Gems' horror at his corrupted form. When the gems decide that Steven cannot be reasoned with, they have no choice but to fight him. Saving Steven from his corruption requires you to call him out on his selfish and cowardly fantasy wheras picking the other options will have Steven order the gems to help him bubble the others or insult them in ways personal to them.
• Big Sister Instinct: The amnesiac Jasper has this towards Stevonnie, whom she sees as weak, inexperienced, and in need of protection. This is eventually revealed to be a real personality trait of hers, and she felt this way towards the other jaspers in her squad as well.
• Blank Slate: Jasper is reduced to this when Steven accidentally wipes her memories in his first healing attempt. She has no memory of the war, Rose Quartz, or Steven himself, leading to her believing Stevonnie is her ally instead of her enemy.
• Bloodless Carnage: Aside from Connie getting bitten and Corrupted Steven bleeding whenever he takes damage, the rest of the game plays this straight due to the enemies all being gem constructs or corrupted gems themselves.
• Body Horror: This game has it in spades with its descriptions of the corrupted gems. It actually gets worse with Steven's corrupted form or his death in the bad endings.
• Boss Battle: All the gems are the bosses of the respective dungeons themed around them.
• Boss Rush: The final dungeon involves a rematch against every boss at their highest level, similar to Mega Man X: Command Mission. Much like that game, you're free to choose which of the bosses to fight in any order you like before you fight the final boss.
• Brainwashing for the Greater Good: You are given several chances to express this attitude towards Steven's accidental mind-wipe of Jasper. Some gems will call you out on it, but some won't. When she regains her memories, Jasper will demand an apology if you did so at any point.
• Buried Alive: Jasper's true mindscape has this for both Steven and Jasper.
• Cap: Player levels are capped at 35 (unless you're the Perfect Crystal, who is Lv 100), Attack and Defense stats are capped at 30, and HP is capped at 100.
• Charged Attack: Peridot can stockpile metal components to make her abilities stronger. Though her basic attack is weak, her fully-charged attack is the strongest damaging ability in the game.
• Cognizant Limbs: Corrupted Amethyst has six tails, all of which act as independent units. In an aversion of Didn't Need Those Anyway!, her counterattack will be weakened as she loses tails.
• Competitive Balance:
  • Stone Wall: Jasper
  • Glass Cannon: Garnet
  • Jack of All Stats: Bismuth
  • Fragile Speedster: Though there's no speed stat, Pearl can attack twice at the cost of lower overall damage. This is particularly useful because it allows her to generate two star points in one turn.
  • Squishy Wizard: Peridot has 2 fewer stat points than other gems and poor Attack and Defense, and needs to spend time charging up her attack before it can do worthwhile damage. But her attack is actually extremely strong at the maximum level, and she has many useful healing and support moves.
• Continuing is Painful: Outside of the tutorial, falling in battle will make you lose half your scrap. This is justified as Lapis needing to drop her current stockpile of scrap to rescue you.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Downplayed; bosses are resistant to stun effects, but with the exception of the game's superboss, not completely immune.
• Cosmetic Award: The reward for beating the Perfect Crystal is a Flawed Crystal, which is described as "a gem with no intrinsic value".
• Counter-Attack:
  • Stevonnie's "Thorns" ability, which will protect a character from one attack and damage the attacker.
  • Corrupted Lapis and her urchin monsters don't protect themselves from damage, but their spines cause you the same damage you do to them — unless you use a ranged attack. (The endgame rematch removes this exemption and makes you suffer more than the damage you inflicted.)
• Creator Cameo: A late-game piece of equipment is called the "Dragon's Quill", the name of the author's blog.
• Creepy Cute: In-Universe, Stevonnie considers the jumping spider enemies in Garnet's dungeon to be this, an opinion shared by the developers.
• Cruel to Be Kind: During the final battle, uncorrupting Steven requires all of the gems to tell him that he's being a selfish asshole. If you plead with him to stop or try to use The Power of Love, he'll only yell that if you really love him, you'll help him bubble everyone else.
• Crutch Character: Stevonnie. In the early game, their wealth of abilities and the flexibility offered by their personality switch mechanic makes them steal the show while other characters are still filling out their abilities; however, their basic attack is never upgraded and their switch mechanic becomes more rigid as the game goes on, making other gems outpace them at high levels. This is further emphasized in the final dungeon, where they lose abilities after every battle.
• Curse Cut Short: In Rose's Room, after seeing the scene revealing Pink Diamond as Rose Quartz from the canon episode "A Single Pale Rose", Bismuth yells, "WHAT THE F—" before being cut off by Pearl.
• Dark Fic: The canon was already pretty dark, but the beginning of the game involves Connie getting her leg bloodily torn open when she tries to fight on her own, and things progress from there, with moments like Bismuth's Breaking Point attack and Steven's potential death scenes being incredibly graphic. The game also charges headfirst at the darker elements of the setting that the main show glossed over, such as the horrors of the gem rebellion, the inferred genocide against off-color gems, shattering, and the severe PTSD and other mental traumas suffered by the gems.
• Dark Reprise: Textual only, but the chapter description for the final dungeon in the Developers Notes is a warped version of the lyrics of the song "Change Your Mind" from the main show, with the message and pronouns inverted:
  I need you to respect me, I don't respect me
  I need you to love me, I don't love me
  But I want you to know you don't know me
  Can you change my mi-i-i-i-ind
  Can you change my mi-i-i-i-ind
  Can you change my mi-i-i-i-ind
  Change my mind
• Death of Personality: Bismuth will point out this is what you're doing if you say you want to keep Jasper mindwiped permanently. You can also attempt this directly during Jasper's full healing sequence, by overwriting her personality with Ocean Jasper's to make her think she was always a Crystal Gem and your friend. Connie will prevent you from doing so, however.
• Deconstruction Fic: The game's final dungeon is this to the Diamond Days arc of Steven Universe. Several moments from the canon events specifically are acknowledged as a nonsensical wish-fulfillment fantasy of Steven's that molds the Crystal Gems into what he wants:
  • Lapis joining the Crystal Gems to fight Blue Diamond because Steven believes that Lapis needs to get over herself and stop being depressed. Lapis wishes she could fight for Steven, but acknowledges that she can't due to her traumas.
  • Peridot is omitted because she'd be a constant reminder that Homeworld's atrocities cannot be forgiven and that Steven never forgave her actions, not to mention that his desired happy ending would be impossible otherwise. Her returning to fight White Diamond's mecha alongside Lapis and Bismuth isn't acknowledged, likely because Peridot is seen as incompetent by Steven.
  • Bismuth is portrayed as hateful and the antithesis to Steven's all-loving nature, implying that Steven never got over the trauma of nearly being killed by Bismuth. Her accepting that Rose and Pink Diamond are the same allows him to justify his own self-loathing and Bismuth's hatred of the Diamonds. Bismuth is merely confused, wondering why Pink Diamond would shatter herself despite never having to face the consequences of her actions.
  • Garnet splitting in two over Pink Diamond so that Steven could tear their perfect relationship and fix it on his terms. He decides he wants Ruby and Sapphire to break up, forgive each other, and have a wedding despite them being fused for centuries and having a full understanding of what being Garnet entails.
  • Pearl is reduced to Steven's Pearl because he wanted Pearl to do things for him all the time and because he can't stand how opinionated and emotional she is. As such, Pearl is reduced to be a background prop who only cares about Steven's approval, much like the other Pearls who serve the Diamonds.
  • Amethyst caring more about the Diamond's Era 3 ball over the gems that are still being shattered, likely because Steven views Amethyst as immature.
  • During the bad endings, this desire leads to Steven's corruption and him capturing the gems, or the gems killing him in self-defense.
• Defend Command: It's not standard for everyone, but Jasper's "Stonewall" ability is this, halving the damage she takes on the next turn. It can be upgraded to reduce the damage even further, making her nearly invulnerable.
• Despair Event Horizon: During the fight with the Perfect Crystal, it's implied that White Diamond can inflict this through its Time All Things Upends attack:

Narration: The white specter twitches one finger. You feel so tired. How long have you been fighting? How long will you have to keep fighting? You know, deep down, that you can't win. You'll just keep fighting forever, without release. Isn't it better, then, to give up. To not have to fight anymore. At least then, it will be over. It's okay. This was inevitable.

• Developer's Foresight:
  • There is a standard defeat handler for if you lose a battle in the main game, but there are also unique defeat handlers for certain special battles where the story justification for the standard handler can't apply. This includes several of the tutorial battles, and the battle against Jasper in one of the bad endings.
  • Stunning abilities will have different descriptive text if they hit a resistance and fail to stun the enemy.
  • If you exceed your corruption threshold for the bad ending via lying to Ruby and Sapphire, the resulting scene is different, as Steven refuses to accept Connie's rebuke and is instead consumed by the corruption.
  • Attempting to use a bubble to block Bismuth's One-Hit Kill attack will result in her popping it with an instant attack before poofing the gem anyway. Similarly, the Serpent enemies will pick a new target if their current target is bubbled.
  • A few lines in some of the gems' optional conversations change if you have already done Bismuth's healing sequence and thus know that the Diamonds were successfully shattered.
  • If the player comes into the final dungeon underleveled for whatever reason, the boss rematches will still give EXP in order to prevent an Unintentionally Unwinnable scenario.
  • When facing the Final Boss:
    • Some of the gems' attacks that had flippant or enthusiastic descriptions will change to become more serious, in some cases preventing them from attacking at their full power.
    • Every gem's basic attack will have an altered description noting that the attack draws blood, since you are now fighting an organic creature.
  • If you kill Steven, the injuries described in the following sequence are unique depending on who struck the killing blow.
  • Attempting to use a toy car or bagel sandwich on corrupted Steven won't work, and will instead get a unique reaction where he chastises you for thinking he'd be dumb enough to fall for it.
• Didn't See That Coming: Garnet is completely blindsided by Steven suffering from corruption.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In Bismuth's healing sequence, she remembers seeing another bismuth who took a small piece of metal to make herself a ring, and was shattered on the spot for "wasting resources."
• Dissonant Serenity: After defeating the idealized versions of the Crystal Gems, Steven's description of his own corrupted state describes it as a great thing, whereas the Crystal Gems are horrified. When they decide he needs to be cured of his corruption, Steven goes berserk and tries to poof them.
• The Dog Bites Back: If you give into the temptation of Video Game Cruelty Potential and are cruel to Jasper at any point, she will remember when it comes time to fully heal her, and throw everything back in your face.
• Don't Like? Don't Read!: Interestingly averted by the authors, who, in the author's commentary, outright encourage people to comment even if they hated the story. A Friendly Irin has even said that he purposefully made the story controversial in the hopes of encouraging people to speak their mind. Unfortunately, this didn't really materialize.
• Double Standard: For the healing sequences, there is a focus on accepting the flaws or perceived flaws of the Crystal Gems. Stevonnie must tell them that it's okay for them to be themselves and that they're not as bad as their worst fears make them think they are. It is one of the main points in the game and relevant to the title. When Steven gets corrupted, all the correct options from the Crystal Gems are to call Steven out for his fantasy concocted in Rose's Room being selfish, twisted and morally repugnant. Doing anything else wastes a turn and at worst gives the speaking character a debuff. This is because the game is a Hate Fic for the canon ending of the show and Steven's fantasy is made of the canon progression of events in the show.
• Draw Aggro: At Level 8, Jasper learns Roar, which gains her 300 Aggression from all enemies on the battlefield, effectively redirecting all attacks toward her instead of everyone else.
• Easy Amnesia: Jasper loses her memories due to a botched healing attempt by Steven at the start of the story. Played for Drama; Jasper's amnesia is extremely convenient for Steven and the gems, as it means she does not remember her animosity towards them. Stevonnie notes how incredibly lucky this was, but also notes how dishonest it is to abuse it to make her help them.
• Embodiment of Vice: The boss rematches and the Superboss in the final dungeon are creations of The Room who embody the various things Steven believes is wrong with each of the Crystal Gems and also his own guilt:
  • The Drowned represents Steven's belief that Lapis is pathetic because she won't simply "get over" her depression and trauma and chooses to be miserable.
  • The Derelict represents Steven's belief that Peridot is insensitive due to her behavior when she was stuck on Earth with the Crystal Gems and her bombastic personality.
  • The Shattered represents Steven's belief that Bismuth is hateful due to their first meeting ending with Bismuth trying to kill him in a fit of rage due to him rejecting the Breaking Point.
  • The Bound represents Steven's belief that Garnet is dependant due to Ruby and Sapphire spending most of their time fused as Garnet and his envy of their "perfect" relationship.
  • The Wretched represents Steven's belief that Amethyst is insecure due to her reckless behavior and her immaturity and how she doesn't deal too well with stressful situations.
  • The Lost represents Steven's belief that Pearl is obsessive due to her relationship with his mother Rose Quartz and how she's had trouble moving on from her, believing that Pearl should "get over" it already.
  • The Perfect Crystal represents Steven's guilt of being unable to reason with the Great Diamond Authority before their shattering, his fear and expectations of them and their power and having to deal with their actions such as the Corrupted Gems and the Cluster Gems.
• Enemy Scan: You can do this for free at any point by clicking on an enemy's name, displaying their stats, level, and any active status effects. In some cases, such as The Perfect Crystal or Steven, their Attack and Defence will be obscured, and in the latter's case, his HP will be obscured as well.
• Escort Mission: Subverted. Ronaldo's appearance on the battle map during the Barn dungeon seems like it will be this, and Stevonnie expresses frequent worry for his safety; but he cannot actually be targeted by the enemies, so you don't have to worry about him.
• Family of Choice:
  • In the capstone of Pearl's healing sequence, Steven calls Pearl his mom.
  • One of Amethyst's dialogue options during the battle against corrupted Steven has her call Steven her brother.
• Field Power Effect: The Blue Diamond fragment of the Perfect Crystal can use these to debuff the gems' stats or prevent them from generating star points.
• Fix Fic: This game tries to do this for the Steven Universe fans who weren't happy with the Diamond Days arc with the following:
  • Steven's characterization before that arc is kept while the final arc involving his characterization during that arc is treated as a delirious nonsensical fantasy twisted by his corruption due to Steven taking the truth poorly.
  • The Diamonds end up shattered by the Crystal Gems early on, satisfying those who hated them and felt they were let off the hook for their actions (despite never actually being forgiven for their actions canonically). For those who feel cheated that Steven and the Crystal Gems never actually got to fight the Diamonds directly, they can fight the Perfect Crystal which is a shard fusion of all 4 Diamonds.
  • The game allows you to have all the Crystal Gems as party members, which is great for fans who feel that Peridot and Bismuth got shafted after their plotlines were finished. Also for Jasper fans who wanted her to have a redemption arc, she's also the first party member you get and also key to getting the good/best endings.
  • The final dungeon can be seen as this for those who didn't like the canon ending. The canon events in the final arc are reinterpreted as Steven's fantasy and during the final boss, the Crystal Gems actually get to be important during the final battle instead of being put out of commission.
• Flunky Boss: All of them, except for Corrupted Amethyst, Corrupted Bismuth, Steven, and the Perfect Crystal. Each one has a slightly different method of summoning and maintaining flunkies.
• Game-Breaking Bug: If you get all the keystones in the Alpha Kindergarten and use them at the first colour terminal, it's very possible to lose all of them except from the green one. The only thing you can do is either reload from an earlier save or use a save editor to undo your mistake.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • Stevonnie is immune to interference, because they don't have a light-based form.
  • Peridot is statistically weaker than the other gems, because unlike them, she's an untrained fighter with no combat experience.
  • Peridot also starts with tons of HP. This is a reference to a line from one episode of the show stating that peridots "don't poof easily".
  • If you try to force Jasper to choose between Pink Diamond or her friends, Jasper turns against you and you fight her. Interestingly enough, her HP is the same as it would be during her tenure as your ally, allowing your party to curb stomp her easily.
  • During the rematch with The Drowned, it turns out that she has clones for all your party members to account for your vastly expanded team size. The Jasper clone also has a unique description to reflect how much Lapis hates Jasper due to the latter coercing her into becoming Malachite.
  • Early on in the game, Connie gets her leg bitten by a gem construct shaped like a shark, causing her to bleed from her leg to justify Stevonnie as a party member. During the fight with Jasper or Corrupted Steven, she stays out of the fight likely because they would kill her far too easily, and in the latter case, you cannot use Stevonnie during the final boss fight because Steven is corrupted.
  • In the final dungeon, Rose-Steven claims that Bismuth is hateful and utterly despises her due to Bismuth trying to kill Steven when he accidentally reminded her of Rose due to their disagreement over the Breaking Point. During the final battle, if you pick the wrong dialogue option as Bismuth, Corrupted Steven will claim that she'll be happy once she's bubbled though she doesn't deserve to be, referencing how Bismuth was bubbled originally before her debut episode.
  • The entire premise of the final dungeon is that Rose Quartz being Pink Diamond makes no sense with Rose-Steven feebly trying to justify it whenever the Crystal Gems point it out to him because he knows it's a lie. During the final boss fight, Steven's corrupted form takes traits from Rose Quartz but none from Pink Diamond, with none of Pink's powers seeing any use from Corrupted Steven. The Perfect Crystal, on the other hand, does have Pink Diamond use Rose Cut, which is the only example tying them together.
  • If the player is defeated in the final dungeon, due to being a Point of No Return, rather than send them back before the events of the final dungeon or give you a Game Over screen, the game gives a unique message acknowledging them still being alive due to the Room being controlled by Steven. Unsurprisingly, Steven wouldn't want to see the Crystal Gems killed, yet as Amethyst points out, seems to want the Room to rough them up.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: A fully-healed Jasper will do this to Steven when he starts showing signs of corruption, buying you enough time to enter The Very Definitely Final Dungeon and save him properly.
• Golden Ending: It's always possible to get a "good" ending where Steven is saved, but it is only possible to get an additional scene where Jasper forgives Steven and agrees to be his friend if you navigate Jasper's true healing sequence perfectly.
• Gradual Regeneration: The Optimism buff, granted by Peridot's "Infectious Enthusiasm" ability, provides this. A less impressive version can be granted by the Optimist Badge and Stevonnie's "Self-Care" ability.
• Green Thumb:
  • Corrupted Peridot gains the ability to make the fields around the Barn grow wild, as well as animating plant-based monsters.
  • Corrupted Steven crosses this with Body Horror to shapeshift his right arm into a thorny vine.
• Happiness in Slavery: Pearl in Steven's room fantasy, though unlike canon, she wilfully chooses this fate rather than being forced to play along with Homeworld's regressive norms. This is called out as twisted and awful after the fantasy is shown itself, and again if you pick the correct dialogue option for Pearl during the final boss fight.
• Hate Fic: An odd example. The authors actually loved Steven Universe... right up until "A Single Pale Rose" turned everything on its head. The story is a very pointed and scathing criticism of the canon ending, particularly the move away from the supporting cast to focus entirely on Steven, but the characters and overall setting are portrayed with a surprising amount of love, almost feeling like a Fix Fic at times. But the "hate" part is taken up to eleven in the final dungeon, where the canon ending is revealed to be nothing but a sick wish-fulfillment fantasy of Steven's, and is subjected to scathing criticism by the characters in the story, portraying it as a nonsensical mess of Plot Holes and Character Derailment. The good ending actually requires the gems to stand up for themselves and criticize Steven for his behaviour, a complete inversion of the ending of Steven Universe: Future where he is saved by unconditional support. invoked
  • Steven in particular during the final dungeon is portrayed as a self-centered, selfish self-aggrandizer with Messiah and Saint Complexes who only helps people for his selfish desire to be seen as an All-Loving Hero. The author commentary outright calls him "a terrifying, awful person" and that "no one but the Diamonds deserve to suffer his twisted, possessive, controlling idea of 'love'." (They do, however, go on to say that they liked Steven before his character took this turn in the final episodes, and his Character Development in the fangame is something of a Fix Fic in this regard.)
• Hint System: Connie functions as a hint on failure system. If you pick an incorrect option during the healing sequences, she will sometimes tell you why it didn't work and what you should try instead.
• Healer Signs On Early: Your very first party member is Stevonnie, who is also your main healer. Peridot, another White Mage, was also the first character to be released, and is recommended as the first gem to rescue.
• Healing Factor: Stevonnie shares Steven's healing powers, which self-apply. This is the justification for why they can recover as quickly as the gems after a Non-Lethal K.O.. They can also gain this as a gameplay benefit... once they reach level 15.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: Jasper, after losing her memories, becomes willing to help Steven rescue the other gems. Whether or not she stays on your side after she regains her memories depends on how you've treated her throughout the game — if you push her too far, she will attack you, putting you on route to

a bad ending.

• Homage:
  • The method for defeating the Final Boss safely is highly reminiscent of the final battle of Undertale, complete with the Battle Theme Music changing to softer music and the player character becoming unkillable. Additionally, allowing the player to backstab Steven during the final sequence where he lets down his guard is very reminiscent of a similar mechanic from the battle with Toriel in Undertale.
  • The author has stated that the particular mechanic of Steven poofing every character except Jasper with an unstoppable attack is meant to evoke a very similar moment from the final battle of Mother 3.
  • The author states in the postmortem that the star point system was based directly on similar mechanics from Obelisk: Devilkiller and Alter AILA Genesis.
  • The aversion of Arbitrary Headcount Limit was directly inspired by the indie RPG Czarina Must Die.
  • The non-linear nature of the game, and the ability to pick up party members and items in any order, was directly inspired by Teenage Constume Squad and even more directly, Obelisk: Devilkiller.
  • Corrupted Lapis' fighting style — damaging you only through her Attack Reflector and debuffing her defense to make said Attack Reflector hurt more — was directly inspired by the Usurper battle from yet another Craze RPG, Wine & Roses.
• A House Divided:
  • The opening scene. Steven decides at literally the last minute that now is a good time to push for Thou Shalt Not Kill against the other gems, who have all agreed that the Diamonds need to die and whose plan will only work if they do so without hesitation. The gems pre-empt the fallout by choosing to drop Steven from the mission, but this leads to them being corrupted without his shield to protect them from the Diamonds' attack.
  • Dissonant Harmony reveals this was the case among the gems themselves; their plan to dupe Steven was such a poorly-coordinated mess that it's a miracle they pulled it off. They kept Amethyst in the dark until it was too late for her to back out, knowing that she would also argue, they kept Bismuth in the dark about keeping Amethyst in the dark, and they appear to forget to consult Lapis about it at all.
• HP to One: The Perfect Crystal's "Time All Things Upends" ability does this to the entire party.
• Hurt/Comfort Fic: The gems' healing sequences take this format, showing them beaten down by their worst fears, traumas, and mental illnesses, and requiring Stevonnie to show them love and understanding in order for them to recover.
• Identity Amnesia: Jasper, for most of the game. When Steven first tries to heal her at the beginning of the game, he accidentally induces amnesia that makes her not recognize him. Steven, for his part, actually does want to fix this and gets his chance to do so before the final dungeon opens up.
• I Am a Monster: During the final dungeon, it's clear that Steven feels awful about using the Room to cope with the revelation of Rose Quartz shattering Pink Diamond. When the Room copy of Rose starts exposing Steven's fantasies, he tries to deny them, not wanting the Crystal Gems (and Jasper) to see that side of him.
• I'm Standing Right Here: If you select an incorrect option during Amethyst's healing sequence, Amethyst will interrupt Connie's normal Hint System to remind you she can still hear you.
• Interface Screw: Normally, activated abilities are given a narrative description followed by a clinical report of their gameplay effects. However, the Perfect Crystal's Emotion Control abilities use descriptive messages in the report section as well, such as "There's no hope. Give up."
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Jasper, known for being a scary antagonist, turns out to be a loyal and protective friend under her aggressive demeanor.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: Steven must do this for each of the gems to cure the source of their corruption. During Steven's corruption, it's suggested that Stevonnie do this to themselves somehow, but as the Room Rose points out, doing such a thing is a Catch 22.
• Karl Marx Hates Your Guts: Averted; unlike in most RPGs, items can be sold back at the same rate as their buy price. This is because Lapis is making them out of their literal components and not a merchant trying to stiff you.
• Kick the Dog:
  • The game gives you various means to invalidate or outright gaslight the Crystal Gems during their healing sequences. In some cases, you'll end up unlocking the final boss early, ensuring that you will lose due to the player not having enough party members to properly fight them.
  • You are also given multiple opportunities to be mean to Jasper, and if you push her enough, she'll eventually turn on you, forcing you to fight her before the final boss.
  • If you pick the wrong dialogue options in the final battle, Corrupted Steven's dialogue has him act cruelly to each party member. In Pearl's case, Corrupted Steven just verbally kicks her while she's down. That's not counting him ordering the Crystal Gems to help him bubble the others so he can keep them all trapped forever.
• King Mook: Each of the Mini Bosses in Bismuth's dungeon are this for one of the three weapon enemies, sharing their attacks and tactics plus a few upgraded moves.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • Losing a battle will result in Connie noting that a Non-Lethal K.O. usually involves permanent brain damage, so it's a good thing Stevonnie has Steven's Healing Factor.
  • Picking an incorrect option in the gems' healing sequences will usually lead to Connie discussing with you why it didn't work and what you should try instead. However, if this happens during Amethyst's sequence, Amethyst will point out that I'm Standing Right Here and it's pretty rude of you to talk like she's not there.
  • If you can beat the Perfect Crystal, Rose will remind you that "you can't solve your problems by beating them up" — even though that's basically what you've been doing all game. This is also a bit of a jab at other combat-focused games with nonviolent morals.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Averted; Jasper's amnesia is extremely destructive, reducing her to a Blank Slate with no memories at all, and she expresses confusion about several basic concepts. She is only functional due to gems being born with a set of innate instructions.
• Last-Second Ending Choice: Once you're at the endgame, you can get different endings depending on if you actually heal Jasper or try to Mind Rape her, if you choose to go to Homeworld, or if you're in the final dungeon, your ending choices depend on if you choose to kill Corrupted Steven or try and get through to Steven.
• Lazy Backup: Averted due to also averting Arbitrary Headcount Limit. This even extends to Non-Player Character Lapis Lazuli, who, despite being unable to fight herself, will extract you from the battle if you lose. In the battle against Jasper in one bad ending, she will actually attack and win the fight for you if Stevonnie falls. Played straighter in the final dungeon, however, where Lapis never participates in battles despite accompanying the rest of the party.
• Life Drain: Jasper's "Bully" attack, though it's turned around from its usual form — due to the conceit that gems' HP is tied to their self-image, she gains the HP spontaneously just because bullying the enemy makes her feel better about herself.
• Light 'em Up: Several gems and enemies use light-based attacks.
• Light Is Not Good: As in the main show, the Diamonds' corruption blast takes the form of a bright light. Several enemies including corrupted Steven use light-based attacks as well.
• Literal Transformative Experience:
  • The gems' corrupted forms are giant monsters representative of their worst fears and traumas. Healing them requires addressing those traumas.
  • At the end, Steven corrupts into a monster with a canine body, an overgrown giant arm and Rose's hair representing his self-loathing, his belief of and resentment of Rose Quartz's perfection, and how he demands the Crystal Gems to change into what he wants them to be.
• Magic Music: Downplayed; Steven's music helps the gems heal (and can directly cure their status effects when used in battle), but this is implied to be due to the nature of gems rather than a property of the music itself.
• Main Character Final Boss: The final boss is Steven Universe himself after succumbing to his corruption. Your party members can fight Steven and eventually kill him, but doing so nets you the bad ending. The Talk option plays a key role in this battle, and each character has dialogue choices they can choose from. If they try to plead with Steven and use the Power of Love, Steven will insult your party members in ways personal to them and that party member ends up getting debuffed. However, if you choose to call Steven out on his cowardly and selfish fantasties he created in Rose's Room, Steven will feel awful and you'll be a step closer to freeing him from his corruption. Once all party members have called Steven out, he'll spam Dying of the Light on your party, with only Jasper maintaining her form out of sheer determination. At this point, you can still kill Steven or have Jasper show empathy, which will allow Steven to be free of his corruption.
• Mana Burn: Some enemies can use your own star points to fuel their own abilities, reducing your resources and smacking you with a nasty attack at the same time.
• The Medic: Steven, natch. Peridot also functions as a secondary healer.
• Mini-Boss:
  • Pearl's dungeon requires you to fight two minibosses, The Sun (a warped copy of Rose) and Son of the Sun (a warped copy of Steven) before you can fight Pearl herself. Both of them reappear in her own boss fight as unkillable flunkies.
  • Corrupted Bismuth will tear off her own arms and throw them at you, creating three independent minibosses you must defeat before fighting Bismuth proper. Each functions as a King Mook version of one of the weapon enemies in her dungeon.
  • Corrupted Peridot is fought multiple times throughout her area before engaging with her properly. She appears each time without minor enemies and flees after sustaining small amounts of damage, making her less dangerous than in her final encounter as a proper Boss Battle.
• Modular Epilogue: The final scene of the good ending will be different depending on if you successfully navigated Jasper's healing sequence. If not, she spits at your feet and swears never to see you again; if you did, you get a longer scene where she shows vulnerability and accepts Steven's friendship.
• Monstrosity Equals Weakness: All of the corrupted gems are weaker than the party members that you obtain, though the final boss gets hit the hardest with this due to their organic nature allowing them to die.
• MST: Sort of. This happens in-universe within the final dungeon, as the characters are shown specific scenes from the canon ending of Steven Universe and comment on them, often by accusing them of Character Derailment. Interestingly enough, it's Steven himself who provides the harshest criticisms, with the Crystal Gems mostly just being baffled. invoked
• Multiple Endings: There are a few you can obtain at multiple points in the game:
  • Telling Lapis that you'll make her listen during her healing sequence gets you corrupted early on.
  • Lying to Ruby and Sapphire about their relationship also corrupts you early on.
  • Telling Garnet you want to go to Homeworld has Steven travel there to uncorrupt the gems, with the implication that Steven's corruption is starting to take over.
  • Rewriting Jasper's personality to Ocean Jasper's during her healing sequence gets you a bad ending.
  • Forcing Jasper to choose between her friends or Pink Diamond during her healing sequence forces you to fight her before Steven corrupts and you're forced to kill him.
  • Killing Steven during the final battle or during the Dying of the Light phase gets you the bad ending. Depending on which character finishes Steven off, you'll get a unique description of Steven's death before the bad ending plays out.
  • Allowing Corrupted Steven to bubble all of your party members gets you a different bad ending where it's stated that the gems are bubbled forever.
  • Standing up to Steven during the final battle without Jasper gets you the good ending, though Jasper decides that she never wants to see you again.
  • Standing up to Steven during the final battle with Jasper gets you the best ending, in which Jasper forgives you and decides to be your friend.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Bismuth has a brief moment of this when she realizes her plan not only got all the Crystal Gems corrupted, but forced Steven to take on that corruption when he healed them.
  • During the final battle if you pick the correct dialogue options, Steven will have one for each party member that calls him out aside from Jasper.
• No Hero Discount: Averted in spirit if not in function; Lapis Lazuli doesn't charge you any money for her items, but you do still need to provide her the raw materials to make them.
• Non-Lethal K.O.: As in the show and canon games, gems are only poofed when their HP reaches zero. Stevonnie does actually fall unconscious, but suffers no lasting injuries, justified by their Healing Factor. This is averted for Steven himself when fought as the Final Boss, as his Healing Factor no longer works and he will die for real if you exhaust his HP.
• Non-Player Character: Lapis Lazuli. Unlike in Unleash the Light, she is a noncombatant, and instead supports you by providing items and reconnaissance.
• Non-Standard Game Over: If you make too many poor decisions in a healing sequence, Steven will become corrupted himself, leading to a difficult boss fight where you must either kill him or let him capture the gems. In either case, the game ends afterwards.
• One-Hit Kill:
  • Corrupted Bismuth's "Breaking Point" attack. It actually goes a step farther and cracks the victim as well, preventing them from respawning naturally.
  • The Perfect Crystal's "Infinite Refraction" ability inflicts "infinite damage", amounting to this.
  • If the player decides to kill Steven during the phase where he spams Dying of the Light, Jasper can kill him due to the game being scripted to have Steven's HP at 1 during that part of the battle.
• Only Flesh Is Safe: Stevonnie is immune to getting their gem cracked. This is largely for gameplay reasons, since they are the only character who can cure cracked status, but it is Hand Waved as the monsters being confused about how to target an organic creature.
• Painting the Medium:
  • When fused into Stevonnie, Steven's thoughts are coloured pink, while Connie's thoughts are colored indigo.
  • When Steven is influenced by corruption, his text gains a fuzzy black background. Once he becomes fully corrupted, this even extends to his spoken dialogue.
  • The inside of Amethyst's dungeon is white text on black background, as it's deep underground.
  • Similarly, Bismuth's dungeon has an orange glow background, representing the heat from her forge.
  • Rose's Room has a claustrophobic hot pink background that fades to black at the edges, representing Steven's stress and panic as the corruption encroaches on him.
  • When Steven is becoming corrupted, the background slowly shifts towards darker colors until it becomes fully black.
• Personality Powers: Everyone. (This is a Steven Universe fangame, after all!)
  • Stevonnie can shift between Steven and Connie's personalities to use either of their abilities. Steven, true to his kind personality, has healing abilities and higher defense, while Connie has higher attack and attacking abilities learned from the gems.
  • Pearl has the ability 'One For All', which decreases her damage and lets her take damage in another team member's stead, paralleling the way she deals with the people she cares about.
  • Peridot has a few healing abilities based on cheerfulness and encouraging others.
  • Jasper has abilities centered around taunting and bullying the enemy.
  • Amethyst has wrestling-related abilities, mirroring her time as the Purple Puma, and she also has an attention-drawing taunt.
  • Garnet has the ability 'Duet' where she separates into Ruby and Sapphire to attack, which should theoretically hit for 150% damage, but her personalities are often too distracted by each other to make it work.
  • Bismuth has revolution-themed abilities, as she is a revolutionary.
  • The four specters emerging from the Perfect Crystal each have powers based on each of the 4 Diamonds. White's represent her sheer power and her tendency to rarely act directly, Yellow's represent her logical mindset, Blue's powers represent her despair and misery and Pink's represent how little power she has, being nothing more than a support unit for her sisters.
• Plot Hole / What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite Centipeetle (aka Nephrite) being the first Corrupted Gem in the series Steven tries to heal, she's seen nowhere in the game and doesn't even get mentioned, with Jasper being the first Gem in your party instead.
• Point of No Return: Once you choose to heal Jasper fully, there's no going back. You are directed towards The Very Definitely Final Dungeon immediately after (unless you got one or two of the Jasper related Bad Endings), at which point the Room will trap you there. You are, however, given the opportunity to warp back with your stats intact once you finish the game.
• Poison Mushroom: Picking the wrong dialogue options during the battle with corrupted Steven in the final dungeon will result in the gems losing stats, as opposed to the stat buffs they gain by talking in other battles. Fighting the final boss in the bad ending routes will also result in this if you use the Talk command due to not being able to pick dialogue options.
• Pragmatic Hero: Garnet. She is the one to strike the killing blow against the Diamonds, and she is the only gem who does not apologize for leaving Steven behind, pointing out that he could have gotten them not just corrupted but shattered. She explains that as the leader of the Crystal Gems, she has to make a lot of hard decisions, even if not everyone agrees with them.
  • Peridot takes this role during the final dungeon in that she suggests that they just attack Rose-Steven because she's a corruption fragment of Steven.
• Press X to Die: Some of the options in the healing sequences are very obviously bad ideas.
  • Lying to Ruby or Sapphire about how the other feels about them probably takes the cake here. It leads to Steven suffering four times the normal corruption points, very likely driving you straight to the bad ending.
  • Lapis Lazuli's healing sequence, as the tutorial, will not automatically forward you to the bad ending if you take the wrong option at every possible point. You have to do that to yourself by saying you want to make her listen.
  • In Jasper's true healing sequence, you can attempt to convince her she was a Crystal Gem, effectively cementing her personality reset. Doing this will lead to a scathing rebuke by Connie and an immediate jump to Steven becoming corrupted.
  • Attempting to force Jasper into an ultimatum of choosing between her friends and Pink Diamond leads to her kicking you out of her mind, attacking you, and then Steven immediately becoming corrupted.
  • It is possible to deliberately attack Steven instead of talking to him even when you are on track for the good ending. This will kill him instantly and net you the bad ending.
• Protagonist-Centred Morality: During the final dungeon, it's clear that Rose Steven very much believes that they're the centre of the universe and an all-loving hero, ergo he's right to try and control the Crystal Gems so they'll be what he wants them to be. The Crystal Gems and Jasper very much prove him wrong.
• Purposefully Overpowered: Jasper and Bismuth each have 3 more stat points than the other gems. Inverted with Peridot, who has 2 fewer points. According to the author, this was to reinforce her role as an inexperienced noncombatant.
• "Rashomon"-Style: Bismuth's healing sequence requires pursuing three separate conversation threads, each tied to one aspect of her personality. The final scene of each depicts her final battle with Rose, but the description and emotional framing of the scene is different depending on which fragment you're on, casting doubt on her recollections and making it ambiguous what actually happened.
• Rejected Apology: If you make too many excuses instead of actual apologies during Jasper's true healing sequence, she will decide you're not really sorry, because if you were, you would have changed your behaviour instead of continuing to abuse her. Steven will also suffer this in the good ending if he bungled Jasper's healing sequence; she will declare she will never forgive him and doesn't want to see him ever again. The only way for the apology to be accepted is to navigate Jasper's healing conversation properly and take full responsibility for your actions.
  • During the final dungeon after defeating The Derelict, Peridot will apologize to Rose-Steven only for them to get mad, claiming that they're apologizing to her.
• Replacement Goldfish: The Lost, Pearl's corrupted form, creates light constructs of Rose ("The Sun") and Steven ("Son of the Sun") to fight by her side. They are said to look slightly wrong.
• Required Party Member: Jasper must be healed and recruited before you can track down any of the other gems.
• Save the Villain: Deconstructed twice over.
  • Steven's attempt to argue for this in the opening is utterly rejected by the gems, leading to strife and divisions before they ultimately decide his naivete makes him too much of a liability to take with them.
  • The knowledge that Rose really shattered Pink Diamond, the final nail in the coffin against the possibility she could be saved, drove Steven into a Freak Out that led him to using Rose's room to create a wish-fulfilment fantasy where he could save everyone: the canon ending. The final arc of the game explains why this desire was selfish: He valued saving the Diamonds more than he valued justice for their victims. When dealing with villains as evil as the Diamonds, attempting to save them will only create more harm; there comes a point where you have to be willing to pull the trigger.
• Shaped Like Itself: The tags and summary helpfully inform us that the story is a "Rose Quartz is Rose Quartz" AU. (According to developer commentary, this is a passive-aggressive jab based on a tweet by Steven Universe producer Ian Jones-Quartey that said simply "Her name is Rose Quartz" in response to a fan asking about the Rose Quartz = Pink Diamond theory.)
• Shout-Out:
  • Several in the items: We have a Mobile Stone, a Watcher's Crown, empty bottles, Hot Spurs, a Ribbon Badge, and two items called the Optimist and Pessimist Badges.
  • The description of the Grappling Hook item is simply "GRAPPLING HOOK!"
  • Referring to equipment as "badges" is itself a reference to Attack the Light, which in turn used them as a reference to Paper Mario.
  • Several abilities reference other works as well: Song of Healing, Harmony of Dissonance, Starkiller, Doomed Aspirations, and Crushing Despair.
  • One of corrupted Steven's abilities, "Starlight", is a reference to White Diamond's nickname for Pink Diamond in the main show.
  • The description of Pearl's mindscape bears similarities to The Lonely; likewise, Jasper's true mindscape is evocative of The Buried.
  • The description of Breaking Point when used against Stevonnie is evocative of Ed's death in Fullmetal Alchemist (2003).
  • Corrupted Bismuth's tactic of throwing her body parts at you to generate Mini Bosses is reminiscent of the JENOVA battles from Final Fantasy VII.
  • The Perfect Crystal's use of mathematical functions as attacks is a reference to the Secretary enemies of OFF, with "Oblique Asymptote" being a direct reference to one of their abilities.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: While the other characters are willing to let the Room Rose explain, Peridot in contrast points out that it's admitted that it's a corruption fragment and should be poofed. It doesn't take and Rose is allowed to explain what she wanted to say.
  • Peridot also does this again when it's clear that Steven won't see reason due to him being fully corrupted and again if you pick the correct dialogue option when it's her turn to talk to Steven.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Steven over the course of the game. Healing the gems makes him absorb their corruption, and his darker aspects slip out eventually causing him to become corrupted himself.
• Stance System: Stevonnie can switch between letting Steven, Connie, or themself dominate the fusion, leading to a different set of abilities for each. Steven is The Medic but lacks offensive abilities, while Connie has access to more powerful offense but loses Steven's healing abilities. Stevonnie can use a limited set of abilities from both, but has to learn them through level up. Steven and Connie also gain stat bonuses to defense and attack, respectively.
  • At the beginning of the game, switching personalities is a free action, making Stevonnie very versatile and capable of making up for the gaps in other gems' abilities. However, as the game progresses, the personality switch will gain a cooldown, requiring Stevonnie to wait up to 5 turns before they can switch again. This has the effect of turning Stevonnie into a Crutch Character in the late game.
• Status-Buff Dispel: The Perfect Crystal's "Doomed Aspirations" attack strips the most recent buff from the target.
• Superboss: The Perfect Crystal, a twisted Room phantom representing Steven's guilt for the deaths of the Great Diamond Authority. It can only be fought in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, is extremely difficult, and has 2000 HP (the most of any boss in the game), using several Video Game Set Pieces based on the Diamonds' canonical abilities.
• Survival Mantra: As Stevonnie is under duress, Steven and Connie remind each other with "I'm here," to center themselves.
• Take That!:
  • The developer commentary makes a sarcastic jab at the direction Steven Universe took in its final episodes and particularly in Steven Universe: Future:
    And [letting one party member steal the show is] totally antithematic to Steven Universe! This show is supposed to be about working together and valuing everyone's contributions, not one person being the center of the universe and single-handedly solving every single problem with overpowered abilities! *looks directly into the camera*
  • The developer commentary contains a jab at Attack the Light:
    I called [Pearl's energy blast attack] "Meteor" instead of "Fireball" because I don't pigeonhole cool ideas into bland RPG tropes, Attack the Light.
  • The entire final dungeon is a potshot at the last few episodes of Steven Universe and how that show decided to handle it's cancellation induced limitations of having a few episodes to wrap up everything. The final boss even has you call Steven out on his behavior during those episodes due to the developers beliefs that Steven's behavior goes against his character prior to those episodes, and that canon Steven is an awful person.
  • According to the author's notes, Steven's blithe acceptance of his transformation in the bad endings is meant to be a metaphorical jab at the fans who saw nothing wrong with the show's tonal shift in the final episodes.
  • Room-Rose's dialogue after beating the Perfect Crystal can be interpreted as a jab towards games like OFF or Spec Ops: The Line that have themes of non-violence yet railroad the player into killing everyone in their path.
• Taking You with Me: While shattering the Great Diamond Authority with the Sonicator did end their tyranny with as few casualties as possible, it did come with the unfortunate consequence of corrupting all of Homeworld's population.
• Theme Naming:
  • Many of the gems' abilities are named after cosmological terms, often relating to stars.
  • Similarly, the star fruit variants are named after actual star classifications: giant and supergiant.
  • The gems' basic attacks all take the form "[Adjective] Strike".
  • All of the gems' corrupted forms are named by the game text as some variant of "The [Adjective]". This becomes more blatant in their rematch forms, which replace their gems' name with this title.
• Title Drop: The Cosmetic Award for beating the Perfect Crystal is a "Flawed Crystal". The Perfect Crystal itself is also an inverted title drop.
• True Companions: Stevonnie and the gems are this. Stevonnie goes through various environments, is forced to fight against the corrupted gems before having to see them at worst in their healing sequences. When the time comes and Steven ends up corrupted himself, the Crystal Gems (and Jasper) decide to save him in return, with even Jasper being willing to help Steven despite her previous animosity against him.
• Unwinnable: Purposefully averted by the developer. Unlike in some infamous text-based games, there's no way to lock yourself into a bad ending; it's always possible to reach the good ending, no matter how many corruption points you've accumulated.
• Useless Useful Spell: Every character except Stevonnie has a useful-sounding joke ability. They potentially have some use, but tend to have severe downsides.
  • Jasper can try to recall one of her memories. You may think this would result in a powerful attack, but it instead results in a nervous breakdown, stunning her for the next round and resetting all aggression against her. Since she's your tank, this is generally not a good idea. After Jasper regains her memories, this changes to intentionally crying it out to vent her emotions. This averts the stun, making it potentially more useful if Jasper is in a bind and you really need to take heat off of her.
  • Peridot can insult a monster to gain a ton of aggression. She is also The Medic and has the worst defense of any gem, so this is almost always a terrible idea.
  • Garnet can unfuse to attack twice. This does result in a stronger attack... if both hits land. Ruby and Sapphire each have a 50% chance of being too distracted by the other to fight, giving the attack poor performance on average.
  • Amethyst can shapeshift to attract monsters' attention... but in doing so, she'll overexert herself, sustaining a defense debuff. Oops.
  • Pearl can guard a specific gem, taking all hits that would otherwise strike them... but she has so little concern for her own well-being that her defense stat goes to zero, making this effectively a suicide ability.
  • Bismuth can forge "the perfect weapon", providing an immensely powerful attack buff that outperforms any other item... but it takes her five turns to make it, during which she can't do anything else.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Rose's Room. You're trapped in a claustrophobic nightmare where Rose Quartz is surrounded by puppet versions of the Crystal Gems, who must be fought and defeated to see pieces of Steven's fantasy before the final fight. There's also a healing fountain and a bubbled shard fusion that can be popped.
• Video Game Caring Potential: You are given several opportunities to be kind to the amnesiac Jasper, even though Steven is scared of her. Do this perfectly and her true healing sequence will be a breeze, as she realizes she can't actually think of anything to hold against you.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • You can say some truly awful things to and about Jasper. She will remember this when it comes time to heal her properly. The healing sequences also provide ample opportunities to callously dismiss and invalidate the gems' problems, including outright gaslighting them. All of these options are in-character for the Steven of the canon ending of Steven Universe, Foreshadowing the twist that the canon ending was a fantasy of his.
  • It's possible to pay Steven's cruelty back in kind: During the final battle against Steven, even when you are on track for the good ending, you can still choose to attack him. This will kill him instantly, reverting you to the bad ending.
  • You can forget about Jasper (or purposefully refuse to heal her) in the endgame, treating you to an alternate ending where Steven gives her one last Kick the Dog moment.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: If you treat the gems cruelly and callously in their healing sequences, Steven may become corrupted early, leading to an unwinnable boss fight and Game Over.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The final boss being a corrupted Steven winds up getting this from the other Crystal Gems, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl in particular.
• You Bastard!:
  • If you give into Video Game Cruelty Potential and are mean to Jasper at any point, she will call you out on it during her true healing sequence, forcing you either to apologize or burn your bridges with her permanently. Some gems will also call you out even before then, particularly Amethyst and Bismuth.
  • Attempting to lie to Ruby and Sapphire or Mind Rape Jasper into a permanent personality reset will lead to Connie chewing you out.
  • Averted with Bismuth's optional chat. You can rebuke her quite harshly, but she will always accept your judgment without protest.
• You Have Researched Breathing: As in the canon video games, the gems need to level up to unlock abilities they already have in canon.
  • In particular, Stevonnie doesn't gain in-game regeneration from their Healing Factor until level 15. This is justified by Steven's healing being unreliable depending on his mental state.
  • In Jasper's case, this is justified by her amnesia.

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