In the year 1999, a ten-year-old boy named Gen, fresh out of school for the summer and bicycling across Japan to visit family, witnesses an Alien Invasion that promptly wrecks human civilization.
Ten years later, Gen is a recovering amnesic working for Bless, an international alliance of humans fighting against alien control of Earth following the collapse of most world governments. Over the course of his fight against the alien menace, he'll go on a World Tour across many countries and landmarks, gather together a small Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, and learn the truth about his own Psychic Powers, the motives of the aliens, and the nature of the very Earth itself.
In terms of gameplay, G.O.D. is a fairly standard SNES-era JRPG, Random Encounters and all. Battles take place in an over-the-shoulder perspective, and each playable character has a set list of Psychic Powers which they learn as they level up and a Job System in the form of "Chakra". G.O.D.'s most notable twist on the formula is its setting - not just a modern-day sci-fi story in a time when fantasy settings dominated the RPG landscape, but one set on the real Earth itself, featuring all manner of famous landmarks and National Stereotypes.
A remake named G.O.D. Pure: Growth or Devolution was made for the Playstation. Little information is available in English.
Ironically for a game about world travel, neither G.O.D. nor G.O.D. Pure was released outside Japan. A Fan Translation patch for G.O.D. was released in 2018 by Dynamic Designs. All information regarding character names, dialogue, etc. on this page comes from this translation unless noted otherwise.
G.O.D.: Heed the Call to Awaken contains examples of:
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: The marketplace in Honmaka City charges you 2000G just for leaving. If you don't have the money, all your remaining money is taken from you and your HP is depleted to 1.
- Alternate World Map: Japan gets a world map to itself, even though it only takes up a few tiles of the real world map.
- Ancient Astronauts: The Egyptian pyramids, Chichen Itza, Stonehenge, and the Nazca lines are all connected to the aliens - although it seems they constructed these artifacts before they left.
- Antagonist Title: God is the final boss.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: God offers this to the heroes, but they reject it in favor of their human lives and proceed to kill Him to prevent Him from rendering His judgment. But in the bad ending, it's vaguely implied this happens anyway.
- The Atoner: Basil went back to training after Fahrah went missing trying to look for him after he ditched her five years ago pretending that he found a temple to train.
- Bat Out of Hell: Gen encounters and fights one at the beginning of the game in an underground cave, guarding a mysterious diamond. After the Time Skip, Gen returns to the same spot to find the same bat who recognizes him and wants to get back at him. The bat then will appear again at several points in the game to try to take revenge on Gen, becoming a single member Goldfish Poop Gang.
- Connected All Along: Michael and Gen are half-brothers. Gen's mom was pregnant with Michael when she was abducted, and the embryo was "enhanced" with alien genetic manipulation.
- Crusading Widow: Heath was already on his way to fight the aliens, but the death of Ai, the mother of his unborn child, didn't do any favors.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Did you just punch out God!?
- Doomed Hometown: Gen's hometown is pretty thoroughly obliterated.
- Drunken Master: Dan Kichi is always asking for booze, although we don't get to see whether it makes him a stronger fighter.
- Enigmatic Minion: Michael. In most of his appearances, he asks the heroes to stop their mission, hits them with an HP to One move, and disappears as quickly as he came.
- Flunky Boss: King Tut fights alongside two mummies. The Alien Mother fights with several Crystal Boys and constantly respawns them.
- Fun with Acronyms: "G.O.D." stands for either "Growth Or Devolution" (according to the game's title) or "Grouping Of buns Discovery" (according to the Bun King).
- Game-Breaking Bug: The first version of the
Fan Translation patch had a bug that prevented characters from being revived in battle. While not impossible, this made the game far more difficult than it had any right to be, and was fortunately fixed in a later version of the patch. - Guest-Star Party Member: Dan Kichi and Lem the lemur are both the "can't be equipped or ordered" type. Ai, on the other hand, behaves exactly like any other party member right up to her pregnancy and subsequent Plotline Death.
- Guide Dang It!: To defeat Insecurity, the party must remove all their weapons and armor. This is pretty well hinted at...but only after the battle starts. The game never tells you how to change equipment in battle, of course. Oh, and the same applies to the fight with Sadness immediately afterward, so don't re-equip everything after the fight.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Party members aren't named by the player until they actually join up, so whatever name you give them retroactively replaces their actual name which has been used up to that point. You get to nickname Gen's mom, too.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Lem the lemur must sacrifice his life to power the ancient ship. Michael sacrifices himself to destroy Ra Mu's barrier.
- Historical Domain Character: Tutankhamen is the boss inside the Great Pyramid.
- Light Is Not Good: God is merely a consiousness represented by a point of light. God also plans to put humanity out of its misery.
- Missing Mom: Gen's mom goes missing after the initial alien invasion. A psychic NPC claims that she's still alive, but doesn't offer any information beyond that. The aliens abducted her and are using her to breed.
- Ms. Fanservice: Ai is voluptuous, wears a tank top and shorts that exposes a lot of her skin and her victory pose has her bouncing at the camera with the subtlety of a sledgehammer
- Multiple Endings: After the credits roll, a simple "CONTINUE? YES/NO" prompt appears. Choosing "Yes" leads to a short additional Playable Epilogue and the Post-Final Boss, where the heroes reject their destiny to "become as gods" and go on to live their lives peacefully. Choosing "No" leads to a simple Game Over screen which implies that the heroes did become as gods.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: An alien commander named The Great Catastrophe.
- 90% of Your Brain: According to the game, humans normally use 30% of their brains at a time. When the heroes find a new God Stone, it unlocks another 10%, so after seven God Stones their brains are operating at 100% capacity.
- No Biochemical Barriers: The aliens have no trouble living on Earth. The fact that they came from Earth in the first place might justify this.
- Non-Standard Game Over: At the start of the game, your mom is concerned about sending you off on your own and asks if you're sure about going. If you answer No, then answer Yes twice when asked if you're sure, she'll be relieved (and a little disappointed) and you'll get a "THE END" "GAME OVER!" screen that suggests you "Use your brain next time!" with a little animation of the main character looking exasperated.
- The only other place where the words "Game Over" appear are choosing "No" when asked to continue at the end of the game. Normally, falling in battle returns you to your last save, but not this time.
- Overworld Not to Scale: Considering that the map is supposed to be the real Earth, this is an acceptable break from reality.
- Orochi: The party encounters Yamata no Orochi at Izumo Shrine just as Ai is to be its sacrifice. A boss battle ensues, which is when Ai joins the party, and head by head the monster is killed. Shortly after, Ai's grandmother Gibo reveals that the aliens have the ability to materialize human fear and that the Yamata no Orochi and other monsters walking about are their doing.
- Post-Final Boss: Incarnations of the party's anger, insecurity, and sadness, which appear before the party in Antarctica in the Playable Epilogue.
- Playable Epilogue: One after beating the final boss where you can walk around a few locations in the game and talk to the people you've saved, and one after the credits roll where you face the Post-Final Boss.
- Pop-Star Composer: The music was scored by none other than Demon Kakka (previously known as Demon Kogure)
- Pregnant Badass: After being unable to continue traveling due to her pregnancy, Aoi is left to stay in an inn. Later, said inn is attacked by the aliens and she is able to fight them to protect two children who were also there. Thanks to her bravery, the children escape from the aliens, but she dies in the process
- Psychic Powers: The game's equivalent of magic in other RPGs. All the playable characters have them, but few other humans do.
- Puzzle Boss: The Post-Final Boss. Heal the party's Anger, remove all equipment before facing the party's Insecurity, then do both to the party's Sadness.
- Rage Against the Heavens: The aliens barely escaped God's judgment and want to strike back at Him. The heroes ultimately finish the job when He prepares His judgment against humanity as well.
- The Right of a Superior Species: The aliens treat humanity as refuse to be swept aside. They came from Earth in the first place; they figure they're just taking back what was always theirs, and it doesn't matter what happened to grow on it in the meantime.
- Sequential Boss: The alien leader, Ra Mu, has three stages.
- Space Compression: The overworld is based on the real Earth, but small enough for a group of adventurers to traverse most of it on foot. Several large cities from real life are compressed into about the size of your average JRPG town. New York, an exceptionally large city, is the size of two average JRPG towns.
- Time Skip: A ten-year one between the initial alien invasion and the start of Gen's real adventure.
- True Final Boss: After beating Ra Mu, the leader of the aliens, the real final boss is God. But see Post-Final Boss.
- Unnamed Parent: You're asked to provide a nickname for Gen's mom, with several variations of "Mom", "Mother", and "Mama" to choose from if you don't have your own in mind.
- Video Game Geography: Apparently our actual, real Earth is toroidal. Who knew.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: At the beginning of the game, Gen's mom sends him to visit his grandmother. Gen's mom is a constant presence in Gen's mind throughout the rest of the game; his grandmother isn't so much as mentioned.
- In a throwaway line, the fortune teller will confirm that Gen's grandmother has indeed passed to the other side.
- World Tour: All sorts of real-world locations are represented here.
- You Killed My Father: The party killed Michael's mother. The fact that she was Gen's mother too, and begged her son to do it, doesn't cool Michael's rage much.
- Zero-Effort Boss: The Alien Mother constantly heals your party for far more than its Crystal Boys can dish out, making the fight a cakewalk...physically, at least.
