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Glory by Example is a narrative experience originally made with RPGMaker, developed and published by Quote Studios. Although the original version of the story has since been delisted from Steam, a book adaptation was written by A.D. Mandala and published in 2017, and is still available through online distributors.

Humanity is on its last legs. A disease known as "The Affliction" has taken out millions of people, and the moon has been knocked closer to Earth due to a comet's impact, leaving most landmasses underwater and uninhabitable. Those that have survived are living decently on the man-made island of Ex, but when the Affliction is able to reach even them, it's questionable if any of them will be able to survive...


This game makes use of the following Tropes:

  • Apocalypse Cult: Kayle's father, the founder of Ex, turns out to have some extreme beliefs about the Affliction and the fate of humanity.
  • Battle in the Center of the Mind: Eleanor has one in the "Betrayal" ending.
  • Connected All Along: The plots of Galaxy and Kayle appear to be completely disconnected until the Relationship Reveal moment.
  • Contamination Situation: The Affliction came to Ex by infecting fish rations.
  • Developing Doomed Characters: There are a lot of characters that receive a lot of focus despite not even making it to the Hope Spot, such as Zoe.
  • Downer Ending: No matter which of three endings are chosen, humanity ends up extinct.
  • Driven to Suicide: Issac after Rose's death, Eleanor after learning the truth about John, and both Galaxy and Kayle in the Betrayal ending.
  • Dwindling Party: The majority of characters that are able to reach the sewers end up getting killed in quick succession immediately after, with only three surviving to the Last-Second Ending Choice.
  • Fate Worse than Death: Being Afflicted. Until the disease evolves to take over corpses too.
  • Genki Girl: Zoe appears to be one; even during the Affliction crisis, she keeps on smiling.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The cause of the Affliction is a monster from outer space, currently living in the sea near Ex.
  • Great Escape: A couple of chapters in the game deal with characters escaping the prison run by Tom and Jerry's father.
  • Heroic Bastard: Kayle is the result of their father having unwedded intercourse.
  • Hope Spot: The sewers under Ex, where most of the surviving characters finally unite...right before the Afflicted get most of them in quick succession.
  • Imaginary Friend: The John that Eleanor sees isn't his ghost, but a mental construct she created to deal with the guilt of abandoning him to an apparent death in their youth.
  • Improbable Infant Survival: Tom, Jerry, and their father are the only three characters not shown dying or succumbing to the Affliction.
  • In Medias Res: The very first scene of the game is Kayle being taught the value of a Mercy Kill by an elderly lady that's too injured to continue surviving the Afflicted, before revealing how the island of Ex got that way.
  • Last Stand: The "Pacifist" ending. Kayle and Galaxy set up explosives to destroy the Affliction's source, dying to it but successfully blowing it up and saving any other life in the universe.
  • Like Brother and Sister: The relationship between orphans Alex and Alice.
  • Meaningful Name: The island of Example, chosen by its founder because of its cross shape as well as humanity setting an example for the rest of the cosmos.
  • Mercy Kill: Kayle performs a few, after deciding that whatever comes after life must be preferable to their current fate. Galaxy to Eleanor and Kayle in the "Genesis" ending.
  • Meta Twist: There are two styles of character sprites in the game that tend to clash, with main characters having a more "chibi" style than supporting ones. This makes the revelation that the real John was seen earlier as a supporting character more shocking.
  • Multiple Endings: Three, all decided by a Last-Second Ending Choice:
    • Genesis: Galaxy shoots Eleanor and Kayle, but runs out of bullets before she can commit suicide. She lets herself be torn apart by their Afflicted corpses out of guilt.
    • Pacifist: Galaxy can't shoot anyone. She and Kayle decide to use explosives to blow up the whole island, and the cause of the Affliction, while Eleanor uses her last moments to help them. They succeed, but die in the process.
    • Betrayal: Galaxy shoots herself, and then Kayle shoots herself with the last bullet, while Eleanor slowly bleeds to death. Eleanor's last moments are another hallucination of John, followed by a hallucination of everyone else she's met as one huge group, as the world fades out.
  • One Degree of Separation: Eleanor's story, and those of the orphanage survivors, frequently interconnect.
  • Not Quite Dead: Eleanor's old partner John turns out to have survived a bullet, only to sacrifice his life to save her later in life, near the story's beginning.
  • Relationship Reveal: Kayle and Galaxy are girlfriends, a fact kept secret until the Hope Spot.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Kayle, already abandoned by their father, killed their abusive mother.
  • The Speechless: Galaxy is mute, and while there is a bit of Internal Monologue when she's playable, never speaks a word aloud during the entire story.
  • Spirit Advisor: Eleanor has one in the form of John. Except that it's all in her head.
  • Stepford Smiler: What Zoe really is, as learned when the story shifts to their perspective.
  • Street Urchin: Eleanor and John were thieves in their youth, and there's still a secret room in the Sewers full of stuff they'd pilfered.
  • Theme Twin Naming: There are a pair of identical twins named Tom and Jerry.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: There are two main story lines, with the perspective switching between them each chapter. One focuses on Eleanor and some girls she rescues, while the other focuses on some young adults from an orphanage.
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change: The game is mostly a narrative experience, but there is one mandatory RPG battle against three Afflicted. There are two more battles in the Pacifist ending, one of which is a Hopeless Boss Fight.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: What the Affliction is, more or less; it infects ordinary, but alive, people and turns them into flesh-tearing monsters. It definitely becomes more Zombie-like when it starts reanimating corpses.

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