Video Game / Infinity Blade

"Father, I will avenge you."

Infinity Blade is a 2010 action game for the iOS (iPad and iPhone) operating system. It was developed by Chair Entertainment (a subsidiary of Epic Games), previously best known for Shadow Complex, and is notable for utilizing Unreal Engine 3.

In the game's tutorial, a nameless warrior faces off against the villainous God King. The God King easily dispatches the warrior, adding his strength to the titular Infinity Blade.

About 20 years later, the warrior's son returns to kill the God King. If the second warrior is killed (which is likely, considering how tough the God King is), his son will return to continue the cycle (called a bloodline in game). The third warrior's son takes up arms after the death of his father, and so on. Bloodline after bloodline rises up to fight the God King.

The game plays like a swordfighting version of Punch-Out!!. Enemies are fought one at a time and player movement is limited to quick dodges rather than actual sidestepping during fights. The warrior can also block and parry attacks, and retaliate with his own sword or magic spells.

As the warrior kills enemies, he gets gold to buy better equipment and experience to make him a better fighter.

The game has received two sequels, titled Infinity Blade II and Infinity Blade III, and released in November 2011 and September 2013, respectively. A spinoff, Infinity Blade: Dungeons, was announced in 2012, but was cancelled a year later.

In addition to the games, two novellas by Brandon Sanderson have been released, titled Infinity Blade: Awakening and Infinity Blade: Redemption. Released shortly before each sequel, the novellas bridge the gap between each game, and greatly expand on the setting and its backstory.

Unfortunately, as of December 10, 2018, the entire series has been removed from the App Store, rendering them unobtainable by anyone who didn't already own them. After the series ended, its legacy was left gathering dust, the one time it being acknowledged in Fortnite Battle Royale Season 7, with the titular blade obtainable as a special weapon.

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A strong list of tropes indeed, this bloodline will serve us well:

Infinity Blade

• Affably Evil:
  • The God King is complimentary of your skills and even offers you a job. If you accept, he forgoes the usual villain betrayal and informs you that he needs your help in dealing with the Deathless Kings, who are actually far, far worse than he is. If you reject his offer, he gets pissed off and starts putting his all into kicking your ass.
  • Ealoseum, one of the Deathless Kings is quite polite, with his pre-fight dialog implying that he only wants to fight you because you are being manipulated by the God King.
• After the End: The series takes place on Earth, tens or hundreds of thousands of years after the planet was devastated, and the moon shattered.
• All There in the Manual: The novella serves as the manual in this case.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Archarin the Ancestor is actually Ausar/Siris' son, who rejected his role as a sacrifice from Drem's Maw and joined Raidriar's side. Siris never finds out, even after he kills him.
• Anti-Villain: The God King, who turns out to be fighting against the other Deathless, who are bigger jerks than him, and happily welcomes the protagonist into his ranks, should he choose to join them.
• BFS: All of the swords that are usable in-game are pretty large, dwarfing even historical greatswords.
  • One-Handed Zweihänder: Yet, Siris and the God King both wield theirs with one hand, for sword-and-shield combat.
• Bling of War: Easoleum has really fancy golden armor.
• Bloodless Carnage: There's some pretty brutal finishing moves, but none of the High-Pressure Blood you'd expect.
• Bottomless Pit: The second part of the Bonus Dungeon, complete with the possibility of knocking an enemy into it.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: Using real money, players can buy massive amounts of gold. Because gold can be turned into experience points, with enough money you could have every weapon and a maxed-out character before you fight your first enemy.
• Calling the Old Man Out: The Warrior will call out someone who looks like the Ancestor for supporting the God King's agenda. This after generations of his descendants have sacrificed themselves trying to end his tyranny.
• Class and Level System: An unusual example. Experience points are drained away from equipped items into Siris after battles. Each piece of equipment has a set amount of points. When it's completely drained ("mastered"), any points you would get from using it are lost.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Once Archarin gets out of his Mech, he is utterly pathetic. He is programmed to have the same stats as his father (Siris/you), which is likely nowhere near even any of the mooks at this point and his attack patterns are no different than the Iron Guards/Crusaders/Assassins you have been fighting the entire game. The biggest challenge is having enough health from the end of the Zero Mech fight.
• Conlang: In the first game, everyone speaks a fictional language called Pangean.
• Cool Sword: Lots, and also cool maces, cool clubs, and cool axes.
• Coup de Grâce Cutscene: Every battle won ends with a dramatic final blow being dealt to the enemy — Siris climbs up on the enemy's back to stab them, pushes the enemy of a railing, and so on.
• Company Cross References: The New Game Plus helmet and armour rewards are the Fusion Helmet and Omega Armour from the developer's previous game Shadow Complex.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The God King delivers one of these to the first warrior in a cutscene. If you aren't prepared for him, he'll do the same thing to Siris for dozens of bloodlines. You get to pay that back in the final fight with your ancestor/son, Archarin, whose stats are identical to yours and far weaker than the Zero Mech you fought before
• Cutscene Incompetence: In the intro fight, the Dark Knight casually knocks away Siris' sword and shield after a quick sparring match and then the God King One Hit Kills him, regardless of how well the player did.
• Cycle of Revenge: A variation is the central storyline and gameplay trope of the entire first game, which revolves around each iteration of the original ancestor's son continually trying to get revenge on their father's killer - who is the last person you played as, by the way.
• Decoy Protagonist: The game opens up with an armored warrior ascending to a throne room and challenging the God King's rule only to be disarmed during his fight with the Dark Knight and subsequently impaled by the Big Bad's sword, dying without even getting to even clash blades with him. It is then revealed that you are going to play as the warrior's son back for revenge 20 years later, losing to the God King again repeats this cycle of avenging sons.
• Difficult, but Awesome: In order from least to most useful, the types of breaks are Block Break (rarely gives a stab opportunity, usually only dizzies the enemy for a fairly short window), Dodge Break (Usually dizzies the enemy for longer, sometimes gives a stab opportunity), and Parry Break (Usually dizzies the enemy for the longest time — sometimes enough to get off an Ultra Hit — and offers a stab opportunity more often than not). Not coincidentally, this coincides exactly with their difficulty — blocking requires simply pressing and holding a button and can protect against nearly everything except outright charges (though some other attacks can break it so it won't defend against the next hit); dodging requires pressing a button with extremely forgiving timing and syncing it up to whether the attack's coming from the left or right, but some attacks just plain can't be dodged; and parrying requires swiping in one of four possible opposing directions with precise timing and only works against actual weapon strikes.
• Doing In the Wizard: The ending you get for defeating the God King is this. Your warrior notices a small digital control panel on the God King's throne. When touched, it activates a hidden mechanical projector, and a giant Hologram of the planet appears, implying that the Deathless are an advanced alien race. The glowing, touch-interface device on the throne may be a Shout-Out to the iPhone, as Infinity Blade was the phone's equivalent of a blockbuster release.
  • The secret boss takes place in a cloning lab, and his first phase is a Mini-Mecha.
• Dual Wielding: Several enemies do this, but you can't - not 'til the sequel, at least.
• Earth All Along: In the ending mentioned in Doing in the Wizard, Eurasia, Africa, and Australia rotate into view on the hologram.
• Early-Bird Boss: The God King during the early bloodlines.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The dialogue in it is spoken in a fictional language called Pangean and parrying was a lot more difficult.
• Elemental Powers: A major mechanic seen in the first game and onwards. The elements in question are Fire, Ice, Shock, Poison, Light, Dark, and the equipment-only element Drain, exclusive to the first game. The elements can be used in some swords and shields and almost all rings for Elemental Attack, Elemental Defence, and Magic, respectively.
• Endless Game: If you manage to defeat the God King, you get a cool ending sequence and start a new bloodline. You can repeat this sequence of events as long as you want.
• The Faceless: Borderline "World of Faceless," almost everyone wears a mask or helmet at all times. Finally averted in the third game, Siris and Isa show their faces, as well as the craftsmen they recruit.
• Fan Disservice: The Warden enemy is naked except for a loin-cloth, but is extremely fat with this huge scar across his belly and has a freaky spiky headgear instead of a head.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The novella reveals the story behind many of the gameplay elements, such as why all the enemies are fought one at a time, why Siris always has the equipment of his father, and so on.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: When you finally manage to defeat the God King, the ending cutscene shows Siris stealing the Infinity Blade and killing him with it. Yet, this does not gain the Infinity Blade, for it must instead be purchased like any other weapon. This is especially-jarring as a big part of the novella's plot is that killing Raidriar does result in getting the Infinity Blade.
• Generation Xerox: Justified with the sequel's revelation.
• Going Through the Motions: The warrior's weapons include swords, axes, morningstars and other weapons, yet his kill animations never change. This results in situations such as stabbing an axe straight through an enemy's stomach, or stabbing a mace through the back of a golem's neck.
• God-Emperor: Well, God King. He's just modest like that.
• Good All Along: Once you find out the God King's true motivations and goals, he's an Anti-Villain at worst, and possibly even an Anti-Hero. He was Ausar the Vile's Arch-Enemy and the one who defeated him in the first place.
• Guide Dang It!: You have to commit suicide in the intro fight against the Dark Knight to enter the negative Bloodlines. Easy enough if you know the secret, but practically impossible to figure out on your own.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The intro fight with the Dark Knight is this due to the above mentioned Cutscene Incompetence. Your first few fights against the God-King are going to be unwinnable for all intents as well.
• Identical Grandson: Part of the gameplay! You retain your father's armor, weapons, and skills in the first game. This later becomes a plot point. It turns out you're just the same man, reincarnated over and over again via advanced tech and TEL retrieving and reviving your body when you're not looking.
• I Need You Stronger: Or rather, your son, and his son after that, and...
• I Shall Taunt You: Being defeated by a Titan will have them strike a triumphant or derisive pose at your corpse.
• In the Hood: Kuero wears one.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The eponymous Infinity Blade, carried by the God King, is a huge step above most weapons in terms of power. Unfortunately, you don't get it by beating him; you have to save up for it in the shop. In the New Game+, you can gain even more powerful sci-fi themed equipment.
• Joke Item: There is the Balloon of War (a balloon sword) and the Touch of Death (a gigantic index finger wielded as a sword). The balloon is actually still kind of useful though. ^note  It has an attack bonus of +2, only one higher than the Ruin... but has a Drain of +40. Drain is an element resisted by relatively few enemies that restores your health when it deals damage, and the only weapon with a higher Drain value is an extremely expensive weapon you're not likely to see until quite late in the game.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Justified, the God King really does leave that treasure around just for you (apparently he's even kind enough to donate it to your next of kin.) Not so justifiable in the sequels, where you're quite definitely fighting your way into places you're not welcome.
• Lethal Joke Item: The Lady Finger is a gaudy pink-and-gold sword that produces hearts, sparkles, and rainbows when swung... however, it has power completely proportionate to its cost, and even has the generally-useful Drain element. It's not weak, just ridiculous.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Blocking with the shield is easier than dodging or parrying, but it leaves the smallest window for counterattacking, and will break after a certain number of blocks.
• Minimalism: The player can move the camera a bit and tap areas of the screen to pick up treasure and choose which room to go to next, but otherwise the gameplay is all about one-on-one fights. The story is told in short bursts of exposition (a few sentences at most), leaving it up to the player to imagine what is going on.
• Mook Chivalry: Your enemies come one at a time, and kindly wait for you to loot any treasure nearby and heal up if you wish. Again justified because the God King actually wants you to reach him.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The God King and his Infinity Blade.
• New Game Plus: Justified in the story. Each new game is a descendant of the previous warrior. It's also mandatory, because you can't retry if you lose to the God King. After you defeat the True Final Boss, you can do a proper New Game+, where you can master equipment twice and access the most powerful items.
• No Name Given: Both the warrior and the God King, until Awakening.
• Offstage Villainy: Thanks to the minimalism, it's not clear to the player exactly what the God King is guilty of, other than being smug and defending himself against armed maniacs that keep breaking into his castle. Some of the decor like the noose and dungeons is suggestive, and the novella goes into a little more detail.
• Post-Final Boss: The Ancestor is the final enemy fought in the game, but it is all but guaranteed to be a Curb-Stomp Battle in your favor as his stats and health are identical to yours, which at this point are much lower than even mooks you are facing, and considering you defeated the Zero Mech before him and have the Infinity Blade and Dragoor Blade, he is laughably easy.
• Railing Kill: The opponent on the bridge is always shield-bashed off into the void below. The opponent on the staircase next to the front gate is always knocked off and falls onto the courtyard below.
• Reverse Grip: Many kill animations involve the player character reversing the grip of his weapon. From this position, the weapon is used to perform or set up the coup-de-grace in some way — manoeuvres range from a simple chest stabbing to hamstringing the enemy or even thrusting the weapon into the enemy's body for leverage to climb onto its back.
• Sequel Hook:
  • If you ally with the God King, he mentions that there are even more powerful and evil Deathless in the world (some of which act as bonus bosses in the Deathless Kings update), and if you kill him, his last words are "They're coming for you next".
  • Pretty much all of the Ancestor's pre-fight dialogue heavily imply the God King has a secret plan.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Ring of Ice and Fire, a Disc-One Nuke that gives you powerful offensive and healing spells (in addition to a 30-point Magic bonus) is almost certainly named for a particularly popular fantasy series.
  • The Patriot, a large round shield with a star set in the center. If you look closely, you can see that it still has a few old flecks of red, white, and blue paint sticking to it . . .
• Slouch of Villainy: The God King is always encountered slouched on his throne, seemingly bored with the proceedings.
• Speaking Simlish: The game uses a fictional, vaguely Latin-sounding, language for all the in game dialogue.
• Stuck Items: The only items that can be equipped in the negative bloodlines are the pieces of the Dark Mech set.
• Super Boss: The three Deathless Kings are quite difficult bosses which require the Infinity Blade to even fight.
• True Final Boss: Defeating all of the Deathless Kings unlocks a fight against the Zero Mech.
• Useless Useful Spell: As you advance in bloodlines, offensive magic and elemental weaponry become less and less powerful. The God King is immune to all magic and elemental effects after the first time you beat him, and The Ancestor is also immune to everything.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Zig-Zagged; each time the God King is defeated, he grows more powerful, but his level remains static between attempts. After a while, however, killing him becomes nearly impossible.
• Villainous Harlequin: The Wood Jester.
• We Can Rule Together: The God King offers you to join him after the first stage of the fight. If you accept, he tells you that the two of you need to work together to defeat even worse evils. Then the credits roll and you're placed back at the beginning of the fight. The only way to advance to a new bloodline is to kill the God King or be killed yourself. Canonically, the Ancestor is a warrior who did accept the offer.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The God King's motivation for wanting to kill the other Deathless is because they are all corrupt. The reason he dislikes Siris so much is that he used to be the worst of them all, Ausar the Vile.
• You Killed My Father: The basic story hook of the game. Each new generation declares that he will avenge his father; if there is a better reason to slay the God King, the game does not mention it.

Infinity Blade II

• Ancient Order of Protectors: The Blood Sentinels, a group of four powerful guardians who keep the seals of the Vault of Tears, and the Worker within, safe from outsiders, barring Siris' quest and serving as the bosses of the game. The first, Thane, alludes to the Sentinels being formed as part of an ancient agreement between the Deathless Houses known as the Great Pact, part of which apparently decreed the permanent imprisonment of the Worker in the Vault.
• Anti-Magic: The Worker of Secrets has the ability to disrupt a Deathless' Quantum Identity Pattern and kill them permanently. This also applies to the Infinity Blade that he forged.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: The introduction to the Stone Demon, the second Blood Sentinel and guardian of the bridge seal. The knight you first see starts cursing at you and promising to rip the flesh from your bones... then a winged stone golem — the real Stone Demon — drops down and crushes him.
• Batman Gambit: The end of the game is a Batman Gambit, as the Worker tries to get Siris to fight Raidriar. Of course, this could easily have been avoided had he simply stopped to listen, but the Worker knew that Siris hated Raidriar enough to attack him first and think later, and that Raidriar hated Ausar enough to not consider Siris worthy of respect or enlightening about the nature of the Worker.
• Beehive Barrier: If you look carefully, you'll notice that the gold portions of the armor worn by Raidriar and the Worker of Secrets are made of hexagonal scales.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: The Behemid, which resembles a giant, deformed, armored, wingless housefly.
• Black Knight: Ausar when he wore the Vile set.
• Blow You Away: The Wind Element, introduced in the second game.
• Big "NO!": Siris gives one after the Worker of Secrets imprisons him at the end of the game.
• Call-Back: Six months later, while walking up to a cliff and looking at a big tower: "Worker, I will free you."
• Character Tics: Ryth has a noticeable habit of continuously pacing back and forth while waiting for Siris. After the Blademasters Update, this also carries into Infinity Blade III, when he makes a reappearance in the Ark/the Stronghold in Larioth to fight Siris/Isa.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: In the third fight with Thane (right after his second fight) he has much less health and attack power than in the previous fight.
• Design-It-Yourself Equipment: The items in the Gem set provide almost no bonuses (except the spectrum defence granted by the Gem Shield), but all have a large number of gem slots and rely on customisation via gems.
• Disney Villain Death: At the end of the second fight with the warden Thane, he gets knocked off the tower to fall to his apparent death.
• Downer Ending: The Worker of Secrets is revealed to have been sealed away by Ausar, Siris' Deathless persona, and in freeing him, both Siris and Raidriar are trapped in his prison, giving the Worker free reign to complete the dark plans he was working on. In the post-credit scene Isa is shown coming to the Vault, readying her weapon.
• Dual Wielding: One of the weapon styles has Siris wielding a weapon in each hand. The style leaves Siris unable to block, but he can dodge more than with a sword-and-board style, and attacks are lightning fast, allowing safe scratch attacks (attacking while the enemy is attacking) and long combos.
• Eaten Alive: This will happen to you if you fail to release yourself from a Monstrosity's jaws before your HP dips to zero. The monster will pick Siris up in its jaws and devour him.
• Evil All Along: The Worker of Secrets, who Siris believed for the entire game was a benevolent man who would help set the world back in order, turns out to be a Manipulative Bastard who tricked Siris into breaking him out of his prison to have both Siris and the God-King take his place, allowing him to assemble an army of Deathless Warriors and go on to Take Over the World.
• Evil Brit: The Deathless now speak with British accents.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Not with the Infinity Blade, this time, actually. The Worker of Secrets steals it in the ending. Some weapons (such as Thane's), however, end up being a different type of weapon than how their original user wields it - Thane's weapon appears to be a "light" sword, but when you use it, it's a dual weapon.
• Gemstone Assault: The Crystal Element, exclusive to this game and only seen in a magic spell.
• Glory Hound: The Optional Boss Ryth gives absolutely zero fucks about what’s going on with the game’s plot; he is only interested in fighting a Worthy Opponent like Siris for the sake of having an entertaining battle.
  Ryth: I could not care less about the Pact or what you are doing here. I haven't faced a Worthy Opponent in centuries, and I yearn for the glory of a duel for the fates.
• Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: The bosses in Negative Rebirth mode are in many ways easier than the regular Mooks, since they lack the (compulsory) XP bonuses.
• Improbable Use of a Weapon: When equipped with a heavy weapon, Siris often finishes enemies off by plunging it into them, even if it's something like a scythe or hammer.
• I Owe You My Life: Quoted word for word by the Iron Hunter, should you choose to spare him.
• I Shall Taunt You: Once again, being defeated by a Titan will have them strike a triumphant or derisive pose at you. Some nobler enemies, like Ryth, will instead bow respectfully to you and Monstrosities will just swallow you whole upon defeat.
• Joke Item: Ruin and Thorneblade, two swords whose attack damage is exactly 1.
• Laser Blade: The Solar Trans Weapons in the Skycages DLC.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The tutorial scene spoils the ending of the novella, although nothing much is explained about it, unlike in the novella.
• Making a Splash: The Water Element, introduced in this game.
• Meaningful Name: Very subtle. Ausar is one of the suspected original Kemetic pronunciations for the god we call Osiris—and remember who it is that keeps getting reborn from death. Going by this, you could also make connections between several other characters and Egyptian neteru. Saydhi/Set, Isa/Isis, Raidriar/Ra.
• Mercy Rewarded: If you choose to spare the Iron Hunter after defeating him, he'll show up on the next Rebirth and give you Torren's Legacy, one of the best heavy weapons in the game. In comparison, killing him nets the Hunter Mail, which is totally unremarkable and can easily be bought from the shop.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • The God King's real name, Raidriar, doesn't undermine his image by any means. When you finally take him on as the final boss, his full name and title Raidriar the God King only serves to underline how powerful this guy is.
  • Siris' past name and title Ausar the Vile. The few hints of his misdeeds in the games and novella show that he definitely earned that title.
• Never-Forgotten Skill: The Warrior/Siris never loses his experience levels, item mastery, or skills once he gains them. Not even if he dies multiple times, not even if he gets amnesia (which he did in the story), and not even if you go back to the very first cycle.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Siris's steadfast belief that freeing the Worker of Secrets would save the world gets shattered fast when the Worker reveals that he just trapped Siris in the Vault, and that he has every intention of making all the other Deathless into his own personal army of conquest.
• Nintendo Hard: The Negative Rebirths. All non-boss fights have at least one (sometimes even two) XP bonus requirements that MUST be fulfilled before the enemy is killed, or else you'll be kicked off the negative rebirths. In addition, you can only equip the Gem set, whose stats come exclusively from equipped gems.
• Not Quite Dead: So you knocked Thane off tower and descend into Worker of Secrets' prison, then when you approach him, Thane appears again to fight you, but... see Degraded Boss.
• Oh, Crap!: Siris's reaction whenever the God King appears.
• One-Winged Angel: When the Bog Giant is defeated, it transforms into the Moss Golem, a monstrosity that will give you a hard time even if you mastered fighting the first form.
• Optional Boss: A lot: the owners of the Vile set, the Skycage prisoners and Ryth. Most of them are very strong and you don't need to beat them to finish the game, but many of the best items in the game are dropped from them.
• Poor Communication Kills: If only the defenders of the Pact were more specific and less ominous when warning Siris that freeing the Worker would bring catastrophe...
• Rainbow Pimp Gear: Some of the items you can equip include cardboard armor and a horse-headed club that leaves rainbow streaks on the air. If you're using certain low-level items for the experience boost, its is quite likely that your outfit will be horribly, hilariously mismatched.
• Scenery Porn: Non-combat sequences have been added which allow the player to pan around the Unreal Engine 3 scenery and tap on hidden items to obtain them. This has the added benefit of showing off how well optimized the graphics are for an iOS title, especially compared to the first game, but the developers have once again eschewed free movement.
• Schizo Tech: Lots of futuristic technology can be seen in great force throughout the game, especially given that's it's set many eons in Earth's future. Some (but far from all) examples include various Mecha-Mooks that can be fought throughout the castle, especially the one that serves as the third boss armed with a full-on mech suit, the obviously tech-filled reincarnation chamber in which Siris wakes up every time he dies, and Siris' hidden robot companion, TEL.
• Schmuck Bait: After killing Saydhi with the Infinity Blade, Siris finds a stone with an Infinity Blade-shaped aperture, just like the one that unlocked the God-King's lab. It takes his sword and disappears.
  The God-King: Yes... I thought you might fall for that. You opened the pathway to my dungeons, after all.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: As the Archivist and the Exo-Pilot who controls the MX-Goliath note, the Worker of Secrets is much, much worse than any other Deathless. Worse like you wouldn't believe.
• Sealed Good in a Can: The Worker of Secrets isn't the only enemy of the Deathless imprisoned in the Vault of Tears. In fact, one of them is quite grateful for freeing him and gives you a powerful heavy weapon in gratitude (provided that you spared his life after beating some sense into him, of course).
• Set Bonus: While the entire Vile set is equipped (including the Holy Band and either the Vile Blade, Vile Thorn or Vile Mace), you'll receive a 30% bonus to item drop rate.
• Shout-Out:
  • Just about everything about Ryth is a Shout Out to Star Wars, as well as the Solar Trans weapons, which are just lightsabers.
  • The rainbow-streaky horse-headed club is named Harmony, a reference to My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
  • In the Skycage update, you will always encounter a large Titan guarding the cages of the prisoners. If you're lucky, it may be a Locust Butcher guarding them. He's even wearing his apron and wielding his unique meat cleaver!
  • In the second and third game, you can encounter Monstrosities: massive feral creatures that attack you with limb bashes and bites. One of the possible Monstrosities you can run into are the Pierced Wretch and Plated Wretch.
• Socketed Equipment: Gems come in different shapes and colours and can be infused with equipment to grant numerous effects, such as Elemental Attack/Defence, longer Breaks, buffs to Stats, etc. You can forge three gems together to create new, more powerful gems.
• Speaking Simlish: The very first line spoken by Isa is in the fictional language used in the first game, but after that every line is spoken in English.
• Stuck Items: The only items that can be equipped in the Negative Rebirths are the pieces of the Gem set.
• A Taste of Power: The prologue has Siris equipped with high-level equipment until Saydhi is defeated, at which point the equipment is stolen and Siris starts again with the weakest items.
• Translation Convention: After the first line of the game is spoken, dialogue switches to English for the benefit of the player.
• Ungrateful Bastard: All of the Skycage prisoners attack you after you free them, though the Iron Hunter eventually realises you are not evil after you beat him, and apologizes for attacking you and pleads for mercy.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Following the mercy bit stated above, you can choose to spare or kill the Iron Hunter. If you spare him, he will return on the next Rebirth, and reward you with a powerful hammer called Torren's Legacy.
• Warm-Up Boss: Saydhi, the boss at the end of the tutorial, is quite easy, and is only fought once per full playthrough.
• What the Hell, Player?: In a positive example, equipping a Solar weapon with an elemental gem will net you this "warning" message:
  AWESOMENESS: Are you ready for the most face meltingly awesome weapon of all time?
  AWESOMENESS: Are you ready for a guitar solo of awesome on you soul?
• Wutai: Saydhi's Estate features cherry blossoms, koi ponds, a Ninja, samurai, and oni.

Infinity Blade III

• Acrofatic: Minnoch.
• Action Girl: Isa gets to properly be one this time.
• Annoying Arrows: Isa frequently shoots enemies with her crossbow before closing in for melee. They pull the bolt out, and start the fight with a small amount of Scratch Damage.
• Arrow Catch: Lelindre actually catches Isa's usual starting bolt. Justifiable in that she's a very ancient Deathless.
• Babies Ever After: Sort of. The last scene of the game shows Siris and Isa on a beach, chaperoning the toddler who was once the Worker of Secrets as he plays.
• The Battle Didn't Count: The first fight with Lelindre. She will completely overpower Isa when brought down to one-third vitality, but spare her when she realizes she didn't choose to become a Deathless, and can trust her to stop Galath.
• Body Backup Drive: In this game, Siris and Isa have access to a revival chamber filled with frozen Soulless clones of themselves, so that when they die, one of these clone bodies will thaw out and allow their QIP to possess it. Compared to Siris' obsolete revival chamber in II (which involved regrowing a body from any piece of his flesh that Tel could salvage, a process that could take months if not years), this revival chamber is much quicker and more efficient, as it only takes several hours to thaw out one of their backup bodies. In fact, if Siris and Isa want to return to their base quickly, they just activate a self-immolation function on their armor and count on their QIP to reach a backup body faster than they can run.
• Body Horror: Thane, after having his QIP disrupted by Galath near the end of Infinity Blade II, has now turned into a 'Deathless QIP Abomination' - a giant, many-faced flesh golem, no longer sentient.
  Isa: That is just wrong...
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Though only a rare random mook, the Zero Mech has spectrum defence like bosses, and if you are defeated by it you're sent back to the Hideout without an option for a rematch.
• Call-Back: In the ending, the way Siris deals the final blow to the Worker of Secrets is in the same manner that he defeated Raidriar in the first game.
• Can't Catch Up: While traveling throughout the game's various locations, you may encounter The Dark Knight from the first game. No matter how high you get in the Awakenings or how powerful your gear is, he'll always be a much lower level than the other enemies and can literally be dispatched in half a dozen hits. It's easy to feel sorry for the poor bastard when you kick his ass time and time again. Also overlaps with Villain Forgot to Level Grind.
• Companion Cube: During the opening cinematic, Galath speaks to the Infinity Blade as if it was an old friend from whom he has been separated for far too long.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Particularly noticeable when you get hit by a Titan using the Dual Wielding style. The stagger animation for Siris and Isa when they are struck is longer than it takes for the Titan to land another hit on you. If you are hit by an unlucky attack, expect to take at least two more in succession due to the stupid animation preventing you from inputting any swipes to regain your footing.
• Cowardly Boss: The Dragons randomly show up in certain areas and try to eat your character. After sustaining some damage they will fly away. Thankfully they don't recover health in between battles.
• Decoy Protagonist: The intro and tutorial has you controlling Raidriar as he confronts the Worker of Secrets. At the end, though, he's overpowered by the Worker, and only has just enough time to teleport the Worker's datapod to Siris before he gets killed by the Infinity Blade.
• Degraded Boss: The Zero Mech, the True Final Boss of the first game, returns in the third game as a Boss in Mook Clothing.
• Dirty Old Man: Both the times Siris tries to recruit Benedict, he gets rebuffed—Benedict has no desire to make himself look like an enemy of the Worker of Secrets, and cares more about comfort than direct freedom, anyway. However, when Isa comes upon him, he is quick to join up with her without bothering to ask why she wants his help—and his body language makes it clear he's infatuated with her. He's clearly pretty dismayed to find that she's in the same cause as Siris (he's going to get marked as a traitor by the Worker, anyway?!), but his ardor still overrides his misgivings over opposing the current powers that be.
• Flat "What": The Ancient Map is seemingly incomprehensible. Siris is understandably somewhat miffed, and his reaction is pretty much worth the asking price for the map itself (though otherwise not really worth the trouble of getting it, as you can get the Rare Prize wheel for the same price in the store).
• Forging Scene: The opening cinematic is interspersed with scenes of Galath forging the Infinity Blade while he narrates the events that have led up to the present.
• A God Am I:
  • Like in Redemption, Galath is all over this. So is the Soulless Ausar, who regards himself as the real Ausar after Siris debased himself by working with ordinary humans. Since he has the original's memories, it's a fair bet that pre-mindwipe, the original Ausar the Vile thought of himself as a God as well.
  • In the beginning of the game, Galath mocks Raidriar for calling himself the "God-King". He notes that the other Deathless knew they weren't truly gods and merely acted out the role to rule over humans.
  Galath: When they put aside the mask, they put aside the god. But you, Raidriar, you believe.
• God Guise: According to Galath, most of the Deathless know they aren't actually gods. Galath compares the illusion of godhood to the masks the Deathless wear, and they remove one as easily as they remove the other. Raidriar is the only Deathless that genuinely believes he's a god.
• Graceful Loser: Whenever you best him in combat, the Collector takes the defeat in stride and immediately rewards you with his weapon, going as far to get down on one knee and present it to you without reluctance. Notably, he is the only enemy Deathless who does this and also the only Deathless who Siris and Isa don't kill when defeated.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Isa is able to escape enemies' notice while sneaking in broad daylight with no cover. Mook Chivalry is still in full effect, so possibly they're just playing along, like a parent pretending they can't find a child who's very bad at hide-and-seek. Not that daerils are known for their smarts, though...
• Guide Dang It!: All of those seemingly useless maps you get? Yeah, they're each their own separate side quest for unlocking some sweet items. Good luck figuring that out on your own, though. The maps in the game are completely incomprehensible when you look at them. All of the maps display some vaguely cryptic clues on a location or weapon, but the rest is for you to discover. One in particular is the Map of Heaven side quest, which allows you to get the Worker of Secrets' armor, which happens to be the best armor for Siris, making this worthwhile. The map displays a picture of some building and two random weapons. Stumped, right? Turns out these weapons are the Blade of Heaven and the Axe of Heaven and are very expensive each. Siris and Isa must have these weapons equipped, then you must travel to the Metius Observatory and tap on an observatory in the right spot WAY in the background that you probably never noticed before you fight the first Titan. Then, you will travel to the Observatory where you encounter an Optional Boss and can claim The Origin armor, but there is no way a player could figure this out by themselves. Not to mention that the other maps cost a fortune in Battle Chips as well, so you'll spend loads of time and money for these cryptic quests.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Well, Isa does plenty of smashing, but she often says "hello" with a crossbow bolt first.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The first battle against the Worker of Secrets. No, don't try to defeat him, you can't.
• Improvised Weapon: You can knock an enemy's weapon out of their hand. They'll either pull a new one out of Hammerspace, or improvise, such as Dual Wielding by breaking a staff into two, or grabbing something in the environment.
• I Shall Taunt You: Standard procedure for the games; being defeated in battle will have your enemy strike a victorious or mocking gesture towards your corpse. However, some enemies respectfully bow to you instead and the more talkative ones like the MX-Elite will utter "pathetic fool" or "you never stood a chance" in addition to their pose. The Dragons and Monstrosities are a bit more pragmatic and simply eat you instead.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Redeemer. It's the device that erased Siris' memories of Ausar, and it's how Galath gets defeated at the end of the game.
• Laser-Guided Karma: It's revealed after the Vault Of Tears that Galath was the one who erased Ausar's memories using the Redeemer. In the final battle, Siris, or Ausar reborn, uses the Redeemer to defeat Galath, erasing his memories of being the Worker and turning him into a child, just like he had done to Ausar many centuries ago.
• Legacy Boss Battle: Ryth, who originally appeared in the second game as a Super Boss, reprises this role in the third game.
• Martial Arts Staff: Some of Isa's heavy weapons are staves.
• Neck Snap: When Isa travels to Koroth to investigate the rumors about a cult dedicated to Ausar the Vile (Siris' old self before Galath wiped his memories with the Redeemer), she ends up meeting a Soulless clone of him. He quickly overpowers her and kills her that way. Fortunately thanks to being a Deathless, it doesn't slow her down for long.
• Ninja: Isa, more or less. She sneaks around and utilizes some Le Parkour to get the drop on opponents, and uses more of a hybrid martial arts fighting style compared to Siris, frequently employing acrobatics and kicking moves.

• Ninja Looting: After Siris defeats the enemy in front of the first treasure chest on the dock, he hears footsteps, and Shell strolls up, loots the chest while he stares, and then takes off.^note She later sails up to his hideout and offers to sell the item, to his annoyance.
  Shell: Thanks for the help, handsome.
  Siris: Hey, wait, what... Seriously?
• No-Sell: Gems (except for the single elemental gem equipped in the Solar-Trans) and potions have absolutely no effect when fighting Ryth.
• Not in This for Your Revolution:
  • Benedict rebuffs both of Siris's attempts to recruit him since he doesn't believe in Siris's cause (and doesn't want to get crosshaired by the Worker). He will maintain this stance even after Isa recruits him.
  • Eves is only working with Siris and Isa because his master Raidriar ordered him to help them. He's still noticeably unhappy working for the amnesiac Ausar the Vile.
  • Shell just wants to make a tidy profit off of Siris and Isa.
• Oh, Crap!: The moment the Worker realizes he didn't install a failsafe in the redeemer.
• Omnicidal Maniac: The Worker is mass-producing Infinity weapons with the intent of exterminating the remaining humans and most of the Deathless. He's done this several times before, by the way.
• Optional Boss: Bosses that do not need to be beaten to finish the game include Oslim, Zuorsara, Minnoch, the Collector, Lelindre (second fight), the Souless Ausar, Ryth, Dragoor and Varun.
• Promoted to Playable: Isa, who was completely absent in the first game and only showed up in the tutorial and ending cutscene of the second game, is finally playable in this installment. She always starts her fights by causing Scratch Damage to the Titans with her crossbow, has a more acrobatic fighting approach with different finishers, has her own completely different set of equipment and items to master and boasts different skills from Siris to distinguish herself.
• Real Song Theme Tune: Imagine Dragons' song "Monster" is the ending theme.
• Recurring Boss: Lelindre, the boss of the Pinnacle Monastery (Isa's Act 4 location), is fought again by Siris when he comes to the Pinnacle Monastery after the Worker's defeat.
• Recurring Location: You can travel back to the previous locations of the previous games, but it's severely limited in choice of travel.
• Sea Monster:
  • The second Dragon, Pisci. Despite being obviously a flying monster, her appearance greatly resembles a giant fish-eel hybrid with wings, and her name has a very obvious connection to fish.
  • While exploring the dungeon of the Broken Tower, Isa finds a massive underwater window that fills a good portion of the far wall. Usually, it only shows empty sea, but occasionally, without warning, a colossal... thing will pass by the window, resembling a Dunkleosteus put on steroids. Thank goodness we don't have to fight that...
• Sequel Hook: Once defeated, the Soulless Ausar sneers that he's the only one with all of the original Ausar's memories...which happen to include secrets even Galath doesn't know about.
• She Is the King: Despite being female, Dragoor is still called the King of Dragons.
• Shout-Out: Several Achievements relate to several films and television series. This includes...
  • Red Wedding
  • Are You Not Entertained?
  • Sleepy Hollow
• Skewed Priorities: Ryth returns as an Optional Boss once again and, like in the last game, is completely unconcerned with the fact that the world will be destroyed by Galath if he isn’t stopped and delivers his usual Insane Troll Logic to Siris to justify staying out of the conflict.
  Siris: Don’t you see what’s happening? We’re fighting for the very survival of this world! Join us!
  Ryth: I care nothing for your petty squables. Nothing else matters for me except retaining my glory!
• Space Base: The Kingdom Come update reveals that Galath has been keeping a secret base on the shattered moon this entire time, dubbed "Heaven" by Lelindre, intended as a form of off-world shelter whenever he destroys the world. Siris and Isa can catch a glimpse of the base using the Metius Observatory telescope during the "Map to Heaven" sidequest.
• Speaking Simlish / The Unintelligible: Nocs tend to start rounds with some very rough, very vicious chatter...in their own tongue, that is. Siris and Isa will occasionally comment about it, ranging from a simple Flat "What", to what is effectively Boss Banter.
  Siris: Lalalalala...no. Don't bother; act it out!
  Isa: Do you even feel pain?!
• Stealth-Based Mission: Isa's, although they're really "Faux Stealth Missions." She sneaks around and attacks enemies by surprise, but these are purely non-interactive cutscenes between each battle.
• The Stinger: After the credits, it's revealed what happened to the Worker. He's been turned into a toddler and had his memories wiped by Siris, and is seen building a sandcastle resembling the Ark on the Hideout beach, with Siris and Isa standing by and watching him like caring parents.
• Taking You with Me: Siris' encounter with Soulless Ausar takes place next to a massive pit. On defeat, Ausar will grab Siris and pull him into the pit as he falls.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Eves isn't exactly thrilled to be working alongside his lord's ancient enemy, mind-wiped or not. Benedict doesn't like working with Siris either and only does so because he's loyal to Isa.
• That Man Is Dead: Siris does not take well to Melek's suggestion that he secretly yearns to regain the glory he had as Ausar.
• *Twang* Hello: Isa introduces herself to every opponent with a crossbow bolt to the chest fired from her hiding place.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: We never see until after you defeat Galath what Ausar and Jensen were planning to finally put a stop to the Worker's madness—a nice, fat dose of memory erasure as he had once done to Ausar. They certainly never apprised TEL or Isa of it.
• Villainous Breakdown: Galath's nonchalant attitude in the face of Raidriar storming his fortress is only shaken when Raidriar taunts him with his imprisonment at the hands of Ausar, pointing out that for all of Galath's claims of being all-knowing, he didn't predict that. Galath furiously claims that Ausar was an anomaly and nothing more.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Terrovax is spared by Isa at the end of Act II, as he has more roles to play. He never appears again in the game. In the Soul Hunter update, it is revealed that Terrovax was the one who told them about Oslim and the Metius Observatory, though he is still mysteriously absent for the rest of the game.
• Wutai: Lelindre's monastery.

Novellas

Infinity Blade: Awakening

• Action Girl: Isa. But she can cook too.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: The Dark Thoughts are revealed to be Siris' original persona's memory.
• Artificial Intelligence: The deadminds.
• Broad Strokes: The broad events of the novellas are canon, but a number of specific details don't mesh with the games. For instance, Siris is straight out told he's a Deathless in Awakening, but in the second game, this is a Tomato in the Mirror realization he comes to on his own.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Siris and the Aegis Forms. Fine when dueling an opponent one-on-one, not so much when you're attacked by a large number of ruthless savages.
• Deconstruction: This novel is fond of playing the basic elements of the first game to their realistic conclusions. Siris' characterization shows how he had to basically give up a normal childhood to become a peak-human warrior, and the predisposition of his ancestors' many deaths shows how his unexpected return is greeted with fear rather than joy. Furthermore, spending all of his training learning how to fight enemies one-on-one shows that he is weak against enemies that don't play by those rules - he struggles against the crossbow-happy Isa and later against a Zerg Rush of savages, and even when pitted against two ordinary golems at once he focuses on disarming them with a transportation disk rather than fighting them both head-on.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Raidriar/The God King makes it perfectly explicit that he doesn't think Ausar/Siris deserves any kind of honor. Or, at least, he used to be.
  Siris: What of honor?
  The God-King: There are some I give honor, but not you, Ausar. Never you.
  Siris: What? I fought you with honor. I killed you with honor.
  The God-King: And I do believe that was the only time in your awful life that you ever showed honor to another.
• Harmful Healing: The healing magic used in the game has a nasty side effect: in addition to healing wounds, it ages your body by the length of time it would have taken the wounds to heal naturally. In other words, each time you heal yourself, you're shortening your life span by a few months. Of course, since the main character is a Deathless, this is not a big deal for him.
• It Was with You All Along: Siris' goal is to find a way to activate the Blade so that it can kill Deathless permanently. He only realized later that by killing Archarin, he already have activated the Blade.
• Memory Gambit: It turns out that Siris/Ausar has been playing one for centuries — though as of the end of the novella, neither the reader nor Siris know exactly why. Even the God-King thinks he had been masterfully played, but not by Ausar, but rather, by the Worker of Secrets.
• Magic from Technology: How some of the Deathless' powers work, possibly all of them. Here are some examples:
  • The deadminds in general. Siris is told they're the souls of children captured by the God King to be used as his mindless servants, when in fact, it's extremely obvious they are just simple-minded AIs. One of the God King's deadminds asks Siris for a pass-phrase when he tries to access it, and even asks him security questions when he doesn't know it!
  • At one point, Isa mentions owning some "contraband farshot magics" but also mentions that she can't use them, as she needs a "magic tube." With that one statement, Isa proves that, yes, guns do exist in the Infinity Blade universe.
  • The "magic" rings. On first sight, they seem to conjure magical spells such as fireballs, healing spells, etc. TEL simply passes them off as weaponized teleporters. The rings split into two parts, the actual ring, and the transportation disk. When placed on an appropriate energy source and activated, the transportation disk absorbs the appropriate energy needed for the spell, e.g. heat for a fire spell, and transports it to the ring to be used in a "magic spell" before having to recharge.
  • The God King has the ability to directly summon the Infinity Blade and his shield to and from his hands, a seemingly magical ability. It turns out that he's just using that exact same kind of teleporation system built into his personal ring, with a transportation disk discreetly hidden on the end of the Infinity Blade's pommel. Once the God King's glitchy deadmind ends up mistaking Siris for its master and unlocks this ability for him, he uses the transporation disk to both steal back the Infinity Blade from Isa and to mess with a pair of golems trying to kill him.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Siris discovers this once he comes home from defeating the God King. He can think up numerous ways to kill an opponent with a woodcutting axe, but can't use it for its intended purpose, chopping wood.
• Our Souls Are Different: It's called Quantum Identity Pattern (Q.I.P.).
• The Reveal:
  • The Ancestor is one of Siris' previous reincarnation's son.
  • The God-King's real name is Raidriar.
  • The discovery that the rings can only be used by the Deathless leads directly to the revelation that the warriors (of whom Siris is the latest) are actually a single Deathless, named Ausar.
  • The significance of the Infinity Blade is that it can kill the Deathless permanently.
• Shoe Phone: The magic rings you have been collecting in the game also served as the God King's listening device.
• Spanner in the Works: Isa killed Siris before the God King managed to stab Siris with the Infinity Blade, which would have resulted in Siris' permanent death. This also alerted the God King that someone knew the nature of the Deathless better than what should have been known.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Siris himself is a Deathless who arranged to be reincarnated into a baby with his memory wiped each times he dies.

Infinity Blade: Redemption

• Death of a Child: During the climax of the novel, Galath ruthlessly bombs Siris' rebellion, killing everyone present, including the children he played with earlier. Siris explicitly mentions finding their bodies. In the previous (aka modern-day) era, this also happens to Uriel's son Jori, due to being hit by Adram's car. Uriel does not take this well. However, it's also temporary, as Uriel makes a deal with Galath to revive Jori, who grows up to become Raidriar.
• Eternal Recurrence: Apparently, the Kill Sat type of scheme is something Galath's done many times before, each time retreating off-world with a few loyal Deathless...or whatever the previous analogues of Deathless were...while waiting for Earthly life to put itself back together again. He tells Raidriar that this is simply because he cannot allow anyone—Deathless included—to become too powerful.
• A God Am I: Both Raidriar and the Worker see themselves as gods. Not that this is anything new with regard to how we've seen Raidriar. But given the Time Abyss that's Galath's lifespan—he says he'd been alive for 10,000 lifespans when he created Raidriar and Ashimar, and it's been quite a few millennia since that—there's an excellent chance that he is the ruling god of humanity. And not the benign variety.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Uriel basically made a Deal with the Devil to revive his son, Jori, as a Deathless, on the condition that he could not take the procedure himself, and could never see Jori ever again, using his last moments with his son to tell him to use his new gift to make the world a better place, and become a great king.
• Kill Sat: As it turns out, the second method to kill Deathless is to kill everything on the surface so that there's no body to reconstruct. The Worker's plan to do that involve destroying everything with orbital bombardment.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Siris has this moment when he watches Raidriar die, having performed a Heroic Sacrifice despite Siris' attempted betrayal, and realizes that, in the end, Raidriar had become the better man than he had been. This epiphany has a positive outcome, however, as Siris proceeds to quiet the voice of Ausar in his head permanently.
• Redemption Equals Death: Raidriar realizes that Siris/Ausar is the key to stopping the Worker of Secrets from destroying the world, and his ensuing selflessness, even in the face of Ausar's attempted betrayal of him, leaves him no hope of an escape from the Worker's deadly wrath.
• Retcon: In Infinity Blade II, Siris needs 2 or 3 years to recuperate each time he kills a boss, and six months if he is killed by one. In Redemption, it is stated that he has been at the Vault for only two years — a fifth of the minimum amount of time needed to complete the game.
• The Soulless: Redemption introduces the Soulless - empty buds reanimated with the residual QIP traces of a Deathless. This essentially makes them Deathless clones, with the memories of the original, but minus the immortality and... well, soul, due to not having a QIP of their own. Due to this "soulless" nature, they usually deteriorate into a psychotic wreck after ten years or so. A notable Soulless is the Soulless copy of Raidriar.
• Spanner in the Works: The Worker may know and able to predict many things, but if there's one thing he can't predict, it's Ausar. It's for this reason that Raidriar/Jori still try to send Worker's secret plan to Ausar, even though Ausar tried to betray him.
• Talkative Loon: The Soulless Raidriar that took the original's place, when Siris gets to him, has been driven completely insane and entirely aware that he's gone mad (likely because he's figured out what the Worker's endgame is), eating fingers of the minions he's killed, and just plain being nothing like the original. Siris basically spends the whole scene completely bewildered by him until he finally kills the poor bastard.
• Time Abyss: The Worker of Secrets/Galath claims to have lived many times longer than the oldest Deathless.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Raidriar/Jori. In the end, he ends up fulfilling the promise he made to his father through his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Was Once a Man: All the Deathless, except possibly the Worker of Secrets, were once ordinary humans who altered their Q.I.P. with technology.

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