As time slowly passed, the lands laid forever in beauty.
Protected by him, the Guardian of this world.
A symphony, a magical melody, ensuring the world will have peace.
His inspiration, his muse, was always beside him.
She fell prey to what she didn’t understand.
And while he wept upon his throne, the Conductor… he sits alone.
And then the Dissonance settled in.
—The Opening Narration
Karmaflow: The Rock Opera Videogame is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a puzzle platformer featuring an impressive cast of international metal singers, including vocalists from DragonForce, Sonata Arctica, Epica, Cradle of Filth and many more.
You take control of the Keeper (or Karmakeeper) who is tasked to travel through the worlds that are threatened by a corrupting force known as the Dissonance. The Keeper must seek out the Guardian of each world and listen to their plight, as well as taking note of their counterpart's argument. In the end, it is up you to choose the path the world and its inhabitants will take...
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These Tropes had settled in:
- Arc Words: "And the Dissonance settled in."
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: World 5 has fragmented bits and pieces of previous worlds floating in a dark void.
- Ambiguous Robots: The Karmakeeper and the Protokeeper, especially compared to the rest of the characters who look vaguely organic and humanoid.
- Aura Vision: Called resonance in the game and gained in World 2, where it's used to find objects in high grass and underwater.
- Autobots, Rock Out!: Every world ends with a duet song, frequently an epic one.
- Beast Man: The Conductor, maybe.
- Beautiful Void: Between ambient music and musical interludes, some environments tend to be quiet and empty save for people, animals and the characters the Keeper encounters.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The Hero and the people of World 4 are four legged and four armed crab... thingies, but aren't violent toward the Keeper. The tiny ones on the other hand...
- Big "NO!": The Banshee, if you give the Conductor the strength to let his Muse go.
- Bird People: The people of World 3’s Floating Continent have mostly avian features.
- Boss Subtitles: A variation since every major character is introduced like this. It presents the name of the character and the singer voicing them.
- Bottomless Pits: You will fall in them. A lot, probably.
- The Champion: The Bird Goddess to the Sun Brother. She is the closest confidant he and his father shared. She is also not above getting her hands dirty if she thinks the Keeper is here to cause trouble.The Bird Goddess: Carefully thread, our business is our own!
- Colossus Climb: The first part of the duet between the Guide and the Shamans involves the Keeper to stay out of his sight and platform up onto the Guide.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Orange for Karma (infuse) and purple for Dissonance (extract).
- The Corruption: The Dissonance acts like this, corrupting many characters over the course of the game.
- Cowardly Lion: The Hero admits to being this until the Keeper arrives.
- Creating Life Is Awesome: The Creator thinks so very very much.The Creator: I only wish to have more time, to behold the beauty of what is mine, of what I create…
- Creepy Good: The Creator and The Destroyer can both fit this, based on who you believe is right. The Creator may be the genesis of all life who wants to save the worlds, but he looks like a broken porcelain doll, who would have a featureless face... were it not for the dark pits that make his eyes, and the giant crack in his material that grants him a jaw. The Destroyer, meanwhile, has a more organic and appealing figure... were it not for the fact that she looks like a tree that's been rotted through, with her face resembling a mask that lets you see through to the back of her head, and seeks to destroy all life to restore the balance.
- Cute Mute: The Keeper is actually pretty cute for a weird floating robot thingy.
- Dark Action Girl: The Banshee, the Moon Sister and the Destroyer to some degree.
- Deflector Shields: In World 2, some of the Shamans will erect these around the Keeper and themselves during escort missions due to enemies employing the One-Hit Kill tactic.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Resonating with the environment will turn the world grayscale for a moment, which makes it easier to pick out Karma/Dissonance objects and underwater platforms. Also when the game presents the Keeper with a choice during a duet.
- Eaten Alive: If you choose the Moon Sister as the Guardian, she commands her anglerfish to eat her brother.
- Emotions vs. Stoicism: One of the ways the final duet between the Creator and the Destroyer can be read. The Creator believes his world is worth saving from the cycle even if it might be a Crapsack World, but his perfectionist tendencies might have blinded him toward the misery. The Destroyer wants the cycle of destruction to continue, but believes a perfect being such as the Keeper should not exist and that starting anew is more reasonable than leaving an imperfect world to suffer.
- Empathic Healer: The Guide is said to have cleansed spirits of Dissonance, but it has the unfortunate side effect of corrupting his own soul. The only ones who can help him are the Shamans who have been separated across the land as a result of the Guide’s eventual freak-out.
- Escort Mission: The Shamans in World 2 need to have their paths cleared out, so they can get together and open up the path to the Guide. Made better by the fact they can't die and at least one of them will protect you from danger instead.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Everyone, since nobody has a proper name.
- Evolving Music: Notably in World 1 where gathering instruments all around the Tree Top Town will fill out the background music. Similarly in World 2, each Shaman plays a different instrument which adds to the ambience once they come together.
- Fisher King: Each world has a Guardian entity that keeps them safe from the Dissonance; the Conductor, the Guide, the Bird Goddess (who admittedly is standing in for one) and the Heart. It's up for the Keeper to decide if they survive or not or let the Dissonance take over.
- Friend to All Living Things: The Muse was one and was loved by all in return before her corruption.
- Glowing Eyes: Most characters have them, with the Guide having a headlight upgrade during his final duet and platforming that is reminiscent of the Scarecrow nightmare.
- Grind Boots: While there are grind rails aplenty in the game, starting with World 3, the Keeper doesn't even have feet to grind with. Let's just say Karma did it.
- Gusty Glade: Near the end of the World 1 has one of these along a bridge and floating platforms. It alternates between left and right sides and then the entire field. Albeit from the sound of it, it might be coming from a tuba. They are also prevalent in World 3.
- Harsh Vocals: The Muse, the Guide, the Heart and the Creator.
- Hailfire Peaks: All worlds have some degree of it (World 5 reaching All the Worlds Are a Stage status):
- World 1 is a mix of The Lost Woods and Slippy-Slidey Ice World, while the other half is a Temple of Doom.
- World 2 starts at a Lost in the Maize setting with tall grass and then a Bubblegloop Swamp. You can't swim in it.
- World 3 begins at a Floating Continent aboveground and then takes a swim in the Underwater City.
- World 4 is mostly a White Void Room with featureless ruins, before ending in a dark Underground City with Tron Lines.
- Have We Met?: All characters appear to know who the Keeper is and why he’s here to some degree (such as the Bird Goddess referring to him as an old friend but even then saying she doesn’t know his intentions, while the Hero believes he’s part of a prophecy).
- Heroic Sacrifice: The Keeper sacrifices his essence to continue the cycle if agreeing with the Destroyer.
- Hot Wings: The wings you get from the Protokeeper seem to be made out of some energy, probably Karma. They don't help you fly, but are more useful as gliding. When underwater, the wings transform into a propeller instead.
- High-Altitude Battle: Though a one-sided battle since the Keeper doesn’t have any attacks of his own. The Bird Goddess attack you with Razor Wind and Tornado Move while you’re grinding on the rails.
- An Ice Person: The short-lived battle with the corrupted form of the Muse exhibits this.
- Info Drop: The Data Chambers. They look like small diamond vials that can be gathered in the overworld and like everything else in the game, gives its exposition in song to give just enough insight into the current situation.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Not exactly a fight but the final duet between the Muse and the Conductor can come off as this.The Conductor: My Muse, I knew you were still here beside me.
The Banshee: No! - Leitmotif: It wouldn't be a musical without leitmotifs, and each world has its own, most notably the pounding percussion and strings in World 4.
- Love Makes You Uncreative: Subverted, as the Conductor needs the Muse to keep the Dissonance at bay. It's only until she gets corrupted that he loses the will to conduct anymore.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: The Heart lays it on the Hero pretty quickly. His people are all descended from the Heart but have forgotten about their origin throughout the years and began to fear him instead when he tried to destroy them in self-defense.
- Magic Music: The Conductor uses music to keep the corruption at bay but most prominent in World 2 with the Shamans who can cure the Guide of the Dissonance with it.
- Mercy Kill: You can more or less do this to all worlds, but special mention goes to the Guide, who practically begs you to put him to rest because of the evil inside him.The Guide: Better to end it now then decay from misery.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Literally, if you help The Hero destroy The Heart to avenge his ancestors. Because The Heart is also the literal center of the world, gravity will begin to slowly tear the planet apart, accelerated by his people reaping the remaining veins as carelessly as they once did.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The Muse is the most perturbed by her corruption when she gets snapped out of it for a minute.
- No Indoor Voice: Most singers due to the genre, but special mention goes to the Heart who makes the earth tremble just by growling loudly. And even has a rather chilling reverse Suddenly Shouting mid-song.
- The Creator is no slouch. Whenever he gets loud, his screech sounds like and overpowers most guitar chords in the song itself.
- Non-Action Guy: The Keeper, believe it or not. Apart from the ability to infuse and extract Karma and gaining several platformer based abilities, he has zero fighting capabilities and has to defeat bosses either through puzzles or dodging.
- Offing the Offspring: In World 4, the Heart struck back against his children once it was clear they wouldn't stop feeding on his veins and basically forced all of them underground. It was the only way to keep himself from dying and taking the world with him.
- One-Woman Wail: Appear as leitmotifs for the Muse and the Shamans.
- Our Banshees Are Louder: The Muse became the Banshee after being corrupted by the Dissonance, resulting in her Harsh Vocals.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: The Guide is one of the biggest beings in the entire game.
- Our Souls Are Different: Karma, which can be infused and extracted from animals, flower lights and tree trunks for puzzles.
- Passing the Torch: The Heart wants the Hero to take his place as the Guardian at the cost of him leaving his people without a leader.
- The Perfectionist: The Creator.
- Powers as Programs: The Keeper gains abilities and short tutorials from a Protokeeper in each world.
- Puzzle Boss
- Rock Opera: The entire story is spoken through song. There is no normal dialogue whatsoever.
- "Not So Different" Remark: The Heart to the Hero.The Heart: Aren't they striking, the similarities between them, you and me?
- Solar and Lunar: The Sun Brother and the Moon Sister.
- Soprano and Gravel: Excluding the Twins, most duets have these.
- Songs in the Key of Lock: One puzzle in World 3 involves playing sequences of a Nostalgic Music Box to gain access to the water level and another in World 4. Hopefully you’re not tone deaf…
- Spring Jump: In World 4, you get the ability to place Karma spires which will propel you upwards much higher than the Double Jump.
- Speak in Unison: The people in World 1’s Tree Top Town speak in one upon arrival, coupled with a Creepy Monotone.
- Stalactite Spite
- Star-Crossed Lovers: The Muse and the Conductor.
- Succession Crisis: In World 3, the last Guardian passed away before he could announce which one of his twins would rule which formed a feud between them. The Bird Goddess guards the throne of the Guardian till the rightful ruler is chosen.
- Time Stands Still: During final duets the action will slow down to a halt, leaving the Keeper to make a choice.
- Together in Death: The Muse and the Conductor, if you decide to reunite them and give up their world to the Dissonance.
- Tree Top Town: One such town in World 1, said to be the last one remaining after the Dissonance settled in.
- Ultimate Life Form: The Keeper was created by the Creator as a perfect being, presumably because of his innate ability to infuse and extract Karma. He hoped he would choose to prevent the Destroyer's plan to continue the cycle of destruction by the Dissonance's hands.
- The Un Favourite: The Moon Sister says to her brother their father always preferred him over her.
- Vent Physics
- Vicious Cycle: The Dissonance destroys the worlds every cycle, so they can be recreated again. And according to the Destroyer, that was the agreement between her and the Creator, who then proceeded to create the Keeper to save the world instead.
- Vocal Dissonance: A slight one with the Conductor who appears as a hulking beastly mass of muscles, but has Marc Hudson's tenor voice.
- We Can Rule Together: A good example, since the Sun Brother did believe once that he and his sister could rule together instead of arguing over the Guardian spot. Unfortunately by now, he doesn't believe anymore she can ever change.The Sun Brother: There was a time we stood together, you and I. And now we've changed, with this our bond had turned into a feud. Oh, such a waste.
- The Wise Prince: The Sun Brother. He gets the Bird Goddess to lay off your back at least.
- You Can't Fight Fate: It’s implied that even if the Keeper does what the Creator intended for him to do, the universe won’t be able to escape its repeated destruction.
The first and last tale told.
