Can be downloaded from Steam
or Itch.
This game contains examples of:
- After the End: The world has apparently been reduced to a husk by some kind of "despair." Unfortunately, True Konoe destroys whatever is left despite the replica's efforts to stop her, since doing so is necessary for her to summon a Celestial Tree to bring back her family. As a twist, it turns out this is one of many worlds in a multiverse setting, and True Konoe's activation of the Celestial Tree is endangering the other worlds too, though the world Promise and New Theory takes place in has yet to fall.
- Ambiguously Evil:
- The hooded man speaks cryptically about Konoe's past and wants her to succeed in her quest to restore her memories, but his reasons for helping her are unknown. He refers to himself and Camellia as Par Mythos and states that they need to observe Konoe's journey for the sake of their ambitions. It's revealed that he created the replica Konoe in order to usurp the True Konoe's power and steal the Scarlet Lifestone, but his purpose for the stone is unknown and he doesn't seem to want True Konoe to destroy the world.
- Although Camellia is friendly to Konoe, she seems to be working towards the same goal as the hooded man.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Subverted in the ending, where no one, including the villains, wins. Konoe is killed by the Big Bad, her original self, who absorbs her soul and finishes destroying the world. However, True Konoe tries to use the Celestial Tree to bring back her family, only to fail and summon two people from Miltiades instead. The Keeper and Camellia, despite their manipulation of the replica Konoe, fail to obtain the Scarlet Lifestone and are forced to come up with a new plan.
- The Battle Didn't Count: If the player wins the Final Boss battle against True Konoe, she kills the replica in the following cutscene and absorbs the latter's soul and power.
- Boss-Altering Consequence: If Konoe beats the Phantom of the Past, then True Konoe will gain a permanent buff in the final battle. Unfortunately, winning this fight still does nothing to change the Shoot the Shaggy Dog ending.
- Darker and Edgier: While Promise is a mostly optimistic and light-hearted game where no one dies, this game's demo starts with Konoe fighting her corrupted friends as a form of Mercy Kill. It also takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting where the majority of the world was destroyed through a mysterious "despair." While Promise ended fairly happily, Alternative ends with the True Konoe killing and absorbing the replica Konoe, and then destroying the world in a failed attempt to revive her family.
- Downer Ending: Despite the demo implying that things will eventually get better for Konoe as she discovers her past and gains a chance to save the remains of the world, the full release ends on a bleak note. Konoe discovers that the memories she saw belong to the original Konoe, and then True Konoe kills her, rendering all the pain she went through moot. Then True Konoe fails in her own objective to revive her family, making the destruction of the world All for Nothing. Worse yet, the Celestial Tree that she summoned has the potential to destroy the rest of the multiverse.
- Duel Boss: Konoe gets no party members, which means she has to fight the Envoys of the Beginning, Present, and End in one-on-one duels. She continues to fight alone in the final dungeon against the Phantom of the Past and the original Konoe.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: In the flashback cutscenes, Konoe knows that she's hated by her sister and major antagonist, Kagura, but seeks to reconcile with her. Unfortunately, it's implied the reconciliation failed and Konoe's party had to kill her, leading to Konoe destroying the world in a mad attempt to bring Kagura and their family back.
- Foreshadowing: In all the flashback cutscenes, Konoe's portrait art is different from her present portrait art. It turns out the playable Konoe is actually a replica of the past Konoe, and the latter is the Big Bad of the game.
- Happy Ending Override: Downplayed. At first, this game seems to feature the world of Sacred Earth - Promise on the verge of doom, though its exact timeframe is unknown. In the ending, the world is destroyed, but it turns out Miltiades is in a different universe and is still intact. However, the Celestial Tree threatens to destroy the entire multiverse, which means while the Downer Ending of this game doesn't immediately ruin the happy ending of Promise, it will destroy Miltiades eventually if nothing is done to stop the tree.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Konoe's friends stayed in the ruined world in order to keep it from being completely destroyed, but this doomed them to eventually transform into monsters. By the time Konoe wakes up, her friends are on the verge of transforming.
- Nerf: Unlike previous entries in the series, this game gives EX Heal a one turn cooldown to prevent the player from spamming it every round.
- No Name Given: The hooded man is never called by name, even by his associate Camellia. Even his image assets merely refer to him as the "Keeper."
- One-Winged Angel: All of Konoe's friends transform into boss monsters.
- Wynne transforms into the Envoy of the Beginning, a minotaur.
- Ryuna transforms into the Envoy of the Present, a black dragon.
- Kell transforms into the Envoy of the End, a more ethereal looking version of her original beastkin form.
- Open-Ended Boss Battle: The Final Boss fight with True Konoe can be won or lost, but the cutscene afterwards is exactly the same, with True Konoe killing the replica and absorbing her. The only thing that changes is that the ending is extended to show what happens to True Konoe.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: In the IGMC demo, although Konoe ends up killing all of her friends in their monster forms by the end of the demo, they believe that as long as she survives, she can save whatever is left of the world. Subverted by the ending of the full version, where Konoe turns out to be a replica of the real Konoe, who kills her and destroys the world.
- Red Herring: The flashbacks indicate that Konoe's party opposed her sister, Kagura. This makes it seem like Kagura is the Big Bad of the game, but it actually turns out to be the original Konoe, who seeks to destroy the world to bring her family back.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: As each Envoy boss is defeated, Konoe regains some of her memories and a mysterious being in the final dungeon is slowly unsealed. This being turns out to be the original Konoe, who is responsible for the world becoming a husk.
- Sequel Hook: In the ending, True Konoe fails to revive her family members and instead summons Daphnel and Alan, two people from Miltiades. The Storyteller states that the Celestial Tree that Konoe summoned could spell disaster for the rest of the multiverse.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Konoe goes through hell by fighting all of her friends-turned-monsters, but believes that doing so will allow her to regain her memories and prevent the end of the world. Unfortunately, Konoe turns out to be a replica, and all of those memories never truly belonged to her. Worse yet, True Konoe kills her and absorbs her, allowing the former to destroy the world anyways. True Konoe's villainy is also an example of this trope, since her reason for destroying the world is to revive her family, but despite her newfound power, she fails to bring them back.
- Skill Scores and Perks: Instead of learning new skills upon leveling up, characters learn skills by allocating AP. Some skills have to be learned before others and some skills, like Konoe's auto-revive, cannot be unlocked until the story is advanced.
- Status Buff: In addition to their own EP Art buffs, characters can use EX Boost, which spends 25 EX to buff all stats except speed.
- Super Move Portrait Attack: This game only gives cut-ins to Elemental Arts, which are EX Arts that are enhanced by the Field Element mechanic. However, the only characters who get cut-ins are Konoe and the Final Boss, her original non-clone self.
- True Final Boss: If the player defeats the Superboss, the Phantom of the Past, True Konoe decides that she needs to use her full power and gets a permanent buff during her fight. Unfortunately, this won’t change the ending in the slightest.
