In The Nephilim Saga, you play as a recent graduate of the military academy of the Empire of Veridia. The empire had been subjected to recent hardships, and just as it seems that its current Empress is ushering in a new age of peace, a rogue general abducts her from the capital. Tasked with her rescue, the graduate soon becomes wrapped up in a chain of events that will reshape not just the Empire, but the very foundations of the world of Tahnra.
Both visually and in terms of gameplay, the game draws heavily from 16-bit era console strategy games, mixing influences like Fire Emblem and Ogre Battle (Particularly Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen). The former inspires heavily the game's maps and more strategic layer, with units moving in turn on a grid-based map, while combat plays out more like the later, with units in a given squad attacking on their own based on the tactics given and their positioning.
On August 28th, 2023, the first DLC was officially released, Symphony of War: Legends, to include eight chapters and a New Game Plus mode among other features.
Tropes present in The Nephilim Saga:
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Zelos as The Hand of Zanatus joins in the final chapter, as well as Kuroda.
- Altar Diplomacy: A variant. After returning to Sayunaa, if it hasn't already happened, Jules and Abigayle are pressured to find Sayunaari spouses to solidify their royal status, which can complicate things with their existing relationships.
- Anti-Armor: Gunners and Dragoons will blast their enemy armor as if their opponents were wearing nothing at all.
- Anti-Cavalry: The spearman and scout classes are armed with long spears, making them excellent against cavalry.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Even if permadeath is on, in Chapter 12, it's disabled due to being a Hopeless Boss Fight.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: Crossbows ignore a portion of the target's Armor stat, while firearms ignore a larger portion of a target's Armor stat when calculating damage.
- Artificial Stupidity: AI squads composed almost entirely of cavalry or melee infantry will sometimes waste a turn inflicting minimal damage from long range with its single archer unit.
- A Taste of Power: Zelos accompanies the player character for the first few chapters. He's a high level Zweihänder, a tier 3 class the player will not have access to for a while. He's captured and seemingly dies at the end of the prologue segment of the game. There is also a chapter where you get to play as the bad guys and controls The Hand of Zanatus as well as the powerful Zanatus Mages.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Dragon riders. They have all the strengths and coolness factor of dragons plus they can actually fly, giving them unparallelled mobility when part of flying squads. However since a squad's movement type is determined by the predominant type of units in the squad, it means that as soon as you put anyone else into a single dragon rider's squad the squad stops flying, denying you their one outstanding feature and making them feel like same old dragons with an extra coat of paint. Unfortunately dragon riders aren't strong enough to send them out on their own without any backup in their squad, and a lone dragon rider or even a pair of them will quickly get overwhelmed by more mundane units, so the only way for you to have a flying squad that is strong enough for anything else but capturing locations and picking up stragglers is having three high-leveled dragon riders in one squad, at which point you can put some healers with them without compromising their flight. Considering how much effort all of the above requires to pull off your flying squads of death can come off as rather disappointing when you actually get their hands on them.
- Back from the Dead: The player character gets executed after their heroic last stand. A couple of chapters later they return, having been seemingly raised from the dead by the gods.
- Back Stab: Rogues, Assassins, and Stephan are able to pull this on enemy units if they attack, letting them bypass the front line and strike at whoever is in the rearmost ranks. This can be countered by having rear guard units of one or more tankier fighters in the back rank and the squishier mages, healers, and archers in the middle.
- Bad Moon Rising: Chapter 3 has the Hero and Zelos notice the Crimson Star in the sky. Zelos notes that it's an omen, as every time this star is seen monumental events take place. Sure enough, the plot really kicks into gear after that chapter.
- Barrier Warrior: The new Oracle unit added by the Legends DLC creates magical shields to protect your units.
- Black-and-White Morality: Discussed in a conversation between the Lord and Lysander. When the Cult of Zanatus and Emperor Casimir are kidnapping children to raise into the Cult, the war becomes a lot simpler than the rebellions, wars between nobles and intrigue that they're used to. The Nephilim Army don't need to reconcile with their enemy, they need to destroy anyone who won't swear allegiance, and it's comforting to know that they're on the "good" side of "good vs. evil."
- Bow and Sword in Accord: The Samurai class uses Bow and Spear in accord, being a versatile heavy infantry unit that can either fight up close with their spear or do battle at long range with their bow, as needed. Narima, meanwhile, uses the classic sword-and-bow combination.
- Brutal Bonus Level:
- The gaiden levels are noticeably harder than the main campaign, but thankfully they are optional.
- Arena levels, especially Gold and Platinum, can be quite tough if you don't bring squads that are up to the task.
- But Not Too Bi: The Lord's same-sex love interests are never canonical, and Diana and Sybil cannot romance each other.
- The Cavalry: A couple of chapters have you be the cavalry in question, needing to arrive and help an ally holding the line elsewhere on the map.
- Cavalry Officer: Though technically Barnabas is an enlisted man, he basically fills the role of cavalry officer since he starts out with his own squad of cavaliers and has the "Knight Captain" trait, which gives a capacity bonus for leading cavalrymen.
- The Chosen One: The titular Nephilim are each the chosen reincarnation of the previous avatar. There's five of them in total, The player character, Diana, Stefan, Beatrix and Zelos.
- Church Militant: The Donari Temple operates their own military arm, the Sisterhood of Justice. Notably, in order to qualify for full-fledged Paladin status an Acolyte must have given birth.
- Color-Coded Armies: Good guys are blue, bad guys are red, computer-controlled allies are green.
- Color-Coded Item Tiers: Black-Green-Blue-Purple-Orange for your equippable artifacts, in order of rarity and epicness.
- Convenient Replacement Character:
- Almost immediately after the player is released from prison without any of their old friends in tow, they meet Abigayle, a cleric who just so happens to be the sister of one of your previous party members and have a similarly optimistic personality.
- Right after Zelos is captured by the enemy, you get Diana who fulfills the same role.
- Continuity Nod: Several items are named after the characters of "Echoes of Aetheria". One support conversation has Raskuja talk about Eskandar, one of the characters from Echoes, and his friendship with Lucian, the main character of Echoes. He also covers what happened to Eskandar at the end of the game - that he took many mates and basically repopulated his species himself and became renown as an almost divine hero of his people.
- Crosshair Aware: During the Final Boss battle areas on the map that are about to be targeted by its attacks are clearly marked, giving you a chance to step out of the way.
- Crutch Character: Zelos is a powerful unit you get in early game but he will be captured after a few chapters. The first chapter lampshade this to not overuse him and to instead level up the player character.
- Curbstomp Battle: Chapter 13 has the player taking over the Imperial forces as they steamroll a paltry rebel army. The odds are so massive in your favor that it's literally impossible to lose.
- Darkest Hour: Chapter 17 ends on this note. The main character is dead, Casamir's power is absolute, the Cult of Zanatus crushes the Temple of Donar and reaves the land with impunity, the last pockets of resistance are eradicated. Diana dies from exposure at the top of the Mount Ptolomea after her pointless pilgrimage, and Stefan is about to die as well as he's backed into a corner by the followers of Zanatus over Diana's body. Cue the hero arriving Back from the Dead to scatter Zanatus' cultists, resurrect Diana and awaken the Nephilim powers in Diana and Stefan.
- Defiant to the End: Occasionally you will encounter enemy squads that are scripted to never surrender, even if at zero morale. Some chapters consist of nothing but such squads. These tend to be either the final guards of the last objective on the map (typically a castle), or fanatical members of the Zanatus cult.
- Do with Him as You Will: When the Captain finally catches up to Casamir they, despite having plenty of anger of their own towards him, only give him a flesh wound and leave him alone in a room with Diana.
- Dragon Rider: The top tier class for dragons, and the only Tier 4 type of unit in the game. Also The Hand of Zanatus rides a black dragon. And continues to do so when he joins you as Zelos for the final couple of missions.
- Dragon Tamer: Abigayle, in addition to having a unique personal skill that improves the stats of any dragon in her squad, can potentially find and tame a wild young dragon as early as the first mission where she can be deployed.
- Draw Aggro:
- The "Threat" stat determines who the enemy is most likely to attack. Unlike most examples in RPGs, however, Threat is a measure of how unlikely an enemy is to attack the squad in question. Instead the enemy is more likely to target less dangerous-looking squads if they can find a route to them, since they look like easier targets.
- The "Imposing" trait makes enemy units more likely to target the specific unit who has it.
- The "Exemplar" Nephilim power makes every enemy who can reach a particular squad attack it, as well as increasing their defenses.
- Easily Forgiven: Double Subverted. Lysander is imprisoned for his mutiny against the Lord, but they later thank him for preventing them from becoming another tyrant, and ask him to build a better world.
- Enemy Mine: Lysander allies himself with Jebediah and the Cult of Zanatus when he believes that the Lord will bring about the apocalypse.
- Evil Chancellor: One of the first objectives of the story is to put down an uprising organized by a famed general, but as soon as you've defeated him, the empire's chancellor accuses you of plotting your own rebellion and has you arrested on the spot. And then, as you're being taken out of the room by guards, he just outright stabs Empress Florina in the back and pins the blame on you.
- Escort Mission: Chapter 15 involves trying to protect 4 defenseless children as they advance to the exit. As you'd expect, this can be infuriating, as the kids are completely brainless and do nothing but move forward, making it easy for them to outrun you as you are fighting the enemies. To make matters worse, the enemies are all programmed to completely ignore your troops and focus entirely on slaughtering the kids. Fortunately, you don't have to save all of them, though you do get an achievement for pulling this off.
- Fake Defector: Zelos is pretending to be serving the cult of Zanatus as the Hand of Zanatus. He's just biding his time to betray them.
- Fiery Redhead:
- Despite her starting position as a simple healer, Sybil has a hot temper and a lust for action. It feels far more fitting when she becomes a paladin after completing a sidequest later in the game.
- Beatrix, a somewhat unhinged Fire Mage.
- Firearms Are Revolutionary: Lysander and the main character at one point have a discussion about how firearms are a new addition to the settings' warfare that is likely going to be a game changer very soon, only hampered by the fact that materials needed to make gunpowder are more rare in this setting.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Mature dragons come in three varieties: the fire-breathing Red Dragon, the ice-breathing Silver Dragon, and the lightning-breathing Blue Dragon. In addition, the final tier of male mages are the Fire Mage, Ice Mage, and Lightning Mage.
- Final Boss, New Dimension: Zanatus is fought in the Divine Realm, where he's been sealed in a Leaking Can of Evil.
- Fragile Speedster: Light infantry, such as skirmishers, rangers, rogues and assassins, are adept in rough terrain and have advantages when it comes to ambushes and first strikes but are very vulnerable if they are on the defensive and another unit attacks them as they lack the hp and armor of heavier infantry. Light cavalry are a little less fragile if you have the right technologies, but are still pretty squishy compared to heavy cavalry. On the other hand, light horse have the speed of cavalry, the ambushing ability of light infantry, and excel in open territory.
- Freakiness Shame: In her ending with the Lord, Diana says that she maintains her human size because other people might be alarmed. The Lord doesn't mind, and in fact wants a ride on her shoulders.
- Gay Option: Zelos, Sybil and Diana are all available to the Lord, regardless of gender. All three are bisexual, however, and Diana and Sybil are not available to each other.
- Gender-Restricted Ability: Men and women have almost entirely different unit trees. Most regular cavalry and heavy foot are men, clergy (both combat-oriented and medical) are women, and they have different kinds of light infantry and offensive magic users. Archers and their promotions can be either gender, as can gunners and siege cannons (though dragoons are male-exclusive).
- God in Human Form: Zanatus takes the form of rich aristocrat Penderghast for most of the game. He's been living in human form ever since he was defeated by Donar thousands of years ago.
- Gold-Colored Superiority: Once a unit reaches Tier 3 (or Tier 4 in case of dragon riders) and maxes out its CP pool it can be given a Proof of Merit, which will lock their class, boost their stats and give their look a golden makeover.
- Good All Along: The Hand of Zanatus, who turns out to be Zelos all along. There are some hints of this like dropping the Balmung somewhere the good guys can pick it up, and telling the Imperial troops to not attack the children which fell on deaf ears but it is unclear until the final chapter.
- Glass Cannon:
- Firearms units only get a single shot and are very vulnerable to attack... but that single shot ignores all armor and can quickly kill heavy infantry in a single volley. Furthermore, technology upgrades eventually allow them to fire twice. Cannons are even more so, as they can't shoot while in defense, and die if hit by a stiff breeze, but a group of cannons can utterly annihilate most enemy units if they can get in the offense.
- As seen under Squishy Wizard, Spellcasters hit hard, and as they go up in tier can hit entire rows or groups of adjacent units. They are also by far the most fragile units in the game, having miniscule HP and absolutely no armor.
- Gratuitous Japanese: The gaiden chapters are actually called "gaiden" by the game, even though its developers are westerners and the game's original language is English. Likely done as yeat another Shout-Out to japanese strategy games of the 90s that the game draws heavy inspiration from. Similarily, equippable artifacts include many items that look and sound very japanese.
- Harder Than Hard: The "Lunatic" mode added in Version 1.01 adjusts the AI to be far more difficult than the previous hardest mode, as well as enforced "Ironman" save rules.
- Hero of Another Story: The whole premise of the Legends DLC, which allows you to take part in events that happened before or parallel to the game's main storyline. Some of the characters you control during the Legends chapters, for example General Antares, cannot be recruited in the story at all.
- Hold the Line: The Battle of Fort Eureeka is one where you must hold out against a large, elite army in a sizeable fortress. Once you've defeated all of them, Casamir shows up with an even larger army equipped with gunners and cannons, which is virtually impossible to defeat and can only end in your character's defeat. There's an achievement for winning the battle, though the story will go on as it would've if one lost.
- Horse Archer: Horsebowmen, a second-level class, and Raiders, their Tier 3 version. As light horse, they specialize in Hit-and-Run Tactics with bows, though they can also do long-range shots (but not quite as well as foot archers). There's also Dragoons, a Tier 3 class that are horse gunners.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: The cavalry squads' specialty - they are able to move some additional squares after they attack.
- I Have Your Wife: Chapter 28 has Casamir reveal that he had taken Diana's son Alex hostage, forcing her to surrender to his captivity as well. As a result you'll start the chapter with Diana's squad and need to rescue both her and Alex.
- Interface Spoiler: The "Powers" menu item will be present (if inactive) in the game menu long before you actually gain access to those powers. The tutorial article on powers once you finally unlock those also provides a detailed descriptions for all of them, including the ones you haven't obtained yet.
- Klingon Promotion: After the Chancellor kills the Empress and pins the crime on the protagonist, he eventually takes control of the Empire.
- Lovable Rogue: After the Evil Chancellor has the protagonist thrown in jail, they're rescued by Stefan, a charming thief working alongside Diane The Paladin in order to free prisoners from unjust punishments (in addition to raiding coffers).
- Mage Killer: The Sisterhood of Justice perk in the Tech Tree increases the magic defense of Temple-aligned classes like Acolyte and Paladin by a portion of their Magic stat, allowing them to shrug off magic attacks while being able to attack Squishy Wizards with ease.
- Mama Bear: Diana is a kind-hearted Paladin who loves her son very much. When Casamir threatens him to force her compliance, even the PC (who is by now half-mad with rage for their own reasons) just steps aside to let her deliver the finishing blow.
PC: I was going to put you down myself, but I think you made mom a little angry.
- Mandatory Motherhood: Sisters of Justice must have at least one child before they become Paladins. Sybil is an exception, because she was originally not supposed to be a Paladin and was only accepted into the Order via Field Promotion.
- Mauve Shirt: When hiring new recruits from Barracks in order to build up each character's squad, there's a chance that one of the game's seventeen "Unique Mercenaries" will appear, who have special titles (like "Warlord" Tartar and Teriq "the Wicked") and pre-set classes and abilities instead of randomly generated ones.
- Medieval European Fantasy: Played With. The Empire in particular looks like a classic medieval-ish fantasy setting, albeit one that's undergoing its own equivalent of the Renaissance. This is further reinforced by the tech tree progressively emphasizing standing armies and firearms alongside mages and heavy infantry.
- Mighty Glacier: Dragons in General are very tough, especially as they go up in tiers. Their breath weapons hits an area and can be devastating. However Dragons have no ability to dodge attacks, having to rely on their armor to turn hits into glancing blows and their massive HP totals to soak attacks.
- Mercenary Units: Mercenary units can be recruited through markets and bazaars. They are far better than the default recruits, but also far more expensive and they start out with the lowest possible loyalty rating, giving them a +2 capacity penalty unless they are used as squad leaders.
- Mercy Rewarded: The forced surrender mechanic allows you to make most enemy squads with low morale give up the fight against you (and if they don't do so immediately, any unit "killed" in battle with the squad you try to force to surrender may do so anyway, though your troops will skip out on the first round of combat). It is heavily encouraged to do so too, as you get back some money and faction exp for ransoming back the remaining troops, and some achievements are unlocked by doing so. If the only units left in an enemy squad are nonattacking units like medics, they will automatically surrender or retreat.
- Modular Epilogue: The Version 1.01 Patch elected to remove the "Bad" ending, deeming that the way of getting it and its tone did not mesh well with the rest of the game, and replace it with adding various Epilogues to the now-default ending based on who the main character's strongest Bonds are with.
- Morale Mechanic: Squads have morale, which affects things such as the likelihood of getting a second action in battle as well as the likelihood of enemy squads to surrender to your troops.
- The Mutiny: Most of the main character's companions turn against them during Chapter 29, in a mutiny led by Lysander. Thankfully it gets resolved without any character deaths.
- Nephewism: Sisters of Justice must have a child, but they usually aren't around to raise it, being on the front lines against evil. Thus, each Sister of Justice swears blood-sisterhood with a Sister of Mercy, and it's the Sister of Mercy who raises their child.
- Nominal Importance: Mostly played straight though occasionally subverted. On one hand you can easily tell that Jebediah will be important but his superior, who is the grandmaster of the Donar temple, will not, because the former has a dialogue portrait while the latter doesn't. On the other hand, Jaromir has both a portrait and a unit voice over but doesn't really do anything in the plot. Intentionally subverted with General Antares and Empress Florina who both have portraits and look important but die for good in their second appearance. Edmund Pendergast does not have a dialogue portrait either despite being the Big Bad, only getting one as Zanatus.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: In addition to the greater struggle between the Nephilim Army and Zanatus, the tides of change sweeping the world also manifest in more mundane forms, such as the growing impact of gunpowder weapons in warfare.
- Number Two: Diana and Lysander share this role to the player character. When the PC is dead for a while, they lead separate branches of the rebellion, and later they tend to consider them both their most important lieutenants.
- Opposites Attract: Diana and Stefan are a very straight-laced paladin and a snarky womanizing thief respectively. They are old adventuring partners who get along extremely well with no traces of tension to the point that Stefan is an Honorary Uncle to Diana's son, and they're both canon romance options with each other.
- The Paladin: A tier 3 upgrade for female classes. In terms of a personality associated with this archetype, Diana is devoted to enforcing true justice even if it goes against an unjust law of the Empire.
- Phlebotinum Rebel: Zanatus reveals late in the game that the Nephilim's Relics were all empowered by his blood staining them. The Nephilim heroes have no problem turning the Relics on him in the final battle.
- Piggyback Cute: If the Lord ends up with Diana, then in the ending, they ask her to assume giant form and give them a ride on her shoulders.
- Platonic Life-Partners: A Paladin's bonded sister is a Housewife without the "wife" part. It's her duty to take care of the Paladin's children while she's away at war.
- Player Personality Quiz: The player is asked various questions at the start of the game which will determine the protagonist's customization options, with more variations added in Version 1.01.
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: The main protagonist can be either a male or a female, with no restrictions on their class or difference in the overall plot of the game, though each gender can have Bonds that the other doesn't. Mostly averted with Player Mooks, as they have gender-specific class options.
- Relationship Values: By fighting alongside each other in battle and then witnessing their Conversations from the base menu, units can be paired up from C to A-Rank relationships, which grant bonuses when fighting alongside each other in battle. Not every Bond is romantic, as they include Family and Friend relationships.
- Rightful King Returns: After Cyrus is defeated in Sayunaa, the retainers crowns Jules as the descendant of King Dargon.
- Saintly Church: The Church of Donar is portrayed as nothing but good and just to the denizens of the world. The vague implication that they are running a Super Breeding Program (and a conversation between the Hand of Zanatus and Diana) hints at darker things, but nothing comes of it during the game's timeframe.
- Sequel Hook: Once defeated, Zanatus implies his death served some greater purpose in someone else's plan, and that the Nephilim will come to regret their victory.
- She Is the King: The female Captain becomes a Lord just like her male counterpart.
- Shout-Out: After returning from the dead, the player character's class becomes "Lord". A heavily armored sword wielder who calls lighting from the sky to strike down an entire enemy squad. In Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen the player character is also has the Lord class, with a similar attack (if of neutral alignment) while wielding a sword.
- Short-Range Long-Range Weapon: Firearms can only be used against adjacent enemy units, but are considered ranged attacks and can thus be used on enemies on walls. Even longer range weapons such as bows and cannons can only be used against an enemy two tile away (except when the range is extended by terrain or structural factors). The tier 3 upgrade of archers and cannons extends their range to three tiles away.
- Sizeshifter: Diana eventually gains the ability to turn into a massive Titan when she goes into battle. A dialogue with Stefan confirms that her titan form is actually now her true form - she reverts back to being (relatively) normal sized because it's easier to interact with others that way.
- Squishy Wizard: The Apprentice and Siren classes, along with their respective upgrades, are typical unarmored spell casters, capable of dealing out major damage, but can easily be one-shotted if hit by melee weapons. The rogue/assassin's backstab attack is particularly deadly against them, since it can hit them even if they are in the back row.
- Start X to Stop X: Zanatus has been sealed in the Divine Realm since his last defeat. To put him down for good, he has to be unsealed.
- Strategic Asset Capture Mechanic: Capturing temples on the battle map enables you to heal damage and revive downed troops.
- Strong Girl, Smart Guy: Diana the mighty giantess and Stefan the cunning rogue.
- Super Breeding Program: The Donari Temple only permit their best acolytes to procreate, thus (theoretically) ensuring superior children in the Temple. This is also why Paladins have to have a child before becoming a Paladin, and is why the Temple is segregated by sex.
- Tech Tree: Through gaining Faction XP, you unlock a variety of technologies in three areas. The Academy of War focuses on unit development, particularly of magical, religious and dragon units. Tactics and Command develops polearm and cavalry buffs, improves your tactics, and also gives you the ability to start with better-trained conscripts that take less CP to turn into something useful. And Crafts and Technology let you use artifacts more effectively, give you better armor and access to crossbowmen, and at the higher levels, allow you to develop firearm units that'll challenge the Empire on their own military turf.
- The Battle Didn't Count: In Chapter 12, if you win, the game just proceeds as if you'd lost, since the main character has to die to progress the plot.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: If there is only one enemy left on the opposing side with minimal HP, your troops will still hit them with all their attacks well after their HP is gone.
- Up Through the Ranks: Once a tier 1 unit maxes out their CP, they can be promoted to squad leader.
- Unstoppable Rage: Chapter 29 sees your Lord lose their cool and fly into a rage, slaughtering the last remnants of the imperial army for the time when citizens of the imperial capital celebrated their execution. Throughout this chapter you lose control of your main character's squad, as they automatically target the closest enemy unit to them, be that Zanatus fanatics or the dregs of the imperial army, made of inexperienced youth or feeble old, forcefully conscripted by Casamir in a desperate ploy to stop you. The narrative and other characters view this as the Lord raising their foot to cross over the
Moral Event Horizon line, though you get a chance to prevent the crossing by using your other squads to get the forced conscripts to surrender before your Lord gets to them. Thankfully, with their miniscule morale (they want to fight for Casamir even less than you want to deal with their resistance) it's easy to get them to do so, and Zanatus cultists are fair game. - Villain Shoes: Chapter 13 has you control armies of the Cult of Zanatus.
- Wake-Up Call Boss:
- Chapter 9. Up until then, a fairly plain strategy of "heavy foot at the front, priestesses in the back" gets you through the game, but then you have to fight the Empire's Gunners. They have an Armor-Piercing Attack, which means that your infantry's heavy armor won't let you just tank them. It's the game's way of telling you that you might want to include light and archer units in your army too.
- Once you get your Nephilim powers, try them out and learn how to use them. There will be a test soon, in the form of the Gaiden Quests. In a couple of these, brute force ain't gonna cut it; you'll need the enhanced mobility and ability to Draw Aggro that the Nephilim's powers give you.
- Wutai: Being a love letter to japanese games of the 90s, which frequently included one of these, Symphony of War has its own example with Sayunaa, though it's actually an interesting case as it blends Wutai with "Arabian Nights" Days. Sayunaa is a country located to the east, its people have notably far eastern features, their armies include a lot of samurai and in the narrative very ninja-esque characters also show up at one point - but Sayunaa is located in a desert and sayunaan names sound vaguely persian or turkic, bringing comparisons to ancient Iran to mind.
- White Magician Girl: The female medic is the game's default healer unit, and the only one that's an exclusive healer besides Lysander. She can follow the exclusive healer tier to Hospitaller, Priestess, or Templar, or she can become a hybrid healer/fighter by becoming a Valkyrie or Paladin.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The game takes many story cues in particular from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. The blue-haired hero starts off fighting for The Empire by quelling a local rebellion, but is eventually forced to fight against the very same empire they swore allegiance to. The hero dies, and the Emperor, while theoretically holding absolute power, is undermined by an evil cult that kidnaps children as part of their MO. The two major differences are that the Time Skip is much shorter and that the heroes of the first part of the game lead the effort against the Empire, instead of their descendants.
- World of Buxom: With the sole exception of Abigayle, every female party member has significant padded armor in front.
- Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: The game interestingly uses both, with Lightning Mages wearing yellow robes and firing yellow lightning spells and Blue Dragons breathing blue storm breath.
- You Are in Command Now: Twice. Following the Captain's execution, Diana and Lysander assume command of their respective branches of the rebellion against the Empire. While at the end, Lysander is all but stated to be the next Emperor, being entrusted by the Lord to build a better world.
- You Require More Vespene Gas: Gold is, well a Gold-type resource, used to pay for hiring soldiers and purchasing items such as trait scrolls or artifacts. Strategic resources such as Iron and Sunstone are a hybrid Lumber-Power resource, being required to upgrade units to higher tier classes, but aren't consumed in the process but are rather held in maintenance until the unit changes jobs. A third type of resource, Research, is used to unlock perks on the Tech Tree and is earned by increasing Faction Rank.
