Video Game / Various Daylife

An RPG of Everyday Life and Adventure

Various Daylife is an Eastern RPG published by Square Enix, originally for Apple Arcade in 2019, but was removed from the service and soon after ported to Steam, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 in 2022. The game was developed by DokiDoki Groove Works alongside the developers behind Square series Bravely Default, Octopath Traveler, and Triangle Strategy.

The game sets in the coastal city of Erebia, located at the southern edge of the continent of Antoecia that has mostly gone unexplored save the city in question, under the jurisdiction of the kingdom. The player assumes control of a colonist, who has just disembarked at a port within Erebia and is tasked with helping to maintain the city by taking up jobs and to explore the rest of the hitherto-unknown continent with the aid of some fellow colonists.

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Tropes:

• 2½D: All character models and locations are in three dimensions, but traversing the town and going on expeditions is limited to a two-dimensional plane.
• Action Initiative: The innate ability of the Sylphspear job class lets the person with such a class act first at the start of a battle, but only on the first turn.
• Aerith and Bob: The names of allies range from unusual (e.g. Efil and Melhard) to fairly conventional (e.g. Adelaide and Bruno).
• The Ageless: The second phase of the game reveals that Antoecia is cursed so that none who live there ever age or permanently die (save for bodies completely beyond recovery, like the ones the royal soldiers threw into lava) at the cost of no new lives being born, with Prince Aelfric calling himself invincible and noting how much in-game time has passed since the start of the game without the player or their friends ever growing older.
• The Alcoholic:
  • Melhard is very fond of alcohol, many social interactions with him outside of the church take place while he's consuming alcohol, the annual festival of choice that he participates in is the Beer Fair (in which participants brew their own beer and get to sample-taste beer brewed by others), and his own statement makes it clear he appreciates celebrating his birthday only due to being treated to drinks.
    And now I get to drink liquor I wouldn't normally drink myself? Maybe birthdays aren't so bad after all.
  • The proprietress of the Tavern, where alcohol is served and Efil works as a Server (her default job class), loves consuming alcohol as much as she loves selling it. One of her statement is that she'll drink anything as long as alcohol is in it, be it sweet or bitter.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Despite making various allies, an exploration party can only include four characters, including the main protagonist.
• Artificial Human: The final expeditions of the story reveal that Efil is a magically-created idealized version of Worlphrmn, as an attempt to both free herself from the land's ruins and vicariously live a life of happiness and friendship that she never could.
• Auto-Revive: The Lutist's ability "Always Together" bestows this onto the affected party member for three turns.
• The Beastmaster: The Beast Tamer job class. Not only is its innate ability being able to find beasts on expeditions, its initial skill, "Call Beast", also allows the character to summon a beast that has been captured during an expedition to aid the team as well.
• Becoming the Mask: According to Melhard, an aristocrat had hired him to pretend to be a Servite — a member of the clergy — to infiltrate some seedy group, only for Melhard to have to flee for his life after his cover was blown. When he arrived in Erebia, he dons the moniker of a Servite again since that was what he knew, but the folks in the city treated him as a real deal and he has taken the job class title for real since then.^note  It's actually his default job class when the playable protagonist meets him for the first time.
• Big Brother Instinct: Bruno is quite protective towards Willa. He also becomes a Herbalist and a Shaman in order to be able to help her more.
• Big Eater: Gilda.
  • After completing an expedition quest requested by her, which involves finding and gathering a particular type of food item for a cook who's a friend of hers, she thanks the protagonist by ordering many dishes — included, but not limited to: stew, pizza, and scalloped potatoes — and, to top it off, saying they can order for more if they desire so.
  • On her birthday, the prospect of having to pay for her order ruins other birthday attendants' mood.
    Gilda: Well, I suppose it's time to start eating to my heart's content!
    Bruno: (frowns) Um... try to keep your heart's content within our budget if you can...
    Melhard: (sighs) So we are picking up the tab after all?
    Efil: (frowns) Oh boy, this isn't going to end well.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: After seemingly exploring all of the continent, getting awarded for it, and watching the credits, continuing the game extends the story and reveals Prince Aelfric, the man responsible for funding the exploration of Antoecia, is an Evil Overlord whose soldiers are killing those very explorers and disposing of the bodies in lava in order to try and locate the last of the ancient race that once dwelled there, in order to harness the island's curse of immortality for his own purposes.
• The Blacksmith: The Metalsmith, one of the job classes in the game, is this trope in all but name, even though Reubens would rather insist otherwise. Appropriately enough, the weapon of choice for this job class is the hammer.
• Bookworm: Roselta loves reading and research. For bonus points, her default job class is Scholar.
• Can't Drop the Hero: When going on explorations, the main protagonist must always be included in the limited party.
• Character Customization: At the start of the game, you choose your character's looks and name, though the gender is always male. At the port authority, your character's backstory (migrant/citizen/noble) and skills (good shape/intellectual/nimble) determine their starting stats.
• Chef of Iron: Phanna is a Cook who joins the team later on in game and can be selected for expeditions. After she joins, the Cook job class allows the playable protagonist to become one as well.
• Combination Attack: By seizing a CHAnce for higher damage, the protagonist will initiate one of these with one of the other party members.
• Conveniently an Orphan:
  • Bruno outright confesses to having grown up alongside Willa without parents before arriving on the continent.
  • Roselta discloses that she grew up without any family, parental figures included.
• Counter-Attack: The innate ability of the Executioner causes the character to automatically strike back against the opponent inflicting physical damage to him... sometimes.
• Dance Battler: The Dancer job class allows the character to become one. It provides attack buffs to a chosen ally through an ability (physical attack via Lion Dance or magical attack with Peacock Dance) and deals direct damage onto a chosen opponent using Sword Dance.
• Death Mountain: The Mountains, located in the southeastern region of Antoecia, is one of the areas the protagonist's team can explore on expeditions.
• Draw Aggro: The Dancer ability "Provoke" lets the user become the opponent's primary target for three turns.
• Eating the Enemy: A less direct version in this game. Dealing the finishing blow on a targeted opponent with the Cook's ability "Full Course" turns said opponent into a Lunch Box that can then be consumed to recover lost health while traversing through the wilderness in expeditions. This method also works on bosses.
• Enemy Scan:
  • The Secretary job class has the "Examine" skill that lets the user discover relevant information about the targeted opponent.
  • This is the innate ability that the Scholar job class possesses.
• The Executioner: The Executioner job class, naturally.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • When Efil requests help from Roselta and the playable protagonist to deal with the problem of mice infestation at the Tavern after Roselta acquires the Sorcerer job class, Roselta obliges by casting a curse that is intended to addle the mice enough to make them easier to catch via traps... only to end up causing the curse to be a bit too strong, resulting in the mice fleeing the Tavern en masse, which, in turn, incites panic from the customers witnessing the scene and threatens to endanger the reputation of the Tavern, much to Efil's dismay.
    Efil: [Playable protagonist], remind me to ask for help when Roselta isn't around...
  • Due to Reubens requesting for Roselta to help relieve Gilda of her stress (with the playable protagonist being summoned to be present as intermediary) after Roselta has obtained the Sorcerer job class, Roselta performs a hex on Gilda to make her more uninhibited with the intention of lessening Gilda's stress. While the ritual does accomplish what's intended, it also makes Gilda more prone to emotional outbursts, causing her to lash out at Reubens and become a Mood-Swinger for the duration of the hex's effect.
• Handsome Lech: According to a sailor at the wharf who can offer services like fishing to the playable protagonist, Reubens tends to get flirty with the womenfolk he meets and provides services for in his jobs, but none of the girls in Erebia seems to think highly of him, much to the sailor's bafflement, as Reubens is young and good-looking.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The player decides what the main protagonist's name is, as well as appearance.
• Identity Amnesia: Efil claims to have no memories of her past prior to drifting ashore and being found at a shoreline at Antoecia one day. Towards the end of the story, upon learning that she's a magical copy of Worlphrmn, she starts to have dreams consisting of Worlphrmn's memories.
• Instrument of Murder: The weapon of choice for the Lutist is, well, a lute. That being said, the main purpose of a lute is to augment the Lutist's magical power when they cast spells, as it increases the user's Intelligence (the higher the user's Intelligence, the more powerful the user's spells), not Strength.
• Intrepid Merchant: The character with the Merchant job class becomes one, especially since its innate ability lets the character in question find money randomly while on expeditions.
• In-Universe Game Clock: Run internally in this game. While shops in town are open 24/7, jobs that yield experience points for Level Grinding may be available only during daytime, only at night, or always available for the duration of the week, depending on the jobs in question themselves.
• Item Caddy: Some job classes grant item-related utility, though they must be unlocked via their respective expeditions first.
  • The Herbalist job class allows the character to pick up a random herb with certain healing ability (HP, MP, revival, etc.) while trekking in expeditions, and its final skill, Universal Coverage, lets the Herbalist make the targeted ally's item affect everyone in the team instead of one person at a time — helpful when using a high-grade healing item that only works on one person by default.
  • The Hunter job class allows the character to randomly hunt down a sighted animal and turn said animal into Deer Jerky (food items that can be consumed to regain HP lost due to Maximum HP Reduction) during expeditions.
  • The Courier job class comes with many item-related benefits.
    • It comes with three additional item slots by default, which is helpful when trekking through terrains on expeditions, especially in harsh weather conditions.
    • Moreover, the "Pickup" skill allows the user to filch an item from the targeted enemy if successful.
    • The "Delivery" skill makes any attack item being used by a character affected by said skill more powerful for three turns.
    • The "Redelivery" skill replicates the effect of the previously-consumed item, creating a "free item" effect.
  • The character with the Cook job class may acquire foodstuffs that can be consumed while camping during expeditions. Which food items the Cook might find varies, depending on the terrain the team members happen to be in during expeditions (fish in the marsh, dairy products in the mountain, etc.).
  • The Merchant ability "Economy" generates the "free item" effect, as the character affected by it will use items without depleting the team's stock for three turns.
• Job System:
  • There are 27 job classes among which the playable protagonist can switch, some of which are available earlier compared to others.
  • To a lesser extent, each of the nine allies the player can take to accompany on expeditions has three different job classes he/she can select among after said allies join the team and/or unlock their respective available classes.
• Jungle Japes: One of the regions the expeditionary team can explore is The Jungle, which is located in the central area on Antoecia.
• Last of Their Kind: Worlphrmn, the last of Antoecia's original inhabitants and the high priestess responsible for maintaining the curse of immortality upon the continent as part of a failed plan to save her people after a monumental disaster, now sealed within one of the land's ruins and only able to communicate via hologram. The final main quest of the game is finding a way to free her and let her enjoy life without accidentally destroying the continent in the process.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Volcano is located in the central part of the northern section in Antoecia as one of the regions that the protagonist's team can explore on expeditions, though volcanic ashes floating in the air periodically will cause more rapid Maximum HP Reduction to take place.
• Level Drain: As an icon, no less. The option to reset the playable protagonist's level and stats back to level 1 becomes available once the protagonist's level is maxed out at 99.
• Level Grinding: Present in this game, but the "battles" giving you the experience points that can accumulate enough to level up the main character come in the form of paying jobs said main character performs, whereas defeating enemies, bosses included, during expeditions yields NO experience. As for the friends who can be selected to go on expeditions with the main character, you have to manually select the "Train Ally" icon to get them to level up, for a fee.
• Lost Technology: According to Roselta's statements, there was once a predecessor human development on Antoecia long ago, but they died out before any of the colonists set foot onto the continent, leaving behind the ruins and the guardian golems.
• Maximum HP Reduction: Not from enemy attacks; instead the expeditionary team members' maximum HP decreases steadily as they trek through the wilderness, in larger increments in harsh weather conditions. The team members can boost their max HP back up by consuming food items while camping during expeditions, up to their original amount at the start of the expedition, though it'll decrease again once they resume the trek.
• Meaningful Name: The Sylphspears tends to use spears as their weapons.
• Money Mauling: The Merchant ability "Venture Capital" allows the character to spend 100,000 SD (the in-game unit for currency) out of the total funds to deal 999 HP worth of damage against all foes. It may even cause the targets to become Blinded, which reduces the accuracy of their attacks.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The name "Aelfric" is once again used^note  (as the name of the royal prince overseeing the development of Erebia and Antoecia in this game), as it has been in both the Octopath series (as the name of a God associated with fire) and in Triangle Strategy (as the name of a valuable explosive gem).
  • Ogre Eagle, a griffin-like beast monster in Octopath, returns here as the boss of an expedition.
• Off with His Head!: After Prince Aelfric gloats that he's invincible due to the island's curse restoring damaged bodies, Orion decides to end him for good via decapitation, which cannot be healed.
• Outliving One's Offspring: According to a statement from Orion, he once had a son named Coleo, who became a member of the royal military force like Orion himself, with his late wife, but Coleo died in a mission. When talking about Coleo in the present time with the main protagonist at one point, it's painfully clear that Orion has been haunted by Coleo's demise. Tragically, it turns out Coleo is still alive, but has been driven mad by his job and must be given a Mercy Kill by Orion after the party fights him.
  Do not vanish like Coleo did. No matter what happens... it's old ones like us who should go first.
• Perma-Stubble: Bruno, Melhard, and Orion all sport a perpetual stubble.^note  Bruno is a Warrior by default, Orion is the captain of the Salamandswords, and Melhard had lived a rough life in the past before arriving at Erebia.
• Perpetual Smiler: Invoked. Efil tries to put on a happy face due to her job classes (Server by default, and then Dancer and Beast Tamer, both of which make her a performing entertainer, later on). One of the jobs that come with being a Server is even called "Service with a Smile".
• Praetorian Guard: The Salamandswords, of whom Orion is the captain, are bodyguards for the royalty.
• Resources Management Gameplay: When embarking on an expedition, your inventory space is limited, requiring the player to manage their rations and other gear and having to decide whether to take a risk and keep adventuring once supplies run out.
• Shifting Sand Land: The Desert is located in the southwestern region of Antoecia that the expeditionary team can explore by Crossing the Desert.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Except for the "slipping" and the "sliding" parts, The Snowfields, which is situated in the northeastern area of Antoecia, serves as the ice world in this game, with snowfall ensuring more rapid Maximum HP Reduction for the expeditionary team members.
• Spam Attack: Rain of Arrows, a skill from the Hunter job class, allows the character to deal five fully-powered strikes against random foes.
• Speaking Simlish: Every character in the game speaks in Voice Grunting.
• Stalker with a Crush: Reubens is blatantly obsessed with Gilda, much to her displeasure.
  Gilda: (to Reubens) Can you at least try to pretend not to have such a blatant lust?
• Surprise Party:
  • Adelaide's birthday party is done in this fashion, as it takes place inside the house of the playable protagonist while she's invited over without being informed that it's to celebrate her birthday.
  • This is also how the party members arrange for Roselta's birthday, and she seems oblivious to the members' intention upon arrival.
• Tragic Keepsake: It's not given any in-game description, but a lute serves this purpose to Phanna due to it once belonging to Orserra, a close friend of hers who went missing. One expedition request has Phanna asking for a search for Orserra as the result of the Sylphspears stopping their search after two days of Orserra being missing, and Orserra's lute is all the team members can find once they reach their destination. This would lead to Phanna becoming a Lutist herself.
• Turn-Based Combat: Battles in the game are conducted this way, with the addition of the "CHA" system; by CHAnging enemy status, you can CHAin your attacks together in order to gain a CHAnce to inflict heavier damage.

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