Wanderers of Sorceria is an extensive custom campaign for Warcraft III created by Razorclaw X. It consists of six sub-campaigns (known as Books) with each containing around 17-19 missions.
The story of the campaign takes place in the magical world of Purgatory, resembling an amalgamation of a Tolkienesque Fantasy and a Steampunk setting with several anime influences thrown in. In this world, several people are known as Sorcerians. These Sorcerians always have the feeling they don't belong in this world and know their home is located elsewhere. To find the answers to the question of where they belong and how to return there, they set out to find the legendary city of Sorceria, which is said to contain all the answers.
At the start of the campaign, the queen of the fairytale-like kingdom of Arcadia has recently fallen victim to a coup staged by her ministers, led by Prime Minister Kosseimaru. With the queen imprisoned, Kosseimaru sets his sights on conquering the world, using his necromantic powers to raise an army of undead soldiers, known as the Army of the Dead. Their first offensive is against the neighboring Dutchy of Artesia. Meanwhile, in Artesia, the young paladin Hikaru, one of the Sorcerians, stumbles upon a seer who tells him he is foretold to be the hero destined to bring forth Kosseimaru's downfall. Together with the demon hunter Nekurow, the rogue Johan and the idol singer Miranda, they set out to defeat the Arcadian Ministry and restore queen Arcadia to the throne.
On the Arcadian side of the conflict, Shizuka and Ziel, the Arcadian Ministry's top assassins, set out to secure an alliance with the underground kingdom of Coron-Nerub, home to the sentient spider-like Nerubians.
Neither side knows this conflict is fairly insignificant compared to the conflict going on behind the scenes of this world, in which they will eventually take part in.
This campaign is mainly played from the point of view of these Sorcerians and their quest to find their answers. Because the Sorcerians belong to different factions, the player gets to experience different sides of the multiple conflicts taking place during the campaign. A very unique feature to Warcraft III campaigns is that the outcome of several choices you make will influence future maps. For example, thoroughly defeating a faction in one mission, will make the next mission in which you play as the defeated faction harder and vice versa. Another fun feature is the inclusion of New Game Plus, allowing you to replay the campaign with different choices or just to bulldoze over your enemies with your fully leveled heroes.
Wanderers of Sorceria can be downloaded on Campaign Creations
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Wanderers of Sorceria provides examples of:
- After-Combat Recovery: After defeating a boss in Dragon Slayer Arena in Book 5, all heroes' HP and mana are restored to 100%, though dead ones will not respawn. Note that this does not apply to this level's Book 2 counterpart, Fight Dragon.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: The campaign's various missions are told from the points of view of multiple characters, and as you advance from mission to mission, you'll find yourself switching characters on a very frequent basis. In some cases, this even happens within a single mission, namely:
- In the first half of Showdown (Book 2 Chapter 6), you play as Hikaru and Shizuka, before switching to Kanna, Shion and Kosseimaru in the second half, then controlling both groups against the final boss.
- In The Black Dream (Book 5 Chapter 8 Part 5), after defeating the Asir-arak as Hikaru, Johan and Sazabi, you switch to Scaldar Saberfang as he fights against Gunther Lightbringer.
- Anticlimax Boss: When Hikaru's party gets ambushed by Chika and Ayame, it turns out that they came too early and caught the Ministers unprepared. They only fight a lowly Mech Armor as a result.
- Bag of Spilling: In the transition from Book 2 to Book 3, all playable heroes in the first two Books lose some levels (but aren't reduced all the way to level 1) and all items except the Dragon Horn, Garanteen and Kitty Band.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Johan and Miranda are this trope. Johan uses a rough fighting style comparable to that of a street thug, while Miranda is more of a Kick Chick.
- Baseless Mission: Despite being made for a Real-Time Strategy game, the missions where you have no control over a base far outnumber those where you do.
- Boss Arena Recovery: Most boss arenas have a limited number of Runes of Health, Mana and/or Restoration which restore health, mana or both when picked up.
- Boss Bonanza:
- Both of the levels set in the Battle Arena, in addition to providing access to New Game Plus and allowing you to grind all heroes up to level 10, feature a series of nine boss fights.
- Shade of Phantasma (Book 4 bonus stage) consists solely of 13 boss fights, supplemented by a few very weak creeps.
- Book 6 Chapter 6 (the final chapter of the main story) is divided into three distinct parts, each dedicated to a boss fight.
- Dream A Dream (X2 Chapter 2 Part 2) consists of four mandatory boss fights, an optional one, and nothing else.
- Boss-Only Level: Quite a few levels consist of a single boss fight and nothing else: Retaliation (Book 1 Chapter 8), Viper's Requiem (Book 3 Chapter 7), Kurumi's East District portion, all three parts of Book 6 Chapter 8, Eye of the Maelstrom (X1 Chapter 4), The Dream Sphere (X2 Chapter 3) and Crisis Duel (X2 bonus stage).
- Bragging Rights Reward: The secret classes for Hikaru, Shizuka and Kurumi are this. These classes are stronger than their average classes, but obtaining them requires you beat the game once, find 180 Sorcerian Journal Fragments throughout the entire campaign (60 for each character), restore certain magical obelisks hidden in 9 campaign missions and defeat 3 secret bossfights in a New Game Plus. After you obtain them, there is nothing really left to do, except enjoy playing the game again in New Game Plus with rather overpowered heroes.
- Character Class System: Several of the main hero characters have multiple classes available to them, which are selectable at several points in the campaign. Completing certain requirements will unlock more classes, most of which are much stronger compared to the regular classes.
- Civil Warcraft: In the first three missions in The Dark Ocean, which are set in Japan during the Sengoku period, your Oda-Nobunaga alliance faces off against the Takeda clan, and both use the same arsenal.
- Clark Kenting: Subverted in Book 1, when Hikaru, an outsider to Arcadia, immediately blows Idol Singer Miranda's cover as "Redeye", the hero of La Résistance. In front of one of the Arc Villain's henchmen, to boot. He even comments on her Paper-Thin Disguise.
- Collection Sidequest: Almost every map throughout Books 1 to 5 has several journal pages scattered around. Collecting them will gradually unlock nice upgrades lasting throughout the whole campaign.
- Creator Cameo:
- Razorclaw X appears as an extremely powerful, invulnerable neutral hero on almost all missions, but he is always located in such an out-of-the-way location that you aren't going to see him without extensive scouting with air units or the reveal map cheat code.
- In Road to Arcadia (Book 1 Chapter 1), One Last Look (Book 2 Epilogue), Fight Dragon (Book 2 Bonus) and Dragon Slayer Arena (Book 5 Bonus), members of Campaign Creations appear as invulnerable neutral units that do not interact with others in any way (outside of talking to the player in the first one).
- Creepy Cross Dresser: Kasumi turns out to be this. His real identity is that of a teenage boy named Kevin who likes to crossdress. Purgatory gave him the body of a woman to let him indulge in his fantasy in exchange for his loyalty. After betraying Shizuka, he reveals he wants to play all kinds of dirty games with her while she's tied up. He is not totally evil, however, as he merely things he is having a lucid dream, where his actions have no consequences for other people. After almost being killed by Shizuka, but spared, he drops his creepy tendencies.
- Cryptic Conversation: Almost all cutscenes involving Shizuka and her mysterious acquaintances in Book 1.
- Deal with the Devil: At certain points during Book 4 and 5, Hokuto the Shadow Weaver offers to empower Shizuka, Kurumi and Hikaru. Accepting this offer will give these characters a humiliating and, in the case of the girls, fanservicey outfit, which lasts to the end of Book 5.
- Do Not Go Gentle: Shion, knowing he is destined to die, still puts up quite a fight against Hikaru's party and refuses to quit even after Miranda's Don't Make Me Destroy You plea.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Kosseimaru and Queen Arcadia fit this trope in Book 1 and 2. Defeating the former in Book 1 will cause the latter to take their place as Big Bad in Book 2. Defeating the Big Bad of Book 2 will do nothing much in the long run, as they turned out to be a very minor villain in the larger conflict.
- Distant Finale: The Golden Ending and the two extra stories take place four years after the main story ends.
- Dual Boss: Kosseimaru and Mizuki in Retaliation (Book 1 Chapter 8); the two Night Dragons in Showdown (Book 2 Chapter 6); the two Hydrae and Night Dragons in Fight Dragon (Book 2 bonus level); Soul Eraser and Sorana in Orpheus' Journey (Book 4 Chapter 3); the two Devil Pillars in The Black Dream (Book 5 Chapter 8); Ebon and Xevious, Surtur and Garm, Nargul and Copy Hikaru, and Clench and Gorbash in Dragon Slayers Arena (Book 5 bonus level).
- The Empire: Several factions fit this trope, most notably the Nerubians, Jin Empire and Radik Empire.
- Enemy Mine:
- After queen Arcadia is revealed to be a malevolent deity at the end of Book 1, Hikaru's group is forced to team up with Kosseimaru's gang.
- Yue Fang and Scaldar are forced to team up when the Chaos Legion attacks both of them. This teamup then turns into a permanent alliance at the urging of Deathclaw.
- Evil All Along: The Nerubians being evil might not come as that much of a surprise given their willingness to use necromancy, Arcadia being an It's All About Me villain less so.
- Evil Former Friend: Shion to Miranda.
- Evil Knockoff: In Book 2, the villains create evil versions of Hikaru and Shizuka, named Hikaru the Zealous and Sorana the Seducer. These knockoffs are based on the negative aspects of the original's personalities.
- Evil Versus Evil: The Nerubians vs. demons and satyrs.
- Fantastic Racism:
- Queen Arcadia starts systematically exterminating the Nerubians, because she thinks spiders are horrible disgusting creatures.
- The Azorbians regard the non-human Tribes living nearby as lowly savage creatures. When the need arises for the Azorbians to ally with these Tribes, they need a LOT of convincing that not doing so will mean certain defeat.
- Fauns and Satyrs: Satyrs are a major enemy faction in the first two books, having formed the Radik Empire. They are a big threat to the Nerubians. From book 3 onward, the tide is turned against them, causing them the faction to turn into The Remnant. It is up to the player to spare them, turning them into allies of kill them off.
- Field Power Effect: Kurumi's level 5 journal upgrade provides Altars with either a Virtual Idol (which increases friendly units' attack damage by 20%) or a Gravity Well (which slows down nearby enemies).
- Forced Transformation: Each Dragon Slayer has access to the Seal of Oracles power, which renders the powers of a Sorcerian useless by turning them into what is most humiliating for them.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The various New Game Plus-exclusive bosses appear out of nowhere with little buildup, and have no relevance to the story whatsoever; instead, their main role is to provide challenges to the player's fully-levelled heroes and (occasionally) serve as nods to Ys.
- Good Is Not Nice: Johan tells Miranda that "doing good has nothing to do with love and justice".
- Guide Dang It!: Several near-useless items can be found and traded for much better items later. The catch is that these items need to be in your inventory, but also need to be on the right hero during the appropriate mission, as you don't always control the same ones from mission to mission.
- Hero Must Survive: The vast majority of times, if you lose a hero and have no Altar to revive them, be prepared to look at the Game Over screen.
- Innate Night Vision: Kurumi's level 2 journal upgrade Ultravision gives the players' units the same sight range at night as during the day.
- Interservice Rivalry: All over the place in the Arcadian Ministry - the ministers who are responsible for summoned beasts, combat robots and Army of the Dead are trying to one-up each other instead of working together. Hikaru even lampshades it to Mizuki at one point. Only Kosseimaru's threat of turning them all into Cat Girls makes them try to work together.
- It's Personal: Shion's step-sister Chika wants to personally avenge his death at the hands of Hikaru's party.
- The Legions of Hell: The Burning Legion from the Warcraft universe is featured in a small subplot, wanting to take over Purgatory. Notable characters belonging to this faction are Nargul the Puppetmaster and Duke Shivak.
- Lethal Lava Land: The South District of the City of Sorceria is this. Contrary to what one might expect, the temperature is actually quite temperate.
- Lord British Postulate: Arcadia's Amulet of Immortality is an item that automatically resurrects the hero upon death, works 99 times, and is only used by enemy heroes whom you are not supposed to kill: Zhang Liao, Li Dian and Yue Jin in The Generals of Hefei Castle (Book 3 Chapter 2), where the objective is to flee from them, have one Arcadia's Amulet of Immortality each; and the five Arcadian Generals in Fallen Comrades (Book 2 Chapter 7 Part 1), whom you're supposed to capture with Soul Gems, have six each (plus Divine armor and 7675 HP to boot), to prevent the mission from becoming unwinnable—though that doesn't stop a really persistent player from killing them 594 times and breaking the mission in the process.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Purgatory is actually a variant to this trope. While it traps the souls of several dreaming people of Earth, the entities it truly imprisons are actually physically present in Purgatory.
- Mêlée à Trois:
- In Expedition (Book 2 Chapter 2), the native Bloodreaver Clan is hostile to both your forces and your enemies, the Radik and Zande.
- In the final boss fight of Orpheus' Journey (Book 4 Chapter 3), the two bosses Soul Eraser and Sorana are hostile toward each other as well as you. Letting the former finish off the latter nets an achievement.
- Tiger's Claw (Book 5 Chapter 2) takes place in the territory of the Tribes, who are hostile to both your Azorbian and the enemy Nerubian forces.
- Kevin's Journey (Book 5 bonus level) is a Mêlée à Quatre with two major conflicts taking place in the same place: the player's Darkwater Tribe versus an alliance between Neo Arcadia and the Dragon Slayers, and the Hanagumi Ninja versus the Crestfall Pirates. Neither of the sides is friendly to each other.
- In Truth of the Heart (Book 5 Chapter 6) and United We Stand (Book 5 Chapter 7), the invisible Night Hawks scattered across the map will harass both your forces and the enemy.
- The East District of Book 6 is a warzone between the Sorceria Guardians and the Metal Plague, with yourself as a third-party intrusion (though this only comes into play in Shizuka's portion, since you don't have a base in Hikaru's, while Kurumi's is just a boss fight).
- Ms. Fanservice: Several of the female characters, most notably Shizuka, Kurumi and Miranda, have access to certain classes and/or outfits that turn them into this. These costume options include a Playboy Bunny outfit, a French Maid Outfit, a Bedlah Babe outfit or something else featuring a short skirt. Hokuto the Shadow Weaver has a fetish for this type of character; when either Shizuka or Kurumi accepts her help during certain missions, Hokuto will power them up, but turn them into a sultry French Maid and a harem dancer respectively.
- Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Shizuka's level 3 and 5 journal upgrades allow the player's Altars to train either Mekani Troopers or Zerglings (but not both), and Mekani Overseers or Mech Armors.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Johan gets this treatment a lot in Arcadia.
- Mythology Gag:
- In both of the bonus Boss Rush levels set in the Nexus at the end of Books 2 and 5, the final boss is Xaax the Defiler, one of the main protagonists in Razorclaw X's Starcraft campaign series. Thakras and Kabala, two major antagonists in this series, are also bosses in the Book 5 version of this level.
- In Down the Rabbit Hole (X2 Chapter 1), an optional quest involves defeating three Lords of Nightmare. Players of Starcraft II might recognise two of them as a Protoss Dark Archon and Wrathwalker, but the third one is a Zeji Elemental, a unit that would only be familiar to people who played Zeji Conversion, one of Razorclaw X's past Starcraft projects. Lampshaded by the characters:Chika: What in the world is that? That's not a Starcraft thing!Ayame: I heard some people who mod Starcraft and put weird things into it, but this is a low-poly piece of crap!
- New Game Plus: Unlocking Fight Dragon (a bonus level at the end of Book 2) allows you to replay Book 1 and 2, and unlocking Dragon Slayers Arena (a bonus level at the end of Book 5) allows you to replay Book 3 to 5, both with fully leveled heroes and completed journals.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: This is unfortunately a recurring issue for Hikaru in the first two Books. His desire to be a righteous Paladin who topples oppressive regimes only enables potentially worse ones to take their place once he succeeds. In Book 1, Queen Arcadia uses Hikaru's desire to destroy the Arcadian Ministry and free herself, becoming the next antagonist. At the end of Book 2, her defeat enables the Nerubians to rise to power and use the Arcadian technology in a bid for world conquest. After Book 2, Hikaru realizes this and renounces his title as Paladin and distances himself from any movement that tries to rebel against oppressive governments.
- Noble Demon: Depending on your choices, Scaldar can turn out like this. While he believes in his mission to conquer the world for the Nerubians, he detests unnecessary bloodshed and cowardice. At the end of the Siege of Redmont in Book 3, the cowardly ruler of Redmont pleads to be spared at the cost of many innocent people. Scaldar kills him in utter disgust and then states the surviving Artesian soldiers may return to their families and leave the city if they want to, instead of enslaving them or killing them off. Other Nerubians are displayed to be a bit more ruthless.
- Non-Standard Skill Learning: A major mechanic in The Turning Wheel is that Ayame and Chika only have two abilites (one standard and one ultimate) by default, and can collect and wear numerous costumes, each of which provides two more abilities. Each hero can carry five costumes at a timenote and can instantly switch costumes as they wish. The concept of skill points does not exist; instead, the standard ability is available from start (and scales as the hero in question levels up), each costume's two abilities are unlocked at level 2 and 4, and the ultimate is automatically learnt at level 6.
- One-Winged Angel: This seems to be a favorite tactic of many of the boss characters. Especially when doing a New Game Plus, where several of the bosses have an extra stage to give the player at least some challenge.
- Physical God:
- Dreamers are powerful Sorcerians who are able to use Purgatory's energies to create entire civilizations out of nothing. They are employed by Purgatory to make its world as convincing as possible. Both Queen Arcadia and General Yue Fang are revealed to be Dreamers.
- Scaldar becomes one in Book 6 after absorbing the power of a holy Nerubian relic.
- Purgatory's core is this in the truest sense of the word. It is a sentient computer that runs and influences the whole world.
- Platonic Cave: What Purgatory ultimately is to the Sorcerians: Purgatory is actually a prison world created to imprison the leaders of the alien Mekani Alliance, who tried to take over Earth thousands of years ago, when the world was populated by the High Men, a race of magical humans. To maintain this prison, Purgatory transfers the souls of dreaming people to it, turning them into Sorcerians. These Sorcerians need to find the way to the city of Sorceria, which will use their creative energy to recharge Purgatory. After this process, or if a Sorcerian dies in Purgatory, they will wake up in the real world.
- Protection Mission: The objective of Foreign Ruin (Book 2 Chapter 5) is to protect Kosseimaru (who is uncontrollable, immobile and doesn't fight back during this mission) for 30 minutes from the three enemy armies.
- Reinventing the Wheel: Played straight with standard techs, averted with journal upgrades. Collecting the journal pages scattered around the campaign allows you to unlock several upgrades, some of which will unlock several unit skills and upgrades right at the start of a mission.
- Relationship Values: Several of the main characters have an affection meter towards you, the player. Said affection is influenced by the choices you make during the game. This will ultimately determine which ending said character will get after Book 6.
- Reluctant Fanservice Girl: Both Shizuka and Kurumi give off vibes of this, as they react very negatively to situations involving Fanservicey outfits. Played for Laughs during one of the missions in Book 4 when New Game Plus is active. Said mission features a sidequest to buy a Playboy Bunny outfit for Kurumi, which unlocks the Bunny Girl class when completed. The more parts of the outfit you buy, the more Kurumi starts to complain she would never wear it.
- The Remnant:
- The Radik Empire gets hit hard by the rejuvenated Nerubians after Book 2. In book 4 a small remnant of this empire is encountered. It is up to the player to help them, leave them to their fate or even completely destroy them.
- After the destruction of Arcadia, the goblins who provided them with their technology took their property back and branded themselves Neo Arcadia.
- The Kagero Ninja clan is officially disbanded after Book 3, due to having ties to the traitorous Count Zule. In some missions, the player can still encounter remnants of this faction.
- Ridiculously Fast Construction: Exaggerated by Hikaru's Operation CWAL journal upgrade, which causes all food-providing buildings to be built instantly.
- Schizo Tech: Similar to the Warcraft universe, people in Purgatory still use medieval weapons, such as swords, bows and spears while advanced technology such as massive airships and steampunk mecha do exist. It gets even weirder when several characters gain access technology used by the Mekani Alliance, which is a coalition of very advanced aliens.
- Secret Character: In Road to Arcadia (Book 1 Chapter 1), recruiting Yagyu Jubei and The Blackrock require you to, respectively, cut the trees (or destroy them with a Mortar Team) near the Kobold Shoveler and killing The Blackrock's Water Boy at the bottom of the cliff near the Way Gate with ranged units. Unlike most other Optional Party Members, these two do not even have an inventory, and neither do they appear alongside most other playable heroes in the Fight Dragon special level.
- Secret Level: Several bonus levels can be unlocked by making certain choices or finishing certain sidequests in the game.
- Book 1 has a level focusing on Miranda and her student Tanya. This level is obtained by beating the Dance Dance Revolution minigame in chapter 2, part 2. After beating this level, Tanya will become a playable character in the final two Book 1 chapters and an enemy hero in the final chapter in Book 2 (both epilogues excluded).
- Book 4 has the secret level Madoshi Strike, featuring three characters who previously departed Purgatory. Beating this level will make these three summonable. This level is obtained by refusing a certain offer.
- Book 5 has Kevin's Journey, which is unlocked by sparing the traitor at the end of Book 4, then not destroying the Army of the Dead's Necropolis too soon in Chapter 2.
- See the Invisible: The Gem of True Sight (an item from the vanilla game) and Kitty Band allow the Hero to see invisible units, which is required to obtain the Orb of Blight in The Red Haze (Book 4 Chapter 8 Part 3), since the merchant selling it is invisible. Conveniently, if you didn't get the Kitty Band from Book 2, the Dragon King Naja in The Puppetmaster (Book 4 Chapter 6) will give you a Gem of True Sight if you manage to find him.
- Shout-Out:
- Blademaster Blackrock in the very first town is basically orcish The Rock.
- You can encounter Great Teacher Onizuka himself in the same mission.
- The Nerubian race and Burning Legion make appearances in the campaign. They managed to come to this world from Azeroth itself. The Nerubians from Coron-Nerub are actually a displaced remnant from Azjol-Nerub, who disappeared during the War of the Spider. After ending up in Purgatory, they decided to rebuild their kingdom there. The Burning Legion are simply in Purgatory to conquer it in hopes of using Purgatory as a staging ground to launch invasions to different worlds.
- The Jin Empire is explicitly named to be based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms. One of the main characters from the Jin Empire even thinks she's a character in said story, trying to reenact several events of it in order to gain success.
- Several characters clearly resemble Magical Girls, most notably Miranda. The class of Miranda's protege, Tanya, is explicitly Magical Girl.
- Skippable Boss: After defeating the Takeda Army in Defense of Yoshida Castle (X1 Chapter 2), you'll receive a new objective to defeat the Void creatures. Finding and going through a portal that appeared at the same time will allow you to skip said objective and the next two missions, including the Wrath of the Void boss fight in Chapter 4.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Several areas in Purgatory fit this trope. Most notably the homeland of the Zande Witches and the North District of the city of Sorceria.
- Story Branching: As mentioned above, how you play on certain missions will influence future mission. For example, if the Nerubian Lord Scaldar spares a tribe of Murlocs during his siege of the city of Redmont, these Murlocs will form an alliance of the Nerubians. The consequence of this is that future missions playing for the Nerubians will feature the Murlocs as allies, while missions against the Nerubians will feature them as additional enemies. If Scaldar destroys the Murlocs, they won't take part in any of the future missions.
- Stuck Items: From Book 2 onward (except during a replay of Book 6), items that play a role or another in the main plot are locked in their slot and cannot be dropped, as is the case for the default outfits of Kurumi, Ayame and Chika in the extra stories.
- Super Boss:
- Veranda Starshower in Book 1 Chapter 3 is a completely optional and easily missable battle. Killing her in this level will yield some nice items and stop her from becoming a recurring enemy.
- Book 6 has three optional boss battles. Two of them only appear at a New Game Plus playthrough. These battles are Six in Shizuka's story, Shizuka in Hikaru's story and the Essence of Wrath in Kurumi's story; while Six and the Essence of Wrath are on par of difficulty with the rest of the bosses, Shizuka is flat out unfair and is meant to be. Beating these battles is a requirement to unlocking certain nice bonuses.
- There are two bonus levels consisting of a Boss Bonanza which ends in a battle against the insanely powerful Xaax the Defiler. Beating him each time provides an achievement.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: You have just killed one of Arcadian Ministers. Congratulations, now the Prime Minister has a perfectly legitimate reason to crush La Résistance once and for all.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Hikaru and Shizuka in Book 1 Chapter 3, at first.
- These Hands Have Killed: It's implied after Shion's death that Miranda had never killed a human before.
- Timed Mission: The following missions have a timer which must not be allowed to run out, or you'll look at the defeat screen: The Fated Hour (Book 1 Chapter 7), The Count of Ding Jun (Book 3 Chapter 5 Part 1), Orpheus' Hunt (Book 4 Chapter 2), Viper's Rebirth (Book 4 Chapter 7 Part 2) and Truth of the Heart (Book 5 Chapter 6). Jammin' in the Woods (Book 3 Chapter 3) and Cry For Wind (Book 5 Chapter 8 Part 1) also have a timer, but you do not have to complete the objectives in question (even though they're listed as Main Quests), though whether you do so or not will affect future missions.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: Miranda's sidequest in Book 1 Chapter 2 is a Guitar Hero-esque Mini-Game.
- Unstoppable Rage: In a cutscene after the Shion fight, Miranda says that she killed Shion under effects of one. Her ultimate ability is Bladestorm (basically ten seconds of Attack! Attack! Attack!), which makes it a case of Gameplay and Story Integration and Gameplay and Story Segregation at the same time, since at the time of the Shion fight, she is not leveled enough to use the ability.
- Upgraded Boss: In Heroic mode (as the game refers to these bosses as they are fought in New Game Plus), several bosses are much more powerful than in the original game, allowing them to still be a challenge to the player's fully-levelled heroes who would otherwise bulldoze through the game with little difficulty.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Heroic Shion is this during a New Game Plus. If you think New Game Plus allows you to effortlessly bulldozer through the game again, you are wrong, as several boss fights have been tweaked to present a challenge during this game mode.
- Willfully Weak: While Metallus is perfectly able to use Seal of Oracles like all other Dragon Slayers, he chooses not to, opting to go for a fair fight instead.
- Wrong Side All Along: Hikaru says this word-for-word after discovering that Arcadia just murdered thousands of her subjects (actually captive souls) and he'd helped to free her.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Kosseimaru pulls this on Reiko, turning her into a sheep.
- Your Heart's Desire: This is what Purgatory does to Sorcerians to convince them to play their role. For example, both Hikaru and Miranda have a desire to be a hero helping the people and spreading justice, which turns them into a Paladin and magical girl respectively.
