Visual Novel / Code:Realize

Even if this body were to rot away, I will never let go of this hand.

On a train with an unknown destination, a girl travels, not knowing where her path will take her.

In an abandoned mansion in the countryside outside London, a lonely young woman lives in isolation, faithfully keeping the promise she made to her father to remain out of sight and have no contact with anyone. Her body and blood carry a deadly poison which melts anything she touches: she is a monster.

When the Royal Guard of Victoria's Britain break into the mansion to capture her, however, the girl finds herself stolen away from them by the chivalrous thief Arsène Lupin. With no memory of her life before two years ago, she joins Lupin and his friends in their quest to find her missing father, hoping that he will provide her with answers about her mysterious condition.

Code:Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ (original subtitle Sousei no Himegimi, lit. Princess of Genesis) is a Visual Novel by Idea Factory and Design Factory, released in Japan in November 2014 and localized in English by Aksys Games in 2015. It is set in a Steampunk version of nineteenth-century Britain and features an assortment of characters from classic period science fiction. A planned anime adaptation was announced in late 2015 and aired during the fall 2017 anime season. Funimation's Simuldub premiered on October 24th, 2017. Watch it here.

The game was followed by a fandisc released in 2016 under the title of Code:Realize ~Shukufuku no Mirai~ (lit. Future's Blessings). 2016 also saw to a five disc Image Song series of the five main love interests, with drama segments coming with them. In 2017, the original VN and the fandisk were compiled into a PlayStation 4 port titled Code:Realize ~Saikō no Hanataba~ (lit. Rainbow-Colored Bouquet). The fandisk and the PS4 compilation were released in North America as Future Blessings and Bouquet of Rainbows in 2018. An additional fandisc titled Code: Realize - Wintertide Miracles was released in 2019. The full series was released on the Nintendo Switch in 2020-21.

Also, despite the similar naming convention, it is not a part of the Science Adventure Series.

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The visual novel contains examples of the following tropes:

• Abnormal Ammo: Van Helsing's tendency to solve all problems with his guns is facilitated by the assortment of specialized ammunition that he uses, from miniature grenade shells to cartridges packed with non-lethal rock salt.
• Acid Attack: Although the characters refer to it as "poison", the player character's skin and blood act more like a fictionalized super-acid in the way that she burns and melts whatever she comes into contact with. After testing it on a variety of materials up to and including a sample of titanium, Victor concludes that the reaction is something more alchemical than natural.
• Action Girl: Cardia develops into one through training.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Being an otome game, it's only natural some of the literary characters are much more handsome than they are described in the original books. For example, Bram Stoker's Abraham Van Helsing was an aging Dutch doctor of average height who is described as having a "good-sized nose" and "bushy brows," not much like the visual novel's tall blond Bishōnen.
• Adaptation Distillation: The anime adaptation makes quite a few adjustments to cover the Broad Strokes of the story within the length of 12 episodes, such as making Victor an associate of Lupin and Impey's before they ever meet Cardia instead of including the whole sequence of events that led to him joining their group in the VN.
• Altar the Speed: The group can't get their act together at Lupin and Cardia's wedding, so he decides to start saying his vows before they even get into the church.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Van Helsing and Cardia both give them on his route.
• Anti-Villain: Herlock Sholmès tends to get into conflict with the cast, who are, after all, being led by an infamous thief and (of necessity) frequently operate outside the law.
• Apologetic Attacker: Cardia apologizes profusely as she knocks people unconscious. In Saint-Germain's route, Saint-Germain is very sorry that he has to kill Cardia, to the point of weeping openly if he ends up going through with it in certain Bad Endings.
• Archnemesis Dad: Isaac Beckford is explicitly the Big Bad of Lupin's route, and is directly or indirectly responsible for most of the problems of the other routes even when he doesn't appear. The only villainous plot that can't ultimately be laid at his feet is Aleister's in Van Helsing's route.
• Artificial Gravity: Impey and his mentor invented a device that nullifies gravity, which was stolen before the main plot begins. In Impey's and Lupin's routes, Nemo uses it to enable the Nautilus to fly.
• Artificial Human: Cardia and Finis are both artificial creations of their "father" Isaac Beckford.
• Asshole Victim: The victims of the vampire serial killer in Van Helsing's route were all unrepentant war criminals from the Vampire War.
• Ass Kicking Pose: Most characters have an action sprite for combat scenes, from Lupin brandishing his walking stick to Van Helsing aiming his guns.
• Back-Alley Doctor: The crew takes Cardia to one of these soon after taking her in to have her condition evaluated. The doctor ends up refusing to attempt to treat her once she determines Cardia doesn't have a heart.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Van Helsing's route introduces Hidden Strength, a failed government program which attempted to create soldiers with abilities equal to those of vampires by subjecting them to torture and emotional trauma. The program was abandoned as a failure because all of its subjects became uncontrollably deranged, attacking enemies and allies indiscriminately; one of the products of Hidden Strength went on to become Jack the Ripper.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Nemo shows up at the airship race acting like a Large Ham, treating the heroes as Worthy Opponents (even taking Impey on a tour of his ship), and generally acting like a giant goofball. It gets less funny when he becomes genocidal in Impey's route.
• Bittersweet Ending: The normal ends are, at best, bittersweet. Most of them involve the death of the route's love interest (with the exception of Victor's route, in which Cardia dies instead), and the efforts of the rest of the cast to go on with their lives in the aftermath, often drifting apart in the process.
• The Big Guy: Van Helsing fills this role.
• Bizarre Human Biology: Cardia doesn't have a heart. Additionally, her skin is highly corrosive, she gives off small amounts of poison just by existing, possesses superhuman strength and endurance, and doesn't need to eat.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Saint-Germain has a retractable blade hidden up his sleeve, first revealed when he uses it to stab Finis near the end of Chapter 8.
• Blank White Eyes: Impey, the designated Butt-Monkey and the most likely of the main characters to play the role of comic relief, has no fewer than three different sprites with blank white eyes, one of which also has him going Blue with Shock. He's the only character in the game to do so, although Victor has a less commonly-seen sprite in which his glasses turn opaque for a similar effect.
• Body Backup Drive: The explanation for how Finis keeps popping back up after being killed, even after Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain.
• Boom, Headshot!: In Lupin's route, Van Helsing finally has enough of Finis's taunting and unloads a round of buckshot in his face at close range. Unfortunately, it doesn't do a lot of good.
• Bottomless Magazines: Downplayed. Van Helsing does occasionally mention running low on ammunition when a fight has worn on too long, but only after going through more shotgun shells than anyone should be able to conveniently carry on their person at a time. Where he keeps them is not addressed.
• Brain Uploading: Isaac has done this prior to the main plot.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Aleister's improved Hidden Strength on Van Helsing's route creates super-strong brainwashed-and-crazy shock troopers. The vampire serial killer in Chapter 10 turns out to be a victim; later in the route, Delacroix II is subjected to the process, and Aleister's ultimate goal is to perfect it on Van Helsing, resulting in a climactic scene in which the brainwashed Van nearly kills Cardia before she talks him down.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Delacroix II. As an extremely strong vampire and the son of the late vampire king, he's plenty full of himself despite his young age, and circumstances mean that even after he's formed an uneasy peace with the heroes he doesn't see the need to spare them from any of his belligerence.
• Broke Episode: The events of Chapter 5 are kicked off by the realization that thanks to their irresponsible spending, the heroes have burned through almost all of their money and are on the verge of not being able to afford food. Since Saint-Germain understandably refuses to let them leech any more from his resources when they've conclusively proven they can't manage their own, they're obliged to look for a way to earn some quick cash.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Lupin's mentor ended up betraying the values he'd taught him and turning to selfish crime.
  • Van Helsing eventually learns that his mentor Aleister is almost single-handedly responsible for ruining his life.
• Butt-Monkey: Everybody picks on Impey, and if anyone's going to have a comedic mishap or suffer Amusing Injuries, it'll be him.
• Cain and Abel: Finis highly resents his sister Cardia for being more important to their father, and a few of the bad ends have him acting murderously as a result.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Lupin's route sees Cardia doing this to Isaac.
• Cane Fu: His Classy Cane - tricked out with some extra surprises such as the ability to spray a cloud of knockout gas - is Lupin's weapon of choice when physical combat becomes unavoidable.
• Can't Have Sex, Ever: Cardia's condition prevents her from skin-to-skin contact, which is naturally a barrier to physical romance. All of the love interests take it in stride with little angst surrounding it, making resolutions to one day find a way to neutralize the poison excepting in Lupin's route, where it is already cured. Cardia herself is fairly innocent to the concept of sex, but does look forward towards being able to have physical contact.
• Caper Crew: The group can fall into this. Most prominently seen during the train heist to kidnap the Twilight leader.
  • Lupin is the Mastermind, who found out about the travel route and planned out the heist.
  • Impey is the Driver and Gadget Guy, whose inventions such as the Ornithopter was crucial in planning their escape.
  • Van Helsing is the Muscle, who was able to use his status as a One-Man Army to lure in and take down as many Twilight soldiers as possible to leave their leader defenseless.
  • Victor as the Science Hero uses his inventions and smoke bombs as the Distraction to help backup Van Helsing.
  • Saint-Germain is the Backer, whose mansion is the hideout for the group. Due to his wide range of knowledge and skills, he can easily jump into other roles such as the Driver or the Muscle.
  • Cardia is the New Meat but was trained by the others in various skills such as lockpicking, infiltrating and fighting to double as any other role as needed.
• Captain Ersatz: Herlock Sholmès is transparently an ersatz Sherlock Holmes. The game inherits this bit of Writing Around Trademarks from Arsène Lupin's creator Maurice Leblanc, due to objections from Arthur Conan Doyle's estate after Leblanc pitted Lupin against the Great Detective in one of his stories. In Lupin's route, it's revealed that this is actually a Significant Anagram and Sholmès really is just Sherlock Holmes in-universe, as well. Additionally, Jimmy A. Aleister is in fact James Moriarty.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Naturally for an otoge.
• Catchphrase: Lupin will have you know that the great Arsène Lupin's chances of failure are always zero.
• Chastity Couple: Pretty much a given, considering Cardia's condition.
• Chekhov's Gun: The specially-designed Bulletproof Vest that Lupin uses to make the Royal Guard think they've killed him during the prologue comes in very handy when Finis unloads a handgun into him in Chapter 13 of his route.
• Citadel City: Steel London is built like a fortress, with much of the city protected by a wall armed with gun turrets.
• *Click* Hello: Van Helsing announces his arrival on the scene with a dramatic *click* of his guns on a few occasions, most notably when he first confronts Lupin in his introductory scene in Chapter 2 and if he's the one to interrupt Finis's breaking speech to Cardia in Chapter 8.
• Coat, Hat, Mask: Lupin's thief get-up.
• Combat Pragmatist: How Cardia learns to fight, courtesy of Van Helsing and Lupin. She spends most of the game using tricks and catching enemies unaware whenever she has to fight.
• Con Men Hate Guns: Lupin is particularly dismissive of Van Helsing's tendency to shoot problems until they go away. When he does go into battle, he does so wielding his walking-stick and a collection of (mostly harmless) explosive devices.
• Cool Airship:
  • What would a steampunk setting be without dirigibles? Chapter 7 features an airship race with several examples, including Captain Nemo's cutting-edge HMS Fulton and the protagonists in an airship tricked out by Impey. It's completely wrecked by the end of the race, but it's very cool indeed while it lasts.
  • On Impey and Lupin's routes, Nemo unveils the Nautilus, a massive flying fortress that nearly blacks out the sky over London and is capable of curbstomping the British Army's entire Airship Corps.
• The Corrupter: Aleister's endgame is to corrupt Van Helsing. Sholmès also becomes a target during his route of the fandisk.
• Crusading Widow: Isaac Beckford's wife and children were murdered, leading him on a quest to become the new god of a world at constant war, in order to drive humanity to reach the level of the divine through scientific development.
• Cute Bruiser: Cardia's waifish looks belie her supernatural strength, and after Van Helsing's lessons, she's able to take out Twilight goons with relative ease.
• Cute Little Fangs: Sported by Impey and Delacroix II. Comes with being vampires.
• Cyanide Pill: Omnibus gives one to Cardia in Lupin's route. She has two different opportunities to use it. Both trigger bad ends.
• Daywalking Vampire: Vampires in the setting go about in the daytime like anyone else, and are not in any way weakened or harmed by sunlight.
• Defector from Decadence: The events of the Vampire War caused both Victor and Van Helsing to turn their backs on the British Crown in disillusionment, leaving their prestigious positions as (respectively) the government's Head Alchemist and a ranking member of Twilight.
• Despair Event Horizon: Isaac goes through this after the death of his family.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Isaac Beckford spent years carefully developing and implementing his grand plan to become God, only for the whole thing to fall apart because a certain charismatic gentleman thief saw fit to steal a key component of the plan and give her a chance to experience human kindness, friendship, and love.
  • The only thing that foils Aleister's meticulously-planned long-term campaign to utterly mentally destroy Van Helsing is Cardia, who gives Van and Delacroix II a chance to reconcile and - by falling in love with Van Helsing and refusing to let him push her away - provides him with enough inspiration to fight back against the effects of Hidden Strength.
• Disappeared Dad: Cardia's desire to find her father Isaac drives her through the first half of the plot.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Finis gets a lot of build up, only to be rather quickly dispatched around the midpoint in the game. He comes back in Van Helsing and Lupin's routes.
• Disney Death:
  • In the True End of Van Helsing's route, Van stabs himself to break free of the grip of his mental conditioning and seems to die, but recovers moments later complaining that Cardia's crying was making too much of a ruckus for him to rest.
  • In Chapter 13 of his route, Lupin is unexpectedly gunned down by Finis, who unloads the contents of his handgun into the body just to make sure. It doesn't prevent Lupin from popping up hale and healthy in time to rescue Cardia from being absorbed by Isaac - Impey's specially-designed Bulletproof Vest saved the day again, and the shots only knocked Lupin unconscious for a bit.
• Dissonant Serenity: Saint-Germain's perpetual smooth composure becomes very unsettling in some situations, such as when he's just stabbed Finis through the heart in Chapter 8, or when he and Cardia are very calmly and politely discussing his intention to kill her in Chapter 10 of his route. Cardia understandably finds the former alarming and the latter downright surreal.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Delacroix II takes it poorly when Van Helsing calls him "Dracula," and demands that he not use that name. He's not fond of the nickname Impey coins for him, either, but nobody pays a lot of attention and "Delly" ends up sticking despite his protests.
• Downer Ending: Not all of the premature Game Ends that occur if the player makes the wrong decision at given points are downers, but a lot of them are, often resulting in Cardia's death. The Normal Ending of Saint-Germain's route is also pretty grim compared to the more bittersweet flavor of the other Normal Endings.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Whenever everyone is listing their reasons to go on a mission, Impey can be counted on to say he's doing it for Cardia's sake.
• Dying as Yourself: In Chapter 10 of Van Helsing's route, Neuntöte snaps out of the effects of Hidden Strength as he's dying. Van Helsing does the same in his Normal End, coming back to clarity after fatally stabbing himself.
• Eating Optional: Cardia doesn't need to eat, but does so socially and for enjoyment.
• Elaborate Underground Base: Isaac had one under a cemetery where the climax of the general route occurs.
• Emergency Presidential Address: Victoria gives a few in the routes where it becomes necessary to call on the might of the nation.
• Empathic Environment:
  • Clouds gather and rain starts to fall when the group goes to the location of Isaac Beckford's hidden laboratory, which happens to be at a graveyard. It is at this place that it's revealed by Finis that Cardia is a homunculus created by Isaac.
  • In Saint Germain's route, the group returns to the laboratory in hopes to find something about the truth of Saint Germain and Idea and why they want to kill Cardia. Once again, it is raining. Lampshaded by Victor and Impey that the rain is fitting of a dreary place like that.
• Entitled Bastard: The potential Asshole Victim the group has to defend from the vampire serial killer in Van Helsing's route. So much so actually that even Cardia flat out says that she doesn't care whether he lives or dies.
• Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep": "Saint-Germain" is part of his title - that is, Count of Saint-Germain - not his name. His personal name, whatever it may be, is never revealed, and everyone just calls him some variation on "Count" or "Saint-Germain."
• Eyes Always Shut: The mysterious Saint-Germain is drawn with his eyes always closed, creating a nearly perpetual air of faint, detached amusement. When he fully opens them in Chapter 8 and during his route, it signifies matters getting very serious.
• Faceless Goons: Twilight and the British army both function as these at various points.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Finis looks like a rather angelic boy.
• False Flag Operation: In Victor's route, Queen Victoria stages several Zicterium gas attacks on London, killing many. Her ultimate plan is to gas most of London and blame it on agents of other European nations, then carry out similar attacks in other countries in order to spark a world war while Britain still has a decisive technological advantage.
• Fanservice: Completing a character's True Ending unlocks their extra scenario, a short scene that mostly serves an excuse for a CG of the guy in some state of undress. The achievement for unlocking and viewing all five extra scenarios is titled "A World of Skin."
• Famed In-Story: Van Helsing is widely known as the hero of the Vampire War, knighted to the Most Excellent Order by Queen Victoria and nicknamed the "human weapon" for his combat prowess. Lupin and Frankenstein also have some measure of repute before the story begins, Lupin as a Gentleman Thief and Victor as a former Royal Alchemist and current wanted terrorist, but everybody has heard of Van Helsing. Reactions to him tend to vary from respectful awe to pants-wetting terror depending on how likely it seems that he's going to start shooting at the person in question.
• First Guy Wins: If Cardia ends up on Lupin's route, which also contains the Golden Ending.
  • It's initially averted though, as Lupin's route can't be accessed until all the other routes are completed
  • Averted however for Wintertide Miracles where the routes pick up after Finis's good ending in 'Future Blessings'', basically rendering all other endings moot.
• First-Name Basis: Most of the heroes are on Last-Name Basis (not unusual for the period), but everyone calls Impey by his first name. In the English localization this is also true of Victor (in the Japanese, they mostly call him "Fran.")
• For Science!: Nemo's driving motivation.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Van Helsing has been noted by others to be ridiculously durable, repeatedly coming out of fights and situations that would have killed any other man. In his route, it's revealed that Aleister has been secretly giving him Hidden Strength conditioning for years.
  • Impey is also noted to be surprisingly tough and resilient, allowing him to take far more punishment than most people. It's because he is a vampire.
    • He also has Cute Little Fangs that seem to be a visual indication of his mischievous nature, but it's actually a hint of his vampire nature.
  • Just before meeting Saint Germain, Cardia catches a glimpse of what appeared to be an armored shadow. When she asks Saint Germain about it, he claims he hasn't seen anyone like that before. In Saint Germain's route, that shadow would be revealed to be Queen Guinevere and she and Saint Germain are both part of Idea.
• Free-Fall Romance:
  • In Impey's route, he and Cardia leap from the Nautilus and have a tender scene, complete with Love Confession, as they fall.
  • Lupin's route culminates in Lupin and Cardia in free-fall together after the Nautilus comes apart around them.
• Friendship Denial: Van Helsing gives one to Cardia early on in his route, in the first of many attempts to drive her away from him. Cardia strongly refuting this is what sets her on the path to realising that the feelings she has for him run more than platonic.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Impey Barbicane is a self-described "genius engineer." Despite a tendency to explode or otherwise go awry, his creations are highly innovative and always seem to do the job when they're needed. Saint-Germain points out that his mishaps aren't caused by lack of ability, but rather are a result of Impey's willingness to experiment and try new things that others haven't thought of.
• The Gadfly: Trolling Lupin may only be a side benefit of whatever other business Sholmès has with the heroes, but he certainly does get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
• Gaslamp Fantasy: Although the game's setting focuses more on steampunk technology, it also contains some genuinely magical elements, especially where the Apostles of Idea are involved.
• Gem Heart: Cardia has a gem called the Horologium embedded in her chest that is the source of her supernatural powers, cannot be removed without killing her, and is being sought after by most of the villains in the game.
• Gender-Blender Name: Sisi, named for Elisabeth of Austria, is a male dog.
• Gentleman Thief: Lupin describes himself as a "thief with a heart of justice" and insists that he never steals for himself, only targeting wrongdoers who've come by their wealth and valuables dishonestly so that he may return them to their proper owners... helping himself to a generous "handling fee" in the process, of course.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Victoria plots a massive terrorist attack to lead into world war in Victor's route, not to mention her morally dubious behavior during the Vampire War.
• Goggles Do Nothing: In a typical fashion for a Steampunk setting, several characters have googles on their hats that they never seem to actually use.
• Golden Ending: Lupin's ending is the only one in which all potential enemies are defeated and Cardia has the poison permanently neutralized.
  • This is however apparently not canon as Wintertide Miracles picks up after Finis's good ending, which involves no romance at all.
• Grand Romantic Gesture: When Van Helsing finally gets around to making a romantic gesture in the epilogue of his True Ending, he manages a good one: sneaking himself and Cardia onto the roof of Buckingham Palace for a private fancy-dress party, dancing and all.
• Gratuitous English: The guys like to drop statements in English when they're being especially portentous, as when Saint-Germain says, "If a man will not work, he shall not eat," in Chapter 5 and Lupin's "Time is money!" in Chapter 7.
• Guile Hero: Lupin is very nearly a pacifist, preferring to use trickery, wit, and showmanship rather than force.
• Guns Akimbo: Van Helsing wields shotguns akimbo, one in each hand. His combat sprite shows him holding them crossed in front of him.
• Historical Domain Character: Among all the Public Domain Characters, the cast also features Queen Victoria and the Comte de Saint-Germain. The historical Saint-Germain was an eccentric European courtier of mysterious origins who claimed, among other things, to be several hundred years old. His route is also loosely inspired by the mythical depiction of St.-Germain depicted by new age religions and conspiracy theories.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: While some of her policies may have been questionable, the real Queen Victoria never tried to spearhead a chemical weapon attack on her own people as a false flag.
• Hollywood Acid: Though it's universally referred to as "poison," Cardia's skin and blood act more like a fictionalized super-acid in the way that she burns and melts whatever she comes into contact with. After testing it on a variety of materials up to and including a sample of titanium, Victor concludes that the reaction is something more alchemical than natural.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Cardia's isolation leaves her completely trusting of random a group of random thugs that claim they can reunite her with her escort when she gets separated.
• Human Cannonball: The only weapon Impey puts on his ship is designed to launch Van Helsing at enemies.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Certainly the case for the Vampire War.
• I Am a Monster:
  • Cardia's earliest memory is of her father telling her that she must never leave the isolated mansion where she lives and must remain alone because she is a monster. Given that contact with her skin will melt just about anything, including living flesh, it takes her quite a bit of time under the positive influence of the rest of the main cast before she even questions it.
  • It's something of a theme of the game as a whole. Of the five possible love interests, Saint-Germain, Victor, and Van Helsing all have personal reasons to tell Cardia that if she's a monster, they can equally be considered monsters. In Future Blessings, while Sholmès doesn't go so far as to call himself a monster, he feels as though it's wrong of him to comfort Cardia and encourage her to love herself when she opens up about Elaine's death when he is also guilty of taking someone's life, particularly since he deliberately did so, whereas Elaine's death was unintentional.
  • Some antagonists also identify themselves as monsters, but embrace the status rather than struggling with it. Aleister goes so far as to try to bring Van Helsing and (in Future Blessings) Sholmès down to his level.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Victoria's position on the Vampire War and her other plans in Frankenstein's route. She agrees that her decisions are, to make no bones about it, evil, but believes that such evil actions are necessary to protect Britain.
• Idle Rich: Saint-Germain is a whimsical nobleman whose excuse for most of the things that he does, from letting Lupin and Impey hide out at his estate onwards, is "I'm bored and it seemed amusing." "Eccentric aristocrat" is a good cover for a member of Idea.
• I Have Your Wife: Finis compelled Van Helsing to attack and kill the vampire king by kidnapping his mother and brother.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: In Lupin's route, Van Helsing's quest for vengeance ultimately leads him to a choice between killing an unresisting Aleister in hatred or walking away. He chooses the latter, denying Aleister the satisfaction of having brought Van Helsing down to his level, with the explanation that he wouldn't be able to go back to the people who trust him if he soiled his hands with Aleister's blood.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Cardia's greatest wish is simply to be normal, to be able to live with other people and touch them without harming them with her poison. She states the trope name word for word during Lupin's route.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: Cardia begins the game dressed in a complicated getup involving a blouse, corset, and frilly Showgirl Skirt over leggings. Lupin reckons it can't be comfortable, and once Victor works out a way to proof materials against her poison, she gets a much more practical outfit which she wears for most of the rest of the game.
• The Ingenue: Cardia in the beginning of the game is totally naive to the ways of the world.
• In Name Only: Many of the characters bear only the slightest similarities to their original fictional counterparts. Victor Frankenstein in particular has very little in common with the Mary Shelley character.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Cardia initially sees no problem with casually taking off her shirt to show people the Horologium embedded in her chest.
• In-Series Nickname: Frankenstein, Saint-Germain, and Van Helsing's names are quickly shortened by most of the companions into "Fran," "San," and "Van." Impey, meanwhile, calls Saint-Germain "San-chan" ("Saint-G" in the English localization). When Delacroix II comes to stay with them at the estate, he becomes "Delly," to his indignation.
• It's All My Fault: Victor created Zicterium, and thus both essentially invented chemical warfare and made it possible for Isaac to create the Horologium and Cardia. Though not personally responsible for the uses his work has been put to, he considers all of it very much his fault, as a note Cardia finds in his journal attests.
• I Was Just Passing Through: In Chapter 9 of Van Helsing's route, Van claims that he didn't purposefully come to save Cardia from Jack the Ripper, he just happened to be in the area and felt like helping out. This excuse might possibly have held some water if "the area" in question weren't the London sewers.
• I Will Find You: When Cardia is being abducted by Finis at the end of Chapter 11 of Lupin's route, Lupin promises that he will come to steal Cardia again and asks her to wait and believe in him.
• I Will Wait for You: A non-romantic version occurs in Lupin's normal ending. With both Lupin and Cardia unaccounted for after the destruction of the Nautilus, Saint-Germain plans to spend the next fifty years or so waiting at his mansion so that someone will be there to meet them on the off chance that they might turn up alive.
• Kimono Fanservice: The subject of the CG for Saint-Germain's extra scenario: San has just acquired an authentic Japanese kimono, but needs Cardia's help in trying to figure out how to put it on.
• The Kindnapper: Cardia meets Lupin when he literally steals her away.
• Lady of War: Guinevere.
• Last Guy Wins: In Van Helsing's route.
• Last-Name Basis: There's a lot of last-name-basis going on in the game, given the period setting. In particular, almost nobody ever refers to Lupin or Van Helsing as "Arsène" or "Abraham."
• Lethal Chef: Cardia never experiences it personally, but according to the rest of the team, Van Helsing is one of these. He doesn't seem to realize it.
• Let's Get Dangerous!:
  • Impey usually comes across as foolish and comically incompetent, to the point that even Cardia points out that she's never seen him win a fight. Nevertheless, he's unusually strong, fast, and resilient, and has the combat skills to put those capabilities to very good effect. When sufficiently motivated, he takes out two different groups of sky pirates in the time it takes a cloud of steam to disperse.
  • Leonhardt is such a blowhard that it's easy to write him off. Cardia notes her surprise when she sees that in action he's a highly competent warrior.
• Living Doll Collector: Isaac Beckford keeps all 665 of his previous attempts to create Homunculi in People Jars at the center of his Elaborate Underground Base.
• Love at First Sight: Impey claims he fell in love with Cardia as soon as he saw her.
• Made of Iron: Impey and Van Helsing are both noted to be ridiculously tough and resilient, allowing them to stand up to physical punishment that would kill ordinary men. Impey is a vampire; Van Helsing, meanwhile, unwittingly developed his unusual toughness via Aleister's modified Hidden Strength process.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Cardia.
• The Man Behind the Man: Isaac Beckford turns out to be the driving force behind Finis and Nemo.
• The Many Deaths of You: There are quite a few potential bad ends, and most of them end fatally for Cardia.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Impey's mentor was killed in the Vampire War.
• Mineral MacGuffin: The Horologium, an alchemically-created crystal which is a source of immense energy. Most of the antagonists want it for one reason or another. It's a proto-Philosopher's Stone.
• Missing Mom: Cardia spends much of the game searching for her father Isaac, but no mention is made of her absent mother. As a homunculus, she doesn't technically have one, and Isaac Beckford's wife was murdered prior to Cardia's creation.
• Monster Clown: Jack the Ripper in Van Helsing's route is styled this way.
• Mood Whiplash: In Chapter 8, if you're on course for Impey's route, Finis corners Cardia alone in their father's abandoned laboratory, reveals the Awful Truth, and delivers a Breaking Speech meant to send her over the Despair Event Horizon... and then Impey shows up and utterly destroys the tension with his antics. And then just when the player is catching their breath, Saint-Germain abruptly impales Finis from behind, and the scene takes a sharp turn for the dark again.
• Multiple Endings: "True" (i.e. good) and "Normal" endings for every potential partner, and a whole host of bad ends.
• My God, What Have I Done?: A nightmare sequence at the beginning of Chapter 6 shows Victor's horrified reaction to seeing the effects of Zicterium gas, which he was instrumental in developing, on a village of civilians.
• My Greatest Failure: A motivating factor for a number of the characters.
  • Frankenstein: His invention of Zicterium, used as a devastating weapon in the Vampire War.
  • Saint-Germain: His sparing of an infected child while on a mission for Idea, which led to the spread of the Black Plague throughout Europe.
  • Van Helsing: His (coerced) betrayal and murder of the Vampire King.
  • In his route of Future Blessings, Sholmès reveals the reason that he faked his death and has been working under an assumed name instead of his real identity as Sherlock Holmes: he was forced to Mercy Kill Mary Watson, who was under the effects of Hidden Strength, and doesn't want to risk getting anyone else involved in his cases lest they also become collateral damage.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Leonhardt to Victoria.
• Naïve Newcomer: Cardia has spent the two years prior to the story confined alone in an isolated mansion in the Welsh countryside, and has no memory prior to two years ago. As a result, most of what she encounters out in the world is new to her, requiring one of the other characters to provide explanations for her and exposition for the audience. She initially has very little frame of reference for what is or isn't normal, and though she gradually picks up a lot from the other characters over her time with them, she admits on occasion that there are still some concepts that, due to her lack of practical experience, she finds difficult to grasp.
• Necromantic: The real reason Isaac Beckford wants to develop the Philosopher's Stone is to revive his wife and children.
• Never Found the Body: Happens to Impey in Impey's normal ending and Lupin and Cardia in Lupin's normal ending.
• Number of the Beast: Cardia is Isaac Beckford's 666th attempt at creating a homunculus. The observant may notice the number 666 printed on the sleeve of the clothing she wears at the start of the game. Of course, it can also be easily missed on the first playthrough, especially since it's printed upside down to look like 999. Interestingly, the number 9 in Japanese can be pronounced as "ku" which means "suffering". Considering what our protagonist goes through both prior to and throughout the events of the game, this is very fitting indeed...
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Near the end of Saint-Germain's route, Saint-Germain sets out to kill the other Apostles of Idea before his healing abilities stop working. Since the Apostles are all immortal in the same fashion that he was, this means killing each of them repeatedly until their ability to resurrect runs out. In subsequent scenes we learn from dialogue between other characters that he's succeed in taking out four of the twelve other Apostles, a full third of their number, in the time that it takes for Guinevere to catch up with him.
• Oh, Crap!: Finis - who's thus far reacted with either boredom or condescending amusement to everything up to and including the threat of being blown away by Van Helsing's shotguns - completely loses his shit when Saint-Germain introduces himself as an Apostle of Idea in Chapter 8.
• Older Than They Look: Saint-Germain, Guinevere, and Omnibus. On a more mundane note, Sholmès apparently has been in conflict with Aleister/Moriarty since before he joined Twilight and became Van Helsing's mentor, so he must be older the main cast despite not looking it.
• Omega Ending: Lupin's ending only unlocks once you've reached good or normal endings for every other character.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Isaac Beckford pretty much did it all, from siege engineering, to pathology, to architecture, to alchemy. The other scientists we see tend to be more specialized.
• Omniscient Morality License: Theoretically, Idea has one thanks to Omnibus being able to see the future due to eating the Fruit of Knowledge. In practice, Omnibus proves not to be infallible, which casts some doubt over the validity of their claim to know the correct path for humanity.
• One-Man Army: Van Helsing, the "human weapon," is responsible for almost single-handedly ending the Vampire War and can be relied upon to solo armies of enemy Mooks. When the Van Helsing Cannon gets deployed during Chapter 7, he takes down Nemo's entire airship on his own.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lupin disapproves of violence, generally feeling that if he has to resort to it, he's failed. So when in Chapter 9 of his route he not only punches the priest who's rallying the Welsh villagers against Cardia in the face, but flatly threatens to kill him if he keeps calling her a monster, you know that he's incredibly angry.
• Only Sane Man: Victor isn't that much more "normal" than the other heroes, but he often as not seems to be the only one among them who expects people to behave and events to occur in a rational manner. Cardia is also usually pretty sensible, but since she doesn't always know what's normal and what isn't, poor Victor is the one most often reacting with appalled exasperation to the shenanigans that the group gets up to.
• Our Vampires Are Different: They're described as a sub-race of humanity with greatly enhanced physical abilities and are able to interbreed with humans, rather than being undead. Because humans saw the greater strength of vampires as a threat, most of them were wiped out during the Vampire War.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Isaac's original children were murdered.
• Overly Long Name: Impey dubs his airship the "HMS Impey and Princess and Their Manservants." Even the game's glossary notes that the name is way too long for anyone to bother using; the announcer at the Black Gathering shortens it by necessity into the still somewhat cumbersome "HMS Princess and Servants."
• People Jars: During the exploration of the abandoned laboratory in Chapter 8, Cardia stumbles upon a room full of cylindrical glass tanks containing Isaac Beckford's failed attempts at creating Homunculi - all 665 of them.
• Perpetual Smiler: Saint-Germain.
• Phlebotinum Girl: Cardia checks all the boxes.
• Phlebotinum-Handling Equipment: Cardia's clothing all has to be specially treated so that her poison won't burn through it. In the late game, she encounters locks in several routes that have been similarly treated to keep her from using her poison to escape.
• Philosopher's Stone: The ultimate goal of Isaac Beckford is to create this. It's the entire reason he created Cardia in the first place.
• Plague Doctor: The uniform of the Twilight foot soldiers.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: Lupin and later on Victor both get extremely flustered when Cardia opens her shirt to show them the Horologium, and hastily request that she do it back up again.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Delacroix II may be a cute little boy, but he's incredibly strong and fast, capable of easily flooring a grown man with a single punch. His incredible strength is because he's not just a vampire, but a pure-blooded vampire whose bloodline hasn't been diluted by interbreeding with humans.
• Pitbull Dates Puppy: If Cardia ends up on Van Helsing's route.
• Poisonous Person: Cardia's body is highly corrosive, and contact with her bare skin will melt anything not specially treated with a serum developed from her blood. When a dog bites her in the beginning of the game and succeeds in breaking the skin, her blood causes the animal's head to melt off. Being enclosed with her in a poorly-ventilated space for an extended period of time is also not good for one's health.
• Pop Culture Osmosis: At least among many of the people who played this game, this game's Impey is more well known than his literary counterpart. Being rather obscure to begin with, most players not versed in classic literature had no idea where he was from, and most of the first page results for a google search for "Impey Barbicane" are related to Code Realize.
• Pose of Supplication: Impey and Cardia grovel before the rest of the group in Chapter 7 as apology for misjudging the date of the airship race, and thus coming up a day short finishing the modifications to their ship.
  Impey: This is the ultimate form of apology, created by the finest minds in all of Asia! DO! GE! ZA!
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: All it takes is a hug from Cardia to make Impey check out in Van Helsing's path of Future Blessings, Blank White Eyes and all.
• Power Born of Madness: Hidden Strength, the process which unlocks the full potential of the human body and enhances a person's physical abilities to superhuman levels, involves torturing the subject physically and emotionally until their sanity has completely broken and they're locked in an endless post-traumatic nightmare.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: In Lupin's route, Cardia's hair turns white when the Horologium is fully activated.
• Power of Trust: Subverted in Saint-Germain's route. Savvy players who are accustomed to the use of this trope in romance games may guess that choosing to trust that Saint-Germain won't follow through on his stated intention to kill Cardia while she's drugged and helpless in Chapter 9 is the correct response, winning him over with the power of Cardia's pure-hearted trust. They'd be very, very wrong.
  • In Impey's route, he asks Cardia to trust him and go find the escape route for both of them while he stays at the helm of the airship. Another subversion: he's trying to get her to leave knowing that someone has to stay to direct the Nautilus away from the city, and if she does as he asks, she ends up having to escape without him and they never find his body.
• "Psycho" Strings: The track "A Deadly Monster or...?"
• Public Domain Character: The main cast is a grab-bag of characters from classic nineteenth-century science fiction, including Arsène Lupin, Victor Frankenstein, Abraham Van Helsing, and... Impey Barbicane? (He's from Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, if you were wondering.)
• Really 700 Years Old: The Apostles of Idea are ageless and immortal. Their leader, Omnibus, is implied to be the Biblical Eve. Saint-Germain is one of them and has been around for thousands of years.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • In Van Helsing's route, Leonhardt willingly agrees to collaborate with the guys in investigating the rush of crimes instigated by Azoth. It's mostly on the strength of Van Helsing's reputation as a war hero, but Leonhardt (somewhat begrudgingly) puts aside his considerable dislike of Lupin for the sake of the investigation and allows the whole group access to the crime scenes and all relevant information.
  • In Impey and Lupin's routes, they manage to gain Queen Victoria herself as an ally and obtain her full support in carrying out their plans.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Glowing red eyes are a sign of Hidden Strength.
• Reluctant Mad Scientist: Victor's backstory.
• Reluctant Monster: Cardia.
• Replacement Goldfish: In Lupin's route It's revealed that Cardia and Finis were actually created from the DNA of Isaac Beckford's dead children of the same names. Isaac feels the replacement aspect more with Cardia than Finis, but ultimately sees both of them as soulless dolls, not truly comparable to the originals.
• Rescue Romance:
  • Cardia meets Lupin when he rescues her from the army.
  • Similarly, she meets Victor who jumps in when a group of thugs was intending to hurt her.
  • In Van Helsing's route, when Jack the Ripper captures and was about to torture and kill Cardia, Van Helsing manages to arrive in a nick of time to save her. The CG shows Cardia looking up adoringly at Van Helsing as he holds her.
• Resurrective Immortality: How the immortality of the Apostles of Idea works - they can be killed, it just won't stick. The Apostles' ability to resurrect his not infinite, however, and can run out if they're killed enough times.
• Rock Beats Laser: Lupin gets the better of Isaac near the end of his route by using the simplest possible explosives - essentially bags of gunpowder with primitive detonators. Since Isaac's consciousness has been uploaded into a machine, he'd be aware of a more sophisticated explosive being attached to his workings, but Lupin's crude bombs are beneath his notice as scarcely more than lumps of dirt.
• Rule of Symbolism: Although only shown briefly, at the end of the opening credits (of the VN) the protagonist, Cardia, is shown in a T-pose reminiscent of The Vitruvian Man. Considering that The Vitruvian Man is a representation of the human proportions in relation to the universe and nature, this is likely not a coincidence. The Vitruvian Man can also be interpreted as a symbol for creation, since almost all acts of creating involve working with some kind of proportions. Cardia was created by Isaac to be perfect and lead the world into a new golden age of knowledge where man would be on par with God.
• Running Gag:
  • Impey proclaiming that Cardia is his girlfriend and Cardia immediately pointing out that she's not.
  • Van threatening Impey with bodily harm at the slightest provocation and then never actually doing anything.
  • Everybody ignoring Impey, lampshaded on Lupin's route when Victor notes that it's becoming an art form.
  • The guys racking up questionable expenses and having the bill sent to Lupin.
• Sadistic Choice: At the climax of the Sholmès path in Future Blessings, Aleister activates the Horologium with Finis's pendant and explains to Sholmès and Cardia that it will soon become the Philosopher's Stone and flood all of Steel London with a cloud of Cardia's lethal poison. He presents Sholmès with two options: kill Cardia before the process is complete, or allow everybody in London to die. Either way, he intends to prove to himself and to Sholmès that the two of them are the same, but naturally Sholmès insists on taking a third option.
• Samus Is a Girl: The heavily armored assailant who appears in Saint-Germain's route turns out to be a woman - Queen Guinevere.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Victor gets these on occasion for comedic effect when his inner Mad Scientist pops out.
• Schmuck Bait: During the first training scene with Victor, Cardia notices a test tube among his kit with a warning label stating that it must never be opened, not even to see what it does. Cardia's narration lampshades the fact that simply reading the label fills her with the desire to open the tube, even speculating that it might be a trick designed to encourage people to open it. If she succumbs to temptation, the contents turn out to be an extremely potent anesthetic that knocks both Cardia and Victor unconscious. Fortunately there are no other lasting effects, and the incident is taken as an object lesson on the safe handling of chemicals.
• Science Hero: Impey and Victor cover the bases. Impey is the Gadgeteer Genius who delights in fantastical machinery and devices, while Victor is an alchemist who cooks up all manner of useful compounds for things like flash bombs and knockout gas. Both of them have strong feelings about how science should be used to benefit people, not to harm or oppress them.
• Seen It All: There's very little that can break Van Helsing's air of irritable stoicism, and even less that can ruffle Saint-Germain's perpetual composure. San in particular reacts with mild amusement to things that most of the people around him are much more worked up over, such as being on board an airship as it's crashing.
  Saint-Germain: How thrilling. What I wouldn't give for a nice cup of tea.
• See You in Hell: Offender to offended variation in Van Helsing's Chapter 10 - after lethally injuring Neuntöte to end his Hidden Strength-induced rampage, Van Helsing offers the dying vampire the consolation that they'll be seeing one another again in hell.
• Shared Unusual Trait: Finis has mismatched eyes, one blue and one green, a fact pointed out by the narration in his first appearance. Although it's subtle and not pointed out in-game, Cardia's eyes are similarly mismatched in a mirror image of Finis's - her right eye is green and the left is blue. It becomes more obvious when Cardia is glowing from the transformation of the Horologium into the Philosopher's Stone in Chapter 13 of Lupin's route.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Van Helsing was comprehensively broken by his experiences during the Vampire War, going from an eager and idealistic young man to a "human weapon" whose mission to discover the truth about Finis's immortality (and kill him once and for all) is the only reason he cares about staying alive.
• Shout-Out: Full completion of the game unlocks a bonus CG depicting Victor, Finis, and Sholmès dressed as characters from fellow Otomate properties Toki no Kizuna and Shirahana no Ori ~Hiiro no Kakera 4~.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Impey.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Cardia gets a new, more action-oriented outfit after she's lived in the mansion for awhile, signifying her shift in character from passive to active participant in her own fate. It's telling that one of the first things Finis does when he captures her in Lupin's route is have her dressed in her former outfit.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Herlock Sholmès is the one thing guaranteed to get under Lupin's skin and make him lose his cool, even when they're not actually working against one another. At one point during Lupin's route, Cardia observes that Sholmès just naturally seems to bring out the worst in Lupin.
• Sky Pirate: Among the criminal element of Steel London are sky pirates who prey on travelers via airship. In Chapter 7, Lupin steals an airship from them so that the heroes can participate in the Black Gathering airship race, which draws the ire of the sky pirates down on Impey. Late in Lupin's route, many sky pirates are recruited into joining the battle against the Nautilus with promises of monetary reward.
• Spoiler Cover: The boxart for the Vita version of the game depicts a scene from the climax of Lupin's route.
• State Sec: Twilight, a secret paramilitary organization that serves as the foot soldiers of the antagonists in every route.
• Stealth Expert:
  • Being able to avoid notice is a crucial ability for a Gentleman Thief. Lupin even gives Cardia lessons.
  • Sholmès is possibly even better at it. Despite the fact that being aware of his surroundings and knowing when he's being followed is also an important element of Lupin's skillset, Sholmès proves able to not only tail him without Lupin noticing, but to follow closely enough to eavesdrop on his conversation in the middle of a busy train station.
• Steampunk: Most of the story takes place in "Steel London," an alternate nineteenth-century London which has dramatically expanded in size and technological advancement due to the development of the "NeoSteam engine," which has greatly increased the efficiency of steam power.
• Stoic Spectacles: Van Helsing.
• Story Branch Favoritism: Of all the possible bachelors Cardia can pursue in the game, Lupin's route is the most complete and solves everyone's problems in one go. Justified by the fact that his route is unlocked only after the other four routes are completed.
• Supreme Chef: Of all people, Impey proves to be a remarkably talented chef, even when the group's lack of funds forces him to work entirely from the estate's stores of preserved foodstuffs. Van Helsing frequently comments that he can's believe how someone like Impey could possibly create such delicate and subtle flavors.
• Survival Mantra: On the rare occasion that Van Helsing is pressed enough in battle that his survival is in doubt, he repeats "I can't die yet" to himself like a mantra.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Two of them.
  • Rempart Leonhardt, Captain of the Royal Guard, is described by Van Helsing as "a bit of a blowhard" but not a bad sort. He does, however, take his duties very seriously and has a particular grudge against Lupin for the events of the game's prologue; since the heroes often operate outside the law, they sometimes run up against him. Leonhardt on his own generally isn't a match for any one of the guys. However...
  • Private detective Herlock Sholmès is skilled enough to become a definite thorn in Lupin's side. Though dubious of Twilight's motives, Sholmès believes that the law is what allows society to function, and supports it even when he personally believes the law is in the wrong. At the same time, he bears the heroes no personal ill will, and steps in to help them on several occasions with the excuse that he keeps his work and his personal life separate.
• Talking the Monster to Death: In Victor's route, Victor defeats Captain Leonhardt not by force - which he feels would make him no better than the antagonists, who are trying to use power to force the rest of the world onto their chosen path - but by talking Leonhardt down with a passionate speech that appeals to his sense of morality, convincing him that stopping Queen Victoria from taking the wrong path would be a truer expression of his loyalty than obediently following orders against his better judgment.
• Team Pet: Sisi, a corgi who Impey and Lupin adopted after finding him injured. Impey gave him a name and a prosthetic leg to replace his ruined one, but according to Lupin the dog hasn't taken to any of them until Cardia shows up.
• Those Magnificent Flying Machines: Impey's Ornithopter looks like a mechanical mosquito with too many wings. It runs on steam power and, despite the fact that there should be no possible way it would ever get off the ground, manages to fly fast and high when needed and can also hover in place.
• Title Drop: In Lupin's route, "Code: Realize" is the name of the terrorist plot that Lupin has been trying to unravel. It's Isaac Beckford's name for his plan to supplant God.
• Together in Death: Implied for Lupin and Cardia in Lupin's Normal Ending.
• Treacherous Advisor: Aleister is revealed to be one.
• Troperiffic: Just look at how long this page is.
• The Un-Favorite: Isaac prefers Cardia to Finis, and Finis is highly aware of it.
• Villain Team-Up: In Lupin's route, the villains from Impey and Van Helsing's routes team up under Isaac's leadership.
• Visual Pun: Queen Victoria dresses in yellow with black stripes, and the Royal Guard wear an insignia of gold hexagons. In other words, Victoria is the queen bee.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: One of the only things that can make Lupin and Van Helsing put aside their differences and stop giving one another a hard time is their mutual silent agreement to join forces in picking on Impey instead.
• Visionary Villain: Many of the villains, most notably Isaac, whose stated goal is to lead humanity into a new age by becoming a god.
• Walking Wasteland: Cardia corrodes everything she touches and gives off small amounts of poison just by existing.
• Wedding Finale: The good ending of Lupin's route culminates in this with him and Cardia holding a private ceremony with practically the entire main cast in attendance. However, no one can stay quiet, and Lupin subsequently grows so impatient that he kisses Cardia before the two can even make their vows.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Finis's primary motivation.
• Wham Episode: The end of common route and the post-credit scene of episode 6 of the anime, where its revealed that Cardia is a Homunculus.
• Wham Line: In Saint-Germain's route, Cardia muses that because she and Saint-Germain left without any explanation for the others, they might worry that she's been kidnapped, when she's actually safe with him.
  Saint-Germain: Hm. Kidnapped... That may not be too far off from your current situation.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Cardia's inexperience with the world makes it difficult to recognize what's happening when she's falling for a guy. In several of the routes she has to be told outright that what she's feeling is love.
• When She Smiles: The first time that Cardia honestly smiles, after spending most of the game up to that point as a borderline Emotionless Girl, it brings everything else going on in the room to a crashing halt as all of the guys stare at her in wonder. Lupin even goes so far as to say they should make it an annual holiday.
• Wild Card: Herlock Sholmès is an odd example occurring thanks to the heroes not always being on the right side of the law and Sholmès' own idiosyncratic approach to the conflict between what's lawful and what's right. When the heroes are actively breaking the law, or the authorities have hired him to work against them, Sholmès is an implacable antagonist. When he's not employed against them, however, he sees nothing wrong with stepping in to help them against the true villains, and on at least one occasion goes out of his way to warn them before he formally takes a job to hunt them down.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Isaac goes from an almost saintly level of purity to plotting to usurp the seat of God when his family is attacked and die when no one in his village will help him.
• Worth Living For: One of the main challenges Cardia faces in Van Helsing's route is giving him a reason to want to keep living after he finishes getting revenge on Finis/Aleister. When she asks him outright if he wants to die, he can't answer. It takes the combined efforts of Cardia, Delacroix II, and the rest of the gang to give him a reason to keep living in his True Ending.
• Worthy Opponent: Nemo considers Impey and Victor his respected rivals in science. The feeling is mostly not mutual, especially when Nemo goes megalomaniacal in Impey and Lupin's routes.
• Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": The Vampire War that Van Helsing is the hero of turns out to have been a mostly successful human effort to wipe out the vampire race. The public has been told that the vampires were planning to exterminate humanity and that the war was one of self-defense. In actuality, it was a show of force on Victoria's part to discourage other nations from declaring war on Britain.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: In the very first scene of the game, Lupin lectures Impey on how a great thief requires a plan, the patience to pull it off - and the nerve to go all in and wing it when the first two elements fall short. There is a lot of on-the-fly improvisational scheming going on in this game, especially on the occasions in which Lupin and Sholmès match wits with one another.
• You Killed My Father: The reason Delacroix II is seeking revenge on Van Helsing the murder of his father. Similarly, the reason Van Helsing himself is seeking Finis is his belief that he is responsible for killing his mother and brother.
• You Said You Would Let Them Go: Van Helsing's response when he learns Finis actually Aleister had his family killed after all.
• Younger Than They Look: Cardia appears to be a young woman, but was created only a few years ago. The same is true for Finis.

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