Visual Novel: Demonbane aka: Deus Machina Demonbane
I am innocent rage I am innocent hatred I am the innocent sword I am DEMONBANE
Kurou Daijuuji is a poor detective living in Arkham City (no, not that one). One day, he's asked by Ruri Hadou of the Hadou Financial Group to search for a magical grimoire. As Kurou searches for the book, he unexpectedly runs into Al-Azif, a pretty girl who turns out to be the grimoire Kurou is searching for. While being chased by the villainous Black Lodge, Al forges a contract with Kurou, bestowing him with powerful magic. Soon afterwards, Al also activates the Demonbane, a Deus Machina owned by the Hadou Financial Group, to combat the mechanical menace from the Black Lodge. With this, the war between the Hadou Financial Group and the Black Lodge begins....A series by Nitro+ with Humongous Mecha and Cthulhu Mythos elements, it began as an Visual Noveleroge for the PC, then was ported to the Sony PlayStation 2 as a non-eroge remake. A sequel action game, a prequel novel, an OVA, an Anime of the Game and a conversion to manga followed the remake.
The Antichrist: Master Therion, according to one of the trivia pages, translates to 666 in a magic system that assigns numerical values to letters, and he has a personality cult and vast magical ability..
Badass Biker: Doctor West, Al, Metatron, Sandalphon and Kurou get their chances at being this.
Motorcycle Fu: Done by Metatron, Sandalphon and Doctor West on three separate occasions.
Badass Crew: Anticross is the evil version of this.
Badass Grandpa - Every image we see of Ruri's grandfather points to him being this. Just look at those muscles, and that hair, and that pose! "Hadou Kozou" at that point isn't Hadou Kozou at all, but a time-traveling Kurou from the future. Yes, seriously. The sequel add Laban Shrewsbury to this trope.
In Ruri's route, this would have... implications. Ironically enough, this information is only revealed in Ruri's route and she seems fairly okay about the whole revelation.
Made less squicky by the fact that he's not related to her by blood but by adopting her father before she was born.
Badass Normal: Winfield. Stone and Ness get their moments as well.
In a weird mix of this trope and Brought Down to Badass, the Demonbane becomes this in Al's route after her apparent death, forcing Elsa to take over. True, Demonbane can't use most of it's attacks aside from its fists and Lemuria Impact, but it's still more than enough to take out at least one of the Anticross' Deus Machina.
World of Badass - Excepting faceless civilians, everyone is this. Hell, even Stone and Ness qualify as Badass, if for no other reason than the ability to survive the kind of stuff that would kill anyone else more times than one can count, even when they are at ground zero for a lethal attack!
Worthy Opponent - Titus and Winfield consider each other such.
Beyond the Impossible - Elder God Demonbane's Athleta Aeternum ability can summon countless variant of itself in multiverse. And not just those exist in the multiverse, it can summon those that shouldn't exist as well.
BFS - The Shining Trapezohedron, which can supposedly cut through dimensions and seal gods. The Scimitar of Barzai also counts.
Bittersweet Ending - Almost all true and normal ending are this. This is especially true in Ruri's normal and good ending and Leica's true ending.
Blade Catch - When retrieving the independent Scimitar Of Barzai
Butt Monkey: Kurou does not have much luck with the women in his life. At all.
Doctor West is also one, especially if you count all the times he gets "beat the shit out of". In fact, his own creation (Elsa) falls for Kurou and treats her creator like crap, her programming be damned.
Canon - The visual novel has Multiple Endings. In the sequel, it turn out that most of them occur, with exception of the bad ending. This is possible because of time-loops and alternate timelines.
Charles Atlas Superpower: Winfield is able to go toe-to-toe with an Anticross sorcerer by virtue of the fact that he's a master boxer. Apparently boxing in Demonbane can make you superhuman.
Chick Magnet - Kurou gets over half the women in the game to go googly eyed for him in one way or another. While being a Butt Monkey at the same time.
Conservation of Ninjutsu - You'd think when Demonbane has the ability to summon every Demonbane that exists, could exist, could never exist and doesn't ever exist to fight alongside it, this trope would be the first thing to come into effect. Thoroughly subverted, as having infinite Demonbanes makes it truly unstoppable.
Cosplay Otaku Girl - Al seems to like changing her outfit to be "theme appropriate" to her situation quite a bit, and since the visual novel is an eroge, most outfits have a sexual theme which she lampshades without shame.
Demoted to Extra - Despite being major characters, Metatron and Sandalphon are nowhere to be seen in anime adaption. Also Alison, who got a whole chapter of focus on her Character Development in the visual novel version only.
Depraved Bisexual - Tiberius, though his preference seems to slant towards women, has some creepy affectionate dialogue for Sandalphon.
Dual Wielding / Guns Akimbo / Swords Akimbo - The Demonbane and Kurou when using Cthugha & Ithaqua, Kuzaku "Two-Sword"/"Two-Gun" and his Demonbane Two-Sword, and lest we forget Titus of Anticross, a four-armed sword wielding samurai.
Electra Complex - Another Blood wants to replace her mom. To make it more complicate, she comes from an alternate future and thus is not really related to her parents in the present. And since she's a book like her mom, their genetical relationship is hard to judge.
Ending Fatigue - In-universe version. In prequel novel, Nyarlathotep got bored of never-ending battle between Gunshin Kyoshuu Demonbane and Gunshin Kyoshuu Liber Legis (after watching it for strange aeons, even attack that destroy multiverses can be boring...). So she tweak the timeline, kicking whole events of prequel out of canon (and erase those two from reality), result in one that of the Visual Novel.
Even Evil Has Standards - Most members of Anticross have contempt for Tiberius. Doctor West finds him to be an illogical abomination, and Sandalphon even resorts to Enemy Mine with Kurou to screw him over.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good - In Elder Gods ending, Nyarlathotep express its confusion at Kurou and Al as they continue to fight for humanity after ascend into Elder Gods. The narration make it clear that, to the Ancient Ones, there shouldn't be any good gods.
Evil Counterpart - Liber Legis is the ultimate evil to Demonbane's ultimate good and they have similar but opposite attacks. Metatron and Sandalphon also have this dynamic going on.
Evil Is Deathly Cold - Master Therion's Liber Legis' "Hyperborea Zero Drive" reduces its target's temperature to absolute zero. Also, Caligula's Kraken's main attack.
Ithaqua too, since all magic is technically "unholy".
Evil Twin - Doctor West's "Demonpain", which can do almost everything the original Demonbane can and is even powered by some of Al Azif's pages.
Another Blood from the sequel visual novel is another one, being the blood edition of the Necronomicon.
Fate Worse than Death - The bad ending, Kurou becomes Nyarlathotep's plaything. Trapped in a timeloop, he lives in the world that became an Eldritch Location after the the destruction of Shining Trapezohedron. At the end of each loop, he will meet Al but never get a reunion with her.
Faux Affably Evil - Vespasianus. Sure, he's fairly erudite and disturbingly polite for an Anticross member, but his deeds and what he'll do to accomplish them reveal it's but a thin veneer over his Complete MonsterMad Scientist self.
Foe Yay - To quote Nyarlathotep in Elder Gods ending, "Then I shall answer you with unforgiving hate, and unrelenting love!".
Genre Blind - Nero is indeed the most powerful among Anticross and has no problem fighting both Augustus and Vespasianus at same time. Too bad, she confront them inside Cthulhu, surround by countless Naughty Tentacles. Since Demonbane start as eroge, it doesn't matter how powerful she is...
Genre Savvy - The entire civilian population of Arkham City seem to be transplanted from The Big O and Bubblegum Crisis, especially given their in universe reactions to all the crazy shit that happens every other day.
In the sequel, Master Therion and Etheldreda. As well as Another Blood.
Hero Insurance - Everything's paid for by the Hadou Financial Group, though that doesn't stop Kurou from worrying about all the damage done in the fights.
Heroic BSOD - Kurou has one after he fail to save Ennea. He temporarily recovers after Al slaps some sense into him. Too bad, because he soon faces another one after Al's death, and is nearly Driven to Suicide until Winfield puts an end to that.
Henshin Hero - Metatron, one of the Black Lodge's many enemies. She's Leica.
Ho Yay - According to Master Therion: "He [Kurou] is the only one who can make me burn with joy."
Humongous Mecha - The Deus Machina and Doctor West's Destroyer Robots.
In the prequel novel, Demonbane appears as Gunshin Kyoshuu Demonbane (War God Demonbane), particularly notable for being the largest mecha in fiction, even dwarfing Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. It grows so large that it pops the universe it's in, and accidentally destroys other universes by brushing against them. Of couse, its Arch-Enemy Gunshin Kyoshuu Liber Legis'' is as big and as powerful.
Hypocritical Humor: Tiberius crying rape when Al tries to remove De Vermis Mysteriis from him.
Improbable Weapon User - Perhaps in Homage to Desperado, Doctor West arms himself with a guitar case with a built-in rocket launcher, which he shoots in the same way as that guy from Desperado.
Insufferable Genius - Both Doctor West and Master Therion, as much as they might irritate most of the cast, are genuine masters of their fields.
Large Ham - Doctor West THE GREAT! GENIUS! OF THE CENTURY! *guitar riff*
Let's Get Dangerous - The invasion of the Hadou shelters after Big C is repulsed on several fronts by the combined effort of many supporting characters.
Lolicon - Also Makoto, one of the Bridge Bunnies, who has an unhealthy degree of lust for Al.
Louis Cypher - Nyaralathotep appear in three human forms. Nya, Father Ny and Nyarla in the prequel novel.
Magic Skirt - Compare the CG's of the PC version and the PS2 adaption. Al still wears the same costume, and makes the same poses, but the PS2 version no longer has the Panty shots.
Mind Screw - Al's Bad Ending. Seriously. Also one of the ultimate powers of the Shining Trapezohedron, which is to summon every Demonbane "that ever existed, could exist, never could exist, and never existed." Don't try to think about that one too hard.
Mismatched Eyes - R'lyeh's Text and Kurou in Magius style and after he becomes an Elder God.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Near the end Kurou manages to find a way to beat Nero without killing her. Sadly all this accomplishes is to allow Master Therion to be reborn.
Only Sane Man - Crossed with Irony and Played for Laughs. Despite the Lovecraftian premise, the sillier moments of the game have Kurou bemoaning he seems to be the only one with a constantly level head.
Perpetual Poverty: Kurou is so poor that he considers putting jam on toast and instant coffee to be living it up. He actually cries manly tears when Ruri offers to employ him. Averted in Ruri's routes where he becomes rich either by going back in time and becoming Kouzou Hadou and creating the Hadou fortune or by presumably marrying Ruri.
Power Limiter - Using Demonbane's Lemuria Impact requires the Naascal Code. On the plus side, it doesn't drain any energy.
The Power of Sex - Kurou was able to resist Nyarlathotep's temptation that would lead to the Bad Ending because he had sex with Al.
Pragmatic Adaptation - Demonbane's animated ending is entirely original, made exclusively for the TV series. While it appears to take after Al's good ending, instead of having her drift through space for eons, the Elder Gods Kurou and Al-Azif (from Al's true ending) rescue her and bring her back to Arkham City. The superior quality of the ending is attributed to the fact the animation staff enlisted the aid of the original work's staff for the final episode.
Smug Snake - Augustus. Sure he's a smart and high-functioning villain, but in the end he allowed his arrogance to override his common sense. Vespasianus is one as well.
Stable Time Loop - Kurou is stranded in the past with Demonbane after his battle with Master Therion and losing Al. He receives a map to gold veins from a dying Hadou Kozou, impersonates the latter, founds Arkham City on the location of the gold, takes care of the son of Kozou's wife and later Ruri (as her "Grandfather"), and arranges for Kurou to be received into the Miskatonic University and sets into motion Kurou's story (including meeting up with Al, acquiring Demonbane, etc). He then dies afterward at the hands of Master Therion. The cycle is broken at the true ends of each heroine's route.
Stone Wall - Legacy of Gold has incredible tough armor and armed with numerous beam cannons. Now add regeneration ability when Augustus links it with Cthulhu...
The Super West Invincible Robot Type-28 Special(s) maybe weak when compared to Deus Machina, but at least it can withstand Demonbane's head vulcan guns. One of the mass production Destroyer Robot even got disabled by Winfield on foot in Ruri's route.
The sequel reveal that Claudius's Celaeno Fragments is just a copy of Laban Shrewsbury's, which also has girl form call Hazuki. Similar to his Deus Machina, the Lord Byakhee maybe fast, but it still can't compare to Shrewsbury's Ambrose.
Thanatos Gambit: Nerotries this near the end. Specifically she tries to force Kurou to kill her with the Shining Trapezohedron so that Master Therion won't be reborn and Nyarlathotep's plan will be ruined permanently. Unfortunately Kurou turns out to be powerful enough to stop her without killing her.
Theme Naming - The Anti-Cross are named after Roman emperors. Al's route reveals that Master Therion bears one too: Domitian.
The Star Scream - Augustus and Vespasianus both have aspirations of this.
Tsundere - Evidently Al, but the visual novel expands this to Ruri in her individual character route.
Two Guys and a Girl - Odd variant here. Nya seems to like trying to seduce Kurou and Master Therion, depending on her whim, and even though the latter party is aware of this, the usual jealousy one would expect is absent.
Tykebomb - Metatron, Sandalphon and the Tyrant, though rather than being their primary purpose it's a useful (or rather annoying, depending on one's point of view) side effect.
Vitriolic Best Buds - Caligula and Claudius act like they want to kill each other. After Caligula dies, all Claudius gives a damn about is avenging his death.
Xanatos Roulette - The entire plot of Demonbane boils down to one massive Xanatos plot. And it's not by Nyarlathotep.
Though Nyaralathotep has a lot of fun complicating the preexisting plot For the Lulz.
You Don't Look Like You - The artist took very deliberate interpretion on Great Old Ones appearance. Atlach-Nacha is a Giant Spider with human torso in place of its head. Cthugha has beast-like body in the middle of massive fireball. Ithaqua first seen as glowing red eyes in the mid of violent storm (Death Walker as called in Call Of Cthulhu) but is really a massive dragon.
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