A young boy named Sorata Suzuhara is on a field trip when he suddenly finds himself whisked back in time to the Taisho Era. There, he meets a girl who displays the power of fire to keep him warm.
The two are soon picked up by a strange globe-shaped ship... and find themselves attacked by two of the other passengers. Once the misunderstanding is cleared up, Sorata learns that the girl and the other passengers are known as "espers" - People who have power over things like plants, fire, water, etc.
The espers are making their way to The World, a mysterious entity that guides the nations of the world to peace. But there are people who don't want them to reach their destination. Worse yet, there might be a traitor among them.
Norn9 ~Norn + Nornette~ is a Romance Game produced by Idea Factory and Otomate featuring three protagonists - Koharu, the girl Sorata meets at the beginning, Mikoto Kuga, a mature and refined girl, and Nanami Shiranui, a quiet and stoic girl. It was originally released for the PlayStation Portable in 2013, and was given a Play Station Vita port subtitled Var Commons on 2014. A fandisc subtitled Last Era was released in 2015 exclusively for Vita, followed by another fandisc in 2016 subtitled Act Tune. The game was ported yet again to the Nintendo Switch in 2018 under the subtitle LOFN, containing both the original game and Last Era.
The PSV version was released in English on November 3rd, 2015 by Aksys Games. An anime adaptation began airing on January 7th, 2016 in the winter of 2016. A Nintendo Switch version was announced in 2023.
This game provides examples of:
- All of the Other Reindeer: Koharu was isolated for her powers.
- Barrier Warrior: Mikoto's power is to create barriers of any shape or size that she can imagine. Her barriers range from big enough to almost completely enclose the Norn itself, to small enough to destroy a gun from the inside, and are impenetrable for as long as her energy and willpower hold out.
- Big Brother Mentor: Masamune. It even gets lampshaded on his route.
- Celibate Hero: Sakuya, not entirely by choice. He received a premonition that he would one day die for the woman he loved. He personally was fine with it, but Mikoto was so upset that he promised he wouldn't fall in love with anyone so it wouldn't happen.
- Childhood Friend Romance: If Mikoto pursues Sakuya.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Koharu is an odd duck, mostly thanks to having been alone for so long and from such a young age that she doesn't have much frame of reference for how people normally behave. Before she remembers her name, Sorata mentally dubs her "Ms. Weirdo."
- Dream Weaver: Itsuki's power is to send a person into a dream of his design. In every route, he and Heishi combine their powers to draw most of the cast into a shared dream with the object of helping to resolve some of their romantic woes.
- Drunk on Milk: Masamune's body treats sugar like alcohol. He's fine with it in small doses, but things like sweets get him hammered.
- Electronic Eye: Ron's route reveals that one of his eyes is cybernetic because his natural vision has almost completely failed. Natsuhiko made the eye for him in return for his help sabotaging the Norn's journey, with the promise of another after the job is done.
- The Empath: Heishi's power. When he gets too excited, he ends up leaking his emotions out so everyone can feel it. He's also capable of telepathically sending messages to the others.
- Eye Scream: At the end of his route, Ron Muroboshi pulls out his own cybernetic eye and destroys it so that he will no longer be bound by his agreement with Natsuhiko.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: The mid-route dream sequence is patterned after fairy tales, with Koharu in the role of Snow White, Mikoto as Cinderella, and Nanami as Little Red Riding Hood. However, of the three of them only Koharu is actually familiar with the stories, and between the mistaken impressions the other girls get from her attempts to summarize and the interpersonal drama that's already playing out amidst the cast, things go off the rails pretty fast.
- Green Thumb: Kakeru's power.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Sakuya has known from a young age that he would one day die for the woman he loves. This trope is subverted in his good ending, but played straight in his bad ending and in Masamune's route.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Nanami's power is the ability to erase a person's memories by touching them.
- Lethal Chef: Heishi and Nanami are bad enough at cooking individually, but put them together...
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Akito is actually Senri's older brother. Nanami erased Senri's memories of him several years earlier.
- Manchurian Agent: Kakeru has been unwittingly brainwashed by his father, who wants to use esper powers (particularly Koharu's) for his own benefit.
- The Mole: In the prologue, the espers come to the conclusion that there is likely a traitor among them, which prompts them to form pairs to keep an eye on everyone. In fact, there are two. One is secretly working with Natsuhiko, and one is a brainwashed pawn of Shiro Yuiga.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: Koharu and Heishi are both among the nicest people on board.
- Team Dad: Masamune is one of the oldest people on the ship. He's also more responsible than Itsuki and Ron, so he's in charge most of the time.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Akito has a fear of birds, which naturally extends to the hiyokos.
- Yandere: In the bad ending of his route, Heishi cracks under the emotional strain of being on the run from The World, trying to "protect" Nanami from having to use her power, and feeling that Nanami doesn't trust him. He half strangles Nanami at one point before realizing that he's hurting her, and seems prepared to kill Itsuki and Akito with a black-market gun.
