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Video Game / Utawarerumono

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/utawarerumono_prelude_to_the_fallen_vita.jpg

"The Utawarerumono. The One of Whom Legends Are Sung."

In a World… in which everyone is a Little Bit Beastly, a strange man wearing an even stranger irremovable mask is found in the forest near a village after a great earthquake. Suffering from serious injuries and having no memory of who he is, he is found and nursed back to health by the local herbalist and her granddaughter. As he recovers his strength, he becomes accustomed to the peaceful farming village and the odd animal traits of its inhabitants, but soon those peaceful days are shattered by violence, and this man, given the name Hakuowlo, finds himself inevitably drawn into the center of one conflict after another...

Originally a Visual Novel / Strategy RPG by Leaf, translated by Mirrormoon. The anime version produced by OLM Incorporated was licensed by ADV Films in America, England, and Germany, and Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand.

In 2006, a clean port of the PC game with a new battle system was released for the Playstation 2, sometime after the end of the original run of the anime. It would later be ported for the PSP in 2009 and later, remade in the sequels' game engine for the PlayStation Vita and Playstation 4. It released in Japan on April 26th 2018, 16 years after the release of the original PC game. It's this version that was finally released in the west, as Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen on May 26th 2020.

The game was followed by:

Select characters appear in the Examu fighting game Aquapazza.

This series provides examples of:

  • 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: A number of scenes, but especially in battles requiring large numbers of mooks/redshirts, and not always ones in the background.
  • Abdicate the Throne: The Oruyankuru eventually abdicates in favor of his daughter Ulthury.
  • Achilles' Heel: Mutikapa becomes vulnerable if it gets wet. It's overly cautious regarding this weakness, which is what lets Hakuowlo discover it.
  • Action Girl: Karulau and Touka are both expert warriors. Ulthury and Camyu also have no problem participating in battle wielding magic.
  • Adaptation Distillation: Aside from cutting a few battles (relegating them to off-screen), compressing a few other parts (who would want to see Hakuowlo in bed, unable to move due to his injuries at the beginning, for most of the first episode?) as well as splitting the Kuuya/Kunnekamun plotline (which begins before the Kucca Kecca arc in the game) from the Niwe/Shikeripecim plotline to improve pacing, the Anime is otherwise a faithful adaptation of the original story in 26 episodes. The OVAs adds three Day in the Limelight stories that wouldn't have advanced the story in the anime, including an adaptation of the story arc added in the console versions.
  • Adaptation Expansion:
    • The transition from a PC H-game to the clean console versions meant that many scenes (that were, for the most part, unrelated to the plot) were removed. To replace those scenes, the developers created a new story arc to fill the spots.
    • While some scenes from the games were cut in the anime, those that were kept were also frequently heavy expanded upon by comparison to compensate.
  • Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: In the anime, both Mikoto and her child end up being dissected by the scientists while the child is instead spared in the original game. This change causes some problems as it leaves out how the master key ended up in Eruruu's possession.
  • Adapted Out:
    • The entire Fumirul plotline from the game was cut when making the leap to animation, resulting in a lot of characterization for Ulthury being absent as well as heavy amounts of foreshadowing for later plot threads.
    • Kuon, a.k.a., Yuzuha's then-unnamed infant that Oboro was carrying during the game's epilogue was cut out completely in the adaptation. This becomes a bit of a problem for those who are only familiar with the Utawarerumono anime, as this character, by then a young adult in the sequel (which was also adapted into an anime), shows up and is highly important to the plot of both the sequel's original game and the anime adaptation (and whose overall main importance originally stemmed from this game).
  • Adipose Rex: Sasante and Inkalla, the first two major villains of the series, are fat, hedonistic and ultimately incompetent.
  • After the End: It's implied that the surface was made uninhabitable for a time and the surviving humans fled into sterile underground shelters. However, generations underground decayed their immune systems and when the surface had recovered, they could no longer return to it. Additionally, the game's setting is after a second end, after those same survivors have found a Physical God and angered him.
  • Animal Is the New Man: It's implied that the surface was made uninhabitable for a time and the surviving humans fled into sterile underground shelters. However, generations underground decayed their immune systems and when the surface had recovered, they could no longer return to it. The half-human hybrids populating the planet actually descend from a vast series of genetic experimentation projects that were undertaken in a hidden underground lab, apparently as part of a project to reclaim the uninhabitable Earth above. The only remaining humans are Hakuowlo and the Tatari, who were transformed into their current forms by the aforementioned Hakuowlo as punishment for dissecting his wife and child.
  • Annoying Arrows: Arrows are not effective against major characters. Archers can kill somebody with one hit, but only random Mooks and villagers. They don't even try shooting at major villains.
  • Art Evolution: 16 years separates the releases of the original PC Utawarerumono from the PS4 remake, which features redrawn character designs as well as a mix of new and renewed CG. The difference is striking when comparing the old and new art. Of course, where the original used 2D sprites in battle, the remake uses 3D models like the sequels. In the music department, the original game had a grand total of 24 music tracks and the first remake adds in 6 more, which makes the soundtrack somewhat repetitive. The PS4 remake updates all of these tracks to the sequels' standard and even adds a mode where the soundtrack is massively expanded using most of the 70-80 tracks from the sequels.
  • Art Shift: Whenever Touka loses her composure, her face becomes roughly penciled in.
  • Artificial Animal People: It's implied that the various Little Bit Beastly races populating the planet actually descend from a vast series of genetic experimentation projects that were undertaken in a hidden underground lab, apparently as part of a project to reclaim the uninhabitable Earth above.
  • Ax-Crazy: Hauenkua drives a giant mecha and giggles psychotically while squishing innocent people with it. He encourages invading countries just for more opportunities to use said mecha and pouts like a little kid if he can't. And yet he's still one of the most influential court advisors.
  • Babies Ever After:
    • Invoked but averted when it comes to Touka. The women of the Evenkurga are supposed to bear the child of their lord and Touka does her best to "seduce" Hakuowlo, but thanks to some fundamental misunderstandings, shall we say, on how pregnancy begins conception is clearly impossible.
    • Played straight with Yuzuha however, who, after wishing to Hakuowlo her desire to leave behind "proof that she lived", resulted in Kuon. Too bad that neither parent gets to raise the child though.
  • Battle Amongst the Flames: The final battle between Hakuowlo and Niwe is set in the burning palace of Shikeripechim, a fire Niwe himself lit.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Uistalnemetia loves to grant 'wishes', particularly in the mysterious backstory. However, the way it does so is frequently in such a manner that the wisher is worse off afterward.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Breaking Touka's doll sends her into a rage.
    • When Aruruu is killed by Hauenkua, this makes Hakuowlo so angry it brings out Hakuowlo's god form, which then goes on a rampage.
  • BFS: Too strong to wield an ordinary sword without breaking it, Karulau demands a custom sword be made that is unbendable, unbreakable, and without need for sharpening. What she gets is a massive sword more closely resembling a club that only she is able to lift. People hit by it tend to splatter. For a test run, she splits a giant boulder.
  • Bittersweet Ending:
    • Sure, the wars are finally over and it's implied the world will be a lot calmer, however, Hakuowlo is sealed away. The where-are-they-now style epilogue shows that most of the cast have still not entirely moved on. However, at the very end of both the game and the anime, Eruruu (after a short inner monologue about how she will wait for as long as it takes for Hakuowlo to return) turns toward something/someone the viewer cannot see and smiles.
    • The game version may be somewhat more poignant; Yuzuha has given birth to Hakuowlo's child and died with Oboro taking care of the child and leaving Benawi in charge.
  • Black Comedy Rape
    • Dorry and Guraa (all off screen) ply their master Oboro with sake until he passed out and somehow end up in a naked heap with him on the floor by morning.
    • Another time Oboro passes out (game only), they are very grateful at being given the task of dragging him back to his room ("Can we really?! Thank you, sir!"). Hakuowlo decides it's best not to think about it.
  • Blue with Shock: Hakuowlo's face (at least, the part that isn't covered by his mask), turns blue when Oboro picks up Touka's doll... and it falls apart.
  • Boisterous Weakling: Nuwangi, whose attempts to demonstrate his physical prowess result in his breaking his hand on Hakuowlo's mask, and breaking his arm trying to chop a tree. Although oddly enough, he's not particularly weak when you actually fight him.
  • Both Sides Have a Point: While most of the continent considers the Shakukopolu to be heretics who follow the evil god, Onvitaikayan, they believe that everyone else worships an evil god that usurped the position of the true creator god. Hakuowlo doesn't believe in either god and doesn't pretend to, but he's polite regarding both positions and follows the local customs as appropriate. As a result, he's much more neutral towards the Shakukopolu, who are widely hated by everyone else, and is very displeased about how they are treated politically and socially. Later, he talks to Ulthury, one of the high priestesses of Uitsalnemetia and she confirms that he is a temperamental god who both gives and takes away. It becomes darkly amusing when it turns out that he is the usurper Uitsalnemetia and Onvitaikayan were humanity. Apart from the obvious, it also means that both sides are completely correct. Onvitaikayan did create them, Uitsalnemetia did free them from mistreatment and he did rather unjustly destroy his 'rival' by attacking humans indiscriminately. He is also two 'different' people whose attempts to help the people always seem to lead to war and destruction.
  • Brain Bleach: Hakuowlo quickly goes into denial about the significance of the scene where Oboro gets drunk and he tells the twin archers to take care of him. They're a liiiittle too eager.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Kunnekamun is known to be one of the greatest empires, but a foolish and violent Owlo decides it would be an awesome idea to declare war on them, considering them nothing but weak vermin. Weak they may be, but they have huge suits of powered armor impervious to any medieval weaponry. Other countries might not know the specifics, but the fact that they can hold on to such a large empire despite everyone hating them is pretty telling. Worse, even after they stomp Noseshechika into the pavement, a bunch of smaller countries also try invading.
  • Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Kimamau appear to be basically monkeys, include throwing feces at people.
  • Chained by Fashion: Karulau wears a slave collar even after escaping... and even after the nation that had enslaved her is overthrown. When questioned, she responds that she keeps it as a deliberate reminder of how it feels to be weak. She believes her own people's failure to understand the weak is what lead to them getting enslaved in the first place.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • A large earthquake is mentioned early on. Nobody was hurt, but the village was damaged a little. Turns out that said quake was caused by the battle of Hakuowlo and Dii. During it, Aruruu and Eruruu were out in the forest and Aruruu was mortally wounded. Hakuowlo reached out to Eruruu and healed her sister in return for Eruruu curing his own wounds.
    • At one point, the elders of Onkamiyamukai unleashed a spell to stop the advance of the Kunnekamun, a spell said to have been used to seal away a God. Said spell comes back in the finale as it is being used to seal away the merged Uitsalnemetia.
  • Chick Magnet: 90% of the cast is apparently in love with Hakuowlo, including some guys.
  • Childhood Friend Romance: Nuwangi's chief motivation is his love for Eruruu, but due to being corrupted by luxury he has strayed far from the kind boy he used to be. Though she says during their last conversation that she used to love him, he ruined all his chances with her all by himself long ago.
  • Combat Pragmatist:
    • At at least two points, someone will note that their opponent is 'cheating.' The first is the inclusion of a giant kitty mistaken for its mother, a forest god, in a battle and the second is when Touka is trying to follow Hakuowlo and every single main character gets in her way pretty much. This is acknowledged by said dirty cheaters.
    • Used in a serious case during Shikeripecim's first invasion where Hakuowlo reinvents gunpowder as a weapon, and destroys an entire enemy camp with it. Many characters are sickened by how terrifyingly powerful it is, and it's treated as one of the most morally ambiguous acts the main characters have done.
  • Cool Mask: Hakuowlo. Not even he knows what he looks like without the mask, so you know he means business. In fact, the scientists who originally recovered and studied him even found a way to improve their health and longevity by donning duplicates of his mask... until he smote them.
  • Dark Is Not Evil:
    • Camyu has black wings and is able to see and befriend evil spirits. Despite this, she's a cheerful, friendly girl who doesn't seem to have any evil in her at all.
    • Hakuowlo's brutally violent, covered in shadow god-monster form, the "God that Brings Misfortune," is Uitsalnemetia's good side.
  • Days of Future Past: At first glance the series appears to be set in an alternate interpretation of the twelfth century. As the story continues, some irregularities appear in the form of giant walking mechs.
  • Death of a Child: When Nuwangi angers Mutikapa, it raids the village and kills a family, including the baby.
  • Decapitated Army: Once Suonkasu is dead, the vastly more powerful Na Tuunk army just surrenders to the rebellion.
  • Designer Babies: Everyonenote  are descendants of genetic experiments. note 
  • Developer's Room: Your reward for beating the game.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: The villain of the second arc is convinced that Hakuowlo is a heinous criminal, which makes it okay for him to burn defenseless villages, try to kill children and lead his men into suicide attacks. Eruruu calling him out on this is what breaks the spell on him, and causes him to have a brief My God, What Have I Done? moment before he's assassinated.
  • Distinction Without a Difference: Karulau wants a sword, but breaks any that she wields. Hakuowlo hands her a club and she throws it aside. They then order a custom-made sword specifically for her such that it would not break, dull or bend and end up with a massive sword that has no real blade and can't even be picked up by a single person. Karulau lifts it up easily and swings it around... but that's still just a club, when you get down to it.
  • Distracted from Death: Teoro shows up in time to warn the cast that an incoming army has slaughtered practically everyone from his village. Hakuowlo is so busy responding that he doesn't notice Teoro bleeding out minutes later.
  • Dump Stat: Magic defense is useless in the original version, since there aren't even any enemies that actually use magic on you. This is not true in the remake.
  • Early Game Hell: The beginning portions of the game are significantly more difficult than the later parts, especially the level where you simply have to lure Mutikapa onto a pit trap. You don't have many units, they aren't as good as the ones you get later and you haven't had much opportunity to build them up. While a mistake can easily cause you to lose a level later on by failing to protect Eruruu or Hakuowlo, early on you can play flawlessly and still lose. During the last arc, the difficulty increases again when Abh-Kamu and Masked Soldiers are introduced.
  • Earth All Along: Turns out the game takes place in the far future, after mankind fell and went extinct, with the current peoples inhabiting the land being the descendants of genetic experiments.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Earth beats fire beats water/lightning beats wind beats earth. Darkness and Light are both outside the circle.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: In the original visual novel, Hakuowlo studies a strand of Mutikapa's fur in frustration, unable to explain why the creature fled the previous night when it had him and Eruruu in its grasp. Unable, that is, until Aruruu drenches him and the fur in tea and this trope ensues.
  • Evil Laugh: Niwe and Hauenkua are very fond of these.
  • Expy: Hauenkua, who has silver hair, drives a giant red mech, and is an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight. Don't we know you from somewhere?
  • Fanservice:
    • It's pretty light on it, compared to a lot of other anime, but there are some notable examples. In the first episode, the moments around Eruruu's tail (see Fantastic Arousal) may count as this. In a later episode, Mukkuru, when hungry, tries to get milk from Eruruu, and then says (according to Aruruu) he feels sorry for her, provoking an extremely flustered reaction. (While a slightly more logical interpretation would be that he is referring to the lack of milk or trying to apologize, but of course the size of her breasts is the obvious implication.)
    • Then Karulau came along, and when Eruruu asked her to remove her clothes so she could look for further injury, the first thing she did was say, "Oh, so that's what you're in to." Cue another shocked reaction from Eruruu.
  • Fantastic Arousal:
    • In the first episode, Eruruu gets flustered when Hakuowlo touches her tail. For a second she looks like she really likes it (her ears even perk up!), then gets very embarrassed, blushes furiously and shoves him — injury and all! — to the ground shouting NO!. Hope it was worth it, Hakuowlo!
    • A few moments later in the same episode, two children flick her tail running past, evoking a similar reaction, though the emphasis is put on her anger. In retrospect, she seemed pretty lenient with Hakuowlo after what could have been interpreted as him trying to grope her, though details on the issue of a girl's tail as a whole are few.
  • Fantastic Racism: Everyone hates the people of Kunnekamun, regularly invading their homeland and slaughtering them. Though in this case it might have more to do with religious intolerance than flat-out racism. This eventually leads the Shakukopolu to attempt to unite the entire world through conquest.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The whole world setting = Medieval Japan but with more Ainu people and Humongous Mecha.
  • Fictionary: The game uses a variety of made-up terms, helpfully supplying a 'translation' above each term. Here's a few examples (using the sequels' naming convention):
    • Owlo = Lord, leader of a country, "Emperor". For the last one, "Owlo" is usually glossed using the "emperor" kanji ("皇") in the original japanese version. Hakuowlo's name means something in the order of "White Lord".
    • Woptor = "Horse". Actually, they are theropods that are used as beasts of burden, for the same purposes as horses.
    • Nugwisomkami = Evil spirits, evil gods. Uitsalnemetia is considered as a Nugwisomkami by the religion of some people.
    • Dinebokshir = hell
  • Forbidden Fruit: The chronologically earliest scene in the game is Hakuowlo investigating a hidden fossil of a giant humanoid simply because he was told to stay away from it. It ended badly.
  • Forceful Kiss: Given an inadequate explanation as to why you would kiss someone, Yuzuha promptly kisses Camyu and then Aruruu. When told that kisses are usually reserved for the opposite gender, she promptly kisses Hakuowlo and then Oboro.
  • Foreshadowing: There are a lot of small hints early on to major plot reveals later down the line, most of which only a repeat player/viewer will catch:
    • Though it may not have been intentional, there's a hint to Hakuowlo's true identity as the god of the land early on when Eruruu's family all give thanks for the food. After they offer thanks to Uitsalnemetia, he responds to them with mild confusion, unconsciously accepting their prayers.
    • Early on, Hakuowlo states that a god simply shouldn't be so upset over a simple destroyed shrine, something he states with quite a bit of conviction. The others ask him how he knows that after which he simply gets confused. Another hint to his true nature as a God.
  • Friends with Benefits: In the original version of the game, Hakuowlo ends up sleeping with most of the girls. For some of them it seems like a one time thing, but with others it mostly likely continues from there. He doesn't overtly commit to anyone either.
  • The Gadfly: Karulau likes to tease Hakuowlo and Touka. Of course, if you're the type that goes to Karulau for advice on how to get into bed with Hakuowlo, you pretty much deserve what you're going to get.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration
    • No matter how much of a jerk Nuwangi is, he won't attack Eruruu. You can exploit this on higher difficulties to make him waste a turn. The AI will sometimes have him run up to her, but instead of an attack you get special dialogue.
    • You can unlock Aruruu's final attack before she actually has the creature necessary to use it. If you try, she gets all geared up to launch a wind storm… but then she just pauses in confusion.
    • Any map on which water is present will cause Aruruu's defense to plummet. Mukkuru suffers from the same weakness as its parent, Mutikapa, after all.
  • Garden of Evil: Suonkasu has a beautiful garden of white flowers growing from corpses.
  • Genius Ditz: Touka. How can you be such a skilled fighter and presumably commander as well but still end up... well, TOUKA. See below for prime example before she even joins you. Also the doll chasing incident. And pregnancy advice from Karulau. And bodyguard skills vs. alcohol tolerance.
  • Glass Cannon: The masked soldiers encountered near the end can frequently be one shotted, but they also hit harder than Abh-Kamu. Since they also have high speed and movement stats they're actually surprisingly dangerous.
  • Gorn: Quite a few examples. Karulau gets pretty good at invoking this, graphically bisecting mooks (and punching their heads off) and creating a shower of blood and dismembered limbs every time she swings her sword. And once the Humongous Mecha arrive for the first time, it gets even worse. It literally rains blood at one point.
  • Gratuitous Japanese: In the English Dub, Camyu constantly calls Aruruu "Aru-chan."
  • Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Touka takes pause for a good helping of Visible Silence after the bridge she was standing on falls out beneath her. In the game, she manages to grab and climb up one end of the bridge, but she gets captured soon after.
  • Half the Man He Used to Be: A thug boasts to Karulau about all the escaping women he's murdered. She rips him in half with her bare hands then tells Hakuowlo to close his eyes while she deals with the rest. The rest of his companions have deaths that are at least as brutal and occasionally more so.
  • Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Karulau always bring a jug of sake with her.
  • Heel–Face Door-Slam: After being defeated and spared Nuwangi resolves to do what he can to stop the war and atone for his crimes... and promptly gets killed by some bandits.
  • Hellhole Prison: The prison island of Sahara is this trope almost literally. It is situated at the foot of an active volcano with both lava flows and noxious gases abound, making it inhospitable to say the least. In fact it is so hellish that there are no guards as they would be unable to bear the place. The only thing capable of enduring the place are the various failed experiments of the Kunnekamun empire.
  • Hide Your Lesbians: The twins are most certainly gay and flirt with Hakuowlo and presumably sleep with Oboro, but the exact nature of their relationship with the latter is unclear. All that can be definitely stated is that Hakuowlo doesn't want to think about what they do with Oboro when he passes out drunk and that he isn't married several decades down the line and that he doesn't seem to mind (or possibly notice) their attentions.
  • High School AU: There's a Sound Drama with almost all characters from the series attending a modern Japanese high school, the CD also featured some artworks with the characters sporting their school uniforms.
  • Honor Before Reason: Touka doesn't even let reason enter her mind...
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: The second map is Hakuowlo and Teoro trying to lure Mutikapa into a trap. If you try to fight it before that, you'll find out that it's invulnerable. Even then, the map is difficult because the kimamau keep getting in your way and Mutikapa is faster than you.
  • Hot-Blooded: Implied to be actually literal. Those with a fire spirit personality are very aggressive and when Karulau and Oboro clash during her introduction people worry that they might actually start a fire.
  • Human Popsicle: Iceman. It only really worked for him due to having a god inside him.
  • Humongous Mecha: There is a nation composed of a religious minority who have giant mecha given to them by their god to defend themselves. Considering the rest of the world hasn't even invented gunpowder... However, aside from armor, there are little to no mechanical parts on the Abh-Kamus themselves. In fact they''re quite squishy and bleed profusely when destroyed. Unlike EVAs, they have zero mechanical parts to speak of.
  • I Was Never Here: The owlo Hakuowlo and his followers never personally got involved in Na Tuunk's civil war, there just so happened to be an unrelated masked man down there.
  • Implacable Man: Karulau. She easily shrugs off being stabbed in both arms and is able to kill a dozen random mooks with a single swing of her giant sword (Super-Strength helps).
  • Instant Sedation: Eruruu, being The Medic, subdues her sister with an anesthetic in five seconds and succumbs to it herself in two.
  • The Kid with the Remote Control: Aruruu raises a tiger-like cub to giant proportions and later rides on it into battle.
  • Kick the Dog: Oh man, where to begin with this series? Well, it all starts with cutting down old ladies and things go from there.
  • Kill Sat: Mutsumi obliterates a country by calling in an orbital beam cannon strike fired from an array of satellites that are still active.
  • Limit Break: Filling up your Zeal meter lets you launch another attack. If you've maxed out your tech, this bonus attack does a huge amount of damage.
  • Lineage Comes from the Father: Inverted; a child inherits the tribe of their mother. It's why Sakuya and Hien are Shakukopolu despite descending from the Evenkuruga Genjimaru.
  • Little Bit Beastly: Everyone is some kind of animal person, with a given nation generally being of a specific species. Hakuowlo starts out in a dog nation. There are also bunny, tiger and bird people. Children inherit the animal traits of their mother.
  • Mage Species: While everyone has some sort of elemental affinity, the winged people are the only ones shown to have functional magic.
  • Miss Conception: Touka is supposed to bear Hakuowlo's child but is understandably awkward when it comes to telling him so. Karulau gives her some "helpful advice" by telling her that Hakuowlo likes to be dommed (he does not), urges her to skip the foreplay and cause herself a great deal of pain and, finally and most critically, tells her that Hakuowlo needs to ejaculate on her instead of inside her. Somehow, this helpful advice does not lead to her pregnancy.
  • My Master, Right or Wrong: Benawi and Kurou abide by strict warrior honor, and refuse to disobey their lord, no matter how obviously incompetent or evil he is. However, Defeat Means Friendship, so they join Hakuowlo... to whom the trope then applies.
  • Nigh-Invulnerable: Mutikapa cannot be harmed by most weaponry unless it is wet.
  • Nintendo Hard: The game on higher difficulties is hard, but mostly because of poor design decisions. There is only one way to heal apart from leveling up and it doesn't work on Eruruu. You can't control where your own units are deployed, you can't control what order your units move in and you can't affect or even see your speed stat. Your movement is also lower than any of your enemies. Further, Hakuowlo is not difficult to take down in as few as just two or three attacks. Finally, you can only save before maps, not during. You cannot even save between two part maps.
  • Not Quite Dead: The skeleton Hakuowlo found may have already fossilized, but that doesn't mean it was really dead. It wakes up and merges with him, turning him into a god.
  • Not So Invincible After All: The Abh-Kamu fielded near the end of the game are indeed powerful combatants, but once the initial blitz is over and people get over the shock of seeing their strength, they start to fall. Part of it is because Kunnekamun spread its forces too thin, allowing isolated units to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Worse, since the Abh-Kamu are Lost Technology, Kunnekamun can't replace any losses they incur, and they rely almost entirely on Abh-Kamu for their army, meaning things start looking grim pretty quickly after the tide turns.
  • "Not So Different" Remark:
    • Oboro brings this trope up to Hien during their final confrontation, noting that he is all too much alike to how Oboro himself used to be in the past.
    • Dii points out that everything Hakuowlo has done has been as destructive as what he does. Sure, the country of Tuskur prospered, but only by exploiting technology they shouldn't have yet at the expense of all their neighbors.
  • Oblivious to Love: Not a Chaste Hero per se, but Hakuowlo's characterization dances close to both tropes. He has a vague idea that his relationships with other girls might make Eruruu jealous — but doesn't really think about why she would be — at one or two points and realizes Karulau is where she wants to be after vowing herself to him, but attributes the wrong (or incomplete to be more accurate) reason to it. Even after said relationships turn physical, Hakuowlo seems to think the girls are a lot more casual about it than they actually are or assume other reasons, like Yuzuha's case, where he thinks all the ill girl wants is a baby. Quite dense there, Hakuowlo. It is later revealed that, at least in Eruruu's case, he thought she was merely acting on their contract, and didn't actually love him.
  • Off with His Head!: Karulau and Touka are fighting mooks. Touka kills about twenty in three seconds while Karulau watches. Mook attacks Karulau. Karulau punches his head off.
  • One-Winged Angel: Both Hakuowlo and Dii transform into something best described as an armoured Godzilla.
  • Pen-Pushing President: Hakuowlo is often found behind mounds of scrolls that need to be signed. After Hakuowlo is sealed and Benawi becomes steward, he too has mounds of scrolls that need signing.
  • Physical God: Mutikapa is the guardian spirit for the god of the forest. Hakuowlo seems skeptical initially, but it's obviously very old, has human intelligence and seems indestructible unless you get it wet. Uitsalnemetia is also a humanish being that can take the form of a giant Godzilla critter.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: Touka and Genjimaru are both members of the Evenkuruga, a reclusive tribe of extremely skilled warriors.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Villainess Mutsumi has red eyes, as does the normally blue-eyed Camyu when she goes into vampire mode.
  • Reincarnation Romance: It's strongly implied that Eruruu is a reincarnation of Mikoto, Hakuowlo's wife and mother of his child. Eruruu is much more jealous than Mikoto was, however.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: It's pointed out that if the villagers had just stood down after Tuskur died, then a lot of other deaths would not have occurred... particularly the paranoid Emperor slaughtering several innocent villagers "just in case". Hakuowlo is disgusted by Inkalla's actions, but pragmatically takes advantage of the fact that this causes numerous other villages to join his revolution.
  • Running Gag: The endless stacks of documents Hakuowlo has to inspect and sign. Whenever he complains about the amount, someone (usually Benawi) brings more.
  • Scary Stinging Swarm: In chapter 2 of the manga, Aruruu tries to get honey from a beehive while the group is hiking in the mountains. She winds up falling from the tree, taking the hive with her, and everyone gets stung. It never got animated though.
  • Schizo Tech: The Shokukopolu of Kunnekamun go to war with Eva-style Humongous Mecha. In a medieval-fantasy setting. To say they are extremely effective would be putting it lightly. On the other hand, the game is actually set in the far future and these are actually artifacts left by now-extinct humans from a less far future.
  • Screaming Warrior: Oboro starts out as this kind of character. He is later reprimanded during training for giving himself away with this. In the anime, he is later shown going out of his way to not scream during battle, after realizing how ridiculous and inefficient it is.
  • Self-Censored Release: The remake cuts the H-scenes. The one that's actually relevant to the plot (Hakuowlo and Yuzuha conceiving Kuon) still happens but the scene fades to black before anything is shown.
  • Senseless Sacrifice: Sakuya has herself permanently crippled so that Hakuowlo will save Kuuya. He agrees to try. Later, Genjimaru dies attacking Dii and the latter accepts the gesture and intends to let Kuuya go. Both of their sacrifices are in vain because Kuuya goes berserk, gets punished by Dii and has her mind break upon seeing Genjimaru's dead body.
  • Sexual Karma: Averted in the original PC version. Hakuowlo and Eruruu were both drunk, Karulau drugged his sake, Touka forced herself on him as a misguided attempt to fulfill her duty as an Evenkuruga, and Camyu (or one of her Split Personalities) used magic to restrain and rape him. However, Played Straight with Ulthury and Yuzuha—both times it was fully consensual and enjoyable.
  • Shoot the Medic First: Enemies will usually target Eruruu first, even though she's likely to be significantly higher level than the rest of your team. What makes it worse is that there is no other way to heal your units unless you just happen to level at a convenient time. Interestingly enough, this is actually the best way to heal on the final map since Eruruu can't possibly survive and even if she could she wouldn't be able to heal everyone at once from attacks that hit the whole field.
  • Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Mukkuru goes from a cub to a fully grown adult in about a week. Aside from some minor surprise, the characters just brush over it.
  • The Social Darwinist: Dii. All of his manipulation is to pit all of the nations against each other to weed out the weaklings.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Thanks to the game using rather exotic names, the initial fan translation had to make up a lot of the spellings on their own. Then the anime's English dub confused things further with its pronunciation choices ("Eruruu" being called "Eleluu", for instance), and then the game's sequels and official translation come out with their own spellings.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: It is hard to get more star crossed than the emperor of a nation and the man that nation proclaims is the devil. It doesn't end well for Kuuya and if the love hadn't occurred in the first place, the penultimate arc would have ended much more happily for all involved.
  • Starter Villain: Nuwangi and his family, who rule over the nation Yamayura Village is part of. However, they're all incompetent at warfare and surprisingly easily overthrown by Hakuowlo's rebellion.
  • Stock Footage: Very, very noticeable in war scenes in the anime.
  • Super-Strength: Karulau, who manages to lift a sword in one hand that it took five men just to carry into the room. It's apparently a trait of her race, the Giriyagina.
  • Supporting Harem: Hakuowlo has numerous girls in love with him, but the one he truly loves is Eruruu. While he does still care for the others (and in the original game does sleep with each of them at least once), it's pretty clear who he really has feelings for.
  • Sure, Let's Go with That: When Hakuowlo tries to explain the basics of agriculture and using fertilizer to the villagers, they give him blank looks and say it must just be a good luck charm. He gives up and lets them think what they want.
  • Sympathy for the Devil: Somehow, Suonkasu is considered a pitiful figure despite his mass murdering and involvement in the slave trade. He was primarily motivated by his manic but genuine love for Karulau. As he was dying, Karulau cradled him so he could at least die in peace.
  • Tamer and Chaster: The original PC version had H-scenes, of course. The anime takes all of them out, which unfortunately causes a Plot Hole by also taking out Kuon, Hakuowlo's daughter who plays a major role in the sequels.
  • They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason: When Hakuowlo casually brings up that he knows how to forge, Teoro is shocked since metalworking is a rare skill and is kept a closely guarded secret. His wife elbows him when he asks Hakuowlo how he knows how to work with iron, pointing out that it doesn't matter right now.
  • Title Drop: The quote at the top of this page comes from a line near the very end of the game.
  • Token Good Teammate: Long ago, there was one good scientist researching the Iceman, Hakuowlo. He chose to die for his morals before they could slip away. Which is probably just for the best given the punishment every other scientist received.
  • Too Long; Didn't Dub: When Yuzuha, Aruruu and Camyu are trying to think up nicknames, Yuzuha thinks she might call her brother Boroboro based off his name. "Boroboro" means "all beaten up" in Japanese, but those who don't know the language will probably miss that.
  • True Companions: Holy crap. From Aruruu referring to Hakuowlo as her father, to Oboro referring to him as "brother", to the long speeches about family, it's truecompaniontastic.
  • Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay:
    • Karulau has super strength, great. Her claws are too close range, though, so she wants to use a sword. But... swords aren't really built to take that level of abuse and just making them bigger increases the mass faster than the size, meaning they also break. Hakuowlo eventually has to go to a blacksmith and commission a weapon for her built with no other function in mind except that it won't break or damage its own blade when striking. While the weapon he gets her is referred to as a sword, it is clearly just a very specially prepared massive hunk of metal with nothing like the cutting power or edge of a sword as well as no actual tip. Adult men with super strength can't even lift it by themselves thanks to this design. Karulau manages to pull it off... but the sword still breaks eventually. You can't just scale weapons up like normal and expect them to still work. The third game in the series even points out the problem of weight disparity when the protagonist of the game muses that the new wielder of the rebuilt sword should be throwing herself around since she only weight a fraction of what the weapon does.
    • Kunnekamun might have intense military might compared to everyone else, however that came at the cost of making them expand way too quickly for their won good. When other nations for a coordinated counterattack they are all of a sudden forced on the retreat as their forces are spread way too thin making it difficult to defend from an attack coming from several directions at once. And against such overwhelming numbers, even their mighty Avu Kamuu are brought to heel.
  • Units Not to Scale: Units on maps often look too large for what they're doing. The size of units themselves is often not to scale: Mukkuru is large enough that Aruruu can fit into his mouth, but appears far more reasonable in scale when you're fighting.
  • Unproblematic Prostitution: Several scenes state that Hakuowlo legalizes prostitution in the nation of Tuskur and even personally oversaw the development of the local red light district. He gains a reputation for being a womanizer due to this, but it turns out he did this because he figured sex shops would pop up whether they were illegal or not, and this way the government can at least regulate them and prevent the women involved from being abused.
  • Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Inverted: We're led to believe that Kuuya of Kunnekamun is a boy king, but Hakuowlo learns that "he" is in fact a girl with a tenor voice. Played straight with the twin archers, which many refuse to accept based on a few scenes that even Hakuowlo doesn't want to think about.
  • Unusual Ears: Besides the animal eared characters, we have examples of furry elven ears and wing-ears.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: Kuuya's plan to unite the world through violent, bloody conquest in order to force coexistence between all races. Genjimaru counters that any "peace" that results from such a strategy is nothing more than oppression, hatred will simmer in the hearts of those who were conquered, and eventually it will just foster further war down the line.
  • Vague Age: Eruruu looks like she's around fifteen or sixteen, but is treated as a full adult and one who has gone years without showing any interest in men. Then again, she lives in a small, rural village where people might be considered adults significantly earlier. She's older than Aruruu, who looks like she's maybe ten or so. Camyu is the same age as Aruruu, but looks significantly older and is more physically developed than Eruruu. In the game, Camyu has her first period somewhat early on in the story, so apparently she's just a really early bloomer.
  • Victory Is Boring: Hakuowlo discovers that running a country is far more tedious than liberating one. As in Running Gag, it involves a mountain of paper work as well as managing delicate foreign relations. Since its only a third into the game, it does not remain boring for very long...
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Mutikapa loses its invulnerability if it gets wet.
  • Weapon Specialization: Hakuowlo: Steel Fan (waaay more painful that it sounds), Oboro: Twin Swords, Benawi: Halberd, Karulau: Huge "Sword".
  • Wham Episode: Episode 22. Hakuowlo turns into the god-monster in front of Eruruu. Aruruu is killed, and then comes back to life, thanks to a deal with said god-monster in a flashback where Aruruu is killed again. And then Hakuowlo has a flashback. To modern times.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: So, why exactly does Camyu appear to be a vampire anyway? It has little to do with being a reincarnation of a psychic test subject that Hakuowlo considered to be a daughter before the human race died out. The only hint of an explanation is that it might be related to her "darkness" powers and affinity with Nugwisonkami (evil spirits).
  • What Have I Become?: Hakuowlo goes through this upon learning that he is some sort of God-like beast and not a human.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: In the game, Hakuowlo mistakes the archer twins Dorry and Guraa for girls at first, until they happily offer to give proof to the contrary. The anime sidesteps the question of their gender.
  • The Worf Effect: In the anime, badass ninja Oboro loses every single duel with a named character. In the game, he's more clearly a skilled warrior but frequently still ends up on the losing side whenever he goes up against other great warriors.
  • Yandere: Nuwangi is a male example. Suonkasu also acts like one, violently murdering and/or torturing anyone who gets in the way of his "love".
  • Ye Olde Butchered English: In the official translation, Uitsalnemetia speaks in this manner. When his host Dii or Hakuowlo start using this diction rather than standard speech, it's a sign that Uitsalnemetia's personality is beginning to take hold over their own.
  • You Can See Me?: In the anime Camyu has the ability chant herself invisible. She sneaks into Hakuowlo's bedroom to take a nap and the invisibility spell wears off. When she wakes up Hakuowlo is there just staring right at her. She asks: "Can you by any chance see Camyu?"
    • When Hakuowlo confirms that Camyu panics and quickly chants herself invisible again but due to her panic the spell wears off immediately. She doesn't notice anyway until Hakuowlo quips in complete deadpan: "I can still see you."
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Pulled multiple times. Defeating Nuwangi and establishing the nation of Tuskur isn't the end; in fact, it's really just the beginning of the story. The defeats of Orikakan and Niwe only take us to the halfway mark.

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