WMG / Live A Live

Original Game

The Medieval Chapter was one big Evil Plan by the former Demon Lord

Inevitably, someone would strike the Demon Lord down, and he knew that. So what did he do? He prepared for someone to continue his legacy. He forged magical statues with pinpoints in time so he could conquer more. Then he attacked again. He captured Alicia, drew heroes towards him, and he was — physically — forevermore vanquished. A small sacrifice if he could scar humanity forever. At this point, he probably knew Hash, honorable hero that he was, would not be satisfied with such a feeble show of strength by what he knew was an opponent worthy of being known as a demon. He would search for the demon, and Odio would try to feed on any hatred left in him. But what's this! Hash had a plague. He was unfit to even fight. Tch. Foiled by the noble sacrifice of the old guard. But even still, they had brought young blood... Straybow, Straybow was the target. Odio seized the opportunity and unleashed Straybow's resentment and hatred towards being second fiddle.

At this point, he probably wanted Straybow to be his successor, to go through time and conquer with the statues he'd left behind. But Oersted came. He saw. He fought his former best friend. He lost his love. He lost everything. Odio's gambit paid off bigger than he ever imagined, as now, Oersted's sense of justice was ripe to be twisted by hatred... and he turned on mankind.

• Wait, so what was the shadow-thing that has Alicia captured in the game over sequence? It looks different than the Demon Lord, whose overworld sprite is far more gargoyle-y.
  • Did you even meet Odio in the final chapter? He looks exactly like the shadowy figure in the game over in the Medieval Chapter. That is Odio's true form. Straybow transformed when Orsted was killed in battle in that scenario and the result from the transformation warped Straybow's mind further than he could comprehend, completely obliterating his consciousness. Odio probably thought Oersted was a far better host to inhabit and pitted both of them against each other; in other words, Odio placed a fragment of his own consciousness into Orsted and another into Straybow.
    • It seems far more likely that the "game over" screen is only occurring in Oersted's mind. Straybow has no reason to be taking that form around Alicia, and as the ending makes clear, Alicia isn't actually in love with Oersted, and considers herself to already have been rescued by Straybow. Therefore, the scene with demon Straybow hovering over Alicia while she cries out for Oersted just doesn't make sense as anything other than Oersted's imagining.
• This WMG does make sense a lot. Even before Oersted decided to become the Demon King, the statues of Odio's incarnations are still there, so someone must've prepared it before Oersted came. Also in regards of Straybow, notice that one of the things he said when he revealed himself to Oersted was "My emotions suddenly exploded!". I think that was part of the true Demon King's plan, when Straybow read the encryption about the Demon King, that was when he struck and 'brainwashed' Straybow into eventually setting up Oersted's downfall. In other words, Straybow is just as much a victim as Oersted. The sad thing, Oersted probably never knew nor cared.
  • Straybow also says, though, that he was already really pissed off at Oersted when he lost the tournament to him. Immediately pretending to team up with someone he hates is a sign that he was up to something right from the start. But if he says this during the final confrontation, it may make more sense that he was bottling up those emotions, but then the possession by the Demon King makes him more open about it, beforehand he might have held his jealousy in check. With the Demon King getting into his mind, he's more than likely to vent it out. Common scenario about 'brainwashing makes you reveal some dirty secrets/jealousy you've been having since the beginning'.

Watanabe is the one who set Oersted up to fall!

In every era, in every setting, that poor green-haired kid suffers the loss of his father, and the chapter's hero just... watches. When Oersted kills Watan Naibi in the tournament, he's finally had enough, and decides to utterly BREAK this hero... ultimately making the situations that killed his father in the first place. Dumb kid.

• Actually it's Straybow that kills Watan Naibi, not Oersted. Though I suppose that getting the mage angry/jealous enough to try and be a demon himself would have worked.
• The tournament seems to run on a no-kill policy, otherwise Straybow would've been killed at the beginning of the chapter when Oersted beat him. Therefore, Watan Naibi is probably just knocked out unconscious by Straybow. However, it's still possible that the kid put his father on such a high pedestal that he wouldn't stand seeing his father defeated by some mage he doesn't know and then got all these messes started.
  • This is likely. Real Life Medieval Tournaments typically were No Kill Policy. Or at least, that was the intention. Accidental deaths have happened, many of them from the jousts.
  • Oersted makes sure not to kill Straybow because he considers the mage a friend at this point. As for Straybow killing Watan... yup, he did and had no remorse about it — a warning sign which everyone should have paid more attention to. Specifically, he was too preoccupied with Oersted to care whether anyone else lived or died (whether or not he'd arranged the "demon king's return" from the start or was corrupted later). The tournament rules probably don't care what happens to the losers.
  • Either it's hardware limitations, or... Oersted's opponent just goes poof once his match is over, meaning that he's probably dead. On the other hand, Watan is showed to be falling down and having his son drag him crying, leading possibilities of him not quite dead. Think of it; Oersted is a knight, if he kills his opponent, he would leave remnants to be cleaned up. Straybow is a mage: if he's serious about killing, he may as well just blow his opponent into pieces with less remains with his magic. Either that, or someone took the corpse of Oersted's opponent and carried it away when the screen goes black to shift back to 'cutscene' mode. Besides, these Watanabe incarnations would pop up petrified by the Death Prophet in the Final Chapter, so they'll have to survive to get petrified.

Akira is meant to be the default protagonist of the final chapter

When Oersted first visited the room of statues, the Odeo statue will always be at the center. And when you pick any protagonist, their respective Odio incarnation will take the center place, and the Odeo statue will replace that Odio incarnation's former place. So they were thinking that by default, Akira would be the one leading the attack against Oersted. But then, the game was quite open-ended, so it's not seen at the get-go.

Tying into that is Akira's special dungeon. It is the only place that gives the protagonists any idea as to what happened in Lucretia, other than the fish in Pogo's dungeon, who really only tells you the name of the place. So, Akira learns Oersted's name, and can probably piece together some of what has happened. It would make sense for him to confront Oersted about that.

Another part is the series of non-battle pictures in the ending credits. While it would end in a sight in Lucretia, the order will always be Xin Shan Quan successor -> Pogo -> Sundown Kid -> Cube -> Masaru -> Oboromaru -> Akira. Any reason in particular why Akira is always the last? Even there are other series that put the main hero last in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue. And like the first one about the Odio incarnation statues, the pre-credits epilogue usually shows the one chosen as main protagonist last, however, the credits pictures that doesn't show battle scenes will always put Akira the last. So...?

Should the game gets a remake/sequel...

Then we will get another Odio incarnation to fight aside of Oersted... but Watanabe. Pissed off that he's treated like the universe's punching bag who's played for laughs rather than drama, he hated all those mistreatments and true to Oersted's words, "As long as there is hatred...", Watanabe will gather all his incarnations which were abused and became the Demon King to make the world pay for laughing at his misery.

The only probable exception is the Watanabe at Akira's chapter, since he seemed content enough.

• Jossed. Partially. While Watanabe has nothing to do with it, the remake does feature a new incarnation of Odio's wrath.

The Mecha and Sci-fi chapter are interconnected

Not long after the fight with the Inko statue, Watanabe probably found out about his father one way or another. Add the robotic pet turtle Taro, and top that off with the awesomeness that is the Steel Titan, he might've developed a liking for robots. Fast forward to his adulthood, he created a particular round robot. The connection doesn't just stop there. Darth mentioned something about a great war with robots that killed his teammates. Considering the final act of the Mecha chapter is a war with robots, it's not too far-fetched. Darth is probably one of the few lucky survivors to have escaped the Steel Titan's assault.

The Odio incarnations were not possessed by Oersted in everyone else's chapters. In fact, he deliberately decides not to at the beginning of everyone else's final chapter.

As seen in Oersted's final chapter, if he had done that from the start, they would have been much more powerful. Originally, they were all completely independent threats with only a slight connection to the true Odio.

When Oersted finished destroying his country, he went to the statues and considered unleashing his power on the other timeframes... but decided to watch what actually happened in the original history first. After seeing the heroes' struggles, he decided that it wouldn't be satisfying enough to wipe them out by remote control without being able to explain his real motives, and instead drew them into his realm for a more personal confrontation. After he loses, he does try to take over the other Odio incarnations, but no longer has the ability to empower them against the heroes who have become even stronger since those fights.

The Odio incarnations were possessed by the original Demon King in everyone else's chapters.

Or at least, the Demon King that Oersted's party fights. It makes sense from a narrative sense — the stories are told in the order that the original Demon King experiences them. Said Demon King is also weak enough for this to be plausible, as all 8 characters are paragons of their eras, capable of overcoming them with relative ease. All Oersted does is lend his strength to what the previous Demon King set in motion.

There IS no previous Demon King; it was Oersted the whole time.

Hash tells Oersted that the creature they just killed couldn't have been the real Demon King, so where was he? It was Odio himself, since his reincarnations are spread throughout history and his powers can affect time, causing a kind of Stable Time Loop and ensuring his creation.

Each of the main characters are different incarnations of an opposing force to Odio.

Maybe's Oersted's love and/or humanity. It would explain why they in particular had to be the ones to fight him and/or why Odio embodies a Shadow Archetype to all of them.

Each of Odio's incarnations represent one of humanity's Seven Deadly Sins

• Odo(Gluttony): It feeds on whatever food its tribe gives it, and was set up to eat Bel and later swallows the Kuu Chieftain whole for failing to satisfy O-D-O's hunger, and due to it being the only non-sapient incarnation of Odio (Being as smart as a prehistoric human at best), was motivated more by food and natural wild instinct rather than malicious intent by Odio's part.
• Ou Di Wang Lee (Pride): Lee owns a kung-fu school and when a rival school tries to stop his students, he attacks the rival's school, killing two of the three students, making the master and his surviving pupil seek revenge.
• Ode Iou (Wrath): Iou attempts to start an bloody war in Japan for supposedly the thrill of it and is the most willing for violence outside of Odio himself. (Fun fact: Iou is the only Odio incarnation that is fought twice in the same chapter)
• O. Dio (Greed): Dio and his gang are robbers and constantly harassed Success Town for money like most bandits do before Sundown Kid showed up and put Dio into his place.
• Odie O'Bright (Lust (Kind of)): Odie was never shown or implied to be a love interest but another definition for lust is the strong desire for something, in Odie's case, the lust for power. ^note  This can also apply to all of Odio's incarnations and Odio himself because his hatred towards humans stems from how they treated him like dirt when he mistakes his king for the demon king, Straybow betraying him and Alicia, who was his love interest, saying that he was a monster before killing herself to be with Straybow.
• Odeo (Sloth): Odeo himself never does anything to fuel the story as the main antagonists of the chapter are the cultists serving him and only attacks the protagonists after his cultists awaken him from his slumber.
• OD-10 (Envy): She didn't understand human emotion and thought the only way to ensure harmony is to eradicate the humans on the space station. It could be Odio's manipulation of her AI to turn on the humans, but the inability to have genuine emotions that humans do could've played a role in her joining forces with Odio.
  • Alternatively: Odie O'Bright is Envy (Hates whenever someone is considered above him as a fighter and so he seeks and kills anyone who is seen as better by others) Odeo is Lust (The conspirators talk about people being liquified to become one with Odeo, making it a very twisted and aberrant form of "love") and OD-10 is Sloth (Takes the easiest route to stop all the crew's issues: killing everyone. And to do so she proceeds to both release the Behemoth and sow discord between them, efectively letting others do the job of killing for her).
• In addition, Oersted easily fits the (usually ignored) eight deadly sin: Despair. When he reaches the final straw of his tragic story, he gives in and embraces the power of the Lord Of Dark. This also links to it being considered the deadliest sin by Orthodox Christianity, as the sin of Despair is the one that commands the other bosses.

Odie O'Bright's backstory

• Unlike the rest of the secondary villains, who are either allusions to figures in history, pop culture, and even character archetypes found in storytelling, Odie O'Bright irks me the most for his existence and possible hidden backstory. Everyone else in The Modern Day Chapter has at least some backstory to their coming into power, while Masaru can technically be the everyman RPG main character without a voice. His character design is what especially piques my interest, because that's probably the only clues we will get without his backstory, if ever. With thanks to the Other Wiki:
  • My hypothesis is that Odie O'Bright is either an Australian or Californian US resident who is a Neo-Nazi skinhead that became involved with an extremist fringe Nazi Buddhist cult/gang, and aims to be the strongest to establish sociopolitical power and presence in the world through fighting to lead this cult to international presence.

  • First, his appearance. Odie is dressed up like a punk, someone dangerous, like a renegade, but also wears East Asian monk like clothes. He even has a japa mala (prayer beads). He's got biker wear for his extremities, like gloves and metal foot protectors, and his shoulders have antiquated looking guards to protect his arms. Most notably, his back has a tattoo of an ashura, which are demigod like entities in Buddhism who are powerful but are also pitied as beings who are regulated to a lifetime of neverending violence and conflict. He's even bald, suggesting he's a skinhead after being a monk. Going over Buddhism abit, what's another thing about its symbolism that is used to represent the religion, outside of the eightfold wheel? The swastika.

  • Regarding history of the times, the early 1990s in Japan also had its dark underbelly. Outside of images from the world stage that Japan was a place of wealth, industry, and efficiency the world could not out do, so were those within Japan herself who did not match this pristine face of rather materialistic and exuberantly decadent display. There were plenty who did not like or meshed well with the cold and fast efficiency of urban industry life, looking for more deeper and spiritual calling outside of the material world. While there were plenty of those who found religious inspiration and spiritual solace on their own, some desired to find this in a community. Sadly, some of these were cults, and Japan admittedly had their own. Perhaps one of Japan's more infamous would be known as Aum Shinrikyo, which combined Fundamentalist Christian thought with twisted Shingon Buddhist interpretation, expected World War III by America and had done other criminal acts, like illegally creating military grade chemical weapons, extorting money, and brainwashing and tortuously hazing lesser members. Out in America, perhaps a similar group that was big around the late 20th Century are the Hare Krishnas, which were outed for acts of child abuse in their boarding schools in the US during the 1970s and 1980s. Though a different religion, they share the same roots from India, and are similar in their goals to promote spiritual and religious awakening.

  • Finally, we get to the historic affairs of Nazism regarding Buddhism. Long ago during the Nazi Regime, one of the Thule Society's goals was to verify the existence of Aryan superhumans that existed somewhere within Central Europe, and earn their allegiance to bolster Nazi power. One of these places were alleged to be the mythical Shangri La or Shambala up in the Himalayan Mountains. Into more down to earth historic affairs, D.T. Suzuki was known to be a Zen Buddhist who share sentiments with the Nazis on nationalism during the 1930s when Imperial Japan allied with them, and had even taught Karlfried Graf Dürckheim.

  • So if anything, my reasoning would have to be that Odie grew to be not only a brutalizing martial artist, but a twisted man of perverse faith who believes that fighting and living life as warfare is salvation, and is a Neo-Nazi skinhead who seeks to establish power and unity out of hate. Your thoughts?

Leveling up a thing only available due to time/place/etc.

In the Sci-Fi, western and modern eras leveling up isn't possible while everywhere it is, it makes me think that something about things progressing past the warring states era disabled the ability until a scrappy young pyschic and his mentor somehow regain it in their time. And everyone being pulled into the Medieval time period unlocked the ability for Cube, Sunset and Masaru, this has rather remarkable effects for them.

• Alternatively, the layout of the listed chapters prevents "leveling up" for one reason or another. The Western chapter only has one fight, which is at the end, and most of the chapter proper is setting up traps for that fight. Therefore it makes sense why Sundown doesn't "level up", there are no fights for him to gain EXP from except the big fight at the end. Same line of thinking with the Sci-Fi chapter, there are no fights for the majority of the chapter, and the boss fight at the end is a visual representation of what Cube is doing, trying to hack OD-10 to make it stop being malevolent and going Kill All Humans. Masaru's chapter is interesting - yes, the chapter is essentially a boss rush, so he should be gaining tons of experience, but remember that he's been trying to be the strongest in the world for a while now. These fights probably wouldn't provide him with as much experience as one would expect - he learns their moves, sure, but it's unlikely that they would be especially pivotal movements in his journey training-wise. As for why he levels so excellently in the Final Chapter? He's fighting lots of new non-human enemies instead of the comparatively narrow spectrum of human fighters, it's only natural that as he finds new ways to use his techniques he becomes more experienced at using them and fighting in general.

Masaru met/will meet a practitioner of Earthen Heart Kung-Fu during his journey in the Present Day.

• Given that Masaru constantly seeks to be the greatest, it's possible that at one point he encounters someone who's helping keep Earthen Heart Kung-Fu alive even centuries after the first successor was named.

Remake Pre-release

Possible changes the remake could add.

• A narrator for the Prehistoric Chapter.
• A way to have more than one Successor survive during the Kung-Fu chapter.
  • Or saving at least one more crew member during the Sci-Fi chapter.
• Akira's stats being buffed and his skills being more useful so he isn't the worst character anymore.
• New scenarios after the original game's ending.
  • It could be any of the scenarios listed in the WMG speculating on fan ideas for new chapters.
  • Confirmed, in a sense. While there's no post-game content, the remake does indeed feature an extra boss directly after the point where the original ends.
• Scenarios being longer and more developed.
  • Specifically, a proper story for Masaru's chapter around him being the strongest instead of only being a Boss Rush by having him beat up regular enemies, who could also appear in the Final Chapter to represent Present Day alongside the other chapters.
    • Expand on the six masters and Masaru's interactions with them, to the point where he even befriends some of them. This will make the reveal of Odie killing them all a bigger Player Punch.
    • More hints into Odie's presence to make him less of a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere.
  • New scenes showing all three Heart of the Mountain inheritors, developing them all to make two of their eventual deaths hurt all the more.
  • An extended flashback sequence for Akira's chapter showing how he met Matsu and better foreshadow his hand in the death of Tadashi Tadokoro. Also, minor, but they could give Akira a unique sprite in the opening flashback rather than the generic child sprite he shares with the other kids. Or change the names of the existing kids during the flashbacks, it's kind of improbable when the kids during the flashback were implied to be the same as the ones at present day (including Watanabe) and yet they don't age while Akira ages.
• New Game Plus
• Difficulty Levels
• New attacks.
• A team banter system like the ones in Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler that allows the party to talk to each other between cutscenes if the player wants to listen in. While the party for most of the chapters is pretty bare, it would open up the chance for character and dynamic building in the final chapter.
• Secret Routes in each chapter that cause a different character to be lead into the Final Chapter instead of one the 8 protagonists like Darth instead of Cube for example.
• Better telegraphed aspects of the final chapter, such as hints as to how to access the Mind Dungeon, how to find the Ariel set, and how to fix Cube aside from Akira's more astute observations about his condition or hunt Sundown.
• A new sprite for Oersted once he becomes Odio. Maybe take a cue from fanwork and just give him a cape.
• Present Day, Near Future and Sci Fi chapters having their years changed to better suit the remakes release date. (like 1994 for present day to 2022)
• The women fleeing the castle after the Medicine Box is obtained, it would seem hypocritical to make them fair game after sparing them all just for a reward.

Possible Dub Voice Actors:

Assuming the dub takes the route of the original casting, which seems to be leaning into type casting based on previous work:

• Imperial China:
  • Lei: Laura Post, who has a history of playing tough girls in games and anime.
• Wild West:
  • The Sundown Kid:
    • Matthew Mercer, no stranger for doing an older man's voice, not to mention a cowboy expert at high noon showdowns.
    • Richard Epcar, if you're looking for an older voice than Mercer or on a veteran level of Akio Ōtsuka. Besides, with that kind of hat, it may remind you of someone and it might be amusing to imagine Sundown Kid going "OH MY GOD!!"
  • Mad Dog:
    • Sean Chiplock, who has some experience playing gunslingers and sharpshooters with an adversarial relationship to a quiet protagonist.
• Near-Future:
  • Akira Tadokoro:
    • Kyle Hebert or Yuri Lowenthal, both known for Kamina and Simon. Though if this dynamic is taken, then more likely it's Yuri. Kyle would end up taking Matsu instead (who's more Kamina-ish, complete with dying)
    • Johnny Yong Bosch, who not only has experience with hot-blooded protagonists, but has a pedigree in sentai and played Shotaro Kaneda in the dub of AKIRA.
• Medieval:
  • Oersted:
    • Chris Hackney; it wouldn't be the first time he played a good guy who turns out to be a villain in a HD 2D game by these developers.
    • Patrick Seitz: He voiced many villians and similarly to Chris Hackney,this would not be the first time he voiced a character similar to Oersted, namely a Fallen Hero.
• All jossed The remake generally uses lesser-known VAs for its English cast.

Names will be fixed in the remake.

Unless an automated voice similar to one in Tomodachi Life is used to refer to a character based on how you named them, being able to change names may make voice acting stilted or complicated, and the trailers for each character label them by their canon names. Might be easier to cut out the middleman and simply give each character a set name and be done with it.

• Jossed. You can change each character's name like the original, and dialogue which contain the protagonist's name are unvoiced.

Remake Post-Release

Sin of Odio is the first incarnation of Odio returning to the form he once had before Oersted became his vessel/reincarnation.

• This could be supported by the fact that there was a Split Personality battle between Oersted and Sin of Odio after the former freed himself at the end of the game.

The Sin of Odio was all of Oersted's hate made manifest and its what allowed him to redeem himself

• Taking physical form like that made the otherwise metaphysical aspect of his being tangible, thus permmited him to literally tear himself free of the anger he had hold of him for so long.

Streibough planned the entire Middle Ages Chapter.

• Streibough already held resentment towards Oersted and knew he was not going to win the tournament for Princess Alethea’s hand. Before the tournament started, he had already set up his plan. Using his magic, he learned how to create an illusion of the former Lord of Dark who had been defeated years ago by Hasshe and Uranus. He got in contact with the remnants of the Lord’s former army and rallied them back at their old base. One of the high-ranking minions would pose as the Dark Lord and kidnap Princess Alethea in the night. The general plan was that Oersted would be killed trying to rescue her, then Streibough would dismiss the demons thereby “rescuing” Alethea. Oersted did not fall, instead managing to get into the demon lair and kill the demon posing as the Dark Lord. Streibough faked his death and later tricked Oersted into killing the King, hoping this would get him arrested or driven out of the Kingdom. Oersted pressed on, once again heading back to the demon lair. Streibough took this time to “rescue” Alethea and told her that Oersted did not love her, he only wished to become King. He also told her that Oersted had gone mad for power, killed her father, and was on his way to kill both of them as well.

Scenario Ideas

Potential eras/scenarios if the game were to ever get a sequel/spiritual successor

Feel free to add more if you think of any.

• Precambrian Era: The dawn of life on Earth, where all organic life was microscopic. The protagonist would be a particular organism from which all modern life is descended from, trying to grow and evolve. Odio's incarnation could be a deadly virus threatening to wipe out life on Earth before it can even properly begin.
  • The possible gameplay of this chapter would be that the player can mutate, healing themselves and creating temporary stat buffs to themselves or use genetic drift to heal all allies and give one temporary stat buff to each of them. They can also split themselves into two cells with the daughter cell inheriting the abilities from the main cell, but they die after the main cell is destroyed and only have half HP. The enemies of this chapter would have a microscopic theme as they would either be prokaryotes, eukaryotes, fungi, and viruses. The music for this chapter would feel like a calm, yet eerie ambience like Spore's Cell Stage soundtrack. The Watanabe scene would feature two microbes that have just mutated into a different species. One is killed by the Odio Virus while the other flees in terror. The Odio boss fight would play out like a game of chessthat was an RPG (the king would be red and have the highest HP, the Queen is orange, the Rooks are yellow, the Knights are green, while the pawns would be blue and have the lowest HP) with both the virus and the player species being organized like a chessmatch. The chapter ends with the virus' defeat (with some locked into the permafrost) and the player undergoes mitosis over and over until the make the first creature on earth, a jellyfish.
• So E.V.O.: Search for Eden. Got it!
• Babylon, showing the origin of the Steel Titan.
• Ancient Egypt.
  • We play as a Medjai in Bronze Age Egypt and have to protect the Pharaoh from an Evil cult that worships a long-forgotten Pharaoh and seeks to return him to life. As Medjai, we are basically the police force of Egypt and have to investigate crimes, judge people and fight with a khopesh and the trusted help of our eagle. This chapter takes inspirations from various ancient Egyptian movies and games, most notably The Mummy and Assassin's Creed Origins.
  • Alternatively, we play as a humble Egyptian warrior during the twilight of their empire, fighting against a Roman force attempting to destroy Egypt under the command of their vicious general, Odious Maximus.
• Pirate Times, starring a Lovable Rogue sailing the seas. Odio's incarnation could be a fearsome pirate captain or a titanic, malicious sea monster.
• The Great Depression, starring a hobo riding the rails. In a rural town in New York, the protagonist yearns for a new life. At first, he spent his time as a sideshow performer at Coney Island. His main specialty is the impalement arts, and over time, he's perfected his craft and branched out into other types of weapons besides throwing knives. After the market crashed, he lost his job and planned on settling down away from the City. One day, a traveling circus caught word of his talent, and decided to take him on tour. He graciously accepted and practiced what he forgot long ago. However, Orson Ingo, a rival ringmaster who's perfected nearly every skill his circus has, tries to recruit him into his own vengeful ring.
• The Turn of the Millennium starring the average everyman ala Masaru. A young swordwoman sets out on her own journey into the world of combat sports. Specializing in kendo, she'll find her own methods of exposing her opponents' secrets. She'll work her way into four circuits of her sport, and claim every move her opponents make. Omega Iden, best known as "The Black Knight," is the unknown champion of all swordfighters. By claiming the lives of every opponent and their skills, she assumed the title of Supreme swordswoman.
• Ancient Grome, in which the player plays either an escaped slave rising the ranks or a philosopher. Odio's incarnation would be either a malevolent pharaoh or a monster from Greek mythology.
  • Or we could play as a gladiator in Ancient Rome and we have to fight in the arena against other gladiators, lions, and monsters. The villain could be the Emperor, who goes by the name Odius, who wants to use these games to distract people from the fact, that he exploits them and makes them forget the economical troubles of Rome. You beat him and return home to... say, Dacia, Gaul, or somewhere in Northern Europe.
• World War II, starring a The Dirty Dozen-like party with the main character (and sole survivor in the end) character being a victim of a Miscarriage of Justice against a Ghostapo organization using the The Holocaust to summon an Odio incarnation to get revenge for the Versailles Treaty. Leading this organization is Odolf IIdesheim, Hitler's right hand officer who was gifted with dark power beyond comprehension.
  • Alternatively, the Odio incarnation is Adolf Hitler himself. Who better fit as an Incarnation for the Demon King in the World War Era than the most evil and war-happy human in said era? We can handwave how Hitler didn't fit the Odio theme naming with how 'Adolf Hitler' is just his public alias, where his real name that fits the Odio theme naming remains obscure until the main heroes discovered it.
  • To expand on the squadron idea, perhaps like the Twilight of Edo Japan chapter, your success within the chapter is determined on your ability to keep your squadron alive, with the ending being better the more protagonists live?
• Mayan Civilization, starring a friendly green alien who is the Last of His Kind and has come to Earth to warn humanity of an evil alien Hive Mind that destroyed his planet and is about to invade Earth. He then asks the Mayans to help him construct a powerful weapon that can be used to stop the hive mind. Odio's Incarnation would be the Hive Queen who rules the hive mind.
• Zombie Apocalypse - Starring a Combat Medic doctor who is working on a cure for the zombie pandemic that is dubbed Odionic Plague. Symptoms of this disease includes fever, Increased aggression, agitation, hunger pains, cannibalism, death, and reanimation. He spends the chapter fighting zombies and trying to find a cure to save mankind. Odio's incarnation would be the disease, along with the Patient Zero of this outbreak.
  • Now that I think about it, the Odio incarnation (the disease) could be the same virus that is shown in the Precambrian (aka the dawn of life scenario from at the top of this WMG) scenario, now free from the permafrost and now has the ability to spread into humans as well as similar species or any species that is allied with humans such as Dogs, domestic rats, Primates, and Horses.
• Speculative Future. As an Affectionate Parody of After Man, The New Dinosaurs, and The Future is Wild, this chapter takes place 50 Million years after humanity went extinct due to giant flightless descendants of modern-day vampire bats (ala the Future Predators from Primeval) called Demon Bats (Desmodus odioa) who challenged (and ultimately eradicated) humanity in an evolutionary war. The protagonist would be the alpha from a species that is the descendants of domestic dogs called the Cerberu, whom appeared to have become intelligent as early primates that would be able to take the shoes of humanity within a few millennia. They would hunt alongside their pack and explore the world. Odio's incarnation would be the aforementioned Demon Bats (more specifically the Alpha of the species), which is now trying to eradicate the Cerberu before they can evolve human level intelligence. This is because Odio doesn't want another species to become humanlike in fear that they'll make the same atrocities as humankind did, and thusly would be no better than them. The Watanabe scene would feature a critically endangered species of Marsupials called the Wallanabe who are the descendants of Wallabies that have evolved to a diet of carnivory and are capable of becoming human-like soon as well. This scene would be when we're introduced to the Demon Bats midway into the chapter. The alpha male Wallanabe (Representative of Watanabe's dad) attacks the Alpha Demon Bat in a Hopeless Cutscene Boss Battle where both battlers are AI-Controlled. The fights ends with the Alpha Wallanabe getting killed, the rest of the pack bursting into tears and trying to flee, but are all killed and eaten offscreen by the Demon Bats with a text saying that the Wallanabe are now extinct since those were the last ones left. The chapter ends with our protagonist killing all the Demon Bats (or at least the ones in the place they're in), going into a cave and seeing a monolith similar to the one seen in the Prehistoric Chapter where they get teleported to Odio's lair.
• The Viking Age, where a young man a part of a raiding clan of Vikings is exposed to the savagery of the age and turns his back on his people's ways. He grows to be a farmer, and then a knight upon the resurgence of war. Odio's incarnation would be his former chieftain, who is fueled by jealousy and anger over his peoples being forcibly rejected by a former tyrannical king of the lands he is trying to invade.
  • Perhaps the chieftain's name is Odin Oakfury?
• A Jurassic Park Affectionate Parody, staring a paleontologist who wants to bring extinct animals back to life to give them a second chance of existing. Odio's incarnation would be a rival palentologist-turned extremely dogmatic Evilutionary Biologist called Odius Odgson who genetically modifies the animals into becoming beasts of war for him to "take back what rightfully belongs to animalkind!".
  • Perhaps Odo would be revived during the Final Battle of the chapter, which would lead to the protagonist fighting not one Odio incarnation, but two.
• New York City, starring a police officer detective on his first case. What happens to be a homicide eventually turns out to be a chilling start to a grisly series of mass murders, and our detective must fight his way through a web of intrigue to uncover the culprit. Odio's incarnation here would be a former military vet turned serial killer who has started a cult of murder worship to "start the rebirth of the world". His name is Oliver O'Dion.
• Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, being pretty much a loose copy of the movie of the latter title.
• The Renaissance with Clock Punk. Leonardo da Vinci might become a party member like Ryoma Sakamoto. This chapter focuses on a young artist and inventor searching for inspiration on a new airplane prototype. His mentor Da Vinci is reaching the end of his life. And he passes on his future contributions. But in order to help find inspiration for the future, he explores Florence and tries to expand his horizons. Otello D'intello, a jealous and outcast inventor seeks out to destroy Florence's finest pieces of art, and take his place as Italy's notorious creator.
• A Native American story. Starring a chieftain who is trying to collect enough food for his tribe before the annual frost hits. The chapter's main mechanic is a Day and Night cycle. The Odio incarnation is a powerful skinwalker called Odigo. It occasionally appears throughout the chapter during night segments as an Invincible Villain, forcing the chieftain and his tribesmen to flee whenever it appears (the player knows when it can't kill Odigo because "The Demon King Odio" will be playing during it's Hopeless Boss Fight and whenever it's near in the overworld). Come the final night segment, the last night of fall as well as the first night of winter, the chapter's ending will change depending on how much food the tribe was able to bring. If the tribe failed to bring enough food, Odigo will effortlessly destroy the village, resulting in a Downer Ending. If he brought enough food, everyone will be well-fed and will be able to have the strength to kill Odigo (which is made apparent when this version of the fight plays "Megalomania" instead of Odio's Leitmotif).
• Another Mecha scenario, but this time based on Mobile Suit Gundam, mostly set in space and in a civil war between a unified Earth and space colonies. The final boss/Odio's incarnation would be a Char Clone with a particularly colored Ace Custom mecha.
• A fight for survival against Evil Doppelgangers ala Us, starring a family considering of father Lyman, mother Olivia, their son Vincent, and their daughter Emily; who had moved into a beach house for the summer that is now being terrorized by murderous doppelgangers of themselves who mimic them in almost every detail of appearance except that they have differing first names. Their first names being Orobas, Deimata, Iblis, and Odalia respectively.
• A Three Musketeers expy set in Paris during the 16th Century. The city's king is about to be overthrown by a group of conspirators of great influence. The King's captain of the guard is tasked with finding 3 potential musketeers and train them for the battle ahead. Like Imperial China, your chosen Musketeer will command the king's army and face off against Octavius Ingram, cardinal of Notre Dame. Said chosen Musketeer will be playable in the final chapter.
• Aboriginal Australia: The Hollywood Dreamtime details an epic battle between the Rainbow Serpent and Odio's incarnation. But Odio's not fully dead, resulting in the protagonist going into an inhospitable place to finish the job.
• Superhero Fiction - The protagonists develop superpowers and Odio is a supervillain who inevitably wants to use the power to oppress the innocent. Like Imperial China, you have the chance to choose one of seven heroes to command your mission. Whoever you select will be playable for the final chapter. Odio's name here is. O.D. Midas. A demonic villain reborn from centuries past, now seeking revenge on those who imprisoned him. To plan out his first moves, he forms his own super villainous team of outcast individuals, seeking to use their powers for a greater purpose.
• A Willy's Wonderland/Five Nights at Freddy's clone: The Animatronics are all possessed by Odio. The story is set in the 80s. Where a security guard is tasked with finding a lost child in a creepy amusement park. He has to find a way to get him out, or risk capture from the child's abductors. As for the animatronics, They're more commonly known as "The Reaper's Rodeo".
• Moby Schtick - Odio is an Ahab expy who controls a crew of devout whalers and our protagonist is an ocean spirit that takes on the form of a cetacean trying to get them to stop hunting the whales into extinction.
• Another Far Future Scenario - Taking place even farther into the timeline, hundreds of millions of years after Cube's scenario, physical humans are extinct, having been millenia outcompeted by its daughter species, an empire of Energy Beings called the Star Larva, named so due to their appearance looking like miniature suns and their ability to mold solar systems like a child playing in a sandbox. The protagonist is a newly born member of this species that is put through a grueling test to see if it's worthy to rule the stars alongside the elders. The Odio incarnation, named Oderor (pronounced as if to rhyme with meteor) is a Rogue Planet that used to belong to an alien species that destroyed themselves in a global war that resulted in the death of their planet's core, which is now set to collide with the protagonist's birth world and they must intercept and destroy it before it collides with the planet as part of their final challenge.
• A Spy fiction Scenario set in the Cold War era that is an affectionate parody of the movies/series of the time - complete with Dirty Communists, Double Reverse Quadruple Agent, The Men in Black and all typical tropes seem in there. With the events of the chapter happening in the island nation of Cubastan, it's the job of the main protagonist and ace agent to find the whistleblower who leaked the American nuclear codes and has been granted asylum within the island and bring him back alive at all costs! Of course, as the protagonist goes through the chapter they discover not all is as they see, and soon discover that this whistleblower is no one else other than general O.D Strong, a retired american general who grew tired with the seemingly endless and pointless conflict between the USRR and America and decided to end it all, not only by causing panic through the leaks but also revealing he colaborated with similar dissitents from both sides to sneak a functional nuclear bomb into the island and give control of it to the country's dictator during the most tense moment of the Cold War. A race against the time to reveal to the world the true nature of his plan before the war turns hot ensues.
• A whodunit murder mystery set in Victorian England. The story starts with a young stage actress being invited to a dinner at the luxurious estate of a rich nobleman named Sir Iago along with seven other guests. The story is kickstarted when Iago goes missing; the young heroine and the rest of the cast go on a search, only to find his bloody corpse in the middle of the backyard tool shed complete with a note saying something along the lines of "you have one night to figure out my identity. Fail to discover me, and you shall all most likely be framed for this. Good luck.". The chapter plays out almost like a game of Cluedo, uncovering evidence as each guest is done in one-by-one. Towards the end of the chapter, it becomes increasingly apparent that Iago most likely faked his own death and orchestrated the murders himself. The last remaining survivor is Iago's wife Ophelia, who, backed into a corner, reveals that she was the one who killed her husband in order to take his fortune. Brandishing a cane, Ophelia Dianne Iago is fought as the chapter's boss.
• A Slasher Movie parody taking place in a campground. You start with an entire party of heroes, but as the story progresses, they are killed off one by one. As you progress through the story, much like with the Distant Future chapter, you are being tracked down by the slasher itself, who is later revealed to be the reanimated corpse fueled by the raw hatred of his dead mother, Odile Ornstein. Whoever is your Final Girl in the group will be who you pick for the Final Chapter, much like with the Earthen Heart inheritors.
• A revenge story set in the 70s. An investigative journalist turned merciless renegade assassin travels across the globe to hunt down a team of other assassins that tried to kill her. After awakening from a five-year coma, she sets out to hunt this syndicate before they try to kill her again. Like Masaru, she'll also learn of her enemies' moves as the story progresses. Odio's incarnation in this case is the syndicate's leader. Obadiah Del Monico. He's also the lord of the criminal underworld.
• A story taking place in an Überwald country in the 18th century. You are a Van Helsing expy tasked with clearing a village of certain powerful monsters before heading into the castle to face an almighty vampire called Ovidio, who has been snatching humans left and right and turning them into monsters.
• Set in New York during the Roaring 20s, a notorious mobster and her husband have been tasked with taking out a bigger mafia boss, Otto Enrico. He's been terrorizing the streets of NYC for too long. To stop him, they'll need to recruit other mobsters to aid them in their war against this ruthless mafia.
• An "Arabian Nights" Days scenario were a young princess searches for her missing father with her bodyguard, believing she's not yet ready to rule. Encountering foes from far away lands along the way who are working to stop them on behalf of the mad genie Omid Iago.
  • Alternatively, the main antagonist is an evil vizer trying to take control of the sultanate, ala Aladdin.
• Set in the French Revolution, the story focuses on a highwayman tasked with abolishing the French nobility. He'll need to infiltrate the palace of Versailles and hunt down an executioner bent on conquering France. Like Edo Japan, the number of lives you claim depends on your approach. Odio's incarnation is the executioner himself, Odil Izard.
• Another Near Future Scenario. Set in a dystopian Cyberpunk Los Angeles, a young hacker seeks to crack down a corrupt government and overthrow his regime. She exists as a ghost in the machine and countless law enforcers struggled trying to capture her. Odio's incarnation could be another major AI. Bent on controlling humanity to her very whim. Alternatively, she could be a prototype OD-10.
• An Affectionate Parody of Planet of the Apes and Sonic the Hedgehog where humanity has gone almost extinct, with two humans surviving in cryogenic chambers, and the world has been repopulated by Funny Animals, who are unaware of what happened. The protagonist, a Badass Normal soldier with a cynical view on humanity, is one of the two remaining humans who teams up with a Sonic Expy to defeat the other remaining human, Odi Obotnik, a Mad Scientist who wants to destroy the world because he thinks it shouldn’t belong to anyone but humans.
• Taking place in the Salem Witch Trials, a young healer devotes her time into keeping her people safe. But her contributions gain the attention of resentful officials. Some even going so far as to call her a witch! She doesn't want to hurt anyone, but with her mysterious powers, she might have to force her hand and risk her life to keep the people she cherishes safe. Yet Orion Io, A warlock from centuries past, stands in her way.
• In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where almost every trace of life is washed away, a wandering road warrior aids a group of renegade assassins in searching for The Promised Land. The biggest threat standing in their way is the wasteland's warmongering monarch, O. Ion. Hungry for blood, he leads a legion of deadly riders to find the promised land first and extinguish every trace of its remains.
• A The Purge expy set in Washington D.C. It's 2022, and America is in a state of chaos and destruction. There's an annual event simply titled, "Restoration". Where it's slated to cleanse America of its lowlifes. But ultimately, It's a means to kill anything and anyone who tries to chart a course for America's future. The President is overthrown and a new political party called "The Evangelists" are hosting these events. The new "president" Otis O'Brien is in office, running these events. An FBI agent decides to form his own resistance team. Their objective: Impeach Otis and reclaim the United States.
• It's World War 3 and destruction rains on every corner of the Earth. Odiov Petrovich is set to take his place as ruler of the New World. He seized control over the Chernobyl power plant. With only a single button, he'll send the globe into a state of armageddon. A Ukrainian soldier is assigned to stop Odiov's reign. In order to do so, he'll need help from the most experienced combat specialists around the world.
• Set around the Ice Age, a lone husky wanders the harsh climates of the frozen North. Trained to kill and hunt, he managed to survive any condition. One day, a young hunter was washed ashore, separated from his tribe. The husky rescues the unconscious boy, and the two set out to brave the frigid world to bring him home. But a saber toothed tiger known as Odion is considered the deadliest of it's kind. There might be a possibility Odion and its fellow predators laid waste to the tribe's camp and left the boy to die.
• A Moana expy set on the Polynesian Seas. Taking place 3000 years ago, a young daughter of her tribe sets out beyond the coasts of home to return the heart of a long lost goddess of life. She teams up with a demigod of strength to help guide her way. Oe Ieu, a demon of unyielding hatred spreads her influence across every sea imaginable.
• In the mid-1930s, an archaeologist is searching for a lost city. There's an ancient legend that Odizama, an Aztec god of hate once commanded a hundred armies. Whoever retrieves his pendant, gains control of his armies once again. It could also be implied that Odizama could control his new host. Now, in pursuit of a long-lost artifact and her missing grandfather, she's about to make the greatest discovery of her life.
• Roswell, New Mexico, 1947. An alien with Bizarre Alien Biology and Psychic Powers has their flying saucer struck by an asteroid, causing them to crash land in Roswell. Wanting to keep their existence a secret, The Men in Black cooperate with the alien to help recover the pieces of its ship scattered across the desert so they can return home discreetly. This results in Pikmin-like gameplay as you play as a Squishy Wizard alien commanding Magically Inept Fighter government agents to help clear obstacles and fight enemies to recover the parts of your ship, although without a time limit. Odio's incarnation takes the form of a Mad Doctor working for the government named Odell Iode, who wants to perform Meatgrinder Surgery on the alien and reverse-engineer their ship for the applications it could have to humanity's future... or at least, that's what he claims, instead wanting to feed his perverse lust for knowledge, no matter the cost.
• In Vienna during the Classical Era, a young composer is writing his latest opera. But he's lacking proper inspiration. But with the power of a magic flute, he finds a new spark that can't be extinguished. Odio's incarnation is called Giorno Odeon, a ghostly violinist set to haunt his very mind.
• The End of Time. You play as a Physical God of life itself, gathering the life energy that remains across the universe on its last legs, days away from collapsing into nothing. With enough life energy, the cycle will begin anew and the universe will be reborn. But Odio's curse, deteriorated and with nothing left to reincarnate into, takes the form of an Eldritch Abomination called Odimise, looking to end the cycle and prevent the universe from being reborn with its own demise. It could end up as the True Final Boss if any of these ideas are realized should a sequel/successor be made.
• A Time Crash happens, and the settings of every chapter collide into a mishmashed labyrinth like The Great Maze. All the Worlds Are a Stage is in full effect as every playable character from the previous chapters in this hypothetical sequel/successor has to work together to fix the mess. Would most likely be The Very Definitely Final Dungeon and serve the same purpose as the Dominion of Hate.
• A Kaiju film parody. You play as a military scientist who receives reports of a giant monster found hundreds of miles from the city. The Kaiju in question, Odiorah, is a byproduct of dumped nuclear waste combined with microbial life and the blood of several Navy officers that died in the Battle of Pearl Harbor, making for a hybrid between Humanoid Abomination and Godzilla. Your goal is to barricade the city and gather resources to develop defenses against Odiorah before its arrival, much like how in the Wild West you set up traps before the Crazy Bunch's arrival. The gameplay would have city-simulator elements for the player to divert resources and place the right troops at the right parts of the city. On top of that, you also possess a strange egg that you take care of throughout the story. This hatches at the climax of the story as Alethedon, a Mothra expy who opposes Odiorah. Alethedon gains a higher level the better you take care of her egg and is the character that joins the party in the final chapter.
• The American Revolutionary War. Separated from his army, a young soldier finds another path to cross Delaware. Equipped only with a musket and a blade, he strives to survive the bitter cold. Meanwhile, Ogden Inwood, a general of a small Redcoat platoon is planning to ambush the soldier while the opportunity is right. George Washington then joins your party soon afterwards. Like the Wild West, you'll need to place traps across the battlefield and pick off the approaching army carefully.
• Sengoku Japan. A wandering ronin travels across the distant reaches of Japan. Along the way, he finds a sword that grants him newfound powers from warriors before him. Yuko Oda, a demonic spirit commands a hundred armies from the afterlife. And so, the Ronin will strive to vanquish the demon king.
• A Star Wars/Guardians of the Galaxy-esqe Space Opera. In the vast corners of the galaxy, a wisecracking gunslinger and a team of renegade misfits work together to thwart the plans of a warmongering emperor. Odexio, seeks to destroy any resistances that threaten his natural order. And so, the weight of the universe rests on the shoulders of a simple marksman and his galactic crusaders.
• A Martian colonization story. You play as a group of astronauts seeking to build mankind's first Martian colony. You distribute resources, explore the planet and build up your colony to defend against the harsh iron-rich desert environment. The story doesn't start off as crazy, being almost peaceful-like. Then it goes to hell when they discover the ruins of an ancient Martian civilization, and the tale of how it was destroyed by a wicked beast called "Ou'dei-oo", which translates to the human language as "King of Murder". And now that you have uncovered the civilization, you have to prepare before awakening Ou'dei-oo, who slumbers in a place deeper in the ruins.
• An chapter set to be an homage to tokusatsu works like Kamen Rider and Ultraman. In the story, you play as a Japanese teenager (with the story's timeline being able to be set anywhere from the 70s to the near future) who becomes a Henshin Hero after randomly finding the suit's helmet in an abandoned warehouse. Gaining the power of a hero whose legacy stretches across time, the player fights against hordes of monsters and masked goons into defeating the Odio incarnation for the chapter, either a massive kaiju or a shady government official who can also transform into a dark doppelganger of the protagonist who killed the past incarnation of the hero.
• A Braveheart-inspired chapter, where you play as a Celtic warrior fighting against the forces of an evil king for the glory of Scotland.
  • Sir William Wallace's fight for Scottish independence, following a particularly large youth of the Kerr Clan who's most known for wielding a "Claidheamh Mor". The Highlands are currently being terrorized by the ruthless French General "Odon D'Illouz". D'Illouz is actually The Brute in the grand scheme of things, despite being the current villain of the story.
• A chapter set in the pirate age, where you get to play as Clay Kerr, related to the huge youth from above. A Scotsman at the mercy of England's conquest, he seeks to stop England by any means necessary. The antagonist will be Queen Olivia Dickinson, who seeks to conquer all of Britain. Clay will be the Unknown Rival to Olivia; That is, until he wipes out all English forces in the country. By himself. He will be the most violent, vicious, and bloodthirsty of the heroes; Almost stepping into Nominal Hero at the best (provided he don't kill any non-English people).
• A chapter set within the tail end of the Aztec empire, with your protagonist (an Aztec priest/warrior) fighting against a rogue priest aiding an invading force of conquistadors, with a Hernán Cortés expy as Odio's incarnation for the chapter.
• The Kamakura Period, particularly 1281. A young boy named Hikaru of the Wakamono Clan (particularly, he's the son of the Daimyo) in 13th Century Fukuoka sneaks off into a boat being taken to Hakata, seeking to fight the Mongolians, and completely unaware of what's gonna happen on that day. The leader of the Mongolian regiment at the time? Otgonbayar Dawa Ivaanjav. The whole section is a Timed Mission. If Hikaru fails to kill Otgonbayar, then he'll get ambushed by several reinforcement Mongols who will waste time and prevent him from getting to the ship. And if he fails make it back to the fleeing ship in time... Well... It surely won't be pretty.
• The Edo Period, but this time, following a different scenario. In this scenario, a young boy named Senko Wakamono (possibly related to the one from the Kamakura Period) is swept away at age 12, waking up in a distant land... America. He spends 7 years living there, and while he's considered to be... not really that right in the head, he's still capable of acting as a cowboy under the help of a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, including (base team): An older man named "Kazuma Yamazaki" who helps him cope with the sudden change of scenery, a sort of zigzagged version of The Ahnold named Richter von Mikrov (who's short and jovial, but is considered to be the one packing the most heat and sports a thick Austrian accent), a Frenchman named "Joseph Midwinter-Finnigan" who wields a double barrel shotgun, and Joseph's cousin, a Scottish-Canadian cowboy (possibly related to the Kerrsman from the War for Scottish Independence and the Scottish Brute from the Pirate Age) named "'Big' Jack Finnigan", who's trying to hunt down the infamously corrupt and cowardly governor "Daniel Orwell". Once he returns to Japan, he's a completely new man. However, had he managed to find his way home when he was 12, he'd go through a completely different story, instead having to face off the elusive "Okimoto Date", an incredibly powerful assassin who's going after Senko's head after the latter witnessed Date's murder of some innocent kid's father (said innocent kid is actually Watanabe), and enlisting the help of his sister Akira and his Love Interest Kiyomi "Kyoken" Katame.
• The 1980s - 1990s: Coney Island, NY (reference to the 1979 film The Warriors, as well as a quick reference in the intro to Hey Good Lookin'). You play as a teenage, rough and tumble street brawler known as "Flash Young" (possibly related to the Wakamono Clan from the 1281 scenario and the 1860s scenario), who's the leader of a brutish street gang known as "Da Brawlerz", going by the Red Baron moniker of "Bruizer". He's 7 feet tall, muscular, and often noted to be gorgeous without that stupidly massive pompadour of his, and normally, even without the whole ODIO theme naming, Flash would come off as at least a Barbaric Bully and the Big Bad of any movie focusing on the lower class (who, out of universe, would be considered as a guy who'd bring on an absolutely huge Estrogen Brigade). His lancer (and also Love Interest) will be a woman of his age named "Alicia Palencia Navarro", a quick witted street artist who takes riffs from Daria without all of her dour demeanor and misanthropy, going by "Ace". His story revolves around him and his crew visiting this big meeting set up by a prominent gang leader named "Watt", with a bunch of other gangs joining in too (some of the gang leaders of which are nicknamed "Pogo", "Cube", "Sundown", and et cetera). However, as Watt finishes his speech, he gets his head blown apart by a police sniper, causing mass hysteria as the SWAT teams swoop in to clean house. Only Flash and Alicia are the known ones to make it out; It's implied there are others who have, but now we're focusing on these two. Flash and Alicia must make it to a local train station to leave, but are constantly hunted down by Police Chief Owen and his (very Ax-Crazy) assistant DiAngelo. The final showdown has Flash and Alicia personally take on Owen and DiAngelo inside the train, throwing them outside the moving train as they get viscerally spread all over the walls. With Flash and Alicia finally out of New York, they begin their travels elsewhere across America.
  • A possible gag to the above 3, regarding the Wakamono clan: The young boy Wakamono from 1281, upon being transported to the Dominion of Hate, is completely taken aback at how Senko Wakamono from the 1800s, someone who's so weird and odd in terms of personality and outfit, and Flash Young from the 1980s-90s, someone who's so violent and brutish in terms of fighting style, are somehow his descendants.

Hikaru Wakamono: WHAT!? You're telling me THOSE are my descendants!?

• A Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow-inspired story. Set in a Dieselpunk world between the peak of World War 2 and the Atomic age, A renowned aviator takes a stand against giant robots destroying the world. However, leading the invasion is Ole Olehndorf, a ruthless Nazi officer bent on annihilating the very world itself. He also pilots a giant robot named OVO. With an unlikely team of heroes aiding him, the aviator will do whatever it takes to keep his home safe from these invaders.
• A Circus Electrique-inspired Steampunk story set around the end of the Victorian era and transitioning into the Edwardian era. An inventor is searching for ways to improve on her grandfather's traveling circus. One day, the maniacal illusionist Oscar Stone manages to send all of London into a string of riots, turning the very streets into endless warzones. The inventor will need to enlist the circus' best performers to stop Oscar's plans for retribution.
• Heathers expy. A girl falls for a J.D.-like character named Orson Dean.
• The American Civil War focuses on a general preparing an attack from the Confederates, commanded by Mosby Logan and appointed straight from Robert E. Lee. The Union's forces will need to strengthen their skills before the Confederates attack.
• The Great Depression following a child who runs off into the circus and meets up with the ringmaster Orpheus Deo. The child needs to survive being a circus act while figuring out the magic that's causing strange things to happen.
• A reference to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as well as Wreck-It Ralph where a character from a different timeline is sent to Lucrece during the Medieval Chapter in order to assassinate Streighbough before he gets killed by Oersted, prompting Alethea to kill herself, in turn forcing Oersted into the dark path, reemerging as "ODIO". Once Streighbough is killed, however, the moment the character comes back to their own time... EVERYTHING has gone to ruin. It appears that Streighbough dying had completely made everything even worse. With Streighbough dead too early, the whole space-time continuum had been completely wrecked; A sort of "glitch" was found in the game's system as a crucial character was missing from the scene. Only the remnants of the main characters are stuck together; In some kind of glitched out, and almost unplayable version of the Dominion of Hate. Some may recognize your player character and begin to berate, no, absolutely and utterly TEAR into them for being the cause of all this mess. After which, you can choose to either spend the rest of your lives in this broken mess, or try to go back in time to fix the mess that you made in the first place. You eventually scrap up a depressing excuse of a time machine that actually works. Eventually, after going back to the Medieval Chapter, you begin the witchhunt for your past self. Here is where the reference to the former movie mentioned comes in; Your character will now take the role of Miguel O'Hara, at least in spirit. You'll try to either convince your past self to NOT kill Streighbough, or you beat your past self into submission and foil your past plans to kill Streighbough. Or... You can beat your past self into submission so badly that they literally die from their severe injuries, and your current self fades from existence (or at least becomes an ethereal form that keels over and dies in the exact same spot and position as your past self). If you convinced your past self to not kill Streighbough, however, you'll go back to your times and get your happy ending eventually, after killing the ODIO of your time, of course.
• An Ace Combat and Project Wingman pastiche, where you play as a well renowned ace pilot known for your ludicrously high kill count and bombastic personality. You're tasked with several missions, but throughout some of them, you may encounter another ace pilot, though not as known as you are. The enemy ace's name (or at least their squadron's name) is "Odium", and initially it's not really the toughest boss around, bordering on Breather Boss after having fought tougher aces before. However, the more you encounter Odium 1, the tougher the boss fight gets. In the end, it's revealed that Odium 1 is actually a single plane squadron that utilizes a Super-Soldier that was designed to become the greatest Ace Pilot known to man; And it's not even human! You get to fight Odium 1 as the Final Boss, as it's now carrying a Weapon of Mass Destruction and seeks to level the whole country you and it are fighting over, culminating in you shooting it down and narrowly escaping a fiery ball of death as you inadvertently detonate the Weapon of Mass Destruction it was carrying.

In case of sequel, we will have a Middle-Ages/Fantasy chapter protagonist who actually succeeded their mission. Odio successfully manifested from another timeline

As a contrast from the original and for those expecting that Middle-Ages/Fantasy chapter protagonist will always be the one turning into Odio

Fanon/Other

One of Demon Lord Odio's avatars is in fact Dio Brando

Think about it; in Japan Dio's name would be written Brando Dio... and his entire childhood was meant to make him into a bitter and hateful man.

• Except that Araki writes the names of his non-Japanese characters in the Western style, so it would still be Dio Brando, not Brando Dio.
• Playing off this...
• Someone needs to mod this in as an extra chapter.
  • The protagonist of this chapter would be Jonathan Joestar, or JoJo for short. He would not only be a strong character to play as, gameplay and storywise, but he would be the Good Counterpart to Straybow, as he had like that asshole live under the shadow of their respective rivals(Dio and Oersted). But where the two differ is that Jonathan always had been an humble person, who only wanted to live as a good gentleman and cared little for glory and fame and had people who were always there for him. Thanks through his determination, the help of others and his string sense of justice, he was able to stand up against Dio in the end and even with the tragic fate that took JoJo's life, he lived his life without regrets. Straybow was always bitter that he could never win against Oersted and in his envy and hatred, he ruined his best friends live and manipulated everyone into hating Oersted and his allies, just to fulfil his desires of success and his lust for the Princess.It all resulted in the death of said princess Alicia, himself and the entire Kingdom of Lucretia as well as the pysche of Oersted, who became the main villian of the story as a result of Straybow's betrayal. But this is not the end, he all regretted not just his defeat at the hands of Oersted, he also wonders if his deeds caused Oersted to become the Demon King in the first place for all of eternity.
    • And maybe in the Final Chapter Joseph will be the one sent there due to Johnathan being dead.

The game is a massive Shout-Out to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Seven parts all connected by theme naming?

• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was still on its fourth part when Live A Live was released.

Orsted is an Apostle and the demon statue was one of the Godhand in disguise

Oersted/Odio is The Operator/Slenderman

Just listen to that static sound during his chapter, especially when he finds Alicia.

• Alternatively, he's Gigyas.

Clockwerk is one of the incarnations of the Demon King Odio.

Given the fact that Clockwerk is immortal by the his hatred of the Cooper clan, he may be a part of a series of owl drones designed by an unknown time traveler to observe the Coopers of different time periods. The tenth one that is created becomes Clockwerk as his model number is OD-10.

There is an eighth incarnation of Odio, and it's in The Isle of Dogs's Japan.

For one Watanabe dies (since he has no father to be a meat shield). Much like the characters who all have someone to fight for, the main character has Spots to fight for, and the dog has the kid to fight for. The reason why Kobayashi's assistant wasn't fought as an incarnation of Odio was because this incarnation wasn't defeated in battle but instead imprisoned on corruption charges.

Robot Santa from Futurama the 8th incarnation of Odio.

Bad news, everyone! The Robot Santa we've been trying to survive against is another incarnation of an ancient demon king called Odio.

For starters, Robot Santa is shown to have all of mankind on his naughty list and the consequence for this is death. He comes to Earth and kills the people he measures naughty and is never shown seeing a human as Nice. The reason why the Planet Express Crew wasn't teleported to Odio's time period is because throughout the show's run, The Planet Express Crew were unsuccessful in killing or redeeming Robot Santa, all the while, the latter continued to terrorize Earth every X-Mas and has done so for over 200 years with no one able to stop him.

• Bender: Well, we're boned.

The 8th incarnation of Odio would eventually take the form of a certain Fallen Child.

Considering that they have no qualms of genocide or killing everyone and everything in their path, it would make sense on Chara being Odio's 8th incarnation and would finally be aware that everything, including their past incarnations, is all just a game.

The Demon King is related in some way to Galdera.

Like Mattias, Oersted weakened the bonds to Galdera by becoming Odio and gained immortality and insane dark magic ability as a result, which he used to power his various incarnations. Additionally, both were only defeated after a boss rush and final siege by seven-eight people, respectively.

Straybow isn't Actually Sorry for what he did.

He only regrets the fallout afterward. If he had another chance and a guarantee that things will turn out differently, he'd still go for it.

Princess Alethea originally planned the entire situation with Straybow from the very beginning.

Considering that she declared her love for Straybow, the one who supposedly kidnapped her and she actually wasn't really happy with being with Oersted, she came to the statues and prayed before secretly meeting Straybow. And had Straybow actually killed Oerested instead, Alethea would've fallen out of love with Straybow and secretly backstabbed him and become the Demon Princess herself in his stead.

Alicia/Alethea was planning to become a monarch ruler and didn't care if her father died, and believed Lucretia/Lucrece turned their back on her too.

The reason Oersted didn't try to tell Alethea the truth is because he was in shock.

• Putting aside him being a Heroic Mime up to that point, Oersted was just forced to kill Streibough, someone he considered to be his best friend, even if the man just revealed his resentment for him, after everything he's endured that act would still likely badly effect him. Proceeding to witness the one he placed all his hopes on, admonish him immediately after likely stunned Oersted further still, so by the time he noticed her pull out the dagger it was too late to say anything.

Masaru will eventually meet Akira after the game's epilogue

The present day chapter takes place in the 90's, and while the near future chapter time frame is ambiguous, it appears to be fairly similar to "real life" present day, liquified human tech and combat robots being much present in everyday life aside. At the earliest it could be set in the late 2020's and the furthest around 2040's (since much later and it stops being near future). Given Masaru's young age at the game start, it's perfectly plausible for him to eventually seek out and find Akira, which is helped by the fact both of them live in Japan.

Other "Lord of Dark" names in the advent of a sequel.

Odio is but one of possibly countless more out there. If there's ever a sequel, it leaves one to wonder what the next Lord of Dark will be called.

• Kakia: The Greek word for "malice", much like how Odio is the Latin word for "hate".
• Anobaith: The Welsh meaning for "despair".
• Kirai: The Japanese word for "loathe".
• Zankoku: The Japanese word for "cruel".
• Yakrah: The Arabic word for "hate".
• Aethra: The Icelandic word for "despair". Might be well suited for a Viking Distaff Counterpart to Odio.

The heroes, aside from Oersted and Cube, are descendants of Pogo and Beru.

In the timeline, Pogo would be the first hero to successfully defeat one of Odio's incarnations. It would make sense that Odio would hold a grudge because of that and specifically start targeting those related to him. Oersted and Cube wouldn't be related, because Oersted is Odio and Cube is a robot. (Though it's possible that Kato would be a descendant, which would make Cube related in a way since Kato created Cube.)

• This is actually a pretty cool theory, though a lot of characters differ heavily. Hmmm...
  • An Earthen Master's Student (again, a descendant of Pogo and Beru) once went to Japan, and had a baby there. That baby then grew up and made an entire bloodline, with the next most important generation being Obomaru. There is another part of the bloodline that went to the USA instead; There, Sundown Kid was born, also making him Obomaru's relative. Obomaru's bloodline then continued, and the next important generation was Matsu, and some other boy whose son (or maybe grandson) was Akira. And then Akira's bloodline continued into the distant future, with Kato as Akira's descendant. Well, this is a pretty far fetched theory, but this is Wild Mass Guessing. Not Calm Solitary Fact-Checking.

Godzilla is Odio.

Godzilla is discovered roaming Odo Island, he's a demonic-looking mutated dinosaur with a frightening level of intelligence, he absolutely despises humanity, he evolves into an even more demonic appearance upon getting hit with the Atom Bomb, Word of God is that he's a tatari-gami - a "Curse God" (as in Hatred and Malice Incarnate directing his wrath towards humanity), which is not unlike a Demiurge, he covers Ginza in dark mushroom clouds and black rain, evoking his image as the Lord of Dark, his iconic suite fits right in with "Fugue for the Lord of Dark" or "Pure Odio", he regenerates From a Single Cell (which evokes As Long as There Is Evil), and he has the power to threaten the entire world.

Need we say more?

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