History VideoGame / Cytus

* AlternateContinuity: [[spoiler:"Music. The Eternity of Us" is the final song in the chapter and, heartbreakingly, is a non-canon song in which the entire ordeal never happened and the two girls remained friends.]]

** ''Alive'' is the main story of the game, featuring a world where humanity has been wiped out by a virus and people undergoing voluntary BrainUploading to live on as andrfoids.

** ''α'' averts this; instead, all chapters besides Chapter 1 and ''DJMAX'' have to be unlocked by fulfilling specific in-game conditions. It's also notably more expensive than the smartphone versions with all DLC, at 49.99 USD, although it does have ''DJMAX'' and ''Cytus Omega'' tracks to balance out the difference.

* ActuallyFourMooks: "Hay Fields" ends with a note...followed immediately by a note in the opposite direction ''stacked on top of it.''

* TheComputerIsALyingBastard: The track preview for "L" in the original versions of the game is actually from "L2 (Ver. A)". Averted in ''α'', where the preview is actually from "L" itself.

** ''Timeline'' tells the history of UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} and then continues into the future to tell a GreenAesop.
** ''L'' is based off of ICE's "L" series of existing tracks and is about a conflict between the heavens and Earth and two boys who end up caught in the big picture.

* AllThereInTheManual:
** The game's official website reveals several pieces of information that aren't mentioned at all in game, including the game's storyline, and the name of the girl seen on the title screen, the app icon, and the chapter splash screens: Vanessa. This changed with the latest update which adds the manual into the hidden songs from Cytus Alive.
** Also in the same vein, the two girls featured in Chapter K are named Rosabel (Red) and Iris (Blue).
** The hidden songs don't have their names shown. They ''do'' have official names[[note]]usually just "Ver.B" or "II" tacked on at the end, but sometimes longer; for example, the two hidden songs on the splash screen for "Entrance" make up the "Precipitation at the Entrance" series[[/note]], but you'll have to look at soundtracks or their artist's websites to learn them, or use the Website/{{Twitter}} and Website/{{Facebook}} share buttons (until an update turned sharing into just posting screenshots). ''α'' on the other hand does show the hidden tracks' titles plainly when you play them.
* ApocalypseHow:
** Class 5. [[AllThereInTheManual The website's storyline information]] states in Chapter II that a [[ThePlague mysterious virus]] wipes out all sentient life on Earth, except for robots.
** Timeline depicts a Class 0 [[spoiler:when an earthquake destroys a major power plant in Taiwan and renders a large chunk of the country, especially capital city Taipei, uninhabitable. It fortunately recovers in two centuries' time, with vegetation and farming taking back the city ruins.]]

* BrutalBonusLevel:
** In its original form, Chapter L was a Brutal Bonus ''Chapter'', with a relatively brutal price tag to boot (9.99 USD; the other DLC packs cost half as much and the base game is only 1.99 USD). All of the original charts are rated 9 on Hard and ''Easy'', have slow scanlines (due to the fact that the tracks are actually quite slow), and each track is ''at least'' [[MarathonLevel 4 1/2 minutes long]]. A patch was later released in which the original charts are replaced with new, easier charts with more reasonable scanline speeds, although the original charts are still available as {{Secret Level}}s.
** Thought "FREEDOM [=DiVE=]" was sadistic enough? Meet "FREEDOM D↓VE" (yes, with a down arrow), a SecretLevel accessed by swiping down on the former song's eyecatch at the song select screen that has ''2,000 notes'' in 140 seconds in its Hard chart. Don't break your device's screen!

* ConceptAlbum:
** The "Chapter K" album tells a story inspired by the cover art for the song "Holy Knight", while the "Alive" album gives us the main plot of the game.
** Chapter T tells the history of UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, where Rayark is based, starting from 6 million BC and going to the present, and then continuing into a future [[spoiler:where Taiwan falling back onto the use of nuclear energy causes a national disaster.]]
** Chapter L, in a similar vein to Chapter K, tells the story of the two boys on the cover art of "L". The full story can be read [[http://iceisgod.tumblr.com/post/135254001122/the-real-story-of-l here.]]

** All songs in Chapter L have, at one point, their respective numbers appear in at least one of the charts.

* GreenAesop: The Timeline chapter seems like a retelling of Taiwan's history through visual art and music...right up until the song representing the year 2057, [[spoiler:"Protest". Faced with a an energy crisis coupled with tech corporations' demand for energy, the government of Taiwan falls back onto nuclear energy rather than alternative sources, resulting in protests across the country. This leads to disaster two years later when a major earthquake destroys the nuclear power plant and causes radioactive material to spread throughout the country, forcing mass evacuations from the capital city of Taipei. Eventually, natural fauna grows back after two centuries of human non-interference and nature is allowed to thrive in the area once again.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: Happens in Chapter L. [[spoiler:Twice. First, Meteor gives up his life to weaken Viz enough for Meteo to regain control of his body; then, Meteo stabs himself in the heart to deal the finishing blow.]]
* HumanPopsicle: Although, as described above, most lifeforms were killed by the virus, there were a few survivors who froze themselves in cryo-pods. "Another Me" depicts the robotic Vanessa finding her human body frozen.

* KaizoTrap: While the pass conditions are lenient enough that you will very unlikely get screwed over from blundering the last few notes (just score 700,000 points), this trope is still in force if you're trying for a full combo, Million Master, or 100 TP run:
** "The Fallen Bloom" features a cutscene at the end that depicts [[spoiler:Iris killing Rosabel]], followed by one single note.
** "Hay Fields" on Hard has one note at the end... right on top of another. This makes it practically invisible, and many players have missed the final note in the song because of this. Ditto for the SequelSong, "Infinite Fields".

** Many songs from Cytus Alive, but most notably:
*** "Vanessa" from Chapter V, which is seven minutes long, the longest song in the entire game until Chapter L was released. Despite this, however, its Hard chart of 1564 notes ''still'' doesn't have the highest notecount of any non-Ch.L chart in the game; that honor goes to "L2 (ver.B)" on Hard, which is four minutes shorter but beats "Vanessa" by six notes.
*** "Disaster" and "Buried" from Chapter II and IX come close at six minutes.
*** On the flipside, there's ''The New World'' in Chapter X, which gives us the grand total of '''one note''' after the entirety of the credits in both easy and hard.

* {{Nerf}}:
** "FREEDOM [=DiVE=]" had a more difficult chart in a beta version of ''Lambda''; it was mainly toned down because of technical issues on other devices. Parts of the scrapped chart can be found in the "FREEDOM D↓VE" Hard chart.
** Chapter L had its charts reduced in difficulty in response to player complaints. However, the original charts are still available via {{Easter Egg}}s.

* RedOniBlueOni: Rosabel and Iris from Chapter K, respectively.

* SecretLevel:
** Some songs on the song select screen have splash screens that can be interacted with to unlock hidden songs. [[GuideDangIt Many of these will require a guide to figure out.]] "Entrance", "∅" and "L" are notable in that their splash screens hide ''two'' hidden songs each.
** Differing from the usual Secret Levels in Cytus, Chapter K requires you to [[spoiler:play through the first eight songs before you unlock the ninth and tenth song respectively. And yes, you have to play the ninth ''before'' you unlock the tenth.]]
** Chapter L follows the same unlock pattern as Chapter K.
** As of version 9.1, Chapter L's original charts are still available as hidden charts, by finding the flashing 'L' logo in each song's eyecatch and tapping its location.

* ZeroEffortBoss: The title track of chapter X, ''The New World'', is very long and has all of ''one'' note at the end. Subverted, in that although you just need that one Perfect to get the Million Master rank, it is just as easy to fail by mistiming or missing that note.[[note]]Getting a Perfect yields the full 1 million points, but getting a Good will only get you 630,000 points, which is 70,000 points shy of the clear requirement. A Bad will get you 270,000 points, and a Miss will result in a [[EpicFail zero score for the entire song]].[[/note]]

* BittersweetEnding:
** Chapter K ends with [[spoiler:Iris killing her childhood friend Rosabell, who had become the queen of a warring enemy empire and, presumably, gone mad with power from the Forbidden Codex's influence.]]
** In Chapter T, [[spoiler:much of Taiwan becomes uninhabitable due to a nuclear meltdown. It takes two centuries before the land becomes safe to thrive on once again.]]
** In Chapter L, [[spoiler:Meteor sacrifices his soul in order to stop Viz's rampage, ending the conflict between heaven and Earth. Meteo closes the connection between the two worlds and, having lost everything at this point, [[DrivenToSuicide kills himself]].]]

* BittersweetEnding: A large chunk of Taiwan ends up becoming uninhabitable due to a nuclear disaster in 2059 ("Catastrophe"). Millions of people evacuated, although some chose to stay in order to guard the lands and tombs of their fallen family. Two centuries later in 2245 ("Rebirth"), the island has largely recovered; the eyecatch shows several plots of land being used to grow vegetables, with the two mascot girls cheerfully looking upon a plant growing in a pot.

* TimeAbyss: The two mascot girls, apparently. Either they manage to have countless generations of [[IdenticalGrandson identical kids]] or they've simply lived from the Penglai Movement to 23rd century A.D. without aging at all.

* AfterTheEnd: [[spoiler:Taiwan is shown to be recovering two centuries after the earthquake and nuclear disaster of 2059, with plants covering long-abandoned-and-later-repurposed 21st-century buildings.]]

[[folder:''Knight'' (unmarked spoilers for the first eight songs)]]

* FightingYourFriend: The story builds up to Iris and Rosabell representing warring nations and, ultimately, fighting one another to the death.

!!''Cytus'' contains examples of:

[[folder:''Alive'']]

[[folder:''Knight'']]

[[folder:''Timeline'']]

[[folder:''L'']]

* AlternateContinuity: Clear the first 9 songs of the Knight chapter to unlock an 10th song, "Music. The Eternity of Us", that depicts an alternate timeline where [[spoiler:Iris and Rosabel stay friends.]]

* AlternateTimeline: [[spoiler:"Music. The Eternity of Us" is the final song in the chapter and, heartbreakingly, is a non-canon song in which the entire ordeal never happened and the two girls remained friends.]]

** The shortest song in Chapter L is "L5:Lapse", which is ''4 minutes and 38 seconds long''. The rest range from five minutes to seven and a half!

* ShowDontTell: Unlike the other stories, ''Knight'' doesn't really have a lot of text to describe what's happening, even in [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental material]]; much of the story is shown in eyecatches and through song lyrics and is left to fan interpretation.

* ShowDontTell: Unlike the other stories, ''Knight'' doesn't really have a lot of text to describe what's happening, even in [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental material]]; much of the story is left to fan interpretation.

* DownerBeginning: "L1: The Devastated Lower" is the first track in the game and shows Meteo just after his hometown has been destroyed and his family killed.