History VideoGame / Heartbeat

A cute and surprisingly deep [=RPG Maker MV=] game made by indie team Chumbosoft. It has nothing to do with [[Series/{{Heartbeat}} the British television series of the same name]].

* AbusivePrecursors: A not so distant variant within living memory of the oldest Mogs but not known by many. [[spoiler: Humanity]] previously came to Solum and the other planets in its solar system and completely destroyed them for resources, and Solum was only saved by diligent work from Mogwai. [[spoiler: When they came back, they were surprised by the survivors and started kidnapping them to dissect them and understand them, but some young humans defected to the Mogwai and after a war that the humans lost, the human ships were stranded on Solum and eventually the population went native.]]

* LongLived: Two varieties. All Wuji Conjurers have long lives, with Eve Xin living to 200 [[spoiler: but the trade off is that they cannot reincarnate]]. The Stacatto family, descended from Eve Xin, also seems to have slow maturation and longer than average lives, but a more subtle variant; her son Liang is nearly 80 and looks decades younger, while her great-granddaughter, Eve Staccato, is 22 and is constantly mistaken as a teenager.

* WhiteAndGrayMorality: There's only one character in the game who seems to be truly evil; everyone else is redeemable or at least quite sympathetic. You know it's this trope when the [[DefeatEqualsFriendship majority of your party ends up being people who were initially enemies]].

** An NPC in Aeros resembles [[Webcomic/Sonichu Chris-Chan]], and even says "ZAP TO THE EXTREME!"

A cute and surprisingly deep [=RPG Maker MV=] game made by indie team Chumbosoft. It has nothing to do with the British television series.

** Belle's theme is [[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Rustic Ranch Story]] and would fit in well in the games it references. June also owns a Mountain Tengu branded camera, and Dawn looks very suspiciously like a hatless Sumireko.

** Two of Eve's final moves from the DNA Shop in the post-game are [[VideoGame/{{Earthbound}} ESP Rockin']] and [[VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance Revengeance]].

** Belle's theme is [[VideoGames/{{Touhou}} Rustic Ranch Story]] and would fit in well in the games it references.

* WeaponOfChoice: Noted to be a particularity of Mogs. They are born with the ability to wield one specific weapon, that they can hide in and pull out of their shadow. Said weapons range from regular swords and axes, to more outlandish stuff like yoyos and umbrellas, to outright gimmicks like Shep's BagOfHolding or Nile's prophetic crystal ball. While most are fitting with their personality, some get less lucky (notably Quinn the Jackalope, a cute and friendly little girl who can barely even lift her battleaxe).

* TragicKeepsake: Nyx's scarf. [[spoiler:It was Eve Nix's and the only thing left of her in the Den after Klein took her and ran to the Outset.]]

** Nyx's boss sprite [[VideoGame/{{BlackRockShooter}} has a glowing blue light trailing from her left eye.]]

** Nyx's yellow scarf as a TragicKeepsake may be a nod to [[Webcomic/GoodbyeToHalos another character who constantly wears a yellow scarf]] as a TragicKeepsake.
** Nyx's boss sprite [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} has a glowing blue light trailing from her left eye.]] Eve also has statutes of three adventurers from [[VideoGame/{{Deltarune}} her favorite game]].

** The Veggie Freighter Snowverian requires you to compete in the "[[Literature/TheHungerGames Hungry Games]]", and which are [[WebVideo/MonsterFactory NO RULES JUST RIOT, YOU DO FOR ME YES?]].
** The Sprite enemies look exactly like [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Koroks]].
* TerribleTrio: Wake, Skip and Pike quite literally call themselves the Terror Trio, and people forget and mix it up with the trope name. They're not actually incompetent (in fact Wake has quite the reputation), but they're not really evil as much as they are somewhat jerkish PunchClockVillains (except Pike, who's not even a jerk). [[spoiler:All three end up pulling a HeelFaceTurn, with Pike joining the party while Wake and Skip opt to crash on Belle's couch and start a relationship.]]

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: [[spoiler: Aside from the Snowverians who mercilessly hunt down Mogs (and brief mentions of other nations that are even worse), trauma from dealing with humans waging war on her and a terrible former Conjurer is at the root of Queen Han's hatred to humans. Reading documents on the H.M.S Tenebro in the post-game makes it clear humans used to abduct Mogwai children and dissect them.]]

* OrcusOnHisThrone: Despite her being the closest thing we have to a BigBad, [[spoiler:the Queen]] doesn't really do anything for the entire game. [[spoiler:There's a good reason for that: Caesar's body was severely weakened by the death of Eve Xin and the loss of his Conjurer pact, meaning that she can barely hold herself together.]]

* ShoutOut: [[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/simpleflips To Simple]] [[{{Pun}} Clips]]. Right at the game's outset, on Eve's starting equipment, no less!

* TerribleTrio: Wake, Skip and Pike are quite literally called that a few times. They're not actually incompetent (in fact Wake has quite the reputation), but they're not really evil as much as they are somewhat jerkish PunchClockVillains (except Pike, who's not even a jerk). [[spoiler:All three end up pulling a HeelFaceTurn, with Pike joining the party while Wake and Skip opt to crash on Belle's couch and start a relationship.]]
* ThatBattleDidntCount: In Ending B, it is difficult, but possible to defeat [[spoiler: Queen Han possessing Eve, especially by using damage items. However, she shrugs it off as being rusty and the scene proceeds as if the party lost.]]

* MultipleEndings: At least 5, though all except the true ending are [[DownerEnding bad endings]] that give the player the option to "wake up from this nightmare" and return before the PointOfNoReturn for that ending. They depend on whether or not the player completes certain sidequests, overcomes challenges, and a choice made in the final battle.

%% Need to check if there's an additional ending if Han!Eve is defeated or if it's truly a HopelessBossFight
** Ending B: Demigod. [[spoiler: The party saves Klein, but does not defeat all of the Red-Eyed Clusters and fails to collect the Bangua Mirror. Queen Han possesses Eve, forcibly pacting with her, then kills the fallen Caesar and Nyx when she attempts to save Eve. After the remaining party loses to her, she exiles Kon and Rex, and swears to take conquer Solum to return it to the Mogwai using the power of her new form. To torture Klein with her failures, she leaves her locked in the dungeons until she rots.]]

* RandomSpeciesOffspring: It's mentioned that a Mog can hatch as either species of their parents. [[spoiler:Discussed and played for drama in Klein's flashback, where Queen Han goes ballistic over the idea of what would happen to the Den's order if an egg produced by her husband, Liang, were to hatch into a Manticore, the species of their general, or if it were to hatch into a Dragon that would have to live with the knowledge that one of their fathers was a commoner.]]

* MultipleEndings: At least 5, thought all except the true ending are [[DownerEnding bad endings]] that give the player the option to "wake up from this nightmare" and return before the PointOfNoReturn for that ending. They depend on whether or not the player completes certain sidequests and a choice made in the final battle.

%% Ending C and maybe an Ending E are Likely from defeating Klein(?) and Eve(?) but unsure of what happens, still working on those.

* MyGreatestFailure: Klein has a doozy of one. [[spoiler:Two hundred years ago, she was tasked by Queen Han with killing her first Conjurer Eve Xin, as vengeance for her fellow Mog Caesar having an affair with the King. Klein instead tried to kill the Queen with one of Eve's ceremonial daggers, but fled and dropped the weapon. This immediately lead to a huge Human/Mog conflict, Caeser being possessed by Han, Eve's first Mog Nyx being imprisoned and tortured into turning from a Wisp into a Reaper, King Long's death when trying to flee with his and Caesar's egg, and Eve Xin becoming a BrokenBird for the rest of her life while Klein watched from afar.]]

* MultipleEndings: Four, thought three are [[DownerEnding bad endings]] that give the player the option to "wake up from this nightmare" and return before the PointOfNoReturn for that ending. They depend on whether or not the player completes certain sidequests and a choice made in the final battle.
%% Ending C: ???. [[spoiler: The party fails to rescue Klein, regardless of whether or not they've defeated the Red-Eyed Clusters.]]

* BossRush: The game loves these, though they're oddly mostly against [[FightingYourFriend copies of your own party members]]. Special mention to [[spoiler: the Artificial Core, where the same rush is effectively fought twice in a row]] and the Kuji Inn Challenge, an outrageously long DreamSequence that pits you against just about every major character in the game, including a bunch that are otherwise never fought (like most of the other Conjurers and several shopkeepers).