History VideoGame / MarySkelter

As the playable fairy tale-themed Blood Maidens fight the creatures of the Jail, they are splattered with Marchen blood, which fuels their aggresive instincts. If they are able to maintain control over themselves, they will enter [[SuperMode Massacre Mode]] and fight with increased strength. If they can't, they fall into [[TheBerserker Blood Skelter]] and attack friends and foes alike. Only a Blood Youth such as Jack can purify the Blood Maidens, bringing them out of Blood Skelter or preemptively ensuring that they don't fall into it.

The other major mechanic that stands out are the Nightmares, bosses that spawn randomly and chase the player. Nightmares are similar to F.O.E.s in ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey''...except that Nightmares operate in real-time instead of playing by the same TurnBasedCombat rules as the player. They will seek out the party in real-time, they will join ongoing battles in real-time, and they will even advance in the turn order in real-time if you do not move quickly.

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''Mary Skelter'' (神獄塔 メアリスケルター, ''Divine Prison Tower Mary Skelter'') is a series of DungeonCrawling RPG developed by Creator/CompileHeart.

The first game, ''Mary Skelter: Nightmares'', initially developed for the Platform/PlaystationVita, was released in Japan in 2016 and in the west in 2017, with an English PC port via Platform/{{Steam}} in 2018.

In a cataclysm long ago, the [[GeniusLoci sentient hellhole]] known as The Jail was created. Anyone unlucky enough to be dragged inside is kept as a prisoner, regularly tortured by the "Marchens" that live within the Jail and living in fear of the invincible Nightmares that rule it. Jack and Alice are two such prisoners, until they're busted out of their cell by a girl who can fight the Marchens. Calling herself Red Riding Hood, she claims Alice is like her, a Blood Maiden, and it's readily apparent there's more to Jack than meets the eye...

Notable for combining its heavy use of blood theming with a FracturedFairyTale take on its playable cast.

A sequel for the Platform/PlayStation4, ''Mary Skelter 2'', released in 2018 with [[EmbeddedPrecursor an enhanced remake of the first game]]. The setting is nearly identical to the first, with some minor changes: Little Mermaid and new character Otsuu are members of the Dawn, and rescue Jack and Alice from the Jail. Things go sour when Alice falls into Blood Skelter and sends the other three off of the side of a cliff. Jack, mortally wounded, is transformed into a friendly Nightmare.

A port of ''Mary Skelter 2'' was announced for the Platform/NintendoSwitch on March 30, 2019, releasing August 22, 2019, and a western localization announcement was made May 10, 2019, releasing October 22/23, 2019 in North America and Europe respectively. The game was then ported and released on January 13, 2022 for PC via Steam and GOG.

''[[GrandFinale Mary Skelter Finale]]'' was announced on March 26, 2020 for both the Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch, with a Japanese release date originally planned for August 27, 2020 before it was delayed for October 8, 2020 due to development and manufacturing issues, and again for November 5, 2020. The setting following immediately after the remake's revised True End, and introducing a few new Blood Maidens including Charlotte. The game is also set to contain both previous games' stories as pure VisualNovels, as well as ''[[HighschoolAU Mary Skelter: Locked Up in Love]]'' which was originally a Japan only preorder bonus for ''Mary Skelter 2'', as well as a sequel to that, ''Mary Skelter: Locked Up in Love - True End'', set to be included as a preorder bonus. A western localization was announced for September 30 and October 1, 2021 for North America and Europe respectively.

* FairyTale:
** All the party members are named and themed that way. Jack (he of [[Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk beanstalk]] fame), [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Alice and her rabbit-holes]], [[Literature/LittleRedRidingHood Red Riding Hood]], Literature/SleepingBeauty, Literature/SnowWhite, Literature/{{Thumbelina}}, Literature/{{Cinderella}}, [[Literature/HanselAndGretel Gretel]] and Literature/{{Rapunzel}} are all recognizable names. The odd-girl-out to Western players is Kaguya, who's based on the Japanese folk story "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" (which to be fair is just as well-known in Japan as the Grimm tales and their ilk are to English speakers).
** There's also [[spoiler:the Pied Piper of Hamelin]] and references to [[spoiler:a much more obscure tale called The Hunting of the Snark]]

* AlternateCharacterReading: In the Japanese version, the Genocide Pink group's name is written as 処刑台少女, "Gallows Girl", with the "Genocide Pink" name written above. The distinction is important, due to there having been other groups in the past before the execution themed ones wiped them out.

* RotatingProtagonist: The six protagonists are Jack, Red Riding Hood, and Clara among the returning characters, and Toh, Mary, and [[VillainProtagonist Pyre]] among the new characters.

** [[spoiler:Otsuu is the BonusBoss from the first game given the form of a Blood Maiden.]]

The first game, ''Mary Skelter: Nightmares'', initially developed for the UsefulNotes/PlaystationVita, was released in Japan in 2016 and in the west in 2017, with an English PC port via UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} in 2018.

A sequel for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, ''Mary Skelter 2'', released in 2018 with [[EmbeddedPrecursor an enhanced remake of the first game]]. The setting is nearly identical to the first, with some minor changes: Little Mermaid and new character Otsuu are members of the Dawn, and rescue Jack and Alice from the Jail. Things go sour when Alice falls into Blood Skelter and sends the other three off of the side of a cliff. Jack, mortally wounded, is transformed into a friendly Nightmare.

A port of ''Mary Skelter 2'' was announced for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch on March 30, 2019, releasing August 22, 2019, and a western localization announcement was made May 10, 2019, releasing October 22/23, 2019 in North America and Europe respectively. The game was then ported and released on January 13, 2022 for PC via Steam and GOG.

* SpiritualSuccessor: Compile Heart's ''Tokyo Clanpool'' shares several similarities with ''Mary Skelter'', the primary difference being that ''Tokyo Clanpool'''s tone is significantly lighter. Of course, with ''Mary Skelter 2's'' release, this relationship is severely downplayed. Similarly the ''Mary Skelter'' series is itself one for ''Moero Chronicle'' and ''Moero Crystal'', carrying over numerous mechanics and either expanding on them or trimming them down a bit. The inaccurate elemental tutorial is almost directly lifed from them, where that was indeed how things actually did function.

* ForWantOfANail: Outside of Little Mermaid being alive, [[spoiler:Chiaki]] being dead, a few aesthetic differences, and the affiliation of a few characters, the game's starting premise is nearly identical to that of the first game; however, things very quickly play out much different than in the original game, generally for the worse. Near the end of the game, the cast start wondering whether things could have played out better, and start putting together a chain of related events. [[spoiler:Everything is pieced together in the true ending: "Nightmare?" from the first game, who is actually Otsuu, reset the timeline after encountering the first game's Blood Team and discovering that Little Mermaid was killed years prior. Otsuu, as a Blood Maiden, rescues Little Mermaid before Red Riding Hood arrives. Since Red Riding Hood doesn't splash Little Mermaid with Marchen blood, the latter doesn't go into Blood Skelter, meaning that Professor Tohjima doesn't learn about it since much later and the Blood Maidens don't have firsthand knowledge. The increased number of Blood Maidens, combined with Otsuu's interactions with Chiaki and harsher experimentation from Tohjima, causes Cinderella to run off after some OutOfContextEavesdropping. Cinderella gets mimicked by the Jail and the mimic kills Chiaki, driving the Thumbelina sisters from the group and making Thumbelina herself more paranoid and controlling. With no knowledge of Blood Skelter, the Blood Team is much less careful during the rescue of Jack and Alice, and Jack takes a fatal hit which creates Nightmare Jack and the Mysterious Nightmare. The Mysterious Nightmare destroys the Dawn, including Tohjima who knows the inner workings of the Jail, and ultimately creates a distraction for the Upper Tower Nightmare to use to kill off the Blood Team.]]

** Somewhat with Tsuu being changed to Otsuu for the English release, the latter originally [[{{Keigo}} just being most of the cast's respect for her]].

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:Chiaki dies before the game even starts, the Dawn leadership is killed off by the Mysterious Nightmare, and the Blood Team save for Otsuu and Little Mermaid die fighting the upper Tower Nightmare. That means that, immediately prior to the ResetButtonEnding, the only named characters from the first game that are still alive are Michiru, Clara, Mamoru, and Hikari. (Amusingly enough for the latter two; in the original timeline, they died and were resurrected.)]]

A port of ''Mary Skelter 2'' was announced for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch on March 30, 2019, releasing August 22, 2019, and a western localization announcement was made May 10, 2019, releasing October 22/23, 2019 in North America and Europe respectively.