History VideoGame / Othercide

** [[spoiler:Nostra and the Medium resort to mass child sacrifices to try and appease Suffering. The Mother kills them all.]]

* CreatureHunterOrganization: Nostra, the organization that Mother was part of for hundreds of years, [[spoiler:although Mother rapidly became disillusioned with them due to [[VanHelsingHateCrimes their insistence that all Chosen Ones were too dangerous and needed to be killed, despite Mother's very existence proving that benevolent Chosen Ones were absolutely possible]]]]. It's double-subverted later on: [[spoiler:the group seemingly changes its views after a few hundred years, and begins rescuing and gathering Chosen Ones rather then killing them.]] Mother decides to give them a second chance and rejoin them... [[spoiler:only to discover the real reason why they were gathering up Chosen Ones was so they could be grafted to each other to power a gateway leading beyond the veil. The end result was [[BodyHorror a monstrous entity made by surgically fusing all of the Chosen Ones into one body]], still living, and [[AndIMustScream still entirely aware of what was done to them]]. Mother {{Mercy Kill}}s the monster and [[PayEvilUntoEvil butchers the entire Nostra Order]] before leaving for good]].

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: The Medium's mind is frayed when he convinces Mother to try and let him see beyond the Veil through her and her Other, and later completely snaps [[spoiler:after he, Mother and the Bounty Hunter put down the Nostra-made amalgamation of Chosen Ones]]. [[InfallibleBabble However, in his mad ramblings he tells Mother of Suffering's coming]], [[ForWantOfANail warning her early enough]] to travel to the City in time and try and stop it.

* HateSink: The Deacon is the one truly evil character in the game. [[spoiler:The Surgeon was desperate to find a cure to the plague ravaging the land, The Child is lashing out at the world over the pain he's endured, The tyrannical Khan had responsibilities as a ruler, The Medium wanted to stop Suffering no matter the cost, and Suffering is only acting according to its natural affinity. The Deacon, meanwhile, was a SinisterMinister who neglected and eventually ''loathed'' The Child and frequently beat up The Maid, and was implied to have [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil forced himself on her repeatedly]]. The Child agreeing to channel Suffering's power came as a result of the Deacon sadistically murdering the Maid by locking her up with the Child so she'd catch his disease, all because he couldn't handle the fact that The Maid tried to show The Child a scrap of kindness. Even ''The Suffering itself'' is more sympathetic than the Deacon, in part because he wants to live life to the fullest (by making others suffer) - [[ForTheEvulz The Deacon went out of his way and against his nature to make the world around him Hell]].]]

* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: The Child was horrifically abused and experimented on in an attempt to find a cure for ThePlague due to being born a Chosen One. Mother's childhood wasn't much better. [[spoiler:And that's not even getting into what was done to all the other Chosen Ones who Mother had rescued and then sent to Nostra.]]

* ScarfOfAsskicking: All Daughters wear flowing red scarves that serves as the main SplashOfColor on them. They are all badasses to match.

*** [[spoiler:Swordmasters]] seem to represent [[spoiler:The Mother's]] time training under her swordmaster, which had a core foundation of moving forward no matter the pain, before making the difficult choice to kill her master to save an innocent. This can be seen during [[spoiler:gameplay]] as well, since killing to protect others is a tactic [[spoiler:the player]] may find themselves using [[spoiler:the Swordmaster]] for, with its high damage output overcoming the defensive burdens that the others cannot, while their movement-based abilities ensure they can always dive straight into combat.

* FantasticNoir: The game takes place on an alien world that developed similarly to Earth, but with wildly different experiences with magic, culminating in a Lovecraftian apocalypse just before the end of the 19th century. Cobblestones are mixed with electric signs as gruff girl gunslingers fight mutant zombies, all with a color palette of mainly black, white, and red, in that order.

* MasterOfAll: [[spoiler:By the final act, the Suffering will create a fifth type of Corrupted Daughter, one you don't have a counterpart for - [[TheDreaded Hopebreaker]]. She takes hints from all four other daughter types, being sturdy, skilled in melee and ranged combat, capable of interrupting Daughters, and launching area-of-effect-attacks.]]

* ZergRush: Scavengers' / Ravagers' tactic in a nutshell. They are individually weak, but they always come in numbers and their packs always prioritize one Daughter on the map, obsessing over their target until she stops existing. Ravagers, in particular, have a skill that lets them follow up attacks from other Ravagers with an ''extra-powerful'' attack of their own, making them exponentially more dangerous if they manage to swarm their target.

*** [[spoiler:Soul Slingers]] seem to represent [[spoiler:The Mother]]'s time as a [[{{Pun}} hired gun]] for the Nostra order, where she worked with a Bounty Hunter and a Seer to find and help other Chosen Ones before finding out [[BodyHorror what they were really doing with The Chosen Ones]] she’s been saving, then slaughtering them all and leaving. This is reflected in [[spoiler:gameplay]] with [[spoiler:Soul Slingers]] having abilities that help and support her sisters, as this part of [[spoiler:The Mother]]’s life was particularly focused on teamwork, and having abilities which can kill multiple weak enemies at once, reflecting her slaughter of the Vostra.

* BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler:Happens when Mother refuses to stand aside and allow her Master to murder a young Chosen One, ending in Master's death and Mother taking over her position after returning.]]
** [[spoiler:Vostra and the Medium resort to mass child sacrifices to try and appease Suffering. She kills them all.]]

* DarkFantasy: Takes place in a world with magic - and a hate-boner for witches. As science progresses to the early 20th century, the depravity of 'witch-hunting' gets ''even worse''. ''Pitch Black'' Fantasy may be a better description.

* DecoyProtagonist: In the tutorial, you play as a pre-generated character named "Mother", who is the BigGood of the game. After this level, she's demoted to MissionControl. The actual playable characters are the AmazonBrigade of summonable characters named the Daughters.

* DemonicPossession: A Chosen One may completely merge with their bonded Other, the two effectively becoming one mind. The Khan from Mother's memories is implied to be such case, [[spoiler: as well as all Curiosity's bearers. Mother herself does it with Memory after they had entered the City where Suffering was breaking through, indicating that the situation there crossed the GodzillaThreshold, though in their case it was more of a consensual MentalFusion.]]

** [[spoiler: In effect, Suffering serves a similar role to the player character themselves. Being a spirit from beyond the vail who bonds with a Chosen one. but where the player character is a benevolent companion to Mother, the Suffering other seeks to manipulate the Child for it's own malicious ends.]]

* FantasticNoir: The game takes place on an alien world that developed similarly to Earth, but with wildly different experiences with magic, culminating in a Lovecraftian apocalypse just before the turn of the 19th century. Cobblestones are mixed with electric signs as gruff girl gunslingers fight mutant zombies, all with a color palette of mainly black, white, and red, in that order.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: The Medium's mind is frayed when he convinces Mother to try and let him see beyond the Veil through her and her Other, and later completely snaps [[spoiler:after he, Mother and the Bounty Hunter put down the Vostra-made amalgamation of Chosen Ones]]. [[InfallibleBabble However, in his mad ramblings he tells Mother of Suffering's coming]], [[ForWantOfANail warning her early enough]] to travel to the City in time and try and stop it.

* HateSink: The Deacon is the one truly evil character in the game. [[spoiler:The Surgeon was desperate to find a cure to the plague ravaging the land, The Child is lashing out at the world over the pain he's endured, The tyrannical Khan had responsibilities as a ruler, The Medium wanted to stop Suffering no matter the cost, and Suffering is only acting according to its natural affinity. The Deacon, meanwhile, was a SinisterMinister who neglected and eventually ''loathed'' The Child and frequently beat up The Maid, and was implied to have [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil forced himself on her repeatedly]]. The Child agreeing to channel Suffering's power came as a result of the Deacon sadistically murdering the Maid by locking her up with the Child so she'd catch his disease, all because he couldn't handle the fact that The Maid tried to show The Child a scrap of kindness. Even ''The Suffering itself'' is more sympathetic than the Deacon, in part because he wants to live life to the fullest (by making others suffer) - The Deacon went out of his way and against his nature to make the world around him Hell.]]

** Suffering is indeed a monster that wants to turn the world into his personal nightmare playground. But the humans who witnessed him went mad and [[spoiler:stitched Chosen Ones together into a screaming amorphous mass]], which was somehow ''worse'' than the minions of Suffering.

* IronicName: The Mother, in life, never had any children- and even as the Red Mother, her Daughters are more like clones than true children. [[spoiler: Becomes less ironic when she redeems and adopts the Child.]]
* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: The Child was horrifically abused and experimented on in an attempt to find a cure for ThePlague due to being born a Chosen One. Mother's childhood wasn't much better. [[spoiler: And that's not even getting into what was done to all the other Chosen Ones who Mother had rescued and then sent to Nostra.]]
* LackOfEmpathy: The Surgeon. Using the Child as a living guinea pig to try and find a cure for the plague was bad enough, but what truly makes him reprehensible is that he didn't care that he was hurting the Child, and in fact [[{{Sadist}} delighted]] in the suffering he caused to what he viewed as an unnatural abomination.

* {{Macrogame}}: Any Remnants unlocked during a run will remain unlocked when starting over.

* MasterOfAll: [[spoiler: By the final act the Suffering will put forth the fifth type of a Corrupted Daughter you don't have a counterpart for, Hopebreaker. She takes hints from all four other daughter types, being sturdy, dangerous both in melee and at range, having interrupts and area-of-effect-attacks.]]

* MyGreatestFailure: The Mother regards being unable to prevent the Child's suffering as this. [[spoiler:She redeems herself posthumously]]/

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:In her attempts to stop The Suffering by spawning Daughters to combat it, The Red Mother has unwittingly creating a potent new source of misery for The Suffering to feed off- that of the many, many Daughters who were killed or lost in her attempt to kill suffering]].

* NoNameGiven: Except for the Daughters, which you name yourself, nobody in the game has an actual name, instead being referred to by their titles: Mother (a.k.a Red Mother), The Child, Master, The Guide, The Paladin, The Khan, etc. [[spoiler:The Mother's name is only revealed by the final remembrance- aka, when you've beaten the game]].

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: The Mother has been killed but lingers on as a ghost, the Red Mother, she can reach into her "Inner Void" to create her Daughters and send them into "synapses" to fight the Suffering.
* OutOfClothesExperience: This is how the soul of Mother, now called "The Red Mother," manifests by default. Bright Souls probably count for this since they’re, well... souls. They’re usually curled up in the fetal position for modesty, like the daughters. They show up in rescue missions and, if gotten out successfully, can be sacrificed for a resurrection token or let go for a vitae reward.

* QuickDraw: Most enemies cannot attack on their first turn.[[note]]Unless you're stupid or unlucky enough to leave a daughter exactly adjacent to one.[[/note]] Painslingers, if they're already within range of fire on that first turn, don't give a flip.

* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Almost dead on the nose, with her memories revealing that Mother was born approximately 1200, with her 'death' in 1897.

* StoicWoobie: The Mother. In her immortal life she had lost everyone she loved or cared about, leaving her with nothing but her self-imposed duty to protect humanity against the creatures from beyond the Veil. She does not complain, and keeps pursuing her duty despite all the misery she has to face in its course, and eventually it gets her killed.

* ATasteOfPower: When you do the tutorial, you start with the Mother. She has 4900 Health Points, 70 armor, a high level of hidden bonus damage and uniquely she only takes miniscule damage from using reaction skills. She fights as a Swordmaster but also [[JackOfAllTrades has some skills from Shieldbearer and Soulslinger classes]]. She's a OneManArmy and will have no problem disposing of the mooks that stand in her way. Your starting Daughters will be significantly weaker in comparison (they all have under 1000 Health Points and their armor is disturbingly flimsy), but they can rise to surpass the Mother in [[CripplingOverspecialization their specific field]], achieving capstone skills that the Mother couldn't dream of.
* TaughtByExperience: The Mother became the world's best warrior through training and centuries of experience. [[spoiler:How else would the Chosen one of Memory empower themselves?]]. This shows up in the Daughters - in addition to the norm benefits levelling up, Daughters collect more traits as they fight their way through the never-ending nightmares, the vast majority of which are beneficial. A daughter who spawns at max level is locked out of certain traits, while a daughter who has been carefully tutored in combat from level 1 will end up with more versatility and better stats.

* TragicVillain: [[spoiler:The Child endured insane levels of trauma throughout his life at the hands of people who were supposed to take care of him, while also suffering the burden of responsibility that came with being a "Chosen One". When the only person who ever loved him was executed by infecting her with ''his'' disease, he ended up crossing the DespairEventHorizon, lashing out at the world he was supposed to protect with monsters representing his painful past.]]

** What does The Suffering want, deep down? [[spoiler:Simply to BE. It's not Suffering's fault that it requires trauma the way matter requires molecules.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:After the Maid's defeat, the Child flies into a rage at seeing his only true friend and caretaker die again, and confronts the Daughters himself.]]

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: At least one memory mentions that the Red Mother "lost her taste for life" and that she mainly lives out of a sense of duty to maintain the Veil. She also suffers from the "outliving your loved ones" syndrome, as she has lost family, a mentor, and her loved one during the course of her long life. Her loved one's death is particularly relevant since he died of old age while she lived on. The only friends she's kept throughout her life are her Other, which manifests as a voice she's heard in her head since she was a little girl, and The Guide, another seemingly immortal person who shows up in her life from time to time while changing their appearance and sex sometimes (though they only appeared as a woman once). [[spoiler:The Guide is revealed to be another other named “Curiosity”, who gets past the boredom of living forever by frequently choosing new hosts.]]
* WeirdCurrency: Vitae is collected after a mission and can be spent on equipping a memory or generating a new Daughter. Also there are Shards for unlocking memories from a Remembrance.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler: The Child,]] and OH BOY do they fit the trope both in terms of [[RealityWarper power]] and [[TraumaCongaLine suffering.]]
* ZergRush: Scavengers/Ravagers tactic in a nutshell. They are weak individually, but they always come in numbers and their packs always prioritize one Daughter on the map, maintaining the same target for all of them once it has been picked. Ravagers in particular have a skill that lets them follow up attacks from other Ravagers with a ''powerful'' attack of their own, making them exponentially more dangerous if they manage to swarm their target.

*** [[spoiler:Swordmasters]] seem to represent [[spoiler:The Mother's]] time training under her swordmaster, which had a core foundation of moving past all pain, before making the difficult choice to kill her master to save an innocent. This can be seen during [[spoiler:gameplay]] as well, since killing to protect others is a tactic [[spoiler:the player]] may find themselves using [[spoiler:the Swordmaster]] for, with it’s high damage output, while their movement-based abilities ensure they can always march their way into the heat of a skirmish.
*** [[spoiler: Shieldbearers]] seem to represent [[spoiler:The Mother]]’s time serving as a Knight to bring down a Khan who was also a Chosen One and summoned hordes of creatures for their army. That conflict came down to her enduring and [[HoldTheLine holding the line]] with her loved one until someone else finally killed him. This is reflected in [[spoiler:gameplay]] with the [[spoiler:Shieldbearers]] specializing in stalling monsters and taking hits for her sisters until one of them is free to help deal with it.
*** [[spoiler:Soul Slingers]] seem to represent [[spoiler:The Mother]]'s time as a [[{{Pun}} hired gun]] for the Nostra order, where she worked with a Bounty Hunter and a Seer to find and help other Chosen Ones before finding out [[BodyHorror what they were really doing with The Chosen Ones]] she’s been saving, then slaughtering them all and leaving. This is reflected in [[spoiler:gameplay]] with [[spoiler:Soul Slingers]] having abilities that help and support her sisters, this part of [[spoiler:The Mother]]’s life being particularly focused on teamwork, and having abilities which can kill multiple weak enemies at once, probably reflecting her slaughter of the Nostra.
*** [[spoiler:Scythebearers]], however, are a representation of ''another'' person's memory, [[spoiler:The Maid]], whose short yet compassionate life was spent breaking down the barriers of cruelty and resentment that plagued her two charges. This is reflected in [[spoiler:gameplay]] with [[spoiler:Scythebearers]] tearing down the armor of multiple foes, using attacks that are less vicious than other classes yet always in multi-hit perfect-accuracy combos.

* FantasticNoir: The game takes place on an alien world that developed similarly to Earth, but with wildly different experiences with magic, culminating in a Lovecraftian apocalypse just before the turn of the century. Cobblestones are mixed with electric signs as gruff girl gunslingers fight mutant zombies, all with a color palette of mainly black, white, and red, in that order.

* HateSink: The Deacon is the one truly evil character in the game. [[spoiler:The Surgeon was desperate to find a cure to the plague ravaging the land, The Child is lashing out at the world over the pain he's endured, and Suffering is only acting according to its natural affinity. The Deacon, meanwhile, was a SinisterMinister who not only repeatedly abused The Child but also the Maid, and was implied to have [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil forced himself on her repeatedly]]. The Child agreeing to channel Suffering's power came as a result of the Deacon indirectly killing the Maid after finding out that the Maid had been treating The Child with kindness. Even ''The Suffering itself'' is more sympathetic than the Deacon, in part because he doesn't have any major goal beyond existing -- it's just that, as a living embodiment of suffering, he needs people to suffer to exist.]]
* HealingMagicIsTheHardest: For all the power [[spoiler:Memory]] and the Red Mother have, they can't normally recover even a single health point on an injured Daughter. A big aspect of this game is that only sacrificing a Daughter of equal or higher level, can you heal a Daughter.

* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: [[spoiler: Being connected to and given relevant powers from the AnthropomorhpicPersonification of Memory does not sound that flashy, compared to being similarily empowered by, say, Suffering. However, with time this eventually allowed Mother to become the greatest warrior in the world by making sure that not a single scrap of her experience was lost. And even more so when Mother finds herself in a MentalWorld - as a master of a mental concept, Memory effectively becomes a mix of RealityWarper and TimeMaster in it. By treating your attempts to help Child as Recollections Memory can rewind the whole timeline if it doesn't go as planned, giving you as a player unlimited number of tries to stop Suffering. It can also turn individual memories into pieces of actual power.]]

* HolyHalo: Many bosses have a moon-like variant of this when they change stages. Naturally LightIsNotGood, and it expresses both power and their connection to The Suffering.

* HunterOfHisOwnKind: Mother, a Chosen One, joined Nostra, an organisation dedicated to hunting Chosen Ones. She did it as per the Guide's suggestion in an effort to be HiddenInPlainSight, to protect herself from others who would hunt her. She still remains very empathetic to those she has to hunt, and manages to avoid crossing the lines Nostra was all too willing to cross.

* NunTooHoly: The Maid, the boss of the third era [[spoiler: subverts this. She's just as much as much a victim of The Deacon as The Child, and the version "resurrected" by The Child is more a TragicMonster than anything]].

* ScarfOfAsskicking: All Daughters wear flowing red scarves that serves as the main SplashOfColor on them. They are all badasses that you will send to fight The Suffering and its agents.

* SequelHook: TheStinger reveals that [[spoiler: in the future the Mother and the Child face together a different Other - Fear]].
* SequentialBoss: Every boss has multiple phases, activated once you deplete their health below certain thresholds, and each phase adds new moves to their arsenal. [[spoiler: The Suffering doubles it, as it has two distinct forms each with multiple phases and unique moves.]]

* SinisterScythe: The Maid boss uses a scythe as her weapon, [[spoiler: same as the Scythedancer Daughter that Mother spawns using the memories of the Maid, though with her its less sinister. Hatedancer, Scythedancer's Corrupted counterpart, brings the sinister factor back up.]]

* ATasteOfPower: When you do the tutorial, you start with the Mother. She has 4900 Health Points, 70 armor, a high level of hidden bonus damage and uniquely she only takes miniscule damage from using reaction skills. She fights as a Swordmaster but also [[JackOfAllTrades has some skills from Shieldbearer and Soulslinger classes]]. She's a OneManArmy and will have no problem disposing of the mooks that stand in her way. Your starting Daughters will be significantly weaker in comparison (they all have under 1000 Health Points and the armor on the Swordmaster and Soulslinger are much weaker excepting the Shieldbearer's is actually superior), though they can rise to surpass the Mother in [[CripplingOverspecialization their specific field]].
* TaughtByExperience: The Mother became the world's best warrior through training and centuries of experience. [[spoiler:How else would the Chosen one of Memory empower themselves?]]. This shows up in the Daughters - in addition to the norm benefits levelling up, Daughters collect more traits as they fight their way through the never-ending nightmares, the vast majority of which are beneficial. Notably, a daughter who is born at max level thanks to various Remnants will be notably weaker than one who fought their way up the hard way due to an absence of traits.

* TragicVillain: [[spoiler:The Child endured nothing but trauma throughout his life at the hands of people who were supposed to take care of him, while also suffering the burden of responsibility that came with being a "Chosen One". He ended up crossing the DespairEventHorizon, lashing out at the world he was supposed to protect with monsters representing his painful past.]]

* TrueCompanions: The fourth period of Mother's memories has her team up with two more people, the Bounty Hunter and the Medium, as they track down other Chosen Ones for Nostra. [[FireForgedFriends Mother comes to appreciate them in their time together]], [[spoiler: which adds another tragedy to her life when [[TheFellowshipHasEnded the Bounty Hunter gets killed and the Medium loses his mind]], [[GoMadFromTheRevelation too traumatised by the horrors he had witnessed from beyond the Veil and by Nostra's treachery]], so Mother has to leave him behind.]]

* WalkingTheEarth: After the Paladin's death Mother took to this, and did so for 400 years afterwards until she "had wandered for so long there was nowhere left to go".
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: At least one memory mentions that the Red Mother "lost her taste for life" and that she mainly lives out of a sense of duty to maintain the Veil. She also suffers from the "outliving your loved ones" part of this as she has lost family, a mentor, and her loved one during the course of her long life. Her loved one's death is particularly relevant since they probably could have grown old together if not for her immortality. The only friends she's kept throughout her life are her Other, which manifests as a voice she's heard in her head since she was a little girl and The Guide, another seemingly immortal person who shows up in her life from time to time while changing their appearance and sex sometimes (though they only appeared as a woman once). [[spoiler:The Guide is revealed to be another other named “Curiosity”. So basically all of the Red Mother’s Immortal friends are Others.]]

Descend into Humanity’s last hope. The Daughters, echoes of the greatest warrior to ever live, are all who stand before Suffering -dread creatures pulled from the worst of Humanity’s crimes against itself- and the end of the world, caused through the efforts of the Child and his attempts to drag suffering into the world. Through combating the infected beasts and mutated cultists throughout the increasingly surreal, warped black streets of the city, you will unravel the mystery of who [[TomatoInTheMirror you]] are, the past of the Mother, source of the daughters, and the tragic tale of how The Child became what he is.

** The [[spoiler:Scytherdancer]] only joins the battle partway through the third of five bosses, but can then be birthed as normal like all Daughters.

* ApocalypseMaiden: The Child-notably, [[WhosLaughingNow he's more than willing to go through with it.]]

** Reading through Mother's memories reveals that[[spoiler: the player is an "Other", a benevolent spirit from beyond the veil who has bonded with the Mother, and who has been her companion throughout her entire life. It's also stated that this seems to be common with Chosen ones, and that once bonded with an "Other", the Chosen one ceases to age.]]

* AlasPoorVillain: Most bosses get a moment of sorrow before they're dispatched, with one of the most poignant belonging to [[spoiler: Suffering, surprisingly]].

* AlphaStrike: Burst, in a nutshell- You get an extra 50 action points above the standard 50, but your next turn on the initiative tracker comes in 100, rather than 50, time units later. Better make sure you kill everything on the field or have interrupts ready, or you can expect a world of hurt.

* AmbiguousSituation: Time and space are a bit warped; your "home base," if you can call it that, seems to just be an eldritch void from which the ghost of Mother dispatches her daughters, and you're thrown into this world en media res. Figuring out exactly what's going on and where you are is part of the game. See Mental World, below.
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: The “Other”s that the game is partially named after seem to be this, aside from living in a dimension different from our own and most of them probably not actually looking human-like at all (Suffering looks like some sort of squishy egg with a claw-like arm with long, spindly fingers embracing it). They seem to grant powers to their “Chosen One”s in this reality depending on the concept they embody.
** Suffering embodies the concept of suffering by allowing his Chosen One, the Child, to create various monstrosities based on the traumas and suffering he’s been forced to endure during his life. These are what you fight during the game. The Child also seems to have a devastating scream, which kills The Mother in the intro and he can affect certain gameplay mechanics with his “gifts” that can appear randomly during a play through. (For instance, a gift that reduces chance to dodge based off of the torpor he was often in as a result of the plague doctors injecting him with all sorts of drugs in their experiments to find a cure for ThePlague.)
** Memory, [[spoiler: the player character]], embodies the concept of memory by allowing their Chosen One, [[spoiler:The Mother]], to perfectly recall everything she’s experienced through her many, many years of living. This probably extends to things that would be useful for combat as well, resulting in her being [[WorldsBestWarrior the greatest warrior of all time]]. After her death in the beginning of the game, and the two “exchanging” their realities, Memory seems to use other abilities it didn't, or more likely couldn't, use during [[spoiler:The Mother]]'s life. One of these is using her memories to create AnthropomorphicPersonifications of it's own to fight against the creatures Suffering and The Child has created, [[spoiler:The Daughters]]. They seem to represent different periods of [[spoiler:The Mother]]'s life and Memory can further power them up by equipping them with memories of certain experiences [[spoiler:The Mother]] had during her life. Memory also seems to be able to resurrect [[spoiler:Daughters]] that it remembers if it has a resurrection token, though if this is an exclusive ability of theirs or just a quality of resurrection tokens is unclear. May also be a bit of a TimeMaster, if the ability to [[spoiler: reset the game and return to different eras if you possess certain objects]] is interpreted as them manipulating time. They can also apparently use certain objects with memories attached to them for various effects.
*** [[spoiler:Swordmasters]] seem to represent [[spoiler:The Mother's]] time training under her master, before having to make a difficult choice and killing her to protect another before taking on students of her own, during which she wielded a blade. This can be seen during [[spoiler:gameplay]] as well, since killing to protect others is a tactic [[spoiler: the player]] may find themselves using [[spoiler: the Swordmaster]] for, with it’s high damage output.
*** [[spoiler: Shieldbearers]] seem to represent [[spoiler:The Mother]]’s time serving as a Knight to bring down a ruler who was also a Chosen One and used creatures to attack others. That conflict came down to her enduring and [[HoldTheLine holding the line]] with her loved one until someone else finally killed him. This is reflected in [[spoiler:gameplay]] with the [[spoiler: Shieldbearers]] specializing in stalling monsters and taking hits for her sisters until one of them is free to help deal with it.
*** [[spoiler:Soul Slingers]] seem to represent [[spoiler: The Mother]]'s time as a [[{{Pun}} hired gun]] for the Nostra order, where she worked with a Bounty Hunter and a Seer to find and help other Chosen Ones before finding out [[BodyHorror what they were really doing with The Chosen Ones]] she’s been saving, then slaughtering them all and leaving. This is reflected in [[spoiler:gameplay]] with [[spoiler:Soul Slingers]] having abilities that help and support her sisters, this part of [[spoiler:The Mother]]’s life being particularly focused on teamwork, and having abilities which can kill multiple weak enemies at once, probably reflecting her slaughter of the Nostra.
** Curiosity, [[spoiler: also known as The Guide]] embodies curiosity in all his (though he appeared as a woman once, apparently able to change sex and appearance) interactions with [[spoiler:The Mother]] as curiosity is what drew him to her in the first place. He tends to act like a sort of TricksterMentor to her at times and tells her of things he thinks would interest her, or [[{{Pun}} pique her curiosity]], should I say, which often results in her next stage of life.

** Reaching the first boss unlocks a Remnant that gives you a ressurection token, potentially averting EarlyGameHell during your next run.
** Once you defeat an era's boss, you not only unlock a Remnant that lets you skip an era, but you also unlock a remnant that levels up your newly-created Daughters.

** The main menu theme, in fact, applies as well, as [[spoiler: it also plays during [[ClimacticTheme the final boss fight]].]]
* BadassLongcoat: Mother wore one, and all Daughters wear a variation of one as well [[spoiler: with the sole exception of Scythedancer]].

''How my fears seem foolish now!''

* BodyHorror: The Nightmares and Surgeons only get more distorted and deranged as time goes on, being made from the unfortunate remnant of the city. A standout is The Surgeon- aside form his massive size and forcibly beak-like head, as a cloak primarily made of his own skin, there is also the ''massive array of scissors sticking out his back.''
* BodyOfBodies: The final boss is implied to be made of human resources - specifically, [[spoiler: the bodies of the many, many Daughters who have been killed on your path to the final boss]].
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. The daughters will show more and more signs of wear as your run continues.

* BishonenLine: The final boss, natch- although the "humanlike" form is still obviously made of corpses piled together, with FloatingLimbs and NonHumanHead.

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: Mother pulls this off during the boss fight with The Maid, creating a Scythedancer to aid you.]]
* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: In the past Mother had used her connection to [[spoiler: Memory]] to erase some memories from the Medium, like the times when he accidentally discovered she was one of the Chosen. Eventually the Medium wisened up on that, but they resolved it amiably with him agreeing to keep it a secret and her not erasing his memories anymore. It's also implied Red Mother does it during the game, where after defeating the Surgeon and the Deacon she takes away Child's painful memories of them.
* BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler: Happens when Mother refuses to stand aside and allow her Master to murder a young Chosen One, ending in Master's death and Mother taking over her position after returning.]]

* CharacterisationClickMoment: Your Daughters are blank slates, but will develop character traits based on what they've done or what happens to them in battle. A Daughter who is low level and has the highest number of kills in the group, may develop the Aggressive trait which gives a hefty bonus to inflicting damage.
* TheChosenOne: Deconstructed. [[spoiler:"Chosen Ones" are people born with a connection to Unreality, such as Mother and The Child, granting them great strength and immortality, but burdening them with a duty to protect the veil between Reality and Unreality. Unfortunately, Chosen Ones end up suffering horrifically in this game for circumstances that were no fault of their own, the most prominent example being the Child, who was experimented on to create a cure for a plague]].

* ContinuingIsPainful: If one of your Daughters is wounded, the only way to heal them is to sacrifice another unit of equal or higher level. However, this also imbues the recovered with some of the sacrifice's power, and a sacrificed unit can be resurrected later if you have a spare Resurrection token.
* CreatureHunterOrganization: Nostra, the organization that Mother was part of for hundreds of years, [[spoiler:although Mother rapidly became disillusioned with them due to [[VanHelsingHateCrimes their insistence that all Chosen Ones were too dangerous and needed to be killed, despite Mother's very existence proving that benevolent Chosen Ones were absolutely possible]]]]. It's double-subverted later on: [[spoiler:the group seemingly changes its views after a few hundred years, and begins rescuing and gathering Chosen Ones rather then killing them.]] Mother decides to give them a second chance and rejoin them... [[spoiler:only to discover the real reason why they were gathering up Chosen Ones is so they can turn them into a gateway to beyond the veil. The end result was [[BodyHorror a monstrous entity made by surgically fusing all of the Chosen Ones into one body]], still living, and [[AndIMustScream still entirely aware of what was done to them]]. Mother {{Mercy Kill}}s the monster and [[PayEvilUntoEvil butchers the entire Nostra Order]] before leaving for good]].
* DarkFantasy: Oh yes. ''Pitch Black'' Fantasy may be a better description.

** There is a cemetery in the inner void which lists the names of slain Daughters.[[RedshirtArmy Expect it to be full by the midpoint of the game]].
** Surprisingly, The Child expresses that each of his own nightmare creatures have names as well in a few blink-and-miss it lines when they are killed.

* DifficultyLevels: Othercide is well-known for its NintendoHard difficulty and about a year after being on the market, the game was given two difficulty settings. Nightmare mode is the original difficulty and Dream mode is the new easier setting which gives your Daughters a 50% health recovery after resting for a day.

* FinalExamBoss: [[spoiler: The second form of Suffering]] will put your mastery of every major element of the game's strategy to the test, from positioning to setting up follow-up attacks to interrupts. It hits like a truck and will only hit harder in its subsequent phases and has no real weaknesses but will exploit yours, [[RushBoss so your only real strategy is to kill it quickly before it kills you]].

* FragileSpeedster: Your Daughters are waifish young women who zip across the battlefield in white-and-red blurs, and this is a fair indicator of how you should play them. None of them - not even the relatively heavily-armoured Shieldbearers - are designed to face-tank waves of enemies at once, and so your playstyle will revolve around using speed, aggression, and lots and lots of {{Out Of Turn Interaction}}s to do unto Others before they do unto you.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: The Medium's mind is frayed when he convinces Mother to try and let him see beyond the Veil through her and her Other, and later completely snaps [[spoiler: after he, Mother and the Bounty Hunter put down the Vostra-made amalgamation of Chosen Ones]]. [[InfallibleBabble However in his mad ramblings he tells Mother of Suffering's coming]], [[ForWantOfANail warning her early enough]] to travel to the City in time and try and stop it.

* GhostAmnesia: A major mechanic of the game. Much of The Mother's history was lost during her death, but they retain their power. Memories serve as equipment for you Daughters, and Remembrances provide permeant bonuses for all playthroughs. It's implied that while the Mother remembers her past just fine, it's ''you'', the [[AddressingThePlayer Dear Friend]] who's subject to the ghost amnesia aka [[spoiler: [[BigGood The Other]] known as Memory.]]

* GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler: The enigmatic being known only as Suffering is revealed to be using the Child's trauma in order to manifest in the waking world, and takes over after the Child [[HeelFaceTurn changes his mind]]]].

** In an endless army of warped beats, infected cultists, and maddened infected, it's the most humanlike creatures that are dangerous. [[spoiler: justified, considering they are corrupted copies of the most powerful warrior to ever live - in other words, [[EvilKnockoff Corrupted Daughters]]]].

* PowersAsPrograms: Your Daughters can't buy new weapons. Instead to improve their fighting ability, they can attach an unlocked memory on their skills or detach it for a new one.

* ScratchDamage: Averted, usually in these types of games - enemies will always be able to do some damage to your characters. In this game, if your foe is weak enough (such as the Scavenger) and your armor is strong, it's possible to take no damage from an attack. Use this to preserve your precious Health Points.

* SinisterMinister: The Deacon, boss of the second Era. [[spoiler:He was supposed to take care of The Child after his parents' death, only to abuse him and lock him in the basement to starve. Making matters worse, he also abused The Maid, who was one of the few people who actually cared about The Child.]]

* TimedMission: The Ritual mission types. You must reach and destroy a Lost Soul enemy before it has its turn and explodes. The Lost Soul is very resilient, but inactive and does not move on its own - however, it can be affected by your Daughters' delay or movement skills, allowing you to buy more time or use one Daughter to move the Soul closer to the rest of the team.
* ToCreateAPlaygroundForEvil: [[spoiler: Suffering's endgoal- to enter Reality and shape it InTheirOwnImage]]

** What does The Suffering want with the world? [[spoiler:Simply to BE. It's not Suffering's fault that it requires trauma the way matter requires molecules.]]
---> '''[[spoiler:Suffering]]''': ''...I wanted nothing. Love? Compassion? No. Only...to exist. If I cease than so does this flooded world...Nothing of me survives. Nothing [[KilledMidSentence remains-]] ''

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:The Surgeon was so desperate to find a cure to ThePlague, that he repeatedly cut apart The Child to find out why he didn't die after contracting it.]]

* ZergRush: Scavengers/Ravagers tactic in a nutshell. They are weak individually but they always come in numbers and their packs always prioritise one Daughter on the map, maintaining the same target for all of them once it has been picked. Ravagers in addition have a skill that lets them follow up attacks from other Ravagers with an attack of their own, making them exponentially more dangerous if they manage to swarm their target.

-->-- '''The Flower of Paradice'''.

* UnlockableContent: Shards are earned after each mission and a Rememberance may be discovered on a slain foe. You can spend shards to unlock equipable memories from that particular Rememberance.

* WeirdCurrency: Vitae is collected after a mission and can be spent on equipping a memory or generating a new Daughter. Also there are Shards for unlocking memories from a Rememberance.

* AmazonBrigade: You're in command of the Daughters, an entirely female unit [[CloningBlues with the same genetic base]].

* CloningBlues: The Daughters are described as "echoes of the greatest warrior to ever live". Expect them to die, be sacrificed, and/or be resurrected repeatedly.