History VideoGame / RhapsodyAMusicalAdventure

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* SpritePolygonMix: The third game keeps the 2D sprites for the characters but makes game world completely 3D.

!!''Rhapsody'' uses the following tropes:

* BabiesEverAfter: The first game ends with Cornet being pregnant with her and Ferdinand's child, who eventually becomes the star of the second game.

* BullyingADragon: After Marjoly turns Ferdinand to stone, Cornet provokes her by calling her an "old maid," even getting everyone in the room (including Majorlay's QuirkyMiniBossSquad) to join in. Marjoly is '''pissed''' at this and sics her QuirkyMiniBossSquad on Cornet, leading to the below-mentioned HopelessBossFight. Turns out mocking the BigBad, even one who her own followers mock at every possible opportunity, is a bad idea.

* HighCollarOfDoom: Marjoly wears one.

* LastOfHisKind: [[spoiler:Cornet, who is the last successor of the LostTechnology used to make and control the puppets... Well, until she and Ferdinand have their daughter, anyway.]]

* MineralMacGuffin: The Heartstones required to cure Ferdinand. [[spoiler:Or so you're told. In reality, they're the keys to the Lost Technology that will allow you to reach Marjoly's floating castle.]]
* MoodWhiplash: Happens a couple times when the plot swings from lighthearted to dead serious without warning.

** Marjoly is a villainous example of this trope, as she accidentally petrifies the prince while trying to cast a charm spell on him. Later, she is HoistByHerOwnPetard while fighting the [[spoiler:Ancient Weapon]].

* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Ultimately used to cure Ferdinand's petrification.]]

** The BBQ restaurant encountered early in the game, with its odd signs and cat-themed final boss is likely a shout-out to Literature/TheRestaurantOfManyOrders.

The game would eventually receive two sequels. The first one, ''Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess'', was also released on the Playstation and follows the adventures of Cornet's daughter. The second sequel, ''Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom'', was released on the Platform/Playstation2, and is a VignetteEpisode adventure, telling additional stories that focus on Cornet, her daughter, and various other characters in the Marl Kingdom, taking place within the time frame of both games as well as Marl Kingdom's past and future. The sequels didn't receive an international release until 2023 in the form of ''Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles'', a CompilationRerelease for the Platform/NintendoSwitch, Platform/PlayStation5, and PC. These games laid the groundwork for ''VideoGame/LaPucelle'' and, eventually, the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series.

* BabiesEverAfter: The first game ends with Cornet being pregnant with her and Ferdinand's child. Said child becomes the star of the second game.

%%* BabiesEverAfter: The sequel stars Cornet's daughter.

* ButThouMust: Many times.
** Cornet's rival Etoile is just a [[Fiction500 stereotypical rich girl]] in the first game. In the second game, she gains a particularly memorable leitmotif... since her family name is '''''[=RosenQueen=]''''', meaning her family effectively runs every single store in Nippon Ichi's games since ''VideoGame/LaPucelle''!
* CutAndPasteEnvironments: Exaggerated. There are only two types of dungeons areas in the game: caves and square rooms. When the (literally) god-forsaken ''netherworld" looks like every castle/tower you've roamed through throughout the game, something is clearly wrong.

* CuteKitten: The Nyanko.

* MovingTheGoalposts: [[spoiler:The King of the Frogs']] behavior is either this or full out ILied.

* QuirkyMinibossSquad: Myao, Gao, and Crowdia.

%%* StarCrossedLovers: [[spoiler:The anthropomorphic frogs Michael and Caroline.]]

* BabiesEverAfter: The sequel stars Cornet's daughter. You eventually get to meet one of their descendants in your party in ''VideoGame/LaPucelle''.

* ContinuityNod: Hornard, one of the main characters of ''VideoGame/LaPucelle'', turns out to be Cornet's grandson.
** The main character of the sequel, Little Princess, is Cornet's daughter, named Kurusale. [[spoiler:She just happens to be the resurrected soul of Kururu, who ''just happens'' to be the resurrected soul of her mother...]]

* EasierThanEasy: It actually has several difficulty levels, but they are all this, at least in the [=PS1=] game in America.

* PermanentlyMissableContent: Two of the puppets who can join Cornet's party become unobtainable if you miss out on the sequences necessary to get them.
** The first, an {{Expy}} of ComicBook/{{Spawn}}, can only be obtained if Cornet subscribes to Ferdinand's InstantFanClub's newsletter during the early chapters.
** The second is even easier to miss. After being sent out on your MacGuffin FetchQuest, you must immediately return to Cornet's hometown to learn that a local boy's dog has died and then head over to its grave to have it join you as a doll. If you don't, the little boy will die as well, and his dog will be lost.

%%* BigEater: Gao, implied.

* CatGirl: Myao.

* FairyCompanion: Kururu.

* KnightInShiningArmor: Ferdinand and the puppet Duke [[spoiler:as well as the MechaMooks that the latter was based on]].
* TheLadette: Gao. A RunningGag sees her getting mistaken for a man every single time she shows up somewhere.

* LonelyRichKid: Etoile. Thanks to Cornet, by the second game, [[HeelFaceTurn she's got much better.]]

* PimpedOutDress: Etoile brags about the [[ConspicuousConsumption huge cost]] of one of her dresses.

* TakenForGranite: Ferdinand, courtesy of Marjoly using the wrong spell while attempting to kidnap him.

* AnachronismStew: Medieval Fantasy setting, but with guns, J-Pop, and BBQ.

* ElementalRockPaperScissors: Sort of. X-elemental magic will do extra damage to a character with a Y-elemental attribute, but reversing X and Y will yield the same result.
** It goes: Fire <--> Water, Wind <--> Earth, Holy <--> Dark. Neutral (obviously) and Thunder-based characters are exempt from having any weaknesses.

* HopelessBossFight: Three. The battles against Etoile in chapter 2, the QuirkyMiniBossSquad in chapter 3, and Myao and her cat minions at the end of chapter 5.
* IAmSong[=/=]IWantSong: In every game in the Marl Kingdom series, characters frequently break into musical numbers for the flimsiest of reasons. When one of Marjoly's minions cameos in ''VideoGame/PhantomBrave'', she's mystified as to why people don't spontaneously burst into song.
* JigglePhysics: Marjoly in her VillainSong displays this.

** In order to obtain a MacGuffin, both Cornet and a random group of villagers kill two dragons. It turns out that the dragons were the ones keeping the local volcano from erupting...
** There's an ''optional'' NiceJobBreakingItHero moment during the raid on the Ninetails Tower. If Cornet chooses to kill the tower's guardian and obtain the MacGuffin it carries, she saves the life of one person... at the cost of the entire town becoming cursed and hating her guts. [[spoiler:If you refuse to kill the guardian, Cornet will fight Gao instead, who is always after the Thunderstone. Defeating her results in you getting the Holystone instead of the Thunderstone, and also changes one of the 5 bosses at the bottom of Cape Hope.]]

* NoblewomansLaugh: Etoile and Marjoly both love launching into these.

* {{Ojou}}[=/=]RichBitch: Etoile Rosenqueen, who adheres to ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney, is a big fan of MoreDakka, and also happens to be Cornet's [[TheRival Rival]].

* ServileSnarker: Majoraly's QuirkyMiniBossSquad will mock her at every opportunity.

* UpdatedRerelease: The DS version, which [[GenreShift Shifts Genres]] from TurnBasedStrategy, to {{Role Playing|Game}}, and adds Kururu as a usable party member. [[CrutchCharacter Until the last chapter, that is.]] It also included an extra scenario related to the third Marl Kingdom game. However, it was taken out in the U.S. version due to localization issues.

* * TheRival: Marjorly's group and Akurjo's group have been competitive rivals for a long.

''Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure'', known in Japan as ''Marl Oukoku no Ningyou-hime'' (The Puppet Princess of Marl Kingdom), is a game developed by Creator/NipponIchi for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation in 1998. It was later remade for the Platform/NintendoDS in 2008, and later again as part of the ''Prinny Presents NIS Classics Vol. 3'' CompilationRerelease alongside ''VideoGame/LaPucelle: Ragnarok'' for the Platform/NintendoSwitch and PC in 2022. It is the first game by the company to be released in the United States, and one of the first games to be developed before the company's love of insane PowerLevels.

The game would eventually receive two sequels. The first one, ''Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess'', was also released on the Playstation and follows the adventures of Cornet's daughter. The second sequel, ''Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom'', was released on the UsefulNotes/Playstation2, and is a VignetteEpisode adventure, telling additional stories that focus on Cornet, her daughter, and various other characters in the Marl Kingdom, taking place within the time frame of both games as well as Marl Kingdom's past and future. The sequels didn't receive an international release until 2023 in the form of ''Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles'', a CompilationRerelease for the Platform/NintendoSwitch, UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, and PC. These games laid the groundwork for ''VideoGame/LaPucelle'' and, eventually, the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series.

''Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure'', known in Japan as ''Marl Oukoku no Ningyou-hime'' (The Puppet Princess of Marl Kingdom), is a game developed by Creator/NipponIchi for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation in 1998. It was later remade for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS in 2008, and later again as part of the ''Prinny Presents NIS Classics Vol. 3'' CompilationRerelease alongside ''VideoGame/LaPucelle: Ragnarok'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch and PC in 2022. It is the first game by the company to be released in the United States, and one of the first games to be developed before the company's love of insane PowerLevels.

The game would eventually receive two sequels. The first one, ''Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess'', was also released on the Playstation and follows the adventures of Cornet's daughter. The second sequel, ''Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom'', was released on the UsefulNotes/Playstation2, and is a VignetteEpisode adventure, telling additional stories that focus on Cornet, her daughter, and various other characters in the Marl Kingdom, taking place within the time frame of both games as well as Marl Kingdom's past and future. The sequels didn't receive an international release until 2023 in the form of ''Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles'', a CompilationRerelease for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, and PC. These games laid the groundwork for ''VideoGame/LaPucelle'' and, eventually, the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series.

** A second rerelease was later created for the Nintendo Switch as a part of the [[CompilationRerelease NIS Classics collection]], where it was bundled with ''VideoGame/LaPucelle'', and separately for the PC. This release was more faithful to the PS1 game, with additional graphics optimizations.

* ShoutOut: A later-game puppet is basically a [[ComicBook/{{Spawn}} Hellspawn]].

The game would eventually receive two sequels. The first one, ''Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Prince'', was also released on the Playstation and follows the adventures of Cornet's daughter. The second sequel, ''Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom'', was released on the UsefulNotes/Playstation2, and is a VignetteEpisode adventure, telling additional stories that focus on Cornet, her daughter, and various other characters in the Marl Kingdom, taking place within the time frame of both games as well as Marl Kingdom's past and future. The sequels didn't receive an international release until 2023 in the form of ''Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles'', a CompilationRerelease for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, and PC. These games laid the groundwork for ''VideoGame/LaPucelle'' and, eventually, the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series.

The game would eventually receive two sequels. The first one, ''Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Prince'', was also released on the Playstation and follows the adventures of Cornet's daughter. The second sequel, ''Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom'', was released on the UsefulNotes/Playstation2, and is a VignetteEpisode adventure, telling additional stories that focus on Cornet, her daughter, and various other characters in the Marl Kingdom, taking place within the time frame of both games as well as Marl Kingdom's past and future. The sequels didn't receive an international release until 2023 in the form of ''Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles'', a CompilationRerelease for the Nintendo Switch, UsefulNotes/Playstation5, and PC. These games laid the groundwork for ''VideoGame/LaPucelle'' and, eventually, the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series.