Line #64 VideoGame/GaiasMelody


1	[[quoteright:616:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8348.jpeg]]
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3	''Gaia's Melody'' is a UsefulNotes/RPGMaker XP adventure game made by [=Echo607=] in 2006. The game follows Akira, who after having an argument with her sister, Echo, hangs out with her friends until her hometown gets attacked.
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5	A sequel, ''Gaia's Melody 2: Another Epilogue'', was released in 2014, also using RPG Maker XP, with the heroes of the first game squaring off against a new threat.
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7	They and the other {{Freeware\|Games}} games can be downloaded from [=Echo607=]'s site, [[http://echoedgames.com/ here]].
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9	A {{Freeware\|Games}} SpinOff, ''Miscellaneous Adventures'', was released in 2015, using RPG Maker MV, as a way of testing out it's features.
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11	A {{Remake}} of the first game, ''Gaia's Melody: Echoed Melodies'', was released on October 20, 2017, updating the original game to RPG Maker MV and adding several new features. Download from Steam [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/725410/Gaias_Melody_Echoed_Melodies/ here]].
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13	A second {{Freeware\|Games}} SpinOff, ''Third-Wheel Player'', was released on February 14, 2019, as the end result of a 14-day personal challenge to make a DatingSim for Valentine's Day, a.k.a "Start on Feb. 1, end on Feb. 14, using RPG Maker MV. The objective is for the player to try and date one of the game's characters.
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15	A remake of the second game, ''Gaia's Melody 2: Echoed Memories'' was released on November 5, 2021. Download from Steam [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1752090/Echoed_Memories/ here]].
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17	!!''Gaia's Melody'' provides examples of the following tropes:
18	* AndYourRewardIsClothes: In the equipment screen, each character has a slot to determine their current costume. In ''Echoed Memories'', a puzzle in [[spoiler:Cronan's Fortress]] requires Akira to equip the same costume as an illusionary Akira on the other side of the wall in order to complete the mirror image.
19	* {{Animesque}}: The hand-drawn dialogue sprites can be pretty cutesy, and several of the themes that appear would no be out of place in certain types of anime.
20	* AnotherDimension: What the Gate leads to. It links [[spoiler:the world of Gaia, where the game is set and magic exists, and Earth, where nobody can use magic]].
21	* AngerBornOfWorry: When Akira and friends return to Eeon after leaving to find a way to control her powers, Doken is not pleased about then leaving, although he manages to control his anger pretty well.
22	* TheBadGuyWins: Played straight, then subverted. Agares manages to get through the Gate, but Akira and co end up following him to Earth, when after fighting him, they throw him inside the Gate, which allows him to become a God, but since he dragged Akira and friends with him, they are able to fight him to a standstill, [[spoiler: upon which he gets consumed by the Angel]].
23	* BagOfSpilling: Played with in ''Echoed Memories''. The returning cast all start at lower levels, but they have more starting skills than their past selves. [[spoiler:Fortunately, this also applies to Agares, who goes from having endgame boss stats to having early game boss stats, despite having the same OneWingedAngel form, although that can be explained by the fact he has only recently reformed.]]
24	* BigBad: Agares is responsible for all the conflict involved, as everything he does is so he can go through the Gate in his quest for Godhood.
25	* BittersweetEnding: The True Ending. [[spoiler:While Akira have awakened from her coma, it cost Echo her life to wake her up]].
26	* BossInMooksClothing: The Mishi enemy in Majikk Jungle has a large pool of HP compared to other enemies in the area and has 900 magic attack, which is more than enough to oneshot a party member at this point. The bestiary description just recommends running away if the player encounters one, which is a good idea if Akira doesn't have Usagi Song.
27	* BrutalBonusLevel: In ''Echoed Memories'', the Creator's Ruins is a dungeon that starts out on par with the Castle of Myth, but the party gets debuffed more the further they go. However, it's possible to bypass this mechanic entirely by meeting the conditions for the Manster-Stay-Gone Ring, which prevents all random encounters.
28	* CantDropTheHero: During most segments where the player can swap out party members, Akira cannot be removed, which means she inevitably gets the lion's share of EXP. The only exception is in the Creator's Ruins in ''Echoed Memories'', where the player is allowed to swap her out. However, if they leave the ruins, Akira and Zephyr will be locked into the party again.
29	* CoolAirship: Doken owns one that he uses to travel, as well as taking the residents of Magikk to safety. Unfortunately a mind controlled Kasumi destroys it with her newfound magic.
30	** Doken later builds a new one that he uses to travel around [[spoiler:to unbind the seals for the Gate so the gang can go to Earth to stop Agares from takingover the planet]], and Akira gets to name it.
31	* CoolGate: The Gate. [[spoiler: It links the worlds of Gaia and Earth together]].
32	* DoomedHometown: Akira has lived in Teralolz for four years at the start of the first game, and don't stay much longer because the town gets rocked by earthquakes, set ablaze and flooded, courtesy of Zephyr's friends magic.
33	** This happens to Choko's hometown of Arber Village very soon afterwards, with Aaron Brass using his powers as an Earth Mage to turn the village into a giant hole in the ground.
34	* DownerEnding: The Bad Ending. [[spoiler:Akira loses control of her powers and causes a giant explosion that wipes out the whole world. She wakes up in a massive crater and is last seen collapsing in despair after trying to find any survivors]].
35	* FanBoy[=/=]FanGirl: Doken has quite a few that have formed their own club, which Akira can visit.
36	** A few of Doken's fans are this for Whyp as well.
37	** In the second game, Akira finds she has her own fan club.
38	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Quite a few examples.
39	** Right at the start, there is a hatchet in Reina's house, and when examined it's noted that it's dangerous for children to wield. [[spoiler:Reina gives it to you later if you remember her name, and if you equip it during the final battle, you get the bad ending]].
40	** Soon after that, it starts raining in Teralolz, and Akira wonders how it's possible to rain if Teralolz is surrounded by waterfalls and covered by land. [[spoiler:It a hint the Leith is preparing to flood the village]].
41	** Right before the FinalBoss fight with [[spoiler:Aria, she initially appears in the image of Eiko. While the party initially wrote this off as an illusion to make Akira feel guilty, ''Echoed Memories'' has Aria share a body with Eiko in order to judge Akira once more.]]
42	* FreakyFridayFlip: At the orb shrine in Mizu Village, [[spoiler:Akira and Zephyr fight over the orb and are knocked out. When they wake up, they realize they switched bodies.]]
43	* GodhoodSeeker: This is was Agares wants. He achieves it after Akira throws him into the Gate.
44	* GoldenEnding: The Good Ending. Akira wakes up from her coma, and remembers what happened with Eiko, but Echo tells her it's alright, and she considers her her sister.
45	* HelloInsertNameHere: When Akira returns to the Kemoneko village and talks to the kemoneko, Akira has to give her a name. The player gets to choose the name.
46	* HopelessBossFight: The first two fights with Agares. No matter what he gets through the Gate. The fights themselves aren't impossible, as if your levels are high enough you can take him on, but if you do enough damage to him, he unleashes a TotalPartyKill attack, and carries on.
47	* IOweYouMyLife: Deconstructed. Kemoneko are obligated to serve those who save their lives. Unfortunately, Agares exploits this by attacking and sparing Honoka, forcing her into servitude with this loophole. In ''Echoed Memories'', [[spoiler:Earth's Cronan]] does the same to the entire village of Foresta.
48	* InterfaceSpoiler: In ''Echoed Memories'' Chapter 15, the player will gain control of a boy working for Terrene and won't have access to the menu. [[spoiler:Activating an autosave or using a save point reveals that the boy is actually Kari in disguise, not that she did much beyond [[PaperThinDisguise dyeing her hair a different shade of brown]].]]
49	* LeakedExperience: Averted. Experience is not shared to reserve party members, which means the player has to rotate characters.
50	* MultipleEndings: Three endings.
51	** Bad Ending: Achieved by equipping Reina's hatchet before going into the final battle. After returning from inside the Gate, Akira is left comatose, and with Agares gone peace fills the earth. King Alexander decide Doken would make a better king than him and crowns him king, Kachie goes off to look for a way of saving Akira, and is joined by Ferrik, Mink and Niki, Tara decide to rebuild Teraloz on monster island. Tadase takes a comatose Akira out of Eeon and takes her to a empty river to tell a story about her past, and is joined by Kachie, Tara and Echo. Echo decides to take Akira back to Eeon, but she wakes up, and remembers her past and what she did. She gets angry at Echo for saving her and loses control of her powers, first killing Kachie, Tadase and Tara, then Echo, then the rest of the world. She wakes up in a massive crater, and ends up desperately looking for someone who survived, and then gives up in despair.
52	** Good Ending: Achieved by neither Reina's hatchet or having Echo in the party before going into the final battle. After returning from inside the Gate, Akira is left comatose, and with Agares gone peace fills the earth. King Alexander decide Doken would make a better king than him and crowns him king, Kachie goes off to look for a way of saving Akira, and is joined by Ferrik, Mink and Niki, Tara decide to rebuild Teraloz on monster island. Tadase takes a comatose Akira out of Eeon and takes her to a empty river to tell a story about her past, and is joined by Kachie, Tara and Echo. Echo decides to take Akira back to Eeon, but she wakes up, and remembers her past and what she did, only for Echo to tell her she doesn't care.
53	** True Ending: Achieved by having Echo in the party before going into the final battle. After returning from inside the Gate, Akira is left comatose, and with Agares gone peace fills the earth. King Alexander decide Doken would make a better king than him and crowns him king, Ferrik secludes himself, claiming that he must get stronger, Zephyr becomes the ruler of Mirrikh, and Tara, Tadase, Echo and several of the residents of Tereloz move to Monster Island, co-existing with the monsters and rebuilding New Tereloz, which Kachie, Miki, Niki and Ferrik travels to. Akira is left slowly dying, and Echo gives her life to awake Akira, who meet in the afterlife to say good bye. Akira wakes up near the original Tereloz, surrounded by her friends, where they vow to see Echo again.
54	* {{Muggles}}: Earth is full of these, as nobody there can use magic. It's the reason Agares wants to travel through the gate, because he would be the only one capable of using magic, and as TheArchmage would easily be able to conquer the world.
55	* {{Nerf}}:
56	** In ''Echoed Melodies'', Zephyr had a ridiculously high magic defense growth that allowed him to tank most magic attacks. In ''Echoed Memories'', his magic defense is more in line with the rest of the party, though he gained some useful debuff skills to compensate.
57	** In ''Echoed Melodies'', Doken had a very cheap and spammable skill, [=SuperOmniDeathStrike=], that could trivialize most encounters. In ''Echoed Memories'', [=SuperOmniDeathStrike=] now costs a full TP bar, making it less spammable. Doken eventually learns Omnislash, the best physical AOE in the game, but it's still not as powerful or cheap as the original [=SuperOmniDeathStrike=].
58	* NumericalHard: ''Echoed Memories'' has a difficulty setting that applies a multiplier to enemy stats, and the difficulties are named "Boost Mode," "The Usual," and AHHHHHH!" in ascending order. The lowest difficulty also applies an experience multiplier. This setting can be changed at any time in the Options menu.
59	* OneHitKill: Tadase's Guillotine skill has a 5% chance of inflicting instant death. Many enemies have the Crater Bite skill, which also has deathblow properties.
60	* OnlyOneName: Everybody except for Aaron Brass.
61	* PermanentlyMissableContent: Both ''Echoed Melodies'' and ''Echoed Memories'' have [[PointOfNoReturn points of no return]] that lock out certain areas, but the latter game takes it a step further by having collectible artwork items that tend to have small windows of opportunity to obtain.
62	* PunchClockVillain: It's implied that many of the people who work for Agares are this, mainly due to fear of what he might do to those who defy him.
63	* RandomEncounters: This game uses a traditional encounter system where enemies show up after a certain amount of steps, but some areas are exceptional in that they use non-respawning PreexistingEncounters instead.
64	* RocketTagGameplay: Random encounters are just as capable of spamming AOE spells as a well-built party, and the player is expected to wipe them out with AOE spells before they can do the same.
65	* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Aagres may be an evil overlord, but he doesn't stay in his throne room. The gang, sans Akira, spend a good portion of the first game chasing after him in an attempt to stop him from using Akira to opening the seals binding the Gate, although they are unable to stop him.
66	** Doken may be a Prince, but he gives it his all trying to stop Agares.
67	* StylisticSuck: In ''Echoed Memories'', Misu's recap play of the first game is very inaccurate and exaggerates many of the characters' mannerisms. The actors themselves aren't particularly motivated to stay true to the characters, except for the one playing Agares, and even he has a few ad libs in response to his colleagues' ad libs. Most of the party members are annoyed by the cheesiness of the portrayals and are shocked at how Misu knows certain details.
68	* SunkenCity: Terelolz ends up this way after the first chapter, thanks to Leith's water magic.
69	* {{Superboss}}: ''Echoed Memories'' has the Creator's Ruins dungeon, where [=Echo607=] herself waits at the end as a boss. She's far stronger than anything else in the game, since she has maxed stats on normal mode and can regenerate 49999 HP every turn.
70	* ThirdActStupidity: In ''Echoed Memories'', the party fails to consider the fact that [[spoiler:they haven't permanently killed off Agares, who still lurks in Evermore. This is despite their repeated encounters with Agares that prove that he's unkillable through normal means. As such, when Akira opens the Gate to send Cronan, Nara, and the Earth refugees back home, Agares kills them all. This results in Akira becoming traumatized and reverting back to her memories as Melody.]]
71	* TrappedInAnotherWorld: [[spoiler: Alt!Cronon]] and his followers end up like this after travelling through the gate.
72	* VirtualPaperDoll: Each character has an alternative costume in the first game, and multiple costumes in the second games.
73	* YaoiFangirl: A few of Doken and Whyp's fangirls are this, and Akira can actually read some yaoi in Doken's fanclub if Whyp is with her, but he will stop her reading when he realizes what she is reading.

Context VideoGame / GaiasMelody