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2%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
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4
5An independent freeware RPG Maker 2003 game by Doug "DJC" Carpenter, with a setting best described as a {{Fantasy}} ConstructedWorld. Started several years ago as a Final Fantasy fan-game, and has existed in multiple incarnations over time, some of them VERY different from each other, until DJC decided to pull out all former versions and make the latest, much-revised version the "official" one.
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7Unusual for having, as the name would suggest, an incredibly long playtime no matter which way the player goes about completing it. Add to that a differently-flavored story for this kind of game despite it being full of references to famous and less famous SpeculativeFiction works, some very unusual battle mechanics and a thoroughly distinctive dungeon design.
8
9The story starts out by following an elite Cirigoth Blackguard as he attempts to desert from his own army, triggering his meeting with a couple of outlaws at war against the Tyr-Anox invasion force. As the plot advances, our heroes will progressively get involved in events of a much, much larger scale.
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11Official website is found [[http://nealien.com/Everlong/ here]]. [=RPGMaker=].net link is [[https://rpgmaker.net/games/3600/ here]].
12
13----
14!!Everlong contains examples of:
15
16* ActionGirl:
17** Meredith, Julia, and Vixen are all competent fighters in their own rights. Meredith and Julia are {{Combat Medic}}s, Vixen is a summoner.
18** The vast majority of Tyr-Anox soldiers are women, and they managed to conquer a good chunk of their continent with Cirigoth help.
19* AdaptationNameChange: The character named Brad in earlier versions of the game is renamed Azrael in version 3.30.
20* AdaptationalHeroism:
21** In version 3.30, the Invincible Four [[spoiler:were unwilling servants of Expirius and the original Four Heroes to boot]]. Not so much in previous versions, where most of them were {{Card Carrying Villain}}s.
22** [[spoiler:Likewise, the 3.30 version of Expirius himself comes to regret his contract with Entropy and all his actions were done in an attempt to free himself of the evil god. Though he also falls under AdaptationalVillainy when he destroys the Triangle Island base along with several Valiantide members.]]
23* AerithAndBob: Just look at the names of the characters. On the one hand, you have names like Gerovitus, Daevus, Altair, Expirius. One of the main characters is called Azrael. On the other hand, there are names like Julia, Meredith, Justin...
24* AffablyEvil: Entropy is surprisingly a good sport for a GreaterScopeVillain: he congratulates the heroes when they're able to resist his last attempt to corrupt them. He even stops his evil plans when the party earns his respect.
25* AntiGrinding: The level cap system. As soon as your characters reach an experience level considered too high for that point in the story, no more random encounters for you. The level cap system is scrapped in version 3.30, but there's an option to lower the EXP and encounter rate as the party gains levels.
26%%* ApocalypticLog: You find a rather disturbing trail of Memory Beacons [[spoiler:abandoned deep inside Nemus Aevum]].
27%%* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: Pandemonium is HUGE.
28%%* BehindTheBlack: Starts creeping up in later dungeons. Meridion Caverns and Viridis Mons are among the bigger offenders.
29* BetterToDieThanBeKilled:
30** [[spoiler:Nergal, a member of the Invincible Four, once tried to kill himself in order to avoid experiencing Expirius's apocalypse. Unfortunately, he ended up being brought back as an undead servant.]]
31** [[spoiler:Similarly, Gerovitus also tries to go out on his own terms by dying to the party in battle, only to become an undead servant too.]]
32* BigBad: Expirius is the main antagonist of the game.
33* BigBadWannabe: Emperor Daevus fancies himself as a great conqueror and is indeed a threat for the world's other nations, but he is a small fry compared to the real enemy. Even more now that he's been DemotedToExtra in Version 3.30.
34* BigBadassBattleSequence: The Battle at the White Gate, and a much bigger, playable one with the War of the Eclipse are two long sequences of battle. The first marks the beginning of the war between Cirigon and the rest of the free nations of the world, the second takes place in the sky while the heroes go from airship to airship in order to get to Altair.
35* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Every character is able to face the future in spite of their past losses, except Azrael who remains behind in the Abyss in order to atone for being an UnwittingPawn to Expirius.]]
36%%* BonusDungeon: Too many to list.
37* BossRush: [[spoiler:In version 3.30, the Invincible 4 fight the party one at a time. However, they do it all in one battle, so the party keeps their buffs for the next enemy.]]
38* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler:Azrael]] after having demonic spirits implanted inside of his mind is mind-controlled by Expirius, the BigBad.
39* ChestMonster: Red chests trigger a fight if the player tries to open them and the fight must be won in order to receive the loot inside them.
40* TheConqueror: Emperor Daevus's life goal of choice is to try and unite by force all the world under his rule.
41%%* ConstructedWorld: Like the majority of {{Fantasy}} settings.
42%%* DeadpanSnarker: Altair. Glen has his moments as well.
43* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:Emperor Daevus]] is known for having made talks offerings to lure his potential enemies, before backstabbing them. He is literally backstabbed [[spoiler:and betrayed]] by [[spoiler:his DragonWithAnAgenda Altair]]. Bonus points for this happening when he was planning another dubious negotiation.
44* DecoyProtagonist: Azrael is the first playable character, but is eventually booted from the party for most of the game. Glen could be considered the real main character, but even that is not clear-cut, though the other characters consider him to be the most suitable leader due to his pragmatism.
45* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: They're called the Invincible Four for a reason [[spoiler:though they [[ILetYouWin let the protagonists win]] during their first fights]]. Uber Daemon and Khaer Magnus may also count.
46%%* DemonLordsAndArchDevils: The five Abyssal Lords.
47* DemotedToExtra: Before the latest version of the game (v.3.30), and as he is the DiscOneFinalBoss, Emperor Daevus had an important presence in the first part of the game: the story would regularly cut to him scheming with his assistants. All of his scenes before his [[spoiler:assassination]] were cut out of v3.30.
48* DevelopersForesight: If you win the HopelessBossFight against [[spoiler:Expirius]] via the rebirth system or by setting all enemy stat multipliers to 0.1%, he'll paralyze the entire party and win anyways.
49* DifficultyLevels: Version 3.30 allows the player to adjust percentages for enemy stats, though they're given easy, default, and hard presets. There's also an auto mode that adjusts enemies relative to the party's strength.
50* DiscOneFinalDungeon: The fleet of airships during the War of the Eclipse, and later Nemus Aevum forest, are long levels that appear to be the climax of the story, but aren't.
51* TheDragon: Lord Altair is Emperor Daevus' second-in-command and field agent, but [[spoiler:[[DragonWithAnAgenda ends up literally backstabing him]]]]. In reality, he's [[spoiler:Expirius' second-in-command]].
52* DuelBoss: Justin fights [[spoiler:General Aries]] in a one-on-one duel during the War of the Eclipse. If you so choose, Dynamo can be one for Willis.
53* EldritchAbomination: Pandemonium and Uber Daemon have no known origin or purpose, are terrifyingly large and strange-looking and are among the most powerful creatures in the whole game.
54* TheEmperor: Emperor Daevus of Cirigon is well... an emperor. He also wants to conquer the rest of the world.
55* TheEmpire: Cirigon is an empire that wishes to expand.
56* EmptyRoomPsych: Tyr-Anon castle, [[spoiler:after being abandoned]], becomes very confusing and paranoia-inducing: no treasures, no fights, no [=PNJ=]s. Just empty rooms. In fact, the only living soul the heroes encounter is [[spoiler:Gerovitus himself]] in the throne room, because [[spoiler:Altair and his forces have already killed everyone else]].
57* EnemyMine: Briefly between the heroes and [[spoiler:Gerovitus]], who gives them useful informations about [[spoiler:Altair and Expirius]] because [[spoiler:Altair]] betrayed him.
58%%* EthicalSlut: Vixen. She's pretty direct about it.
59* EvenEvilHasStandards: Dokkalfar, a greedy scrooge of a dragon, is terrified of what kind of world Expirius will create.
60%%* EvilChancellor: Dolus.
61* EvilFormerFriend: [[spoiler:In version 3.30, Expirius was once Ipsirion, a friend to the Four Heroes, which is why they weren't willing to finish him off once and for all.]]
62%%* EvilOverlord: Expirius.
63* ExcaliburInTheRust: The equipment of the Four Heroes lost much of their power and the Valiantide plan to restore them. [[spoiler:The villains steal the gear to unlock the Pure Lands and the party fails to steal them back. However, version 3.30 allows the party to revisit Auctus after getting the Aetherius and take back the equipment for real. By placing them at the top of the White Shrine and then beating Expirius at the top of Atlantis, the equipment will be restored to their full power.]]
64* ExtendedGameplay: The final side quest, though designed for the NewGamePlus mode, is accessible immediately by picking the Continue+ option after the Epilogue.
65* FauxAffablyEvil: The NPC, Hammond, reveals that Altair truly enjoys the suffering of others underneath his suave exterior.
66* {{Foil}}: Colonel Justin with [[EvilCounterpart General Aries]]. Justin is a commoner, Aries a nobleman. Justin is polite and friendly towards his allies (even if they're commoners), Aries is scornful towards everyone who's not Emperor Daevus, even Gerovitus (who is the leader of an ally kingdom). Justin fights in the front lines, Aries supervises his army from a distance. Unsurprisingly, the two are mortal enemies.
67* FourIsDeath: The Deathblow move hits 3 times, dealing up to a targets Max HP - 4.
68%%* GlobalAirship: The Aetherius.
69* GracefulLoser: [[spoiler: In the ending, Entropy congratulates the heroes for overcoming his final attempt to MindRape and [[TheFinalTemptation tempt]] them.]]
70* GreaterScopeVillain: The fallen god Entropy is the one responsible of Expirius' corruption, but it's the latter's actions that drive the plot.
71* GunNut: Dynamo, big time. His arsenal includes a wide variety of guns and he sees nothing wrong with sabotaging a ship in the middle of a storm ''while he's aboard'' to force Willis to fight him to get it back.
72* HighAltitudeBattle: The War of the Eclipse takes place both on the ground and in the skies, between airships, although the heroes only take part in the airship battle.
73* HopelessBossFight: One unwinnable fight against [[spoiler:Altair]] happens early on, as the story needs the characters to be captured by the Cirigoth Empire. Two with [[spoiler:Expirius]] follow suit. In v3.30, [[spoiler:the first fight with Expirius was cut out]].
74* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Depending on Glen's dialogue choices with potential love interests, the girl that doesn't win can feel this way, [[spoiler:as shown during Entropy's MindRape sequence where he taunts them about their unrequited love.]]
75* ImAHumanitarian: Aegir's lieutenant ate the human guards.
76* {{Jerkass}}:
77** Commander Lysander, in spite of working for the Valiantide, is a very unpleasant person: a haughty CommanderContrarian.
78** General Aries is also a massive dick towards his own allies, with his haughty and scornful personality.
79%%* KillerRabbit: Carbunkle.
80%%* LackOfEmpathy: Azrael knows very few ways other than that of brute force, as a direct result of his peculiar upbringing.
81%%* LargeHam: Expirius is a huge case of this, and many of his underlings hold their own at the game. Gerovitus and Aries have their moments too.
82%%* LastDitchMove: A possibly murderous one is cast by [[spoiler:Guardian Dragona]].
83%%* LazyBackup: The four party members limit will result in this during some sequences.
84* LoadsAndLoadsOfSidequests: The sidequest frequency is fairly consistent until you get the Inceptum, which then opens up sidequests all around the globe. Amusingly, one sidequest involves gathering several books that contain information about most of the other sidequests.
85%%* TheLostWoods: Eridwell's Refuge, Quercetum Woods, Senium Forest and the much bigger Nemus Aevum.
86* MagicKnight: Azrael and the Cirigoth Blackguards in general are accomplished swordmasters and can also use magic.
87%%* Manchild: [[spoiler:Vetu.]] Probably.
88%%* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: For the most part, though oddities in that respect start popping up once Act II rolls in.
89* MindRape: [[spoiler:Entropy puts the party through their best dreams and worst nightmares. It's implied he did the same to the Invincible Four to force their cooperation.]]
90* MissingSecret: The gate guards of Revirdok will not let you inside the city because of the nasty crisis going on. At no point in the story will the area ever open, no matter what you do in the game.
91* TheMole:
92** Azrael is an unwilling one for Altair [[spoiler:due to being possessed by a demon.]]
93** Vixen and Willis are set up as obvious ones thanks to their obvious lie about working for Gaius, who's merely a figurehead in the Valiantide. [[spoiler:In a subversion, while Vixen was working for the Unicon, she never told them anything about the party because she knew defeating Expirius is far more important than petty politics.]]
94* MookHorrorShow: The prologue (Azrael's escape) is this for Cirigoth and Tyr-Anox soldiers: Azrael slaughters the terrified soldiers one after an other.
95%%* NewGamePlus: With a bunch of quirky features.
96* NonActionBigBad: Empereor Daevus, [[spoiler:before he's revealed to be a DiscOneFinalBoss]], is the man who threatens to conquer all the nations of the world, but he's a politician, not a fighter.
97* OptionalPartyMember: In version 3.30, there's a sidequest to recruit [[spoiler:Cirus, who needs a Chronoprism to be freed from Expirius's time prison.]]
98* OrcusOnHisThrone: Emperor Daevus almost never leaves his palace and prefers to let his generals (like Aries) do the dirty work.
99%%* ThePaladin: Cirus the Great is a textbook case.
100%%* PatrioticFervor: One of several defining traits for Meredith.
101%%* PoorPredictableRock: Averted. Even bosses that are aligned with one element tend to have dual-elemental skills and non-elemental skills to ensure the player can't just resist all their attacks.
102* PragmaticVillainy: Emperor Daevus is willing to spare Valiantide prisoners and negotiate with his enemies in order to build [[VillainWithGoodPublicity good PR]] and make them let their guards down. He also advises his army to avoid needless destruction to the lands they conquer, since it would be hard to milk these lands for resources otherwise. Unfortunately for him, [[spoiler:Altair and the Invincible Four care less about winning the war efficiently and more about causing enough bloodshed to revive Expirius.]]
103* ProfessorGuineaPig: Ament is a MadScientist who experimented on himself.
104* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: General Gerovitus of Tyr-Anon has shades of this. He has a MightMakesRight philosophy and therefore believes that the strong should rule over the weak because their strength makes them superior
105* RapeAsBackstory: In an older version, [[spoiler:Julia]] describes going through this experience, and it seems to have heavily damaged her psyche. This backstory is now only very lightly implied and this character has a separate backstory.
106* RealPersonCameo: A side quest lets you fight [[spoiler:"Osama". However, version 3.30 replaces his boss battle with a Blob boss, [[AlwaysABiggerFish which killed him first]].]]
107* LaResistance: The Valiantide are a underground network fighting against the Cirigoth Empire's yoke.
108* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified: Averted. While the Valiantide fights against [[TheEmpire Cirigoth oppression]], they sometimes use decidedly questionable methods in their struggle against the Cirigoth empire, a few warriors in their ranks have been reported to commit full-fledged criminal acts, and one of the higher-ups you get to meet is an unbelievable {{Jerkass}}. Not so extreme, however, that it counts as TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized.
109%%* RunningGag: Juji Fruits. They're very refreshing.
110* SacrificialLamb: [[spoiler:Eve, Justin]]'s fiancee is killed off right after her introduction and a few lines of dialogue, to give Justin a motivation to fight the bad guys for the rest of the game.
111* SacrificialLion: Over the course of the story, important characters are killed off at key moments of the game.
112** [[spoiler:Both Azrael and Cirus]] are killed in older versions of the game, only to be [[SparedByTheAdaptation spared by v3.30]]. [[spoiler:Cirus]] dies in a HeroicSacrifice to help the heroes and, later, [[spoiler:Azrael]] kills himself to prevent Expirius from controlling him more and [[spoiler:atone for his past as a Black Night]].
113** [[spoiler:Logan, one of the few reasonable Valiantide leaders, is killed in Expirius's assault on the Triangle Island Base]] in order to show the threat of the BigBad.
114* SecretTestOfCharacter: [[spoiler:Logan pretends to have received a message from Gaius concerning Vixen and Willis's orders, causing them to confess about who they were working for. Then it turns out everyone else already dug up that information beforehand and they decide to give the two another chance for telling the truth.]]
115%%* SideQuest: You can keep track of most of them thanks to the journal. There are, however, a handful of exceptions.
116* SmugSnake: Dokkalfar acts like a high and mighty dragon, but he [[DirtyCoward caved in rather easily]] to the cult's demands and he isn't even that hard compared to other optional bosses.
117%%* SongsInTheKeyOfPanic: A fine complement to [[spoiler:Pandemonium's startling growls]].
118%%* ShoutOut: By the dozens.
119* SkillPointReset: Skill point reallocation has absolutely no penalty, making it easy to customize the characters for any situation.
120* StoryDifficultySetting: The game allows the player to change between normal and story mode outside of dungeons. If the player enters a dungeon in story mode, they can avoid all random encounters, can use healing points to reach the level cap of the area, or choose to skip the boss. However, this doesn't work for bonus dungeons, which are normal mode only until the boss is beaten.
121* StraightEdgeEvil: Tyr-Anox law has a rather suprisingly puritanical mindset in some areas, for instance cracking down against prostitution.
122* SuicideByCop: A possible interpretation of [[spoiler:Gerovitus]]'s decision to fight against the heroes after their [[spoiler:brief EnemyMine moment]] insteand of cooperating further. He knew Altair was going to kill him anyway because he knew too much, so he decided to die by his own terms in a fight instead of waiting for Altair to silence him, in a BetterToDieThanBeKilled kind of way.
123* SummonMagic: Drakeor and Vixen can summon dragons and members of the 13 deities respectively.
124* TheAllSeeingAI: If you play cards with Swank or play Blackjack at Isla de Sol, the AI will gain this ability if you bet too high. This leads to the opponent either folding if you have a better hand or calling your bet if you have a worse hand.
125* TraumaInn: A rather literal case, as the amount of money you get charged for depends entirely on the amount of HP your party members are currently missing.
126* TheUnfought: [[spoiler:Emperor Daevus]] is killed before the heroes can confront him.
127* TragicMonster: In version 3.30, all of the Invincible Four. [[spoiler:They were once the Four Heroes, only to be corrupted and controlled by Expirius and Entropy. In their last encounter, they can only tell the party to kill them and free them from their servitude.]]
128* UndyingLoyalty: General Aries is deeply loyal to Emperor Daevus. It's especially noticeable because [[spoiler:he's the only known high-ranking Cirigoth officer who didn't conspire against him]].
129%%* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Expirius's mission statement.
130* TheUnreveal: We never really find out why [[spoiler:Azrael chose to desert from the Cirigoth army]].
131* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:The Cirigoth Empire and Tyr-Anon]] were manipulated by Expirius and [[spoiler:Altair]]. Namely, they were used to [[spoiler:create enough bloodshed to help release Expirius from his interdimensional prison]].
132* UpdatedRerelease: This game went through several major updates, with v3.30 being the most recent one.
133%%* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: Atlantis Fortress. It's big.
134%%* VillainTeleportation: Altair uses it often.
135* WarIsHell: Keen's short tale of the Cirigoth invasion is anything but pretty, and enemy {{Mooks}} sometimes act in ways that are certain to make the more sensitive-minded players uneasy...
136%%* WarriorPoet: Colonel Justin Stryker is a major example.
137* WhamEpisode: The whole sequence at Red Carpet Square. The heroes infiltrate it disguised as Cirigoth soldiers, hoping to get a shot at Emperor Daevus and save Logan, [[spoiler:only to witness Altair kill Daevus and all witnesses except them after the Emperor talked about negociating with the coalition of nations allied against him, since Altair wants the war to continue. He then takes control of the Cirigoth Empire. This allows the heroes to realize that Daevus isn't the real threat and the war itself is part of Altair's biggest scheme]].
138* WhatMeasureIsAMook: During their infiltration in Tyr-Anon Castle, Sammy and Azrael mercilessly slaughter all Tyr-Anox soldiers that they encounter. However, when they defeat General Gerovitus (a named character), they decide to spare him because it would be "bad" to kill someone who's unable to defend himself. Justified for Azrael, since he's already influenced by [[spoiler:Expirius and Entropy]]. Not so much for Sammy and Glen, who are ''very easily'' convinced to spare the man who's a threat to the entire continent (and swears he will have his revenge). And then, when they leave the castle, they continue to slaughter the Tyr-Anox soldiers.
139* YouCantThwartStageOne: Of course, no matter how hard the heroes try to prevent it from happening in the first part of the game, [[spoiler:Expirius is going to reappear in the real world]].

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