Line #77 VideoGame/Rift


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5	[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rift_box.png]]
6	[[caption-width-right:349:Choose your side. Fight the invasions.]]
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8	Telara is a world that sits at the intersection of the {{Elemental Plane}}s, which allows access to a whole load of resources, has caused it to have breathtaking vistas, given rise to multiple glorious civilizations, and had the unfortunate side effect of attracting [[EldritchAbomination cosmic monstrosities]] who want to take the whole thing for themselves. Also, the enchantment separating these monstrosities from reality has just [[OhCrap been pierced by a madman.]] But don't worry! You, the player characters, are great heroes coming BackFromTheDead to save the world!
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10	Oh, and all the armies of other-worldly monsters [[EvilVersusEvil absolutely hate each other]] and will therefore slaughter each other on sight. So there's that.
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12	[[https://www.trionworlds.com/rift/en/ Rift]] is a 2011 MMORPG from Trion Worlds which purports to be a truly dynamic gaming arena, as opposed to other such games where everything is always the same. This is made possible by, you guessed it, the eponymous [[HellGate rifts]] cropping up randomly and spewing out hordes of monsters, while simultaneously altering the very landscape [[PowerFloats and]] [[PowerGlows just]] [[PowerEchoes generally]] [[FloatingWater looking]] [[ArtMajorPhysics badass.]] The players can either shut the things or use their powers for themselves; it's really a matter of preference, although the [[KnightTemplar Guardians]] would prefer the former and the [[MadScientist Defiant]] might encourage the latter. But whatever your decision, one thing's for sure; if you don't move fast, you just might lose your opportunity!
13
14	The first ExpansionPack, ''Storm Legion'', was released November 13, 2012.
15
16	It became FreeToPlay on June 12, 2013.
17
18	The second ExpansionPack, ''Nightmare Tide'', was released October 22, 2014, and the third, ''Prophecy of Ahnket'' [[note]]formerly ''Starfall Prophecy''[[/note]], was released November 16, 2016.
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21	[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused]] with the tabletop game ''{{TabletopGame/Rifts}}.''
22
23	Character list is [[Characters/{{RIFT}} here]].
24
25	!!This game provides examples of:
26	* AchievementMockery: Killing innocent animals occasionally drops their tears as artifacts, with flavor text such as "So sad." and "You murderer." Not only is there a full set of such artifacts, there is even an achievement for collecting 20 of a certain type.
27	* AfterTheEnd: The Defiant campaign begins with Regulos having conquered Telara and the Defiants scrambling to complete a TimeMachine to send you through before he destroys the one little patch of earth left.
28	* AllOrNothing: A blink-and-miss-it mention in the Defiant tutorial that the use of the time machine to send the newly minted Defiant Ascendant back in time will destroy the remains of the world.
29	%%* AmbiguouslyBrown: Ethian humans.
30	* AnotherDimension: The planes, where each one of the six elements rules unrestrained. Closing portals that their inhabitants can get through is a core part of the game.
31	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Said when discovering a traitor among the Loyal Atragarian Guards in Goboro Reef:
32	-->'''[Player]''': You're insane! And a spy! And you have the wrong hat on!
33	* BadFuture:
34	** Terminus, the Defiant starting zone. Players are sent back to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong.
35	** The 5-man instance "The Fall of Lantern Hook" has you traveling into a vision of the future in which Maelforge has conquered the Droughtlands and possibly the entire world. You run around a rather ashy version of Lantern Hook for a bit before the dragon himself shows up and [[OutrunTheFireball chases you off.]]
36	%%* TheBeastmaster: The Rangers and... {ahem}... [[ShapedLikeItself Beastmasters]].%%How do they fit this trope?
37	* {{BFS}}: Two handed swords look absolutely ridiculous and awesome on Dwarves due to them being bigger than the Dwarf himself.
38	* TheCaligula: The Shade (the event which allowed the dragons to invade again) was caused by one. Ironically, he was the ruler of the Mathosians, who are the leaders of the Guardians--i.e., the people who seal them up again, no questions asked.
39	* CaptainErsatz: The Eth are a nation of human desert-dwellers, despised by the other major human nation for being into {{magitek}}. [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Why does that sound familiar]]?
40	* CastFromHitPoints:
41	** Archons have an oblique way of doing this, in that they translate their ''stats'' to their allies. They make up for the obvious weakening by ''also'' being able to steal their ''enemies''' stats.
42	** Necromancers can use weak heals that sacrifice their own life to give to their allies. It's not all that effective, though, because a Cleric (other than the Cabalist and Shaman) or Chloromancer will always outdo you by a wide margin.
43	* CollectionSidequest: Artifacts. They spawn out in the world in areas ranging from the obvious to the devious and are compiled into sets for each zone of the world. The rewards are not just for completionists/achievement hunters but can also reward you with companion pets or lore.
44	* CombatPragmatist:
45	** The Defiant play this to the hilt. In the Guardian starting area, for example, you learn that they blew up the bridge to Silverwood because they couldn't hold it through force of arms. To the Guardians, this is a horrifying breach of the code of honor. For the Defiant it's [[ButForMeItWasTuesday Tuesday]].
46	** In another instance the general that is beating the Defiant on Freemarch mounts an attack over the bridge mentioned above. The Defiant immediately break out their anti-Ascended equipment and give it to the player to use it on him. For the Defiant, if you find yourself in a fair fight, something has gone terribly wrong.
47	* CrapsackWorld: The Defiant PC begins their adventures by travelling back in time to a place in history where Telara is being constantly invaded by interdimensional portals with all manner of cosmic horrors pouring out every day, corrupting the landscape and murdering everything in sight. Why did you travel back in time to fight the abominations? Because in that future time, the abominations [[TheBadGuyWins won]] and you'd be facing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt if you stayed.
48	* DarkIsNotEvil:
49	** Many classes utilize the Plane of Death, and they aren't any better or worse than anyone else. They're certainly creepier, though.
50	** More generally, the Defiant faction in general can be this. Yes, they include elves who do generally consider the means are justified by the ends, and humans willing to dabble in potentially Ward-breaching levels of magitech, but at the end of the day, they truly do want Regulos dead and Telara saved just as much as the Guardians. (Also, they probably include the most overwhelmingly honorable race in the game.)
51	* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the official lore. You're an Ascended — and therefore technically have a HealingFactor and/or ResurrectiveImmortality — but death, while [[DeathIsNotPermanent temporary for you]], is still traumatic.
52	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: As of version 1.8, four of the six arch-dragons are killable raid-bosses: [[spoiler: Greenscale, the Dragon of Life, Akylios, the Dragon of Water, Laethys, the Dragon of Earth, and Maelforge, the Dragon of Fire.]]. All four have been downed by the players, and as far as the storyline goes, the first two are already dead. That doesn't necessarily mean that they, or their followers, have stopped making problems, though.
53	** As of the 2.1 patch for Storm Legion [[spoiler: Crucia the Storm Dragon and even Regulos himself (in his true form as the God of Death, unlike the other Blood Storm) have been defeated]]. That's the good news. The bad news is that [[spoiler: Crucia's spirit has managed to find a hiding place, so she's still out there, and Regulos, while dead, claims that his presence was holding back something worse]].
54	** It's revealed by the servants of the Goddess of Fate that [[spoiler:the something worse (Akvan) that the Gods of the Elemental Planes are holding back threatens the Elemental Planes and fortunately ''not'' Telara, which they are willing to sacrifice to protect said Planes]]. [[spoiler:Her followers also reveal that if the Ascended (players) allied with Crucia (the one who arranged Regulos's death rather than merely sealing him away) she and the Ascended could have come up with a plan to stop the Akvan... They do ally with her yet she pulls an YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness on them in order to control said Akvan, so they change the portal so that it leads directly to the Akvan that she's trying to control resulting in [[EvilIsNotAToy her being controlled by said greater horrors]]. All the NiceJobBreakingItHero problems can be traced to Crucia holding the VillainBall.]]
55	* DreamLand: Draumheim is largely influenced by thoughts, dreams and nightmares.
56	* DualBoss: Many of these appear throughout the game's various quests, chronicles, dungeons and raids. Trio bosses can appear too. In many cases their mechanics are directly tied to the accompanying bosses in some way.
57	* DuelBoss: General Grim in the Exodus of the Storm Queen dungeon demands that one player fight him alone when he reaches 40% health. From there, the chosen player gains unique abilities they have to use to quickly counter his attacks to avoid death.
58	* EldritchAbomination: Every arch-dragon, but also most anything from the Plane of Water. So you can imagine what Akylios--the Water Dragon--is like. We don't even fight his true form, just his dragon form, which doesn't even compare to his true form.
59	** The ''"doesn't compare to his true form"'' does '''not''' refer to eldritch features but rather numbers: His true form is a herd of Akvan sharks ''identical'' [[FromBadToWorse to his/their "dragon" form.]]
60	* ElementalPowers: Six of them. You have [[DishingOutDirt the]] [[PlayingWithFire basic]] [[BlowYouAway Greek]] [[MakingASplash four]], as well as [[GreenThumb Li]][[TheBeastMaster fe]] and [[CastingAShadow De]][[SoulPower ath]]. ''And they're all [[TheUnfettered amoral at best]] and [[EverythingTryingToKillYou out to get you]]''.
61	* EnoughToGoAround: It's the player character who suffers from this. The tutorial for the Defiant faction has the player in the far future at [[ApocalypseHow the end of the world]]. As the last survivor, they are gifted great power and sent back in time... where they immediately encounter hundreds of other "last survivors". To make matters worse, the first couple of [=NPCs=] you talk to actually comment on what an amazingly unique character you are, but after that, no one ever comments on how almost the entire faction consists of people all in exactly the same unique and unreproducible situation.
62	* EverythingTryingToKillYou: As far as Greenscale's concerned, this is the ''only'' acceptable kind of world. For that matter, take care going AFK unless you're in a place like the depths of Meridian, the middle of a lake, or a mountaintop. Many a player has come back to the keyboard to find a surprise skeleton/golem/fairy/troll doing a victory dance on their grave--in the middle of a now-conquered town. As a matter of fact the lakes aren't safe either, on the account of things [[SeaMonster lurking]] in them too.
63	* EvilVersusEvil: All planes hate each other and will fight to death if two of them meet. There are also neutral mobs that will aggro on you ''as well'' as on invading planes, possibly helping you out.
64	* ExpansionPackWorld: The three major expansions each add additional continents or areas to explore.
65	* EyesDoNotBelongThere: Anything and everything related to Nightmares.
66	* TheFairFolk: D'aaaw, look at those cute faeries, aren't they swee- [[BlackEyesOfEvil HOLY]] [[ImAHumanitarian SHI--!]] Thankfully, the faerie aren't ''all'' like that. The Druids' hat is that they've allied themselves with those faeries and satyrs [[LaResistance utterly opposed to Greenscale]].
67	* FantasticRacism: While most of the faction conflict appears to be political and cultural, Alaric the Fanatic's reference to "planetouched abominations" in [[BadFuture Terminus]] plays the trope straight.
68	* FinalExamBoss: [[EldritchAbomination Akylios]] in Hammerknell, as detailed on that trope page.
69	* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: The ''past'' in the case of the Defiant, the light being you. The future world you leave behind has a single day of existence left before being utterly destroyed. Your purpose in the past thus becomes [[ScrewDestiny obvious]]. This is actually how the Guardian starting zone ends. You go from defeating the Shade of Regulos to twenty years in the future, the same moment the Defiant PC arrives from the future.
70	* FluffyTheTerrible: A giant werewolf named Fluffy, Destroyer of Worlds can spawn in Gloamwood, with stats to fit its title.
71	* ForcedTransformation: Aside from the Dominator's Transmogrify spell, there's a quest in Silverwood. You know those Unusual Deer and Unusual Squirrels Critters you've been killing for the fun of it? [[spoiler:They're townfolk from Argent Glade a faerie polymorphed.]] This is also done to citizens of Dolcega Valley who refuse to comply by the Storm Legion's HappinessIsMandatory rule.
72	* GambitPileup: A big part of the reason why the Blood Storm's first raid failed. Infighting among the arch-dragons (particularly Regulos against all the other arch-dragons, who didn't appreciate [[OmnicidalManiac that his agenda auto-precluded all of theirs]]) divided and interdicted their efforts enough that the gods and mortals were able to seal them off.
73	* GenderBender: [[spoiler: Finric the skelf from ''Nightmare Tide'', who starts as male and becomes female in the story quests similar to some species of fish.]]
74	* GentleGiant: To some degree, the bahmi have this as their [[PlanetOfHats hat]]: The largest and most imposing playable race in the game, they live by a code of honor emphasizing hospitality and honesty. ''And'' they simultaneously manage to be a ProudWarriorRace.
75	* AGodAmI: Mild case, the reason the Kelari Elves split from the High Elf faction is due to a technical version of this. The High Elves are happy with being subservient to the Vigil....the Kelari believe they're equal to Gods. (Or, at least, that their relationship with petty deities should be one of negotiation rather than service.)
76	* GodIsInept: This trope is why the Defiant are a group of {{Naytheist}} [[MadScientist mad scientists]]. As they looked at the Ward, the Gods' attempt to protect Telara from the Blood Storm, and thought, "Really? This is your master plan, just slap a band-aid on the thing and call it good?" Seeing as how it took a single madman with {{Magitek}} all of two seconds to break it to bits it's hard to blame them.
77	* {{Greed}}: ''The'' schtick of the Golden Maw and their patron, Laethys the Earth Dragon. GoldFever doesn't even ''begin'' to describe these people. And then there's the Bloodstorm in general who devour entire planets for Sourcestone which is apparently crack for dragons. And Telara is apparently made out of it, so basically the Bloodstorm sees Telara as the mother of all drug fixes and explains why they don't just find some other planet that doesn't have native life that wants to kill them.
78	* GreenHillZone: The Guardian starting zone, Silverwood. Admire the [[GhibliHills pretty]] [[SceneryPorn landscape]], but watch out for those goblins...and traitorous elves...and roving bands of homicidal fae...
79	* GreyAndGrayMorality: This is what's going on with the enmity between the Guardians and Defiant. Guardians: genuinely believe the gods know what's best for Telara, but declare as infidel anybody who thinks otherwise (apparently including lesser deities). [[KnightTemplar Crusades are part of the package.]] Defiant: for the most part, dismissive of ''any'' possibility that the gods can do any more to save Telara (look at what happened to the Ward; if ''that'' was their best...), and so have decided to do it themselves. The problem is that (a) they're every bit as zealous against the Guardians as vice versa (Piety is only an obstacle to Telara's salvation! It deserves nothing but our wrath!), and (b) they don't seem to accept that a little more caution in their [[MadScientist often-reckless research]] would actually ''improve'' the chances of saving Telara. The Guardians are too cautious, the Defiant not cautious enough.
80	* HeartbeatSoundtrack: As part of the low-health warning InterfaceScrew.
81	* HappinessIsMandatory: The Storm Legion forced this on the citizens of Dolcega Valley after they surrendered. Thought Officers now patrol the streets, ensuring that any dissenters are "taken off the streets" by [[ForcedTransformation transforming them into farm animals]].
82	-->'''Dolcega Citizen''': I am so happy. Really.
83	* HealingShiv: The Chloromancer features an interesting variation of this -- any [[ElementalPowers life damage]] done by a Chloromancer will also [[LifeDrain heal their party members]].
84	** Likewise, the Justicar can heal themselves and their party members whenever they deal damage, and any life damage they deal has a good chance to grant charges that can be used to fuel their healing spells.
85	** The Physician's description is that they shoot their allies with healing needle-tipped arrows.
86	* HealItWithFire: Purifiers.
87	* InterfaceScrew: When your health gets low, your vision gets desaturated, the HeartbeatSoundtrack starts up, and [[BackgroundMusicOverride other sounds become muted]]. Whether this is a good way to draw a player's attention back to their own HP bar, or [[CriticalAnnoyance an extra annoyance in an already stressful situation]], is your choice.
88	* ItsAllAboutMe: Prince Hylas, as explained in the lore, spurned his lover, the elven high priestess and leader of the Ascended for no other reason than...he and the regular High Elves were no longer the Vigil's favorites (as the Guardian Ascended are, by definition [[MessianicArchetype messiahs]] to the faithful).
89	* LargeHam: Cyril Kalmar, in the Guardian cutscene narrative, is a little bit ''too'' proud that '''[[ChewingTheScenery you are a Guardian]]!'''
90	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Veras, leader of the Akylios Abyssal cult, is rather fond of mentioning things to you [[spoiler:possibly as a result of you killing him]] as a way of illustrating your character losing a bit of their sanity. One example of note is "this it the fourth time I've died opeining my map!"
91	* LightIsNotGood:
92	** You'd ''think'' Life is all sweetness and kindness. Then you see the [[NatureIsNotNice relentless predation]] that Greenscale, the Life Dragon, champions...
93	** There's also the problem of the Guardians' ''severe'' loyalty to the gods, and how they perform said loyalty.
94	* LightningBruiser: Rogue Riftstalkers have the best mobility ingame with numerous teleports on top of being extremelly resilient.
95	* LostTechnology: Subverted-the reason the Eth are still around is that they had more than enough to adapt to being desert nomads.
96	* LovesTheSoundOfScreaming: It's implied that Akylios's ultimate plan is just to do this to all of Telara. Then again, it's said that he's not merely past sanity, he's past ''in''sanity.
97	%%* MagicKnight:
98	%%** Riftblades and Void Knights.
99	%%** Nightblades also qualify. Ditto for any of the Cleric's melee souls.
100	%%** And don't forget Harbinger, the newly released Mage soul in Storm Legion.
101	* {{Magitek}}: The Defiant faction is built around this. The term "magitech" (along with "technomagic") is actually used in-game.
102	%%* MakingASplash: Wardens, and Cabalists to a lesser degree. And then, we have Akylios.
103	* MechanicalHorse: The various Eldritch Steeds available to Defiants.
104	* MostDefinitelyNotAVillain: [[spoiler:The inhabitants of Lakeshore in Freemarch.]]
105	-->'''Lena Linder''': Greetings, [race]. [[BlatantLies I am doing normal human things because I am a normal human]].
106	* MusicalAssassin: The Bard. They do damage by ''playing a song''.
107	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Kira Thanos, master assassin of the Unseen. "Killer Thanatos"...[[SarcasmMode yeah, that's not blatant at all]].
108	* NatureIsNotNice: Pretty much what the Life element rifts represent- wild, untamed, dog-eat dog nature.
109	* NayTheist: The Defiant are built around this, too. They're not exactly impressed with the obviously less-than-perfect way the gods tried to ward Telara against a repeat occurrence of the Blood Storm.
110	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: As mentioned above, the Mathosian king beginning this whole mess.
111	** It's implied in the Defiant starter zone that everything went to hell because the Guardians focus-fired on the Defiant first, which all but shut down any aid they could have given against the common enemy.
112	** Apparently, both Guardians and Defiants [[RashomonStyle have different story lines built around the other faction being the ones screwing things up]]. In the Defiant story, King Aedraxis is never even mentioned doing what he did on the Guardian side. It is possible that the Defiant starting zone is the REAL end of the world that happens in the Guardian storyline.
113	* NotUsingTheZedWord: [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Revenant-type undead humanoids]] are referred to as "lorn."
114	* OminousMessageFromTheFuture: The player character serves as this, having been sent back in time to defeat Regulos before he can cause the BadFuture the PC is from.
115	* OmnicidalManiac: Regulos, the Death Dragon. Apparently, he's ''offended'' by living existence in much the same way [[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 Unicron]] is, although his hunger doesn't ''quite'' match (he doesn't seem interested in eating his own minions unless [[YouHaveFailedMe they mess up]], for one).
116	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The Faceless Man - head of the Unseen (basically Meridian's spy/assassin service), [[TheAtoner former Abyssal Cultist]], and recurring quest giver for Defiant players.
117	-->"Don't ask me my name. I abandoned it long ago."
118	%%* OrderVersusChaos: Telara versus the planar invaders.
119	* OurDragonsAreDifferent: They're {{Draconic Abomination}}s for one thing, there are only six of them, and they're living embodiments of the elements.
120	%%* OurElvesAreDifferent:
121	* PlayingWithFire: Pyromancers (of course), Nightblades, and Purifiers. Then there's the Fire Dragon Maelforge...
122	* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The dwarven city of Deepholm had machinery powered by shackled wraiths. During the Shade, the wraiths ''broke free'', with [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge predictable results]]. This might be why the dwarves are willing to embrace the Guardians' abjuration of technology at the gods' request...
123	* PureIsNotGood: Have fun convincing (for different reasons) the Guardians and Greenscale of this. You're not likely to get much of anywhere.
124	%%* RashomonStyle: The two different start zones rather hint at this.%%At what?
125	%%* ResurrectedForAJob: The Ascended.
126	* ResurrectiveImmortality: Likely (it's also possible that they're [[HealingFactor regenerating]]) the case for Ascended: They've already died once and been brought back; now, death is a temporary, if traumatic, inconvenience for them.
127	* SavePoint: A rare in-universe version of this. Orphiel's Failsafe is a time machine that allows Defiants to go back in time to when it was built... and ''only'' when it was built. [[spoiler:Once. It destroys the world in the process...]]
128	* SexyBacklessOutfit: Hel''lo'' Asha Catari (her back gets its own prominent load screen), and all the female [=NPCs=] in Sanctum...
129	* ShellShockSilence: Some skills such as stuns cause a brief silence and blur your view while they're in effect.
130	* ShoutOut:
131	** The guys at Trion really love 'Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'', if the quest "You Are Who They Call" and the achievement "Ghost Busted" are anything to go by.
132	** One of the early level [[HyperactiveMetabolism drinks]] is called "[[{{Series/Firefly}} Mudder's Milk]]."
133	** And then, there's [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Cohen Barbarus]] in Stonefield, and [[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Elan Greenhilt]] in Sanctum.
134	** One of the limited time anniversary events involes tracking down missing cake, upon finding a slice, you get the achievment [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} "No lie"]].
135	** The whole Lakeside sequence is one big Shout Out to [[Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth a particular Lovecraftian piece]].
136	** The quest "Worked to the Bone" involves retrieving a Control Gem with the FlavorText of [[WesternAnimation/{{Jem}} "This gem is truly outrageous."]]
137	** The Chicken Dance animations resembles [[Series/ArrestedDevelopment the various members of the Bluth family's failures to imitate a chicken]].
138	** There's a [[{{Pun}} healer]] in Iron Pine Peak called [[Music/{{The Cure\|Band}} Roburt Smyth]].
139	** One of the {{Non Player Character}}s in Perspice is named Dehni Elphman, this is most likely a reference to Music/DannyElfman.
140	** One of the quests you can give a minion is called "[[Film/ThePrincessBride What is my way, Vizzini?]]"
141	* StanceSystem: The class system is very much this kind of situation. You can install up to five different stat builds (your spells/abilities are determined by how many points you put in which trees, regardless of ''where'' in each tree those points are), and can (almost?) freely shift between them as the situation demands. So yes, your cleric (using a developer interview as the example) can freely shift between single-target healing (Sentinel-centered), group healing (Warden), DPS (Cabalist or Shaman), and even ''off-tanking'' (Justicar) at the drop of a pin. Several pin drops in a row, apparently. In short, ''every'' character has five stances that you can design from the ground up.
142	* {{Stripperiffic}}: Played with. Female Clerics and Mages are generally well covered, and Rogues have a mish-mash; but Warriors, with a handful of exceptions, bare midriff, show cleavage, and wear steel plated stockings instead of proper leg protection. [[MostGamersAreMale Some players]] are not happy about the number of aversions.
143	** The game actually manages to avert this with its "stylized realism" approach to armor that the instances where it appears more blatantly (such as the female Defiant Centurions) appear grossly out of place.
144	** The wardrobe system tunes this up or down as you wish on actual playable characters (essentially, you can put gear in a "display" slot for the graphics instead of the actual equipped slot, while getting the stats of another equipped item) and [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]]-focused players decking out their caster to look like a heavy tank and vice-versa is as common as if not more common than putting your elf in a speedo and fuzzy boots for aesthetic purposes.
145	* SummonBiggerFish: Not only can rifts of different elements form naturally within a short distance of each other, they can be triggered by players... which leads to some extreme tactics.
146	* ThoseTwoGuys: Rodan Ismos and Zaerist Orro. [[spoiler:In Terminus, [[FridgeHorror there's no sign of Zaerist; Rodan paces around Tempest Station, railing at the Guardians and the Endless]].]]
147	* ThrowDownTheBomblet: The Saboteur's specialty, with a dash of the TrapMaster thrown in for good measure.
148	* TimeParadox: The Defiant and Guardian starting areas may result in one of these... maybe.
149	* TimeTravel: The first Defiant Ascended gets created just before Regulos's ultimate victory, and is sent back in time to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong fix things]] by taking the formula to grant these powers to others. See CrapsackWorld for details.
150	* TooDumbToLive: Each faction gets a few bops on the head from this trope in their opposition's starting area. Defiant qualify for not only helping King Aedraxis break the Ward but also in continuing to fight the Guardians even when Regulos is about to devour everything. The Guardians on the other hand fit in Terminus when they are so hellbent on eliminating the Defiant that they lay siege to Meridian and take it whilst ''completely ignoring'' the rifts that are opening all over Telara. They go so far as to completely ignore Regulos as he enacts his plan to devour Telara in favor of killing Defiant and destroying their {{Magitek}}.
151	* TheUsualAdversaries: The two factions think of each other as just standing in the way and being totally annoying.
152	* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Killing helpless critters has a chance to make them drop a single tear, one artifact set involves collecting tears from all the critters in the game, collecting 20 squirrel tears gives you an achievement and a rather nice title.
153	* WellIntentionedExtremist:
154	** Both mortal sides. Some of the members of the Blood Storm, like Greenscale and Crucia, are arguably this (or at least have a sliver of this).
155	** House Aelfwar is another example of this: a rogue Elven house led by the VisionaryVillain Prince Hylas, who decided the best way to fight the strongest of the Dragons was to side with one of the weaker ones. So what if their homeland gets overrun by [[WhenTreesAttack Life Plane monstrosities]]? UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans, right?
156	* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: According to in-game books, those who manipulate the Plane of Death have a risk of going absolutely insane from megalomania and joining [[BigBad Regulos's]] Endless Court in search of even more power. [[spoiler:Seen in-game when you have to save [[RebelliousPrincess Uriel Chuluun]] from the Endless Court (and herself).]]
157	%%* WorldOfSilence: This is [[BlowYouAway Crucia's]] ultimate goal.
158	%%* YinYangBomb: The Inquisitor soul's ''modus operandi''.
159	* YouBastard: Coupled with AndThatsTerrible with the flavor-text debuff a player receives after killing a critter, informing the player that they should feel terrible about it.
160	* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: "A sailor might see a shark feed, and say he has seen hunger, or through a shark's black eyes he might understand hunger and go mad. This is the difference between the true nature of the Blood Storm, and the dragon forms they take upon Telara." We get to see the true nature of Regulos as the God of Death and he seems more comprehensible than [[EldritchLocation his own realm]] (he's a LiteralSplitPersonality consisting of Regulos the Dragon of Death and Aedraxis Mathos, who later preform a FusionDance making it possible [[spoiler:to kill the God of Death DeaderThanDead]], though if one knew of this fact before Aedraxis Mathos was born they would be DrivenToMadness at the realization that Regulos is unkillable until Aedraxis Mathos is born), which isn't surprising for a [[GrimReaper God of Death]]. [[spoiler:We end up killing him.]]
161	* ZeroEffortBoss: Any boss fight in "Instant Adventure" or "Intrepid Adventures" mode is at least a [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] example of this. While enemies still deal damage, it's scaled such that unless players are [[TooDumbToLive standing in the fire]][[note]]failing to avoid abilities which are intended to be avoided rather than tanked[[/note]], a single attentive/raid-spec healer or two should be enough to easily cover the whole raid. When players do die[[note]]usually due to inattention on their part or the healers', unfamiliarity with fight mechanics, or the odd [[RingOut terrain-related death]][[/note]], they are able to access unlimited respawns with only the usual respawn penalties[[note]]which still allow 10 near consequence free deaths[[/note]] and are merely taken out of the fight for as long as it takes to run back from the respawn point and reengage, rendering death merely a humiliating nuisance. The only real failure condition remaining is the generous 20-minute timer on the fights, which would generally require coordinated (in)action to fail, or an almost-empty party with insufficient healing to prevent the few remaining members from repeatedly dying, in turn preventing them from applying damage.

Context VideoGame / Rift