Obsidian Rhapsody, a project started by Lordnecronus, is a Deconstruction of JRPGs that is both Darker and Edgier and Bloodier and Gorier. Currently, the author is in search of collaborators from TV Tropes; if you're interested in collaborating, then go to this forum thread
and post something. If you become one of the collaborators, then bear this list in mind. Use it for ideas.
The plot (at least what has been made up so far) mainly concerns a group of screwed-up "heroes" who are trying to save the world from a deadly disease known only as the "White Death". To save the world from the White Death, they need to protect a girl named Reiko Hanover, who can use an amulet at a special, out-of-dimension fortress named Obsidian to cure the White Death. There is also a race of large, bull-like demons called the Minions who are hunting Reiko. And then there's the Amanian Empire, who are also seemingly after Reiko.
When the characters have been fleshed out more, there will be a character list Character sheet here. Currently incomplete.
(It should also be noted that some of the ideas may change. Few things on this page or the character sheet are definite.)
Tropes that apply to this work:
- Anyone Can Die - And nearly everyone does. The only survivors are Septimus, Eiolis, Phoebe, Caitlyn, Atlas, Julian and Raven. The only important characters in the game to survive.
- Battle Couple - Britton and Freya.
- Big Bad - There are two, both on opposing sides: Rimbeaux, who seeks to spread the White Death to everyone in the world, and Tanya Marxus, the secret ruler of the Empire who wants to control the White Death for herself to use as a weapon against the Empire's enemies.
- Axos was the Big Bad for the "old party", but he dies 20 years before the game begins. He doesn't come back.
- Bloodier and Gorier
- Captain Ersatz - The entire main cast is partly made up of these, based on characters and archetypes from JRPGs.
- Competence Zone - The standard JRPG main character age (around 17) only applies to 2-3 characters: Reiko (17), Phoebe (19) and Caitlyn (19). The rest of the main cast members are older - most of the party members are in their late twenties, the former members of the "old party" are mostly either in their forties or approaching their forties, and Raven is roughly the same age as the members of the "old party".
- However, the "old party" were all, except for Niphil, under 20 when they battled Axos, so the hoary old RPG trope is played straight in that instance.
- Crapsack World
- Darker and Edgier
- Deconstruction
- Despair Event Horizon - What happens to Atlas at the end of the game, after Sonja's death.
- Eastern RPG - This work takes the form of these. And deconstructs them.
- The Empire - The Amanian Empire, to be exact. Although their goal seems to be more benevolent than other empires: they invaded the country of Maia to "unite the world under a peaceful banner", and now their control over their country is less to terrorise the citizens than to try and control the spreading of the White Death.
- General Ripper - General Krasler Trelane, head of the Imperial Army.
- Heroic Sacrifice - Judas, Freya, Tetsuo.
- Last of Their Kind - Raven and Sonja Stormheim are the last living members of the Stormheim family clan. Subverted in that no-one cares about them, and some wouldn't mind if they were dead due to the brutal history of the family.
- The two aren't particularly innocent themselves, either. Raven used to be The Dragon for Axos, the villain that the "old party" battled 20 years ago. Sonja was an arms dealer who sold weaponry to both the Amanian Empire and the Kingdom of Maia, who were waging war with each-other at the time.
- Luke, I Am Your Father - Tanya, secret ruler of the Empire, is actually Axos's daughter.
- Official Couple - Atlas and Sonja.
- Plotline Death - Tulip, Baldur, Leon, Ghoto, Judas, Quentin, Sonja, Masler, Isis, Reiko and Tau, as well as every single temporary party member.
- Some of the surviving characters aren't well-off after the end, either: Raven disappears, Atlas has a Shinji-styled breakdown, Phoebe and Caitlyn never get separated...
- Rousseau Was Right - In a very... twisted way.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism - Most definitely on the cynical side, even with Rousseau Was Right playing its part.
- The Dragon - Raiden is Rimbeaux's dragon, and General Trelane is Tanya's dragon. 20 years ago, Raven was The Dragon for Axos.
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