Sandbox / God Eater Franchise

Gods will fall! Humanity will Rise!^note Clockwise,from bottom center: The Protagonist/Yuu Kannagi, Soma Schicksal, Ren and Lindow Amamiya, Shio, Sakuya Tachibana, Kota Fujiki, and Alisa Amiella.

"Defy all Gods"

— The official tagline of the franchise

God Eater is a series of Action RPGs by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Set in a world devastated by Aragami, bizarre organisms that can devour almost anything, humanity has been pushed to the brink of extinction. Mankind's last hope rests upon the shoulders of the God Eaters, elite soldiers who have been infused with Aragami cells, turning themselves into part-monsters and allowing them to fight back by using the God Arc, a customizable Morph Weapon which can change between a melee and gun form.

Contributing to the longevity of the franchise, the story is not a typical "fight the monsters, save the world" story involving a Creature-Hunter Organization. The franchise explores the bleakness of a post-apocalyptic Earth, how humanity struggles to survive despite the world's current state, and the fact that some of the surviving humans are willing to eradicate all life on the planet in order to defeat the monsters. Its popularity has also led to various adaptations and Spin Offs in anime, manga, and light novels.

All God Eater videogames:

• God Eater (2010): The first game in the series, released for the PlayStation Portable. It follows the protagonist and the Retaliation Unit ^note more popularly known as simply "the First Unit" of the Fenrir Far East Branch as they not only fight against the Aragami, but also uncover a sinister plot to repopulate the Earth through a dreaded event called "The Devouring Apocalypse".
  • God Eater Burst (Gods Eater Burst in the North America and Europe release) (2011): The first Updated Re-release title, released for the PlayStation Portable. In addition of expanding most of the original game's mechanics, the game also includes an additional storyline continuing the still-ongoing search for Lindow Amamiya, as well as the appearance of the mysterious Ren.
  • God Eater Resurrection (2015): An HD remastered Updated Re-release of God Eater Burst, released for the Play Station Vita and PlayStation 4. The original mechanics from the second game were tweaked to include the new feature called "Predator Style", as well as to include some of the features from Rage Burst and a new story arc that connects between the events of God Eater Burst and God Eater 2. The international release contains an updated and revised localization, as well as a brand-new English dub in accordance.
• God Eater 2 (2013): A sequel to the first game released for both the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita. The sequel centers on the Blood Unit, an elite group of God Eaters, as well as a new protagonist, on board a moving mobile base sent to investigate the rapidly-spreading outbreak known as the Black Plague. This is the first game to featured three new weapon types: Boost Hammer, Charge Spear and Shotgun.
  • God Eater 2 Rage Burst (2015): The second Updated Re-release title, released for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4. Like God Eater Burst, the game tweaked most of the mechanics from God Eater 2, and also includes a new storyline featuring a new God Eater named Livie Colette. This is the first game to introduced the Variant Scythe.
• God Eater 3: A Darker and Edgier third main entry in the franchise. It was confirmed in a teaser released on September 17, 2016. A second teaser was released on March 30, 2017. An official trailer was released on October 9, 2017. An announcement trailer was released on March 29, 2018.

On December 21st, 2015, both God Eater 2: Rage Burst and God Eater Resurrection, were announced for an overseas release on PlayStation 4, Play Station Vita, and Steam. See the commentary video here.

Soma, Alisa, and Lindow also show up in Project × Zone. The sequel, Project X Zone 2, featured Ciel Alencon and Nana Kozuki, with Alisa returning as an assist character.

Aside from the games, various other media were released to either promote the game, or expanding the franchise's established universe.

List of various media tied with the games:

Anime/Other Games

• God Eater Prologue: A 12-minute ONA promoting the first game. It centers on Soma Schicksal's first mission as a God Eater. Watch it all here.
• God Eater (Anime): A 13-episode anime by Ufotable released on 2015. Taking a slightly different approach in adapting the first half of the original game, it introduces Lenka Utsugi, an anime-only stand-in protagonist for the game's player.
• God Eater Mobile: A free-to-play mobile game developed by Mobage-town.
• Pachi-Slot God Eater: A slot-machine game based on the first game by Yamasa.
• invokedGod Eater Offshot: A photography-based spin-off of God Eater Resurrection, released in November 2015 only in Japan.
• God Eater Online: The MMO Smartphone Game announced from Tokyo Game Show 2016, released in February 2017. The game takes place in the year 2075, and follows a new protagonist, a member of cradle stationed to the Himalayan Branch. The game will be ending its service the 29th of September of 2018.
• Pachi-Slot God Eater 2: A sequel to Yamasa's Pachi-Slot God Eater, based on God Eater 2.
• God Eater Resonant Ops: A turn-based mobile game for the iOS and Android devices released in April 2018. Taking place in 2078, the protagonist is a rookie God Eater, who along with their allies, will take part in a large-scale operation at Fenrir Headquarters.

Light Novel

• God Eater: Days of Ruins: A light novel that covers Soma's past.
• God Eater: Those Who Break Taboo: A light novel that covers the protagonist Geese Crimson, and the special group Asasoru.
• God Eater: Alisa in Underworld: A light novel that covers Alisa's past.
• God Eater: Knockin' on Heaven's Door: A light novel based on the canonical protagonist of God Eater, Yuu Kannagi.
• God Eater 2: Moonlight Mile: A novel telling the story of the events before God Eater 2 from Soma's point of view.

Manga

• God Eater: The Spiral Fate: A non-canon manga that offers an alternate reality to the main continuity of the God Eater series, it introduces Ryo Kagami, a manga-only stand-in protagonist for the game's player.
• God Eater: Return of the Messiah: An ambiguously-canon manga takes place in year 2072, revolving on the struggles of a group of God Eaters on the Fenrir America Branch, as well as the road to vengeance of a God Eater named Silva Orcride. Two of the main characters, Mizuki and Rosette makes their cameo appearance in -the 2nd break- manga.
• God Eater: The Summer Wars: A Fanservice-filled manga. Alisa and Yuu are dispatched to Aegis Island on a protection mission.
• God Eater -the 2nd break-: A manga focuses on events concerning Alisa, Soma, and Kota before and during the story of God Eater 2. The manga also features a story crossover connection with God Eater: Those Who Break Taboo by including Marguerite Claverie in the first stories, as well as the cameo appearance of Hiro Kamui and the Blood Unit from 2.
• God Eater 2: Undercover: An interlude manga sets before the events of God Eater 2, following Yuu and Lindow in their secret mission.
• invokedGod Eater 2 (Manga): An on-going manga adaptation of God Eater 2 that focuses on Hiro Kamui and the Blood Unit.
• God Eater ~side by side~: A manga takes place in year 2068 and centers Tatsumi O'Mori as a main protagonist and the former 2nd Unit leader, Marco Donath.
• God Eater 2: Anagura Recipe: A comical Slice of Life manga about the Blood Unit and the God Eaters of the Far East Branch competing against each other regarding... well, food and desserts.
• Chibi God Eater: A Spin-Off Babies manga series retelling the events of God Eater 2 in a light-hearted comical manner, featuring cute, super-deformed versions of the characters.
  • The third volume retells the story of the anime, featuring the First Unit and Lenka Utsugi as chibified versions of themselves.

Has an official wiki here!

WARNING: The following tropes in the franchise contain a heapful amount of spoilers, most of which are left unmarked! Read at your own risk!

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TROPES, COMMENCING MISSION!:

• After the End: Planetary near-total extinction. The game starts out after the Aragami have eaten most of the planet. They make up the entire biosphere at this point, and the tiny remnant of humanity is almost all that's left of native Earth life. Landmasses are now little more than desert. And Fenrir's scientists believe that an even worse apocalypse is on the way — what they call the Devouring Apocalypse, where the Aragami density reaches a critical mass and a single massive Aragami comes out on top of the food chain, consuming and consuming all the others until the face of the Earth is literally wiped clean of anything and everything but this one super-lifeform. Life will then be 're-distributed'.
• The All-Seeing A.I.: A minor example that works in your favor. Many Aragami have area attacks, and sometimes it's hard to tell apart the preparations for those attacks from a less wide one — if that is even possible; AI characters not currently performing their own attacks, however, will run towards a safe area (if it's possible for them, they block if it isn't) a second or two before the enemy even begins the motions of the attack. Keeping an eye on the mini-map and listening carefully can provide a human player with a small forewarning. It's even justifiable to an extent; the Aragami's Database Entries usually include hints on what attacks they might be capable of using, so your NPC friends may have actually done their research on the monsters before setting off.
• All Your Powers Combined:
  • When you devour an Aragami, you gain their attacks as bullets and have the option to use it against them. You have the option of shooting it at your teammates instead, granting them an even more powerful super mode and version of the attack with up to three levels.
  • In the climax of Rage Burst, all the members of Blood unite their Blood powers to counteract the Devouring Apocalypse.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: While outfits aren't given out as actual quest rewards, new ones can be bought/crafted using materials found on missions.
• Arcology: The Den and presumably most of the other main branches of Fenrir are this. Each was built to be self-sustaining and capable of surviving even if cut off from all the others.
• Armor Is Useless: The clothes you can create have no effect on gameplay outside of aesthetics, which can be kinda jarring when you consider that samurai armor gives you no more protection than a swimsuit. Handwaved in that anything not manufactured with Bias Factor (the same substance that makes people into God Eaters) is basically edible tissue paper to an Aragami - that samurai armor is exactly as durable as a swimsuit to the all-devouring giant monsters.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Some of the Aragami. A notable example would be the Ouroboros: the Database describes it to be as big as a mountain, and when you see it, you'll find that they weren't exaggerating.
• BFG: Sniper gun parts are around the character's height, some assault guns have cannons large enough to fit a head, and most blast guns are even wider.
• BFS: "Short" blades are larger than old-fashioned claymores, the basic Long blade is easily the size of an ironing board, and buster blades are half-again as wide and some much thicker.
• Bishōnen: The majority of the male cast is made up of pretty boys, especially Karel Schneider. Federico Caruso and Eric der Vogelweid are also this in their Resurrection incarnation. Even Yuu Kannagi fits this. God Eater 2 has even more of them than the first game. Even Hiro Kamui fits this. And you are unable to make a non-handsome male avatar in God Eater 2, Rage Burst and Resurrection. Unless your male avatar is Lenka Utsugi in Resurrection.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: The Aragami are actually clusters of single-celled organisms that can consume just about anything, as well as have the ability to take on the traits of the things they eat. The only reason there's still a breathable atmosphere in the world is because some Aragami learned to photosynthesize.
• Camera Lock-On
• Camera Centering
• Chainsaw Good: You have Freeze, Spark, and Divine-elemental chainsaws to put in place of a normal BFS, with Lindow's model being a dual-element blade. All of them recover more OP per hit than normal and have the 'Noisy' skill, making Aragami more likely to hear you coming.
• Character Customization: The player can select the character's name, alias, gender, hair style/color, facial structure, skin tone, clothing and in-combat voice set. The hair style/color and clothing can be customized after creation. God Eater 2 gives you more freedom with the hair- and skincolors, but doesn't let you choose an outfit at start. Of course, the new uniform is improbably cool.
• Charged Attack:
  • Buster Blades have Charge Crush, a single, devastating blow with all the user's might. It charges faster when in Burst Mode.
  • Charge Spears have Charge Glide, a rapid thrusting attack. Unlike other charged attacks, the user can still move around while charging it, and jump to execute the move in midair.
  • Boost Hammers have Boost Ignition, which activates the rocket thrusters in the hammer's back. This can lead into a few different attacks: Boost Rush, a repeating barrage of blows; Boost Drive, a quick swing that vaults the user forward; and Boost Impact, which brings the hammer down in a mighty slam. The longer it's charged, the faster these attacks become.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Bullet Outlines for the icons come in the following colors (and applies to some Blades, Guns and Shields): Red for Blaze, Blue for Freeze, Yellow for Shock, Purple for Divine and (only applies to Bullets), Green for Recovery bullets. Status-based shots (as well as mixed elements) are Colorless.
• Color-Coded Item Tiers: Items are tiered by "Rank" and icon colors/icon background. Ranks 1 and 2 use the default font color and background, 3 and 4 uses Purple icons, 5 and 6 uses Red, 7 and 8 uses Teal, 9 uses White and 10 uses white with a special background.
• Combat Resuscitation: Defeated God Eaters must be revived via Link-Aid. This involves another character sharing a portion of their own health to heal their fallen comrade. There is a timer counting down during this time, and if it reaches zero, or the whole team gets incapacitated at the same time, the character is sent back to the spawn point and revived with full health, at the cost of an Endurance point. Running out of Endurance results in a failed mission.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Justified. The first time the lava-filled Infernal Subway area is visited, Sakuya explains that Oracle Cells enable God Eaters' bodies to adapt to extreme temperatures and a normal human would have gone up in flames by now.
• Crapsack World: Humanity has been pushed to near-extinction by the Aragami, and the one organization capable of fighting them may not be telling the entire truth of the matter. However, people are still mostly good on an individual basis.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: It may take you several minutes to take down some of the bigger Aragami, but cutscenes will sometimes show characters taking down several of them easily.
• Creature-Hunter Organization: Fenrir and Blood (the latter being the current page image) are this, since they specialize in fighting Aragami.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The game has four people at the most — although they have big-ass swords — kicking the tuckus of monsters at least the size of a large hill. On a daily basis.
• Difficulty Levels: Like all hunting games, missions in later ranks are harder and so technically fall into this trope. Some Aragami even get new moves in the later ranks. The ranks go up to 10 in the first game and God Eater 2, but God Eater 2 Rage Burst caps out at 15.
  • Complete the one and only story mission in rank 15, and you unlock the option to set mission difficulty. Found the rank 15 missions hard? That was just level 1 out of 99. Raising the difficulty not only raises the enemies' stats, but makes certain tricks (Stagger Locking and Down Locking) harder, or even outright impossible due to the increased threshold the player must pass in order to knock them down in the first place.
• Difficulty Spike: Whenever you make a transition from a storyline to another, there will be one. In Burst, and Resurrection Difficulty 7 has a few breather levels, but kicks into full gear later, whilst Difficulty 11 follows suit.
• Disk One Nuke: Resurrection adds two cameos from Rage Burst to the list of AI partners. While they aren't any more powerful by themselves, they're both New Types and lack Alisa's negative skills, meaning they're more than happy to share Aragami bullets and give you level two and three boosts long before the game expects you to have them.
• Downer Beginning: According to the developers; In God Eater 3, the Far-East Fenrir Branch was decimated sometime after the events of Rage Burst by a new Aragami threat and the surviving God Eaters have become drifters attempting to survive in the wild.
• Downer Ending: Regardless of your accomplishments, nothing you do will ultimately matter. One way or another, the Devouring Apocalypse will happen and Humanity will die out, and there is literally nothing that can stop this. At best, all anyone can hope to do is delay the inevitable, making all of your accomplishments ultimately pointless in the long run. There is literally no hope for mankind. One way or another, the Aragami will win unless a miracle happens.
• Eldritch Abomination: Most of the Aragami. Especially one of the DLC monsters, Venus, who's an amalgamation of many other Aragami into one lovely piece of melting flesh. Could also count Lindow's transformation into a Corrosive Hannibal.
  • Director Schicksal makes himself into an abomination to begin the Devouring Apocalypse. It's called the Arda Nova.
  • God Eater 2 did it again by turning Julius into the final boss, the World Opener.
  • Another one in Rage Burst when Rachel, having absorbed into the Spiral Tree and gained Aragami-like powers, transforms herself into the World Closer.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Blaze (Fire), Freeze (Ice), Shock (Lightning), and Divine (Holy) that act as modifiers to non-elemental physical attack properties. Divine quickly overshadows the others later on in the game.
• Emote Command: The D-pad and shoulder buttons allow the player to do several actions within the Fenrir Base, ranging from clapping to a Twisted-Knee Collapse to a bow.
• Empathic Weapon: The God Arcs are a special case in that they are essentially weapon shaped Aragami with the same Oracle Cells as their wielders. This has a very unfortunate side-effect: If anyone but their wielder so much as TOUCHES them, they get devoured. And then comes Ren, Lindow's God Arc come alive for the sole purpose of making sure the protagonist gets to bring Lindow back home.
• The Empire: The Fenrir Corporation has shades of this. They are the dominant power in the world since they are the only ones who can fight the Aragami, but they can force anyone they want to undergo the eligibility test to become a God Eater. Additionally, Fenrir bases (the safest places in the world at the moment) can only sustain so many people, so those not rich/affluent/directly useful enough are forced to live in the Outer Ghetto.
• Equipment Upgrade: All non-clothing equipment is subject to Elemental Crafting. In order to make the upgrade for a given piece of equipment available you must have the materials needed to craft it.
• Expy:
  • Hannibal is often stated to be Nargacuga 2.0. They have similar body shape, tail whip attacks, and are very fast.
  • The Kongou is similar to both the Congalala and Blagonga from the same franchise, even sharing their shockwave bodyslam move.
  • The Chrome Gawain might as well be Gore Magala's cousin.
• Extreme Omnivore: The Aragami have eaten much of what used to exist on Earth. Including rather large chunks of the buildings.
• Face-Design Shield: There are some shields that are this, like the Borg Camlann's one (which you get in tower shield form); the (tower) shield made from Ouroboros pieces is the face of the Ouroboros itself, as is the Susano'o-based shield. It's more likely that your shield will end up being an Aragami's 'hat', crown, or back, however.
• Failure Is the Only Option: The goal of Fenrir and the God Eaters in general is to create a safe haven secure against the Aragami. In case you haven't played the first game through yet, well, there are sequels, so make of that what you will. Alisa's narration in -the 2nd break- even underscores the hopelessness of making a meaningful change in the face of such a permanently twisted world.
  "Nothing has changed, has it...? Even though three years have passed, our living circumstances haven't changed. We are still somehow surviving in this city, surrounded by armor to defend against the Aragami. We 'God Eaters' still risk our lives in battle, and everyone still lives each day in fear. Nothing has changed at all."
  • The sequel introduces the red rain, which causes all who get drenched in it to contract the fatal Black Spider Disease which is eventually revealed to be a natural mechanism meant to create a new Singularity that activated because the original one (Shio) left Earth, lending even more support to the theory that the Aragami are part of a natural cycle of destruction and rebirth of the Earth. It certainly seems pretty hopeless when Mother Nature itself is your enemy.
  • Rage Burst ends on a semi-hopeful note, with one instance of the Devouring Apocalypse... Not exactly negated, but allowed to happen at a glacially slow pace originating from a single area, creating a small sanctuary where the Aragami cannot function, as the Apocalypse shuts down Oracle Cells as they're no longer needed when it's done.
• Fantastic Ghetto: The Outer Ghetto.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Three of the four type of bullets available to you, the other type being Divine.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • In Kanon's database profile, as well as a few conversations with her, it's mentioned that she's notorious for friendly fire, to the point where her squad members flee when she attempts to shoot a recovery bullet. Much to the consternation of those who wish to use a medic when Sakuya isn't around, this is not just character fluff. Her AI is programmed to shoot even when you're in her line of fire. And then to admonish you for being in her line of fire. On the plus side, this actually saves you from death.
  • A more subtle example can be found in Kota: shortly after arriving, Alisa disparagingly notes that he wastes too much of his health when he performs a Link Aid. In gameplay, most characters will usually only give about half of their health to revive you, but Kota can often be seen using up a lot more, showing that what Alisa said was true. In game terms, this means Kota has the "Self-Sacrifice" trait, which you can also get from some gear.
  • Alisa also notes that Kota deals strong attacks but doesn't pace himself, meaning he runs through his entire OP gauge in a matter of seconds. This is noted in his final profile sheet, which mentions that he fights well with New-Type God Eaters, since New-Types can place him in Burst mode. On the bright side, at least he can aim.
  • Karel's attitude of being self-serving and Shun's reluctance to help others also fit in this trope in their own subtle ways; like the Kota example above, most characters usually give you half their health to revive you. These two only give a fourth of their health, meaning they have the "Defensive" trait. In God Eater 2 1.40, which comes with Another Episode (the only way to get these two back in your roster), the obvious risks that come with this can be outweighed if you're willing to put up with them for hundreds of missions — levelling them up makes their Link-Aid heal more for very little, which will make them excellent Link-Aid batteries in a pinch.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Cutscenes imply that it is actually possible for a God Eater to kill other people with both their melee and ranged attacks. Thankfully, friendly fire only staggers you and your party members without doing any damage, while melee attacks do absolutely nothing to anything other than Aragami during missions.
  • Old-Type gunners are supposed to lack shields, but the chassis of their God Arcs still include visible shield components.
• Gargle Blaster: First Love Juice. Tastes sweet and bitter, like a first love.
• Gendered Outfit: Several clothes, mostly school uniforms and military uniforms for female avatar.
• Goofy Suit: Animal suits, as well as Pretty Kelot and Cute Kelolun are available for your character to wear. Kigurumi, a party member introduced in 2, wears a bunny mascot costume.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: The male Old-Types tend to have melee God Arcs, while females have guns. Lindow and Sakuya are well known examples. Haruomi and Kate also count before they become New-Types.
• Healing Shiv:
  • You can create healing bullets and shoot them at your friends or NPC allies.
  • In an unusual twist, you also have a Super Mode Shiv. Shoot the Aragami bullets that you bit off of your enemies at your teammates instead, and they get the powerful Link-Burst, gaining up to three (stackable) levels of massive stats boosts and an even more powerful version of the attack you fired at them. They can do the same to you, and if you've equipped the control unit that regenerates hit points while in Burst mode, you can combine healing and Super Mode... through the power of being shot.
• Head-in-the-Sand Management: The higher-ups in Fenrir at many times are told, and sometimes even directly shown, to be this. They are all aware of the Aragami threat but, even in the post apocalypse, are too centered on their own political stature to provide the already desperate survivors much needed aid and act as Obstructive Bureaucrats to Fenrir themselves. Because of this there is a bit of rift between Fenrir and those of the Outer Ghettos and nearly allowed The End of the World as We Know It to trigger twice.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Divine becomes the Infinity +1 Element in the game because similar to Monster Hunter and its Dragon Element, several monsters are weak to their own usage of Divine. For players who don't have decent divine weapons, devouring monsters and using their own attacks against them quickly becomes a strategy.
  • Goes full circle in Rage Burst with the Arc Aberrants: Aragami that have been fused with God Arcs, allowing them to use not only those God Arcs for attacks but a few even have access to Blood Powers.
• Holy Hand Grenade: One of the bullet types available to you to use at the start. Specifically, the kamui::mortar bullet, which explodes with Divine damage upon impact.
• Hong Kong Dub: A lot more noticeable during the Burst storyline, where the camera starts focusing a lot more on the characters' faces during cutscenes.
• Hungry Menace: Flipped on its head. It's the God Eaters who come off this way, making comments that suggest they feel their symbiotic weapon's satisfaction in Devouring aragami, and its hunger for more. Downplayed, in that they have complete control of the ability.
• Hunk:
  • Although it has a Cast Full of Pretty Boys, there are also a few hunks in the series such as Lindow and Brendan, as well as retired badasses like Gen and Damian.
  • Edger K. Rogers from Return of the Messiah.
  • Godot Valentine from God Eater Online.
• I'm an Aragami-tarian: The God Arc can be charged to turn into a pair of jaws that chomps on the Aragami. If the Aragami is still alive, it puts you into Burst Mode and gives you some special bullets which can be shot back into the enemy or used on allies to put them into Burst Mode (albeit only up to three shots at most can be fired on a character). Devouring a dead Aragami means looting its body for raw materials.
  • If you know what you're doing, you can also end a Blade Combo in a Devour to have a shorter Burst Mode, or, if you already are in Burst mode, extend it by 15 seconds. In GEB, this does not the extend the length of your Link-Burst Mode, but in GE 2, this is fixed.
  • Aragami will gleefully eat each other, barring Bias-factor compatibility. In fact, God Arcs are essentially Aragami people can wield and control. 'Type 1' Deusphages are Aragami that gained a taste for God Arcs and their wielders, and possibly were them. 'Type 2' Deusphages are repeatedly stated to be cannibalistic, although here it refers to eating other Aragami of their same class designation (which normally they refrain from doing).
  • This became a new gameplay mechanic in Resurrection called the Predator Style, in which the player can customize and assign a Devour move for at least four Devour Options (Step, Mid-Attack, Midair and Charge), allowing players to literally use a Devour in any fashion. Making a combination of Predator Styles nets additional status boost for you and your tea for as long as the Burst gauge is filled up.
• Impending Clash Shot: All of the covers have your Player Character wielding the default God Arc against an Aragami.
  • The original pits male protagonist (Yuu), along with female protagonist (Aki) against a Vajra, the Burst cover features unknown male protagonist, along with unknown female protagonist against a Hannibal and the Burst Append Edition cover features another unknown male protagonist, along with another unknown female protagonist against Susano'o. All shots are in City of Mercy.
  • The cover for God Eater 2 has the player character of that game (Hiro), alongside Gilbert and Nana, already in the midst of a battle with the Marduk. This shot takes place in the Dead City After Dawn.
  • God Eater 2 Rage Burst has the player character (Again, Hiro) about to smash new Aragami Chrome Gawain in the face with Blood Rage activated, alongside Livie, with the Spiral Tree in the background.
  • God Eater Resurrection features the same player character from original once again (Yuu), but this time he's solo against Dyaus Pita.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: For being in a mostly-destroyed future, looking awesome hasn't gone out of style. Hilariously lampshaded by the merchant, whose sale pitch notes that the world isn't much fun these days, so you might as well try to lighten up with fashion.
  • God Eater 2 Dummied Out all military uniforms (except the blue/green standard formal uniform) from the first game to make room for more stylish clothes.
  • God Eater 2 Rage Burst add lots and lots of Impractically Fancy Outfit.
  • God Eater Online also have fancy clothes released each month of the game's update.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: The Old-Type God Arcs are either a BFS or a BFG. The New-Type ones can switch between the two, and use a shield while in blade form. (Old-Type God Eaters who use blades are also equipped with a shield, whereas gunners have no choice but to dodge.) God Eater Resurrection, God Eater 2, and God Eater 2 Rage Burst add giant hammers, spears, scythes, and shotguns.
• Item Crafting: Besides the standard Build and Upgrade, you can also make your own Bullets in this manner. And if you want to survive the game, the bullet editor is your best friend. You can also use several lower-tier items to make one higher-tier equivalent, or vice versa. This allows you to gather different resources than the ones specified in a weapon's recipe list, then convert your resources to the resources required.
• Jousting Lance: The Charge Spears are very large lances which, as their name indicates, can be used in a Dash Attack.
• Knight of Cerebus: As soon as Dyaus Pita is introduced, things take a turn for the darker. Not even the Burst storyline is safe when Hannibal hijacks the plot and cripples the player.
• Lethal Joke Weapon: A set of equipment made out of desserts, which was only available in the Japanese version for the first game but is in all versions of 2. The long sword is a giant chocolate bar (GE Chocolate), the gun is a giant piece of shortcake (GE Shortcake), and the shield is a lollipop (GE Candy). Despite their rather ridiculous look they have excellent skills that can max out your HP, OP, and ST gauges as well as burst skills that are good for the gunner playstyle.
• Living Weapon: The God Arc. It is created using Aragami cores and is bound to its user's armlet (which is fused to said user). They may not look that alive under ordinary circumstances, but given the right command, they can turn into a giant pair of jaws that chomps on any other Aragami on sight. They also have the unfortunate side-effect of devouring anyone that touches them other than their wielder. It's revealed in the anime that an Oracle Cell Erosion will occur if a God Eater's compatibility rate is rising too high for their God Arc to keep up, causing an uncurable cancer-like disease to spread over the body until it kills them, should they continue on using it. This doesn't explain how Lenka got cured in the last shot of him in the final episode.
• Long-Distance Relationship: Yuu and Alisa in any of the manga and light novels set after the first game, due to both of them being assigned to different teams with Yuu being mostly assigned abroad. Most obvious in -the 2nd break-.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The shield parts are made to resist devouring by Aragami, and passively add some of that resistance to you; when the shield is actually deployed, the concentration of Bias Factor helps block most Aragami attacks. Bucklers deploy the fastest and have skills to leverage it, but let a quarter of the damage through and have low stats, while towers are the slowest with few skills, but have great stats and block all of the damage at the cost of your stamina; normal shields are between the two in terms of stats, speed, and skills. Many skills apply to the shield, from making it faster to deploy (crucial), to expanding the guarded area or reducing the damage you take while guarding even further; like most skills, though, they do have their negative counterparts. However, only Blade-Arc Old-types and New-types can use them. Old-type gunners have to make do with dodging, not that they don't have an advantage.
• Mega Manning: Hitting an Aragami with a Devour attack usually grants you three bullets capable of shooting something similar to one of its signature attacks.
• Mission Control: In God Eater 2, the Operators serve as this — confirming downed/defeated Aragami, informing you of how long you have before reinforcements show up, and most helpfully, confirming whether or not your attacks have inflicted status effects like Venom and Bind.
• Money Spider: Golden Gboro-Gboro. However, instead of money or Shop Fodder, it drops salvageable materials of varying rarity.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: It doesn't matter how skinny or scrawny the characters are, they will always be able to hold their incredibly huge weapons as if they're weightless Explained in-story; God Eaters are enhanced through their Oracle Cells to have super strength and regeneration abilities.
• Morph Weapon: The New-Type God Arcs can switch between melee and ranged modes, have a built-in shield, and can turn into a set of big monstery jaws in order to "Devour" an Aragami's Oracle Cells.
• No Cutscene Inventory Inertia:
  • Your character will usually have their exact equipment showing in cutscenes, but replaying some earlier cutscenes with late-game clothing equipped will cause those items to be replaced by the default uniform items. In a less noticeable instance, your character will always hold their God Arc in blade form, regardless of details like having been in gun form two seconds ago.
  • Alisa will always be shown holding her God Arc in gun form during cutscenes, in a subtle moment of Gameplay and Story Integration — she will use her gun against enemies (even when you wish she wouldn't) until she runs out of OP and switches to blade attacks. The main character and other New Types will be shown in blade form, possibly because it's a bad idea to walk around with finger on the trigger of a gun capable of destroying buildings and tank-like monsters, but more likely due to the fact that blade form allows for devouring and shield deployment, actions that are shown in several key story scenes. Blade form is also the "default" status, in that you begin every mission in blade form and have to switch to gun mode.
• Picky Eater: The basis of every bit of Anti-Aragami tech is using the Bias-Factor to make the Oracle Cells into this.
• Player Data Sharing: Avatar cards allow other players' player characters to be hired as NPC teammates.
• Powers as Programs: The operating principle behind bullet customization.
• Rainbow Pimp Gear: The player's God Arc can suffer from this. Some equipment looks silly or doesn't match with the other parts' appearance, but you may end up using it anyway for the stats and skills it gives you. Thankfully, your actual clothes aren't affected since your stats are determined entirely by your God Arc and your outfit is purely cosmetic.
• Randomly Drops:
  • Every Aragami has somewhere between five and ten different materials that you can get if you devour their cores after you kill them and every material has a fixed drop rate. Gets infuriating later on as creating and upgrading the high end equipment requires multiples of the material with the lowest drop rate. ^note For example creating the L$weberg requires among other things 4 Emperor Fangs. You get Emperor Fangs from Dyaus Pita, the biggest and baddest member of the Vajra Line of Aragami. The drop rate of an Emperor Fang? 8%. Later in the game, you can craft equipment that increases your chance of obtaining rare Aragami materials.
  • Each combat field has a set of locations where materials and Shop Fodder can be scavenged. Each location has its own random selection of possible items it produces, which changes at different mission difficulties. This means sometimes you have to farm specific fields at specific difficulty levels to get what you want, not just Aragami. Thankfully alleviated to an extent in God Eater 2. You can convert some of the items you get on the field into cores to upgrade your equipment, making it less of a hassle. You still need to hunt the more powerful Aragami to get acceptable materials for the final tier's cores, though; 100 points is a steep price to pay with items that only give 1 point a piece. But it's back in full force in its Updated Re-release; the crafting system was reverted to the one in the first game. Thankfully though, mission rewards are now randomly chosen from a long list of items if you meet their conditions instead of having a 100% chance of getting 3 to 4 fairly common materials. The list is different for each mission, even if all Aragami in them and the ranks of the missions are identical. Some NPCs even have special skills that boost the chances of getting stuff on the list.
• Rank Inflation: The highest rank on a mission can be SSS+, which is only given if performed solo and within an unknown time limit.
• Real-Time Weapon Change: You can swap between a blade and gun. Dexterous ups your change speed, while Clumsy slows it down. Yes, those seconds are crucial. Moreover, the process isn't silent and some Aragami have very good hearing. There's even a skill for that: Noisy. You can, however, counter it with the 'Mute' skill, and some Controllers have the skill 'Super Mute' while in Burst mode.
• Recurring Riff: "God Eater", the first game's title theme, has a riff which is reused in many songs, including "No Way Back", "The March of Evil", and "God and Man", the latter of which also having a Recurring Riff of its own in God Eater 2, being used on the title screen and in "Revolving Lantern".
• Restraining Bolt: God Eaters wear armlets that inject them with Oracle Cells that put them in the "safe zone" for their weapon's Bias Factor (the thing determining what an Aragami will and will not eat). They're permanently attached and without them, they'd get eaten by their own weapons.
  • This problem is turned into a plot point when Lindow loses his armlet in a fight with an Aragami, cutting off his Bias Factor supply. During his subsequent disappearance, he slowly turns into a Corrosive Hannibal.
• Scavenger World: Most of the items you scrounge for are old medical supplies, bits of cloth, magnets, and rare minerals. They get converted to useful materials at mission's end.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: All over the place. While the setting and the viewpoint of some of the characters with the most influence like Johannes and Rachel lean toward the latter with the belief that the aragami threat will only continue to worsen until The End of the World as We Know It inevitably happens, a good majority of the characters believe in the former, believing that as long as they keep living they will eventually find a way to defeat the aragami threat for good.
• Squad Controls: Rudimentary in GEB; you can tell your NPC allies to search, spread out, gather, or converge (the last of which works on all NPCs on the map, not just the ones near you). The second game expands on this, letting you do the above as well as select how your allies will act. Seeing them continue to attack a running boss is so satisfying after dealing with them gathering to you when it decides to scram for so long.
• Stripperiffic: Apparently Oracle Cells keep women from wanting or being able to cover up, even when it's snowing. The artbook makes it painfully obvious that bras (and likely other undergarments) didn't survive the apocalypse. This can be justified due to how Aragami can eat anything easily unless it's imbued with Oracle Cells: if the enemies can tear through armor like it's nothing, why bother with the heavier stuff when you could be wearing lighter clothes that offer just as much protection? Clothes are also laced with Bias Factor, which is the only reason (system limitations aside) you don't suffer Clothing Damage whenever an Aragami gets a bite of you. Given how incredibly important Bias Factor is to almost everything, people may be more willing to go commando (and indulge "less is more" fashions, at least for women) to make the best of their resource budgets.
• True Companions: The God Eater teams are pretty much this. They stick together through thick and thin and are pretty much like an extended family. Most prominent would be the 1st Unit in Burst and Blood in God Eater 2.
• Utopia: The goal of the Fenrir Corporation is the Aegis Project, an impenetrable safe haven against the Aragami. However, it turns out to be a front for the Ark Project, which is more of an attempt at recreating Noah's Ark by sending people to space while the whole Earth is being purified of Aragami.
• Was Once a Man: Overdosing on the Bias factor causes human cells to mutate into Oracle cells, touching a God Arc that doesn't belong to you can infect you with cells that your Arc can't stop, and losing your bracelet means that you can't stop the Oracle cells within you from eating you then transforming into an Aragami themselves. It's speculated that the Susano'o first 'evolved' from one of the previous cases. Lindow almost suffered this fate, but the intervention of Shio, then the protagonist and Ren, helped him return - with new powers to boot.

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"Don't run away! Don't run away from the tropes! THAT'S AN ORDER!!"