Video Game / ANNO: Mutationem

Welcome to the neon-covered, 2D-meets-3D cyberpunk world.

ANNO: Mutationem is a 2½D cyberpunk action-adventure game developed by ThinkingStars and published by Lightning Games. It was released on March 17, 2022 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam with a Nintendo Switch port following on September 1 of the same year. Originally intended to be an SCP Foundation game like SCP – Containment Breach, it was later reworked into an original intellectual property in order to avoid potential issues with the SCP IP, while still maintaining some markers of its inspiration.

In the futuristic Noctic City, Ann Flores is a highly-skilled combat-trained young woman who is experiencing an unknown effect within her, "Entangleitis", that causes her to lose control of herself. Her adoptive brother, Ryan Flores, was looking for "N540", a mysterious substance that can cure her condition, only to be abducted by agents of Dr. C, a top member of the secret organization known as the Circle Consortium.

Later, she discovers evidence that may lead to her missing brother as she faces off against the Consortium and mega-corporations with the help of her close friend, the hacker Ayane Misuno, hoping to find her brother and the N540 while at the same time discovering what C is planning. In the process, Ann slowly begins to discover that she is getting involved in something much bigger than her.

No relation to the Anno Domini series.

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ANNO: Mutationem provides examples of:

• 2½D: The game utilizes full third-dimensional environments with 2D character designs. All areas have fully explorable 3D settings while it switches to 2D for areas where combat occurs.
• 555: Several signs around each city features these numbers on multiple adverts. Several of them are displayed as 1154-223, 255-3667, and 8832-546.
• 20 Bear Asses: At Freeway 42, to repair the broken lift and rescue a merchant trapped on it, Ann must collect multiple machine parts from the nearby enemies and take to the lift's control panel to reactivate it.
• Abandoned Laboratory: Freeway 42 was formally a biological research facility that worked on organic materials for study until the Mechanika Virus broke out and was soon abandoned after those who worked in the labs ended up regressing as an underground tribe while the labs became overrun with creatures born from industrial waste tossed into the sewer.
• Absurdly-Spacious Sewer: Beneath Freeway 42 prior to the Abandoned Laboratory is a large sewer system with spacious large enough to connect with an Underground City with dwellers that survived the deadly after-effects of the Mechanika Virus. The surrounding area is shown to have grown fauna, and contains wreckage of ships that made its way below.
• Acid Attack: The Mother Grub is capable of unleashing acidic mucus from its body to inflict Damage Over Time. The Varanus, when battled in The Consortium's underground facility, moves around the fighting arena by traversing through the surrounding water, and fires acid from its mouth.
• Action Girl: Ann knows a variety of martial arts, takes on enemies with energy blades, and can activate a Super Mode acquiring a new move set that'll wipe the floor with most of her opponents.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: During her progress through The Consortium's Elaborate Underground Base, Ann comes across a large red sphere of energy that chases after her, leading to a brief auto-scrolling segment to escape until she can find a weapon capable of destroying it.
• Affectionate Nickname: Ayane often calls Ann "darling". When Ann tells her to stop using it, Ayane playfully asks if Ann would be fine with "Baby", "Honey", or "Lover" instead.
• Afraid of Their Own Strength: Ann's 'Entanglelitis' causes her to lose consciousness and attack without control. However, in the past when she lost control and attacked Ryan, damaging his eye, she realized it was something far more dangerous and decided to move out to prevent it from hurting her family.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Prophet is an automated database equipped with an AI to communicate with humans. Being a hyper-intelligent, sentient AI, it's been using its ability to share, manipulate, and spread itself through information networks to try and ensure its continued existence and further its goals through all manner of schemes and machinations. Certain documents explain that it is one of The Consortium's lost anomalies that was kept in containment for the vast intelligence it exhibited.
• Air-Dashing: After taking down The Warden at the Walter Raleigh, Ann acquires a booster that she can use to air dash past obstacles and reach long distances.
• Air-Vent Passageway: When searching for an informant at Noctis City, Ann finds the informant's local spot guarded, and upon searching around she finds a nearby air-vent that uses to slip past the guard.
• Always Night: The town of Margaritia, Noctis City, and Harbor Town are set in the nighttime. Skopp City and Freeway 42 are primarily in daytime.
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The battle against Amok occurs on a red plane of Hinterland with floating black stones in the background.
• Ambiguously Brown: Absalom has fairly dark skin, which is contrasted by his light gray hair. He's mentioned to be from the Middle East, the rest of his origins aren't known.
• Ambushing Enemy: The Trans Grub at Freeway 42 hides itself underneath the ground until it senses something on top and then quickly emerges to swallow the target whole.
• Americasia: The city of Noctis is a cyberpunk metropolis mixed with (pre-dominantly) Japanese and Korean influence, complete with Virtual Idols, robots, futuristic cars, and ninjas.
• And I'm the Queen of Sheba: When the Flores household gets a surprise visit from "Santa" who came to deliver Sigrid a present, Holtz brings out a shotgun and demands the visitor says his actual identity.
  "Santa": I'm Santa, bringer of joy to children!
  Holtz: Bullcrap! If you're Santa, I'm Jesus.
• And the Adventure Continues: In the ending, Ann finally severs her connection with Amok and Hinterland, curing her "Entangleitis", as well rescuing Ryan once the matter was settled, and Ann reconciles with herself wanting to run away from her family to keep them safe from herself. However, Dr. G assigns Ann as a pair of eyes for The Consortium for any future anomalies since the unknown faction that engineered C's actions is still out there (though he has at least proven that the Consortium are more than willing to engage with Ann in good faith), and after Ann takes Ayane to see the ocean during the daylight, Ayane enthusiastically talks about how she'll stick by Ann in all their inevitable future adventures.
• An Ice Person: Castor's partner; Melissa, has the ability to conjure ice out of her body, such as granting herself a Double Weapon of hardened-ice, emitting a cold blast to trap Ann in ice, and growing icicle wings to unleash a makeshift hail-storm.
• Anti-Frustration Features: If you use up most of your items during a difficult section or boss, getting a Game Over will return you to the previous checkpoint and all items previously used will be retained, preventing them from being entirely wasted. Also, if you're running low on credits, a fisherman at Harbor Town will offer a Fishing Minigame to capture as many fish you can, they can be sold for higher prices than the usual Shop Fodder.
• Apocalypse How: A Class 6 occurs in the bad ending once Amok completely takes over Ann's body and proceeds to unleash her Mechanical Abominations across the planet, bringing total destruction and creating a miniature sun as everything is shrouded in devastation.
• Apocalypse Maiden: Ann, the protagonist, doesn't harbor any power that endangers the world, she instead possesses a connection with an eldritch being called Amok, who according to the Masked Woman, is capable of destroying the world if released. In the Good Ending, Ann manages to sever the connection, ensuring that Amok can never emerge again. In the Bad Ending, Amok uses Ann's Moment of Weakness to fully take over her body, and proceeds to turn the entire world into a desolate Hell on Earth.
• Appliance Defenestration: Early in the beginning when Ann is walking out of her apartment, one of the nearby denizens throws their computer out the front door. Funnily enough, it actually becomes part of a sidequest when the computer crashes through the doors of the lower apartments and the owner of those units is not happy about it.
• Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: Despite guns being readily available, a frequent threat, and Ann can also use them herself, she fights primarily with swords. Futuristic, energized ones, but swords nonetheless.
• Artificial Outdoors Display: Ann's room at her apartment in Skopp City has a setting to turn on a display for the window into showing a clear night sky.
• Artistic License – Medicine: Erythropoietin is an in-game item that provides a Status Buff when used. In real life, it is used for increasing red blood cells by supporting the survival of erythroid progenitor cells.
• Ass Kicking Pose: Ann, excelling in both athletics and combat, does a combat stance when she's about to battle opponents.
• Attack Drone: Automatic drones appear as enemies in various areas. The drones take measure to avoid any attack before firing their weapons, and other variants will activate a Self-Destruct Mechanism and flies towards Ann to deal damage.
• Auto-Save: Auto-saving is done automatically when entering a major location or passing by a certain spot in some areas.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The "Tunguska" missile launcher is capable of locking onto enemies and even with large single targets like bosses and mini-bosses, it causes a significant amount of damage and armor destruction than most anything else in the game can. It also has extremely limited ammunition, takes a while to lock on at its base level, and is best used as a supplement to a melee assault than simply blowing things up from a distance.
• Back from the Dead: In the bad ending, Ryan makes an impulsive move to help Ann which results in him getting fatally shot. In Ann's Moment of Weakness, Amok tells her that Ryan will be revived once she enacts her vengeance. Amok does indeed keep her word and brought Ryan back, only he's now woken up in a world that's been completely destroyed.
• Background Boss: The boss of The Walter Raleigh, T.R, activates an enormous battle machine with large mechanical arms to fight Ann from a distance which also fires projectiles. The Weak Spot opens up once it overheats from enough damage to its armor, allowing Ann to fire rockets into it.
• Bad Vibrations: During her venture through Freeway 42, Ann experiences a sudden rumbling as a result of The Consortium battling The Varanus in another area. Another variation occurs in the bad ending when an unconscious Ryan is woken up by a large earthquake caused by Amok destroying the world.
• BFS: One of Ann's 3 types of melee weapons is a 2-handed greatsword, capable of incredible, wide-reaching damage at the cost of very slow swings.
• Bifurcated Weapon: Ann's dual blades can combine into a double-headed glaive, with the help of a Grom system upgrade.
• Big Bad: Dr. C, one of the top members of The Consortium, masterminded the capture of Ann Flores' brother Ryan and seeks to access the power of Hinterland to release Amok so she can destroy the world as revenge for his wife's death.
• Big Damn Heroes: Raymond shows up to rescue Ann from a collapsing building in Noctic after she loses consciousness during her first battle with Loki.
• Big Sister Instinct: Ann often looked out for her younger brother Ryan whenever he got bullied and got him out of a bad situation when he almost fell in with the wrong crowd. After Ryan goes missing, she sets off to find him.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • Ryan is safe and back with his family. But, Ann has now become an unwilling hostage to the Circle Consortium, forced to work for their "Purge Department" for the sake of Ryan and Ayane's safety. It's even hinted at that the Consortium intends to use Ayane to emotionally manipulate and blackmail Ann even further, now that they have "Subject 06" back. However, Dr. C is still being kept alive and could cause havoc again. The threat of Hinterland and Amok wreaking the End of the World as We Know It still exists. And Castor and his little sister, Melissa, are still alive, albeit stuck in a parallel dimension for the moment.
  • The Revised "Good" Ending either expands or cuts out much of the elements that were criticized, and makes the ending much less bitter. There is more expansion on Dr. G's treatment of Ann and how the Consortium plans to treat her moving forward after Ann permanently seals Amok and the threat of Hinterland, and Ryan's memories of his capture are erased and Ann is free to stay above-ground, acting as a "pair of eyes" for the Consortium for any future threats.
• Black Site: The incurable victims of the Mechanika Virus live in a vast, underground sewer complex, as a part of the Circle Consortium's activities to limit both the effects of the virus itself and the societal fallout when it becomes apparent that the vaccine wasn't 100% effective.
• Blade on a Stick: Ann's dual-blades can be combined into a double-headed glaive, which trades fast and simple strikes into slower, wider-reaching, and potentially higher-damaging attacks.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: The initial release had most of the subtitles not matching with the voiced dialogue being said. This was later fixed in a patch, though there are still some minor examples of this. As well, the translation does leave something to be desired in places, such as some weird grammatical errors (such as missing full stops at the end of many sentences) and using "thru" instead of "through" in many cases, even on formal documents.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: Ann can negate any damage with her energy shield upon blocking at the right time, which also gives her a chance to Counter-Attack against enemies.
• Blood from the Mouth: In a scene exclusive to the demo, Ann's nightmare has her coughing blood as she struggles to meet a mysterious figure in the snow.
• Blood Knight: Absalom is one of The Consortium's field agents who harbors powerful skills and attacks that he only brings out when the opponent he's fighting puts up a good fight. After being beaten by Ann, he teleports out with a promise that he isn't done with her yet.
• Blue Is Heroic: Ann primarily wears a casual blue outfit. When in combat, she has a combat suit that's also dark blue.
• Body Armor as Hit Points: Every enemy has a blue bar that acts as their armor, depleting it will get them stunned and allows Ann to do a Finishing Move.
• Boobs of Steel: Ann Flores, the protagonist, is skilled in martial arts and shown to have a well-endowed bust, and it's conveyed promptly when she's wearing her combat suit.
• Brick Joke: While at the Flores household, Sigrid accidentally uses her abilities to wish for getting a gift from Santa Claus. This leads to a rather silly mishap as "Santa" pops in from the roof and gives Sigrid a present, while Holtz pulls out a shotgun and takes the man for a thief before chasing him out. In the epilogue, "Santa" inexplicably shows up back again, much to the bewilderment of Ann and her siblings, and this time, Holtz makes sure he doesn't make a getaway.
• Break Meter: All enemies have their armor bar functioning as their break meter. Once it has been fully depleted, the enemies with become stunned with Circling Birdies and they'll be vulnerable to extra damage and can be struck with a Finishing Move attack to take a chunk of their health.
• Burger Fool: At Skopp City, there's Martho's Mega Burger Joint, which is mentioned to be in bankruptcy after the owner went mad and ate all the burgers. The inside of the shop has it riddled with trash and it's only employee a robot binding time by stacking up cans.
• But Thou Must!: For several sidequests, some of them end with having to make a choice; i.e. having to identified who committed an Appliance Defenestration or deciding to reveal the location of someone. Regardless of the choice selected, the side-mission will marked complete and the rewards will be given.
• The Cameo: At The Sicilian Jar and The Nest bars, both Jill and Dana from VA-11 HALL-A have cameo appearances when they're visiting to be guest bartenders.
• Captain's Log: In her search for her brother, Ann comes across voice messages left behind by Ryan detailing his search for N540 after receiving an anonymous tip.
• Cargo Cult: At Skopp City, there's a group of cultists who worship "The Void", a crater of darkness that's actually called LIMEN. They embrace the supernatural 'gifts' that emerged from the crater and consider that they will become part of the crater by embracing it.
• Casual High Drop: Prior to starting the roofhopping across Noctis City, Ann exits out from an apartment window, falling several hundred feet before landing with ease.
• Cats Are Mean: When walking through the city, Ann comes across a cat who tosses a bottle at her.
• Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: Ann immediately has her combat suit equipped whenever she enters a major area, regardless of the casual clothes she's wearing prior.
• Charged Attack: All of Ann's swords can be charged or have an unlockable charged move to deal significantly more damage in a single blow.
• Charge Meter: Defeating enough enemies will fill up a meter that will allow Ann to awaken her Super Mode that'll vastly increase her stats to deal severe damage to opponents.
• Child Prodigy: Ann's friend, Ayane, is an incredibly skilled Playful Hacker who can perform all manner of hacking and finding information. Her character bio mentions that she won an illustrious hacking competition at the age of ten.
• Children Are Innocent: Sigrid is a young girl who also happens to be a Reality Warper, she understands the nature of her special ability, but words it as magic, thanks to her caretakers teaching her how to harness and contain it for the most part. When she's at the Flores household, she curiously looks around and watch TV for the material she enjoys.
• Christmas in July: Sigrid uses her abilities to wish for Santa to give her a gift, which inexplicably makes "Santa" appear and presents her with a teddy bear. Which leads to a silly mishap as Holtz pulls out a shotgun and takes the man for a thief.
• Circling Birdies: Once an enemy has had their armor bar depleted, they'll be immediately stunned, signified by a spinning star on their head. Likewise, if Ann gets hit with a heavy attack, she'll get stunned with the same effect until she gets out of it.
• Code Name: The Consortium is an N.G.O. Superpower that operates in strict secrecy and many layers of cover-ups and obfuscation from the public and even their own employees. The senior scientists simply go by single letters of the English alphabet, being referred to as "Dr. G" or simply, "G".
• Collection Sidequest: Cyber Nekos and Posters are collectibles that are hidden throughout several areas. Unlike many collectibles in games, the Cyber Neko also work as currency that Ann can exchange for cosmetics, such as new outfits or alternate designs for her vehicle.
• Color-Coded Speech: Each major character has their names colored in subtitles when speaking; Ann's text is blue and Ayane's text is pink.
• Combat Stilettos: Ann's combat suit sports heels. She can deliver a variety of martial arts towards her opponents without any problems.
• Concept Art Gallery: The Collector's Edition of the game comes with a digital artbook showcasing character art, early designs, various locations with alternate looks, and Animal Mecha that would have been fought as bosses.
• Connected All Along: The Masked Woman implies in her last encounter with Ann that she is also one of the seven subjects that were involved in the Gatekeeper Project.
• Construction Vehicle Rampage:
  • One of the first bosses that Ann fights is a giant construction mech modified with quadrupedal caterpillar tracks (that double as legs), armed primarily with giant, industrial-sized plasma cutters. Ann gets to get in on the fun during the Abandoned Biological Research Base, using a construction mech with normal caterpillar tracks to destroy a nest of mutated grubs, to Ayane's absolute delight.
  • T.R., head of the Factió Pugní, prides himself on the two giant freighter ship crane arms he's converted into massive weapons for crushing and destroying intruders in his base, if he doesn't blow them up with the attached missile launchers.
• Coolest Club Ever: At Noctis City, there's Nocturne Maze, a cyber club full of virtual lights and artificial dancers to favor the crowd with their never-ending rhythms.
• Cool Key: Advanced Cryptokeys are designed with colored lines that are utilized to open any tightly locked containers having useful items.
• Cosmic Horror Reveal: From a colorful but still cynical, dark, and dystopian Cyberpunk mystery, the game quickly becomes a Lovecraft Lite story once the Circle Consortium is revealed to be an Expy of the SCP Foundation studying and containing Variants, strange anomalies from the alternate dimension Hinterland, and the Artifact of Doom that Dr. C is attempting to get to cause The End of the World as We Know It will release the powerful Amok from her prison.
• Cosmetic Award: Completing all three levels of The Bartender mini-game will give a bronze, silver, and gold trophies, including Ann's bartending outfit that she can wear out of the bar.
• Counter-Attack: Using the energy shield at the precise moment when an enemy delivers a strike will allow Ann to counteract by reflecting the attack back and dealing damage to her opponents.
• Covert Pervert: After Ayane gifts Ann a Paipai drone that acts as a way for Ayane to remotely communicate and see Ann, Ann says she needs to go shower. Ayane quickly and excitedly says Ann can take it with her to the bathroom, as the drone is waterproof. Ann instantly shoots this plan down.
• Crate Expectations: At Freeway 42, to get by metal debris blocking the path, Ann needs to move a metal crate nearby to climb up over the ruins.
• Credit Chip: Almost all types of physical currency have been phased out or only survive in niche applications, thanks to how far society has advanced and how convenient wireless, purely digital transfers are. The Mechanika Virus played a huge role in this, as its key effect was Unwilling Roboticization and the bioskin given to its victims also came with sensors and transmitters for most every sort of government or financial transaction.
• Creepy Crosses: The Limen crater has an enormous crooked cross in its center, while the crater's outer edge is surrounded by crosses. Later, C visits an unknown area with a mural that has seven dark crosses with skeletal markings.
• Critical Annoyance: Whenever Ann's Life Meter reaches critical, the screen turns red that's accompanied by a distorted heartbeat.
• Cute Slime Mook: At Harbor Town, a nearby resident offers to show his unique specimen for a few credits. The creature shown is a tiny slime with a single eyeball and a small pointy head.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Anyone who survived the effects of the Mechanika Virus but weren't given the proper treatment slowly had their minds corrupted and consumed until nothing was left, leaving them to act extremely aggressive and attack whoever is in front of them.
• Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain: Subverted. The city is oftentimes brightly lit with vibrant colors, albeit because of the prevalence of "artificial sunlight" during the game proper. A news piece implies that this was the case for most ordinary citizens before then.
• Dash Attack: With the light sword and dual blades, Ann can perform a shadowstep and quick dash to charge forward towards enemies along with a cross-slash to deal additional damage.
• Deadly Gas: At Freeway 42's lab area, Ann finds the path blocked by a haze of toxic gas that'll immediately drain her health if she steps close, then having to activate the ventilation system to dispel the gas to get by.
• Defiant to the End: Near the end, just as Ann manages to reunite with Ryan, she's blocked off by The Consortium's security and is ordered to stand down and come with them to cut off Amok's connection with her. If Ann decides not to trust them thinking they have other agendas, this ends up leading into disastrous consequences as Ryan argues and demands Ann should be let go. Despite G's warning that leaving Ann still tied to Amok will bring chaos, Ryan refuses to listens and impulsively attacks G, causing the security bots to shoot him in retaliation. As Ann is in shock over Ryan's death, Amok uses the opportunity to pry on Ann's anger to forcibly take over her body, immediately killing everybody in the room, and proceeds to annihilate the entire world.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: In the bad ending, after Ann refuses to trust The Consortium, Ryan makes a sudden move to help Ann escape which only resulted in him getting shot. Ann cradles Ryan's body in shock, moments before Amok uses the opportunity to take over Ann's body.
• Disc-One Nuke: New weapons cost a hefty amount of credits, and the usual Shop Fodder is sold for little price. A stronger Zanmato sword can be purchased prior to Freeway 42; by collecting as many junk items, completing all three levels of The Bartender minigame, and selling early starter weapons will yield enough credits to buy the weapon.
• Distressed Dude: Ryan Flores spends almost all of the game imperiled, in danger, and constantly just out of reach of Ann's desperate attempt to find him. You only get to meet him at the very end of the game, where fortunately, he is saved, but at certain costs to Ann thanks to the Circle Consortium.
• Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud: During her boss fight, Melissa uses her ice powers to grant her herself icicle wings and use them to create a spinning tornado to protect herself while she tosses chunks of ice at Ann.
• Double Jump: Ann can perform a double jump once she obtains a power module that she can equip to her combat suit, letting her reach heights she couldn't get to before.
• Double Weapon: Ann's dual blades can combine into its glaive form with blades on either side of the handle.
• Draconic Abomination: In the final fight, C's incarnation of his own evil is forced out of his body, causing him to transform into Nidhogg, an enormous black dragon formed out of malice that can disperse powerful forces of energy.
• Dramatic High Perching: In the bad ending, after Amok is freed from her imprisonment and proceeds to unleash devastation on the world, she stands high above overseeing the destruction.
• Dramatic Thunder: In the bad ending, following Amok's release and subsequent destruction of the world, lightning strikes occur over the sky as an infernal fireball is formed above.
• Dual Wielding: One of Ann's choices for light weapons are the Dual Blades, which attack extremely fast and deal relatively large amounts of armor damage without the slowness of the BFS. They are a Bifurcated Weapon that can combine into a double-headed glaive.
• Dress Code: Ann heads to Nocturne Maze to search for an informant, only to get blocked by security for her casual outfit. Ayane is more than eager to show Ann a nearby clothing shop where the shopkeeper and her three assistants get Ann into the store's best dress.
• Driven to Madness: At The Consortium's research facility, a large red sphere of corrupted energy broke loose and caused the surrounding researchers who were consumed by it to lose all sanity.
• Dual Boss: In The Consortium's underground facility, two sword-wielding cyborgs attack Ann. During the fight, they'll both either fight Ann at once or one of them will retreat to recover before jumping back in.
• Dungeon Shop: Jos van Corn and occasionally his brother will show up in each area to provide their corn juice and weapons creation.
• Eccentric Townsfolk: In each of the main cities, the civilians generally go on with their lives as they see fit, participating in passerby conversation while some adapt to some aspects by getting shrouded in.
• Eldritch Location: Limen is a mysterious crater that lies somewhere on the planet. The crater is surrounded by Creepy Crosses and has been stated to have existed for centuries with scholars believing it was caused by a Magic Meteor but it's true origin is unknown. Limen brought about dangerous phenomena that spread out into the world, one being the Mechanika Virus and creating a gateway to another eldritch world; Hinterland. The Consortium goes to great measures to contain and eradicate whatever is created by Limen with their main objective to destroy the crater.
• Elite Mooks: The Consortium's Shadow task force is its most elite squadron of soldiers, split into several classes with Code Names ranging from personnel wearing immense armor, wielding special weapons such as railguns, and skilled combat.
• Enemy Civil War: The Consortium ends up in disarray due to Dr. C going rogue, taking a portion of the personnel with him, and causing a massive containment breach. By the time Ann infiltrates their base, she ends up having to fight through a mix of both The Consortium's security forces and C's underlings.
• Enemy Mine: During the infiltration of their base, Ann fights and takes down a huge number of security personnel, but since C has gone rogue and is trying to enact his plan to get the superweapon from Hinterland and destroy the world, G and B decides to have Ann assist them in stopping C on the promise of releasing Ryan and Ayane afterwards.
• Enemy Scan: Using the Grom System's Scan function on enemies will display their health and shield stats, with info about them getting added to the Monster Compendium.
• Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Ann is a calm, reserved, Action Girl who knows plenty of martial arts. Ayane, is an energetic skilled hacker who enjoys getting too intimacy with Ann.
• Energy Weapon: The "Stormram" is a particle cannon that needs to be charged to unleash devastating lasers at your targets.
• Equipment Upgrade: At weapon workshops, Ann can upgrade her equipment by trading in dismantled collectibles to be used for parts to increase a weapon's stats and provide a bonus effect.
• Everything Sensor: Ann can use the Grom System to scan around the area to search for Shop Fodder and identify Treasure Chests if they're nearby.
• Evil Overlooker: One variant of the main cover features C looming over Ann and Ayane in the cyberpunk city. The menacing black dragon that's also behind the two is his One-Winged Angel form, Nidhogg.
• Exact Words: After Ann learns Ryan's stolen ROM is located at The Walter Raleigh, Ayane warns her that the boss of that area T.R. is also in possession of large mecha arms. It's not actual robotic arms on his body, he does own enormous mecha-built arms that are controlled on the ship.
• Experience Points: Grombitz earned from fighting enemies or completing Sidequests. With enough Grombitz, Ann can use it to unlock and obtain new Skills And Perks from the upgrade menu.
• Expressive Hair: When Ayane leads Ann to a dress shop to help her get into Nocturne Maze, Ann's hair shoots straight up when the shop owner's three (bulky) assistants arrive to put the dress on her.
• Expy: The game was originally planned to take place in the universe of the SCP Foundation, and of the game's inspirations are still pretty blatant in the final game.
  • The Circle Consortium is a near-exact copy of the SCP Foundation, complete with the goal of containing anomalies, known here as "variants" and keeping the world at large in the dark about the supernatural nature of certain disasters, like the Black Plague and the Mechanika virus.
  • Dr. B is a deadringer for Dr. Bright (aka Bobo), also being a monkey and an Uplifted Animal who works as an otherwise normal member of the staff.
  • The orange suited inmates inside the Consoritum facility are basically Class D personnel, both are expendable and are used primarily to contain dangerous subjects and to die in droves to them for the sake of experiments.
  • The Varanus is SCP-682, the "Hard-To-Destroy Reptile", complete with similar containment procedures and inability to be killed. The worst that Ann can do to it is temporarily stop it long enough for the researchers to let her out.
  • In the Final Dungeon, a variant inside their containment room is similar to SCP-1000 "Bigfoot" as both are cryptids who are part of the Sasquatch family.
• Eye-Obscuring Hat: C, the Big Bad, constantly has his eyes covered by his hat. It only comes off after he's defeated.
• Eye Scream: Ryan Flores lost his right eye in a past incident when Ann accidentally awakened Amok within her, lost control, and attacked him. His injury wasn't too severe and soon got treatment for a cybernetic replacement with bioskin, making it indistinguishable from the original.
• Family Business: At Margarita, the Flores residence is also a bar called "The Sicilian Jar" which was formerly run by Holtz, but is now handled by Nakamura.
• Feed It a Bomb: During the boss battle with the giant slug in the sewers, after its armor has been depleted, Ann can toss a grenade in the mouth while it is stunned, allowing a piercing attack to take much of its health.
• Fetch Quest: One of the early side-missions is bringing a cake slice to a nearby denizen living in the sewer. Later on, Ann is asked by the weapon shop owner to retrieve a module that was taken by a Giant Enemy Crab beneath Freeway 42. At the same area, several workers request for the gathering of ten rare coins scattered throughout the area.
• Find the Cure: Ann's younger brother, Ryan, goes missing when he picked up a lead on finding N540, a unique medicine that he wants to find which would cure Ann's Entanglelitis. Even though Ryan succeeds in finding it at The Consortium's base, he was immediately captured when it turns out it was a trap to lure Ann in.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Ann can equip a variety of chips into her Socketed Equipment that can add a Fire/Ice/Lightning effect to her weapons to deal additional damage to enemies.
• Fish-Eye Lens: A few areas in Skopp and Noctis City have doors that can be seen through this viewpoint. One in particular leads to a Peek-a-Boo Corpse.
• Fishing Minigame: Once you can travel to Harbourtown, you can rent a fishing pole for however long you want for a measly 10 credits, without limits to the amount of fish (or random junk) you can get from the water. Much like Tales of Arise, it's a great way to make money and mitigate the game's high prices for upgrades and consumables.
• Fission Mailed: The "false ending" has Ann arriving in an unknown room before being incapacitated by Castor who uses the opportunity to take the Dypheus Spear in Hinterland, which unleashes Amok who proceeds to destroy the world. "Game Over" appears... which is then followed by Ann awakening besides the Masked Woman who tells her how to prevent Amok's release.
• Fist Bump: In the epilogue, Ann waits outside Ryan's room. Despite Ryan feeling bad for the trouble he got himself into, Ann holds up for a fist bump as way of thanks for him finally finding the cure for her Entanglelitis as well being reunited.
• Flunky Boss: The Mother Grub moves quickly around its fighting area as it detaches worm spawns to attack Ann while causing damage to a nearby generator.
• Fluorescent Footprints: During some side-missions, Ann can use the Grom System to scan the area to follow a footprint trail and find who left it.
• Flying Car: Being set in a futuristic cyberpunk city, vehicles hover around to travel, even while moving on roads, they still float a bit.
• Fortune Teller: At Margarita, Ann can meet a fortune teller on the street-side who tells her about the current situation and where she'll proceed next.
• Full-Boar Action: One of the various enemies are Mooks wearing metallic boar armor who'll pull out powerful swings or a charged rush to deliver heavy damage.
• Full-Conversion Cyborg: Though Holtz Flores was a victim of Unwilling Roboticization thanks to the Mechanika virus, he ended up deciding to have all of his remaining flesh converted into a cyborg body for unknown reasons. He also doesn't make use of bioskin, looking the most robotic out of all of his family.
• Fungus Humongous: At Freeway 42's Abandoned Laboratory, the passage is blocked by huge mushrooms emitting a Deadly Gas that'll affect Ann with a poison ailment until she activates the ventilation system to dispel the gas.
• Game-Breaking Bug: A particular one happens after you complete the Harbor Town Freighter area, if you return back to the Freighter, the boat ride to head back towards Harbor Town doesn't work, no matter how many times "go back" is selected, leaving you stuck, more-so if you saved at the point without any backups to get out of it. This was later fixed in a patch.
• Game Within a Game: Ann can play an arcade version of Pong in some areas.
• Gateless Ghetto: Both Skopp and Noctis City can be explored to find hidden collectible items and do Sidequests, with the rest of the surrounding areas being blocked off by a 'No Trespassing' sign.
• Generic Graffiti: There are various sets of graffiti found throughout Skopp and Noctis city. The Concept Art Gallery features them in full detail.
• The Ghost: Ann's older sister, Helen, is mentioned to be away traveling, so she's only seen on photographs and sends messages to Ann during that time. In the epilogue, she finally comes back from her trip.
• Ghost Town: Freeway 42 was once a thriving area until the Mechanika Virus caused such pandemonium that it and many other places were abandoned following the virus's erasure. Despite this, there are remnants that survived by living in a Underground City, along with stragglers that occasionally venture in to find materials for useful gain.
• Giant Enemy Crab: Beneath Freeway 42 is a mini-boss, a large crab creature encased in stone, where it summons small crab-like variants while tossing debris and launching projectiles from its shell.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • An early-game sidequest at Ann's apartment complex involving entering the elevator and going to specific floors wasn't elaborated with enough clues; a minor video footage and peeking into a certain room to count the number of differences. The developers themselves posted a step-by-step solution to alleviate player frustration.
  • Finding all the Cyber-Nekos and collectible posters. The game provides a counter for the total found, but doesn't provide any information on exactly how many there are to be located in each area.
• Gladiator Subquest: After completing the Ship Level, Ann can participate at Harbor Town's fight matches to win credits and earn the champion belt.
• Gradual Regeneration: The standard health item, 'Stim Shots' and the later 'Digitalin', provide a regeneration effect upon use.
• Growling Gut: After Ann discovers Sigrid who collapsed from hunger at Freeway 42, she takes her somewhere to recover. Later, after spending time resting, Sigrid wakes up and explains how she got there before her stomach growls.
• Hacking Minigame: Ann can use the Grom System to hack any door with an encrypted lock where she has to get the unlock key through the bars of data by finding the right sequence before time is up.
• Hammered into the Ground: After Castor and Melissa were beaten by Ann, they both get sucked through a portal that has them landing headfirst in a desert, with Melissa having to dig Castor out.
• Happily Adopted: The Flores children; Helen, Nakamura, Ann, Ryan, were individually adopted and taken in by Holtz at different points. They've each lived happy, fulfilling childhoods under Holtz's care, and even into adulthood they all have a very positive, healthy relationship.
• Hard Light: Each of Ann's weapons is built from a utilized material called electropolymerization that solidifies light to transform it from plasma to a physical state. Requiring a zinc energy source, it allows solid light to be changed into various shapes for the weapon that's in-use.
• Healing Spring: Throughout various areas, there are teleport springs that also function as a Warp Whistle, instantly recovering Ann's health and healing whatever Status Ailment she's afflicted with.
• Hellevator:
  • An early side-quest revolves around finding a suspect who disappeared in a elevator. After going to several floors in a certain order, Ann finds herself in an unknown space and finds the man quivering in fear before returning back.
  • It happens again when you access the Circle Consortium's Noctis facility through Dr. Alan's secret elevator. You first run into his child, whose brain he uploaded into a Consortium robot and have to fight him to proceed, and the sights and revelations waiting for you after you get off only get more unpleasant and dangerous from there.
• Hold the Line: In the final area, Ann must defend Sigrid from C's attack forces as she channels enough power into her ability to weaken C and expel his other self from his body with a physical form so that it can be destroyed.
• Hollywood Flamethrower: One of the Mooks at the Ship Level is equipped with a flamethrower that only goes a few inches that's easy to avoid.
• Hunger Causes Lethargy: After exiting Freeway 42, Ann finds Sigrid collapsed outside after passing out from hunger. Ann quickly takes her somewhere to recover, though she still makes a Growling Gut sound after waking up.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: The Corn Juice items instantly provides Ann with recovered health instantly instead of a regenerative effect as Stim Shots.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Upon arriving at The Consortium's inner base, Ann finally locates her brother Ryan being held captive, and is soon told by one of the top scientists, G, that Ayane has also been captured and demands Ann complies with them to defeat C if she wants them to be released.
  Ann: If you hurt my brother... and Ayane... I'll make you suffer!
• I Gave My Word: This occurs both ways after the Last-Second Ending Choice.
  • In the bad ending, Ann's refusal to trust The Consortium results in Ryan getting killed and Amok uses Ann's Moment of Weakness to convince her that Ryan will be revived once she takes her vengeance. Amok gave her word and brings Ryan back, but only after the world has been destroyed.
  • The good ending has Ann being told by G that once she undergoes procedures to sever her connection with Amok, Ryan and Ayane will be released and she will be able to return home as well. After Ann permanently seals Amok, she's told her business with The Consortium is finished and she can freely go.
• Impossible Item Drop: Most enemies drop a variety of items that they wouldn't be in possession of, such as Attack Drones dropping a Stim Shot, or regular enemies having medicinal herbs and mushrooms for Item Crafting, and a Giant Enemy Crab carrying a module for a weapon upgrade.
• Inevitable Tournament: To gain a boat to travel to Factio Pugni's freighter ship, Ann is asked to participate in a battle match at Harbor Town.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: There are numerous chests throughout each area containing stuff used for combat or materials for Item Crafting. They can be identified with the Grom System that marks them with a yellow marking. The larger variants that have more items require a key hidden in various locations.
• Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Any Advanced Cryptokey collected throughout main areas and then used to open secured containers are immediately discarded after being used.
• In-Scene Title Text: The main title appears as Ann is viewing Noctis City from afar at Ryan's apartment.
• In the Back: In the bad ending, after Amok has fully taken over Ann's body, she quickly dashes behind Dr. G before stabbing him in the back.
• In the End, You Are on Your Own: After going past the Point of No Return in the final area, Ayane realizes The Consortium has tracked her location and arrived to capture her, leaving Ann to traverse through the last segments of the base by herself until the confrontation with C.
• Item Crafting: Collecting enough materials from enemies or Treasure Chests can be used in crafting to make the standard healing items, grenades and ammo for the pistol, or items that'll boost attack and defense.
• It's All My Fault: Ann feels it was her fault for the incident when her Entanglelitis caused her to lose control and attacked her brother Ryan, causing the loss of his eye. Despite the rest of her family assuring her it was only an accident, Ann is troubled by what her condition had done, and secretly fears it's something more dangerous.
• Jiggle Physics: This occurs with Ann, surprisingly not as noticeable as it could be, but she does have some bounce when she walks/run.
• Justified Tutorial: The training tutorial at Doyle's lab focuses on how Ann uses her combat suit and skills against enemies.
• Kill Enemies to Open: A barrier pops up whenever a room full of enemies is encountered and it remains until all of them have been taken out.
• Knowledge Broker: Lin is an information broker and hacker in Noctis City with a vast intelligence network. He'll tell anyone just about anything under the radar, whether it is someone's whereabouts or whatever they're planning.
• Lap Pillow: After the Freeway 42 visit, Ann takes a moment to rest while laying on Ayane's lap. During that time, Ann talks to Ayane about the circumstances on how she's been aware of an other self within her, that along with Ryan's disappearance has made her admittedly worried.
• Laser Blade: Ann may primarily use swords for combat but their cutting edges are explicitly superheated plasma fields, if the entire "blade" section isn't just a contained energy field.
• Laser Hallway: At The Consortium's underground lab, Ann enters a room that's blocked with large moving lasers that have to avoided by Wall Crawling around the platforms until most of the lasers have shifted enough to open a path to move on.
• Last-Second Ending Choice: After the Final Boss fight, Ann is confronted by The Consortium and is ordered to stand down so they could severed her connection with Amok. If Ann refuses thinking they can't be trusted, her brother, Ryan, makes an assault which leads to him getting fatally shot, and Ann, in a brief Moment of Weakness is taken over by Amok who unleashes total destruction on the entire world. Should Ann complies with them, Ryan is released and safely returned home, Ann battles with Amok to permanently seal her, and soon reunites with Ayane, who enthusiastically talks about how she'll stick by Ann in all their inevitable future adventures.
• Level-Map Display: A mini-map of the area on the top-right of the screen. Selecting the full map shows the entire area, along with key marks showing which locations are accessible, locked, where the shops and Warp Whistles are, and a red pointer towards the main objective.
• Life Meter: Ann's health bar is depicted the top-left screen.
• Limited Loadout: Ann is able to carry a variety of weapons with different stats that's limited to only being able to select and equip just three from her inventory.
• Little Black Dress: To get by Nocturne Maze's Dress Code to search for an informant, Ann puts on a black dress called the Twilight Veil for easy access.
• Loading Screen: There are various loading screens for several events. Starting up the game will feature either a news report for information off the main story or a shot of Ann and Ayane with text giving gameplay advice. Using a teleport spring or an elevator has a loading shot of it going to its destination before arriving. Lastly, traveling to any location shows Ann driving in her vehicle.
• Locked Door: Most areas have a locked door that are usually opened by doing a Hacking Minigame or traversing around until it's unlocked from the other side. At The Consortium's underground base, the locked doors require key cards hidden throughout various rooms.
• Lore Codex: The Database menu showcases information on characters, various enemies, items, terms, and locations such as the Limen Crater or the Mechanika Virus, as well detailing other factions mentioned throughout.
• Love Makes You Evil: C's core motivation to access Hinterland stems from his heartbreak over the loss of the woman he loved, who died in an accident years ago and left him with nothing but hatred for the world. Or at least, that's the excuse presented. It's left ambiguous how much of his destructive intentions were his own with the reveal that an outside faction had brainwashed him.
• Lotus Position: One of the denizens in the Underground City manages to do a lotus position while standing due to having multiple robotic legs.
• Lured into a Trap: Ryan Flores goes missing after he received a message telling him how he could find N540, which was perpetrated by C to capture him and then use Ryan to lure Ann towards The Consortium.
• MacGuffin: The Consortium seeks a unknown artifact called Dypheus' Breath by The Codex. The Consortium has reason to believe that Dypheus' Breath can manipulate any type of portal or gateway, possibly including LIMEN, making it an object of great importance.
• The Mafia:
  • The Factio Pugni are the primary criminal element plaguing Noctis City and other nearby settlements, and they don't seem particularly choosy about who joins them. Like historical real-life mafioso, they claim to be a righteous group of protectors when most of the "justice" they met involves robberies, kidnappings, murder, and street fights with unfortunate citizens.
  • The mobster NPCs who are part of the Mija gang complete with a modernized traditional get-up (suits, fedoras, and a futuristic Tommy Gun), fortunately, these are non-hostile.
• The Morlocks: The Outcasts are a tribe living beneath Freeway 42. They are the remnants of their former selves that survived Mechanika Virus deadly effects, and chose to remain in their Underground City without any advancement towards the surface and before long, some of them are Driven to Madness when their bodies become too unstable.
• Meditating Under a Waterfall: Though this doesn't happen at any point, one achievement artwork "Serenity Now" shows Ann meditating beneath a waterfall after giving enough tributes to a statue.
• Mega-Corp: The Tithonus Group rose in corporations when it perfected the Mind ROM technology and adapting it for civilian use. Its scope of business ranges from electronics and vehicles to industrial products, even in the bio-pharmaceutical industry, introducing a drug against the Mechanika Virus, later forming a subsidiary company called FT Productions that grew into developing modules. Alongside Tithonus, there's Eindersohn Industries, a renowned weapons developer and manufacturer in specialized mechabots and bio-products.
• Mighty Glacier: The Warden of the Walter Raleigh moves slowly thanks to the vast amount of armor he's wearing. While this makes it easy to attack him from a distance, he'll perform a rush attack to shrug off any projectiles fired at him.
• Missing Secret: Helen's room at the Flores home is always locked, with no certain way to unlock it.
• Moment of Weakness: In the Bad Ending, by refusing to accept The Consortium's order, Ann's Moment of Weakness results in Ryan being fatally shot. At that moment, Amok uses the opportunity to pry on Ann's anger on the promise of reviving Ryan and enacting vengeance, causing Amok to fully take over Ann's body and unleashing a hellstorm of destruction on the entire world.
• Monster Compendium: Alongside the Lore Codex, there's a database listing all enemies that were scanned, providing an exposition on them, details about each of their abilities, and their total health/armor points.
• Mook Maker: The Mother Grub and its hives constantly spawn a variety of grub eggs that hatch immediately to attack with different abilities and physiques.
• Moon Logic Puzzle: One of the early sidequests revolves around finding a suspect who disappeared in an elevator. The only clues being video footage of the suspect entering the elevator before vanishing and examining the crime scene has Ann noting that something in the room has changed. The real solution is that several objects in the crime scene are broken into a specific number of pieces, which requires Ann to go to that floor with the elevator, that also has a room identical to the previous one, following the clues on each floor will lead to the suspect's location.
• Ms. Fanservice: Ann, apart from having a Shower Scene, has a prominent chest, wears a form-fitting combat suit while out in the field, and has an array of outfits she can try on. Ann's "Cinnabar" outfit, mentioned to be a gift from Ayane, is a qipao-inspired dress, with an open cleavage diamond, and a very short cut skirt that shows off plenty of Ann's legs, which makes it one of the most revealing outfits that Ann can have.
• Muck Monster: The Mother Grub is an enormous blob-like creature composed of highly acidic mucus that'll emit as gas. It can extend it's body to make itself fly and harden itself to perform a Rolling Attack while spawning multiple larvae to attack.
• Mundane Object Amazement: The electronics store that houses Dr. Alan's secret laboratory has a dedicated section for outdated, pre-smartphone era phones. A collectible piece of lore says that they're all terrible devices but have now become so rare that they've become collector's items.
• My Name Is ???: The Masked Woman who occasionally appears is referred as [' ??? '] blocked out in text. Certain documents found in areas hint that her name is Michelle.
• Mysterious Stranger: Ann keeps running into a masked woman that no one else can seem to see, who provides her cryptic clues to what's going on and clearly knows more than Ann's situation than her, before mysteriously disappearing before giving any straight answers. In contrast to most of the game's subtitles, which clearly give the speaker's name, hers is a completely redacted series of letters surrounded in quotes.
• Named After Somebody Famous: The Walter Raleigh that's owned by the Factio Pugni is named after the real-life explorer and courtier of Elizabeth I.
• Neon City: Noctis City is an americasia of several influences, with idols (live and virtual) and glowing neon signs in Western and Eastern languages, futuristic cars, and a disperse of adverts on many buildings.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: The Varanus is a large reptilian creature with ample mobility and inability to be killed. The worst that Ann can do to it is temporarily stop it long enough so she can pin it down.
• New Game Plus: This mode is unlocked after finishing the story. In it, Ann retains all of her acquired weapons, items, Credits, and Skill Point upgrades. Enemies are also given more health and deal out more damage than in Normal Mode.
• New World Tease: Dr. Doyle's lab has a locked door with a hall leading into a backroom and anytime Ann tries to enter it, Doyle requests that she doesn't interrupt his research. It's not until much later that Ann discovers Doyle was hiding information from her regarding Ryan, and proceeds to discover an underground facility.
• N.G.O. Superpower: The Consortium is a vast, powerful, and mysterious organization that dedicates itself to keeping up the Masquerade of the world by covering up the supernatural and otherworldly dangers which threaten it. They've been confirmed in-game to be responsible for spurring the development of the Mechanika Virus vaccine and giving Ann her supernatural power to visit and see other dimensions, euphemistically referred to as her "Entanglelitis".
• No-Dialogue Episode: The entirety of Dr. Alan Doyle's backstory flashbacks are entirely without written or spoken dialog, told primarily through environmental storytelling, emojis, facial expressions, and sound effects, like the realistic car crash sound, from the accident that killed his beloved wife.
• Non-Human Head: At Skopp City, Ann comes across an individual speaking from a manhole cover asking her to bring food. At a later time, she finds it's a person called Hapi who has an actual sewer cover for a head. There's also Jos van Corn and his brother who have heads of corn.
• Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits: Falling into any bottomless hole or a dangerous hazard will deal a small bit of damage to Ann before she's immediately sent back to the area she was standing on.
• Non-Standard Game Over: After the Final Boss battle, Ann is given a choice to either agree with The Consortium's demands or refuse and defy them. If she chooses the latter, then, unfortunately, it turns out she should have trusted The Consortium, as the security bots shoot Ryan in retaliation. Ann, in a Moment of Weakness, summons Amok to try and revive him, Amok permanently takes over Ann's body, and then uses her catastrophic powers to bring about The End of the World as We Know It. Ryan later wakes up, confused and horrified at the carnage around him, to find his sister has been consumed by an otherworldly being of pure destruction.
• Noob Cave: Dr. Doyle's lab simulator is where Ann does practices on combat skills and use of items before battling the Training Boss.
• Noodle Incident: While Ann is chatting with her sister, Nakamura, they bring up how Ayane visited The Sicilian Jar to try out one of the bar's heaviest drinks and had an embarrassing spectacle after taking a few sips.
• Notice This: Using the Grom System will indicate any interactive object with yellow tracing.
• NPC Roadblock: At each of the major cities, there are various citizens blocking routes to further areas and new shops until Freeway 42 has been completed.
• Oh, Crap!: In the bad ending, G and B react with utter horror upon their security bots accidentally killing Ryan in front of Ann, causing Amok to materialize and immediately strike them down.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: Ann's dream at the beginning of the game has a distorted effect before she wakes up. Later, whenever Ann activates her Super Mode, the screen displays glitched effects until the mode wears off.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Consortium is headed by a council. In their brief appearance in the opening, they unanimously rejected C's proposal to reinstate the abandoned Gatekeeper Project, since their focus is on the highest echelons and that there is little need for circumstances "too costly" or "unacceptable" when it comes to protecting the world from Limen.
• One-Letter Name: The senior-level staff and facility supervisors of The Consortium all go by single capital letters, i.e. C, G, B, K, and D.
• One-Time Dungeon: The rooftops of Noctis City, the first major area, cannot be revisited after Loki's mecha is beaten, leaving any Treasure Chest left behind unobtainable until New Game Plus.
• One-Winged Angel: After C is beaten during the last battle, his body becomes weakened enough to allow Sigrid to use her ability to expel all the malice in his body, causing it to evolve into Nidhogg, the ancient dragon from Norse Mythology.
• Our Founder: Skopp City holds a statue contribution of the founder of the Tithonus Group in celebration of their first generation gravity enhancers represented by levitating blocks.
• Panacea: The N series are medical technology that was created to heal wounds and cure specific diseases. N540 is the latest that has the capacity to cure-all types, until an incident where civilians fought and killed over the medicine resulted in it being kept hidden from the public.
• Paranormal Investigation: The agency where Ann and Ayane work at looks into the series.occult and inexplicable phenomenon. The head of the agency, Raymond, mentions how he's on the search for a Mad Doctor wearing a plague mask.
• Peek-a-Boo Corpse: While around her apartment at Skopp City, Ann overhears an odd noise from a nearby room and looks through the door-hole. A Scare Chord occurs as a dead body hung swings by, leading into a SideQuest to find the perpetrator.
• Pensieve Flashback: After losing consciousness and awakening in Hinterland, Ann travels through the terrain where she sees her memories of the incident that caused Amok to awakened within her, that subsequently led to Ann losing control and attacked her brother Ryan, damaging his eye, which made Ann moved out of her family home out of fear of hurting them.
• Photo Mode: Screenshot Mode uses free camera movements to take shots that can be saved.
• Playful Hacker: Ayane, who can hack into Noctis City's signal and provide Ann with any information she needs.
• Playing with Fire: One opponent at the fighting arena is Pyrofist, who's able to dispel flames from his body and use them to increase his combat effectiveness. Pyrofist's bio also implies that he's an actual sentient flame within his armor.
• Point-and-Click Map: Whenever Ann enters her vehicle, the map is displayed on the screen with a cursor to choose the destination.
• Point of No Return: Upon proceeding into the deepest level of The Consortium's underground facility will have a prompt once Ann reaches a certain door warning that the final chapter will commence once you past through and visits to previous areas won't be possible. With a Teleport Spring nearby, it'll allow you to stock up on any needed items for the last chapter.
• Port Town: Harbor Town is a large port at sea located far from the city. It's home to the arena tournament, an Item Crafting shop, a Fishing Minigame, and a large Ship Level.
• Post-Cyberpunk: The story is set in a post-cyberpunk metropolis with multiple cities mixed with (pre-dominantly) influence, complete with Virtual Idols, robots, futuristic cars. While there are some darker elements, such as The Mechanika Virus that caused peoples bodies to be turned metallic and robotic, and an Eldritch Location that's unknown to the world as an N.G.O. Superpower studies it to find the means of destroying it. The setting is often times brightly lit with vibrant colors, making it veer far from the dystopian-type scenarios.
• Priceless Ming Vase: While heading to Dr. Doyle's lab, Ann knocks a vase over at the sell shop. The owner chides Ann that she'll have to pay full price for it at a later time.
• Private Detective: Ann and Ayane are both private investigators. They work at Raymond's agency, which specializes in investigating and solving supernatural problems. Ann is an Action Girl who does most of the investigating locations, interrogating suspects, and fighting trouble, while Ayane is a Playful Hacker who acts as her support and tech specialist.
• Purple Is the New Black: One of Ann's optional outfits, Graffiti, is purple fully mixed with black shaded in. Ann's hair is also given a similar treatment.
• Quad Damage: The Erythropoietin and 654-2 drinks temporarily increases Ann's attack and defense stats for 60 seconds, also provides additional damage to enemies armor bar.
• Rainbow Speak: Listening to conversations from civilians will have them mentioning important things in red while stuff for Side Quests are colored blue.
• Ransacked Room: After encountering a couple of thugs who were looking for her brother, Ann heads to Ryan's apartment to check on him. Upon arriving, she finds the room with most of the stuff tossed around with her only clue being a video ROM. Then, she gets ambushed and the ROM is stolen, leading to roofhopping across Noctis City.
• Reality Warper: Sigrid has the power to alter the whims of reality by focusing it on what she wants. As such, this allows improbable capabilities, like making a plant grow instantly or making "Santa Claus" appear to give her a present. Sigrid understands the nature of her ability but words it as 'magic', thanks to the "Grand Wizard" teaching her how to harness and contain it for the most part.
• Red Baron: A higher-up of the Factio Pugni calls himself "The Unbeatable" Loki due to his wielding of a BFS. He also has a brother called "The Unbeatable" Tai Long.
• Red Filter of Doom: Whenever Ann's Life Meter nearly runs out, the screen turns red from all sides.
• Rhino Rampage: One of the various enemies are Mooks wearing metallic rhino armor who'll pull out powerful swings or a charged rush to deliver heavy damage.
• Ring Menu: When in battle, using the right stick with bring up a ring menu displaying each of Ann's weapons for quick selection.
• Roofhopping: The first major area occurs on the various rooftops of Noctic City as Ann chases down a Factio Pugni thug to retrieve a stolen ROM.
• Save Point: There are laptops dispersed throughout each major area with the function to manually save progress and improve Ann's Skill Scores and Perks.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: While traveling to The Walter Raleigh, Ann meets a mysterious individual, K, who proceeds to tell Ann a story about a child who made a Deal with the Devil, all with shiny glasses, and just before Ann can ask anything else, he suddenly vanishes.
• Sentry Gun: At The Walter Raleigh, there's several gun turrets mounted up in the background. After the alarm has been raised, they're fully activated, and take aim at Ann for several seconds before firing an energy shot.
• Sequel Hook: Even in the Revised Ending, which answers a few of the ominous questions presented by where the game originally left off, the faction that manipulated C into unleashing the Hinterland remains at large by the end of the game.
• She-Fu: Ann knows a variety of martial arts that she can use in combat. She can also upgrade her Grom system to have a number of acrobatic hand-to-hand techniques, such as a running knee strike that can launch enemies off their feet and into each other for extra damage.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: The attack forces of The Consortium come equipped with shields to defend from attacks or use to bash for damage.
• Ship Level: Ann travels to The Walter Raleigh, a decrepit old freighter ship nearby Harbor Town owned by the Factio Pugni to retrieve Ryan's stolen ROM.
• Ship Tease: Ann and Ayane frequently have incredibly intimate interactions with each other, like giving each other lap pillows and Ayane constantly flirting with Ann. Whether this is just playful banter or Ayane being serious and Ann either rejecting the romantic advances or not realizing Ayane's intentions is never made clear, but the two are extremely close and enjoy the other's company nonetheless.
• Shop Fodder: Ann can find all manner of junk items that are explicitly only meant to be sold for more credits.
• Shower Scene: One of the first things Ann does in the opening hours of the game is take a shower, which the player sees from outside the bathroom and with a conveniently placed jar blocking most of your view of her.
• Shout-Out:
  • A viewable cartridge is titled "Super Hacker Bros." on a console resembling the Atari 2600.
  • The "Combo Experience" achievement artwork depicts several fruit being sliced apart.
  • The "A Dangerous Day" collectible movie poster is an exact homage of Blade Runner's poster.
  • At Noctis City, there's an arcade game found in an alley called "Invincible" that has the cover art of Doom featuring Doomguy.
  • One of the collectible items is a toy resembling Dragon Quest's Slime, which is a mix of both a slime and Healie.
  • The collectible poster titled "Blood Night" has the monster being Count Orlok.
  • There are several playable arcade games of Tong in a few areas.
  • One collectible poster features a contest for a shoot em' up game called "UFO Invaders".
  • One of the achievements earned for using the shower several times is titled "So Fresh and So clean clean".
  • Utilizing the item dissembling mechanic earns the achievement "I think it's broke".
  • One of the collectible items is called the 'Annogutchi', an animal-styled life simulator toy.
  • The achievement earned for destroying a red ball of energy is called "In the smacker".
  • An achievement for completing several Hacking Minigames is titled "You Are The One", illustrated with a few Agent Smiths.
  • One achievement is called "Science, it works!"
  • A message from a 'Grand Theft Audry' says they're furious that the car they stolen was taken.
  • One of the collectible posters details about four brothers living in the sewers fighting monsters.
  • One achievement is titled "I'm walking here!", earned by making several cars in the city stop on the road.
  • A civilian dressed as Asuka Langley can be seen in Skopp City.
  • An achievement is titled "Annakin Skyscroller".
  • One of the collectible movie posters is called The Shape of Water about an underwater amphibious creature.
  • Overwatch's Hammond works at the weapon shop in Harbor Town.
  • Jill and Dana from VA-11 HALL-A appear at the bars in Magarita and Harbor Town.
• Shows Damage: All enemies receive numeral damage numbers indicated whenever Ann attacks.
• Sidequest: There are several side-missions throughout the main cities, ranging from gathering a certain number of items, finding an lost object in a major area, and searching for a missing person. Completion of these quests grant credits, Grombitz, and Tech Points for the Skill Tree.
• Sigil Spam: The Consortium keeps their mark throughout their base on each of their vehicles, weaponry, technology, including documents and messages.
• Skill Scores and Perks: Ann can upgrade her "Talents" through a skill tree with three sections that require Grombitz and Upgrade Points. "Basic" increases her stats of Health, Attack, and Defense. "Tactical" gives improved effects to her weapons and attacks. "Expertise" grants her new moves she can use in battles.
• Skin-Tone Disguise: After the Mechanika Virus pandemic had subsided, a biological skin, appropriately called Bioskin, was developed for victims who survived to let them regain their original looks, also equipped with sensors to emulate sensations.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: In the bad ending, Ryan is shot by The Consortium and blacks out. After Amok has destroyed the world, he awakens to the sound of Bad Vibrations to find the building in ruins, everyone in the vicinity gone, and arrives shocked to find the outside is now a Hell on Earth.
• Smashing Survival: Getting hit with a heavy attack attack will temporarily stun Ann, rotating the control stick will shake off the effect. This occurs while also fighting Melissa, as getting hit by her ice attacks will trap Ann until the control stick is spun around.
• Smash the Symbol: In the bad ending, after Amok uses Ann's Moment of Weakness to take over her body, she delivers a massive slash towards the mark of The Consortium just before unleashing destruction on the world.
• Smash to Black: In the bad ending, Amok's destruction of the world starting with Skopp City smashes to black as the large mechanical claws overtake the city.
• Socketed Equipment: Each of Ann's weapons has three sockets for enhancement chips that would increase it's strength, amplify critical damage, or double penetrating attacks against armor health.
• Something Itis: Ann is undergoing treatment for 'Entanglelitis', which causes her to lose consciousness and attack people. It's actually a cover for her supernatural ability to sense and mentally visit other dimensions, something that the Circle Consortium wants to cover up.
• Something Only They Would Say: after Ann awakens her Super Mode and loses consciousness, Ayane quickly asks what's the Affectionate Nickname she gives Ann to assure she is still herself. Ann embarrassingly replies "darling", reassuring Ayane that Ann's 'other self' is gone.
• Start Screen: The game opens up with a shot of a puddle on the ground, pressing the start button pans the camera up to show the protagonist, Ann, in the middle of Noctis City.
• Status Buff: The Erythropoietin and 654-2 drinks temporarily increases Ann's attack and defense stats for 60 seconds, also provides additional damage to enemies armor bar.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: The Masked Woman occasionally appears in front of Ann, drops a bit of exposition, and instantly disappears before Ann can ask anything else.
• Stylish Protection Gear: Ann's battle suit. It comes with a number of extra features thanks to the Grom System, such as the Crosshair Aware lasers and targets that warn you of incoming projectile attacks and explosives.
• Super Mode: After the first battle with Absalom, Ann awakens to her interdimensional traveling powers and can now manifest Amok in her world, granting her a visible change in appearance, twin katanas that are obscenely more powerful than any of her weapons, and an infinite supply of ninja throwing stars. It is on a very short activation period but can absolutely wipe the floor with enemies or deal severe enemy to a boss, along with Ann both being invincible and regenerating health so fast nothing can harm her. Ayane refers to it as "Super Ann" mode.
• Successful Sibling Syndrome: Ryan Flores is hindered quite heavily that his older sisters; Helen, Nakamura, Ann, are much more successful and reliable, leaving him to constantly be the one being saved or needing rescue whenever he gets himself into trouble. This is part of why his attempt to locate N540 for Ann comes from trying to prove himself.
• Super Window Jump: After Ann takes down several of Loki's thugs, he escapes by jumping out of an apartment window. Ann pursues him by jumping out the same window and doing a Casual High Drop.
• Surprise Santa Encounter: While at the Flores residence, Sigrid gets a surprise visit from "Santa" popping in from the roof to give her a teddy. Immediately, Holtz Flores pulls out a shotgun and takes the guy for a thief before chasing him out. In the epilogue, "Santa" makes another visit, much to the confusion of Ann and her siblings, and this time, Holtz makes sure he doesn't get out of it so easily.
• Surveillance as the Plot Demands: While making her way through The Consortium's underground facility, Ann comes across a surveillance room and discovers the organization has been monitoring her and Ayane at specific locations ever since they started closing in.
• Symbol Swearing: Castor and Melissa, having survived their portal malfunction are left stranded in the middle of a desert. Castor, outraged at C's betrayal, rants angrily as his words are written in random symbols.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: T.R., the head of the Factió Pugní, fights with two giant, weaponized freighter ship crane arms, capable of crushing intruders to death along with conventional weapons like missile pods. The missiles the latter fires can be dodged then disarmed by Ann, then used with her "Tunguska" missile launcher, which is the only way she can deal damage to the vulnerable motors that keep the crane arms working. Had T.R. not used those missile launchers, Ann would have likely been tired out or found it impossible to destroy his machine.
• Tech Points: Grom Upgrade points are earned after defeating bosses and completing certain sidequests, they can be used to enhance Ann's skills and earn new moves.
• Teleportation: The N533 Technology are devices spread throughout several areas that not only use healing elements, but also contain a derivative of teleporting between them once activated.
• Temporary Platform: At The Consortium's underground lab, Ann comes by a gravity manipulation room containing floating cubes that dissipate and reappear, along with one of the card keys she needs to open the lock.
• Thanks for the Mammary: When Ann reunites with Ayane after C is defeated, Ayane takes the time to leap onto Ann in a manner that also has her grabbing Ann's chest.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Playing the Pong arcade mini-game has the AI opponent being given a faster paddle than your own, which gives it enough ample speed to toss the ball back while your paddle moves slowly without anyway to speed it up before the AI makes it's goal in.
• The Stinger: After the credits of the initial ending, Ann is standing before Amok again in Hinterland, who offers Ann to change her destiny, ending before Ann's response is said.
• Thinking Up Portals: One agent of The Consortium, Castor, can open up portals to any location of his choosing. Though, he doesn't engage Ann in battle, he instead sends his partner, Melissa, to fight Ann by opening a portal that sends them both to a suitable fighting area.
• This Just In!: A Loading Screen occasionally has a news report detailing about various events occurring off the main story.
• Title In: Each area is depicted on the screen upon first arrival.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Consortium is in possession of an ancient scroll called The Codex, which contains 12 chapters written in an ancient codified language. Its contents are a source of information and different hypotheses such as the existence and details regarding Hinterland. Major corroborate findings from The Consortium informed them of a mythical weapon called The Artifact, hidden away in Hinterland that might be the key to destroy LIMEN.
• Took a Shortcut: Jos van Corn always happens to show up far in each area to sell his Corn Juice. When Ann asks how he arrived so quickly, Jos replies he needs to expand his business to compete with his competitors by setting up shop in unexpected places.
• Training Boss: After the initial training program, Doyle sends in a virtual beast to have Ann battle it.
• Transhumanism: Unsurprisingly, cults around the "Mechanika" virus sprung up before the vaccines were developed, and even up till now there are still cultists who praise the virus and bemoan the proliferation of the virus as preventing humanity from "ascending" to a higher form of existence. A poster in Freeway 42 lambasts this, with a picture of a horrific victim of Unwilling Roboticization and the caption asking if he's "handsome" and if it was worth losing his sanity.
• Trap Door: At Freeway 42, Ann is dropped through one by the opposing tribe to fight their red beasts. Later on, she falls into another one when she's pitted against The Varanus.
• Troubled Fetal Position: After the Freeway 42 visit, Ann takes a moment to rest before assuming this position on how Ryan hasn't been found yet and having awakened a Superpowered Evil Side within her.
• Underground City: Beneath Freeway 42, there's a regimen of dwellers converted by the Mechanika Virus living far underground. The tribe living there would lose any sense of identity upon the virus damaging their minds and end up being split off into the nearby ruins.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: The initial release had a grueling bug after you complete the Harbor Town Freighter area, if you return back to the Freighter, the boat ride to head back towards Harbor Town doesn't work, no matter how many times "go back" is selected, leaving you stuck, more-so if you saved at the point without any backups to get out of it. This was later fixed in a patch.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: One side-quest by Ayane has her asking Ann to search for Noctis City's idol OK-Chan after finding evidence the idol might be in the area. Though, finding the apartment has OK-Chan turned out to be a bulky guy using a virtual move-set. Ayane took it in stride and compliments his incredible moves.
• Unwilling Roboticization: In the past, the world underwent a crisis when the "Mechanika" virus caused bodies of people to be turned metallic and robotic, the most advanced and tragic cases losing their sanity and minds in the process. After a vaccine was created that stopped or mitigated the worst of the effects, most victims were given bio-skin to attempt to live some semblance of humanity.
• Upgraded Boss: The Training Boss from the Tutorial Level, The Varanus, returns in The Consortium's underground facility. It's a lot more mobile than before, moves around the fighting arena by traversing through the surrounding water, and fires an Acid Attack.
• Uplifted Animal: Dr. B, an uplifted monkey who is one of the Consortium's key personnel.
• Use Your Head: One of the various enemies are Mooks wearing metallic armor who'll do a charged rush by ramming with their head.
• Vice City: Noctis City is described in the Lore Codex as being a free land in fog and shadows. Citizens are said to flock towards Noctis to seek a life of freedom to fulfill their dreams while most die from the chaos and evil that happens beneath. Some choose to leave after experiencing such pandemonium, others adapt to the city's nature by becoming chaotic.
• Villain No Longer Idle: Once The Consortium starts turning against him, C decides to take matters into his own hands by obtaining the power of Hinterland by force with any means necessary.
• Virtual Celebrity: Throughout the cities, there are two idols gaining popularity; OK-Chan, a singer who uses a virtual avatar while keeping her real identity a secret, and Mion, a virtual idol who promotes herself and freely sends messages to gather fans.
• Virtual Paper Doll: Ann can wear a variety of outfits whenever she's at a nearby closet that she got from purchased bonus content or at the city's clothing shop.
• Virtual Training Simulation: The tutorial segment occurs in a virtual simulator. The basic mechanics on how to perform combat and other skills are explained which leads to a battle against the Training Boss.
• Wall Crawl: Ann gains an item called the Gelcor Fiber, which lets her climb up on metallic walls after Air-Dashing into them.
• Wardens Are Evil: The Mini-Boss of the Walter Raleigh is the warden overseeing the prison cells sporting a large mechanical suit. The Warden presents his Bad Boss status by tossing one of his lackeys into a death-trap before leaving him for dead.
• Warmup Boss: Loki and his Mini-Mecha attack from various angles by causing debris to fall from above and unleashing a Spin Attack requiring an dodge roll to avoid major damage.
• Warp Whistle: Throughout each major area, there are Healing Springs that function as warp points to fast-travel towards visited locations.
• Waterfront Boss Battle: The Varanus at The Consortium's underground facility is fought in its containment cell, a large stone center surrounded by sewage water. During the battle, it moves around the fighting area by traversing through the enclosing water before doing a Shockwave Stomp after emerging to shake the platform.
• We Buy Anything: Ann can sell nearby junk to receive credits and buy new items. Most areas have all manner of random knick-knacks, outdated gadgets, and literal garbage whose sole purpose is to be sold for money. Realistically, they barely sell for anything more than 1-3 credits a piece, though to be fair, a lot of them can be picked up.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Consortium runs on its highest echelons for that there is little that is "too costly" or "unacceptable" when it comes to protecting the world from LIMEN and other supernatural threats. Among the crimes they've committed, there's secret concentration camps for incurable victims of the Mechanika Virus, human experimentation on children, and a private army who have highly-trained assassins and convoluted information sharing protocols to ensure that no one that needs to know, knows anything, nor will anyone be able to find records of what they have done. They'd be almost trustworthy if it weren't for their questionable ethical decisions.
• We Will Spend Credits in the Future: The main currency in the city is virtual credits. It's expounded upon in "Intelligence" lore that this was a result of the Mechanika virus and "bioskin" containing all manner of sensors and wireless integration to systems. Since the digital currency was so convenient and effortless to use, and the government and other major organizations were already prepared and ready to process the sheer volume of it, physical currency all but fell out of common use and now survives in niche applications and as novelties.
• Wham Shot: After retrieving her brother's stolen ROM, Ann manages to repair it and view the entire recording, with the final image showing Ryan entering Dr. Doyle's lab beneath Skopp City, signifying to Ann that Doyle was withholding information from her.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Alan Doyle disappears from the story after Ann discovers the hidden research facility in his lab, with no mention of his whereabouts afterwards.
• Who You Gonna Call?: Raymond's Agency is a firm specializing in occult and inexplainable phenomena such as ghouls or a Mad Doctor wearing a plague mask.
• Wolfpack Boss: At the Central Administration Zone, Ann comes under attack by a Eindersohn Mecha, an offensive machine that is backed up by three Heavy Mechas outfitted with different types of weaponry; machine guns, heavy railguns, and homing missiles with each of them capable of doing a Ground Pound whenever they move around.
• Would Hurt a Child: C deliberately sent Sigrid to Freeway 42 to have her killed by the hostile wildlife after considering that her powers would be used against him. When that plan failed, he orders his attack force to eliminate her once she's brought to utilize her abilities.
• Writing Around Trademarks: The game was originally developed to be an SCP Foundation game like SCP – Containment Breach. It was reworked into an original property in order to avoid potential issues with the SCP IP, while still maintaining references of the original marker, such as renaming Sigurros (SCP-239) into Sigrid and keeping her Reality Warping powers, and using the design of The Reptile (SCP-682) while referring it as The Varanus.
• You Are Number 6: Ann Flores was once known as just "Subject 06" by The Consortium as part of the Gatekeeper Project and they won't hesitate to refer to her as that, despite having long since been given a proper name.