Video Game / Abomi Nation

A wonderful cast of critters to die for.

Abomi Nation is a Roguelike Mons RPG heavily influenced by Pokémon's Nuzlocke challenge. It was developed by Orange Pylon Games, published by Dangen Entertainment, and released in 2021.

The island of Abomi Nation is home to Abomis, magical creatures who wield amazing powers. The island currently enjoys an era of peace, but every century, the spirit of darkness awakens to do war with the spirit of light for control of the nation. You play as Ioti, the spirit of light, fighting the dark spirit Furcifume across the ages.

Gameplay is similar to Pokémon, with a 1-on-1 battle system based heavily around Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors. The twist: When their HP hits 0, Abomis are Killed Off for Real. Unlike in Pokémon (but similar to the rules of a Nuzlocke), you only get one new teammate per area, so losing your whole team is a very real danger.

The game can be found on Steam or on its official website.

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Abomi Nation provides examples of the following tropes:

• Achilles' Heel: The Neutralize attack deals double damage to Neutral types. This is the only way to deal bonus damage to Neutral types, which are otherwise fairly robust due to their lacking any weaknesses.
• Alliterative Name:
  • This game's Monster Compendium is called the Abomi Archive.
  • Zebratas' two abilities are Primary Pride and Secondary Strength.
  • Food items that aren't Sublime Rhyme tend to be this: Ample Apple, Reset Radish, and Durable Durian.
• All-Loving Hero: Ioti, the light spirit. She is unrelentingly kind and selfless to everyone she meets, and even wishes to Save the Villain rather than stooping to his level by killing him. Deconstructed, as her mercy towards Furcifume only results in more suffering, and she ultimately realizes that killing him is the only solution.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Level is tied to your team rather than individual Abomis, so you don't need to engage in Level Grinding for new recruits. This is lampshaded by one NPC in a Take That! at RPGs with Level Grinding.
  • You can turn off permadeath in the difficulty settings if you want a less stressful experience.
  • An attack's predicted damage is shown before you use it, and this prediction identifies relevant multipliers from types, abilities, and other factors. The damage formula is also relatively simple compared to Pokémon's rather convoluted one, and has no random variance aside from Critical Hits, making it easier to judge whether your Abomi will be killed by an incoming attack.
  • Unlike in Pokémon, you get an Abomi's full Monster Compendium entry through any interaction with a member of a species, rather than needing to get it on your team. Given how limited your recruitment opportunities are, this makes filling out the Abomi Archive much easier than it would be otherwise.
• Art-Style Dissonance: The art style is extremely pastel and cartoony, with virtually all Abomis being some form of cute, even Furcifume. The plot covers extremely dark themes of death, loss, and despotism.
• Back for the Finale: Furcifume's six lieutenants return for a Boss Rush during the Final Battle, as do every one of your teammates who fell in battle.
• Badass Adorable: Thanks to the cutesy, pastel artstyle, Abomis all look adorable even as they fight to the death.
• Boss Rush: The Final Battle pits you against three consecutive fights: First, the reanimated bodies of all dead teammates, then a rematch against all six of Furcifume's lieutenants, and finally the battle against Furcifume himself.
• Break the Cutie: Divonion are enthusiastically joyful about everything. If they witness the death of a teammate, however, they will become traumatized, changing into a "peeled form" where they are perpetually crying (even their cry is changed to a wracking sob). This moves some points from their attack stats into defense, and causes them to evolve into the more defensive Shallotear instead of the Glass Cannon Jubileek.
• But Now I Must Go: After Furcifume's defeat, Ioti tells her teammates she must Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence to shepherd future light spirits to victory.
• Climax Boss: After you defeat the third lieutenant, Furcifume himself ambushes you during your fireside chat.
• Clueless Aesop: The game's lazy writing and mechanics fumble its attempts to deconstruct Mon games. Despite the game telling you to treat your party as people and to care about them, it plays the majority of "Monster" game mechanics completely straight. The lack of variation in dialogue makes your party still feel like expendable nobodies, as does the lack of real lasting consequence for letting one perish; Ioti remains chipper and cheery no matter how many have died, outwardly coming off as less caring than the trainers the game lampoons (as mons couldn't be Killed Off for Real in those games), and mons other than Divonion don't really react to the death of one of their comrades beyond cheap funerals with dialogue so canned that they often seem like they were only doing it out of obligation, which isn't helped by the Mad Libs Dialogue resulting in characters mourning people they've never met.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Completely averted; all enemy Abomis play by the exact same rules as you. This even applies to the Final Boss.
• Diegetic Interface: Implied. After entering Rambush's beard, Ioti states that she is able to see Abomis' stats. The pre-attack damage calculation is presumably her doing the math in her head.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors:
  • Streamlined compared to Pokémon: There are 8 types (compared to Pokémon's 18), and all of them are concrete rather than metaphysical: the four Classical elements (earth, fire, air, and water), plus electricity, ice, plants, and Non-Elemental. Hitting a weakness will double your damage, while hitting a strength will halve it. Hitting two weakness at once will, of course, result in Quad Damage.
  • There is a similar sub-mechanic with flying Abomis. Unlike ground and flying being explicit types as in Pokémon, they are an additional trait applied to each Abomi. Flying Abomis take half damage from ground-based moves such as Lava Floor, but take double damage from certain attacks designed to hit flying targets.
• Hard Truth Aesop: In the face of an evil opponent, sometimes killing them really is the only solution. Ioti attempts to show mercy to Furcifume and his goons, but this just results in them prolonging the war and killing more people. After awakening, Ioti ultimately accepts that killing Furcifume is the only way to stop him.
• Final Boss Preview: Furcifume ambushes you for a Climax Boss battle after you beat the third lieutenant. He lacks the massive HP of his final form, but otherwise uses similar tactics to those he uses in the final battle.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The mechanic of Permadeath is central to the plot, which explores the emotional turmoil of knowing your teammates could die at any moment, as well as the guilt of sending them into danger. Regular Abomis, and your teammates, refuse to kill their opponents in battle, emphasizing that fighting to the death is a deliberate decision that most Abomis find as horrifying as we do.
• Go Through Me: When Furcifume awakens to his full power, the team chooses to shield Ioti from his attack, even as she begs them to save themselves. Ioti jumps into the line of fire anyway to save them.
• Guest Fighter: From two other Dangen Entertainment games:
  • The Seedling, Psicorp, Abomihoney, and Belestoss enemies from Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling were added to the game as free DLC in June 2022, including a few new variants designed just for this game.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Every teammate can be named, though they default to their species name.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • The two Abomis you don't pick as your starter sacrifice themselves to give you time to escape through the Soul Statue.
  • After the third Boss Battle, Ioti considers giving herself up to Furcifume in order to end the war. Her teammates talk her down from this.
  • When the team tries to shield Ioti from Furcifume's ultimate attack, Ioti chooses to sacrifice herself by jumping into the line of fire, knowing Furcifume will ignore her teammates if she gives herself up. This selfless act revives her in her awakened form, putting her on even footing with Furcifume.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: This will often happen in battles against Furcifume when he uses his Shamouflage ability. He starts as a Neutral type, which has no weaknesses, but Shamouflage changes him to a random non-Neutral type... which gives him a weakness. His attacks also take on his current type, but that can work in your favor too if you field an Abomi who's resistant to it.
• Joke Character: On the Total Chaos randomization setting, you can actually put Ioti on your fighting team. However, as her Monster Compendium entry states, she has 1 in every stat, making her completely useless. Her awakened form, on the other hand...
• Kick the Dog:
  • Before the Final Boss battle, Furcifume reanimates all your teammates who died up to that point and forces you to fight them. That alone is awful enough, but he even uses his powers to make them blame you for failing them, which is just pointlessly cruel.
  • After his lieutenants lose to you a second time, Furcifume kills and absorbs the soul of one, giving him enough power to enter his awakened form. That's cold, but at least it serves a practical purpose. Murdering the rest of his lieutenants immediately after, not so much.
• Lazy Backup: Only one Abomi will fight at a time, even though the rest of the team is visibly present in battle. Backline Abomis can even be targeted by long-range attacks and suffer from Damage Over Time, but won't do anything to defend themselves, not even use items.
• Macrogame: Performing well in a run will award you with Temporal Pebbles, which can be spent to unlock new areas, items, and Abomis for future runs.
• Mad Libs Dialogue: Non-voiced example: Due to the procedurally-generated nature of the game, your teammates' names are inserted into dialogue whenever they're discussed. The specific teammate referenced is also randomly generated, which can lead to oddities such as Abomis mourning teammates they never met.
• Magikarp Power:
  • Seedlings do not evolve, but they have the unique ability Budding Seed, which gives them a huge boost to offense and defense after level 30.
  • Divonion is a pretty unremarkable baby-level Abomi... but if you can get it to evolve without traumatizing it, it will evolve into Jubileek, a powerful Glass Cannon with the extremely useful Cheerleader ability, which boosts the attack power of the active Abomi just by being on the sidelines.
  • On a story level, Ioti. Her normal form is the weakest of all Abomi, but her awakened form is able to break Furcifume's shield, allowing the heroes to beat him. This sort of applies to her mechanically, as her stat total is even higher than Furcifume's, but there's no way to awaken a normal Ioti obtained in Total Chaos mode.
• Make My Monster Grow: Awakening grows Furcifume to massive size, such that you can only see his head poking up from the cliff he clings to.
• Manipulative Bastard: Ioti is very willing to talk the monster to death, and Furcifume exploits this by responding in kind. Rather than typical Evil Gloating, he makes surprisingly robust logical arguments for his position, tactically deploying facts that are, technically, true while strategically omitting ones that contradict him. All of this is done purely to break Ioti's spirit and convince her to surrender. He even partially succeeds, driving Ioti to a Heroic BSoD until her teammates snap her out of it.
• Marathon Boss: The Final Boss, Awakened Furcifume, has absolutely massive HP and MP totals, dwarfing those of any other Abomi. (Naturally, this is the one Abomi you can't recruit for your own team, even under Total Chaos randomization.) In practice, though, he's not much longer than other boss fights, as you only need to defeat him instead of a whole team.
• Messianic Archetype: Sacrificing herself is necessary for Ioti to awaken her true power. After her Heroic Sacrifice, she is reborn in her awakened form and is able to defeat Furcifume.
• Monster Compendium: The Abomi Archive, which persists across runs. This gives you information about each Abomi's type, abilities, and stat layout, as well as Flavor Text.
• Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: As in Pokémon, Abomis can only have one of two abilities. Some NPCs can switch them, for a fee.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ioti's refusal to kill Furcifume and his lieutenants just allows them to retreat, regain their strength, and attack her again, which does nothing but prolong the war.
• Non-Elemental: The Neutral type, as its name implies, has no interactions with the rest of the type chart, taking normal damage from everything. Well, everything except Neutralize.
• Non-Lethal K.O.: If you're fighting a normal Abomi just for training, Abomis who run out of HP get this instead of being Killed Off for Real. You also do this to enemies, even Abomis who are working for Furcifume. This foreshadows that Furcifume's lieutenants come Back for the Finale, as you never really dealt with them.
• Olympus Mons: Ioti and Furcifume are the gods who watch over Abomi Nation, and are Abomis themselves. Furcifume is as strong as you would expect from a god, with the highest stat total of any Abomi: a Mew-like spread of 100 in every stat. Ioti, on the other hand, inverts this expectation: she has a measly 1 in every stat and can't even fight directly^note Except in Total Chaos mode, where she is a Joke Character. Double Subverted with Awakened Ioti, who is even stronger than Furcifume, with 110 in every stat. And in Total Chaos mode, you can get her in your party!
• One-Winged Angel: After he absorbs enough souls, Furcifume can enter an "awakened" form that is much larger and more powerful. It's this form that you face as the Final Boss. It turns out Ioti can do this too, triggered by a Heroic Sacrifice in her case. She still doesn't make any contributions to battle, but you can recruit this form on Total Chaos mode, where you will find she has the highest stat total of any Abomi.
• Optional Boss: After collecting 5 of the 6 artifacts, you can fight an optional boss Abomi who gains stat boosts at the start of the fight and is scaled to always be above your level. You are rewarded with Macrogame currency if you win.
• Orcus on His Throne: Very much averted. Furcifume appears during the tutorial, showing that he is only a few steps behind you before the game proper even begins. And at the midpoint of each run, he actually ambushes you while you're relaxing in what you believe to be a safe area, forcing you into a Climax Boss.
• The Pawns Go First: During the Final Battle, Furcifume sits on the sidelines and sends his minions against you first, only engaging directly when they're all defeated.
• Permadeath: If an Abomi's HP hits 0, they die... if the battle was with Furcifume's goons, that is. As part of Gameplay and Story Integration, normal Abomis don't fight to the death, only Furcifume's. You hold yourself to this standard too, so Abomis you defeat are only subject to a Non-Lethal K.O..
• Percent Damage Attack: Graze takes off 25% of the opponent's health, or 33% if the Untrimmed Mane is held. This usually isn't much better than attacking normally, but it does work on the Final Boss.
• Personality Powers:
  • Furcifume's sole ability is Solo Act, which boosts his attack power when he's the only Abomi on his team. (Naturally, in every fight against him he's fighting solo.) This is fitting with his overall antisocial personality.
  • The Beewee line posses the Triple Threat ability, which is the thematic opposite of Solo Act: The Abomi gains a bonus if they are supported by a full team. This is fitting for an Abomi based on a hive insect.
  • Many abilities make sense in the context of the Abomi's Abomi Archive entry, such as Clubcub's Bully. Zebratas' abilities are also stated to come from whether they take more pride in their fur or their stripes.
• Plot Coupon: The artifacts found within the areas linked to the Soul Statues, which Furcifume's lieutenants attempt to capture before you. Collecting them is necessary to unlock new areas and progress in the run. In the end, Furcifume reveals they are useless garbage, and he only sent his lieutenants after them to make you waste your time while he accumulated power. Double Subverted shortly after, where they are revealed to be the components of Ioti's awakened form; Furcifume was just lying to break your spirit.
• Punny Name:
  • The nation of Abomis is, of course, Abomi Nation.
  • As in Pokémon, most of the Abomi names are punny portmanteaus of the animals or concepts that comprise them.
• Rare Candy: Golden versions of the Status Buff fruits, which permanently boost the relevant stat by 5 and can be won through Minigames in certain towns. Stat orbs, which boost a stat by 1, are more common and can be bought at some shops. There are also the elemental orbs, which permanently boost an Abomi's basic attack power by 1 and change it to a given type.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Furcifume delivers one after the midgame Climax Boss battle, accusing Ioti of selfishly prolonging the war by opposing him when she could end it by surrendering. This drives her to a Heroic BSoD until her teammates snap her out of it.
• Sacrificial Lamb: You choose your Starter Mon from the three random Abomis who investigate the first Soul Statue. The two you don't pick are immediately killed by Furcifume.
• Save the Villain: At the midpoint of each run, Ioti has Furcifume at her mercy, and could kill him to end the war right there. However, she adheres to Thou Shalt Not Kill, and tries to convince Furcifume to redeem himself. She makes the same offer before the Final Battle. It doesn't work. Furcifume spurns her mercy, and Ioti ultimately realizes killing him is the only solution.
• Secret Art: There are surprisingly few unique moves. Most of them belong to Furcifume, whose entire moveset consists of these.
• Series Continuity Error: Due to the heavy randomization involved in dialogue, it is possible for Abomis to mourn teammates they never met.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog:
  • If you fail a run, the whole story becomes this.
  • Something that's not under your control, and will happen every run: Ioti spares Furcifume's lieutenants hoping that the mercy she showed will make them reconsider their allegiance. It doesn't, and Furcifume kills them anyway.
• The Social Darwinist: Furcifume justifies his murderous behavior by arguing the threat of death is necessary for Abomis to be truly strong and fight at their best (a common justification in Nuzlocke Fan Fiction). Ioti rejects this, insisting that the peace and stability of civilized life is preferable.
• Status-Buff Dispel: Several moves, as well as the Reset Radish item, will reset all stat shifts on an Abomi (both positive and negative).
• Sublime Rhyme: Food items that aren't Alliterative Names tend to be this: Mana Banana, Brute's Grapefruit, and of course, the Sublime Lime. Loco Coconut and Caring Pear are rhymes on the first syllable rather than the last.
• Take That!:
  • An informational NPC assures you that you won't have to fight 100 mindless battles to bring new recruits up to par, a clear swipe at games that require Level Grinding.
  • Some of Ioti's dialogue levels very pointed criticism at the ethics of Pokémon:
    Ioti: Could you imagine if I just went out into the wild and forced whoever I wanted to join my team? Like I'd still be the hero!
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: As the light spirit, Ioti believes strongly in this, as do your teammates. Even when your opponents are trying to kill you, you will only deal them a Non-Lethal K.O.. This is deconstructed, as Ioti's refusal to kill the villains only comes back to bite her: Sparing Furcifume after the midpoint Boss Battle only extends the war, and the lieutenants you previously spared refight you in a Boss Rush at the finale... only to be killed by Furcifume anyway. After she is awakened, Ioti finally realizes that killing Furcifume is the only option, and does so.
• The Undead: Abomis killed by Furcifume are reanimated as undead minions with no free will. This is signified by a purple smoke surrounding them. Interestingly, they can talk, but this is stated to just be Furcifume twisting the knife.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The game has a bright and cheerful aesthetic, and maintains a mostly upbeat attitude even in the face of your teammates' deaths. The Big Bad Furcifume, however, is absolutely stone-cold evil, with deadpan, humorless dialogue and shockingly cruel behavior. Any time he appears, you can expect the mood to get very dark very quickly.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Right: After the midpoint Climax Boss, Furcifume explains that any attempt to imprison him is doomed to fail due to his ability to teleport. He promptly demonstrates this after he's done talking to you, quite literally vanishing in a puff of smoke.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • After the midpoint Climax Boss, Ioti refuses to kill Furcifume. Furcifume responds by asking, well, what is she going to do with him, then? Ioti proposes non-lethal alternatives, but Furcifume shoots all of them down with the objectively true statement that any attempt to imprison or restrain him will fail because he can teleport (which he promptly does). He insists that the only way to end the war is to kill him, and if Ioti refuses, she is only prolonging the war. He is completely right, and it's only after Ioti accepts this that she can defeat him.
  • Furcifume points out that Ioti is responsible for all of her teammates' deaths, because if she just surrendered to him instead of fighting they wouldn't have had to die. This is technically true, and briefly pushes Ioti to a Heroic BSoD. (Of course, as her teammates point out, this is deliberately misrepresenting the situation: Furcifume is the aggressor, and he wants to turn Abomi Nation into a meat grinder, so surrendering to him won't end the killing at all.)
• Voice Grunting: An Abomi's cry will play whenever they speak.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Given the nature of the game, it's entirely possible to get a new recruit killed right after they join.
• You Have Failed Me: After you defeat Furcifume's lieutenants a second time, he eats one to enter his awakened form... then kills all the others, purely out of spite. It is quite possible he was always planning to do this.

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