Alchemy Stars is a mobile Strategy Role-Playing Game created by Tourdog Studios.
In this game, you are a Caelestite, a member of a race that was all but wiped out 17 years prior in an incident you were too young to remember. During this time, you were raised by Soroz, a Colossus who you are bonded to and can telepathically communicate with, a trait unique to Caelestites. Also unique to Caelestites is the ability to see the Light Trail, which is a stream of energy that can be used by another race, the Aurorians, to fight. Despite being able to perceive the Light Trail, you lack the ability to directly fight; however, you can command Aurorians in battle in their war against the Eclipsites, monsters who had something to do with the demise of the Caelestites. Together, you and the Aurorian Vice are determined to uncover what happened to the Caelestites and what the Eclipsites are after.
Alchemy Stars provides examples of:
- Anachronic Order: Both the main story and event stories are set on a cohesive timeline. For example, Siobhan was mentioned by name in Episode 13 because the ancient ruins she reported during The End! Maiden of the Ruins come from the same period of one of Soroz's historical recordings Illumina's researchers are investigating.
- Bloodless Carnage: Schummer's death in Episode 10 of the main story. Despite getting mauled to death by a horde of Eclipsites, the illustrations accompanying the scene don't depict any wounds or gore, without a single drop of blood spilt.
- Breaking Old Trends: An Enigma Sealed in Ice is the first event story, if not including the main story, to feature fully voiced acting (except the Navigator) and character sprites with mouth-to-speech sync.
- Calling Your Attacks: Every Aurorian shouts out their moves' names, both in gameplay and story. Also lampshaded during Episode 13, when the Navigator is in a simulation and has his simulated Aurorians' shout their moves. Guardian One asks why they do that, and the Navigator replies he doesn't know and thinks it's probably because it's cool. Guardian One decides the entire subject is devoid of logic.
- Cast Herd: Most of the Aurorians are part of one of the major factions in the world; even those who are labelled 'Independent' are usually simply part of a smaller faction. This has an effect on gameplay, as Aurorians from different factions require different items for Ascension.
- Country Switch: The version of the app in most countries' app stores allows players to choose their server from multiple; however, the version of the app on the U.S. app stores is an entirely different version, called Alchemy Stars: Aurora Blast, which restricts players who downloaded it to the U.S. server. Aurora Blast is also incompatible with several of the pre-release bonuses Tourdog allowed players of all other versions to enjoy, such as the daily web gacha that gave players the chance to obtain Robyn.
- Elemental Powers: All of the Aurorians, as well as all enemies, have one of four different inherent elements: Fire (Red), Water (Blue), Thunder (Yellow), and Forest (Green). Certain Aurorians can unlock a secondary element when raised to their third ascension. On top of the general Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors involved, Aurorians which aren't the squad's Captain can only attack while walking on their respective element's tile. Enemies are not restricted by this.
- Elite Four: Reinhardt, Bethlehem, Schwartz, and Istvan are the four most powerful leaders in Astra, as they each command a respective federation/country/etc, as opposed to Victoria and Sinsa (both of whom command organizations that spread their influence throughout Astra, rather than congregate their power into one nation).
- Fanservice:
- It is there for both male and female Aurorians alike, which is pretty par for the course in an anime-styled gacha game. Notably, some of the Aurorians tend to wear somewhat revealing clothing or clothing that emphasizes their curves. The summer events introduced swimsuits for some Aurorians, some which shows a lot of skin or emphasize certain parts of their body.
- Lampshaded for Laughs by Zarya in Zarya's Closet event prologue. While observing the latest fashion she could wear for the Navigator to like in an upcoming beach trip, she's appalled by how much skin they show off, even fellow Northlanders Leah and Ophenna.Zarya: [thinking] (Why are the skirts and pants see-through?! What's the point of wearing see-through materials? What happened in Northland in the last century? Am I a real Northlander?)
- Functional Magic: Luminatics is a power exclusive to Aurorians that allow them to manipulate Lumina in their surroundings and create a desired effect, commonly expressed as one of the four elements, Fire, Water, Thunder, and Forest, though there are other Luminatics that aren't elemental, and certain animals like wondrous beasts can also use Luminatics.
- Gathering Steam: 5* cross converters are like this. They can convert tiles into a cross pattern from where they stand, but they take 5 turns at the most. The only way they take less is if they get broken through to take 4 turns.
- Godzilla Threshold: Chapter 8 introduces the Sword of Damocles as this for Lumopolis, having only ever been fired once during the last Darkover Crisis. For it to even be used, it involves draining all of Lumopolis's shields, and by the time it needs to be used, the enemy is at their door. After 8-14 is cleared, it's fired at last, and not only with a little help from the Navigator making sure Schummer can't move Aviduz, she gets the full blast of it, making sure she's obliterated!
- Grim Up North: Subverted. Northland is the northmost part of the world and covered in snow all year round, and as with all other parts of the world, has no shortage of Eclipsites; however, the place itself is very pleasant, populated by a variety of cheery characters based on fairytales, and its government system is based on the people working together as a community to make decisions, with the Northland's queen, Bethlehem, only acting to as a tiebreaker for decisions that the people are too divided on.
- An Interior Designer Is You: As long as you have the furniture, almost all zones of the Colossus can be decorated, including the hallways or even functional rooms like the Resource Station. In addition, the Cloud Gardens allow you to decorate a large patch of grasslands with outdoor furnishings.
- Iyashikei: The event Trees, Fish, and A Slow Life is a Breather Episode despite the brief seriousness that happens in it, focused on the Navigator relaxing in Eraveil and pondering on what to do with it, while doing some cleanup and resource gathering alongside silly Chubbs and the focus Aurorians (a runaway girl, her clumsy maid, and a hypercompetent butler watching over his mistress) for this event. Even the pixel game-style promo trailer
for it takes after easygoing game sims like Animal Crossing. - Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: An overarching theme of the game's story is the ongoing conflict between those who live in the light and those in darkness.
- The Aurorians and Caelestites mostly comprise the light-based forces of good who stop the Eclipsites from destroying society and shroud the world in darkness. There are a few exceptions to the rule on both sides, but the good guys and bad guys are accurately portrayed as such for the most part.
- The game is set in the world of Eoria, where one side of the world is kept in eternal day while the other is in eternal night. Astra is the continent where most of the story takes place, being set on the precipice where both of these sides meet, giving the land a normal day-night cycle, and consequently where battles between Aurorians and Eclipsites happen the most.
- The floating city of Lumopolis and the place it floats over, Umbraton, are juxtaposed against each other in many ways, their names being an obvious example.
- Lumopolis is set high in the bright sky while Umbraton is under its shadow.
- Lumo citizens worship the light, their catchphrase often being "White Night up high." Umbraton, though having no actual religion, at times utter the darkness as oaths.
- In terms of lifestyle, Lumopolis is themed white, has formal education, is clean, and has order, whereas Umbraton is mostly colored black, lacks education with street smarts being more valued, is shady and unkempt, and overall chaotic even with the Shadowlord Istvan keeping things calm. Things used to be far worse before Istvan rose to power, where Lumo nobles ran a gladiatorial arena called the Pit and forced Umbraton citizens to fight for their entertainment, and Umbraton was more chaotic, teeming with treacherous merchants and criminals.
- Olympus Mons: Five- and six-star party members, the latter of which being the main focus on any banner, have the pleasure of attaining a secondary element sand being able to reach level 80 after hitting their third ascension. After clearing 7-14, the Old Seal unlocks, which allows you to recruit four six-star Legendary Aurorians of each element that involve some very heavy steps to unlock, and even more to power up.
- Party in My Pocket: An unusual example in which this happens in combat and is a part of the gameplay: your party of five Aurorians are all 'fused' together and move as one, with the squad's Captain representing all of them, individual characters only popping out when they're about to use normal attacks or when using Skills.
- Plot Hole:
- Post-Chapter 2, there's an optional Character Story with Vice that shows an unseen flashback before the destruction of Undercity 28 in which the Navigator has a chat with Charon. In it, the Navigator says they hate Schummer for the destruction of their people... except that the Navigator still shouldn't know that Schummer and that event are connected at that point in time.
- How did Dawn reach Red-Eye Gorge after the lab accident? She was blinded, assumedly had no way of knowing where Red-Eye Gorge was relative to the lab or how to get there on foot, and most significantly, Red-Eye Gorge is surrounded by a massive storm that makes it near-impossible to get to; Soroz, a Colossus, was heavily damaged by the storm, so how did a tiny girl who very recently lost her sight get through it safely?
- Precursors: The End! Maiden of the Ruins and Episode 13 are Wham Episodes that lead to this conclusion: in the past, humanity existed until the Caelestites and the Eclipsites they controlled nearly exterminated them all. The strongest and surviving humans then grew up to become Astral society as it is today.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: A gameplay-based one: the Captain of your squad, AKA the first in your formation, is able to attack even when they're not walking on their element's tile, which also allows them to use their Chain Skill much more often.
- Relationship Values: All recruited Aurorians have an affection bar which can be increased through giving them gifts, replying to them in the Terminal (a sort of in-universe chat system) and playing through their Character Stories. Higher affection ranks grant the respective Aurorian a permanent buff in their HP, Attack and Defense stats, topping off at Level 10, though it's 8 when you get their full backstory.
- Sanity Meter: The Fragments of a Feast event first introduced this mechanic with its stages and its featured Aurorians (Giles, Lenore, and May). The meter ranges from 0-100 (with the player starting at 100), and will apply different debuffs depending on how low your sanity becomes. Sanity can either be consumed to use the active skills of Aurorians that require it or automatically consumed due to stage effects.
- Setting Update: The first Etched Upon the Ocean event introduces the land of Longzhou, a Chinese analogue in the game's setting, and puts in new Longzhou Aurorians as part of the Independent affiliation. The later event, Etched Upon the Ocean: Drifting Begonia, is a total remake, introducing Longzhou as a new faction, and redoing the event's story to incorporate its new characters and the updated setting.
- Spiritual Antithesis: To Arknights in terms of storytelling.
- Despite their similar post-apocalyptic worldbuilding, the conflicts within the settings are portrayed in opposite fashion; while Alchemy Stars has you finding out the darker secrets lurking in the colourful scenery, Arknights has you finding the rays of hope in a grim, hostile land brimming with catastrophes, war, and discrimination everywhere.
- The Doctor and the Navigator have opposite backgrounds for their characterization.
- Both are commanders in combat who care greatly for their friends and allies, have involvements concerning saving their worlds, and are the Last of Their Kind.
- As contrast, the Doctor is a CEO of a professional business that works to cure a deadly disease, dressed in primarily dark colors, does not reveal their face, is an amnesiac with a very dark, if vague past, and is composed in most situations despite their amnesia; the Navigator is well-connected to many factions but is independent for the most part, dresses white and brightly by comparison, is clearly a young male, has been locked inside a ship for seventeen years with only the ship's consciousness for company and thus is rather naïve, but has a lot of heart.
- Title Drop: One drops in The End! Maiden and the Ruins event story, where an AI named Butler drops the name of the energy core powering the ancient city it guards: "Alchemy stars".
