That's the world in its entirety.
At The Tale End is a Japanese freeware Adventure/Role-Playing Game by Haneda
made in Wolf RPG Editor. The story picks up after the Hero and his companions have defeated the Dark Lord menacing the world. The player controls an amnesiac traveler seeking the truth of his identity, with only a broken sword and an enchanted book to guide him.The game has no combat and only one proper ending.
An English translation by vgperson can be found here
At The Tale End provides examples of:
- A God I Am Not: Neme relinquished her Goddess title when she saw the misery humans were causing.
- Addressing the Player: The game asks the player to input their name at the beginning. This is later used as an alias for the main character. In the true ending, Retina speaks directly to the player.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: Averted, most notably with the eyepatch-wearing main character.
- Amnesiac Hero
- Animate Inanimate Object: The Black Book; it flies, blinks, and talks.
- Artifact of Doom: Three of them with the Dark Lord's ring, crown, and staff, which turn the bearer into the next evil overlord.
- Because Destiny Says So: Ultimately deconstructed. The machinations of the Light and Dark spirits try to invoke this in order to continue the cycle of Hero and Dark Lord, claiming that this is the only way to preserve the world.
- Betrayal by Inaction: The Hero's allies all feel they caused the Hero's death from this, either through their own cowardice, jealousy, or lack of commitment. The player can decide if they agree or not.
- Broken Bridge: Each of the Hero's allies can only be talked to once the player has obtained a certain Plot Coupon.
- Chain of Deals: An often used mechanic, especially in the NPC subquests.
- Demonic Possession: Perhaps more like Demonic Transformation, but still. The hero is essentially "possessed" by the narrative need for a demon lord.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Certain criteria must be met before you can progress to the proper ending.
- Flashback: How the allies tell their version of the Hero's death.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Brane became one when Neme fused him with parts of the monster he slew to save his life. His mismatched eyes concealed by the eyepatch indicate this.
- Impassable Desert: More like a pain to navigate without the fox's help, but yeah.
- Instant Mystery, Just Delete Scene: The game skips forward after a burst of static at certain points, usually when a character questions who the protagonist is. It's the Black Book stepping in to dispel suspicions.
- Light Is Not Good: The Light Spirit turns out to not be something that can be trusted.
- Player and Protagonist Integration: Advisor. Though this isn't really addressed until the very end of the game.
- Punny Name: The Hero and his allies - Brane (Brain), Harty (Heart), Nurv (Nerve), and Phoelin (Feeling). Extends to Princess Retina.
- Reset Button Ending: Every ending except for the true one.
- Respawn Point: Of a sort. The "false endings" return you to just outside Rimott Village, before meeting any of the Hero's allies.
- RPG Mechanics 'Verse
- Sanity Meter: Combined with Karma Meter to create a Heart meter; Heart is gained by helping and playing with NPCs and lost by being treated coldly, witnessing distressing events, or harming NPCs. This affects the main character's portrait and epithet as well; low heart shows him in pain and calls him a shadow of a Hero, for example, and can lead to him committing suicide in the cursed sea.
- Save Token: The Black Book. It even gets offended if you try to save in other books.
- Save the Princess: Played with. Brane does save the princess in the true ending, but she reveals that she was the Black Book who helped him throughout the game - so in a way, she saved him too.
- Video Games and Fate: The story's meta-narrative.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Helping NPCs with fetch quests or playing hide-and-seek with children increases your Heart Meter.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Convicting the Hero's allies.
