The world is being ravaged by a devastating plague, with people everywhere falling into an endless slumber, tortured by an eternal nightmare. The land's last line of defense: A girl named Elle, The Chosen One fated to enter the Dreamrealm the plague is coming from to find the source of the Plague of Nightmares and stop it once and for all. By her side is the Crown, an inhabitant of the Dreamrealm who grants Elle the power to fight her way through the nightmares.
Crown Trick contains examples of the following tropes:
- Anti-Villain: The antagonists of Day 2 are not true villains, just beings who willingly entered the Nightmare Realm to escape some pain from their past, unknowingly empowering the true Big Bad in the process. Vlad is a bit closer to an actual villain, having a hand in the tragedies inflicted on the three parties, but he's ultimately as unconnected to the Crown of Darkness as the others.
- Barrier Change Boss: The Final Boss of the "King of Nightmares" level changes elemental forms throughout the fight, resisting, negating, and eventually absorbing one or two elements at a time in each of its three phases.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Each level has their own antagonist acting as the final, strongest opponent of each area.
- "Realm of Nightmares" has Vlad, a legendary commander who enjoys the power the Realm of Nightmares gives him. He's riddled with guilt after losing most of his army in a major battle, and the Realm of Nightmares gives him the ability to fight on his own or alongside soulless constructs, something born from the desire that no one else would die under his watch.
- "Gears of Sorrow" has Dr. Frank, a skilled mechanic who wishes to create a Mechanical Bride in the image of the doctor's late fiancé, who had passed away from illness. The good doctor had gone mad with grief, and the Realm Of Nightmares gives him the chance to reunite with Elena.
- "Witchcraft of Fear" has the Witch Triumvirate, who were imprisoned in the Tower of Sinners for spreading the Plague of Nightmares. However, they were simply scapegoats, the trio were trying to cure the plague.
- "Tsunami of Rage" has the Heart of the Ocean, the collective embodiment of the world's sea creatures, burning with rage due to mankind's treatment of the seas. The Heart hasn't completely given up on humanity yet, though, and is willing to see if they can change. It uses the Realm of Darkness to let out its frustrations, and Elle believes it wanted to be defeated by somebody.
- "King of Nightmares" has The Crown of Darkness, who was assigned to oversee the Dream Realm and protect the waking world from nightmares. As the nightmares ate at him over an untold amount of time, he was corrupted into a dark force that allowed the nightmares to attack the world, creating the Crown of Slanders to find a human whose body he can take over and use to escape.
- Bottomless Magazines: Generally Averted. Shotgun-type weapons need to reload after two shots, rifles after three, and pistols after two single shots and a burst shot. Infinite ammo can be applied as a weapon aspect.
- Break Meter: Each enemy has a number below their health bar that decreases with each hit taken. If the enemy is standing on a square adjacent to Elle or charging an attack, each hit removes more of the break meter, and the enemy is broken when the number reaches zero, becoming stunned and taking increased damage for several turns. If Elle can break multiple enemies within a number of turns, she benefits from a damage bonus and more charges of her Blink. Multi-hit attacks, such as Dual Blades or point-blank Shotgun attacks, are especially effective at breaking enemies.
- Cast from Money: A corrupted statue buff prevents Elle from taking damage, but takes away Gold and Soul Shards proportional to the damage negated.
- Color-Coded Item Tiers: There are five tiers, white, green, blue, purple, and gold. The first four can be applied to any regularly spawning weapon, with higher rarities increasing the weapon's stats as well as the number and quality of the custom aspects the weapon can have attached to it. Gold rarity weapons are unique "Legendary" weapons with the highest stats and strongest passive abilities of their weapon class.
- Damage-Increasing Debuff: Drenched and Greasy increases incoming physical/elemental damage, respectively.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Almost every enemy in the game has an elemental weakness or resistance to one of the game's eight elements: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lava, Ice, Electricity, and Poison.
- Flash Step: Elle's Blink Boots give her the ability to teleport a few tiles without ending her turn, something that helps her dodge enemy attacks, quickly reach an enemy to keep up a Break combo, or pass over Bottomless Pits or elemental tiles.
- Geo Effects: Certain attacks apply elemental effects to the battlefield, inflicting debuffs to anyone who walks over them.
- Fire tiles inflict Scorch, which deals damage based on the target's max HP.
- Water tiles inflict Drenched, which increases damage taken by physical attacks.
- Wind tiles inflict Silence, preventing the target from using skills.
- Earth tiles inflict Greasy, increasing damage taken by elemental attacks.
- Lava tiles deal Lava damage when touched and inflict Embers, causing the afflicted to leave behind embers that deal Fire damage when touched.
- Ice tiles have a chance to inflict Freeze, preventing the target from performing any action and making the next incoming attack an automatic Critical Hit.
- Electricity tiles inflict Paralysis, which prevents the target from using basic attacks.
- Poison tiles inflict Poison, a stacking Damage Over Time debuff.
- Mirror Boss: The Crown of Darkness takes the form of a dark Elle, using the same weapons and familiar skills the player has throughout their journey.
- Power at a Price: Comes in a few varieties.
- Corrupted statues can give Elle powerful status buffs with significant drawbacks, such as granting status immunity in exchange for doubling damage taken or halving damage taken but inflicting status ailments when hit with attacks.
- Some events can reduce Elle's stats while increasing other stats in exchange.
