The DS release was two games in one:
- The original cell phone game is the "adult" storyline: A young man is trapped in a mysterious labyrinth with only a new-found sword to aid him, and is trying to find a way out. The story builds upon the Backstory of his late girlfriend's untimely death.
- A new "child" storyline game was added. It is about a boy named Shawn who finds himself trapped in a Wonderland, separated from his mother, father and his dog Ace. As with the original adult storyline, this storyline explores their shared backstory showing how the family was already beginning to crumble before the story began.
Deep Labyrinth contains examples of the following tropes
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: In the child storyline, the save spots are all attended by the same talking purple platypus, the NPCs are yellow mice, there's a pink elephant as a boss, and the last boss is a blue, huge fat ant-eater.
- American Kirby Is Hardcore: This
◊ is the Japanese box art for the DS remake, representing the Lighter and Softer child chapter, when the image you see above is from the adult chapter and it does represent how dark it is compared to the child story. - Awesome, but Impractical: The Invisible Stone in the second chapter if you kill the Cluster of Crystals at the top floor. It boosts item drops, but you'll have very little time to use it since you're pretty darn close to the Final Boss.
- Barrier Change Boss: The Final Boss of the first chapter becomes this on his second phase, turning into a giant glowing orb that changes color and altitude, glowing either red at a high position, blue at a low position or yellow at the exact middle of the arena. You have to be on the same arena floor as the boss in order to attack him, and if he isn't blue, he will be too far for you to hit with your sword, which is ultimately useless anyway as it only inflicts a tiny amount of Scratch Damage. Spells are thus your only option for bringing down this boss quickly.
- Big Bad: In the adult storyline, it turns out to be your own sword, combining this trope with Evil All Along and It Was with You All Along. The entire labyrinth itself is also revealed to be part of the sword, making them both the same Eldritch Abomination/Eldritch Location, it appears as a sword because that's the thing you wanted the most at that moment, and then offers you anything you want as long you stay in the labyrinth, and making this a particularly Troperiffic Big Bad.
- Boss-Only Level: Most bosses are fought in areas where they are the only enemy you can and must defeat.
- But Thou Must!:
- In the child story, if you don't defeat the Faceless Woman before Ace's health reaches zero, Ace won't be able to protect you from an unavoidable One-Hit Kill attack, so you have to repeat the battle until Ace is kept alive.
- The fight with the White Dragon in the adult story: he says he will kill you if you don't help the girl in the crystal, which you were going to do anyway thanks to Character Development.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: For many DS games, the Start Button pauses the game. But for Deep Labyrinth, that's not the case - you actually have to touch a special icon on the bottom-right corner of the screen to do so.
- Damsel in Distress: The girl in crystal in the adult story.
- Degraded Boss: Late into the second chapter, you'll face off against a floating, orange blob that can assume humanoid form as a mini-boss. After you've killed it to pick up a spell you need to unlock a door, expect to see a lot more of the said blob past such door on your way to the Final Boss.
- Developer's Foresight: Late into both campaigns, there is an area with two parallel passageways: a safe passageway that you can't pass through without using the Rainbow Key (which you would need to unlock an Optional Boss) and a dangerous passageway full of killer light traps that you can bypass by consuming Amadeus for temporary invincibility. If you go through the latter in the first chapter (but not the second chapter), then go backwards through the former and open the said door from the other side, that door will stay open for the rest of the game, meaning that you are no longer in danger of wasting the Rainbow Key, or locking yourself out when you use that key for the later door to the bonus boss.
- NPCs in the first chapter don't always have just one spiel to spit out. Some have a different message for you if you perform certain actions.
- Edge Gravity / Invisible Wall: The final dungeon of the first chapter is set high up in the sky, comprising a giant network of floating platforms connected by bridges. Good thing you can't fall off from them!
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: The fight with the White Dragon in the Oracle's Chamber for the second chapter. He flies up very frequently, effectively becoming impossible to hit while he's airborne. You only have brief windows to get over to where he lands and damage him and he has a huge health bar to top things off.
- Guide Dang It!:
- There are a lot of hidden areas in the labyrinth, including a whole area that the red (random) teleports in the adult story will rarely take you to. And some areas in plain sight have this, particularly the Rainbow key doors (you're warned there's only one key, hope you saved it! Special mention goes to the Dragon Armor (best in the game) in the adult story, where you have to keep the first key you ever get.
- The earlier door you can use Rainbow Key on in the second chapter is meant to unlock a safer, longer alternative route in 3F's Chamber of Spirits besides the shorter, deadly light trap-laden path where you can get the Mirror Shield. You need to use Amadeus (obtained from an optional boss) to pass through the light traps unharmed and effectively avoid using the Rainbow Key on the earlier door and save it for an Optional Boss, plus the Falcon Armor, the Invisible Stone and
developer commentary.
- Healing Checkpoint: The NPCs you talk to in order to save your game will always fully replenish your health and mana. The only area where they don't, however, is: the first floor of the second chapter. If you die, all unsaved progress since your last save is forfeited.
- Healing Potion: Comes in three serving sizes, with the largest ones being found towards the end of the game as your max health grows.
- Heroic Sacrifice / Taking the Bullet : In the first chapter, after you defeat the Faceless Woman midway through the last dungeon, Eden, she shoots a deadly bolt of magical energy at Shawn that Ace leaps right in front of, killing him instead.
- Infinity +1 Sword:
- Child story only, you can have different swords. The absolute best ones fall under the aforementioned Guide Dang It!... except for THE best, which is an ultra-rare drop from enemies that have one-shot kill spells and is initially seven and a half times as powerful as the second best is (no, seriously - Falcon Sword is 400% attack bonus, Redstone Sword is 3000%)
- As overall equipment goes, the Dragon Equipment and Falcon equipment fit the trope nicely. But yes, the Redstone sword is also part of a set including one other item for each equipment slot. Finding them all takes FOREVER, but
they remove all challenge from the game and you'll be level 99 by the time you have all four.
- Just Following Orders: Several bosses from the child story actually do pity you for just trapped there and trying to find your family, they do apologize for attacking, but they have to do their job anyway: Kill every intruder, don't let any of them pass!
- Level-Up Fill-Up: Leveling up fully replenishes your health and mana.
- Lighter and Softer: The child story. Everything, from the level design, plot, enemies, NPCs, and soundtracks are all lighter than the adult story which is the original version of the game for cell phone.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: When you reach the Oracle's Chamber at the top of the Labyrinth, towards the end of the second chapter, you'll discover that the White Dragon is the crystal girl's father, and Was Once a Man.
- Magic Knight: In both campaigns, you, the player character, normally have swordplay and sorcery at your disposal to defeat your adversaries.
- Mana Points: Governs how often you can cast spells. A helping of Mygacine replenishes them.
- The Maze: As you can tell by the title, it contains mazelike levels.
- Multiple Endings: When a vertical crystalline looking bar appears on the left side of the touch screen, kill the boss ASAP so you can get the happy ending. When there's nothing left of the crystalline bar the moment you kill said boss, you'll get the bad ending. In the child story, it's orange and it is Ace's HP when he tried to help you fight the Faceless Woman. In the adult story, it's blue instead and it's the HP of the crystal where you store your girlfriend's soul.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: As explained by The Faceless Woman in the child story.
- No-Gear Level: In the second chapter, after you break your sword beating a boss on the second floor, you'll be unable to use your sword and must rely on magic to survive for the next few areas and defeat the next boss in order to get your sword back. Also, since the second chapter's Final Boss is your sword, you can only defeat it with magic spells.
- One-Hit Kill: The death spell. Enemies can use it against you, and if you get hit, it's an instant Game Over.
- One-Winged Angel: Two bosses of the child story do this. First, it's Elephas, the pink elephant-headed man, whose actual form really is a pink elephant, and Theta, the last boss. After you defeat his first form he's nothing but a ball of light.
- Passion Is Evil:
- The main motif of the Faceless Woman to get rid of memories. With no memories, humanity will lose emotions contained in said memories. And since she already "tweaked" Theta to eat any kind of memories, including what humans will create next, there will be no emotion, at all.
- Also, the Big Bad of the second part, after you defeat it, blatantly said it exists because of humanity's desires and will continue to exist as long humanity still have desire.
- Permanently Missable Content: In both campaigns, there are two keys that each can open two doors, yet they can only be used once. If you use a key on the earlier of two doors it works on and then save your game, you'll be literally locked out of some sweet bonus items behind the later door.
- Red Sky, Take Warning: The second half of the child story last dungeon and the place where you fight the final boss in the adult story have red skies, hinting at their status as the The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The ominous soundtrack that plays in both final dungeon of both chapters doesn't seem to fit the first half of the second Eden dungeon. It still fits the situation, though, as the Faceless Woman tampered with Theta so he will eat every memory in sight, leading both the human world and Vimana to doom.
- Superboss: The Cluster of Crystals near the end of the second chapter awaits you if you use the rainbow key in the Chamber of the Void just before the long stairway to the Final Boss. Kill it in a brutal battle (it has a long health bar that it fully replenishes if you leave the room, plus more devastating attacks as it accumulates damage) and you'll be rewarded with a cell phone loaded with developer commentary and an accessory that boosts item drops.
- Tomato in the Mirror: In the adult story, the little girl in robe and the broken mask are actually soul fragments of the girl in the crystal. There's already a Foreshadowing about this. When you're in 3rd dungeon and the lamia shattered the crystal, they start weakening as well.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Second Eden dungeon in child story and 3F dungeon in the adult story have elements of this as in these dungeons, every time you get to the next area there's stairs leading up after the door instead of going directly to the next area after the door. Also, the ominous soundtrack just tells you that you're already close with the Final Boss.
- Was Once a Man: In the adult story, all monsters are initially humans who made a contract with the ruler of the labyrinth which later grants their wishes, and the price for that is that they have to stay in the labyrinth. Fueled with their grief and loneliness, the labyrinth will change humans trapped in it into monsters. The White Dragon in particular is the girl in crystal's father, and you learn this right before you fight him.
- Wrecked Weapon: In the second chapter, you'll break your sword defeating a boss on the second floor. Magic is your only option for the next few areas and the next boss fight.
