Years ago, a mysterious confluence event resulted in the once separate heavenly, demonic, and mortal planes suddenly existing on the same dimensional wavelength, forming a trinity of interlinked worlds.
After generations of chaos, war, fear, and death, a strange peace settled over this new joint paradigm. And from that peace came Esper City, a metropolitan melting pot where citizens from every race coexist in harmony, working together to safeguard a better future for one and all.
Or so it would appear.
Amidst its shadows, criminal gangs, renegade gods, dark sciences, and malefic conspiracies operate with impunity.
And if that wasn't bad enough, the mysterious flying landmass known as Nekoshima has returned, bringing with it the "Cat Cup," a superpower battle royale event that attracts everyone from monks to matchmakers to mafiosos with promises of fame and fortune.
A competition that might just smash Esper City and its many secrets wide open.
Extraordinary Ones is a free-to-play mobile Multiplayer Online Battle Arena created by NetEase Games of Onmyōji (2016) fame. Unlike its fellow Chinese MOBAs such as Arena of Valor, it eschews traditional fantasy or quasi-realistic styles for a more anime-influenced aesthetic featuring a multitude of expies of various pop culture icons.
That said, it is perhaps most famous for collaborations it has with existing franchises such as My Hero Academia, Next Gen, Scissor Seven, and Mob Psycho 100, featuring main characters from those properties as unique, fully-voiced skins for certain existing fighters.
This game features examples of:
- Academy of Adventure: New World No.3 High School and Meta World Peace High School are rather lively places even when the Cat Cup isn't going on.
- All There in the Manual: While there is a story mode of sorts, much of the game's deeper lore is expressed in the unlockable bios for each character.
- Allegedly Free Game: It's possible to unlock many of the game's characters and add-ons without paying a cent, but it will take quite a while. A lot of the premium skins can only be purchased with extremely rare premium in-game currency.
- Audience Surrogate: Milu Deer's escape from the Watchtower into Esper City allows her to learn more about the metropolis as she explores its settings and meets the people who live there.
- Dark Is Not Evil: A character being a Demon doesn't necessarily mean they'll be evil. They can even be rather goofy like MJ or outright heroic like Aurelio & Silvio.
- Eastern Zodiac: There is a Hero for every chief member of the Chinese Zodiac. However, they're largely unaffiliated from one another, and a couple of them can be quite antagonistic. Cats, typically a villainous force in this motif, are surprisingly neutral figures in the story as represented by the likes of Tamago, Rocket, and the "Big Meow" jungle mob bosses. Although, several characters note that there's something not quite right with Nekoshima itself.
- Rat: Minnie
- Ox: Taurell
- Tiger: Harvey
- Rabbit: Rabby (Chang'e)
- Dragon: Iggy (& Pop)
- Snake: Osgood
- Horse: MJ
- Sheep: Doc Yang
- Monkey: Wukong
- Rooster: Roostie
- Dog: Jiro
- Pig: Pigsy
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink
- The Four Gods: The Watchtower's top enforcers consist of a quartet of metahuman security personnel modelled after this trope.
- The Azure Dragon: Green Dragon
- The Vermillion Bird: Suzaku
- The White Tiger: White Tiger
- The Black Tortoise: Black Tortoise
- The Yellow Dragon: Milu Deer
- Guest Fighter: All Might, 7723, Seven, and others appear as limited edition skins with renamed skills and personal voice lines.
- Idiot Hero: Some of the nicer characters have a hard time opposing the schemes of villains due to being none too bright.
- Light Is Not Good: Likewise, a character being an Immortal doesn't guarantee that they'll be good. The Watchtower, an extremely shady research center that dabbles in unethical experiments, is headed by Heavenbound, a very luminescent, sophisticated, well-meaning, and ruthless Immortal.
- Money Mauling: Tudi and Chang'e employ this trope. The former throws wads of cash at opponents which don't hurt that much; The latter hits enemies with a pillow loaded with solid gold mooncakes, which does.
- Stance System: Certain characters have ultimate abilities that change the way they fight, with some such as Ebony & Ivory and Chang'e outright swapping places with another character to do so.
- Took a Level in Badass: When a fighter reaches Level 12, their ultimate ability is enhanced in some shape or form, allowing them to change the tempo of a match if they can reach it faster.
