Video Game / Fae Tactics

Peony, the witch

Fae Tactics: The Girl who Destroyed the World is a Strategy RPG developed by Endlessfluff Games (creators of Valdis Story: Abyssal City), and published by Humble Games. It was released for PC on July 31, 2020.

Long ago, the world of magic was separated from the natural world by Elemental Gates. One day, the seal on the gates was broken, flooding the natural world with magical fae creatures once thought to be myths. The worlds merging was imperfect and much of the land was torn apart. The devastation claimed the lives of most of the population of natural and fae creatures alike. Those that survived have forged new lives in the ruins of the old worlds, but growing tension between man and fae threaten to finish what began with the opening of the gates.

The story stars Peony, a young girl looking for her mother. She is met by a world in peril, and must take on a much greater quest to save the world.

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Tropes:

• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Peony can be accompanied by two other Leaders, and summon up to three non-Leader Fae to assist her in battle. However, her summoning skill is limited at first, often reducing her choices to either one large Fae, a pair of medium-sized Fae, or three small Fae.
• Archnemesis Dad: Erisolde's uncle develops Fae-killing machinery for the empire, and thus is an opponent she and Peony must face. However, he's truly been killed so a powerful Fae can take charge and use the resources available for its own goals.
  • Though left ambiguous, Each-Uisge is likely this, as he's probably Peony's true father.
• Bilingual Bonus: Each-Uisge is the name of an evil shapeshifting Fae creature from Scottish mythology whose name directly translates to "water horse". His brothers keep the Each part of the name - meaning horse - and combine it with names from other languages and mythologies. Kikin is Japanese for "famine", Mot is the name of a Canaanite god of death, and Rhyfel is Old Welsh for "war".
  • Croix-Mer is French and roughly translates to "Sea Cross", alluding to her identity as Claudia of Sea Cross Island.
• Can't Drop the Hero: Even after other Leaders become available, Peony has to participate in battle, because she's the one with Summon Magic that brings in Fae allies.
• Cooking Mechanics: After learning to cook from some travelling Fae, Peony can take part in a card-matching minigame, with successful pairs of food items being ingredients that can affect stats in the next battle. She can eventually also learn Camp Skills to boost the value of items like vegetables or meat, or negate penalties from rotten ingredients. Repeatedly playing this mini-game eventually unlocks a Big Eater Secret Character.
• Dark Is Not Evil: One of the optional characters is a fiery-eyed, horned demon that consumes the souls of his foes. His goal? To consume enough evil souls in the world he's summoned so he can return to sleep.
• Defector from Decadence: Erisolde was an elite enforcer in an anti-Fae empire, but went renegade after her comrade Alex was killed for knowing too much.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Every Fae has an innate element, which is weak to one element and strong against another. These elements are also tied to their innate skill; "Water" types can heal other units, while "Wind" can apply a Haste buff that increases movement range.
• Fantastic Racism: A Mechanic that Peony has to deal with to get her motorbike fixed states that the "Only thing worse than a fae is a witch". Thankfully, he's unaware that Peony is a witch that utilizes Fae.
  • The Holy Empire of Grunhold is built entirely on this. Before the gates broke open they directed their bigotry towards the Shialan minority who they genocided, and after they direct their hatred towards the Fae.
• Field Power Effect: Spells gained aren't locked to any specific unit; rather, Peony can bring any three spell cards into battle that charge up over time, and can cast one at the start of a battle phase if it's ready.
• Floral Theme Naming: Peony, whose oddly floral name is noted by Orowantus, a flower-loving centaur.
• Go Out with a Smile: The sole epilogue for Secret Character Matilda has them die this way, after successfully defending a settlement from a massive harpy raid.
• Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The primal elementals are horses rather than horsemen, but they clearly follow this theme. Each-Kikin represents Famine (cursing the crops of the Obedon Kingdom, starving the people), Each-Mot represents Death (based on his skeletal appearance and his ability to summon and control the undead), Each-Rhyfel represents War (trying to manipulate Ikaido into declaring war on all its neighbors) and Each-Uisge presumably represents Pestilence, as one of his titles, according to Damla, is "Plaguebringer". Pestilence being the most ambiguous Horseman, Each-Uisge could also simply occupy this role as the leader of the four and the primary evil that seeks to bring forth the apocalypse.
• If I Can't Have You…: The suitor that Payachin's mother denied, as revealed in their sidequest, had both of their parents killed.
• Item Crafting: Introduced by learning how to repair Peony's motorbike, the player can combine items dropped by Fae in order to gain new gear that offers passive buffs.
• Last Chance Hit Point: When a Leader unit (ally or enemy) is defeated, they are put in a "knock-down" state they can be revived from, unless they take an additional number of hits in that state. The player can even get an experience bonus for finishing a battle with enemy Leaders knocked down instead of outright dead. However, Fae units don't get this, and are immediately removed from battle when defeated.
• Last of His Kind: Orowantus becomes the last living centaur after the rest of her tribe is ambushed and killed.
• Limit Break: Any "Leader" unit over level 10 (ally or enemy) has the capability to use one after accumulating Soul Points in combat.
• Love Triangle: It turns out in their sidequest that Payachin's mother had two suitors: a Civilized Animal affluent bird, and a draconic forest protector. The latter won, because the rich bird was a fop that had others fight his battles. This did not end well.
• Magitek: Peony's bike is called a "manacycle", and most other technology is also this. Peony fixes a fridge by replacing the elemental chamber and Claudia uses guns that use her own mana for ammunition.
• Match Maker Quest: By using both Orowantus and Pichon in events that are important to either of them, they can end up in a relationship, which unlocks their better epilogue.
• Missing Mom: Peony's initial reason for going on her adventure is to try and find where her mother, Claudia, has gone. She's still alive, and will join the party when reunited.
• Mix-and-Match Critters:
  • It's revealed that Payachin, Peony's bird companion, has a dragon father when they transform into a bipedal, talking, feathered lizard.
  • In the epilogue where Orowantus and Pichon end up together, their child has elements of both their races.
• Modular Epilogue: The game ends with pictures and brief snippets of text about the fate of all of your Leaders, as well as some notable extras (like Ciro's bakery and Jahr Ette's gremlins). For plot-mandatory characters, there is a better variation if their personal sidequest was unlocked and cleared.
• Monster Allies: Defeating a Fae often leads to them dropping a talisman, either letting you recruit a version of that creature, or gain a spell that shares their elemental affinity.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Each-Uisge's master plan is eventually revealed to be to eradicate all life, mortal or fae, from the face of the planet and start over. According to him, he has already done so countless times before.
• Permanently Missable Content: Two of the optional Leader units can be missed and unrecruitable until a New Game Plus, one because they can only be summoned in the middle of a specific battle, and the other due to a ten in-game day time limit between the start and middle of their sidequest.
• Secret Character: There are at least three Leader characters that unlocked through sidequests rather than through story progression. There are also certain powerful Fae that only appear in specific free battles on certain days of the week.
• Shout-Out: Jahr Ette, the Gremlin King, has a name, appearance, and role that is clearly reminiscent of Jareth from Labyrinth.
• Skill Scores and Perks: When a unit levels up, they gain a "Trait Point". These points can be applied to one of three categories: Offense (mainly Attack and Critical bonuses), Defense (depends on the unit, but usually involves HP/MP caps), and Special (movement range, accuracy, or improving unique skills). These points can be refunded and reapplied at any time. And for every five points in a Trait, the unit gets a special bonus.
• Sole Survivor:
  • Peony is the sole survivor remaining after a Wendigo killed everyone in her village, with the exception of Claudia.
  • Orowantus the centaur is also a case, as her tribe was slaughtered by a traitor while she was distracted by a field of flowers. She remarks on the coincidence that a "Peony" helps save her again.
• Summon Magic: Peony only travels with her two main animal companions, with other Fae being summoned into battle with the Talismans she collects.
• The Cameo: Red is heavily implied to be, or is at least inspired by, Wyatt from Valdis Story: Abyssal City, another game from Endless Fluff. The Anemone, said game's final boss, also shows up as a summonable fae.
• Tragic Keepsake: While trying to get her motorbike fixed early in the game, Peony gets sidetracked helping Orowantus, a centaur that's the last of her tribe, recover a stolen necklace that belonged to her elder sister.
• Unfinished Business: The sidequest for Claudia has her assist Peony in taking down the Wendigo that slaughtered their village, because the souls of the deceased are unable to move on until it's dead.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: It was impossible to gain 100% of the game's Fae when the game first launched, because the highest-tier ones only appear on certain in-game days, and Water-element days never happened due to a programming error. However, this was later patched.
• Urban Fantasy: The reunion of the magic and natural worlds occurred when the latter had already developed a lot of technology, as made clear by Peony, a witch, having headphones and her own motorbike.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: Most battles will be lost if Peony or any other unit designated "Leader" loses their Last Chance Hit Point. However, it goes both ways; most fights have at least one enemy Leader whose submission/defeat instantly ends the map.