Video Game / GreedFall

GreedFall is a Gunpowder Fantasy Role-Playing Game from the French developer Spiders, released on September 10, 2019 for PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

The protagonist is from a continent resembling 17th-century Europe in its technological advancement, but where magic also exists side-by-side with cannons and rifles. Currently, it is in the grip of a terrible, incurable plague named Malichor. However, a newly discovered island named Teer Fradee is free of it, and it's suggested a cure may be found there. Thus, multiple factions of The Old World send out their colonizing fleets. You play as De Sardet, a representative of the Congregation of Merchants and the cousin of Constantin D’Orsay, who is set to become the Governor of Congregation's newest colony, New Serene. You, on the other hand, will be in charge of finding the cure.

Of course, the Congregation isn't the only faction with an eye on Teer Fradee: On one side is the science-minded Bridge Alliance, who see the island as a wellspring of knowledge and resources that can be harvested to cure the Malichor. On the other side are the Thélème, a nation ruled by magic who believe the Malichor to be a demonic curse that can only be cured by destroying the island's "demons" and bringing their monotheistic religion to its native inhabitants — by force if necessary. All three nations are keenly aware that the other factions are just as intent upon finding the cure as they are, and will also grab as much territory and resources along the way as they can get away with. Moreover, the natives of Teer Fradee are obviously not impressed by this mass invasion. While some attempt to negotiate what they can with the factions like yours that are averse to unnecessary bloodshed, others resist, often with the help of the supernatural creatures they have bonded with. However, as impressive as those are in singular engagements, they remain a poor counter to the firepower of massed ranks of trained musketeers.

While the frictions are definitely concerning, you're more worried about your cousin, who is over his head almost as soon as he steps off the boat. As you work towards establishing some semblance of order and stability to New Serene, however, you begin seeing signs that you have more in common with the natives than originally thought...

This being an RPG, you have a large degree of choice in how you approach the characters of this world, and the quests they may ask you to fulfill.

A "Gold Edition" was released on June 30, 2021 for the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X|S, along with a new expansion "The De Vespe Conspiracy", which adds a new explorable area, a bunch of unique items, and a short sidequest starring Aurélia De Vespe — an ambitious young noble from a rival family seeking to undermine the D'Orsay and De Sardet.

The reveal teaser is here, the E3 2018 trailer is here, and the gameplay demo video is here.

A prequel titled GreedFall II: The Dying World was announced on May 18th, 2022. It's being developed by Spiders, published by Nacon, and is expected to release in 2024.

---

Tropes present in GreedFall:

Tropes A-F

• 24-Hour Armor: While certain missions might require you to disguise yourself in either faction-aligned armor or regular clothes, you're still free to wear your regular armor around wherever you please.
• Absurdly High Level Cap: The level cap of the game is 90. With the De Vespe expansion installed and doing every single quest in the game, you will top out at level 40 before the Point of No Return.
• Action Girl: You can pick a female character, who'll then be this, as even the most diplomacy-oriented builds will still often need to get their hands dirty.
  • Amongst the natives there are an impressive collection of female warriors:
    • Of the 4 most respected mál, Bladnid and Dedre, the two women, are the ones most strongly advocating for fighting the renaigse. Bladnid dies early in the game waging war with the Alliance
    • Cera is noted for her combat prowess and withstands extensive torture at the hands of the Alliance. If you don't kill the Alliance captors, she will.
• Affectionate Nickname: Each of the four romanceable companions will refer to De Sardet exclusively using a pet name once their romance is committed to: Kurt adopts the affection title "Sweet Excellency", Vasco uses "[His] Tempest" from a love poem he recites, Síora's is "Minundhanem"^note "one who shares my mind" or "soulmate", and Aphra's is simply "[Her] Beloved".
• A God Am I: When Constantin goes off the deep end, he claims to be a god, followed by a We Can Rule Together speech to try getting you over to his side.
• All for Nothing: If you don't reach the Golden Ending, it's possible you wouldn't be able to find a cure for the Malichor, the very thing that began your adventure.
• Alliance Meter: Each faction on the island has it, which changes based on your actions. Whenever you reach another positive tier with them, they send you a Legendary-tier equipment to your in-game stash. The meter for the Congregation is unique in that it will always be maxed out since that's the one De Sardet belongs to until the end, where Constantin outright turns against De Sardet and it plummets to Hated.
• Amazon Brigade: Possible with a squad consisting of Lady De Sardet, Síora, and Aphra.
• Ambadassador: Lord/Lady De Sardet's role is that of a diplomat who deals with problems among the various factions of the island. Being an RPG protagonist however, they are also capable of kicking a lot of ass.
• Ankle Drag: In one of the cutscenes, Síora summons a root out of the ground, which then drags away a soldier that was going to kill her sister Eseld and suspends him in mid-air. Eseld then finishes him off by throwing a blade into his eye socket.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Should you need to personally report back to a quest giver who's quite a distance away, the game will offer to teleport you directly to them, or stay where you are.
  • Normally, blowing things up requires both Level 1 Science and an Alchemical Preparation of Elemental Damage, but if blowing something up is required for a quest, the Science requirement is removed so players won't be forced to grind for another talent point should they not have the required Science level.
  • Talking and looting are done with different buttons so there's no risk of starting a conversation with your allies while you're gathering items.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Played straight and Inverted: You can only take two companions alongside with you at once and you can take no fewer than two companions with you^note The only exception being at the very beginning of the game when the only companion you have is Kurt. The headcount limit gets completely thrown out in the final battle, where all your companions fight alongside you, at least until they decide to stay back to Hold the Line.
• Armor and Magic Don't Mix: Averted; Petrus is the magic-specialist companion who starts off in a suit of full plate armor and the player themselves can also spec to using magic and heavy armor/weapons if they so choose.
• Armor Meter: The bar of shields that sits on your health bar represent the amount of armor you have.
• The Artifact: The Nauts gradually lose relevance to the story as time goes on. This also includes party member Vasco unless you're in a romance with him, as few of the quests directly pertain to him or the Nauts. This is because said faction, with the exception of a very few rogue elements in their ranks, have no real stake (nor interest) in the island's political power plays, and are mainly concerned with their own seafaring way of life.
• Awful Truth: The Congregation of Merchants and the Nauts secretly discovered Teer Fradee 200 years prior to the game's events, and the aristocracy of the Congregation became tyrants who ruled with an iron fist until they were all decimated and driven off by the resident eldritch god of the island. The surviving Congregation citizens paid the Nauts to pretend they never discovered Teer Fradee. Except, the Nauts never stopped exploiting the island for slaves to sell to the mainland Congregation — which is where De Sardet came from. To twist the knife further, the Malichor has nothing to do with Teer Fradee; it is actually a result of the uncontrolled pollution caused by reckless industrialization on the mainland, and has little if anything to do with Teer Fradee itself, except that maybe the Eldritch god of the island may have helped it along a little in revenge for the Congregation's pillaging.
• Baby as Payment: Babies and young children are regularly used as a form of payment for the Nauts. Sometimes, governments will force families to give up their children in exchange for a contract with the Nauts. Other times, a noble family will give an infant as payment in exchange for their goods to be shipped to other countries — either at their own volition or as part of a Leonine Contract.
• Back Stab: Sneaking up on an enemy will give you the option to stab them in the back for an instant kill. Depending on how close other enemies are, their detection meters might fill a little, or they'll instantly spot you and engage combat.
• "Back to Camera" Pose: The cover for the game, as well as the image used while booting up the game, is De Sardet standing on top of a mountain, overlooking the valley below, with their back to the camera.
• Backing Away Slowly: De Sardet accidentally disturbs a Nadaíg and, not knowing what it is, gets knocked down on their butt. De Sardet ends up slowly scooting backwards so they can safely recover, although they're not given the chance to run away.
• Backtracking: Even with the fast travel system in place, expect to backtrack through already explored locations a lot, when a previously unavailable quest sends you there again. Some locations are even artificially blocked off, so you must return to certain area(s) at least once later in the game when additional paths are finally opened up.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: One quest involves discovering that members of the Ordo Luminis have a secret torture camp for forced conversion of the natives. When this information is revealed, another Inquisitor is shocked and mentions that he had no idea that the camp even existed and it seems like he's about to condemn it... but instead says he'll proudly continue his colleague's work.
• Bear Trap: Traps that De Sardat and NPCs can set take this form. Which is odd given that they act like magical land mines that explode when a target gets near it.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Two examples, one political, one personal.
  • At the end of the game when gathering allies for the final battle neither the Bridge Alliance nor Thélème are convinced of De Sardet's story of the threat to the island's god. The Nauts and the Coin Guard are a bit more open-minded but don't think they're really affected by it. However all four will come to help if De Sardet has reached "Friendly" status with them, as he/she helped them out enough times before.
  • If you complete Kurt's first two companion quests before the Coin Guard's attempted coup he turns on the traitor Guards and warns De Sardet and Constantin, giving them time to mount a successful defense of all three cities.
• Best Served Cold: Trying to convince Síora's sister Eseld to forgo vengeance after she got nearly killed by the colonizing troops via the Charisma option has her "agree", by noting that waiting for revenge will only make it sweeter.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The odd hermit who helps you complete the ritual in the swamp is eccentric and scatterbrained, but friendly nonetheless. It turns out he's helping you because completion of the ritual would summon a Nadaíg to maul De Sarde and company. De Sarde and the party kill the Nadaíg in self-defense, and the hermit appears again, furious and screaming curses and threats at the 'murderers'.
• Blending-In Stealth Gameplay:
  • Some areas are controlled by antagonistic or just secretive factions and getting caught in them causes guards to attack and tanks your Alliance Meter with that faction. This can be avoided by either sneaking past the guards, or simply by equipping a chest armor piece with the livery of the appropriate faction on De Sardet (companions don't count) to blend in. For this reason, it is generally a good idea to always keep a chest armor piece of each faction in your inventory, just in case.
  • Petrus' first personal sidequest requires you to sneak into the off-limits basement of the San Matheus palace by procuring a set of servants' vests. Unlike in the regular gameplay or other companion quests, these also have to be equipped on both companions in order to proceed.
• Body Armor as Hit Points: The shields displayed over the health bar represent how much armor you have, and while some attacks will damage both health and armor or just outright ignore it, most attacks will chip at the armor before making a dent in the health bar.
• Body Horror: One of the symptoms of the Malichor appears to be rotting flesh.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: Kurt is your bodyguard and trainer from since your character was a child. This doesn't stop you from potentially being stronger than him. It's even possible to beat him in the tutorial sparring match with him (and even easier with magic, which totally ignores his extremely high armor).
• Brick Joke: Upon their arrival to Teer Fradee, Constantin is confronted by a trio of mute plague doctors whom he comically mistakes for the welcoming committee and engages in some awkward banter as they try to get him to drink what Lady Morange later explains to be a preventive treatment against local diseases. The punchline is delivered much later on during "The Experiments of Dr. Asili" side quest, and it isn't funny at all: it turns out that the doctors were actually sent by Dr. Asili to deliberately infect Constantin and De Sardet with the Malichor. De Sardet, being an on ol menawi, turns out to be immune, but Constantin...
• Broken Bridge:
  • The entrances around Díd e kíden nádaigeis will be blocked off by fences, in addition to one wall being made unclimbable, to prevent players from going to the area before the main quest takes them there. If players are on the correct stage of the quest, the ways open.
  • A wall of rock prevents the player from discovering Saint Matheus' final resting place in Védvívie before progressing far enough in the Eden questline. Although it looks much more natural than the other broken bridges, and De Sardet comments they had no idea there was a path there. The map shows the path anyways.
  • About midway through the game De Sardet will need to speak with the leader of the natives' high council; however, they will be blocked from doing so until you complete the "The Suffering of Constantin" main quest.
  • There is a dead tree blocking a path in Tír Dob preventing the player from discovering the corrupted guardians before they need to.
• But Thou Must!:
  • During Aphra's initial quest, Síora will argue against sneaking after the Native leaders to learn their secrets, but the player doesn't get the option to agree with her and must carry on.
  • The player is not given the option not to interfere during the election of the new islander king. Even if De Sardet has already earned the trust of all three contenders, thus it wouldn't really matter who gets chosen since none will refuse a meeting with the island god, it is still mandatory to get involved and obtain the ancient crown.
• Choice-and-Consequence System: The game is more subtle about it than most, in that it won't tell you if what you're making is a major choice, but almost every choice will result in consequences, some more dire than others.
• Church Police: Thélème's Ordo Luminis is this, and it's by far the most corrupt order of their government slash church. The first Inquisitor you meet strangles an islander in the town square while screaming at him to repent, then acts very rude towards you (eating a well-earned can of whoopass in the process should he make the rather...regrettable decision to try and kill you on the spot because he doesn't particularly like your beliefs). Then things go downhill and quests involving the Ordo Luminis reveal their involvement in kidnappings, torture, slavery and even child molestation. Finally, Thélème's governor, the Mother Cardinal, has enough and disbands the entire order and its leaders are severely punished off-screen.
• Clue, Evidence, and a Smoking Gun: During the evidence gathering portion of the trial against Dr. Asili, De Sardet lists out evidence to help the prosecution, which will win so long as they provide the black powder that is a powedered version of the Malichor used to poison Constantin and attempt to poison De Sardet. However, they can also list off every other piece of evidence and witness testimony prior to the black powder, leading to the amazing list of: Asili running a laboratory, employing other researchers to help his research, Aphra leaving due to his research methods, Asili kidnapping natives for his research, and finally, the black powder used to poison Constantin and De Sardet.
• Companion-Specific Sidequest: Each of the companions have their own unique questlines that when done will basically put you at their next rank of approval as well as potentially open up options in future questlines. If Kurt's sidequests aren't done, he will betray the congregation and fight De Sardet during the Coup storyline, then you'll have to save either Saint Matheus or Hikment, locking the city you didn't saved and its related quests for the entire game.
• Cooldown Hug: De Sardet hugs Constantin to stop his Freak Out over the revelation that he is dying from the Malichor and, after a few moments, it works.
• Clarke's Third Law: The Nauts are believed to have magical abilities that aid in their navigating the sea, and are under close scrutiny by the Ordo Luminis who believe them to employ similar pagan magic to the Yect Fradí. However, a later game quest reveals that the Nauts don't rely on magic at all, but mundane seafaring technology. They've invented the gyrocompass, the barometer, even SONAR.
• Critical Existence Failure: Having a practically empty health bar doesn't influence the enemies' movement or behavior at all, and the same goes for you and your companions.
• Cult: Every in-game religion or belief system is referred to as one^note the game, set in a colonial era, is using the old definition of the word which simply meant "worship". However, the Ordo Luminis also fits the modern definition as a corrupt and radical branch of Thélème's faith.
• Cut and Paste Environments: While completely averted by the outside areas and caves, which are all unique and handcrafted, there seem to be only one standardized layout of the noble house, the governor palace, the guard barracks, the Naut warehouse, and even the tribal chief hut on Teer Fradee. There are a few unique buildings, like the Inquisition HQ or the Hikmet government lab, but those are few and far in between.
• Deer in the Headlights: Before the group can leave Gacane for Teer Fradee, a large creature from the island breaks out of one of the ships. Constantin is directly in the way of danger and completely frozen to the spot. De Sardet has to pull him out of the way and then he finally runs away.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: As the game is set in a fantasy universe reminiscent of the 17th-18th century, all factions save the Natives are, to some differing extents, colonisers. Attitudes towards the Natives range from the Thélème's White Man's Burden approach to converting the Natives to the Alliance's outright war with them to the condescending sympathy from the Congregation. Most of the characters you interact with hold one of the general positions, but the narrative sides with the Natives.
• Demonization: Colonists from seemingly every faction demonize the natives and their culture. The most obvious are Thélème, and especially the Ordo Luminis with their goal of forcibly converting every islander and acting like one village was actually a demonic cult.
• Developer's Foresight: Due to the many different solutions the developers will usually offer for any given quest, main or otherwise, there are a number of events and additional lines of dialog that can occur if you did not follow the intended, guided sequence of events. A great example of this is rescuing Constantin from the morning-after of his celebratory night on the town, and the various events that may happen:
  • If you rescue Constantin before saying your goodbyes to the other ambassadors in Selene, Constantin will be sitting down at the table with De Sardet, or is otherwise clearly present in the room.
  • You can learn Constantin's location in three ways: following the tip from the poorly written ransom notes all around town, making recompense for the unfortunate innkeeper who's business was wrecked by Constantin's antics, or simply walk by the warehouse where he's being kept, whereupon De Sardet and Kurt will over hear his yelling.
  • Related to the above, if you save Constantin and meet the innkeeper for the first time, they will have additional dialog where he recognizes Constantin and yells at him for the broken table, upon which Constantin compensates him out of his own pocket, than De Sardet's.
  • If you rescue Constantin stealthily from his predicament, he will ask to murder the bandits who kidnapped him for revenge. Should De Sardet have taken the direct approach or done that anyway, Kurt will make mention of it.
  • Constantin will have additional dialog during sidequests and scripted events, such as meeting Vasco for the first time at the docks. He will, for example, hope that his father is implicated in the disappearance of Vasco's cabin boy, allegedly by a noble family in the city.
  • Bringing along certain companions will elicit unique interactions with NPCs and can often be used to complete quests differently. They would even have dialogue about who should be in the party for certain objectives.
• Dialogue Tree: You have various dialogue options, though they usually provide only an outline of the much longer speech your character is going to say upon selecting that option. Certain Talents can also open up certain dialogue options that can offer alternate solutions to problems.
• Didn't Think This Through: Assuming he's still on your side, Kurt will call out the Coin Guard on how stupidly short-sided their coup attempt is — namely that had it succeeded all they'd have done is trap themselves on the island with hostile natives opposing them and nations who they've made enemies of back on the continent.
• Doing In the Wizard: The Naut's aquatic dominance is attributed to nature magic on par with that of the islanders. The truth is that they just have better navigation equipment that they're not allowed to share.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Well, enemy is usually a bit strong but if you have reason to infiltrate another faction's property and don't feel like sneaking the whole way the easy solution is to dress in the faction's clothing. Mostly the guards will ignore you.
• Dump Stat: Craftsmanship is this. While being able to craft your own armor and weapon upgrades is nice, there's a blacksmith in New Serene who can do it as well and the amount he charges is negligible. You're much better off if you reserve your Attribute points for Insight, Vigor, or Lockpicking. If you have Craftsman's gloves and a friendly-level Kurt in your party, you only need to put one point in to be able to craft max-level upgrades for no gold cost.
• Easier Than Easy: The Discovery difficulty mode; which makes De Sardet almost invincible with no regard to how the player levels them, if they choose to level the character at all. De Sardet's damage is also greatly increased in this difficulty to the point they can One-Hit Kill most enemies.
• Escort Mission: Played With. After finding Aphra in the bog, she makes De Sardet follow her to a nearby native village where the other scientists in her expedition are being held prisonier. She's also a Guest-Star Party Member and will fight with the team against any enemies; however, if you travel too far off the path you will be forced to start the quest over from one of two checkpoints. The quest is then played straight after finding the remaining scientists and needing to escort them to safety.
• Eternally Pearly-White Teeth: Every character has a nice, neatly spaced set of blindingly white teeth, despite the historical fantasy setting and distinct social class divisions.
• Eye Scream: Eseld kills an unnamed enemy soldier by throwing a dagger into his eye socket.
• Facial Markings: Two kinds: the Nauts have Maori-like tattoos, while the islanders wear face paint and often have plant-like markings that apparently naturally appear when the native is "bonded" with the island. The fact that De Sardet's birthmark looks eerily similar to the marking foreshadows that they have more in common with the natives than they thought.
• Family of Choice: The Nauts are either born on the sea, or given to them by families of those they service. However, the Nauts often choose to stay with the Nauts than their biological families. They even have a ritual to prove their loyalty.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The main factions pull a lot of qualities from the real world 17th Century, just with more magic.
  • The Congregation of Merchants appears to be a neutral version of mainland Europe, specifically France and Venice^note with the name of the capital, Serene, reminiscent of the Venetian style "Serenissima", often acting as a mediator between the Bridge Alliance and the Thélème, and, thanks to their alliances with the Nauts, hold a major stake in world's naval power. They could also be a shoutout to the Hanseatic League. Or to the Netherlands during their Golden Age, as Serene has a strong Dutch vibe.
  • The Nauts themselves take a lot of pages from the pirates and privateers that prowled the islands of the Caribbean, sporting vaguely British/Irish/Scottish accents, Spanish and Portuguese names, a reverence and affinity for the sea, and generally mercenary attitudes towards everyone and everything. The biggest difference for them is that they're more merchants than pirates. As noted above they also borrow the Maori trait of facial tattoos that depend on life experiences.
  • Thélème are based very obviously off of the Vatican and Catholic Church, with a hardline monotheistic religion backed up by actual magic and their own Inquisition that is ready and very willing to torture and kill anyone who doesn't share their beliefs, or even so much as contradicts their own teachings. They also wear armor heavily reminiscent of the conquistadors of Spain.
  • The Bridge Alliance are on the forefront of technological development and stand in contrast to a restrictively religious faction, and as such are based on the Islamic Golden Age. Aesthetically and culturally they also borrow elements from later Muslim cultures, more specifically the declining years of the Ottoman Empire where rampant corruption and poor leadership have taken hold over the once majestic era, leaving it a depraved and amoral shadow of its former self.
  • The natives of Teer Fradee are inspired by Celtic tribes, with their language being "a mash-up of Flemish, Breton, Gaelic and Irish" created by linguists for the game and their magic quite druidic in nature. They also bear similarities to some Native American tribes, and the way their land is being colonised is more reminiscent of American colonisation than the Anglo-Saxon colonisation of Celtic lands.
  • The Coin Guard, with their Germanic names, mercenary nature, and universality among all three (often opposed) continental factions, bear a great deal of similarity to the Landsknechte and other German mercenaries of the 1500s.
• The Farmer and the Viper: No matter how hard they've been helpful and diplomatic towards the natives, and no matter the fact that they saved her life, Cera will always betray and try to kill De Sardet out of blind hatred and prejudice towards all foreigners, as well as her stubborn refusal to see things beyond black and white, especially when De Sardet brings up the possibility that her beloved, Vinbarr, has turned into an insane murderer.
• Fast-Forward Mechanic: Sleeping either at a campsite or in one of De Sardet's homes will allow you to skip forward a certain amount of time ranging from a few hours to an entire day.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: The skill tree is split between three categories: Warrior (focuses on melee), Technician (focuses on traps and guns) and Magic (Focuses on offensive spells). You create your character by selecting a set of starting skills focused on one of these categories though afterwards you're free to build your character however you wish.
• Firearms Are Revolutionary: The various nations colonizing the island all have pistols and rifles, which give them a big advantage against the natives in conflict.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Just before boarding the ship to Teer Fradee, Constantin and Kurt will talk about the giant creatures that apparently exist in the new land, with Constantin mentioning that he heard a rumour that the Nauts had even brought one back in one of their ships, only for Kurt to say it's ridiculous, since the Nauts may be strange but they aren't stupid. Guess what happens to burst out of a ship you're passing?
• Fog of War: All maps, when you first enter them, are completely fogged over and must be explored to reveal the map.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When you introduce the native Síora to Constantin, he comments that she and De Sardet look so alike they might as well be related. However unintentionally, he's right.
  • A subtle one: The Nauts are rumored to use magic to control the seas, but when Captain Vasco joins your party, you'll notice that he has no magic abilities of his own. You eventually find out that the Nauts' "magic" is really just early seafaring technology (a barometer, a fathometer, etc.)
  • One suspicious yet hand-wavable thing is the fluency of Trade language among the natives, despite being discovered a mere 10 years prior. They were discovered long before then. They accepted Thélème's founder as one of their own, who tried to unify two conflicting faiths (and thus two separate languages). Then they got frequent refreshers for 200 consecutive years when the Congregation tyrannized the island, followed by frequent slaver raids by the Nauts.
• The Fundamentalist: The Inquisitors of Thélème, especially the Ordo Luminis, are brutally intolerant and are often antagonistic towards you. You can Break the Believer on an entire country if you prove that their Christ-figure believed in religious tolerance as a form of omni-faith.

Tropes G-Z

• Game-Breaking Bug:
  • If you choose to postpone Vasco's first loyalty quest after talking to him about it and visit New Serene, it will render the quest Unintentionally Unwinnable and lock you out of other members' loyalty quests. If you happen to have Vasco in the party at the time, you will be unable to ditch him from the party as well.
  • Subverted in Easing Constantin’s Suffering. By discovering the corpses of the runaways before getting information on all three nests, the locations of the ones you don’t know of are rendered unable to be marked on your map due to an NPC giving only generic dialogue instead of important stuff. Additionally, as the quest log mistakenly counts destroying an additional nest also tied to the quest as one of the three you need to destroy, it’s easy to think the quest is glitched and unbeatable. The subversion is that it’s not, and you can still find the nests manually and complete it just fine.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Síora's control over plants would be very useful in fights, but she only does it in cutscenes (admittedly, while under duress).
  • When Constantin goes mad and starts corrupting Guardians for him to control he instructs them to restrain but not kill De Sardet, as he still loves his cousin. The player character will still die if they lose the fight.
• Gender Is No Object: Both male and female members in all factions work together with no objection from anyone. In fact, women can rise to high positions of authority in their factions including the Thélème, the Nauts, and later the Coin Guard.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Constantin has a momentary Freak Out over learning his death is immanent during which De Sardet will shout "Pull yourself together!" at him, amongst other things.
• The Ghost: The ruling prince of Serene, de facto leader of the Congregation of Merchants and Constantin's father, has a significant effect on the plot but is never actually seen in game.
• Golden Ending: By completing all of the major questlines in the best possible fashion, your actions lead to a positive change among all the factions as well as your True Companions.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: Defeating the final boss requires you to ask all factions on the island (bar the Congregation, who remain loyal to Constantin) for help in order to defeat him.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: In the conflict between the explorers and natives, neither side is fully good or evil; the explorers are encroaching upon the island, harvesting its resources and either killing or trying to forcefully convert the natives, but are doing so in a desperate attempt to find a cure for a disease ravaging their people. Many of the natives, on the other hand, have no qualms using underhanded means or outright killing any explorers they come across, but are doing so to defend their own homeland from being destroyed and colonized. Stuck in the middle of the two are the moderates, who want everyone to just get along with as little bloodshed as possible.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • Successfully romancing a companion requires answering three questions that will become available after completing that companion's three quests. However, you must choose a specific answer each time or you won't be able to romance that companion; the correct answers are not given any indicators, nor do they generally seem all that flirtatious.
  • Except for a throwaway line after rescuing Mev in "Quest for Panacea", the game never reminds you to travel back to Hikmet to confront Governor Burhan after his agents ambush her. If you don't go there of your own accord, you'll miss out on the questline that improves your reputation with them and gets them to change their ways.
  • Getting the best ending requires not only reaching friendly status with all the factions, but also choosing Dunncas as High King of the natives, as his leadership will get the natives and colonists to work together and push back the Malichor.
• Gunpowder Fantasy: An 18th-century colonial era fantasy setting, combining the science and technology of the age with fantasy elements like magic.
• Guns Are Worthless: Averted heavily; Guns are very potent weapons limited primarily by them needing ammo, which can be a pain early on. However, by getting the Science talent to level two you'll gain the ability to craft ammo yourself up to the hundreds, thus rectifying this problem and letting you blast most regular enemies away in one or two shots. Even without taking that talent, bullets are cheap to buy and are extremely common in random containers, so regular shopping and looting should quickly earn you plenty of them.
• Harder Than Hard: The Expert difficulty mode, which adds more enemies in addition to making them stronger and faster. Skill points must also be allocated with thought, as players generally need to commit to one of the three builds and being a Jack of All Trades will backfire.
• Heal Thyself: Players can heal themselves using potions and spells.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Various bladed weapons are available to your character under the One/Two-Handed Blades skill depending on their size. In general, swords do more raw damage than heavy weapons, but less armor and stun damage.
• Hide Your Children: There are no children around, anywhere. There's the Hand Wave that the natives are hiding their children because of the threat from the colonizers, but there's no explanation for why there are no children in any of the colonized cities.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: De Sardet's bag can apparently hold multiple sets of armors, weapons (including two-handed weapons), traps, potions and poison, and of course, any junk they find. All this despite the bag never appearing on De Sardet's character model and also having the icon of a messenger bag.
• Ignored Expert: Often, the colonists experience problems that the natives are familiar with and are even willing to help with if you’re on good terms with them. Unfortunately, de Sardet is the only one with the brains to actually ask rather than ignore them, often leading to problems that could’ve been solved without their intervention if the colonists simply asked. Sadly, this is Truth in Television.
• Inconsistent Spelling: No one, not even the game itself, can decide if the name of the island is spelled "Tír Fradí" or "Teer Fradee". The game seems to take the position that the former is the native spelling and the latter is the colonizer spelling, but again, even in the game menus the spelling flip-flops between the two.
• Insistent Terminology: According to Vasco, the vessels the Nauts use and live on are called ships, not boats.^note He's correct too. Not only are ships larger, but also are used for navigation across oceans while boats remain largely coastal or for island hopping. This can later result in De Sardet asking him if he's mad that they called it a boat.
• Interface Spoiler: The Nauts claim to use magic to navigate the seas, but just looking at Vasco's stats will tell you they're lying — he doesn't have a mana bar like the other party mages.
• In-Universe Game Clock: The game features a day-night cycle that changes depending on four times of day; dawn, daytime, evening, and night. Certain quest objectives are easier to complete at certain times of day.
• Invisible Wall: Present to keep you within the playable areas. Sometimes they're cleverly disguised amidst some underbrush, sometimes they're... not.
• Item Caddy: A character who specializes in the Technical skills (guns and traps) is heavily reliant on items such as ammo or alchemical mixtures, which while can be found fairly commonly in crates in cities they tend to face problems if they run low on resources. However, by investing into the Science skill they'll gain the ability to craft said items themselves out of the tons of resources they've likely gathered.
• Item Crafting: You can craft and upgrade equipment, as well as create potions, traps, and bombs with the right skills and materials. Some quests may also ask you to create certain items, such as a sleeping potion (though such items can also be bought).
• It Only Works Once: In the Demonic Cult mission, De Sardet must investigate a native's house but can only do so by distracting the owner and sneaking in. One of their options is to pretend to be clumsy and break some of his pots. De Sardet notes this will only work once and, predictably, if De Sardet leaves the house without gaining the information needed, they cannot try the broken pot ruse again and must use the other option.
• Katanas Are Just Better: The unique Legendary weapon you gain for reaching "Friendly" status with the Nauts is a two-handed sword looking like a nagamaki. Funnily enough, the weapon is considered to be a Heavy Weapon, not a Blade.
• Kingmaker Scenario: After being forced to kill High King Vinbarr, the natives hold an election for a new High King. You get the option to back one of the "pretenders" via getting them a crown in exchange for helping you communicate with their God.
• Life Meter: Present, alongside a Mana Meter, if you have the HUD on. It's important to keep an eye on your health bar, since magic attacks ignore your armor and bullets will take a great portion of health, if not outright One Hit Killing De Sardet on harder difficulties.
• Lore Codex: The game has a codex which is a combination of abstract and in-universe elements. There is a tab for notes found during your adventure, but also tabs for the usual: gameplay help, characters, places, etc. that isn't information given in-universe.
• Mad Scientist: Doctor Asili. In order to (supposedly) find a cure for Malichor, he kidnaps the natives and Nauts, killing most of them and driving the rest insane, and to top it off, he infects you (unsuccessfully thanks to your bond with the island) and Constantin.
• Magic Missile: The default attack with Rings is actually called Magic Missile. It generates projectiles of shadowy magic energy, and requires magic rings to use. The natives have their own version, which resembles a ball of green flame and deals "elemental" (rather than "magic") damage.
• Magic Versus Science: The war between Thélème and the Bridge Alliance, with Thélème using magic and the Alliance having advanced technology. This is downplayed however as the issues between them are political and religious. Thélème has no particular objection to the Bridge Alliance's technology and the Alliance only objects to the religion behind the magic, not the magic itself.
• Malicious Slander: In the De Vespe DLC, De Sardet has to deal with Aurélia De Vespe putting out false propaganda against them, Constantin, and all their companions in order to usurp the government. How well the slander works depends on De Sardet's relationship with the other factions.
• Mana Meter: Present as part of your spellcasting. However, some spells, like the ability to incapacitate enemies through stasis, require no mana if cast during Fury.
• Modular Epilogue: There are very many ways for De Sardet to change the ultimate fate of Teer Fradee and Serene, usually dependent on their actions during quests, and especially their relations with the factions and who's still alive to support them. After the final battle, you are shown a slideshow, narrated by Mr. de Courcillon, of the events that followed, from the central questions of what happened to De Sardet and the Malichor cure to the fates of your surviving companions, of the native tribes, and of the continental factions.
• More Predators Than Prey: Huge packs of large bear-like animals dot the island and the player will likely encounter dozens of them in any given area, while the deer and game birds that they presumably prey upon are very rarely seen.
• The Musketeer: The protagonist can equip a melee weapon and a firearm.
• Neglected Sidequest Consequence:
  • Failing to complete both "Missing In Action" and "Amongst The Ghosts" side quests before turning in the main story quest "The Prince's Secret" will result in Kurt turning on Constantin and De Sardet in the subsequent Military Coup, which results in his inevitable death and a permanent loss of either San Matheus or Hikmet and all of their respective content. Completing both these quests, on the other hand, lets you avoid all the aforementioned fallout.
  • Should you start the De Vespe Conspiracy DLC without completing either San Matheus or Hikmet's side quests, you'll find the DLC a lot harder as De Sardet will be kicked out of whichever city they have not completed quests for.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: By trying to heal Constantin, De Sardet and Catasach accidentally turned him into a power-hungry maniac Drunk on the Dark Side.
• Notice This: Lootable containers are indicated by glowing yellow sparkles. Quest-related items are indicated by glowing scarlet sparkles.
• Now or Never Kiss: During the fighting leading up to the final battle, De Sardet's romantic partner will stop them from continuing on in order to give them one last kiss, as they aren't sure they'll see each other again. It can become a Last Kiss if De Sardet chooses to join Constantin as a god/goddess.
• Optional Sexual Encounter: Assuming you've selected the right dialogue options for each of them, De Sardet has the option to sleep with three of their companions^note Four are romanceable, but one will always have a conflicting sexual orientation either as a no-strings-attached encounter or as an upgrade to a relationship.
• Palm Bloodletting: The native ceremonies require someone to cut their palm in order to forge a bond with nature (either temporary or permanent) and speak to the spirits of the island.
• Party of Representatives: As per RPG tradition, each of your companions hails from a different faction. With the game's focus on diplomacy, some of them are actual representatives.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: San Matheus at night has multiple bandit groups outside the city in close proximity to each other who you can farm for good starting gear (especially with the loot-boosting Adventurer's Gear DLC and Merchant Prince's hat) and XP, then respawn by using a campfire to rest for three nights. There's also an abundance of hoof fungus, which is needed to craft bullets, as well as some hostile creatures that can drop rubies to make armor upgrades with. While there's no blacksmith there, you can store away any low-quality drops and have the New Serene blacksmith break them down into materials later, including crude iron ore, the other ingredient for bullets. The best part is that you can access this immediately after the intro for a measly 10 gold for the wagon driver outside of New Serene.
• Pistol-Whipping: If the coup succeeds, Vasco will be incapacitated with a butt stroke.
• The Plague: The Malichor. Always fatal and virtually incurable on the continent, symptoms include black blood, which results in the veins showing up under the skin, blindness, and excruciating pain before the victim finally dies. De Sardet's mother is shown in the late stages of the disease at the beginning of the game, and Constantin himself comes down with it later in the game. It is then revealed not to be a plague at all, but a sickness caused by the uncontrolled pollution on the mainland, and the Teer Fradee natives are 'immune' because they never actually had much pollution to deal with in the first place. Turns out you can't just industrialize willy-nilly without regard to the byproducts and not expect something horrifying to happen...
• Plague Doctor: With The Malichor spreading and uncured, every doctor you see is dressed like this. To the point they’re just called “Crows”.
• Player Headquarters: Aside from the camps that you can set up around the maps, De Sardet gets a house in all of the major cities that effectively functions as camps within cities.
• Point of No Return: The game features a graceful one: after receiving the final main story quest, "Assault on the Heart", a UI message is displayed informing you that starting it will prevent you from returning to the rest of the game. The actual PoNR is gathering the companions at a specific camp to embark on the eponymous assault.
• Politically Correct History: Zig-zagged with Thélème. Some of them are very much realistic with regards to history, being ruthless with converting and treating non-believers regardless of affiliation... but they’re only a sub-sect of the religion. The rest of them — including and especially the Mother Cardinal and your religious party member — are not only in line with modern religious views, if a few decades behind us, but are also almost entirely blameless, instead having their period accurate sub-sect responsible for most of the disagreeable things involved with religion in the time period the game is based on.
• The Quisling: The natives tend to see those among their number who work directly with the colonial factions as this, particularly Ullan.
• Reality Has No Subtitles: When speaking with the natives, they will often speak in both their language as well as the common language, however, the subtitles will never translate the native language, because De Sardet does not understand it.
• Reasonable Authority Figures: Most figures in power tend to be relatively reasonable and can be convinced to be open to peaceful and diplomatic options. Both Mother Cardinal Cornelia and Governor Burhan do not condone the more heinous actions of their factions (which are usually done without their knowledge) and with sufficient evidence and convincing will not hesitate in punishing them.
  • Most of the native leaders are this as well, with even the most hostile ones at least giving De Sardet a chance to make his/her case before attacking.
• Red Herring: The expeditions to Teer Fradee are due to a suspicion that the Malichor disease originated from the island, in hopes of finding a cure. De Sardet's investigation reveals that 200 years prior, a group of rogue Congregation aristocrats invaded the island, raping and pillaging everything in sight until they woke up an eldritch god who decimated the invaders, supposedly the patient zeroes of the Malichor. It's revealed that the Malichor has nothing to do with Teer Fradee; it is simply the result of centuries of environmental degradation and pollution from the three developing nations, which inevitably infects the soil and water. If there is a supernatural element involved, it's because the god of the continent is very pissed off.
• Regenerating Shield, Static Health: Unless De Sardet is equipped with a health amulet or has a high vigor stat, they will retain all damage to their Hit Points, but their armor bar will regenerate after combat.
• Relationship Values: Your party members' feelings on you are measured in this fashion, with them starting on "Suspicious", with some of them being able to progress to a full-on Romance Sidequest depending on your choices. Getting them to "Friendly" status grants you a bonus to a talent.
• The Rest Shall Pass: Leading up to the final battle, De Sardet and all of their companions must fight their way up a mountain, aiding whatever faction allies they've recruited. As De Sardet meets these allies (or certain checkpoints if they weren't convinced to help), a companion will decide to stay back and Hold the Line until, eventually, De Sardet is left by themselves.
• Right Through His Pants: The sex scenes once you confirm a relationship with one of your companions show the two of you making out, then falling onto De Sardet's bed, both of you fully clothed. Which could have one or both of you in plate armor.
• Ring of Power: Magic users equip rings as weapons.
• Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: Central theme of the game. This can be seen with the competing philosophies of Thélème and the Bridge Alliance.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: One of the quests related to making peace with the islanders has an uppity merchant repeatedly attempt to bribe you in order to leave his shady business alone. De Sardet can also engage in this to solve their problems, if the player wants to sacrifice cash instead of having to build towards Charisma/Intuition, or otherwise doesn't want to take actions that might lose them reputation.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When one of the island beasts breaks out of a Naut ship, Kurt and Vasco immediately run away. De Sardet has to pull Constantin out of danger and then he also runs away with the others, leaving De Sardet to fight the creature alone.
• Settling the Frontier: The background to the game is that several nations are settling on Tír Fradí and colonizing the island. Although their main settlements appear to be doing well, individuals from all sides can be found injured, captured, or even dead due to the foreign wildlife as well as the native people that inhabit the island.
• Shop Fodder: One of the organization tabs in the equipment panel is labelled "junk" and, like junk, is good for nothing except selling it to merchants, usually for a pretty penny.
• Skill Point Reset: The memory crystals, which will reset De Sardet's skill, talent, and attribute points. You only get a limited amount, so use them wisely.
• Socketed Equipment: Armors and weapons have sockets that you can craft various upgrades for. There are four different style options with three tiers for each style (common, rare, and elite). Each style upgrades different attributes to the weapon or armor such as one style upgrading pure damage while another will increase the chance for stun or knock-back.
• Stalking Mission: Several sidequests (and parts of the mainquests) involve De Sardet tailing people to get information they presumably would not be able to get otherwise. Failure to successfully tail these people can lead to a couple of things, from just failing that part of the quest to restarting the tailing part over, depending on the quest.
• Story Difficulty Setting: Discovery mode, which overpowers the main character to the point they're invincible so that players can just glide through encounters and enjoy the story.
• Suddenly Shouting: During the quest "The Vices of The Mother Cardinal", after successfully interrogating the bookie, the main character (if male) will suddenly raise his voice out of nowhere. Hilariously, the bookie will also answer in kind.
  De Sardet: “I MUST BE GOING NOW!"
  Bookie: "NEXT TIME THEN!"
• Tainted Veins: Black veins are a telltale sign of Malichor infection, and they show up around midway through the disease progression. Constantin gets these veins and keeps them even after he is "cured".
• Take Your Time: It's in both the main and side quests.
  • The main plot revolves around looking for a cure to the plague, of which your mother is dying from, and your cousin becomes infected with but ultimately, you can just wander the woods killing beasts for XP and it won't change a thing.
  • Síora urges you to go to a battlefield to help her mother and clan with the fighting. Hurry as you might, or dragging your feet doing literally every other quest won't change the outcome. You always arrive Just in Time to help Eseld and too late to save their mother.
  • One notable aversion with Kurt's personal quests. If De Sardet does not assist him getting to the bottom of Reiner's death and ending the torture camp before finding out the truth of their origin, he will betray them and either force De Sardet to kill him, or kill himself.
• That Liar Lies: De Sardet will repeatedly call Governor Burhan a liar after he sends them out to investigate so called "leads" only for it to turn out the Bridge Alliance is trying to kidnap or kill the natives De Sardet is talking to. Multiple times the Alliance soldiers will also try to kill De Sardet. Whether or not he is lying or was just oblivious to everything going on is never confirmed, but that doesn't stop De Sardet from accusing him of being one.
• Visibility Meter: When sneaking around enemies, an eye will pop above their heads, first filling with yellow to indicate you are in their field-of-view. Once it starts filling with red, the enemy will investigate the direction of the area you are in and, if it fills all the way, stealth is broken and combat begins.
• Vocal Dissonance: During the ritual where Mev relives Catasach's last moments, she is placed in the scene with Constantin, but when she speaks it is Catasach's voice that comes out. A Justified case, since Catasach was the one that was physically there and Mev is spiritually imposing herself onto him.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: If De Sardet's companions fall, it's not a big deal to revive them using resusitation powder (assuming you have some available), but the same cannot be said for De Sardet. If they fall in battle it's Game Over for you. The game doesn't take into account that the companions might still be standing (and thus should be able to use resusitation powder on you) or that your Lazy Backup is standing around somewhere.
• Wham Episode: The Coin Guard Coup. As if you didn't have enough political machinations, plagues, and wars to think about...
• Wham Line: "The blood is black." Constantin's blood, to be precise. Black blood is one of the first major symptoms of the Malichor.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: The Yecht Fradí have an... interesting dialect to say the least, when speaking English. It comes off as an attempt to mix Romani and Gaelic, but spoken by someone with a British accent. Being that they're a completely foreign civilization that came up independent of the Mainland factions, it actually fits rather well in with just how alien Teer Fradee is.
• When Trees Attack: The first creature from the island fought, before you even leave dock, is covered in what look like denuded branches.
• Welcome to Corneria:
  • Companions have a very limited amount of lines during battle. After a few hours, you'll probably get pretty sick of hearing To my health and death to the others!, Things are about to get dicey!, A little poison on my blade and let's go! etc.
  • The same can be said for shopkeepers — one can only hear a high pitched "Oh, it's you, on ol menawí!" so many times before they regret helping that particular vendor as well as generic NPCs who only have a handful of simple lines when prompted.
• Winged Humanoid: The Mountain Guardian, which has a bird/human hybrid look. Thankfully it can't fly for long, making fighting it a reasonable possibility.
• Women Are Wiser:
  • Played straight with the leaders of the colonial factions, where the Congregation's Lady Morange, Thélème's Mother Cardinal Cornelia, the Nauts' Admiral Cabral, and the Coin Guard's replacement commander Sieglinde are all portrayed as more dignified, responsible, and smart thinkers than their male counterparts, who tend to be either impulsive and corruptible (in the case of Constantin d'Orsay), ignorant and ineffective (in the case of Governor Burhan of the Bridge Alliance) or outright treacherous and stupid (in the case of Commander Torsten of the Coin Guard).
  • Largely inverted with the natives, where female tribe leaders Derdre, Eseld, Daren and Cera are shown to be short-sighted bigots who are too eager to try waging all-out war with the colonists to even consider the long term consequences of such action, whereas male leaders Catasach, Glendan, and especially Dunncas are more open-minded and willing to think outside the box for the betterment of all, albeit deconstructed with Catasach since his kind efforts to help cure Constantin from the Malichor inadvertedly causes the latter's turn to madness. Ullan is a subversion because, despite repeated claims of being a peacekeeper, he's actually motivated by selfish greed to the point of employing the same duplicitious methods as the worst of the colonists to achieve his goals.
• You Are the Translated Foreign Word: Occasionally, commonly used native words will be translated, either by the speaker or Síora, if she’s in the party.
  Síora: “I am Síora, daughter of Bládnind. My mother is the mál, the chief of our clan."
• You Lose at Zero Trust: You won't lose the game, but companions will abandon you if they dislike you enough. Some may also start working against you once that happens.

---