Video Game / Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Welcome to the new world of 3D Kirby!

Strange horizon. Ready to go.
Feast your eyes on a new world!
A new dreamland. A place where you'll laugh and smile.
Along the way, stuff your belly and nap awhile.
No one can hold you back. New fields full of mystery.
The sky's opened up, and there's so much to see.

— The song Welcome to the New World! translated from the Conlang

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a Platform Game in the Kirby franchise and is the second mainline game released on the Nintendo Switch. It is developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo.

When a vortex appears in the sky above Planet Popstar, Kirby and the Waddle Dees are transported to a mysterious new world containing the ruins of an ancient civilization. There, the Waddle Dees are kidnapped by the Beast Pack, a villainous group of animals. It's up to Kirby, Bandana Waddle Dee, and their new companion, a chinchilla-like creature called Elfilin, to rescue the Waddle Dees from the Beast Pack and unravel the many mysteries this mysterious, new world holds.

The game marks a massive shift in the Kirby franchise, as it is the first 3D platformer in the mainline series of games, which has traditionally been 2D up to this point.

The game was released on March 25th, 2022, with a free demo available from the eShop on March 3rd, 2022.

You can find the trailer announcing the game here, the trailer demonstrating cooperative play and Kirby's new Copy Abilities here, the trailer demonstrating Kirby's new "Mouthful Mode" here, the English version of the game's website here, and the Overview trailer here.

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Kirby and the Forgotten Land contains the following tropes:

Tropes #-H

• 100% Completion: The game keeps track of almost everything for its completion percentage. To get 100%, you have to complete all main stages, all Treasure Roads, all post game-stages, obtain all Copy Ability variants, beat all three difficulty levels of the Colosseum, and collect all Waddle Dees, figurines, and Leon's Soul fragments. The only things that don't count towards the percentage are the target times in the Treasure Roads, fully upgrading all Copy Abilities and the Extra Hard difficulty of Tilt-and-Roll Kirby.
• Abandoned Laboratory: The final area is Lab Discovera, where the original civilization had sealed away the Final Boss for study.
• Abnormal Ammo: Kirby's new Ranger Ability gives him a blunderbuss that shoots stars instead of bullets. Kirby also has a Vending Machine Mouthful Mode that lets him attack by shooting out cans of soda from an initial stock of as few as 3 to as many as 999.
• Achievement System: Each stage and boss battle have several side-missions to complete by finding and completing hidden objectives in addition to simply clearing the stage or defeating the boss. Completing these missions will add more Waddle Dees to your town, allowing you to develop the town faster than otherwise just blowing through the stages for the minimum number of Waddle Dees.
• Advancing Boss of Doom: Fecto Forgo, practically to a point of being a literal wall given how it looks.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: In "Burning, Churning Power Plant", there is a section where Kirby has to outrun advancing walls covered with Spikes of Doom.
• After the End: The new world Kirby and co. get transported to is a world full of abandoned cities and other clearly formerly-inhabited locations that have been Reclaimed by Nature, with an air of mystery as to what happened to the former locals. The apparent backstory description for this is that they just eventually enacted a Homeworld Evacuation after they captured Fecto Elfilis, which allowed them to travel across space-time — vaguely implied by Leongar to be Popstar, and Dream Land specifically.
• Alertness Blink: Sometimes during dialogue, NPCs will make a ding sound accompanied by a red ! over their head to indicate alertness.
• Aliens Are Bastards: Forgo fits this perfectly, attacking the wildlife when they first arrived from space, and after being captured, mind-controlling the Beast Pack and having them capture and enslave Waddle Dees. After Kirby defeats Leongar, they absorb him and various Mooks into themself, becoming a horrifying Blob Monster, and then absorbs Elfilin to recomplete themself. After Kirby defeats them and rescues Elfilin, they attempt to throw Planet Popstar at the New World to destroy them both out of spite.
• All There in the Manual: Mostly Averted in the game itself, but there are small bits of extra information outside of that. According to the June 2022 issue of Nintendo Dream, the tiny black Creepy Crows that hold the Waddle Dees in cages are called クロッカー (Kurokkā/Clocker), the name being a portmanteau of kuro (black) and karasu (crow).
• All the Worlds Are a Stage: The final level from the post-game campaign — the Isolated Isles of Forgo Dreams — is a mashup of the previous levels with each individual stage representing one of the previous levels, and within each individual stage itself are six segments; the first five segments of Forgo Dreams' first six stages are either taken from the one portion of each of that original level's four stages with a unique segment not found in the original levels added in as the fifth segment (Natural Plains, Everbay Coast, Wondaria Remains, Winter Horns, and Originull Wasteland) or taken from one portion of each of the original level's five stages (Redgar Forbidden Lands), and the sixth segment itself in these stages is the original level's boss fight stage — the sole exception is the last stage (based on Lab Discovera).
• Always Close: The Advancing Boss of Doom. When you beat it, the next scene has Kirby turn around and there's a wall there.
• Ambiguous Syntax: Leongar mentioned that the inhabitants of the New World used Fecto Elfilis' power to enter "a land of dreams", but it is unclear if he literally means Dream Land or just the idea of them pursuing a better world. Considering that Fecto Elfilis' warp ability resembles the same star portals that lead to Another Dimension, as well as its awareness of Planet Popstar, it could be the former.
• Ambiguously Human: A lot of the new world's architecture and technology is startlingly similar to modern-day Earth's, including things such as sky scrapers, automobiles, and vending machines. Then there's the Beast Pack, the creatures which inhabit the ruins of the previous civilization, who are all almost exclusively based off of real-life animals. These commonalities with Earth seem to hint that humans may have been the previous inhabitants of the planet before they all abandoned it to enter a "land of dreams". That being said, the game never gives any indication of what the previous inhabitants looked like and the geography isn't exactly 1:1 to Earth's, so it's just as likely that the previous inhabitants may not have been human. It's worth noting that no part of the new world depicts humanoid figures — for instance, there are no clothing stores or mannequins in Alivel Mall, and the Holine Custom Autos ads only show the cars, with no people riding in them.
• Amusement Park: Wondaria Remains, the third level, is an amusement park with a roller coaster, a Ferris wheel, circus tents, a parade, and more... but of course, a lot of said attractions are either malfunctioning or infested with enemies, posing a danger to Kirby most of the time.
• And I Must Scream:
  • Anything that Fecto Forgo assimilates is trapped in a Pocket Dimension called Forgo Dreams, a physical manifestation of Fecto Forgo's dreams made real through its immense psychic powers. The only creature seen escaping from it voluntarily is Elfilin itself.
  • Despite Fecto Elfilis' defeat, it keeps Leon locked up in Forgo Dreams for use as a vessel, shattering his soul into 300 pieces and scattering it across the dreamscape while possessing his body to lay in wait until Kirby attempts to rescue Leon.
  • Ironically enough, Fecto Forgo itself was subjected to this; when the inhabitants of the New World captured it, they locked it in a test tube and conducted experiments on it, turning it into a tourist attraction and forcing it to listen to the tour guide say those same four words. Every. Single. Day. for at least 30 years, and God knows how many more after the original inhabitants left. The theme music for the room leading to Forgo Leon’s boss fight also implies that the experience may have driven it insane.
• Angelic Abomination: Final Boss Fecto Elfilis, the true form of Fecto Forgo and Elfilin — an elegant, anthropomorphic creature with more pronounced Ear Wings, a spear resembling a caduceus, and devastating psychic abilities. Both beautiful and unnerving, the character's reveal during its boss intro even has the sun shine behind its head like a halo. In the main story, it forms its body from the goo of assimilated Beast Pack members and begins to melt after freeing Elfilin; you can later see the beast souls trying to escape as Chaos Elfilis dies.
• Antepiece:
  • Grabbing the sword offered by Meta Knight shows a brief cutscene where Kirby parries an oncoming attack from the knight, showing how you can do the same thing during the actual fight.
  • The first time you encounter a cannon, it has a very long and unobstructed fuse so you have plenty of time to work out how to make the cannon work. Later cannons have shorter fuses or are blocked by objects that require faster thinking to light and then make it to the cannon before the fuse arrives.
  • The path to Tropic Woods has a point where you need to reach a ledge by jumping on a root. This provides a hint that Tropic Woods' roots can also be stood on when they're no longer moving, a tactic that helps with fighting him and becomes necessary to avoid damage much later in the game during a phase in Phantom Tropic Woods' boss fight.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Copy abilities, when knocked out of Kirby, no longer bounce away and they remain for a longer time; considering how aggravating chasing after Ability Stars could be in the 2D games, it would be horrendous in 3D. Enemies whose abilities you need to complete a stage or a specific challenge respawn, and mid-bosses, when defeated, also drop a Copy Essence of their own abilities in case you didn't inhale them. In the Colosseum cups, if a boss knocks an ability out of Kirby and then dies from a lingering projectile or status, the ability will be automatically given back to Kirby in the rest area.
  • Kirby's Mouthful Mode abilities are separate from his Copy Abilities, but still require the object to be inhaled. Rather than forcing you to drop your powerup to be able to suck up whatever machinery you need to continue, a prompt for Kirby to inhale appears when you get within breathing distance of the object. This also means that spitting out the object lets Kirby continue using his Copy Ability right away.
  • If you decide to venture away from a Mouthful object without inhaling it and the game will need you to make use of it later, another one will either appear further down or one will simply spawn when you go a certain distance, removing the need to backtrack to the one you passed earlier.
  • For the first time in the series, there is a toggleable auto-swallow feature. So whenever you swallow an enemy with a copy ability, you don't have to spend a second manually swallowing them. At the same time, the fact that it's toggleable means that you can spit ability-bearing enemies out as ammo if you want to.
  • To account for the new 3D aspect of the game, most projectiles have a slight auto-aim on targets and enemies. When the game figures you're aiming in the target's general direction, it'll account for that and have the projectile go straight for it even when you're slightly off-target. Additionally, as shown in a developer interview, attacks have an adjustment effect based on the camera angle; if it looks like they'll hit from your perspective, they will, even if they're not actually spatially aligned. This avoids Depth Deception by working it in your favor.
  • The above interview also shows a feature called "fuzzy landing", where if you try to jump again while landing from a previous jump, Kirby will "snap" to the ground so he can start his next jump. This prevents you from accidentally floating if you misjudge how far Kirby is from the ground.
  • If you finish a stage without discovering one of the hidden objectives, the game will tell you what the objective is. However, it will only reveal one undiscovered objective per playthrough of the stage.
  • Speaking of, if you start an objective that requires doing something multiple times, it will reveal it the first time you do it. It will stay revealed at the end of the stage and doesn't count as your "one per stage playthrough" reveal.
  • You can increase the speed that lit cannon fuses burn through if Kirby is already inside the cannon by holding the attack or crouch buttons to duck inside, keeping you from having to wait. This is necessary to beat the target time for the Dragon Fire stage of Treasure Road.
  • The Treasure Road bonus areas that involve an ability different from your current one will put your first ability in reserve when entering it and give it back when you leave, so there's no need to worry about losing the ability you already had.
  • Treasure Road areas have a restart function in the pause menu if you're dissatisfied with your current time through the stage, meaning you don't need to return to the world map to retry a Treasure Road.
  • Travelling sections which have rewards like a hidden Waddle Dee locked behind certain conditions often have a blue Warp Star at the end, which resets your progress to the beginning of that section so you can go look for it again.
  • In the stages from Forgo Dreams, Elfilin will inform you when you have collected all the pieces of Leon's soul in a given area, as well as say how many are still left in the area if you happen to try the stage again after beating it.
  • If you run out of cans as Vending-Mouth Kirby, spitting out the vending machine will cause another to respawn in its starting location with full ammo, in case you need them for a puzzle.
  • The Gotcha machines are heavily biased in favor of giving a figure Kirby does not already have, meaning players won't need dozens of tries just to get the one last figure they need. In addition, after beating The Ultimate Cup Z, a Waddle Dee will guarantee a figure Kirby does not already have in exchange for a rare stone.
  • If you lose a lot of Star Coins by dying, the next time you head to Waddle Dee Town, the Waddle Dees will send roughly half the amount you lost to Kirby's house; that way, you can make up some of the lost funds.
  • In the stage 'The Battle of Blizzard Bridge,' there are two paths the player can take. To ensure the player isn't locked out of completing all the missions in a single playthrough, the secret Maxim Tomato is on the path to the harder route at the beginning of the stage, meaning players on the easy route just need to take a slight detour, the four wanted posters are all in side paths available to both routes, and the hidden Waddle Dee in the middle of the stage that isn't connected to a side area can be acquired two different ways dependent on the path chosen.
• Automatic New Game: Upon starting the game for the first time, you are immediately asked if you want to use online features (alongside agreeing to the "Use of Gameplay Information" if online features are turned on) and which difficulty to start with. Afterwards, the game immediately plays the opening cutscene before transitioning to the Point of Arrival proper. Subsequent start-ups from this point forward always start at the title screen of the most recent save file that was used.
• Arc Words:
  • "Wild" is used to describe the native variants of classic mini-bosses and bosses as well as some of Kirby's evolved copy abilities. The hard mode of the game is called "Wild Mode".
  • "Forgo", which is heavily associated with King Dedede's second boss form, Specimen ID-F86, and the strange dimension known as the Isolated Isles of Forgo Dreams.
• Armies Are Evil: The new enemies and bosses are members of the Beast Pack, the main antagonists of the game. Slightly more pronounced in the Japanese, Chinese, and Korean versions, where they're called the Beast Corps instead. Ultimately subverted; the Beast Pack are actually being manipulated by the Big Bad and are normally peaceful if protective of their homeworld.
• Art Evolution: King Dedede now looks closer to how he did from Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards than how he did in Kirby Super Star, the usual base for most of his modern appearances.
• Ascended Meme: After finishing the main story, King Dedede is found lounging around in his memetic crouch animation from Super Smash Bros..
• Asshole Victim: Specimen ID-F86 spent an unknown amount of years as a test subject of the scientists of the New World, trapped in stasis while being paraded as a tourist attraction. The boss theme that plays during the True Final Boss implies that it was likely driven insane by the constant PA system. That being said, it did invade the planet, immediately tried to "devour everything" after being freed, and after being defeated by Kirby, tried to collide the New World and Planet Popstar together, seemingly out of spite.
• Background Music Override: The Battle of Blizzard Bridge and Gathering of the Beast Council override the typical boss themes with their own stage themes. Forgo Zone does the same thing with the mid-boss battles in the fifth area of that stage.
• Bad Boss: There's no other Kirby villain who treats their servants like absolute shit than Fecto Forgo. Unlike the previous villains who just mistakenly attack their own minions in their fights, Fecto Forgo outright assimilates them into their body to create a massive chimera form. Then, in the post-game, they shatter Leongar's soul just so they can have a new body to possess and continue their plans.
• Balance Buff: To counterbalance the new Evolved Copy Abilities mechanic, Kirby's default Star Bullet attack was buffed considerably from previous installments, in order to make it consistently useful throughout the game. In addition to having more base damage, they also bounce off walls and auto-target nearby enemies, and the Blaster Bullets spawned by inhaling multiple objects now reach their full power much more quickly (capping at four inhaled objects, whereas older games capped at 12). This makes copyless Kirby very powerful, and in some cases even better than using Copy Abilities!
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: One of the bosses of the Isolated Isles of Forgo Dreams, Soul Forgo gets its own set of Boss Subtitles, implying a full boss fight; however, the same trick from Kirby Star Allies is then pulled, where an innocuous butterfly floats by and absorbs Soul Forgo's power, revealing itself to be Morpho Knight.
• Beard of Evil: A tropical incarnation of Whispy Woods, Tropic Woods. He has a small but somewhat bushy beard under his mouth, and he continues the ongoing trend of being utterly hostile towards Kirby.
• Beat the Curse Out of Him: Done with King Dedede, as per usual. This time, though, it seems that the usual Brainwashed and Crazy treatment he experiences here is much stronger than earlier titles, so it takes another defeat as the feral Forgo Dedede for it to finally take. This also happens with Forgo Leon, as Kirby needs to actively fight the soul of the Big Bad who is now controlling Leon's body.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Despite how goofy Sillydillo looks, he's a very formidable foe, to the point of trapping Kirby himself in a cage, as if he were a common Waddle Dee, and can One-Hit Kill him if he doesn't escape in time, something not even the final boss can do.
• BFS: Upgrading your Sword Copy Ability to Gigant Sword makes Kirby don Wild Edge's helmet (instead of just Link's cap) and wield a larger sword that he can swing two-handed with its Charged Attack. Morpho Knight Sword normally has Kirby wielding a relatively sized sword, but a fully-charged Charge Attack has it grow to be bigger than even the Gigant Sword.
• Big Bad: At first, it seems to be King Dedede, but it eventually becomes apparent that he's simply The Heavy for Leongar, the leader of the Beast Pack. Leongar himself is nothing but a pawn to Elfilin's Enemy Without, Fecto Forgo, who was trying to capture and absorb Elfilin to restore its original form, Fecto Elfilis.
• The Big Bad Shuffle: First, you're led to believe that King Dedede is behind the capturing of the Waddle Dees and Elfilin's kidnapping twice. Then, when you free him from the excrutiating Mind Rape as Forgo Dedede, it turns out that he was - yet again - brainwashed and used as a pawn in a greater plan. Then you're met by Leongar, the true leader of the Beast Pack who seems to be the real villain. But then he gets possessed by Fecto Forgo, and then you see who's really behind everything...
• Big Badass Rig: The game's final Mouthful Mode is the Big-Rig Mouth that Kirby needs to use to chase down Fecto Elfilis before they crash Planet Popstar down onto the New World.
• Big Good: Elfilin, who was gung-ho about saving the Waddle Dees even before Kirby showed up and accompanies Kirby every step of the way. Interestingly, he frames it as though Kirby is helping him, rather than the other way around, despite the Waddle Dees not even being native to his world.
• Birdcaged: The Beast Pack are trapping Waddle Dees in bird cages, most especially the literal bird mooks, which necessitates Kirby finding and breaking the cages to free them. Sillydillo can do this to Kirby himself, shaking the cage for a good bit of damage and if not escaped in time, smashes it on the ground for a One-Hit Kill.
• Bishōnen Line: Forgo goes from a giant floating chinchilla-fetus like creature, to a horrifying blob of assimilated Beast Pack members, and finally to a sleek, humanoid form.
• Blackout Basement: The Invasion at the House of Horrors, Moonlight Canyon, Forgo Park and Forgo Wasteland stages feature sections with pitch-black paths (aside from a small portion lit around Kirby) that Kirby needs to illuminate either with his new Light-Bulb Mouth or with the Fire ability.
• Blade Lock: Meta Knight may charge up an attack and swoop in on Kirby. If you are equipped with a Sword-type ability, you can respond with a Sword attack, resulting in Kirby and Meta Knight clashing swords, and winning the clash knocks Galaxia out of Meta Knight's hands and stuns him. You can then pick up Galaxia to acquire the Meta Knight Sword ability, forcing Meta Knight to fly off to grab a basic sword to continue the battle. This can also be done with Phantom Meta Knight in The Ultimate Cup Z.
• Blind Bag Collectables: A capsule machine is in the hub area, which Kirby can use to collect figures. You can also find figure capsules in the stages.
• Body Horror: Fecto Forgo, which is a massive horrific blob of all of the members of the Beast Pack they had assimilated into itself seconds before. After Kirby frees Elfilin from Fecto Elfilis in the final battle, their body begins to go unstable and physically melt without their other half.
• Bookends:
  • The first and last Mouthful Modes of the main story are the Car-Mouth, the only difference being that instead of any regular car, Kirby inhales a Big Badass Rig for the finale.
  • After knocking down the bascule bridge at the start of the game before the game's title is revealed, "Welcome to the New World" starts playing from a radio. In the ending credits, the same theme plays, now in its full version.
  • The first and last regular stages (i.e. where you can collect Waddle Dees) of the game both feature a segment with Cone Kirby at the end that involves going up water pipes to take out a Tortuilding.
  • Near the start of the game where Elfilin is first seen, he's captured in a cage that Kirby saves him from. After defeating Leongar in Lab Discovera, Elfilin is again freed, this time from a capsule.
• Boss-Altering Consequence: Invincible Candy can finish off Wild Edge in the Circuit Speedway stage (and must be done to satisfy a certain mission objective for that stage). It can also be done even earlier with the Wild Frosty battle in A Trip to Alivel Mall if the player is super quick.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: Though not a boss per se, the Tortuilding in the Downtown Grassland stage wouldn't be so easily defeated if he didn't take up residence just below a platform Cone Mouth Kirby could attack from, and Kirby wouldn't even be able to reach it if there wasn't a water pipe that can be broken to push him up to the higher ledge. This also applies to the Big Red Tortuilding in The Beast Pack's Final Stand, which is defeated in similar means.
• Boss Bonanza: The final stage of Redgar Forbidden Lands, "In the Presence of the King", features the two-lifebar boss fight against Forgo Dedede, followed immediately by sending Kirby to Lab Discovera, which has three more Boss Battles (Leongar, Fecto Forgo, and Fecto Elfilis) with only a couple of ability room breaks in between. Thankfully, Forgo Dedede's fight is considered a separate stage, so Kirby can return to it or Lab Discovera separately.
• Boss Corridor: Forgo Dedede and the final boss have a long, empty corridor leading towards them. All the other bosses have similar paths leading to them, though not nearly as long.
• Boss-Only Level: As is tradition, each level's last stage only consists of a Boss Corridor and a boss fight.
• Boss Remix:
  • The battle against Morpho Knight, while incorporating the boss's original theme, is also a remix of "Welcome to the New World!".
  • Fecto Elfilis’ theme, "Two Planets Approach the Roche Limit," also contains a remix of “Welcome to the New World!”.
  • Leongar's boss theme, "The Raging Lion Roars", is a dramatic orchestral remix of the Beast Pack's Leitmotif. This is, however, hard to recognize at first due to being arranged slightly differently.
• Boss Rush:
  • The Colosseum in Waddle Dee Town, unlocked midway through the game, serves this purpose, allowing you to fight the game's bosses and mini-bosses one after the other with limited recovery items much like previous Kirby games' boss rush modes, including an exclusive Optional Boss in the form of Meta Knight. It consists of three levels: the Meta Knight Cup, the initial level unlocked with the Colosseum that only has half of the game's main bosses, The Ultimate Cup, which stands in for The Arena as the full rush against all of the story bosses, and The Ultimate Cup Z, which stands in for The True Arena as the rush against the post-game Phantom variants of the bosses and Morpho Knight plus a Superboss against Phantom Meta Knight and the True Final Boss against Chaos Elfilis.
  • "The Battle of Blizzard Bridge" is a Mini-Boss variant that pits the player against Fleurina and the Wild versions of Mr. Frosty, Bonkers, and Gigant Edge in a similar fashion to the mini-boss rush stages of previous Kirby games. Additionally, much like the mini-boss rushes of Adventure/Nightmare in Dream Land, Return to Dream Land, and Star Allies version 4.0.0., there's a secret path that leads to harder fights, in this case fighting twins of mini-bosses, and a greater money reward at the end.
  • "Gathering of the Beast Council" features refights from Gorimondo, Sillydillo, and Clawroline, albeit only their last phases.
  • Forgo Horns also features a battle against all four mid-bosses back-to-back.
• Boss Subtitles: Boss subtitles from Star Allies return as blocks of text that appear as a physical part of the environment rather than splash screens.
  • Strong-Armed Beast: Gorimondo
  • Unfriendly Fronds: Tropic Woods
  • Lethal Leopard: Clawroline
  • The Lone Swordsman: Meta Knight (originally from Star Allies)
  • His Royal Nemesis: King Dedede (originally from Star Allies)
  • Armor-Plated Prancer: Sillydillo
  • His Primal Nemesis: Forgo Dedede
  • King of the Beasts: Leongar
  • Invasive Species: Fecto Forgo
  • Ultimate Life-Form: Fecto Elfilis
  • Strong-Armed Illusion: Phantom Gorimondo
  • Illusory Fronds: Phantom Tropic Woods
  • Illusory Leopard: Phantom Clawroline
  • His Illusory Nemesis: Phantom King Dedede
  • Armor-Plated Illusion: Phantom Sillydillo
  • The Lone Illusion: Phantom Meta Knight
  • Illusory Primal Nemesis: Phantom Forgo Dedede
  • Possessed Beast: Forgo Leon
  • Psychic Beast: Soul Forgo
  • Fluttering Dream Eater: Morpho Knight
  • Species Born of Chaos: Chaos Elfilis
• Bottomless Magazines:
  • Averted with Vending-Mouth Kirby, where the number of cans left in the vending machine is kept track of, and Kirby cannot shoot if he runs out of cans.
  • Same goes for Water-Balloon Kirby, when he does a Mouthful Mode on a water pump. Kirby can shoot a stream of water, but shrinks in size the less there is, until he runs out.
  • Played straight with Kirby's Ranger and Bomb copy abilities. Albeit justified with the fact that these abilities exist after Kirby copies something, so it can be argued that the ammo of these abilities come from Kirby himself (particularly when Bernards use their guns to shoot actual musketballs at Kirby). Regardless, the Ranger ability allows Kirby to shoot stars from a blunderbuss without needing to reload, and as with many games before, the Bomb ability lets Kirby drop as many bombs as he wants with next to no consequences to himself.
• Bowdlerise: In two-player mode, "face to face" is back... except that instead of "kissing", Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee just high-five. Probably because the turn to real 3D made it impossible to have it not look like a kiss.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: King Dedede, of course, but also Leongar, who was being controlled by the main villain, Fecto Forgo, to establish the Beast Pack and carry out its scheme for total annihilation. An attempt was made on Meta Knight, but this time Meta Knight's Heroic Willpower won out.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • Generally, if the game contains Whispy Woods or an Expy of him, they're usually assigned as the first boss of the game. Gorimondo is the Warm-Up Boss of the game instead, while Tropic Woods is the boss of the following area. While there are a few spinoff games before this that had the resident Woods character as a later boss, this is the first main-line game in the series to do so.
  • Normally in the series, the very powerful Hammer ability is exclusive to minibosses and bosses (Bonkers and Dedede) or mooks spawned by them (Heavy Mole's yellow Drill Balls). This game marks the first time Kirby can obtain it from a baseline mook — the hammer-throwing monkey Mookie.
  • This is the first game where the main villain's Soul form is rendered The Unfought, as it is absorbed by Morpho Knight who replaces it. The main villain's actual final form instead uses the prefix "Chaos".^note Chaos Elfilis still effectively fulfills the role of a Soul boss, however, and carries on the tradition of using attacks from previous Soul bosses.
  • For the first time in the mainline series since the very first game, there are no bonus stages after beating a stage. Gathering items usually gained from such is relegated to buying or winning them at Waddle Dee Town.
  • This is the first time the dedicated Boss Rush mode both exists in-universe and is canon to a Kirby game by way of the Colosseum, and clearing The Ultimate Cup Z provides some closure for Soul Forgo and Elfilin's relationship.
  • For the first time in the mainline series, there are no Solid Clouds (the Goal Game in both Kirby: Planet Robobot and Kirby Star Allies feature Solid Clouds that otherwise are absent in both games).
  • Related to the above, Kracko^note or a substitute, as in Kirby: Squeak Squad and Kirby: Planet Robobot doesn't appear at all, not even as a cameo, breaking a streak of consistent appearances in mainline games and most spinoffs since Triple Deluxe (he was previously absent from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and Kirby's Return to Dream Land).
  • Another absentee old mainstay is Waddle Doo and variants who, after only missing out on Kirby's Dream Land 2 and 3, had been in every main-line game and most spinoffs starting from Kirby 64. Their absence also comes with Beam not being copyable after being available in every main-line game since Nightmare in Dream Land.
• Bullet Time:
  • There is an enhancement of the Crash ability into Time Crash, which also stops time while active.
  • As seen here, using Kirby's roll to dodge attacks at the last moment creates a brief slowdown effect similar to Bayonetta and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, allowing Kirby to rush in and deal more hits.
• Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Morpho Knight from Kirby Star Allies returns in this title, making his first canon appearance as the final boss of the post-game, promptly assimilating Soul Forgo to enter its knight form.
• Butt-Monkey: Gorimondo, Pun not intended. He gets yelled at by Leongar a lot, lost to Meta Knight in duels more than 30 times, and gets a phantom counterpart created by Soul Forgo to guard pieces of Leon's soul. What makes this worse is that he lacks a last chance hit point like with almost every boss aside from (Phantom) Forgo Dedede and (Forgo) Leon(gar).
• By Wall That Is Holey: The tail end of "Burning Churning Power Plant" has a number of mechanized walls that advance forward and threaten to push Kirby into a molten metal pit behind the thin walkway he stands on, but said walls conveniently have a hole that allows Kirby to pass through with the correct Mouthful Mode shape.
• Call-Back:
  • While fighting Meta Knight, if you disarm him and take Galaxia, Meta Knight will fly off and return with his original sword from Kirby's Adventure.
  • Many of the evolved Copy Abilities are directly based on Combo Abilities from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards — Volcano Fire, for example, is reminiscent of Fire + Stone, while Clutter Needle is very similar to Needle + Needle. The new Bulb Mouth Ability seems to be based on Spark + Bomb (which itself is based on Light from Kirby's Adventure and Kine-Spark from Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Kirby's Dream Land 3), where Kirby turned into a lightbulb, but without exploding from overuse.
  • King Dedede's design here, particularly the shape of his mouth, is very reminiscent of his appearance in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
  • The portal that transports Kirby and the Waddle Dees to the new planet, and later to Forgo Dreams, looks identical to the portals to Another Dimension. The later stages of Forgo Dreams even play a remix of the theme for Another Dimension.
  • The concept of collecting scattered fragments of something to redeem a former villain returns from Heroes in Another Dimension.
• Came Back Strong: According to its Flavor Text, being consumed by Morpho Knight made Soul Forgo even stronger than it already was, allowing it to resurrect as Chaos Elfilis after Morpho Knight's defeat at the climax of The Ultimate Cup Z.
• Car Fu: One of the Mouthful Modes Kirby can use involve him controlling a car, allowing Kirby to ram through enemies and obstacles. The Final Boss battle concludes with Kirby taking control of a massive trailer truck and using it to ram Fecto Elfilis head-on.
• Cats Are Mean: One of the Beast Pack bosses is a leopard named Clawroline, who uses her giant claws to slash and stab at the pink puffball. Subverted later in the postgame, where it's revealed she's close to a Big Good, having saved Elfilin after his Heroic Sacrifice and wanting to save Leon.
• Character Name and the Noun Phrase: "Kirby and the Forgotten Land".
• Charged Attack: Several abilities have one.
  • Sword has the Zelda-inspired Spin Attack as usual. The Gigant Sword Evolved Ability changes it to a two-handed downward slam.
  • Cutter has the Hyper Boomerang, but unlike in Return to Dream Land and onward where Kirby charges it before throwing, Kirby makes the boomerang stall at the peak distance of the initial throw, charging it and making it more powerful on the return trip.
  • The Ranger ability lets Kirby charge up a more powerful projectile while aiming with a Laser Sight. The Noble Ranger Evolved Ability changes it to a rapid-fire barrage of projectiles. The Space Ranger Evolved Ability turns it into a shot that becomes a Sphere of Destruction upon hitting the target.
• Climactic Elevator Ride: Following the fight against Forgo Dedede, Kirby and three Waddle Dees run (or are thrown) inside an elevator as the now non-brainwashed King Dedede holds the Beast Pack off. The ride up the elevator has an automated voice detail ID-F86's backstory, with the music slowly changing into the pre-boss theme as the elevator reaches the top of Lab Discovera, giving the player a good idea of what they're about to get into.
• Company Cameo: Several Gotcha Machine figurines, like the "Lightron Works Sign", as well as prerelease footage reveal that three corporations used to operate in the new world. Their names are Holine, Alivel, and Lightron, which spells out "HAL".
• Company Cross References:
  • One of the hidden Dee-Livery codes is "KIRBYSTORY", which is found in the Waddle Dee Cinema. This is a reference to the original GBA version of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, which had a movie poster in Yoshi Cinema called "Kirby Story".
  • The alien cardboard cut-outs in the Wondaria haunted house stages make the same laugh as Boos from Luigi's Mansion.
• Conlang:
  • Alongside the translatable Cipher Language is a song Kirby hears over the radio in the beginning, which has lyrics in a completely fictional language. Subverted with the lab tour in "Lab Discovera", which "detects" the language the player is using and gives a pre-recorded tour in that language.
  • Several of the actual words are listed in the June 2022 issue of Nintendo Dream. Nodiruna (ノディルナ) = nap, Marscious (マーシャス) = tasty, Haaroa (ハァロア) = welcome, Adurecia (アドゥレシア) = canvas, Falda (ファルダ) = heart, Ruuwaa (ルゥワァ) = New World, Neichel (ネイチェル) = nature/fresh greenery. Several of them are similar to the Jambandran conlang shown in Kirby Star Allies, and "Neichel" is both the name of the singer of "Welcome to the New World!" and part of the Japanese and Korean names for the first area, Natural Plains.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The grassy area in Dream Land seen in the opening cutscene has both the cheese-like rock formations of Cookie Country and the donut-shaped hills of Green Gardens.
  • The "Lightron Works Sign" figurine description mentions that after the company split up, several rivals sprung up and led to massive corporate battles, bringing to mind the Haltmann Works Company and Susie's plan to steal Star Dream and sell it to a competitor.
  • The Tilt-and-Roll minigame is one to Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble, being a game where motion controls are used to roll a Kirby ball through various obstacles.
  • The Clutter Needle and Volcano Fire ability upgrades reference ability combinations from Kirby 64, those being the Needle + Needle and Burning + Stone abilities respectively (though with the latter, Kirby spits out the lava instead of shooting it from his head) Dragon Fire’s fireball dash also references the Burning + Burning combination. The new Drill ability as a whole may be a reference to Needle + Stone, which gave Kirby a drill on his hand.
• Contrasting Sequel Setting: Unlike most Kirby games, Forgotten Land doesn't have any gameplay on Popstar at all; it only appears in cutscenes. It takes place in a more realistic-looking alternate dimension called the New World, which is filled with urban ruins.
• Cool Mask: When King Dedede returns for a second battle near the end of the game, he appears wearing a boar mask and under the new alter-ego, Forgo Dedede. But not only does the mask make him stronger, but also cloud his thoughts further and eventually push him to become a crazed beast. This makes him somewhat of a Masked Dedede stand-in. There's also the Masked Hammer upgrade, which gives Kirby the same boar mask of Forgo Dedede.
• Co-Op Multiplayer: A second player can control Bandana Waddle Dee, and they can also play minigames alongside Kirby.
• Cosmetic Award: Completing a certain task will earn a figurine related to it. Rescuing all the Waddle Dees will have them present golden statues of Kirby and Elfilin in the center of town.
• Cosmic Deadline: Played to an extreme, for a good part of the game, Kirby is simply lost in an abondonned land, where he meets Elfilin and fights the Beast Pack to deliver the Waddle Dees, all without much foreshadowing of a bigger plot. Until the very last level where you learn that Elfilin is actually the missing part of Fecto Forgo, a life form kept in Lab Discovera that King Leogar is trying to recreate and take control over, later followed by the revelation that he was merely tricked by Forgo into giving him his power back and instantly absorbs him along with the rest of the Beast Pack as it breaks free.
• Cosy Catastrophe: The new world seems to be an urban civilization that was abandoned and has begun to be overtaken by nature, as seen by things like rusty cars and skyscrapers with moss crawling up their sides. Despite this, it's just as cheery in tone as any other Kirby game, and the main threat to the world isn't this catastrophe, but rather the Beast Pack which has taken up residence within it. The game's developers discussed this in an interview, saying that they wanted to avoid the world feeling "too scary" and instead focused on the beauty of what it once was.
  "Rather than decaying ruins with evidence of an ancient human civilization, you explore ruins that show the prosperity and joy of what once was. We tried to make it seem like a beautiful place that has merged with nature, even though the people that built it are nowhere to be found."
• Counter-Attack: Certain abilities have the ability to perform a powerful counter-strike if you press the Attack button immediately after getting a Bullet Time dodge on an attack. Sword, for example, responds with a much stronger horizontal slash, while Hammer instantly charges Hammer Flip to Level 2.
• Crate Expectations: Wooden and metal crates are all over the place, often containing items ranging from single coins to gotcha capsules. Metal crates can only be destroyed by Mouthful abilities or stage hazards.
• Creepy Crows: The Beast Pack has an army of small black birds called Clockers that are shown caging the Waddle Dees and Elfilin.
• Cypher Language: The strange writing seen throughout the city and theme park areas maps to English, and can be recognized as labels like "Books" and "Burgers" on city street signs, "Directory" in the mall, and "Park Map" in the theme park; as well as company names in various places. Some fictional letters are actually just stylised versions of English glyphs turned upside-down.
• Damage Over Time: Fire now ignites enemies on fire if they're burned for long enough, slowly whittling their health down for a lengthy amount of time.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Certain abilities mess with how dodging works. All of the variants of Ice, and Gigant Sword, create shields that mostly prevent damage except against certain attacks, and tapping the direction stick doesn't make Kirby move. Instead, the dodge comes from releasing the guard button, and will work even if you hold the direction you want to dodge as you release it. So if you want to quick-dodge, rather than tapping a direction while holding guard, you have to hold a direction while tapping guard.
• Dark Reprise: King Dedede's boss theme from Star Allies, "Macho of Dedede," is remixed for his theme here, but it's decidedly darker due to the ditching of Dedede's usually jaunty tone for harsher instruments and more a heavy metal vibe. Combined with the slower pace, and Dedede's roars and grunts being integrated into the music, it gives a song a more climatic feel and emphasizes how uncharacteristically serious Dedede is under the Beast Pack's possession.
  • There's also the main theme for the Redgar Forbidden Lands, "Enter the Fiery Forbidden Lands", which is essentially a dark remix of the first theme of the game, "Running Through the New World". Given the similarities between this level and Natural Plains, this theme makes everything come full circle.
• Darker and Edgier: The Beast Pack bosses have more realistic designs than normal, with Clawroline standing out in particular. Then King Dedede's routine possession is portrayed more seriously than previous games, with him not only becoming more serious when commanding the Beast Pack, but seeing him go insane and devolve into a homicidal monster. It all culminates in Fecto Forgo, whose battle features some of the most gruesome imagery in the entire series. In fact, this game is the first in the series to receive a "Fear" warning in its PEGI rating.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Much like Super Mario Odyssey, the game gives you infinite lives, so dying only sends you back to a checkpoint and makes you lose 100 star coins, which are easy enough to recollect.
• Defictionalization: In-Universe: The Wondaria park was based on a popular children's book series about dogs who go on space adventures.
• Demo Bonus: Completing the demo gives you a special code to use in the full game, alongside an additional one if you also completed all Downtown Grassland's sidequests. However, you can still use the same code in the game without needing the demo anyway.
• Demonic Possession: Though it's not there, we can very well see King Dedede trying (and inevitably failing) to remove his boar mask before becoming Forgo Dedede. Then, we see this front and center with Leongar, where his body is possessed by Fecto Forgo in his second phase, and then is possessed through the entire Forgo Leon battle.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • If you block one of Meta Knight's special attacks, you can knock his sword Galaxia away. If you pick it up afterwards, you get the Meta Knight Sword ability for the rest of the battle (this is the only time in the game that you can find an evolved copy ability in gameplay, let alone use it, before you even craft it). Meta Knight will then fly away to grab another sword, the same blade he used in his original appearance in Kirby's Adventure.
  • The game has special blue Star Coins that are located in areas that seem to reward players who go out of their way to explore every nook and cranny of each stage, such as hiding one in the bushes of Point of Arrival that requires you to backtrack to it after getting the Sword copy ability to mow it down, or on a rooftop in Downtown Grassland that you can just barely fly to.
  • Unlike previous Kirby games, mixing two different abilities by swallowing two special enemies at once will only cycle through abilities you've encountered proper so far via finding the special enemies as you progress through the game, keeping all new abilities from being unlocked in the weapons shop early.
  • In the postgame, you have to collect at least 250 pieces of Leon's soul across six stages, allowing you to unlock the final seventh stage. To ensure the unlocking cutscene only plays after clearing the six preceding stages, the most soul fragments you can have by the end of the fifth stage is 249.
  • Normally, once you save all the Waddle Dees in a level, Kirby and Elfilin will spin on the Warp Star and cheer once the notification pops up. However, if you save all the Waddle Dees in Winter Horns right after defeating the boss for the first time, Kirby won't spin around and cheer due to being distraught over Elfilin being kidnapped by King Dedede right after the boss fight. Kirby will still cheer as normal if you go back and save the rest of the Waddle Dees in Winter Horns after unlocking the next level.
• Dig Attack: One of Drill's moves has Kirby dig underground and then attack enemies from beneath them. If he draws a circle, rocks will stab out of the ground when Kirby returns to the surface.
• Digital Tabletop Game Adaptation: There's a Mad Marble Maze minigame that starts off similar to the real-life variation.
• Dinner Deformation: Mouthful Mode turns this trope into an ability, in which the items Kirby eats are weaponized.
• Disc-One Final Boss: King Dedede is poised to be the final boss and leader of the Beast Pack twice. The first time is in Winter Horns before the Forbidden Lands are revealed, and the second time is at the end of Redgar Forbidden Lands, before the boss fight with Leongar, the true leader of the Beast Pack, and Fecto Forgo / Fecto Elfilis, the actual mastermind behind the entire plot.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • The Ranger ability comes up as early as the third stage in the game and has the potential to carry players for a long time with its ability to snipe enemies with powerful shots without ever having to put yourself in danger as well as taking down bosses from a distance.
  • The Meta Knight Sword is accessible less than halfway through the game by clearing the Meta Knight Cup. It is the first 3rd tier evolution you will likely have access to, and it severely outclasses almost all other 1st and 2nd tier abilities in raw offense. In addition to an enhanced Sword moveset, it also comes with a Sword Beam function when Kirby's health is at 100% or greater, and the Sword Dive is replaced by the Upper Calibur Spam Attack that inflicts massive damage if all hits connect. This itself is severely outclassed by the Morpho Knight Sword, which is the game's Infinity +1 Sword.
• Double-Meaning Title: The name of the final stage. "In the Presence of the King" can refer to not just King Dedede, who is at that point presumed to be the main antagonist, but also Leongar, the King of the Beasts… as well as the presence that's truly in command.
• Double Unlock: Some of the figurines in the collection have certain requirements to obtain them, marked by a darker border around their list spot in the collection. Most are rewards for progressing in the game, but some then have to be found in random capsules or by putting money into the Gotcha machines.
• The Dragon: Clawroline to Leongar. She's specifically stated to be her boss' point of contact. In truth, she was actually the Beast Pack's co-leader prior to Leongar finding Fecto Forgo.
• Dual Boss:
  • The Boss Rush in "The Battle of Blizzard Bridge" ends with a fight against Twin Wild Frosty. One of the missions for the stage is beating the two without taking any damage.
  • Said stage's secret route is comprised entirely of fighting mid-boss twins. The final fight appears to be a subversion with a fight against one Wild Frosty... but then gets double-subverted shortly afterwards, as the stage still ends with a battle against Twin Wild Frosty.
  • The last mid-boss battle in Forgo Zone is a fight against Wild Frosty and Fleurina at once.
  • "Slash and Slice! Gigant Sword Trial" culminates with Kirby facing Twin Wild Edge.
  • "Kirby's Inhale Showdown" ends with a fight against both Wild Bonkers and Wild Edge at the same time.
  • "Whack Attack! Wild Hammer Trial" ends with a fight against Twin Wild Bonkers.
  • "Whirl 'Em Away! Storm Tornado Trial" ends with a fight against Twin Fleurina.
  • "Slash! Morpho Knight Sword Trial" features battles against every Forgo Dreams mid-boss twin in the game.
• Dual Wielding:
  • When Kirby makes it to the heart of the Redgar Forbidden Lands, he finds Dedede, berserk under the influence of another mind-controlling mask, who then attacks him with two hammers. After the credits roll for the first time, Kirby can get the Masked Hammer blueprints from the king, allowing him to dual-wield hammers for the same absurd attack power as Dedede had.
  • The fluttering herald of judgment day, Morpho Knight, returns in Forgo Dreams. Once its health has been reduced to half, it once again starts to use two swords against Kirby.
• Dub Name Change: The ghostly enemies Horror Tramp and Foorlowber, originally from Kirby: Triple Deluxe, receive the localized names Spookstep and Phanta, respectively.
• Ear Notch: Elfilin, Kirby's animal companion, is noticeably missing a small chunk of his right ear, which is quite jarring to see in juxtaposition to the creature's adorable design. This serves as an indicator of his true nature: one half of a lab specimen who split apart and escaped.
• Easter Egg:
  • Just like in Super Star and Star Allies, you can decline to pick up the free Sword in the Meta Knight fight, this time either by hitting it with an attack or just waiting for a few seconds. If you are equipped with a non-Sword ability, Kirby will evade Meta Knight's swoop in the ensuing cutscene rather than deflecting it with a Blade Lock.
  • In addition to the obligatory HAL Rooms, there is a third "HAL" secret in The Wondaria Dream Parade. In the hidden car race room, crossing the finish line when the timer reads 86 seconds causes a pond with flower beds spelling out "HAL" to rise up where the bottomless pit was.
  • At the beginning of Lab Discovera, Morse code plays over the intercom. Deciphering the code reveals that it says "EFILLIN", Elfilin's Japanese, Chinese and Korean name.
  • The last two digits of the codename of the specimen held in Lab Discovera, ID-F86, contains the number 86, representing "HAL".
• Edible Ammunition: Drinkable in this case; the Vending Mouth allows Kirby to shoot soda cans at enemies. Kirby has a limited amount of cans to shoot, but he can pick up cans he's already fired to use them again.
• Eldritch Location: Forgo Dreams, full stop. According to Elfilin, it's entirely made of psychic energy, gravity changes when you move left or right on the world map, it only has floating islands surrounded by void, every boss has a Phantom version who lives here, and each island is a mish mash of a level from the main game. Justified, since it was made by Fecto Forgo, as an escape plan for when things went badly.
• Elite Mooks: Awoofies have a stronger, slightly faster and generally tougher variation known as Primal Awoofies, which look more wolf-like and are found in the later half of the game.
• Enemy Without: Forgo is this to Elfilin, being the evil half of Fecto Elfilis after they split into Elfilin and Forgo.
• Eternal Engine: The final level is Lab Discovera, an abandoned lab where the original inhabitants of the New World experimented on Fecto Elfilis before using their Space Master powers to leave their home. There, Kirby fights the true leader of the Beast Pack, Leongar, and then battles Fecto Forgo, both in their chimera and true forms.
• Everyone Knows Morse: At the start of Lab Discovera, the elevator makes beeping sounds as it's starting up. Said beeping is actually Morse code that spells "EFILLIN", the Japanese, Chinese, and Korean transliteration of "Elfilin".
• Evil Costume Switch: King Dedede's new Beast Pack look gives him a tattered version of his usual robes with dark black leopard spots, a bit of war paint, and red eyes. For his second battle, he gets a boar mask to go with it.
• Evolving Attack: A new addition to the series is access to a weapon-making Waddle Dee that can "evolve" abilities into stronger and more versatile forms, such as "Chakram Cutter" and "Volcano Fire", all of which (except the aforementioned two that you are given as an introduction to the concept) require finding the blueprints in stages.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: In the last phase of the Chaos Elfilis fight, the first time they use their fireball rush attack, they will fly over the arena in a way that it is hard not to dodge the attack. However, this is because they were flying at an asteroid of debris that they destroy, with the fragments starting to rain down the arena as they come back for another shot.
• Excited Title! Two-Part Episode Name!: The names for the Treasure Road stages have this scheme. For example, the Fire trial labeled "Fast and Fiery! Race to the Cannon" or the Hammer trial called "Hammer Road! Hit the Stakes".
• Extremely Short Timespan: The entire main story (not counting the post-game) is heavily implied to take place over a hectic two days as shown by the world map and stage backgrounds. Natural Plains and Everbay Coast take place from morning to early afternoon. Most of Wondaria Remains takes place in the late afternoon except for the House of Horrors, which takes place during the evening. The Wondaria Dream Parade and Danger under the Big Top both take place at night. Winter Horns and Originull Wasteland take place during the entire next day, with Alivel Mall (Staff Side) and Moonlight Canyon becoming evening and progressing to night halfway through the latter all the way to the boss. The Redgar Forbidden Lands happens that same night and the Final Boss fight happens during the next dawn.
• Eyes Out of Sight: The Bernard enemy that gives Kirby the Ranger Ability has its eyes hidden behind its fur, though according to their figurine description, they are still an excellent marksman despite this.
• Face-Revealing Turn: One of the Beast Pack bosses is shown with his back turned to the camera. Then he steps out of the shadows, revealing none other than King Dedede!
• Fairy Companion: Elfilin is an adorable blue Cartoon Creature who accompanies Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee on their quest.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: Kirby's new Ranger ability gives him a stylized blunderbuss that lets him shoot star bullets at enemies from afar.
• Fishing Minigame: One of the three mini games Kirby can play is one of these where the goal is to fish up increasingly larger Blippers for lots of Star Coins.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • There are a lot of empty cages that have been used for capturing Waddle Dees leading up to the ruined architecture in the boss stage of Winter Horns. Enter and Kirby sees King Dedede caging his own Waddle Dees and sending them off to an unknown destination.
  • The big rig that Kirby uses for the Big Rig Mouth finisher on Fecto Elfilis is seen being sucked upwards in the background right after they open the giant vortex for their desperation move.
• Flunky Boss:
  • King Dedede begins his fight by sending out two Primal Awoofies to attack Kirby. Later on, Forgo Dedede can use a Mighty Roar to summon them in his second phase. In Forgo Dreams, Phantom King Dedede begins battle with six Primal Awoofies instead of two.
  • Before fighting Leongar, he summons a group of Beast Pack members to attack.
  • In Fecto Elfilis' final phase, they summon enemies that have their faces shrouded in a dark cloud to slow Big Rig Kirby down from reaching them.
• Follow the Money: Star Coins are often placed in locations in ways that might lead a diligent player to discover hidden areas.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Meta Knight's introduction cutscene features him and Kirby clashing in a brief Blade Lock if the latter has the Sword ability. This provides the hint that Sword Kirby can blade-lock him in the boss fight proper if you willingly stand in the path of his Upper Calibur dash attack and press the attack button at the right time, after which you must mash the button to knock Meta Knight's sword away.
  • Morpho Knight's butterfly can be spotted briefly during the intro cinematic, setting up its later appearance as the True Final Boss.
  • When you upgrade the Crash ability to the Time Crash ability (which you're able to as early as level 3: Wondaria Remains), you'll hear a brief fanfare that you haven't heard before with upgrading the other abilities, letting you know that it's the final (and only) upgrade for it. If you upgrade the Hammer or Sword abilities to Wild Hammer or Meta Knight sword respectively, you won't hear that same fanfare despite seemingly being the final ones. That's because upon completing the game and postgame, you get awarded with the Masked Hammer and the Morpho Knight Sword respectively, being the only abilities that can evolve three times.
  • There are two subtle (bordering on Fridge Brilliance) examples in the stage "Gathering of the Beast Council", which serves as a Boss Rush of the Beast Pack main bosses. Gorimondo being the first opponent and Tropic Woods not showing up at all are both expectable — Gorimondo was the Warm-Up Boss and implied to be the lowest-ranking of the Beast Pack commanders, while Tropic Woods isn't part of the Beast Pack at all. What may come as a surprise is Sillydillo being the second opponent and Clawroline being the third and final opponent, the opposite of the order that they were faced as end-of-level bosses earlier — which hints at Clawroline outranking Sillydillo and being more important than she initially let on. King Dedede, who was faced between Clawroline and Sillydillo, doesn't show up in this stage at all, which hints at two things that get revealed at the end of the Redgar Forbidden Lands level as a whole (two stages after "Gathering of the Beast Council") — that King Dedede isn't really on board with the Beast Pack's actions and had to be coerced into joining, and that the Beast Pack isn't including him in their council and has another plan in mind for him.
• Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: Awoofies, the tiny foxes that are the main foot soldiers of the Beast Pack, are seen typically sprinting on all fours with their stubby little feet, but they are also capable of running with a bipedal, humanlike stance without issue. Clawroline is also bipedal, but briefly switches to all fours when transitioning to her second phase. There's also Leongar, who starts out bipedal like the rest of his minions, but when Fecto Forgo takes control of him in the second phase, he switches to all fours, chomping violently at Kirby.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You:
  • King Dedede takes advantage of the usual end-of-stage victory screen by getting up during the freeze-frame and capturing Elfilin while he's frozen.
  • Once Fecto Forgo awakens, it stares directly at the camera as it prepares to consume everything.
  • Last but certainly not least, Chaos Elfilis' eyes seem to always stare at the players themselves.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you don't pay attention after defeating Morpho Knight, it's easy to miss the silhouette of Fecto Forgo that appears and warps away right after Morpho Knight's explosion.
• From Bad to Worse:
  • At the end of Forgo Dreams, the remaining essence of Fecto Forgo reappears and transforms into their more powerful Soul form preparing to attack Kirby and friends. Then right after their Boss Subtitles disappear, the camera pans over to the left where a familiar butterfly is flying towards the two.
  • The Ultimate Cup Z builds upon this and makes the situation even worse in the aftermath. Because Kirby was able to defeat Morpho Knight, Fecto Forgo was able to survive being assimilated by the butterfly, absorb traces of its DNA in the process, and end up turning into an even stronger version of their perfect form.
• Fun with Acronyms: Counting the final level as two letters, the first letters of all of the level names — Natural Plains, Everbay Coast, Wondaria Remains, Winter Horns, Originull Wasteland, Redgar Forbidden Lands, and Lab Discovera spell out NEWWORLD.
• Full-Boar Action: Forgo Dedede wears an intimidating boar mask and he becomes very savage, especially in his second phase.
• Full Health Bonus: The Meta Knight Sword and Morpho Knight Sword fire out Sword Beams if Kirby is at full health. Having the extra life bar power up active does count as being at full health, even if Kirby has taken damage to said extra lifebar.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The Time Crash ability doesn't just slow time, it also slows down the timer. The associated Treasure Road teaches you this by giving you only ten seconds to complete it.
• Gateless Ghetto: Most of the Natural Plains is this. You follow the linear path through the city-themed stages, with a big chunk of the city ruins visible, but out of reach.
• Genre Throwback: While still retaining elements of the Super Star style that was largely followed by the previous four mainline Kirby games, Forgotten Land, partly as a consequence of attempting to retain Kirby's simplicity in 3D, more closely follows the general philosophy of the Dark Matter Trilogy installments (Dream Land 2, Dream Land 3, and Kirby 64). This includes having a relatively small amount of Copy Abilities in exchange for a system to enhance said abilities, a greater emphasis on optional puzzle solving in order to acquire an optional collectible, and a ramped-up creepy nature even compared to the rest of the series towards the end.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere:
  • Tropic Woods is already clearly a Lone Wolf Boss, being the only one of them not affiliated with the Beast Pack or the game's main plot, but it takes this further by having no Foreshadowing of its presence before the fight starts.
  • Morpho Knight, for the second time. When Soul Forgo is about to fight Kirby at the end of Forgo Dreams, Morpho Knight flutters in and absorbs their power with barely any foreshadowing.
• Gonk: Sillydillo is a giant armadillo with huge, googly, cartoony eyes and a red clown-like nose that makes him look totally out of place in Kirby's world. It doesn't stop him from successfully caging Kirby, though.
• The Goomba: With Waddle Dees now becoming friendly NPCs, the role of the weakest Mook is now taken by the Awoofies.
• Gotta Rescue Them All:
  • Kirby's goal in every stage is to rescue all the Waddle Dees. More Waddles Dees mean the Hub City gets rebuilt, and a number of Waddle Dees are needed to unlock the boss stages, similarly mechanics-wise to the Sun Stones and Code Cubes in Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot.
  • Two stages in Wondaria Remains have a mission to reunite lost ducklings with their mother. The ducklings behave like Flickies, where Kirby must approach to get them to follow along, but if struck by an attack they will immediately scatter and Kirby will have to reclaim them.
  • In the Isolated Isles of Forgo Dreams, the main collectibles are the pieces of Leon's Soul, shattered into 300 pieces by Soul Forgo.
• Gravity Master: Fecto Elfilis, whose space-warping abilities were used by the former inhabitants of the New World to create new technology which they used to eventually leave that world. In battle, this manifests in it using portals to send meteors and eventually Planet Popstar at Kirby, and in its Chaos form, charging through them at Kirby and sending lasers through them at him.
• Green Hill Zone: Natural Plains, the first level, is a pretty standard grassy level where the player learns the basics about the game. The last stage in particular takes place in a forested mall, where Kirby later encounters the first boss, Gorimondo.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: While there are no copy abilities with a traditional grab like in older Kirby games, Ice can still knock around frozen enemies, and Needle and Tornado can hold multiple enemies/stars with their basic attack and release them all at once. The latter two are notable in that this is the first time Kirby has been able to use multiple enemies/stars as throwable ammo at once, instead of one at a time, without inhaling them as normal Kirby.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • All of the missions other than clearing the stage itself and saving hidden Waddle Dees are hidden from the start. Unless you look up the missions online or do a really good job scouring around the stage, there's a really good chance you won't get everything in one go (some stages require you to take really well hidden detours, avoid getting hit by specific enemies, or beat a mid-boss with a specific ability). Fortunately the stage reveals one of the missed missions upon completion, but even then, you may have to repeat it another time if you missed more than one mission.
  • Unlike most Kirby games, there are no visible move lists for Copy Abilities, and the only way to get information on their moves is if the game directly mentions it or it is brought up by Weapons-Shop Waddle Dee. This can be pretty frustrating when certain evolved Copy Abilities sometimes have different functionality or even completely new moves that the other variants don't have. Some are even worse about it, not really getting any explanation at all, requiring either experimentation or prior knowledge:
    • Rather than the Ice ability's Ice Storm attack being used by dashing and pressing Attack like most previous games, it's done by tapping Attack, like the older Freeze power.
    • Using Cutter close to an enemy allows for a Cleaving Cutter-Nonstop Cutter-Final Cutter combo.
    • Dodging works differently with Ice and its variants — you can only dodge upon coming out of guard, rather than at any time.
    • In addition to the Time Stands Still and Invincible Candy-esque Touch of Death effects, Time Crash has an unspoken extra effect of extending the time stop with each additional enemy killed^note The Treasure Road for this ability requires you to know this, too.
    • Morpho Knight Sword has a couple of attacks that aren't even explained at all and require experimentation or prior knowledge to execute. In particular, it has two attacks that are used by attacking while guarding, something no other ability has. Holding then releasing Attack while guarding on the ground lets you summon homing Soul Forgo spirits, and holding then releasing Attack while guarding in mid-air lets you use Morpho Knight's Sukhavati Scale Wave attack.
  • One attack from Chaos Elfilis' second phase involves the boss dropping rocks onto the stage before charging the entire arena — dodging or guarding will not work, and the player is supposed to climb a series of rocks that formed into pillars to jump over it.
  • The "perfect dodge" mechanic (move the L stick while guarding right before hitting hit), which slows down time and boosts your attack damage, is a very useful ability but one which is never explicitly explained in-game. Wise Waddle Dee will explain how blocking reduces damage from enemy attacks, but nobody mentions dodging at all.
• Guns Akimbo: For Kirby's upgraded Ranger ability, Noble Ranger, he's wielding two pistols.
• Gusty Glade: The stage "Windy, Freezing Seas" as well as the secret "Forgo Horns" and "Forgo Wasteland" stages feature strong winds which obstruct Kirby's ability to proceed, and hinder precise platforming.
• Hailfire Peaks:
  • Throughout the game, the usual Kirby level settings are combined with more human-like architecture, making each level a varying blend of Urban Ruins.
  • The stage "Invasion at the House of Horrors" is a notable example in-universe, because it's an Amusement Park attraction that mixes Big Boo's Haunt with Space Zone.
  • The desert-like Originull Wasteland is actually a dried-up seabed; what appears to be cacti are actually coral reefs, and things like empty pools, anchors, and the remains of a huge ship are seen throughout the level.
  • The stage "Burning, Churning Power Plant" is an Eternal Engine combined with a Lethal Lava Land.
• Hamster-Wheel Power: The elevator that lifts Kirby to the top of Lab Discovera is powered by thousands of enslaved Waddle Dees in giant hamster wheels.
• Hard Mode Perks: You gain more money for completing a stage in Wild Mode than in Spring-Breeze Mode.
• Healing Boss: The Final Boss and True Final Boss have a move where they create duplicates that spread out across the stage and attempt to regenerate a large chunk of health, represented by the boss's health bar gaining a glowing portion. Kirby can deplete the amount of health restored by finding and attacking the real boss; successfully depleting all of the extra health prematurely ends the move and stuns the boss.
• The Heavy: King Dedede acts as the main face of the Beast Pack after he's first revealed, being the Disc-One Final Boss, but he's only being puppeted by Leongar, who in turn is being controlled by Fecto Forgo.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: Unlike the Signpost Tutorials of previous games, struggling with the basics will prompt Kirby's buddy Elfilin to explain the controls.
• Hero of Another Story: Meta Knight spends most of the game at Waddle Dee Town's coliseum, though it's brought up that he also defends the town from the Beast Pack whenever they attack.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • After King Dedede is finally freed from Fecto Forgo's control, he pulls off a Go Through Me on a stampeding horde of Beast Pack members after saving a Waddle Dee from being ambushed. We don't see him after this, but he returns looking none the worse for wear at Waddle Dee Town, and it is explicitly said that he outright fought through the horde.
  • To stop Fecto Elfilis from colliding Planet Popstar with the new world, Elfilin uses all of his power to close the dimensional portal between the two. It's almost immediately subverted when it's revealed that Elfilin survived thanks to Clawroline and opened a stable portal connecting Popstar to the new world.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Morpho Knight absorbs Soul Forgo at the end of Forgo Dreams, taking over the Final Boss spot for that area. Forgo's soul does manage to escape eventually and become the True Final Boss of the Ultimate Z Cup at the Colosseum, though, so it can count as a subversion too.
• Hit Stop: Time briefly stops when Kirby lands a hit on an enemy.
• Hold the Line: After King Dedede is freed from his possession, he tries to join Kirby and the Waddle Dees in escaping. When one trips, he goes back and decides to toss the fallen Waddle Dee to Kirby and stays behind to fight off those chasing them. Don't worry, he ends up safe and sound in Waddle Dee Town.
• Homage: The Wondaria Dream Parade is an homage to the Main Street Electrical Parade, being a night-time theme park parade adorned with glowing neon lights. The music for the stage is even a pastiche of the "Baroque Hoedown".
• Homeworld Evacuation: Less of an immediate example happened per the game's backstory. After Fecto Forgo was captured by the original inhabitants of the new world, they were able to create Imported Alien Phlebotinum that allowed them to just abandon the planet altogether, leaving it to be taken back by nature.
• Homing Projectile:
  • Downplayed. If you shoot a star bullet near an enemy from far enough away, it will drift towards the enemy; however, if you simply shoot away, it won't activate.
  • The Homing Bomb ability is a more straight example, turning Kirby's bombs into wheeled drones that seek out and chase nearby enemies before exploding on them.
  • The Storm Tornado turns any collected enemies or stars created by bosses into these when Kirby exits Tornado form or uses the Wind Whip finisher.
• Hub City: Waddle Dee Town, where Kirby can play minigames and collect figurines from a capsule machine. As Kirby frees more Waddle Dees from the Beast Pack, Waddle Dee Town expands and offers additional services.

Tropes I-Q

• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: You have Spring-Breeze Mode for easy, and Wild Mode for hard. Spring-Breeze will grant Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee more health but Wild Mode is more liberal with Star Coin payouts so long as you can endure the denser enemy placement.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!:
  • Based on the ability's flavor text, the implication of Kirby being given the Morpho Knight Sword blueprint after defeating Morpho Knight is that it entrusts Kirby with its power after being defeated by him.
  • The last remnant of Chaos Elfilis willingly fuses with Elfilin after being beaten for the final time, finally attaining their goal of being one with him, but in an ironic turn of events, Elfilin is the dominant side as opposed to Fecto Forgo, which was their original goal.
• Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Conveyor belts often carry items over the edge and into hazards.
• Indy Escape: Rocky Rollin' Road is filled with rolling boulders. In one sequence, Kirby has to outrun a large boulder rolling downhill.
• Inescapable Ambush:
  • Like previous 2D games, there are some areas where Kirby has to defeat a collection of enemies and/or a mid-boss in order to proceed. To keep in tradition with the 2D games' inability to run from these encounters, a blue forcefield is erected around the area to box Kirby in until he defeats the enemies.
  • An Inversion sometimes happens with these ambushes, where the blue forcefield only blocks the way to an optional area. You can easily escape should you choose, but you can't go through the forcefield until you defeat the enemies.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Unopened treasure chests are occasionally found all over the place, containing multiple pickups such as Star Coins. They can also contain Waddle Dees, indicated by a shaking chest.
• Infinity -1 Sword: The Masked Hammer is a 4th tier evolution for the Hammer ability, earned by beating the main campaign and based on Forgo Dedede. With this, Kirby gets to dual-wield hammers and attacks much faster and stronger than any other Hammer variant. This also lets Kirby shoot fire tornados with his grounded combo finisher, his fully-charged Hammer Flip, and his aerial ground pound attack.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Morpho Knight Sword, the final Copy Ability in the game and far and beyond the most powerful. It is a 4th tier evolution for the Sword ability that gives Kirby the powers of Morpho Knight. In addition to getting even bigger and stronger Sword Beams than the Meta Knight Sword, the Morpho Knight Sword also gets the Gigant Sword Charge Attack as a third-tier charge, which additionally shoots flaming vortexes and temporarily enhances the weapon's size to give it the range, attacks and speed of Gigant Sword. It also has access to a teleport dodge, Life Drain, and two of Morpho Knight's boss moves accessible by holding the Attack button while guarding on both the ground and in midair. It is also the only Copy Ability besides Crash that starts with a maximized Attack rating and only needs one upgrade to fully max out. Also, similar to the Master Sword in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, it can even be used in place of Hammer and Tornado to hit stakes and solve wind-based puzzles respectively.
• Info Dump: Lab Discovera immediately starts with a massive info dump on the purpose of the laboratory, which is justified in-universe by it doubling as a tourist attraction. This is followed by a shorter spiel from Leongar, who explains what the Beast Pack has been trying to accomplish.
• Intelligent Gerbil: The antagonistic Beast Pack are a force never before seen on Planet Popstar, and they all look more animalistic compared to the franchise's usual Waddling Head enemies. Justified that they aren't from Popstar, and the game explicitly takes place in their world.
• Interface Screw: In Morpho Knight's battle, getting hit by his Wing Buzz attack results in the camera getting tilted at varying degrees for a short amount of time.
• Iris Out: Screen transitions take place in the form of a 5-pointed star shape closing.
• Killer Gorilla: Gorimondo is a giant gorilla that grabs Kirby from within the building. He's a member of the Beast Pack, the game's main villainous faction, and his design is similar to Goriath, a previous gorilla boss from Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
• Kill It with Ice: The Ice ability returns, but with a twist: bosses can now be slowed down and eventually frozen solid with enough concentrated frost, and breaking out of an ice cube will cost them a large chunk of their health. One of the missions requires the player to freeze the Fleurina midboss solid in one stage, purely to demonstrate this to the player.
• King of Beasts: Leongar resembles a humanoid lion, and he serves as the leader of the Beast Pack. His Boss Subtitles even allude to the trope name, as he is referred to as the "King of the Beasts".
• Last Lousy Point: Some of the pieces of Leon's soul are somewhat easy to miss and require a really good eye to find. There's a chance that they'll be some of the few missing ones for even observant players. Fortunately Elfilin lets you know if you don't need to collect any more in a particular area.
  • The subway segment in Forgo Horns contains a portion where some structure fall towards you. One of those structures is covering a secret passageway that's very easy to miss - which contains two pieces of Leon's soul.
  • The fourth segment in Forgo Zone is mostly fighting through mooks and going through a roller coaster area that's relatively straightforward, but at the end, there's a gated area that looks like it's blocked, but there's only a small sign that you can easily go through. To get that particular piece of Leon's Soul, you need to defeat a shadowed Noddy, a stationary enemy, that blends in the area. What makes this segment trickier is that the areas you think you'd be finding Leon's soul are actually (one of the pillars with a ladder and below the stairs) where star coins are at instead.
• Later-Installment Weirdness:
  • One of the more noticeable changes this game brings is that the pause screen no longer displays Flavor Text for abilities or bosses. Instead, this information is found by collecting the figurines from capsules or checking the stands at Waddle Dee's weapon shop.
  • In previous games, mid-bosses received upgraded palette swaps in the post-game modes just like bosses did (though Star Allies only changed the colors and didn't rename them). While Forgotten Land does feature strengthened mid-bosses in Forgo Dreams, they are named and colored exactly like their original versions, even though the bosses receive unique "Phantom" variants.
• Lazy Bum: After beating the Final Boss, King Dedede spends the rest of the game in front of the colosseum, in his signature crouching pose from Super Smash Bros.. Justified, as it's explicitly stated that he's resting from wounds recieved pulling an offscreen You Shall Not Pass! against an entire horde of enemies.
• Legendary Carp: Part of the Fishing Minigame in Waddle Dee Town is also catching 'The Big One' upon reeling in multiple Blippers and performing a more tricky reel-in to catch the large golden Blipper. Doing so grants you a special figurine.
• Lethal Lava Land: Redgar Forbidden Lands, an isolated area of the new world which alternates between fiery wastes and churning power plants. Forgo Dedede is fought here.
• Level Goal: Instead of the standard door opening adorned by multiple stars, the end of the stage is achieved with Kirby reaching the cage with three Waddle Dees in them.
• Life Drain: In addition to its other comically broken powers, the Morpho Knight Sword ability heals a sliver of health every time you strike with your combo finisher.
• Lone Wolf Boss:
  • Tropic Woods is the only major level boss who is not a member of the Beast Pack, as the game makes no mention of his affiliation. Of course, he's not a beast.
  • Meta Knight was not taken by the Beast Pack, and his battle in the Colosseum is completely optional. He only fights you in a friendly competition. Curiously enough, this actually extends even to his phantom counterpart to a degree; Phantom Meta Knight is the only phantom boss in the game who was not directly created by Fecto Forgo to antagonize Kirby within Forgo Dreams, instead being formed from the residual psychic energy created from Fecto Forgo's failed attempts to brainwash Meta Knight, and only fighting you in a warped version of the Colosseum during the Ultimate Cup Z. Phantom Meta Knight also doesn't use the regular phantom boss theme, instead reusing Meta Knight's ordinary theme, casting ambiguity on its purpose in fighting Kirby. This is hinted at in its boss subtitles too, choosing to call it the "Lone Illusion" instead of the "Illusory Swordsman" or something similar (save for the French versions of the game).
  • Morpho Knight once again returns in the Isolated Isles of Forgo Dreams and remains completely unaligned with any of the game's factions, serving more as a force of nature.
• Loophole Abuse: The Meta Knight Sword and Morpho Knight Sword require Kirby to be at full HP for it to be capable of firing Sword Beams every slash. Having the extra lifebar powerup active counts for it — as long as Kirby doesn't deplete the spare lifebar, he's considered to be at full health for this.
• Madness Mantra: Exclusive to the postgame. In Forgo Land, a recreation of Lab Discovera within the dreams of Fecto Forgo, the Dream Discoveries Tour dialogue has been mutated primarily into repetitions of the phrase "And here we are!", one of the final lines of the original tour. This "song", "Eternal Echo of the Thrilling Tour-our-our", is also used during part of the final phase of the Chaos Elfilis battle, heavily implying that Fecto Forgo was driven insane by hearing the same PA system for three decades straight.
• Malevolent Architecture: Several rusted metal pillars appear in Originull Wasteland, which fall onto Kirby when he gets too close and in some areas, destroys the ground underneath.
• The Mall: One of the stages in Natural Plains involves A Trip to Alivel Mall, which is an abandoned mall full of enemies and captured Waddle Dees. It's also where you fight Gorimondo. Another one appears in Originull Wasteland, but in much worse condition — it's half-buried in sand and haunted.
• Magikarp Power: The Sleep ability, well-known for its relative uselessness, can be upgraded into the Deep Sleep ability late in the game. The evolved form is significantly more practical; it can be activated on command, continuously heals Kirby the longer he sleeps, and if he sleeps for the full duration, he gets one stack of a random power-up for free.
• Maniac Tongue: Sillydillo's main physical characteristic involves his tongue dangling out of his mouth that's also accompanied by having a Comically Cross-Eyed facial expression with a vibe of appearing goofy yet dangerous.
• Market-Based Title: From Hoshi no Kirby^note "Kirby of the Stars", the JP franchise name: Discovery in Japanese to Kirby and the Forgotten Land in English. According to the developers, the theme is "the discovery of a forgotten land," so the different names emphasize different parts of that theme.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The Beast Pack grunts look on in horror when Fecto Forgo breaks out of their chamber and grabs the first grunt with their tentacles to consume it.
• Merchandising the Monster: Long ago, an extradimensional being known as Specimen ID-F86 invaded what is now the New World. It was eventually stopped and contained by the Beast Pack's Precursors, who experimented on it and used it to create interplanetary warp technology. Now, what would be the most appropriate way to deal with the Sealed Evil in a Can that nearly destroyed your planet? Why, turn the research facility containing it into a tourist attraction - complete with cheesy theme park background music and a narrator cheerfully explaining the catastrophe, of course!
• Mercy Mode: Should you fall too often in a short space of time and you're in Wild Mode, the game will ask if you wish to switch to Spring Breeze Mode. In the same vein, if you do well in Spring Breeze Mode, the game will ask if you want to switch to Wild Mode.
• Merger of Souls: Chaos Elfilis is described as this, being made of a combination of Soul Forgo, the souls of the Beast Pack mooks Fecto Forgo absorbed, and souls stolen from Morpho Knight.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Invoked with one of the missions in Originull Wasteland's "The Wastes Where Life Began", where you need to find and defeat a lost Squishy (squid enemy) that's somehow hanging out in the middle of the desert.
• Model Museum: Kirby can collect figure capsules from stages and the capsule machines in Waddle Dee Town that you can view individually to your heart's content with a big ol' smiling Kirby in the background.
• Money Is Experience Points: Star Coins can be used to upgrade your Copy Abilities, in addition to a variety of other purposes, such as buying items and using the Gotcha Machine.
• Money for Nothing: While maybe not the most egregious example, the game does tend to just smother you in Star Coins if you're playing in Wild Mode. Star Coins are used to buy things like Copy Ability upgrades or food from the Waddle Dee Café, but these aren't things you're going to be regularly doing, while the game just throws tons of coins your way for completing objectives and exploring the stages (and even more if you're replaying stages to complete additional objectives and visiting Treasure Road areas). It's very easy to be sitting on thousands of unspent Star Coins so long as you're willing to play in Wild Mode. That said, this does come back around in the post-game; continuing in the Colosseum costs Star Coins and doubles in price every time you do, which gives you a reason to keep your numbers up if you're having trouble with the bosses. Additionally, upgrading the damage of each Copy Ability and its evolutions serves as a massive Money Sink after everything else is finished, though it's not required for game-defined 100% completion.
• Mordor: Redgar Forbidden Lands has permanently dark skies and seas of lava everywhere, surrounding what used to be towns and factories, with parts of the landscape slowly sinking into the lava as Kirby approaches them. The same landscapes are also constantly battered by meteors, with at least one stage invoking a very Crisis City-esque feel.
• More than Mind Control: When you first meet Leongar, he doesn't appear to actually be coerced in any way. No spooky eyes, no weird inflection, just a grudge against the former inhabitants of their world and a desire to better his own people. When he Turns Red, he gets a Mouth Beam attack and Glowing Eyes of Doom. Beating him reveals ID-F86 has taken over, who says they had been using subtle manipulation to get the Beast Pack to do their bidding. The Beast Pack also had no idea that ID-F86 was even still conscious, and the prior PA voice-over states they've shown no signs of activity for an indeterminate amount of time, even before the planet was abandoned.
• Multiple Life Bars: The Life Up power-up gives Kirby a second health bar on top of his normal one. It doubles his health until the extra health bar is completely depleted, after which it dissipates.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Waddle Dee Café references the real-life Kirby Café in Japan; the signboard on the side features a Waddle Dee image very similar to the official Kirby Café Waddle Dee art, the café staff wear similar hats, and one of the items you can buy is a Kirby Burger or Car-Mouth Cake identical to the one sold at the Kirby Café.
  • The incident that resulted in Elfilin splitting apart from Elfilis happened 30 years after Lab Discovera's research began; this game was released during the 30th anniversary of the Kirby franchise.
  • The Japanese description for the Morpho Knight Sword ability mentions that Kirby can use it with ease because he can eat even nightmares, a reference to the two Japanese openings of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!.
  • After rescuing 50 Waddle Dees, they build Kirby a house that looks almost exactly like the one in Kirby: Right Back at Ya!.
• Nerf: Similar to Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, Kirby's Blowout Blast, Kirby Battle Royale, the Kirby Fighters games, and the Kirby Clash games, Kirby's flying abilities have been restricted. He can no longer fly indefinitely nor rise higher than a set distance from the ground he started from, he'll eventually strain and begin to float downwards. This results in gameplay that forces Kirby to find other means to reach higher locations.
• Nerf Arm: One of Hammer's alternate forms is called Toy Hammer.
• Nightmare Face: When Soul Forgo possesses Forgo Leon in his second phase, his face is engulfed in a large dark purple cloud, and he keeps this for the rest of the fight. And it isn't just exclusive to Forgo Leon; it's been shown on the enemies found in Fecto Elfilis' final phase and in the Isolated Isles of Forgo Dreams.
• Ninja Prop: All of the Boss Subtitles are physical props within the environment, and they even cast shadows appropriately, though they are never directly interacted with.
• Nintendo Hard: Once again, The True Arena is absent from this game, but in its place is The Ultimate Choice Z, which pits Kirby against all of the Phantom bosses, Forgo Leon, Morpho Knight, and at the very end, the true final battle with Fecto Elfilis' ultimate and final form, which will really throw you in for a wild ride. It's honestly a good thing that unlike The True Arena, you can actually use continues to continue on the last boss that defeated you without having to start from square one again. But what's even more is that this mode is canon instead of supposedly being a non-canon side mode like before.
• No-Damage Run: All of the main bosses from the six levels require you to beat them without getting hit as part of one of the missions. Lab Discovera doesn't have any Waddle Dees to save, thankfully...
• No Fair Cheating: Similar to Kirby: Planet Robobot and Kirby Star Allies, using amiibo in the Colosseum (which, depending on which ones you use, can give you a temporary boost in health, speed, or power) will mark an amiibo symbol on your record. It also prevents you from uploading your score to the leaderboards, a new feature to this game. Using boosts will also mark your record as well with those respective symbols.
• No-Gear Level: One of the missions against Tropic Woods is to defeat him without a Copy Ability, instead using the Drop Stars and giant coconuts against him.
• Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits: Unlike previous mainline games in the series, but carrying over from Kirby's Blowout Blast, falling into a Bottomless Pit doesn't instantly defeat Kirby. Instead, he loses a fraction of health and respawns on a nearby platform.
• Non-Standard Character Design: The new Beast Pack enemies have a more Funny Animal look to them compared to the franchise's usual cutesy designs. One member, Clawroline, is even something of a Ms. Fanservice, one of the rarest things in the entire franchise.
• No OSHA Compliance: The Alivel Mall in Natural Plains has package conveyor belts that lead off high-rise edges, and a spike pit in the middle of a looping conveyor belt section. One can only imagine why it was designed like this even before it got abandoned.
• NPC Boom Village: Waddle Dee Town. As Kirby rescues Waddle Dees, the town grows and more shops and resources become available.
• Officially Shortened Title: The post-game level, always referred to in dialogue as the Isolated Isles of Forgo Dreams, is shortened to just "Isolated Isles: Forgo Dreams" on its world map.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • During most of the story, while Kirby is saving Waddle Dees, Meta Knight is single handedly protecting the town from further attacks from the Beast Pack. Notably, Gorimondo had battled him 30 times... and Meta Knight won every single one of them.
  • After being freed from possession, one of the first things Dedede does afterwards is save a Waddle Dee who tripped while they were fleeing from encroaching Beast Pack members. He then realizes he can't make it to the elevator in time, he hurls the Waddle Dee into the elevator, draws his hammer, and gets ready to throw down. We don't see him do it, but it's all but explicitly stated that he single-handedly fought off an entire army.
• Oh, Crap!: When Gorimondo finds and bashes his hand into the building window where Kirby and Elfilin are in, both flee, with Kirby shouting while a bug-eyed look's on his face.
• One-Woman Wail: One is featured in Fecto Elfilis's boss theme, Two Planets Approach the Roche Limit.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: King Dedede becomes unusually serious after joining the Beast Pack, caging his own Waddle Dees and managing to sneak up on Elfilin and capture him during the results screen. Then, in the Forgo Dedede fight, he starts acting ike a rabid animal in the second phase, Running on All Fours and punching the ground so hard that it creates fiery tornadoes. It's clear that he's not himself.
• Optional Boss: Meta Knight is not part of the main story, and his boss fight is exclusive to the Colosseum.
• Our Dragons Are Different: One of Kirby's evolved abilities is called "Dragon Fire", which allows him to transform into a dragon wreathed in purple flames and "do all sorts of dragon-y stuff".
• Out-of-Character Alert: King Dedede's pre-battle cutscene shows him caging his own Waddle Dee servants, a clear sign that the king isn't himself. Then, after he Turns Red, he drops his hammer and grabs another one for extra range and damage, something we've seen before in previous games. Turns out he's under Fecto Forgo's mind control.
• Overhead Interaction Indicator: Characters in town who have something important to say have speech bubbles above them.
• Palmtree Panic: Everbay Coast, the second level, is beach-themed and features prominent water sections along with the palm tree-themed boss Tropic Woods.
• Panthera Awesome: Clawroline, a leopard-like Beast Pack boss with built-in Wolverine Claws, and Leongar, the lion-like leader of the pack who's powerful and fearsome for his size.
• The Pen Is Mightier: The Pencil Drill Evolved Ability turns the Drill into a pencil in a sharpener. The main difference between the two is that the Pencil Drill shoots out the pencil as a projectile when emerging from a Dig Attack.
• Point of No Return: Zigzagged. In standard Kirby fashion, most sections are one-way only, but certain sections where you're forced to advance in some fashion have a blue Warp Star at the end that takes you back to the beginning of the section while resetting your progress to when you first arrived, allowing players an option to clean up collectibles in these areas proper.
• Post-End Game Content: Beating the game unlocks a (canon) post-game scenario, replacing the "Extra" modes from previous titles. It also unlocks a bevy of features, including additional Colosseum cups, Vol. 4 of the figure collection, a sound test, and two final Evolved Copy Abilities to collect.
• Post-Final Level: Immediately after beating the boss fight of the last level, you are taken to the true final level of the main story. This level, Lab Discovera, only contains the three final bosses of the game, and a few healing items and copy abilities.
• Punny Name: Several buildings and fixtures in Waddle Dee Town have punny names such as Waddle Dee-liveries where you input present codes or The Deedly Dees, the band that serves as this game's version of the Sound Test.
• Puzzle Boss: The Downtown Grassland stage features an enemy called Tortorner, a turtle-like creature with a block of pavement for a shell. The Tortuilding at the end of the stage is much bigger with an entire building for a shell, meaning Kirby has to navigate around the surrounding terrain to get high enough up to attack the weak spot on its back. The creature's own attacks are necessary to damage certain objects to move forward.
• Pyrrhic Victory: After beating Chaos Elfilis, the last sparkle of its life essence comes down and willingly fuses with Elfilin. Technically, Fecto Forgo got what they wanted — they're one with Elfilin — but it's safe to say they're not coming back anytime soon.

Tropes R-Z

• Ragnarök Proofing: Despite having been abandoned for obviously a long time, many of the electrical mechanisms left by the inhabitants of the New World still function perfectly fine, most notably the many complex rides of Wondaria (though the game shows Beast Pack members both waiting in line and manning entry booths, suggesting some of them might have been doing some maintenance).
• Reclaimed by Nature: The abandoned city that Kirby explores is overgrown with nature throughout.
• Recurring Riff: The melody of "Welcome to the New World!" appears all over the soundtrack.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Chaos Elfilis adds red and black to Fecto Elfilis's color scheme along with white, and its final form is a red orb.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: King Dedede has become a feral Beast Pack boss, and he gains a pair of red pupils to go with it. When you get to Forgo Dedede's second phase, these eyes start to glow.
• Remixed Level: In the postgame, there's the Isolated Isles of Forgo Dreams, a world inside Fecto Forgo's dreams that contains recreations of areas from the rest of the game. Each level's stage is based on one of the main level of the game, comprised of multiple areas taken from the respective level's stages alongside a new area that shares the same theming—the exceptions being Forgo Plains, which excludes Downtown Grassland in favor of having Point of Arrival for one of its areas, Forgo Zone, which doesn't have a new area, and Forgo Land, which remains a Boss-Only Level. Unlike the base stages, you're collecting the much more plentiful pieces of Leon's soul instead of rescuing Waddle Dees, and the hazards and enemies of the stages are ramped up significantly. These are also where the Phantom bosses, this game's equivalent to the EX, DX, 2.0 or Parallel bosses, are first encountered.
• Resting Recovery: The Sleep ability by default heals a bit of Kirby's HP, a property previously only seen with an upgraded Sleep in Squeak Squad. The Deep Sleep upgrade takes it further by allowing Kirby to recover all of his HP in one session, then gain a random status buff on top of that.
• Rewarding Vandalism: Destroying various pieces of scenery often yields small amounts of Star Coins.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter:
  • The Awoofies are small, fluffy, and round foxes with Black Bead Eyes.
  • Elfilin is a tiny levitating sky blue chinchilla-like being with a high level of delightful cuteness on sight.
  • Even the Bernards seen can get in on this, as they are adorably small, furry, Kirby-sized dogs that wear explorer hats.
• Roar Before Beating: The minibosses all do an angry roar before the fight starts, which has been a staple since Kirby: Triple Deluxe. They also do another one when they Turn Red.
• Rooftop Confrontation: Right after watching Efilin get absorbed by Fecto Forgo, Kirby pursues Fecto Efilis up to the roof of a skyscraper in Lab Discovera in an attempt to rescue the former. This is also the case for its Ultimate Cup Z counterpart, Chaos Efilis, who is fought as the final opponent of the cup.
• Running on All Fours: King Dedede in his second fight throws away his hammers and chases after Kirby like a wild boar, running like this. It's a clear indication that he's definitely not himself.
• Saharan Shipwreck: The Originull Wasteland is a desert area that once was an oceanic area, and several derelict shipwrecks can be found there.
• Say My Name: As King Dedede kidnaps Elfilin, the latter calls out for Kirby as he is taken away.
• Self-Plagiarism: An interesting case; King Dedede's design in this game looks very similar to his appearance in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. According to an interview with the developers, this was completely unintentional, but the designer who worked on Dedede's new look also worked on Kirby 64, so the director speculates that he subconsciously channeled it into the new design.
• Sexy Cat Person:
  • Clawroline evokes this with her long eyelashes, purple eyeshadow, highly exaggerated and stylized hourglass figure, thick thighs, and even chest fluff in a heart shape seemingly designed to resemble a large bust.
  • This apparently extends to other cats in the new world, as Leongar, the buff and masculine leader of the Beast Pack, is pretty easy on the eyes as well.
• Shifting Sand Land: Originull Wasteland, the area from which the Beast Pack originated, is a patch of sandy wilderness with its remaining structures being buffeted and decayed by the wind and heat. It's actually a seabed that's completely dried up, hence the name of the first stage, "The Wastes Where Life Began". Sillydillo is fought here, within his hidden cave.
• Shockwave Stomp: One of Gorimondo's attacks involves him stomping on the ground, resulting a circular shockwave that has to be dodged.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Nintendo of America Twitter account has made a reference to one of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's most famous quotes in one post showcasing Kirby's Drill ability.
  • Fighting the Tortuilding enemy in Downtown Grassland plays out almost the same as the Ancient Wyvern from Dark Souls 3 or the Great Serpents in Sekiro — all three are extremely tanky (invincible in all but the Wyvern's case) reptiles that attack the player character as they navigate the structures around the beast before finishing it off with a single plunging attack from a high platform. The Big Red Tortuilding near the end of the game even has a fire-based attack that causes heavy damage and encourages using the terrain for defense, deepening the connection.
  • Chain Bomb and Homing Bomb share a similar mechanic to the Chain Blast from Mega Man 11, where if multiple bombs are laid out near each other they link up and produce larger, more damaging explosions.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • King Dedede swapping his hammer for a stone pillar halfway through his boss fight is similar to a scene in Battle Tendency, wherein Wammuu siezes a pillar as a weapon to use against Joseph, who only has a hammer to fight him with.
    • Crash's only evolution, Time Crash, works very similarly to The World from Stardust Crusaders. Both slow down time with an "area of effect" animation, and in stopped time, the environment is greyscaled. This is furthered in the Time Crash Treasure Road, where the time limit in Wild Mode is 10 seconds — the length of time Dio could use The World's time-stopping power before needing a break.
  • Redgar Forbidden Lands heavily resembles Crisis City and Flame Core from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), being a burned, ruined city full of lava near an active volcano. Funnily enough, the similarities continue as both games end up cobbling (almost) all the previous stages together for The Very Definitely Final Dungeon (complete with having a distorted aesthetic with purple colors being a strong theme and with each having their own unique music that plays through the whole ordeal) as the heroes scour this last world for the keys to restoring life to a recently departed major character thanks to one evil half of a reality warping angelic abomination who was experimented upon in the past and split in two as a result of such experiments seeking to make itself whole.
  • Needle's main attack involves rolling around in a spiky ball that collects enemies and star blocks when rolling over them, much like the gameplay of Katamari Damacy. The Crystal Needle Treasure Road even involves rolling into as many enemies as possible, building up a layer of them around the outer surface.
  • The Big-Rig Kirby uses to defeat Fecto Elfilis has flames painted on the side, making it resemble Optimus Prime.
  • Fecto Forgo's boss fight is near identical to the final boss of Resident Evil 2, give or take an Advancing Wall of Doom. It also heavily resembles Carla Radames's boss form and fight in Ada's campaign in Resident Evil 6, being a gigantic mass of slime with heads sticking out that extend to chomp you and chases you through a corridor.
  • Forgo Dedede's new Dual Wielding moveset, flame powers, and wilder second phase bring to mind the various fights against The Legend of Zelda's Ganondorf/Ganon. Specificially The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time where Ganon wields two giant swords, or The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess where Ganon actually gallops around the room like a beast in his second form.
• Shooting Gallery: The Treasure Roads involving the Ranger and Space Ranger abilities are set up like this, where Kirby has to shoot targets (some of which move around). Several of the areas also contain Bernards which will shoot at Kirby.
• Shown Their Work: Mookie's figure description states that his "smile" is actually meant to be intimidating. This is true of real life chimpanzees, who bare their teeth in an expression that resembles a smile when threatened.
• Sinister Subway: The second stage of Winter Horns, Metro on Ice, is an abandoned metro station that is completely frozen over and overrun with enemies and hazards.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Winter Horns, the fourth level, is a London-like town with a metro station that's been completely frozen over. Kirby fights King Dedede as the boss, where Elfilin is kidnapped by him upon his defeat.
• Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: Crushers that can squish Kirby flat can be found throughout the game, most notably in "Burning, Churning Power Plant" which contains several hallways of them.
• Smashing Survival: Many enemy attacks involve them having Kirby in their grasp, ensuring continuous damage if you don't wiggle the control stick to escape. Prominent examples of this are the bosses Gorimondo and Sillydillo, with the second also having a One-Hit KO effect if you can't break free.
• Snakes Are Sinister: One enemy faced by Kirby is a giant snake named Sssnacker, which will try to eat Kirby if he gets too close.
• Sore Loser: When the final boss, Fecto Elfilis, is defeated and has Elfilin removed from their body, they attempt to take Kirby and Elfilin with them by tearing Planet Popstar from orbit and trying to drop it on them!
• Sorting Algorithm of Threatening Geography: The first three areas are non-threatening and calm: A city with grassy fields, an industrial site by the beach, and an amusement park. The fourth is a relatively harsh snowed over city. After this, Kirby goes to the Forbidden Island, which starts with a sandy wasteland before going to a rough volcanic region. The final two locations are an ominous abandoned laboratory atop a volcano where the main villain is kept and an eldritch dream world, both at the far end of the Algorithm.
• Sound Test: Per series tradition, one is unlocked after completing the final level, which takes the form of a Waddle Dee band called the Deedly Dees playing in Waddle Dee Town. They play every track you've heard in the game so far, with their proper names displayed. Once the proper requirements have been met, you can donate Star Coins to them to unlock more tracks and upgrade their stage.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: After beating the boss for the first time in Winter Horns, the usual cheery results screen music plays as in the background you see King Dedede getting up after his defeat and getting ready to cage Elfilin.
• Source Music: "Welcome to the New World!", the song that plays about halfway through the Point of Arrival stage, starts by playing on a radio in-universe. It then fades into a non-diegetic song as the cutscene continues. On subsequent revisits to the stage, however, this cutscene is skipped and the stage abruptly ends prematurely. "The Dream Discoveries Tour" near the end of the main story also does this trick too, as Kirby closes in on the door that leads to the Final Boss.
• Speaking Simlish:
  • The main vocal theme, "Welcome to the New World!", is sung in a fictional language, with subtitles running along the bottom of the screen.
  • Subverted by the tour guide voiceover in Lab Discovera, which introduces specimen ID-F86 in perfect English, or most other languages you're playing in.
• Spikes of Doom: Some areas have spikes serving as hazards.
• Squashed Flat:
  • Many obstacles exist that temporarily turn Kirby into a flat pancake for a few moments before he returns to normal.
  • Hitting a foe dead-on with the Hammer ability will squash them into the ground before they disappear. Kirby can also crush enemies with the Stairs Mouth for the same effect.
  • In Moonlight Canyon, a Noddy is sleeping under one of the various steel structures that collapse when Kirby walks by. If not defeated, the Noddy will get crushed and slowly drift into the void like a falling piece of paper.
• Stealth Pun: The collectible figures Kirby can collect come from Gotcha Machines, a dual pun on the act of collecting them and after the gacha genre of Japanese collectibles.
• Stopped Clock: All of the clocks throughout the New World have stopped at 4:27. This (along with the hidden 92 Star Coins you can collect at the clocktower in Northeast Frost Street) make a reference to the debut of Kirby's Dream Land: April 27th, 1992.
• Suddenly Voiced: In addition to a lyrical song (in a fictional language), there's a fully voice-acted tour of Lab Discovera matching whatever language the game is set to.
• Super Drowning Skills: This is zigzagged a bit, as normally Kirby gets a floaty whenever he jumps into water, keeping him afloat when he swims, but if he tries to jump in while using a Mouthful Mode, it's treated like falling into a Bottomless Pit.
• Super Mode: Kirby's "Mouthful Mode" can transform him into a variety of appliances and other inanimate objects to solve puzzles and help himself progress. When he leaves Mouthful Mode, he can continue on with his Copy Abilities as per usual.
• Surprisingly Creepy Moment: It's really hard to consider legitimately scary elements in a Kirby game surprising at this point, but there's a definite surprise factor to the flavor it takes—Fecto Elfilis' embryonic form in a laboratory tank and then its Fecto Forgo Blob Monster fusion with Leongar and some Beast Pack monsters take the horror into a sci-fi bio-horror tone that feels closer to Resident Evil than Kirby.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • The Ranger ability essentially stands in for the Archer ability from Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot, being a projectile focused ability that allows Kirby to aim while preparing a powerful Charged Attack. Ranger also shares Archer's aerial attack of shooting a few weak projectiles diagonally downward. Both of these attributes are also shared by Beam, a Kirby staple which is otherwise absent from this game.
  • Many of the Mouthful Modes are substitutes for previous Copy Abilities that aren't in this game:
    • Vending Mouth is very similar to the Ice+Spark combo from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, turning Kirby into a machine-like entity with the ability to shoot projectiles that linger on the floor and heal him when collected.
    • Car Mouth stands in for Wheel, being an ability that allows Kirby to get around quickly, charge into enemies, and jump while doing so.
    • Cone Mouth stands in for Stone, allowing Kirby to do a powerful Ground Pound.
    • Light-Bulb Mouth recalls several abilities that light up dark areas, such as the Light ability exclusive to Adventure/Nightmare in Dream Land, Kine's Spark attack in Dream Land 2 and 3, and the Bomb+Spark combo from Kirby 64.
    • Water-Balloon Mouth stands in for Water, allowing Kirby to spray water at enemies.
• Swiss-Army Hero: Even more so than usual with Kirby's "Mouthful Modes", which allow him to inhale objects like cars and form over them rather than swallow them whole. These can solve puzzles, navigate the new world, and more. Some of his Mouths include Car Mouth (allows for Car Fu and ramp jumping), Vending Mouth (blasts enemies with soda cans), Cone Mouth (become an improvised piercing weapon), and Light Bulb Mouth (illuminates dark areas). Also, for the first time since Kirby: Squeak Squad, Copy Abilities can be upgraded.
• Talking Animal: Downplayed. The only member of the Beast Pack that talks is Leongar... and that's because Fecto Forgo is in control of him. The rest of the animal characters are completely silent save for roars and other animal noises. This is also referenced in the Leon and Carol Gotcha figure, which states Clawroline couldn't understand Leongar following him discovering Fecto Forgo since she only spoke in meows.
• Taunt Button: Pressing each of the directional buttons lets Kirby look around, sit on the ground, do his Victory Pose and say "Hi!" to anyone nearby. This has no gameplay function whatsoever but the Waddle Dees will copy the latter two actions if Kirby performs them close by just to be ridiculously cute.
• Telephone Polearm: King Dedede uses a stone pillar as a weapon in the second phase of his fight, swinging it around like a large club. It's another sign that he's been brainwashed yet again.
• Teleportation: Some areas have blue circular teleporters that transport the player to a new location or back to the start of the area.
• Teleport Spam: This is done by the True Final Boss Chaos Elfilis, who has two attacks like this: in one, it teleports across the arena in quick succession before it tries to strike you, in another, it dashes through portals in an attempt to slash you.
• Theme-and-Variations Soundtrack: The leitmotif of "Welcome To The New World" and the theme of the first level are present in most songs that are not a remix from music from previous games.
• This Is a Drill: Kirby gains a new Drill ability, allowing him to tunnel underground and attack from below, and he can also draw a circle out of wormsigns while underground to cause earthquakes.
• Title Drop:
  • When Leongar explains his goals, he refers to the new world they're in as a "forgotten land" due to the original inhabitants having left everyone behind.
  • The Japanese, Chinese and Korean subtitle is "Discovery". The final level of the game is called "Lab Discovera", and the music that plays in the elevator prior to the final encounter is called "The Dream Discoveries Tour".
  • The true final stage is named Forgo Land.
• Took a Level in Badass: Meta Knight has always been a skilled and powerful fighter, but his boss fights in this game really ups the ante, with Sword Beams that are either much larger than usual, rapid-fired, or sent through the ground to chase after you, plus the incorporation of the psychic rock-lifting attack from Kirby Star Allies. Oh, and he gets a neat bats-and-darkness effect to some of his attacks too.
• Trailers Always Spoil: An unusual example for the series, but the presence of Specimen ID-F86 (a.k.a. Fecto Forgo) was hinted at in some of the game's earliest trailers, namely Elfilin getting doused in teal goo suspiciously resembling his coloration, and the city background where the final battle with Fecto Elfilis takes place. The trailers also spoil Dedede being a boss, which the game treats as a big reveal.
• Translation Nod: This game has a two-way example, because the user interface was designed to fit both Japanese and English text from the start. The final stage of the main story, Lab Discovera, is named after the game's Japanese subtitle, Discovery; while the post-game Boss-Only Level Forgo Land is named Forgotten Land in Japanese after the English title.
• Translator Microbes: The intercom in Lab Discovera "detects" which language the player is using and plays a pre-recorded announcement in the appropriate language.
• Trapped in Another World: The opening cutscene shows Kirby and a number of Waddle Dees being pulled into another world through some kind of wormhole, landing in a highly urbanized and technologically advanced world that looks like an abandoned modern-day Earth. The Waddle Dees are being captured for some unknown reason, along with a Ridiculously Cute Critter named Elfilin. King Dedede is also there as an enforcer for the villainous Beast Pack. Meta Knight also ended up in this world, with his figure description stating he was actively trying to find a way back to Popstar before coming across Waddle Dee Town.
• True Final Boss: The last opponent of The Ultimate Cup Z is Chaos Elfilis, whose first form is a powered up version of Fecto Elfilis with new attacks and its second form which is a red orb that uses the attacks of previous Soul bosses with its own twists.
• Turns Red: A staple for all bosses and mid-bosses in this game. Deplete their health enough, and they'll pause, Roar Before Beating and pull off new moves. That includes the match with Forgo Dedede, who gains a completely new health bar.
• Ultimate Life Form: The final boss, Fecto Elfilis, is described as this. It's even their Boss Subtitles.
• Uncanny Valley: The main story's final boss in their larval form looks a lot like a human embryo and has uncannily photorealistic and detailed eyes, which is especially apparent when they dramatically open their eyes and deliver their threat to consume everything. Their true form, Fecto Elfilis, has a similar effect — while they have a humanoid, angelic design, they also have disproportionately large hands, Creepy Long Fingers, and digitigrade legs, which adds to their appearance as an Angelic Abomination. Even further, as Chaos Elfilis, their eyes are sunken inward to give the effect of staring at the player. The overall effect is that they look otherworldly and just plain wrong, since they are an invader not native to this world, and plan on subsuming the entire planet for their own purposes.
• Underground Monkey: The Phantom bosses are these, being stronger versions of the Beast Pack made by Soul Forgo to guard the pieces of Leon's soul.
• Upgraded Boss: Every story boss has two variants: one during the normal story mode, and another one in the postgame. The upgraded versions hit harder, are faster, their attacks have additional effects, and they even get completely new attacks.
• Urban Ruins: The city Kirby explores is long abandoned by a past civilization and filled with ruined buildings that have been Reclaimed by Nature.
• Variable Mix:
  • Different versions of the world map theme seamlessly blend shift to each other when Kirby moves between zones.
  • The pre-boss battle themes, in both the main game and the Colosseum, seamlessly transition to the actual boss themes through a brief interlude in the music.
  • The mid-boss theme, "Plundering Beast Battle", switches to a percussion track if you manage to find a way to stun the boss, and plays an ending flourish when you beat them.
  • The music for "The Battle of Blizzard Bridge" will only loop the second half once you make it far enough on the bridge's normal route. Otherwise, the first half is the only part that loops (the first half will also be the only one to loop if you take the secret path).
  • "The Raging Lion Roars" switches to an intermediate vamp once Leongar's health decreases enough to the point where it gets closer to activating the second phase. Once it does, the dramatic portion of the music plays before looping back to the beginning from there.
  • The final boss theme, "Two Planets Approach the Roche Limit", transitions into an intermediary segment once the boss is close to entering its second phase, which smoothly turns into a new, more intense arrangement when the boss enters its second phase proper. The song has several variants depending on which point the transition occurs.
  • "The Ultimate Fight" and "Decisive Battle: Ultimate Z", the Colosseum boss themes, add extra percussion and bass once the boss Turns Red.
  • Getting hit by Morpho Knight’s sound wave attack not only tilts the camera 90 degrees, but also causes the boss music to become muted until Kirby recovers from the blow and the camera rights itself again.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Lab Discovera, an abandoned laboratory where Fecto Forgo is being held and where Kirby meets the leader of the Beast Pack, Leongar. To highlight it as the level with the final boss, its position on the world map is at the top of an erupting volcano.
• Video Game 3D Leap: After Kirby's Blowout Blast and Kirby Battle Royale, which were simple spinoffs testing the waters of Kirby in 3D, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the very first fully 3D game in the main Kirby series.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can harass the Waddle Dees around Waddle Dee Town with your copy abilities. You can even hit Elfilin. There are also times where you'll encounter non-hostile enemy creatures (such as the Awoofies in the Alivel Mall's food court areas) that don't get aggressive but you're still free to ruin their day.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: As per usual. The moment Fecto Forgo breaks loose from the Eternal Capsule, the game where Kirby runs through the Ruins Of The Modern World saving Waddle Dees from a bunch of Intelligent Gerbils suddenly takes a terrifying turn for the worst. It doesn't help that they have some of the most terrifying One-Winged Angel forms the series has seen yet.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • During the fight with Forgo Dedede, he drops both of his hammers once his health is close to being fully depleted. Then, instead of getting back up and getting a new weapon, he lets out a terrifying roar and starts Running on All Fours like a furious beast, a big sign that the Mind Rape that Fecto Forgo inflicted upon him has gotten so bad that it's reduced him to a bloodthirsty animal.
  • During Leongar's battle, he loses it in the second phase when Fecto Forgo strengthens their control on his body. He then stops trying to slash at Kirby and instead resorts to trying to violently chomp at him like a rabid beast.
  • Most importantly, Fecto Forgo. Once Kirby defeats Leongar and frees Elfilin, they begin speaking through Leongar and lose their patience, throwing out all of their carefully laid-out plans in favor of consuming everything. They then break loose from the Eternal Capsule, and immediately assimilate all of the Beast Pack into themself, creating their horrific chimera form.
• Villains Out Shopping: Awoofies, baseline mooks for the antagonistic Beast Pack, can be found in many stages doing normal things like sleeping in benches, eating together at the mall food court, or waiting in line for a ride in Wondaria. Kirby is free to attack them.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • Tropic Woods, the boss of the second level (Everbay Coast), isn't too tough, but it takes a significantly greater amount of strategy to beat compared to Gorimondo. Whereas you can wail on Gorimondo with little thought, Tropic Woods requires you to think carefully about your positioning, since it actively aims at you and, in the second phase, starts defending itself with chain-link fences.
  • While Tropic Woods provides the first proper challenging boss fight for players, the true wake-up call boss is Clawroline in the third level (Wondaria Remains), as she introduces speedy boss attacks that basically require getting the hang of dodging, along with setting the stage for bosses that are almost constantly bouncing around the boss room, making dashing close to strike and Bullet Time dodging to counterattack utterly necessary to perfect for both her and every succeeding fight, especially when it comes to achieving the time-based objectives.
• Walk on Water: If Kirby has the Ice ability, his run turns into him ice skating across the ground as in previous games. But in addition to that, this game now allows him to skate on top of water, mud and lava similar to Ice Mario in Super Mario Galaxy.
• Walking Spoiler:
  • Downplayed in the case of Leongar, given how there is a pretty noticeable lion motif among the Beast Pack (the cages the Waddle Dees get trapped in have lion heads on them). However, his backstory and relation to Clawroline are not fully explained until the post-game.
  • Fecto Forgo themself. Almost nothing foreshadows their presence until Kirby reaches Leongar, and it basically reveals the big twist of it being the true Big Bad of the story.
• "Wanted!" Poster: Numerous wanted posters of Kirby, and sometimes Elfilin, can be found in certain stages. A couple of missions has you finding and removing these posters. A huge amount of Kirby posters can be found leading up to Sillydillo, demonstrating its obsessive and collective nature.
• Warm-Up Boss: Surprisingly, for a game that a Whispy Woods variant appears in (Tropic Woods), it's not Tropic Woods as the "simple and predictable combat patterns to ease players into the game's mechanics" first boss, with that role taken by Gorimondo of the Beast Pack. Tropic Woods itself instead appears as the second boss, and a Wake-Up Call Boss at that.
• Water-Geyser Volley: Cone Mouth Kirby can break open damaged water pipes to create lifts to send him high up, usually to reach otherwise inaccessible ledges and roofs. This is featured prominently in the Downtown Grassland stage, and even used when fighting the Tortuilding at the end of the stage.
• Watch for Rolling Objects: In the Rocky Rollin' Road and Forgo Plains stages, before the Indy Escape portions of each, Kirby encounters groups of boulders rolling downhill, acting as a timing-based obstacle.
• Wham Line:
  • During the elevator ride to Lab Discovera, the lore of the world is info dumped by a PA system. Not only is this information itself crucial to the game's plot, but it is the first real piece of voice acting in a main-series game.
  • It's very brief, but a line from Leongar implies that the people who once lived in their world moved to Dream Land, or at least tried to. Sadly, he doesn't elaborate any further than that.
• Wham Shot:
  • When you first enter the New World, Kirby wakes up on a beach and proceeds through a brief course of green forest that looks much like his classic adventure worlds in 3D, with no sign of civilization. It keeps looking like that right up until, lying inconspicuously off to one side, there's a single crushed soda can. Moments later we get a wide shot of the ruined city in Natural Plains.
  • At the start of the climactic sequence, there's a brief moment where the narrator for Lab Discovera mentions that the discovery of Fecto Elfilis allowed for the people of the new world to discover the ability to warp dimensions; you'll likely not think too much of it, especially given the string of reveals that happens immediately before and afterwards. However, during the Final Boss battle, Fecto Elfilis uses this warping ability itself... and opens purple star-shaped portals, the exact same sort of wormhole used by the Halcandrans, suggesting that either they were the planet's former inhabitants, or Fecto Elfilis is actually a Halcandran.
  • After Forgo Leon is defeated at the climax of Forgo Dreams, Soul Forgo emerges from their body and gets Boss Subtitles, indicating the obligatory Soul form boss battle... only for the moment to be interrupted by the camera panning to the side to focus on a very familiar orange butterfly approaching the battlefield.
• When Trees Attack: Tropic Woods is an obligatory Whispy Woods Expy, this time being a wide palm tree who attacks with coiling roots.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises:
  • Kirby has this reaction right before getting sucked into the vortex in the opening cutscene. He does the expression again later on when he is grabbed by Gorimondo in the cutscene prior to the boss fight against him and also does it when the caged Elfilin prior to the Sillydillo battle is revealed to be a fake.
  • When Clawroline Turns Red, she rears up like a cat, complete with her eyes becoming long thin slits.
  • Among the shock of the Beast Pack's mooks after Forgo assimilates the first one, Bernard's eyes are exposed, with him having the same large round eyes with tiny black pupils that Kirby gets throughout the game. These eyes are also occasionally visible when he's defeated as a normal enemy.
• Widely-Spaced Jail Bars: Elfilin is first encountered inside a cage that he could easily get out of himself.
• Wily Walrus: Mr. Frosty appears as Wild Frosty, after joining the Beast Pack sometime prior to Kirby's arrival in the new world.
• Wolverine Claws: Clawroline sports a natural set of long claws, which she uses to attack Kirby. Leongar also has a set of these, although he uses them more for Sword Beams.
• Worm Sign: When Kirby is digging with Drill ability and its derivatives, the dirt indicates where he currently is.
• "YEAH!" Shot: Each stage ends on a freeze-frame of Kirby leaping into the air after he busts open the cage holding the kidnapped Waddle Dees and does his usual Happy Dance. This, out of all things, is exploited by King Dedede to capture Elfilin.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: There are several implications that time goes by much faster in the dimension of the New World compared to Kirby's home dimension. For starters, in the few minutes it took Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee to be transported across dimensions, Waddle Dee Town was both built and destroyed, Meta Knight and King Dedede looked all across the mainland trying to find Kirby before stopping saddened, King Dedede got corrupted, and numerous Waddle Dees were either caged and enslaved, all of which implies days if not months of time passing in those few minutes of dimensional travel. Though it really comes into play with the ending, where it's implied that in the several seconds after Elfilin's near-case of a Heroic Sacrifice, Clawroline rescued and helped him recover over several hours, with a little longer before he could open a new portal. It was later confirmed in the June 2022 issue of Nintendo Dream that Dedede (who entered the vortex first) spent months wandering the New World searching for Kirby and the Waddle Dees before he was brainwashed.
• You Shall Not Pass!: King Dedede, free from his brainwashing, holds off a gang of Beast Pack members to save a Waddle Dee and let Kirby progress into Lab Discovera.
• You Wake Up on a Beach: The opening cutscene has Kirby and the Waddle Dees be sucked in by a vortex that appeared over Popstar. The cutscene ends with Kirby waking up on a beach alone, from where the Tutorial Level starts.

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Running wild!
Just let your heart take the wheel and show you the way.
Fresh spring breeze!
Adventure is awaiting you in the fields of a new world!

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