- Arthur: Listen - the invasion is here. They have infiltrated humanity, but they are still preparing. That is where you come in. You, and the other three children my friend saw. The strength of the house of Diamonds. The psychs of the house of Spades. The luck of the house of Clovers. And you - the heart that connects them all.
A work-in-progress RPG by Devyni
, self-described as "my attempt to Studio Pixel an RPG while trying to capture the charm of what is considered the greatest RPG of all time, and peppering in Shout-Outs and Lampshading of Role Playing Games in general, and maintaining originality."
To give a proper synopsis, La Mondo is the story of Mary Syden, a young girl in a New York City Expy. One day, after hearing several unanswered knocks at her apartment, she sees her mother breaking down the apartment door. The problem with that? Mary's mother is also inside the apartment. Her mother had been kidnapped and replaced by an alien imposter. After defeating the imposter with the help of a psychic alien dog, Mary is told of a vision psychics around the world have been having - a vision of her, along with three others, defeating the alien's king. And so, Mary's journey to find the other three seen in the vision, and to realize her own strength, begins.
As previously mentioned, the creator was inspired by Earthbound and takes several cues from it - the modern setting, strange enemies, the Final Boss being defeated through atypical methods, and self-referential humor abound. However, it is its own game in the end. It is being created with RPG Maker, and is being made entirely by a one-woman team. The development blog can be found here.
This game provides examples of:
- Almighty Janitor: Averted. The hobo is just a hobo who has some minor prophetic abilities.
- Almost Dead Guy: Averted. The fact that the hobo can make a long-winded speech after diverting a psychic blast is what makes the party realize he's not dying. And he's still going after they get back from saving the world.
- Badass Bookworm: Helen, her parents, and most of their servants, although some are GeniusBruisers. They make weapons and security systems for a living, so they'd have to be. Helen's bio gives military history as one of her interests.
- The Big Guy: The house of Diamonds, Helen.
- Bilingual Bonus: The names of the party members are all derived from a foreign word for their house, and the title is Esperanto for "The World".
- Born Lucky: The house of Clovers.
- Braids, Beads and Buckskins: Downplayed for Marvin, who just has shoulder-length hair. Ditto for the rest of his family, except Emmaline, who averts it.
- Cardboard Prison: Zigzagged. At one point, Mary and Helen are stuck in a cage, and the key is hanging on the wall. Except the cage is made out of a material tough enough to resist Helen's Super-Strength, and they can't reach the key at all. They only escape when an earthquake triggered by the dungeon's boss send the key flying within reach.
- Combat Medic: Mary
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The hobo.
- Damsel in Distress: Mary's mother at the beginning of the game, but she manages to escape.
- Disappeared Dad: Played with. Mary's is on a business trip during the story, Helen's was abducted by aliens, Marvin's is in the hospital, and Trevor is an orphan. We do get to see them near the end of the game, though.
- The Engineer: Helen and her family are all Mechanic-types, although Helen uses Good Old Fisticuffs. This is the reason her father was abducted.
- Fiction 500: The Router family.
- Free-Range Children: Played with. Helen plays it straight, but her parents aren't exactly around to stop her. Marvin's grandmother zig-zags it - she doesn't have much of a problem with Marvin going a cross-country trip, but Emmaline is staying home. (Granted, Emmaline is six and Marvin is a psychic.)
- Geeky Turn-On: Helen's parents met because of their love of weaponry.
- Gentle Giant: Marvin is the largest of the heroes and is better with psychs than brute strength.
- Girly Bruiser: Helen.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Played with. Mary uses a toy gun and Marvin uses a wrench. However, the latter example is much better with psychs than strength, while Helen and Trevor use fists and a slingshot respectively.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Includes teleportation, healing, and telepathy.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Subverted. The final boss fight is won by helping the king realize, with some help from the entire planets, that his species isn't so different from humans.
- Known Only by Their Nickname: Arthur, Luigi, Mathilda, and the King, due to the fact that his language is completely unpronounceable to humans. The hobo is also left nameless.
- Easy Amnesia: Although it's somewhat more realistic in that it can be easily dispelled as well with enough triggering.
- Lured into a Trap: Twice.
- Mama Bear: After Arthur frees her from her psychic-induced coma, Mary's mother goes right back to her apartment, breaks the door down, and attempts to take on the psychic that kidnapped her in order to save her daughter. And she didn't even wait for Arthur to untie her hands first.
- Meaningful Name: Averted with Mary's surname. It was originally going to be Harte, but it was changed to Syden (a play on sydän, the Finnish word for heart).
- Missing Mom: Helen's mother, who died when Helen was nine, and Marvin's mother, who divorced his father and went to Minnesota.
- Never a Self-Made Woman: Averted. Helen is the heiress to her father's business, but the company came from her mother's side of the family. Her mother was also the CEO of the company until she died.
- Nobody Poops: Some variation of this line appears whenever a character tries to go to the bathroom.
- Orcus on His Throne: The King doesn't fight you until you go and seek him out. Justified in that he has a deadly illness, and while he's been keeping himself alive through sheer willpower and hatred of humans, it is very taxing.
- Orphanage of Fear: Subverted. Trevor wouldn't mind the orphanage so much if it weren't for the punks that keep abducting him to abuse his luck in the casinos.
- Parents in Distress: Mary's mother and Helen's father.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Helen's parents.
- Psychic Dreams for Everyone: The hobo, Helen, Marvin, and Trevor all have dreams that lead to them finding Mary. It turns out that it was Mary's powers subconsciously manifesting.
- Psychic Powers: They're Marvin and the enemy's main weapon. Mary, the hobo, Arthur, Luigi, and Mathilda also have psychic powers.
- Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: Averted entirely. Mary has a skirt over slacks (really more of a long shirt and slacks) and is the Combat Medic, while Helen is never not wearing a dress or skirt and is the fighter.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Princess Mathilda infiltrated Earth and ultimately became a Double Agent against her father.
- Stable Time Loop: It's implied that Mary psychically connecting to all of humanity in the endgame is what triggered the hobo's vision that kicked off the game.
- Standard Female Grab Area: Subverted. At one point, a boss has his minions grab Mary and Helen and then has the minions turn into stone. It ultimately fails, and is never used again.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Averted. Emmaline accuses Marvin of this, but his reasoning for not letting her come along is: 1. their grandmother would be worried enough with just him missing, 2. she has to make sure that her grandmother doesn't just order pizza for every meal, and 3. she's six.
- Trailers Always Spoil: While Mary's party members are kept a surprise in-game, the promo art makes it pretty clear who's going to end up in each position.
- Wham Line:Mathilda: No! No, no, you can't die! Not now! Not when I've finally gotten you to understand! Father!
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Averted. Each of the player character's hometowns are fictional, but are located in states. Arcs is in New York, Temant is in Florida, the Picas Reservation is in Arizona, and Cobala is in Nevada.
- You Are Not Alone: A major theme in the work.
