Meteo Chronicles is a turn-based RPG created using RPG Maker. It was created by the user KrimsonKatt and was released in March 10th, 2021 in a very broken state. After thorough playtesting, it was believed to be fully bugfixed on May 28th 2021.
However, in December 2021 the game was discovered to be currently unplayable due to a multitude of bugs, so development resumed and a patched, completed version called Meteo Chronicles R is expected to release sometime in 2022, with a more serious plot. The game is currently only available on PC, though Mac, Linux, and Android versions are planned for the future. The game's story revolves around a young man named Koros who after a dangerous mission unwillingly fuses with a god-like being named Kairos. Kairos warns him that in a few short days an ancient calamity known as the crimson meteor, which razed the world 1000 years ago, will return to bring ruin to the world once more. It is now up to Koros to stop the crimson meteor from falling which seems to be planned by a powerful warlord named Baron Ozma. Ozma seeks to re-assemble the Ars Solaris to accomplish this, an ancient sword that can alter the fabric of reality. Will Koros be able to stop Ozma and his diabolical plot, or is there someone else pulling the strings? Find out, in Meteo Chronicles!
Link to the game's page: https://rpgmaker.net/games/11520/
Meteo Chronicles contains examples of:
- Ability Required to Proceed: Multiple of these exist, especially early on. The Lethe’s Tear you get from Archsage Amadeus is required to access the later parts of Banna Woods (Old)/ Banna Woodlands (2.0) which you need to get through to progress. You also need the Raft item you get from Ari Caverns to cross to Banna, and you need Stacy in your party to open the summoner gates in Banna Woodlands and Mt.Gaea. Finally, you need certain keys such as the Royal Key and Keycard to open certain locked doors leading to treasure and new areas.
- Absurdly Low Level Cap: The level cap is 99, a level that you’re practically REQUIRED to be at if you want to stand a chance against the final boss in the original release. In the 2.0 release, levels have been scaled back slightly, so you will be around level 75-80 before reaching the final boss. Still, nearly all post-game content requires you to be at max level anyways, so this trope still applies.
- Action Initiative: The speed stat determines who goes first in battle.
- Action Girl: Pretty much any main female character, including Zenith, Stacy, Agni, heck, even Koros in his bunny girl form.
- Acrophobic Bird: Even though Stacy can fully fly, she can’t just think to fly UP when being attacked by slimes or any other monster. She also doesn’t really fly at all when you really think about it.
- Adjustable Censorship: Due to the extremely dark nature of the Shou sidequest, the game gives you the option to remove all dialogue from the side quest, leaving only the gameplay.
- Aerith and Bob: Some names that characters have are quite unique, such as Koros, Tayo, Zenith, Jeht, Amadeus, Trello, etc. And then you have names like Stacy, Garnet, Helena, etc.
- After the End: 1000 years in fact. Luckily, the world has mostly recovered since the "crimson calamity" 1000 years ago, but you can still see scars of the destruction even 1000 years later such as the ruins of Arcadia lying underneath Beasteria Peak or the monsters that came from the meteor still being at large and a massive threat.
- Alchemic Elementals: Multiple examples. First, you have the 4 elemental Oracles, servants of Baron Ozma. You also have the 4 elemental shards of the Ars Solaris.
- Already Done for You: Subverted. One of the main villain Trello’s goals was to take out Baron Ozma, which you unknowingly did for him.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: As with all RPG Maker games, the overworld character sprites for moving left and right are merely reversed versions of the same sprite.
- Ambiguous Gender: Is Koros a straight guy who just likes to crossdress, or is he non binary? That's up for you to decide.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: After Koros is kidnapped, you are forced to control Jeht as the main character for a dungeon or two before Koros rejoins.
- And I Must Scream: Burried Alive in a nutshell. As revealed in Accursed Chronicles, Burried Alive was the true ruler of Morda Vael, Mordia the 2nd, but was betrayed by his advisor Gaspar Conan and trapped within the radioactive catacombs where he slowly mutated into a horrific beast, going insane from the process. Meanwhile Gaspar took the throne of Morda Vael which he was only able to do by making a part with the demon Nightseeker who gave him ten "rings of death" that he used to take control of the nation.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Numerous
- When you lose a battle, instead of going back to the title screen you instead have the option to retry the battle instead of being forced to resume from your last save.
- The archfiend's spawn triggers whenever you enter the room, so all you have to do to make an archfiend spawn is quickly travel back in forth between two rooms. Keep doing that until you get the spawn message, and then wait 30 seconds and then the archfiend will spawn.
- Compared to the original release, teleporting is made far more convenient in the 2.0 release due to orange save crystals being far more numerous than the "teleport shrines" of 1.0 and allowing instant travel to towns and dungeons without having to walk there from a teleport shrine.
- During the extra long Tower of Babel, Frozen Crypt, and Skull Cavern dungeons, multiple "rest points" exist for your to heal up and possibly quit the dungeon without losing your progress. The tower of Babel has three while the two major optional dungeons have only two.
- Weapons will tell you their level requirement in the description so you don't have to guess.
- During the endgame and post game, grinding stat boosting items becomes essential for further progression. Luckily, those can be bought en-masse from the Secret Shop once Nightseeker is defeated for just a bit of Bx. You can also buy EXP and JP orbs there too if you're not quite maxed out yet.
- A quest log exists so that you don't forget what quests you still have to do, which was a common complaint in 1.0.
- The Anti-God: Elzakalas applies as this, being the embodiment of darkness itself who seeks to ascend to a higher plane of existence (confirmed to be the real world) and become truly free from the goddess’ (the creator of the game world he inhabits) control and the passage of fate. However, he might be a bit more human than he lets on...
- Anti Idling: In Banna Woodlands, if you wait too long in one of the rooms a superboss will spawn and you will probably die unless you're in new game+. This was removed in the 2.0 release.
- Arbitrary Mission Restriction: If you want to complete the bestiary, during the Kellam’s Art sidequest in the Magitek Gardens you must choose to confront the old man instead of printing out his picture. If you do, it will prompt a hidden boss fight against the succubus Kellam-Arte. Defeating her grants better rewards than choosing the other option. However, in the 2.0 release you can refight all the bosses randomly in the Den of Evil, and starting in v1.3 of the original version you can fight all the bosses in West Graape (Old) / Downtown Eternia (2.0) once you have the secret key.
- Arc Villain: Baron Ozma is the arc villain for the first 8 chapters, and then Trello takes over the role for the rest of the game from Chapters 9 to 12. During the alternate route, the main "villain" is future Koros and in the golden route the main villain is the mysterious "reaper king."
- Armor-Piercing Question: Less so of a question, but this applies when Zenith's mother tries to redeem Tayo.
- Artifact of Power: The Ars Solaris.
- The Atoner: Tayo does everything in his power to redeem himself after his former life as a bandit where he committed countless evil acts. He finally achieves this when he sacrifices himself to seal Baetylus away.
- Attempted Rape: Implied in Zenith's nightmare. Luckily it isn't real.
- Author Avatar: The goddess Barbello is clearly one, and appears multiple times in the original game to break the 4th wall. All appearances of 4th wall breaks were removed in the 2.0 release, but Barbello was relocated to a secret island that allows you to fight her as a superboss in NG+.
- Autosave: The original game featured an autosave where the game would automatically save wherever you entered a new area, won a battle, or closed the menu. In the 2.0 version autosave returns, but now it only triggers when you either win a battle or enter a new map.
- Author Appeal: The game features a decent helping of genderbend, which the creator has explicitly stated to be their fetish. Also, Koros’ arc parallels the creator’s own struggle with gender identity.
- Awesome, but Temporary: Twice with the Ars Solaris. You get the weapon after obtaining all 4 shards and talking with the dwarf in West Graape (Old) / Eternia (new), but as soon as you leave Eternia Frostlands the Ars Solaris gets stolen from you. Once you get it back, Koros, the only person who can wield the weapon, leaves the party temporarily, leaving you with no one to wield this very powerful weapon until you get him back. In the 2.0 release, an additional restriction was placed on the weapon making it unusable unless Koros was at least Lv 80. which unless you have been grinding is nearly impossible. However, the Ars Solaris you get in Eternia is actually a different Ars Solaris in the code, having a level restriction at level 1. This allows you to get a taste of the power waiting for you late game without sacrificing the actual limits placed on the weapon.
- Back for the Finale: Koros leaves the party at the end of Chapter 8, but comes back right as the final chapter si beginning to kick some ass. He also gets a +20 level boost and x12 XL EXP Orbs so he can catch up, so that's cool.
- Back from the Dead: Koros in a way, though he never really "died." Just turned to stone "permanently" though hw was saved by Kairos' intervention.
- Bad Powers, Good People: Tayo's ravager class is specifically stated to be using the power of Baetylus, a dark god, but Tayo uses this power for good instead of evil. This also applies to the dark knight and warlock classes in the hands of the protagonists, though it's explained by NPCs in Eternia that the dark knight's power comes from emotion both good and bad, and the source the warlock draws from is eldritch in nature and is very powerful but can corrupt people who's wills aren't strong enough.
- Backtracking: A LOT of it if you want to do everything the game has to offer. After completing Castle Naughtmare, multiple new areas open up such as Uran and Skull Cavern in the desert of doom (old) / Uran Sunlands (2.0), the Frozen Crypt and East Graape (old) / Downtown Eternia in Eternia Frostlands, and a new side quest in Aetheria which grants powerful new abilities for Koros. There are also the optional summons, forcing you to revisit past areas in order to fight and obtain them. This is heavily mitigated in 2.0 where orange save crystals allow you to teleport between any other orange save crystal, making backtracking much more manageable.
- Battle Ballgown: Zenith wears a poofy princess gown to battle.
- Battle Theme Music: The battle theme of the game is the default battle theme of RPG Maker VX Ace. The second battle theme is also from VX Ace, though the third and final battle theme that plays on Valore, the Tower of Babel, and Labrynthia is from Trails In The Sky The 3rd. There are also MANY boss themes, most of them being from RPG Maker VX Ace or MV. There is the normal boss theme, the scion boss theme, the Baron Ozma and Lady Battlewinner theme, the mechanical boss theme, the archfiend's theme, the superboss theme, the ultimate superboss theme, Trello's theme, the normal final boss theme, the secret boss theme, the alternate final boss theme, and the true final boss theme.
- Beast Man: The beastkin count as this, each being human/animal hybrids though the only ones you meet in this game are part cat. There are also Cait Tribe alfr, who are surprisingly completely unrelated to the beastkin.
- Benevolent Monsters: The monsters that were purified living in Zerithia count as this.
- Berserk Button: Zenith when you call her a princess.
- Biblical Motifs: The Tower of Babel is the final dungeon and one of the world's continents is called "Eden." Also Adonis is a satan allegory and you fight Satan/Bael as one of the game's superbosses. Other biblical demons like Beelzebub and Asmodeus also appear as superbosses.
- Big Damn Fire Exit: The escape sequences in both the Crystal Caves and Eternia Manor both count.
- Bigger on the Inside: Since this is an RPG Maker game using default assets, nearly every single house counts.
- Bittersweet Ending: The normal “good” ending counts as this. Even though the world is saved and the crimson meteor stopped from falling, it came at the cost of Tayo’s life, and Koros leaves soon after on a journey to find himself.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: "Elves" in this universe can suddenly become tiny (female) fairies in a blink of an eye and change back within seconds. How is this explained? Magic.
- Bland-Name Product: Multiple reference to real world IPs were replaced with this in the 2.0 release. A notable example would be the direct mentions of "A Link to the Past" and "Ocarina of Time" were replaced with the fictional games "Sword Hero 3: Twin Worlds" and "Sword Hero 3D."
- Bloodless Carnage: Zig-zagged. Blood is usually never shown even when it should, but it does appear all over the floor in Stacy’s dream sequence. A blood splatter also appears when Koros kills Krom.
- Bodyguard Babes: All 4 of Baron Ozma’s generals are female aldr sorceresses.
- Body Horror: Mainly with Buried Alive, but also with Shou's "dolls."
- Bond One-Liner: Koros’ (or more accurately, Valfa’s) catchphrase when defeating a powerful foe: “It is finished.”
- Bonsai Forest: Trees in this game are only twice as big as the characters, as per standard in RPG Maker games using default assets.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: Aclalogia. A rare enemy found randomly deep within Skull Cavern. Has a random chance to spawn in one of the rooms, with an old man warning you that the "beast has arrived." If it finds you, you're in for a hell of a fight as this enemy is a clone of Sensayu, just 20 levels higher! Though, it is the once source of the Zodiac Ensensuon, the strongest shield in the game that absorbs all elements.
- Bound and Gagged: The body-swapped Azul during the events of Chapter 5-2 (Old) / 6. (2.0)
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Happens multiple times, mainly by the Author Avatar Barbello. All instances of this have been removed in the 2.0 release, though Barbello still exists as a non-canon superboss.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Tayo when he's taken over by Baetylus.
- Cap: The stat cap for all stats sans HP for both playable characters and enemies in the original version is 999. For HP in the original version, a playable character’s max is 9999 while an enemy’s max is 9,999,999. All items and equipment cap at 99 in the original version also. In the 2.0 release, this was changed so that HP caps at 9,999,999 and all other stats cap at 99,999 for both enemies and allies. This was done to accommodate the new superbosses who are at insanely high levels with equally insane stats. (Lv 333 and Lv 999 respectively.)
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Sorta applies with TayoxZenith, though Zenith can be far from gentle at times.
- Call to Adventure: For Koros, it was receiving Kairos' power. The rest is history.
- Call-Back: In 2.0, direct callbacks were added to Lost Chronicles, a game that didn't exist in the timeline when the original version was made. Also, multiple callbacks existed even in 1.0 involving a certain witch...
- Call-Forward: Multiple. As this is a multi-part series with many of the future parts already laid out, many of these exist.
- The most notable example is within Kairos' den in Ari Caverns where you can see many statues of both past and future heroes. All these heroes will be protagonists of future games.
- The boss ABYSSEYES will play a major role in future games.
- The Burried Alive optional boss directly ties into Accursed Chronicles, which will tell his tragic backstory.
- Cat Girl: Zenith is one along with all the female residents of Besteria Village.
- Changing Gameplay Priorities: Since by the final dungeon you’ll be near max level, the focus becomes less about leveling up and more about obtaining the ultimate weapons through sidequests and obtaining as many stat-boosting items as possible in order to fully max out your stats (old) /max out all uses. (2.0)
- Character Blog: Brief bios are given of many characters in both the game's rpgmaker.net and itch.io pages which also including information not found in the actual game.
- Character Customization: Any character can be one of any of the 10/20 available classes unlocked as you progress through the game. In the original release, certain characters started with more JP in certain classes than others, but in the 2.0 release new characters that join start with multiple skills unlocked in many classes and every character is equal in every class. Along with it, 5 character exclusive classes were added, one for each character, the wizard class was removed and split into three new classes, the priest was reworked and split into it and the new spiritmaster class, and the paladin and dark knight classes were added the round out the roster.
- Character Portrait: All characters, even NPCs, have faces representing them, but none have full-body portraits.
- Checkpoint Starvation: Zig-zagged. In the original release, there are no checkpoints. If you die, you are returned to the title screen and must reload at your last save. Though since you can save any time outside of battle, this issue is mitigated somewhat. In the 2.0 release, this was changed so that you can only save at save crystals, though since there is almost always at least 1 save crystal in every map this was issue is heavily mitigated.
- Chase Scene: The escape sequence in the Crystal Caves has our heroes avoiding rising water.
- Chekhov's Gun: The plotpoint of "Koros' Secret" that Krom blurts out right before he's killed is later brought up multiple times in the game, most importantly during Koros' EX quest.
- Chest Monster: Mimics start appearing as early as the Crystal Caves, coming equipped with spells of multiple elements as well as the powerful "mimic" freelancy art. But their most dangerous tool is their instant death spells that they activate when you take too many turns to kill them. Greater Mimics that start appearing near the end of the game even have full party wipe spells, and there's even two boss varients, the later of which can copy your entire party with ease!
- Class Change Level Reset: Subverted. Levels stay the same when changing classes. Only JP (used to obtain new skills) is different between classes.
- Combat Stilettos: Zenith wears high heels to battle as part of her attire. Koros and everyone else also count when in their bunny girl forms during the secret route added in 2.0. Koros also wears high heeled boots when in his saintblade class.
- Content Warning: One is given at the top of the game page, and an additional one is given upon starting the Shou sidequest, giving you the option to remove all dialogue and only leave the gameplay due to the sidequest's extremely dark themes.
- Context-Sensitive Button: The Z and X keys do different things when you are in battle, in the menu, or in the overworld.
- Continuity Nod: Mutliple of these are done throughout the game, as many references exist referencing both past and future games.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Koros, who was slowly drained of his energy and turned to stone by Trello. He was only able to be revived thanks to Kairos’ intervention.
- Cool Sword: The Ars Solaris counts as one, an impossibly cool sword with incredible power both in the lore and in gameplay.
- Critical Existence Failure: Zig-zagged. You are not killed from things that would kill you easily in real life like most RPGs, but characters will show damage if they are at critical HP. (25% HP or less)
- Cruel Twist Ending: The alternate ending. While you preventing Tayo from dying and stopped the crimson meteor, the world has been permanently screwed over and it's all your fault.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The second phase of Lady Battlewinner’s fight. It’s quite literally impossible to lose, and Koros has infinite HP, AP, and even LP. Time to spam limit breaks!
- Cute Monster Girl: Zenith and to a lesser extent, Stacy.
- Cutscene: As with most RPGs, there are a lot of them.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Traditionally "evil" classes like the Dark Knight, Warlock, and Ravager can be used by the party for the benefit of others, all using the power of darkness.
- A Day In The Lime Light: Jeht gets this from Chapters 9-11. After that he's relegated to the side, though every character gets this in their exclusive EX quest.
- The Day of Reckoning: The day where Trello finally awakens Baetylus. It’s up to you to stop him.
- Deal with the Devil: Tayo made a pact with the archon Baetylus during his days as a bandit. In exchange for power, Tayo promised to ensure that the crimson meteor landed and destroyed everything.
- Demihuman: Zenith and the Beastkin apply. The dragonkin and wingly to a lesser extent.
- Den of Iniquity: Shou’s manor in a nutshell.
- Destroyer Deity: Both Baetylus and Elzakalas are referred to as the “god of destruction.”
- Deus ex Machina: Kairos when he revives Koros.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The protagonists face off against many absurdly powerful foes, especially in the post game such as the creator deity Barbello, the world destroyer Blinnadeus/Tartarus, the literal GOD OF ETERNITY, and the mysterious creature called ABYSSEYES that can rival the celestials themselves. The final boss Baetylus is no slouch either, having nearly destroyed the world 1000 years ago and being a direct incarnation of the god of evil Elzakalas.
- Disney Death: All the characters seem defeated by Lady Battlewinner and everything seems hopeless, but Koros comes in at the last minute and saves all of them. Made a little bit darker by the fact that in the previous timeline, KOROS’ FRIENDS ACTUALLY DIED FOR REAL HERE and only Kairos’ intervention was able to save them from their fates.
- Dire Beast: Multiple of these exist such as Dire Wolves, Dire Rats, and Black Widows.
- Disk-One Final Boss: Baron Ozma.
- Disk One Nuke: Early on you can head into Uran Sunlands and purchase end-game equipment from the shops there. That is, if you can afford it, and even so you'll have to grind to a VERY high level to even be able to EQUIP IT.
- A Dog Named "Dog": The overwhelming majority of NPCs have names like "boy, girl, young man, woman, old man, soldier, etc" However, some NPCs do have names, and almost all of them are important in one way or another. So if you see an NPC with a name, you know that they are important.
- Doppelgänger: Master Mimik applies as this.
- Downer Ending: The bad and alternate endings both count for this. In the bad ending, the world straight up gets destroyed, and in the alternate ending the world is forever covered in darkness and will never be the same. Made even worse by the sequel that follows this ending.
- Do Not Drop Your Weapon: Zig-zagged. Enemies never drop their weapon or any drops for that matter until they are killed. BUT you can use a thief to steal their weapons from them if you so choose though this does not affect their stats or skills in any way
- Dueling Player Characters: In Tayo’s nightmare, you are forced to fight and kill your own party members against your own will.
- Dungeon Crawling: It’s an RPG, so it just HAS to have dungeons in it, and a lot of them too.
- Earn Your Bad Ending: In the case of the “Alternate Ending,” you must first complete the optional Accursed Well dungeon to obtain the "Shard of Fear." The other two shards, the "Shard of Hatred" and the "Shard of Regret" are obtained through normal story progression, one by defeating ThiefMaster27 in the Tower of Babel and one for defeating Baetylus, obtaining the good ending, and reloading your completed save. Then you will unlock a new post-game dungeon called "Labrnythia" which will require you to not only fight 7 new difficult bosses to progress through the floors, but also to defeat 7 rare, extremely powerful, randomly spawning bosses called Archfiends to obtain their marks in order to open new floors. Once you reach the bottom and unseal the last pillar, an alternate ending will play where even though you prevent the rise of Baetylus, the foundations of the tower crumble and cause a great cloud of darkness to cover the land ad monsters begin to take over. These events actually lead to the alternate universe sequel Meteo Chronicles 2, so maybe not all hope is lost. Maybe?
- Easy Exp: There are items called EXP Orbs which grant tons of EXP onto the user, but they are very rare and expensive and even then only a few shops even stock them. In the 2.0 release versions of this type of item for JP also exist and are equally as rare.
- Eldritch Abomination: Many enemies fit this description such as the bosses Likho, Buried Alive, Ultima and Omega Weapon, and ABYSSEYES and pretty much every enemy from the Accursed Well.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Fire beats Ice, Ice beats Wind, Wind beats Earth, Earth beats Thunder, Thunder beats Water, and Water beats Fire. Light and Dark are strong against each other, and the Almighty, Poison, Drain, and Gravity elements are all neutral.
- Enemy Within: Tayo has an evil side which is due to his bond with Baetylus he made back when he was a bandit. Koros has a dark side as well which Koros is able to face, defeat, and ultimately accept.
- Evil Counterpart: The shadow selves count as this.
- Export Save: Due to being an RPG Maker game, save files can be easily exported, imported, and shared across the internet.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The entire game takes place in a week or less in spite of the heroes traversing quite literally the entire continent.
- Event Flag: By progressing in the story, you can unlock additional events in previous areas. For more major ones, the game informs you of the new options available, but other times you will have to figure it out yourself. This in changed in the 2.0 release where a clear quest log exists to manage all previous and current quests.
- Exposition Break: Many times throughout the game, most notably the long introduction (which is luckily skippable) and the long exposition Kairos gives when you first enter Banna about the lore of the world.
- "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: Tayo’s last words before his inevitable demise. Same goes for nearly every villain as well.
- Fantastic Racism: People in this world REALLY don't like darklings.
- Fantasy Character Classes: 20 of them exist.
- Freelancer: A jack of all trades class with average stats who can equip everything.
- Vanguard: A sword and axe wielding class with good stats.
- Warrior: A physical glass cannon class that wields axes and bows.
- Basara: A class that uses magickly imbued spearplay. Wields spears and staves.
- Pyromancer: A magickal class that uses fire and thunder spells. Wields staves.
- Cryomancer: A magickal class that uses ice and water spells. Wields staves.
- Priest: A magical class that specializes in healing. Wields staves.
- Thief: A class with now defenses but can deal heavy single target damage and can steal rare items from foes. Can equip daggers and fists.
- Geomancer: A magickal class that uses wind and earth magick. Wields axes and staves.
- Brawler: A class with incredibly high stats but cannot equip anything.
- Spiritmaster: A magickal class that uses light and buffing magick. Wields bows and staves.
- Ranger: A ranged class that can target specific enemy groups to deal massive damage. Wields daggers and bows.
- Paladin: A tanky class that protects it's allies while using powerful light attacks. Wields swords and spears.
- Warlock: A magickal classes that uses dark and debuffing magick. Wields staves.
- Dark Knight: A class that uses their own vitality to use powerful dark attacks. Wields swords and axes.
- Saintblade: Ultimate class that uses many powerful almighty skills. Wields swords, spears, and staves. (Koros Only)
- Ravager: Ultimate class that can summon phantasmal weapons to perform bonus attacks. Wields all weapons. (Tayo Only)
- Empress: Ultimate class that can learn enemy skills and easily dish out critical hits. Wields axes, spears, and fists. (Zenith Only)
- Evoker: Ultimate class that can summon powerful scions at will. Wields Spears, Bows, and Staves. (Stacy Only)
- Hexblade: Ultimate class that can inflict many statuses on foes and then deal massive damage with "Status Break." (Jeht Only)
- Fantasy Gun Control: In this time period of Zutara, guns of highly impraticical as in this world, guns are magic. They aren't powered by gunpowder, they're powered by pure magickal energy. While powerful and accurate, they drain a massive amount of ether energy from the surrounding area, giving them highly limited ammo and limited usability.
- Fate Worse than Death: The fate of everyone turned into a “living doll” by Shou Kadokawa. Luckily, they are relieved of their suffering when the building explodes, killing all of them.
- Final Battle: Multiple of them.
- The normal route ends with a fight against Trello and later Baetylus.
- The alternate route ends with a fight with an alternate future version of yourself and his demon allies.
- The (non-canon) final golden route ends with a fight against Shaggy Rogers, who has become the king of all reapers and wants to stop you from messing with the flow of reality.
- Fixed Camera: The camera cannot be changed and always exists from a bird’s eye view, even in cutscenes.
- Flash of Pain: A short flash occurs whenever you are hit by an enemy.
- Forced Transformation: Tayo when the party is perminantly turned into bunny girls during the events of the golden route. Koros loves it, Zenith and Stacy don't care, and Jeht only likes it because Tayo would possibly be attracted to him now. Then there is the fairy spell in the Crystal Caverns which Tayo also finds displeasure in. At least that one is temporary...
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Subverted and played straight. As part of her plan, Aria swaps bodies with the King of Aetheria Azul in order to trick and frame the heroes for murder. Azul inside Aria’s body is tied up and gagged in the back room, after which you are able to successfully swap them back and defeat Aria in her original body. Later on during the Shadow Koros sidequest Azul swaps Koros’ mind with that of an empty vessel in order to help Koros discover himself and face his demons.
- Freeware Games: Meteo Chronicles is fully free to play due to the copyrighted content held within.
- Gender Bender: Multiple.
- The main cast temporality turn into (female) fairies to escape the rising water in the Crystal Caves.
- In the Rabbit Hole you can find multiple IRL YouTubers who have been turned into bunny girls.
- Koros turns into a bunny girl temporarily in his side quest.
- Koros is almost turned into a mindless female slave by Gomorrah in the East Graape sidequest. The other humans who went into Gomorrah's salon weren’t as lucky...
- Giant Spider: The Black Widow and Arachne enemies count as this.
- A God I Am Not: How all benevolent deities describe themselves in this universe in spite of being worshiped as such across the world and possessing god-like powers. Nargi is often worshiped as a deity, but does not consider herself a god. Just a powerful mortal being, as Seraphim like her can indeed die and are subject to mistakes and imperfections like regular mortals. Even Barbello, who created the universe and controls every aspect of it, claims she is not a god, as in her universe she’s just a regular mortal and still makes mistakes and errors which have costed the people of her world greatly, and is directly responsible for Elzakalas’ rise in the first place.
- Golden Ending: The golden ending added in the 2.0 release counts as this. It's more of a Gainax Ending with Deus ex Machina and thus not canon to the series.
- Gotta Catch Them All: You will need to do this to complete the compendium.
- Government Agency of Fiction: The Ferngulf Senate counts as one of these.
- Graphics-Induced Super-Deformed: Due to being an RPG Maker game using default assets, all the characters end up looking this way.
- Gravity Barrier: You are not allowed to jump off cliffs of any size.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Elzakalas, the origin of all evil. Baetylus was only one of his many incarnations, and Baetylus’ whole goal in the first place was to destroy planets to harvest life energy for his master so Elzakalas can awaken and ascend to a higher plane of existence.
- Harmless Freezing: After Koros as freed from his stone prison, no ill effects are shown of the stasis and Koros immediately goes back to fighting with no ill effects.
- Harmless Villain: ThiefMaster
- Has a Type: Jeht likes priest boys.
- Head Swap: Since the majority of the characters were made via a generator, many characters share the same body.
- Heroes "R" Us: The Ferngulf Holy Knights, whose job it is to defend towns from monsters and reduce their population. Though they’re barely mentioned past Chapter 1.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Tayo sacrifices himself to save the world.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Tayo due to his history as the bandit king.
- Healing Spring: The hot springs in Skull Cavern are exactly this. They were removed in the 2.0 release due to both optional bonus dungeons getting massive reworks.
- Heel–Face Turn: Tayo makes one before the events of the game due to Zenith’s mother’s last words to him before Tayo killed her and the kindness of a certain priest.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Zig-zagged. Canonically, the main character Koros uses a sword, and his ultimate weapons Chronoblade and the Ars Solaris itself are both swords. However, you can simply choose not to use them, and place any character in any role with any weapon.
- Hitchhiker Heroes: You start with only the hero, but soon gain a party of up to 5 characters all traveling together.
- Hit Points: When your HP hits zero, you die.
- Hit Spark: A short flash occurs whenever you deal damage to an enemy.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Lady Battlewinner's first phase and the fight with the Holy Knights count as this.
- Hotter and Sexier: This game is far more perverted than KrimsonKatt's other games, with fade to black sex scenes, plenty of fanservice, and multiple genderbend fetish sequences.
- Human Sacrifice: The Cult of Kathunid tries to do this. Luckily, they are stopped.
- An Ice Person: The cryomancer in a nutshell who mainly uses ice magick, though they can use water magick as well.
- The Idol's Blessing: Zig-zagged. While Koros becomes a lot stronger with Kairos’ blessing, he was by no means incompetent before, and in the previous timeline he and his friends were even able to get as far as Castle Naughtmare before they were all wiped out by Lady Battlewinner.
- I Have No Son!: Koros' parents to Koros after Koros kills Krom.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Koros' immediate reaction to becoming Kairos' vessel.
- Incompatible Orientation: Tayo is straight a guy, and Jeht is a gay guy. Obviously that cannot be together.
- Infallible Babble: Whenever a rumor is brought up, it is pretty much always true.
- Informed Equipment: Equipment does not show up on characters. Classes don’t change appearance either in the original release, but this was changed in 2.0 so that the character and battle sprites change, but not the facesets.
- Injured Vulnerability: The boss Likho in the 2.0 release can only be hurt when he is asleep.
- Interspecies Romance: Tayo is a human, while Zenith is an alfr. Also applies to Zenith and Koros, the later being a human turned dragonkin.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: Koros can walk flawlessly in high heels and pass completely as a girl while cross dressing.
- Irrelevant Importance: All key items, even if all possible uses of them have been used up, can never be lost or destroyed.
- Item-Drop Mechanic: Enemies drop items such as healing items, stat boosters, sellables, equipment, and more.
- I Warned You: The old man in Skull Cavern when you die to Acnalogia.
- Job System: The game features one as one of it’s main mechanics. In the original release, you level up all classes at once but you gain JP for your equipped class for defeating enemies which you can then use to learn skills, which you get more of by leveling up. This was changed in the 2.0 release which added in progessive skills you learn one by one with higher and higher JP costs, some only being unlocked once you reach a certain level.
- Journey to Find Oneself: At the end of the game, Koros leaves to journey out on his own.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Zenith kicks serious ass even when in a poufy princess dress, high heels, and a tight-fitting corset.
- Kidnapped from Behind: What happens to Koros by Trello at the end of Chapter 6.
- Killer Robot: The Mecha Jailer, Mecha Scions, and Roblon enemies.
- Knight Templar: The Ferngulf Holy Knights.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: There are spoilers for Lost Chronicles in this game, but Lost Chronicles has spoilers for Crypt Challenge DX, but Crypt Challenge DX has spoilers for Meteo Chronicles! So you're pretty much screwed no matter which game you start with.
- Late Character Syndrome: Jeht in a nutshell, though you’re pretty much forced to use him until Koros rejoins. Especially the case if you grinded to the extreme beforehand and Jeht ends up extremely underleveled. This is subverted in the 2.0 release where you without Koros and only with Jeht for much longer, as the world map has been replaced with interconnected areas and a new character development focused dungeon has been added between Jeht joining and you entering Castle Naughtmare.
- Level-Up Fill-Up: When you level up, your HP fully replenishes, but not your AP.
- Level Grinding: You have to do a lot of this if you want to stand a chance against the superbosses. Not much grinding is required for the main story, however.
- Lets Get Outof Here: Said both when the Crystal Caves are filling up with water and when Shou’s Manor is about to explode.
- Limit Break: Each character has around 8 to 20 of them that can be learned by collecting special rare items and using them on the corresponding character. Limit Breaks can be once only once the "limit gauge" is at 100% where you can select any of your available limit breaks to use.
- Little Bit Beastly: Zenith and the beastkin.
- Loading Screen: Happens rarely, but when it does it’s merely a black screen with unmoving text that says “loading.” appearing on screen.
- Locked Door: Many doors in dungeons are locked and require a key.
- Love Triangle: Actually more like a LOVE SQUARE. Zenith loves both Koros and Tayo, Tayo loves Zenith, Koros loves Zenith, and Jeht loves Tayo.
- Luck Stat: A stat that determines the usefulness of states. In the 2.0 release, it also determines hit rate, evasion, and critical rate.
- Mad Scientist: Jeht and his father are like this in a way.
- Magical Girl Warrior: Zenith, as an alfr, is naturally skilled at magick and possesses the rare ability to purify monsters. She is also super strong.
- Magic Knight: Multiple classes fit this description such as the Basara, Saintblade, and Empress classes.
- Magitek: Widely used in the world of chronicles, resulting in a strange mix of sci-fi technology like teleporters, floating cities, robots, and the like along with a typical medieval fantasy setting.
- Maid: Zenith has multiple maids serving her and multiple maids exist within Aetheria Castle.
- Making a Splash: The cryomancer class has access to water magick.
- Manipulative Bastard: Trello.
- Manon Fire: Tayo when he is set on fire by the Red Baby.
- Maximum HP Reduction: The disease status did this prior to v1.1 of the original release. In the 2.0 release Disease has been restored to it's original function.
- Metal Slime: Multiple examples
- Vixi in 2.0 count as this. While they have low HP, they have incredibly high defenses along with high evasion, not to mention their ability to flee from combat and when they're not doing that are dishing out garneted critical hits. They only way to reliably defeat them and get their useful rewards is to use attacks that deal fixed damage such as soulstones, the comet spell, or attacks that ignore defenses entirely. There come in multiple variants, including:
- Normal Vixi who drop a large amount of EXP, Bx, and JP.
- Metal Vixi who drop a massive amount of EXP but no Bx or JP.
- Gold Vixi who drop a massive amount of Bx but no EXP or JP.
- Crystal Vixi who drop a massive amount of JP but no Bx or EXP.
- Fat Vixi who drop a massive amount of Bx, EXP, and JP.
- The Skull Eater, a rare spawn in the upper floors of the Tower of Babel, counts as this. Is immune to all elements and physical attacks and can use Calamity Fang to deal 99,999 damage to one of your party members instantly killing them. The only way to reliably defeat them is deal celestial damage which ignores all protections. The only attacks that accomplish this are Sensayu's Obliterate, Infinity Overdrive used by a saintblade, Oblivion Overdrive used by a ravager, or using the Excalpur weapon and triggering "ultimate sword?"
- Vixi in 2.0 count as this. While they have low HP, they have incredibly high defenses along with high evasion, not to mention their ability to flee from combat and when they're not doing that are dishing out garneted critical hits. They only way to reliably defeat them and get their useful rewards is to use attacks that deal fixed damage such as soulstones, the comet spell, or attacks that ignore defenses entirely. There come in multiple variants, including:
- Mercy Kill: Done to both Buried Alive and Shou's "dolls."
- Might Makes Right: Baron Ozma's idealogy.
- Mighty Glacier: The paladin class.
- Mind over Matter: It is explained in the Aetheria plotline that the body is merely a vessel for the mind. Not matter what body you possess, you are still the same person inside.
- Mind Rape: What happens to Shou Kadokawa’s “dolls” when they are in the process of turning.
- Minmaxer's Delight: The hidden "Seitengrat" weapon which can make the rest of the game pathetically easy, and can even be obtained quite early even though it’s the strongest weapon by far, turning the otherwise-mediocre (at least in the OG release) Ranger class into a complete powerhouse. Also in the original version, if you obtain the scholar class early it can make the rest of the game trivial if you can learn the right enemy skills.
- Mirror Character: Trello, the penultimate boss, copies your class fusions including their most powerful attacks.
- Mirror Match: A single player example. In the 2.0 release, one of the “final bouts” in the Den of Evil is against a replicated version of your current party with max stats who copy your every move. Can you handle it?
- Monsters Everywhere: Random encounters are widespread in every place that isn’t a town, but this is explained in story how monsters are infesting the world ever since they came from the crimson meteor and that there are specific groups made for hunting them down and reducing their population.
- Multiple Endings: The base game has two, with the 2.0 release adding in two more.
- The Good Ending: The standard and canon ending to the game. While the world is saved and the crimson meteor prevented from landing, it came at the cost of Tayo’s life and Koros left on a journey to find oneself. Obtained by beating the game regularly.
- The Bad Ending: Obtained by losing to the final boss or running out of time during it. The crimson meteor falls and destroys the world. Considered a Non-Standard Game Over.
- The Alternate Ending: Obtained by completing the post-game Labrynthia dungeon. In it, the foundation of the Tower of Babel breaks down, scattering monsters and darkness across the land as the tower falls. Koros enters a coma after being hit on the head by a large rock and the rest of the party is separated. The alternate-universe sequel Meteo Chronicles 2 follows this ending. Added in the 2.0 release.
- The Golden Ending: Obtained by first entering New Game+, making it all the way to Omegas, and then paying the bunny girl there 99,999Bx to turn everyone into bunny girls, heavily altering the flow of reality and drastically changing the events to come. After making your way up an alternate Tower of Babel and fight the super powerful reapers Death, Life, and Time, you finally make it to the top where you must face off against the Reaper of Space and strongest of all Reapers, Shaggy Rogers! Defeating him awards you with a truly happy ending where no one has to die and everyone, including the villains, can live in peace. Obviously non-canon. Added in the 2.0 release.
- Multi-Mook Melee: The den of evil from the 2.0 release in a nutshell, with bosses thrown in randomly for good measure.
- Multi-Platform: While the original version was only on PC, the definitive edition was also made available on Mac, Linux, and Android.
- Musical Spoiler: When the music suddenly stops, you know stuff is going to go down.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Koros after he causes the apocalypse by triggering the alternate ending.
- New Game Plus: Unlocked after completing the game once which allows you to bring over your levels, stats, items, and equipment for another go. In the 2.0 release, new features are also unlocked such as the Scholar class (obtained via a cheat code in the original release) and the secret final joke/golden ending route.
- New Work, Recycled Graphics: Uses default RPG Maker graphics, so this is expected.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Happens twice.
- When the heroes defeat Baron Ozma, allowing Trello’s plans to go through without intervention from a powerful force.
- In the alternate ending where the heroes destroy the foundation of the tower of babel and doom the world to not only a world of darkness, but also to an eternal time loop.
- No Bulk Discounts: Buying multiple of the same item doesn’t give you discounts.
- No Item Use for You: The spells teleport and warp in the original release can’t be used in certain scenarios. In the 2.0 release, they have been replaced with the teleport stones which bring you to the last orange save crystal you used and the escape rope which brings you to the entrance of the dungeon you're currently in. The same limitations as the spells in the original release apply to these replacement items in 2.0 as well.
- No One Should Survive That!: Koros survives being turned to stone, which should have easily killed him as the spell used was Dark Petrify, a spell far beyond the regular petrify which was supposedly irreversible. Koros was only able to survive via divine intervention from Kairos.
- No Such Thing as Dehydration: There is no hydration mechanic, and characters are never shown needing to drink.
- Now It's My Turn: Koros says this after Lady Battlewinner tries to use the same strategy she used before during the second, now scripted, fight.
- Now, Where Was I Going Again?: Since there is no story log, this is an inevitable result. This was fixed in the 2.0 release with a detailed quest log and quest markers.
- Not Quite Human: Koros, Zenith, Stacy, and pretty much all of the non human races that aren't terrors or darklings.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Trello, who wants to destroy the world because his future was a corrupt beuocracy where the rich majority lived in a utopia while the poor minority suffered. In his mind, a ruined, anarchist world where everyone suffers is better than a one where only a few suffer, as in the world he creates everyone is equal.
- Obviously Evil: Baron Ozma, ThiefMaster, Lady Battlewinner, and Trello all count for this.
- Official Couple: Surprisingly, both Koros and Zenith AND Zenith and Tayo are canon, mainly because Tayo dies at the end of the game so Koros is the only option.
- One Stat to Rule Them All: STR, DEF, MAG, and RES are far superior to everything else. SPD is mostly inconsequential, and LUK is nearly useless. Subverted in definitive edition as LUK, re-named to DEX, is actually useful there, making SPD the only “bad stat.”
- Only Smart People May Pass: In the Crystal Caves dungeon, there is a mystery room which requires you to answer trivia questions about the game in order to skip large sections of the dungeon.
- On-Site Procurement: The best weapons in the game are only obtainable through side quests and grinding Heaven Seals. The weapons before that can only be found randomly in Skull Cavern or the Frozen Crypt. The best weapons you can find in shops are only Tier 9 while the very best weapons (the unsealed weapons) are Tier 12.
- Our Angels Are Different: Angels in the chronicles series exist in a hierarchy, and were created to serve the high aeon Zophia.
- The weakest are just normal angels, which just like ordinary humans except for the heavenly, calming aura that surrounds them.
- Archangels are the actually winged ones, wearing golden armor and fighting divine battles against evil forces.
- Then there are the Seraphim, in which there are 12. These are the progenitors of the dragon race and appear much the same as ordinary dragons, though they possess 6 wings instead of the usual 2 and always embody a certain element. They include:
- Nargi: Light
- Vafla: Fire
- Ninis: Ice
- Thora: Thunder
- Neptune: Water
- Forseti: Wind
- Graaval: Earth
- Kairos: Time
- Anakos: Wisdom
- Gaea: Life
- Azrael: Death
- Tai-Shen: Luck.
- There was once a 13th seraphim named Mordu who was the original earth seraphim, but he was corrupted by darkness and led a rebellion against the other seraphim, but was defeated by the hero Ryu and his spirit sealed away.
- Then there are the Cherubim, also known as the divine beasts. These angels are not the chubby valentine’s day cherub you see today, but actually gigantic 8-winged beasts that resemble every large beast in the world, shifting forms every time they are seen by mortals.
- Then there are the Thrones, which appear exactly how they are seen on the trope page, intersecting flaming golden rings covered with eyes possessing 10 golden flaming wings.
- Finally, there are the powers, the members of the divine council who served alongside the high aeon Zophia to take care of the world’s many races. However, long ago before the creation of Zutara there was a great schism, and 12 of the 36 powers broke from the council in order to become separate from Zophia’s rule, who they believed to be corrupt. These powers became the archfiends you know today: Bael, Matsema, Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Asherah, Mammon, Belphegor, Kathunid, Dagon, Nyarlathotep, Azathoth, and Astaroth
- Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons in the Chronicles Universe are fully intelligent beings equal to humans in intelligence, if not greater, and most live for 300-500 years. However, dragons during the time of Meteo Chronicles have changed shape to resemble ordinary humans but with pointed ears, only able to change back into their original forms temporarily through the use of magical stones. They come in many different tribes, some being the fire tribe, earth tribe, and ice tribe. There is also the divine tribe, a group of dragons closest to the seraphim which live for thousands of years and possess god-like powers, but age at an incredibly slow rate. While dragons of other tribes reach full adulthood at the same age as humans and then age 1 year for every 5 human years, divine dragons age 1 year for every 100 HUMAN YEARS that pass. So a divine dragon that’s 1000 years old would only be 10 both physically and mentally.
- Our Elves Are Different: Elves in the chronicles universe are not called elves. Instead, they are called Alfr and are a combination of elves and fairies from folklore, able to sprout wings and change size at will, assuming a form known as a faerie. Other than that they are the typical magickly-attuned long-lived poiny ear people. They come in 7 different tribes including:
- Fire tribe alfr excel in fire magick and are the most powerful fighters. They are also excellent bakers.
- Earth tribe alfr are the physically bulkiest and excel with earth and bless magick.
- Wind tribe alfr are excellent mechanics, are masters at creating magitek devices, and excel with wind and thunder magick. They are also the most agile.
- Water tribe alfr are excellent swimmers and excel with water, ice, and healing magick.
- Light tribe alfr, also known as pixies or dream aflr, grant happy dreams to mortals and protect the dream world from external threats. They excel in light, bless, and healing magick.
- Dark tribe alfr, also known as springgans, possess dark skin and protect the surface and the planet’s core from elder demons deep underground. They excel in dark, curse, and illusion magick.
- Cait tribe alfr are cat-like alfr that can use every type of magick but especially excel with transformation magick.
- Outside-the-Box Tactic: To defeat the superboss Rayakois (old) / Damballa, (2.0) you must enter the battle with only one party member alive, otherwise it is a fruitless endeavor as the boss will be completely invincible. Also, make sure you keep his spawn alive. If you kill both of them, the boss will start spamming unavoidable instant kill attacks and you will lose.
- Path of Most Resistance: Subverted and played straight. Going for the alternate ending, which is much harder to obtain than the regular one, results in an extremely depressing end to the game. However, the standard “good” ending remains bittersweet, as Tayo dies no matter what and Koros leaves to go on his own journey. However, it is played straight with the Golden Ending in the 2.0 release which requires you to already be in New Game+, have 99,999Bx on hand, (the maximum amount) and defeat some of the toughest bosses the game has to offer after which you will be rewarded with a silly but overall happy ending where no one has to die. If you don't worry about the Mind Screw.
- Playboy Bunny: Multiple examples
- Koros dresses up like this occasionally for fun and pleasure. He's good at it too.
- Koros becomes this for real during the Shadow Koros sidequest, albeit temporarily.
- Many IRL Youtubers are turned into this and forced to dance around in the Rabbit Hole. In the 2.0 release these were changed to generic NPCs without the IRL references.
- A handful of bunny girl NPCs exist, including Marie who is the trigger for the New Game+ and 2.0 exclusive golden route.
- The whole party becomes this permanently during the events of the golden route.
- Player Data Sharing: Save files can be exported and shared between people, as is standard with RPG Maker games.
- Player Versus Environment: The entire game, as there is no multiplayer option whatsoever.
- Plot Lock: There are many instances of this, such as the guards outside of the Ferngulf Senate and not being able to progress past Castle Naughtmare until you clear the dungeon.
- Pop Quiz: See “Only Smart People May Pass.”
- Previous Player-Character Cameo: Inverted. Characters from FUTURE games are referenced often.
- Pretty Princess Powerhouse: Zenith is dressed like a princess but still kicks ass regardless. She constantly denies she is one however, despite basically being one in all but name.
- Pre-Character Customization Gameplay: You start out with only one class, the Freelancer, but quickly get more as the game progresses. By the end of Chapter 7 you are sure to have all of them.
- Recurring Element: Many.
- Anna from fire emblem appears in a shopkeeper in nearly every game. (named changed in Annie in certain releases to avoid copyright)
- The Vixi as a recurring monster
- The firebrand, the mark of Vafla's chosen.
- The satori family line of heroes.
- Kairos’ mysterious goals and the overarching plot surrounding him.
- The legendary blade Ars Solaris.
- The endless struggle between humanity and Elzakalas' archons.
- Etc.
- Redemption Equals Death: Tayo finally redeems himself by sacrificing himself to seal away Baetylus for good.
- Regenerating Health: The “Regen” line of spells does this. In the 2.0 release there is only one regen spell exists and passive HP regen is gained in other ways such as through equipment.
- Rising Water, Rising Tension: The premise of the escape sequence in the Crystal Caves.
- Run, Don't Walk: The default setting is to run everywhere, but this can be changed.
- Savethe Princess: Subverted. A subplot during Chapter 5-1 (old) / Chapter 5, but the “princess” ends up being more than capable and quickly becomes one of your strongest party members.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Baetylus’ fate at the end of this game. It’s only a matter of time before he breaks free...
- Sentient Cosmic Force: How the nameless one is described: an infinite, indescribable, incomprehensible, formless, nameless, omniscient force of light and good and rules over all things. You can fight him in the 2.0 release.
- Schizo Tech: The technology of the world of chronicles is extremely bizarre. On one hand, you have robots, floating cities, and teleporters while on the other hand you have people still fighting with swords and other melee weapons, castles, kings, and empires, and other things typical of a traditional fantasy setting. This is explained better in 2.0 with the game being more defined as sci-fi fantasy.
- Shout-Out: There are many.
- The “asterisks” found in the game which grant you classes is a direct reference to the Bravely Default series.
- Crystals granting you new classes is taken from Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy V.
- Anna from Fire Emblem appears in the game as a shopkeeper, along with many variants.
- The Archfiends added in 2.0 are a reference to the fiends in Final Fantasy the Four Heroes of Light and its spiritual successor series Bravely Default. The archfiends also take inspiration from the Megami Tensei franchise from some of their designs and the way you encounter them being identical to how you encounter them in Shin Megami Tensei IV.
- Much of the music used in the game are rips taken from other sources.
- Prior to v1.3 of the original release, “Blue’s Clues” was directly mentioned by an NPC in the Magitek Gardens.
- There are hentai references. A lot of them.
- The whole East Graape (old) / Downtown Eternia sidequest is heavily based on a transformation hentai comic by MeowWithMe. (NSFW)
- The Kellam’s Art sidequest is based on the work of the hentai artist KennerArt, (NSFW) who specializes in drawing transformation hentai.
- The named “demon statues” in Shou’s mansion are all flanderizations of popular hentai artists in the transformation hentai scene.
- In the rabbit hole, you can find feminized versions of the youtubers Pyrocynical, Mangs, and many others as bunny girls prior to v2.0 where they were changed to generic NPCs.
- The Den of Evil added in 2.0 is a direct reference to the area of the same name from Castlevania Portrait of Ruin. It also plays the song "Temporal Salvage" while fighting enemies there, which is a song from the game Timespinner which also has a direct shout-out to the Den of Evil from Castlevania.
- Kairos’ name is taken from a legendary dragon from the mobile park simulator Dragonvale. The seraphim Gaea and Tai-Shen are also taken from that game and are also legendary dragons.
- The seraphim Nargi, Vafla, Ninis, and Thora are based on deities from the Fire Emblem series.
- Anakos from Fire Emblem Fates is referenced. His backstory is nearly identical.
- Mordu/Adonis is heavily based on Medeus and Loptyr from Fire Emblem.
- The boss Buried Alive is based on the enemy Dead Hand from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time along with a popular Pokemon creepypasta.
- The superboss Rayakois (old) / Damballa (2.0) has a nearly identical moveset to Ruby Weapon from Final Fantasy VII.
- The three oni superbosses are based on the oni from Yokai Watch.
- The four bosses of the golden route added in Definitive Edition are multiple references in one!
- First, it is a reference to Castlevania, as Death and the Time Reaper from that game series appear as the first and third bosses respectively.
- Second, the 4 reapers in general are a reference to the YouTuber Whoisthisgit, namely his video “Leave My Mind Alone 2.”
- Thirdly, the final boss Shaggy Rogers was based off the “Ultra Instinct Shaggy” meme.
- The shadow bosses are all direct references to the bosses from Persona 4. The boss theme from that game even plays during those fights!
- The bad ending of the game is a direct reference to Chrono Trigger's bad ending.
- The archfiends and the way that you encounter them is nearly identical to the fiends in Shin Megami Tensei IV.
- The Labyrinthia bonus dungeon is a direct reference to both the Amala Labyrinth from Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne and Tartarus from Persona 3.
- The boss fight with Future Koros is heavily inspired by the superboss fights with the demi fiend in Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga Avatar Tuner and Shin Megami Tensei V.
- SCP-087 is directly referenced in the form of the boss ABYSSEYES and the infinite staircase.
- The secret Seitengrat weapon is a direct reference to Final Fantasy XII. The method to obtain it is similar as well.
- The secret Valmanway weapon is a direct reference to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The way you obtain the weapon is also similar.
- The Isle of Valore from Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade appears as a bonus dungeon. It's enemies are based on the members of the Black Fang from that game.
- Skeletron from Terraria appears as a bonus boss.
- The monster island is a direct reference to Breath of Fire II.
- Koros' limit breaks are also a reference to Breath of Fire II.
- Tayo, Zenith, and Jeht use multiple special moves from Final Fantasy VII and BlazBlue as their limit breaks.
- In 1.0, Alvis from Xenoblade Chronicles appears as an NPC.
- Baron Ozma's oracles directly reference LEGO Elves.
- The Tower of Babel being an endgame dungeon is a reference to Final Fantasy IV.
- The dark knight's moveset is largely ripped from Bravely Second: End Layer.
- Many of the bosses in Labrynthia are parodies of bosses found in Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne.
- One of the bosses, Dasheo Presence, directly references a bootleg android game called "Dasheo," a ripoff of the game "Archero" which uses multiple stolen characters from other franchises such as Ike from Fire Emblem, Mona from Genshin Impact, Cait Sith from Shin Megami Tensei, and Shiek from The Legend of Zelda. The boss also references the final boss of Persona 2 Innocent Sin, Great Father.
- The "Capsulemon Isles" area is one massive shout-out to the Pokemon franchise.
- The infamous glitch Pokemon MissingNo appears as the final boss of the Capsulemon Isles.
- The Lost Tower's design is based off a certain infamous staircase from the SNES RPG Live Alive.
- Ultra Instinct Shaggy appears as the final boss of the golden route.
- The beastkin share designs of the Gormotti from Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
- Lore from the "Mahoverse" is used.
- Scripted Event: Many exist in game. All 4 dream sequences in Ozma Keep are fully scripted, along with the second phase of the fight with Lady Battlewinner in Castle Naughtmare. (It’s impossible to lose) Prior v1.3 of the original release, there was a scripted fight done mid-cutscene after Baron Ozma stelas the Ars Solaris where Archage Amadeus and Baron Ozma fight, but it caused many game-breaking issues so it was cut. In the 2.0 release this scripted fight was brough back due to Amadeus being implemented as a temporary party member earlier.
- Secret Final Campaign: The golden route, which only becomes available in New Game+. Added in 2.0.
- Sidetrack Bonus: Going off the beaten path and doing side quests and clearing optional challenges grants you great rewards that will help you greatly in the main story.
- Silliness Switch: Activating the golden ending turns the last climatic portion of the game into a glorified meme-fest full of fanservice and wacky hijinks. You know it’s called the “joke route” for a reason, right? The new final boss is even Shaggy Rogers from Scooby Doo!
- Stronger Sibling: The character Logi has a sister named Agni that’s somehow even stronger than he is, though she is not fightable until 2.0.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: Enemies will never run from you, no matter how much stronger you are compared to them. Vixis are the exception.
- Surplus Damage Bonus: Overkill is a thing, rewarding players with double EXP, money, and JP from battles if damage equal to 1.5x the enemy’s total HP is used to kill them, but it only works properly in 2.0 as it was bugged in the original release.
- Storming the Castle: The last three required dungeons are basically this.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Slash beats Smash, Smash beats Strike, and Strike beats Slash, at least in the original release. In 2.0, each weapon was given a separate element. Swords beat axes and bows, axes and bows beat spears and daggers, and spears and daggers beat swords.
- Thematic Series: The Chronicles series of games as a whole, though some are more connected than others.
- This Is the Final Battle: Used twice. Once right before fighting Baron Ozma the fake final boss, and another before fighting Trello and Baetylus the real final boss.
- Thrown from the Zeppelin: Baron Ozma to the other members of the Ferngulf Senate during the cutscene immediately following him getting the Ars Solaris. Out of the 5 other members, two of them escape, one of them is killed, and two join with him. However, out of those two, one only joins out of fear, and the other also joins out of fear but is also implied to have a thing for Ozma and wants to get with him.
- Time Bomb: The premise of the final battle against Baetylus. You only have 25 total turns to defeat him. If you run out of time or die in the battle, you will get the bad ending.
- Top-Down View: The entire game is shown this way.
- True Final Boss: Shaggy Rogers of the golden route counts as one, through him and his entire route is considered non-canon and is just there as a joke.
- Turn-Based Combat: It says right there on the tin.
- Turns Red: Certain bosses like Bakkayo change tactics when at lower HP.
- Unusual Euphemism: The characters often use the term "12 Seraphim!" as a swear.
- Video Game A.I.: Uses standard RPG Maker MV AI except for 3 specific fights which use modded AI scripts to enable the more complex mechanics of those battles. In 2.0, all bosses used this advanced AI.
- The Wandering You: The main way to encounter random battles is to just walk around.
- Weaponized Landmark: The tower of Babel is stated to be a highly advanced superweapon, but you never get to see it in action, as it’s real purpose is to serve as a gigantic antenna used to summon the crimson meteor.
- Who Forgot The Lights?: A feature in Floors 70 - 110 of the final dungeon.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Koros crossdresses as a bunny girl occasionally just for fun. He’s good at it too.
- Zip Mode: The tesseract realm acts as one, and has no in-story explanation. In 2.0, the tesseract realm was removed and instead replaced with teleport crystals in every area and town and outside every dungeon.
