Video Game / World of Final Fantasy

Catch 'em all, save the World.

"Do you remember it at all? The terrible past you caused?"

One more spin off of the water-sprayingly popular Final Fantasy series.

Directed by Hiroki Chiba (Lead Scenario Writer for Final Fantasy Type-0), World of Final Fantasy is a role-playing game reminiscent of early Final Fantasy games. The gameplay and the graphic elements are simplified from other role-playing games, so as to be accessible to younger players, but also to appeal old fans who miss the chibi style from the early entries of the series. Players can also wrangle various iconic monsters and animals (referred to as "Mirages") to raise and learn new abilities, similar to X-2 and XIII-2 monster pet system.

The game follows two siblings who find themselves in a world known as Grymoire. The world contains locations, creatures, elements and scenes from other games in the series, such as the castle and bridge from the beginning of the first Final Fantasy. This also involves interacting with characters from other Final Fantasy games, such as Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII, and their worlds, in a manner not unlike Final Fantasy Record Keeper.

The game was released on October 25th, 2016 for the PlayStation 4 and Vita, and later for PC on November 20th, 2017.

A multiplayer Spin-Off called World of Final Fantasy: Meli-Melo was released on December 12th, 2017 in Japan.

An Updated Re-release of the original title, named World of Final Fantasy Maxima, released on the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on November 6th, 2018. It introduces "Champion Jewels", which allows the twins to take the form of characters from other Final Fantasy titles. For those who already own the original release on PlayStation 4 and PC, the new Maxima additions are available as a paid downloadable update.

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This game provides examples of:

• Action Pet: What a captured creature becomes.
• Adaptational Heroism: Shinra apparently, from draining the life out of the Planet to using geothermal energy from volcanoes for Nibelheim in Grymoire.
• Adapted Out: Only certain elements of given Final Fantasy worlds have counterparts in Grymoire. The Who's Who entries specifically point out Lenna Charlotte Tycoon, Seifer Almasy, and fal'Cie as being victim to this trope.
• And the Adventure Continues: The Stinger if you do all the Intervention Quests before reaching the good ending involves Enna Kros giving the prismariums of Lann and Reynn (or their copies, at least, see Bittersweet Ending below) to Hauyn and Tama to help protect Grymoire. Lampshaded in the Adventure Log, where it nearly quotes this trope word-for-word.
• Anti-Climax Boss: In-universe example with the Big Jiggle (read: Golden Flan), which is presented as a terrible foe... and has terrible magic defenses, a weakness to every element in the game, and little in the way of offensive ability. The official strategy guide describes the narrative buildup to the second fight as "the greatest punchline in the game".
  • Certain enemies like Odin can become this with the right stack setups and items due to their Achilles' Heel.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • If you die outside of a threshold boss fight, you get sent back to Nine Wood Hills with all your items and XP.
  • The first time you see a Mirage, you automatically gain a prism that you can use to Imprism it.
  • Early in the game, you get a reusable item that lets you teleport back to the start of a dungeon.
  • You can freely transfigure your Mirages anytime that you'd be able to swap them out.
  • Unlocking any Mirages from the same family, whether via transfiguration or by imprism, will unlock that transfiguration and its mirage board for all members (with the exception of plot-important "Sui Generis" Mirages).
  • A number of Mirages have the Subdue ability, which costs 0 AP to use and will not knock out the opposing Mirage (great for when you are trying to weaken them for Imprisment).
  • Slightly less common is the Tickle ability, which always does extremely low damage but has a very good chance of toppling enemy stacks.
• Apocalyptic Log: The entries of Reynn's diary unlocked in the post-game dungeons read like this, as they are written while the Exnine Knights are usurping the twins' Mirages and trying to hunt them down.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Hilariously averted by Serafie in the Postscript. The wind pixie believes that the Guardians of Time - basically Time Police for the A-Worlds - sound "as preposterous as teeth-stealing faeries". Lann and Reynn proceed to introduce her to The Girl Who Forgot Her Name, and Serafie realizes that the Guardians are real... and wonders if tooth faeries are real too.
• Art Shift: The opening starts off in CG similar to the in-game graphics, but as soon as the main characters enter the portal it completely shifts into anime.
• Artist Appeal: The Who's Who on the Undead Princess lampshades that the presence of several Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles characters is largely a result of who's responsible for the character design.
• Artstyle Dissonance: Deliberate evocation of early Final Fantasy = cute, colourful designs in which 80% of named characters are Super-Deformed. Story from the lead writer of Type-0 = destructive plot from a table of Omnicidal Maniacs, which has gone through many worlds already. And you're just fighting three of them... and the rest of the Order is still out there in other worlds.
• Ascended Meme: Tidus' infamous laughter is referenced in this scene.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: XL-sized Mirages are so big they can't be used in stacks; Lann and Reynn have to use their powers together and invoke them like Summon Magic. They're so big that the twins can comfortably stand side by side on, say, a Behemonster's shoulder.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: When Reyn and Lann first meet Snow, he's been transformed into a frog because he got distracted by a golden frog while looking for a giant Flan.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Most of the XL size Mirages are cool, but are generally inferior to the stacks that usually comprise the party.
• Badass Adorable: Just about every named Lilikin qualifies for this in some way, whether the badassitude comes from combat prowess (Cloud, Lightning) or tactical acumen (Edgar, Quistis). Most S- and M-sized Mirages are also surprisingly cute, although that doesn't stop a chocochick or babyhemoth from kicking as much ass as full-grown chocobos or behemoths.
• Bald of Authority: Ramuh seems to serve this role among the Pleiad (or at least among the trielemence barrier faction), although his role is less "leader" and more "Only Sane Man".
• Barrier Change Boss: Exnine Bahamut, Brandelis's true form. Whenever he uses a -ja level spell, he'll change the element he absorbs to the element of that spell. He also gains a weakness to another element, but this isn't shown if you use Libra on him - only the element he absorbs is shown.
• Bat Family Crossover: The game primarily involves numerous Final Fantasy monsters, characters, and locations, but Xenogears and Kingdom Hearts get to put in appearances too, and Sigma Harmonics is also involved through The Girl Who Forgot Her Name actually being Neon Tsukiyumi.
• Big Damn Heroes: Tidus, Lightning, Squall, and Cloud show up to save the twins after events go badly at the Ultima Gate.
• The Beastmaster: The heroes can take two monsters each in battle.
• Bittersweet Ending: Lann and Reynn defeat Brandelis for good in the second timeline, temporarily sealing him long enough to force all the Cognas to be sucked back through the Ultima Gate, while averting the disastrous results of the first timeline where Lann was also sealed. However, when Brandelis breaks free and briefly grabs Hauyn, the twins have no choice but to pin him down and get sucked in with him. While Enna Kros seemingly returns the twins to Hauyn, it turns out these two are merely prismarium-copies; the real twins are now somewhere between worlds, having ascended as Champions themselves.
  • Then the secret ending comes when you beat the souped-up version of the final boss, where Hauyn and Tama find a rift, where a Diabolos and Odin not from Grymoire emerge. On the other side of the rift is a hooded Lann in that world's version of the Ultima Gate tower, who is trying to escape from the world he is in. Then... something happens apparently involving the bridging between the world Lann is in and Grymoire, as well as a massive fight. Hauyn then calls out to Lann, who is revealed to be searching for a missing Reynn with both his and her gauntlets... before crossing this bridge between his world and Grymoire.
• Bonus Dungeon: Three separate dungeons^* They are all referred to as "???" in-game, but the strategy guide refers to them as "EX Dungeons" are unlocked by saving after the true ending, with a fourth unlocked after all three have been completed. Maxima adds a fifth that is unlocked after the fourth is completed.
• Boss-Only Level: Chapter 20 consists of only cutscenes and a boss fight against Brandelis. By extention, the rooftop level of the Crystal Tower hosts several bosses but no random encounters, even as part of the final post-game dungeon.
• Breaking Old Trends: Unlike in her original game or Dissidia, you actually get to face Shantotto for real instead of a magically controlled doll in her likeness. Predictably you stand zero chance of beating her the first time and while you can defeat her the second time around, she shrugs it off anyway.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The Mirage Manual and Who's Who don't even pretend to avert this, but it's done in dialogue (usually by Lann) a few times as well.
  • Early on during a tutorial, Lann makes sense of Tama's explanation by breaking the fourth wall. Reynn calls him out on it with a stern "Ix-nay on the fourth wall stuff!".
  • Later, when a Timed Mission starts, Lann notices the countdown floating above them. Reynn reminds him that she already said no fourth wall stuff.
  • During an Intervention Quest involving Cloud, Tama or Serafie starts to make mention of DLC, but decides against it.
  • When starting the fight against XG, Lann tries to do this, but gets interrupted.
  Lann: Is this a Cogna? Because I don't think they're supposed to put it in this ga—
  Reynn: Whoooa! Don't say another word! This thing is RIGHT where it's supposed to be.
  Lann: Um, sorry?
  Tama: Reynn just stopped a world much the-bigger than this one from imploding.
  Lann: Dude, really?!
• Brick Joke: In Chapter 8, Lann and Reynn are advised to head to the Low Seas... which turns out to be one continent down. They get their hands on a fastcraft, whose autopiloted course takes them down a waterfall. In the Postscript, Faris, Syldra, and Mog hear that Leviathan has been sighted in the Low Seas... and end up taking the same waterfall. Turns out that is not a common travel method.
• Brother–Sister Team: The main duo are siblings, and work together with their mirages to help them resolve problems within Grymoire.
• But Thou Must!:
  • After achieving the bad ending, a menu with exactly one option pops up, "No!"
  • There are a number of fights throughout the game where Reyn and Lann are supposed to be completely demolished by the enemy, but even if you defeat them and take minimal damage doing so (much easier in New Game Plus) the story will continue on as if they had lost.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": The game calls the chibi characters and the chibi-forms of Reynn and Lann "Lilikins", while the siblings' normal proportioned selves and other characters of similar design are called "Jiants". Justified in that, by all indications, they are separate species in Grymoire, with the twins' ability to change between the two being highly abnormal.
• The Cameo: Aside from having nearly every iconic monster from the Final Fantasy franchise serve as the game's Mons, several other characters from the franchise show up in the game, and not just from the numbered titles:
  • (I): Warrior of Light, Princess Sarah, Garland (Maxima)
  • (II): Firion (Maxima)
  • (III): Refia
  • (IV): Rydia, Cecil Harvey (Maxima)
  • (V): Faris Scherwiz, Syldra, Bartz Klauser, Boko, Gilgamesh, Enkidu
  • (VI): Celes Chere, Edgar Roni Figaro, Terra Branford
  • (VII): Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart^note Based on her appearance from Crisis Core, Shelke the Transparent, Sephiroth (DLC), Zack Fair (Maxima)
  • (VIII): Squall Leonhart, Quistis Trepe
  • (IX): Vivi Ornitier, Eiko Carol
  • (X): Yuna, Tidus, Rikku^note Based on her appearance from Final Fantasy X-2
  • (XI): Shantotto
  • (XII): Balthier (DLC)
  • (XIII): Lightning^note Based on her appearance from Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Amusingly, the true ending montage features her original Final Fantasy XIII appearance, Chocolina, Snow Villiers, Serah Farron^note Based on her appearance from Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Maxima)
  • (Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time): Sherlotta, The Undead Princess
  • (XIV): Y'shtola (Maxima)
  • (XV): Notcis Lucis Caelum (Maxima)
  • (Kingdom Hearts): Sora^note Based on his appearance from Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] (DLC)
• Capture Balls: In this spin-off of Final Fantasy, Prisms are cube-like objects that used by the player to imprism strange creatures known as mirages.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: The Goblin Princess is head-over-heels over the Warrior of Light... and is willing to imprison Princess Sarah for it.
• Console Cameo: A PS4 sits in the Twins' room, allowing access to the Mirage Manual, Who's Who, and Minigames. It's left unchanged in the Switch and Xbox releases of Maxima.
• Contractual Boss Immunity
  • You can't imprism most bosses the first time you fight them, and several (which are usually less "boss Mirages" and more "actual characters") can't be imprismed at all.
  • In the traditional sense, a lot of bosses have 100% immunity to all status ailments.
  • Most storyline bosses have an unlabelled resistance to Gravity magic that slashes it's effectiveness from 25% to 10%. Curiously, this does not include Shantotto.
• Composite Character:
  • The Shiva Sisters are represented in World as a single Mirage, Shiva-Ixion.
  • Downplayed, but still present, with several returning characters, all of whom are the same age as the numbered Fantasy they debuted from, but many of which take their appearances from other sources.
  • Many Champion summons also qualify as Composite Attacks, with their name taken from one move but the actual strike incorporating elements of others from others.
    • Celes' "Runic" attack is named after her Anti-Magic ability from VI, but takes the form of a massive ice spell.
    • Cloud's "Omnislash" involves the phantom images and "strike foe, catch falling sword" finisher of Omnislash Version 5 from Advent Children.
    • Sephiroth's "Super Nova" uses the incantational equations of its namesake, but hits with a Meteor rather than an exploding sun.
    • Lightning's "Gestalt Drive" is visually her Army of One attack as seen in Lightning Returns, though it finishes with her personal rendition of Zantetsuken.
    • Inversely, Snow's "Sovereign Fist" involves summoning Shiva-Ixion to perform Diamond Dust before he deals the Ground-Shattering Landing.
  • The Composite Attack trend continues with two XIII-related additions to Maxima.
    • Lightning's "Flourish of Steel" is named after Odin's attack string, has visuals better reflecting her Army of One in XIII, and deals Thunder-elemental physical damage in the manner of Sparkstrike (most telling when compared directly to Snow's Froststrike, which runs on the same principle).
    • Shiva-Ixion's "Icicle Drift" uses the name of one of the Twin Sisters' normal attacks in Gestalt Mode, but creates the icy whirl of the Diamond Dust finisher from the same.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard
  • Enemies seem to have unlimited AP, in contrast with the players' stacks being limited to 12 AP for a full stack (or 24 AP for a Mega Mirage).
  • Tying into the above, wild XL-sized Mirages do not fade out over time.
  • At least the first AI-controlled Magitek Armours has access to Thunder Beam, whereas player-controlled Magitek Armours are limited to Fire Beam and Ice Beam (Magitek Armour A models have Thunder and Ice, while Maxima-exclusive Magitek Armour P models have Thunder and Fire).
• Creative Closing Credits: See Dance Party Ending below. The very final character that shows up in the second half of the credits (after the below aforementioned trope) is Hauyn as a Lilikin.
• Cute Monster: All common Mirages, even Behemoths, are absolutely adorable.
• Cute Monster Girl: Some of the female mirages, which include franchise summon monsters like Shiva and Siren, are this.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: During the anime-styled opening, Lann and Reynn are seen invoking Tamamohime together in the manner of an XL-size Mega Mirage. In the game itself, Tamamohime is just L-sized and fits into one twin's stack.
• Dance Party Ending: The game's ending credits shows the entire cast dancing to an upbeat j-pop song.^note The aforementioned song is called 'World Parade' and it's being sung by the Japanese voice actors of Enna Kros, Tama and Serafie
• Dead All Along: The twins' parents and the Thane of Saronia all died when their bodies were taken over by Pellinore, Segwarides and the Bahamutian Commander.
• Death Glare: Lann, Reynn and Tama all give one of these (along with growling!) to Edgar at the end of Chapter 15 in response to his The Mole antics.
• Deconstruction: Of typical Mons Series games. In a typical Mons game summoning some ancient being of pure power would be just something you do by the end of the game, usually as part of the main plot and definitely part of the postgame. Summoning some flavor of Bahamut would be downright expected in this game by series fans, especially by the end of the game. However, it turns out that summoning ancient beings of unfathomable power which have their own agendas and refuse to play along with the teenage summoners ends poorly — for everyone.
• Demo Bonus: Playing the demo not only lets you carry over your save into the full game, you get to bring a Magitek P Armor Mirage with you!
• Denser and Wackier: The game has a lot more jokes, self-awareness and fourth wall-breaking compared to other games in the series. That said however, the plot does get quite dramatic in spots, especially towards the end.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • When stacking Mirages, if one of them has two heads, the Mirage on top will stand on top of one of the heads rather than just weirdly float in the middle of them.
  • It is possible to avoid visiting Agarthir until the twins are informed to seek the cathedrals where Federation towns are chained to the Bahamutian castle. Dialogue at the point in question will change to refer to the party's passing by rather than their visiting.
  • During the initial portion of the Postscript, in which Tama is gone following her Heroic Sacrifice, Serafie takes her place in all of the Intervention Quest conversations that involve her. Any time Lann or Reynn mention Tama's name will also have separate lines with Serafie's name instead.
• Discard and Draw: Several Mirages (most prominently the Pleiad's Seven, save for Bahamut) can be acquired both as storyline-specific "Sui Generis" incarnations, and as forms of generic Mirages. The Sui Generum cannot be transfigured into their alternate forms, restricting their use in stacks to their base form. However, they have a single Mirage board with just as many spaces on it as the combined boards of their generic counterparts (give or take), and may be able learn abilities that the generic ones cannot. They also have the advantage of their Mirage boards being easier to master, since you don't need to acquire any Mementos or achieve a minimum level, as generic Mirages to be transfigured and unlock their full potential.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • Early in the game after you've met The Girl Who Forgot Her Name, you can complete two Intervention Quests. Once done you can return to the fields outside Cornelia and fight the Princess Goblin. She is much more powerful than she was in the aforesaid Intervention Quest, but by using Flash Bombs to blind her and some RNG luck you can imprism this monster early, netting every Mirage in your party 15-20 levels.
  • In a similar vein, completing the story events with Refia and completing another couple Intervention Quests scores the player a fight with the Undead Princess. Her prismtunity is triggered by light attacks, which Icicle Ridge's baby paleberries provide, scoring another few levels for a determined player.
  • Once you have access to the Colosseum, if you participate in enough battles, the Nebula Nitwits (Shiva and Ifrit) will show up and you can fight them. With their simple prisumtunity conditions (hit them with their own element) and the fact that they're not much stronger than the fight in the Nebula, a well-prepared player can claim the Sui Generum about thirty levels sooner than it's safe to try and get the mementos for transfigging.
  • With the Coliseum DLC (or the Maxima version that includes them all for free) for them, you can battle many powerful Mirages as soon as you visit the Coliseum, and with some luck you can successfully imprism them and get a serious leg up at that point in the game.
• Distaff Counterpart: The game introduces three gender-flipped versions of the famous Fire, Ice, Lightning summons:
  • Ifreeta a female version of Ifrit. She essentially looks like a fiery lion-woman, and is actually considered a fugitive of sorts in the game proper.
  • Shivalry, a male version of Shiva. He looks like he jumped straight out of a Sentai series, and despite the Punny Name, he too serves a fugitive role in the story.
  • Ramewl, a female version of Ramuh. A pink-haired young thing connected to a massive electrical something, she happens to be the granddaughter of this universe's Ramuh.
  • As it turns out, Enna Kros is Alexander.
• Dying as Yourself: After Pellinore and Segwarides are defeated, Lusse and Rorrik return to normal, and their spirits have just enough time to say goodbye to their children before they pass on.
• Easter Egg: The Joyride ability lets you ride Mirages outside of towns; in overworld regions, this will also change the music. Certain Mirages have unique music for this situation.
  • Chocobo/Mecha Chocobo: Chocobo theme.
  • Magitek Armor^* Any variety: World of Balance theme.
• Eldritch Location: Castle Exnine.
• End Game Plus: Beating the game allows you to save your progress to that point, to allow you to collect more mirages, build up your party, find more treasures, etc.
• The End... Or Is It?: Defeating Brandelis the second time gives you an ominous-looking END and, for Playstation or Xbox players, the trophy/achievement "The End?" to go with it. After your return to the title screen, a new menu option with only one option, "No!" appears. Selecting it begins a new sequence with Reynn in a dive and a voice asking her "You will not accept this? It was your doing. Yours. And now you would refuse to accept the consequences?"
• Evil Is Bigger: L-size for enemies is a significantly broader spectrum than L-size for the player. Libra proclaims such titans as Syldra and the Mega Red Dragon, which stand equal with or taller than many of Lann and Reynn's XL-sized Mega Mirages, as L-sized. The only unimprismable enemies that are classified as XL-sized are Supraltima Weapon (which is an oversized version of the already-XL-sized Ultima Weapon) and Exnine Bahamut, final form (whose head alone can barely fit on the screen and still let you see the jewel in Brandelis' chest).
• Evil Is Not a Toy: It's eventually revealed that the presence of Brandelis and the Bahamutian Army is entirely Lann and Reynn's fault. In the past, they, arrogantly believing they were destined to bring peace to the world, opened the Ultima Gate and summoned Brandelis to their world using their Mirage Keeper powers, but Brandelis refused to accept the two as his masters and instead invaded Grymoire.
• Exact Words: The Bahamutian Army runs on this trope; after a state joins the Federation, their citizens are encouraged to raise their "civic rank". The highest civic rank is Architect, which is advertised as a life of leisure, never wanting for food, and living in a castle after induction at the nearest cathedral. Being an Architect involves getting turned into a crystal at the cathedral and being pumped up the Chainroad to Castle Exnine, where the Architects are used as power sources to empower the Heralds. As Shelke points out, crystals do not need to eat or sleep, and becoming energy doesn't require any physical exertion on the souls' part. Lann and Reynn are straight-up disgusted at this revelation.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • An NPC in Agarthir gives you a quest to beat up some cactuars so he can figure out how to foot race with them. No, his dialog doesn't change even if you have a Cactuar Mirage of your own tagging along with you.
  • Come morning in the desert after meeting with Lightning, neither she nor the twins noticed a giant chain sticking out of the desert holding Figaro Castle until it's close by.
• Fighting from the Inside: Pellinore is unable to access her full power in Grymoire because remnants of Lady Lusse's soul remain inside her body, refusing to let Pellinore take over completely. The Bahamutian Commander still feels the Thane of Saronia's emotions for the same reason.
• Fission Mailed: The so-called 'bad ending' is actually a crucial plot point to the game, as noted in The End... Or Is It? above. It's essentially the game's story at it's Darkest Hour, and getting this ending is one of the things you need to get to finish the game proper. Even the speedrun.com page for this game points out this:
  This is NOT the fake ending that occurs near the end of the game.
• Foreshadowing:
  • During the fight with Syldra on Faris' ship, Lann commands Tama to "make [her]self big"... to no avail. It turns out she can make herself big in the endgame - specifically, she has an L-sized transfig that gets unlocked near the end of the postscript.
  • Pellinore is shown suppressing Reynn and Lann's powers in the Desert Region. It turns out she's the possessed body of their mother, Lady Lusse.
  • After the Vampire King is slain, Cloud advises Lann and Reynn not to do anything they'll regret later on. They end up being tricked into reopening the Ultima Gate, allowing the Exnine Knights to summon the Cogna. And it was later revealed that the twins were responsible for Brandelis and the Bahamutian Federation being in Grymoire.
  • Talk to Cid enough times after defeating the Vampire King, he'll tell you that the Crimson Prophecy is not recorded in any of his books. A hint that it's fake.
• Forgot About His Powers: In lieu of the classic "silence", the status effect that prevents ability use is called "oblivion"; constant references to the river Lethe indicate a literal form of this trope.
  • A more story-based instance of this is where Lann and Reynn are trying to acquire a boat in order to reach the Low Seas, despite possibly acquiring a Sharqual (a shark Mirage) by this point, who could definitely swim.
• Fun with Acronyms: Ghidra's description states that its name is not short for Greg the Huge and Industrially Designed Roasting Apparatus.
• Funny Background Event: At the beginning of the true ending credits, Tama and Serafie can be seen interacting with some the champions, and some of the champions with each other. This includes Tidus accidentally hitting Shantotto with a blitzball, and Tama accidentally swallowing a music note.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • Hilariously subverted in one of the Intervention Quests involving Mog, the Cactuar Conductor, and Master Tonberry. After a few short battles, Mog proposes they try stacking - the battle system's cornerstone, in which multiple units stacked together combine their stats, strengths, and weaknesses. They proceed to stack... and Tonberry can't move, Cactuar is having trouble keeping his balance, and they are quickly toppled by a rampaging Tifa. Double-subverted in the post-game, where the three are Imprismable, which reveals why their stack failed. Like their normal species, Master Tonberry is an M-sized Mirage, while Master Moogle and Master Cactuar are both S-sized Mirages; a three-Mirage stack requires an L-sized Mirage on the bottom.
  • All Mirages are members of a species, so while you'll meet many Mirages with important story roles, you can find and imprism their "generic" forms somewhere out there, or another Mirage that can transfigure into them. The game differentiates between story-specific incarnations of Mirages and generic ones for the player's convenience. The one exception is Bahamut; there's no way to get a second one of him, he really is one-of-a-kind. And that's still not an exception to the trope because there are other Bahamuts out there, and it's where the Bahamutian Federation gets its name — Brandelis is a Bahamut, too.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • The reason you respawn when you Game Over is that Tama has multiple lives, and she sacrifices one of them to rewind time a little to before the battle and bring you back to safety. However, the process tires her out and she mentions she may need to rest a bit afterwards. Getting a Game Over never has any effect on Tama's performance in battle even if you immediately jump back through the gate and battle the boss that just killed you. It also has no impact on her pulling a Cosmic Retcon on a larger scale at the end of the game, no matter how many lives she had to sacrifice saving you during the game.
  • Even when participating in an intervention battle in which Reynn and Lanna are taking the place of one of the champions, it is still possible to summon that champion if you have their medal equipped. One of the Trophies even requires this.
  • The forms Lann and Reynn assume during cutscenes have no effect on any battles that they immediately segue into; i.e. if the player has Lann and Reynn as Lilikin and the cutscene before the fight shows them as Jiants, the fight will use their Lilstacks.
  • In the post-ending of the game, the twins are replaced with prismarium copies, which means they can be removed from your stacks and stored with Serafie just like any other Mirage. However, even if you do this you still control the twins on the overworld as your characters. Maxima averts this a bit by making Hauyn the playable character for the post-game, but she's still always accompanied by Lann and Reynn even if you leave their prism behind again.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: Despite the game being much more kid-friendly than most Final Fantasy titles, the writers slipped a few jokes for older fans in.
  • One of the intervention scenes with Sherlotta and Refia have them talk to an Undead Princess, who makes a comment "holding this grudge has been great for [her] hex life".
  • Ultros' usual flirtatious and perverted nature is perhaps the most explicit it's ever been. The scene of him tricking Terra into following him into the mountains plays like a sexual predator coaxing their victim to come with them, and he says his intent is to get her somewhere where "[they] can have plenty of fun together".
• The Ghost: Several characters are mentioned but never seen, such as Lich, Serah Farron, Dr. Kadowaki, and most of Shinra. Maxima removes Serah and Lich from this trope, but adds Kain Highwind and Rosa Farrell.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The summonable Champions come very close, with 6 males to 8 females. Maxima adds 4 males and 2 females to hit perfect balance for the new Champion Jewel system.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: The game is light on the swearing but heavy on the slang to substitute for it; Lann's favorite is "honk", i.e. "what the honk" and "what in the honk".
• Grade System Snark: Lann suggests referring to a magical transportation portal as a "porta-party." Tama says that the name gets an F, Reynn comments that it deserves an H. Later, when he makes a "Tama-hawk" joke, Tama gives it a PU grade.
• Gratuitous Princess: The game has a number of princesses, including Princess Serah, Faris^note Who is secretly a princess in her original game, the Undead Princess, the Princess Goblin, and the Princess Flan^note who is depicted as a Slime Girl instead of a Blob Monster this time around. Also, as Lusse Farna is described as the "Queen of Keepers" of ages past, that would make Reynn a princess (and Lann a prince) by technicality.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The Knights of Corneria aren't there to protect Princess Sarah whenever she decides to go out (or even keep her from going out to begin with), but it's downplayed in that they seem capable in mounting a counteroffensive (despite Princess Sarah's saying they lack the manpower) when the Bahamutian Soldier amasses a Goblin army to invade them.^note Sure, it would still be up to Reynn and Lann to take care of the Mirage Keeper, but even before the Warrior of Light was awakened, they seemed to be handling things pretty well.
• Here We Go Again!: After the credits, Enna Kros rewards Hauyn and Tama's work with prismariums of Lann and Reynn after the original twins volunteered to be sucked away with Brandelis. While these twins are now merely copies of the originals, they essentially serve the same purpose in Grymoire: Mirage Keepers protecting their world.
• Heroic Mime: Not the protagonists, but Sora^note English version only (and Sephiroth, although he doesn't qualify as "heroic"), when summoned, is The Voiceless. Presumably, it's because hiring their voice actors for cameos would be pricey, and reusing dialogue from past games wouldn't fit the situation.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: There are a few throughout the game. The first happens right around the beginning as a means of demonstrating that losing a battle normally will send your playable characters back to Nine Wood Hills. There are a couple more in Saronia Harbour and Midgar.
• Hurricane of Puns: Lann simply can't be stopped and Tama picks up the habit fairly quickly, though she rarely seems to actually get the joke. Reynn usually protests, but even she succumbs on occasion.
• In Name Only
  • The prison beneath Figaro Castle is given the name Midgar from Final Fantasy VII, but is more reminiscent of the D-District Prison from Final Fantasy VIII
  • Maxima's Champion Jewels allow Lann and Reynn to use the abilities and attacks of various Champions. Cloud's Champion Jewel gives Lann access to "Slayer", but the animation has the strokes and kana of Cross Slash.
• Interface Spoiler: Tama's true form is half spoiled by the fact that she has a large (albeit shadowed out) transfiguration cube on her mirage board with no details on how to unlock it. Although you are given no clues to what her true form looks like, it does spoil that Tama has a transfiguration and that it is (at least) L-sized.
• Irony: In Final Fantasy XIII, Odin fought Lightning and a young ally, and served as the Thunder-elemental summon, standing in for Ramuh. In World, Odin fights Lightning and a young ally, and is scared of Ramuh... and his granddaughter, who serves as the aforesaid young ally.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: All over the place; Lann protesting that he's not royal when Reynn calls him a "royal doofus", Reynn taking offense to being included when Shantotto mentions "twin losers", Cid insisting on being called a bibliophile when Reynn questions how he ended up in a robot body...
• Knight of Cerebus: Any scenes with the Knight in the Black Armour^* Brandelis, the Knight in the Golden Mask^* Segwarides, and/or the Plumed Knight^* Pellinore are completely without any sort of joke.
• Lame Pun Reaction: The Mirage Manual makes a lot of terrible puns, and often reprimands itself for it.
  Chocobo: One of many birds valued throughout Grymoire as a mode of transport. Flightless, but fleet on their feet. The males are called "chocobros"... by no one, if there's any justice in the world.
  White Nakk: A wolflike Mirage with sharp fangs and thick fur to protect against the cold. You could say that it has a "nakk" for hunting... but please don't say that.
  Minimantoise: A Mirage that uses its hard shell to protect companions from attack. But flip these sheldons over and they will shed soft turtle tears. They're quite young, so maybe mini-boy-toise would be more appropriate. (...Or maybe not.)
  Phoenix: A legendary firebird with miraculous regenerative powers. As you may have noticed, these Mirages' down feathers and pinions are used to create precious items. "Nothing like a little phoenix down to help you phoenix up!" said no one ever... but they should!
• Leaning Tower of Mooks: One of the main mechanics of the game, in which both the player and enemies can attack in stacks, which possess the combined stats and abilities of the component monsters. Both the player’s and enemy’s stacks can be knocked off balance and even toppled as they take damage; some attacks are designed specifically to do this. There are also items and abilities that can restore stability to an unstable stack.
• Legacy Character: Rather than taking any existing Cid from the series, Grymoire gets its own - a cute little robotic book-lover.
• Legendary Weapon: Twelve of them, in fact, are featured orbiting Brandelis during the first phase of the true final battle.
• Lemony Narrator: Whoever or whatever writes the Mirage Manual is very irreverent, complete with Breaking the Fourth Wall and Self-Deprecation of the greater Final Fantasy series. They're also very prone to Cloud Cuckoo Lander-esque tangents.
  Memecoleous: "A Mirage that has slowly turned to sand over time. Not a meme, but possibly meme-worthy. After a memecoleous uses its Doom ability and starts the countdown, your turns are numbered. So remember: never, ever invite one of these to a New Years Eve party."
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to the main series, it is pretty lighthearted.
• Lovecraft Lite: The main villain and the Big Good are interdimensional beings capable of impossible feats, such as creating worlds or ignoring the rules of another god's world.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Chocolina appears to be convinced that putting on a pair of glasses and calling herself "Chocolatte" is all it takes for her to be a whole different person.^* The Who's Who explains that she isn't trying to hide herself so much as to just disassociate herself from the chocobo chick who travelled with Sazh, but it fits the trope in spirit. Nobody in Grymoire knew her in the first place, but any player can recognize her on the spot (and her unkicked habit of cheering "Choco-boco-lina!" when somebody walks up to her shop doesn't help).
• Magikarp Power: Many Mirages take a lot of level grinding to max out, but in the end it's worth it. Special mention to the iconic trio of Ifrit, Shiva, and Ramuh — their non-unique forms will need to be grinded up to Level 80 or higher to max out all their boards, and their sync rating will suffer since they have alternate forms that can't be unlocked for transfiguration until the post-game bonus dungeons. But if you stick it out with them, you get Mirages with high stats, powerful abilities, and can be transfigured into different sizes to easily fit into any stack.
• Medium Awareness: When Lann, Reynn and Serafie are having a conversation regarding Sephiroth, Tama and/or Serafie makes a comment about DL- er, nevermind. Sephiroth is a downloadable Champion.
• Milking the Giant Cow: And making ice cream, in Shivalry's case. Also defies Evil Is Hammy, given his heroic persona.
• Money Spider: After defeating the first Bahamutian Commander and his Giant Goblin, after commenting on stocking up on healing items, Reynn wonders why Mirages carry so much cash, in which Tama handwaves that Enna Kros was involved.
• Monster Compendium: The Mirage Manual, in all its irreverent glory.
• Morphic Resonance: When Lann and Reynn meet a distressed ribbiting toad, it has grey skin, a distinctive tuft of blond hair, and a bandana — an early tip-off that it's actually Snow when you cure him of his Toad status shortly afterward, since they have the same color palette and bandana.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Fenrir's entry includes the text (Wheels and sword compartment not included in this model), referncing Cloud's motorcycle, which is also called Fenrir.
  • Cerberus's entry include the text "A certain Mr. Valentine packs a gun named after this Mirage, but neither he nor his weapon seem to be around.", referencing Vincent Valentine, who indeed doesn't appear in this game.
  • One of Yuna's Intervention Quests, called "The Sad Spiral", has Yuna speaking with a Young Girl about to venture outside of Agarthir to lead the dangerous Cogna away from the town. She explicitly states that when she's lured it far enough away from Agarthir, it WILL kill her where she stands. She tells Yuna that she will do what she must to protect the town, and her family citing that a little bit of hope, is still worth it. This perfectly mimics Yuna's Summoner Pilgrimage from her home game. As an even further comparison, to drive the point home, the music that plays during the cutscene is reminiscent of the sad, somber piano themes from X as well.
  • Snow gets a couple gags during Intervention Quests that reference the events of the Lightning Saga. He briefly travels with Celes, who hates him at first sight despite Snow not seeming to notice, which echoes the early portions of his time with Hope. He ends up fighting Gilgamesh and claims they must've met in another life, referencing the DLC Coliseum in Final Fantasy XIII-2. He also gets to fight the Big Jiggle alongside Shiva-Ixion and Shivalry, mirroring his summons of the Twin Sisters.
  • An Intervention Quest involving Mog, the Cactuar Conductor, and Master Tonberry has Mog propose Rock-Paper-Scissors to solve a battle-related conundrum. A different Mog also played Rock-Paper-Scissors with similar reasoning.
  • Squall, searching for a purpose other than simply fighting, says that he'll plant flowers. This is a reference to an optional one-off gag in Final Fantasy VIII where if you have Squall lie while being tortured in the D-District Prison, he'll say that the "true mission" of SeeD is to plant flowers around the world because seeing flowers drains people's will to fight, after which they invade.
  • Saronia is loaded with allusions to Dragoons across the series — the Dragoon statues on the walls resemble the DS Dragoon designs of Final Fantasy III, artwork on the wall depicts Kain, and the central columns of the throne room hold spears from XIV, IV, XIII, and VII. This is all because in III, Saronia was where players fought the Garuda, a difficult boss that was much easier with a party of Dragoons. Speaking of which, the birds behind the throne depict the Garuda in the same pose as its sprite in III.
  • "Aria di Mezzo Carattere" features plans for an opera, Celes and Cloud being asked to take part, and an interruption from Ultros. Celes and Cloud both have experience with plays in their separate games. Celes' encyclopedia entry covering that also mentions Cloud's time Disguised in Drag.
  • When first approaching Agarthir to find the Cathedral, Lann mispronounces it and comes up with "Theathrythm".
  • Lightning tells Lann and Reynn to "make sure [they] sort things out" with their sister Hauyn. Her tone makes it clear that Final Fantasy XIII's terrible snowball effect from Lightning failing to do so (or a similarly disastrous proceeding) has taken place in Grymoire. Sure enough, when Hauyn refuses to hear out or explain anything to the twins, the end result is that just about every character original to World ends up dead, Grymoire irrevocably plunged into despair, and a decisively bad ending.
  • During the cutscene after the false ending, Reynn is seen falling headfirst into darkness with bubble trails behind her. The start of the sequence is identical to the start of most Dives to the Heart in Kingdom Hearts; during the fall, phantoms of Lann and Reynn appear similar to Riku's dive into Sora's heart in Dream Drop Distance, and Reynn's arrival has her turn around and find Tamamohime standing behind her, similar to Sora and Roxas's boss fights during their dives in I and II.
  • Although the Toad status doesn't appear in the game, Snow does get turned into a frog in the Windswept Mire
  • Lightning gets her sword broken, again (twice, even). After getting it fixed up the first time, she has Ramewl cover the blade in electricity for her rematch, similar to the Enthunder spell from her Saga.
  • Although several characters have their weapons stowed away in Hammerspace when not in use, others are seen keeping them on their person in manners reminiscent of their original games:
    • Cloud's Buster Sword sits on his back.
    • Squall keeps his Revolver gunblade slung across his shoulder.
    • Lightning's sword gets the hammerspace treatment, but her shield is kept on her arm at all times.
  • The Mirage Manual is stuffed to bursting with gags, including from games that otherwise don't get representation in the base game.
  • The Champion Jewels added for Maxima include one for Firion, which grants Lann an ability called "Ultima 1". Final Fantasy II disregarded the tiered magic of the rest of the series in favour of levelling magic the more it was used (albeit with Roman numerals rather than Arabic).
• Mons: The core gameplay involves battling, collecting, and befriending monsters, called "Mirages".
• Named Weapon: Though never named in-game, the weapons that orbit Brandelis at the beginning of the true final battle are obviously referencing the Twelve Legendary Weapons^* Assassin's Dagger, Apollo's Harp, Excalibur, Fire Lash, Gaia's Bell, Holy Lance, Magus Rod, Masamune, Rune Axe, Sage Staff, Sasuke's Katana, and Yoichi's Bow.
• Never Say "Die": Subverted. Even though being defeated in battle gives the classical message of "The party has fallen", it's explicitly stated that the heroes die when they are defeated. Fortunately, Tama can reverse this in most cases by using one of her lives, causing the party to return to Nine Wood Hills without losing any progress other than needing to backtrack.
• New Game Plus: Added for Maxima.
  • Lann and Reynn's levels are maintained.
  • Up to 200 Mirages will be carried over^* Sui Generum aren't immediately available, but will be brought back up to how you left them once they are imprismed again, with their levels as they had been and their Mirage Boards cleared.
  • Mirage Manual, Who's Who, and Theater Mode are all at the same level of completion
  • Starting a New Game+ unlocks Nightmare difficulty, not normally available.
  • A Mirajewel found in the first region of Grymoire cuts down the encounter rate.
• No-Gear Level: As part of a ploy by the League of S, your two playable characters are imprisoned in Midgar, the prison beneath Figaro Castle. However, the plan is interfered with courtesy of Pellinore, who straps Lann and Reynn with devices that completely strip away their normal ability to use mirages or abilities obtained from Mirajewels. Fortunately, one Hopeless Boss Fight later, Squall introduces them to Eldboxes, which allow them to use machines in lieu of Mirages.
• Optional Boss: Dark versions of Ifrit, Shiva, and Ramuh's Mirage families wait at the end of the first three post-game dungeons, while XG lurks at the end of the fourth.
  • Maxima adds Lich, Marilith, and high-level Kraken and Tiamat fights in the new fifth post-game dungeon, along with a final boss fight with all four plus Garland.
  • Maxima also includes a few Bonus Bosses not related to the dungeons, with a hunt for puzzle switches unlocking a fight with The Immortal Dark Dragon from the Meli-Melo spin-off, and a quick look at the Rumour Radar enabling a fight with Enna Kros.
• Overly Long Fighting Animation: Mostly exclusive to key bosses and Mega Mirages, but still fairly prevalent. There's even a dedicated button for fast-forwarding attack animations during battle.
  • The Mega Mirages' entrances alone take up almost their entire musical theme's intro. Thankfully, this is skippable.
  • On the first phase of Brandelis's true final battle, the skill Arcarmament features him selecting three of the Twelve Legendary Weapons revolving around his back before dramatically warping towards the party, triplicating himself to surround them and attacking with varied effects depending on the weapons chosen.
  • Not to be outdone by the original's 35 second battle animation, the majestic activation of Exnine Bahamut's Megaflare Cannon lasts all of 45 seconds before actually damaging the party.
• Overly Long Gag: The Goblin Princess is finally convinced that the Warrior of Light doesn't want to marry her, and is basically spared as a friend due to Princess Sarah's mercy... so she very, very slowly says her farewell while apologizing, promising to be a better ruler, and hoping they all hang out together sometime.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: As pointed out in "Who's Who", Princess Sarah's commoner disguise counts as such.
  As for Princess Sarah's "disguise", well... she isn't fooling anyone. What she considers common clothing is actually quite fine; between that and her refined speech, she sticks out like a sore thumb. Still, the Cornelians do their best to humor her. What a warmhearted and considerate people!
• Parallel Conflict Sequence: In the lead up to the final battle, Reynn and Lann each have a one-on-one fight against Pellinore and Segwarides respectively. Well, if you count each stack as one party member, that is. And at the same time, the Champions are also keeping Brandelis occupied.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: After completing certain "Intervention" quests, you're able to have a re-match against a souped-up version of a boss you previously fought. Normally they'd be too powerful for you to defeat the first time you get a chance to fight them, but if you Imprism them, you earn EXP as if you won the battle. Downplayed in that you can only Imprism these bosses once.
  • The secret area of the Nether Nebula is a great early-game grinding spot since the enemies can regularly give out 4000-7000 EXP when the regular enemies at that point in the game only give 300-600 EXP. Don't go there unless you're level 14 at the minimum though unless you want to get curb stomped and make a tedious journey.
• Permadeath: Thresholds suppress Tama's resurrection powers, so if you die while in one, you're done.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Lann is dressed in black with blue trims, while Reynn wears a pink top and black skirt.
• Poor Communication Kills: Despite finding out they lost their memories, Hauyn still yells at the twins for their actions in the past, and then runs off before explaining anything proper. The bad ending most likely could have been avoided if she had just talked to the twins about what happened and explained the situation.
• Preorder Bonus: All preorders get a Sephiroth Champion summon, along with special variations of three other monsters (Tonberry, Moogle, and Chocobo to be specific). These are also included with the Day One Edition, regardless of whether or not you preordered it.
• Quieter Than Silence: Averted at The Ends of Grymoire, the front doorstep of Castle Exnine, which has no ambient background noise; the only sounds are those triggered by the player (change of Stroll/Joyride Mirages, opening menus, going through the Gate, and triggering warp devices).
• Red Herring: The twins' train tickets are semi-lifetime passes, and not lifetime ones. This never becomes relevant.
• Redemption Equals Death: The Bahamutian Commander helps Lann and Reynn battle the Kyubi and gives his life to finish it off for good. The Commander was compelled to battle the beast because it killed the Thane of Saronia's wife, and the remnants of the Thane's soul within the Commander demanded she be avenged.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The twin protagonists, Lann and Reynn. Lann is wearing blue but really focusing on fighting and rather Book Dumb. While his sister, Reynn is wearing red but focusing on the enemy's weakness before attacking and rather Smart.
• Revive Kills Zombie: Applies to exactly four Mirages, all of which are transfigurable into one another^note Plus the Sui Generis of the L-sized one, and not a single more. Also, Phoenix Downs cannot be aimed at the enemy (although full-heal X-Potions will serve to deal a One-Hit Kill).
• Rule of Cute: World is one of the cutest games in the franchise - which is NOT to say that it's lacking in seriousness.
• Russian Reversal: The description for the Spark is as follows.
  A dragon with a storm cloud for legs. Naturally, it uses thunder abilities. Wait... If you stack with it, does that mean you get to ride a dragon? Nope—it rides you!
• Self-Deprecation: Numerous.
  • The infamous "laughing scene" from Final Fantasy X gets mocked as they visit an area based off of Besaid from that game.
  Tama: Oh, I am the-loving this weather!
  Lann: It makes me just wanna laugh out loud! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!
  Reynn: I have no idea how to react to that, so I'm just gonna ignore you.
  • The Mirage Manual calls out a mistranslation in a monster description:
  Reaver Mu: "A mu originally found in a place called the River Belle. So why is it called a "reaver mu"? Well, kids, that's because it was mistranslated in that other game. However, the idea of a cute, fluffy river Mirage plundering Grymoire was so charming that we decided "what the hey!" And that's how mistakes live forever."
  • The Who's Who entry on Ultros similarly calls out a mistranslation, and mocks whoever made it plausible in the same paragraph.
  Ultros' name comes from Orthros, a two-headed dog in Greek Mythology. There's no explaining the mental leap from a dog to a weird purple octopus monster, but one thing's for certain: his name comes from Orthros, but it definitely isn't Orthros. (Guess the memo hasn't reached everyone yet. Sorry, so sorry!)
• Sequel Hook:
  • During the trip through Castle Exnine, Tama mentions that Reynn and Lann possess thresholds of their own. Nothing comes of this, despite thresholds Brandelis' in particular being crucial to the endgame.
  • The good ending is basically laying the groundwork for a sequel: Reynn and Lann say that they'll 'see [their friends] around' when they go into the gate with Brandelis, and ensures them they'll be OK, the others basically feel they're going to be fine if they work together, they show up in the Dance Party Ending credits, when Enna Kros hands Tama and Hauyn the twin's prismariums containing their prism copies, the aforementioned leads essentially remind them the real ones are still around, and the Who's Who page on Lann states that Enna Kros ascended them as Champions for saving Grymoire, protecting the A-Worlds (read: the Final Fantasy multiverse) and teases that 'we may meet the twins again: in one of these worlds, or perhaps more.'
  • Also, the Day-One exclusive DLC "White Chocobo" possesses the following flavour text:
    A rare, white chocobo. Sadly, you won't get a fat chocobo by transfigging this guy. We had to save something for next time.
  • Maxima adds a new secret ending showing Lann, now wearing a tattered black cloak and much moodier than before, in a dark and desolate world, and he's imprismed a Diabolos using chains oddly similar to the ones the Federation used to imprism their Mirages. He also repeatedly refers to "Sis", but it's unclear if he's referring to Hauyn or Reynn, because he's alone and is wearing both his own and Reynn's gauntlets, begging the question of what's happened to Reynn.
  • Maxima also adds a few points in the Who's Who on people and happenings related to Enna Kros a.k.a Alexander. One mentions that her female body in Grymoire is only one of two forms she favours.
• Sequential Boss: Happens twice. The first time, you are thrust immediately into the fight against Brandelis after defeating Pellinore and Segwarides at the top of Exnine Castle. The second time, you run a gauntlet of five boss battles against Pellinore and a powered-up Segwarides in two chronologically concurrent Duel Boss fights, then a similarly powered-up Pellinore, then a third match with Brandelis, and then Exnine Bahamut. The official strategy guide advises you to discard any foolish notions of preserving your Mega-Potions and Mega-Ethers immediately.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: In the final dungeon, Tama is overcome by how powerful the magic of the Exnine Knights is and must turn back. When Reynn refuses to accept Lann's sacrifice, Tama reveals her true form and gives her lives to rewind time enough for the twins to find another way.
• Shout-Out:
  • Copper Gnome's Mirage Entry mentions a quote "You'll never take me alive, copper!", and implies that it's a reference to something. Except... it's never actually been stated like that.
  • Ice Bat's Mirage Entry has this gem.
  "Did you notice the bat-shaped patch there on its face? It's a bat within a bat! Batception!"
  • Bablizz's Mirage Entry states that she has no button nose and that her eyes are definitely aren't made out of coal, a reference to the Christmas Song "Frosty the Snowman".
  • Devil Wolf's Mirage Entry clarifies that it's not a teenager or a Londoner.
  • Sometime during the climb of the Crystal Tower, we get this exhcange. ^note That said, Warp Ten has been exceeded in the series.
  Lann: Tama! Stand by for Warp Ten!
  Tama: Roger the-wilco! Standing by!
  Lann: WARP! Aha ha ha ha ha!
  Tama: Aha ha ha ha ha!
  Reynn: Oh, good old warp drive. But let's be realistic. Everyone knows Warp Ten is the limit, and we're clearly not moving at infinite speed.
  Lann: Dude.
  Tama: Uh, does she know we were the-kidding?
  • Shivalry's Mirage Entry mentions him not being weak to Space rocks or the color yellow.
• Sizeshifter: Reynn and Lann both have the ability to shift sizes from a chibi-like appearance, called "Lilikin" in game, to their normal Tetsuya Nomura proportions, referred to as "Jiants". This ability also ties into the game's mechanics, as different sizes allow for different monster stacks (and thus, different party compositions). In Maxima, Hauyn accompanies them during the post-game and can also switch between Jiant and Lilikin forms, but hers are purely aesthetic.
• Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: You only get the option to replace Reynn and Lann's positions in their stack with your Mirages after clearing the main story. At that point, the twins you're playing as are prismarium copies that Enna Kros gifted to Hauyn.
• Sophisticated as Hell: In a few places. Usually happens when formally speaking characters quote and/or imitate characters with a more casual manner of speech (such as Princess Sarah echoing Lann's "dude"), or vice-versa (such as Tidus relaying Shantotto's instructions with the same rhyme). Serafie also manages to include the words "plonk" and "yoink" in a Terms of Service ramble early on.
• So Proud of You: The spirit of Lann's father, Rorrik, tells him that he's proud of him, that he's become someone who cares about more than his own cause. "Hang on to that, and you'll go far."
• Spiky Hair: Well, it is Square Enix after all. Lann has some Roxas/Ventus-type sideswept spikes, while returning 'dos include free edges from Cloud, Squall, Tidus, and DLC-exclusive Sora, as well as headwear-directed spikes from the Warrior of Light and Snow.
• Starter Mon: Tama is your first Mirage. She's a unique design instead of being a classic FF monster, and she can't evolve until certain story events. And while you can take her out of your party, she remains an important character in cutscenes.
• Stepford Smiler: Even in the good / true ending, none of the characters are entirely happy about how things have turned out. Reynn and Lann's parents, Lusse and Rorrik are dead and defeating the evil beings that had possessed their spirits only bought a bit of time for their spirit forms to bid good-bye to their children. Furthermore, Reynn and Lann have to leave Grymoire. But Lusse tells Reynn to not be sad and to "turn those corners up," then Reynn later says the same thing to the Champions of Grymoire as she and Lann are about to leave.
• The Stinger: Completing all the bonus quests in Maxima unlocks a new cutscene showing Lann (the real Lann, not the Prismarium clone created in the ending) trying to track down Reynn while struggling to control a mysterious new power.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Reynn is the focused Straight Man to Lann's Idiot Hero of a Wise Guy. More specifically, the game's creators have said that they're intended to be a continuous Boke and Tsukkomi Routine throughout the game.
• Summon Magic: The usual gang of summon regulars appear here, but most of them are treated like the rest of the mirages gameplay-wise, able to join the party and actively fight with them. Two different game mechanics stand in for those of summons:
  • The heroes of past Final Fantasy games are invoked, land an attack with an awesome cinematic, and then disappear, similar to summons from III-IX.
  • The Mega Mirages, when called upon, take the place of the main party of Mirages and are fully controllable, much like the summons of X and XIII.
• Super-Deformed: The game plays with this. Your two main characters, Reynn and Lann, can switch freely between "Jiant" form (more realistic human proportions) and "Lilikin" form (super-deformed chibi look reminiscent of the sprites from previous games) and doing so affects what monsters they can use in battle using the "stack" mechanic. Meanwhile, returning characters from past Final Fantasy installments appear in Lilikin form, while their enemies, the Bahamutian Federation, are all Jiants.
• Surprise Vehicle" Despite having a chain reaching towards the sky that would surely undermine its stealth, Figaro Castle manages to get the jump on Lann, Reynn, and Lightning while they were sleeping for the night. Their drinks having been drugged prior may have helped their case.
• Take That, Audience!: Ever look at the game's patch notes on Playstation? Turns out they share their humor with the Mirage Manual.
  If you want, we've given you the power to skip Champion and Mega Mirage animations with the O button, completely invalidating the work of dozens of artists with a single squeeze of your almighty, indifferent thumb.
• Talking in Your Sleep: After you complete the quest to restore Tama, you get a scene with Serafie dozing on the table in the Girl's Tearoom.
  Serafie: Zzz... Don't make fill in for that lazy Tama anymore please... Zzz...
  Girl Who Forgot Her Name: You're a good friend.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Using a Champion Summon temporarily changes the current battle theme to a remix of a past FF song depending on who you summoned. Such as the Warrior of Light's summoning being backed by a Rock Remix of the original Battle Theme from Final Fantasy.
• Timed Mission: In Mako Reactor 0, the actual reactor itself is unaccessible until the meltdown is activated. However, in homage to a similar situation in Final Fantasy VII, the time limit is so generous that the only thing that could possibly result in non-deliberate failure is attacking the murkrift full of Mythril Giants and forgetting to bring Thunder magic.^note This qualifies as non-deliberate failure because the murkrift in question is standing between the player and an item desired by a nearby Gimme Golem; the Gimme Golem, in turn, stands in the way of the machine which deactivates the meltdown and opens ALL barriers, rather than resetting the puzzle.
• Title Drop: The title of the final chapter, "Turn Those Corners Up," is first said by Reynn and Lann's mother, Lusse, and later by Reynn herself.
• Token Evil Teammate: Although the Pleiad^note the Mirages that usually appear in FF games as summons generally gave Lann and Reynn a horrible reputation, Diabolos fits this trope. The others were mostly mistaken for troublemakers^* Bahamut got mad at Brandelis, Leviathan showed up to fight Bismarck and got blamed for his kills, and Odin was looking for a duel worth fighting, but Diabolos actively invades peoples' dreams, perverts their memories, and tries to drive them insane.
• The Twist: The Ultima Gate turning out to be keeping Cogna out isn't one for the Genre Savvy, but the fact that Hauyn tells Lann and Reynn that they opened it again (as in, this isn't the first time) is.
• Useless Useful Spell: Defied; this is one of the rare Final Fantasy games where status spells are extremely useful. Every status ailment is required to imprism at least two Mirages, possibly more, Death and Gravity are still viable to easily beat high-level Mirages in the post-game bonus dungeons, and toppling an enemy stack and inflicting a status ailment on one of them to stop them from re-stacking can make enemy parties easier to take down. Even Contractual Boss Immunity is subverted, as some bosses are vulnerable to status ailments and it can make a big difference in their fights (though they tend to wear off of them quicker than normal). Gravity spells also work on bosses, and although they do suffer a damage penalty, they'll still hit hard.
• Verbal Tic: Tama adds "the-" to the start of at least one word in virtually every sentence she speaks. You really have to applaud the voice actor for how well it's pulled off, that couldn't have been easy. Other characters end up occasionally replicating it.
• The Voiceless: Sora is this among the game's summons. Justified because it would involve legal issues with Disney, and that Haley Joel Osment would be leagues more expensive to cast than any other character.^note This only applies to the English version, anyway, as he is voiced in the Japanese version.
• What the Hell, Player?: Parodied in one of the tutorial screens explaining mirage attacks: the game mentions Tama having an Eye Beams attack, which does not actually exist (as it states), then calls out the player for wanting to burn out her eyes.
• Why Can't I Hate You?:
  • The Captain of the Guard in Figaro Castle is extremely skeptical of the loyalty of the black mages after their Heel–Face Turn. Despite his views as well as his stubbornness, he finds it impossible to actively dislike Vivi due to his childlike innocence and optimism as well as his polite mannerisms.
  • The Goblin Princess reconciles with Princess Sarah and the Warrior of Light, crying and upset at how kind her princess counterpart is and how mean she seems in comparison. The Goblin Princess makes a Heel–Face Turn afterward and gives up on the whole "imprison the princess, marry the hero" thing.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Lightning invokes this when fighting Odin; the Pleiad's swordsman refuses to let Reynn and Lann back her up until Lightning allies with Ramewl, because he's terrified of (and has a massive weakness to) thunder. It is entirely possible for Reynn and Lann to have both Ramewl and Ramuh at this point.
• World of Pun: It starts with the tutorial screens being found under "Tip Jar", and it only gets worse from there.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside/Year Outside, Hour Inside: Time within Grymoire moves quite differently than in Nine Wood Hills; by the time Lann and Reynn awaken within Nine Wood Hills, at least a century has passed within Grymoire, yet once they have awakened, being in Nine Wood Hills pretty much freezes happenings in Grymoire.