The development of "World's Odyssey", a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online RPG (VRMMORPG) created by Enigma Games, halted following the disappearance of its director Shina Ninomiya. One year later, Shina finds herself in the bug-ridden game world with no memory of her past. She soon comes into contact with colleague and Enigma Games lead programmer Arata Mizunashi. Together, they seek to trigger World's Odyssey's Ending Engage so that Shina may log out of the game, battling oddities both inside and outside of the game all the while.
The game is known for its Genre-Busting gameplay, between the visual novel segments and Arata's ability to change the genre of the game, as well as the many ways to trigger a Non-Standard Game Over.
A sequel, Death end re;Quest 2, released in 2020.
Tropes associated with Death end re;Quest:
- Accidental Murder: Arata nearly unintentionally killed Shina (or rather the Ludens' recreation of Shina) with the Ending Engage, since Shina's real body was destroyed by Aphesis when they killed Shina 6 months ago, which means that the current Shina winked out of existence rather than waking up. Thankfully the Ludens saved Shina during Ending Engage and recreated her body. However it will only works as long as World's Odyssey is still connected to the real world.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
- Shina and Arata are concerned about saying something to the NPCs that might cause them to go rogue. Subverted in that the NPCs are not actually AI.
- Arata attempts several searches using Aggle's phone AI. At first it gives generic non-responses, but when he starts trying to ask about the Ludens, it taunts him, demands that he turns over Iris, broadcasts its location and then shuts off for good, worldwide. It then awoke when the Ludens merged the worlds together, distracting the Aphesis cultists long enough for Arata to break away from their grip and runs away.
- Iris went ballistic upon learning that Aphesis gunned down the real Shina. It was all they could do to destroy her body and attempt to shut down World's Odyssey, but she just prevents the game from closing down completely and then locks Aphesis out. They only get back in by stealing Arata's code.
- Alas, Poor Villain: The party takes pity on Ripuka for being born without empathy after defeating her once and for all. Ripuka responds with one last attempt to kill Shina. The Ripuka DLC also paints her in a more tragic light.
- Alice Allusion: Death end re;Quest is saturated with them, from the Trapped in Another World setting, to the Alice Engine, to the White Rabbit helmet that interfaces with World's Odyssey, to a character literally named Alice.
- Anti-Frustration Features: The game lets the player save in the middle of many cutscenes, which is helpful given the number of possible ways for the player to have their progress undone by a Non-Standard Game Over. This more often than not includes being able to save right at the decisions that can possibly lead to Game Overs. However, the player cannot save between defeating a boss and regaining control of their player character, and at least one chapter places a decision during that time that, if failed, requires the player to defeat the boss again.
- Animal Motifs: Each of the girls' Buggies and even outfits resemble the insects they're related to. Shina is spiders, her dress having spider legs. Lily is bees, becoming the Queen (bee) of Heartis and her crossbow being a stinger. Al is centipedes, her tail being the stinger. Clea is praying mantises with her arm blades being where their claws would be. Lucil is flies, from flying on her chair to being able to see hidden paths. Celica is butterflies, her cloak being like a butterfly's wings.
- Arc Words: The concepts of "God" and "Death" come up a lot, ultimately being combined into the "God of Death", a mysterious title that is mentioned multiple times by the Ludens. Just as Clea wonders whether Shina and Arata are gods due to their abnormal level of knowledge about the game world, Alice considers the player to be a god due to their ability to defy the rules of both World's Odyssey and Arata's world. The God of Death moniker comes from your ability to use Save Scumming to keep everyone alive, which Arata implicity confirms by suggesting that you be called the "King of Resurrection" instead.
- The Big Bad Shuffle: Victor Tailman of Aphesis is presented as the Big Bad for most of the game, but Alice suddenly begins merging World's Odyssey into Arata's world and seemingly offs Victor. Arata later learns that Victor is just a vessel of the Aphesis Guru, who lives but doesn't figure into the plot beyond that. Arata temporarily convinces Alice to let him deal with Iris, only for Ripuka (the second most promiment villain behind Victor) to show up out of nowhere and try to kill the party. And of course, none of these parties are the actual Final Boss.
- Bilingual Dialogue: In-universe, Shirote speaks in...the blips and beeps from classic, non-voiced visual novels and RPGs. And can somehow be understood perfectly by the rest of the party. It is downplayed for the player in that her chatter is translated for our convenience.
- Bland-Name Product: Many, many examples. By far the most notable is Aggle, a huge company whose smartphones are in the hands of millions and contain voice-recognition AI. Sound familiar?
- Bowdlerize: Averted; the western release is the only PS4 Compile Heart game (regardless of region) that has not been edited to some degree since Sony began taking a harsher stance on Fanservice in mid-late 2018. Not even its sequel is spared, see Tamer and Chaster below.
- Break Them by Talking: Ripuka does this to Lucil by revealing to everyone that, deep down, Lucil was actually happy to see the elves who bullied her be slaughtered. Lucil initially seems fine, but once Ripuka runs off and Lucil starts trying to address what was said, her suppressed joy overloads and she glitches out while going Laughing Mad.
- Brutal Bonus Level: Once the Strain Area is opened up in Chapter 7, the Pain Area is just as open as well. It's a 5 floor dungeon with fights in every room and each girl's non-DLC Infinity +1 Sword, all leading to a hidden Entoma Queen, Jeez. Killing it gives the "God Save the Queen" achievement/trophy as well as a powerful summon to use. Luckily the game is benevolent enough to give checkpoints at the midpoints and beginnings of each new floor.
- Chekhov's News: Arata and the other real world characters hear a news report about missing foreign idol Chloe Aaron, that doesn't seem to have much to do with what they have going on at that point in time. Chloe Aaron turns out to be eventual party member Celica Clayton's real identity.
- Close-Enough Timeline: By the 65536th iteration of the timeline that Arata oversaw, the timeline is irrecoverably screwed because of the world starting to reject degrades. However, the result isn't a bad thing. Instead of the world reverting to mostly recognizable history, it ends up with World's Odyssey being permanently fused with Earth and becoming a new continent. The various species of Odyssey, Ludens included, are now integrated into larger society. Martyrs are now mostly harmless and docile, with adventurers (being a real job now) handle containment. Shina is now a Luden with Iris as her sister, and it's implied that the in-game version of party members are now distinct beings alongside their real-world version. Aphesis is now a hotel chain, and a good one at that note . Even Lydia and her superior seem happy enough with the situation.
- Curiosity Killed the Cast: In the second chapter, the team comes across a room that is more glitched out than usual. Shina and Arata warn against entering it, but Al Astra is really curious about it. The player can have Al's curiosity get the best of her, which results in the room trying to hijack her mind and body. Shina rushes in, gets hijacked as well, and strangles Al to death. The event is even named "Curiosity Killed the Neighbor."
- Do Not Spoil This Ending: The day after Death end re;Quest 2's release, Compile Heart requested
that people who have "reached the truth of the story" refrain from spreading spoilers about it. This, of course, did not prevent the cutscenes from being uploaded to YouTube in a matter of days. - Darker and Edgier: Following the escalation of Mary Skelter: Nightmares in comparison to most Compile Heart works, Death end re;Quest makes rather extensive use of gruesome bloody deaths and descriptions of what they wouldn't be able to get away with showing.
- Dead All Along: Chapter 10 reveals that Shina died 6 months before the events of the game started, and that the Shina that Arata interacted with is just a digital copy that the Ludens created.
- Death by Genre Savviness: In Chapter 1, the player can only open the door to the King's throne room by completing a visual novel segment with Arata. After doing so and examining the door, the game plays a very brief cutscene where Lily Hopes rushes into the throne room before putting the player back into the dungeon. Seems like a good time to retreat to a save point in order to prepare for the likely boss battle, right? Try to return to the hallway and the door closes behind Lily, who is promptly murdered by the King and his men. Shina rushes in and meets the same fate. Game Over. There's also something similar you can do in Chapter 9, with the same result.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Downplayed. While you're forced to reboot at the last save point after a Game Over, any EXP and money that you earned carries over. Furthermore, the game gives prizes for completing plot-related events, including the Bad Endings.
- Deus ex Machina: Arata is doomed to fail by himself. The only way for him to succeed is by calling for the aid of a higher power - the person holding the controller - who helps him power past Ripuka and Iris and allows him to collect a Ripple Effect-Proof version of the Reset Button from Alice. Lampshaded by the trophy the game gives out for defeating the final boss, which is literally titled "Deus ex Machina."
- Earn Your Bad Ending: One bad ending involves losing in the very first fight of the game, which takes at least a half-dozen turns of Shina doing absolutely nothing.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Even if one looks past the pure hell that Arata goes through to even get what he needs to solve everything, it still takes tens of thousands of resets, some of which consist of the events of Death end re;Quest 2, for him to get close to a Happily Ever After.
- Emotion Bomb: The Buggies are forcefully suppressing an emotion in each member of the team throughout their adventure, all in the name of unloading their pent up emotions on them during a vulnerable moment so they'll be driven berserk and attempt to kill the rest of the party.
- "Eureka!" Moment: In Chapter 11, if the True Ending conditions are met, Ripuka lashing out at the God of Death causes Arata to finally put everything together regarding the nature of his world and World's Odyssey. He then addresses you directly and asks for your help.
- Existential Horror:
- The true purpose of the Reality Objects is to help Arata realize and accept that his world is no more or less "real" than World's Odyssey. One of the few Death Ends that don't involve violence is his mind breaking over the realization that he could be perceived as "fake". He ultimately wins by requesting the aid of someone beyond his "layer" of reality to help fight Ripuka and Iris.
- In a smaller-scale example. Celica becomes The Mole after she figures out that she's in a videogame and is narrowly saved from gliching out via the Despair Event Horizon by Victor Tailman of Aphesis.
- Expy: Shina's real-world appearance looks almost exactly like Alice from Mary Skelter: Nightmares, save for hair and eye color. They even have hair decs in roughly the same places. It's especially amusing given the number of Alice Allusions in the game. On the story side of things, Shina in turn lends much of her development to both Alice and Little Mermaid as they are portrayed in Mary Skelter 2. Both girls received Shout-Out DLC costumes based on the real and game Shina respectively, emphasizing both the original appearance aspect and the later story similarities.
- Fantastic Racism:
- The Beast Clan that Al belongs to were killed en masse because humans created a market for their body parts, including their brains.
- Lucil was cast out of her village for being a half-Elf. This mirrors the more realistic racism that Svetlana Amou suffered in the real world for being half-Russian/half-Japanese.
- Foreshadowing:
- Alice warns Shina that she cannot leave World's Odyssey. She's right, as Shina has no real-world body to return to, and would have been erased from existence by Ending Engage were it not for the Ludens.
- Al's dialogue during "Curiosity Killed the Neighbor" Bad End foreshadows that she and Shina's other party members are not AI, but kidnapped people.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You:
- In-universe, the Ludens eventually figure out how to "program" Arata's world and begin to merge World's Odyssey with it, resulting in untold carnage.
- In Chapter 11, after defeating Ripuka the first time, she causes the area to become distorted and then calls out the "God of Death", the camera zooming in on her face as she taunts someone for acting like they are not involved in the current conflict. Arata and Shina are totally confused, as they are absolutely involved in a battle with her. She demands that the God of Death take their eyes off of her and attacks...the camera. It turns out that the God of Death referred to by the Ludens is not Arata, as he assumed. The God of Death is you, the player.
- This is then immediately inverted. Arata realizes what is going on and then, for the first time, appears with a full body portrait. He states that you've probably seen so many Death Ends, and asks for your help. If you've fulfilled the requirements for the True Final Boss, you can offer your aid, which gives the party a Heroic Second Wind.
- Gambit Pileup: The final two chapters can, in a nutshell, be described as a three-way dance between Arata (with Lydia, Werner Glock, the Arata from previous attempts, and potentially the player throwing their weight behind him), the Ludens (with Ripuka enforcing the Ludens' original plan when they try to give Arata a fair shake at fixing things), and Aphesis Lane. In the normal ending, the Ludens win; in the True Ending, Arata wins out while the Ludens sans Ripuka ultimately get what they want for Iris.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Deconstructed with the Ripuka DLC. Despite appearing to have some level of amnesia, the playable Ripuka is fully aware that she's been summoned just to serve as an extra combatant, and that she can't be seen by or interact with the other party members or even Arata. She expresses loneliness during the campfire events as she simultaneously battles Sanity Slippage, further confused when the antagonist Ripuka appears. She finally goes off the deep end when the antagonist Ripuka gets Hoist by Her Own Petard, but is reeled back in by Alice telling her that you killed her other self precisely due to the bloodlust that she is threatening to succumb to, followed by you apparently promising to reincarnate her as a normal person in Arata's world.
- Genre Mashup: The story starts out a simple mix of Isekai and Cyberpunk, but quickly begins to work in elements of Psychological Horror, Religious Horror, and Cosmic Horror Story as well. Mechanically the game strikes a balance between being a Role-Playing Game and Visual Novel, far more so than most Compile Heart games, while also allowing the normal methods of combat to be temporarily replaced with simplified versions of various other video game genres.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: The normal ending reveals that Arata's been redoing the events of the game repeatedly in the name of attempting to get the whole team out alive, but he doesn't get to keep his memories in between each attempt. Meeting the conditions to advance past the normal end has him gain the ability to retain his memories from thereon out.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Late in the game, Arata starts questioning whether his world is is being manipulated and watched over by a higher power in the same manner that he manipulates and watches over World's Odyssey, and is presented with the choice of either seeking the truth or being himself. Choose the former and he completely loses his mind. Interestingly, the description of the Bad End noted that it's not learning of the truth per se that drove Arata mad, it's that he learned about it way too quickly than his mind can comprehend.Arata: I finally understand how ignorant I truly was. That's right. This world is a lie. I am not, however. I am... DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH
- Golden Ending: In-Universe, World's Odyssey has a True Ending programmed into it that logs the player out of the game. As Shina's logout command is broken and Arata can't force her out, the two resolve to use the ending routine to return Shina to her body. For the game itself, see Close-Enough Timeline.
- Good Bad Bug: In-Universe. Rook's fast travel code is bugged so that he instead duplicates himself whenever he tries to warp. One single mind controls all of his bodies, so he can conduct business in multiple places simultaneously.
- Guide Dang It!: Surprisingly averted as far as the game's true endings go. The game leans on the Fourth Wall early on to let the player know that completing quests will be a requirement.
- Learning skills can fall into this due to the limited number of skill slots. A combo that can teach you something will provide indication and the rate, but finding that combo on your own can be quite the chore.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Subverted in Chapter 3. Arata is carrying an injured Lydia when they're approached by a speeding car, and the player has to choose whether to try to run out of the way or toss Lydia out of danger. If the player does the latter, Lydia is saved and Arata dodges the car at the last second. It is revealed near the end of the game that Lydia used her powers to save him.
- In Chapter 10, Clea performs this to save Shina from Celica, who is being forcefully being controlled to kill everyone but Shina, by intentionally bugging herself out and taking Cecilia down along with herself, as well as taking down Mr. Enigma, who was being controlled by Victor. Luckily Clea, Celica, and the other survive due to the Ending Engage successfully log them out into the real world.
- Hiding in Plain Sight: The Reality Objects are placed in World's Odyssey because the Ludens are constantly monitoring Arata's world for something out of the ordinary. Thus, future Arata hides them right under their noses and trusts that his past self will draw the correct conclusions from them.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The first battle against Ripuka is one that the player is not expected to win. However, the player is expected to try to survive for a few turns, and the game will hand out a bad ending instead of the normal cutscene if the party gets wiped out.
- Humans Are Cthulhu: Clea starts wondering whether Arata and Shina are gods, given their knowledge of the game. Technically they created it, but are just normal humans from Arata's world. Likewise, we are considered gods by the Ludens and later Arata thanks to our ability to "change fate" by reloading after a Game Over.
- Ignore the Fanservice: An optional conversation with Lily at camp has her point out that Arata's Mr. Enigma avatar comes up roughly to the girls' knees. While most of them are wearing tiny miniskirts. The player has the option of choosing whether Arata claims he's been doing this or not.
- Interface Spoiler: The game does not give the player the option of skipping any event that involves making a decision, tipping them off that they are approaching a potential bad ending. Similarly, the game disables the Save, Load, and Return to Title options if the player is in the middle of a bad ending, which usually comes into play with the more elaborate Death Ends.
- Just Ignore It: Al accidentally steps on a peddler's contact lens, which pisses the peddler off. Shina is given the option of either dealing with the merchant or ignoring her. Ignore her and she puts a bullet in Shina's head.
- Language of Magic: The Primitive Language Lydia used to rewrite reality is one. A tomb of it is used as basis for Alice Engine's codes.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: End Quest, a Japan-exclusive RPG Maker prequel created as a pre-order bonus for Death end re;Quest, reveals that Iris inadvertently mucked with the playable heroines' memories and personalities to get them to act like the characters that they are supposed to be portraying. She later wipes their memories of joining together as it was causing bugs in World's Odyssey.
- Logo Joke: The Compile Heart and Galapagos RPG logos glitch out while loading the game, with the former also having its usual jingle omitted.
- Male Gaze: One scene has Arata noticing Sumika's cleavage, and the player is given the option to inform her or try to lean away from her to avoid staring at it. They both lead to the same thing: Arata telling Sumika, who gets flustered before letting it slip at the very last second that she doesn't mind if it's him.
- Man on Fire: In Chapter 9, if the player lures the Infernal Wyrm but then tries to back out of fighting it, it causes the volcanic area to become even hotter and, just as the team contemplates retreating, an Entoma Queen erects an Invisible Wall. Everyone burns to death, begging for a Mercy Kill in their final moments.
- The Many Deaths of You: One of the game's defining traits is the many ways that the player can be given an instant Game Over, many of them being Press X to Die segments.
- Marathon Boss: The final two bosses, for different reasons:
- In the ultimate showdown against Ripuka, the boss looks like it has terrible HP until you hit them and find that your attacks that do four-to-five digit damage to everything else in the game suddenly deal two-to-three digit damage. Ripuka brings along Mooks that aren't exactly lightweights either.
- The Final Boss, while not having the same ridiculous defense, is instead a multi-part battle, with the boss getting inceasingly resilient in each phase.
- Merged Reality:
- Alice merges World's Odyssey and Arata's world with destructive results.
- The second half of Shina's ending reveals that the timeline Arata settles on has normal humans, the Ludens, and the many races of World's Odyssey living in harmony.
- Interestingly, this also affect where the dialogue log is. Before the merging, dialogues of things happened in World's Odyssey and Real World are accessed separately, but after merging, all dialogues are now stored in the Real World section, with the last things in World's Odyssey section is when the Ludens killed Victor-controlled Rook, just before the world merging. Not counting DLC-only conversation, of course.
- Meta Twist:
- A couple of scenes offer choices that do not involve Death Ends, in contrast to most of them that do have a bad ending attached. The most obvious one is Arata's choice on how to react to Sumika's exposed cleavage.
- Like many Compile Heart games featuring a male protagonist, Arata does not have a full-body portrait during conversations. Until he asks for your help in saving both worlds.
- Mind Screw:
- The gamer that manages to break into World's Odyssey sees a girl meeting a brutal death upon starting the game, implied to mirror the R-Rated Opening of Death end re;Quest itself. Except that this doesn't make any sense, because it is all but outright stated that the opening is the end of a failed timeline.
- In the normal ending, some phrases that Arata uses are censored in the same way as banned words in World's Odyssey.
- Werner Glock is hiding in a warehouse. But does not have a physical body. But somehow Rin is his daughter.
- Moment of Weakness: Both of the incorrect options at the end of Chapter 4 have Arata spilling the beans about what he suspects is Iris, either to save himself or in a vain attempt to save Sumika Tokiwa.
- Mood Whiplash:
- Dark as it may be, this is still a Compile Heart game, and so it contains a number of Fanservice scenes.
- Sumika has a Potty Emergency in the middle of the worlds merging, of all times.
- The Most Dangerous Video Game: World's Odyssey has become this, with players who die in the game becoming brain-dead in real life. Naturally, Shina must Win to Exit as the logout commands have been deleted.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Aphesis killing Shina in attempt to stop her from screwing with things further is probably the worst thing they could have done, because it ends up setting the stage for their eventual defeat, namely Iris locking Aphesis out of the game, the rise of the newer Ludens, and the recreation of Shina by the new Ludens.
- No Periods, Period: Averted in World's Odyssey, a feature that Shina regrets adding to the game when hers comes up in Chapter 3. It soon becomes the least of her worries, as her life is placed in mortal danger.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The exact state of the King when Lily and Shina reach him is neither depicted nor described, leaving it up to the player to imagine why they're both reacting with such absolute horror and despair.
- Nuke 'em: In the normal ending, the US military nuked Entoma army attacking the White House. It didn't work; there's just too many of them and the nuke only took out 1/3rd of Entoma there.
- Older Than She Looks:
- The party suspects that Al is no more than ten years old, but she tells them that she is actually fifteen.
- Rin Asukaze looks like a teenager at best, passing herself off as an elementary school student at one point. At 32 years old, she's the oldest character in the game with an unambiguous age.
- Ominous Visual Glitch: World's Odyssey has constant flickering glitchy textures to emphasize the dire state of the buggy MMO.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Zigzagged with the party in Chapter 11. While the dialogue boxes use their real names, the game menus and the dialogue itself continue to use their World's Odyssey names.
- Pinball Projectile: Like previous Compile Heart game Mugen Souls, enemies can be launched into the walls, other enemies, and allies for extra damage.
- The Player Is the Most Important Resource: Right before the character ending, Arata thanks your for your intervention in the game's climax.
- Point of No Return: There is an event in Chapter 10 that, upon being reached, effectively locks the player out of all but two or three areas for the remainder of the game. Fortunately, the game is kind enough to have the stores that you encounter at that point stock all of the sub-quest items, preventing the player from being locked out of the True Ending.
- Reset Button: The True Ending of the game has Arata rewind back time to before the announcement of Alice Engine, to make sure to reverse the effects of both world's destruction and to undo the mass kidnapping and deaths of many people, including Shina's.
- Rewatch Bonus:
- Any mention of the God of Death from the Ludens becomes more interesting on a replay as they are referring to you, not Arata.
- The Episode Chart takes on a whole new meaning on a replay. Its tutorial states that "You have received verification to access ***" and that "Only 'You' have access to this console." Notice that, when you are accessing this menu, you are not in the World's Odyssey interface, and that the chart carries over across save files. The implication is that you are guiding Arata through the other menus, but this menu is part of our terminal into Arata's world and cannot be seen on his end.
- Rewriting Reality: Arata's world is "coded" using language, no different than a computer program like World's Odyssey. Lydia uses a pen to do so, which she gives to Arata before leaving for good. Averted for Alice, who doesn't need a tool to warp reality. Given that she's made of said code (with the Primitive Language being the basis of Alice Engine and thus the Ludens), this is justified.
- R-Rated Opening: The game warns the player that it contains gory scenes and makes good on its promise fairly quickly: the opening cutscene features a mysterious monster tearing through Shina and biting her head off while Arata screams in helplessness, with the narration making it clear that her spine and organs were exposed by the former and that her head and spinal cord flew "like a nightmarish comet" from the latter.
- Schmuck Bait: Choosing to run from the Corpse in Chapter 3 will get the party killed. After choosing the correct option, going through a frantic visual novel segment, and a tiny bit of Shina gameplay, the game will give you the exact same choice. Choose to run again and the party dies in the exact same way, only this time Shina mentions that "someone else's" indecision got them killed.
- Series Mascot: In-Universe, Arata takes the form of Enigma Games' fictional mascot (Mr. Enigma) while interacting with the playable characters.
- Shout-Out: The Episode Chart has a number of them:
- The event where the team comes across dead frogs and fish is "Hallelujah! It's Raining Death!" in reference to The Weather Girls' song "It's Raining Men".
- The Death End where Clea kills Shina has the description "Don't make her angry. You won't like her when she's angry."
- The event for Ripuka's first appearance is named Queen of the Damned.
- The event where Arata's group hatches a plan to infiltrate Aggle's base is named Mission Impossible.
- The Death End where everyone burns to death has the description "Burn, baby. BURN." Referencing the song "Disco Inferno".
- Turns out even the Quests have them as well. One quest is titled "Stardust" with the requester being Ziggy.
- The Stinger: The very end of Shina's ending has a mysterious conversation between Lydia and another figure, both of their names censored in the same manner as banned words from World's Odyssey.
- Super Mode: The characters transform using Glitch Mode when their Corruption hits 80%, giving them increased stats and an exclusive attack. However, not only do they die instantly when their Corruption hits 100%, but if they are revived then they receive debuffs.
- Take That!: When a prototype "booby-mousepad" is brought up during Lydia's introduction, Sumika calls it a turn-off. She then says "Well, I guess considering our target audience, it shouldn't surprise me at all." note
- Taking the Bullet: In Chapter 4, if the player chooses to try to fool the men that kidnap him, they pretend to leave Arata for dead, but follow him back to Munakata's office and catch him trying to warn Sumika about them. They prepare to stab him, but Sumika jumps on top of him and is stabbed to death instead, even after Arata caves and tells them about the e-mail suspected to be Iris.
- Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Alchemy text written in Primitive Language was this. It was founded by what would become Aphesis, and the knowledge of the Primitive Language is used as basis for Alice Engine.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Early on, Shina encounters a bugged NPC that talks in gibberish, and she is given the option of helping them. Naturally, the NPC kills her if she approaches it.
- Shina comes across a diary from the real world that details the owner's last moments, and Arata investigates the real-world location that the diary contains. Shortly after Arata enters the owner's room, the exact same things (the window shattering and the lights being cut off) happen as they do in the diary. Arata can either get the hell out or blow it off as something not paranormal. Choose the latter and he dies.
- In Chapter 2, the party comes across dead frogs and fish laying on the ground. Al has the option of eating the fish, which gives her crippling food poisoning.
- In Chapter 6, Arata (who at this point is a wanted criminal) has to investigate a crime scene with police swarming the place. The player is given the option of hiding out or running into the scene of the crime. Choose the latter and Arata flat-out says that "I suppose I don't have to explain what happened next..."
- Translation Convention: It's obvious that the cast is speaking Japanese that is translated into English for Western players' benefit, but there's one scene that sticks out in which Shina comes across a newspaper written in English and struggles with the phrase "cattle mutilation."
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: Arata's sections play like a visual novel instead of an RPG. Additionally, if battlefield conditions are right, Arata can change the game's genre from a turn-based RPG to something else, including a third-person shooter and a fighting game; this is ultimately Downplayed in that the altered gameplay is extremely simple.
- Up the Real Rabbit Hole: This trope is twisted into knots when it is revealed that Arata's world is "coded" in a near-identical way to World's Odyssey, and that he is being watched over by someone in another world. He still refers to his world as the "real" world right before the character ending, however.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential:
- When the party meets Celica, who is very friendly with them, the player is given the option of fighting her to take her boat. Subverted in that she just decapitates everyone for a quick Game Over if you try it.
- Arata very directly asks for your help. You have the option of not offering your aid, which dooms his journey to be a "Shaggy Dog" Story.
- Violation of Common Sense:
- There are two bosses that make it clear the next event triggers the fight and will give you the opportunity to turn back to a nearby save point, once in the Castle and again in the Volcano. Attempting to take advantage of the chance to save will push you straight into Death Ends.
- In Chapter 3, if you try to run away from the Corpse, it rains down death onto the party. The correct answer is to take it head-on, which results in Shina's face being smashed in but continues the game.
- In Chapter 4, the party comes across a creature that retreats and is forced to choose between running after it and attempting to cut it off. Trying to cut it off leads to the party running into a trap, and the creature laughs as the party dies. Chasing after it doesn't lead to anything, for some reason.
- One of the more well-hidden Death Ends involve retreating from a boss battle, which generally isn't possible in your standard RPG.
- Wham Episode: While Chapter 3 has taken the mood that Shina's death in World's Odyssey means that she dies in the real world, Chapter 4 brings the introductions of the Ludens and Iris, and that Arata and his co-workers are not safe as they think thanks to an Ancient Conspiricy. Then near the end of Chapter 10, Martyrs appeared in the real world and start wrecking havoc.
- Wetware CPU: Due to 90% of Your Brain trope (that only 10% of human brainpower is used normally), The 10000 victims Aphesis kidnapped were used as this to accelerate Ludens' development.
- Year X: Subverted. While the in game calendar reads XX/XX/20XX, it's later confirmed that Shina disappeared some time shortly after August 2016. With the game taking place a year later, there are only two possible months that line up to what is shown January and October. January would be too soon, so the game takes place during October 2017. Sumika's mention of it being a national holiday at the start of the game further narrows it down to the game beginning on the 9th of October.
- You Can't Fight Fate: A recurring point near the end of the game. Alice flat-out says that the Ludens cannot change fate, and are merely fate's conduits. Arata tried many times in the past to change fate, but to no avail. The only entity with the ability to Screw Destiny is you, the God of Death.
- You Don't Look Like You: It's noted each time that Arata and Shina meet an eventual party member that they look completely different than the characters in the game's design documents. This is because they are real, kidnapped people playing the roles of the NPCs.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Shina learns in Chapter 3 that she will die in the real world if she dies in game. So does every other players and NPC in the game, including the party members. By chapter 11 this doesn't apply anymore, since both World's Odyssey and real world was merged together. The mind doesn't make it real anymore since the everyone can physically move between both worlds.
