Video Game / El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

"Allow me to tell you a tale. It took place 360,000... No, 14,000 years ago. But what is time, anyway? To me it seems like yesterday. For you, it might be tomorrow. It's the story of a man."

— Lucifel

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is an Action Game published by UTV Ignition Games, developed by Ignition Tokyo, and released on April 28, 2011 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was directed by Sawaki Takeyasu, who was a character designer for Devil May Cry and Ōkami, and is loosely based on the apocryphal Book of Enoch. The story follows Enoch, a human scribe in heaven, who must round up the fallen angels that are corrupting the Earth to suit their own ideal image of perfection. God sends Enoch to judge the Watchers and return them to paradise before the human race is irrevocably corrupted with half-human Nephilim, and a Great Flood made inevitable. Along the way, he is guided by Lucifel, God's right-hand angel, and the other Archangels.

Two manga spin-offs were also released. The first, El Shaddai Gaiden - Exodus, is a prequel beginning from the time Enoch first arrives in Heaven after being summoned by God, where he shortly discovers (or is sent to learn about) a conspiracy among the Watcher angels as they plan their intentional fall from Heaven. The second, El Shaddai Ceta, is a semi-follow-up focusing on Lucifel's perspective of the events from Enoch receiving his summons to Heaven through to the game itself.

Takeyasu would later found the studio Crim and produce a follow-up game titled The Lost Child, which takes place in the same universe. It was released in 2017. A remastered version of El Shaddai, developed and published by Crim, was released through Steam on September 2, 2021.

---

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron provides examples of the following tropes:

• 2½D: Many platforming stages consist of 3D visuals seen from a 2D perspective, though Enoch can still turn "back" and "ahead." One stage in "The Tragedy of Baraquel" shifts briefly into 3D for unique effect, but is still 2D in execution.
• Action Girl: Ishtar, who is able to hold her own against Ezekiel. Later on she becomes a full-fledged Lady of War.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: The manga portray Azazel and Ezekiel as younger-looking and easy on the eyes before their fall to Earth. Lampshaded in El Shaddai Ceta; when Enoch meets Azazel for the first time after the Fall, the latter actually asks if Enoch is surprised at his now-aged appearance.
• Adaptation Distillation: Although inspired by Biblical apocrypha, this game is a very, very loose adaptation.
• Adaptation Name Change: Lucifel, as opposed to Lucifer. Done for a reason, though — the end of his name signifies that he is an Archangel who has not fallen.

• Alas, Poor Villain: While most of the Watchers are relatively unsympathetic, you can help but feel pity for some of them when they die, Sariel and Armaros especially. The manga prequel El Shaddai Ceta confirms they are all (except the ambitious Arakiel) different forms of Tragic Villain who loved humanity (e.g. Baraquel wanted to teach mankind magic to protect them from a flood he feared was to come, Ezekiel wanted to love and be loved as a mother after watching human children for eons, Azazel wanted to help humans evolve and make a better world, Sariel wanted to feel and express romantic love for humanity, Aramos wanted to sing and dance like humans do, etc.) and wanted to help them in a variety of ways at first. They were all miserable that they couldn't express their desires in Heaven and were effectively limited to astral bodies for eternity while being charged with watching humanity enjoy life's pleasures.

• Alien Sky: If you can see the sky, it's all but guaranteed to be otherworldly.
• All-Powerful Bystander: Lucifel and Michael, the greatest Archangel brothers. Lucifel apparently can pop up anywhere he wants in enemy territory, stop and control time to give some advice to Enoch, warp reality by snapping his fingers just to resurrect Enoch; Michael is always close to Enoch, he is Lucifel's brother so assuming he has the same finger snapping powers isn't far fetched, and yet all they do is just provide information and gadgets. The prequel manga reveals Michael to be much more active than previously believed, since the giant hand construct and the Rings of Michael that seal away the souls of the Grigori is literally Michael's hand while he's wearing his Giant Powered Armor "Gide Mode" which is also Michael's true form and the secret weapon for the loyalist angels during the Holy War. The manga prequel El Shaddai Ceta confirms Lucifel as the stronger sibling since he stopped and shattered Michael's Gige Form with his bare hands to stop him from coming to Earth.
• Alternate History:
  • In regards to the Book of Genesis (by way of the Apocrypha). At the end of the game, the Flood is averted, and Man is freed from the Watchers' unnatural evolution and can continue to live in peace according to God's plan. Considering the Watchers were the ones who taught humanity about warfare, science, and vanity, averting that as well as the Flood is a pretty big deal as far as biblical history is concerned!
  • And then there's Lucifel. In biblical scriptures, it's implied that he was cast down and became Satan some time before Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden of Eden. In El Shaddai, he's not only still an angel, but still loyal to God. Though how he betrays Armaros may suggest he's not above resorting to cruel methods of handling a situation. Whether or not this is just a shout-out to traditional interpretations of Satan or if he may fall eventually is up in the air. El Shaddai Ceta confirms Lucifel will eventually fall and defect from Heaven, ceasing from talking to God altogether and freeing Belial to serve as his right hand to take over Creation.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: After the Armaros Boss fight, Enoch goes after The Darkness who has Nanna kidnapped; Armaros being concerned about Enoch, his former friend, goes after him then you play as Armaros for a little bit.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Attaining "A" rank in a few stages, or collecting all of Ishtar's Bones, will give you special outfits to wear. Only the latter gives you any benefits beyond the aesthetic.
• Animal Motifs: Several of the Watchers and the Archangels have them: Azazel has flies, Ezekiel has pigs, Sariel has bats, and the Archangels are swans.
• Another Dimension: The Watchers' Tower is hidden away inside one, within a barrier of "distorted space." Which is why it took Enoch three hundred years to find the portal leading to it.
• Anti-Villain: Armaros. Of all the Fallen Angels, he is the least dangerous, his already evolved Nephilim offspring is also harmless. Armaros truly considers Enoch as a friend and broke down on tears after the later went after The Darkness, thinking Enoch was going for a certain suicide mission for doing so, then decides to go for the rescue.

• Archangel Michael: Archangel Michael is Lucifel's twin brother. In-game he takes the form of a swan, but in the manga, he looks like Lucifel if someone put a blond long-hair wig on him. It's implied Lucifel once looked the same until he decided to wear modern attire.
• Art Shift: Nearly every time you enter a new location. Especially with Azazel's world, which looks like TRON.

• Badass Normal: Enoch, who (rather surprisingly) is also a Badass Biker. Ishtar also qualifies, leading armies of Free Men into battle against the fanatics and the Fallen Angels and can wield God's Weapons without any issue. The prequel El Shaddai: Ceta shows the human Prince Gil of the Uruk Kingdom to be one, having personally slayed all types of monsters that plagued his kingdom that were mistakenly believed to be trials from God.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: Just when you beat Azazel's second form and he's going on about his One-Winged Angel form, Armaros comes Back from the Dead as a corrupted fallen angel and bites Azazel in half!''
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Enoch, who, unlike the leotard-clad Watchers, is actually naked under the armor of vileness, but has nothing to see even after you've destroyed all of it.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Although Enoch fares much better while wielding one of God's Weapons, he's certainly no slouch while empty-handed... and neither is Ezekiel, for that matter.
• Barrier Change Boss: A few bosses will be vulnerable only to a specific weapon type, and cycle around their current vulnerability.
• The Battle Didn't Count: You fight the Watchers many, many times at random parts of the game. It is quite possible to knock their armor off each time. They'll make a different comment whether they kick your ass or vice-versa; but the game continues regardless.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: In order to cleanse his spirit of the vileness that had corrupted him, Enoch's soul must ascend to Heaven and seek redemption.
• Beehive Barrier: Hitting armored, defending enemies (or you using the Veil as a shield) will have this visual effect.
• Big Bad: Semyaza is played up as such, being the leader of the Watchers and the one who instigated their Fall. It's later revealed Azazel is the true Big Bad as Semyaza was Dead All Along.
• Big Eater: The Nephilim devour each other, as well as anything around them, but mostly each other. One stage of "Sariel's Deception" clearly shows bite marks across the entire scenery, and another is spent inside a gigantic Nephilim that keeps gobbling up Enoch and ends up eaten by another, larger Nephilim at the beginning of the next world. Mostly a reference to the Biblical Nephilim that ate so much Earth couldn't sustain them, and eventually started eating humans as well as each other; but in this case, Nephilim that eat each other past a certain point will become gargantuan monsters.
• Big Heroic Run: Near the end of Chapter 10, Enoch must race up a massive staircase within Arakiel's Grave to reach Ishtar and Ezekiel's battle while it's happening in the background.
• Bilingual Bonus: While the English dub and sub scripts refer to the Darkness as both "the vile substance" and "the place", several subtitle scripts go ahead and call the latter Hell/Netherworld.
• The Blacksmith: El Shaddai Ceta reveals the Angel Sataniel as the official blacksmith of Heaven, who forges weapons and armor for the Angels out of the Fruits of Wisdom and even gave Enoch his own armor.

• Boss Room: The Watchers will always show up in Enoch's path and teleport him to a circular (in most cases) battleground in another dimension.
• Boss Rush: Azazel, Nether Azazel, and Dark Armaros come one right after the other at the end of the game, after the final save point.

• Breakable Weapons: Use a tainted weapon too often without purifying it, or try to block an attack too powerful for it, and it will break right in your hands. The Veil is no exception.
• Broken Angel: It's revealed later in the game that falling from Heaven took a heavier toll on the Seven Grigori than believed. Semyaza, initial leader of the Grigori, was grievously injured and died during the Fall, being left on futile life support afterwards. Arakiel died soon after. Baraquel was apparently weakened enough that he was devoured by the Nephilim. Armaros lost his ability to pronounce words and his voice when he fell.

• Celestial Paragons and Archangels: Of course. The Archangels are apparently the highest of all Angels, but there is also apparently a Ruling Council of which Semyaza, leader of the Grigori, was an Elder. Lucifel in particular is quite high-ranked even above the Archangels, to the point he regularly speaks with God and is described as one of the two first angels created by God besides Michael since the start of Creation. However, Lucifel's goodness is a very vague matter at best. The Ceta prequel confirms the hierarchy can be flipped as even though Lucifel and Michael are the highest archangels they still count among the Grigori ranks and serve Semyaza who was the Grigori leader at the time.
• Cel Shading: A few of the environments, and all of the characters (except for Watcher armor), are cel-shaded.
• Character Catchphrase: "No problem. Everything's fine." This is Enoch's only line in the game. He says it twice in his introduction, and every time he comes back from defeat during combat.
• Cherubic Choir: Most of the soundtrack. Instead of the children and/or sopranos version, it is of the "Ominous Latin Chanting minus the Ominous" variety.
• Chick Magnet: Sariel, quite literally; his idea of love as The Hedonist and The Casanova managed to make many women devote themselves to him, even in death.
• The Chosen One: There are implications in both manga that Enoch was long prophesied to put a stop to the Watchers and become an angel. And in the game itself, there's a prophecy mentioned by Nanna that Enoch would resurrect Ishtar.
• Clothing Damage:
  • The more Enoch is injured, the less he wears. The same goes for everybody in the game, and is pretty much the only way to tell how much health someone has left.
  • When Enoch is on his last legs, he wears only a pair of jeans. After unlocking the invincibility armor, he instead wears a pair of jeans, and a jean jacket.
• Collection Sidequest: The fragments of Ishtar's Bones hidden in the Dark Worlds. Collect them all, and you will unlock the ultimate armor in the game.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The few bosses that don't display Clothing Damage instead have some part of their body that goes from green to yellow to red as they take damage.
• Combat Tentacles: The Fire Nephilim, who will smash them down on your precarious platform.
• Combining Mecha: At the end of Azazel's world, the three wheeled mechas that had been hounding Enoch on the highway combine into a huge robot with imitations of God's Weapons.
• Conducting the Carnage: Lucifel does this in the Ceta prequel using the Gale to decimate a team of Angels sent to capture, as he does the trope to demonstrate his mastery and skill in battle over his fellow Angels. His tendency to do this trope is what earned him his feared moniker as the "Black Swan".
• Content Warnings: At bootup, the player gets a notice stating that the game is roughly based on religious texts and that it was developed by a multicultural team with people from many faiths.
• Convenient Color Change: When Enoch steals and purifies a weapon, it changes from red to blue.
• The Corruption: The Darkness/The Nether is this trope and is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Falling into the vile substance of the Darkness will invariably corrupt and change even a pure soul, turning it monstrous and demonic. Angels get turned into horrible demonic monsters upon contact and it is actually a sentient force known as Belial that seeks out strong souls to corrupt.
• Council of Angels: The Elders, who will unleash the Flood upon Earth to wash away the Nephilim if Enoch can't defeat the Fallen Angels and destroy their offspring.
• Creepy Good: Sin, the leader of the Freeman, is a nice guy who wants to save humanity from the corruption of the Grigori, but he constantly wears bones and a skull mask which are actually the bones of Ishtar. He's essentially wearing parts of a woman's corpse at all times.
• Crossover Cosmology: The author of a little-known book of Biblical Apocrypha teams up with the Assyrian goddess of fertility and war in order to defeat and capture the fallen angels from said book, with the help of a pre-fall Lucifer and the widely-recognized Archangels of Judeo-Christian lore.

• Dead All Along: Semyaza, who died during the Fall, Arakiel, who died soon after, and Baraquel, who was devoured by the Nephilim.

• A Death in the Limelight: Chapter 8, playing with Armaros in a quest to save the corrupted Enoch. He dies in the very chapter he stars in. He comes back as the final boss, Dark Armaros.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: As many times Enoch dies, it's a good thing Lucifel can keep resurrecting him.
• Defecting for Love: The Ceta prequel confirms Semyaza chose to defect from Heaven after falling in love with a human girl named Lulu that he watched from Heaven and grew confused by his new emotions. He eventually grew jealous and love sick after watching her show affection for her kingdom's hero Gil. Enoch's unintentional revelation that Semyaza was in love and should admit it to the girl, ignited his rebellion.
• Demon Slaying: Some of the monsters you fight in the tower don't look like traditional demons, but this trope still plays out.

• Determinator: Enoch. Every time he's defeated and brought to the brink of death, he can summon the fortitude to rise back up and continue the battle (read: mash the controller buttons before his eyes close)... at least, while his strength holds out.
• Deus ex Machina: Played with. When the colossal Baraquel Nephilim takes Enoch by surprise and swallows him, Enoch is saved by the soul of his own descendant, Methuselah. But that's not the DEM. The DEM comes when Methuselah summons a massive, alien-looking device of godly origin, that utterly annihilates the Nephilim. An astonished Michael wonders if that's the power of God. Neither the character nor the device are ever explained, or even mentioned again.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Halfway through the fight with Armaros, the Darkness shows up out of nowhere just to kidnap Nanna, even though it had never displayed nor foreshadowed any sentient will or interest in the protagonists before. Not only does Enoch go in after her (which was the Darkness' true goal) but Nanna herself is Ishtar's reincarnation, so it's a huge bonus for the Darkness.
• Die, Chair, Die!: You can destroy idols and icons littering the landscape for extra Flames or health items.
• Dragged Off to Hell: What happens to Enoch if the Darkness catches him in a Dark World platforming segment. In-story, the Darkness appears to whisk Nanna away, and Enoch goes in after her.
• The Dragon: Azazel, Semyaza's right-hand man.
• Early-Bird Boss: The very first thing Enoch does at the very start of the game is descend... and fight Azazel. Needless to say, it doesn't exactly go well for Enoch.
• Eldritch Abomination:
  • The Nephilim, which are the offspring of angels and humans. The Nephilim themselves reproduce and grow in size and power by eating each other. Oddly cute... until they gorge themselves and become the monstrous, all-consuming, many-tentacled Fire Nephilim. These creatures are the reason Heaven wants to flood the Earth, as the Nephilim will consume the Earth itself if left unchecked.
  • The Fallen Angels themselves, once they divest their human forms, assume bestial (and often incomprehensible) forms.
• Eldritch Location: The Fallen Angels' Tower, hidden in an alternate dimension that is connected to the Darkness, which is itself another eldritch location. The path leading up to it, existing in the boundary between worlds, fits the bill as well.
• Elemental Powers: Although Ezekiel specializes in lightning, she's not afraid to summon gigantic fireballs or pillars of deadly ice after assuming her Nether form. This is explained in the prequel manga as her being the Angel of Weather and Seasons, which allows her to manipulate the elements at will.

• The End... Or Is It?: Library notes that all Nephilim born from a certain Fallen Angel will die when its father/mother dies, and they appear to do so along the journey, and yet Armaros' child, The Water Nephilim, is alive and kicking in the end, even though its father was the final boss; that means...
• Evil Knockoff: The Headless are decapitated swans with bags covering the stump, in a hideous mockery of what the Archangels look like in this game. Likewise, Martyrs and Zealots will wield imitations of God's Weapons tainted with vileness, given to them by the Fallen Angels. Enoch can purify these weapons and give them true godly light, however.
• Evil Old Folks: Azazel and Ezekiel. They are the most senior and oldest looking angels, as well as the most malicious.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Fallen Angels' Tower. It rises from the heart of an unnaturally-advanced city, is several miles thick and many more in height, seems grown rather than built, and has evil red eyes looking down upon the world. It doesn't even have "floors," per se, but each tier is an entire world in its own right, ruled by one of the Fallen.
• Evilutionary Biologist: Azazel is one, having grown obsessed with mankind's ability to change and develop and wishing to kickstart their evolution out of scientific interest and to secretly evolve himself into becoming the Ultimate Life Form.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin:
  • Subverted, strangely enough. The player doesn't get to see Enoch ascend.
  • Uriel, the Flame of God, fits his job description to a T.
• Expy: Players familiar with Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne will very likely have flashbacks to the Tower of Kagutsuchi while exploring Arakiel's world.
• Face–Heel Turn: Enoch, if he gets corrupted by the mass of darkness during Ishtar's platforming segments. During the main plotline, something similar happens when he is consumed by The Darkness in an attempt to save Nanna. However, this time both Armaros and Nanna can either fight or call out to him to bring him back to his senses.
• The Faceless: Even in painting, we never see Michael's face.
• Faceless Goons: The Watchers' human followers wear masks or helms that sometimes reflect their Lord's environment (such as "Ezeks" wearing masks with porcine features, or denizens of the Abyss wearing crustacean or mollusk-like helmets.)
• Failure Is the Only Option:The Ceta prequel reveals God knew all along Semyaza and the Grigori would defect from Heaven and sent Lucifel to stop them on Earth and rewind time in the hopes that things would be different. Semyaza has unknowingly tried to rebel 999,996 times in a row without fail and fails each time he nearly reaches Earth. He finally manages to succeed when Armaros unexpectedly arrives and distracts Lucifel, which convinces God to just leave the rest to Enoch and order Lucifel to stop rewinding time.

• Fauxlosophic Narration: The bits of dialog given by the various people Enoch met through his 300 years of traveling to find the Watchers in the sequence after the opening of the game. Questionable whether that was necessary or just confusing.
• Fighting Your Friend: Any encounter between Enoch and Armaros, the kind-hearted angel that first welcomed Enoch into Heaven and who was fascinated by Enoch's tales of Earth.
• Flechette Storm: The Gale. Six small missiles orbit Enoch's body, while a halo-shaped control unit hovers over his back. They can be fired individually or sent out all at once in a tiny Macross Missile Massacre that flows up and around like a hurricane and sweeps enemies off their feet. Fast, missiles can be aimed at several foes at once, and lets Enoch perform an air-dash move, but is the weakest weapon and doesn't combo well.
• Foreshadowing:
  • At one point, after meeting a dying man, Lucifel gets a phone call from God and states that "I was mistaken for you again." And then he laughs.
  • Methuselah's appearance is half this, half Chekhov's Gun: the latter, because he will show up again at the end of the world; the former, because it hints heavily at the divine power that Enoch will wield when he becomes the Metatron.
• Fourth-Wall Observer: Lucifel, looking directly at the player, states: "You could clear this in 7 hours, if you're good enough". Make a wild guess as to how long the game is.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Despite his status as the Right Hand of God, it's implied Lucifel is this in El Shaddai Ceta. All due to his tendencies to prod and insult his angel brethren as The Gadfly and The Bully, taunting their lack of humanity, and being deemed as irresponsible by his peers for his constant trips to the future where he can enjoy human culture while the other angels are forbidden. Only Enoch and God seem especially close to him.
• Full-Boar Action: Ezekiel loves breeding gigantic pigs to use as beasts of war. Nevermind that they cry blood from the eye sockets in their masks.

• Gender Flip: Gabriel and Ezekiel were male in the Bible, but are female in this game.
• Genre Shift: Chapter 6, Azazel's Zeal, is a motorcycle chase.

• Giant Mook: Nephilim get bigger and bigger as they eat, especially each other. They're usually gentle, at least until the largest one eats the second largest one and it becomes the King Mook Fire Nephilim.

• God Guise: The Watchers are mistaken for, and worshipped as gods by their followers, a position they revel in. Lucifel himself is mistaken for being God more than once, which he finds humorous and seems joyful about.
• God Is Good:
  • While the Watchers want to force "unnatural" evolution upon Mankind, and the Council of Elders wants to wipe the slate clean with the Great Flood, God tasks Enoch (via Lucifel) with bringing the Watchers back to Heaven and sealing them so that the Flood can be averted and humanity can progress naturally. He also worries constantly about Enoch's well-being, to the point that Lucifel, of all people, has to assuage His concerns. It is also hinted that the Archangels would be willing to forgive the Watchers if the latter repented their transgressions.
  • The prequel mangas do show It can be an example of Good is Not Nice, being in constant contact with Lucifel on how the Fall of the Grigori is a part of its plan and being well aware of the conflict in Heaven but doing nothing for its own reasons, then deciding the Fallen Angels must be punished afterwards. God is also described as unaware of what the humans on Earth attribute to It and is often quite worried about unexpected events.
• God Was My Copilot: Uriel is this for Enoch out of all the Archangels. He's the Archangel of Warfare and itches for a good fight, personally lending his power to Enoch and periodically asking to assist Enoch in each battle.In the prequel manga, this connection is even more solidified by the fact Uriel was the one who taught Enoch how to fight and is fiercely protective of his first and only student.
• Good Is Not Soft: God and Lucifel may be pretty amicable figures, but they prove to be absolutely ruthless towards their enemies or traitors. God planned to Flood the Earth and ordered that the Fallen Angels be killed by Enoch and their souls sealed away for eternity for siring the destructive Nephilim, while Lucifel has no qualms manipulating others to suit his or Enoch's ends. Lucifel also enjoys the suffering the Fallen Angels go through.
• Gotta Kill Them All: While descending to Earth, Lucifel briefs Enoch on each of the seven Fallen Angels that he will need to defeat and seal within Michael's Rings. But things do not go as planned...

• Half-Human Hybrid: The Nephilim are the offspring of angels and humans. They don't particularly resemble either parent.
• Healing Hands: Not only can Enoch purify the tainted Weapons by running his hands across them, but also drive away the vileness that was corrupting Ishtar.
• Heel–Face Turn: Armaros abandoned all the glory in his realm to save Enoch who was consumed by The Darkness, and died doing so, only to come back as the final boss.

• Hell Has New Management: If Enoch is corrupted during a Dark World segment, and reaches the far end of the hellish dimension during the credits of the Bad Ending, it's implied that he's so deeply corrupted he will battle both Heaven and Hell, and begins by destroying the entity in control of the latter.
• Heroic Mime:
  • Enoch, for the most part. His lines are few and far between.
  • With the introduction of Armaros, it is indicated that some lose their voice when they leave Heaven.
• Hero of Another Story: Ishtar, a popular female figure among humans who rebelled against the Grigori. In an attempt to help the Nephilim, Ishtar was said to have died at the hands of a Fire Nephilim. Her body and her soul were then dragged into The Darkness, leaving only her skull and bones on Earth.
• High-Tech Heaven: The Shards of Wisdom are essentially this as Heaven's most guarded secret and powerful weapons. They are essentially constructs formed from the Fruits of God's Wisdom that take the form of three exceptionally high tech weapons which Enough can use to destroy various mooks. It was these Shards that allowed the Fallen Angels to bring humanity from cities of rock to metropoles filled with techno-skyscrapers.
• Holy Halo: Angels have radiant halos in their natural, "humanoid blob" forms, including the Grigori in the illustration of their fall. Enoch and Ishtar are depicted with them as well in murals. Fire Nephilim (and greater) have a mockery of a halo made out of dark smoke. The Gale weapon appears to be a visual reference, since the "bits" are controlled by a halo that hovers over Enoch's back.

• Human Popsicle: After being corrupted by the Darkness, Enoch's soul leaves his body behind to seek salvation. Said body is thus frozen in crystal for ten years during his soul's journey.
• Humans Are Special: The Grigori believe this which is why they stole the "Fruits of Wisdom" from Heaven to give to humanity. Deconstructed in that their fascination with humanity is Secretly Selfish and they accelerate mankind's societal evolution to self-destructive extremes. They also plan to use mankind's loyalty and traits like love to empower themselves and feed their own depraved whims.
• I Have Many Names: Enoch, a whopping total of 72 names. Just like God in Hebrew mysticism.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: On two fronts: first, Armaros must fight Dark Enoch to destroy the armor of vileness that covers him, and Enoch himself will pause his assault to clutch his head as he resists the corruption. Once that's done, Nanna's voice and devotion give Enoch the fortitude to cleanse his spirit and attain salvation.
• Immortality: Enoch, taken bodily into Heaven to become the Scribe of God, is The Ageless, with a dash of Resurrective Immortality (up to a point, though.) During his three hundred-year quest to find the Watchers' Tower, several characters point out Enoch's immortality and agelessness.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: Three weapons created from shards of God's wisdom, color-coded to display their holiness (white weapons with blue and gold energy for pure ones, black weapons with red and orange glow for tainted ones.)
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Ishtar, in spades. "My soul wanders the Darkness but does not rot." And considering what happens to anyone else that falls in the Darkness, that's quite a feat! Later on, her entire body is engulfed by The Corruption of the Darkness, but her spirit is as pure and determined as ever. Subverted with Enoch, who can appear to be this in the "main" timeline (and there's an entire chapter dedicated to showing this,) but if you get the Bad Ending by falling into the Darkness in a Dark World stage it proves that even this person can succumb to evil.
• Interface Screw: The first part of the "fight" with Armaros involves you beating up his backup dancers while he covers half the screen in the foreground.
• Intrigued by Humanity: Michael to a lesser degree, he at least finds interesting the way humans see him, his brothers and other Archangel companions, while appreciating their crafted images in Ezekiel's realm. Lucifel is endlessly amused by "humanity's Shards of Wisdom" (such as designer clothes, cellphones, and umbrellas.) The Watchers... yeah, they kinda went overboard with their fascination.
• Kick the Dog: After Armaros has saved Enoch from the corruption, the Darkness tries to swallow them both when they are at their weakest. Lucifel handily takes Enoch away... and nonchalantly (some might say gleefully) abandons Armaros to his fate.
• Kill It with Fire: Summoning Uriel will cause him to shoot jets of flame in sync with your attacks, dealing phenomenal amounts of damage in a single hit.
• King Mook: The Fire Nephilim. Which, in turn, is eaten by the even bigger and more dangerous Baraquel Nephilim, but you don't get to fight this one.
• Knight Templar: All of the Watchers believe their course is right and just, they make excellent points about freedom and mankind's evolution, and they will smite whoever opposes them. However, the Archangels, Lucifel, and the Council of Elders are the same way, just playing for the opposite side.
• Laser Blade: The Arch. A blade of holy light arcing between the two ends of an extensible pole (which can be retracted to carry on your back.) The arc is "studded" with diamond-shaped teeth that flow from one end to the next, giving it a buzzsaw-like appearance. Balanced in speed and defense, combo-oriented, it allows Enoch to dodge-jump out of danger as well as glide while descending from a jump.

• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Veil. A massive, circular shield impervious to all but the strongest attacks, projecting a transparent barrier in front of Enoch while still letting him slide side to side and front and back while in defense mode. For offense, Enoch can split the shield down the middle, transforming the halves into armored gauntlets with studs at each fist, each projecting a halo of divine energy. This is the strongest, but slowest, weapon in the game, and the speed of its combos can put Enoch at risk while other enemies sneak up on him.

• Magitek: Azazel granted humans the knowledge to create angelic technology. As with all divine devices, it's difficult to tell where the tech begins and the godly power ends.
• Mama Bear: Ezekiel is a dark version of this. She became a fallen angel after being emotionally moved by the personal love shared amongst families and between parents and children and wished to start her own family as a mother. Unfortunately this turned her into an overbearing My Beloved Smother whose one-sided love made her an oppressive tyrant.
• The Man Behind the Man: One of Ishtar's Prophecies talks of a "Prince" known as Belial that appeared from the Darkness and not only instigated, but assisted the Grigori in their Fall to Earth. Belial assisted the Grigori in exchange for the souls of everyone who dies in the Tower, but the Grigori were initially unaware that humans who died ended up in The Darkness or they were actually serving its will.
• Mask Power: When wearing their armor, Fallen Angels will "collapse" their heads into their bodies and replace them with one-eyed helms. Dark Enoch just skips the "collapsing head" part and dons a very evil-looking helmet.
• Meaningful Name: Ishtar's Sumerian name is Inanna.
• Mind Screw: If you die while trying to retrieve a bone fragment of Ishtar, you end up in the underworld, where the camera is tilted and the movement controls are all wonky. There is then a cutscene where Belial accuses Dark Enoch of rebelling against him and God... And then for some reason, we get a short trailer of the game itself, and we end up back at the title screen.
• Mission Control: The Archangels. Although they sometimes give warnings about environmental hazards or cry out when you're getting hurt, Uriel is the only one that assists you directly.
• Mission from God: The point of the game is to take down the Grigori to save humankind from The Flood.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Nether Ezekiel, a blob of flesh with the features of an elephant and a hippo.
• Mr. Exposition: Lucifel drops many of the plot points from the game, and most of the Library information is written from his point of view.
• Nephilim: Very adorable, squishy-looking Nephilim at that.
• Never Mess with Granny: Ezekiel is the only female Grigori and one of the most elderly, but unlike the other Grigori, who fight with a balance of projectiles and melee, her move set mostly consists of pulverizing bare-handed force.
• Never Say "Die": Archangels will often say that Enoch must find the Gregori and "purify" them, Lucifel downright says that they're going to die, Enoch must ''kill' them.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Enoch is based on Brad Pitt, Sariel on David Bowie, and Armaros on Michael Jackson.
• No Fair Cheating: Enoch can unlock armor that makes him invincible, which should make beating the game on the hardest difficulty a snap. Unfortunately, Armaros isn't wearing it in his chapter, so you've still gotta use some skill.
• Non-Standard Game Over: If Enoch gets consumed by the darkness during the Ishtar's platform segments, he will be corrupted into becoming one of the Watchers, also the credits will pop up in rapid succession.
• No Ontological Inertia: Nephilim are said to vanish if the Grigori that sired them is killed or sealed.
• One Bad Mother: Ezekiel, whose motherly love instills fear into her followers, and who considers her violent war pigs "her children." She also doesn't care in the slightest that her Nephilim children live in constant agony and hunger and feed on each other. Best described in her final confrontation with Ishtar, who gives her a "Reason You Suck" Speech in response to her view of "love".
  Ezekiel: You have no parents, and have never conceived a child. I understand the love of a mother for her child! More than you ever can!
  Ishtar: You hypocrite! What about your own children? At this very moment, they devour each other in their unbearable agony!
  Ezekiel: I love them as well.
  Ishtar: You "love them"? You use the word as an excuse for your actions!

• Our Angels Are Different:
  • Gabriel and Ezekiel are female. The Archangels appear as swans when they aren't in any human-like form. Non-corporeal angels, such as the Elders of the Council, appear as roughly human-shaped things with halos fixed on their heads. Archangels can also possess human bodies to speak to people on Earth, as Michael did so to voice his support of Enoch.
  • It's also frequently implied throughout the game that angels don't comprehend human emotion like other humans, despite being expressive themselves. Sariel and Ezekiel claim to know what love is, but Lucifel says otherwise. He even tells Armaros to "quit pretending to be human" when the latter weeps over Enoch's selflessness as he hurls himself into Hell to save Nanna.
  • The prequel manga takes this up to eleven. Certain human concepts like fatigue and dancing are completely foreign to the angels (save for those like Lucifel, who bounces around time on Earth, and even has a goddamn cell phone) prior to Enoch's arrival. Angels also lack physical forms in Heaven, reduced to astral bodies influenced by the human that sees them and are unable to physically touch any human like Enoch who reaches Heaven unless the human wills it.

• Perpetual Molt: Certain techniques, skills, or events (such as Enoch returning from a Watcher duel) will shower Enoch with dozens of white angel feathers.
• Platform Hell: The 2D stages are not so bad, but the 3D ones will give you premature baldness, if only because the Bottomless Pits mean you can't use Enoch's shadow to gauge his leaps until it's too late.
• Playing with Fire: When Uriel attacks when he's summoned, there seem to be flames coming from his attacks.
• Possession Implies Mastery: Although Lucifel does instigate some basic training for Enoch in the beginning of the journey, the following adventure has Enoch being very proficient at any new given thing Lucifel and other Archangels present him with. The motorcycle is certainly the best example: as soon as Enoch got his hands on it, he became a pro stunt driver. Even God seems surprised at this. Shortly after you collect the last of the three Godly Weapons, you can hear Lucifel chatting with God on his cell phone about it.
  Lucifel: Look, you worry too much. He's figured out how to use everything so far, right?
• The Power of Love: Seeking this was the main reason Sariel fell. He also invokes this during his fight with Enoch, using it to transform into Nether Sariel. At the end he laments that even his love for his followers wasn't enough.
• Primordial Chaos: The Nether is this with the being known as Belial as its ruler. The Ceta prequel confirms Belial was present in the Darkness when God first brought Light to Creation before God chose to seal him away and is even older than Lucifel and Michael, who are the only beings in Heaven besides God to know Belial even exists.
• Product Placement: Enoch and Lucifel both wear Edwin jeans. Their specific pairs were reproduced in real life as promotion for the game.

• Puny Earthlings: Lucifel despite being chummy with Enoch and adoring human culture and merchandise, seems to think of humans in general as troublesome, foolish, and frail. Something that would attribute to his fall later on.
• Race Against the Clock: Strongly averted, thanks to Lucifel. He can manipulate time to ensure Enoch has all the time he needs to find and defeat the Fallen Angels, even after Enoch spent three centuries looking for their hideout.
• Really Gets Around: All of the seven Fallen Angels. All of the Nephilim population present in the game were fathered and mothered by them. Sariel in particular has many in his realm, many who are his and many whom he just sheltered.
• Recurring Boss: Azazel, Ezekiel, and Sariel seem to enjoy popping into your path during the early stages merely to to trade blows and threats.
• Recurring Riff: Variations on "Theme of El Shaddai" and "Theme of Enoch" are scattered all over the place in the soundtrack, particularly their introductory fragments. These variations run the gamut from the playful and whimsical ("Floral Arrangement") to the heroic ("The Bell of Hope Resonates On High") to the solemn, mournful versions you'd expect to hear in a church.
• Redemption Equals Death: Although Armaros doesn't seem to accept the idea he's not one of the good guys, he was against God and the Heaven after all, he does feel bad for going against Enoch; later Armaros has a chance to save him, but is not redeemed by any of the Archangels and dies after saving Enoch, but comes back again as the final boss.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Each of the "Nether" versions of the Fallen feature eyes that shift from green to yellow and finally red as they get closer to defeat, their attacks getting increasingly frantic and damaging along the way. Lucifel's own eyes are red unlike the rest of the Angels of Heaven and he's feared as their strongest and most dangerous member, especially after becoming a Fallen Angel in the Ceta Prequel and gaining a reputation for slaughtering garrisons of angels sent to capture him.
• Reincarnation: It has been prophesied that Ishtar will resurrect and continue her war against the Darkness.
• La Résistance: The Free Men, devout followers of God who infiltrate the city and tower of the Watchers to aid Enoch with whatever scraps of information they can dig up. Their leader, ironically, is named Sin.
• Rise to the Challenge: Dark World stages, where Enoch must escape the ever-rising flow of Darkness while trying to retrieve fragments of Ishtar's Bones. There's no penalty for missing these fragments, and you can try again and again, but if the Darkness catches you...
• Rule of Cool: Lucifel's awesome, but otherwise unexplained paraphernalia from the future. It doesn't make sense that he talks to God with a cellphone, but it sure is cool.
• Satan Is Good: Or rather, Lucifel. This story either averts his fall, or predates it. The Satanic Archetype in the game is actually the Grigori and the being known as Belial that rules the Darkness.
• Say My Name: Everyone has a thing for over-pronouncing Enoch's name.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The original plan is for Enoch to defeat, bring back, and seal the souls of each of the seven Watchers within the Rings of Michael, where they will remain for all eternity. As it turns out, only Sariel and Ezekiel are thus sealed; all other Watchers are killed or were dead to begin with.
• Secret A.I. Moves: The chapter you get to play as Armaros, some of the attacks from his boss fight is available to the player, but they're all toned down versions of the devastating ones he previously had. Another instance in this same chapter is the boss, an evil power boosted Enoch, who doesn't get to keep any of the nifty powers after being beaten and becoming playable. Considering that even powered down Armaros managed to beat this character, the moves may not have been so hot though, but still. What's a guy gotta do to keep all those juicy darkness induced powers?
• Scary Impractical Armor: The Fallen Angels' and corrupted souls' armor, with its wide round extensions, is every bit as intimidating as it is cumbersome. Lucky for them they have supernatural agility and coordination.
• Scenery Porn: The strong point of the game, even the less positive critics praised its visual art.
• Scripted Battle: The last phase of the final battle. After Enoch has been caught in an unavoidable, armor-shattering blast from Dark Armaros laser, he will come back automatically and be given infinite Overboost. You can wail on Dark Armaros all you want, but the battle will only end when you use an Uriel Smash to finish Armaros off.

• Sequel Hook: The Stinger shows Armaros's water nephilim is still alive.
• Sharing a Body: Nanna with Ishtar; she was fated to become Ishtar's new body. When Nanna grows up, it's ambiguous who she actually is, just a grown up Nanna, Ishtar in her new body, or both. The gallery refers to the scene where Nanna takes the front in the battle against Ezekiel as her being Ishtar.
• Shirtless Scene: If Enoch's armour is destroyed, he'll run around in little more than a pair of jeans.
• The Slow Walk: Armaros' deliberate, sexy strut across his stage when he decides to fight you personally.
• Smashing Survival: After Enoch's armor gets completely destroyed, a number of buttons must be mashed to bring him back into action, with the possibility of mashing recovery decreasing each time this happens, eventually it will force the player to restart at the last checkpoint.
• The Speechless: Armaros, as Lucifel put it, lost his voice when he fell down with other angels, but still can make sounds and scream normally.

• Stairway to Heaven: Both manga depict Enoch walking up a flight of stairs to ascend into Heaven.
• Stay with Me Until I Die: Sariel, surrounded by the human women he loved who cry for him as he begs to not be taken from them.
• Stealth Pun: The Fallen Angels are also known as the Watchers. What do they wear into battle? A scary helmet with a big ol' eye on it. And that's not mentioning their eye-covered Tower.
• Summon Backup Dancers: You literally battle Armaros' backup dancers as he... dances in the front.
• Super Drowning Skills: Enoch can apparently only walk through puddles.
• Super Mode: Overboost. Collecting Flames from breakable objects or enemies, as well as diligently purifying weapons, will build up Overboost, eventually igniting Enoch's weapon. Hit L1+R1 at this point and many things will happen: Enoch will summon Uriel (see above,) his armor will regenerate to full (and continue to regenerate if it's damaged during this state,) his defense will skyrocket so only the most potent attacks will damage him, his attacks will be enhanced, and you'll gain access to weapon-specific Uriel Smash attacks that will deal ridiculous amounts of damage and end Overboost instantly. The Ceta prequel shows the Archangels have a Battle Armor form that makes them three times stronger and faster than normal angels

• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The main weapons work this way: Arch beats Veil, Veil beats Gale, Gale beats Arch.
• Take My Hand!: Enoch can't escape the Dark Worlds by himself. He must reach the spirit of Armaros, who will pull him back to the real world by this method.
• Teleport Spam: One of Azazel's specialties. As well as Lucifel's... but he's just being playful, right?
• Time Skip: Of some ten years. Before this, the first level shows a montage where Enoch is searching for the Angels' Tower. It takes place over more than 300 years - and Lucifel comments that Enoch found it pretty quickly.
• Time Travel: Lucifel exploits this ability due to being a Time Master as the Angel of Time and Space, given that he has a cell phone and wears modern designer jeans. He even admits to the viewer, at the beginning of the game, that time is no longer linear to him.
• To Hell and Back: At some point, Enoch dives into the Netherworld/Hell to save Nanna from Belial. Unfortunately for him, it's a trap to corrupt Enoch.
• Took a Level in Badass: Nanna goes through this. After the soul of Ishtar fuses with her while Enoch saved her from the Darkness, she goes from an innocent blind girl to a Jeanne d'Archétype who triumphantly leads the battle against the forces of the Grigori, manages to purify weapons and resist the Darkness through force of will, and battle Ezekiel on her own.
• Tragic Monster: Dark Armaros, a version of Armaros corrupted and mutated by the Darkness that ends up begging for someone to kill him. The Nephilim themselves lead a tragic existence, as they transient, unstable forms of life, unable to find a world or dimension they can call home while cursed with insatiable hunger. They are also trapped in a state of perpetual suffering and physical pain, and this taint will eventually drive them to consume each other until they grow in size and burst in flames. Some of the Nephilim, such as Nanna's friend Nephy, are actually good and seek an end to their own torment.
• Tragic Villain: Armaros, after going for the rescue of his friend Enoch, it seemed he died consumed by The Darkness, then he comes back as Dark Armaros, the final boss, still unlike the other Fallen he doesn't seem angry or mad at Enoch, it didn't look like he was in control either; in the end Armaros thanks Enoch for putting him out of his misery.
• Tron Lines: Enoch's outfit and motorcycle... and the entire level that comprises Azazel's world initially.

• Unexpected Gameplay Change: "Azazel's Zeal" is a surprisingly solid Vehicular Combat/Racing Minigame.
• The Unfettered: Lucifel and, by proxy, the other Archangels, Armaros switching sides just to save his former friend Enoch didn't change their judgment of him, death was still on for Armaros, Lucifel was even glad he died, temporary, saving Enoch, not for gratitude but for convenience.
• The Unfought:
  • Baraquel, who was devoured by the Fire Nephilim before Enoch had the chance to meet him; also, when Baraquel's powers took its influence on the Fire Nephilim, turning into Baraquel Nephilim, Enoch didn't battle against him either.
  • The same goes for Arakiel and Semyaza. Both died during the process of falling from heaven, and their levels are a grave and an empty life support system, respectively.
  • The entity in the Darkness, whose roles is that of an unstoppable force that devours spirits and corrupts them. Going by chapter titles, this entity would be Belial, or it might be the "Prince" mentioned in Ishtar's prophecy Or they could be one and the same. The closest you get to "fighting" them would be in the Dark Enoch rematch and as Dark Armaros.
• Unwitting Pawn: According to Ishtar's Prophecies, the Fallen Angels are this, having accepted the help from "The Prince in the Darkness," unaware that the latter only craves souls, the souls of all mankind. Worse, anyone who dies in the Watchers' new world will fall into the Darkness instead of ascending to Heaven.

• Warrior Monk: Enoch is one kickin' scribe.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Grigori. They really do want to do right by humanity, and grant it gifts of wisdom long before its time, and are willing to die, kill, or defy God Himself for their ideals. But in forcing humanity to evolve this way, they also take away its ability to learn from its mistakes, and to appreciate progress as the reward for hard work. Thus, the Watchers' followers end up as little more than zealots, wholly dependent on their "Lords" for their happiness.

• What You Are in the Dark: Lucifel gives Armaros his chance to help Enoch but Armaros doesn't realize that he's doing it to use him. After he saves Enoch, Lucifel lets Armaros sink into the Darkness alone.
• The Worm That Walks: Nether Azazel, a giant, humanoid fly, is made up of millions of smaller flies.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: Time flows differently in Heaven, where a few minutes can mean years on Earth. Five Months in Heaven is also roughly 200 years on Earth.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Lucifel explains that the Grigori must die for the sin of becoming Fallen Angels despite any regrets they may have according to God's will.

---

Lucifel: You sure that's enough tropes? If not I could...

Enoch: No problem. Everything's fine.

---