Created by the company Choice of Games and written by Zachary Sergi, the Heroes Rise series details the Player Character's journey from nobody to legend, set in a future version of Earth. Thanks to a surge in technological development taking care of most of humanity's needs, evolution has kicked in and given most individuals Powers. Between this and all the hi-tech running around, a large amount of heroes and villains, Powered and non-Powered, emerges, and a new era dawns.
The first game, The Prodigy, begins with the Player Character returning home on their birthday to receive a present from their grandmother: a hero's license, which gives them the right to officially use their powers. Being descended from a pair of legendary heroes, who were unjustly arrested when the PC was thirteen, they are naturally eager to begin heroing and redeem their family name. They start by taking on a case too large for them and failing spectacularly — but the case opens up new opportunities, introduces new allies and enemies, and is part of a much larger plot.
It has two sequels: The Hero Project and Herofall. In The Hero Project, the player character is invited to take part of a Reality Show whose winners will become part of a new "American Protectorate," and in Herofall, the player character is set to fight against a corrupt president persecuting Powered individuals.
The game can be found here
, and the sequels here and here, respectively. It's forum is here.
On April 8th, 2016, it now has a sequel series starting with The Hero Project: Redemption Season, which puts the player in the shoes of an Ani-powered hero and addresses the growing inequality In-Universe, using the second season of The Hero Project as its backdrop. It also permits the importing of saves to impact the story in a minor degree. It can be found here.
This series contains the following tropes:
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Heroes Rise
- Acid Pool: This is how the Meek finally manage to kill Miss Artillery. Prodigal is forced to watch her mother dissolve.
- Action Girl: Plenty of these, including, potentially, the player character.
- The Alcatraz: Here it's called "The Devoid", and it's where your parents were sent after being framed for murdering a supervillain. You get to infiltrate it in the third game to try to bust them out, by which point they're not there anymore, but at least you get to free The Crush and the whole Millennial Group... as well as every other prisoner in there.
- The Atoner:
- The Crush is a former cult-leader who turned his life around in prison and became a much better, humbler person.
- Jury also makes (or at least attempts to) a Heel–Face Turn in the third game.
- If you stop them from going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, Black Magic becomes one too.
- The PC can be played as one, if you like. Especially for betraying Jenny.
- If your sidekick was not Sparrow, and if you saved them in the first game, they'll show up in the third hoping to make up for their crimes against you.
- In the third game, if you have a high enough Ideals stat by the time you face Scoundrel and Sheath, you can talk Scoundrel into helping you.
- Rebellion will become one if you talk them into a Heel–Face Turn. Atonement in general seems to be a big theme for this series, in fact.
- Attention Whore: A good number of heroes, especially Powered ones, are in it for the glory and the media attention. They spend more time in the public eye than actually fighting crime. You can play your character this way. This culminates in the second game with about half of the contestants on the Hero Project forming a faction called the Populars made up of well-known heroes. To counterbalance them, the lesser-known heroes form the Underdogs faction. Your two possible love interests are, naturally, on opposite sides, meaning you can't choose a faction without also rejecting one Romance Sidequest.
- Author Appeal: Zachary Sergi clearly loves his reality TV and celebrity in-fighting. Even a Player Character who's indicated little interest in chasing fame and celebrity will end up partaking, however reluctantly, in silly faction fights and publicity stunts during The Hero Project.
- Avenging the Villain: Prodigal's goal is to become the greatest supervillain the city has ever seen as a homage to her mother, Miss Artillery, who was accidentally killed by your parents. Getting Revenge by Proxy on you is a bonus. However, at the end of the sequel, Prodigal shows up and offers an alliance with you against the Greater-Scope Villain President-Elect Victon, revealing that her mother may still be alive and the whole thing was set up to get your parents out of the way.
- Betty and Veronica: The Hero Project sets this up with friendly, kind-hearted Lucky as the Betty and seductive, manipulative Black Magic as the Veronica. Lesbian and female bisexual PCs can Take a Third Option with Jenny (although Lucky and Black Magic become whatever gender your character's interested in themselves).
- Big Bad Friend: If you chose Sparrow as your sidekick, she turns out to be Prodigal in disguise.
- Bland-Name Product: MeTube.
- Blood from the Mouth: Prodigal coughs some up during her Heroic Sacrifice.
- Body Horror: The Molten Ladies are a trio of teenagers whose skin melts off their bodies (described with disturbing detail) until they're skeletons shambling at you, using the hot goo that their skin and organs form to attack you.
- But Thou Must!: In The Prodigy, most of the choices are fake. Most blatantly, there's an option to refuse to have sex with Black Magic. If you choose it, the game simply overrides your decision, although this was changed in the later version.
- Camp Gay: GG, your promoter in the second game is absolutely flaming. In the third game, you get to visit his massive estate, which he calls the Gay Gardens (hence his nickname). He actually has two peacocks following him everywhere.
- Captain Ersatz: Black Magic is basically a somewhat Vamp-ier version of Zatanna, who resembles a celebrity of the player's choice.
- Cast from Hit Points: You have two different scores for your health and the energy for your powers, but it's possible to convert health into energy in a pinch.
- Civil War: It's not really brought to the forefront, but in Herofall, half the country is rallying behind President Victon's new anti-Powered agendas, and the other half is rallying behind the PC.
- Comm Links: MeChips are, basically, smartphones embedded into people's arms. They have artificial personalities and can convert various data into a form you can understand (basically, your game stats). Oh, and you can use them to call people with the hologram projecting in front of you. At one point, you use a cell phone to call a friend and muse how weird it is to call someone without seeing them.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: This trope is pretty much the basis of the plot. Two heroes accidently kill a dangerous criminal? They get life imprisonment. Another known hero who saved numerous people turns out to do something questionably moral? They are now a disgrace. It also happens to the Player Character very often. You killed a terrorist to prevent a nuclear holocaust? You are now a fugitive. You jumped in front of the energy beam to save your friend? She still hates you if you had exposed her secret identity. Were you a bit rude to other heroes while risking your life defending innocent people? Everyone hates you now. Even if you are a paragon of justice, someone will still hate you for one reason or another.
- Cooldown Hug: One of the ways the PC can calm down a rampaging Black Magic is by kissing them.
- Corrupt Politician: Mayor Victon is responsible for putting the Player Character's parents into a maximum-security prison for life without not only visitation but communication rights for what amounts to be self-defense during his time as a judge. This was obviously done as part of his run for the Mayor on the platform of regulation of Powered individuals. At the end of the game, he hints that he knew all about the Prodigal and did nothing while she worked hard to plan the city's destruction. He also openly threatens you and implies that there was more to your parents' imprisonment than you thought. Victon's corruption is even more evident in the sequel, where he openly allies himself with an anti-Powered group called the Meek and even has them orchestrate a potentially deadly incident on the day of the Presidential Election in order to raise support for his campaign.
- Create Your Own Villain:
- Your parents' mistake of killing Miss Artillery causes her daughter, Prodigal to become a Supervillain.
- It's perfectly possible to turn Black Magic into a Tragic Villain by mistreating and betraying them.
- Victon's verdict against your parents ultimately drove you to become his main enemy.
- Crime of Self-Defense: The Player Character's parents are famous superheroes who were attacked by an assassin while accepting their award in public. While attempting to subdue her, they accidentally kill her. The judge sentences them both to life in prison with no possibility of parole and doesn't even grant them visitation rights. Oh, and all their money is given to the assassin's daughter. It's made clear that this was a political move on the judge's part, as he was running for mayor at the time. However, it's not clear why a murder trial wasn't a trial by jury and why the jury didn't side with the city's favorite superheroes instead of an assassin who was trying to kill them. There should've been an appeal to a higher court (i.e., where said judge couldn't do anything). On the other hand, the ending implies that the judge-turned-mayor may have had other reasons to put away the player's parents.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: In the second game, you can flatten Rebellion, portrayed as one of the most powerful and formidable heroes in the world, with a single (highly potent) attack. The third game even has an achievement for finishing off Rebellion extremely quickly.
- Cyanide Pill: Some Meek members have these and will take them if necessary.
- Darkest Hour: The first half of Herofall. Basically: the protagonist has been de-powered and is on the run, trying to hide from President Victon and his corrupt authorities after the scandal of the Hero Project. One of your closest allies/love interest is in a coma. Potentially, your best friend hates you due to your betrayal. Your parents are currently on death row, and will be executed in only two days after hearing the news. And your only hope to fix everything lies in Prodigal, the same person that tried to kill you and your family only a couple of months ago.
- Demoted to Dragon: Smyther, although not the Big Bad of the first game, was a powerful crime boss and unquestionably called the shots in his gang. In the second game, he ends up being one of Culic's underlings in the InfraOrder.
- De-power: What the Meek intend to do to every Powered individual. This is also one of the ways you can resolve Black Magic's story, which they ironically thank you for, since they now have their sanity back.
- Differently Powered Individual: Superhuman people are called Powered.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- The protagonist's parents are given life sentences in a maximum-security prison built specifically for Powered individuals and not allowed to even call or send letters to relatives for what, in most courts, would be clear self-defense (they accidentally kill a super-villain trying to kill them when apprehending her). Unfortunately, they are tried by Judge Victon, who is running for Mayor on the platform of regulation of Powered individuals. The ending implies that there may be another reason for such harsh punishment.
- Additionally, the ending of the second game suggests that their "victim" may, in fact, be alive.
- In the third game, now-President Victon includes them in the list of Powered to be executed as dangers to society. Your character wonders how Victon could have amassed such an unprecedented amount of executive power without any other branch of the government stepping in and then reflects that fear is a powerful motivator.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: It is a bad, bad idea to directly attack Black Magic in the third game. Indirect methods, such as a Power Nullifier, are fine, but Black Magic will absorb the energy from a direct attack and power up accordingly. Thus, the PC's attack — which is stated to be roughly equal to a nuclear explosion in strength — causes them to become on-par with a god and wipe out the world, starting with you.
- Enemy Mine:
- At the end of the Hero Project, Prodigal comes to you and reveals that she's the one who sent you the anonymous messages about the Hero Project being corrupt and decides to side with you against Victon since Miss Artillery may not be dead.
- Depending on your actions, your dealings with the Millennium Group, the police, Black Magic, and even Jenny can have this flavor.
- The Extremist Was Right: The ending in which Black Magic destroys the world with the help of the protagonist really makes you wonder, are the Meek and President Victon really that bad?
- Fantastic Racism:
- There is a large amount of tension between the Powered community and non-Powered. Even more against Infini-Powereds. While the first game glazes over this in favor of focusing more on the player character, it's brought to the forefront in The Hero Project.
- Ani-Powered and Disembodied individuals are seen as lower-class than those with more conventional superpowers.
- Fantastic Slurs: "Gene Hazard" pops up quite a few times in relation to people with Infini powers. It's implied that before Powered individuals were more widespread, it was a slur for them in general.
- Fate Worse than Death: Pretty much every Powered person sees being de-Powered as this. The only exception is Black Magic in the third game, because getting de-Powered actually restores their sanity.
- Fission Mailed: This happens twice in The Hero Project:
- First, regardless of what you say to him, Rexford Schillers will always try to cut your player character out of the Hero Project show to get back at you for previously costing him money on the Gravitas case, but GG will suddenly appear and persuade Rexford to keep you on the grounds that you'd be a ratings hit and the show needs to keep its Infini-powered quotas.
- Second, if you fail the Semi-Final challenge by failing to obtain a Key, the judges will "save" you from elimination at the last minute for a ratings boost, so you still make it onto the show.
- Foreshadowing: It's mentioned early on that some people can't take the strain of their Powers and go mad, and that it happens more frequently to people with stronger Powers. Guess what eventually happens to Black Magic?
- Functional Magic: Black Magic's not sure if he/she believes in actual magic, but his/her powers come pretty close.
- Gravity Master: The Powered individuals in the Infini-Power range are able to manipulate gravity on the atomic level, but the ability can be unstable. In the sequel, the corrupt Presidential candidate uses Infini-Powered individuals as an example of the necessity of the Super Registration Act.
- Gray-and-Grey Morality:
- Averted in most cases — pretty much all the villains are clearly wrong in their actions — but it comes into play for one individual: Black Magic. They Life Drain disabled individuals to fuel their own Powers, but use said Powers to save lives and provide for the needs of those they drain.
- There is a discussion on the game's forum on whether the Meek, InfraOrder and InfraCircle are grey or not. The discussion can be found here.
- Government Conspiracy: There's one at work during The Hero Project.
- Green Thumb: The PC's grandmother has this power, and it's not just for gardening.
- The Hero Dies: Not guaranteed, but it is an option, especially in the third game.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- The PC can do several non-lethal ones, such as refusing to betray Jenny and being eliminated from the Hero Project.
- Prodigal may return and save the PC in the third game via Taking the Bullet.
- Hidden Depths: A number of the heroes you speak to in the second game have them. For example, Fumble and Stage Show have had a lot of personal struggles and aren't just fame whores, Wintry doesn't have a lot of willpower and is easily pressured into switching sides, The Crush is surprisingly philosophical at points, and so forth.
- Howl of Sorrow: Prodigal can pretty much only do this after watching her mother be melted alive right in front of her.
- Hypocrite: The Meek, oh yeah. They promote safety and equality by eradicating the Powered abominations. That is literally one of their creeds.
- An Ice Person: Wintry has ice Powers that enable her to project icy blasts, create winter storms on command, and flash-freeze anything, including fire. She's also got mild Power Incontinence — the temperature around her is constantly a few dozen degrees lower than normal, and just touching her, as the player finds out, is enough to instantly turn one's body numb.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: In the third game, Black Magic may end up doing this depending on how badly their life has been ruined and whether or not you're acting as their Morality Chain.
- Karma Houdini: Play your cards right, and the PC can be a backstabbing villain who still gets rewarded.
- Last-Second Ending Choice: While all the canon endings are influenced by pretty much everything you did up to that point, the alternate endings are only available through one specific choice during the climax.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The MeChip Warning System points out enemy weakness, advises tactics, and warns you when your health and Power levels are low. You have to spend real money (or a lot of in-game money) to buy it, but the PC will note how valuable it is after it saves their hides once again."What would you do without the MeChip Warning System? It was so worth the money..."
- Meaningful Name: A lot of heroes (and villains) give themselves one. For example, Black Magic is a Black Mage, Wintry is An Ice Person, Mach Girl has Super-Speed...
- Medal of Dishonor: They are a couple of ironic achievements, but the most glorious example is the "Elimination Badge" from the second game. You can get it by getting eliminated (or needing to be saved by the judges) from the competition five times in one playthrough and not earning any other badge.
- Mercy Kill: Prodigal kills her pet pterrot, which is seen to be suffering from radiation poisoning, claiming that she won't be able to take care of it.
- Mental World: You enter Prodigal's mind in the third game. Unfortunately, her mind turns out to be booby-trapped.
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: In the third game, Prodigal uses a Powered journalist to help you enter her mind in order to prove that she's telling the truth. It's an extremely disturbing experience, especially since it forces Prodigal to realize even more just how messed up she is. Even worse, her mind is booby-trapped.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Mistreating either Prodigal or Black Magic in the third game causes them to turn on you, which potentially leads to your death: either through Prodigal not showing up to take the bullet, or through Black Magic destroying the world.
- The Mole: Your sidekick is one for Prodigal, unless you chose Sparrow. That's because Sparrow is Prodigal in disguise.
- Muggle Power:
- The Meek (as in, "the meek shall inherit the Earth"), a nationwide organization that seeks to regulate Powered citizens. They endorse non-Powered heroes as they claim that their gadgets were created by normal humans. Interestingly, they refuse to elaborate exactly what they stand for and what their political platform is and only fire back vague slogans. One of their claims, though, is that allowing Powered citizens to run around rampant is "un-American". During an interview, you can do a Shut Up, Hannibal! and point out that they're the ones who are "un-American" for seeking to regulate what opportunities people with different abilities have. As usual, they do their best to make you seem the unreasonable one. Additionally, you can retort to the poster-boy for the Meek, an un-Powered hero using expensive gadgets provided by the organization, that his gadgets were given to him, same as your Powers; he didn't earn or make them. And being extremely expensive, these gadgets are not, in fact, available to everyone as the Meek claim. Once you get behind their closed doors in the finale, concentration camps and mass graves start showing up in their iconography.
- The Hero Project also features two un-Powered heroes in the competition who are unaffiliated with the Meek. One of them resents the Powered for having special status but doesn't like the radical policies of the Meek or their quasi-religious nature. The other one is a friend of yours who goes by the alias Null and is actually an undercover agent sent to investigate corruption in the Project.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Zig-Zagged all over the place. There are some instances, when doing seemingly right thing will end up worse than acting selfishly, like when you choose your sidekick over Sonja or if you spare Prodigal and fail to save Fringes, but generally playing as an idealistic, lawful, team-player hero will give the best results in the long run. Some heroic choices will seem to hurt you at the moment, but will pay you back in the end, with refusing to betray Jenny being the best example.
- Next Tier Power-Up: A few times: First, when the PC discovers in Prodigy that they have the Infini powers to manipulate gravity and atomic energy, which turned out to be the basis for their flight and ki-like attacks/shields/energy constructs respectively. Second, when they master their Infini powers in Herofall, depending on player choices. Third, towards the end of Herofall, when Black Magic is able to warp reality without any of their magic words, as well as directly drain people's lifeforce. Though it happens "offscreen" for lack of a better word, it's still a huge increase in power.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: This is the public's opinion of you after you botch the Gravitas case in the first game, and again in The Hero Project, as the public blames you for the deaths caused by Prodigal's Death Wave, if you were unable to stop it in time.
- Non-Powered Costumed Hero: There is a briefly-mentioned Super Team known as the Everyman Brigade, composed entirely of non-Powered heroes. In the second game, there are two non-Powered contestants. Both of them use suits that allow them to fly and fire all manner of weapons. One of them represents the Meek, an organization spouting anti-Powered slogans, and the other is an undercover agent, sent to investigate corruption within the competition.
- Not Quite Dead:
- If you killed her in the first game, Prodigal reveals that she was just Faking the Dead at the end of the second.
- Miss Artillery is revealed to be alive at the end of the second game.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Prodigal and GG are only known by their alias and initials respectively.
- Passing the Torch: The protagonist's father passes the hero duties onto his child just before he is imprisoned.
- Pinball Protagonist: The PC isn't given much choice about how they go about being a hero, and many times, an outside figure (such as Grandma, Black Magic or Sonja) decides something for them, and they go along with it. In fact, Prodigal has been effectively orchestrating their entire life behind the scenes. Though this does get much better as the series goes on; by Hero Fall, pretty much every one of the PC's actions has a significant outcome.
- Power Loss Makes You Strong: After the Player Character loses their powers at the end of the second game, they're barely able to use even a tiny fraction of their abilities, and using them takes a toll on their health, as well. After pushing their boundaries over the course of the third game, their powers come back with a vengeance just in time to escape the Blessed Vessel.
- Power Nullifier: By the third game, it's become standard for law enforcement to carry these around as part of President Victon's crackdown on Powered people.
- President Evil: The last two games eature President Victon (he is the mayor of Millennium City in the first game), who gets himself elected on the platform of Powered regulation and the support of the rapidly rising Meek movement. Once in power, he proceeds to force all Infini-Powered heroes to submit to Power Nullifier treatments and works with the Meek to develop a device that will permanently de-Power everyone. Oh, and he also orders public executions of the Powered criminals he deems too dangerous to rehabilitate. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. He is perfectly willing to risk the lives of millions of people for political purposes, gets the Player Character's parents framed for murder, works with a cabal to get an Infini-Powered ex-criminal to lose control of his powers on live TV, among many other crimes.
- Pro-Human Transhuman: As Infiniti-Powered, the PC, the Crush, and Black Magic all have near-godlike powers, but can all potentially advocate humanity.
- Rebuilt Pedestal: You can pick Rebellion as your superhero idol at the very beginning. However, at the end of the second game, he turns out to be in league with President-Elect Victon and sets the Player Character up to get the people to give in to paranoia and support Victon's anti-Powered policies. However, during the final battle at the end of the third game, you are once again confronted by Rebellion. You have the option of trying to convince him to once again become the hero you remember and help you defeat Victon.
- Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Black Magic and Lucky respectively, as the showrunners for the Hero Project are intentionally pushing a Love Triangle as part of the Player Character's storyline. This is especially prominent when both are candidates for Eleventh Place elimination and are depending on the PC to vote for one over the other. Lucky has no money, no job, and a poor single mother with a pack of younger siblings who are depending on him/her to make the cut. Black Magic's Dark Secret has been leaked to the public and s/he is in danger of losing everything s/he has accomplished. Refusing to make the choice between the two results in Black Magic's being voted off.
- Running Gag:
- Punching Jury.
- Jenny's ponytail is an object of many jokes through the series
- Sadistic Choice:
- Near the climax of the first game, Prodigal has kidnapped your sidekick and your press agent. You are forced to choose on live TV which one will live and which one will die. Especially heinous because your sidekick is either actually Prodigal in disguise, her minion, or blackmailed into assisting her all along.
- She offers you another one at the very end: she hooks herself up to the machine powering the Death Wave. You have to either kill her and become a murderer, or do nothing and let it destroy your hometown. Unlike last time, though, you can Take a Third Option, but only if your Legend is high enough: using your newly discovered Powers to stop the Wave in its tracks.
- Later, during The Hero Project: ruin your best friend's undercover mission, or have all your dreams come crashing down around you?
- As mentioned under Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor, voting off Lucky may end their career on the spot, and voting off Black Magic definitely will, due to public outcry over the source of their abilities.
- Serious Business: During The Hero Project, everyone takes the Popular and Underdog factions very seriously. Being a floater is a good way to get hated by everyone, while not voting with the faction your love interest is in results in pissing them off, even if you protest that you vote based on who deserves to stay. Even Jenny gets into it.
- Shipper on Deck: During the Hero of Tomorrow gala in the first game, your MeChip can get rather upset with you for ignoring Black Magic's calls in favor of trying to figure out where Sonja is.
- Shocking Elimination:
- The super-popular Fumble gets eliminated off the Show Within a Show really fast (either thirteenth or twelfth place, out of fourteen), which surprises everyone.
- The In-Universe Ensemble Dark Horse Null also has this, less because of the elimination itself, and more because she's been ousted as a DRRY agent — a.k.a., your best friend Jenny — who was investigating a conspiracy in the show, and the one who ousted her was you.
- Show Within a Game: The Hero Project is a Reality Show going on during... well, The Hero Project.
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: The Everyman Brigade never appears in Heroes Rise despite being possible idols you seek to emulate.
- Slave to PR: Your character might become this if you are focused on getting as much Fame and Legend Points as possible. If your Fame stat is high enough, some of the options that include putting justice above glory will be actually disabled. If you choose so, you can betray Jenny and ruin her mission just so you can stay in the Project and hopefully win it. But again, your hero might as well be focused entirely on helping people, so this trope is optional.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Black Magic is so utterly gorgeous that after his/her parents died and left him/her on the streets, s/he was forced into prostitution by the local mafia to survive. As a teenager. By the time s/he was able to leave, the damage to his/her psyche had already been done and s/he was left with the notion that people would only value him/her for his/her looks.
- Stalker with a Test Tube: Turns out to be how Miss Artillery conceived Prodigal long after her breakup with Victon.
- Stop Being Stereotypical: In The Hero Project, the spark for an argument between Manly Gay The Bear, Camp Gay GG, and Transgender Stage Show. This is subverted, however; GG is fine with himself or anyone else being stereotypical if that just so happens to describe their genuine mannerisms and appearance. What he's not okay with is what he believes to be The Bear using gay stereotypes as tools for his celebrity image at the expense of the rest of the gay community.
- Straight Gay: Jenny is a lesbian, but, aside from the obvious implications, it does little to affect the course of events.
- Super Team:
- Heroes Rise has the The Millennial Group. If their team player stat is high enough, the protagonist can join them at the end of the game. Also the Everyman Brigade and a villainous version in the Splice Circle.
- The sequel is all about a reality show called the Hero Project designed to whittle down 100 contestants to just 6 founding members of a new national team called the American Protectorate with Rebellion (the leader of the Millennial Group in the first game) as its leader. The Diva takes over for Rebellion in the Millennial Group.
- Superpower Lottery: Anyone with Infini-Powers wins this by default, but amongst those are individuals considered to be so blessed, the Meek call them the Unholy Trinity:
- The Crush gets telekinetics.
- The PC is actually a Gravity Master and can manipulate energy on a molecular level.
- Prodigal can create any sort of technology instantly, so long as it has a wartime application.
- The winner of the jackpot, though, is definitely Black Magic, who gets reality warping and life-draining in one neat little package. The reason this individual isn't considered a part of said Unholy Trinity is because their Powers are so great, the Meek don't even think they're human.
- Sympathy for the Devil:
- Sort of. After you're captured by Prodigal, the game notes how obsessive she is about ruining you. To the point of pretty much living in a small, dirty room, covered in defaced posters of your parents, deep underground, monitoring you nearly 24/7. Later, its revealed that she was living on the run for most of her life, possibly being watched and manipulated by Victon into eventually becoming who she is by the time of the game. The game notes how kind of sad this is, and how she never had a chance to live a normal life like the player character.
- In the third game, Prodigal reveals that her use of the Death Wave has given her Infini Cancer. Her powers only work while she's psychologically "at war," so the only thing keeping her alive is her current war against the Victon regime and the need to see her mother one last time.
- Tailor-Made Prison: Supervillains are kept in a prison in cells designed to hold them. Each cell is geared towards his/her/hir particular power(s). The Player Character's parents are being held in this prison. However, the cells are designed to keep superpowered criminals from breaking out, being not particularly strong against someone trying to break them open from the outside.
- "Take That!" Kiss: Player can pull this off on Jury in the third game.
- Textual Celebrity Resemblance: Invoked with Black Magic, via Hello, [Insert Name Here] letting you make them look like any celebrity of your choice, which the narration makes passing mention of from then on. Your character even gets the option to Lampshade this, to which Black Magic responds by awkwardly changing the topic.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Most of the heroes, and even several villains seem to hold this policy.
- Two-Person Pool Party: Choosing Black Magic in the second game as your love interest results in one.
- Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: A couple of examples through the series:
- Did you choose to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge in Herofall? Sure, you had your reasons but... you're still facing a trial for killing the President of the United States on live television.
- What happens when you make a team for something, but instead of actually making the best decisions and letting the people that are better qualified for that you just manipulate the selection to pick the ones you like the most or the ones that will help with some other agenda? You end up with something like The American Protectorate, who by the time Redemption Season comes around are either struck with constant infighting, or are so weak they can't even handle the most basic of missions.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Mayor Victon is the judge who sentenced your parents (the premier superheroes of the time) to life imprisonment over an accidental death... and used that to jump into politics. While he does do some good as Mayor, it's all motivated by his desire for political advancement. Another example is Mayor Victon suggests that he allowed — maybe even protected — your arch-rival over the years in order to keep on antagonizing your family as well as hinting he might have framed your parents to begin with. By the end of the sequel, he's become president and co-heads a nationwide anti-Powered movement. It's not so much that he becomes President but how he achieves that. Specifically, he helps orchestrate a known Infini-Powered terrorist-turned-hero (and/or you) going into an Infini-Power meltdown on national TV on the day of the election in order to boost Anti-Powered support up to eleven. And of course, any involvement he may have had doesn't come out until after the election. By part 3, he has pretty much become President Evil and has somehow amassed enormous executive power without any other branch of the government stepping in (then again, they could be influenced by his allies, the Meek), forcing all Infini-Powereds to undergo Power Nullification and even ordering executions of those he claims are a danger to society (including your parents).
- Wallet Moths: In The Prodigy, since your character basically grows up in a slum.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: What multiple figures (President Victon, the Meek, Rebellion) claim to be. Whether or not they are, or whether or not this justifies their actions, is up to you.
- Wham Line: Usually one or two a game.
- The Prodigy:
- The Hero Project:Prodigal: Are we really that tired, chicken?
- Herofall:Jenny: Wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me that President Victon is Prodigal's father?
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The narration makes a point to mention how individuals with strong powers usually go insane.
- World of Badass: Practically a given, since most of Earth's population now as superpowers, but even those who don't are usually a grade of Badass Normal.
- World of Snark: Almost every character, especially the Player Character, Jenny and Black Magic, has at least some wittiness to them.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Prodigal in the first game. Black Magic in the third.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The PC can try and stop Black Magic from going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge by reminding them that they're a hero. It may or may not work..
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Several things will always happen, no matter what:
- You are always going to fail your first mission, and your name is always going to get trashed.
- Prodigal will always survive the first game, no matter what you did, so she can team up with you in the third.
- You will always make it into The Hero Project.
- Either Black Magic or Lucky (whichever one is still in the competition) will always fall into a coma at the end of The Hero Project.
- You are always Brought Down to Badass at the end of The Hero Project.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Your character reacts like this, nearly word-for-word, when Prodigal hands them a tablet laying out her whole evil plan near the end of the first game.
Redemption Season and Open Season
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: There are two "interludes" in the first game, switching the player's perspective first to Weaver, their production assistant, then later to Lyra Vite, one of the producers. In Open Season, the two interludes are dedicated exclusively to the protagonist of the original trilogy and a secret one where you get to play as JK if your legend is high enough.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: From StarSoar, regardless of the player's gender.
- Ascended Extra: Some characters from the original trilogy who were minor, barely mentioned/Unfought villains (Little Jagged, Lolli and Splicina, to name a few) get expanded roles in Open Season; Little Jagged herself tags along with you for the final mission in Redemption Season as well. Ditto for Splint and Velocityl, whom you can only meet at the very beginning of the game when mingling with the Final 14 and who don't end up advancing at all in favor of Crystalline and Ignite. In Open Season they team up with the player as part of The Home Front.
- The Atoner: Depending on the player's actions in the first "season", a few of the villains, namely Rebellion, Crush, and the former Mrs. Victon are trying to make up for their actions the first time around. Jury, however, seems to flip between this and his personality from the first two games, for the brief period he's seen.
- Attention Whore: Griffin takes advantage of the cameras to always look the most heroic of those on the show.
- Author Appeal: Zachary Sergi's love of reality TV shines through again.
- Back from the Dead: Prodigal returns once again in Open Season, uploading her consciousness into Processor's body after hacking it and booting out her original personality.
- Berserk Button:
- Don't call The Voiceless useless.
- The PC also has a handful of them:
- If they have a high Private stat, then trying to pry into their life will often anger them to the point of smashing camera orbs.
- Depending on your choices, merely mentioning their parents is a quick way to anger them too.
- Blessed with Suck:
- The Player Character's form shifts on a daily basis, combining this with Cursed with Awesome. Some days they're hawklike, other days they're a chicken.
- Transfer is hit with this to a lesser degree, having only four forms to shift between — human, werewolf, vampire, and zombie. Of course, they're also a vegetarian, so the dietary changes for those forms are a bit of a struggle.
- The Bus Came Back: Several characters from the original Hero Project, both minor and major, return as Veterans for the show's new season, including Mach Girl, Fumble, Tarana Rain, and Galexa.
- Continuity Nod: Plenty, from Prodigal uploading a MeChip AI before her death, to previous Heroes appearing as Guest Judges and Veteran contestants on the show.
- Create Your Own Villain: The slander and mocking The Voiceless received on the Hero Project is what finally turned them into the villainous group they are now.
- Cutting Off the Branches:
- The game's mere existence cuts off the branch where Black Magic destroys the world, for obvious reasons.
- Those who played the Heroes Rise protagonist as a Sociopathic Hero, went on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, and/or shunned the other heroes will find those choices disregarded; and the Heroes Rise protagonist will always be allied with the Millennium Group in order to stop the season's Greater-Scope Villain.
- The game also won't let you import a save where The Hero Dies.
- Death by Origin Story: You're the legal guardian of your sister, and Miss Boss' parents died in a car accident when she was a toddler.
- Disc-One Final Boss: You end up taking out all of The Voiceless (except for Less) in the very first chapter of Open Season.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: It is possible to both save Miss Boss' life (though she's left comatose) and get JK's final treatment by the end of the game, but it requires you to have a certain attribute leveled up to do so.
- Enemy Mine: Open Season kicks off on The Hero Project and The American Protectorate teaming up to invade the InfraCircle's base of operations, but they soon have to put aside their differences when The Voiceless start invading as well.
- Fantastic Racism: Brought to the forefront in this iteration, with the Player Character getting some of the worst of it (allegedly) due to not having a single concrete form.
- Funny Animal: While they appeared in the background of the first three games, this one puts you in the shoes of an ani-powered hero whose form even shifts on a daily basis.
- Grand Finale: Open Season explicitly serves as one for the entire Heroes Rise saga.
- Hate Sink: The games introduce a character named Mara, who was a producer on the original Hero Project Show Within a Show and is solely responsible for things such as Black Magic taking a level in jerkass or Wintry betraying the Underdog alliance, and is back to her old tricks in Redemption Season by way of manipulating Transfer to expose that Griffin's powers are fading. Even the characters themselves barely have anything nice to say about her. During the epilogue of Open Season you get the option to decide what ultimately became of her, despite the fact that as a character she's entirely inconsequential to the overall story.
- Hearing Voices: Early on, it's revealed that StarSoar, your partner in the tryouts, has a case of this. Given what Loa Shift relates at the end of the first game, however, the voices he's hearing may very well be right.
- Heroic BSoD: The player will go into one after The Slaughter; the producers mention they still won't talk to anyone about what happened.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Towards the end, the player is told that in order to get the final treatment for JK, they need to "let Miss Boss fall", invoking this before it even occurs. Whether or not they actually feel guilty about it when it happens depends on your choices.
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: The protagonist wakes up each day as a different animal-human hybrid. This is never painful or debilitating, but often really inconvenient. Sometimes the hybrid is great for fighting crime, like getting the toughness of a tardigrade; other times, you're going to have to sit there being a half-octopus and commiserate with your sister.
- Jive Turkey: Tarsiero has a penchant for adding "#" before everything in an attempt to bring it back.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Apparently news doesn't travel quite as fast in the twenty-second century, since the protagonist is barely aware of the previous Player Character's accomplishments, let alone the numerous world-changing developments surrounding them.
- Loophole Abuse: Basically, how to save both Miss Boss' life and secure the final treatment for JK. While you did let Miss Boss fall, Loa Shift didn't say anything about putting her in stasis while she was already falling.
- Mad Scientist: Not in-game, but part of Velocityl's backstory is that he's a Korean refugee who'd been experimented on, resulting in a painful-looking graft between a human and a pterodactyl.
- Meaningful Name: Miss Boss' hero-name is this, as explained while on a mission.Miss Boss: 'Boss' reclaims the idea that a woman in power is negatively 'bossy,' while 'Miss' repurposes the old-fashioned term labeling unmarried women. Really, Miss Boss is the perfect codename for me, because it represents my experience as an aspiring heroine: being labeled and underestimated.
- Mêlée à Trois: The three sides never directly engage in a battle, but the overarching plot of the game is a three-way struggle between the Hero Project contestants, the InfraCircle, and the Voiceless.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The producers of the Hero Project have a moment of horror when they realize their show, by its very nature of trying to make better and brighter heroes, may also be responsible for the rise of more terrible villains — and is, in the case of The Voiceless.
- Opposites Attract: Ignite and Crystalline, both in terms of appearance and outlook. She manages to get him to indulge in some team banter, but he has to say his through clenched teeth.
- Previous Player-Character Cameo: The player from the first season will be mentioned throughout and cameos at the end if you import a save. They get a bigger role in Open Season, even getting a few interludes from their point of view.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Home Front consists of you, the player character, your snarky sister JK (who Took a Level in Badass since the last game), Battle Couple Lolli and Scoundrel (a deer and a turkey Ani-Powered respectively, one is a former gangster and the other a former terrorist), Splint and Velocityl (who struck up an Odd Friendship after getting kicked off Redemption Season together, despite one of them being a normal teenager with a giant energy sword and the other being a half-dinosaur hybrid), Transfer the nonbinary vampire-werewolf-zombie-person and the reformed Jury who now goes by Verdict.
- Retcon: If Jenny dies in Herofall, she somehow returns in Open Season with zero explanation, despite everything else about your imported save being the same.
- Romance on the Set: A bit of a staple for the series, but the In-Universe example this time around is Ignite and Crystalline.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Lolli and Scoundrel's relationship is basically this. The scene introducing them as a couple has them trading insults that escalate into violent makeouts.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Getting to know Miss Boss better reveals a few Hidden Depths, including the fact that she puts up the front she does in public because she feels it's the only way she can gain recognition, with plans to change her demeanor once she's "made it".
- Stop Being Stereotypical: The Player Character's reaction to Tarsiero, an ani-powered who's basically a human-sized Tarsier, and much more in-tune with his instincts to the point of enjoying being treated like a pet. Not helping matters was the player having canine characteristics during their first meeting, meaning that Tarsiero's scent triggered a few instinctual habits of their own.
- Super Team: The ones from the original trilogy make an appearance, but Open Season introduces a new one based out of Magnuspiral called The Home Front, with either the protagonist or JK as the leader. Though it also doubles as a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: GG is a lot less pleasant this time around, as compared to the original series. One could argue that the ruthless streak he's always possessed has simply become more pronounced, but it's still clear that becoming head producer for the Hero Project hasn't done much good for his social graces.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist:
- The Ani-powered villains from the first season have established their own city in the wasteland that Prodigal caused in the first game, much like a similar city in another universe.
- The Voiceless claims to be a group dedicated to making the world a better place for Disembodied by providing a place of love and acceptance... by wiping out everyone else of course.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: If you refuse to confront StarSoar about his "delusions", you'll still make it onto The Hero Project, with the producers kicking him off the show because they found out by other means anyway. The key difference is that if you do it this way, he leaves on good terms with you, and your relationship with JK doesn't take a hit as a result.
