My World, My Way is a 2008 Role-Playing Game developed by Global A Entertainment and published by Atlus for the Nintendo DS.
For all her life, Princess Elise has had everything she wanted handed to her on a silver platter - a fancy castle, the finest of dresses, and lots and lots of money. She eventually bumps into a handsome adventurer (whom she describes as "Level 99 in handsome") at a royal ball, expecting him to praise her and wait on her hand and foot. It didn't quite work out that way, as the adventurer blows her off for being too spoiled for her own good.
Still determined to win him over, Elise sets out on a journey in search of fame, fortune, more fame, and the chance to get him to fall in love with her by growing out of her "me-me-me" ways.
...just kidding. That would be too easy. Since this is My World, My Way (her words), fighting, questing, and especially pouting are the only reasonable paths to victory in this game. It goes as far as having menus dedicated to this.
My World, My Way contains examples of the following tropes:
- 20 Bear Asses: Half of all quests are "get me 5/10/20 of whatever from some terrain that doesn't exist". However, get your level high enough and you can make them go away.
- Crossover: The two dungeon diggers commissioned by Nero are Owen and Kate, main characters of Master of the Monster Lair, an Atlus/Global A dungeon crawler released months before MWMW.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Revival costs a reduction in either XP or gold gain, or neither, because both options stink.
- Deconstruction:
- Of the typical RPG, to the point that it's technically a mechanic. Most of what can be changed relates to common complaints people can have about RPG systems in general. You can make enemies that are impossible for you to fight weaker and more on/less than your level, Fetch Quests can be bypassed entirely, and annoying penalties for dying can be rendered null and void.
- It's also sort of one for the typical journey plot, as Elise does it for fairly selfish reasons and the victories Elise gets over the course of the game were set ups by Nero more than they are actual exploits.
- Ditto Fighter: Pinky the pink slime can mimic an enemy's body parts and gain their stats (the head determines MP and wisdom, body covers HP and constitution, arms determine strength, and feet determine agility).
- First Town: Subverted. The princess' hometown is actually named First Town, but the first actual town she visits on her adventure is Grass Town.
- Genre Savvy: Say what you will about the princess' methods, but she certainly knows the conventions of the quest she's on.
- Geo Effects: Different sets of terrain attract different monsters.
- HP to One: The "Weaken" spell. Tends to be more reliable when the enemies use it.
- It's All About Me: The plot hinges on Elise trying to avert this by going on an adventure and growing as a person.
- Market-Based Title: Originally called The World Revolves Around Me in Japan, it was renamed to avoid confusion with the recently released The World Ends with You. Of course, the Title Drop sounds slightly awkward in the English because of it...
- No Fourth Wall:Elise: Whoever wrote the script must've forgotten that NPCs are supposed to be here for the sake of my adventure!
- Power Copying:
- In order to learn new spells, the princess must first be hit by them (and survive the blow, of course). Her parrot Paro will be able to use these spells after she levels up.
- And just like Gloop from Master of the Monster Lair, Pinky the pink slime can copy enemy body parts and use their abilities against them.
- Prince Charmless: After rejecting her a few times for increasingly unreasonable reasons, you can't help but feel the princess' would-be suitor is this.
- Princesses Prefer Pink: Nero remarks that if Pinky weren't pink, Elise would simply ignore it and wouldn't bring Pinky along. And a pink slime monster is really hard to find, too. Then there's the pink dress she reluctantly throws away at the beginning of her adventure.
- Resort to Pouting: Pouting to get your way is a game mechanic, complete with "Pout Points" that can be spent to change things like enemy levels, terrain types, quest requirements, loss penalties, and the like.
- Respawning Enemies: Available upon request, except the bosses.
- Running Gag: Elise seems to have a fixation with creating areas that dance. Everything from trees in a forest, to the scarecrows at a farm, to even the kindling of a bonfire can start busting moves.
- Shout-Out:
- The "Devil Girl" enemy is somewhat reminiscent of another mysterious little girl.
- When Elise complains about her quest sounding too much like a lazy RPG script, Nero responds with a "Well, excuuuuse me, princess."
- Title Drop: Repeatedly, including at least one paraphrase of "Her world, her way".
- Walk into Mordor: Chaos Land, the fourth and final area, is just a stone's throw away from the first town.
- We Buy Anything: Not only that, but any of the goods you sell to the merchants will pop up in stores later in the game. Bad news? You only get 25% of the market price for them, as opposed to 50% in most RPGs.
- You All Look Familiar: Lampshaded frequently. Every town has NPCs who look the same, and they're the only NPCs the princess will see in any town at any given time. It's All Part of the Show, of course, as they're all paid actors running from town to town to test her worthiness as a hero.
