Video Game / Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth

Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth^note Originally Futari no Hakuoro is the third installment of the Utawarerumono series and a direct sequel to Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and contains major spoilers for that game, so beware spoilers from that game.

Beginning where the last game left off, Haku has been forced to assume the identity of his friend the Yamatan imperial guard and general Oshtor after his very inconveniently timed death. Due to the civil war brewing on the horizon, “Oshtor” is needed, whether or not he really is Oshtor. Almost as soon as the game begins, Haku is placed in control not only of the military of Ennakamuy, but of the country in general. Surrounded on all sides by enemies or, at best, neutral observers, he has to find a way to put the usurped princess Anju back onto the throne of Yamato. And not only without letting anyone know that the real Oshtor is long dead, but without several of his most dependable allies from the second game.

Making things even more complicated is that the proof that he's Oshtor, the Akuruka mask that serves as proof of his position, quickly binds itself to Haku's body and can no longer be removed without tearing his very face off. Worse, with every use, it drains his life force. With every battle he's forced to rely on its power, he draws one step closer to a death where he will not even leave a body behind. He'll simply dissolve into a pile of salt to be scattered by the winds.

An anime adaptation was announced on the 24th of November 2021 as part of the series' 20th anniversary and will premiere in July 2022.

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Tropes found in this game:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Haku is weirded out every time the twins try making a move on him. This just prompts them to get even more aggressive rather than learn that they need to back off a little.
  • The epilogue shows that a Gender Bender'd Moznu is very uncomfortable with how their crew members have been looking at him/her lately.
• Aborted Arc: The previous game slated Uzurusha to make a return in force, especially now that Yamato is fractured. Except that they don't, and Gundhurua dies unceremoniously off screen.
• A-Cup Angst:
  • It doesn't come up in the real world, but in the post game Uruuru and Saraana note that they are called small forest fairies in the weird scenario despite seeming the same as ever because of 'reasons' and that they don't want to talk about it.
  • Nekone and Kuon both express some minor jealousy towards the larger girls in the cast, such as Camyu, Nosuri, and especially Fumirul. Of course, in those scenes the larger girls are complaining about their size and the inconveniences that come with it.
• Aerith and Bob: Just like the previous game except it finally opens up the plot point. Honoka and Anju are confirmed to be duplicates of the Mikado's original family. Woshis, who isn't an obvious part of the Mikado's family, is his clone and essentially left to live his own life instead of being burdened with the Mikado's will to bring back humanity from their curse. Uruuru and Saraana, the daughters of Honoka are both potential Honokas due to their strange lifecycle, which Haku essentially broke for them. Regardless, among the new party members, you have Munechika (Generic Samurai Gender-Blender Name), Anju (modern Japanese) and Fumirul (refers to a in-universe flower) as well as temporary party member Itak ("Speech" in Ainu).
• Afterlife Antechamber: Haku finds himself in one of these after overusing his Akuruka, even meeting Oshtor and Maroro before being convinced to return and replace Uitsalnemetia in order to save Kuon.
• The Alcoholic: Pretty much every playable character likes to drink but the standout examples are Atuy and Jachdwalt who consider an entire carriage packed to the brim with liquor to be not quite enough for the (relatively short) return trip back to Ennakamuy from Kujyuri.
• All Just a Dream: Postgame takes place in an area referred to as the Twilight Gardens. In it, Mito and Honoka set up a bunch of levels that generally alternate between very silly and showing him how things could have gone instead. Haku considers it all to be just a dream that he's having in the afterlife but at the end Kuon shows up, confirms that what happens here is both real and not and issues one final challenge to him.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: While he tries to control himself, Ozen's first introduction to the party is rushing out and asking his mortified daughter to come sit on his lap. When she gets flustered he wonders if she's hesitating because she put on weight.
• Amazon Chaser: A big part of why Itak loves Atuy is because of how strong she is. However, he finds that he still worries about her in combat and wants her to retire from combat.
• Ambiguously Gay: Woshis' personal soldiers are all a bunch of pretty slave boys that he created himself, which is obliquely remarked upon at several points. A post game map with what seems to be the real Woshis has the goal to get them back to him and is worded rather suggestively. He also writes and illustrates gay porn.
• Anchored Ship: Mito didn't have the courage to ask Honoka if she resented him for building her to be loyal to him. She says she did at first but came to love him on her own anyway. She's saddened by how he never responded to her love, though it's clear that the only reason he didn't was because of his own insecurities.
• And Then What?: “Oshtor” doesn't know what he'll do once Anju is back on the throne because while while Oshtor won't be needed anymore, he basically considers Haku to be dead as well. His best plan is to just wander the world.
• An Arm and a Leg: Haku's transformed arm crumbles to dust as he delivers the final strike to Woshis. It remains gone when he shifts back to human form, but is restored when he comes back from the dead.
• An Ice Person: The final attack in Itak's attack chain is him conjuring up ice to skewer his opponent from beneath.
• Animal Motifs: Most of the characters were designed with a particular animal in mind. Rulutieh is modeled after an eastern squirrel, for example, while Anju is clearly a snow leopard.
• Antiquated Linguistics: It's common for the more royal or noble characters to speak archaically. Early on Haku stumbles a little because Oshtor is one such character and he's not used to either Oshtor's formality or his use of the obsolete pronoun 'soregashi.' He's used to speaking in an incredibly laid back way, so it's hard to immediately switch over.
• Arranged Marriage: Without her knowledge, Atuy's mother and aunt arranged for her to be married to Itak. He loves her greatly, but while she doesn't have any concrete reason to be against the idea, it just makes her uncomfortable. He's handsome, kind, princely, brave and so forth and therefore should be exactly her type, but his devotion just confuses her. Eventually, he calls off the engagement when he realizes that she does intend to go through with it but isn't into him at all. She's much more into “Oshtor,” only at this point she realizes he's really Haku.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Haku becomes the new Uitsalnemetia at the end of the game and wanders the world helping people in small ways.
• The Atoner: Kuon really feels terrible for leaving the group when they needed her most. While most of them understand how upset she was when Haku seemingly died, Nekone runs away at first and Kuon seems to assume it was because she left her alone in the world with a terrible burden to carry. Though it is likely Nekone ran away because of a combination of the above and because she felt guilty about the deception of Haku's death and how much it had clearly hurt Kuon when she was told.
• Attack Hello: According to Jachdwalt, attacking Genjimaru to try and steal his sword pretty much became his way of saying hello to the old man after a few months of trying.
• Attending Your Own Funeral: Haku doesn't get a formal funeral, but he does go around checking to see how people are coping with his death. He's a bit disappointed by Atuy's seeming indifference and misses that after he left the room she was clearly upset in her own way and just doesn't know how to process it.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: One post game map requires you to leave yaoi porn enemies alive so that Munechika sees them and gets distracted. If you don't, she'll catch up to Anju and one shot her, causing you to fail the level.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: After Moznu is turned into a girl, he acquires a lot more fans including a cameo by Chalafun, who is now in love for real.
• Aura Vision: While we never see the world from their perspective, the twins note early on that they possess the ability to see people's auras and thus cannot be fooled by disguises. Oshtor had a noble sky blue aura while Haku's is the deep, nourishing brown of the earth, though the way they describe it makes him think he's being compared to manure. They also knew who Kuon was despite her disguises immediately, but kept silent and simply stayed on guard against her.
• Author Appeal
  • The designer for Nosuri and Urthoriy makes it quite clear that he likes girls with certain assets to their name. He was particularly proud of Nosuri's battlefield sprite, which tends to bounce up and down.
  • The art team as a whole seems to enjoy the whole animal eared girls thing, which probably shouldn't come as a surprise even if there's an actual reason for them to look like that.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: After the civil war, many characters receive new positions in return for their loyalty. Atuy, Nosuri and Itak all join the ranks of the Eight Pillars. Irawaji becomes the new Grand Vizier, replacing Woshis while Kiwru takes his place as owlo. Soyankekur and Genho become the new Imperial Minister of the left and right and Haku becomes the new supreme commander of Yamato's military. The commendations continue after this in the background with Anju next addressing Munechika, but it cuts out before we can learn what honors were granted to her or anyone else.
• Back from the Dead
  • Haku is revived by Hakuowlo passing along the original mask to him. In return, he becomes a god and wanders the world only physically manifesting when he chooses.
  • After Woshis' Villainous BSoD, his slave boys get themselves killed to snap him out of it. He dons the Super Prototype mask Raiko used and remakes them with it.
• Back Stab: Ougi gains bonus damage when attacking enemies from behind. It's meant to indicate that he's more of an assassin than a brawler, though he's still capable of at least matching Jachdwalt in a fight without that advantage.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: During the climax of the Nakoku arc, Atuy rushes forward and Haku follows. The two end up back to back in a burning palace fighting off enemy soldiers. Very dramatic.
• Bad Boss: Subverted. Raikou seems inclined to execute Bokoinante early on to serve as a warning, but he's 'convinced' by Woshis to spare him, which he likely would have done anyway. Instead, he gets use out of his and Dekopompo's deaths by giving them enough free rein to get themselves killed and then making political use of their deaths by portraying them as noble vassals killed by a vicious traitor.
• Bag of Spilling: While you do start with all your party members from the first game apart from Kuon, they lack the levels and skills they had obtained by the end.
• Balance Buff: Several units were improved between games.
  • Nosuri, for example, was kind of underpowered with her weak defenses, attacks and skills. However, her second attack chain received a third attack that made it her most powerful, if perhaps situational skill. She also received a skill to boost her attack at low HP. There are also items now that can decrease the chances of enemies attacking her in order to improve her longevity.
  • Kuon was already a functional unit, if perhaps unexceptional due to lacking any kind of specialization. However, now she can switch between the primary four elements as she pleases and increase her own zeal to 100% whenever she wants after a certain point in the game. Not only does this give her the elemental bonus at all times if you use her right, but she also gains immunity to whatever element she's currently using, which can make her a pretty tough defensive unit against the right enemies, if they can only use attacks of her element she can even sit back and watch as they kill themselves trying to hurt her. She also steals zeal now instead of generating bonus zeal from nothing, allowing her to prevent enemies from going into overzeal so easily.
• Barrier Warrior: Munechika apparently doesn't get a giant monster form, but her Akuruka does let her create impenetrable force fields on command.
• The Battle Didn't Count: In the battle at Onkamiyamukai the Yatanawarabe's Healing Factor letting them get up from wounds that would stop regular soldiers is portrayed as something that Haku's group has no real counter for (despite half of the party attacking in ways that wouldn't leave much of a body left afterwards) as they get right back up in the cutscene after all being defeated.
• Battle in the Rain: As Haku battles Mikazuchi on the Omuchakko Plains a storm appears as a result of Mikazuchi transforming.
• Battle Strip: When Anju first charges into battle, she decides her robes will get in the way and just takes them off to tie around her waist instead.
• Beautiful Void: The Afterlife Antechamber is portrayed as a vast expanse of water and cosmos, spectral butterflies gracefully fluttering in the tranquility. Haku finds it supernaturally beautiful... and a bit boring.
• Becoming the Mask: Shichirya, like Miruhj, is one of Woshis' Yatanawarabe, but unlike the latter was genuinely loyal to Raikou and betrays Woshis at a critical moment and taunts him even as he's cut down.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: After Woshis dons the prototype akuruka, he starts granting people's wishes in a twisted fashion, killing some and turning others into Noroi, unkillable monsters similar to the Tatari.
• Berserk Button: Nekone makes it very clear that any affronts to Oshtor's name will not be forgiven, but after awhile she drops it when Haku imitates him near flawlessly. He only presses this button once and it was an accident at that. Nekone still drags him out of the party's sight and knocks him unconscious for it.
• BFS: Anju uses Karulau's sword after the latter throws it between her and Kuon in the middle of a fight. The sword is about twice as long as she is tall and is more of a club than a sword. Six strong men find it difficult to carry even though proxies are already stronger than humans, but both Anju and Karulau before her wield it one handed with no effort. Haku looks at this in disbelief every time most likely because even with super strength, Anju shouldn't be able to maintain her balance with it given the weight difference. Though watching her swing it in combat, it does seem as though this is a slight problem for her.
• Big Brother Worship: Nekone practically worships her older brother and gets angry one the very few occasions when Haku slips up slightly and risks damaging his name. However, she later comes to view Haku as her real older brother and feels the same way as she did about Oshtor.
• Blood Knight: Mikazuchi, Atuy and Vurai all revel in combat. Even Haku starts feeling that way when fighting Mikazuchi.
• Bloodless Carnage: As a general rule, there may be some blood on 2d pictures but the 3d sprites for gameplay will almost never bleed even as they're shot/stabbed/bludgeoned to death.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Uitsalnemetia genuinely wants to help people, though we don't know why. However, not only is it incapable of granting no strings attached wishes, it doesn't understand what people want in the first place.
• Body Surf: Honoka is an inherited identity. Every generation in her bloodline there are twin girls born. One of them gives birth to the next generation and then possibly dies while the other has her personality rewritten with the personality of Honoka.
• Book Ends: Mask of Deception started with Haku and Kuon heading into a village in Kujyuri and Mask of Truth's epilogue has them meeting in that village again, if only in a dream. The soundtrack picture implies that they properly reunite at the ruins where she first found him◊.
• Brick Joke: Kuon in disguise figures out who Haku is right after kicking him in the face, breaking one of his teeth and generally trashing him. To her, it's the moment she realized the man she loved was still alive. Months later she dramatically reveals her true identity as the Tuskur princess and tries to get him to join her service, only for him to remind her that the last time he saw the Tuskur princess she knocked one of his teeth out. After a Beat, she throws on her headdress and pretends that nothing happened and she has no idea who this Kuon person is.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Camyu is probably the most powerful kamunagi alive, but she completely wastes all her talents by goofing off or, at best, devising new magical ways to goof off.
• Brought Down to Badass: Munechika joins the party without her mask, but she's still the best tank in the game.
• Brought Down to Normal: After giving up his mask, Hakuowlo is nothing more than a normal human being, free from being sealed and able to see his friends again.
• But Now I Must Go: Haku is revived at the end of the game in a sort of super mode, but after getting Kuon to safety he disappears temporarily. The rest of the party then tries to track him down.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Fumirul seems to be considered particularly attractive mostly because of her giant breasts. Going by the official art, though, none of the girls who have hit puberty could be considered small besides maybe the twins.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Kimamau are basically monkeys, right down to throwing poop at people. Kurarin is also basically a jellyfish, though he does fly.
• Call-Back:
  • During Haku and Kuon's trip to Tuskur after the civil war has ended Kuon tries to impress him with her regal, commanding side and reveals she was the Tuskur princess all along. She then tries to command him to join her nation. He dryly points out that the last time he saw the princess, she kicked him in the face and knocked out one of his teeth. She promptly goes back to pretending the princess is a totally different person by throwing her face concealing headdress back on.
  • The Tuskur arc and many things later are a treasure trove of call-backs, like the Abh-Kamu, first seen in the original, you first encounter them at the Reliquary and a short sequence is dedicated to one of them going haywire. They are later used as part of The Cavalry against the Noroi. There's also the presence of everyone in the original playable cast who aren't dead or stuck in Limbo as evil duplicates of them appears in the final battle against the evil Uitsualnemetia as enemies.
• Came Back Strong:
  • Near the end, Haku kills himself by overusing his Akuruka and dissolves into salt. However, Hakuowlo reaches out to him in the afterlife and grants him his mask. Or rather, grants him the godhood that comes with it since the mask was already in Haku's possession. With it, Haku suddenly becomes a completely broken unit who wipes the floor with the last stage.
  • After being slain by Haku's group the Yatanawarabe are brought back in more powerful forms by Woshis and even manage to corner Haku in Akuruturuka form after he separated from the group.
• Cast From HP
  • Anju's second and third attacks are technically her just injuring herself by hitting too hard due to inexperience, but in terms of gameplay they achieve the same thing.
  • Kuon's self buff skill has a third level new to this game where she draws from her 'heritage' in order to gain 100% zeal instantly. The drawback is that it halves her maximum HP. While going into overzeal purges this debuff, her health will still only be at 50%. If she uses the skill again to extend her overzeal, the debuff will be reapplied.
• Catchphrase: Nosuri is still on the path of being a good woman. Haku has also taken notice of this tic of hers and occasionally uses it to gently manipulate or encourage her. He really does have a lot of faith in her, but when Nekone accuses him of being a womanizer by flattering her like that he admits he was pretty blatantly buttering her up.
• The Cavalry: When Haku's group and Shis' forces are being overwhelmed by the Yatanawarabe and undying Noroi, Tuskur's army arrives with Kuon at it's head to save them.
• Character Development: Haku refuses to spoil Anju or shield her from knowing what her actions are doing to the country, causing her to quickly mature into a proper responsible leader. No one expected her to actually have leadership potential so it comes as a great shock to many when she begins behaving much more prudently, though she's still a slightly bratty child even by the end.
• Chastity Couple: Shis claims she never slept with her husband before walking out on him. She portrays it as a point of pride, but given her later attitude there are implications that she actually finds this embarrassing even if she didn't really like him much.
• Cherry Blossoms: After coming back from the dead, Haku has a constant stream of these flowing around him.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Itak has been in love with Atuy since they were little and almost immediately proposes to her. While he's supposedly her type, she feels oddly uncomfortable about the whole thing and he eventually gives up on his own.
• Clingy Macguffin: After Haku uses the Akuruka the first time very nearly by accident, it starts invading his body and can no longer be removed.
• Clones Are People, Too: Honoka, Anju and Woshis are all basically clones of Mito's original human family. Honoka was his wife, Anju his daughter and Woshis himself, though Mito views him as a son. The only nod to clones being viewed as perhaps less than other people is that the ancient security systems will not given complete administrative access to a clone even if they have the Master Key, though this seemingly done for security reasons, not racism. Woshis is treated as being entirely his own person, Anju is something more like a reincarnation and Honoka's case is a bit more complicated, but the implication seems to be that she has the original Honoka's memories and came to love the emperor for real later.
• The Chains of Commanding: Haku finds it kind of pitiful that a sweet and mischievous little girl like Anju is trying so hard to be a good empress and put everyone else's needs before her own.
• Clone Angst:
  • Woshis tries to make Anju break down by telling her that she's just a copy of the emperor's true daughter, but with her friends' support she gets back on her feet and rejects him. It's implied she may be closer to a reincarnation, however, because she has dreams of the original Anju's life even though she was never made to have such things.
  • Immediately after, this is turned on Woshis when he learns that he's the emperor's clone. However, the emperor and Honoka really did view him as their child.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: By the end of the game, the twins, Kuon, Rulutieh, Shis, Atuy, Nosuri and Anju are all in love with Haku. He seems rather oblivious to this. Nekone is slightly more ambiguous given how clingy she is towards her brother whether that be Oshtor or Haku.
• Combat Pragmatist: While Oshtor wasn't exactly a stranger to moving behind the scenes to get things done, Haku is much more direct and pragmatic, including burning to death helpless enemy soldiers in order to reduce casualties on his own side and improve morale.
• Combination Attack: When in Overzeal, your party members can get support attacks from party members who are in range to help. The party members don't gain zeal during these combos and the full effects of their skills aren't seen, but you can also avoid the demerits on skills like Anju's. There are also special combo final abilities between certain close characters like Anju and Munechika.
• Comedic Spanking: When Kuon returns home after running away again Aruruu punishes her with a spanking.
• Comically Missing the Point: During a Lover Tug of War, Haku tries to get Anju and Kuon to back off by telling the story of King Solomon and the baby. However, he tells the story slightly wrong and gets interrupted before he can finish, so the pair decide the moral was that whoever tugs the hardest gets to keep him.
• Complete Immortality: It's strongly implied that Hakuowlo has no physical body anymore after being sealed. It's mentioned that he lost his physical form and he hands his mask to Haku after their meeting. Despite this, he's still very much alive and active, or at least could be if it was safe for him to act. He gets his body back in the end when he passes his godhood down to Haku, who is likely just as unkillable.
• Cool Big Sis: Nosuri is considered to be a caring older sister type. She likes to take care of people.
• Cool Old Guy
  • Kurou and Benawi are Tuskur's primary generals and seem to get the majority of the screentime among returning characters. Though at least a generation older than the main cast, they're both quite badass and can wipe the floor with most of them. The screentime they get seems to be making up for lost time due to how little they got to do in the first game, especially after the first major arc ended.
  • Genho and Atuy's dad are in the same general category of cool old guys who are probably a step above the main characters. In the end, they get promoted as rewards for their service.
• Counter-Attack: Some of the most devastating abilities in the game are counters rather than normal attacks. It's often better to avoid attacking an enemy if you know they'll counter or to either use a chain that doesn't allow counters or stop an attack chain on a no counter attack. Atuy and Mikazuchi in particular have very nice counter abilities as a tradeoff for not having the best defenses.
• Covert Pervert
  • Rulutieh, Munechika and Anju are huge yaoi fans, though the first two try desperately to hide it. It's not exactly clear if Anju understands that she's reading porn, though she does express interest in seeing Haku naked in the postgame.
  • Kuon seems fairly innocent minded and isn't one of the yaoi girls, but she did go out of her way to learn how to make obscure aphrodisiacs and, the second game implies, actually gave them to someone.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Invoked. Haku gets Munechika to provide training to him under the excuse that he relies too much on his mask and needs to learn to fight without it. Two problems with this. One, Oshtor was known to be a master of all weapons apart from the bow and to be unmatched at unarmed combat as well. Two, throughout the game Haku is obviously relying heavily on his mask. Still, Munechika doesn't really know Oshtor nearly as well as Mikazuchi or some others so the excuse works.
• Crocodile Tears: Kuon rather blatantly fakes tears in order to get Tokifusa to accept a drink from her. As a result, despite planning to drug Oshtor's party he's the one that gets knocked out instead.
• Cruel to Be Kind
  • Haku refuses to coddle Anju and basically shoves her face in the consequence of her actions every time there's any kind of opportunity. It's not her fault that she's just a child, but if she wants to be a good emperor she needs to mature fast and understand that people are dying for her sake.
  • When Kuon has amnesia at the beginning of the game, Kurou pretends to not hear all his friends telling him to shut up as he recounts what happened at the end of the last game and Kuon's own personal investment. When they get angry at him when she remembers, he points out she would have remembered on her own soon enough and then would have run off without telling them all she was going. Sure enough, she tries to run away that night and is successfully intercepted before she can get herself in too much trouble.
  • Kuon in disguise tries to belittle and harass Anju into withdrawing from the civil war so that Tuskur can come crush Yamato since she doesn't believe Anju can actually win. Haku is the only one that notices that trying to get their side from withdrawing doesn't actually benefit Tuskur at all and can only be motivated by a desire to keep Anju safe, though he doesn't know why some stranger would want to do that. In the end, though, she ends up failing when Anju is encouraged to stand up for herself and manages to secure a tie in their fight.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Fumirul constantly trips over absolutely nothing. She frequently sheds clothing in the process.
• Cute Little Fangs: Rulutieh's more temperamental older sister Shis has a little fang that comes out whenever she's squeeing or tries to do an Ojou Laugh.
• Cuteness Proximity: One look at Shinonon being Shinonon is enough to make Munechika inadvertently blurt out how cute she is and allow her free access to her room, including letting her play with all her cherished hand sewn dolls.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You
  • Eruruu, Kuon's favorite mother, left her when she was very young because she needed to help reinforce the seal on Uitsalnemetia in order to protect her from her own godly side.
  • Kuon's dad, on the other hand, voluntarily chooses to stay sealed beneath Onkamiyamukai in order to keep himself from hurting anyone.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Haku spends the whole game pretending to be his dead friend Oshtor because Oshtor is needed to restore the country under Anju while Haku is just some bum nobody knows. While his act isn't perfect, he practically kills himself trying in at least three ways at once. First, the Akuruka is literally killing him. Second, he's working so hard that his health begins to suffer due to overwork. Third, in order to be Oshtor he can't be Haku, so he's killing his own personality at the same time. However, as noted, his disguise isn't perfect.
  • Nekone knew from the start while the twins, Ougi, Mikazuchi and Kuon figure it out immediately through different means. Ougi is just smart, the twins could see his aura was different, Mikazuchi could tell he doesn't fight the right way and Kuon heard him complain about not getting hazard pay. Torikori doesn't know Haku, but she could tell he wasn't her son though she views him as one anyway.
  • Atuy realizes it when Haku recalls their nights drinking together, Rulutieh overhears Haku and Torikori talking about it, and finally Woshis figures it out from how his father treats Haku. Anju and Munechika were aware that something was off but didn't completely put two and two together until the end of the game.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: Each individual part of Ougi's attack chains add little to the overall damage, so instead he has very lengthy combo attacks with loads of hidden criticals in between each major chain. To get the most out of him you need to figure out the timing for about ten hidden criticals between five main attacks without accidentally screwing up your timing and ending the chain too early due to a timing failure.
• Death Seeker: Vurai survived his fight with Oshtor, but he seems to have given up the majority of his grudge and just wants to die in combat against him.
• Declining Promotion: Soyankekur, Atuy, Genho, Nosuri, and Irawaji all try to reject a promotion from Anju once she's mikado before finally being talked into it. It got to the point where Anju was a bit confused when Itak graciously accepted.
• Defensive Feint Trap: When cornered in the capital, Raiko draws Oshtor towards the gate by having Maroro and his forces steadily retreat towards the gates (and the cannon) only to cut off their retreat with Mikazuchi and his forces once they are within range of the cannon.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Nekone starts off accepting Haku as her brother only because she has to to fulfill her real brother's will, but over time she sees and accepts Haku's better side and ends up considering him just as much her brother as Oshtor was.
• Designer Baby: Anju was carefully designed with additions such as Super-Strength and poison resistance to help her survive as the new Mikado.
• Desperation Attack: Certain abilities only trigger below 25 or even 10% life. These either come with a high damage increase or set zeal to 100% automatically. In the second game these could only be obtained through items, but now characters like Nosuri and Anju can learn them automatically.
• Deuteragonist: The story is nearly as much about Kuon as it is about Haku, including numerous scenes from her POV.
• Developer's Room: The final Dream Arena mission takes place in one of these.
• Devoted to You: The twins basically consider themselves Haku's slaves, though they won't do anything for him that they didn't already want to do anyway like paperwork or leave him alone. As a result, Atuy says early on that she doesn't think they exactly love him, they just kind of worship him. The difference between their devotion and true love comes up again later when Kuon is frustrated and worried about how Haku is killing himself to become Oshtor, but the twins don't even understand her concerns.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Fumirul regularly wreaks havoc because of her tendency to cause this without noticing.
• The Dividual: The twins have never been separated since they were born and very much do not want to be.
• Does Not Know Her Own Strength: Anju's second and third attacks have her hitting the enemy so hard that she accidentally injures herself as well, especially with the second attack. She's been trained to fight by Munechika, but doesn't have any experience.
• Doing in the Scientist: In the first game, Yuzuha's illness was said by Tuskur to be caused by 'many elements at war within her body' but the way it was described indicated that the real reason it couldn't be cured was because it was a genetic illness. It turns out that while the condition is inheritable, having too many elements in the body really is the problem. All Kuon's body had to do to cure it by itself was call in a tiny bit of her divine heritage to suppress those elements, let one become dominant and then she can switch between them.
• Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment:
  • Nekone has to treat Haku like Oshtor, though she clearly lacks the same Big Brother Worship she had. She eventually does start to see him as another version of Oshtor, but the idea of mentally replacing him with a copy takes a toll on her mental health. After she works through that she eventually does start treating him the same way as the real Oshtor, though she still recognizes him as his own person.
  • While Mikazuchi is initially murderously offended at Haku imitating his friend and rival, seeing him assuming Oshtor's Akuruturuka form convinces him that Haku's earned the name. Mikazuchi treats Haku!Oshtor like his old friend from then on.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: If you clear all enemies in the post game map where Anju is rescuing Haku from Woshis, none will be left alive to distract Munechika, who will catch and crush Anju.
• The Dragon: Raikou himself isn't a fighter, so instead he employs Mikazuchi and later Maroro to fight the party as his trump cards.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: When meeting the former emperor again, the twins and Kuon have a brief argument about whether Haku answering to Haku is important. The twins make a sort of 'a rose by any other name' argument while Kuon believes that Haku is killing his true self by taking on the name Oshtor. She gets frustrated with their blind obedience and loyalty, seemingly believing that they don't care who Haku is so long as he's Haku, which doesn't feel like it has anything to do with caring about him as a person.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him:
  • Despite the very blatant foreshadowing for his return, Gundhurua died offscreen and Uzurusha never becomes important or threatening again. He returns in the post game only to die of anger a second time.
  • Oshtor's elites also get unceremoniously eaten alive by the Gaunji without accomplishing anything despite Raiko hyping them up as a major asset of Oshtor's.
• Duel Boss: The second to last fight in the game has Haku in kaiju form against Woshis. Your other party members are there, but they can't reach either Haku or the boss, meaning Haku has to handle the entire fight himself. Fortunately, it'd actually be hard to lose this fight, so what challenge there is comes from the need to keep Kuon safe as well.
• Duel to the Death: After coming to terms with Haku impersonating Oshtor, Mikazuchi decides that he wants to have a duel with him.
• Dung Fu: The Kimmau have a dung flinging attack, it's even called Simian Hurl.
• Dying as Yourself: Maro was brainwashed by Raikou and Woshis midway through the game and became a recurring boss bent on murdering Oshtor to 'avenge' Haku, but throws off the control right before the war ends. While he dies to a stab wound not long after, it's implied that simply breaking the control and shedding the parasite that controlled him was enough to be fatal.
• Easy Amnesia: Kuon starts the game with no memory of anything she did in Yamato, so Kurou jogs her memory to serve as a recap of the second game and to explain why she doesn't immediately go back to help her friends.
• El Cid Ploy: Oshtor was killed at the end of the last game, but it's very obvious to Haku and Nekone that they need Oshtor, though not necessarily his actual abilities. As a result Haku took his mask and gave up on his old identity. However, while a few allies are in on the deception from the beginning, most of them are in the dark as well by necessity. The disparity between how Oshtor and Haku would behave also becomes valuable even if Haku never realizes it. Raikou at many points tries to predict what Oshtor would do and how quickly, but Haku tends to take more risks, not play by the rules and to act much more quickly than the real Oshtor, which throws Raikou off.
• Elemental Absorption: Kuon absorbs and reflects any damage that is aligned with her current element.
• Elemental Powers: All proxies have an associated element that they can use when fighting and is implied to shape their personality. Humans, however, do not.
  • Nosuri, Ougi, Maroro, Vurai, Karulau and Oboro and Anju are fire based.
  • Atuy, Nekone, Touka and Itak are water based. Oshtor was associated with water.
  • Rulutieh, Jachdwalt, Mikazuchi, Aruruu and Shis are wind based.
  • Kiwru, Munechika, Eruruu and Kurou are both earth based.
  • Fumirul and Urthoriy are holy while the twins and Camyu are dark.
  • Kuon is a special case. Like her mother Yuzuha, she actually possesses all the elements within herself. This is actually a bad thing because it causes instability within the body and causes a normally incurable illness. However, thanks to who her true father is, her divine blood obliterated the disease and allows her to switch between elements based on the last attack chain she used, though she defaults to earth.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Fire beats water beats air beats ground beats fire. Light and darkness deal increased damage against each other. Haku has no element at all.
• Emergency Authority: "Oshtor" is given full control over Ennakamuy's military and government by Irawaji using the justification that he knows nothing about waging war while Oshtor is an experienced warrior.
• Enemy Summoner
  • Like Nekone, enemy casters and Maroro can summon shikigami at the beginning of their first turns, though Maroro will continue summoning them every turn after that unless he already has two on the field.
  • Bug tamers aren't particularly dangerous on their own, but they have long ranged attacks that can summon gigiri on top of your units as well as summoning one during their first turn. The gigiri aren't very strong either, but if you don't move quickly you can find yourself fighting three bug monsters with a caster behind them taking potshots at you, which can make it hard to move around, reach priority targets and leaves you vulnerable to other enemies. And unlike shikigami, not all the gigiri will disappear when their creator is killed.
• Enigmatic Minion: It's never really made clear why Woshis is working for Raikou during the civil war. Actually, it's not terribly clear afterwards either. He did want Raikou, Mikazuchi and Oshtor killed, but why that was desirable and why he didn't do it it earlier is also rather vague.
• Eternal English: Even though it has been at least a thousand years since humanity disappeared, all the characters still speak comprehensible Japanese. Interestingly enough, though, actual written Japanese is known to only a few extremely specialized scholars. While Haku can understand what everyone is saying just fine, he was illiterate in the second game and in the third he still hasn't quite mastered the local writing system even though it's implied to be much less complex than kanji.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Shichirya betrays Woshis for the sole purpose of making him feel what it's like to be betrayed himself and pay him back for what he did to Raikou. It's an incredibly effective gesture and causes Woshis to undergo a breakdown which only lets up when he finally realizes that he's been surrounded by people who cared about him his entire life.
• Evil Costume Switch: After being brainwashed by Raiko and Woshis, Maroro starts wearing far more aggressive looking makeup and his magic is now cast by punching or waving his hands instead of dancing on the spot like when he was a comic relief character.
• Expository Pronoun: Munechika uses the archaic masculine pronoun 'shousei' to refer to herself. It helps set up the clash between her typical image and her feminine hobbies. Or it would if this was possible to translate adequately.
• Expressive Ears: The characters with more animal like ears such as Anju or Kuon often have them sink down when depressed or perk upright when surprised or flustered. Those with basically human ears generally don't move them much. Characters' tails are also noted to be expressive with Haku often seeing through people's moods by watching them either wag bag and forth cheerfully or twitch with annoyance.
• Extreme Doormat: Ougi tends to blindly follow whatever harebrained scheme his sister comes up with even when he is entirely aware that it's a terrible idea. At best, he'll play damage control from behind the scenes, but never directly opposes her. When their father Genho turns to him at one point hoping he'll talk some sense into her, Ougi reminds him that he never goes against what his sister wants. That said, it's noted in the epilogue that he'll be taking a position away from her, leaving him less singlemindedly devoted than he was.
• Eyes Always Shut: Ougi and his father Genho always have their eyes shut. Ougi only opens his during moments of genuine shock or sometimes when things are very serious.
• Face Death with Dignity: Raiko planned on doing this until Shichirya's actions convinced him to go down fighting.
• Fanservice Pack: Haku acts much more serious in this game much of the time and holds himself with more dignity. He also gets quite a bit stronger and buffer, but we can't really see the latter due to the clothing everyone wears.
• Fighting Fingerprint: Mikazuchi realizes "Oshtor" is an impostor when Haku's movements didn't match his rival's.
• Final Speech: Haku takes over 20 minutes to say his goodbyes before his death near the end of the game.
• First Blood: When Mikazuchi and Haku square off in Nakoku, Haku is on the defensive and seemingly nearing his limits. While he's doing better than before, Mikazuchi isn't that impressed until he notices that Haku managed to score a cut on this cheek without him realizing.
• First-Person Smartass: Haku's original personality shines through not in what he says, but rather what he doesn't say. Like rolling his eyes at Nosuri claiming to have been a tomboy in the past, unlike how she is now.
• Fixed Damage Attack: Kiwru has one of these as long as he doesn't go beyond the first step in his second action chain, it only really sees use when you're trying to save zeal or when you're dealing with opponents with a defense far surpassing Kiwru's attack.
  • God!Haku also has one of these to compensate for his lack of levels when he appears (damage is actually level-scaled).
• Fling a Light into the Future: Woshis thinks that this is why the Master Key, an object that grants access to all of humanity's relics (allowing the user to bypass encryption, passwords and the like) and can restore power to them, was created.
• The Fog of Ages: Hakuowlo doesn't remember who he was anymore when he was just some human. His earliest memories are those of Iceman or, at best, his last moments as being just some archaeologist before he received the mask.
• For Great Justice: Unlike Ougi who inherited his dad's somewhat shifty nature, Nosuri got his passion for justice. She aims to surpass him by not accepting or overlooking the kind of wrongs that had him thrown out of his position as one of the Eight Pillar Generals.
• Fragile Speedster: Ougi has great speed and movement, the ability to run through enemies and ignore ZOC as well as good zeal gain, but his only defensive skill eats a lot of zeal with every use and only works in melee anyway. Most units gain zeal from blocking or dodging rather than lose it. It's very effective in a state of overzeal, however, since it has a high activation rate and stops enemy attack chains. Unfortunately, Ougi can't sustain overzeal for long due to how greedily he and his sister devour their overzeal.
• Friendship Moment: Getting a Final Strike during the True Final Boss will have the two characters reflect on their friendship with either each other or Kuon.
• The Gambling Addict: Nosuri copes poorly with the countryside since there's none of the gambling she's used to. Eventually Haku begins to humor her by playing cards with her. For a girl who is otherwise rather innocent and sheltered, she's alarmingly quick to bet – and lose – her clothing.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Proxies are designed to be subservient towards humans. While Haku elects not to make use of this, they still seem to be able to tell on some level: He has passive skills that indicates they hesitate slightly when fighting him, both increasing the damage they take and reducing the damage they deal, though unlike in the second game both aren't available at the same time. The full extent of this ability is rather more powerful than that, though, as shown by Woshis effortlessly commanding almost the entire party to kneel before him. They are unable to resist despite their hatred for him. If it wasn't enough, the ones who don't kneel aside from Haku are Anju and Kuon. Discounting their Super-Strength, Anju is a partial clone of the Mikado's original daughter and Kuon's father is Hakuowlo, who is a normal human in spite of the god mask glued to his face.
• Gender Bender: In the epilogue, we see that Moznu was turned into a girl due to a wish he made without thinking. It wasn't even what he wished for but rather a predictable twisting of something he thought of on the spur of the moment. Fortunately, he (well, now "she") doesn't seem to mind it much and considering what God!Woshis did to a lot of unlucky people, he actually got off lucky in the end.
• Gender-Restricted Ability: Only male Akuruturuka can assume the monsterous forms of the Akuruka.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: The True Final Boss features the entire party trying to beat some sense back into Kuon.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: In the post-game Dream Arena challenges, Tokifusa is one of these, even throwing up barricades every time he retreats.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: The story rather blatantly emphasizes Munechika's feminine side by revealing that not only does she love dolls, but she also creates them herself. They also get elaborate names that Shinonon completely ignores.
• A Glass in the Hand: When Anju is shocked by news early on she shatters a teacup on reflex.
• Glass Cannon
  • Anju has terrible defense, but extremely high attack (the highest of any playable character). She also has no defensive skills and instead has one that increases damage taken on an attack in return for high zeal gain. She also damages herself on two of her three attack chains. The first one is especially damaging and takes nearly half her life to use but in return is one of the strongest attacks in the game and hits a total of thirteen squares. Her only defensive abilities are that her final attack heals her for as much damage as it deals (ie to 100% given how hard she hits) and that in Overzeal she can survive one fatal attack at the cost of the rest of her zeal.
  • Mikazuchi is amazing in terms of speed, attack and passives, but completely lacks any defensive ability apart from an immunity to wind attacks. As a result, he can be easily bursted down and finds it difficult to actually use his Lightning Mantle counter ability.
  • On the last map of the game and one post game map you can fight against Oboro. He hits like a truck, literally knocks his target back with every strike of a long combo and begins adding in explosions to the later parts of the chain, meaning he also does AOE damage. Topping it off is that this chain also has great zeal gain, meaning he's likely to hit overzeal and then murder you again. On the other hand, his defenses are subpar and a bit of focus fire is all you need to wipe him out. Just don't let him get in range.
• Godzilla Threshold
  • When the kaiju battles start, Haku generally has to start using his mask even though he knows it's killing him rather quickly.
  • Later, he decides to use the Amaterasu weather satellite as a weapon despite how immensely destructive it is and despite the fact that it's needed to make Yamato habitable because it's the only method with enough energy to actually kill a Tatari, let alone the thousands that are boiling out from beneath the capital thanks to Woshis.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: The more wide eyed characters like Nosuri tend to be the most innocent.
• Go Out with a Smile: Haku dies with a peaceful smile after saying goodbye to his friends.
• Go Through Me: Nekone stops Mikazuchi from killing Haku by making it clear that if he wants to do that he'll have to kill her first.
• Graceful Loser: After his defeat in the capital, Raikou submits and accepts that he has lost with no anger. He does turn into a giant monster after that, but only to fulfill Shichirya's wishes. Even if he had won, the mask would have killed him soon after anyway.
• Guest-Star Party Member
  • Itak is available during the Nakoku arc and plays like an inferior version of Atuy, though he does have a decent support skill as well. Long, long after all your other party members have been maxed out, he's still slowly acquiring skills she had forty levels ago. The only unique skill he gets is obtained at level 99.
  • For a few maps, you also have access to Mikazuchi but he eventually leaves to fulfill other responsibilities. Both he and Itak are available for most of the post game, though.
  • The second post game map also lets you use Ukon and Maro's normal forms. Both are fairly unimpressive and their inclusion is mostly fanservice.
• Guile Hero: In contrast to Oshtor who was noted for being a bit of a hardass in his official capacity, Haku is much more prone to seat of his pants thinking. He bluffs, misdirects and uses underhanded tactics as necessary to ensure Anju's success.
• Happiness in Slavery
  • The twins consider Haku their master to be served at every opportunity. Any attempt to give them any form of independence seems to result in them feeling unneeded and attempting suicide, so Haku has stopped trying. That being said, they're almost never commanded to do anything they wouldn't have done anyway and the primary threat Haku has against them is him revoking their right to call him master.
  • The yatanawarabe are built to be loyal to Woshis and will literally die for him without hesitation despite his own indifference towards them until they do just that. Apart from Shichirya they don't care, even if they don't understand Woshis or what he wants.
• Healing Factor
  • In the early parts of the game Haku is able to cover for being so weak by pretending Oshtor's injuries are still affecting him. However, his mask actually accelerates his healing ability. It's not enough to be noticeable in combat, but it does mean that any fight he lives through will see him back at full strength within a day or so.
  • The Tatari and Noroi are both utterly impossible to kill by normal means thanks to their healing factors instantly undoing any damage inflicted.
  • Due to Woshis' modifications, the Yatanawarabe that serve him can take far more punishment than anyone in the group thought possible, getting back up after being thought slain twice in the story.
• Healing Vat: After Woshis' assassination attempt the Mikado is confined to one of these to survive, Mikazuchi also has a temporary stay in one offscreen as a result of Miruhj's attempt to assassinate him.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: Without his ridiculous face paint, Maroro actually looks pretty good. But you only get to see it for a single scene.
• Heir Club for Men: This usually isn't a problem – both Anju and Kuon are empresses, for example, while Nosuri inherited over her younger brother Ougi – but Irawaji notes early on that he did not have a proper successor and thus is pleased that his grandson Kiwru is so capable. This implies that Irawaji had a daughter and that he was unwilling to have her succeed him. It's also possible that he's adopted, but Haku notes that he sees his grandfather in him.
• Hellfire: Maroro's final strike burns with the black flames of Denkeboshiri (the local hell equivalent).
• Heroic BSoD
  • At the start of the game Kuon is sort of in one and it continues right up until her fight with Anju and realizing Haku is probably still alive, at which point she rejoins the party.
  • Near the end when Haku dies for real she has a freak out and loses control of her powers, becoming the god whose powers she's supposed to suppress. It takes the rest of her friends and a revived Haku to snap her out of that one.
  • After being hit with the double revelation that not all his minions are mindlessly loyal and that he himself is a clone, Woshis basically crawls into a corner and wraps himself up into the fetal position for a few days. It takes his minions going out to fulfill his will and dying in the process to snap him out of it and realize people did care about him all along.
• Heroic RRoD: Akuruka drain the life force of male wielders. When they inevitably die from using it, their bodies turn into salt.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: When Haku hears his friends praising him after his 'death' he feels uncomfortable not just because he's currently lying to them all, but also because he thinks he's not nearly as brave or clever as they think.
• Hidden Buxom: Implied. Rulutieh's sister notes that she's grown quite a bit, but with her form concealing clothing and the way she holds herself it's difficult to tell much about her physique for sure.
• Hidden Depths: After being rescued and nursed back to health by Entua, the story hints at some of Vurai's better traits. He's honest, direct, respects Oshtor as a warrior and, it's implied, would not normally have aimed for Nekone when fighting another opponent, but when he's transformed he begins to rampage and can't hold back, which is shown to a lesser extent with Mikazuchi. He's still far from a good person, but he's more respectable when shown like this. After the emperor's death he was particularly unstable, but with a chance to calm down he's rather mellow for most of his scenes.
• The High King: While Mikado just means empire, in truth the position doesn't really exert too much control over the local lords, who are known as owlos. The Mikado absolutely could do so if he wanted, but instead mostly just governs the capital and the surrounding lands. This decentralization of command leaves the remaining lords free to pick sides as they wish.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Dekopompo unleashes a monster on the party when his army is defeated and Haku is unwilling to show him mercy, but the first thing it does is eat him.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: The phrase "Look a gift-^woptor  horse in the mouth" is used once, and then there's Anju shouting "To ^Dinebokshir  Hell with your 'warrior's honor'!"
• Honor Before Reason
  • Mukar, Jammachiry and Jachdwalt's older brother, refused to surrender to a mighty foreign power despite knowing they could not win, had no allies and Uzurusha's treatment of captives. So Jammachiry seized control at least in part to protect the people, which caused Mukar to commit suicide from the disgrace. Notably, Jachdwalt doesn't necessarily disagree that surrender was the correct option, but that Jammachiry almost certainly had other options available, which shows his own tainted motives.
  • During the party's first meeting with him, there was a chance to turn Mikazuchi to the side of Ennakamuy. However, doing so would have required Haku to give up on carrying out Oshtor's last request, so he instead made it clear that Mikazuchi's assistance was not needed. However, this may be a subversion: Pursuing this course would have undermined Haku's authority as Oshtor at best and outed his true identity at worst, which would leave Mikazuchi in command. Even setting aside that Anju would not have grown into her position so quickly without Haku to push her, Mikazuchi is no match for his brother in a battle of tactics.
  • Mononofu have a bad habit of honorably yet pointlessly dueling to the death. When Oshtor and Mikazuchi are getting close to killing themselves by overusing their Akuruka Munechika outright refuses an order from Anju to stop them, saying it would stain their honor. She even tries to physically stop Kuon, who makes it clear she'd rather have Oshtor alive than honorable.
• Hopeless Suitor: The twins and Shis, Rulutieh's sister, all have a thing for Haku, but he's annoyed if anything by the former and the latter is not even the slightest blip on the radar. He doesn't even notice how much she fangirls him after their fight. Itak and Kiwru are interested in Atuy and Nekone respectively, but Itak eventually gives up and in the epilogue Kiwru is working as one of Anju's guards well away from Nekone with little chance to meet her.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Ougi is much more clever and talented than his sister in most respects, but he practically worships her and would never want to leave her side. It's also shown that while he isn't used as a measuring stick for other characters like Atuy is, he could seriously injure Jachdwalt in a straight fight so long as he was willing to take a grave injury in the process. That's not even what he specializes in.
• Hypocrisy Nod: Though he didn't realize it at the time, Woshis attacking Anju for being a copy of a real person who died long ago rings hollow given his own identity. When he learns the truth, he's the only one to point out how foolish he sounded at the time.
• I Know You Know I Know: When the war is coming to a close as Anju's faction prepares for a lenthy siege of the capital they probably can't maintain, Haku has a final gambit: fake calling Tuskur for aid. While he knows Raiko will easily see through it, he also knows the mere possibility of a vengeful Tuskur marching on Yamato's weakened capitol is too big a threat to ignore. Sure enough, Raiko has to open the city gates even while acknowledging the obvious bluff.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: When Anju confesses her strange dreams of a life with her father, mother, and Haku she mentions the promise she and Haku made. When Haku mentions their pinky promise she suddenly realizes they weren't dreams.
• I Will Find You: The epilogue reveals that most of the heroines have set out to find Haku again. Rulutieh and Nekone opt for I Will Wait For You Instead.
• Ignored Enemy: When Mikazuchi bursts through the Nakoku fortress' ramparts, Itak dramatically moves to shield Atuy from him. However, Oshtor gets in front of him as well, blocking Mikazuchi's attack. Neither one acknowledges that Itak was even there. It's a bit of a recurring theme in Nakoku that Itak just can't get the truly important people to acknowledge him.
• I'm Going to Hell for This: When going to meet Torikori for the first time Haku expresses this sentiment out of guilt.
• Inadequate Inheritor
  • Though all of Anju's retainers recognize Raikou's fake for what it is, many pretend to believe his lie because they correctly believe that Anju is not prepared to run an empire. Even some of her friends don't believe she's capable of it. However, thanks to Haku, she gradually grows into the role when he forces her to acknowledge what she's doing and take responsibility for leading her side of the civil war. Eventually, it's acknowledged that she's capable of being an effective ruler.
  • Woshis believes he was passed over for a different succession because his father doesn't love him or acknowledge his abilties, but in truth Mito was just worried about him and didn't want him tied down to the responsibility of saving the human race or leading an empire when he wasn't really suited for it. Also, he's technically a clone, so he's not even capable of leading the 'restore humanity' project due to security issues.
• Informed Attractiveness: The story won't shut up about how gorgeous, seductive and feminine Fumirul is even though literally every other female character in the game is just as beautiful.
• Informed Attribute: It's mentioned separately for both Nekone and Anju that they're starting to physically develop as teenagers later in the game, but their artwork isn't updated and in Nekone's case her clothing is form concealing enough that it wouldn't show anyway.
• Internal Homage: Kuon's "I'm burning" dream sequence in the very beginning of the game is an homage to the original's own beginning and plays almost identically like it. Like father, like daughter, it seems. It also hints on Kuon's true nature as the daughter of Uitsalnemetia.
• Internal Reveal: A few.
  • Nekone reveals to the group what happens to akuruturuka who overuse their akuruka during Haku's battle with Mikazuchi.
  • Kuon finally reveals she's the princess of Tuskur to Haku, then later the group.
  • While some suspected or figured it out, Haku reveals his identity as he's dying.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: Atuy falls straight into this whenever she gets excited by a fight.
• Irony: Woshis comes right to the borderline of taunting when telling Anju that she's a copy of the emperor's real daughter, but thirty seconds later he learns for himself that he himself is direct clone of the emperor.
• Ironic Echo: After Raikou's defeat, Woshis assumes Shichirya tricked him into wearing the mask knowing it would kill him and muses about what it must feel like to be betrayed by someone you trusted implicitly and without question. Shichirya pauses and then follows him again like nothing has happened only for him to betray Woshis at a critical moment by returning the Master Key to Woshis' enemies. As Woshis' more loyal minions instantly attack him, he asks Woshis what it feels like to be betrayed by someone you trusted completely.
• I Shall Taunt You
  • When Dekopompo's much larger army arrives to siege Ennakamuy, Haku baits him into attacking before he's actually ready, repels the siege towers and then has the troops below burned to death when they're unable to get out of the way.
  • When it becomes clear that Rulutieh intends to stay with the party, Shis snaps and tries to attack Haku. Her horrified brother instantly leaps to attack her to purge the disgrace of his family attacking the empress' high commander, but Haku interrupts them to insult Shis and begin a fight between her and her soldiers and the party. Afterwards, he does such a good job of apologizing for something he didn't even mean that she develops a huge crush on him.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Dekopompo pretends to surrender to Oshtor in order to buy time for his pet Gaunji to arrive and kill Oshtor for him.
• It's All My Fault: Nekone spends her nights in the early part of the game chanting to herself that her brother's death was all her fault. Haku doesn't know how to help in part because he considers himself to blame as well and seemingly because by any reasonable standard it actually is her fault, even if she didn't mean for it to happen. She stops this soon enough but doesn't truly recover until Kuon comes back. Once she discover that Haku's alive all along, Kuon comfort Nekone and pulls her out of this mindset.
• I Want Grandkids
  • Torikori asks Haku if there's any special lady around him and he responds with a no. She laughs a little and says she'll have to live a bit longer then. She can't die until she sees her grandchild. The very same scene implies she's already figured out that Haku isn't Oshtor, however, and that she wants him to admit it herself. She does consider him a son and just wants him to tell her the truth.
  • After the Izuruha arc, Genho makes it clear to Nosuri that he wants her to hook up with Oshtor. Technically, as players of the first game might remember, he wants her to bear Oshtor's child because the women of Evenkuruga are supposed to bring strong genes into the bloodline and Oshtor is about as good as you're going to get in Yamato.
• Jackass Genie: Uitsalnemetia and Akuruturuka Woshis live to grant the wishes people make of them, but usually twist them in ways that ruin the point. However, it's strongly implied that this isn't their fault and is simply a part of what they are. They don't even seem to be able to use their powers for themselves without consequences that outweigh whatever benefit they grant.
• Kill It with Ice: This is the only way to incapacitate the Noroi who will otherwise regenerate from every wound.
• Kill Sat: The Amaterasu weather control satellite was once used as a weapon and caused widespread devastation. In the present, however, it merely maintains the Earth's climate and makes it actually livable. Without it warming the planet, the land of Yamato would quickly freeze. Which is what happens when the satellite is used once again, this time to actually destroy the Tataris that are surging out from beneath Yamato.
• King Incognito:
  • Early on Anju wants to learn about Ennakamuy, so she stays with Torikori briefly to learn domestic tasks and the local culture. However, Torikori is smart enough to realize who she is immediately despite being mostly blind.
  • Kuon wanders around the capital of Tuskur convinced that just going out in informal clothing is enough to disguise her from her subjects, but they all know it's her. She's very popular though so they pretend to be oblivious so she won't stop visiting.
• Kissing Cousins: Atuy is engaged to Itak, though she doesn't even know until the Nakoku arc. He's the son of Soyankekur's sister and has been in love with her since they were children.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Shis loves Rulutieh, but she considers her rather weak both physically and mentally. In order to keep Rulutieh out of combat despite Rulutieh's own desire to keep helping and Haku leaving the decision entirely to her, Shis still tries to kill him over it before calming down.
• Knight Templar Parent: Downplayed since the first game, but you can still see traces of it in Soyankekur's behavior. He's very fond of Itak but only very grudgingly stays out of the way when he attempts to court his daughter. When he's talking about how the two are engaged he's talking through clenched teeth and frustrated that his wife and sister arranged for them to be married while he wasn't there. In the epilogue he also seems to have unwillingly given Haku a pass in that he doesn't directly interfere with Atuy's attempts to find him but instead just tries distracting her.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Following Tokifusa's defeat, Raikou's own troops are still numerous and in good condition, but they're now within hostile territory with no good options for making a real difference in the war. He chooses to withdraw.
• Legacy Character: Haku considers himself Oshtor, the imperial guard of the right. Nekone also halfway accepts it by calling him brother even when there is no risk of being overheard and Mikazuchi, who figures out who Haku really is the first time they cross blades, also begins referring to him as Oshtor.
• Libation for the Dead: In the epilogue, Ougi, Jachdwalt and Kiwru offer these to Oshtor and Maroro's graves while telling them about what has happened since their last visit to the graves.
• Lies to Children: When it comes time to discuss the weather satellite Amaterasu, Haku speaks of it only as a star to his party members and is even vaguer when speaking to Ozen. There is no way to explain what it really is, it doesn't matter and there's no time to try.
• Lightning Bruiser
  • Atuy hits very hard at good range, with area of effect attacks and can even continue on to get up to four attacks per round. She also has both a dodge and a defend skill and good zeal gain. As a result she's one of the best party members in the game, though her play style does make it easy to accidentally overextend yourself and leave her in danger. With her mediocre defenses and situational skills, it's easy to lose her.
  • Mikazuchi is a hard hitting unit with great range, a secondary form that can set up area of effect damage and some great skills. He's somewhat lacking in bulk, but it rarely matters with how quickly he can wipe out his enemies. He even has the highest speed stat of the party to allow him to attack much quicker than the rest of your party.
• Little Bit Beastly: The human race is essentially extinct and instead have been replaced by a race of people with slightly animal features. They have no particular name for themselves but are referred to as demihumans or proxies by those familiar with their origins. While animal ears and tails are nearly universal, the latter are sometimes cut off for practical reasons while the ears are sometimes hidden or covered to conceal race. There are also a few races that have horns or wings but apparently lack the ears or tail. Finally, some clans like the Giriyagina can sprout claws, though it's unclear if anyone else can.
• Long-Lived: It doesn't come up much, but proxies live roughly twice as long as humans do and probably age slower. This is likely a contributing factor for the cast of the first game still looking so young.
• Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: As Atuy deals with her grief over Haku's death in her own way, she finds she's not really interested in flirting anymore, bringing this trope to an end. When a pretty boy that's very into her is basically handed to her on a silver platter, he eventually gives up when he sees she's not really into him. After that, no more mention is made of her flirting ways now that she's truly serious about Haku and knows it.
• Lost in Translation: There's a scene soon after Kuon's return where she looks at Haku and mentions twice about how beautiful the moon is tonight. Unless you're familiar with Natsume Soseki's ideas on English to Japanese translations, this won't make much sense to you. Soseki was of the opinion that Japanese was more indirect about love than English and shouldn't translate a declaration of love literally, thus choosing 'The moon is beautiful, isn't it?' as a stylistic way of saying 'I love you.' While this is very well known in Japan, this is rather obscure trivia for English readers of the translated game.
• Love Epiphany
  • After learning of Haku's death, Rulutieh finally realizes how she felt about him.
  • During the Nakoku arc, being unsuccessfully wooed by Itak makes Atuy question herself about why she just isn't that into him and eventually figures out that she was in love with Haku all along. She also realizes that Oshtor is Haku.
  • Finally, Nekone has a familial version where she suddenly realizes that she cherishes Haku as a brother just as much as she did Oshtor. Up until this point she'd started feeling that same way but was feeling increasingly guilty over having ruined his life and was planning to start keeping her distance.
• Lover Tug of War: Kuon and Anju being trying to pull Haku to their side when Anju first abuses her position to get him to pamper her and then Kuon comes in with actual importance business and gets jealous. Normally Haku would get them to stop by complaining, but Oshtor doesn't get to complain about that kind of thing so he just has to put up with it.
• Loves My Alter Ego
  • Kuon loves Haku, but is rather angry with Oshtor. It's not until she knocks one of his teeth out that she realizes that they're the same person.
  • Rulutieh realizes at the beginning of the game that she was in love with Haku and becomes increasingly upset or confused at several points when she finds herself becoming attracted to "Oshtor" instead or treating him like he's Haku.
• Love Triangle: Most of the girls take a live and let live stance when it comes to Haku, but Kuon and the twins tend to argue and fight. Now, you may be saying “but wait, isn't that four characters?” The answer is no. The twins are almost entirely indistinct. Anju and Kuon also fight over Haku sometimes, but with those two it mainly seems to be an excuse because they always fight.
  • Another example would be with Itak being a Hopeless Suitor for Atuy, who is in love with Haku.
• MacGuffin: There are a few temporary MacGuffins throughout the story:
  • The Golden Seal during the Izurusha arc. While it's rapidly taken from Tokifusa, Nosuri rejects it on the account that it's only value is from past authority, that she wants to surpass her father, Genho, as chieftess and that she won't be dragged down neither by using the seal as a crutch (like Tokifusa), nor by underhanded schemes (like her father); which impresses Genho. In the end, Tokifusa dies because of his obsesssion to it.
  • The Master Key (AKA: Eruruu's hair ring) is this for a while near the end. While it has a specified purpose (it's a security override trinket for Onvitaikayan facilities), the situation degenerated for the point that it's utimately taken back damaged by the last remaining Yatanawarabe just so he can make a point to his catatonic master.
• Madness Mantra: At the beginning of the game Nekone doesn't sleep at night, she just sits there chanting that it's her fault Oshtor died.
• Mage Species: The line of Mutsumi is unique in that all of her bloodline is made of winged humans. They're noted for exceptional magical abilities, especially in the quasi royal bloodline. Even their flight is actually magical in nature since the wings don't seem to be strong enough to actually lift them above the ground. However, they only live in Tuskur.
• Magic Antidote: Averted. With prompt and continuous medical attention, Anju's life is saved from the poison but for the early part of the game her throat is too damaged to speak and her mind still seems to be hazy from the effects of the poison, though she's still at least aware enough to respond to the people around her now. She needs a second round of more specialized medicine to actually recover fully.
• Magikarp Power: When you get Itak for the playable campaign he's mediocre at best with only First Aid (heal when hit) and Unyielding (chance for attack up when hit) but if you level him up in the postgame scenarios he gets Permeating Vigor (him and everyone around gets 10 vigor every time it's his turn), Eye of the Fighter (blocks enemies from moving through areas if he's near), Precognition (dodge and end the attack chain, Stance of Far Sprinting (can move forward twice in exchange for not attacking) and Activation of Water (every water aligned unit on the map gets attack, defence and speed buffs while Itak is alive). Still no final strike though.
• Malicious Slander: Raiko nearly defeats Ennakamuy by using this to destroy Oshtor's reputation and encourage neighbouring nations to cut off trade with Ennakamuy, portraying him as ruthlessly slaughtering Dekopompo after he came to negotiate in good faith (in truth, Dekopompo invaded with the goal of seizing the real princess Anju, knowing that Raiko was using a fake) and as attacking Mikazuchi with his Akuruka without cause.
• The Man Behind the Man: Woshis was the true assassin of the emperor and nudged Raikou from behind the scenes in order to advance his plans.
• Manchild: Aruruu and Camyu have to be at least in their thirties by this point, but still act like irresponsible children. The only significant change is that Aruruu is less shy.
• Martyr Without a Cause: As the story continues Haku grows quicker to depend on his mask in dangerous situations. When the party finds out how dangerous this is to him, they try to forbid him from doing it, but it's always one of the first options he brings up. Even when, as Irawaji and Ougi note, it's not a good idea in the slightest because it'll just warrant a larger reaction from the enemy. Later, Haku tries to claim that he's always led completely by reason, but the party rejects him and says he's extremely emotional and tends to act without thinking, regardless of the danger he puts himself in.
• Mask of Power: Akuruka are thrice degraded copies of an ancient artifact that appeared to be a mask stuck to the face of an ancient man frozen in ice. They increase physical abilities for anyone who wields them, enhance elemental powers^note Vurai can create fireballs, Mikazuchi lightning and Munechika's innate shielding abilities are greatly improved and allow male users to take on a giant monster form at the cost of sacrificing some of their life force with each use. The original artifact and the first generation of copies didn't have those limitations, but the original is unique and the first copies are long lost and the data that was used to make them corrupted.
• Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Averted, none of the Tuskur cast blame Kuon for Yuzuha's death. Though Kuon privately blames herself, considering all the bad things that happen to her friends karma for "killing" her mother.
• Meaningful Echo
  • Early on, Haku says that he will debase and dehumanize himself as necessary to return Anju to her rightful throne. Later, Vurai uses almost the exact same language to talk about how he'll do anything for a chance to fight Oshtor to the death again.
  • Anju is grateful to the people of Ennakamuy for taking her in without hesitation and feels she needs to know more about them to thank them properly, so she asks Haku to be able to visit the common people without attention grabbing supervision. This is just like what she said back in the capital, but unlike then it's not just an excuse to mooch skewers and snacks off of people, so Haku is happy to oblige her once he manages to think up a safe way to do so.
• Memento Macguffin: Later in the game, Kuon and Haku head back to Tuskur to get the Master Key, which turns out to be the hair ring Eruruw's family has passed down for generations. Despite its extreme importance to both her and Kuon, it's broken shielding Haku from a sneak attack.
• Mercy Kill: The game ends with a shot of the Tatari in the containment area turned into plants not long after it is mentioned that the Tatari have "disappeared" and bits of greenery have sprung up in their place, heavily implying that after becoming a god Haku started killing the Tatari, ending their eternal suffering. Before this, several powerful characters had been looking for a way to turn them back to normal, but while this may be theoretically possible it is indicated to be simply too difficult and potentially costly. Haku just does the next best thing and ends their suffering.
• The Millstone: Outside of combat, Atuy is so lacking in other skills that Haku actively works to avoid giving her any tasks or training to handle. She slows everyone down, falls asleep on the job or traumatizes the soldiers when she's put in charge of training.
• Minor Major Character: Irawaji is Ennakamuy's owlo, but he instantly delegates all authority to Haku and basically disappears from the plot until the end of the game.
• Missing Steps Plan: As Genho points out, Nosuri has a way of just acting without thinking of her long term goals. All her work as a noble thief didn't bring her a bit closer to restoring the family name and, he says, she has no accomplishments to her name as a result of rashly wasting her time on it. Haku counters that this very trait of hers earned her the unquestioning faith of the new empress, a point Genho concedes.
• Moment Killer: The twins deliberately act as this by revealing a new section of some Tuskur ruins just as Kuon and Haku are having a moment, they even rub it in to Kuon's face afterwards.
• More than Mind Control
  • There are multiple characters who are basically programmed to be loyal to others, but with only one exception they'd be loyal to them anyway or don't even care.
  • Maroro is brainwashed by Woshis and Raikou, but the way he acts under that brainwashing is largely up to him. As a result, his hidden grudges also come to the forefront as well as his misguided hatred for Oshtor. This is why he accepts responsibility for what he did under the parasite's influence and believes he would have needed to be executed anyway even if he had survived.
• Mutual Pining: Haku can't act on any feelings for Kuon as long as he's stuck in his El Cid Ploy as Oshtor, while Kuon has clearly not gotten over his "death" and, after realizing "Oshtor"'s identity, respects his need to keep up the charade and thus still can't act on anything. They're only able to do something functionally akin to a Love Confession trade right before Haku dies.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • As Nekone becomes closer to Haku she eventually becomes horrified at what she's done to him. In order to fulfill her brother's last will she's basically killed the person that he was and believes he must surely hate her.
  • Kuon has two cases
    • First, she feels terrible about just vanishing after Haku's 'death' and really wants to apologize to everyone. Most of them don't actually care much because they understand, but Nekone was really hurt. Right when she needed Kuon the most, she disappeared on everyone.
    • Second, she apologizes to Haku for waking him up in the first place without thinking. While she was all excited at first to speak to one of the Onvitaikayan she realizes that it was kind of a terrible thing to do to him. He had no friends, no family and no people of his own left in the world. He was completely lost without any way to survive and so out of shape by Proxy standards that just climbing down a mountain in a single night would tear his feet up.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: The Yatanawarabe are blindly loyal to Woshis' orders, even if they're sure to get them and even himself killed.
• Nephewism: Kuon's mother is dead and her biological father might as well be, so she was raised by her uncle Oboro instead. She calls him father and most of the female cast of the first game are her mothers. She considers Eruruu the mother she loves the most. While she's aware of who her true father is, she doesn't show that much interest in him since he couldn't be there to raise her.
• Nerf: Kiwru and the twins have had their damage reduced for this game compared to how devastating they were in Mask of Deception where they would regularly annihilate enemies before the melee units got a chance to attack.
• New Game Plus
  • If you've played the second game, you can transfer one copy of every piece of equipment you have to the third. If one character has reached level 50 in the second game, you also get a codex that doubles the exp gain of the person it's equipped to.
  • Beating the game also allows you to start a new game with all levels and BP carried over from your first file.
• Nice Guy: For both genders
  • The males tend to be looked upon as kind of boring or jokes.
    • Kiwru is very sweet and dutiful, but he gets shy and nervous all the time, which makes him the butt of jokes around the more eccentric male cast, Shinonon or Nekone.
    • Itak is handsome, kind, dutiful and a lot of other words Atuy is in theory attracted to, but much to her confusion he just doesn't make her heart pound. Instead, he makes her feel slightly uncomfortable because she finally realizes she was into Haku all along.
  • For girls, there are two prime examples.
    • Rulutieh is valued almost entirely because of her kindness and domestic attitude. She helps raise morale, but isn't considered much of a combat asset and nobody wants her to be one.
    • Nosuri, on the other hand, is less supportive but also very friendly and wants everyone to get along. She's almost never seen getting angry, even against a man that betrayed her father and destroyed her family name. One of the few times she does get angry is when Haku accidentally insults her sense of duty, but quickly recovers because she knows it wasn't on purpose.
• Nice to the Waiter: Haku is very helpful and generous even towards the peasants without even thinking about it. While this is natural for him despite his new position, Nekone confirms that Oshtor was the same way.
• Ninja: The word ninja is never used to describe Ougi since the Proxies probably lack that particular word, but he's a stealthy assassin with rapid light attacks and probably the greatest speed in the party. What else would you call him?
• No Body Left Behind: Whenever an Akuruturuka dies from overusing their mask, they crumble into a pile of salt that quickly blows away on the wind.
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Haku is extremely uncomfortable with the twins' aggressive pursuit of him, which just makes them even more aggressive because they're a bit stupid sometimes.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Raikou is completely incapable in an actual fight and thus uses his underlings to face off against Oshtor directly. The one time he fights requires him to use an incredibly powerful artifact that kills him as soon as the fight is over. He didn't even want to use it, considering it hypocrisy to rely on the gifts of the emperor once more. However, he donned the cursed Akuruka anyway in order to fulfill his follower's wishes.
• Not Now, Kiddo: When Mikazuchi reports back to his brother Raikou following his withdrawal from Ennakamuy, he tries to tell him at multiple points that Oshtor is not Oshtor but in fact an entirely different person. However, Raikou doesn't respect his brother and doesn't bother to hear him out, first interrupting him and then cutting the line. Given that Raikou never actually learns that Oshtor is Haku, it seems Mikazuchi got fed up with him and decided to let just let his older brother think whatever he wanted. This may have influenced the tactics Raikou prepared as well because he was trying to predict Oshtor's actions, not those of a man who is simply carrying out Oshtor's will in his own way.
• Not Quite Dead:
  • When Woshis attempted to assassinate the emperor, he managed to barely escape with his life and prepare a fake body. He can't reveal himself because he's unable to leave the tube that keeps him alive now.
  • Vurai also survived falling off a cliff after having his heart and spine destroyed, albeit supposedly weakened.
• Not Quite Flight: The winged Onkamiyaryu are often seen in the air, but in truth they can only really hover.
• Not So Above It All: After two full games of perpetual frowning and servitude, Benawi finally gets a loose moment of letting Kurou stew in his own noxious fumes inside a locked wagon with a smile.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Yashmah scorns his older sister for being overprotective of Rulutieh and sure that she knows what's best for her kid sister, but as Haku realizes he's every bit as positive that he knows what's best for Rulutieh as well regardless of what she actually wants.
• Official Couple: The main pairing in the story is clearly Kuon x Haku. While the feelings of other girls are taken seriously – some more than others – none of them are portrayed as being as close to him or as having a real chance. Then again, you could also argue the twins got what they want: While they're probably still not in any kind of romantic or sexual relationship with Haku in the epilogue, they are still with him as he travels around. Given that they more worship him than love him, they're probably content with this.
• Ojou Laugh: Shis is a bit too vitriolic to really be much of an ojou, but she certainly tries to act and laugh like one.
• Older Than They Look: Apart from the former teens Eruruu, Aruruu and Camyu, most of the cast of the first game look older but nowhere close to the fifteen to twenty years you'd expect after the timeskip. Benawi, for example, looks about twenty five while the twins are nearly the same as they were in the first game. This does have an implicit explanation, however, in that demihumans have been noted in passing to live quite a bit longer than humans and to maintain their strength for longer. So while Touka, for example, may have been in her early-mid twenties in the first game and currently in her forties, compared to a human that may only be equivalent to her thirties or even less.
• Only Sane Man: Rulutieh's family are all incredibly doting apart from Yashmah. He also thinks the world of Rulutieh, but values her independence and wants her to stay with Haku's group.
• Open Secret: Most of the court ladies are aware that Anju finds her normal duties boring and leaves Shinonon dressed as her to do the rubber stamp work while she takes care of more interesting things like dealing with corrupt magistrates.
  • By the end of the game most of the characters either know or suspect that Oshtor is actually Haku, they're just waiting for him to say it first.
• Orcus on His Throne: A postgame map where Raikou is in control of the first attack on Ennakamuy makes it clear that if he had been more aggressive at the start of the war, Ennakamuy would have folded almost immediately. The only reason Haku can survive that battle despite limited resources is because his party members are much stronger and work better together than they actually did at that point. Instead, throughout the game Raikou leaves the initiative almost entirely to Haku. His only real acts of aggression are a political move to isolate the loyalists and an attack on a critical outpost, which he seizes but allows to be recaptured.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Tokifusa is a good general, warrior and politician all at the same time, but he's surrounded by people who are great at just one or two and tends to be disrespected as a result. It's implied that Haku and Nosuri, at least, respect his abilities and sympathize with him, but the resulting inferiority complex has left him unwilling to listen to anyone about it.
• Palette Swap: One post game boss is just a huge Cocopo. Haku remarks on it and the twins tell him not to worry about it.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In the epilogue, Shinonon often pretends to be Anju while the latter is out being a more hands on empress despite being about four years old at most.
• Parasol of Pain: Shis uses one of these to fight.
• Parental Substitute
  • Honoka is actually the twin's aunt, not their mother. However, their actual mother died long ago and she's the one who actually raised them, so they call her their mother.
  • Torikori knew from the start that Haku was not Oshtor, but she played along and grew to consider him her true son. When she gently reveals that she's known all along, he weeps in her arms because he truly considers her his mother as well.
• Parents Know Their Children: Torikori knew Haku wasn't Oshtor and gently tried to get him to admit it himself. When he wouldn't, she backed off until much later in the story when she tells him she knows he isn't Oshtor, but loves him like a true son anyway.
• Parrying Bullets: Whenever an arrow is aimed at a named character, it will be parried, either by them or by someone near them, most notable when Atuy rushes ahead in Nakoku and Haku is forced to protect her from being shot in the back.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Assuming the maintenance worker for the Abh-Kamu was probably half-assing the job to go as quickly as possible Haku deduced their control password: Password.
• Percussive Maintenance: During a bonus map, Anju can't get the Gate to work the way she wants so she tries smacking it. Some kind monsters pops out and you need to beat them before they escape outside.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Very nearly. Atuy and Itak's mothers arranged for them to be married when they were younger and Itak is still very much in love with Atuy. Atuy, for her part, is attracted to him and willing to go through with it even without anyone pressuring her, but unfortunately for him they reunited just a little too late. She's in love with someone else now, so he gives up.
• Perpetual Frowner
  • Munechika very rarely smiles. Her expression is usually either neutral and businesslike or angry.
  • Benawi is also incredibly stoic. He never looks angry like Munechika, but he also smiles even less.
  • Haku quickly becomes one of these while pretending to be Oshtor in sharp contrast to how both he and Oshtor acted in the previous game.
• Person of Mass Destruction: All of the Akuruturuka are this, regularly killing thousands when they draw upon their masks.
• Perspective Flip
  • One post game map has you play as the Kimamau that attacked Kuon at the beginning of the game. With Haku's tactical abilities, they manage to overpower her. Then Camyu and Aruruw show up and he has to fight them off as well with the help of a Worthy Opponent Boro-Gigiri.
  • The entire game takes place with everyone treating Haku like he's Oshtor, for a slightly odder example. It immediately becomes clear that the only ones who were really close to him were his sister, Kiwru and Haku himself. Everyone else is fairly distant around him in the beginning, though they do trust him immensely.
• Playing with Fire: Maroro, Nosuri, Ougi, Anju and Vurai all use fire to greater or lesser extents to fight. Maroro is particularly skilled with it to the point that Ougi instantly identified him as the one casting the wall of fire in Nakoku since he is one of the only people in Yamato capable of that level of fire magic and is the only one potentially working for Raiko.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: When Haku teaches Nosuri to play the Hanafuda game Koi-Koi, she's really thrilled to be able to gamble again. And promptly begins losing over and over. Haku tries to stop her, but eventually she's lost a month's worth of drinking money to him and tries to bet her clothing. Though he tries to end the game or at least lose on purpose, he still keeps winning until finally she's stark naked. He just wants her to put her clothes back on and leave but noooo, she can't accept that she can't win and refuses to be pitied.
• Plot Armor:
  • Woshis jokingly says that his Yatanawarabe have plot armour in a post-game Dream Arena scenario where they cannot die unless they are near Woshis.
  • A more serious example would be Vurai coming back from the dead (again) to fight Oshtor despite having a gigantic hole blown clean through where his heart, lungs, spine and stomach should be and falling off a cliff into a river.
• Pocket Protector: When Haku is stabbed by Sysasurika, his life is saved by the Master Key inside his clothing.
• Politeness Judo: Haku notes at one point that the Tuskur envoys tend to be overly polite to the point of rudeness. They cordially refuse to accept any kind of gift or risk any kind of real communication.
• Poor Communication Kills: It's implied that Raikou's initial brushoff of Mikazuchi's warnings about Oshtor led the latter to refuse to tell his older brother that Oshtor is already dead and that someone else has taken his place. As a result, Raikou makes his predictions of what his enemy will do based on what he knows of Oshtor, not the attendant he only met once or twice. Haku not only moves quicker than Oshtor does, but he's less bound up by ideas of honorable combat and is just more intelligent in general. Raikou never figures out that his opponent was never Oshtor or, if you believe the Twilight Gardens postgame, at least not until after his death.
• Power at a Price: Akuruka grant massive power, but they also drain lifeforce.
• Pragmatic Hero: Haku tends to be much more willing to ignore the standards of honorable warfare except when it comes to maintaining Oshtor's image. For example, he baits in Dekopompo and then burns all his troops to death with oil and fire arrows, then chases him down to kill him rather than let him escape. Oshtor would have just engaged in direct battle despite taking heavier losses and then captured Dekopompo.
• Precocious Crush
  • Shinonon has a crush on Kiwru and tends to boss him around. He plays along to a certain extent, but only because he's too nice and/or timid to tell her she's kind of annoying.
  • Anju is also in love with Oshtor, but she's maybe ten or twelve while Haku is probably in his mid twenties while the man he's pretending to be seems several years older. Oshtor pretended not to notice because Anju was his liege and it would be highly inappropriate to acknowledge her feelings in any way while Haku has both that and the fact that she's basically a clone of his dead niece.
• Promoted to Playable: After Anju's first meeting with the Tuskur princess, she gets a weapon and joins the party. During the next map Munechika also begins fighting with you. Mikazuchi is also available for a few maps near the end and is also available in the post game.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Despite not having had the original Anju's memories implanted in her, Anju has the same dream Haku did of him promising to come see her again. It's been bothering her for a long time.
• Punched Across the Room: After Haku pulls out the fan in the confrontation with the Tuskur Princess (Kuon) she becomes enraged and sends him flying out of the meeting room.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Haku defeats Dekopompo's army in combat with ease, but failed to see the consequences that would come from actually killing one of the Eight Pillar Generals. Raikou spins the event as Oshtor butchering a peaceful envoy in order to enforce neutrality on the other nations, who would have been more inclined to side with Ennakamuy.
• Puppet King: According to Woshis, Anju was always supposed to take the throne, but was never expected to really rule or do anything important that wasn't a symbolic gesture. While her allies don't really deny this, they note that Anju has grown much more than even they expected and will make a fine empress.
• Recap Episode: The beginning of the game is spent going over the important parts of the first game's ending both with the excuse of Kurou reminding Kuon of what she did when she has amnesia and then to establish that “Oshtor” is really Haku and why he has to continue pretending to be a dead man.
• Redemption Demotion: When Mikazuchi becomes playable he loses both of his dodge skills, significantly reducing his durability.
• Reincarnation: Anju is implied to be the emperor's true daughter reincarnated as she very loosely has her memories despite them not being implanted. Honoka also seems to be the Honoka Haku knew long ago, though Mito was too guilty at having basically programmed her to have made her his wife again or anything.
• Replacement Goldfish: Woshis claims that Anju is just a copy of the emperor's real daughter and not loved for herself, but after some encouragement she realizes it's not true or at least not the whole story.
• Ring of Fire: Maroro catches the party in one of these to try and kill them, but since he fools around for too long before shrinking it until they all burn they manage to put it out.
• Rooftop Confrontation: As the Imperial Capital falls to Anju's forces, Raiko waits for his eventual end on the roof of the Mausoleum before explaining his motives to Haku's group and fighting them.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Princes and princesses often become officers in the military or handle major administrative projects rather than just being pampered. Even the empresses of Tuskur and Yamato tend to wander away from just sitting around being important to do more important and fun things.
• Sand In My Eyes: After what she assumes is her final visit to her old friends, Kuon begins weeping in the wagon without even realizing it. When it's pointed out, she claims it was just a dust mote.
• Satellite Character: The twins are defined almost entirely by their relationships to other people, especially Haku. Apart from their desire to basically be his slave and try to get into his pants whether he wants them there or not, they speak and act very little. The number of times they speak to anyone that isn't Haku or Kuon could probably be counted on one hand.
• Say It with Hearts: When Shis squees over Haku, she gets a little heart on her tongue.
• Second Love
  • After Itak gives up on Atuy it's noted that he moved on to loving another woman. It's implied to be Entua, though it's not confirmed. Whether she reciprocates is left unstated.
  • Haku was originally a little distant from his family in part because he had a thing for his brother's wife. Given that Honoka is basically that same woman, Kuon picks up on this immediately. However, by this point he's almost certainly in love with Kuon by this point, even if he does have a soft spot for Honoka still.
  • Averted with Rulutieh and Atuy, who both bounce back from their crush on Haku by falling for "Oshtor" instead.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Several characters figure out who Haku really is before he tells them, but they don't tell anyone what they've figured out. He does guess that Ougi immediately figured it out, though.
• Secret Underground Passage: Nakoku's capital has a labyrinth's worth of passages for sneaking in and out of various places, only Itak (Nakoku's prince) and Atuy (taught a bit about them by Itak) know them well enough to reliably navigate.
• Self-Made Orphan: When Raikou is brainwashing Maro, during a period of instability he murders his father and grandfather and can't even remember doing it when he snaps back to awareness.
• Semi-Divine: Kuon is the child of Hakuowlo, the current god worshipped by Tuskur. This was enough to cure her childhood illness that she inherited from Yuzuha and give her immense physical ability, but actually using the power she's inherited is too dangerous for her.
• Sequel Hook: After the main story comes the post game. If you complete that, you're treated to the developers' room. The programmers makes it very clear that they think the game has room for more sequels even if Haku and Kuon's story is likely finished. Which probably shouldn't be too surprising given the giant unaddressed issue of the Onvitaikayan still being stuck as Tataris. Then again, there's enough indication that Haku considers destroying the Tatari to be enough of a solution since the human race has already been succeeded and the addition of humans to this world would be incredibly disruptive. Thus, if the developers want a sequel, there's room for one. If they don't, we can just assume things will continue with that.
• Serial Romeo: Atuy has a reputation for quickly falling in love with pretty boys, but for some reason she just can't get into the mood lately. When a suitor comes to her that is exactly what she considers her type, she just feels oddly uncomfortable and while she doesn't turn Itak down, he realizes on his own that he has no chance against "Oshtor" and gives up. Soon after, Atuy realizes that A. she was in love with Haku and B. Oshtor is actually Haku in disguise.
• Sex Equals Love: Averted. The twins are constantly trying to sleep with Haku, but their behavior inspires a few other characters to opine that while they lust for him and are devoted to him, what they feel isn't really love.
• She Is All Grown Up: It's noted at the end that Anju and Nekone are starting to become teenagers and growing curves and such, though their sprites aren't updated to show it.
• Shipper on Deck
  • Whether or not Nekone realizes how Kuon and Haku feel about each other, she pointedly refuses to come with them on their trip to Tuskur despite being invited and very welcome because she wants the pair to be able to be alone together.
  • Genho actively encourages his daughter to hook up with "Oshtor" or at least bear his child because he considers him a very impressive individual. Of course, he may not be making any distinction between those paths.
• Shock and Awe: Mikazuchi uses lightning at every opportunity while fighting, enhancing his strikes with it, calling down bolts on his enemies (or himself), electrocuting everyone around him after a counter, covering long distances quickly etc. It even shoots off of him randomly when he's angry enough.
• Shout-Out: When Karulau throws her sword to Anju, it is described as "far too large to be called a sword. Too big, too thick, too heavy -- More like a slab of iron."
  • Mito's character design is in the last game is based on one of the longest running Japanese drama Mito Kōmon. In the epilogue, Anju, Mikazuchi, and Munechika continues by playing out the drama's Once per Episode resolution for laughs.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Woshis tries to reveal Haku's secret, the entire party tells him to shut up because of party unity reasons and because they think whatever secret 'Oshtor' has clearly can't be anything that damning. But then again, when he tells them himself as he's disappearing everyone who didn't already know is extremely shocked.
• Silver Fox: Torikori, Oshtor's mother, is still very beautiful despite clearly being in her 50s at least. She's not played for fanservice, though.
• Skilled, but Naive
  • Maroro is an excellent tactician, but he doesn't know how to handle his superiors and is greatly lacking in confidence, which leads to only a few people knowing how good he actually is. When dying, he's still proud of what he managed to accomplish as a tactician and a mage even if his efforts were brutal and sorely misdirected.
  • Posthumously, Oshtor is shown to have been such as well. His peers acknowledge his skill and dedication but consider him to have been a bit uptight, lacking in caution, politically inept and not terribly capable of thinking outside the box. To be fair, though, it's unclear which of them, if any, were aware that at the very least he wasn't particularly serious when off duty.
• Smarter Than You Look: Atuy not only figures out who Haku is, but also instantly knows who the disguised Tuskur princess is as soon as she shows up. That's pretty good for a girl who doesn't know Oshtor well enough to realize this isn't him and doesn't get the same kind of blatant hint that Kuon did. Even Ougi didn't realize Kuon was the Tuskur princess.
• Smoke Out: The Yatanawarabe use this to escape with Maroro after he gets cornered and nearly broken out of his mind control.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Woshis is very polite and elegant, but he has a nasty temper that shows itself on occasion and seems to actively enjoy inflicting emotional pain, though at least he doesn't seem to indulge himself in it.
• Something Only They Would Say:
  • Kuon guesses Oshtor's true identity when she hears him muttering about getting hazard pay after she delivers a severe beating to him in her guise as the Tuskur princess. The realization that it really is something only Haku would say distracted her so much that she couldn't concentrate on the fight with Anju, which leaves the match more even instead of Kuon dominating like before When she returns to the group shortly afterwards she's clearly treating him like Haku despite the lack of confirmation.
  • Atuy goes from suspecting who Oshtor really is to being sure when he lets slip that they can drink together like they always do when Atuy gets rejected. He doesn't realize that he's given himself away because he seems to assume she must have gone drinking with the real Oshtor sometimes.
• So Proud of You: When Torikori finally lets Haku know that she knows he isn't Oshtor, she thanks him for telling her of her son's final moments and accepts him as another son, letting him know how proud she is of what he's doing for him. For the first time in the game, Haku lets go completely and openly weeps in her arms.
• Sour Grapes: Shis claims she's glad she walked out on her husband before doing anything 'improper' with him for being a useless fop who wouldn't even eat raw chamokku liver, which is known to be a delicacy but is still raw meat. She later admits that she finds the whole experience humiliating and feels that she's a laughingstock.
• Spanner in the Works: Mikazuchi choosing to fight Haku with his Akuruka instead of with his weapon leads to their fight on the plains devastating Raiko's army since the fight started behind Raiko's lines, costing Raiko any chance of recovering from the disruption of the Tiriryarai network.
• Stance System
  • Haku doesn't always possess all the skills he had in the second game. Instead, he can switch to a more offense oriented form using Oshtor's sword by completing his second attack's chain. This gives him access to his bonus damage against proxies skill, an extra move and attack for that turn, but drops his defense and dodge abilities as well as his innate defense against proxies. At the beginning of the next turn he returns to normal.
  • Jachdwalt actually has three stances. His normal form is what he uses by default while completing the first attack chain gives him the Perfect Dodge ability and increases his counter abilities and stats, but ends at the beginning of his next turn. His second attack chain also changes his stance to one that makes his next turn come faster.
  • When Mikazuchi uses his final strike, he switches to the Lightning Mantle stance. He loses his Raika self buff, gains an additional attack on his melee skill, loses his Final Strike and passively damages any nearby enemies for 20% of their maximum HP at the beginning of his turn. He also gets to have a turn almost immediately after using his final strike, so if you equip him with Serenity II and build his zeal to 50, it's possible to attack, hit overzeal and use his final strike, get set to 50 zeal and then attack again now that he has Lightning Mantle and then deliver a fourth attack when he reaches overzeal again. Not only does he get four attacks, but two of them come with the AOE passive damage effect. After this the combo ends, however, due to the lack of a final strike to take advantage of Serenity II a second time.
• Status Effects: There are a number of status conditions that can be inflicted with attacks.
  • Daze leaves you unable to move or counter until the effect wears off. Ougi and Atuy can inflict this one. Faint is an improved version which cannot be removed except by waiting it out.
  • Taunt forces the character to chase down whatever pissed them off and attack them. If they can't reach their target, they don't get an attack. Munechika, Haku and Fumirul are all capable of taunts, though for Fumirul it's a mixed blessing given her role and the inability to control it.
  • Stupefy prevents the target from furthering their action chains beyond the first blow. This makes it roughly equivalent to silence effects. Ougi and Fumirul are the ones most likely to be able to get this one off.
  • Curse and hex prevent the target from increasing zeal or recovering health. Hex is differentiated from curse in that it can't be removed until it wears off naturally. This is generally restricted to casters. The only friendly units that can use this one are the twins and Nekone
  • Slow decreases movement and jump. This is a fairly common ailment.
  • Venom and poison effects drain HP and zeal every turn they're in play, but can't inflict lethal damage. Ougi and Haku can both inflict this one. They're differentiated by venom not being removable before time is up.
  • Fear causes the target to run away from whatever inflicted the status on them. However, if they are prevented from fleeing by, say, a zone of control, then they will attack like normal. Kuon is basically the only one who can pull this off.
  • There's also a confused state, which is basically berserk. The only friendly unit that can pull this off is Nosuri on her second attack chain, but that's a risky move because it leaves her in melee against whatever she's fighting and also requires her to be unable to step back during the chain.
• Stationary Wings: Onkamiyaryu, the winged people like Camyu and Urthoriy, have large angelic wings. However, they aren't actually used for flight. Instead, they hover using magic.
• Stay in the Kitchen
  • Itak recognizes that Atuy is far stronger than he is, but still tries to get her to withdraw from combat. She doesn't agree to do so and Haku refuses to order her. Notably, all the girls in the party find it really romantic while Haku seems to think he's being pushy and trying to stop her from doing something she loves. Atuy makes it clear she intends to keep fighting, but pacifies him by saying that she's fighting to protect Nakoku because she feels responsible for it as its (potential) future queen.
  • Some like Dekopompo or Tokifusa privately claim that Munechika only got her position because she's a woman and doesn't deserve it. Tokifusa does acknowledge how dangerous she is, though, and was likely just saying whatever came to mind as a bargaining chip.
• Stealth Insult: In the post-game dream arena maps Ougi uses his flowery speech patterns to sneak in an insult aimed at Tokifusa; according to Haku this is a fairly regular thing for him.
• Stock Shout-Outs: One of the first things Kuon does when she returns to the party is sit with Haku looking at the moon. Twice she remarks that the moon is very beautiful tonight, once while looking directly at him. She's confirming to herself that she really does love him, though she almost certainly isn't familiar with Natsume Soseki.
• Stone Wall: Munechika has very high defense but only decent attack and speed. She also has numerous defense skills including one that affects everyone in range.
• Stripperiffic: Nosuri's top technically covers everything, but looks much too small for her and is almost the exact same shade as her skin. Fumirul's outfit is even worse since it shows off singnificant underboob on top of being too small and skin tone. In her case, she actually is prone to frequent wardrobe malfunctions as a result.
• Subordinate Excuse: Atuy at first rejects becoming one of the Eight Pillars until she hears that one of her primary jobs would be to support Oshtor. After that, she's much more on board with the idea.
• Super Breeding Program: The Evenkuruga clan is noted to be made of mighty warriors who are usually very keen on justice. They tend to keep to themselves, but the talented warriors often leave home to find a worthy lord to serve. If the female warriors find one, they're expected to bear their child in order to improve the clan's genetic stock and make the clan even stronger. This is implied not to apply to male Evenkuruga because racial traits are only inherited from the mother, meaning that while a male's child might be considered genetically superior, they wouldn't be an Evenkuruga.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: When even the minor uses of the Akuruka begin to have a lasting effect on Haku, one of the first signs he notices is that his reflection appears to have bright golden eyes instead of their normal brown. They changed back to normal and he considers it a hallucination, however, soon after he's forced into a brief sparring match with Atuy and the mask's influence allows him to completely shut her down, even considering her slow and weak during the fight due to how much the mask is boosting him.
• Superpower Meltdown: At the end of the game, Kuon goes berserk and fails to suppress her godly side, turning into the final boss in the process. Through the eyes of what she's become she's helpless to do anymore than watch as her friends try to snap her out of it. It takes Haku's revival plus Urthoriy, Camyu and the twins to suppress her powers back down.
• Super-Powered Robot Meter Maid: Humanity was pretty bad about giving everything weapons. The weather satellite Amaterasu doubles as a Kill Sat, and the Abh-Kamu, which Haku refers to as glorified hazmat suits, are equipped with several different attack modes. He finds this incredibly frustrating.
• Super Prototype
  • Before the Akuruka was made, there was another mask made that had a lot more power, but was even more physically taxing and made its wielder go berserk. It's used twice, once by Raikou when Shichirya asks him and later by Woshis to 'avenge' his Yatanawarabe. The first controls himself just fine but is killed by the mask as soon as the battle ends while the second goes nuts and turns half the population of the capital into monsters and risks turning everyone else into one as well.
  • Even this mask had a Super Prototype in the form of the masks the scientists made by coping Hakuowlo's. Mito tried to copy them perfectly but despite his best efforts, they will eventually kill their male users and female ones don't seem to have giant monster forms.
  • Before that is the original mask, which wasn't even artificially created at all. This one flat out makes you an immortal god, but can't be removed. It comes with a lot of nifty powers but also some completely different drawbacks.
• Super-Speed: While Giriyagina are noted for having immense physical strength even by proxy standards, Evenkuruga seem to have unusually high speed instead. It shows in their styles too. Giriyagina and those as strong as them like Anju often go barehanded or use massive brutal weapons because normal weapons break when they use them, which leads to a rather bloody and gruesome fighting style. Evenkuruga, on the other hand, can fight with more elegance and precision due to not possessing particularly great physical strength.
• Super-Strength: Proxies are built to be stronger than humans and even children are as strong as a grown man who isn't in good shape. Particularly strong individuals like Giriyagina, Anju or Kuon can lift weapons weighing about a literal ton and swing them around one handed. Anything hit by them tends to explode more than anything else.
• Supporting Protagonist: Haku makes sure to stay firmly within the bounds of the imperial guard of the right and Anju's high commander. While he does do the tactical and administrative work the war and Ennakamuy require, he bows to her will whenever she makes a commitment on something, even when he considers it a bad or dangerous idea.
• Sword Beam: When Ukon is playable in the post-game he has these as part of his regular attack chain.
• Sympathy for the Devil
  • Subverted. When Haku delivers the final blow to Woshis he gives a pretty cliche line about how he could have turned out the same way, maybe they could have been friends and that if they meet in the afterlife they should share a drink and so on, but when they do meet in the afterlife it's very clear that both characters still really hate each other. Apparently, Haku was just being nice.
  • Haku understands exactly what Raikou meant by the emperor coddling the people of Yamato and agrees with his goals. And unlike Woshis, he's shown to mean it even after Raikou's death.
• Take That Us: When Haku starts teaching Nekone Japanese, she points out the inefficiencies and obnoxious difficulty of the written language. He doesn't really know why they do it like that either.
• Taking the Bullet: After shedding his mind control parasite, Maro protects Haku from an assassin with a knife by getting stabbed in his place. However, it's implied that he was dying anyway.
• Taking You with Me: As the Yatanawarabe die, they detonate themselves in an attempt to kill Haku and everyone else in the area.
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Woshis' message had a pause for when someone would get fed up and try attacking the recording.
• Technicolor Fire: Normally fire is just fire in these games, but Maroro's final strike burns with black flames.
• That Man Is Dead: Haku is no more. Now there is only Oshtor because only Oshtor can do what needs to be done for Anju and Yamato. Haku doesn't intend to stay Oshtor even after Anju is safely on the throne, but he doesn't plan to return to who he was either.
• Third Wheel: Atuy is polite to Itak, but more than once after she's made a big impression on him he turns around to see her bantering with Haku, much more at ease than she is around him. He eventually accepts that he has no place between them and withdraws his proposal.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Haku regularly throws out his fan to attack enemies at range, he can even get it to come back to him unless the target is far away.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: It doesn't come across well due to the differences in language, but Munechika comes across as somewhat masculine on top of being extremely serious. As a result, Haku finds it very surprising that she's so fond of sewing, especially since she makes her own stuffed animals.
• Title Drop
  • In case you didn't understand what the last game's title was referring to, Haku refers to his mask and role as Oshtor as a mask of deception.
  • The Japanese title, Futari no Hakuoro (the two white emperors), refers to Kuon and Anju, as revealed by the CG of the scene where they make peace, as well as the gods they swear by, Hakuoro, the protagonist of the first game, and Haku, who takes up his name.
  • "Utawarerumono" (or occasionally the rough translation "Legendsung") is used to describe Uitsalnemetia/Hakuowlo or the Onvitaikayan on several occasions. Haku is said to have become a new Utawarerumono at the end of the game.
• Together in Death
  • As Woshis dies, the spirits of the three main Yatanawarabe serving him appear and reassure him that wherever he goes, they will follow.
  • Shichirya dies wishing to return to Raiko's side in the afterlife, and seemingly does as he is with Raiko in both of Raiko's dream arena appearances.
• Token Heroic Orc
  • Shichirya is the only one of Woshis' Yatanawarabe to develop his own goals and loyalties. The rest are content being slaves.
  • Inverted. Evenkuruga are noted for being noble and honorable warriors, but Tokifusa is an unstable backstabber.
• Took a Level in Badass
  • Haku gets much stronger throughout the game. While part of this is due to him just getting into better shape and having to fight well or die, part of it is due to the Akuruka boosting his physical abilities. At one point he's suddenly capable of flattening Atuy in a fight only to feel extremely sick afterward thanks to his mask strengthening him without him wanting it to.
  • Munechika joins the party without her mask, but receives it later near the end of the game. She becomes a better tank with it, but the game still doesn't let you use the more impressive things like her impenetrable shield.
  • Maroro finally gets a chance to show why Ukon considered him worth more than 100 swordsmen and how he got hired as a tactician.
• Too Long; Didn't Dub: For whatever reason, despite Mikado simply meaning Emperor the translators left the word untranslated. And unlike real words like mononofu which have long fallen out of usage, mikado isn't terribly obscure or archaic.
• Transformation Sequence: Whenever an Akuruturuka uses their mask to transform into a giant monster, there is an accompanying pillar of their element as they transform. Oshtor and Mikazuchi also fly up into the air as they transform.
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot: The Yatanawarabe manage to catch up to Haku's group just after they're done using the master key to prevent an eternal winter despite the fact that they started in a different country, both groups were traveling on foot and they had no idea where Haku's group was going when they set out.
• Truly Single Parent: Anju was designed to be just like the former emperor's long dead (sort of) human daughter, though with enhanced physical abilities. She's recognized as his heir and daughter, but her mother is never even hinted at or brought up. Genetically, it might be Honoka, but Honoka clearly differentiates between her and the twins, her actual daughters. Even if they're technically her nieces. Given the extensive genetic modifications she underwent, it's likely that Anju has no mother at all. After the last fight when Haku is dissolving into salt, however, she gets emotional and talks about how she's been having the same dream Haku did in the last game about him pinky promising to come see her again. When doing so, she refers to the original Honoka as her mother even though she doesn't understand the dream.
• Tsundere: The post-game dream arena missions jokingly imply that Jammachiry is this when it comes to Jachdwalt.
• Undignified Death
  • Dekopompo and Bokoinante are both eaten while attempting to control or at least flee from a monster they tried to unleash on the party.
  • Gundhurua died when he got so angry that he burst a blood vessel in his brain.
• Undying Loyalty: The Yatanawarabe apart from Shichirya are willing to die for Woshis even though they know they're only programmed to feel loyal to him.
  • Raikou, despite his rebellion, is entirely loyal to the emperor and eternally grateful for what he did for the people of Yamato. But when he died, Raikou took the opportunity to do what he felt was best for the people and free them from relying on a god for everything rather than make it themselves.
• Unexplained Recovery: It is never explained how exactly Maroro survived the collapse of Nakoku's great bridge considering how it had to be dozens of kilometers long and collapsing fast while he was trying to get to the far end away from Haku's group.
• Unknown Rival: Bokoinante considers himself Oshtor's true rival, but not only did Haku have no clue, it's implied Oshtor didn't either.
• Unorthodox Sheathing: Jachdwalt ends his final strike by holding up his sword to catch his sheath as it falls from the sky.
• Unskilled, but Strong
  • Played with. Haku can draw out 100% of an Akuruka's power as compared to the normal 30% a proxy can manage, but the likes of Mikazuchi are so much fundamentally stronger that all it does is level the playing field. The net result is that it puts him at about their level, but with less skill and more side effects.
  • Anju has some basic martial training courtesy of Munechika, but in truth she just tends to swing her sword around like a giant bludgeon. It works anyway thanks to probably being the physically strongest party member.
  • Raikou uses a fifth mask to become a boss fight after his army is defeated in the capital, but he's never been a warrior and doesn't know how to fight. He has great power like this but doesn't seem to know how to use it and has difficulty controlling it.
• Uriah Gambit: Raikou doesn't explicitly order Dekopompo to his death, but he does place him and his troops in a position where he knows Dekopompo can't help but rush in in an attempt to seize glory for himself. Dekopompo's army is stomped into the pavement with almost no losses on the side of Ennakamuy while Raikou is able to make political use of his death.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • Jammachiry seized power in order to surrender to Uzurusha, knowing that their tiny country stood no chance against the fantasy Mongol empire. If he hadn't done that, the entire country would have been destroyed and the survivors used as expendable slave soldiers. Jachdwalt's grievance with this is not that surrender was the wrong option but that overthrowing his brother to do so was so disgraceful that it overshadows anything else.
  • Both Haku and Kuon agree that Raiko was right about Yamato being their Gilded Cage from the mikado that couldn't have survived being led by Anju as she was. The only reason he's considered wrong is that Raikou didn't account for her potentially maturing into the role, which was something that seems to have even taken the party by surprise.
• Villainous Breakdown
  • After his stolen seal is taken, Tokifusa loses it and begins acting very unstable. When he sees it again, he tries to snatch it away even though Nosuri explicitly has no plans to use it and might even have given it back if asked. He's so desperate to get it back that he leaps into a raging river after it and is promptly killed.
  • After learning that he's a clone and having Shichirya has betrayed him, Woshis curls up into a ball and just refuses to move until the last of the Yatanawarabe returns to him mortally wounded and carrying the macguffin he had been after all this time, even if it was already broken.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Combatative friendships are quite common. Genho and Soyankekur, Atuy and Kuon and even Haku and Mikazuchi are all friends in a way, even if they fight constantly. If you use the twin's final strike on the final boss, they admit that despite how much they fight with Kuon and troll her, they actually consider her a friend and really want her back, even if it means she'll keep getting in the way of their attempts to seduce Haku.
• Voice of the Legion: When Kuon is doing her Official Princess Voice, it acquires an artificial echoing effect. Nobody reacts to it, however, so this may just be for reader convenience.
• Voodoo Shark: Played for laughs. According to the postgame developer's room area, Kurarin is actually a highly advanced alien keeping watch over everyone and is the true source of Atuy's strength. This should have been obvious, it says, because jellyfish can't float, therefore Kurarin can't be a jellyfish, therefore alien.
• Weather-Control Machine: Amaterasu, a satellite left behind by humanity, controls the weather and makes it possible for people to live and thrive in Yamato and neighboring countries. It is unknown what the climate is like in countries far from Yamato.
• Weight Woe: Whenever Anju casually brings up the fact that she can eat as much as she wants and never get fat or sick from it she inspires this in the other women in the cast.
• Welcome Back, Traitor: After Mikazuchi returns to help the party, everyone conveniently overlooks that the civil war only got as nasty as it did because he sided with his brother over the actual empress. Further, despite his claim that he was going to defend the capital, he also personally led a rather brutal assault on the Nakoku, killing their owlo and numerous soldiers in the process.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Woshis is desperate for the recognition of his father, the emperor, but fails to realize he's always had it and the reason he isn't the successor is because Mito was too concerned about him working too hard and making himself sick. Even so, he was still the most trusted and influential man in the empire after the emperor himself.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Raikou isn't really a straight villain, even if he does do some terrible things to Maro and a few useless subordinates. He also refuses to allow damage to come to the capital and surrenders rather than endanger the citizens. When asked, he reveals that he was entirely loyal to the emperor, but felt that he was coddling the people of the city and that they could never be independent with a god watching over them. When the emperor died, Raikou wanted to wean the people from his influence. When he sees how much Anju has grown, he accepts that she'll be a good ruler without treating the people of Yamato like infants in the process.
• What Is This Feeling?: After “Oshtor” asks Atuy about how she's coping with Haku's death, she basically says death comes to everyone and it's not worth getting upset about, much to his disappointment. However, after he leaves the room she starts just languishing around doing nothing because she's upset for some reason she can't identify. It takes roughly 2/3 of the game to realize that she was mourning his death.
• What's Up, King Dude?: Kuon and Anju both wander around their people rather openly. Kuon at least thinks her people don't know it's her, but Anju doesn't care and Munechika seems to have basically given up trying to stop her. In her official princess mode Kuon is very formal, though.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Maroro is appalled when 'Oshtor' lures the enemy in very close to the walls and then has them burned to death when they're too packed in to put out the fires or escape. He believed Oshtor was too noble for that. He wanders off in disgust at this and shock at Haku's 'death.' The party lets him simply walk away because they have faith that he'll be back as soon as he's calmed down, but unfortunately Raikou's men find him first and brainwash him.
• What Would X Do?: Both Kiwru and Haku often wonder about what Oshtor would do in a certain situation.
  • Kiwru generally just concludes that Oshtor would do everything perfectly forever and then makes his own decisions while being hard on himself for any minor losses. Haku and the rest actually have a great deal of faith in his leadership abilities apart from his confidence issues and he does get good results on his own, but finds if difficult to accept or believe in praise.
  • Haku's response is a little more interesting. When it comes to maintaining Oshtor's image like, say, getting up much earlier than he's used to, he does it without hesitation. However, when it comes to tactical decisions he tends to ignore what he thinks Oshtor would do because he either doesn't feel it would work or doesn't think he could pull it off.
• Wild Card Excuse: When “Oshtor” is asked why the twins are calling him Master, he and the twins use the prepared excuse that Haku had asked them to serve Oshtor instead. It's quickly pointed out that Haku wasn't even there when Haku “died” so they basically claim it was the power of love that let them know.
• Willfully Weak: Kuon usually doesn't fight at her full potential. Atuy catches on only when she sees the princess of Tuskur fighting at least as well as Anju.
• Winged Humanoid: The onkamiyaryu are a group of winged humanoids rarely seen outside a small region of Tuskur apart from when they work as mercenaries. They can't actually fly without using magic.
• The Worf Effect: While recovering, Vurai casually beheads a Gaunji with a single karate chop, meanwhile they're bosses whenever Haku runs into them.
• Worthy Opponent
  • Mikazuchi is initially enraged to find someone impersonating Oshtor, but when he suddenly realizes why Haku is doing it and that Haku can use the Akuruka, he calms down and simply looks forward to having a good fight to the death with him. Haku also finds out that he actually does enjoy fighting thanks to Mikazuchi, though this may just be his mask influencing him.
  • Atuy has always wanted to fight a serious Kuon, which is a desire that's only strengthened when she sees her beating up Anju. The two fight an even match and Atuy wants to do it again, though it's implied that Kuon was still holding back.
  • After 'playing' with Haku in the war, Raikou comes to have a great deal of respect for his abilities as a general. He never learns that Oshtor is actually Haku, though, unless you count the post game where he's already dead. Haku returns the feeling and notes after the war that, oddly enough, he feels closer to Raikou now than any of his actual companions.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: After his 'death,' Haku learns that his friends not only valued him, but actually deeply respected his courage and resourcefulness. However, this just makes him feel guilty since he's lying to them right as they praise his name.
• You Didn't See That: After the princess of Tuskur's Dramatic Unmask fell completely flat she puts her veil back on, pretends none of that ever happend, and walks away. Haku's more baffled at the cover-up than he is at the reveal.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: As the final battle nears its end, Haku is saved from a fatal mistake by Woshis turning on Raikou, viewing his and Mikazuchi's usefulness at an end. Miruhj attempts to assassinate Mikazuchi and nearly succeeds while Shichirya gives Raikou a mask that Woshis knows will surely kill him, though Shichirya does not.

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