Soul Nomad & the World Eaters

""Tell me, who's the baddest of the bad? The maddest of the mad? The killer of kings and destroyer of worlds?""

- Gig

A 2007 strategy RPG title brought to you by the good people at Nippon Ichi Software. It's a Darker and Edgier take on their usual formula, and could best be described as 'Ogre Battle on a power trip'.

Soul Nomad is set upon the island continent of Prodesto, in the world of Haephnes. Two centuries ago, Prodesto was united under the hero Lord Median The Conqueror, and prosperity reigned for a time. Though Median's reign would be cut short by a pandemic that claimed both himself and his son, his daughter Layna soon emerged as a worthy successor to Prodesto's throne.

Unfortunately, a mere fifty years later, Prodesto would become the landing spot of an evil god of death known as Gig. With the aid of his "pets", titanic golems known as "World Eaters" (no not THOSE "World Eaters", he grinded Prodesto into the dirt, slaughtering most of the population and scorching the landscape into a barren wasteland.

When all hope appeared lost, Layna appeared before Gig and defeated him in single combat. Without their master, the World Eaters fell dormant. However, the scars of their rampage remained etched into the land, and Prodesto continued to decay, with the birth rate falling and crops growing more poorly with each passing year. All the while, the frozen World Eaters towered over the populace, a constant remainder of the terrible power that could reawaken at any time.

Two centuries later, a young warrior (named Revya by default) and their childhood friend Danette are preparing to become official guardians of their village, one of the last bastions of human civilisation left in Prodesto. On the day of their appointment, they are gifted two weapons by village elder Layna: Danette receives a pair of magic kukri, while Revya is given a black onyx sword.

Upon grasping the handle, the onyx sword is suddenly revealed to be the resting place of Gig himself, who immediately attempts to possess Revya's body and resume his reign of destruction. His possession is foiled by Layna, so Gig makes a deal: he will grant Revya a tiny sliver of his godlike power in exchange for being allowed to share Revya's body as a "soulmate". However, the second that Revya overuses this power, Gig will use the foothold in Revya's soul to seize complete control.

Strengthened with Gig's dark powers, Revya is sent out into Prodesto along with Danette to destroy the dormant World Eaters and Save the World. Hilarity Ensues.

Soul Nomad is also known for an infamous Villain Protagonist campaign called the "Demon Path". In this alternative storyline, Revya decides that it would be a better idea to use the awesome destructive powers of an evil god to do whatever the hell they want, and with the gleeful encouragement of Gig, starts down a path to ultimate power as the tyrannical "Devourlord". Then it gets worse. Much worse.

The game provides examples of:
"Gig:"
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Gig believes this in his ending if Revya is female after the rest of the cast starts shipping them, but really it's subverted, most of the female characters can't stand him.
 * Mostly, it's just Danette, seeing he insults her the most of the cast aside from Levin.
 * An Axe to Grind: Redflanks carry around a large axe that also functions as a boomerang.
 * Aristocrats Are Evil:, a closet Complete Monster.
 * Arson Murder and Jaywalking:
 * The Antichrist: The intention behind the creation of Gig. Foiled by Layna in the game's default route; Gone Horribly Right in the Demon Path.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: Every unit you can deploy has a Leader, and every manikin inside of a unit contributes a percentage of their stats to the leader of that unit as a constant bonus as long as that manikin is alive. Thus, if for example you stack a bunch of identical manikins with identical levels in a room, the one designated as leader will have significantly higher stats than its twins.
 * In-story, we have The Masters of Life and Death, as well as the World Rulers, who are Overseers, and if Gig is any hint, they can drop the hurt on you.
 * Ax Crazy:
 * Badass: Endorph, so much. Also, Gig.
 * Badass Bystander: You can attack random townspeople. Most of them go down easily, but occasionally you'll find one stronger than the final boss.
 * Badass Family: Median, Layna
 * Badass Longcoat: Endorph.
 * Becoming the Mask: Implied, and later confirmed, if you're headed for the.
 * Big Bad:.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Soul Nomad LOVES this trope to a T. Endorph is a regular subscriber to this. Including the Demon Path, he has about 5 moments. Not just him, but Christophe,, Grunzford... There are a lot of Big Damn Heroes moments, to summarizes.
 * Big Good:
 * Black Market: Yesterwind, headed by Lobo. A popular commodity of theirs is children.
 * Bonus Boss: It's a Nippon Ichi game. Of course it's going to have them.
 * And in case you haven't noticed.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall:
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall:

"Gig: What? You did not just call me a 'hero'!"
 * This is especially hilarious as Gig and Revya initially act as though they have absolutely no idea what she's talking about.
 * Break the Cutie:
 * Played for Black Comedy laughs in, eventually going insane and imagining himself first as a salesman (of the 'buy now and I'll throw in a second absolutely free' type) and then later as a Prism Ranger.
 * Broken Aesop: Most outstanding one given by
 * Butt Monkey: Odie. The man is so pathetic, even the other characters pity him.
 * Ironically, though,
 * Card Carrying Villain
 * Card Carrying Villain


 * Character Development
 * Cherubic Choir: Cradle of the Ivory Moon, the game's credit music.
 * Childhood Friend Romance: With Danette
 * Cluster F Bomb: Gig in the English dub, especially when.

"Odie: What's that up in the sky!?
 * Combination Attack: You're able to use skills that will activate after your attack, involving, well, combos with other characters. This ranges from a targeted attack on the leader to something capable of clearing the entire board.
 * Cross Dresser: Penn.
 * Vitali.
 * Cross Dressing Voices: A few generic female soldiers are voiced by men in the story.
 * Cutscene Incompetence: is treated as totally pathetic. Even his brief, dramatic triumph is shattered when . In actual gameplay he's quite effective. Justified by the fact that he wasn't that incompetent in the story either, he just thought he was.
 * His brother is still better than him statwise, but you never get a chance to have both of them on your party at the same time, so it hardly matters.
 * Cutting Off the Branches: Revya appears in Disgaea 3 as a female.
 * Darker and Edgier: Soul Nomad as a whole, compared to other Nippon Ichi games. In other news:
 * Dark Messiah: Kanan, priest of the Thurist Cult. They worship Thuris, the only World Eater that's really active at the start of the game.
 * Dark Reprise: Take theme, arrange it so it sounds more chaotic and add some Ominous Latin Chanting. The end result is Crash Landing.
 * Deader Than Dead: If the Masters of Life don't want to put you back in the cycle, well, bye.
 * Subverted for the World Eaters victim: they can release the souls they've eaten. And if they die, the souls are automatically released.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Gig, baby!
 * Revya becomes this during the course of the story, taking on some of Gig's traits.
 * Deal With the Devil: Gig attempts this with the player character. Pretty often, and rather loudly.
 * Despair Event Horizon: Nearly everyone in the Demon Path, but especially
 * Dimension Lord:
 * The Ditz: Danette and Levin.
 * Demonic Possession: Gig's possession of the player character, which is botched. For a more successful example, see also:.
 * Don't Fear the Reaper: Vigilance.
 * Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Gig is by far the most foul-mouthed, ill-tempered, and just plain sociopathic character to ever come out of a Nippon Ichi game . He's also more badass than any five Disgaea characters put together; he's like what Overlord Zetta would be if he weren't stuck as a book.
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him:
 * Duel Boss: The fight is an odd example, you CAN summon others to the fight, but
 * Dual Wielding: Danette's twin sickles.
 * Dub Name Change: The game's title went from "Soul Cradle" to "Soul Nomad" and a couple of characters had their names changed, possibly due to trouble with pronunciation (Example:Juno was originally Jost, which was pronounced Youst).
 * Dysfunction Junction: By midway through the Demon route, most of your group is outright insane in one fashion or another.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: And most importantly, there were no hotpods.
 * Evil Laugh: The Thurists love to do this, being an insane Doomsday Cult. And Gig wouldn't be Gig without this trope.
 * Interesting to note that Gig actually finds the Thurists laughing creepy.
 * Also
 * Evilly Affable: Gig.
 * Evil Is Easy: Subverted, the demon path is much harder, you'll only be able to beat it if you play it a New Game Plus.
 * Evil Is Not a Toy: The basic premise of the game subverts this, in that using Gig can (hopefully) save the world. Also,
 * Case of it playing true in the main story
 * Evil Sorcerer: Kanan, and to a certain degree,
 * Explosive Breeder: Implied to be Penn's fate when he turns 18. His "reward" for going along with the Nereids Wife Husbandry bid is to have kids with every adult Nereid, starting with Juno.
 * Fallen Hero:
 * In essence, not exactly his fault.
 * Fluffy the Terrible:
 * For the Evulz: Rivers of blood! Mountains of flesh! A glorious world of pain! Feeble humans crushed like insects they are! Yeah, Gig really, really enjoys destruction for its own sake.
 * Forgotten Childhood Friend:.
 * Friend to All Children: Juno.
 * Gainaxing
 * Gambit Pileup: The plot turns out
 * Gameplay and Story Integration: Several characters in the Demon Path have their in-combat vocals change to match their mental state in the new scenario -- most noticeably the hero, whose new tone is decidedly villainous, but also Shauna and a few others at key points.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: This game contains implied rape, murder, slavery, genocide, and thirty three uses of the word shit. It's also rated T.
 * Goldfish Poop Gang: 'Dio' and his minions.
 * Gollum Made Me Do It: The duality between Gig and the main character in Soul Nomad And The World Eaters is somewhat like this, despite Gig being an intruder in your mind and not a creation of it. In many cases it's not so much 'Gig made me do it' as it is 'Gig made the other guys do it to me so I had to defend myself'. It goes both ways in their case — by the end of the game, the protagonist has gotten more brash and trigger-happy, much like Gig, and Gig has become a great deal less Omnicidal.
 * Good Feels Good:
 * Good Smoking Evil Smoking: Christophe is Good Smoking (pipe), Lobo is Evil Smoking (cigarette). The two were former associates.
 * Green Rocks: Well, red rocks, but Crimson Tears seem to be capable of whatever the plot requires at the moment, from binding souls and breaking barriers to teleportation and opening portals to other dimensions.
 * Guest Star Party Member:
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Dio of the Evil Eye/Odie, who says he's a legendary wizard, but in reality is just the leader of a Goldfish Poop Gang with an inferiority complex (him, not his buddies).
 * Infinity Minus One Sword: Room variant: Hades' Despair. Downside: When your Stamina hits o, you die. Upside: It increases your stats by 1% each time you lose a Stamina point. Now when you realize you can up the percentage to #5 per point loss, you can have your stats almost up by 300$
 * Infinity Plus One Sword: Room variant: Cat's Cradle. Its power depends on how cycles the player has completed. Note that this includes a new cycle caused by a Nonstandard Game Over.
 * Which crosses it with Disc One Nuke, since a reliable way to farm cycles is to constantly impale yourself against Feinne, which is, what? The fourth battle? And accepting Gig's deal, time and time again until you are satisfied. That or
 * It gets even better when you can max out the room from 10% to 35%. So for each cycle, you can have 35% boost in stats.
 * Ironic Hell: . If you lose the final battle,.
 * It Got Worse: Again, the Demon Path.
 * Hero Antagonist: Thorndyke.
 * Heroic Mime: The player character, though s/he does speak during battles, not to mention
 * In Disgaea 3, Revya (female, if you must know) still doesn't talk, although Gig certainly does. Mao has to use magic just to give her attack noises.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Gig.
 * Hey You: Gig RARELY calls anyone by name. To list them: Revya: Kid/Soulmate. Danette: Stupid Cow. Levin: Man Cow. Odie: Sluggo. Grunzford: Gramps. Layna: Old Hag.
 * Hidden Elf Village: The hidden village the protagonist comes from. Averted in the "hypocritical" aspect, as it was pretty much the only way to protect them from the World Eaters.
 * Hoist By His Own Petard:
 * Hopeless Boss Fight: Feinne.
 * At least Soul Nomad has the decency to tell you this, with the win condition for the level being "everybody dies."
 * Human Shield: Thuris attempts this. It's ruined by the kidnapee having a piece of Applied Phlebotinum implanted in her.
 * Humans Are Bastards: Double subverted with the Nereids. Their attitude towards humans is closer to humans are untrustworthy rather than full on humans are bastards. They are also more fair than other believers in this trope, prefering to look at it through a case by case basis. The ones that are judged to be decent people however....
 * Interspecies Romance: The Nereids have to do this, as they're an all-female race.
 * Also possible between humans and sepps.
 * Jerkass: Gig. Mainly because he's not allowed to express himself fully and kill you all, so he resorts to being an incredible jerk instead.
 * Just Between You and Me: Averted, and played straight.
 * Kick the Dog: ...Even without taking into account, this game has enough for three series.
 * Kick the Son of A Bitch: Cuthbert.
 * Kid With the Leash: The player character.
 * Killed Off for Real:  in the Demon Path.
 * Knight Templar:
 * Laser Guided Tykebomb:
 * Lethal Chef: Euphoria..
 * ~Let's Play~: Ironically done by someone actually named Feinne.
 * Level Grinding: It's a Nippon Ichi game. Your level can literally go over nine thousands. You can beat the normal storyline without grinding, however.
 * Luke I Am Your Father:
 * Mama Bear: Juno, to Penn.
 * Man I Feel Like a Woman: Averted, if a female Revya elects to take a bath after being possessed by Gig, despite the text suggesting she has concerns about just this kind of thing, Gig mentions he doesn't care.
 * Maybe not. After all, you get twice the boost to Gig's Relationship Value as a female than if you choose that option with a male Revya.
 * May December Romance: Male!Revya with Juno (28 years old) in her ending. Juno with Penn in the others (35 to 18).
 * Medium Awareness: Averted for the most part; like in Phantom Brave, the fourth wall breaks and Genre Savvy is kept to a minimum.
 * Mike Nelson Destroyer of Worlds:
 * The Mole: Initially, the game tries to make look like moles, but in the end, they really are on Revya's side. The real mole is
 * Multiple Endings: Nippon Ichi in general is a huge fan of these.
 * My Future Self and Me: By abusing the Timey Wimey Ball, you can unlock the past-era Median as a usable character, then arrange to (briefly) have him in your party at the same time as the modern Median, at least during the Demon Path. Nobody comments on this... though, granted, the fact that you have the past version Median at all is a matter of Gameplay and Story Segregation.
 * My God What Have I Done:
 * Names the Same: No, the game has nothing to do with the Chaos Space Marine legion of Warhammer 40000.
 * Nice Job Guiding Us Hero
 * Noble Demon:
 * Nonstandard Game Over: Some of the dialogue choices lead to this (but the game warns you ahead of time). Generally, they involve taking Gig up on his offer of (huge) additional power- in exchange of your body.
 * Goldfish Poop Gang: 'Dio' and his lackeys, the latter are perfectly aware of their status, and spend much of their time trying to make the former see past his inferiority complex and realize this.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: .
 * Omnicidal Maniac: Gig and . Despite their names, the World Eaters are not.
 * Older and Wiser/Took a Level In Badass: Endorph, . Now he's Just Like Robin Hood, a Big Damn Hero, and inspires the weak-willed to become stronger, which earns him the hatred of Dark Action Girl Shauna.
 * One Scene Wonder: When prompted, choose the second choice. Enter , and disappears. Gig and Revya think they're hearing things, and no ever speaks of it again.
 * One Woman Wail: Crying for the Dark Sky, Thuris' theme song. Bonus points in that the one woman wailing sounds just a little like Kanan's VA.
 * Also present in the theme songs for Fienne and.
 * Only Sane Man: Revya. "I am going to sleep 'cause everyone is stupid."
 * Also, Vitali (although he does have some, ah, quirks). Gig...thinks he is.
 * Our Angels Are Different: They look like midgets that carry shotguns and sound like kids. Lobo lamshades this
 * Our Mermaids Are Different: Nereids. Distrust humans but are generally benign, yet very flirty (they require Interspecies Romance to reproduce).
 * Out Damned Spot: Cuthbert.
 * Pet the Dog: Subverted in where . This behavior is also mocked when, specifically
 * Painting the Fourth Wall: In The Stinger, he goes through the same character creation process as the player (even selecting his name the same way) does at the start of the game, snarking at the proceedings all the way.
 * Petting Zoo People: Sepps are part cow.
 * Pettanko: Juno. As are most Nereids. It helps them swim better.
 * Plot Tumor: A good portion of the game is unrelated to the titular world eaters, Gig notes this and provides the quote for the trope's page.
 * Refuge in Audacity: Most of Gig's lines..
 * Relationship Values: Built by interacting with characters during downtime and performing combo attacks. They determine your ending.
 * Religion of Evil: Kanan is the high priest of a cult that worships Thuris, a World Eater.
 * : not that you would expect that kind of stuff when you first start the game. The attack description goes along the line of
 * Screw Destiny:
 * Seashell Bra: Alexemia, the Neraid queen, takes this a step further with seashell nipple-covers
 * Sharing a Body: Revya and Gig.
 * Shipper On Deck: Grunzford and Lady Layna ship Gig and Female Revya in his ending.
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog:
 * Shoulders of Doom: All the gods in the game, including Gig, wear these, though they actually hover above their shoulders. Your main character gains Gig's Shoulders of Doom whenever he / she uses Demon Blast. Gig's Shoulders of Doom can also turn into wings.
 * Shout Out: Gig, upon being pressed on info on Feinne, claims it can 'fly at 5 million miles an hour and shoot freaking lasers from its eyes, but can't see through lead and is totally weak to a certain element from its homeworld'.
 * He also mentions that one World Eater can move at hyperspeed and create tornados by running in circles. Gee, who could that be?
 * And to round out the trifecta, he mentions how one of them has green skin, wears a cape, and can turn invisible.
 * Dialogue before taking down Raksha is a slightly less obvious Shout Out to Soul Eater, including questioning Gig whether souls are tasty.
 * There's another Shout Out to Superman later in the form of the classic Phrase Catcher.
 * Shipper On Deck: Grunzford and Lady Layna ship Gig and Female Revya in his ending.
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog:
 * Shoulders of Doom: All the gods in the game, including Gig, wear these, though they actually hover above their shoulders. Your main character gains Gig's Shoulders of Doom whenever he / she uses Demon Blast. Gig's Shoulders of Doom can also turn into wings.
 * Shout Out: Gig, upon being pressed on info on Feinne, claims it can 'fly at 5 million miles an hour and shoot freaking lasers from its eyes, but can't see through lead and is totally weak to a certain element from its homeworld'.
 * He also mentions that one World Eater can move at hyperspeed and create tornados by running in circles. Gee, who could that be?
 * And to round out the trifecta, he mentions how one of them has green skin, wears a cape, and can turn invisible.
 * Dialogue before taking down Raksha is a slightly less obvious Shout Out to Soul Eater, including questioning Gig whether souls are tasty.
 * There's another Shout Out to Superman later in the form of the classic Phrase Catcher.

Rockum: Gyarahga! (Dat's a bird!)

Sockum: Kryuruku! (It looks so plain! Teehee.)

Odie: No! It's the legendary dragon, Sluperam!"

" It doesn't matter. It was fun."
 * Also, to Disgaea's favorite superheroes . tells  that he'll find her missing feathers. What does he call himself? Prism Beige.
 * has the Triforce in his chest.
 * Sinister Scythe: Gig's. And when the main character performs their special attack, Demon Blast, the Onyx Blade turns into a red scythe at the end of the attack and appears to slice the foe in half.
 * Smug Snake: Thuris and.
 * Stable Time Loop: causes a very unusual one of these.
 * Stealth Hi Bye: Vitali is a master of this technique.
 * Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: And his last words after doing so:


 * Supernatural Aid
 * Tactical Rock Paper Scissors: Ranged > Magic > Melee > Ranged, with some variation for flying/monster units. Can be devastating, as your high-level archers do 0 damage against level 5 knights. Oddly, it's only the "leader" of the squad that determines this bonus - a mage-led squad of knights is treated as a magic unit for RPS purposes.
 * Team Mom:
 * The Chessmaster:  is one for the side of good, though  still plays Revya and Gig like a fiddle to get them to
 * Thuris is supposed to be one, but he's busy being Out Gambitted.
 * The Playstation Is A Cheating Bastard: During Inspections, enemy leaders sometimes ignore Decor disadvantages. For instance, "Antimatter" gives you a 90% boost to defense (making you nearly untouchable) at the cost of turning everyone in the room into a One Hit Point Wonder - take any damage at all and you're dead. Leaders still take normal damage.
 * Another example of cheating is that the computer will keep letting other units take their turns before you despite your turn being listed as the next. It seems to happen when the computer attacks you and you kill the squad that attacks you, it keeps going until they stop sending squads at you or you end up killing everything
 * The Grim Reaper: Gig is a 'master of death' -- a being who should technically do the standard duties of the grim reaper.
 * The Imp: Gig during his more lucid moments. Not having a body probably has something to do with it.
 * The Magnificent: Admit it. The is an awesome, and intimidating, title.
 * Theme Music Power Up: Gig has three leitmotifs, 'Bad Boys', 'Desperado' and 'Rock 'N Rocks' -- when the two latter start playing, heads will usually roll.
 * When Endorph gets seriously pissed off, a certain song that Phantom Brave players will recognize starts playing.
 * In however, Desperado usually plays when something really bad is going to happen/is happening.
 * The Reveal:
 * Timey Wimey Ball:
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Gig and hotpods.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: Using edicts such as 'Kick', 'Fight' 'Steal', 'Kidnap' and 'Combine' on Innocent Bystanders boosts your stats, gives money, or allows you to recruit characters you can't buy at this point. Just don't try it on people who can't fight back, or you'll have Heroman to contend with.
 * Or posters for that matter.
 * Video Game Cruelty Punishment: The aforementioned Heroman. You'll probably beat him the first couple of times, but he gets stronger every time you have to deal with him. Also trying to steal from Innocent Bystanders and failing will put you in debt very quickly.
 * Villainous Crossdresser:
 * Villain Protagonist: Gig.
 * What the Hell Hero: Demon Path is your way to say this to the old hag.
 * We Cannot Go On Without You: All of your troops are only present via Gig's materialize ability, channeled through Ravya. If Revya dies, your entire army vanishes into thin air and you lose.
 * Wife Husbandry:
 * Also the Nereids' plan with Penn. Given their generally benign (although they distrust humans) nature, they do care about him as a person (much like he actually prefers to live with them over other humans). One of them (Juno) treats him as her son.
 * A Wizard Did It: See Lujei's Soul Nomad Character page for full details.
 * World of Badass
 * Yandere: As mentioned on the Grim Grimoire page: Lujei, Lujei, Lujei.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: This leads to Kanan's Karmic Death.
 * You Will Be Spared: Gig mentions that he will keep hotpods if he ever gets to destroy the world.
 * Xanatos Gambit: The possession during the opening sequence was orchestrated by Layna, who predicted the outcome. If Gig doesn't try poesssion, he stays locked up. If he does and fails, his power is used to wipe out the world eaters. If he tries and succedds, Layna can stuff him back in his can.
 * Though Layna's gambit
 * You Will Be Spared: Gig mentions that he will keep hotpods if he ever gets to destroy the world.
 * Xanatos Gambit: The possession during the opening sequence was orchestrated by Layna, who predicted the outcome. If Gig doesn't try poesssion, he stays locked up. If he does and fails, his power is used to wipe out the world eaters. If he tries and succedds, Layna can stuff him back in his can.
 * Though Layna's gambit