Fullmetal Alchemist: Bluebird's Illusion



Fullmetal Alchemist: Bluebird's Illusion (鋼の錬金術師［青鳥の虛像］ Hagane no Renkinjutsushi: Aotori no Kyozou) is a doujin-soft created by Ocean-X, which is believed to be four college students and Fullmetal Alchemist fans in China. Based on the manga Fullmetal Alchemist, it is an interactive game with four different endings.

It is rumored that there are only 100 professional copies of this game in the world because its manufacture was blocked because it violated copyright for profit. However, copies can be easily found to download from the internet. All copies of the game are in Chinese, which could make game play hard for people who don't read Chinese; but there is an almost complete translation of this game circulating.

The story goes like this: Edward Elric is living a peaceful life in Central, Amestris after succeeding in bringing his brother Alphonse Elric's body back. But there is something wrong with Alphonse's body - it starts disappearing. Edward has to work with the Homunculi to fix this.

This game provides examples of:

 * Alternate Continuity: The game branches off from the manga after chapter 31, and makes a few rather important distinctions. The character Father, introduced in the same chapter, is . The homunculus known as "Pride" does not exist yet. Bradley has a son named Selim, who is his biological son.
 * Alternate Timeline: Rather conveniently, the game can easily pass as an alternative continuation of the first season of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, if one accounts for the one year Time Skip between the two.
 * And Then John Was a Zombie:
 * Anyone Can Die:
 * Big Screwed Up Family:
 * Bittersweet Ending: Two of them.
 * Came Back Wrong: Pride, in stark contrast to Edward, is (arguably) as heartless and cruel as the rest of the homunculi.
 * Collapsing Lair:
 * Composite Character: . Not much had been revealed about them in the canon at the time that Bluebird's Illusion was made, so anybody could have guessed that  . (Eventually it was revealed that they were
 * Dead Fic: There was once a fan comic being made based on the game (the cover is the page picture), but it has since been discontinued and its website taken down.
 * Downer Ending:
 * Failure Is the Only Option: There is only one happy ending,
 * Fan Nickname: The titles of various endings. "Tea Alchemist ending," "Ed ending," "Roy ending," and "Ed ending."
 * Fan Service: The scene where Alphonse is showering, and the scene where Al finds a photograph of Ed in a dress.
 * Golden Ending: Played straight and inverted.
 * Happily Ever After: Parodied in the Tea Alchemist ending.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Ho Yay: Edward/Alphonse, Mustang/Edward, Envy/Ed, and Envy/Pride.
 * James Bondage: During the latter part of the game,
 * Jossed: The game predicted that In the manga,
 * The game also predicted that
 * Justified Title: The "bluebird" in the title refers to the Elric brothers' happiness. Hence their new, happier life is merely an illusion preceding the horrible fate in store for them.
 * Luke I Am Your Father:
 * Mayfly December Romance: Hoenheim briefly mourns the passing of his wife Trisha.
 * Mind Control Eyes: Pride has these, suggesting he is enslaved to Father's will.
 * Multiple Endings: There's a choice of 4 possible endings depending on what you've done during the game and where you've been.
 * My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: In the Pride!Ed ending,
 * Offing the Offspring:
 * So Proud of You: Hoenheim refers to Edward as his "most perfect son."
 * Spell My Name With an S: The intro movie refers to King Bradley as "King Bradrey". One online translation also names his son "Samuel" rather than Selim.
 * Time Skip: The game takes approximately one year after chapter 30 of the manga (or alternately the first season of the second anime). In that time, Edward has gotten a new body for Alphonse, Riza has bought them a house of their own, Roy has been promoted to General and Edward to Colonel, and the characters have gotten past Hughes' death.
 * The Quiet One: Pride's speech pattern is eerily similar to that of Sloth's, although he does have an Inner Monologue.
 * Utopia Justifies the Means: Father seeks to create a world free of human greed and claims all humans are marked with "inerasable sin."
 * What Measure Is a Non Super: In his conversation with Envy,
 * Who Wants to Live Forever: In the Pride!Ed ending, Envy brings this up when ordered to retrieve Edward.
 * You Kill It You Bought It: In the Pride!Ed ending,