Mystic Ark

You wake up as a wooden figurine.

The Spiritual Successor game to Enix's infamously difficult RPG The 7th Saga, released in 1995. Released only in Japan, Mystic Ark is both similar to and different from its predecessor at the same time. Though retaining the GPS-map and combat system as well as a similar art style, the overworld gameplay is very puzzle-oriented and almost like a Point and Click Game.

Our hero is alone on an island, talking to a goddess. The island is filled with wooden figurines. How did our hero get there? What power has turned these people into wooden figurines? For what purpose? Where is this island, and why does it hold so many gateways to other worlds? Why is the fireplace talking to you? If you desire the answers to these questions then strap yourself in, because you have an exceptionally surreal journey ahead of you.


 * All in a Row -- Only if your party member has been infused with an Ark, however.
 * Apocalyptic Log -- Scattered around the house in the Dark World...
 * Big Badass Wolf -- The Big Bad Wolf himself in Fairy World.
 * Cunning Like a Fox -- The gang of foxes, and especially their leader.
 * Did Not Do the Research -- Your bottles of honey can go rancid after a certain amount of time.
 * Duel Boss -- The "Beast," which can easily become That One Boss due to how hard it hits.
 * Enemy Without -- The ending reveals to be this to.
 * Exposition Fairy -- This position is filled by a fireplace. No, really.
 * Eternal Engine -- The underground city of Metallimo.
 * Forced Level Grinding -- Shockingly averted, considering its predecessor. The game even goes so far as to allow any figurines you're carrying to level up along with you, no Ark infusion required.
 * To be fair, much of the predecessor's reputation for Level Grinding was due to a botched job of Difficulty by Region.
 * Forever War: Although more humorous than most examples, the war between the Gunboss and Bloodhook definitely qualifies.
 * Gainax Ending
 * Game Favored Gender -- Ferris has slightly lower speed and power than Remeer, although higher magic. The two also have slightly different spell sets.
 * Ironically enough, Reeshine's attack power blows Remeer's out of the water despite her also being female.
 * May have something to do with the fact that Reeshine is a grappler. Physical prowess is all she has going for her.
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere -- In addition to the many bosses who simply say stand in one place blocking your path who do nothing but say "GAAAA!" or "GRAAAH!" and then attack you, near the end of the Fairytale World you will be greeted with a message of "Suddenly a Water Dragon attacks you!" with no context at all besides the fact that you happen to be walking behind a waterfall at the time.
 * Goldfish Poop Gang -- Sly
 * Heroes Prefer Swords -- Particularly grating considering the wide array of weapons available. Your hero can equip katanas, knives, axes, staves, boomerangs and bows, but it is the European-style arming sword that will almost always be their best weapon for any area.
 * Heroic Mime -- Taken to extremes. Even your party members don't say a word once infused, making it seem as if you aren't working with them so much as you are animating their body like a golem.
 * The game pokes fun at your own character's silence, with barkeep NPCs asking why you never say anything.
 * Just-So Story -- Giant's World.
 * The Mario -- Remeer/Ferris; strong attack power yet not as strong as Reeshine's, and with magic that's effective yet pales in comparison to Miriene's or Meisia's. Tokio and Kamiwoo could also be considered this, although their attack and magic are both less effective than the hero's.
 * Mythology Gag -- The game's intro shows a spinning tile capturing the protagonists in the same way King Lemele recruited the heroes of The 7th Saga.
 * Noodle Incident -- Whatever it was that started the longstanding feud between the crews of the Bloodhook and the Gunboss. It's a Noodle Incident because no-one actually remembers after all the centuries of fighting. Except perhaps Matoya, and she's not telling.
 * Nothing Is Scarier -- For being in a game where "cutscenes" are just two or three images with added text, the Dark World is creepy.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise -- How do you infiltrate a ship full of pirate cat people? Easy, just pin a rank insignia on, and walk right up to the guards - even if they've never seen you before, they won't give you any trouble.
 * Party in My Pocket -- Literally: Your allies remain wooden figurines inside your inventory until you infuse one of them with an Ark.
 * The Red Mage -- Despite being black and white style mages respectively, both Miriene and Meisia have access to both schools of magic. The main difference is Meisia learns healing spells faster and can multi-cast them, while Miriene has the strongest attack magic.
 * Solve the Soup Cans -- At multiple times during the game, an NPC will ask you to solve a sliding tile puzzle or capture all the pieces on a chessboard using a knight for no apparent reason, then give you an item if you succeed.
 * Subverted by a pot which asks you to solve three puzzles, each time saying that "If you can't solve this puzzle, it will have no impact on your journey at all, so don't worry..." then, after you solve all three, says simply "Prize? There's no prize."
 * Space-Filling Path
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight -- Whether it be a world full of cats or a world full of children, you're never that out of place.
 * Weapon of Choice -- The game uses a curious system where individual weapons have different statistics depending on the person equipping them. For example, while both the hero and Kamiwoo can equip the Black Iron Scimitar (classified as a katana-type weapon), the hero will receive two points more attack from it than Kamiwoo would. The Gourd Smasher however, though also a katana-type weapon, would give Kamiwoo a three point advantage over the hero if both had it equipped. The same penalties system also applies to armor. Doubles as a Guide Dang It, since these differences often seem arbitrarily assigned, and there's no way to check them without having everyone try to equip the weapon in question.
 * You Wake Up in a Room