Final Fantasy: Endless Nova

Final Fantasy: Endless Nova is a fangame base on the knuckle-reddeningly popular Final Fantasy franchise made in RPG Maker 2000. Taking the same futuristic approach as the 7th and 8th entries in the official series, the game follows the exploits of Deren Star, an odd jobs person who, with his android lady-friend Motor, is unexpectedly pulled into an adventure to save Hell's Dome, a solar system surrounded by an impenetrable asteroid belt (hence the name) from an artificial supernova. Not quite as artificial as that, though.

Along the way he meets Lisbeth, an amnesiac girl with cat ears, a thief named Ibis, a blue mage named Ellana, a monk named Fuban and a walking talking doll named KioSen who used to be human, who end up helping him for various reasons.

The game was released on velv.net some time around 2002/2003 and is still available to play as long as you have RPG Maker installed on your machine. It was notable for being one of the Final Fantasy fangames out there that, despite some odd little shortcomings, was actually quite good. It incorporated a fairly inventive way to learn spells that worked like a cross between FF8's draw system and 6's Magicite, and each character had a unique set of abilities to make them all worth trying out and, somewhat unusual by RPG Maker standards at the time, adding some replay value.

""I'm listening to some solid tunes!""
 * Absurdly Spacious Sewer: One of the earliest dungeons. It doesn't take long to get through, thankfully.
 * Acceptable Breaks From Reality: Asteroids with air seals and atmosphere generators? That's fine, but it goes all the way into Willing Suspension of Disbelief when you realise how strong their gravity is. Keep in mind you can walk all the way from edge to edge of some of them and see nothing but space on the horizon.
 * Action Girl: Ellana does a wonderful job of carrying a staff and not being a typical Staff Chick.
 * The Alcatraz: Finel Prison, which emerges into an area that isn't properly terraformed, is infested with monsters and needs to have air manually pumped into the area every two minutes.
 * Always Night: How the areas in space always appear, especially since the street-lamps are always on. Apparently the asteroids always have their bases turned to the sun.
 * Artificial Gravity: Never mentioned, but there's no other way you could walk around on an asteroid so easily.
 * Autobots Rock Out: Quenlin, and the final boss. To music from Guilty Gear no less!
 * Ax Crazy: Fuban, before he was taken in for training by a martial-arts master.
 * Back From the Dead:
 * Back Tracking: At a certain point in the game, namely when crossing Ventry Heights and you've yet to encounter the next town, thus giving the option to skip the area on the world map, this is the only way to access an inn.
 * Badass: Fuban.
 * Bag of Holding
 * Bag of Sharing
 * The Beast Master: The game tells us that Ellana is this. She's actually a blue mage.
 * Belated Happy Ending:
 * BFG: Motor's Graviton Cannon Limit Break. Also, Regal Sura, a space station designed to blast a hole in the asteroid belt encasing the solar system.
 * BFS: Quenlin brandishes one during his boss fight.
 * BGM Override: During the siege on Necelia, and later when climbing the Tower of Stillness. Very frantic, and creepy, respectively.
 * Big Bad: Quenlin is made out to be this.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Motor and Ibis catch up to Ellana during the Necelia siege and insist on helping her. In fact Fuban is so offended by this intervention that he runs off!
 * Breather Episode: Though each one ends badly, especially Necelia.
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Fuban.
 * Bottomless Magazines: Motor's primary weapon is a gun, and many of her special abilities incorporate firearms in some way. Not only do they use no ammunition, but they don't use any MP either.
 * Boy Meets Girl: Ibis and Ellana.
 * But Thou Must!: Lisbeth won't let you refuse Ibis' offer for help.
 * Can't Drop the Hero: The game outright tells you this if you try.
 * The Cavalry: KioSen's Limit Break, Box Of Toys.
 * Central Theme: Making the most of your lifetime.
 * Chekov's Gun: The weapon prototype stolen at the beginning of the game.
 * Chivalrous Pervert: Ibis is a light version of this. He's very polite to Ellana but slips out a few remarks about her looks.
 * Combos: The Dream Stooges are a summoned monster in the game, and use a multi-elemental attack.
 * Convection, Schmonvection: The Red Temple has you hopping across lava to tiny rocks sticking out of it.
 * Cool Old Guy: Cid Mazahl
 * Cute Bruiser: KioSen and Ellana.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Deren, if he could just remember any of it.
 * A Day in The Limelight: Returning to each area after a certain point in the game triggers scenes with each character, either reflecting on their experiences, interacting with another character or telling the party more of their past.
 * Dead Character Walking: Annoyingly averted. Finish a boss fight with the wrong characters' HP at 0 and it's Game Over.
 * Death By Origin Story:
 * Death Ray: Deren and Motor's Limit Breaks.
 * Debut Queue: The game is about halfway done by the time all seven party members are recruited.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: Ifrit and Bahamut. Atlas sics three Behemoths on you but doesn't directly fight you himself.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: When Deren humiliates Sho at the beginning of the game. Considering Sho originally left Deren to die in a scrapyard...
 * Doomed Hometown: Arleah would be this for Deren, until he gets his memory back, at which point his real hometown is very much safe for the rest of the game.
 * Doomsday Device: The sun itself.
 * Dressing As the Enemy: Early on in the game after escaping a prison cell. It doesn't fool the boss though.
 * Dummied Out: A piece of armour and an enemy that specialises in Confuse spells. Version 2.5 of the game re-implemented them. However the Comet Dice minigame, found within the map editor, never saw the light of day.
 * Version 1.0 of the game showed an incomplete mugshot of Deren if one perused the game's files. This was deleted entirely from version 2.0 and onwards.
 * Dungeon Crawling
 * Bonus Dungeon: The lost lab.
 * Disc One Final Dungeon: Regal Sura.
 * The Maze: Ebidar desert, should you choose not to use the warp pipe.
 * Noob Cave: Mian Forest, which conveniently gives you all the basic elemental spells and cure if you're patient enough.
 * Dynamic Entry: When confronting Coral in Necelia, she is suddenly attacked by a huge man wearing claws. He introduces himself as Fuban and joins the party.
 * The End of the World As We Know It: And how!
 * Escape Pod: Vessels closely resembling these are a primary method of space travel. They look a lot like the ones from Dragonball Z.
 * Everything Is an iPod In The Future: Averted hard. Almost every area of colonized space looks rough and rocky.
 * Evilutionary Biologist: Dr. Fesha before the events of the game. She's long since moved on to robotics by the time you meet her.
 * Expy: Deren has spiky blonde hair, fights with a sword and does odd-jobs. Thankfully he's more amicable than Cloud.
 * Fetch Quest: A little girl in Darum can't find her favourite marbles. They've all conveniently rolled to conspicuous places.
 * Five-Bad Band
 * The Big Bad: Paradorn
 * The Dragon: Quenlin
 * The Evil Genius: Dr. Fesha
 * The Brute: Reef
 * The Dark Chick: Coral
 * Five-Man Band
 * The Hero: Deren
 * The Lancer: Motor
 * The Smart Guy: Lisbeth/Ibis
 * The Big Guy: Fuban
 * The Chick: Ellana
 * The Sixth Ranger / Team Pet: KioSen
 * Force Field: How the atmosphere is held in place on asteroid colonies.
 * Friendship Moment: After Paradorn has made her final threat to end all life in the universe, the heroes give up. Deren, aided by Motor of all people, berates the team for sitting around waiting to die and storm out. A few moments later, everyone sees the error of their ways and comes at them apologies flailing.
 * Fusion Dance: Less of a dance and more of a spell, by the Obeskan High Mage
 * Gainax Ending:
 * Gatling Good: Motor's first special ability, which can one-shot entire enemy groups in the earliest stages.
 * Genre Shift: All pretty much optional. There's a peculiar turn-based fighting game, a Chocobo-themed Tamagotchi, a space courier simulator and a mining game. If you want all the summons though, you'd best be ready to put in the time.
 * A God Am I: Paradorn pulls this off  She wants more, and is willing to destroy the entire universe so that only her kingdom will remain.
 * Grave Marking Scene: The town of Ress has what Deren desribes as gravestones with recent dates on them. The town may have gone a bit peculiar from the Obeskan religion taking it over but at least they're still burying their dead.
 * Guide Dang It: Thankfully this is an RPG Maker game so you can just open the game in the editor and find out what you're missing.
 * Happy Fun Ball: Being a Final Fantasy fangame, the infamous Movers make an appearance in the final dungeon, and will obliterate you if you didn't come packing at least one multi-targeting spell as they will constantly revive one-another. Great for farming Mega Potions though.
 * Heroes Prefer Swords: Deren.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Hero of Another Story: Deren himself, believe it or not.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Many of the in-game NPCs' appearances come from a massive compilation of user-created video game sprites, so try to think nothing of it if you find yourself engaging in mundane NPC dialogue with half the cast of Star Ocean 2.
 * Hey, It's That Sound: Lots of FF7 sounds in this one. And, typical of RPG Maker games, almost every tune in this game comes from another game, mainly Japanese RPGs and especially Final Fantasy. A few tracks from Sailor Moon games, Guilty Gear, Street Fighter, F Zero and Samurai Shodown found their way in as well.
 * Hit Points: Which increase in capacity each time you end a battle with too few of them remaining.
 * Ho Yay: There's an affection rating system that enables a heart-to-heart scene with Motor or Lisbeth... or Ibis or Xugen
 * I Will Protect Her: Deren to Lisbeth, because of her amnesia and the fact he just plain hated the man that was holding her hostage.
 * Improbable Weapon User: KioSen attacks by throwing beakers at the enemy, complete with cute little battle cry. Lisbeth uses bells, but her being a Geomancer and this being Final Fantasy that's not so unusual.
 * Industrial Ghetto: Stars Bliss. The western side, anyway. Kortira is also this, complete with talk of an underground music scene.
 * Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Turned Up to Eleven in the ending sequence when Ibis finds one on an uncharted planet.
 * Infinity+1 Sword: Each character gets one (hell, Deren gets two) and they give a satisfying white flash on contact. The weaker melee fighters gain additional benefits such as instant death or an insane boost to their magic power.
 * Info Dump: Lisbeth to Deren when the party reunites at Tazuu Falls. See the Wham! Episode entry below for details.
 * Informed Attribute: This gem from an NPC in Kortira:


 * Insistent Terminology: Much like many other English language Final Fantasy translations, the summoned monsters are referred to by a word unique to the game. In this case it's Dainsev.
 * Interface Spoiler: Occasionally at the start of a cutscene, a stat bonus announcement for a character who has yet to join the party will appear on the screen.
 * Intergenerational Friendship: Deren and Lisbeth.
 * It's Raining Cat Girls: How Deren meets Lisbeth. This is also what causes his lost memories to begin to resurface, and ironically what causes Lisbeth to lose hers.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Ibis. He means well, for someone whose first encounter with the party is a failed attempt to mug Deren.
 * Kaiju: Kogagu, the guardian of the Kogagu Caves. Some of the summoned monsters have to be fought to recruit them as well.
 * Killed Off for Real: None of the boss fights end in Disney deaths, which is quite a refreshing change. Everyone you defeat in combat stays dead.
 * Kill Sat: Regal Sura qualifies
 * Lady of War: Ellana
 * Large Ham: Quenlin. Deren even berates him for it behind his back when briefing the team on an upcoming encounter with him.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: Lisbeth and can't remember who they are or where they come from, but thankfully can still speak English fluently.
 * Last-Disc Magic: Unless you grind to masochistic proportions and exploit the game's item-trading system, you'll be waiting until quite late in the game to find all the -aga level spells and their successors.
 * Lazy Backup: Considering all seven of them travel together.
 * Leitmotif: Deren, Lisbeth, Ibis, Ellana, KioSen, Obeska and Quenlin. There are also special battle themes for Paradorn's spawn in the four temples, Quenlin and Paradorn. And they are all awesome. The title screen also plays a MIDI of the song Duvet by Boa, whose lyrics seem to reflect Motor's and Lisbeth's reactions to Deren.
 * Let's Split Up, Gang!: By the time you first arrive at the Astral Tower, Ibis and Ellana have left the party, and Motor then has to temporarily leave as the tower repels robots somehow, leaving Deren and Lisbeth to climb the tower alone. The other three then meet up again and form a secondary party, which splits up yet again later on, recruiting Fuban and KioSen in doing so. The seven all come together at Tazuu Falls, at which point they (with the exception of some one-on-one boss battles) don't split again.
 * Limit Break: Final Fantasy VIII style, but much rarer and consequently less game-breaking.
 * Losing the Team Spirit: When Paradorn essentially reveals that her plan is unstoppable and nobody can think of a viable solution.
 * Lost Forever: Impressively averted! There's not a single item or spell that you can't go back for or find elsewhere.
 * Love Triangle: Ellana is caught between the flirtatious-yet-chivalrous Ibis and the hot-tempered Fuban.
 * MacGuffin: The weapon prototype, and later the four wishes.
 * Macross Missile Massacre: Motor's Micro Missiles skill.
 * Mad Scientist: Dr. Fesha.
 * Magitek: The Specran race seem to be proficient in this with their methods of space travel.
 * Mega Manning: Ellana need only witness an enemy casting blue magic in order to learn it.
 * Messianic Archetype:  starts out as this, but has to pass the torch to
 * Metal Detector Puzzle: With no indication as to how close you are to finding anything. And it's the only way to obtain the Phoenix summon. Have fun!
 * Money Spider: The random encounters keep you quite rich in this one.
 * More Dakka: Some of Motor's special skills get pretty brutal.
 * Mythology Gag: The optional superboss Watcher Omega drops a completely useless item, much like its predecessors in 5 and 8. It does have a spell and piece of equipment worth having, but they have to be earned during the battle.
 * New Era Speech: President Heran's is cut short by an aide walking on stage to distract him.
 * Nintendo Hard: Thanks in part to the stat-raising system that is based on Final Fantasy II, thought thankfully it's much easier to gain powerful spells in this one, and beating bosses automatically boosts each character's base stats.
 * Non-Human Sidekick: KioSen, on account of having merged himself with a doll by accident.
 * Nuke'Em: Regal Sura was designed to do this to Vesta Belt, but was never quite finished.
 * Omnicidal Maniac: Paradorn.
 * One-Time Dungeon: The storage facility at the beginning.
 * Only One Name: Motor, Lisbeth, Ibis, Quenlin, President Heran and Dr. Fesha. Just about every other major character not only has a surname, but both their names even get mentioned in-game.
 * Orphan's Plot Trinket: Lisbeth's Precious Locket accessory, which is how the heroes learn her name.
 * Our Presidents Are Different: The Finel Capital is run by four governors collectively known as the Finel Quartet. During the game's intro they announce that they are, for no real reason, changing the system to have a single president.
 * Pamphlet Shelf: As per typical RPG standards, the libraries in Avanta and Osha.
 * Party in My Pocket: Only Deren (or the designated leaders of the split up parties) is shown while you're playing, but cutscenes have all seven characters present.
 * Plot Coupon: The four temple wishes, which Deren needs to stop the sun going supernova.
 * Plot Coupon That Does Something:
 * Powers As Programs: Filled Cryna orbs cause a character to instantly gain the ability to cast the spell they've absorbed.
 * Pre Meeting: Some read-haired kid that tries to mug Deren. Ibis ironically turns out to be one of the most helpful friends they make.
 * Precision F-Strike: It's not what you think. Deren gets so angry during the team-wide Heroic BSOD when they think they've lost that he let's slip a "friggin'" before storming off.
 * Psychopathic Manchild: Quenlin, as well as Coral and Reef to a lesser extent.
 * Punch Clock Villain: The FC Troopers. When you're walking around Finel Capital you can speak to them without incident and even meet one relaxing in a park with his helmet off.
 * The Purge: Paradorn's whole plan.
 * Scenery Gorn: Most of the asteroid colonies you visit are strewn with litter, pollution and graffiti. Impressive to say they're just a modification of RPG Maker 2000's default cavern graphics.
 * Schizo-Tech: A major thing in the game, allowing for some very diverse locations. Finel is the only nation in the game's world that uses technology, but due to losing their sovereignty years before the events of the game, they had to use their technology to migrate to space. A few places on the southern hemisphere of planet Coyas, the main planet of the game, have begun to adopt technology, but for the most part they live in low tech and rely on magic.
 * Shifting Sand Land: The Ebidar Desert.
 * Ship Sinking: The ending.
 * Sphere of Power: Cryna orbs, which absorb the latent magical energy present in all living things.
 * Stat Grinding: No experience points for you! The system is quite easy to use though, and even fleeing combat has benefits now.
 * Take Your Time: "That nova could happen any moment" really means "anyone else fancy another round of Star Fighter? No? Well how about going to explore that hidden temple to the west of the Imil Gulf to fight the Queen of Magik, a fight we may well lose thus dooming the universe? Ooh, and after that we can go mining in Kortira to win that Phoenix Dainsev!"
 * Technicolor Death: The final boss goes down this way.
 * Terrible Trio: Quenlin, Coral and Reef, who also double as the Three Amigos, but evil.
 * Time Bomb: The storage facility.
 * Urban Fantasy: With plenty of Schizo-Tech as well.
 * Vice City: Stars Bliss is made out to be this, Kortira even more so.
 * Welcome to Corneria
 * Wham! Episode: Earlier on in the game, the party splits up. As soon as all seven are reunited, we learn what's really going on.  Yeah, it's all a bit much to take in on a first playthrough.
 * What Happened to The Mouse?: Sho is never heard from again after Deren steals his MacGuffin. We also never find out what happened at Finel Capital after
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Lisbeth feels this towards Deren when she first cracks her amnesia, thinking he only helped her to help himself.
 * You Don't Look Like You: Many of the standard monster graphics from RPG Maker are simply renamed to match up to Final Fantasy counterparts. Some of the in-game monsters avert this, though, by being lifted from Final Fantasy IX, of all games.