Fortune Summoners



Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone is a sidescrolling RPG created by LizSoft. After making an impact in Japan, it was localized and released in the West by Carpe Fulgur (of Recettear and Chantelise fame).

The plot centers on the adventures of the heroine Arche and her two friends living in the town of Tonkiness.

"Girl: Taking stuff from people you don't know is bad. But heroes can take whatever they want, and you look like a hero, so..."
 * Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: The farther you go from the starting town of Tonkiness, the more expensive each inn is. Partly justified by the fact that Tonkiness is a tiny town and the larger cities thus attract far more tourists, with the possible exception of Barness.
 * Adults Are Useless: Ridiculously blatant, as is typical of most games with child PCs and many magical girl media... and this is something of a hybrid of both. is the only adult presented as competent. Otherwise, guards are useless and stupider than even Arche, no one believes the PCs when they try to warn the town about, the current teachers of the magic school are more powerful than most of the students but not by much at all, and every single kid at the school is expected to be competent enough to waltz through hordes of monsters and dungeons on a simple field trip when any one of these monsters is explicitly capable of taking down most adults... even magic-users.
 * And Now for Someone Completely Different: Quite a bit into the game, you're pulled out of Arche's perspective and into Stella's for a while, as sort of an interactive flashback.
 * Artificial Brilliance: The game's friendly and enemy A.I.s are really, really good.
 * Badass Adorable: Arche, once she gets strong enough. Hell, she wields a sword as tall as herself.
 * Badass Normal: Arche, being the only member of your group incapable of casting magic . By the world's standards,.
 * Bag of Sharing: During this segment, Stella has access to all of the items you just had on you while playing as Arche.
 * Beef Gate: You can reach the North Chartreaux Guardpost a full two days in advance, technically. The monsters between Chatreaux and the Outpost are next to impossible to face early in the game, but other than them nothing stops you from trying to get there. However, since character level determines the maximum amount of money you can carry, and your maximum character level is limited at each point in the game, reaching it early is pretty pointless since you can't afford the equipment yet.
 * Berserk Button: When the party confronts the Dark Witch, she remains very calm until Arche calls her an old hag, which sets her off.
 * Betting Minigame: There are a few capsule machines scattered around the game that you can give in money to get a random prize, from weak healing items to collectibles to accessories and a grand prize. One machine costs 20 CP to use and promises a grand prize of a Merrin's Staff, while another later in the game costs 200 CP and promises a grand prize of a Legendary Sword.
 * BFS: In relative terms, Arche's sword is this. It would be a one-handed sword for an adult, but for Arche, it's so big that she has to wield it two-handed. And, even though the sprites don't reflect this, her swords get progressively longer the better they are. She can wield bastard swords.
 * Black Magician Girl: Sana, Stella and just about every other one of Arche's female classmates.
 * Big Damn Heroes: At one point, while Arche is on a rescue mission, even though she has found the Damsel in Distress, she is surrounded and vastly outnumbered by Orgs, and on the edge of surrendering..
 * Bonus Dungeon:.
 * Bowdlerization: The CG in the Korat hot springs has been modified to make Arche, Sana and Stella look like they are wearing colored towels. A smart move, all things considered, since even the implication of naked little girls would guarantee a nice one-way trip to prison in the current times.
 * Broken Bridge: Before the Crest is retrieved from within the Shrine of the Wind, it prevents access to the majority of areas which happen to lie at the west of Tonkiness, namely Barness Village, Chartreaux City, the Loch, Weathervane Tower, the Outpost and the gate to Scotsholm.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Sana and Stella always cry out the names of their spells, although enemies casting the same spells never utter a single word.
 * Cheerful Child: Arche, again.
 * Continuing Is Painful: Entirely averted, to the point where the player even has the option to force an instant Game Over in order to escape the area (at the cost of 10% of your current money).
 * Cute Clumsy Girl: Sana's sprites, especially her slide. One of Stella's maids is implied to be this.
 * Dem Bones: Plenty of them in the game.
 * Didn't See That Coming: Selene never expected.
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:.
 * Dumb Muscle: Arche might be good with the sword, but she has to use her fingers (and toes!) to count.
 * Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Chiffon's speech, although not nearly as bad as most examples.
 * Fusion Dance:.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: Several examples thereof, possibly the most notable being:
 * Sorry, Arche, you're going to need to go on a huge quest to unseal this elemental stone, because your parents can't afford to buy you a normal one! .......Except for the part where it takes just a few days of questing for Arche, personally, nevermind her parents, to be wealthier than the majority of people who can afford stones.
 * Grumpy Old Man: Towarin the archmage, who was a very nasty headmaster when he ran the Minasa-Ratis school, and who doesn't like kids that mess with his Priceless Magic Pot.
 * Guide Dang It: There are several parts of the game that are very much this trope. For instance, did you forget to keep track of the number of gargoyle statues you passed in the Hill of the Wind dungeon? Welp, good luck with that guess or back to the start of the dungeon you go. Also worthy of mentioning is the rather convoluted dialogue chain that unlocks the Shrine of the Wind.
 * Harder Than Hard: Clearing the game at least once unlocks Nightmare difficulty, which puts the previous hardest difficulty to shame.
 * Harping on About Harpies: Harpies appear in Weathervane Tower. They are quite cute, but they are no less hateful and annoying.
 * Heroes Prefer Swords: Arche wields a sword in combat. Further, when told by a teacher that she should use something else because swords disrupt the ability to use magic, she still insists on using it.
 * Instant Runes: Color-coded magic circles appear around anyone while they cast a spell.
 * Karl Marx Hates Your Guts: All items have a fixed price everywhere, and when selling, the amount of copper coins you get is always half the price of the particular item you sell.
 * Kleptomaniac Heroine: Arche, so so much. Lampshaded by a little girl during the second day.

"Disembodied voice: Selene, why have you dawdled! HE has found us! Selene: Uwaaaah!!!"
 * Kleptomaniac Hero, Found Underwear: If you go rummaging about people's wardrobes, there's bound to be a few of these. The characters can wear them (the female versions at least), but why the heck would you want to do that??
 * Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Averted. Using magic is slow, so Arche generally blitzes most mages before they can get off a spell, making her quite balanced (in singleplayer mode at least) with the other party members. In fact, while Sana or Stella being hit with Confuse (which temporarily makes you attack your allies) is only a minor inconvenience, a confused Arche can easily cause a TPK within seconds in the lategame.
 * Lost Forever: This can happen, but not to anything good or important. You can miss an accessory for Arche in the bonus quest if the player continues with the main story from a Prologue Clear save without playing through it. The bonus quest can only be accessed from a Prologue Clear save..
 * The Medic: Sana.
 * Mix-and-Match Critters: Beware of Mothbees. There's also the Orgs, who are described in-universe as hybrids of orcs and ogres.
 * Our Orcs Are Different: We never see orcs in the game, but there are Orgs, which pretty much qualify the same: big, green, stupid and evil to the core.
 * Palette Swap: Several enemies have more powerful versions that look identical except for a change in color. In addition, you can buy different outfits for each of your characters that simply change the color of what they wear.
 * Plot Coupon: The Crests of the Wind.
 * Point of No Return: Just before . It is not obvious although the game recommends a save before proceeding.
 * Poor Predictable Rock: One of the people you can play Magic Rock Paper Scissors with will always pick the same element every round. Which element specifically is randomized each time you talk to her, but during a given game she will always pick the same element.
 * Porn Stash: Owned by one particularily sleazy bachelor in Chartreux, hidden under the bed. The characters' reactions to everything in that room are rather... amusing.
 * Priceless Ming Vase: In archmage Towarin's room lies a very valuable magic pot. No points for guessing what happens to it when Arche and her friends mess with it.
 * Princess Curls: Stella has her hair in this style.
 * Pyromaniac: Every single one of Stella's spells has something to do with fire. She administers "cleansing fire from above" to the "Naughty book" in an apartment instead of just commenting on it like Arche (oblivious) or Sana (disgusted) if the player was controlling her.
 * Retired Badass: Arche's father has quite a reputation as one of the best swordfighters alive.
 * Rich Bitch: Stella. She gets better eventually, becoming more Spoiled Sweet. Although she showed signs of it early on when she was seriously considering giving Arche a free elemental stone (until Arche herself pointed out it wouldn't be right to give away something that expensive).
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Chiffon, the flying rabbit wind elemental.
 * Scenery Porn: Even more so than the original Japanese release, as Carpe Fulgur used the visuals from the Deluxe version.
 * Sphere of Power: Sana's humble Shield spell. As long as it's active, anyone in the shield takes half damage, spells become uninterruptable, and renders immunity to knockdowns, grabs, and geysers of hot steam in Korat altogether.
 * Squishy Wizard: Sana. Stella to a lesser degree.
 * Standard Status Effects: Sleep, poison, freezing, confusion and paralysis all make their appearances.
 * Stripperiffic: Lampshaded to hell and back by the (entirely unsensibly armored) swordswoman NPCs.
 * Super Drowning Skills: Arche and Stella are unable to swim, treating water as a bottomless pit.
 * Super Not-Drowning Skills: Sana, on the other hand, can survive underwater indefinitely thanks to her (water-)elemental stone. Sana also gets a spell that temporarily gives this ability to Arche and Stella.
 * Suspicious Videogame Generosity: Fountains and Marks of Heroism (both of which fully restore HP and MP) are few and far in between. There are exceptions, but if you are deep in a large dungeon and find one of these (especially a Fountain, close to a big stone door, no less), prepare for a boss fight right ahead.
 * Taken for Granite: Just about on the final day.
 * Team Pet: Chiffon.
 * Tsundere: Stella, despite the lack of romance in the game, has the personality right down.
 * Underground Monkey: See Palette Swap above.
 * Useless Useful Spell: Stella's Disintegrate, on the grounds of it never working against anything you'd want to blow mana on. Status effects tend to not work on boss-type enemies for too long either.
 * Villainous Breakdown:
 * Villainous Breakdown:


 * Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World:
 * Interesting case too, since.