Azure Dreams

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Azure Dreams is a roguelike RPG released by Konami in the late 1990s. There are two different versions: one for the PlayStation, which also added elements of town- and relationship-building, and another for the Game Boy Color. The overall plot to both games is the same: you are a boy named Koh, and you live out in a desert village where a giant monster tower looms. Your father, Guy, went into the tower to find a legendary monster and hasn't been seen since, so you enter the tower to search for him, and fight/tame any monsters that get in your way.

Tropes used in Azure Dreams include:

(For both versions unless noted otherwise.)

  • Absolute Cleavage: Nico.
  • Action Girl: Nico.
  • Ambidextrous Sprite: Koh, in the tower. In a reverse of early incarnations of Link, his shield will never face away from the viewer.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore: The box art for the PSX version: Japan and America.
  • Anime Hair: Koh and his father Guy.
  • Antidote Effect: The hazak herb (which recovers a reduced attack stat), is completely useless on all floors of the tower that do not contain Vipers, the only monster capable of inflicting that effect. However, try to make it through those floors, and you'll probably be kicking yourself if you don't have any. They're also useful for any monster from an Arachne fusion, which doubles their base power but does not apply to stats gained in the current tower trip unless their stats are healed.
  • Asteroids Monster: Manoevas (PS1 version).
  • Awesome Yet Impractical: Some of the lighter monsters (including Kewne, your familiar) can be picked up and hurled at an enemy. This gives your monster a free attack on the enemy in question, even if they would normally strike second and also keeps fragile Koh a few steps back from the monster. Impractical only for two reasons:
    • The throw damages your monster, too. Given that the entire game is based around resource management, wasting even 1 or 2 HP can be the difference between victory or defeat.
    • Sometimes you miss, and Koh apparently has a pretty good throwing arm and your monsters have a pretty bad case of ADD, leaving Koh to fight the monster alone and your monster to wander about the level randomly until you meet up with it again or go up a floor.
    • Having two monsters out using the second collar you can find. Great for exploring end-of-the-run floors when you've got a Wind Crystal and plan to go back soon anyway. Not so great when you're trying to push for the top and need every Herb and MP-restorative you can get.
    • The Dark Sword and Holy Swords respectively. Both have very good starting damage, but both succumb to rust, ultimately making the Gold Sword a better choice.
  • Awesome Yet Practical: U-Boat's Hidden Magic DeRock, when used as Mixture Magic, summons Seiryu, the water dragon, to attack everything in the room. Great for when you're surrounded by 20+ monsters from a trap. And it is awesome.
    • The same goes for all of the bird monster, Dream, as well, whose Mixture Magic attacks are the most powerful and most impressive in the whole game, perhaps to compensate for the fact that it's otherwise virtually useless as a fighting monster (it can hypnotize other monsters into sleeping though).
    • Not to mention the Gold Sword and Diamond Shield. Sure, the attack and defense are pathetic, but neither will be harmed in the least by the rust traps laying about. On the other hand, they still benefit from the Red/Blue Sands (red for swords, rlue for shields) which give them a +1 to damage/defense, so after a few trips your weapon and shield will be on-par with the better equipment in the game, and it's only going to get more powerful as you progress up the tower.
      • However, rust traps only effect equipment you're actually wearing. You can preserve the effectiveness of any equipment from rust traps by taking it off when you're not using it.
      • The Mirror Shield is not only immune to rust traps and can be improved by blue sands, it actually fully reflects back all magic to monsters. The Live Shield also deals damage to monsters, even just by standing there, but sadly it is not immune to rust traps.
    • The almost-impossible-to-find Trained Wand is immune to rust traps, bolstered by red sand, and improves the power of mixture magic. It's so rare as to be nearly nonexistent unless you feed items to a Barong until you get the right one.
      • The Life Wand is immune to rust traps and while it only deals 1 HP per hit (and can't be enhanced), it gives you that 1 HP. Best used when Koh also consumes Mahell seed, which boosts his attack speed.
    • The Acid Rain ball kills ALL monsters in a room dead, no matter how high their level.
      • Some water and wind monsters on higher levels won't get killed by it, but still take heavy damage, enough to kill them with one shot.
  • Badass Adorable: Kewne and certain other monsters.
  • Badass Bookworm: Mia and Weedy.
  • Bag of Spilling: The monsters keep their experience levels upon exiting the tower. You, however...
  • Bare Your Midriff: Nico and most of the other girls in their swimsuits.
  • Beautiful All Along: Mia.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Koh, Kewne, Cherrl and especially Mia.
  • Big Brother Instinct:
    • Part of the reason why Ghosh can't stand to see Selfi fall in love with Koh.
    • Koh for Weedy, considering that he's risking his life in the monster tower to find treasure and make money to provide for her and their mother, Wreath.
  • Big Eater: Koh, if he wins Patti's heart. He has to eat every item on her menu, and then a special dish afterwards.
  • Black Magician Girl/Cute Witch/Hot Witch: Ghosh's sister Selfi [dead link]... in appearance, at least.
  • Blondes Are Evil: Ghosh borders on this considering his condescending personality and his treatment of Mia.
  • Blue Eyes: Many characters have these.
  • Boring but Practical: An easy way to increase an item's drop rate is to simply place it in storage. With 5 stored, even rare items like sands will be spawning regularly.
  • The Casanova: Koh, eventually.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: This happens when you reach a certain floor in the tower and find out that your father's partner Beldo killed him when he tried to take the Ultimate Egg and is waiting for you on the top floor. After this point, when you wake up in the mornings, only Nico will be there and starts to cry when you head off for the monster tower. This lasts until you beat the game.
  • Character Development: Most of the characters go through this during the game.
  • Chick Magnet: Koh, so very much.
  • Childhood Friend Romance: Nico, potentially.
  • Child Prodigy: Many adventurers are said to only make it up the first few floors before having to give up. Koh seems to easily be able to traverse the tower on his first time, and can easily manage to get to higher floors each time he adventures in, depending on the player.
  • City of Adventure: Monsbaiya.
  • Cleavage Window: Nico.
  • Com Mons: Wumps (GBC)/Pulunpas (PS1). Unless you have the ultimate Catawump.
  • Continuing Is Painful: Less so than other Roguelikes, but dying means you lose everything you had on you at the time of death. If you've been spending multiple sessions upgrading a Gold Sword (or any sword, really)...
  • Cool Little Sis: Weedy, so very much.
  • Crutch Character: To an extent, Kewne. While, technically speaking, he never stops being useful, quite a few monsters with the appropriate levels and monsters fused the right way have unique abilities, unique magic, or are otherwise an improvement.
  • Cute Bookworm: Mia.
  • Cute Bruiser: Nico.
  • Damsel in Distress: Selfi at one point in the game.
  • Dangerous Fifteenth Birthday: When Koh became 15, he was allowed to enter the monster tower for the first time and face all of its perils.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Fur in both versions towards Koh. She uses this in the Playstation version to tease Koh. It eventually backfires on her when Koh sees Ghosh flirting with her, only for her to deny Ghosh's advances. She admits to treating Koh better, and will admit she likes him, but tries to switch it back to making it seem she only does because she feels sorry for him, even to go as far as mentioning his dead father. Koh gets upset at this and leaves, leaving Fur saddened by what's happened.

Fur: Dunno why, but Koh's lookin' real good to me lately. Better go get my eyes checked out or somethin'.

  • Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: Subverted. If you get 0 HP in the Tower, you get knocked out and wake up in Town, same as if you used a wind crystal. However, you lose EVERYTHING you had with you except for Home-hatched familiars.
    • The main reason why to some gamers, Azure Dreams can be as scary as a survival horror game. Just imagine losing all those valuable items!
    • It's worse when you find that valuable Monster Egg or Trained Wand, only to get murdered before finding a Wind Crystal. Especially because there's a chance it will never appear again.
  • Disappeared Dad: Koh's father died shortly after Weedy was born, although some say that his spirit has been seen at the top floors of the tower from time to time....
  • The Dragon: Both a literal and a somewhat figurative example are the Dragons at the higher floors who are also some of the last monsters you see before the final boss.
  • Drunk on Milk: Well, technically, it's Cola, but even that's strong enough to make Koh pass out.
  • Dummied Out: Several items were coded into the PS 1 game, but assigned a 0% chance of dropping on any given floor, although it is still possible for them to be spit out by a Barong. Some, like the shomuro herb, which was made to cure a status effect that was never implemented, are effectively useless.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Monsters come in three types: Fire, Wind and Water. Fire beats Wind, Wind beats Water, and Water beats Fire.
  • Everyone Loves Blondes: Koh for Cherrl.
  • Familiar: Any monster that you hatch and raise is called this. To get higher in the tower, it is essential that they become stronger, as unlike Koh, their levels don't reset when they leave the tower.
  • Fan Service: Arguably the main motivation to complete the Water Medal quest and re-open the swimming pool, as whichever of the seven girls Koh has won over are regular patrons (though only one shows up at a time), complete with new character portraits clad in swimsuits. For the Ho Yay, a swimsuit-clad Ghosh [dead link] is also a regular patron.
  • Fan Service with a Smile: All of the girls to a certain degree, but Patti especially.
  • Fission Mailed: The final boss.
  • Five-Man Band: A particularly good one occurs later on actually.
  • Fragile Speedster: The Picket, who can move twice as fast as any monster, but drops if you hit it once.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar:
    • The expensive Aura Bike is really fun to ride and helps you get around town quickly, but look carefully at it when Koh is riding it sideways. Not to mention his stationary animation when he faces left or right. Just face Koh to the side, put the controller down, and you'll see what I mean.
    • At the end, Beldo strikes at Koh, giving him a nasty cut and making his blood spew everywhere, to remove the seal on the Ultimate Egg. Rated E for Everyone.
  • Glass Cannon: The Killer, who has high attack and critical-hit ratio, but only moderate defense.
  • Glasses Girl: Mia.
  • The Goggles Do Nothing: Kewne has a pair of goggles, but never uses them.
  • Good Morning, Crono: Nico often has to get Koh out of bed with a hard kick (until he wins over one or more of the seven potential girlfriends, at which point they take it in turns to wake him up more amiably). In the GBC version, she only does this at the beginning of the game (or if you get knocked out in the tower).
  • The Goomba: Pulunpas show up for the first three floors of the tower, and if you have a familiar and a weapon, you can dispatch them in one hit. The monster called Noise, however, shows up ONLY on the first floor, and is even weaker: a level 1 Koh can destroy them without a familiar easily, using the craptastic weapon (singular) you can purchase in town.
  • Gotta Catch Em All
  • Great Big Book of Everything: Weedy's monster book.
  • Guide Dang It:
    • Many people don't know that certain places can only be built after you've beaten the game and talked to the right people that will request their construction.
    • Depending on what you say to Cherrl about where her healing herb came from, she has two different outcomes. If you choose not to tell her that it was you that got it, Cherrl will choose to become a nurse. If you tell her that you got the herb, she will be healed, but continue to stay at home, making dolls of you that she sells. Picking the latter means you don't see her in her swimsuit, as she just chooses to stay home.
  • Hair Decorations: Nico, Patti and Weedy all have these.
  • Hair of Gold: Cherrl.
  • Heavy Sleeper: Koh never seems to wake up himself, his girlfriends or his sister usually having to wake him up.
  • Heroes Want Redheads: Koh for Vivian.
  • Hospital Hottie: Cherrl.
  • Hot Librarian: Mia.
  • Hot Mom: Wreath.
  • Ill Girl: Cherrl (PS1 version only).
  • Impossibly Cool Clothes: As well as some of the characters' normal garb, most of the girls' swimsuits, though elaborate, would certainly be impractical as actual swimming garb. Standout examples include Nico's [dead link] suit, which is fastened by metal clasps that make it look like a pair of denim overalls with the middle section and legs missing, and Selfi's suit, which has an enormous pink bow and a small bell on the front.
  • Infinity+1 Element: The legendary monster has a special "Shadow" element that nothing else has.
  • Infinity+1 Sword:
    • Your weapons can be powered up using an item that Randomly Drops in the tower, and gold swords never rust or degrade. It's possible to buff your equipment until you don't even need familiars to clear the tower any more.
    • The Trained Wand counts as this, being harder to find than a Gold Sword, but benefiting from both Red Sands and Mixture Magic. Like the Gold Sword, it will never rust.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Selfi, at some times before her Character Development. Ghosh, in the GBC version It's revealed that his and Selfi's dad was also killed by Beldo, whom he and Koh team up to defeat. After that, he becomes a Friendly Rival.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Ghosh in the PSX version, at all times, even after his Character Development.
  • Killed Off for Real: Koh and Weedy's late father Guy.
  • Kill It with Fire: Wind-genus monsters are weak against fire attacks. Further, most of the offensive spells available to monsters are fire-elemental (wind and water are more centered around buffs/debuffs).
  • Leitmotif: Most of the tracks in the game not based on the Recurring Riff (see below) are character leitmotifs. All seven girlfriends get their own musical theme (which plays whenever they wake Koh in the morning after being won over), as does Ghosh, and arguably most of the tradespeople (each shop has its own theme).
  • Lethal Joke Character:
    • Nyuels. They have sucky stats, no offensive magic except for mix magic, their inherent auto-property is poison resistance (which means that they can resist ONE spell in the game, which can ONLY be produced by traps, which Koh is more likely to step on anyway), and even when they turn into upgraded Battnels they don't really improve much. However, their magic is a healing spell (useful for keeping Koh alive), and they get 50 mp (half of their max, worth ~4 heal spells) from any herb. Free healing? Yes please.
    • Also the dark green Pulunpas on the higher floors, because of their ability to steal monster collars and send your monsters back into your bag.
  • Life or Limb Decision: Beldo, the final boss.
  • Likes Older Women: Koh, considering that three of his girlfriends (Fur, Patti, Vivian) are older than him.
  • Lost Forever: If you don't forgive Kewne for momentarily betraying you in the end, he'll fly away sad. By doing this, you never see Kewne again, and will never find another.
    • Because getting certain items or eggs is based off the RNG, it's entirely possible that if you die in the tower holding the specific items, they will never appear again.
  • Marathon Level: The forty floors of the Monster Tower: since you start on the first floor every time you enter the Tower, they must all be beaten in a single sitting to win the game. It should be noted that you are able to save between floors. To avoid abusing this, once you save, it'll go back to menu. Whenever you activate this save, if you restart for whatever reason, you automatically show up in your bed as if you lost.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Koh's hometown of Monsbaiya is a place that was named because people bought monsters from that city.
    • Also Patti Pan the waitress, whose first name can reference a meat patty, and whose last name can reference the cooking utensil, or the Japanese word for bread.
    • And the monster called Killer which has high attack stats, and an even higher critical hit ratio, and they love to come in multiples.
    • The monster called Naplass. It tends to have a habit of falling asleep at random points... even in the middle of a fight.
    • The "Block", which is well known for having the highest potential defense in the entire game thanks to its double defense trait.
  • Meganekko: Mia (PS1 version only).
  • Megaton Punch: The Golems had a two-turn variation of this that do a lot of damage if it connected.
  • Mighty Glacier: The monster appropriately called Glacier.
    • Also the Block and its evolution the Metal.
  • Missing Mom:
    • Nico, whose mother left her and her father when she was very young which explains her Tomboy personality.
    • Also Patti.
  • The Mole: Kewne, though it's against his will.
  • Mon
  • Money Fetish: Fur. Fur. Fur.
    • To the point that she will charge Koh for the privilege of looking at her in her swimsuit if you talk to her at the swimming pool (that said, of the seven girls, Fur does wear the most revealing swimsuit).
  • Monster Compendium: Weedy has a monster book that will give some background information about monster's you have encountered. You must either meet them in the tower, hatch pre-evolutions/evolve for certain monsters, or make various buildings and play the mini-games in them to discover new monster types.
  • Mooks but No Bosses: In the PS 1 version, you'll face 38 floors teeming with monsters on your journey up the tower, but not a single unique encounter. The sorceror Beldo waits at the top, but it's impossible to actually lose to him.
  • Ms. Fanservice: All of the girls qualify to a certain degree, but Nico's [dead link] normal [dead link] attire and Fur's bikini make them stand out even more so.
  • Nice Guy: Koh.
  • Nice Hat: Selfi has one of these.
  • No Last Name Given: Koh and his family are some of the only main characters without last names.
  • Odango Hair: Nico's hair.
  • Older Than They Look: Several characters qualify for this given the game's art style, but Cherrl really stands out considering that she is actually 15 and around the same age as Koh, even though she looks like she's 12, and even younger than Mia, who's 14.
  • Open-Minded Parent: Wreath. Understandably, because Guy was always hunting in the monster tower himself. Though the trope is both subverted and played straight with Koh's girlfriends. She comments that many are great help around the house, but otherwise lampshades the fact he has so many.
  • Playable Epilogue: You can continue to challenge the tower after winning the game, now armed with the Game Breaker ultimate monster. As an additional reward, you also get to keep your father's old sword. While it is only slightly stronger than most other weapons that drop during gameplay, it can be upgraded like every other blade and has a unique sprite.
  • Playing with Fire: Kewne, and a lot of the other monsters. Also Koh if he used certain orbs.
  • Posthumous Character: Koh and Weedy's late father Guy.
  • Punny Name: Fur Gots.
  • Randomly Generated Levels
  • Recurring Riff: In the PS1 version, half the tracks in the game are based on one riff. Its most straightforward appearance is on the bottom four floors of the tower, but the other seven tracks which play in the tower as well as the themes for the town and Koh's house (and their various subtle variants) and several other tracks are also based on the same melody.
  • Redheaded Hero: Koh.
  • Relationship Values: You can flirt with as many as seven girls in the PS1 version of the game, and to get the best "ending", you'll have to score with them all.
  • Rich Bitch: Ghosh and Selfi.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Pulunpas(PS 1)/Catawumps(GBC). Also Wumps(baby Catawumps), especially Wumpi, Selfi's familiar that helps show her kinder side.
  • The Rival: Ghosh to Koh.
  • Rival Turned Evil: Also Beldo to Guy.
  • Robe and Wizard Hat: Selfi wears this.
  • Rose-Haired Girl: Patty and Vivian.
  • Self-Imposed Challenge: Seeing how far you can go up the tower by going in with nothing, only using the items you pick up in it.
  • Sexy Backless Outfit: Most of the girls have this going on.
  • She's Got Legs: Most of the girls, but Vivian the dancer obviously excels in this category.
  • Shock and Awe: Several monsters have this ability.
  • Shrinking Violet: Mia, at first.
  • Skippable Boss: On the second floor of the tower, sometimes Ghosh would challenge you to a duel. If you accepted, you could fight him, or walk away from him as he followed you, and hop on the elevator to the next floor, leaving him behind.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": It's Patti, not Patty, and Cherrl, not Cheryl.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Mia, after she falls in love with you but before Koh confronts her about it, will follow him around town at every single location.
  • Stone Wall: The Block and its evolution the Metal.
  • Strong Family Resemblance:
    • Koh looks exactly like his father did in his youth.
    • This is actually inverted with The Rival Ghosh, and his sister Selfi, who really have no similar physical looks to the point where you might think they aren't actually related.
  • Supreme Chef: Patti Pan.
  • Tenchi Solution: A possible outcome in the PS1 version; the fact that, post-Relationship Upgrade, half of the girls (Nico, Selfi, Fur and Mia) will stop by Koh's house every morning to kiss him goodbye for the day (the others will only stop by if they are the ones actually waking him up) seems to indicate that they do not entirely object to sharing his affections. In the GBC version, Koh still has two girlfriends: fellow treasure-hunters/monster-tamers Selfi and Atlee (who only appears in the GBC version).
  • This and That: In the PS1 version, a post-Relationship Upgrade Nico uses this phrase when reminiscing about her childhood interactions with Koh. "I remember that even when you were a little kid, you would get me and we would do this and do that."
  • Title Drop: Done by Cherrl after completing her sidequest... and screwed up by the localization crew when they translated the line as "sky-colored dreams".
  • To Be a Master
  • Tomboy: Nico.
  • Troubled but Cute: Nico to a certain degree. She's definitely got the cute part down at least, with just a dash of troubled past thrown in for good measure.
  • Tsundere: Nico and Selfi and Fur (PS1 version mostly).
  • The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Nico and Patti.
  • Underboobs: Nico is sporting an impressive pair in one group picture [dead link] of the instruction manual, and on the cover for the music CD.
  • Unwinnable: If you beat the game and made it to the top floor without a way to escape the tower, you're pretty much screwed because there's no other way out from the top floor. I hope you have a Wind Crystal, because it's going to suck if you don't.
  • The Vamp: Fur and Selfi.
  • Vendor Trash:
    • Cursed weapons? They usually come with negative modifiers and you can't unequip them, but they're worth keeping because the shops will inexplicably buy them for MUCH more than an uncursed weapon is worth.
    • Also the eggs of some of the weaker monsters.
  • Wizard Needs Food Badly: Your monster buddies need to be well fed, or they won't be able to move or attack.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Selfi, Wreath, Weedy and Beldo all have blue hair, Nico has turquoise hair, Mia has teal hair, Patty and Vivian have pink hair, and Guy and Koh have bright red hair.
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