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'''''Black Matrix''''' is [[Flight-Plan]]'s first [[Strategy RPG]] series. The games, particularly the first one, have a strong Abrahamic motif to them. Unlike Flight-Plan's [[Summon Night|other SRPG series]], the Black/Matrix games do not share the same universe with each other. They do, however, share many common characteristics. In all of them, there are three races of people: the white-winged angels, the black-winged devils, and the wingless humans. The angels and devils hate each other for one reason or another. The humans are relatively weak compared to the winged people and tend to believe the angels are good and that the devils are evil. The truth is usually a bit murkier than that.
When the first game came out, it was described as [[X 1999|X]] or [[Angel Sanctuary]] [[X Meets Y|meets]] [[Final Fantasy Tactics]]. Nowadays, the series can also be described as a [[Darker and Edgier]] [[Disgaea]]<ref>[[Disgaea: Hour of Darkness|The first Disgaea game]] can be considered an [[Alternate Company Equivalent]]. It shares many similarities with the B/M games that predate it. For starters, both series are SRPGs that feature humans, angels, and devils/demons (both ''akuma'' in Japanese) with their own generically-named worlds, the same across both. The demons of Disgaea have a [[Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad]] mentality much like the first B/M. The general plot of Disgaea mirrors B/M 2. Both protagonists are family members of their somewhat-dead Maou, are recently awakened/resurrected, working to stabilize Makai in the absence of the Maou, have to contend with humans being manipulated by angels, spend most of the game in Makai with the end part in Tenkai, revolve mostly around a [[Power Trio]] dynamic in terms of plot, have a token angel party member, come with multiple endings, and have a new game plus feature. The main differences are general tone and mechanics. Flight-Plan's offering is [[Darker and Edgier]] with [[Anti-Grinding]] whereas [[Nippon Ichi]]'s offering is [[Lighter and Softer]] with [[Level Grinding]]</ref>.▼
▲When the first game came out, it was described as [[X 1999|X]] or [[Angel Sanctuary]] [[X Meets Y|meets]] [[Final Fantasy Tactics]]. Nowadays, the series can also be described as a [[Darker and Edgier]] [[Disgaea]]<ref>[[Disgaea Hour of Darkness|The first Disgaea game]] can be considered an [[Alternate Company Equivalent]]. It shares many similarities with the B/M games that predate it. For starters, both series are SRPGs that feature humans, angels, and devils/demons (both ''akuma'' in Japanese) with their own generically-named worlds, the same across both. The demons of Disgaea have a [[Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad]] mentality much like the first B/M. The general plot of Disgaea mirrors B/M 2. Both protagonists are family members of their somewhat-dead Maou, are recently awakened/resurrected, working to stabilize Makai in the absence of the Maou, have to contend with humans being manipulated by angels, spend most of the game in Makai with the end part in Tenkai, revolve mostly around a [[Power Trio]] dynamic in terms of plot, have a token angel party member, come with multiple endings, and have a new game plus feature. The main differences are general tone and mechanics. Flight-Plan's offering is [[Darker and Edgier]] with [[Anti-Grinding]] whereas [[Nippon Ichi]]'s offering is [[Lighter and Softer]] with [[Level Grinding]]</ref>.
== List of Black/Matrix games (indents indicate re-releases or remakes): ==
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* ''Black/Matrix II'' (Sony Playstation 2; 28th March 2002)
* ''Black/Matrix Zero'' (Nintendo Game Boy Advance; 30th August 2002)
** ''Black/Matrix 00'' (Sony Playstation; 13th May 2004 <ref>PSone Classics; 10th February 2010 to 24th December 2010</ref>)<ref>Excluding re-releases, this was the last PS1 game released in Japan. It was also the last Black/Matrix game as the division in charge was [
{{tropelist|page=Black/Matrix}}
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* [[Body Count Competition]]: Reiji and Uni had one before the start of ''Black/Matrix II''. Technically, Uni won. Due to him being [[Axe Crazy]], half his kills were those of his own allies. Reiji wasn't abstaining from ally kills either, though he had fewer and would've won if those kills were discounted.
* [[Bonus Boss]]: Faust. Be prepared to have characters dropped in one hit.
* [[Cameo]]: Faust's appearance in ''Black/Matrix 2'' can be considered this. The circus mini-games in ''Black/Matrix 00'' features characters from the earlier two games. Yes, ''B/M 00'' was [[Daddy System|released so late in the PS1's life cycle that it has characters that originated from a PS2 game cameo in it]].▼
* [[Cain and Abel]]: The protagonist of the first game is named Abel and has an older brother named Cain. ''Black/Matrix 00'' has a protagonist named Cain and a seemingly [[Evil Counterpart|evil look-alike]] named Abel.
▲* [[Cameo]]: Faust's appearance in ''Black/Matrix 2'' can be considered this. The circus mini-games in ''Black/Matrix 00'' features characters from the earlier two games. Yes, ''B/M 00'' was [[Daddy System|released so late in the PS1's life cycle that it has characters that originated from a PS2 game cameo in it]].
* [[Capcom Sequel Stagnation]]: Of the six games, ''AD'' and ''Cross'' are [[Updated Rerelease|updated re-releases]] while ''00'' is a [[Video Game Remake|remake]].
* [[Council of Angels]]
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* [[Difficulty Levels]]: The first two games let you select between "Beginner" and "Normal".
* [[Elegant Gothic Lolita]]: Rhipsalis Sapphire
* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Master Zero was put in the first game for [[Ho Yay]] and to appeal to [[Yaoi Fangirls]]. Once word of this got around, the subsequent re-releases were ''strangely'' popular with said group.▼
* [[Expy]]: Syria and Beir from the Zero games to Sapphael and Elrazak from the second game. Both are a younger sister and older brother pair of blond angels, with the younger sister leaning towards [[The Messiah]] and older brother leaning towards [[The Dragon]].
* [[Fantastic Racism]]: The angels and devils tend to hate each other as the result of [[Great Offscreen War|some prior great war]]. Humans are the pawns of the angels through the [[Path of Inspiration]] and hate the devils as a result.
* [[Gay Option]]: The [[
* [[Good Wings, Evil Wings]]: The angels and devils. It's not always clear-cut both in morality and in wing association. Johann from the Zero games has gray bird wings and Moses from the first game has white bat wings. There is also the "White Devil", a devil with white wings normally attributed to angels.
* [[Gratuitous English]]: Most story battles have a fancy line of English along with the Japanese name. How readable and how understandable (never mind how relevant) they are varies.
* [[Hanging Separately]]: The members of the Fear Quartet are described as powerful individuals each, though they generally don't work together.
* [[
* [[Just Like Robin Hood]]: Gaius ended up in prison for stealing from the rich to give to the poor.
* [[Light Is Not Good]]
* [[Mass Super-Empowering Event]]: Inverted in ''Black/Matrix II''. The death of Jenarose, the source of the devils' power, depowers the devils. This makes dealing with the invading human forces much more troublesome.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: A list can be found [https://web.archive.org/web/20160427110559/http://www.geocities.jp/write_in_blood/bmlexicon.html here]
** Special mention goes to Reiji of ''Black/Matrix 2'' and Beir of ''Black/Matrix Zero'', whose names can be interpreted multiple meaningful ways.
▲* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Master Zero was put in the first game for [[Ho Yay]] and to appeal to [[Yaoi Fangirls]]. Once word of this got around, the subsequent re-releases were ''strangely'' popular with said group.
* [[Multiple Endings]]: It's a Flight-Plan game.▼
* [[Multiple Demographic Appeal]]: The [[Shoujo|shoujo-esque]] art style and the [[Gay Option]] in the first two games. The dark tone of games in general. It's all over the place and makes one think what the ''main'' demographic, if there is one, even is.
▲* [[Multiple Endings]]: It's a Flight-Plan game.
* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: The Fear Quartet. Also, Uni's sobriquet, Feathercide.
* [[Nintendo Hard]]: As expected of Flight-Plan. ''Black/Matrix II'' averts this both intentionally with [[Difficulty Levels]] and [[Dynamic Difficulty]] and unintentionally with [[It's Easy, So It Sucks|it being easy regardless]].
* [[Number of the Beast]]: For a series that so heavily raids Abrahamic mythos, it's surprisingly averted. The war between the angels and devils in ''Zero'' lasted for 555 days.
* [[One Hundred Percent Completion]]: Multiple endings means you'll be playing the game more than once. Thankfully, [[New Game+]] makes subsequent playthroughs much faster. ''Black/Matrix II'' clear save files will include a percentage tracker as well as the number of times you've cleared the game. Said game also gives a nice bonus item at the end for use in subsequent playthroughs each time the game is cleared. 32 clears are required to get all of them (16 if you decide to run the [[Bonus Boss]] each time). Of course, by then, [[Bragging Rights Reward|you don't really need them]].
* [[Only Mostly Dead]]: In every game but ''Black/Matrix 00'', most units that would take lethal damage first [[Non-Lethal KO|drop to a critical state]]. They can't act other than as obstacles but can be brought back up with healing. Units taking damage while in critical condition will be killed, removing them from the map. Units with "Death Attack" skip this part, allowing them to go straight for a [[One-Hit Kill]].
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* [[Power Gives You Wings]]: The wingless humans are relatively weak compared to the angels and devils. Since there are only three races in the games, this naturally leads to [[Puny Humans]]. An early plot point in ''Zero'' is Cain getting a pair of wings.
* [[The Power of Blood]]: It's used to upgrade weapons and also a stand-in for [[Mana]] in [[Blood Magic|spellcasting]], which unlike other games does not replenish at the end of a battle. Naturally, you earn blood by killing stuff.
* [[
* [[Sequel Difficulty Spike]]: Flight-Plan's fanbase prefers their games to be [[Nintendo Hard]]. After fans were disappointed with the relatively [[It's Short, So It Sucks|short]] and [[It's Easy, So It Sucks|easy]] ''Black/Matrix II'', Flight-Plan responded with this in ''Black/Matrix 00'' and ''Summon Night 3'', both of which are generally considered to be the best games in their respective series.
* [[Seven Deadly Sins]]: As a result of the inverted morality in the first game, these are the "[[Seven Heavenly Virtues|Seven Beatific Virtues]]". The in-game Seven Deadly Sins are Equality, Freedom, Justice, Friendship, Weakness, Civil Liberty, and Love. The last is considered the biggest one.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Video Game]]▼
[[Category:Strategy RPG]]
[[Category:Eastern RPG]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Dating Sim]]
[[Category:Sega Dreamcast]]
[[Category:Sega Saturn]]
▲[[Category:Black Matrix]]
▲[[Category:Video Game]]
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