eXceed

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Long ago, in ancient times, there was a rebellion. An angel turned against God and rallied an army to wage war against heaven as they so often seem to do once they decide they no longer want to be part of the cool crowd. In any event, the angel and his demonic armies were sealed away with the help of humans who fought and died in a desperate war until finally an angel descended from heaven and granted power to a saint whose sacrifice made such a thing possible. Nevertheless, history was doomed to repeat itself and the fallen army eventually broke free over modern day Tokyo, bringing with them vampires, humans who bore the blood of the fallen angel. Opposing them was humanity's first and last line of defence, girls trained by the Inquisition who wielded powerful magic that could match the demonic commanders at the cost of most of their lifespan. They were likened to the bullets of a gun. Thus the stage was set for the first game by doujin circle FLAT, eXceed: Gun Bullet Children, and it was good. But not that good.

A sequel was released the following year called eXceed 2nd: VAMPIRE, which added a dual-polarity system similar to the one used in Ikaruga. Instead of the Gun Bullet Children, the protagonist was a vampire fighting for survival as power struggles within the Church left a faction that rejected any form of human hybrid in control of the Inquisition. After seizing control they initiated a worldwide purge and employed the Gun Bullet Children to hunt all vampires down.

Then FLAT stopped working on the eXceed series and eventually shut down in early 2009. In the meantime, ownership of the series was transferred to another doujin circle called Tennen-Sozai who threw out all the established story material and rebooted the franchise with eXceed 3rd: JADE PENETRATE. The third game tells the story of a young girl named Raine Lindwurm who seeks to become the Demon King of her world. Standing in her way are many obstacles, including her own older sister and heiress to the power of dragons Celestia.

Iwakura Productions and Nyu Media have released Gun Bullet Children, Vampire REX and Jade Penetrate Black Package overseas on 29 March 2012, for download at their website, Gamersgate, the Capcom Store and the Gamestop Digital Download Service (Former Impulse), with pending releases on Steam, Gametap and Gamefly. While the two latter games have English localization, Gun Bullet Children couldn't be localized since its code has been Lost Forever, so it has instead been released in its original Japanese with a translated script available from the distributors.

Full Disclosure: The majority of this article was written without knowledge of Japanese and from guesswork using machine translation. As such, it may be is almost certainly missing important details or has gotten things wrong. If any helpful tropers come along and wish to assist with revising this article, data and resources can be found:

  • For Gun Bullet Children, here.
  • For VAMPIRE, here.
  • For JADE PENETRATE, here and here.
Tropes used in EXceed include:
  • Actor Allusion: Lugh Ciel's theme is called White Beelzebub and one of her attacks is named Despell Counter Excelion
  • All Your Powers Combined: Giee has just as much power as all her familiars combined.
  • Aloof Big Sister: Celestia.
  • As Long As There Is Despair: Implied to be the source of power for Remedy's final spell.
  • Autobots Rock Out: A bit in VAMPIRE REX but in full force for the third game. BEHOLD!
    • Especially noticable in the Black Package.
  • Ax Crazy: Brunhild and Siegrune.
  • Batman Gambit: The Church intentionally pulled out their forces to lure the vampires into the Vatican in order to blow them all up with Anhel.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Especially Miyabi Housen. Her fire powers can turn ANYTHING into ash.
  • Brutal Bonus Level: Hyperboreios, the Extra Stage of JADE PENETRATE - BLACK PACKAGE.
  • Bullet Hell: Naturally
  • Black Knight / Magic Knight: Gilles de Rais fits for both of these tropes, due to being an expert in ancient magic herself.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Dragoon DETONATION!
    • Gurosutaaa... METEAAA![1]
  • Church Militant: The Catholic Church in the first two games.
  • Darker and Edgier: VAMPIRE.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Found in the half vampire, Chinatsu, who uses dark powers and swords to fight enemies, and Ria File, who can switch to both light and dark attributes.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Anhel in Gun Bullet Children and Fenris Wolf in VAMPIRE.
  • False Friend: Lugh Ciel seems to be a friendly, obedient little girl at first, but she's actually a Turncoat that associates with powerful people one day because it benefits her, and betray them the other because they got in the way to her goals.
  • Familiar: Sowel fights with one in Gun Bullet Children and VAMPIRE.
  • Freudian Trio: The Gun Bullet Children, no doubt.
    • Chinatsu Kagaya: (Id)
    • Miyabi Housen: (Ego)
    • Sowell Divosiana: (Superego)
  • Gratuitous German: All over the place.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: The vampires are half-human, half-fallen angel. Raine and Celestia have both dragon and demon blood and yet look like angels.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen: The Cardinals. Also the Undying Lord, until it turns out to be Remendy in JADE PENETRATE.
  • Hero Antagonist: The Gun Bullet Children in VAMPIRE.
  • Knight Templar: The antagonists in 2nd, who are xenophobic to vampires.
  • Kill'Em All: Chinatsu Kagaya takes no rest into killing every vampire and deviant on sight.
  • Lady Looks Like a Dude: Chinatsu Kagaya from Gun Bullet Children and VAMPIRE would be a good example.
  • La Résistance: The rebels and Undying Lord's forces in VAMPIRE.
  • Light Is Not Good: Some bosses in VAMPIRE use a "Holy" white attribute. Ria File can switch to both light and dark attributes.
  • Little Miss Badass: The GBC in 1st, Ria File in 2nd, Raine Lindwurm in 3rd.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Gilles de Rai was Joan of Arc's right-hand man who was claimed to be a mass murderer of children.
    • Brunhild and Siegrune were the names of valkyries.
    • Sowell Divosiana apparently is a pun to Thomas Sowel, who covered the topic on Diversity. Ironic, isn't it?
  • Mooks: The Killing Dolls, the commons enemies found in Gun Bullet Children and VAMPIRE.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: "The Undead Lord", "The Immortal King" and "The Demon King" to Remedy.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nice job, Ria. Not only did you kill Brunhild, you also made Siegrune absorb her body and mutate into Fenris Wolf.
  • Nice Job Guiding Us Hero: In Level 5 of VAMPIRE (REX), Ria actually leads Gilles to Angel's altar.
  • Our Angels Are Different: Both Rain and Celestia are technically half dragon and half demon despite looking like a angel. In VAMPIRE, Gilles de Rai claims that angels only obeyed God, but Anhel can freely choose not to.
  • Our Demons Are Different: Exceed 3rd takes place in the demon world.
  • Our Elves Are Better: But it's a sore point with Irias that she is only second best at the Academy.
  • Our Vampires Are Different:
  • Punch Clock Hero / Punch Clock Villain: Ria File in VAMPIRE REX likely fits for both, by being employed by the Undying Lord in fighting for the evil forces suffering from a genocide. The Gun Bullet Children is another example, except for Sowel, who appears to be very loyal to her Church masters.
  • Pyromaniac: Miyabi Housen
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Remedy from the 3rd game stands out being 5000 years old while looking like a 10 year old.
  • Reverse Polarity: Like Tresure's Ikaruga, polarity reversing is a major gameplay feature in 2nd.
  • The Runaway: Ria File from 2nd, who left her oppressive human society and was rescued by the Undying Lord.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Brunhild and Siegrune in VAMPIRE.
  • Singing Simlish: Increasingly prominent as the series went on.
  • Shout-Out:
    • In VAMPIRE, The Catholic Church is launching a worldwide purge and a major rebellion fails to stop them. The rebels eventually try again with a polarity-switching weapon. This story and the gameplay are very similar to that of Ikaruga.
    • The twins, Brunhild and Siegrune, have very big resemblences to the Scarlet sisters from Touhou Project.
  • Stripperiffic: Celestia and DAT OUTFIT.
  • Theme Twin Naming: Brunhilde and Siegrune are both valkyries from Wagner's famous opera.
  • True Final Boss: Remedy in JADE PENETRATE.
  • Updated Rerelease: Tennen-Sozai released one for eXceed 2nd called VAMPIRE REX and one for eXceed 3rd called BLACK PACKAGE.
  • Villain Protagonist: Ria File.
  • Voice of the Legion: Fenris Wolf in 2nd.
  • We Will Meet Again: Ria promises to Miyabi that the two would meet again.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Sowell and her familiar, Silvestre, were said to be found missing after Ria's battle with them. Though Ria says they have likely been killed, their confirmed fate is unknown. But what happened to Miyabi after her defeat? And what happened to the Cardinal after the Church's defeat in VAMPIRE?
  • Worthy Opponent: Raine and Irias. The two speak to each other respectfully and politely, and each wishes the other a good fight before they go at it.
  • Would Be Rude to Say Genocide: Type C in VAMPIRE by the Catholic Church.
  • You Killed My Father: Sowell has a hatred against the vampires because her parents were killed by them.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: As Gilles de Rai says to Ria after arriving in Anhel's lair. "Trying to cling on to the stage when your part is over is very... unseeingly"
  1. ↑ "Gloster Meteor"
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