Gungnir
The newest[when?] work by Sting Entertainment and published by Atlus, a Strategy RPG-ish game for the PlayStation Portable. It was announced at the end of February 2011, and then released in Japan that May, almost a full year after Blaze Union. It is Episode IX of Dept. Heaven. Gungnir was announced for a 2012 summer release in North America, making it the first DHE game to escape No Export for You since the PSP remake of Knights in The Nightmare.
The game's full title is Gungnir: Inferno of the Demon Lance and the War of Heroes, and the story dawns in the year 983, on an empire torn by conflicts between its two races, the noble Daltania and the "accursed" Leonica, who are badly oppressed by the nobility. The Leonica and a few sympathetic Daltania have formed a resistance known as Esperanza, but they're struggling to hold their own against the Imperial Army's greater force and skill.
One day, fifteen-year-old Julio Raguel--a low-ranking captain in Esperanza--and his men come upon a slave trader and "liberate" his captive, a beautiful girl named Alyssa who (unbeknown to them) happens to be Daltanian. Julio invites Alyssa to join his cause with open arms, and although she has her worries, she accepts.
Not long after this, in a battle so desperate that it looks like Julio will be killed, he discovers the eponymous demonic lance Gungnir and takes it up, managing to turn the situation around. The resistance rejoices, but this marks the creaking of Destiny's cogwheels into motion. And remember: This is a Sting game. Destiny is a total douche.
The game handles similarly to your garden-variety isometric SRPG such as Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics, but is entirely linear in grand Sting tradition and includes a system that allows the player to completely ignore the established turn order for strategic purposes. This makes for a system where Weak but Skilled units stay just as useful (and usable) as powerful ones in the hands of a wily enough tactician.
It should be noted that Gungnir portrays both sides of its racial conflict in a negative light and includes very intense depictions of bigotry from each major faction, so players with racism-related triggers should exercise caution.
And if you reached this page looking for the mythological weapon, try Norse Mythology or Public Domain Artifact.
For more about the game's development, see this interview with the creators (SPOILERS!).
- Adorkable: Elise.
- Alliterative Name: Ragnus Raguel.
- Alternate Character Reading: "Inferno" is spelled with the kanji for "war god", causing a number of title mistranslations until the Inferno were introduced on the official site. The game is rife with these; a few more examples are the Grim (the Spinner) and the Legia (demon mark).
- The Archer: Valery.
- Baleful Polymorph
- Best Served Cold: Ragnus lost his father to Imperial troops as a little kid. He's been itching for revenge since.
- Black and Gray Morality
- Boy Meets Girl: As long as you're not being too much of a jerk to Alyssa.
- Cain and Abel: Who's who depends on your view.
- The Call Knows Where You Live
- Changeling Fantasy: Ragnus.
- Common Eye Colors: Julio and Alyssa have Green Eyes, Ragnus has Brown Eyes, and Elise's eyes are blue.
- Conspicuous CG: The opening movie.
- Continuity Nod: All the mercenary generics you can hire are named after knights from Knights in The Nightmare.
- Along with various other items common to the series, Gulcasa's armor and Milanor's cape can both be purchased at shops.
- Crushing the Populace
- Darker and Edgier: If you thought Knights in The Nightmare and Blaze Union were bad...
- Deadpan Snarker: Elise.
- Deal with the Devil
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Ricard.
- Development Hell: This game has been in the works for a whole two years now. Lampshaded by the cast in the attached image here.
- Dirty Old Man: Paulo, a mostly benign version.
- Doomed Hometown
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Julio has them constantly despite being a Keet.
- Emotionless Girl: Elise.
- Escort Mission: Before Alyssa joins the active roster, there are two battles (one optional, one mandatory) where you must defend her from enemies while simultaneously trying to accomplish your objective. She's not a One-Hit-Point Wonder, but she's pretty close.
- Evil Weapon: Gungnir.
- The Fair Folk: Sprites of various types inhabit the world.
- Famous Ancestor: Julio and Fiona's ancestors were knights who protected the Leonica people. Ragnus, as the adopted son, has a bit of an inferiority complex over not being a "real" Raguel.
- Fantastic Nuke: Gungnir has been referred to as one by Word of God.
- Fantastic Racism
- Genius Bonus: The Inferno are named after alternate terms for Norse gods.
- Going Native: Ragnus' family in the backstory and Alyssa in the present day.
- Gratuitous English: Be Drowned!
- Hair of Gold: Alyssa. More evident in her sprites than her portrait art.
- Hell Is That Noise: The whatever-it-is sound effect that follows Isabeli.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Though ours will switch to Gungnir itself when need be.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Both Julio and Ragnus have inferiority complexes over each other. They become closer after realizing this.
- Honor Before Reason: Natalia.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Against Pierre, which would actually be winnable if the CPU didn't make him automatically recover from zero HP.
- Hot-Blooded: Ragnus. He tries to leave his personal feelings out of his decisions as leader, but this doesn't work too well whenever the subject of his father's killer comes up. This is one of the many reasons he thinks Julio would be a better leader than him.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: Elise pulls out quite an interesting weapon during the endgame.
- In the Hood: Alyssa in the OP.
- Karma Meter: Which of the Multiple Endings you get mostly depends on whether you decide to be nice or a douche.
- Kick the Dog: The people of Espada, including those who joined Esperanza, have discriminated against Ragnus ever since he came to Espada as a little boy, and even now like to talk about how unfit he is to lead them compared to Julio when they know he's in earshot. This is part of what leads to that character's behavior in scene 10, although Julio (and hence the audience) doesn't learn about it until it's too late.
- Kid Hero: Julio at the outset of the story.
- La Résistance
- Lady of War: Alyssa.
- Mauve Shirt: Noah, Claude, and Teresa. All three die.
- Mark of the Beast: Julio is purported to have one somewhere on his body.
- The Medic: Paulo.
- Mercy Mode
- Morality Pet: Alyssa is yours, and because most of the choice points have to do with her, your ending will depend a lot on how you treat her.
- Multiple Endings: Two general ending patterns with a number of smaller variations, starting at the end of the very first battle.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: In effect everywhere and lampshaded in Ragnus' case.
- Mysterious Past: Both Alyssa and Elise.
- Noble Bigot: Noah, Robertus.
- Offing the Offspring: Wolfgang did this in order to escape a prophecy that his successor would kill him. Of course, he missed a couple.
- Orcus on His Throne: Justified with Wolfgang's illness, the political spats between Zaird and Robertus, and the difficulty Zaird would likely have on a battlefield with uneven ground in his war wheelchair/personal chariot.
- Our Angels Are Different
- Overly Long Title
- Princesses Prefer Pink
- Post Dramatic Stress Disorder: Julio manages to hold out despite his ordinarily fatal wounds long enough to get Gungnir and kick Pierre out, then faints and is in bed for about a week.
- Rapunzel Hair: Alyssa.
- Real Is Brown: Gungnir has the most subdued palette of any Dept. Heaven game released thus far--even Knights in The Nightmare had brightly colored characters and bullets.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Ragnus.
- Sequel Hook: We never find out what happens to Ragnus or Valery, Robertus is still a problem, and then there's all that stuff Hierameir and Isabeli were saying about The End of the World as We Know It.
- Shrinking Violet: Alyssa.
- Sibling Rivalry: Julio has an inferiority complex over how accomplished Ragnus is and wants to catch up to him.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids
- Smug Snake: Pierre.
- Spoiler Opening: The initial appearance of Gungnir is depicted, as is the final battle versus Isaveli and Ragnus, although it's not readily apparent that the latter is a spoiler.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Julio and Alyssa, even in the best endings. Thanks for that, Robertus.
- Supreme Chef: Fiona.
- Tears of Blood: Julio in the opening. They are also Black Blood.
- Tell Me About My Father: Julio was very young when his father died, so this is the natural end result.
- Theme Naming: There's a lot of Hispanic influence in the names thus far; "Esperanza" specifically means "hope".
- Through His Stomach: Esperanza owes more than half of its recruits to Fiona's cooking.
- Trauma Conga Line: Poor Ragnus.
- Try Not to Die
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Noah, Claude, and Teresa are so unlucky that they die as soon as the third stage!
- Weapon of Choice: Julio and Alyssa both wield lances, Ragnus has an axe, and Elise uses a bow. Julio, Ragnus, and Elise can also use swords, and Alyssa's secondary weapon is the stave.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Noah, Claude, Teresa.
- What Could Have Been: Ragnus was originally supposed to be the protagonist. Julio was chosen instead due to being less mature (and thus more prone to Character Development).
- Wutai Theft
- X Meets Y: Blaze Union meets Knights in The Nightmare on steroids. It's a Sting game. You know there's gonna be more to it than that.
- You Killed My Father
- Youngest Child Wins: It's Julio rather than his older siblings Ragnus and Fiona who gets to be the hero of the story. Granted, this may not be such a good thing.