MARDEK: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Oh no! A [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|plot-unrelated boss monster]]!"''|The titular character, Mardek, on being roared at by a Zombie Warrior}}

 

 

 

The game is planned to be eight chapters long, although Pseudolonewolf has stated that he might reduce the amount of chapters to 5 or 6. The third chapter was released in the summer of 2010, along with some graphical and gameplay updates to the first two chapters. Savegames from earlier chapters can be imported into the following chapter.

Chapter 1 is [http://www.kongregate.com/games/Pseudolonewolf/mardek-rpg-chapter-1 here], Chapter 2 is [http://www.kongregate.com/games/Pseudolonewolf/mardek-rpg-chapter-2 here], and Chapter 3 is [http://www.kongregate.com/games/Pseudolonewolf/mardek-rpg-chapter-3 here].

 

* [[Actually Four Mooks]]

 

=== All chapters provide examples of the following tropes: ===

* [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]]: Lampshaded if you talk to Emela while you're in it in Chapter 2. She questions how it's so large when Goznor is only a few tiny houses in size, and how it even works if there was no plumbing. Deugan replies:

* [[Action Commands]]: Prior to the release of Chapter 3 and it's updates, 3 different keys could be pressed in battle to activate up to 3 seperate additional effects to an action, but only one effect could be applied per action. Currently, a single key is pressed to activate as many additional effects as equipable at the same time - leading to an unfortunate bug of being able to inflict negative status effects on allies with healing spells when you're only trying to increase its potency.

* [[Affectionate Parody]]: Of [[Eastern RPG|Eastern RPGs]].

** Lots of background information that is not automatically written into the in-game Encyclopaedia can be found in bookcases in-game (Which obviously includes the libraries), and on Pseudolonewolf's [http://www.fighunter.com/ website].

* [[And I Must Scream]]:

** In Chapter 3, one of the items required to recruit {{spoiler|Legion}} is a Wretched Soul, which you can get by {{spoiler|freeing an evil spellcaster from a Soul Cage that the Old Hermit had trapped him in. The Old Hermit, formerly the Shaman of the volcano, had actually gone mad with guilt over trapping the evil spellcaster in this state.}}

** {{spoiler|The Lost Monastery}}. The priests there were driven to insanity by an object that is eerily similar to the [[Artifact of Doom|Violet Crystal]], but that's not the worst of it. After they'd died, they weren't allowed to continue on to the afterlife, and were instead bound to the monastery as zombies. Even after their flesh rotted to nothing, their souls were still bound there as insane, disfigured globs of ectoplasm.

* [[Arbitrary Gun Power]]: Muriance's gun.

* [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit]] / [[Lazy Backup]]: Only up to three of Mardek's allies can participate in any given battle.

* [[Artifact of Doom]]: The Violet Crystal. A variation is that it starts out in the villains' possession, meaning that they [[Oh Crap|begin the story with heightened power]].

** Possibly the dark crystal too, although that one just contains power and doesn't try to corrupt/kill the holder. Not directly.

* [[Came Back Wrong]]: Annunaki that perform soul transfers can become [[Damaged Soul|Class 2]]s if they aren't careful, though it's the mind that's damaged, not the soul.

* [[Can't Drop the Hero]]: In the first two chapters, Mardek, Deugan, and Emela can't be dropped. In the third chapter, Mardek can't be dropped; this is less of a problem than it could be because Mardek is a support hero and would get less exp than other characters if the same party was used throughout the game.

*** Actually, some of the easiest strategies against the first half of the super-bonus boss in chapter 3 is soloing him with Mardek and a few special items. You can still manage to revive everyone at the end, and even let someone else make the killing blow for massive amounts of exp more than the shared kill-XP.

* [[Capital Letters Are Magic]]

* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: The elemental crystals, the Governance de Magi, and many of the monsters.

** Every character in the world has an element. When an NPC talks, their element is indicated in a logo in the chat box.

* [[Cosmic Keystone]]: The elemental crystals, though they only affect their planet, not the whole universe.

* [[Crossover]]: In Chapter 3, the author crosses over several of the elements from his [[Development Hell|canceled project]], Deliverance.

** Actually, most, if not all, of Pseudolonewolf's older games happen in a shared universe. So we might just be able to meet [[Lizard Folk|Arkus]] [[Space Pirate|Zei]] one day.

* [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]]: YALORT.

** Though he may be more like Crystal Dragon Zeus.

* [[Dark Is Evil]]: Played straight. Darkness is the elemental epitome of evil. But...

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: The game states that darkness is the element associated most with progress and drive. A book in Goznor even mentions that dark-elemental heroes have existed in the past.

* [[Dirty Business]]: The entire series is about {{spoiler|Rohoph}} destroying his former friends. Chapter 3 shows that {{spoiler|Moric's death has caused a lot of social unrest on their homeworld due to the Governance de Magi's loss of their zombie army}} and sees {{spoiler|Rohoph blatantly lie to Qualna about letting his soul go free once defeated. Upon complaining about this, Mardek promptly gets cut off from the control of his own body to silence him. It's pretty evident by then that Rohoph wasn't quite as unaffected by the violet crystal as he himself believes}}.

** {{spoiler|By the end of chapter 3, Rohoph actively sabotages Mardek's friendship with Elwyen to prevent him from growing attached to anybody which could distract him from "their" goal}}.

* [[Dwindling Party]]: A ''villainous'' version, strangely enough. There are only seven members of the Governance de Magi, and with every death, their homeworld suffers more and more, as does their group. It's explicitly stated that they're all friends (although they don't always agree with each others methods), too, which makes their deaths even harder on the rest of them.

* [[Elemental Powers]]: There's even one Governance de Magi member for each element! (Well, except for Fig, since Fig-elemental people are exceptionally rare) This is pretty much [[Justified]] by in-universe reasoning. It's just how their governmental system works.

** [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|They aren't. The Spiritual elements are given strengths and weaknesses purely for game balance reasons, and are neutral in-story.]]

** There are also "pseudo-elements", namely physical and thauma (pure magic), and divine. The latter 2 are extremely rare though.

** In Chapter 2 you can drop axes and staves from certain enemies, which none of the characters can use. If you carry them over to the next chapter, you'll find out they're actually starting weapons for Sslen'ck and Gloria.

** In Chapter 3 you can buy a weapon usable only by a character that's considered missing-in-action as of second chapter's ending. It sprouted fan speculations about the character returning in a future installment.

* [[Even the Guys Want Him]]: Social Fox and Mardek have this effect on some NPCs.

* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: Said almost word-for-word in one of the encyclopedia entries.

* [[Face Framed in Shadow]]: Averted for the Governance de Magi, despite them ''not'' averting [[Evil Is Not Well Lit]].

* [[Fantastic Racism]]: A two-way example; both Reptoids and humans dislike each other and think that they're evil savages.

* [[Fight Woosh]]

** [[Big Bad]]: Anu

** [[The Dragon]]: (Unknown, possibly Melchior or Balthazar)

** Also, the mad, sociopathic Saul to the good-natured, pacifistic Meraeador.

* [[Genius Loci]]: The planet is established to be alive, just not in the same way as us. The shamans can commune with it, however.

** {{spoiler|Granted, this is probably influenced by Rohoph's extreme paranoia caused by his own corruption from the violet crystal.}}

* [[God of Evil]]: SHUMBRA, the elemental deity of darkness.

* [[He Knows About Timed Hits]]: "Mardek, I'm going to remind you of the controls!" To be fair, much of the dialogue in the game is in the same vein.

** In the beginning of Chapter 3, Mardek even lists this as {{spoiler|one of the things he'll miss about Deugan.}}

* [[Hell]]: The Antilife, which is also an [[Ironic Hell]].

* [[Hot Mom]]: Baron von Doomkill would totally tap Mardek's mom, who apparently has rumors around the Goznor guardpost as being... loose.

* [[Improbable Power Discrepancy]]: An amateur human necromancer can create undead more powerful and high-levelled than an super-powerful alien that has devoted most of his life to perfecting his magic. Said super-powerful alien necromancer is also weaker than some ''regular enemies'' in [[Bonus Dungeon|Bonus Dungeons]]. [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]] at its finest, considering how the [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]] of Chapter 3 have {{spoiler|destoryed entire civilizations.}}

* [[Inexplicable Treasure Chests]]: Lampshaded in Chapter 3 if you get the "Collector" Medal:

* [[Informed Equipment]]: Averted with weapons, played straight with everything else. This issue has sparked a surprising amount of criticism from some of the fans, despite the developer repeatedly stating that it's a stylistic choice and he won't change it.

* [[It Amused Me]]: If you talk to Bernard in the Fire Temple, he outright says that he's only along to see the look on Bartholio's face when Mardek gets through first.

* [[Lizard Folk]]: A whole tribe of 'em.

** A whole race of 'em. Living on other planets.

* [[Made of Evil]]: All monsters are made up of a dark, insubstantial material known as "miasma".

* [[Mad Scientist]]: Mereador is pretty close to this at times.

* [[Mineral MacGuffin]]: Deconstructed with the elemental crystals; see [[Gotta Catch Em All]], above.

* [[Monster Compendium]]: The included Bestiary in the [[All There in the Manual|Encyclopedia]] section.

* [[More Than Mind Control]]: The Governance de Magi. The Violet Crystal only intensifies their present insecurities and negative traits.

* [[Necessarily Evil]]: It's stated that despite [[Dark Is Evil|dark generally being evil]], having something to surmount encourages progress.

* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: There are knights, lizard people, mad scientists, zombies, aliens, robots, dragons, dragon-zombies, alien dragons, zombie-alien-dragon-robots [[Overly Long Gag|re-reanimated zombie-alien-dragon-robots who are barely anything more than bone]]... The list goes on and on. Sadly, ninjas and pirates have yet to be introduced, though there are bandits, and Mardek's father is said to wield a katana...

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: The Aeropolis shaman, according to the encyclopedia.

** [[Completely Missing the Point|But he's totally rad, man.]]

* [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]: The Governance de Magi.

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Rohoph {{spoiler|and, according to Qualna, ALL members of the Governance de Magi,}} thinks of himself as this compared to the rest of the Governance de Magi. {{spoiler|Subverted in that, in fact, Rohoph is just as insane in his own way as the rest of the Governance. Played straight with Qualna, thus far.}}

* [[Opening the Sandbox]]: Happens every chapter, usually just before the final dungeon. There are usually some sidequests you can complete before then, though.

* [[Our Souls Are Different]]: And how!

* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]: The Governance de Magi members all talk in glowing letters with a fancy font. Clavis even points it out when Rohoph takes over briefly while he's talking to Mardek.

* [[Personality Powers]]: Justified. A person's element is "a part of their soul. The most fundamental part!"

* [[Potential Applications]]: A positive example; this is Mereaedor's motivation for using an incredibly evil and powerful spell to rip souls out of the afterlife.

* [[Schedule Slip]]: The first two chapters were both released during 2007. Chapter 3 wasn't out until July 2010. One can only guess when Chapter 4 will be released.

* [[Science Fantasy]]: Okay, so it's got knights, dragons, magic, elemental crystals...''spaceships, aliens, and other planets''.

** [[Final Fantasy|There are also monster cacti called Happy Johnnies that use an attack called 1000 Needles.]]

** Also the [[Final Fantasy|Phoenix Down]] item.

** Don't forget [[Final Fantasy|Smalls and Chunk]], the two guards that pick you up from the Air Temple.

** Magmazard, [[Pokémon|fire-elemental lizards with a flame lit tail.]]

** Muriance, a thief (well, bandit, actually), claims to be a [[Final Fantasy VI|'Treasure Hunter']] when you meet up with him in chapter 3.

** One of the quotes from a bookshelf:

** Miserable Ol' Martin's opinion on the world:

** There's a guy [[Dronejam|hanging out in front of the sewers]] in Chapter 3 who's role-playing as [[Sonny|a zombie who wakes up on a boat with amnesia and a message he can't read, and he meets a blind guy, and...]]

** [[Peter Pan|Pixie Dust doesn't let you fly]]

* [[Stealth Pun]]: Melchior, the air-elemental Governance de Magi member, is sort of, well, [[Cloudcuckoolander|an airhead.]]

* [[Soul Power]]: All ether-elemental characters, though Annunaki all have this to a certain extent -- they can perform "soul transfers" upon dying that will allow their soul to inhabit another body.

* [[Spoony Bard]]: Completely averted with Elwyen, who is one of the most useful characters.

** Lampshaded by Mardek, who asks Meraeador something like "Doesn't pacifist mean opposition to all violence?", whereupon Meraedor retorts that the meaning of pacifism is [[You Keep Using That Word|pretty pedantic.]]

** Also lampshaded in the Flamethrower in-battle description.

* [[Theme Naming]]: Three members of the Governance de Magi are named Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar, after the [[Word of Dante|(legendary, non-Biblical)]] [[The Bible|names of the three magi that gave gifts to the Baby Jesus in the Bible]]. The apparent leader is also named Anu, the Mesopotamian god of the sky.

* [[Time Skip]]: Between every chapter thus far.

* [[Title Theme Drop]]: Though this isn't used directly, ''quoting'' the main theme in plot-important pieces is very common.

** He's more like the [[Jerkass|Token Jerk Ass Teammate]].

* [[Underground Monkey]]: There are usually significant changes and additions to character models instead of just [[Palette Swap|Palette Swaps]], however.

* [[Unusable Enemy Equipment]]: Rather [[Egregious]], since you can click on an enemy's lifebar at any time to see a detailed description of their stats, equipment, etc., and only a few enemies will actually drop said equipment as a [[Randomly Drops|random drop]]. It's also subverted, however, as a lot of the enemy equipment is actual equipment that you can buy or find in treasure chests.

* [[The Von Trope Family]]: [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Baron von Doomkill]].

* [[Whatevermancy]]

* [[White and Gray Morality]]: A surprisingly [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|cynical]] version; though the main characters are unambiguously good, the fact that the villains are of gray morality is stressed many times, and emphasizes the fact that fighting the villains is not necessarily a good thing.

** Slides toward [[Grey and Gray Morality]] in Chapter 3, as {{spoiler|Rohoph's [[Knight Templar]] tendencies start to become more pronounced. By the end of the chapter, he's [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]] so much that he's starting to verge on [[Complete Monster]].}} Additionally, the story dwells a good bit on the fact that even actions taken fighting an indisputably evil villain (namely, {{spoiler|Steele}}) can have wider negative repercussions.

* [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]]: The Governance de Magi, and how.

* [[The Wiki Rule]]: There is, in fact, a [http://fighunter.wikia.com/wiki/Fig_Hunter_Wiki Fig Hunter wiki] cataloging information about MARDEK and some of Pseudolonewolf's other games.

* [[Voice of the Legion]]: Annunaki, Aruan, and Crystal Guardian chat is written in a different font from the normal one, with Annunaki and Guardian chat written in the same color as their element, and Aruan chat (or Solaar's, anyhow) [[Fridge Brilliance|with a second, lighter copy of the original behind the original, to mimic the echoing voice stated in Solaar's Encyclopaedia entry.]] {{spoiler|The spirit of the Annihilator has its own font as well, just to emphasize how powerful it is.}}

* [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe]]: From a book in Meraeador's house:

* [[You All Look Familiar]]: Heavily, heavily lampshaded; for instance the inn patrons in Canonia comprise the same "Bloke" half a dozen times, and another house contains a dozen of the same "Chap". And that's not the only time you see either of them...

* [[You No Take Candle]]: Solaar is somewhere between this and [[Strange Syntax Speaker]].

** This is lampshaded if you talk to him/her in Goznor.

'''Solaar''': [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Even I don't know what I meaned by that one]]. }}

*** Xe's not the only one. {{spoiler|All Aruan and even their masters, who sent Solaar to watch over the Dark Crystal, speak this way too.}}

* [[Your Mind Makes It Real]]: The afterlife works this way, according to the Aeropolis library. Naturally, this also means that [[Ironic Hell]] is in effect.

 

* [[BGM Override]]: In the first area, the "Mighty Heroes" track plays over everything else up until the boss fight.

* [[The Bully]]: Mugbert's bestiary and encyclopedia article lists him as such. {{spoiler|And, while examples of his bullying are unseen, beating him up at the end of this chapter is strangely satisfying...}}

* [[Fake Action Prologue]]

* [[Fat Bastard]]: The final boss of this chapter is {{spoiler|A fat, ugly kid named Mugbert, who likes to bully Mardek and Deugan.}}

* [[Kid Hero|Kid Heroes]]

* [[Magic Meteor]]

* [[A Minor Kidroduction]]: {{spoiler|Though, not actually a ''minor'' thing that happens.}}

* [[Twenty Bear Asses]]: You have to collect five lead pipes in a sidequest, which you get from fighting strange rats which seem to have these as their tails.

 

* [[Angrish]]: The ''encyclopedia'' lapses into this in the description of the {{spoiler|zombie locksmith}} miniboss.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|Hooray! You saved your world and became a hero! But, in the process of doing so, you lost your closest friend, your love interest left for vague reasons, the other two allies you may have made ditched you for weak reasons, and you were forced to fight the reanimated corpse of your childhood hero. Ouch.}}

* [[Bonus Boss]]: {{spoiler|The zombie dragon}}.

* [[Fake Ultimate Hero]]: The Worlds' Saviours.

* [[Flunky Boss]]: Moric.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|Deugan}}'s "I'll hold him off, you get to safety" scene.

* [[Hopeless Boss Fight]]: Not one you face, mind you. Bartholio assumes that your party is one of these to his, thinking that, should you fight again, they will surely win. {{spoiler|And, if you're successful in the hidden arena, you prove him wrong on that, as well.}}

* [[Lost Forever]]: The Trilobite Key IV, although it's very hard to miss, and if you do, [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment|you deserve it]]. Luckily, in Chapter 3, there's an obscure shop in Acropolis that sells all the Trilobite keys if you missed any of them.

* [[Mercy Rewarded]]: Gope, [[Guide Dang It|infam]][[Video Game Cruelty Punishment|ously]].

* [[Point of No Return]]: You can't leave once you enter Moric's battleship.

* [[Say My Name]]: "Moric!" "Rohoph!" "Moric..." "Rohoph..."

* [[Talking Is a Free Action]]: [[Lampshaded]] by Vehrn when he wonders why when the heroes argue over what to do about a certain monster, it just sits idly waiting for them to finish their conversation.

* [[Title Drop]]: Kinda. Mardek and Deugan try to become this, to replace Social Fox. {{spoiler|Both succeed, especially Deugan, who actually becomes the next Great Adventurer.}}

* [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment]]: If you don't kill a bandit named Gope at the beginning, he'll later give you the Trilobite Key IV, which is essential for completing a sidequest. But if you killed him, too bad, it's [[Lost Forever]]...Until Chapter 3. See [[Lost Forever]] above.

* [[Zombie Apocalypse]]: Happens twice, though it's mostly [[Played for Laughs]].

** ''Nobody even got hurt.''

 

=== [http://www.kongregate.com/games/Pseudolonewolf/mardek-rpg-chapter-3 Chapter Three: Keystones] provides examples of the following tropes: ===

* [[Anticlimax Boss]]: {{spoiler|Qualna}}. Actually justified, as he dislikes fighting and is more skilled in diplomacy.

* [[Artifact of Doom]]: That purple plot item you handed to the Yalortian monk in Aeropolis? It quite fits the description of {{spoiler|The Violet Crystal, which kicked off the plot by making Rodoph's companions evil.}}

** Speaking to Rohoph within the Lost Monastery {{spoiler|confirms that it is exactly that. He recognizes the corrupting energy as being the same as the one that the Violet Crystal gave off.}}

* [[Attention Whore]]: Elwyen, but only with Mardek.

'''Elwyen''': IN MY DREAMS YOU DID!!! }}

** Granted, it is by far the hardest battle in the entire series so far. (including the security demon, which is hard for completely different reasons)

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|Where to begin? Well, first you have to fight your own king. Who afterwards promptly dies. [[Accidental Murder|Oops.]] And did we mention that he's actually the father of one of your party members? Then it turns out Qualna wasn't even trying to get you to kill the king, and this is exactly the example he was trying to create to show [[Knight Templar|Rohoph]] that he's gone off the deep end, and to get him to rejoin the Governance de Magi peacefully. (Although most of the Magi have gone off that end too.) Rohoph promptly kills Qualna too and seals his soul so he can no longer escape after telling her that he wouldn't. Mardek and Elwyen go to a play afterwards to lighten the mood, until Rohoph forces her away, to Mardek's disdain and anger. So now King Gonoroth and probably the most friendly of the Governance de Magi are dead, and Rohoph wants Mardek to have no more friends to become attached to. Yeah. At least Lone Wolf (Deugan) finally talks to Mardek's face, although he doesn't reveal who he is.}}

** Same with Solaar, in a way; one of his skills instantly turns him into a sort of [[Intangible Man]], immunizing him from all Physical damage, and since the Mithril Golem is, at its base, a [[Smash Mook]]....

* [[Chest Monster]]: Two of which are [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]]! This is even lampshaded in the Red Dragon's description:

** The two above are marked by a red-and-gold chest, so if you die to these (particularly the other Bonus Boss with a SAVE POINT right before it) without saving, it is your fault. However, one chest early on with a mini-bonus boss (a Griffon) is unmarked, except for the save crystal nearby and its obvious placement in the middle of the path. All others contain the local enemies. Most are worth looting, however.

* [[Companion Cube]]: Parodied.

* [[Defeat Equals Friendship]]: Averted, sadly. People who played Chaper 2 might hope that defeating the Water Guardian would make her part of your party {{spoiler|again}}. Well, they were wrong, because apparently there's some rule that the guardians have to guard the temple once the crystal is gone.

** Played straight with Sslen'ck, whom you face in a boss fight before you can recruit him.

* [[Development Hell]]: The chapter took ''three years'' to complete, due to many factors, such as the developer having to rewrite the engine ''twice'', once in a programming language he was unfamiliar with, and also the fact that the game was so gigantic that sponsors were reluctant to put it on their sites.

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: Abdication annuls not just the current ruler's right to rule, but that of their ''entire bloodline''. Therefore, if {{spoiler|King Gonoroth}} abdicated, {{spoiler|Donovan}} would ''not'' become king, even though they say they would at one point.

* {{spoiler|[[The Dog Was the Mastermind]]}}: Subverted, as {{spoiler|the mastermind ''is'' a major villain, but disguised as a "dog". Remember Clavis, that enigmatic but inconspicuous guy who just seemed to like talking about balance? He's Qualna in disguise}}.

* [[Doomy Dooms of Doom]]: Mentioned within a novel in Xantusia is one Baron von Doomkill, a 'crystal tyrant' who had, in the past, seized control of an elemental crystal and attempted to conquer the world. {{spoiler|He's one of the four souls summoned into Legion.}}

* [[Double Entendre]]:

'''Melchior:''' I'm a hermaphrodite. }}

* [[Dream Land]]: You get to travel within one. Unfortunately, it's populated by [[Demonic Spiders|Goddamned Pixies and other Ether- and Fig-elemental enemies.]]

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Heavily implied with Bostolm, who was driven so insane by pixies digging in his mind that he "[[Nightmare Fuel|drilled them out of [his] head]]".

* [[Dysfunction Junction]]: Mardek's party. Almost everyone you can recruit has some sort of secret in their past that troubles them.

* [[Everyone Is Related]]: P-key dialogue reveals that {{spoiler|Steele was Gloria's (half) brother}}, and the end of the third chapter shows that Donovan is {{spoiler|the King of Goznor's son}}.

* [[Evil Chancellor]]: There's one in the [[Lizard Folk|Lizard Village]] whose actual name is [[Lampshade Hanging|Blatantly Evil Chancellor.]]

* [[For the Evulz]]: Bernard makes a zombie which disrupts the play at the end of the story. When people call him out for this, he responds that no one was hurt and he enjoyed doing it.

** He knows that the members Bartholio's party aren't the true heroes of the game. He just follows them around for kicks. Or, in other words, to watch them fail time and time again.

** Also, the four Solakian monks that you need to rescue in a sidequest.

** There's even a ''monster'' like this, "Temperance", which is basically a totem pole with the heads of the four temperaments.

* [[Hyde Plays Jekyll]]

* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: There's a black Yalortian priest who speaks with a Jamaican accent. His alignment is, in the Encyclopedia, Lawful Evil. His name? ''Vudu''.

* [[Intrepid Merchant]]: Gope if you didn't kill him back in Chapter 2.

* [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]]: {{spoiler|Rohoph}}, [[Knight Templar|and how]].

* [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler|Rohoph}}

* [[King Mook]]: King Cuthbert.

** At one point, when complimented by his boss on a job well done, Mardek smilingly replies "I can only move at the will of my unseen master!"

* [[Marathon Boss]]: All of the [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]] other than the [[Glass Cannon|Bone Demon]], particularly the Annihilator. Both of its forms can spam a spell that nullifies all damage once, and YALORT help you if you used up your last Candiathrope before fighting Animus -- since Gemsplosion: Candiathrope is the ''only attack in the entire game'' that it isn't resistant to. Karnos also has a whopping 65,000 hit points, though you ''can'' inflict Bleed on it, [[Revive Kills Zombie|which will drain its health at record speed]].

** Mereador actually comments on this on one of his backstory party talks. Unfortunately, Mardek also says that it's okay for a 10-year-old kid to love an old woman, so...

*** Though Mardek is a bit... Well, [[Cloudcuckoolander|off when it comes to reality.]]

* [[Mega Manning]]: How Legion learns new battle skills.

* [[Mind Control Eyes]]: Everyone notices that the {{spoiler|king}}'s eyes are pink. No one comments on Mardek because he's wearing a helmet.

** Right in the middle of the end-game drama, after Rohoph runs off to settle things alone, we get this exchange:

'''Vehrn:''' Well I guess he'll have to sit this one out, then. }}

* [[Most Definitely Not a Villain]]: The {{spoiler|Qualna-possessed King}} makes several remarks to this effect. {{spoiler|This is actually invoked, however; Qualna purposefully put up a terrible act in a [[Reverse Psychology]] gambit.}}

** Also, Muriance.

* [[Nice Hat|Nice Helmet]]: Mardek's helmet, complete with "M!" emblazoned on the front, is almost humorously cheesy. Then you realize, as mentioned above, that [[Fridge Brilliance|he uses it to hide]] [[Mind Control Eyes|the glow in his eyes that appears whenever Rohoph takes over.]]

** Elwyen's Dreamstone suggests there may be another, not entirely unrelated reason. She thinks he became self-conscious after she pointed out {{spoiler|the weird sores on his face and bags under his eyes.}}

** The other example is after defeating the final boss of the chapter {{spoiler|turns out that Qualna was actually the least affected by the Violet Crystal, merely ''acting'' like it affected him like the others in order to not be run off just like Rohoph. Not only is he aware that the Violet Crystal has, slightly, affected him somewhat AND he wants to destroy it just like Rohoph wanted to, helping him no less, but he's aware that the Violet Crystal has greatly affected Rohoph just as much as the other Governance de Magi. While he wanted to help Moric in the last chapter, Rohoph is in his [[Knight Templar]] mode and simply wants to kill off Qualna because he's supposedly evil too. And, even after giving his word that he would let Qualna go to the afterlife afer his death, Rohoph ''still'' seals his soul in a crystal. You find out from the dreamstone he drops that he was genuine in his desire to help Rohoph and destroy the Violet Crystal, which means Rohoph just sealed a harmless, innocent person and the only member of his race that wanted to ''help'' him. Nice job sealing him, [[Jerkass]].}}

* [[Not Quite Dead]]: {{spoiler|Steele comes back as a major antagonist.}}

** This is amazingly ''subverted'' with {{spoiler|Deugan}}, who {{spoiler|decides not to return to the group for various reasons shown throughout his dreamstones. In his final one, he says that [[That Man Is Dead|he is dead, but is reborn anew]]...as "Lone Wolf", the next Grand Adventurer.}}

*** Which, seeing how he all but abandons {{spoiler|Emela}}, makes him sort of a [[Jerkass]].

* [[Obviously Evil]]: A few villains in this chapter act this way, but Saul is the best example, as his appearance, mannerisms, and profession make it as subtle as a brick to the head, boosting him up to cartoonish levels of villainy. Sslen'ck's chancellor also hilariously parodies obviously evil characters who are trusted nonetheless.

* [[Oculothorax]]: The numerous eyeball enemies, including the elemental-based [[Palette Swap|Palette Swaps]].

* [[Overly Long Gag]]: The Warport security. [[Lampshading|Even the employees refer to it as such.]]

** Also, the Mysterious Man {{spoiler|AKA Steele.}} Mardek comments that he never knew anyone with an eyepatch, despite his facial features and personality completely giving his identity away. Heck, if you have Donovan in your party, he'll ask "why did he have to come back?"

** Oddly enough, we see its inverse at the end of the game. When Lone Wolf starts talking with Mardek, Mardek appears to recognize who he actually is despite the fact that he's much more disguised than the other two.

* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: Sslen'ck and almost all [[Lizard Folk]] in the game qualify.

** {{spoiler|And, as it turns out, Zach, pre-mercenary career, was once one of these. Actually, they were Mardek's exact words. Capitalised and everything.}}

* [[Redemption Demotion]]: Averted with Sslen'ck, who is just as powerful when you fight him as when he joins you.

** Of course, since he's a [[Flunky Boss]], he's actually of a reasonable power level for that point of the game.

* [[Rush Boss]]: The Bone Demon, which has the lowest HP of all the [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]], but has very powerful attacks.

* [[Inverted Trope|Reverse]] [[Wife Husbandry]]: Elwyen tries to do this with Mardek.

** {{spoiler|Both halves of the most powerful [[Bonus Boss]].}}

** And {{spoiler|another bonus boss, the Bone Demon}}.

** Considering they're demons, though, this is not really surprising.

* [[Take That]]: Rohoph makes a jab at Sonny, a rival Flash RPG, when talking to an NPC in Goznor.

* [[Title Drop]]: Multiple times, whenever you talk to Clavis.

* [[A Wizard Did It]]: Referred to [[Lampshade Hanging|by name]] in the in-game encyclopedia entry as the explanation for how the sand behaves in the Sandflow Caves.

** Gloria says the same thing if you talk to her when inside the Tainted Grotto.

 

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[[Category:Eastern RPG]]

[[Category:Web Games]]