Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Al-Revis.jpg|frame|Don't forget to take your sword to school!]]

 

The main character is one Vayne Aurelius, a [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]] with a [[Mysterious Past]] that he himself is unaware of, since he grew up without company except for his [[Familiar|Mana]], Sulpher, a talking black cat. Vayne is found by one of Al-Revis' professors and is invited to join the school. The game follows his attempts to fit in it (complicated by the fact that his timidness and desire to help others make him a [[Extreme Doormat|doormat]]) and the slow discovery of his personal past.

Playable characters besides Vayne include:

* '''Jessica Philomele''', a [[Rose-Haired Girl|pink-haired]] [[Genki Girl]] with a [[Stuff Blowing Up|penchant for explosions]];

* '''Nikki Mimi Tithel''', an impulsive and flirty yet down-to-earth [[Catgirl]];

* '''Pamela Ibis''', a [[Cute Ghost Girl]] with a legion of monster friends;

The game covers three years of Academy Terms, split down into weekly events. Naturally, being an RPG, the school's "assignments" often involve a lot of [[Dungeon Crawling]].

 

 

* [[Adults Are Useless]]/[[Competence Zone]]: The faculty at Al-revis are good at teaching, but not very good helping the students with their problems.

** Amusingly subverted in one scene where an old codger who hasn't made any sense up until now proceeds to humiliate [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Tony]] with a cane when he was trying to cheat in the school trivia contest.

* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]: Subverted with {{spoiler|Theofratus}}, whose fate is ''exactly'' what he was wishing for. Played straight later in the game, though then again, the subconscious wishes from the heart are also a tricky thing...

** ''Never'' wish to be alone. You might not like how it plays out.

** And when we say Vayne's sword is big, try about 6 or more times his size.

** And a Boss ''is one''.

** {{spoiler|Also Vayne, whose powers bring him nothing but trouble.}}

* [[Boarding School]]: Setting of the game.

* [[The Chew Toy]]: Vayne, somewhat due to his [[Extreme Doormat]]-ness. Also, Roxis, who never seems to be able to catch a break. (partially because of his own Mana, who enjoys watching him suffer). See: Roxis Character Quest 1 and 4 (4 in particular); Pamela Character Quest 4; a scene that activates around mid-game in the workshop involving Jess; discovering him fainted, foaming at the mouth out of fright in Chapter 3 (He seems to have touchier nerves than others, seeing his reactions to Pamela/his Mana/Flay's appearances out of nowhere).

** And, to a lesser extent, Nikki, who constantly finds herself being forced to drink Jess's...medicine. She's often found unconscious.

* [[Clingy MacGuffin]]: Muppy's UFO; Pamela's teddy bear.

* [[Contrived Coincidence]]: {{spoiler|Theofratus' attempts at healing Jessica ([[It Got Worse|it got a]] ''[[It Got Worse|lot]]'' [[It Got Worse|worse]] for her) caused him to view himself a failure, seeking a way to end his own (implied to be long) life, leading to Vayne being "born".}} And then it just so happens that Jess is the first person that Vayne befriends in school.

* [[Combination Attack]]: The Variable Strike. It doesn't matter which characters are used for the attack as long as the last one in the chain will be Vayne.

* [[Cute Monster Girl]]: Pamela; also Nikki and the other Beastman girls. And then there are those angel and demon enemies...

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: it only wants to grant wishes, that's all...

* [[Defeat Means Friendship]]: Not ''quite'' friendship, but you get Roxis in this manner.

* [[Delinquent]]: Frequently enough for the '''Defender of Justice''', {{spoiler|at least until his second-to-last Character Quest}}. Also, {{spoiler|Jess}} confesses to being one before being accepted into the academy.

* [[Detached Sleeves]]: Part of the school uniform!

* [[Early-Bird Cameo]]: the brief montage of the school when Vayne first arrives shows the first four party members that he will befriend, some of the teachers, as well as the [[Goldfish Poop Gang]]. Especially notable as this is Pamela's first appearance, before her formal introduction in Chapter 3.

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The final boss, as well as its [[Bonus Boss]] [[Palette Swap]], "Pain". The latter was even described this way:

* [[End of the World Special]]: Wouldn't you believe it, this shows up near the end of the game.

* [[Enemy Mine]]: If the player really counts the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] as real "enemies". At the end of Chapter 8, the [[True Companions|workshop]] goes off into the monster-infested depths of an abandoned schoolhouse to find a rare flower that just so happens to be the cure for an ailing friend. In an...egregrious case of [[Cutscene Incompetence]] (we just killed the biggest monster there was here!), after killing the chapter boss, the party says that there's too many monsters (onscreen: four red monster symbols signifying ''normal'' encounters). Cue [[Big Damn Heroes|Renee and Tony]], who, under orders, come to assist them. Not very heroically either; the party's reactions are, amusingly enough: "Not now..." "We don't have time to play with you!"

** The scene's also rather amusing because Tony barges in and all but shoos them away even though the party says that the two'll probably need their help. Pride makes himself known: "There's no way in hell I'd fight alongside you!" Of course...

'''Tony''': Don't be stupid! Coming to their rescue to ask for help? That's just uncool. }}

** Also, the so-called "trivia" questions in the School Trivia contest somewhat fall into this, much to the surprise of the contestants.

* [[Extreme Doormat]]: Both the school principal and Professor Zeppel lack backbone.

** Same with Vayne. About two thirds of the character sidequests involve his friends browbeating him into doing something.

* [[Face Palm]]: The Vice-Principal does this fairly often.

* [[Faking the Dead]]/[[Faux Death]]: Vayne, run far away should Flay ever come up with an idea he won't explain to you.

* [[Fantastic Racism]]: Mana were experimented on loooong ago. One that breaks free ends up fighting the party out of revenge. {{spoiler|Also, in the last chapter of the game, upon discovering that [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|Vayne is a Mana, everyone but his friends fears/hates him/blames him/accuses him/etc etc etc.]]}}

* [[Idiot Ball]]: Goes around to a ''lot'' of characters at times.

* [[Idle Animation]]: Both in and out of battle.

* [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight]]: {{spoiler|the ''Final Boss''}}

* [[Impossibly Cool Clothes]]: So...these are uniforms?

*** [[Magic Skirt]]: I suppose monsters wouldn't care too much about the female school uniform while they're getting the crap beat out of them. [[Blow You Away|Jess]] has to hold her skirt down during some of the animations for her specials, though.

*** [[Nice Hat]]: Anna.

*** [[Too Many Belts]]: ...so he has suspenders holding up his belts? That's the hallmark of a true hero, Flay.

* [[Impossibly Cool Weapon]]/[[Improbable Weapon User]]: pretty much everyone.

** [[Morph Weapon|Vayne uses a cat that transforms into his sword. It proceeds to be able to change shape at will in battle, to an even bigger sword if need be in mid-attack.]]

** [[Hammerspace|Jess uses a bag/purse whose contents seem endless amounts of random objects (lampshaded by Vayne repeatedly).]]

** [[Demonic Dummy|Pamela uses her stuffed bear, which, coincidentally is posessed by her Mana.]]

** [[Cool Spaceship|Muppy uses his spaceship,]] [[BFG|and all the conventional weaponry that it might entail...]] [[Transformation Ray|and some]] [[Flying Saucer|more unconventional ones.]]

** [[Tarot Motifs|Roxis uses tarot cards,]] [[Death Dealer|both by throwing them]] [[Whip It Good|and using them as a card whip.]]

*** His attacks also alter the flow of battle by manipulating the turn system, thereby [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]].

* [[Inexplicable Treasure Chests]]: From a mountain range that the school often uses for athletic classes, to the school library, to the very definitely final dungeon {{spoiler|the first half of which is a conglomerate of several past dungeons because they're memories- of course, it somehow manages to have the recipes for the best equipment in the game in treasure chests that definitely weren't there before.}}

* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Early chapters have Flay constantly refer to the workshop as the <s>Bat</s> Flay Cave.

'''Flay''': What do you know about secret bases?! }}

** There's also the small [[Running Gag]] of Professor Zeppel calling <s>Ms.</s> Isolde. Or <s>Vice-Principal</s> Madame Ernentraud, or Matron for Flay. Or...[[Running Gag|yeah, let's just say that people are fond of this.]]

* [[Instant Expert]]: Subverted in Anna's case. She first is implied to be one of these when she joins the academy and immediately performs high-level synthesis on par with the characters from a grade above hers. It's then revealed in a character quest that she actually has no idea what she's doing and was simply copying her classmates, leading to poor grades when studying on her own. She is thus forced to learn the process of alchemy from square one, learning it the hard way just like everyone else.

** And running from battle, even if you get the first move and don't take many cards to get there (each card is one minute), costs you one hour.

* [[Invisible to Normals]]: The Mana have this as a trait, which also explains why no one can "accidentally stumble" into the academy (Alchemy is a closely guarded secret from those who may abuse it): the floating school is held up by a Wind Mana.

* [[Lethal Chef]]: In the first [[School Festival]], the students at the restaurant booth prefer the Principal's baking over the Vice-Principal's.

** Speaking of lethal cooking, Pamela and Jess's potions technically count. Bonus for Jess actually having lunch that is...purple...and moving.

* [[Load-Bearing Boss]]: Final castle falls when you defeat the last boss. Justified, in that it's a castle created by wishes.

* [[Luminescent Blush]]: the female characters are often shown having these.

* [[Moment Killer]]: Subverted in that nothing romantic actually came out of the moment ({{spoiler|Jess just wanted to talk to Vayne alone, although the others thought otherwise}}), but still attempted by Flay, only to be stopped by Anna.

* [[Monster Allies]]: Nikki can make use of these if she has "converted" them prior using Heart Cracker/Heartful Action.

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: The first two thirds of the game are pretty happy. Then comes an end of chapter summary stating "This was the last time I really enjoyed being at school..." Cue the descent into depressing grounds, though it gets better... unless you get the bad ending.

** Also, Muppy. What. Master of the moodswing non sequiteur, which is somewhat jarring when you're hearing [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlkVvrKu9yg&fmt=18 Wailing of the Rain], a song that's otherwise reserved for serious/sad issues, while a pink blob is lamenting about how he'll never pick up an instrument again after his band broke up just because you decided to visit the music room. Humorous joke character indeed, able to make your head spin.

*** Bad End: {{spoiler|During the last battle, when Vayne is preparing to stay behind and sacrifice himself but pretends that he'll follow everyone else out in just a moment, normally the teammate with the highest affection notices what he's trying to do and snaps him out of it. If Vayne's relationship with his teammates isn't high enough (you didn't finish any of their character quests), everyone reluctantly leaves and only notices too late that Vayne never planned on living.}}

* [[My Name Is Not Durwood]]: Flay refers to the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] as the "[[Mook]] Squad".

* [[Mythology Gag]]: [[Atelier Iris 3|Alvero mechsword and Yula Hammer]]

* [[Nerd Glasses]]: All the students that have glasses.

** Vayne's special attacks all involve shadows, lots and lots of sharp blades, creepy red eyes, and surprisingly violent battle quotes. {{spoiler|So it makes sense that the final boss is a horrible mass of [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|red eyes]] that [[Tears of Blood|cry black gunk]]. Oh, and his [[Reality Warper|true power]] is pretty scary too.}}

** When Isolde {{spoiler|kills one of your friends to force Vayne's powers to surface}}, you have to think: {{spoiler|what if Vayne ''wasn't'' able to bring him/her back, and Isolde took the leap from slightly unbalanced teacher to murderer?}} Even worse than that, {{spoiler|she didn't even ''flinch'' when she killed them. If Vayne couldn't wish him/her back to life, what was to stop Isolde from murdering all of them right then and there to keep said murder a secret?}}

* [[Nostalgic Music Box]]: Dream of the Black Cat, the music that plays over each chapter's beginning scene/flashback.

* [[Not So Stoic]]/[[Not So Above It All]]: Anna.

*** {{spoiler|And flunks AGAIN so that he doesn't leave you behind during your senior year.}}

* [[One Hundred Percent Completion]]: Collecting most, if not all, the weapon/item/armor recipes and then making them is necessary to fully upgrade the characters' abilities.

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Nikki ends up being this when they discover Muppy, who manages to fool Vayne, Jess, and Flay with a story that only idiots would fall for. What about Anna, Roxis, and Pamela? Well, they kinda... make an attempt at ignoring the entire thing.

** Nope, even Roxis fell for it. He thinks Muppy's "disabled", [[Rule of Funny|humorously...]]

*** He won't risk the possibility, as being in this particular group for so long has [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight|desensitized him to the weird...]] though it sounds more like they're throwing out lame excuses in an attempt to not get involved.

** Can't vouch for Anna so much either, depending on how you interpret this:

'''Anna:''' I'd like to see her someday... }}

*** Hahaha, hook, line, and sinker. Victory is mine!

* [[Otaku]]: Nikki gets a fan club filled with these.

* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: Seriously, Flay's disguise is so horrible that it's clear immediately that it's him... and Pamela still can't tell, if you talk to her.

* [[Party in My Pocket]]: In a lot of scenes (but not always), Vayne will walk up to somewhere, and everyone is shown walking out of him.

* [[Perpetual Frowner]]: Moritz, manager of the Athanor room. [[Lampshaded]] ''many times'' during the group's first visit.

* [[Posthumous Character]]: Theofratus, starting every chapter with bits of dialogue during his life.

* [[Power of Friendship]]: Vayne's "Variable Strike" does more damage if he's close with the other [[True Companions]].

* [[Say My Name]]: Used hilariously in Muppy's first character quest, where Jess (in tears, even) shouts out his name ''twice'' after the latter ''self-destructed''...

* [[School Festival]]: Two of which are part of the plot.

* [[Sequential Boss]]: Some optional job Bosses have to be fought at the end of a string of battles. There's also ''the first Boss'' in the game that is fought in such a way.

* [[She Is Not My Girlfriend]]: occurs in this exchange (not exactly word for word):

Tony: Who are you calling a couple? }}

** The Mana of Light also wants to get Vayne and Roxis together platonically (or whatever "Well, it's [[Yaoi Fangirl|close enough to what I was aiming for]]" means).

* [[Shoo Out the Clowns]]: The exact moment the game's mood takes a sudden turn for the serious can be traced back to the scene where the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Mook Squad]] is literally sent back home.

** Roxis might represent this trope a bit better... Pamela eventually becomes an insanely good tank once she gets her null physical ability.

*** Lampshaded in a scene after creating an Ajax Shield. Goes something like this: (not word for word)

'''Roxis''': I don't need you telling me that. }}

* [[Stern Teacher]]: Isolde, Lorr and the Vice-Principal. Nikki even notes that the ''one time'' that Lorr was happy, it was a bad thing for the students...

** Flay says, "I wasn't trying to outwit the Vice Principal or make Anna owe me" when asks about his motives for helping Anna's grades. Right...

* [[That Came Out Wrong]]: The Trivia Contest judge explaining his prolonged absence by "playing with the youngsters". The [[Large Ham|MC]] was not amused.

* [[Timed Mission]]: A lot of the classroom assignments have time limits.

** And sometimes if they don't, then things get turned into a [[Timed Mission]] anyway as you attempt to rush to your objective before night falls and the monsters all rocket in power- including the bosses.

*** Oddly enough, some of them are actually [[Take Your Time]], despite having a notation of being timed. For instance, the limit might be one hour, but you can get lost and as long as you don't outright fail the mission, you'll get an A.

* [[Transformation Sequence]]: Anna and Jess in their [[Finishing Move|finishing bursts]], though neither really goes through the long extended pretty ribbon-filled sequence.

** Pamela's might qualify too; her bear being Aion, the Mana of Life and all.

** Flay's is debatable, but he basically gets into his mana like it's a [[Super Robot]].

* [[True Companions]]: The workshop.

* [[Turns Red]]: One optional job sideboss plays this trope straight. It's a glass dragon that literally turns red when you hit it with a fire element move... and when you do so, it gets several consecutive turns and severely boosted stats. Use ice on it after that, however...

* [[Two-Teacher School]]: Subverted. Classes are recycled only through five teachers (six counting the Vice-Principal on one occasion), but the storyline introduces other generic teachers. [[Double Subversion]], seeing as they don't make too much of an impact anyway...

* [[Walking the Earth]]: Implied to happen in one of the endings, thanks to the ''old habits'' of a certain ''someone''.

* [[Wave Motion Gun]]: [[Impossibly Cool Weapon|Flay's sword, in addition to being a BFS, drill, and shruiken thrower, can also shoot a giant shockwave that looks like this.]]

* [[Wham! Episode]]: The end result of Anna's 4th character quest if you tell her the wrong answers. You ''will'' feel her hate.

* [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]]: The character endings.

* [[Wiki Walk]]: Anna Lemouri. Frequently launches into mental monologues that result in strange (and often violent) reactions to perfectly normal events.

* [[Wizarding School]]: Once again, setting of the game.

* [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair]]: Jess has pink hair and Anna's is sort of a teal. Pamela's hair is purplish, but that might be because she's a ghost. Flay is a redhead, but it's darker than in real life. Vayne, of course, [[White-Haired Pretty Boy|fits another trope]]. Blondes [[Dumb Blonde|Nikki]] (with her [[Expressive Hair|Expressive]] [[Idiot Hair]]) and [[Blond Guys Are Evil|Roxis]] ([[Rapunzel Hair]]) are comparatively normal.

* {{spoiler|[[You Lose At Zero Trust]]: The bad ending is gotten if you don't make any [[Relationship Values|character like you enough]].}}

 

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[[Category:Video Game]]