Oracle of Tao: Difference between revisions
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* [[Action Girl]]: Our female lead, Ambrosia Brahmin.
** And Nevras is likely a male [[Yamato Nadeshiko]] {{spoiler|(he's has got the [[Silk Hiding Steel]] personality down pat, even though ostensibly he looks like [[Expy|Cloud]]. He's attractive enough for a guy, and has a the quiet nobility thing too) }}.
* [[
** There are two villains added in for the book ([[Bee_People|Mariposa]] and [[Demon_Lords_and_Archdevils|Asmodeus]]), and two friendly characters are given an [[Age Lift]] so Tamashii has kids her own age to talk to.
* [[Admiring the Abomination]]: Subverted, though Azrael and Elias are often very surprised they got to see one legendary creature or another.▼
** Tamashii has nightmares of being abandoned by her parents and friends. Later on, she gets [[Dragged Off to Hell]], and has to be saved by Azrael.
** There's also a number of romance scenes not included in the game.
▲* [[Admiring the Abomination]]: Subverted, though Azrael and Elias are often very surprised they got to see one legendary creature or another, essentially fixating on their research.
** Ambrosia actually gets turned on by the purebred angels she sees in Heaven, actually calling it in the narration a "sexy beast."
* [[After the End]]: Book II (or the main game, in the video game) ends, switching to a [[New Game Plus]]. On the surface, the world in more or less the same, besides some portals closing. In fact, the universe has been created from scratch, and many things that didn't actually exist and were covered by illusory reality now do exist. Oh yes, and there's a giant floating egg in midair now.
* [[A Human Am I]]: Ambrosia.
* [[All Amazons Want Hercules]]: Defied. Most of the men are pretty boys, some of which border on [[Dude Looks Like a Lady]].
* [[All Deaths Final]]: Subverted. There are "revival" spells, but certain deaths are not able to be remedied. There are graves, so understandably, old age is one of the constants. As are certain effects like disintegration or [[Cessation of Existence]]. Or diseases, judging from the cause of death in many gravestones. Also, there are a vast number of war-related casualties, so resurrection probably only works on bodies before decay has set in. This is possibly due to some sort of [[Resurrection Sickness]] (in the case of disease, causing them too be too weak, and die again) or
** Not played straight with Yazim Jianne, surprisingly. In the novel version, the reason he can't raise his wife is not because resurrection is impossible, but because he is a [[Mad Scientist]], and refuses to consider that possibility.
* [[All Myths Are True]]: This includes things like the Ring of the Nibelheim and Japanese legends.
* [[All of the Other Reindeer]]: Ambrosia, before she met anyone in the party.
* [[Always Save the Girl]]:
* [[Ambition Is Evil]]: Neither Ambrosia, nor {{spoiler|the crown prince}} Nevras, nor {{spoiler|Tamashii, their daughter}} want the kingdom promised them. Instead, they want freedom and a [[Suburbia|house in the fantasy suburbs]].
* [[Amnesiac Hero]]:
* [[Anatomy of the Soul]]: It's something along the lines of Body soul (that which animates everything), Heart (divided into Light and Dark, and ideally in balance), and Name (for this reason there is [[True Name]] magic).
** In the book, this has been changed to Body, Spirit (which includes chakra, magic, and the like), Soul (different from the spirit as it is associated with afterlife), and Name.
* [[Anchored Ship]]: Until the {{spoiler|confronts and joins her evil half, she's too neurotic to embrace her feelings.}}
* [[Apocalypse Maiden]]: ''Don't'' knock Ambrosia out. The universe will start to crumble when she's unconscious.
* [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit]]: Party size at four.
* [[Artifact of Doom]]: [[Ring of Power|The Ring Of Nibelung]].
* [[Artistic License: Biology]]: When talking about golems, apparently living matter can exist in a state of perfect health on an inert substance with no source of nutrition. That's right, chia pets for all lifeforms.
** There's also a few common tropes like [[All Genes Are Codominant]], probably [[Anatomically-Impossible Sex]], [[Has Two Mommies]], and a number of others. It's not explained either why Ambrosia has completely opposite hair color from her mom (red -> blue).
** Oddly, while out-of-place fantasy wildlife is a thing, in one particular part, there was no [[Misplaced Wildlife]] or [[Misplaced Vegetation]] because the penguins in the desert? It was based on Atacama Desert, the world's driest place.
** Also? [[Lamarck Was Right]] on at least two occasions. For example, crows apparently can be bred to read addresses and deliver letters.
* [[Artistic License Medicine]]: In the story, germ theory is regarded as nonsense. The author has their own theory instead.
* [[Artistic License Physics]]: Apparently, the universe's physics works on about the same laws as Cephiro. As long as you have a strong will, you can defy laws like gravity, momentum, and water pressure.
** The New Earth is apparently flat, yet shaped vaguely like a "burrito" allowing one to fall off in one direction but loop back around the other.
** The most egregious example of this trope, however, is device that is built which is called the Paradox Engine, which inverts the natural reactions of matter, so fire that is made will create ice, which in turn cannot melt since melting is heating up. It conveniently ignores causal reactions (such as building the fire in the first place) or reactions of reactions (what this ice does to food trying to refrigerate).
* [[Ascended Fridge Horror]]: Something suspected by the protagonist and the audience is reprised later in the game. {{spoiler|The possibility of [[Dream Apocalypse]] and [[Dead All Along]]. Although not quite true, [[It Got Worse]].}}
* [[Ascended Glitch]]: Until recently, Aqorm's [[Limit Break]] didn't end before the battle if it instant killed the enemy party. Meaning that until she ran low enough on money that damage no longer instant kills enemies, she could reuse her [[Limit Break]] over and over.
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** For that matter, if he browses through the libraries, he reads a four volume set called [[History of the World Part One|History of The World]], memorizes it, and ''reprints'' it from memory in game.
* [[Axe Crazy]]: Ambrosia, in one (or two) of the bad endings.
* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: Ambrosia Brahman (a mashup between the Hindu concept of divinity and food for the gods).
** Her mother also continues this trend, as her name is Manna Leaven (a bread from heaven, continuing the ThemeNaming of divine food, but also conveying the concept that the bread is leavened)
== B ==
* [[Babies Ever After]]: {{spoiler|In both the original game, and the [[Playable Epilogue]], this is part of the best ending.}}
** The book expands on this by having even more children, some of which are born at the end of Book II, and some which are born
* [[Badass Family]]: Ambrosia is a [[Person of Mass Destruction]], and Nevras is a warrior with a [[
* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]: The [[Fractured Fairy Tale]] "The Ever-Exploding Head."
{{quote|Once, when humanity was still young, a man wished he could watch humanity forever as a giant disembodied head. However, years of viewing violence, betrayal, and cruelty made his head explode. But because he wished to view forever, his head reformed. However, every so often it explodes again. Be careful what you wish for.}}
* [[Bag of Holding]]:
** A little girl in town lets the party store some of the more common items.
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* [[Bag of Sharing]]: This is a given for [[RPG Maker]] games, without extensive programming.
* [[Battle in the Rain]]: For added awesome, the very first battle.
* [[Battle Theme Music]]: Situational. Each battle has either a regional battle theme, a theme appropriate to the tone of the enemies (such as
* [[Beating a Dead Player]]:
** One of the battle formulas is designed to deal random damage unaffected by armor, and immune to Reflect spells. It works, but the code is prone to do this sometimes, despite programming to do otherwise.
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* [[Better as Friends]]: One of the couples can be swapped out for another. Since it's borderline [[Courtly Love|platonic]], it may be a better choice.
* [[Betty and Veronica]]: A couple of bisexual cases. For Aqorm, the resident thief, her "Betty" is Elias, the somewhat bookish type man, and her Veronica is Lilith, another girl and a [[Horny Devils|succubus]]. Lilith's Betty is actually Aqorm, and her "Veronica" is Michael, a very effeminate-looking angel guy who is this because they are polar opposites.
* [[Big Fancy House]]: Aqorm's house. She ran away from her family mansion, because she wanted to be a street musician.
* [[Black and White Magic]]: Since it's based on [[Taoism]], usually [[Red Mage|merged]].
* [[Black Bug Room]]: Shortly before facing Estheriel, Ambrosia gets separated from her party, and faced with her evil half taunting her. She is forced confront the fact that despite supposedly being The Hero, she's been killing Mooks this whole time and it's making her as bad as them. Then she has a vision of either dying at the hands of the villain, or killing her family off. In comparison to any other Black Bug Room, it really isn't that disturbing but it does pave the way for later events.
* [[Blackmail]]: Ambrosia gets some pictures of Nevras {{spoiler|[[Wig, Dress, Accent|crossdressing in order to sneak in to a plot-important building]]}}. Once sold, she can always make more...
* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: God, who apparently is more into some sort of balance than true goodness.
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* [[Can't Get Away with Nuthin']]: Ambrosia's second mission is to stop the angel Estheriel. When she finally faces him, she's told that killing an angel that hasn't given its way to evil and become a demon, is like killing [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|an innocent child]] and will [[Moral Event Horizon|probably drive her mad]]. {{spoiler|It does.}}
* [[Can't Have Sex Ever]]: The not-so-evil wizard, [[Full-Name Basis|Yazim Jianne]]. {{spoiler|His wife dies during an experiment gone wrong, and although he joins the party, he's pretty much the only one that ends up couple-less at the end.}}
** In the book, this is averted. He manages to hook up with Selqui.
* [[Capital Letters Are Magic]]: This seems to be the approach used with most of the magical effects in the game, named items, etc.
* [[Cast from Hit Points]]: Nevras's Dragon Strike ability requires one turn extra, and this, in order to use. Well, it is strong enough to kill a dragon.
** And its inverse, [[Mana Shield]]. Yazim Jianne can do this by transferring however much health is lost (divided by 10) from his magic points.
* [[Casting a Shadow]]/[[Light'Em Up]]: Elias. Ambrosia can use these two, but not directly, needing help from a Power Tattoo.
* [[Cerebus Retcon]]: Double Subverted. {{spoiler|Ambrosia has a sudden flashback where she thinks she was dead, and can't explain why she had no wounds after that. At the time, this turns out to be a test for her resolve, before gaining another Crest, so she denies it showing . It turns out this might have been true later, and she starts to again not exist, this time fading to nothing (that is, the original retcon was subverted, then retconned again as a symptom of another, more horrifying conclusion). Which is then subverted again, as she manages to force herself into existence. Which is then retconned again, this time, [[Mind Screw|applying to everyone but her]].}}
* [[Cerebus Syndrome]]: Much of the game is [[Sweet Dreams Fuel]] with [[An Aesop|various moral lessons about love]] being taught. Then, around the fourth of these, there is everything from a [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]] to the implication that Ambrosia at some point [[Dying Dream|died and the other characters are part of a dream]].
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* [[Closed Circle]]: The town of Sekai can't be left until you fix everyone's problems.
* [[Cognizant Limbs]]: [[Bonus Boss|Zakum]]
* [[Common Tongue]]: While elves know Elvish, and there are some languages from the original Earth (the only ones that survived also had an alphabet attached), there is Common. There's also confusingly, English, which Common is based on, but Common has different grammatical rules.
* [[Continuing Is Painful]]: Experience and 1/2 gold is lost each time the entire party dies. That said, it gets to keep some of the excess experience gained, and the items found.
* [[Continuity Drift]]: A significant problem in the adaptation of the book. Basing it on a video game meant it had certain rules that started to change when rewriting as a book, so it sometimes wound up with [[Broad Strokes]] or [[Out of Character]] moments.
* [[Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story]]: Due to the fact she can't remember her early childhood, she remembers only being adopted at a young age. Too bad her original parents are dead, we can't ask them anything. And she grew up on the streets of a town a continent away after their death, so we can't ask the villagers anything. Needless to say, her actual past turns out to be quite different, once she remembers everything.
* [[Cosmic Egg]]: The Universe Egg.
* [[Crap Saccharine World]]:
* [[Crazy Homeless People]]: Ambrosia, although subverted later in the game, when she buys a house. She's still very much like a crazy person, though.
* [[Crazy Prepared]]: Yazim Jianne has [[Plan B|plans up to J-4]] at least, including the option that he will meet the Oracle of Tao (who he firmly believes does not exist, yet plans for anyway) and [[Monologuing|blurt out all of his plans]].
* [[Creator Cameo]]: The author
* [[Crocodile Tears]]: The name and premise of a [[Fairy Tale]]. A talking crocodile has massive amounts of [[Wangst]] about how the other forest critters don't trust it, so it cries alot. They finally learn to trust it, and everyone lives [[Happily Ever After]]. ''[[Surprise Creepy|Until the crocodile eats everyone.]]''
* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: To its credit, the battle against
* [[Cute and Psycho]]: Ambrosia is definitely crazy, but doesn't seem to have any [[Yandere]] tendencies. She's not [[The Fake Cutie]] either, she's just unstable.
* [[Cutting the Knot]]: One puzzle involves turning all the keys into one key to open a door. Or ramming into the door until half-dead.
== D ==
* [[Dan Browned]]: The libraries are actually funny to read. Not only do they often have gaps in knowledge about certain subjects like [[Real Life]] history and math, but even some of the books about the more fantastic elements don't match up with other books. Either there are varying views of history, or a [[Continuity Snarl|problem with the author's story]], which is even more hilarious since [[Bad Liar|it's all the same author writing it]].
* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: Lilith uses dark powers, but is otherwise friendly.
* [[Dark Reprise]]: There's a few songs that pop up later with a distorted tempo. In particular, one of the vocal songs is muffled and slowed to the point of just being a creepy drone.
* [[Dead Little Sister]]: Yazim Jianne's reason for serving Belial (in this case, his wife).
* [[Deadly Distant Finale]]: Only Nevras and Ambrosia, but it's made clear that except for immortals like angels/demons, that [[Life Will Kill You]].
* [[Death Is Cheap]]: Strangely, in the book. Not only is there resurrection, but there is a [[Reset Button]] that allows the party to get revived when they all die.
* [[Degraded Boss]]: Subverted. They aren't really degraded in difficulty, resulting in some [[Nintendo Hard]] moments when you have to beat a normal enemy with the full power of a boss.
* [[Deliberately Monochrome]]: The Void world has much of the landscape in grey, with the characters in [[Splash of Color]]. Also, this happens in some [[Flashback Effects]].
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* [[Demoted Memories]]: With a bit of [[Medium Awareness]]. Ambrosia manages to convince herself that her quest never happened, that this is a [[Dying Dream]], and that she's a video game character. {{spoiler|She's right on [[Medium Awareness|at least one count]].}}
* [[Derailing Love Interests]]: Also {{spoiler|[[Discount Lesbians]]}}
* [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]: Poor Ambrosia never can catch a break. She finally makes some money thanks to a generous donation and uses it to buy something. Giant worms attack her, ruining the purchase.
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: Played straight and averted. The party gets Cthulhu as a bounty, of all things. The first time, they lose horribly, coupled with with what you might expect from such a loss. Later, they try again, and are able to beat him. Averted with their fight against God though. While the video game version of this does allow you to win with effort, in the book, God beats the party by doing stuff like blowing on them or with the [[Finger-Poke of Doom]].
* [[Difficult but Awesome]]: Aqorm's mechanics. She basically is a weaked-down fighter with stealing ability and a [[Wild Magic|geomancy]] effect. To use her to her full effect requires gaining loads of money, and then charging her to her limit break. Since her limit break basically spends money to deal damage, and the more she has the more damage (but also the more she spends). Then there's the fact that she can take apart mechs [[Final Fantasy X|Riku-style]].
* [[Dirty Communists]]: a number of object lessons on why socialism doesn't work, using apocalyptic imagery to show happens when the [[Cosmopolitan Council|Anti-Government Council]] fails and big government takes over. In addition to causing widespread suffering, the new government isn't even profitable, because when the government wants to enforce the Mark of the Beast (here, a RFID chip inside people to track how wealth is spent and tax accordingly), most people prefer to stay broke. All it does is make the government run out of money when they overtax the poor, and the rich figure out how to keep their money.
** There are also numerous scenes where people actually are called "dirty communists" and one of them involves a town full of vampires and how they suck the lifeblood of others. One chapter has one popping raised fist first out of a coffin.
* [[Dismantled MacGuffin]]:
** In order to become the [[Title Drop|Oracle of Tao]], Ambrosia has to collect a series of scattered tattoos by realizing [[An Aesop|some profound truth]] from various [[Hermit Guru|wise people]] (sort of a [[Shout-Out]] to [[The Lost Years of Merlin|The Seven Songs of Merlin]]).
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* [[Female Angel, Male Demon]]: Inverted. Though the male angel has [[Ambiguous Gender]], and the female demon is highly aggressive.
* [[Feminine Women Can Cook]]: Type 3 and 4.
* [[Fertile Feet]]: Ambrosia, after becoming the Oracle, grows massive amounts of some generic weed, most likely [https://web.archive.org/web/20101209063619/http://www.co.stevens.wa.us/weedboard/other%20weeds/ht1.jpg something called Houndstooth]. Also, in flashbacks ( {{spoiler|since this power was originally hers}} ), she as a kid grew tiny sprouts inside her shadow when she moved.
* [[The Fettered]]: Ambrosia. Which is good, because she's [[Cute and Psycho]], and without her rules she'd go totally [[Ax Crazy]].
* [[The Four Gods]]: A group of bosses in game.
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* [[The Heart]]: Ambrosia, and later {{spoiler|[[The Empath|Tamashii]], her daughter.}}
* [[Hermit Guru]]: Several.
* [[Hero Antagonist]]: Estheriel. [[Ambiguous Gender|Her/his]] heart's in the right place. It's just that, being an angel of justice, he's a bit of an [[Large Ham|over-the-top]] [[Knight Templar]]. In fact, during the entirety of her in-plot backstory events, he has several [[Pet the Dog]] moments, and the only [[Kick the Dog]] one she has, is [[Why Did You Make Me Hit You?|when someone else forces his hand]]. Her only flaw besides that is really that he's willing to [[I Did What I Had to Do|accept the risks of her actions]], in order to try to make the world a better place. Even the commonly used [[Utopia Justifies the Means|End Justifies The Means]] is subverted, as he throws away the [[Der Ring Des Nibelungen|Ring of Nibelung]] and later seals it away when it causes [[The Lord of the Rings|two brothers to murder each other]]. Not that it helps, unfortunately, as the [[No Man of Woman Born|means she uses as a failsafe to the sealing]] [[Loophole Abuse|has a loophole that the Ring uses to undo him]].
* [[Heroic Neutral]]:
** Nevras actually quotes from [[The Godfather]] when he hears of his new quest:
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== P ==
* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]: More specifically, some of its subtropes. Everything from [[Deliberately Monochrome]] to [[Interface Screw]].
* [[Painting the Medium]]: In the book, everything from [[Gratuitous Japanese|Japanese text]] to [[Zalgo]] to special fonts. At one point there is even a background picture or two behind the text.
* [[Pair the Spares]]: Pretty much every character.
* [[Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality]]: The reason for the [[Anchored Ship]] above. Thankfully, Ambrosia gets over it.
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* [[Time Limit Boss]]: Some bosses need to be beaten in about 30 turns, or they use a killer breath attack on you.
* [[Title Drop]]: Several times, as it's Ambrosia's goal.
* [[Token
* [[Tomato in the Mirror]]: Ambrosia.
* [[Too Awesome to Use]]: Reconstructed. The Puffer Sushi is a great item which gets rid of ''all status effects'' (including death) and restores hp/mp. But rather than simply being a very rare item, it is available in some stores for about 9000 gp, when monsters usually don't hold money and you have to make it selling [[Vendor Trash]]. Even when you actually manage to find it for free, it carries a pretty terrible risk. It can heal the party member fully, or it can kill them. The risk of use makes it something that you have to save for when you're really desperate, or the party member is already dead.
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* [[Violently Protective Girlfriend]]: Part of the battle format. Any character that completes their romance sidequests [[Berserk Button|gets extremely mad]] if the other dies.
* [[Voice Actors]]. According to [[Word of God]], the game is currently being voice casted for a few opening and ending sequences (casting was done on starnow.com):
** Ambrosia, is [
** Ambrosia for the [[New Game+]] was originally planned using multiple actors, [[Loads and Loads of Roles|but now all roles]] seem to be done by [
** Bakamaru, Tamashii's boyfriend, is [
** [[Large Ham|Estheriel]], is [[Take a Third Option|neither of the two original candidates]]. Instead, since this was a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]], and [[Narm Charm|a bit of a silly role]], [
** [[Little Miss Almighty|God]], is [
** Lilith is voiced by [http://www.starnow.com/profile/ProfileDetail.aspx?m_id=1660438 Meena Rayann].
** [[Cross-Dressing Voices|Nevras]], is [[Man of a Thousand Voices|talented actress]] [
** Priests are played by [[Relationship Voice Actor|Alan Hooker]] (the author's father).
** [[Dawson Casting|Tamashii]], Ambrosia's {{spoiler|daughter}}, is [
== W ==
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