Oracle of Tao

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"The hero of our story. What was her name again?"

Oracle of Tao ia an amateur RPG Maker game. The basic premise involves a spunky, tomboyish beggar girl, who is called on a Mission from God to save the world by restoring balance... or something. Also, an evil demon is threatening the world and needs to be stopped. Along the way she meets an assorted group of characters starting with her potential love interest, an effeminate swordsman. Beyond the initial story however, there are numerous side tales that can be gleaned from romantic sidequests, and some random dark humor by exploring the world. Not to mention some hints about the nature of the hero herself, and the nature of the world.

Oracle of Tao has recently been made into a book on Amazon.

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List of Main Characters

• Our hero, Ambrosia Brahmin.
• The swordsman, Nevras Fitzembor.
• The elf, Aqorm Flowless
• The shaman Elias (last name never mentioned ).
• The nature girl, Anideshi (no last name ).
• The exorcist, Azrael Runesealer.
• The dark wizard (an optional character), Yazim Jianne.
• The demon, Lilith.
• The angel, Michael. Sorry, the Archangel Michael.
• The Big Bad, Belial.
  • The second game Hero Antagonist, the angel Estheriel.
• Ambrosia's daughter, Tamashii Brahmin.

Oracle of Tao is the Trope Namer for:

• The Chain of Harm. Trope namer.
• Literal Strawman.
• Mune Shinri: The book of the main "religion" (cough*cult*cough ) of this Religious Edutainment. Obviously, it's not mentioned anywhere before (or likely to appear elsewhere).

Tropes used in Oracle of Tao include:

A

• Action Girl: Our female lead, Ambrosia Brahmin.
  • And Nevras is likely a male Yamato Nadeshiko (he's has got the Silk Hiding Steel personality down pat, even though ostensibly he looks like Cloud. He's attractive enough for a guy, and has a the quiet nobility thing too) .
• Adaptation Expansion: The book version of the game has a number of major changes, such as more backstory and exposition, an explanationof how magic works (there writing floating around on a microscopic level called runes), the addition of alchemy, and even new characters.
  • There are two villains added in for the book (Mariposa and Asmodeus), and two friendly characters are given an Age Lift so Tamashii has kids her own age to talk to.
  • 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 Destination Host Unreachable (in the case of old age).
  • 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: Gender flipped. Ambrosia seems to care little about her heroic quest, but has a psychological breakdown if something goes wrong in her relationship.
• Ambition Is Evil: Neither Ambrosia, nor the crown prince Nevras, nor Tamashii, their daughter want the kingdom promised them. Instead, they want freedom and a house in the fantasy suburbs.
• Amnesiac Hero: She can't remember her real parents or anything before age four (nine, in the book).
• 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 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: 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. 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.
• Asian Rune Chant: The Kuji-in pops up at least once, as Azrael's special attack.
• Attractive Bent Gender: All male angels, and half-angels. But especially Michael.
• Author Appeal:
  • The game, being made without a corporation or outside input, but as a hobby game, is presumably entirely this (or else it wouldn't be included). On a more specific note, both the high number of MarathonBosses and RomanceSidequests are the author's main reason for liking the game.
  • The author also has a thing for Cerebus Endings, as most of the main game and one of the second game have extremely bleak, if not downright scary endings. This game literally has an Axe Crazy ending where the hero wipes out her own party.
  • There's obviously a fetish for crossdressing. It is possible to go through the game with three of the characters wearing women's clothes, and there are some side-references to it in some NPC lines. Not to mention the whole "angels are sexless" thing, where Michael is clearly wearing a skirt and appears to have breasts in his battlesets.
• Awesome By Analysis: Elias can learn to summon (or several other magic types) just by reading books about various creatures (when usually this involves fighting monsters).
  • He can also learn how to do runecasting this way.
  • For that matter, if he browses through the libraries, he reads a four volume set called 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: 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 Blade of Fearsome Size who can slice things into ribbons. Their daughter is The Empath with Magikarp Power on all stats.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: The Fractured Fairy Tale "The Ever-Exploding Head."

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.
    • There's a literal item by this name too, that lets the party do this anywhere.
• 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 Domo Arigato Mr Roboto for machine enemies), or in some cases a random song that may not even be suited for battles (such as romance songs of the 1980s).
• 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.
  • This is also the case with characters who have been turned to stone. Attacks still work on them, causing a petrified party member to then be killed.
  • Subverted with better coding, but certain effects still make this happen.
    • The Multi-Attack ability used to always be this way, dealing each attack with about a two second wait until done, and Beating a Dead Player regardless. (The two second wait is to prevent interruption for other attacks). It doesn't anymore, though.
• Beef Gate:
  • (Simultaneously this, and Giant Space Flea From Nowhere). Much of the enemies are sort of mystical fantasy-themed, with dragons and the like. And then, if the party goes out of order in the plot, there are three distinct places where it can encounter Elder Gods.
  • Also a Cash Gate, though this one is more manageable. Just pay the toll, and cross the bridge.
• Beneath the Mask: Both Ambrosia and Nevras have things they'd rather not show.
• Beta Couple: Every character besides the main two (and one extra character, who stays single).
• Better as Friends: One of the couples can be swapped out for another. Since it's borderline 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 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 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 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.
• Bodyguard Crush: Possibly the main couple.
• Bonus Boss: Zakum from Maple Story.
• Bottomless Magazines: Averted after an update. A long bow now uses up arrows from the inventory, unequipping your last arrow and getting rid of it when you fire the last one (small glitch of being able to unequip the last, makes 10 arrows really only give 9 shots).
• Break-Up Bonfire: Averted. She keeps his personal items, like his diary.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Ambrosia herself, in a moment of doubt (she later is talked into "realizing" she's real again).

I'm not real! I'm just a video game character!

• The Butcher: Oddly subverted, and made into one of Acceptable Feminine Goals. Lilith being from a race of violent demons, wants to be a cook because she likes cutting things up.
  • Later gets training from the Chef of Iron.

C

• Call to Agriculture: Seriously, this is among the good endings.
• 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 an innocent child and will probably drive her mad. It does.
• Can't Have Sex Ever: The not-so-evil wizard, Yazim Jianne. 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. 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, applying to everyone but her.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Much of the game is Sweet Dreams Fuel with 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 died and the other characters are part of a dream.
  • For that matter, Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: Immediately after a terrible point in a story where someone gets Impaled with Extreme Prejudice you have three choices as to whether to finish them off, leave them, or kill them. Killing them makes the story head south, while either of the other options causes the ending to take a dramatic upswing.
• Chandler's Law: Raymond Chandler actually appears as a preserved holograph in a futuristic town, partially explains the trope (with ninjas dramatically popping up, walking up to the hero and attacking, and disappearing before anyone can figure out what's going on).
• City with No Name: The opening town? It's called Opening town, and you can rename it.
• Closed Circle: The town of Sekai can't be left until you fix everyone's problems.
• Cognizant Limbs: 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: The universe and everyone in it, beside the hero don't even exist. Unlike the typical Dream Apocalypse, where some people may have been there before the dream, it is kinda clear that the only option for the remaining person (who in fact turns out to be the avatar of God) is to either spend eternity alone once she awakes from this dream, or knowingly create every living thing, realizing that there's a change they still might not be real.
• 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 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 blurt out all of his plans.
• Creator Cameo: The author pops up in Hell at a weapons shop. Why? Because he's down in the dumps, thought about killing himself, and decided against it. He comments about how he's not even sure the game is all that great, after which Ambrosia snaps and tells him she'll kick his ass if he doesn't cheer up. When he finally does cheer up, he dons a dress and walks off stage.
• 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. Until the crocodile eats everyone.
• Curb Stomp Battle: To its credit, the battle against one boss monster is fake. The real monster is the one who told them to climb the tower, and is standing outside it.
• 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 problem with the author's story, which is even more hilarious since 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.
• Democracy Is Bad: The current Earth is run by a group dedicated to organized anarchy. That is, a world government is set up, in order to ensure cities cannot form large governments and oppress people.
• 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. She's right on at least one count.
• Derailing Love Interests: Also 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 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 Riku-style.
• Dirty Communists: a number of object lessons on why socialism doesn't work, using apocalyptic imagery to show happens when the 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 Oracle of Tao, Ambrosia has to collect a series of scattered tattoos by realizing some profound truth from various wise people (sort of a Shout-Out to The Seven Songs of Merlin).
  • Also, another version of this is going on in the villains' case, since the Big Bad is sealed inside a giant pot, and thirteen gems are needed to unseal the spell.
• Divine Date: Nevras finds out Ambrosia is God, and shortly thereafter asks her on a date.
• Divine Parentage: Tamashii's mom is literally God.
• Double Consciousness: Ambrosia has this. As does Anideshi, due to her Sage trance ability.
• Downtime Downgrade: Averted. During the downtime, not only do they not break up, but Ambrosia actually has a child.
• Dragons Up the Yin-Yang: Lots of both, including a few Eastern dragons.
• Dramatic Shattering: It's not actually glass that's breaking... Ambrosia has an existential crisis, and the image on the screen is herself shattering into a million pieces, before she ceases to exist. She gets better, though.
• Dual Boss: Sera and Phim.
  • And Duel Boss: Nevras's sword trainer.

E

• Earth All Along: lampshaded from the very beginning of the game, along with a second world called the Void due to World Sundering. The Playable Epilogue omits the extra world, since the gate to this other world was presumably sealed.
• Easy Exp: A Metal Slime enemy or two.
• Easter Egg: Not only are there a number of secrets, Pressing * allows you to enter a Video Game Cheats, and there are numerous hidden items and secret battles but there are some interesting scenes that are hard to find, to say nothing of pretty much every book in the library and every grave in the graveyard having something to say.
• Eldritch Abomination: Three to be exact.
• Eldritch Location: Also Bizarrchitecture. Castle made of flesh, veins, and blood flowing in the background? Check. Same castle also filled with floating islands with few to no walls? Check. Same castle really the foundation of the universe and possibly a fetal metaphor? Check. Hands and eyes as part of the landscape? Check.
  • Also Malevolent Architecture: A few of the castles would fit the description.
• Equivalent Exchange: A variety of these. Most magic uses MP as its price, much like Final Fantasy, but some abilities are Cast from Hit Points.
  • On the other end of the scale, you have a Mana Shield.
  • And then there's Elias's Alchemy, which aside from making cool items, has certain alchemy spells. But in order to learn each spell or make a super-rare item (like gold), you sacrifice anywhere from a level to 10 levels (and you can combine spells together, meaning there's a chance you might end up making the same spell more than two times).
• Empathic Environment: Defied.
• Everyone Meets Everyone: Also, Putting the Band Back Together.
• Expy: Loads of these, from Chrono Trigger characters to Kingdom Hearts. Mainly, these are secondary characters or NPCs.

F

• Fairy Tales: Each library has a few. These are typically not known tales, but rather in-universe fantasy stories. For instance, one of the better stories is "The Bloody Pet Shovel" (in its entirety).
• Fake Balance:
  • The battle balance is a little... weird. Attacks in the early game barely hurt enemies, but then after the tenth epic weapon, and after beating enemies with magic, it's not really so. For Massive Damage is also a big part of this.
• Fantastic Religious Weirdness: The world religions are greatly affected by a demonic upheaval that destroys most of the population. Churches, even Catholic ones, are referred to as "revival" churches, which takes on a new meaning entirely, since much of these religions are gone, along with their members. Instead of temples, most people in need of healing or worship, have to seek out wandering old priests. Also, many religions have become their endtimes equivalent (such as Miroku Buddhism, which is mainly composed of itinerant monks). That and the general state of the Earth is such that angels and demons are present in temples.
• 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 something called Houndstooth. Also, in flashbacks ( 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.
• Fighting Your Friend: Ambrosia fights her former party.
• Five-Token Band: The party has everything from elves, to angels, and demons.
• Freeware Games: Duh, the game itself.
• Functional Magic: Some of the spells fall under various categories...
  • Language of Magic: Angels can use true names to learn spells (similar to the Treasure of the Rudra)
  • Rule Magic: Similar to Old Kingdom style exorcism.
  • Alchemy: Less along the lines of FMA-style alchemy, and more Just Add Water.
  • Wild Magic: A FFT style geomancy system.
  • Summon Magic: Percentage-based MP cost.
  • And of course, Elemental Magic, White Magic, and Black Magic.

G

• Game Favored Gender: In terms of item usage and magic, most of the females have more magic power and versatility. The game has an interesting workaround, though.
  • Also averted No Periods, Period: Uses the Lina Inverse rule of magic loss during the menstrual cycle. This is a balance to the above advantage for females.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Ambrosia's actual powers, and those she gets at the end of the game, are significantly different in scale (although she still has one skill that can bypass maximum damage, it's nowhere near her story powers).
  • Also, see the Never Say "Die" example below. Death mainly happens outside of battle.
• Game Breaking Bug: The random damage algorithm is extremely buggy (not the normal damage one, but the code for special attacks that were not reflectable). It used to have Beating a Dead Player as a fairly common effect, and when that was sorted out, there was a problem where if you tried to attack while it was doing this, it might jam all motion in the game. After this got fixed, it turned out that one of the characters didn't have the random number code at the end of their conditional, so if it happened to land on them, the code would stall if they weren't in the party. This might be fixed now, probably.
• Gainax Ending:
  • Even if you win, the ending depends on the ending party. That is, you can "win" with the wrong party and have most/all of the party die (since the final boss has a final attack scripted by the story).
  • If the party dies, but you have the right party, the characters just say some really strange words about the hero, and how she wasn't really a good person, not really a bad person, "she was a person." And then they walk off. If you don't have the right party, the universe explodes. It is explained why, and yet still doesn't totally make sense.
  • Even the best ending makes no sense, as it turns out the main hero was God all along (she's told this by God), and now has the choice while sitting in a White Void Room on whether to create the universe or not (and she can definitely choose to just become God and sit by herself for all eternity). What?!? It Gets Better, though.
  • The Playable Epilogue has three endings, none of which yield a rational conclusion.
• Gay Option and Give Geeks a Chance as the other option.
• Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: There are sudden jarring changes from a fantasy setting monsters to robots and the like.
• Golden Ending: The game has multiple endings, but in order to unlock the best, you need to complete a romance event between the male and female leads, defeat the final boss, and fight the extra final boss forms (this unlocks the Playable Epilogue which has its own Golden Ending). It turns out Ambrosia is really God, and that her suspicion that she was dreaming is only half right, and that world itself doesn't exist. Ultimately, though, she can cause it to be born, making a Double Subversion of the notion that she was dreaming. She gets to live in the world with the brand new, Real Life versions of the characters. There's also an extra ending sequence by killing an optional boss.
  • Actually no, that's not even the rarest ending. The rarest ending is actually after winning against Cthulhu rather than getting the loss ending, and talking to him, and choosing option 2. See Radar section for more details, as this is deeply hidden in the game.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: One of the endings has a literal Cthulhu-style ending where unspeakable things which we won't speak of here happen to Ambrosia, driving her nuts before the universe is consumed by the Elder Gods.
• Go Mad From the Isolation: Even if you would get the Golden Ending, you have a choice to either let the universe go on with just Ambrosia ruling as God or do something about it. If you choose the first choice, she gets to sit by herself and her evil half for all eternity. This is avoidable, though.
• Good Parents: There are several instances of this, listed below.
  • When the Ambrosia's and Nevras's child dies in battle, both of them buff up dramatically, and the Limit Break fills more easily.
  • Tamashii can also not drink any ales or other beverages. And one item, the Puffer Fish Sushi, which has a chance of killing party members as often as it heals them (it's nutritious), Ambrosia will forbid her from using because "it's dangerous."
  • The two of them also protect her from experience loss due to party death by taking it on themselves.
    • That said, Ambrosia is a rather strange mom.
• Grand Finale. The actual ending of the game, after the main game and the Playable Epilogue, essentially wraps up the story of three generations of a few family lines (four, on Ambrosia's side), ending in the death and afterlife of our main characters. Unless Ambrosia gets wished back with a Dragon Ball, there's no viable way to continue this story.
• The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches: The initial design of the game was designed with many of these in mind.
• Green Aesop: Two of these, actually. The nature of the Earth is split due to destruction of the environment and God's resulting intervention. And one whole town screwed up its air and water by using radioactive matter to power their city.
• Grey and Gray Morality: Much of the game, Ambrosia is either morally mixed, fighting a mostly evil (but with Pet the Dog moments) enemy, or a mostly good (but with Utopia Justifies the Means moments) enemy.
• Grow Old with Me: Followed by Eternal Love. (In the final and best ending)
• Guide Dang It: Some of the puzzles.
  • The entire Alchemy system. Through trial-and-error, it's solvable, but you end up buying a bunch of items that you'd never use to figure out a few formulas, and making the Philosopher's Stone uses a Level Root, as does the Ultimate Weapon. Add to this fact that many formulas don't really work until after the Philosopher's Stone is made, and you find a very difficult to understand system.

H

• Has Two Mommies and actual Homosexual Reproduction: Aqorm and Lilith might be shown with a child at the ending.
• The Heart: Ambrosia, and later Tamashii, her daughter.
• Hermit Guru: Several.
• Hero Antagonist: Estheriel. Her/his heart's in the right place. It's just that, being an angel of justice, he's a bit of an 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 when someone else forces his hand. Her only flaw besides that is really that he's willing to accept the risks of her actions, in order to try to make the world a better place. Even the commonly used End Justifies The Means is subverted, as he throws away the Ring of Nibelung and later seals it away when it causes two brothers to murder each other. Not that it helps, unfortunately, as the means she uses as a failsafe to the sealing 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:

Nevras: Another one? Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!

• • Also Lilith, despite being a demon. She's locked her house until Ambrosia enters her life, then gets persuaded by her earnestness.
• Heroic BSOD: Ambrosia can have one at about two or three different points, since she doesn't really want the quest in the first place.
• Heroic RROD: Nevras learns a technique named Blossom at some point. It's basically a combo attack that can give him up to eight attacks. The ninth time this is used, though... he executes a single attack that drains enormous amounts of life, and then kills him.
• Hidden Elf Village: The town of Ru'un is right smack in the middle of a forest maze.
• Holiday Mode:
  • The 15th week of the year is supposedly the fourth week of December, when Christmas week is. Around this time, Ambrosia's costume (inside the world map towns) changes to a Santa cap, as does her battle animation. Her cane weapon even changes to a candy cane!
  • There's a Christmas village (which has a Thomas Kinkade painting as its background, apparently), where Santa can give you some fairly nice presents. Or some shabby ones.
• Homeless Hero: Subverted, since over the course of the story, she gains a house.
  • Also Humble Hero, for her general view that Ambition Is Evil with regard to any rewards for her quest.
• Hope Spot/Despair Event Horizon: If you don't have the right party, the characters will still make pretty speeches on The Power of Love. It'll seem effective for awhile, but... everyone dies.
• Hot Chick with a Sword: Lilith.
  • She also counts as a Dominatrix by her all-black outfit, and choice of weapons.
• House Husband: Nevras, if the second intro is to be believed.

I

• I Fought the Law and the Law Won: One of the towns.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Ambrosia, since much of her quest doesn't seem to be directly related to her. Instead, she starts out alone in a town and gathers a party.
  • Lonely Together: Ambrosia and Nevras.
    • Heck, half the party seems to have no secondary friendships, and is drawn together for this reason.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Averted. The party tries to stop/talk to Ambrosia when she goes off the deep end and starts killing people. It turns out she doesn't even remember them. And then things go really wrong on both the stopping and talking parts.
• Immortal Immaturity: Lilith and Michael, though probably more a case of Emotional Maturity Is Physical Maturity since they look in their twenties.
• In Harmony with Nature: Anideshi, presumably.
• In-Universe Game Clock: Theoretically, we have days/nights, weeks, and months, which are also tied to the weather in seasons.
• I Lied/False Reassurance: Played for Laughs with a demon. Twice, and the wizard working for him falls for both.

Belial: Seek the rest quickly and I shall reward you greatly! Belial: I promise, on my honor as a demon to grant any wish I am capable.

• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: One of the final bosses gets run through with a heavy spear.
• Interface Screw: mainly Ambrosia, when hit by confuse or blind (possibly justified, since she is the leader, after all).
  • Outside of controls however, the game functions are constantly tweaked (such as the day/night system being tweaked by the Void world so if you stay too long outside you die, or the weather system changing due to seasons, or some of the assumed game rules being bypassed by certain effects).
• Interspecies Romance.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Angels. Which is why killing one, even for morally questionable deeds, is enough to trigger a Moral Event Horizon, apparently.
• It's Always Spring: Averted, as there are seasons.

J

• Jerkass Has a Point: The underlying theme of the series. The villains usually have a valid goal, even if they don't go about it correctly.
• Jiggle Physics: Although the physics part is a bit weak, Lilith's clothing shifts a bit (and beneath the clothing) when she moves.
• Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Many things are revealed in this game, spaced out all over the place. There is at the very opening, a World Sundering, of the New Earth and the Void which was the old Earth. Then Ambrosia gets a series of religious truths foisted on her, along which the revelation that she might not be real, and the realization that she has a Literal Split Personality causing chaos around her. This is to say nothing of the often conflicting (as viewed by histories, versus personal accounts, versus the demon's own account) versions of people getting raptured by a demon's coming, various personal plots scattered about the world, Ambrosia's quest to find her memories of her parents, and various secrets revealed at the end about her identity, the world, and everything in it. And it's not even truly over, so there is a second game to tie up loose ends, with an additional secret or two the Oracle's role is actually a replacement to extend the lifespan of God, since without someone to renew the cycle, God and everything else in existence is doomed to return to the Void they came from.
• Judge, Jury, and Executioner: The police in Hotaru will literally cause a gameover if they manage to catch you.
• Jumped At the Call: Ambrosia, largely since she had nothing better to do (the second time, not so much).

K

• Kaizo Trap: The Final Boss has one if you have the wrong party. The boss in question would before dying and being removed from the field, as part of the plot blow up the surrounding area, killing off everyone who isn't somehow immortal. This includes Lilith, Michael, and Anideshi the Sage. It also includes Azrael, and Nevras as their presence triggers a different event. But if you have Ambrosia, Elias, Aqorm, Anideshi (normal, without a special item she gets), or Yazim Jiane, the blast will kill everyone off resulting in a bad ending (well, worse, considering the ending is already bad simply for choosing the wrong party).
• Kill'Em All: One of the most interesting endings involves Ambrosia snapping after killing an angel, and deciding that since she has already created the universe, her job description of maintaining the Balance Between Good and Evil requires that she... balance the scales.
• Kill Me Now or Forever Stay Your Hand: This situation is on the final showdown against rivals. Later becomes the start of a Heel Face Turn, when the mercenaries (motivated by Greed not malice ) find out the Big Bad temporarily exploying them is lying about the payment, because they will be nowhere to spend it.
• Killer Rabbit: Seriously, one of the enemies is even named this, and with 999 attack and double hit, they mean it for lower levels.
• Knight Templar: Estheriel, though to his credit, he actually does care for humanity. It's just he has completely wrong way of going about it, when faced with the choice of people hurting/killing each other due to free will.

L

• Lady Land: Sort of. The town's name is Futanari.
• Lao-tzu: Well, duh. It's a Taoist Religious Edutainment game. You get to beat him up in battle too.
• Laser Blade: The futuristic land of Hotaru has a lightsaber in a chest.
• Laser Hallway: One of the futuristic towns has this on several floors. The lasers deal damage (it stops damage at 1 hp), and knock the hero back, sometimes into enemies.
• Last-Minute Hookup: The Gay Option above, only is completable after the Playable Epilogue.
• Lazy Backup: RPG Maker has it designed this way, barring massive coding. Subverted in one bonus castle that actually requires teamwork from the multiple parties. But still, they won't actually help in battle if your party dies.
• Lemony Narrator: Ambrosia is also the narrator. She goes on side topics about her family or personal history, glossing over what a normal narrator would consider the main story. It somehow manages to avoid Protagonist-Centered Morality, since Ambrosia has no real illusions of her own righteousness. But she talks a great deal about her personal interests in the story at hand (if she's interested in it), her failings in knowledge legends and history, and her overall skepticism in the story's plot.

Ambrosia: ...God would send an Oracle to restore the Earth to Balance, and stuff. But that'll never happen.

• • Ambrosia mainly narrates in the opening parts of either the main game or the Playable Epilogue, and seems to care even less about the main story the second time, preferring to instead talk about her marriage and subsequent child.
• Light Is Not Good: Two distinct versions of this, one a Knight Templar who is a party member, the other an Endgame Plus final boss.
• Limit Break: The game uses a meter to the left of the character. Magic and skill use doesn't fill this, but the relatively useless (early game, anyway) attack command does. When it fills to the top, Attack is replaced by your Limit Break.
• Little Miss Snarker: Tamashii to some extent. She says some pretty off-color things.
• Loophole Abuse: You can actually make your money, by repeatedly selling blackmail pictures.
• Love At First Punch: Ambrosia doesn't get to know Nevras until after a bar scene where he's beaten up over something he said.
• Love Chart: Hidden statistic, but one made to determine possible relationships.
• Love Will Lead You Back: With An Aesop about how it's hard work to fix what's broken.
• Loving a Shadow: In the literal sense. (Also, Fighting a Shadow)

M

• Magitek: To a really huge extent. Cellphones run on lightning magic, and emotional connections. Automatic Teller Machines run on some sort of magic. One town has an subversion of this, since it is an ancient city of lost technology.
• Make-Out Point: One of the bars.
• Make Up or Break Up: The option which happens actually determines your ending.
• Marathon Boss: This game loves these.
  • And also Padded Sumo Gameplay. Many of the bosses have some type of regeneration that you have to outrun or disable (there are many ways to do this). Or some Weaksauce Weakness that turns what seems to be a Marathon Boss into a Puzzle Boss.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Nevras definitely fits this side of the equation, and Ambrosia is both tough physically and has a fearsome temper.
• Masquerade: Subverted. There is a lot of freaky stuff that goes on in this world, and for the most part the general populace (at least, the educated general populace, Ambrosia seems to need to be explained things) knows about them, and doesn't care. Except for the one big secret: that the world and everyone in it but Ambrosia, don't exist, at least not until after her help.
• May-December Romance: Averted. Thank God.

Yazim Jiane: Why, hello there little child, will you come play with me? Tamashii: Look Mommy, this man is a pedophile.

• Mayfly-December Romance: Two, actually. One with a man and an half-elf girl, the second between the same half-elf girl and an immortal demon.
• Medium Blending: There is everything from animated scenes, to color pictures and photographs, to black-and-white sketches, to normal sprites, to sprites from other games that don't match the game's sprites at all.
• Men Act, Women Are:
  • Played straight in that Ambrosia is God's daughter/God, and Nevras is the resident warrior.
  • Inverted, since Nevras is by default the crown prince and more or less a Non-Action Guy that doesn't even want the job, and manages to avert it mainly because he marries into poverty. The case for Ambrosia is based on her quest, that it something she has to do, to earn her birthright.
• Might Makes Right: Regardless of what your character believes in, usually the way to "prove" it is to defeat the other in battle.
  • And oddly enough, its inverse. Although "right" is replaced with "love."
• Mirror Match: Also an important plot point, as you have a dark side.
• Mistaken Declaration of Love: One of the reasons for a breakup, is after a kiss.
• Money for Nothing:
  • Averted (to an extent). You can get beyond the maximum amount actually held in the game, by putting it into your back past that amount (in which case your back tenders you the million dollar bill item, which can be used to buy stuff like houses). Still, you can get to the point where you technically have millions upon millions, and nothing to spend it on.
  • This does make a bit of Global Currency Exception when million dollar bills can't buy most stuff directly, and you have to use them as items (which puts $999,999 into your pocket).
• Money Spider: Subverted. Killing enemies, except in the case of humans, dragons, and some humanoid ghosts, does not add to party gold. Selling excess crap (including furs and bones ) on the other hand, does.
  • Expect a few Pinata Enemy types to supplement this.
• Mr. Exposition: Your priest, Elias is a bit of a brainiac, knowing just about everything about every subject in the game. Justified, in that he's spent about 2/3 of his life in a library.
• Ms. Fanservice: Lilith, and to some extent, Ambrosia's dark half.
  • Oddly enough, some of the men's disguises fall under this category. Nevras crossdresses as a maid, Elias has a shrine priestess outfit, and Yazim Jianne is a Cute Witch.
• Multiple Endings: And how! There's over ten endings, most of them bad.
• Murder Makes You Crazy: Ambrosia is more or less a little crazy already (being a Mood Swinger Sugar and Ice Personality with a Literal Split Personality), but in a Bad Ending she goes noticeably over the edge after killing an angel. She starts talking about "balancing the scales" (which, since she created the universe from a Dream Apocalypse, means basically destroying everything), and goes on a homicidal rampage, even killing her own party.
• Mushroom Samba: If you lose a Bounty Hunt battle with a mushroom, instead of game over, you get some multi-hued fun.
• My Own Grampa: Ambrosia is an incarnation of God, and God married her mother to make her. So she's her own "father."
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: The monsters don't have to abide the long term effects of status effects. Not to mention many of the effects simply aren't programmed to work on enemies the way they are to party members, and vice versa. Stone, for instance means party gameover if all allies are hit with it. It usually just stops enemies cold for the rest of the battle.

N

• Nature Hero: Anideshi.
• Necessarily Evil: The demon, Belial. It turns out he knows that he is doing evil, but not for any discernible benefit of anyone on Earth. He's coerced by his fellow demons to find them a homeland, even though this likely means the destruction of most current life on Earth. Likewise, he destroyed a huge number of people on Earth because he was treated like a monster and sealed into an urn.
• Never Say "Die": Similar to Earthbound, there is an altered enemy defeat caption. It says something about how the enemies were defeated in "bloodless" combat. This is done less because the characters have an aversion to killing, and more to prevent a Broken Aesop.
  • The game does have actual bloodshed in it, at least in the form of the NPCs. It's just mostly outside of battle.
• No Body Left Behind: Usually the case will various creatures dying or running away. Occasionally, you might get bones or mild 2d gore. This is more to not clutter up the screen than any censorship concerns though.
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: One of the reasons given for why the breakup may have happened.
• No Loves Intersect: Subverted, as it boils down to a choice. If you make the Beta Couple stay together, everyone matches up as normal. Otherwise, two people are left alone, while the third has the Tall, Dark and Bishoujo Gay Option.
• No Ontological Inertia: Basically everything, inside the Void. The only place that is safe is town.
• No Such Thing as Wizard Jesus: There is some overlap between various characters and what religious characters can do (notably Fertile Feet). This trend is actually lampshaded, as Ambrosia is worried that if there's Heaven and Hell on Earth, she has doubts about an afterlife.
• Nothing Is Scarier: In one town, there's an upstairs room that people nearby say "don't go upstairs, there's nothing up there." If you do it anyway, there really is nothing there (you get trapped in the room, which fades to black, until it swallows you up). Making it literally nothing is scarier.

O

• Only in It For the Money: Sera and Phim, the two recurring bounty hunters.
• Ontological Mystery: Subverted in that it doesn't take place inside a Closed Circle. But it does involve a Quest for Identity. And it does involve a Dream Apocalypse.
• Only Smart People May Pass: That, or several cases of Moon Logic Puzzle.
• Optional Sexual Encounter: Also, one of the Bounty Hunts can do this to you if you fail. The One Eyed Snake.
• Our Monsters Are Different.
  • Our Angels Are Different: There are two type of angels, the modern WingedHumanoids, and the older EldritchAbominations model. This is actually justified, explaining that traditionally angels were all like the Eldritch Abomination mentioning this story, but because humans have a great tendency for interspecies relationships, current angels are actually a watered-down breed.
  • Our Demons Are Different: Demons are supposedly the same initial breed as angels, just more inclined toward evil. They've somehow bred differently than angels, becoming more the Horny Devils variety, those there are several subspecies of demons. Children of angels and demons appear human.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Everything from Eastern, to Western, to Dungeons & Dragons style chrmoatic, metal, and jewel dragons.
  • Our Elves Are Better: Elves are essentially human, but even half-elves have abnormal lifespans and centuries of youth.
  • Our Ghouls Are Creepier: The idea was based from the movie Ghouls. They keep coming back, unless somehow sealed away, and come from another dimension.
  • Our Mermaids Are Different: Everything from merfolk, to water elementals, to sirens.
  • Our Monsters Are Weird: You fight everything from Elder Gods, to robots, to Stonehenge. Super-cute anime style sirens, Shout-Out enemies, and truly freakish monsters populate the game.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires are subject to silver and holy effects, and vampire lords can only be killed by destroying their coffin. Vampires protect one of the towns, in exchange for their food. Stakes are never mentioned, and vampires actually like garlic. Vampires are more like some wild beast than true undead, and can probably mate.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: There are three types, conventional (undead), diseased zombies (which can best be killed by wounding their brains), and Thriller zombies (Shout-Out to Michael Jackson).
• Ouroboros: As a boss.

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 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.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Anideshi and Azrael. Sort of an odd example though, since it's not the parents that arranged it, but destiny (that and it's a two-woman relationship). In a book she reads, there's some prophecy that Anideshi is doomed to be reincarnated over and over again, until the last time where she's reborn to save the world with an exorcist, and finalize the relationship. She struggles with this and doesn't want to see anyone for fear her life would get written for her, but actually pairs up with Azrael, who just happens to be an exorcist.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Ambrosia can, in the story, at least, destroy the entire universe with nothing more than a whim. She only has it for brief periods, though.
• Platonic Cave: It turns out the entire world is an illusion.
• Playable Epilogue. (Currently incomplete)
• Point of No Return: There are a few of these.
• Posthumous Narration: Subverted, in that it's never clear exactly when she starts narrating. She may start at the beginning in fact, but by the end of the game she is dead and in Heaven of sorts.
• Polluted Wasteland: Hotaru, which has air so toxic you can't even stay outside for more than about 5 minutes.
• Power of Love: Several of the endgame speeches are along these lines, most notably the last boss, where Tamashii plays a big role in their defeat with her Empathy technique.
• Power of the Void: Which is usually the ability to slowly consume things in nothingness.
• Power Born of Madness: A special ending, where the hero crosses her Moral Event Horizon by choosing to murder an angel. She then decides to become a sort of moral balance, since there's too much good (or something), and tries to destroy everything. When they try to stop her, it turns out her madness has given her Reality Warper powers, not to mention Nigh Invulnerability, so she slaughters the entire party.
• Pre-Climax Climax. Blacked out, but there are sound effects to indicate what's going on.
• Psychic Powers: The hero's daughter, Tamashii is The Empath, with some pyrokinesis and healing powers.
• Puzzle Reset: Normally, this happens when you exit a dungeon.

Q

• Quickly-Demoted Woman: Inverted. Within 10 minutes of the game, Ambrosia goes from beggar to middle class, possibly with a bank account.
• The Quiet One: Azrael can be this at times. She rarely speaks, except to note some supernatural or magical event.

R

• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A dwarf and a Bishonen seem to have teamed up as mercenaries. They end up being the game's recurring Worthy Opponent equivalent for the party, ultimately helping them when faced with the fact that their employer will destroy not only the world but the economy.
• Rasputinian Death: Belial is beaten up in two or three forms, the party unites their powers to blast him away. This doesn't kill him, and the part has to kill off his true true form, which turns him into a ghost. Once that ghost is dead, to put him away for good requires draining all his magic.
• Reality Warper: The end of the game, she gains the power to create/destroy pretty much the entire universe. Still, due to Gameplay and Story Segregation, she never uses these in battle.
• Reconstruction: See the Fridge Section for more details.
• Red Mage: Elias.
• Reference Overdosed: There are ShoutOuts to several anime, things like Journey to the West, assorted books, and other games. Some of the characters are Expy-types for this reason.
• Reincarnation Romance: Anideshi and Azrael.
• Religious Edutainment: The game is a strange mix of several different religions to teach the author's personal beliefs.
• Repurposed Pop Song: As opening, ending, and insert songs. Songs from the 1970s, 1980s, and some Korean Dramas (the game sorta justifies this by making no money).
• Respawn Point: You die, and you end up in a tent (unless you don't have the tent yet, or make the choice to give up, in which case it's gameover).
• Resurrection Sickness: You start at 1 hp, and are unable to cast most spells, for one battle.
• The Reveal Prompts Romance: Nevras's dark secret as a Wholesome Crossdresser.
• Rising Cost of Health Insurance: Both inns and priests cost more as your character levels.
• Romance Sidequest: for basically all characters (except Yazim Jianne).

S

• Scarecrow Solution: When Ambrosia goes Ax Crazy, she uses the party's dead bodies as scarecrows to keep the voices in her head at bay.
• Scenery Porn: Just about every background scene is either a shot taken on a camera, or a wall painting, or some sort of fanart, with everything from gorge overlooks to pictures of fields or forests, to Alien Sky or even The End of the World as We Know It.
• Scheherazade Gambit:
  • There's some heavy speeches in this game. Everything from a Green Aesop, to political or theological viewpoints. Much of it is also Talking the Monster to Death, though it doesn't really avert battles.
  • Often it works after the battle, getting you the MacGuffin, or interesting the monster enough with your responses that they join your party.
• Schrödinger's Cast: Ambrosia at one point is unsure whether she's alive or dead. She's given a choice whether she decides she's alive or dead, based on various flashbacks. It can go either way. The rest of the cast is either alive, or doesn't exist, depending upon whether Ambrosia decides to create them.
• Schrödinger's Question: Pretty much the ending options you choose can determine whether the entire universe exists or not. Among other things...
  • And a Shout-Out to Schrödinger's Butterfly in one of the temples. There is a character, asking the characters who talk to it if it's a butterfly or a person. The answer seems to be implied by what's on the screen. Not to mention the story itself is Schrödinger's Butterfly.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Belial has been trappedfor much of his life in an urn. Although, he's only really evil after being sealed in an urn.
• Self-Disposing Villain: On a Mook scale. Some of the lesser creatures, notably goblins/kobolds, would rather kill themselves than let you take them alive, and may do so after about 1/2 their life is gone.
• Sequel Reset: Game's all wrapped up, but then we have a sequel. Why? Just to show Ambrosia as an Action Mom. In fact, since Ambrosia is God's incarnation, it's heavily implied she manufactured the problem leading to the sequel. Also a Sequel Hook, as the antagonist is introduced in the first game (but other than that, the story is more or less resolved).
• Settled for Gay: Subverted, the two characters stance is more If It's You It's Okay.
• Sheathe Your Sword.
• Shock Value Relationship: Michael and Lilith. The two characters make out in a bar, wrecking the place while they bang into stuff with passionate kissing. Not to mention it's relationship that's sort of taboo anyway, since it's an angel/demon pairing. Subverted in that unlike most relationships of this sort, they actually like each other.
  • If Lilith pairs up with Aqorm, it's still counts, because before that she hung out casually with Elias, and suddenly she's ditching him to choose a woman, while he is two feet away from her in a bar.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man.
• Skippable Boss: Ambrosia's evil half can be talked out of fighting (by Nevras).
  • Sera and Phim can either be fought to the death for a gruesome scene, or talked out of fighting.
• Space Whale Aesop: Likely many of the morals taught by the game. One Green Aesop is:

Don't pollute or the Earth with turn into a black hole, and God will need to split existence in half.

• • And then you have The Chain of Harm as an aesop:

Don't hurt living things. It has no side effect on you, but they tend to take it out on weaker things, who in turn take it out on weaker things, until that single action causes some chain reaction that kills off the mice (possibly causing an insect infestation).

• Split Personality Merge: Ambrosia does this after a mountaintop scene.
• Standard Status Effects: Everything including from Poison, Silence, Sleep, and Death, to less common ones like Berserk, Confuse, Petrify, and Curse, to rare effects like Burn, Frozen, and X-Zone (can retrieve by changing party). There's even two extra effects: Seal, which is a curse type effect and heals fully after each turn, but otherwise like petrify, to Soulless which is a Deader Than Dead status.
• Stripperific: Lilith, the succubus, is wears a black bikini. And nothing else.
• Sudden Downer Ending: May or may not be. Depending on the circumstances at the end of the game, and choices you make, the otherwise cheery story can end on several different bad notes. Sorry, not giving it away.
• Sugar and Ice Personality: Ambrosia. At first glance, she seems to be a Tsundere, but this is part is her Mood Swinger Kuudere personality, and when she's actually upset, she'll revert to a cold, gloomy personality. She gets better.

T

• Taken for Granite: Anideshi has a Naruto-style Sage transformation, complete with the risk of turning into stone if things don't work out right.
• Taste the Rainbow: Especially in racial variation, but this is typical in-game.
• Taxidermy Is Creepy: An Easter Egg. Reading through one of the libraries has books on necromancy, then taxidermy, and finally stitching together animals and corpses.
• Ten-Minute Retirement: Many of Ambrosia's Heroic BSOD events.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: An attack called Attack Player targets the screen. Considering this is a sidescroll RPG, rather than vertical format (as is true of RPG Maker XP), this is pretty interesting. If the player dies, the game is over.
• The Hero Dies: Although, less a sudden death or murder, and more of simple old age. It's actually a good ending.
• The Seven Basic Plots: Most of these apply, starting with Rags to Riches.
• The Sacred Darkness: The Earth is made of two halves, the New Earth (which is completely different from Earth in its history), and the Void (which is made of some kind of all-consuming darkness with No Ontological Inertia). This Void is sort of the inverse of the stable energy of Light, but not associated with normal darkness or dark energy.
• 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 Loli: Tamashii, Ambrosia's daughter.
• 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.
  • Also, we have the Philosopher's Stone, which is absurdly difficult to buy, so the sell price is extremely tempting. Not to mention that although you can make it with alchemy to do so, requires giving up an equally rare levelup item.
• Trauma Inn: Defied. Inns heal hp/mp only, priests and hospitals heal certain status effects (usually at a high cost that gets worse as you level up). You need to travel a long way before you find an area where someone will heal you fully, no questions asked.
• Troperiffic: Just look at this page.
  • Also many DeadUnicornTropes. Especially the Cloud Expy, and the The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches.
  • Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: Lilith hates angels. How can you hate angels?!? She's a demon, so angels kind of hate her.
• True Final Boss: If you qualify for the New Game+, you have to fight a set of three new bosses. Whereas the original Final Boss was basically just a Damage Sponge Boss some of these require real strategy.
• Truly Single Parent: God. Has a child with Manna Leaven, Ambrosia's mother, but it's later revealed that nobody really exists aside from Ambrosia, so God effectively created a clone.

U

• Understanding Boyfriend: Nevras, to Ambrosia's Tomato in the Mirror nature.
• Unreliable Narrator: Ambrosia, mainly due to Innocent Inaccurate. Ambrosia tells the history of the world, as she knows it, but lacks knowledge of history, or trust in legends. And some of her knowledge is lacking certain details that come up later.
• Unusual Euphemism: Nevras talks about "meeting attacks with equal force" and "revenge" with Ambrosia ...they're kissing.
• Unwitting Pawn: The wizard helping the evil demon, does do because the demon promised to revive his wife. He is somewhat villainous in his own right, but largely is lied to in order to further the demon's plans.
• Upgrade Artifact: Stats Seeds, are a good example, along with Level Roots.

V

• Valkyries: Including Brunhilda.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Part of the battle format. Any character that completes their romance sidequests 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 Dawn Robertson (main game only).
  • Ambrosia for the New Game+ was originally planned using multiple actors, but now all roles seem to be done by Pippa Winslow.
  • Bakamaru, Tamashii's boyfriend, is Jim Mcgovern.
  • Estheriel, is neither of the two original candidates. Instead, since this was a Well-Intentioned Extremist, and a bit of a silly role, Lesley Sim was chosen.
  • God, is Linda Southgate.
  • Lilith is voiced by Meena Rayann.
  • Nevras, is talented actress Ingrid Elkner
  • Priests are played by Alan Hooker (the author's father).
  • Tamashii, Ambrosia's daughter, is Ashley M Kalfas

W

• What Does She See in Him?: An angel/demon romance.
  • Also Why Can't I Hate You?.
• Walking the Earth: Ambrosia does it, with her friends.
• We Want Our Jerk Back: Ambrosia is very much a Tsundere throughout the early game, but enters decay on this point over the course of the story, she eventually becomes a sort of weird mix of Sugar and Ice Personality and Mama Bear.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Ambrosia in the early game, before experimenting with her own ideas, believes unquestioningly in the justice of her cause. The first Oracle she meets is careful to snap her out of this.
• What the Hell, Player?: If you wander off randomly, you can run into Eldritch Abominations, you can return to the Void gate only to decide you don't wanna save the world after all, and several choices you make can give you either special weapons or end very, very, badly.
• What You Are in the Dark: Ambrosia's choice in the Universe Egg is witnessed by the party, but other than this, nobody can see her choice. The "villain" isn't really a villain, but although she isn't really egged on, she can definitely make a very off choice (to murder an angel who has already been run through by a rather large spear). Or a very good one (to heal it, although given that this same angel was trying to take over the world), or a very apathetic one, but somewhat understandable one given a no-win situation.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy: Elias. Despite being a Geek.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Subverted for much of the story, though.
• With This Herring. And oddly, once you have money, Adam Smith Hates Your Guts, Continuing Is Painful, and No Hero Discount comes into play (everything is priced about like the Japanese economy with basic items starting at about 100 gold and going up to about 500000 gold). Good luck making your first million without a bank.
• Working Class People Are Morons: Used largely as an exposition device. Elias usually has to explain something abstract to Ambrosia (who, while not stupid, is Book Dumb), and thus to anyone in the audience who happens not to know about the subject. What the Hell, Hero? version of this as one of the villains gives the mangled stock quote, "Who are you gonna trust? Me, who you've just met, or your friends that you've known several months?" And Ambrosia can actually choose to say, "You."

X

• Xanatos Gambit: The Ring of Nibelung rigs it so the Hero Antagonist, despite sealing it away, still manages to lose horribly.

Y

• Yet Another Stupid Death: If you want to you can... run into some spikes, fall to your doom in a pit, jump staight into the middle of the ocean and drown, and other such fates. You can also challenge an Eldritch Abomination to a battle, usually involving something seriously wrong happening to you if you lose.
• Yin-Yang Bomb.
• You All Look Familiar: Played straight with guards and certain merchants, and subverted in the case of maids and police.

Z

• Zen Survivor: A few of them, including some literal Zen types. Most notably though, the Aiken Master, and Ambrosia herself, after the first story.
• Zeroth Law Rebellion: Subverted, since the Three Laws of Aasimov are never explicitly referred to. Offensive robots are basically set to guard areas that may be of threat to humanity, by killing humans that intrude into the area.