El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron: Difference between revisions

{{work}}

{{quote| '''Lucifel:''' Allow me to tell you a tale. It took place 360,000... No, 14,000 years ago. But what is time, anyway? To me it seems like yesterday. For you, it might be tomorrow. It's the story of a man.}}

 

A game for the [[Play Station 3]] and [[Xbox 360]], developed and published by Ignition Entertainment, released on April 28, 2011. The game consists of staff geniuses such as Takeyasu Sawaki, who was a character designer for ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' and ''[[Okami]]''. The game is loosely based on the apocryphal Book of Enoch. The story follows Enoch, a human scribe in heaven, who must round up the fallen angels that are corrupting the Earth to suit their own ideal image of perfection. God sends Enoch to judge the Watchers and return them to paradise before the human race is irrevocably corrupted with half-human Nephilim, and a Great Flood made inevitable. Along the way, he is guided by Lucifel, God's right-hand angel, and the other Archangels.

{{tropelist}}

* [[Action Girl]]: Ishtar, who is able to hold her own against Ezekiel. Later on she becomes a full-fledged [[Lady of War]].

* [[Airplane Arms]]: While wielding the Gale weapon.

* [[Alien Geometries]]: Every world, but particularly obvious in the Netherworld, the End of the World, and Arakiel's Grave.

* [[Barrier Change Boss]]: A few bosses will be vulnerable only to a specific weapon type, and cycle around their current vulnerability.

* [[The Battle Didn't Count]]: You fight the Watchers many, many times at random parts of the game. It is quite possible to knock their armor off each time. They'll make a different comment whether they kick your ass or vice-versa; but the game continues regardless.

* [[Beehive Barrier]]: Hitting armored, defending enemies (or you using the Veil as a shield) will have this visual effect.

* [[Big Bad]]: Semyaza is played up as such, being the leader of the Watchers and the one who instigated their Fall.

* [[Content Warnings]]: At bootup, the player gets a notice stating that the game is roughly based on religious texts and that it was developed by a multicultural team with people from many faiths. Considering the possible controversy in a few characters' interpretations, it was probably a good idea to include this warning.

* [[Convenient Color Change]]

* [[Council of Angels]]: The Elders, who will unleash the Flood upon Earth to wash away the Nephilim if Enoch can't defeat the Fallen Angels and destroy their offspring.

* [[Dance Battler]]: Armaros. Enoch while wielding the Gale.

* [[Dark Is Evil]]

* [[David Versus Goliath]]: Enoch vs. the Fire Nephilim.

* [[Dead All Along]]: {{spoiler|Semyaza, who died during the Fall, Arakiel, who died soon after, and Baraquel, who was devoured by the Nephilim}}.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Lucifel, usually towards the Grigori.

* [[Demon Slaying]]

* [[Design Student's Orgasm]]

** The Fallen Angels themselves, once they divest their human forms, assume bestial (and often incomprehensible) forms.

* [[Eldritch Location]]: The Fallen Angels' Tower, hidden in an alternate dimension that is {{spoiler|connected to the Darkness, which is itself another eldritch location}}. The path leading up to it, existing in the boundary between worlds, fits the bill as well.

* [[Evil Knockoff]]: The Headless are decapitated swans with bags covering the stump, in a hideous mockery of what the Archangels look like in this game. Likewise, Martyrs and Zealots will wield imitations of God's Weapons tainted with vileness, given to them by the Fallen Angels. Enoch can purify these weapons and give them true godly light, however.

* [[Evil Old Folks]]: Azazel and Ezekiel.

* [[Evil Tower of Ominousness]]: The Fallen Angels' Tower. It rises from the heart of an unnaturally-advanced city, is several miles thick and many more in height, seems ''grown'' rather than built, and has evil red eyes looking down upon the world. It doesn't even have "floors," per se, but each tier is an entire ''world'' in its own right, ruled by one of the Fallen.

** Uriel, the Flame of God, fits his job description to a T.

* [[Expy]]: A few. Enoch as the expy of [[Brad Pitt]], Sariel to [[David Bowie]], and Armaros to [[Michael Jackson]].

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: Enoch, if [[Nonstandard Game Over|he gets corrupted by the mass of darkness]] during Ishtar's plataforms segments. {{spoiler|During the main plotline, something similar happens when he is consumed by The Darkness in an attempt to save Nanna. However, this time both Armaros and Nanna can either fight or call out to him to bring him back to his senses.}}

* [[The Faceless]]: Even in painting, we never see Michael's face.

* [[I Have Many Names]]: Enoch, a whopping total of 72 names. [[Shout-Out|Just]] like [[God]] in Hebrew mysticism.

* [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight]]: On two fronts: first, {{spoiler|Armaros must fight Dark Enoch to destroy the armor of vileness that covers him, and Enoch himself will pause his assault to clutch his head as he resists the corruption}}. Once that's done, {{spoiler|Nanna's voice and devotion give Enoch the fortitude to cleanse his spirit and attain salvation}}.

** [[Power Fist]]/[[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me]]: The Veil. A massive, circular shield impervious to all but the strongest attacks, projecting a transparent barrier in front of Enoch while still letting him slide side to side and front and back while in defense mode. For offense, Enoch can split the shield down the middle, [[Morph Weapon|transforming the halves into armored gauntlets]] with studs at each fist, each projecting a halo of divine energy. This is the strongest, but slowest, weapon in the game, and the speed of its combos can put Enoch at risk while other enemies sneak up on him.

* [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]]: Ishtar, in spades. "My soul wanders [[Hell|the Darkness]] but does not rot." And considering what happens to ''anyone else'' that falls in the Darkness, that's quite a feat! Later on, {{spoiler|her entire body is engulfed by [[The Corruption]] of the Darkness, but her spirit is as pure and determined as ever}}. Subverted with {{spoiler|Enoch}}, who can appear to be this in the "main" timeline (and there's an entire chapter dedicated to showing this,) but if you get the Bad Ending by {{spoiler|falling into the Darkness in a Dark World stage}} it proves that even this person can succumb to evil.

* [[Its Pronounced Tropay]]: It is meant to be pronounced ''el shah dah yy'' (or ''ee'' with a sharper intonation.)

* [[Interface Screw]]: The first part of the "fight" with Armaros involves {{spoiler|you beating up his backup dancers while he covers half the screen in the foreground}}.

* [[Kick the Dog]]: {{spoiler|After Armaros has saved Enoch from the corruption, the Darkness tries to swallow them both when they are at their weakest. Lucifel handily takes Enoch away... and nonchalantly (some might say gleefully) abandons Armaros to his fate}}.

* [[King Mook]]: The Fire Nephilim. Which, in turn, is {{spoiler|eaten by the even bigger and more dangerous Baraquel Nephilim, but you don't get to fight this one}}.

* [[Knight Templar]]: All of the Watchers believe their course is right and just, they make excellent points about freedom and mankind's evolution, and they will smite whoever opposes them. However, the Archangels, Lucifel, and the Council of Elders ''[[Not So Different|are the same way]]'', just playing for the opposite side.

* [[Light Is Good]]

* [[Like a Badass Out of Hell]]: If Enoch is corrupted during a Dark World segment, and reaches the far end of the hellish dimension during the credits of the Bad Ending, {{spoiler|it's implied that he's so deeply corrupted he will battle both Heaven and Hell, and begins by destroying the entity in control of the latter}}.

* [[Magitek]]: Azazel granted humans the knowledge to create angelic technology. As with all divine devices, it's difficult to tell where the tech begins and the godly power ends.

* [[Man Behind the Man]]: {{spoiler|One of Ishtar's Prophecies talks of a "Prince" that appeared from the Darkness and not only instigated, but assisted the Grigori in their Fall to Earth}}.

* [[Moral Dissonance]]: Lucifel. For an angel, he enjoys taking out the fallen angels a little too much.

* [[Mr. Exposition]]: Lucifel, he drops much of the plot points from the game, also most of the Library information is written from his point of view.

* [[Nonstandard Game Over]]: If Enoch gets consumed by the darkness during the Ishtar's plataform segments, he will be corrupted into becoming one of the Watchers, also the credits will pop up in rapid succession.

* [[No Ontological Inertia]]: Nephilim are said to vanish if the Grigori that sired them is killed or sealed.

* [[Perpetual Molt]]: Certain techniques, skills, or events (such as Enoch returning from a Watcher duel) will shower Enoch with dozens of white angel feathers.

* [[Platform Hell]]: The 2D stages are not so bad, but the 3D ones will give you premature baldness, if only because the [[Bottomless Pits]] mean you can't use Enoch's shadow to gauge his leaps until it's too late.

* [[Possession Implies Mastery]]: Although Lucifel does instigate some basic training for Enoch in the begining of the journey, the following adventure has Enoch being very proficient at any new given thing Lucifel and other Archangels present him with, the motorcycle is certainly the best example, as soon as Enoch got his hands on it, he became a demon on wheels.

** Even GOD seems surprised at this. Shortly after you collect the last of the three Godly Weapons, you can hear Lucifel chatting with God on his cell phone about it.

* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]: Each of the "Nether" versions of the Fallen feature eyes that shift from green to yellow and finally red as they get closer to defeat, their attacks getting increasingly frantic and damaging along the way.

* [[Reincarnation]]: It has been prophesied that {{spoiler|Ishtar will resurrect and continue her war against the Darkness}}.

* [[Rule of Cool]]: Lucifel's awesome, but otherwise unexplained paraphernalia from the future. It doesn't make sense that he talks to God with a cellphone, but it sure is cool.

* [[Rule 63]]: Gabriel and Ezekiel.

* [[Satan Is Good]]

* [[Say My Name]]: Everyone has a thing for over-pronouncing Enoch's name.

* [[Secret AI Moves]]: The chapter you get to play as {{spoiler|Armaros}}, some of the attacks from {{spoiler|his boss fight}} is available to the player, but they're all toned down versions of {{spoiler|the devastating ones he previously had}}. Another instance in this same chapter is the boss, {{spoiler|an evil power boosted Enoch}}, who doesn't get to keep any of the nifty powers after being beaten and becoming playable. Considering that even powered down {{spoiler|Armaros}} managed to beat this character, the moves may not have been so hot though, but still. What's a guy gotta do to keep all those juicy darkness induced powers?

* [[Scary Impractical Armor]]: The Fallen Angels' {{spoiler|and corrupted souls'}} armor, with its wide round extensions, is every bit as intimidating as it is cumbersome. Lucky for them they have supernatural agility and coordination.

* [[Smashing Survival]]: After Enoch's armor gets completely destroyed, a number of buttons must be mashed to bring him back into action, with the possibility of mashing recovery decreasing each time this happens, eventually it will force the player to restart at the last checkpoint.

* [[The Speechless]]: Armaros, as Lucifel put it, lost his voice when he fell down with other angels, but still can make sounds and scream normally.

* [[Spirit Advisor]]: The Archangels to Enoch throughout his journey.

* [[Spiritual Successor]]: Of ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' and ''[[Okami]]''.

* [[Summon Backup Dancers]]: You literally battle Armaros' backup dancers as he...dances in the front.

* [[Super-Powered Evil Side]]: {{spoiler|Dark Enoch and Dark Armaros}}.

* [[Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors]]: The main weapons work this way: Arch beats Veil, Veil beats Gale, Gale beats Arch.

* [[Take My Hand]]: Enoch can't escape the Dark Worlds by himself. He must reach the spirit of Armaros, who will pull him back to the real world by this method.

* [[Warrior Monk]]: Enoch is one badass scribe.

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: The Grigori. They really do want to do right by humanity, and grant it gifts of wisdom long before its time, and are willing to die, kill, or ''defy God Himself'' for their ideals. But in forcing humanity to evolve this way, they also take away its ability to learn from its mistakes, and to appreciate progress as the reward for hard work. Thus, the Watchers' followers end up as little more than zealots, wholly dependent on their "Lords" for their happiness.

* [[The Worm That Walks]]: {{spoiler|Nether Azazel, a giant, humanoid fly, is made up of millions of smaller flies}}.

----