Trials of Mana: Difference between revisions

* [[Accidental Pervert]]: Hey, it's Angela! And she's sleeping at the inn! Let's go talk to her...

** She doesn't take as much offense if you're playing as Lise, though...

* [[Adjective Noun Fred|Adjective Noun Place]]: Many of the location names follow this format (at least in the [[Fan Translation]]) - Castle City Jad, Magic Kingdom Altena, and Sand Fortress Navarre, to name a few.

* [[Always Night]]: Moonlight Forest, also encompassing Mintos and the Beast Kingdom. As Kevin switches to werewolf form at night, this is his preferred terrain.

* [[Annoying Arrows]]: Hawk's traps--in particular, fittingly enough, the "arrow" trap.

* [[Another Side Another Story]]: Out of six playable characters, you can only choose three to build your party for any given playthrough, and only one of ''them'' can be the main character (which gives them additional screen time and determines who the final boss will be). The rest become NPC's who you may or may not run into at various points. Thus, every playthrough with a different party combination can become this.

* [[Aerith and Bob]]: The two Navarre ninjas, Bill and Ben.

* [[Apocalyptic Log]]: "DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE...", found on the [[Ghost Ship]].

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: Level 2 and 3 techs. While they do have awesome attack animations and some damage every enemy on the screen, a lot of late-game enemies (''and'' some bosses) will answer them with an equally devastating tech in return, which (if it's something that hits the whole party) can easily spell [[Total Party Kill]].

* [[Awesome but Practical]]: Hawk's "Ninja Master" class gains the ability to multi-target his Shuriken ability. This means you have a fast-casting ability that hits all enemies on the screen, does significant damage, knocks enemies back, and lowers their evade. All for only 1 MP. Fans have dubbed it the "1 MP Wonder".

* [[The Baroness]]: Bigieu.

* [[Badass Adorable]]: Carlie especially.

* [[Big No]]: Angela gets this at the start of her scenario, right before unleashing her magic for the first time.

* [[Big Badass Wolf]]: The Beastmen transform at night, gaining a sizeable attack bonus.

* [[Bishonen]]: Hawk, especially in his final classes.

* [[Black Knight]]: The Darkshine Knight.

* [[Deal With the Devil]]: Koren offered part of his soul to the Dragon Emperor in exchange for becoming the world's greatest wizard. (Previously, Koren [[From Nobody to Nightmare|was a nobody]], just like all the other men in Altena.) The Darkshine Knight did the same thing after falling into a bottomless pit.

* [[Deconstruction]]: One of the earliest examples of RPG deconstructions, and as a result a very subtle one; many of the tropes are played straight, but the main characters are minor twists on traditional archetypes--

*** Carlie/Charlotte is not as dumb as she sounds - she speaks in a kawaiiriffic, affected way, but that's an affectation, not a sign that she's particularly stupid. An airhead, yes, but she is not mentally absent. Neither's Kevin - he's very with-it but for whatever unholy reason he talks like Gau in the translation.

**** Basically, Carlie purposefully acts like someone would expect a human five year old to act in an aversion of [[Immortality Begins At Twenty]].

* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: When the party stays at an inn, they all shift into their respective "sleeping" animations. In normal gameplay the only thing the player sees of these are the characters heads peaking out from under the sheets of the beds, but by toggling sprite layers using an emulator you can see that not only are the rest of the characters' bodies there, they have panties or boxers as well--and that those panties change color depending on the character's class.

** Also the game is '''very''' famous for this by making you meet the characters you didn't choose every now and them. Exclusives scenes may happen too depending of what character you have in or out of your party.

* [[Distracted By the Sexy]]: Angela's Sorceress class tech. [[Incredibly Lame Pun|So sexy it hurts...the enemy.]]

* [[Doppelganger Attack]]: What? You expected Deathjester to fight ''fair''?

*** The Zeros do this by copying your current stats. So if you've used a cheat code to make your Strength/Intelligence [[Up to Eleven|ten times as high as your class can go?]] Say goodbye to your party.

** This is also the Nightblade's skill.

* [[The Dragon]]: Deathjester for the Masked Mage, Koren for the Dragon Emperor, and Jagan and Bigieu for the Dark Prince. Funnily enough, Deathjester, Koren and Bigieu are far better developed as characters than their bosses are.

* [[Dragon Rider]]: Flammie the Dragon acts as a [[Global Airship]] for the party.

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Koren after his defeat.

* [[Dual Boss]]: Zable Fahr.

* [[Dying As Yourself]]: {{spoiler|Heath and Darkshine Knight who is actually Duran's father}}.

* [[Eldritch Location]]: The Dark God-beast knows how to make an entrance. You arrive just in time to witness the shattering of the Dark Mana Stone; once this happens, the heroes are sucked into an empty void where Zable Fahr waits.

** Lise's Valkyrie class tech sends out [[Blow You Away|whirlwinds]] to damage every enemy on the screen, via twirling her halberd.

* [[Evil Costume Switch]]: {{spoiler|Heath}} and {{spoiler|Elliot}}.

* [[Fallen Angel]]: The [[Meaningful Name|Dark Prince]]. The Masked Mage's backstory is also riddled with this.

* [[Fast Forward Mechanic]]: If you stop at a [[Trauma Inn]] during the day, you have the option to be awakened in the evening or next morning, though this is rarely a concern for progressing through the [[Story Arc]].

* [[Flashback Effects]]: Before recruiting your teammates, each tells their story in an [[Deliberately Monochrome]] cutscene.

** Carlie gets one even if you didn't select her as a teammate at all.

** Also getting items for the last class change isn't hinted neither told where you can get them making first timers simply bypass it until even the end of the game.

** Another evil moment is while fighting enemies which counter skills and spells. Good luck dealing with Darkshine Knight on your first try after you thought you were invincible raiding entire screens with your special attacks of No MP cost.

* [[Have We Met Yet]]: If you take Angela or Duran's path, the party will run into a younger version of the King of Forcena.

** If Duran is leading the party {{spoiler|you also run into his father, Loki, just before the battle in which he's going to die. [[Tear Jerker|Duran tries to convince his father not to go, but Loki goes anyway.]] And just to wring a few more tears out of the player, Loki comments that he hopes his son "turns out to be a fine young man like [present!Duran]."}}

* [[High Altitude Battle]]: One of the God Beasts is fought on your own flying dragon.

* [[High Collar of Doom]]: Check out the [[Bela Lugosi|Legosi]] getup worn by Jagan!

* [[Hostage for Macguffin]]: Whomever the Big Bad is, their flunkies will inevitably hold the Fairy ransom in exchange for {{spoiler|the Mana Sword}}.

* [[Hot Amazon]]: Lise.

* [[Hufflepuff House]]: Rolente Kingdom is busy keeping the peace up north.

* [[I Thought Everyone Could Do That]]: The Faerie has a bit of trouble remembering that humans [[Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress|can't fly.]]

* [[Living Shadow]]: The Ninja Master attack 'Shadow Dive'. The character merges with their shadow, moves around as it, then pops out to surprise the enemies.

* [[The Lost Woods]] / [[The Maze]]: Lampflower Forest and the Jungle of Illusion.

** {{spoiler|Heath, the Masked Mage is your father.}}

** {{spoiler|Carlie, the Elf-King is your other grandfather}}.

* [[Motive Rant]]: At least two for each plotline

* [[My Rules Are Not Your Rules]]: The levels for class changing are specifically delineated at 18/38. You'll start encountering class-changed enemies (a few with full-screen techs) at level '''ten'''. Your party also has to fill a tech gauge before unleashing their special attacks, but enemies of the exact same class can slam your party with their abilities right off the bat (they will also frequently use them as counterattacks after you hit them with a spell).

** Also, a pair of plot-important things go bad as a result of the party's actions:

*** Oh, you found all the Elementals, and now you can create a portal in order to enter the Mana Holyland! {{spoiler|Oh yay! You made a portal... in the sky. And you don't have an [[Global Airship|airship]]. But it won't go to waste, because ''every evil faction in the game CAN fly''.}}

* [[One Curse Limit]]: An exploitable [[Good Bad Bug]]. Using the Chibikko Hammer will make your team miniature, replacing whatever status effect they have, and using it again will invert the miniature status effect turning them to normal.

** It's also invoked by the plot with Jessica -- she was cursed to die if she learned the truth, but that made her immune to magical brainwashing later on.

* [[Our Fairies Are Different]]

* [[Our Vampires Are Different]]: Jagan.

** The journey to fight the Dark God-Beast will contain some, regardless of which path you pick.

** Hell, the entire game, why not. It's considered by many to have some of the finest graphics on the SNES.

* [[Ship Teasing]]: If you take Lise but not Hawk to re-take Rolante, he asks her to go easy on Bigieu (as Jessica is cursed to die with her) and plants a kiss on Lise when she agrees, causing her to blush.

** Angela is also shown to consider her romantic prospects in her ending, though her preference is not stated.

** The Masked Mage's {{spoiler|boss dark-lich form}} is also pretty weak design- and spooky-wise as compared to his predecessor in Secret of Mana. Kamen-no-Doushi is, as a boss, really not that scary. In fact he looks rather goofy. {{spoiler|Thanatos, on the other hand...ugh, speaking of hands, this troper still has flashbacks to THE GRABBING FROM THE FLOOR.}}

** This also applies to the nations each one acts as [[The Man Behind the Man]] for. With the exception of [[That One Boss|Lugar]] and the Beast King, the Beast Kingdom is [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|absolutely]] [[Poke the Poodle|pathetic]]. Altena is much more organized and effective, and poses a bigger threat, and their villainous actions are limited to the assault on Forcena. Now Navarre...their footsoldiers have severe [[Lack of Empathy]], they slaughter literally ''everyone'' in Rolante castle during their takeover, and the mooks you fight in their areas are among the toughest you'll face.

** Carlie is "Charlotte" in Japan, changed on the translation for space reasons.

** Similarly, Hawk is "Hawkeye" in Japan.

* [[Useless Useful Spell]]: Energy Ball. In theory it should up your critical attack rate, but because of a programing bug critical attacks are practically nonexistent. Same goes for spells that affect agility or hit rate, for the same reason.

* [[Video Game Settings]]:

** [[Big Fancy Castle]]: Too many to list. The Masked Mage and Dark Prince both reside in these.

** [[Broken Bridge]]: Exploded by a mini-boss, no less. That's what you get for fighting on a bridge instead of retreating!

** [[Hidden Elf Village]]: Corobokkle Village and Diorre.

** [[High Altitude Battle]]: You'll need to take to the skies to fight Dangaard. The fight takes place on top of Flammie.

** [[Lethal Lava Land]]: The Valley of Flames. ([[Convection Schmonvection|No actual damage from convection]], though.)

** [[Lost World]]: The Jungle of Illusion.

* [[We Have Reserves]]: The Dark Prince reacts to Bigieu's demise as though he just bounced a check or something. But to be fair, she is a card-carrying member of the [[I Am Legion]] union if the usual tropes applying to Demons are observed in this world.

** Also an example of a Type III [[Villainous Friendship]] and/or [[Dark Mistress]] or [[Lady Macbeth]] to boot, so no wonder.

* [[Winter Royal Lady]]; The Queen of Altena, who has a personality to match.

* [[Wolfpack Boss]]: Jagan will be backed by a werewolf and succubus.