Eternal Poison

This is what happens Costume Porn and Strategy RPG have a baby...

This is the tale of a young witch, and her demonic entourage trying to locate the legendary Eternal Poison.

Or is it the tale of a priestess seeking her lost mentor?

Or is it the tale of a knight trying to rescue his royal fiancee?

The truth is...complicated.

A Dark Fantasy simulation RPG developed by Flight-Plan for the PlayStation 2. It was released on 14th February 2008 in Japan distributed by Banpresto^[1] and on 11th November 2008 in North America distributed by Atlus.

This game is notable for two things. First, it is Flight-Plan's first and only SRPG to make it out of Japan, although only to North America. Secondly, it is a modern^[2] Atlus game that does NOT contain the original Japanese voice acting. The latter was presumably due to the original game actually taking up most of the space on a single layer DVD and not having the room for two audio tracks.

Tropes used in Eternal Poison include:

• Big Bad: King Valdus, setting everything in motion by killing his own queen for her power and pursuing his daughter when she disappeared to stop him from sacrificing her to bring back Izel.
• Blessed with Suck: Thage cannot take damage from magical sources, which means a lot of the most heavy-hitting things CANNOT hurt her. On the other hand, she also cannot be healed except with medical items, and there's a limited number you can carry.
• Came Back Wrong: Thage
• Costume Porn
• Creepy Cool Crosses
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Reyna is a man pretending to be a woman. Even though the masquerade is quickly dropped, many NPC's continue to be confused. His voice does not help.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Thage and Nena.
• Enemy Without: Ashley's Persona.
• Everything's Better with Princesses: Lenarshe also, her sister Ashley.
• Glass Cannon: Thage, among others, but she's notable for being, you know, the main character.
• Gotta Catch Em All: You need to capture one of the varieties for each of the 55 species of Majin to unlock the fifth tale.
• Guide Dang It: The requirement for Thage's good ending isn't made clear or even mentioned until you enter the map with the boss you need to defeat (it's Arkanos,) which makes it a bit arcane to figure out.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Retica and the Valdian royal line.
• Hub Level: Isapolis.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Fight Escha Gigas as Ashley's party. I'll wait. You have Glynne to thank for most of that.
• Large Ham: Alexei. He's hungry for action.
• Lightning Bruiser: Morpheus. Also Ashley.
• Lenarshe I Am Your Mother: Thage.
  • Was her mother. Thage is very specific on this point.
  • Also, subverted in that Doom Shade, the Majin Retica searches for the entire game, isn't actually his father.
• Magically-Binding Contract: Thage forces one on Retica.
• Man Behind the Man: Izel, in the form of Lenarshe, is revealed to be the one orchestrating everything. In the true ending, all the main protagonists assemble to beat her down and stop the Echo of Time.
• Market-Based Title: Poison Pink in Japan and Eternal Poison in North America.
• Nintendo Hard: Yep.
• Optional Party Member: Up to ten of them, actually. All of the mercenaries are optional, and their levels don't carry over to repeat playthroughs.
• The Plan: Duphaston
• Pretty in Mink: Amelie's outfit has fur trim.
• Public Domain Character: One of the refugees is obviously Alice.
• The Reveal: Several.
  • Ashley is Lenarshe's younger sister.
  • Reyna's not the real Reyna.
  • Glynnis is a double agent, spying on the Pope for Leto.
  • Count Duphaston is Morpheus.
  • Thage is the reincarnation of Lenarshe's mother.
  • Levatte was dispatched to join Olifen's group by the Pope as a spy.
  • Ranunculus was using Thage all along, and Thage was using Ranunculus all along.
  • The major Majin have the same names as major figures in Valdian religion, because they're one and the same.
  • The Valdian royal family are part-Majin.
• Save Scumming: Are you a sane, rational person? If so, this is how you will fill out the information for the Majin you capture. This can also be done to sell all of your awesome passive-skill-equipped stuff and still have it, leaving you with copies for other tales.
• Split Personality: Retica. Also, Ashley, though hers eventually becomes an Enemy Without, and Logue.
• Super-Powered Evil Side: Retica, especially, if he becomes a Cursed One.
• Tagalong Kid: Levatte for Olifen. Retica is an unwilling one for Thage, as well.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Best demonstrated by the true ending. Each story is affected by the Echo of Time. They all happened at the same time, with small differences in each world.
  • Some of the refugees demonstrate this, as well. Olifen meets a woman who is heavily implied to be one of his ancestors. He's not willing to confirm it.
• Too Awesome to Use: Averted with the Ancient Amulet, which nullifies all status ailments on the wearer. You get it by selling a certain boss to the Uzaporium. Sounds like it would be, right? Except the boss in question is Manti Gigas, who is ridiculously cheap by boss standards and pitifully easy to capture. A bit of crafty reloading later, you've got more immunity than your body has room for.
• Took a Level in Badass: A lot of characters--especially in the core party--start out relatively useless, but eventually become dangerously useful members as the game goes on--especially in a New Game+.
• "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Morpheus. No matter who you pick first, your first boss tends to be pretty easy, if somewhat difficult to capture. Then Morpheus shows up and shows you exactly how bosses in this game are going to be as a general rule of thumb.
  • Morpheus' status as this is actually justified in-game. In his guise as Count Duphaston, he's been following your movements no matter what tale you choose, so he knows just what you're capable of.
• Warmup Boss: Otakuphant, Kaelrunis, or Moon Belator depending on which tale you pick first. Mars Belator has all the elements of this, but isn't since, you know, you have to beat a tale to fight him in the first place.
• We Cannot Go on Without You: The main character dies in battle, it's all over. Most of the time, that's fine, but play as Thage...
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Reyna, at first.
• X Meets Y: It's Dragon Shadow Spell meets Dark Fantasy.
• Yandere: Ashley, though she doesn't seem to realize it.

1. ↑ now Namco Bandai
2. ↑ post-Persona