Little Big Adventure

Little Big Adventure, known outside Europe as Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure, is a 1994 PC game (later ported to the PlayStation) created by Adeline Software International. The game is set on a fantasy planet named Twinsun, populated by four intellectual races and a bunch of Intellectual Animals. The Player Character of the game is coincidentally called Twinsen; unknowingly even to himself, he is a descendant of a mysterious family, destined to save his home world. Of course, when an Evil Overlord rises, he is quickly forced to become a hero and start a long dangerous journey to obtain enough powers to overthrow him... with a little help from other Twinsunians and a local goddess named Sendell.

The game spawned a sequel Little Big Adventure II, also known as Twinsen's Odyssey. It had Twinsen dealing with the arrival of aliens from planet Zeelich, who claimed to be friendly but ended up wreaking havoc on behalf of their god, the Dark Monk... who somehow looked strangely familiar... A third game was planned, but never got released.

No connection to LittleBigPlanet.

Both games provide examples of:

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: With streets and even small towns.
• Action Adventure
• Aerith and Bob
• Ascended Extra: Jérome Baldino. A very minor NPC in the first game, The Lancer in the second game.
• Badass Long Robe: Worn by Twinsen.
• Big Bad: FunFrock. Yes, in both games.
• Block Puzzle: The Sokoban-like puzzle in the first game. The second game also had one of those.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Twinsen's magical tunic stores Mana.
• Cutscene
• Everything Fades: More like "Everything Pops And Leaves A Bonus Behind", but whatever.
• Everythings Better With Bunnies: The Rabbibunnies.
• Everything's Better with Penguins: Even with clockwork ones, especially if they explode.
• Forbidden Zone:
  • The northern hemisphere of Twinsun in the first game.
  • Dome of the Slate in the second game. Figuring out how to go to there is one of the first challenge in itself.
  • CX Island in Zeelich, in the second game. Asking about it is enough to draw the attention of the guards.
• Giant Flyer: The Dino-Fly.
• Global Airship: A catamaran and Dino-Fly in the first game. Dino-Fly in the second, though they only move you between islands, not everywhere.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Somehow. The female rabbibunnies are considered very attractive by males of other races.
• Intellectual Animal: Many. Including your personal living aircraft, Dino-Fly.
• Life Meter
• Limited Sound Effects: Averted.
• Magic Knight: Twinsen, sort of.
• Magitek
• Magnet Hands: Climbing a ladder while holding a gun/sword/whatever? Not a problem.
• Mana Meter
• Meaningful Name:
  • Twinsen's race is called "Quetch", which means "plum" in German. It describes their plum-shaped heads.
  • The Francos are called "Knarta" in the French version. Knarta is based on "Knacki" and "Herta", popular brands of sausages in France.
  • Subverted with Dr. Funfrock. He does wear a frock, but "Funfrock" is a real French surname; the most famous one with it is Queen Elizabeth II look-alike impersonator Huguette Funfrock.
• Mooks: Robotic clones in the first game. Francos soldiers in the second one.
• Now Where Was I Going Again?: Sort of: talk to any friendly NPC, and your character will ask about his latest objective.
• Respawning Enemies: Annoying, but they do leave bonuses behind when killed, so this can work for you.
• Shifting Sand Land: To some extent, the Desert Island.
• Sprite Polygon Mix
• Stance System: Twinsen's four "moods".
• Super Drowning Skills: Probably one of the most annoying things about Twinsen.
• Talk to Everyone: Gathering new information is the essential part of the gameplay.
• Temple of Doom: The Temple of Bù in the first game. And the second. Though the source of the "doom" is different.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can beat up any NPC you (don't) like, although most of the friendly civillians can't be hurt, and some of them will actually fight back. Francos can be killed in a variety of ways, such as electrocution or Explosive Decompression.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Attacking children will result in Twinsen getting beaten up by their big brothers. Attacking Joe the elf in his maze will make him angry and result in him taking back your elf badge.
• World Shapes: Twinsun is spherical, but is positioned between two suns. Tropical poles, icy "ring" around the equator...

Examples from the first game:

• Deadly Walls: First game only; see Run, Don't Walk entry below.
• Dummied Out: A bipedal robot in the first game.
• No-Gear Level: Whenever you are imprisoned in the first game.
• Run, Don't Walk: In the first game, you get hurt if you run into something. This was removed in the sequel.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Twinsen gains the power to speak to animals once he gets the Book of B?. It also allows him to hear flowers cry in pain if he steps on them.
• Teleporters and Transporters: One of FunFrock's tools used for taking over the planet.
• Unwinnable By Mistake: The infamous Script Breaking/Sequence Breaking Red Key Card bug in the first game. To the extent that the game manual actually warned the player about it.

Examples from the second game:

• Alien Lunch: "So? How do you like my firefly tart?"
• Babies Ever After: Twinsen and Zoe's baby is born at the end of the second game.
• Back from the Dead: Justified by FunFrock's development of cloning technology.
• Bag of Spilling:
  • Twinsen doesn't have any of the items he collects throughout the first game. We can see the artifacts that brought new magic levels in the museum in Citadel Island. The question is why Twinsen does not take those with his tunic and medal.
  • In Relentless, you level up your Magic-Ball all the way up to the fourth level of magic, Fireball, but it's back to a level 1 Yellow-Ball at the start of Twinsen's Odyssey and has to be leveled up to Fireball again.
  • However, there was at least one skill that Twinsen retained in the sequel. Twinsen learns how to speak to animals after learning the second level of magic from the Book-of-Bu. Despite the Magic Ball getting reverted back to square one, you can still talk to animals from the very beginning of the sequel.
• Betting Minigame: Zeelichian bar and casino provide these.
• Big Damn Heroes: Baldino saving the kids at the end of the second game.
• Blow Gun: Twinsen uses one.
• Cloning Gambit: Implied to be how FunFrock is still alive.
• Colony Drop: This is what you get if you fail to defeat the Big Bad, or if you keep paddling around Zeelich too long when the reactor is activated, you'll be treated to a lovely cutscene.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Twinsen has a museum dedicated to him in the second game, but the ticket vendor doesn't recognize him and charges him for entry. Lampshaded if you talk to the curator.
• Easing Into the Adventure: The beginning of the second game.
• Flower From the Mountaintop: The Balsam in the second game, needed to get Twinsen a wizard's diploma.
• Flying Carpet: Ridden by a wizard in the White Leaf Desert. For extra fun, you can knock him over.
• For the Evulz: In the second game, FunFrock initially kidnaps the children of Twinsun so he has some leverage over the wizards; when Twinsen confronts him, he decides to drop them into a volcano simply so he can cause Twinsen despair. Baldino saves them, thankfully.
• Global Currency Exception: The second game: Zeelichians use their own coins, "Zlitos", so your Twinsunian "Kashes" will have to be exchanged for them, and the ferryman from the underground world of Zeelich will ask for gems.
• A God Am I: FunFrock has elements of this in the second game: "Soon, I will be a god in form, as well as name!"
• The Greys: The Esmers are loosely designed after them.
• Happily Married: Twinsen and Zoe.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Funfrock turns out to have survived, and he has been manipulating events on Zeelich.
• If It Swims, It Flies: The "seals" of Zeelich fly as smoothly in the air as they swim in water.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Under-Gas in the second game.
• Lighter and Softer: The sequel to the original.
• Loading Screen: In the sequel, it shows Twinsen and Zoe standing on a CD.
• Lost Forever: The Protection Spell in the second game, if you don't pick it up before the trip to the Emerald Moon. Thankfully, it's not required to complete the game.
• Minigame Zone: Zeelichian bar and casino.
• Mobile Shrubbery: Walking cacti and trash cans in the second game. And they shoot at you.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • The Emperor of Zeelich is Napoleon Bonaparte with the Serial Numbers Filed Off.
  • Inventor Jérôme Baldino's name is a Significant Anagram of French TV personality Jérôme Bonaldi, who embarrassed himself several times by not being able to make some gadgets work (despite them working in rehearsals), blaming it on Finagle's Law.
  • Funfrock is apparently loosely based on infamous right-wing French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen.
• Playing Tennis With the Boss: How the boss guarding the Mosquibee fragment is defeated.
• Plotline Death: An NPC dissident in the second game, during a cutscene.
• Point of No Return: The second trip to Zeelich in the second game.
• Prophetic Fallacy: The prophecy you can read inside the temple of Celebration Island. In the final screen of the game, you can find a missing part explicitely stating that it'll actually become true when a stranger will unite the four keys and fight Dark Monk. Guess who this stranger is...
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The crocodile-like Gloums on Zeelich are not nice guys. If you participate in their casino games, they will attack you and try to rob you.
• Robe and Wizard Hat: Twinsen gets to wear one if he succeeds at applying for the School of Magic. It comes with a fake beard.
• Smooch of Victory: Given by a female Quetch wizard when you free her and the other wizards inside Dark Monk's statue.
• Space Jews: The races are inspired by regional French stereotypes:
  • The village of Francos shows them acting like simple country folk, from the terroir.
  • The Sups are meant to be like Parisians, infamous for being snooty city people.
  • The Wannies are inspired by the French of the Nord a.k.a. the "Ch'tis", stereotyped as dreary miners.
• Take Your Time: Your home planet is about to be destroyed by its moon? Relax and go wasting your money in a casino on another planet.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: You can kill a Franco guard this way in the second game, while on the Emerald Moon.
• Turtle Power: Moya the turtle will gladly carry you on her back.
• Universal Translator: In the second game.
• The Voice: When you obtain the Wannie fragment, you hear a mysterious voice. Said voice "appears" only at that moment and no explanation is given on who or what it is. A common fan theory supposes it's the REAL Dark Monk.
• We Come in Peace, Shoot to Kill: Okay, Esmers, if you call yourselves our friends... then why that walking trash can around the corner is trying to kill me? Hmm...
• Wizard Beard: A fake one is a part of Twinsen's wizard costume in the second game.
• X-Ray Sparks: Whenever someone gets electrocuted.