Oracle of Tao

"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.

List of Main Characters

Oracle of Tao is the Trope Namer for:
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) .
  • Admiring the Abomination: Subverted, though Azrael and Elias are often very surprised they got to see one legendary creature or another.
  • A Human Am I: Ambrosia.
  • All Amazons Want Hercules: Defied.
  • 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).
  • All Myths Are True.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Ambrosia, before she met anyone in the party.
  • Always Save the Girl: Inverted. Ambrosia seems to care little about her heroic quest, but has a mini-Heroic BSOD 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: Ambrosia, although it is subverted. She can't remember her real parents or anything before age four.
  • 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).
  • Anchored Ship: Until the confronts and joins her evil half, she's too neurotic to embrace her feelings.
  • An Interior Designer Is You: Sort of. The party can add a bed, banker, and other features to your tent. Later morphs the tent into a house, mansion, and a portable town, if they get obscene amounts of money.
  • 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.
  • 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.

B

  • Babies Ever After: In both the original game, and the Playable Epilogue, this is part of the best ending.
  • Badass Family: Ambrosia is a Person of Mass Destruction, and Nevras is a warrior with a BFS who can slice things into ribbons. Their daughter is The Empath with Magikarp Power on all stats.
  • 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 DomoArigatoMrRoboto 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.
  • Black and White Magic: Since it's based on Taoism, usually merged.
  • 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!

C

D

E

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...

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.
  • 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.
  • 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

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.
  • 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.
  • House Husband: Nevras, if the second intro is to be believed.

I

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.

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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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

P

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

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...
  • 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.

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).

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 Mini-Moe: 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.
  • 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

V

W


X

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.
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