Secret of the Stars

In 1993, Tecmo decided to try their hand at the whole RPG thing. The result was Secret of the Stars, a Dragon Quest clone with a by-the-numbers plotline.

Ray, a young blond boy growing up on a tiny island, learns that he's actually an Aqutallion, one of the warriors destined to defeat the evil Homncruse. After his Beloved Peasant Village goes boom, he sets out to find the other four chosen warriors: Tina, Cody, Leona, and Dan. They then must pass a series of tests to prove their worth as Aqutallion Warriors, unlock their true potential, and gain the strength to defeat Homncruse and his four generals.

Aside from the five chosen children, there are eleven adult heroes known as the Kustera who form their own, separate team. The Kustera are basically a secondary team, with a few areas that only they can enter (just as how there are areas only the Aqutallion can pass). There's also a village that Ray establishes as a new Hometown right after losing the first one, for all the Heartwarming Orphans and his friends and allies to stay at in their spare time.

---

Tropes used in Secret of the Stars include:

• Aerith and Bob - If the five heroes' names aren't proof enough of this, there's the eleven Kustera: David, Ryu, Ben, Andy, Arthur, Jubei, Murray, Shark, Evelyn, Kathy and Beth.
• All There in the Manual - The fusion spells requirements.
• An Ice Person - Tina's speciality, aside from playing The Medic until you get Dan.
• Artificial Human - Homncruse.
• Baleful Polymorph - One of the heroes is turned into a lion, and actually travels with you for a time while stuck like this. It's Cody, not Leona.
• Big Damn Heroes - At one point, you are rescued from a Mad Scientist's lab inside an already erupting volcano by a guy in a biplane. It was already hot enough inside that you were passed out.
• Blind Idiot Translation - And how!
  • "Homncruse" is very likely supposed to be Homunculus, in keeping with the Artificial Human tag above...
  • We also have Trool and Galuda, two random monsters.
• Blow You Away - Cody, who in a rare Subversion is actually the team's Mighty Glacier.
• Cats Are Mean - played straight with Cat Boo.
• Combat Pragmatist - You can be this during one boss battle. You are in a boxing match, the boxing gloves you must wear suck, but you only need to wear them to START the battle. As soon as you start, you can equip your riot gun and shoot him in the face.
• Combination Attack - Both the heros and the bad guys. The most useful ones are Devistate and the elemental swords combos.
• Complexity Addiction- Aside from the boxing match noted above, the villains in this game must have a kidnapping complex or something. You have to rescue Tina from bandits dressed like the mafia, Cody (the person-turned-lion-turned-into-a-gold-statue) from a circus performer, and you have to save Leona from... an empty warehouse below a random rich person's house. Note that the villains' main goal in life is to kill you so you can't stop the Big Bad.
• Contemptible Cover
• Disguised in Drag- To get into Lady Land, your male heroes have to don Bunny Suits.
• Damsel in Distress - Both Tina and Leona have to be rescued before joining. In Leona's case, she's literally kidnapped right before your eyes right before she can join you just so you can save her. And that's just a matter of finding the right warehouse, rendering the whole thing utterly pointless.
• Doomed Hometown - well, when you live on a volcanic island that houses someone who basically wants to destroy the world out of spite, what did you expect?
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture - The island of Jabon. Take a guess what it's meant to be. Japan, of course.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning - The three elemental swords.
• Five-Man Band:
  • The Hero - Ray
  • The Smart Guy - Tina
  • The Big Guy - Cody
  • The Lancer - Leona
  • The Chick - Dan took this role despite being a male
• Flat Character - Everyone. The manual tries to give them some personalization, but... your team gets very, very few lines of dialogue in the game. Definitely not enough for any Character Development.
• Flying Saucer - There is one under your town and it's big enough to carry it.
• Four Is Death - The Big Bad's four followers. It's even referenced in their names in the Japanese version.
• Fragile Speedster - Leona.
  • But she can deal lot of damage physically and magically, especially with weapons that hit twice.
• Fusion Dance - Used by some of the Mooks.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy - Need to get into that big fancy town, but you're too young? Pay some guy with a jackhammer, tunnel under the wall and slip inside. Then you can talk to the guards and they'll treat you just fine.
• Guide Dang It - To build a boat, you require a golden nail. Which you find stuck inside the wall of the builder's house.
• Hello, Insert Name Here - You can rename all the main characters, at any time you want.
• Hyperactive Metabolism - Bread and plum-plums are roughly as effective as healing spells for the first portion of the game, and are perfectly usable in combat. You can even have one of your friends stick a loaf of bread into your mouth for you!
• In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It - Just like any Tecmo game that wasn't Ninja Gaiden, really.
• The Infiltration - Bosen did it to get information for the Aqutallion.
• Jack of All Stats - Ray.
• Joshikousei - Tina.
• Let's Play - though incomplete, this playthrough of the game is rather humorous, and also shows some of the better points in the game's favor.
  • "Die, follower of Homncruse! I think I'll just have a quick nap though first...
  • There's a complete one by Kaizer Mazoku.
• Mad Scientist - There is one living in the volcano next to your Doomed Hometown.
• Magic From Technology: at least some of it.
• Mighty Glacier - Cody.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast - BadBad. X-Death was worse, but...
• One-Winged Angel : Homncruse.. Also, surprisingly, some of the Mooks.
• Playboy Bunny - The Bunny Suit. There's also Evelyn, the 'bunny thief' and one of the Kustera.
  • There are also the many bunny girls that are usually found in "cafes".
• Playing with Fire - Ray's element of choice.
  • Dan's offensive spell is called bomb.
• Reverse Mole - Jaguar, who was actually Bosen.
• Shock and Awe - Leona's affinity for lightning.
• Squishy Wizard - Dan.
• Stuff Blowing Up - Dan's speciality - aside from being a healer, he has powerful, non-elemental 'Bomb' spells.
• Tagalong Kid - Dan.
• Ungrateful Bastards - The Mayor of Decatas and his followers; after you let them move into your village, they proceed to take over and kick you out of your own home.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway? - Dan technically isn't an Aqutallion; he's a Wiseman whose purpose is to help unlock the others' powers, can't upgrade to an advanced class, and can't join in on combination attacks.
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power - Rather than elemental-based magic, he just blows up all your enemies at once, and can also heal everyone with a single spell.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair - Tina; Leona has pink hair while Dan has purple. The Contemptible Cover changed this to pink, orange and red.