Tail Concerto

Tail Concerto is a 3D anime-style Action Adventure and platform game for the PS 1 published by Bandai in Japan in 1998 and by Atlus in North America in 1999.

The game revolves around a canine police officer named Waffle Ryebread and his adventures while he obtains magical crystals for the purposes of an investigation into their use. However, he constantly runs into the Black Cats Gang who is bent on stealing the crystals for their boss, Fool. The group is helmed by Alicia, a girl Waffle knew as a child. What either doesn't know is the unfortunate implications the crystals bring if they are ever reunited...

A mostly underrated game that has a small following. A Spiritual Sequel to the game set in the same universe, Solatorobo, has been released on the Nintendo DS the 28th of October, 2010.

Tropes used in Tail Concerto include:

• Acclaimed Flop
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Russel Ryebread.
• Alliterative Name: Russel Ryebread.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Japanese version had an opening theme song, whereas the U.S. release had an original instrumental theme created by the game's composer.
• Anti-Villain: All of them, except for Fool.
  • All Alicia wants to do is create a homeland for the Cat-People who she thinks are discriminated by the Dog-People. Stare and Flare are just tagging along because they're Nakama.
• Bare Your Midriff: Both Flare and Alicia's outfits.
• Book Ends: The game begins and ends with Waffle giving the blue pendant to Alicia.
• Big Bad: Fool
• Bubble Gun: Waffle's weapon.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Egg Stone and the parts of the Iron Giant scattered around the Floating Continents, including his giant sword at Grimto and his head at Ferzen.
• Cartoon Bomb: The basic weapon used by the Pris sisters and the kittens. They even have little cat skulls on them.
• Cleavage Window: Alicia's outfit has one of these.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Everyone to an extent. Alicia Pris is the leader and wears red, Stare Pris is The Quiet One in blue, and Flare Pris is the Genki Girl in yellow. Waffle, the hero, and Princess Terria are white. Fool wears purple.
• Con Man: Fool.
• Cool Airship: Obviously given the setting.
• Cool Old Guy: Russel Ryebread.
• Damsel in Distress: Princess Terria gets kidnapped by the Pris sisters quite early in the game. And later Alicia does too.
• Do a Barrel Roll: You can perform one with your jetpack.
• Drill Tank: The mini-versions are piloted by the kittens in Ferzen.
• Drop the Hammer: One of the weapons used by the cat mechas. Along with an improbably large magnet.
• Eleventh-Hour Superpower: At the end of the game, your Bubble Gun shoots green energy blasts.
• Even the Guys Want Him: In one NPC's house, he speaks frequently of a precious item. When he's out, you can raid his house to get it. It's a picture of Cyan in a swimsuit.
• Everything's Better with Princesses: Princess Terria.
• Cute Kitten
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Fool lives up to his name.
• Exposition Break: Anime cutscenes
• Fantastic Racism: Alicia is prejudiced against the Dog-People at first due to her somewhat unclear past (reportedly, her mother died in a hospital run by Dog-People and blamed them for not saving her). It spreads to Flare saying that Prairia once belonged to the Cat-People before being invaded by the Dog-People (the details of the war are unclear). It doesn't stick with Flare when she actually interacts with the Dog-People.
• Floating Continent: Prairie is composed entirely of this.
• Follow the Leader: The game is pretty much just Mega Man Legends WITH Kemono! Still pretty fun, though.
• Forgotten Superweapon: The Iron Giant. (Not that one). After Solatorobo is released, fans speculated that the Iron Giant can be a Titano-Machina, similar to Laress and Lemures
• Gadgeteer Genius: Apparently Alicia builds all the mechas for the Black Cats Gang.
• Generation Xerox: Apparently Cyan's grandfather and Waffle's grandfather share the same vitrolic relation Cyan and Waffle share. Also, Cyan's grandfather used to be the captain of the royal guard, which is Cyan's current position.
• Genki Girl: Flare Pris
• Gotta Catch Them All: The photos.
• Hammerspace: Averted. The kittens aren't stored in a pack but teleported to the police HQ.
• Heartwarming Orphan: Flare Pris; it turns out that she isn't biologically related to Alicia or Stare.
• I Meant to Do That

Cyan (in quicksand): "Don't you see what I'm trying to do? I sacrificed myself to warn you of this trap!"

• Improbable Weapon User: The later boss weapons just get weird. The bosses are usually giant Cat Mechas wielding a large variety of weapons, such as drills, hammers, giant magnets and a megaphone.
• Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: In the Abandoned Factory.
• In Name Only: There are no black cats in the Black Cats Gang.
• Just in Time
• Kleptomaniac Hero: You actually need to raid houses and even attack a delivery vehicle to get all the photos.
• Lawful Stupid: Cyan
• Love Triangle: Alicia and Terria both like Waffle.
• Let's Get Dangerous: Cyan gets a Crowning Moment of Awesome when he singlehandedly distracts the Iron Giant in his airship.
• The Man Behind the Man: Fool turns out to be behind all of the Black Cats Gang's schemes as part of his plan to resurrect the Iron Giant.
• Meaningful Name: Cyan, and Fool, who resurrects the Iron Giant under the assumption it would serve him. This doesn't work quite as planned.
• Memento MacGuffin: Waffle gave Alicia an imporant blue crystal in the very first cutscene (a flashback).
• Minecart Madness: Ferzen's mines.
• Mini-Mecha: The Police Robo and Knight Robo being of the more conventional verity. The ones employed by the Pris Sisters tend to employ more unorthodox designs.
• Mooks
• Obviously Evil: Come on, who didn't have Fool pegged as the real villain the moment he was introduced?
• Petting Zoo People: Cat-People and Dog-People
• Platform Game
• Precursors: "Prairie was built upon the ruins of an ancient civilization. Many relics have been found around the land."
• Port Town: Since Prairie is composed of many Floating Continents, most of the towns apply.
• The Quiet One: Stare Pris
• La Résistance: Black Cats Gang
• Mineral MacGuffin
• The Rival: Cyan
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: Scratch one more secret base. Also starts a timed mission.
• Shared Universe: with Solatorobo and Mamoru-Kun. All three series were set in a Post-Apocalyptic Earth as well.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Coolant.
• Sneeze of Doom: At one point, you need to capture all the kittens to save an airship raided by the Black Cats Gang. The reason the airship is crashing in the first place is because the captain is allergic to cats and is constantly sneezing, unable to control the ship.
• Stealth Pun: In the kingdom of Prairie there are felines and canines. The latter can be though of as Prairie dogs.
• Steampunk
• Subtitles Are Superfluous: The French version of the game, which retains the Japanese voice acting unlike the U.S. version, is a aversion of this, adding French subtitles in the opening and all anime cutscenes.
• Super Sentai Stance: Aside from getting trapped in boxes and allowing you to save, this seems to be all Panta does.
• Talking to Himself: Only natural, since the game has only six voice actors. Alicia is the only character with a VA all to herself.
• Terrible Trio: The Pris sisters
• Timed Mission: When Fool sets off the Self-Destruct Mechanism in the secret base. You've got five minutes to escape.
• Trap Door: How you "enter" the Secret Base.
• The Unfought: Played straight by Fool and double subverted at the end of the Moving Fortress level.

Fool: "I'll finish you off myself."
*Boss music starts up*
*Beat*
Fool: "On second thought, physical labor isn't my style. I think I'll be going now! Bye!"

• The Unintelligible: The king of Prairia.
  • Subverted, as the dialogue seems to imply that Waffle understands him completely... somehow. Also, the text box shows what he actually means.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Alicia Pris.
• Womb Level: Inside the Iron Giant. Don't think about it too much.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Cyan's hair is... well, cyan.
  • As is the hair of his grandfather, Grey. Also, Stare has two different shades of blue hair, and Fool is just purple all over.