Zone of the Enders

It was so nice of Konami to provide a free game with the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo.

I am the master of time.
I am the one who brings back those who are far away.
I am the one who seperate the two warriors, the mediator of conflict.
I am the sign of the sky.
I am the one who repel all creations.
I am the one who write the Maat.
I am the master of massacre.

A Humongous Mecha series created for Konami by Hideo Kojima.

The First Zone of the Enders was released on the PlayStation 2, a high-speed mecha combat game about a boy named Leo Stenbuck, a kid from a space colony in orbit around the planet Jupiter that is attacked by BAHRAM, a group of rebels seeking to steal back "Jehuty", a Super Prototype Orbital Frame that, naturally, Leo accidentially ends up piloting. With little choice in the matter, Leo, along with Jehuty's AI A.D.A., tries to deliver Jehuty to the UNSF forces on the other side of the colony, while trying to do what he can to halt the attack.

Zone of the Enders did a brisk initial sale, which was mostly attributed to the fact that the game also included a demo of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty: Sons of Liberty. So rather, people were buying the demo, and then maybe later on trying out the "free game that came with it".

Nonetheless, the game sold well enough to gain a cult following of its own. An anime OAV called "Zone of the Enders: IDOLO" was released. A prequel to the game, IDOLO starred Viola, The Dragon of the game, and Radium Lavans, two Martian soldiers who join a resistance movement against the Earth using IDOLO, the first Orbital Frame. A full-sized TV Series, Zone of the Enders: Dolores, i, followed up on the story, featuring James Links, a space trucker who ends up receiving Dolores, an Orbital Frame that happens to think he's her uncle, from his estranged wife Rachel, one of IDOLO's designers who was supposed to have died during the climax of that story. This spurs him to seek out and reconcile with his equally-estranged children and reunite his family. And no government forces, crime families, or rebel troops are going to get in his way.

A spin-off game, Zone of the Enders: the Fist of Mars (a.k.a. 2171 Testament) is a Turn-Based Strategy game for the Game Boy Advance about a boy named Cage Midwell who finds an strangely powerful L.E.V. hidden on a cruise liner just before the ship is destroyed, forcing him and a mysterious young girl to get inside to save their lives. They eventually fall in with a rebel group known as B.I.S., who seek to free Mars from UNSF oppression. Fist of Mars plays similar to the Super Robot Wars series, but uses a more player-participating battle system where the player chases down the enemy with their crosshairs (or avoids the enemy's) to determine whether an attack hits or misses, and even critical hits. Although the stats of the units help determine how easy or difficult this is, it is entirely possible to hit with every one of your attacks, or dodge every enemy attack, even when a hit or miss would be otherwise unavoidable.

A true sequel to the game: Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, was released on the Playstation 2 in 2003. It features a miner and former soldier named Dingo Egret who finds Jehuty, the frame from the first game, hidden on the moon of Callisto, just as BAHRAM does. He fights his way though them, and eventually all the way onto their command ship, where he meets Nohman, leader of BAHRAM and an old colleague of his who wants him to come back to the group. Dingo refuses, so Nohman shoots him. He finds himself awakened by by Ken Marinaris, a woman he fought earlier on Callisto, who calims to be a UNSF spy, and hard-wires his body into Jehuty's life-support systems to keep him alive. In exchange for her saving his life, and later completely fixing him, she wants his help. Dingo escapes down to Mars, where he faces Bahram mecha, trains, battleships, the first game's Leo Stenbuck in the Vic Viper, and finally settling the score not just between himself and Nohman, but Jehuty and Anubis as well. Along the way, however, he has to stop A.D.A. from completing her own mission: make her way to BAHRAM's headquarters and destroy it by self-destructing Jehuty.

Oh right. We forgot to mention that the control cockpits for Humanoid Orbital Frames and L.E.V.s are located on the front, right between the mech's legs in fact. Does This Remind You of Anything??

Despite rather low sales, Zone of the Enders continues to be a cult favorite, and Kojima has stated that he has ideas for another ZoE game, but for years was tethered to the Metal Gear Solid franchise. But now it's official that a sequel is currently in the works. From the images released, it seems the Jehuty will sport a Darker and Edgier look and the plot will apparently incorporate fantasy-like elements and demonic creatures. However, Kojima said that the producers plan to keep the previous games' basic nature intact in the new sequel.

In the meantime, An HD Collection of the games (The two console ones, anyway) has been announced for the Play Station 3 and 360, much to the elation of fans. Expect to see Jehuty in 1080p in 2012. It was later confirmed that this collection would also be available on the Play Station Vita, allowing portable Jehuty action.

Tropes used in Zone of the Enders include:
  • Ace Pilot: Radam and Viola qualify. Also, Dingo used to be one.
    • Leo became one in the second game, piloting the beefed up LEV the Vic Viper (but still considered weaker than orbital frames storywise). He could fight Dingo in the second game to a standstill in an inferior suit.
  • Action Girl: Semil and Mebius in Fist of Mars. Ken in The Second Runner is supposedly one but does not get much chance to show it.
  • A Father to His Men: Deckson in Fist of Mars
  • Almighty Janitor: Dingo, a former BAHRAM military pilot, and is a genius runner to the extent to be rumored to be the only one that can match Nohman on one-on-one battle. And that's probably the reason why the Jehuty in the 2nd game is far stronger and more useful than the first game Jehuty.
    • There's also the fact it gets upgrades in the second it never had in the first.
  • A Mech by Any Other Name: LEVs and Orbital Frames.
    • To further distinguish them from one another, orbital frames being immeasurably superior to LEVs in .. pretty much every way. The only thing LEVs have on frames is they can be manufactured with common materials. Although, by 2nd Runner, commercial LEV technology, as with the Vic Viper, had just about caught up with frame tech, at least insofar as a decent pilot can give a frame a run for its money.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The A Is in Hathor and Anubis are decidedly evil, while Hathor's twin sister Dolores is a bubbly and innocent Robot Girl. Though initially neutral, ADA evolves into a compassionate computer, as does Pharsti from Fist of Mars.
    • Somewhat justified, it is stated that Metatron has a sort of "mineral conscience" that may or may not be true sentience but is apparently malevolent without due protection. Whether or not this is Fanon is for you to decide, but Nohman does go on about "the will of Metatron" at the and of the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, so credence is lent to the theory.
    • It's more like Humanity Is Infectious since the AI in this series is more or less reflection of the frame runner's psyche.
  • Anything That Moves: Yukito
  • Applied Phlebotinum: Metatron can be used to do almost anything
    • Nohman takes this and runs with it, even implying that Metatron has a will of its own.
  • Apocalypse How: Pretty high on the scale: It turns out Aumaun's ultimate weapon will simply compress space all over the solar system, crushing all the planets and the sun itself as though in a massive fist.
    • Although the first game made it clear by the end, ADA directly states that both Jehuty and Anubis are key to making this come about. The second game only makes this more obvious.

"I was...created...to destroy.............all".

  • Attack Drone: Ardjet has a cape made of tiny wisps, some of which it gifts to Jehuty. When Jehuty upgrades to ver. 2.0, the much bigger and more useful "tail feather" objects on Jehuty detach and become additional firing points. Naturally, Vic Viper comes with the iconic Options from it's parent series.
  • The Atoner: Easily all the good guys in Fist of Mars, in one way or another.
  • Awesome but Impractical: The Vector Cannon, outside of the fight against the BAHRAM battleships or as a Finishing Move against Aumaan Anubis.
  • Background Halo: On Viola's frame Neith.
  • Badass: Every Orbital Frame pilot, and those that pilot non Mook L.E.V.s.
    • Badass Crew: The members of BIS Born In Space, half of whom regularly take on several Orbital Frames by the end of the game in little more than Ace Custom L.E.V.s.
    • Badass Normal: Leo in the second installment - despite not piloting a true Orbital Frame he's still able to keep up with Jehuty. Also, James Links, who make up for his lack of skill with an orbital frame with the experiences he gained as a hardened UNSF veteran to overcome many obstacles.
  • Bag of Holding: Vector Traps, "pocket dimentions" of folded-over space enabled by metatron's space-bending properties. A Vector Trap can hold a theoretically limitless volume, but mass is still a factor for the device carrying it. This is what enables the Hyperspace Arsenal of orbital frames, and the Clown Car Base of Cellars that deploy unmanned frames.
  • Battle Butler: Twede from Fist of Mars. Battle Secretary would be more accurate though.
  • Battleship Raid: The Train and battleship fights in The 2nd Runner
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: Jehuty, Dolores and Testament have this.
  • Blade on a Stick: Anubis's Weapon of Choice.
  • Beam Spam/Roboteching: The Homing Laser attacks used by several Orbital Frames.
  • Beat Them At Their Own Game: Much of The Second Runner centers on finding the Zero Shift so that Jehuty can fight on par with Anubis.
  • Beginner's Luck: Leo and Cage, helped by the fact that they have some stupidly-powerful mecha with good AIs.
    • Subverted in Dolores, since James is a UNSF veteran, but the Dolores AI is, well... not suited for combat.
    • James isn't too good at the beginning either, as he's never piloted an Orbital Frame before. He actually improves fairly slowly (and on paper isn't a match for any of the 'elites', though he generally muddles through with sheer pluck and the fact that his new "niece" is a Super Prototype).
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Push Dolores enough and you run the risk of waking her ISIS mode, which will terminate you in the most efficient manner possible.
  • BFG: The Vector Cannon.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Amante in Fist of Mars.
  • Blind Idiot Translation: The Second Runner is rife with it, but it doesn't really hurt the game overall.
    • Dolores, i also suffers from this in the early episodes, featuring translations like "Orbital Frame Flame". While this was fixed in the end of the series, the damage was done...
  • Bodyguard Crush: Rather blatantly implied for Robin and Twede.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Ares and Myona suffer through this in Fist of Mars.
  • Broken Bridge: The microwave force-field in the first game.
  • Broken Pedestal: A minor example: Isaac Barrett, the author of the book How To Be A Daddy whom James Links practically worships as an epitome of great parent, turns out to be a worse father than James himself. However, Isaac does manage to reconcile with his son at the end of the episode and James just gives Isaac's book back to Isaac, telling him that it is time for Isaac to follow what the book says.
  • Bulletproof Human Mecha Shield: You can grab enemies and use them like a Bulletproof Human Shield. The enemies will still shoot, causing them to hurt their allies instead of you. This comes in really useful, especially in the second game, where those enemies are your only defense against a difficult boss.
    • The human shield version doubles as a Moral Event Horizon for one of the villians in The Fist Of Mars.
  • Bumbling Dad: James Links in Dolores, i
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: BIS is made up of these.
  • Cain and Abel: The Orbitral Frames Jehuty and Anubis.
    • Dolores and Hathor. Also Testament and Iblis. This series loves invoking this trope.
  • Can't Live Without You: In the sequel Dingo can't live outside Jehuty.
  • Charged Attack: Frequently:
    • The burst attack, where Jehuty pushes a lot of its shot energy into a "bubble" of compressed space, then projects it all at once at a target.
    • The Vector Cannon can only be fired this way:

A.D.A.: Switch to Vector Cannon mode... landing gear and climbing irons locked... inner chamber pressure rising normally... life-ring has started revolving... ready to fire.

  • Cherry Tapping: Forced upon you in The Second Runner when you fight Anubis for real Jehuty has been damaged, leaving the only things it can do is blade, dash, grab, burst-blade and Zero Shift. No shield nor long-range weapons of any kind. Needless to say, it makes Anubis insanely hard on your first attempts.
  • Chessmaster: Nohman is shown to be one in the Expanded Universe.
    • In Dolores, i he allows Radium to go through with his plan because He knows its a suicide mission that will take Hathor off the table, and even if he succeeds it will destroy the Space Force which is the only real opposition to Project Aumaan. Also the chaos created by Radium's plan had crippled the leadership of BAHRAM.
    • It is revealed in The Stinger at the end of Fist of Mars that the entire game's plot was a ploy to get rid of his opposition within the leadership of BAHRAM.
    • Both of these events events allow him to take complete control over BAHRAM and Mars in the time between Zone of the Enders and The 2nd Runner
  • Child Soldiers: The reason why Zephyrs is considered by many to be a Complete Monster. His I.D.O. Mindflow System, which subdues the will of a pilot to enhance the performance of orbital frame, works better with children, making them ideal for soldiers. The party even fights an army consisting of child soldiers in the game.
  • Christmas Cake: Mebius in Fist of Mars.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: All the antagonists in Fist of Mars seem to suffer from this.
  • Cliff Hanger: The end of the first game.
  • Clingy Jealous Guy: Phil, a rare male example of this trope.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Dolores.
  • Cool Shades: Warren never takes his off. Neither does Twede.
  • Colony Drop: The attempted destruction of Earth's Space Elevator
  • Cyber Cyclops: The Phantomas and the Raptors.
  • Dark Action Girl: Viola
  • Demoted to Extra: Early on in the Fist of Mars, if you decide to spare Nadia, you begin a process which will lead to her having a Heel Face Turn. There could have been a virtual goldmine of tension between her and the Eviler Than Thou newcomer Amante, or at least something about her learning and growing. Unfortunately, she doesn't even get twenty more lines in the whole game.
  • Die Hard on an X: Die Hard On An Oxygen Plant.
  • Disney Villain Death: Baan
  • Determinator: Baan walks on the surface of Mars without a space suit just to attack the Links family.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Because it warrants restating, cockpit.
  • Downer Ending: Z.O.E. 2167 IDOLO.
  • Dysfunctional Family: James' family starts out as one. One of the main sources of comic relief from Dolores, i comes from James' attempts to change this.
  • The Dragon: Viola and her AI copy.
  • Earthshattering Kaboom: Aumaan, designed to wipe out the entire solar system.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: We get to see Nohman before his exposure to Metatron completely changes him in Dolores, i.
  • Expy: For his emotional issues, Cage in Fist of Mars has been compared to Shinji in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Fortunately, Cage has more backbone and friends who actually trust him than the poor Butt Monkey from Evangelion.
  • Evil Knockoff: The mass produced Ifrits are this to the orbital frame "Testament" that Cage pilots.
  • Falling Into the Cockpit: Leo (Literally) in the first game, Cage in Fist of Mars, and Dingo (again literally) in the 2nd Runner James in Dolores, i may also count)
  • Fan Service (Ken in Second Runner. It reaches hilarious heights when, if the player holds her orbital frame near the lava long enough after rescuing her from the Viola AI, the anime cutscene that follows changes to show her without the top half of her jumpsuit on. Oh Kojima, you scoundrel.
  • Fantastic Racism (One of the central themes in the series. The eponymous term, "Ender," is actually a degrading word in the in-game universe. People from the Earth look down on Martians, while Martians oppress the people who are living further away from the Earth than they do (i.e. Jupiter); each refers to the next as "Enders".
  • Faux Action Girl: Ken, considering one Escort Mission only exists because she can't pilot her frame if it doesn't have an AI. Early in the game, Dingo also insists that he doesn't need an AI, and ADA obliges him by putting on screen the hundreds of status feeds that she's monitoring. Dingo then concedes that maybe he does need her help. Hey, now I get it. Kojima-sensei, you're a genius!
  • The Federation (The UNSF)
  • Flash Step (Zero Shift)
  • Gambit Pileup The plot of Fist of Mars
  • Genki Girl: Semyl
  • Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Rezma pulls this on Cage, Cage even reacts exactly the same way as Amuro did
  • Get Back Here Boss: Inhert in 2nd Runner. It will actively run away from Jehuty during almost all of the battle, except on the second part when it'll attack once you get closer enough.
  • Green Rocks: Metatron
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: Jehuty can grab enemy mechs and whack more enemies with the one it grabbed. Of note is during The War Sequence, where the Vic Viper has infinite health, so a sound strategy is just to grab it and whack away until everything that is not your friend dies.
  • God Mode: Naked Jehuty may sounds stupid but there is only one Orbital Frame that can withstand it's one full blade combo. And that one foe by the way is the final boss itself.
    • Justified since it's Jehuty after absorbing Anubis energy. It is the combination of the two most powerful Orbital Frames ever, so what do you expect?
  • Hammerspace: Vector Traps
    • Almost every Sub-Weapon n the second game.
  • Heel Face Turn: Sameji finaly has enough of his superior when he approaches the Moral Event Horizon.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Deckson, Phil and Pharsti in Fist of Mars.
    • Dolores' friend Mr. Raptor in Dolores, i
    • Dolores and Radium Lavans in Dolores, I. For Dolores's case, she survived at the end.
      • Lloyd anyone?
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: The fight against Anubis at the end of the first game. Also first two times against Anubis in the second game.
    • In the second game, it is possible to be able to last against him and slowly whittle his HP down. However, events will eventually progress as if you lost.
  • Hot-Blooded: Leo in the original Japanese when you fight him in The Second Runner. No, really; see here.
  • Hot Scientist: Rachel Links and Dolores Heyes.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Justified by aforementioned Vector Traps.
  • Implacable Mecha: Nephtis, no matter what you do to it, just will not... fucking.. die.
  • Impossibly Cool Clothes: Nohman's pilot suit has a tail.. for... some reason..?
    • and a man thong too by the looks of it...
  • I Only Read It for The Articles: Non-pornographic example: Several of the people who got the first Zone of the Enders infamously only bought it to get the Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty demo included in it, something that was also lampshaded in a Penny Arcade comic, which also acts as the text for the trope picture.
  • It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Myona in Fist Of Mars falls into this line of thinking after regaining her memory. She even tries to die in the facility where she got turned into a Tyke Bomb so her friends do not get hurt by people who may come after her in one of the two possible scenarios.
  • The Lancer: Warren would qualify, but aside from the fact he has some UST for Mebius, who likes Deckson, he's actually fairly respective of Deckson, though he's somewhat more pragmatic at times. It also helps that all three parties like each other so much that no one thinks about murdering the hypotenuse
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Myona in Fist of Mars.
  • Latex Space Suit: Ken Marinaris.
  • Lawful Stupid: Baan.
  • Lethal Joke Character: The Single-sword Raptor in ZOE 1's VS mode. You have to beat the game twice to unlock it and Zombie Neith (which is itself a powerhouse), but from all outward appearances, it's only a weaker version of the already anemic Raptor. Then you realize the third strike on its 3-hit combo completely bypasses shields...
  • Lightning Bruiser: The Vic Viper is the most overpowered machine in the game with its ability to outfight nearly every Orbital frame in the game without breaking a sweat. At maximum power and speed, the machine becomes a monster and it doesn't matter how much HP it has, as long as it is not 0, it WILL kick your ass. Not that Naked Jehuty or Testament are slouches.
  • Love Makes You Evil/Love Makes You Crazy: Radium Lavans, period.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Razma. Subverted somewhat in that it's mostly a facade.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: See the Homing Laser, also Jehuty's Homing Missile attack.
    • This reaches ridiculous heights if you do a new game plus with the Ultimate form of Jehuty, which has near-infinite subweapon energy. So ridiculous, in fact, it borders on More Dakka if you use some of the rapid-fire secondary weapons.
  • Mad Scientist:
    • Zephyr in Fist of Mars.
    • Lloyd in 2nd Runner is said to be one, although it probably was just Dingo being snarky.
  • Man in the Machine: Dingo.
  • Matrix Raining Code: In the tutorial area for Second Runner.
  • Mecha-Mooks: Both the one eyed UNSF Phantoma and the mass produced Raptors from Mars. The former are piloted, the latter usually automated.
  • Meganekko: Robin O'Connell.
  • Missing Mom: James' wife in Dolores, i.
  • Mobile Shrubbery: Dolores' "Stealth Mode" is essentially her carrying a tree around so as not to show up on satellite photos.
  • Mood Whiplash: Nohman is generally calm and soft-spoken in the first game and when Dingo first confronts him in Second Runner (even while pumping the latter full of bullets). By the next time you meet him, he's clearly gone off the deep end. The reason for this is never fully explained.
    • In is however implied that his exposure to Metatron piloting the Anubis between the first game and The 2nd Runner causes him to lose his sanity and turn him into a creepy albino. He appears in in Dolores, i looking like a normal human being and still thinking rationally.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Ken
  • Mysterious Waif: Myona in Fist of Mars.
  • No-Gear Level: In the first game, while remote piloting a Raptor.
  • Obfuscated Interface: Don't try to drive your Orbital Frame without AI's help
  • The Obi-Wan: Deckson to Cage and Nadia.
  • Odd Name Out: Vic Viper, for good reason.
  • Older and Wiser (Leo in The 2nd Runner)
  • Older Than They Look: Possibly Amante in Fist of Mars.
  • Omnicidal Maniac
    • Nohman.
    • Bolozof slides into this due to overexposure to Metatron.
    • Radium in Dolores, i, his plan would essentially make the Earth uninhabitable and as a result would cause Mars to slowly starve to death due to lack of supplies.
  • One-Man Army: Subverted since Jehuty is a giant mecha. Well, a giant mecha fighting a whole army of giant mechas, a battleship,and an even gianter mecha!
    • In the second game it even fights an army of giant battleships protected by armies of not-that-giant mechas.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname - Nohman, his real name is Ridley but no one calls him that.
  • Orphean Rescue - How James brings Dolores out of her "coma" once Hathor forcibly took part of her Operating System.
  • Power Crystal: On every Orbital Frame, coupled with Power Glows, Tron Lines, and motion blurred streaks of light, looked really cool.
  • Psycho Serum: Any human who is in contact with Metatron or Metatron-powered machines too long becomes decidedly insane and gains freaky powers. Radium Levans managed a last minute Heroic Sacrifice once his ships' evil AI was killed, while Nohman died as evil as he lived)
  • Puzzle Boss: Nephtis in The Second Runner. All four times you fight it.
  • Recurring Boss: Viola is one in both games, well... one could argue about the second, and Nohman is also one in 2nd Runner.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Bolozof in Fist of Mars due to his overexposure to Metatron.
  • Road Cone: Done in Fist of Mars, where halfway through, the storyline splits depending on whether you destroy more or less enemy units than a trio of NPCs. However, while the routes are notably different, the ending is more or less the same for both routes.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Ares in Fist of Mars against the Mad Scientist who turned him and his sister Myona into Tykebombs.
  • Robot Girl: Dolores, the biggest one on record!
  • Running Gag: "John Carter?" "Of Mars!"

"This is why the Princess left you!"

  • Scars Are Forever: Baan gets hit by shrapnel in the temple and a good portion of his face is black and scarred.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Phil.
  • Shell Shocked Senior: Dingo Egret, though surprisingly well adjusted, is a war vet and carries a lot of old grudges. Surprisingly Leo Stenbuck manages to turn into a bit of one between games.
  • Shorttank: Semyl in Fist of Mars.
  • Shout-Out: In The 2nd Runner, Leo appears piloting a Transforming Mecha featuring up to four "Options" that trail behind him duplicating his attacks, a ringlike "Aura Bolt" attack, and a distinctive energy barrier that changes color as it wears down. The mech's name? Vic Viper. Its aircraft design is even inspired by the original ship.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Jehuty and Anubis.
  • Smug Snake: Most villains.
  • Space Trucker: James Linx runs a cargo ship around the Sol system. He copes with the boredom of weeks-long journies with beer and reading.
  • The Stinger: Fist of Mars, you can unlock them in the first game depending on your score.
  • The Stoic: Warren.
  • Super-Powered Evil Side: Dolores' "Isis" mode.
    • Subverted, though, in that her ISIS mode isn't any stronger than her normal state at all, just scarier looking. The danger is due to the fact that the battle computer is a lot more ruthless and skilled than Dolores herself.
    • Actually, it is implied later in the series by Dolores Links that the ISIS mode IS the actual AI of the ISIS frame since the good doctor eventually had to perform additional programming to better integrate and harmonize Dolores with ISIS. So, Dolores is more like the Underpowered Good Side. Should count as an inverted trope.
  • Super Prototype: Idolo, Delores, Hathor, Jehuty, Anubis, Testament, Ibis. Mildly averted, the original Idolo was destroyed in the movie it was introduced, and went on to form the fuselage for Dolores and Hathor, both far stronger than the original, as were (arguably) Jehuty and Anubis which were made from scratch.
  • Survivor Guilt: Myona and Ares as they were the only ones who survived from Zephyr's experiments.
  • Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Baan in Dolores, i.
  • Team Mom: Semyl and Mebius share traits of this.
  • Tech Demo Game: Zone of the Enders is generally considered this, not specifically from the player's perspective, but from the developer's perspective, seeing as it uses the same game engine as the higher-profile game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, so it's easy to think of ZoE as Kojima Productions' warm-up game before they tackled MGS2.
  • Theme Naming: Most of the important mecha in the series are named after Egyptian Deities. Subverted in Fist of Mars where the main character's mech is called the Testament and the main antagonist's mech is called the Iblis (which is the name of the primary devil in Islam). Also, the Testament's Evil Knockoff is called Ifrit.
  • Tomboyish Name: Ken Marinaris from The 2nd Runner, who is otherwise very girly.
    • Note that Ken can be a female name in Japanese.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Leo in The 2nd Runner. Cage in The Fist of Mars.
  • True Companions: Dingo goes into a BAHRAM ship in order to draw BAHRAM away from Callisto so his miner friends do not get hurt. Also, his main motivation to fight BAHRAM is to avenge his comrades who were unknowingly sent on a suicide mission to be used as a decoy. Dingo was the only one who survived from the UNSF's assault.
  • Unsettling Gender Reveal: Cage in Fist of Mars thinks Philbright Westriverside Warehouserock XXVI is a girl in their first meeting.
  • Villain Teleportation
  • Visual Pun: Do we really need to say it?
  • The War of Earthly Aggression: Essentially what the whole series is about.
  • The War Sequence: After a stirring speech, Dingo and Leo convince the UNSF army remants to join forces for a final assault on BAHRAM HQ. Charging through artilery fire Jehuty, Vic Viper and around fifty Phantoma LE Vs face off against THOUSANDS of mass produced Orbital Frames. And it is possible, although difficult to defeat the entire army with zero casualites.
  • Wave Motion Gun: The Vector Cannon, as a BFG for Humongous Mecha. It takes approximately twenty seconds to charge, and when it fires shoots a blast that damned near eclipses Jehuty in size and will rip through anything and everything in its path. It's capable of tearing apart battleships in a single blast.
The Vector Cannon is the only weapon capable of punching through "Compressed Space", the games term for super-invincible forcefields, auto-qualifying it as a Wave Motion Gun. It shoots something along the lines of either charged particles or compressed space itself, but the fact is that it punches through invincible forcefields and is the only weapon capable of doing so. Jehuty needs a lot of footing and stabilisation to fire it.
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