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* ForcefulKiss: [[spoiler:Karen Alias slaps and forcefully kisses Tarte when he protests the real Karen losing the rest of her Heart Fragments and disappearing.]]
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* ForcefulKiss: [[spoiler:Karen Alias slaps hits and forcefully kisses Tarte when he protests the real Karen losing the rest of her Heart Fragments and disappearing.]]
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* RandomlyGeneratedLevels: Numbered floors all have random layouts and loot, though important maps such as boss arenas and checkpoints are predetermined.
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* FlunkyBoss: All Arc Monsters can summon minions to assist them, though only some mandatory bosses have minion summoning capabilities.
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* FlunkyBoss: All Arc Monsters can summon minions to assist them, though only some mandatory bosses have minion summoning capabilities.bosses, such as Canavarı Alias and Plumocrat, can do the same.
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* FlashStep: Satsuki has the skill, Foxtrot, which does damage based on her agility and moves her forward by a certain distance or until she hits and enemy. This is also her default action in ARPG Mode, allowing her to quickly close the distance on enemies.
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* FlashStep: Satsuki has the skill, Foxtrot, which does damage based on her agility and moves her forward by a certain distance or until she hits and an enemy. This is also her default action in ARPG Mode, allowing her to quickly close the distance on enemies.
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* FlashStep: Satsuki has the skill, Foxtrot, which does damage based on her agility and moves her forward by a certain distance or until she hits and enemy.
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* FlashStep: Satsuki has the skill, Foxtrot, which does damage based on her agility and moves her forward by a certain distance or until she hits and enemy. This is also her default action in ARPG Mode, allowing her to quickly close the distance on enemies.
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* EvolvingWeapon: Every time the player picks up a piece of equipment that they already have, the equipment's mastery increases. If the player dies, they lose anything they have equipped, but that same gear will gain a few mastery levels upon being picked up again.
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* EvolvingWeapon: Every time the player picks up a piece of equipment that they already have, the equipment's mastery increases.increases and boosts its stats according to its growth rate. If the player dies, they lose anything they have equipped, but that same gear will gain a few mastery levels upon being picked up again.
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* EquipmentUpgrade: Every time the player picks up a piece of equipment that they already have, the equipment's mastery increases. If the player dies, they lose anything they have equipped, but that same gear will gain a few mastery levels upon being picked up again.
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* EquipmentUpgrade: EvolvingWeapon: Every time the player picks up a piece of equipment that they already have, the equipment's mastery increases. If the player dies, they lose anything they have equipped, but that same gear will gain a few mastery levels upon being picked up again.
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* EquipmentUpgrade: Every time the player picks up a piece of equipment that they already have, the equipment's mastery increases.
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* EquipmentUpgrade: Every time the player picks up a piece of equipment that they already have, the equipment's mastery increases. If the player dies, they lose anything they have equipped, but that same gear will gain a few mastery levels upon being picked up again.
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* EnemyScan: Enemies information can be obtained by using the Scan Baton on them.
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* EnemyScan: Enemies information can be obtained by using the Scan Baton on them. This allows the player to view a basic description and weakness, though they'll have to return to Mika's house and read the Monstropedia to learn more about specific enemy skills and traits.
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** When Mr. Minami protests the disbandment of the Sado Club that he's advising, the vice-principal hits him out of annoyance.
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* TheDogBitesBack: When Mr. Minami, the advisor of the Sado Band Club, first appears, he's being pushed around by the vice-principal. [[spoiler:It turns out the vice-principal framed the Sado Band Club for smoking in order to get all the members to distrust each other and leave. After Karen, Hayato, and Suzu join the club and covert it into the Sado Band Club, Mr. Minami effortlessly shoots down all of the vice-principal's arguments about the club's noise level, making the latter look like a fool in front of the student body.]]
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* LaserGuidedKarma: When Mr. Minami, the advisor of the Sado Band Club, first appears, he's being pushed around and humiliated by the vice-principal. [[spoiler:It turns out the vice-principal framed the Sado Band Club for smoking in order to get all the members to distrust each other and leave. After Karen, Hayato, and Suzu join the club and covert it into the Sado Band Club, Mr. Minami effortlessly shoots down all of the vice-principal's arguments about the club's noise level, making the latter look like a fool in front of the student body.]]
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* DevelopersForesight: If the game detects that the player saved the game only a few seconds since the previous save, the log will comment on how meticulous the player is.
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* DeanBitterman: The vice-principal is a strict disciplinarian who yells at the Sado Club for focusing on band activities than their actual modus operandi of doing tea ceremonies. [[spoiler:It turns out he framed the club for using cigarettes on campus in order to get the club shut down.]]
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* DeanBitterman: The vice-principal is a strict disciplinarian who yells at the Sado Club for focusing on band activities than their actual modus operandi of doing tea ceremonies. [[spoiler:It turns out he framed the club for using cigarettes on campus in order to get the club shut down.down, all so he can convert their building into a museum.]]
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* CripplingOverspecialization: Despite being a SquishyWizard Astrake's default skills have suprisingly poor elemental coverage, forcing him to rely on equipment in order to access more elements. Unfortunately, unlike in Story Mode, Arcade Mode doesn't allow the player to bring their equipment into the dungeon, meaning Astrake is always going to be set up with a limited selection of elements.
* DeanBitterman: The vice-principal is a strict disciplinarian who yells at the Sado Club for focusing on band activities than their actual modus operandi of doing tea ceremonies. [[spoiler:It turns out that in the past, he framed the club for using cigarettes on campus in order to get the club shut down.]]
* DeanBitterman: The vice-principal is a strict disciplinarian who yells at the Sado Club for focusing on band activities than their actual modus operandi of doing tea ceremonies. [[spoiler:It turns out that in the past, he framed the club for using cigarettes on campus in order to get the club shut down.]]
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* CripplingOverspecialization: Despite being a SquishyWizard SquishyWizard, Astrake's default skills have suprisingly surprisingly poor elemental coverage, forcing him to rely on equipment in order to access more elements. Unfortunately, unlike in Story Mode, Arcade Mode doesn't allow the player to bring their equipment into the dungeon, meaning Astrake is always going to be set up with a limited selection of elements.
* DeanBitterman: The vice-principal is a strict disciplinarian who yells at the Sado Club for focusing on band activities than their actual modus operandi of doing tea ceremonies. [[spoiler:It turns outthat in the past, he framed the club for using cigarettes on campus in order to get the club shut down.]]
* DeanBitterman: The vice-principal is a strict disciplinarian who yells at the Sado Club for focusing on band activities than their actual modus operandi of doing tea ceremonies. [[spoiler:It turns out
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* ChurchMilitant: Spirits like Tarte and Hoop hunt down Gangers on behalf of the Elicio Church, since the Gangers are threatening the safety of the Driftworld. Unfortunately, the church also wants to suppress non-Ganger abnormalities, such as Karen, who is a pseudo-ghost.
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* ChurchMilitant: Spirits like Tarte and Hoop hunt down Gangers on behalf of the Elicio Church, since the Gangers are threatening the safety of the Driftworld. Unfortunately, the church also wants to suppress non-Ganger abnormalities, such as Karen, who is a pseudo-ghost.
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* ChurchMilitant: Spirits like Tarte and Hoop hunt down Gangers on behalf of the Elicio Church, since the Gangers are threatening the safety of the Driftworld. Unfortunately, the church also wants to suppress non-Ganger abnormalities, such as Satsuki, who is a pseudo-ghost.
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* ChurchMilitant: Spirits like Tarte and Hoop hunt down Gangers on behalf of the Elicio Church, since the Gangers are threatening the safety of the Driftworld. Unfortunately, the church also wants to suppress non-Ganger abnormalities, such as Satsuki, Karen, who is a pseudo-ghost.
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** Astrake can perform follow up skills if he uses a specific sequence of skills first.
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** Astrake can perform follow up skills if he uses a specific sequence of skills first. Unlike in his home game of ''VideoGame/RealityMinds'', he has to perform the combinations by himself rather than rely on a party member.
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* ClothingDamage: As Satsuki uses up turns and takes damage, her armor loses durability until she's forced to unequip it. This is shown not only through percentage values, but also her body portrait having torn clothes.
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* ClothingDamage: As Satsuki Karen/Satsuki uses up turns and takes damage, her armor loses durability until she's forced to unequip it. This is shown not only through percentage values, but also her body portrait having torn clothes.
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* ClothingDamage: As Satsuki uses up turns and takes damage, her armor loses durability. This is shown not only through percentage values, but also her body portrait having torn clothes.
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* ClothingDamage: As Satsuki uses up turns and takes damage, her armor loses durability.durability until she's forced to unequip it. This is shown not only through percentage values, but also her body portrait having torn clothes.
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* BrutalHonesty: Hayato doesn't mince words if he finds a flaw in a music score. This leads to him and Karen becoming friends, since this shows that he takes music as seriously as Karen does.
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* BrutalHonesty: Hayato doesn't mince words if he finds a flaw in a music score. He's also not afraid to call out the Brass Band Club leader, Rumi, for turning the club into her own personal posse rather than a place to pursue musical passions. This leads to him and Karen becoming friends, since this shows that he takes music as seriously as Karen does.
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* {{Superboss}}: Once the player acquires all the Arc Monster gems, they can return to the site of the final battle to challenge the hooded figure who appeared at the start of the Awakening Driftworld. Said hooded figure is deliberately designed to dwarf the Arc Monsters and the FinalBoss in difficulty, due to their powerful attacks, barriers, and healing.
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* {{Superboss}}: Once the player acquires all the Arc Monster gems, they can return to the site of the final battle to challenge the [[spoiler:the hooded figure who appeared at the start of the Awakening Driftworld. Said hooded figure Driftworld]]. This boss is deliberately designed to dwarf the Arc Monsters and the FinalBoss in difficulty, due since they have a barrier and healing skill that forces the player to optimize their powerful attacks, barriers, and healing.DPS while surviving the boss's brutal attacks.
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* BonusBoss:
** All Core dungeons have an Arc Monster near the end of the stage. These bosses are optional, but are also powerful enough to rival the actual Ganger boss of the dungeon. They are also the only enemies with 100% gem drop rates.
** [[spoiler:Once the player acquires all the Arc Monster gems, they can return to the site of the final battle to challenge the hooded figure who appeared at the start of the Awakening Driftworld.]]
** All Core dungeons have an Arc Monster near the end of the stage. These bosses are optional, but are also powerful enough to rival the actual Ganger boss of the dungeon. They are also the only enemies with 100% gem drop rates.
** [[spoiler:Once the player acquires all the Arc Monster gems, they can return to the site of the final battle to challenge the hooded figure who appeared at the start of the Awakening Driftworld.]]
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* OptionalBoss: All Core dungeons have an Arc Monster near the end of the stage. These bosses are optional, but are also powerful enough to rival the actual Ganger boss of the dungeon. They are also the only enemies with 100% gem drop rates.
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* {{Superboss}}: Once the player acquires all the Arc Monster gems, they can return to the site of the final battle to challenge the hooded figure who appeared at the start of the Awakening Driftworld. Said hooded figure is deliberately designed to dwarf the Arc Monsters and the FinalBoss in difficulty, due to their powerful attacks, barriers, and healing.
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* BeingEvilSucks: [[spoiler:The Karen Ganger reveals that deep down, she's ashamed of having to harm humans by eating their Heart Fragments to sate her hunger, but as a Ganger, she can't fight her nature. She allows the real Karen to MercyKill her, but not before requesting that Karen finds a way to save the other Gangers.]]
to:
* BeingEvilSucks: [[spoiler:The Karen Ganger reveals that deep down, she's ashamed of having to harm humans by eating their Heart Fragments to sate her hunger, HorrorHunger, but as a Ganger, she can't fight her nature. She allows the real Karen to MercyKill her, but not before requesting that Karen finds a way to save the other Gangers.]]
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* BeingEvilSucks: [[spoiler:The Karen Ganger reveals that deep down, she's ashamed of having to harm humans to sate her hunger, but as a Ganger, she can't fight her nature. She allows the real Karen to MercyKill her, but not before requesting that Karen finds a way to save the other Gangers.]]
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* BeingEvilSucks: [[spoiler:The Karen Ganger reveals that deep down, she's ashamed of having to harm humans by eating their Heart Fragments to sate her hunger, but as a Ganger, she can't fight her nature. She allows the real Karen to MercyKill her, but not before requesting that Karen finds a way to save the other Gangers.]]
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** Rush type skills allow characters to move several tiles, but if they're attacked immediately afterwards, they get toppled, preventing them from moving to another tile and using rush attacks for a few turns. However, there's a headgear that can [[RequiredSecondaryPowers prevent this drawback]], making Rush skills safer to use.
** If the player is defeated, they lose all their items, but those items will have much higher mastery levels upon reacquiring them. However, due to the necessity of having a large variety of rings and weapon types, it's generally better to just reload a save than to lose one's entire kit.
** If the player is defeated, they lose all their items, but those items will have much higher mastery levels upon reacquiring them. However, due to the necessity of having a large variety of rings and weapon types, it's generally better to just reload a save than to lose one's entire kit.
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** Rush type skills allow characters to move several tiles, but if they're attacked immediately afterwards, they get toppled, preventing them from moving to another tile and using rush attacks for a few turns. However, there's a headgear an amulet that can [[RequiredSecondaryPowers prevent this drawback]], making Rush skills safer to use.
** If the player is defeated, they lose all their items, but those items will have much higher mastery levels upon reacquiring them. However, due to the necessity of having a large variety of rings and weapon types, it's generally better to just reload a save than to lose one's entire kit.use for cameo characters only.
** If the player is defeated, they lose all their items, but those items will have much higher mastery levels upon reacquiring them. However, due to the necessity of having a large variety of rings and weapon types, it's generally better to just reload a save than to lose one's entire kit.
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* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:Karen defeats the Ganger who took her first fragment, but she still has three more fragments to obtain before she can complete herself and there's still the question of who turned Karen into a ghost and rewrote the past. The anchor in Mika's house tells the player to hold on to their save file in preparation for the sequel, ''Absented Age: Ghostbound''.]]
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* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:Karen defeats the Ganger who took her first fragment, but she still has three more fragments to obtain before she can complete herself and there's still the question of who turned Karen into a ghost and rewrote the past. The anchor in Mika's house tells the player to hold on to their [[OldSaveBonus save file file]] in preparation for the sequel, ''Absented Age: Ghostbound''.]]
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* AmnesiacDissonance: Tarte notes that Karen used to be more talkative and passionate about music before becoming a pseudo-ghost. [[spoiler:This makes it difficult for Karen to use the church's necromancy technique to materialize herself, since she doesn't fully comprehend what her original self was like, at least until she remembers when she and her friends successfully pulled off a practice performance in the Sado Band clubroom.]]
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* WistfulAmnesia: Tarte notes that Karen used to be more talkative and passionate about music before becoming a pseudo-ghost. Karen spends much of the game second-guessing if she's the same person compared to her pre-amnesia state and if she truly has a good reason to want to reclaim her memories. [[spoiler:This makes it difficult for Karen to use the church's necromancy technique to materialize herself, since she doesn't fully comprehend what her original self was like, at least until she remembers when she and her friends successfully pulled off a practice performance in the Sado Band clubroom.]]
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* AmnesiacDissonance: Tarte notes that Karen used to be more talkative and passionate about music before becoming a pseudo-ghost.
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* AmnesiacDissonance: Tarte notes that Karen used to be more talkative and passionate about music before becoming a pseudo-ghost. [[spoiler:This makes it difficult for Karen to use the church's necromancy technique to materialize herself, since she doesn't fully comprehend what her original self was like, at least until she remembers when she and her friends successfully pulled off a practice performance in the Sado Band clubroom.]]
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''Absented Age: Squarebound'' is an UsefulNotes/RPGMaker MV game developed by Terunon in 2020. It was localized and published to Steam by Gotcha Gotcha Games in 2021.
Satsuki is an amnesiac girl who wakes up in a Driftworld and teams up with a spirit cat, Tarte, to claim a Heart Fragment containing her memories. The fragment reveals that she was once a trumpeter, Karen, who had the grand ambition of performing at the Super Live with her friends. Although she manages to return to the real world, Satsuki/Karen discovers that she's a ghost, and the only way to regain the rest of her memories and her humanity is to find all seven of her Heart Fragments, all of which are guarded by powerful Gangers.
The gameplay is a hybrid of Action RPG and tile turn-based mechanics. While the player starts each map in ARPG Mode with only a subset of their skills available. Upon landing or receiving a preemptive strike, the game will shift to SRPG Mode, where all skills are available, but all combat is turn-based. The dungeon crawling is roguelite in that Karen loses her equipment if she's defeated, but if she finds that equipment later, they'll gain a few levels to compensate.
Download the international version from Steam [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1615930/International_Absented_Age_Squarebound/ here]].
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!This game contains examples of:
* AmnesiacDissonance: Tarte notes that Karen used to be more talkative and passionate about music before becoming a pseudo-ghost.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:Karen defeats the Ganger who took her first fragment, but she still has three more fragments to obtain before she can complete herself and there's still the question of who turned Karen into a ghost and rewrote the past. The anchor in Mika's house tells the player to hold on to their save file in preparation for the sequel, ''Absented Age: Ghostbound''.]]
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** Rush type skills allow characters to move several tiles, but if they're attacked immediately afterwards, they get toppled, preventing them from moving to another tile and using rush attacks for a few turns. However, there's a headgear that can [[RequiredSecondaryPowers prevent this drawback]], making Rush skills safer to use.
** If the player is defeated, they lose all their items, but those items will have much higher mastery levels upon reacquiring them. However, due to the necessity of having a large variety of rings and weapon types, it's generally better to just reload a save than to lose one's entire kit.
** The Nikkari Aoe has an excellent ATK cap at 23, but Karen cannot easily use it because as a ghost, she'll continuously take psychic damage from it. Fortunately, it's possible to give this weapon to Iris in her skill tree, and she won't take damage from it due to being a robot.
* BeingEvilSucks: [[spoiler:The Karen Ganger reveals that deep down, she's ashamed of having to harm humans to sate her hunger, but as a Ganger, she can't fight her nature. She allows the real Karen to MercyKill her, but not before requesting that Karen finds a way to save the other Gangers.]]
* BigBad: There isn't a clear main antagonist at first, but after Karen completes the Park Driftworld, [[spoiler:her most important Heart Fragment is stolen by a more intelligent than average Ganger. Said Ganger is the leader of a pack of weaker Gangers, and intends to steal Karen's identity and use her powers to merge reality and the Driftworlds, all to make it easier for Gangers to consume people's Heart Fragments. However, the Gangers aren't responsible for Karen becoming a ghost in the first place, which is a mystery left for the sequel.]]
* BonusBoss:
** All Core dungeons have an Arc Monster near the end of the stage. These bosses are optional, but are also powerful enough to rival the actual Ganger boss of the dungeon. They are also the only enemies with 100% gem drop rates.
** [[spoiler:Once the player acquires all the Arc Monster gems, they can return to the site of the final battle to challenge the hooded figure who appeared at the start of the Awakening Driftworld.]]
* BrutalHonesty: Hayato doesn't mince words if he finds a flaw in a music score. This leads to him and Karen becoming friends, since this shows that he takes music as seriously as Karen does.
* CatsHateWater: Cat spirits cannot swim and are weak to water damage. However, Light Enchant grants spirits the ability to float, allowing them to at least cross pools of water safely.
* ClothingDamage: As Satsuki uses up turns and takes damage, her armor loses durability. This is shown not only through percentage values, but also her body portrait having torn clothes.
* {{Combos}}:
** Astrake can perform follow up skills if he uses a specific sequence of skills first.
** Iris can perform a three-stage physical combo in both ARPG and SRPG modes. The third and final action depends on her current elemental mode.
* ChurchMilitant: Spirits like Tarte and Hoop hunt down Gangers on behalf of the Elicio Church, since the Gangers are threatening the safety of the Driftworld. Unfortunately, the church also wants to suppress non-Ganger abnormalities, such as Satsuki, who is a pseudo-ghost.
* CripplingOverspecialization: Despite being a SquishyWizard Astrake's default skills have suprisingly poor elemental coverage, forcing him to rely on equipment in order to access more elements. Unfortunately, unlike in Story Mode, Arcade Mode doesn't allow the player to bring their equipment into the dungeon, meaning Astrake is always going to be set up with a limited selection of elements.
* DeanBitterman: The vice-principal is a strict disciplinarian who yells at the Sado Club for focusing on band activities than their actual modus operandi of doing tea ceremonies. [[spoiler:It turns out that in the past, he framed the club for using cigarettes on campus in order to get the club shut down.]]
* DevelopersForesight: If the game detects that the player saved the game only a few seconds since the previous save, the log will comment on how meticulous the player is.
* TheDogBitesBack: When Mr. Minami, the advisor of the Sado Band Club, first appears, he's being pushed around by the vice-principal. [[spoiler:It turns out the vice-principal framed the Sado Band Club for smoking in order to get all the members to distrust each other and leave. After Karen, Hayato, and Suzu join the club and covert it into the Sado Band Club, Mr. Minami effortlessly shoots down all of the vice-principal's arguments about the club's noise level, making the latter look like a fool in front of the student body.]]
* DualBoss:
** Yayoi and Hoop fight the party at the midpoint of the Green Corridor.
** The boss of the Steel Corridor is a pair of Oil Pit Squids.
* EnemyScan: Enemies information can be obtained by using the Scan Baton on them.
* EquipmentUpgrade: Every time the player picks up a piece of equipment that they already have, the equipment's mastery increases.
* FinalBoss: [[spoiler:Karen Alias, the Ganger who took Karen's first Heart Fragment, is the last Ganger boss fought before the player can reach the ending scenes and credits.]]
* FlashStep: Satsuki has the skill, Foxtrot, which does damage based on her agility and moves her forward by a certain distance or until she hits and enemy.
* FlunkyBoss: All Arc Monsters can summon minions to assist them, though only some mandatory bosses have minion summoning capabilities.
* ForcefulKiss: [[spoiler:Karen Alias slaps and forcefully kisses Tarte when he protests the real Karen losing the rest of her Heart Fragments and disappearing.]]
* GenderBender: Astrake is a boy who bodyswapped with Silvana, which causes him to be considered bigender for gender-targeting effects.
* GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler:The Gangers didn't turn Karen into a ghost or rewrite reality so that people believe she died in a time paradox, and the true culprit is still unknown.]]
* GuestFighter:
** Astrake (in Silvana's body) from ''VideoGame/RealityMinds'' and Iris from ''Soaring Machinariae'' can be used in Arcade mode.
** In the postgame infinite dungeon, Parking Lot Depths, the player can summon an ally, Scale, who comes from ''Craft the Mapcrafter: Gathering Magic Word''.
* HeroicMime: After becoming a pseudo-ghost, Satsuki/Karen doesn't talk directly in the dialogue box, though she still gets dialogue choices. Subverted [[spoiler:in the ending, where she has proper dialogue when participating in the Super Live, indicating that she's regaining her identity as Karen.]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Karen Alias merges the Driftworlds and the real world, but this allows the real Karen to use her full psychic powers, due to the presence of the real world.]]
* HorrorHunger: [[spoiler:Gangers aren't inherently evil, but their hunger and the fact that they can only eat human Heart Fragments means they'll eventually degrade into ravenous predators.]]
* IOweYouMyLife: Double subverted. [[spoiler:Despite orders from the church to seal Karen into a dagger, Yayoi chooses to spare Karen after she exhausts herself saving him and Hoop from a Ganger. However, he later states that this is out of pragmatism, since Karen is stronger in the real world and could kill him in retaliation even when she's unconscious. Despite his pragmatic reasoning, he and Hoop still help Karen materialize in time for the Super Live after they work together to defeat Karen Alias, with no strings attached, which shows that his gratitude is genuine.]]
* InTheHood: [[spoiler:The BonusBoss is a nameless hooded figure with unknown name and affiliation. When they drop a gun, Tarte speculates that they're with the Elicio Church.]]
* InterfaceScrew: [[spoiler:When Karen lured into a trap by a group of Gangers, she finds herself in a dungeon full of unbeatable enemies. Every time she dies, she loses something that makes her "Karen," which places a penalty on her. One of them makes the log only output garbled text and the item names. In the FinalBoss fight, Karen Alias can glitch Karen's skills, causing them to be unusable while having garbled text.]]
* InventoryManagementPuzzle: The initial inventory and storage limits are 30 items each, though the former can be expanded with a Score of Collection while the latter can be expanded in Satsuki's skill tree. However, neither limit can be increased forever, with the inventory capping out at 60 and the storage capping out at 120.
* JackOfAllTrades: Karen has the most balanced stats of the playable characters and has decent close and long-range skills. However, she isn't as specialized as Iris and Astrake in close and long-range combat respectively.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** Rumi points out that Karen's inability to be a team player hurts her music career because a trumpeter needs other players to complement them. While this is a valid argument, she drove Karen out of the Brass Band Club out of jealousy and refuses to accept the Sado Band Club, despite the latter being proof that Karen can thrive with the right team.
** Subverted with the vice-principal. He is introduced yelling at the Sado Club for causing noise with their music and not focusing on their actual purpose of practicing tea ceremonies, which is a valid point to make even if he's a jerk about it. [[spoiler:It turns out that in the past, he framed the club for smoking cigarettes so he can abolish the club, and then convert their building into an on-campus museum. This puts his introduction in a darker light, since he's looking for any excuse to get rid of the club, even if he has to fabricate one. Additionally, the ending reveals that his excuse of noise doesn't even hold water, since the Sado Band Club's decidel measurement is actually lower than most other clubs.]]
** Yayoi and Hoop always belittle Tarte for being ignorant, but they are correct that the latter is often unaware of things that should be common knowledge to the followers of the Elicio Church.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Although Yayoi and Hoop are condescending towards Tarte, they're surprisingly flexible about following the Elicio Church's orders. After Karen saves them, they decide to help her out of gratitude despite her being a target of the church. They even uphold their end of the deal and [[spoiler:help Karen materialize in time for the Super Live]] despite all the flags indicating that they might backstab Karen.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk:
** Rumi at first seems shocked that her bad attitude pushed Karen out of the Brass Band Club, but after Karen is turned into a pseudo-ghost, Rumi is outright happy that Karen disappeared and vandalizes the Sado Band Club's missing person poster for Karen, making her earlier guilt a case of IgnoredEpiphany.
** The vice-principal is harsh on the Sado Band Club for causing noise with their activity even though they're supposed to be doing tea ceremony instead of music. While he initially seems like a strict school official who is just doing his job, he turns out to have an ulterior motive. [[spoiler:He wants to tear down the Sado building in order to make room for a campus museum, and went as far as to frame the club for smoking. Even when Mr. Minami counters all of the vice-principals arguments about the Sado Band Club's activities, the latter still tries to threaten to suspend the club members and ruin their permanent records.]]
* LittleBitBeastly: The Loup-garou enemy can inflict Beastized on Karen, which causes her to grow wolf ears. The ailment boosts her speed, but lowers her DEX and prevents her from using items.
* LossOfIdentity: Without her Heart Fragments, Karen is in danger of losing her identity. [[spoiler:What this means is that if the Gangers take her Heart Fragments, they can become her while she's doomed to wander the Driftworlds as a ghost. When a Ganger steals her first and most important fragment, it's considered closer to being Karen than Karen herself, making it so that the rest of the Heart Fragments gravitate towards the Ganger while rejecting the ghost Karen.]]
* KickTheDog:
** Rumi spray paints over Karen's missing person poster to demoralize the Sado Band Club.
** [[spoiler:Karen Alias hits and spitefully kisses Tarte, who refuses to accept the real Karen's disappearance.]]
* KnightTemplar:
** The Elicio Church intends to destroy any Driftworld-related abnormalities regardless of their intent to harm. Unfortunately, they deem Karen an abnormality who must be captured [[spoiler:because her psychic powers have the potential to devastate the city.]].
** Subverted with Yayoi and Hoop. [[spoiler:While they initially try to capture Karen on behalf of the church, they're later willing to turn a blind eye to her abnormal existence after she saves them. They also realize that it would be [[PragmaticHero more constructive]] to team up with her to defeat Gangers than to risk their lives trying to capture her and turn her into a living weapon.]]
* MagicallyIneptFighter: Iris has the best close-range capabilities of the playable characters due to her "lead" combos, but she has poor MP growth and low MAG.
* MightyGlacier: Some powerful enemies and bosses have the Slow attribute, which forces them to act every 2 turns.
* MirrorBoss: [[spoiler:Karen Alias has many of Karen's basic skills, such as No Foot Rise, Power Move, Foxtrot, Backflip, and Blaze Blast. Unfortunately for the player, she also have skills exclusive to the Gangers, such as the ability to disable random skills.]]
* MusicalAssassin: Downplayed. While Satsuki primarily fights with standard weaponry and magic rings, she can use consumable scores to invoke various effects. This is due to her background as an indie musician.
* TheNeedsOfTheMany: The Elicio Church is ruthlessly dedicated to stamping out abnormalities. [[spoiler:They want to seal Karen into a dagger in case she loses control of her vast psychic powers and destroy Amefuribashi.]]
* NoBiologicalSex: Although Iris identifies as female, she's a robot and is considered agender when gender-targeting items and skills are used.
* OldSaveBonus: After the ending, the player will be sent back to Mika's house, where an anchor appears in the bathroom. The anchor is supposed to help the player transfer bonuses from their clear save to the sequel, ''Absented Age: Ghostbound''.
* OpportunisticBastard: [[spoiler:Karen Alias states that the Gangers didn't turn Karen into a ghost and send her into the Driftworlds. Throughout the game, they try to take advantage of this situation by hunting down the Heart Fragments. Karen Alias plans on becoming the real Karen so she can merge the real world and Driftworld.]]
* ParryingBullets: Iris can learn a skill that allows her to deflect certain projectiles with well-timed slahses in ARPG mode. Since this is a party skill, this allows other playable characters to perform the same action.
* PermanentlyMissableContent: Unlike other scannable bosses, the FinalBoss cannot be rechallenged, meaning the player has only one chance to scan them.
* PuzzleBoss:
** The DualBoss fight against the Oil Pit Squids is difficult to win through brute force, since the party is surrounded and each squid is powerful at close and mid range. However, there's a fire hydrant in the middle of the arena that can be used to knock them back, allowing the player to control the distance between the bosses.
** The boss of Park Driftworld Core, Ruin Warden, can only have its guard broken when it gets wet, causing it to short circuit. At first, there are water pumps to get the boss wet, but after it takes enough damage, the pumps disappear, forcing the player to find other means to drench it, such as spamming Foxtrot to push it into the water. It's also capable of using the surrounding water against the player in conjucntion with its electric skills.
* ReviveKillsZombie: Undead enemies take damage from healing, which means skills and items that can heal the enemy can be situationally useful.
* TheRival:
** Karen was initially part of the Brass Band Club, but quit because she was mistreated by the leader, Rumi. Karen then forms the Sado Band Club with Hayato and Suzu, which Rumi doesn't take kindly to because this means Karen can overshadow her again.
** Hoop, another cat spirit, mocks Tarte for being an underachieving spirit who can't find a human partner.
* ScoringPoints: Whether the player completes a dungeon, leaves it before completion, or dies, they get a score that gets converted to DP. Each Arcade Mode dungeon records the highest score the player achieved, though Story Mode dungeons don't keep track of the highest score.
* SequelHook: [[spoiler:Karen Alias reveals that the Gangers weren't the ones who turned Karen into a ghost, which means there's still an enemy out there.]]
* SocketedEquipment: Upper body and lower body armor can hold up to five Ectoplasms, which increase the stats separately from leveling the equipment up. The only way to remove Ectoplasm is to use Ecto-Cleaner.
* SquishyWizard: Astrake has several offensive spells that don't require him to equip rings and has high MP and MAG growth, but his defenses and HP are low. Astrake also has reduced HP regen, meaning he has to rely more on his skills to maintain his HP.
* SuspendSave: The game has an autosave feature for when players enter a map. However, if the map is in a Driftworld combat zone, loading the autosave will only work once. Any subsequent attempts to load it cause the player character to instantly die.
* TallPoppySyndrome: Karen was treated poorly by the rest of the Brass Band Club because the others didn't take club activities seriously, yet were jealous of Karen outperforming them.
* TimeLimitBoss: Beating the boss of an Arcade dungeon isn't mandatory to clear the level, but if the player wants to do so, they have to win within the time limit like all the other floors, or the game will automatically teleport them to the exit floor.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Hayato wonders if his attempt to stand up for Karen only made things worse for her, since she ended up leaving the Brass Band Club and now has no official music club to join. However, Karen reassures him that it's for the best, since she would be unhappy if she continued staying in the club and stifled her passion for music.
* WorthyOpponent: Double subverted. Hoop acknowledges that Satsuki/Karen is a superb spirit master, but only so she can accuse Tarte of depending too much on the latter. In this case, it's less respect towards Karen and more an excuse to deny Tarte's victory in the DualBoss fight. [[spoiler:That said, she and Yayoi are at least pragmatic enough to form an EnemyMine with Karen to defeat the Gangers and even uphold their end of the bargain with her, showing that the two do genuinely respect Karen.]]
* ZergRush: Lategame dungeons and the hard versions of the Arcade dungeons have the Monster House mechanic, where a black portal can spawn a massive amount of enemies, who are automatically aggroed onto the party. Together, all these enemies are even more likely than most bosses to defeat careless players.
* ZeroEffortBoss:
** In the real world, Karen can unleash the full extent of her psychic powers, giving her massive stats and an overpowered moveset. [[spoiler:This allows her to quickly defeat a Ganger boss, despite conventional wisdom stating that Gangers can only be defeated in the Driftworlds.]]
** After the FinalBoss fight, [[spoiler:Karen Alias takes Karen's three Heart Fragments and uses them to merge the real world and Driftworlds. However, this allows the real Karen to use her full psychic powers again, allowing her to easily defeat Karen Alias and the latter's [[Pun gang of Gangers]].]]
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Satsuki is an amnesiac girl who wakes up in a Driftworld and teams up with a spirit cat, Tarte, to claim a Heart Fragment containing her memories. The fragment reveals that she was once a trumpeter, Karen, who had the grand ambition of performing at the Super Live with her friends. Although she manages to return to the real world, Satsuki/Karen discovers that she's a ghost, and the only way to regain the rest of her memories and her humanity is to find all seven of her Heart Fragments, all of which are guarded by powerful Gangers.
The gameplay is a hybrid of Action RPG and tile turn-based mechanics. While the player starts each map in ARPG Mode with only a subset of their skills available. Upon landing or receiving a preemptive strike, the game will shift to SRPG Mode, where all skills are available, but all combat is turn-based. The dungeon crawling is roguelite in that Karen loses her equipment if she's defeated, but if she finds that equipment later, they'll gain a few levels to compensate.
Download the international version from Steam [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1615930/International_Absented_Age_Squarebound/ here]].
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!This game contains examples of:
* AmnesiacDissonance: Tarte notes that Karen used to be more talkative and passionate about music before becoming a pseudo-ghost.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:Karen defeats the Ganger who took her first fragment, but she still has three more fragments to obtain before she can complete herself and there's still the question of who turned Karen into a ghost and rewrote the past. The anchor in Mika's house tells the player to hold on to their save file in preparation for the sequel, ''Absented Age: Ghostbound''.]]
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** Rush type skills allow characters to move several tiles, but if they're attacked immediately afterwards, they get toppled, preventing them from moving to another tile and using rush attacks for a few turns. However, there's a headgear that can [[RequiredSecondaryPowers prevent this drawback]], making Rush skills safer to use.
** If the player is defeated, they lose all their items, but those items will have much higher mastery levels upon reacquiring them. However, due to the necessity of having a large variety of rings and weapon types, it's generally better to just reload a save than to lose one's entire kit.
** The Nikkari Aoe has an excellent ATK cap at 23, but Karen cannot easily use it because as a ghost, she'll continuously take psychic damage from it. Fortunately, it's possible to give this weapon to Iris in her skill tree, and she won't take damage from it due to being a robot.
* BeingEvilSucks: [[spoiler:The Karen Ganger reveals that deep down, she's ashamed of having to harm humans to sate her hunger, but as a Ganger, she can't fight her nature. She allows the real Karen to MercyKill her, but not before requesting that Karen finds a way to save the other Gangers.]]
* BigBad: There isn't a clear main antagonist at first, but after Karen completes the Park Driftworld, [[spoiler:her most important Heart Fragment is stolen by a more intelligent than average Ganger. Said Ganger is the leader of a pack of weaker Gangers, and intends to steal Karen's identity and use her powers to merge reality and the Driftworlds, all to make it easier for Gangers to consume people's Heart Fragments. However, the Gangers aren't responsible for Karen becoming a ghost in the first place, which is a mystery left for the sequel.]]
* BonusBoss:
** All Core dungeons have an Arc Monster near the end of the stage. These bosses are optional, but are also powerful enough to rival the actual Ganger boss of the dungeon. They are also the only enemies with 100% gem drop rates.
** [[spoiler:Once the player acquires all the Arc Monster gems, they can return to the site of the final battle to challenge the hooded figure who appeared at the start of the Awakening Driftworld.]]
* BrutalHonesty: Hayato doesn't mince words if he finds a flaw in a music score. This leads to him and Karen becoming friends, since this shows that he takes music as seriously as Karen does.
* CatsHateWater: Cat spirits cannot swim and are weak to water damage. However, Light Enchant grants spirits the ability to float, allowing them to at least cross pools of water safely.
* ClothingDamage: As Satsuki uses up turns and takes damage, her armor loses durability. This is shown not only through percentage values, but also her body portrait having torn clothes.
* {{Combos}}:
** Astrake can perform follow up skills if he uses a specific sequence of skills first.
** Iris can perform a three-stage physical combo in both ARPG and SRPG modes. The third and final action depends on her current elemental mode.
* ChurchMilitant: Spirits like Tarte and Hoop hunt down Gangers on behalf of the Elicio Church, since the Gangers are threatening the safety of the Driftworld. Unfortunately, the church also wants to suppress non-Ganger abnormalities, such as Satsuki, who is a pseudo-ghost.
* CripplingOverspecialization: Despite being a SquishyWizard Astrake's default skills have suprisingly poor elemental coverage, forcing him to rely on equipment in order to access more elements. Unfortunately, unlike in Story Mode, Arcade Mode doesn't allow the player to bring their equipment into the dungeon, meaning Astrake is always going to be set up with a limited selection of elements.
* DeanBitterman: The vice-principal is a strict disciplinarian who yells at the Sado Club for focusing on band activities than their actual modus operandi of doing tea ceremonies. [[spoiler:It turns out that in the past, he framed the club for using cigarettes on campus in order to get the club shut down.]]
* DevelopersForesight: If the game detects that the player saved the game only a few seconds since the previous save, the log will comment on how meticulous the player is.
* TheDogBitesBack: When Mr. Minami, the advisor of the Sado Band Club, first appears, he's being pushed around by the vice-principal. [[spoiler:It turns out the vice-principal framed the Sado Band Club for smoking in order to get all the members to distrust each other and leave. After Karen, Hayato, and Suzu join the club and covert it into the Sado Band Club, Mr. Minami effortlessly shoots down all of the vice-principal's arguments about the club's noise level, making the latter look like a fool in front of the student body.]]
* DualBoss:
** Yayoi and Hoop fight the party at the midpoint of the Green Corridor.
** The boss of the Steel Corridor is a pair of Oil Pit Squids.
* EnemyScan: Enemies information can be obtained by using the Scan Baton on them.
* EquipmentUpgrade: Every time the player picks up a piece of equipment that they already have, the equipment's mastery increases.
* FinalBoss: [[spoiler:Karen Alias, the Ganger who took Karen's first Heart Fragment, is the last Ganger boss fought before the player can reach the ending scenes and credits.]]
* FlashStep: Satsuki has the skill, Foxtrot, which does damage based on her agility and moves her forward by a certain distance or until she hits and enemy.
* FlunkyBoss: All Arc Monsters can summon minions to assist them, though only some mandatory bosses have minion summoning capabilities.
* ForcefulKiss: [[spoiler:Karen Alias slaps and forcefully kisses Tarte when he protests the real Karen losing the rest of her Heart Fragments and disappearing.]]
* GenderBender: Astrake is a boy who bodyswapped with Silvana, which causes him to be considered bigender for gender-targeting effects.
* GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler:The Gangers didn't turn Karen into a ghost or rewrite reality so that people believe she died in a time paradox, and the true culprit is still unknown.]]
* GuestFighter:
** Astrake (in Silvana's body) from ''VideoGame/RealityMinds'' and Iris from ''Soaring Machinariae'' can be used in Arcade mode.
** In the postgame infinite dungeon, Parking Lot Depths, the player can summon an ally, Scale, who comes from ''Craft the Mapcrafter: Gathering Magic Word''.
* HeroicMime: After becoming a pseudo-ghost, Satsuki/Karen doesn't talk directly in the dialogue box, though she still gets dialogue choices. Subverted [[spoiler:in the ending, where she has proper dialogue when participating in the Super Live, indicating that she's regaining her identity as Karen.]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Karen Alias merges the Driftworlds and the real world, but this allows the real Karen to use her full psychic powers, due to the presence of the real world.]]
* HorrorHunger: [[spoiler:Gangers aren't inherently evil, but their hunger and the fact that they can only eat human Heart Fragments means they'll eventually degrade into ravenous predators.]]
* IOweYouMyLife: Double subverted. [[spoiler:Despite orders from the church to seal Karen into a dagger, Yayoi chooses to spare Karen after she exhausts herself saving him and Hoop from a Ganger. However, he later states that this is out of pragmatism, since Karen is stronger in the real world and could kill him in retaliation even when she's unconscious. Despite his pragmatic reasoning, he and Hoop still help Karen materialize in time for the Super Live after they work together to defeat Karen Alias, with no strings attached, which shows that his gratitude is genuine.]]
* InTheHood: [[spoiler:The BonusBoss is a nameless hooded figure with unknown name and affiliation. When they drop a gun, Tarte speculates that they're with the Elicio Church.]]
* InterfaceScrew: [[spoiler:When Karen lured into a trap by a group of Gangers, she finds herself in a dungeon full of unbeatable enemies. Every time she dies, she loses something that makes her "Karen," which places a penalty on her. One of them makes the log only output garbled text and the item names. In the FinalBoss fight, Karen Alias can glitch Karen's skills, causing them to be unusable while having garbled text.]]
* InventoryManagementPuzzle: The initial inventory and storage limits are 30 items each, though the former can be expanded with a Score of Collection while the latter can be expanded in Satsuki's skill tree. However, neither limit can be increased forever, with the inventory capping out at 60 and the storage capping out at 120.
* JackOfAllTrades: Karen has the most balanced stats of the playable characters and has decent close and long-range skills. However, she isn't as specialized as Iris and Astrake in close and long-range combat respectively.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** Rumi points out that Karen's inability to be a team player hurts her music career because a trumpeter needs other players to complement them. While this is a valid argument, she drove Karen out of the Brass Band Club out of jealousy and refuses to accept the Sado Band Club, despite the latter being proof that Karen can thrive with the right team.
** Subverted with the vice-principal. He is introduced yelling at the Sado Club for causing noise with their music and not focusing on their actual purpose of practicing tea ceremonies, which is a valid point to make even if he's a jerk about it. [[spoiler:It turns out that in the past, he framed the club for smoking cigarettes so he can abolish the club, and then convert their building into an on-campus museum. This puts his introduction in a darker light, since he's looking for any excuse to get rid of the club, even if he has to fabricate one. Additionally, the ending reveals that his excuse of noise doesn't even hold water, since the Sado Band Club's decidel measurement is actually lower than most other clubs.]]
** Yayoi and Hoop always belittle Tarte for being ignorant, but they are correct that the latter is often unaware of things that should be common knowledge to the followers of the Elicio Church.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Although Yayoi and Hoop are condescending towards Tarte, they're surprisingly flexible about following the Elicio Church's orders. After Karen saves them, they decide to help her out of gratitude despite her being a target of the church. They even uphold their end of the deal and [[spoiler:help Karen materialize in time for the Super Live]] despite all the flags indicating that they might backstab Karen.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk:
** Rumi at first seems shocked that her bad attitude pushed Karen out of the Brass Band Club, but after Karen is turned into a pseudo-ghost, Rumi is outright happy that Karen disappeared and vandalizes the Sado Band Club's missing person poster for Karen, making her earlier guilt a case of IgnoredEpiphany.
** The vice-principal is harsh on the Sado Band Club for causing noise with their activity even though they're supposed to be doing tea ceremony instead of music. While he initially seems like a strict school official who is just doing his job, he turns out to have an ulterior motive. [[spoiler:He wants to tear down the Sado building in order to make room for a campus museum, and went as far as to frame the club for smoking. Even when Mr. Minami counters all of the vice-principals arguments about the Sado Band Club's activities, the latter still tries to threaten to suspend the club members and ruin their permanent records.]]
* LittleBitBeastly: The Loup-garou enemy can inflict Beastized on Karen, which causes her to grow wolf ears. The ailment boosts her speed, but lowers her DEX and prevents her from using items.
* LossOfIdentity: Without her Heart Fragments, Karen is in danger of losing her identity. [[spoiler:What this means is that if the Gangers take her Heart Fragments, they can become her while she's doomed to wander the Driftworlds as a ghost. When a Ganger steals her first and most important fragment, it's considered closer to being Karen than Karen herself, making it so that the rest of the Heart Fragments gravitate towards the Ganger while rejecting the ghost Karen.]]
* KickTheDog:
** Rumi spray paints over Karen's missing person poster to demoralize the Sado Band Club.
** [[spoiler:Karen Alias hits and spitefully kisses Tarte, who refuses to accept the real Karen's disappearance.]]
* KnightTemplar:
** The Elicio Church intends to destroy any Driftworld-related abnormalities regardless of their intent to harm. Unfortunately, they deem Karen an abnormality who must be captured [[spoiler:because her psychic powers have the potential to devastate the city.]].
** Subverted with Yayoi and Hoop. [[spoiler:While they initially try to capture Karen on behalf of the church, they're later willing to turn a blind eye to her abnormal existence after she saves them. They also realize that it would be [[PragmaticHero more constructive]] to team up with her to defeat Gangers than to risk their lives trying to capture her and turn her into a living weapon.]]
* MagicallyIneptFighter: Iris has the best close-range capabilities of the playable characters due to her "lead" combos, but she has poor MP growth and low MAG.
* MightyGlacier: Some powerful enemies and bosses have the Slow attribute, which forces them to act every 2 turns.
* MirrorBoss: [[spoiler:Karen Alias has many of Karen's basic skills, such as No Foot Rise, Power Move, Foxtrot, Backflip, and Blaze Blast. Unfortunately for the player, she also have skills exclusive to the Gangers, such as the ability to disable random skills.]]
* MusicalAssassin: Downplayed. While Satsuki primarily fights with standard weaponry and magic rings, she can use consumable scores to invoke various effects. This is due to her background as an indie musician.
* TheNeedsOfTheMany: The Elicio Church is ruthlessly dedicated to stamping out abnormalities. [[spoiler:They want to seal Karen into a dagger in case she loses control of her vast psychic powers and destroy Amefuribashi.]]
* NoBiologicalSex: Although Iris identifies as female, she's a robot and is considered agender when gender-targeting items and skills are used.
* OldSaveBonus: After the ending, the player will be sent back to Mika's house, where an anchor appears in the bathroom. The anchor is supposed to help the player transfer bonuses from their clear save to the sequel, ''Absented Age: Ghostbound''.
* OpportunisticBastard: [[spoiler:Karen Alias states that the Gangers didn't turn Karen into a ghost and send her into the Driftworlds. Throughout the game, they try to take advantage of this situation by hunting down the Heart Fragments. Karen Alias plans on becoming the real Karen so she can merge the real world and Driftworld.]]
* ParryingBullets: Iris can learn a skill that allows her to deflect certain projectiles with well-timed slahses in ARPG mode. Since this is a party skill, this allows other playable characters to perform the same action.
* PermanentlyMissableContent: Unlike other scannable bosses, the FinalBoss cannot be rechallenged, meaning the player has only one chance to scan them.
* PuzzleBoss:
** The DualBoss fight against the Oil Pit Squids is difficult to win through brute force, since the party is surrounded and each squid is powerful at close and mid range. However, there's a fire hydrant in the middle of the arena that can be used to knock them back, allowing the player to control the distance between the bosses.
** The boss of Park Driftworld Core, Ruin Warden, can only have its guard broken when it gets wet, causing it to short circuit. At first, there are water pumps to get the boss wet, but after it takes enough damage, the pumps disappear, forcing the player to find other means to drench it, such as spamming Foxtrot to push it into the water. It's also capable of using the surrounding water against the player in conjucntion with its electric skills.
* ReviveKillsZombie: Undead enemies take damage from healing, which means skills and items that can heal the enemy can be situationally useful.
* TheRival:
** Karen was initially part of the Brass Band Club, but quit because she was mistreated by the leader, Rumi. Karen then forms the Sado Band Club with Hayato and Suzu, which Rumi doesn't take kindly to because this means Karen can overshadow her again.
** Hoop, another cat spirit, mocks Tarte for being an underachieving spirit who can't find a human partner.
* ScoringPoints: Whether the player completes a dungeon, leaves it before completion, or dies, they get a score that gets converted to DP. Each Arcade Mode dungeon records the highest score the player achieved, though Story Mode dungeons don't keep track of the highest score.
* SequelHook: [[spoiler:Karen Alias reveals that the Gangers weren't the ones who turned Karen into a ghost, which means there's still an enemy out there.]]
* SocketedEquipment: Upper body and lower body armor can hold up to five Ectoplasms, which increase the stats separately from leveling the equipment up. The only way to remove Ectoplasm is to use Ecto-Cleaner.
* SquishyWizard: Astrake has several offensive spells that don't require him to equip rings and has high MP and MAG growth, but his defenses and HP are low. Astrake also has reduced HP regen, meaning he has to rely more on his skills to maintain his HP.
* SuspendSave: The game has an autosave feature for when players enter a map. However, if the map is in a Driftworld combat zone, loading the autosave will only work once. Any subsequent attempts to load it cause the player character to instantly die.
* TallPoppySyndrome: Karen was treated poorly by the rest of the Brass Band Club because the others didn't take club activities seriously, yet were jealous of Karen outperforming them.
* TimeLimitBoss: Beating the boss of an Arcade dungeon isn't mandatory to clear the level, but if the player wants to do so, they have to win within the time limit like all the other floors, or the game will automatically teleport them to the exit floor.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Hayato wonders if his attempt to stand up for Karen only made things worse for her, since she ended up leaving the Brass Band Club and now has no official music club to join. However, Karen reassures him that it's for the best, since she would be unhappy if she continued staying in the club and stifled her passion for music.
* WorthyOpponent: Double subverted. Hoop acknowledges that Satsuki/Karen is a superb spirit master, but only so she can accuse Tarte of depending too much on the latter. In this case, it's less respect towards Karen and more an excuse to deny Tarte's victory in the DualBoss fight. [[spoiler:That said, she and Yayoi are at least pragmatic enough to form an EnemyMine with Karen to defeat the Gangers and even uphold their end of the bargain with her, showing that the two do genuinely respect Karen.]]
* ZergRush: Lategame dungeons and the hard versions of the Arcade dungeons have the Monster House mechanic, where a black portal can spawn a massive amount of enemies, who are automatically aggroed onto the party. Together, all these enemies are even more likely than most bosses to defeat careless players.
* ZeroEffortBoss:
** In the real world, Karen can unleash the full extent of her psychic powers, giving her massive stats and an overpowered moveset. [[spoiler:This allows her to quickly defeat a Ganger boss, despite conventional wisdom stating that Gangers can only be defeated in the Driftworlds.]]
** After the FinalBoss fight, [[spoiler:Karen Alias takes Karen's three Heart Fragments and uses them to merge the real world and Driftworlds. However, this allows the real Karen to use her full psychic powers again, allowing her to easily defeat Karen Alias and the latter's [[Pun gang of Gangers]].]]
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