History VideoGame / ChaosLegion

* DarkMessiah: Delacroix fancies himself as this. [[spoiler:In addition to making Sieg suffer as retribution for Arcia's death, he believes that by opening the Gateway of Chaos and releasing Azrail, his "Purification of the World" will reunite the three realms (the Celestial, Middle, and Nether Worlds) as one and cleanse them of all sin, allowing all souls to find their true place.]]

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Arguably all of the named characters, although the prize naturally goes to [[GratuitousGerman Sieg]] and [[GratuitousFrench Delacroix]].

* BilingualBonus: See MeaningfulName below.

* TheRightHandOfDoom: [[PowerFist Sieg's gauntlet]] seems to be the main conduit for summoning his legions. Capcom sure has a thing for magic arms (''VideoGame/GodHand'', ''VideoGame/{{Onimusha}}'', ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'', etc).

* InfinityPlusOneSword: Thanatos when maxed out. Any of the Legions are powerful at max stats, but Thanatos is so far above them all that it gets a little ridiculous when you fight [[spoiler:Azrail]] (3-hit kill). In fact, Thanatos is so ridiculously powerful, that the main strategy for beating ''anything in the game'' when you max out all of its stats is: lock-on to monster(s), use ''The Ignorant Masses'', run up to the enemy as it is {{bullet time}}d and carpet bombed, then just AttackAttackAttack And the last part is optional, because sometimes ''all targets are destroyed before you're given even a chance to close in''.

* ImprobableAimingSkills: Arcia only misses if you deliberately aim at nothing; the Malice Legion only misses (for a couple of seconds) if you're aiming for them, although they do have a range limit for their rapid-fire attack.

* CounterAttack: If the player times their attack [[JustFrameBonus at the right frame of the enemy's attack]], they'll perform a counter-attack that deals more damage and rewards more EXP if it finishes the enemy off. Arrogance's ''Avenger'' Enchant and ''Rampage'' Assist and Hatred's ''Bad Karma'' Assist, although the former two [[CastFromHitPoints require Sieg to take damage first before retaliating]].

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[TagLine Savage by nature!]]''[[labelnote:*]]Counter-clockwise from the left: Arcia, Sieg, Siela and Delacroix.[[/labelnote]]]]

* AntiFrustrationFeature:
** Some of the bosses may have at least two Life Recovery (S) pick-ups around the arena if the player hasn't already have a full supply of them, otherwise EXP Gems (S) will take their place.
** If the player already has a full supply of EXP Gems of a particular size, the amount of EXP they are worth are automatically collected to the equipped Legions.
* ArbitrarySkepticism: At their lakeside campfire before Stage 6, Sieg and Arcia recount the lore behind the Three Sacred Glyphs and the Spirit of Purification. Arcia heard the tale as part of an elder's story and was under the impression that it was "just a folklore, only a fairy tale for children"; Sieg insists it's all ''very'' real.

* TheBerserker[=/=]UnstoppableRage: The Hatred legionnaires, full stop. Their ''modus operandi'' is relentlessly pursuing their enemies and [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown pulverizing/stomping the hell out of them]].

* CounterAttack: If the player times their attack [[JustFrameBonus at the right frame of the enemy's attack]], they'll perform a counter-attack that deals more damage and rewards more EXP if it finishes the enemy off. Arrogance's ''Avenger'' Enchant and ''Rampage'' Assist and Hatred's ''Bad Karma'' Assist, although the former two require Sieg to take damage first before retaliating.
* CreepyCathedral: St. Claire's Cathedral, the thirteenth and penultimate stage of the game. [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic The imposing, hauntingly beautiful stage music]] lets you know you'll be cutting your way through a long, sprawling gauntlet of enemy hordes.

* DifficultyByRegion: The original Japanese version of the game was criticized for being too easy, so changes where made in the international releases of the game, which included making enemies deal more damage to Sieg, {{nerf}}ing his own damage output, and making enemies more aggressive. Upgrading your legions also cost much more EXP in the international versions than the Japanese version.
* DifficultyLevels: When players start on a fresh new game, they're given the option to play on Easy or Normal. Hard Mode can be unlocked by completing the game on Normal, and completing Hard mode then unlocks [[HarderThanHard Super Mode]].

* EmotionSuppression: Delacroix snidely points out that, in their vows, the Maidens of the Silver pledged to not let their emotions turn violent. Arcia, having her own vendetta against Delacroix, tells him to shut up and opens fire. By comparison, [[EmotionsVsStoicism Sieg and Delacroix spend most of their time perched firmly on the stoicism side of the fence]].
* EssenceDrop: Slashing enemies with Sieg's sword and killing them will cause Phantom Souls to drop, which replenish the Soul Gauge. Some enemy types may drop Phantom Life after being slain, which replenish the Life Gauge instead. Arcia, however, [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration does not get essence drops]] like Sieg does.

* InvisibleMonsters: The Danus are essentially BossInMooksClothing, which are common (upgraded) enemies in later stages; [[CherryTapping Sieg's sword is useless against them]] and can only be damaged by Legion attacks or assists. And if a Danu ever lands a blow on a Legion, it will [[OneHitKill hit HARD]].

* LoveMakesYouEvil: Delacroix resigns from the Order after Siela is murdered. He promptly turns his attention to unsealing Azrail (thus causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt) so that he can be reunited with Siela. [[spoiler:Then it turns out that it was ''[[TheKillerInMe Delacroix himself]]'' who killed Siela (albeit unwittingly). He still goes through with unbinding Azrail, [[DrivenToSuicide using himself as the sacrifice in Sieg's place]].]]

** This trope is the lifeblood of the soundtrack; most of the regular stage music has a choir tucked away in the chords, doubly so when [[VariableMix you bring a legion out]]. And if, somehow, you manage to clear the stage [[SelfImposedChallenge without ever calling on them]], the boss fight song ''will'' make up for it.

* OminousPipeOrgan: Aside of the choir and symphonic rock, there's a fair amount of this, too.

* PowerFloats: Delacroix, in spades. If you manage to damage him enough to briefly render him unconscious, his body still hover inches off of the ground. The final boss also demonstrates this, although [[spoiler:Siela]] can and will stick to the ground if need be.

* ReplayMode: Clearing each stage on Normal mode unlocks their FMV cutscenes in the Movies viewer within the Extras menu, while completing the game unlocks the ability to play all of the cutscenes in sequential order. The [=PlayStation=] 2 version also offers the ability to view the cutscenes with the Japanese voices in the North American version and vice-versa for the Japanese version, while the PC version only has the English voices for all of its regional versions.

* StationaryBoss: Both Maponos bosses, which are ShieldedCoreBoss, and [[spoiler:Azrail]], which bobs up and down and thus sometimes unreachable even if it doesn't move to different parts of the boss arena.

* TitleDrop: See the opening quote, which is the first line in the game's cinematics [[spoiler:This title drop also serves as {{Foreshadowing}}; see PoweredByAForsakenChild above.]]

* UnlockableDifficultyLevels: Hard Mode is unlocked by completing Normal mode, and clearing Hard then unlocks Super Mode.

* ChainReactionDestruction: The bosses die this way.

* MultiMookMelee: Nearly every level is bound to feature this in spades, with the second half of the game positively crawling with monsters. Some encounters are bypassable, many more are not, several include the aforementioned Monster Generators, and one instance (a ''six''-wave horde of zombies at The Forbidden City of Yzarc "Core") replaces the original boss fight (Delacroix) once the "Another World" version of the stages are unlocked following Stage 12. It's required if you want obtain one of the final two Thanatos Chips, making it a worthy investment (and a necessary evil).

** Some of the bosses have at least two Life Recovery (S) pick-ups around the arena if the player hasn't already have a full supply of them, otherwise EXP Gems (S) will take their place.

* ExperienceBooster: EXP Gems, sometimes scattered throughout stages or dropped by enemies, give experience points to a Legion by varying amounts based on the size. Small gives 10,000 EXP, Medium gives 50,000 EXP, Large gives 500,000 EXP, and X-Large gives 5,000,000 EXP.

* CutsceneViewer: Clearing each stage on Normal mode unlocks their FMV cutscenes in the Movies viewer within the Extras menu, while completing the game unlocks the ability to play all of the cutscenes in sequential order. The [=PlayStation=] 2 version also offers the ability to view the cutscenes with the Japanese voices in the North American version and vice-versa for the Japanese version, while the PC version only has the English voices for all of its regional versions.

** Some of the later bosses have at least two Life Recovery (S) pick-ups around the arena if the player hasn't already have a full supply of them, otherwise EXP Gems (S) will take their place.
** If the player already has a full supply of EXP Gems, the amount of EXP they are worth are automatically collected to the equipped Legions.

* WhenTreesAttack: The Maponos boss.

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[TagLine Savage by nature!]]''[[labelnote:*]]Clockwise from the left: Arcia, Sieg, Siela and Delacroix.[[/labelnote]]]]

* AntiFrustrationFeature: Some of the later bosses have at least two Life Recovery (S) pick-ups around the arena if the player hasn't already have a full supply of them, otherwise EXP Gems (S) will take their place.

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[TagLine Savage by nature.]]''[[labelnote:*]]Clockwise from the left: Arcia, Sieg, Siela and Delacroix.[[/labelnote]]]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cl_1666.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Arcia, Sieg, Siela and Delacroix.]]

* LauncherMove: Both characters have access to one in their moveset, ''Rising Phoenix'' for Sieg and ''Razor Kick'' for Arcia.

** Sieg Wahrheit translates to "victory" and "truth" (German). The real events that happened show up once Sieg beats Delacroix in the final battle. His name is even based from the 1598 painting ''Sieg der Wahrheit'' (victory of justice).

* PurposelyOverpowered: '''Thanatos.''' As noted in InfinityPlusOneSword above, there is a good reason you have to jump through so many hoops when it comes to restoring Thanatos (i.e. finding all of the Thanatos Chips and then pouring an ''exorbitant'' amount of exp into raising it): helping Thanatos reach its Adult Form again eases the game's difficulty a bit. Going one step further and evolving Thanatos to its [[OneManArmy Perfect Form]] has your foes, ''mooks and bosses alike'', going from 0 to '''dead''' in about three seconds flat.

** The final battle is also a continuous one: the first against Delacroix, the second is against [[spoiler:the freed Azrail]], and the FinalBoss is [[spoiler:Siela possessed by Azrail/Delacroix]]. Fortunately, a Perfect Thanatos will make mincemeat of the first two battles and the third one will be the real challenge.

!This game provides examples of:

-->''[='=]Tis the darkest Glyph thou bearest. It sacrifices stray souls to summon unearthly force. Unearthly force shall obey and serve thee. 'Tis named "Chaos Legion."''

Sieg Wahrheit and Victor Delacroix used to be the best of friends. Unfortunately, Delacroix has fallen into TheDarkSide--Sieg, Delacroix and their lovely lady friend, Siela, were trying to [[SealedEvilInACan seal away]] the Dark Spirit Azrail as it tried to escape. For some unknown reason, Sieg ''murdered'' Siela right before Delacroix's eyes. Or did he really...?

* CrystalDragonJesus: The Order of St. Overia has many of the trappings and aesthetics of a Medieval Christian order, with a few elements from other Abrahamic faiths and even [[{{Reincarnation}} some aspects of]] UsefulNotes/{{Hinduism}}[=/=]UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} thrown into the mythology for good measure. As the game divulges no information about the setting beyond exposition directly related to Sieg's journey, it's unclear if the Order is [[LowestCosmicDenominator actually supposed to be Christian in some manner]] or merely analogous to it, especially since ''Chaos Legion''[='s=] [[AlternativeCalendar calendar system]] is an alternative spelling of ''Anno Satanas''--the "Age of {{Satan}}."

** A very low-key example with the Maidens of the Silver, who appear to be named for their battle nuns' [[WeaponOfChoice favored weapons]]: twin '''silver''' handguns. Curiously, despite the fantasy setting, the Maidens' DepletedPhlebotinumShells, while magic-imbued, do not appear to be {{Silver Bullet}}s, making this a bit of a NonindicativeName too.

* AttackItsWeakPoint: Every humongous boss can only be damaged by attacking a certain part of their body, usually head, but sometimes other parts as well. Some enemies also have a weakpoint.

* BottomlessMagazines: Arcia's pistols never run out of ammo, although her Energy Bullets have a limit. There are pickups which restock her supply of rounds as well as increase the maximum number you can hold.

* CameraLockOn: By using Sieg's Lock-On Shot, the enemy will be tagged with a bolt of electricity and pressing the Parallel Movement button will focus the camera to the locked enemy. Pressing the Lock-On Shot button again will release the enemy from the lock-on. By default the Lock-On Shot has a fairly short range, but Malice's ''Long Distance'' Enchant doubles its range.

* ChurchMilitant: Sieg Wahrheit, a Knight of the Dark Glyphs working for the Order of St. Overia, and Arcia Rinslet, one of the Maidens of the Silver. Delacroix ''was'' part of the Order and ''was'' BashBrothers with Sieg, [[FaceHeelTurn but]]...

* CounterAttack: If the player times their attack at the right frame of the enemy's attack, they'll perform counter-attack that deals more damage and rewards more EXP if it finishes the enemy off. Arrogance's ''Avenger'' Enchant and ''Rampage'' Assist and Hatred's ''Bad Karma'' Assist, although the former two require Sieg to take damage first before retaliating.

* DifficultyByRegion: The original Japanese version of the game was criticized for being too easy, so changes where made in the international releases of the game, which includes making enemies deal more damage to Sieg, {{nerf}}ing his own damage output, and making enemies more aggressive. Upgrading your legions also cost much more EXP in the international versions than the Japanese version.
* DifficultyLevels: When players start on a fresh new game, they're given the option to play on Easy or Normal. Hard mode can be unlocked by completing the game on Normal, and completing Hard mode then unlocks Super mode.

* EmergencyEnergyTank: The Life Recovery (L) and Soul Recovery (L), which fully heals Life and Soul Gauges respectively, but the player can only carry limited number of these depending on the difficulty level.

* EssenceDrop: Slashing enemies with Sieg's sword and killing them will cause Phantom Souls to drop, which replenishes the Soul Gauge. Some enemy types may drop Phantom Life after being slain, which replenishes the Life Gauge instead. Arcia, however, [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration does not get essence drops]] like Sieg does.

* ExperienceBooster: EXP Gems, sometimes scattered throughtout stages or dropped by enemies, gives experience points to a Legion by varying amounts based on the size. Small gives 10,000 EXP, Medium gives 50,000 EXP, Large gives 500,000 EXP, and X-Large gives 5,000,000 EXP.

* FourIsDeath: The fourth unlockable difficulty level, Super, has enemies that die in one hit, and in the international versions, [[OneHitPointWonder so do you]].

** The Forbidden City of Yzarc is deserted for a reason.

* GottaCatchThemAll: The pieces of The Ultimate Crest scattered through various stages.

* GuardianEntity: The various Legions are one to Sieg, powered by lost souls they can be summoned at his beck and call as long as he as the Soul Power to use them.

* HarderThanHard: Super mode is unlocked after completing the game on Hard, which has enemies and the player die in a single hit.
* TheHeavy: While [[spoiler:Azrail]] is the final boss, it's Delacroix who does the most stuff in the story.

* InfinityPlusOneSword: Thanatos when maxed out. Any of the Legions are powerful at max stats, but Thanatos is so far above them all that it gets a little ridiculous when you fight [[spoiler:Azrail]] (3-hit kill). In fact, Thanatos is so ridiculously powerful, that the main strategy for beating ''anything in the game'' when you max out all of its stats is: Lock-on monster, use ''The Ignorant Masses'', run up to the enemy as it is {{bullet time}}d and carpet bombed, then just AttackAttackAttack And the last part is optional, because sometimes ''all targets are destroyed before you're given even a chance to close in''.

* JustFrameBonus: If the player times their attack at the right window of an enemy's attack, they can perform a counter-attack that deals more damage and rewards more EXP, especially if the counter-attack is from a Legion. Sieg can also get the ''Avenger'' ability from the Arrogance Legion, which allows him to perform a special counter-attack at the frame window from getting hit by an enemy.

* OneHitPointWonder: The international version's Super Mode applies this to everyone, Sieg and bosses included; in Japan it's just your enemies.

* PowerUp: Attack and Defense Up items can be found that increases these stats for Sieg based on their size, 5 points for Small and 20 for Large.

* SpinAttack: Arcia's ''Orbit Fire'' (drawing on the supply of Energy Bullets located in her "Fire" Meter) is the Death Blossom variant, topped off with a final shot fired directly ahead that [[LawOfInverseRecoil pushes her to the ground]] (though in her ''Horizontal Fire'' state, allowing Arcia to shoot while grounded or roll away from her position).

* TitleDrop: See the opening quote, which is the first line in the game's cinematics.
** [[spoiler:This title drop also becomes a {{Foreshadowing}}; see PoweredByAForsakenChild above.]]

* UnlockableDifficultyLevels: Hard mode is unlocked by completing Normal mode, and clearing Hard then unlocks Super mode.

* ZettaiRyouiki: Arcia with her laced A-ranked thigh-highs.

* AttackItsWeakPoint: Every humongous boss can only be damaged by attacking a certain part of their body, usually head, but sometimes other parts as well.

* EssenceDrop: Slashing enemies with Sieg's sword and killing them will cause Phantom Souls to drop, which replenishes the Soul Gauge. Some enemy types may drop Phantom Life after being slain, which replenishes the Life Gauge instead.

* NoDamageRun: The requirement for getting a AA+ rank in the Life criteria for the Stage Results.

* SealedEvilInACan: Azrail.

* VariableMix: Every stage has a secondary song that plays when a Legion is summoned on the field.

* CounterAttack: Arrogance's ''Avenger'' Enchant and ''Rampage'' Assist and Hatred's ''Bad Karma'' Assist, although the former two require Sieg to take damage first before retaliating.

** As mentioned above, the nine fragments of the Thanatos Crest.

* GameplayGrading: At the Stage Results screen after clearing a stage, players are graded based on their performance in following criteria: Stage Clear, how quickly the stage was completed; Boss Clear, how quickly the stage's boss was defeated; Smash Count, how many monsters were slain; Monster Mark, how many special/target monsters were slain; Life, how much Life Gauge is remaining; and Soul, how much Soul Gauge is remaining. Meeting or exceeding the stage border requirements will earn you a higher rank in each criteria, ranging from D to AA+, and the averages between them affect your overall Rank, which will grant a higher EXP Bonus multiplier.

* IdleAnimation: Even your legions have one!

* ManaMeter: Sieg's Soul Gauge, which doubles as a Life Meter for summoned Legions.

* RankInflation: The criteria of the Stage Results ranges between D to AA+, which also governs their overall Rank but it ranges from D to AAA+. A D Rank will only earns a x1.0 EXP Bonus, however, if a player can attain a AAA+ Rank, they'll earn a '''x4''' EXP Bonus.

* WeirdMoon: The legendary Red Moon.