History VideoGame / DyztopiaPostHumanRPG

* InvincibleVillain: Although Asterisk can be defeated in a boss fight, it's clear he's holding back to a more reasonable level to challenge Akira. It turns out [[spoiler:he's actually Ophiuchus, the God of Cycles, and is so strong that he can oneshot Aphos, a powerful angel. Even the BigBad Zazz stood no chance in his past fight with Asterisk, which is why he had to negotiate with Asterisk in order to get the archdemons to revive humanity. The December 2023 update includes a new battle against him in his full power archdemon form, but he also states that he has CompleteImmortality, which means the party can only stalemate him at best. The only one who ever came close to killing Asterisk was the archangel leader Slash, but thanks to Quot betraying the angels, Slash loses their chance to do so. In the ending, Akira doesn't bother trying to challenge Asterisk and instead seeks a compromise to delay humanity's revival long enough for the party to reform society]].

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Zigzagged with President Zazz. While he does genuinely want to revive the cryo-sleeping humans and believes himself to be humanity's hero, he also wants humanity to prosper while exploiting non-human species, who he blames for stealing humanity's place in the world despite how it was the demons who attacked humanity. He's perfectly willing to cede power to a human successor, showing that he's not completing enacting his plan only for himself. However, he wants humanity to continue hoarding resources and seems to have no real plan to avoid another environmental crisis, which would just lead to his conquest being rendered moot when everyone dies from the heat wave again. Additionally, he wants to go to war with the remaining two non-human countries, which could bode poorly for the people he supposedly wants to save.

* IgnoredEpiphany: Prime Minister Morgalia starts showing regret about how she treated Chase and how she sold out Vulcanite to Zeta, [[spoiler:but when Clyde offers to brainwash Chase to obey her, Morgalia sides with Zeta anyways]]. In the scenario where [[spoiler:Edgar stays behind to start the minecart, he calls Morgalia out on [[NeverMyFault never taking responsibility]] for her horrible treatment of Chase]].

* MoralMyopia: In an inversion of ApeShallNeverKillApe, Asterisk holds the party in contempt for [[spoiler:killing Gemini by shattering her Zodiac stone. When the party retorts that Gemini was planning to kill the other Zodiacs, Asterisk states that it's okay for archdemons to kill each other and that they've done so in the past, it's not okay for mortals to do so. It's implied the archdemons are incapable of permanently killing each other even if they wanted to, though Asterisk made sure to create Faceless clones as backups in cased an archdemon actually dies. Strangely, this sentiment isn't shared by archdemons Libra and Leo, who believe the party was justified in killing Gemini]].

* InvincibleVillain: Although Asterisk can be defeated in a boss fight, it's clear he's holding back to a more reasonable level to challenge Akira. It turns out [[spoiler:he's actually Ophiuchus, the God of Cycles, and is so strong that he can oneshot Aphos, a powerful angel. Even the BigBad Zazz stood no chance in his past fight with Asterisk, which is why he had to negotiate with Asterisk in order to get the archdemons to revive humanity. The December 2023 update includes a new battle against him in his full power archdemon form, but he also states that he has CompleteImmortality, which means the party can only stalemate him at best. In the ending, Akira doesn't bother trying to challenge Asterisk and instead seeks a compromise to delay humanity's revival long enough for the party to reform society]].

* TheAtoner: Lunez is a DeconReconSwitch. He feels guilty for [[spoiler:being complicit as a clerk in Vulcanite's mines, which has horrible labor practices and is used to punish the poor and political dissidents with forced labor. However, he's a DeathSeeker who wants to just rot away in Pon Pon's prison. After joining the party, he realizes that even if he were to find closure through death, this wouldn't solve any of the problems plaguing Vulcanite, so he decides to help overthrow Morgalia and rebuild Vulcanite even if he'll never be forgiven for his crimes]].

** The party can gain the favor of Zodiac Demons and sync with them to use their abilities.

** The February 2024 update to the game adds [[spoiler:Detritus 7, who is so sadistic that [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Zazz]] was somewhat disturbed by his creation's brutal reign over the Vulcanite Mines and genocide of the Kolfos]].

** A new update to the game adds [[spoiler:Detritus 7, who is so sadistic that [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Zazz]] was somewhat disturbed by his creation's brutal reign over the Vulcanite Mines and genocide of the Kolfos]].

* MoreDespicableMinion: Downplayed. Although Akari has a more thoroughly explained backstory than Zazz and is presented as a tragic figure, her end goal is actually much worse. While Zazz at least seems to genuinely want humanity to prosper, albeit in a classist apartheid society, Akari [[spoiler:cares nothing for humans and only sees them as a means to hurt as many people as possible, with the implication that she wants humanity to make the entire planet uninhabitable and doom themselves too]].

** The insurance company, Mine Co, recommends a painkiller known as Pix, but they use to connections to make sure it's overprescribed so that people get addicted to it even if they don't need it, all to make a profit. They then sell additional medicine for the symptoms of Pix, making money off the problem they created.

* OverflowError: According to Quot, many of the angels started out peaceful, but thanks to [[spoiler:Asterisk, their aggression stat went so low that they wrapped around to the highest value. There are some exceptions, such as Eli having a low aggression stat even after the change and Exca having a high aggression stat even before the change]].

* ExtremeDoormat: In Chapter 1, after [[spoiler:the destruction of Pon Pon Village, Akira has a dream where they realize that following the law and complying with Zetacorp's demands just gives the corporate state more power to oppress the citizens. They also realize that their past relationship with Rosie failed because they were too passive and mainly just did what Rosie wanted, which only made Rosie feel bad. At this point, Akira decidess they need to start doing what they want instead of trying to please people, resulting in them becoming a rebel against Zeta. However, Akira can regress back into this trope in the Evil Runi route, where they become too passive again and do nothing to stop Gemini until it's too late]].

* AffablyEvil: Robun is an especially twisted example. Unlike Clyde, his politeness is genuine, he respects Akira for performing smaller jobs for the community, and he does seem to genuinely miss his old friends. However, he still rationalizes his sacrifice of his friends as being for the good of Zeta. In Chapter 3, [[spoiler:if a party member kills Clyde right when the latter is about to mind wipe Robun, Robun thanks the party and states this is the first time anyone showed him such kindness]]. This is deconstructed because everyone is unnerved by his excessive flattery and inappropriate cheer when celebrating the fall of non-human civilization, to the point where even Akira finds him creepy. Additionally, his seeming humility is extremely self-deprecating both because of his ostracization and because [[spoiler:he believes all non-humans like [[BoomerangBigot himself]] are inherently worthless, showing how twisted his affability really is]].

* GameplayGrading: In the December 2023 update, archdemon battles now include a checklist of objectives, which include winning without consumable items, winning within a time limit specific to each boss, and winning on hard mode. Completing the first two objectives for an archdemon grants a "gold" Steam achievement.

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: President Zazz is presented as a demanding and controlling boss, but he seems to at least have a benevolent goal of vanquishing demons and reviving the original humans. He even pays for Akira's party despite being irritated by their desire to retire. Then he reveals that he intends to displace the non-human citizens in favor of the humans, and that he plans on conquering other countries to further expand his human supremacist state.

* AllYourPowersCombined: The {{Superboss}}, [[spoiler:Asterisk/Ophiuchus, can sync with any archdemon and changes sync partners every turn. Not only does this allow him to [[BarrierChangeBoss change his weaknesses]] and battle mechanics, this prevents the party from syncing with the archdemons, since Ophiuchus's syncs take priority]].

** Zazz and Akari took advantage of Eliza's loneliness to make her Zetacorp's press secretary and make her dependent on the company for validation. They also took advantage of Robun's status as a social pariah to convince him that non-humans deserve to be dominated by humans to create a more equal society.

* AffablyEvil: Robun is an especially twisted example. Unlike Clyde, his politeness is genuine, he respects Akira for performing smaller jobs for the community, and he does seem to genuinely miss his old friends. However, he still rationalizes his sacrifice of his friends as being for the good of Zeta. In Chapter 3, [[spoiler:if a party member kills Clyde right when the latter is about to mind wipe Robun, Robun thanks the party and states this is the first time anyone showed him such kindness]].

* BoomerangBigot: Asterisk [[spoiler:was once an angel, but despises other angels and started a war against both angels and humanity. He went as far as to trade his archangel powers for Virgo's archdemon powers]].

* KnightTemplar: President Zazz is the human hero who made the last stand against the demons, and he's willing to do anything to revive the rest of humanity. Unfortunately, he also believes non-human species stole the world from humans and seeks to have humanity dominate them. He's clearly bought into his own hype and believes that even if he dies, he'll be remembered as a savior to his people rather than the fanatical and racist monster that he really is.

** Zazz and Akari took advantage of Eliza's loneliness to make her Zetacorp's press secretary and make her dependent on the company for validation.

** The Smog Empire has a brutal patriarchy where women have little to no rights and are considered property of men.

** In the Evil Runi route, Gemini [[spoiler:completely takes over Runi's body and engages in extra brutality, such as killing Kael and kicking his body off the train, and then killing Virgo/Rosie despite the latter's willingness to negotiate. While she claims this is for the sake of ending Zazz's fascist regime, it's clear that she's on a power-high from having full control of her sync with Runi and that she killed them out of sadism. After Zazz is killed, she then tries to kill the rest of the party, even though they're the only ones who can reform a post-Zazz world]].

* WorthyOpponent: If the player defeats Aquarius in the BrutalBonusLevel, the latter states that he was originally Zazz's enemy back when Zazz was fighting the demons as the last living human. He was initially angered at Zazz surviving against the demons against all odds, especially in the hard mode lore where the latter [[spoiler:revived himself in another body]]. Eventually, he gained respect for Zazz's determination and promised to sync with the latter if he could get all the other Zodiacs to sync first. Unfortunately, Zazz is now a racist KnightTemplar who wants to revive humanity while forcing non-humans to become second-class citizens.

* NobleDemon: Although Asterisk [[spoiler:is the GreaterScopeVillain behind Zazz and is only helping the party to ensure the maximum amount of syncs for Zazz's plan, he has more of a sense of fair play and generosity in comparison. In the standard ending, he agrees to delay humanity's resurrection for five years out of respect for Akira. Before his {{Superboss}} fight, he gives the party the Synchro Ring knowing that it mitigates his boss mechanic of disallowing the party from syncing]].

* SchrodingersQuestion: The difficulty select screen plays with this, since it asks if the human hero won against the demons (normal), negotiated with the demons (easy), or was killed by the demons (hard). In the BrutalBonusLevel, Aquarius reveals the context behind each difficult setting's lore. While the easy route's lore is exactly what is presented in the difficulty selection screen, normal mode lore [[spoiler:has Zazz defeat Aquarius]]. On hard mode, [[spoiler:Aquarius kills Zazz, but Zazz revives himself in another body. Either way, Zazz has no means of defeating the 13th archdemon [[InvincibleVillain Asterisk/Ophiuchus]], meaning he has no choice but to negotiate anyways. This makes the story differences between each difficulty inconsequential in the long run]].

* SchrodingersQuestion: The difficulty select screen plays with this, since it asks if the human hero won against the demons (normal), negotiated with the demons (easy), or was killed by the demons (hard). In the BrutalBonusLevel, Aquarius reveals the context behind each difficult setting's lore. While the easy route's lore is exactly what is presented in the difficulty selection screen, normal mode lore [[spoiler:has Zazz defeat Aquarius]]. On hard mode, [[spoiler:Aquarius kills Zazz, but Zazz revives himself in another body. Either way, Zazz has no means of defeating the 13th archdemon [[[InvincibleVillain Asterisk/Ophiuchus]], meaning he has no choice but to negotiate anyways. This makes the story difference between each difficulty inconsequential in the long run]].

** Inverted with the conflict between humans and demons. Although the humans lost, Zazz is still in charge of the civilized world and claims the demons wiped out all humans except for him. However, [[spoiler:his hidden logs and Asterisk's own words imply that most humans were going to die from climate change anyways, and most of the survivors of the demon attack didn't survive the extreme heat wave, including the ones that were in cryosleep. The reason Zazz needs the archdemons in the first place is because the sleeping humans melted, and he can't revive them without the demons' help]]. Additionally, the difficulty setting allows the player to choose whether Zazz defeated the demons (normal), negotiated with them (easy), or lost to them (hard), but [[spoiler:Asterisk claims to have defeated Zazz in the past and the two are technically in cahoots to revive humanity, making it so that only the combination of the hard mode and easy mode lore is true]].