History VideoGame / Iji

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: [[spoiler: The higher-ranked Komato are the ones who get the best equipment; the best troopers get Berserker cybernetics and training, the best Berserkers get stuck into Annihilator exoskeletons.]] The Tasen appear to work the same way.

* AntiWastageFeatures: Walking over red Nanofields at full health gives a "Health full" message and it won't be used. Same with green and "armor".

** If you are doing a PacifistRun, they are still absolutely afraid of the teenage girl sprinting through their killzones and deathtraps, collecting all their ammo without using any of it. They realise the only reason they are all still alive is because she clearly doesn't want to kill them, and ''that freaks them out to no end''.

* MeaningfulName: Kinda, the creator of the game says he just made up names. In any case, "Iji" means "determination, willpower", which [[{{Determinator}} quite describes her]]. "Tasen" is almost identical to "taisen", which means "war".

* MissionControl: Dan.
** MissingMissionControl: [[spoiler:During sectors 5 and 6. And if you aren't CrazyPrepared in Sector 8, he ''dies''.]]

* HesitationEqualsDishonesty: Early on, Dan exhibits this before Iji knows the full scope of what's happened.

* HypocriteHasAPoint: If Iji has too high of a kill count to be "pacifist", many enemies will try to call Iji out on the hypocrisy of killing her way through the complex in hopes of peace, but as she Iji occasionally points out, the Tasen Alpha Struck Earth first, the Komato aren't any better, and nobody's been willing to listen to her when she tries talking. This is more obvious to the player, who may have seen how little difference it makes if Iji's kill count is lower.

* [[LastOfHisKind Last Of Their Kind]]: In the Pacifist playthrough, only [[spoiler:the three Tasen who escape the final outpost remain alive, according to WordOfGod. All are female, too; the creator said this is explicitly to avoid any AdamAndEvePlot. (Well, and out of necessity since their base soldiers all have female voice actors.)]] As of 1.6, [[spoiler:in a pacifist run, the Tasen in Sector 9 open up their stronghold for Iji, basically allowing you to take down Iosa before she kills them all. So you have several more Tasen surviving, thanks to Iji.]]

* PlayerNudge: Dying to a boss and choosing to retry will generally get some sort of hint message in the dialogue right before the fight starts again.

* BrokenAesop: [[spoiler: In the bad ending, Kiron announces to Iji that it was all a {{Secret Test of Character}}, and that her kill count of over 300 has caused her to fail that, and thus judge humanity as unworthy of survival before launching the {{Alpha Strike}}. This is supposed to tie in to the Aesop that wanton violence is bad. Except not only is Kiron and the Komato a culture defined by their warmongering and genocide, not only did they go along with the genocide of earth even after seeing that the Tasen have almost completely glassed the planet, they had the audacity to criticise Iji for [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming RETALIATING]]. This whole escapade comes off as an incredibly hypocritical instance of {{Never My Fault}}.]]

* ActionGirl: Along with Iji, most of the named characters are female and know how to kick decent amounts of ass. Also, all the Tasen soldiers you fight are female (with the exception of some of the log writers and [[BonusBoss Yukabacera]]). Depending on the player's will to spare or kill enemies, Iji either becomes a BadassPacifist or a OneWomanArmy.

* BonusBoss: Yukabacera, a PlayfulHacker who looks like a standard Tasen Soldier, but has a crapload of health and a seriously overpowered gun, as well as being much faster.

* AmbidextrousSprite: Averted; sprites are not simply mirrored. (They were actually done in Blender.)

* EmptyLevels: The Tasen and Komato weapon stats only have an effect at levels three, six and ten.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: Sector Z. [[InvokedTrope There's a reason behind it]], but if you don't know what that is...

* DecapitatedArmy: Subverted, as [[spoiler:neither of the two alien races]] will stop fighting if their leader is taken out, and the FinalBoss even discusses the trope with you, reminding you that [[spoiler:only a word from him will call off the [[ApocalypseHow Alpha Strike.]]]]
** Averted, as [[spoiler:slaughtering one of the leaders of an alien army isn't going to get them to call off their [[ApocalypseHow razing of the planet]]]].

** It also randomly inserts "my boy" and "my stuff" into lines. According to the game's creator, he wanted to put in WebAnimation/YouTubePoop references while avoiding overt, cliched MemeticMutation. All of Asha's lines are replaced by various sound effects, symbols, and emoticons, such as "TOOT TOOT", "PEW PEW PEW", ">:(" and so on. This makes him seem ''completely batshit'', and the fact that the other characters understand him completely is even funnier. All of his logbook entries are changed to have "* indecipherable scribbles* " as their content too.

A combination of straight action with adventure and RPG elements, it tells a story where Iji questions the necessity and effectiveness of violence, and either extreme is a valid strategy.

* NoPronunciationGuide: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5IFrCyjoRc Averted with this video]].

* GameMod: Daniel Remar's release of the source code allowed this. One of the first is for the [[Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures MSPA]] [[Webcomic/{{Iji}} Fan Adventure]] that cranks the SillinessSwitch up to eleven.

* FanFic: A rare example of one read and enjoyed by the author: {{Webcomic.Iji}}

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: [[spoiler: The Komato Empire is incredibly militaristic, expansionist, and xenophobic, and launched a genocidal war against the Tasen as the latter rejected the Komato's increasingly unhinged society.]]

* TheNeidermeyer: We don't ''see'' Krotera mistreating his troops, but given that one of them [[TheDogBitesBack blasts him to bits]] during a PacifistRun, it's a pretty good bet that he did. In Yukabacera's hidden web pages we get to know that Krotera said in front of an audience that it's a GOOD THING that the Komato pulverized one of their homeworlds because ''they'll have to worry about less of their kind now''. Then the legendary Tasen hero Hel Sarie punches him in the face and questions his morals, in full view of the audience.