History VideoGame / OneWayHeroics

* AnimalWrongsGroup: The Jade Forest, which will try to kill you if you harm rare animals which drop [[RareCandy stat-boosting items]]. Apparently that one fox is [[SkewedPriorities more important than the one hero who can save the world]]. Worse yet, their AI doesn't allow them to avoid collateral damage when hunting you, which means they could end up attacking civilians and [[{{Hypocrite}} even innocent animals]].

* AreaOfEffect: The Lightning spell hits all tiles within a 5x5 area around you. Force Users can rely on this spell to effectively destroy ''anything'' in the area. Extremely useful for destroying walls and treasure chests... [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential or wiping out large towns if you feel like being a psychopath]].

** ''Mystery Chronicle'' adds the (Sumo) Wrestler class, which bans you from using ''any'' equipment, but gives you amazing carrying capacity, awesome stat growth, a LastChanceHitPoint, and a wide variety of abilities. And you can ''still'' use the Pugilist class.

* BittersweetEnding: The normal ending, especially if you've talked to the Demon Lord and know more of the plot details. Yes, the darkness is stopped and the rest of the world is safe, but a huge portion of the world has already been destroyed and [[spoiler:it will happen again... once more, after which something even ''worse'' will happen. Plus the Demon Lord wasn't really a bad guy]].

-->'''"Chick-Diggin" Queen Freida:''' Ummm.... You can... do whatever you want with my body... okay?\\

* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:The Demon Lord, since it's the only way she knows how to stop the Darkness... unless you're up to the task of [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu killing the Dark Dragon]] or Dimensional Ruler, that is.]]

** Coasts have sandy terrain like the desert, but also have water all over the place to slow the hero even more.

* FamousLastWords: If you are killed, the game will let you choose from a list of preset lines as your dying words. Whatever you choose will then be published to other players in the same dimension along with other information at the time of your death.

* MasterOfUnlocking: The Adventurer and Pirate classs start out with a Lockpicking skill that lets them attempt to open up chests and locked doors without keys or force, with varying degrees of success depending on the skill level and strength of the lock. The skill that grants one point towards Lockpicking (and the skill, if the class you choose doesn't have it as a starting skill) even shares its name with this trope.

A spinoff, ''Mystery Chronicle: One Way Heroics'', was released in Japan on UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/PSVita in 2015, with overseas releases for those two platforms as well as on [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/409000/ Steam]] to follow in summer of 2016. It is a crossover between ''One Way Heroics'' and Spike Chunsoft's ''Mystery Dungeon'' series featuring updated graphics, music, and voice acting.

* HarderThanHard: There's both the Maniac option that disables Dimensional Vault and Goddess Statues and makes enemies stronger, and the Inhumane Odyssey difficulty above Grueling Campaign with even higher enemy stats. If you really hate yourself, you can do a [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Maniac Inhumane Odyssey]] run.

* HarderThanHard: There's both the Maniac option that disables Dimensional Vault and Goddess Statues and makes enemies stronger, and an unlockable difficulty with even higher enemy stats.

A spinoff, ''Mystery Chronicle: One Way Heroics'', was released in Japan on UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/PSVita in 2015, with overseas releases for those two platforms as well as on [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/409000/ Steam]] to follow in summer of 2016. It is a crossover between ''One Way Heroics'' and Spike Chunsoft's ''Mystery Dungeon'' series.

* GuestFighter: ''Mystery Chronicles'' has the the Ultimate Student and Wanderer classes, which come from ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' and ''VideoGame/ShirenTheWanderer''. Not only do these change your character graphics, but they also override your character's name.
** Ultimate Student class lets you play as Makoto Neagi, Komaru Naegi, or Monokuma. While they have weak stats, they get the "hacking gun" from ''VideoGame/AbsoluteDespairGirls'' right off the bat, and have "Truth Bullet" abilities that you can upgrade as you gain levels.

* FightingClown: The bonus "C" sprites for [[NinjaMaid Swordmaster, Adventurer]], and [[PlayboyBunny Tourist]], and to a lesser extent [[PettingZooPeople Ninja]].

* PettingZooPeople: Some of the unlockable class skins are this. The Pirate and Force Knight class unlock a lizardman skin while the Ninja class unlocks a wolfman skin.

* BottomlessBladder, NobodyPoops, PlotPoweredStamina: Talk to Iris enough and she will lampshade a number of things the hero is ''not'' doing during his days-long race against the darkness.

* GuestFighter: ''Mystery Chronicles'' has the the Ultimate Student and Wanderer classes, which come from ''VisualNovel/DanganRonpa'' and ''VideoGame/ShirenTheWanderer''. Not only do these change your character graphics, but they also override your character's name.

* {{Macrogame}}: Aside from unlocking perks and classes, you get a "dimensional vault" which you can store items in at the end of the game (whether you won or lost) and then withdraw at the start of a later run. Eventually, you can store enough powerful items to win the game several times over, not that you could carry them all. ''Plus'' adds the ability to customize the starting castle, using "dimensional coins" that can be gathered through gameplay.

* BiggerBad: [[The Darkness itself, or rather the Dark Dragon, is forcing the Demon Lord to serve as a cat's-paw. And the Dimensional Ruler is behind the Dark Dragon and controls all the dimensions.]]

* AllPowerfulBystander: Several [=NPCs=] are ridiculously overpowered and some even surpass all of the final bosses, but they never go after the monsters or the villains unless directly provoked. [[SkewedPriorities Of course, they'll have no problem whaling on the player if he/she breaks the law]].

** The Cartography skill you can learn from the Court Trainer in ''Plus'' and ''Mystery Chronicles''. All it does is point you towards the next town or dungeon once per day. Which is enough that you will usually never miss a town and reach several extra dungeons. The extra resources this grants you outstrip almost everything else you can get from castle NPCs or most starting perks.

* HardModePerks: Well, harder mode perks. The easiest difficulty has weaker enemies than other difficulties, you get a plant that continuously grows healing herbs, the Demon Lord doesn't regularly pop up to attack you before retreating, and when you do fight the Demon Lord, you have a fully party worth of NPCs backing you up. On the downside, runs are much shorter than on other difficulties because after 400km, the Demon Lord spawns and won't ever leave, so unless you are strong enough and well-equipped to run away from him forever, you will have to deal with him when he spawns. And the best gear doesn't spawn til way beyond 400km, and for the most part you won't find any recruitable NPCs within that time frame either.

''In One Way Heroics, you take on the role of an intrepid adventurer who must travel across the land and face the Demon Lord before a mysterious darkness engulfs everything.''

''Darkness always approaches from the left, and with each movement, attack and action you take, the darkness creeps ever closer. Forced to run right, you'll encounter any number of monsters, allies, thieves and shops on your desperate journey to stop the end of everything.''

* BigBad: The Demon Lord, who will appear to challenge you eventually (400km into an adventure on the ''A Walk in the Park'' difficulty).
** BiggerBad: [[spoiler:It turns out that [[SamusIsAGirl she]] isn't happy about this at all — the Darkness itself, or rather the Dark Dragon, is forcing her to serve as a cat's-paw. And the Dimensional Ruler is behind the Dark Dragon and controls all the dimensions.]]

* BoringButPractical: The Master of Unlocking starting perk, which grants a single point in Lockpicking. That single point is enough to open crates and low-level chests without having to use up keys or waste your weapons' durability or ammo (or worse, break whatever's inside).

* InfinityMinusOneSword: Holy Weapons and Armor. They're all both powerful and lighter than the next-best thing, and the weapons get guaranteed or near-guaranteed critical hits. Oh, and since critical hits completely bypass the Demon Lord's barriers, so do holy weapons.
** However, most Holy Weapons tend to veer a bit too far towards AwesomeButImpractical due to their low durability, as well as the fact that getting guaranteed critical hits later in the game isn't exactly difficult. The armor is another story, though.

* InterfaceSpoiler: GenreSavvy players can identify towns, shrines, and dungeons on the minimap based on the color of the tiles that show up. Each terrain tile has a different color, so it's possible to tell which tiles are mountains and which are just ruins (which do nothing to hinder your movement). You can't tell what is a town, shrine, or dungeon just by looking at the map, but you know it's going to be one of those three.

* ItemCaddy: Despite her title, Dosey's [[spoiler:pre-transformation]] role is ultimately closer to this, as she uses herbs to heal you and gives you various rare potions during her conversations with you.

* LongSongShortScene: Frequently with some conversation tunes, but very notable with the Demon Lord's themes, which you often hear only the intro before the Lord vanishes. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnlNmKca-6M #3 in particular]] is good enough if you sit around for a bit, and then it ''just keeps going''.

* MarathonLevel: One of the endings requires reaching 2000 km rather than fighting the Demon Lord. That's at least three times as far as most characters should be by the time they're ready to kill the Demon Lord. Oh, and once you've achieved that, you can try for up to 10000 km. The game gets progressively sparser with towns and save points as you go, and the chance of the few towns you're able to find being empty except ,for a single [=NPC=], a pair of low-tier chests, or even a horde of zombies just keeps going up. Initially this makes keeping your energy up an issue, but later the weaker enemies are replaced with bears and tigers who frequently drop food.

* SchmuckBait: You are told up front that breaking open the SoulJar in a Demon Shrine will do nothing except powering up the Demon Lord. Guess what -- that's exactly what it does, and it does nothing else.
** [[spoiler:Granted, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, as you can potentially recruit the Demon Lord with enough charisma and the right item.]]

* UselessUsefulSpell: Averted; nothing is immune to status effects, including the Demon Lord. He can be confused, rooted in place, set on fire, or even [[spoiler:pacified]], the last of which is especially unusual as a thing that works on the final boss. Sadly. the TrueFinalBoss does have the typical immunities, but then again [[spoiler:it has no physical presence in the game, is described as being as large as a mountain, and is literally the entire left side of the screen.]]

* VideogameCrueltyPunishment: However, both of these can come back to bite you. Jade Forest rangers (and later Lieutenants, possibly the game's strongest enemy) hunt people who hurt otherwise nonhostile endangered animals. And of course most towns have guards and heavily-armed equipment dealers who will thrash you for attacking them; and even if you can easily slaughter them, good luck getting any new party members or learning new spells, being told where the next few towns are, or getting both meals out of a chef. ''Plus'' adds in a rare inversion: there are settlements that will only allow the player in if they have "sin", which is gained by killing neutral wildlife or [=NPC=]s.
** However, under certain circumstances, it's almost encouraged to be rather unheroic while not getting blamed for it. While the Demon Lord or the Dark Angel want to kill you, they won't shy away from attacking [=NPCs=] if they're close by. This essentially means that one can sell a whole bunch of valuables to a merchant, manipulate the Demon Lord or the Dark Angel into approaching them so that they get killed, then grab everything you sold ''and'' everything the merchant had on them, meaning you potentially get twice the money and a whole bunch of items you couldn't possibly afford -- with no sin penalty whatsoever!

* YetAnotherStupidDeath: As is the norm for roguelikes, a good number of deaths are self-inflicted by carelessness, like getting crushed by the autoscroll, getting surrounded and mobbed to death while trying to climb a mountain and outrun the deadly edge of the screen, running out of energy or stamina at the worst possible times, breaking a good weapon or shield because you overused it, using a bomb item in your inventory instead of throwing it at the enemy, and so on.

** Outside of the early game, Charisma — there are so few party members in the game in the first place, and usually the few you can find you will either get at the very beginning (or they become [[PermanentlyMissableContent unobtainable]], at least for that playthrough) or you will naturally (or unnaturally by murdering animals) amass more than enough Charisma to acquire them in later towns. It also marginally improves shop prices and ally damage, but the former is of little value and the latter is only meaningful if you have multiple allies.

!!Tropes associated with One Way Heroics:

* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Each party member you want to recruit consumes some of your charisma, and even if you have enough charisma you can't have more than three, although ''Plus'' adds mercenary characters and animals to purchase that do not count towards this limit. However, recruitable [=NPC=]s are so rare outside of daily scenarios that you'll often run into nobody except the optional starting pet and the overpriced-but-guaranteed Guard D.

** BiggerBad: [[spoiler:It turns out that [[SamusIsAGirl she]] isn't happy about this at all -- the Darkness itself, or rather the Dark Dragon, is forcing her to serve as a cat's-paw. And the Dimensional Ruler is behind the Dark Dragon and controls all the dimensions.]]

** Most of the epilogues are this. In some of them [[spoiler:your companions die happily]], in another one [[spoiler:the protagonist starts losing memories]].

** The Cartography skill you can learn from the Court Trainer in Plus and Mystery Chronicles. All it does is point you towards the next town or dungeon once per day. Which is enough that you will usually never miss a town and reach several extra dungeons. The extra resources this grants you outstrip almost everything else you can get from castle NPCs or most starting perks.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: The game does this every now and then. Iris has MediumAwareness, breaking the wall both for gameplay tutorial purposes and sometimes for comedy -- especially when talking to an NPC with a Naughty personality type. Depending on how you do at the end of a run, the advice [=NPCs=] may also comment about the person on the "other side of the screen."

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: [=NPC=]s will somehow be completely aware of your poaching and murdering, even though all evidence of the misdeeds should have been swallowed by the Darkness.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: Stepping on a lava tile is instant death. [[CaptainObvious Iris says that she shouldn't have to tell you that]]. There's no problem with walking next to them, though.

* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:The Demon Lord, since it's the only way she knows how to stop the Darkness...unless you're up to the task of [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu killing the Dark Dragon]], that is.]]

** Also, oddly enough, "Everything is Silver" special campaign worlds. Lots of extra shopkeepers and money ensure better odds than normal of getting semi-rare items and good gear and no guards makes killing everyone unusually safe, but chefs are removed entirely and many items are replaced with money, meaning even if you buy out every herb you see, you'll have a hard time with food. Plus there's no old women to tell you where towns are and no fortune tellers (meaning no spells, not even the one to detect [=NPC=]s), so you'll miss a lot of towns unless you're the bard or very lucky, and there's no recruitable party members (not even the normally-guaranteed Soldier D). Most of these things are still available in Plus, however.
* DoubleStandard: Parodied with Hero's Zenura Weave: [[spoiler:Everyone will [[PleasePutSomeClothesOn either think you're crazy or ask you to at least find some pants to wear]], but if you're playing as a female character, some people will complement your body and other female party members will even be jealous of you. Downplayed, in that either way, using this skill drops you to -99 Charisma, meaning that without extremely copious amounts of LevelGrinding, you will never be able to recruit another NPC.]]

** Outside of the early game, Charisma -- there are so few party members in the game in the first place, and usually the few you can find you will either get at the very beginning (or they become [[PermanentlyMissableContent unobtainable]], at least for that playthrough) or you will naturally (or unnaturally by murdering animals) amass more than enough Charisma to acquire them in later towns. It also marginally improves shop prices and ally damage, but the former is of little value and the latter is only meaningful if you have multiple allies.

* EldritchAbomination: The Darkness that's chasing you is an invulnerable wall of destruction that annihilates everything it touches. [[spoiler:And that's not a joke -- the Dark Dragon that generates it is a mountain-high monster that takes 10,000 years of sleep to reach its full strength, whereupon it can destroy all complex life. The whole Demon Lord system is an attempt to artificially lengthen the cycle, and even that's a temporary stopgap because there aren't any more candidates.]]

* ExcusePlot: Defeat the Demon Lord and stop the Darkness! Actually subverted -- beneath the surface, there's quite a complex plot linking all the worlds.

* FairyCompanion: Iris the Fairy, whom you can talk to, and also gives postgame commentary and advice. She even gets grouchy if you neglect her for a while, which can unlock an achievement!

* FinalBossPreview: The Demon Lord shows up to chase you around for a bit once every so often. The first few times he does so he gets extra layers added onto the "barrier" that you must destroy before you can damage him, so it's best just to run.

* FragileSpeedster: The Adventurer. Low health, but he can dash and also can move two tiles in one turn (even jumping over enemies to let allies attack from behind). He also levels up in both swimming and mountain climbing (eventually crossing both terrains in one turn). The Hunter also has high speed, dashing and mountain climbing but lousy health, designed for kiting enemies with a bow or spear.

* HardModePerks: Well harder mode perks. The easiest difficulty has weaker enemies than other difficulties, you get a plant that continuously grows healing herbs, the Demon Lord doesn't regularly pop up to attack you before retreating, and when you do fight the Demon Lord, you have a fully party worth of NPCs backing you up. On the downside, runs are much shorter than on other difficulties because after 400km, the Demon Lord spawns and won't ever leave, so unless you are strong enough and well equipped to run away from him forever, you will have to deal with him when he spawns. And the best gear doesn't spawn til way beyond 400km, and for the most part you won't find any recruitable NPCs within that time frame either.

* IndestructibleEdible: Averted, since fire damage can burn herbs. ''Plus'' also introduces rotting food, which happens randomly. If food becomes too rotten, it will become Blasphemous Gel, which can be thrown to poison enemies [[spoiler:and destroy the [[TooSpicyForYogSothoth Dark Dragon's barrier]].]]

** To get their special ending the Tourist then has waste turns in "exciting" (aka dangerous) situations to fill the travel journal, while also micromanaging its pages for balance. All it gets to compensate is extra starting cash and a limited-use escape ability.

** The Mystery Chronicle-exclusive Samurai class has a skill that works as such. It starts out not much stronger than your normal attacks and has both a very high ST cost and needs ''4'' durability points per use. However, use it often enough and it not only becomes stronger and more accurate, but cuts the weapon durability cost down to 3. Keep using it and it becomes even stronger, cheaper to use, and adds a chance of lowering your opponent's Attack stat. ''Still'' keep using it and its final upgrade makes it so its ST cost becomes negligible to the point of being spammable without ST recovery items under almost all circumstances, uses as much durability as a normal attack, therefore making it ''more'' efficient than attacking normally since it can't combo and therefore waste durability, and deals so much damage that the only things that could even survive getting hit with it once are boss-tier enemies -- emphasis on ''could''.

* AllPowerfulBystander: Several [=NPCs=] are ridiculously overpowered and some even surpass all of the final bosses, but they never go after the monsters or the villains unless directly provoked. [[SkewedPriorities Of course, they'll have no problem wailing on the player if he/she breaks the law]].

* DevelopersForesight: If you make it to 2000 km while doing a non-Demon Lord quest, the dialogue will change depending on your quest.

* AllInARow: Unlike the companions, cooperative [=NPCs=] will occupy space on the map and will try their best to follow the player.

* DespairEventHorizon: Even the physically healthy NPCs (who can probably move faster than you at first) have given up on outrunning the Darkness.

* NostalgiaLevel: The "Dark Lord" sidequest that's required to unlock the One Way Hero in ''Mystery Chronicle''. It starts with you meeting King Victor, has you meet several NPCs from the first game along the way, and ends with you slaying the Dark Lord. [[spoiler:[[NotMeThisTime Unfortunately, she's not responsible for the Shine Raid.]]]]

* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Each party member you want to recruit consumes some of your charisma, and even if you have enough charisma you can't have more than three, although ''Plus'' adds mercenary characters and animals to purchase that do not count towards this limit. However recruitable [=NPC=]s are so rare outside of daily scenarios you'll often run into nobody except the optional starting pet and the overpriced-but-guaranteed Guard D.

** In ''Mystery Chronicle'', the Big Bad is instead the Fallen Angel. [[spoiler:With the bigger bad being The Giant of Light.]]
* BittersweetEnding: The normal ending, especially if you've talked to the Demon Lord and know more of the plot details. Yes, the darkness is stopped and the rest of the world is safe, but a huge portion of the world has already been destroyed and [[spoiler:it will happen again... once more, after which something even ''worse'' will happen. Plus the Demon Lord wasn't really a bad guy.]]
** Most of the epilogues are this. In some of them [[spoiler:your companions die happily]], in another one [[spoiler:the protagonist starts losing memories.]]
** Averted in the [[spoiler:Dimensional Ruler ending, where the player becomes a PhysicalGod and gives all the characters their GoldenEnding.]] And the [[spoiler:Travel Journal ending, where you effortlessly destroy the Darkness]].

* BolivianArmyEnding: [[spoiler:The End of the World ending. You've gone all the way around the planet and are now in the lifeless plane that used to be King Victor's palace. The Demon Lord shows up to give you a Holy Sword to reveal the Dark Dragon, and the last line is you rushing at it. If you get to the end of the world on Walk in the Park, the Demon Lord will fight alongside you.]]

* ButNowIMustGo: [[spoiler: The GoldenEnding "Dimension Ruler" has your character setting things right in their world, reviving all characters that have perished and the recruitable NPCs getting along with each other. You go to other dimensions in order to save their world.]]

* ConvectionSchmonvection: Stepping on a lava tile is instant death. [[CaptainObvious Iris says that she shouldn't have to tell you that]]. There's no problem with walking next to them though.

* DarkIsNotEvil: [[spoiler:[[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething King Victor]] is a {{Necromancer}} and older brother of the Demon Lord, who are the last survivors an ancient culture responsible for performing HeroicSacrifice after HeroicSacrifice to force the Darkness back to sleep when it wakes.]]
* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Queen Freida]].

* DiabolusExMachina: Unless you have [[spoiler: a Parchment of Darkness with charges left in it]], not even abusing the NewGamePlus system to finish the game before Dosey can normally finish her SlowTransformation into a Killer Hound will save her. The epilogue will describe her transforming a short time after anyway.

** Deserts and Volcanoes. Both have fewer towns than normal and almost no vegetation, deserts drain stamina and speed and volcanoes have moderately tough enemies. However they also have gems lying around that are worth a lot of money as compensation.

** Also, oddly enough, "Everything is Silver" special campaign worlds. Lots of extra shopkeepers and money ensure better odds than normal of getting semi-rare items and good gear and no guards makes killing everyone unusually safe, but chefs are removed entirely and many items are replaced with money, meaning even if you buy out every herb you see you'll have a hard time with food. Plus there's no old women to tell you where towns are and no fortune tellers (meaning no spells, not even the one to detect [=NPC=]s), so you'll miss a lot of towns unless you're the bard or very lucky, and there's no recruitable party members (not even the normally-guaranteed Soldier D). Most of these things are still available in Plus, however.
* DoubleStandard: Parodied with Hero's Zenura Weave: [[spoiler:Everyone will [[PleasePutSomeClothesOn either think you're crazy or ask you to at least find some pants to wear]], but if you're playing as a female character, some people will complement your body and other female party members will even be jealous of you. Downplayed, in that either way, using this skill drops you to -99 Charisma, meaning that without extremely copious amounts of LevelGrinding you will never be able to recruit another NPC.]]

** Max stamina is invaluable for some classes, who rely on stamina-draining skills like Dash or Bash. It's useless for other classes, who have only few or no stamina using skills (most notably the Force User and Force Knight, who both have many energy-using skills but no stamina using skills at all).

* EarnYourBadEnding: [[spoiler:Getting the End of the World ending, which results in the extinction of most life, can be quite challenging due to enemies getting stronger and stronger. This is even worse on "Walk in the Park" version of the ending, where you have to deal with the Demon Lord chasing the hero.]]
* EldritchAbomination: The Darkness that's chasing you is an invulnerable wall of destruction that annihilates everything it touches. [[spoiler:And that's not a joke-the Dark Dragon that generates it is a mountain-high monster that takes 10,000 years of sleep to reach its full strength whereupon it can destroy all complex life. The whole Demon Lord system is an attempt to artificially lengthen the cycle, and even that's a temporary stopgap because there aren't any more candidates.]]
* EliteMooks: Denoted by a triangle or a star above them. However you can't tell just ''how'' much stronger they are without seeing their name or using a Hunter, which usually means hitting them.

* ExcusePlot: Defeat the Demon Lord and stop the Darkness! Actually subverted--beneath the surface there's quite a complex plot linking all the worlds.
* ExplosiveStupidity: Bombs can not only be thrown, they can also be "used", i.e. detonate it ''while carrying it'' to damage not only surrounding enemies but yourself and any ally [=NPCs=] that happen to be with you. Oh, and when you select an item, including explosives, the sub-menu defaults to the "Use" command rather than "Throw". [[DamnYouMuscleMemory Have fun blowing yourself up by accident for the ten millionth time!]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: On both the original and ''Plus'' version, beating the Demon Lord on Inhumane Odyssey results in a bizarre dream where [[spoiler:the hero sees a [[BiggerBad mysterious figure]] and somehow knows it's manipulating all the dimensions and the Darkness.]] On the original version, one would be inclined to believe the hero is a ConspiracyTheorist. On the ''Plus'' version, [[spoiler:you can actually fight the mysterious figure.]]

* GlassCannon: Force Users, who have low defense and (unless they have weapons or accessories to negate the wait) take increasing amounts of meditation to cast their spells, which do massive damage and have the largest [=AoE=] in the game. The Hero class can also count, having amazing fighting abilities, but take far more damage from the side or back than usual. [[spoiler: Taken UpToEleven with Zenura Weave, which gives them more stats in exchange of being unable to wear armor. Or [[FullFrontalAssault clothes]], although accessories and weapons are still fair game]].
* GoldenEnding: [[spoiler: The Dimension Ruler ending, exclusive to ''Plus''.]]
* GuestFighter: ''Mystery Chronicles'' has the the Ultimate Student and Wanderer classes, which come from VisualNovel/DanganRonpa and VideoGame/ShirenTheWanderer. Not only do these change your character graphics, but they also override your character's name.
** Ultimate Student class lets you play as Makoto Neagi, Komaru Naegi or Monokuma. While they have weak stats, they get the "hacking gun" from VideoGame/AbsoluteDespairGirls right off the bat, and have "Truth Bullet" abilities that you can upgrade as you gain levels.
** The Wanderer class lets you play as Shiren, Tao, or Asuka. They're a bit of a JackOfAllTrades with balanced offense, defense and movement abilities, but they suck at using Force powers. They also have special abilities that are extremely powerful, but can only be used at night.

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: The Dark Knight]], [[spoiler: The Dark Lord]], and [[spoiler: The Healer Dosey after she transforms into a Killer Hound]] can join your party under the right conditions.

* InfinityMinusOneSword: Holy Weapons and Armor. They're all both powerful and lighter than the next best thing, and the weapons get guaranteed or near-guaranteed critical hits. Oh, and since critical hits completely bypass the Demon Lord's barriers, so do holy weapons.
** However, most Holy Weapons tend to veer a bit too far towards AwesomeButImpractical due to their low durability as well as the fact that getting guaranteed critical hits later in the game isn't exactly difficult. The armor is another story though.
* InfinityPlusOneSword: The items for the two "alternate" ways of beating the game (without killing the Demon Lord) are heavier than their holy counterparts but even more powerful and with better durability too, especially the bow which has damage and durability almost double its holy counterpart and longer range. However there's not much left to do by the time you earn them and you can only ever use them by opening the dimensional vault, and they don't cover every weapon type (or any body armor) like the holy items do.

** Averted in *Mystery Chronicle*, as town and dungeon tiles no longer show up on the minimap. Thankfully, many classes have a passive ability that lets them locate either towns, dungeons, friendly NPCs or treasure chests.

* ItemCaddy: Despite her title, Dosey's [[spoiler: pre-transformation]] role is ultimately closer to this, as she uses herbs to heal you and gives you various rare potions during her conversations with you.

* LowLevelAdvantage: A very odd case. Leveling up itself is helpful, but your character level itself does very little (it mostly unlocks one special skill per class unless you're a Force User). Instead your level is used as an additional currency. You can trade "levels" for bonus stats, a free save or (for the Force User) extra Force Spells, but you keep all the stat gains so you're actually stronger than before. However, due to the usefulness of high-end Force User spells, you're better off saving your levels until you learn them before you start spending them on Goddess Statues.
* {{Macrogame}}: Aside from unlocking perks and classes, you get a "dimensional vault" which you can store items in at the end of the game (whether you won or lost) and then withdraw at the start of a later run. Eventually you can store enough powerful items to win the game several times over, not that you could carry them all. ''Plus'' adds the ability to customize the starting castle, using "dimensional coins" that can be gathered through gameplay.

** The Mystery Chronice-exclusive Samurai class has a skill that works as such. It starts out not much stronger than your normal attacks and has both a very high ST cost and needs ''4'' durability points per use. However, use it often enough and it not only becomes stronger and more accurate, but cuts the weapon durability cost down to 3. Keep using it and it becomes even stronger, cheaper to use and adds a chance of lowering your opponent's Attack stat. ''Still'' keep using it and its final upgrade makes it so its ST cost becomes negligible to the point of being spammable without ST recovery items under almost all circumstances, uses as much durability as a normal attack, therefore making it ''more'' efficient than attacking normally since it can't combo and therefore waste durability, and deals so much damage that the only things that could even survive getting hit with it once are boss-tier enemies - emphasis on ''could''.
* MarathonBoss: The Demon Lord fight can be ended pretty quickly in a normal game, even on hard mode. But in Maniac mode he gets increased stats and a truly massive health bar, so that even well beyond when the game would normally end you'll be hard pressed to kill him in one go.
* MarathonLevel: One of the endings requires reaching 2000 km rather than fighting the Demon Lord. That's at least three times as far as most characters should be by the time they're ready to kill the Demon Lord. Oh, and once you've achieved that you can try for up to 10000 km. The game gets progressively sparser with towns and save points as you go and the chance of few towns you're able to find being empty except for a single [=NPC=], a pair of low-tier chests or even a horde of zombies just keeps going up. Initially this makes keeping your energy up an issue, but later the weaker enemies are replaced with bears and tigers who frequently drop food.

* {{Mordor}}: Corrupted Lands. Almost no towns, not much plant life and the toughest enemies in the game. Unlike other "difficult" terrains there's no special items to compensate so you generally want to race through it quickly.

* NominalImportance: Played with for Soldier D, one of the soldiers from the castle. Despite not having a name he will join your party if you have at least 4 charisma and can hold his own in combat. But he's still weaker than any of the other recruitable characters (especially for his price). If you ask Iris about him she'll complain that he doesn't have a name, an affection rating, dialog or any special traits.
* NonIndicativeDifficulty: Walk In The Park, the "easy" difficulty, has the Demon Lord show up at 400 km, and [[SuperPersistentPredator will hunt you down until either you or him die]]. If the Demon Lord hits the edge of the screen, he'll teleport to the right of you. Afternoon Stroll, the "normal" difficulty, makes him appear sooner, but unlike on [=WitP=], he will disappear after a while and return later again and again, so he's not ''always'' chasing you all the way to the endgame. This makes it ''harder'' to get the End of the World ending than on [=WitP=].
* NoOntologicalInertia: Tragically averted with [[spoiler: Dosey's Killer Hound transformation.]] Even if you use OneGamePlus to finish the game faster than is normally possible and defeat the Darkness which caused it, it will ''still'' finish after the adventure.

* NotMeThisTime: [[spoiler: The Dark Lord is not responsible for the Shine Raid in ''Mystery Chronicle''.]]

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Dosey seems to have have been somehow cursed by the Darkness to become a Killer Hound basically by proximity. When she survived her village's consumption, she grew wolf ears and a tail. About 10 days after her joining your party, she will suddenly grow teeth and attack you. You can kill her, or you can recruit her again as a CanineCompanion. [[spoiler: It is possible, but [[EarnYourHappyEnding exceedingly hard]], to make it through the game such that she will not transform.]]

* TheRemake: ''Mystery Chronicle'' is really more of a re-imagining than a proper sequel. The basic premise is the same, [[LightIsNotGood just with light instead of darkness]], all of the mechanics and classes from the original game and ''Plus'' return, but with new content, new graphics and voice-overs.

* RapidFireFisticuffs: Stack enough Pro-Wrestler perk and you can pull this off.

* RelationshipValues: Party member affection rates increase via various means, mostly when you get far enough in the game, kill enough enemies and use enough healing items.

* SamusIsAGirl: The [[spoiler: Dark Lord]] is revealed to be one.

* SchmuckBait: You are told up front that breaking open the SoulJar in a Demon Shrine will do nothing except powering up the Demon Lord. Guess what - that's exactly what it does, and it does nothing else.
** [[spoiler: Granted this isn't necessarily a bad thing as you can potentially recruit The Demon Lord with enough charisma and the right item.]]

** The dimensional corridor, with tougher enemies and a tougher boss to replace the Demon Lord. Once you enter, you're there for the whole rest of the game, and the End of the World is pushed back to 3000 km.

** Queen Frieda has heard about [[Literature/{{Twilight}} women who have a thing about sparkling undead]] and wonders if [[spoiler: she should try it too since she's undead as well.]]
** And Iris - about certain [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros Princess Peach]], who has a thing about being constantly kidnapped.

* ShopliftAndDie: A variation with the Toll Collector in ''Plus''. He will charge you a sum for being able to cross the border into another country. If you don't pay, he will attack you. And he's one of the most powerful NPCs in the game, many times more powerful than even the Demon Lord, so don't be surprised if you get one-hitted by him.

* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler: The Demon Lord wants you to end his life of servitude to the Darkness.]]

* TrueFinalBoss: [[spoiler: The Dark Dragon. The Dimensional Ruler from the ''Plus'' expansion is an Even Truer Final Boss.]]
* TheUnpronounceable: Because of the seed nature for setting up each dimension's terrains--area names included--bizarre, often vowel-less configurations of letters are pretty much the norm. It might not have been as much of a nuisance in the original Japanese (i.e. syllable-based alphabet), where every possible syllable except "n" ends in a vowel, but for our alphabet...[[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in one of the random prologues.
* UnknownItemIdentification: All equipable items have 3 levels of identification: the lowest only tells you their basic weapon type and weight, the middle one tells you their name and basic item stats and description, and complete identification adds any existing modifiers and current durability. You can fully or partly identify them automatically if your Intelligence is high enough, and failing that there are scrolls and occasional [=NPCs=] which can identify all the items in your inventory.
* UselessUsefulSpell: Averted; nothing is immune to status effects, including the Demon Lord. He can be confused, rooted in place, set on fire or even [[spoiler:pacified]], the last of which is especially unusual as a thing that works on the final boss. Sadly the TrueFinalBoss does have the typical immunities, but then again [[spoiler: it has no physical presense in the game, is described as being as large as a mountain and is literally the entire left side of the screen.]]

** However, under certain circumstances, it's almost encouraged to be rather unheroic while not getting blamed for it. While the Demon Lord or the Dark Angel want to kill you, they won't shy away from attacking NPCs if they're close by. This essentially means that one can sell a whole bunch of valuables to a merchant, manipulate the Demon Lord or the Dark Angel into approaching them so that they get killed, then grab everything you sold ''and'' everything the merchant had on them, meaning you potentially get twice the money and a whole bunch of items you couldn't possibly afford - with no sin penalty whatsoever!

* WizardNeedsFoodBadly: If you drop to 0 Energy, your movement, Strength and Agility are greatly lowered, your HP regeneration rate is halved and you stop generating stamina, so you better carry enough items that restore it. This is a more significant problem for Force Users, since their spells run off Energy instead of Stamina like the special abilities of most other character classes.

* BoringButPractical: The Master of Unlocking starting perk, which grants a single point in Lockpicking. That single point is enough to open open crates and low-level chests without having to use up keys or waste your weapons' durability or ammo (or worse, break whatever's inside).