History VideoGame / RiseOfTheThirdPower

** Sparrow tails the party for the first two chapters without them noticing, allowing the Arkadyans to intercept them at Telindra. [[spoiler:He later follows them to Evenheart so he can assassinate the royal family and pin the crime on the party.]]

* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The Arkadyan Empire sends dissenters and otherwise "undesirable" citizens to work camps, and that's if they decide not to exile or execute them. In this case, "undesirable" also includes people that the empire deems to be weak.

* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The Arkadyan Empire sends dissenters and otherwise "undesirable" citizens to work camps. In this case, "undesirable" also includes people that the empire deems to be weak.

* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler:In Natasha's Grandmaster recipe sidequest, the party infiltrates her family's manor in an attempt to convince her mother, Diana Rezkov, to stop supporting Noraskov. However, Diana doesn't recognize Natasha, leading to a boss battle. In the end, Natasha decides to kill Diana because she deemed trying to convince the latter impractical.]]

* SaveTheVillain: After the party defeats Corrina's old rival, Sabir, Taku shows up and tries to kill Sabir for her bounty. Corrina wants to convince Sabir to go legit instead, so the party ends up fighting Taku.

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: [[spoiler:Emperor Noraskov of Arkadya claims he had King Horatio of Cirinthia killed because he considered the latter untrustworthy for betraying Tariq's trust. He also claimed that Horatio came to him first, which is why he made his own plans to betray Cirinthia.]]

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: [[spoiler:Empror Noraskov of Arkadya claims he had King Horatio of Cirinthia killed because he considered the latter untrustworthy for betraying Tariq's trust. It's unclear how true this is, since Noraskov only ordered Horatio's assassination when Arkadya's false flag operation was discovered.]]

** [[spoiler:After Gage is rescued, Arielle can't forgive him for his complicity in Noraskov's crimes. She still marries him because doing so is the only way for her to be seen as legitimate as the eldest surviving princess of Cirinthia.]]

* PragmaticVillainy: [[spoiler:As much as Phillip despises King Horatio, he believes Arkadya was too hasty in assasinating him, since doing so could complicate the process of solidifying their power over Cirinthia.]]

** [[spoiler:After the assassination of most of the Cirinthian royal family, Gage confronts Rowan and angrily demands to know what the Resistance told Arielle. At this point, Rowan doesn't trust Gage, who could be complicit with the Arkadyan top brass's schemes for all he knows, so he refuses to tell Gage anything. In response, Gage attacks Rowan and threatens to torture the Resistance for information.]]

** Played with in Lord Phillip's case. Although Phillip has a point about King Horatio being an incompetent king, [[spoiler:he colludes with Noraskov to assassinate Horatio and become the interim regent of Cirinthia. While he claims that he'll be a more efficient and mindful ruler than Horatio, a soldier mentions that he's enacting purges of dissendents, implying he shares Noraskov's belief that dissenters and weaklings should be persecuted. However, when he's defeated, he claims that the party doomed Cirinthia to being attacked by Arkadya, implying that at least part of his reason for siding with Noraskov is because he believed Cirinthia would be spared.]]

** Rowan was once in the Cirinthian Navy, but was kicked out for his alcoholism. Afterwards, he became a pirate, only for him to betray his captain's trust during another drunken stupor. Now he works for the Resistance in order to pay back his debt to Reyna and to [[DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife find a purpose in life]].

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Emperor Noraskov raised his son, Gage, to believe that the Arkadyan Empire embodies heroic ideals. While this is merely a tactic to prevent Gage from questioning the emperor, [[spoiler:it causes Gage to save Arielle from Sparrow, since in this moment, Gage would obviously see this as a heroic act against an evil assassin. This eventually leads to Gage realizing that the empire is only preaching an empty virtue to justify the oppression of their people.]]

* ManlyGay: Rashim, a hardened Tariqqi general, once had a relationship with Reyna, but this fell apart because Reyna gave up on romance in favor of focusing on her Resistance duties. In the present, Rashim has a husband, Maliq. Since his romance with Reyna was genuine, he qualifies as either this trope or as ManlyBi.

** [[spoiler:Phillip claims that he wants to depose King Horatio because of the latter's mismanagement of Cirinthia, and that Noraskov will manage Cirinthia more efficiently.]]

** [[spoiler:He accuses the rest of the party for turning his son Gage against him, but Rashim makes it clear that this is entirely Gage's choice. Even before the party made plans to recruit Gage, it's clear that Gage had doubts about his father's ideology and hypocrisy.]]

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Noraskov took advantage of social and economic unrest after the Great War in order to sell himself as a leader and the game description states that the setting is based on Europe in the late 1930s, making it clear that Arkadya is meant to represent Nazi Germany. Under his rule, the Arkadyan Empire preaches nationalist loyalty and strength while condemning disloyalty and weakness. This gets to the point where people are purged not only for political dissent, but also for being impoverished or disabled, which is seen as a sign of weakness. Of note is the Arkadyan scouts organization, which both spreads propaganda to kids and gives them military training to prime them to serve Noraskov, which is eerily similar to Hitler Youth.

* MisplacedRetribution: In her final encounter, Selene sics her crew on the town and allows them to harass the townsfolk just to hunt down Rowan.

* MirrorBoss: Viktoriya uses similar skills to Aden, such as Plague, Detonate, and Drain, due to practicing the same kind of magic. However, she has some skills unique to herself, such as Ruination.

* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: Gage mainly uses magic-based attacks, yet he generates Rage points instead of MP like the other mages.

* ManlyGay: Rashim, a hardened Tariqqi general, once had a relationship with Reyna, but this fell apart because Reyna gave up on romance in favor of focusing on her Resistance duties. In the present, Rashim has a husband, Maliq. Since his romance with Reyna was genuine, it's implied that he qualifies as either this trope or as ManlyBi.

* ManlyGay: Rashim, a hardened Tariqqi general, once had a relationship with Reyna, but this fell apart because Reyna gave up on romance in favor of focusing on her Resistance duties. In the present, Rashim has a husband, Maliq. Since his romance with Reyna was genuine, it's implied that he could also qualify as ManlyBi.

* KarmaHoudini: Subverted. [[spoiler:After the final battle on Peren Desh, Noraskov escapes and organizes his remaining loyalists in preparation for a civil war with Gage, who recently received the sage's approval to become king. However, Noraskov is overall much weaker than at the start of the story, since he lost his two strongest enforcers and his people will be split on whether or not to support Gage, meaning he'll likely have too little military power to fight a world war even if he wins the civil war. Adding to that, Gage is being backed by Cirinthia and Tariq, making it much harder for Noraskov to win the civil war.]]
* KickTheMoralityPet: Prince Gage initially gets along well with his fiancée, Princess Arielle, but when he ambushes the party at Telindra, he orders his soldiers to execute the party and restrain Arielle despite her insistence on staying with the party. While he seems to be doing this because he believes the party is lying to Arielle, it shows that the trust between the two is not as strong as it first appeared. Once Arielle shoots him with a cannon to get her point across, he has his soldiers spare the party and leave Arielle to her devices, indicating that he realizes he went too far. That said, this event causes Arielle to fall out of love with Gage, since it shows that he prioritizes his country's interests over her own intentions. [[spoiler:Though later, he chooses to defy Arkadya by saving Arielle from the assassin, Sparrow.]]
* KnightTemplar:
** Gage is indoctrinated into believing that his father's rule over the Arkadyan Empire is just, [[spoiler:that the purging of society's dissenters and weaklings is necessary to improve the country]], and that the party should be executed for kidnapping Arielle and "lying" to her. He also looks down on those with morally grey backgrounds, due to his father's teachings about how there are those with worthy and unworthy fates. [[spoiler:He eventually realizes that the empire merely preaches a hollow virtue and joins the party to overthrow his father. After Rowan, an ex-pirate, saves Arielle from Sparrow while taking a major wound in the process, Gage revises his opinion on people with shady backgrounds.]]
** [[spoiler:Phillip claims that he wants to depose King Horatio because of the latter's mismanagement of Cirinthia, and that Noraskov will manage Cirinthia more efficiently.]]
* LightningBruiser: Rowan is normally a faster example of a StoneWall, but with proper passive skill investments, he can spam his Fury skill more often, bringing his DPS closer to the level of the other party members while retaining his durability.
* MagicKnight: Gage wields a spear, but mainly fights using various lightning skills.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: [[spoiler:After the final battle on Peren Desh, Noraskov escapes and organizes his remaining loyalists in preparation for a civil war with Gage, who recently received the sage's approval to become king. However, Noraskov is overall much weaker than at the start of the story, since he lost his two strongest enforcers and his people will be split on whether or not to support Gage, meaning he'll likely have too little military power to fight a world war even if he wins the civil war. Adding to that, Gage is being backed by Cirinthia and Tariq, making it much harder for Noraskov to win the civil war.]]

* IdiotHero: Rowan has a limited vocabulary and refuses to negotiate with any authority figure, even though doing so would be safer for the party.

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Despite having feelings for Arielle, Aden [[spoiler:accepts her wedding with Gage because their union is necessary to take back Cirinthia from Lord Phillip, though he warns Gage to treat Arielle well.]]

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Despite having feelings for Arielle, Aden [[spoiler:accepts her wedding with Gage, though he warns Gage to treat Arielle well.]]

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Reyna doesn't like that she's taking advantage of Rowan's crush on her to get him to join the Resistance, but accepts his help anyways because the Resistance needs more recruits to stop Emperor Noraskov's ambitions.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Reyna doesn't like that she's taking advantage of Rowan's crush on her to get him to join the Resistance, but accepts his help anyways because the Resistance needs more recruits to stop Noraskov's ambitions.

* HypocriteHasAPoint: He points out that the Sages of Peren Desh aren't all knowing, which the sages themselves admit. He uses this point to [[spoiler:reject Gage's legitimacy as ruler after the kingsflame is lit for him, but one of his soldiers points out that if they were to ignore the kingsflame validating Gage, they should ignore the previous kingsflame that validated him.]]