History VideoGame / TheDarkSpire

* MacGuffinTitle: The "Sword of Law" in its original Japanese name refers to [[spoiler:the sword Tyrhung turns himself into in the first ending. Brynhildr seems to become its ''sheath'' in the second ending after it moves on its own and [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice runs her through]]]].

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: On Floor ????, [[spoiler:the entire fight against Bolverk in the third ending happens offscreen, with the only hint being that it took seven days and was "the stuff of legends"]].

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler:The entire fight against the final boss in the third ending happens offscreen, with the only hint being that it was super awesome]] on Floor ????.

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused]] with ''VideoGame/SlayTheSpire''.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: [[spoiler:The final ending.]]

* CharacterAlignment: [[invoked]]Goes for the 'Lawful vs Chaotic' stripe instead of 'Good vs Evil'. This primarily affects which final set of spells your Priests and Magi get, due to each option having exclusive (yet balanced) final spell tiers. Also, while humans and halflings can choose their alignment, Elves are Neutral by default, and Dwarves are Lawful. [[spoiler:High Elves are Lawful, and Dark Elves are Chaotic.]] You can also convert characters to different alignments through praying enough at the opposite church, which can result in things like a Chaotic Dwarf or a Lawful [[spoiler:Dark Elf]].

* HonestAxe

* MultipleEndings: There are three "endings", and they must be seen in sequence.

* SaveScumming: Partially averted. Like ''Wizardry'', the game rerolls your entire HP every time you level up, which means that you can't manipulate your HP gains beyond the first few levels. Of course, the first few levels are where an extra hit point or two would make the most difference...

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Ninja. They get additional hits faster than any other class, have the best default AC, are the absolute best physical damage dealers in the game, and can instantly kill on a crit. Their downsides? They're the only class that can't use magic, which makes them outright worthless near the end of the game. Samurai can cast magic in addition to having the instant kill, and Paladins have access to sleep spells and gear that gives them better AC.
** The seventh domain of arcane spells tend to suffer from this. While two of the spells are good - Sagitta Candida does consistent and strong damage to a single devil enemy, and Gladius Candidus gives a respectable sword for the duration of the battle - they're both single target, and most importantly, have competition with Extincto, a spell that hits as high as Sagitta and targets every single enemy on the field. Outside of rare circumstances where what you're fighting requires that little extra boost in power, Extincto will see use even when you get the final set of spells, because the better damage spells eat alignment and can't be spammed like Extincto can.

* SquishyWizard: Guess which class gets stuck with single-digit HP the longest?

* UselessUsefulSpell: Almost inverted. Your characters get much better use out of the basic [[StandardStatusEffects sleep and silence]] spells than the monsters. Most magic-using enemies are vulnerable to the silence spell. Furthermore, by the time you run into enemies that you can't silence consistently, your characters will have enough status ailment resistance to shrug off sleep and silence spells cast by enemies. The sleep spell also works wonders. You can put just about any early game enemy to sleep for the entire battle, and even higher level enemies will often fall asleep for at least one round, which is long enough for your front-line attackers to take advantage of the fact that sleeping monsters are easy to hit and take increased damage from physical attacks. And the OneHitKill spells are high level spells for a reason - they ''work''.

* RealityEnsues: Using a suffocation spell on a skeleton won't do anything.

Upon release, the game garnered notice from being an unashamedly old-school throwback, the striking artstyle (thick, dark colours abound with nearly everything being half-hidden in shadow), and the fitting and hummable music. It was localized and published in English by Creator/{{Atlus}}.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: [[spoiler: The final ending.]]

* BreastPlate: "Bikini Armor" gives a bigger Armor Class bonus than Fine Platemail. Its in-game description is "Although skimpy, this armor offers good protection. However, many heroines are too modest to wear it." You never see your characters in game, but there's a picture of it in the manual.
* CharacterAlignment: [[invoked]]Goes for the 'Lawful vs Chaotic' stripe instead of 'Good vs Evil'. This primarily affects which final set of spells your Priests and Magi get, due to each option having exclusive (yet balanced) final spell tiers. Also, while humans and halflings can choose their alignment, Elves are Neutral by default, and Dwarves are Lawful. [[spoiler:High Elves are Lawful, and Dark Elves are Chaotic.]] You can also convert characters to different alignments through praying enough at the opposite church, which can result in things like a Chaotic Dwarf, or a Lawful [[spoiler:Dark Elf]].

* CompletelyDifferentTitle: Fun fact: the game's Japanese title translates to something like ''The Tower of Mist and the Sword of Law''. Admittedly, this would not look very good on the minimalistic box-art in large, blocky English letters.

* LuckBasedMission: It's entirely possible to have a Thief declare a lock is too hard to pick, which prevents any further attempts until re-entering the tower. This has a very realistic chance of happening despite the fact that locks can always be picked. There's also treasure chests, though anyone but a Thief trying to remove the traps from one has a near zero chance of working.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Ninja. They get additional hits faster than any other class, have the best default AC, are the absolute best physical damage dealers in the game, and can instantly kill on a crit. Their downsides? They're the only class that can't use magic, which makes them outright worthless near the end of the game. Samurai can cast magic in addition to having the instant kill, and Paladins have gear that gives them better AC in addition to being able to cast sleep spells.

* {{Retraux}}: The game itself plays almost like a older ''Wizardry'' title. And just to add that extra layer of delicious oldschool topping, there's a 'Classic' mode that instantly converts the whole game to Wireframe mode (even the music is changed!) for the truly retro experience.
* SaveScumming: Partially averted. Like ''Wizardry'', the game rerolls your entire HP every time you level up, which means that you can't manipulate your HP gains beyond the first few levels. Of course, the first few levels are where an extra hit point or two would make the most difference anyway...

** One of the floors is overrun with Small Figures identifiable as [[Literature/AliceInWonderland white rabbits]]. Considering the "magic and wizards" theme, it wouldn't be much of a shout out, but the same floor has a looking glass behind which [[spoiler: is a Jabberwock]].

** The entire plot of the game (so far as it has one) is based on The Eternal Champion series by Michael Moorcock. For evidence, we have Tyrhung who goes by the name "Stormbringer."

* UselessUsefulSpell: Almost inverted. Your characters get much better use out of the basic [[StandardStatusEffects sleep and silence]] spells than the monsters. Most magic using enemies are vulnerable to the silence spell. Furthermore, by the time you run into enemies that you can't silence consistently, your characters will have enough status ailment resistance to shrug off sleep and silence spells cast by enemies. The sleep spell also works wonders. You can put just about any early game enemy to sleep for the entire battle, and even higher level enemies will often fall asleep for at least one round, which is long enough for your front-line attackers to take advantage of the fact that sleeping monsters are easy to hit and take increased damage from physical attacks. And the OneHitKill spells are high level spells for a reason - they ''work''.
** That said, some spells do become this later on in the game - far after you've already gotten lots of use out of them. Susurrus Fatalis is most notable, as it instantly kills any enemy below level 8, which does wonders and works as a fantastic panic button or encounter wipe until you reach floor 6. There's also one spell that falls into this category, but only if you're Chaotic. Absolution is a tier 4 spell that cures poison...but Chaotic Priests get Divine Touch in the same tier, and that spell cures all ailments, including poison. Since the spells have the same cost, it's a waste of a spell slot to use Absolution over Divine Touch.

* AWinnerIsYou: Invoked in the True Ending. [[spoiler:After the four heroes [[FusionDance unmerge]], they pray to the heavens and in specific the Player. After thanking them for their courage, strength, and patience, the four heroes declare the player WINNER]]

* GuideDangIt: Oh, loads.

''The Dark Spire'' is a ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}}'' spin-off developed by Creator/{{Success}} and...

Not to be confused with ''VideoGame/SlayTheSpire''.
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* ShoutOut: To, of all things, ''HelloKitty''.

* NintendoHard: It's a Dungeon Crawler localized by {{Atlus}}. What'd you expect?

** That said, some spells do become this later on in the game - far after you've already gotten lots of use out of them. Susurrus Fatalis is most notable, as it instantly kills any enemy below level 8, which does wonders and works as a fantastic panic button or encounter wipe until you reach floor 6.

* CharacterAlignment: [[invoked]]Goes for the 'Lawful vs Chaotic' stripe instead of 'Good vs Evil'. Also, while humans and halflings can choose their alignment, Elves are Neutral by default, and Dwarves are Lawful. [[spoiler:High Elves are Lawful, and Dark Elves are Chaotic.]]

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* CharacterAlignment: [[invoked]]Goes for the 'Lawful vs Chaotic' stripe instead of 'Good vs Evil'. Also, while humans and hobbits can choose their alignment, Elves are Neutral by default, and Dwarves are Lawful. [[spoiler:High Elves are Lawful, and Dark Elves are Chaotic.]]

While ''The Dark Spire'' is not affiliated with the actual ''Wizardry'' series, it is quite clearly a loving {{Homage}} to the venerable dungeon crawler. The ''[[DungeonsAndDragons DnD]]''-inspired spell slots, endless featureless 3D dungeons (there's even a wireframe mode!), [[NintendoHard fiendishly difficult]] encounters that can wipe you out in a single turn if you're unlucky, and the ExcusePlot all make their appearance here. The game even uses Armor Classes instead of a defense stat!