History VideoGame / UncommonTime

* BareYourMidriff: Half the elemental spirits — Bravura, Tacet, and Solenna — do this.

Alto is initially accompanied only by her childhood friend Teagan, but as she progresses through Harmonia, she is joined by violist and fortune teller [[IllGirl Totoki Saki]], violinist and traveling performer [[HotBlooded Otowa Meirin]], and time-displaced singer [[LoveInterest Aubrey Spica]]. Together they plan to uncover the lost sheet music of the World Tuning and make the performance of a lifetime.

* IllGirl: Saki is a gender-flipped version, and somewhat subverted in that he's still capable of going adventuring with the heroes. He's very frail and sickly, and sometimes collapses and has to be taken care of. [[spoiler:This is in fact very serious; he is terminally ill with a congenital disease and knows he's likely to die soon. He keeps this a secret from the others, but his LoveInterest Meirin finds out anyway. In the GoldenEnding, she promises to find a cure for him.]]

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Pretty prolific among [=NPCs=], but that's likely due to using the default graphics package that comes with RPG Maker. The main cast has realistic hair colors, aside from [[MysticalWhiteHair Aubrey]].

* {{Asexuality}}: Teagan. It's heavily implied early on when Alto comments that she's "just not interested" in visiting brothels, and is explicitly confirmed at the end of the game when [[{{Jerkass}} Alto]] forces her to out herself to avoid getting roped into another one of Meirin's brothel parties. She takes it to the extreme, too; she seems upset even by the idea of other people having sex, which has led to conflict between her and her brother Tristan, who is a prostitute. Alto describes Teagan at one point as "one of those people that thinks just because she's grossed out by sex and love and stuff, no one else is allowed to do either."

* {{Asexuality}}: Teagan. It's heavily implied early on when Alto comments that she's "just not interested" in visiting brothels, and is explicitly confirmed at the end of the game when [[{{Jerkass}} Alto]] forces her to out herself to avoid getting roped into another one of Meirin's brothel parties. She takes it to the extreme, too; she seems upset even by the idea of other people having sex, which has led to conflict between her and her brother Tristan, who is a prostitute. Weirdly, Alto describes Teagan at one point as "one of those people that thinks just because she's grossed out by sex and love and stuff, no one else is allowed to do either," implying that the developer (or at least Alto) thinks all asexuals are like Teagan.

* BadassNormal: Unlike the rest of the party, Teagan can't do flashy magic -- she just hits stuff really hard. She does have some affinity for [[DishingOutDirt earth magic]], but can only use it to improve her physical strikes.
* BareYourMidriff: Half the elemental spirits -- Bravura, Tacet, and Solenna -- do this.

* BonusDungeon: After visiting the titular Uncommon Time in the main story, other gates to the dimension will activate -- once in the temple where Aubrey was hibernating, and after that, Arietta's grave. The former explores Aubrey's backstory, and the latter elaborates on Arietta's life during the time of the first World Tuning. Defeating the TrueFinalBoss after clearing both will net you the GoldenEnding.
* CallAHitPointASmeerp: Consumable items are named after musical notation -- {{Healing Potion}}s are "Sharps", mana potions are "Flats", and so on. Weirdly, they actually ''do'' seem to be literal potions, just given odd names.

* CrutchCharacter: Teagan. She has the best HP and defense, making her useful for the early battles that mainly come down to damage races. However, she never gets very varied or impressive skills -- she gets no multi-target attacks at all, and in fact has the only {{Limit Break}}s that don't target all enemies. This ends up leaving her behind other characters who get more distinct specialties, and she's quickly outclassed by Alto for pure damage potential.

** Alto [[spoiler:was horrifically abused by her family; she was forced to practice music and Bowing until her hands were nearly destroyed from carpal tunnel and tendonitis, and she was kept extremely isolated from the rest of the world, effectively a prisoner in her own house. This messed her up so bad she learned to [[StepfordSmiler put on a persona of false happiness and suppress all her true emotions]], leading to her inability to recognize her own hatred at the world that leads to the initial failure of the World Tuning.]] She gets to confront this and partially overcome in during a VisionQuest late in the story.
** Teagan [[spoiler:couldn't turn away from the abuse Alto was suffering and devoted herself to helping Alto. She worked herself to the bone studying music in order to prove she could stay with Alto despite being a commoner, but Alto's StepfordSmiler behavior just made her snap and decide she had to control Alto's life for her, since Alto was clearly incapable of acting on her own desires. Tragically, this only made Alto's emotional repression worse.]]

** Meirin [[spoiler:was the middle child of a minor noble family, and was often neglected. She tried learning music, but chafed against her teachers' insistence on proper form. Tired of the trappings and expectations foisted on her, she ran away and became a traveling performer. This actually worked out surprisingly well for her, but she's still terrified of living up to expectations.]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of TheChosenOne and DivineParentage tropes: [[spoiler:the responsibility of carrying out the World Tuning falls squarely on the shoulders of a quintet that must be led by a Cantabile, because that line alone possesses the power of Bowing needed to carry out the ritual. However, the only reason that the Cantabiles have such power in the first place is that the family is descended from an almost certainly non-consensual relation between a human and a spirit. In order to keep that power strong despite no further spirit blood being introduced, each Cantabile's marriage is arranged to a powerful human mage (which leads to loveless marriages like the one between Alto's parents). Eventually. a system eventually arose where the Cantabile heir is worked until their hands need to receive corrective surgery to continue Bowing even in childhood and is shown no unnecessary affection. In addition, the World Tuning has happened multiple times, when it was originally meant to be something to buy humanity time to develop other technology and general habits that aren't destroying the planet (and while this is something that isn't revealed in full until the BonusDungeon, even beforehand Alto is aware of how ridiculous it is that her family's had to undo humanity's mistakes again and again for almost two thousand years). Over time, the World Tuning has become ShroudedInMyth to everyone except the Harmonians to the point that Teagan doesn't even believe it's real until she sees a piece of the Grand Score for herself, meaning humanity never takes the repeated oncoming ice ages caused by their way of life seriously since they all look like false alarms or something the planet works out itself. This all culminates in creating [[TheChosenOne a chosen one]], Alto, who hates the world that she was supposed to save (and who might even end up destroying it).]]
* DiscOneFinalDungeon: [[spoiler:The first visit to the Metronome Tower. You finally have a full ensemble and the complete Grand Score, the characters have all spent a [[ArcFatigue very long time rehearsing]], it's time to SaveTheWorld, right? Of course you're not going to finish the story that early -- the World Tuning fails, the party is scattered, and Alto is forced to try a different approach.]]

** If you lose to the FinalBoss, [[spoiler:the party dies but Alto is somehow able to pull through long enough to perform the World Tuning with the assistance of the elemental spirits]].

* {{Stripperiffic}}: The elemental spirits tend to wear very revealing outfits -- particularly Bravura, who appears to be in her underwear. Scherzo also wears a LeotardOfPower. Averted with Poetica and Luminoso, who wear full dresses.

* TrueFinalBoss: After clearing the two {{Bonus Dungeon}}s, [[spoiler:the Distortion will have had enough time to manifest directly, giving it a different appearance and more powerful attacks -- including Arietta's, Altair's, and Chantal's {{Limit Break}}s from Grand Pause.]]

* TakeOurWordForIt: Possibly due to budget issues, the player never hears the song for the World Tuning, or [[spoiler:its replacement]]. Instead, the player only reads the cast's opinion on them.
** Likewise with Chantal's beautiful contralto voice. The player never hears it, just reads the impressed reactions of the people who hear it.

Eventually, Teagan's will triumps.

'''Uncommon Time''' is an RPG Maker VX Ace satire by Feralphoenix which heroically confronts the liberal fetishization of abuse.

'''Uncommon Time''' is a RPG Maker VX Ace parody by Feralphoenix which heroically confronts the liberal fetishization of abuse.

'''Uncommon Time''' is a PG Maker VX Ace parody by Feralphoenix which heroically confronts the liberal fetishization of abuse.

'''Uncommon Time''' is a EasternRPG parody made in RPG Maker VX Ace by Feralphoenix, confronting themes of liberal fetishization of abuse.

'''Uncommon Time''' is a EasternRPG parody made in RPG Maker VX Ace by Feralphoenix, confronting themes of liberal fetishization of abuse.,

'''Uncommon Time''' is a parod EasternRPG made in RPG Maker VX Ace by Feralphoenix, confronting themes of liberal fetishization of abuse.,

'''Uncommon Time''' is an EasternRPG made in RPG Maker VX Ace by Feralphoenix.

Teagan Almace is the heroic protector of Contralto "Alto" Cantabile, scion of the wealthy Cantabile family, who is sent to the country of Harmonia on a special mission. Her friend claims to be on a journey to perform the World Tuning, a musical ritual that "tunes" the magical currents of the world as if it were an instrument, reversing the environmental degradation caused by human activity in the past few centuries. If she fails, the world will be swallowed by eternal winter. Despite her friendd'

Naturally, not everything goes as planned. Though the story initially begins as a typical plot to collect {{Plot Coupon}}s and SaveTheWorld, the meat of the story lies in examining the relationships between the cast and Alto's own perspective on the World Tuning. Alto and her party end up learning more about the history than they bargained for, and must confront dark and deeply-buried truths about themselves if they wish to succeed. This gives the story a strong character focus that deals with heavy topics of abuse, isolation, failure, and death.

Teagan and Alto start thier quest alone, but as they progresses through Harmonia, they joined by violist and fortune teller and transexual [[IllGirl Totoki Saki]], violinist and traveling performer [[HotBlooded Otowa Meirin]], and time-displaced singer [[LoveInterest Aubrey Spica]]. Together they plan to uncover the lost sheet music of the World Tuning and make the performance of a lifetime.

Teagan Almace is the heroic protector of Contralto "Alto" Cantabile, scion of the wealthy Cantabile family, who is sent to the country of Harmonia on a special mission. Her friend claims to be on a journey to perform the World Tuning, a musical ritual that "tunes" the magical currents of the world as if it were an instrument, reversing the environmental degradation caused by human activity in the past few centuries. If she fails, the world will be swallowed by eternal winter.

Alto is initially accompanied only by her childhood friend Teagan, but as she progresses through Harmonia, she is joined by violist and fortune teller [[IllGirl Totoki Saki]], violinist and traveling performer [[HotBlooded Otowa Meirin]], and time-displaced singer [[LoveInterest Aubrey Spica]]. Together they plan to uncover the lost sheet music of the World Tuning and make the performance of a lifetime.

Contralto "Alto" Cantabile, scion of the wealthy Cantabile family, is sent to the country of Harmonia on a special mission: to perform the World Tuning, a musical ritual that "tunes" the magical currents of the world as if it were an instrument, reversing the environmental degradation caused by human activity in the past few centuries. If she fails, the world will be swallowed by eternal winter.

** Alto [[spoiler:was horrifically abused by her family; she was forced to practice music and Bowing until her hands were nearly destroyed from carpal tunnel and tendonitis, and she was kept extremely isolated from the rest of the world, effectively a prisoner in her own house. This messed her up so bad she learned to [[StepfordSmiler put on a persona of false happiness and suppress all her true emotions]], leading to her inability to recognize her own hatred at the world that leads to the initial failure of the World Tuning.]] She gets to confront this and partially overcome in during a VisionQuest late in the story.

Contralto Cantabile, scion of the wealthy Cantabile family, is sent to the country of Harmonia on a special mission: to perform the World Tuning, a musical ritual that "tunes" the magical currents of the world as if it were an instrument, reversing the environmental degradation caused by human activity in the past few centuries. If she fails, the world will be swallowed by eternal winter.

* CrutchCharacter: Teagan. She has the best HP and defense, making her useful for the early battles that mainly come down to damage races. However, she never gets very varied or impressive skills -- she gets no multi-target attacks at all, and in fact has the only {{Limit Break}}s that don't target all enemies. This ends up leaving her behind other characters who get more distinct specialties, and she's quickly outclassed by Alto for pure damage potential. [[spoiler:She also spends the longest time outside of the party in Movement 2, so she's likely to be severely underleveled when she rejoins.]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of TheChosenOne and DivineParentage tropes: [[spoiler:the responsibility of carrying out the World Tuning falls squarely on the shoulders of a quintet that must be led by a Cantabile, because that line alone possesses the power of Bowing needed to carry out the rituals. However, the only reason that the Cantabiles have such power in the first place is that the family is descended from an almost certainly non-consensual relation between a human and a spirit. In order to keep that power strong despite no further spirit blood being introduced, each Cantabile's marriage is arranged to a powerful human mage (which leads to loveless marriages like the one between Alto's parents, whose mother of anything to do with her husband and daughter after Alto is born). In order to hone those super-human abilities, a twisted system eventually arose where the Cantabile heir is worked until their hands need to receive corrective surgery to continue Bowing even in childhood and is shown no unnecessary affection. In addition, the World Tuning ritual has been going on for multiple generations, when it was originally meant to be something to buy humanity time to change its ways (and while this is something that isn't revealed in full until the BonusDungeon, even beforehand Alto is aware of how ridiculous it is that her family's had to undo humanity's mistakes again and again for almost two thousand years). The World Tuning has become ShroudedInMyth to everyone except the Harmonians to the point that Teagan doesn't even believe the World Tuning is real until she sees a piece of the Grand Score for herself, meaning humanity never takes the repeated oncoming ice ages seriously as they tend to all be false alarms instead of something deliberately warded off. This all culminates in creating [[TheChosenOne a chosen one]], Alto, who hates the world that she was supposed to save (and who might even end up destroying it).]]

* CrutchCharacter: Teagan. She has the best HP and defense, making her useful for the early battles that mainly come down to damage races. However, she never gets very varied or impressive skills -- she gets no multi-target attacks at all, and in fact has the only {{Limit Break}}s that don't target all enemies. This ends up leaving her behind other characters who get more distinct specialities, as she's quickly outclassed by Alto for pure damage potential. [[spoiler:She also spends the longest time outside of the party in Movement 2, so she's likely to be severely underleveled when she rejoins.]]

* DistressedDude: [[spoiler:Saki during Movement 2, as he's poisoned in the fight with the behemoth and is bedridden until you can find an antidote.]]

** At the end of Movement 2, [[spoiler:Alto unbottles all of the anger and resentment towards Teagan's {{Jerkass}} behavior that she's kept bottled up for years. Teagan is stunned to speechlessness, and has a near-breakdown when she realizes just how badly she's screwed up. She spends of the rest of the game in constant self-flagellating apology mode.]]

* {{Asexuality}}: Teagan. It's heavily implied early on when Alto comments that she's "just not interested" in visiting brothels, and is explicitly confirmed at the end of the game when [[{{Jerkass}} Alto]] forces her to out herself to avoid getting roped into another one of Meirin's brothel parties. She takes it to the extreme, too; she seems upset even by the idea of other people having sex, which has led to conflict between her and her older brother, who is a prostitute. Weirdly, Alto describes Teagan at one point as "one of those people that thinks just because she's grossed out by sex and love and stuff, no one else is allowed to do either," implying that the developer (or at least Alto) thinks all asexuals are like Teagan.