Line #9 VideoGame/TamingDreams


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/taming_dreams.png]]
2	''Taming Dreams'' is an {{UsefulNotes/Android game\|s}}, made by Tobias Cornwall and released in 2015. It revolves around a lad named Mardek, his childhood friend Deugan, and a [[SharingABody god living in Mardek's head]] called Rohoph. If this sounds somehow familiar, it is because the game is a ContinuityReboot of ''VideoGame/{{MARDEK}}'', and Tobias used to go by the nickname Pseudolonewolf.
3
4	The game takes place in a world called Alora Fane, a world consisting of seven pocket dimensions formed out the dreams of the gods. The gods, however, [[HaveYouSeenMyGod have abandoned the world]], leaving it to slowly wither. That is, until a group of worldless gods called Atonae discover the world. One of them, Rohoph, enters the world in the form of a crystal falling from the sky, and takes up residence in the otherwise empty head of Mardek, who was the first bliss-sentimental person to touch the crystal. Rohoph is one of the Atonae, gods that lack a world, some for a [[JerkassGods good reason]].
5
6	The game is a rather large departure from the original RPG format, doing away with such things as {{Character Level}}s and the "hit it with a sword until it falls over" concept of combat. The [[{{Mon}} Miasmon]] encountered are [[EnemyWithout embodiments of the characters' internal turmoil]], and are defeated by accepting said internal turmoil by building rapport with the mon, whereas the mon's attacks sap the characters' willpower. The combat system also involves an intricate take on ElementalRockPaperScissors involving one immutable sentiment and three alterable runes.
7
8	As befits the combat system, the plot gets rather emotionally complex, although the [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] and peculiar humor from MARDEK are still present in force.
9
10	!!Taming Dreams provides examples of:
11	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Heaps of it:
12	** The opening text of Episode 1:
13	---> Our minds are monsters
14	** Enki's Motto: "Dreams drive us to divine discoveries"
15	** Enki's description of the current location at the start of Episode 1: one of "Dark, dirty, dangerous dungeons"
16	* AfterCombatRecovery: Willpower is restored after each agitation.
17	* AlliterativeList: Enki's description of the current location at the start of Episode 1: one of "Dark, dirty, dangerous dungeons"
18	* {{Angst}}: It's a game about taming [[EnemyWithout enemies without]] spawned from emotional turmoil.
19	* AnArmAndALeg: Berdanre is largely bedridden due to losing his right arm, right leg, significant other and [[DeadpanSnarker ability to speak sincerely]] in a tragic accident.
20	* BizarreAlienSenses: One of the loreladies mentions that perceiving another's sentiment is effortless to them.
21	* TheChosenOne: Discussed, but averted. Mardek simply happened to be around, and the DreamingOfThingsToCome was not directly addressed to him.
22	* CharacterLevel: {{Discussed}} and {{Averted}}.
23	%% --> '''Mardek:''' Now, do we get experience points and level up and stuff?\
24	%% Experience points? Level up?
25	%% --> Numbers getting bigger to make us stronger... What an odd idea.
26	--> Sort of a ludicrous abstraction though... What would the numbers actually represent? The tensile strength of our muscle fibres? The hardness of our skin? The number of active neurones in our brains?
27	* ConvectionSchmonvection: The lava in the starting area of Episode 1 does not convect.
28	--> This molten lava doesn't know the meaning of the word 'convection'!
29	* DeadpanSnarker: Berdanre is never sarcastic. Perish the thought.
30	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: The night before Rohoph lands, Mardek's dream gets interrupted by a prophetic dream featuring Rohoph.
31	* EarthShatteringKaboom: The Elarna were a destruction-sentimental race living on what is now called Fracture.
32	* ElementalRockPaperScissors: Inverted; the closer the caster, sentimancy and target's sentiment and runes match, the stronger their sentimancy is. The sentiments are also arranged on a more traditional rock-paper-scissors circle.
33	* EmphasisOnTheWrongSyllable: Morric.
34	* EnemyWithout: The Miasmon.
35	* FlatEarthAtheist: Played with. Hardly anyone is willing to take Mardek seriously about Rohoph. On the inverse side, the Meek race holds on to their belief to the manifestly absent gods.
36	* FloweryElizabethanEnglish / YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: The Atonae speak with this. Mardek seems to be picking up the habit from Rohoph, although some of his attempts have leaned towards the latter.
37	* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: Rohoph's powers are heavily limited by his lack of worshippers. In fact, he fails to restore one blind man's sight simply because the man's faith was faltering.
38	* HaveYouSeenMyGod: The Aolmna, the world's original gods, have gone missing. On the flip-side, the Atonae are gods whose [[ApocalypseHow worlds have gone missing]].
39	* HealingCheckpoint: You heal when you save.
40	* InsistentTerminology: "Battle" is referred to as Agitation. "Hit points" are willpower on the characters and rapport on the miasmon.
41	* JerkassGods: The Atonae are not exactly nice. Ghrafuuar mentions having made his mortal followers wear burning helmets, and Rohoph's attitude is very uncompromising.
42	* MyNameIsQuestionMarks: From Episode 1:
43	** The first bit of dialogue comes from "????", who is revealed after two more {{speech bubble}}s to be Enki, Mardek's father.
44	** The second bit of dialogue also comes from a "????", which is revealed to be Mardek, after a few bits of conversation between him and his dad.
45	* MythologyGag: Meraeadyth asks Mardek if he's [[ActuallyFourMooks actually three blokes]].
46	* NietzscheWannabe: Maka.
47	* NonHumanHumanoidHybrid: Mardek is half Bold, half Mhandisi.
48	* PaintingTheMedium: Different characters, have their speech presented in different colors:
49	** Enki's words are in grey.
50	** Mardek's words are in orange.
51	* RainbowSpeak: Some words are highlighted, like these segments from Episode 1:
52	** When Enki asks Mardek about his dream:
53	---> '''Enki:''' You know, your purpose. You have to be driven by a [[red:dream]]! Something you'd ask the [[red:gods]] to make true if you found them!
54	** When Enki discusses his own dream:
55	---> '''Enki:''' My dream is to reach the [[red:Nexus]] and find the gods, who'll make my dream come true, that's what gods do!
56	* RhymesOnADime: Another speech-habit of the Atonae.
57	* RoyalWe: Rohoph uses it. Mardek also uses "we", but it's not entirely clear if he's emulating Rohoph or referring to himself and Rohoph.
58	* RubberForeheadAlien: The Barbari races seen so far are the Bold, who have a hairy nose and a cleft upper lip, Mhandisi, who look like brown-skinned humans, and Meek, who look like humans with deer ears (and antlers on the so far off-screen males).
59	* SavePoint: Marked by glowing blue crystals.
60	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Rohoph, on occasion. A particular example transpires when Meraeadyth tries to call Mardek out on Rohoph's fake-sounding voice and FloweryElizabethanEnglish.
61	-->'''Rohoph''': Ingognizant were we that our lexical conceits conveyed an air of aureate grandiloquence.
62	* SharingABody: Mardek and Rohoph.
63	* ShatteredWorld: Fracture, formerly the home to a destruction-sentimental Elarna.
64	* TheStoic: Meraeadyth fancies herself this, and her philosophy is that one should avoid all emotions to eliminate the danger of [[EnemyWithout enemies without]].
65	* WithUsOrAgainstUs: Rohoph's stance is that if you are not actively good, you are beyond salvation.
66	* WorldShapes: Alora Fane is depicted as flower shaped, although it is implied that this is simply an abstraction of the structure of the world. Each petal is a self-contained world and the means to reach other worlds have yet to be revealed.

Context VideoGame / TamingDreams