| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ki_9.png]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350:''[[{{Film/Jaws}} They're gonna need a bigger boat.]]''[[note]]Clockwise from the top: Arianna, Tyalie, Anonymous, Catie, Til, Eddie[[/note]]]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ''[=BoxxyQuest=]: The Gathering Storm'' is a semi-satirical [[Platform/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] RolePlayingGame made in ''[[MediaNotes/RPGMaker RPG Maker XP]]'' by [=SpherianGames=], in collaboration with voice actress and former Website/YouTube star Catherine Wayne, and the second game in the ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuest'' duology, after ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheShiftedSpires''. It tells the story of a girl named Catie, (both [[TheDanza named for]] and [[AsHimself voiced by]] Wayne), and her adventures within the internet. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | As in the first game, the internet is a [[{{Cyberspace}} fully-immersive virtual world]], where websites are portrayed as cities locked in various petty political struggles. However, when an [[HiddenVillain unknown force]] begins wiping sites and turning users into [[OurZombiesAreDifferent glitched, zombie-like abominations]], the internet’s leaders must attempt to settle their differences and fight back. Catie, as the queen of a small forum, is on her way to the peace conference when her ship is boarded (and swiftly wrecked) by a mysterious girl called Arianna, the Mangled Avatar, who seems to exist in the shadow of a perpetual storm. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | What follows is a quirky, bizarre, and sometimes deeply moving journey across virtual reality, as Catie and her friends race to stop their world from unraveling. Far from being a shallow [=YouTuber=] fangame, ''[=BoxxyQuest=]'' is a lengthy epic filled with surprises and secrets, mixed with some truly fantastic writing and worldbuilding. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | It’s also the sequel to ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheShiftedSpires'', the developer’s very first project from back in 2012. However, rather than seek [[OldShame that one]] out, new players are officially encouraged to start with ''The Gathering Storm''. A summary of the first game’s plot is included in the rpgmaker.net version's files, and [[https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/1288030/manuals/BQ1_Summary.pdf somewhere]] on Steam to help prevent any kind of ContinuityLockout. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | After several limited-release demos on Catie Wayne’s website, ''[=BoxxyQuest=]'' was released as a full game on [[https://spheriangames.itch.io/boxxyquest-the-gathering-storm itch.io]] and [[https://rpgmaker.net/games/10740/ rpgmaker.net]] in September 2018, and is also available on Platform/{{Steam}} as of May 8th 2020. It is entirely {{freeware|Games}}. A full walkthrough can be found [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/662454334688198659/784105661365485620/Tutorial.zip here]]. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | In November 6, 2021, a DLC chapter taking place in the post game was released, and a patch can be downloaded [[https://www.mediafire.com/file/v4zlb45kiprzekn/DLC.7z/file here]]. It opens up two new areas- Newgrounds and Etsy- and concerns a nefarious plot by the Social Justice Warriors, a group of minor villains from the main game, who have kidnapped two villages of Furries and taken over Newgrounds. Catie and her party must stop their misdeeds. In addition is a collection-based side quest where you can collect various lost plushies and turn them in for a reward, and even buy your own house in Etsy, decorating it and the yard. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | ---- |
| 17 | !!''The Gathering Storm'' has examples of: |
| 18 | * AbandonShip: This happens in the prologue, due to the Mangled Avatar's grand entrance and the subsequent storm tearing the ship apart. Chapter 1 is about gathering up the survivors. |
| 19 | * AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The [=YouTube=] comments section is portrayed as one of these, complete with a hidden city full of unsavory characters. |
| 20 | * AcidTripDimension: Alwaysland, a pastel rainbow world filled with {{Underground Monkey}}s and bizarre inside jokes from Catie Wayne's forum. To an average player, it'll make no sense whatsoever. (This is, of course, thoroughly lampshaded.) |
| 21 | * ActionGirl: Over half the cast is made up of these, but Catie herself is obviously the standout. She'll go toe-to-toe with deities and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s like it's nothing, if it means keeping her friends safe. |
| 22 | * ADayInTheLimelight: The first part of Chapter 8 is told from Til’s perspective, [[spoiler:as she searches Tumblr for a way to cure Catie's sudden, mysterious illness]]. |
| 23 | * AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Multiple: |
| 24 | ** The four orbs in Chapter 6, which each represent an aspect of video gaming: Puzzles, Platforming, Plot, and PVP. |
| 25 | ** During the Fight Night subquest, the arena’s announcer gives each combatant a handful of alliterative nicknames. |
| 26 | * AdvancingBossOfDoom: The Hateful Reliquary, an utterly massive ChestMonster that chases Catie down a ''very'' long hallway. If it catches her, a HopelessBossFight ensues. |
| 27 | * AerithAndBob: You've got normal names like Catie and Eddie, alongside stranger ones like Tyalie, Shift, and [=GmasterRED=]. Granted, it ''is'' the internet, where a person can have any name they choose. |
| 28 | * AffectionateParody: |
| 29 | ** Of virtual reality and internet culture. Unlike most Cyberspace stories, it doesn't just go for the low-hanging fruit, either. No, ''[=BoxxyQuest=]'' is quite thorough when it comes to picking apart the stereotypes about certain online communities. |
| 30 | ** Of role-playing games in general, but especially the recent fad of "[[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructive]]" indie [=RPGs=]. This game takes the pieces they left behind, and has a gleeful time [[{{Reconstruction}} putting them back together]] in strange and unexpected new ways. |
| 31 | *** Tyalie is a great example of this. She seems specifically designed as a response to "angsty" meta-aware characters like [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} Sans]] and [[VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub Monika]]. Like them, she knows she's in a game; but unlike them, she genuinely empathizes with the player and ''refuses'' to stand in the way of their choices, saying it would be "awful" of her to try. |
| 32 | * AIIsACrapshoot: |
| 33 | ** Cornelia is a rare heroic example. Her backstory involves making a HeelFaceTurn by abandoning her villainous creator. |
| 34 | ** Each of Wolfram's mechas is less responsive to his orders than the last. [[spoiler:This ultimately becomes his downfall, when ALPHA zaps him apart for issuing one simple command.]] |
| 35 | ** [[spoiler:And of course there’s Arianna, avatar of the ARPANET. As a villain, she’s acting primarily out of a desire to "correct" the unfamiliar network that replaced her.]] |
| 36 | ** Lampshaded by a scientist in the A.I. Labs, who laments the FantasticRacism of this trope: |
| 37 | --->I've heard rumors that an A.I. was behind the recent crisis. Probably just talk, though. When will the masses learn to stop vilifying our synthetic friends? |
| 38 | * AllJustADream: |
| 39 | ** The Tower of Plot dungeon. [[OrWasItADream Maybe.]] Or ''[[MindScrew something]]''. |
| 40 | ** The ''game itself'' may be this, if Amelie is to be believed. |
| 41 | ---> ''This fragile dream of ones and zeroes… Is it a fantasy we made together?'' |
| 42 | * AllDesertsHaveCacti: Lampshaded by a Troper in the cacti-populated Buzzfeed desert, who outright quotes the trope by name. |
| 43 | * AllThereInTheManual: The download contains a three-page synopsis of the gam'’s prequel, filling players in on the relevant characters and their shared history. This is especially useful, since the prequel itself [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes is rather hard to find these days]]. |
| 44 | * TheAlternet: The Firewall is incubating something like this, and your goal is to find a way to stop it from spreading. |
| 45 | * AmbidextrousSprite: Fully averted. Characters with asymmetrical bits, like the design on Catie’s shirt, will have them properly displayed depending on which way they’re facing. |
| 46 | * AmbiguousSituation: The setting itself is this. Is the Internet merely a simulation with invented mythology, or an actual world that existed before the human users arrived? It doesn’t help that one of the two secret endings implies one option, while the other implies the exact opposite. |
| 47 | * AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: The "Katy’s Diary" sidequest, which puts the player in the shoes of a young treasure-hunter, is told via flashback when Catie finds her lost journal. |
| 48 | * AntiFrustrationFeatures: If a player finds them too difficult, the Picross puzzles can be easily skipped by pressing Escape. |
| 49 | * AntiVillain: None of the major antagonists are truly evil, per-se, just varying degrees of tragic and misunderstood. Even Boxxyfan, the first game’s edgy GenericDoomsdayVillain, is given a more sympathetic motive this time around, and [[spoiler:Leigon]], who is portrayed as nothing short of an utterly unrepentant monster, is MadeOfEvil. |
| 50 | * ArcadianInterlude: Zig-zagged. The First Internet is a wasteland, but the party’s first night there is spent having supper at the home of a kindly old lady and her two grandkids. There’s no drama, just some warm hospitality to show that the First Internet isn’t all bad. [[spoiler:And to make it hurt worse when it all goes to hell in the end.]] |
| 51 | * AristocratsAreEvil: Seems to be a central theme of the [=YouTube=] arc. The executives in Partnership Towers don’t seem to care at all if the rest of the city loses power (and in fact, some of them are actively working to ensure that it does). |
| 52 | * ArtStyleClash: Characters are shown in all different art styles in battle and on the cover art. |
| 53 | * ArtifactTitle: It's still called ''[=BoxxyQuest=]'', but this time the quest has nothing at all to do with Boxxy. |
| 54 | * AStormIsComing: By chapter 5, the heroes all see rain as a very bad sign, as wet weather usually means that [[spoiler:[[BigBad Arianna]] and [[MechanicalAbomination STORM]]]] are lurking somewhere nearby. |
| 55 | * AwesomeButImpractical: Multiple: |
| 56 | ** The endgame elemental attack accessories sure are flashy, but there are ways of dealing just as much damage without spending half your RP. |
| 57 | ** Hollow Wave, Catie's megahax skill. It fully heals everyone and damages all enemies, but Catie herself is knocked out in the process. And even if she's revived, she's still blocked from using magic for the rest of the fight. Since she’s the group's main healer, that's putting yourself at a huge disadvantage. |
| 58 | * BackFromTheBrink: By the time the heroes return from their little [[spoiler:{{time travel}}]] outing, [[spoiler:Arianna]] has succeeded in wiping nearly all of the present-day Internet. All that's left are a few scraps of land floating in a digital void. When they finally push beyond the Firewall, they’re not even sure if it’s possible to undo the damage that's been done. [[spoiler:[[WorldHealingWave Thankfully, it is.]]]] |
| 59 | * BackgroundMusicOverride: Happens several times, especially in the last few plot-related dungeons. |
| 60 | * BadGuyBar: There's one in Reddit, that you have to visit early in Chapter 1. A [[BarBrawl tavern brawl]] breaks out almost as soon as you walk in the door. |
| 61 | * BarBrawl: The second fight of the game, Catie vs. 3 Tavern Ruffians, is said to need cleaning up by the bar's maid, even though the map doesn't show any damage. |
| 62 | * BattleInTheRain: [[spoiler:The entire last chapter takes place during a rainstorm, which naturally includes all of the final boss battles.]] |
| 63 | * BeachEpisode: If you have a swimsuit, you can visit the beach near Intersite Town. Once you’ve regathered your party members, you can rent a private stretch of beach, where they’ll appear with swimsuits of their own. The six bonus platforming stages are also found in this area… and you have to do them while still wearing the suits. |
| 64 | * BefriendingTheEnemy: Tyalie attempts this on virtually everyone she meets, up to and including the ''final boss''. It never works except the first time she tries it – when she uses this trope to join your party. |
| 65 | * BehindTheBlack: One puzzle in the final dungeon invokes this, where a room seems to have no visible exits, but [[spoiler:the exit is a tunnel covered by the ceiling, making it seem like another wall from the top-down perspective of the game]]: |
| 66 | --> ''She can see what we cannot. A bird's eye is often blind.'' |
| 67 | * BigBadEnsemble: |
| 68 | ** In the main story, [[spoiler:The Mangled Avatar/Arianna/[[AIIsACrapshoot ARPANET]]]] is the one controlling the storms and giant Firewall that are threatening to destroy the Internet, using [[spoiler:the entity [[MechanicalAbomination STORM]]]] to do so, [[spoiler:to destroy the world that replaced her]]. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:it turns out that [[HijackedByGanon Boxxyfan awakened her in the first place]] and has been running his own plan in the background, and [[DestroyerDeity Legion]], [[PhysicalGoddess Virtua]]'s EnemyWithout, briefly takes over as antagonist for Chapter 7, which takes place in the past where he tried to destroy the First Internet]]. |
| 69 | ** The post-game and DLC have several threats: |
| 70 | *** [[spoiler:Boxxyfan has taken over STORM and]] becomes the main threat, attempting to destroy the Internet [[spoiler:as revenge for Catie accidentally destroying his homeland]]. |
| 71 | *** [[spoiler:Mother Zoe]], the leader of the Social Justice Warriors who have them over Newgrounds, orders the abduction of the Furries in the Artistry Highway as part of her own grand plan to [[spoiler:[[{{Gendercide}} kill all men]]]], a plot that threatens [[spoiler:Boxxyfan and RC]] as well as the heroes. |
| 72 | *** [[spoiler:[[HijackedByGanon Rcoastee returns]] in Alwaysland 2 and attempts to hijack the entire game for himself as well as delete the files of Catie and friends.]] |
| 73 | *** [[spoiler:[[TrueFinalBoss Legion]], at the very end of the postgame, usurps control of STORM and attempts to destroy not just the Internet, but KillAllHumans in the real world.]] |
| 74 | * BigBoosHaunt: /x/, a grim little village filled with dark secrets, and surrounded by TheLostWoods. It's the primary setting of Chapter 5, titled "2Spooky4Chan", and is the first instance of [[SurprisinglyCreepyMoment genuinely disturbing content]] in what seems like an innocuous meme game. |
| 75 | * BigStormEpisode: The final chapter, "The Perfect Storm". The internet is in shambles, and locked in the grip of an endless downpour, heralding the story's DarkestHour. |
| 76 | * BlandNameProduct: Subverted with the ebuy store, which seems to be this for ebay until a clerk clarifies that it is different from the actual ebay, which exists in this universe. |
| 77 | * BlatantLies: A Social Justice Warrior claims to be looking for the Gatekeeper's PornStash to prove he is a sexist pig, and not for any other reason. |
| 78 | * BleakLevel: There are quite a handful of them: |
| 79 | ** /x/, the setting of Chapter 5, is the local BigBoosHaunt, and an area based on various {{Creepypasta}}s. As such, it is genuinely frightening with plenty of SurrealHorror, gore, and a foreboding atmosphere throughout. |
| 80 | ** The Tower of Plot in Chapter 6 initially seems innocuous- you have to help a village which is having trouble with their harvest. However, if you go into a secret entrance down south, you can then go to a larger area which includes Ny'agai Street, a dark street filled with the children that Lady Ny'agai turned into other Ny'agai. The village also decides that the best way to solve the problems of the village is to accuse a villager of witchcraft and BurnTheWitch; then they turn into skeletons and chase you. The next segment is a somber one about a young girl who wants to play with her older sister, who neglects her in favor or vlogging. |
| 81 | ** The Astral Error, a secret area in the 4chan code room, is a short area filled with {{Ominous Visual Glitch}}es and a weird GlitchEntity of an OptionalBoss. |
| 82 | ** In Chapter 7, we finally get to see a small part of the First Internet, and it sure isn't pretty. The area we visit is little more than a series of dead, crumbling islands suspended in the void; a far cry from the vibrant scenery of the present day. It is also being menaced by [[spoiler:the fragments of Leigon, a terrifying HiveMind formed from the remains of a giant black dragon that tried to destroy the Internet in the past and is still trying]]. |
| 83 | ** The Deep Web BonusDungeon starts out with catacombs and bones everywhere, but the Dark Web section goes into full-on SurrealHorror again, with each section dedicated to a specific corner of the Dark Web (like sex trafficking). |
| 84 | ** The Bell Cave has a hidden section available after completing Stratum 4 of the [[spoiler:Sky Abyss]], which is a dark, foreboding tomb-like area with eerie fog and creepy music, similarly to the doll house in /x/. The boss is a MechanicalAbomination, the entire section is frighteningly bizarre, and the whole thing ends in a GainaxEnding. |
| 85 | * BonusDungeon: Several. |
| 86 | ** The Deep Web is the main bonus dungeon. It is located underneath Tumblr and is a giant cavern that connects to five horror-themed areas that must be traversed, each with a boss at the end, in order to face the [[spoiler:Soul of [=TORment=]]]. The entire thing is about as long as an actual Chapter. |
| 87 | ** The Buzzfeed Desert and Buzzfeed Bay Temple are the dungeons of the "Katy's Diary" sidequest. |
| 88 | ** Completing the first sidequest opens a portal to [[spoiler:Alwaysland, an enemy gauntlet that serves as the [[VideoGame/PaperMario Pit of 100 Trials]] equivalent]]. However, it is zigzagged in that completion is ''neccesary'' to enter the post-game final dungeon. |
| 89 | ** In the post-game, [[spoiler:the eBuy store]] becomes this in one of the quests, as enemies overrun it and you must travel to the top. |
| 90 | ** The DLC introduces the SJW base underneath Newgrounds, a multi-floor ElaborateUndergroundBase where the Social Justice Warriors carry out their operations. |
| 91 | ** The DLC also has [[spoiler:Alwaysland 2, which is just like the first one but with only 40 levels and harder enemies]]. |
| 92 | * BonusLevelOfHeaven: [[spoiler:The Sky Abyss, the game's final challenge during the PlayableEpilogue. It's an epic climb through several strata of [[LevelInTheClouds levels in the clouds]], culminating in a fight against a self-proclaimed angel.]] |
| 93 | * BookEnds: The main story begins and ends with Catie and Anon preparing for a long journey by carriage, and with Catie left to wander a village while Anon waits for her by the south gate. This is lampshaded by the two of them during the ending. |
| 94 | * {{Bouncer}}: There's no getting into Club [=RedTube=] unless you know the password. |
| 95 | * BossBonanza: |
| 96 | ** The Deep Web. The latter half is arranged like a wheel with six spokes, and each one has a different OptionalBoss waiting at the end. |
| 97 | ** The [[spoiler:Sky Abyss]], en route to the GoldenEnding. The climb involves no less than four boss fights, with three more waiting at the top. |
| 98 | * BrickJoke: |
| 99 | ** In Chapter 7, Anonymous accidentally drops the Google Gem off the side of the flying ship. Much later, in the epilogue, he finally "finds" it again. [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial No, he totally didn’t just buy a new one, shut up.]] |
| 100 | ** After the Gatekeeper’s house is ransacked by Social Justice Warriors, he sends you on a quest to replace a broken table. In the ending, you run across an SJW who loves smashing tables, “the most privileged kind of furniture.” |
| 101 | ** When you first reach Wikipedia, many citizens have been displaced by foreign visitors. One man’s apartment is overrun by Anons from 4chan. If you return there in the epilogue, all the Anons have left… except one. |
| 102 | ---> '''4chan Anon:''' I told you, Wikipedia is ours!\ |
| 103 | '''Owner:''' Should I call an exterminator? |
| 104 | ** In the Chapter 6 fake-out credits, the cast list includes a random bear the developers saw. Much later, in the "special thanks" section of the real credits, that same bear is listed ''again''. |
| 105 | * BrokenBridge: Multiple, some being literal: |
| 106 | ** A few of them open up during the PlayableEpilogue, but some of them never do. |
| 107 | ** After the situation at the Lake of Fanfiction is solved, the bridge that is suppose to take the party's train to Wikipedia is stopped for a day by a bridge that needs maintenance. This forces Catie to sleep for the night so she can have her first NightmareSequence, which becomes important later. |
| 108 | ** There's also a literal broken bridge north of [=YouTube=], caused by the Chapter 4 boss crashing through it. It gets repaired by the end of Chapter 5. |
| 109 | * ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth: In the final Tower of Plot scenario, the sick little sister fades into a butterfly as she dies. (Except, the symbolism may run a bit deeper than that.) [[note]]Earlier, she had told the player a story about finding a bush full of butterflies while picnicking with her now-estranged older sister. So in this case, the butterfly represents a precious bond now lost forever.[[/note]] |
| 110 | * CallAHitPointASmeerp: Multiple: |
| 111 | ** HP stands for “Heart Points.”, a.k.a HeartsAreHealth, and HitPoints. |
| 112 | ** ManaPoints are likewise referred to as RP, or “Rawr Points.” |
| 113 | * TheCameo: Multiple: |
| 114 | ** A number of famous characters appear in the background at the Summit, including [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus Aran]], [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime Finn and Jake]], [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pikachu]], [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Princesses Celestia and Luna]], [[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve?]], and several members of the LetsPlay/{{Yogscast}}. |
| 115 | ** Wagering certain items at the battle arena in [=YouTube=] will trigger fights with famous [=YouTubers=], like the WebVideo/GameGrumps and WebVideo/{{Markiplier}}. |
| 116 | * {{Cap}}: Mentioned by multiple people: |
| 117 | ** By the Shopper in the Sphere Item Shop at the start of the game: |
| 118 | ---> You know, you can only carry up to ten of each item. It's important to manage your supplies! |
| 119 | ** By a Sailor on the ship in the prologue, when talking about the Menu's Item function: |
| 120 | ---> I should mention that most items have a limit of ten, so it's not like you can just pack a million of everything. You've gotta be smart! |
| 121 | * CatapultNightmare: The nightmare of a HopelessBossFight in the [=DeviantArt=] Inn makes Catie jump out of bed and scream. |
| 122 | * CatchingSomeZs: The Sleep condition brings [=Zs=] being emmited by affected characters. |
| 123 | * CategoryTraitor: Lady Anita calls Catie and Til bigots for disagreeing with her hatred of men. |
| 124 | -->'''Anita:''' I wanted us to be sisters so badly, but you've internalized bigotry so much that you can't even hear my pleas. There is no place in the world for people like you! Prepare to be erased! |
| 125 | * CaveBehindTheFalls: There's one behind the little waterfall that feeds into the fishing pond, containing a set of unique "Hidden Falls" armor. |
| 126 | * ChangelingTale: In one scene, the party is kidnapped by shapeshifters called Phishers, led by the [[PunnyName Phisher King]]. Apparently, they want to take the group’s place in the ‘real’ world. To defeat them, Catie must pick out her true friends from among the imposters. |
| 127 | * CharacterNameLimits: 15 characters. A-Z, a-z, +-*/!#$%&@ 0-9 (And also the option to use no character at all.) |
| 128 | * ChekhovsGun: Multiple: |
| 129 | ** For the final epilogue quest, which leads to the True Ending: |
| 130 | *** The Email Bag, which is mainly just used for simple gags and sale alerts, has an important purpose when it alerts you to the final epilogue quest. |
| 131 | *** The lantern in The Woods. |
| 132 | *** The altar on Mt. Dramatica. |
| 133 | ** If you beat Nihilerror, then you’ll have obtained the Wayward Spark long, ''long'' before you figure out what it’s good for. |
| 134 | * ChekhovsGunman: Multiple: |
| 135 | ** The Fine Bros. first appear in Chapter 4, giving airship tours as part of a lengthy joke sequence. They become significant later, when the heroes need help to reach an airborne dungeon. |
| 136 | ** Also in Chapter 4, we briefly cross paths with the Pale Wraith, a shady figure who becomes crucial to the plot during the endgame. |
| 137 | ** Remember the Sky Queen followers? That team of random minibosses? [[spoiler:They end up alerting the Sky Queen herself to Catie’s presence, kicking off the events of the postgame.]] |
| 138 | * ChestMonster: |
| 139 | ** [[PunnyName Karma Chameleons]], which hide amongst piles of karma (gold) in an effort to ambush greedy travelers. Defeating one of them will earn you quite a tidy profit. |
| 140 | ** And then there’s the Hateful Reliquary, the granddaddy of all Chest Monsters, lurking down in the Deep Web. |
| 141 | * CognizantLimbs: Dr. Wolfram’s final Engine mecha, Wolfram ALPHA, has these. You’ll have to fight separately against its legs, arms, head, and ''pauldrons''. |
| 142 | * CollectionSidequest: There’s a whole lot to collect in this game. 30 Bitcoins (for buying accessories), 6 Rare NES Games (can be traded for new skills), 7 Strange Keys (unlock the BonusDungeon), and 4 Sacred Seeds (unlock a different BonusDungeon). A fortune teller in [=YouTube=] can help you find the first two types, but not the latter two. |
| 143 | * ContextSensitiveButton: In the overworld, the Shift key is used to sprint, (with a certain item equipped), but during the platformer segments, it's also the jump button. |
| 144 | --> '''Early NPC:''' Hey, did you hear? You can press "Shift" to jump! ...What do you mean, it doesn't work? Just wait. We'll see who has the last laugh, Catie. |
| 145 | * CorridorCubbyholeRun: These show up twice: once in Mt. Dramatica with boulders, and then on the Wayback Machine with fireballs. |
| 146 | * CosmeticAward: Multiple: |
| 147 | ** Catie can purchase a swimsuit during the PlayableEpilogue, and can change into it at any time. The suit doesn't affect gameplay, but wearing it in the right place is what triggers the BeachEpisode. |
| 148 | ** The Champ's Belt, which is awarded for clearing the Fight Night gauntlet. It does absolutely nothing except look nice and shiny in your inventory. |
| 149 | * CrapsaccharineWorld: |
| 150 | ** For the most part, the Internet is a lovely and vibrant place… but it's also a horrifically unstable one, prone to reformatting and deletion at the drop of a hat. Over the course of the two games and their backstory, the virtual world is nearly annihilated no less than ''six times''. |
| 151 | ** The kids' village in the Dark Web seems to be a nice, happy place populated by children... but when you talk to them, they get scared of you, and there is a clear indication that something is ''wrong''. Eventually, it is revealed that [[spoiler:the village is a [[WouldHurtAChild child trafficking]] operation: children were kidnapped by HumanTraffickers and dragged to a dungeon to be used for what is heavily implied to be ''child porn'']]. Also, the surrounding area and nearby forest is haunted by Pale Luna, a creepy ghost girl that [[spoiler:is implied to have been killed trying to escape and save the others from the adults' abuse]]. |
| 152 | * {{Curse}}: A sailor near the back of the ship on the deck, in the prologue, gives Catie 500 Karma they got from a cursed island: |
| 153 | -->Spend it wisely!\ |
| 154 | Oh, and mind the curse...\ |
| 155 | [PictorialSpeechBubble of "!" and "..." in quick succession]\ |
| 156 | Just kidding. That chest wasn't one of the cursed ones. At least, I don't ''think'' it was...\ |
| 157 | [PictorialSpeechBubble "..." to end the conversation] |
| 158 | * {{Cyberspace}}: The primary setting, although not in the usual way. Rather than the typical mess of TronLines and MatrixRainingCode, the internet is portrayed as a {{Magitek}}-fueled world pulled straight from a VideoGame/FinalFantasy game. The only area that resembles “traditional” Cyberspace, [[spoiler:Arianna’s world beyond the Firewall]], is treated as a frightening aberration. |
| 159 | * CynicIdealistDuo: The two main protagonists form one – Catie is the idealist, and Anonymous is the cynic. |
| 160 | * DarkerAndEdgier: While the original game was a standard fantasy adventure taking place in the Internet, this game concerns the party trying to stop the destruction of the Internet and makes the situation much more dire, with an entire site being destroyed in front of the heroes and its citizens turned into zombie-like creatures, an EldritchAbomination causing everything, and several areas such as /x/, the Tower of Plot, and the Deep Web that [[SurprisinglyCreepyMoment feel like something out of a in a horror game]], with SurrealHorror, gore, and unsettling concepts. |
| 161 | * DCupDistress: Til wonders about Cornelia having back issues due to her large breasts when Cornelia greets the party in the morning in the [=DeviantArt=] Inn. |
| 162 | * DeathMountain: Mt. Dramatica, the dungeon of Chapter 3, is a non-volcanic example. To get the True Ending, you have to scale it twice. |
| 163 | * DegradedBoss: Multiple: |
| 164 | ** The Blind Diggers first appear as the boss of the first chapter. Later they can be refought as regular encounters in the Battle Arena. |
| 165 | ** The Sky Queen Followers, a boss fought in Chapter 6, are a group of adventurers containing a [[GiantSpider spider]] and a [[ThePhoenix Proxy]], which reappear as regular enemies in the Deep Web and the [[spoiler:Sky Abyss]], respectively. |
| 166 | ** The Sudden Dragons appear as a miniboss near the start of The Spire. In the last section of The Spire they reappear as a regular enemy, under their true name: [[spoiler: Shard of Legion]]. |
| 167 | * DemBones: There are Spooky Skeletons to fight for one of the Tomes of Fanfiction under the Lake of Fanfiction. |
| 168 | * DevelopersRoom: An entire developer's ''town'', the Interstate Town, is available during the epilogue. It's got plenty to see, including a SoundTest and a fairly huge behind-the-scenes museum. |
| 169 | * DidntNeedThoseAnyway: Wolfram ALPHA keeps right on fighting as you destroy parts of its body. You have to take out all four limbs to reach its head, and even destroying the head may not kill it right away. |
| 170 | * DiscOneFinalDungeon: |
| 171 | ** Absolutely everything about The Spire just ''screams'' VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, from the atmosphere to the sheer size and difficulty of the place. However, the player remains unconvinced: after all, the whole reason you’re there to begin with is to find a way through the gigantic barrier surrounding the ''actual'' final dungeon. |
| 172 | ** Said "actual" final dungeon, [[spoiler:Arianna's world]], ends up being this trope as well, if you’ve completed all the sidequests needed to unlock the [[spoiler:Sky Abyss]] during the post-game. |
| 173 | * DoomedHometown: A Troper wonders if, with the Firewall growing, their home of Tv Tropes will become this. The Troper then wonders if there is anything they can do to subvert it. |
| 174 | * DowsingDevice: The Seeker's Compass, which makes hidden items sparkle if equipped. This can be the only reliable way to find some of the more… [[GuideDangIt creatively hidden treasures]]. |
| 175 | * DuelBoss: Catie versus Tyalie in Chapter 6, and [[spoiler:Catie versus Boxxyfan]] in the epilogue. |
| 176 | * DungeonBypass: The Lake of Fanfiction dungeon requires you to find three of fifteen hidden books, and then use codes written in their margins to unlock a door. Which three books you need are randomly chosen each playthrough, but the codes themselves are not. So if you have a list of all fifteen codes, you can just input the ones you need right away and skip the whole mess. |
| 177 | * DungeonShop: Among its many oddities, the Deep Web contains a small, tucked away supermarket run by onions. The village of lost children also has a weapon/armor shop. |
| 178 | * EarlyBirdCameo: Tyalie first appears at the Great Summit in Wikipedia, three chapters before she's formally introduced. |
| 179 | * EarnYourBadEnding: The worst ending requires even more effort to get than the best ending. In fact, you have to get right up to the best ending, but then turn around and backtrack halfway across the map. After that, you still have to fight the most [[SNKBoss stupidly, unfairly difficult enemy]] in the game. |
| 180 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: The true ending is no walk in the park, either. First, you have to do every one of the Inbox missions, some of which can be quite time-consuming. Then, you have to follow a trail of clues around the map until you find the entrance to a new dungeon with ''seven'' formidable boss fights. |
| 181 | * EasingIntoTheAdventure: The story starts off very gently, with Catie wandering around her peaceful hometown. The plot hits its first big squall (pun intended) when she gets on the ship and takes a nap. |
| 182 | * EasterEgg: Multiple: |
| 183 | ** There's a very strange subplot involving two children who knew each other before being born, and whose souls are subconsciously trying to reunite. One of them, a girl named Amelie, inhabits the game as a sort of [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} W.D. Gaster]]-like [[TheGhost ghost]], while the other may or may not be ''the player themselves''. |
| 184 | ** If you keep speaking to Pinkie Pie during her cameo at the party, then she’ll eventually decide to follow you for the rest of the quest. This was added because the real Catie Wayne used to be a very outspoken ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fan. |
| 185 | ** The first area of the Tower of Plot is a village, where you’re expected to help the local farmers with their troubles. Instead, you can go south and find a frog sitting between two fence posts. If you talk to it once and then back off, it'll hop aside and let you slip through. There are several hidden field areas, and even other towns, with [=NPCs=] who say some strange and vaguely ominous things. |
| 186 | ---> '''Villager:''' Your objective is miles away.\ |
| 187 | '''Tourist:''' These pretty lights can't trick me. [[TheStarsAreGoingOut There's no stars in the sky tonight!]] |
| 188 | ** ''Totaka's Song'', of all things, appears in this game. Go to the cottage in The Woods and wait inside for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. |
| 189 | * EasyModeMockery: If you opt to wear the Overpowered Crown, the protective status it gives you is labelled “CHEATING.” |
| 190 | * EldritchLocation: The Deep Web has heavy shades of this. It's a sealed underground temple, but the deeper floors consist of areas that shouldn't possibly be able to exist there. Vast, snow-covered forests? Entire towns with shops and inns? A self-contained overworld map?! The final key sibling mentions that sometimes the sealed spirits will “lash out” and “take things back” with them. |
| 191 | * EleventhHourRanger: Shrimp and Cornelia, who finally give up on the idea of a relaxing vacation just in time to join you for the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. |
| 192 | * EleventhHourSuperPower: Catie's EXP level maxes out just before her final duel with [[spoiler:Boxxyfan]], and her “Hollow Wave” skill gets upgraded to “Hallow Wave.” |
| 193 | * {{Emoticon}}: This being the internet, many of the characters use these while speaking, most notably Catie. |
| 194 | * EmptyRoomPsych: Multiple: |
| 195 | ** The Reddit Inn has a secret area accessed from the backstreets, with a Tavern Wench congratuating the player for finding the secret area, and Rugged Man telling them "There's nothing here." |
| 196 | ** This game loves to put conspicuous empty rooms along the player's path, only to make them relevant much later on. The Bell Cave and lantern glade are prime examples of this, as they seem to do nothing but become relevant for accessing the true final dungeon. |
| 197 | ** There's one room that plays it straight, though: the [=LoversLab=] building in [=GameFAQs=]. It was meant to be involved in a sidequest, but the quest itself was DummiedOut, leaving the lab functionally useless. |
| 198 | ** Many of the secret areas in the Tower of Plot, such as the tiny village with the shamrock people, don’t seem to have much purpose beyond weirding the player out. |
| 199 | * TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: All three of the main villains want to cause it, in different ways and for different reasons: |
| 200 | ** [[spoiler:Arianna]] wants to use [[spoiler:STORM]]'s power to wipe the Internet clean, then replace it with a cold and clinical world of pure data where she feels safe. (The Overtaken plague seems to be an unintended side effect). |
| 201 | ** [[spoiler:Boxxyfan]] puts emphasis on the “as we know it.” He aims to revert the Internet back to a chaotic and primordial state, most likely killing off the entire current population. |
| 202 | ** [[spoiler:Legion wants to purge all human users from cyberspace… and then break free and carry out this trope in reality, too.]] |
| 203 | * EnemyScan: Eddie has the skill “Wiki It!” It lists enemies’ HP and a bit of flavor text, which may or may not tell you how to beat them. Katy and [[spoiler:Arianna]] have their own versions of this skill as well. |
| 204 | * EngineeredPublicConfession: At the end of Chapter 4, [[spoiler:[=PewDiePie=]]] [[JustBetweenYouAndMe admits to the heroes]] to being the culprit of the Viewing Crystal thefts, and that [[spoiler:he and [=RayWilliamJohnson=] have been selling them to the Pale Wraith]]. After the subsequent boss battle, [[spoiler:[=PewDiePie=]]] is promptly arrested by the guards who overheard everything, [[spoiler:despite them being his subordinates]]. |
| 205 | * EternalEngine: [[spoiler:Her World]] is a downplayed example. The parts you visit are just sterile white walkways, but huge, incomprehensible machines are visible in the background. |
| 206 | * EverythingExceptMostThings: The Sickly Girl in the Reddit Backstreets: |
| 207 | --> Living here isn't all that bad.\ |
| 208 | I mean, aside from the filth, the hunger, and the pain from being downvoted.\ |
| 209 | [On talking to her again]\ |
| 210 | B-but look! At least I've got my little garden...! |
| 211 | * EvilTowerOfOminousness: The Spire certainly looks the part, but its true purpose is far from evil. [[spoiler:It’s a beacon, broadcasting the power that keeps Legion from reforming.]] |
| 212 | * FairyBattle: In one area, you’ll occasionally run into piles of free gold in place of normal enemy encounters. Later, beating a specific pile of “enemy” gold get you a Bitcoin. |
| 213 | * FamilyThemeNaming: Til and her sister Irci, both {{Punny Name}}s. In many internet circles, “TIL” is an acronym that means “today I learned.” Similarly, Irci is a SignificantAnagram. “IIRC,” means “if I recall correctly.” |
| 214 | * FantasticRacism: Anons from 4chan aren’t well-liked by anyone, seen as unwelcome pranksters at best and AlwaysChaoticEvil at worst. Y’know, just like the stereotypes regarding users of the real-life website. Of course, these people do have a point, given that Anons are [[spoiler:humanoid fragments of a broken DestroyerDeity]]. Not that any of them are aware of it, though. |
| 215 | * FantasyCounterpartCulture: This trope gets an interesting twist – instead of real-world cultures, we’re given fantasy counterparts of popular websites and online communities. Reddit is a bustling PortTown with a seedy underbelly, Wikipedia is a city of towers built around a massive library, etc. The stereotypical aspects of each "culture" are often parodied or examined in-depth. |
| 216 | * TheFerryMan: The Fine Bros. use their airship to ferry the main cast up to the flying Wayback Machine. They make it clear it's [[PointOfNoReturn a one-way trip]], though: once you’re up there, you're on your own. Later on, [[spoiler:when almost all of the Internet has been destroyed, they ferry the party from Tumblr to near the Firewall.]] |
| 217 | * FirstTown: The Sphere. After the intro, you can only reach it by [[WarpWhistle Google Gem]], but you'll be warping there a lot since it's where most of the sidequests start, and where most of the best accessories can be bought. |
| 218 | * FishingMinigame: Multiple. It's a random selection from a list of results just by having a rod, bait, and some water. |
| 219 | ** In the Lake of Fanfiction, there's a Fisherman Ghost that rents the party a Fishing Rod for use in his room, and also sells Bait at 10 for 30 Karma. You actually need to fish here to find one of the Tomes of Fanfiction. |
| 220 | ** There's a small pond near 4chan where you can go to catch fish. It’s very calming, and an easy way to make money. [[CaveBehindTheFalls (While you’re there, be sure the check behind the waterfall)]]. |
| 221 | * FissionMailed: During the secret battle with not_intended/Nihilerror, she throws up several fake error messages as if the game had just crashed. |
| 222 | * FlavorText: Certain items, like: |
| 223 | ** Byte Staff: |
| 224 | ---> A basic staff for beginner mages. It casts magic missile! |
| 225 | ** Catie's Tiara: |
| 226 | ---> The symbol of Catie's status as Queen of the Sphere. |
| 227 | * FlunkyBoss: [=PewDiePie=] in Chapter 4, and Anita in Chapter 6. In both cases, their minions respawn endlessly until you kill the bosses themselves. One_Wing also summons “Underwings” to distract you partway through his fight. |
| 228 | * FlyingBooks: A type of enemy found in the Lake of Fanfiction. |
| 229 | * ForcedTransformation: The Overtaken are former users who turned into big, zombie-dragon-like monsters. One Troper, when refuses from this status, outright lampshades the trope by name. |
| 230 | * ForestOfPerpetualAutumn: One of the hidden areas in the Tower of Plot is an autumnal forest in the middle of a spring-green countryside. |
| 231 | * FrictionlessIce: It's not ice, but some kind of frictionless surface appears for a couple of puzzles, first on the Wayback Machine and then in the [[spoiler:Sky Abyss]]. It makes you slide around incredibly fast, and sometimes not in the direction you wanted to go. |
| 232 | * GainaxEnding: The secret third ending, sometimes called the “PC Ending” or even the “False Ending.” To summarize: [[spoiler:A secret passageway leads to a pixelated, headless statue. It [[PopQuiz quizzes you]], then tells a short story about two kids who lived happily in a field of buttercups, until one of them prayed for rebirth. Suddenly, the party is transported to a weird, grayscale version of earth. This gigantic… ''[[EldritchAbomination thing]]'' shows up and starts waxing philosophical about the futility of artistic expression. Then it fights you. [[SuperBoss IF you beat it]] – you get a brief [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion End of Evangelion]] shout-out, before the scene switches to a butterfly exiting an elevator and flying down a hallway. There are some notes scattered around with factoids about a group of unknown people. At the end of the hall is a small room with a computer. You turn it off, and the butterfly leaves the room. A minute later, the screen fades to an image of buttercups while sad music plays.]] |
| 233 | * GameMaker: Created in RPG Maker XP, and a good example of what can be done in the software with enough time and effort. |
| 234 | * GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Early on, it's mentioned that only real users can touch the [=PasSWORD=]. Much later, the BenevolentAI Cornelia joins the party… and sure enough, she’s the only one who can't equip it. |
| 235 | * GenderRestrictedGear: The True Heroine's Garb, a powerful set of endgame armor that can only be equipped by female party members. |
| 236 | * GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: [[spoiler:Arianna to Catie at the end, when she’s about to succumb to Legion’s MindRape.]] |
| 237 | * GetOnTheBoat: Happens three times – once right at the start, then again between Chapters 3 and 4, and finally between Chapters 6 and 7. Getting on the last boat marks the PointOfNoReturn. |
| 238 | * GlassCannon: A badge named this in Tv Tropes allows the wearer to become this. It increases ATK and SPD at the cost of DEF and HP. |
| 239 | * GogglesDoNothing: The FlavorText for the Steampunk Fedora item: |
| 240 | --> ''A needlessly expensive novelty hat with glued-on goggles, which do nothing.'' |
| 241 | * GoingNative: A Tourist visiting Tv Tropes starts speaking in their [[StrangeSyntaxSpeakers Tropinese]] language and outright says she is doing this. |
| 242 | * GoldenEnding: The Sky Episode, or the “True Ending,” which is achieved by completing all of the Inbox quests throughout the game, and then following a series of riddles given to you. What starts as just another seemingly irrelevant sidequest spirals totally off the rails and ends up dragging in basically every unresolved plot point in the game, if not the series. Let’s just say that it’s a sight to behold. |
| 243 | * GoThroughMe: When [[spoiler:Cracky tries to reset Catie to her “true” self at the expense of her human memories]], the party stands up to her in this way. |
| 244 | --> '''Tyalie:''' If you want her, then you'll have to get past us. [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Again, and again, and again!]] |
| 245 | * GridPuzzle: Nearing the final stages of the game, the turn-based RPG gameplay will sometimes change to feature nonograms that need to be cleared in order to advance. |
| 246 | * GuestStarPartyMember: A warrior from the First Internet joins up with the party when they travel back in time. [[spoiler:He turns out to be Boxxyfan, the first game’s BigBad, prior to his fall into darkness.]] |
| 247 | * GuideDangIt: ''[=BoxxyQuest=]'' hearkens back to old-school [=RPGs…=] and that means plenty of secrets so obscure that no sane person could ever figure them out on their own. |
| 248 | ** To battle not_intended, you must first ''avoid'' doing the Inbox quest involving the fourth sibling until after Chapter 6, then when you get to Twitch, go to a specific area (the railroad) to find a key to unlock the area in the sidequest. If you do the quest before getting the key or leave Twitch without getting the key, you miss out on fighting her. |
| 249 | ** You can upgrade the Goddess Statue (which lets you save on-the-go, but only once before breaking) to the Everlasting Goddess Statue (which lets you save on-the-go infinitely) by wagering it at the arena. You wouldn't think to try it because most other Key Items don't even show up in the betting menu. |
| 250 | ** If you don't talk to two specific [=NPCs=] in order at the Vocaloid concert, (the souvenir vendor to get a glowstick, and Rin Kagamine to get it signed), then you won’t have an item later when a kid asks to trade you for it. That trade is one of the sidequests needed to unlock the True Ending. |
| 251 | ** It's a minor example, but figuring out how to access the Katy's Diary sidequest. You have to throw at least three karma into the fountain at the eBuy Superstore, which makes the diary appear in a totally different location. |
| 252 | ** Getting the PC Ending without a guide would take nothing short of a miracle. [[spoiler:First, you have to clear Stratum 4 of the Sky Abyss, then backtrack all the way to Bell Cave - even though everything is urging you to keep going, and Bell Cave is a tiny area that you'd never even think to revisit. Then, in a new area, you have to answer a series of questions about things no player could be expected to remember. (For example: what is the maximum number of Overtaken you can fight?) The answer is 29.]] |
| 253 | ** The crypt in the Artistry Highway in the DLC. This requires a password, which can't be found anywhere in the game. The password is [[spoiler:3301 (a reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada_3301 Cicada 3301]], with the only hint being the sound of cicadas]]. Opening the crypt leads to Nature's End, a weapon even stronger than the 404 [=PasSWORD=] that can only be wielded by Catie. |
| 254 | ** By far the most well-hidden accessory in the entire game is [[spoiler:Her Bouquet. You must first collect a Lady's Breath, which requires either finding the secret area in the Tower of Plot or interacting with Lady Ny'agai's gravestone whilst being chased by a skeleton. This must then be bet at the Arena for Amelie's Key, which unlocks a door in Artistry Highway that's never even hinted to exist unless you use the Seeker's Compass, leading to a churchyard. In the DLC, entering this church unlocks a dream in Etsy's inn, again with no indication that this has occurred. The dream (which has a 1 in 6 chance of occurring each time once unlocked) consists of a giant maze with an invisible timer, so it will take many attempts to explore, and there is again no indication that there is anything in there (there isn't anything hidden in any of the other dreams). Her Bouquet is hidden within this giant maze.]] It does prevent you from ever being banned, though. |
| 255 | * HealingHands: Catie is the protagonist, and most of Catie's curative spells involve making hand-hearts at her allies. |
| 256 | * HealthDamageAsymmetry: The party spends most of the game with maximum HP in the low thousands, and their maximum HP can never exceed 9999. Regular enemies (albeit of the BossInMookClothing variety) exceed this in Chapter 3, and from Chapter 5 onwards the vast majority of enemies have HP far higher than this cap, and most late-game bosses have HP well over 100,000. However, dealing roughly 4000 damage per attack becomes common for the party, whereas enemies do so less often, usually only for their strongest attacks (as such an attack would likely be a OneHitKill). |
| 257 | * HeKnowsAboutTimedHits: Multiple: |
| 258 | ** Before leaving the Sphere, Heahaha says: |
| 259 | ---> Hey, did you hear?\ |
| 260 | You can press "Shift" to jump!\ |
| 261 | [PictorialSpeechBubble of Ellipses done dot by dot]\ |
| 262 | ...What do you mean, it doesn't work?\ |
| 263 | Just wait. We'll see who has the last laugh, Catie. |
| 264 | ** On the ship to go to the Summit, multiple Sailors serve this function: |
| 265 | *** Near the ship's wheel, there's a sailor who talks about how Switch-ing party members works. |
| 266 | *** Near the back of the ship on the deck, a sailor talks about the menu, and when asking them to talk about the Switch option, they reference another sailor on the deck: |
| 267 | ----> The switch tab lets you shuffle up your party.\ |
| 268 | One of my buddies can tell you more about that! |
| 269 | ** ''Defied'' in Anonymous's battle tutorial, he mentions how you and the enemy each take turns attacking each other, "nice and simple, with none of those lame quicktime events." |
| 270 | * HellIsThatNoise: [[spoiler:STORM]]''s various shrieks seem designed to invoke this, having been spliced together from a number of infamous examples, including the [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Lavos roar]] and ''[[VideoGame/MassEffect Reaper horns]]''. |
| 271 | * HelloInsertNameHere: Played straight with Til, Eddie, and Shift, but subverted with Tyalie. You’re given the option to name her too, but she politely turns down whatever name you pick. |
| 272 | * HeroOfAnotherStory: In [=GameFAQs=], our party collides with another group of adventurers. They’re searching for the [=PasSWORD=] shards too, under orders from someone called the Sky Queen. A miniboss fight ensues, after which the gang vows to [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain never speak of it again]]. [[spoiler:The Sky Queen later takes a personal interest in Catie, making you the hero of ''their'' story as well.]] |
| 273 | * HeroRivalBaddieTeamUp: [[spoiler:The grand finale involves Catie teaming up with Boxxyfan and Arianna, the [[BigBad Big Bads]] of the first and second games, respectively, to combat a much greater source of evil. In Arianna’s case it’s a solid HeelFaceTurn, while in Boxxyfan’s it’s merely an EnemyMine situation.]] |
| 274 | * HiddenElfVillage: Instagram tries to become this, shutting its gates and turning travelers away until the Firewall and [[spoiler:STORM]] crisis is dealt with. As one villager points out during the PlayableEpilogue, their safety measures didn't do them any good in the end, [[spoiler:as they were briefly erased along with everything else.]] |
| 275 | * HiddenTrack: Several songs just don't appear in the in-game sound test. These mostly have to do with the GoldenEnding and TrueFinalBoss, but a few of them are related to [[spoiler:Amelie]]. |
| 276 | * HoldTheLine: [[spoiler:When it comes time to fight STORM, Catie and the others quickly realize they have no hope of actually beating it. All they can do is survive and keep it busy while the Pale Wraith tries to seal it away.]] |
| 277 | * HolidayMode: The eBuy Superstore holds a special holiday sale during the epilogue. The surrounding area gets a snowy makeover, and the shops sell unique Christmas-themed items and gear. [[spoiler:The sale is attacked by a Christmassy Cthulhu expy, which you have to fend off.]] |
| 278 | * HopeSproutsEternal: Played for laughs at first, but then ''very'' darkly subverted. When Catie arrives in the First Internet via time travel, small plants start sprouting up wherever she goes, to the confusion of everyone present. [[spoiler:Unbeknownst to her, this directly leads to the cataclysm that alters the world's atmosphere, dooming millions to a FateWorseThanDeath and heralding Boxxyfan's FaceHeelTurn.]] |
| 279 | * HubCity: [=YouTube=], in a sense. You don’t get there until halfway through the game, but it’s certainly huge, and you’ll be passing through it at least once for the next several chapters. Meanwhile, Chapter 4 is set there in its entirety. |
| 280 | * HumongousMecha: |
| 281 | ** Wolfram ALPHA, the ultimate autonomous Decision Engine. It’s so humongous that it takes three screens of [[SequentialBoss sequential battling]] to reach the head and bring it down. |
| 282 | ** [[spoiler:STORM]] is even bigger, to the point of filling up the screen even while it’s in the background. With its RealityWarper powers, it easily qualifies as a MechanicalAbomination. |
| 283 | * IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: The 4chan anon guarding the pass from Youtube says "You shall not pass!" and then thanks the party for giving him a chance to say that. |
| 284 | * IBrokeANail: An enslaved Furry in the Newgrounds mines gets upset about this: |
| 285 | -->This sucks... I'm all sweaty, I can't breathe, ''and I even broke a nail!'' Y'know, one of the glittery fake nails that I wear over my claws? Doesn't everyone have those? |
| 286 | * IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou: A Social Justice Warrior in Newgrounds says she will not give you a hint to their secret base- and then does. |
| 287 | -->You think I’ll give you a hint about the secret way into our base? Hah, like that’s ever gonna happen! I’ll definitely never tell you that the two Food items must be next to each other! I’ll take that info to my grave! |
| 288 | * ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder: Spez to Jimmy Wales, during the Summit: |
| 289 | --> '''Spez:''' Damn it, Jim! I'm a CEO, not a hacker! |
| 290 | * ImpersonationGambit: At the concert, Catie tries dressing up as [[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Miku Hatsune]] to get info out of a fan. It might’ve worked, if the ''real'' Miku hadn’t walked in right behind her. |
| 291 | * InevitableTournament: Subverted. There ''is'' a tournament arc in the game, but not only is it fully optional, the player can easily miss it altogether if they FollowThePlottedLine away from the place it’s being held. |
| 292 | * InfinityMinusOneSword: |
| 293 | ** The Blade of Fallen Memes, a sword for sale in the very first town. It’s prohibitively expensive, but it’s the best weapon you can get your mitts on before the final act. |
| 294 | ** The [=PasSWORD=] itself ends up here, despite initially seeming like the setting’s Infinity +1 Sword. No, that honor goes to… |
| 295 | * InfinityPlusOneSword: |
| 296 | ** The 404 [=PasSWORD=], the fully upgraded version of The [=PasSWORD=]. You’ll go through hell and back to get that upgrade, but it makes the sword far stronger than any other weapon in the game. Even the post-story bonus gear can't compete with it. |
| 297 | ** In the DLC, even the 404 [=PasSWORD=] becomes an InfinityMinusOneSword. Instead, the title belongs to Nature's End, a sword with stats slightly exceeding the 404 [=PasSWORD=] found inside the crypt in the Artistry Highway. Unlike the 404 [=PasSWORD=], this sword can only be wielded by Catie. |
| 298 | * InGameNovel: [=YouTube=] features a bookstore where you can buy these. Examples range from a tourist manual with information about the game world, to a [[StylisticSuck hilariously awful]] retelling of the last game's plot. One book even contains heavy foreshadowing in the form of fairy tales. |
| 299 | * InnSecurity: Apparently, bandit and robber attacks happen at the Tv Tropes inn so much that they literally hired a guy to be Inn Security. |
| 300 | * InterfaceSpoiler: A non-menu example. At each of the inns you visit, your room will contain exactly eight beds. No points for guessing how many people end up joining your party. (Subverted, as this doesn't spoil the GuestStarPartyMember in Chapter 7). |
| 301 | * InternalReveal: In Chapter 7, it is revealed that [[spoiler:Boxxyfan from the first game is ???, who became evil because Catie accidentally destroyed his homeworld]], and in TheStinger for the normal end, it turns out that [[spoiler:Boxxyfan is also the Pale Wraith who manipulated everyone to gain control of STORM and has become the new threat to the world]]. The party only learns this at the very end of TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, the [[spoiler:Sky Abyss]]. |
| 302 | * IShallTauntYou: Anon gets a skill that lets him taunt enemies, focusing the majority of their fire on him, and away from the others, for a few turns. |
| 303 | * ItsAllUpstairsFromHere: |
| 304 | ** The Partnership Towers skyscraper in [=YouTube=]. You have the option of scaling it ten floors at a time by elevator, fighting guards along the way. Or you can bypass the guards by taking the stairs… all ''seventy flights'' of them. |
| 305 | ** The Spire, the imposing MarathonLevel dungeon of Chapter 7. You'll mostly be climbing it with warps and teleports, but there are some very long staircases involved, too. |
| 306 | * KaizoTrap: There's a Kaizo Trap mixed with SchmuckBait in the second [=GameFAQs=] platforming segment. As you approach the goal warp, you can see the edge of another platform off to the right, below the one you’re standing on. If you bypass the goal and jump down there, you’ll find nothing but a few blocks spelling out "LOL". And then you'll notice that you're too low to jump back up the way you came, so you have no choice but to die and restart the stage. |
| 307 | * KillSat: Low Orbit Ion Cannons get mentioned a couple times in passing. A certain item lets you call one down on enemies during battle. |
| 308 | * LargeHam: |
| 309 | ** One_Wing gets exactly one scene to chew the scenery, and by god, he ''DEVOURS'' it. |
| 310 | ** When he finally turns up, [[spoiler:Legion]] proves to be one of these. Throughout his monologue, he never uses a single lowercase letter. [[spoiler:Fitting, since his counterpart [[AllLowercaseLetters never uses capitals]].]] |
| 311 | * LaserGuidedAmnesia: A Troper, after being rescued from Overtaken status, does not remember how he ended up there and quotes the trope by name. |
| 312 | -->Huh? What happened? Why am I even up here? It me like I have some kind of LaserGuidedAmnesia! |
| 313 | * LastChanceHitPoint: The Life+ status has this effect. If you die, it automatically brings you back at 1HP. |
| 314 | * LastDiscMagic: Multiple: |
| 315 | ** Starting in Chapter 6, characters can learn “Megahax” by trading Rare NES Games to a collector living in [=GameFAQs=]. They can be incredibly useful, (for instance, Til’s Megahax promises to [[ForcedSleep put all enemies to sleep]], and Tyalie’s gives everyone in the party an [[AutoRevive extra life]]), but using them locks the caster’s magic for the rest of the fight. |
| 316 | ** A set of elemental orbs start showing up around Chapter 7 or so. When equipped, the user learns a tremendously powerful magic attack, like “Meteor Shower” or “Eternal Snowstorm.” Unlike the party’s Megahax skills, they can be used multiple times per battle. |
| 317 | * LastLousyPoint: Multiple: |
| 318 | ** So you've scoured the game world for hours, and come up with exactly 29 Bitcoins, just one short of buying all the accessories. Where could the last one be? Turns out it was only available way back in Chapter 2, when Cornelia walked off and left the door to her hotel room open. |
| 319 | ** There are six Rare NES Games: four of them are easy to collect, but the last two will have you pulling your hair out. One is a reward for clearing a series of PlatformHell bonus levels, and the other is tucked away in a hidden room that's never hinted to even exist. Hint: [[spoiler:look for mushrooms that suddenly sprout up around train stations.]] |
| 320 | * LastSecondWordSwap: When Catie finds Anonymous after the shipwreck, he almost finishes saying that he was "terrified", before saying "I mean, it kinda sucked," |
| 321 | * LateArrivalSpoiler: The goddesses are pieces split from Catie's soul. The Internet has been erased and remade multiple times. Catie becomes queen of the Boxxysphere. These are all major revelations in the first game, but here they're tossed around like it’s nothing. |
| 322 | * LawOfConservationOfDetail: Named in-game as an answer for an NPC in [=GameFAQs=] as to why there is no store to buy games- because it is not important to the plot. |
| 323 | * LeakedExperience: At the end of battle, the party members present right then get full experience. Everyone else gets half, even if they helped out earlier in the fight. |
| 324 | * LeaningOnTheFourthWall: All over the place, especially when Tyalie is involved. She loves to make playful jabs at the fourth wall [[spoiler:as a coping mechanism for her existential fears]]. |
| 325 | * TheLegendOfChekhov: On the way to 4chan, a hermit will tell you the story of Legion, the GreaterScopeVillain and DestroyerDeity, long before he becomes relevant. Similarly, a book of fairy tales you can buy contains legends about Lady Ny'agai, [[spoiler:Virtua]], and [[spoiler:Cracky]], although none are mentioned by name. |
| 326 | * LevelsTakeFlight: The Wayback Machine mixes this with EternalEngine. It’s a vast, moving airship filled with pipes and catwalks dangling precariously over the abyss, and is the most overtly sci-fi looking area in the game. |
| 327 | * LevelUpAtIntimacyFive: At two points in the story, you’ll be asked to choose a partner for a support conversation. Whoever you pick will gain multiple experience levels, (three for the first time, two for the second), alongside some character development. |
| 328 | * LoadsAndLoadsOfSidequests: The Inbox, the game’s main quest-giving location, has thirteen missions, which must all be complete to unlock the best ending. But aside from that, there are plenty of objects to collect, citizens to help, minigames to play, [[BonusDungeon Bonus Dungeons]] to explore, and a TournamentArc to compete in. It's safe to say that about a third of the game's content is made up of sidequests. |
| 329 | * LocomotiveLevel: The middle part of Chapter 6 takes place on the Hype Train, a luxury train traveling from TV Tropes to [=GameFAQs=]. A boss battle even takes place on top of it. |
| 330 | * LongSongShortScene: Multiple: |
| 331 | ** The [=Vocaloid=] concert sequence features actual Music/{{Vocaloid}} songs playing in the background. The track actually plays through ''six full songs'' before looping, but you’ll likely be in and out of there before the first one has even finished. |
| 332 | ** The song that plays while the party is chasing down the Wayback Machine lasts about twice as long as the cutscene itself. Thankfully, this one at least appears in the sound test afterwards. |
| 333 | ** Parodied in the Katy's Diary sidequest, where Katy lampshades that a song plays for only a single line of text. |
| 334 | --->here's a song Hat only plays 4 a single line of text. how sad... |
| 335 | * TheLostWoods: The forest near /x/, simply called The Woods. It has ghosts, paths that twist back on themselves, paths that lead back to the entrance… Oh, and it’s very, very dark. |
| 336 | * ManaBurn: Several enemies can use “Heartbleed,” an attack that sucks away your RP. |
| 337 | * ManaShield: The Aura Pearl accessory gives you the “RP Aura” status. Attacks will damage your RP until you have none left, effectively giving you a second health bar. |
| 338 | * MarathonBoss: [[spoiler:The final fight with Arianna]]. Her four forms together have a whopping total of 750,000 HP. To put things in perspective, most of the other endgame bosses barely exceed 100,000. The only enemy with more health is [[spoiler:Esoteraphim]], a nigh-impossible EasterEgg boss that wasn’t even put in the game until several months after release. |
| 339 | * MarathonLevel: |
| 340 | ** Chapter 6 is by far the biggest chapter in the game. It starts with you heading north of [=YouTube=] to Tv Tropes, but before you can get there, you are stopped by a gate, and the gatekeeper becomes kidnapped by Lady Anita and her Social Justice Warriors, forcing you to go through the Gatekeeper’s Tower dungeon and save him. After some forced battles with the Warriors, you fight Anita, who is such a difficult boss that you will likely have to go back and grind, costing more time. Once that is done, you go to Tv Tropes and are directed to another dungeon, an area near the Firewall. Once you get to the end, you have to take the Hype Train and solve a mystery in a big ShoutOut to Chapter 6 of VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor, complete with TraintopBattle. Finally, you get to [=GameFAQs=], where you must ascend three towers with platforming, puzzle-solving, and navigation, and the climb is likely to take hours. And if you decide to visit the secret area at the base of the Tower of Plot, which is pretty big, it takes even longer. It ends with two difficult battles against the followers of the Sky Queen and the Chapter boss [[spoiler:One_Wing]], respectively. |
| 341 | ** The Spire, the main dungeon of Chapter 7. When your guide warns you that the climb may take all day, he isn’t joking. It was even worse before an update added shortcut warps, since you had to backtrack through at least half the dungeon every time you wanted to leave and resupply. Even with the shortcuts, it’s still a long and grueling trek up to the aerie. |
| 342 | * MarshmallowHell: A relieved Cornelia puts Anon through this when he finally turns up safe after the shipwreck. |
| 343 | * MassOhCrap: Tends to be the reaction whenever [[spoiler:STORM]] shows up, and for good reason. |
| 344 | * MathematiciansAnswer: When starting a New Game: "Are you a boy or a girl?" [Yes] [No]. Saying "Yes" has a follow up question for specifying which answer is correct, while "No" skips that question. |
| 345 | * MeteorSummoningAttack: Meteor Shower, one of the endgame elemental attacks, is this. There's also Chaos Orbit, which is similar but hits the entire party, and is only ever used by bosses related to [[spoiler:Legion]]. |
| 346 | * MightyGlacier: A badge in Tv Tropes named this allows the wearer to become one. It raises their DEF, HP, and ATK, at the cost of their SPD. |
| 347 | * MindScrew: Multiple: |
| 348 | ** There's a house in /x/ with a doll in the basement. Picking up the doll sends you on a trip that has to be seen to be believed. |
| 349 | ** This happens when you read the signpost halfway up the Tower of Plot. [[spoiler:What do you mean we’ve been going through empty rooms this whole time?!]] |
| 350 | * MinigameZone: [=YouTube=] has the Let’s Play Speedway, an obstacle-dodging cart minigame with five tracks based on various other games (there's a ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Pokemon Firered and Leafgreen]]'' map, a ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' map, a ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' map, a ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'' map, and a ''VideoGame/PacMan'' map). If you win, you can either move on to the next track, or bail out and claim a prize. If you lose, you get nothing and have to start all over. You get a unique prize the first time you complete each track, but it’s [[SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer very easy to keep going past that]]. |
| 351 | * MinusWorld: The Astral Error, a secret area within the 4chan code room, is based on one of these. It contains no enemies (save OptionalBoss not_intended), but the strange music and visual glitches are enough to make it very unsettling. Even Catie's sprite begins to bug out as you progress deeper, until she's literally just a mess of random pixels. |
| 352 | * MissingSecret: |
| 353 | ** If you equip the Seeker's Compass near the Tumblrwood Tree, you can see something sparkling in a patch of distant flowers, but there isn't any way to get over there. |
| 354 | ** The Iris and the Egg, two unique items that can be found by interacting with the scenery on Artistry Highway. The Egg can at least be used to heal 200 HP, but the Iris doesn’t seem to have any use at all, aside from being sold for a high price at the ebuy shop during the holiday sale. |
| 355 | ** There's a llama grazing in a field between [=YouTube=] and 4chan. Talking to it yields the message, "this llama knows a secret". Well, whatever it is, we never get to be let in on it. |
| 356 | * MistakenForThief: Catie gets arrested after picking up a strange crystal in the street, setting off the plot of Chapter 4, to figure out who really stole the crystal and why. |
| 357 | * MoneyMultiplier: The Altcoin, which doubles the amount of karma gained after battle, but only if the party member holding it is on-screen at the battle’s end. |
| 358 | * MoneySpider: Enemies drop the GlobalCurrency, Karma. |
| 359 | * MonsterArena: The Subscription Stadium in [=YouTube=] contains a battle arena side area. You can bet items, then send in one party member to fight alone against groups of monsters, with the goal of winning better items. Several unique weapons and armors can only be obtained this way. Also, if you visit the arena at night, you get to compete in a TournamentArc instead. |
| 360 | * MonsterMisogyny: Inverted with Lady Anita’s signature attack, “Art of Misandry.” If she uses it on a female party member, nothing happens… but if she uses in on a male, they get K.O.ed instantly. |
| 361 | * MultipleEndings: Three of them. The normal ending is acquired by simply playing through the game, with the other two available during the PlayableEpilogue. One of them is a satisfying GrandFinale to the series that wraps up all the remaining plot threads… while the other is a truly surreal [[GainaxEnding Gainax]] SuddenDownerEnding, and a GuideDangIt to even find. |
| 362 | * MutuallyExclusivePowerups: Played with in chapter 2, where an NPC gives Catie a choice between three sets of elemental claws. Aside from their differing animations, all three are largely identical. (Although picking the lightning claws does give a slight advantage in the upcoming boss battle). |
| 363 | * MyNameIsQuestionMarks: For characters whose names are unknown until given, such as: |
| 364 | ** Arianna, named before being fought in the Lake of Fanfiction. |
| 365 | ** Mary Sue, named when talked to in the Lake of Fanfiction. |
| 366 | ** The GuestStarPartyMember in Chapter 7, before it is revealed that he is [[spoiler:Boxxyfan, the BigBad of the first game]]. |
| 367 | * MysteriousWaif: Catie and [[spoiler:Arianna]] are heroic and villainous examples of this trope, respectively. Although Catie’s mystique has died down a bit in-universe since the first game. |
| 368 | * NightmareSequence: Catie suffers from periodic visions of three mysterious, hostile women. [[spoiler:They turn out to be the goddesses, pieces of Catie’s soul, in anguish because of what STORM is doing to the internet.]] |
| 369 | * NoFameNoWealthNoService: The ritzy inn in Wikipedia offers two guest packages: an expensive “Deluxe Pack” and a much cheaper “Discount Pack.” If you take the cheaper option, they’ll shoo you out back into a rat-infested alleyway. |
| 370 | * NoobCave: Digg, an archaeological site found while searching for shipwreck survivors in Chapter 1. Tutorials are offered via safety reminders written to the workers. |
| 371 | * NominalImportance: A unique visual variant: you can easily tell if a character is going to be important by whether or not their eyes blink. |
| 372 | * NonStandardGameOver: |
| 373 | ** If you lose to a few specific enemies, they won’t just kill you immediately. Instead you’ll watch a scene showing what happened next. These enemies are usually based on Creepypastas, and involve a FateWorseThanDeath. |
| 374 | ** [[spoiler:An absolutely ''brutal'' one occurs if you attempt to “spare” Boxxyfan’s breath mask by fleeing instead of attacking it. Let’s just say that Boxxyfan ''really'' doesn’t care for mercy.]] |
| 375 | * NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: Sadly, the Summit ultimately devolves into this. Turns out that putting a bunch of bitter rivals in a room and then asking for an alliance isn’t just going to magically give you one. |
| 376 | * NotSoSafeHarbor: Reddit is sunny and perfectly safe for those with karma… but those without it are forced to live in the dirty, cutthroat alleys of Downvote Lane. When you visit, the first thing you see is an execution, and you’re accosted by a trio of thugs shortly afterwards. |
| 377 | * OneHitKill: The second battle of the game, Catie vs. 3 Tavern Ruffians, the Ruffians can each be taken out with one cast of Catie's Flare. |
| 378 | * OldSchoolBuilding: One of the buildings in /x/ is a creepy old schoolhouse. At first, you can’t enter because a little girl is blocking the doorway, but once she vanishes, you can go inside. After winding through some empty classrooms, you’ll eventually stumble right into an [[Website/SCPFoundation SCP-087 homage]] via an AbsurdlyLongStairway, with an OptionalBoss waiting at the bottom. |
| 379 | * OneSteveLimit: Averted – at least phonetically. The main protagonist is named Catie, while a certain sidequest puts you in control of a girl named Katy. |
| 380 | * OptionalCharacterScene: The first support conversation is mandatory, but the second is dependent on reaching a certain optional side area. In both cases, you get to choose which characters play a part. |
| 381 | * OptionalPartyMember: |
| 382 | ** You get one for completing the Deep Web – [[spoiler:a player avatar with the same name you entered for yourself at the beginning]]. |
| 383 | ** [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Pinkie Pie]] can join you as an EasterEgg, although she’ll only stick around for the Hydra battle. |
| 384 | * OurAngelsAreDifferent: While traditional, feather-winged angels do appear as [=NPCs=], the only character specifically referred to as an angel, [[spoiler:Cracky the Sky Queen]], looks more like a bizarre conglomeration of broken dolls. |
| 385 | * OurDragonsAreDifferent: [[spoiler:They're fragments of an AsteroidsMonster EldritchAbomination, and are trying to put themselves back together.]] |
| 386 | * OurGhostsAreDifferent: In the Lake of Fanfiction, there's a Fisherman Ghost that rents the party a Fishing Rod for use in his room, and also sells Bait at 10 for 30 Karma. |
| 387 | * OverlyLongGag: The cleaning lady sidequest at the Battle Arena, which involves waiting for ''six minutes in real time'' while a load of laundry finishes its cycle. Let’s hope you brought something to read… or some actual laundry to do. |
| 388 | * PartyInMyPocket: Of the "everyone walks out of the hero when it’s time for a cutscene" variety. This is played with once or twice, such as when Catie gets tired of walking and someone else takes over. |
| 389 | * PartyScattering: The team is briefly separated at one point in the Deep Web. After spending the night at a cozy cabin, Catie wakes up to find herself all alone. It turns out the others have all been kidnapped by a group of shapeshifters living in the basement. You get them back one-by-one… if you can identify the fakes. |
| 390 | * PeaceConference: For the first time in history, the communities of the Internet are called together to put aside their differences in the face of a greater threat. [[SubvertedTrope It doesn't even slightly work.]] |
| 391 | * PercentBasedValues: The Virus condition does [1% of Max Health] of DamageOverTime. That is, every 3 steps, when out of battle. |
| 392 | * PermanentlyMissableContent: Oh, yes. Lots and lots of it. Some notable examples include: |
| 393 | ** Several Bitcoins are only available within very small windows. For instance, one can only be reached when Cornelia leaves her bedroom door open during a cutscene. Another requires you to have rum in your inventory when talking to someone at a party. |
| 394 | ** The Fanon party and 4chan code room Inbox missions actually ''go away'' if you don't finish them before beating the main story. Note that clearing every Inbox mission is required to get the best ending. |
| 395 | ** Speaking of the “Epic Souvenir” quest, let’s hope you picked up a glowstick at the Vocaloid concert and remembered to get it signed. If not, say goodbye to the [[spoiler:Sky Abyss]] for that playthrough. |
| 396 | ** If you enter the 4chan code room before visiting Twitch and/or didn't pick up the k ey in Twitch, you'll miss out on getting to fight not_intended, since the key to her door is found in Twitch and you only get to visit both areas once. In turn, you will miss out on the Wayward Spark, which unlocks [[spoiler:a heartfelt conversation with Arianna]] in the normal ending. |
| 397 | * PerpetualStorm: [[spoiler:STORM itself]] generates one of these wherever it goes. [[spoiler:By the endgame, it’s grown to encompass all that remains of the virtual world.]] |
| 398 | * PlanetOfSteves: 4chan. All of its inhabitants are named Anonymous, and all of the Anons are identical. (Except for [[TheSmurfettePrinciple the lone Femanon]], who is pink instead of green, and Slenderman, who is white). Justified as [[spoiler:they are bits of the AsteroidMonster Leigon]]. |
| 399 | * PlantPerson: Mint Leaf in the Sphere, and the four Plant Girls who hold the Sacred Seeds. They’re all involved in the same sidequest. |
| 400 | * PlatformHell: All of the platforming stages are somewhat tricky, but the six bonus trials during the epilogue take it to a level of pure absurdity. New mechanics are thrown at you left and right, and sometimes the physics don't even make sense. You can't stand on moving platforms, for instance. They can only be used as stepping stones. Even players dedicated to 100% completion have admitted to giving up in frustration… ''on the first level''. |
| 401 | * PlayableEpilogue: The story isn’t over when the credits roll. You can keep exploring the Web, and do any quests you haven’t finished up yet, plus a bunch of new ones too, including one that leads to a true final dungeon, TrueFinalBoss, and true ending. |
| 402 | * PlayEveryDay: Parodied. A certain NPC gives you an item, then says she'll give you another if you come back tomorrow… before realizing the game lacks a system clock, so she can't possibly tell when tomorrow comes. |
| 403 | * PlotCouponThatDoesSomething: You spend much of the game running around searching for the [=PasSWORD=], and when you finally get it, you do actually get to use it as a weapon in battles. It even has a unique ability that dispels enemy buffs. |
| 404 | * PointOfNoReturn: Once you board the REACT at the start of Chapter 7, there's no going back until after the credits roll. Thankfully, this is made very clear to you at the time. |
| 405 | * PopQuiz: In the second dungeon, one of the rooms is a quiz that tests your memory about the other rooms and their puzzles. The secret PC ending also starts off with a quiz about some truly obscure aspects of the game. |
| 406 | * PostApocalypticGasmask: The breath masks invented by Janitor. The party uses them when they venture back to the First Internet. [[spoiler:One of them gets left behind, enabling Boxxyfan to survive until the present day.]] |
| 407 | * PostFinalBoss: [[spoiler:After the storm has passed and everything has settled down, Catie still has to go through one more NightmareSequence with the goddesses. But this time, she’s learned a way to turn the tables on them…]] |
| 408 | * PowersAsPrograms: Multiple: |
| 409 | ** There's a wide array of accessories to find, each with a different effect. Some teach the holder new attacks, while others give status immunity, double maximum HP, health regeneration, temporary invisibility, free money… And that’s just scratching the surface. Each party member can only equip one at a time, though, so pick carefully. |
| 410 | ** If you visit the A.I. Labs with Cornelia, she'll get a series of four "Drives" that can change her stats. Want to make her a tank? A FragileSpeedster? A magical powerhouse? Just apply one of the Drives, and then switch it out when you change your mind. |
| 411 | * PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo: Most of the prequel's cast turns up in some way, even if they're only extras. Notably, the only ones who are completely absent are Mason and Crissa, the first game’s two {{Optional Party Member}}s. |
| 412 | * RagtagBunchOfMisfits: At first glance, our heroes sure don’t seem to have much in common. We’ve got Catie, a teenage[[VagueAge (?)]] queen; Anonymous, a faceless trickster from the PlanetOfSteves 4chan; Til, a Tumblr {{Tsundere}} and {{Hikkikomori}}; Eddie, a Wikipedian FishOutOfWater editor and BadassBookworm; Shift, a [=YouTube=] sewer-dwelling thief; Tyalie, a [=GameFAQs=] GenkiGirl and GamerChick with MediumAwareness; Shrimp, a reluctant AuthorAvatar; and Cornelia, a StepfordSmiler and BenevolentAI. Yet somehow, they all manage to get along just fine, [[SnarkToSnarkCombat (for the most part)]]. |
| 413 | * RainbowSpeak: Pops up here and there. Actions in the text (like ''*sigh*'' and ''*gasp*'') are always written in green, and terms related to the First Internet are often written in red. One_Wing, for his part, speaks in solid gold. |
| 414 | * RandomEffectSpell: The "Present?" item, which can do any number of things once opened. Some of the effects are helpful, (like turning enemies into kittens or free gold), while others can backfire, (like restoring enemies to full health and doubling their attack power). |
| 415 | * RandomizedDamageAttack: Katy has an attack that deals a random amount of damage to each enemy. At the end of her quest, Catie is given a reusable item that does the same thing. |
| 416 | * RatStomp: R.A.T.s are the first or second enemy type, the other being Corrupted Data, you’ll encounter in the wild. They’re easy to kill, but their bite can be poisonous. Because a R.A.T. a.k.a "remote access trojan" is a type of virus. |
| 417 | * ReadingsAreOffTheScale: The strength of [[spoiler:STORM]] is so great that it has functionally infinite health, much to our heroes' dismay. |
| 418 | --> '''Eddie:''' [[spoiler:STORM]] is unlike any enemy we've ever seen before. The "HP" scale simply does not apply to it. |
| 419 | * RecurringTraveller: Shrimp and Cornelia's tour group, which shows up in various towns throughout the game. [[spoiler:They all become Overtaken during the endgame, forcing your party to fight them]]. |
| 420 | * ReducedManaCost: A few accessories can lower the RP cost of skills. However, you still need to have the normal amount in order to use those skills in the first place. (For example, if you had a skill that normally cost 100 RP, it would only consume 50 with the accessory, but you would still need at least 100 to cast it). |
| 421 | * ResourceReimbursement: A few accessories cause skills to give back half of their RP cost when used. |
| 422 | * TheReveal: Multiple: |
| 423 | ** [[spoiler:Catie is the one who ended the First Internet in a time travel accident, causing Boxxyfan to turn evil and seek revenge.]] |
| 424 | ** [[spoiler:Anons are all tiny fragments of Legion, an ancient dragon who will reform if The Spire's energy is ever totally gone.]] |
| 425 | ** [[spoiler:Arianna is actually ARPANET, a prototype information sharing network. She’s acting up because the chaotic modern Internet makes her feel like her sacrifice was wasted.]] |
| 426 | ** And from the True Ending… [[spoiler:Catie and the goddesses are all pieces of Virtua; and Virtua and Legion are both halves of the same cyber deity.]] |
| 427 | * RidiculouslyCuteCritter: |
| 428 | ** The Hype Train is staffed entirely by talking frogs and kittens. They speak childishly and seem largely oblivious to the [[ThrillerOnTheExpress murder mystery happening on the train]]. |
| 429 | ** The Turnips in Chapter 6 are ''adorable'', with their derpy little eyes and smiles. The baby turnip/crab hybrid manages to be super cute despite being only a few pixels tall. |
| 430 | * RimShot: |
| 431 | ** A bad joke in Chapter 4 gets one of these. [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall The characters immediately wonder where the hell it came from.]] |
| 432 | ** [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} Sans]] gets one during his cameo in Interstate Town when he makes a pun, [[PungeonMaster as usual]]. |
| 433 | * RiseToTheChallenge: The third and final platforming section in Chapter 6 a frantic climb up an autoscrolling tower, with SpikesOfDoom at the top and bottom of the screen. [[spoiler:This happens yet again during the GameplayRoulette final boss battle.]] |
| 434 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: |
| 435 | ** The Fury status, a mechanic unique to Shrimp and Cornelia. If one goes down in battle, the other's stats will get a massive boost. |
| 436 | ** On a plot-related note, [[spoiler:Boxxyfan is back, and he still hasn't given up his mad thirst for Catie's blood. This time, we actually get to witness what happened to make him this way: the destruction of his home and family due to an accident Catie causes while time traveling.]] |
| 437 | * RunningGag: Multiple: |
| 438 | ** Til's lack of patience with Anon, and her turning his avatar into a frog. |
| 439 | ** Tyalie's constant attempts to [[BefriendingTheEnemy make friends with the bad guys]]. |
| 440 | ** [=GmasterRED=] stealing credit for everything in outlandish ways. |
| 441 | * SatireAndSwitch: The game starts as a lighthearted parody of Internet culture. Somewhere in the middle, it starts building up a mythos and sneaking in more dramatic themes, complete with [[SurprisinglyCreepyMoment surprisingly creepy]] levels. By the end, it's mainly turned into a straight sci-fantasy RPG that just happens to be set in the internet, with some more SurrealHorror on the side. |
| 442 | * SavePoint: Unlike the prequel, saving can only be done at specific “Goddess Statues” found throughout the world. This is Handwaved at the start as being an effect of the Spires running out of energy. |
| 443 | * SaveToken: One sidequest, however, nets you a portable statue that can be used anywhere, but it breaks after one use. TooAwesomeToUse, indeed. (There’s a GuideDangIt way of upgrading it to a version that never breaks, though). |
| 444 | * SchmuckBait: Multiple: |
| 445 | ** At one point in the tutorial dungeon, there’s a large pile of gold surrounded by many bloodstains. This is your introduction to the local flavor of ChestMonster. |
| 446 | ** [[spoiler:In the "battle" with Boxxyfan's breath mask, you might notice that you have the option of running away, tempting you into thinking there may be a pacifist solution. Nope, you just end up getting [[NonStandardGameOver brutally backstabbed]] for your efforts]]. |
| 447 | * SealedEvilInASixPack: [[spoiler:In the past, Legion was defeated by having its soul split into thousands of tiny pieces. None of the pieces are actually sealed, but The Spire's magic keeps them from re-fusing.]] |
| 448 | * SecretDiary: Subverted. The player can find a diary left behind by a girl named Katy, but the opening page ''encourages'' the finder to read it, because Katy wants to share her adventures with others. |
| 449 | * SecretUndergroundPassage: 4chan has quite a lot of them, several of which are necessary to enter the site for the first time. When questioned about this, Anonymous replies that secret entrances are awesome. |
| 450 | * SequelEscalation: |
| 451 | ** In the first game, no enemy ever had more than five digits of health. This time, the TrueFinalBoss has 540,000 HP, and the most difficult {{Superboss}} has a whopping ''790,000''. |
| 452 | ** And that’s not even getting into the scope of the narrative. The first game's plot involved saving one website from Boxxyfan, a moody edgelord guy, and his robot henchmen. Here, we’re facing off against screen-filling [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] bent on consuming all reality (and in one case, it’s not just the virtual kind either), and [[spoiler:Boxxyfan himself has returned with more apocalyptic ambitions- to destroy the entire Internet]]. |
| 453 | * SequelHook: |
| 454 | ** Subverted in the normal ending. After the heroes have saved the Internet, Anonymous brings up that there is SomethingWeForgot. Cut to [[spoiler:Boxxyfan having gained full control over STORM and planning to use it to destory the Internet]], which seems to be setting up a sequel. However, this plot thread is resolved in the PlayableEpilogue through a bonus chapter. |
| 455 | ** Played straight in that the Social Justice Warrior plotline is never fully resolved, and the identity of "Mother", their true leader, is never revealed. The last SJW we see cryptically says that "Everything is going as planned". This turned out to be setting up the DLC, which has Catie fight the [=SJWs=] one last time, discover their true plans, and conclude the plotine. |
| 456 | * SequentialBoss: Several of the endgame bosses are like this, such as Wolfram ALPHA (three phases), the final fight with [[spoiler:Arianna]] (four phases), and [[spoiler:STORM]] (three again). The latter two are smashed very close together, with only a small breather in between. |
| 457 | ** The secret boss not_intended has a second phase when she transforms into Nihilerror. |
| 458 | ** The Chapter 7 boss, [[spoiler: Piece of Legion]], has four phases as it breaks up into Fragments, Shards, and finally Iotas of [[spoiler: Legion]]. |
| 459 | * SexualEuphemism: Before facing three Ruffians in the Reddit Backstreets Bar, when a female Sailor was having some drinks, and a Ruffian [[DudeShesLikeInAComa discussed plans to rape her after she's drunk herself unconscious]]. When the Sailor threatens to fight them, one of the Ruffians says some lines with lampshaded DoubleMeaning: |
| 460 | --> Really? You'd take all three of us at once? Now, that's somethin' that I'd pay to see.\ |
| 461 | ...You know what I'm sayin' don't'cha?\ |
| 462 | [Catie interrupts and talks a little bit with the Sailor]\ |
| 463 | Sorry boys, it looks like I'm gone.\ |
| 464 | But hey, at least you still have each other! |
| 465 | * ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler:Boxxyfan]] dedicates his life to avenging his family’s FateWorseThanDeath, causing untold mayhem all across the virtual world… only to find out that [[spoiler:the curse had worn off on its own, ''twelve minutes'' after he left]]. |
| 466 | * ShipTease: Catie/Tyalie gets a bit of it near the end, as does Anonymous/Til. |
| 467 | * ShooOutTheClowns: [[spoiler:In the final act, the quirky supporting cast gets taken out just in time for Legion to show up.]] |
| 468 | * ShoutOut: Has its [[ShoutOut/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm very own page]]. |
| 469 | * SinisterSubway: There’s a ghostly subway platform hidden beneath the [=DeviantART=] train station, filled with shades waiting for a train that never comes. A valuable item is found down there, but the location itself is never explained. |
| 470 | * SnakePeople: Users from Instagram resemble Lamias. |
| 471 | * SomethingWeForgot: In TheStinger, Anon and Catie can't help but feel like they've missed an important detail... Cut to [[spoiler:Boxxyfan revealing that he OutGambitted everyone and now controls STORM.]] Oops. |
| 472 | * SoundTest: The Sound Test Siblings. Their house becomes available in the postgame. |
| 473 | * SprintShoes: The aptly-named Speedy Shoes, which allow you to run twice as fast by holding down the Shift key. |
| 474 | * SquishyWizard: A badge in Tv Tropes makes this allows the wearer to become one, raising their INT and RP at the cost of their HP and DEF. |
| 475 | * StarterEquipment: Catie starts with a Byte Staff, her "Catie's Tiara", and a Mooninites T-shirt. |
| 476 | * StealthBasedMission: Breaking out of the [=YouTube=] jail means sneaking past several patrolling guards. Subverted in the following dungeon, though – if you want the elevator keycards, you ''have'' to get spotted by the guards. |
| 477 | * StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: Amusingly, users of TV Tropes like to speak in Troper terms... as a Tourist points out, [[GotMeDoingIt while citing this very trope by name]]. |
| 478 | * StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: So you find a tunnel called "The Passage of the Hateful Reliquary." As soon as you step inside, disembodied voices implore you to turn back, saying things like “It is hungry,” and “You will be consumed.” At the end of the passage, you see a bunch of statues huddled around a ''massive'' treasure chest. They attack you, saying “It must not awaken.” When they're defeated, you're free to open the chest, but does that ''really'' sound like a good idea? Doesn't matter, because you have to do it anyway to beat the Deep Web. |
| 479 | * StylisticSuck: The "Shifted Spires" series of in-game novels. Pretty much all of the "bad fanfic" clichés turn up at some point, from RougeAnglesOfSatin to the gradual hijacking of the plot by a ParodySue. Also doubles as a case of creator SelfDeprecation. |
| 480 | * SuicideDare: A Social Justice Warrior gives one to the heroes inside the tower. |
| 481 | -->[[BlatantLies Gentle reminder]] that if you've made it this far, then you're scum and should jump off the tower. [[{{Emoticon}} :)]] |
| 482 | * SummonBackupDancers: The Funky Infoshade has an attack with this exact name. It summons four regular Infoshades to fight by his side. |
| 483 | * SurprisinglyCreepyMoment: Initially, this looks to be another innocuous meme game like its predecessor ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheShiftedSpires''; though not without drama and intrigue, it is mainly a satire of Internet culture. But the game is significantly DarkerAndEdgier, and has a habit of setting up areas to be innocuous only to reveal the terror within, with plenty of SurrealHorror, multiple cases of FateWorseThanDeath, {{Ominous Visual Glitch}}es, a secret character named Amelie and her creepy hidden churchyard, and other things. These are just a few of the most prominent areas: |
| 484 | ** The first time the darker nature of the game becomes apparent is in the end of Chapter 3, where [[spoiler:Wikipedia]] is destroyed and a bizarre colorful void is left in its place, while it's citizens are turned into the Overtaken, big zombie-like monsters that are tough to fight at the level you are. |
| 485 | ** /x/ is an area visited after the funny 4chan, so it looks like it will be a parody of {{Creepypasta}} (which originated there), but nope, it is a straightforward tribute with scary monsters, a dark atmosphere of dread throughout, SurrealHorror, and quite a bit of gore. |
| 486 | ** The Tower of Plot is in the middle of the humorous [=GameFAQs=] area and starts with a peaceful village, so it looks to be nothing bad. But even before you enter, a kid is crying because his father went in and disappeared. The Tower has a secret area home to Lady Ny'agai, who turns innocent children into Ny'agai, villagers that decide to BurnTheWitch and then turn into skeletons who case you, and a silly war plotline that still ends with bloodshed no matter what you do. |
| 487 | ** The Deep Web, after the catacombs, opens to what looks like a generic lava dungeon, but soon becomes the most unsettling place in the game, with terrifying enemies and bosses, a dreary town filled with people [[AndIMustScream cursed to stand still like statues]], and references to dark legends of the Deep Web like the Lolita Slave Doll story (with you even being attacked by living {{Murderous Mannequin}}s) and child trafficking. |
| 488 | * SurrealHorror: The game drifts deeper into this the further you stray from the main plot. /x/, which is mandatory, has several optional areas filled with unexplainable monsters, especially the house with the doll which loops over and over again and has things like faceless copies of your party members. The [[BonusDungeon Deep Web]] is filled with nightmarish enemies, like huge skeletal mantises and the giant floating head of a little girl that's [[EyesDoNotBelongThere unraveling into a mass of eyes]]. Then there's the many hidden rooms sprinkled throughout the game, like Ny'agai Street and the haunted subway platform, that seem to exist purely for the sake of being utterly weird. And the secret "[[GainaxEnding PC Ending]]" calls the game's entire setting into question in the freakiest way possible. In short, if you follow the plot and don't get lost, then you'll mostly have a grand old time; but if you wander off the path, you might end up in a totally different, much creepier type of game. |
| 489 | * SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity: If you see a save statue and an RP chest in the same place, it means a boss battle is just up ahead. If there's also a nearby cache of healing items, it will be a tough fight. |
| 490 | * SwordOfPlotAdvancement: The [=PasSWORD=]. Reforging it is the party's main goal at first, and finally obtaining it marks a major turning point in the story. |
| 491 | * TalkingInYourSleep: Before Catie leaves the Sphere, there's a Sleeping Guard in the guards' supply shed. When interacted with, he says: |
| 492 | -->Hrnng... Just five more minutes, mama... |
| 493 | * TakeThat: Basically every website gets slammed for ''something''. |
| 494 | ** Website/{{Reddit}}'s voting system gets dragged through the mud. |
| 495 | ** So does Website/GameFAQs' heavy-handed moderation. |
| 496 | ** And Website/FourChan's ''lack'' of moderation. |
| 497 | ** Chapter 4 is basically one big Take That at career [=YouTubers=] who exploit their fans, WebVideo/RayWilliamJohnson and LetsPlay/PewDiePie chief among them (who are the {{Arc Villain}}s of the area using thier popularity to lord over the populace), as well as the [=YouTube=] executives and business people who mismanage the site, banning people for no reason among other things. |
| 498 | ** In [=GameFAQs=], the player is sent to collect four orbs, each related to an aspect of video games: plot, puzzles, platforming, and PlayerVersusPlayer combat. The first three are at the end of a long and complex system of dungeons. The last one is sitting in a random field outside of town being guarded by a ''literal baby''. |
| 499 | ** The Social Justice Warriors, a group of recurring antagonists, mock people who use "social justice" as an excuse to be bullies. Notably, the leaders of the cult are parodies of [[WebVideo/FeministFrequency Anita Sarkeesian]], WebVideo/LaciGreen, and [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/DepressionQuest Zoe Quinn]]]]. |
| 500 | ** In one town, there's an entire building dedicated to poking fun at erotic [[GameMod Game Mods]] and the people who make them. |
| 501 | ** Even Catie Wayne herself isn't immune. At one point, a stab is made at her time with Animalist, an animal-themed web show network run by Creator/DiscoveryChannel. |
| 502 | * TakeYourTime: The game's lengthiest BonusDungeon, the Deep Web, becomes available as the Internet is literally ending. The world may be falling apart at the seams, but she can explore that random dark temple for a few hours. |
| 503 | * TemporaryPartyMemberToVillain: Chapter 7 sends the party back in time to the First Internet, where they meet [[MyNameIsQuestionMarks ???]], who becomes a party member. At the end of the chapter, it turns out that ??? is a pre-FaceHeelTurn Boxxyfan, the overall BigBad of the series, and we see the moment he is driven to seek revenge against Catie for accidentally destroying his home. |
| 504 | * ThrillerOnTheExpress: The Hype Train turns into yet another homage to Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress, much to Anon's chagrin. [[spoiler:Though subverted as the guy was FakingTheDead purely [[ItAmusedMe as a joke]]]]. |
| 505 | --> '''Anonymous:''' I know how this works, huh? I've seen the movies. That guy got killed, and one of the people on the train did it. It'll be up to us to solve the case before the train reaches [=GameFAQs=] in two days. That's stress I don't need right now. |
| 506 | * TimeLimitBoss: Wolfram BETA has a five-minute time limit before it self-destructs, taking the Wayback Machine (and the party) out with it. |
| 507 | * ToBeContinuedRightNow: TheStinger midway through the credits is presented as a {{cliffhanger}}, presumably [[SequelHook setting up the events of another sequel]]. Then you learn there's a whole epilogue chapter dedicated to resolving that storyline. |
| 508 | * TooAwesomeToUse: Multiple: |
| 509 | ** The Goddess Statue, a portable save point that breaks after one use. (There’s a way to trade it for an unbreaking version, but you're not told this anywhere). |
| 510 | ** The Purity Crystal, a Megalixer-type curative given to you just before the final dungeon. The DevelopersRoom implies it was added at the last minute, specifically to invoke this trope. |
| 511 | * TournamentArc: If you head straight to the arena after it becomes night in Chapter 4, you can participate in an underground fighting tournament. Several of the battles have gimmicks not seen anywhere else in the game. |
| 512 | * TownWithADarkSecret: /x/ is more like a pile of Dark Secrets with a town hastily thrown on top. Every single building in that Goddesses-forsaken village is hiding some kind of Nightmare Fuel. |
| 513 | * TraintopBattle: The DuelBoss against Tyalie in Chapter 6 takes place atop a moving train. |
| 514 | * TraumaInn: The inn in Tv Tropes is literally called this. |
| 515 | * {{Transflormation}}: This is the fate that befalls anyone caught in the wrong Internet without a breath mask. [[spoiler:It happens to Boxxyfan's family, leading to his FaceHeelTurn. Later on, during the finale, he flips the script on Catie and her allies. Subverted, since the effect only lasts for twelve minutes.]] |
| 516 | * TreacherousCheckpoint: A trio of treacherous save statues. |
| 517 | ** The first one shows up during your stealthy escape from the [=YouTube=] jail, and using it alerts the nearby guards to your presence (Subverted, in that doing this is actually necessary to progress). |
| 518 | ** The second one appears in the final dungeon, and triggers a draconic security system to come and kick your ass. This time, the trap is entirely skippable if you know it’s there. |
| 519 | ** In the DLC, [[spoiler:Alwaysland 2 has yet another draconic security system on room 39, and it's a souped-up version of the previous one]]. |
| 520 | * TrollBridge: An Overtaken is standing over a bridge in the Firewall and guards it, preventing the heroes from going further until they beat it. The Troper even lampshades this. |
| 521 | * {{Tulpa}}: Fandom characters such as [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime Finn, Jake]] and [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic the Pony Princesses]] are explicitly explained as being Tulpas of fandom. |
| 522 | * TrueFinalBoss: [[spoiler:The Legion Singularity, an apocalyptic amalgamation of Legion and STORM.]] You fight it by clearing all the Inbox quests and unlocking the [[spoiler:Sky Abyss]]. |
| 523 | * TwentyBearAsses: One sidequest involves helping a farmer regain his crops’ missing texture files, which were stolen by a local enemy type. It takes thirteen files to save the farm, and they’re randomly dropped about 30% of the time, so get ready for around forty battles on average. |
| 524 | * TwinkleInTheSky: [=RayWilliamJohnson=] becomes one when he's defeated in Chapter 4. |
| 525 | * UncomfortableElevatorMoment: In the SJW base, when Catie and her party go inside the elevator to the third floor, a Social Justice Warrior jumps in with them. They spend time awkwardly discussing if they’re gonna fight or not, and the SJW brings up how she is headed to the cafeteria to eat vegan sushi (which she dislikes, but the group has a strict vegan policy). |
| 526 | * UndergroundMonkey: The enemies in Alwaysland are just {{palette swap}}s with more health and the word “Alwaysland” in front of their names. It gets a bit egregious when you start running into “Alwaysland” versions of specific characters like [=PewDiePie=]. |
| 527 | * UnexpectedGameplayChange: Ninety percent of the game plays out like a normal RPG, but occasionally you'll be thrown into a platformer level or some other type of minigame. These tend to happen more often toward the climax, and the FinalBoss fight is intersped with these. And in the DLC, [[spoiler:Rcoastee is fought via this rather than traditional combat]]. |
| 528 | * UniqueEnemy: The Vigil Keeper, encountered in a random, unremarkable hallway within the Deep Web. The lantern-tipped staff he randomly drops is implied to be some kind of ArtifactOfDoom responsible for keeping him alive, but that just raises further questions. |
| 529 | * UniversalPoison: Subverted. There are actually two poison status effects - Virus and Awful Virus. The inexpensive antidote for the former has no effect at all on the latter. |
| 530 | * VerbalTic: Anonymous has one of these, huh? |
| 531 | * VerbingNouny: This game's title. [[spoiler:One of the antagonists is called STORM, and people are gathering to fight it.]] |
| 532 | * TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: |
| 533 | ** For the main story, it’s [[spoiler:Her World, Arianna’s twisted creation beyond the Firewall]]. |
| 534 | ** For the post game, it’s the [[spoiler:Sky Abyss]]. |
| 535 | * VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: In-universe, [=GmasterRED=] has turned the plot of both games into stories- a five volume novel for the original and play for the sequel- but revisions it in a way that completely contradicts what actually happened, most notably [[FakeUltimateHero turning himself into the hero]] instead of Catie, the actual protagonist. |
| 536 | ** The events of ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheShiftedSpires'' are mostly accurate initially, but from volume 3 onward, [=GmasterRED=] makes everything overdramatic and has Eyrev turn into a generic evil dragon, then depicts himself slaying the dragon and BigBad Boxxyfan in an epic battle. |
| 537 | ** His play based on the sequel is a musical, has himself once again take credit for Catie's heroism, turns the normal Tumblr girl Til into ''[[GratuitousPrincess Princess]]'' Til, a generic [[PrincessClassic sweet and shy princess]] who enters a RescueRomance with him (when the real Til is [[{{Tsundere}} abrasive]], adventureous, and [[spoiler:enters a relationship with Anonymous]]), and turns [[spoiler:Arianna]], the AntiVillain and BigBad, into a WickedWitch with "alien motives and [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade no redeeming qualities]]". |
| 538 | * VillainOverride: [[spoiler:Just when Arianna seems ready to back down, Boxxyfan's code takes over and forces her to keep fighting, with tragic results.]] |
| 539 | * VirtualRealityWarper: Hackers like Anonymous can change other people's avatars and perform WeatherManipulation, for example. |
| 540 | * VoluntaryShapeshifter: The Phisher tribe, who each mimic one of the playable characters; and their king, who cycles through all of them during his fight. |
| 541 | * WackyWaysideTribe: The Tower of Plot includes a run-in with two of these. A tribe of talking crabs and a tribe of talking turnips, locked in a forever feud with each other. Catie is the “tall goddess” prophesied to end the war in favor of one side or the other. |
| 542 | * WaitingPuzzle: One of the puzzles in [[spoiler:Her World]] involves waiting in a small, empty space for nearly a minute. |
| 543 | * WalkingSwimsuitScene: Any scene can become this once you buy the swimsuit – it lets you toggle between normal and beach clothes at will, and the effect sticks even in cutscenes. |
| 544 | * WarmupBoss: The gang of Tavern Ruffians in Reddit. They’re pushovers, but they can poison you, (the first use of status effects), and they outnumber you three to one. |
| 545 | * WarpWhistle: The Google Gem, which provides fast travel back to any site you’ve visited before, by way of a [=Mode7=] world map. |
| 546 | * WhamEpisode: Multiple: |
| 547 | ** All of Chapter 7, “The Story of Us.” [[spoiler:Not only do we finally learn the origin of Boxxyfan’s madness, but we learn that it was Catie’s fault, as her mere presence in the First Internet is what caused the calamity that ended it. We also get our first real hints at Catie’s origin, and see the three goddesses fuse into her. Finally we learn that Anonymous – all of them – are fragments of a shattered [[BeastOfTheApocalypse Apocalypse Beast]], who is still aware of himself and determined to recombine.]] |
| 548 | ** The Sky Abyss ending. [[spoiler:We finally learn the truth about Catie: that she and the goddesses are all pieces of Virtua - a deity that existed in cyberspace long before humans arrived, and Legion’s counterpart. Boxxyfan attacks with STORM in tow, taking out most of the party. Some Anons below get caught in the crossfire, which ends up AWAKENING LEGION, who hijacks STORM and ends up FUSING WITH IT, birthing an EldritchAbomination called the Legion Singularity. When all seems lost, Arianna shows back up, having survived her DisneyDeath, and performs a HeelFaceTurn. And then… and then, as if that somehow wasn’t enough, it’s revealed that LEGION AND VIRTUA WERE ONCE THE SAME ENTITY, and that Catie’s power is all Legion needs to invade the real world. Only Catie, Arianna, and Boxxyfan, three mortal enemies turned sudden allies, stand in his way.]] |
| 549 | * WhamLine: |
| 550 | ** After battling an AsteroidsMonster down to its smallest form: |
| 551 | ---> '''Tyalie:''' [[spoiler:So this means... Anonymous is Legion?]] |
| 552 | ** Arianna revealing the truth about herself: |
| 553 | ---> '''Arianna:''' [[spoiler:My name... My TRUE name... It's ''ARPANET''.]] |
| 554 | ** The Pale Wraith giving a vital clue to his true identity: |
| 555 | ---> '''Pale Wraith:''' [[spoiler:It's been a long time, hasn't it... [[AccidentalMisnaming Cate?]]]] |
| 556 | * WhenIWasYourAge: From an Old Man in the Sphere before Catie leaves: |
| 557 | --> Listen to those kids over there, arguing about their shiny new gear and accessories...\ |
| 558 | Back in my day, we didn't have all this fancy-schmancy customization nonsense. We had ten accessory slots, and all they did was change your stats.\ |
| 559 | [flashing yellow and orange lines going out from his head]\ |
| 560 | ... And it was fun, damn it! |
| 561 | * WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: [[spoiler:The True Ending gives us one of these, showing what each member of the party did with their vacation.]] |
| 562 | * WindmillScenery: The entrance to /x/ is marked by an old, lonely windmill. Naturally, the chapter’s climax involves going inside. |
| 563 | * WingedHumanoid: The seven key siblings are easy to identify because they all have wings. One of the tourists in Shrimp’s group also has them. |
| 564 | * WishingWell: The eBuy department store has one. The narrator gets increasingly sardonic the more coins you throw into it. |
| 565 | * WorldHealingWave: [[spoiler:After securing the backups and banishing STORM, Til and Anonymous rig up a system to undo the damage caused by the terrible machine. The others are suitably impressed by their hacking skills.]] |
| 566 | --> '''Anonymous:''' That wasn't hacking. [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory1 It was scripting, with style]]. |
| 567 | * WorldOfSnark: It’s the Internet; there's no way it ''wasn’t'' going to be this. |
| 568 | * WorthlessTreasureTwist: Subverted in the Katy's Diary sidequest, where the great treasure of the Buzzfeed Bay Temple turns out to be... [[spoiler:a spork]]. Which is actually an item that you can use against enemies to hit them for a random amount of damage, making it a ''very'' useful item against enemies that can go into Blink status (which raises their Evasion, making them harder to hit) - the item completely ignores Evasion. |
| 569 | ---- |
| 570 | '''''"STORM! Fire the reversion pulse!"''''' |
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