Ire is the hotheaded champion of Lassla village, who wishes for adventure outside of his home. He soon gets his wish when he convinces Leed, the chosen of the Light Elf, to recruit him in the quest to seal the Dark Elf and restore balance to the continent of Elwes. Unfortunately, the Abyss Empire is being controlled by the Dark Elf and the emperor is brainwashed into thinking that he must conquer the continent to bring peace, meaning Ire will have to betray his country in order to complete this mission.
Gameplay-wise, Conviction plays like Langrisser in that powerful commanders lead scores of weaker troops, who receive stat bonuses by being in the commanders' command range. If a commander falls, their troops will immediately flee from the battlefield, but EXP is only rewarded for killed units rather than retreated units. All campaigns are one-time events, meaning the player has to strike a balance between killing a lot of troops and killing enemy commanders quickly.
Not to be confused with the 2006 TV series or the 2016 TV series.
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This work contains examples of:
- Anti-Grinding: Support spells can generate EXP for the caster, but only up to turn 15, preventing them from spamming support spells to max their levels. Maps cannot be replayed, so it's important to make the most out of each chapter in terms of kill-based EXP.
- Big Bad: The Dark Elf possessed Emperor Abyss and brainwashed him into thinking the only way to bring peace to the continent of Elwes is to conquer all other countries.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ending A, "Elven Torchbearer," results in the Dark Elf being sealed, but at the cost of Leed's life. The party continues maintaining the balance between light and dark in his name and manage to fend off all attempts at assassinating them. The ending can be either sweeter or bitterer depending on whether or not Grace was spared in chapter 19A.
- The Chosen One: Leed is the chosen one of the Light Elf while Emperor Abyss III is the chosen of the Dark Elf. Additionally, Jing, Snow and Lilith are the Three Magi who are destined to help Leed seal the Dark Elf.
- Difficulty Levels: The game has Normal and Hard modes, with the latter being the original difficulty and the former being implemented because people found the original game too hard.
- Early Game Hell: The early game only allows the player access to infantry and priest classes and troops, making it hard to move across the map quickly or deal with a variety of enemy types. By the mid-game, the player will have more variety, but the abundance of speed-based objectives can make most of the campaigns difficult. The last four chapters of route A are standard campaigns with no speed-based objectives or NPCs to protect, making them less frantic than many of the earlier chapters.
- Evolving Title Screen: After beating the game once, the title screen art will change to include all playable characters, including the Abyss Empire generals.
- Fighting from the Inside: Emperor Abyss is the boss of chapter 12A, but it's possible to weaken his defenses by getting Jing near him, causing him to hesitate in fighting his own daughter. Whether or not this event is triggered, he'll teleport away and return to being fully under the Dark Elf's influence afterwards. Sadly, by chapter 20A, Abyss is completely consumed by the Dark Elf, who begins speaking through his body.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- In chapter 12A, the Archbishop sacrifices his life to cast Meteorite on Emperor Abyss, forcing the latter to retreat.
- In ending A, Leed and the Three Magi are unable to seal the Dark Elf through normal means, so Leed sacrifices his life in order to complete the seal.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: When Jing is recruited, she has no memories of her past life, but inexplicably knows how to use magic and cook. In chapter 12A, she remembers that she's Emperor Abyss's daughter and tries to convince him to stand down.
- King Incognito: Byin is actually the prince of Landar Kingdom, but dresses as a mercenary in order to accompany Leed.
- Knight Templar: Thanks to the Dark Elf's influence, Emperor Abyss believes he has to conquer the continent in order to put an end to all wars and create a utopia. Some of his subordinates learn that he's the chosen one of the Dark Elf, but convince themselves that he'll be able to control the Dark Elf and therefore they should follow his commands, despite all evidence that he's gone mad due to the elf's influence.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: If Grace is reduced to one HP in chapter 19A, he will insist on fighting to the end, but one of his subordinates will force him to retreat for his own safety.
- Kung-Fu Wizard: Emperor Abyss fights with his fists in combat animations despite wielding axes and swords in his status screen. In chapter 20A, he'll have the Meteorite spell.
- Magikarp Power: Mages are much harder to level up than other units, since their AOE magic deals low damage and they don't get much EXP for casting support spells. Additionally, characters cannot move and cast magic in the same turn, making it hard for mages to catch up to physical units. However, if they're promoted enough, mages can learn all kinds of powerful AOE offense and support spells. They also have access to good endgame staves that boost their range and damage further, allowing them to cherry tap several enemy squads at once. Some advanced mage classes have access to slingers, giving them more ranged options outside of spells and making it easier for them to steal kills.
- Multiple Endings: The game is set to have multiple endings depending on which factions Ire ends up in. Currently, only Endings A (Torchbearer) and B (Overlord) are fully available on an English run, with C (Empire) and D (Kingdom) being partially translated.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Generals Grace and Stan are honorable warriors, but they both follow Emperor Abyss despite the evidence showing that their liege is responsible for the recent monster attacks. Subverted for Grace in the B route, who joins the party to fight both the emperor and Landar Kingdom.
- New Game Plus: After beating the game once, the game will remember how many times the player cleared it and will allow them to choose a late-game item to bring into the next run.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Despite Byin's warnings about revealing his hometown, Ire constantly declares himself the champion of Lassla village. This results in tragedy when General Angelii retaliates against him by seeking out Lassla and killing most of its residents.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Of the three starting characters, Leed, Byin, and Ire fit the nice, mean, and in-between roles respectively. Leed is the most patient and altruistic, Byin is grouchy but well-meaning, and Ire is hotblooded but rarely malicious.
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Nintendo Hard: The gameplay is based on Langrisser, but the player has little unit variety in the beginning and enemies tend to get more advanced troops faster than the player can. By the time the player can promote and use a greater variety of troops, most of the missions are going to have speed-based objectives such as rescuing NPC units, making it important to use turns optimally. Since campaigns are one-time only, it easy to end up with underleveled characters if the party doesn't spread enemy kills evenly. - Pet the Dog: Stan the Bloody is one of Abyss's generals and looks like a wild brute, but he cares for several kittens and retreats from a battle he was otherwise likely to win in order to save them.
- Player Personality Quiz: Similer to its inspiration, the game begins with a series of questions that affect Ire's starting stats, spells, and equipment. Some answers also affect his reputation with certain factions, and it's impossible to access their respective routes without some of these starting boosts, though the player can re-take the quiz before starting their run if they're unsatisfied with the result.
- Pragmatic Villainy: While Emperor Abyss has no problems killing clergymen who stand in the way of his goals, he disapproves of Angelii's massacre of Lassla, since the empire gains nothing from it and the villagers are still valuable laborers. He only forgives her after learning that the village champion betrayed the empire.
- Pure Is Not Good: Downplayed. In route A, Emperor Abyss tries to grant the Dark Elf's power to Grace, but the latter has no desire for personal power, so he unwittingly rejects the Dark Elf and doesn't even know the entity tried to possess him. Even Leed, the chosen of the Light Elf, struggled to resist the Dark Elf's influence. Unfortunately, Grace is still an antagonist because he's blindly loyal to the emperor. However, if Grace is killed, he'll admit that he did harbor jealousy towards Yuri, but not enough to be corrupted by the Dark Elf.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Snow's father, Ubaldo, is killed early in the game to show that many innocents are going to die in the group's conflict with the Abyss Empire.
- Sealed Good in a Can: The Dark Elf sealed two of the Three Magi, Jing and Snow, into stasis to make Leed's quest to find them harder.
- So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: Averted in chapter 19A. Yuri will leave the party either to chase after Grace or grieve over Grace's death, depending on whether the latter was spared. Either way, he returns his equipment to the party's inventory.
- Summon Magic: Some classes can learn magic that summons additional troops, though these spells tend to be expensive in terms of MP. Huffy Hoof's Chest hair allows the wearer to summon Huffy, regardless of class, again for a large MP cost.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors:
- Like in Langrisser, infantry units are good against lancers, who are good against cavalry, who are good against infantry.
- There are some one-sided advantages, such as priests being good against undead and archers being good against flyers. However, unit types with no type disadvantages tend to have lower stats to compensate. Archers and slingers are also very weak at close-range to make up for their long-ranged attacks.
- Take Up My Sword: In Ending A, Leed sacrifices himself to seal the Dark Elf and passes the role of the Light Elf's chosen one to Ire, along with the responsibility to maintain the balance of Elwes.
- Token Evil Teammate: Downplayed because the Abyss Empire is the main antagonistic force. Angelii is the worst of the empire's generals even before taking in the Dark Elf's power. Unlike Grace, Stan, and Emperor Abyss, she has no altruistic motive other than power and has no moral restraints in her battle tactics, to the point where she's willing to injure her own troops just to attack her enemies with a rock trap. After her first defeat, she destroys Lassla out of spite for Ire, which disturbed Stan.
- Unstable Equilibrium: Since campaigns are limited, it's important to squeeze as much EXP out of every chapter as possible by killing non-commanders to get extra EXP. Failure to get a lot of EXP will make it harder to kill non-commanders efficiently in future campaigns, making it harder to level up and promote. This, along with the mage units' low stats, makes it hard to level up mages as efficiently as melee units.
