Video Game / Diver Down

Reality is just a memory

"A blade can cut
A fire can incinerate
But only a mind can truly destroy."

— Chapter Intro

Diver Down is an indie freeware RPG (Available for download here) in the style of traditional Eastern RPGs. However, where the game truly shines is its story, where it shows that even freeware games certainly can tell intricate and involving stories, and arguably puts many commercial RPGs to shame in storytelling.

This game provides examples of:

• Anti-Hero: Drek is a Pragmatic Hero, at times becoming Unscrupulous Hero, willing to do anything to survive, but still sympathetic and occasionally heroic.
• Art Shift: The artist never finished the final cutscenes.
• Badass Cape: Drek.
• Blood Knight: Gerret turns into this by the end of Act 2.
• The Caligula: King Bester, who is paranoid and entirely unwilling to listen to reason (perhaps justified due to a recent assassination attempt). Actually, he's a literal puppet of the Evil Chancellor.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Jherga.
• Combat Pragmatist: Drek in the cutscenes. Setting fire to furniture, stabbing unarmed men, using his enemies as a human shield against explosions... Anything and everything he can do to stay alive.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: Drek, by becoming a Combat Pragmatist.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Jea.

• The Good Chancellor: King Bester's chancellor, who appears to support Drek's claims of innocence and tries to convince the King he is not a threat. Not that this helps Drek much, but it's the thought that counts. Subverted in the end, where he turns out to be The Man Behind the Man, controlling the robot king. He's also the Final Boss.
• Guide Dang It!: The entire first half of the game is filled to the brim with puzzles that are not only convoluted to solve, but there's effectively zero hints or explanations for how to even get started on figuring them out, requiring either brute-force trial-and-error or looking up a guide.
• Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: Some dungeons don't even have a boss at all.
• Identity Amnesia: Drek has this in spades. The only clues to his identity are off-hand comments by dying allies and enemies, leading him on a chase across Continents and through countless cities, meeting men who all know him, but who he does not remember in the slightest, all trying to manipulate or kill him. And he still doesn't remember who's who or who to trust.
• Level Grinding: Not enforced and possibly not even expected, but significantly increasing just your Hit Points makes the game unbelievably easier.
• Luck-Based Mission: Certain dungeons can feel like this, especially in the first act, and generally depends on how frequent the Random Encounters are. You can either get none for half the dungeon, or one every four steps. You are also unlikely to have the resources to survive more than two or three.
  • The random encounters themselves often vary wildly in difficulty, as well. You can either get one monster or five. Yes, really. You can breeze through a dungeon as long as you don't get any gigantic encounters, or have to glue yourself to the nearest healing point if you get groups of 4-5. This is on top of the wildly variable chances of getting encounters in the first place.
• Magic Knight: Kraken.
• The Medic: Drek has this skillset, oddly enough.
  • Laurana is a straighter example.

• Poor Communication Kills: The end of Act 2, oh so much. Possible overlap with Idiot Ball — people should have heard the commotion going on and popped in before Domino teleported away. The universe seemed to try and contrive the worst situation possible for Drek for no reason there.
• Powered Armor: The Shift Guards.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: The ythpin, to an extent. Rather odd, considering they're the frailest species in the world.
• Random Encounters: Very frequent and difficult to survive in the beginning. You will hate 'em.
• So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: Happens all the time. Save often, and strip everything off your party members if you think they're about to leave.
• Squishy Wizard: Jea. Oh God, Jea.
  • Also Laurana, to a lesser extent.
• Status Buff: Gerret specializes in these.

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