Wow, he really jumped off the cliff.
Endeavor
is a game about a dwarf trying to uncover an ancient secret. Or maybe it's about exploring, climbing, and swimming. Or perhaps it's about collecting power-ups and treasure. Or possibly it's just about killing things. In this platformer-style Metroidvania adventure flash game, a dwarf who appears to be even smaller than his fellow dwarves falls off of his mountain and into a Magical Land called Aje'le. Upon his descent, he is encountered by a deity named MALOR, asking him for a little favor. That being to collect all of ten (or eleven if the player feels like being an overachiever) gems so that MALOR is given enough power to send the little dwarf back home, which seems to be the only way to ascend.It has a prequel of sorts called Summit.
This game contains examples of:
- Ambiguous Gender: MALOR, due to being nothing but a disembodied voice in a temple. In-game characters refer to MALOR as "it".
- all lowercase letters: The game's title is all lower case in the title screen, as well as both Kongregate and Newgrounds.
- All the Other Reindeer: The protagonist is treated terribly by his neighbourhood for being smaller than the others, and is even prompted by one to go jump off the cliff. Their attitude worsens during the 'Pawn' ending, where the protagonist unwittingly helped the Big Bad. Only in the 'Hero' ending does the protagonist earn their respect.
- Ancestral Weapon: The main character's family sword.
- Big Bad: MALOR is an evil deity that terrorized the world in the past, and needs to be killed.
- Collection Sidequest: Can you step on all the flowers?
- Deal with the Devil: The Deep One can grant your wish if you slay ten creatures and bring their souls to him.
- Death Mountain: The mountain where the dwarf lives is to the west, while the volcano is to the east.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Among the various endings, the Golden Ending is easily the most difficult.
- Fetch Quest:
- MALOR wants you to collect ten gems before it can take you home.
- The Deep One wants you to collect ten souls before he can take you home.
- An NPC near the snowy mountain wants you to bring them a pearl from the sea. Help them out, and they'll reward you with a gem-detecting radar.
- Fountain of Youth: There's a fruit that makes the fallen one forever youthful. In-game, it provides infinite stamina.
- Golden Ending: Requires some cleverness.
- He Who Fights Monsters: MALOR points this out in the Savage ending. Since the dwarf is a cold-blooded murderer at this point, his killing of MALOR does nothing to eradicate the evil from the world.
- Hidden Elf Village: The dwarves live in an isolated cavern on top of a very tall mountain. It is so hard to reach that some inhabitants of Aje'le don't even know they're up there.
- Hub Level: Collecting a gem causes it to appear near MALOR's temple, and you can use it to teleport to the place where you found it. Collect all the gems, and you will be able to teleport anywhere.
- Im Dying Please Take My Macguffin: The plot is kicked off when the dwarf receives a message from his dead parent, telling him to find the treasure that his family has kept hidden in the mountain.
- It's All Upstairs From Here: Along the way back up to your mountain.
- Lethal Lava Land: Two of the gems are found in a volcano. Though to be fair, it's not really lethal since the character never dies.
- Made of Iron: Nothing in the game can kill the protagonist. Running out of air underwater merely forces him back to the surface, and falling from a mountain only leaves him dazed for a few seconds.
- Manipulative Bastard: MALOR's weakened form attempts to trick and coax people into helping it. In the "Pawn" ending, it succeeds.
- Metroidvania: The first upgrades are jump and endurance, required to exit the starting area. Later upgrades make it easier to explore, such as flippers to swim, a parachute to slow descent, climbing gloves to grab ledges, and an attack.
- Mineral MacGuffin: The ten plus one gems, whom MALOR wants you to collect.
- Multiple Endings
- Pawn: You find enough gems to restore power to MALOR, who then brings you back home. Upon finding the family sword, you learn that MALOR was a Sealed Evil in a Can, and you just broke the seal. Cue the apocalypse.
- Savage: Instead of helping MALOR, you get help from the Deep One, who sends you home after you slay ten creatures and offer their souls to him. You find the family sword and use it to slay MALOR, but at the cost of many innocent lives.
- Hero: Instead of helping MALOR, you decide to climb back up the mountain yourself. It's a lot of work, but you manage to find the family sword and kill MALOR with it, with no shady deals involved.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The hero blames himself after reaching either of the bad endings, either for helping the evil deity back to power, or for murdering ten innocent creatures to sate the Deep One.
- Never Accepted in His Hometown: The main character is ostracized for being smaller and weaker than the other dwarves, although if you get the Hero ending, then his reception is definitely warmer than the other possibilities.
- Not the Fall That Kills You…: Hitting the ground at high speed is the only way to injure yourself. If you use a ladder, vine, handhold, body of water, or the parachute to break your fall, you're fine.
- Now You Tell Me: The dwarf (and the player) doesn't learn the truth about MALOR until after they've returned home and found the sword. And since helping MALOR is one way to return home, well...
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: They're stout, bearded, and live on a mountain, but that's about it.
- Oxygen Meter: The same bar as the Sprint Meter. Getting the Flippers lets you swim for much longer.
- Point of No Return: Once you obtain the sword after learning the truth about MALOR, it is no longer possible to explore the world. The only way to proceed is to kill it. If you got the “Pawn” ending, you don’t even get the chance to do that.
- Power-Up Food: The endurance fruit, which extend your endurance bar. There's also two jump fruit that are mandatory to find early in the game.
- Scaling the Summit: The most difficult way to get back up the mountain is to climb it yourself.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: As revealed at the end, MALOR is an evil deity who was imprisoned in the temple where you meet it.
- Secret Circle of Secrets: The "Deep One"'s following.
- Shout-Out: Possibly one to Shadow of the Colossus, as it also accentuates the sheer massive size of the land of Aje'le compared to the dwarf.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Found directly west of MALOR's temple. Once you get the boots, however, you can navigate the icy terrain just fine.
- Soft Water: If you land in water from a great height, the main character won't have to recover from the fall.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: When you don't have the flippers, all the little dwarf does is float at the top.
- Sword Plant: The main character launches one of these into MALOR's shrine.
- The Lost Woods: On the east end of the world is a dense jungle with enormous trees.
- The Maze: The dreaded underground maze level in which you find a gem and the parachute item.
- Unwitting Pawn: The naive dwarf who collects all ten (or even eleven) gems for MALOR and ends up with the Pawn ending.
- Under the Sea: There is an underwater area in the game, that is only accessible by finding the flippers.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Killing Aje'le's inhabitants with the lightning power. If you kill enough inhabitants, then you get the "Savage" ending.
- Weapon Tombstone: The family sword is effectively used as one for MALOR.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: MALOR uses this to try to coax the dwarf into restoring its power.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Killing creatures with lightning allows you to take their souls. This boosts your endurance and unlocks the Savage ending if you collect enough.
