Video Game / Endless Frontier

Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier is an Eastern RPG for the Nintendo DS released in May 2008. Although this Spin-Off does not take place in the same universe as the Super Robot Wars: Original Generation games, it is nonetheless tied to its story.

The "Endless Frontier" is a collection of multiple worlds connected by dimensional portals known as "Cross Gates". In one of these worlds, Bounty Hunter and amateur ladies man Haken Browning and his Artificial Human Sidekick Aschen Brodel explore the ruins of the crashed spaceship Mai Terra, one they were both found in when Haken was just a baby. Inside they find, much to their surprise, a rather well-endowed young woman with an enormous sword and a tiny dress sleeping in the crew's quarters. Turns out she's Kaguya Nanbu, the ojou of one of the Frontier's worlds. Discovering there's a reward for her safe return, the pair decide to accompany her home. Since this is roughly the first ten minutes of the game, things naturally start to snowball from there: strange "Mild Kiel" crystals start sprouting up all over the Endless Frontier and some very familiar-looking robots connected with a war that happened ten years ago have reappeared again. Secrets, conspiracies, spankings, and lots and lots of boob jokes await.

Along the way, the group run into a number of travelers from beyond the Endless Frontier: Reiji Arisu, a law enforcement agent of "Shinra" from Earth, his fox-spirit partner Xiaomu (whom some may remember (or not) from Namco × Capcom), and KOS-MOS, a Robot Girl from the far future. Unfortunately, their problems have tagged along, too.

Endless Frontier uses a Turn-Based Combat system similar to to Namco X Capcom where orders are issued via Action Commands instead of the usual system interface typical to Eastern RPGs. Attacks can be chained into combos with one another to ensure an enemy cannot get a bead on the party when it's their turn to attack, allowing long attack combinations. Players can also issue a set of new commands during these attack strings, such as allowing the next party character to continue the combo, request assistance from characters placed in reserve or executing an "Overdrive" to maximize damage and achieve bonuses post-battle. Like its namesake, Mecha do appear in the game, though they take a back role, appearing around a few meters tall compared to their counterparts, and are only available as an assist.

A sequel called Endless Frontier EXCEED was released on February 2010 on the same platform, with a somewhat wider focus: the "Fairies" (really, elves) from the kingdom of "Elfetale" fled the Endless Frontier during the war and ended up spending the next ten years co-existing with the "Shura". When a Shura fortress (coincidentally the one the Fairies are mostly living in) ends up getting tossed into the Frontier, Elven Princess Neige Hausen sets out to find out what's going on. Accompanying her is young Shura warrior Alady Nasch, who has the additional job of tracking down a Shura artifact that decided to step off its pedestal and take a walk, particularly before their rivals find it first. Meanwhile, the Endless Frontier is abuzz regarding the reappearance of Mild Kiel crystals, alongside new entities with their own ambitions. To make matters worse, more remnants of a war-mongering faction are on the move again, with their own schemes. However, a few individuals from beyond the Endless Frontier have made their way into the setting.

Understandably, EXCEED features an expanded cast. In addition to new faces, the entire cast of the previous game returns, including Reiji, Xiaomu, and KOS-MOS (who also brings M.O.M.O. along this time). EXCEED even pulls in Axel Almer and Kouta Azuma from the main Original Generation installments, and Mark Hunter, a character from an obscure Banpresto Super Famicom Eastern RPG called Gaia Saver. The combat system is also refined, doing away certain Scrappy Mechanics and easing gameplay to fit the much wider selection of characters.

While the first game was localized and released in April 2009, there's been no word of a localization for EXCEED, although a fan translation exists. However, Haken and Kaguya reappear in Project × Zone, a Spiritual Successor to Namco X Capcom, along with Reiji, Xiaomu, KOS-MOS and surprisingly, Sanger Zonvolt from the Original Generation series. Bringing this Spin-Off full circle, in August 2016, Haken and Aschen appear in Original Generation Sequel The Moon Dwellers, using a full-sized version of the Phantom and Haken's "Night Fowl" rifle called the "Gespenst Haken".

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Tropes in Endless Frontierinclude:

• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: Any decent physics engine would render Kaguya immobile (or at least a hunchback) and if she could move, she'd A) overbalance a lot, and B) have to put her dress back on after every fight (hmm...perhaps that's not so "acceptable," after all...). It also wouldn't have allowed the acrobatics and enemy tossing the party can do.
• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: In EXCEED, up to four merchants/shop owners join the party. Naturally, the player isn't given freebies. Hawken's crew in the Zeit Krokodil also no longer provides free service to rest inside.
• A God Am I: Wahrschein Lichkeit; interestingly, the Wahrschein Lichkeit's a fragment of the corpse of the Neue Regisseur, the eternal guardian of the universe who existed since the beginning of time. In Original Generation 2, when questioned by the heroes, Neue Regisseur vehemently denied being God. Granted, the Neue Regisseur hadn't created any universes at the time. Wahrschein Lichkeit was being quite literal.
• All There in the Manual: A lot of details regarding the story can only be found in the Original Generation main series. Similarly, most of the information regarding Reiji's pursuit of Saya and T-elos' hate for KOS-MOS is glossed over. Namco X Capcom and Xenosaga Episode III are the games to learn the details.
• A Mech by Any Other Name: Residents of Kagura Amahara call all robots karakuri. Princess Suzuka controls her Jyaki-GUN-Oh like a marionette through strings attached to her fans. In EXCEED, the Shura refer to their mecha as "Rasetsu-Ki".
• Anime Hair: Kaguya's long hair and Xiaomu's multiple ponytails. In actuality, the latter's are actually her tails.
• Anti-Hero: Though none of the characters are very far down the scale, whenever anyone suggests doing anything excessive, it gets lampshaded.
• Another Dimension: The universe of the Endless Frontier is made up multiple worlds with unique cultures and races, each of them linked through dimensional portals known as Cross-Gates. After Haken & Co. defeated Wahrschein Lichkeit and stopped the Einst's plans to remake the worlds in their image, the multiple worlds of the Endless Frontier then fused into one.
• Ascended Extra: Dokugozu and Dokumezu were simply Saya's Elite Mooks in Namco X Capcom. Here, they become supporting antagonists each with a distinct personality. This would carry over into Project X Zone.
• Back from the Dead: Saya, the villainess from Namco X Capcom who was rather blatantly killed in that game, returns in Endless Frontier with no explanation. The kicker? Even she doesn't know why she's back.
• Background Music Override: When a character launches their Super Move Portrait Attack, their leitmotif overrides the current track.
• Bag of Sharing: Being an Eastern RPG, this is standard.
• Bag of Spilling: In regards to EXCEED: where did all the Z.O. Swords and Monolith Armors from the first game go? Also applies to the whereabouts of the Alt Eisen Nacht and Weiss Ritter Abend.
• Battle Couple: By proxy, Reiji and Xiaomu since Namco X Capcom; by the end of the first game, Haken and Kaguya ascend to this. Uniquely in EXCEED, Axel and Einst Alfimi are treated as a single unit during combat and always attack together.
• Beast Man: Lee Ly, Katze, Shirou and Rubor Cucullus. EXCEED adds the Gand siblings, which include a wolf and a dragon.
• Better than a Bare Bulb: There's Lampshade Hanging everywhere, on nearly everything.
• Bilingual Bonus: The localization only translates the script; voice-acting is left untouched, and without captions, thus players either need a grasp of Japanese or dig into their Ascended Fanboyism to understand the victory quotes and start-of-battle banter.
• Boob-Based Gag: Kaguya invokes this the most, but then again, she's a playable character and has Stock Footage. Anne Sirena, on the other hand, may be going over the line:
  Anne: "Heh heh... Just so you know, I haven't even reached my full potential yet!"^note Anne's already pushing a North American DD-cup/Eurasian F-cup
  Suzuka: "What!? I don't believe it!"
  Xiaomu: "OK, that's crossing the line from titillating to just plain creepy."
  • Put it simply, there are only two breast sizes in the games: large and flat. BOTH are played for more jokes than you can imagine and a boob joke will be stuck into any conversation possible by misinterpretation or snarking. Hell, the animated opening for EXCEED has one bit where Xiaomu's examining herself and leering at the chests of the other girls.
• Bowdlerise: The Japanese version of the first game's covert art features the four original cast with a shot of Aschen's and Kaguya's cleavage in full view. The North American cover art, however, repositions the characters so the game's localized title and Atlus' logo hides them while partially obscuring Suzuka's midriff.
• Boss Rush: Because of scripted boss fights and a 100% flee rate from mooks, the games can potentially feel like this. Played straight and more properly in the first game while exploring Wilkurkind, and once again near the end.
• Bottomless Magazines: The characters and mechas who fight with firearms (e.g. Haken, Aschen, Reiji, Nacht) all have a seemingly endless supply of ammunition for their attacks.
• Brainwashed:
  • In EXCEED, Pete Pain's use of "Code: PTP" (Play The Puppet) on both Cardia Basirissa and Aschen, and later Rig the Guard taking control over KOS-MOS.
  • Hamelin the Pied Piper also brainwashes people to fight Alady and company, leading to Defeat Means Friendship.
• Calling Your Attacks: Nearly every attack the playable characters and even some bosses have a name for their repitoire of moves, and some of them even featuring an underlying theme with said characters.
• Canon Immigrant: Developer Monolith Soft seems to be making citizenship applications for their Xenosaga and Namco X Capcom characters with EXCEED.
• Cartoon Bomb: The finale of Dorothy's signature attack has her summoning a gigantic cartoon bomb from under her skirt and proceeds to kick it onto her enemies.
• Cat Folk Are Mean: Koma and Katze Kotolnos, usually.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: In the first game, notice the W-03 and W-05 pods in the Neverland are open and their occupants missing. Guess who shows up in EXCEED?
• Chest Blaster: KOS-MOS' "D-TENERITIAS", and to a greater extent, her "X-BUSTER", Gespenst Phantom's "Neutron Blaster", and T-elos' "U-TENERITIAS". The Jyaki-GUN-Oh has light artillery mounted on its torso that stuns mooks with surprising reliability.
• Clingy Costume: Kouta Azuma as Fighter Roar suffers this problem in EXCEED which he attributes to Roar using it to keep both of them intact after the event that ended up transporting them to Endless Frontier. It wouldn't be that bad if the party didn't decide to go relax in a hot springs.
• Combo Breaker: An enemy variation of this called "Forced Evasion" that makes you unable to continue attacking them, causes them to block the rest of your current attack for 0 damage and can also allow them to counterattack afterwards: while it's not a true Combo Breaker in sense that the enemy can only use it if you screw up your combo timing and cause them to fall to the ground, it's extremely easy to do by accident because of the strict timing on when to use each move, the varying weight of different types of enemies and because breaking enemy shields most of them get later in the game throws them high into the air and almost invariably screws up the natural flow of your current attack: they can also trigger Forced Evasion off a wall bounce that hits them when they're too low to the ground, which is next to impossible to anticipate.
  • The sequel thankfully fixes this mechanic in several ways: the enemies now have a shared gauge that fills up when you kick their ass, and they can only use Forced Evasion when it's full and the chance for each individual enemy to use it if they fall out of your combo is shown next to the gauge, which also empties out if it's triggered, plus there are ways to lower the gauge yourself without giving the enemies a chance to use it. Enemies that have shields also have a visible gauge to show how close you are to breaking it to prepare for it, and some characters have attacks that instantly break the enemy's shield if they connect, which makes the shield meaningless if you set it as their first attack in their combo. There's also several ways to reduce the gauge, and PCs can also use Forced Evasion against enemy attacks, although it costs half of your Limit Break bar to use and the character needs to be at 30% or less HP remaining and doesn't work against multitarget attacks or enemy Limit Breaks, which bosses often like to spam at you.
• Combos: A key part of combat, which involves juggling and preventing mooks and bosses from scoring an evasion.
• Colon Cancer: Just to be precise, the sequel EXCEED has four different qualifiers — Super Robot Wars; Original Generation Saga; Endless Frontier; and EXCEED.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The Japanese-only drama CD bundled with the first game confirms Aschen's part of the W-Numbers series of androids created by Lemon Browning. W-00, the first in the series, was mentioned in the Original Generations Video Game Remake and is identified here as Haken.
  • EXCEED continues on from the events of Original Generation Gaiden, namely Axel's investigation of Lemon's "Project EF". The pre-order EXCEED drama CD is actually a Prequel leading up to EXCEED regarding how Axel, Alfimi and Kouta wind up in the Endless Frontier from the Original Generation universe. However, the reason they ended up there wouldn't be explained until The Moon Dwellers.
• Cute Little Fangs: Suzuka and Koma have one of the "tooth" variant.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: EXCEED changes up the cancel timings on a lot of returning characters' moves; combined with these timings already being pretty strict a returning player is in for a hard adjustment period.
• Death by Irony: Hilariously lampshaded by Haken while exploring the Dulces Tomb.
  Haken: We've worked too hard to suffer lame ironic deaths like being killed in a cemetery!
• Deadpan Snarker: Virtually everyone lays the snark on thick as hell, but Aschen's primary personality programs deadpan to an art form.
• Developer's Room: EXCEED has one accessed at the very end of the Nintendo Hard Bonus Dungeon.
• Disk One Nuke: Surprisingly, it's Reiji. Not because he becomes weaker as the game goes on, far from it; it's because of the Forced Evasion mechanic, which the enemies will abuse much more readily later in the game. If he misses one attack, or has it go off, any damage he pulls off is rendered null. Which is why most people combine him with Haken by the time the latter gets Rampage Specter.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Endlessly invoked.
  Aschen: "Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself."
• Double Entendres: Followed by triple and quadruple entendres, and sometimes just plain innuendo and flat-out propositioning. Any dialogue will feature one eventually.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Inverted due to being Played for Laughs when Xiaomu cracks a dumb joke and gets a spanking from Reiji. The only person to so much as blink is Kaguya. Subverted anyways since Xiaomu likes it.
• Dual Wielding: KOS-MOS with her signature dual Gatling guns and Reiji with his fire-based katana and lightning-enhanced wakizashi and revolver and shotgun. Xiaomu also uses two pistols, and Haken will sometimes fire his Hand Cannon and Swiss-Army Gun together.
  • Subverted in regards to Reiji: despite having two blades, he rarely uses both at the same time (mostly because he carries his weapon rack in one hand). Saya has three katanas, but will never use two at any given moment, due to her being an style focusing on iaijutsu (quick-draw).
    • Played straight in EXCEED for Reiji, where several of his attacks use both swords in rapid succession, where one attack has him rapidly dual-wielding them.
• Duel Boss: Any boss that isn't a Flunky Boss.
• Dynamic Difficulty: Averted; compared to the main series, there's none in this Spin-Off.
• Easy Amnesia: Axel and Alfimi, upon arriving in the Endless Frontier. Axel also shifts into his "Ahoseru" persona from Super Robot Wars Advance. Naturally, he doesn't get his memories and old personality back until right at the very last moment before being returned to his own world.
• Enemy Mine/Heel–Face Turn: EXCEED made it public knowledge that almost all villains from the original become supporting characters in the sequel. Saya even performs a Combination Attack Jyuu no Kata Kiwame with Reiji and Xiaomu, which is Reiji's multitarget Overdrive.
• Exposed to the Elements: Subverted in EXCEED, where two areas are frozen over and the Stripperiffic girls (namely, Kaguya and Neige) immediately start complaining about the cold.
• Expy: See the character page for details. A more direct example are Reiji and Xiaomu being expies of Kyosuke Nanbu and Excellen Browning of Super Robot Wars Compact 2. In fact, multiple multiple mooks, Elite Mooks and half the soundtrack are all derived from elements of the Super Robot Wars franchise.
• Fanservice: Endless Frontier often makes up for the lowered amount of both in traditional SRWs. Also lampshaded mercilessly.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The Endless Frontier series features elements of the Weird West, Feudal-era Japanese Mythology, fairy and folk tales, science-fiction and Super Robot elements brought in from the Super Robot Wars series, all between multiple worlds and literally mixed into one in EXCEED with a dash Urban Fantasy and the distant future from crossing over with Namco x Capcom and Xenosaga respectively. Endless Frontier EXCEED also adds a touch of Norse Mythology into the mix.
• Fight Woosh: On both screens.
• Foreshadowing: A background element in one cutscene for EXCEED reveals that "Code: DTD" (Dust To Dust) overrides both Code: PTP and "Code: ATA" (Ashes to Ashes) well before that information comes into play.
  • As a whole, this game foreshadows events in Super Robot Wars: Original Generation with the appearance of the Cross Gates, and in Project × Zone 2: Brave New World with Ouma's 101 Womb Project.
• Flunky Boss: Nearly all of them, though subverted for the first ArkGain fight in the first game.
• Gaiden Game: From a story standpoint, the Endless Frontier would not exist were it not for the events in the main series to occur.
• Gainax Ending: The Big Bad of the first game mumbles about motives and being responsible for the state of the world, then attacks the heroes when they ask for elaboration. After winning, the heroes inexplicably appear in their home dimensions, of which the Endless Frontier has now returned to being a singular world, with the crossover characters having disappeared and supposedly returned to their respective dimensions. Rather than trying to figure out what just happened, the cast (and seemingly the inhabitants) writes it off as a victory, but goes back to bickering with each other.
• Gatling Good, More Dakka: The Jyaki-GUN-Oh carries eight Gatling guns, while the Alt Eisen Nacht gets a small mention with a right-arm mounted five-barreled gatling gun. Naturally, KOS-MOS and T-elos can call out gatling guns from their Hyperspace Arsenal.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: English and Japanese are most prominent, especially when the voice acting is untranslated for the localization. Haken uses some Spanish to fit his cowboy theme.
• Gratuitous Princess: This series has no less than three princesses in the Endless Frontier: Kaguya Nanbu, Suzuka, and Neige Hausen. Aschen also lampshades this.
  Aschen: It appears there are more princesses than countries in this world.
• Guns Akimbo: Haken with his Night Fowl rifle and Longtomb Special revolver, Reiji with his Hollywood shotgun and Gold magnum, and Xiaomu with her Silver and Platinum handguns.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Shuten, a huge muscular Shiki-Oni, to Suzuka, a Shiki-Oni who has a pettie physique.
• Humongous Mecha: Subverted; the mecha present are actually 2-3 meters tall, around 1/10 of their actual size. The cast even remarks they'd be crushed by a 20-meter Super Robot, not that they're aware most of those regularly clear double that height.
• Hurricane of Puns: The characters make lots of them.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: KOS-MOS, T-elos, and Dorothy. The former two have the technology to perform this trope, meanwhile Dorothy hides literal bombs under her dress. Neige in EXCEED also does what Dorothy can do with apple grenades.
• Hypocritical Humor: Often invoked. For example, Anne Sirena makes fun of Kaguya for being too busty, and Suzuka insults Neige for showing off her belly button.
• Improbably Female Cast: The team consists of 2 guys and 5 girls; no antagonist group is all-male oriented. EXCEED bucks the trend by adding more males to the party (Alady, Katze, Ezel, Axel and Kouta). Still, by endgame, the girls outnumber the guys in the main group.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: With the exception of Aschen and Alady, who just beat enemies senseless with their Cyborg limbs and Supernatural Martial Arts, respectively, every single character is carrying at least one ridiculously sweet weapon that wouldn't make any sense in real life, whether because it's slapping a bunch of normal weapons together, impractically clumsy to use, or defies physics in some other way. Many of them are carrying multiple such weapons.
• Inconsistent Dub:
  • Justified with Kaguya's "Goshiki Zankantou", which would have been translated as "Type-5 Colossal Blade" if they hadn't chosen to leave everything about her in its original Japanese.
  • Supplement on the Goshiki Zankantou: the kanji translates to "Protection Type Crown Cleaving Sword", rather than the normal "Type-# Ship Cleaving Sword".
  • Atlus translated the family name of a missing royal family as "Howzen", when it's most likely "Hausen", after Shine Hausen of Original Generation. Made more apparent with Neige Hausen in EXCEED, a princess from Elfetale now returning to the Endless Frontier.
• Informed Equipment: Justified, only two or three characters actually get something different than what they're using for weapons; for the others, it's an ammo or targeting chip upgrade. Armors are worn under the character's signature outfits.
• Kick the Dog: Pete basically amounts to a "successful Original Generation Duminuss" - he forces Cardia to blow herself up with Code: ATA; in other words, he actually succeeds.
• Killed Off for Real: Every Agrado Heim member in EXCEED.
• Lampshade Hanging: ALL...THE...TIME...
• Laser Blade: KOS-MOS' "DRAGON TOOTH" and Henne's "Roche Saber", the latter being a Shout-Out to the same named weapon for Personal Troopers in the main series.
• Let's You and Him Fight: ALL...THE...TIME...
• Lighter and Softer: Significantly more comedy-oriented than the rest of SRW.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Only for enemies in the first game - they can guard and can use Forced Evasion. EXCEED gives the player the option to also use the latter.
• Magic Skirt: Dorothy and Neige, whom can unload a variety of explosives from under their skirts against their foes without ever panty-flashing the audience.
• Manchild: Xiaomu usually accuses and teases Reiji as one. While this can be seen as a maternal form of teasing, she kind of has a point.
  Xiaomu: "I bet Haken was all "I'm risking my life to save a girl!" and you were all "Boo hoo hoo, let me come, Haken! Please!" You might kick tremendous amounts of ass, but you'll always be a little kid on the inside!"
  Reiji: "..."
  Haken: "Heh. Looks like you'll be a kid forever then, Mr. Romantic. You were right... A damn fine woman."
• May–December Romance: When Xiaomu learns Neige's 117-years-old and Alady's 17, she teasingly consoles her that it'll somehow work out. Might also apply to Xiaomu and Reiji, if the wind blows that way.
• Military Mashup Machine: Zeit Krokodil and Giant Marquis.
• Meido: Xiaomu plays it straight in her new Overdrive for EXCEED, effectively turning her into a Cosplay Otaku Girl.
  • Neige wears the outfit, but averts it, except in one post-battle banter, Aschen in Code: DTD starts berating Neige, leading her to "beg for forgiveness" and addressing Aschen as "my master".

• New Game Plus: A present feature in both games. The first one merely allows you to replay the game with all of your gold and equipment from your initial playthrough, while EXCEED features new dungeon and the ability to recruit Mark Hunter as an Assist Character in its New Game+.
• The Nicknamer: Nearly everyone gives another character a nickname. In the (Japanese-only) official guide for the first game, there's a list of nicknames for each character. Kaguya has at least twenty, all of them reference either her breasts, status as a princess, or both.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Suzuka bursts into a rather impressive one at random moments, mostly while mowing down targets with her karakuri's numerous gatling guns. Also applicable to Neige in EXCEED.
• Old Save Bonus: If players happen to own a copy of Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation and its sequel for the Game Boy Advance, they can use the DS's dual-slot feature to unlock the OG1 Choker (+100 Max SP) and OG2 Pendant (+250 Max HP) in the first Endless Frontier, respectively.
• Our Ogres Are Hungrier: There are three types of ogres in the Endless Frontier - the "Master Ogre", "Studious Ogre" and "Nerdious Ogre". All three wear Nerd Glasses and carry a magic tome. They're hungry for knowledge!
• Only Sane Man: Suzuka takes this role until Reiji joins the party.
• Our Elves Are Different A variety of elves come into play at various points, from random encounters featuring shotgun-toting elven girls and elven commissars with dual submachine guns to scientists Marion and Dorothy to EXCEED female protagonist Neige. The Wild and Wood elves? Instead of "Earth-attuned," "Magical-attuned" would be more appropriate.
• Padded Sumo Gameplay: Since the basic attacks are a five-skill Combo chain that can do upwards of 5,000 HP per character, basic enemies here would be Damage Sponge Bosses in any other game. However, the party members only have HP comparable to any other game.
• Party in My Pocket: Haken seems to keep the group in a hyperspace arsenal. In EXCEED, Aschen for a short while and Alady for the rest of the game invoke this.
• Portal Network: The Cross Gates, until the defeat of the first game's Big Bad.
• Prolonged Video Game Sequel: The first game lasts about under 40 hours. The second lasts around 60, and unlike the first game, it has sidequests.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The whole cast counts as this.
• Random Encounters: In both games, wandering around the overworld and dungeon areas may lead into a random encounter to battle enemies similarly to other JRPG series.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Nearly any character, mook or villain who doesn't wield a weapon
• Rated M for Manly: The four male protagonists are a cop, a cowboy, and two badass martial artists. The females are a foxgirl, a demon-girl, two Robot Girls, and a pair of busty princesses for good measure. And to top if off, they got a half-dozen armored assault mecha for sidekicks.
• Razor Floss: What Otone uses in battle, as well as Suzuka.
• Really 700 Years Old: Suzuka and Xiaomu. Despite her look, Neige's bio indicates she's 117 years-old.
• Recurring Boss: Expect to fight most bosses at least twice throughout each game.
• Robot Girl: Aside from Aschen and KOS-MOS, Evil Counterparts Cardia and T-elos, respectively
• Rule of Cool: Despite lacking Humongous Mecha, both games run on this like its home series.
• Shout-Out: Tons — GaoGaiGar, Hell Girl, Machine Robo, Dangaioh, Martian Successor Nadesico, The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, "Snow White", Tomb Raider, Super Robot Wars: Original Generation...
  • Coupled with Mythology Gag, there's just far too many to list, but this Japanese wiki lists all known examples in EXCEED.
  • And at one point, Aschen calls Kaguya and Suzuka "Cow and Chicken".
  • In EXCEED, apparently KOS-MOS has gotten ahold of one of Jr's gun techs and one of Shion's close-range techs from Xenosaga Episode I.
  • There's one for Avenue Q, of all things:
    KOS-MOS: "Strange, in my time the Internet is for—"
  • Xiaomu shouts out "Hi-yo, Silver!" during her Nicho Sigaisen attack.
    • It's more likely she's just saying the name of her pistols, aptly named "Silver". "XIAOMU WAAAAAAAVE", on the other hand...
  • In EXCEED:
    Haken: "Let's Play."
    Aschen: "Revolver Knuckle!"
  • In Formido Heim for the first game, Koma (re)introduces herself as "Who's the cat that won't punk out when there's danger all about? It's Koma!"
  • Reiji is a walking, talking, Shout-Out to Rom Stoll.
• Spam Attack: Not only are some attacks just repeated hits with the same weapon, but the player can force this by editing the command roster for the 5 moves a character can use with 100% of their command bar.

• Spin-Off: To Super Robot Wars: Original Generation and Namco × Capcom.
• Split Personality: Normally, Aschen's the resident Deadpan Snarker straight woman to Haken's playfulness, but once that Power Limiter is removed or she overheats, she takes a level in cheerfulness and hyperactivity that would make Excellen proud.
  • KOS-MOS also has this, though it's much more subtle: she goes from sharp monotone to a soft, normal voice that's triggered randomly during the final hits of her Overdrive. Some of her pre-/post-battle quotes uses this tone of voice, too.
• Standard Hero Reward: The ending of the first game. All Haken had to do was travel through a few worlds, fight hordes of mercenaries, ogres, mutants and whatnot, face a ton of bosses a lot of times each and save the Endless Frontier from an Assimilation Plot. Lampshaded by Haken right before the final dungeon:
  Haken: ...Of course I'm doing it to get the girl! The world can bite me.
• The Stinger: EXCEED ends with a final shot of Neige embracing and kissing Alady.
• Stripperiffic:
  • Notably Kaguya, but Aschen and KOS-MOS, upon entering their Overdrive, shed their clothing. Neige in EXCEED also counts.
  • Played with: in EXCEED, there's a section of the world covered in ice due to the local leader being An Ice Person. Going there results in the underdressed Kaguya and Neige start complaining about the cold.
• Super Move Portrait Attack: Used and abused frequently with certain Special Skills and Overdrives.
• Support Power: Party members in the back row can do this. Essentially, each character has a Support Attack that can only be triggered when they're currently not in the front row. Furthermore, each support-only character in EXCEED comes with a preset chance of activating a skill or Spirit Command for the party member they're conjunctioned to, which also stacks with each members' abilities and Spirit Commands.
• Surplus Damage Bonus: The first game grants more experience if you finish an opponent off with a Support Attack or an Overdrive. EXCEED awards bonus experience for an Overdrive finish depending on whether you destroyed one or more than one enemies at the end of battle, but a "Support Finish" (where a partner assigned to a front row fighter in the party achieves the final hit) nets additional gold, while an "Assist Finish" (a non-support only party member in the back row) fills the Frontier Gauge up. The latter's noteworthy as EXCEED allows the gauge to carry over for every fight. You also gain back a % of your SP equal to 1/10th of the maximum number of combo hits you did in that battle, meaning you can use Spirit Commands a lot more often than in the first game if you're good at juggling enemies.
• Theme Naming: Fairy tales, especially the one's collected by The Brothers Grimm.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Oddly turned into comedy at the end of the first game. The heroes beat the Final Boss, and they engage in the following conversation.
  Wahrschein Lichkeit: "How could I lose?"
  Haken: "You underestimated us!"
  Xiaomu: "And because you deserved a good old-fashioned ass kicking!"
• This Is a Drill: The Thrudgelmir Expy Svaiser in EXCEED gets one. Funny enough, it doubles as another Mythology Gag, since the Thrudgelmir uses a BFS as its primary weapon, with a drill on its head; the Svaiser has a blade mounted to its head, with a drill lance as the main weapon.
• Thong of Shielding: T-elos; if you're lucky, you can catch a glimpse during her Super Move Portrait Attack. Kaguya also gets one as an (unfortunately invisible) accessory.
• Underground Monkey: Copious backtracking, among other things, allows for many monster types to repeat themselves every four dungeons in progressively stronger forms.
• Useless Useful Spell: Played straight in both games. Some characters such as Aschen or Xiaomu can use Spirits that can inflict status effects Poison or Stun, but rarely does the effect stick on enemies, and some bosses are completely immune to them. Spirits that debilitates stats such as Essence or Disturb, however, reliably hit their targets, even if the effects are very brief.
• Verbal Tic: KOS-MOS adds a "nya" to the end of some of her sentences, a Mythology Gag from a Xenosaga fan disc, and some of the other females get into it as well.
• Villain Decay: Gnosis are just Random Encounters; and can be beaten with simple force. There is no indication that the Hilbert Effect is required. KOS-MOS uses it in EXCEED when making her entrance to make the initial group of them vulnerable, implying that she does it offscreen whenever required.
• Villainous Legacy: The Shadow-Mirrors and Einst may have been dealt with in the mainline Original Generation games, but the events of the two decades of the Endless Frontier has been shaped by its inhabitants coming into contact with elements of the above two factions.
• Virgin Sacrifice: Averted; Kaguya's willing to seal off all the Cross Gates, in exchange for her life, so the Einsts cannot interfere with the Endless Frontier anymore, until Haken decides to "kidnap" her back to the party, by Taking a Third Option.
  • It's more of a cross between Human Sacrifice and Powered by a Forsaken Child, otherwise Kaguya's mother Ui wouldn't have been able to pull off the same thing her daughter was prevented from doing.
• Weird West: Lost Herencia, where Haken and Aschen hail from, is a post-apocalyptic desert populated by mutants and killer robots. It was probably just The Western until the Super Robot Wars dropped two or three alien starships on its head.
• The Worf Effect: In EXCEED, Rig the Guard shows how much he means business by taking control over KOS-MOS. If you have played Xenosaga, you would have taken notice of KOS-MOS being a nigh-unstoppable fighting machine (and in the latest model which mowed down T-elos, the only one who ever beat her beforehand) with extreme willpower to even defy her own original programming as Mary Magdalene, and unlike the previous case of Aschen and Pete, Rig was from a separate verse than KOS-MOS, thus completely unrelated. This is the catalyst of T-elos joining the heroes, because as far as she's concerned, she's the only one allowed to defeat KOS-MOS.
• World of Badass: The very first mook the party meets attacks with a Macross Missile Massacre. The shopkeepers moonlight as Hired Guns and old crashed battleships constantly spewing forth monsters from other worlds are basically treated as tourist traps.
• World of Buxom: Besides three characters, any female character is very nicely endowed, more so than the girls in the main series.

• World Tree: There are two of them. One is in Kagura Amahara, which has the power to close the Cross Gates, the other is seized by Agrado Heim and has the power to open them.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Xiaomu often comments about how she enjoys writing slash fan fiction. In fact, if she is in the same party as Haken and Reiji, there's a chance in her post-battle banter she'll whisper "Reiji Cross Haken..." to herself, just loud enough that Haken overhears her and asks her not to ship them.
  • One of her post-battle quotes with Alfimi in EXCEED takes it to Serious Business levels where they debate on who's the top between Axel and Alady.
• You Look Familiar: Invoked by Kouta when he comes across Aschen the first time, mistaking her as Lamia Loveless, for good reasons.
• Zonk: The "Gamble" Spirit Command and Kaguya's "Tsukimizake" skill. What's worse isn't when she poisons/stuns/paralyzes herself, but when either Gamble or Tsukimizake auto-casts "Mercy" ^note All hits cannot deal more than 1 point of damage on her. Since both games feature low-level Mooks with several thousand HP, having "Mercy" on, you might as well be doing zero damage. On the other hand, allowing them to live long enough can be used to fill the Limit Break gauge.

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