Twelve youths from Japan are caught up in an accident in modern-day Japan, and wake up to find themselves on the mysterious planet of Protolexa. They discover that the evil god Yamatoga, split into 12 pieces, has assimilated into them. The administrator of Protolexa, Amatsume, has summoned the youths to Protolexa in an attempt to prevent Yamatoga from re-forming, in exchange for all of her power. The youths attempt to gather "Existence Crystals", in order to restore Amatsume to her full power in order to be sent back home.
Exist Archive provides examples of:
- Arranged Marriage: Kanata and Ranze were engaged to each other by their parents.
- Betty and Veronica: Ranze and Mayura for Kanata as heavily illustrated in the opening movie and the Flowers on the Hill event.
- Book Dumb: A Running Gag with Koharu. In one event, she talks to Kiriya, who also makes terrible grades. He promptly decides that he'll spend more time studying so he doesn't end up as bad as her.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Mayura and Ema begin copying Yui's workout routine that gave her her "Killer figure." Koharu asks what that means and immediately joins in after Ema outright refers to Yui's large bust.
- Can't Drop the Hero: Kanata can never, ever be taken out of the party. This is especially bad early on in the game, when the ability to change his class hasn't yet become available.
- Childhood Friends: Kanata, Ranze, Koharu, and Mitsuhide are all this.
- Cooldown: Physical attacks can be repeated until the party run out of Action Points, but using magic or items imposes a cooldown of one, two, or three turns in which that character can do nothing.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Defeat Rejected Kanata and Rejected Ranze in their Bonus Dungeon mission four times and they will join the party.
- Easy Amnesia: Mayura alone is amnesiac when she first meets Kanata. Through her existence crystals, it's pretty clear that she doesn't have any memories in the first place.
- Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Suzaku's mother is the head of a mafia, and specifically gave up her daughter at birth so she wouldn't turn out like her.
- Fanservice: There is DLC available with swimsuits for the girls and the boys.
- Friend to All Children: Yui grew up in an orphanage, gets along with kids really well, and her dream is to be a hero that kids can look up to.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Yui learns from her Essence Crystal she got to fulfill her wish of I Just Want to Be Special of being a real hero prior to her disappearance by saving a bunch of kids and guiding them to safety during the explosion at the department store she was at before being sent to Protolexa.
- Job System: The class has eleven different classes, one for each of the playable characters. Although every character is locked to a specific class at first, they can "learn" jobs from other characters by battling alongside them. Class and character levels are also kept separate.
- Lazy Backup: The active party contains four characters, and you can't swap them for other characters after starting a dungeon. The others are officially either staying back at base or exploring on their own, and are therefore unavailable.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Yui joins the party, the game gives a "Low-brow Comedy" warning and asks the player to skip the cutscene where Yui's Ms. Fanservice design is discussed among the characters if desired. The first mission in the Bonus Dungeon takes it even further as the Dual Boss fight is against the initial, rejected designs of Kanata and Ranze!
- Leaked Experience: Party members that you don't bring into battle gain experience back at base.
- Mega Manning: Learning allows characters to learn each other's skills and job classes.
- Metroidvania: Dungeon maps are a series of interconnected 2D areas, usually involving platforming. They are usually not fully accessible when first entered, but as the game progresses the characters gain abilities which allow them to explore and reach more of each area.
- Multiple Endings: There are three major endings.
- Give the second Black Essence Crystal to Amatsume: Amatsume becomes corrupted and has to be destroyed. The Bad Guy Wins and everyone is trapped on Protolexa for the foreseeable future.
- Make the third choice during Kanata's Decision and give no more than one Black Essence Crystal to Amatsume: Kanata decides to kill everyone and take his immortality and the Xeno Factor back to Earth alone.
- Make either the first or second choice during Kanata's Decision and give no more than one Black Essence Crystal to Amatsume: The Golden Ending where the Chausseur are destroyed, Yamatoga can never be resurrected, and everyone returns home. Kanata also gets a special scene with the girl he has Love for if she's not sent home ahead of time.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Yamatoga is completely baffled by the fact that the characters are far more impressed with a floating table than the Xeno-Factor or the fact he made them immortal.
- Naginatas Are Feminine: Ranze has trained with the naginata since childhood.
- New Game Plus: It unlocks a Bonus Dungeon that will unlock three new characters, after beating it three times. You also start New Game+ with all of the field skills already unlocked.
- Relationship Values: Characters can build affection to increase their chances of skill inheritance through Learning.
- Rummage Sale Reject: Most of the character designs have shades of this, but special mention goes towards Yamatoga, who goes shirtless with a pair of extremely baggy pants. Not to mention Suzaku's sneaker-heels combo shoes.
- Running Gag: Characters calling Namero by his first name, instead of his last.
- Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: Characters have "affection" for other characters which affect the odds off passing on skills that generally start out neutral, but can be raised through the characters completing missions or battling together. Certain characters start out with a boosted affection level for each other, such as the childhood friend quartet all having raised affection for each, minus Ranze towards Kanata, Namero having raised affection for Suzaku, and in the New Game Plus, Kagato will start out with high affection towards Kiriya, while Kiriya in turns hates him. Also, if you get the worst ending and start a New Game Plus, your party members' affection will be reset.
- Soul Eating: The Chasseur, the main villains in the game, do this.
- Stance System: The party fight in a diamond formation, one at the front, two in the middle, and one at the back. The front character has a 50% damage bonus, but bears the brunt of enemy attacks. The rear character has a 50% damage penalty, but takes less damage. You can rotate the formation a few times in each round, so it is entirely possible to start with your Glass Cannon in front, and then rotate them to the back and your tank to the front before the enemy turn.
- Statuesque Stunner: It isn't obvious from the art style, but Suzaku is 5' 10", which makes her one of the tallest in the party. Her description says "Suzaku has leveraged her stunning looks into a fairly lucrative modelling career."
- Touched by Vorlons: Through their assimilation with Yamatoga, the main characters all gain powers and functional immortality.
- Underboobs: Amatsume shows some.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Ranze is the modestly dressed daughter of a wealthy aristocratic family. She is engaged to Kanata, by their parents' arrangement.
