Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse Of The Crimson Elixir is an 2003 action role-playing game developed by Racjin and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2 console and is the second Fullmetal Alchemist video game released. The story penned by Hiromu Arakawa takes place at Episode 1 of the 2003 anime, where Ed and Al arrive at the desert city of Lior. Things resume similarly as the anime, until a point early on where Ed and Al encounter black monsters. That's when the plot begins to change and becomes an investigation about the spread of the black monsters.
The gameplay is a 3D beat-em-up type where players are in control of Edward with Alphonse being AI-controlled, and the combat revolves around the use of alchemy. Using a special button, Ed can transform a variety of objects into weapons, items and other objects as well as equip them with numerous enhancers. It has a role-playing mechanic, allowing players to level up by defeating enemies and earning experience.
Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse Of The Crimson Elixir contains examples of the following tropes:
- Abandoned Laboratory: Tucker's laboratory. In it are notes that reveal the horrible things he has done.
- Absurdly High Level Cap: The level cap is 99, but the game can be beaten between level 30 to 40. The practically unobtainable level 2 flashbang is obtainable at level 99, but the next highest alchemy upgrade, which is the triple stonespike, is only at level 40.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Both present in Chapter 2 and 3.
- Actually a Doombot: Ed can transmute decoys to distract enemies.
- Adorable Evil Minions: The infantile-variety golems are tiny cute black creatures resembling shadow heartless without the antennae.
- Adventure-Friendly World: Plenty of items lying around the environment can be conveniently transmuted into a weapon of some sort.
- A God Am I: Father Cornello sees himself as this.
- Airborne Mook: The Tadpole-variety golems.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: A drunk man is seen nearby a fountain that has its water replaced with wine. He mumbles and acts like a buffoon. Then he lets Ed open a treasure chest of his.
- Armor-Piercing Attack:
- Equipping the Armlet of Piercing will cause you to strike through enemy blocks, at the expense of reducing your attack and alchemy by 10%.
- Attacks by Ed's hammer will break through all enemy blocking.
- Artifact Mook: The armoured golems. They are the only golem mooks that are light in colour. They are artifact in the sense they have the same mannerisms as the Living Armours from the previous game.
- Artificial Human: The golems were an attempt to invoke this.
- Assist Character: Al's function in gameplay. He can be commanded to tackle enemies, give Ed a jump boost and use weapon mounts and weapons.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Father Cornello is the most durable and powerful Leto Cultist.
- Auto-Revive: The Charm of renewal when equipped causes Ed to revive back to full health if killed, but the accessory will perish.
- Background Boss: The spider golem boss. You can only attack his tentacles once he lays them on the platform.
- Backtracking: A minor example. In Chapter 5, you are told to head down a path, but it turns out to be a dead end. You have to head back and take that other path.
- Bag of Sharing: Ed and Al share the inventory.
- Battle Intro: Most bosses have these.
- Big Boo's Haunt: The Underspire of Lebis. It's dark, gloomy, and the walls have eye carvings.
- Big Damn Heroes: Hawkeye and Armstrong save Ed and Al from Scar milliseconds before he kills him.
- The Big Guy: Armstrong, who is by far the biggest and strongest member in the military. Al, to a lesser extent.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: Ed can transmute his arm into a blade in the middle of his unarmed combo.
- Blood-Stained Glass Windows: Ed and Al's fights inside the Temple of Leto.
- The Cameo: Genz and Armony appear as cameos.
- Combat Resuscitation: Ed can revive a knocked out Al to help him get up faster. Al will still get up if left alone though.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Averted. The level 2 flashbangs will kill anything, even bosses.
- Cool Old Guy: Arlen, who walks 30 miles in the desert and barely breaks a sweat whereas Ed is practically dying from exhaustion.
- Crate Expectations: Crates aren't breakable traditionally, however you can transmute them into a useful weapons.
- Crutch Character: Al is tankier and stronger than Ed at first, but Ed will surpass Al as the game progresses. This is partly due to players usually spending bonus stat points on Ed rather than Al.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Ed and Al's battle with Scar. Ed's first encounter with Crowley.
- Deadly Gas: The winged serpent chimeras have a poison gas attack.
- Death by Adaptation: Both Type B cases.
- Father Cornello is killed by Elma before he can escape Ed and Al and meet his end at Lust and Gluttony's hands.
- Shou Tucker and the chimera that used to be Nina and Alexander are both killed by Scar before Ed and Al even meet them.
- Degraded Boss: The lion gator chimera is the first boss, but then you encounter more of him in Chapter 3.
- Draw Aggro: The holder of the Alluring Cologne item will attract enemy attacks. It is typically equipped to Al as he can be revived easily.
- Drop the Washtub: One of the tools Ed can use is a stack of washtubs that stun enemies by landing on their heads.
- Double Weapon: Ed can temporarily turn his spear into a double-edged one in the middle of his spear combo.
- Drop the Washtub: One of the tools Ed can use is a stack of washtubs that stun enemies by landing on their heads.
- Early-Bird Boss: The lion chimera. Before this, it was easy to rush and attack enemies. Lion chimera has a nasty counterattack if you try that.
- Eldritch Abomination: Crowley turns into this upon death.
- Enemy Posturing: Subverted with Armstrong. He will pose and flex his muscles, but if you hit him, he will counterattack.
- Equipment Upgrade: Ed can transmute some weapons twice to upgrade them.
- Experience Booster: Several EXP boosting items exist, with different criterias that need to be made to get the bonus.
- Experience Points: Defeating enemies nets Ed and Al experience points.
- Fight Woosh: Most battle intros for the bosses end with this.
- Final Boss: Golem Crowley.
- Fisticuffs Boss: Armstrong. You cannot use any form of alchemy.
- Flanderization: Scar, who acts like a religious militant lunatic in contrast to his conflicted anti-hero.
- Flunky Boss: Phantom 2, Father Cornello, Bald, Lizard golem, and Spider golem.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Winry, who fixes Ed's automail.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: Cornello and Phantom.
- Giant Mook: The fat golems and tall golems.
- Glass Cannon: The Glass samurai when equipped turn you into this. All stats are reduced by 10%, but allows infinite katana use, which is typically instant kill most of the time. Note it is not as glass cannony as the last game, which reduced all stats by 90%.
- Golem: Crowley has an army of golems made of darkness.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Lust, Envy and Gluttony in the ending.
- Ground Punch: Ed punches the ground if he wants to create a stone spike, barrier or is performing his rage attack
- Guns Akimbo: Hawkeye.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Calling Ed short.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The first half of the game starts out as a retelling of the manga and anime with some differences. Then the second half of the game completely switches to an original story.
- Happy Fun Ball: The paintbrush cow. It slowly hobbles around to nearby enemies, but it deals extreme damage. It can even hurt Ed and Al if they are caught in the attack.
- Healing Checkpoint: Saving at save points restores your health to full.
- Healing Potion: The elixir items.
- Heavily Armored Mook: The armoured golems are covered in very heavy armour to the point they don't flinch to most attacks.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted when Ed allows Scar to kill him but asks him to spare Al. Scar was about to kill Ed but was saved last minute.
- Hit Points: Ed and Al have their health as hit points.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Scar and Armstrong, the former being more hopeless.
- Humanoid Abomination: The golems, particularly the humanoid ones.
- The Illegible: Mr Tucker. Ed, upon trying to read his notes, comments that it is chicken scratch.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Instructing Al to use a weapon mount will have him hit the opponent most of the time, even if the mount is hard to aim with.
- Impossible Item Drop: A big chunk of enemies in the game are mindless golems, and they drop items for some reason.
- Improbable Weapon User: Ed and Al can use a pogo stick as a weapon, that creates shockwaves.
- Item-Drop Mechanic: Defeating enemies drop items like Elixirs and Reloaders.
- Joke Item:
- The beef is an extremely rare item that heals less HP than the common Elixir S.
- The White loincloth makes Al do nothing, with no upside.
- Karma Houdini: Scar nearly kills Ed and Al, and gets away.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Subverted. Edward can create katanas with the right materials, and it turns out to be one of the most effective weapons in the game on top of being one of the few that can be wielded by him and Alphonse. However, they are very fragile and break shortly after repeated use unlike most blades.
- Kevlard: Father Cornello, the fattest Leto cultist, is also the most durable.
- Large Ham: Armstrong.
- Lethal Joke Item: The mallet. It deals near scratch damage (always scratch damage if it's the red one), but allows potentially infinite combos. It's the intended way to A-rank Bald, because the combo requirement is extremely high.
- Life Drain: Equipping the Armlet of absorption will cause you to heal 5% of the damage that you deal to an enemy.
- Lighter and Softer: Due to the game's tone being closer to that of the manga this time around, while it still has some fairly dark moments it also has a less downbeat atmosphere than ''Broken Angel' did and has a few more breather moments mixed in. Most notably, while the first game had a borderline downer Bittersweet Ending that leaned far toward the side of bitter, this game's ending, while still bittersweet, goes out on a much more hopeful note.
- Loads and Loads of Loading: Every time you reach a new area, there is a loading screen which also displays the name of the new room.
- Locked Door: A door in Chapter 4 requires 4 stone slates to open.
- Lone Wolf Boss: Scar. All he wants to do is just to kill state alchemists.
- Mad Scientist: Mr. Tucker is discovered to be this.
- Magnet Hands: Ed rolls, cartwheels and backflips a ton of times without dropping his weapons.
- Marathon Boss: Scar. He has 4 life bars, the most in the game.
- Meaningful Name: Armstrong, who has very strong arms.
- Mighty Glacier: Armstrong and the fat golems.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The chimera enemies in Chapter 3.
- Multishot: There are crossbow mounts that fire multiple bolts.
- Mysterious Woman: Alma. She first appears in the temple of Leto, then the Resembool cave.
- Mook Maker: The lizard golem boss can produce eggs that turn into infantile golems.
- Morph Weapon: Ed can morph his 4 'anytime transmutable' weapons into enhanced version mid combo.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Scar, though it is not his real name.
- New Game Plus: Items and unused bonus stat points are passed on to next new game. Enemies deal more damage.
- Notice This: Orange sparkles appear next to objects that need to be examined or sometimes picked up. Most prominently used in Chapter 3.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Crowley tries this on Ed saying his attempt to revive Elma is just like his attempt to revive his mother.
- One-Winged Angel: Happens twice with Crowley, when he turns into a golem humanoid, and even defeating that will turn him into an Eldritch abomination.
- The Pawns Go First: Father Cornello sends out white Leto statues against you before you fight him.
- Pinball Projectile: One of the transmutable weapons is rubber balls that can bounce off the walls. The effect can be devastating if multiple balls are thrown and the room is small.
- Playing with Fire: Mustang. He doesn't have natural fire powers, he relies on using spark gloves and oxygen manipulation to make the fire.
- Point Build System: Levelling up does increase your stats, but it also gives you bonus points to further increase a chosen stat. You can chose to allocate between Ed and Al.
- Precision-Guided Boomerang: The boomerang weapon will always return back even if you run away, and will pass through multiple enemies.
- Prequel: This game chronologically takes place right before the first one.
- Random Drop: Enemies tend to drop Elixirs and Reloaders.
- Random Drop Booster: Equipping the Lucky haversack increases enemy drops.
- Replay Mode: Allows you to replay cutscenes.
- Retractable Weapon: One weapon that Ed can transmute is a polearm that can extend very long lengths.
- Run, Don't Walk: Ed runs when he moves.
- Rush Boss: The lion gator chimera, because he is an Early Bird Boss.
- Scratch Damage: All attacks dealt to you will deal at least 1 HP of damage. The red mallet will deal scratch damage.
- Short-Range Shotgun: The shotgun mount is short ranged.
- Sinister Minister: Father Cornello is a false prophet who fakes miracles to create a group of fanatic cultists.
- Sword Beam: Crowley can use this.
- Truer to the Text: Despite being based on the first anime, the chapters that retell the early episodes are actually closer to the manga. Examples include Ed and Al confronting Bald and the Shou Tucker incident both occurring in the present rather than flashbacks, Scar killing Shou Tucker, Scar attacking Ed and Al almost immediately after he kills Tucker, and Mustang, Hawkeye, and Armstrong coming to Ed and Al's rescue.
- Turns Red: When Crowley reaches a certain amount of health, he summons a sword.
- Unique Enemy: In Chapter 4, there is a room with hundreds of tadpole golems. If you manage to kill them all, you spawn the first Slime-variety golem, and that is the only place you can find it.
- Universal Ammunition: The Reloader item, allows you to refill the ammo of a gun mount. Justified as Ed uses alchemy to transmute the ammo to something compatible.
- Unstable Equilibrium: Getting higher rank in bosses will net you more bonus stat points and better items.
- Vacuum Mouth: The vacuum tool Ed can transmute resembles a mouth, and sucks up enemies to one spot.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Later Fat-variety golems can shoot this out of their head.
- Weaponized Ball: Ed can transmute a giant metal ball (can be upgraded to a spiked one) and hit it to send it hurtling towards enemies like a bowling ball. If hit back it can hurt Ed too.
- Weapons That Suck: The vacuum is a non-portable weapon to suck enemies up into one spot, so you can hit multiple of them at once.
- We Cannot Go On Without You: If Alphonse is defeated in combat, Edward can restore him back to life without a problem. But if Edward dies, its game over.
- Weaponized Offspring: The lizard golem boss produces eggs that turn into infantile golems. Said eggs don't aren't laid but ejected from its back.
- Would Hurt a Child: Scar, who nearly killed Ed and All.
