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Again today, I will go soaring through the sky!
My enemies, I'll dish 'em up in a stir fry!
Gracious Goddess of Light, watches from up above!
At dinnertime, I always show the cook some love!

"Sweep the heavens, scourge the earth!"
Quote from the blurb of Kid Icarus: Uprising

Kid Icarus: Uprising is a 2012 game for the Nintendo 3DS. It was developed by Masahiro Sakurai (known for the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series) and his Project Sora development team, and was released 21 years after the last Kid Icarus title.

Twenty-five years after her original defeat, Medusa has returned to wreak havoc on the world. Pit, now very high up in the hierarchy of Palutena's army, must battle the forces of the Underworld in order to save the entire world! But soon, the battle begins to spin wildly out of control, and it becomes obvious that the war between heaven and hell isn't going to be over as soon as everyone thinks it will be...

In addition to the singleplayer campaign, there is a mode for collected AR (Augmented Reality) cards to battle each other, and, of course, since it's by the designer of Super Smash Bros., there's a multiplayer mode. Players who preordered the game in the US got a code for a free download of a 3D-remastered version of the original Kid Icarus, and the Nintendo Video application on the 3DS featured three short Kid Icarus: Uprising anime videos called Thanatos Rising (part 1, part 2, part 3 by Production I.G), Medusa's Revenge (link by Studio 4°C), and Palutena's Revolting Dinner (part 1, part 2 by Studio Shaft) (also available for download for My Nintendo users).

The game can be played with the Circle Pad Pro attachment, which can be used instead of the 3DS's built-in circle pad, for those who are left-handed.


This game provides examples of:

    open/close all folders 

    #-B 
  • 13 Is Unlucky: At the end of Chapter 13, Pit ended up freeing the Chaos Kin without realizing the damage it's capable of doing.
  • Ability Depletion Penalty: You can only dash for so long before Pit (or any other playable character) tires out, slowing you down and requiring you to stop for him to catch his breath which leaves him helpless. The Tirelessness power prevents this from happening, as does Lightweight (along with making you faster but more vulnerable).
  • Abnormal Ammo: While most fire things like arrows, cannonballs, or generic balls of light, certain weapons have Pit fire bouncing pawprints, jumbled chunks of skyscraper, crescent moons, ceramic bowls, or even miniature Reapers.
  • Aborted Arc: The Viridi arc. Pit beats Phosphora and announces that Viridi's going down next, but in the next chapter the Aurum invade. After the aliens are defeated, the Chaos Kin arc begins and Viridi is treated as a permanent ally of Pit. The only follow-up to Viridi's original role as an antagonist is in Smash 4 of all places, where Viridi still has an agenda post-Uprising, and Dark Pit is shown working for her for the time being.
  • Accidental Good Outcome: Pit is sent to destroy the Mirror of Truth to stop the Underworld Army from using it to multiply their forces. However, in the process of breaking it, Pit accidentally creates an evil copy of himself called Dark Pit, whom Palutena orders Pit to eliminate. Fortunately, the angel fails in this endeavor and Dark Pit is revealed to not actually be evil, later becoming an ally who even helps save Pit's life.
  • Achievement Mockery: The game will reward you with achievements for:
    • Being turned into an eggplant;
    • Being turned into a tempura, and then being turned into a tempura five times by enemies that go out of their way to humiliate the player. It's contagious, as getting hit unlocks items that cause the same effect for multiplayer use, allowing one to go online and award them to others;
    • Being "finished" (the game's equivalent of a Game Over) a certain amount of times.
  • Achievement System: The game has Sakurai's signature "achievement wall" called Treasure Hunt. In fact, it has 3
  • Action Bomb
    • Quite a few. Shulms, Bumpety Bombs, Remoblams, Trynamites…
    • The Spite Powerup allows multiplayer users to become this. The more HP they have, the stronger the explosion.
  • Acceptable Breaks from Reality: Nearly each chapter of the game is divided into an air battle, in which Pit approaches his target from a distance, and a land battle, in which Pit completes the journey to the target (and the boss) on the ground. Admittedly, it would be much smarter for whoever's giving Pit the power of flight to have him make a beeline to the actual target while he still has flight time remaining, but that would also do away with most of the land battles.
  • Affably Evil
    • One of the Hewdraw heads might say this after the end boss battle in Chapter 3:
    Hewdraw 2: Look how far you've come, Pit! I'm proud of you. *dies*
    Pit: Huh. You don't usually meet such nice bosses…
  • Affectionate Parody: Of Classical Mythology, as well as video games and all related conventions.
  • All There in the Manual: The "Idols" you can collect, which are 3D models of characters, items, and locations accompanied by a short text entry that frequently gives details not mentioned while playing through the story.
  • All the Worlds Are a Stage: A stage evoking previous stages makes up for "Chapter 9: Medusa's Final Battle". It's part of what makes its status as a Disc-One Final Dungeon so convincing.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore:
    • Pit's English voice in Super Smash Bros. Brawl noticeably sounds older than his original Japanese voice (video comparison). His voice got even deeper when they changed his English voice actor for Uprising.
    • Take a good look at one of the TV commercials.
    • The box art itself succumbs to the Trope Namer's precise scenario; on the Japanese box, Pit's mouth is open and he looks happy. The America box has his mouth shut, making him look more determined. Also, the pink hues were removed from the sky background, and the Monoeyes and Syrens were moved closer to Pit.
  • Anachronism Stew: The game's settings mirror Ancient Greece, yet there are numerous references to modern pop culture all over the place.
    • In the "Thanatos Rising" anime short, Palutena jokes that she found the coordinates for Thanatos's location from his blog.
    • Thanatos' death cry is "RAGE QUIT! RAGE QUIT!"
    • The game itself is rife with these, partially due to there being No Fourth Wall (after all, video games didn't exist in the days of Greek myth). There are mentions of laser eye surgery (for Palutena's "Eye of Palutena"), parking lots, and Nintendogs. Some of the weapons include jet engines, laser blades, clubs shaped like skyscrapers, and excavation drills. Then at the end, you get the Great Sacred Treasure, which is actually a Mini-Mecha with Transforming Mecha abilities and a Wave-Motion Gun to boot. This kind of thing has roots in the original Kid Icarus, which had a credit card.
    • Even "Divinipedia" was mentioned by Pyrrhon, with Pit asking for the site's link.
    • Pay close attention to the bickering of the three Hewdraw heads in Chapter 3, and you'll hear one of them mention that he just wants to go home and watch TV.
    • One of the trailers gives the impression that Pit and Palutena like playing Smash Bros. together.
  • Ancient Grome: The setting comes across as this at times, such as the first boss fight being in a coliseum and other architecture traits in general (such as pillars), not to mention the Classical Mythology influences.
  • And I Must Scream: Sometime before Chapter 18, Pit is turned into a ring and was unconscious for three years. After waking up he's completely aware of his state, and can only move once someone wears the ring that he's trapped in.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different:
    • You get to play as a random little girl, a dog, and then Magnus in Chapter 18 and Dark Pit in 22.
    • Stage 20 plays like a Vertical Scrolling Shooter instead of the flight sequence.
  • Angels, Devils and Squid: Skyworld's Centurions and Pit (naturally) get the 'Angel' angle, the Underworld covers the 'Devil' via Medusa and Hades, and the Aurum and the Chaos Kin land on Squid.
  • Anime of the Game: The Nintendo Video anime shorts by Production I.G, Studio 4°C, and Studio Shaft.
  • Annoying Video Game Helper: Parodied In-Universe:
    Pandora: Hand-holding is strictly prohibited!
  • Anti Poop-Socking: As with most first-party Nintendo 3DS games, Uprising advises you to take a break after extended play. Justified, since there's a very real chance that you'll get hand cramps. The game actually ships with a free 3DS stand to make extended play more comfortable.
    "Don't forget to take a break now and then."
  • Arc Villain:
    • The game's Disc-One Final Boss is Medusa, who antagonizes the player for the first eight chapters until meeting her end at the hands of Pit armed with the Three Sacred Treasures.
    • The following arc centers around fighting Viridi and the Forces of Nature, who have grown disgusted with humanity after Hades tricked the humans into starting a war that devastated the local wildlife. The plot is abruptly interrupted by the invasion of the Aurum, however.
    • After the Aurum are repelled, the central antagonist becomes the Chaos Kin, who possesses Palutena and causes her to declare war on mankind.
    • The final arc has Palutena and Viridi's forces trying to figure out a way to defeat Hades, who is the main Big Bad of the game, but was considered the lesser threat in the previous two arcs.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The bonuses that come with being Thanatos.
    Hades: Thanatos is a... special case. He is the god of death, after all. So he gets perks like evil powers and health insurance. Oh, and free soda.
  • Artifact Mook: Used as an actual plot point, where enemies of various factions get copied in later chapters to fight alongside one another, despite them originally being hostile to each other.
    Pit: So the Chaos Kin is copying Aurum enemies that are copies of the Forces of Nature.
    Viridi: It makes you think, doesn't it?
    Pit: No, not really. It's just weird.
  • Artifact of Hope: When the Three Sacred Treasures prove useless against Hades, Pit and Palutena go to the God of the Forge Dyntos to help forge a weapon that would work. The result is the Great Sacred Treasure, a Mini-Mecha that lets him fight Hades on equal ground.
  • Artificial Stupidity: Done intentionally.
    • In Chapter 8, a Belunka (troop transport for the Underworld Army) comes by and drops off a Clubberskull, the toughest enemy in the game. Luckily, it starts out sealed within a skull. Unluckily, 2 Space Pirates just so happen to be nearby, and they're always stupid enough to break the seal.
    • The Clubberskull itself gets a moment when, right after killing the space pirates, it tries to turn around on the narrow platform and falls off.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Dark Pit, who was just a Palette Swap in Brawl.
    • Thanatos, who was just a snake enemy that would attack during the final battle of the original Kid Icarus (as well as being romanized as Tanatosnote  back then; lampshaded with Thanatos claiming, "The extra H is for 'hamazing'"), is now a major player in the Underworld Army; specifically, the God of Death.
    • Pandora, who was easiest boss in the original Kid Icarus and essentially just an enemy Pit needed to kill to reach Medusa, is now another major player in the Underworld Army, being the one who creates Dark Pit. She even gets to make a comeback in Chapter 22!
  • A-Team Firing
    • If there are huge lasers shooting at you during an air battle, chances are they actually can't do any damage to you.
    • Phosphora's lightning bolts near the end of Chapter 14's Air Battle can hurt you, despite looking as if they're out of your range of movement, so be wary.
  • Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Hades wants to get one of these started to fuel up on souls during his final battle with Pit, much to everyone's disgust.
    Pit: A mountain of corpses? Seriously?
  • Attack Drone: The Orbitar weapon class.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Medusa and Hades. All of the gods seem to be capable of showing a giant projection of themselves as well.
  • Attack Its Weak Point
    • Played with. Almost every boss in the game has weak points that sustain more damage, but you can do damage without needing to target them. Some are more obvious than others — you can tell you've found one because it makes a different on-hit noise.
    • Boom, Headshot!: As Palutena reveals in the Chapter Four boss fight, this technique works on the vast majority of large enemies.
  • Attack Reflector
    • There are a couple of enemies that are only really vulnerable to smacking their own attacks back at them. Melee strikes also can potentially deflect projectiles, but each weapon has its own "sweet spot" to successfully do so — unsurprisingly, the huge clubs consistently have the largest.
    • The Reflect Barrier Power, which does just that.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: Pit, being the captain of Palutena's personal guard, of course has this and also some of the bosses he fights.
  • Autobots, Rock Out!: The boss theme features a sick electric guitar. Other prominent examples include "Lightning Battle" and "Palutena's Temple".
  • Awesome, but Impractical: It's very possible for weapons to be this. They could have great damage stats and modifiers, but one of them subtracts your health, defense, or even outright damages you. And if you play Multiplayer, having too good of a weapon can mean a massive loss of points whenever you die.
  • Back from the Dead: Medusa was killed by Pit in the first game, but is revived by Hades. Along with some of her old underlings. Thanatos is actually revived a second time. Medusa is also resurrected a second time later on, much to her annoyance.
  • Badass Boast: Pit and Dark Pit manage to pull a perfectly synchronized Badass Boast in the middle of the thirteenth wave of the Chaos Kin's mooks.
    Pit: Filth of the land, hear our words!
    Dark Pit: And see our actions!
    Pit: I am Pit! Servant of the Goddess of Light!
    Dark Pit: And I am Dark Pit! Servant to none other but myself!
    Both: Together we will rain death upon you!
    Dark Pit: So anyone who's ready to die, step right up!
    Pit: And anyone who isn't ready to die, too bad!
    Both: Aww yeah!
  • Badass Normal: Magnus, supposedly the strongest of all humans. Pit is surprised at his strength, but it's never really explained how he got that powerful, so one can only assume he just fights a lot.
  • Bait-and-Switch Boss:
    • Chapter 8 sets you up to face the Space Pirate Captain, who is more bark than he is bite. When you get to him, a Space Kraken eats him immediately, and you fight the Kraken.
    • Subverted in Chapter 5: Pandora gives up way too easily, and soon you fall into her trap, accidentally creating Dark Pit. It seems like Dark Pit is going to obey his master's orders and fight you in a Mirror Match... but instead he joins you in beating up Pandora some more so that he can get her powers.
  • Bandit Mook: Plutons can steal Pit's collected loot in a level. Thankfully, you can now destroy them to get your stuff back.
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: Pit, both in space and in the Galactic Sea. Strange because he isn't too hot about Palutena suggesting he hold his breath for 2 hours before they reach the Undersea Palace.
  • Beam Spam
    • Happens a lot in aerial battles. It might also happen in multiplayer if multiple people activate the Mega Laser power at once, or use the Beam Claws' continuous fire.
    • Gets ramped up to ridiculous extremes if it's a Light vs. Dark match. Both sides firing a barrage of Mega Lasers at the start of the match is common (and actually potentially lethal to the whole enemy team if one of the users has a weapon with "Power attack +4" and aims just right).
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: As The Hero of the story, Pit is a cute Bishōnen with Innocent Blue Eyes, a literal angel, a Nice Guy, and his appearance is exceptionally beautiful and bright. Unsurprisingly, he is in stark contrast to the ugly monstrosities of the Underworld, who are Always Chaotic Evil and the villains of the game.
  • Bee People: The Aurum are continuously compared to bees, although Hades would rather call them a Horde of Alien Locusts.
  • BFG:
    • The Daybreak Cannon in multiplayer mode; it can One-Hit Kill fighters and almost kill angels.
    • The cannon weapon class is filled with weapons about as big as its wielders.
    • The Final Strike. Though it was not intended to be used in such a manner.
  • BFS: Magnus has one. It's so huge that if Pit manages to fuse a copy of it, it's treated as a Club instead of a Blade.
    • Any sword that's too huge to fit in the Blade class will always end up in the Club section.
  • Better than a Bare Bulb: This game lampshades typical video game cliches and tropes with rapid-fire frequency (see also No Fourth Wall).
  • Bifurcated Weapon: All Bow-type weapons can turn into this when used for melee hits.
  • Big Bad: Hades is not directly involved in all the game's problems, but is ultimately responsible for every last one.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Once you reach the city in the first level, you hear the people cheering for the appearance of Pit and Palutena to save their day.
    Pit: Do you hear that?! Do you hear the people's cheers? They are celebrating the return of their goddess Palutena!
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: Much of the series falls into this category. The Underworld Army and the Chaos Kin are indeed plain evil. However, every other force or individual Pit deals with all have their reasons for attacking humans, be it Well-Intentioned Extremist or Blue-and-Orange Morality.
  • Blatant Lies: Hades claims that he is going to use the wish seed to revive an orphan's parents, give them oodles of cash, and make them royalty. Nobody buys it for a second. In fact, his claim is what clues Palutena in to his plan.
  • Bling-Bling-BANG!: The Royal Blade shoots jewels. As does the Crystal Bow.
  • Blow You Away: Syren screams create blue gusts. The club special attack produces three tornadoes.
  • Body Horror:
    • Getting turned into an eggplant... or tempura. Not only do you get "deep-fried" by the Tempura Wizard's attacks, you can also be eaten alive! And even if you manage to finish off the Wizard with a Cross Counter (or you're just getting hit by a Tempura Bomb in Together Mode, which doesn't have Wizards to eat you), it reduces your health and negates your ability to dash (and dodge) to make it easier for everything to kill you.
  • Book Ends
    • The game starts with Pit flying off to stop the underworld army. The game ends with Pit flying off into the sunset after having saved the world from the underworld army.
    • The game starts and ends with Pit and Palutena talking about the people cheering.
    • The first and last chapters both have Medusa show up in such a way that you can't fight her.
  • Boom Stick: The Staff weapon class.
  • Bootstrapped Theme: The main theme is largely overshadowed by Underworld at this point, even being used in Uprising's trailer. Though this may be because very few people ever got past that level.
  • Boss-Altering Consequence: The order that you cut off the Hewdraw's heads determines which of the heads you will encounter on the ground level. The fights are all the same, but the dialogue is different.
  • Boss Banter: Magnus even complains about Pit talking too much, despite him having a conversation with Gaol earlier.
  • Boss Dissonance: With the exception of the second game's Minotaur, getting to the fortress guardians was a bigger challenge in the previous games than fighting them. This is reflected on the standard intensity of Kid Icarus Uprising, where bosses are much more aggressive and versatile than they ever have been but also go down more quickly to compensate. Using Fiend's Cauldron to raise the intensity alleviates this. Boss health increases more dramatically than enemy health and numbers with each intensity level. Bosses are more or less as tough as the rest of their chapter at intensities five and up.
  • Boss in Mook Clothing: Clubberskulls have a ton of health and deal a ton of damage, even on lower intensities. Oftentimes they can be more challenging than the actual bosses.
  • Boss-Only Level
    • The final level is this.
    • Level 22 is a half example, having the boss battle take the entirety of the land segment, making up for it with a longer air battle.
  • Boss Rush: There's one in Chapter 9 and 24, the latter including a Dual Boss battle. Then after beating the game, there's a new Boss Rush mode unlocked that's similar to the ones in Sakurai's previous works like Kirby's Adventure.
  • Boss Subtitles: Though instead of appearing for a second before the boss starts, it appears on the bottom screen with artwork of the boss you're fighting, just to make the bottom screen look snazzier during the fights.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Done all throughout the game, making references to Metroid, Super Smash Bros. (which Sakurai directed), and more. And then done literally when Hades rips through the credits.
  • Brick Joke: Early in the game, it's mentioned that the last time Pit faced Medusa was 25 years prior to the events of Uprising, a nod to the Sequel Gap preceding the game.note  At the end of the game, Hades figures he'll have another 25 years' worth of Sequel Gap to come up with a new plan.
  • Broken Angel: After saving Dark Pit from death, Pit's wings burn up, leaving even the bones exposed.
  • Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu:
    • A more literal example. Near the end, Medusa punches Hades and destroys his head. Impressive, but she loses her arm and Hades kills her shortly after.
    • In the Japanese version, Dark Pit's attack on the Underworld Guardian is double-edged and injures him sufficiently to take him out of the action.

    C-D 
  • Call-Back
    • A lot in this game, to the point where they use screenshots of the original game when pointing out returning characters.
    • One particular level has a secret area with 3 chests and a screenshot of the first game's shops on the wall. Pit's only comment is that it brings back memories.note 
    • Also, if there was a piece of music in the first game, chances are it gets an orchestral remix in this game.
    • Pit's air battle special attack when using a bow resembles his level-end pose from the original game.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Not necessarily attacks, but it's used during Lightning Battle when Phosphora defeats Thanatos. Played for Laughs.
    Phosphora: Finishing blow!
    • Also of note, their voices echo in the same manner as when Pit defeats a boss.
  • Call of the Wild Blue Yonder: Pit mentions he would like to be able to fly by himself so he doesn't have to rely on his patron goddess Palutena to do so.
  • Came Back Wrong:
    • You wouldn't know just by looking at her, but Medusa does indeed come back weaker than she was in the first game; her memory is also slipping and "[her] life force is much weaker than it once was."
    • Also played for laughs. The anecdote detailed under Blatant Lies depicts said revived parents as half-rotten zombies.
  • Camp Gay: Thanatos in the English version sure acts the part in terms of mannerisms and voice. It's made more apparent in the Thanatos Rising short.
  • Canon Immigrant: Dark Pit was a Palette Swap for Pit in Brawl before appearing in Uprising.
  • Cannibalism Superpower: The more of its allies and enemies it eats, the stronger and larger a Guttler gets.
  • Carry a Big Stick: The Club weapon class. Pit even uses the phrase when talking to Viridi about them.
  • Casual Danger Dialog: Pit, Dark Pit, Palutena, and Medusa casually chat while waging a three-way war with each other.
  • Celestial Body: The Hades Heart is a celestial body within a body.
  • Cerebus Roller Coaster: The game frequently zigzags from comedy to seriousness and back again throughout, despite reminding the players about the stakes involved.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Chapter 18 is the point where the plot shifts to a more serious and dramatic turn, as this is where Palutena gets possessed by the Chaos Kin, who has absolutely no funny bits whatsoever and which turns her against humanity after she was its most staunch defender, and marks the point where Pit gets thrown through the first of many Break the Cutie moments, forcing him to team up with Viridi. This is also the point in the story where Hades' actions and words really start reminding the audience that for all his politeness and funny moments, he's also the most unrepentantly evil bastard in the game.
  • Character Select Forcing
    • Gear select forcing is done to varying degrees with the various Treasure Hunt challenges. Some simply require clearing a level with a particular type of weapon (such as a bow). Some require beating a boss with a specific weapon (like beating Hewdraw with the Bomber Arm). And then there are some of the "beat the level in X minutes" challenges, which can range from "don't use a club or a speed-reducing weapon on this stage" to "you must have Brawler Claws with an extra speed modifier to have a chance at this."
    • Thankfully, one challenge rewards you with a pair of Brawler Claws prepackaged with maximum speed, maximum defense, and a nice stamina boost. It's very weak offensively, but you can still sprint through entire levels with it to beat the time, even running through the lava in Chapter 10 thanks to the defense boost.
  • Cheeky Mouth: The Character Portraits do this so much it puts Sonic the Hedgehog to shame.
  • Chekhov's Gun
    • At the beginning of Chapter 16, Hades commandeers an Aurum battleship. When Palutena realizes that there's no way into their hive, Hades simply crashes the ship into it.
    • Phosphora complaining during the air segment of her chapter. "It's just one fight after another. Today is NOT my day. The fortune Mistress Viridi read me didn't paint a very good picture either." Doesn't seem to be all too important, but then, just the next chapter, there's this foretelling little gem.
  • Chest Monster:
    • Mimicuties are "treasure boxes" that grow legs. When approached, it stands up and starts rapidly kicking Pit and chasing after him. They are very, very fast, take more hits to kill than just about any other Mook in the game, and they hit hard. It gets to the point where they become a Trauma Button for Pit.
    • There's also Pandora's Boxes, which simply lob some energy pellets at Pit and may or may not contain anything else.
  • The Chew Toy: Pit's so used to being abused that even when he hears someone is coming to his rescue at great cost to themselves he imagines them insulting him.
  • Close-Contact Danger Benefit: During flight sections, Pit will enter a gliding stance if the player stops shooting, which improves his mobility and makes it easier to avoid projectiles. In this state, bullets that get really close to Pit's sprite produce a special sound effect that, if triggered a certain number of times, will unlock rewards for the player.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Pandora has trampolines in her lair because she enjoys watching people bounce on them. Thanatos alternates between encouraging Pit's progress and trying to get him to stop for a chat. He even tries to convince Pit to go to a skating rink.
  • Cold Sniper: Dark Pit can decide to be one in Chapter 6, equipped with his own staff and aiming at you from the top of a mountain. Of course, if you were using a staff, you can just snipe him back and win the Sniper Duel pretty easily, since he remains stationary and you have a lot of space to move around him.
  • Color-Coded Armies: In the main game, all on-screen characters and monsters (save Pit) have a colored arrow over them. Yellow for Palutena's Army and items, purple for the Underworld Army, dark grey for the Space Pirates, green for the Forces of Nature, blue for the Aurum, maroon for the Chaos Kin, and white for unaffiliated characters. Also, jump pads have orange.
  • Color-Coded Multiplayer:
    • In Light vs. Dark, the Light team has white armor and the Dark team has purple.
    • Each player also wears armor based on their system Mii's favorite color in Free-For-All. That includes the black you'd expect the dark team to be wearing.
  • Comically Serious: Dark Pit, occasionally.
    Dark Pit: This is wave 11. The time for jokes is over!
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In Together mode, when you select Nearby, you can set up a game of Light vs Dark or Free-For-All using bots with random weapons attached to them. Only issue is, when playing Light vs Dark, the game sometimes ignores its own value rules even though you still have to follow them. Watch as the computer completely demolishes you [on high levels] with high-value weapons and barely receive any punishment for it upon death.
    • The bots' dodging reflexes are also far higher than a normal human's. They will perfectly dodge attacks on all but the lowest difficulty settings. They even have the ability to dodge shots a human person wouldn't be able to see.
  • Continuing is Painful: If you die, the difficulty will go down a notch and you can lose rewards. In some cases, it's better to just return to the menu and start over. However, doing so forfeits roughly half of collected equipment, along with the hearts lost from the cauldrons.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: In Chapter 10, Palutena sends Pit flying nearby some lava. Justified by Palutena's "power of cooling" and lampshaded at one point when Palutena asks him how's he holding up there, only for him to say "I'm... very sweaty".
  • Convenient Colour Change: Pit's wings glow blue when his flight is granted by Palutena, magenta when granted by the Pegasus Wings, and green when it is granted by Viridi. Dark Pit's glow purple when he uses Pandora's powers to fly.
  • Cool Horse: The unicorns, Phos and Lux, who pull the Lightning Chariot.
  • Cool Versus Awesome
    • Chapters 15 through 17 could be described as "Greek gods versus aliens."
    • Chapter 14 follows this in the first half of the air battle with Phosphora versus Thanatos.
  • Corridor Cubbyhole Run:
    • Multiple parts in the run through the Reapers' castle; you can simply hide from the Reapers each time instead of fighting them.
    • The part in Chapter 16 where you have to dodge an Aurum train.
    • Chapter 18 has it as an option in a couple of parts, the first with enemies you can just fight and the second giving you an item that can let you approach the danger and simply turn around when it attacks.
  • Couch Gag: At the start of every level, when Pit jumps out the door from Skyworld and wherever he's going today, he says something different. In the latter half of the game, they play around with it even more, for instance having Pit sing a victory song, or be sleepy because he just woke up.
  • Crapsaccharine World / Vice City: Sure, the world looks bright and cheery, The Legions of Hell notwithstanding, but as the game's plot goes on, we're shown just how screwed up both the humans and the gods are. Even Palutena, the Big Good, is pretty much a womanchild in her dealings with Pit. In fact, part of Dark Pit's motivation is that he's sick of how Pit continues to see the world in black and white despite the corruption that is all around him.
  • Creator Thumbprint: A lot of elements from Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Sakurai's earlier work show up here. The "Idol Transformation" power replaces the trophy stands in Brawl. Many of the enemies are Eldritch Abomination-Lite and have portmanteau names. The Treasure Hunt is just like Challenges in Brawl and Kirby Air Ride. The menus are very reminiscent of those two games. Apparently, the difficulty slider in this game is a new one, as it later shows up in a very similar form in Super Smash Bros for 3DS.
  • Credits Medley: The war's end credits don't just contain music from various chapter's but also dialog.
  • Crippling Overspecialization:
    • Staves have excellent long-ranged charged shots, but so-so continuous fire and crap melee damage. The Flintlock Staff is the biggest example, having a powerful charged shot that can hit from about 120 meters away, but terrible continuous fire and a melee attack that does almost no damage. It doesn't help that many enemies spawn from much shorter distances, preventing you from simply cheesing big open areas and long hallways by sniping everything before they notice you.
    • The opposite of staves is the club weapon category. Clubs specialize in melee attacks and have charged shots that can pummel enemies around you and in front of you into oblivion, but don't fire projectiles at all during their continuous fire. On top of that, clubs have the worst attack range in Air Battles, preventing you from killing a large plurality of enemies.
  • Cutting Off the Branches: Downplayed. One or two of the Multiple Endings from the original Kid Icarus (specifically the Golden Ending in the original Japanese) featured Palutena bless Pit with a Karmic Transformation to a full-grown angel, but Pit's current physical form is that of a young teenager. Some of the dialog in Chapter 9 indicates that Pit was known to die frequently on his original adventure, and given that the best ending requires full upgrades to health and strength and no continues, it can be safely surmised that Uprising does not follow the Golden Ending.
  • Dark Is Evil
    • The residents of the Underworld are Always Chaotic Evil, and Medusa is the Goddess of Darkness.
    • Pit's body in Chapter 18 uses a Darkness bow, to show who's side he's on.
  • Dark Is Not Evil:
    • The Idol notes for the Light Fighter and Dark Fighter note that Light Fighters "aren't always the nicest guys" and that Dark Fighters can be "pretty sweet dudes to hang out with". That said, the Dark Fighters only have Dark in their name and are stilll good-looking humanoids as oppsoed to demons.
    • Dark Pit is the anti-hero to Pit and is actually decently nice, though he is still quite the Jerk with a Heart of Gold and he's still an angel.
    • There are quite a few Darkness-based weapons you can use, like the above-mentioned Darkness Bow. In addition to that, the Black Club, Cursed Palm, Dark Pit Staff, Doom Cannon, Gaol Blade, Great Reaper Palm, and End-All Arm also count.
  • Darker and Edgier
    • One would think that this trope would apply after the Ring of Chaos chapter, but even with non comedic the Knight of Cerebus behind it the game remains lighthearted with lots of comedy throughout all remaining chapters.
    • Chapter 11 begins with Viridi nuking and killing thousands of humans all at once. While it's played seriously during the chapter, later on Hades treats it as more of a lighthearted Once Done, Never Forgotten moment.
    • Chapter 21 ends with Pit saving Dark Pit from the Chaos Kin, but he overuses the power of Flight and his wings burn up to a crisp, which leaves him in a comatose state and near death.
  • Darkest Hour: Chapter 23, in which Pit finally confronts Hades. Hades then demolishes the three treasures and swallows Pit whole. Pit survives, but has to make his way without support from Palutena or Viridi.
  • Dark Reprise
    • Appears during the final boss fight with Hades. The boss music contains a darker version of the iconic Underworld Theme.
    • When Pyrrhon takes over the Aurum Brain, a much more ominous version of his theme plays while he brags about his new powers.
    • When fighting the possessed Palutena, you hear a familiar song play in the background. You don't really notice until you hear a missing laugh — that's the theme that played during the battle with Medusa, ten or eleven chapters ago, and just the fact that it's shared between the two Goddesses makes it that much darker.
  • Day-Old Legend: Many idol descriptions for the weapons qualify. It is justified with the reveal that all of Pit's weapons are replicas created by Dyntos, however.note 
  • Deadpan Snarker:
    • Pit and Palutena take their turns dabbling in this during their exchanges throughout each mission. Viridi's probably the biggest example, though.
    • Magnus also has his fair share of snarky comments, mainly aimed at Pit.
    "You having a private conversation with yourself, angel face?"
  • Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Can be either played straight or averted depending on how many hearts are put into the Fiend's Cauldron.
  • Death is Cheap:
    • Gods are apparently able to resurrect their champions. Palutena can resurrect Pit instantly, Hades is capable of resurrecting his commanders almost immediately after their deaths, and Viridi is later revealed to have resurrected Phosphora.
      • This apparently has its limits, however. When Pit's wings burn up and he's on the edge of death, Palutena is powerless to help him by herself.
    • As we find out in The Stinger, Hades' soul is still around and just as lively as ever, though he no longer has a body. He states that, fortunately, he has another 25 years to figure out how to come back.
    • Medusa is actually annoyed by this, since she doesn't like the idea of being resurrected just to be killed again.
    • If some of the discussions about resurrection are of any indication, this is actually averted with the Underworld Army. Medusa was in fact never truly revived. Instead, Hades took her memories and mixed them with a bunch of souls to create a new Medusa. Medusa herself made copies of three of her commanders this way in Medusa's Final Battle. Whether or not the first versions you fight in Uprising are copies made by Hades too is uncertain.
    • T(h)anatos plays this very straight. He's revived twice(!) by Hades, though it's uncertain if it's the original or copies made with memories and souls (see the point above). Considering his status as the god of death, it's very possible that he's an exception to the previously mentioned rule. Hades even says that, as god of death, Thanatos gets special privileges. "Evil powers, health insurance — Oh, and free soda."
  • Demonic Possession: Palutena in Chapters 18 - 21, courtesy of the Chaos Kin.
  • Desperation Attack: The "in-peril attack boost" effect. If your weapon has it, you'll get more powerful when your health's gotten low.
  • Deus ex Machina: A more classical example in the final chapter: Medusa shows up out of nowhere to stop Hades' "most devastating attack."
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • Try replaying Chapter 3 and defeat the Hewdraw heads in a different order. The first head taken off of the main body becomes Hewdraw Reborn, the second head is fought as the Head of the Hewdraw, and the last one goes down with the body. Each head has its own lines for each situation.
    • In Chapter 7, a trap door sits in front of a treasure box. Think to jump over it with Sky Jump or Jump Glide? Sorry, no Sequence Breaking: a barrier stops Pit from crossing the gap.
    • In Chapter 14, as the others discuss Thanatos' resurrection, Pit will remark that he's been finished off a few times himself. If you have never died on that entire save file up until that point, Pit's line changes, instead complaining about Thanatos getting a second chance.
    • Randomly throughout the game, Palutena will give a commentary on the weapon type you currently have equipped in the Chapter, but when she is taken over by the Chaos Kin, Viridi takes over as guide and has her own set of dialogue for each of the weapon types. This is in spite of the fact that these conversations could only take place in 2 chapters! Along those same lines, Pit saying "Lady Palutena!" when using certain powers is changed to "Viridi!" for those 3 chapters.
  • Diabolus ex Machina: The exact mechanism by which at least four arcs follow or even interrupt the previous one.
    • Medusa is defeated? Hades has a Dynamic Entry right through the end credits.
    • Hades' Xanatos Gambit to incite war among humanity succeeds and now Pit and Palutena have to stop the Underworld Army from collecting souls from international warfare? Forget that noise, Viridi's here to drop a Reset Bomb and get some genocide started.
    • Viridi's commanders have been taken down and now it's time to face Viridi herself? Well, unfortunately, the Aurum arrived this morning.
    • Finally put the Aurum down and stopped the invasion? The Chaos Kin attacks, subjects Palutena to Demonic Possession, traps Pit in the ring of chaos, and subjects you to a three-year Time Skip, and all off-screen.
  • Dialog During Gameplay: And how. There is almost constant chatting going on, and even when you find yourself at a quiet moment without new lines triggering by progression, there are random conversations to fill the gap.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: As with the original Kid Icarus, Pit does battle with several members of the Greek pantheon of gods. Special mention goes to Medusa, who, after being revived by Hades after Pit defeated her a second time, actually punches Hades's head off.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: Pit lays dead after his Heroic Sacrifice in saving Dark Pit from the fiery abyss. Palutena holds him in her arms and nearly cries.
  • Difficult, but Awesome: Most staves are very weak in melee and have no homing on their charged shots, but a properly fused one can One-Hit Kill or even occasionally One-Hit Polykill from the other side of the stage. Special mention goes to the Flintlock Staff, whose charge shot hits almost instantly, no matter the distance.
  • Disc-One Final Dungeon
    • The Underworld is the not final area three times over and Medusa is the Disc-One Final Boss the first time you go there. The level is the longest so far (and for quite a while afterwards), and after beating Medusa, the credits even start rolling before Hades rips them away.
    • Chapter 23 begins very similarly to chapter 9, with you suiting up in the 3 Sacred Treasures and flying into the Underworld (With similar music, no less) for your "final" confrontation with Hades, only for him to wipe the floor with you. The true final battle does start in the underworld, but it doesn't end there.
  • Divine Conflict: Palutena's Army stand in opposition to the forces of the Underworld led by Medusa and Hades. Later, the forces of Nature led by Viridi get involved.
  • Dolled-Up Installment: Uprising wasn't originally planned to have anything to do with the Kid Icarus series. Nintendo and Sakurai were just working on a Nintendo 3DS action game involving sky and land combat when they suddenly realized that Pit would be the perfect character for such a title.
  • Double-Edged Buff:
  • Double-Meaning Title
  • Double Unlock: Some weapons and powers have to be unlocked. While some of them (such as the Zodiac Chamber items) are given to you at the same time as they're unlocked, others must be obtained elsewhere after being unlocked.
  • Dual Boss: Magnus and Gaol in Chapter 24, Dark Pit and the Lunar Sanctum Core in chapter 13.
  • Dual Wielding: Pit's bow, like in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, can be split into two swords.
  • Dub Name Change: Numerous examples, as is common in Nintendo games. Some examples are Viridi, who was originally Naturé, and Pyrrhon, originally Ras.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In the Japanese version of the game, it's made clear that Pit can read. However, in the English Dub, Pit has a famous line when he's falling from orbit where he screams "I NEVER LEARNED HOW TO REEEEEEEEEAD!" which even made it into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as his Star KO scream. But this makes no sense because earlier in the same chapter, Pyrrhon mentioned the Divinipedia site where he got his prophecy information from, and Pit asks him to send him the link to read it. Why would Pit want the link if he can't read?

    E-F 
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: And boy, do they ever. After going through 3 years of endless slaughter, Pit finally manages to destroy Hades, ending the war.
  • Easter Egg:
    • Moving around the menu icons on the touch screen, though they'll go back to place after you release them. Similarly, you can spin around the menu background, which causes the elements on the top screen to jiggle around.
    • Pressing the A, B, or Y button during cutscenes will have the camera zoom in, and you can move it around with the the control stick.
    • Repeatedly touching the Fiend's Cauldron will get it annoyed until it finally turns around and faces away from the player.
    • During flight sections, if Pit is close enough to a flat surface like the ground, he'll start running instead of flying. You even get points for doing it.
    • If you hold down on the circle pad after dying, you get to see where all the hearts go after they spill out of the Fiend's Cauldron.
    • At the beginning of Chapter 18, you can actually shake the ring appearing on-screen by moving the Circle Pad.
  • Easy-Mode Mockery: While setting the Intensity to higher than 2.0 will use up hearts and then reward you with extra if you clear the chapter, setting the Intensity to less than 2.0 uses up hearts and doesn't give them back.
  • Eating the Enemy:
    • Tempura Wizards have the ability to turn Pit into shrimp tempura that they eat for a One-Hit Kill.
    • In Chapter 23, the Big Bad, mean, old Hades, tries to do this to Pit. After a chase, he sucks and swallows Pit up, which leads to a Womb Level. And after battering his heart up, Dark Pit smashes into Hades' chest to free Pit.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Medusa. It's an illusion that's as close to her original form as she can manage.
  • Eldritch Abomination
    • The Orne. An invulnerable blue skull surrounded with purple fire with a dislocatable jaw that holds multicolored skulls of several shapes in its mouth. It has horns and six eye sockets. And it flat-out kills you on contact. Even worse, only the Three Sacred Treasures can kill it.
    • Clubberskulls are giant monsters shaped like fleshy human hearts with skulls for fists. Ew.
    • The Soul-Eating Monster, a giant, cosmic gulper eel with tentacles, easily qualifies. The Chaos Kin definitely counts as well, being a cyclopic, arthropod-like embodiment of chaos.
  • Eldritch Location:
    • Pandora's Labyrinth of Deceit was deliberately designed to confuse intruders. As such, it comes complete with tricks such as dead ends made to look like normal passages, invisible platforms, gravity shifts, and areas that create the illusion of being outside the labyrinth.
    • The Chaos Vortex takes this up to eleven, including but not limited to: replicas of creatures from all the previous factions, from Palutena's Centurions to the Aurum, Alien Geometries, screwy portals in the form of eyes everywhere, shadows of Pit everywhere, enemies appearing suddenly to cover the screen, etc. It can get really confusing at some points.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • The three primary factions in the game all reluctantly team up when the Aurum invade the planet. Hades wants to rule the world, Viridi wants to save it for the sake of nature, and Pit wants to save it for the sake of everyone.
    • Pit teams up with Viridi when the Chaos Kin posseses Palutena. Dark Pit joins later then sticks around to repay Pit for saving him..
    • Palutena, Viridi, Medusa, and Pit all team up against Hades for the final boss fight.
  • Enemy Summoner: In the original game, The Grim Reaper enemies were very hated for it. Uprising introduces a boss version, the Great Reaper.
  • Energy Beings: The Space Pirates, as mentioned on the standard Space Pirate idol.
  • Energy Weapon: Surprisingly commonplace in a game based on ancient Greek mythology. Some usable weapons incorporate lasers, including the Beam Claws and Laser Staff.
  • Epic Fail: Viridi drops her last Reset Bomb on the Aurum Brain's housing after Pyrrhon merges with the Brain. The problem stems from the fact that said bomb is a self-described natural accelerator, which generates a giant forest, on a completely artificial structure, which is under the control of someone who may be the sun god and definitely has fire powers. Pyrrhon laughs it off and sets it aflame.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The morally-ambiguous Viridi and even Medusa despise Hades with a passion for messing with mortal souls for his own gain.
  • Everybody Hates Hades: Thanatos, the god of Death, is a high-ranking, and highly evil, member of the Underworld Army. The fact that the Underworld is constantly invading the Earth and Heavens also qualifies. In addition, the Underworld Army is actually headed by its god, Hades, who out-evils everyone else. His only motivation in Uprising is to cause as much death and destruction as he can in order to bring more souls to his domain, for him to do with as he pleases. This earns him the ire of everyone, from Pit and Palutena, to the human-hating Nature goddess Viridi, to even Medusa herself!
  • Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: Palutena wore two pieces of jewelry in the first two games. In the third, she wears three if you don't count the jewelry that's woven into her clothing.
  • Evil Is Bigger: Medusa, Viridi, and Chaos Kin-controlled Palutena each signified their stints as the current Arc Villain by communicating with Pit via giant hologram. Played Straighter with Medusa and Hades, who are naturally giant. Although Medusa may have done something to get bigger, as her humanoid form wasn't so large in the first game.
  • Evil Knockoff: Dark Pit is a failed attempt as he wants to kill his creators more than his template and later on turns out to be an Anti-Hero.
  • Exact Words: Some of the chapter titles make more sense in hindsight.
    • Chapter 9 is titled "Medusa's Final Battle". And it's completely true. It's Medusa's final battle, but it is nowhere near Pit's final battle.
    • Chapter 23 is "Lord Of The Underworld", and builds itself up as the final confrontation with Hades. But then he eats Pit, and it becomes clear that the Lord of the Underworld is the level.
    • Chapter 25 is titled "The War's End" in the fact that, when Hades is gone, the war is finally over.
  • Extreme Omnivore:
    • Palutena doesn't seem to ever have food far from her mind. She often speculates on the culinary qualities of various enemies and bosses, and at one point even theorizes about spicy angel wings, when Pit is in danger of being electrocuted. In the short animation, Palutena's Revolting Dinner, she is completely unperturbed by the fact that the carrots she was preparing gained sentience, and was still intent on cutting them up and cooking them.
    • As if swallowing Pit whole wasn't already rather extremely omnivorous, Hades reacts to Pit questioning how he can punch through his stomach by swallowing assorted enemies and objects whole just for Pit to deal with.
    • Pit's own like for food gets mocked here and there as well. "FLOOR ICE CREAM GIVES YOU HEALTH!"
  • Facial Markings: Medusa sports some on the left side of her face in her Uprising design. Hades has these as well.
  • Fake-Out Fade-Out: After Medusa gets taken down in Chapter 9, it looks like the adventure's over and a retro 8-bit credit sequence starts rolling. Then Hades interrupts the whole thing and shows it ain't over yet.
  • Fake Ultimate Hero: Unlike most examples, Pyrrhon is a capable fighter in addition to a capable schemer, but like most he's not as heroic as he would have his peers believe.
  • Fallen Angel: Dark Pit looks the part, and "fell" within seconds after being born! The goddess who created him was evil, so it's not so bad.
  • Fanservice:
    • Probably the only reason why the second part of Palutena's Revolting Dinner starts with Palutena in a hot spring. To give you a basic idea of what the scene looks like, look here.
    • Palutena and Medusa have both received a Fanservice Pack since their last appearance.
    • Chapter 14 has this in Phosphora, who is a flirty member of the Forces of Nature who wears very little clothing.
    • Chapter 22 does this at the end with Amazon Pandora. If the female public was disappointed, they have the shirtless Pit scene right after the fight.
  • Family-Friendly Firearms: Most ranged weapons in the game have goofy, futuristic, or otherwise abstract designs. The sole aversion is the Flintlock Staff, which actually is a Sniper Rifle, just styled to superficially resemble a flintlock(which is itself a real gun) and suffixed with "staff" instead.
  • Family-Unfriendly Violence: In order to save Dark Pit from the Chaos Kin, Pit flies longer than the given time despite Viridi's warning not to. This results in him having his wings burnt and his bones showing.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The game appears to be merely based on Greek mythology at first... then Palutena sends you into space to reclaim the Three Sacred Treasures that were stolen from her by the Space Pirates.
  • Fantastic Nuke: Viridi's "Reset Bomb" explodes with the force of a nuclear bomb. In addition, it creates a gargantuan mass of brambles that, in time, fertilize the surrounding land, transforming it into a vast, dense, nigh-inhospitable-to-humanity jungle.
  • Fantastic Racism: Viridi looks down on humanity for their disregard for nature and ceaseless violence. Come Chapter 11, she debuts by dropping a Reset Bomb in the middle of a war, vowing to Kill All Humans and restore nature.
  • Fantasy Pantheon: This game has a mix between this and Greek/Roman gods.
  • A Father to His Men:
    • Pit is shown to care more about the Centurions' safety than his own, and the feeling is entirely mutual.
    • Palutena has a brief moment of this during the attack on the Aurum Brain, in which she panics over her previous Centurions getting hurt.
    • Viridi outright refers to her minions as her children.
  • Fighting Your Friend:
  • First Town: The town in Chapter 1; it's literally called "That First Town."
  • Flaming Hair:
    • Twinbellows, who has flaming fur.
    • Pyrrhon has more humanish but sill fire like hair while Hades has hair like fire after growing a new head.
  • Flash Step: The Bumblebee Power and the In-peril AutoDodge mod as well.
  • Fluffy Cloud Heaven: While it's probably not actually supposed to be heaven, Skyworld certainly looks the part.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: Some of the Forces of Nature have jarringly cutesy names. Lampshaded twice with Bumpety Bombs.
  • Foe Romance Subtext:
    • Phosphora constantly distracts Pit throughout chapter 14 by flirting with him. Lampshaded by Palutena:
    Palutena: Pit, I know it's hard when she flirts with you, but remember that she's the enemy!
    • Also somewhat between Pit and Viridi. See Ship Tease. Even more of it should on trigger their random conversations, especially the one about clubs.
    • One-sided example between Pit and Medusa, where the latter says she was expecting his arrival like "like Rapunzel waiting for her prince".
  • Foil
    • Magnus is one for Pit, even down to the designs of the two characters. Magnus is a deep-voiced adult while Pit is visually and vocally a teenager at best, has a black color scheme contrasting Pit's white, and is buff compared to Pit's "thin" frame. Their dialogue highlights their contrasting personalities, as Magnus is far more serious than the goofy protagonist, but has reward money as his main motivation for taking his jobs, whereas Pit is only concerned with protecting humanity.
    • Dark Pit is this to Pit. Whereas the latter is gullible and goofy to the point of being childish, the former is a savvy Deadpan Snarker, which is why his voice is made to sound deeper and more mature than his counterpart. Also, while Pit is deeply loyal to Palutena and her army, Dark Pit is a loner who does whatever he wants.
    • Palutena is the Goddess of Light, a kind and benevolent deity who, albeit trollish at times, deeply cares about Pit and the future of mankind. By contrast, her nemesis Medusa is the Queen of the Underworld, a cruel, serious goddess who enjoys inflicting pain and suffering upon humanity.
  • For the Evulz: Hades openly admits that committing all manner of evil atrocities is his idea of a good time.
  • Forbidden Chekhov's Gun: From the start, Palutena reminds Pit that the Miracle of Flight can't be active for more than five minutes at a time without his wings burning out (which is the average of almost every flight segment in the game).
    • In the middle of Chapter 17, Palutena tries to extract Pit from battle when the Miracle of Flight is about to reach its limit. When that fails, she is forced to deactivate it, knowing full well that he would fall to his death. Luckily, Viridi and the Skyworld Centurions arrive to help.
    • At the end of Chapter 21, Pit begs Viridi to reactivate it to help save Dark Pit, knowing full well he still needed a cooldown. Though he saves him, Pit's wings are charred to the bone and he almost dies, leading to the next chapter to heal him.
  • Forced Transformation:
    • Like in the first game, Pit can be turned into an eggplant, but now he can be turned into tempura as well. Unlike Eggplant Wizards, Tempura Wizards actually try to eat Pit if he gets too close before it wears off.
    • When Pit turns into a Ring in the Chaos Kin Saga, he "transforms" into a dog, a little girl, and Magnus. Pit's still a ring, though, so he can't move on his own.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • In Chapter 6, Palutena notes that there's something strange about the Underworld monsters; particularly, their souls. It's revealed in Chapter 22 that Hades is creating them out of human souls.
    • In Chapter 7, Palutena asks Thanatos why he doesn't outrank Medusa, since he is the god of the dead. Thanatos blatantly dodges the question because Hades is the true leader, and the Lord of the Underworld would definitely outrank Thanatos.
    • In the beginning of Chapter 8, Palutena mentions that the Three Sacred Treasures have grown brittle with age, but should still be able to last long enough to get a few more battles out of them. Cue the first battle against Hades towards the end of the game, where they not only prove to be completely ineffective against him, but he then proceeds to effortlessly destroy them.
    • In Chapter 9, Medusa briefly alludes to having severe amnesia, not knowing why or how she came back from the dead. That's because she's not Medusa in the first place — she's a bunch of arbitrary souls arranged in a Medusa-like pattern, with Medusa's memories of her previous defeat.
    • There is this subtle bit of dialogue during the flight section of The Lunar Sanctum.
      Arlon: [Viridi] said I mustn't let your attacks spread chaos HERE of all places.
    • Arlon also mentions that he's far too busy defending the Sanctum to bother attacking anyone, and that there isn't any room for more "guests".
    • On a lighter note, Arlon deduces Pit is good at impersonations, but Pit says he's only good at one. Turns out he was lying, it's just Pit's other two acts wouldn't be applauded by his present company.
    • When Pyrrhon mentions the "Book of Divine Prophecy" foretelling the coming of The Aurum, Viridi says she doesn't remember that passage. Given Pyrrhon's plans, it's quite possible that he figured out a way to summon the Aurum himself, and was just covering his tracks.
  • Four Is Death
    • The fourth chapter of the game is entirely devoted to the Reapers. Even the boss is an absurdly large Reaper.
    • Also, when deleting your save file, you must hold L, R, +>, X, Y (which the manual says nothing of), and then confirm four times. You will then hear a Remoblamling blow up, and the game will confirm deletion.
    • Let four Centurion Strong Arms fall during the escort mission and it's game over.
  • Friendly Enemy: Or... something like that. Pit and Palutena see no problem trading polite greetings and snarks with their mortal enemies, and the feeling is mutual.

    G-I 
  • The Gad Fly: Palutena frequently says ridiculous things because she knows Pit will believe her. She also likes to poke fun at his flaws or imply he has some that might not actually be there. Other characters find this amusing, until she turns on them.
  • Gaia's Vengeance: Viridi, the goddess of nature, weaponizes this trope in the form of Reset Bombs, Fantastic Nukes that wipe out cities and leave massive sprawling forests in their wake. Viridi starts dropping them in her own attempt to preserve the planet after Hades tricks humanity into warring with one another.
  • Game-Breaking Bug: A particularly nasty one has been reported here.
  • Gate Guardian: The Underworld is guarded by a giant machine called... the Underworld Gatekeeper. Dark Pit defeats it by kicking it in the face.(In the Japanese version, this beaks his leg)
  • Gemstone Assault: Several weapons can fire gems, such as the Crystal Bow and the Royal Blade.
  • Genre Shift: Uprising is a Third-Person Shooter rather than a regular platformer.
  • Giant Foot of Stomping:
    • The "Atlas' Foot" item.
    • One of the forms Thanatos takes during his boss battle.
    Palutena: A foot? Really? How much damage can-
    Thanatos: Ever heard of athlete's foot?
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere:
    • The Space Kraken in Chapter 8:
    • Chapters 15 through 17 has the Aurum invasion.
  • Gimmick Level: A few levels have small changes to keep things interesting, such as one level which continues the on-foot combat along the same path as the flying part of the level, giving Pit a limited amount of space to move on a floating platform.
  • Glass Cannon: Pit can become one with the combination of the Critical Attack weapon bonus (extra damage if his health is low), Energy Charge (2 to 4 times more attack power until he takes a hit), and Last Resort (trades all remaining HP for a huge boost in offensive power): he becomes able to destroy most enemies with ease, but taking a single hit will do him in.
  • God and Satan Are Both Jerks
    • There is not a single god or goddess who does not enjoy trolling Pit at every opportunity. Except perhaps the Chariot Master, though he deliberately leaves it vague to what degree he's a divinity.
    • Played much straighter in the Chaos Kin arc, where the human world is under attack from every god, now including Palutena.
    • Also lampshaded in the final cutscene, where Pit jokingly states the gods are far more selfish than humans could ever hope to be.
  • God of Evil: Medusa is technically the goddess of darkness, but implies that she became dedicated to destroying humanity when they stopped worshiping and praying to her as diligently when they were happy.
  • God of Good: Palutena is technically the goddess of light, but became this when Medusa destroying the humans of her kingdom made her put her foot down.
  • Gold and White Are Divine: Palutena wears a white dress with gold accents, further cementing her status as the Goddess of Light.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Pyrrhon technically managed to take control of the Aurum... but the Aurum also took control of him.
  • Greed Makes You Dumb: Exploited by Hades, who knows humanity will be greedy enough to wage war under even a false promise of a wish as he spreads a rumor about a wish seed. Not only does this result in humans slaughtering each other for nothing, but it causes the goddess of nature Viridi to view humans as nothing more than destructive creatures who need to be removed from the world. Meanwhile, Hades uses the deaths to strengthen his own army.
  • Grid Inventory: Used for powers. Pit compares it Dr. Mario.
  • Grind Boots: Gods are capable of creating "Grind Rails" for Pit to use during land battles. Apparently, only the one the rails are created for can even see them, much less use them.
  • Gross-Up Close-Up: Considering how family-friendly Uprising is, you get a surprisingly graphic view of Pit's horribly burned and broken wings after he saves Dark Pit.
  • Guide Dang It!
    • The Zodiac Weapons and Powers. Granted, they're all supposed to be a secret, but it's rather unlikely you would find out about them at all without consulting an outside source or by stumbling upon one at all. The game doesn't even mention these except in the Treasure Hunts or if you get to the Pisces Heal in Chapter 24.
    • Some of the other treasure hunts also qualify. For example, one is about breaking barriers in a certain boss fight... barriers that only appear if you stick closely to the boss.
  • Gun Fu: Many of Pit's dash shots fall into this category.
  • Half the Man He Used to Be: Chapter 25 shows Hades taking out the Great Sacred Treasure's legs, while Pit responds by cutting off the entire lower half of Hades' body with a BFS Laser Blade. He grows it back shortly afterward, but with an obvious Weak Spot revealed. Pit even makes a quick joke about it, quoting the trope verbatim, except replacing the word "man" with "villain".
  • Halfway Plot Switch: During Chapter's 15 to 17, Pit's fight against Viridi and Hades is put on hold for an even bigger threat: an Alien Invasion in the form of the Aurum Fleet. Once they've been deal with, thanks to an Enemy Mine from all parties, things are soon back to normal. Sort of...
  • Hand Wave: Extensively. A frequent target is the re-use of enemies being justified by the events of the story as having been made and re-made by the various gods and monsters for their own uses.
  • Hard Mode Perks: The Intensity levels in Uprising increase the amount and difficulty of enemies you face and the usefulness of the rewards, mostly weapons and powers, for completing the level. However, the difficulty decreases every time you die, along with some of the hearts spent on increasing the difficulty. The weapons and powers you found also correspond in value to the difficulty you finish the chapter, even if you found them on a higher difficulty.
    • There are also bonus rooms that can only be accessed when playing at a high enough difficulty, as indicated by the number on the door leading to them.
  • Has Two Thumbs and...: During Chapter 10, there is a massive, two-layered hot spring, earning this trope from Pit.
    Pit: Who has two thumbs and loves hot springs? EVERYONE WITH TWO THUMBS!
  • Heart Beat-Down:
    • The Angel Bow and Viridi Palm have heart designs and shoot out heart-shaped projectiles.
    • Amazon Pandora shoots heart-shaped projectiles.
  • Heavenly Concentric Circles: Official artwork of the Skyworld depicts it as a vast mass of clouds. Some of them shape strange structures —i.e., concentric arcs towering over a platform of clouds.
  • Heel–Face Turn:
    • Viridi, who is originally introduced as a villain. Especially noticeable if you pay attention to her opinion on Cherubots. When Palutena brings one in during Chapter 12, she has a negative attitude ("I can't imagine that pile of metal is very fuel efficient"), but when you find one during Chapter 19 (three years later when Viridi's on your side), she encourages Pit to start kicking ass with it.
    • Dark Pit. Which isn't saying much since "kill Pit" was his only villainous trait and he wasn't that dedicated to it to begin with
  • He Knows About Timed Hits: Palutena and Pit mention the game controls quite a bit.
  • Hellhound: Twinbellows. Like his name implies, he has two heads. His tails also appear to be biological bellows that feed his fire.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Pit sacrifices his wings to save Dark Pit; the game even makes it a point to remind you that his one wish was to be able to fly by himself.
  • Hero of Another Story: Magnus. We get a few delectable little bits of backstory, and what very little we see can easily be extrapolated into a full-on story of his own. But we only see him a few times, and that's all we get. Little bits.
  • Hot Goddess: Palutena, Medusa, Phosphora, and Amazon Pandora. The latter gloats about it.
  • Hide Your Children: In chapter 18, you briefly control a little girl, but there are no enemies around while you do so. This trope is also likely the reason why you never fight Viridi.
  • High-Speed Battle
    • The fight with the Chariot Master is one. He's faster than you in short bursts but you have a higher consistent speed
    • Also two parts of the Final Battle with Hades. One where he chases you and one where you chase him
  • Hive Mind: The Aurum... unfortunately for Pyrrhon.
  • Hot-Blooded: Pit, more so here than in the original games.
  • HP to One: The trade-off power is a self-inflicted variation overlapping with Cast from Hit Points. In exchange for all but one of your hit points, you get powered up for a period of time which has a length proportional to the amount of hit points you had before you used it. During this period of time, you get complete invulnerability to all damage, as well as massive boosts to both movement speed and attack power.
  • Hulking Out: The Clobbler is a fairly harmless and adorable apple with legs... unless you hit it.
  • Humans Are Flawed: Pit personally seems to view humanity as this, noting that of all living creatures, humans for all their flaws are the only ones who truly have heart and spirit, as well as the only ones who truly respect and worship the gods.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters
    • Something of a recurring theme. Palutena notes, when talking about Magnus, that humans are fundamentally driven by desire, using the mercenary as an example. Hades gets humans to wage war with themselves to an insane degree by spreading the rumor of the Wish Seed. This draws the ire of the nature goddess Viridi, who begins attempting to annihilate humankind for their greed, violence, and wastefulness. Dark Pit seems to be the only one willing to tell the gods that they're just as bad, if not worse.
    • Played for Laughs in the ending.
    Palutena: It's true: humans are simple, selfish little creatures who are driven by greed. Sounds a lot like us gods, wouldn't you say?
    Pit: No way! Ha ha ha! No one could be as selfish as the gods!
  • Hyperactive Metabolism: Pit regenerates most of his health from all manner of food, the amount of health depending on their calorie content rather than their nutritional value. These include apples, grapes, melons, hamburgers, ice-cream, donuts, cakes, bars of chocolate, meat, sushi, and the Drink of the Gods.
    Pit: Floor ice cream gives you health!
  • Hypocritical Heartwarming: Hades' reason for helping defend the earth against the Aurum.
    Hades: "Earth is MY flower to plunder, not theirs!"
  • Hypocritical Humor: Played for Laughs in Chapter 11. There's a damaged hot spring from the human city that still has a little water left; if you choose to soak in it, Viridi calls Pit out for his love of hot springs. Later on, there's a hot spring waterfall, caused by the Reset Bomb.
  • I Am Not Shazam: Parodied, in-universe. At the beginning of the instruction videos, Pit looks at the title and wonders who this Icarus person is and if he'd get to meet him.
  • Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: The difficulty settings for the Solo Mode levels: "Effortless", "Easy", "Standard", "Tougher", "Challenging", "Heatin' Up", "Extra Spicy", "Infernal", "White Hot", and "Nothing Harder!".
  • Ignoring by Singing:
    • Thanatos does this when Palutena and Pit are talking about him.
    • Viridi when Pit says the Komaytos look like Metroids. Not only does she hum and sing to ignore Pit, but she hums the first four notes of the song that plays when Samus gets a new weapon in every Metroid game ever.
  • I'm a Humanitarian:
    • The Tempura Wizards, though they turn their prey into shrimp first.
    • The Guttlers; they even eat their allies.
  • Incoming Ham:
    Pyrrhon: Villians are no match for Pyrrhon!
    • Hades introduces himself by quite literally tearing a hole in the fourth wall
  • Inconsistent Spelling: Most names were left unchanged from the classic game, even if they were originally mistranslated. "Tanatos", however, gets an in-game update to match the mythical God of Death.
    Thanatos: I go by Thanatos now. The H stands for hamaaaazing!
  • Injured Vulnerability: If an enemy's health is low enough, you can use the "Idol Transformation" power to turn them into their collectable idol.
  • In-Series Nickname:
    • Courtesy of Palutena, "Pittoo" for Dark Pit, much to his annoyance.
    • Hades gives nicknames to many people. Pitty Pat, Pitty, Pittooey, Thanny-poo, and other names.
    • Magnus likes to call Pit "Angelface".
  • Instakill Mook:
    • Ornes are this combined with Invincible Minor Minion. Fortunately, they don't have any ranged attacks, don't usually come close to Pit, and die when all other enemies in the area are defeated. They can also be destroyed by the Three Sacred Treaures.
    • There are also Tempura Wizards, an upgraded version of the Eggplant wizards. While Eggplant Wizards "just" turn Pit into an eggplant and render him helpless to attack, Tempura Wizards turn pit into tempura shrimp, and then try to eat him. If they catch him, you lose. However, they only appear in a few chapters and only have to be defeated in one.
  • Instant Gravestone: In the Multiplayer, when a player dies, a tombstone will appear where they died. If it gets hit enough, it will explode, hurting everyone within range.
  • Insult to Rocks: Viridi apparently believes that comparing Palutena and snakes is an insult to snakes.
  • Intercom Villainy: The commanders of nearly every enemy base that you invade magically speak to you and your Mission Control as you progress, questioning your motives, explaining their own rationale, and most often, making small talk. This happens much more often past Chapter 9, when the leaders of the Underworld and goddess Viridi casually chat to you in nearly every level while also sending armies to kill you.
  • Interface Screw: In Chapter 21, some Monoeyes fly between Pit and the screen. He even tells them to get lost.
  • In the Name of the Moon: Delivered by Pit on many occasions. Two of them including snappy poses and a sparkly background in what can be called a love letter to the Trope Namer. Pandora and Palutena are not amused. Phosphora actually attacks Pit when he tries to deliver one of these speeches.
    Palutena: What was THAT all about?
    Phosphora: Enough blabbity blab. (blows her finger) Now, let's get to the main act!
    • Played very straight and surprisingly serious in Chapter 9, where Pit delivers one to Medusa with poses that specifically show off every part of the Three Sacred Treasures.
  • Inventory Management Puzzle: The powers menu takes the concept of "inventory Tetris" to a new level, with complex shapes that don't even have physical objects to represent. The shapes and sizes exist solely to make it hard to fit them together in the space available.
  • Invincibility Power-Up: The Power-Up Drop item. It also reflects ranged shots that hit you.
  • Invincible Minor Minion:
    • The most common variety is the Monolith, a moving (and often flipping) square that causes Collision Damage.
    • The Orne, in addition to being able to One-Hit Kill you. Subverted in that you CAN kill them... but only with the Three Sacred Treasures. Chapters that use them often place a lot of Ornes around to make it more difficult if you choose to play the Chapters without them.
    • The Aurum enemy, Roz. Luckily, they don't perform a One-Hit Kill; less fortunately, when they appear, there tend to be much more of them at once.
  • Ironic Echo:
    • Pit's first line in the game:
      Pit: Sorry to keep you waiting!
    • Hades' introduction and the start of the next "act" in the game.
      Hades: Sorry to keep you waiting!
  • Irony: Overlaps with Trailers Always Lie. You see that weapon Pit's holding? The one you see him use in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and more than half of the official art? You likely won't unlock it until after you beat the game.

    J-M 
  • Jerkass Gods: Most of them. Even Palutena is an impish womanchild when she wants to be.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Near the end of Chapter 22, Dark Pit calls out the gods for their warring leading to Hades harvesting countless souls. While Viridi is offended by this, Palutena is unable to deny how right he is as they often dragged humanity into their fight.
  • Jump Scare:
    • Happens a few times throughout the game, such as when the new enemies are introduced in Chapter 13, or later when Pit is flying through the darkness, when all of a sudden... Hades' head!
    • Another example is in Chapter 21 where Pit is flying through the Chaos Vortex when a bunch of eyes suddenly appear out of nowhere, startling Pit and Viridi. Lampshaded afterwards.
  • Karma Houdini: Downplayed. Despite performing several Enemy Mines with Pit against the Aurum, the Chaos Kin, and Hades after the events of her arc are over, as well as getting her forces, commanders, and bases decimated by Pit during said arc, Viridi is never actually fought and doesn’t really regret her genocidal actions against humanity either.
  • Kill All Humans: Hades' and Viridi's goal. Hades in particular uses their souls to create more monsters. Viridi's reason is because she's disgusted with how humans thoughtlessly and greedily take advantage of both nature and each other (despite Viridi showing these same traits).
  • Knight of Cerebus: For a while, the game is pretty comedic, with the characters being flagrant parodies of certain archetypes and the witty banter in between. Then 3 years pass and the Chaos Kin comes...
  • Knight Templar: Viridi, towards humans for apparently destroying nature.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Between the No Fourth Wall and Medium Awareness, there's hardly a surface left without a lampshade on it by the game's end.
  • Large Ham:
    • Tanatos' name was changed to Thanatos between Kid Icarus and Uprising. He claims the "H" stands for "Hamaaazing".
    • Hades and Pyrrhon most definitely qualify, as well, with the latter practically being a personification of this trope.
    Pyrrhon: Fear the wrath of my pyroblasters, space weirdos! *massive fire blast*
  • Laser Blade: The Optical Blade and Beam Claws more than qualify.
  • Last Chance Hit Point: Crisis Mode. If Pit's health bar is depleted, the next hit will, regardless of the enemy's strength, cause the bar to shatter. While it's possible to survive a single, very weak attack in this modenote , the next hit you sustain will most likely finish you off. Any healing items or spells you use while in Crisis Mode won't take effect until Crisis Mode is over. Some enemies such as the Tempura Wizard and the Orne will straight up bypass Crisis mode to instantly kill you even if you have a full lifebar intact.
  • The Last Of These Is Not Like The Others
    • In-real life example, the box of the game has multiple emotional looks Pit does in the game around the cartridge's area. Then you look at the bottom-left corner to see a grinning Dark Pit.
    • In-game, Arlon qualifies in comparison to the rest of the Forces of Nature.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: Two years after the release of the game comes a video introducing Palutena for Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U filling us in with some details such as how Palutena was under mind control and fought Pit, but she's fine now, and Dark Pit is in good health too.
  • Laughably Evil: Several antagonists, but especially Thanatos and Hades.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    • The first thing Pit says in Chapter 1 is "Sorry to keep you waiting!"
    • At one point in the demo, Palutena mentions that it's been "about 25 years" since she last battled Medusa. Guess when the original Kid Icarus was released in America. Go on, guess. It came out in Japan a year earlier.
  • Leitmotif
    • Many characters have their own theme when they are in the spotlight; prominent examples are Magnus and Dark Pit.
    • Pit's Bootstrapped Theme is the iconic Underworld tune that plays occasionally during various Air Battles.
    • Viridi and Pyrrhon also have their own in the Air Battle segments where they are most prominent. Viridi's plays in Chapters 11, 12, and 18; Pyrrhon's in Chapters in 15 and 17.
    • The Chaos Kin also has a theme that plays during the end of Chapter 18's Air Battle, the Ground Battle theme of Chapter 20, the latter half of 21's Air Battle music, as well as 21's Ground Battle theme.
  • Lesser of Two Evils: As much as Viridi hates humans, when compared to other threats like the Underworld Army, the Aurum, and the Chaos Kin, she considers them to be this.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Chapter 10: The Wish Seed takes place entirely in and around the Immortal Phoenix's volcano. Pit says he got a little sweaty.
  • Letting the Air out of the Band: In Chapter 4.
    Pit: But seriously, thank goodness we don't have to go [to the Reaper Fortress], right?
    Pit: That silence means we have to go there, doesn't it.
  • Lighter and Softer: Out of the spin-off anime shorts, Palutena's Revolting Dinner is this. Nothing screams "Lighter and Softer" like the adventures of a Hot Goddess having to fight off living vegetables when trying to make dinner. The short depicts Palutena's cuter and more whimsical side more glaringly than the game itself (and the other two shorts), complete with gratuitous fanservice scenes.
  • Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Palutena is the light feminine and Medusa the dark feminine.
  • Light Is Good: Palutena, in direct contrast to Medusa, is the Goddess of Light. She still shows Knight Templar tendencies, such as insisting Pit go after Dark Pit because he's "fundamentally wicked and destructive."
  • Light Is Not Good:
    • An interesting subversion regarding the Light Fighters and Dark Fighters. The Light Fighter idol describes them as being not always the nicest of guys. The Dark Fighter idol, in contrast, describes them as "pretty sweet dudes to hang out with". See also Good Is Not Nice.
    • Not to mention that Pyrrhon, the self-proclaimed sun god, plans not to destroy the Aurum, but to take control of them.
  • Lord of the Ocean: The seas part to allow Pit into the Seafloor Palace to fight Thanatos. When Pit asks Palutena how she did this, she jokingly accepts the credit before Poseidon reveals himself to be the one to part the seas and threatens to unpart them while Pit was still near the ocean floor. He scolds Palutena for lying and admits that he is only helping because the Underworld Army is overstepping into his territory.
  • Lost Aesop: The game occasionally opens up ethical debates that it never gets around to actually having.
    • The game makes a big to-do about the killing, reviving, and misusing of souls, but never makes a coherent point about why and when such things are bad. On top of that, Hades argues that he's not actually doing anything wrong, which his enemies are clearly not smart enough to challenge. Viridi in particular is a notorious equivocator on the matter of killing, directly equating her own attempts to genocide humanity with Pit and Palutena waging defensive battles on humanity's behalf against the forces of the underworld.
    • The relationship between the mortals and the gods, the proper conduct of the gods in relation to the mortals, and the moral status of both parties is also discussed, but every time the gods get close to acknowledging their own complicity in the chaos (especially Viridi dropping Fantastic Nukes), the matter is quickly glossed over. Worse, the supposed crimes of humanity are never actually shown, save for one instance of pitched battle (which was deliberately induced by Hades in a gambit that even Pit and Palutena fell for at first), which makes it seem like the gods are outright projecting onto the humans.
    • The game fumbles with some deconstruction of Pit's and Palutena's relationship—Dark Pit accuses Pit of being Palutena's puppet (and Palutena is discomforted by Pit even having a dark side), Arlon and the Chariot Master are Shadow Archetypes of Pit defined by their relationship with their own masters, Chapter 23 isolates Pit to let us see What You Are in the Dark, etc.—but while the game allows itself to suggest Palutena's relationship with Pit isn't quite as healthy as it could be, it never gets around to examining the cost of how Palutena takes Pit for granted.
  • Luck-Based Mission: Though it's not a very difficult mission, you can only get to the Zodiac chamber in Chapter 6 if Dark Pit spawns in one location, and there's a 50% chance on any given run in that chapter that he will spawn there. Fortunately, you only need to access it once.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me:
    • The Mirror Shield, one of the three Sacred Treasures, will block anything coming from Pit's 1 o'clock.
    • The Back Shield, which temporarily protects the wearer from all hind damage, allowing him to focus more ahead of him.
    • The Guardian Orbitars, which look like two small, floating shields. Their main attack involves throwing gigantic shields at the enemy.
    • Centurion Orbitars also fire shields with their backward-dash charge shot. They're nowhere near as big as Guardian's, but they deal a buttload of damage if they connect.
  • Ludicrous Speed
    • When Palutena warps Pit past Gaol's wall. Not superluminal, but...
    Pit: Whooooooaaa! G-force in my faaaaaace!
    Palutena: It's fun, right?
    • An example that is at least superluminal is the lightning chariot, although it only takes Pit a few seconds to acclimate to it(which isn't so quick considering his perspective).
  • Ma'am Shock: Palutena getting angry when Phosphora calls her ma'am.
    Phosphora: Don't give it a second thought... ma'am.
    Pit: Uh-oh.
  • Made of Explodium:
    • Tombstones in Multiplayer mode explode upon taking enough damage. This can be used to a player's (dis)advantage.
    • Some objects and even enemies in the singleplayer also have a tendency to blow up with the slightest strike.
  • Magic Missile: Dark Lord Gaol wears armor that shoots these, as does the Gaol Blade reversed engineered from it. Also, the staff special attack seems to be a gigantic magic missile, while the special attack for orbitars seems to be a Magic Missile Storm whose shots curve around in multiple different directions.
  • Magitek: The sleek, visor-wearing, Laser Blade-equipped Fighters in Together Mode, especially when compared to the Centurions.
  • Magnetic Weapons: A Railgun is among Pit's possible weapons.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Hades was behind Medusa's revival. It's kind of up in the air whether he was The Man Behind the Man for the original game, too, or just this one.
  • Marathon Level:
    • Chapter 9 requires you to defeat three previous bosses in reconstructions of their respective Chapters, and then go through a long trek through Medusa's fortress to reach her.
    • Chapter 19 is a long tower climb, to the point where the Land Battle segment has two additional loading screens and is the second chapter after Chapter 9 to feature more than one Drink of the Gods. Lampshaded by Pit, who constantly asks "Are We There Yet?", much to the ire of temporary Mission Control Viridi.
  • Meaningful Echo: Whenever Pit is (allowed to be) equipped with the Three Sacred Treasures to fight the current Underworld commander, he will provide a Badass Boast, they will respond calmly, and beef garbage will get real.
    • Exhibit A:
    Medusa, projected in front of the Underworld castle: So, you've made it this far.
    Pit: You better watch your back!
    Medusa: Isn't that just... precious. Guess it's all that hot air that keeps you flying. You are darling. But you'll need more than bluster to defeat me!
    Pit: This isn't bluster! In the name of the Goddess of Light, I will defeat you!
    Enter Underworld Guardian
    • Exhibit B:
    Hades, mid-battle with Pit: Ooh! Do I spy the three sacred treasures?
    Pit: Even your darkness can't handle the light!
    Hades: Now isn't that just... PRECIOUS!
    Hades unleashes a belch that shatters the Three Sacred Treasures, leaving Pit with whichever weapon the player equipped before the chapter started
  • Medusa: The Big Bad of the game. Except she isn't. Still, snakes on head and turning things to stone as expected.
  • Mêlée à Trois:
    • Palutena's Army vs. Hades' Underworld Forces vs. Viridi's Forces of Nature. When the Chaos Kin gets involved, it turns into Pit and Viridi's Forces of Nature vs. Hades' Underworld Forces vs. Palutena's Army (under control of the Chaos Kin).
    • Pit vs. Dark Pit vs. Medusa's Underworld Forces in Chapter 6.
    • Pit vs. Space Pirates vs. Medusa's Underworld Forces in Chapter 8.
    • Pit/Magnus vs. Palutena's Army vs. Hades's Underworld Forces in Chapter 18.
  • Meta Game: Grid Reading (warning: video quality issues)
  • Metal Slime
    • Souflees are really fast and hard to hit, but not very durable, completely unarmed, and give tons of hearts when you kill them. Pit even points out how profitable killing them is in Chapter 3.
    • Treasurefish serve the same purpose, though they drop weapons, powers, or powerups instead. Rare Treasurefish will provide even more powerful weapons, powers, or powerups.
    • The Aurum Baglo is entirely passive until you attack it, at which point it attacks like crazy. It does drop a lot of hearts and occasionally treasure, though.
  • Mickey Mousing: In flight sections, the BGM is synced to changes in atmosphere and some dialogue.
  • The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: While Pit is in a dog's body, he takes on the dog's attraction to garbage thrown on the ground, to the point where the player has to make a great effort to move the dog away from it in order to make any progress. And when he takes on Magnus's body, he also takes on Magnus's movements, as one can see when Pit in his own body uses the same weapon.
  • Mind Rape: Ornes are said to shatter the minds of their victims, with this causing the below-mentioned One-Hit Kill.
  • Mini-Game Credits: You can shoot the names to turn them red, and it counts how many you get. One of the treasure hunt goals is to hit at least a certain number.
  • Mini-Mecha:
    • The Cherubots in certain levels. The Aether Rings and Exo Tanks to a certain degree.
    • The Great Sacred Treasure, used by Pit to fight Hades during most of the final boss fight, is a larger mini mecha.
    • Transforming Mecha: It has quite a few alternate modes.
  • Min-Maxing: To have a shot at the highest difficulty levels or competitive multiplayer, you must learn to forge the best weapons. While six-star Ranged Power is often a must, other preferred bonuses are Range, Homing, and Speed.
    • Conversely, negative bonuses are also extremely useful, as they lower a weapon's value, letting you cram more positive ones. Having huge penalties to Health and Defense isn't that bad when you're already all but a Two Hit-Point Wonder.
  • Mission Control:
    • Palutena, who converses quite frequently with Pit, even during heated firefights.
    • When Palutena is possessed by the Chaos Kin, Viridi serves as your Mission Control until you save her. And she is snarky.
      • Just before the above, while Pit is possessing Magnus' body, the human mercenary gives Pit some advice until the angel gets his body back.
    • When Pit is swallowed by Hades, the latter's "stomach of steel" prevents either of his Mission Controls from reaching him. Half of the dialogue in that chapter is Pit attempting to be his own Mission Control. The other half is pure Toilet Humor behalf of Hades. He even lampshades it after defeating the level's boss.
      Pit: Your heart wasn't even in it!
      Pit: And I'm still just talking to myself...
  • Mistress and Servant Boy: Palutena's and Pit's relationship, though Pit's actual title is the Captain of her guards.
  • MockGuffin: The Wish Seed is guarded by the Phoenix and can grant any wish. Except it's a lie invented by Hades, with a glorified fireworks to signal the Phoenix has been 'defeated' so the non-existent Wish Seed is up for grabs. And human nature kicks in as nations begin to destroy each over it. Cue Viridi ready to obliterate humanity for their meaningless war.
  • Model Museum: The Idol Viewer is a comprehensive model viewer consisting of over 400 different assets, ranging from characters and enemies to items and locations. Each model has a chunk of flavor text and can even be viewed in 3D. However, models must first be collected, either through the Idol Toss, Treasure Hunt challenges, scanning cards with the console's camera, or with the Idol Transformation power.
  • Monster Clown: The default look of Thanatos.
  • Mood Whiplash: Uprising may be funny one moment and then dead serious the next.
  • Mook Depletion: To avert this, Medusa uses The Mirror of Truth to replicate more monsters from her remaining forces. After the Mirror is destroyed, however, she and Hades stick to using souls to create monsters instead.
  • Mook Maker: The Belunka serves as a troop transport for the Underworld, so naturally it does this. Later in the game, the Underworld upgrades to the heavily-armored Fort Oink. The Aurum have their own troop transport, the Dohz, as well.
  • Morality Kitchen Sink: It's pretty clear that everyone has their own moral guidelines, going from Pit's Incorruptible Pure Pureness all the way down to Hades' heinousness. The two of them even get into a heated discussion about right and wrong in the late-game (well, heated from the former anyway, the latter just likes getting under his skin).
  • Mother Nature: Viridi, the goddess of the Earth and all living things on it.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Amazon Pandora, though only once she uses the Rewind Spring twice.
  • Muggle in Mage Custody: The flightless angel Pit, who has no magical abilities of his own, serves the powerful goddess Palutena. Their relationship also mirrors this power dynamic, since she enjoys teasing him every now and then, and often sends him on minor errands, such as fetching her coffee.
  • Multiple Endings
    • Chapter 3: The order in which you take out Hewdraw's heads during the flying section changes which head is fought as the stage boss, coming complete with unique pre-and-post-battle banter.
    • Chapter 10: Destroying the wish seed during the battle against the Phoenix sets off a beacon, allowing Hades to start a war between the humans. If you don't destroy the wish seed, a Skuttler will touch and accidentally break it, causing the beacon to be set off anyway.
  • Multiple Head Case: Hewdraw has three heads with distinct personalities. Twinbellows also has multiple heads, though it can't talk.
  • Multi-Melee Master: Pit (and yourself, in multiplayer) can wield nine different kinds of weapons: Blades, Bows, Cannons, Clubs, Claws, Palms, Staffs, Arms, and Orbitars.
  • Multi-Mook Melee: The whole ground game of Chapter 21.
  • Multi-Stage Battle: The battles against Dark Pit, Thanatos, Medusa, and the final battle with Hades.
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: In Chapter 17, Lady Palutena says "With all of us gods, er, and Pyrrhon..."
  • Mythology Gag: Sakurai also worked on Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and one enemy projectile resembles the trophy-creating arrows from The Subspace Emissary.

    N-P 
  • Never Learned to Read: Pit, as he reveals word for word in Chapter 17 when he supposedly falls to his death.
  • Never My Fault: During the Aurum invasion arc, Pyrron recounts a prophecy fortelling their arrival when attracted by discord. Palutena suspects Viridi and Hades' feud got their attention, which leads to this argument.
    Palutena: Pyrrhon said [[The Aurum are]] "beckoned by destruction and corruption." They were likely drawn here by the war between the Underworld and nature.
    Viridi: Convenient how you've forgotten your little tiff with the Underworld.
    Pit: Convenient how YOU'VE forgotten a massive Reset Bomb visible from space!
    Viridi: You! Zip it! The Aurum are the agressors here! We're the victims!
    Palutena: You're absolutely right. Like it or not, we're on the same side now.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero
    • As a result of defeating Arlon and destroying the Lunar Sanctum, Pit inadvertently released the Chaos Kin, which later proceeds to possess Palutena and cause havoc on humanity for the next three years.
    • Viridi later takes some of the blame, stating that it could have been avoided if she was there at the time, or if Arlon explained the situation.
  • Nightmare Face:
    • Pseudo Palutena gets this reaction from Pit
    • Medusa, once she goes One-Winged Angel.
  • Nintendo Hard: The game is known for being very punishing on mistakes, especially players who don't quickly adapt to the game's unusual control scheme. Additionally, while many nth-person shooters encourage the player to move as much as possible to avoid enemy fire, this game does the opposite, using enemies' homing attacks coupled with the dodge and stamina mechanics to encourage the player to move as little as possible. You can circumvent this trope by setting the Intensity to less than 2.0, but that costs hearts.
  • No "Arc" in "Archery": Justified, in that while the weapons in question are categorized as bows, most fire energy rather than physical projectiles. Also averted with several weapons (with several examples amongst cannons and orbitars), which explicitly make physical projectiles that will arc.
  • No Fourth Wall:
    • One bit of banter in the tutorial of the demo has Pit equating Dashing in the game to Dashing in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. They go off about wanting to play the game, with Pit wanting to play as Mario and Palutena wanting to play as Kirby.
    • One of the random conversations mentions Pit being in a Brawl "that was a SMASH!" before the current mission. Palutena then remarks that she can't imagine Pit in a Melee, to which he gets offended by.
    • In the tutorial video, Pit is informed that he has to stop and take a breather after extended periods of running. Palutena explains that if he was able to run nonstop, he could just zoom past every enemy, to which Pit replies "Curse you, balanced gameplay!"
    • One memorable exchange in chapter 21 features a Metroid Shout-Out:
    Pit: You know, Komaytos look an awful lot like little Metroids.
    Viridi: No! Shhhh! Stop right there!
    Pit: What's the matter? All I said was that Komaytos looked an awful lot like little Metr—
    Pit: Hey, what's your problem?
    Viridi: This game universe and that game universe have NOTHING to do with each other! So don't go around spreading rumours!
    • Also this line:
    Pit: What are we talking here? Mini-Boss? Final Boss?
    • Pit makes note of the fact that the Tower of the Lightning Chariot is so tall that there's a loading screen in the middle of it.
    Viridi: Shhh, they're going to hear you! We're not supposed to talk about that!
    • There are also lots of references to gameplay mechanics or enemies from the first game, along with screenshots. The most obvious instance is in chapter 3, when Pit tries to remember what Hewdraw looks like but can only think of the monster's 8-bit sprite.
  • Non-Indicative Name: The name of one of the later chapters. Specifically, chapter 24, "The Three Trials." Dyntos, the god responsible for the level, even admits that he threw in "a few freebies" after Pit manages to clear it.
  • Non-Standard Character Design:
    • Magnus. He's less stylized than the other characters, and wears darker clothing, and has a more normal, deep male voice.
    • Dark Lord Gaol's design clashes with the rest of the game, being more akin to a Final Fantasy boss than anything.
  • Non-Standard Game Over:
    • Chapter 12: If you fail to destroy the Reset Bomb in time, Pit will be destroyed by it when it goes off.
    • Chapters 17, 21, and 25 task the player with lining Pit up with a target while in free-fall. Failure to keep him centered results in death.
    • Chapter 17: If Pit allows four of his Centurion escorts to die, he will be unable to reach and defeat Pyrrhon.
    • Chapter 20: Attacking Palutena too many times during the boss fight will result in her death and a game over.
    • Chapter 21: If Pit fails to attack the Chaos Kin at the end of the Air Battle, it will escape and leave Pit stranded in the Chaos Vortex.
    • Chapter 24: Getting hit by the Great Sacred Treasure's stage-destroying One-Hit Kill attack.
    • Chapter 25: If Pit can't keep his crosshairs trained on Hades long enough to guide Medusa's attack, Hades will destroy Pit with a death ray.
  • No Ontological Inertia: In Chapter 22, Dark Pit states that when Pit was sealed in a ring, he ceased to exist.
  • Nostalgia Level: The second Intensity Gate in Chapter 5 leads to a square blue room made out of bricks with a picture of the shop screen from the original game. The only item in the room is a treasure chest. Pit remarks that the room "brings back some great memories."
  • Not Me This Time:
    • When the Aurum start invading the earth, Pit and Palutena suspect Viridi and Hades. Neither god had any part in their arrival (aside from their fighting with each other attracting them to the Earth).
    • Chapter 15 has Pit encoutering a deadly Mimicutie on an Aurum ship, making him suspect Hades is behind PLANTING it in there. Hades denies it at first, but during the following chapter, while Palutena and Viridi discuss the Aurum's interest in copying Earth elements...
      Hades: Full disclosure here: the Mimicuties were courtesy of yours truly.
      Pit: It WAS you!
      Hades: What? Don't you like presents, Pitty Pat?
    • When Palutena turns evil, Hades is fingered once again. He's completely innocent this time, however: Palutena's Face–Heel Turn is the work of the Chaos Kin. This goes both ways in fact for the blame, and one part is even mentioned earlier when Pit is climbing the Lightning Chariot Base. On one side, Pit is actually at fault for freeing the Chaos Kin by destroying the Lunar Sanctum, although this is later also accepted by Viridi as partially her fault since Pit really had no other option at that point and Arlon was not admitting the purpose of said structure. So this also gives Pit the reason for it not being his entire fault. On Hades' side, while he didn't free the Chaos Kin, he dragged Viridi and her forces into the war, thus leading up to the ultimate point where she was so sick of both sides that she decides to have Arlon use the Lunar Sanctum when the Reset Bomb factory got shattered. So Hades isn't entirely to blame, yet at the same time, is actually the reason the Chaos Kin was involved.
  • Offhand Backhand: Dark Pit's Establishing Character Moment.
  • Older Than They Look: According to Word of God, Pit is supposed to have the body of a 13-year-old human, Palutena that of a 22-year-old, Viridi that of an 8-year-old, and Phosphora that of a 16- or 17-year-old. But it can be gathered that Pit is at least over 25, and being gods and angels, they are all very likely centuries old.
  • Old Hero, New Pals: Downplayed. Pit, Palutena, and the enemies from the Boss Battles of the first game return, but Uprising ignores the original side characters (and everyone from the second) in favor of an all-new supporting cast including Magnus and Viridi.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: Present in some music, such as the end of the air segment music for Chapter 4 as well as Hades's theme.
    • The Daybreak Weapon in Together Mode.
    • The Great Sacred Treasure performs a one-time attack that destroys half the stage (and Pit, if he doesn't get out of the way in time).
  • One-Winged Angel: A subdued version with Medusa: when she Turns Red, her face becomes that of a Cyclops with More Teeth than the Osmond Family, akin to her boss appearance in the original NES game.
  • One-Woman Wail: Plays in Chapter 18 when Pit sees the destroyed Skyworld, caused by the Chaos Kin possessing Palutena, for the first time. It later serves as a Recurring Riff throughout the rest of the Chaos Kin arc.
  • Orchestral Bombing: Air battles tend to be accompanied by orchestral music that changes in tempo with the action.
  • Organic Technology: Viridi's military might is made from things that can be found in nature. Her infamous Reset Bombs, for instance, are essentially giant fruits that accelerate the process by which nature decays human settlements and restores areas in the blast radius to their natural state.
  • Orichalcum: The Great Sacred Treasure is made from this.
  • Outside-Context Problem: The Aurum. They look like primitive 16 bit models, and as a result, completely alien to the setting. They "pilot" glossy spacecraft totally unlike any vehicles seen prior. They're not so interested in life on the planet so much as the planet itself. The three leaders of the main factions are caught completely off guard and take a little while to even begin making sense of them.
  • Our Angels Are Different: They can't fly — at least Pit can't. It's a bit of a sore spot with him.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Hewdraw is more like a sea serpent, except it has gained two extra heads, the ability to fly and now has fireballs among its projectile attacks.
  • Painfully Slow Projectile: The charged shots of Guardian Orbitars are large, semi transparent shields that travel slowly and don't go very far. This is a good thing in together mode, as they block in coming opponents and their weapons fire. In solo mode shots from any enemy that is not Dark Pit or a Shadow Pit will simply pass through the shields, likely hitting Pit before the shield reaches them, assuming it can reach. Unlike together mode opponents, all solo enemies that are not copies of Pit can move back and forth through the shields without slowing down, although doing so will not only damage them but count as multiple hits, so if a chapter has close range combat enemies vulnerable to weapons fire, guardian orbitars with weakening, poison, paralysis or burning modifiers are worth considering.
  • Parting the Sea: The majority of Chapter 7's Flight section occurs after Poseidon parts the sea to open a path for Pit to fly to the ocean's floor so that he can enter the Seafloor Palace and defeat Tanatos. Palutena initially takes credit for it in order to troll Pit, but relents after Poseidon reveals himself.
  • Peninsula of Power Leveling:
    • Chapter 1 and chapter 20. The former is quick and easy to finish and gives out plenty of Hearts at higher intensity; the latter is a simple level with high level loots, allowing you to farm for high value weapons with ease. Both are also some of the simpler stages to do on Intensity 9.0.
    • Chapter 6 and, to a lesser degree, chapter 21, as the air battles in both stages give you a chance to attack the boss for bonus hearts.
    • Chapter 16 to some extent. There is an Intensity 6 gate that drops weapons that tend to be a lot stronger than what you usually find at that difficulty.
    • Chapter 9 and the Boss Rush mode are also surprisingly good at garnering idol eggs.
  • Perma-Stubble: Given humans of the setting are seemingly at iron age technological levels if even that, it's a wonder how Magnus maintains his facial hair.
  • Pimped-Out Dress
    • Both Palutena and Medusa sport some rather elegant attire in this game.
    • Viridi's dress is also pretty elegant.
  • Piñata Enemy: The Souflees drop lots of hearts; the Treasurefish will drop an item, a weapon, or a power; and the Rare Treasurefish will always drop a weapon or a power.
  • Playing Possum: One of the powers allows you to pull this out on your enemies. Amazon Pandora does this too in the middle of her boss fight. "Just kidding!" It's not very convincing, however, given the complete lack of boss-kill slowdown.
  • Playing Tennis with the Boss: In all cases, this is optional, since you can still damage the enemy normally, despite what Thanatos would have you believe. Pandora spews bombs and gems that you can melee back at her. One of Thanatos' forms is an urn that shoots skulls; you can melee the white skulls back at him, but the red skulls blow up in your face. One Aurum enemy shoots two types of projectiles; you can send both back, but the red ones fly faster than the green ones. Amazon Pandora also spawns bombs, but no gems.
  • Pocket Dimension:
    • The pot that Sinistew resides in contains a one-dimensional universe, and has no qualms over pulling Pit inside if he happens to stray too close. The Captain Flare enemy also has an alternate universe inside his cape, which he uses to disappear and reappear at will.
    • Hades's Belly is apparently halfway between literal digestive tract and one of these.
    • Pandora's Labyrinth and the Chaos Vortex also seem to be inside of one of those.
  • Power Echoes: Gods tend to echo when they speak. Given they can communicate telepathically, they could very well be speaking with two "voices" at once.
  • Power Tattoo: The Palm weapon class are equipped in the manner a tattoo is applied, although they can be removed relatively more easily.
  • Power-Up Mount: Pit gains access to three Vehicles of the Gods throughout his adventure: the Exo Tank, the Cherubot, and the Aether Ring.
  • Plotline Death
    • It's outright stated that gods can and often do resurrect their generals. During the final boss fight, when Pit is helpless and Hades is charging up an attack to kill him, Medusa interrupts him with a punch in the face, because Hades won't let her stay dead.
    • Pit comes dangerously close to this when his wings are burned off. Apparently there are limits to what the gods can fix.
  • Precision F-Strike
    • Considering Nintendo's history, this line might have came as a shock to some players.
    Hades: Just how much more hell do they intend to raise?
  • Pride: There's a recurring undercurrent about the relationships between the gods, their underlings, and the mortals below that can be seen in how the characters interact and treat matters of respect, such as Pit only using the honorific "Lady Palutena" for his own goddess but referring to the other gods just by their names (Hades being The Nicknamer approaches this same issue from the other perspective), and the abject disdain the gods have for human beings (like when the first word that comes to Palutena for the humans that survived Viridi's reset bomb is "stubborn").
  • Progressively Prettier
    • Medusas, compared to her appearance in the original game.
    • Pit himself has gone from being a goofy-looking little boy to a handsome Bishōnen.
    • Similarly, Palutena has gone from a cartoonish female straight out of Dragon Ball to a gorgeous Bishoujo straight out of 2000s Final Fantasy.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Thanatos and Viridi. The latter's probably a thousand years old, and acts like a bratty teenager. With control over the forces of nature.
  • Punny Name: Clobblers. They're apples (i.e. the ingredients to a cobbler) that clobber you.

    R-S 
  • Rain of Arrows: Pit's special ability when using a bow in the flight stages, as well as Dark Pit's strongest attack in Chapter 6 shower the screen with energy projectiles shaped like arrows.
  • Ramming Always Works:
    • Exotanks have this as their main attack.
    • Dark Pit also dispatches the miniboss in Chapter 9 simply by kicking it in the face at high speed.
    • In Chapter 16, Hades rams an Aurum ship into the Aurum hive to make an entrance.
    • In Chapter 19, this is how you break the barrier surrounding Palutena's temple.
      Pit: So basically, you're telling me to slam a horse cart into a brick wall.
    • Likewise, Dark Pit re-opens the gate to the Chaos Realm by crashing the Lightning Chariot through it.
  • Random Effect Spell: The "Random Effect" power, as the name implies, make Pit's shots inflict a random status ailment to enemies.
  • Randomly Drops: Each level's treasure chest has a list of what it can drop — certain weapon classes and certain power-ups. One reliable rule of thumb is that the chest always has a chance to drop a weapon type that has one of its class patterned after the level boss (for example, since there's a cannon patterned after Twinbellows, level 1 chests always have the chance to drop cannons, especially the Twinbellows Cannon itself), and the level's resident Zodiac weapon if it has one (so level 6 chests have a good chance of dropping Gemini Orbitars, for example). The Intensity Level also affects what can drop and the power of what does drop.
  • Rapid-Fire Comedy: Every other sentence contains a joke, and clearing all the chapters and then replaying them results in even more dialog, usually just for the sake of more jokes
  • Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: The arm special attack, which is especially impressive considering it's just one fist hitting almost everything on screen.
  • Raptor Attack: The Raptor Claws take after this trope. Commendably, they are designed with feathers.
  • Recycled In SPACE: The Space Pirate ship level. Gets a whole lot sillier in later chapters; you would think this is a Star Fox game.
  • Renamed the Same: Thanatos, who used to just be Tanatos.
    "Actually, I go by "Thanatos", now. The extra "h" is for HAMAZING!"
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Medusa, the God of Evil Big Bad, has snakes growing in her hair.
  • Retraux
    • The game enjoys poking fun at its 8-bit roots. Enemies that were revamped for the 3D transition are often shown in their original sprite form and chiptune music is used at different points.
    • Case in point, alerted Reapers always cause their original 8-bit tune to play. Ornes also have an 8-bit theme, but they are original to Uprising.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter
    • Pit thinks the Heart of Hades is this. Too bad it turns into a Killer Rabbit.
    • Soufflees are pure Generic Cuteness if you don't take a long hard look at them, and given that they are in constant motion, you probably won't
  • Riding into the Sunset: Pit and Dark Pit fly into the sunset at the end of the game.
  • Rule of Funny: This game makes use of the NES buzzes and beeps rather than the superior FDS sound effects largely for this reason.
  • Running Gag:
    • Palutena's near constant teasing of Pit.
    • Pit's obsession with hot springs.
    • Pit can't fly on his own. Given a sad Ironic Echo when his wings burn off.
    • Many characters often compare Pit to a chicken, or otherwise insult him in some chicken-related way. Pit himself says chicken is more economical than barbecued angel wings when Palutena says she thinks the latter sounds good.
  • The Runt at the End: In Chapter 4, if Pit manages to hide from them, a row of enemies will proceed down the corridor in a line, with one Lil' Reaper lagging behind.
  • Say My Name: Almost anytime Hades shows up, Pit dramatically shouts his name. It's the same voice clip each time to boot. It culminates in Chapters 23 and 25, when Hades responds in kind, leading to them shouting their names at each other. "Hades!" "Pit!" "HADES!" "PIT!" "HADEEEES!" "PIIIIIT!"
  • Samus Is a Girl: Dark Lord Gaol is actually a human woman. Subverted in that Pit is unconcerned by her gender; the big reveal to him is that she’s human.
  • Scenery Gorn: The ravaged Skyworld when Palutena is possessed by the Chaos Kin definitely falls into this.
  • Scenery Porn: The air battles seem to exist primarily to show off the 3D effects, though good luck surviving while you keeping your head in the correct position. Ground battles also have nice looking rock formations and stone architecture.
  • Schizo Tech:
    • Many of the weapons in Uprising look like futuristic firearms, in a universe clearly based on Classical Mythology.
    • The presence of space ships and advanced alien technologies, and what brings it home is that this doesn't seem odd to the Gods or Pit at all.
    • Pyrrhon and Pit seemed to imply in Chapter 17 that there exists an internet, or at least one for celestial beings.
    • The constant fourth-wall breaks don't help. At one point, Pit asks Palutena if they should order a pizza.
  • Schmuck Bait:
    • A treasure chest in chapter 2, sitting right in the open, which Magnus outright tells you is guaranteed to be a trap. Which it is, and in case you want to justify the ensuing fight, it'll only give one heart.
    • A chest in chapter 5 looks like it can be easily picked up by traveling down a short out-of-the-way branch of the invisible path. Cue an Orne showing up and chasing you. Unlike the chapter 2 example, there's no warning for this. However, the Orne will eventually go away after a short bit, letting you leave the area safely.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can:
    • Clubberskulls are enemies who start out trapped within a skull bound in chains, but if their skull is attacked, they get loose and begin chasing Pit... Oh, did we forget to mention that they're extremely strong and durable?
    • Clobblers are pretty much the Force of Nature counterpart of the Clubberskull, though rather than being sealed they move around freely while in their peaceful state and can return to it after rampaging for a while.
    • Aurum Baglos are the Aurum equivalent, though they remain stationary even when provoked, and murder you with Beam Spam rather than pummeling.
    • The Chaos Kin is a more plot-relevant example, being imprisoned within the Lunar Sanctum.
  • Segmented Serpent: Lurchthorns are enemies formed from a string of connected triangular segments, essentially resembling flying fish skeletons with laser cannons on their sides. Their segments can be destroyed independently, but taking out the head will destroy the whole beast at once.
  • Sequel Hook: Not in the game itself, but, oddly, in the fourth installment of Super Smash Bros., it's revealed that Dark Pit has become the Dragon with an Agenda to Viridi, and Viridi states that despite her and Pit/Palutena working together to defeat Hades, she still hasn't forgiven Humans and has an agenda. She then boasts that with the Lightning Chariot at her command, the battle isn't over.
  • Shield-Bearing Mook: Boogities literally have shields for backs, making them invincible until they spin around to attack. There's also an Aurum enemy with four deflector shields, and a type of Centurion with a shield that can be broken.
  • Shifting Sand Land: Surprisingly, Chapter 7 is baking sand, Under the Sea and Slippy-Slidey Ice World all in one.
  • Ship Tease:
    • At one point when Viridi comes to help, Palutena points out that she must really care about Pit. Pit says that he doesn't think she's all that bad either, and Viridi whispers for him to be quiet before loudly announcing that she's definitely not doing this to help him.
    • Phosphora flirts with Pit quite a bit, much to the latter's embarrassment. Palutena, frustrated with Phosphora for reasons of her own, chides him not to be distracted.
    • In the Japanese version of Chapter 20, Pit inadvertently declares the essential reason he cares so much about rescuing Palutena is that he "likes Lady Palutena a whole lot", which Viridi takes for the obvious meaning. Pit also catches himself and, bright red in the face, insists that he meant it "strictly as a friend".
    • Pit can equip the Viridi Palm, which, according to the flavor text, can only be used by anyone completely devoted to her. To drive the point home, its design is basically a tattoo of her face, and it's attack involves raining hearts (presumably Cardivascular Love for her) on enemies.
  • Shock and Awe: The troops Dark Lord Gaol commands have altered the weather to bring lightning down on their enemies. The Forces Of Nature have Lightning Flash Phosphora, who can do it even better by her lonesome. The special attack for blades bombards enemies with lightning as well.
  • Shoot the Bullet: Every weapon has a certain 'shot cancellation' value. Those of higher value will cancel out those of lower value, but enough lower-value shots will eventually cancel out higher-value ones. In Solo mode, however, Pit's shots and enemy shots completely ignore each other, passing through each other unaffected. And may Hades have mercy on your soul if you make the mistake of firing a charged shot from your six-star-range club at a reflector, be you in Solo or Together mode, because you will not be able to cancel it out and reflected shots move fast.
  • Shout-Out: It has its own page.
  • Show Some Leg: Palutena as one bare leg that can sometimes be seen under her not completely covering them dress
  • Siege Engines:
    • In the Thanatos Rising first short, the humans have something that looks like a mix of the Trojan Horse and an AT-AT walker. Thanatos hijacks one to take out the rest and then gave it wings and heads for the town.
    • After the time-skip, Palutena's Army has barricades equipped with catapults and machine guns, and the Underworld Army has flying mini-castles.
  • Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: Pit's song goes, "You gotta stay upbeat, upbeat, upbeat, or you're gonna be dead meat, dead meat, dead meat."
  • Sleepy Enemy: A variant. While never explicitly described as "asleep", the Clubberskulls are powerful enemies that usually remain dormant in the form of a chained up skull. Unless of course Pit disturbs them, then they'll transform into a hulking heart-like monstrosity and rampage across the level.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Despite how funny Uprising is, the plot leans back and forth between the two. On one hand, you have Pit, whose idealist nature to destroy evil and protect the humans would seem to shine in this type of game. On the other hand, everyone else seems to have the opinion that either Humans Are the Real Monsters or God is Evil. And then you get to Chapter 18...
  • Sniper Rifle: The Staff weapon class fills this role for the most part. The straightest example is the Flintlock Staff. It's called a staff, but it's actually a gun, plain and simple. It looks like a Flintlock rifle, hence the name, but clearly has a sniper sight attached. It also has the most potential for damage of all the staves, but has almost no melee damage or movement speed, forcing you to pick a perfect spot to pick off your enemies before they find you.
  • Sniper Duel:
    • Possible in Chapter 6 if you bring a Staff and Dark Pit decides to hang out on top of a mountain, though it's laughably easy because he's mostly stationary while you (should be) taking advantage of the game mechanics to avoid his shots.
    • Like other shooters, this is possible in multiplayer. Bonus points if both participants are using the Flintlock Staff, as it follows the trope to the letter in a game where it would otherwise be out of place.
  • Some Kind of Force Field: When Palutena is possessed by Chaos Kin, her temple in Skyworld is protected by one to keep Pit out.
  • Soul Eating: The Soul-Eating Monster is a serpentine monster who lives off the unfortunate souls of the Underworld. It's implied he's not alone, as the game's Big Bad occasionally compares souls to food items like taffy.
  • Soul Power: Souls are treated like a natural resource in this game; this is apparent when Hades reveals that the Underworld Army is produced from souls.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Apparently, the floating military base of homicidal aliens sounds like a well-structured funk tune. (Link contains spoilers.)
  • Space Is an Ocean: Literally. Space actually is an ocean called the Galactic Sea, where the constellations are held and Space Pirates steal them. Later averted in Chapter 17, where the galactic sea turns out not to be the entirety of space.
  • Speaks in Binary: Aurum Pyrrhon spells out "KILL" in binary when you first meet him.
  • Spiritual Successor:
    • The aerial gameplay segments are extremely reminiscent of Star Fox and the on-foot gameplay shares some similarities with Star Fox: Assault. The aerial segments of Chapter 5 are basically one big long Star Fox homage, taking the player through a polygonal space-station-esque place, then briefly into outer space.
    • Serious Sam, another game involving the player taking down waves of enemies, was probably an influence on the ground sections.
    • Before being revealed at E3 2010, it was rumored to be a scrapped Kirby game (as later found out with Return to Dream Land, but then proven false with Uprising).
  • Splash Damage: Enemy bombs and missiles tend to be slightly slower than other shots but one can't take too long to dodge them because they're targeting your general vicinity rather than your body. The Leo Cannon shots often have a delayed explosion that lets you hit a target twice, first with the projectile and then with splash. The cannon special attack also relies on this by causing simultaneous explosions throughout the air.
  • Spread Shot: Some bows have this in place continuous fire when Pit is dashing, with some roboteching thrown in since the outer two arrows will curve to join the center after half a second or so. The palm special attack starts as energy ball in Pit's hand then becomes a half dozen circling out in front of him.
  • Sprite/Polygon Mix: Almost everything in the game is rendered in 3D. Food items are 2D sprites, though, like in other Sakurai games.
  • Status Effects: A full assortment of nasty effects that you can suffer from or inflict on your opponents with the right weapons or powers, including Poison, Burning, Paralysis (jerky movement making it difficult to dodge), Shaking (jiggling your aiming reticle to disrupt your aim), Confusion, Freezing, Petrification (which tends to last longer than Freezing, but you take less damage while petrified), and Weakening (your lifebar shrinks by half, making you take double damage from everything). And let's not forget the dreaded Eggplant or Tempura Curse...
  • Stealth-Based Mission: Chapter 4 has sections where you have to avoid the Reapers, even having little alcoves to hide in.
  • Stealth Pun:
    • The title. Uprising: Medusa revolts and Pit flies.
    • When Pit gets his Tranquil Fury on, he tells Hades to "go home". Or rather, to go to Hell.
    • Pyrrhon eventually manages to take control of the Aurum continents, but because of that he ends up losing his own will, and being turned into a puppet at their service. Could you chalk that up as a... Pyrrhic Victory?
    • The music for "Lightning Battle" has a far stronger emphasis on using electric guitars, in contrast to the rest of the game's more orchestral soundtrack.
  • The Stinger: On the screen after the credits with the feather, wait a few minutes, and you'll hear Hades destroy the remains of the fourth wall, hang a few lampshades, and threaten to delete your save file (which he doesn't).
  • Stop Poking Me!: Tap the Fiend's Cauldron enough, and it'll get mad and turn its "back" to you.
  • Start of Darkness: The subject of Studio 4°C's short is Medusa's Face–Heel Turn and her banishment to the Underworld.
  • Story Arc: The whole game is organized into story arcs, each one headed by an Arc Villain. Chapters 1-9 form the Medusa arc. Chapters 11-14 form the Viridi arc. Chapters 15-17 form the Aurum arc. Chapters 18-21 form the Chaos Kin arc. Chapters 22-25 form the Grand Finale arc.
  • Story to Gameplay Ratio: In the evens, since the bulk of the story is told while the gameplay is actually going on, mostly averting conventional cutscenes.
  • Super-Persistent Predator: According to their profile, once you anger a Clobbler, it will take him three days to calm down and stop pursuing you. In-game, it takes significantly less time.
  • Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: The Drink of the Gods, which usually appear right before boss battles. Subverted in Chapter 19, which is so long that the game dumps a few more at set intervals.
  • Swallowed Whole: Galactic Fiend Kracken to the Space Pirate Captain. Guttlers to mooks. Hades eats Pit whole in chapter 23.

    T-V 
  • Tactical Suicide Boss:
    • Thanatos in his "Urn" form.
    • Viridi ends up doing this big time in Chapter 12, as the shield around the Reset Bomb Pod can only be destroyed by knocking the guards she keeps sending at you into the trench surrounding it.
    • The Chaos Kin in the Possessed Palutena battle. He hides behind Palutena every now and then, even being able to attack that way, but also flies around freely for Pit to shoot it.
    • Arlon to an extent once the stage is covered in darkness. Many of his attacks give away his position very clearly.
  • Taken for Granite: The "Petrification" status ailment. Palutena is turned to stone when the Chaos Kin takes her soul.
  • Take That!:
    Pit: Where are we?
    Palutena: The Hall of Marvelous Moving Walls.
    Pandora: Your delivery stinks. Say it with feeling. This isn't public radio, you know!
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Present with many pre-boss cutscenes, but subverted when Phosphora attacks Pit during an attempted In the Name of the Moon speech. Averted during play, where conversation not only doesn't interrupt the action, but particular actions (usually triggering different dialogue) can cause said talking to cease.
  • Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Magnus. Not only does he have black hair, but he's one of the few brown skinned characters in the series.
  • That's No Moon: Literally with Arlon's base, the Lunar Sanctum.
    Palutena: You see the moon?
    Pit: Yeah, really pretty tonight.
    Palutena: And what about that?
    (The camera pans to a second moon)
    Pit: Like I said, they're pretty... wait... There are two moons?!
  • Theme-and-Variations Soundtrack: A chapter's air battle and land battle themes are more often than not variations of each other.
  • The Tease: Nearly every female character, especially Palutena and Phosphora.
  • The Theme Park Version: Of Classical Mythology, even more so than before.
  • The Three Trials: The entirety of Chapter 24; the chapter title itself is named "The Three Trials". Lampshaded, naturally.
    Dyntos: Did you forget the name of this chapter?
    Pit: Wasn't it "The One Trial" or something?
    Dyntos: You're a couple trials short, sonny!
  • This Is Unforgivable!: Revealed in Chapter 22, Dark Pit, Palutena, and Viridi are all disgusted after finally learning how far Hades is willing to go to expand the underworld army and win the war. In context, he callously slaughters humans and mold their souls into monsters.
  • Time-Limit Boss
    • Hewdraw has to be defeated quickly due to the five-minute time limit on the Power of Flight. (If it isn't defeated, Palutena finishes it off for you, but you won't get points for it.)
    • The soul-eating-monster in chapter 22 just leaves if you take too long to kill it.
  • Time Skip: Three years have passed between Chapters 17 and 18, due to Pit being trapped inside a ring.
  • Tin Tyrant: Dark Lord Gaol, who dons some rather spiffy armor with a Badass Cape and Spikes of Villainy.
  • Toilet Humor:
    Viridi: There are some latrines that need to be cleaned, private!
    • The same character also warns Pit to be careful when bathing in a hot spring found within an Aurum base, in case it might be some other yellow liquid.
    • Tons of it are, naturally, made by Hades while you're inside him.
  • Too Fast to Stop: If Pit has too many buffs to his speed active (like using the already speed-enhancing claw weapons with a further speed boost, then getting Mercury's Sandals), particularly in areas that don't have an Invisible Wall blocking off a bottomless pit, this can pop up.
  • Too Much Information: Pit says the acronym for this when addressing Arlon about his... loins.
    Pit: TMI! No one wants to hear about your loins.
  • Tornado Move: The claw special attack combines this with Razor Wind. Also, Hades can make tornadoes by spinning.
  • Tranquil Fury: While Pit normally has a fiery, passionate personality, when Hades mockingly tells Pit that he'll have to likely kill the possessed Lady Palutena, Pit doesn't have any kind of snappy comment. He just calmly, and bluntly tells him to go home. Which, for added fun, is Pit literally telling him to go to hell.
  • Troll: The Sociopath Hades, who loves the Chest Monster so much that he still puts several in Pit's path during an Enemy Mine situation. Then there's the incident with the seed solely to provoke a war.
  • Tsundere
    Viridi: Don't get the wrong idea, Pit. I'm not here to help you. It's just in my best interest to keep you alive for now!
    'Palutena: Aw... It looks like Little Miss Cactus has a soft spot for Pit.
  • Turns Red: The boss of Chapter 23, the Heart of Hades, gains a red aura when you damage it enough. Not only does it move much faster, it will also be actively pursuing you.
  • Underground Monkey: Some of the more common Underworld enemies come in multiple variations later on, such as Aurum and Cellular versions. Some of the Forces of Nature are clear riffs on Underworld enemies as well.
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change:
    • Chapter 17 has a Land Battle section, but it takes place entirely on a moving platform, effectively making it an Air Battle with Land Battle controls. You get a larger platform later on, but it still dictates the pace of the level.
    • Chapter 18. In order, you take control of a little girl, a dog, and Magnus. It's also the only Chapter in which the Air Battle section comes after the Land Battle rather than before it.
  • Unexpected Shmup Level:
    • In Chapter 18, the flight segment takes place at the end after Magnus-Pit beats Pit's body, instead of the beginning.
    • Chapter 20 starts with a Vertical Scrolling Shooter section instead of a Rail Shooter section.
    • Chapter 22 is, aside from the boss fight, entirely an air battle. Viridi is disappointed.
  • Unique Enemy: There is exactly one Cellular Shildeen in the entire game.
  • The Unfought: Viridi. Though she presents herself as another antagonist, there is never a direct confrontation between her and Pit. Even Magnus gets to take a swing at our angelic hero while fighting together with Dark Lord Gaol, who now has a perfectly normal voice compared to the one first heard in Chapter 2, where you fight her.
  • The Unpronouncable:
    • The Space Pirate Captain's true name is impossible for human tongues to pronounce.
    • The names of the Aurum are unpronouncable, so Palutena gives them names that are close approximations.
  • Vacuum Mouth
    • The Underworld enemy Shelbo uses this as its method of attack.
    • Pandora also has an attack like this.
    • Hades in chapter 23, in which Hades sucks up Pit and swallows him whole.
  • Vague Hit Points: Pit has a health bar, but his exact HP is unknown, but it can be changed with modifiers from weapons. Enemies and bosses have hit points, but they don't have health bars, as testing will show that different weapons damage them differently.
  • Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Of sorts — several weapons are based off of bosses, and these cannot be found or purchased until that boss is defeated. Some (like the Twinbellows Cannon) simply require beating the boss in question, while others require more difficult tasks accomplished through the Treasure Hunt. Also, Dark Pit takes Pandora's powers after both he and Pit defeat her, though Pandora forcibly removes herself from him in Chapter 22 to use the Rewind Spring's reviving powers and more to commit a Roaring Rampage of Revenge for it.
  • Video Game 3D Leap: After two games in 2D, Uprising brings the 3D leap in the series.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: The game always rewards you for destroying Underworld and Forces of Nature troops. Even when you're supposed to be working with them. Make no mistake, Pit only looks like a kind little angel.
  • Villain-Beating Artifact: The Three Sacred Treasures are needed to defeat Medusa once more. Pit later tries to use them to kill Hades, but Hades blasts them into nothingness thanks to their age-worn condition. Pit then went to Dyntos to receive the Great Sacred Treasure, which fared much better, albeit also getting totaled in the process.
  • Villain Has a Point:
    • In the vs Dark Pit chapter, one of the places Dark Pit can be waiting to fight you is an abandoned temple. Medusa says how mortals turn to the gods in times of hardship, but then neglect them in times of plenty. It's like having a son who only ever calls you when they want something.
  • Villains Out Shopping
    • When you find a hot spring, you sometimes see enemies chilling out there. The Reapers even have their own designated hot spring... which happens to be poisonous.
    • The reason why the Great Reaper starts off looking like every other Reaper is explained in the idol: It enjoys shrinking itself down to take relaxing walks around the fortress.
  • Villain Respect: Hades debuts and congratulate Pit and Palutena for beating his Medusa puppet. When he acknowledges Palutena "doing a number on the original Medusa", based on the villain's memories, Palutena decides she can't deny it.
  • Voice of the Legion: Gaol has this. Turns out it's just a synthetic voice made to hide the fact that Gaol is really a human woman. It no longer hides the female part of her voice in Chapter 24, where you have to fight her and Magnus as the second of three trials to prove yourself worthy of using the Great Sacred Treasure.

    W-Y 
  • Walking Spoiler: You may as well call Uprising Walking Spoiler: The Game. It's quite telling that in place of showing any spoiler tags on this page at all, there's simply an unmarked spoiler warning at the very top of this page.
    • Hades. Showing up as early as Chapter 9, and being a particularly memorable character, it's hard to discuss the game without revealing that Medusa isn't the Big Bad at all.
    • Viridi shows up only two chapters later and is also a fairly prominent character from that point on.
    • The Chaos Kin made a brief appearance at the end of Chapter 13. It's not until much later that we learn how much damage that creature is capable of committing.
  • Wave-Motion Gun
    • The Mega Laser power.
    • If you don't defeat the Hewdraw in time, Palutena zaps it with her Palutena Glam Blaster/Sacred Goddess Clobber Laser, which is either this or a Kame Hame Hadoken.
    • The Lunar Sanctum opens up to reveal one.
    • The Daybreak Gun in Together Mode.
    • The Great Sacred Treasure has one, as first demonstrated in Chapter 24, and it covers most of the arena you're fighting in to prove your worthiness of wielding it. If you're in the kill area when it goes off, you see the screen flash bright white, only to cut directly to the "I'M FINISHED!" screen without a word.
    • In Chapter 25, Hades demolishes the Great Sacred Treasure near the end, and the only usable thing that's left is the Wave-Motion Gun. The very end forces you to carry it with a slow movement speed, dodging Hades' Laser Beam Spam in the air while Palutena slowly charges it up for the finishing blow.
  • Western Zodiac: There are 9 weapons and 3 powers based on it. It also appears on your file when selecting your birthday.
  • Wham Episode:
    • Chapter 9 is set up to be the end of the game, and as Palutena and Pit celebrate their hard-earned victory over Medusa..."Now wait just a second." Enter Hades, the true Big Bad of the game.
    • Chapter 18: Pit awakens inside a ring without any recollection of how it happened. He runs into Magnus, who tells him that for the past three years, Palutena has been attacking humanity.
  • Wham Line: Chapter 18: "'Yesterday'? Try THREE YEARS, buddy!" Within the same chapter: "How's this for starters? You've become the enemy of mankind!"
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Pit has absolutely zero qualms against fighting the various members and minions of the Underworld Army, the Forces of Nature, and the Aurum, but when he discovers that Dark Lord Gaol is actually a human woman upon their defeat, he has a complete My God, What Have I Done? moment.
  • Wild Card: Dark Pit has no loyalties, only working with others when it is convenient to him. His only constant is that he hates the underworld invaders, but even then he's not above forcing some to do his bidding when he can.
  • Winged Humanoid: Pit, centurions, sirens, and Dark Pit.
  • Wings Do Nothing
    • Pit is incapable of flight, and Palutena or Viridi has to personally bestow the "Miracle of Flight" upon him, in order to let him fly for 5 minutes at a time.
    • Pink-colored powers allow Pit to jump, glide, and briefly fly in land battles as well, though it's uncertain whether his wings have anything to do with it.
    • The Pegasus Wings allow Pit to fly for an unlimited amount of time. Unfortunately, he only gets the chance to use it in the Medusa battle in Chapter 9. Justified by Palutena, who says that after 25 years, the wings may not be all that reliable anymore.
    • Subverted with Dark Pit. He can fly indefinitely, but only because he stole Pandora's powers. After he loses them, he becomes flightless just like his counterpart.
  • Wolverine Claws: The Claws weapon class.
  • Womb Level: The setting for Chapter 23 — Hades swallows Pit.
  • Worf Barrage:
    • Viridi drops a Reset bomb on Aurum Pyrrhon. It doesn't take.
    • In Chapter 23, Pit uses the Three Sacred Treasures to attack Hades. Hades just brushes it off... then destroys the treasures.
  • World of Ham: So much so you'd think they had a diet of ham. Everyone has some at some point.
    Pyrrhon: SHAZAMITYLAM!
  • World of Snark: So much you feel like they've been watching Joss Whedon shows for reference.
  • World's Strongest Man: Magnus is the strongest of the human race.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Defied by the game itself of all things. Think about it: after Chapter 14, when it looks like the final battle with the Forces of Nature is coming up, Earth is hit with an alien invasion. And after that's settled, the Chaos Kin hijacks the plot. And after that, Palutena's Army and the Forces of Nature wind up being allies of sorts, and despite Viridi's still-obvious hatred of humanity, things... never really pick up where they left off. And the line in Chapter 14 before all this happened, right at the end? "I'm coming for you next, Viridi!" After Pit says that line, it's as if the story throws one progressively more absurd curve ball after another at him just so Nintendo won't have to show a fight involving Pit beating up a little girl. Even though that little girl is really the Goddess of Nature that has quite possibly lived since the beginning of the Earth.
  • Writing Around Trademarks: Subtly lampshaded during the tutorial, when Palutena misremembers a title as Super Bash Sisters, but Pit doesn't hesitate to correct her.
  • Xanatos Gambit: The Wish Seed episode. Palutena figures out halfway through that the titular item is a fake planted (ahem) by Hades. If they go after it, they are forced to kill the Phoenix, which will send up a beacon visible to the rest of the world, implying that the seed has been stolen — so everyone will go to war after it. However, the Phoenix is ticked that everyone's going after it, so it's rampaging, and a lot of people are going to die anyway. Kill the Phoenix or not, Hades wins.
  • You Don't Look Like You: Thanatos and Pandora have drastically different appearances compared to the original.
    • Thanatos, originally a serpentine creature, is now a Monster Clown.
    • Blob Monster Pandora is now a living blue fireball. She also gets a human form, Amazon Pandora.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Hades' usurping Medusa as the Big Bad after the latter's defeat in Chapter 9. Prior to said chapter, there are only a few hints that Medusa is not pulling the strings.


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The Great Reaper

The leader of the Reapers and the boss of the Reaper's Fortress, the Great Reaper apparently sends its subordinates to collect the souls of the humans fighting in the war.

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