Do you have the power? Are you the one?
Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven is a Turn-Based Strategy game from Marvelous. released on June 2nd, 2015 for Nintendo 3DS. Gameplay-wise, it's primarily notable for its "bowling" mechanic, in which Mooks can be knocked into each other to create combos not unlike a Beat 'em Up. Obviously, the game is fairly action-based for a Strategy RPG.
Luchs Eduard is the proprietor of an inn on the outskirts of Lunéville on Étoile Island clinging to a code of honor passed down from father to son for generations: "When our cherished guests finally arrive, think of them as nothing less than family." However, due to the island's strict policy of isolationism, the inn has had no visitors since its founding. Thus, Luchs is forced to mine for crystals, an extremely valuable resource due to their immense utility, to sell, in order to make ends meet. During one of his routine excavations, Luchs stumbles upon an amnesiac girl encased inside a massive crystal, and her abrupt awakening triggers a series of unexpected events that include foul fiends, astonishing abilities, and various other mysteries.
This game provides examples of:
- Achievement System: The game has one of these.
- Action Girl: While the game is explicitly not a World of Action Girls, since most of the villagers have no combat ability, with 7 out of 8 playable characters being female, it's definitely an Amazon Brigade.
- A-Cup Angst: Gabriele suffers from this as the youngest member of the Artemisias.
- Aerith and Bob: A good mix from both sides: Uncommon names like Luchs, Elfriede, Adelheid, Dangeraux, etc. vs. common ones like Charlotte, Gabriele, Bart, Amelia, etc.
- Arc Words: The two quotes up above are plastered all over the game's trailers and stated several times throughout the game, so they're a fairly obvious example. Are they relevant? Yes.
- Attack of the Town Festival: At the end of the game, a festival is held to celebrate your characters' heroism. This happens to be the setting in which Kaiser stages his final battle.
- Awesome, but Impractical: High-Tier Tension Skills, as most skirmishes will end long before a character has a chance to charge more than 100 Tension. It also varies by character as some are lucky to be able to hit more than 1-2 enemies per attack to build their Tension.
- Bait-and-Switch: The end of Gabbie's third heart event nearly has Luchs confessing to Trixie (regardless of her heart level) until Gabbie interrupts and tells him to stay away from her big sister. Particularly because Gabbie herself had feelings for Luchs and was jealous that Luchs was giving attention to Trixie.
- Broken Record: Expect to hear "Do you have the power?" and "Efficiency is a fine companion to visual presentation" a lot.
- But Thou Must!: It's impossible to fail the dialogue tree choices in Chapter 11. Should you make the wrong choice, the segment will endlessly repeat until choosing the correct answer.
- Cast From HP: Enemy leaders must spend HP to summon their mooks.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: It's hard to tell whether or not the God in this game - who has at least one saint and is part of a monotheistic religion - is this trope or the actual Christian God. The fact that he has literally been split into crystals and given birth to goddesses should subvert this trope, but it's presented in a fashion that does not disavow the possibility. Later on, though, Luchs becomes God, so if there is ever a sequel this trope would be played straight.
- Damage Sponge: Everything later on in the game. Especially the final boss, who can take well over an hour to kill!
- Elemental Powers: The elements of the game roughly correspond to the Japanese classical elements. And when we say roughly, we mean ROUGHLY.
- Earth: Dishing Out Dirt/Casting a Shadow
- Heaven: Blow You Away/Shock and Awe/Poisonous Person/Magic Music
- Frost: Making a Splash/An Ice Person
- Flame: Playing with Fire (the only one that's the same as the classical element)
- Void: Non-Elemental
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Earth is strong against Heaven. Heaven is strong against Flame and Frost. Flame and Frost are strong against Earth and each other. Void is (as per standard) not strong or weak against anything.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Adelheid is arguably this, given how late in the game she joins the party.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: During the final battle against Kaiser, whichever girl invited you to the festival becomes a goddess. In actual gameplay though, nothing changes, so Gameplay and Story Segregation is in effect.
- Exposition of Immortality: The faeries testify to having fought in a war. By the time of the game, there haven't been any wars for decades. The faeries don't look older than 20.
- Kaiser was also around even before that, as both shown in flashbacks and said by a few characters.
- First-Episode Twist: In the first chapter, we already know the true identity of the girls: goddesses who fought the humans of the world in a long, long war.
- God Is Dead: God has been dead for some time now.
- Death of the Old Gods: The faeries would have replaced him, but Luchs wouldn't allow that, so he became God himself. If the faeries were to become God (or in this case, goddesses), then it would be an inversion of the usual "monotheistic deity replaces polytheistic pantheon."
- Great Offscreen War: The war staged between gods and mankind.
- Inconsistent Dub: Mostly avoided, but the town's description when choosing it as a place to fight a battle says that the town has a popular tourist attraction. It's also stated fairly early on that the townsfolk are xenophobes that don't even want Luchs' inn around because it might draw attention.
- Limit Break: Tension skills. A new one is unlocked for each girl and Luchs upon completion of a heart event.
- Limited Animation: Every character has one unique type of animation reserved for them: Lottie looking around, Trixie running her fingers through her hair, etc.
- In regards to the trope itself, the character models themselves are somewhat clunky due to a lack of animations.
- Luminescent Blush: Everyone blushes a lot.
- Magical Accessory: The bracelet Luchs has contains Magna, the girl's life force, and is capable of being used for healing and empowering them. It's later revealed the bracelet is the Lachyrma, an extremely powerful bracelet that can be used to give it's owner the Verboten Magna and become God.
- Magitek: All of the girl's weapons. Luchs outright mentions it looks like nothing he's ever seen.
- Mana: Magna. As it turns out, it's actually God's power.
- Meido:: One character in particular, Bart, has it as his goal to dress up every one of the girls in a maid uniform. The title of this "operation"? M.A.I.D In Heaven.
- Mineral Macguffin: Crystals are EVERYWHERE throughout the game. The game even notes "Man has chosen to build its world around crystals." They're capable of being used in alchemy to craft various items. In that system, they're known as "magnetite".
- Mook Maker: Generators.
- Narrator All Along: Yggdrasil.
- New Game Plus: Carries over levels and skills learned from Heart Events.
- No Endor Holocaust: After being lit on fire and rained on, Luneville is apparently fine. They outright state that this is because of the successful evacuation. The second time it happens, we never find out what happened to Luneville, although the fact that at the end Luchs became God and likely has the power to reverse all that damage justifies how the village could apparently be OK.
- On a smaller scale, the inn is constantly feeling the effects of large-scale earthquakes and absolutely nothing is affected.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Happens to Bart when he attempts to peep on the Artemisias and Amelia in the women's bath. Can also happen to Luchs, if he chose to follow Bart.
- In a more serious instance, Gewalt was implied to be on the receiving end of this, courtesy of Kaiser.
- No Name Given: Luchs's father has a speaking role in the prologue but he's never given a name.
- Only Sane Man: Amelia serves as this to the entire gang, with Luch sometimes taking on the mantle in her stead. Among the Artemisias, Beatrix, Diana and Adelheid are the most level-headed girls.
- Our Gods Are Different: The girls are actually goddesses. Are they greater? They're certainly powerful and actual children of THE God, but they're otherwise like normal humans. They're also called at a few points throughout the game as fairies.
- Pieces of God: The crystals are, in fact, what of God remains after Kaiser tapped into his power.
- Pointy Ears: The girls have these.
- Public Bathhouse Scene: The inn contains a bath. It mainly serves the purpose of providing buffs depending on the type of bath salt you use, but Luchs and any characters you've gotten up to three Heart Ranks with will be wearing a swimsuit inside.
- Relationship Values: The game has these in the form of Heart Events. Playing through a character's Heart Event allows you to gain special skills.
- Scaled Up: All we can say without spoiling the ending is that it's similar to the Aladdin example. Kaiser transforms into a giant snake using the fake Lachryma. Like Jafar, he ALMOST wins, as even with the bracelet broken he was immortal and extremely powerful, but unfortunately someone else had the real one.
- Sixth Ranger: Gewalt becomes this after Luchs rescues him from the Brainwashed and Crazy Francesca and Adelheid. He doesn't actually join the party outright though, and acts independently from them.
- The Stinger: A long-awaited guest finally arrives at the inn.
- Super Move Portrait Attack: Each party member can use this as their final 400 Tension Limit Break, though whoever gets it depends on who the player chooses at the end of Chapter 12. Gewalt and the Final Boss also have one as a Desperation Attack, though it's easily missed for the former unless you set the enemy level to High or leave him to fend for himself.
- Welcome to Corneria: There are only a few lines for each character in battle, so this is bound to happen.
- Wham Line: Gabriele revealing that not only is Luchs not the Artemisia's first master, but that their previous was Kaiser.
