Loser Reborn is a 2019 RPG Maker VX Ace game developed by Sounding Stone and the second game in the Physical Exorcism Series.
The titular Loser Protagonist dies in a car accident, only for their soul to meet Nya, the god of reincarnation. Nya offers to reincarnate the protagonist as a prince, Marty Stu, or princess, Mary Sue, while granting them the cheat ability to rewind time and control girls via headpatting. Sixteen years later, the world is in danger of being destroyed by a mysterious cultist, who plans on summoning the Daemon Sultan Azathoth, and it's up to the protagonist to stop him. However, the world is full of contradictions that suggest there is more to this story than it seems.
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This work contains examples of:
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Subverted with the protagonist and the Cultist. They can seduce or MP damage any girl they headpat, but the author states there's no mutual love involved.
- Anti-Escapism Aesop: The story concerns a Loser Protagonist who gets in a car accident and reincarnated in another world where he or she gets to be an RPG hero with a Battle Harem saving the world. But it becomes apparent that this world is an illusion created by the god Nya to trap Marty/Mary for laughs, Marty's bonds with the heroines are literal brainwashing, and the Cultist who wants to destroy the world just wants to save his friend. The true ending has Marty decide to fight against Nya and wake up from the false world, allowing him to form a genuine romantic connection with Sally Sweet in later games.
- Big Bad Ensemble: The Cultist is summoning Daemon Sultan Azathoth to destroy the RPG world in order to free the comatose Marty/Mary from Nya, who wants to keep them in the false world for their own amusement and rules it as a tyrant.
- Big Bad Friend: The Cultist is the protagonist's friend from the real world and wants them to wake up from their coma, even if they have to destroy the RPG world to accomplish this.
- Bittersweet Ending: Even discounting The Stinger, Ending 2 has the protagonist and his best friend defeat Nya, but the friend cannot join the protagonist in returning to the real world.
- Bolivian Army Ending: The second ending cuts off right after the protagonist decides to fight off Gla'aki and her zombies with a gun.
- Brainwashed: The protagonist is able to brainwash women into liking them by patting them on the head. The developer states that the relationships formed through headpatting aren't true love.
- But Thou Must!: During some choices, defying Nya too much will cause them to replace all choices with what they want you to pick.
- Difficulty Levels: The game has Easy, Normal, and Hard modes. Easy will increase experience and gold gained from events in addition to lowering enemy stats.
- Elemental Powers: The game has only two elements, fire and lightning. All armor is resistant to one of these elements while being weak to the other, forcing the player to consider their characters' elemental weaknesses when going up against rogues and wizards. Rogue classes also have access to a field effect that can shift everyone's elemental resistances one way or the other.
- Final Boss: The Cultist or Nya will be the last boss if you accept or reject the false world, respectively.
- Lighter and Softer: To Physical Exorcism: Case 01, which is made by the same author and shares the same setting. While this game is mostly a parody of isekai and RPG genres with some Lovecraft Lite antagonists, the other game touches on darker themes like school bullying, child abuse, suicide, and vengeful spirits.
- Mana Meter: Unlike most games, characters are automatically stunned when they run out of MP. Worse yet, this stun effect counts as a KO for the sake of game over conditions.
- Multiple Endings:
- In the first ending, the Cultist is defeated and the protagonist stays in the fantasy world with their harem, with Nya thanking them for being amusing. The CG and achievement will be different depending on what gender the player chose.
- In the second ending, Nya is defeated and the protagonist wakes up from their coma, only to find that Nya sent Gla'aki to the real world. However, the protagonist is filled with confidence thanks to the Cultist's encouragement, and attempts to fight off Gla'aki with a gun.
- In the fourth ending, Nya goes on a rant about the lack of choice and originality in JRPGs and lampshade that there's no third ending. Instead of going to the credits or title screen, Nya softlocks the game.
- Reincarnation: Nya reincarnates the protagonist into a prince or princess. They also reincarnated the protagonist's friend and gave them the same headpatting power, only for their friend to become the Cultist.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: On the left side of the castle, the only way to recruit the western class characters is to brainwash them via headpatting after doing something bad to them.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Nya points out that the RPG world may not be real, but the people in it will die if the protagonist returns to the real world. The Cultist isn't very concerned about the inhabitants of that world, including his allies, and only cares about getting the protagonist back to the real world.
