Video Game / Rakenzarn Frontier Story

Just watch a new world as it will unfold.

"The infinite realms of possibilities..."

Rakenzarn: Frontier Story is a fan game made with RPG Maker VX Ace. It's made by Dark Kyu, who also made Rakenzarn Tales. While similarly named, the two take place in unrelated settings.

The story takes place in different universes and timelines. These places are recorded in a series of books and can be teleported there through them. The books are recorded from the point of view of the world's main heroes, which they are referred as "Beholders." They're sorted by universe (representing a series) and their worlds (representing different timelines and What If? scenarios).

Our hero is Makoto Naegi, but not the one from the canon Dangan Ronpa series. In his continuity, The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History never happened, so Makoto has been living out a normal life at Hope's Peak Academy. Unfortunately, he has the worst luck of all his counterparts, to the point he’s mockingly referred as a traditional black cat and a constant target of mockery. Even after entering Hope’s Peak, his bad luck doesn’t cease.

After a year in Hope’s Peak Academy, Makoto finds himself targeted by mysterious attackers only to be saved a young Lion Ushiromiya. After a series of mishaps, Makoto is accidentally dragged into the Chamber of Rakenzarn, an in-between dimension and home to the Realmwalkers, an organization who patrols the universes. Makoto learns that there have been mysterious attacks in different universes and killing off Beholders. If a Beholder dies, the universe will start to decay and will eventually be destroyed. Makoto himself is a Beholder.

Against his will, Makoto – with Lion who becomes his first comrade; Rhajat, a creepy stalker who has a strange obsession with Makoto; Mei-Fang, a robot girl who is searching for her creator; Raiga who is a young guard of Lucis; Mika, a hyperactive beastmaster; Tiger the Dark the infamous wrestler and rival of Tiger Mask; and Yuko who is a magical knight – is thrust into the frontier and traveling through different universes/possible timelines while protecting Beholders from the mysterious enemies.

More info and download links are found at the Rakenzarn Wiki.

Tropes in this game include...

A to H

• Actually Four Mooks: Those silhouettes aren't accurate as to how many bad guys you have to fight.
• All in a Row: Everybody's all lined up behind Makoto.
• All Swords Are the Same: Zig-zagged. Swords are generally divided into three types with different stat boosts: Rapiers which boost speed, Swords with moderate attack power and Great Swords which are really strong and usually have a speed penalty. Most sword attacks can only be used by one or two types of swords due to the class and the type of move. Attack animation wise, though, they're pretty much all the same.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Four is the cap this time around.
• Ascended Extra: Characters who are secondary in their own game get a more prominent role here.
  • Rhajat is an Optional Party Member in Fire Emblem Fates. In Rakenzarn: Frontier Story, she's the Guest-Star Party Member during the Hoshido segment of the game and later becomes one of the main party members.
  • Hans is a secondary antagonist in his home game. Here, he's the Arc Villain of the first Hoshido segment.
• Author Appeal:
  • Asahina is a love interest for Makoto because the game's creator apparently ships 'em.
  • Like in Tales, we've got sidequests involving girls tied up and female OCs done by bondage artists. Hmmm...
• Big Bad: Previously named Unknown, Xira is the mysterious figurehead of the Primal Union. They're responsible for hiring killers and recruiting people.
• Big Damn Heroes: Ascheritt drops in to help the party during the climax of Chapter 2.
• Big First Choice: The first thing you get to pick is who your first summonable ally will be.
• Breather Episode: After the dark and scary stuff that makes up Chapter 4, Chapter 5 is mostly Makoto and the gang hanging out at the Realmwalker Academy with a few fights mixed in. At least until the end.
• The Cavalry Arrives Late: The guest party members only return after leaving in Chapter 3 after you've already beaten the boss.
• Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": Instead of Magic Points (MP), you have Rune Points (RP).
• Can't Drop the Hero: Makoto's in the party no matter what.
• Character Portrait: All party members and major NPCs have one, with some having multiple ones for different emotions or alternate selves.
• Contrived Coincidence: When rifts start opening up in Chapter 3, it just happens to open one in Makoto's home town which just happens to drop Sayaka and Aoi right at a spot where the bad guy can use them as a hostage and avoid beating defeated before the boss fight at the end of the chapter.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Solo certainly loves this trope. He shows his prowess and superior weaponry by trouncing everyone he comes across. An ordinary policeman? Tap on the head and he's out. A Kid Detective snooping around? Bombard her with all of his weapons until she's bed-ridden! An entire guild in a medieval setting? Defeated an entire guild, single-handedly.
• Cutting the Knot: At one point in Chapter 3 when exploring the mansion, Makoto discovers a door with a word puzzle on it. Rhajat just blasts it open to save time. Doubles as a bit of Self-Deprecation, given that a similar puzzle was removed from early versions of Rakenzarn Tales for being overly hard for that point in the game.
• Damage-Increasing Debuff: Besides decreasing defense stats, certain status aliments can also lower elemental resistances.
• Darker and Edgier: While Rakenzarn Tales becomes Darker and Edgier during the Kandur Arc, Frontier Story is from the beginning far more explicit when it comes to danger and death. During the mission in Hoshido, Naegi and Lion stumble across a village full of the dead bodies of civilians slaughtered by Hans.
• Death by Adaptation: Yukimura is killed during the second battle of Fort Jinya.
• Defend Command: Besides damage reduction, this also grants 10 SP, making it good for building up for a Soul Break or other offensive moves.
• Difficulty Levels: Four of 'em. You've got Novice, Normal, Tough and Relentless.
  • Easy-Mode Mockery: You're locked out of any secret endings on Novice difficulty.
  • Hard Mode Perks: Playing on the hardest difficulty nets you extra XP and money. You can also view secret endings on the harder difficulties.
• Dungeon Shop: The Merchant will usually pop up before a boss for any last minute item needs.
• Episode Title Card: You see a new one at the start of each chapter.
• Expendable Alternate Universe: Averted. The Realmwalkers take all universes as equally important...well, almost all of them. (See Take That! below)
• Exposition Fairy: Party members can point out things on the current map or give objective reminders.
• Fictional Currency: Medals, some sort of valuable commodity to interdimensional travelers.
• First Kiss: Played for Laughs. Airi is potentially the first girl to actually kiss Makoto Naegi. In fact, on the lips! Too bad Airi is a Wraith and her kiss is actually the Kiss of Death. Makoto laments that Airi basically stole his first kiss.
• Gashadokuro: One of these serves as an early quest boss.
• Graceful Loser: Ronove. Compared to other bosses who tend to run away swearing revenge or sic minions on you as they escape, he just admits he's been outclassed and politely steps out of the way for the party.
• Guardian of the Multiverse: Essentially what being a Realmwalker entails. They make sure realities run on their natural course and handle any outside threats to them.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Some party members can join you for certain missions. They usually have unique Classes that can't be swapped out.
• Healer Signs On Early: The first new class you can use is the aptly-named Healer class.
• Hero of Another Story: Naegi and Lion arrive in Hoshido at the time when Corrin and his Hoshidan and his Nohrian siblings are in the Kingdom of Valla. The events of the end of Revelation and the mission in Hoshido are implied to happen simultaneously. In a way, Naegi, Lion and Rhajat also are the Heroes of Another Story, as they have to protect Hoshido from an attack led by Hans while Fates' main characters are away.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: After being beaten in a fair fight, Hans summons Ifrit to try to kill Naegi, Lion and Rhajat. However, he botches the summoning ritual and ends up killed by the uncontrollable summon.
• How We Got Here: Chapter 1 is basically explaining how Makoto wound up where he was in the prologue.

I to P

• I Do Not Own: Starting a new game opens with this disclaimer.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: You can probably handwave this for most worlds because that's the way they worked in their native games.
• In Medias Res: The Prologue begins with Makoto stuck in a dungeon and trying to figure out what the heck is going on.
• Intrepid Merchant: The Merchant from Resident Evil 4 resumes this role, taking it even further since he can hop between the worlds like the party.
• Introdump: Part of Chapter 1 is Makoto giving brief descriptors of each of his classmates for those who aren't up on their Danganronpa trivia.
• Invisible to Normals: Summon Spirits can only be seen if they want to be seen.
• Job System: Rune Classes, which can be set as Primary, with full access to the moves and stat boosts, or Sub Classes which grant passive buffs. Word of God is it took inspiration from Bravely Default and Suikoden.
  • Class Change Level Reset: Each class is leveled up independently for every character.
  • New Skill as Reward: You often get these from beating bosses and from quests.
• Joined Your Party: For both permanent and guest party members.
• Karma Meter: You flit between Lawful and Chaotic.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: One of the methods used by Realmwalkers to avoid disturbing the natural order. The dialogue makes it clear they're borrowing the tech from the Men in Black.
• Leaked Experience: As long as the character is in the party, they'll get full XP per fight for their Primary class.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The reason v1.6 Suki and Carol turn on the party is because they believe their world has no future to speak of, referencing how the game got rebooted after a certain point.
• Lifesaving Misfortune: Makoto is saved from being assassinated by Solo thanks to being summoned by accident when Shaft's ritual is interrupted.
• Limit Break: Called Soul Breaks, you can gain up to three different ones for each character.
• Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: One sidequest involving the cast of DIDNapper results in the cast from the final version (v1.8) of that game meeting the rougher, differently-designed Suki and Carol from v1.6.
• Money Spider: So why do all your enemies drop the same currency accepted among multiple worlds? Lampshaded by one of guest party member Cynthia's quotes on the item screen.
  "Um, where did they keep this stuff?"
• Mood Whiplash: At the end of Chapter 5, a time filled mostly with wacky hijinx and silly escapades, we get some info about the bad guys and Makoto accidentally kills a man in self-defense.
• Multiple Endings: You can unlock secret endings by playing on harder difficulty levels.
• Mythology Gag:
  • When Lion discusses the concept of multiple worlds to Makoto using Mario as an example, he references the anime, the Paper Mario continuity and the movie.
  • Much of the opening to Makoto's world is filled with nods to the events of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc including one of the bad endings and an unsubtle hint as to who the bad guy is.
• Narnia Time: The exact time passage rate varies from world to world.
• Never the Selves Shall Meet: Averted. Multiple copies of the same character are known to interact as Realmwalkers. One of them even comments on how annoying it can get trying to tell them apart at times. A later sidequest explains this as the Rune Crystals somehow preventing any paradoxes that would occur.
• New Work, Recycled Graphics: Several character sprites, facesets, and tunes that were in Rakenzarn Tales are reused here.
• Nonstandard Game Over: In the DIDnapper sidequest, there's one segment where Naegi must guide Suki and a tied-up Carol in an Escort Mission. If Carol gets KO'd in battle, a small cutscene shows Carol recaptured by the enemies and Suki, distracted by the whole thing, gets captured as well. Naegi tries to save them, but a mook knocks him out from behind, resulting in an instant Game Over. Elda's silhouette appears in the dialogue box and proceeds to taunt Naegi for failing to protect Suki and Carol.

  Elda: "That girl, Suki, was counting on you. Yet, you failed her."

  • There's also one earlier before the Escort Mission when the party finds Carol in her cell. There's a timed battle; the party must defeat a group of enemies under 4 turns. Failing to do so results in Carol teleported away to a place where the party is unable to reach. To make matters worse, Carol is surrounded by some thugs. It cuts to the thugs carrying a sleeping Carol, bound and gagged, away. With no way to reach her, the party fails the mission. Like in the Escort Mission, Elda's silhouette will appear in the dialogue box to taunt Naegi for his failure.
• NPC Roadblock: In your first trips to the Chamber of Rakenzarn, part of the area just happens to be under construction to prevent you from going where the plot says you can't.
• Optional Boss: Some sidequests end with fighting a boss. It's also possible to find an extra boss in locations where you fought a chapter-ending boss before.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Kyoko may be the Ultimate Detective, but she is still a normal human being against a super-tech bounty hunter. When she gets captured, she needs an outside intervention to free her from her bonds. She has to use her wits to trick her captors away from her, but one of her captors uses advanced technology from the future so he can easily track her down again. But all that did was buy her more time for the party to rescue her.
  • The DIDNapper universe is a medieval era so they would be armed with swords and shields. Unfortunately, they're no match for Solo's more advanced weaponry. The entire kidnapping guild is completely trounced by Solo, and dispatch Suki and her friends with sleeping gas while they're distracted.
• Point-and-Click Map: Leaving an area in a world pops up a menu to select the next area to go to.
• Powers as Programs: Rune Classes. Whoever equips them gains access to their skills and benefits. However, every character has to level up the class on their own despite all sharing the same Rune Class crystal, so the "program" essentially "resets" for each new user.
• Pre-existing Encounters: They take the form of silhouettes.

R to Z

• Rare Candy: Some items allow you to boost your stats or even advance a class one or more levels.
• Relationship Values: You can hang out with your party members and build up your friendships, granting new quests and Soul Breaks at higher levels.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Ms. Brooks gives one to Makoto at the start of Chapter 6, saying he's unfit to be a Realmwalker if he can't handle the harder parts of the job. Raiga in turn gives her one about her terrible track record with good candidates and how nobody likes her speeches.
• Right Behind Me: Double subverted in Chapter 5. At one point, Makoto attempts to get away from Rhajat. He assumes this is going to happen, only to turn around to find she's not there. It turns out she got behind him while he was looking behind himself for her.
• Romance Sidequest: You can date five different girls.
• Seemingly Hopeless Boss Fight: The boss at the end of the prologue. You'll have to wait for a full chapter to see how the good guys pull that one off.
• Sidelined Protagonist Crossover: With the exceptions of Makoto and Yuko, none of the permanent party members are the main characters of their home continuities.
• So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear:
  • Rhajat does take her stuff with when she leaves at the end of Chapter 2, but she permanently rejoins in Chapter 3 before you can buy new stuff, so it's no big loss.
  • Averted in Chapter 3. Your party will begin gradually diminishing as you proceed through the forest area, but the leaving party members will give you their equipment just in case.
• Space Station: The Chamber of Rakenzarn is depicted like this.
• Squishy Wizard: In general, any magic-oriented classes will have terribly low HP.
• Stealth-Based Mission: There's one segment that also counts as an Escort Mission. Getting caught by enemies result in a fight, but one of the party members must stay alive. If the party member in question is KO'd, it results in a Nonstandard Game Over.
• Summon Magic: Achieved either by becoming a host to a summon, called a Summon Vessel, or by using Summon Gems.
• Super Move Portrait Attack: This happens when Soul Breaks and Summons are used.
• Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: If there's a Healing Circle, possibly with the Merchant nearby, prepare for a boss.
• Swapped Roles: Zig-zagged. In the original Danganronpa timeline, there was a point where Kyoko had to rescue Makoto on various occasions, most notably when Makoto was trapped in the basement following a botched trial. In a bizarre twist, Makoto gets to rescue Kyoko in Chapter 3 where she's abducted by Solo. However, she is not completely helpless. She manages to outwit her captors, but still needed the party's help.
• Take That!: Apparently, not even the heads of the Realmwalkers are terribly concerned that the universes based on Dragonball Evolution and The Emoji Movie went kaput.
  • It's subtle but Frontier Story made fun of the typical RPG Maker horror tropes during a rescue mission at Rokkenjima. If Makoto Naegi reads the Golden Witch's epitaph, he'll pause for a moment. Nothing happens. Then we get this shining line.
  Rhajat: Were you expecting something like a ghost coming out and either possess you or maybe chase you around?
  Naegi: Honestly... kinda.
  Donald: That's kinda cliche and overdone if you asked me.
• Take Your Time: In Chapter 3, Kyoko has been kidnapped by Solo, having been tortured and restrained. So naturally, this is right when the option to start doing sidequests and the shops open up for you to grind. Then again, since Solo is very specifically waiting for Makoto to arrive to finish him off, there is some justification as to why he doesn't kill her.
• A Taste of Power: Ascheritt drops in to help at the end of Chapter 2. At a time, when you're maybe level 8-10 with sufficient grinding, he's at level 75 and can one-shot the boss with the right move combo.
• Too Dumb to Live: Going near a giant fiery monster when it's gone berserk is dangerous! Hans tries to summon Ifrit and sic him at the party, but he butchers the summoning rite that causes the fire demon to go berserk. Did Hans make a run for it? Nope! He's confident that he has the creature under control and bark orders... then Ifrit proceeds to set Hans on fire.
• Useless Useful Spell: Averted. Status effects play a key part in the fights. Stunning and debuffing the enemies are indispensable to survive the fights in the first chapters.
• Victor Gains Loser's Powers: You get a few Rune Classes by swiping them off major bosses. Justified by the fact the bosses using the same Rune Crystals that grant them their classes as you are. It's also a plot point as Rune Crystals are supposed to be Realmwalker gear only. Where exactly the villains getting those is a mystery.
• Victory Quote: Everybody's got at least three or four different ones they can say.
• Visible Silence: Lampshaded. When Makoto goes quiet after Lion suggests Rhajat hang out, Lion goes "What's with the dot dot dot?".
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • Ronove. Unlike the previous bosses, he has only one weakness, can buff himself and is the first boss to pack a Soul Break. This is where you have to pay more attention to using buffs and debuffs in order to gain an advantage on your foes.
  • Solo and No. 9. You have two supervillains to deal with. They both can hit hard and they have their specific skills. Solo can hit all party members and inflict poison ailments and No. 9 buffs them up. If that's not bad enough, they also have their own Soul Breaks. This is where you have to pay attention to their patterns, exploit their respective weaknesses, and use your own buffs too. Otherwise, this is going to be a one long fight and they could potentially one-shot you with their Soul Breaks.
• Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma: The writing and spelling are generally good, but improper usage of tenses crops up now and again.
• Weapons Kitchen Sink: You've got knives, guns, swords, spears, hammers and more. But in this case, as the Realmwalkers need to travel between many worlds of varying technological sophistication and the various Rune Classes best work with one weapon or another, this trope is a bit more justified.
• Wham Line:
  • Near the end of Chapter 4, when Makoto is near the end of the rites.
  Makoto: If you did see everything about me... then you know how much I hated everything about me!!!
• What the Hell, Hero?: Your teammates will call you out if you perform an action they think is going too far.
• The World as Myth: The central premise is traveling to various Alternate Universe counterparts of various media.
• You All Look Familiar: Justified in that several of the Realmwalkers are duplicates from alternate continuities.
• You Fight Like a Cow:
  • Enemies will sometimes engage you in combat with taunts. Selecting the right taunt to retaliate with can weaken them or give you a buff. Picking the wrong one will give them the advantage instead.
  • In general, you can expect each boss fight to be interrupted by dialogue a good two or three times. Played for laughs in the v1.2.1 bonus dungeon when its final boss starts quipping after losing only about 200 of his 10000 HP and the party tells him it's too early for that.
• Zip Mode: You can hold the Shift key to move around faster.