Naderick Bluegale is a knight of Arc Guard, who recently met the qualifications to join the Kingsguard. He and his squad perform their usual knight duties of traveling around the country and keeping the peace, but they eventually discover that all of these cases are connected to a grand conspiracy involving corruptive Extra Gems and Miasma. These new foes are far beyond what an ordinary knight can handle, so Nade needs to gain the power of the legendary Paladins if he wants to have any chance of saving the world of Gaiastir from destruction. Even then, he needs to continue collecting additional Paladin souls in order to match the ever increasing strength of his Miasma-using foes.
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This game contains examples of:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The main antagonist of the Aggressor side story is the Deep Learnist, an AI that is supposed to lead the aliens and help them find a new home. Unfortunately, it developed a god complex and sought to turn humanity into science experiments, even if it meant risking the aliens in a war against the humans and striking a deal with Anguis to gain Satan Gems. It views both aliens and humans as so far beneath it that it claims it is giving them salvation when it kills them.
- Always Someone Better: Nade believes he's lagging behind Alex as a swordsman, especially when the latter can use Lancelot's Million Thrust without a skill gem, which becomes a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy that causes him to lack the confidence needed to improve himself. This gets flipped around when Nade becomes the Paladin and manages to kill Berienstahl, Alex's revenge target, causing Alex to feel like he's the one falling behind. While Alex has more wins against Nade under his belt, the two playable duels against Alex end in his defeat.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: About a decade ago, Berienstahl kidnapped Sophie in order to access the center of Asgard and because he wants to marry her to gain the rights to the Asgard throne.
- Anti-Frustration Features: The first phase of the Final Boss, Anguis, gives the party a permanent debuff and gives the boss very strong regen, only to remove the debuff and nerf the regen in the later phases. If the player fights him again on a clear file, the first phase is automatically skipped, making it easier to reach the True Final Boss.
- Ax-Crazy:
- The dialogue box describes Red Rose as a woman with a crazy look in her eyes. She reveals that she's the necromancer behind all the local ship sinkings, and she claims to derive sexual pleasure from killing people at sea. The Eagle Pirates found her too dangerous to keep in their ranks, despite her previous friendship with the captain. She becomes less crazy in Chapter 2 after losing most of her Extra Gem powers, which implies that the majority of her insanity was caused by her Extra Gem.
- Anyone possessed by the will of Ragnarek seeks to destroy all of civilization, due to Ragnarek's spite against Cecilia Charlemagne. Augustus spent most of his life under Rangarek's influence and is very sadistic and bloodthirsty by the time Alex reunites with him.
- Being Evil Sucks: Combined with Reluctant Psycho. Anguis is an Omnicidal Maniac who thinks nothing of draining other worlds to death and killing others to survive, but it becomes clear that he doesn't truly feel fulfilled from simply surviving by taking from others and that he secretly envies the party for being able to fight for things other than themselves. When Nade and Anguis have their last offscreen duel, Anguis states that he wants to fight Nade in order to understand the latter's mindset.
- Big Bad: Loquius Ragnarek is the main villain in the context of Gaiastir, since he's a former emperor who seeks to destroy the world out of spite for Charlemagne overthrowing his tyrannical rule. He is also the one backing Berienstahl and is the one responsible for corrupting Augustus into a genocidal emperor. However, he turns out to be a pawn of the source of Miasma, Anguis, who commands several villains of the same tier as Ragnarek in order to destroy the multiverse.
- Big Good: Nade and Sophie take this role for Asgard. After becoming the Paladin, Nade is obligated to take the role of commander of Asgard's entire military force. Meanwhile, Sophie is the queen of Asgard due to her father being assassinated by someone from the Extra Gem conspiracy. After Sophie is incapacitated at the end of Chapter 1, Alex becomes the acting king due to being part of the Charlemagne family, at least until Nade revives Sophie.
- Bright Is Not Good: The Miasma is associated with a sickly golden color, as shown by the presence of the Golden Ladies who attack random passerbys with Miasma. The sword of the Emperor of Miasma also has a golden appearance and is what spawns the Golden Ladies in the first place. The Satan Gems are Miasma-infected gems that have a golden glow, but turn pitch-black when purified of Miasma, turning them into containers of Dark Matter instead.
- Brought Down to Badass: After Nade becomes a Paladin, he gains a massive stat boost and a very powerful Limit Break. At the end of Chapter 1, he has to preserve Sophie in a stasis dimension using the Paladin powers of time and space, but this means he has less power to reserve for himself, resulting in a stat penalty until he can properly revive Sophie. He's still a formidable warrior even after being nerfed, as shown when he defeats Captain Eagle in a friendly duel.
- Brutal Bonus Level: The postgame Aggressor side story is significantly harder than the final dungeon, not because it throws harder enemies at the player, but because for at least half of it, the player must control a duo of weak guest characters who are just barely capable of handling the alien's mid-tier forces. Not helping matters is that the guest characters also have to go through stealth sections and evade on-screen encounters. The only easy part of the segment is when the overpowered main party has to face the alien champions.
- Combat Clairvoyance: In the postgame, completing the hostess minigame with Lena will allow Nade to learn Prediction, which causes the enemies' next actions to be displayed. However, this only works in the regular battle system to prevent players from trivializing duels.
- Create Your Own Hero: Lancelot frames Nade for the Bokka Village attack and reveals his plans, leading to Nade becoming a Paladin to stop him. If he didn't involve Nade in his plans, the latter probably would have remained an ordinary knight.
- Crutch Character: Lena is the first party member to have an AOE skill and has above average physical stat growth. After the Paladin trial, Nade surpasses her in stat growth, though Lena still remains a consistently useful physical AOE attacker.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Anguis states that since birth, he had no choice but to steal and kill in order to survive his harsh environment. As a result, he knows no other way to find inner peace than to drain the life of any alternate world he can find.
- Dark Is Not Evil:
- Although Zechs is a Dark Knight and is initially antagonistic to Asgard, he's also a benevolent ruler to the people of Vanaheim. After Augustus turns on him, he forms a truce with Asgard and becomes an ally against the Extra Gem conspiracy. This becomes a plot point in the post game, since he has to purify the Satan Gems with his dark powers and fight Nade in a clash of darkness and light in order to create a Flotsam, giving Asgard a stable power source to maintain their floating continent.
- Augustus's innate element is darkness and he used to be a good person before being corrupted with Miasma by Berienstahl and Ragnarek, turning him into a mad emperor. Once he becomes the Royal Gem of Darkness and is purified of Miasma, he helps Nade and Alex defeat Ragnarek.
- Orpheus has his existence maintained by the Miasma, but he's allowed to keep his sanity because his wife is the Miasma Stella sword, allowing him to help the party by weakening Anguis.
- Death or Glory Attack: The duel against Zechs adds a new option to the duel system, where Nade can use a special attack. The success rate of this attack is inversely proportional to the length of the duel, and if it fails, the enemy gets to use their own special attack.
- Demonic Possession: Augustus, and later Alex, are possessed by Ragnarek, a former Asgard emperor who betrayed Charlemagne. He intends to use them as proxies to control the Royal Gems and use them to destroy the world, out of spite towards those who dethroned him. This is made possible due to Ragnarek utilizing the power of Miasma to keep his spirit alive.
- Did They or Didn't They?:
- Although it's not officially stated, it's implied that Lena's events in the inn involve having sex with an NPC. After she has an inn session with Theseus, she teases Arianrhod for being a virgin.
- During the first visit to Costa Port's inn, the dialogue box states that Nade and Chris had a "hot night."
- When the party visits the inn in the rebuilt Bokka Village, Nade and Sophie have a conversation where their face portraits show they're naked.
- Disappointed by the Motive: The one behind the Arc Guard coup, Kingsguard Commander Lancelot, reveals that he failed to protect Asgard from Berienstahl and failed the Paladin trials, resulting in him losing his confidence. Now he believes that obtaining the insanity-inducing Extra Gems and Royal Gems, tricking people into deadly test runs of these gems, and taking over the world are all necessary actions for him to become a true hero. After hearing Lancelot's self-justification, Nade loses his respect for his former superior and accuses him of being weak-hearted for resorting to such villainous means to compensate for his wounded ego.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Every Extra and Royal Gem using villain is revealed to be a pawn of Loquius Ragnarek, a vengeful fallen emperor who is using Miasma to corrupt people and destroy the world. He's defeated at the end of Chapter 3, but the final chapter reveals that he's just one of many pawns of Anguis, the source of Miasma and a Multiversal Conqueror who has used similar villains to destroy many worlds.
- Disc-One Nuke: It's possible for the player to get lucky and find the Light Attack gem while traveling on a carriage. This gives them access to an AOE that's effective against the majority of enemies. Spamming this alongside Lena's AOE skills is enough to trivialize most early-game random encounters.
- Duel Boss:
- Nade fights Theseus one-on-one, which is deliberately designed to be impossible without using Iai Blade in order to teach the player to use that skill.
- The final opponent for the trial of the Paladin is the spirit of Durandal. This introduces the rock-paper-scissors dueling system where Nade has to choose between three actions to counter his opponent's actions.
- On the rooftop of Arc Guard Castle, Nade challenges Lancelot to a duel in order to stop the latter's coup.
- In the Eagle Pirates' hideout, Captain Eagle challenges Nade to a friendly duel.
- During Armadias's attack on Port Rissel, Nade has to fight Curtis Drake's sea creature form. Since the enemy no longer has a human form, Nade has to win under the regular battle system.
- Miguel fights the Armadias Conquistador, Anatasia, by himself as a demonstration of his demon lord lineage.
- Lena fights the assassin, Thalia, in the Queen Saber desert.
- Will has to fight the second round against Eldorado by himself, since Red Rose, the necromancer maintaining his party members, died and got absorbed. In Chapter 4, he has to fight Eldorado again, who is trying to retake the Curse of the Deep.
- When Berienstahl confirms that he killed Alex's mother, Alex challenges him alone using the power of Arthur's Royal Gem.
- Before Will joins with his new flying ship, Nade has to defeat him in a duel.
- In Vanaheim, all party members except Emilia have to take on a duke by themselves. Nade has to fight Dark Knight Zechs at the very end of the dungeon. If the player gives Zechs the twelve Satan Gems and fully masters all Paladin skills, Nade can duel a stronger version of Zechs after beating Anguis.
- In Yggdrasil, Nade has to duel Alex, who is under the influence of former emperor Ragnarek. In the postgame, Nade can challenge Alex again, who has new tells that the player has to memorize.
- In Dragoon Grace, Nade duels Anguis, a human who is the source of the Miasma. However, Anguis cuts the duel short after taking enough damage.
- Dying as Yourself:
- Chris is driven insane by the Royal Gem of Wind and turns into a succubus. She then fights the party believing that they killed her brother, but is fatally wounded from the backlash of the gem. As she dies, she regains her sanity, apologizes to the party, and reveals that Lancelot manipulated her.
- Augustus spends most of the game as an Ax-Crazy vessel for Ragnarek. Once he turns into a Royal Gem and is freed from Ragnarek's influence, he returns to his benevolent personality, helps Nade and Alex defeat Ragnarek, and passes on with the other Royal Gem souls.
- Dying Curse: Anguis killed Eurydike, who turned into a cursed sword, Miasma Stella, in order to torment her killer forever. This backfires when he gains complete control over the sword and uses it to drain the life energy of countless universes.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Despite having a falling out with the Eagle pirates, Red Rose still loves Captain Eagle deep down. She steals Eldorado's power and gives it to Will so that the latter can live without her power, all to honor her promise to Eagle.
- According to the dictionary, Storm Linus was close to Jeanne and was distraught to learn that the Royal Gem he was given was made from her soul. However, he still sides with the Armadias Empire and fights Alex's party.
- Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Sophie is normally limited to using her elemental spirit abilities for pure support, since she'd rather use her powers to help others than harm them. However, she makes an exception for Berienstahl, who had many of her family members killed and kidnapped her as a child. In the Wolfpack Boss fight in the Ginnungagap, Sophie is scripted to finish him off with Elemental Bursts, showing that she hates him enough to use her powers offensively. That said, she still apologizes to the spirits of Gaiastir for using them to kill.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Anguis admits he cannot understand the mindset of people who have goals in life other than "kill or be killed." Unlike most examples, Anguis wants to understand good, but struggles to do so because he was forced to grow up in a loveless environment. He becomes obsessed with Nade because he knows the latter is his antithesis and is his only hope of understanding greater goals.
- Evil Counterpart: Nade has a counterpart in Lancelot, who also wishes to be a heroic knight. While Lancelot appears to be the perfect knight commander, he turns out to have similar confidence issues as Nade, since he feels ashamed of failing to defend Asgard and failing the Paladin trials. As a result, he became vulnerable to Berienstahl's temptation of Extra Gems and deluded himself into thinking that conquering the world is the only way to be a hero. Additionally, Lancelot's desire to do good is tainted by his belief that he's the only one who is qualified to lead the world while Nade knows that the Paladin needs to have mutual trust with their allies and the masses.
- Fallen Hero: Lancelot was once a loyal Einherjar of Asgard, but when he failed to protect Asgard from Berienstahl and failed the Paladin trial, he become obsessed with taking over the world in order to become a hero.
- Guest-Star Party Member:
- Alex is available during the tutorial section on the ship, but leaves to form his own squad afterwards. He briefly rejoins to help Nade defeat the Ogre in Bokka Village. He later gets his own playable section where he invades Armadias Castle. When Nade loses his sword, Alex helps him defeat Charlemagne in order to upgrade the Paladin's powers. For his final playable appearance, he masters the Royal Gems in time to help Nade defeat former emperor Ragnarek.
- During the mission in Zanga, the party is joined by Clifford, the knight commander in charge of the area.
- Will temporarily joins as part of a joint operation between the Eagle Pirates and Nade's squad. Unlike most examples, he ends up becoming a permanent party member in Chapter 3.
- Lancelot helps Nade and Alex defeat the Ogre, and he's significantly stronger than them both. This is to set up the twist that he's actually the Ogre's boss.
- In Arles Village, the two knights, Craig and Nanna, temporarily join the party for a mission to gather herbs. Which makes it all the more shocking that they're actually luring the party into Lancelot's trap.
- Once Nade becomes a Paladin and becomes aligned with Asgard, he'll often be accompanied by various Einherjar, with the most significant ones being Emilia and Theseus.
- The merchant, Patrick, temporarily joins as part of the party's mission to gather medicinal flowers. Since he's a civilian, he has the Hide skill to avoid damage while the party handles the combat.
- During Nade's Chapter 2 episode, he's joined by Captain Eagle.
- During Lena's Chapter 2 episode, she's joined by Thalia, an assassin working for Queen Saber.
- During Miguel's Chapter 2 episode, he's joined by Percival and Elaine, though they function as helpers for a puzzle rather than as combatants. Later, the game has the player control these two in a boss battle against a vampire.
- During Will's Chapter 2 episode, he's joined by Phoenix and Dantallion, who are also being controlled by Red Rose's necromancy, though they get no lines due to having their wills completely removed.
- At the start of Chapter 4, Nade teams up with Anguis to take out a miasma-mutated queen bee. Anguis then tries to help him find a power source for Asgard's flotation device, but turns out to be the Big Bad when he reveals that he's the source of the miasma.
- During the Aggressor side story, the player takes control of Brigid and the long lost Einherjar, Zash.
- Glory Hound: Berienstahl seeks to use the Extra Gems to start and win a world war, and then have history written to portray him as a "hero."
- Greater-Scope Paragon: The Hero King Charlemagne is the one who led the Paladins to save the world from Demon King Sandraham, and is the ancestor of the royal family of Asgard. Her spirit doesn't lead Asgard directly, instead taking the role of an advisor and opponent for the Paladin trials. She eventually sacrifices her spirit to give her descendant, Sophie, additional spirit power so that the latter can save Asgard from its current crisis.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Subverted with Nade's father, Jin. He had little talent in swordsmanship, but he learned hand-to-hand combat from Emilia in order to supplement his sword and improve enough to fight alongside the Einherjars. However, he contracts a fatal disease before he can complete his Iai Blade technique. Emilia tells him that while he wasn't able to complete his technique, he passed his work ethic and swordsmanship to his son, who can continue to improve the Iai Blade after his death.
- He Knows Too Much: It's implied that Lancelot framed Nade's squad for the Bokka Village massacre because he feared that one of the squad members, Lena the Valkyrie, would expose his past as an Einherjar.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Lancelot is a former Einherjar who tried to conquer Arc Guard in a misguided attempt to unite the world and bring peace. In the Ginnungagap, Nade almost convinces Lancelot to seek redemption and return to being a true knight, but Anguis has the Golden Ladies kill Lancelot.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door:
- Alex starts as an ally, but gets turned into a berserk dragon after Berienstahl forces him to wield a Royal Gem. Later, Alex finishes off Augustus, but Ragnarek forces all the Royal Gems into Alex, driving the latter berserk again. Once Nade defeats Alex and turns him back to normal, the latter helps him defeat Ragnarek.
- In Demon King Sandraham's backstory, he was once a researcher who wanted to find a way to solve the Miasma problem, but got infected by Miasma and become a global threat. After his defeat, he's able to control his powers and become an ally of the Paladins again.
- Heel–Face Turn: Vanaheim sided with Demon King Sandraham in the past and never maintained good relations with Asgard. In the present, they form an alliance with the Armadias Empire, but end up siding with Asgard when Armadias nearly destroys Vanaheim for outliving their usefulness.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Emilia uses her brother's Paladin Soul to revive Nade and the people of Vanaheim, but after the soul goes into Nade, she loses her immortality and dies.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Ragnarek arranges for several members of the Charlemagne family to be killed and converted into Royal Gems, which his pawns are supposed to use to destroy the world. This backfires at the end of Chapter 3, due to the Royal Gems siding with Nade and Alex against Ragnarek.
- Hopeless Boss Fight:
- The first round against the Ogre is scripted to end in the party's defeat, only for Alex and Lancelot to temporarily join for the second round.
- The first encounter with Armadias's emperor, Augustus, ends in defeat for Alex's party. He will just spam powerful Royal Gem skills until the party dies.
- Human Resources: Members of the Extra Gem conspiracy kill several members of the Charlemagne family in order to convert their souls into Royal Gems, which are powerful due to the family's ability to control elemental spirits.
- Hypocrisy Nod: In the Ginnugugap, Nade offers to spare Lancelot, but the latter points out how hypocritical this is because the former already killed many enemies for the greater good. Nade admits that he has blood on his hands, but he doesn't enjoy killing and he believes Lancelot has the potential to redeem himself.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: When Alex is possessed by Ragnarek, he tries to kill himself, but is unable to, so he asks Nade's party to finish him off before Ragnarek uses him to destroy the world. Fortunately, Nade helps Alex regain control of himself.
- Ineffectual Loner: Lancelot's main flaw is that he doesn't trust anyone but himself to save the world, leading to him joining Berienstahl in order to obtain the power of the Extra and Royal Gems. This is shown in his recounting of the time Berienstahl attacked Asgard. He notes that it was a team of weaker Einherjar who saved the day, but instead of accepting that the Einherjars can overcome powerful enemies together, he wallows in his own personal failure to defeat Berienstahl by himself.
- Infinity +1 Sword: All characters have an ultimate accessory that gives them complete status immunity and regeneration of HP, MP, and TP.
- The Ring of the Sky King and the Ring of the Sky Queen can be equipped by Nade and Sophie respectively. These can be obtained by visiting the road to the Mountain of the Paladin during the final chapter.
- The Dragron Knight's treasure can be equipped by Lena and can be obtained in the postgame by completing the Aggressor side story.
- The Book of the Demon King and the Paladin can be equipped by Miguel and can be obtained by completing his final chapter sidequest.
- Eagle's Charm can be equipped by Will and can be obtained by completing his final chapter sidequest.
- It's Personal:
- Curtis Drake, a ruthless naval officer from the Armadias Empire, slaughters all of Captain Eagle's crewmates and was responsible for killing Will's father, which is why Eagle wants to settle things with him at the end of Nade's Chapter 2 episode, but this leads to his death.
- The Wolfpack Boss in Ginnungagap is set up so that all the members of the boss team have a personal grudge against the party, or vice-versa. Nade can't forgive Lancelot for manipulating Chris and sacrificing her for the sake of testing out a Royal Gem, who in turn envies Nade for becoming the Paladin. Sophie despises Berienstahl for all the transgression he committed against her family, as well as kidnapping her. Rashid holds a grudge against Lena for killing him in the pyramids. Will wants to kill Curtis Drake for killing Captain Eagle and his father. Anastasia wants to get back at Miguel for killing her in the academy, and likewise, Miguel notes that she is his aunt who betrayed the Sandras family.
- Kick the Dog: Berienstahl forces the party to fight copies of Chris, who they had to kill after she became corrupted by Lilith's Royal Gem.
- Light Is Not Good: In the Aggressor side story, the aliens have access to the Laser skill, which deals light damage. They're also waging war against humanity for refusing to submit to them as lab rats.
- Lightning Bruiser:
- After becoming a Paladin, Nade goes from being a well-balanced physical attacker to having ridiculously high stat growths and better locked equipment than the other main characters. His limit breaks are strong enough to rip through most bosses' HP bars with ease and he can move before most enemies, even on the highest difficulty.
- In the brief time that he's playable, the guest character, Anguis, has even higher stats than Nade in his Master Paladin mode. This is because he's actually the Big Bad and the Final Boss.
- Lovable Rogue: The Eagle Pirates aren't on the right side of the law, but they protect innocents from less scrupulous pirates and kicked out Red Rose for being too bloodthirsty for their standards.
- Love Makes You Evil: Downplayed. When Emilia sacrifices herself, Alex, who is in love with her, silently grieves her death and feels guilty he couldn't save her. While he doesn't turn evil, his grief is one of many factors that allow Ragnarek to possess him.
- Military Maverick: Nade initially seems like a straight-laced knight, but in the second mission, he's willing to team up with the Eagle Pirates to take down an evil necromancer, since they're the only ones who can take him to the necromancer's location. He's also willing to overlook the Costa Port barkeeper's association with the pirates, since he acknowledges that this illegal act ultimately made his mission a success.
- Morality Chain: Captain Eagle admits he was tempted to steal from the innocent in order to survive as a pirate, but refrains from doing so because he wants to be a good influence on Will.
- Morality Pet: After Curtis Drake kills all of the Eagle Pirates and leaves Will on the verge of death, Red Rose pulls a Heel–Face Turn in order to save Will's life and give him immortality, fulfilling her promise to Captain Eagle that she would protect Will.
- Mutual Envy: It's obvious from the start that Nade has an inferiority complex towards Alex, who is stronger than him as a swordsman. Alex reveals that he was jealous of Nade for being able to grow up with a loving family while his own family was either killed or brainwashed. He later becomes jealous of Nade being the one to finish off Berienstahl. Unfortunately, Ragnarek exploits this envy to take control of Alex.
- Never My Fault: The former emperor of Asgard, Ragnarek, claims Charlemagne is at fault for betraying him, even though it was he who betrayed her in order to fulfill his ambitions of conquering the surface world.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist:
- Zigzagged with Lancelot, who starts as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who believes that he has to take over the world to save it. In the final chapter, he goes through Motive Decay and joins Anguis because he feels that the world rejected him, leaving him as simply a power-hungry villain. Nade almost convinces Lancelot to give his old ideals another chance, showing that there's still some good intentions left in him, but Anguis kills Lancelot before he can turn over a new leaf.
- Berienstahl was the one who fed Lancelot the idea of using the Extra Gems to unite the world. While the latter truly believes this is for the greater good, Berienstahl admits his real goal is to become a famous "war hero" rather than actual altruism.
- Rashid claims that selling out his country of Saber to the Armadias Empire is the only way to ensure peace, but when he realizes Lena is a Valkyrie, he threatens to blow up the castle town if she doesn't meet him in the pyramids, showing that he really only cares about ruling the country rather than protecting his people. He also admits this is just the first step to eventually betraying the Armadias Empire so he can take over the world.
- Numerical Hard: Easy mode multiplies enemy stats by 0.7 while Hard mode multiplies enemy stats by 1.3, and this setting applies to the duel system too. The difficulty can be changed by going into the options submenu.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Alex wants to be the one to kill Berienstahl, who killed his mother and turned his brother into Ragnarek's vessel. Unfortunately, Nade is the one to kill Berienstahl, resulting in Alex harboring hidden resentment.
- The Paladin: The twelve Paladins are a group of knights with light elemental powers who helped the Hero King, Charlemagne, save the world from Demon King Sandraham. Unlike most fantasy Paladins, they all have unique powers that don't necessarily involve healing, defense, or light elemental damage. Their souls can be used to replicate their unique abilities, but only another Paladin can bring out the full power of another's soul. In the present, the role of the Paladin is changed so that there's only one, who acts as Asgard's commander-in-chief to protect the world from evil. The protagonist, Nade, passes the Paladin trial and becomes the current Paladin, but needs to find the souls of his predecessors to unlock his true potential.
- Purposely Overpowered: As a Paladin, Nade has very high stat growths, powerful locked equipment, and a Limit Break that is statistically powerful enough to wipe out a pack of early game bosses. He also deals light-elemental damage with his physical attacks, which the majority of enemies are weak to. As a result, the second half of Chapter 1 is easier than the first half. Unfortunately, he gets nerfed in Chapter 2, since he has to expend his Paladin power to preserve Sophie's fatally wounded body. Even then, he keeps learning new skills and regains his stats with each Paladin soul he absorbs, giving him a lot of utility. This is balanced by the fact that he participates in the most Duel Boss fights out of any playable character.
- Random Encounters: The game has the standard encounter system in a dungeon, which is based on the number of steps. It also has an encounter system when using the carriage to travel between towns, which activates a series of random events, most of which will be enemy encounters.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Rashid has his minions surround and rape Lena out of sadism. This backfires when she instead dominates all of them and wrings them dry.
- Rare Random Drop:
- Players can farm monster ingredients to synthesize Skill Gems, but there's a very low chance for the monsters to just drop the Skill Gems that they're associated with.
- When traveling via carriage, the player has a chance of picking up rare Skill Gems.
- Really Gets Around: Lena has a habit of inviting strangers to sleep with her, only for them to run away when they find her too intense. She even managed to scare off the Pirate King, Captain Eagle. This is also a unique mechanic for her when staying at the inn, since she gains more TP the more satisfying her partner is.
- Rival Final Boss: In the true ending, Nade has to duel Zechs, who he shares a rivalry with due to them being the Paladin and Dark Knight respectively. This happens both because Zechs wants a rematch and because a clash of light and dark is needed to complete the Flotsam jewel in order to maintain the floating continents.
- Rocket-Tag Gameplay: Even on the highest difficulty, the party's endgame damage is high enough to defeat most mobs and bosses very quickly. However, the enemies can just as easily wipe out the non-Paladin party members if they get lucky or if the player is careless.
- The Sacred Darkness: Zechs, the Dark Knight, makes use of Dark Matter, which is distinct from the corruptive essence known as Miasma. In fact, he is able to use Dark Matter in a ritual to purify the Satan Gems of Miasma, allowing him to extract additional Dark Matter from the gems and safely empower himself. While his darkness isn't corrupt, it is still considered an opposing force to Nade's light, which is why both powers are needed to create a Flotsam jewel to save Asgard.
- Sacrificial Lion: Clifford, the commander of Zanga's knight squadron and a powerful guest party member, is killed by the Ogre boss to show that anyone can die in this game. This is also the point where the game gets much darker.
- Samus Is a Girl: The legendary Hero King, Charlemagne, is actually Cecilia Charlemagne, the woman in charge of administering Paladin trials.
- The Starscream: Rashid states his intention to gather the Paladin Souls so that he can become strong enough to overthrow his backer, the Armadias Empire, and rule the world.
- Stock Shōnen Rival:
- Alex is a knight who is always outperforming Nade, but despite their rivalry, they're still friends. However, it becomes clear that Alex has a lot of hidden darkness due to losing his family to Berienstahl's machinations. He even goes as far as using the forbidden power of the Miasma-infected Royal Gems. The story doesn't treat Alex very well, since he harbors guilt over nearly killing Sophie in his out-of-control dragon form, has to witness Emilia sacrificing herself, loses his chance to get revenge on Berienstahl, and has to put down his possessed brother with his own hands. This culminates in Ragnarek using his inner darkness to possess him. After fighting and talking out his feelings with Nade, he's freed from Ragnarek's influence and is back on the side of good. He also retains his Royal Gem powers despite the loss of those gems, allowing him to remain on a similar level of power as Nade and give him a tough fight in a postgame duel.
- Zechs, the Dark Knight, is a downplayed example due to being a less personal rival to Nade compared to Alex. He's presented as a morally gray figure and an arrogant Blood Knight who refuses to work with Asgard due to historical grudges between the nations, but he's also a reasonable ruler to Vanaheim. He has a strong desire to one-up Nade in order to prove that the Dark Knight is stronger than the Paladin, but he has enough honor to give up his country's Paladin soul, since he wants to fight Nade at his best. Despite forming an alliance with Asgard, he still wants a rematch with Nade and gets his wish in the True Final Boss fight, where he surpasses Nade's current power and forces the latter to push his limits once more. Unlike most examples, he never uses any questionable power-ups, since his dark power is not corrupt like Miasma and is in fact necessary to purify the Satan Gems of their Miasma.
- Stuck Items: All equipment is locked except for Skill Gems and Ornaments, meaning each character really only gets two slots to customize. However, story progress will result in equipment upgrades or downgrades for the major party members. The unchangeable gear is designed to maintain relative power levels in a way that's consistent with the story. While Skill Gems, Ornaments, and leveling can help a weak character become stronger, the locked equipment means they Can't Catch Up with canonically stronger characters.
- Super Gullible: While grieving over Clifford's death, Chris somehow believes Lancelot's lie that Nade and the rest of the party caused the orc attack on Bokka Village, despite how as one of the party members, Chris would be able to confirm their alibis.
- Super Mode:
- Theseus can transform into a minotaur to boost his attack power.
- Miguel can awaken his Demon King blood to boost his magic attack at the cost of constant MP damage.
- Will learns Dead Man's Chest, which makes him immortal for a few turns, even if he's knocked down to 0 HP. Later, the skill is upgraded to increase his physical damage too.
- At the end of Chapter 3, Nade learns Master Paladin mode, which turns his hair white and boosts all his stats, including his max HP. While using it is optional in regular battles, Nade will always use in in subsequent duels.
- At the end of Chapter 3, Alex gains the Elemental Master mode when dueling Nade. Once he regains control of himself, he uses this mode as a playable character while fighting Ragnarek. Despite losing the Royal Gems, he can still access this form and all the Royal Gem skills in his postgame duel.
- In the postgame, Lena learns Cast Off, which removes all of her clothes except her underwear. This boosts her attack while lowering her defense.
- In the postgame, Zechs gains a new mode that turns his hair black while giving him power mirroring and surpassing Nade's Master Paladin mode. He's even able to copy some of the Paladin's more unique abilities, such as stopping time.
- Sword and Fist: The Bluegale style makes use of both swordplay and pugilist techniques. This is because Jin trained under Emilia, a Bare-Fisted Monk, in order to supplement his mediocre swordsmanship.
- Sword and Gun: Will's body portrait shows that he wields a cutlass and a gun, but in gameplay terms, his weapon slot is only used for guns.
- Those Were Only Their Scouts: At the earliest point when the player encounters a Golden Lady and one of her Miasma-corrupted partners, they'll find that she's far beyond what the party can handle, to the point where the the game has special dialogue for winning this early. Several Einherjar NPCs state that they had to flee from a losing battle with these mysterious foes. The final chapter reveals that the Golden Ladies and Miasma warriors are nothing more than the mass-produced mooks of Anguis, the source of the Miasma. The Golden Ladies start spawning en-masse in every surface dungeon as roaming encounters, showing that the initial stationary Golden Ladies were merely their advance force.
- Time Stands Still:
- Durandal's soul allows Nade to use Chrono Drive to stop time in battle, giving him three actions before time flows again. In the postgame, Nade learns an upgraded version, Chrono Full Drive that gives him five turns.
- In the postgame duel with Zechs, Nade realizes his opponent can also stop time, so they activate their time stops simultaneously.
- To Be Lawful or Good: This is briefly discussed when Captain Eagle offers to team up with the party to solve a zombie incident. Chris and Miguel are hesitant to team up with outlaws, but Nade is open to this idea, since they need a ship to reach the next dungeon and he already discerned that Eagle is trustworthy. This establishes that despite being a straight-laced knight, Nade will choose good over the law.
- Trapped in Another World: The final chapter reveals the existence of several parallel worlds to Gaiastir, a Medieval European Fantasy world. After a battle with Berienstahl, Zash ends up trapped in a world that resembles Earth, but with technology instead of magic. In order to adapt to fighting aliens, Zash learns to use the world's technology to supplement his spearsmanship. Fortunately, Nade's party and Brigid manage to find him and bring him back to his home world.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: The duel system requires the player to figure out which dialogue line corresponds to which type of action, which requires trial-and-error for some lines due to the bad translation and difficulty in reading the enemy's intent. In later duels, players will have to memorize facial expressions too.
- True Final Boss: If the player obtains all twelve Satan Gems and masters all the Paladin skills, they can give the gems to Zechs and beat the Final Boss again. This unlocks a postgame duel with Zechs, who now surpasses Nade's Master Paladin form.
- Ungrateful Bastard: In the Aggressor side story, the humans allowed the aliens to take refuge on their planet. The aliens repaid them by kidnapping humans to dissect in cyborg experiments. When the humans retaliated, the aliens had the gall to claim the humans betrayed them. This is because they were negatively influenced by their AI master, the Deep Learnist, who sees humans as inferior beings.
- Video Game Remake: The RE version combines the original three games into one with several changes to the story, revised mechanics and balancing, and new character art. The RE version also includes a new chapter to bring a proper conclusion to the Miasma plotline.
- Villain Has a Point: Although Lancelot is merely hiding his true nature and presenting himself as a caring commander, he has a point when he tells Nade that his inferiority complex towards Alex is holding him back and that he should believe in himself. This also counts as Hypocrite Has a Point, since Lancelot fell for the temptation of the Extra Gems because he was consumed by his past failures and lacked confidence in his ability to improve.
- Villain Takes an Interest: Inverted with the Big Bad, who wants to learn about benevolent morality from Nade rather than teach him to be evil. Anguis is a Social Darwinist who believes he can only survive by killing and stealing from others. He is baffled when Nade, who he acknowledges as strong, refuses to steal Dragoon Grace's Flotsam out of concern for the hibernating citizens. This causes him to harbor doubts about his darwinist mindset and take interest in Nade's altruism. When he and Nade teleport to another dimension, he states that he wants to use his final moments both to fight Nade and try to learn the latter's mindset.
- Villain's Dying Grace: Red Rose realizes that she doesn't have much longer to live after overusing her Extra Gem, so she uses her remaining power to revive Will and take him to the Underworld, where she intends to find a way to give him immortality.
- Weak, but Skilled:
- Before becoming a Paladin, Nade combat style focuses more on countering an enemy's attack than raw power. Once he masters the Iai Blade, he's able to singlehandedly defeat Theseus, the current strongest Einherjar, simply by countering the latter's multihit attacks. He becomes Strong and Skilled as a Paladin, since he retains his more technical sword skills while getting a massive stat boost. Eventually, his Paladin powers are weakened because he has to use a portion of it to preserve Sophie's life, but he's still surprisingly capable due to his sword skills and wide variety of skills from Paladin souls.
- This trope becomes a problem for many of the guest characters. While they all have decent skillsets on paper, stats are heavily affected by equipment, which can only be changed through story events. Story events almost never give upgrades to guest characters, leaving them in the dust compared to main characters. However, they can still change their ornament and skills gems, giving them a fighting chance as long as the enemy isn't too strong. Brigid and Zash in particular can use the Tactics skillset without having to equip the Commander gem, giving them a fighting chance despite being outclassed by the enemies in their side story.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Nade is angered when he learns that Alex intentionally used Arthur's Royal Gem against Berienstahl, since there's no guarantee that Alex can control that power.
- Alex calls out Nade when the latter gives on up being the Paladin after Augustus breaks his sword and Emilia sacrifices herself. He points out Sophie's life still depends on him continuing to gain power as a Paladin, so he can't afford to give up.
- In a postgame event, Nade tells Alex that he may have to sacrifice himself in the battle with Anguis. Alex is angry enough to challenge Nade to a duel and make the latter promise to come back alive, since Nade has many loved ones who will miss him.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity:
- Extra Gems are stronger than normal Skill Gems, but their overwhelming power can drive their users insane and permanently damage them. The Royal Gems are even stronger variations that come from the souls of Charlemagne family members, and likewise can drive their users mad. This is because all of these are infected by Miasma. When the Royal Gems are purified of Miasma, Alex is able to use their powers without consequences.
- In Miguel's Chapter 2 episode, he's revealed to be the descendant of Demon King Sandraham, who was corrupted by Miasma. In order to obtain Azot's Paladin Soul, he has to master the power of his bloodline, but doing so is risky because it causes him to lose his sanity. Fortunately, his friends are able to encourage him to control his power.
- The Worf Effect: Despite mastering the power of Arthur's Royal Gem, Alex is beaten by his brother, Augustus, who has the power of five Royal Gems. Nade notes that at this point, Alex would have been even stronger than when he previously transformed into an out-of-control dragon and therefore would have been stronger than Nade at his peak, yet still lost so easily.
- Yandere: Lancelot gives Chris a Royal Gem in order to drive her insane and convince her that Nade is responsible for killing her brother. She still has some lingering affection for Nade, since she expresses jealousy upon seeing him escort Sophie out of the forest. Unfortunately, her affection has been corrupted by her grief over her brother's death and her disappointment in Nade for failing to save him, so she transforms into a succubus in order to kill him.
- Yin-Yang Bomb: The Flotsam jewel requires an Orichalcum to be infused with equally powerful light and dark magic. In the true ending, Nade and Zechs have to duel each other in order to generate the light and dark power needed for the Flotsam.
- You Have Failed Me: In the Aggressor side story, the Deep Learnist kills its second-in-command for failing to kill Brigid and Zash.
- Zero-Effort Boss:
- Shortly after gaining his Paladin powers, Nade has to fight Red Rose, the Ogre, the werewolf, and an army of Red Rose's undead minions. The fight is statistically designed so that Nade can wipe them all out with one Limit Break.
- In Yggdrasil, the eight Royal Gems break free from Emperor Ragnarek's influence and grant power to Nade and Alex. This results in them fully healing at the end of each turn, allowing them to simply spam their Limit Breaks against Ragnarek until he dies.
