Video Game / The Amber Throne

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The Amber Throne is a hand-drawn Role-Playing Game about a young Princess named Arra trying to save the world from the greed of its people. Arra is opposed by the relentless army of the red kingdom, led by their mysterious Sages in an effort to reach the titular Amber Throne and gain dominance over the desert.

The game was created by Josh Missile in RPG Maker, with its soundtrack composed by Jasmine Cooper. It was released on Steam on 6th of July, 2015.

The Amber Throne contains examples of the following tropes:

• Action Girl: Arra, obviously enough.
• Affably Evil: Hasima is always polite and seemingly kind as she offers Sirra to join her so that the world could stop being a parched hellscape and may blossom with life again, and when she and Arra refuse, she disappointedly notes that "you simply don't understand what's good for you." She retains stoic demeanor in the face of her death, pre-emptively forgiving all of you. Nevertheless, she just stabbed the Arroc Queen in cold blood to eliminate the opposition to her plans, and her idea of making the world blossom with life is to allow The Amber Throne, which is a giant plant to fully blossom into the stars, using all of the planet's water and nutrients to grow. This includes humans and the other sentient races; the best they can hope for is to let the Throne sprout inside themselves like what Hasima and Raninom did, and essentially turn into a humanoid plant that's still sentient and can walk, talk and move, but consists of nothing but dry vines and roots.
• A God Am I: Downplayed; Evelyn, doesn't believe she's a god, but she does think she's "this world's angel, the one who will give it true closure!"
• Anti-Armor: The Skysbreaker skill, which breaks soldiers' shields and invertebrate creatures' shells. It still works on the "Impenetrable Wall" of Raninom, created when he coils up his "leaves" into a ball, and even the "Root Wall" used by the first stage of the Final Boss itself is still broken in a single turn by this skill.
• Armor Is Useless: The Red Hounds are fully encased in typical knight's armor, and yet they still die from a couple sword slashes. Arra and her companions are essentially unarmored, and yet they are obviously more durable.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: While the cutscenes are a little more revealing, the actual combat sprite of fully naked Evelyn falls into this.
• Because Destiny Says So: Sehr's belief as to why they deserve The Amber Throne.
• Bird People: The Arroc race consists of these. One of the main characters and your party members, Sirra, is also one.
• Bottomless Magazines: Nuo's gun will never run out of ammo.
• Cast from Hit Points: After Arra rejects being crowned, and The Amber Throne collapses, Evelyn fights her to the death for one last time. Now without The Star fueling her light powers, she fuels the sword of light with her own life force. Every slash with it damages herself for several hundred hitpoints.
• Censor Shadow: The third phase of the Final Boss, Ovum, combines this with Hand-or-Object Underwear.
• Combat Tentacles:
  • Raninom's true form has roots strike out of the ground at the targeted character. Successful attacks may also decrease agility.
  • The first stage of the Final Boss is powerful enough to attack all characters at once in this manner.
• Cool Airship: Not only do you get to travel around in one, but they are an important part of the setting, being one of the few places where human civilization still thrives. Unfortunately, White Sage Hasima causes yours to crash during her battle.
• Crapsack World: Much of the world is now a desert wasteland.
• Critical Existence Failure: Downplayed; all of the party members will have a "wounded" sprite when they are near death, which shows them leaning over and barely able to stand in place without falling. However, this doesn't affect their combat capabilities. Two of the bosses, Hasima and divine Evelyn, also end their battles with wounded stages where they are on the ground, and can either only attack in a far weaker manner or are unable to attack at all.
• Critical Hit:
  • Part of the RPG Maker combat system the game uses allows the protagonist to occasionally inflict these. However, they don't usually add much bonus damage.
  • During the first battle with Evelyn, one of her stances lets her get a critical on every attack.
• Counter-Attack: Some bosses can grow rows of spikes for a while, which ensures that every attack landed on them gets a painful counter. One of Evelyn's stances also gives her the power to counter-attack.
• Deadpan Snarker: Even after getting defeated, Hasima, the White Sage remains sarcastic.
  Hasima: Well done, you have all saved the world! Good work! (Said as Arra's airship crashes)
  Hasima: What's the matter, Sirra. Are you mad I killed your queen? Look, I have wings too! I can be your queen!
• Disappeared Dad: Arra's father, Axis, who did a lot of work on The Amber Throne and the storm cloud defending it. He was meant to become the chosen and crowned, but this honour went to his daughter Evelyn instead, while Arra had her voice taken from her.
• Dual Wielding: Oboa fights with two sabers.
• Duel Boss:
  • Subverted with The Dragon, who looks like one. Then, he is defeated in a single hit by Arra.
  • Played straight in the next battle, when Arra has to face Evelyn alone, as a fallen statue prevents her companions from helping out. Evelyn herself is also weakened with no Star backing her, but is desperate to fight to the death regardless.
• Elite Mook: The White Robe figures that chase Arra in the Red City's castle are far stronger than the boss of the area and Evelyn recommends avoiding them. They can still be beaten for good experience if the player stocked enough potions. Later on, they're revealed to be the plant-like spawn of the Throne, with the Fefniron being the top enforcers and weaker plant enemies showing up in the endgame.
• Face Death with Dignity: After Hasima is defeated aboard the airship, she is laying down wounded and practically immobilized. Arra's group still attack to finish her off after she mocks Sirra losing her queen, and becoming Last of Her Kind. She can't do anything besides Rotting, which damages her by 100 HP a turn. Even so, she only says this at the start of every turn:
  Everything is fine, I am not mad at you.
• Faceless Goons: The Red Hound troops have Bascinet helmets fully covering their faces.
• Final-Exam Boss: The Final Boss is a final exam about all the previous bosses, as each of its stages uses one of the previous bosses' gimmicks. The Root can completely cover itself in order to heal, unless you cut through the protection with Skybreaker, just like what Raninom did. Stem has Hasima's power of growing out spines for several turns, which makes it counter-attack any of your own attacks, and means that the best you can do is defend and buff each other to weather strong attacks for the next few turns. Ovum's gaze attack, which charges gradually, and whose progress is seen by the glow of her eyes, is equivalent to the Emperor of Sehr's shield smash attack. Lastly, Evelyn uses the same stances as she did during her first battle, even if she now has a sword of pure light.
• Godiva Hair: Played straight when the final pre-battle conversation with Evelyn begins at first. Then, she turns around, her hair flying to the back and briefly revealing everything. However, the in-combat attack slides play this straight still.
• Go for the Eye: Sirra finishes off Hasima by stabbing her in the eye.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: The third phase of the Final Boss, Ovum, starts the battle with her eyes closed, then half-opens them to reveal their white glow, and then opens them in full with literally blinding white light streaming out.
• Hand-or-Object Underwear: The third phase of the Final Boss, Ovum, has her breasts partially covered with her crossed arms.
• Healing Potion: There's the traditional variation, and the full-party Mending Spray.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Arra fights with one. However, so does Evelyn, even if she's more of an Anti-Villain.
• Heroic Mime: Arra loses her voice at the start of the story, and so doesn't speak during the game; only her companions do. She's offered the crown after defeating Evelyn atop the Throne, which briefly restores her voice. It is taken away again after she rejects it and destroys the crown.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: This is seen in the second phase of the Final Boss: the so-called stem has multiple spikes protruding from it. The top six spikes each have a copy of Evelyn impaled on it through her chest.
• In the Back:
  • This is what Arra does to her father, Axis, as he was going to finish his "vision" of the world.
  • In an Ironic Echo, the victory still for the last battle of the game shows Arra stabbing Evelyn from behind, even though she won the battle fairly.
• Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Raninom kills two of his underlings immediately after transforming into his true form, as they react with horror upon seeing it, and may well have turned on him. It overlaps with Stupid Evil, as he probably could have just let them fight Arra and her companions for him, and transform only after their deaths.
• Knight Templar: The Red Kingdom, the Fefniron, and the Sehr Empire truly believe that the Amber Throne is the only way to survive the harsh desert of Vausca, and will do anything to obtain it. The Fefniron and later Evelyn know that the Amber Throne will eventually mature and turn all people into its plant-like thralls, but they also believe that this is for their own good, since turning into a well-nourished plant is preferable to dying in the desert.
• Laser Blade: Evelyn wields a sword of pure white light in her second battle. She loses that power after getting severely wounded. For the last couple of turns she's reduced to kneeling on the floor while blasting unfocused light.
• Life Drain: Arra's Moonbreaker skill both deals damage and heals her, though it's unclear if it necessarily drains that HP from the enemy. There are no such doubts about Popelle's Heart Drain, however.
• Light Is Not Good: The main antagonist, Evelyn, calls herself an angel and wields a sword of pure white light during her battle.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Defeating Root and Stem of The Amber Throne's plant predictably causes it to collapse, though this is only felt after you defeat the upper-tier bosses as well.
• Made of Iron: The Sehr Emperor is the tankiest enemy both times you face him, and the battle ends after the player depletes a fraction of his HP. Fittingly, he's also the only major antagonist to survive, as not even falling from the Sky Castle could kill him.
• Mirror Boss: Hasima in her human form uses many of the same skills as Arra. The Post-Final Boss, Evelyn, resorts to using Arra's sword skills too due to losing the power of her crown and the Amber Throne.
• One-Winged Angel: Raninom is notable for transforming to his monster form without even bothering to fight in his human one.
• Sad Battle Music: The battle with Emperor of Sehr is notable for one. The music playing during the final boss battles is also hardly cheerful.
• Sequential Boss: The Final Boss battle consists of four or five separate phases: Root, Stem, Ovum and the second battle with Evelyn. "The Amber Throne" phase is really wounded Evelyn kneeling on the ground and blasting weakly with light.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: Some Red Hound soldiers carry shields, which substantially increase their defence stat. However, a single Skybreaker attack will eliminate it.
• Shockwave Stomp: Emperor of Sehr can do extreme damage to the entire party through slamming his shield into the ground.
• Stance System: In both of her battles, Evelyn can go into one of three stances, as shown by the way she holds her sword. This influences her attacks and powers.
• Taking You with Me: After Evelyn is defeated in a proper battle with Arra and her companions, she attacks her again on her own, desperate to avenge the loss of her chosen status. Since she lost The Star inside her body, the only way she can fuel her sword of light is with her own life force. Moreover, she ultimately succeeds. Even though Arra still stabs her in the back, like she once stabbed their father, the battle delays her for long enough that she's ultimately crushed alongside Evelyn under Red Castle's debris.
• The Spiny:
  • Hasima can grow many of these out for several turns. This means that any attack of the party is automatically followed by a Counter-Attack, and enables a special "Imprisonment" attack. Thus, the only wise thing to do during that stage is to guard and heal.
  • Stem, the second phase of the Final Boss, already has a bunch of spikes, though they are semi-decorative. However, it can also do a version of the same attack.
• Tragic Villain: The Emperor of Sehr precedes his battle (which you initiate) with "You cannot win. It is all you can do to just survive. Trust me, I feel truly terrible about all of this." He continues to say things like "I hate this", "You are hurting yourselves", and "I didn't want this" during the battle. After the battle, he also reveals he was only driven on the path of confrontation by the combination of Arra's father's influence on him, and the Sehr's prophecy.
• Universal Poison: Inflicted by Arra's "Serpent's Tongue" saber slash.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The epilogue consists of Popelle walking through the world map, stopping at every major location to say how they've been doing since that time.

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