Every 100 years, an evil witch named Mormo unleashes her magic across the island of Ditto, and a hero takes up the mantle of the "Sword of Ditto" to challenge and defeat her. To do so, they must find the Toys of Legend and destroy the Anchors that give Mormo her power — all within four days.note Whether or not the task is complete, the hero must enter Mormo's Palace on the day of the showdown and fight the witch for the fate of Ditto. Regardless of whether the Sword wins or loses, the cycle begins anew, with a new island and dungeon structure being generated with each new playthrough.
The game was released on April 24, 2018 on PC and PlayStation 4. On May 2, 2019, a Nintendo Switch version was released, along with the game's second major update, entitled "Mormo's Curse."
Has nothing to do with a Pokémon.
Tropes of Ditto:
- Artistic License – Medicine: Played for laughs on the town notice in one of the many loops."Notice from the Mayor's Office: Although not expressly forbidden by town statute, please refrain from urinating on people "just in case a jellyfish attacks." That's not even how that works and you know it.
—Mayor Trimble" - Attack Drone: The Drone causes damage by colliding with enemies. By holding down the Toy button, you can also rig it to explode.
- Bag of Spilling: Whenever a hero dies, the next hero has to complete their quest without any of the items the previous one gained on their journey, save the Pellet Gun and Torch. They do get to keep the previous hero's Character Level, coins, and Celestial Shards, as well as a few items if the previous hero pays shards to send them forward.
- Color-Coded Characters: Just about everything related to Mormo is governed by the colors purple and pink — her attire, her Battle Aura, the crystals that block the entrance to her palace, etc.
- The Cameo: Some rooms can look like you walked right into LocoRoco by bringing in Kulches (the yellow LocoRocos) to the door and having to kill Mojas.
- Dungeon Bypass: Deconstructed: The first hero is sent after the villain right at the start... and is one-shot in a cutscene as they lack any combat experience besides a few mooks. It's also possible to skip ahead to the final fight with Mormo before destroying the Anchors that give her power, but the game strongly advises against doing this.
- Note that you can get an achievement if you bypass the anchors, which gives Mormo two Fallen Hero party members. Who will now pummel the stuffing out of your corpse.
- Eyepatch of Power: The Vengeful One badge makes the next Sword wear one.
- Fisher King: During Mormo's reign of terror, the island of Ditto is dotted with damaged buildings and is covered in a dreary, purple glow. If the Sword manages to defeat her, then the buildings on the island are all spruced up and the land retains its natural color for the next generation.
- Note that the Ether Storm multiplier curses the island with ruin, as if it were ruled by Mormo for 500 years.
- God-Emperor: Fate, the trickster deity of the island of Ditto, took on a kitsune form and became a celebrity in Arcadia. The emperor decided to make him emperor-for-a-day in his will for the heck of it, but then the entire senate bent the knee and begged the god to rule over them forever. It ends badly. In truth, Fate went home for a half-century vacation while the senate pretended they had a god for a ruler, and everything went to hell as the senate corrupted Fate's already selfish protocol edicts. And fixing Fate so he can care about the almost-extinct Arcadians is the whole point of the game.
- Happy Ending Override: One of Mormo's curses forces the world into a purple hellscape, as if you had failed to save the island five times in a row.
- Harmless Freezing: Taking lots of Ether-elemental damage crystallizes the target, but doesn't cause damage over time as the Burning and Poison effects do. Of course, the more pressing concern is how brittle crystal is...
- Hospitality for Heroes: When you visit the town on the final day, some of the townspeople will give you items for free, as they're counting on your success in the final battle against Mormo.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: Healing items come in the form of food and drink, and heal your character immediately after they're consumed.
- Implacable Man: One of Mormo's curses summons the Nemesis, an unkillable knight who slowly hunts you down. Luckily it never follows you into buildings, dungeons or Town.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: STICKY-STICK STICKYYY St-Stick. (Lik's vocabulary is limited to 'Stickers', 'Sticky', and *SHRIEK*, yet you can understand what he says in the parentheses.)Lik: StickyStick! STICKERS! (If you're wondering how you can understand me, don't. It's easier all around if you just roll with it.)
- "Just Frame" Bonus: The Shield, like any Souls-like RPG counter, allows the Sword to block an attack at the right moment and send enemies flying back.
- "Kick Me" Prank: One of the new "Mormo's Curse" items includes a "Kick Me!" sign that compels enemies to attack any enemy tagged with it.
- Killer Yo-Yo: The Yo-Yo is a bladed one where holding down the button allows the Sword to rack up damage for a couple seconds or until they run out of TP.
- Legacy Character: The Sword of Ditto is a title granted to the hero who picks up the legendary sword at the beginning of each adventure.
- Man on Fire: Suffering fire damage will decrease your HP over time. Rolling around a lot will cause the "Burning" status to go away more quickly.
- Mirror Match: At the end of a Toy Dungeon, you'll face a Fallen Sword who can use the Toys of Legend just like you.
- Only the Worthy May Pass: Most story-important dungeons are level-locked, and won't open until you've earned enough experience to let yourself in.
- The trials themselves are a civilization-spanning set of standardized tests to determine who gets into the upper class. This did not end well.
- Precision-Guided Boomerang: The Vinyl Frisbee can be thrown at enemies and returned to the Sword in mid-flight with the tap of a button.
- The Quiet One: One of the Badges you can find is the trope name, turning the next Sword into a mouse.
- Respawning Enemies: Normally, enemies only respawn in the overworld after you leave an area and return to it, but if you enter a dungeon with the "Lazarus" modifier, they'll respawn there, too.
- Space Whale: The fortune deity Serendipity appears as one, and the fountains dedicated to them are also shaped like whales.
- Spin Attack: Equipping the Snake or Helicopter stickers gives you a spinning sword attack.
- Story Breadcrumbs: You can randomly find 52 Tablets from Arcadia in any chest out in the world that describe how the world got to the Eternal Recurrence of Mormo vs Sword.
- Timed Mission: In the original version of the game, you had four days to gather as many items as you can find and destroy both of Mormo's anchors before the final showdown. Time doesn't pass when you're in town or in a dungeon. The appropriately-named "Timeless Update" dropped this time limit.
- One of Mormo's curses reinstates the time limit.
- Tomato in the Mirror: In the true ending, it's revealed that the player character is not just the spirit of the Sword. They are Fate, the God-Emperor who screwed everything up.
- Warp Whistle: The Travel Kazoo takes you anywhere on the island with a Kazoo statue.
- Wham Episode: YOU are the Big Bad. Specifically, you (the guardian spirit of the sword) are the idiot who designed the oppressive Grading system that segregated Arcadian civilization and drove it into the ground. Mormo and Puku were brainwashing you with a simulation into realizing what you have done by making you go through your own version of the trials with centuries-long consequences, so you could fix your mistake before the entire world is nuked. They give you a proper final boss fight, but it represents your willingness to earn victory yourself instead of making children do all your work.
