In the town of Verona, Italy, there is a school known as Stratford-Upon-Avon High, whose Drama Society has a secret second life as magical girls that fight against evil Nightmares in dimensions based on the works of William Shakespeare. Join Imogen and her friends as they save the Shakespearean metaverse and return home in time for dinner!
Tropes:
- All in a Row: The party follows in this manner. Thankfully, field encounters only trigger when Imogen makes contact, and will bypass her teammates with no issue otherwise.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: The party will eventually consist of seven members (Imogen, Paulina, Miranda, Beatrice, Rosalind, Viola, and Kate), but there's a limit of four participants to a party, even after Kate joins and the entire party can be brought along thanks to her having the same portal-opening magic as Imogen.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Beatrice doesn't believe in ghost, despite the Drama Society's adventures.
- Are We There Yet?: Viola complains this way during the bus trip to the Regional High School Theater Troupe Competition venue (which takes 3 hours to reach). And after dealing with a demon along the way with no one else the wiser, she repeats this, to Rosalind's frustration.
- Can't Drop the Hero: Viewpoint protagonist Imogen must always occupy the first slot of the party, while the other members are interchangeable. The excuse here is that it is she who has the magic to take the others with her to the worlds that need help, and isn't able to take everyone with her all at once (even taking less than the maximum at least twice). Kate is revealed to have this power too when she joins, and together they can bring everyone, but she can't be in the party in Imogen's place or anything like that.
- Collapsing Lair: As a result of Lady Macbeth's defeat, her castle starts falling apart, forcing the Drama Society to escape before they get crushed. Sort of makes sense since her setting is in the wrong world anyways.
- Cool Crown: As with all Magical Girls, though everyone except Miranda and Beatrice wears circlets. The aforementioned two two have tiaras instead.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Miranda has quite the shrill voice as heard when you battle with her in the party.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Nightmare forces include tentacled abominations that would easily fit in the Cthulthu Saves series.
- Elemental Powers: The entire party has all of these in their arsenal, with Rosalind being the generalist who can cast most of them by herself.
- Playing with Fire: No one specializes in this, but Rosalind starts with one of these, and an early game Trait for Miranda gives her attacks this element.
- An Ice Person: Paulina's specialty alongside healing and a few physical abilities.
- Blow You Away: Viola's speciality alongside powerful physical attacks.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Kate's specialty, alongside defensive and physical abilities.
- Casting a Shadow: Beatrice's speciality, alongside other Standard Status Effects (mainly Poison). A few of Imogen's abilities can do this too.
- Light 'em Up: Imogen's specialty. And with a late game Trait, Beatrice's Dark abilities can deal this damage as well.
- Non-Elemental: Miranda's specialty.
- Face Doodling: Beatrice is not above doing this at the end of the slumber party, and invites Imogen and Kate to join in since everyone else has fallen asleep from movie night.
- Got Volunteered: Mr. Murphy, the custodial engineer for the school, serves as yet another of Ms. Lofgren's substitutes one day since everyone else was busy.
- Guilt-Based Gaming: The options when the girls are doing their pre-battle Transformation Sequence are "Keep watching." and "Skip. Also, I kick puppies".
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Kate reveals that she desired this just before the fight against Lady Macbeth. Imogen and Paulina find it sad, and Miranda is distressed that the catchphrase isn't striking fear in the hearts of evildoers. Kate apologizes that she'll think of a better one for next time (which she does).
- Incredibly Lame Fun: Portia's (Rosalind's sister) idea of a fun game is a title called Supreme Court Lawyer Simulator, and Rosalind brought it over for the below Slumber Party's video game tournament. Naturally, the Society (sans Kate) isn't amused, and neither is Rosalind once Viola asks how one can even tournament it (you can't since it's likely single-player).
- Invisible Wall: These explicitly pop up during the Winter's Tale segment to keep you from straying from the storyline before you're ready to proceed further. That is, if you already ignore Beatrice's prompt to "investigate more", which is the first hint.
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: During the zoo route, after being teleported to a subspace pocket, Viola turns into a panda (and doesn't have any problems with it). And she can still transform into a magical girl. Once the group escape, Viola turns back to normal, and is suspiciously silent about it when Miranda says she misses the form already.
- Lampshade Hanging: When Rosalind points out the ridiculousness of the victory condition for saving the Twelfth Night world from monsters (the condition being that the ship sinks by natural causes), Beatrice had this to point out.Beatrice: We jump into other worlds. Those worlds are based on Shakespeare plays that are being attacked by nightmare monsters. And then we transform into magical girls and save the day. When you stop and think about it, most of what we do doesn't make a lot of sense.
- Leaked Experience: Rather than experience won in battle going directly towards the participating magical girls, it all goes towards the Drama Society itself, allowing the whole party to stay at equal footing.
- Literary Allusion Title: Keeping with the game's Shakespearean theme, the game's title is a quote from King Lear.
- Lovecraft Lite: The game's enemies include ghostly skeletons, mutant tentacled bears, and outright Eldritch Abominations, but they're all capable of being taken out by a group of teenage magical girls.
- Magical Girl Warrior: The playable cast is a team of these that double as their school's drama club.
- Meaningful Name: All seven of the main female protagonists are named after characters from Shakespeare's works:
- Imogen, the princess from Cymbeline
- Paulina, the loyal servant from The Winter's Tale
- Viola, the love-entangled protagonist from Twelfth Night
- Rosalind, one of two crossdressing female protagonists from As You Like It
- Miranda, Prospero's daughter from The Tempest
- Beatrice, one half of one of two couples from Much Ado About Nothing
- And Kate, the shrewish protagonist from The Taming of the Shrew
- While not part of the group, Rosalind has a sister named Portia, who still fits the theme.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: When the pet shop reopens, the choices available include a half-cat half-dragon, and that day's class is taught by a substitute because Ms. Lofgren's zebra-cobra escaped from its pen.
- Odango Hair: Miranda wears her hair like this. And when she gets twintails with them after transforming, it makes her a bit more like Sailor Moon.
- Power Makes Your Hair Grow: With the sole exception of Rosalind (whose hairstyle doesn't change), everyone's hair grows longer upon transforming. Miranda and Paulina even get Girlish Pigtails on top of this. Downplayed with Imogen (whose hair is fairly long before it's lengthened) and Viola (whose ponytail is lengthened but not my much).
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: In light of seeing The Winter's Tale!Paulina looking just like their own (complete with Magical Girl attire and powerset), Beatrice had this to say.What. Is. Going. On?
- Rainbow Motif: The entire High Drama Society actually fits this motif with their outfits, with Imogen as red, Paulina as blue, Viola as orange, Rosalind as green, Miranda as yellow, and Beatrice as purple, with Kate joining as indigo.
- Running Gag: Nearly every school day, the girls' homeroom teacher, Ms. Lofgren, has to be replaced by a substitute due to some kind of emergency, from her pet breaking loose to her catching illness to an inexplicable SWAT team surrounding her house.
- Shout-Out: Apart from the various Shakespearean plays, there are references to other works as well.
- If you go to the arcade for roller skating and pizza, Miranda encounters an arcade machine called Monobius, which sucks her and her friends in, and they fight it to get out.
- If you visit the zoo, at the "zooteria", Paulina orders dino nuggets, and Viola goes on a tangent on why she would order such food since there are no dinosaurs in this park. Miranda and Imogen find such a concept interesting.
- The Zeboyd translation for the King telling the party that Camillo the cupbearer is imprisoned is, "We don't talk about Camillo, no, no, no."
- In the Winter's Tale world, one of the enemies is a sword-wielding Jon Snowman, whose description is "Breaking news: winter is coming!"
- Just before the Three Witches lead the way to the boss of the fifth world, the Zeboyd translation of their classical quote is Prepare for trouble! And make it double!.
- During the slumber party, Viola suggests they play Bloody Molly, a clear reference to the urban legend Bloody Mary. Naturally, the ghost is real (specifically, they summon Molly The Werezompire) and the party has to fight her after they assume she's a Nightmare like the ones they've been fighting all game. After she's defeated, Molly wonders if she's just a guest character in someone else's story before departing.
- One of Alternate Imogen's (Zeboyd-translated) lines is "When the Dark comes rising, seven shall turn it back." The original quote references six, and seven covers all the party members.
- Slumber Party: Paulina proposes this in light of inviting their newest member Kate.
- Stealth Pun: After lambasting Romeo and Juliet (the characters) for their leads' stupidity, Paulina has this to say.Paulina: …not every play can be he exactly as you like it, Rosalind.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: When you talk to Miranda during the first Intermission, she claims she isn't playing Cosmic Star Heroine when Imogen was just going to ask for a pencil to borrow.
- Toast of Tardiness: When you start up the game, Imogen is seen with one of these as she runs to school.
- They Would Cut You Up: Rosalind uses this reason to dissuade Imogen from their club using their Magical Girl powers outside of the realms they visit.
- Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: The main protagonists are a group of teenagers that, when they aren't fighting against Eldritch Abominations, are going to school or the shopping mall. Beatrice complains about it during the first Intermission, and thinks this would eventually lead to supervillainy (thankfully, not for the Society).
- Who's on First?: When Imogen suggests another activity, Miranda suggests s'mores. Kate (a newcomer to the modern world) asks, "Some more of what? Weird lawyer games?" Paulina defies the trope when she immediately clarifies what exactly it is.
- Win to Exit: In the skating rink route, Miranda plays a game called Monobius and ends up getting herself and her friends sucked inside. Upon defeating the entities inside it, they manage to escape.
