Next Sunday A.D., an old eccentric named Don Cavalier, who is the owner of Megalo Company, passes away. In his will, he declares that his vast fortune will be shared with everyone who decides to participate in his magnum opus, a Defictionalized MMORPG taking place on a desert island in the Pacific Ocean. However, there seems that there is something more to it than that.
And so various adventurers make their way to the island, all with their own reasons for seeking a fortune. And that's where your place in this story begins.
Trickster Online was a PC MMO that launched in 2003 in native Korea, with Chinese and Japanese servers following in 2005 and a NA version launching in 2007. It shared a lot of similarities with Ragnarok Online, though the mechanics are fairly different and it has quests in place of monster grinding like most modern MMORPGs. Also ingrained in the game is a system that allows people to drill for things underground. And everyone starts off looking Little Bit Beastly due to entry requiring this.
On February 27, 2013, Trickster's American servers were shut down. The Korean servers were shut down on January 18, 2014. In November 2014, a mobile game known as I Wish to Become a Summoner, with reused assets from Trickster Online, was announced.
Trickster Online contains examples of:
- Animal-Eared Headband: By order of Don Cavalier, every participant is required to wear animal ears and a tail. They can be removed after level 20, and at level 30 and beyond, stat-boosting ears/tails become available.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: While it's a free game, you can buy items with real money that range from equipment to low-weight potions and more. Most people will also pay a huge amount of in-game money for store items.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The four main stat areas are red for power, blue for magic, purple for sense, and orange for defense.
- Chekhov's Gun: You'll find a lot of the items you're questing for by just digging around or fighting random monsters before you even receive the quest.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady:
- The Dragon class is very girly. Seriously, do you think this
◊ could possibly be a guy? Even the official comic lampshaded this. - The NPC you go to to get married appears to be a girl however when talking to 'her' he goes "What part of me looks like a girl?!"
- The Dragon class is very girly. Seriously, do you think this
- Faking the Dead: During the storyline, this gets done by Danihen twice.
- Little Bit Beastly: Some characters (e.g. Lion or Cat) have Cute Little Fangs or Femme Fatalons in addition to their animal ears and tail.
- Non-Combat EXP: The game gives the player experience from various activities, namely drilling and playing cards.
- Ocular Gushers: Some characters get this animation when they fail a drill attempt.
- Palette Swap: Ignoring the clothes you can buy in the store, each character's final two job costumes are just palette swaps.
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: Initially this is true, but the second level of each class, as well as the third level of a pure class, has an entirely different set of skills.
- Randomly Generated Loot: The game uses this trope for Boss Unique drops, Master Equipment from non upgraded bosses, equipment from the towers (both from hunting and drilling) and the common variants in the maps...
- Regenerating Mana: Has under the Magic Skill Tree the skill "Aura of Mana" which increases MP Recovery rate for the whole party up to 3.6 times the normal mana regeneration. It requires activation and being between a radius from the caster (however the skill isn't that popular with power gamers and the fact that Skill Points are hard to farm).
- Rule of Cute: Many of the monsters and gear which leads to...
- Shout-Out: Surprisingly quite a few, from other games by the same company to soft drinking polar bears to Italian holidays.
- Socketed Equipment:
- Sugar Bowl: The way the world initially appears. Just look at the page image!
- Crapsaccharine World: The way the world turns out to be.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: A big part of the story.
- This Is a Drill: Drilling is an important part of game and necessary for quests.
- Took a Shortcut: Most towns have the same set of named NPCs. Some of which happen to be the 7 girls the Teacher class is looking for...
- Too Many Belts: The Fox's Thief Master/Hunter Lord outfits.
- 20 Bear Asses: Either this or twenty mined fishes.
- Unidentified Items: Averts this via showing the stats of the items once the player picks them up. Then again the game plays with a Random Drop engine which means that in Boss Encounters the stats of the weapons obtained are random but in a certain range of stats.
- Unwinnable by Design: The game allows you to sell or accidentally drop (destroy) quest items necessary for the story quests. They cannot be replaced, petitioning a GM will only get the response 'well you shouldn't have done that'. Although the game is still playable about 1/2 of the single player content is forever lost and the EXP those quests can give is gone.
- Waif Prophet: The NPC Stella, also a Tsundere.
- You All Look Familiar: With 8 character types, you're bound to run into someone who looks like you. Especially since alternate clothing colors cost real money.
