Irene, the Hero of Justice
TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children is a Turn-Based Tactics game developed and published by a Korean team known as Dandylion
. It is the first of a planned series of games taking place in the same "Troubleshooter" setting. Initially released in the late 2010's in Early Access, the full version was made publicly available on April 23, 2020.
Valhalla is a free trading nation erected by three world powers for their own benefits after a world war. In an attempt to appease the nation, the army was abolished, but public order became unstable as a result. To counter this, the government granted civilians the right to investigate and arrest criminals in order to lower the rising crime rate. People call these crimefighters Troubleshooters. And one fresh team of Troubleshooters, led by a man named Albus, is about to get embroiled in the greatest gang war that Valhalla has ever seen.
Not to be confused with the 1991 Shoot 'Em Up Trouble Shooter, or the Tabletop RPG The Troubleshooters.
Tropes:
- Aerith and Bob: Your main team has Albus and Sion on the Aerith side, and Anne and Irene on the Bob.
- Appropriated Appellation: One of the territories that was merged into Valhalla was known as the Alley, and its former citizens are treated with disdain. Despite this, Heixing and his adoptive family of former orphans from that zone all take "Alley" as their last name as a source of pride.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: During early access, the translation was done through an automatic translation program. It significantly improved thanks to community effort
- But Thou Must!: Occasionally, the player can pick between certain thoughts or dialogue, which will affect things like victory conditions and where they will spawn on a battlefield. One choice with Irene, however, has her see a suspicious character (Albus) and all four of her thought bubbles assume he's a villain.
- Cain and Abel: Not quite a straight example, but Carter and Heixing Alley, former orphans who consider each other adopted family, come to blows over an incident from years ago that involved the latter being used as a scapegoat.
- Counter-Attack: A universal mastery that can be equipped by any character, including the white mage and sniper, although characters with the Martial Artist or Battle Mage class will get the most use out of it. The former has several masteries and sets based around blocking and retaliating with additional damage. The swordsman class also gets a mastery that turns these into guaranteed criticals.
- Crutch Character: Before Albus' team has a few named members, they're accompanied in missions by VHPD (Valhalla's Police); they're decently strong, and have guns when the party is mostly melee-focused, but they can't level-up in combat.
- Cult: Spoonism. Hierarchal, collectivist, personality-destroying (members all wear white masks, and it is later revealed that their leader is a Legacy Character, who has been portrayed by a number of people with roughly the same build and power-set), more heavily armed than most criminal organizations and hell-bent on razing society. It seems that Spoonism may have been a kooky but legitimate religion in the past, but become increasingly radicalized by growing inequality and Carter's rising influence.
- Family of Choice: A group of children (including Carter, Ray, Heixing and Leton) from the Alley had to stick together to survive, to such an extent that some of them choose "Alley" as their last name.
- Guest-Star Party Member: There are multiple missions which allow you to take control of characters that you may later (or will never) recruit, such as Sion's "day off" in Chapter 1 that involves the entire "Alley" family.
- Leaked Experience: There are two Masteries (equippable abilities) with this effect, that are the inverse of each other. "Yearning" gives one character half of the experience gained by all higher-level characters, and "Supporter" lets one character give half of their gained experience to all lower-level characters.
- Limit Break: Overcharge, which a character enters when they fill the SP gauge to 100 (by default). It eliminates the consumption of Vigor for normal attacks as well as giving each character access to more powerful specials and abilities. All boss enemies also immediately reach Overcharge when they're reduced to 50% HP.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Draki are essentially treated as an invasive pest despite being classic Western dragons. All of them are associated with a specific element and there are two variants for each: a smaller flier that solely uses breath attacks from range, and a larger more developed melee fighter. Neither variant can be tamed by The Beastmaster Giselle. Unless they've just hatched.
- Player Headquarters: "Silverlining", a hotel/bar with storage space that Albus is renting.
- Power-Up Food: Ordering food or drinks at "Silverlining" or another restaurant restores the team's Morale, which grants combat bonuses at over 80%. Certain menu combinations also offer additional buffs for the next battle.
- Pulled from Your Day Off: Chapter 1 ends with Sion convincing Albus to give him a day off, only to accidentally be outed as a Troubleshooter's assistant to a major gang and end up completely dismantling them with help from the "Alley" family.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Albus' team of Troubleshooters include a few experienced fighters, but also a few strange citizens and ex-cons that just happen to have useful talents (such as Irene and Heixing).
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: There's a painter that became famous because one of his paintings was a prediction of the Catastrophe, an event that destroyed part of Valhalla and killed thousands of people, making people think he was some kind of a prophet. When he painted a plaza no one had ever seen, someone in power decided to go and build the place, naming it after the painter.
- Superpowerful Genetics: The nobility of the Ater Empire is exclusively composed of ESP users, which implies that ESP is inherited through this trope. It is currently unknown if a person with ESP power can be born out of ordinary parents.
- Urban Segregation: Travel between districts is restricted in Valhalla. The Wind Wall district, where the events of the game take place, is implied to be one of the most violent districts.
- Vigilante Man: Irene again. Despite exclusively focusing her efforts against much worse and often outright murderous criminal gangs, lacking a Troubleshooter license means the VHPD considers her a wanted criminal as well.
- You Are Too Late: Towards the end of the game's first chapter, a fight between the gangs and the Troubleshooter/VHPD alliance leads to the death of a few cops, including one named Joel, who refused to let local White Mage Anne participate in battle because she could get hurt. This affects the mood of all involved, and inspires Irene (who realizes that her "lone hero" shtick means she's either been late to or ends up interfering with Albus' missions) and Anne (who has some Survivor's Guilt from only being allowed on battlefields when it's too late to save lives) to later join Albus' team.
