Video Game / Virtual-ON

LET'S BURNING JUSTICE!!!

Get Ready!

Also known by its full name, Cyber Troopers Virtual-ON is a fast-paced mecha fighting game by Sega. Most of the games' mecha designs are by Hajime Katoki, one of the more famous mecha designers for many Gundam series.

List of games:

• Cyber Troopers Virtual-ON: Operation Moongate (1995): Also known as VOOM or OMG for short, was first released in the arcades on Sega's Model2 hardware. The arcade machine is a large double sit-down cabinet with a distinctive twin-stick control set. The story has it that in the future a series of malfunctions has caused a computer on the Moon armed with a planet-destroying cannon to go rogue. In an attempt to raise the forces to fight this menace, the government sends a number of remote operational terminals into the past, in the hopes that someone (such as you, the reader) would have the skills to pilot a Virtuaroid into the moon-base and stop the rogue computer.
  
  It was given a Sega Saturn release in 1996, which stripped down the visuals from the arcade version, but added a versus mode; and a Windows PC release followed later in 1997, which by default settings stripped down the frame-rate, but the settings can adjusted match the arcade version or better. The game later received an Updated Re-release for the PlayStation 2 as part of the Sega Ages 2500 line of re-releases (which unfortunately, stayed in Japan) on 30 October 2007. The PlayStation 2 version is considered the best release yet, as it contains several new features not present in the previous ports, as well as better graphics, crisper sound quality, new extra modes (including one where you can play as the final boss), and a new Superboss in the form of the original Fei-Yen, which is permanently in Hyper Mode without the health loss and can only be accessed if you beat the first eight Virtuaroids (nine if you fought Jaguarandi) in under nine minutes.
  
  It can still be found in many arcades today, so they might still need our help. What are you waiting for? Get cracking! Your future grandchildren are depending on you! But if finding an arcade machine is too hard, or the Saturn and PlayStation 2 versions are too expensive, Sega has re-released the game as part of the SEGA Model 2 Collection for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3...in Japan. With no plans for a worldwide release. The game is also available as a Game Within a Game in Yakuza Kiwami 2 for the Playstation 4, an Enhanced Remake of Yakuza 2 on the PS2, which was released in Japan in December 2017 followed by a western release in August 2018.

• Cyber Troopers Virtual-ON: Oratorio Tangram (1999): The sequel to Operation Moongate, which reveals that the whole mess on the Moon was just a distraction from a splinter group within a powerful mega-corporation to allow them to break away from their parent company. Now the two are fighting over several mecha plants in the hope of finding the missing Tangram, a super-computer that is said to have the power to alter reality. Strangely enough, Oratorio Tangram is very rare in many places; for example, some reports that only two arcade machines were ever shipped to the United States. It had a much wider release for the Sega Dreamcast, and even without the twin sticks (even though they existed, but would burn a huge hole in your wallet) it is still a very fun game. Oratan is widely considered to be the best of the series and by far the most popular. It also added more depth into the previous game's mechanics, better gameplay balance, and a slew of new Virtuaroids to chose from.
  
  Oratorio Tangram comes in four flavors: Ver.5.2 was the first release on the SEGA Model3; Ver.5.4, which updated the interface and fixed many bugs of the first release; Ver.5.45 for the Sega Dreamcast, which was a port of Ver.5.4 with extra arenas from Operation Moongate^*(the Japanese version also had a color and emblem customization feature, which could be also be used on Ver.5.66); and finally Ver.5.66 for the arcade, which featured three new Virtuaroid variants and all the extra stages from the Dreamcast version. Ver.5.66 was also switched the software to the NAOMI board used in many Sega games today which updated the sound and graphic quality. On April 29th, 2009, an HD port of Ver.5.66 was released to Xbox Live Arcade world-wide for 1,200 Microsoft Points, featuring a color-edit mode, online multiplayer, tutorials, and the ability to customize your control scheme, but lacks the local split-screen versus mode of the Dreamcast port.
  
  
• Cyber Troopers Virtual-ON: FORCE (2001): The series' third installment debuting on the Sega Hikaru hardware, code-named VO4. The action was slower than in Oratorio Tangram (although this was justified in the story that a reaction on the planet Mars made the non-native-built mecha move slower), but featured 2-on-2, allowing up to four-players simultaneously. The game is considered a step back from Oratan and was not well-received. Not to mention there's also a much smaller variety of Virtuaroids to choose from^note If you count the basic Virtuaroids series only. Some like GRYS-VOK, Dordray and STEIN-VOK were merged into VOX series.. To compensate for this, they gave the Virtuaroids several different variants, but only to make the game even more confusing and annoying. On December 21st, 2010, the game received an Xbox 360 release like Oratorio Tangram did. However, it was released only in Japan as a retail game but the game is region-free. It includes a brand-new mission mode that's more-or-less Virtual-ON: MARZ's campaign stripped of a storyline.
  
  There is also a MEMORIAL BOX 15 premium edition to commemorate the series' 15th anniversary. This package included an artbook that chronicles the entire Virtual-ON series, a 6-CD soundtrack that spans from Operation Moongate to MARZ, and two bouncy rubber balls resembling Tangram's eyes. Pre-orders and the premium edition of FORCE also apparently includes a bonus downloadable content code that allows players to enhance the bust-size of Fei-Yen and Angelan. If only we were kidding...

• Cyber Troopers Virtual-ON: MARZ (2003): Released for the PlayStation 2, being an Oddball in the Series, it's essentially a single-player focused Action-Adventure version of FORCE. While including a Hack and Slash-style story mode which fleshes out the nature of the Virtual-ON universe, MARZ unfortunately stripped down the gameplay even further in several aspects (especially thanks to limitations of the PlayStation 2 hardware), causing fans of the earlier three entries in the series to completely disown this game. The series made a notable appearance in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3, with Jack of All Stats Temjin (strangely piloted by the Mission Control character from MARZ), Robot Girl Fei-Yen the Knight (piloted by the second Mission Control character from MARZ and the Fei-Yen series' supposed creator) and Ace Custom Virtuaroid Apharmd the Hatter (piloted by the Hot-Blooded Sergeant Hatter) as playable characters. They also appear in Super Robot Wars K for the Nintendo DS, which actually incorporates MARZ's story. Virtual-ON: MARZ has been re-released exclusively in Japan on Play Station Network on March 2013.

• A Certain Magical Cyber Trooper (Virtual-ON) (2018), a crossover title between the series and A Certain Magical Index, it was announced in March of 2017 after roughly 15 years of inactivity for PS4 and Vita. It was adapted from a novel series of the same name. In addition to bringing back the entire Virtuaroid lineup from Oratorio Tangram, Index returns to the gameplay seen in Operation Moongate, marking a grand return to series form. Index additionally expands on the original gameplay by introducing a host of alternative game modes, such as online and co-op multiplayer, "Explosion Code", a soccer-like game played with Virtuaroids, and "Kill Attack", where the player fights against an endless stream of enemies until they're defeated.

Others:

A Compilation Re-release titled Cyber Troopers Virtual-ON Masterpiece: 1995-2001 was released for the PlayStation 4 in Japan on November 27, 2019. The collection features the first three games in the series, Operation Moongate, Oratorio Tangram, and FORCE, and features an all-new online mode for all three titles and support for Tanita's PS4 twin-stick controller. Currently, there are no plans for an overseas release.

See also Sakura Wars, Sega's other take on mecha genre in the 90's, and G.rev's Senko no Ronde, a 2D bullet-hell shooter-meets-mecha fighter that shares similar gameplay elements to Virtual-ON.

It possesses a Spiritual Sequel in Border Break, a networked 3D arcade mecha shooter featuring 10-unit mecha battles.

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This franchise provides examples of:

• A Mech by Any Other Name: Virtuaroids, or VRs for short.
• The Ace: The White Knight in MARZ.
• Ace Custom: A good number of the Virtuaroids piloted by named characters in novel stories and MARZ.
• Adaptation Deviation: In the original light novel, Index piloted a standard model Bal-Bados. However, in the video game adaptation, she instead pilots an entirely new Bal-series Virtuaroid, "BAL-RIooN", which is designed to resemble Index herself.
• AI Is A Crap Shoot: DAIMON from MARZ.
• Airborne Aircraft Carrier: One stage in Oratorio Tangram. Cutscenes show your mech being launched from one periodically in MARZ.
• Air Jousting: Temjin from Operation Moongate, 10/80 from Oratorio Tangram, Viper-II's and Cyper series' special move.
• All There in the Manual: While the series has never had much of the plot explained in the Western world, there is a significant amount of material released only in Japan, such as the side-story novel One Man Rescue written by Watari himself, multiple audio dramas, a manga released at the time of Operation Moongate, and an entire library of story information in the Japanese version of MARZ which was completely taken out of the American release of the game.
• An Ice Mecha: All of Angelan's attacks are ice-based.
• Anatomy Arsenal: Some of the Virtuaroids has at least one.
• And the Adventure Continues: After defeating Tangram in MARZ, she hopes for the player to take down DYMN organization much sooner. Considering the DYMN threat is much deeper than most pilots think...
• Antagonist Title: Cyper Troopers Virtual-ON: Oratorio Tangram.
  • Subverted. See Damsel in Distress below.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Index has a "Smart" mode, which will keep your camera permanently locked on to your opponent. You can switch to "Veteran" mode, which allows you to play with the original camera controls, if you so choose.
• Ass Kicking Pose: Many of them have one.
• Ass Kicks You: Fei-Yen Kn from Oratorio Tangram has close-range move where she hits you with her metallic rear-end.
• Attack Drone: The Bal series. Deconstructed in a way; the series require a lot of manipulation and, because of this, are really hard for most people to use and demonstrates exactly how complicated the Attack Drones can be for a human player; the computer, on the other hand...
  • Bal-Bas-Bow's funnels and arms cannot be controlled by the player, making him really vulnerable to enemy attacks once they're deployed and shooting the wrong side of the arena.
• Attack Its Weak Point: How to beat Z-Gradt from Operation Moongate, and also Bradtos and Tangram from Oratorio Tangram.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: While most of the VR are already pretty big by comparison, Tsuchimikado Motoharu's Voost Weapon in Index allows him to double his Dordray VR's size, with damage scaled accordingly.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Most of the special moves.
• Beam-O-War: To prevent the enemies' weapons from hitting you.
• Beam Spam: The Raiden series, and Stein-Vok's from Oratorio Tangram Ver.5.66.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Nearly all Virtuaroids, when attacked heavily, will show signs of damage through falling parts, exposed inner frames, etc. Fei-Yen and Angelan are immune to this, instead having their armor parts look disrupted and damaged, but otherwise intact.
• BFG: Temjin's Mult-purpose Beam Launcher, Raiden has shoulder-mounted beam cannons that were originally the main guns of battleships, Grys-Vok can launch nukes, et cetera.
  • In Operation Moongate, Z-Gradt has one. It has a barrel diameter that is about the size of Raiden.
• Big Damn Heroes: Sgt. Hatter specializes in this.
• Bittersweet Ending: The ending of Operation Moongate for every Virtuaroid (except Fei-Yen) gets one. The last few seconds of the ending shows your VR completely wrecked beyond repair with a limb or two missing and drifting in outer space. What does Fei-Yen get? She slowly floats from space, completely unharmed and protected by a barrier.
  • But when you rotate your controller clockwise during the end credits until the your VR shows up, You'll see a spaceship comes and retrieve the VR, and head back to Earth. So it's less bittersweet.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: MARZ's story mode, complete with ridiculously shoddy voice-overs.
• Blood Knight: Gil in MARZ.
• Boss Warning Siren: The games love these. In the first game, the word "WARNING" would flash on the screen along with sirens whenever Jaguarandi was about to be faced. Oratorio Tangram would have "WARNING" announced at the enemy screen, which is flashing red. Force and Marz would have the word announced along with a siren. In most of these instances, the word or the sirens would be heard four times before the fight begins.
• Break Meter: Index features a secondary health gauge on top of your standard health gauge as a new mechanic. Unlike previous games, where most heavy attacks would cause a knockdown, VRs are now resistant to knockdowns until the top health gauge is depleted. Knocking down your opponent also scores points, which can be used to gain victory over your opponent in the event that the timer runs out.
• Breast Expansion: Did you pre-order your copy of Virtual-ON: FORCE? Here's a redeemable code that lets you enhance the chest size of your Fei-Yen and Angelan from an A-cup to a DD-cup as bonus!
• The Brute: The SHBVD Raidens in MARZ. Also, Z-Gradt and their derivatives.
• Chainsaw Good: Vox Jane.
• Chest Blaster: Some of the Virtuaroid's center weapon like Fei-Yen's Heart-beam.
• Child Prodigy: Lilin Plajina, developer of LLN series was just a little girl when she built the original Fei-Yen.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: It's been noted that while the Bal series are generally very difficult to play with for players, but the computer always seems to know how to abuse them just right.
• Computer Voice: The announcer throughout the series.
• Cool Sword: The Fei-Yen series' rapier, although the Temjim series' M.P.B.L. is arguably the coolest.
• Cosplay: Fei-yen, which has had several different outfits over the games and even more outside of them. Some people go a step further, such as this. The Nanoha one is particularly fitting since it can be called "Fei-Yen with Raging Heart".
  • And now an official Crossover with Vocaloid's Miku Hatsune as of Comiket 80, courtesy of Sega.
    • Which eventually appeared in Super Robot Wars. Really.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Some of the Virtuaroids with less than favorable stats.
• Cycle of Hurting: Operation Moongate Apharmd's tonfa's. Ouch. Some other Virtuaroid special moves also come to mind. Some normal close-combat attacks can also do this, and not always from the Virtuaroids you expect it from.
• Da Chief: MARZ Chief, who relays mission instructions to the player in MARZ. In Super Robot Wars, he's retconned into piloting Temjin himself (and when asked for his name, he simply that "Chief" is good enough).
• Damsel in Distress: Tangram. According to MARZ, she's the one gets kidnapped by DYMN and you need to save her from the hands of them.
• Death In All Directions: In some fights. Jaguarandi also does this upon you.
• Death from Above: Grys-Vok's special move in Oratorio Tangram fires a mini-nuke towards the air and... it takes while for it to fall.
• Death Ray: Z-Gradt's cannon.
• Deconstruction: Ultimately one toward fighting game genre as a whole. With the arguable exception of Fei-Yen and Angelan, the playable characters are no more than vehicles that are without personalities of their own and designed solely for players to operate.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The theme song of A Certain Magical Virtual-ON, "Get Ready!", is performed by Yuka Iguchi and Rina Sato, the voices of Index and Mikoto Misaka respectively.
• Dual Boss: Everywhere in MARZ.
• Dual Mode Unit: Every Virtuaroid is one, as they can switch (automatically) between long-range and close-combat mode.
• Duel to the Death: Every fight is one in Operation Moongate.
• Dynamic Entry: Apharmd series' diving kick/tackle. Hatter calls his version "Dramatic the Hatter".
• Eldritch Abomination: The Ajim/Guerlain line, DYMN and a few others. Especially those created via corruptions.
  • Mechanical Abomination: Jaguarandi as well as Shadow Virtuaroids are some of these kinds. They look like machines created from malwares.
• Energy Weapons
• Expy: The Vox series in FORCE and MARZ, which start by copying all the Heavy VRs of the previous games except for Raiden.
  • Fei-Yen is often compared to Sailor Moon. Her heart motif is also identical to that of Amy Rose.
  • The Angelans are compared to Belldandy and Guarayakha are usually compared to Sakura Kinomoto.
  • Created by Hajime Katoki, Temjin resembles a Gundam a lot. It does a Victory Pose that is the same as the iconic pose of RX-78-2. It also runs like Sonic the Hedgehog.
    • In some way, the White Knight resembles a Hi-Nu Gundam by its look.
  • Raiden resembles Doms and likely inspired Tieria's Virtue and Seravee in Mobile Suit Gundam 00.
  • The Viper series are compared to the Variable Fighters in Macross, and their Limit Break is a direct homage to Kamille's wave rider crash in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
  • Kagekiyo is strikingly similar to Musha Gundam.
• Extreme Graphical Representation: When you fight Tangram.
• Face–Heel Turn: Sgt. Hatter, who runs off half-cocked when he gets sick of the Chief keeping secrets from him, only to turn up later to challenge the player, having not learned of the Conspiracy Redemption and still thinking that MARZ is in the wrong. If the player runs low on health during the second to last stage, Hatter reappears in a Big Damn Heroes moment, having pulled a Heel–Face Turn.
• Fanservice: The later models of Fei-Yen. These also feature various breast plate sizes in a rare mecha version of Form-Fitting Wardrobe, shared with Angelan. This is explicitly pointed out in one of the CG artbooks included with one of Hasegawa's 1:100 Fei-Yen model kits.
  • As of May 31st, 2011, immortalized in the flesh in Hasegawa's newest limited release model kit: the TF-12 B/C+ "Fei Yen with Blue Heart/Panic Heart+ [Fetish]" (yes, "fetish" is actually part of the kit's name). It includes decals for the Flesh Refoe color scheme, parts for the various chest variants, the bigger ass of the G65-model, and Commander Model headwear, as shown in this image◊.
• Fem Bot: The Fei-Yen and Angelan series, Guarayakha, the Rose Sisters, as well as some BAL variants in FORCE. As metioned above, Index also gets to pilot a V.R. that's shaped like herself.
• Final Boss: Z-Gradt (or the original Fei-Yen) in Operation Moongate, Tangram in Oratorio Tangram, Ajim and Guerlain in Force, and Tangram again in MARZ.
• Fragile Speedster:
  • In Oratorio Tangram, Raiden's special move lets him take off his armor to became WAY faster than both Fei-Yen Kn and Viper-II. The downside: it loses more than 90% of his life gauge and his V-Armor goes to straight to 0%.
  • The Rose Sisters' Virtuaroids tend to be this.
• Fun with Acronyms: The Virtuaroids' body codes. For example: the "MBV" in Temjin's body code in Operation Moongate stands for "Main Battle Virtuaroid".
  • M.S.B.S. stands for "Mind Shift Battle System".
  • Sentinel Electronics / General Aerodyne
  • SHBVD stands for Special Heavy Battle Virtuaroid Division
• Game-Breaking Bug: In the PC version of Operation Moongate, running head on into Belgdor can cause your mech to get stuck in Belgdor. This changes your screen to entirely light blue, and the round never ends because you can't hit Belgdor and Belgdor cannot hit you and the timer breaks.
  • There's also a bug that causes the game to crash upon seeing the continue screen on newer computers, but oddly enough, only Fei-Yen's continue screen doesn't cause the game to crash.
• Glass Cannon: the Belgdor, which possesses reliable firepower, long range homing missiles as a primary weapon, is one stiff breeze away from being blown off its feet and knocked down, leaving it vulnerable to even more damage.
• Gratuitous English: The infamous "Get Ready!" message, and the announcers in general. There's also the endings of Oratorio Tangram and FORCE, which give a little eulogy for your mech.
  • For the curious, they are mangled lyrics to the songs "Everyone Everywhere" and "Just For A Moment", respectively.
    • The mangled lyrics at the end of FORCE (ending with the phrase 'What more can be said?') originally came from the King Crimson song "Model Man".
  • Sgt. Hatter loves using such phrases as "YES!", "COME ON!", and "CONGRATULATION!"
    • Super Robot Wars adds "ROLLING STAAARRT~!" to his repertoire as a Shout-Out to Daytona USA.
    • "LET'S BURNING JUSTICE!!!"
• Green Rocks: V-Crystals which are essentially the backbone of all the Virtuaroid technology. V-Crystals catalyze the human spirit and consciousness. V. Converters use crushed V.Crystals in disc form.
• Golden Super Mode: Fei-Yen's Critical Status Buff.
• Guns Akimbo: Apharmd the Battler in Oratorio Tangram. Of course, since it has tonfas built into it's arms, so it also doubles as Dual Wielding.
• Hot-Blooded: Sgt. Hatter.
• The Grim Reaper: The Specineff series, complete with a Sinister Scythe.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: Temjim's M.P.B.L., its a BFG, BFS, and later a Wave-Motion Gun in one!
  • Guarayakha also fit this too.
• Infinity Plus One Virtuaroid: The VR-747 a8 Temjin in MARZ. It's the fastest of all the playable virtuaroids, controls like Oratorio Tangram virtuaroids, very durable, and deals lots of damage. It's unlocked by beating the game on Ultimate, in which by then you have other virtuaroids to complete this difficulty with.
• Interface Screw: Happens twice in MARZ's Story Mode.
• Jack of All Stats: The Temjin series.
• Joke Character: The completely useless Vox variants Lee and Loo. Lee has nothing but a weak gun. Loo only has a set of missles that have been described as "About as damaging as throwing a toilet paper roll at somebody".
  • From Oratorio Tangram Ver.5.66, we have the 10/80 Special. It's basically a mass-produced Temjin that plays like the original from Operation Moongate. The pros? It has much better control, and is faster than the original. The cons? It cannot air-dash, lacks special moves except the Gliding Ram, and has much weaker attacks.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: In the later games since Oratorio Tangram, you can perform an attack while the opponent is down. Index even gives you bonus points for doing so.
• Killer Robot: Jaguarandi, Z-Gradt, and Bradtos.
• Lag Cancel: Players can cancel jumps and attacks. If timed rightly, this can go from saving a token to feed the arcade machine, to completely running riot over enemy Virtuaroids.
• Laser Blade: Some Virtuaroids have two.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: In Index, victory by time-out is no longer determined simply by remaining health; it is instead determined by the new scoring system, in which you earn points by delivering knockdown attacks to the enemy VR. Health is only used as a determinant in the event that both players have a point tie.
• Light Is Good: The White Rainbow Knight organization piloting custom Temjins, especially the a8 (as of MARZ). They're here to deal with Shadow VR problems.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Temjin a8 from MARZ.
  • Argurably, the Viper series can be considered as this, too.
• Limit Break:
  • Every Virtuaroid's special move, although most of them aren't very practical.
  • Index instead has Voost Weapons, which allows the Virtuaroid to execute pilot-specific abilities and attacks. For example, Touma can use Temjian's left arm like his Imagine Breaker and perform a short-ranged, but deadly palm thrust, Kuroko can use Teleport Spam on her Fei-Yen, Misaka performs her signature Railgun attack with Raiden, and so forth.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Grys-Vok and assorted descendants.
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Yzerman created Kagekiyo by trapping human souls in a Virtuaroid.
  • He is also responsible for the creation of the Viper series, infamous for their SLC (She's Lost Control) charge. And Specineff series which has device feed on the pilot's negative emotions.
• Magical Girl: The Angelan series as well as Guarayakha are rather blatantly patterned after them, right down to the cutesy, magic-style attacks.
• Magical Girl Warrior: Fei-Yen, and she fights with The Power of Love!
• Mecha Expansion Pack: Grys-Vok, Stein-Vok, and the Vox series are all basically one mech (pretty much the Vox Lee mentioned above) with various weapon combinations mounted on its back and sides.
• MegaCorp: The DN Group and its descendants DNA and RNA.
• Mighty Glacier: Story-wise, SHBVD specializes in this trope, given their names.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Lilin Plajina tried to get rid of the Jaguarandi (which was considered an annoying- if not dangerous- presence in the M.S.B.S simulation system at the time) by building the Guarayakha Virtuaroid to contain it. It worked- until the Jaguarandi used the Guarayakha as a conduit, manifesting itself in the real world through the Guarayakha's body.
• Nintendo Hard: Operation Moongate is absolutely sadistic with its difficulty. Starting with Stage 3 (Dorkas), the game suddenly goes through a Difficulty Spike where the AI busts out more advanced and very annoying movement patterns, while hitting you with pinpoint-accurate shots. This alone makes it incredibly tempting to just scrape by with timeout wins, but if you go through with it you'll get punished by being forced into a battle with Jaguarandi, who is an SNK Boss. By far the most annoying opponent in the game is Fei-Yen, who is almost impossible to hit normally and will make you question your very sanity if you manage to get her health down to half, where she enters Hyper Mode.
• No Fourth Wall / I Know Mortal Kombat: Apparently, the original arcade game itself is actually a control module sent from the future. You playing it is actually participating in the battles.
  • Unfortunately, MARZ broke this essential part that made the series fun.
• No Name Given: Temjin never tells his name in either Super Robot Wars and lets other call him Chief.
• Nonstandard Game Over:
  • Have more health than Z-Gradt or Tangram when time's up? Congratulations, you've just let the planet-killing superweapon/reality-destroying supercomputer win.
  • One mission in MARZ requires you entering maze to stop three missiles from launching into the air. Failing this mission when time's up gives you a Downer Ending Game Over.
  • Also in MARZ's DYMN Chaos missions, if you let collapse level reach 100% before you collect all the fragments, Downer Ending Game Over again.
• Obvious Rule Patch: Index's Hit Clock mechanic, which is used to discourage running away to time out matches. As soon as you earn any points, the Hit Clock will start ticking down on the player with the most points; if the Hit Clock runs out, the lead player will start losing points at an extremely fast rate, and since points are used to determine time-out victories, it's possible to lose your lead and potentially the match if you run away for too long. The Hit Clock can only be refilled by scoring a direct hit on your opponent, which encourages players to actually fight to retain their point totals.
• Oddball in the Series: MARZ counts as this. It is a Hack and Slash-style Action-Adventure game with Dynasty Warriors elements, rather than simply a one-on-one fighting game, though there's more one-on-one matches too.
• One Game for the Price of Two: The arcade release of Oratorio Tangram splits the original cabinet configuration into two flavors, known as DNA side and RNA side. Both have different interface colors and soundtracks as well as Virtuaroid colors but plays pretty much the same.
• Quirky Mini Boss Squad: The Three Rose Sisters in MARZ.
• Paint It Black: After pulling his Face–Heel Turn, Sgt. Hatter has his Apharmd repainted from the MARZ standard blue/white coloring to a new dark blue/red one.
  • The Shadow VRs.
• Palette Swap: Index's Bal-RIooN VR is essentially a redesigned Bal-Bados with an Index-themed design and cutesy substitutes for most of its main weapons, like a cat laser for its RW and exploding balloons (with a low chance for them to be giant ice cream cones) for its LW. The only major difference is that it has a less awkward run cycle.
• Playboy Bunny: A rare Fem Bot example; Fei-Yen and Angelan were built into one with this wallpaper◊, courtesy of Katoki himself. Shame that they aren't playable though.
• Player and Protagonist Integration: You are you in the single-player campaign in every series, but in MARZ, an Advisor protagonist is added as your superior.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Fei-Yen is pink, Temjim is blue.
  • Since Virtual-ON: FORCE, we also now have Guerlain's pink and Ajim's blue.
• Power Crystal: The Virtuaroids are powered by this, and Ajim (and his Distaff Counterpart Guerlain) is a V-crystal in living form.
• Power Gives You Wings: Angelan's special move, she becomes slightly more faster and powerful temporary.
• Rank Inflation: Index uses this to score matches, from C to S ranks.
• Razor Wind: Several weapons used by the Virtuaroids are capable of launching energy variations of this.
• Roboteching: When firing a weapon lock-on to its target.
• Robot Maid: The later Fei-Yen series starting with FORCE, complete with plateau-weapon and proper clothing.
• Robotic Cat Girl: Fei-Yen the Tiger in Oratorio Tangram. Although her ears are actually heart-shaped, she has tiger stripes and a tail.
• Rocket Punch: Several members of the Vox series can launch their melee weapon-equipped arms at enemies.
  • The Bal-series from Oratorio Tangram can perform one, too.
• Rule 34: Yes. It applies here too. And no, it isn't Moe Anthropomorphism (although that also exists). How? You Don't Want to Know. Take Our Word for It.
  • Katoki himself indulges into it, as seen above.
• Secret Level: The first game punishes stallers (those who rely on the timer running out to force a win) by teleporting the player to one of these if they take too long to kill the first five opponents. For their efforts, they're pitted against the Jaguarandi, a massive mutated Raiden with guns for days and a foul temper.
• Shed Armor, Gain Speed: Raiden can sacrifice 90% of its health and all of its V-Armor in exchange for a massive boost to speed.
• Shout-Out: In Oratorio Tangram, the dialogue said by the computer voice is taken from the lyrics Republic's Everyone, Everywhere. In FORCE, the Congratulatory Address is a heavily modified version of the chorus to Ultravox's Just For a Moment.
  • The model kits for the Oratan Virtuaroids are actually made by the same company who made Medabots model kits.
  • The Shadow Virtuaroids borrow the inspirations from Shadow the Hedgehog, especially colors and motifs.
• Shows Damage: In the first two games, the Virtuaroids will loose armor parts as they get more damage. This no longer happened after FORCE.
• Shoulder Cannon: Raiden and certain variants of Apharmd and Temjin. See also Belgdor and its Vok-variant descendants.
• Sky Surfing: Temjin's Gliding Ram attack. And it hits HARD.
• Stab the Sky: Often after performing a Perfect victory.
• Storm of Blades: Kuroko's Voost Weapon in Index teleports Fei-Yen skyward, whereupon they launch a rain of knives down on the opponent. The knife storm slowly tracks the enemy VR and quickly chips away at their HP the longer they stay in it.
• Super-Cute Superpowers: The Fei-Yen series of Virtuaroids are Humongous Mecha modeled after a Magical Girl with a Chest Blaster that fires a burst shaped like a heart. According to the backstory, the designers wanted a regular beam, but the Sentient Phlebotinum kept turning it back into a heart.
• Super-Deformed: The PlayStation 2 re-release of Operation Moongate features a Chibi-version Mode that make all the Virtuaroids cute and tiny.
• Super Mode: Normally when the Fei-Yen series Turns Red, and it's a special move for her in Oratorio Tangram, at a huge expense her life though.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: In Oratorio Tangram, what started out to be another Bittersweet Ending just like its predecessor (and this time with no barrier to save Fei-Yen), other units of your selected Virtuaroid swoops in to save you and carry you to the aircraft carrier. Though Ajin 'rescues' himself as he's joined by his other units.
  • For Fei-Yen in said game, she gets saved by Angelan and the same applies vice-versa.
• Superboss: The original Fei-Yen from the PlayStation 2 version of Operation Moongate is an optional boss who is permanently in Hyper Mode without the health loss, and is accessed if you can get to the final stage in under nine minutes.
• Super Prototype: The original Fei Yen is much more powerful than her production model. Justified since she's sentient and eventually runaway from Lilin's lab.
• Super Robot Genre: Truthfully, the game kind of blurs the line between Super and Real Robot. Some mecha, like Temjin and the Viper series, are very much like Real Robots, but then you have the Sailor Moon-like Fei-Yen and Angelan, which can summon giant ice dragons and send them to attack you.
• Super Robot Wars: MARZ appears in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 and K (the latter includes its story). Super Robot Wars UX includes the Virtuaoid Fei-Yen HD, which never appeared in the series; it's actually an action figure based off the Vocaloid Crossover mentioned above.
• Sword and Gun: Temjin's M.P.B.L. is this combined into one.
• Sword Beam: Nearly every Virtuaroid with a close-combat weapon can use these.
• The Corruption: The shadow phenomena that affects Virtuaroids is the result of the chaos of the unconscious mind interfacing with the V.Converter.
• This Is a Drill: Dordray, as well as his later expies Vox Bob-1 and Bob-2, have arm-mounted drills.
• Transforming Mecha: Viper II and its later descendants, which can transform into a fighter jet.
  • The Viper II from Operation Moongate has a Limit Break very similar to this. Furthermore, when it jumps it extends its wings.
• Trigger-Happy: Jaguarandi.
• Unusual Ears: Parodied by several Fei-Yen models, especially the "Fei-Yen the (animal)" models.
• Wave-Motion Gun:
  • The Raiden's iconic shoulder lasers, which were originally mounted on battle-cruisers. Get hit and much pain ensues. It almost one-shots Viper-II. Of course, that's assuming you're firing the regular standing laser. The dashing and air varieties are significantly weaker.
  • Temjim's right-turbo RW attack in Oratorio Tangram turns his M.P.B.L. into one.
  • Z-Gradt's main cannon in the original game can take off at least half of your health.
  • Mikoto Misaka's Voost Weapon in Index, her signature Railgun attack. Appropriately, she pilots Raiden.
• Weaponized Headgear: Hatter can use his hat as a Precision-Guided Boomerang.
• We Can Rebuild Him: The continue screen in Operation Moongate and Oratorio Tangram save for Fei-Yen and Angelan, who gets the Magical Girl regeneration sequence. Also averted for Ajim in Oratorio Tangram, who gets an ascension sequence.
• You Will Not Evade Me: Accelerator's Voost Weapon in Index allows him to generate what is effectively a vacuum in front of him that pulls the enemy VR towards it. If it makes contact with the opponent, it traps them in place, allowing the player to unload on them.

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