Video Game / Soul Nomad & the World Eaters

"Tell me, who's the baddest of the bad? The maddest of the mad? The killer of kings and destroyer of worlds?"

— Gig

A 2007 Strategy RPG title for the Playstation 2, brought to you by the good people at Nippon Ichi. It's a Darker and Edgier take on their usual formula, and could best be described as "Ogre Battle on a power trip".

Soul Nomad is set upon the island continent of Prodesto, in the world of Haephnes. Two centuries ago, Prodesto was united under the hero Lord Median The Conqueror, and prosperity reigned for a time. Though Median's reign would be cut short by a pandemic that claimed both himself and his son, his daughter Layna soon emerged as a worthy successor to Prodesto's throne.

Unfortunately, a mere fifty years later, Prodesto would become the landing spot of an evil god of death known as Gig. With the aid of his "pets", titanic golems known as "World Eaters", he ground Prodesto into the dirt, slaughtering most of the population and scorching the landscape into a barren wasteland.

When all hope appeared lost, Layna appeared before Gig and defeated him in single combat. Without their master, the World Eaters fell dormant. However, the scars of their rampage remained etched into the land and Prodesto continued to decay, with the birth rate falling and crops growing more poorly with each passing year. All the while, the frozen World Eaters towered over the populace, a constant reminder of the terrible power that could reawaken at any time.

Two centuries later, a young warrior (named Revya by default) and their childhood friend Danette are preparing to become official guardians of their village, one of the last bastions of human civilisation left in Prodesto. On the day of their appointment, they are gifted two weapons by village elder Layna: Danette receives a pair of magic kukri, while Revya is given a black onyx sword.

Upon grasping the handle, the onyx sword is suddenly revealed to be the resting place of Gig himself, who immediately attempts to possess Revya's body and resume his reign of destruction. His possession is foiled by Layna, so Gig makes a deal: he will grant Revya a tiny sliver of his godlike power in exchange for being allowed to share Revya's body as a "soulmate". However, the second that Revya overuses this power, Gig will use the foothold in Revya's soul to seize complete control.

Strengthened with Gig's dark powers, Revya is sent out into Prodesto along with Danette to destroy the dormant World Eaters and Save the World. Hilarity Ensues.

The game was ported alongside Phantom Brave as part of NIS Classics Vol. 1, as a Compilation Re-release for Nintendo Switch and as separate titles on PC via Steam, on August 31st, 2021.

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The game provides examples of:

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: It's subverted for most of the game, as most of the female characters (primarily Danette, seeing Gig insults her the most of the cast aside from Levin) can't stand Gig. However, Gig believes this in his ending if Revya is female, after the rest of the cast starts shipping them.
• The Antichrist: The intention behind the creation of Gig. Foiled by Layna in the game's default route; Gone Horribly Right in the Demon Path.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Hawthorne, who frequently makes deals with Yesterwind.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Gig's sums up Drazil as being like a graveyard because of how every aspect of a person's life is controlled, to the point that they have to be told what to think. Oh, and the world has no hotpods.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership:
  • Every unit you can deploy has a Leader, and every manikin inside of a unit contributes a percentage of their stats to the leader of that unit as a constant bonus as long as that manikin is alive. Thus, if for example you stack a bunch of identical manikins with identical levels in a room, the one designated as leader will have significantly higher stats than its twins.
  • In-story, we have The Masters of Life and Death, as well as the World Rulers, who are Overseers, and if Gig is any indication, they can drop the hurt on you.
• Ax-Crazy: Most characters in the Demon Path.
• Badass Bystander: You can attack random townspeople. Most of them go down easily, but occasionally you'll find one stronger than the final boss.
• Badass Family: Median, Layna and Revya.
• Badass Longcoat: Endorph. Phantom Brave players will recognize him as Walnut the bounty hunter, and he's taken a serious level in badass since then.
• Becoming the Mask: Implied, and later confirmed, if you're headed for the Levin ending.
  • Also to Levin/Raksha in the Demon Path, when he decides that Good Feels Good.
• Big Bad: Drazil in the Normal Path. Gig served as this in the past, and reprises that role alongside the Devourlord (who is Revya themself) in the Demon Path.
• Big Damn Heroes: Soul Nomad LOVES this trope to a T. Endorph is a regular subscriber to this. Including the Demon Path, he has about 5 moments. Not just him, but Christophe, the remaining residents from the Hidden Village, Grunzford... There are a lot of Big Damn Heroes moments, to summarizes.
• Big Good: Lady Layna (or rather Virtuous) though some of her actions tend to be morally ambiguous, such as her gamble with fusing Gig's soul with Revya's and sometimes being vague. She's still one of the most heroic characters nonetheless, beat out only by Haephness herself.
• Black Market: Yesterwind, headed by Lobo. A popular commodity of theirs is children.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Occurs during and after the Optional Boss fight against Asagi.
  Gig: [Oh please! You're trying to play the victim? We can't even move on with the story because you destroyed the world! Now we gotta start all over again! Seriously, thanks a lot!
  • This is especially hilarious as Gig and Revya initially act as though they have absolutely no idea what she's talking about. As soon as Revya agrees to let Asagi take his / her lead role, however, that's when the Fourth Wall really begins to break.
• Break the Cutie: Trish in the Demon Path comes pre-broken due to her adoptive father being a serial rapist.
  • Played for Black Comedy laughs in the Demon Path, where this happens to Galahad as he witnesses Revya's atrocities unfold, eventually going insane and imagining himself first as a salesman (of the 'buy now and I'll throw in a second absolutely free' type) and then later as a Prism Ranger.
• Broken Aesop: Most outstanding one given by Cuthbert to Agrippa in the Demon Path. When questioned why he's working with Revya and Gig when he doesn't seem like that horrible a person, Cuthbert launches into a sad, serious explanation of his brother's illness and his determination to find the cure at any cost. Almost seems like a Pet the Dog moment when he warns Agrippa not to make the same mistakes as him... then fails when he names the consequence of doing so as just going bald.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Odie. The man is so pathetic, even the other characters pity him. Ironically, though, he Took a Level in Badass in the Demon Path, with even Dio, his relative and the most powerful sorcerer in the world, acknowledging his growth.
  • Galahad in the Demon Path. He gets very little respect from anyone on account of having gone bonkers due to having a front-row seat of the Devourlord's atrocities.
• Canis Major: Phynx are wolf-like creatures that seem about as intelligent as humans. Later in the game, you can encounter or recruit knights that ride them into battle.
• Card-Carrying Villain:
  Gig: What? You did not just call me a 'hero'!
• Character Development: Many characters go through this as the game progresses, with a few notable examples taking the spotlight:
  • Gig starts out as a rude, foul-mouthed death god who cares nothing about saving the world. The only reason he's doing it is because he really doesn't have much choice in the matter and makes it clear several times that he intends on taking over Revya's body. His choice in giving Revya some of power, albeit at the risk of losing himself in the process, all so they could defeat Feinne is a small but subtle step towards him warming to up the cast. Sometime later, though he'd sooner die than admit it, he does care about Revya more than he lets on. His utter breakdown in the non-canon Median Good Ending speaks volumes when faced with the fact that Revya is going to die and he doesn't care that he's going to go out with them.
  • It's very subtle, but Levin himself goes over this as the game progresses. It says a lot about his character when a soulless vessel that only existed to house the World Eater Raksha has become contemplative and philosophical, or at least in his ending.
• Cherubic Choir: Cradle of the Ivory Moon, the game's credit music.
• The Chessmaster:
  • Layna/Virtuous is one for the side of good, though she still plays Revya and Gig like a fiddle to get them to stop Drazil from destroying Haephnes by stealing souls from the world.
  • Played with in regards to Thuris. Despite the World Eater having concocted numerous schemes and successfully managed to put Revya and company at a disadvantage, his gambits fall apart when unexpected variables come into play, such as the Crimson Tear made via Danette's mother's soul breaking the girl free from her prison.
  • Also, Raksha.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Danette, in her ending.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Gig in the English dub, especially when Feinne attempts to eat him.
  Gig: [...That's it, I am ROYALLY FREAKING PISSED! I'm gonna rip off your head and shit down your neck you overgrown asshole!! [...] NOW KICK THE SHIT OUT OF THAT BITCH!!"
• Combination Attack: Certain units can perform Combo Attacks, which can go from targeting the Squad Leader, to a certain group of enemies, to potentially wiping out the entire board. Revya can perform Combo Attacks with any of the main cast, even those like Endorph who, unless your relationship with him is high, leave shortly after he joins.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
  • During Inspections, enemy leaders sometimes ignore Decor disadvantages. For instance, "Antimatter" gives you a 90% boost to defense (making you nearly untouchable) at the cost of turning everyone in the room into a One Hitpoint Wonder - take any damage at all and you're dead. Leaders still take normal damage.
  • Another example of cheating is that the computer will keep letting other units take their turns before you despite your turn being listed as the next. It seems to happen when the computer attacks you and you kill the squad that attacks you, it keeps going until they stop sending squads at you or you end up killing everything.
• Cross Dresser:
  • Penn. Justified, he was raised by an One-Gender Race.
  • Vitali. He found out Kanan's true gender this way. Then, in his ending, he opens up a restaurant and serves his customers...wearing a dress.
• Cutscene Incompetence: 'Dio'/Odie is treated as totally pathetic. Even his brief, dramatic triumph is shattered when the real Dio reveals that the spell Odie successfully broke after much effort had been severely weakened by the passage of time. In actual gameplay he's quite effective, being basically a mage with higher-than-usual stats and a few unique leader abilities. Justified by the fact that he wasn't that incompetent in the story either, he just thought he was.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Revya appears in Disgaea 3 as a female.
• Darker and Edgier: Soul Nomad as a whole, compared to other Nippon Ichi games. Gets ramped up to eleven with the Demon Path. Even without the Demon Path, which you really have to go through to really experience ^note to add a bit more perspective, compared to the bad endings in the Disgaea games involving mass genocide and trauma, the Demon Path is like those but for the entire game apart from the good ending, the main story is still way darker than anything Nippon Ichi made before. Pretty much every villain in the plot is a Knight of Cerebus, there's no No Fourth Wall jokes outside of a gag ending with Asagi, the flashy special attacks are a lot less over the top, and there's constant plot points of mass murder.
• Dark Messiah: Kanan, priest of the Thurist Cult. They worship Thuris, the only World Eater that's really active at the start of the game.
• Dark Reprise: Take Levin's theme, arrange it so it sounds more chaotic and add some Ominous Latin Chanting. The end result is Crash Landing, Raksha's theme.
• Deader than Dead: The Masters of Life are tasked with ensuring deceased souls enter the cycle of reincarnation. Any that don't are guaranteed to stay dead. The World Eaters also devour the souls of any living creature they kill, though it's later revealed the World Eaters can willingly release the souls they've eaten, or the souls will be freed with the World Eater's death.
• Deadpan Snarker: Gig, who is by far the biggest snarker among the cast. Revya also becomes one over time due to the fusion affecting them.
• Deal with the Devil: Gig attempts this with Revya every so often in order to resume his plans to lay waste to the world. They can accept the deal as early as the first encounter with Feinne, but otherwise they reject any offers of power. Subverted in one instance where when Gig willingly offers Revya his power with no strings attached and only does it because he's pissed at Feinne for trying to eat Revya, and by extension, him.
• Despair Event Horizon: Nearly everyone in the Demon Path, but especially Shauna, whose in-game vocals change to hollow monosyllabic grunts after her sister dies. Thorndyke almost literally crosses this after he believes he's killed his son, to the point where he's so broken that he's unable to come back to sanity even when it turns out that he didn't.
• Dimension Lord: The World Rulers, such as the Masters of Life and Death. The ones above them, though, are their masters; Haephness and Drazil, both of whom manage the worlds named after them.
• The Ditz: Danette and Levin, though the former happens to be the biggest offender, much to Gig's frustration and chagrin. Levin, though, not so much.
• Demonic Possession: Gig's possession of Revya, which is botched due to the Crimson Tear Layna used to ensure the former wouldn't be able to take over Revya's body from the get-go. For a more successful example, see also Raksha, to Levin.
• Don't Fear the Reaper: Vigilance. Despite being the Master of Death in Haephness, he was a kind soul who morosely went about his tasks. Gig, on the other hand, absolutely loves his job.
• Downer Ending: The Bad Ending of the Demon Path has Revya kill just about everyone who would dare stand against them in Haephness. Then they devour Gig for little other reason except to obtain even more power. Then they go on to kill Drazil and Haephness after rejecting their pleas for them to cease their rampage, and cause the end of all existence. All because it was fun!
• Duel Boss:
  • The second Feinne fight is an odd example, you CAN summon others to the fight, but as your level is boosted by 2000, and your foe is 1000, you don't need them, and unless your play a New Game Plus, Fienne will shrug off any attacks they make anyways. However, if you use the level-boosting item you're given after you summon your allies, their level is boosted as well.
  • A straighter example is the penultimate battle, where there's only one enemy on the map. While you do have your party with you to help you out, you are not allowed to summon any allies to help you.
• Dual Wielding: Danette's twin sickles.
• Dub Name Change: A couple of characters had their names changed, possibly due to trouble with pronunciation (Example:Juno was originally Jost, which was pronounced Youst).
• Dysfunction Junction: Halfway through the Demon Path, most of your group is outright insane in one fashion or another.
• Elite Mooks: Gameplay-wise, almost every playable character is a stronger version of a specific unit type. Exceptions are the main character, Danette, Endorph, Median/Gestahl, Layna, Lujei and Asagi who have their own unique class.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • The nature of Drazil is sufficient to make even Gig disgusted, as he declares quite loudly by claiming the whole place's nothing but a graveyard whose inhabitants just happen to be mobile. And most importantly, there were no hotpods.
  • Every sane villain regarding the player character's actions in the Demon Path.
• "Everybody Dies" Ending: In the Demon Path's bad ending, Reyva kills both Haephness and Drazil, ending all of existence.
• Evil Laugh:
  • Gig likes to give out a villainous laugh often. Then again, Evil Is Hammy.
  • The Thurist cultists love to do this, being an insane Doomsday Cult. Interesting to note that Gig actually finds the Thurists laughing creepy.
  • Also Revya in the Bad Ending of the Demon Path.
• Evil Is Easy: Subverted; the Demon Path is much harder than the main campaign, even though it's unlocked as soon as your first New Game Plus (with all the benefits that entails). You can unlock the route as early as the first boss battle against Feinne, assuming Revya accepted Gig's offer.
• Evil Is Not a Toy:
  • The basic premise of the game averts this, in that using Gig can (hopefully) save the world, assuming Revya doesn't do anything stupid, and Revya is fully aware of the danger. Also, inverted in the Demon Path with Gig and the player character, but averted when Dio releases Raksha to try and stop you, and it works. Or, at least, Raksha does end up on his side.
  • Case of it playing true in the main story the king of Raide tries to use a crimson tear to control Feinne. Gig states that this won't work, and of of course it turns out he's right. This instead causes Feinne, who before was just sitting and doing nothing, to level a large portion of the landscape and then kill the king.
• Evil Sorcerer: Kanan, and to a certain degree, the real Dio.
• Explosive Breeder: Implied to be Penn's fate when he turns 18. His "reward" for going along with the Nereids Wife Husbandry bid is to have kids with every adult Nereid, starting with Juno.
• Fallen Hero:
  • In the Normal Path, Gig was originally a kindhearted Grim Reaper until he was killed and Drazil turned him into the psychopath he is during the game. In essence, not exactly his fault.
  • Revya in the Demon Path. And by fallen hero, we mean Villain Protagonist. Their new title Devourlord is not for show.
  • Thorndyke in the Demon Path. Painfully.
• Faux Affably Evil: Gig. And almost everyone in the Demon Path.
• Fluffy the Terrible: When Revya decides s/he should get a cooler name during the Demon Path, Gig tries to suggest 'the BFF' (yes, that's right, 'Best Friends Forever') but is sadly shot down. He gets his comeuppance when he names The Empire 'The BFF Empire' in Revya's absence.
• For the Evulz: Gig really enjoys destruction for its own sake.
  Gig: Rivers of blood! Mountains of flesh! A glorious world of pain! Feeble humans crushed like insects they are!
  • The Bad End of the Demon Path, natch. All the death, pain, suffering, and eventual destruction of the whole damn universe Revya caused? They did it because it was fun.
  • Thuris' motive, though he also wants Gig dead since Gig abused him and the other World Eaters when he worked for Drazil.
• Forgotten Childhood Friend: Lobo to Christophe.
• Friend to All Children: Juno. Her relationship with Penn speaks for itself, but she isn't just kind to only him.
• From Bad to Worse: Again, the Demon Path. If you thought Revya going postal and becoming very fast friends with Gig over mindless slaughter was bad, you haven't seen anything yet.
• Gainax Ending: The Bad Ending of the Demon Path, sweet merciful Gig. In short, Revya straight up kills everyone, devours Gig, then goes on to kill Haephness and Drazil, bringing an end to both worlds. All because it was fun.
• Gambit Pileup: The plot turns out to be one massive plan by Layna and Virtuous to make Gig and Revya destroy Drazil (the world that neighbors Haephnes) in order to restore the correct flow of souls which was originally upset by Drazil manipulating Median into slaying Vigilance, the Master of Death of Haephnes. And that isn't even counting Dio and Gestahl's plans to restore Gestahl to his true power as Median, by killing Drazil and his Masters of Life and Death; Raksha's plan to become a god and destroy Drazil and his Masters of Life and Death; and Thuris' plan to fuse with Feinne and Raksha and.... do something else afterward. He kinda fails before he gets the chance to explain his grand plan.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Several characters in the Demon Path have their in-combat vocals change to match their mental state in the new scenario — most noticeably the hero.
• God Is Evil: Drazil. They are not only the Greater Scope Big Bad responsible for most of the events in the game, but they rule over the World of Silence, robbing its denizens of their free-will.
• God Is Good: On the other end of the spectrum is Haephness. They are undoubtedly the sweetest godly entity in Soul Nomad. One need only look at her interaction with an reincarnated infant Revya.
• Godzilla Threshold: In the Demon Path, Dio deliberately releases Raksha, one of the World Eaters, on the off chance that he'll decide to fight you and more broadly because things can't get any worse either way.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: 'Dio' and his minions. They show up randomly to challenge Revya and have very little bearing on the plot. At least until he joins the party as Odie.
• Gollum Made Me Do It: The duality between Gig and Reyva is somewhat like this, despite Gig being an intruder in your mind and not a creation of it. In many cases it's not so much 'Gig made me do it' as it is 'Gig made the other guys do it to me so I had to defend myself'. It goes both ways in their case — by the end of the game, the protagonist has gotten more brash and trigger-happy, much like Gig, and Gig has become a great deal less Omnicidal.
  • Subverted in the Demon Path, where everyone thinks this at first. Then Gig states he's just along for the ride. All the horrible deeds Revya's committed as the Devourlord, barring the times they let Gig have free reign over their body? That was all them.
• Good Feels Good: Raksha in the Demon Path.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Christophe is Good Smoking (pipe), Lobo is Evil Smoking (cigarette). The two were former associates.
• Green Rocks: Well, red rocks, but Crimson Tears seem to be capable of whatever the plot requires at the moment, from binding souls and breaking barriers to teleportation and opening portals to other dimensions.
• The Grim Reaper: Gig is a Master of Death — a being who should technically do the standard duties of the grim reaper. Unfortunately, he's more interested in slaughtering humans en masse than reaping their souls. His former self, Vigilance, was a much straighter example.
• Guest-Star Party Member:
  • The Normal Path has Endorph and Levin (though both can permanently join you at Drazil if you had enough Relationship Values points). The Demon Path has Dio, Gestahl, Vangogh, Pinot and Agrippa.
  • Kotaro, a minor character who randomly appears when you enter the Arrange menu. He sticks for one story battle and leaves your squad afterwards.
• Heel–Face Turn: Dio, Raksha, and even Drazil in the Demon Path. You know something is up when major villains team-up with the good guys to defeat the "hero".
• The Imp: Gig during his more lucid moments. Not having a body probably has something to do with it.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: 'Dio', who says he's a legendary wizard, but in reality is just the leader of a Goldfish Poop Gang with an inferiority complex (him, not his buddies). He later turns out to have been the only failure in magic to have ever been produced by a legendary clan of wizards, and was so ashamed of himself that he took the title of "Dio" from his older brother and passed himself off as the legendary sorcerer. He gets over it and joins your party.
• Infinity -1 Sword: Hades' Despair. Downside: When your Stamina hits 0, you die. Upside: It increases your stats by the percentage amount of lost stamina. So, with 5% stamina remaining, all your stats are increased by 95%.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Cat's Cradle. Its power depends on how many cycles the player has completed. Note that this includes a new cycle caused by a Non-Standard Game Over, which crosses it with Disc-One Nuke, since a reliable way to farm cycles is to constantly impale yourself against Feinne, which is, what? The fourth battle? And accepting Gig's deal, time and time again until you are satisfied, or beat her and get the gag ending with Asagi. That or blazing through the Demon path, which is much shorter (albeit harder) than the normal path. The maximum amount of is reached at ten circles with a stat increase of 350%.
• Ironic Hell: The "Good Ending" of the Demon Path. If you lose the final battle, Revya is sealed into the same sword that Gig once inhabited, only with Danette for company.
• Hero Antagonist:
  • In the Normal path, Thorndyke, a noble knight commander who comes into conflict with the party when they try to preemptively deal with Feinne.
  • In the Demon Path, virtually everyone, given Revya's status as a Villain Antagonist.
• Heroic Mime: The player character, though they do speak during battles, not to mention getting an epic Evil Laugh in the Bad Ending of the Demon Path.
  • In Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, Revya (female, if you must know) still doesn't talk, although Gig certainly does. Mao has to use magic just to give her attack noises.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Endorph (again) and Gig, though Gig comes back to life (Endorph too, but you only find that out in his ending). In the Demon Path, Danette lets Revya kill her in battle so that she can turn into a Crimson Tear to be used against Revya and Gig after her death.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Gig. He does have issues with the heroic part, though. The comedic part is due to just how hammy he is.
• Hey, You!: Gig RARELY calls anyone by name. To list them: Revya: Kid/Soulmate. Danette: Stupid Cow. Levin: Man Cow. Odie: Sluggo. Grunzford: Gramps. Layna/Virtuous: Old Hag. On the flipside, he himself receives this treatment from Danette, who can't recall his name or gets it wrong. At least until the Normal Path ending, where she finally calls him by name.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: In the first time that you meet Thuris, he and Gig have a discussion. During it, Gig off-handendly mentions that, of his three vassal World Eaters, Thuris was always the one he disliked the most.
• Hidden Elf Village: The hidden village the protagonist comes from. Averted in the "hypocritical" aspect, as it was pretty much the only way to protect them from the World Eaters. Furthermore, unlike most examples, Revya isn't forced to leave and cannot return for any reason. When they return from having killed Feinne, and in Danette and Gig's Endings, they're welcomed back with open arms.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Drazil, Virtuous and Gig in the Demon Path's Bad Ending, and Drazil in the Normal Path - his plans to use Gig backfire either way.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Feinne. At least Soul Nomad has the decency to tell you this, with the win condition for the level being "everybody dies." Though given that Feinne is level 1000 at the fourth fight of the game, it's pretty obvious you're supposed to lose even without being told you're supposed to. Although you can defeat her in subsequent cycles, leading to the Optional Boss Battle with Asagi.
• Human Shield: Thuris attempts this. It's ruined by the kidnapee having a piece of Applied Phlebotinum implanted in her. He also tries it in the Demon Path. Fails even worse, because Revya couldn't care less what happens to Penn, and Penn thinks it's awesome.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Double subverted with the Nereids. Their attitude towards humans is closer to humans are untrustworthy rather than full on Humans Are Bastards. They are also more fair than other believers in this trope, preferring to look at it through a case by case basis. The ones that are judged to be decent people however....
• Interspecies Romance: The Nereids have to do this, as they're an all-female race.
  • Also possible between humans and sepps.
• Jerkass: Gig. Mainly because he's not allowed to express himself fully and kill you all, so he resorts to being an incredible jerk instead. Gig's Character Development first becomes noticeable by the fact that he actually refrains from his usual obnoxious comments during truly tragic episodes later in the game.
• Just Between You and Me: Subvert when after Levin/Raksha is through explaining he's duped you all, Endorph tries to kill him, revealing that the Levin talking to you was an illusion. He then mocks you. Strangely enough, he then later showboats away his rematch with Endorph by pissing him off by insulting Euphoria and dropping his guard. He did have his true form to fall back on, but it's weird he fell prey to the trope he had insulted just a day ago.
• Kick the Dog: ...Even without taking into account the Demon Path, this game has enough for three series.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Cuthbert stabs Lobo to death. The bastard really had it coming, [[spoiler:as he dabbled in human trafficking, drugs and getting his hands on Crimson Tears.
• Kid with the Leash: Revya is virtually the only thing keeping Gig from continuing where he left off from 200 years ago.
• Knight Templar: Drazil. He feels that common humans, and similar species, have no right to think for themselves and tricks Median into killing Vigilance so he can cause steal souls from Haephness and force to reincarnate in his world where he controls every aspect of their lives. And by extension, Gamma and Joules.
• Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Revya/Gig, targeted at Drazil.
• Lethal Chef: Euphoria. Literally.
• Level Grinding: It's a Nippon Ichi game. Your level can literally go over nine thousands. You can beat the normal storyline without grinding, however.
• Lost in Translation: In Japanese, the Demon Path's BFF Empire is called the "Mabudachi Teikoku". In Japanese, "Mabudachi" means "best friend", but the kanji that's used roughly translates to "Demon Contempt Degenerate Blood". So in reality, the name did fit Gig's vicious nature, but the name just so happened to have a much less vicious homophone. There is no such equivalent in English, so in the dub, it sounds like Gig named it the BFF Empire for shits and giggles (Or a hint of his Villainous Friendship with the Devourlord).
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Median is revealed to be Revya's father mere moments after Revya devours his soul.
• The Magnificent: Admit it. The Devourlord is an awesome, and intimidating, title.
  • Master Of Death turns out to be a subversion, as their title is as it implies, being Haephness' grim reaper.
• Mama Bear: Juno, to Penn. If you have even the slightest intention of killing him, you will find yourself on the other end of her trident.
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Double-Subverted. If a female Revya elects to take a bath after being possessed by Gig, despite the text suggesting she has concerns about just this kind of thing, Gig mentions he doesn't care. In spite of that, you get twice the boost to Gig's Relationship Value as a female than if you choose that option with a male Revya.
• Market-Based Title: The game's title went from Soul Cradle World Eater to Soul Nomad & the World Eaters. The original title is referenced toward the end of the game when Gig calls out Drazil on wanting to essentially make his world an eternal cradle for souls.
• May–December Romance: Male!Revya with Juno (28 years old) in her ending. Juno with Penn in the others (35 to 18).
  • May Fly December Romance: Female Revya and Gig in Gig's ending, as Gig is over 200 years old.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: The Schemestress class. Instead of dealing damage, healing, or casting buffs and debuffs, the Schemestress has abilities unique to her like dealing Percent Damage Attack, disabling the enemy from counterattacking, or switching the front and back row of the enemy squad. To a lesser extent, she is also the only class whose melee attack is based on INT rather than ATK. Unfortunately, these abilities fall into Useless Useful Spell category most of the time.
• Medium Awareness: Averted for the most part; like in Phantom Brave, the fourth wall breaks and Genre Savvy is kept to a minimum. Asagi is the main exception.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Asagi. After winning the first battle against Feinne, Asagi attempts to take the lead role from Revya and Gig and in an attempt to show Gig up, she blows up the planet. Winning the battle rewards you with Asagi as a playable character and Gig pissed off that they'll have to start the game all over again.
• The Mole: Initially, the game tries to make Vitali and Christophe look like moles, but in the end, they really are on Revya's side. The real mole is Levin, who even comments to Vitali that he makes a better spy than him.
• Multiple Endings: Albeit mainly "Where Are They Now?" Epilogues set sometime after the events of the Normal Path. Certain maps do have alternate endings depending on whether Revya wins or loses, such as the final battle in the Demon Path and the Optional Boss battle against Lord Median.
• My Future Self and Me: By abusing the Timey-Wimey Ball, you can unlock Lord Median in his prime as a usable character, then arrange to (briefly) have him in your party at the same time as Gestahl, his animated corpse, at least during the Demon Path. Nobody comments on this... though, granted, the fact that you have Lord Median at all is a matter of Gameplay and Story Segregation.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In the Good Ending of the Demon Path, Gig undergoes this after recalling his memories as Vigilance.
• No Campaign for the Wicked: Subverted. The game has an infamous Villain Protagonist campaign called the "Demon Path". In this alternative storyline, Revya decides that it would be a better idea to use the awesome destructive powers of an evil god to do whatever the hell they want, and with the gleeful encouragement of Gig, starts down a path to ultimate power as the tyrannical "Devourlord". Then it gets worse. Much worse.
• Noble Demon: Gig, after considerable Character Development. He's still a jerk, though.
• Nonstandard Game Over: Some of the dialogue choices lead to this (but the game warns you ahead of time). Generally, they involve taking Gig up on his offer of (huge) additional power in exchange for Revya's body.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Surprisingly, Levin of all people. He is not as dumb as he looks, though it isn't quite clear at first. All those times Revya and their friends were attacked and somehow got involved in seemingly random events that had nothing to do with the World Eaters? That was all his doing. Or rather, Raksha's.
• Obligatory Swearing: This game even gives 'Makai Kingdom' a run for its money. Most of it comes from Gig, who swears freely and with no restraint. There is one scene that almost had him drop the F-Bomb and Goddamnit in the same line!
• Omnicidal Maniac: Gig and The Devourlord. Despite their names, the World Eaters are not, though Thuris is still pretty damn evil.
• Older and Wiser: Endorph, whom you might remember from Phantom Brave as Walnut, the Jerkass with a bit of a Social Darwinist streak who made life much harder for poor little Marona. Now he's Just Like Robin Hood, a Big Damn Hero, and inspires the weak-willed to become stronger, which earns him the hatred of Dark Action Girl Shauna.
• One-Woman Wail: Crying for the Dark Sky, Thuris' theme song. Bonus points in that the one woman wailing sounds just a little like Kanan's VA. Also present in the theme songs for Fienne and Drazil.
• Only Sane Man: Revya often finds themselves in this situation, though this thankfully lessens when more level-headed party members like Vitali, Juno and Grunzford join.
  • Lobo is the sane one in the Demon Path, for having the common sense to betray you in the end. Thorndyke and Shauna, too. Initially.
• Our Angels Are Different: They look like midgets that carry shotguns and sound like kids. Lobo lamshades this as he's holding Agrippa's grandma hostage with a knife to her throat.
• Our Gods Are Different: There are multiple kinds of god in the setting. All but Ashur have been shown to be able to die and reincarnate.
  • First, the creator god Ashur created the World Rulers and the overseer gods who would later be given roles like the Masters of Life and Death. He's said to be omniscient regarding the worlds he created, though not omnipotent. Since he's part of a larger setting independent of his own existence, he's probably not the God, whose actions have been felt indirectly elsewhere.
  • There are two World Rulers, Haephnes and Drazil. Each governs a world that is named for them. Haephnes prefers to let people do as they will while Drazil believes the people need to be guided into a perfect world.
  • Beneath them are the seven Overseers, only five of whom are seen. They don't seem to have had any inborn role at first and instead simply watch over both worlds. The Masters of Death ensure that the souls of the deceased are properly escorted back into heaven while the Masters of Life allow them to reincarnate. Without a Master of Death, the cycle of rebirth is broken and birth rates decline due to a lack of souls.
  • Finally, just below them, World Eaters are also a type of minor, ascended god. A mortal soul that transfers worlds gains the ability to devour souls and will not age if they don't want to. They're also very powerful and may or may not have human form. It is not clear why some souls maintain their proper form and some become huge and monstrous.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Nereids. Distrust humans but are generally benign, yet very flirty (they require Interspecies Romance to reproduce).
  • Alexemia, for some reason, has the typical fish tail as opposed to legs like the rest of the Nereids.
• Pædo Hunt: Hawthorne is one of the few characters that you face down in both the Normal and Demon Path modes. In the former, he attempts to rape and murder Trish. In the latter, he succeeds.
• Painting the Medium: In The Stinger when Gig is reincarnated, he goes through the same character creation process as the player (even selecting his name the same way) does at the start of the game, snarking at the proceedings all the way.
• Pet the Dog: Subverted in the Demon Path where Revya saves the life of a angel just so that they could kill her friend right in front of her. This behavior is also mocked when Lobo is revealed to be a traitor in the Demon Path, specifically if you choose to say that you trust Lobo, his Freudian Excuse kicks into play and he leaves you, claiming that people who trust each other are fools. Gig mocks him for it.
  • Dio also has one in the Demon Path where he's risking his life to save his queen and eventually has a full blown Heel–Face Turn.
  • Gig has this at the end of the Normal Path where he admits his regret over everything Drazil made him do, taking responsibility since he still enjoyed what he did even though his personality was changed.
• The Plan: Lots of people actually, but [[Levin/Raksha]]'s is the most jaw-droppingly magnificent. Layna's gambit with Revya and Gig backfires most spectacularly in the Demon Path, where Revya uses Gig's power without restraint to kill and destroy everything around them for little or no reason.
• Plot Tumor: A good portion of the game is unrelated to the titular World Eaters, Gig notes this and provides the quote for the trope's page. It's eventually subverted with the reveal that every single one of those quests was the grand plan of Levin, who is actually one of the World Eaters.
• Press X to Die: The game includes options like these, though it helpfully labels anything that will result in an immediate game over with a little skull-and-crossbones in the option list. At least one option leads to a different path on a New Game Plus, though.
• Purposely Overpowered:
  • The Gideon class, which becomes available after you beat the Normal or Demon Path once. They have the highest stats, far above regular units even at Level 1, and their attacks can target a single line an entire squad depending on their placement. On the downside, they are ludicrously expensive.
  • The "Demon Force" Tactic, a 11th-Hour Superpower received right before the final battle of the Normal Path, can greatly hasten the Level Grinding during "Inspection Room battles" when combined with the right decors.
• Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: In both paths. Either, they're with you to destroy the World Eaters or along for the ride/enslaved by you.
• Relationship Values: Built by interacting with characters during downtime and performing combo attacks. They determine your ending.
• Religion of Evil: Kanan is the high priest of a cult that worships Thuris, a World Eater.
• The Reveal:
  • Early in the story, sometime before you encounter Thuris, Revya witnesses another memory of Gig's...except he's more solemn and melancholy, and answers to the name Vigilance. Later events reveal this to be Gig's former self.
  • Levin, the ditzy Sepp who got the group into trouble via his idiocy, is none other than Raksha, the last of the World Eaters. Levin himself is little more than a soulless puppet for Raksha to manipulate and control at his leisure.
  • The end of the game features a shocking twist: Revya, and Layna herself, are World Eaters themselves, albeit hailing from Haephnes. Furthermore, Revya is the reincarnated child of Lord Median the Conqueror.
• Rocket Punch: Not that you would expect that kind of stuff when you first start the game. The attack description: The hammerfall of an angel destroys the enemy.
• Screw Destiny: Subverted with the Demon Path. Going against Virtuous' plans leads to Revya going to some very dark, very disturbing places. And all for the hell of it.
• Seashell Bra: Alexemia, the Neraid queen, takes this a step further with seashell nipple-covers
• Sharing a Body: Gig was initially going for a Demonic Possession, but thanks to the Crimson Tear Layna used during the fusion, the former is now stuck inside Revya's body unless they give him full control.
• Shipper on Deck: Grunzford and Lady Layna AKA Virtuous ship Gig and Female Revya in his ending.
• Ship Tease: Trish's ending has one thief jealous of the relationship between her and Revya, though it's not stated that they're actually in a relationship. It would seem unlikely, but another thief laughs and says he better not get his hopes up or Revya will kick his ass.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Both versions of the Median ending. In the Bad Ending, Median kills Virtuous and causes the world to collapse. In the Good Ending, Revya contracts Scarlet Iago and succumbs to the disease, giving Drazil two powerful souls to use as World Eaters.
• Shoulders of Doom: All the gods in the game, including Gig, wear these, though they actually hover above their shoulders. Your main character gains Gig's Shoulders of Doom whenever they execute Demon Blast. Gig's Shoulders of Doom can also turn into wings or become the blade of his scythe
• Shout-Out: Gig, upon being pressed on info on Feinne, claims it can 'fly at 5 million miles an hour and shoot freaking lasers from its eyes, but can't see through lead and is totally weak to a certain element from its homeworld'. He also mentions that one World Eater can move at hyperspeed and create tornados by running in circles. Gee, who could that be? And to round out the DC trifecta, he mentions how one of them has green skin, wears a cape, and can turn invisible.
  • There's another Shout-Out to Superman later in the form of the classic Phrase Catcher.
    Odie: What's that up in the sky!?
    Rockum: Gyarahga! (Dat's a bird!)
    Sockum: Kryuruku! (It looks so plain! Teehee.)
    Odie: No! It's the legendary dragon, Sluperam!
  • Also, to Disgaea's favorite superheroes in the Demon Path. Galahad tells Trish that he'll find her missing feathers. What does he call himself? Prism Beige. by this point, Thorndyke, Trish and Galahad are completely off their rockers. Gig must be awesome at Break the Cutie
  • The Real Dio has the Triforce in his chest.
  • At one point, one NPC in the game mentions that his neighbor has been meeting with someone in the night lately, and then, while trying to remember that someone's name, he thinks if it is either Ender or Gandalf.
• Sinister Scythe: Gig's when he gets to fight briefly in the normal ending. And when the main character performs their special attack, Demon Blast, the Onyx Blade turns into a red scythe at the end of the attack and appears to slice the foe in half.
• Smug Snake: Thuris and Drazil, Gamma and Joules.
• Stable Time Loop: The Median Good Ending causes a very unusual one of these. Lujei's shenanigans causes Revya and Gig to be sent back in time to when Lord Median killed Vigilance. After being weakened, the latter is killed by Virtuous, who notices Revya's unusual circumstances and makes off with the Onyx Blade. The encounter likely gave her the idea to fuse Gig's soul with Revya.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Vitali is a master of this technique, which more often than not scares the crap out of Gig.
• Stupid Evil: Some of the villains consider Revya this if they pick the Demon Path.
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: In the Bad Ending of the Demon Path, Revya kills both Haephnes and Drazil and erases both their worlds from existence, killing everything on them and themselves with it. What's their response as this all goes down?
  Revya: It doesn't matter. It was fun.
• Supernatural Aid: Gig is reduced to giving this, since it's the only way he can ensure Revya can stay alive long enough for him to take over their body.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Ranged > Magic > Melee > Ranged, with some variation for flying/monster units. Can be devastating, as your high-level archers do 0 damage against level 5 knights. Oddly, it's only the "leader" of the squad that determines this bonus - a mage-led squad of knights is treated as a magic unit for RPS purposes.
• Team Mom: Shauna in the Demon Path. Until later when Trish dies, at which point she, too, utterly gives up on the world.
• Theme Music Power-Up:
  • Gig has three leitmotifs, 'Bad Boys', 'Desperado' and 'Rock 'N Rocks' — when the two latter start playing, heads will usually roll. In the Demon Path however, Desperado usually plays when something really bad is going to happen.
  • When Endorph gets seriously pissed off, a certain song that Phantom Brave players will recognize starts playing. That is, 'R&R Junkiee', aka Walnut's Theme.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: In the Median Good Ending, should Gig and Revya go back in time fight the guy who started this whole mess and win, they get turned into two of the World Eaters. This means that even in non-Median time travel plots, you're fighting alternate future versions of yourselves.
• Token Aquatic Race: The Nereids are this, which is considerably egregious seeing there are Loads and Loads of Races above land (and even some in the skies) but only one that live under the water. They also happen to be a One-Gender Race who need to mate with men of other races (primarily humans, but also potentially Sepp), and while most of them are Apparently Human Merfolk, their queen is your classic fish-tailed Seashell Bra mermaid. This discrepancy is never explained.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Gig loves hotpods shortly after Christophe introduces them to him. In fact, he loves them so much he flat-out states it'll be the only thing left after he's done wiping out the world.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Vitali learns, to his surprise and/or horror, that Kanan might just be a man. Well, he would know these things.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Using edicts such as 'Kick', 'Fight' 'Steal', 'Kidnap' and 'Combine' on Innocent Bystanders boosts your stats, gives money, or allows you to recruit characters you can't buy at this point. Just don't try it on people who can't fight back, or you'll have Heroman to contend with. Or posters for that matter.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: The aforementioned Heroman. You'll probably beat him the first couple of times, but he gets stronger every time you have to deal with him. Also trying to steal from Innocent Bystanders and failing will put you in debt very quickly.
• Villainous Crossdresser: Kanan and Penn during the Demon Path
• Villain Protagonist: Gig. And Revya, AKA the BFF, during the Demon Path.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Demon Path is your way to say this to the old hag.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: All of your troops are only present via Gig's materialize ability, channeled through Ravya. If Revya dies, your entire army vanishes into thin air and you lose. Also, the members of a squad will retreat if their leader is defeated.
• Wife Husbandry:
  • Hawthorne's 'Judge Turpin-like habit of raising girls to the age of 17 to rape and murder afterwards.
  • Also the Nereids' plan with Penn. Given their generally benign (although they distrust humans) nature, they do care about him as a person (much like he actually prefers to live with them over other humans). One of them (Juno) treats him as her son.
• A Wizard Did It: Lujei, despite being treated as a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, is responsible for the Timey-Wimey Ball up above. After overhearing Gig's desire to kill Median after he and Revya witness a dream of the Conqueror killing him, she sends them off to the past where they confront and potentially defeat him.
• World of Badass: Arguably, Soul Nomad ties with Nippon Ichi's flagship series Disgaea. Nearly every character is powerful and ain't afraid to show off just how powerful they are.
• Yandere: As mentioned on the GrimGrimoire page: Lujei, Lujei, Lujei.
• Worth It: Revya's justification for killing off the universe in the Demon Path. They had no other reason for doing so, except for fun.
• You Bastard!: The Demon Path takes this to the extreme.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: This leads to Kanan's Karmic Death.
  • Later, Drazil, Gamma and Joules do the same to Thuris instead of reforming him. They also try it on Feinne, but Revya Mercy Kills her first.
  • Finally, your entire party and Gig in the Bad Ending of the Demon Path.
• You Will Be Spared: Gig mentions that he will keep hotpods if he ever gets to destroy the world.
• Xanatos Gambit: The possession during the opening sequence was orchestrated by Layna, who predicted the outcome. If Gig doesn't try possession, he stays locked up. If he does and fails, his power is used to wipe out the world eaters. If he tries and succeeds, Layna can stuff him back in his can.
  • Of course, it goes horribly wrong in the Demon Path, when you betray her with it. As it turns out however, she even had a contingency plan for that.

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