The Adventures of Ledo and Ix is a series from KidCanDrive
that "uses the visual vocabulary of retro video games to explore the human fear of both the unknown and the known." It follows a pair of RPG protagonists as they wander across a 16-bit landscape, manage their inventory, interact with strangely robotic townspeople, and try to figure out how to get rid of a princess (or two).
The series is notable for its atmosphere - the near-absence of traditional action scenes, combined with the titular pair being the only "real" people in the world, results in something that is both melancholy and vaguely disturbing, aimless yet claustrophobic, leading one viewer to wonder "Is this where beta testers go when they die?"
Ledo and Ix can be found on Penny Arcade TV and YouTube, as well as the aforelinked KidCanDrive website.
The series provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Ledo is not only the fighter of the duo, but the first to charge into strange anomalies.
- The Alcoholic: Ledo insists that she only drinks mead for the stat buffs. And the taste.
- All in a Row: The princess(es) keep a fixed distance from Ix most of the time, leading to some difficulties around the campfire.
- Trying to get Ix, even temporarily, at the front of the party might have been a mistake...
- Anticlimax: The void in the first episode.
- Beautiful Void: Old school graphics aside, the titular pair are the only people in a world of scenic landscapes, scattered monsters, and villages of automatons.
- Blood Knight: After fighting some monsters in episode 4, Ledo spends the rest of it trying to provoke another Random Encounter.
- Brick Joke: Ledo's mead problem.
- Companion Cube: Ix and the princess.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Ledo and Ix Battle Epically.
- Doomed Hometown: As revealed via Troubled Back Story Flashback, in which Ledo can't remember if her family were farmers or fisherfolk, and ends with "some things that looked like rabbits, or maybe dead people."
- Unexplained Recovery: Except her "mom" is alive and kicking when Ledo visits her home. For a given value of alive, anyway.
- Game-Breaking Bug: The conflicting princesses.
- A Glitch in the Matrix: An explanation for some of the stranger events.
- Facepalm: "Tell me you didn't use all the Hover Crystals."
- Informed Ability: Ix is evidently a spellcaster, but has never had a chance to use any magic.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: "She's not going to know."
- Medium Awareness: Ix can hear it when Ledo manages her inventory, while Ledo knows that a place must be crawling with monsters "unless that music is very misleading."
- Mind Screw: Trying to figure out the glitches, in and out of universe.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: A bandit nabs one of the pair's unwanted princesses.Ix: We're not going to rescue her, are we.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The "short cut" in the first episode.
- Oh, Crap!: Ledo realizes that not only are they getting set up for an Escort Mission, but they're being handed a princess when they already have one.
- Paranoia Fuel: In-universe, after the unnerving visit to town.Ix: Do you think everyone in the world is... that way? Except for us?Ledo: Get some sleep. You need the hit points.
- Pet the Dog: "I got you a turtle."
- Revenge: Ledo adventures to seek vengeance on the soldiers, maybe, of some king somewhere who attacked her home village for some reason.Ix: But you don't really know who to seek vengeance on.Ledo: That's why it's called SEEKING vengeance.
- RPG Mechanics 'Verse: Arguably a Deconstruction of how unsettling it would be to be to live in one. Especially if the cartridge was slightly tilted.
- Sequence Breaking: Rescuing the princess before finding the dragon that was supposed(?) to kidnap her.
- Scoring Points: They're aware of the existence of "points," but not their actual score. Ix hopes they have a lot of them.
- Swirly Energy Thingy: Ledo is of course ready to charge right into it.Ix: That could be anything!Ledo: That's the point.
- Tempting Fate: "CAN THIS DAY GET ANY WORSE."
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: Where do you put a rescued princess to get credit for rescuing her? And how do you know if the mute damsel you rescued is the princess the NPCs are talking about?
- Vitriolic Best Buds: A touch of this, yes.Ix: I mean, would you like me if we weren't on this quest together?Ledo: Who says I like you NOW? (Beat) Ix, of course I like you.
- Wall of Text: When an NPC does say something meaningful, it almost puts the duo to sleep.
- Welcome to Corneria: Ledo describes the villagers as "automated." Leads to...
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: "Just because she's a princess doesn't mean she's a person."
- What Measure Is a Mook?: On the other hand, Ledo can't bring herself to kill a dragon who hasn't done anything but sit in a cave.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Exasperates Ix. "WHO IS YE??"
