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  • Alternative Character Interpretation: The main character can be interpreted as a virus invading Eden's mainframe, made popular by SARA's review of the game.
  • Awesome Music: Pretty much the entire game, but the notable standouts include Stage 3 (Ken Ishii's "Creation (The State of Art)") and Stage 5 (Adam Freeland's "Fear (Don's Magical Adventure Mix)", which samples its main riff from Marlena Shaw's version of "California Soul").
    • Double Subverted with the Area 4 music ("ROCK IS SPONGE"). For most of the level, you get a cool, percussion-heavy piece. Then, out of nowhere, a random electric guitar appears in the boss. At first this seems jarring... but then you put the rest of the level out of your mind... and realize that the boss music is AWESOME.
    • Hydelic's trance mix, created for the new Area X in Rez Infinite, encompasses various genres of trance, ending with a beautiful vocal piece for the credits.
  • Fan Nickname: The Lost Area is occasionally referred to as "Area 0" (it doesn't even have a boss battle). The giant cylindrical ship you meet about halfway through the Area 5 stage sometimes gets the name "S.S.note  Sigmund Freud.''
  • Fridge Horror: Eden is shutting itself down because it's under so much stress from trying to handle so much information, and a virus infected her. You're tasked with...forcing it back into duty.
    • However, she does ask you to save her right before the final boss and thanks you in the white butterfly ending's post-credits message.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • Eden doubting her existence, to the point where fans portray her as having an existential crisis over anything, even stupid things like finding out there's no pizza left.
    • The Trance Vibrator for the PS2 port, due to many fans immediately coming up with naughty ways to use it.
    • Still the second most absurd depiction of pop culture-style hacking (the first being Hackers)
  • Never Live It Down: While the game is highly acclaimed regardless of what system it's on, the PS2 port is infamous for the Trance Vibrator accessory which naturally people came up with rather...fascinating uses for.
  • Play the Game, Skip the Story: Ooh, pretty lights!
  • Polished Port: Every port of the game has improved upon it in some way or another. The PS2 version doubled the framerate, and introduces a vibrator accessory that — jokes about using it in NSFW ways aside — lets you immerse yourself in the music further. Rez HD bumped the resolution up to 720p and adds online leaderboards. Rez Infinite brought sharper textures, 4K rendering, and VR. Finally, the Windows version of Infinite on Steam has mouse controls for the first time since the Dreamcast version, along with even higher resolutions.....up to 16k!! And just as icing on the cake, the release of the Steam Deck makes the Steam version the first officially-portable version of the game!
  • This Is Your Premise on Drugs: The game has been likened to TRON on ecstasy.
  • Underused Game Mechanic:
    • The original Dreamcast version has mouse support, but it would not appear in ports until the Windows version of Rez Infinite. The PS4 version included close alternatives, with aiming with Move controllers or looking around in VR.
    • Also in Rez Infinite: The game gets taken off-the-rails for exactly one new level, Area X, which is only a fraction of the already short main game in playtime. The movement mechanics are also almost completely optional, save for a few moments where the player is required to fly towards a specific point. Otherwise, almost all of Area X can be treated as if it was the main game if the player really wanted to.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The smoother remake of the original game Areas is great enough, but Area X takes them to a whole new level.
  • Watch It for the Meme: The game got more publicity from the fact the Japanese version came with a freaking vibrator.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: The AI's name is Eden. Area 5 is a tour of the evolution of life from single-celled organisms, to sea life, to the migration to land, and ultimately, either leaving Earth to colonize other planets or the Ascent To A Higher Plane Of Existence (depending on your interpretation).

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