Video Game / Croma Heroes

Croma Heroes is a JRPG created with RPG Maker VX Ace and published in 2015 by Zoro the Gallade. It is part of a series which currently includes a prequel, Croma Zeroes.

The prequel tells the story of two kids named Scarlet and Xanthe, and their childish adventures in a in a typical fantasy setting adventure. The main game has the duo, now grown up into adults, take on a much more traditional JRPG adventure, with a wide supporting cast and a large world to explore.

The first game can be downloaded here. The original download link for Croma Zeroes no longer works.

The series contains examples of the following tropes:

Croma Zeroes

• Badass Normal: Scarlet and Xanthe are just kids armed with firecrackers, toy swords and boxing gloves. They are capable of taking on and beating adults into submission.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Xanthe.

Croma Heroes

• Affably Evil: Thanatos. He's the first one to help Scarlet out of a tight spot, and gives the group important information to beat the next boss after he's killed.
• Alas, Poor Villain: In Ironrook Prison you find out Teofilus only joined Iridia's side out of the despair of seeing his wife murdered and losing his only daughter. Who turns out is Celeste.
• Badass Normal: Celeste manages to be a threat to supernatural beings akin to gods with nothing but her knives, guns and street smarts. And unlike most other main characters, she has no military training or magic powers.
  • You also get joined briefly by two soldiers of Croma and two of Marius' mercenary companions. In both occasions they assist you in taking down an Angel.
• The Cameo: Characters from several Italian RPG Maker games appear as Non Player Characters or bonus bosses.
• Colourful Theme Naming: Predictably, all characters from the Kingdom of Croma (and then some).
  • Albus (Latin for White)
  • Celeste (A shade of blue)
  • Galatea (Greek for Milky White)
  • Iridia (From Iris, goddess associated with rainbows)
  • Jet (A shade of black)
  • Scarlet
  • Schwartze (German for Black)
  • Vert (French for Green)
  • Viola(Italian for Violet) and Indigo
  • Xanthe (Greek for Yellow)
• Convection, Schmonvection: Subverted: you cannot approach the volcano because the steam from a nearby hotspot makes the air too hot to go any further. Once you find the Blizzard Gem, though, you can safely approach even lava streams.
• Elemental Powers: Everyone can gain special attacks with their weapons by equipping magical rings. Viola and Albus can also equip books to get spells.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • In the Library, reading all the books will eventually result in you finding the Snail Shell to access the secret shop. If you dawdle around and try to read books during the sequence where you only have Celeste (who is illiterate) in your party, she will just comment on the "weird words" on the book...or, if you haven't found the Snail Shell yet, she will find the book it's hidden inside and commend on the pictures, before accidentally peeling it out of a page.
  • In the Dawnport Underground, Jet stops you from running into a patrol, joins your party and advises you to cause a landslide to take them out instead. If you don't attempt to take the lower route and instead cause the landslide yourself, he will join you just before you enter battle with the survivors.
• The Empire: The Armillian Empire. Eventually it gets ruined and reforms as a republic.
• Four Is Death: You fight four boss fights in the Deathlands. Thanatos also answers four of your questions before dying.
• Goddamned Bats: Sparks will swarm you in the volcano and quickly whittle away your health with area fire spells. Pollen clouds in a different dungeon instead blind your entire party, cling on to life by healing one another, and explode if you don't finish them off after they reach half HP.
• Guide Dang It!: Some side quests can be hard to complete without catching on to very subtle hints:
  • Yuki can be visited as soon as you get your ship back after it gets wrecked, but you find ice blades blocking the entrance. Savvy players would assume they have to find something in the volcano to melt them, and thus first find an item that allows entry in the volcano. Instead, it's the other way around: you first need to recruit Schwartze so that he can break the blades, then you can get the Blizzard Gem from the giant snowball in the temple and explore the volcano.
  • Again in Yuki is a secret shop which requires a certain item to visit. Said item is at the other side of the world, hidden in one of the books of the Library of Canvas, which you only have to visit twice for plot reasons, and both times you might miss it.
• Hero of Another Story: Marius and Laeva depart the capital to try and stop the Armillian Empire by themselves. They cross path with the protagonists now and then, and exchange updates on their progress.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Xanthe gets maimed in the prologue to protect Galatea, though he ultimately survives. Schwartze gets fatally wounded trying to get the last of the guards to safety. Jet blows himself up trying to stop Abaddon. And Vert and Albus had been planning theirs from the very beginning, since with Iridia gone, all of her servants, including themselves, would cease existing.
• Les Yay: Celeste loves to tease every other female character. She eventually gets in a somewhat serious relationship with Viola.
• Light Is Not Good: Iridia and her Angels mainly use Light-element magic.
• Monster Town: The Sterna peninsula.
• Nonstandard Game Over: You will collapse in the desert if you go for too long without finding the oasis. You also get a game over if you accidentally kill Xanthe before he can snap out of his possession in the Temple of Sterna.
• Playable Epilogue: After the final boss fight, you can have a walk around Hue and speak with various Non Player Characters and your party members before heading for the credits.

• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The three main characters, two guards and the princess in their charge, are joined by a street urchin, a fallen angel, the avatar of a dragon, a surgeon and a possessed suit of armor.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Albus' Shadow seals itself in a sword, and a spirit named Vivian unknowingly prevents it from being unleashed by not letting any human touch it...until Albus needs it back, that is.
• Shout-Out
  • The Library of Canvas contains several books referencing famous video games such as Castlevania, Kirby and Final Fantasy.
  • Celeste picks on Xanthe and mocks him about his height, comparing him to Schwartze, who at this point is a possessed suit of armor. She finally sends him berserk when she asks him if he'd give an arm and a leg to be taller.
  • A mission has you reuniting a grieving groom with his now-undead bride. Of course, they're named Victor and Emily.
  • One of the dungeons needs a password to be spoken in front of its main entrance to gain access. using "Mellon" as the password uncovers a small Easter Egg.
  • Viola's Sedative ability will procs a message spelling the skill's name as Sedagive.
• Sinister Scythe: Cocytus Chill, the most powerful polearm in the game. It Dooms its wielder but increases their attack power immensely on the last turn before they're automatically KO'd.
• The Stoic: Albus never changes expression. Not that this makes it hard to know when he means business.
• Weaponized Headgear: One of the pieces of headger that can be obtained is a horned helmet. Xanthe can wear it to deal more damage with his Headbutt skill.
• Western Zodiac: The seven forms of Albus' sword take the name of seven of twelve zodiac signs. Amusingly, those of the resident Battle Couple (Leo and Taurus) are regarded as having a high love compatibility, and those of a couple that forms soon after (Scorpio and Virgo) are known to astrology nuts to form unusual and slow-burning relationships.