Video Game / Evering

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Evering is an RPG Maker MV game developed by Purpure Studio in 2024.

Thanks to Chronologists who can see into their past lives, it's public knowledge that the world is in a time loop and everyone simply accepts their destiny, with the Keeper and the Hive enforcing the consistency of every loop. Prince Eldar of Onnya grew up with an obsession with the legend of the hero, who defeated an enigmatic villain and saved time itself. However, the villain swears to come back in 300 years to finish off time. In the present, Eldar explores the world in order to search for clues about the hero and learn of other interpretations of the legend. Unfortunately, this not only causes friction with the rest of the royal family because of his neglect of his royal duties, the Keeper and the Hive seek to stop him out of fear he could cause destiny to diverge and potentially end time itself.

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This game contains examples of:

• The Ageless: Played with when it comes to those with the Seal of the Keeper. They stop aging at some point, but their bodies aren't immune to age-related diseases. In rare cases, humans and humanoid species can be afflicted with the seal, such as Jövla, who outlived his home kingdom, Llooan.
• Anti-Hero: Eldar wants to become the successor to the hero of legend by defeating the villain that is supposed to reincarnate. However, he's very inconsiderate of anyone or anything that doesn't pertain to this quest, ignores his royal duties, and breaks random pots to get items. However, learning more about the outside world and his country's dark history causes him to take his royal duties more seriously, bringing him closer to being an Ideal Hero.
• The Archmage: The true legend of the hero reveals Nyo, the former princess of Onnya's zsagni royal family, is the world's greatest witch, being able to summon a powerful monster that gave even Yvlor and his companions trouble. She also devised a spell to seal Yvlor in crystal in order to prevent him from killing himself, though this degraded her mind because of the sheer amount of power it drains from her. Finally, she came up with a way to use Yvlor's adventure book to cause a time loop, which she keeps restarting until she can find a way to save him. When the party tries to fight Yvlor a second time, she panics and unleashes a magic attack that knocks out everyone except herself, Yvlor, and Eldar. Fortunately for the party, she's The Unfought and the story ends when Eldar defeats Yvlor.
• Bad Boss: Dahma is the head of the Dahma Theater Company, who forces responsibilities on Laric that they didn't sign up for; they wanted to be in charge of the special effects, but she put them in charge of writing the plays. When Laric misplaces the keys to the theater rooms and allows Eldar to trespass on the theater, Dahma summons a magic puppet to attack them.
• Being Evil Sucks: Although the Keeper acts high-and-mighty and is tyrannical in enforcing destiny in the time loop, deep down, she's miserable in pretending to be an all-knowing goddess and feels that she's wasted her life as the Society's figurehead.
• Big Bad: The villain of the legend is supposed to appear after 300 years after their defeat by the hero in order to destroy Time. In truth, the hero and villain are the same person, Yvlor, who is somehow connected to the end of the current time loop. However, when the party meets Yvlor, he's an ordinary, but powerful swordsman who clearly doesn't have the ability to cause a time loop by himself. Then it turns out Mother Dabyos is actually Yvlor's lover Princess Nyo, who turns out to be the true cause of the time loop. She possesses Yvlor's adventure journal, which she uses to reset time to 300 years in the past in order to prevent him from killing himself. This reset happened over four million times, and this caused "glitches" in the timeline such as breach creatures, the Seal of the Keeper, and chronologists. In order to stop the time loop, Eldar has to refuse to give her Yvlor's adventure journal after she accidentally loses it.
• Combat Medic:
  • Lue can learn offensive spells of all elements, along with single-target and group healing spells.
  • Eldar is a swordsman who starts with First Aid, a TP-based healing skill that also cures bleed.
  • Laric is an alchemist who can create damaging items using ingredients. They also have higher attack growth than Eldar despite wielding a giant spoon, ensuring that they have an option to fall back on if they run out of ingredients.
• Counter-Attack: Eldar's final sword, the Imperial Sword, gives him a small chance to cancel a physical attack and strike back with a high crit rate.
• Crutch Character: Lue is a Deconstructive Parody, since the first few battles are scripted so that she will always get the first turn and oneshot the enemies before Eldar can get a turn. However, she gets injured in a cutscene and after recovering, she's nerfed in terms of stats, especially speed, to the point where she's about on par with the now stronger Eldar.
• Cursed Item: The Wraith Mask is obtained after defeating the Royal Wraith. It has a random chance of inflicting dread on a party member, preventing them from doing anything other than defending or using items for a few turns. The only way to get rid of it is to go to the Tower of Zeddra and pay the blacksmith to convert it into a shield.
• Defend Command: Defending recovers 20 TP and 10% MP, in addition to reducing damage. Defending also has no ATB windup like other actions, causing the character's next turn to arrive faster.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • In the Library of the Abyss, a book reveals after Overi's mother died, Overi's father left him in an orphanage and then killed himself by laying on train tracks.
  • The hero and villain of the legend, Yvlor, tries to kill himself after he realizes how far he has fallen as a hero. His lover, Nyo, seals him away in a crystal to prevent him from doing so. Unfortunately, she is forced to revert time using Yvlor's adventure journal whenever someone unseals him and fails to prevent him from killing himself. If Eldar chooses not to give Yvlor's adventure journal to Nyo, he can have one last duel with Yvlor, after which Yvlor kills himself with no one to reset time.
• Duel Boss: The Final Boss is a duel between Eldar and Yvlor, since the latter wants one last battle before he dies. However, Eldar's companions will temporarily enter the battle for one action and Nyo will give Yvlor a large heal partway through the battle, but they otherwise don't maintain a constant presence on the field.
• Easy Level Trick:
  • One of the tougher midgame bosses is the Keeper, who has high stats even after the party destroys the stones maintaining her barrier. However, the Sacred Bullet can be used as a consumable to deal several thousand points of damage to her, cutting the length of the battle.
  • The Security Protocol Level 100 boss has over 20k HP, but if the player collected all the password digits in Ilayuna's bank, they receive the Master Password, a consumable item that instantly kills the boss.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Overi reveals that he considers the Keeper his mother and that he believes she knows best for the timeline, which is why he will violently enforce her will. He's also distraught when the Keeper demotes him for failing his mission to stop Eldar. The Keeper eventually reveals that she's not actually Overi's mother, but she does think of him as a son. She tells Overi not to make the same mistakes in keeping up the Society of the Eclipse's falsehoods and buying into delusions of godhood. In the ending, the two retire from the Hive to live a normal life.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • The Evil One in the hero's legend didn't seem to have any plans to destroy Time until after the hero killed the former's witch subordinate. This is given context by the true story of the hero, where Yvlor actually rescued the witch Nyo, but fell madly in love with her. When she left out of the belief that she was distracting him from his heroic duties, he completely lost it and slaughtered soldiers on both sides of the Onnya-Llooan war out of rage. turning him into both the hero and the villain of the story.
  • The Keeper's forces obstruct the party in their journey to learn about the legendary hero, but she's looking out for the Hive captain Overi and regrets lying about being his mother and recruiting him as a Child Soldier.
• Fallen Hero: The villain of the legend is Yvlor, a respected Llooan paladin who once went around performing heroics alongside his three companions. Unfortunately, he became madly in love with Nyo, the lost princess the Onnya's Zsagni dynasty. Nyo left the group because she feared her presence would distract Yvlor from his heroic duties, but this caused him to go mad and slaughter both Onnya and Llooan soldiers. At the top of Eerial Volcano, Yvlor realizes how far he has fallen and tries to kill himself, but Nyo reloads his adventure's journal and seals him in a crystal.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • The people of Onnya are taught that zsagni are Always Chaotic Evil and should be killed on sight. Eldar starts out thinking this way, but changes his mind when Mother Dabyos helps him despite his racist remarks. It's also implied that other non-human species face some degree of discrimination, since there are hardly any chies and myceos in Onnya's castle. This is because King Rogrio usurped the original royal family of Onnya, which consisted of zsagni, and he wanted to erase all traces of the previous regime.
  • Hol's zsagni community has been there longest due to being exiled from Onnya. Ironically, there are racial tensions between them and the chies and myceos that immigrated later.
  • In the true record of the hero, Princess Nyo is racist against chies and barely tolerates Yvlor's chie companion Possu, despite otherwise being a kindhearted person. Even when moving to a multiracial community as Mother Dabyos, she doesn't let go of her prejudice. This is despite Possu being the most loyal of Yvlor's companions, who risked his life alongside Yvlor to protect her from King Rogrio.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father:
  • Eldar's grandparents disapprove of his pursuit of the legend of the hero due to him having responsibilities as the heir and future king of Onnya and his parents died due to their pursuit of the legend as well. They later force Eldar to choose whether to stay at home and become king, or leave and render his inheritance null and void and is never welcome back to the palace, and Eldar chooses the latter, though they later regret nullifying his inheritance as king and will welcome him back with open arms, acknowledging that that they should not deny him his interests.
  • Tyru's adoptive father gets mad at the party for going along with her claim that she's the pirate Tyru's reincarnation. He refuses to let her accompany the party, so Tyru gives the party Yvlor's greatsword.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Despite being from Onnya, where racism against zsagni is prevalent, Lue doesn't discriminate against zsagni and tells Eldar not to be prejudiced against them. This is because she's a chronologist and would therefore remember meeting zsagni outside of Onnya, which would have overturned her preconceptions.
  • The Hive believes Yvlor is the one causing the time loops or is capable of destroying time, but the true legend of the hero paints him as a powerful swordsman with little magic prowess. The princess he rescues, Nyo, is portrayed as much more powerful than him due to her incredible magic prowess. It turns out he truly has no control over the time loops; it's actually Nyo rewinding time to 300 years in the past whenever he manages to kill himself.
  • In the Library of the Abyss one of the books selected by Abelök is the diary of Mother Dabyos, who worked selflessly in the Tower of Zeddra even when her senility started to take hold and feature dates beyond a zsagni lifetime. When Abelök gives the Original Story, part of it tells that Princess Nyo, a zsagni, returned to the tower she was supposedly lock in and has responsibilities for the merchant community and had changed her name. It is only when Eldar breaks the Heart of Eixin and freed Yvlor that Mother Dabyos reveals that she is actually Princess Nyo.
• Fragile Speedster: Jövla has high speed and can hit twice with his normal attack, but his health and defense are about as low as Squishy Wizard Lue.
• Good All Along: Downplayed with Yvlor, who is both the hero and villain of the legend due to going mad after Nyo's disappearance. The Keeper believes he is responsible for forcing the time loop to occur and that he seeks to destroy time. However, it turns out that he feels remorse over his actions and that he's not responsible for the time loops at all. Instead, it's Nyo who caused the time loops in order to prevent him from committing suicide.
• Guest-Star Party Member: In Onnya's training grounds, Eldar can fight alongside one of the castle's guards against various pairs of enemies and a breach enemy. The guard doesn't have a name and mainly serves to draw some aggro away from Eldar.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • The bandits Akaal and Suuya are the first bosses of the game, who attempt to kidnap Eldar for random against the royal family. By the time the party arrives in Zariibo, they're trying to go legit by working for Akaal's family store and they apologize to Eldar for attacking him.
  • After the party defeats the Keeper, she decides to retire because she's sick of perpetuating her false religion. Lue leaves the party in order to take over as the new Keeper and keep the Hive off the party's backs. In the ending, Lue remains in this position in order to turn the religion into a force for good.
  • If Eldar chooses to kill Yvlor without giving Yvlor's adventure journal to Nyo, the latter will give up on using the time loop to bring him back and allow time to flow normally, even though with her powers, she could have attempted to steal the adventure journal back. The party speculates that she has finally accepted the error of her ways.
• Hero-Worshipper: Eldar's grandfather used to read a story about a hero to him, and Eldar is obsessed with learning anything he can about the story and the hero, even after he becomes an adult. Turns out he got this from his parents the queen and king of Onnya, who both became obsessed with finding the origin of the legend as well until their untimely deaths in a train derailing.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: After the encounter with the Keeper, the party learns that the Society of the Eclipse is responsible for creating the Hive and the religion of the Keeper. When the party tracks down the society, they find that the only member left is the immortal founder Aberlok, who can only ineffectually throw rocks at his pursuers before surrendering and giving a scant few new bits of information. Aberlok reveals that the society once had a lot of political power through the Hive, but over time, membership declined to the point where only he was left to continue the society's research of time. At this point, the Keeper's religion is mostly being run by the Academy of Zenit, with the Society of the Eclipse being nothing but a shadow of its former self.
• I Resemble That Remark!: Eldar is next in line for Onnya's throne, but many believe he's too spoiled to handle the responsibility. He believes that if he can fully research the legend of the hero and follow in his footsteps, he can become worthy of the throne and prove his naysayers wrong. However, his obsession with the legend causes him to neglect his royal duties and act recklessly, proving the point of his detractors. Eventually, he realizes that he can't fulfill his royal duties and research the legend at the same time, so he gives up his claim to the throne. He later acknowledges that he should have seen his grandparents' point of view and take his responsibilities more seriously.
• Immortality Hurts: Some monsters will spawn with the Seal of the Keeper buff, which makes them immortal. They can still take damage, but they will automatically revive if defeated. A book in Pimigral states that these monsters can still suffer from disease and other age-related conditions, making this a Fate Worse than Death in the long run. Worse yet, it turns out the Keeper is a false deity and that the seal is caused by the repeated time loops essentially causing glitches in the world. Chunks of Breach dropped by Breach monster variants can remove the seal, except for non-monster species.
• Infodump: Justified with the Library of the Abyss, which contains books and records that are normally banned by the various world governments. Not to mention that the party's quest is more research-focused compared to other JRPG plots. This leads to the party learning the truth about Llooan's fall, Rogrio's usurpation of Queen Yeryn, the state of Gugo village, Dabyos's identity, Overi's origins, and most importantly, the legendary hero Yvlor. It helps that the party has a competent librarian, Aberlok, to sort out all the relevant information to them.
• Invincible Minor Minion: Non-boss monsters can spawn with the Seal of the Keeper buff, which makes them auto-revive if they're slain. They can be permanently killed by using a Chunk of Breach, but these items are in limited supply outside of the Entrails of Eerial, the final area of the game. Fortunately, they will run away after enough turns.
• It's All About Me: Eldar is very selfish in his pursuit of the hero's legend, doesn't care about anyone around him other than Lue, and puts his quest above other people's needs. While he wants to save the world from the villain mentioned in the legend, this is partially because he wants to prove people wrong about his unworthiness to take the throne, even though his obsession with the legend at the expense of his duties only serves to prove their point. This changes once he learns of the crimes committed by his ancestor, King Rogrio, causing him to want to take the throne not for his own glory, but to bring justice to Onnya's victims.
• Justified Save Point: All characters that are considered heroes have access to an adventure journal, which allows them to save their point in time. In the endgame, it turns out Nyo possesses Yvlor's adventure journal, which allows her to load his save. She always does this 300 years after his last save, resulting in a time loop that repeated over four million times.
• Kick the Dog: The Hive captain, Overi, mocks Eldar for the death of his parents. This makes it all the more ironic when it turns out the two are half-brothers through their mother.
• King Incognito: Eldar is the prince of Onnya, who sneaks out of the palace in order to look for clues about the legend of the hero. Although he tries to keep his identity a secret from the commoners, the bandits of Riropo already know about him.
• Knight Templar: Double subverted. The Hive are Time Police who are fanatically devoted to the Keeper, and will use force to subdue anyone who knowingly or unknowingly threatens the world's time loop. They claim that the entire world will suffer if people stray from their destiny too much. Overi claims that Eldar's journey will cause the end of Time itself. Later, it turns out the Keeper is a fraud, since this is actually a position passed down to human chronologists rather than an actual deity. However, the Keeper herself does believe that any deviation from time could potentially give Yvlor an unexpected advantage and allow him to destroy time once and for all.
• Multiple Endings:
  • If Eldar gives Yvlor's adventure's journal to Nyo, Yvlor will kill himself and Nyo will start a new time loop.
  • If Eldar talks to Yvlor and agrees not to give his adventure's journal to Nyo, Yvlor will challenge Eldar to a final duel. Afterwards, Yvlor congratulates Eldar and then kills himself, with Nyo finally accepting the outcome and giving up on the time loop.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Rero, Kaaryl's attendant, regrets causing the cave-in in the tunnel between Hol and Zariibo, since he didn't expect it to outright derail the train. He only intended to prevent Eldar's party from falling for the Hive's ambush in Hol.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Eldar gives up his right to the throne in exchange for the freedom to research the legendary hero, which puts his aunt Inar next in line. Unfortunately, Inar turns out to be a malevolent political schemer, seeking to militarize the country and use Kaaryl as a Puppet Queen. There are also rumors that she poisoned Eldar's grandmother to speed up the inheritance process. Eldar admits that giving up the throne was a shortsighted decision on his part.
• No-Sell: Laric's Mutant Muck skill can convert enemies into alchemical ingredients. Using this skill on an enemy with Seal of the Keeper will make the skill fail and display a message stating that seal bearers are immune to it, since their immortality prevents them from instant death effects.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Although the bandits Akaal and Suuya are relatively weak starter villains, they still nearly killed Lue in their first encounter with the party. Lue reveals that she and Eldar were killed by the bandit duo in some previous time loops.
• Omnicidal Maniac: According to the legend of the hero, the villain wants to destroy time itself. Subverted when it turns out the villain is actually Yvlor, who wants to kill himself, only for Princess Nyo to use his adventure's journal to reset time and cause a loop. The villain's intent was completely misinterpreted because of all the different versions of the story.
• Ornamental Weapon: Eldar's first weapon is the Ceremonial Sword, which looks fancy but is only strong enough to open letters and greeting cards. In the Riropo Resting Area, Neul gives him a more combat-ready sword. However, the Ceremonial Sword can be upgraded into one of the strongest weapons in the game, which is why the shop system won't let the player sell it.
• Outliving One's Offspring:
  • The parents of the Onnya royal couple had lose their child in a train derailing, forcing them to become queen and king again until Eldar becomes of age and later king.
  • Jövla finds out that he still had a surviving relative in the form of a great-great-great granddaughter in Hol, only to find out that she is on her death bed and just past away after meeting her ancestor.
• Past-Life Memories: The world is going through time loops where certain events repeat in very similar manners. Chronologists are people who can remember snippets of their previous incarnations. It turns out Lue is a chronologist and a former Keeper candidate, and she's trying to use her memories of previous loops to help Eldar succeed against the Keeper and Hive's interference.
• Puppet King:
  • The Keeper is a supreme deity who manages the time loop that the world is in. However, it turns out the Keeper is really a title passed down to chronologists for the sake of serving the Society of the Eclipse's interests. This gets murkier when it turns out the society itself disbanded years ago, leaving the Academy of Zenit as the sole authority over the Keeper.
  • Once Eldar gives up his right to the throne, his aunt Inar starts making moves to put her daughter Kaaryl on the throne. Eldar believes Inar wants to obtain the power of Onnya's throne, but without any of the responsibility, which will be pushed on Kaaryl.
• Really 700 Years Old:
  • Those with the Seal of the Keeper will eventually become this, most notably Jövla and Abelök a.k.a. Possu, who still live 300 years after the time loop started.
  • Mother Dabyos is also revealed to be this, as she is actually Princess Nyo and is responsible for keeping the time loop by preventing Yvlor from killing himself by locking him in the Heart of Eixin, at the cost of her becoming more senile as time pass on until the spell is broken.
• Reincarnation: A little girl, Tyru, claims to be the reincarnation of the hero Yvlor's pirate companion. Whether or not this is actually true is unconfirmed, but she does have Yvlor's greatsword and is correct about Yvlor hating Onnya for attacking Llooan. On the other hand, she neglects to mention Yvlor's fall to madness and that his companions, including Tyru, turned against him.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Reseren has a rebel group that once fought for the people's welfare, but the group became more corrupt over time, started lots of bombings, and prioritized their own self-interest. Oyan was once a member of this group, but left when he realized they became just as bad as the tyrants they fought.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: The Library of the Abyss reveals King Rimetti of Llooan signed a treaty with King Rogrio of Onnya, but later conspired with Onnya's enemies to attack Onnya. However, the other countries never backed Rimetti up and left him to take the fall. Ozigo spies also destroyed Rimetti's apology letter in order to ensure that Onnya destroys Llooan.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Eldar believes that researching the legend of the hero will allow him to perform his own heroics, thus making him a worthy king of Onnya, but most people see this as a selfish desire for glory. However, his quest causes him to learn of several uncomfortable truths about his country, such as their invasion of Llooan, rewriting of history, and unjust persecution of the zsagni. This causes him to realize that he can use his position to help the zsagni and uncensor the truth about Llooan. If he had just remained in the castle to do his royal duties, he would have continued the status quo and remained ignorant.
• Save Scumming: In-universe, the time loop is caused by Yvlor's adventure journal, which is the same kind that Eldar uses to save the game. Nyo's magic allows her to forcibly "reload" Yvlor's last journal entry from 300 years in the past, even if he though he's a Death Seeker who doesn't want the rewind to happen.
• Scam Religion: Deconstructed. The Keeper of the Circle is a deity that is worshipped for managing the time loop, with an army of church militants known as the Hive serving her. However, Jövla reveals that the Keeper was not an established deity during the fall of Llooan and was invented. The Keeper is actually a chronologist chosen by the Academy of Zenit. The real purpose for managing the time loop is to prevent an outcome where Yvlor succeeds in destroying time permanently. However, despite the party learning about the ruse, they can't expose the religion without societal consequences because of how popular it is, so Lue takes over as the next Keeper and tries to reform the religion for good.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Subverted. In the heart of Eerial Volcano, Yvlor is sealed in crystal, seemingly to keep him from destroying time. In truth, Nyo sealed him in order to prevent him from committing suicide over his crimes.
• Selective Obliviousness: Jovla is researching the fall of the Kingdom of Llooan because he's actually an immortal survivor of that country. It's obvious that Onnya is the country that conquered Llooan, since almost all of Llooan's old territory now belongs to Onnya. However, Jovla doesn't want to accept that because the search for the answer itself is the only purpose he has in his immortal life, and he knows he wouldn't be able to change the outcome of the war anyways.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Averted. After Tyru's reincarnation reveals Onnya and Llooan were once enemy nations, Eldar realizes that Onnya was the one that destroyed Llooan. Fortunately, despite Eldar being an Onnyan royal, Jövla doesn't condemn him for his heritage.
• Squishy Wizard: Lue is a versatile mage who can target elemental weaknesses and use groupwide spells, but she has low HP and defense. Qibayn has similarly low defenses, but has better single-target elemental spells while being much worse at healing.
• Stone Wall: The castle guard who teams up with Eldar for the training grounds has 800 HP, which is several times what Eldar would normally have at this point. However, the guard's damage output is very low, meaning they mainly serve as a meatshield.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Laric notes that Prince Eldar and Overi share similar appearances, especially their hair. This is because during the train accident that killed Eldar's parents, his mother actually survived, but lost her memories and started a new family.
• Summon to Hand: As the party approaches the heart of Eerial, Yvlor's greatsword vibrates more. This is because the greatsword is attracted to Yvlor, and when the party approaches Yvlor's crystal prison, the sword buries itself into the prison. Unfortunately, this also causes the Downer Ending, where Eldar gives Yvlor's adventure's journal to Nyo, causing Yvlor to call his weapon from Eldar's possession and kill himself without anyone able to stop him, leading to Nyo causing another time loop.
• Time Police: The Circle is a cycle of time where certain events are made to repeat. The Keeper and the Hive manipulate events in the background to ensure that nothing strays from their predestined path. They fear that any significant deviation from destiny could risk Yvlor succeeding in destroying time.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Eldar starts out very selfish in his pursuit of the hero's legend, to the point where he disregard's Jövla's own quest for answers about Llooan. After he learns more about Jövla's circumstances as an unwilling bearer of the Seal of the Keeper and as a survivor of Onnya's invasion of Llooan, he becomes more empathetic towards the latter. Eldar also starts out believing Onnya's racist propaganda against the zsagni, but eventually learns to see them as people and vows to fight for their rights when he learns that his ancestor unjustly framed the zsagni as enemies in order to usurp the throne.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Late in the game, the Society of the Eclipse is painted as the Greater-Scope Villain behind the Academy of Zenit, the Keeper, and the Hive because they started a Scam Religion around the Keeper. It turns out they merely intended for the religion to give them enough political power to research the time loops and didn't expect the Hive to become an outright Knight Templar theocracy trying to keep every time loop the same.
  • The actual Big Bad of the game is Nyo, who causes a time loop every time Yvlor kills himself. This also caused unintentional "glitches" to occur, including the breach enemies, the Seal of the Keeper, and chronologists having Past-Life Memories.
• Villain Decay: Overi starts off as a threatening opponent due to his gun skills and the Allegory of the Keeper protecting him. After he loses to the party, he is demoted in the Hive hierarchy and loses the protection of the Allegory of the Keeper. He is forced to rely on Sentinel mooks instead in order to keep up with the party, and they're nowhere near as useful as the Allegory.
• Villainous Legacy: A certain historical figure, King Rogrio of Onnya, is responsible for a lot of modern issues. He assassinated the previous queen and slowly made power plays to become the next king of Onnya. In order to erase all traces of the previous royal family, he had all Zsagni exiled or executed while teaching future generations to be racist against them. The princess he locked up was rescued by Yvlor, only for the latter to go from a hero to a Yandere madman. This led to Nyo causing the time loop, which caused chronologists to gain influence and create the Academy of Zenit and the Keeper religion.
• Warrior Prince: Prince Eldar of Onnya is trained in swordsmanship, but he doesn't have much actual combat experience, though he has a lot of untapped potential and learns new sword skills quickly. He eventually gives up his right to the throne in order to gain the freedom to research the legendary hero.
• Was Too Hard on Him: At the foot of Eerial Volcano, Eldar receives a letter from his grandparents apologizing for obstructing him from researching the hero's legend and that they should have considered that he should be allowed to have his own interests. In turn, Eldar admits that he should have taken his royal duties more seriously and intends to return home so that he can reconcile with his grandparents.
• Waving Signs Around: In Hol, a city that's meant to represent the Industrial Revolution, a group of factory workers go on strike for the sake of better wages and working conditions, but not enough workers joined for the movement to succeed. This does end up blocking the south exit of Hol Outskirts with wooden signs, preventing the player from exploring any area in the region unrelated to the plot.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Prince Eldar is eager to become a hero because he thinks it'll make him a great king and make his late parents proud.
• What the Hell, Hero?: When the party has Dabyos summon the spirit of King Rimetti, Eldar insists his question gets answered first and wastes precious time arguing about with Jövla, causing Rimetti to not have enough time to answer Jövla's question. Jövla is pissed about it and leaves the party for a few minutes, only returning to help them defeat Overi.
• Worf Had the Flu: The Final Boss, Yvlor, initially takes on the whole party, but in the true ending route, Eldar has to fight him alone. In the first battle, Yvlor is incredibly strong, but sometimes uses up turns to stab himself and the party's goal is to heal him with the Breach Potion rather than kill him. In the duel, Yvlor uses all his turns for attacking, but is weakened by the previous fight so that Eldar stands a chance.
• Written by the Winners: In Zariibo, Tyru reveals that the hero Yvlor hated Onnya for being the enemy of Llooan. Eldar realizes that Onnya is likely the country that destroyed Llooan and wrote most traces of them out of history, since a lot of Llooan's old territory is now Onnya's territory. It also turns out Eldar's ancestor, King Rogrio, usurped the previous Zsagni royal family, exiled all Zsagni, and wrote his misdeeds out of history.