Video Game / Crescent Pale Mist

1 Following

Crescent Pale Mist (クレセントペールミスト) is a 2½D action platforming doujin soft developed by the doujin circle ClassiC Shikoukairu. The game was first relased in Japan for Microsoft Windows on March 30, 2006. It is notable for its beautiful visuals, high-production soundtrack, unique hybrid of hack-and-slash gameplay with fierce shoot 'em up-esque boss battles, and for being a very hard game.

Its story takes place in the nation of Gasyukal, a country of where people seek knowledge of magic, but the Gasyukal Research Alliance stumbled upon a forbidden form of magic that was considered widely taboo. Long ago, the country's first use of The Forbidden magic was once used by ancient sages, which ended up destroying an old and distant country, resulting in the knowledge of its existence and destructive powers. A war later broke out between Gasyukal and its former allies from a neighboring country. Gasyukal was at a great disadvantage and the nation was running out of options to hold off the enemy forces. Desperately searching for a solution to even the odds, Gasyukal turned to invoking the power of The Forbidden to turn the tides... until they lost control of its powers, backfiring on them instead. This resulted in the country of Gasyukal to be pulled into a dimensional rift, turning the country into a dangerous no-man's land known as the "Taboo State". The Forbidden was deemed too powerful even with the combined powers of the Sages, and the destructive aftermath gave little hope that anyone can ever control this magic.

In the present, those who have tried to investigate the Taboo State of Gasyukal were later confirmed to be dead, without any signs of poisoning or trauma, as well as the doctors whom attempted to examine the corpses and soon met with the same fate. Many speculated the cause of these deaths occurred to those who dared enter the dimension of the Taboo State, however, Yunou — a former member from the Gasyukal Research Alliance who previously defected from the nation — suspects there is something malevolent behind the scenes; the Pale Mist, which has been flowing in the dimension, is somehow connected to this incident. Yunou is the only magician who has control over the deadly and volatile Pale Mist magic, and her mastery over its powers is what drives her to return to Gasyukal in order to stop the Pale Mist from seeping into the rest of the world. The task is easier said than done as she will contend with the many dangerous monsters roaming the Taboo State, as well as confronting her former comrades from the Gasyukal Research Alliance.

What sets Crescent Pale Mist apart from other doujin action-platformers are its unique 2.5D approach to side-scrolling gameplay and expansive, maze-like levels; in this game, players are not limited to a simple 2D plane as Yunou can jump from one plane to another at certain and traverse to other areas (although there are times where you can't go back at all). The game's combat system features a variety of attacks and spells that Yunou can perform; she take down foes with her blade for close-ranged attacks, cast powerful Pale Mist magic like Rowanveld and Fear, and a bottomless supply of throwing daggers for good measure. Striking enemies with regular blade attacks causes enemies to release wisps of Pale Mist, which can be used for PM variants of her special attacks, or increase her stats as well as recover her HP, PM reserve, and CP cooldown when the wisps have dissipated. Along the way, Yunou can find items and artifacts scattered throughout Gasyukal to enhance her abilities, provide hints towards her treasure-hunting, or unlock extra difficulties and other features. To survive through the Taboo State, Yunou will have to utilize every trick she has under her detached sleeves.

The game was later localized by Rockin' Android as a downloadable PlayStation 3 game via PlayStation Network on November 9, 2010 with updated graphics, redrawn character art, online leaderboards, Trophies, and a few added Anti-Frustration Features. On January 2015, the game was greenlit to be released through Steam and would include features such as trading cards and Steam Achievements, however, Rockin' Android has yet to follow through with meeting the demands for a Steam re-release. The game also has been delisted from PlayStation Network five years after its release along with other games published by Rockin' Android due to the closure of Daybreak Game Company.

On August 2013, during Comiket 84, ClassiC Shikoukairu revealed a Creator-Driven Successor to Crescent Pale Mist in the form of The Sealed Labyrinth, however, similarly its spiritual predecessor, has also fallen victim of fading to obscurity and ClassiC Shikoukairu has mysteriously ceased activities during the mid-to-late 2010's.

An archive of ClassiC Shikoukairu's website can be viewed here (Japanese) and Rockin' Android's English for the game can be viewed here.

Crescent Pale Mist Tropes — EXECUTION:

• 2½D: Yunou can jump between different parallels à la Guardian Heroes to explore different areas. The developer stated in an interview with Neocrisis the reason for making Crescent Pale Mist a 2.5D game oppose a 2D one felt that a straight 2D game would have restricted the heroine's mobility.
• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The game primarily uses 2D sprites while the game's levels and visual effects such as particles and explosions are rendered in 3D.
• Action Girl: For a magician, Yunou can certainly use her magic to kick some serious ass.
• Aerith and Bob: The main characters have names like Yunou and Vizet while a few of the enemies have plain-sounding names. One set of names that particularly stands out is the the Evil Garnet armor trio in Chapter 2, which they are named Ben, Jon, and Mike.
• After-Combat Recovery: After defeating Elshiria, Yunou gets a full HP recovery before fighting Narju in Chapter 6.
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Narju's boss battle in Chapter 2 and Chapter 6.
• And Your Reward is Edible: Some of items and artifacts are food like Potatoes, Onions, and Honey.
• Animated Armor: Living Armors and their variants, walking suits of armors animated by the Pale Mist that attack with a lunging attack and sometimes magic. Some of them don't even have helmets.
• Anti-Frustration Feature: In the PlayStation 3 version, there are warp points added in certain areas of each Chapter that can take you back to the warp point by holding the Special button, which can save time to undo any platforming mistakes and retreading to the start of the platforming section, but the opportunities to use them are limited and comes with a penalty against your stage time.
• An Ice Person: Narju uses ice-elemental magic.
• The Arch Mage: Kurow, as he's hellbent on unlock the secrets The Forbidden, even it means sacrificing the country's inhabitants to do so.
• Art Shift: The character art was originally given a traditional hand-drawn artstyle in the original PC version. Keiko Sakurai redrawn all the characters with an anime/manga artstyle in Rockin' Android's PlayStation 3 version.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: At least three of the game's boss will make Yunou look like a dwarf by comparison.
• Auto-Revive: The Elixir when equipped will revive the player if they have been defeated, but It Only Works Once per playthrough.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Handmade Rosary, which upgrades Yunou's Rowanveld to the powerful Rowan Banish. The problem is that it uses up 70 CP, making it difficult to use early on in the game without sufficient Pale Mist farming and it sacrifices Rowanveld's rapid-fire capabilities, making it impossible to take advantage of any shortcuts that requires gliding through the air while preserving forward momentum through spamming Rowanveld.
• Ax-Crazy: Narju. She harbors great jealousy and hatred against Yunou and her ability to control Pale Mist, and she would go through great lengths to personally see Yunou killed. She even sacrificed Elshiria and leaves Yunou to deal with Sage Gasyukal in an attempt to kill her. In the PlayStation 3 version, she even sports a Slasher Smile thanks to the redrawn character portraits that makes her look even more of an unhinged sociopath.
  Narju: "Being dead tends to limit your travel options!"
  Yunou: "I'll tear that twisted smile from your face!"
• Background Boss: Sage Gasyukal, the game's Big Bad and Final Boss. Sage Gasyukal is too powerful for you to start unleashing Rowanveld hell, so you have to destroying the magic orbs surrounding it, its hands, horns, the Philosopher's Stone (optional, but makes the battle easier), and the Power Crystal on its head before attacking Gasyukal itself.
• Beam Spam: Elshiria's specializes on this, especially during the late stages of her battle, although it is not limited to her.
• Bedsheet Ghost: Some of the ghost enemies resembles this.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Teranoias can swing its tail at you and it has a sharp bone at the end of it. Said tail blade can be hacked off for the Obsidian Tail Blade, although the tail blade is tough and immune to your Rowanveld attacks.
• Blob Monster: Slimes and their variants are featureless blobs of slimes outside of their beady glowing eyes.
• Bookends:
  • The game starts at a rocky ravine at the entrance of the Taboo State where Yunou encounters Vizet and fights against her. During the post-credits scene, the game ends as Yunou is leaving the country from she came in but not before running into Vizet again, who informs her that she is a Planeriel who was under her master's orders to observe her, but after the events that went down and finding how she defied her expectations as a Planeriel, she decided to accompany and observe her during her path of atonement.
  • When the player starts up the game, the first music that is played is "Pale Blue Magic -Title-", a tranquil music piece with an underlying sadness to it. During the credits, a somber and melancholic arrangement of that track called "Pale Blue Magic -Ending-" plays to reflect on the tragedies that happened during Yunou's absence and the friends/allies she has lost.
• Boring, but Practical: Farming Pale Mist wisps to gain stat bonuses from non-boss enemies that you haven't already defeated in the area (and hopefully don't put too much of a fight) by using blade attacks, which may increase the odds of survival on the later stages of the game, especially on higher difficulties.
• Boss Bonanza: At the end of Chapter 6, players face off in back-to-back boss battles between Elshira (with two phases), Narju, and finally Sage Gasyukal.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Oh lordy, does this game manages to hide away insanely-powerful enemies waiting to destroy you when you least expect it or what?
• Boss Rush: An unlockable "Boss Only" mode can be played after finding the Mysterious Button artifact, which lets you go through the entire game just by fighting the bosses alone. In the PC version, after getting the artifact, press the Pause button at the title screen to access Boss-Only mode; the PlayStation Network version changed this to an unlockable option in the main menu.
• Bottomless Magazines: Yunou can throw an endless supply of daggers at her enemies, however, using a Teleport Dagger consumes 1 PM for each one tossed.
• Bullet Hell: Many bosses and some enemies are capable of unleashing a hailstorms of bullets and projectiles at Yunou that can fill the screen, even moreso on harder difficulties.
• Chasing Your Tail: Aside from Teranoias and Dagneiv and also Sage Gasyukal, boss battles are generally a chase against your opponent.
• Checkpoint Starvation:
  • The only checkpoints in each Chapter of the game are the ones before a boss battle. Dying at any point before reaching the boss results in starting the entire level over.
  • Chapter 6: dying at any point during the later two bosses past Elshiria means starting back at Elshiria's boss battle.
• Cognizant Limbs: Three of the bosses have limbs or body parts that can be destroyed, often resulting in the bosses losing one of its attacks and sometimes may drop an item.
• Combat Tentacles: Dagneiv, Chapter 3's boss. Thankfully Yunou can sheer them at a safe distance with her daggers.
• Combos: Striking enemies multiple times in succession will build a combo which counts towards your stage's score bonus.
• Continuing Is Painful: If you die at any point of a Chapter before finishing it, you will be denied of any enemy drops you haven't collected for that Chapter and any the ones you did obtained earlier are lost. Your high-score also becomes invalidated for the remainder of the run after the fact.
• Crystal Skull: One can be found as a useless item in the game.
• Cute Witch: Vizet, especially in Rockin' Android's localization.
• David Versus Goliath: Yunou vs. Sage Gasyukal, who is a gigantic demonic sage.
• Deal with the Devil: Narju uses Elshira to enter a dimensional rift linked to where Gasyukal Sages resides in order to gain more power for herself, however, Elshiria ended up vanishing into entirely different dimension, so she instead offers Yunou as a bargaining chip to Sage Gaskyukal to enter the Sage's dimension.
• Dem Bones: Teranoias, the game's other Warm-Up Boss. Wights and later variants are skeletal mages that fire a barrage of magic or a pillar of mist.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • Intentionally putting Yunou's CP meter close to the CP Limit will reduce her defense power between x0.8 (blue) and x0.5 (red) depending on the meter's build up towards the limit, but her damage output multiplies by x2 and x3 respectively, allowing her to dish out more damage at the risk of survivability.
  • The Obsidian Tail Blade turns Yunou into a Glass Cannon as makes her defense power weaker but her sword attacks become stronger.
  • The Dark Crystal Ring weakens the damage output Yunou's sword and dagger attacks, but Fear's ability to shoot down certain enemy projectiles becomes stronger.
• Double Unlock: The gemstone items, which not only have to be found hidden among most of the game's six Chapters, but their effects can't be activated unless you find the Philosopher's Stone.
• Downer Ending: In the post-credits cutscene, despite Yunou's efforts in stopping those abusing Pale Mist in the Taboo State and preventing it from seeping into the rest of the world, she couldn't convince her former comrades from pursuing the dangerous powers of The Forbidden spell and the Pale Mist which led to a greater tragedy during her absence. Narju also got away with taking advantage of Elshiria who used those who died in the previous war to create the Pale Mist Orb only steal it for herself, then using Elshiria again to strike a deal with Sage Gasyukal to entry into the dimension where the Gasyukal Sages dwell only for her to be lost in between dimensions but quickly bargained with Yunou for her natural Pale Mist abilities, earning the Sage's favor to enter their world and continue in her mad pursuit for power while avoiding the repercussions of her actions. On the bright side, Vizet, who was under the orders of her master to observe her as Planeriel and eliminate her if she went down a path of destruction, she instead is accompanying Yunou during her own path of atonement.
• Easy-Mode Mockery: If the player plays the game Easy, enemies will not drop any obtainable items at all, Treasures are removed, and certain areas and shortcuts will be restricted in some Chapters of the game.
• Eldritch Abomination: Dagneiv (Chapter 3's boss) is an enormous tentacled multi-eyed insectoid... thing... Other enemies such as the Devil Eyes qualify as well.
• Evolving Title Screen: When you first start the game with a fresh save file, the title screen is is blue. Once you slay more and more enemies as you play through the game however, it gradually turns red.
• Fake Longevity:
  • Most of the game's stages past Chapter 1 are labyrinthine and expansive, and without prior knowledge of the stages or using the shortcuts, they can sometimes take up over an hour to get through.
  • Collecting a lot of useless junk like a potato, evil spirits in a jar, and cool-sounding stuff that turns out meaningless trash like the Abyss Garb, just for the sake of item hunting.
  • In the original PC version, you have kill 8,000 or more enemies just to unlock the penultimate difficulty level before the last one can become available.
• Fate Worse than Death: Elshiria became lost between the dimensional rifts of Gasyukal and the ancient realm of the Sages drifting into nothingness, thanks to Narju.
• Final Boss, New Dimension: Subverted. In Chapter 6, Narju, being the Amazing Technicolor Battlefield attendant that she is, takes you to another dimension just before game's final boss.
• Flash Step: Yonou can use the Pale Mist in conjunction with her daggers to instantly warp to where ever the dagger hits.
• Flechette Storm: Yunou can throw daggers in rapid succession and can spam them in a fan-like spread. Fear fires a stream of magic daggers in front of Yunou that tracks locked-on targets.
• Foil: Soray is one to Yunou. Yunou was a researcher in the Gasyukal Research Alliance and a magician capable of using the Pale Mist magic, whereas Soray is a knight who valiantly serves to defend his country and less skilled in magic compared to other magicians within the Alliance. Yunou also fights by conjuring swords while Soray wields a lance.
• Fragile Speedster: Yunou, who has low base HP and fairly weak physical attacks, but she has the ability double jump, jump from wall-to-wall, and use her enemies to reach places after launching them in the air. Items, however, can also make her into a Glass Cannon or even a Lightning Bruiser.
• Gameplay Grading: Your overall score at the end of each Chapter is broken up into three categories: Clear bonus, bonus points for the Chapter and how quickly you beaten it; Technical, based on your remaining PM and highest combo count; and Penalty, deduction (or bonus) depending on the difficulty being played and how many times you continued (if at all).
• Genre-Busting: The game features a unique approach to 2D action side-scrolling games in that game's engine the can allow the player to traverse through different 2D "planes" in large and non-linear levels that are open for exploration, puzzle solving, and item hunting, uses a combat system akin to a hack-and-slash game with various maneuvers that Yunou can utilize, incorporating some light RPG elements that allows the player to grow Yunou's stats in each playthrough as she collects Pale Mist wisps expelled from enemies along with collectable items that can also augment her abilities (or unlock features in the game), and quasi-shoot 'em up styled boss battles where the player can (in most situations) fly around the arena as they fend off various bullet hell projectiles from their opponents while using a unique camera zooming system that incentives risking trading off screen visibility for heightened damage output. Another attempt at this concept can be seen in the game's would-be spiritual successor, The Sealed Labyrinth.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: The humanoid bosses will generally try to avoid Yunou and keep their distance from her as much as possible unless they attack.
• Go for the Eye: Dagneiv, a tentacled, insect-like monstrosity that has huge eye as its weakpoint.
• Goomba Springboard: Yunou can jump off some non-boss enemies after launching them in the air or knocking them back to access higher areas or dash even further.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • For starters, there's no map system, which immediately makes things frustrating once the player is lost during Chapters 3 and 4 considering they're most maze-like levels of the game. Thankfully the developer posted videos on his YouTube for shortcuts for Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 to make what really seems like a long level into a short one.
  • There's also the matter of getting 100% Completion for finding all the items and artifacts scattered in the game. It's a good thing the fan translator who once made the English patch for the original PC version still have a chart for finding them, which can be seen here. Although take note that there are mistranslated names for some of the items.
  • A guide from PlayStation Trophies for the PlayStation 3 version can provide some helpful hints for finding all the items in the game as well as getting the PSN Trophies for the game, which can also be useful the PC version. The guide can be viewed here.
• Hard Mode Perks: On Hard mode or higher, Yunou can equip items found throughout the game (how much you can use depends on the difficulty), but enemies are even stronger and bosses have more dangerous attacks. You also get a higher score bonus on the harder difficulties.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Yunou conjures magical blades for her basic attacks and her default Rowenveld has her conjuring even bigger magic swords that she shoots at her enemies and convert Pale Mist wisps into a barrage of magical swords, while the other characters generally use magic or a lance in Soray's case.
• Homing Projectile: Some enemies and most bosses are capable of firing homing projectiles that will track Yunou's position.
• I Never Told You My Name: Subverted at the beginning, as Vizet introduces her name to Yunou before fighting her. After Yunou returns to the entryway after having dealt with Sage Gasyukal, Vizet properly introduces her full name to Yunou as Vizet Lapitel.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: You start out with the standard difficulty levels when you first start playing the game (Pumpkin Knight, Magic Knight, and Sacred Knight respectively as the Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulties), and upon meeting certain criteria, you can unlock the two Harder Than Hard difficulties, Terror Knight (Fear) and Knight of Nightmare (Planeriel).^TipThe final difficulty is unlocked by finding the Terror Medallion from the Black Star Knights in Chapter 4, cleared the game on Hard and have a total 8,000 or more enemies slain.
• In-Series Nickname: Elshiria L. Gasyukal (Chapter 6's boss) is sometimes referred to as "El".
• Instant Runes: Vizet, Soray, Narju, Kurow, and Elshiria have magic runes appearing behind them as they attack.
• Interface Screw: Can be invoked (and encouraged) during boss battles; by pressing the Zoom button, players can either zoom the screen out to get a better view of their surroundings and their opponent, or zoom in to intentionally limit screen visibility but get an attack power boost as a trade-off.
• It's All My Fault: Yunou, after the course of her journey through the warped Gasyukal and witnessing downfall of her former comrades from the Gasyukal Research Alliance and their callous pursuit for knowledge of The Forbidden, she felt guilty that her defection from the country ultimately led to an even greater tragedy thanks to her former comrades. During the ending, Yunou expresses that she wants to live on to atone for all the innocent lives lost during the war and Gasyukal Research Alliance's actions.
• Karma Houdini: Narju, who wants to kill Yunou out of jealousy for her abilities to use Pale Mist magic, manipulated Elshiria to created the Pale Mist Orb (which is made from the souls of those who died in the war) and stole it for herself to amplify her own magical powers, then tries to use Elshiria as a bargaining chip to enter the dimension of the Gasyukal Sages, and when that plan fell through, she then strikes a deal with Sage Gasyukal of offering Yunou and her natural capabilities of using Pale Mist magic to him as an entry fee into the Sage's dimension after El ended up lost in between dimensions, which he then obliges and allowed Narju entry into their world, escaping from any and all punishment for her actions and free to continue her lust for power.
• King Mook: Almost every non-boss enemy type has one super-powered golden mook worthy of being a Boss in Mook Clothing.
• Knockback: Both the player and most enemies are knocked back when taking damage, but using Endurance can mitigate how far they can be pushed back. There are certain enemies and gigantic bosses won't flinch at all dealing damage to them.
• Launcher Move: Yunou's Rising Slash move (↘ + Attack) will propel some enemies upwards, and it also allows her to bounce off of them with a jump or a dash.
• Life Meter: The HP gauge, in both a numerical counter and gauge display.
• Magic Missile Storm: Yunou's Rowanveld PM is essentially this. When Pale Mist are around her, pressing Special (or Down, Down+Special) will unleash a storm of magical swords against her foes. She can also expend her own supply of Pale Mist to perform the Rowanveld PM as well.
• Magic Knight: Yunou, and she also doubles as a Badass Bookworm being a former researcher of Gasyukal Research Alliance. Soray is also an Knight who has some ability to use magic.
• The Magocracy: The Gasyukal Research Alliance, whom have been studying various forms of magic until Pale Mist and the potential it has to control The Forbidden piqued their curiosity, but they also have disregarded the dangers that Pale Mist magic has, leading to Yunou's defection from the country.
• Mana Meter: The CP (Capacity) gauge, although there are two different values that comes into play: Max CP and CP Limit. The Max CP, the blue portion of the CP gauge used for non-PM spells, is your overall maximum CP; CP Limit, the red portion, is the area of the gauge you should try to avoid building up CP from your attacks (or some enemy attacks that forces your CP to raise), otherwise you'll trigger a Magic Leak Burst that deals great damage to yourself.
• The Maze: Chapters 2 through 4, although the Chapters 3 and 4 proves to be a worse case of this with the most largest and labyrinthine stages of the game.
• Meta Multiplayer: The PlayStation 3 version by Rockin' Android features online leaderboards that grades based on their fastest times and highest scores.
• Mr. Exposition: Kurow, who fills Yunou in on why the country has been taking advantage of the Pale Mist seepage situation while questioning her motives to desert the country.
• Multiple Endings: A different post-game monologue from each member of the Gasyukal Research Alliance can be read for each difficulty after beating the final boss.
• Named Weapons: Soray's lance is named Brutius. There's also two of Yunou's equipable items, Excalibur and Brunhild.
• No-Sell: Some of the stronger enemies can either be immune to certain damage types (e.g. blade, dagger, Rowanveld) that may also bounce off of them, or simply not flinch when attacking them. Using Endurance will also makes the user resist attacks to a degree and reduce knockback.
• Nothing Is Scarier: In the Planeriel ending, players are greeted to seeing Elshira after she was banished to an empty void thanks to Narju using her to fulfill her deal with Sage Gasyukal.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Teranoias, Vizet's skeletal dragon familiar.
• Out-of-Character Moment: The game's Tutorial Mode have Yunou and Vizet teaching the players how to play the game while being completely Out of Character from the game's main story. In the original Japanese PC version, players are instructed by pixelated versions of Yunou and Vizet during the game's tutorial. In the PlayStation 3 version, the tutorial features chibi-fied versions of Yunou and Vizet by Keiko Sakurai.
• Palette Swap: Many of the stronger variations of enemies that Yunou encounters in the game appear in different color palettes, but some of them also have some minute appearance changes too.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: There are some areas in almost every Chapter of the game where you can beat up droves of weaker enemies for Pale Mist wisps to level up her stats.
• Petal Power: Just look at the pretty cherry blossoms as Elshiria tries to annihilate Yunou.
• Philosopher's Stone: In this game, it's an item that is required to unlock the powers of the Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Aquamarine, Garnet, Amethyst, Opal, and Diamond gemstones hidden throughout the game. It's used by Sage Gasyukal during the final battle, and the player must destroy it in order to have a chance to obtaining it.
• Power Crystal: Yunou can find a Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Aquamarine, Garnet, Amethyst, Opal, and Diamond as equipable items, although the Philosopher's Stone is needed to unlock their abilities.
• Power Floats: Usually during a boss battle (excluding the boss battle with Kurow), Yunou and a few other humanoid characters do this. In Yunou's case, she can only fly while in an "Area Magic Saturation" location.
• Power Glows: When Yunou uses special moves that builds up her CP meter like Rowanveld, Yunou will begin to glow in a blue aura once it hits close to her CP Limit, then changes to red when her CP is dangerously close to her CP Limit. When Yunou's aura is blue, her attack power doubles at the expense of 20% of her defense; when red, her attack power triples but cuts her defense by 50%. She also glows green while guarding with Endurance and glows yellow while recovering from an attack with Emergency Evasion.
• Power-Up: And Colour-Coded for Your Convenience, too. Red power-ups boosts Attack, green boosts Defense, blue raises her Maximum HP, and white contains a treasure. Yunou can only retain her HP bonuses after each Chapter; Attack and Defense bonuses resets after clearing the Chapter.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Although Yunou prevented the Pale Mist from seeping into the rest of the world, she failed to stop the other members of the Gaskyukal Research Alliance from experimenting with the Pale Mist and The Forbidden, which resulted in many lives being lost and their souls harvested for the creation of the Pale Mist Orb. Yunou also had a falling out with Soray while Elshira is lost in the void for good thanks to Narju who manipulated and used to gain entry into the Sage's realm.
• RPG Elements: Collecting the Pale Mist wisps expelled from striking an enemy with Yunou's "blade" attacks instead of using them to attack them can steadily level-up her stats. Killing certain enemies can also lead to stat bonuses for Yunou. There are also items and artifacts in the game that enhance and/or penalize Yunou's abilities. Sadly you can only equip items on Hard mode or higher.
• Random Drops: When it comes to enemy drops, there's always a chance that you may or may not receive a prized item from defeating an enemy. That Thief's Dagger may come in handy...
• Recurring Riff: The game's Leitmotif, "Pale Blue Magic", has two variants that plays in other parts of the game: one during the final stage as "Crescent Pale Mist", which uses a heavy and oppressive rendition of the track that is accompanied with Ominous Latin Chanting; the other one is "Pale Blue Magic -Ending-", a somber, depressing rendition of "Pale Blue Magic" that is played during the credits.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Subverted; during the second encounter with Soray, his attacks sports red magical energy and black runes can be seen as he casts his spells, but Soray isn't inherently evil (unlike his sister), he is upholding his honor as a Knight defending the country.
• Respawning Enemies: In some areas of each Chapter of the game, there are sections of the map where slain enemies will respawn after leaving and returning to that area. Pale Mist wisps from respawned enemies won't boost your maximum HP but other stat areas can still grow.
• Scoring Points: Part of the game since you earn points for your performance in each Chapter.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Deconstructed. Yunou was part of the Gasyukal Research Alliance, but when they discovered the power of the Pale Mist magic and how it can be used to potentially control The Forbidden, the Alliance began doing research on it that lead to some rather taboo and life-threatening results that Yunou was not comfortable with. She tried to warn them of the potential dangers that abusing the power of Pale Mist and The Forbidden spell could have, but they did not listen to her, which led her to being fed up with them left the Alliance and the country of Gasyukal. The Alliance's reckless disregard for Yunou's plea would eventually spiral into an even bigger tragedy that followed during Gasyukal Research Alliance's pursuit for knowledge of the Forbidden and Pale Mist.
• Sequence Breaking: There are hidden shortcuts in Chapters 2 through 4 that take the player from starting at the beginning of the stage to get to the boss battle quicker than the normal route, and doing so can net a higher score bonus on clear time. See Guide Dang It! above for shortcuts for Chapters 3 and 4.
• Simple, yet Awesome:
  • The Diamond doubles the amount of Pale Mist wisp expelled from attacking her enemies with her sword, which can lead to her getting an advantage over her enemies and bosses quicker than usual. It can also be used to recover her HP/PM/CP more quickly and unleash more Rowanveld PM on her enemies.
  • The Moonstone halves the CP cost of her non-PM magic, allowing her to use Rowanveld more than usual, especially in the late stages of the game.
  • The Inhuman Blade simply gives a power boost to her Rowanveld spell, but unlike the Handmade Rosary, this item has none of the drawbacks of Rowan Banish that makes the latter Awesome, but Impractical.
  • The Royal Jelly gives Yunou a stat boost to her starting maximum HP, PM, and CP, improving her odds of survival on the harder difficulties, especially once the player obtains the Nectar of Life which enhances the former to provide a massive HP boost.
• Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: The game's plot describes Pale Mist magic as deadly and volatile magic that no mere magician can control, and Yunou is the only magician thus far in Gasyukal who can wield it. The risks of reckless use of Pale Mist is integrated into gameplay with the CP meters, as spending too much CP from casting spells like Rowanveld can go past the CP Limit, resulting in a Magic Leak Burst that causes Yunou to explode and cause a great amount of damage to her.
• Smart Bomb: There's an item called Ancient Dragon's Whistle that lets you perform a Capacity Burst by entering Down, Up (or vice-versa) + Special that can clear the screen of most projectiles and damage some enemies, which comes in very handy for certain boss battles. It costs 100 points of your CP Limit to use it but it refills to its original amount steadily.
• Smash Mook: The Gargoyles as well as some of the Pumpkin and Onion enemies will Ground Pound into Yunou.
• Sound Test: A "Music Room" option can be unlocked if you beat the game after obtaining the Music Room Key artifact. It's beneath the entrance leading into the Final Boss Corridor in Chapter 6.
• Spice Up the Subtitles: In the fan translation of the PC version, Yunou sometimes says "damn" in frustrating situations and called Vizet a bitch when dealing with her familiar.
• Spread Shot: Yunou's Midnight Ripper technique lets her spam daggers in a fan-like spread.
• Sprite/Polygon Mix: The characters and enemies are done in 2D sprites while the game's levels and visual effects are rendered in 3D.
• Sword Lines: With Yunou's blade attack. By default it's white, but equipping the Obsidian Tail Blade changes it to black.
• Trick Boss: At the end of Chapter 2, Yunou runs into Soray who reluctantly fights her and promptly gets beaten by her. Narju, fed up with Soray's reluctance towards killing Yunou, decides to sweep her away into another dimension so she can try and kill Yunou herself.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Yunou's Rowanveld attack, in which she conjures large and powerful magical swords that she throws at her enemies. It arguably deals more damage to enemies than Rowanveld PM (even moreso with Inhuman Blade equipped) and it breaks enemies' guard. It can be powered-up to Rowan Banish by equipping the Handmade Rosary, and while it's powerful, it also sacrifices Rowanveld's rapid-fire capabilities and costs 70 CP to cast.
• Turns Red: When most bosses are reach closer to defeat, they begin pulling off more powerful and deadly attacks against the player.
• Updated Re-release: The PlayStation Network version revamped the graphics with redrawn character art, colorized plane jumping points to ease exploration, added warp points to make some of the game's platforming less frustrating to beginners, and includes online leaderboards.
• Upgrade Artifact: Some artifacts in the game can enhance Yunou's equipable items. For example, the Hermit's Honey can raise Royal Jelly's stat bonuses from +1,000 Max HP / +250 Max PM / +25 Max CP to +10,000 Max HP / +1,000 Max PM / +100 Max CP. Others can modify Yunou's abilities, such extending Fear's duration, prevent defense penalties during blue/red aura, or the raise the damage output of Rowanveld.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Kurow in Chapter 4. Unlike other bosses, his arena is not a Magical Saturation Area, meaning you're forced to fight him with limited vertical mobility while he's free to fly away and spam deadly spells that can wreck Younu's HP or forcibly build her CP to potentially trigger a Magic Leak Burst or weaken her defense.
• Wall Jump: One of Yunou's key abilities as you'll need to jump off walls to reach higher places.
• Warm-Up Boss: Vizet and her familiar. Vizet's attacks have easy to read patterns and some of them can be canceled out with a well-timed strike or Fear, while Teranoias has some easily telegraphed attacks with huge startup and a very obvious weakspot to focus the player's attention to when attacking it.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Narju manipulated Elshira to create the Pale Mist Orb then steals it to amplify her own magic powers, and once got her hands on the orb, she uses Elshira in exchange to enter the sage's real with Sage Gasyukal.