Video Game / Tsugunai Atonement

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Tsugunai - Atonement is a PlayStation 2 turned based RPG developed by Cattle Call and with the Japanese release published by Sony and the North American release published by Atlus. The player starts out as Reise, a Raven who has been tasked to help find the Treasure Orb. Disregarding the warnings of the gods, Reise takes the orb and his body and soul are split in two. Fortunately for him, the Goddess of Light has given him a chance to atone for this sin by tasking him to heal the sadness of the people in a nearby fishing village.

This game contains examples of:

• Action Commands: A major part of the combat system. During battle, the player can react to enemy attacks by either defending, dodging or launching a counter attack, and timing is key to ensuring that the player will win battles.
• A Day in the Limelight: Any of the quests that don't involve the main character, Fisala, Irem, Ashgo and Raffer allow you possess one of the villagers and perform a quest, some of them optional.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Most enemies tend to drop healing items upon defeat, allowing players to heal themselves if they do well in battles.
  • Larger enemies deal more damage but are slow enough that the player can get several hits in before the enemy attacks.
  • After Cole's dialogue plays out in the final dungeon, the game allows you to go back to the save point and save before fighting him which allows you to get straight on with the final battle.
• Anti-Grinding: After the player reaches a certain progression in a dungeon, enemies will give less EXP or stop appearing to prevent the player from using them to grind too quickly.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The Training Cave (Blue) becomes this once you go beyond F10. During the last few floors, you'll be up against enemies that also appear in the game's final dungeon.
• Big Bad: King Cole hires Reige's services to help him obtain the Treasure Orb in hopes that it'll grant him immortality. Balor plays on Cole's fear of death to influence him into building a sanctuary in town so that Balor can bring about eternal night and free himself from Hades.
• But Now I Must Go: After completing most of the game's quests during the main story, Navi has to return home to the Fairy Realm after you help him learn to trust other people again.
• Celtic Mythology: Several of the game's enemies and bosses are derived from Irish mythology.
• Degraded Boss: Several of the game's bosses such as Griffon, Shelob and Zombie Lord become common enemies in the final dungeon whereas Madara Vine, High Manticore and Nebiros are late-game bosses that reappear in the lower depths of Training Caves (Blue) as common enemies.
• Dual Boss: During one of Ashgo's quests, he faces two Golems at F10 of the Training Caves (Blue). Unlike the Toy Commander and its three Toy Soldiers found at the end of the dungeon, the twin Golems cannot fought again if the player makes it to F10 again.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • The Money Ring costs 100,000G, and doubles all money earned in battle. It may not sound like much, but if obtained early, it makes buying equipment, healing items and runes much easier, giving the player more breathing room to work with.
  • Mumakeen is a great summon that deals high damage and increases the player's Attack, making them very useful if the player is willing to put in the effort to clear Training Caves (Red) to obtain them.
  • Vivian is also quite decent because she can either use an attack that deals very high damage or heal the player.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Ashgo learns that Cole ordered the head construction worker to be executed because they asked Cole why the Sanctuary needed a basement.
• Divine Punishment: Reise ends up on the receiving end of this after taking the Treasure Orb, which is referred as the The Ordeal of God.
• Early Game Hell: The first few missions will be rough sailing for new players because they have to adapt to the game's unique combat system and deal with poverty derived from enemies dropping pitiful amounts of money. It also doesn't help that healing doesn't come cheap and if you run out of healing items, you either have to defeat enemies and hope they'll drop healing items or complete your current quest so the player will be healed once Reize has finishing possessing their current host.
• Exact Words: The Neutralizer Ring's description states that the player won't be affected by any status afflictions. This makes equipping it a double edged item to equip in that it makes you immune to all status ailments but also means that Doublus and Defend won't increase your attack and defense respectively.
• Experience Booster: After each battle, the player's performance is graded depending on how many enemies you defeated and EXP bonuses obtained from the first enemy defeated, using certain attacks on enemies ^note [Counters (+50%), Strage Attacks (+30%), Critical (+30%) Magic, Poison (+50%) and using Summon Beasts (+20%). Enemies escaping causes you to lose -100% in EXP bonuses. or Tactical Bonuses^note  Quick Breaker (Win a fight in fewer turns than the amount of enemies.) and Survivor (Finish the battle with less than 1/10 HP). Both of them add +20+ more EXP after winning a battle..
• Forced Level-Grinding: The game avoids this for the most part, but you will have to do this once you reach the final boss due to it being much more difficult than anything else prior to it. It doesn't help that the game's Anti-Grinding system means that you gain less EXP from enemies as you gain levels.
• Girliness Upgrade: Once Fisala completes her character arc, she's later seen wearing a dress intended for her late mother and playing house with two young girls. She's seen again in her normal outfit during the game's ending.
• Heroic Host: Reige only fights as himself during the first dungeon and the last few missions, with him serving as this to the other party members throughout the game.
• How We Got Here: The game's first dungeon explains how Reise ended up in his current predicament.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Tristan is the strongest sword in the game and can be obtained by Reise by defeating Vassauo and its two Tarasque minions before entering Hades. Since Vassuao is refightable, the player can obtain multiple copies of Tristan which can be sold for 10000G.
• Last Disc Magic: The final group magic attacks Medio Gigas and Melt Cratos have a high MP cost but are also strong enough to wipe out most enemies in the game instantly. The final Summon Beast Each Uisge can be brought from Keith's shop and can either summon a stampede of themselves or attack one enemy, which is also decent for dealing with groups of enemies.
• Limit Break: Once the player fills out their Strage meter, they'll have to time it right so that the player character will use their special attack. Time it wrong and they'll do a Strage attack which only does slightly more damage than a regular attack.
• Man Behind the Man: The game does hint that Balor will be relevant to the game's plot and it turns out that he's influencing Cole's actions in order to bring about a world of darkness.
• The Night That Never Ends: The endgame has the sky cast in darkness, causing the night to last longer than usual.
• One-Time Dungeon: Once you beat the Sacred Island and Tower of Eiru during the first mission, you cannot go back ot them.. You also cannot return to the Orc Fortress once its been destroyed.
• One-Winged Angel: After being defeated in his humanoid form, Balor transforms himself into a dragon for the second phase of his battle.
• Optional Boss: The bosses at the end of the Red, Green and Blue Training Caves, Grendel, Korang and the Toy Commander are all optional but beating the first two unlocks Mumakeen and Vivian, who are powerful summons.
• Orcus on His Throne: Neither Cole or Balor are active antagonists with most of the game's threats being various different monsters.
• Palette Swap: Several of the enemies in this game are stronger versions of earlier enemies with a new coat of paint and stronger stats.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling:
  • The Training Caves allow The Training Caves have three rooms: Red, Green and Blue. If the player can make to the final floor, they'll can take some items from the red treasure chests and either choose to fight the boss there or leave. They also allow you to gain levels quickly, making it useful for the player to stay ahead of the levelling curve when they have to venture into mandatory dungeons.
  • The Tower of Scripture has Gremlins which give out decent EXP, allowing Ashgo to easily gain several levels during the player's trip there. If the player has Mediom or Melt Down, they can easily defeat the group of enemies, allowing them to rack more EXP via Tactical Bonuses.
  • The player's second trip to the Sanctuary gives out decent EXP through the Zombie Lord and Ribesal enemies, though this stops after the player makes it to Hades. It also helps that the Vassago and Nebiros minibosses also respawn every time you re-enter the final dungeon, allowing you to refight them for EXP.
• Permanently Missable Content: Some of the optional sidequests end up lost if the player progresses through the story without beating them first.
• Port Town: The main setting is Walondia, a nearby fishing town where you can possess its villagers to do all sorts of quests.
• Powers via Possession: Your other party members Fisela, Irem, Ashgo, and Raffer can use the Amulet's magic when the player possesses them, allowing them to cast any spells the player has learned throughout the game.
• Randomly Generated Levels: The Training Caves has randomized layouts that change during each run, though enemy types aren't randomized, and ordered in terms of where you'd encounter them in the main game. The layouts of each floor also tend to get downright labyrinthian as you go further down.
• Remixed Level: The Sanctuary during the player's final visit there takes on a more labyrinthian layout compared to your first trip there when it was still being built. It even adds a new third floor right before the player's trip to Hades.
• Sewer Gator: Tarasque is an grey alligator-like enemy that is fought in the Underwater Walkway.
• Summon Magic: The player can use an Amulet that needs to be filled out with magic pieces before the player use its associated summon. Once summoned, the Summon drains MP and will attack the enemy of their own accord. The player starts out with Raum Lugh and obtains a few other ones^note Balrog, Lindwurm, and Golem by defeating them in battle. Mumakeen and Vivian can be found by clearing the Training Grounds and one can be bought from Keith's item shop during the endgame.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The Sanctuary has 3 floors with labyrinthian layouts and a gateway to Hades. Hades itself is a purple rocky landscape that has portals to the Catacombs, Haunted Lighthouse and Underground Dungeon, and a shrine where the final battle takes place.
• Upgraded Boss: During Fisela's final quest, she has to fight a stronger version of Spriggan Lord called the Zombie Lord who hits hard, moves faster and can inflict Poison
• Underground Monkey: Some enemies have larger variants that deal more damage and give more EXP. Manticores, Perytons and Griffons tend to be quite similar in behavior and strategy.
• Unique Enemy:
  • Vodianoi is only fought on the Sacred Island at the start of the game and isn't seen anywhere else.
  • The Toy Soldiers are only seen during the Toy Commander boss fight and appear as random encounters during your final visit to The Ruins Hillock before seeing Navi off.
• Wolfpack Boss: The Toy Commander fought at the bottom of Training Caves - Blue is accompanied by three Toy Soldiers, all of whom are rather small in size.
• Work Off the Debt: Irem's character arc requires you to help him pay off the debt his father left him in.