Eternights - TV Tropes

Eternights is an Urban Fantasy Dating Sim Action Game, developed and published by Studio Sai for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Microsoft Windows. The game released digitally on September 12, 2023, with a physical release on November 16.

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Eternights provides examples of:

• Auto-Revive: Yuna's ultimate skill is a full revive upon dying that can be triggered once a day.
• Bittersweet Ending: Umbra is stopped and society goes back to normal, but it comes at the cost of the protagonist's soulmate sacrificing themselves up to win the day. The Stinger makes it significantly sweeter when they come back to life.
• Butt-Monkey: The universe really loves to put Min in humiliating situations:
  • She gets stuck under her bed reaching for a plushy and calls for help. One by one, the rest of the team walks in to stare and laugh at the situation actually occurring. "The internet has ruined everyone," indeed.
  • Her Rank 3 event has her doused in toxic chemicals which forces the protagonist to keep spitting on her to neutralize it.
  • The reason her cap is so important to her is because her team started wearing it in solidarity with her after gum got stuck in her hair and she had to shave it off.
  • Though her using her barrier to enable the train to crash through the second wall is an awesome moment, it still starts off undignified with her terrified and tied to the front of the train while Yuna and the protagonist try to encourage her.
• Chekhov's Gag: The protagonist accidentally walks in on Yuna changing and sees her in her underwear. This actually becomes relevant when the team is falling off a collapsing bridge and he takes inspiration from the moment to transform his arm into a giant version of Yuna's bra to serve as a parachute.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Bosses aren't affected by Min's Stun Wave.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Dying revives the player at the last checkpoint with full health and Confident Gauge which otherwise can only be restored by returning to the train or taking Min's Combo Finisher SP skill.
• Deflector Shields: Min's power is generating barriers which she uses to protect the team and to protect the train when they're crashing through the second wall. Gameplay-wise, her barrier skill can stop up to three hits.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Act 5 starts off with the protagonist's soulmate getting captured by Umbra and fusing with them right after he surrendered his Lux arm to power the cannon which can no longer target Umbra due to her fusion.
• Dismemberment Is Cheap: The protagonist's right arm is sliced off in Act 1 by Delia, but Lux blesses him with her energy to form his transforming energy arm which enables him to fight.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: After matching with Lux on the dating app, the protagonist falls asleep and dreams of Act 1's events which serves as the combat tutorial.
• Elemental Rock–Paper–Scissors: Elite enemies and bosses have elemental barriers that can only be broken with the correct Elemental Fist type. Fire and ice counter each as does light and lightning.
• For Science!: Sia absolutely adores science and excitedly brings up human ingenuity as the solution to everyone's problems. It does get deconstructed in her confident rank where she reveals that her wormhole experiment could have ended with 537 people dead if her assistants hadn't stepped in because she was too focused on thinking of the potential which is why she cuts herself off in her science rants to show restraint.
• The Gadfly: Many of the dialogue options allowing for teasing or being a smart aleck to humorously mess with the others.
• Gay Option: Yohan is the sole male romance option.
• Healer Signs On Early: Yuna is the healer of the team and the first one to join the protagonist and Chani.
• Healing Hands: Yuna's power is healing people which she demonstrates at the beginning when the protagonist is hurt and still adjusting to Lux's power.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The game asks for the protagonist's name at the start which in-universe is Chani helping him set up his dating profile. After Act 2, the game also asks for the team's name which Chani puts on the train.
• An Ice Person: Sia is able to use ice to rain down icicles and slow down enemies in gameplay, as well as craft a working motorcycle during Act 3's finale in an instant.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Chani wants to be special and gets envious of the protagonist and Yuna getting flashy powers which leads to him clicking a sketchy link and leaving their train vulnerable to the hacker. While he does get a power from Lux, it's one that is explicitly for powering up the protagonist which leads to him overcompensating in being supportive, but still realizing in the end that he doesn't want to sit on the sidelines. He does get the fame he was looking for in the epilogue, but by that point he's matured enough to realize he still has to work on himself first.
• "Just Frame" Bonus: Dodging just before an enemy attack slows down time and refreshes the skill gauge. Parrying just before an enemy attack stuns them and fills up a good chunk of the Elemental Gauge and Deathblow gauge.
• Last Chance Hit Point:
  • Taking the Endurance skill lets the protagonist survive at 1 HP from a killing blow.
  • Min and Sia's ultimate skill is a last chance hit point that can be triggered once a day. Sia also freezes nearby enemies when it's triggered.
• Limit Break:
  • Elemental Fist is a hefty attack that needs to be charged up by attacking the enemy and is necessary for breaking enemy barriers.
  • All Out Attack can break any barrier, but needs to be charged up by performing 4 Elemental Fists first and is an Eleventh Hour Super Power.
• Mission Control: Aria serves as the initial guide for the team during Act 1 and 2, but her connection gets cut off after that point.
• Moment Killer: A few days in Act 3 have the girls individually try to talk to the protagonist only to excuse themselves after Chani walks in on them each time. He defends himself by pointing out that they're stuck on a train with only so much space and ends up on the receiving end when Min walks in on him and the protagonist trying to chat.
• New Game Plus: New Game+ carries over social stats, essences, and unlocked skills, though confident ranks need to be raised again.
• Non-Action Guy: Neither Chani or Yohan are combat capable with both of them staying on the train and offering stat boosts for their skill trees.
• Non-Standard Game Over: Finishing Act 4 without any confidants at Rank 6 leads to the game skipping over Act 5 and the world saved without any drama, though the game calls it a bad ending for not having any romance.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Lina is panicky and irritable which leads to her dying immediately in Act 1 once the infected reach the shelter and she approaches an infected police officer.
• Super Move Portrait Attack: Unleashing an Elemental Fist can lead to a cut-in of the protagonist, Yuna, Min, or Sia depending on the element.
• Sword Beam: The Blast skill from ranking up with Min lets the protagonist send out a ranged piercing sword slash.
• To the Pain: After Delia reveals she killed Ran, Sia is angered enough to threaten to freeze her to death and keep her conscious while doing so though she cools down and doesn't go through with it.

  Sia: You're going to pay. I am going to make you pay... Do you know what happens to a body when suffering from hypothermia? Heart rate increases, veins constrict, the brain begins to shut down. But there are ways to counteract that, keep you lucid until the end.

• Was Once a Man: All the monsters are infected humans who the team is forced to defend themselves against. The team knows that they can be returned to normal once they retrieve the Stone from Umbra.