Eternal Fighter Zero

Eternal Fighter Zero -Memorial-

Eternal Fighter Zero is a doujin Fighting Game made by Tasogare Frontier, who are known for other doujin games such as Higurashi Daybreak and Immaterial and Missing Power. Eternal Fighter Zero stars characters from various visual novels made by Key Visual Arts (and Tactics, before Key Visual Arts split off from them). The original version featured characters from ONE ~To The Radiant Season~ and Kanon. Later versions added characters from Moon and AIR, for a total of 23 unique characters.

The gameplay is based largely off of other popular 2-D fighters, including Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, and The King of Fighters. Several of the characters' stances and attacks can be traced to characters from these games, along with many Shout Outs. This game is also known for its many in-jokes and references to the original visual novels. The game has a large cast, but aside from SNK Boss Kanna, the characters are all very balanced, as tier lists don't really make as much of an impact as most other Fighting Games.

Playable characters:

• From ONE ~To The Radiant Season~: Mizuka Nagamori, Rumi Nanase, Akane Satomura, Misaki Kawana, Mayu Shiina, Mio Kouduki, Doppel Nanase and Unknown
• From Kanon: Ayu Tsukimiya, Nayuki Minase (Who has two forms, sleepy and awake), Makoto Sawatari, Shiori Misaka, Mai Kawasumi, Sayuri Kurata, Mishio Amano, Kaori Misaka and Akiko Minase.
• From AIR, Misuzu Kamio, Kano Kirishima, Minagi Tohno and Kanna.
• From MOON: Ikumi Amasawa

Tropes used in Eternal Fighter Zero include:

• A Girl and Her X:
  • Misuzu Kamio and her crow partner, Sora. She can command Sora to attack her opponent, in a similar fashion to Nakoruru and Mamahaha.
  • Mayu Shiina and her pet ferret, Myu, which helps her to fight.
• Adaptational Badass: Virtually none of the characters come from stories that have anything to do with combat; in EFZ though, they can all throw down in spectacular fashion.
• An Ice Person: Shiori Misaka.
• Ascended Extra:
  • The support characters from Kanon (Namely Kaori Misaka, Mishio Amano and Akiko Minase) became playable characters in subsequent revisions of the game, with Sayuri Kurata being playable from the beginning.
  • Kano Kirishima and Minagi Tohno were given a second chance after being Demoted to Extra in AIR.
• Assist Character:
  • Akane Satomura can summon her friend Shiko for some attacks, as a reference to the Striker System in The King of Fighters '99.
  • Mai Kawasumi can summon a Cute Ghost Girl with multiple attacks to help her in battle, as a reference to the stand system in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
  • Misuzu Kamio can summon Yukito, the protagonist of AIR, to keep distance, and extend combos.
  • Minagi Tohno fights on par with her best friend Michiru; you control Minagi directly, and Michiru via special moves.
• Awesome Backpack: Ayu Tsukimiya can actually use her winged backpack as a melee weapon.
• Big Eater: Misaki Kawana, referenced in her "High-Speed Lunch" super.
• Black Magician Girl: Kano Kirishima, the magic she uses is purely offensive, as she can cast tiered versions of fire, ice and lightning spells; her powers are also a reference to her wishing for magic in AIR, although it's very likely that becoming a magician, and a strong fighter as a bonus, was not what Kano had in mind.
• Blade on a Stick: Mishio Amano is a master with the spear.
• Bleached Underpants: Most of the original visual novels were h-games (although with clean anime versions), and EFZ is just a fighting game about several of the heroines (and other characters), fighting for no particular reason.
• Bloody Murder: Ikumi Amasawa, who uses both her own and her victim's blood for various attacks.
• Blow You Away: Misaki Kawana.
• Bubble Gun: Minagi Tohno and Michiru use their bubble blowers to strike at their opponent, as a reference to their fondness for bubbles.
• Captain Ersatz: Several of the characters take some of their moves, or even their whole fighting styles, from characters in other games. Most obviously, sweet, innocent Sayuri Kurata uses moves based on Rugal Bernstein!
• Car Fu: Akiko Minase can throw a car to her opponent for one of her supers.
• Changing Clothes Is a Free Action and Cosplay Otaku Girl: Mio Kouduki: she dons several costumes of characters from other fighting games and animes, and use their powers, such as Kyo Kusanagi, Sakura Kasugano, Akari Ichijo, among others; she goes back to wearing her normal clothes after finishing the move.
• Clothing Damage: Occurs temporarily when hit by a fire attack; all damage is regenerated when the character hits the ground.
• Combined Energy Attack: Ikumi Amasawa's Final Memory, "Sword of Friendship".
• Combos: Most notably, using the reinforce gauge to cancel almost any attack.
• Confusion Fu: Mayu Shiina: she combines animal-like moves with several acrobatic moves, which allows her to jump and dive at seemingly random directions, to later strike her opponent, or grab her mid-air and pound her into the ground.
• Crash Into Hello: Ayu Tsukimiya: her "Hey, you! Outta the Way!" special involves charging at her opponent, as a reference to how she met protagonist Yuuichi in Kanon.
• Cute Bruiser: Kaori Misaka and Doppel Nanase: the former fights with her unmatched boxing skills, while the latter specializes in grapple moves. Rumi Nanase also counts, specially when bare handed.
• Cute Mute: Mio Kouduki: like in ONE she can't speak, so her winquotes appear written on her notebook.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Parodied with Akane Satomura's Final Memory, called "Unpleasant Hell Murder", which resembles Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu/Raging Demon
• Desperation Attack: Final Memories, which can only be used at less than 1/3 health and with a full super bar.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Misuzu Kamio's "Gao Gao Fire" super.
• Drunken Boxing: Parodied with Nayuki Minase, with her sleepy boxing.
• Extremity Extremist: Kaori with punches and Nayuki with kicks.
• Family-Unfriendly Violence: EFZ is normally a pretty light-hearted and colorful Fighting Game, but then we have Ikumi, whose fighting style involves using her victim's blood, and her own blood to power up her attacks, and is the only character able to shed blood: Her command grab, for example, involves stabbing her opponent with her fingers, and creates a small explosion so she can shed more blood to absorb, and that can be pretty unnserving for some of the younger players. Sure the blood looks more like ketchup or red paint, and it's so cartoonish and over the top and it's sometimes fun, but still...
• Fire-Breathing Diner: Doppel Nanase does this with ramen for her "Maiden Fire" special.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Kano Kirishima's tiered spells.
  • Her spells are a Shout-Out to the MMORPG Ragnarok Online--The elemental bolts, Soul Strike, Frost Driver, Jupiter Thunder, Storm Gust, etc.
• Flaming Sword: Mishio Amano's fighting style; she can use the elements of either fire or thunder to enchant her spear and use them for special attacks; her Final Memory enables her to use both at the same time.
• Flash Step: Mai Kawasumi can perform several of these at varying distances, and can be used for both offense and defense; she can even combine this with her Iaijutsu technique, allowing her to draw, attack and resheathe her sword at lightning fast speed. One of her Super moves, referencing a similar move by Hibiki, starts with a very fast, near invisible flash step.
• Gargle Blaster: Akiko Minase's Final Memory, which features her infamously inedible jam.
• Guns Akimbo: Makoto Sawatari's "Ground Strafing" super, based off of Dante from Devil May Cry.
• Harmless Freezing: Shiori Misaka; in general, any ice attack produces this effect.
• Heavy Sleeper: Nayuki Minase; she actually has two forms: a sleepy form that parodies Drunken Boxing, and an awake form that unleashes a variety of alarm clocks for her "Special Collection" final memory.
• High-Pressure Blood: Ikumi Amasawa.
• Home Run Hitter: Rumi Nanase.
• I Know Madden Kombat: Awake Nayuki Minase, whose fighting style is a reference to her position as captain of the school track team in Kanon.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: Mai is a master of this technique, drawing and attacking at lightning fast seed, and resheathing her sword after each strike. Fighting style-wise, she's pretty similar to Hibiki from The Last Blade, with shades of other iaijutsu practitioners in the mix, such as Johnny and Baiken, for example.
• Improbable Weapon User: Almost everyone.
• Instrument of Murder: Mizuka's cello.
• Kick Chick: Nayuki Minase.
• Kick the Dog: A literal "Kick the Dog" moment: Following Misuzu's command, Yukito uses Potato the puppydog as a projectile by kicking him.
• Lethal Joke Item: Akiko Minase fights with a formidable array of household items including: a broom, a vacuum cleaner, a duster, a ladle, a frying pan, a fire extinguisher... even a washing machine!
• Loading Screen: The game uses a large collection of Fan Art for loading screens.
• Luck-Based Mission: Unknown can catch her opponent inside a barrel; from the moment the move connects, how much damage this move deals is decided randomly, which means, at level 3 you can deal as much damage as if it were at level 1, level 2, the complete level 3, or just deal no damage at all.
• Magical Girl: Sayuri Kurata's character is a reference to the genre.
• Magic Skirt
• Magic Wand: Sayuri Kurata has a Magical Girl wand; Kano Kirishima uses a fantasy role-playing game staff.
• Mana Meter: Kano Kirishima, whose MP bar must be charged in order to cast her tiered elemental spells.
• Mirror Match: The game allows a character to fight herself, along with unique winquotes.
  • A curious case could be Misuzu Vs. Kanna; fans of AIR surely know what's wrong with this match-up.
  • And yer another curious case for fans of ONE: Mizuka vs. Unknown.
  • And for fans of Kanon, awake Nayuki can fight her sleepy self.
• Morph Weapon: Sayuri Kurata's magic wand.
• Musical Assassin: Mizuka Nagamori, can create exploding music notes.
• My Little Panzer: Unknown uses toys in battle, such as toy knives, plushies, a squeaky mallet, and even a huge surprise barrel which she drops on her opponent's head; her Final Memory has her riding on a giant plushie to ram her opponent.
• Nerf Arm: Rumi Nanase's wooden sword. Interestingly enough, her sword deals more damage than Mai's, despite the fact that Mai is an Iaijutsu Practitioner, and uses a real sword.
• No Plot, No Problem: 23 cute girls from diverse visual novels are fighting amongst themselves for no particular reason.
• Original Generation: Doppel Nanase, a presumably evil clone of Rumi Nanase who fights bare handed, is the only original creation for the game.
• Paper Master:
  • Minagi Tohno fights with rice tickets, whether by throwing them, or striking directly.
  • Mio Kouduki also counts, as she fights with her notebook.
• Power Floats:
  • Unknown, the Sub Boss, is able to float in the air, but it depletes her reinforce gauge.
  • Kanna also hovers around, her feet never touch the ground.
• Power Gives You Wings:
  • Ayu Tsukimiya carries a winged backpack behind her, it grows wings to attack her opponent, and perform air dashes; Ayu herself fully transforms into an angel for her Final Memory.
  • Misuzu sprouts wings on her back when performing air dashes.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: Mizuka Nagamori's cello bow, in her "Slow & Keying" special.
• Prehensile Hair: Akane Satomura.
• Razor Wind: Misaki Kawana.
• Screwball Serum: Once again, Akiko Minase's Final Memory.
• Short-Range Long-Range Weapon: Makoto Sawatari.
• Shout-Out: Lots of references to both the original visual novels and to various other Fighting Games. Makoto Sawatari's stage also features Clannad in the background, a later Key Visual Arts visual novel.
  • See Kano Kirishima's spells above. Also, her staff is a special staff from the same game, called a "Mighty Staff."
• SNK Boss: Kanna. Subverted on difficulties 1 and 2, where she hardly attacks and generally just waits for you to kill her. Played brutally straight on difficulties 3 and 4. You pretty much need to be an EFZ god to beat level 4 Kanna (or use extremely cheap tactics, but even that takes a lot of luck).
• Spotlight Stealing Crossover: Kanon has the most player characters here (10).
• Stance System:
  • Mio Kouduki has two modes: a Short-Range Mode, which is more like a rushdown style; and a Long-Range Mode, which plays keepaway with her opponent.
  • Minagi's friend Michiru can also adopt two stances following Minagi's command: a normal stance for some special moves; and a "fighting" stance, for enhanced versions of her special moves.
  • Rumi Nanase also counts, as she has two stances, whether she's fighting with her wooden sword, or bare handed.
• Super Mode: Ikumi Amasawa's "Violent Run - Genocide Mode"; Rumi Nanase's "Enduring Maiden's Aesthetic" Final Memory.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works:
  • Rumi Nanase can throw her wooden sword so fast, that it sets on fire for a brief instant. After that, she goes into her bare-handed stance till she picks it up again.
  • Mio also counts, when she cosplays as Ciel from Tsukihime, she throws a bunch of swords diagonal up.
• This Is a Drill: Akane Satomura's neutral fierce.
• Time Stands Still:
  • Mizuka Nagamori's Final Memory, "Eternal Poem". Misuzu's, too.
  • Akiko Minase is also able to slow time down for a few seconds for one of her supers.
• Token Adult: Among a cast of pre-teen and teengae girls, Nayuki's mom Akiko is the only adult character.
• Token Mini-Moe: Unknown is the smallest of the cast. Michiru also counts.
• Token Minority: Meta example: Ikumi is the only representative of MOON, making her place against eight characters from ONE, ten from Kanon and four from AIR.
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • Akane with waffles: She shapes her hair as a huge waffle to attack her opponent, for one of her aerial specials.
  • Ayu with taiyaki: She rides on a giant taiyaki to atrike at her opponent, for her "Taiyaki Assault" special.
  • Nayuki with strawberries: in the sleepy form, she uses strawberry jam to increase her offense and mobility.
  • Makoto with Nikuman (Meat buns), which she uses during her Final Memory to recover some health.
  • Misuzu uses her favorite juice in battle, whether by placing traps, or striking her opponent directly.
• The Trickster: Makoto's fighting style is a reference to her fondness for pranks, as she uses fireworks, and a canister of gas in battle. The bullets she fires can also catch opponents off guard.
• Warrior Therapist: Mai gives friendly advice to Ayu, who just wanted to be normal.

Mai: (On defeating Ayu) Don't run . That power of yours serves a purpose jus because you received it.

• • Also to Rumi, whom she calls out on relying on strength too much.

Mai: (On defeating Rumi) Amazing brute force. But, by letting the force slide past, it does not pose much of a problem.

• Winged Humanoid: Kanna's wings are not just for decoration, she can actually use them in combat.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Both Rumi and Doppel Nanase incorporate some wrestling moves in their styles (They both have a powerbomb, for example, as their grab move).