Science Girls

From Left to Right: Jennifer, Heather, Andrea, Missy and Nicole

An Indy Bishoujo RPG (with a few Visual Novel elements) by Spiky Caterpillar and Hanako Games. The six members of the science club have gathered to repel the alien invaders attacking their school. Hilarity Ensues.

Available at this finely crafted link.

---

This game provides examples of:

• Action Girl: The six members of the high school Science Club.
• Alien Sky
• A Worldwide Punomenon: Very much so. Many of the enemies' names are puns.
• Badass Bookworm: What the girls also are.
• Bag of Sharing: Of what items there are, they're shared between the party.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall

Player: What do we need to do before we explore another world? Missy: To save the game?

• Cool Gate
• Curtains Match the Window: Played straight in the case of Nicole, Heather, and Missy.
• Cute Little Fangs: Andrea.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: Missy's Spam attack, which hits with several weak, unable-to-miss blows.
• Enemy Scan: Missy can pull one of these. It gets more useful as you level it up.
• The Faceless: The nameless main character also wears a mask throughout the game.
• Gratuitous Japanese: A few of the battle voice clips are in Japanese, despite no evidence the game takes place there.
• Hello, Insert Name Here: The club leader is the only one whose name you can choose.
• Hollywood Hacking: Averted. Jennifer tries to get Missy to hack the alien transport device, but Missy makes it clear she can't hack a device that may not be a computer in the conventional sense, much less one she knows diddly-squat about.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: You can restore Health and SP with the few food items available.
• It's Quiet... Too Quiet: Invoked and discussed by Missy after the Suspicious Videogame Generosity.
• Kill It with Fire/Grievous Harm with a Body/Shock and Awe: Three of Nicole's special attacks.
• Lazy Backup: Averted; only your front row of girls can take actions during combat, but you can swap characters in and out of the front row at any time, and if a front-row girl is knocked out, a back-row girl will automatically step up to take her place. Only if the whole party goes down will you get a game over.
• Les Yay: Heather/Nicole, possibly. But the girls are generally close enough that you could say this about any pairing.
• Level Up Fill Up: And you'll need it, if you're not playing on Easy - healing items are rare.
• Magic-Powered Pseudoscience: All the techniques of science, none of the bulky equipment.
• Man-Eating Plant: Some of the enemies you fight qualify as this.
• Money Spider: Averted. There's no currency at all.
• Nerds Are Sexy: And how!
• Never the Selves Shall Meet: Averted when the two Missys meet up in the wormhole. We never find out if the second Missy is from a different part of time or another universe or whatnot, though.
• Nintendo Hard: The original difficulty version of the game. Averted in the newer versions, as the difficulty is now adjustable.
• Party in My Pocket
• Point Build System: As you level up, you're given points to allocate to different skills and stats.
• Preexisting Encounters: After a certain point, you'll be able to see enemies on the world map.
  • Then it changes right back to random when you return to the school.
• Plant Aliens: The invading aliens are plant-based.
• Post Climax Confrontation: After escaping the alien world, you still have to fight the alien boss after you return to the school.
• Randomly Drops: Averted. You can only get items through exploration or after certain fights.
• Relationship Values: They exist, but they've a minor impact on the game. Specifically, who gets kidnapped by the aliens before the final boss.
• Science Hero: Each of the members has her own specialty. The unnamed head of the science club specializes in psychology, Jennifer in biology, Nicole in physics, Heather in engineering, Missy in computer science and Andrea in chemistry.
• Shout-Out: To Nethack of all things. When you find Missy, she's playing it.
  • Missy also compares the spacetime gradient difference in the wormhole to an improbability engine.
  • During the volcano section, the girls try using a safety rope and it burns up. Andrea grumbles "Why did we have to burn the rope?"
• Solid Gold Poop: The invading aliens are after our hair.
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity: The game is generally sparse on items, but you get a crapload of them from a nearby pit just before the boss fight with the tree creature.
  • Slightly subverted because it's a Hopeless Boss Fight setting up the next part of the plot, so the items aren't actually useful.
• Tech Points: You get one each level. They're used for upgrading abilities.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Things get weird during the wormhole ride back home, but nobody decides to worry about it in the end, figuring the universe can handle a little paradox or two.
• Title Drop: Just after the girls return to Earth.
• Useless Useful Spell: Averted. Bosses are just as susceptible to status effects and stat decreases as any other foe.
• When Trees Attack: One of the boss enemies.