In the year 3716, humanity lives under constant risk of ruin from a colossal alien threat known as "Gigant". To escape the damage they deal to the surface, most of the population lives on the Arks, seven Floating Continent-like ships. After several years of fighting off the Gigant, ARK-5 has fallen. One of the people found in its rubble is Ciel, a young girl with no known living family or memories. As the ARK-5 survivors get relocated to ARK-3, a random citizen whose home has space for an extra person is asked to foster Ciel for the next ten years. That's you.
Tropes:
- After the End: The game is set in a future where most of humanity has already fled the Earth, and the remainder is at constant risk of alien attack.
- Alien Invasion: The "Gigant", which are responsible for the current state of the setting.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: Ciel's default hair ribbon and dress both have a bow that is on her left side according to her character portrait. On her simplified weekly activity and exploration avatar, both bows are clearly visible regardless of which way she's facing.
- Animal Motifs: Ciel, the girl "under your wing", is frequently associated with birds.
- But What About the Astronauts?: Inverted, as known survivors of fallen Arks are prone to have been either on the Surface or commuting between it and their Ark of residence when disaster struck the latter. Having been on the Surface in the first place is the reason Ciel seemingly survived the fall of ARK-5.
- Canon Name: The default name for the girl you're tasked with protecting is "Ciel Turner".
- Company Cameo: The white orca pin accessory that can be purchased for Ciel is shaped just like the orca from the Studio Namaapa logo.
- Career-Ending Injury: The loss of Juno's legs is eventually spelled out to be the reason he had to quit the military. His prosthetics are noted to benefit from him living in the far future, but two different characters find out about them after they cause him to seemingly fall down out of nowhere, indicating that they aren't quite advanced enough to allow him to continue his old job as if the injury had never happened. A later event has him question the validity of the decision, as he's still perfectly able to fire a gun, and some positions in which the skill can be used don't require to move much. The feeling gets even worse when the war effort results in drafting children as young as 13 as scouts in all but name, while he's listed among people who can't be drafted, but have the option to volunteer. Which he takes and uses on tasks that help him keep his restaurant stocked with ingredients. At least one ending has him rehired as a shooting instructor whose students can expect a good meal once a week.
- Character Title: "Ciel" (which is French for "sky") is the default name of the young (or rather, fledgeling) girl that the player raises.
- Child Soldiers: The war humans are fighting against the Gigant eventually gets desperate enough for 13 to be the acceptable age at which to send someone out as a scout. This alone can result in needing to fight hostile surface-dwelling humans or animals.
- Depopulation Bomb:
- Arks have been dropping like flies in recent years and the fall of an Ark comes with the death with a non-negligeable percentage of its population.
- This is implied in the backstory. Arks currently house the majority of humanity between them and each one seems to have the size and population density of a modern-day metropolis. However, there were only seven Arks even before they started falling and permanent Surface dwellers are a minority population, which indicates that humanity's numbers hugely dwindled at some point in the past.
- Diegetic Character Creation: The player's name, birth circumstances and former job are decided upon via Zahra double checking the info she has about the player before leaving Ciel in their care.
- Do Well, But Not Perfect: There are two achievements related to Ciel's height. One is to have her still be under 150 cm high by the end of Chapter II, the other is to have her over 160 cm high by the exact same point of the game. Hitting the middle ground requires just the right amount of effort toward ensuring her growth.
- Driving Question: How did Ciel, a mere child, become the Sole Survivor of a human-Gigant conflict? It turns out she was actually being kept in stasis beneath where the conflict occurred, and the fighting just happened to uncover her.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The blonde female soldier who finds the uncounscious Ciel is later encountered during her life on ARK-3 and can be befriended if the player chooses.
- Effortless Achievement: There are achievements for finishing story chapters and viewing a single ending, which is something that naturally happens while progessing through the game.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Ciel; a late-game twist is that she was originally a distinguished member of the Elvan family from a thousand years in the past, placed in cryogenic storage by her original parents.
- Flavor Text: For some clothing, like:Drape Gown (Blue): A blue one piece dress held on by a loop of thread.
Exudes ladylike maturity. - Floating Continent: The main setting is ARK-3, a giant city floating above Earth's landmasses.
- Had to Be Sharp: The few people who are still born on the Surface before moving to Arks later in life, or even still live in Ark-protected surface settlements, are noted to be hardier than Ark-born citizens. The advantage provided to Surface-born players is being able to handle staying on the Surface longer than an Ark-born citizen.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Although "Ciel Turner" is the Canon Name of the girl you're tasked with raising, the player can choose to change both her first and last names when she's first introduced. The name and title of her guardian are also up to the player.
- Heroic Resolve: Outside of combat, Ciel can still use her fighting abilities to succeed in other tasks, with the gameplay trailer
justifying such a thing as "a purely metaphorical drop kick". - Hidden Depths:
- Juno, who is introduced as a cook and restaurant owner, turns out to have started the business after getting a Career-Ending Injury in the military.
- Amira, introduced as an infantry captain, is later revealed to be a quite talented musician.
- Internal Reveal: Juno's Prosthetic Limb Reveal happens by chance while Marco is the only character who explicitly notices, but it's enough to make the player aware of the situation. Ciel finds out about his artificial legs and his former military career at a later point in the game.
- Intergenerational Friendship: The people Ciel can socialize with, even while still a child, include adults, several of whom are old enough to be one of her parents. The presence of such an age gap is eventually made explicit for Zahra, who lost a daughter and a spouse at some point in the past and Juno, who had a spouse back before Ciel was born.
- Is It Something You Eat?: Ciel's friend Marco loves to play soccer, which she initially thinks is some kind of food and not a millennium-old sport.
- Match-Three Game: While not the main gameplay element, for Ciel to make progress with her tasks or fight dangers on Earth's surface, the player has to match symbols on a grid in specific orders.
- Multiple Endings: There are 23 endings to unlock. It comes with the Princess Maker imitator territory. About two thirds are tied to a career, while the other third will be unlocked by things like keeping Ciel off the job market for the entire game or having her die during optional Surface events.
- No Cutscene Inventory Inertia: Some cutscene images, and even some cutscenes that use Ciel's real-time portrait, have her back in her default white and green outfit.
- Older Than They Look: Failure to get Ciel's height past 150 cm by the end of Chapter II results in her getting regularly mistaken for being younger than she actually is.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Zahra lost a daughter in a disaster that also killed said daughter's other biological parent. This retroactively hints at that character's Intergenerational Friendship with Ciel being a discreet opportunity to do things they were never able to do with their own daughter.
- Permanently Missable Content:
- As light-hearted as the game is, it's taking place in the middle of a war between humans and aliens. In addition to said war requiring a draft, some of Ciel's friends are either active-duty members of the military or hiding a major element of their lives from her. Don't expect everyone to be available for friendly interactions for the entire game.
- Ciel is supposed to go through three height ranges during the game. Each height range has its own set of clothing, on account of her outgrowing her wardrobe from the previous one. However, the extent to which she grows is dictated by her player-chosen diet and it's entirely possible for her to still be extremely short by the end of what should have been her growth spurt, to the point that there's an achievement for it. In that case, she will hit the second range on the later side and has a high chance of never growing enough to reach the third height range within the game's time frame, locking the player out of any content related to it.
- Prosthetic Limb Reveal: During an event that requires all civilians to run for the nearest shelter, Juno, whose outfit includes pants and shoes that completely conceal his legs between them, suddenly falls down, then complains about his prosthetic legs as he gets back up. Prior to seeing the line of dialog, the player is guranteed to have seen at least one scene with Juno, which it treated as the introduction of a restaurant's owner.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Ciel can be equipped with Purely Aesthetic Glasses that boost the growth of her Intelligence stat.
- Turn-Based Combat: Should Ciel and her friends choose to explore Earth's surface, this is how encounters with wild beasts are handled, with the Match-Three Game element determining which attacks are used.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: To quote the gameplay trailer, "Now in spite of the slightly bleak premise, Ciel Fledge is actually a really upbeat, wholesome game."
- Virtual Paper Doll: Ciel can wear the various clothing items that can be purchased for her. It's possible to mix-and-match headpieces, tops, bottoms, shoes, and accessories. Anything for her upper body will also show on the simplified avatar that is used while showing her doing weekly activities and exploring.
- We Will Spend Credits in the Future: Nieve almost gets in trouble with Sylphine for trying to buy accessories with amber instead of the credits used by the citizens of ARK-3.
