Base Game
Cai and Bel Kaneiki, two brothers, break into a museum to steal a pearl. Using Cai’s power of Destruction and Bel’s power of Self-Questioning, the two are easily able to grab the pearl and escape. However, an official from the World Esper Organization approaches the inspector, telling them that they know how to capture the brothers.
At their apartment complex, Bel makes coffee, and Cai checks on the door that contains his greatest treasure, which he won’t tell Bel about. As they rest in the living room, the doorbell rings, and two are confronted by the police, captured after becoming unable to use their abilities. Due to their long history of thievery and violence, they are sentenced to be sent to Paradise, a realm that only espers can enter. It appeared 15 years ago, at the same time as the meteorite that caused espers to begin appearing on Earth fell.
When they fall into Paradise, a dark void with white doors dotted about greets them. They are only able to enter the door shaped like a heart, and head into the World of Idols. Able to use their abilities again, they try to gain information about this world and learn from the informant that it centers around the top idol, Mimimi Aishima. When they meet her, she is able to steal Bel’s special ability before the two run away.
They head to the TV station, where they meet a blue butterfly who joins them as they progress through the floors in order to obtain tickets to meet Mimimi and battle her again. After a confrontation with some guards, Butterfly reveals that he has no memory of his past, and that the only clue he has of who he was is a white brooch with a strange pattern. This brooch was stolen by the ticket guardian on the roof, and that was what he really wanted out of this trip, not tickets. Cai and Bel agree to help Butterfly get his treasure back. Butterfly, not trusting them to follow through with their promise, steals the final key to the roof before running. Cai and Bel are able to get there using a different method, and there they see that Butterfly has been defeated. After defeating the ticket guardian, Cai retrieves and fixes the brooch.
A large performance venue appears where the stage overpass used to be, and the party must gather five special tickets before being able to fight Mimimi again. Once they do, they confront Mimimi onstage, and upon losing to them, her skin cracks open and she grows large black and red wings. Cai decides that there is nothing he can do now but Destroy her, and when she falls, her fans in the audience shoot themselves because they lost their idol. This horrifies Bel, who wonders if he would end up the same way if he lost Cai.
Next, the party enters the egg-shaped world, arriving in a forest. They see a metal bar and puzzle over it, but Cai ends up crossing it while chasing after an image of Bel as a child, which triggers its barrier. Rimm arrives to test the party, and, deeming them safe, has the group split off to walk through the forest and to the town beyond. Bel and Butterfly accompany Wil, and Cai accompanies Rimm.
The groups bond over their similar experiences. On the older brother side, Cai is startled by something in the bushes as he and Rimm are resting, but it turns out to be what Rimm calls a dog, though Cai is suspicious. On the younger brother side, Butterfly gets bored of listening to Bel and Wil talk about their older brothers and leaves. When he returns, he approaches Bel and speaks as if possessed, worsening Bel’s fears of losing his older brother. When the possession breaks, Butterfly remembers nothing, and Bel does not tell him what happened.
Upon reaching the town and going to Rimm’s house, their discussion is interrupted by notice of a child entering the forbidden cave for herbs to save his older brother. The party goes to save him, walking through the cave and the ruins beyond it, and has to fight a massive black dog to save the child. Cai admonishes the child for going alone, telling him that he does not have the power to protect others, and Bel wonders if he has enough power to protect Cai.
Beyond the ruins, the party shrugs off Wil’s warning and heads into a small village that belongs to the dogs, who they learn were actually humans before Rimm transformed them. The party heads back to the town and questions Rimm about this, and he says that they were evil adults who he turned into dogs so that they wouldn’t hurt anyone in his world. Rimm allows them to stay at the local inn for the night as thanks for helping save the child. After Cai and Bel have a chat at night in the center of town, however, a child comes up to Rimm and reports that they were the ones who Destroyed Mimimi’s world.
After staying at the inn a second time, Cai and Bel realize that Butterfly is gone, and the ground shakes. When they head into town, Rimm’s house has grown, and he is standing atop it with Butterfly in a cage. After confirming that he Destroyed Mimimi’s world, Rimm persuades Cai to enter the house to meet with him. The brothers solve a myriad of puzzles, eventually reaching Rimm’s room where he and Wil are waiting.
Rimm tries to convince Cai to let himself and Bel be turned into dogs, but Cai refuses, so the party battles him and Wil. Rimm engages his creator abilities and renders Cai unable to move long enough to grab onto Bel and squeeze him. Unable to tolerate his brother being hurt, Cai unleashes his full power and swiftly kills Rimm, releasing Bel from his grip. When Wil cries, asking Cai why he killed him, Cai replies that he was simply stronger than Rimm, so he won. Bel is struck by the image of a younger brother holding onto their older brother’s corpse, and his fear of losing Cai grows.
Next, the party enters the cross-shaped door, arriving in a winding corridor. A monster attacks, and Bel realizes he can’t use his abilities. The party hides as the world’s creator, Temple, speaks to his followers, and then heads into town.
The party heads to the church overlooking the town, busting in through the staff entrance and confronting Temple at the altar. Cai activates his Destruction as a threat, and Temple is surprised to see the ability, asking why Cai is there. When it becomes clear that Cai has no memory of any past aside from that he has with Bel, Temple intends to offer him up to God, using his ability to immobilize the party.
After an explosion erupts and the party falls through the floor, they land in a stone dungeon and are greeted by the Resistance, a group of people living in the slums who oppose the actions of the church. Their leader is An, and she tries to recruit the party into her group. Though Cai does not care to help them, he knows that Bel would be in danger if they retaliated, so he agrees to lend a hand. An tries to say that it would be a bad idea to bring Bel with them, considering his current inability to fight, but Cai is firm that if Bel wants to come, he can.
The party takes part in a mission to target Temple, traveling through the old church ruins. In the depths, Cai and Butterfly examine a massive mural, and Butterfly mutters about a myth about two godly brothers who fought in the past, though he has no memory of saying it after Cai questions him. As Bel rests, Butterfly, once again possessed, comes to talk to him, which once again worsens his fears of losing Cai.
The party finally reaches the corridor they were told to head to, and, at An’s signal, the Resistance attacks. Cai tries to confront Temple, but he uses the power of his pendant to render Cai unconscious, and the party barely manages to get away after An intercepts Temple’s next attack.
Bel runs through the ruins, carrying Cai on his back. Some of the clergy run after them, and Butterfly fights them alone, collapsing afterwards. Though Bel doesn’t want to leave him, he continues running until he is surrounded by more clergy. He begs them not to hurt Cai, and as they are about to attack, Cai wakes up and defeats them, and Bel then collapses.
Back at the Resistance’s secret base, An and Cai talk while Bel rests in the available bed, and Cai tells her that Temple’s power lies in his pendant. When Bel wakes, he tries to say that he will join them on the next mission, but Cai, now very aware of the consequences, tells Bel to stay behind at the base, even as he begs not to be left there. They leave the room, and Cai finds Butterfly sleeping on one of the tables in the base. Butterfly is dismayed to hear that Bel is being left behind considering his fragility, but Cai asks him to understand that he just wants him to be safe.
Cai, Butterfly, and An head on another mission to the church, this time entering through the front door. The layout is completely different, and Temple invites them to meet him at its depths. Before they reach the final room, it is shown that Bel, feeling that Cai has abandoned him, tries to shoot himself. Possessed Butterfly, however, appears to ask Bel what he wishes for, saving him from death and convincing him that if he wanted his pain to end, all he had to do was kill the source of it: Cai. They proceed to give Bel immense power.
In the final room, Cai and Butterfly battle Temple, and as he plans to use his pendant’s power, An attacks from afar and stuns him, allowing the two to defeat him. As he struggles, he cries out in confusion that Butterfly would be helping Cai in subduing him, which startles Butterfly. Bel then enters the church, and Cai rushes over to him, concerned. Bel proceeds to stab Cai with a scythe, and a hole opens up in the ground as Bel activates the new powers he was given. Cai falls, and Butterfly flies after him.
In a new world full of white platforms floating in space, Butterfly frantically tries to wake Cai up, healing him repeatedly. Cai doesn’t wake until a mysterious power appears above him, and he and Butterfly traverse the maze, trying to find a way to escape. They come across fragments of memories that belong to Cai himself, and in doing so learn that he and Butterfly are both tools created by God to help them regain their power.
They reach the depths of the world, and God scolds them for abandoning their duties for so long. God tells Cai he needs to destroy Bel, and though Butterfly protests, Cai is quiet. Butterfly convinces him that there must be another way, and the two head back into the maze and see more fragments of Cai’s past. They head back to God, who yells at them for disobeying and sends Cai back to Earth alone so he can seek out more espers to Destroy if he refuses to hurt Bel.
On Earth, Cai returns to his and Bel’s old apartment. It is almost empty, all their treasures gone, except for the one that lies behind the giant metal door in the far right room. Cai heads to its depths, despairing over the mistakes he’s made, until he realizes what the treasure kept there was: a paper that Bel wrote his dream on as a child, to own a treasure museum with Cai. Butterfly appears, ready to try and convince Cai to help Bel, but is surprised that Cai seems to have recovered on his own. The two head back to the police station and use the door to Paradise to return.
In the darkness of the entrance to Paradise, a new door to Bel’s world stands. Cai and Butterfly enter the desolate world, a reflection of Bel’s pain, and find a door at its depths. Butterfly wants to come with Cai to help Bel, but Cai insists on doing it alone. He enters, confronting Bel.
True Route
Cai makes the choice to Call to Bel and manages to bring him back to his senses. The party reunites and heads to God’s world. They collect four colored orbs scattered throughout the world to open the door to meet God, and as they draw close, God possesses Butterfly and has him act against them. Bel uses his Self-Questioning to remove God’s hold on Butterfly’s body, and the three continue to confront God.
End 1: Cai, Bel, and Butterfly succeed in defeating God. They proceed to return to the human world and their own apartment and resume their thieving activities.
End 3: Cai, Bel, and Butterfly are defeated by God. Cai begs God not to kill Bel, allowing himself to be reabsorbed by God. God agrees, but only preserves Bel in a half-alive state.
Good Route
Cai makes the choice to Call to Bel and manages to bring him back to his senses. The party reunites and heads to God’s world. They collect four colored orbs scattered throughout the world to open the door to meet God, and as they draw close, God possesses Butterfly and has him act against them. Cai and Bel defeat Butterfly, and after some final words, he vanishes. Losing him hurts them deeply, but they need to continue onwards.
End 2: Cai and Bel defeat God. They go back to the human world and resume their thieving activities.
End 4: Cai and Bel are defeated by God. God absorbs Bel’s power, tells Cai that he is a failure of an older brother just like their own, and then absorbs Cai, heading off to take revenge on their own older brother.
Destruction Route: Bel
Cai makes the choice to Destroy Bel, but dies in the process. Bel is beside himself, begging Cai to tell him what to do, and Cai gifts him the power of Destruction that he holds. Bel decides that Cai has imparted his own duty as the Destroyer upon Cai, and thus, he must destroy everything, following the path his brother gave him.
End 5: Bel kills God and speaks to Cai as if he is alive, agreeing that he needs to continue to destroy. After Bel has destroyed everything and is standing in an empty dark plane, he asks Cai for further guidance, and then realizes that there’s one thing that still hasn’t been destroyed: himself. He tells Cai that he’ll be with him soon, and then the world shatters.
End 6: Bel is defeated by God. As he is dying, he mistakes God for his older brother and begs them not to leave him, because if Cai isn’t with him, there’s no meaning to his life. He then dies. God sees this as a happy ending, because Bel died thinking that his brother was with him. They think about how the bond that comes from being “brothers” is a curse, and that God themself is just another one of its victims.
Destruction Route: Cai
Cai makes the choice to Destroy Bel, defeating him. As he dies, Bel tells Cai that he has always seen Cai as godly and perfect. Cai feels that he must become what Bel sees him as, clinging to those final words and succumbing to his role as the Destroyer.
End 7: Cai kills Butterfly, who was waiting outside. Cai then kills God, acting on Bel’s desire for Cai to become a god and take their place, and then goes out to destroy everything else.
End 8: Cai kills Butterfly, but is defeated by God and absorbed. However, Cai is able to use his power from within God to destroy them from the inside out, leading to their defeat regardless.
Bonus Dungeon
Right before fighting God on the True Route, Cai notices a red swirling door that wasn’t there before. He decides that going in is more important than fighting God. Cai, Bel, and Butterfly find themselves in a dark space similar to God’s world, and standing before them are all of the previous world creators they had killed. As they wonder what happened, how to get out, and why the creators are alive again, Cai sees the usual white door that belongs to the Mysterious Fanboy. He goes in, receives permission from him to let the others in, and they all cram into his room.
Apparently, the Mysterious Fanboy has been saving the object forms of the Cores of destroyed worlds in order to remember them, and that may be why everyone was able to appear there, since Cores hold the energy of their associated creator. In a space connected to his room, there are four doors, and the group decides that in order to find a way out, they need to explore them.
First, the group travels to Mimimi’s world. It looks different, and nothing connects where it should. They encounter Captain early on, and though Mimimi confronts him, he says he doesn’t have time to deal with her and that he has his own goals for the world before fleeing. As the group makes their way through the world, stopping in various places, both Cai and Butterfly check up on Mimimi, who is sullen and snappish.
At the depths of the world, Captain is there with a copy of Mimimi who he declares is his actual ideal idol, not Mimimi herself, who was fake. The fake easily defeats Mimimi, and she begins to think about what made her want to become an idol in the first place. As the fake acts out, asking her fans for money and ignoring Captain’s pleas for her to stop, Mimimi realizes that more than money, popularity, or fans, she really just wanted her singing to be heard by others. She begins to sing, challenging the fake, and she falls to Mimimi’s heartfelt song as the audience cheers.
Mimimi and Captain stand backstage, and Captain begins to fade. As Mimimi panics, Captain explains that he was the core that allowed her to create a world, and because her conviction had changed, he was no longer needed. Mimimi hugs him, promising that she’ll sing again and really be a true idol this time, and he tells her to smile. After he vanishes, Mimimi is back on stage with the rest of the group watching her. She tells them that they need to leave the world soon, since its core is gone, and as Butterfly calls everyone close to teleport them out, she thinks to Captain that they’ll move forward together.
Next, the group travels to Rimm’s world. While still a forest, it is watery like Mimimi’s world. The group runs into Trainer at the entrance, who taunts Rimm before vanishing. As the group moves on, they are separated by the safety device into the older/younger sibling groups: Cai, Rimm, and Temple in the older group, and Bel, Wil, Mimimi, and Butterfly in the younger group.
When they meet back up, Rimm isn’t with the rest of the group in the center of the field where the village should be, but above where the statue is. Wil goes to talk to him, wanting to cheer him up and make him feel better after he had to see Trainer. Rimm, having his past brainwashing triggered by Trainer’s reappearance, murmurs about creating a utopia. Wil runs to grab a robot to help, and when he comes back, Rimm is gone, having been taken by Trainer. Wil runs to tell the group that he disappeared, and they set out to look for him.
They pass through the cave and forbidden maze and end up in a hallway that looks like the facility Rimm and Wil were taken to. After following a trail of bloody footprints, they find Trainer standing among the gore. He invites the group to join him in his quest for a utopia, but they each decline. Rimm steps out from behind him, and Trainer orders Rimm to kill them. He attacks in his dog form and nearly kills Wil before coming back to his senses. He and Wil pair up to defeat Trainer once and for all, and Rimm rejects Trainer’s idea of a utopia. He finally vanishes, and Rimm is able to move on.
Next, the group travels to Temple’s world. Temple is in pain and grieving as they walk, remembering all the times he had together with Diantha before she died. With the world built on the pain of things one has lost, Temple sees illusions of Diantha dying all around him, and desperately continues through the dungeon with the thought that if he can just see Diantha again, everything will be okay.
At the depths of the World, Diantha is waiting. She tells the group that her wish is to die, wanting Temple to move on and return to a normal life, but he refuses, wanting to stay together even if it hurts him. He chooses to save her, exchanging their abilities and choosing to die himself, but Diantha, unable to bear losing him this time, mixes their abilities and souls together. What results is that they are now bound together, with Diantha’s spirit faintly overlaying Temple’s body.
There is one final door, and it is deemed to be God’s world. As the party travels through the empty maze, they pick up fragments of God’s memories of their older brother and past. At the depths of the world, the crucified body of what looks like God kneels on the ground. It is determined to be the Core, and Cai Destroys it, obtaining its object form. The Mysterious Fanboy’s door appears, and he floats to its entrance, asking Butterfly to give it to him like usual. Cai ponders why he would come to the door’s entrance when he never had before, but when he realizes that he intends to leave and tells Butterfly to stop, the Core is already in the Mysterious Fanboy’s hands.
The Mysterious Fanboy absorbs God’s power from the Core and is able to leave his room. God possesses Butterfly to interrogate the Mysterious Fanboy about why he would take God’s power, and in the process reveals that he has been the real Cai Kaneiki this entire time. As Bel reels in disbelief, Original Cai tells God that he’s sick of their yelling and absorbs Butterfly. He then absorbs Destroyer Cai as well, and Bel falls to his knees, crushed.
Original Cai tells the party that he intends to create a world for only he and Bel to live in, so that he could regain the time with Bel that was stolen from him by God. The rest of the party, minus Bel, stand up and fight Original Cai, but he easily defeats them. As Bel despairs, unsure what to do, he receives a vision of Destroyer Cai and Butterfly, who tell him to make whatever decision he feels is right. Destroyer Cai grants Bel his power of Destruction to use. Bel stands, ready to face Original Cai.
Creation End, End 1: Bel cannot go against Original Cai’s wishes, and a world with only them is created. Bel wakes up disoriented, as a child, and remembers he needs to go look for Cai. As he explores the house, though, it’s clear his memories haven’t been fully erased. As he exits the house, he sees the Destroyer Cai and Butterfly cloaked in shadow. He runs to Destroyer Cai, hugging him, but Cai tells him that he isn’t his brother; his brother is over there. Original Cai emerges, and Bel runs to him, saying he’s been looking for him. Original Cai pretends that nothing is out of the ordinary, telling Bel to help him with a fish he’s caught, and the two run off into the distance, with the Destroyer Cai and Butterfly watching.
Destruction End, End 2: Bel chooses to destroy both Original and Destroyer Cai, but struggles with the decision, falling to his knees and crying. He sees an image of Cai speaking to him, telling him to use the power he gave him, and he does so, shattering Paradise. 6 months later, everyone is on Earth again, and Wil and Rimm come to greet Bel, who is standing outside his apartment complex. Wil is excited to talk to him, and Rimm tries to gently remind Bel to continue moving forward like his brother wanted. Bel returns to his apartment, heading to the door that leads to Cai’s most precious treasure. Upon seeing that it was the paper he had written his dream on when they were children, something even he had forgotten, he begins to sob, because that dream cannot be granted without his brother there with him.
True End, End 3: Bel chooses neither. He says he cannot abandon either of his older brothers, and wants everyone to be able to return to the real world safely. Original Cai creates the new world, but Bel stays strong, refusing to accept it. Destroyer Cai and Butterfly separate from Original Cai, and while it seems like they‘ve won, the world around them begins to crumble. Bel steals Original Cai’s power of creation to try and stabilize the world, and Destroyer Cai and Butterfly join him. Original Cai knows that trying to do so will destroy them, however, so he steps in and stabilizes it at the cost of his life, having a last moment with Bel before vanishing. The party returns to the real world, and after visiting the house he grew up in for a last farewell, Bel joins Cai and Butterfly, now stripped of the powers given to them by God, in heading to one of Mimimi’s performances.
Secret End: After heading back to the Mysterious Fanboy’s room, the MonSub there has a new door. There, the party encounters a highly-powerful MonSub shopkeeper who turns out to be God’s older brother. They summon God and the Mysterious Fanboy to them, allowing the humans to return safely to Earth and resuming their own battle with God. On Earth, Original Cai’s identity is revealed, and he and Butterfly move in with Destroyer Cai and Bel in their old apartment.