Grapple Force Rena

**Grapple Force Rena** is a side-scrolling action platformer developed by Friend and Fairy and published by GalaxyTrail. It is the second game published by the studio. The player takes control of Rena as she goes on an adventure to defend her village from the hollows and foil the evil plans of Lueh, and later, the Archmage.

The game was originally conceived by Tim Ashley Jenkins as a platformer in which the player had a grappling hook and could grab onto object in the game with it. It was first announced via Kickstarter along with a web demo on June 30th, 2014, and was successfully funded on July 31st of that same year. Jenkins would consistently update the Kickstarter page throughout the remainder of 2014 to 2015, but updates would slowly fade away until 2017 when it was assured that development was still underway.

On January 8th, 2018, GalaxyTrail announced via their YouTube channel that they had partnered with Jenkins in order to help publish and market the game. On December 4th, 2018, the full game was released to the public after years of development.

## Characters

#### Heroes

**Rena**: A young child who stumbles upon magical bracelets that allow her to grapple on to anything, Rena considers herself to be the defender of her home village. She goes on an adventure to stop the evil plans of Lueh, and later, the Archmage.

**Magus Pine**: A member of an order strong of warrior mages, Pine is a tough fighter who wants to discover the origin of the hollows. Although she is initially skeptical of Rena's fighting ability, she teams up with her in order to accomplish their goals.

**Captain Jette**: A captain of the Capital City Guard, Jette fights for order and justice in the world. They fight with a pair of magical wings that only they can use, much like Rena's bracelets.

#### Main Villains

**Archmage**: The leader of Capital City, the Archmage is considered to be a wise and noble figure by the general public. When she finds out about the Artifacts, she confiscates them and uses the panic from the public to make a grab for power under the guise of creating peace.

**Lueh**: A being from an unknown world, Lueh took the artifacts from his own world and put them in Rena's. His plans are never really explained, but he convinced Hurgh, Cesar, and Joules to work for him under the guise of a partnership.

**Artificer Joules**: The scientist who created the hollows with his forge that only he can use.

**Commander Hurgh**: A brutish man from Rena's village, Commander Hurgh wants nothing more than power and status. He recruits some hollows to form an army and take over Rena's village.

**Cesar**: A former mercenary and self-proclaimed businessman who takes over Mesa Town using an army of hollows.

#### Other Characters

**Prince Arc**: The always angry ruler of the Fairy Forest who despises humans.

**Arlet**: The unofficial son of Joules who came from his forge. Unlike the other hollows, he actually has a personality.

> For all other characters in the game, please see this article.
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## Plot

A while before the game starts, a person of unknown origin named Lueh takes six items from his world known as bound artifacts and takes them to the world of the game. The bound artifacts have two traits that make them easily identifiable: they all have one special ability and they only work for the first person who finds them. One of those items is the Hollow Forge, a giant piece of machinery that can endlessly create hollows, emotionless servants that follow any command given to them without question. He gives to a scientist named Artificer Joules, and tells Joules that he can research the machine as long as he creates hollows for him. The hollows that the forge produces come in all kinds of forms and tend to be used for combat purposes. The rest of the items are randomly scattered through the world and left for people to find on their own. One of those people was a wealthy mercenary named Cesar, who discovers the Portal Gloves, which can open up portals between points in space. Another person to finds one of these artifacts is a brutish man named Hurgh, who discovers the Arm Cannon, a weapon that can shoot large balls of energy that explode upon contact with anything. Lueh finds out about these men and comes into contact with each of them, offering them armies of unlimited hollows so that they can conquer their towns, and the two of them agree to the offer. Lueh does not tell the men about where the hollows come from and does not inform Joules of what he is using the hollows for.

As Joules continues to make more soldiers, he accidentally makes one soldier that is far different from the others: Arlet. Unlike the other creatures that come out of the forge, Arlet actually has emotions and desires. The fact that the forge could create a being like this shocks Joules, but he is either never able to create a person like Arlet again or chooses not to. Nevertheless, he grows to love Arlet and thinks of him as his son. It is unknown if he informed Lueh about the creation of Arlet. As more hollows are created, the remaining artifacts are found. A high-ranking captain of the Capital City Guard named Jette finds the Booster Wings, which let them fly around in the sky endlessly. The ruler of the Fairy Forest, Prince Arc, discovers the Royal Sword, a powerful sword with a red aura that can expel the energy out of the ground and send it towards a target. The final item, the Grapple Bracelets, are found by a young girl named Rena who lives in the same village as Hurgh, and she can use them to grapple on to any object she wants. Rena then proclaims herself to be the town hero of her home village.

A few days after the bound artifacts are found, General Hurgh launches an attack on his home village. One of Rena's friends inform her of hollows occupying the town, and Rena goes to check it out. When she gets there, she sees Hurgh commanding some of his hollows to subdue the entire village and get it under his control. Rena finds out about this and is shocked by her discovery that the entire place has been overrun by hollows. Rena clears her town of the hollows and frees her village of its occupation, but Hurgh gets away to his secret hideout, so Rena takes off to go look for him, despite her mother, Terra, worrying for her safety. While searching for Hurgh, Rena meets Jette, who was sent by the Capital City to go to Rena's village and counterattack Hurgh's forces, only to find no hollow soldiers there. When Rena explains to them that she already took care of the problem and is looking for Hurgh, Jette decides to team up with her to look for him as well. The pair of them eventually find Hurgh, but before they can catch him, he escapes via his mini-airship and damages Jette's Booster Wings with his Arm Cannon, leaving Jette temporarily unable to fly.

Rena goes to chase down Hurgh and manages to destroy his mini-airship, which forces Hurgh to directly confront her. They fight and Rena ends up the victor. Jette then arrives to see Rena and a defeated Hurgh. The two of them talk about Rena's Bracelets and Jette's Wings and they realize that both function similarly in the sense that each of their items can only be used by them specifically. Jette suggests that the items may be linked somehow, and tells Rena that she should look into the Glass Caverns if she wants to find out how Hurgh got his weapons, as that is the only place he could've came to her village from. Rena then heads off in search of answers. Hurgh is taken to the Capital for questioning. Unbeknownst to them, Lueh is actually listening to their conversation with glee, as his plan is beginning to come to form.

When Rena makes it to the Glass Caverns, she runs into Magus Pine, an elite Mage who wants to find the source of the hollows, fighting several of them near the entrance to the cave. Rena is immediately impressed by Pine's fighting ability and offers to team up with her, but Pine shoots down this offer, saying that Rena is too young and should go home. Pine then runs off, and Rena follows her, determined to prove to her that she's a capable fighter. As Rena progresses deeper into the glass caverns, she runs into Pine again and firmly asserts that she should join up with her. Pine, who is shocked that Rena has made it this far, asks Rena how she's managed to catch up with her. When Rena tells her about her Grapple Bracelets and how they only work for her, Pine realizes that Rena is in possession of a bound artifact and tells Rena that she should hand it over to her. Rena refuses, and so they fight, with Rena coming out as the victor. Lueh then appears next to Pine and tells Rena that she should be glad about winning the fight, and he pressures her into finishing Pine off. Rena tells him that she won't kill another hero, and demands to know who Lueh is and what he's doing. Lueh simply tells Rena that the two of them will see eye-to-eye soon and that she should go to Mesa Town. Pine then wakes up and apologizes to Rena for doubting her ability. She informs Rena that she has been tracking down Lueh for a while and that she's certain he's the one behind the hollows' attacks. She asks Rena to team up with her to figure out where the hollows are coming from, and Rena happily accepts, so they head over to Mesa Town.

When Rena and Pine arrive at a small hut outside of Mesa Town, they meet Cesar while talking with one of its inhabitants. Rena tries to attack Cesar by grabbing one of his hollows and throwing it at him, but Cesar opens a portal to send the hollow right at Pine, demonstrating his ability. He taunts the two of them and tells them to come to Mesa Town if they wish to be humiliated a second time. Rena and Pine arrive at Mesa Town soon after to find that the entire place has been occupied by hollows. The heroines then go about liberating the town and eventually clear out of the hollows. When Cesar shows up to Mesa Town, he is shocked to find that his hollow army is gone. Lueh shows up and asks Cesar if he needs more minions and how his "business" is going. Cesar tells him about Rena and Pine, to which Lueh says that they are serial meddlers who do nothing but cause trouble for people like them. Pine decides to stay in Mesa Town for a bit to protect the locals in the event of another hollow invasion, and Rena goes to Cesar's tower to fight him.

When Rena makes her way to the top of Cesar's tower, the two of them fight, which results in Rena emerging victorious. Lueh appears soon after Cesar is knocked down and tells Rena about he knew she would win and how well his "master plan" is going along. He taunts Rena by saying that she won't build up the courage to finish off Cesar and that he will do it himself. He creates a giant yellow hand in order to crush Cesar with, but Rena grabs him just in time to save his life. It is then that he reveals that he was the one who brought the bound artifacts to Rena's world, which shocks Rena. Cesar then gets up and tells Rena that she should stop trying to save the world because justice does not always prevail; Rena rejects this idea immediately. Rena then receives a message from Pine via a magic spell. Pine tells Rena that Lueh's hideout is in an abandoned tower in the Fairy Forest, a location where humans are not allowed in. Rena then hurries to the forest to find Lueh and stop his plans for good. Unbeknownst to her, Cesar follows her in order to get revenge on Lueh for trying to kill him.

When Rena arrives at the Fairy Forest, she is immediately noticed by some fairies, both of whom alert Prince Arc. Prince Arc is infuriated when he sees Rena, and tells her that she will be nothing but trouble while the fairies are already dealing with the hollow infestation. He then reveals his Royal Sword that only works for him, which Rena immediately realizes is a bound artifact. When Rena doesn't leave, he orders his fairies to attack her, so Rena has to deal with the fairies alongside the hollows. When Rena finally makes it to the abandoned tower, she realizes that she must climb all the way to the top in order to get to Lueh. Just as she is ready to climb it, Cesar appears and offers to help her get to the top using his portals. Rena initially wants to ignore his help as Cesar admits to only helping her in order to get revenge on Lueh, but when Cesar points out that she will have a much harder time getting to the top without his help, she accepts his offer.

When Rena gets to the top of the tower, she finds Lueh, who says he knew she would find him. When Rena is about to fight Lueh, Prince Arc appears and is shocked to find Lueh in the tower. Rena tries to explain to him that Lueh is the source of the hollows, but Lueh tricks the Prince into not believing her by lying that he and Rena have been working together to cause trouble for the fairies. Upon hearing this, Arc goes into a rage and draws his Royal Sword to begin a fight with the two of them. Just as he is about to deliver the first blow, Lueh creates a giant yellow fist and punches him against the wall. Rena is shocked that Lueh didn't make her fight him like she did with Pine and Cesar, to which Lueh remarks that he is not as predictable as she thought. Just then, large magenta cubes start to spawn in seemingly from nowhere. Lueh begins to freak out, and Rena realizes that this was not part of his plan. A giant laser then appears and hits Lueh directly, seemingly killing him. Rena then gets another magic message from Pine that she is at the bottom of the tower and is concerned about all the cubes that are surrounding the tower. Rena begins to break down and tells her that she doesn't know what's happening, so Pine tells her to hurry back down before more of them spawn. When Rena reaches the bottom of the tower, she finds Pine and the two of them escape safely. Cesar and the fairies also manage to get out of the forest.

After the Fairy Forest Disaster, the hollows began to slowly disappear, and less people began to see them. Lueh was also never heard of again. Although the cause of the Disaster was still unknown and the fairies were forced to find a new home, everything seemed to be returning to normalcy. Not long after, an announcement from the Archmage, the head of Capital City, was spread across all the world. The Archmage says that the Fairy Forest Disaster has coincided with the discovery of the bound artifacts; as such, the artifacts are to be considered too dangerous to use and must be turned in to the Capital, lest the Disaster repeat again. She also announces that magic is no longer allow to be practiced by unlicensed users. The Archmage ends her announcement by saying that the people of ancient time have relies on the Creators for guidance, but since the Creators have been silent for hundreds of years, the people have relied on the wisdom and guidance of the Archmage in their absence.

After the death of Lueh and the Fairy Forest Disaster, Artificer Joules still continues his research into the Hollow Forge. He has also by now learned what Lueh had been doing with the hollows he made him, and no longer wants to do that kind of work for anybody else now that Lueh is dead. Unfortunately for him, Capital City forces discover his hideout and demand that he make more hollows for him. When he refuses, they kidnap Arlet and threaten to kill him if he won't make more hollows. Having his son taken away and being forced to do the bidding of the Archmage, Joules continues his work, but he becomes increasingly bitter and emotionally hardened as the days go on without his son's presence. When the hollows are made and ready to be used, the Capital dubs them as "special enforcers" and they are tasked with finding the bound artifacts and the people who were connected to them. As the days go on, Jette, Cesar, Arc, and Hurgh (who was already in Capital custody) are found and taken to Joules' lab for experimentation, as the Archmage wants Joules to make a copy of each of their weapons and combine them into one super weapon. Rena avoids being captured by laying low and not using her Grapple Bracelets, but when she sees that the "special enforcers" are actually just hollows, she decides to get to the bottom of the mystery and find out who was really creating the hollow armies.

Rena learns of a large, mysterious door in Solstice Yard from a girl named Paiya and goes to investigate it. When she manages to open the door, she finds Arlet, who is happy to finally be out of his prison. He tells Rena that her father has kept in the place where the hollows are created. Rena asks where that place is so she can stop the production of the hollows and save Arlet's father, so Arlet takes her to the location. Rena enters the base while Arlet stays outside because the hollow laboratory makes him scared. When Rena enters the facility, a holographic projection of Joules appears and Rena assumes it's the creator of the hollows who is holding Arlet's father hostage, unaware that Joules IS Arlet's father. When Rena makes her way deeper into the facility, she finds Joules in person, and he explains his work to her. Then he captures Rena in a glass container that prevents her from moving and knocks her unconscious, remarking about how unpleasant his work is.

Meanwhile, Arlet gets concerned about how Rena has not exited the laboratory yet, and gets into contact with Pine, who has also been trying to contact Rena. Arlet shows Pine the entrance where Rena entered a while ago, and Pine jumps in while telling Arlet to stay put. When Pine finds Joules, she demands to know where Rena is. Joules, seeing that Pine has no bound artifact, tells Pine to get out of his lab. When Pine threatens him if he doesn't release Rena, Joules decides to test his research out by using his copied artifacts on Pine in a fight. Despite the power of the copies, Joules still loses. After this fight, Joules claims that he gained lots of valuable data through the fight, but that since the research is over, he has no more use for Pine. He then uses the Hollow Forge to create an endless army of hollows, knowing that Pine cannot hope to stand up to so many of them. Just as things are about to turn grim for Pine, Arlet shows up and demands that the two of them stop fighting. Arlet flies into the sky on his yellow wings and fires a powerful laser directly into the Hollow Forge, destroying it and showing his true power. Arlet then tells Joules that he's is okay and that Joules doesn't have to do the Archmage's dirty work anymore before rushing over to hug him. Joules then explains to Pine that Arlet is his son and why he kidnapped the users of the bound artifacts. Joules frees all the prisoners from their cages and explains to them why he did what he did. Upon hearing what the Archmage has done, Rena, Pine, Jette, Cesar, Hurgh, and Prince Arc head to the Capital to confront her directly. Joules and Arlet stay behind, however, as Arlet detests fighting.

The six of them arrive at Capital City, but unfortunately for them, the Archmage was warned of their breakout and is ready for them with a bunch of hollows and Capital City guards. They manage to beat up the Capital troops, and Jette links up with Rena in order to check in on how she's doing. Just as they find each other, the Archmage sends out an announcement over Capital City that she is deploying the Capital airship. Jette takes Rena to the ship so that she can destroy it from the inside. When she reaches the core, Rena finds out that the airship is piloted by General Grimsleigh, an acquaintance of Jette. When the airship's core is destroyed, Grimsleigh tells Rena to escape before it falls as he plans to die with the ship, but Rena picks him up and carries him over to Jette, who flies away with the both of them. Jette then tells Rena that they believe their work is done, and that even though the public will never know about what Archmage did, it doesn't matter since her plan was stopped. Rena is floored by this tells Jette that justice has to be served and the Archmage must confess to what she did. Jette tries to talk Rena out of confronting her but relents upon realizing that Rena will not back down, so they take Rena to the Archmage's palace.

When Rena arrives at the palace, she fights through many hollows and guards to reach the Archmage's throne. When Rena reaches the throne room, the Archmage talks to her about the Alter next to her and how it was used by previous Archmages long ago to communicate to the Creators, the supposed gods and goddesses of the world . When Rena confronts the Archmage about how she is using the Fairy Forest Disaster to make a grab for power, the Archmage responds that she is simply trying to keep peace and order in the world after the destruction of the Fairy Forest and that she needs power in order to rule effectively. When Rena tells her that she doesn't want to fight and only desires that the Archmage confess her crimes, the Archmage responds that she no intention of fighting and declares that she will kill Rena if that means maintaining order. The two of them fight, and Rena pulls through long odds and defeats the Archmage.

When the Archmage is defeated, large magenta cubes similar to those that killed Lueh appear around the two of them. While this happens, the Alter begins to glow green, signifying that the Creators are ready to speak with the Archmage. The Archmage tells Rena that if she wants to save the people of Capital City from dying, then she must place her on the Alter. When Rena does this, time seems to freeze and things reverse back to the way they were before the two of them fought, although they still have their memories. Rena asks the Archmage if she was successful in talking with the Creators, to which the Archmage responds that the Creators were not silent—they were absent. She continues and states that the Creators have abandoned the people of the world long ago if had ever even existed. The Archmage apologizes to Rena for believing that she deserved the kind of power that she claimed to have and offers to pardon Rena and her friends. She then sends Rena home via teleportation.

When Rena gets back to her home village, she talks with her mother, Terra, about her adventure. She says that she's not sure if she even really succeeded since everything appears to just be suddenly back to normal, and she doesn't feel that she was the hero who saved everyone. Her mother reassures her that nobody can save everybody and that she did a wonderful job. This makes Rena feel better, and so they both go inside their house so that Rena can get some rest. As the credits roll, more information is revealed about what happened following the events of the game. Hurgh continues to command what is left of his army: a single Hollow Soldier. Cesar opens his tower up to the public as a casino. The fairies establish a new home in the Solstice Yard, and Joules and Arlet continue to do research in their lab underground. Jette is released from service to the capital, and inside the city itself, the Archmage destroys her crown, officially ending her rule over the empire.

## Gameplay

#### Game Modes

* **Story Mode**: The main mode of Grapple Force Rena, in which the player controls Rena and plays through each stage to progress through the story. All cutscenes can be skipped.
* **Boss Rush**: A side mode in which the player can fight all the bosses in the story mode back-to-back with minimal health pickups along the way. (Accessed through story mode.)
* **Time Attack**: The speedrun mode of the game. The player can play through the whole game or individual worlds in order to get the fastest completion time.
* **Music Player**: The player can listen to the music tracks that they've collected in the various levels in the game.

For each of these modes (barring the music player) the player can customize the difficulty of the game to their liking by using the Assist Mode found in the Extras section on the main menu. It allows for the player to make themselves invincible, give themselves regenerating health, slow down the game speed, or be allowed to skip stages in the story mode.

#### Main Worlds

There are six main worlds in the game, with each of them having five proper levels. Each level has the player complete a certain task, such as getting to the end of the level or killing all the enemies. The fifth level in each world is always a boss fight. Each level that is not a boss fight also has one or two music tapes that can be found. Finding them unlocks new music tracks to listen to in the music player.

* Defeat All Enemies in the Village
* Find the Hideout
* Take Down the Escape Ship
* Beat the Black Knight's Challenge
* Weigh Down the Switch
* Get Percyl Back to His Ship
* Clean Up the Town with Pine
* Swing Across the Scaffolding
* Reach the Top of the Hideout
* Solve the Pipe Puzzle
* Ride the Fairy Elevator
* Use Portals to Scale the Tower
* Break the Door's Three Seals
* Infiltrate the Base
* Rescue Rena
* Destroy the Capital's Hollow Army
* Destroy the Airship's Central Core
* Reach the Inner Sanctum
* The Final Battle
* Epilogue

#### Achievements

Grapple Force Rena has several achievements that can be earned by completing certain objectives, ranging from defeating a boss without taking damage to completing a level without doing something that the player would ordinarily not be inclined to do.