Z-BROS

Setting:

The setting is a fantasical world with multiple different anthromorphosized intelligent species, such as birds, crocodiles, lynxes, wolves, squirells, necrosaurus, and humans. They all have their own subcultures and live in multiple continents. The focus of the world is going to be humans and crocodiles, because the both of them have always lived together in their original homeland, and the Z-BOTS are a series of robots created by a legendary scientist known as Dr. Zoinks. These robots have self awareness and ability to reproduce, they are wildly considered living beings to the outside world these days, but around a decade ago, a mysterious person calling himself "Dr. Dictator" came into picture and overthrew the old Murian dynasty after a coup d'etat. He was very weary of Z-BOTS, so they had to hide somewhere in a deep cave for the rest of the time.

Initial State:

In the present, Zip, a young guy with a high sense of justice, tries to get Zap, his mechanically genius sister, and him to join the police force of the Z-Village, to defent the village against the rise of the Z-Gangsters. Being accepted in the force, they nonethenless fail to stop Zop, the leader of the Z-Gangsters to kick the mayor out of the city hall and take over the village. During the chaos, an important announcement plays from T.K.N, a robot built by Zip the First, the first Z-BOT to have gained sentience, and ancestor of Zip and Zap. T-K-N streams footage of Dr. Dictator using the Murian Staff (magic) to kill Zoinks. The team (Zip, Zap, Zop, T-K-N) is dispatched with the immediate objective to infiltrate Dr. Dictator's base and collect data on the Staff/Zoinks' death, not yet knowing T-K-N's true time travel function.

Final State:

They get in the Dictatorship and try to destabilize it, but are forced to question their principles as Dr. Dictator's rigid order proves functionally effective. Facing defeat by Kurius's statistically flawless strategy, Zap calculates that the only chance of success is to introduce an unquantifiable variable. She deliberately develops T-K-N's power further to acheive a temporal leap, subtly causing reality/temporal distortions. The Dictator allows them to defeat his commanders only to spring a trap in the climax. The Dictator tricks the main cast, leading to the obliteration of the remaining Z-BOTS. Leaving only the main cast alive, Dr. Dictator uses the Murian Staff for a full temporal jump, shifting the genre instantly to a high-stake temporal race. The race ends with the intervention of Celesto, the cosmic guardian. Celesto defeats Juno by enforcing consequence, then seals the wounded timeline by excising the memory of the entire war. The Z-BOTS are left as the sole people aware of the unstable reality they are in, accepting the irreversible consequence as their self-coded value.

Protagonists

Zip: (Z-BOT, Male)

The leader of the group and a fast-thinker. Initially defined by tunnel vision and rigid adherence to a flawed code of justice, his ideology keeps getting put to test as he gets into multiple morally complex dilemmas. His Act 2 failure triggers a trauma-driven fixation on using time travel to "undo" his mistake. He is essential for his decisive leadership and strategic thinking, although his rigidity often creates internal conflict. His arc is the transition from rigid order to ethical nuance by accepting the irreversible consequences of his actions.

Zap: (Z-BOT, Female)

A mechanical genius and the primary technologist for the team, responsible for developing, maintaining, and operating all advanced weapons and machinery, including being the sole operator/repair unit for T-K-N. Driven by cold, mechanical logic and an underlying sense of nihilism, she functions as the team's indispensable source of calculated power. Her arc is confronting her logic and accepting that meaning must be chosen, not calculated or proven, a choice exemplified when she deliberately escalates T-K-N's power, choosing ethical chaos over predictable detachment.

Zop: (Z-BOT, Male)

The wildcard, initially the Z-Gangster leader. Driven by insecurity over his own cowardice, he overcompensates with aggressive, purposeless acts of rebellion. He is essential for his unpredictable solutions, providing the messy, chaotic elements that the Dictatorship's rigid planning cannot anticipate or calculate. His arc is channeling his rebellion into purposeful action and achieving self-validated value by overcoming his direct psychological parallel, Eegelord.

Antagonists

Dr. Dictator (Juno): (Human, Male)

The main antagonist and former official of the Murian Dynasty. Driven by a fanatical obsession with competence and rigid order, his core motivation is deep insecurity; he must impose a flawless system to overcompensate for his personal fear of failure. He is a direct, twisted parallel to Zip, representing what happens when rigid tunnel vision is validated by power and expands from a personal code of justice to a cosmic, totalitarian ideology. He uses the Murian Staff to wage war on the past itself. The ultimate fate of his ideology is to be judged by Celesto, the cosmic guardian who must enforce the laws of consequence.

Kurius: (Crocodile, Male)

One of the Supreme Commanders, Head of the Science Department, and a direct, chilling parallel to Zap. Driven by cold, ruthless pragmatism and statistical logic, he views all life as variables for efficient management. He embodies the institutional proof that logic without morality is functionally superior for maintaining a perfect, stable order. His scientific success challenges Zap to abandon her nihilistic detachment and utilize her genius to champion the chaotic, ethical choices necessary to find self-assigned value, a concept his science dismisses as meaningless inefficiency. He harbors a deep hatred for Eegelord, viewing his chaos as a fundamental flaw in the Dictatorship.

Eegelord: (Eagle, Male)

One of the Supreme Commanders, Head of the Air Forces, a powerful strategist/inventor. His personal flaw is intense arrogance and verbosity, which functions as a shield against a deep-seated fear of being deemed expendable or irrelevant by Juno's perfect system. He is a direct, psychological parallel to Zop, as he overcompensates for this insecurity by inserting massive, unpredictable chaos into the battlefield (via his airships and loud strategies) to constantly prove his unique, indispensable power. He challenges Zop to find a source of power and value that doesn't rely on the Dictator's acceptance. He harbors a deep hatred for Kurius, whom he views as creatively restrictive and simplistic.

Psychological Horror:

The psychological horror is rooted in insecurity, failure, and trauma, making the game's external conflicts a mirror for the characters' internal struggles. The Dictatorship's tyranny is established as a political manifestation of Juno's deep personal insecurity, framing evil itself as a psychological defense mechanism. This creates the flaw-mirroring confrontations, forcing the Z-BOTs to face antagonists who embody the successful, totalitarian version of their own worst psychological flaws. The emotional climax is the obliteration of their allies, an irreversible loss that inflicts a severe, unfixable trauma upon the main cast. This event serves to trigger Zip's trauma-driven fixation, propelling the narrative into a desperate attempt to undo the past.

Cosmic Horror:

The cosmic horror in Z-BROS stems from the existential insignificance of the protagonists' struggle against powers that govern the universe. The conflict accelerates into terror when the combined misuse of time travel by both Juno and T-K-N tears the spacetime fabric, proving that local actions have universal, catastrophic consequences. This transforms the game into a fight against the obliteration of history itself. The climax forces a confrontation with the ultimate, indifferent truth: the cosmic guardian Celesto is not concerned with morality or the Z-BOTs' heroism. Celesto's final action is not a punishment, but a cold, necessary triage to save the timeline. By erasing the world's memory of the entire war, Celesto treats the Z-BOTs' massive struggle as a mere infection to be excised. This leaves the Z-BOTs with the ultimate existential dread: they are the sole, lonely custodians of an unstable reality, their heroism unacknowledged by the cosmos they saved, forcing them to find value only in their private, permanent burden.

Synopsis

Main pages

Overview

Plot outline
Worldbuilding

Character sheets

Main party

Zip, first main character
Zap, second main character
Zop, third main character
T-K-N, fourth main "character"

Deuteragonists

Z-BOTS

Grandpa Zip, grandfather of Zip and Zap

Others

Palios, an old wise Necrosaur
Sir Lynxton, mayor of a town
Dr. Zachary Zoinks, posthumous creator of the Z-BOTS
Princess Dione of Atlatonia
Remus, mysterious Canidoian rebel
King Kumar VII, head of the Murian dynasty

Antagonists

Supreme Commanders

Dr. Dictator, the main antagonist, head of the Dictatorship
Edin Nipalensis Eegelord, secondary antagonist, head of the Air Forces
Dr. Kurius Limaalad, secondary antagonist, head of the Science Department

Others

King Atlas XXII of Atlatonia
Imperatrix Lupa of Canadoiae Imperium

Gameplay

Combat system