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Trickster Game
- 84 statements
- 15 feature instances
- 9 referencing feature instances
| Trickster Game | type |
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| Trickster Game | label |
Trickster Game | |
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| Trickster Game | comment |
A quick note for clarity: This trope is about the game itself tricking the player, specifically. It's not simply about plot twists, or about characters being deceptive. It's not just "Tomato in the Mirror, but in a video game". The wise old mentor turning out to be the villain all along is not this trope. For the most part, video games are remarkably trustworthy. There are things that players can, in general, rely upon: The tutorial will give accurate information on how to play; on-screen instructions aid the player; all mechanics required to win will be made apparent. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })And this makes sense: When the player begins a new game, they're engaging with a new and unfamiliar context. As a result, the foundational "rules" of how they interact with that context are undetermined: How do they do anything? Should they go left or right? What are they supposed to be doing? And so on. Thus they naturally rely on the game to help them along: to teach them the rules of this new "reality", and to support their efforts to interact with it. After all, how could one play games if they couldn't be trusted to bring the player into the experience? However, this also means that players are susceptible to that trust being subverted. And that is this trope: those games that use the player's trust in the game itself to trick them. Maybe the game tells the player to go only go left, when going right is the only path to the Golden Ending. Maybe the tutorial lies to the player about mechanics. Maybe the game messes with the interface to prevent the player from choosing something. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })And when this happens, it can pull the foundation of the player's experience out from under them. Suddenly interaction becomes more uncertain; old familiar truisms of gaming may no longer apply. It can make for quite an unnerving experience. One simple manifestation of this is for the game to claim that the traditional When All Else Fails, Go Right in effect, when in fact it isn't. May involve leading the player away from an Offscreen Start Bonus. Compare The Computer Is a Lying Bastard, in which the game provides information, but isn't very good at it. Compare also with The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard, in which the computer cheats at the game. Contrast Deconstruction Game, which is a game that makes a point of examining one or more video-game tropes. Indeed, a Trickster Game's subversion of expected video game tropes is one potential means of making a Deconstruction Game. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_3'); })A somewhat-related concept is the Player Punch, in which the game uses the player's investment in a character (or other object of attachment) to make a narrative element more impactful and/or motivating. Examples: |
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| Trickster Game | fetched |
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| Trickster Game | parsed |
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| Trickster Game | processingComment |
Dropped link to CentralTheme: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Trickster Game | processingComment |
Dropped link to TowerDefense: Not an Item - CAT | |
| Trickster Game | isPartOf |
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| Trickster Game / int_135bbc0d | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_135bbc0d | comment |
Dreaming Mary: The game's instructions puts the player on a very linear path- meet the characters, play their games, collect seeds, and finally visit Boaris. The player is told to do things like not go into certain areas and to ignore things one of the characters says. Breaking these rules results in a very different and more horrifying game, where the player learns more about Mary's plight and may eventually set her free. | |
| Trickster Game / int_135bbc0d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Trickster Game / int_135bbc0d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Dreaming Mary / Videogame | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_135bbc0d | |
| Trickster Game / int_1543f8a | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_1543f8a | comment |
Zero Time Dilemma presents itself in cutscenes as a third-person adventure game in the style of Telltale Games. Once again, it's secretly first-person, from the perspective of someone you didn't know existed- and for the third time in a row, he is the new Zero. | |
| Trickster Game / int_1543f8a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Trickster Game / int_1543f8a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Zero Time Dilemma (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_1543f8a | |
| Trickster Game / int_1c9985f3 | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_1c9985f3 | comment |
Depict1 plays this trope right from the title screen, what with "press nothing to begin" being the very first instruction you see. You learn very quickly that The Computer Is a Lying Bastard and your trust in what the game says is immediately toyed with. | |
| Trickster Game / int_1c9985f3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Trickster Game / int_1c9985f3 | featureConfidence |
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| Depict1 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_1c9985f3 | |
| Trickster Game / int_4a3437ef | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_4a3437ef | comment |
The featured romance in Magical Diary's Horse Hall version is with a 'bad boy' character who is actually playing on the trope expectations of the target audience to lull the character, and the player, into doing exactly what he wants. Many players recognise the manipulation on a character level and laugh about playing out the "cheesy romance", but don't realise that they themselves are being tricked as well. There are YouTube videos of horrified shrieking from players suddenly discovering that they were being played all along. | |
| Trickster Game / int_4a3437ef | featureApplicability |
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| Trickster Game / int_4a3437ef | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Magical Diary (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_4a3437ef | |
| Trickster Game / int_4d6ad22f | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_4d6ad22f | comment |
The sequel Virtue's Last Reward is a "screw you" to the Japanese players' narrow-minded thoughts on player characters. The game creator wanted to make an adult hero, not a slightly older teenage hero. Japanese gamers don't like the idea of playing as old men because they can't be awesome (basically). So the game has you play as a 67-year-old man but tricks you into thinking he's 22- and once again, he is (unknowingly) the Zero of the game. | |
| Trickster Game / int_4d6ad22f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Trickster Game / int_4d6ad22f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Virtue's Last Reward (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_4d6ad22f | |
| Trickster Game / int_558aa396 | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_558aa396 | comment |
Second Sight has the protagonist psychic, John Vattic, travelling back in time to prior incidents and able to change the events with the knowledge of the future. Except that he's not travelling into the past. He's in the past and is having precognitive visions of what will happen unless he acts. | |
| Trickster Game / int_558aa396 | featureApplicability |
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| Trickster Game / int_558aa396 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Second Sight (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_558aa396 | |
| Trickster Game / int_6d9c346e | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_6d9c346e | comment |
There Is No Game starts out by telling you, well, that. And will keep trying to convince you there is no game and nothing you can do. | |
| Trickster Game / int_6d9c346e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Trickster Game / int_6d9c346e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| There Is No Game (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_6d9c346e | |
| Trickster Game / int_79f5dbd5 | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_79f5dbd5 | comment |
Inscryption begins with a card-based main menu where the spot where the "New Game" card should be is just a gray outline, forcing you to play the "Continue" card instead. Why this is, and what the nature of the game itself even is, expands far, FAR beyond the scope of anything shown on the game's promotional material. | |
| Trickster Game / int_79f5dbd5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Trickster Game / int_79f5dbd5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Inscryption (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_79f5dbd5 | |
| Trickster Game / int_8d5d91b2 | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_8d5d91b2 | comment |
You and Me and Her. Despite some strange metafiction sprinkled throughout involving Aoi, the Miyuki's route, the first route of the game is a fairly normal romance story. After the player decides to do Aoi's, however, a series of strange questions begin popping up that, if chosen incorrectly, suddenly lock the player into replaying Miyuki's ending. Because Miyuki's actually fully aware of the events of her route, and intentionally trying to sabotage you. Once she reveals herself, she hijacks the game and intentionally removes the save feature, just to ensure you can't fight her. | |
| Trickster Game / int_8d5d91b2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Trickster Game / int_8d5d91b2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| You and Me and Her (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_8d5d91b2 | |
| Trickster Game / int_a0960dc4 | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_a0960dc4 | comment |
Baba Is You starts as a simple deconstruction of the "sliding block puzzle" game, in which you can change how objects respond to each other by mix-and-matching the "rules" that govern each level. It continues into being a deconstruction of that premise as the words of the rules themselves become physical parts of the solutions, then into being a deconstruction of its deconstruction, and so on. To get the true ending, you'll have to think on multiple levels of meta-control at the same time, transforming empty space, level icons, and eventually the interface itself all into parts of the ultimate solution. Time after time you'll think you've broken the game only to realize that breaking it is part of how you play it. | |
| Trickster Game / int_a0960dc4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Trickster Game / int_a0960dc4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Baba is You (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_a0960dc4 | |
| Trickster Game / int_bba9da2d | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_bba9da2d | comment |
Each entry in the Zero Escape trilogy has a surprising revelation about the identity of the player character: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, unlike many visual novels, is narrated in third-person, not first-person. Turns out, it is a first-person narration. From another one of the participants. In the past. And said person is Zero. The sequel Virtue's Last Reward is a "screw you" to the Japanese players' narrow-minded thoughts on player characters. The game creator wanted to make an adult hero, not a slightly older teenage hero. Japanese gamers don't like the idea of playing as old men because they can't be awesome (basically). So the game has you play as a 67-year-old man but tricks you into thinking he's 22- and once again, he is (unknowingly) the Zero of the game. Zero Time Dilemma presents itself in cutscenes as a third-person adventure game in the style of Telltale Games. Once again, it's secretly first-person, from the perspective of someone you didn't know existed- and for the third time in a row, he is the new Zero. |
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| Trickster Game / int_bba9da2d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Trickster Game / int_bba9da2d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Zero Escape (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_bba9da2d | |
| Trickster Game / int_d1ad2f1d | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_d1ad2f1d | comment |
Doki Doki Literature Club! In most visual novels, one's save-game collection is a reliable means to go back and "fix" any mistakes that the player may have made. Which makes for all the more of a punch when those saves are erased after a particularly impactful and likely-upsetting scene, thus taking away that means of "setting things right." At certain points, the player is presented with traditional visual novel choices—except that all of those choices say the same (likely unexpected and undesirable) thing, or there's only one (likely undesirable) option, or, in one case, the game outright moves the mouse away from all choices but one. |
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| Trickster Game / int_d1ad2f1d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Trickster Game / int_d1ad2f1d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_d1ad2f1d | |
| Trickster Game / int_e9ec19e1 | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_e9ec19e1 | comment |
Spec Ops: The Line starts off by doing its level best to convince the player that it is a standard military shooter; everything from the trailer, the demo, the cover art to even the first 40 or so minutes of gameplay is engineered to make the game appear as nothing more than a typical America Saves the Day, kill-all-the-bad-guys shooter. However as the story unfolds, it slowly reveals itself to be a Genre Deconstruction of military shooter games, and criticizes the genre for providing players an unrealistic and immoral escapist fantasy through the glorification of violence. The game straight up calls out the player for using the game to act out a power fantasy, calling into question the morality of playing games which simulate killing people for fun. The game's protagonist, Capt. Martin Walker, transforms from a strait-laced, no-nonsense soldier into a vicious, bloodthirsty maniac as a result of his experiences and the increasingly barbaric actions he is "forced" to carry out. At the end of the game, it is revealed that he had been hallucinating large parts of the game, including the existence of Col. John Konrad, the alleged "villain". | |
| Trickster Game / int_e9ec19e1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Trickster Game / int_e9ec19e1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Spec Ops: The Line (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_e9ec19e1 | |
| Trickster Game / int_f6b79960 | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_f6b79960 | comment |
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, unlike many visual novels, is narrated in third-person, not first-person. Turns out, it is a first-person narration. From another one of the participants. In the past. And said person is Zero. | |
| Trickster Game / int_f6b79960 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Trickster Game / int_f6b79960 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_f6b79960 | |
| Trickster Game / int_ff53947e | type |
Trickster Game | |
| Trickster Game / int_ff53947e | comment |
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice marks how many times you've lost a life by showing a patch of rot creeping up Senua's arm, with the promise that once it reaches her head it'll be a true Game Over, and you'll have to start over from the beginning. Notably, it never tells you how many continues you have left. It never actually reaches her head. Even if you were 95% sure that was the trick because a kind developer wouldn't actually do that to you, sowing doubt and distrust for the game itself is just one of the many brilliant ways it puts the player into the role of a paranoid schizophrenic. | |
| Trickster Game / int_ff53947e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Trickster Game / int_ff53947e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Trickster Game / int_ff53947e |
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