History Main / TricksterGame

** There's actually [[spoiler: three]] POV characters.
** The flowchart is split into two main branches, Mitzuki in the present and Ryuki in the past. [[spoiler:half of the nodes in the main branches are switched, so half of Ryuki's nodes are in the present and half of Mitzuki's nodes are in the past, except it's her identical twin]]. It's corrected before the big finale.
** There's a third route, [[spoiler:where the story goes off the rails in a meta plot about leaving reality]] and the mystery is solved very quickly.

** 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. [[spoiler: 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."]]

* The ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' [[VideoGame/MinecraftAdventureMaps adventure map]] "The Easiest Adventure Map[[TradeSnark ™]]" is a jab at simplistic, easy, low-effort adventure maps, as well as the players who prefer them to maps with more effort put into them. At first glance, it's a light-hearted map with an ExcusePlot about a witch stealing your milk for no good reason, and following the instructions given will [[{{Railroading}} railroad]] you through 10 easy challenges and hand you an [[AWinnerIsYou unsatisfying ending]]. However, going against the instructions and deliberately failing the challenges will cause the witch to [[VillainousBreakdown become less funny and more aggressive]], and failing all 10 will [[spoiler:reveal that the player is trapped in a LotusEaterMachine, forcing them to find the way out.]]

** ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'' presents itself in cutscenes as a third-person adventure game in the style of Creator/TelltaleGames. [[spoiler: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.]]

* ''VideoGame/HellbladeSenuasSacrifice'' 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. [[spoiler: 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.]]

* ''VideoGame/SecondSight'' 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. [[spoiler: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.]]

** ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'', unlike many visual novels, is narrated in third-person, not first-person. Turns out, [[spoiler:it ''is'' a first-person narration. ''From another one of the participants.'' '''In the past.''' And said person is '''''[[BigBad Zero]].''''']]

* The featured romance in ''VisualNovel/MagicalDiary'''s ''Horse Hall'' version is [[spoiler: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.
* ''VisualNovel/YouAndMeAndHer''. 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. [[spoiler: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.]]
* The CentralTheme of ''VisualNovel/FleuretBlanc'' is materialism and obsession -- two things that video games, by their nature, tend to encourage. This makes for a very interesting choice of medium, and the dissonance is played up for all it's worth. The mechanics encourage you to reduce your co-workers to RelationshipValues and hoard their prized possessions -- which don't even have any meaning to you! -- all while characters wax philosophical about the meaning of objects in our lives and if we can really gain happiness just through having enough possessions. One of the characters is an avid gamer obsessed with virtual achievements and the like. Gaining an item results in a cheerful ItemGet jingle, while losing one results in a sad trombone noise, even when it's part of a scripted sequence. This makes many players have a kneejerk negative reaction to losing items, even when it makes perfect sense and is the smarter option. The [[spoiler:gold placard]] is a particular {{Troll}} in this regard; it's ''only ever added to the inventory in cutscenes'', because Florentine always discards it again by the end of the scene. You never keep it permanently, even though it looks like a legitimate item. The game also dramatically tallies up ScoringPoints at the end of every day over a background that says "[[LampshadeHanging Everything is collectible]]"; these points do absolutely nothing. While there is never any explicit betrayal of the player on the level of some other examples here, the game is carefully crafted to make the player uncomfortable and reevaluate their behavior.
* ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub''
** 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. [[spoiler: 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''.

* ''VideoGame/{{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.

** ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'', unlike many visual novels, is narrated in third-person, not first-person. Turns out, [[spoiler:it ''is'' a first-person narration. ''From another one of the participants. '''In the past.''''']]
** The sequel ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'' 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). [[spoiler:So the game has you play as a 67-year-old man but tricks you into thinking he's 22.]]
** ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'' presents itself in cutscenes as a third-person adventure game in the style of Creator/TelltaleGames. [[spoiler:Once again, it's secretly first-person, from the perspective of someone you didn't know existed.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Inscryption}}'' begins with the main menu's "New Game" button greyed out, forcing you to press "Continue" 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.

* ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' has a number of MetaGame elements, most of which do not fall under this trope. However, there are two elements that do:

[[folder: Adventure Games]]

[[folder: Platformers]]

** 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. [[spoiler: 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"]].

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 "TomatoInTheMirror, but in a video game". The wise old mentor turning out to be the villain all along is ''not'' this trope.

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.

One simple manifestation of this is for the game to claim that the traditional WhenAllElseFailsGoRight in effect, when in fact it isn't.

May involve leading the player away from an OffscreenStartBonus.

Compare TheComputerIsALyingBastard, in which the game provides information, but isn't very good at it. Compare also with TheComputerIsACheatingBastard, in which the computer cheats at the game.

Compare and contrast DeconstructionGame, 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 DeconstructionGame.

!!As this is an EndingTrope, beware of unmarked spoilers.

[[folder: Puzzle Games]]
* ''VideoGame/ThereIsNoGame'': Since the narrator insists that it isn't a game when it actually is, you sometimes have to do the opposite of what he tells you. For instance, when he tells you not to search for a ball on the screen, you have to do just that.
[[/folder]]

* ''VisualNovel/ZeroEscape'':
** ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'', unlike many visual novels, is narrated in third-person, not first-person. Turns out, [[spoiler:it ''is'' a first-person narration. ''From another one of the players.'' '''''In the past.''''']]
** The sequel ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'' 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). [[spoiler:So the game has you play as an old man but tricks you into thinking he's college age.]]

[[/folder]]