History VideoGame / BrokenReality

* CreditCardPlot: Invoked with the upay card you get near the beginning. You immediately go into the red when you start using it to buy items, which you must do in order to progress. And the game even encourages reckless spending with the shopping mini-game. Once you reach [[Website/GeoCities GeoCity]], however, you'll have to WorkOffTheDebt in order to progress, though thankfully the Phisherman will give you an upgraded card that will give you money for buying things instead to make this much easier.

** Geo City is a reference to Website/GeoCities.

* AnachronismStew: Despite being set in the distant future of 2045, just about everything regarding NATEM, from it's structure to it's aesthetic is themed around how the real world internet was during TheNineties.

* CruiseEpisode: All of the Love Cruise 64 takes place on a cruise ship, starting in the engine room and working your way up to the deck.

* MetroidVania: Played straight in Domo Paradisso, in which you gradually obtain new items that allow you to access previously unreachable sections of the stage. Downplayed afterword though as, save for a few upgrades to your already existing equipment, your gear remains static for the rest of the game.

* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Every zone except [[HubLevel Axis Plaza]] has a character that is a 2D sprite instead of a 3D model.
** Domo Paradisso: Chozai
** [=AquaNet=]: Socrates.
** Love Cruise 64: Captain Johnson.
** Geo City: The owner of Blaze Runner.
** [[spoiler:Innernet]]: [[spoiler:Buddha, who allows you to leave.]]

* TrippyFinaleSyndrome: While every other level has a unifying theme of some sort, [[spoiler:The Innernet is a bizarre series of disconnected, eye-searing locations with seemingly no relation to each other other than their disturbing nature.]]

* {{Vaporwave}}: The aesthetic covers the game like gold dust. Omnipresent advertising, low poly palm trees and dolphins, greek statues, vending machines everywhere.
* WretchedHive: Geo City is known to be one of these, where all kinds of illicit substances and services can be purchased.

* AnachronismStew: Despite being set in the distant future of 2045, just about everything regarding NATEM, from it's structure to it's aesthetic is themed around how the real world internet was during the 90's.

* {{Pun}}: The save points in the game are vending machines that say [[UsefulNotes/Christianity "You've been saved"]] along with an EtherealChoir.

* {{Pun}}: The save points in the game are vending machines that say "You've been saved" along with an EtherealChoir.

** [[spoiler:Buddha; fittingly, he's the one who gets you out of this virtual world, and Buddhism is all about escaping the cycle of existence.]]

** Socrates in Aquanet; fittngly, he's found in underwater ruins, and the Socratic Dialogues were the first great writing about Atlantis.

** Socrates in Aquanet; fittngly, he's found in the ruins of AquaNet, and the Socratic Dialogues were the first great writing about Atlantis.

** Socrates in AquaNet; fittngly, he's found in the ruins of AquaNet, and the Socratic Dialogues were the first great writing about Atlantis.

** Socrates in AquaNet; fittngly, the Socratic Dialogues were the first great writing about Atlantis.
** [[spoiler:Buddha; fittingly, Buddhims is all about escaping the cycle of existence, and he's the one who gets you out of this virtual world.]]

* EenieMeenieMinyMoai: Three of them are in Domo Paradisso, and ask for items from the nearby mall to help deal with the sunshine.

* CreditCardPlot: Invoked with the upay card you get near the beginning. You immediately go into the red when you start using it to buy items, which you must do in order to progress. And the game even encourages reckless spending with the shopping mini-game. Once you reach GeoCity, however, you'll have to WorkOffTheDebt in order to progress, though thankfully the Phisherman will give you an upgraded card that will give you money for buying things instead to make this much easier.

* TrippyFinaleSyndrome: While every other level has a unifying theme of some sort, [[spoiler:The Innernet is a bizarre series of disconnected, eye-searing locations with seemingly no relation to eachother other than their disturbing nature.]]

-->''Leave your worries behind.''
-->''Explore wonderful worlds.''
-->''Take beautiful pictures.''
-->''Become rich and famous.''
-->''Enjoy all kinds of fun activities.''
-->''Dive deeper.''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brokenreality1920x1080_7.jpg]]

* Metroidvania: Played straight in Domo Paradisso, in which you gradually obtain new items that allow you to access previously unreachable sections of the stage. Downplayed afterword though as, save for a few upgrades to your already existing equipment, your gear remains static for the rest of the game.

-Domo Paradissio is the main level featured in the game's demo.
-Axis Plaza provides ''access'' to all parts of the web.
-[[spoiler: The ''Inner''net is the game's equivalent to the ''deep'' web.]]

* AnachronismScrew: Despite being set in the distant future of 2045, just about everything regarding NATEM, from it's structure to it's aesthetic is themed around how the real world internet was during the 90's.

NATEM is an online chatroom in the year 2045, offering fully immersive online browsing, chatting, and shopping. As a new user, you are encouraged by the helpful Onee Chan to collect Likes by clicking on ads, shopping, and helping out other users to become as popular as possible. NATEM provides a variety of servers with vibrantly different, retro aesthetics, influenced by both {{Main/Vaporwave}} and 90s pop culture into a dizzyingly nostalgic and melancholy blend. All is not well in NATEM, and early on you are asked by those in the know to help plumb its secrets.

* PunnyName: Axis Plaza provides ''access'' to all parts of the web.

* GreenHillZone: Domo Paradiso, the first zone, is a tropical island and shopping mall filled with palm trees, dolphins, and bamboo forests.

** Domo Paradiso: Chozai

** In {[=AquaNet=], Socrates gives you a minigame to chop all the viruses in the room in under 20 seconds. You can replay it if you want.