History VideoGame / GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories

* FurAndLoathing / PrettyInMink: Louise buys herself a pink fur jacket in the second half of the game (that can also be seen in the opening and one of the {{Loading Screen}}s). But before then, she was a good girl, just in over her head. After that, she was all coked-up and ditzy (just not to anywhere near the degree of the Vance boys' mother).

* RagsToRiches: After getting kicked out of the army, Vic is virtually broke, and only has a place to stay because he helped Phil Cassidy clear out Phil's old place of gang members.
** At the end of the game, Vic is the leader of a massive criminal empire with countless operations all over Vice City, not to mention some pretty sweet living spaces.

* CerebusRetcon: Phil Cassidy was shown in GTA Vice City as a level-headed person, although he become hilariously TooDumbToLive when he drunk. Turns out that in Vice City Stories, it is shown that he lost his sister, turning him into a drunk at times.

* {{Prequel}}: Not only is this a prequel to ''Vice City'', it's chronologically the first game in the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' continuity. It takes place 17 years prior to the events of the original ''GTA III'', which is the last game in the series in terms of chronology.

* TheCameo: Phil Collins appears as a supporting character in some missions given by Reni Wassulmaier. Collins was the first real life celebrity to appear as a character in the Grand Theft Auto franchise.
* TheLoad: Lance... even moreso than he was in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]''. See TheMillstone as well.

* DarkerAndEdgier: This game is the darkest of all the 3D-era GTA games. The pastel tone and bright lights of the night-time of ''Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'' are carried over, but MoodDissonance and VileVillainSaccharineShow are in full effect. Vic starts the game being betrayed by his corrupt higher-up in the military, loses several of the people closest to them, [[spoiler:and despite building an underworld "empire" in the name of vengeance, is forced to leave them all in the end to erase all his (along with his brother's) criminal traces in Vice City]].

* HelloSailor: While giving a big speech on having balls, Umberto tells Vic to show the other cubans his balls. Vic replies "I was in the army, not the navy." This line itself is an IronicEcho: of a line from main antagonist Jerry Martinez earlier in the game ("this is the army, not the navy").

* HelloSailor: While giving a big speech on having balls, Umberto tells Vic to show the other cubans his balls. Vic replies "I was in the army, not the navy."

* JerkAss: Marty Jay Williams is a racist and misogynistic asshole who is also verbally and physically abusive to his wife Louise.

* BaldOfAwesome: Vic has a shaved head. Depending on how you play, this can also be BaldOfEvil.
* BigBadEnsemble: Jerry Martinez and the Mendez Brothers.

* DeepSouth: Marty Jay Williams and his Trailer Park Mafia personify this trope.

* TheEighties: Much like the original ''Vice City'', the Eighties setting is a huge part of the appeal.

* EscortMission: Several characters, from Phil, to Louise, to Reni.

* RapeAsDrama: What Martinez does to Louise.

* ViceCity: [[TropeNamer Of course.]]

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler:Towards the end of the game Louise is kidnapped and brutally murdered by Armando Mendez, prompting Vic to go on a massive RoaringRampageOfRevenge.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: This game is the darkest of all the 3D-era GTA games. The pastel tone and bright lights of the night-time of ''Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'' are carried over, but MoodDissonance and VileVillainSaccharineShow are in full effect. Vic starts the game being betrayed by his corrupt higher-up in the military, gradually introduced with peoples he genuinely cared off (and lost most, if not all of them), [[spoiler:and despite building an underworld "empire" in the name of vengeance, is forced to leave them all in the end to erase all his (along with his brother's) criminal traces in Vice City]].

* DarkerAndEdgier: The game kept its pastel tone and bright lights of the night-time like ''Grand Theft Auto: Vice City''. Unlike said game, which chronologically set two years after this game, MoodDissonance and VileVillainSaccharineShow are in full effect. Vic starts the game being betrayed by his corrupt higher-up in the military, gradually introduced with peoples he genuinely cared off (and lost most, if not all of them), [[spoiler:and despite building an underworld "empire" in the name of vengeance, is forced to leave them all in the end to erase all his (along with his brother's) criminal traces in Vice City]].

* AbusiveParents: Marty, in addition to be being a domestic abuser to his wife Louise, at one point even threatens to beat down on ''their infant daughter for crying too much!''

* VileVillainSaccharineShow: Vice City is by no means a pleasant place despite exterior, but Sgt. Martinez and the Mendez Brothers are some of the most-menacing antagonists in the story, let alone the franchise.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The game kept its pastel tone and bright lights of the night-time like ''Grand Theft Auto: Vice City''. Unlike said game, which chronologically set two years after this game, MoodDissonance is in full effect. Vic starts the game being betrayed by his corrupt higher-up in the military, gradually introduced with peoples he genuinely cared off (and lost most, if not all of them), [[spoiler:and despite building an underworld "empire" in the name of vengeance, is forced to leave them all in the end to erase all his (along with his brother's) criminal traces in Vice City]].

* TransGender: Reni, the German film director who has had three sex changes in the past. [[spoiler: And eventually has a ''fourth'' during his/her final mission.]]

* BittersweetEnding: Vic manages to get his revenge and kill both Martinez and the Mendez brothers but at the cost of his LoveInterest Louise’s life.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Easily the darkest entry in the 3D continuity. There is very little of the BlackComedy the series is known for, the antagonists' antics are played very seriously and it is the first game in the series to lack a straight up happy ending.

** Martinez, a buffoonish clown who repeatedly mocks and insults Victor while sending him to do his dirty work before eventually betraying him ‘’twice’’

* CrapsaccharineWorld: Vice City.

* ViceCity: Of course.

* AbusiveParents: Marty, in addition to be being a domestic abuser to his wife Louise, at one point even threatens to beat down on ''their baby daughter!''

* AsHimself: Music/PhilCollins.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Easily the darkest entry in the 3D continuity. There is very little of the BlackComedy the series is known for, and the antagonists' antics are played very seriously.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler:Louise.]]

* BrokenBridge: As in ''Vice City'', the bridges are closed at the start due to a hurricane warning, although this time you start from the opposite side.

* ConflictKiller: [[spoiler:Sgt. Martinez is an annoying example, where he interrupts the plot near the end, thinking that the player is the same nobody he pushed around in the beginning, despite the player at this point having taken out Martinez' boss' boss' bosses, and can buy and sell his entire racket millions of times over.]].

* DepravedHomosexual: The game briefly features a small biker gang called the White Stallionz that is composed of gay white supremacists. Vic destroys the entire gang.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Jerry Martinez and Armando Mendez.

* HideYourChildren: Well, except for Mary-Beth, Louise's baby, who appears in several cutscenes.

* ConflictKiller: [[spoiler:Sgt. Martinez]].

* DualBoss: [[spoiler:Sgt. Martinez and Diego Mendez]].

* AntiHero: Victor Vance is one even more so than CJ from ''San Andreas''. He doesn’t even want to be part of the criminal world at first, instead earning money legitimately by enlisting in the army, and only gets roped into it after being manipulated and betrayed by [[BigBad Martinez.]] One of his primary motivations is to get money to provide money for his sick brother Pete.

* AntiHero: Victor Vance.

* GrandFinale: Of the 3D era. While ''San Andreas'' was the final major [=GTA=] in the 3D era, this one is the last one ''period''. Which is funny, since it's the ''[[BackToFront first one]]'' in a chronological sense.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vice_city_stories.jpg]]

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The White Stallionz, an all-gay, white supremacist biker gang that tries to rape and kill the dark skinned Vance brothers.