History VideoGame / Sanitarium

* DeadManWriting: In Genet, Max can find a diary records the author's thoughts on her abusive father, who have broken her family apart. That diary belongs to [[spoiler: Carol, Dennis' secret hide-and-seek weapon. The secret comes from the fact that she had been BuriedAlive (thus not allowing any players to win the game), and Max only finds her [[{{Squick}} as a rotten skeleton]].]]

* NiceGuy: Max and Timmy O'Toole. Mr. Baldini is also very accomodating towards Sarah, who has no money to spend in his circus.

* AccompliceByInaction/ApatheticCitizens: The reason why [[spoiler: Mother killed the adults of Genet. One of them, Jeddah, abused his daughter so much that she died while all the adults of the town turned a blind eye to his actions.]]

* AbusiveParents: Exploring Genet reveals [[spoiler: Jeddah Driscoll]] to be this. [[spoiler: An incident turned him into an alcoholic, his arguments with his wife often devolved into physical altercations. His wife then passed away, and he turned the violence to his daughter Carol. His child abuse charges were subsequently dropped by the new town mayor. Mother eventually stepped in to take care of things, but decided to take it up a notch.]]

* AccompliceByInaction: The reason why [[spoiler: Mother killed the adults of Genet. One of them, Jeddah, abused his daughter so much that she died while all the adults of the town turned a blind eye to his actions.]]
* AdventuresInComaLand: [[spoiler:Nearly the entire game.]]

** [[spoiler:The scarecrow]] to Mother, who keep trespassers away from her.

* KidHero: Sarah. She brazes through an ominous circus island and burns the serial killer monster Iggy to death with her newly learned fire tricks, saving the inhabitants!

* PreacherMan: Preacher Bob takes himself seriously but is a comical instance of this tre. In addition, Chapter 2 makes mention of an influential small-town preacher.

* DeadManWriting: In Genet, Max can find a diary records the author's thoughts on her abusive father, who have broken her family apart. That diary belongs to [[spoiler: Carol, Dennis' secret hide-and-seek weapon. The secret comes from the fact that she had been BuriedAlive (thus not allowing any players to win the game), and Max only finds her [[Squick as a rotten skeleton]].]]

* DeadManWriting: [[spoiler:Carol]]'s diary.

* LotusEaterMachine: after the Maze, [[spoiler:Morgan]] attempts to trick Max into believing he's in the real world and just had a nasty bump on the head, and dreamt everything. [[spoiler:Max breaks out of it when he realizes SARAH IS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD, even though she's alive and living with him and his wife. Still a kid. And levitating.]]

* MamaBear: "Mother" thinks she is this - a protective mother doing her best for the children. [[OneBadMother In reality]], her [[BlueAndOrangeMorality warped morality]] caused irreparable harm to the town, and [[OnlySaneMan Maria]] doesn't think her ascension will do the children much good.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler: Morgan and Gromna]]

** [[spoiler: Two of the chapters have an alternate universe version of Max's wife as well.]]
** Then there's a [[spoiler: non-playable AU version of Max himself.]]
%%* AmbitionIsEvil: Played straight with Morgan.

** Mother, [[TheGhost unseen ruler]] of Genet, and the only adult there. [[spoiler: She is revealed to be a [[BlobMonster gooey alien]] behind most of the town's sufferings. Her most heinous acts include: killing off all the adults, mutates a body part of each child, then subjugates them under her will, with severe punishments for those who discovered the truth like Maria. By doing so, Mother believes she could transcend [[ChildrenAreInnocent those precious beings]] to be far superior and perfect lifeforms.]] [[spoiler: Her fixation on children and grotesque appearance could be seen as the virus personified]].

* {{CloudCuckoolander}}: A non-comedic example. Don, Lenny, and Martin in the first chapter. See "Foreshadowing" below.
%%* CombatTentacles: Iggy.

* TheCuckooLanderWasRight: See "Foreshadowing"

%%** Mother

%%* GhostTown

** Gromna, the resident MadScientist in Grimwall's episode. [[spoiler: He was considered a hero of Grimwall's Cyclops race, before performing a [[FaceHeelTurn traitorous move serving the bug aliens]]. His project has reached such an advanced status (helped by his [[VillainWithGoodPublicity unflattering reputation]]) that he is able to breed artificial combat Cyclops, and successfully captured and mutated those from the outside that have uncovered the truth. It is only with Grimwall's last-minute and secret intervention that his plans crumble.]] Tying to SignificantAnagram below, [[spoiler: Gromna is a faithful {{Expy}} of Morgan's most irredeemable qualities.]]

* {{Doppelganger}}: Max's shadow and [[spoiler: the two Morgans]]
* TheDragon
** [[spoiler:Max's shadow]] to [[spoiler:Dream World Morgan]]

** [[spoiler:The scarecrow]] to Mother.

** This is one of the rare VideoGame examples where the protagonist (who averts being a [[FeaturelessProtagonist blank]] [[FirstPersonGhost slate]]) pulls it off for most of the game.

%%* InvoluntaryShapeshifting

* PlantAliens: [[spoiler:"Mother".]]

* RhymesOnADime: Vera
*** RomancingTheWidow

%%* ScaryScarecrows

* {{Shapeshifter}}: [[spoiler:[[AmnesiacHero Max]] does this involuntarily throughout most of the game, and voluntarily in the second-to-last level. Each one also isn't random, and ties to crucial elements of his past: Sarah was his sister, Grimwall was his childhood comic book hero, and Olmec was a god he researched as part of his trip to the desert. With one exception, each of his forms has a different voice actor.]]
* SignificantAnagram: [[spoiler:Gromna = Morgan.]].

* SurrealHorror: The game takes place in an asylum that gets increasingly stranger and disturbing. In-between are other strange worlds with juxtaposed deformed visuals, creepy characters and bizarre atmosphere. [[spoiler:Subverted near the end when it turns out it was AllJustADream, which perfectly explains away all the outlandish stuff.]]

* AbusiveParents: A flashback reveals [[spoiler: Morgan's father]] to be this. [[spoiler: While Morgan was introducing him to Max in the hospital's gallery, the father barged in, demanding Morgan to study harder instead of fooling around his portrait. When Morgan assured him he's got his academia under control, the father doubled down, scolding him to strive for the best rather than good enough.]]

%%* CreepyCircusMusic

%%* LittleMissBadass: Sarah (again)

%%* MamaBear: "Mother"

* OneBadMother: Mother, who certainly thinks she's helping her ''children.''

* ThePlague: [[spoiler: The DNAV which deforms, cripples and eventually kills its victims, which are exclusively [[NightmareFuel newborns]]]].

* RuleOfScary: [[spoiler:Subverted near the end when it turns out it was AllJustADream, which perfectly explains away all the outlandish stuff.]]

%%* SurrealHorror

* TownWithADarkSecret: Genet, the setting of chapter 2.

* ArcVillain: The game intersects Max's adventure through the asylum with other (seemingly) standalone ones, each featuring a separate villain that ultimately has symbolic ties to the overarching plot. In chronological order:

%%* BedlamHouse: Well, of course.

%%* BoozeFlamethrower: Sarah is taught how to do this by Inferno, which is then used [[spoiler:to fight Iggy]].

%%* BuriedAlive: Happens to at least 3 characters.

* CombatTentacles: Iggy.
* CoolBigSis: Inferno to Sarah.

* PosthumousCharacter: [[spoiler: Sarah has died years before the game take place. The playable version of her seen ingame is just Max's mental reconstruction of Sarah's appearance in her final moments, doing the thing she likes most - visiting circuses.]]
* PreacherMan: Preacher Bob takes himself seriously but is a comical instance of this trope. In addition, Chapter 2 makes mention of an influential small-town preacher.

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler: Barring certain sequences (which are actually Max's memories), the game is just Max's dreams while he was in coma.]]

* AmnesiacHero: Max, but he gradually regains his memories as the player progresses in the game. Grimwall is also this - he starts his arc without much recollections to his identity, and unlike Max, never found out anything about his past.

* FaceHeelTurn: Gromna was mentioned by surviving Cyclops mutants to be a hero. What eventually causes him to switch allegiances to the bugs race is unknown.

* FinalBoss: [[spoiler:Max's Shadow.]]

** Hinted that this is at least part of Morgan's motivation.

* GoodIsNotNice: The Aztec god Olmec certainly isn't a pleasant being. He reacts rudely to being summoned, addresses villagers by lowly denominators (and does not enjoy being called names back by a justifiably angry mason, whose daughter is trapped in a temple devoting to him), and initially disregards any threats that might have happened in the village. Yet, he gradually comes to see their plight, does the best he can to salvage the situation (such as rescuing the aforementioned mason's daughter) and ultimately defeats Quetzalcoatl.

* HappyEnding: [[spoiler: Max recovers from the coma, foils Morgan's attempted murder (and his plot to monetize the vaccine), the world is saved by his discovery, and he gets to reunite with his family, now grown larger by one healthy baby]].

* ThePlague: [[spoiler: The DNAV which deforms, cripples and eventually kills it's victims, which are exclusively [[NightmareFuel newborns]]]].

* ThemeNaming: All of the cyclopses have names beginning with "GR."
* TimedMission: The final puzzle.

* TheUnseen: A big part of Max's arc. His face is covered in bandages. When he is seen in flashbacks, his face is always hidden. The one exception is a flashback from his childhood. [[spoiler:Fully [[AvertedTrope averted]] in the ending, which shows a family photo of Max standing happily with his wife and newborn child.]]
** This is a rare case of the main character pulling off this trope.

* TheUnseen: A big part of Max's arc. His face is covered in bandages. When he is seen in flashbacks, his face is always hidden. The one exception is a flashback from his childhood. [[Fully [[AvertedTrope averted]] in the ending, which shows a family photo of Max standing happily with his wife and newborn child.]]

* RotatingProtagonist: Every few chapters have the spotlight swayed away from Max to instead focus on other characters' [[HeroOfAnotherStory unrelated adventures crushing evil]]. [[spoiler: However, all playable characters are just manifestations of Max's mind, and those unrelated sideplots ended up relevant to the main story in one way or another, shedding light on the backstory, or adding symbolism to the overall theme.]]

* DeathofPersonality: The Cyclops-Bug hybrids are shown to be suffering from this, as a consequence of experiments Gromna commited on them. The mutations gradually incapacitate their consciousness, speech patterns, and eventually character. The one who managed to keep most of her marbles (and give Grimwall the ExpositionDump) mentions she can't hold on to it much longer.

* WalkingSpoiler: The player characters other than Max are difficult to talk about [[spoiler:without revealing that Max starts shapeshifting in the middle of the game, and Max's sister Sarah ties to his DarkandTroubledPast]].

* PosthumousCharacter: [[spoiler: Sarah has died years before the game take place. The playable version of her since in game is just Max's reconstructions of Sarah's appearance in her final moments, doing the thing she likes most - visiting circuses.]]

* KidHero: Sarah. She brazes through an ominous circus

* TheParagonAlwaysRebels: Seems to be a running theme with [[spoiler: Morgan/Gromna/Quetzalcoatl]].

* AmnesiacHero: Max, but he gradually regains his memories as the player progresses in the game.

%%* BandagedFace

%%* BreatherEpisode: In chapter 3, the horror takes a backseat to...comedy?

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: [[spoiler: Morgan is much happier [[WithholdingTheCure TREATING the deadly DNAV virus]] that's killing children world-wide, rather than helping Max develop the cure, because "[[Film/JohnnyMnemonic treating the disease is more profitable than curing it]]".]]

* ElvisLives: One asylum patient thinks ''he's'' [[Music/ElvisPresley Elvis]], anyway

%%* FaceHeelTurn

%%* GoodIsNotNice: Olmec.

%%* HappyEnding

* HideYourChildren: Horrifically adverted. Children are mutated, enslaved, experimented on, dissected. [[spoiler:Perhaps the game gets away with it because it's all happening in the hero's head.]] That being said, there ''is'' a plague in the game that infected the young.

* KidHero: Sarah

** [[spoiler:"Mother" is an alien]], chapter 2
** [[spoiler:Max was called by his parents because his sister was dying]], chapter 3
** [[spoiler:Morgan is behind everything]], chapter 4
** [[spoiler:Everything other than the opening and the flashbacks was a DyingDream resulting from Morgan trying to kill Max; also, there are two Morgans; the one who sabotaged Max's car and the one who exists in the dream world and tries to prevent Max from making any progress]], chapter 8
** [[spoiler:Max's wife is pregnant]], chapter 9

%%* TwistEnding
* TheUnseen: A big part of Max's arc. His face is covered in bandages. When he is seen in flashbacks, his face is always hidden. The one exception is a flashback from his childhood. [[The trope is fully averted in the ending, which shows a family photo of Max standing happily with his wife and newborn child.]]

%%* AbusiveParents: [[spoiler: See MummiesAtTheDinnerTable, below]]

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:Most of the game, except several cutscenes, is just Max's dreams while he was in coma.]]

* BigBad: [[spoiler: Morgan. Interestingly, he is not the final boss. He gets defeated in the cut-scene after the boss is destroyed.]]

* BoozeFlamethrower: Sarah is taught how to do this by Inferno, which is then used [[spoiler:to fight Iggy]].
* BrattyHalfPint: Billy, Jessie, and Dennis.
* BreatherEpisode: In chapter 3, the horror takes a backseat to...comedy?
* BuriedAlive: Happens to at least 3 characters.
* TheChessmaster: Morgan [[spoiler: (both of him)]] and Gromna.

* NiceGuy: The Main Character and Timmy O'Toole. Mr. Baldini is also very accomodating towards Sarah, who has no money to spend in his circus.

* {{Shapeshifter}}: [[spoiler:Max (the main character) does this involuntarily throughout most of the game, and voluntarily in the second-to-last level. With one exception, each of his forms has a different voice actor.]]
* SignificantAnagram: [[spoiler:Gromna = Morgan]].

* TheUnseen: A big part of Max's arc. His face is covered in bandages. When he is seen in flashbacks, his face is always hidden. The one exception is a flashback from his childhood.

* WalkingSpoiler: The player characters other than Max are difficult to talk about [[spoiler:without revealing that Max starts shapeshifting in the middle of the game]].
%%* WellDoneSonGuy: Morgan
%%* WickedCultured: [[spoiler:Morgan.]]

* WombLevel: The Hive is unpleasantly organic.

* FiveManBand: Played with because [[spoiler: all of them are [[ShapeShifter one character]], but they DO have to work together in the finale, and the others even (kind of) say goodbye to Max at the end.]]
** Max is TheHero and TheSmartGuy
** Olmec is TheLancer
** Grimwall is TheBigGuy
** Sarah is TheChick (and The TagalongKid)

* AmbitionIsEvil
** Played straight with Morgan
** Averted with Max

* OnlySaneMan: Maria Santiago among the children in Chapter 2. [[spoiler: The reason she's considered the most rebellious child by Mother, with being continuously punished, is because it's more or less clear she knows what's really going on with them. She's also the only one willing enough to give Max useful information, and she's the only one who doesn't get mad at Max for warning them about Mother's intentions, to the point Mother [[MindRape possesses her mind into submission.]]]]

* LargeHam - Grimwall
-->"Now that ''evil'' machine will be silent for a while!"
-->"No More Genocide Today!"
-->"Grap!"