History VideoGame / ShadowsOverLoathing

** All of the films the protagonist and Lydia discuss are period-accurate. Lydia doesn't recognize anything made after the year 1908, when she died. She doesn't even recognize Creator/BusterKeaton, who wouldn't rise to mainstream American fame until the 1920s.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Even moreso than ''West of Loathing'', which was already a lot darker than the original ''Kingdom of Loathing''. Downplayed in that its still a ''Loathing'' game and is thus laden with comedy, but the game is quite a bit more serious, scary, and gross than any of the previous ones.

* YouShouldntKnowThisAlready: As mentioned; the Shadow President's Last Name os "Dooley" can only be seen in Barker's Interlude on her farm's mail box, "Dooley." There is no reason for you; the main player, to know this. In fact, if you mention it to your Uncle in the last chapter; he'll not only say that he can't heare the actual name when you say it (instead getting black static) but when he asks you how you found this out; you admit that you do not remember.
]]

* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: The narrator notes that the reason the player character sees an endless black void when they enter larger Shadow Rifts is because it's the closest thing their mind can process without giving them something that would melt their brain. [[spoiler:This is also why the Shadowlord appears as a mass of eyes and mouths, since that's the best picture their mind can paint without driving the player character mad.]]

* AnotherDimension:
** Throughout the game, you encounter puzzles in the form of rifts in reality that lead... somewhere.
** You can meet your alternate-universe self, who's trying to rescue their ''aunt'' in Crystaldream Lake.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Interestingly enough,'' Shadows Over Loathing'' has a double layered version of this by giving players multiple ways of dealing with various obstacles. Not a fan of turn based combat? Most encounters can be resolved peacefully if you have sufficient stats or puzzle solving skills. Bad at puzzles or underleveled in a few key areas? You can just brute force your way through the issue via combat.
** There's also the shadow banishing ring which, when equipped, allows players to skip all random combat encounters with shadow creatures who are one of the more annoying enemy types to deal with thanks to their high resistance to physical damage and general commonality.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Despite ostensibly taking place during TheRoaringTwenties, mention is made of Hawaii being a state. Hawaii was officially granted statehood in August of 1959.

* TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily: The Mob are not bad guys, they mostly send you on {{{Pun}}-based missions (you use a laundry machine to launder money, got to a doctor or nurse to doctor accounts, use an anvil to forge documents, etc.). They also send you on hits against vampires.

* TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily: The Mob are not bad guys, they mostly send you on missions (you use a laundry machine to launder money, a healer to fix accounts, an anvil to forge documents, etc.) They also send you on hits against vampires.

* TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily: The Mob are not bad guys, they mostly send you on JustForPun missions (you use a laundry machine to launder money, a healer to fix accounts, an anvil to forge documents, etc.) They also send you on hits against vampires.

* GangBangers: A common low-level enemy in the early game is roving groups of themed street toughs. The Doughboys have a baker aesthetic, and fight with BaguetteBeatdown and debuffing flour clouds -- and given that in the world of Loathing cooking is magic, they have magic powers. The Tin Lizzies are based off of the "Rosie the Riveter" propaganda mascot and fight with grease guns (as in actual grease dispensers, not 9mm [=SMGs=]), [[WrenchWhack wrenches]], and [[FireBreathingWeapon welding torches]]. They're both AlwaysMale and AlwaysFemale, respectively. The all-goblin Glocklins fight with creepy glockenspiel tunes and goblin tenacity. (Because they're [[JustForPun Glocks]]).

* MeanwhileInTheFuture: The Scythe's Curse is set in [[spoiler:1994, where [[Film/Terminator2 a certain forge-bound golem]] gives a scarecrow the means to pursue the MC [[Film/TheTerminator until they are dead]]. The scarecrow reveals themselves to be the MC's avatar's boyfriend, [[NothingPersonal who's really just after the MC]] [[DealWithTheDevil so they can settle a debt]], [[ItMakesSenseInContext once you threaten to hit them with a lawn mower]]. [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Then someone mails the lawnmower to the MC]].]]

** Losing to your Nemesis in The Big Moist results in a permanent -1 penalty to all of your M-stats. If your nemesis is General Bruise, it's a permanent bruise called "Bruise's Mark"; "[[OneSteveLimit or, if his name were Mark, a Bruise]]". [[spoiler:SubvertedTrope Subverted in that your nemesis removes the penalty upon dying or running away.]]

** Losing to your Nemesis in The Big Moist results in a permanent -1 penalty to all of your M-stats. If your nemesis is General Bruise, it's a permanent bruise called "Bruise's Mark"; "[[OneSteveLimit or, if his name were Mark, a Bruise]]". [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Subverted in that your nemesis removes the penalty upon dying or running away.]]

* MeanwhileInTheFuture: The Scythe's Curse is set in [[spoiler:1994, where [[Film/Terminator2 a certain forge-bound golem]] gives a scarecrow the means to pursue the MC [[Film/TheTerminator until they are dead]]. [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext They then play it off as a prank by the MC's avatar's boyfriend, once you threaten to hit them with a lawn mower.]]]]

** Day 1: Prologue, Outskirts, Cursed Fedora
** Day 2: Chapter 1, Ocean City, Dangerous Pocketwatch

** Day 6: Chapter 5, Gray County, Cursed Sickle

* NotCompletelyUseless: Some static Meat-gains outside of battle ''are'' affected by Meat-Drop-boosting items, making this gear marginally better than the "extra damage with weapons", "extra Physical Armor", and "extra maximum HP" items in a PacifistRun. One example is through flipping Textbooks wandering Textbook-flippers on S.I.T.'s campus might sell you; Meat-Drop-boosters are almost-required to make the practice profitable.

* NotYourProblem: [[spoiler: [[GuideDangIt Delaying the completion of one Chapter-1 quest until your Mysticality is 9 or so]], when you finally go to complete the quest, lets you find that aliens known as the Yecchians ([[{{Expy}} Expies]] of the [[Literature/TheShadowOutOfTime Ythians]]) have also had problems with "The Shadow". They then give you a crystal that, when put into "The Shadow"'s ticket into the universe, shunts it 900 years into the future... and into the planet Gobulon Prime, destroying just that world [[WhatTheHellPlayer seconds before its doctors cure space cancer]].]]

* NotYourProblem: [[spoiler: [[GuideDangIt Delaying the completion of one Chapter-1 quest until your Mysticality is 8 or so]], when you finally go to complete the quest, lets you find that aliens known as the Yecchians ([[{{Expy}} Expies]] of the [[Literature/TheShadowOutOfTime Ythians]]) have also had problems with "The Shadow". They then give you a crystal that, when put into "The Shadow"'s ticket into the universe, shunts it 900 years into the future... and into the planet Gobulon Prime, destroying just that world [[WhatTheHellPlayer seconds before its doctors cure space cancer]].]]

** Losing to your Nemesis in The Big Moist results in a permanent -1 penalty to all of your M-stats. If your nemesis is General Bruise, it's a permanent bruise called "Bruise's Mark"; "[[OneSteveLimit or, if his name were Mark, a Bruise]]".
** [[spoiler:You can mangle yourself to destroy the three magic pillars, if [[PacifistRun you don't feel like fighting]] and [[AntiFrustrationFeatures you didn't manage to find other avenues]]. One gives you a permanent -1 penalty to Muscle, another to Mysticality, and the third to Moxie.]]

* ClimaxBoss: [[spoiler: The Scythe's Curse, obtained at the end of Chapter 5. While the Fedora and the Pocketwatch acknowledge your authority (albeit with the latter trying to schmooze their way out), while the Book just wants to test your Latin expertise, and while the Compass and the Key are stronger but break upon being flustered, the Scythe doesn't mess around and wants you '''dead'''. It will even hound you across the other Curses, whether through the uncursing machine or through your memories, and it even kills elements of those Curses in the process ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation probably assuming you've taken this one on last]]). You have to kill it to break it, with a weapon forged from scraps of the other Curses ([[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation or possibly the magical settings the Curses made for themselves]]); doing so doesn't strengthen the Uncursed Scythe, but it lets you keep the weapon you killed it with.]]

* ClimaxBoss: [[spoiler: The Scythe's Curse, obtained at the end of Chapter 5. While the Fedora and the Pocketwatch acknowledge your authority (albeit with the latter trying to schmooze their way out), while the Book just wants to test your Latin expertise, and while the Compass and the Key are stronger but break upon being flustered, the Scythe doesn't mess around and wants you '''dead'''. It will even hound you across the other Curses, whether through the uncursing machine or through your memories, and it even kills elements of those Curses in the process ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation probably assuming you've taken this one on last]]). You have to kill it to break it, with a weapon forged from scraps of the other Curses; doing so doesn't strengthen the Uncursed Scythe, but it lets you keep the weapon you killed it with.]]

* NoFairCheating: You don't get ''punished'' for entering the basement code early in Sandwich, but there is a snarky comment about how you're not allowed to do anything there until after the trial.
* NotCompletelyUseless: Some static Meat-gains outside of battle ''are'' affected by Meat-Drop-boosting items, making this gear marginally better than the "extra damage with weapons", "extra Physical Armor", and "extra maximum HP" items in a PacifistRun.

** Losing to your Nemesis in The Big Moist results in a permanent -1 penalty to all of your M-stats. If your nemesis is General Bruise, it's a permanent bruise called "Bruise's Mark"; "[[OneSteveLimit or, if your name were Mark, a Bruise]]".

*** The Haunted Duck Call in the Prologue ([[StarterEquipment your first Offhand Item]]) can be upgraded into a '''Cursed''' Haunted Duck Call in the H***-Hole, bringing it back up to usefulness. Its Curse is the easiest to remove and defeat, but uncursing it and defeating the Curse doesn't make it any more effective or less Haunted... which means you can '''[[ResurrectionDeathLoop re-Curse]]''' it and uncurse it again, infinitely, for your amusement.