History VideoGame / TheCaseOfTheGoldenIdol

* ShamCeremony: Under the guidance of a Lemurian priest, two children of a Lankan raja undergo a test to see which is worthy of becoming his heir, with the winning candidate undergoing a second ritual where they are "killed" and reborn. It's sleight of hand -- a Lemurian servant hidden inside the ritual chamber is supposed to pull the would-be victim out of harm's way and fake a mortal wound with red paint. A third party sabotages the ritual by tricking the losing candidate into killing the servant, causing the winning candidate to die for real.

* CulturePolice: Lazarus Herst and The New Order Party had doctrines based on austerity to the point that they instituted a system where each member would be aged down if they performed virtuous act (moderation, spartan lifestyle, and honesty) and aged up if they committed sinful acts (excesses, art, and literature).

* CulturePolice: Lazarus Herst and The New Order Party had doctrines based on austerity to the point that they instituted a system where each member would be merit points based on their social conduct with virtuous act (moderation, spartan lifestyle, and honesty) being rewarded and sinful act (excesses, art, and literature) being punished. To further enforce the system, each members were assessed and those with lowest points--especially in negative numbers--were sentenced to death.

* ForgoneConclusion: The DLC is a prequel, so it's obvious that Geller will nearly succeed at obtaining the idol and survive up until Albert Cloudsley kills him.

* UpperClassTwit: The greedy and useless Peter Battley.

* CultureChopSuey: The Lemurians in The Spider of Lanka DLC had elements of Abrorigenes and Indian culture, latter being more pronounced with their influence in Lanka island being a nod to their influence among Tamils of Sri Lanka and South East Asian kingdoms.

** If you're playing with highlights on, the game will track what important details you've clicked on by changing the yellow star to red. This effectively lets you explore the scene(s) in each case without worrying about forgetting a detail the developers wanted to see.

* CulturePolice: [[spoiler: Lazarus Herst and The New Order Party had doctrines based on austerity to the point that they instituted a system where each member would be merit points based on their social conduct with virtuous act (moderation, spartan lifestyle, and honesty) being rewarded and sinful act (excesses, art, and literature) being punished. To further enforce the system, each members were assessed and those with lowest points--especially in negative numbers--were sentenced to death.]]

The gameplay is split into two sections, exploring each case for clues to put in your notebook, and thinking, where you fill-in-the-blanks to try and figure out what happened.

A DLC, Golden Idol Mysteries: The Spider of Lanka, was released on May 4th, 2023. The DLC serves as prequel to the main game, taking place one year before its first scenario.

Be warned that the spoilers here are even more extreme than usual for a murder-mystery game--due to the nature of the gameplay (which revolves around identifying individuals), it's impossible to even mention people's names without potentially major spoilers. '''As such, all spoilers on this page will be unmarked.'''

* ArtifactOfDoom: The titular golden idol. While nothing indicates it's magical, instead it is apparently LostTechnology, everyone who gets their hands on it suffers a painful death.

* ConnectedAllAlong: The epilogue reveals that the existence of Lemuria isn't just for flavor - the idol is a Lemurian artifact, and the civilization's decline is what inspired Edmund Cloudsley to get into politics in an attempt to prevent his own nation from experiencing the same fate.

* DisproportionateRetribution: One of the acts which is punished by the Order Party is improperly showing extreme emotion, which goes against their First Virtue. Violating this authorizes the party to take a whopping ''seven years'' off a person's lifespan using the Idol's powers. One unfortunate gentleman, Gideon Bell, is punished for "bursting into tears ten times" during his interrogation, causing him to be aged an extra seventy years and killing him.
* EquivalentExchange: The idol works this way. It has many powers, but they always consist of absorbing something, no matter how abstract, then putting it somewhere.
** For example, the 'combustion spell' requires the 'freezing spell' to be used first - it's just taking heat and putting it elsewhere.
** The 'life spell' is able to affect living things by ageing or de-ageing them. In order to return life to something, however, it needs to take it away from something else, first. Late in the game, the Order Party takes away "years" from those who break their Virtues, giving them to party members instead.

** Dr. Turner successfully frames the Loyalist party leader for the murder of the Moderate party leader, effectively beheading both parties.

* RegimeChange: After the Moderate Party leader is murdered (and the Loyalist Party leader is accused of his murder), Lazarus Hurst's Order Party dominates the government, where they set about transforming the country. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Hurst planned out the entire thing, having used his allies to murder the Moderate Party leader and frame the Loyalist Party one.

* TheReveal: In the Epilogue, it is revealed that Lazarus Herst is really Edmund Cloudsley who used the idol to de-age himself. It's possible to figure this out early, and doing so is vital to fully understanding why the story ends the way it does.

** The mermaid carrying a spear at the inn is likely a reference to ''VideoGame/ReturnOfTheObraDinn''.
*** Like ''VideoGame/ReturnOfTheObraDinn'', this chapter also features characters named Robert, Henry and Evans.

** Edmund Cloudsley has intercepted [[AncientArtifact a golden Lemurian idol]] which was promised to [[MysteryCult the Brotherhood]]. After he ignores their threats to return the Idol, the Brotherhood sends an agent to deal with the matter. The agent bribes a disgruntled servant to poison Edmund's tonic at a dinner party at Edmund's manor, but one of the other guests, Edmund's sister Rose, takes a sip of tonic first and dies instead.
** Years later, VillainProtagonist Lazarus Herst controls both the Idol and the Brotherhood, and has used their power and influence to quickly ascend the ranks of society, [[TyrantTakesTheHelm seize control of civilian government, and install a totalitarian regime]]. Lazarus and his Order Party are mere hours away from overthrowing the monarchy and securing his power indefinitely, up until Lazarus (actually Edmund Cloudsley under a new identity) takes a brief detour to abduct Mary and make her his bride as he intended to do years ago. Peter is his undoing: he [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill fires a cannon at the intruder]] in a drunken panic, reducing Lazarus to a charred corpse, reducing the Idol to scrap metal, and unraveling the Order Party's takeover.
* {{Whodunit}}: Also, a "Whatisthecontextbehindhowandwhytheydidit". Each case takes place at the exact point of a person's death, and the player is tasked with finding out who killed them, why, and what events happened directly preceding it.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In Case 2, you can see a Proudbeast mask hanging on the wall and Master robes lying on the top level of the bed, which can't be examined. These don't become important until Case 7.

A DLC, Golden Idol Mysteries: The Spider of Lanka, was released ono May 4th, 2023. The DLC serves as prequel to the main game, taking place one year before its first scenario.

A DLC, Golden Idol Mysteries: The Spider of Lanka, has been announced for May 4th, 2023. The DLC will serve as prequel to the main game, taking place one year before its first scenario.

** The game keeps a notepad below of all the important names, places, verbs, etc. that the player has collected. The player can organize them however they want in that area so, for example, you can put the first and last names of characters next to each other. Different categories (names, places, verbs, etc.) are color-coordinated so players don't spend too long trying sentence combinations that don't make sense.

* {{Whodunit}}: Also, a "Whatisthecontextbehindhowandwhytheydiditinthisstory".

* AmoralAttorney: Downplayed. Whilst Nicolas Maker is shown to be dutiful and following proper procedure, he is a member of a murder-happy cult and is perfectly happy to work in a totalitarian regime before then proceeding to insist that he never had anything to do with them once it collapses.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: All of them.

* {{Whodunit}}: Also, a "Whatisthecontextbehindhowandwhytheydiditinthisstory".
* WontGetFooledAgain: Averted with Walter, who remarks that he managed to fool David Gorran twice using a similar trick. In Case 6, Walter fools David by posing a scarecrow as a corpse, allowing him to ambush David and get access to the Cloudsley cabin. In Case 11, he once again tricks him by posing a scarecrow as himself, allowing him to ambush and kill David when the latter shoots the scarecrow.

** The game has a mode (enabled by default) that puts a gold star over all clickable areas so that the player doesn't have to pixel hunt, with the star turning red once the player examines the area. Items with incompletely-examined descriptions or subsections (e.g. a person's inventory with multiple objects) will still have a gold star so the player doesn't miss them or can return to them later if they want to look at something else.

* EquivalentExchange: The idol works this way. It has many powers, but they always consist of absorbing something, no matter how abstract, then putting it somewhere. This, for example, is why the 'combustion spell' requires the 'freezing spell' to be used first - it's just taking heat and putting it elsewhere.

* KillItWithFire: Case 3

** The country house chapter is a WholePlotReference to Literature/SmallChange

* {{Whodunit}}: Also, a Whatisthecontextbehindhowandwhytheydiditinthisstory.

* AlternateHistory: Britain is still called Albion in the 17th century, and its currency is the franc. Oh, and the theoretical continent of Lemuria is real, and its civilization still exists. All this is, of course, nothing compared to what happens in the story.

* FeaturelessProtagonist

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In Case 2, you can see a Proudbeast mask hanging on the wall and Master robes lying on the top level of the bed, which can't be examined. These don't become important until Case 11.