History VideoGame / TheLonging

* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes: When in pitch darkness, the shade's big yellow eyes are still visible. [[spoiler: This is taken literally with Angst, who has the same eyes, and both characters can see the open eyes of the other.]]

* CradleToGraveCharacter: Due to the obscure way of how the "longing" is talked about, most players assume that waiting for the 400 days and then waking The King is this. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope They're wrong]].]]

* DarkIsNotEvil: The Shade is all black, but perfectly harmless and friendly. The cliff at the end of the Darkness [[spoiler: is the only light place, but is the area to [[DrivenToSuicide kill The Shade]]]]. And even [[spoiler: Angst]] is harmless.
* DeathByDepower: [[spoiler: The Shade is the last bit of power that The King has. If it leaves the caves and thus is too far away from The King, he'll die.]]

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Shade, The King, [[spoiler: The Face]], [[spoiler: The Old Man]] and [[spoiler: The Troll Child]]. Also possibly [[spoiler: Friend]] and [[spoiler: Angst]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The dreams. Also talking to [[spoiler: The Face]].

* MineralMacGuffin: [[spoiler: The three special crystals needed for the GoldenEnding]].

** BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The Shade gets lifted up by The Old Man who can't see it. The Shade leaves the caves, enters the mans house and gets adopted by him, an older woman and the troll child. Sadly, having left broke apart The King who will now never wake up.]]

*** [[spoiler: The Shade gets lifted up by The Troll Child. The child gets scared upon seeing The Shade, lets go of the bucket and The Shade falls down the well shaft to their death.]]
*** [[spoiler: The Shade jumps to its death in a bottomless abyss]].
** True Ending: [[spoiler: The Shade waits for 400 days and then wakes up The King.]] Also equals as a subversion of [[spoiler:TheHeroDies: Waking up The King destroys earth as he was holding it up while asleep, ''but'' he and The Shade survive. The text implies they are unable to die of age and thus will forever be alone [[BuriedAlive in the darkness of the collapsed planet]].]]
** GoldenEnding: [[spoiler: The Shade finds three special crystals, among them one that only appears for a short time around their birthday. When all crystals are put together, they open a portal of light and if the Shade goes through it, he will fly on top of the stork with a crown. While happy, the text with it implies that it's AllJustADream or a case of DisappearsIntoLight.]]

* NothingIsScarier: The Darkness. Especially when the player reaches [[spoiler: Angst]].

* ThePigPen: [[spoiler: The BittersweetEnding]] implies that The Shade isn't actually black but just covered in dirt and soot. They don't seem to mind and even mention in their diary that they don't need hygiene.

** Additionally, one of the endings will become inaccessible once a certain amount of time has passed. [[spoiler: After 400 days, the Old Man will have died of old age, and thus can no longer help the Shade out of the well.]]

** Someone accidentally [[spoiler: pulling out a black creature from a well]] can get very scared.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: If the player so desires, they can [[spoiler: have The Shade [[DrivenToSuicide throw himself off a cliff]] to their death]].

The game originally featured four endings and prevented the player from restarting (without deleting the game in the steam folders). A patch in April added a 5th ending, more books and the option to restart the game.

* VideoGameCaringPotential: The player can decide to make the cave of The Shade as comfortable as possible so their wait goes by faster

* AbsurdlyLongWait: The game takes 400 days for the standard ending. Not in-game days, actual days. While some waiting times are realistic (a drawing taking 1 up to 5 minutes), other things are clearly meant to be this. For example, wandered for 4 hours in the Halls of Eternity for some paper? Better do something else now cause you have to walk the entire way back.

* AllThereInTheManual: The FanNickname for the [[spoiler:creature staring at you in the Darkness]] is taken from the painting name of it.