History VideoGame / WorldOfHorror

* LovecraftLite:
** {{Zigzagged}}. This trope is Averted so far as the Old Ones themselves go; if they return, it's game over - you stand no chance of even opposing them. The game's goal is to ''stop them from awakening'' instead. That being said, you will go up against many eldritch horrors throughout the game, and most[[note]]The boss of Curious Case of a Contagious Coma isn't killed if you choose to fight it, as [[spoiler:they're merely the fingers of an eldritch being in a different dimension]][[/note]] of them can be killed with enough skill; if you succeed at solving all of the mysteries and disrupt the ritual in the Lighthouse, the Old One goes back to sleep, showing that their return can be delayed, perhaps even indefinitely. Though in spite of that, many of the defeated horrors are outright stated to be gone, but can return by someone else summoning them.
** Also {{Averted}} with Endings A and B of the "Household Hell" investigation, as it's too far away to attack: the only options you have against the thing you've awoken are to either run away, leaving it to terrorize the coastline, or [[spoiler:satiate it by murdering one of your companions.]]
** Averted with Something Truly Evil, too. You can't kill it, and aside from spells (which don't kill it even if you deplete all of its HP), you can't even ''attack'' it. All you can do is harm yourself in a pitiful effort to appease it or to die trying.

* AdultsAreUseless: In an overarching sense -- most of the protagonists are high school-age or barely out of their teens, and they're the only ones doing anything to stop the cosmic horror overtaking the world. The "Macabre Memoir of Morbid Mermaids" outright states that no adults believe you and you have to face your adversary alone.

* BittersweetEnding: Make no mistake - this may be LovecraftLite, but it is still a form of CosmicHorrorStory. All the good endings are this. You may have stopped the Old God du jour, but you'll often pay a dear price to do it, and your victories are all temporary.

*** Masochistic gives you -3 max reason, but gives you +1 reason when entering combat. If you get it early enough (but not so early that it causes your current reason to drop), it ends up being more beneficial than harmful

* TheCuccoolanderWasRight: The "paranoid patient" was committed when police assumed from their wounds and terrified rambling that they were insane. They're actually no less sane than the protagonist (possibly more so) and only had the misfortune of not being believed. A successful charisma check lets you convince them of the full picture and add them as an ally. The Paranoia curse (which makes YOU the subject of this trope) allows you to auto-succeed, at the cost of raised doom.

** Successfully [[spoiler:drinking eldritch blood and surviving]] is a ''chain'' of these. You first need a Tiny Key, which is only guaranteed if [[spoiler:you get Ending A to "Alarming Account of Abnormal Arms"]]. Then you need to [[spoiler:investigate the School until you get the "Trophy Room" event and use the Tiny Key to get the Goblet]]. ''Then'', you need to [[spoiler:enter the Otherworld - which requires either the Void spell or yet another random event, and it specifically has to be the Upper Kingdom Otherworld at that! - and choose the right options to fill the Goblet with blood]]. Do ''all'' of this and you can get the single best healing item in the game, which [[spoiler:unlocks a playable character when you first use it]]. You can also [[spoiler:fill a glass bottle with the blood]], but that [[PressXToDie is not advisable]].

* BigDamnHeroes: At the end of "Far-out Fable of a Fear Festival", in Ending A, [[spoiler:you get captured by cultists and are being prepared as a sacrifice for the being they are summoning, only for undercover agents to shoot one of the cultists and bust the scene rescuing you. [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments This is one of the few times AdultsAreUseless is Averted and the adults save the day, with professionals immediately taking down the bad guys in one move!]]]]

* BigDamnHeroes: At the end of "Far-out Fable of a Fear Festival", in Ending A, [[spoiler:you get captured by cultists and are being prepared as a sacrifice for the being they are summoning, only for undercover agents to shoot one of the cultists and bust the scene rescuing you. This is one of the few times AdultsAreUseless is Averted and the adults save the day! [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments It's quite a sight to see professionals immediately taking down the bad guys in one move!]]]]

* SelfSurgery: The sewing kit is used to stitch one's wounds, with no painkillers.

** ''[[EasierThanEasy Skeptic]]'' - An easier version of Easy/Initiate difficulty, but enemies are weaker, and you're only required to complete four mysteries instead of five.

** ''[[HarderThanHard Harbinger of Doom]]'' - A harder version of True Believer, but enemies are even stronger, shop items cost more Funds, and threat level for all locations are random with two being at max threat from the beginning.

* AscendedGlitch: Versions before 1.0 had a bug wherein Kana doesn't die even when sacrificed in events and mysteries. While the bug was fixed, [[spoiler:the main gimmick of playable Kana is them reviving when killed, at the cost of Doom.]]

* BlindingCameraFlash: You can weaponize this in combat if you have a camera equipped, as using the camera will make them easier to hit and give you a chance to dodge their attack.

* StatusEffects: Present and accounted for in the form of Injuries and Curses. Injuries come in both minor and major varieties: while all injuries can be treated at a hospital, minor injuries can be healed with a bandage while major injuries require a medical kit. In either case, treated injuries may leave a "treatment" card behind that may help or hinder the player afterwards. Curses, on the other hand, cannot be healed: they remain with the player for the duration of the playthrough, and worse still, they can stack.

* BittersweetEnding: Make no mistake - this may be LovecraftLite, but it is still a form of CosmicHorrorStory. All the good endings are this. You may have stopped the Old God du jour, but you'll often pay a dear price to do it.

** ''[[EasierThanEasy Sceptic]]'' - An easier version of Easy/Initiate difficulty, but enemies are weaker, and you're only required to complete four mysteries instead of five.

* InfinityPlusOneSword: Multiple are available

* BadMoonRising: One of the possible town statuses is "Blood Moon", in which a crimson moon suddenly appears over Shiokawa, making all battles more lethal.

* AffablyEvil: Here and there, despite everything. The best example is the [[spoiler: Mermaid/Deep One]] from Macabre Memoir of Morbid Mermaids. They just seem so disappointed in the Janitor.

** Some of the mysteries can end in this sort of situation too, such as "Violent Vigil" [[spoiler: where one of the endings has your presumed grand-uncle successfully resurrect himself, leaving you an accessory to murder]].

*** Insmasu Look gives you random bad effects when investigating the seaside. [[spoiler: If you do the Macabre Memoir of Morbid Mermaids mystery, however, you can show your gills to the Mad Janitor, instantly ending the fight with no negative consequences]].

** In "Perilous Parable of the Peculiar Painting", to get the best ending you must [[spoiler: stay with the art curator you meet as she moves through different rooms of the mansion. You can deviate ''once'' - which you need to do if you want the Chainsaw - but doing it more than that will kill her.]]

* HaveANiceDeath: In addition to death screens for running out of Stamina or Reason, there are unique ones for hitting 100% Doom depending on which Outer God you're trying to stop. Also, there are certain special death screens for events such as [[spoiler: drinking boiling blood from a glass bottle]] or [[spoiler: being sacrificed by the History Club]].

*** "[[BittersweetEnding Ending B]]" typically sees you either resolving the problem at hand [[PyrrhicVictory at great cost]], or else ''narrowly'' avoiding success, while still managing to harm or inconvenience the antagonist in the process.) It can also refer to avoiding a hopeless death, but making a great sacrifice in the process.

** In particular, "Bizarre Bruit of the Blood-curdling Botanist" asks you to track down Shiro-san, a missing gardener. The mystery culminates in a battle where you find the gardener under attack by his own garden, which is alive and hostile. The goal presented to you is to keep Shiro-san alive and guide him out. [[spoiler: This gets you [[DownerEnding Ending C]], since finishing the sidequest and investigating the gardener once the vines have damaged him reveals the truth: he's been turned into a horrible PuppeteerParasite for a mutant strain of Cordyceps fungus, and by helping him escape, you likely just doomed the world to a VideoGame/TheLastOfUs scenario. Once you learn the truth, you now have to kill him - though doing so normally only earns you [[BittersweetEnding Ending B]]. The GoldenEnding takes quite a bit more work.]]

* RisingWaterRisingTension: "Freakish Fable of a Frightening Flood" is a timed mystery: a village [[spoiler: and site of a river-based fertility cult]] is about to be engulfed by rising flood waters. You must rescue as many researchers as possible before the water levels get too high, and it's entirely possible you won't have time to find them all.

* SpookyPainting: "Perilous Parable of the Peculiar Painting," naturally, is about one of these: a painting that [[spoiler: contains and/or summons an eldritch horror that, depending on the ending, can attack you and/or an art curator who you meet during the mystery.]]

* The friend in "Worrying Write-Up of a Wordless Ward" sports one for most of the mystery until the final day, when they reveal that [[spoiler:they got extensive plastic surgery to [[IJustWantToBeYou look like you.]]]]

* HaveANiceDeath: In addition to death screens for running out of Stamina or Reason, there are unique ones for hitting 100% Doom depending on which Outer God you're trying to stop. Also, there are certain special death screens for events such as [[spoiler: drinking boiling blood from a glass bottle]] or [[being sacrificed by the History Club]].