| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/game_banner.jpg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350:''The many shall suffer for the sins of the one.'']] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ''The Forgotten City'' refers to both a quest mod for ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' that was released in October 2015, and a remake of the mod as a [[DivorcedInstallment standalone game]] that was released in July 2021. Both games have a similar premise; a woman asks you to investigate the ruins of an ancient city in order to find another explorer who ventured into the area but didn't return. You quickly find their remains inside, but visibly aged, and with a cryptic suicide note advising that they spent a lifetime trying to fix things, but without success. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | Further investigation reveals a strange portal that takes you back in time to the city's heyday, whereupon the leader of the city advises you that the residents are unable to leave, and are subject to a strange curse which dictates that if one person sins, they all will be slain, and thus he seeks your help in finding a way to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong break this cycle]] and return you to your world... |
| 7 | |
| 8 | ---- |
| 9 | !!Tropes present: |
| 10 | |
| 11 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | [[folder:The Original Mod]] |
| 14 | * BigBadEnsemble: [[spoiler: The Arbiter and Jarl Metellus. The Arbiter is the Dwemer who has been enforcing the Draconian laws of the city while Metellus is violating the law in secret to rape Maisi nightly.]] |
| 15 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: Jarl Metellus seems to be a friendly ReasonableAuthorityFigure who's willing to lend you all the aid you need in order to solve the mystery and get home to your time. Digging a little deeper reveals that that his rule of the city basically means letting himself and his friends (mainly Imperials) enjoy the pleasure of the Citadel while the rest of the city slaves away to survive. [[spoiler: Dig even deeper and you'll learn he's a vile rapist who breaks the Dwarves' Law on the regular thanks to a loophole he has discovered.]] |
| 16 | * BittersweetEnding: If you [[spoiler: release Maisi from her bonds, she will immediately seek Metellus and kill him with an ice spell, breaking open a nearby water pipe. Once the Dwarves' Law is triggered, the citizens manage to escape through this pipe. While the now-alive Altrius is glad that mostly everyone managed to evacuate, he laments that the city itself could not be saved]]. |
| 17 | * ButThouMust: You can only get [[spoiler:the immaculate dwarven armor from Rykas]] in one of two ways; [[spoiler: violence or theft. Either of these will break the Dwarves' Law.]] As you need this item to get the mod's good ending, this means [[spoiler:you have to break the Law at least once]]. |
| 18 | * ComicBookFantasyCasting: [[invoked]] Jarl Metellus' face and voice seem to be based on Creator/PatrickStewart. [[spoiler: Ironic, given that Stewart isn't known for playing villains, which would make this a meta-example of PlayingAgainstType.]] |
| 19 | * DevelopersForesight: Although the quest can be started as early as level 5, [[spoiler: The Arbiter]] will have dialogue if you're a member of the ThievesGuild or Dark Brotherhood when you confront him. Certain minor quests are also accounted for; if you've completed "The Taste of Death", he'll be horrified to discover that your crimes include ''cannibalism''. For that matter, if you tackle the mod before completion of ''Dragon Rising'', when he calls you Dragonborn, ask him what he means and he'll mention that he knows things about you that have yet to be revealed to the player. |
| 20 | ** In another example, the player can pull a ScrewThisImOuttaHere even before starting the mod properly, if they know where is the escape route in advance.[[note]][[spoiler:Strike the leaking wall, located on the third floor of the Citadel, with any weapon or spell.]][[/note]] There's even an unique conversation with Cassia about this event! |
| 21 | * DifficultButAwesome: It's actually possible for the player to get the good ending [[spoiler: ''without'' breaking the Dwarves' Law, although doing so requires them to have their Restoration and Speech skills high enough (as well as having a large enough mana pool so they can constantly cast healing spells to bypass the radiation) so they can get to the Arbiter, and then convince him]]. However, [[spoiler: doing so locks you out of completing the Immaculate Dwarven Armor or getting your hands on the Arbiter's Helmet, which means that if you also have the ''Legacy of the Dragonborn'' mod, you won't be able to display them on the Forgotten City display]]. |
| 22 | * DownerEnding: Occurs if [[spoiler:Metellus dies before creating the time portal. A TimeParadox occurs and you are thrown back into your own time. You meet up with Altrius (who also never travelled back as a result), but the city is destroyed and its inhabitants are dead. The two of you manage to escape the city, but Altrius will lament the loss of the people who lived there]]. |
| 23 | * DrivenToSuicide: You'll find Altrius' corpse hanging from a tree when you first enter the destroyed city, and fight his ghost to get the lake house key. Notably, he's aged to an old man [[spoiler:as a result of going through the time portal repeatedly, over a period of 30+ years, failing time and time again in saving the city]]. In either ending, [[spoiler:he'll appear again as a still alive and much younger man, having never gone through the portal]]. |
| 24 | * DystopianEdict: The Dwarves' Law: "The many shall suffer for the sins of the one." If anyone commits a crime in the city, everyone in it will be killed. This allows the Jarl and Domitus to bully everyone else into submission, since everyone is too scared to fight back. [[spoiler: Repeatedly breaking this law by abusing time travel can ultimately result in a confrontation with the being that set it up.]] |
| 25 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: Occurs if [[spoiler:you convince the Arbiter to end the Dwarves' Law, either through persuasion or by killing him and going back in time with his helmet as proof of your deeds. A TimeParadox occurs and you are thrown back into your time. You meet up with Altrius in front of a statue of you wearing the Immaculate Dwarves' armor, and the two of you re-enter the city to discover that Metellus was executed for his crimes, trade is open once more, Domitus is working the mines, and everyone else is living together in true harmony.]] |
| 26 | * EvilSoundsDeep: [[spoiler:The Arbiter]]. Subverted with [[spoiler:Metellus, who sounds like Creator/PatrickStewart]]. |
| 27 | * FauxAffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Metellus.]] He's polite and actually listens to you once you give evidence you're from the future; but once it's revealed that he [[spoiler:kidnapped Maisi and kept her for the purpose of being his SexSlave, he drops the charm and coldly boasts that the Dragonborn can't do anything to stop him.]] |
| 28 | * FantasticRacism: Anyone who's not an Imperial and not kissing their asses doesn't get to live in the Citadel. Also, the only beast race members you'll encounter in the mod are in an underwater cave. |
| 29 | * GlowingEyesOfDoom: [[spoiler: The Arbiter's helmet gives him (and by extension, anyone wearing it) these.]] |
| 30 | * HumansAreBastards: An underlying theme of the mod is that, even in a society where crime does not exist, the negative qualities of human nature do not disappear. This becomes very apparent once you've walked around the city a bit and chatted with everyone. [[spoiler:In the good ending however, this proves false and the city becomes a much more pleasant place to live.]] |
| 31 | ** This is also the core belief of [[spoiler:The Arbiter - that people are naturally inclined to commit evil deeds and the Dwarves' Law is the only way to maintain a peaceful order.]] |
| 32 | * {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler:Metellus]] never once seems to consider that seeking to maintain the Dwarves' Law while [[spoiler:tampering with the statues used to enforce it so that he can keep Maisi as a SexSlave in flagrant violation of it]] might bite him in the ass. |
| 33 | * JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: [[spoiler:The Arbiter]] originally established the Dwarves' Law to maintain peace and order. This quickly turned into repeated instances of genocide. |
| 34 | * LoopholeAbuse: While violence and theft are outlawed under the Dwarves' Law, other negative behaviours such as gossip, intimidation, swindling, and [[spoiler:necromancy]] are fair game. Fortunately in the latter case, [[spoiler:defending yourself against the undead]] doesn't count as breaking the law. In addition, [[spoiler:if the dwarves' heads don't spot you, you can break all the laws you want.]] |
| 35 | * NeverTrustATrailer: The mod's trailer portrays Metellus as a benevolent ruler who will be your strongest ally in finding out who will break the Dwarves' Law. [[spoiler:He isn't. In fact, he's been breaking the law in secret for a long while.]] |
| 36 | * NotQuiteTheRightThing: [[spoiler:Bringing Metellus to justice by your own hand, or by Maisi's or Ulrin's, will trigger the DownerEnding. Telling the Arbiter about his misdeeds will trigger the Dwarves' Law, and he only gives you a brief thank you for being honest before attempting to kill you.]] |
| 37 | * OutsideContextProblem: Or rather, Outside Context ''Solution'', in the good ending. [[spoiler: From the perspective of the inhabitants of the titular city, you just walked out of the Lakehouse one day, somehow clad in the same Immaculate Dwarven Armor that Rykas is wearing, managed to enter the dangerously lethal area beneath the city, and did something that leads to the Dwarves' Law being lifted. This is especially true if you didn't speak to anyone during that timeline]]. |
| 38 | * PermanentlyMissableContent: [[spoiler:Taking the persuade option with The Arbiter the first time around prevents you from getting his helmet, which is a Dwarven quality helm with a powerful enchantment (free shock spells) as well as a power that causes fear in most anything you encounter. This is especially bad for players with the ''Legacy of the Dragonborn'' mod, as the Arbiter's Helmet is part of the Forgotten City display]]. |
| 39 | * ProperlyParanoid: Rykas believes that the statues around the city are going to kill everyone. [[spoiler:If the Dwarves' Law is broken, that's exactly what happens.]] |
| 40 | * PunchClockVillain: Hjormund is one of the Citadel dwellers who oppress the smallfolk; [[JerkassHasAPoint but as he points out]], if they don't work the farmland then no one gets to eat. [[spoiler:In the good ending, he's working the mines, but unlike Dominus, he's perfectly okay with it.]] |
| 41 | * ReallyGetsAround: Rastasia has this reputation, due to her flirtatious attitude and [[FantasticRacism being a former Forsworn]], but in actuality she never sleeps with anyone. [[spoiler:She was married prior to entering the city, but her husband left her out of jealousy for her flirting.]] |
| 42 | * StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler:Whoever gets sent to the past winds up causing one where the Dwarves' Law ends up broken (either presumably at the hands of a gang of marauders sent to kill a former Dark Brotherhood agent in the city or by the time traveler themselves) and the person who originally traveled through time gets sent back again. The only way out is to force a TimeParadox.]] |
| 43 | * SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: You are sent seven years into the past to figure out what caused everyone in the city to die and keep it from happening. It's a good thing you get unlimited do-overs, since [[spoiler:you are required to trigger it at least once in order to escape the city (at least if you want to keep most everyone alive.)]]. |
| 44 | * SchmuckBait: Go ahead and buy that "Super-Jumping" potion from [[SnakeOilSalesman Deglund]]. Of course it'll work, he's the most [[BlatantLies honest guy in the city!]] This trope also holds true for [[spoiler:the city itself; there are riches beyond imagining (an absolutely colossal Aetherium deposit) in it... in an unreachable cavern filled with radiation and the angry Dwemer who created the Dwarves' Law. Oh, and there's no way out of the city once you're there either.]] |
| 45 | * SpotTheThread: While you're reading through the citizen arrival log to which Metellus directs you, note how many times the word "potential" is mentioned and with whom it's associated. [[spoiler:The "potential" relates to whom Metellus would consider to be his potential sex slave -- he goes with Maisi.]] |
| 46 | * SwordOfDamocles: All those Dwarven centurions standing around aren't just for show. [[spoiler: They come to life and wipe out the city's population when the Dwarves' Law is broken.]] |
| 47 | * TakeUpMySword: The Vigilant of Stendarr you can meet in the city is dying from radiation sickness, and he bequeaths the Boots of the Immaculate Dwarven Armor to you in his will. [[spoiler: You'll need to visit him if you want to get the Good Ending]]. |
| 48 | * TemptingFate: While exploring the abandoned palace, you'll stumble upon a book authored by a [[spoiler: previous inhabitant of the city attempting to disprove the Dwarves' Law. The last paragraph is about doing him so by punching another person]]. Yeah... looking at all the dead bodies scattered around the room, that went about as well as you expected. |
| 49 | * TheUnreveal: [[spoiler:The Arbiter will flat out refuse to tell you where the rest of the Dwemer went if you ask him about them. That said, while he genuinely does not want to tell you, he also admits that he actually has no idea.]] |
| 50 | * TimeParadox: It's brought up in discussions with Brol that the only way to get back to your timeline is to cause one of these. [[spoiler:It's true. That said, unlike most examples, when you get back from the past, it's treated more like you slept through the events that would have logically occurred after the paradox-forming event took place.]] |
| 51 | * TomatoInTheMirror: Ultimately, [[spoiler:YOU are the one]] who breaks the Dwarves' Law, although this gets subverted if you discover that [[spoiler:Metellus has been breaking it in secret. The only reason he hasn't caused the City to be killed off is because he's figured out how the Dwarves' Law is enforced.]] |
| 52 | ** In fact, while the game doesn't openly says it so, this was the reason [[spoiler:Altrius committed suicide at the story's beginning. He was unable to cope with the guilt that, no matter how dodgy or wrong the ApatheticCitizens of the City were, none of them broke the Dwemers' Law or were at risk of doing so... Except for the "[[SerialKillerKiller Looter]]" party, who were the original people responsible for triggering it. It was, from that point on, always a paragon or a hero who cared enough to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong that, in an attempt to save them, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero instead killed them all. Over. And over. And over. And over again]]]]. |
| 53 | * TransparentCloset: It becomes fairly obvious that [[spoiler:Rykas' blatant homophobia]] is a cover for their suppressed homosexuality. [[spoiler:In the good ending, he comes out and starts a relationship with Vernon.]] |
| 54 | ** And true to their demeanor, they're still keeping it to themself. Always a stick in the mud... |
| 55 | * UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler: In the original timeline, it was a band of looters searching for a Dark Brotherhood member hiding in the city who kicked off the original violation of the Dwarves' Law. Fortunately, you kill the group at the entrance in the past timeline, ensuring that they never enter the city and doom it.]] |
| 56 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:Ultimately, The Arbiter created the Dwarves' Law in an effort to prevent the abuse of the massive deposit of Aetherium in the City's mines, as well as to keep things peaceful.]] |
| 57 | [[/folder]] |
| 58 | |
| 59 | [[folder:The Standalone Game]] |
| 60 | * AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: Desius, one of the cities vendors, price-gouges life saving medicine needed to resolve a quest. In a twist, he's also been doing it to other residents of the city as well. |
| 61 | * AdaptationExpansion: The remake greatly expands upon the original mod's plot with it being longer and containing more twist and turns and MultipleEndings. |
| 62 | * AdaptationalVillainy: The barkeep Aurelia gets this treatment compared to the original mod's Rastasia. Whereas Rastasia was a gossipy but harmless flirter, Aurelia is a gossipy flirt who's far more malicious, [[spoiler:running a scam where she offers a way out of the city for a thousand denarii, only for that way out to be a dosage of hemlock. She also encourages those who can't afford such to put themselves into debt-bondage with Malleolus, who's in on the scheme with her.]] |
| 63 | * AllCrimesAreEqual: There is only the one punishment for someone in the city "sinning". Among the things that constitute a sin are theft, assault, breaking a contract and speaking out loud your intent to kill another person. |
| 64 | * AmbiguousGender: [[spoiler:Karen/Charon/Kharon/Kherty thanks to having appeared as both feminine and masculine to different people and cultures unlike the other SufficientlyAdvancedAliens. Even at the end they only appears as an ambiguous floating robe figure. For what it's worth, Pluto and Proserpina refer to Kharon as "she" but it might only be for the convenience of the player character having appeared as "Karen" first. See:PronounTrouble]] |
| 65 | * AncientAstronauts: [[spoiler:What all the gods in the Roman, Greek, Egyptian and Sumerian pantheon turn out to be.]] |
| 66 | * AndThisIsFor: If you play as a Soldier and opt to [[spoiler:free Sentilla by shooting Sentius with your pistol,]] then you get the option to utter one of these before doing so. Your typical choices are either for [[spoiler:Al or Sentilla]] but you can also do it for [[spoiler:Duli]] if you spoke with him... or if [[DevelopersForesight enough people around the city have cursed at you]], you get an option to avert this trope entirely and instead say the Latin equivalent of [[PreMortemOneLiner "Die, motherfucker!"]] [[note]]The ingame line is "Die, ''genetricem fututor''."[[/note]] |
| 67 | * AntiFrustrationFeatures: Every time you loop back you can send Galerius off to solve the problems you have already figured out, not needing to go and do so yourself every single time. On top of that, once you restore the obelisk, it stays intact through future loops. |
| 68 | * AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:All those people who were turned to gold statues are still alive in there and have been for hundreds, even thousands of years. Depending on your choices, Sentius can meet the same fate.]] To make it worse, [[spoiler:they still feel pain if their bodies are damaged, as Naevia unknowingly discovered.]] |
| 69 | * ArcNumber: There are several subtle instances where the number [[FourIsDeath four]] appears. [[spoiler: There have been four civilizations in the Underworld, Galerius can only become Magistrate by getting four votes, there are four characters with multiple names, there are four endings, and the golden ending can be reached as early as the fourth loop.]] |
| 70 | * ArcWords: |
| 71 | ** "The many shall suffer for the sins of the one." Should any one person sin, all of the city's inhabitants will be turned into gold. This is called The Golden Rule in the game. |
| 72 | ** The many variations on the real-life Golden Rule: "Do unto other as you would have them do unto you." |
| 73 | * ArtisticLicenseReligion: The game takes it as granted that Christians at this time[[note]][[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Rome The Great Fire of Rome]] is repeatedly stated to have happened the previous year, which would put the date at 65 AD[[/note]] would consider suicide to be forbidden by their faith. In reality this is unknown. However, what we do know is that even centuries later there was theological debate on the topic in which it was pointed out nowhere in the Bible is it explicitly stated as forbidden, and there are several instances in the Old Testament of people committing suicide without a single word of condemnation. |
| 74 | * AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Duli suffers from this, and Magistrate Sentius has had him locked up to ensure that he doesn't unwittingly trespass or steal anything, which would invoke the Golden Rule. And while [[spoiler:Sentius has more sinister reasons for keeping Duli locked up, he is correct on the 2nd point; if Duli is freed, it takes him less than a minute before he tries to take a shiny object that doesn't belong to him, triggering the Rule.]] |
| 75 | * AwesomeButImpractical: The Soldier's pistol. With only 10 bullets in the magazine and no way to obtain more, it doesn't carry nearly enough ammo to [[spoiler: fight your way through the Palace]], and because of the Golden Rule violence won't really solve any of your other problems. About the only thing it's good for is speedrunning [[spoiler: the bad ending]] by letting you kill [[spoiler: Sentius]] immediately as soon as you arrive in the past, and killing [[spoiler: the lone Peeled Statue in the cistern]] early. |
| 76 | * BilingualBonus: Players can invoke this by taking the Archaeologist background, which will translate all of the text of the ancient languages seen throughout the city. |
| 77 | * BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Endings 2 and 3. You can save one person from the city, a few at the most, but Proserpina and the golden statues remain trapped in the underworld.]] |
| 78 | * ButThouMust: Try as you may, you have no choice but to accept Karen's request to search for Al in the city. [[spoiler:If you're a Soldier, the game won't let you shoot her either.]] |
| 79 | * CantGetAwayWithNuthin: The experience of the city's inhabitants. Commit ''one'' sin, steal ''one'' coin, and you doom yourself and everyone you know. |
| 80 | * CantTakeAnythingWithYou: Averted. Anything the player picks up, they keep throughout subsequent loops, making it possible to collect the same valuable items multiple times. |
| 81 | * CantYouReadTheSign: There's a note outside the abandoned, dilapidated shrine stating that it's likely to collapse at any moment and should not be entered. No less than three different characters can end up ignoring the sign. |
| 82 | * ChangedMyJumper: As the player character is from the present day and thrust into Ancient Rome, this is expected. |
| 83 | * CharacterClassSystem: The first dialogue the player character engages in allows them four choices to define their past, and in turn any useful skills they have. The options are Archaeologist (allows for translation of all ancient languages seen throughout the city, as well as two unique dialogue options), Soldier (gives you a gun and 10 bullets), Fugitive (25% faster when sprinting) or Amnesiac (50% damage resistance). |
| 84 | * ClairvoyantSecurityForce: Sentius [[spoiler:always shows up in the upper cistern immediately after you release Sentilla, no matter what time of day you do it, even though he never shows any signs of going near the place at any other time.]] |
| 85 | * CompanionCube: 'Galatea', a golden statue who Naevia has fallen in love with. The [[PygmalionPlot choice of name]] is intentional on her part, as she acknowledges in her notes. |
| 86 | * CreepyChangingPainting: The statues around the city will move when the player's back is turned. |
| 87 | * DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Everyone in the city is already dead, including you. Well, technically speaking. While you've all died previously, you were resurrected by the technology of SufficientlyAdvancedAliens and transported to a hidden city in a remote location. You're still biological beings occupying the physical world.]] |
| 88 | * DeliberateValuesDissonance: As the game is sent in the time period of the Roman Empire, this is expected. Any attempts by the player to talk to citizens of the city about how the Empire is viewed as barbaric in more modern times are summarily dismissed or ignored. |
| 89 | * DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Ending 1. Kill Sentius in cold blood. The Golden Rule is invoked, a TimeParadox occurs and you are thrown back into your own time. You meet up with Al Worth, who never went back in time either, but nonetheless finds a tablet explaining your actions. As you explain everything to Al and hand him over the tablet containing his suicide note, he reasons that there's no way he can find a way out of the destroyed city the two of you are trapped in if he spent a previous lifetime searching and never finding one, dooming you both to a slow death of starvation.]] |
| 90 | * DrivenToSuicide: Iulia and Ulpius have entered a suicide pact by the time you enter the city due to their suffering under debt-bondage to Malleolus. They'll also successfully go through with it unless you intervene. |
| 91 | * DrivingQuestion: The player can ask three questions to each character they speak to, how did they get here, do they know a way to escape and what do they think of the Golden Rule. These are the questions that drive the plot. |
| 92 | * EasterEgg: In the GoldenEnding, using Photo Mode will allow you to see [[spoiler:Naevia happy and together with Galatea, free and wearing a golden dress.]] |
| 93 | * FlayedAlive: [[spoiler:The Peeled Statues, courtesy of Naevia's botched experimentation. As the gold is their skin, removing it is this. Leaving them flayed monsters in endless agony.]] |
| 94 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: Karen reacts oddly to certain things the player may say, like thanking her for saving their life. [[spoiler:That's because she didn't. The player is dead, and "Karen" is really Charon, the ferryman of the Underworld.]] |
| 95 | * GameplayAndStoryIntegration: |
| 96 | ** Characters are referred to as "Stranger" in the subtitles until you learn their names. If you get an idea of who they are without knowing their actual name, they're given a fitting epithet instead; the man you can find beneath the city is called the Hermit Philosopher. |
| 97 | ** When doing his quest, Desius claims it takes 27 hornet stings to kill a man. This is, in fact, the exact amount of stings it takes for you to die if you agitate a nest (as long as you're not playing the Amnesiac, who has more health). |
| 98 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: A conversation you have with Galerius at the beginning suggests that a form of TranslationConvention is involved, where you're speaking English while the characters are speaking Latin, which explains why there's a NarrativeProfanityFilter with swears untranslated. An option for your backstory, however, is to be an archeologist, which allows you to understand the Latin text written around the city, which should logically allow you to also understand the swears. |
| 99 | * GoMadFromTheRevelation: Livia, who has figured out that [[spoiler:everybody is dead and in the Underworld]], although she becomes calmer when the player figures it out as well. |
| 100 | * GoldenEnding: The "Canon" ending, which requires finding all four tablets, returning them to the obelisk and [[spoiler:successfully talking the God of the Underworld into giving up on the Golden Rule.]] |
| 101 | * GratuitousLatin: Once you go back in time, most of the Latin spoken to you by other characters is [[TranslationConvention translated into English]]. Notable exceptions are any [[PardonMyKlingon swear words]], the greeting "salve" (Latin for "hello"), and Sentius's "ave" (a more formal Latin greeting, meaning "be well"). |
| 102 | * GroundhogDayLoop: The game revolves around resolving this. However, [[spoiler:the player character is not the only one retaining their memories from the loop. As a side effect of the sacrificial prayer that Proserpina taught him, Sentius retains all of his memories as well, using them to exploit the time loop and effectively remain immortal.]] |
| 103 | * HaveWeMetYet: The first thing you hear at the start of every loop is "Uh... salve, friend. I'm Galerius." |
| 104 | * HonestyIsTheBestPolicy: Averted. Being completely truthful about your intentions in the city will inevitably ruin things for everyone, through either accidentally triggering the Golden Rule or pissing someone off enough for ''them'' to trigger it. That said, lying all the time will also ruin things for everyone. On the whole, being honest is ''generally'' the best policy, with the exceptions tending to be rare and fairly obvious (such as telling a killer where his intended victim is). |
| 105 | * HeroicSacrifice: In ending 3, [[spoiler:Ulpius and Galerius fall to the golden statues while trying to rescue Duli, with only Sentilla, Octavia, Horatius, and Equitia managing to escape]]. |
| 106 | * ICannotSelfTerminate: [[spoiler:The Peeled Statues are in agony because of their 'skin' being removed, and will attack the player in an attempt to break the Golden Rule and restore their bodies. If stopped with the Golden Bow, they will thank the player before freezing in place.]] |
| 107 | * IHaveManyNames: Four characters in particular: [[spoiler:Malleolus, the God of the Underworld, the Ferryman of the Underworld, and the Goddess of Spring.]] |
| 108 | * InsaneTrollLogic: The Assassin is full of this. No matter what you say to him, he's convinced that he's uncovered a group of cultists and that you're indoctrinated beyond reasoning. |
| 109 | * InSpiteOfANail: Even if you don't break the Golden Rule yourself and try to change the course of the day for the better, it will still be broken by at least one of the city's inhabitants shortly after the election is called. |
| 110 | * ItsUpToYou: Justified, as getting out of the time loop requires you to [[spoiler:break the Golden Rule at least once]], and thus your predecessor Al was unable to escape since he was unwilling to do so. |
| 111 | * JerkassHasAPoint: [[spoiler:Sentius is right about keeping Duli locked up. The first thing Duli does upon being freed is steal one of Desius's trinkets, triggering the Golden Rule.]] |
| 112 | * KilledOffscreen: In the canon ending, [[spoiler:Domitius dies after setting up an illegal fighting ring in the present day.]] |
| 113 | * KillItWithFire: In two of the endings, [[spoiler:this is what happens to Sentius, courtesy of Sentilla.]] |
| 114 | * LaserGuidedKarma: All of the more unpleasant citizens will experience this in the canon ending. [[spoiler:Malleolus ends up in a psych ward, Claudia is a broken alcoholic, Aurelia falls for a FourOneNineScam, Domitius meets his end via underground blood sports, Sentius ends up as the last golden statue in the Underworld and you get the option to suggest some terrible investment choices to Desius that are guaranteed to ruin him.]] [[spoiler:Pluto]] also shares this fate; [[spoiler:after being responsible for numerous genocides and imprisoning the woman he loves against her will, he is forced to return to Elysium in disgrace and without her.]] |
| 115 | * LivingStatue: When the Golden Rule is broken, the city's statues come to life to turn every citizen to gold. [[spoiler:And unfortunately for the people trapped inside those statues, they're awake in there the entire time.]] |
| 116 | * LoopholeAbuse: Many of the more morally dubious citizens have found ways around outright breaking the Golden Rule, but [[spoiler:Sentius]] will exploit another kind of loophole; evil thoughts are only considered a sin if they're spoken out loud, and if you [[spoiler:tell Sentia about where Sentius is keeping Sentilla, he gleefully declares "I'm going to kill you now!" after confessing his crime, which triggers the Golden Rule and another reset of the day, making sure Sentia never remembers it]]. |
| 117 | * LouisCypher: Fun fact, did you know that [[spoiler: "Karen" and "Charon" can be pronounced almost the exact same way?]] |
| 118 | * LoveMakesYouCrazy: [[spoiler:Naevia is responsible for the existence of the 'Peeled Statues', having conducted many experiments on them in an attempt to figure out how to restore one statue in particular to a living state.]] |
| 119 | * MultipleChoicePast: The game opens with the PlayerCharacter getting fished out of the Tiber river in Italy by a hiker named Karen, who is unable to discern their identity because they for some reason weren't carrying any ID. The first dialogue then allows the player an opportunity to define who they are, which also gives them certain skills (see CharacterClassSystem above). |
| 120 | * MultipleEndings: Four in total. |
| 121 | ** Ending 1: 'The Many Shall Suffer.' [[spoiler: Kill Sentius in cold blood, creating a paradox.]] |
| 122 | ** Ending 2: 'The One That Got Away.' [[spoiler: Free Sentilla and escape with her through the upper cistern when the Golden Rule is broken.]] |
| 123 | ** Ending 3: 'The Ones That Got Away.' [[spoiler: Get Galerius to evacuate as many people as possible through the upper cistern when the Golden Rule is broken]] |
| 124 | ** Ending 4: 'The Canon Ending.' [[spoiler: Restore the Obelisk and convince the God of the Underworld to end the Golden Rule.]] |
| 125 | * MythologyGag: Part of the dialogue in getting one of the townsfolk to go along with your plan is to promise "riches beyond imagining", the same line that opened the mission in the Skyrim mod. |
| 126 | * NarrativeProfanityFilter: It is established early on that the player character understands all the Latin spoken by the citizens of the city as English, and vice versa. The exception to this rule is any vulgar language such as swearing, which is both spoken and subtitled in untranslated Latin. |
| 127 | * NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: [[spoiler:Choose the soldier backstory, and in endings 2 and 3 Sentius can be the first person in history to learn this lesson.]] |
| 128 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: So, did you complete the complex quest chain to set poor Duli free from his wrongful imprisonment? [[spoiler:Not a minute later, he spots a shiny ornament belonging to Desius, innocently takes it and triggers the Golden Rule.]] |
| 129 | * NotQuiteTheRightThing: |
| 130 | ** Two of the endings. [[spoiler:Freeing Sentilla will result in everyone in the city dying after she kills Sentius in revenge. Alerting Galerius to prepare an evacuation beforehand will somewhat improve things but the vast majority will still die.]] |
| 131 | ** Getting Galerius elected magistrate. [[spoiler:While preventing the evil Sentius and Malleous from gaining the office, his decision to release Duli will cause the rule to broken quickly afterwards when Duli innocently takes one of Decius' items.]] |
| 132 | * OneTimeDungeon: Once you have the golden bow, Desius offers to buy it directly rather than involving you in his scheme to swap out the bow from the statue of Diana, meaning he won't unlock her shrine and you can't reenter the palace via the tunnels below. |
| 133 | * {{Precursors}}: Georgios speculates that the city in question was once Greek, based on the presence of two ruined Greek temples near the entrance. [[spoiler:This is technically correct, but it's subsequently revealed that the city has also had Egyptian and Sumerian phases...]] |
| 134 | * PronounTrouble: Equitia has trouble sticking to a single pronoun for [[spoiler:Charon/Kharon]] as they have [[spoiler:appeared to different individuals and cultures as both feminine and masculine.]] |
| 135 | * PsychoLesbian: [[spoiler:Naevia, who after falling in love with a female golden statue, decides to commit ''nightmarish'' experiments in an attempt to restore her.]] |
| 136 | * RedHerring: Invoked with [[spoiler:Sentius's request for you to figure out who breaks the Golden Rule. Different people trigger it, depending on your actions, and it ultimately plays very little part in any of the endings. This is actually the point; Sentius is using the loops to prolong his life, so as long as you're running around fruitlessly trying to stop people from sinning, the loop persists.]] |
| 137 | * {{Required Secondary Power|s}}: As revealed in two of the ending sequences, [[spoiler:Proserpina's time travel ritual doesn't make sense if the caster doesn't get to keep their memory between loops.]] |
| 138 | * ResetButton: The time loop can end up acting as this. Can't afford Desius' high prices? Picking up the same coins over the course of several loops can solve this problem... or alternatively, the player can just steal the desired item and restart the loop. |
| 139 | * RippleEffectProofMemory: In a WhamLine, [[spoiler:Sentius reveals that he remembers everything. This turns out to be a {{Required Secondary Power|s}} of the ritual of Proserpina GroundhogDayLoop, who gave the instructions to Sentius in the hopes he could save the city from the fate of being turned into gold.]] |
| 140 | * SettingUpdate: The remake moves the setting to an ancient Roman ruin. |
| 141 | * SoftWater: The sole entrance to the Forgotten City is a long drop down a vertical pipe where you ultimately fall into a deep bathhouse pool. It's hard to gauge the exact distance you fall, but the pool is deep enough and the drop just barely "short" enough that this might be plausible. At another point in the game, you can get into a locked villa by jumping into the courtyard pool from a high cliff above it. This is very much only survivable by divine intervention (which you seem to have), as the fall is too high to be plausibly survivable, the pool is too shallow to safely stop a fall from that height, and another character who attempts the jump ends up dying spectacularly and leaving an impressive crater inside said pool. |
| 142 | * TakenForGranite: If the Golden Rule is broken, all the occupants of the city are turned into gold...[[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill after being riddled with arrows fired by the sentient statues.]] The player can gain one of their bows partway through the game, allowing them to do this to [[spoiler:the Peeled Statues inhabiting certain parts of the city.]] |
| 143 | * TakeYourTime: Zigzagged. Characters like Iulia and Ulpius can only be saved in your first interaction with them, but can be left hanging until then. Likewise, Fabia will crouch on the stairs indefinitely and the assassin will not come through the bathhouse until you [[spoiler:or Galerius]] walk in to meet him. There is still an in-game clock, however, as the sun slowly passes over the hole above the city and eventually moves behind the stone ceiling of the cavern, with the election being called toward the end of the day, with [[spoiler:Malleolus ordering Domitius to execute Sentius, win or lose]], breaking the Golden Rule if it hasn't happened already and forcing you to start the loop over. |
| 144 | * TimeLoopFatigue: Al Worth committed suicide as a result of going through decades' worth of loops without being able to prevent the Golden Rule from being broken. He gets better in the endings, though, reset to a point before he first entered the loop. |
| 145 | * TooDumbToLive: No less than three characters can decide to enter a clearly unstable ruin [[CantYouReadTheSign with a sign outside warning it could collapse at any moment.]] |
| 146 | * TortureCellar: The [[spoiler:palace]], where [[spoiler:Naevia]] is locked up with hundreds of helpless victims. Exploring those rooms is one of the game's more harrowing moments. |
| 147 | * TranslationConvention: You can directly ask Galarius why he's speaking English, but he'll say you and he are speaking Latin, though your accent is a bit weird. Only a few vulgar phrases are [[NarrativeProfanityFilter left untranslated]]. |
| 148 | * VideoGameCrueltyPotential: While you can certainly [[spoiler:kill Sentius at the first opportunity and trigger the paradox that sends you back]], the game will ''immediately'' [[WhatTheHellPlayer call you out on it]]. Even the tip scripts get in on the ass-chewing. |
| 149 | --> '''Tip:''' [[spoiler:How many might have survived if you hadn't killed Sentius in cold blood?]] |
| 150 | * WarmupBoss: [[PlayingWithATrope Of a different sort,]] since the game is light on combat and has no real boss battles. You engage the the friendly Hermit Philosopher in a classic discussion of morals and existentialism, simply for his entertainment. Later on, the player will have to use philosophical arguments to resolve life-or-death encounters. |
| 151 | * WhamLine: "Al Worth." With the mention of a single name, [[spoiler: Sentius reveals that you're not the only one who remembers everything from loop to loop.]] |
| 152 | * WhamShot: |
| 153 | ** What happens when, prompted by Equitia, you shine your flashlight [[spoiler:into the depths of the bathing pools, revealing a mural that depicts Charon, the ferryman of the Underworld, along with the revelation that "Karen", the woman who pulled you out of the Tiber river, is actually Charon.]] |
| 154 | ** After you pass through the last door of the Great Temple, [[spoiler:you see a shiny metal hallway with sliding doors... and when you step through those, you see you're on a ''space station'']]. |
| 155 | * WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: This is why the Golden Rule isn't triggered when [[spoiler:you neutralise the Peeled Statues. Pluto considers them nothing more than "bloodless shadows", so the rule doesn't apply to them, even though they are obviously sentient, very much in pain and ''do'' in fact still bleed once the golden layers have been sufficiently peeled off.]] |
| 156 | * WhatTheRomansHaveDoneForUs: Literally. One of your first conversations with Sentius can have him reciting justifications for the Roman Empire's promotion of bloodsports[[note]]Most gladiators fight willingly to achieve fame[[/note]], slavery[[note]]Life as a slave is better than being purged by the Legion[[/note]], and the mass persecution of Christians[[note]]a blasphemous cult who recently "burnt down half of Rome"[[/note]]. |
| 157 | * YouAreWhatYouHate: [[spoiler:Rufius]] is sending Vergil intimidating messages about his homosexuality, but is secretly gay himself. [[spoiler: In the best ending, he makes amends, and the two later become a couple.]] |
| 158 | * YouCantFightFate: The crux of the time loop: no matter what happens, the Golden Rule is broken and the entire city is condemned to death, with Magistrate Sentius rushing to the Shrine of Proserpina in the hopes of buying the city another chance. The inevitability of it drove Al Worth to suicide after several years trying to break the cycle. [[spoiler:Barring any changes the player makes themselves, the event which breaks the Rule is Malleolus, upon winning the election and becoming new magistrate, immediately abusing his power to have Sentius executed. He does the same if you change the outcome such that Sentius wins. If you manage to get Galerius elected magistrate, Malleolus stays his hand -- but Duli steals an item from the market within moments of his release, [[JerkassHasAPoint just as Sentius feared he would]].]] |
| 159 | [[/folder]] |
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FollowingContext VideoGame / TheForgottenCity
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