Line #20 VideoGame/TrailOfAnguish


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/trail_of_anguish.png]]
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3	''Trail of Anguish'' is an AdventureGame by Andrew Walters, a prequel to ''VideoGame/ThePerilsOfAkumos''. It's a loose prequel in that although the games share a universe, this one has a totally different setting and tone. You are Kendra Connell, the younger sister of ''Perils''’ protagonist, and you're hunting down a crazed killer on your college campus. While you're ''not'' dealing with this allegedly deadly threat, you're just doing a series of college activities, varying from bizarre tasks for professors to just eating and sleeping.
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5	The game's available online through ''Website/AdventureGamesLive'' on [[http://www.rinkworks.com/adventure/ Rinkworks]].
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8	!!This game provides examples of:
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10	* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Not just big enough to walk through but big enough to build and fly a hovercraft through.
11	* AlliterativeFamily: Kendra and her brother Kenneth.
12	* ArcSymbol: Walters appears to be a fan of the quincunx (and of the word "quincunx"), as seen in the museum and the puzzle box, for example.
13	* BondOneLiner: Kendra's quip [[spoiler:of "Goo day", after turning Hennus into goo with the futuristic gun,]] at the end of the game.
14	* ButThouMust: You can pick up your purse while sitting in your car at the beginning of the game. You still manage to lock it inside when you get out, though.
15	* EatingLunchAlone: You have to do this. Eating the food turns out to be its own challenge.
16	* FishOutOfTemporalWater: If you believe the dinner presentation, this explains Silas and Verna's confusion.
17	* FissionMailed: Combined with a little LeaningOnTheFourthWall. If you show up to the final area of the game without the right item, or without doing a particular thing, [[spoiler:a director will shout "Cut!" and scold Kendra for messing up, after which]] time rewinds several moves. You're deposited in the previous area and you get back the items you used. This is done to avoid making the game {{Unwinnable}}: in the ''Adventure Games Live'' engine, trying again after an actual character death only rewinds the game by one move, so they had to do something different here. [[spoiler:Also, the director yelling at you is how you learn you need a gun in the first place.]]
18	* HeroOfAnotherStory: Chris is on an adventure of his own, complete with a ridiculous inventory. He claims that ''everyone'' is on some sort of adventure.
19	* HyperspaceArsenal: Spoofed with Chris - you question the ability to bring your large inventory on your date; he reveals a bicycle he's been carrying without your noticing.
20	* JerkJock: The entire population of the Thorius dorm, apparently, including the aggressive and violent soccer player Pugilo and a gang of jocks who hang out in the courtyard and chase nerds.
21	* MadMathematician: Professor Stefansen has problems.
22	* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Averted. Unlike most of ''Adventure Games Live''’s offerings, there is only one way to die in this game. The game even [[EarnYourBadEnding congratulates you]] if you [[EasterEgg manage to find it]].
23	* MediumAwareness: Several characters are aware that they are in an adventure game, and use this to mock some of tropes; one of the professors acknowledges how random their reward item is, and they must be the "left over item person". Also, as described above, Kendra and Chris [[DiscussedTrope discuss]] their PlayerInventory. Later, Kendra seems to think she's in the ''wrong'' medium [[spoiler:when the game's narration describes a film director and crew]].
24	* NewTransferStudent: Kendra has just transferred to Elkland College for the second semester of her freshman year. With no orientation events and nobody checking up on her, this leaves her free to be an adventure game protagonist.
25	* NobodyPoops: If you try, the game informs you that you don't need to because "this is an adventure game after all."
26	* NoobBridge: A fairly high proportion of players get stuck on either how to first get into the college or how to retrieve their ID and purse from their car, if the hints board is any indication.
27	* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo: Kenneth works about an hour away from Elkland, and Kendra drives briefly off campus to visit him.
28	* SequelHook: There's a rather sudden one, leaving your character's fate unknown. The sequel is still promised, but it's been [[DevelopmentHell twenty years]] and is currently only available as a demo.
29	* StatuesqueStunner: Kendra is mentioned as being 5'10" when she puts on the red dress.
30	* StoryBranching: Of a mild variety. You have to pick two elective classes out of a possible five. The professors for the classes you pick will each give you a quest. The reward items you get for these quests (needed for the endgame) are interchangeable with each other, so the choice doesn't affect the plot as a whole.
31	* TakeYourTime: Finding the bus marks the start of the endgame, but there's no reason to hurry despite what Silas and Verna say. It's possible to have reached that point having done none of the four professors' tasks, do them all, then get back to the bus.
32	* TrappedInAnotherWorld: Silas and Verna, in yours. [[spoiler: Then, in the closing scene, the tables turn, and YOU're trapped in another world]].
33	* TwentyMinutesInTheFuture: It takes place in 2073, but other than a futuristic car, the setting departs little from a contemporary one (bear in mind the game was written at the turn of the millennium).

Context VideoGame / TrailOfAnguish