The butterfly, who can stare into the future and see the fire.
Erica is an Interactive Movie game by Flavourworks and SIEA, released on August 19th, 2019 for the PlayStation 4. The project was first announced in 2017.
Become Erica Mason, a brave young lady plagued with nightmares of your father's murder. With the traumatic events that have haunted you as a child dragged back into the light of the present day via grisly new clues, it's up to you to unearth the shocking truth behind this devastating tragedy. Every choice you make influences how the game develops, with multiple endings awaiting you at the finale of the emotional branching narrative.
Alternatively, Erica gets sent a hand in a box and it all sort of goes downhill from there.
This work provides examples of:
- 100% Completion: To witness all of the scenes shot requires doing several playthroughs and picking almost all of the choices offered.
- Aborted Arc: We never get an explanation about who Akal Johar was and what was his role in Delphi House, nor we see his code solved. Also we never discover if Mia was lying about Erica's mother being still alive, other than seeing a vision of her in the Butterfly Ending that may or may not be real.
- Also, why did Erica have a bruise in her stomach after waking up in her first night at Delphi House.
- Adults Are Useless: Erica and the other Delphi House interns appear to be in their late teens to early 20's. Every older character ends up being a member of the Delphi cult.
- Anachronism Stew: Delphi House looks like it just came out of the 50's, and Detective Blake's car looks particularly dated. However, Erica's clothing and hairstyle make her look like she belongs to the 90's at least, and there are security cameras around Delphi House that may have been used in the 80's at earliest. The only phone shown on screen is remarkably old-school but there are several television screens used in the camera circuits. Notably, there are no dates shown on screen, for example when Erica is shown her mother's death certificate only the day and month of her death date are shown.
- Arc Symbol: The Delphic epsilon. Erica's father, Steinbeck and Chief Inspector Caulker are all murdered by being stabbed with the wound made in a Delpihic epsilon's shape. Steinbeck also wears a tattoo with the symbol, which Dr. Flowers comments was used in Delphi House prior to Erica's father's death. The mysterious pendant Erica finds also has it engraved, and she finds drawings of it in the walls of Steinbeck's house. And of course, it's all over Delphi House to give access to the hidden chambers where the rituals are made.
- Artistic License – History: Dr. Ballard mentions the Delphi oracle in ancient Greece burnt olianders and used their smell for their rituals if Erica chooses to make perfume with her and Hannah. As far as it's known, they inhaled gas from a creek in the temple's interior and chewed laurel leaves, with no use for olianders.
- Animal Motifs: Four in total. All play a part in the Delphi rituals.
- Rabbit: Kristie's favourite animal, which she draws ad nauseam.
- Fox: Erica has a painting of a fox in her room in the asylum and may spot a fox roaming the premises from time to time.
- Deer: The woman entering the flat opposite of Erica's at the beginning of the game wears a deer mask.
- Butterfly: Both Erica and her mother have butterfly-shaped birthmarks.
- Bedlam House: Delphi House is a reformatory for young girls with forceful techniques to "cure" its patients and lots of secrets.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Burning Alone ending. Erica burns down Delphi House and her past with it, having brought down those who have wronged her. However, Tobi is dead and Kristie will most probably die unless she leaves behind her body and runs away, and Erica has become a runaway with no one to trust.
- Black Dude Dies First: Hannah is the only patient of color we see. She's also the first one to get a nosebleed on screen and to end up dead because of the rituals. Averted with Dr. Flowers, who is the last person to be killed by Erica if he gets shot.
- Break the Cutie: It's up to the player to end the game making Erica even more mentally shaken than she was at the beginning.
- Call-Back: At the beginning of the game, the player is invited to choose between three pictures of Erica's mother, Alodie. Later, when Erica wakes up from her nightmare, we see Erica keeps the same picture the player chose in a frame in her apartment. It later appears again when she visits the barn Mia is hiding in.
- Chekhov's Gun: Erica's lighter. At the beginning it's used to lit the candle in her flashback, she gets it back in the present at the hands of Dr. Flowers and she may use it to burn Delphi House down.
- Creepy Doll: When she was a child, Erica received a very creepy-looking doll from Dr. Flowers, supposed to be just like her, even having a matching butterfly birthmark. She gets it back from an anonymous sender in the present, and Hannah remarks how creepy it looks. Specially when they find Steinbeck's skin under the wrapping.
- Crusty Caretaker: Steinbeck leaves a big impression on Erica due to his broodiness and his mysterious Delphic epsilon tattoo.
- Daddy's Girl: Erica remembers her father fondly.
- Also Kristie, whose father keeps her bunny drawing as his biggest treasure.
- Downer Ending: The Captive ending. Erica spares Dr. Flowers' life but is betrayed and kept sedated and used by the Delphi rituals against her will.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The Burning with Friends ending. Delphi House is on fire, but Kirstie and Tobi are waiting for Erica outside, and the three of them can now live life together as they please.
- Evil All Along: Dr. Flowers, Dr. Ballard and Sargent Blake are all part of the Delphi rituals plot despite acting as allies to Erica.
- Flower Motifs: Oleanders. Spotting them all is one of the achievements to be obtained by the player.
- Gainax Ending: The Butterfly Ending. Erica accepts her position as the Butterfly in the Delphi rituals after seeing a vision of her mother, she puts the mask on and the screen fades to black.
- Guide Dang It!: Some achievements are particularly hard to get without knowing exactly what choices you must make.
- Gratuitous Greek: The Delphic epsilon is a Greek letter. Also, the song Erica listens to with her father in the flashback at the beginning of the game, "Aria for Delphi", includes the maxims at the entrance of the Delphi temple in Greece in its lyrics, in their original language.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Whenever Erica shoots someone, she ends up shooting straight to the heart, despite being her first time using a gun.
- Interactive Fiction: The player uses the tie-in app to control the cursor and make choices. Alternatively, you can use the PS4 controller, but the use of the app is recommended.
- The Ludovico Technique: The interns at Delphi House and Erica herself are submitted to a variation of this, without music. It's used to awaken memories and undo the viewer's will.
- Missing Mom: The question of what happened to Erica's mother, Alodie, is central to the plot.
- Multiple Endings: Five main endings, with different variations according to the player's choices.
- One-Word Title: First Name Protagonist Title.
- Protagonist Title: First Name One-Word Title.
- Psychic Nosebleed: The nosebleeds are a consequence from inhaling the oliander scent and undergoing the Delphi rituals.
- Replay Value: As the introduction states, no one playthrough reveals all the secrets of Delphi House.
- Rule of Symbolism: The game is full of scenes that feature either the Delphic epsilon, one of the recurrent animals or the oleander flower and its petals.
- Shout-Out: The scene where Erica stops Tobi's seizure by shooting epinephrine into her heart looks like the iconic scene where Vincent revives Mia after her overdose in Pulp Fiction.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: If the player chooses to do so, Erica becomes a murderer in several ocassions, commits arson, and forces Kristie undergo mental trauma.
