Video Game / Hidden City

aka: Hidden City Hidden Object Adventure

Hidden City: Hidden Object Adventure (previously known as Hidden City: Mystery of Shadows) is a Hidden Object Game developed by AB Games and published by G5 Entertainment in 2016.

The player's character wakes up in the mysterious City of Shadows with no memories of themselves, and is found by Juliette, who tells them that they had arrived at the City through a mysterious portal with a friend, who was subsequently kidnapped by an unknown group. After regaining their bearings, the protagonist begins a journey to search and rescue their friend and discover more about themselves.

The City itself has a lot going on in it. It is plagued by a magical fog that causes people to lose their memories and spawns grotesque monsters from time to time. An overbundance of mystery and strange magic awaits the player's character, who had been chosen by the City itself to become its Mystery Solver.

As of this writing, the game boasts 75 unique locations to unlock and explore, with almost 100 characters to encounter and help out along the way.

A series of 5 novels based on the game, written by Kyra Wheatley, has been published from 2016-2017.

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Hidden City: Hidden Object Adventure contains examples of the following:

• Action Girl: The Huntress is a monster expert who teaches the player on how to fight and defeat monsters. Kira Woodville is a competent Security Service agent who is sent as Rayden Storke's bodyguard. Violet is the head of the Octopus division of the Security Service that specialize in "eliminating unwanted situations" until her ambition drives her to align with the Shadow Cult, turning her into a Dark Action Girl.
• The Alcoholic: The Conductor is a perpetually drunk grump who hates being in the City and spends a lot of his free time either consuming, or looking for, alcoholic drinks.
• All There in the Manual: Many characters' profile can be read from the game's official Facebook/Instagram page, but a lot of these information don't actually get mentioned in the game itself.
• Alliterative Family: The Conductor's wife and daughters all have names that start with M: Molly, Mary and Margery.
• Anachronic Order: The game's timeline can be a bit all over the place due to the game's main storyline not being synchronized with the randomly generated side quests. It is very common to get side quest prompts from characters the players haven't technically met (if they haven't unlock the case they are introduced in). It gets worse with the monthly events, which always come with a new chapter to the main storyline, that players can access even if they haven't complete all the preceding quests, but frequently make allusions to previous events that the player might not have actually experienced.
• Arranged Marriage:
  • The Peacock Lady is an Indian Princess who was arranged to be married to a British minister. Instead, she fell in love with one of her fiance's subordinates and attempted to elope with him.
  • Nora Dunn mentions that her marriage to Douglas was arranged by her parents for money. It is later revealed that the wedding between her daughter Mirel and Abner Old was similarly arranged by Douglas.
• Art Evolution: The game's character artworks have significantly improved since 2017, with the designs becoming more realistic and detailed, and having smoother animations. For reference, compare the Mistress of the Manor's 2016 design◊ to how she looks from 2017 onwards◊.
• Badass Adorable: In the "Christmas Crime" case, the Snow Queen is defeated after the Christmas helpers — a group of cute, little snowmen — ride into the heart of her icy castle with the Christmas Fire (created by the City's residents with the player's help) to melt her domain and free Santa Claus. The Conductor was skeptical that they'd be able to help at first, though his doubts are eventually cleared.
  Conductor: It's an interesting group we're gathering. But all these snowmen are so small and kind. I hope that doesn't stop them from defeating the Snow Queen.
• Baddie Flattery: While Kira, Carlos and the player are fiddling around Violet's board game to save Mr. Black and Rayden in "Playing to Live", Violet returns to the room to add more challenges to the game to make the rescue mission even more difficult. She then praises Kira and the player for their skills and expresses disappointment that they are wasting their talents serving under Black.
  Violet: What a shame: with such outstanding abilities, you work for Black, the pathetic loser...
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In "Last Dance of the Blizzard", a 10-year-old boy named Milad wrote to Santa wishing to grow up faster so that his parents would stop treating him as a kid. He ends up falling victim to Talisa's manipulation, who used her magic to drain his youth and turned him into an old man. After he's restored, he decides that he wants to stay a kid for a while longer after all.
• Black Widow: The Mistress of the Manor has been married at least five times. All her husbands were rich and influential men who would "disappear" a few months after their wedding.
• Broken Pedestal: Despite being Mr. Black's most trusted subordinate, Kira has grown disillusioned by her superior's often extreme (but not always effective) decisions in handling the fog crisis, his inability to let go of his prejudices and his constant refusal to listen to others. This drives her to work with the scavengers behind his back, and informing them whenever the Security Services plans to raid their hideout.
• Calming Tea: In "Isabelle's Secret", the player gives Isabelle some hot sweet tea after rescuing her from a particularly strong anomaly attack. It helps her regain enough strength to tell her story and fight more anomalies.
• Canary in a Coal Mine: One of the earliest search objects available in the Crystal Mine is a canary, which is almost certainly a reference to real world miners bringing the bird into the caverns to warn for danger.
• Cassandra Truth: In the “Magic-Castle Mystery” case, we learn that Ronan, the new assistant to pastry chef Joy, told her that he was actually a prince from a kingdom that was attacked by a vengeful pastry chef and sorcerer named Licoricinus, who wanted recognition for his licorice concoctions but never got it. Joy didn’t believe him, but Ronan was right and when he’s turned into a gingerbread man, Joy regrets not believing him.
• The Chosen One:
  • The protagonist has a special connection to the City (which allows him to find things that others cannot), and many have claimed that he's chosen by the City itself to accomplish some unknown purpose.
  • In the "Shangri-La Temple" case, Martha is the one prophecied to tame the Dark Dragon and stop it from burning the City.
• The Chosen Many: While the player's character has a particularly special connection to the City, all the other residents who are brought from the real world are similarly "chosen" for distinct purposes to fulfill particular roles.
• Costume Porn: Most of the characters wear highly elaborate outfits. Special mention goes to the Dancer's◊ gem-encrusted dress, the Maiden of Spring's floral gown and Salem's◊ Halloween outfit. Even the deceptively simple outfit worn by the likes the Conductor◊ is actually incredibly detailed, consisting multiple layers of different textured fabrics.
• Damsel in Distress:
  • Juliette is frequently kidnapped, haunted or otherwise mind-controlled by the many strange forces in the City, prompting the Detective and others to come to her rescue.
  • Valerie is first introduced when the player rescues her from werewolves, who had kidnapped her because they wanted to get the artifact that she found while wandering near the fog.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Carlos Light is the lead investigator of the "Movie Captivity" case (assisted by Vera and Angelique), as all the Security Service members (the relevant ones anyway) had gone to the Theater's grand premiere and were caught in the trance induced by the theater's fog-enhanced projector.
  • "The Antique Dealer's Curse" case is led the Capuchin couple as they investigate a (possibly) haunted antique store, which they plan to use as a venue for their upcoming movie. Aside from one brief scene in the prologue where Rayden questions them about the explosion they caused, none of the Security Service members even get a dialogue.
• Deal with the Devil: Two characters are revealed to have made deals with demons:
  • The Mistress of the Manor was determined to marry a wealthy husband because her family had become impoverished and she wanted to return to wealth and high status but she was unattractive, so despite her grandmother’s advice, she made a deal with a demon to become beautiful … but had to sacrifice souls to the demon to keep her beauty — including those of her husbands.
  • In the “Dangerous Ballet” case, we learn that the headmistress of the Ballet Academy had once been a ballerina who dreamed of being a star dancer, but failed miserably in her first performance. She also made a deal with a demon to become a star, but she didn’t want to give her soul to the demon so she changed the contract enough so that she could keep her soul if she killed six talented ballerina students and gave their souls to the demon. Her final target was Juliette, but Juliette had realized what was going on and appealed to her stepmother to take her away. It’s unknown if the headmistress was able to evade the demon a second time.
• Designated Victim: While the City's magic often bring its inhabitants into peril, the most frequent victim of its menace is Juliette. The Detective lampshades it at one point, bemoaning why Juliette is so frequently caught up in trouble.
• The Dictatorship: The Upper City is a rare, benevolent version of a military/law enforcement dictatorship. Mr. Black, the Head of the Security Service, seems to hold all the regulatory power without having to answer to anyone. As the de facto leader of Upper City, Mr. Black imposes a harsh curfew on the area (a policy known as the Law of Black) and keeps most of the city's anti-fog crystal supplies in the possession of the Security Services, thus allowing him to to control who will be granted its protection. He had also forcibly evicted people and sealed off entire areas he suspects to be affected by the fog, and keeps close tabs on all the citizens. Of course, many people aren't happy with his rule and some have even formed a Resistance to overthrow him. However, Black is Good Is Not Nice, and he does genuinely want to keep the people in his city safe (even if his decisions aren't always effective and he's too proud and stubborn to listen to others), and the game is mostly on his side when genuine threats to his power arise.
• Distressed Dude:
  • The player character's primary quest to find and rescue his friend Jacob, who had been kidnapped by a mysterious group shortly after the two of them arrived at the City.
  • In the Upper City, a mysterious monster called the Dark Hunter is targeting Lucas for some reason. The player must help his sister Vera and their father Carlos find and rescue the boy from its clutches.
  • In the "Playing to Live" Event, Violet traps Mr. Black and Rayden inside a board game after luring them under the pretext of peace negotiations, and it's up to Kira, Carlos and the player to help them out as Violet puts them through deadly challenges.
• Dresses the Same: Discussed and defied in a side quest. Fabien Delamode had received two identical dress orders from famous singer Sophia, and another regular customer of his. Knowing that having two influential women appear in the same dress during an important event will cause a scandal, Fabien asks the player's help to find modifications for Sophia's dress to make it look different from the other customer's.
• Easy Amnesia: The fog that plagues the City of Shadow causes the people affected by it to lose bits and pieces of their memories. The longer they remain in the mist, the more memories they lose. However, they can usually recover their lost memories by finding personal belongings that are related to the memories they lost. Justified since the fog are magical.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Many NPCs are mainly known by their profession, such as the Detective, the Mayor, the Conductor, etc. Some have their actual names revealed elsewhere (for example, the Inspector's name is Charles Dipp), but most of them are Only Known by Their Nickname.
• Fake Mystery: Some of the side cases the player has to help out with turns out to just be a prank.
  • Juliette reports that a precious silver tea set has gone missing from the Manor she works at, and requests the Detective to find help her them. After the Detective finds them all (with the player character's assistance), Juliette admits that there's no theft at all; she hid the items herself to give the Detective something fun to do.
  • Kira finds a chain of vaguely threatening riddles in her office that alludes to her previous mission to the Lower City. Due to the scandalous crime that occurred in the Upper City while she was away on the mission, she quickly assumes that the riddles were sent as an attempt to blackmail or mock her, and asks the player to help her find this criminal. What she finds instead is a gift left by her mission partner, Rayden, who admits that he wants to give her a surprise—and to prank her because she wouldn't tell him her birth date.
  • In "Mysteries of the League", the player has to help Vera solve a theft from the League of Researchers to prove that she wasn't the one who stole them as they initially believed. It turns out there was no theft. The League had set Vera up as a qualifying test to see if she's worthy of joining their group.
• Featureless Protagonist: The Player Character has no defining attributes, and the player can change their character's avatar with any random image provided by the game itself, or uploaded from their device. The game's dialogue's does indicate that the PC is supposed to be male, though, as other characters use male honorifics to address the player (e.g. sir, monsieur, Herr, etc.).
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: In the “Double-Eclipse Mystery” case, Mr. Black and Kira were chasing a scavenger into the Borderland but when the player and Rayden go after them, they apparently have switched personalities! It is revealed that they accidentally got caught in a net that was used by a woman named Ollie that was meant to catch memories from the fog. Ollie helped get them back to normal.
• Freemium Timer: Exploring locations and/or playing mini-games requires energy, and once the it runs out, the player must either wait for the bar to replenish (at a rate of 3 minutes per energy point) or consume energy boosters, which can be bought using Premium Currency or obtained as rare quest rewards.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The Cardsharp is a notoriously greedy gambler who frequently gets himself and others in trouble with his numerous (sometimes poorly thought-out) money-making schemes. Martha and Isabelle frequently complain about him and say that he needs to be locked away like many the demons and anomalies they regularly banish, and the Detective treats him as a prime suspect whenever some funny business is going on. Yet despite their obvious distaste towards the Cardsharp, they'd always come to his rescue whenever he does find himself in harm's way, and gives him their full support when he pursues less questionable endeavours.
• Genius Loci: The Shadow City is said to have a mind/will of its own. It is said that Wanderers are manifestations of the city's will and can be traded with to gain items.
• Genre Shift: The tone and style difference between the Upper and Lower City areas are so jarring that they might as well come from different universes, or even from different games, altogether. The Main City has an Urban Fantasy setting full of monsters, mysterious anomalies and magical rituals. Many of the residents are said to come from the "real world" (e.g. the Detective is from New York, the Inspector and Agent Jones are British, while the Conductor is Scottish) and they'd make explicit references to real world celebrations, urban legends, and pop culture. Meanwhile, the Upper City is an antiquated Steampunk-styled district that lacks the monsters, anomalies and Holiday Mode locations that are a staple in the Main. Most of the characters are native residents of the Shadow City, and even those who are said come from "outside" like Kira and Sophia makes no mention of the "real world".
• The Ghost: The Collector, The Puppeteer, the Architect and several other prominent figures of the City have gone missing due to the fog, and despite their prominent role in the player's journey throughout the City, nobody really knows what they look like.
• Good vs. Good: There seems to be a deep rooted conflict between the Security Service and the Scavengers, who stand at the opposite sides of the law, despite their shared desire to save the Upper City from the fog. Many of the scavengers are a part of the Resistance unit trying to overthrow Black, while Black himself considers them his enemies. However, despite mentioning the possibility of a power struggle between the the two sides, they have yet to engage in an open conflict (in fact, two of Black's main subordinates, Kira and Rayden, frequently work together with Vera—who is a scavenger—in various cases), and the threats from Violet's Octopus Division and the Shadow Cult take a greater precedent in the later Upper City investigations.
• Good Policing, Evil Policing: The Security Service, which is led by Mr. Black, is embroiled in a conflict against the Octopus Division, which is led by Violet. The Octopus Division used to be a special branch of the Security Service whose task is to "eliminate unwanted situations", but at some point Violet and the rest of the Octopus Division decide to betray the law and join the evil Shadow Cult in their bid for more power. Both sides would spy on each other to dismantle the other's influence over the City, but Violet would use threats, libel and other devious means to sabotage the Security Service, while Black is usually content to foil Violet's plans.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In the “Price of Perfection” case, the circumstances that caused a Korean beauty salon to be transported to the Hidden City are the result of a case of this. Jumi was so envious of the talents of a fellow employee named Yi-Seul that she resorted to sabotage. This caught the attention of a relative of the Mistress of the Manor and she gave Jumi a pin that would take energy from Yi-Seul and enable Jumi to poach her clients. A Dokaebbi or Korean nature spirit that lived inside the beauty salon surreptitiously transferred the pin to Jumi, presumably to save Yi-Seul, but the dark energy of Jumi’s envy accidentally caused the salon, her and the Dokaebbi to be transported to the Hidden City. In the end, Jumi made a Heel Realization, made a sincere effort to make amends and she, the salon and the Dokaebbi all returned to the outside world, although a copy of the salon remained in the City.
• Grief-Induced Split: After losing her daughter, Mr. Black's ex-wife set her husband on fire, declared herself a widow, and disappeared from the City.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: In "Secrets of Love", the Mistress of the Manor cursed Lady Peacock, forcing her to relive the day before she's set to meet with her beloved when he returns from duty—so close to the rendezvous but never able to actually meet him.
• Heel Realization: Douglass Dunn, the bride's father in "Crime at the Wedding" is described as a greedy and callous man who practically sells his own daughter to marry the rich Abner Old, so that he can inherit the latter's wealth through her. After almost dying by his wife's hands, he realizes that money means nothing compared to a happy family, and promises to be a better father and husband.
• Identical Stranger: Jacob, the player character's missing friend, has the exact same face as Leonardo, the founder of the Shadow City.
• I Just Want to Be Beautiful: In the "Dancing with Ghosts" case, the Detective finds a diary entry from the Mistress of the Manor that reveals that she used to be ugly, and she wants beauty so much that she made a Deal with the Devil to gain her current looks and sacrificed numerous souls to keep it.
• Impoverished Patrician: The Mistress of the Manor was born to a noble family but fell into poverty after a fire burned all her family's fortune. The Mistress decided to return to her former life of luxury by marrying a rich man, and to do this she attended many distinguished balls in hopes of securing a husband. Evidently, she still has enough status to be invited to those balls despite her lack of wealth. Unfortunately, she wasn’t pretty enough to attract a rich man, hence her Deal with the Devil.
• The Infiltration: It's offscreen, but in "Double Game", Mr. Black goes to infiltrate the Shadow Cult's meeting to confirm that his former assistant Violet had indeed joined the Cult.
• Interface Spoiler: Each of the primary investigation cases consist of 5 sub-parts, in each of which the player must find 5 collection items and assemble them. While the investigation notes are locked until the player has finished the previous sub-part, the collections to be assembled are visible even before the player is asked to find them (this is especially true for Event quests), so it's possible to guess the general outline of the plot's progression by checking what items are needed for the next part of the investigation. One example is the 2021 Halloween event, in which the player must defend Martha, Alex and the Mayor from being taken away by Death. However, you can see that the final artifact in the event Collection is a Keepsake Locket with Alex's picture on it, making it obvious that he will go with Death despite the player's efforts.
• Jerkass Gods: The Vermilion Bird in the “Legend of the Cradle” case is probably this, as after the Chinese Empress gives birth to twin daughters, the Vermilion Bird forces the Emperor to give it one of the girls (Yui), then manipulates Yui into going into battle against her father and twin sister!
• Lady Not-Appearing-in-This-Game: The game's event banners often feature characters who never show up in the event case proper.
• Lethal Chef: Ali Vazir is revealed to be this. He was the chef for the League of Researchers but his culinary skills, to put it bluntly, stank. Worse, he was also hopeless in assisting chefs, setting tables and even serving food! Ultimately, he stole a prototype Morpheus Chamber that made a person see dreams and used it to extract dreams from gourmets whom he kidnapped and put to sleep, grinding the dreams and mixing them into a special spice to make his food taste great despite his cooking skills still severely lacking.
• Life Drinker: Talisa the Blizzard Witch is obsessed with staying beautiful forever, and she maintains her youth by manipulating young boys and girls who wish to grow up and steal their years through a magic mirror.
• Living Legend: The mysterious Order of the Five, which the Collector and the Architect are members of, seems to have an almost mythical status among the citizens of the City of Shadows, as their creations have reality warping capacity. The Architect is particularly revered in the Upper City, as she had single-handedly rebuilt the region from destruction that resulted from a devastating earthquake several years ago. Rayden and, especially, Alicia idolize her very much.
• Luck-Based Mission:
  • The Expedition mini-game, which is basically a six-sided version of Mine Sweeper, qualifies. The starter tiles don't always give a good indicator of the bomb locations, and it's possible to unlock an entire row of 1s where it's impossible to determine where the bomb is without some sort of gamble.
  • Invoked in-universe by Violet in "Playing to Live". After trapping Mr. Black and Rayden inside a board game, she proceeds to make their escape even more difficult by requiring their allies from the outside to make ridiculously high dice rolls in order to progress.
• Magic Versus Science: The "Secrets of the Flamesite" case has Mr. Black and the player investigate a fire incident at an infamous flame site, which Black believes is arson. There, they meet a paranormal investigator hired by the homeowner, who insists that the fire was caused by mystical means. Although the paranormal investigator is revealed to be a descendant of the people who originally built the house and was trying to regain her ancestral home, she wasn’t behind the fire and the fire really was caused by magical means, needing a descendant of the original owners to take care of it so that the fire wouldn’t burn the house down.
• Malicious Slander: In order to seize more power over the City, Violet runs an underground newspaper called the City of Shadow Herald to defame the Security Service by printing false articles about the Security Service being involved in illegal trade of confiscated goods and/or producing fake photographs of agents looting houses in the fog.
• Mama Bear: After the Vermilion Bird forced the Emperor to give it one of his twin daughters, the Empress urged the god she was dedicated to, the White Tiger, to go back in time and put a flaw in the deal … at the cost to the Empress’s own life.
• Match-Three Game: The Crystals mini-game requires the player to break gold tiles by matching three or more crystals over them. The events usually add two similar mini-games: Excavation (where players try to uncover hidden event tokens by break gems on top of them) and Magical Items (where players are tasked to bring down the event tokens to the bottom of the board).
• Meaningful Name: Several characters have surnames that reflect their personalities and/or professions.
  • Roger Doubledeal is described in his official bio as a professional swindler.
  • The chief lamplighter in Upper City is named Carlos Light. Curiously, his children, who have not followed in his footsteps don't have their surnames listed in their character profile, although their full names (Vera and Lucas Light) are sometimes mentioned in dialogues.
  • Is it any surprise that a guy named Fabien Delamode is a high fashion designer?
  • Helen Star is the daughter of an astronomer who herself studies the stars.
• Mistaken for Cheating: In the “A Missing Visitor” case, this apparently is the reason behind Roger Doubledeal’s transformation into a monkey. He was courting Mrs. Green, the owner of the Wildlife Park, but her first three husbands all cheated on her. So when she saw a croupier girl ask Doubledeal for help, Mrs. Green thought that Doubledeal was cheating on her and turned him into a monkey.
• Murder by Mistake: Zigzagged in "Crime at the Wedding" case, which was prompted when the groom receives a prediction that someone invited to the wedding will kill him. The case is resolved when the bride's father (who is the prime suspect of the attempted murder) gets poisioned and almost died in his place, although the man survives. Later, the bride's mother confesses to the crime: she had intended to kill the groom to save her daughter from a loveless Arranged Marriage by putting a poisonous flower in his boutonnière, but accidentally poisoned her husband after touching him with traces of the pollen still on her fingers (she had used an enchantment to protect herself from the poison's effects).
• My God, What Have I Done?: In the backstory of “Where Wishes Lead”, we learn that the Thanksgiving Fair would once take donated gifts from citizens and turn them into useful artifacts. Unfortunately, one citizen decided to donate gifts for selfish reasons, such as donating a ring that would have him be irresistible to any woman he proposed to. But the City’s magic was born from generosity and that citizen’s selfish motives created the Artifact of Greed, which twisted the motives of everyone who brought gifts to the Fair. The culprit was remorseful over his actions and the Fair was hidden for a century afterwards.
  • In the “Stars in the Fog” case, the player has a similar reaction upon learning why Helen Star’s father didn’t try to separate Helen from the anomaly that pulled her into it when a powerful telescope the two built exploded: separating Helen from the anomaly would kill her — only by the time the truth was revealed, Isabelle had already destroyed the anomaly! Fortunately, Martha is able to create an amulet that saves Helen.
• Mysterious Parent: Clarissa Storke is Rayden's mysterious grandmother who had disappeared into the fog several years ago. While Rayden remembers her as nothing but a sweet and kindly woman, he later meets an old acquaintance of hers who reveal that she was a very powerful and cruel sorceress, who abandoned her old life after marrying a regular person.
• Mysterious Past: Plenty of Shadow City's residents have secrets which they and the game deliberately keep hidden.
  • Despite being one of the primary characters in Upper City, almost nothing is known of Mr. Black's life outside of his role as the Head of the Security Service. He seems to believe that Being Personal Isn't Professional, and whenever he does let slip bits and pieces of his past, he'd ask the player not to tell anyone else.
  • The Pawnbroker goes through extreme lengths to keep his identity a mystery, and lives in a protected mansion filled with secret passages. No one even knows his name, although he does sign his letters with the initial "N".
• Mysterious Waif: Jacob, the protagonist's missing friend, who serves as the player character's main motivation to uncover the secrets of the City. Being a fellow member of a Secret Society the player character is a part of, he claims to have no memories of his past, but is convinced that the City of Shadows will bring him answers, and he roped in the player character to help him find a portal that will take them to the City. Upon arriving at the City, Jacob is kidnapped by the Shadow Cult, who is specifically targeting him for unknown reasons. Further investigations seem to indicate that Jacob has a much deeper connection to the City than the player realizes (including his striking resemblance to the purported founder of the City, Leonardo), although the game has yet to reveal what his deal actually is.
• Named in the Sequel: After about 5 years of simply being known as "The Huntress", the "Escape in the Moonlight" case reveals that her real name is Greta.
  • And in the “Secrets of the Order of Five”, we learn that the real name of Avocado, the mysterious owner of the Shooting Star Cabaret and an antagonist to Mr. Black, is Sebastian Broderick.
• No Ontological Inertia: Subverted in the Enchanted Ball Case, where the Detective tries to bring back the petrified victims of the Centennial Ball to life by destroying the gorgon head that had turned them to stone in the first place. However, this fails to undo the magic, and the statues remain as they are.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Several of the game's NPCs, such as the Mayor and Alex, are 'spirits', who despite lacking a proper physical body mostly look and act exactly the same as the normal human characters. However, 'ghosts' also exist as monsters to be fought for treasure, and also as items to be found in various locations.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Werewolves in the City are not "humans who transform into beasts during full moon", but rather "humans who had permanently turned into vicious creatures of the night" for some reason. There are three types of werewolves in the City: the normal kind, the Psy-Werewolves that can use Psychic Powers, and the Moon Werewoles that are more powerful than the regular kind and apparently become invincible during full moon.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Lady Peacock is a former Indian princess who is appropriately dressed in a luxurious gown made of silk and fine feathers that are studded with precious gems besides.
• Pinball Protagonist: The protagonist is a member of a Secret Society who was taken on board by Jacob to find the mysterious City of Shadows. Once they arrive, Jacob is abducted by the Shadow Cult, and it's up to the protagonist to find and rescue him... but he spends most of his time in the City helping out the residents in various investigations, most of which have nothing to do with Jacob or the Cult.
• Plucky Girl: Valerie is a girl who is constantly looking for excitement, and was first brought into the City while exploring an abandoned warehouse to look for a ghost. Chipper and enthusiastic, she's always happy to help anyone in trouble.
• The Power of Love: Discussed by an overjoyed Fabien when his beloved Angelique retains her sentience even after she gave up her soul to restore Anna's. He claims that this is due to the power of his love giving her true life, although this is subverted as Angelique's continued sentience was caused by the fog's magic rather than Fabien’s love.
• Premium Currency: Rubies, which are used to buy energy boosters, amulets, treasure keys and the like. They are usually obtained when the player levels up or by purchasing them from the game's bank with real money.
• Professional Gambler: The Cardsharp is known as one of the best gamblers in the City, and seems to make a living out of his bets. A lot of his money-making ideas he ropes the player into helping with involve setting up gambling locations.
• Reality Warper: The Architect is said to be able to manipulate matter at will, although the extent to which she can change reality is unknown.
• Really 700 Years Old: Many residents of Hidden City don't age and Martha and the Mayor is explicitly stated to be at least 200 years old.
• Real Name as an Alias: In "Dreamweaver", Mr. Black instructs the player to call him by his actual first name, Ivor, when he goes to the Foggy Oasis so that he can be more discreet when investigating their connection to the ongoing sleep epidemic. However, since the folks at the Oasis already know who he is, this alias never gets used.
• Remember the New Guy?: The Event cases frequently introduces new characters who apparently has been a staple of the City, even if the player had never encountered them and the other residents never mention them before. This is particularly true for the Upper City cases.
  • The Traveling Circus first appeared in the September 2021 event, but they've been performing for long enough for Carlos to be familiar with all the performers, having taken his children to watch their shows many times before.
  • Ali Vazir and his Moroccan Café first appeared in the February 2022 event, but the Café is apparently a well-known establishment and has been for quite some time. Kira is surprised that the Player doesn't know about the famous Café when she's about to investigate the place.
• Retcon: It is not uncommon for the game to change the names and backstories of characters and locations. For example, Martha's surname changed from Myth to Smith.
• Retro Universe: Since the City is separated from the real world, and likely lies outside the flow of real time, the places that can be explored are highly anachronistic, ranging from Gothic-styled halls and chambers, Ancient Oriental palaces, rustic European gardens, to modern villas and cafes.
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Although the City is full of magic and supernatural forces, not all of the seemingly supernatural occurences are caused by the City's magic.
  • Zigzagged in "Movie Captivity", the Upper City is sent to panic when monsters that should have been expelled from the region suddenly start re-appearing en masse. The monsters turned out to be nothing projections made by the Capuchins' fog-enhanced camera, and by replacing the film reel on the projector, the player and their allies manage to dispel the illusions. While the monsters were fake, the projections were only made possible by the fog's magic.
  • In "Antique Dealer's Curse", Alford Stone believes that he's being hunted by witches, but it is later revealed that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax set on him by his former business partner, Shirley Fletcher, who used the prank to distract the Antique Store owner so that she could steal his valuables and start a new business elsewhere.
• Serial Spouse: Abner Old has married and divorced six times before trying to marry the much younger Mirel Dunn in "Crime at the Wedding".
• Split Personality: In “The Outlaw” case, an inventor in the Upper City named Adam Kinde is accused of using his inventions to direct fog for nefarious purposes. It’s revealed that he actually had an Enemy Within named Arcane, which Adam knew only as “Friend” and which was the real culprit. In the end, Arcane is expelled from Adam and trapped in a Soul Vault.
• Steampunk: Compared to the Main City, the Upper City seems to have a more dated technology, with the prominence of candle lights, oil lamps and typewriters used for day-to-day activities, and steam pipes can be seen in many of the locations. The residents' outfits also have a distinctly Victorian Era-esque flair compared to the more modern gear that the people living in the main City areas wear. Also, unlike the Main City, the Upper City lacks the more blatantly fantastical elements, such as monsters, anomalies, holiday modes, etc.
• Taken for Granite:
  • The Enchanted Hall is full of lifelike statues of the attendees of an ill-fated event known as the Centennial Ball. Medusa appeared at the Ball during the event, turning everyone in the room into stones.
  • The "Petrified Mystery" case from the "Statues' Silent Story" event features an artifact called Gorgon's Camera that can turn anything it takes a picture of into stone, including people. The sculptress, Olivia, uses the camera to turn her friend Sophia into a statue after arguing with her. Regretting what she's done, she reverses the camera's effects by changing the camera lens, turning herself into a statue in her friend's place.
• Tentacled Terror: The Octopus Division of the Security Services specializes in "eliminating" unwanted situations. It is currently headed by the cruel Violet, who allies herself with the Cult of Shadows in order to forcibly seize power in the City, and the division serves as an antagonistic force in the Upper City.
• Terms of Endangerment:
  • After attacking Sophia and throwing her into the fog to make her forget about a secret conversation she eavesdropped on, Avocado sent her a threatening note referring to her as "dearie".
  • Violet calls Mr. Black "Blackie" in her message inviting him to a truce negotiation that she has no intention of keeping. Unsurprisingly, this turns out to be a trap.
• Thieving Magpie: In one of the side-quests, Alford Stone reports a robbery in his antique stores after several of his jewelries and important letters went missing. Rayden is tasked to investigate the robbery, and he eventually finds the stolen goods in a raven's nest.
• Tile Sweeper: The Expedition mini-game, where players must defuse a number of bombs from a board of hexagonal grids for items and assemblers.
• Tortured Monster: The Psy-Werewolf are described as both terrifying and pitiful creatures. Said to be created through horrible experiments to give them psychic powers, they spend all their existence bound and muzzled. They are hostile towards all humans because it reminds them of their tormentors and will attack anyone using their psychic powers.
• Toy Transmutation: Happens several times due to the Puppeteer's creations.
  • In the Wanderlust collection quest, the player meets a boy who was given a toy train that was made by the Puppeteer. Somehow, the toy causes anyone who enters the actual train at the Station to transform into bronze figurines to serve as the toy's passengers.
  • The Puppeteer has also created a mechanism that allows people to animate his mannequin using another person's soul. This causes the person to become a doll while the doll becomes humanlike.
• Trapped in Another World: The Shadow City is a realm that exists on a separate plane of reality from the real world, and would, from time to time, open up a portal and drag unfortunate people into the place. Many of the current residents, such as the Detective and the Conductor come from "outside" and are looking for ways to return home to their families.
• Trapped in TV Land:
  • In one of the Movie Theater side quests, Lewis Capuchin gets sucked into the film he's editing, while a character from the movie escapes to take his place. The goal of the side-quest is to catch this movie character so that Augustine can bring back Lewis.
  • The "Playing to Live" case has Violet invite Mr. Black and Rayden to play a board game under the guise of peace negotiations, and breaks the board once they are inside to prevent them from ever getting out. In the board, they also found another agent who had gone missing and presumed dead for several years, but was apparently banished into the game by Violet for his loyalty to Black.
• Trauma Button: Exploited. Psy-werewolves are fought using tasers — not because it actually harms them, but because the electric sparks remind them of cruel experiments they were subjected to, causing them to flee in terror.
• True Meaning of Christmas: The theme of the "What's in the Heart of Christmas?" case. Ms. Izzy, the City's newly appointed Santa Claus, tries to "modernize" the celebration by using the latest technology to create and deliver gifts as quickly and efficiently as possible, without really considering what the people really want or need. Unsurprisingly, most of the citizens were not satisfied by Izzy's gifts, and with Adeline and the player’s help, the new Santa comes to the realization that Christmas is about the joy and warmth of tradition and spending time together with loved ones, and not just about getting presents.
• Truth Serum: Zigzagged in the "Guises of Evil" case when the Security Service wants to interrogate the wealthy Marquise von Hart for stealing the key to Mr. Black's safe. The Marquise isn't cooperating, so Rayden suggests using the "Drops of Truth" potion from his grandmother's recipe. But contrary to Mr. Black's expectations, the potion works a little differently than a usual truth serum: the potion is sprinkled on various objects and the interrogator must show those objects to the one being interrogated while saying, "Tell us what you know!" The one being interrogated can only speak truth related to the object imbued with the potion, so Kira has to "confiscate" several objects that might be related to the case if they want to discover anything useful.
• Ugly All Along: The Mistress of the Manor, a beautiful practitioner of dark magic, confesses in her diaries that she was born with an ugly face, and that she made a Deal with the Devil to gain beauty in exchange of human souls. It is implied that she used the gorgon magic to petrify all the guests during her Centennial Party to sacrifice them to the devil to retain her looks. Her real appearance has not been revealed to us however.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Collector is a famous inventor who had brought many unfortunate citizens from the real world into the Shadow City. Most of these "victims" aren't happy with their current circumstances and wants to find the Collector in hopes of being returned home. However, despite his questionable acts, the message he left to the player indicates that he's simply trying to keep the City safe, and the people he "kidnapped" somehow play a vital part in his plans. The Detective, in particular, wants to find the Collector and bring him to justice, but also has complete faith in the latter when he needs to rely on the inventor's notes and instructions to achieve something.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The monthly events frequently introduce characters who will disappear without explanation after their story is over. Some of them are justified (e.g. Olivia from the Silent Statue's Story turns herself turns herself into stone as a penance), but some of them simply stop appearing even though they should technically still be around the City (e.g. Agent Jones, Helen).
• What the Hell, Hero?: In the "All Hallows' Eve" case, Valerie is chosen to be the Halloween Steward and quickly abuse her position to prank the Halloween Spirit by throwing a cat at his horse, to Martha's horror. The Halloween Spirit is so enraged by this prank that he deliberately allows evil spirits to invade the City and possess the citizens. Valerie gets chewed out by Martha and the Mayor for this stunt.
• Who's Laughing Now?: In the “High Stakes Game” case, a gambler named Master F. not only lured Cardsharp into the Mystical Tournament in order to get Cardsharp’s lucky clover amulet, he had earlier gotten the talents of a group of four players named the Fantastic Four, killing the four as a result since a gambler dies quickly after losing their gifts. During the investigation, the player discovered that Master F. had once been a very unlucky player and bitterly resented those who laughed at him whenever he lost. Ultimately, Master F. decided to become the best and greatest gambler by obtaining the talents of the Fantastic Four and Cardsharp by cheating in order to get back at those who laughed at him.
• Why Waste a Wedding?: In "Crime of the Wedding", the wealthy Mr. Old is about to get married to Mirel Dunn, but after realizing that she still loves her old lover Rory, he decides to let her get back with him and gave the wedding feast he's prepared to let the young couple marry.
• Would Hurt a Child: The headmistress of the Ballet Academy had no qualms about opening a ballet academy so she could lure talented dancers to the school and have six of them them killed so she could offer their souls to a demon in order to keep her own soul. She managed to kill five of them but her last victim had befriended Juliette, and Juliette managed to convince her stepmother to take her out of the academy when she realized that she’d be the next victim.
• Wolverine Publicity: The game often uses the character artworks of extremely minor characters as their app icon/thumbnail and social media accounts' profile picture. For example, the Dancer (depicted in the current page image) only appears in the "Dancing with Ghosts" case, and even then she only shows up twice at the very beginning and the end of the case to give exposition about herself before disappearing from the City for good.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: Stone's antiques store was briefly affected by a time anomaly that makes time flow slower inside the building. In one of the post-case quests, he complains about the citizens turning his shop into a "haunted" attraction when he's only been gone for a week, but in reality, he had gone missing for much longer.
• You Monster!: Mr. Black calls Fabien Delamode a monster after the couturier admits that he had stolen Anna's soul in order to animate Angelique and immediately calls for his arrest. However, he eventually agrees to let Fabien go after the latter agrees to help restore Anna's soul, and is able to provide evidence that he's not involved in the theft of the anti-fog crystals.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: The Fog is able to tap into the citizens' memories and emotions and manifests things from their deepest crevices of their minds to influence them.
  • One side quest involves the Mistress of the Manor tampering with Dream Magic that causes everyone's dreams (and nightmares) to manifest in the real world. Many people are afraid to go to sleep as a result, and the player's task is to help the citizens assemble a device that will nullify the Mistress's magic.
  • Rayden Storke has a series of lucid dreams involving various objects that end up appearing in reality. He confuses the other members of the Security Services when he makes things like fish and bird nests appear in their office.
  • At one point, Mr. Black is stalked by a strange creature that has bladed wings, steel scales and flower-like maw. It turns out to be a physical manifestation of a drawing he once made in his childhood to scare his classmates.

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