They both know it's not a good day at all.
The world of man is in ruins. A man in a Plague Doctor outfit named Lutum is now the only known survivor. Stuck in his bleak apartment, he decides to contact a Raven, a seemingly trivial act that is now more important than literally anything else in the world.My Friend Is A Raven is a freeware Adventure Game with a horror theme. It was developed by Two Star Games in Unreal Engine, and released for PC through Steam on November 18th, 2019.
Since the game is extremely short, the spoilers are left unmarked.
My Friend Is A Raven contains examples of:
- Affably Evil: Both Lutum and Raven are almost unfailingly polite in their conversation, even as the Raven casually speaks of the countless deaths he caused for the sake of his revenge on Lutum. Likewise, Lutum will continue to speak in courteous and flowery language to the Raven even in the Venomous ending, after he has already poisoned it.
- After the End: All of humanity was driven to extinction by the plague spread by the ravens. Lutum, the sole culprit behind the Ravens' anger, is the only one left alive precisely because the Raven he turned away wanted him to suffer.
- The Atoner: Lutum regrets turning away a raven when it fell ill, as the latter responded by bringing forth a lethal plague upon all of humanity.
- Creepy Ravens: Here, the ravens have literally caused the humanity's extinction to avenge a slight made to a single one of them, so the trope more than applies.
- Cruel Mercy: It appears that the Raven has deliberately targeted the spread of the plague so that it would kill all of the other humans, but leave Lutum alive so that he could live with his guilt.
- Defiant to the End: Upon realizing he has been tricked by Lutum and fatally poisoned in the Venomous ending, the Raven chooses to spend his last moments flying as far away as possible, so that Lutum at least would not be able to watch him die.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The game is presented in blacks, whites, and greys.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Lutum, a healer, callously turned away the Raven when he fell ill with a plague. The latter got its entire flock to spread the same plague upon the rest of humanity, driving them into extinction.
- The Dog Bites Back: Lutum mistreating a single ill raven had angered the rest of the ravens enough to have them drive the humans into extinction through spreading plague.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted in the Passive Ending. While the Raven is initially unfailingly polite to Lutum as he flies onto his balcony and requests a bag of seeds, he flies away as soon as Lutum requests forgiveness, believing that leaving Lutum ill is mere justice for being callously turned away by Lutum when it was sick.
- However, in the endings where Lutum begins the conversation by accusing the Raven of cruelty through his stunningly indiscriminate revenge, the Raven's judgement as to whether or not Lutum has changed from his earlier ways is entirely dependent on whether he was also able to offer him a dead rat in addition to the seeds or not. (Though he gets it badly wrong if Lutum has poisoned the rat beforehand.)
- Last of His Kind: Lutum is literally the last human alive, as everyone else was killed by the plague brought forth by the ravens. The raven is unsympathetic if Lutum chooses to accuse him of that, though, remarking that Lutum should instead be happy that he'll never encounter a man like himself ever again.
- Multiple Endings: Four of them, determined by which of the items you touch, and ranked in the order of how many manipulations you need to do to get them.
- "Extinction": The Bad Ending, and the easiest one to get. Simply walk out onto the balcony as soon as possible. The Raven will arrive and eat seeds from a bag, but will get angry when Lutum admonishes him for causing the extinction of humanity, and flies away.
- "Friends": The Good Ending. To get it, you need to rig the mousetrap in order to snare and kill a rat. Lutum will then offer it to the Raven as a gift after the seeds, and the latter will consider it evidence he has really changed, and transform Lutum into a fellow raven. The final shot is of the two flying away from the dead city together.
- "Unforgiven:" The Passive Ending, obtained by solving a clock puzzle. This fills Lutum with melancholy, and so he neither accuses the Raven, nor offers him a gift, and the latter flies away without being angered. You'll then be able to go back inside and stare into the static on TV until Lutum falls asleep on the couch.
- "Venomous": The Aggressive Ending. You need to snare the rat with a mousetrap, and then use the needle to inject ink into it. This will fatally poison the Raven: as the last act of defiance, it'll fly away so that Lutum will not be able to watch his demise. We then see it fly away into the far distance until it finally drops down.
- Plague Doctor: Lutum is dressed like a 20th century version of one: he has a proper gas mask instead of the bird-beaked masks worn by the archetypal plague doctors, but the rest of the outfit is not too different.
- In the "Friends" ending, the Raven comments on his appearance with "You have even grown a sort of a beak since I last saw you." This is right before he decides to transform him into a fellow raven.
- Polly Wants a Microphone: The titular raven has conversations with Lutum in the game.
- Rainbow Speak: Played for drama: While all the letters in the text boxes are usually written in a bleak shade of yellow, getting the Raven angry by accusing it of being destructive but then failing to bring it any other gift results in the Raven's text getting written in blood-red. On the other hand, if Lutum poisons the Raven by offering him a dead rat spiked with ink, it is now his text that'll be blood-red.
- Sarcastic Title: The titular Raven has brought all of humanity to ruin after being slighted by Lutum: the title is only relevant because when Lutum accuses him of bringing the rest of humanity to extinction to avenge a single slight, the Raven sarcastically responds that he could be a friend that would sit on his shoulder and share his grief. This gets somewhat fulfilled in the "Friends" ending, where Raven converts Lutum into another Raven, and then they fly away together.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: The Venomous ending is achieved when Lutum rigs a mousetrap to kill a rat, and then injects it with ink by using a needle. He'll then offer said rat to the Raven when on the balcony; the latter fails to see through it, and only gets enough time to fly away as the last act of defiance.
