"Welcome, Mister Guest."
— SAM
The Starship Damrey is a downloadable Nintendo 3DS horror-Adventure Game created by Level-5 as part of the Guild 02 series. It was released in Japan on March 27, 2013, and in North America and Europe on May 16, 2013.
The premise is simple: You awaken from cryo sleep on the Starship Damrey, only to find yourself unable to leave your pod. By controlling a robot, you are able to traverse the ship, and as you try to find a way to leave the cryo-pod, you slowly begin to uncover the truth behind the events on the Starship Damrey. But a mysterious figure stalks the halls of the ship, hinting that you may not be alone...
The game contains no tutorials and no explanations, both as a throwback to adventure games of old and as a way to illustrate how truly lost you are on the ship.
Note that most of the tropes are spoiler-city, as The Ending Changes Everything.
This game provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Bobby drinks frequently, according to the captain's notes. You can even find a bottle of whiskey hidden in his room.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Large loved Nick, who likely did not reciprocate due to Incompatible Orientation. The Captain thinks Mei Ling also loved Nick, but was too professional to do anything about it. And the Captain himself loved Alex, but died before he was able to express his feelings for her.
- All There in the Manual: Progressing through the game unlocks profiles for the crew members, and beating it unlocks information about the setting and some important parts of it. Having a Guild-01 game on your 3DS unlocks a bonus story about the origin of the Space Leeches, and leaving the Captain's ring with Alex's desk unlocks a bonus story about present-day Alyssa.
- Almost Dead Guy: Abdul. You must fulfill his last request for some water.
- Bolivian Army Ending: Nick has to defeat the Keplarian, which he doubts that he can do. And he only has one hour to do it, and then the ship self-destructs. His fate is left unclear.
- Cute Ghost Girl: The recurring phantom of a young girl in a sun dress and hat with long blond hair. Subverted when it turns out it's a hologram of the still-living Alyssa, the Captain's daughter.
- Easy Amnesia: A side-effect of being roused from cold sleep, although it doesn't really come up in gameplay. Whether Keplarians suffer the same result is unknown since we're never informed what thoughts the one inside the cold sleep tube has.
- Five-Token Band: The crew of the Damrey is made up of people from a wide variety of ethnicites and nationalities. Likely justified, as they're probably the best from all over the world.
- Foreshadowing:
- The first thing you do is input a voice command, which isn't recognized.
- Examining one of the beds tells you, "Sleep is important for humans." This hints that you aren't a human.
- You aren't one of the crew. Since you know Keplarians are on board, there's only one thing you could be.
- Abdul tells you that a Keplarian went crazy. But since the Keplarian you meet only escapes its pod after he dies, there has to be another one on the ship.
- Fun with Acronyms: The Earth Defense Network.
- Hero Antagonist: Nick is impeding your progress, but it's because he wants to protect humanity from you.
- Incompatible Orientation: Large was in love with Nick, but Nick seems to have only liked women. It might not have been so humiliating if the computer hadn't found this out and then blabbed it to everyone.
- It Can Think: Nick is shocked to discover that the Keplarians have been studying humanity for longer than was realized, to the point that they understand human speech/text, technology and culture. This is the justification for how you can follow SAM's prompts and control AR-07. He's also puzzled why you stopped to help Abdul, and whether you optionally left the silver ring on Alex's desk.
- Jump Scare: This game certainly loves them.
- When you find Bobby's body, you're moving down a hallway and then BAM there it is.
- After you leave the common room for the first time, the Mysterious Girl pops up right in your face. It turns out this was orchestrated by Nicolas to try to freak you out and get you to stop exploring the ship.
- "You are not authorized to investigate this locker." Abdul falls out the locker into your face.
- Old Save Bonus: An extra post-game scene for anyone who owns another Guild 01 game (Liberation Maiden, Crimson Shroud, or Aero Porter).
- Ontological Mystery: You're trapped inside a cryostatis tube and it looks like a disaster has befallen the ship, and supernatural phenomena might even be involved as well as rogue machinery. Turns out there's a good reason you're locked inside, the machines were all functioning perfectly and there's no haunting whatsoever.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Inside of your cold sleep tube, Lucy My Love has been etched into the wall opposite your point of view. Inputting LUCY into the console on your tube allows it to be opened.
- The Reveal:
- After you finally unlock your cryo-pod, a Keplarian hand reaches out.
- After the credits, it is revealed that Second Lieutenant Nicolas Weaver is still alive, and has been controlling AR-08, the crane, and the Mysterious Girl.
- Shout-Out: To 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the epilogue, SAM tells Nick he is not authorized to cut the Keplarian's connection to AR-07 in a manner similar to HAL's famous quote. Also, during the brief zero-G segment, the Blue Danube plays.
- Side Quest: The Captain regrets not expressing his feelings for Alex and wanted to give her his ring. Fulfilling this request by finding the ring in the air vents is completely optional, but unlocks some bonus content upon the game's completion.
- Sole Survivor: Subverted. While for most of the game, you appear to be the lone survivor—Almost Dead Guy Abdul excluded—Alex and Nick are still safely asleep in their Cryo-Pods.
- Standard Snippet: The zero-G scene, naturally, is underscored by "On the Beautiful Blue Danube."
- Swiss-Cheese Security: Apparently, anybody can access several functions of the Damrey's network, including operation of the Assistant Robots, with nothing but a guest login account. A big problem when a Keplarian is granted a guest account.
- Tomato in the Mirror: You are actually a Keplarian who was trapped in the cryo-pod. It was you who killed the crew of the Starship Damrey.
- Villain Protagonist: You are the Keplarian that killed most of the crew of the Starship Damrey.
- Weaksauce Weakness: According to the bonus story about the Space Leeches, fire and cutting it up will do nothing to stop a Space Leech... but simple disinfectant vaporizes them.
