Turtle Head is an Explorer Horror video game released in 2016 by Pikasprey and made in RPG Maker. It centers around ordinary high-school Harriet Lily, and her two friends Mason Camdenburg and Emma Hawkins, as they break into Smithlane High School at night to investigate rumors about someone — or something — being seen and heard when nobody should be there. Emma, who loves mysteries, ghost stories, conspiracies, and the like, got the idea when she heard about rumors involving a mysterious man sometimes seen around campus, while Harriet decided to tag along after she got a mysterious letter saying “come to the school tonight, I’ll show you my favorite flower”, and so they also dragged the disbelieving Mason into it.
While searching, they unfortunately find exactly what they are looking for — a masked Serial Killer known only as Turtle Head, so called for the turtle mask he wears, is prowling the school. Harriet must escape him while helping her two friends find a way out, while discovering how Turtle Head is tied to the disappearances of several pets, two school girls, and a teacher.
A Fan Remake titled Turtle Head: Unmasked was made by Team Meatpie in 2021, found here
. It features the same basic premise, plot, and multiple gameplay elements from the original, as well as improved graphics, additional plot elements, and puzzles. It also has Emma's Story, an entirely original second story that serves as a What If? to the original. Starring Emma, the story has the same setup as the main game, but takes a different turn as Emma finds herself having to rescue Harriet, who has been abducted by Turtle Head.
There is also a bonus story, "You come across a dictaphone", following custodian Tian Henderson as he keeps a video log detailing his experiences throughout the school year, eventually running afoul of the Turtle Head incidents.
Turtle Head and its remake contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Blair Gardener's father is implied to be one in her student file — details are not given, but the teacher calls her father a "real piece of work" in a derogatory tone, and in the side-story Tian notes that Blair has a "hard home life".
- Adaptation Expansion: Unmasked features updated graphics, entirely new puzzles, new characters, and more plot, on top of Emma's Story, which is almost entirely a new What If? scenario where Harriet is kidnapped by Turtle Head and Emma has to be the protagonist instead.
- All in a Row: The few times someone is following you, it's in this manner.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different:
- There's a brief period in Harriet's plotline where you can control of Mason and go investigating.
- At one point in Emma's plotline, Kay manages to free herself and you can play as her during her escape.
- Another Side, Another Story: Emma's story in Unmasked, featuring its own plot, puzzles, and even areas.
- Anvil on Head: In a non-humourous take on this trope, a wire puzzle in the art room will get you a cinder block to the head if you pull the wrong one. Your character doesn't have a head left after that.
- Art Imitates Art: In the "Paranoia" ending in Unmasked, the image of Harriet floating in water holding a bouquet of lilies and the insinuation she drowned herself resembles the painting Ophelia (Millais).
- Big Bad: The titular Turtle Head, really Principal Dale's son Simon Dale, haunts Smithlane High and tries to kill Harriet, Emma, and Mason when they break into the school at night.
- Bloody Handprint: Turtle Head leaves one on a window in the Old School Building before having broken through it the next time you see it.
- Bloody Horror: Starting with the discovery of Mason's unconscious body, a lot of blood is found both in the main building and in the abandoned old school building.
- Bound and Gagged: Turtle Head likes to do this with his victims.
- Kay and Blair are both shown tied up at various points; Kay during a scene in the old school building and Blair in a picture in Emma's story.
- Harriet spends most of Emma's story in this condition.
- Cast Full of Gay: Compared to the original, where the only relationship of note was Turtle Head's twisted interest in Marina, the remake puts more focus on them and ups the LGBT content significantly.
- Harriet's interest in Emma plays a key part in their backstories and they become a couple in Ending 9.
- Kay and Blair were one kiss away from a relationship.
- Tian is heavily implied to be a transgender man, and has a boyfriend.
- Angelina mentions her wife during the interrogation of Simon.
- Mason has the asexual and bisexual pride flags hanging in his office, suggesting that he might be biromantic asexual.
- Comically Missing the Point:Emma: Do you think the Jersey devil is only in Jersey?
Mason: He's probably in Neverland.
Emma: Then why is he called the Jersey devil?
Mason: ... You're missing the point. - Cooldown Hug: Harriet gives Emma one near the end of Unmasked. At that point, they both need it, badly.
- Creepy Basement: The school has one, which contains the robotics club room. It is completely dark and has wire traps, and has a door leading to the just-as-creepy Old School Building.
- Developer's Room: The "Comedy Area", found only when all endings have been unlocked and contains accounts of the dev team, the ages of every character, and an epilogue showing the Turtle Head killer's interrogation.
- Eye Scream: In one section of Emma's Story, you have to choose which paint cans to reach for off a shelf. Pick the wrong one and the cans impale her through the eyes.
- Foreshadowing:
- The mysterious letter Harriet got that sets off the plot says "come to the school tonight, I'll show you my favorite flower". Said flower is Marina, Harriet’s cousin, whose corpse the killer wants to show off just to torment her.
- In the intro, Mason tells Emma that, despite his misgivings about them breaking in to the school at night, he refuses to go home because "who would be around to stop you from getting arrested?" This is no hyperbole — as an undercover police detective, he indeed has the power to let Harriet and Emma off the hook for essentially committing a crime.
- In Unmasked, one note describes a police report about Kay and Blair's abduction, and mentions that the officer on the scene is Officer Camdenburg — as in Mason's surname.
- In Unmasked, Simon is mentioned in one of Marina's letters, and after reading that letter, a vision of Turtle Head flashes as a Jump Scare, pointing at his true identity.
- Freudian Trio: Harriet is The Kirk, Mason is The Spock, and Emma is The McCoy.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: A rather sad example in Unmasked. Kay Brown has been the victim of Cold-Blooded Torture from Turtle Head for over a year, and as a result, she has difficulty even standing up. When briefly playing as either Mason (leading her around) or her, trying to run gets you a text box saying she cannot do that — naturally, as she doesn't have the strength and even walking is a challenge for her.
- Hell Is That Noise: The titular Turtle Head's low, creepy laugh, which is thankfully not heard often.
- Hint System: Emma is promoted to this in Unmasked, giving Harriet hints on what to do when spoken to after Mason's apparent death. In Emma's Story, Mason takes over the role.
- Hospital Epilogue: The final scene of Emma's best ending is the cast meeting in the hospital as Harriet recovers from her injuries.
- It Was a Gift: The Turtle Head mask, which is the ripped head of a stuffed toy Marina was planning to give Harriet. Simon turned it into his serial killer mask.
- Jump Scare: A few, all related to the murderer's face appearing or disappearing.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Emma and Mason seem to be this to Harriet. Despite dealing with depression and a suicide attempt, she still tries to go on with her life. But when both die in Unmasked Ending 2: Paranoia, she won't hesitate in committing suicide again.
- The Many Deaths of You: Being stabbed, shot, or caught by Turtle Head, getting their heads smashed by cinder blocks, dying from some kind of poisoned coffee... This game isn't very kind to Harriet and Emma.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
- It's never quite explained if the various clearly unrealistic things Harriet sees are actually there or hallucinations, though the latter is definitely likelier. However, the ghost of Marina is implied to be real, due to her giving Harriet the Lighter and seemingly teleporting Harriet back into the school building.
- The original game also implies that Turtle Head is a supernatural killer, seeing as Principal Dale killed him months before he shows up to chase the trio, while the remake omits the scene where this is revealed, making him seem like more of a normal human in a mask.
- Multiple Endings: The original had a few, but Unmasked adds more, with Harriet having 5 and Emma having 4, for a total of 9.
- Downer Ending: If you make a break for it early or don't find all the items that fill in the backstory, your character will escape, but one or more of your friends will die. Turtle Head flees into the night and your character either never recovers or possibly commits suicide.
- The End... Or Is It?: In the original game's best ending, Harriet and Emma survive, though traumatized. Mason survives and Principal Dale is arrested for his actions, only for Turtle Head to escape. It's all but said that Turtle Head is the vengeful ghost of the late Simon Dale, implying he may yet return.
- Bittersweet Ending: Harriet's true ending. Harriet, Emma, Mason, and Kay all escape, though the girls are seriously traumatized. Turtle Head isn't caught, but has a bullet to the chest and every official in the city is out for him, so he might get his yet.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Emma's true ending. Everyone lives and Turtle Head is caught by the police. Emma begins attending therapy and confesses her love to Harriet, leading to the two becoming a couple.
- Old School Building: One that is linked through the basement to the new one. It is filled with garbage bags containing the pet corpses Turtle Head has gutted, and is the location where he imprisoned Kay, Blair, and Marina. The second part of the main game takes place there. It was supposed to be torn down long ago, but the staff kept delaying it because Principal Dale was lending it to his son so he could hide his murders.
- Room Full of Crazy: One shows up in the old school building, which the killer apparently uses as a hideout.
- Ruder and Cruder: The remake bumps up the amount of foul language significantly, mostly via Blair.
- Shout-Out:
- The anti-bullying poster found in multiple places features Cool Cat.
- The Art Room has paintings of Pikasprey's checkered pattern, a Ditto-looking blob, a Smeargle's tail, the back of a Yu-Gi-Oh! card, Pico, and a moomin.
- The sewers in Emma's Story also have a room with four "used bandanas" inside.
- Show Within a Show: Emma watches part of one in the anime club room on her route. It looks like very standard magical girl fare. Turtle Head himself, of all people, is apparently a fan going by his social media profile pic, which looks very much like the heroine.
- Slow and Steady Wins the Race: The fable is referenced, namely by the protagonist being named "Harriet", and in Unmasked, openly invoked by Turtle Head taunting Harriet at various points, namely in the cafeteria, where running will alert him to her presence and get Harriet killed.
- Songs in the Key of Lock: Emma has to play the piano at one point to open up another room. In this instance, it's less playing the piano itself opened the door and more that the sound caused the killer to unlock the door to lure her in further.
- Stood Up: As revealed towards the end of Emma's story, she stood up Harriet at the school dance to go hunt for Bigfoot with Blair. It led to resentment from Harriet since she really looked forward to it compared to Emma.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: A rather spoilery example involving Mason almost giving away something personal.Mason: Anyways, are we going to wrap things up here? I'd prefer to not get home too late.
Emma: What, scared about missing your bedtime or something?
Mason: No, it's just that my fiance- Wait, uh...
Emma: Mason, highschool relationships don't really last that long ya' know? Don't get too hopeful!
Mason: ... Sure, right. Just hurry up, okay? - Take That!: Harriet and Emma don't think very highly of the Cool Cat Expy in the Anti-Bullying posters.
- Teacher's Unfavorite Student: In the backstory, Blair Gardener became a major headache for Marina Lily for being a troublemaking delinquent who preferred to bully Marina's cousin Harriet over bothering to stove above a D average. Marina would frequently complain to her friend Simon Dale about her, eventually leading to Simon deciding to do Marina his twisted idea of a favor by imprisoning and killing her.
- Tragic Keepsake: In the Unmasked endings where Emma does not survive, her ribbon becomes this for Harriet.
- Undercover Cop Reveal: Mason is revealed to be one in the true ending paths, tasked with catching the Turtle Head killer. It's also foreshadowed by his last name being the same as that of an officer being mentioned in a police report.
- World of Technicolor Hair: Emma's mint green hair and Kay's cotton candy pink go without question. Kay's hair color is even listed on her school bio, indicating it's natural.
- Younger Than They Look: Blair looks older than Kay and even the killer, who is 24 years old, but she's just 15.
